Timothy Lee AR

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: February 20, 2012

2012-02-20T13:43:00.000-06:00

We got behind in posting our near daily small business technology updates due to an intense training schedule. Here's what popped up in today's professional reading:

The Biggest Mistake Web Analysts Make… And How To Avoid It! - Great article by Google analytics guru. Suitable for both beginners and advance webmasters.

How Inbound Marketing Works, From Start to Finish - Clever infographic explaining the inbound sales process visually. Need to print some of these poster size for the classroom.

Ecommerce Comes to Twitter - How-to article on getting started with Chirpify, the Twittter ecommerce platform.

Infographic: The most recent (and incredibly impressive) Facebook stats - Another fun infographic to gawk at. Don't forget to pin it on Pinterest.com

Tools of the Travelgeek: Voice and Data Devices - Really useful article for anyone travelling overseas, including on cruises. Describes what equipment to take and how to use it to avoid high data and roaming charges. I didn't know cruise ships charged $5/minute for cell calls. I feel better about my $0.30/minute pre-paid now.

Brailletouch app to bring eyes-free texting to iPhone and iPad - Very cool invention. Click through and check out this innovation.

Smartphone Users Say Web Access More Indispendable Than Texting - Did you know that most smartphone turn to laptops when they lose their phone's data connection? Good behavioral insight in this brief article.

Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US - Diatribe with a tongue-in-cheek migration checklist for web based businesses. Read and ponder this.

The Post-Office Generation - Microsoft Office's growing irrelevance due to ubiquitous tablets, Dropbox, and cheapo editor apps.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: February 9, 2012

2012-02-09T10:59:00.000-06:00

How To Build a Rockin’ LinkedIn Presence - Short 5-step tutorial from a Chief Branding Officer on how to set up a company page on LinkedIn. You do have a rockin' personal LinkedIn account already, don't you?

2012 Mobile Trends And What They Mean For Product Strategists - This is the kind of article I look for to keep myself employed and my employer "in business." Short, easy-to-read list of the key trends you and I should keep abreast of and implement.

iPad’s Momentum in Restaurants Grows with Buffalo Wild Wings Trial - This is what I'm talking about today. Customers use iPads to order and pass the time in a major chain restaurant. The snow ball is gaining speed and snow.

Staples leads the way with new tablet-optimized experience - Major retailer is among first to offer tCommerce (tablet commerce). Plan to show this site in my tablet classes today.

Is this the tipping point for mobile commerce? - Seems the logical follow on after the above mobile articles. Good summary of stats. Yeah, mobile commerce is at the tipping point and going over. BTW, I've registered for a free 1-hour webinar on mobile commerce during the past holiday season. You might also.

The Rise Of Content Marketing [Infographic] - Content marketing is the production of content like videos, music and other content which is used to brand a product or build market share. The infographic gives a good summary of the state of this industry.

what is mLearning - Short animated video explaining mLearning in simple terms. This video actually stimulated some ideas on how to add audio to my mLearning project.

ADL Mobile Learning Newsletter - Weekly list of mLearning articles. Haven't had an opportunity to explore the links yet. If you find gold, please comment.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 31, 2012

2012-01-31T12:55:00.002-06:00

Your Computing Devices Come and Go, Your Data is Forever: Ten Tips for Using the Cloud - If you don't back up your data, then here's a good primer on how to use the Cloud. I'd start with Dropbox.

5 Ways to Brand Your New YouTube Profile - YouTube has introduced new channel profiles. We put off trying to figure out how to exploit the new template for SEO. Good thing. SocialMediaExaminer did the work for us and put a great tutorial together. Step #2 looks like it will bring a return on my time investment.

15 essential tasks to complete after installing WordPress - These are pretty much the same things I have long done when setting up WordPress and almost in the same order.

Top 10 Content Slider Plugins for Wordpress - Since we're discussing WordPress, here's some of the best sliders to add to the top of your template.

5 tips to develop an effective tablet strategy - Thought this was bout buying tablets for a small business, but its about a strategy for web development to ensure your web site is tablet friendly. Personally, we like the Sewanee mobile first model best.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 30, 2012

2012-01-30T18:25:00.000-06:00

6 Tips for Improving Twitter Link Click Through Rate - I'm going to try the tip on placing links 25% 0of the way into a Tweet. Intrigued? Click and read!

The “Four Horsemen” of an SEO apocalypse in 2012 - The four are mobile devices, analytics, personalization & content. Click through to learn about their "apocalyptic" impact on SEO.

Google Analytics Tutorial: 8 Valuable Tips To Hustle With Data! - A well written tutorial on advanced tips using Google Analytics by the co-founder of Google.

Why are America’s fastest-growing companies killing their blogs? - I read it, but I just don't believe it yet. I may have to ponder this a bit and read it again later. You?

Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong - Mind blowing! Take notes after class, study all over the place, and don't focus on just one skill at a time.

Kendo UI Mobile (Beta) - Very cool tool to develop applications or web sites once for all the major mobile phone platforms. I'm gonna download this and play. This tool could open app development to the masses.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 27, 2012

2012-01-27T16:39:00.000-06:00

Harnessing mobile trends, technology and tips from industry giants - A somewhat generic article with a hidden takeaway: "50 percent of on-the-go customers are willing to share their location to get good deals." Read all of it for other interesting trends.

QR codes: 5 popular complaints (and why they’re wrong) - The best thing in this article was discovering BooDroo.com for SMS marketing. Take time to click through to the Columbia University Campus Ministry video, scan the QR code at the end of the video, and see how to drive subscriptions to an SMS marketing tool. I'm so doing this!

Forget demographics. It’s all about the socialgraphics - From the article: "To motivate users to take action, you first have to understand what motivates them."

The 2-Minute Move That Will Elevate Your Personal Brand - Avery short FastCompany article with a really simple-to-implement tweak to your email signature file. Next 5-minute break you should read the article and make the signature file change.

Snaps on Maps: Google Wants to Send Photographers Inside Your Business - A Mashup on how Google is now photographing the insides of businesses in 14 markets to take Google Street Map to the next level.

Delivering Video via HTML5 and Flash to reach all platforms with one video codec - how to make it work today #mlearncon - Video is hot and moves product when used well. This illustrated tutorial explains in simple language how to get started with HTML5 video, the new web standard. This is now my go-to guide for working with video on the web.

13 People to follow on Google Plus - Looks like a good selection of experts. Think I'll start a new Google+ circle just for them.

Google+ SEO - A very, very, very long article on how to SEO your Google+ account. Lots of instructions and illustrations. I'm tempted to call this the most comprehesive Google+ SEO tutorial online.

Android Smartphone Round-Up: December/January Edition - Short reviews of three Android smartphones with great photos and key details on each phone.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 26, 2012

2012-01-26T12:03:00.001-06:00

Online Marketing in Ecommerce 2012: Survey and Case Study Result -

E-retailers improve site navigation -

Too Much SEO Can Harm an Ecommerce Business -

5 Rockstar Landing Pages that Deserve a High-Five (or do they?) -

8 Crazy Things IBM Scientists Have Learned Studying Twitter -

50 new tech tools you should know about -

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 24, 2012

2012-01-24T13:34:00.000-06:00

McDonald's Twitter Campaign Goes Horribly Wrong - If you had access to a major Twitter hash tag, say #McDStories, would would you tweet with it? Read this article for some examples of a campaign gone bad.

In Social Business, Pay Sales Teams Less And Customer Service More - After the #McDStories post, this post using cows to relate 9 truths about customers seems apropos.

Infographics: Why They Fail For Link Building - Search Engine Land provides an interesting article with four things to avoid regarding those clever infographics.

Facebook Timeline and What Marketers Need to Know - Another good, clear tutorial on how to leverage Facebook's new timeline feature for marketing your product or service. Putting this on my to-do list. You?

The 3-D Printing Pirates Who Could Render SOPA Meaningless - 3-D printing is probably the most disruptive technology since the Internet. Never considered 3-D to be disruptive of laws. You need to follow 3-D.

How to Set Up Blog Comments as Goals in Google Analytics Using WordPress Hacks - Never thought about comments as goals, but here are step-by-step instructions on how to set it all up. Now a Twitter favorite.

