Shiny New Gadget Of The Month: www.rescuetime.com

By Editor | Published: March 1, 2011

This month’s “Gadget” is not an electronic device. It’s an online tool I’m sure you’ll be interested in checking out.

RescueTime is a web application that tracks where you spend your time while working on your PC and then reports how productive you are based on what you consider productive time. Want to know how much time you REALLY spend checking e-mail, watching YouTube videos or on Facebook? RescueTime will tell you. After you’ve let it collect some data, you can go back to the site and tag various activities such as “work” or “fun time” to better track where your time is going every day. You can also set goals for yourself on how much productive versus unproductive time you should be spending every day and get notifications when you aren’t hitting your goals.

They offer a free version you can download or a paid version that will track the productivity of your employees or a team of people.

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Would You Pay $1 To Get $3.25 In Change?

By Editor | Published: January 24, 2011

changeWho wouldn’t want to shop at a store that can deliver that! Is this some Nigerian business opportunity? Not at all…

A review of the services we deliver for our clients showed that our clients receive an average of <$3.25> in services for every $1.00 they spend with us. This is based on a cost comparison between hiring a full-time, beginner technician or outsourcing to us. And that’s not taking into consideration the combined experience our team brings to your organization that you WOULDN’T get by hiring a single person.

Of course you don’t see a lot of the work that goes into our services because they are done behind the scenes or after hours so that we don’t disturb you while you’re working. But in a time where saving money is more important than ever, it IS worth noting that you made a smart decision to outsource your services to us!

Who Else Wants To Win A $25 Gift Card?

“Take my monthly Trivia Challenge and you could win too!”

The Grand Prize Winner of last month’s Trivia Challenge Quiz is…drum roll please… <>! They were the first person to correctly answer my quiz question from last month:

In the novel Moby Dick, in which American port is the whaling ship Pequod based?
a-Nantucket, b-Cooperstown, c-Mystic, d-Boston

The correct answer is (a) – “Nantucket.” Congratulations, , you’ve won a <$25 Gift Card>! Now, here’s this month’s trivia question. The winner will receive a gift card to .

In 1657 the first chocolate shop opened up in what city?
a-London, b-Vienna, c-Amsterdam, d-All of the above

Call me right now with your answer! XXX-XXX-XXXX
Get More Free Tips, Tools and Services At My Web Site:

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Who Wants To Buy My $8 MILLION Dollar iPhone?

By Editor | Published: January 24, 2011

$8 MILLION Dollar iPhoneNo, that’s not a typo! Stuart Hughes, the British jeweler known for his expensive remakes of popular gadgets, is at it again, this time with a diamond-clad iPhone 4 with a price tag of 5 million pounds, or roughly $8 million US dollars.

The handmade bezel contains approximately 500 individual flawless diamonds that total more than 100 carats. There’s 53 additional diamonds in the back and the main navigation button is made of platinum, holding a single cut 7.4 carat pink diamond.

Only two of these will ever be made, so don’t worry: if you buy one, the chances of bumping into someone at a party who has the exact same phone are quite slim. However, you might want to invest in a bullet-proof case to protect it!

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How To Raise Your Profits, By Raising Your Profile

By Editor | Published: January 24, 2011

profitsI recently listened to an interview with David Avrin, author of the book, “It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You.” His message is pretty simple but powerful: the more your marketplace KNOWS your brand, the more sales and profits you’ll generate. I highly recommend his book since it contains a lot of good, common sense strategies for small business owners. Here are a few of the tips from David that I wanted to pass on to you and my other readers:

You Can’t Control Your Brand:
You can only INFLUENCE it. I actually thought this insight was very powerful. If you think about it, your ‘brand’ is formulated in the mind of your customer. It’s the feeling they get when they think of your company, product or service; but since the CUSTOMER generates the feeling, only they get to decide what that association is. To that end, your brand is the sum total of everything you do. For example, you eat at a restaurant where the food is outstanding but the bathrooms are dirty, the waiter is rude and they get your drink order wrong…twice. Unfortunately, the food may not be enough to get you to come back again.

An Important Question You Should Know The Answer To:
As business owners we spend YEARS perfecting our services, working on our operations and building our business – yet most of us only spend minutes thinking about what message we want to portray to the marketplace. During this interview, David posed the following idea: “What question do you want to be the answer to?” For us, it is…<>.

Marketing Is Not A Department:
Most people think marketing is just about web sites, brochures and postcards. Not so. Marketing should infiltrate every aspect of your business. To that end, make a list of every touch point you have with your customers and prospects and ask yourself, “Am I being INTENTIONAL about how we interact with our clients to make sure we are fulfilling our brand promise?” That would include often overlooked areas like how you answer the phone, or what you print on the invoices you send out.

