Wahms Helper

Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

I’ve written about OpenOffice.org before — a couple of times! because I really like it. I like that it is quality, powerful, open source, software with all the features of the more expensive commercial packages. I like it because it is not a Microsoft product. And I like it because it is FREE!

But, like any good product, there is probably a significant learning curve to its use. This is often the primary reason for sticking with what you have and never moving on to something that is actually better. And I do think OpenOffice.org is better!

The good news is there is a great, free, tutorial site that provides extensive training on the OpenOffice.org product and, to make things even better, it is also FREE! Check out this site:

http://www.learnopenoffice.org/index.htm

I’ve written about this before but it really is such a good solution for so many that I feel I need to revisit the topic.

For many years now Microsoft has dominated the office productivity software market with products like Work, Excel, Power Point, and Publisher, banishing the likes of WordPerfect, Lotus 1 2 3, SuperCalc, and so many others, to a distant memory. Productivity products like these are often bundled together into what is known as an office productivity suite. When Word, Excel, Outlook, Power Point, Publisher, and other software packages are bundled together like this it is known as Microsoft Office. And it is quite expensive; often several hundred dollars.

Many work-at-home entrepreneurs find they can neither afford, nor justify, the expense of such a product and, for those who are honest and don’t want to use a pirated (stolen) copy, there seemed little to do. Some made use of Microsoft Office’s poor second cousin, Microsoft Works, but they usually found that many other people couldn’t read the files it produced unless they, too, had a copy of Works. Works seems dated and doesn’t provide all the necessary functions required by today’s home-based office, either.

There is another solution, however. OpenOffice.org is not only an option, many would say it is actually a better choice. Perhaps the best thing about it is it is also completely free.

Some might think a free product like this must be a cheap imitation. Nothing could be farther form the truth. OpenOffice.org originated as StarOffice, an office suite developed by StarDivision and acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. You may not know much about Sun Microsystems but I can tell you they are a major player in the corporate computer market.

StarOffice turned out not to be an avenue Sun was ultimately committed to so the source code of the suite was released to public access in July 2000 with the aim of reducing the dominant market share of Microsoft Office by providing a free and open alternative. The OpenOffice.org project was born.

The OpenOffice.org project is primarily sponsored by Oracle Corporation, another major player who is less than friendly to Microsoft. Other major corporate contributors include Novell, RedHat, RedFlag CH2000, IBM, and Google. If you know anything about the Microsoft vs. the other guys in the computer arena, you may notice a theme shaping up here. There are also many smaller corporate players and, in the tradition of open source development, many more individual contributors.

Both the project and the software suite are commonly referred to as just OpenOffice (or Open Office), but this term is actually a trademark held by a company in the Netherlands thus requiring the project to adopt OpenOffice.org as its formal name. The suite operates on Windows, Mac, LINUX, Solaris, BSD, OpenVMS, OS/2 and IRIX, ie: just about anyone with a home office.

OpenOffice.org competes directly with Microsoft Office and generally emulates its look and feel, though proponents will say it does many things better and has unique functions as well. It can read and write most of the file formats found in Microsoft Office, and many other applications – an essential feature of the suite for many users who need cross-product compatibility (ie: the ability to read virtually any file your clients, associates, or friends, might send you).

OpenOffice.org has been found to actually be able to open files of older versions of Microsoft Office and even damaged files that newer versions of Microsoft Office itself cannot open. However, it cannot open older Word for Macintosh (MCW) files. The easy solution for this issue is to open the older files on the Mac in BBEdit or TextEdit, then SAVE AS to OpenOffice format. Nice!

Oh, and did I mention this power house product is FREE?!?

There is a lot of heavy “get rich with this program” promotion going on for what I call “cookie-cutter” affiliate websites. You sign up, pay a fee (often a down stroke and a monthly hosting/service price) and you get a pre-made website. You are told you can just sit back and watch the dollars flow in. Typically the only person that gets rich with this kind of a deal is the person running the website program in the first place. Even re-sellers of the program, if they have their own affiliate offering, seldom make any real money!

The biggest problem with these sites is that everyone’s is pretty much the same and they have not positioning in the important search engines. Here’s what Google says about them:

“Our Webmaster Guidelines advise you to create websites with original content that adds value for users. This is particularly important for sites that participate in affiliate programs.”

Google goes on to offer several important factors that you can apply to create a successful affiliate site. These include:

• Your affiliate content should make up only a small portion of the over all content of your website.
• When choosing your affiliate program, find product(s) that are appropriate for your intended audience. Targeting the product(s) to your site’s content will produce greater value and you will be more likely to rank better in search results.
• Build a community around your website and involve your users. Loyal, returning, readership provides more likelihood of conversion to sales.
• Update content regularly and be sure it is always relevant. Fresh, on-topic information increases website crawling by search engine spiders/bots.

This is all just one more reason why a blog is an excellent addition to an affiliate site as it allows easy addition of current, relevant material.

We’re pretty excited about the Kindle. It’s a powerful digital book reader with a great number of features, not the least of which is you can download any of some 450,000 book and periodical titles from Amazon. The Kindle is an expensive toy for some and a wonderful learning tool for others.

Just recently Amazon announced a free software version of the Kindle reader for your PC. We’ve installed it and had a look and we’re quite impressed. It is easy to use and gets the job done without a lot of fuss. You can get your own copy HERE and start reading Kindle books today.

An extra bonus is the thousands and thousands of free books available through Amazon and other sources!

