What's in a Widget

5 Insider Secrets For Writing With Confidence by Ali Hale

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:57:09 PDT

Found at pickthebrain.com some fabulous pointers for anyone who wants to blog (I especially enjoyed "The first draft of anything is crap." - read through the jump!

I’m a professional writer. I work for blogs and the occasional magazine, and in the past I’ve written for clients who wanted website copy. My fiction has also been published, including a couple of competition prizes. Small successes, perhaps; but even these wouldn’t have happened without a strong level of writing confidence.

Since I write for a number of blogs, I often get questions from would-be writers. Something which crops up frequently is a lack of confidence. Many (surprisingly good) writers never send pieces to an editor, or agonise over every post they write on their own blog.

It doesn’t need to be that way. Good writing isn’t the preserve of a few lucky individuals – after all, none of us were born able to write! And, in the 21st century, many stifling grammatical “rules” no longer apply. You’re free to write in your own voice and your own style … and you can enjoy it. Here’s how:

Treat Writing As a Skill
Now, I’ll admit that some people do seem to be natural-born writers, just as others have an innate talent for music or art. Writing is a skill, however – one that can be learnt. This could include

The technicalities of writing (like where to put a comma and how to ensure subject-verb agreement). If your grasp of grammar is shaky, there are lots of books that can help.
Writing style and fluidity. An evening class or a correspondence course, where you get feedback from a tutor, can help you to develop stylistically.

Voice and purpose. One of the most important things to learn in writing is how to tailor a piece to an audience. This means learning how to write in different tones, from chatty to professional to motivational.

Good writers spend time learning and honing their craft, which gives them true confidence – because they know their skills are up to scratch.

Practice Regularly
If you’ve ever learnt to play an instrument, or studied a foreign language, you’ll know how important it is to practice. Even if your first attempts are faltering, you quickly get better. It’s just the same with writing: the more you write, the better you’ll become.

Read the rest of the article....

The Numbers Just Don't Add Up

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:23:00 PDT

Here's a fabulous article on web statistic numbers! I have just begun realizing this myself - with 5 different analytics programs, I often get 5 completely different numbers!

How can that happen? Well, if you think about it, statistic programs are counted on to weed out spiders and crawlers (which are "finding" your site electronically - but are not real visitors) and they are trying to get rid of repeat visitors. So, the statistics can vary - a lot.

So, why are they still helpful. Look to them for trends - not the actual stats. I do tend to rely more on my web hosts actual "numbers" for visitors than I do Google analytics (mostly because the former is higher) but Google analytics makes it easier to look at and track trends.

I know it's frustrating, but the Internet is NOT a perfect place.

Venting about Web Design companies who rip people off

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:18:23 PDT

I started this company as a work at home Mom - as a sideline. It's definately NOT a sideline anymore (yay) with my husband by my side and two new part time employees but I haven't changed my rates much in 9 years. Why? Because it's enough!! What I make and what I charge for what I do covers my time and my expertise.

Why am I venting?

Because yesterday I had one of those professional experiences that really pisses me off. I went into a neighborhood store (who's name shall be preserved to protect the innocent) and they said "I'm sorry we close in 5 minutes".

I commented that their website said they were open an hour later and they said "oh, it costs $300 to update our website so that's wrong and we close earlier". WHAT?????

Their website is html - boring, easy - as easy as me typing a sentence right now - we charge $15 for small updates (our quarter hour minimum). Whatever justification their web company has for doing what they're doing, it is a COMPLETE RIP OFF! Now, maybe that company doesn't want to do updates so they charge crazy rates to discourage having anyone go back to them.

However, what really annoys me about this is that we're doing the business owner a disservice. Why encourage people to put up a website they can never update? It's ridiculous!

I also visited an old friend's website yesterday and it was created by a company that charges $500 for a 4 page website (we charge $60 per page) and after digging a bit more around his website - guess what? He uses templates!! He buys a template for $25 - dumps this clients info into it and charges them $500. This is not only unfair, but I think misrepresentation - I highly doubt he tells them it's a template and if he does, $500 is a crazy price for filling out a template. Trust me, just go buy the $25 template and do it yourself.

When did having a company and being an entrepreneur become more about us making money than customer service for the clients we serve?

I happen to find websites invaluable. Not just because I'm a geek, but because I use them all the time. So, why should small companies be unable to update them or get help?

What's crazy about this story is that almost all of our clients have had these experiences in one way or another. Small companies most likely are not run by someone who's a tech expert and so they must look to web companies to help them. The problem is there is no standardization for what's "right" in the industry.

So, how do you NOT get ripped off? Shop around. Ask questions. Please, don't resort to having your nephew do the site (we have ugly stories to tell about that too) - but honestly there are reputable web companies out there.

How to Tweak Outlook email to work for you

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:52:11 PDT

How to Tweak Outlook Email to Work for You
by Katherine BoehretWednesday, September 16, 2009
provided by
If you have a job, chances are you use Microsoft Outlook.
But are you using it to your best advantage?
More from WSJ.com: • To Count Stimulus Jobs, Help Really Wanted • The Top Business-School Programs if You're in a Hurry • Avoiding Bank Overdraft Fees
Despite the popularity of Microsoft Outlook, several of its functions aren't noticeable unless you dig around in menus or try out keystroke shortcuts. Many of these tricks can be found by reading a user manual, but users would rather be spending their time in Outlook responding to or writing emails.

Read more...

New issue of our newsletter - big expansion news!

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:44:31 PDT

We're so excited to announce our "new additions" here at Widget. Nope, we're not having a baby, we've hired employees!

Justin Hernandez is now part time in our office helping us out with administrative duties and whatever else we throw at him! So, if you get him on the phone, be sure to say hi!

We are also pleased to introduce Jani Duncan Smith as our new graphic and print designer. Mary-Frances has gotten so busy with other things that this gives her a chance to concentrate more on SEO and customer service (along with some design of course!) and hand off print and other graphic projects off to Jani!

Jani says about herself:

"I got my start as a designer in 1989 as the assistant to the principal designer of a small design firm, after five years in the agency world, I moved into publishing where I have flourished for over 15 years.
My freelance career started in 1994 with Merry JJ Design Boutique, which I formed along with a friend to pursue other creative interests that were not part of the day-to-day publishing world. We designed together for four years, then my partner moved away but the clients didn't, so I was "it", and It Girl Design Boutique was born.
I enjoy all aspects of the creative process and have done work on a wide-range of projects for clients all over the globe."

We are helping Jani to revamp her website, but meanwhile you can check out her other work here at: http://www.itgirldesign.com/

We are so excited to be growing and expanding and hope to address all of your web and marketing more completely with these two fabulous additions to our staff!

Roger and Mary-Frances

To read the rest of our newsletter or to subscribe, click here.

Check this out if you don't want to sound "outdated"

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:11:58 PDT

From:
12 Words You Can Never Say in the Office by Carolyn Duffy MarsanTuesday, August 25, 2009

We've put together a list of outdated tech terms, phrases that you shouldn't be using at work anymore because they will make you seem old. This is especially true if you're looking for a new job. For example, on an interview, you should be talking about "cloud computing," not "ASPs" even though they are basically the same thing.
This list is useful for 20-somethings, too. Now when the senior person in the office uses one of these terms, you'll know what he's talking about.
1. Intranet
Popular in the mid-90s, the term "intranet" referred to a private network running the Internet Protocol and other Internet standards such as the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It was also used to describe an internal Web site that was hosted behind a firewall and was accessible only to employees. Today, every private network runs IP. So you can just use the term virtual private network or VPN to describe a private IP-based network.
2. Extranet Read the rest of the article...

