Whether you’re a brick and mortar or you’re strictly an online shop, you need a we site. And while many small business owners are starting to come to terms with this, I can’t tell you how many SMBs I’ve spoken to who have spent considerable amount of money (often five figures) on a website that simply “didn’t work.” Either it didn’t do a good job selling, wasn’t spiderable (please don’t build your whole site in Flash) or simply didn’t address any of the things important to wary customers. Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure your site will give customers the information they need before you invest in a flashy (no pun intended) design. Below are six things your website should absolutely have. Are you covering all your bases? 1. Intuitive Navigation A user landing on your website should not have to spend time deciphering how to work their way around. Instead, it should be intuitive. Don’t put your navigation on the right-hand side, don’t make it all Flash, don’t hide the search box, and don’t make the links so tiny a potential customer would need the physical dexterity of a neurosurgeon to click the right link. Make it simple. Something else to consider: Call things what they are instead of trying to be clever. The place where items go once a user attempts to buy them is a Shopping Cart. Call it a “product receptacle” and they’re not going to have any idea where that link goes. And then they may run away scared. 2. Sticky Content What separates your site from everyone else trying to be you is the strength of your content. For that reason, it’s really important that you highlight some of the “sticky” content you have on your site, preferably directly from your home page. What type of content qualifies as “sticky”? Maybe it’s that e-book you created, a business checklist you allow users to download, or the most recent article from your blog. You want to have something that will attract a potential customer and lure them further into your site. If your website is a blog, then consider using something like WP-Sticky to bring attention to the posts or articles you most want to highlight and the ones you think visitors should read first to understand your brand promise or what you’re about. Bringing attention to your best content brings attention to the best parts of your brand. Show it off a little. 3. A Blog This probably isn’t too surprising, but I’m a really big believer in small business blogs. As an SMB, there is no better way to establish a point of difference, become known for thought leadership or consistently attract links and attention than by putting a blog on your site and using it to share information and/or start conversations. You don’t necessarily have to update it every day, but get yourself on a schedule for sharing quality content with your audience. Your blog is your company voice and what gives your company a personality. 4. Your Address, Phone Number & Contact Information One of the most powerful ways for a small business owner to establish credibility is to include a local address, phone number, and a few ways for customers to get in touch with them (e-mail address, Twitter, Facebook page, etc.). By highlighting this information, you show people that you’re real and that you’ll be easy to get ahold of should they have a question or a concern. This information is also super important from a search engine optimization standpoint because it gives the search engines important cues about where your business is located and what areas or neighborhoods you’re relevant to. Make sure this information is highly visible on your website.
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Who do you think your products or services appeal to? If your answer is “everyone” keep reading. Businesses with too large a target market (i.e. every household in America) struggle to get any customers at all, and here’s why: not understanding who your customer really is keeps you from being able to better serve that customer. Paint a Picture If you’ve never completed an exercise on identifying your ideal customer, I encourage you to do one now. Grab a notebook or start typing. Answer the questions fully, and get creative if you’re not sure of the answers. The goal is to paint a picture of who your ideal customer is. You’ll likely have other types of customers, but focus on the ones that you enjoy serving, and who you want more of: Next, take a tip from Ivana Taylor of DIY Marketers, who suggests modeling your ideal client profile on an actual client. Consider what makes this customer perfect in your mind. You can physically draw a person or cut images and words from a magazine to visually define this person. When you’re done, your profile may be similar to this example: “My ideal client is a male small business owner. His budget is small, but not tiny, and he understands the value of marketing, though he may not have the skills or time to work on it himself. He also invests in an accountant, as well as web-based sales software. He reads small business blogs (which is how he found my company). He values customer relationships and trust over just getting more web traffic. He finds my prices a little high, but knows that the investment is worthwhile.” Shedding the Rest The purpose of this exercise is to ensure that all your marketing, web copy and messaging targets this specific type of customer. Again, if your branding is too generic, and you’re trying to be all things to all people, you’ll fail. Zero in on writing your messaging directly to this ideal customer, and you’ll find that you instantly attract more of them. The secondary purpose of the exercise is to get rid of the client types you don’t want. You know the ones – you lose money working with them simply because they take up a lot of your time. Or they try to nickel and dime you on projects. These customers aren’t worth your time, and by better targeting your messaging, you’ll send subtle signals that send them the other way. By properly identifying who your ideal customer is, you set your company on the right track to getting more (and better) business.
