If you are in a position where you’re not sure how much longer your company will last without starting (or continuing) layoffs, why not take the bull by the horns and approach management with this idea.

Telecommuting! Now bear with… this post includes evidence and surefire suggestions you can make to your company’s management team. This just might keep you employed!

Here are a few snippets from a recent article written by the “online guy,” Al Gibes.

“Staying home could make you a better worker and save your company money at the same time.

Although more people are working away from the office, only 40 percent of businesses have a formal policy on telecommuting, a recent Microsoft Corp. survey shows. Saving gasoline, avoiding long commutes and working in a less stressful environment are the top reasons workers log in away from the office.”

If you’re worried about how to present this idea, and thus hang onto your job or a co-worker’s position, here’s more:

“Businesses that give employees the support to work remotely could save 10 percent to 20 percent on office expenses,” said Michael Clark, Microsofts’ Western regional manager of midmarket customers.

“I’ve walked (into offices) and there are cubicles for people there only one day a week or one day a month,” he said. “Businesses could cut back on office space, cut back on travel expenses and the cost of provisioning phone lines.”

Security factors might be your stumbling block when presenting this idea to keep your job. However, you can be ready with the answer… encryption programs!

Evolving technology is easing concerns about security. Clark cites significant improvements in encryption programs that protect data and network access protection that provides safe access for employees while away from the office.

Some suggestions for encryption include BitLocker Drive, a Microsoft product, provide protection from hackers and thieves. (And honestly, shouldn’t your company already be protecting its valuable data – this might not even be an issue. Investigate!)

Another bit of information to have ready in your arsenal of reasons to keep you employed can be the use of voice over internet protocols. Your reason for bringing this up is that by working your job from home you ensure the safety of company data by connecting via telephone (on your computer/laptop), along with your ability to use live messenger programs to “chat with co-workers and clients while working remotely.”

Per the rest of Mr. Gibes article, San Diego tops the list when it comes to keeping employees on the payroll using telecommuting to offset cost. Other cities making the most of this exceptional way to keep a company in business, offset costs, and still pay its employees include: West Palm Beach, Florida; Buffalo, New York; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

So if you’re wondering or worried that the axe is about to fall, cut ‘em off at the pass and offer solutions to keep you on! Telecommuting just might mean the difference between paychecks or unemployment!

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I’ve been so darn busy that it’s been a few days since I had the time to stop and do what I love… post something new on this blog.

However, it was worth the wait since we have several new resources you’re sure to find worthwhile, including information on how to start or get a job offline or on.

The first is Knol: A Unit of Knowledge. Not unlike a blog or wicki (or maybe just like a blog or wiki lol), Knol is a byproduct of Google where you can “share what you know and write a knol.”

With a PR of 7/10 (it’s Google’s own remember) and Alexa rank of 1 (again, it’s Google’s own), you can’t go wrong posting stuff you know and getting it listed and indexed in Knol.

The second item we’d like to share is a resource called Big Hit System, a pushbutton marketing resource run by a great guy named Steve Russell. Steve has put together the tools and resources you need to get the job done online. The best part? I’ve spoken with Steve and discovered another (gasp) online marketer willing to – yes – pick up his phone! He’s also been online long enough (since 2003) to know of what he speaks – another rare commodity and huge bonus for you! They even provide you with no obligation information on the home business right for you.

And while this next one is not new, if you’ve been hearing about the canonial tag and are still confused about whether you need to use it or not, that bolded link will take you straight to Google itself to read all about it. Best to get information like this straight from the horses’ mouth versus trying to interpret a third party’s interpretation. Website owners, article writers, and anyone with possible duplicate content on the same domain should read up on this “new” tagging system.

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Last but not least, if you’re looking for a job or a change in career, head on over to this information found at the AARP website. You do not have to be of retirement age to benefit from these job suggestions. They provide 10 ideas to help you make extra money fast. Again, these ideas are for ANY age and they even suggest “going rates” for what you can charge, how to get started, and more. Remember if you found this or any of our other posts and pages of interest, please comment. We love comments! (And it’s free marketing for you.)

After making our post for January 3, it was off to my favorite forums. That’s where I found six tools mentioned by Owen that he loved using in 2008.

The one that caught my eye is Zemanta, an add-on to your Firefox browser that automatically recognizes your wordpress and/or blogger blogs. It’s a tool that’s going to help suggest photos, videos, articles, etc., related to what you’re writing about – all done from inside your admin area.

Here’s an example:

Related articles by Zemanta

• Twitter Is Stealing Your Password

What the example above shows is something Zemanta considered “related to” the rest of the information in this post (see below about Twitter).  There are many items to choose from, but I just picked this one – all from inside the admin area of this blog.

After installing (and it’s quick and painless and yes I did read the terms of service first), you’ll end up on the welcome page where you’ll get instructions on “how to get started right away” using this super cool tool!

A big thanks to Owen for sharing this and five other tools (one of which he created himself).

Excellent!

And, for those of you wondering why your Wordpress Twitter Updater plugin no longer works, well we don’t currently have the answer to that… However, TwitterBar 1.1 may be your easiest solution.

It’s been available since November 1, 2008, tried and tested. Just be sure you know what you’ve got typed in your address bar before you Twitter it. It can be words, the link of the page you’re on, whatever. So double check first

(The Firefox logo was also pulled in using Zemanta.)

A second alternative to get your feeds posted directly to your Twitter account (though the toolbar above is very cool), is TwitterFeed

TwitterFeed requires you to create an OpenSource id. Just be prepared to validate your signup via email AND be adept at picture recognition – the  process is a tad long while you “guess the picture” during the account creation process.

