But the distinction between the two is important, especially for business owners.  Advertising is a component of marketing.  It is the deliberate packaging and delivery of a message to the general public intended to influence the decision making process.

Marketing, on the other hand, is a catch-all word that covers all activities related to causing a buy/sell transaction to occur … that includes advertising!

For some additional reading, check out the Wikipedia entries for Advertising and Marketing.

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1.  Use the word “You” in the title and body of your articles.  Talk directly to and with your reader and ask open ended questions, being sure to suggest how they can respond (a link to your Facebook wall?  A reply-to email address?)

2.  Include a clear call to action.  And include it more than once!  What are you trying to accomplish through your email blast?  Do you want readers to visit your blog to comment on a particular post?  Do you want them to check out your new video spokesperson on your website (check out ours!).  Do you want them to visit your Yelp profile or your Merchant Circle profile and to leave a review? Then ask!

3.  This one is a no-brainer these days, but still worth mentioning.  Be sure to include links to all of your social media assets and encourage people to visit them, to follow you and to contribute to the dialogue.  At a minimum, include a link to your Facebook Page, your Twitter profile and your blog.

Give those three suggestions a try.  Stop back to this post and leave us a comment with your success stories or your challenges in using these tactics to transform your email communications!

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Skype is a really cool utility that allows you to make voice and video calls over the internet … for FREE in most cases!  You can also make conference calls and IM, transfer files and share screens, among other things.  Skype also offers pay services like Skype to land line phones and mobiles for very low rates.  (You can, however, use the Skype app on your phone to take advantage of the free services!  I’ve tested it on the iPhone 4 and it works great!  So, in essence, you can make a Skype call from your phone to a PC or another mobile using the Skype app without using any minutes!).

All of this is to say that by using Skype, you can save money.  And saving money improves your company’s bottom line!  Getting started is easy – you simply download Skype to your computer, and follow the prompts to set up your account.  You can search for other people you know on Skype as well as encourage those that you call a great deal to also begin using Skype.

Skype is one of those tools that just makes sense for business owners.  Take a few minutes to explore the website, download the app, sign up and then save money!

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In a world where Facebook pages can literally be set up in three steps by just about anyone, the key is differentiation!  What makes your Page truly different?  What makes it memorable?  What makes people come back?  The answer to those questions depends on your industry, your target market and your services (among other things).

There are, however, a few keys ways to differentiate your page.  You can create a custom tab (and you can make that tab your ‘landing page’ for non-fans or “likers” [ok, so I made that up!]).  You can make your page engaging by truly welcoming and fostering interaction and debate.  And you can provide useful, new and unique content that can’t be gotten elsewhere!

Whatever your bend, my suggestion is to do whatever makes sense for you.  Differentiation in a sea of monotony is the name of the game! How do you differentiate your Facebook Page?

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You’ve likely heard of some of the more popular CMS tools out there: Wordpress, Drupal, Joomal! to name a few.

If you have any more than an informational website, you probably have some type of CMS at work behind the scenes.  The CMS in this case is a web application that uses a database to store and manage all of your web pages and content.

The beauty of a CMS is that you don’t have to be a web developer genius to use one (although that never hurts!).   Most often you can get started with just a few clicks and some basic technical knowledge.  Depending on your requirements, however, you probably want to consider using a professional to “set up” your site initially and then to train you on how to maintain it through the CMS user interface going forward.

As I mentioned above, using a CMS does not require any major degree of technical understanding.  So once you get comfortable with the user interface, you can typically edit the pages of your website and the content of those pages with ease (so long as you’re not trying to change “the structure” of the site – which is a little more advanced).

Now you know all there is to know about a CMS!  Ok, well maybe not … but you at least know enough to get started.  Don’t hesitate to contact MDesign Media if you need some help!

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1. Blogs are dynamic in nature and are LOVED by search engines like Google and Yahoo!.  Assuming that you’re keeping to a regular editorial schedule, there will regularly be new content.  And the search engines love new content.  As a result, blogs tend to be indexed far more often than websites.  And when you depend on internet search results to fill part of your marketing pipeline, this is a very important reason!
2. Blogs enable “2 way communication” with your audience.  Unlike static websites and print media, as an example, blogs provide a platform for you to interact with your visitors through the comments feature that every blog contains (unless it’s been disabled!  Tip: Don’t disable comments!).
3. Blogs can help you to build your personal brand as well as the brand and culture of your company!  Unlike static websites that are often very “scripted” (you know what I mean … “About Us” … “Services” … “Portfolio” … etc.), blogs are much more free-flowing and give you the ability to wonder from topic to topic, expressing your views, offering how-to’s and advice and interacting with your readers.  Throughout the process, your personality and the culture of your company show through.  All good things!
4. Blogs are cheap and super easy to set up!  No joke – you can set up a blog for you or your company in about 5 minutes, totally for free!  A few platforms that you might review are Wordpress, Typepad and Blogger.  If you’re interested in having more control over the look and feel of your blog as well as getting access to “advanced” features, you might consider a paid subscription.  But that’s not really necessary!  Of course, you always have the option of hiring a professional designer like MDesign Media to create a custom blog for you.  We can even integrate your blog into your website in many cases, just like we did for one of our partners, Visual Alliance Media!

