I think everybody wants to make $. This is the big question. Check this video out.
This is the second of three parts of the image advertising episode of Future of Publishing. In this episode, Newlands and Roup talk with Chas Edwards and Rey Flemings on how to monetize images:
See Part One of this series here: http://www.growmap.com/image-advertising/
Category : Business &Marketing &search engine optimization &Search Engine Ranking &SEO
I found this article today to be pretty good. Check it out below, most of these apps are so common now
A few weeks back I wrote a popular post about the best apps for job seekers that was very well received. I promised I’d share the top apps I use to make my life as an entrepreneur easier. It wasn’t easy, as I have over 100 apps on my iPad and Android (don’t judge me). It might seem like overkill, but it’s important as a small business owner to be able to do business anywhere, any time, with anyone. And to do that, I need the apps to be on both devices since I’m never without one or the other. You never want to miss an opportunity to turn a contact or chance meeting into a client.
Here are some of the apps I use to keep my business humming along.
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My Finances:
Square- Let’s start with the obvious. I need to be able to take a payment anywhere, any time and the days of those bulky POS (the S stands for SALES…get your mind out the gutter) terminals. Square allow me to insert a little square dongle (hence the name) into my device and with the click of an app and swipe of a card, I can process credit card payments on the spot. It only costs me 2.75% per swipe and my money is transferred into my bank account within a day or two. There are no other fees and even the dongle is free. Easy breezy. And I just heard they came out with a device for cabbies that they’re testing in New York. Go Square!
Paypal- OK I know some folks don’t like Paypal, but honestly, I’ve been with them since the very beginning. They now have an app where I can just log in, send a payment request to someone and they get an email letting them know to make a payment. I use the standard service and I don’t pay any monthly fees. They charge you on a sliding scale 2.2 – 2.9% plus 30 cents each transaction. I can even create invoices. But what I like about Paypal is that I can process higher priced services like consulting fees and the like without a cap on transaction amounts. Plus some people just prefer to pay via Paypal.
Intuit Online Payroll- Yes! You can even process your payroll via an app. Intuit let’s you set up your account online (a tedious but well worth it process) and you download the app to your device. Then you can process payroll for your employees. The app is free but the service is $39 per month. Right now they are offering a 30 day free trial. They also offer the GoPayment service that is similar to Square. But if you have employees and you’re always on the go, Intuit Online Payroll keeps you current and professional.
And for honorable mentions, the banks and investment brokerages I use all have apps so I can access information about my money at all times. I also use Mint.com (there’s an app for that!) and XE Mobile Currency (which is a foreign currency converter). It comes in handy when you’re traveling abroad and need to do a quick on the spot currency conversion.
Productivity:
eFax Mobile- I have been using eFax since the beginning of time. I love being able to access my faxes (albeit rare) via email instead of relying on a bulky machine and phone line. eFax has an app where you can view all of your faxes from your devices. You can send, view and sign faxes with eFax Mobile.I can opt to store them in my eFax account or move them over to my Dropbox. The app is free, but the service carries a fee. If you get minimal faxes, then the Plus subscription would suit you. You get 150 faxed pages per month for $16.95 per month. The Pro subscription comes with 200 faxed pages and it’s $19.95 per month.
USPS Mobile- I hate standing in line at the post office. With this app, I’m able to determine postage and buy postage without having to endure those long lines. I can also schedule pickups, track packages and scan packages. I can say it’s been a life saver for me. The only thing it can’t do is check my P.O. Box. LOL
Qrafter- Speaking of scanning, I use this app to both read and create scannable QR codes. I simply use the camera on my device to capture the image and I’m all set. There is a basic and a Pro version. The Pro version costs $2.99.
Printback by Xerox Mobile- I don’t care what they say. There is some comfort in knowing that you’ll be able to print anywhere as long as you have that app. This app is free and supports most Microsoft Office and PDF documents. The best part is you’re not running around looking for a computer to stick your flash drive in or looking to connect or download software to connect to your laptop. You simply choose your document (usually from a Dropbox folder), determine the size you need, then let the app do the rest.
