The Floppy Disk - A technology blog for small business

Even Cats Love the iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:40:00 +0000

How to stop the civil cold-war in America

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:46:00 +0000

The new Apple Tablet is called the iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:34:00 +0000

The Kindle killer? Maybe. The next huge win for Apple? Perhaps.

The iPad was announced today at 10:10am PST by Steve Jobs.

Tablet computing has been around for at least 12 years. I should know, I worked at Cruise Technologies in 1996 where we created the CruisePad!

Back then, the problem was screen size/clarity vs. manufacturing cost. The CruisePad was designed for a completely different market and way ahead of its time.

How to go from 0 - $1b in sales in 8 years (with no advertising)

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:05:00 +0000

Zappos.com is the shining example of how an online business can be profitable via word-of-mouth. This article on Read-Write-Web explores Zappos' success and talks to the CEO.

Business Owners Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:20:00 +0000

Want to find out what challenges other business owners are facing? Take this quick survey and get the free report.

New Podcast Series: PlugdIn

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:46:00 +0000

Something I've been planning for some time now and finally launched it!

The PlugdIn Podcast is a weekly discussion with (hopefully) interesting people involved in music, design, video, social media, charities and many other topics.

Here's the link to this week's episode. Enjoy!

What is Google Wave?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:01:00 +0000

Doing a little research and patiently waiting for my Google Wave invite, I wanted to get a better understanding.

Google Wave is a real-time collaboration platform. The easiest way to describe it would be a blend of Twitter, Flikr, YouTube and Word all in one interface.

It looks to be very early in development and Google is making it open source to accelerate the evolution of the product.

At this point, by just reading about it and watching demo videos, it doesn't seem to have the impact that Twitter or YouTube. But, it will be interesting to get in there and use it and watch it mature.

Connecting buildings via wireless

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:54:00 +0000

We highly recommend this product for ease of setup and cost.

The GNS wireless bridge solution is perfect to connect LAN's between buildings that are line of sight. Dedicated 54Mbs link.

Our implementation was up and running 15 minutes after the antennas were mounted.

SPAM VACUUM

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:43:00 +0000

How much time per week does your company deal with spam-related issues? Post comments below.

Phones vs. Computers

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Here's a question to consider:

What's more valuable to your business; phone service or Internet access? How long could you endure an outage for either?

Post your comments below.

The 30-minute, 10-point plan to a faster computer

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Remove all unnecessary programs.
Go to Start>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs. Scan the list for programs that you don't use anymore and remove. Be careful not to remove Windows Components.

Delete your "temp files" AND cookies once a week. (Disk Cleanup)
Go to My Computer and right-click on the C:\ drive. Choose Properties, then Disk Cleanup. Check the boxes of the files you wish to delete.

Run defrag every three months.
Go to My Computer, right-click on the C:\ drive and choose Properties. Choose Tools, then Defrag.

Run full HD scan every 6 months.
Go to My Computer and right-click on the C:\ drive and choose Properties. Choose Tools, then Check Disk. Check both boxes. It will do the full scan and fix HD erros on the next bootup.

Stop unnecessary services.
Windows runs a bunch of "services" in the background that may not be necessary for you. Go to Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services and stop the following services. Alerter, Clipbook, Distributed Link Tracking, Error Reporting Service, HID Input Service, Remote Registry, Telnet and Telephony (if you are not running Skype or something like that).

Check your error log once per month.
Clues to bigger problems may be found in the error logs. Go to Start>Control Panel>Administrator Tools>Event Viewer and look at the logs. Sort by 'Type' and look for anything with a Red Error label. Make note of these errors and either search them or call a technician.

Minimize the configuration on your virus scanner.
Many virus scanning programs are setup by default to protect everything. You can probably turn some scanning off, like the firewall if you are using the Windows firewall. You can also turn off email scanning if you email provider is scanning mail.