So those are some of the reasons that you should consider starting a blog for yourself or your company if you haven’t already.  And if we can do anything to help you with the process, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

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I narrowed down my shortlist to 3 of the top 5 accountants and began making phone calls.  I talked with one of them and left a message for the next.  Not wanting to bias myself any further, I saved the accountant with the great website for last.  Was I surprised at what happened next!  An auto-attendant answered.  No problem.  I listened to the directory choices and input the number for the person I was trying to reach.  After a long pause, the auto-attendant said “no one is answering at that extension.  Press 1 to leave a message in the general mailbox.”  So I pressed 1.  Then I heard “You cannot leave a message for this person.  The mailbox is full.”

Now keep in mind that I was calling around 11 AM on a weekday (not Monday!), so there should be no reason that the mailbox would be full if it were regularly tended to.  And what happened to the accountant that was not answering his/her extension and had no voicemail set up?

I walked away from that experience with a reaffirmed belief that having a great website is a “must” but is not the “only”!  Sure, the website caught my attention, but then it was downhill from there.  The best companies are those that have a strong brand, great customer service, broad and relevant experience and a flawless reputation.  Oh…AND a great website!

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Why is this important? According to comScore’s Press Release on the December 2009 U.S. Search Engine Rankings, the following is an indication of how much traffic is on the search engines:

“In the December analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led the search market with more than 14.0 billion search queries, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.6 billion queries and Microsoft Sites with 1.6 billion searches. Bing experienced large growth during the month with a 6-percent increase in query volume to nearly 1.4 billion searches.”

Now, let’s talk about why local search matters to you:

According to The Kelsey Group, a Princeton, NJ based Research Company:
70% of U.S. households now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services.

Also, the Nielsen/Net Ratings reports that 24.4% of all searches are local.

Want to get your business noticed in this tidal wave of traffic in the local search space? Give us a ring at 813.495.7070 or drop us an email so we can chat.

Optimized Local Search Directory Listings $595
We will create an optimized listing to include title and description on the following:

• maps.google.com
• Bing.com
• local.yahoo.com
• yelp.com
• local.com
• localeze.com

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TAMPA – MDesign Media, a fast growing, full-service marketing and Internet media firm headquartered in Tampa, announced today that it has added local NBC news veteran Gayle Guyardo’s new television venture, Access Gayle™, to its growing list of web design clients.

The Access Gayle “newsmercial” takes viewers on an intimate journey as next-big-thing product inventors have their ideas put to the test through real-life, hands-on product trials. Access Gayle, hosted by Guyardo and developed by ABC’s Shark Tank entrepreneur and infomercial pioneer Kevin Harrington, invites viewers to “try before they buy” the latest in green, medical, health and wellness, and household items.

“MDesign Media’s unique ability to apply attention-keeping creativity to the most effective web practices made them a natural choice to create and develop our website,” says Guyardo. “MDesign Media owner Marie Furman has remarkably applied her thorough understanding of the goals of our show – to educate, inform and entertain – to our Internet experience. Marie’s personal touch and professional direction will ensure that the site becomes the perfect complement to our show.”

The website, accessgayle.com, will take the show a step further through in-depth profiles on the people and products featured on Access Gayle, provide ordering information, a blog, photo gallery and more. The site will also provide a behind-the-scenes look into on the show, profile Gayle Guyardo, and will include valuable information for people looking for ways to have their ideas featured on future episodes.

“We are excited by the opportunity to enhance the experience for Access Gayle viewers through our website creation,” says MDesign Media Owner Marie Furman. “Gayle has proven her professional, caring approach to the community throughout her career and we look forward to carrying her personality directly to would-be inventors and all visitors of the website.”

About MDesign Media
Tampa-based MDesign Media continues to be one of the nation’s fastest growing web design and full-service marketing firms by producing results-driven creative with pragmatic, straight-forward execution for client throughout the Tampa Bay area and across the nation. In additional to dynamic web media creation, MDesign Media offers copywriting, social media, photography, planning/implementation, graphic design and print/electronic marketing services for Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and everything in between. For complete details on professional capabilities and creative portfolio, please visit mdesignmedia.com.

About Access Gayle™
From a paid program, “newsmercial” format, Access Gayle is an innovative new concept that entertains and informs its TV audience through Gayle Guyardo’s inquisitive product research and demonstrations. Access Gayle airs locally on ABC, WFTS Channel 28, every Saturday from 9:55 to 10:00 a.m. and Sunday at 8:53 to 8:58 a.m. immediately following local newscasts. Additional information on the show can be seen at accessgayle.com.

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MDesign Media Featured on Tampa Bay Nightly News

MDesign Media and its unique business model were recently featured on NBC’s Tampa Bay affiliate Channel 8 WFLA.

News anchor Gayle Guyardo profiled MDesign Media owner Marie Furman and the firm’s “virtual office” business structure and offered first hand input from Renee Svec, spokesperson for MDesign Media client First Advantage.

The feature showed how MDesign Media’s “professional team” approach to marketing can save a company time, money and people resources while increasing the flexibility, effectiveness and quality of their marketing efforts. The profile detailed how this model brings together hand-selected, experienced marketing professionals – each with a unique, specific marketing specialty – and offers their services ala carte or bundled as desired depending on client need.

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Using a FaceBook "fan page" versus a "group"

Most FaceBook users are private users, whereby they have to approve anybody who sees their information. However, you can set up a fan page whereby anyone can see your information; this allows your information to be indexed, which makes it much easier for search engines to pick it up. And once people can see you, of course, they can sign up for information from you or just come and visit, which simply increases awareness of who you are and what you do.

