Search Marketing with ventureN

When you are researching a product or service to integrate into a web site, it is often difficult (and time consuming) to find out about how solid a product or service might be.  You can search for “product name here” reviews or “product name  here” feedback, but you can’t be sure that you are finding an unbiased voice.  The web allows a 12 year old programmer to appear as substantial as a 50 person company that has been around for 20 years.

Instead of doing the ‘reviews’ search, try something different.  You can locate leading resources and solutions in roundabout ways.

For example: When trying to figure out what shopping cart solutions are solid and will likely be around for a while, search for payment integration guides.  The Paypal integration guide will provide a list of shopping cart providers that are probably fairly solid.  https://www.paypal.com/en_US/html/SolutionsDirectory/sd_ec-compatible.html

Think a little outside of the box when looking for reviews.

Keywords to remember

• integration
• installation
• guide
• fact sheet
• manual

Searching this way can lead you down interesting paths.

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When Google announced that it was going to offer a free suite of tools called Google Pack, I felt pretty confident that there would be some useful applications in there. When announced, I expected them to have something that would be very useful. I expected that there would be some flavor of OpenOffice. When it didn’t include that, and it included dogs (resource hogs) such as Norton and RealPlayer, it was a big miss. When Google puts out an app, even in Beta state, I expect it to be pretty tight and efficient. The initial offerings in the Google Pack didn’t fit that description. Back then, I didn’t recommend it to anyone!

Google Adds StarOffice to the Google Pack

There is now a very useful application that you would normally have to pay for. It is called StarOffice, and is free instead of the $69 version from Sun. The Google Pack is headed in the right direction. When installing the pack, you can select the apps that you want to install (a nice feature). Only install what you need. Don’t install hogs like Norton, or an intrusive application like the RealPlayer.

Go ahead and buy that $349 PC with an AMD chip without a version of Microsoft Office. You can use the apps in the Google Pack to get along just fine.

As far as the anti-virus offering goes, I am very surprised that they didn’t select a great product like the free version of AVG anti-virus. I have used it, and recommended, it for years.

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When you are a small shop, it is usually a good idea to take the blinders off and listen to some success stories. For some, this will motivate and inspire. For others, it will anger and force a greater effort.

I don’t care what it does for you, but as an Entrepreneur, I guarantee that it will have an impact.

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As a webmaster, or web marketer, you probably wear a lot of hats. Any bit of productivity that squeeze out of your day means a lot and really adds up at the end of the day,month, and year. If you haven’t ever used a dual monitor setup (or multiple monitor setup), you don’t know what you are missing. It isn’t just the “cool factor”, or being able to show your friends your geekness, it is a legitimate productivity boost. For those of you working for others, it might be a hard one to prove to your boss, but worth the effort.

Look, even Danny Sullivan has a multiple monitor setup.

With the price of LCD’s crashing to the ground, there is not much of a reason not to head this way. Even if you are a laptop user, your system probably has multiple monitor support. You can purchase a 19″ LCD for under $200 from a number of retailers. I like to shop at TigerDirect.com since they ship quickly and the items reach me within 2 days, even with standard shipping. Some of the best deals on the name brand LCD’s can be found in your Sunday paper. Check the flyers for the office supply stores (Officemax, Staples, Office Depot) and Compusa.

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If you have been a skype user for any period of time, you might be a little set in your ways. Personally, I use skype as a chat client and recently added a Skype in number as a secondary office phone. There are some great handsets so that you don’t have to use a headset and be tethered to your computer.

There are many things that Skype can do that you might not be aware of. The people over at voip-news.com have compiled a list of 25 great Skype hacks. Before you start, you should download the latest version of Skype. My favorites from the list are: Read the rest of this entry »

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