What TwitterFeed will do is, depending on your setting choices, take a peek at your blog feed and post the last “x” amount you designate at the time interval you ask it to check. While that may sound confusing, it’s not – it’s just a fill in the blanks AFTER you get past the picture recognition thing (it’s very hard to explain but worth the trouble).

So there you have it… multiple ways to get your current posts automatically onto Twitter, plus add some graphic interest to your posts painlessly.  Enjoy!

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think about this post. So please DO comment!

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This morning, while talking with Janet Giacoma, we discussed the value of guest posting, or more precisely, pursuing the idea of guest posting on other people’s blogs.

So after a lengthy conversation about marketing strategies for the upcoming New Year (and of course once I was off the phone), I started doing a bit of digging. (Guest posting is not something new to us, but it never hurts to do a bit of background research to bring yourself up to speed.)

Guest Posting Secrets (How to Get Published on An A-List Blog), posted a little over a year ago, provides the information anyone considering adding such a marketing strategy to their business should take the time to read… first!

“In this post, I want to share the strategies I used to secure guest-posting spots at three Technorati Top 100 blogs (ProBlogger, Copyblogger and Zen Habits) without any prior contact with the owner. I don’t include that information to boast – I simply want to show you that these methods work. If they worked for me, they can work for you.”

This informational post provides specific guest post directions such as:

o  Why guest post on popular blogs?
o   Choosing where to guest post
o   Coming up with the perfect idea
o   Pitching your post (includes email template)
o   Opportunities to look out for
o   And important things to remember

Not surprising, it also appears that the post about guest posting may itself BE a guest post. How clever is that?

Our suggestion? Make the time to study up on, and implement, this social media marketing concept as soon as possible, and reap the benefits.

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We love comments! Please do and gain a valued backlink.

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Throughout the year, and typically always around holiday seasons, your inbox (like ours) fills up with true and utter junk. However, recently I had a conversation with a client who did not know it was possible to check the origins of any given email before opening it up.

So this post is intended to help anyone unfamiliar with safeguarding their privacy and their computer. I want to be sure that anyone receiving any email from any source (whether you think you know them or not) knows how to check that email before opening it.

We have a current situation that makes this post even more important… a few of our own emails from several of our own domains are currently circulating the net AS IF we were emailing people. We’re not of course. The only time you’d hear from us would be via either Getresponse or Aweber – both double opt in email programs.

However, of late, we’re getting the following notorious-type emails – each appearing as if we are stupid enough to mail something from us to ourselves. We then thought a, “Let’s cover some basics” post was in order.

Many times we get suspicious looking emails. If you’re running a great anti-virus detection program (our preference is Kaspersky), it catches a lot of spam and suspicious emails.

But what about those emails that don’t trigger alerts, the ones that look like they are coming from someone you know. Only when you open it up do you get a clue that hey this might not be from who you thought it was. It’s either crass material, a link to a questionable website, or is filled with gibberish.

Has your friend or business associate suddenly gone mad?

The answer most likely is no. And there is a way to tell:

1. First, highlight (one click) but do NOT open the email

2. If you are using Outlook Express choose Properties, then Details and look in the box labeled Internet headers for the underlying code of the message that isp servers read.

a. The ReturnPath may give you a clue as to who really sent this

b. If X-Original-To and Delivered-To are the same, the chances are very good that this is not from the person you thought was emailing you. The odds of it being legitimate would be minuscule.

3. If you use Outlook, choose Options – look in the box labeled Internet Headers

a. Deeper into the code, [SPF failed… is a sure sign someone has hijacked the email address and is using it without permission and/or the owner’s knowledge.

b. Here’s a little something I found upon close investigation down near the bottom of this Internet Header: “Delivered to trusted network by a host with no rDNS” – another tip off. The domain (in this case one of ours) is legitimate, but the mailing itself originated from a “no rDNS.” A sure indication it’s not from who you think it’s from…

Both #2 and #3 will show you much more information, much of it meaningless to the average internet user, but close observation should be enough to decide whether #6 (below) is in order without opening and reading it.

4. Any email you receive that is using YOUR own domain name, where the From and To are the same address, means that your email account has been hijacked by some idiot. They collect these email addresses from forms on your site or exposed email addresses you kindly provide as clickable links to your visitors. (We get some really weird ones… Sigh).

Chances are you’ll never be able to trace them, but you should report these to your domain hosting support team since they involve your own website domain. Let them know someone is using your email address for spam purposes. Better safe than sorry. When you report it, make it clear this is not you doing it but someone else using your domain. Don’t overlook this step, it could mean the difference between them allowing you to continue hosting or them closing your access (sometimes without notice).

5. Along with a bit of private eye work of your own, we also feel the need to state the obvious; never click on a link in a suspect email. We even go so far as to highly advocate that if you really want to know what the url is (if you’ve chosen to open the email), then copy and paste said url into our browser versus clicking out from the email itself.

6. When in doubt, it’s just better and safer to delete the suspect email regardless.

If you’re thinking of protecting your website’s precious email information, numerous scripts have been invented to try to thwart these criminals, however, very little time passes before these same criminals find a way around them. A good suggestion would be to eliminate the email altogether. Create an image with your email address embedded as a picture and do not make it click-able.

For those using forms, etc., unfortunately you might have to just bite the bullet and keep a close eye on your accounts. The only way to know is when you receive one of this infamous emails from yourself to yourself.

For those just receiving email, do use the steps above if anything looks suspect.

For those with the same troubles above AND you are the domain owner being abused, be sure to follow all the steps, too, and report the issue immediately.

We cannot stress the importance of not believing or opening every piece of mail that comes your way. This past year alone, we know of at least four individuals whose identity was stolen because they really believed the email they received was legitimate.

Here’s to a safe and Happy Holiday season, and awareness as we start a brand New Year.

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Comments, Questions, Feedback? We love comments!

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