Getting started with FaceBook

To first get on FaceBook, go in, sign up, and get an account. You don’t have to worry about specifics right now; just get set up. Register yourself and start experimenting with how FaceBook works.

Once you have an account with FaceBook, you can connect with others in your community. To do this, you can use FaceBook’s "search" function, whereby you can locate people that you either know or think you may have something in common with. You can ask people to be friends with you directly (if you know them) or peruse people who may share your industry knowledge and simply send messages asking them to introduce themselves. With the "friends of friends" networking that can occur from the friends YOU have contacted and/or who have contacted you, you’ll see that contact lists will grow pretty quickly. And chances are, there will be somebody in there that you can network with to help grow your business.

You can also create or join groups that do something like your organization does in some way, such as if you are in Internet technologies, for example. If you create new groups (where there is not one existing) or you join ones that already exist, you can share information between groups, join discussions, share pictures among you, and make announcements that are occurring within your business or industry that others will find interesting. If you want exposure and you’re going to create a group, make sure you create an open group so that others can easily find you, too. That way, those who join your group and find it interesting can invite others to join, too.

If you have events, you can promote those, too. You can also have people RSVP for webinars, chats, and so on, anything that’s going to make your business much more high profile within your industry. You can also start a blog and have people make comments there as well.
Finally, you can also promote your newsletter a blog on FaceBook, so that others can see it and perhaps subscribe to it. Set up an RSS feed, too, so that others can be easily notified about what’s happening.

Don’t worry about knowing all of this right from the start. Simply get in and start experimenting with FaceBook to see what it can do for you. Chances are, you’ll have loads of fun networking with others and making your business grow — so much so, in fact, that you may almost forget that you’re doing "work." And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

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It’s not always easy to spot a computer geek. They often look like normal people. This is the way they’ve been able to invade our society. At first, it was easy to spot them. We simply had to look for the pocket protectors, the eyeglasses with Scotch tape or electrical tape holding the broken frames together, and the briefcase they always carried. Now normal people carry briefcases, contacts have replaced eyeglasses and who the heck uses shirt pockets anymore? Wonder who the geeks are in your neighborhood?

Here are some ways to spot a computer geek……

If they challenge others to a game of “Chicken” but they mean online not on the road.
 
If they have a complete month’s worth of screen savers so their monitor feels well dressed every day.

If the rest of the house has no central AC but they have an industrial sized room unit for their computer.
 
If they can’t wait to get home so they can have some real fun indoors… and they mean with their computer.

If they celebrate the anniversary of the first time they used broadband but can’t remember any other birthdays or their wedding anniversary.

If their monitor is twice as large as the family TV and they wonder why the heck 8 people are having trouble watching a 15 inch set.

If they clean the monitor screen more than 3 times a day and have a HEPA filter in the room to keep the computer healthy.

If  their favorite place to go for some real action is Best Buy.

If  the salespeople at these stores know them by computer model number.

If their idea of cool clothes are those currently worn by the Geek Squad.

If their wife says “It’s twins” And they are disappointed to discover she didn’t mean matching laptops.

If their house is on fire and they grab the only really important thing…their computer system.

If they realize they forgot the power cord and send their wife back inside to get it.

If their mailbox is overflowing outside because they keep forgetting that snail mail still exists.

If they think their favorite RPG is a really awesome life and regular life is a really boring RPG.

If they  are currently found on every server just so they don’t miss anything important.

If they forget to pay their mortgage and car payments but their internet and cell phone are paid up in advance until 2020.

If computer help lines call them for assistance.

If they camp out in line for 2 weeks so that they can be the first to get the latest techno gadget, like the IPhone and don’t even complain that the price dropped soon after. They still think getting mugged and suffering through the flu was well worth being the first in town to use this bad boy.

If they can’t figure out your car tire size, but can tell you precisely how long it will take to ping someone in India or Australia from Seattle, Washington.

If they  really think that Bill Gates is God and Yahoo and AOL are religions

If they gave up reading books because books won’t scroll down.

If they can access their computer while riding their bike

If they can access your computer while riding their bike

If they can’t understand why people are worried about having a little case of pneumonia but have a meltdown when they hear about a new virus that is penetrating firewalls.

If they feel that capital punishment is wrong in most cases but it’s not a severe enough punishment for a person who sent a virus to their computer.

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1. The choice of providers is totally up to you. Landline or computer based both have some good features, just make sure you have great speakers and a headphone. You will find these useful for the next accessory on the list.

2. Online XM radio - For company, amusement or inspiration, this is awesome and a must have for anyone that spends more than a few minutes at a computer.

3. Eye glasses (with a back up when your first pair get misplaced) – This almost made it to the number one slot. Without these eye accessories, you’ll be lucky to get that computer booted up. They used to make controls with bigger lettering, didn’t they?

4. Electrical converters and adapters and an APC unit- this made it easy to group all of these together in their own category. You have to be prepared for anything and having these on hand will let you keep on working through almost any type of unexpected predicament.

5. Ergonomic mouse, chair, and keyboard – Another multitasked group category. These are all necessary to keep the cramps and strain away from your fingers, wrists, back, and rear. Long stretches of time are so much better tolerated when there are some material comforts available.

6.Mouse pad- This needs to be smooth, clean, intact and contain some great picture or saying that will always keep you focused and on task. Mine is a picture of Tahiti, it keeps my dreams alive.