10 Microsoft Applications going bye bye!

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:39:41 PDT

For those of us who use a lot of funny little microsoft applications (not to mention own a Zune) - you'll be interested to read this little round up of applications that are being fazed out.

Including:

Microsoft Money - discontinued

Windows Vista - replaced as quickly as possible

The Zune - at risk

Why flash looks great, but should be used with care (or not at all)

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:38:51 PDT

I just ran across this article "Don't Use Flash this way, or how to ruin your site with flash". Not only do I agree with all of her points, but I'll caution in a few other areas too.

If you design your site in Flash, you're forever at the mercy of the designer. You MUST have the source file to ever make edits and that will need to be done by someone who knows Flash, owns the version it was created in, etc. I currently have this nightmare with a client and I'm really hoping they don't have to completely rebuild their site.

Search engines can't find you - unless the person who designs it really knows what they're doing. However, in my experience, most Flash designers are artists and not web people or they wouldn't do an entire site in Flash anyway.

Also, the use of Flash usually doubles the cost of your site - it looks good, but does it look THAT good?

FREE listing on Google Maps - why wouldn't you do it?

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:09:55 PDT

I was in a seminar recently and I mentioned that you could have a free listing on google with a map to your location. Everyone was dying to know how! It's really simple, just follow these steps and, best of all, it's free!

First, you own your listing, they're just waiting for you to update it. So, go to the Google Local Business Center and register your business. Verification is required. Use the telephone verification method, if it is available. (Google will show you a PIN on the PC, then they'll call your number, and you enter the PIN. Takes 20 seconds). This is by far the easiest method. It's free, and you do not have to buy Google Ads. AND it will overwrite whatever Google Maps is currently showing. If it's a new business, you'll see the changes right away. If you're making changes they just ask you to verify again

On the "more info" page, at the bottom is a link that says "Business Owners: Add/Edit Your Business" and a link to the LBC above. Most people don't know this link is here, probably because it is often below the fold on the page. Google really should make this link more prominent.

They have recently added statistics so you can see how many people click on your information as well as coupons! I think this is a great option - you can put a coupon on your map listing for free! What a great idea if you have any sort of retail establishment (imagine a pizza coupon!).

-From our June Newsletter - be sure to sign up if you want this emailed to you!

STOP IT!

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:47:33 PDT

We were in an all day coaching session on Friday and they talked about this clip. It's wonderful and great for all of us with little brain gremlins!

As for the coaching, it's fantastic - we are using "Action Coach" and Susan Roberts is our coach - we meet with "Profit Club" every two weeks to talk about goals, numbers, marketing strategies, time management...it's good stuff!

"Alice in Computerland"

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:00:36 PDT

Alice stared at the box. It was the size of a picture book and opened like one, but would only open once. Alice had heard of others of it's type - big boxes with long pieces of string joining bits and pieces.

Alice blinked. Would she ever be able to understand this magical wonderland.

And just then the fairy appeared and...

Whoa, hang on. I'm not a fairy! I'm a pixie. I'm the "Pixel Pixie."

Yes, it was the Pixel Pixie. She appears as many forms - that cute puppy or kitten or paperclip that shows up from time to time. She does know more that I do about these machines. Perhaps I should let her take Alice on her journey.

And rightly you should. So, let us start with the basics.

Alice blinked again. What were the basics? For she was one of the truely uninitiated (having just appeared suddenly out of an 18th Century socio-political children's novel into the techno-fantasy world of the early 21st Century).

"This," explained the Pixel Pixie, "is a computer."

Ooooooooh.

"Your 'Oooh's' are unnecessary. Yes, it is an awesome machine. Yes, it has a fascinating history, but so does the automobile and so does the printing press and, for that matter, so does the wheel and fire, but they are simply one more in the chain of progress."

"But how does it work?" asked Alice.

"Let us start at the beginning." Suggested the Pixel Pixie. "When the first computer was born their first goal was to make a machine to do mathematics."

"But I'm not good with mathematics." said Alice.

"Well," responded the Pixel Pixie, "then you can be thankful that the computer has gone beyond that. Now the computer is used for art, science, economics, you name it. But beware, for deep in the computer lies a complex beast that, if not understood, can detract from sensibilities, cause unnecessary anguish and undermine bank accounts.

"Consider this machine. You know of the obvious features - the keyboard where you type your commands," said the Pixel Pixie, "the mouse where you direct your desires, the microphone where you speak your words and the speakers where you hear the result. And let's not forget the all important screen where you see the results of your actions. But haven't you ever wondered what happens to your commands?"

"Well, um, no." responded Alice. "Not really."

"I don't blame you" said the Pixel Pixie." Most people don't. They see the computer like any other machine - like a television or a radio or an automobile. But when the mechanic of your car tells you that your headlights need fluid, do you really believe him?"

"I shouldn't?"

"Oh dear." murmured the Pixel Pixie, "well, that I'll leave to my counterpart, the Mechanic Mystic, but let us take the journey..."

Alice dissolved, shrinking, at the will of the wand of the Pixel Pixie, to the size of a speck of dust. And together they entered the wonderland of the computer - in this case, Compaq laptop, through the heat exhaust port and through the fan.

"Oh dear!" exclaimed Alice, "it's most dusty here."

"Yes," agreed the Pixel Pixie. "Sadly this is one of the most neglected places in a laptop computer. More people should make sure their computer ventilation system is properly kept clean, but unfortunately few do. Many a computer has suffered an unnecessary death because the computer cannot breathe, overheats and dies, A simple call to Widget Incorporated, for a few dollars, could save the life of your computer."

"Enough of death, let us continue."

"Agreed," said the Pixel Pixie. "Let us start with the engine room. As I said earlier, the first computers were made for mathematics and, like it or not, that's all a computer does. For the purpose of our journey, let's think of a computer as being a series of rooms. Let's start with the Processor room

"There's only one of them - or at least there used to be one. Now they're making computers with two or four of these rooms and there may be ones with even more than that in the future. Have you heard of the terms 'dual processor' or 'quad processor'?"

"No," said Alice, "I haven't. After all, I fell down a rabbit hole in a pasture in 1700 and something (or was it walking through a mirror, or, come to think of it, there was that guy 'Carroll' who gave me something he called 'opium.')"

The Pixel Pixie. blinked several times while she listed to Alice's story.

"Well, moving right along. The processor does the work in your computer. A dual processor does twice as much work and a quad processor does four times as much work."

"What kind of work?" asked Alice.

"See those guys?" asked the Pixel Pixie, and she pointed to a line of machines holding numbers who. when handed another number, would turn it into yet another number and then, when a clock chimed, would pass it to another machine like them or would hand it to..."

"Memory or disk space!" exclaimed the Pixel Pixie, as though she had pronounced the meaning of life. "But don't get the two confused," warned the Pixel Pixie.

