Getting a Website on the cheap

I posted before, that if you want to start a business, you should get a website. I want to add, that even if you are just job hunting, it’s not a bad idea.

 

To get things started cheaply

Register for a gmail account
Register for a domain name
Choose a hosting option
Decide what to put on

1. Register for a gmail mail account (cost:free)

Use your business name, or a professional looking verson of your name (CompanyName@, Firstnamelastname@,  Firstname.Lastname@,  Firstname.Initial.Lastname@)

Why? Gmail is free, and has some useful features, like being able to set it up to send email as if it was from your domain. Use your business name, or a professional name.

2. Register for a domain name. (cost:$8-15/year)

Are you using this for a professional face to your job search? Try to get a version of your name. Shouldn’t matter if it’s .com, ,net, .info, (or .me if it’s personal). If a domain name with your name is available, I would suggest snapping it up!

If you are looking at a business, and haven’t come up with a name, I like this “Dot-o-mater” website name generator.

Namecheap.com is a good source for registering your domain, because of the flexibility that url forwarding and email forwarding offer for you. Office Live and Google also offer domain hosting options, but you have to weigh out options, versus “putting all your eggs in one basket”.

3. Choose a hosting option.

A. Free Site

Webs.com and OfficeLive both have good offerings of templates and options for free. They both allow you to use your domain name at no additional charge.

B. Blog

Wordpress.com and Blogger.com both allow you to use your blog with your domain name. Wordpress charges $15/year, and restrictions on advertising, but the software is great. Blogger has no such restrictions, and provides “widgets” that make it easy to setup advertising.

4. Decide what to put on it.

A Business

If you are starting a business, make sure you look at other sites that do similar things, and make contact and action information as clear as possible.

B. Personal

If you are building a site for personal branding, make sure you include links to your social media or linkedIn profiles, put your resume on a page, as well as available in a PDF.

Fake Virus Protection Removal - by SuperAntiSpyware

That was easy. Getting rid of the annoying fake virus alert with the SuperAntiSpyware Portable edition. Dowload here


Hat Tip to the:
HowToGeek

Dr Bill’s Prescription for a Slowing Computer

Check Add/Remove Programs and Remove all programs that you do not use.

Keep your computer running lean, keeping only the applications that you actually use. Also look for programs that were not intentionally installed, and applications that do not uninstall properly.

• Process:
• Start
• Control Panel
• Add/Remove Programs

Check for Spyware and Viruses

Check your antivirus program to make sure that it is getting updates, and that your computer is getting scanned occasionally. Run Spybot Search and Destroy, Lavasoft Ad-aware, making sure you update them first before scanning (see Dr Bill’s Prescription for Spyware and Viruses) If you have persistent recurring adware or viruses, seek the help of a professional.

Clear off desktop

Keep your desktop clear of files and folders. Keep only shortcuts on your desktop. Use the same logic with your email inbox. Try to keep the inbox clean, leaving only action items, and saving the rest in appropriate files, that are not in you inbox.(See Dr Bill’s Prescription for an Overflowing Inbox).

The logic behind this is that when your operating system boots up, it needs to load all those files. When the email is opened, it needs to index all the emails that are in the inbox for display.

Run Disk Cleanup

Process:

• Start
• Programs
• Accessories
• System Tools
• Disk Cleanup This will scan for a little while (the longer it has been, the longer it will take). The items that it will display vary, but usually include
• Downloaded Program Files
• Temporary Internet Files
• Office Setup Files
• Recycle Bin
• Temporary Files
• Compress Old Files I would check all but the Office Setup Files. The Compress Old Files option is not usually on by default, but should be. This takes old files that are rarely accessed, and compresses them, much like a zip file does. This saves space on your hard drive, and followed up with a Defrag, can really boost your disk performance.

Run Disk Defrag

Process:

• Start
• Programs
• Accessories
• System Tools
• Disk Defragment

This will start a long process that places related files and bits next to each other, reducing hard disk “thrashing” (searching back and forth for files). I also moves files closer to the center of the disk, the left of the progress display. The closer to the center, the faster the access will be.

The ideal, never reached of course, is all the bars to the left, all blue or green, no spaces.

Repeat Steps 4 and 5 daily, until speed has cleared up.

If you are obsessive, you can do it several times a day.

If you are forgetful, you can set it up to run automatically with task scheduler.

Step 6 (optional)

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner, use slim edition) is a program that scrubs your registry for things it doesn’t need, and really cleans out old temporary files that Window seems to want to hold on to forever. There may be some risk, but if you only use the default options you should be safe. I have never had any issues.

Keep Your Computer Running Well

Microsoft/Windows Updates

You’ve seen it there in your program files. If you have updated to at least windows XP, you have probably been prompted to setup up automatic updates. That’s a good thing. If not, run them. If you can’t find it, use internet explorer to go to microsoft update. Don’t worry about optional updates.

Antivirus

I recommend Avira (free) to anyone who needs excellent antivirus protection, or I recommend ClamWin (free, open source) for older, slower computers or lower risk computers. I use ClamWin because I put a premium on the performance, and am willing to take the risk on a product that doesn’t protect as well.