7. Calendar- Every web designer of any note has at least 3 of these in his office at any given time. This is necessary to keep track of projects assignments and meal times. There are always the electronic versions on your computer and I-Pod that you can use, but the old-fashioned ones are pretty cool. These are in full view at all times, so there’s no excuse for forgetting dates anymore, on second thought maybe these aren’t so necessary after all.

8. Caffeine-The way you get this must have accessory is up to you. Sodas, coffee, tea….just stay away from the decaf stuff….that’s a real buzz kill. Only with that caffeine amping your system will you be able to complete all your projects on time.

9. Drink Coaster/Holder-This is necessary for number 8, but make sure you place it in a secure location. Better yet use secure this gadget with some Super Glue.

10. Laptop for those on the go- A lot of people are probably thinking this should have been rated higher, but real web gurus don’t leave home base that often.
 

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Now, if you’re going to have a full-color piece done, you’ll denote this by using the number "4." If you’re just going to do black and white, the print job is a "1." If you want no printing on one side of your document, you’ll say, "0." So the denotation "4/4" means you want full color printing on both sides of the paper, "4/0" means full color on one side, blank on the other, and "4/1" means full color on the front and black and white on the back.

A bit more about CMYK printing

The four-color print process explained previously (CMYK) uses the four primary colors of cyan, magenta, yellow and black to produce all the colors you see in normal print magazines and books. In some cases, six colors are used, but these are much less common; most printing is produced with the four-color technique.

In fact, most commercial printers use the CMYK method to print full-color. In addition, they can do something called "spot varnish," and then use "spot color" besides, or separate spots of colors beyond that included in the main printed piece. This can make a four-color print job become a six color print job; this is because six colors of ink will be used for the finished product.

RGB printing

If you’re viewing something on your computer, you’re seeing what’s on your monitor in what is called "RGB" color. The colors on your computer screen are designated within three regions: green, red and blue. All of these regions produce the colors you see on your computer screen. Hue, color situation, and other factors also determine the various "flavors" of the colors that RGB can produce.

Each RGB color is given a number from 1 to 255. If the project you are producing for print is done in your computer, then, one of the tasks the printer is going to do is to "translate" RGB colors into CMYK format. To do this, the primary colors (CYM) are taken and mixed to varying degrees with the "K" or keyline color, black. This gives you the finished multi-hued result produced in the printing process.

Differences in cost

CMYK printing is very standard across the industry, and therefore, it may not cost you much more to get this done versus black-and-white. As these types of things become more common and technology improves, costs go down for the most part. Because grayscale or black-and-white printing do just use black for printing, this should cost you somewhat less than full-color printing; however, again, because the CMYK method is pretty cost-effective, check around. You may be able to get full-color printing for relatively little more than you will for black-and-white.

That said, of course, there’s something to be said for the elegance of simple black-and-white in some cases. If that’s you, go for black-and-white or grayscale printing. If not, though, CMYK printing is generally a good deal.
 

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Whether you are someone who is charge of a particular project or you are simply the person who is looking to make sure that things stay efficient and timely, you will find that you need to be wise to the ways that people pretend that they are working!  Check out this list of the top ways that people will waste their time while on the clock.

1.Checking their email
The problem with checking their email is that it can look a lot like checking up on work correspondence.  You will find, however, that even if your company doesn’t allow chat programs, that email can work in much the same way.  This is a hard one to catch, unless they are using an email client that is not the common one that is used by your company.

2.Writing and drawing
There are a lot of employees who will spend their time writing or drawing on the clock.  In many ways, this is just like pretending to take notes when in high school.  Unless you can specifically spot what they are working on, you will find that this is used by people who are looking to look busy.

3.Toys
There are plenty of toys that seem fairly innocuous until you realize how much time they are taking off.  When used properly, a few minutes playing with a toy can mean that your employee is getting a quick mental break while they are working on a problem, but in the wrong hands, it can be used by someone to slack off for literally hours!  Even paper clips and pens can become toys to someone who is avoiding work, so keep an eye out for odd office sculptures.

4.Lots of windows
If your office allows web surfing, watch out for the person who is always minimizing windows when you walk by.  With th advent of tabbed browsing, it has become even easier to hide pages of recreational material.  You will find that the titles of the tabs aren’t even necessarily accurate, as with the right downloads, the labels of the tabs can be changed to something much more work-oriented.

5.Constant trips to the water cooler/break room
One way that people will pretend that they are doing work is that they will take excessive quick breaks.  These breaks are not on the clock, and you will find that they can chew up a lot more time that you might think.  Knowing something about the traffic patterns of your employees can go a long way towards preventing this.

6.Chatting with other co-workers
Sometimes co-workers need to talk to figure out what is going with various projects and concerns, and other times it is just socializing or more organized work avoidance.  This can eat up a lot of the day, and you may even find that one employee is instigating the entire exchange and the other employee just can’t figure out how to tell them to leave!

7.Smoke breaks
These can actually be a lot more constant than you might think.  This can be time spent off the clock, and it is a privilege that can be abused quite heavily.
 

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Have you ever wondered how you can go about getting your website noticed, so you can make oodles of online money and become just like the "Rich Jerk"?
 
There are five top ways to get your website noticed, driving all that traffic right to your virtual door. 
 