"Why not?" asked Alice. "What is the difference?"

"This is where I become a true pixie," said the Pixel Pixie. "This is where I will save you money.

"There are two concepts here and both are often, mistakenly referred to as 'memory'.

"Let's start with a thought exercise."

"I'm not sure I can do that," exclaimed Alice, "having not thought much at all in my life."

"Well," said the Pixel Pixie, "Let's see how far we can go." She walked across the green circuit board and pointed to a slab of black boxes: "Did you have a dream last night?"

Alice was perplexed. "Uh, er, I guess so." She mumbled.

"Do you remember what it was?" asked the Pixel Pixie.

"No," Alice admitted.

"Good," said the Pixel Pixie, "You've just learnt your first lesson about computer memory. Let's assume that while the computer is turned on it's like your dream - it can remember everything, but when you turn it off, it's like when you wake up. That memory is gone. And, even when you're rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, you might remember fragments of your dream, but unless you write it down it's gone forever.

"Back in the early days of computers, sometimes the memory would last, not for a long time, but for a few seconds - it's called "residual memory" and today it can still screw things up. Which is why we recommend that if your computer freaks and you have to totally pull the plug then you give it a few seconds before restarting (a good habit, but maybe this is old school).

"The point is that if you want it to last then, like waking from a dream that you want to keep, you have to write it down. This is disk space.

"Disk space is permanent memory - 'memory' as it's spoken of (or "ram" as it's termed - 'random access memory') is temporary, but disk space lasts forever! (or until you erase it)"

"But," exclaimed Alice, "it's all memory. And what about this 'flash memory' that I hear of?"

The Pixel Pixie drew a deep breathe, as though about to embark on a long journey (for she was).

"The 'Flash Memory' circuit is the only living threat to the traditional 'hard drive' and its story is an old, but interesting one.

"Once upon a time there the chip. And it was good, but it was hard coded - once written there was no way to change it. It was called ROM which stood for "Read-Only Memory." These chips were created from scratch and were unchangeable. Progress came up with a way to change them - we came up with a way to burn the information into the already made chips - instead of having them made from scratch. These chips were called PROMs - 'Programmable Read-Only Memory'

"What more could you want." Alice shrugged, for she had an idea. As full of tea and crumpets as the temporally challenged rabbit and his psychopathic hatter friend had filled her, as experientially intoxicated as she felt, the answer fell fully on her waltesque lips...

"Erasable!" Alice proclaimed with triumph. "We want to be able to erase the memory!"

"Correct!" Exclaimed a new voice. It was the most often heard, yet ubiquitously neglected voice of Flashy - the flash memory chip. Consider him to be the wandering mystic who roams the Kansas prairies, circumstantially redirecting young girls on a crusade to save their puppy from a dreadful fate during inclement weather, but if you think that this is an intolerable cross-mixing of fairly tales then imagine the Mystic Memory Manager to be an ally of the Pixel Pixie.

"I know everything," said Flashy. "Until someone tells me not to. My ancestors," he continued, "had an advantage over the PROMs. They could remember everything until they were exposed to light - ultra-violet light, to be precise. They would lose their memory if they were flashed with ultra-violet light. If you get your hands on an old circuit board then you will see my ancestors with stickers over their heads - they lived in houses with little windows on them.

"And if the curtains of the window were opened then everything the knew would be lost. They were the EPROM - Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory."

"Now we live in a new age. We live in the age of the EEPROM - Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory." Said Flashy with some pride. "This is me and we are the greatest challenge to the hard disk. Disky has had the advantage for too long. Ever since the late 1960s has disky held the market. We, the "flash memory" are coming out and we will hold the future! The term 'flash' may have come from the use of UV light to erase our ancestors, the EPROM, but a new light dawns!"

"Putting aside the megolamaniacal tenancies of the flash drive," said the Pixel Pixie, "the distinction between long term and short term memory endures. When your computer claims 'insufficient disk space' then it does no good to increase memory. When your computer bogs down then it does no good to get a bigger disk drive (except that your computer can use disk space for memory but. oh my god is it slow)."

"And this doesn't even include video memory - special memory for the exclusive use of your screen (it's RAM - Random Access Memory - the temporary memory I mentioned earlier)."

The Pixel Pixie led Alice from the depths of the computer. Alice was stunned. "I had no idea that there was so much in a computer." She said. The Pixel Pixie nodded sympathetically. "I guess if I have problems then I should talk to someone who knows before buying anything."

The Pixel Pixie, gave Alice a hug and a tear formed in her eye. "There is so much about computers and you have just taken your first step." she said.

For once in her life, where the computer was concerned, Alice no longer felt in wonderland.

Some "wow" information about Titles in blog posts

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:17:45 PDT

Written on May 21st, 2005 at 10:05 am
by Darren Rowse

The importance of Title Tags in Search Engine Optimization

A few days ago I was moaning to a mate about the fact that despite thousands of inbound links and a page rank of 6 - ProBlogger.net is still yet to rank highly for many of it’s relevant search terms in Google - as a result I rarely get any traffic from Google on this blog. Even for a term like ‘Blog Tips’ (something I write about a lot) I only ranked around 60th on Google.

My friend asked a simple question that made me realize how blind a blogger can be when they stare at their own blog all day and lose objectivity.

He asked:‘What is in the title tags of your blog?’

As soon as he asked the question I knew how stupid I’d been. This is a question I often ask other bloggers but had not asked myself!

The title tags of my front page had been ‘ProBlogger: Helping Bloggers Earn Money’. A good descriptive term - but not including some of the key terms that I was wanting to get hits on - particularly ‘Blog Tips’.

NB: your ‘title tags‘ are what appears between in your blog’s templates. This title comes up at the top of your browser when viewing a page and comes up in search engine results as the title of your post.After banging myself on the head a few times for my stupidity I decided to do an experiment - I changed my title tags on my home page to ‘ProBlogger Blog Tips: Helping Bloggers Earn Money’. Just a tweak really - the inclusion of two words. I set this up and waited to see what would happen.

Read the rest of this post here...

The Hungry Little Spider- An SEO Bedtime Story

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:37:09 PDT

Here's a wonderful article about search engine optimization. It clarifies a lot of the "tricks" and gives you an idea of how many ideas are outdated and can ultimately get you into trouble:

The Hungry Little Spider- An SEO Bedtime Story: "The Hungry Little Spider
An SEO Bedtime Story
By Scottie Claiborne© 2004
Once upon a time, in a land called WWWebdom, there lived a little spider. It was a hungry little spider and it liked to munch up web pages and then keep track of which ones it liked best, so it could tell other people just how good they were.
The little spider never ran out of pages to munch because each page told the spider where to find other yummy pages (links). When lots of pages pointed him to one page, he usually found that page to be very tasty. Also, the more links he found to a specific page, the easier it was to remember it to tell others about.
*Incoming links are important to get your site found and ranked well.
Sometimes people tried to tell the spider which pages they wanted him to try and every so often, he'd check out some of the invitations he received. Usually, those pages weren't attached to any other pages, so the spider would be bored and forget they were there.
*Submitting your site to the search engines doesn't do much good without incoming links."

Read the rest of the article here....

