Software
Cloud Storage – Remote Data Backup
Simply put, cloud storage is another way to store your data. It is an alternative to using your computer’s hard drive space or an external hard drive to store and back up your files.
When you use cloud storage, your data is stored off-site by a storage service such as Amazon Glacier. When you want to retrieve your data, you access it via the internet.
Cloud based storage such as Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Google Storage or Microsoft Azure are low cost options that can be used by business and home users alike. Put simply, they provide storage that’s great for backing-up important data. It really doesn’t matter if you are a home user with a collection of letters and photos, or a business with contacts and contracts, Cloud storage makes off-site backup affordable for everyone.
But to use this kind of storage, you need software to send your data to the Cloud, and in the event of a problem, to help you get it back again. CloudBerry Backup Desktop Edition is software for Windows XP or later that makes it extremely easy to manage Cloud based backups. It’s free for non-profit use, and business users pay $29.99 per installation. A server version runs on Windows 2003 Server and later, and costs $79.99.
People with some technical experience will like CloudBerry Backup’s list of features, which includes block-level backups and continuous real time backup. But CloudBerry’s easy to use software means you don’t need to understand this sort of thing to get the best out of it.
Installing the software took only a few minutes, and it comes with a free 14 day trial period so you can try before you buy.
Within seconds of clicking the button to start our trial period, the main CloudBerry Online Backup Welcome page was open on our screen. This has a clean tabbed user interface, making it easy for non-technical people to use. The welcome page has two buttons in the center – one to “Setup Backup Plan”, the other to “Restore Backup”.
We clicked on the Setup Backup Plan button, which started a wizard that guided through setting up our first backup job. After clicking the Next button the first panel allowed us to enter the details of our Cloud Storage account. We tested CloudBerry using our Amazon Glacier, and once we had provided our Amazon account info the wizard listed our Glacier storage Vaults. Next we were presented with a list of disk drives on our Windows PC that we might want to back-up. The wizard also allowed us to select files using various criteria, such as folders, or with names containing specific characters, or files created after a specific date….More at Review: CloudBerry Backup Desktop Edition – Hypervisor
With cloud storage, you can store any amount of data. You don’t need to buy more hard drives or worry about how to keep them safe from damage or theft. Convenience is another benefit of remote data storage since there is no need to save your files to a flash drive to take with you if you’re going to another location.
CloudBerry Explorer is a freeware file manager that provides a user interface to cloud storage accounts, files, buckets and containers allowing browsing, creating and deleting files, buckets, and containers as well as synchronizing content between your PC and cloud storage. You can try CloudBerry Explorer Freeware here.
Share your thoughts. Is cloud storage a good option for you?
McAfee Antivirus — Another Headache Resolved
Did you have a problem connecting to the Internet this past weekend? I did!! At first, I thought there was a problem with my router. I re-set the modem, re-booted my computer a couple of times, and finally called Linksys support. After doing some troubleshooting, we could not find any resolution to my computer’s inability to connect to the Internet. I backed up all my files and tried not to worry about what could be wrong with my laptop. Never did I suspect that the source of this frustrating problem could be my trusted guardian of security, my anti-virus protector — McAfee!
Image by bark via Flickr
First thing Monday morning, I called my local computer repair shop. Mike listened to me describe the problem and all I had been through on Saturday. Then he asked me if my computer was running any McAfee products. “Yes,” I said, “I have McAfee anti-virus.”
“That might be what’s causing the problem,” Mike said. Apparently, McAfee had some issues over the weekend.
A buggy update released Friday by security vendor McAfee for its consumer and enterprise antivirus products, left the computers of its customers unprotected and, in some cases, unable to access the Internet.
The incident affected both home and business users, some of whom were still trying to sort out the problems caused by the updates on Monday and Tuesday, according to messages posted on McAfee’s community forums and Facebook page.
The problems were introduced by McAfee updates DAT 6807, released on Friday, and the subsequent DAT 6808, depending on which product was used.
After installing these updates some home users started encountering errors when accessing the McAfee Security Center console, which prevented them from performing any action inside the program. Other users experienced a loss of Internet connection on their computers.
McAfee confirmed these problems on Sunday in a technical document that described two possible solutions, both requiring users to update to a newly released DAT 6809 file.
One workaround, intended for users who lost Internet connectivity on their computers, involved uninstalling the product, rebooting the computer, downloading an updated version of the product from McAfee’s website and installing it….More at McAfee Antivirus Update Causes Problems for Home and Enterprise Customers – PCWorld
Mike suggested that I should uninstall McAfee and see if I could connect to the Internet then. If that solved the problem, I could download and reinstall McAfee.
I followed his advice, and as soon as I uninstalled McAfee, I was able to connect to the Internet again! Problem solved… almost. I still needed an anti-virus program for my computer.
My McAfee subscription was going to expire in another month or so, and I had already decided not to renew it. If I had any doubts that I was making the right decision, this episode ended them. Perhaps I might have reconsidered if I had been treated like a valued customer, but no email ever came to apologize for the aggravating, time-wasting, worrisome incident.
My current choice for anti-virus protection — no subscription needed — is Microsoft Security Essentials.
Managing Your Twitter Account
As wildly popular as Twitter is today, it was not an overnight sensation after launching in July 2006. But the following year, Twitter stole the spotlight at the South by Southwest festival by streaming tweets on huge plasma screens. That was a pivotal day for Twitter. Not only did it win an award in the blog category, it also gained a lot of new users!
At its inception, Twitter was perceived as social networking for personal use only. People were able to stay connected with their friends in real-time and exchange updates through frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
It didn’t take savvy internet marketers long to see beyond the entertaining, personal networking aspect of Twitter. Online marketers quickly discovered that Twitter could be valuable in driving traffic and increasing product sales. By finding followers with specific interests, business owners could connect with like-minded people, start conversations, and promote brand recognition.
Getting Followers on Twitter
If you have business contacts or an email list, invite those people to follow you on Twitter. Put your Twitter URL in your emails, on your websites and blogs asking people to follow you. You could even put your Twitter URL on your business card so that you can gather followers from offline as well.
Don’t be shy; tell everyone you meet about your Twitter page. Make it sound exciting, and let them know that you will be sharing important updates, great tips and information with them if they follow you. You may be surprised to find out that almost everyone will click the follow button just to see what you’re up to!
Follow people who are interested in a specific niche.
You can use the search tool on Twitter to find people who share your interests. Searching by keywords and topics will pull up the top tweets related to your search terms. You will be able to laser target people who are interested in your niche by reading those tweets and looking at the authors’ profiles. Follow a few of these people every day; they may very likely follow you back.
It is so important to have a strategy for managing your Twitter account on a daily basis. Unless you use software tools to automate many of the tasks, such as following and un-following users and posting tweets, you will spend way too much of your valuable time on Twitter. As a result, if Twitter simply becomes a burden, you won’t want to stick with it for very long.
I have five Twitter accounts with over 30,000 followers. Many people have multiple Twitter accounts with large numbers of followers. There is no way anyone could manage that without help; it would just be impossible!
I use TweetAdder – automated Twitter marketing software. It handles the daily tasks: follow and un-follow, post tweets and re-tweets, send direct messages, and tweet out RSS feeds. Another feature lets me do research on what’s trending now, what everyone’s tweeting about, and what topics are hot on Twitter. TweetAdder frees up more of my time for engaging with followers in 140 characters or less.
I highly recommend TweetAdder and encourage you to try it out. Experience the full Twitter professional software for free, and see how all of the features work with your Twitter account. You can download the TweetAdder demo here.
PowerPoint Templates
Presentation software helps you tell a powerful story. Using Microsoft PowerPoint, you can create presentations that entertain and motivate your business colleagues.
A good PowerPoint presentation starts with organizing your material. Adding clip art or photos to your slides will hold your listeners’ attention better than showing text only.
Connect with your audience and encourage them to participate in the discussion. You should not simply read the text on the slides. Your slideshow will be boring and your audience will be snoring.
Finally, whether you are presenting in a conference room or a classroom, keep in mind that listeners can only absorb a small amount of information in one sitting.
I found a great collection of templates and music loops for PowerPoint presentations. Template themes include: abstract, business, finance, general, nature, real estate, and travel. All themes are free to download and include two or more slides ready-to-use. Music loop soundtracks offer a variety: ambient, easy listening, high-energy motivational, jazz, new age, and more. Both the templates and music loops are free and available for download.
Visual aids provide big advantages. A well-crafted PowerPoint presentation will hold your viewers’ interest, and your key points will stick in their minds!
Construct a Website with KompoZer
ALL YOU REALLY NEED IS A ONE-PAGE WEBSITE to take your business online! Creating that new website is the next thing you will want to do after you have your domain name and web hosting. You can design your website using a simple web page editor and a ready-to-use web page template.
There is no need to pay hundreds of dollars for complex web design software or hire someone to make a website for you, especially in the early stages of your business when you’re on a tight budget.
Using what is called a WYSIWYG editor, you will create, edit and tweak your very first website. And when you are finished, you will publish it on the world wide web!
I recommend KompoZer, a well-known, powerful yet easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor. WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get. Sounds pretty high-tech, huh?
Basically, an editor is a piece of software that translates the text you write on your computer into HTML code that is recognized by your web hosting company. KompoZer is a free software designed for non-techies who need a very easy-to-learn, easy-to-use HTML editor.
So, the first thing you will need to do is download KompoZer onto your computer.
If you have your copy of the book that you see in the upper right-hand corner of this site, turn to page 18. You will find a link to a video showing you exactly how to download and install KompoZer. That will save you time and help you a lot.
If you don’t have this book yet, just fill in your name and email and click the ‘Send me the Report’ button. Your copy of Create Your First Website By 3:45 This Afternoon will be sent to you immediately.
Your next step is to start designing your webpage. Write your content and type it directly into KompoZer. Insert any images you wish to use, but keep them to a minimum. Too many graphics will make your website look unprofessional.
Use templates to get a quicker start on your website design. They will help you create an attractive, professional-looking site more easily and in less time.
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF CREATING YOUR WEBSITE IS TO START. Don’t allow yourself to get stuck in the paralysis of analysis. The important thing now is to take action and get your new site out onto the web for the world to see. You can make more revisions later… and you probably will.
KompoZer is a popular, easy-to-use web authoring system. The WYSIWYG editor makes it very user-friendly for non-techies because knowledge of HTML is not required. A simple understanding of KompoZer is enough to create a website. DOWNLOAD KompoZer HERE.
I hope you have enjoyed today’s post. If you have, please “like” it on Facebook or perhaps Tweet it!
“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want
and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.” ~ Tony Robbins
Color Matching Perfection
“Colors are the smiles of nature.” ~ Leigh Hunt, British poet
Take the guesswork out of color matching with Color Cop. It’s so easy to use! Left click on the eyedropper, drag it over the color on the screen that you want to match, and release the mouse button. Now you can see the exact RGB values for that color and the Hexadecimal code as well.
For example, the strawberry pink in this palette by CreativArty is a blend of R 252, G 75, and B 85. Its Hexadecimal code is #FC4B55.
Don’t accept ‘close enough’ as ‘good enough’ anymore! Find the exact match to a color in your website’s banner or logo easily – the way professional web designers do.
Download Color Cop (free) on their website 
and give it a try!
Get Free Software from Giveaway of the Day
Are you familiar with Giveaway of the Day? It is a popular enterprise in the software distribution world. Every day they offer — for FREE — licensed software you would have to buy otherwise! This is not just the free trial version. The software program is yours to keep.
Be nimble; be quick! Each software program is available to download and install for 24 hours only. Then it’s on to a new day and a new product.
If you want to know what other people think about the day’s selection, click the ‘Proceed to download page’ button and read the users’ ratings and comments.
Check out the Giveaway every day on this website – just scroll down the sidebar.
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