Turn off network and folder autosearching.
This little tip can improve the performance of Windows Explorer. Open My Computer and then choose Tools>Folder Options from the menu. Then choose the View tab and uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers"

Reduce the amount of programs auto-staring on bootup.
If you have a ton of icons showing up in the bottom right of your start bar, you can reduce those and speed up boot time. Be careful with this setting! Go Start>Run then type msconfig. Go to the Startup Tab and uncheck the boxes that show Applications that you know you don't need to auto-start.

Clean the registry.
Cleaning the registry and make vast improvements on your bootup and processing speed. However, the only way to safely accomplish this is with a cleaner program. We recommend RegCure.

Outsourced Help Desks

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:04:00 +0000

For many companies, hiring permanent IT help is cost prohibitive. Even IT consultants can be a bit pricey. Below is a list of IT help-desk providers.

This kind of service allows a tech in a remote location to connect to your computer or network and troubleshoot problems. Growth for these kinds of services has exploded over the past year.

iYogi.net
PlumChoice.com
Support.com
Greenstar.com

Stay On Top With Google Alerts

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:30:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered if anyone is saying anything (good or bad) about your company on the Internet? Or, what are your competitors up to? Google Alerts will send you that information - automagically, and as often as you like.

Yet another free service by Google, their "alerts" are basically memorized searches that will email you the results. Let's say you are insanely interested in Madonna. You can add her name as an alert entry for 'news' and you will get an email (daily, weekly or as it happens) that will contain all news-related items by Madonna. Better yet, the email will be formatted like a search result, so you can easily scan and click only the headlines that interest you.

Since there are potentially unlimited topics to configure as an alert, it's easy to get carried away. But that's ok! Add and remove topics at will. You can also go back and change the frequency of email notifications. Additionally, you can setup the alerts to be sent to a RSS feed reader, like Google Reader.

I have found Google Alerts to be a great tool for filtering the information that I find interesting so I can be more efficient online.

Negotiating with Vendors (Part I)

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:15:00 +0000

Here's one area where business owners can fall into a costly trap. Vendors making big promises in the pre-sales process only to underdeliver after the check is cashed. There are a few ways this can be avoided.

Get the Demo
If it's software that you are buying, get the demo version up and running for about 30 days (10 days at least). This will give you time to make sure it's easy to deploy and you can see it in action for a few days. Talk to the vendor about customizing the software to conform with your process. Most software these days should be easily customizable without costly consulting charges.

Testimonials
Any vendor worth dealing with should have a complete set of testimonials. These may be found on their website or in their product literature. Get the names of large and small current customers and talk to them about their experience. Ask about the vendor's post-sales support. Ask about their implementation. Was it on time? What kinds of problems arose? How were they handled?

Are there free options?
Within the last 8 years, hundreds of websites have popped up providing valuable tools and resources. If you are looking to implement a software solution, try searching for "open-source" software. Open source refers to the fact that the source code for the software is openly available at no cost. A group of developers join in on maintaining the software and adding functionality.

Whose "Process" Is It Anyway?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:00:00 +0000

Process is defined as steps required to manufacture your products or the means to provide your services.

A clean and efficient process is the key to applying any technology solution successfully. The wrong, or inefficient process, will lead you to spend $100k on an unnecessary system.

The efficient process will save you money when implementing technology and should increase your profits. It is vitally important for your business that you examine all your processes BEFORE implementing any technology solution.

Adwords Primer (Part II)

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:52:00 +0000

In order to really get a clear picture of your campaign effectiveness, you should have Google Analytics tags coded on your landing page. These tags will allow you to see where your visitors are coming from and which keywords they used. You can even link your Adwords campaign with your Analytics account and see actual conversion rate.

The goal of any online campaign is to achieve the highest possible conversion rate. Google makes it very simple to determine the conversion rate, but they don't guarantee ad results. The best performing ads, according to Google, are the ones that are extremely relevant to the search term and that have a compelling message on the landing page.

Your landing page, or the page that shows up if viewers click on your Adwords ad, should be clean and compelling. The landing page should drive a specific action like filling out a form or testing your product/service.

The key to a successful Adwords campaign is trial and error. You will need to test various keywords at various times of the day/week. You will also need to test variations of the ad copy to optimize clickthru and conversion rate. It all takes patience and a little bit of money and time.