14 Big Businesses that were founded in a recession

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:17:46 PDT

It might seem counterintuitive to start a new business when the economy is in the dumps. But a recession can actually be the ideal time for launching a company. In fact, many well-known and successful organizations were born during an economic slump.

Why do these companies succeed? Usually it's because the founders recognized a market need and filled it. Identifying that need — whether it’s related to entertainment, travel or even streamlining how businesses operate — is the key to any thriving enterprise, regardless of the economic climate in which it begins. The following major corporations made it big during recessions by doing just that.

Hyatt Corp. opened its first hotel’s doors at the Los Angeles International Airport during the Eisenhower recession (1957 to 1958). The chain rose to worldwide fame in the following decades and now operates more than 365 hotels in 25 countries with premium services such as wifi hotspots.

Burger King Corp., with its flame-broiled burgers, is another recession startup. The company began in 1954 when James McLamore and David Edgerton opened a Burger King restaurant in Miami, Fla. During another recession in 1957, the company introduced its successful signature burger — the Whopper. Today, the company operates more than 11,100 locations in 65 countries.

Read the rest of the article here....

Extreme Encouragement - all you need to be successful

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:32:26 PST

I'm a big fan of Christine Kane (singer, songwriter and coach) and I thought this article was particularly great when so many people are either out looking for work or starting a new business - why not take this opportunity to pursue a dream!

How to Be an Extreme Encourager
by Christine Kane

Many years ago, when I first shared my dream of being a songwriter with one of my best friends, she knitted her brows and said, "Huh?"

I can't say I was deflated by all of the warnings that followed. After all, I had always been surrounded by this kind of "practical thinking." In fact, I probably shared my dream with her just so she'd talk me out of it.

During this fumbling stumbling time in my life, I met a man who became an unlikely best friend and mentor. He was a brilliant jazz musician, and he could do pretty much anything on the computer.

One night, after he performed at a local jazz club, we were walking towards my car. I told him my dream of being a songwriter. Without even blinking, he said, "Honey (he always called me Honey), you'd be a fabulous songwriter. That's perfect!" And he meant it.

At that moment, I felt like I was falling into a soft clean bed. I had never experienced such direct and truthful encouragement without a single "practical" warning attached to it. This friend set me free by offering one simple thing:

Encouragement.

Fast forward many years and successes and failures later. I'm surrounded by encouragers. I'm sure there are doubters around. But they don't register anymore.

Also, I have become an extreme encourager myself.

I've observed extreme encouragers. I've also recognized some traits that they all have in common. Here they are:

· An extreme encourager lives by example

The best encouragers are the ones who live it. Whether they're just getting started, or they're veteran risk-taking creativity-living wild-women - the encouragers are the ones who want a bigger life for themselves and are willing to "go there." This is why my jazz musician friend could simply offer encouragement when my other friend could not.

· An extreme encourager actively listens

Encouragers know that encouragement doesn't mean you just tell people to "buck up" or "get over it." They know how to listen. This means looking at the speaker, listening to her, setting agendas and judgments aside, and honoring the speaker as a wise soul.

· An extreme encourager avoids clichés

Avoiding clichés is actually a result of actively listening to someone. Being an extreme encourager doesn't mean that you blindly tell people "You can do it!" or "Let go of fear!" It's deeper than that. It's seeing the truth of the other person, especially when they cannot.

· An extreme encourager acknowledges the hooglie-booglies, but doesn't focus on them

We all have the hooglie-booglies. These are the voices that tell us we can't, or we shouldn't, or we'll fail, or we'll look stupid. An encourager doesn't focus on those voices because she knows they they're trying to hook her. An encourager simply acknowledges that the voices are there and that you can't make them go away by arguing with them. An encourager knows that those voices aren't the truth. They only SEEM like the truth.

· An extreme encourager remembers that no one knows what's best for anyone else

An encourager knows that we are all wise and that sometimes we make choices that might not seem so wise. An extreme encourager calls out our deepest desires and then helps us see the thoughts and fears that hold us back.

· An extreme encourager accepts miracles, grace and mystery as the deeper truth.

Extreme encouragers are often mystics of sorts. They know that the so-called "woo-woo" stuff is more real than the so-called "logical" stuff. They celebrate the divine as a simple fact of everyday existence and don't get caught up in the "prove it" mindset.

· An extreme encourager knows that you can develop the needed character traits as you go

In other words, she knows you're ready now, even if you're not perfect yet! I shudder when I read advice that discourages people from trying something because of character traits "required" in advance. "You shouldn't blog if you're not disciplined." "If you don't have focus, you can't be a writer." Most of the successful people I know developed these traits as they went. I certainly did. Encouragers understand the huge potential for growth in each human, especially when someone begins to follow her heart.

---------------

I'm grateful to the encouragers! And I'm grateful to be able to pass it on to others - either my friends, or to women in my retreats or my coaching clients!

Who has given you the encouragement you needed in your life? And do you pass it on now?

Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her 'LiveCreative' weekly ezine with more than 4,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com.

‘Accidental entrepreneurs’ on the rise

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:39:42 PST

Randy Blue was laid off from HCA Inc. in April and, after months of looking for work, he started his own business.
Experts are seeing more and more people becoming “accidental entrepreneurs,” meaning experienced, highly skilled people who’ve been laid off and are launching their own businesses as a result.
They are sprouting up in Williamson County, where the number of new businesses has continued to surge despite a decline in the economy.
“I’m seeing a much larger portion of people who are kind of being unexpectedly thrust into this,” says Jeff Cornwall, the Jack C. Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship at Belmont University. “Interestingly, what we have found in recessions is that many of these folks that had never intended to be entrepreneurs get the bug and get that lifestyle, and never want to go back even when the economy picks up.”

Read the rest of the article here...

BBC - Radio Labs - How we make websites

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:01:52 PST

BBC - Radio Labs - How we make websites - an interesting step by step process used by the "big boys". Nothing too new, but a lot of information. This won't be relevant to most small businesses with small websites, but it's something to aspire to! :)

Time to hire help?

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:50:43 PST

I had a client suggest that maybe it was time I hired someone this week (we're just a little behind folks, I promise we'll catch up!). But I had to laugh when this article appeared in my inbox. I think it probably rings true to a bunch of us!

7 Signs It's Time to Hire Someone by Christine Kane

I remember the first time I hired someone to mow my lawn for the summer. I was a tried-and-true D.I.Y. gal. I prided myself on it.

The only problem was that I freakin' couldn't stand mowing the lawn. I'd dread it all week. And even though I was happy once it was done, I started dreading it again the very next day!

At that time, I was studying several financial and business books. I began seeing my songs as my assets. I realized that the simple act of writing a song like "No Such Thing as Girls Like That" could pay me - in the long run - WAY more than the money I saved by mowing my lawn.

In other words, I learned how to value my work in the world. I learned how to act on that value. It was scary for sure. (The voices in my head shrieked at me to just bite the bullet and do my own lawn!) But that one act taught me so much about success and the value of my time.

These days I've taken it to a much bigger level, and I have a small team working for me.

Now that I'm coaching people, I gently teach them these new ways of valuing their time as they expand into more success in their own lives.

Here are 7 signs that it might be time for you to hire some help...