Mobile payments and the demise of the cash register - Another disruptive technology coming to small businesses near you sooner than you think. Author says; "Ignore mobile commerce at your peril."

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 23, 2012

2012-01-23T14:51:00.001-06:00

Thou Shalt Covet What Thy Neighbor Covets - Its not Paco Underhill, but a Fast Company article on how we are influenced by others to buy stuff. It's always amazing to pause and ponder the economic impact of consumer "sheep following the herd".

Target Looking to Halt 'Showrooming' by Shoppers - Short 4 minute video on problem of "showrooming" and Target's response to develop exclusice products that can't be price compared via mobile phones and apps.

Innovative Ways to Leverage QR (Quick Response) Codes for Your Small Business - Blog post by ASBTDC center director Herb Lawrence. Herb is probably the best informed person in Arkansas on QR codes. Feel free to ask him a challenging question in his comments.

QR Codes – 21 Ways To Use Them To Build Your Business - A simple, easy to read list of 21 good ideas. You can likely skim this list in less than 30 seconds and come away with something new to try.

TrakQR.com - New start-up with a great public beta program: create up to 50 QR codes that you can re-purpose/redirect at anytime. TrakQR provides full analytics for each QR code. Currently free, so try them out!

Using 'Quick Views' to Increase Conversions - In today's onlin retail environment, you need every conversion you can get. Practical Ecommerce provides a detailed article with photos showing what to do.

How many of your 100K+ Twitter Followers are Real? - Short article on using SocialBro to segment your followers by when they last tweeted. Helps in spotting deadwood and Twitter bots.

12 Most Effective Ways To Generate Leads On LinkedIn - The site is 12most.com, so this is a "bait" article, but it does provide a good overview of where and how to use LinkedIn.

The 7 Don’ts of Mobile Marketing - If you really thought about it, these should be self-explanatory. That someone had to post these, indicates they're not self-evident. Read & head. Won't take long.

Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period - Heard about this new Pew Internet report this morning while shaving. There are some other interesting trends in this research. Take 5-10 minutes and explore Pew's data. Seems if you didn't give or receive a tablet for Christmas, you didn't "covet what thy neighbor covets."

Seven Ways to Use the iPad for Workplace Learning - A repost of a February 2010 article. Amazing that these 7 uses are still applicable two years later in a rapidly evolving mobile device market.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 20, 2012

2012-01-20T10:40:00.000-06:00

Optimizing a Page for Search Engines, Part 1: Keyword Research -

Optimizing a Page for Search Engines, Part 2: Keyword Mapping -

10 Types of Updates to Power Your Social Media Presence -

10 clues someone isn’t really a social media expert -

Heineken uses QR codes to build community -

Business Apps for Tablets on the Rise: 2020 Workplace Prediction Comes True Sooner Than Expected. Are You Ready? -

How Anonymous Is Tricking The Public Into Helping Them Take On The Feds -

Why SOPA Won't Work: We Are All Pirates, Copyright Holders Included -

15 best practices for virtual learning success -

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 13, 2012

2012-01-13T13:35:00.003-06:00

5 things your social media strategy can't live without - Short bog post on the five sections of a social media strategic plan. After you getr started with social media, these five become evident, but likely not articulated as well as in this post.

23+ Essential Facebook Page Applications to Improve Fans Engagement in 2012 - You could likely use some of these tools to implement your new social media strategy that you updated after reading the first link. Remember: simplicity carried to extreme is elegance. More is just more.

View Source from Safari on iPad - cool trick to add "View Source" functionality to iPad's Safari browser. Basically, create a bookmark and copy the Javascript from the linked page into the bookmark's URL. Clever. Page includes a link to the script needed to do the same for an iPhone.

How to Build a Traffic-siphoning Marketing Funnel - I teach small businesses about sales funnels as part of SEO workshops. Always amazed how many people find sales funnels a new concept. This how-to article lays out the how's and why's of sales funnels.

Mais Non! France's "Free" Cell Phone Service Will (Likely) Never Work In The U.S. - OK, this has no direct value for you, but you should still read this to expand your knowledge of what's going on in other parts of the world. Some pretty cool technology being used as infrastructure. I envision small American towns in rural areas building out small scale versions of the Free.FR model.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 11, 2012

2012-01-11T13:55:00.001-06:00

Obama Administration Reportedly Plans to Create Internet ID for All Americans - Just because the President says a federal agency's developing a national Internet ID is not a national ID nor government-controlled system, doesn't make it so. I don't expect this to get any traction outside the current administration's small span of control. You do need to read this and watch for future announcements.

How to Make Great Connections on LinkedIn - Inc magazine posted some good tips on building really useful connections on LinkedIn. Three tips plus an introduction on engagement.

Social sharing buttons improve email click-through rates by 115% - Blog post with a colorful easy-to-read infographic. Bottom line - include social media sharing buttons in your email newsletters 'cause your readers will click on them.

5 Social Media Tricks You Need to Use - Really like these five tips as I've never read them before. "Tweet the Tweeter" is my favorite and I'll start using that tip this evening.

What Your Eyes Say About Who You Are - Fascinating Time article on research done on eye movements while reading web pages. The article includes information on which types of ads and where disrupt reading. The final paragraphs describing applying heat maps to a surgical training video was mind blowing. This research has the potential to radically change how training videos are edited for almost all occupations and tasks.

12 Predictions for the Mobile Landscape in 2012 - Don't know about the prediction of companies having their own app stores (maybe Walmart or McDonalds), but I can see mobile phones as research tools and gamification of learning. Bad news if you're invested in stand alone cameras, GPS, Flash and unlimited data plans.

Socializing Mobile Learning in the Enterprise - Five strategic tips on getting mobile learning started. Summary: partner with someone to create a small project that does something useful, even if it may result in negative feedback.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 10, 2012

2012-01-10T14:40:00.002-06:00

iPhone app uses QR codes to track employee hours - So any employees are going to hate the folks that invented this system. I see spin offs for tracking K12 students and college attendance. Perhaps event event or exposition admittance.

Blum's Picks From CES: 3 Good Gadgets - Minority Report touchscreens, a radical looking smart office phone, and a waterproof smart phone. The smart phone will sell like hotcakes, geeks will also pick up a Minority Report-like touchscreen. I doubt I ever see the smart office phone in use.

CES 2012: Sculpteo Introduces iOS App, 3D Cloud Print Engine - What if you could take a picture of a part and send it to a nearby 3D printer? This could be a game changer and hasten the demise of small plastic manufacturing. Click through for some coll images and a mind bending article.

SURVEY: 49% of LinkedIn Users Have Household Income Over $100K - That's just one of the statistics found in this article. Click through for many other Linked In stats.

Why FourSquare Will Never Be Admissible in Court - Basically, since one doesn't physicaly have to be inside a location to check in and can game the system, then FourSquare is neither alibi nor proof.

Frequency Makes Any Website a Video Channel - Interesting web app to stream the other 51% of video not found on YouTube.

Tablet Learning – Neither Mobile Learning Nor eLearning - Very short article differentiating between eLearning, mobile learning and tablet learning. I don't see any difference between tablet and phone devices except screen size. If you have good instructional design and build from mobile device to web device, there so be no gotcha's.

The ROI of online training: How organisations are moving online - Ad on a UK website with link to Goto Training whitepaper offer.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 9, 2012

2012-01-09T14:34:00.001-06:00

Half of adult cell phone owners have apps on their phones: Part IV. What types of apps are adults downloading? - Figure 10 from a Pew research report showing the nine categories of apps sorted from highest use to lowest. Most used: news and sports updates. Least used: health.

U R What U Tweet: 5 Steps To A Better Personal Brand - Fast Company article with five general steps to improve your personal brand. First step is have a good personal homepage, which most social media users lack. Click through for the next four steps.

Google+ Adds Multiple Administrator Capability - Really important information for those setting up new Google+ business pages. Always a good idea to have 2 or more administrators for critical infrastructure. Practical eCommerce provides step-by-step instructions.