4 Key Points When Considering New Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:29:00 +0000

A technology solution should meet at least one of the following four criteria:

1. reduce operating expenses
2. automate existing (efficient) processes to enable growth
3. provide an effective means to communicate
4. enable your business to improve its products and/or services

Before the first dime is spent, insure that your examine these criteria.

If your internal processes are efficient, then applying a technology solution will automate your operation. This in the only true path to a proper return on investment (ROI).

On the flipside, if your process is inefficient, then applying technology will be costly and likely work against itself. Technology for the sake of technology is not going to solve anything.

In fact, without the proper process and strategy, you will likely create problems and reduce your margins by applying the wrong technology solution. A technology "solution" should always solve something.

Adwords Primer (Part I)

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:35:00 +0000

Google Adwords can be an efficient strategy to drive more potential clients to your website. Notice, we say "can be" since advertising on Google's search engine can be expensive and not very efficient if managed incorrectly. This article will serve as a primer to get started with a simple, yet effective Adwords campaign.

If you are unfamiliar with Adwords - this is Google's main advertising engine. You can see it in action by going to google.com and entering popular search terms. The search results will have up to three sponsored listings at the top, along with several sponsored listings in the right margin. These "sponsored listings" are what advertisers (or you) will bid on via Adwords.

The first thing you will need is a Google Adwords account. Google has consolidated many of their services so that you can use the same logon for all of the them. Once you have created or linked your login, you are ready to create your first campaign.

Creating the campaign should only take about 10 minutes to complete. You will start by clicking on +Create New Campaign and follow the prompts.

When writing the actual ad copy, think from the readers point of view. Make the ad simple, yet enticing. You'll want to create curiosity, but make sure the message is VERY relevant to your product/service. Take a look at some ads that show in the top 5 slots for various keywords.

3 Tips For Speeding Up Your Computer

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:37:00 +0000

Even though we've been working with Microsoft products for over 20 years, sometimes very strange things happen on our perfectly configured computers.

Here are three things we look for immediately to speed up a system:

1) Remove all unnecessary programs that are running the systray (the systray is all the little icons in the bottom right next to the clock). You can turn them off permanently by going into msconfig.exe and unchecking the programs that shouldn't be there. Just be careful with what you are unchecking.

2) Uninstall programs that you will never use again. Go to Startup>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs (only on Windows XP).

3) Finally, AFTER unwanted programs are removed, clean out your Windows registry by using a registry cleaner. We recommend RegCure.

As always, make sure your virus scanning software is up to date and run full scans once per week. We recommend AVG - the free version works just fine.

4 steps to creating real-time online proposals

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:07:00 +0000

Here's a simple method for creating online proposals. By using Google's 'publish' feature in Google Docs, you can quickly create a unique webpage that is your proposal. No HTML required. Best of all, the webpage is dynamic. When you make a changes to the proposal, your customer can view the changes immediately.

No more emailing documents around and wasting precious time during the sale close!

Here are the steps:

1) Login to your gmail account and click "Documents" in the upper-left.

2) Once inside Google Docs, click on New > Spreadsheet.(Alternatively, you can upload an existing Excel spreadsheet if you have one.)

3) Format your new spreadsheet to resemble a proposal, complete with a signature line. (You can also choose a Template from the "New" button.)

4) Now, click "Share" in the upper right and then choose "Publish as Web Page." Also check the box "Automatically re-publish when changes are made"

That's it. Copy and paste the hyperlink that appears and drop it into an email to your client. If you have to make updates to the document, just tell your client to click on the link in the original email and they will see the updates.

They will see an option to print the document.

TIP: Put your fax number right on the document with instructions to sign and fax. Done deal.

10 Reasons To Love Gmail

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:47:00 +0000

1) All contacts and email content is immediately searchable.

2) The 'Star' feature gives you a quick and easy to-do list.

3) It's free and ubiquitous.

4) The 'archive' feature lets you maintain a clutter-free inbox.