You don't have enough time to do the thing you're best at. What are you good at? What do you want to be good at? How much time do you actually spend doing that thing? If you're running around getting menial tasks done - and you have no time to pursue your passion, or engage in your high-pay-off, high-delight activities, then ask yourself why. Even if you let go of one item (like shoveling the snow) you're telling the Universe the value of your time. (And you know what? The Universe always says Yes.)
You resent people who don't struggle. This is a big one. If you hold resentment for people who live life with joy and ease, this could be telling you that you are waiting for rescue. That just leads to more struggle. Only YOU are in charge of whether or not you struggle. Rescue yourself and learn what true empowerment feels like.
You're worried about the economy Waiting for the economy to get better before you'll hire someone? Why not become a part of the solution and use your money to improve the economy? While everyone else is pulling back and firing people - you can experience what it's like to be the change you wish to see in the world!
You think that no one can do it as good as you. If you just shouted "Amen Sister!" - then please step away from your computer. Go to the bathroom mirror. Look into that mirror and say the following aloud: "I have a bit of a control issue."
The belief that no one can do it better than you serves only to keep you in the role of the Martyr. Unless you are, say, a brain surgeon, then there are many people who can (and will) do it as good as you.
You're not playing to win. You're playing not to lose. Ask any coach or athlete about this.
When you play to not lose, all you're doing is surviving, relying on yourself and hoping no one notices you. When you play to win - you take risks, you keep your mental attitude strong, you rely on the team, you look for the goal. Decide that you want to play to win.
You've used this phrase at least once in the past week: "By the time I show someone how to do it, I could just do it myself." This is a classic phrase of someone who refuses to succeed. It's the mantra of the struggle-addict. Learning how to delegate is empowering. Not just for you, but for others as well. Besides, when you show them how to do it once, they can keep on doing it so you don't have to! 7 - You dread certain things so much that they don't get done.It's okay to not enjoy aspects of your work or your life. (Most musicians don't like doing their own newsletter, for instance.) This is the exact thing you can hire someone to do.

What items do you dread? No matter what they are, when you get them off your plate, you'll experience more energy just knowing they're getting done - and you don't have to worry about them anymore!

Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her 'LiveCreative' weekly ezine with more than 4,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com.

Powerpoint Presentations - the pitfalls!

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:26:36 PST

I had to laugh at this article. It makes some really wonderful points and I remember back when powerpoint came out, how many people just went crazy with the "bells and whistles". So, pop over to read "The 5 Cardinal Rules of a Terrific Powerpoint Presentation".

An excerpt (that was particularly funny):

A good friend of mine did his college presentation from typed notes, never once looking up while reading the entire speech. Talk about boring. It’s a common practice to see PowerPoint presentations load with text and bullet points prompting the presenter to read.

By the way, we do Powerpoint presentations for your organization, so if you're still stumped...let us know!

Personality is key to Social Media

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:01:45 PST

This is an outstanding article.....

As director of an advertising agency that manages social media campaigns, I was recently brainstorming recipes for social media success. Every formula I came up with included personality.In Social Media, Personality is KeyYou can be controversial, funny, or intellectually stimulating. "Bland" loses. "Unique" wins. Ask Yourself...
Do you have a personality or personal brand?
How well developed is it?
How well are you conveying it with social media?
Although your avatar, pictures and banners make a difference, social media is primarily a written format. Maki is a great example of strong branding via images. But he's also a good writer. If he were a horrible writer, it wouldn't work. Eighty years of data from direct marketing and copywriting has taught us words are more powerful than images.
by Brian Carter, Fuel Interactive
Read the rest of the article here.

Spam, Lovely Spam

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:58:49 PDT

What is "spam?"

Spam (n): 1 - A lunchmeat product created by Hormel that made it's debut around World War II.
2 - Unsolicited email or posting advertising a product or a service.
Spam (v): To send unsolicited email or to post an unsolicited advertisement of a product or service.

The most common question: "how do I get rid of spam?"

First of all, I'm not going to bore you with the history of Spam - for that go to http://www.spam.com/ (which, from a personal point of view, is not boring at all but outrageously hysterical - take note of those cheesy flash dudes - that's a riot, but then again, that's my sense of humour). Nor am I going to explain the origin of the term, with regards to that unwanted email. Why? Because nobody seems to actually know. Theories abound on the Internet, but the actual reason for its usage is contentious.

The most popular argument is that it doesn't come from the Hormel product but from the famous sketch by the Monty Python's Flying Circus television show's classic "spam" sketch. For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past forty years, it goes like this:

A couple (the man played by Eric Idle and the woman played by a cross-dressing Grahame Chapman) go into a restaurant. The waitress, played by another cross dressing Python (Terry Jones, in this case) tells them that they can order:
"...egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam...or Lobster Thermidor au Crevettes with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam."
Meanwhile, a troupe of Vikings (or is that a "mob" of Vikings) in the background, start singing the praises of spam. And it goes a little something like this:
"Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spaaam, lovely spam"
Troupe? Mob? Well, they're definitely Vikings at any rate. They're dressed like Vikings and later the waitress shouts out "Shut up! [they shut up] Bloody Vikings!" I think that's a hint.

So what does this have to do with the Internet? Well, I'm glad you asked (even though you didn't - I did). As you all know (unless you've been living in a cave for the last fifteen or so years) the term "spam" is a colloquialism used to describe those useless bits of junk mail that you get in your emailinbox. It can also refer to unsolicited advertising posts on blogs (although that's a later contrivance) and generally anything unwanted and repetitive.

Almost everyone agrees that the term originated from the Monty Python sketch, rather than the actual lunchmeat product, but the experts disagree on why this is the chosen term for our Internet woes. Some argue that the term "spam" was picked to describe the fact that the spam that you get in your email box is repetitive like those "bloody Vikings" singing about spam. Others say it's because it's relentless like ... well ... those bloody Vikings singing about spam. Yet another argument says that it's because you can't get what you want, like the poor old woman (played by Grahame Chapman) who doesn't like spam and when she asks for "egg, bacon, spam and sausage without the spam" gets a disgusted "Urgghh!" from the waitress and another chorus of "spam, spam, spam" from those "bloody Vikings." Clearly, it's a mixture of all three which is probably why the term "spam" is so adept at describing that delicious spiced lunchmeat you find so often in your inbox.

So, how to get rid of it. It's quite simple, really. Take your computer, unplug all of the cables, put it in a cardboard box and put it out in the alleyway for the garbage collectors. There you go. Easy enough. It sounds like I'm being frivolous, but that really is the simple truth. Or just unplug your computer from the Internet (if you have a wireless connection, turn off the wireless card - contact your computer provider for further instructions).

Seriously, people. It can't be done. The answer really is that simple. Asking "how can I use my computer on the Internet without getting spam" is like asking "how can I drive down the freeway without seeing a billboard?" Same answer: "don't drive down the freeway." Spam is, after all, simply another form of advertising. The question you should be asking is: why am I getting spam?

Now there you can do something. But don't be fooled - you can't ever totally irradicate your spam intake. If you're already getting spam then it's pretty much too late. You can sign up to "be removed from the mailing list" but this is a double-edged sword. While certain reputable spam sources will remove your email address from their lists (and, technically, many of these sources probably couldn't be referred to as "spam" as, somewhere along the line you probably forgot to uncheck the checkbox that says "I agree to receive mailings from [blah blah blah]" - you know, the one in tiny grey letters at the bottom of that mail order site you went to five years ago - and, therefore, isn't "unsolicited") for some of the less reputable ones (read as: 98% of the Internet spam community) the "remove me" procedure is actually there to confirm that this is a legitimate email address to market to.