DocuSign- How many times have you had a deal delayed because you have to wait until you received the documents (or send them to a client) to sign and get started? DocuSign takes care of all of that. I keep a standard version of all my contracts and agreements in Dropbox (that name keeps coming up quite often, doesn’t it?) for easy access. Once the documents are updated and ready to execute, I log into DocuSign to get the required signatures…without having to use a printer. You can sign a Word, JPEG or PDF document. The only thing I don’t like is I have to use my finger. I’m waiting on a stylus type instrument to make it easier to sign.
QuickOffice Pro- This is a life saver! If ever I need to edit a word, excel or powerpoint document on the go, this app is my saving grace. Now, I did opt for the paid Pro version, which was $14.95, but because you can only view PDFs on it and not edit, I had to supplement it with another new find (which I’ll talk about next). You can create, edit and share all Microsoft documents with this app. And you don’t lose any formatting! I have not regretted buying the pro version.
OnLive Desktop (powered by Microsoft)- I like that this also allow you to edit and work on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. OnLive opens up to look just like your Windows desktop with the icons for each program on the ‘desktop’. You can open documents you’ve stored in the system in any of the programs to edit in real time just like you would on your PC. Don’t believe me? Check it out. It also allows you to store documents, so Dropbox may be repetitive. Both QuickOffice and OnLive Desktop can be synced with your Dropbox account.
Dropbox- OK, if you haven’t heard of Dropbox by now, where the heck have you been? I keep my important documents in Dropbox to use from any device at any time. I have a free account but you can opt for a paid account. My basic account has 2GB of storage. The more people you invite or refer to Dropbox, the more chances you have to earn additional storage space. You can instantly send a document right from your smart phone or tablet after an impromptu meeting and it gets delivered right to their inbox. It’s a must have for easy access and quick retrieval.
Read More here: http://www.empowerme.org/index.php/2012/03/08/apps-entrepreneurs/
Category : Blog &Business &Business Cards &Business Credit &E-mail &Internet &Technology Thursdays
I always find it interesting of those who have made it successful, to see what they find to be important. Take a look below and leave comments. “Nothing Great Was Ever Accomplished Without Inspiration“
1. Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love.
2. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.
3. Hire people who you think will love working there.
4. Sales Cure All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.
5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but aren’t as expensive to pay.
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6. An espresso machine? Are you kidding me? Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.
7. No offices. Open offices keep everyone in tune with what is going on and keep the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show him or her how to use the lock on the bathroom. There is nothing private in a startup. This is also a good way to keep from hiring executives who cannot operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over a personal secretary, run away. If an exec won’t go on sales calls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.
8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the most inexpensive way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista, ask yourself why, then use it. It’s a startup so there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.
Read More Here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222524
Category : Be Inspired &Blog &Business
What is a CDN
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of server localities that deliver your content in multiple locations. Normally, if someone visited your website, they’d pull all your locally hosted static files (images, js, css) off your server directly. Otherwise with a CDN setup, they would pull those static files from their closest CDN, so for example if you were in Texas, the files would be served from a locality in Texas or close to it. What this means is that the files would load quicker because they are served from that location. This means that the person surfing your website will view the page quicker.
Amazon Cloudfront
The main advantage is an increase in the speed with which the content is delivered to the users. CDN users can therefore deliver high definition content with high Quality of Service, low costs and low network load. This can be images, video, streaming media and other types of dynamic media.
What is Amazon Cloudfront
Amazon Cloudfront is part of Amazon Web Services for content delivery. Cloudfront integrates with AWS to give developers and business an easy cost effective way to distribute content to users or web surfers with low latency, and high data transfer.
Some other benefits using a CDN:
- Distributed data centers – Most CDN’s provide localized data centers which are closer to the user in return making page load time faster.
- Boosts performance and saves money – The CDN helps disseminate the load, saves bandwidth, increase performance and can reduce your existing hosting cost–mainly if you have a high traffic website.
- Files may be pre-cached - If someone visiting your page has already visited a site using the same CDN, the file has already been cached by your browser and want have to be downloaded again.
Category : Blog &Business &Internet &Technology Thursdays
“Nothing Great Was Ever Accomplished Without Inspiration!”–
Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren’t sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.
The nine things below, I have taken from HBR and put my input and how I think this can help us become better all around. My words are in the blue. Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.