USB 3.0 Is Coming to Smartphones and Tablets - Why is this important? How about increasing download speeds by 15:2 and also increasing the recharge rate. Watch for microUSB ports on new devices later in 2012.

China’s ‘cyberarmy’ could number half billion - Here's a scary thought: "... every Chinese is a potential cyberwarrior ..." How well do you think your business, state, or country would fare against 500 million simulateous hackers? My thoughts exactly.

Mega Collection Of Cheatsheets for Designers and Developers - Probably the greatest collection of cheatsheets. Has printable cheatsheets for everything from simple HTML and CSS to operating systems to programming languages. I'd book mark this page at a minimum.

Hacking Siri for Learning - A request for examples of using Siri for learning. The article does mention one cool Siri hack involving controlling a home thermostat. Can't wait to see what the Army of Davids comes up with as more and more folks push Siri's software. Its only a matter of time.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 6, 2012

2012-01-06T15:45:00.001-06:00

25 Eye-Popping Internet Marketing Statistics for 2012 - All 25 are short sound bites you can use a meetings or re-tweet yourself. Half have to do with mobile in 2012.

12 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2012 - Summary of 12 fast breaking business trends you should be aware of. Take note of #5 Cash Less and #12 Point and Know. Also, you should be following @Trendwatching on Twitter if you don't already.

How To Install Facebooks Timeline - Blog post with embedded 8:23 minute video showing step-by-step how to switch the new Facebook time line into your Facebook account. Great for folks that prefer visual and audio instructions. The host is quite personable also!

4 Pillars Of LinkedIn Marketing For Businesses - The author not only gives you the four pillars but also provides 5-7 good solid instructions on how to build said pillars.

Launching a Mobile Marketing Campaign: Easier Than You Think - Short overview of the 4 key pieces of a mobile marketing campaign. Developing an app (#4) is currently optional for most small businesses, unless you have a killer app that does something value added (restaurant menu, medical appointment maker, etc.)

5 lessons to apply when launching a mobile site or campaign - Quick overview of 5 reasons why mobile marketing is tough which basically all boil down to: No Buck Rogers, No bucks.

An Excellent eBook Full of Mobile Learning Activities - Blog post with a downloadable ebook described as "...great free ebook that anyone interested in using mobile devices as instructional tools should read..." The book is well written with more photos than text. While the book depicts and describes K12 activities, much of this is applicable to adult learners. I'm halfway tempted to develop a similar guide featuring adults in the workplace.

Is Mobile Learning Smarter Learning? Using Mobile Devices for Multisensory Learning and Assessment - Geeky article and 1:23 minute video for instructional designers.

Free Sites for Making Money Online - This is old news for me, but one of you might could use the info in this economy.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 5, 2012

2012-01-05T13:49:00.002-06:00

Using Social Buttons to Enhance Search Engine Optimization - Good article from Practical eCommerce with advice on where to position the "Big 3" social media buttons for maximum optimization and conversions.

How to Create a Customer Focus Group Using Google+ - Yes! Because of the nature of Google+ circles, you could run an online focus group. Gotta love crowdsourced ideas. Way ta' think crowd!

6 Mobile Website Design Hints for an Optimized User Experience - We concur with Garth's six hints. How did we miss the obvious? Yes, the mobile homepage needs a conversion! (slaps forehead...)

Why Twitter’s “verified account” failure matters - Don't know how I missed this in the twittersphere. Article is a good case study explaining how Twitter verified accounts work (or didn't work).

20 Must-Do Business Boosters for 2012 - OK, the list is not technology heavy, but any business doing all 20 will have a much better year. Glad to see #20 made the cut.

7 Things Highly Productive People Do - So, if I'm already doing all 7, why don't I feel highly productive? I probably need to work on #4 as I tend to ignore email more than the recommended schedule.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 4, 2012

2012-01-04T13:08:00.000-06:00

What Job Seekers Need to Know in Today’s Digital Market - Well written piece on the increasing importance of social media when seeking employment and employees. Pay attention to the paragrapgh below the "Your Social Media Profiles Are as Important as Your Resume (If Not More Important)" subheading as it tells you where and what you need to do.

10 Predictions for Work and Economics in 2012 - You only need to know is this one: "...ever more people will enter the mall with a SmartPhone, browse, feel the fabric and so on, scan desired items into their phone, find the cheapest price on the Net, and, in one click, have it delivered to their home."

Photos Are The New Killer App - That's been my experience recently as I snap photos of recipes, future gifts, and steps in using office equipment with my smartphone. Gist of the short article: if you want to make money developing a killer app, something adding value using photos is the direction to go.

How To Repair Virus-Infected PC When Windows Fails To Boot Up [Guide] - Good illustreated web-based guide on using non-Windows operating systems to boot up and recover your PC. Ubuntu and SARDU featured.

The Year in Education: Seven Innovations Changing the Way the World Learns - OK, its not directly related to small business or technology, but you need to know what happening in how people are learning things. Click "next" in the upper right corner of each image to advance the slide show. I liked 7/9 on learning creativity.

5 Ways to Use Google+ to Improve Your Search Engine Optimization - High quality online guide on how to tweak your Google+ pages boost your websites search ranking. You are free to ignore and not actually implement any of these. Remember - survival is not mandatory.

Mobile Payments and Commerce Set For Breakthrough - Short easy-to-read summary of marketing data on mobile payments and m-commerce. You don't have to be an expert, but you should have a idea of what's happening in this area.

Top 20 Mobile Productivity Apps of 2011 - List of 10 top apps for each Android and iOS devices.

Google’s Android Training Initiative – Will it boost mLearning? - Short overview of Google's new Android classes to help developers build better Android apps using best practices. Includes a link to the Android Training Initiativesite.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: January 3, 2012

2012-01-03T13:07:00.000-06:00

6 Ways To Dramatically Boost Your Landing Page Conversion Rate - The actual 6 Ways are in a free (no email address required) downloadable PDF. Well written guide that I would recommend professionally to clients. Download a copy now for yourself!

6 Tech Trends to Watch in 2012 - Want to know what technical "ships" are just offshore and about to land? This is the kind of article that makes me money and keeps me gainfully employed by telling me what I should be learning. Our favorite 2012 trend is #5 - Bring your own device (BYOD).

Drivers submit a photo, auto shops bid on their car repair - Really neat app that hopefully will lead to lower costs for repairs and eventually auto insurance. Hope this goes viral and has a national impact.

Free mobile internet in exchange for participation in local offers - This is clever. Who doesn't like free? Unfortunately there are no free lunches. Someone has to pay.

5 Steps To Measure The ROI Of Digital Media Channels - Fairly academic article describing the basic steps to aggregate your stats into a single system for analyzing ROI. Light on details and doesn't recommend the final single repository. Read for the underlying concept and not step-by-step instructions.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: December 30, 2011

2011-12-30T11:31:00.002-06:00

5 Totally SWAG Social Media Predictions for 2012 - I think the first 4 of these predictions are spot on. We'll have to see if the demise of Klout occurs. We are also one of the early adopters that have disconnected our profile from Klout.

12 Sites for Ebook Publishing - This a short, but good review of places you can publish your PDFs and eBooks. While we knew of the top four, we had missed some other key distribution channels. Take a moment and see how many of the 12 you are familiar with yourself.

How to Use Content to Increase Your Sales - A seven-minute video condensing a successful content strategy used by Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion. The best takeway is likely to "blog about the problems customers have with what you sell."

GutCheckit Levels Market Research Playing Field for Small Businesses - New cloud service offers small businesses ability to interview potential product buyers and services users for $40 per interview. The first clone to offer a similar service for $10 per interview will win this niche.

This Is Why Your Website Is Slow - Ghostery released its annual list of things that are currently bringing websites to a crawl. Likely nothing on this list is on your site unless you host at GoDaddy.com. In which case you might consider changing your analytics to Google Analytics.

How to interview a designer with the perfect design exercise - This is likely of more interest to me than you, but its always good to learn about solutions used by others.

In retail stores, research tool uses Kinect to track shoppers’ behavior - Very short 1:14 minute video showing a novel use for the Microsoft Kinect situational controller for xBox game sets. Spooky to imagine these systems everywhere one shops. Best demo music we've ever heard. The music also pauses when the customers pause. Did we mention is just a little over a minute?