My philosophy on this, however, is go ahead and do that - click the "remove me" button. But if they then ask for which email address to remove, run. Let's face it, if they don't know which email address then chances are you're pumping their list - it's the same deal as sending the mailing costs to that Nigerian representative who's trying to smuggle funds. But then again, on the other hand, what do you have to lose? You're already on their list and it costs nothing for them to churn more junk mail out to you - even if they think it's a dead address, it costs them nothing (sorry, a nanosecond of processing time) so they'll keep sending it out. If you choose the "opt-out" option at best you will, in fact, be removed from the list. At worst, same as before (spam spam spam spam).

Now here's a handy trick that I thought of a couple of years ago that reduced my spam intake to zero, but it took time, patience and a particular vindictiveness. Look at their email and follow the links and find a fax number. Most marketing emails will have this or a way to get this - pretend to be an interested customer and they'll send it to you - after all, the spammers are trying to sell you something so they must provide a way for you to contact them. Then get yourself a fax program (it may cost a few cents for the phone call) and make up a full page fax that says "remove me from your emailing list." Provide your name and email address (after all, you do want the "credit" for doing this). But put the text in tiny print - only just readable and make the page a reverse copy: white text on a black background. Send it to them a few times for each time they spam you. After you've chewed up a profitable amount of their toner and fax paper you'll find that they'll drop you from their list like a hot potato (I went from an average 100 pieces of spam a day to zero within a week - but then again, I was out of work and had plenty of time on my hands).

But this probably doesn't work much anymore as many faxes are received electronically. So you have to resort to the next trick - one I call "spamming the spammers." Again, it might cost you, but then again what do you really want to do? Stop being spammed, right? Similar to the fax trick, find a return email address (or even that fax number might work). Then compose an email and force the maximum amount of characters into it - the complete works of William Shakespeare should do the trick - and set up an automated process that sends it continuously so that it clogs their email system and prevents legitimate orders. You may have to set up a few email addresses to send from but Yahoo and Hotmail provide them for free, so you can use theirs - you're not really trying to receive mail from these addresses, are you? Of course you want them to know why you're doing this to them. Make sure that you put in your message that you want to be removed from their list. Probably three times - at the very beginning, at the very end, and during the gravedigger scene from Hamlet "Alas, poor Yorik, I knew him please take me off your email list, Horatio." Make the subject line "I want to buy your [product/service]" so that it won't be spam filtered by them.

Speaking of which, spam filters are a terrific idea if you don't want to receive legitimate email. The problem with a spam filter is that it matches keywords or doesn't allow anything to pass except from authorized email addresses. But we're trying to run a business and some of these emails may come from very good potential new customers with unknown email addresses that may have some of these verboten keywords in their subject lines - those offensive words like "buy" and "sell" often get axed by the draconian electronic doorkeeper. That's lost business and lost business is bad business. Or it may be from an old, long lost friend who likes making jokes about viagra (don't laugh - I've actually had this happen - an email banned by a spam filter from a known friend who used the word "viagra" in his subject line).

The best advice I can give anyone about avoiding spam is "don't get on their lists in the first place." Only provide your email address to trusted sources. If you're not sure if a source is trusted then try this (if you have the time, patience and inclination) after giving your email address to an unknown source (like a storefront site) don't give it away for a while. If spam suddenly shows up, then you know who the culprit was. If you really have a vendetta against spam then try this trick (credit goes to my old boss) - create an email address with a misspelling in your name - and give this to one site only. When a bunch of spam (or is that a "mob" of spam? I've never been good with collective nouns) starts filling up that inbox then you know that this isn't a trusted site and that they've been selling their mailing lists. Then go ahead and find yourself a good lawyer (I mean, a "rockin'" lawyer because I doubt you'd have much of a case, but then again, I'm not a legal expert).

It's also a good idea to avoid putting an email link on your website. While the "Can-Spam" act prohibits web spiders from harvesting email addresses from websites, remember that the Internet is a world-wide community, and not everyone is bound to US law. So put your email address on your website in a graphic in a really wonky, stylistic font - readable by humans but not by automated machines (as seen on sites that require you to type in the virtually unreadable text before they allow you to sign up - the so-called "captcha").

On the side of being safe beware of the classic trick of the scammers. In my opinion this isn't spam but a manifestation of another ilk of internet debauchery that I have affectionately dubbed as "scumware." The ever famous Nigerian representative is one example of this - we all know not to do business with Nigerians giving away money (or anyone giving away money, for that matter - if it sounds too good to be true it probably is). But there's often the urgent email saying your bank account is about to be frozen. Before doing anything on any legitimate looking email check it's voracity! It sounds obvious, but recently I had a very good friend unleash a particularly harmful virus on his company's computer system because he didn't take a moment to check the legitimacy of an email.

When doubtful emails come in asking you to follow a link, put your mouse cursor over the link that they provide but DON'T CLICK ON IT! Just cursor over it and read the email address in the status bar of your browser (that's the little bar at the bottom of your browser that shows details of the link - if it's not enabled on your browser, ENABLE IT). If it's not the same base address (that is, http://www.yourbank.com/, or similar) to your bank then it's fraud. Delete immediately.

That's the first step. You can filter 90% of fraudulent emails that way. And, at the same time, you can deduce that you're smarter than the person who sent it because, through some javascript frippery, it's possible to change what that says (conceivably to a legitimate email address). If you're not totally freaked out by the email (and I would be: always go with the thought that banks never send emails with a "convenient link") then simply call your bank.
AND WHEN IT DOUBT - THROW IT OUT! If it's legitimate then they'll find another way to contact you if it really is that important.

Take this advice to heart, people. If you ignore the email and it is from your bank then you have a good argument that they deserved to be ignored because the email wasn't from a legitimate source. I won't guarantee it (because I don't guarantee anything) but if you have enough time to send white-on-black faxes to spammers then you have enough time to call your bank and ask them if http://x23.x45.x67.x89/ (or whatever number the address is) is their actual IP address. All named internet addresses, like http://www.widgetinc.com/, are converted to numeric equivalents, called IP, or "Internet Protocol" addresses - it's sort of like the Internet post/zip code. I'm sure your bank will be more than happy to tell you it's scumware spam and to dump the sucker. MAKE THE CALL! At worst the clerk on the other end may hang up thinking "whoa, that person was an idiot" but you can hang up thinking "whoa, I'm smart for making that call." And you are and chances are that the clerk will think so, too (if not, then he's an idiot).
Also, get yourself a good virus scanner to protect yourself from other forms of scumware. AVG provides one for free with complete updates and offers further protection for a nominal fee (http://www.avg.com/ - go to their comments section and tell them that you were referred by widgetinc.com or the sky will fall and the oceans will boil and you'll face eternal damnation and/or a bad credit rating).

