Does your company have a logo that stands out above the competition? Can your logo be recognized quickly? Check out some of these national brands... How many can you recognize in 8 minutes? http://www.sporcle.com/games/corplogos2.php

Always looking for new ways to deliver its search results, Google has rolled out a new app that combines instant messaging and search.

Launched today as the lastest experiment in the Google Labs playground, Google Talk Guru offers you a chat session through which you can ask certain questions and receive responses from an automated bot set up on the back end.

For now, the app can handle only certain types of questions from among a limited number of categories, such as weather, sports scores, math equations, definitions, and translations. But like other Google Labs apps, it's something to try out and could eventually develop into something bigger and better.

Curious about Twitter and what it can do for you? If you are wondering exactly what a 'tweet' is... watch this 90 second video to learn more. Ask us how we can get you connected today!

We are always looking for ways to help our clients save time and money. Today, I had 2 people tell me that they wish they had more time to have dinner with their family. One client even complained that they only had time to serve a can of ravioli. Between work and school, homework and sports, practice and music lessons... who has time for it all? My time saver secret is the crock pot... (aka slow-cooker, aka life-saver ;)

This is a simple ham recipe, (quick and easy) and provides a healthy alternative to frying. I usually set it up before I go to work and it's ready-to-eat when we get home.
  

Ham, Potato, Broccoli, and Carrots | Crockpot Recipe:
3 lbs of ham
6 small potatoes
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup broccoli
3 Carrots, chopped

Season the ham with salt and pepper and add to the crockpot. Add the small potatoes with the peels, broccoli, carrots, and 3/4 cup water into the crockpot and cook on low for 7-8 hours. Ready to serve.

Remember... "The man who stops advertising to save money, is like the man who stops the clock to save time."

Please comment with any 'time saver ideas' that you can share...

According to Yodel's Top 5 local marketing mistakes... one issue is 'Trying to Build a Website On Your Own'. Your website is an important piece of your business' local marketing efforts – today's customers expect that you'll have one. It can't just have a nice design, some photos and list your services.
Your website needs to do one thing well – convince visitors that you are the best business for their needs. Many small business owners create a website that they think is well designed or tell a friend how they want it to look. It may feel like an easy and fun project that requires a little time and effort, but it is as critical as choosing a location or name for the business. Just because it seems easy, doesn’t make it so.

It’s a science.
Enticing a website visitor to call your business is quite literally a science – something easily done incorrectly. Every word and image plays an important role and requires a specific skill set not commonly found by your average web designer or creative individual. Here are few common website design pitfalls to avoid:

• Not making it clear what you want the visitor to do (i.e. make an appointment).
  
• Not using web friendly copy – too much, brochure style.
  
• Not satisfying various types of visitors (i.e. age, need, etc.).
  
• Not optimizing your website based on customer feedback, new services and usage data.
  

What can you do to avoid the #5 local marketing mistake?
We know it's hard to resist using the free web design software that comes with your computer, ready-made site templates or your tech-savvy niece or nephew to build your company's website. Resist the urge!
  
On the internet, people are easily distracted and are always one click away from visiting your competition. Every choice made with regard to headlines, buttons, photography and colors can drastically alter its effectiveness. Help is available in the way of online marketing service providers that can ensure you’re guiding as many people as possible toward calling or emailing your business. Unfortunately, most site-building tools and family members don't know how to create a site that does this, robbing you of customers that could have been yours.

Contact Us Today, to help you make the most of your website!

You may have a perfectly wonderful website that looks great and includes everything that you wished for... BUT the number one question I receive from clients is, "How do I get people to find my website". Research shows that there are a few steps to help in this task. According to webnet77.com, here are 10 easy steps to get you started:

1. Submit your site to as many search engines as you can. Here are some of the popular ones you can start with: Alexa, AltaVista, AOL, Ask, Bing, DMOZ, ExactSeek, Excite, Google, Lycos, LookSmart, MSN, National Directory, Yahoo, SearchIt, WebCrawler.
   
2. Use a favicon.ico
3. Have Dynamic content on your site - Message Board, Links Directory, Guest Book, Online Search, Picture Gallery, Quote of the day, News items, Site Search, Links Engine ... It all makes for a more enjoyable experience for your visitors ... and interested visitors come back.
4. Make sure you don't have broken links on your site! There is nothing more annoying when one clicks a link and it does not work. There are hundreds of places you can go on the internet that will check your link validity. Use them.
5. Make sure your META TAGS are done right. 
6. Submit your site to as many privately run Link Directories/Search Engines as you can find. These will not generally boost your traffic in any major way but will help to maintain steady stream of qualified visitors.
7. Use Banners with care. See below.
8. Subscribe to the Usenet groups and advertise there. A good place to start is Google Groups. Be sure to submit your site in appropriate groups!
9. Be sure to signup with a backup email or you will get onto every spammers database! Be sure you don't SPAM -- only submit a write up of your site once to any given group.
10. Use social networking sites like Twitter, facebook, YouTube, Plaxo, Linkedin and others to get the word out.

Many people think that having a good website is all you need to get tons of visitors. Wrong answer. Getting traffic to your site takes hard work and diligence and is not accomplished overnight. Think about it this way - how are people supposed to know where to find your site if you don't tell them? You must advertise.  A Good Website Designer will include these items in the development of your site. Being aware of the keywords that people are using to search for your site is very important. Keep working at these items, and your site will continue to grow.

The Basics

If you are new to the terms RSS or news feeds then you are in the right place, read on and find out a little more about them and how they may offer you or your business a new way of communicating.

RSS Feeds or news feeds are growing quickly and have become a major part of the Internet but many users don't understand what they are. They allow people to see when their favourite websites have added new content without actually having to go to that website, this can be done through simple, often free pieces of software named RSS readers.

The term RSS is short for "Rich Site Summary" but many people now refer to it as "Really Simple Syndication". It was mainly used by news groups and sites to quickly share and broadcast their news with people. This proved to be a huge benefit as not only could they reach a huge audience quickly, they found that user's integrated feeds into their own website, this has been shown by the success of the BBC news feeds.

How to start using RSS feeds for your self?

In order for you to receive the latest news on topics of interest to you, firstly, you need a newsreader to be able to view the RSS feed. There are many to choose from, some Internet browsers such as Firefox (our favourite at Blueprint IT) have a built in RSS reader but there are many stand alone pieces of software which are also free that will enable you to receive the latest news. We will use Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 as examples because they are very simple to use.

Once you have chosen your newsreader your ready to pick up news. Simply choose the websites with your favourite information on and if they have a news feed then all you have to do is subscribe to it (this is almost invariably free). You can subscribe to any RSS feeds by clicking on the orange RSS feed button symbol, this will allow you to receive all the news from that feed. Alternatively, some websites may not provide you with the RSS feed button but may provide you with a link, simply copy and paste this link into your news reader and you will be able to pick up the feed.

The RSS Feed will present you with a page full of news from the website that you chose. You have the option to subscribe to the RSS Feed, this will act like a bookmark that will let you visit the page at any time.

Alternatively, if you decided to use a standalone RSS Feed reader, you will automatically download the latest news through the software each time you open it.

There are many benefits to RSS Feeds to both business owners, customers and general internet users, it's just a quick and simple way to share or view news from your favourite sources with the minimum of effort.

Author Bio
By: Rob Jones