How the Service Industry Can Use the Web For Leads and Sales - Much needed information on an often neglected web segment. Includes an embedded slide show at the bottom.

10 careers that will be hot in 2012 - No real surprises here, except discount stores will have an increasing need for managers. Who knew?

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: December 28, 2011

2011-12-28T11:53:00.000-06:00

3 reasons pharmaceutical reps are using iPads - Short article, but provides three good insights that can be applied to any B2B outside sales operation.

Models of Mobile Learning - Mobile Learning is in its infancy, but seems to be the future for training business owners and employees. This is a short blog post with links to four papers on various models for mobile learning.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: December 24, 2011

2011-12-24T11:17:00.000-06:00

Top Pop-Up Shops: 14 Temporary Retail Stores - Some very clever pop-up retail shop designs shown. Seems shipping containers and domes are very popular.

10 Ways to Add Facebook Functionality to Your Website - Nice tutorial on many overlooked ways to integrate Facebook and get full value from time spent updating a Facebook page.

Marketers Analyze What It Means When Customers 'Like' Their Pages - As we just "unliked" a number of pages in our own Facebook account, this is a timely article. Good insight provided that should help you make better decisions on creating your own Facebook conversions and goals.

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: December 20, 2011

2011-12-20T11:08:00.000-06:00

14 Tips And Tricks To Make Your New Facebook Timeline Awesome

How I Overlooked a 1000 Visitor a Day Source of Traffic [And What I Did to Grow it to 3000 Visits a Day]

WiFi Dominates Mobile Carrier Mix, Up 11% M-O-M

The 10 Best TED Talks of 2011

10-item checklist for B2B marketers in 2012

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: December 15, 2011

2011-12-16T17:31:00.003-06:00

Microsoft will be upgrading all Windows XP, Vista and 7 users to the latest IE browser silently | http://windowsteamblog.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2011/12/15/ie-to-start-automatic-upgrades-across-windows-xp-windows-vista-and-windows-7.aspx
Android 101: Google Launches Mobile App Training Program by @Dan_Rowinski | rww.to/uIe6mB
On-Page Optimization Seen Critical to Search Success | http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/on-page-optimization-seen-critical-to-search-success-20424/

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: December 15, 2011

2011-12-15T17:29:00.002-06:00

Agora Startup Idol - “American Idol” for high-tech start-ups, only completely online — everyone participates remotely | agorastartupidol.com
An iPad In Every Store: @BellyCard Wants Local Merchants And Their Customers To Ditch Those Paper Loyalty Cards bit.ly/ssuOhK
Understanding Twitter's New Redesign dlvr.it/10VHDH
Video: Mobile Year in Review 2011 (2:30) | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKAIzU90zA8

Need to Know - Small Business Technology: December 13, 2011

2011-12-13T17:03:00.001-06:00

Five Steps To Capturing Mobile Customers In 2012 | http://searchengineland.com/five-steps-to-capturing-mobile-customers-in-2012-104138 via @sengineland
iPad emulator - see what your website looks like to iPad users. | ipadpeek.com
Study shows email open rates via mobile increased 34% in 6 months; iPad by 73% - bit.ly/tG7EYX via @mobilemktrdaily #mobilemarketing
Improve Your Site’s iPad Usability in 1 Simple Step bit.ly/tqgKrT
30 Brilliant Social Media Marketing Tips from 2011. (via @HubSpot) #Marketing | ow.ly/7WTNq

Mobile Phone Apps Ideas: Migraine Forecasting

2011-11-10T17:31:00.000-06:00

Like many Americans, we suffer from occasional migraine headaches. A few of these migraine headaches become what we refer to as "grand mal" migraines. These intense headaches result in nausea and intense pain. One of our favorite mobile phone apps has been a headache diary in which we record the date, time, intensity, and environment for each migraine. While a headache diary is a good idea for a mobile phone app, it is unfortunately a post-migraine app.

We believe America is ripe for a pre-headache, migraine forecasting mobile phone app.

Here's how a migraine headache forecasting app would work:

1) Many migraines are caused by a change in barometric air pressure. From our headache diary, we know that our worst headaches occur when air pressure increases (highs) above a certain threshold. Others have migraines triggered by a drop in air pressure (lows). Thus a migraine forecasting app would need the ability to enter a warning air pressure threshold and direction (+ / -).

2) The National Weather Service issues hourly weather observations in RSS format. These hourly observations include the barometric pressure in two forms. The RSS observations feed use a standardized CGI based URL encoded with a four character identifier for the desired reporting station. Thus, a migraine forecasting app would need the ability to enter a four character NWS identifier and pull the matching RSS feed at least hourly. A bonus feature might be the ability to enter a 5-digit zipcode and lookup the corresponding NWS identifier.

3) The app would compare the previous hours air pressure reading to the current hour's air pressure reading to set a increase or decrease flag.

4) The app would compare the current air pressure against the warning threshold air pressure.

5) If the current air pressure were at or above/below the warning threshold, the app would sound an audible alarm, flash a visual alarm, and perhaps generate a system message, much like an appointment reminder.

That's my new mobile phone app idea. A simple migraine forecasting app that would alert migraine suffers in ample time to take some pills, down some caffeine, and/or adjust their environment to prevent "the big one."

If you are an app developer, go for it. You don't need my permission and I'm not very interested in royalties.

Arkansas Amazon Tax Law

2011-04-15T15:48:00.010-05:00

Update: The Arkansas Amazon Tax Law is Arkansas Act 1001 of 2011.

In April 2011, Arkansas became the 5th state to pass into law an "Amazon Tax". At the time, I tweeted to Roby Brock, host of Talk Business, that Amazon would likely respond by ending its famed associate program for Arkansas enrollees. Well, Amazon was not the first to respond. Overstock.com was and predictably ended its associate program for Arkansas enrollees.

Jason Tolbert, editor of The Tolbert Report, tweeted to Roby; "I wonder how Wal-Mart's offer compares to lost revenue $ - inc. or dec.?" Roby replied to Jason; "I bet @TimothyLeeAR can answer."

Major Affiliate Programs

	Amazon	Overstock	Walmart	Sears	BN.com
Default commission	4%	1%	4%	2%	6%
Specialty commissions	6-15%	5-7%	1%	1-7%	6%
AR nexus	-	-	Y	Y	Y

Analysis

Overstock.com isn't really "hurt" by dropping its affiliates in Arkansas. Arkansas affiliates are "hurt" by the loss of an income stream, as is the State of Arkansas which loses taxable income. Advantage Overstock.

Cutoff affiliates will likely construct a payout table and determine which affiliate program to switch into. Knowing Amazon's past decisions to drop states passing "Amazon Laws", we suspect most will gravitate towards BN.com which has an Arkansas bricks and mortar nexus and offers a steady 6% commission. The exceptions will be those few merchants who market products that generate a 7% commission.

In addition to the monetary incentive to switch there is also a labor incentive not to switch. Every single affiliate link they have created on blogs, social media, etc. will require editing to change the URL to the new affiliate program. Arkansas affiliates receive no payment for their labors in editing what are potentially hundreds of URLs by hand. While many may decide to switch, many will decide its not worth the trouble. Of those that decide to switch over, few will be willing to switch a second time should their newly chosen affiliate program also decide to boycott Arkansas.

The deciding factor will be "How badly does my family need this income?" Those merchants hurting in the current economy will likely "suck it up" and make the switch. Those less reliant on affiliate income are most likely to "toss in the towel" as we did when Books.com was bought out by a larger company.

Conclusion

The new Arkansas Law is likely unconstitutional [Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (91-0194), 504 U.S. 298 (1992)] and will eventually be challenged through the Arkansas and federal judicial systems. There is likely to be little increase in state revenue and that revenue will likely be offset by increased legal costs of defending the Arkansas law. The end result is likely a net financial loss to the state and people of Arkansas.