But most of all, protect your blood pressure - learn to live with spam. If you're a small business then the time it takes to filter this garbage out is worth it when compared to the potential loss of business that comes from using hatchet technique spam filters. If you're a big business then you might consider actually hiring someone to filter spam. Hiring people is good for the kharma and good for the economy and human intuition beats electronic rationale every time.

Incidentally, I've heard that Hormel encourages the use of the term "spam, not only with regard to the Monty Python sketch but also in terms of unsolicited email. As they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity and, after all, who doesn't love spam, spam, spam, spam, spaaam, lovely spam?

Social Networking for Old People and bear with me

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:01:13 PDT

A friend of mine posted a link to this Salon article on Facebook and I think it's a good lesson for any of us who are "old" (keep in mind on Facebook that's OVER 22). It's a really good article and a good lesson for people who are beginning to dabble in Facebook.

On that subject, I'm starting a series of classes. I offered our first one on Facebook and LinkedIn as a test and I think the next one coming will be a 3 or 4 part blogging course.

Stay tuned!

The Truth about Mpiskotphobia*

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:01:19 PDT

"It haunts me. I can't sleep at night."

"Um hmm." The Doctor scrawled a note on his notepad making the sound of understanding to show that he was listening attentively. He was your classic stereotype of a psychologist - grey hair with a beard, in a highcut suit, speaking, when he spoke, in a German accent.

"I thought they were harmless but that was before I understood. And then I started reading things, terrible things. They're watching me. Waiting to strike."

"Um hmm."

"I can't use it anymore." said the Patient, who could have been anyone, indicating the laptop computer he brought with him. "They might spring into action at any time and I'll be ruined!"

The Doctor turns to the camera and speaks.
"My friend here is suffering from an acute case of mpiskotophobia. The fear of cookies."
He returns to addressing the patient.

"I think what you fear is not the cookie, but what it can do to you. What would you say if I told you that there is no reason for your fear?"

"But I read things. They talk about how those things can destroy my computer. How they track me, like spies, always watching. Waiting for the right moment to drain my account and broadcast my doings to the world."

"You have been misinformed my friend. Cookies cannot destroy your computer. They are not programs. They do not 'run.' They sit quietly on your machine causing no harm. They are not viruses." The Patient gave a gentle shudder. "And you are right to shudder. Viruses can harm your computer or steal information. They are programs that do run without your knowledge. But cookies are harmless." The Patient was showing skepticism with a rolling of the eyes.

"I see your skepticism. Let me prove it to you. Open your computer." The Patient looked at the thing with horror. "You must," The doctor continued. "It is the most important part of your therapy." The Patient gingerly nudged the thing open, much as a person with a stick might turn over a rock covering a spider's nest. "Now turn it on." The Patient did so, with a quick stabbing motion, as though in fear of electical shock. The computer whirred into action. "Now let me show you." Quickly, the doctor opened a Windows Explorer window and navigated to the following directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\[the patient's login name]\cookies

"There's thousands of them! And the names, that's every website I've ever been to!" The Patient shrieked and began to hyperventilate.

"Not thousands. Only three hundred cookies can be stored a single user's system, according to the Netscape specification. And only twenty from any one domain. And they're not from every website. Only the ones that use cookies. Let's look inside one, shall we?" The doctor double-clicked a cookie file and it popped open in notepad (which it would do as cookies all use a .txt extension in Windows). Displayed on the notepad screen was, well, gibberish. "It looks scarey, but it isn't really. There are four parts to a cookie. They are:" And a scrolling screen dropped down behind the Doctor. It had four things listed:

The Data
The Domain
The Path
The Expiration Date

"Let us look at each of these parts in turn, shall we? First, the data. This is the information that the website is interested in. It is not your bank account number in Switzerland. It is not personal letters to your lover. In fact, it is only information that is known to the website when you visited it last time. This could be personal information if you filled it out in a form, but usually it is the pages you went to or your username and password."

"But why would they want to know that about me? Why are they after me?"

"They're not after you. They want your username and password so that you don't have to enter it next time you visit the site." The Doctor explained. "Instead of asking for that information they simply get it from your cookie. They might want to know which pages you visit so that they can have more information about what interests people - what pages they should improve and which ones people aren't going to so they can drive more traffic to them or get rid of them altogether.

"And if it's a store they might want to know what items you looked at last time so they can make recommendations of things that might interest you, this time.

"The second part of the cookie is the Domain. This is important because a domain can only read and write their own cookies. They can't read or write someone elses. So if you visit, for example (and I'm not accusing you, you must understand), hotblondes.com," The Patient blushed, "and then navigate to christianitytoday.com, christianitytoday can't read the hotblondes cookie and condemn you to hell. Your secret is safe."

"But," the Patient interjected, looking at the list of cookie files on the screen, "I've never been to doubleclick.com so why do I have a cookie from them? Surely another site must have put it there. And how do you know about hotblondes.com?"

"Er, um, well, anyway, no, another site did not put it there." said the Doctor. "That is what is called a 'tracking cookie.'" The term "tracking" conjured up images of shady characters in trenchcoats monitoring the Patient's every move.

"T-t-they're tracking me?"

"Yes, but it's nothing to be afraid of. And while you might think you've never been to this site, I'm afraid you have, without even knowing it. You've seen the ads on webpages, right?"

The Patient shrugged assent.

"Well, those ads don't come from the site. They come from an ad service. The website owners subscribe to an ad service which serves up the ads. And because the ads originate on the service's servers, they have the right to send a cookie along with the ad."

"Why would they want to do that?" The Patient asked, fear now starting to be scared off by curiosity.

"Because they want to know how best to target their ads. They know, for example, you went to websitex.com and were looking at, say, wrist watches. They know this because the page sent the request to the ad service. The next time you visit websitex they can know that you're in the market for a watch so they can show, as the next ad on that page websitey.com which sells watches.

"If you think about it, this not only helps the ad service, by making it more likely that they will have successful advertising, but it also helps you because you might not like the watches at websitex.com but you might see the ad which shows exactly what you're looking for. That sort of personalized advertising can save you a lot of surfing time."

"I see. So they're not tracking my every movement on every page."

"Not at all. They can't see the cookies except the ones they've set. Now, let's move on to the path." Said the Doctor, tapping the chart where it said "The Path."

"This tells the website which part of the site the cookie pertains to. This can be any directory on the site. When set the cookie can be read from this directory or any lower directory. If set to the root directory the cookie is good for the entire site."

"And why is that good?"

"From a user's perspective it really doesn't matter. But for the website owner it is useful because it helps them divide up the cookie tasks to different part of the site. In the old days of the slow internet it also sped things up, slightly - every time you hit the page the cookies for that page are sent, so if you're hitting a page that the cookie is irrelevent to then there's no point in sending the cookie. It's just wasted bandwidth. But now that the internet is so much faster and cookies are so small, there's not really much difference."

"How small? That's another thing that worries me. Even though there can only be three hundred cookies, who's to say that they won't store entire encyclopedia on my computer and leave me no room!" The panic was coming back and the Patient began to sweat again.

"The Netscape specification says it, that's who."

"But I use Internet Explorer."

