The need for most businesses and entities to sit down and brainstorm the needed marketing support in the form of advertising campaigns needed to give the needed boost to any product or service will always entail deliberate inputs coming from consumers and end-users. There is no doubt that building the brand or product awareness is important in any setting. Without it, a product will simply be left on the shelf gathering dust and may eventually expire without being given notice with regards to its benefits towards its target consumer market.

The promotional gimmicks can be anything ranging from radio advertising, television commercials or simple print advertising layouts. The presence of endorsers is a big bonus to such, considering that this is like tagging along with the famous person’s impact on the public. This is turn becomes beneficial for the endorser since he is able to gain some support in the form of products or fees from doing such endorsements, making it a two-way relationship where both the product or service and the chosen endorser like Dwayne Wade, Tiger Woods and John Cena, will merit a win-win situation.

There are a lot of referral programs available on the web. Some of the aggressive sites include Element 5, Earthlink, and Web Space Outlet. Each of these sites have their own unique procedures in enticing webmasters to become web affiliates and the process as to how they can earn. Normally, these would only entail scripts and pictures that should be placed on the main page of their websites. These in turn will provide visibility and allow potential re-direction of visitors of the said sites towards the mother site that has engaged in such affiliate referral programs.

If you are looking for a cheap (FREE) alternative to Microsoft Office, then Open Office is probably your best bet. It is true that it has bugs and that it is not as nice looking as MS Office. However, it does have practically the same functionality and will get the job done for less than one-fourth of the price – again, it is FREE.

So how do you overcome your employees’ possible resistance to Open Office? Point out these things and things might just get easier.

Make sure the default file type is set to Microsoft Office file types. I know what you’re thinking. Why do this when you want to switch to Open Office anyway? That’s because you need to introduce change slowly. The chances are that there will be interaction between people who use MS. As such, it is better to make sure that the files created by your employees are compatible with everyone. Besides, this will make them more feel comfortable in the beginning.

Point out the similarities! Many new Open Office users get really surprised that they can do practically everything they used to do with Microsoft Office. While some names are different (Word is Writer, Excel is Calc, etc.), the menus and even keyboard shortcuts are the same!

Use it as well. Walk the talk. Practice what you preach. Use all the clichés you want – all I want to point out is that if you expect your subordinates to use Open Office, you should do the same.

I believe that the transition to open source software is something that a lot of businesses – especially small businesses – will have to make sooner or later. The advantages in terms of cost far outweigh the preference for the proprietary software that we’ve all gotten used to. However, this does not mean that things will be easy. Indeed, the opposite is probably true. Just taking a look at what happened – and is happening – in my company is enough to tell me that.

If you are a business owner and you are convinced that open source is the way to go, you also have to realize that the responsibility of making the transition as smooth as possible lies on your shoulders. Actually, this is the first step in making things easier. Once you have acknowledged that fact, then you can plan your moves more deliberately.

One thing that I cannot emphasize enough is for you to give your employees enough time to let the information sink in. Sudden changes are NOT good. More so, you have to make sure to point out the rationale behind the change. Get your employees convinced about this and you’ll be okay.

In the next post, let’s take a look at specific software that can help you cut costs but not sacrifice efficiency.

Think about social media as a way to get feedback. Feedback is a very important part of any business. You may think that you are giving your customers what they want and need but you never really know until you hear from them. With everyone practically using these networks today, you should be able to use them to get into the minds of your customers. Of course, you have to do something with that feedback.

Use social media as a tool to brand yourself (or your business) as an authority in your field. The goal is to make your presence felt and make that presence an authoritative one. What you want is for people to automatically think of you when they think of your line of business. How do you do this? Write articles and publish them. Publish tweets that add to your reputation (realistic and honest tweets, of course). Bottom line: provide information that will help build up your reputation as an expert in the field.

Associate with the right people. Social media is a great way to connect with everyone. However, you have to make sure that you are reaching the right people – the customers that you want to keep or attract. Do not randomly interact with anyone; instead, focus your energies on those that matter.

You might have heard of the newest version, Windows 7, and you might even be considering upgrading your system. If so, you ought to know that just like most other Microsoft products, Windows 7 has different versions. Naturally, you have to know about each version in order to decide which one is right for you. Here’s a little information on the versions to help you decide.

There are six different versions:

1. Starter
2. Home Basic
3. Home Premium
4. Professional
5. Ultimate
6. Enterprise.

Obviously, if you are going to use the system for your business, you have to choose from the last three choices. I would suggest staying away from Windows 7 Enterprise, however, as it is geared towards big corporations. Aside from the additional features that you may not really need, the price is quite hefty as well. This leaves you with Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate.

Small businesses can benefit from Windows 7 Professional, although it does lack some features that the Ultimate version offers. One of these is BitLocker, which is essentially a full disk encryption feature. As such, experts suggest Ultimate over Professional even for small businesses.

There you have it – if you absolutely must upgrade, then you know which one to choose.

One, you can now copy and paste. Yup, the older version didn’t have this feature, making it virtually useless for notes and documents. I wonder why Apple didn’t think of including this feature in the original version?

Two, you can now use a landscape keyboard for other apps. This was doable in Safari from day one. However, other apps didn’t have this capability until now. For those with “fat fingers,” this is certainly a godsend.

Three, you can search more easily with Spotlight. Business contacts? No problemo. Meeting notes? Use Spotlight.

Four, you can find your phone in case you misplace it or lose it. Gadgets are susceptible to being lost. Either people tend to forget where they placed them or others “borrow” them. The iPhone is perhaps one of the most coveted gadgets these days, so it is quite easy to see how one can get lost. With the new feature of being able to track the phone down through the Internet, security is much better. Now you can rest easy that your business contacts will be retrievable.

There are lots more to be had with this new upgrade. If you don’t have an iPhone and you’ve been looking for a reason to get one, you don’t have to wait anymore!

For your web site that is and this can be caused by one of many reasons. Many businesses who rely on the internet normally have firms providing hosting services for their web sites. This being the case, having low traffic on your site may be a rising concern so if the web site itself is designed so good, then what the hell could be causing you money? Well, if you’d take the time to review your hosting company and needs, you might just find out that the type of service you’re paying for isn’t cut out for the increasing demand on your web, causing them to bog down and thus losing customers in the process. There are basically two types, managed and unmanaged hosting services and they each have their distinct pros and cons.

Managed hosting has the hosting company working with you, taking care of the server management, application updates and many other technicalities you might not to bother yourself with. This type of hosting is more costly yet it allows you to focus your energy to money making goals leaving the technical stuff to the technical guys. Unmanaged hosting is the best option for people and businesses who have their own web development people and wish to save a lot in terms of the service. They handle all aspects of the technical stuff except for owning the servers and machines themselves. It is cheaper and more cost effective yet as mentioned, you do need knowledgeable people on the area of web development to manage the whole shebang. Now you can see the distinct differences of managed vs. unmanaged hosting services to analyze and see which works for you and if you are getting enough from your investment for the service. Hopefully, you pinpoint the problem and resolve the issue enough to resolve your traffic problem, getting your web site back on the map of the ever-changing internet.