The Hungry Horse

Would you turn down a free tune-up for your car?

2006-06-20T13:21:00.000-06:00

Anyone for a free tune-up? I'm always amazed when I examine a customer's computer and find that they haven't downloaded and installed any of the many bug fixes and security patches provided by Microsoft. I can understand not wanting to spend a lot of money for security but this stuff is absolutely free. Microsoft has a vested interest in keeping their customers happy. So they invest millions of dollars in an effort to plug all of the security holes in their software. It seems incredulous that many people choose to ignore what could be the single best way to avoid computer melt-downs.

Microsoft makes it very easy. You can choose to update on your schedule or you can let your computer update itself automatically whenever a new patch is available. Microsoft even offers a tool which will download any new patches and to install them when its convenient.

You can access Microsoft Update from a number of locations:

1) The Control Panel (Add/Remove Programs > Add New Programs)
2) Internet Explorer (Tools > Windows Update)
3) The Start Button (Start > All Programs > Windows Update)
4) The Microsoft Website (microsoft.com > Microsoft Update

If you don't have the latest version of Update, you can download and install it from the Microsoft Website (number 4 in the list)

Microsoft lists the benefits of their Update software as the following:

* Improve your computer's health and security.
Regularly update your computer with the latest software from Microsoft to boost the security and reliability of your Windows PC.

* Easy and flexible.
Microsoft Update is easy to set up and use. Download and install updates automatically, or customize the choices that are right for you.

* New features, better performance.
Every month, Microsoft releases new drivers and software that increase the performance and functionality of your Windows-based computer. Get enhancements as soon as they are available using Microsoft Update.

So take advantage of Microsoft's generosity and get Update today. Its free, it offers more security against pernicious hacker attacks and it will make your computer more stable.

In our next post, we'll discuss preventive maintenance and what you can do to keep your computer running smoothly.

A timely backup can help you move forward

2006-06-18T18:02:00.000-06:00

If you use a computer in your work, you've probably experienced the upheaval in your work day when a serious computer malfunction occurs. It's happened to most of us - a program that suddenly stops responding, an undecipherable computer error message or even the infamous "blue screen of death".

When it happens you can basically throw the day's schedule out the window because your job has suddenly morphed into computer troubleshooter and repair technician.

It's almost impossible to avoid these problems altogether but you can take steps to minimize their occurrence. Over the next 2 weeks, The Hungry Horse Blog will present a series of posts designed to help you keep your computer running smoothly. Today's post: "A Timely Backup Can Help You Move Forward" is the perfect first step in common sense computer maintenance.

Why back up? The answer is pretty obvious. Lost data can kill or seriously cripple your business. A few minutes a day, or week, could save your bacon in more ways than one. If a hard drive crashes, your data could be simply unrecoverable. Are you prepared to loose all of the information on your computer?

Doing a backup is easy. In fact, you can use the Microsoft Task Scheduler to have backups done automatically. Backing up your computer should be done at least weekly and more is better.

Since 1.44 Floppies can no longer hold enough data for backing up today, I suggest that you purchase a recordable CD-ROM Drive. Make sure the CD drive you buy says "R/W" which means "Read/Write". Otherwise you won't be able to record or "burn" data onto it. You can purchase a good name brand CDR/W for $30 to $60 retail. One reason CD's are popular backup devices is because once the data is recorded, it can't be accidentally erased or corrupted and can be stored almost anywhere (except in the back window of your car in which case they turn into warped useless plastic :0{> ).

Another option is an external USB hard drive. They cost about $100 for 100 Gigabytes. This is a better method than a CDR/W Drive if you have a lot of data to back-up. You can also build your own external hard drive very easily. Just buy a standard hard drive plus an enclosure kit ($25) with a USB interface. It takes just a few minutes to install the hard drive into the enclosure and to plug it into your computers USB port.

The first time you backup your computer, be prepared to wait several hours (depending of course on the amount of data). Microsoft gives you several backup options (documents and settings; everything on your computer; or choose what you want to backup). The first time through, choose everything. This process will also create a bootable floppy disk with all you need to rebuild your computer if your system disk crashes.

For subsequent backups, you should specify the drives and folders you want to back up. If you choose "everything", the backup will also include the previous backup files which can be very large.

You should also choose the "incremental" backup mode which only backs up those files that have been added or changed since the last backup. Choosing these options will result in a much quicker backup.

Of course backing up your computer is just the first (albeit most important) step in proper computer maintenance. In our next post "Would you turn down a free tune-up for your car?", we'll discuss ways to keep your computer current and safe.