"It doesn't matter. The Netscape cookie specification was created by Netscape Corporation in 1996 and has since become the standard for cookies in all of the major browsers. And the Netscape cookie specification states that cookies can be no bigger than four kilobytes, or 4096 bytes. The most space cookies can take up on your computer is 1.2 megabytes. Considering that the average hard drive these days exceeds eighty gigabytes, this is almost no room at all.
"And if they get in your way, simply delete them. Go to the folder I showed you earlier, select the files and hit the 'delete' button. Off they go. And if you don't want them to come back then there are settings in your browser to block the cookies. But I don't know why you would want to. That would mean that sites you visit regularly would be asking for your login information everytime you go there, or would stop you from shopping at certain sites because many sites store your shopping cart in a cookie so that you can pick up where you left off if you go away and then come back.

"Or you could simply wait for the cookie to expire. The last part of the cookie is the Expiration Date. When a cookie is set so too is an expiration date and when that date is passed the cookie is automatically deleted. A cookie with no expiration date set is available only for the length of the current session."

"I see." said the Patient, now starting to look visibly relieved. But then something dawned on the Patient who became agitated, another streak of panic starting to develop. "But who is to stop someone from stealing my cookie information when it's being sent?"

"No one. Cookies can be intercepted just like any other data on the Internet. Cookie information is simply part of the header information on an HTML page. And you remember what I told you in our last session, though, don't you?" The Doctor asked. Like a parrot the Patient repeated the mantra that the Patient was told to repeat while surfing the 'net:

"If you don't trust the safety of the information you are sending then don't send it."

"That is true. Remember, a cookie only has whatever information you give it. Apart from your IP address, but that's common knowledge, anyway. Anyone can randomly attempt to hit IP addresses and that why..."

The Patient picked up the beat, "a secure firewall is a must."

"Exactly! Very good." The Doctor commended. "But there is one more thing about cookies that you should know. If any sensitive information is being sent then the cookie can be marked as 'secure' meaning that the data can only be transmitted on a secure connection, meaning..."

"The data is encrypted."

"Excellent!" The Doctor applauded. "So you see there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to cookies. Cookies are not the enemy. They are your friends and make your Internet life so much more rewarding. Unfortunately, however, now our time is up."

The Patient carefully closed the laptop and snuggled it lovingly under the Patient's arm. The Doctor shook the Patient's hand warmly and walked the Patient out of the office. The Doctor then turned to the camera and spoke.

"It is sad that I see so many cases like this of mpiskotophobia. It is by far the most irrational form of technophobia. But our friend here is finally starting to get the message...

"Are you?"

The Doctor then turned to his secretary. "Remember to send the bill," he said, mentioning the Patient's name, "And confirm another appointment for a week from today. I'm sure the Patient return with a severe debt anxiety."

*Editor's Note: There is no such actual term as "mpiskotophobia." I totally made it up. I searched and searched but could not find any legitimate term for "fear of cookies." A shame, really, because the fear of cookies is both irrational and pandemic. There should be a term for it so I created this one. It comes from the Greek "mpiskoto" (a phonetic spelling) meaning "cookie" and, of course, "phobia" which comes from the Greek suffix "phobe" meaning "One that fears or is averse to a specified thing." [dictionary.com]

Comparing Social Media on the Internet

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:05:31 PDT

If you're trying to do low cost marketing on the internet, one of the places people (or any variety of media sources) might recommend to you is Facebook, MySpace, etc. While all of these can be great, you can be shocked or pleasantly surprised with what they are used for and how you can use them.

Facebook (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F&id=preview) bills itself as "a social utility that connects you with the people around you". It once was popular only among geeky college kids, but now is popular with people of all ages. It's still a great place for college kids to hook up - most universities have a "community" and most of them are closed to only members of that university. But it's also a good Web 2.0 application for online marketing. There are applications that allow you to add a business card, share links to your website, photos, books you're reading, music you listen to and more. The clean layout is nice too. This is an excellent place to start if you're comfortable with social networking and want to have some fun with your page and your identity.

My Space (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myspace.com%2F&id=preview) is billed as "a place for friends", but I have found it much more relevant for people who have a band or are 12. My Space has the ability to easily load up songs for a startup garage band and you can put your performance schedule on there as well. Beware though, the layouts are gaudy and the pictures and comments can be - well, "titillating". But this is almost a "must have" for anyone wanting to make it big in the music world. Most of the rest of us can really just skip it - unless you happen to have a lot of friends in bands. It's also a great way to get on the internet and spy on your 16 year old niece to make sure she's not pole dancing without your knowledge.
Linked In (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2F&id=preview) is the most serious and business-like network on the internet. If you're looking for clients, jobs or to hire someone this is your place. Hook up with former classmates, coworkers, friends in the neighborhood and post information about work experience, your company or any other networking information. It's a lot less easy to personalize, but far more effective if you're networking.

Twitter (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2F&id=preview) is great for text messaging addicts. I find it's a bit too tied up in the minutia of people's lives for my interest, but if your family and friends are nuts about texting, this may be for you! I have yet to really enjoy this medium, but perhaps it's because I'm not a texter, so I'm reserving judgment until I have a teenager.

All of these networking tools have ways to control who adds you as a contact or friend and all can be private or public. All of them have ways where you have to verify how you know people and provide their email or some details about them that would make them want to add you.

The downside is that there are people who set up profiles and never really check them again. Especially in more "mature" (ahem) age groups. But some embrace them and have a lot of fun with them - adding messages, etc.

There are many other social medias out there, for people who work at home, Moms, Dads, single people, and people with lots and lots of specific interests - music, books, crafting and more. Those are great if you're networking among a specific group of people or if you just like finding people who have the same interests as you. However, this should wrap up the big "4" of networking - get out there and go public on the Internet! It's fun!

Find Mary-Frances Main on social networks at:
MySpace: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myspace.com%2Fsharkeysday&id=preview
Facebook: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fprofile.php%3Fid%3D630365837&id=preview
LinkedIn: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fwidgetinc&id=preview
Twitter: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FSharkeysday&id=preview

Tips for Newsletter Success!

mary-frances@widgetinc.com (Widget Inc - Mary-Frances Main) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:06:46 PDT

We've been helping customers send newsletters for about 6 years now. I have learned many things, made many mistakes, changed providers (from Ezine Director to Constant Contact) and changed my creative approach many times.

However, several lessons have come out of my years of experience:

Keep them consistent

I really struggle with this but it's really important. You want people to expect your newsletter, but not to be harassed. Keep them newsy and informational. Find reasons to send them but provide useful content, not all just promotional ideas. Pictures are great!

Reviewing e-mail reports is key

By taking a look at undeliverable and bounce-back reports, you can see which of your subscribers corporate email systems block the e-newsletters. Contact them personally to let them know they're missing out on the issues they've requested.

When you operate a small business, it can be painful to look at the unsubscribe list. It's hard not to take it personally when you see names you know on the list. However, it's a great tool for tracking lost business and trying to win them back! (I'd suggest this in person and not through email! :-) )

Newsletters are relationships!

A recent Doubleclick survey of more than 1,000 Internet users found that more than 82 percent of them had made a purchase online during the past year as a result of some sort of advertisement they received through email. The study revealed, however, that people were much more receptive to email from companies with whom they already had a relationship.

Finally, remember that newsletters are just one tool in your marketing toolbox. If they are eager to hear from you, then the newsletters will work!

Think about what you would spend your time reading in your email inbox!