1) Keep a blog. Blogs are the hot Internet-age way of communicating, commenting, opinionating, and ranting. Search engines pick up blogs faster than other content, as well, since blog posts are often fresh. You can earn yourself a loyal readership and have plenty of linkbacks to your website by blogging. You’ll want to keep your blog constantly updated with new content and links for it to work for you.
 
2) Create and submit free articles. There are tons of articles and content websites that always want new material. Search Warp, Articles Base, Ezine Articles, and Helium are but a few of these. When you submit your articles to these sites you include a linkback to your website. These articles are read by people seeking free information online, and some content sites let people post the articles at their own websites, too. You’ll be spreading yourself all across the Internet and building yourself a reputation as an expert in your field, too. 
 
3) Go to forums. Forums can be a lot of fun, highly informative, and a great place to network to get more traffic to your website. Search the Internet for forums that are about topics that relate to your business and for those that write about things of interest to you. Join these forums and start making interesting posts. Include your website in your signature with every post. You can also join the site Links Referral, which is a special forum and attached website where you review other members’ sites and they review yours. If you use it right you’ll get yourself about 20 free new website visitors daily just from there.
 
4) Use social bookmarking. Every time you update your website or make a new blog post, Twitter about that. Whenever you have an article published, Digg it, and get people to Stumble Upon it. Also make friends at these Internet socializing sites so that you can build up a loyal following. Using social bookmarking greatly increases your exposure.
 
5) Submit your website to website directories. This gets your site categorized and indexed, and makes it easier for the webcrawlers to find you.
 
Getting your website noticed takes perseverance, dedication, patience, drive, and determination. And most importantly of all: make your website a quality site. Keep it fresh, make it dynamic, make it be singular and unique. Websites today are as common as a pair of sneakers. Yours has to be different or it will get lost in the shuffle.

Other posts you might enjoy:

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Giver you website a facelift to make sure that you presenting an image of your business that attracts the customers. Then make sure that you get some articles submitted to the article directories so that you become noticed on the …

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We are all routine inundated with email scams, and it is very likely that you are someone who is savvy enough to simply roll your eyes and delete it.  Take a moment, however, to think about what would happen if you were not.  Many people who are using email these days are not aware of the scams that can come into their email this way, and they are getting taken for a great deal of money, time and heartbreak.  As silly as these scams might appear, they can be incredibly damaging if the right person believes them, and if you run across one, you’ll find that the best thing that you can do for yourself and for the internet community at large is to report it.

When you are looking at a scam email, you’ll find that there are a number of actions that you should take.  Make sure that you do not respond to it, and remember that a certain amount skepticism can keep you safe.  Remember that you should always be wary about an email that is trying to get you to donate to a charity and keep in mind that any signs of correspondence from foreign dignitaries and officials should be regarded with care.

Before you report something as a scam, you might want to do a little bit of verification yourself.  You should not click on any links in the email; instead, use a search engine and find the organization or individual’s name.  Chances are, you’ll be able to find other people who have had experiences with the people who are involved.  If the scams seem to involve major companies, you might want to forward the email to them.

When it comes to getting more serious about reporting email scams, keep in mind the fact that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, also known as the FTC will be interested in hearing about the spam and sorting it out.  What you can do is forward the scam to “spam@uce.gov.”  This will enter the email into a database for organization and investigation, and this will give them good evidence when it comes to tracking down and prosecuting scam artists who work in this way.

Take the time to make sure that you report the scam organizations out there; remember that these people will steal hundreds or even thousands of dollars from perfectly innocent people and that the sooner they are reported, the faster prosecution will be!  This is relatively quick and simple action that anyone who is online can do, and you’ll find that this is action that can actually get results.  Make sure that you are part of the solution when it comes to this epidemic, so take some time and do your part!

More interesting email scam posts: 

Careerbuilder Target of New Work-at-Home Email Scam

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Beware of Citibank Credit Card Renewal Email Scam

In our constant endeavor to keep you updated about internet threats and scams, we have been telling you about different ways in which you can get scammed and how to avoid it. Here is another email scam that we want to warn you about, …

Hit Man Email Scam Returns

The IC3 continues to receive thousands of reports concerning the hit man e-mail scheme. The e-mail content has evolved since late 2006; however, the messages remain similar in nature, claiming the sender has been hired to kill the …

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The first thing that you have to do is decide what you want for you business. What goals or aspirations do you have for your website or graphic design business? Do you want more customers? Do you want a certain number of visitors per day? Do you want to land a big new account? The options that you could desire are limitless. Just don’t be afraid to admit that you actually want something. The first step in the process is recognizing your desire.

Once you have decided what it is that you want, write it down. There is something magical in the process of actually writing down your goals. It helps to make the image more concrete in your mind. Once the idea is fixed in your mind, it is firmly planted in your subconscious mind. When your subconscious mind gets the idea, you will start to enjoy your idea on another level.

This is where the attraction begins. You should do everything that you can to give emotion to your idea. If your wish is to have more business, imagine what it would feel like to have it. Don’t just casually think about it. You have to live it. Act as if you already have it.

Once you have visualized it and felt it, you should be grateful. Be grateful that it is on its way to you. Be grateful for everything that you already have. Gratitude puts you in a phenomenal vibration and amplifies the law of attraction.