China vowed on Thursday to double its trade with Central and Eastern European countries to US$100 billion by 2015, as Premier Wen Jiabao reassured leaders in the region that Beijing would deepen relations with these countries "with the greatest sincerity".
Polish officials, experts and investors welcomed Beijing's commitments, saying Poland will serve as an ideal gateway between China and the rest of Europe to boost trade and investment and help stabilize the European and global economy.
Beijing will offer $10 billion in loans to support partner projects in infrastructure, high-tech and the green economy for countries in the region, Wen said at the second annual China-Central and Eastern European Countries Economic Forum.
Last year's forum in Budapest, which Wen also attended and addressed, was a meeting of economic ministers. The summit this year, meanwhile, has drawn heads of government from 14 of the 16 nations in the region — including Croatia, Lithuania, Macedonia and Estonia — at the invitation of Poland.
In a time of considerable uncertainty in the global economy, cooperation suits the fundamental interests of both China and countries in the region, Wen said.
Beijing is willing to import more from the area and offer assistance to its companies coming to China for exhibitions and trade fairs, he said.
In terms of infrastructure development, Wen proposed to set up an expert committee on the construction of traffic networks to discuss joint venture possibilities in the region's highway and railway projects.
Marek Szostak, an official with the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency, said China has shown interest in infrastructure and renewable projects in Poland, but there is also huge potential in other sectors.
"I think China can also invest in our strategic sectors such as automobiles, electronics, aviation, modern services ... We have open-door policies to attract capital, whether it's from the West or East,"Szostak told China Daily.
He also said the two countries should accelerate the exchange of students and attract tourists from each other. "This will deepen mutual understanding and in turn boost economic and trade cooperation,"said Szostak.
Chinese investment in Poland is still at a low level: Only about 150 Chinese companies have invested in Poland so far with the contract capital of about $300 million.
Poland has access to seaports, cheap labor and free access to Europe, said Dominik Konieczny, an expert with the Poland-Asia Research Center. "I think all these advantages can help China expand investment in Poland,"Konieczny said.
Cooperation measures indicate that China has attached more importance to ties with countries from Central and Eastern Europe and tried to balance its relations with all EU members, said Zhao Junjie, an expert on European studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
He said the cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe had not been as strong as China's partnerships with Western Europe, so there is great potential.
Central and Eastern European countries need a new, dependable and competitive partner to help improve their development, because it has become more difficult for them to get support from Western Europe due to the financial crisis, Zhao said.
The pragmatic cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries will bring practical benefits to both and promote mutual trust and relations, said Cui Hongjian, an expert on European studies with the China Institute of International Studies.
Thursday's forum was attended by a delegation of 300 Chinese enterprises.
The economic forum and leaders' summit between China and the region should be held regularly, said Wen, who met separately with 13 prime ministers and Bosnia and Herzegovina's head of government, the chairman of its Council of Ministers, on Thursday. He met his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk and President Bronislaw Komorowski a day earlier.
The heads of government of China and Poland, strategic partners since last year, will meet every two years from now on, Tusk said on Wednesday, while stressing that China's cooperation with Poland and Central and Eastern European countries in general "has never been better".
"We're now at a historical moment,"Tusk said. The prospects for Polish-Chinese cooperation on new energy, particularly on shale gas, of which Warsaw holds considerable reserves, are enormous, he said.
Wen, the first Chinese premier to visit Poland in 25 years, endorsed the idea and said bilateral cooperation also ought to deepen in infrastructure, high-tech, finances, tourism and education.
"Although phenomenal changes have taken place in both the world and in our two countries, both sides have always understood and supported each other on respective issues of sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wen said.