Cartoon: I Want to Start a Small Business

2010-10-29T09:43:00.006-05:00

I spent the last few evenings testing some new web based applications for creating cartoons. I spent some time with both xtranormal.com and GoAnimate.com. I found xtranormal.com to be a bit easier to get the hang of and create a first cartoon. Both provide just one basic set of characters and a background for basic, no pay access. Both systems require budding cartoonists to purchase "points" to access additional characters and background sets.

Here's the final cut of my xtranormal.com cartoon "I Want to Start a Small Business."

As there is little documentation on how to best use the interface, here's a few hard learned tips for using xtranormal.com:

1. Don't use magicam if you want to control the camera. I accidentally turned on magicam and was driving myself crazy trying to figure out why after a few seconds, the camera seemed to wander and switch around. Ensure the magicam button is greyed out before previewing or publishing.

2. Break up long text into smaller boxes. The artificial voice reads very fast. Breaking up your text into smaller boxes seems to result in a slower dialog.

3. Put spaces between the numbers in telephone numbers. A telephone number I was promoting was read too fast. Adding a space slowed the pace and resulted in better enunciation.

4. Use " dot " instead of a period in URLs. Using the word dot with a leading and trailing space resulted in a more intelligible URL.

Mobile Phone Apps Ideas

2010-10-06T18:06:00.005-05:00

Just a short post on some ideas for mobile phone apps we'd like to see developed:

Multimeter

Would like to see and app developed to turn a phone into a multimeter for measuring and recording AC and DC voltages. This app would also need a USB adapter for plugging in test leads.

Oscilloscope

Once the multimeter app is developed, the next obvious step would be to develop a digital recording o-scope. Again, there would need to be an adapter for attaching X1 and/or X10 probes.

Signal Generator

Of course, anyone using a digital o-scope also likely has need of a signal generator.

Frequency Analyzer

What better way to detect and display radio frequency signals than to develop a frequency analyzer app. Just think, you could sweep your hotel room for "bugs".

Radio Direction Finder

Civil Air Patrol members used to buy $20 Radio Shack VHF radios and modify them for direction finding of electronic locator transmitters (ELTs). We used to hold the radio close to our body and slowly turn around to establish a direction. Imagine the efficacy of converting millions of cell phones to DF units. If you think geo-caching is a blast, just wait until you go "fox hunting".

Probably one or more of these already exist or are in beta development. Your thoughts and ideas?

ASBDC Fall Conference 2010

2010-09-30T17:50:00.006-05:00

I attended the Fall Conference of the Association of Small Business Development Centers in San Antonio, TX last week. Many things happened in a very short space of time.

Presentations

I presented a brief 10-15 minute overview of how the Arkansas SBTDC is using social media (Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) to provide outreach to veteran small business owners.

I also presented a full 1-1/2 hour workshop on mobile website development. My profound thanks to Betsy who worked me into this years schedule. Together, we enabled many SBDC counselors to receive timely information to benefit America's small businesses on how to implement m-commerce.

Both sessions were filled to overflowing and the workshop evaluations have been positive.

Noteworthy Things I Learned

I attended a very good workshop by Google on how to use their line of small business products like Local Listing. Most invaluable was establishing a contact with an insider at Google who i willing to forward my few requests for information and guidance to fellow Google staff. Ditto for the certificate towards certifying as a Google AdWords consultant.

The workshop by the Wyoming SBDC on how they went about establishing a virtual Wyoming SBDC in Second Life has proven the most useful. Just this morning I forwarded my notes to a student team at Henderson State University wanting to develop a virtual retail store as their entry in the upcoming Governor's Cup business plan competition.

I moderated Curt Clinkenbeard's workshop on the nine pillars of marketing. This was a good refresher as I received this training a few years ago here in Arkansas. I have resolved to follow up with his FAMEE Foundation and seek certification as a marketing consultant.

Finally, I attended a very good workshop on professional sales by Bob Butler of Butler Learning Systems. Thank you for the extra wallet cards with the 5 A's Selling Process and R-PAST. I have already distributed these cards to our students in the UALR Center for Professional Selling.

Personal

I managed to squeeze in a visit to Lackland Air Force base where I underwent Basic Military Training (BMT) many long years ago. Most of the facilities I lived in and/or frequented have recently been demolished. I did find and visit the bowling alley, the recreation center, and walk across the grinder where I huffed and puffed through calisthenics and long runs. I made it onto the base just in time to hear "Retreat" echo and watch as time and traffic stood still as end of day honors were rendered.

One evening mid-week, I spent time with my old shop chief from RAF Alconbury, UK. Chief Greyfeather, as he is affectionately known, took my out to Shertz, TX to a small mom and pop Mexican restaurant and introduced me to Borracho (black beans and jalapeños). We went by his house where he has a wonderful collection of brass rubbings.

Aside from a rough departure day involving food poisoning, checking in late for a flight, and extremely turbulent weather which left me with a lingering case of vertigo, the San Antonio conference was enjoyable, productive, and a welcome break.

Webinars: Presenter Checklist

2010-08-20T16:50:00.005-05:00

Several recent visitors arrived searching for "webinar presenter checklist." As we mentioned previously, one of the best ways to ensure that you consistently deliver a quality webinar is to be organized and methodical. A checklist of actions to take before, during, and after a webinar is an excellent job aid. Here's the basic webinar checklist I follow when "organizing" a webinar.

15 MINUTES BEFORE
___ Organizer log in to webinar.
___ Start webinar.
___ Start organizer PPT. Ensure welcome slide visible.
___ Click “Show My Screen button”.
___ Ensure “Start Recording” button visible.

10 MINUTES BEFORE
___ Panelist(s) log in to webinar.
___ Panelists PPT loaded, on 1st slide, in show mode.
___ Verify audio levels.
___ Give panelist(s) drawing and attendee list.

START
___ Advance organizer PPT to title slide.
___ Start recording.
___ Instruct on webinar controls and minimizing control panel.
___ Introduce panelist(s).
___ Handover controls to panelist.

DURING
___ Mute organizer microphone.
___ Advance organizer PPT to final panelist slide.
___ Monitor chat pane for quastions.

CONCLUDING
___ Unmute organizer microphone.
___ Handover control to organizer.
___ Advance organizer PPT to seminar evaluation slide.
___ Open poll questions for 30 seconds each.
___ Advance organizer PPT to thank you slide.
___ Announce next webinar details.
___ Advance organizer PPT to exit slide.
___ Ensure all attendees exit webinar.
___ Debrief with panelist.

AFTER
___ Print & save webinar reports.
___ Review and post webinar video.
___ Ensure follow up emails sent.

While you may copy and paste the above checklist to get yourself started, customize the checklist and make it your own. You may wish to add the steps for setting up a webinar in your particular webinar system. If you are the webinar organizer and presenter, you may wish to add steps that remind you to mention your website and toll free phone number or to include certain information particular to a topic.

Motorola Droid: Desktop Computer System Mod

2010-08-19T17:33:00.003-05:00

While I'm not an active cell phone user, the recent introduction of the Motorola Droid phone got my noggin going with the question: Can I use a smartphone as a replacement for a desktop computer? Based on the specifications of the Motorola Droid phone, the theoretical answer to that question is YES!

Bearing in mind that a computer system has only a few key parts, namely:

Input
Central processing unit (CPU)
Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU)
Storage
Output

The Motorola Droid is interesting in that it offers the capability for external input and output devices while offering albeit it limited CPU and long-term storage capabilities:

Bluetooth wireless keyboard (input device)

Motorola Droid (CPU, ALU, storage)

HDMI LCD monitor/TV (output device)

While HDMI enabled monitors and televisions are commonly available, the one quirk in building a prototype Droid desktop computer system lies in the Bluetooth keyboard. It seems there are two competing Bluetooth protocols for wireless keyboards and the Droid makes use of the less popular protocol. To build a Droid based desktop computer, one should ensure their Bluetooth keyboard is dual protocol enabled. This would ensure the Bluetooth keyboard is compatible with other or future devices.

For the Droid smart phone product engineers, consider adding at least one USB port so a USB hub could be attached for wired keyboards, external memory expansion, and other to be determined auxiliary devices.