Being “Good” Is Not Good Enough…Anymore:
With SO many choices, being “good” at what you do is no longer an advantage in the marketplace – it’s the entry point to doing business. Think of how many “good” restaurants you go to, or how many “good” stores you frequent. Chances are they deliver a satisfactory product or service, but not one that blows you away. In order to truly win the hearts (and wallets!) of our clients, we have to work on being outstanding.

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The Lighter Side…

By Editor | Published: January 24, 2011

scienceScience That Makes You Laugh…Or Wonder?
Nobel Prizes are awarded for only the most serious scientific achievements; the “Ig Nobel” Prizes, on the other hand, are awarded for the most unusual, although sometimes still legitimate, scientific achievements. The awards are the brainchild of editor and co-founder Marc Abrahams, whose magazine is called “The Annals of Improbably Research,” and whose web site is www.improb.com.
Past awards have gone to researchers who:

  • Gave hamsters Viagra and discovered it prevented them from suffering jet lag
  • Looked at sword swallowing and its side affects on the human body
  • Created a “bottomless” bowl of soup which proved Americans eat as long as there is food in front of them, not just until they are full
  • Found that wrinkles in sheets are replicated in human and animal skin
  • Created a device which dropped a net over bank robbers
  • Explored why woodpeckers don’t get headaches
  • Looked into what would happen to clams that were fed Prozac
  • Asked why spaghetti breaks into more than two pieces
  • Queried why birds were not pooping on a statue
  • Levitated a frog, pieces of fruit and a grasshopper
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6 Quick Tips To Finally Organize Your Out-Of-Control Inbox

By Editor | Published: January 24, 2011

out-of-control inboxMuch like laundry and bills, no matter how much you try to keep up, e-mails just keep piling up in your inbox. E-mail is a critical part of your day-to-day work, so how do you keep it from becoming a distraction while balancing the things you really need to address?

Here are 6 tips:

  1. Zero your inbox. Do you remember the last time your inbox was empty? Probably never; that’s because it costs nothing to keep an e-mail and therefore you don’t delete items “just in case” you need them at some point. This really causes messages to pile up FAST. Truth be told, you really DON’T need all those e-mails. Make it a goal to “zero” your inbox every week, particularly on a Friday before you leave for home. If you can’t “zero” it, at least get the number down to fewer than a dozen critical messages you absolutely need to work on within the next 2-3 days.
  2. Use folders sparingly. Only set up key, strategic folders or you’ll end up with dozens of folders filled with messages in addition to a massive number of messages in your inbox. You might keep one labeled as “storage” for any non-urgent messages that may need to be referenced at a later date. This keeps your inbox free of clutter and helps you more easily find something in an old message when it is needed.
  3. Delete first, read the surviving messages later. Many of the e-mails you get probably aren’t even worth reading. Start your day by immediately deleting these emails before you even start to open and read the important ones.
  4. Take action immediately. Probably the most helpful way to keep your inbox uncluttered is to take action right away on all messages instead of reading them and then going back to them later when you have time to process the message properly. By taking action right away you avoid wasting time re-reading messages. If it does require a follow up that you don’t have time for, file the message and mark a reminder to follow up. Otherwise forward it, delete it or file it into a folder
  5. Slow your roll. Your e-mail can be a constant distraction through your workday, IF you let it! Take control and set aside “e-mail free” time periods throughout the day so you can truly concentrate on projects without interruption. The world won’t stop if you don’t check your email every few minutes, I promise.
  6. Install a GOOD spam filter. The vast majority of messages are unwanted spam, some of which contain viruses. But not all spam filters are created equal!
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Shiny New Gadget Of The Month: Digital Pet Cam

By Editor | Published: January 24, 2011

pet camAttention all pet lovers! Have you ever wondered what your pet sees and does when you’re away? Does he nap or get into all sorts of mischief? Clip on Uncle Milton’s Pet’s Eye View camera and find out!

You can choose between 1, 5, or 15-minute intervals for your pictures. The photos are taken automatically and can be uploaded to your PC or Mac via the included USB cable for easy viewing. It’s lightweight, compact and simply clips right onto your pet’s collar!