The next thing that you must do is not worry about it. Carry on and work efficiently. If you sit around and wonder where it’s at, you will cancel out your effectiveness. Don’t try to figure out how it’s going to come to you. Just realize that it will and believe it. Your faith in the process is instrumental in its success. If you find yourself starting to doubt (and you will) just stop. Imagine yourself in possession of the goal and get in a good vibration again.

Overall, the law of attraction represents a great advantage for your business. You can bring to your business fantastic things or you can bring terrible things. What you bring is completely up to you. There are no accidents. Everything is brought to you right on schedule. 

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Website design is a wonderful entrepreneurial job, with low startup costs, the ability to largely set your own hours, and to do work that’s creative and fulfilling.  That being said, it’s also got all the perils and challenges of owning any small business:  You’ve got to generate client lists and contacts, keep your existing clients happy, and keep your best work forward as you scout out future business and show off your skills.

There are two aspects to this problem – getting the clients you want, and maintaining a good client/vendor relationship in the first place.

The first (and best) way to get new clients is to give your customers a bonus for referring new clients to you; perhaps give them a free month of site maintenance or a few hours of free site support.  Referrals from existing customers are a passive way to get new clients; if you do good work, your customers will direct new business to your door.

The next place to sell your skills is a direct clearing house marketplace, like eLance, or Get A Freelancer, which serve as places for customers to ask for requests for bids and for freelancers to bid what they’d charge to do them.  eLance and Get A Freelancer tend to grossly underpay for the work they do.  They’re good for starting out, and they’re good for getting some kind of work when times are slow, and the clients you impress there may well refer you to other people. 

Lastly, since you’re doing search engine optimization for your clients, you should definitely do it for your own site.  SEO for "web design" is silly – SEO for "web development [your city]" is not, particularly if you mostly work with local businesses.  You’ll want testimonials, and you should have your clients put back links to your primary business page on their sites – they won’t generate much traffic through the links, but they’ll help in your SEO efforts to get your own site at the top of the rankings.

Once you’ve got the clients you want, the next step is to keep them.  It’s amazing how many freelance web designers (or freelance workers) fail to do this adequately.  I’ve picked up so many clients who’ve been burned by web design flakes and poseurs that it’s not even funny.

First and foremost, you’re selling reliability and a certain level of confidence.  Brilliance is nice, but not necessary.  Reliability, the ability to hit your deadlines, and the ability to meet your quotes without additional charges is essential.

To do this, make sure all communications are documented in writing, that all expectations are CLEARLY laid out, and that milestones and metrics for accomplishment are in place.  At the beginning of each project, you need to define the project’s goals.  At the end of each project, both sides must assess what went right and learn from what went wrong.  You should always follow up on design projects after a month or two and make sure the customer’s needs haven’t changed.

Finally, don’t do what many freelancers do – don’t take on a project you lack the skills to handle, by low balling the price.  It’s OK to learn a single new skill on a project; don’t commit to learning a programming language on one, or commit to learning how to use Photoshop if you’ve never touched it before.

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Domain names have one very important quality that if not adhered to will lessen the chance of generating traffic to your website all together. They must be memorable. If the domain name is not easy to remember, contains too many letters, is too close to other sites names, or hard to spell, chances are no one will remember this name at all. There goes your chance at generating traffic by using this domain name.

Here are some ways that your name may spark an interest in people and be easier to remember when they are looking for the product or service that you provide.

1) Come up with something that is not too long and has a connection to your business or site. For example, if you sell accessories for dogs, such as anything from houses to flea collars, a good name might be SpotsHouse.com. Everyone knows Spot is a dog’s name and if you said spot most people would think of a dog. Whereas if you use dogaccessories.com, everyone might not think of this name. They would think of doghouses, collars, bowls – in other words everything but the accessories part.

2) Dogaccessories.com can be used for another example of what you should do when choosing a domain name. Accessories is not always the easiest word to spell. Does it have one ‘c’ or two? Two ‘esses’ or one? The idea is to make your domain name one that does not create confusion. A name that is easy to spell is a must.

3) Everybody wants to use .com. This is just easier to remember but it is not always available. If you are considering a name and the .com is already taken, you may want to consider .net or .org. These are two more that are becoming as popular as the .com name. They are also easier to remember than some of the other domain extensions. If you happen to catch the .com extension, you may if possible, pick up the .net and .org ones as well. It can cause confusion when people are searching for your business and cannot remember which domain extension was used. If you have them all, they will be sure to find your site.

4) Use the correct spelling. Sometimes businesses try to get too cute by spelling something a different way than the traditional. This may be your idea of unique but if no one remembers how to spell it, the name will be so unique in fact that no one can find it. Sometimes it is hard enough trying to remember how to spell something the correct way without considering all the variations under which it may be listed.

5) When you decide on a name, you should write it down, put it together and make sure it says what you want to say. For instance, the abbreviations for some words added with other words makes for a whole different meaning than what you had in mind. Another mistake is two words may make one word that is not what you wanted to use at all. So put your domain name together all as one word, look at it and make sure it is not advertising something other than what you are really selling.

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Put the Pennies Back in your Pocket

Here are some simple tricks for getting the most out of the money you fill up your gas tank with.  Since gas is getting more and more expensive, we have to think of ways to economize.  If you want to save a gallon of gasoline, then you are going to have to cut approximately 22 miles of driving from your week.   Here are ten of the easiest ways to save:

1.  Try the technique of “virtual meetings”.  This would be the perfect thing for your home business.  You can hold meetings with your clients at online collaboration sites.  You may want to consider creating a digital catalog instead of a printed one.  Try sending invoices, bills and proposals electronically.

