Friday, August 17, 2012

EBay Gadget Re-Sellers, Using RSS Feeds To Stay Up To Date With The Latest Cool New Gadget Trends

Attention gadget shop owners and eBay electronic gadgets sellers! Do you have trouble keeping up to date with the latest gadgets and e-commerce developments and making your site 'sticky' enough to develop a loyal customer base?

RSS may be the answer. A web 2.0 format that is keeping netizens up to date with recent developments on the internet and helping webmasters everywhere develop an online community that is more loyal than has ever been possible.

It didn't seem so long ago that keeping up to date with the latest hi tech gadgets and cool spy gadgets was no problem at all. There were only a handful of gadget sites out there and, with even fewer blogs to monitor; keeping up to date with gadget news was easy.

Keeping customers loyal was also not a problem as there was a good chance there were only a handful of similar sites on the internet offering similar products making it very easy to differentiate yourself from your competitors.


Unfortunately those days have changed.

As of May 2008 there were 3000 gadget blogs alone registered on popular blog aggregate Technorati with the website announcing it had indexed 100 million blogs in December 2007.

So what does that mean for you the gadget shop owner or eBay gadget reseller? What it means is that there's more to sort through to get product ideas and more competitors for your customers' attentions and disposable incomes.

This is where RSS will be invaluable for your business.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format which webmasters and content creators use to create bulletin-like 'feeds' which are sent out to subscribers when the webmaster's site is updated or a new story is added.

By subscribing to a RSS feeds you will save valuable time previously wasted visiting online gadget shops, computer gadgets blogs and strange gadgets blogs unnecessarily. You can also use it to keep your customers informed when you add the latest gadgets and new inventions to your inventory.

Setting up a RSS feed for your site and getting RSS feeds from a gadget shop or blog on hi tech gadgets, strange gadgets or spy gadgets couldn't be easier with popular blog aggregator, Icerocket.com, offering a free RSS creation service.

Once you have set up the service it is important to remember that RSS feeds are short by nature and only contain text, or hyperlink text. So it is important to include an enticing title and make sure your first two or three sentences are something that will make people want to visit the page.

Receiving RSS feeds is also a relatively easy task to accomplish with a wide number of RSS feed readers being available. In fact all that needs to be done is to set up a RSS reader and subscribe to the RSS feeds you are interested in.

Some of the more free web-based readers are Google Reader, My Yahoo, Bloglines and Newsgator. They all are extremely easy to sign up to and mostly look and operate much like email accounts like Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.

The next step is to subscribe to feeds from gadget shops and blogs on gadgets and gizmos that are guaranteed to keep you ahead of your competitors with stock.

This can be done any number of ways depending on which feed reader and which internet browser you are using.

You can search on the readers themselves for relevant feeds. However this is likely to leave you with a large number of unusual gadgets and cool spy gadgets blogs to keep checking up on.

If the cool electronic gadgets website has a RSS subscription button on its news page designed for your chosen reader then you won't have any problem subscribing. All you need to do is to click on the button and follow the steps.

You could also click on the RSS button and copy the URL from the page of code that opens (the URL will probably contain the code XML or feed). You should then paste it into the 'add feed' dialog box in your RSS reader.

Flock or Firefox browsers make adding RSS feeds extremely easy. All you need to do is to click on the RSS link at the top of the page beside the URL bar and another window will open, letting you set up a feed directly in your browser.

Make yourself into a more dominant force on the internet. Get a RSS reader and subscriptions and set up your own RSS feed and change your gadget shop into a sturdy, sticky site with more cool gadgets and hot gadget gifts than your competitors.

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Monday, August 13, 2012

Technology Help Small to Mid Size Companies Achieve Their Financial Goals

Today, IT solutions are aiding small and mid-sized companies alike, as they compete with Fortune 500 companies for a piece of the pie. We live in an age of fierce competitiveness, fiscal concern, and global turmoil and uncertainty. Companies are working hard to continually improve operational efficiency. Many are looking to IT (information technology) to reduce operating costs and increase efficiency by automating and streamlining existing business processes.

Smart companies are achieving their business and financial goals by embracing and making technology work for them. Porcelain Patch is one such small company that has embraced Internet Technology to help improve the bottom line while enhancing customer service. Since 1938, Porcelain Patch and Glaze has prided itself on offering the finest electrostatic painting and porcelain reglazing services to homeowners, office managers and building managers all over New England. Porcelain Patch can point to over a half-century of experience and a long list of satisfied customers. At this time, the company employs 12 field technicians, 2 full time sales people and 2 customer service/marketing representatives. They have been in Watertown, MA since the mid 1960's.


As the president and owner of Porcelain Patch, Jonathan Gleason is always looking for ways to further gain efficiency and maintain customer loyalty, while keeping operating costs down. He is a technology buff and a true believer in utilizing IT to gain a competitive edge. As a starting point, Jonathan recognized long ago that in today's Internet-driven business environment, a strong web presence is not only mandatory, but also it is the most valuable marketing tool that can set him apart from his competitors. He also understood that a web site can ONLY be effective if it is keeps up with the dynamic nature of the Internet and provides up-to-date information to its visitors. This, he realized, was the major challenge - one that required a lot of resources.

To make the web site an effective marketing tool, Jonathan commissioned Blue Robin Inc., to build a new web infrastructure for Porcelain Patch - one that can be organic. The new platform was built with a powerful Content Management System (CMS) through which authorized personnel can update the content of the site on-the-fly.