Using Google AdWords

2006-06-13T18:56:00.000-06:00

Do a search on Google and you're sure to see a column of sponsored ads running down the right hand side of the results page. Notice that each ad seems related to the search results? That's because Google has created technology that leverages their vast web site index into a pay-per-click advertising engine. The best part is that using Google AdWords is very easy and represents one of the best advertising bargains for companies of all sizes.

Creating your own Google AdWords campaign is very simple. Here are the steps.

1. If you don't already have one, create a Google Account. It's free and it opens the door to all sorts of Google services. Start here: https://adwords.google.com/

2. Once you have your account, its time to create a campaign. A campaign is a set of ads plus a list of keywords and phrases. The ads are simple affairs – about 10 words on 2 lines, plus a link to your web site. You can create several ads for a campaign and Google will test them for effectiveness and display the best ones. The keyword list can be as few or as many as you can think of and Google also provides tools that allow you to pick good ones.

3. The idea behind AdWords is a simple one. When someone uses one of your key words in a Google search, your ad appears. If they click your ad, Google charges you a small fee.

What’s a small fee you ask? Think of Google as an auction. Each keyword in your list might also be in someone else’s keyword list. So Google lets you decide how much you’re willing to pay for that click. That can be as little as 5 cents and as much as several dollars. The more you’re willing to spend, the better your chances of having the top AdWords ad. Your goal should be to be in the top 5 or 6. For really competitive markets – say real estate – that can be expensive. For other markets, it can be very inexpensive.

4. Have a limited budget? Google lets you set a daily budget for your clicks. That can be as little as $2.00 and as much as you’re willing to spend. Once your daily budget has been exhausted, your ad no longer appears for that day.

Google also lets you localize your ads. Your ads might be for service only in your metro area or state. Or you might want to reach only certain countries.

Google provides copious tools to monitor your campaigns effectiveness and a reports feature that lets you get a good handle on what works and what doesn’t.

All-in-all, AdWords can be a very effective and inexpensive adjunct to your other marketing efforts.

That car parked on your street could be stealing your identity.

2006-05-21T13:28:00.000-06:00

A few days ago, a news item in the local paper reported that a woman called police when she noticed a suspicious car parked in front of her house with someone inside. When the police arrived, they found the driver on his laptop "borrowing" the woman's wireless connection and internet access.

Seems this is happening all across the country. The burgeoning market for wireless networks has created a new category of crime - bandwidth theft.

While it doesn't seem very threatening at first blush, the realty is more frightening. Most wireless networks are not secure. Anyone with a Wi-Fi capable laptop can have access to all of your personal and financial data by just parking near your home. It’s comparable to leaving your financial files on the front sidewalk for anyone to steal.

To facilitate the installation of a wireless network, manufacturers have simplified the task. Often it’s just "plug it in and turn it on". These devices are made to work with default settings such as log-on passwords and network name.

Examine the settings of most computers on a home network and you'll find the name of that network is 'MSHOME" or 'WORKGROUP'. Hackers know this too. It’s also easy to access your router. Most routers are shipped to the stores with a default password of 'ADMIN' and a default access URL of http://192.168.1.1. Hackers know this as well.

While not a fail safe solution, home network users can protect themselves against the vast majority of random 'bandwidth thieves' by making two simple changes. First, change your network name (on all the computers in your network) to something only you could every guess. Then change the log-on password of your router to something unique as well.

There are other safety measures you could take, such as unplugging your wireless access point when you're not using it or installing firewall software, but these two simple steps will go a long way to protect you from random hackers.

Turn Teaching into a Marketing Tool

2006-05-20T10:06:00.000-06:00

Got the itch to teach? If you do, you can scratch that itch and get more customers at the same time. For the last several years, I've been teaching web site courses at the local community college. This experience has benefited my business (The Small Business Depot) in several ways. First, it's forced me to stay current regarding various internet technologies. If you have to teach a subject like Blogs and RSS feeds, you really have to understand it. Currently, I've signed up to teach a wide variety of subjects ranging from simple HTML website design, to database driven websites. (See list)

1. Basic introduction to the internet
2. How to find what you want on the internet
3. Basic Web Design Techniques
4. Designing web sites with Microsoft Front Page
5. Designing web sites with Dream Weaver
6. Better websites Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
7. The secret to using photography on your website
8. Creating Dynamic Websites using PHP
9. Creating Dynamic Websites using PERL
10. Creating Content Driven websites using MYSQL
11. How to choose a website hosting provider
12. Effective Website promotion
13. How to create and maintain your own Blog

But the bigger surprise as a result of my teaching has been the increase in consulting and web development opportunities I've had. Teaching has turned out to be a tremendous business generator. Many of my students and the organizations they work for have come to me as a result of my teaching.