5) You can send/receive emails from multiple addresses. (i.e. jsmith@gmail.com or jsmith@acme.com)

6) Virus scanning on incoming messages (again, free).

7) Access from just about any cell phone.

8) Gmail can host your corporate email system (again, for free).

9) Perfect functioning spam-filter.

10) Did I mention it was free and ubiquitous.

4 must-have online tools (and they're free!)

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:20:00 +0000

Software companies finally got smart. The good ones anyway. Can you use a free project management tool? How about 2GB of free online backup? For small businesses, the 'free' version may be all you need to get the productivity you need. In this eBook, you will find four online tools that boost your productivity and not cost you a dime.

Mozy (mozy.com )
You have probably suffered the minor (or major!) tragedy of a crashed hard drive. Eventually, they will all stop spinning. Mozy in an online data backup service that will automagically encrypt, transfer and store your most precious files. For individual users, they give you 2gb in the free account. Not bad at all. Depending upon your broadband connection speed, the initial backup could anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

Once the first complete backup is done, subsequent backups will finish much quicker. To get started, you need to download the client software and install on your computer. They have a version for PC and Mac. They also have a Pro version for Windows servers or multiple computers.

Google Apps (google.com/a)
Google Apps is THE killer app of the last 10 years in this authors opinion. It is possible to create all types of standard documents using Google Apps. And, again - it's free. Google Apps offers word processing, spreadheets, presentations and online forms. All Google apps run in a browser, of course, and can be used with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari, among others.

One killer feature for their apps is the collaboration and publishing. You can create a standard "word-like" document and invite other people to collaborate and view the document online. The best part, your original version stays in-tact. Once an invited users edits your document, a new version is created and all past versions are saved separately. You can revert to any version at any time. Think about how valuable that is for contracts and legal documents. No more emailing redline documents.

Here is an example of a sales proposal published using the spreadsheet app. You can also view the original version of this article, which as created using the Google Apps word processor.

Google Reader (google.com/reader)
Google has so many products and services to use other than their search engine. The Google Reader is significant because it can aggregate just about any content that is viewable on the web. Content aggregation or "feeds" is nothing more than email-like threads of information that is specifically chosen by you. If you like sports, biking and fishing, you can "subscribe" to those topics using Google Reader and it will consolidate articles or websites and present to you all on one page. And it's real-time. As new content is published, you will see the updates on your personalized reader page.

This is great for business too. If you are an accountant for example, you can subscribe to tax updates, local business events and even the competition and it's all visible in one place. There is no limit to the content to which you can subscribe. This can also be overwhelming, so choose wisely.

BasecampHQ (basecamp.com)
37signals is a killer software company. Their mantra is to create software that provides a core set of highly valuable features. Not a ton of bells and whistles - just elegant web-based software solutions. They have several products, but Basecamp is their flagship product and it provides automation for project management.

As with all their software, Basecamp is highly collaborative in nature. You can login and create a project, add several tasks and milestones within 10 minutes. Then, notify everyone involved in the project about their role and keep track of progress. No training is required to use Basecamp and their support is incredible. For $12/mo. you can run three projects at a time. Great for freelancers and small businesses.

Another cool feature is the file storage. Any type of file can be uploaded and shared with the project team. Oh yeah - you can subscribe to your project updates via Google Reader and watch progress in real-time!

There are plenty more free online services, but these can boost productivity without adding any overhead. Check out our blog for more helpful information.

"Remote Support" eBook

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:13:00 +0000

As promised, the remote support eBook has arrived. Click here to download.

Windows registry cleaner will help windows if slowing down

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Echlin) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:32:00 +0000

You would think that an IT pro like myself wouldn't experience a Windows XP slow down. I found RegCure and was a bit skeptical, but it worked.

RegCure offers a free scan to show you how many meaningless entries are stored in your Windows registry. Mine had over 1200. So, with the 60-day guarantee in hand, I bought the license and cleaned up.

Day two, without a doubt, Windows runs better. Webpages load faster, even text entry is a bit faster. Prior to cleaning, I would reboot every other day.

Highly recommended. Click here to download the free scan from RegCure.