How business has changed in the last 5 years….heck even the last two years things have moved to more transparency in business that EVER.

Joe Sangl writes a great article on how Social Media is the key to boosting your business awareness on all levels.

He talks about how Twitter is completely changing the game as far as tracking competition goes, he also goes into using Facebook fan pages to put out specials and even coupon codes for your online followers, its a great quick read.

Here’s Joe’s Article:

Social media key in boosting business awareness

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Twitter for Business?

In: Twitter

26 Jan 2009

Is your business on Twitter?  Do you even know what Twitter is?

It’s time to find out.  Seriously.

Twitter is a “microblogging” service that asks one simple question -

“What are you doing?”

Hundreds if not thousands of people AND businesses are signing up each day to answer that question among others.  Large groups of people are following huge businesses like CNN & Zappos.

Chris Brogan recently wrote a great article entitled 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business.

Check it out, then sign up for twitter!

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If you are looking for a spot on the web to host your blog or web site, I can’t stop recommending Host Gator.

They have been hosting all my sites and blogs for a few years now, and I can honestly say I have been extremely happy with the service and support they provide.

Host Gator just revamped their web hosting plans, now all of their plans include:

  • Unlimited Disk Space (storage for your files and web pages)
  • Unlimited Bandwidth (transfer of your files and web pages)
  • Unlimited MySQL Databases
  • Free Access to SiteBuilder

Their plans for web hosting start at just $4.95 per month for the features you see above and a bunch more.  If you have been wanting to setup your own web page or blog, you seriously need to host it with Host Gator.

Here are a couple Host Gator coupons to save you some cash when you order:

GREEN – saves you 20% of your initial order.

WORDPRESS – saves you $9.94 off your order

Click here to activate the above coupons and get your hosting with Host Gator today.

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I just wrapped up a quick video on how to cloak affiliate links or mask an affiliate link so you have have a pretty url instead of an ugly obnoxious long affiliate url.

Here’s the video…

If you are looking for the php code it’s right here:

<?php header(“Location: http://youraffiliatelinkhere.com”) ;?>

Just remember to give the file a .php extension and upload it to your web host and your good to go!

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Attention Leopard users…time to patch…again.  The 10.5.4 update was released June 30th, and less than three months later it’s time to do it again for 10.5.5!

Here’s the products affected by this update:

  • Mac OS X 10.5
  • Mac OS X 10.5.1
  • Mac OS X 10.5.2
  • Mac OS X 10.5.3
  • Mac OS X 10.5.4

If you are running any of these version of Leopard, you need to update.  Please ALWAYS remember to backup your system before installing.

I haven’t heard of anything catstrophic happening after this update, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.  PLEASE BACKUP!

To install the update for Mac OS X 10.5.5 you can use Software Update or download the standalone installer.

Here’s what’s included in the 10.5.5 OS X update (from support.apple.com)

General

  • Includes recent Apple security updates.
  • Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.
  • Addresses an issue in which some Macs could unexpectedly power on at the same time each day.
  • Resolves a stability issue in TextEdit that could be found when accessing the color palette.
  • Improves Spotlight indexing performance.
  • Fixes an issue in which contacts might not sync properly with PalmOS-based devices.
  • Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.
  • Includes improvements to Active Directory (see this article for more information).
  • Improves Speech Dictionary.
  • Fixes Kerberos authentication issues for Mac OS X 10.5 clients that connect to certain Samba servers, such as Mac OS X Server version 10.4.
  • Includes extensive graphics enhancements.

Address Book

  • Addresses stability issues that may occur when creating a Smart Group.
  • Resolves a printing issue with address cards containing information that spans more than one page.

Disk Utility and Directory Utility

  • Improves reliability when rebuilding a software mirror RAID volume in Disk Utility.
  • Improves reliability of server status displayed in Directory Utility.

iCal

  • Updates iCal to more accurately handle repeating events.
  • Improves performance when choosing meeting attendees.
  • Resolves an issue in which the “Refresh All” option may be dimmed (“grayed out”) in the contextual menu for certain calendars.
  • Fixes issues with read-only calendars.
  • Addresses an issue that prevents an invitee from moving an event to a different calendar.
  • Resolves an issue with syncing published calendars.

Mail

  • Addresses performance issues related to displaying IMAP messages.
  • Resolves an issue with SMTP settings for AIM, Compuserve, Hanmail, Yahoo!, and Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.
  • Addresses stability issues that may occur when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
  • Addresses an issue with the “Organized by Thread” view in which the date does not appear when the thread is collapsed.
  • Resolves an issue in which RSS feeds could temporarily disappear from the sidebar.
  • Improves Mail robustness when sending messages.
  • Improves reliability when saving drafts that have attachments.

MobileMe

  • Improves overall sync reliability.
  • Improves Back to My Mac reliability.

Time Machine

  • Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
  • Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress backups.
  • Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a backup volume does not have enough free space.
  • Time Machine can now back up iPhone backups that are on your Mac, as well as other items in (~/Library/Application Support).

Let me know how your 10.5.5 update goes, mine went on without a hitch, and my system “seems” a bit snappier…might be just me though.  So let me know!

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Time to upgrade your WordPress blogs. WordPress 2.6.2 was released yesterday to combat a database security flaw.

It is noted that if you allow open registrations on your WordPress blog, you should “definitely” upgrade. If open registration is open it is possible for someone to create a username that is capable of resetting others passwords. Here’s the official press release from WordPress.

Here’s the short list of other bug fixes 2.6.2 will take care of:

Here’s a few quick WordPress related links to get you upgraded:

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So today, I did another short video showing three more of Google Chrome’s features.

They are:

  • Downloading Files & the download bar
  • Incognito Mode
  • Bookmarks

You can consider this Part 2 of my first Google Chrome Review Video.

Love to hear your comments on Chrome so far below!

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I just went to register a new domain today and just realized that it is September and my coupon code for Namecheap had expired.

Don’t fret. Here’s the code the Namecheap September 2008 couponBACK2SCHOOL.

Enjoy the 88 cents on me!

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So today Google Chrome was released by Google. It is their first browser they have released and it certainly did not disappoint me. It has a plethora of features, and it could quickly prove to be the quickest and most stable browser out there.

I’m a hardcore Firefox user and have been for several years, so I must say that Chrome does excite me with its features.

Watch the video below as I install Google Chrome and show you some of its features.

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About Ryan McMillan

Dad, Husband, Techie, Internet Rockstar, Entrepenuer, and this is my blog. Welcome.

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