In addition to courses offered "for credit", many community colleges offer courses to the general public under the heading of "continuing education". Often, a teaching degree is not required for continuing education courses, just a knowledge of the subject and a modest ability to teach.

So if you have the itch and a modest teaching ability, turn that itch into a new marketing and business creation tool.

Don't Forget Old School Marketing

2006-05-19T14:38:00.000-06:00

Running an on-line business is not as easy as Hollywood would make it seem. Having a website is no guarantee of instant wealth, a home in the Hamptons and a new Ferrari. Most websites get pitifully little traffic. Of course there's no dearth of free (and not-so-free) advice out there on how to drive traffic to your website. Most of this advice centers on internet related methods such as email marketing, search engine optimization, article marketing and search engine related advertising such as pay-per-click.

While all of those are well worth trying, internet marketers seemed to have forgotten some of the basic marketing 101 techniques - what I call old school. Following are a list of my favorite "old school" marketing techniques.

1. Press Release. Yes, they do still exists and are used by big corporations to announce everything and anything from new product launches, quarterly sales results, upcoming events and employee movements. Anyone in marketing before 1990 used press releases as a major marketing tool. There are a number of press release distribution sites on-line which will get your message out for as little as $70. Any marketer worth his salt will tell you that press is better and more effective than advertising - and a whole lot cheaper.

2. Local media. Most small businesses sell primarily to local customers. Your local newspaper is a good way to reach them. If your organization is community oriented, you can often get free press for upcoming events or people transactions. Make a friend of the local business reporter. Take him or her to lunch. Start by sending a friendly email complimenting them on a story. Follow up a day or two later with some related information. Don't be too pushy. But recognize that they are not the enemy. They are actually looking for stories all the time. Their job is tough. You can make it easier and help your business at the same time. Try to educate them on your industry. The same can be done with local radio or TV personalities.

3. Literature. No, not Moby Dick. I mean product brochures, flyers, catalogs, etc. These used to be the staple of any advertising campaign. Now, many small and mid size businesses have dispensed with these items in favor of web pages. How often have you emailed a business asking for information only to be told to look at their website? If I'd wanted to look at their site, I wouldn't have asked them to send me something.

Literature should be designed to support marketing and sales through all stages of the process - initial response, follow-up, close. There are on-line printing businesses that will turn your web pages into flyers, leaflets and brochures. Print-on-demand has significantly lowered the cost.

4. Trade Shows. Yes, this is a big expense, especially with the cost of transportation these days. But if your industry is having a trade show in your area, load up the family van and go. If you have to travel to another city, try and setup meetings with your customers in that area. Trade shows help generate business, they give you a chance to talk to real people face to face and can help generate great new product ideas. They also help you understand what your competition is up to. Compressed into a few days, you can learn and accomplish a great deal.

Old School marketing is still effective. Don't discard the tried and true for the latest pop up or viral marketing technique. A good marketer uses all of the tools in his arsenal.

Small Business Depot gets News Feed

2006-05-11T17:41:00.000-06:00

One of the great things about a Blog is its ability to syndicate its content. This means that other people can subscribe to your Blog and have your content sent to them whenever they open their browser - without having to visit your Blog. The technology that makes this happen is called RSS (Really Simple Syndication).

But it would be nice also if you could have your latest blog displayed on your website as well. So my task this week was to find a great solution to this requirement that was free (my favorite word) and easy to set up.

I found a solution at a site called Source forge and a product called MagpieRSS. Magpie is an RSS and ATOM parser for PHP. This means that Magpie can parse feeds in either RSS or ATOM format. Atom is essentially a later RSS standard that unifies several different feed standards. Since my Blog used Atom for its feed, this was a definite requirement. But Magpie handles the older RSS standard as well.

Downloading and installing Magpie was very easy. You just download the Magpie zip file and extract its contents into a folder in your web tree. If you're using FrontPage for your website development on your computer, just put the new magpie folder in your public_html or www folder.

Magpie came with easy to understand setup instructions which basically involved defining a path variable so that magpie knows where its php scripts are located in your website tree.