Spyware/Malware

I use Windows Defender to prevent spyware. Once you have used Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft to clean up spyware, remove them, and make sure Windows Defender is installed and running.

Cleanup Virus Trojan

There is a spyware program that is very common right now, that tells you have multiple viruses, and want you to buy their software to get rid of it. Here’s the cleanup for that.

Yes, You Do Need A Website for Your Small Business (from All Business)

According to the recent Discover Small Business Watch poll of 750 small business owners, many still believe they don't need a website for their business.

# The number of small businesses with their own Web sites has grown 36 percent in the past two years, but still fewer than half of owners have one. The number of small businesses that have Web sites grew from 33 percent in November 2007 to 45 percent in August 2009.
# Forty-six percent of small business owners said it is a myth that every company should have a Web site, 44 percent felt the opposite and 10 percent were not sure. Consumers seem to agree. While 46 percent of them say that they expect every business will have a Web site, another 37 percent don’t think every company needs one. The remaining 17 percent weren’t sure.

Read More:
Yes, You Do Need A Website for Your Small Business

Chrome Again the Fastest Browser for Windows

Google Chrome in a runaway lead for browser performance supremacy
In Betanews' most extensive testing to date, involving tests that by anyone's guess should not have given it any special advantages, the latest stable edition of Google Chrome runs away with a three point lead over the latest stable Safari -- a lead that now grows by one-half point with each point release.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Google-Chrome-in-a-runaway-lead-for-browser-performance-supremacy/1257011509

Word 2007 "File Name is not Available"

Weird problem of the week - A friend could not open the Word 2007 Documents she saved.
Software: Word 2007, Vista, AVG.

Turns out, AVG was the culprit. I removed AVG, and installed my favorite Open Source AV ClamWin, and while I was doing that, looked up the issue on Google and found this:

This person was running AVG anti-virus. We uninstalled AVG and full file access was restored after a reboot. I have not researched this to determine if it's from a recent AVG update or if it's an inherent problem between AVG's engine and Word '07. Bottom line was that uninstalling gave her back her files.
Reference: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080903014217AAVP4pU

Sure enough, rebooting after the AVG uninstall, the documents opened fine.

Did not find evidence of this issue on AVG's site.


**Just a reminder to those using AVG Free, the license is for personal use only, no business or charitable orgs.

Facebook Event List

Displays your event list, using the iCal Export from Facebook (http://facebook.com/events.php)

fbiCal("http://www.facebook.com/ical/u.php?uid=youruid&key=yourkey");//Get from  "export events"

function fbiCal($url)
{
 $iCalstring = curl_get_file_contents($url);
 preg_match_all("#BEGIN:VEVENT(.*?)END:VEVENT#s",$iCalstring,$tit1es);  
 preg_match_all("#BEGIN:VEVENT(.*?)END:VEVENT#s",$iCalstring,$items);  
 $n=count($items[0]);

 for($i=0;$i<$n;$i++)
    {
  $iCaltemp= $items[0][$i];
  preg_match_all("#SUMMARY:(.*?)LOCATION#s",$iCaltemp,$titles);  
  $title[$i]= $titles[1][0];
  preg_match_all("#DTSTART:(.*?)DTEND#s",$iCaltemp,$startdates);  
  $startdate[$i]= $startdates[1][0];
  preg_match_all("#DESCRIPTION:(.*?)CLASS#s",$iCaltemp,$descriptions);  
  $description[$i]= $descriptions[1][0];
  preg_match_all("#event.php?(.*?)DESC#s",$iCaltemp,$eids);  
  $eid[$i]= $eids[1][0];
 }   

 for($i=0;$i<$n;$i++)
    {
     $stitles=$title[$i];
  $stitles=str_replace("  $stitles=str_replace("]]>","",$stitles);
 
  $datum=$startdate[$i];
  $startyear=substr("$datum",0,4);
  $startmo=substr("$datum",4,2);
  $startday=substr("$datum",6,2);
  $datum=$startyear . "-" . $startmo . "-" . $startday;
  $datum=strtotime($datum);
  $datum=date('D, M d,  Y',$datum);  
 
  $desc=$description[$i];
  $desc = ereg_replace("[\n\n]", "", $desc);
  $desc = str_replace("\\n\\n", "

", $desc);
  $desc=stripslashes($desc);
  $desc = ereg_replace("[\r] ", "", $desc);
  
  $link="http://facebook.com/event.php" . $eid[$i];
  
  $desc.="<a href=".$link. ">Go to Event Page</a>";
    
  if(!empty($title[$i])) echo " " .$datum."\t\t\t <h2><a href=".$link.">".$stitles."</a></h2><p>" . $desc ."</p>";
    }
}

function curl_get_file_contents($url) {
$c=curl_init();
curl_setopt($c,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
curl_setopt($c,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
$contents=curl_exec($c);
if($contents) return $contents;
else return false;
}
?>