1. Get Specific–Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you’ll “eat less” or “sleep more” is too vague — be clear and precise. As simple as this may sound, you will be surprised at how many of us out there don’t have a concise idea of what we want to do.
2. Seize the moment to act on your goals–Did you really have no time to work out today? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers. Although, we know it’s not the truth; why does it sounds believable to the one you are telling it to. Well, a lot of times this is because, they are looking for excuses also to justify why they are not following through with their goals.
3. Know exactly how far you have left to go – Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. Isn’t it funny how we can lie to ourselves and we would disassociate with others who lie to us? Be honest with yourself, make it happen.
4. Be a realistic optimist–Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure. WOW! I guess this is a wake-up call. Something that I need to take heed to. I think the psychology and how you approach things has the greatest resolve.
5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good–Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination. Priceless!
6. Have grit–Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Focus factor is another word for this, for me. I think we tend to sway and get off track by the simplest things, especially if the goals are not needed at that present time.
7. Build your willpower muscle–To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you’d honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don’t. This is another way for saying self discipline . Stay pushing and moving forward, even when we are not feeling like it. This will build your willpower and also builds character in ways never before seen.
8. Don’t tempt fate–Don’t put yourself in harm’s way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is. We call this being humble and making good decisions. In order words, don’t get big headed!
9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won’t do–Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Focusing on the solution and not the problem, simply does it for me. Why would you continue to think about the problem that has already happened. Now it’s time to think and plan on how we can reverse it.
Go Here to read full article: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/nine_things_successful_people.html
Category : Be Inspired &Blog &Business
6 Inspirational Quotes From Legendary Billionaires
I contemplated about started this Business Motivational from Jnairb Design. First, I thought what does this have to do with
design. And, then I said a lot because every website that I have created for a person or business was through some form of inspiration for both them and I. “Nothing Great Was Ever Accomplished Without Inspiration!”
Below are some of my favorite and some of the most powerful business and motivation quotes stated by innovators in their respected fields. A very diverse group of quotes playing on everything from our need to believe, taking ideas from the customer, self confidence and self doubt. Maybe it’s time to re-program you mental
thoughts.
You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new ~Steve Jobs, CO-Founder of Apple
How true is this? Very! Because, most times the customer is not even exactly sure of what they want. From my experience, and dealing with clients, they mostly want you to be creative and give them ideas. So are they really telling you what they want or are they rhetorically speaking?
Only those who are asleep make no mistakes. ~ Ingvar Kamprad, Founder of IKEA
As long as you are moving forward, persisting, then there is always mistakes to be made. We all know the saying, we learn from our mistakes. In fact, if you making mistakes, this is when you know you are making progress.
When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. ~ Carlos Slim Helu, CEO of Telmex, América Móvil, Grupo Carso
I found this to be so relevant today. So many of us are not sure of ourselves. Why is this? It is ok to get other opinions, but when you live for others and what they say, this is a sin against yourself and also dangerous in itself. Also, I think this plays into lacking self confidence and not being not sure of yourself.
I just love it when people say I can’t do it, there’s nothing that makes me feel better because all my life, people have said that I wasn’t going to make it. ~ Ted Turner, Founder of CNN
When people tell you that something is not going to work, this should be motivation in itself to make you go out and persist.
You become what you believe. You are where you are today in your life based on everything you have believed. ~Oprah Winfrey, CEO of Oprah Winfrey Network
This is true in and of itself. We must first become mentally, the person that we wish to become physically. In order to progress and have any type of success, we must believe in belief itself. Meaning: You have to really whole heartedly believe what you believe in!
We’re going where no one has gone before. There’s no model to follow, nothing to copy. That is what makes this so exciting. ~Richard Brandon, Chairman of Virgin Group
This one here has to be one of my favorite. Because in today’s society, so many people are playing follow the follower. There are very few true leaders out there today. If you follow your own path, there you can’t go wrong! And you will find so much more about YOURSELF that you didn’t even know.