Poland is the last leg of Wen's four-nation tour to Europe. Wen will visit Poland's Krakow on Friday before heading back to Beijing.
Since John Maynard Keynes rescued a collection of Newton's private papers and declared that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians" the popular imagination has looked at the influence of esoteric arts on the emergence of Western' science. What is often forgotten is that in almost the same breath, Keynes declared Newton as "one of the greatest and most efficient of our civil servants", in recognition of his work as Master and Warden of the Mint, positions that he held longer than his Chair at Cambridge.
The significance of the relationship between mathematics and finance is often overlooked when considering the development of science. Probability is, to both Poincare and Russell, the foundation of all science, emerged out of the analysis of financial contracts and Bernoulli first identified the number e in the context of interest payments. On a more profound level, historians such as Richard Hadden, Joel Kaye and Alfred Crosby have provided compelling arguments that the uniquely European 'mathematisation' of science came out of a synthesis of commercial practice, following Fibonacci, and scholastic analysis. Copernicus wrote on money before he wrote on planets.
While equity options trading dominated the 1980s, today, the Black-Scholes-Merton pricing formula is used more as a gauge of market volatility than to price traded contracts and the problems of finance have moved on to managing the complex interactions of many agents in the economy. It is in recognition of this evolution that the financial world has changed, not just in the last four years but over the past 25 years, that the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (the British equivalent of SIAM) is sponsoring its first conference on mathematics in finance, to take place in Edinburgh in 2013.
Algorithmic trading is currently the focus of financial innovation. Investors, such as pension funds, will use algorithms implemented on electronic trading systems to , hopefully, optimise their market transactions. Market makers, and speculators, will use algorithms to search the markets for profit opportunities, often executing transactions in milliseconds in high frequency trading. Algorithmic trading is typically light on mathematics, using simple trend following or mean reverting criteria, and relies more on computational developments.
Since the recent Financial Crises society has realised that financial innovation, like any technological development, is not always a good thing. The Quant and Mammon report of 1998 called for academics to support banks in innovation, today the emphasis has shifted and the consensus is that academics should be trying to understand the financial system and support society's eyes and ears, the Regulators, as much as the Banks. In response to this, the IMA have invited the Bank of England to help organise the conference and provide guidance on what the Regulators' key concerns are.
The Bank of England believes that recent developments in financial mathematics have focused on microeconomic issues, such as pricing derivatives. Their concern is whether there is the mathematics to support macroeconomic risk analysis, how the whole system works. While probability theory has an important role to play in addressing these questions, other mathematical disciplines, not usually associated with finance, could prove useful. For example, the Bank's interest in complexity in networks and dynamical systems has been well documented.
The initial outline of the conference is that it will have three parallel sessions, covering developments in algorithmic trading, the concerns of the Bank of England and contemporary issues in mainstream financial mathematics. For example, in the algorithmic trading stream topics could include data mining, pre-trade analysis, risk management and agent based modelling. As well as the Bank of England’s interest in models of market failure and systemic risk, more esoteric topics such as non-ergodic dynamical systems and models of learning in markets would be interesting. Topics associated with mainstream financial mathematics could include control in the presence of liquidity constraints, Knightian uncertainty and behavioural issues and credit modelling.
In addition to the main mathematics Conference organised by the IMA, the Scottish Financial Risk Academy is planning to organise an "Industry Day" at the end of the Conference.
Applied mathematics is developed as a consequence of solving problems. While it is easy to criticise the world's bankers, it is harder to come up with solutions to the complex issues they face. It is always worth remembering that the laws of physics (almost surely) do not change, but finance is constantly transforming itself. Ever since the time that Newton left Cambridge for the City, the UK has built its prosperity on financial innovation, funding the wars with France and the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions. today financial services account for some 10% of the UK's GDP and it is only fitting that applied mathematicians consider whether they can provide solutions to the difficult problems the sector faces.
The IMA Conference on Mathematics in Finance, scheduled for early April 2013, aims to provide a forum for mathematicians to become more involved in the industry and for industry to become more involved in mathematics, and we would invite any mathematician, academic or practitioner, to attend.