Webinars: Scripts

2010-08-19T17:08:00.007-05:00

A good way to ensure that you consistently deliver a quality webinar sans verbal pauses (uh..., ummmm..., etc.) is to use a script. You only get one opportunity to make a good first impression and a well developed webinar script is the tool to help you accomplish that goal.

Your script should help you accomplish the three main parts to any webinar: the webinar introduction, the webinar body, and the webinar conclusion. As I am the webinar organizer (think emcee), I seldom am concerned with the webinar content itself. My focus is on starting the webinar off well and professionally and bringing the webinar to a successful and positive conclusion.

When starting your webinar you should make time in your introduction to accomplish several key steps:

- ensure your webinar attendees are ready to participate
- introduce the webinar topic
- introduce the webinar presenter
- provide a smooth transition from organizer to presenter

Here's the sample webinar script for starting a webinar:

Welcome to _________________________________________________________ .

I’m ________________________________ , your moderator and webinar organizer.

Before we start, let’s take a moment to ensure that everyone is ready and familiar with the webinar control panel.

First, you should have a control panel on the right side of your screen.

You may minimize this panel by clicking on the double arrow button in the upper left corner.

You may expand the panel bly clicking the same button. Take a moment to practice.

Second, you have the ability to submit questions using the chat pane located near the bottom of the control panel.

Let’s get started…

Today’s panelist is ________________________________ .

(read panelist biography, if any)

Take it away, __________________________…

(panelist presentation)

When concluding your webinar you should make time in your conclusion to accomplish several key steps:

- thank the speaker
- evaluate the webinar
- invite to continue the relationship
- close the webinar

Here's a sample webinar script for concluding a webinar:

(panelist presentation)

Thank you, ____________________________!

We’d like to ask each of you to remain with a few moments longer and complete a short evaluation.

In a moment, three multiple choice questions will appear online on-at-a-time. You’ll have 30 seconds to select a response before the next question appears.

Let’s start by asking how you rate the webinar overall…

How do you rate our panelist, ________________________________________…

Finally, how do you rate the moderator, ________________________________________…

Thank you for your responses and for attending this webinar. We invite you to attend our next webinar:

Title: _____________________________________________
Webinar ID: _______________________________________
Date/Time: ________________________________________
URL: ________________________________________

Please exit this webinar by clicking on File – Exit.

Start with the above webinar scripts, but personalize them and make them your own. It may take you several webinars before you discover how and where to modify your own webinar script.

Multi-Media Video Glasses

2010-08-10T17:15:00.007-05:00

I didn't know these were available.

"The Zetronix 50" Multi-Media Virtual Video Glasses simulates a 50” television screen allowing you to watch anything you want in privacy. The picture is displayed right in front of your eyes as a virtual big screen. The effect is that you feel as though you are watching a 50" flat screen television, from 2 meters away, in a dark room."

The future is available to you now for the low, low price of only $199.99.

Webinar How To

2010-08-04T17:09:00.007-05:00

"Webinar How To" is our introductory article on how to host successful webinars. In "Webinar How To" you'll get an overview of the webinar process and you'll learn a step-by-step methology for producing effective webinars.

Selecting a Webinar Platform

We use GoToWebinar.com exclusively. GoToWebinar is used by so many webinar presenters that a large base of webinar attendees are already familier with its viewer controls. We like GoToWebinar's automatic emails before and after webinars, the poll feature, and the ability to easily record our webinars to video.

If GoToWebinar is beyond your current webinar budget then you might check out two free webinar tools: Cool Conference Live and DimDim. Both offer a full range of features and are a good way to get one's webinar feet wet.

Preparing for a webinar

Develop a basic script to be followed and/or read during the webinar. We developed a standard fill-in-the-blanks script. After filling in the title, names, and future webinar details, we have a ready to read aloud script. Reading a prepared script helps eliminate annoying verbal pauses like "Um...."

Prepare a set of standard webinar slides for use before and after the webinar proper. We have slides to announce the webinar will be starting shortly, that a three question poll will occur, and to announce the next webinar.

Develop a webinar checklist. The actions in this article are a good starting point. We print out our webinar checklist before every webinar and faithfully follow the cheklist step-by-step. AS you host your first webinars, don't forget to add to your checklist.

Running your webinar

Login and start your webinar software about 15 minutes early. We use a standard slide with our logo and corporate colors to announce the webinar will be starting shortly.

Send a brief welcome message to each attendee as they login, if possible.

Take time to welcome your attendees and review any technical aspects of the webinar software. We review how to hide the control panel which sometimes blocks slides. We also announce the chat and question panes will be monitored for questions during the webinar.

Provide a photo and read a short biography to introduce your webinar speaker.

Monitor the webinar while the speaker is presenting. Some software indicates when a hand is raised or similar. You'll want to respond to an attendees requests in a timely fashion, even if only to remind their questions will be answered at the end.

Use built in polls or survey tools to collect basic data on the webinar and presenter.

Finally, remind your attendees of the next webinar scheduled. We provide the title, date, time, and webinar number on a slide.

What to do after a webinar

Immediately after a webinar, I take time to debrief with the webinar presenter. We usually discuss any technical issues and review our plans to follow up with webinar attendees. If the webinar presenter will be presenting another webinar for us, we also remind the presenter of the date and time for the next webinar.

If your webinar software records the webinar to audio or video, immediately after the webinar is a very good time to locate the webinar audio or video file, preview it, and copy the file to any archive or permanent location.

Next you'll want to send emails to both the webinar attendees and the non-attendees. Thank the attendees and provide links to the webinar materials (slides, audio, video, etc.). Empathize with the webinar no-shows and send them links to the slides, audio and video files too. We don't know why they missed the webinar, but let's be gracious and assume the best.

We hope "Webinar How To" has provided you a good basic overview of webinars and a sequence for starting your own webinars. In future how to articles, we'll expand on the four areas above and provide more detailed and specific information, such as sample webinar scripts and checklists.

Free Webinars: CPE

2010-08-03T16:44:00.007-05:00

As we are required to complete 32-hours of continuing professional education (CPE) each and every year, sources of inexpensive business related webinars attract our attention. We recently found two very good sites which list a number of free webinars that not only match many of our interests, but likely one or more of your interests as well.

Webinar Hero

WebinarHero.com offers a free directory of free and low-cost CPE webinars. Free CPE webinars at WebinarHero.com range from sales training to information technologies to health related.

WebEx

WebEx also offers a directory of free and low-cost CPE webinars.

G5AH3EYAVD7A

Free Webinars: 1-Hour Small Business Webinars

2010-07-29T09:46:00.007-05:00

The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center is hosting live webinars for Arkansas veterans who are interested in owning or growing a small business. The training is offered at no charge. Webinars will be held July through October on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. The one-hour sessions are based on ASBTDC’s most popular traditional classroom seminars. You do NOT need to be a veteran to attend.

Title: Business Financing Options
Date: Tue, Aug 10, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CDT

Reserve your Business Financing Options webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/232271691

Title: Social Media
Date: Tue, Aug 24, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CDT

Space is limited.
Reserve your Social Media webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/764245051

Title: How to Write a Business Plan
Date: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CDT

Reserve your How to Write a Business Plan webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/727715874

Title: Starting a Business
Date: Tue, Sep 28, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CDT

Reserve your Starting a Business webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/315486754

Title: How to Write a Business Plan
Date: Tue, Oct 12, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CDT

Reserve your How to Write a Business Plan webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/193392274

Title: Business Financing Options
Date: Tue, Oct 26, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CDT

Reserve your Business Financing Options webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/877281955

“Starting a Business in Arkansas” covers all the basics for start-up businesses, including keys to success and common pitfalls to avoid. “Writing a Business Plan” can help entrepreneurial-minded veterans define their business concept and communicate their strategies and challenges.

“Financing Options for Small Businesses” discusses how and where to get financing for prospective and existing businesses and explores special opportunities for veterans, including the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Patriot Express loan program.

Two sessions are designed especially for veterans who are already small business owners. “Marketing with Social Media” examines ways to connect with customers online using tools like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and more. “Procurement Opportunities for Veteran-Owned Businesses” looks at how to tap into the billions of dollars going to veteran-owned businesses through contracts with federal, state and local government and large corporations.

