Sanders Media

Whenever someone contracts me to build their website, they often don’t have an idea what they want. Here are some things to think about.

Who do you want to attract? Think about who your best customers are. Your site should cater to them. A good example would be MySpace and LinkedIn. They cater to two completely different demographics. As a result, their sites are designed and arranged accordingly.

How are you going to use the website? Some companies don’t need their website to generate leads. The site is a brochure for their expertise. Other companies rely heavily on online leads. They need their website to attract customers. In other words, the website is part of their sales force.

How will a website advance your company’s goals? Websites won’t reach their full potential when companies don’t think through the process. You must decide how you want it to integrate with your overall company mission.

If you take the time to prepare, a website can be one of your best investments.

I know most of you have heard of MySpace and Facebook, and you may think they are for people with too much time on their hands. Have you considered how they can help your business? You know the old adage, “It’s not what you know, but who.” Well, the best way to meet that “who” is to expand your network. 

MySpace and Facebook, along with LinkedIn, are providing new ways to find new clients, employees or professional contacts. While MySpace and Facebook may be more geared to the “social” aspect of social networking, they can still be useful. LinkedIn may be the best solution for professionals because it is strictly for business.

It never hurts to expand your network, and the internet has made it easier than ever.

I know many of you like to share photos in your personal life, but it can also be helpful in your business. There are several sites that host photos for your friends or clients to see. Photobucket, Flickr, SmugMug and Google’s Picasa are just a few. Most are free for a basic membership, with the option to pay for an upgrade. Since I use Flickr, I’ll discuss them.

Flickr is one of the most popular photo sharing sites, and has a bustling user community. You can view and comment on any public photo, giving it the feel of a social network. They’ve even added video sharing capabilities. This becomes a great marketing opportunity by enabling you to publish photos of your work, your company or any other relevant subject.

You may have tried sending photos via email, and found it to be very tedious. With most digital cameras today shooting at least 5 megapixels, the file size of a photo can be large. Many email services and internet service providers (ISP) don’t allow you to send email with attachments above a couple of megabytes. A much easier way is to upload the images to your Flickr account, and email the link to your Photostream.

Try Flickr. I think you’ll like what they can do. Best of all, it’s free!

I would encourage you to start taking advantage of Google Docs. It includes document and spreadsheet functions, and can be used as a primary document suite or as a backup source. Even if you don’t replace Microsoft Office with Google Docs, I would certainly use it as a backup. The only downside is Google Docs cannot currently recognize Office 2007 and Office 2008 for Mac’s new .docx  and .xlsx formats. The easy fix is to save them in the legacy .doc and .xls format (Office 97-2004).

Too many people who hire me to fix their computer have not backed up their documents. Often they don’t have much media, but they do have some very valuable Word and Excel documents. This presents me with a dilemma, because sometimes the best course of action is to wipe the hard drive clean and start over. 

Backing up frequently will save you the anxiety of losing your valuable documents. Google Docs is a free and easy way to achieve peace of mind.

Last week, I was hired to clean up a computer that had been infected with some malware. Malware stands for Malicious Software. The computer literally took 5 to 7 minutes just to start up. After start up, I was barraged with a series of windows saying the computer was infected, and I needed to purchase Antivirus 2009.

As it turns out, after some research, I found out Antivirus 2009 is a very nasty bit of malware that will slow the computer down, and it is very difficult to clean up. It’s files were littered over the entire hard drive. I found some very helpful cleanup tips here and here. Avoid Antivirus 2009 at all costs. 

A good way to avoid being exposed to malware and viruses is to create a login and password for your computer. My client did not fall for any scam. It occurred while he was on vacation. If your computer is in an open area where anyone can have access, it is a good idea to create a login.

Lastly, do yourself a favor and invest in a good internet security suite. I would avoid those from McAfee and Norton’s. They tend to slow down the computer nearly as bad as spyware and malware due to their inflated sizes. I prefer AVG. It’s leaner, and doesn’t get in your way once you’ve trained it to your preferences.