If you would like to register your interest in attending the conference, please contact the IMA.
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Long Island City, NY (PRWEB) March 10, 2012
Seobaba Company India, Seobaba have come up all the services that are chalked out under the Search Engine Marketing program. They use both creativity & technical innovation to launch a powerful marketing campaign for their clients. Their chief services include Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization, Reputation Management service, SEO outsourcing, SEO consultancy, content writing, web designing and Custom Application Development.
Seobaba also proffers special services to meet your local business needs (under their Google Local Business program) and perform aggressive marketing to guarantee you a higher traffic, higher sales count and high Return on Investment.
Their ‘Top Ten Ranking’ visibility program has been designed to lend their client’s webpage a very high exposure and endeavor to lift it to Google’s 1-10 SERP. Besides these, they also promise higher revenue by performing the ‘Pay Per Click’ program that gives long-lasting monetary benefits to their clients. Under their internet marketing services, they provide a number of other services for a potent & highly effective marketing.
The CEO points out, “We have a strong work ethic in an environment steered by the top-notch computer experts, designers, developers, programmers and content writers. We are also equipped with the latest gadgets, software, tools & techniques which help us ably serve our clients to the best of our abilities. We can guarantee you a significant boost in sales, a noticeable improvement in your web traffic in a very short time, a sharp escalation in webpage & Google ranking, better convertibility ratio & higher ROI and brand-building for a secure & sustained future.”
Throwing light on some of the powerful traffic-generating activities, he cited that depending on your customized requirement and individualistic business needs, they chalk out a comprehensive program that includes the appropriate social marketing, link building and content creation.
To generate traffic from various sources, they rely on their competent link builders & technicians. For pooling in traffic from social channels, they engage in widespread video promotion & status-building campaigns on social sites like Facebook, twitter, Digg, LinkdIn, YouTube, etc.�$80�
Website URL: http://www.seobaba.com/
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/3/prweb9206499.htm
If you haven’t tried your hand at small business marketing on YouTube, perhaps evidence of other companies' online video success will convince you to grab a camcorder and get ready for your close-up.
Exhibit A: Orabrush, which claims it has sold $1 million worth of its tongue brushes as a result of its humorous YouTube video series featuring, naturally, a guy dressed up as a tongue. Other small businesses have hit the big time through YouTube, including Blendtec and Dynomighty Design.
Kodak's PlaySport lets you shoot underwater HD footage.
(Click for larger image).
Online videos can be a powerful small business marketing tool. But it all starts with the right equipment.
Digital camcorders can cost anywhere from about $120 to $3,000 and up. They range from extremely affordable, ultra-easy-to-use models with limited controls, such as the Flip video models, to more complex camcorders with professional-level features, which include Sony's 'advanced amateur camcorders.
Of course, many smartphones and digital still cameras offer video recording. But the quality can be substandard. And smartphones, unlike camcorders and still cameras, don't support tripod mounting -- though the funky Gorillamobile ($30) serves as an ersatz smartphone tripod.
Here's how to buy the right camcorder for your YouTube productions.
1. Decide What Kind of Videos You Want to Shoot
Before you invest in equipment, you should have a clear idea of the types of videos you want to produce.
If you're a sporting goods retailer, for instance, you'll probably want to shoot lots of action-oriented videos on or near water, on ski slopes and other places adrenaline addicts gravitate toward. If that's the case, you might consider a water-proof, ultra-portable camcorder, such as Kodak's high-def PlaySport, which costs about $150.
Similarly, if you'll be shooting most videos outdoors away from power outlets, you'll want a camcorder with interchangeable battery packs. You'll also want a camcorder that records video onto removable media, such as flash memory cards or digital videotape, so you won't run out of space during a shoot.
On the other hand, if the videos you plan to shoot will take place in your office, the webcam on your netbook or laptop may be all you need. Webcam videos can save time, because you're recording the video directly onto your computer instead of having to import it. For best results, make sure the webcam is 1.3 megapixels or higher in resolution.