After that, I just created a new web page (php extension) which would hold my Blog posts. The php code is very simple and there are examples in the magpie documentation.

So when I finishing writing this post and publish it to my blog, my website will automatically receive the same content. Makes my life just that much easier.

Google Maps and your Data

2006-05-10T11:33:00.000-06:00

My brother-in-law recently asked for help developing a new website. The site (FSBOVaBeach.com) is to be a real estate website focusing on "for sale by owner" listings. Sounded like an interesting project, so I agreed.

One of our first decisions was to provide a map showing the location of each property for sale. I quickly found a solution using Google Maps. Google offers a fairly easy API for their Map feature and after about an hour, we had live maps for each listing.

The first obstacle we had to overcome was the fact that while we had address data, Google maps runs off of map coordinates (longitude and latitude). So we needed a way to convert from one to the other. There's actually a term for this - geocoding - which involves a database and its own API.

The second obstacle was that while I had committed to creating the site using PHP, the best geocoding solution I could find was a Perl module. Viable PHP solutions required a newer version of PHP than provided by my host provider.

So I inserted an iframe in the PHP property listing page and tied it to a Perl script. The Perl script accesses the geocoder Perl module and its associated database to convert street addresses to lat/long data. This data is subsequently fed to the Google Maps API to create the map.

To use Google Maps, one must have a Google account (free), expressly identify the URL to contain the map, and insert a Google supplied id string into the page.

The whole project was easy and took about an hour. It might have been faster if I hadn't caught on that Google requires the lat/long data be provided in long/lat sequence.

Google maps offer a lot of promise. One can theoretically connect any database of address data to Google maps.

Indexmysite re-imagined and re-hosted

2006-05-10T11:17:00.000-06:00

Sometimes circumstances force you to get better. Such was the case for Indexmysite - our remote site indexing and search service. Indexmysite has been servicing customers for almost 10 years, providing great ad-free search capability for sites large and small. The site is almost totally self-sustaining allowing users to create new accounts, index websites, and control such things as 'which pages get indexed' and 'when indexes get refreshed'.

For these last 10 years, the service and website has been hosted on a 2-processor server in Pleasanton California. While providing good service, we've wanted to increase the server's performance and also make our service and support more robust. But the old adage - "if it ain't borke, don't fix it" - prevailed.

But all things eventually end and the server host finally gave up the ghost (so to speak). So we decided to move Indexmysite to a new server farm in Atlanta. The newer facility provides powerful 4-processor xenon servers, 24/7 support and a full regimine of IT capabilities not available to us before. We can now offer our customers an even stronger committment to 100% uptime and great customer support. Plus, indexing and searches are considerably faster.

Of course, moving the server meant making some drastic changes to the front-end. So we redesigned the website to make it more inviting and easier to use. We said farewell to an old design which had served us faithfully for 10 years and embarked on a newer, fresher Indexmysite.

BarsnStripes.com Redux

2005-12-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

Each new website I've developed allows me the opportunity to use all of the new skills I've acquired on previous sites. And so it is with barsnstripes.com redux. The old site was getting a little stodgy and I wanted to increase the sales conversion rate for the site so barsnstripes.com has been reborn.

I have also gotten over my reluctance to use iframes (IE style inline or floating frames) because as far as I can determine, all of the major browsers now support them. So the new barsnstripes.com website features an iframe in which I present all of the various site pages.

I have also made extensive use of div popup panels. I have found that div panels offer a convenient method of presenting more data than would normally fit on the screen without cluttering up a page or necessitating the user to scoll down a very long page.

In essence, here's how div popup panels work. Think of a div panel as a mini-web page that is hidden until the user passes the mouse pointer over a hyperlink. Then the panel appears as if by magic. I stack many div panels on top of one another in a small part of the screen. Its like having a stack of papers. I have a bulleted list of links referring to each panel in the stack. As the user passes the mouse pointer over each link, the corresponding div panel appears as if it has been shuffled to the top of the stack. By using div panels, I can put a large quantity of information in a small space and its still neatly organized.

Div panels work especially well with FAQ's and glossaries.

From a developer's standpoint, div popup panels are easy to implement. I use a small javascipt which hides and displays the panels. But its also possible to do it with stylesheet code. In fact, I use the stylesheet method for the main menu on many of my websites. Its so much easier than rollerover images using javascript.

A div panel is simply a block of html that starts with <DIV>

and ends with </DIV>. The div tag has attributes that specify visibility, width, height, and x and y screen coordinates for location. The hyperlink that pops up the div panel uses the onmouseover event to run a small bit of javascript that changes the div tag attributes.