ASBTDC’s Herb Lawrence, Robert Bahn and Rudy Ortiz will rotate as instructors, and ASBTDC webmaster Timothy Lee will provide technical support. All four are military veterans as well as seasoned small business trainers and consultants.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Appalachian Trail Section Hike

2010-07-21T09:17:00.002-05:00

Below are videos from my recent section hike of the Appalachian Trail. This video covers the section from Harpers Ferry to just north of Washington Monument.

For more details on the 10-day, 107 mile adventure along the Appalachian mountains, visit TrailJournal.com.

Teenage Mutant Incident Commanders

2010-05-12T10:58:00.004-05:00

It's articles like this that give me hope for the survival of our nation. Some one at the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning (RMSEL) in Colorado thought outside the box and taught the Incident Command System (ICS) to students. Usually, only overly stodgy adults, like school principals and teachers, learn about Incident Command. Not kids! Here's some of what happened:

In a scenario worthy of professional envy, the team managed to shepherd hundreds of their fellow students, Kindergarten through 11th grade, off the school grounds to a nearby park. They even identified a missing fourth grader who had been “locked” in a lab two minutes into the exercise. Everyone was back in school within 13 minutes.

Read Disaster Research 546 — May 6, 2010 for the full article.

SBA Veterans Award

2010-04-27T11:10:00.001-05:00

On Tuesday, April 27th, 2010, Herb Lawrence and I were honored for our work on ArkansasVeteran.com and our business outreach to Arkansas veterans by the Arkansas District of the U.S. Small Business Administration. District Director Linda Nelson is to our right in the photo.

We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Little Rock Convention Center, compete with duck shaped butter from the adjacent Peabody Hotel. My wife was invited to attend and she looked marvelous.

Of course Herb and I don;t work in isolation. Our award comes from the work of others and we stand on the shoulders of many. My sincerest thanks to those who nominated us, gave us the tasks, and supported our efforts in any way.

Facebook Social Plugins - Part 1

2010-04-23T10:10:00.003-05:00

Well, that didn't take long. Facebook launches a new set of Social plugins and before the sun sets a local news crew is on campus intererviewing people. Seems there are some concerns regarding the new tools and personal privacy.

Somehow the news crew ended up in our hallway and interviewing a co-worker. Unfortunately, my neighbor down the hall is finishing up a masters degree and couldn't be in the studio at 7 p.m. due to a final night class. Everyone else is camera shy and soon the solution to the conundrum is Timothy. So, Timothy grabs the blue blazer and universal tie that hangs ready behind the door and heads downtown for a live interview on Facebook social plugins. Click on the screen capture to watch the short video segment at KARK.

This morning finds us the recipient of accolades from admiring staff. Their way of saying; "Thank you for taking a virtual bullet for the team." So, having talked about it, we now have to act on it, instead of waiting and benefiting from others' trials and sage advice. So, bookmark my blog and come back next week when I'll offer Facebook Social Plugins - Part 2 on how to add the more useful social plugins to your website.

HP Designjet 3D Printer

2010-04-20T14:49:00.004-05:00

The future can be yours for a measley $17,500. HP has released their new Designjet 3D printer. Are you still printing on paper in only two dimensions? How quaintly 20th Century.

HP's Star Trek like device can print plastic in three dimensions to instantly manufacture plastic parts and anything else you can squeeze into its 203 x 152 x 152 mm build bay. Personally, we would love to have one of these this week to print ourselves a pair of Fast Tab 6's for a lightweight backpack.

On the dark side, this is yet another reason why American manufacturing will not likely be making a big comeback in the 20th Century. If everyone has a 3d printer, then there is little need for plastics manufacturers. Toss in the ability to spray conductive ink to make circuits and components, and these boxes could be printing small appliances like mp3 players and cell phones before the century ends. Remember, television wasn't on anyone's radar in 1910, neither was radar for that matter.

One catch though - it's only available in Europe for the time being. I suspect it may be a time zone thing as Europe is 6-7 hours ahead of the United States. Thus the future arrives in Europe well before the future arrives in North America.

An interactive map of Tea Party events on Meetup.com.

2010-04-20T03:24:00.000-05:00

Chris Wilson at Slate.com has done something rather ingenious. He took data from Meetup.com and mapped it on Google maps over time to produce an interactive map of Tea Parties. This is a rather cool animation to watch regardless of personal politics.

I may have to devote some off-duty time to study and reverse engineer this. As a result of seeing what makes it go, perhaps we'll discover a useful application for ourselves or others. I've always wanted an animated map showing migration of families for genealogists. Hadn't thought of heat mapping births, weddings, or deaths. Hmmm...

Taking Your Website Mobile

2010-04-09T09:55:00.005-05:00

Just finished instructional design on the Arkansas SBTDC's newest program: Take Your Website Mobile. The first presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, April 21st, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the ASBTDC classroom at UALR. Online Registration.

This project started as a speaking proposal on mobile website development for the annual Fall Conference of the Association of Small Business Development Centers. In January, we developed a basic PowerPoint presentation on mobile web development and program description, then submitted those back in early February. We won't hear from the association for several more weeks. If selected to present on mobile web development, that presentation won't occur until late September this year.

For those unable to attend one of the upcoming mobile web presentations, some resources you'll find useful for developing a mobile website or transitioning a website for viewing on mobile devices include:

1) MobiForge. This is where you should start. Read the basic introductory materials and get a feel for the limitations of mobile devices and the requirements and standards for displaying information on small screens with limited capabilities.

2) Ready.mobi. If you have an existing website, this is your next stop. Enter your URL in the Ready.mobi evaluation tool and see where you rank and what problems need fixing. Don't be surprised if your site ranks a low 1 or 2 the first time. Most web pages are bloated with images and scripts that mobile devices just can't handle. Ready.mobi produces a detailed report that lists what's wrong and provides suggestions on how to fix each problem. Its the tool we used to make asbtdc.ualr.edu mobile compliant.

3) Instant Mobilizer. The Instant Mobilizer tool from dotMobi creates a mobile web version of an existing website.You get to choose the elements from your existing website that you want to port over for mobile devices. The tool allows you to create a mobile web mini-site with the same logo, corporate colors and branding that you have already established.

4) Ubik.com. Of all the tools for creating a mobile website from scratch, Ubik.com was our favorite. Perhaps because we can create multiple mobile websites, host them for free, and manage them all from a central account. Instead of creating apps, one can create mini mobile web sites for a single purpose. Thus, there is little need for programming or the heartache of trying to get one's mobile app accepted for listing by the device companies and telcoes.

If you found the above helpful, consider adding our RSS feed to your browsers feed reader. Just click on the orange RSS square or click the link to our RSS feed in the grey area in the top right. Also, consider following TimothyLeeAR on Twitter as we post links to several helpful sites each day. Twitter topics include not only mobile web sites, but also information on landing page optimization, and search engine optimization. Why not let me help filter out some of the noise and chaffe and give you links to the "good stuff?"

Veterans Grant

2010-04-08T10:12:00.006-05:00

The Arkansas SBTDC received a second veterans grant from the SBA to continue our outreach work to Arkansas veterans. The $100,000 veterans grant provides continued funding for ArkansasVeteran.com, the state veterans portal, for continuing our distance education via webinars, and for one-on-one online business counseling. We have renewed our GotoWebinar account and will be presenting no less than 10 webinars over the summer. As the webinar organizer, I'll also be training some additional ASBTDC staff in how to present webinars. I just have to find the webinar scripts and checklists I wrote last summer.

One of the key veterans grant deliverables is hosting an small business conference for Arkansas veterans. The conference is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, November 16th at the Jacksonville Community Center, just down the street from the Little Rock AFB main gate. We had great success attracting veterans to this location for past conferences and enjoy the facility as its well maintained, offers plenty of parking, and is just off the freeway.

Another key event is the veterans breakfast this month on April 27th at the Arkansas Procurement Opportunities Conference. We'd like to encourage all veterans who are able to come join the many service providers for a nutritious meal and some great ideas on succeeding in business. The conference and breakfast are 100% free, so come join us!