Also, if you plan to do a series of man-in-the-street style interview videos, a camcorder with an input jack for an external microphone is your best bet. While all consumer camcorders have built-in microphones, audio quality from these mics can be poor when the person you're filming is speaking in a noisy environment (such as a city street) and isn't close to the camera.
2. Decide Who's Going to Shoot the Videos
Do you have an employee with excellent video production skills? Then you might want to buy a higher-end camcorder with manual controls and interchangeable lenses. But if you're adding "videographer" to your administrative assistant's long list of tasks, and that person has little video experience, you'll need a dead-simple point-and-shoot camcorder, such as a Flip, Kodak Zi8, or Sony Bloggie. These cameras also come with software that simplifies editing and uploading to video sharing sites.
3. How important is Zoom Image Quality?
Point-and-shoot camcorders from Flip and Kodak capture high-resolution video, as do many smartphones and digital still cameras. Keep in mind, however, that the majority of these devices offer only digital zoom.
Simply put, optical zoom gives you much better zoom image quality. Optical zoom uses the camcorder's lens to magnify a subject, rather than digitally enlarging the image captured by the camcorder, which is what digital zoom does. Some digital still cameras allow you to use the optical zoom when shooting video, but some don't; be sure to check the camera's specs.
The Flip UltraHD camcorder now offers image stabilization.
(Click for larger image).
4. Go High Definition
Make sure the digital camcorder you buy offers the capability to shoot in high-definition video. YouTube offers the option to view videos in 1080p high-res video, so why not upload the best-quality video you can?
5. Shoot Test Videos on Your Smartphone or Digital Camera
If you already own a smartphone or digital still camera capable of capturing HD video, shoot one or more test videos before you buy a camcorder. It could be that, at least for now, your smartphone or still camera video recorder is all you need. You might also use your smartphone or digital still camera as a backup camcorder during a shoot.
6. Familiarize Yourself with Camcorder Features
Unless you're buying a simple point-and-shoot camcorder (like a Flip), you should become familiar with camcorder specs and features before you buy. Here are a few terms you should know:
CCD and CMOS sensors. Camcorders have either a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) or Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. Both convert light into electrons. Generally speaking, CCD sensors tend to offer a higher degree of image fidelity and light sensitivity compared to camcorders with CMOS sensors. However, CMOS sensors tend to use less power and are less expensive to produce, which makes them more prevalent in low-cost consumer camcorders. HowStuffWorks offers more explanation about the differences between CCD and CMOS sensors.
Image stabilization. If you plan to record a lot of handheld video, versus setting the camcorder on a tripod, you need image stabilization. This feature helps smooth out the jitteriness that comes from holding a camera. Many digital camcorders offer this feature, including the latest Flip UltraHD and MinoHD models.
MiniDV. This digital videotape format was once ubiquitous in digital camcorders. Though MiniDV camcorders are fading in popularity, many videographers still prefer the format. MiniDV tapes are inexpensive for storage and archiving, and image quality is superior to other storage formats (such as flash memory or hard drives). CamcorderInfo.com offers a useful explanation of MiniDV's pros and cons, along with a guide to the top MiniDV camcorders.
FireWire. Some camcorders use FireWire, a high-speed port also known as i.Link or IEEE 1394, to connect to computers. Apple's iMac desktops are among current computers with built-in FireWire 800 ports, though FireWire is far from a standard input on most computers today. Many camcorders connect to computers via USB 2.0, which nearly all current computers support.
SDXC. Secure Digital Extended Capacity, or SDXC, is the successor to the SDHC flash memory card, both of which can be used to store video recordings. SDXC cards will eventually offer storage capacities up to 2TB (current capacity maxes out at 64GB) and data speeds up to 300 MBps. However, SDXC cards are more expensive than SDHC memory cards.
Progressive versus interlaced. High-def progressive video, indicated by the "p" in 720p or 1080p, tends to produce smoother motion than interlaced video, such as 1080i resolution video. Thus, a freeze frame from a progressive video recording will look sharper than a similar frame from an interlaced video. Most consumer HD camcorders currently offer 720p or 1080i video recording, though a growing number -- such as Kodak's PlaySport -- offer 1080p video recording.