With its EZedit(TM), Blue Robin focused to deliver a robust, full-featured Content Management System to Porcelain Patch with a user-friendly environment that can accommodate multiple users at the company, with varying skill levels. The CMS provides Porcelain Patch with an easy-to-use, multi-level authenticated text and HTML editor with similar features and functionalities of popular word processing applications, which their employees were already familiar with using. The company took to the implementation of the new web site with its CMS, like a duck takes to water.

As a result, in 2007, the company's website has turned into one of the most cost effective and important lead generators and image builder. In such a short time frame, Porcelain Patch has transformed its marketing from using a full page in their local Yellow Pages book to a cyber-based strategy to increase revenue by generating more traffic to its web site.

Another item that Jonathan had identified as a cost area was his company's traditional phone system. Beyond the cost, the phone system was posing all kinds of problems that impacted customer service and created a bottle neck. Jonathan wanted a sophisticated phone system similar to the one used by the fortune 500 companies, without the high price tag. Jonathan began looking into Voice Over IP technology (VoIP) and did a significant amount of research into what companies could provide the most useful and cost effective solutions, before committing again to Blue Robin, Inc.'s Enterprise Voip(TM) phone system.
The most important benefit of VoIP is its cost savings for Porcelain patch. Blue Robin's Enterprise VoIP(TM) has offered significant cost savings while providing numerous new features.

Jonathan had long ago understood that to compete effectively in the eWorld, his business infrastructure must have two essential components: A High-speed Internet connection and a sophisticated phone system. The arrival of VoIP technology makes it possible to say goodbye to traditional phone and PBX phone systems as well as the high cost associated with multiple phone lines. As a matter of record, the #1 reason Porcelain Patch adopted a VoIP phone system was cost, cost and cost. The Enterprise Voip(TM) system from Blue Robin is much less expensive to deploy than a traditional PBX and it has been far cheaper month-to-month than paying the large phone bills Porcelain Patch used to have. In addition to the reduced monthly cost of the Enterprise Voip(TM) phone system, the company also looked to keep the initial and any recurring charges down, as well as ensuring ease of implementation and use. Blue Robin was able to successfully meet and exceed all of Porcelain Patch's requirements.

Like many corporations today, Porcelain Patch is experiencing the advantages of IT first hand as a key component of its business strategies. Jonathan will continue to use new technology to drastically change their business functions and to shift cost structures resulting in what some call the, "information based organization." Implementing today's new technologies shows how a business can successfully grow from within, creating a cycle of cost control, leading to better products and services, leading to more growth.

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Monday, August 6, 2012

Finding Out If Your Husband is Cheating by Using Technology, Electronics, and Gadgets

I sometimes get emails from wives who are trying to find out if their husband is cheating. Some are hoping to catch him in the act and others just want to know for their own peace of mind. Many have already asked their husbands about their suspicions and have been told that they are imagining things or have been met by a husband who is angry at being "wrongly accused."

Whatever situation your are in, you can often find out if your husband is cheating by checking the technology that he is probably using to carry out the cheating. Or, you can make use of the many gadgets available to record his activities. In other words, you're going to follow his electronic trail. I feel that theses methods are far superior to following your husband or confronting him, as I rarely see these two scenarios work out very well. At least when you are checking his electronics, you don't run the risk of a physical confrontation, and, if you're wrong, you can avoid being caught and eroding the marriage.

Gadgets That Can Help You Catch Your Cheating Husband: You don't always have to hire a private investigator to help you figure out where your husband is going. And you can avoid following him by using gadgets.

They have GPS magnets that you can stick on the bottom of his car. They have little pens that you can put in his car, office, or bedroom to record audio. They have tiny cameras that you can put in TV cabinets, in chest of drawers, or in air conditioner vents. Basically you can usually find a gadget for any place that you would want to spy. Of course, the risk with these is your spouse finding them because at that point it would be obvious who put them there. I usually prefer to spy using his own electronics because this leaves less of a trail and has less of a chance of detection.

Technology That Helps You To Catch Cheating Husbands Using Their Own Electronics: Some of the most common technologies to catch cheating spouses involves taking a look at the tools they use to carry out their cheating. Think about it for a second. If your husband is cheating, he needs a way to communicate with the other woman when he isn't with her (and likely is with you.) What is the most logical and easy way for him to do this? He might use his cell phone to text her, message or call her. He might use the computer to email or IM her. Or, he might go into a chat room or make use of social networking sites like Facebook or my space.

Either way, you can often use his love of these electronics to catch him. There are many choices of good software and programs that will allow you to go right along behind him on his phone or computer. Some of them work even if he's erased things or used passwords he thinks you can't possibly figure out. One of the key reasons that I like these technologies is that you don't have to leave them lying around when you aren't using them (as is the case with cameras and GPS magnets.) So, there is much less risk that you are going to be caught. You basically just find a safe time to check out his electronics, read, view, or print out whatever you need, and then high tail it out of there when you are done, leaving no evidence that you were checking up on him.

Of course, what you do with what you find is completely up to you. And, how far you take this is also up to you. I find that some people just want to know about the existence of cheating, but they don't want all the details because they are too painful. If this is your case, you can pretty much stop reading or looking whenever your suspicions are confirmed. And if they aren't confirmed, then that's useful knowledge to have also and you will have the peace of mind that your husband is innocent of cheating on you.

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