Read the Arkansas SBTDC press release on the veterans grant:
http://asbtdc.ualr.edu/media/news-releases/100402-veterans-grant.asp

Creative Thinking: Homemade Flying Hovercraft

2010-03-15T14:18:00.007-05:00

As someone who sometimes wanders through department stores and often envisions different and novel uses for everyday products (a fun creative thinking exercise), the following video struck a sympathetic chord. A fellow in New Zealand supersized the creative thinking practice to a full-sized off-the-shelf hovercraft and thought: "What if I put wings on this?" Watch his amazing video:

He plans to sell his new invention for about $13,000.

So, continuing along this line of creative thinking, what other existing off-the-shelf produts could be sold at higher cost by the addition of a value-added enhancement?

For example, why do not all cell phones and notebook computers not contain a global positioning system (GPS) receiver? Seems a no brainer to me, as it did to the designers of the LG Incite phone.

Backpacking Arkansas at Cane Creek State Park

2010-03-10T17:48:00.004-06:00

After months of cold winter weather with record snowfalls and low temps, the weekend forecast was for one of the finest weekends in months. The youngest offspring agreed to join me in an overnight backpacking trip in Cane Creek State Park near Star City, Arkansas. The overall distance was 12 miles round trip.

Also, the park had a controlled burn on the day before, so we were able to enjoy several miles of blackened landscape seen through a romantic smoke filled haze. Here's some of what we experienced:

You'll find a nice 8-minute video on Cane Creek State Park, featuring Chuck Dovish of Travelling Arkansas fame, on YouTube.

Search Engine Ranking: Basic SEO for Small Business

2010-03-03T08:01:00.002-06:00

Amazingly, it's 2010, a tenth of the way into the 21st Century, and many small businesses are not ranking well in search engines. Due to having older Web 1.0 websites or poorly designed Web 2.0 sites, these businesses with poor search engine ranking are receiving fewer visitors and thus fewer sales than they should be receiving.

What's the problem? Fundamentals, or rather the lack of fundamentals.

In sports, those atheletes that excel and become Olympians are those that master the fundamentals of their sport. So too, businesses that master the fundamentals of search engine ranking are those that succeed and grow.

What are the fundamentals of search engine ranking?

The core of successful search engine ranking is keyword selection. Research and select three and four word phrases that potential customers are actively searching for. Google's AdWords Keyword Tool is one method for developing a list of phrases actively being searched.

Assign each web page a particular search phrase being searched by over 1,000 people, if possible. Then tune that page for the selected phrase. Your pages ranking will improve.

Consider renaming pages from the nearly useless "aboutus.htm" to a more beneficial "about-search phrase goes here.htm". Having a keyword or two in the page name is a plus for a good search engine ranking.

Check your page titles by looking in the blue bar at the top of your browser. What's up there now? Its not an accident that "Timothy Lee AR" is at the top of your screen. That's deliberate. One of my marketing goals is to own most, if not all, of the ten first page search engine results for "Timothy Lee AR" on Google, Bing, and other search engines. (Check in a few months and see how well I did.) You can do this too by changing your page titles to start with your targeted key words.

Check your meta tags. While Google does not score meta tags for your search engine ranking, Google may use your description meta tag for your search engine listing. Customers don't visit all the search engine results, but select those that more closely describe the sought information. A good description increases click-throughs. Customers actually have to click and visit to generate sales or sales leads.

Use your targeted search engine phrase several times in your first paragraph and throughout the page text. You should aim for about 200 words of text on every page with a saturation of about 3-5% for the targeted search phrase. Many shopping carts lack adequate descriptions for good search engine ranking. By the way, have you figured out what search phrase this page is tuned for besides "Timothy Lee AR". If you answered "search engine ranking," you are correct.

Finally, Arkansas small businesses should request a FREE search engine optimization report from their nearby center of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center.

Computer Training: Basic HTML - Design Your Own Webpage

2010-02-24T15:26:00.008-06:00

Here are some resources and notes for those that attended the Arkansas SBTDC's computer training seminar. Those unable to get a seat in the sold out program might also find these resources useful as well.

Software

KompoZer is a FREE complete web authoring system. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

HTML Kit is a full-featured editor for HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and other text files. This is what Timothy uses day in and day out. Its FREE too.

Templates

One of the biggest time and money savers for small business websites is the availability of free and low-cost HTML templates. Find one you can live with. Change the name and contact information. Swap a logo and maybe a photo or two. Add some text. Then, get your site up and running the same day.

Simple, easy to modify templates include:

Free business web template #17

Free HTML Bleu Red and Brown Business Template

Hosting

Resist the urge to register a domain name right away. Instead, select a hosting package. You can register your domain name while purchasing your hosting package. Most hosting packages include a FREE domain name. Why pay twice?

Get a full featured hosting package that offers more than you will ever need. Consider one of the larger Internet buffets that offer all-you-can-eat services. Among these are:

Bluehost.com - Timothy has used Bluehost for several projects.

Hostgator.com - Timothy runs several large portals on a Hostgator account. Consider the Baby Gator plan.

Siteground.com - Recommended for business needing an online customer contact database. Siteground specializes in hosting SugarCRM.

Content Management Systems

A content management system, or CMS, reduces the need to know very much HTML. You can build a sophisticated, full featured website quickly and easily add content and new features.

Service businesses and sales lead generators should consider installing WordPress as your CMS. Its widely used and there are lots of add ons. WordPress is included with the above Internet buffet hosts and installs with a few clicks of the mouse. Nothing to download and install.

Retailers and others selling online should consider installing Zen Cart as a CMS. Zen Cart is also included with the above Internet buffet hosts and it too installs with a few clicks of the mouse. While the above Internet buffets also offer several other shopping arts as well, keep in mind that when selling to fellow Arkansas, you must collect city and county sales tax based on the delivery destination. Arkansas has 75 counties and over 200 cities with sales taxes. How are you going to keep track and remit accurate taxes monthly. A solution already exists for Zen Cart, not so the others.

Final Thoughts

Get your site up and going quickly. Don't agonize too much over initial content. It takes 2-4 months to get a new site up and buzzing with visitors. You'll have time for upgrades. Using a CMS like WordPress or Zen Cart makes upgrades fast and easy.

Once your site is up, request a free Search Engine Optimization (SEO) report from the Arkansas SBTDC. A business consultant will examine you site and compare it to "perfect page" criteria and send you a detailed report on what needs to be "fixed" to have an optimum site. If you're paying some one to do the work, request an SEO report when the final draft site is accessible. No sense in paying the designer a second time for work that should have been done right in the beginning.

Best wishes for success...

Social Media Success in 3 Minutes

2010-02-19T12:48:00.003-06:00

A focal point of my work in 2010 is helping small businesses adopt and implement social media. Here's a very short introduction to the power of social media and some easy to remember lessons.

So without further ado, I introduce to you the story of Mister Splashy Pants...

The above video is from TED. TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

My Events Calendar - March

2010-02-19T11:50:00.005-06:00

Here's my events calendar for March.

Little Rock - March 3 - Search Engine Optimization

Prescott - March 4 - Online Auctions

Little Rock - March 10 - HTML Advanced

Search Engine Optimization is one of my most popular events. Register now if you want to spend an afternoon with me learning how to research keywords and tune your webpages. We'll also take a good look at Google Analytics, which you should be using already. My SEO events are usually standing room only.

Would love for you all to come!

Social Media Marketing: Building Timothy Lee a Social Media Lens

2010-02-18T18:40:00.004-06:00

Last year, I was having a difficult time reconciling Facebook with Twitter with blogs. Sure, there are ways to display posts between the social media sites, but to what end? Was there not a practical application?

Well, of course, there is. A brilliant San Diego web consultant introduced me to the concept of building a social media lens to bring the enormous pagerank power of social media sites to bear on a target site or page. This blog and the associated Twitter and Facebook pages are crossed linked and designed to "own" the keywords "Timothy Lee AR". The initial goal is to control most of the top 10 results for the target search phrase in Google. The further goal is to attempt to "own" most of the Google search results for "Timothy Lee".

http://twitter.com/TimothyLeeAR

http://Facebook.com/TimothyLeeAR