If you have comments or suggestions about this site, I'd love to hear them. Please send them to mike@smallbizdepot.com

BargainGiftShops.com has arrived

2005-10-18T20:19:00.000-06:00

BargainGiftShops (BGS) had been an idea festering in the back of my mind for at least a year. I had anticipated that the site I was envisioning would be laboriously difficult to pull off. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised how smoothly development would go. There were no technical difficulties relating to the site's design and I was able to reuse several parts from previous work - specifically the MYSQL database GUI I had created for several other website customers, and my trusty old Indexmysite indexing software.

eCatalog
The Database GUI (something I call eCatalog) made the creation of the underlying data structure and the administration tools a snap. In fact, it took only about an hour before I had that part of the design finished and ready for data entry.

Commission Junction
The second hurdle was also easily overcome. I had expected that the accumulation of affiliate programs would be very time consuming. But to my luck, I stumbled onto a site called Commission Junction. CJunction is a service designed to bring affiliate marketers (People with products to sell) and affiliate publishers (people who want to earn commissions by displaying ad banners) together. A membership in CJuntion also came with a very large database of affiliate programs from which to choose. Plus, they handle all the messy financial details like commission tracking and payout. That way I don't have to try and collect from 500 individual affiliate marketers.

The task of signing up affiliates and acquiring the necessary banner gifs and link codes was also made possible because I could do it all from one website (CJunction). CJunction also provides all of the tracking and admin. tools I need to manage the site.

Google ADSense
One thing I'm particularly pleased with is the combination of affiliate ads and Google ADSense ads which I think is unique to BGS. When someone views one of my pages, there are two ways I can make money. If they click an affiliate ad and buy something from the affiliate website, I earn a commission. But if they instead click a Google ADSense ad, I get money just from the click.

Search Feature
One problem a site like mine has is the categorization of stores. For example, should a store that makes Star Wars memorabilia be placed under the 'Collectibles' category or the 'Gifts' category, or maybe even the 'Toys' category. Many times there is no one single category that's correct for a store. My solution was to incorporate a great search feature (from my IndexMySite business) into the design. So if one searches for 'Chocolate' for instance, they will see all of the categories where Chocolate is mentioned.

I have added about 400 stores so far and I expect to get to about 500 in the next day or two. But the store is shoppable now so here it is.

Tell your friends and neighbors.

Mike Tyler

BargainGiftShops.com taking shape

2005-10-13T18:06:00.000-06:00

For the last week of so I have been busy signing up affiliates for my new affiliate mall - Bargaingiftshops.com. At last count, they now total 218 and I'm nowhere near done. I'm estimating that by the time its ready to go public, the mall will number close to 1000 different affiliates. That equates to 10's of thousands of products available at reduced or discounted prices. Whew!

The mall will be substantially different than many of the cookie cutter malls out there already. This mall will have a number of features unique to this website, including a local search capability and some free stuff. Plus there will be a store rating service which will allow customers to rate the stores they've visited and to leave comments. This will be of great help to new customers.

Future plans call for a newsletter announcing new stores and changes to existing promotions. There will also be a BargainGifts Blogs for those users who want the latest news delivered to their websites automatically.

Current plans are to launch the BargainGiftShops website early next week and the blog the following week. For those who want to get a sneak peek at the mall as its being created, go to http://www.bargaingiftshops.com. Excuse the dust. Things will change as development continues.

Mike

Affiliate Programs and Online Promotion

2005-10-09T20:17:00.000-06:00

Before Google’s immensely popular ADSence program provided a low cost pay per click advertising opportunity for ecommerce websites, there were affiliate programs. Despite the success of ADSense, I believe that an affiliate program is still a powerful way to market your products.

Affiliate Programs

What are affiliate programs? Essentially it’s a commissioned sales program which uses banner advertisements on one websites to sell products on another. Here’s basically how they work.

Let’s suppose you have a product that you want to sell using the internet and a website. Ideally, you would like to have as many other websites linking to yours as possible. Inbound links – and to a lesser degree reciprocal links – are a stable of internet marketing.

One way of convincing other websites to link to yours is to pay them. You could pay them for every click on the link that brings a customer to your site, or you could pay a small commission for every sale that is made as a result of that click.

Affiliate programs are based upon the idea of paying a commission on each sale made. The commission is paid to the website from which the customer came via your link. An affiliate link is usually a banner ad (small image) with a link and the website’s ID code embedded in it. This id code is used to identify from which website the buyer came.