2.  When you do have to use your car, slow down.  When you speed up, this uses more gas;  It ws just on the news that legislators are considering lowering the speed limit on Interstates to 60 mph.

3.  Even those who run their own business from home have errands to do.  Try combining several errands so that you only leave the house once.  If you can, park in a cental spot and walk from one place to another.

4.  Shop online.  Save your trips to the stores and try to do other errands online, too.  You can do banking, buy stamps and pay bills online.  If you need to shop for clothing, you have your biggest department store at you service online on the Internet..

5.  Drive a small car.  Do you own SUV or a fuel efficient sedan?  If you have any long trips to make during the week, always use the smaller car so you will save on gas.

6.  Ride a bike – Instead of having to drive everywhere, lace up your sneakers.  You may as well get some exercise while you are saving on gas,

7. Consider installing a GPS.  When you put one of these navigation systems in your car, it will enable you to find the shorter and the most efficient route when you have to leave the home to take care of other business.  You may already have a cell phone that has GPS technology.  Great!!

8.  If your job allows you to work from home, ask your boss whether you can pick one day when your coworkers and yourself can telecommute to save on gas.

9.  Check out any station that offers gas rebates.  It has become increasingly popular for small businesses to use gas-rebate credit cards. These give back to the spender a certain  percentage of what is spent at the gas pump.  They can be a very good deal as long as you pay your bill on time.

10. Stay on top of maintenance: Make sure that you keep your tires properly inflated.  This can save 8 cents a gallon on gas.  If your tires are under-inflated they will get much hotter and waste gas.  Replace you current gas cap with one that locks.  If it has a faulty seal, this can waste up to $50 in gas each year to evaporation.  Keep your air filter clean. You will save about 10% or about 28 cents per gallon.

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Ergonomics – The Science of Comfort

Have you ever sat down in front of your workdesk, and clicked away at your computer for hours only to feel clammy and inhibited by your environment?  Chances are, your present office chair is not as ergonomic as it could be.  How does one go about finding the perfect office chair for sitting in front of your computer for long periods of time without suffering from chronic use injuries?  No one is in need of an ergonomic office design like a graphic designer.  If you are thinking about sprucing up your atmosphere, and feeling truly at home while at work, then use the following tips to find the perfect chair that will accentuate your work environment.

Before you can attempt to find an office chair which suits your comfort needs, you need to understand what exactly ergonomic means and why it is the most important criteria for choosing an interactive item like an office chair.  Ergonomic refers to the propensity for a given item to maximize ease of use while enhancing productivity and maximizing safety.  Since your office chair is where your entire body negotiates the effects of gravity while you spend hours in front of the computer, it is absolutely imperative that you utilize an office chair that offers the maximum ergonomic attributes, or put more simply-comfort.

If you are wondering what makes one chair more comfortable than another, you must understand that there are a number of factors and variables at work which will lend or subtract from the overall ergonomics and comfort of a given office chair.  One of the most important of these aspects is spinal support.  Back support is quite possibly one of the most important aspect you should be concerned with when selecting an office chair.  Since your back deals with the brunt of gravity and stress while you are sitting, it is only fair that you give it help negotiating the effects of gravity.  Many chairs have lumbar support which is built to conform to the lumbar spine.  The lumbar spine is your lower back and is the most often sited location of chronic pain in desk workers. 

Once you have found a chair that offers exceptional back support, you should look for a chair which offers arm support.  If your arm rests line up with your natural plane of keyboard use, you will be absolutely stunned at how little stress you feel on your arms, wrists, and shoulders when spending long bouts at the keyboard.  Some chairs offer completely adjustable arm rests.  Another factor which lends itself to the overall comfort of a chair is obviously seat angle and padding.  Seat angle is responsible for distributing your weight comfortable across your buttocks and underthighs.  Do not underestimate the importance of a well balanced chair in this respect.

Finally, overall structure quality and materials are a must for an exceptionally ergonomic chair.  While you can get away with a lazy boy and a laptop at home, when you are in the office you need something that lends itself to your absolute comfort and efficiency.  More expensive is not always more valuable.  Good luck in your search for an ergonomically enhanced office chair.

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 Creating a website isn’t as easy as you might think.  Even a small mistake in planning can dramatically decrease your success and can drive away traffic at an alarming rate.  Most of the advice you read on the Internet is about how to design a good site but it seems just as important to know what not to do.

Here are some tactics you’ll want to avoid.

#1 – Don’t Use Hard to Read Text

The whole purpose of your website is to provide information to readers.  If those readers arrive at your site but have to struggle to read your text, they won’t stick around for long.

We’ve all seen websites where someone wanted to be creative by using a swirly script or thought it would be a great idea to put red font on a yellow background or something like that.  Even if you think those elements look great on your screen, don’t rely on what you see on your computer to tell you what other people will see when they reach your site.

Make sure you also stick to common fonts, such as Times New Roman, Courier, and Arial.

#2 – Don’t Assume Your Visitors are Using IE

IE is Internet Explorer.  Once upon a time, Internet Explorer dominated the browser market by controlling a whopping 95%.  That’s all changing.  Today, more users are switching to IE alternatives, such as Firefox and Opera.