AVCHD and MPEG-4. AVCHD is a common compression system for consumer HD camcorders today, though the similar MPEG-4 system generates files that are easier to import into your computer and aren't as large.
6. Shop Smart
As with any electronic product, read camcorder reviews on sites such as CamcorderInfo.com and Consumer Reports (subscription required) before you click the buy button.
It's also important where you buy. Look for online retailers that don't charge hefty restocking fees if you return the camcorder. For example, J&R offers a 30-day exchange/refund on "mail order and Web purchases" without a restocking fee. But you must obtain a return authorization first. And your device must be "in original factory carton, including all packaging materials, inserts and manuals, warranty cards (not filled-out) and all accessories."
Finally, consider how you'll pay for the camcorder, especially if it's expensive. American Express automatically extends the manufacturer warranty of items purchased with its cards, for instance.
James A. Martin is the author of Traveler 2.0, a mobile technology blog, and has written about mobile computing since the mid 1990s.
Facebook is a popular choice for small business ecommerce site owners looking for new ways to market their online business and to communicate with customers. This popular social networking site provides new ways to monetize your Facebook Business Page using shopping cart and other ecommerce applications -- or apps -- that you can embed on your Business Profile.
From shopping tabs to customer service tools, these 10 Facebook apps make a great addition to an online merchant's marketing arsenal.
Shopping Carts & Shopping Tabs for Facebook
1. Payvment is an ecommerce Facebook solution that lets you add a professional-grade storefront to any Facebook page. The app features an admin dashboard built directly into Facebook to manage your storefront, products and sales.
2. Muncom is a free PHP shopping cart that you can use to create a shopping cart to display on your Facebook Business Page. To create the cart, you must first design a free store on Muncom.com. Muncom's shopping cart service is currently in beta.
3. BigCommerce offers a Facebook ecommerce solution that lets you add a Shopping Tab to your Facebook Business page. The tab allows shoppers to browse products on your page and buy through Facebook.
4. TabJuice also offers a Shopping Tab app that helps ecommerce merchants to bring their products to a Facebook Business Page. You can customize the Facebook store you create with different storefront templates, color schemes and your own logo.
5. ShopTab is a popular Facebook application that offers a number of features including support for more than 30 currencies. It also offers tools for you to add and edit products individually, through a data feed, or automated scheduled data update.
Customer Service and Marketing Apps
6. Assistly lets you control and monitor customer conversations by pulling all customer service conversations from email, phone, Facebook and Twitter into one place.
7. Get Satisfaction provides moderation tools and customer feedback widgets to help you build your Facebook customer community. It offers a starter package for small businesses.
8. UserEcho is a feedback widget for Facebook and Twitter that lets you to collect customer responses and respond to customer feedback, engage in conversation, and it also lets you broadcast and organize the conversations.
9. MailChimp lets you market to Facebook customers by creating a mailing list sign-up form and tab on your Facebook Page. Page admins can automatically post email campaigns to the Facebook Wall once sent to your email subscribers.
10. Wildfire Promotions is a Facebook app that lets site owners run different promotions on Facebook Pages, such as contests, coupons and special deals. After adding the application, you configure the promotion through the app, publish it, and then add it as a Tab on your Facebook Page.
More Facebook Small Business Ecommerce Tips
Are you looking to get a better handle on integrating Facebook into your ecommerce marketing plan? Try these Facebook tips and guides for small business ecommerce sites:
7 Tips to Manage Customer Service on Facebook
Juice up Your Facebook Page with Shopping Tabs
How to Add Facebook Like to Your Ecommerce Site
How to Customize a Business Facebook Page with Apps
Based in Nova Scotia, Canada, Vangie Beal has spent the last decade contributing featured articles and reviews to more than 20 technology-focused publications, including Webopedia and Ecommerce-Guide. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.