Finding affiliate partners

Success of any affiliate program is based largely on the numbers. You must find a large number of websites willing to show your ad banner. Secondly, a good affiliate program needs to make sure commissions are tracked properly and payouts are made promptly. To facilitate this process, one could utilize a company such as “Commission Junction”.

Commission Junction is an affiliate service company which provides the necessary payment tracking and payout. It also facilitates the process by standardizing the affiliate programs of all its advertisers. If you have a product you want to sell Commission Junction will help you create an affiliate program and then list your website in its directory. On the other end of the process, if you have a website and you are willing to include banner advertisements in exchange for commissions, you can find suitable partners in Commission Junctions directory. Commission junction will also handle all of the tracking and payouts.

Affiliate Websites

A fallout of this process is the emergence of affiliate websites. An affiliate website is a website consisting solely of affiliate ads. The website has no other product to sell other than advertising space on its website. An analogy would be a billboard company. An example of an affiliate site is Bargain Gift Shops (http://www.bargaingiftshops.com)

Mike Tyler

Justifying Point of Sale for your Business

2005-10-07T18:33:00.000-06:00

Budgeting for, choosing, and implementing your new point of sale (POS) process is not a trivial exercise. You need a well conceived and well executed plan. Choosing the wrong POS for your business can be a business killer. Choosing the right one can help make your business grow to the next level.

When you make the decision to use POS, you have essentially decided to change the way you do business. POS is not simply another piece of hardware and software. Think of POS as a process, not a system. The POS process effects your transaction flow, your recordkeeping, your employee management, your ordering and receiving process, your accounting - in other words, every facet of your business.

You should approach the decision of when and if to use POS with the care and due diligence it deserves. How you go about deciding says a lot about whether POS will work for you. If you do not have the discipline to undertake a formal decision-making process, you may not have the discipline that POS requires. POS requires disciplined business decisions. It imposes formality onto your business. That’s one of its greatest strengths.

Part of the decision to use POS is a financial one. Can I afford it? Can I afford not to? How long will it take me to get a return on my investment? These are questions you need answers to before you make the final decision. Waiting until after you made your hardware and software purchases may ultimately result in failure.

Step by Step Approach

Successfully inplementing POS in your business requires a plan which outlines the necessary steps you need to take. Any good plan should include the following steps.

Understand your business
Identify the problem
Identify the solutions
Understand the benefits
Calculate your return on investment
Choose a POS vendor.

Understand your business

The first step requires you to get a handle on the workings of your business. You may think you know everything about your operation already, but if your business is large enough to benefit from a POS system, you probably don’t know as much as you think you do.

Identify the problem

You might ask yourself "Why am I doing this? Why do I need POS?" The answer should be this "Because I have a business problem I’m trying to fix." If you do not have specific problems in mind then you may be choosing the wrong solution. The POS you choose may be perfect for a problem you don’t have. This step involves identifying the problem(s) you want to address and solve with your POS.

Identify the solutions

Once you’ve identified the problem(s) you’re trying to solve, the next step is to understand how to fix them. Create a Needs Fulfillment document listing your problems and potential solutions. List as many potential solutions for each problem that you can think of. There’s usually more than one way to skin a cat. The more possible solutions you can think of increases your chances of finding a POS vendor who has a total solution.Of course, you will need some idea of what’s available out there in the POS marketplace. There are several ways to get this kind of information. One is to use resources like Google to find POS suppliers and become familiar
with their capabilities. Another is to hire a POS consultant. Talk to a business aquaintance who is already using POS. The Small Business Depot’s downloadable eBook POS for Beginners is also a good place to start. (http://www.barsnstripes.com).

Understand the benefits

In order to calculate your return on investment you need to compare the cost of doing business the way you do it now with the cost of doing business with a POS solution in place. We’ve identified three classifications of benefits derived from POS: Cost benefits, Revenue benefits, and other (intangable benefits).

Calculate your return on investment

The first step in calculating your ROI is to calculate the impact a POS will have on your costs. For example, POS can help reduce your business expenses. Now it is time to quantify those savings. Now that you’ve calculated your cost savings and revenue gains, you can estimate your return on investment. Your return on investment is simply your cost savings plus your revenue gains minus your cost of POS.

ROI = Net cost savings + net revenue gains - POS cost

Of course this is just an estimate. The influence of POS on your business will depend on these and a lot of other factors. But if you do your homework and choose your POS vendor wisely there is a very good possibility that your POS will provide a handsome return on your investment.