If you are interested in a real Kindle reading device, check below:

By Shakira N. Smith

The auction powerhouse, eBay, is one of the greatest avenue to make it big in the industry of online selling. eBay has been the top site to visit when it comes to auctions and it has remained the top site for customers who are in search for anything and everything. There are several selling strategies that you can make use of in order to attract more customers to your site or to your page. Today, we will try to cover as many selling techniques you can use, whether you are a newbie or a veteran seller.

If you are selling through auctions, make sure that you list your items according to categories, then accurately indicate the quantity and minimum price bid. Set an end date for the auction, have the option to list the item open up to 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. You may also opt to have an instant buy type of auction, this works fairly as how a retail store sells items. List your items, quantity and price. However, no bidding will occur because the first one who wants to buy them will get the item. It may also be listed as open for 3,5, 7 or 10 days. Then there is another option to do a combination auction wherein the first two auction options are combined. You may open items for both bidding and instant buy auction. This way, whatever comes first, bidding or closing a sale will decide how you sell your items. Of course, you still get to peg the bottom price for each product you list as open.

All businesses need to have a functional marketing and promotions arm. Do your homework and research on how to run an online business effectively. Yes, eBay may be a popular site but it does not guarantee good earnings for all sellers who set up shops. Just like any other business, you will need hard work and patience to make it work and to be able to achieve a higher profit margin. You also have to note that most powersellers get their products from wholesale dropshipping companies which they got from a reliable listing or directory such as SaleHoo. As of this writing, SaleHoo has the biggest network of legitimate suppliers and distributors who have a varied range of products you can get at the best wholesale rate. Check out what SaleHoo can do to your online business, interact with other members and sellers who are greatly benefiting from features and services being offered. Online selling through wholesale dropshipping is a lucrative business but it does not guarantee business success to those who are not willing to do their part in effectively running a business.

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Jumpstart Your Online Business and Join the eBay Powersellers! Buy Wholesale Products From Real Wholesale Manufacturers Worldwide. Compare Top 3 Legit Wholesale Suppliers. Shakira N. Smith is a mother of two and has been selling products online for the past 5 years. She is now an eBay Powerseller, bringing in close to $40,000 in sales, with profits up to $20,000 a month. Legit Wholesale Suppliers. Buy Wholesale Products

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shakira_N._Smith

This website is created using the WordPress website engine. There are two versions of WordPress available for use on your own servers. One is for a stand-alone website (like this one) and the other is for multi-user sites (see MSMOsites)

Andrea Rennick operates a WordPress website which is not only run on WordPress, it is a tutorial site for using WordPress. You can find her site here:

http://wpmututorials.com

She also offers a free e-book titled Installing WPMU, in PDF format, which you can find here:

http://wpmututorials.com/files/2008/12/installing-wpmu.pdf

It’s really worth a look. But if you need a website like this one, bigger, smaller, or with a shopping cart, and you don’t have any idea where to start, contact us and we can help. Or check with the good folks at Our Hutch Web Services.

Main Street Mall Online is a virtual shopping mall featuring merchandise specific malls where sellers offer their products and/or services in their own stores. It is a premium selling site with all the features of much more expensive venues however there is a single monthly flat rate for services. There are no listing fees and no sales commissions.

Three packages are offered, two featuring unlimited listings. The first, a single store in one mall, is $29.99 per month with no contract and no hidden fees. The second, multiple stores in one or more malls — as many stores as you need, is just $49.99 per month. The third is a free store. Completely FREE! No monthly store fee. No listing fees. No final sales commissions. It is limited to 10 listings and is a great choice for someone with only a few items to sell or who wants to try before committing.

See Main Street Mall Online here: http://mainstreetmallonline.com/

After many years of false starts and fitful fluctuations in the publishing industry it looks like the time has come for a new approach to the serious distribution of professional quality e-books. There is a small number of quality contenders in the e-book reader market but it appears, at least at present, that the number one choice climbing to the top is the Kindle from Amazon (shown left).

It certainly doesn’t hurt that America’s number one online retailer is seriously in the mix. The Kindle is exclusive to Amazon and features a proprietary publishing format (AZW) and supports several others including TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; and PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.

At 10.2 ounces, the base model Kindle is lighter than a typical paperback and as thin as most magazines — barely a third of an inch in profile. A Kindle fits perfectly in your hands and the 6″ diagonal E Ink® electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level gray scale makes it easy to read in natural light.

The purchase of a Kindle ($259.00 with free shipping for the base model at time of writing) includes lifetime connection to Amazon’s Kindle book source by 3G wireless which lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere with no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots.

Click the image above to see Kindle on Amazon.

One of the most useful utilities I’ve found for my computer is AZZ Cardfile (http://www.azzcardfile.com/). It’s like a Rolodex, scratch pad, address book, birthday list, to-do list, and general database all in one.

The website says, “Azz Cardfile incorporates many useful tools in one piece of software: simple and powerful, totally customizable organizer software without predefined fields, Recipe Software, Contacts Database, Address Book, Rolodex, Contact Management Software, Simple Database, Organizer for Notes, References or any other items.”

It is easy to install, fast, and flexible. I use it for addresses, contact and client notes, code snippets that I use rarely enough to need to look up but often enough that I want available, ideas, to-do lists, etc. The free form entry means that it is suitable for almost any small data storage task that comes along, even information for transient short-lived projects. It’s just there when I need it.

If you use your computer for working from home you should have AZZ Cardfile installed. Shareware: $29.95