Small business IT professionals need the capability to respond to issues from anywhere and at a moment’s notice. Fortunately, mobile apps for both the Android and iOS platforms let you manage computer and network issues from your smartphone or tablet.
These dedicated apps address a broad range of IT issues, including remote desktop managers, active directory utilities and even some simple networking tools. Here are a seven of our favorite free apps.
Speedtest.net
Platform: Available for iOS and Android devices.
For years, small business IT professionals have relied on Speedtest.net to test the speed of a broadband connection. The Speedtest.net app is powerful and incredibly simple to use. When the app starts, it automatically locates the nearest test server.
Once you establish a connection, begin the test by pressing the Begin Test button. The app will report your ping response speed, as well as the broadband upload and download performance. A history log maintains all test results for later analysis and comparison. Speedtest.net is without questions one of the most useful and indispensable tools I own.
AD Helpdesk Lite
Platform: Available for iOS devices only.
If your company's network policy forces employees to update their passwords, you know that at least a few users will lock their accounts. Easy enough to fix, but if you're not always sitting in front of your PC, it could take some time to remote into the server to correct the situation.
Enter AD Helpdesk Lite. This app lets you reset a user's password, lock or unlock the account, or even completely disable it right from your smartphone or tablet. You can resolve the issue from anywhere in the office, quickly and efficiently. AD Helpdesk Lite's speed and ease of use earned it a place in my mobile IT arsenal.
Teamviewer
Platform: Available for iOS and Android devices.
This simple, yet elegant remote desktop app lets you access your desktop systems from practically anywhere using a mobile device, and it gives you the same level of control you would have if you were actually sitting in front of your desktop.
Like its PC counterpart, the Teamviewer app is very simple to setup and use, requiring nothing more than the User ID and password of the PC you're trying to access. And unlike some other apps, there are virtually no configuration hassles.
This app just works, and works well. The Teamviewer software and the app are both free for personal use. However, if you plan on using it in a support environment you'll need to purchase a license.
Spiceworks
Platform: Available for iOS and Android devices.
More than a million small businesses use Spiceworks, a free network management and help desk software suite, to manage their network environments. The reason for this is simple. Although free, this package offers an abundance of features.
In fact, feature rich doesn't even begin to describe everything that Spiceworks offers. Some of these features include the capability to manage inventory, monitor bandwidth, track volume licenses and warranty renewals, and it even includes a robust helpdesk ticket management system.
And if that isn't enough, Spiceworks also offers a companion app (for both iOS and Android devices) that administrators and technicians can use to manage their helpdesk tickets, view hardware and software inventories, monitor the network, view and update user details and even access the Spiceworks community for assistance, right on their mobile devices.
This is a truly great app for an already impressive product. If your business relies on Spiceworks for its day-to-day operations, then this is a must-have app.
Fing
Platform: Available for iOS and Android devices.
Quickly identifying any unauthorized devices makes it much easier to keep your network secured. Depending on the size of the network though, that can be extremely difficult. To make this job easier, mobile users can take advantage of the Fing Network Scanner.
This app quickly performs a complete scan of the network, identifying each and every device connected to it. Returned results display the MAC and IP addresses for each discovered device. You can customize found devices with representative icons, names and notes to help assist in identification.
Using the port scanner, Fing can also detect all of the services running on each host system. The simplified interface makes navigation effortless, and you can share all results and device information via email. Overall, this is a great app that no small business IT pro should be without.
Network Ping Lite
Platform: Available for iOS devices only.
One of the most useful networking tools available to a technician is called Ping. And a little app called Network Ping Lite lets you ping either individual IP addresses or an entire subnet a mobile device.It also includes a Traceroute utility and a Telnet console, which makes it a handy tool to have should you need to check a router's configuration files while you're on the road.
Although there are many ping apps available, I'm partial to Network Ping Lite for its clean and easy-to-read design. It's not overly flashy or sophisticated, but it gets the job done.
GoDaddy.com Mobile Domain Manager
Platform: Available for iOS and Android devices.