Choose a POS vendor.

Once you’ve determined that POS is justified, and you have determined what problems you need fixing, only then should you go about the task of selecting a vendor and acquiring POS products.

Is Computerized Point of Sale (POS) for you?

2005-10-05T22:07:00.000-06:00

Most large retail stores have migrated from the old trusty cash register to more modern computerized point of sale (POS) systems. This post is an excerpt from POS for Beginners which explores computerized POS technology and provides a roadmap for anyone contemplating acquiring POS systems for their own business.

IS POS for you?

Do you own a retail store? Do you currently use a cash register to ring up sales? If so, you may want to explore the feasibility of converting to a computerized point of sale system. POS systems are finding their way into all sorts of businesses large and small. It may be just the right ingredient to jumpstart your salon or childcare business. A POS system can help your business grow to the next level.

If the thought has crossed your mind while waiting in the checkout line at your local food chain "Can one of those POS systems help my business?", then you owe it to yourself and your business to find out.

What is POS?

Point of Sale (POS) -- The physical location of a transaction, but usually refers to any device or system that is used to record the transaction for the retailer. Sometimes used to classify all of these together. (I.e. the POS industry); e.g. the grocery store checkout register or the retail checkout counter.

For the sake of this article, POS systems will refer -- not to the traditional mechanical cash register, but to the newer class of computer-based POS systems. The term "cash register" will refer to the traditional mechanical or electronic cash register that is not based on a computer.

Evolution of POS

Most people type on computers these days. For a long time, the typewriter manufacturer’s tried to resist the tide by touting the new features of their products. Some added memory and LCD displays to make their typewriters more "computer like". In the end, they lost the battle. While typewriters can still be found, by and large computer word processing has won the battle.

Why? Because word processing provided much more: Spell checking, different fonts, graphics, pagination, etc. Typewriters couldn’t compete. We’re seeing the same battle now between mechanical cash registers and computer-based POS systems.

Benefits of POS

A Cash Register is dumb. It tells you only how much money your business has taken in during the day. It can tell you that you took in $350, but it can’t tell you how much of that money is profit. It can’t tell you how much inventory you have on the shelf or what it’s currently worth. It can’t tell you how many bottles of soda your business sold today or which favors are more popular. A computerized POS can instantly tell you that you have $350 in your cash drawer. It will tell you that $225 of that $350 is profit. It can tell you that you sold 123 bottles of soda today and that you still have 246 bottles on the shelf. It can tell you that your customers favor Coke over Pepsi. It can also tell you what items you should order today because your stock is low.

While cash registers are improving, they’re still being out paced by the rapid development of POS. According to Gartner Inc., a research and advisory firm, in a study released in 2002, of 300 retailers surveyed, 81 percent expected to see POS upgrades pay for themselves within two years.

Here are just a few benefits of POS over mechanical cash registers.

This post is an excerpt from an ebook entitled POS for beginners. This eBook is available online and can be downloaded freely from http://www.barsnstripes.com/.

How to get your products into Froogle.

2005-10-02T10:56:00.000-06:00

How to get your products into Froogle.

Anyone who has ever tried to get their products listed in Froogle will testify to the difficulty of the task. Many have tried and given up half way through the process because it seems an almost impossible task.

In truth, the task isn’t all that difficult. The main obstacle is the on-line Froogle documentation. It would seem that there was no one in charge who knew anything about human interfaces or even how to write a plain, unambiguous sentence.

After wading through the process myself, I realized that there was a need for something a little simpler. By following the simple steps in this document, you should be able to get your website’s products listed in Froogle in no time.

Step 1. Create a text document which lists your product information.

Froogle requires that this text document be a tab-delimited document containing certain product fields. The easiest way to produce this document is by using either Microsoft Word, or Microsoft Excel, although you can use any application that can produce tables and has a table to text conversion feature. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll use Microsoft Word in our example.

Create a blank Microsoft Word document. In this document, create a table, 7 columns wide. The number of rows in this table should be the number of products you have plus 1 (The first row of the table will be for column names).

In the first row, type the column names. Here is a list of the column names in the required order plus the definition of each column. (note: use lower case)

product_url: The complete url (starting with http) of this products website
page.name: The name of this product.
description: The description of this product. (About 128 characters long).
price: The price of this product. You can leave off the $ sign.
image_url: The complete url of an image on your website for this product.
category: If your products are divided in to categories on your website.
offer_id: Differentiates the price offer on the Froogle if different.