  • Auto-interval photo settings
  • Internal memory stores up to 40 photos
  • 640 x 480 resolution for 4″ x 6″ prints
  • PC and Mac compatible
  • Includes USB cable for uploading photos
  • Includes rechargeable Lithium-ion 100 mAh battery.
  • Collar and the subsequent dog training you might discover you need are not included.
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Here’s A Sweet Valentine’s Treat For Our Clients And Friends

By Editor | Published: January 24, 2011

valentine's treatWho says Valentine’s Day is just for lovers? Around here, we LOVE our clients and subscribers and want to spread the adoration around. That’s why we’ve decided to come up with the following “sweet deals” for everyone subscribed to this newsletter:

For Our Clients:

We want to give you a “Get Out Of Computer Trouble Free” service coupon for any HOME computer that is not already covered under <>. Just call us when you’re having any problem with a home PC and we’ll fix it for FREE. Not enrolled in our <> plan? Then sign up this month and we’ll not only waive the set up fee, but we’ll also include one month of services for FREE! Are we so love struck that we’ve lost our good sense? Not at all; we simply want to show you how much we appreciate you.

For Your Friends:

Refer any of your friends or colleagues to us and we’ll give them a FREE 2-hour service call to diagnose and repair any technical or computer problem that’s troubling them! If repairs require more than a 2-hour visit (and if they choose to have us complete the repair), we’ll give them 20% off our services AND guarantee we’ll fix it fast and fix it right or they won’t pay a dime.

For Those “Soon-To-Be” Clients:

Not a client yet? Then we want to entice you to “fall in love” with our services by also giving you a FREE 2-hour service call. Just contact us when you have an issue and we’ll either come to your office or connect remotely to your computer using our secure, “on-call” software. We’ll diagnose the problem and start working on resolving the issue. If we cannot fix it within the 2-hour window, we’ll give you a fixed quote in writing on what we believe it will take to get it working again. If you choose to have us continue, in most cases we can start working right away. And of course, ALL our services are covered by our “Fix It Right Or It’s FREE” guarantee so you never have to worry about being burned by an incompetent technician.

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Why Your “Not-To-Do” List Is Just As Important As Your “To-Do” List

By Editor | Published: January 24, 2011

not-to-do listOne of the New Year’s resolutions I often have is to get more organized and better manage my time. After all, who doesn’t want to get more done? But a big mistake many people make is thinking ONLY in terms of “more” when it comes to getting things done. Why is this a mistake? Because chances are your plate is already full of to-do items; if you want to accomplish MORE, you’ll have to actually start thinking about what you are going to STOP doing in order to fit in the more important tasks that move you closer to your goals.

As we all know, only about 20% of the things you do deliver 80% of the results you want to achieve. Therefore, in order to “get more done,” you have to clearly identify what that 20% is and focus on doing more of those activities, and delegating or ignoring the 80% of time-wasting “stuff” we all get caught up in doing. What are some big time wasters?

  • Not having a plan for your day and reacting to whatever shows up.
  • Constant texting or online surfing. For many, this is a huge addiction and distraction that can waste HOURS.
  • Checking e-mail every 5 minutes.

Who Else Wants To Win A $25 Gift Card?

“Take my monthly Trivia Challenge and you could win too!”

The Grand Prize Winner of last month’s Trivia Challenge Quiz is…drum roll please… <>! They were the first person to correctly answer my quiz question from last month:

What is the name of the main newspaper for wizards in Harry Potter’s world?
a-Words on the Wind, b-The Owl, c-Daily Prophet, d-Wizards Weekly

The correct answer is c, “ Daily Prophet.” Congratulations, <>, you’ve won a <<$25 Gift Card >>! Now, here’s this month’s trivia question. The winner will receive a gift card to <>.

In the novel Moby Dick, in which American port is the whaling ship Pequod based?

a-Nantucket, b-Cooperstown, c-Mystic, d-Boston

Call me right now with your answer!

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Text Messaging Used To Defeat The Taliban

By Editor | Published: January 24, 2011

text messagingAccording to an article in Network Computing Magazine, British Intelligence is using text-messaging spam as part of their PsyOps campaign to defeat the Taliban.

When they discover a Taliban fighter’s cell phone number, they bombard it with spam messages such as “We know who you are, give up,” and other demoralizing messages. They also send wrong information by pretending to be other Taliban fighters. The logic? Spam tends to enrage the user receiving it. Is it working? There was no report of the results, although I would imagine the Brits are having a good laugh over this.

The BIG Cost Of A Tiny Typo
A casino in Illinois wanted to reward its best customers and get them to come back for a repeat visit. To get this done they mailed out 11,000 coupons which included a few featuring cash prizes of $525.

But thanks to the mistake of a third party printing company, ALL 11,000 coupons were printed with the same cash offer, obligating the casino to a total payout of $5.8 million dollars in prizes. Although the contest rules included a disclaimer giving the casino the option to change or cancel the offer, the Illinois Gaming Board ordered the casino to honor the coupons. Now there’s one marketing campaign that had the owners of the casino praying for a poor response!

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