Why does that matter to you? Well, different browsers might display your web site differently.  Other browsers might not display your site at all!  If you only make sure your site is working correctly on one type of browser, then you could be alienating millions of potential customers or visitors.

Make sure you test your site on as many browsers as possible.

#3 – Don’t Use Pop Ups

Pop ups might seem like a great way to send advertising messages at your visitors or to encourage them to sign up for your free newsletter before they go but pop ups are really just a waste of time and energy.

For one, most browsers come up with pop up blockers so your visitors will never see the window.  If they do see the window, they will undoubtedly find it annoying and will make a note not to return to your site.  The worst case scenario is the pop up will make them feel vulnerable to spyware, viruses, or privacy invasions.

The bottom line is there is never a good reason to use pop ups on your website.

#4 – Don’t Increase Load Times

When someone reaches your website, they have to wait for your pages to be visible in their browser.  This, of course, is known as load time.  Load time is influenced by some factors you can’t control, such as the type of Internet connection being used by a visitor to your site.

However, you do have a great deal of influence over other factors.  For example, Flash can be fun and creative on a site but it will slow down the load time even on a high speed connection. If your visitor is still using dial-up then it will take minutes longer for your page to load.  Chances are they won’t be there when it finally does.

Remember to keep things simple.  Avoid Flash and don’t bog your site down with a lot of graphics.  The goal is for the site to load quickly.

Content management system – Acquia is a software company that provides value-added software products and services for the social publishing system.

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Whether you are doing work online or you are creating a work profile that you need to make sure is kept safe, you’ll find that there are plenty of reasons why you need to make sure that the passwords that you choose are difficult to guess and safe.  Even the facts that you might think are secure are often not nearly as safe as you think, so make sure that you think about what you can do to ensure that the first line of defense for your data is a good one.

Remember that a good password can deter the casual snooper quite easily, and generally, that will be all that you need to worry about.  When you think about the fact that an astonishing 80% of security breaches are caused by bad passwords, you can easily see why it is so important to make sure that you have thought about what this means to you.  Many people select simple passwords because they don’t believe that they can remember a longer, more complicated one, but the truth is, it is easy.

When putting together a safe password, there are several things that you should make sure that you avoid.  First, don’t make the password the same as the username and don’t a simple name or  simple word.  Avoid using common abbreviations and don’t use anything like a job title, a phone number or your initials.  These things can be quite easy to find and many people will try them if they are trying to get into your system.  Another common password that is easily cracked is an in-order sequence of keyboard keys, like QWERTY.

To make a good password, think about using a combination of numbers and letters, but make sure that it is adequately mixed and that you use both capital and lower case letters.  You’ll find that while adding “1” to the end of a password might not provide much protection, adding something “249” might work out quite well.  You might want to replace letters with numbers that match them, like 1 for L or I, or 0 for the letter O.  To come up with the body of an email, try making an acronym out of a famous quote or poem.  For instance, the line “Tell them in Sparta, You who pass by,” could be abbreviated to “TtiSYwpb,” which is quite complicated and tends to ensure that your security is of a significantly higher level than if you were to only use “Sparta1.”

Remember that, at the end of the day, you should also rotate your passwords.  Take the time to change your passwords regularly, and make sure that you are in a good place to secure your data and your own security, whether it is for your email, your online bank account or your work!

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Do you know that barter is a business for smart and intelligent people? So you are an intelligent person and want to carry out barter business. Then here is the basic information for you which you may need.

The perception of substituting goods or services in exchange for different goods or services is known as barter. This means that you need not pay by way of money for your goods. Even though the barter system is not a new concept it is becoming a famous business these days. Business will surely increase in the coming days because barter has already hit the internet.

Barter system of business actually helps you to save cash. You can get anything like traveling, web designing, legal advice, marketing and anything that you can thing of. All these can be done through the barter system.

Actually you wanted to create a web site for your company, but you held back the idea for lack of cash. Web site creation needs a big investment. But don’t worry there is a solution for you. You can join a business-to-business trade and get your work done in return of some service which they want in return.

You can exchange your graphic designing skills and website design services for things you need. You can exchange this skill of your with a dentist. For example you have some problem with your teeth and your dentist wants a web site for his business. In this case both of you can come to terms and exchange your services with each other. A great idea indeed and profitable also.

If you are creative and you can design brochures then you can exchange your service for a cleaning service. Say your home or your company needs a bit of cleaning work to be carried out. A cleaning agent wants brochures to sell his services. Then you can get in touch with the cleaning agent and ask for a barter trade between the two of you. You exchange your brochure designing skill with the cleaning agent and get your work done. Really it is as simple as this.

Barter business in web designing has come to the forefront now. It is fast picking up. You can just about exchange anything you need for your web designing skill. Many small businesses need their own web sites to sell their business. But they are not in a position to shell out cash for that. You can get in touch with them and get your requirements satisfied in exchange to your services of web designing.

Why you do you need to barter?

Barter can be utilized both as a means to ease cash flow troubles for recognized and growing businesses. This will help you to build a client base and a new entrepreneur will be born. Barter business exchanges anything from home furnishings to car repairs. They also can be done for landscaping and printing etc. Any work required under the sun can be achieved through a barter system.

At MDesign Media, we welcome bartering. Contact us directly if you are interested in bartering website or graphic design services.

Many saw a business opportunity in web hosting when the statistical computing began its reign. This is the reason for a lack of dedicated servers today. Same is true for web design entrepreneurs as well.

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