10 Tips for a Happy Life with Email
Email remains the most popular Internet communication method. Even as we witness the evolution of the Net on what seems like a weekly basis, email remains very much unchanged in its technology and importance in our everyday computing lives. Conversations may be taking place entirely within Facebook or Twitter these days, but still it is your email that defines who you are in the cloud. Everyone needs to have an email. It’s more important than having a credit card. Without an email address, your are nobody.
The future of email of email appears to hold little change. Although spam filtering and identity verification continues to evolve, the basics of email will stay as they are for the foreseeable future. This means that there is no better time than now to get your own email house in order so you can use it to it’s full potential and spend your precious time on the things that need doing in your life and business.
Here are 10 tips for a happy life with email: Read the rest of this entry »
Goodbye Blackberry and Hello Android
Last week my trusty old Blackberry Curve died on me. Again. I called it trusty because I really liked it. It worked great for my needs. However, after the second failure — both resulting in an inoperable keypad due to exposure to too much humidity — I decided to make the switch to the vaunted Android powered phone.
I have to say I am quite Read the rest of this entry »
PDF Files for Improved Document Exchange
I’m a Mac user. The type that really wants to keep anything Microsoft off of my Mac. So when people send me Word or Excel files I turn to Open Office to read them. This works pretty well in most cases. However, when it comes to the more advanced content that Office can include, I’m never sure that what I am seeing is the same as what the author is seeing. Granted, I do have a PC with Office installed, but to move the file over takes a few extra steps I’d just as soon avoid. It sure would be nice if everyone exchanged documents meant for reading only in the universally accepted Adobe PDF format. Read the rest of this entry »
New 1099 Reporting Means Big Headaches for Small Businesses
Each month I get a newsletter from an accounting firm I’ve done business with. I generally skim the newsletter and look for the interesting tidbits that affect me. This month the lead article made me do a double-take.
Starting in 2012 all businesses will be handed a great new paperwork burden involving 1099 reporting to the government. As it is right now, business expenses totaling over $600 in the tax year, paid to a non-corporate entity, are subject to 1099 reporting. These expenses are generally for sub-contractors, sales commissions and other fees paid to a single recipient, but NOT corporations. Starting in 2012, slipped in with the recent health care reform legislation, 1099 reporting will be greatly expanded to include business expenses paid to corporations. The implications are scary.
Too Busy to Blog
I just wanted to post a quick update about my lack of posting lately. This time of year I am very busy with one of my best clients; Vexilar, Inc. I’m putting in long days working on video for DVD distribution, associated packaging, instructional manuals and press kit material. Vexilar is one of the biggest names in the ice fishing market. They’ve got some cool new products coming out, which means a lot of work for me. No complaints here, as I love the work. Hard to believe that all of this material needs to be done now, in the heat of the summer, but until I get my part done the assembly line can’t fire up. The pressure is on and I’m up to the challenge. Hope to be back with a fresh blog post soon.
Let’s Get Over the WWW Thing
Okay, enough already. The WWW in Internet addresses is not needed, so why do some companies insist on perpetuating this waste of typing time? We all know by now that it’s called the World Wide Web. Maybe the makers of W keys are hoping for more business. More likely we are just stuck in the WWW rut and are having a hard time getting out of it. Here are some of the reasons:
SimpleFilePage for Large File Exchange
I just built a new website for a script I wrote and want to share with my fellow web designers, developers and anyone else who might find it useful. It’s called SimpleFilePage. When it comes to exchanging files with client’s, email works great until the file sizes get up over 10 MB. Then things get iffy as to whether the message will get through. This makes exchanging these larger files with clients a challenge. Yes, there are file sharing services abounding, but I wanted something simpler, on my own server and with my name on it.
How to Design Your Email Address
The look and feel of your main business email address is an important choice. I say main because most people who use email a lot have more than one email address. Your main address is the one you communicate with your important clients or customers with. It’s the one everyone knows you by. It’ll often be printed on a business card and listed in other made-for-human places to be read. A strangely formatted address makes it hard to remember and increases the likelihood of typos tremendously. Take some time to plan your address well.
Royalty Free Promotional Video Music
This week I was working on a video project where I had to set two different promotional videos to three different sound tracks each, using a variety of genres. Six videos total, all to be burned onto a looping DVD for in-store play. The single goal of this project is to appease store sales people. They get tired of listening to the same promo jingle and one-liners over and over again. If they get sick of your video, they will stop playing it. I guess I would too. I can remember working trade shows where the TV with too much volume down the aisle played the same theme song all day long. I wanted to go push it off it’s rickety table by the end of each day. Music can be torture if overplayed, so these videos needed to have a wide enough appeal and just-catchy-enough melodies to keep them playing in the stores.
Because these are in-store point-of-purchase videos, the music had to be legally sound and professionally done. In these days of the RIAA and all of the music sharing issues you can’t use just any music. Fortunately there are some great resources on the internet for us.
cPanel Hosting Account Webmail
In my last post I talked about setting up Microsoft Outlook to connect to your domain email account. This works great if you’re at the office or have your computer with you when traveling, but what if you need to check your email from another computer? If your website and email is hosted here at Element Engage, or your host uses the same, highly common, cPanel web hosting platform, you can access your email from anywhere via Webmail.
Here’s the two quick steps to get into your webmail from any computer:
