There are a lot of different ways to get good pictures for you blog.  If you just need standards photos to illustrate a point, stock photos are often a good way to go.  You can usually find stock photos for fairly inexpensive (blogger-affordable) prices, or you can use photos that are in the public domain.

Despite what many people think, not everything that appears online is in the public domain.  The public domain is essentially everything that is not restricted by copyright — either because it’s too old, or because the copyright holder (usually the photographer or artist) has voluntarily given up their rights to the work.  There are plenty of websites where you can get copyright free images, but if you are not sure, it is always safer to ask the artist or photographer.

Sometimes the better and safer way to get images is to take them yourself.  If you blog about something such as your pets or your current craft projects, this will be fairly easy to do — and make more sense than using someone  else’s images, anyway.  But you can also take this approach if you plan your blog posts out ahead of time.

You don’t need a fancy camera — just a little point and shoot will do.  Speaking from experience, do be sure that you have a good protective camera case.  Good camera bags offer padding as protection from the camera getting dropped or bumped when you carry it around.  Since you will get the best pictures if you keep your camera with you at all times, to always have it if you happen to spot a good shot, it is important to ensure your camera is protected.

Taking pictures for your blog can be a lot of work, but you’ll find that it’s rewarding and the pictures make your blog more interesting.  Good luck!

Technorati Tags: camera bags, camera case, copyright free, public domain

There are a lot of options available these days if you want your own website.  But a blog can also be just as fun, not to mention free in some cases.  So which should you choose?

A blog is pretty easy to design and use, and if you just want a  sort of online journal or a way to keep friends updated on the happenings in your life, a blog is probably the easiest way to go about this.  Some blog platforms — Blogger and WordPress are the most commonly known ones — offer free blogs hosted on their site, which means that you get a subdomain of theirs (i.e., myblog.blogspot.com).

You can also have a blog but with your own FTP service.  This means that  although you use the blog platform for designing and updating your blog, it is uploaded via FTP to a hosting account that you have with a different company.

Finally, there is the traditional website option, which doesn’t look anything like a blog.  These sites are often much more difficult to design and update, which is why many FTP and SFTP hosting providers also offer software and other tools to help you build a professional-looking website.  The other alternative is, after all, hiring an expensive graphic designer to put together your website for you!

These are the basic differences between blogs and websites.  In general, blogs have a more casual feel to them, and are best left to amateurs and casual users.  Websites, on the other hand, have a more professional feel and make a much better representation for a business — with the exception of the business blog, which is usually part of or linked to the business’s website, and maintained to help promote a business.

Technorati Tags: blog platforms, FTP service, SFTP hosting

If we get tickets outside of business hours, the email is sent to a pager. Currently, there are three of us that rotate the pager around. Problems don’t come in often, but they do come in. You definitely don’t want to be stuck at the theater in the middle of a movie when the pager goes off. If the problem is severe enough, we need to actually show up on site. Luckily that doesn’t happen often.

Technorati Tags: business ftp site, FTP hosting, maintenance scripts

I really don’t want to try to get a traditional bank loan.  I was thinking about a home equity line of credit but I’m not sure if that is the route that I want to take either.  I have heard about something called a merchant cash advance loan but I’m not exactly sure what it is.  I know that it is has something to do with getting cash in exchange for a portion of your future credit card receipts.  I don’t really understand and I’ll definitely have to check into it more.

I also need to do a little checking into my retail merchant account.  I realize that I don’t understand what is going on with it nearly as much as I thought I did.  There are all kinds of fees associated with it.  I don’t know if that is par for the course or if I would be better off taking my business somewhere else.  I wonder there are any better options out there.  I just need to do absolutely everything that I can to save money.

Technorati Tags: merchant cash advance loan, retail merchant account

Filing your taxes online is easy for a number of reasons.  For one thing, you don’t have to worry about making errors on forms and having to rewrite out the entire thing.  Nor do you have to worry about writing numbers legibly, tax returns getting lost or taking too long in the mail, or making it to the post office before they close on Tax Day.  And filing online makes doing your taxes especially easy, because you usually don’t have to do the math yourself — the program or online form does it for you.

There are a couple of ways to file your taxes online.  You can buy programs such as Turbo Tax, which is probably the most popular tax filing software.  I believe these types of software give the choice between printing out the completed forms and mailing them, or filing online at no additional charge.

Of course, programs like Turbo Tax cost money, and the truth is you may not have to spend money to file your taxes online.  In Colorado, I can file my state taxes online on the state’s website at no charge.  I haven’t checked in the last couple of years, but it used to take some research to find a way to file Federal taxes online for free.  It might be easier now though.

You may even be able to find some tax services online.  The Internet is full of online tips and advice on filing your taxes, whether as an individual or a business, some of which costs money and some of which doesn’t.  Cost segmentation services may or may not be available online, depending on the company’s feelings about doing business virtually, as cost seg engineering can be pretty involved — these days information is easier than ever to share between client and consultant, but many people prefer to meet face-to-face with their clients.

What other tax-related tasks do you prefer to perform online?

filing taxes online, Tax Day, Turbo Tax, cost segmentation services, cost seg engineering

Technorati Tags: cost seg engineering, cost segmentation services, filing taxes online, Tax Day, Turbo Tax

When her best friend Mabel mentioned that her daughter was teaching a couple of Internet courses at the local community college, Gram wanted to take one of the courses, but was a bit leery of going by herself. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to one of them. I love spending time with my grandmother, so of course I said yes.

Becky, the instructor, runs her own Tampa online marketing company that specializes in local search optimization.  She was teaching part time at the college in our area of Tampa. Website marketing may have been her area of expertise, but she was a fountain of knowledge on all things computer related.

Gram is loving the course and has become quite the expert herself on the computer and Internet while I am finding the course helpful in brushing up on my computer skills. I already have us signed up for the next class being offered in the New Year. It’s my Christmas gift to Gram and I know she’s going to love it.

Technorati Tags: local search optimization, Tampa online marketing, Tampa website marketing

Technorati Tags: Tampa Internet advertising site, Tampa link building, Tampa online marketing