You can't always be in front of your computer, but apps like the GoDaddy.com Mobile Domain Manager, make it possible to stay productive, even if you're out of the office. This app lets you manage all of your domains; make changes to your company's host and DNS settings, update contact information and more.
Integrated WHOIS service lets you search for and register new domains, as well as other services right from a smartphone. An updated Mobile Mail client gives you greater access to your Go Daddy email accounts, while an Online File Folder provides 2GB of space for storing or backing up data.
Personally speaking, I find it much easy to navigate my Go Daddy domains, renew services or make changes to my account via this app then I do when using their website. If you're a Go Daddy customer, you should really give this app a try.
Ronald V. Pacchiano is a systems integrator and technology specialist with expertise in Windows server management, desktop support and network administration. He is also an accomplished technology journalist and a contributing writer for Small Business Computing.
If you love finding free or affordable Web tools as much as I do, then you'll want to know about these free resources. First up is a great social networking site just for small business owners, the second one is a great site for free stock photos, and the third one is for anyone who loves to geek out and experiment with marketing (again, like me).
Ecademy
Ecademy.com is a lesser-known but well-established social network, specifically geared toward small business owners and entrepreneurs. Of all the well-known social networks (MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook etc), Ecademy has the most in common with LinkedIn.
At the very least you should have a presence on Ecademy.com to help improve your natural SEO. Here’s how to get started with Ecademy.com
Step 1: Visit www.ecademy.com and enter your first name, last name and email address into the signup box on the right-hand side. Alternatively you can join by associating your Facebook or Twitter account (just click the icon. Then, click join now.
Step 2: The next screen will prompt you to choose a password, your country, and to enter the security word. Click the blue join now button.
Step 3: You’ll be asked to invite others to your network by importing your contacts from Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Outlook etc. This step is optional; you can choose to skip it if you wish.
Step 4: You’ll be invited to upgrade to the Pro level for $9.97, again this is optional. The Pro level allows you to send messages to people you find in Ecademy.
Step 5: The dashboard screen is your home for the site. Start by getting your profile up-to-date. Click on fill in your 50 words near the three rectangular bars that say know me, like me, and follow me.
Step 6: Click on inbox in the menu bar at the top of the page, and read the welcome message for a helpful overview of the site. You can also search for people using the search box in the top right, but you’ll need to upgrade your membership level.
StockVault
Welcome to StockVault.net, a great Web tool with almost 14,000 stock photographs that you can get for free. Now, just yesterday I paid several dollars to pull photographs on another site. If I had known about this, I would have had a free solution to my situation.
Figure 1: StockVault.net.
For example, you could type "Yoga" into the site search box to see if they have any yoga photographs. And they do. So if I needed a photograph for a yoga page or a yoga studio, I could find a bunch of them here.
The site also offers other things that you can get for free. For example there's a tutorial on how to use Photoshop to make a sinister-looking sky. And they’ll walk you step-by-step to make the photograph look a little bit dangerous and a little bit sinister. Again, it's absolutely free.
They have a number of how-to videos to learn all about photography: the essence of photography, depth-of-field photography and all sorts of hints and tips for photography folks. Plus, there are all kinds of photography articles that you can read.
This Web tool offers free images and all manner of tips on photography. Be sure to go take a look at StockVault.net.
Marketing Experiments for Small Business
If you’re a real marketing geek like me, then you’ll love MarketingExperiments.com, a site that does just as the name suggests -- it conducts marketing experiments and then shares the results.
The results of the experiments are free to all subscribers, and it’s free to be a subscriber. So don’t hesitate to sign up. You’ll find that they test and track all kinds of interesting marketing ideas, and the reports make for compelling reading. Not only that, but if you implement the suggestions in your own business, you’ll most likely make more money -- and that’s the ultimate purpose of the site.
I will say that the reports can be a little heavy going at times, but like I said, if you’re a true marketing geek you’ll love it. So check out MarketingExperiments.com.
Andrew Lock is a self-described maverick marketer and the creator and host of Help! My Business Sucks, a free, weekly Web TV show full of practical small business marketing tips, advice and resources to help small businesses "get more done and have more fun."