Read more quotes here: http://www.businessinsider.com/11-inspirational-quotes-from-legendary-billionaires-2012-2#you-cant-just-ask-customers-what-they-want-and-then-try-to-give-that-to-them-by-the-time-you-get-it-built-theyll-want-something-new-7
Category : Be Inspired &Blog &Business
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Range of services of website design is provided on the web at Jnairbdesign.com. Get the best of website graphic design and enhance the look of your existing website. You can also use link building services that are offered in systematic packages. Choose the appropriate package of website design as well as link building to target the right audience and get increased traffic as well as potential customers for your business. Get quality packages of website design from Jnairbdesign.com. Choose from a range of flexible plans that come in three different types of website graphic design packages such as economy, e-commerce and executive package. All three types have the same outline of plans such as start up, basic and enhanced plans. The services entailed are however different and render more ability on part of the client to manage and operate the website.
Feel free to request a quote today. Click Here.
Category : Blog &Business &Design &Marketing &search engine optimization &Search Engine Ranking &SEO &Web Design &Websites
I contemplated about started this Business Motivational from Jnairb Design. First, I thought what does this have to do with design. And, then I said a lot because every website that I have created for a
person or business was through some form of inspiration for both them and I. “Nothing Great Was Ever Accomplished Without Inspiration!” Go Here Click My Facebook Fan Page! http://www.facebook.com/jnairbdesign
I think it’s safe to say that we all want good results from all aspects of our lives, in our home, while we’re at work, and in all our contacts with people. Studies have shown that the most important single factor that guarantees good results, day in and day out, all the months and years of your life, is a healthy attitude! Attitude is the magic word!
What is attitude? Attitude can be defined as “A complex mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions causing us to act in a certain way. We should all be thankful that our attitude is something that we can control; meaning that it is our attitude towards life that determine life’s attitude towards us. Another way of looking at this is cause and effect, or you rip what you sow, because; it is what you put out that determines what you’ll get in return.
How many of you ever think about your attitudes? Most of your attitudes are neither good nor bad. Mostly, they are poised to react to whatever stimuli you encounter during the day. If the stimulus is good, you reflect good; if it’s bad, normally you will reflect bad.
We must be mindful that more often than none, it is our actions, feelings & moods that determine the actions, feelings & moods of others. Wouldn’t you agree? This is why it is so important for us to be in control of our attitudes, making sure that we exercise an excellent or at least a good attitude. Yeah I know, sometimes it can be challenging.
Let’s look at this Example: A person with a poor attitude toward learning isn’t going to learn very much. Or if we take the attitude that we can’t do something, we generally end up not do it. With an attitude of failure, generally we’re whipped before we even start. As evident as this is, I’m sure you can relate to these examples in your own life.
It was William James of Harvard University that said, “Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”
You know what’s funny, in retrospect as I am writing this article I get this epiphany. Thinking back when I was growing up getting upset when I couldn’t have my way. I can remember when my mom used to tell me, “Boy, I don’t care if you get upset; you ain’t doing nothing but hurting yourself” It was later in life, I come to find that it is these type of destructive emotions, such as anger, hatred, jealousy and prejudice in which they don’t hurt others; they only hurt you.
I often refer back to this quote by Buddha “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” Yeap, I am guilty of it too and at some point and time, lose control of my attitude, but I think the key is to minimize this as much as we can.
The question is though, How do we develop a good attitude? The same way you develop any other ability: it takes practice! It is almost certain that when you start to develop a great attitude, you will realize that you are well on your way to whatever it is that you seek in life.
I want to share something with you that I once read, it says that “Life is dull only to dull people”, “Life is interesting only to interesting people”, and “Life is successful only for successful people.”
From the attitude standpoint; We must first become mentally, the person we wish to become physically.
I want to leave you with an experiment in which I would like for you to try, I would like for you to treat everyone with to whom you come in contact with as the most important person on earth. Do this and I think that you will benefit from this – for the rest of your life.
Category : Be Inspired &Blog &Business
I found this to be a Great Interview. Hope you be inspired!
Marjorie Perry
Meet Marjorie Perry, President and CEO of MZM Construction and Management Company in Newark, New Jersey. Perry is a fearless visionary who started her construction company 20 years ago, untouched by her predominantly male competition. AN influential business executive, Perry has a proven track record of success, Having brokered multi-million dollars deals with clients such as the Marriot Hotels, Meadowlands Giants and Jets Sports Arena. She’s an innovative leader, passionate, and A positive role model dedicated to empowering women and minorities in business. Find out why she’s the boss!
Category : Blog &Business &Management