In each succeeding row, after the first row, enter your product information. Each row is a separate and distinct product.

Step 2: Convert your Word table into a tab-delimited text file.

First save your Word document. You may have to adjust or correct it and you might change prices, or add or delete products in the future.
Next, select the table. (Word’s Table>Select>table menu).
Then convert the table to a tab-delimited text file. (Word’s Table>Convert>Table to text menu). On this menu screen, choose the tab character as the delimiter.
Once the table has been converted, save the Word document as a plain text document. (Word’s File>Save as> save as type: Plain text.
Save this file in the same folder you saved the Word doc version of the file.

Step 3: Create a Google Merchant Account for Froogle.

Unfortunately it seems that the Froogle team requires a separate account. I have an Adsense account and a Sitemaps account but I needed to create yet another Google account for my Froogle setup. It is the same company -- isn’t it?

Anyway, to get to the Froogle merchant page, go to Google’s Home page.

Click Froogle (above the search box)
Click Information for merchants (at the bottom of the page).
Click the Get Started button.
Fill out the registration form and click the "I agree" button at the bottom.

Froogle will email you if you are accepted. If you have filled out the form correctly, you will be. You may have to choose a different email than you’ve used for your other Google accounts. If necessary, create a new Hotmail account or Google Gmail account to get an email address you haven’t used with Google.

Step 4: Registering a feed

These next few steps are agonizingly slow. Each step requires you wait for a response from Froogle which can be a few hours or a few days. Getting this done will require some patience and persistence.

After you have been accepted, return to the merchant log-in page.

Go to Google’s Home page and click the Froogle link.
Click the Information for merchants link.
Log in with your email address and password
Click the store link you want to register a feed for. Your stores are listed on the left.
Next, click the Register for a new product feed link (on the right side of the page near the top.
Fill out the form and click Register New Feed. Make sure the file name matches the tab-delimited file you created in Step 2.

Step 5: Set up your FTP account with Froogle

After you have logged in, click the View FTP info link. Fill out and submit this form to create your new FTP account. Now wait. It can take several hours before Froogle actually sets up your FTP account.

Step 6: Upload your file to Froogle.

In your browser, go to ftp://hedwig.google.com/. If required, enter your FTP password.
Open the folder that contains the tab-delimited file you created in Step 2. Drag and drop this file from your folder onto the FTP browser window.

Step 7: Now wait.

It can take several days before Froogle approves your feed. You may get alerts from Froogle that tell you you’ve done something wrong. If so, you’re at the mercy of Froogle’s help documentation.

Hope this helps.

Mike Tyler

Mike Tyler is a technology specialist with over 35 years experience. He currently operates a website hosting and development business at http://www.homepagekeeper.com/ and a technology consulting site at http://www.smallbizdepot.com/

A Short Description of Blogging

2005-10-01T14:11:00.000-06:00

Anyone who has had their eyes and ears open for the last year has witnessed the explosion in blogging. News programs on TV have even added blog post to their sources of news. It’s a phenomenon that's hard to ignore.

What is blogging?
Simply put, it’s a daily posting of someone's thoughts on a web page. Postings are like small articles from the Blog's author. The subject matter of these postings is as varied as human beings themselves. Some are trivial - some of more substance. This is our first blog so it probably tends more toward the former than the latter.

Blog Syndication
A primary feature of blogs is that they are syndicated. They are available for others to use. In other words, if someone wanted to use what I've written here, they are free to do so as long as they give me attribution.

Blog technology even makes it easy to do that. Users can subscribe to blogs they like. Any new postings on those blogs are automatically retrieved by the user’s computer to be read at their leisure. In other words, they don't have to search each day for new stuff - it's automatically sent to the user.

RSS Feed Aggregator
The technology used to perform this miracle is something called RSS (Remote Site Syndication). The software on the user’s computer that fetches the various blog postings is called an aggregator or feed reader. In other words, it aggregates all the new stuff (daily postings from the various subscribed-to blogs) and presents it to the user neatly organized in topic folders. A popular blog aggregator can be had from Pluck.com. And it’s free.

Blogs are a great way to keep informed and up to date on the various topics you're interested in. From politics to science, technology to commerce, blogs provide a wealth of information for free.

If you have your own website, you can even use this information on your own websites to keep your visitors coming back for more. So if you're not already a blogger, you should seriously take a look. It’s easy to do and fun to boot.

Take care.

Mike Tyler