Cut Your Costs by Using Open Source Software
Are software costs eating into your profit? In order to keep your home office or small business running smoothly, certain productivity applications are a must. Unfortunately, for those on a budget, software purchases can get expensive. Over the years, I have found that many of the tasks that I perform can be done with free software running on either a Windows PC or a Linux PC, thereby reducing or eliminating a significant yearly expense.
I have tried to compile a list of some free software applications to replace those commercial ones commonly found on a Windows PC and used for small business day-to-day operations. Office Suite (Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing) This is probably the biggest application that most small businesses will spend money on, and it's the one that they will probably use the most. Thankfully, there are products out there (yes, life does exist outside of Microsoft Office) that can easily handle your office demands and are absolutely free. My recommendation for a Microsoft Office replacement is Open Office.
This open-source application has been around for many years and has gone through intense community refinement. Open Office 2.3, the lastest release as of this writing, is a remarkable product and the fact that it can open most commercial documents cleanly (except currently the newest Office .docx file-type), helps make the transition away from paid applications much easier.
Open Office 2.3 – Word processing is called Writer Whether it is word-processing, spreadsheets or presentations, Open Office can handle the task. Most Office documents convert cleanly and require little change. If you still interact with clients that use Microsoft products, you can always maintain the Microsoft file format for their viewing pleasure. Unless you have highly customizable macros and Excel formulas, you should not run into many problems.
For those problems that do occur, the Open Office Support Forum Community probably has a fix or work-around waiting for you. Photo Editing Are you a professional photographer or graphic artist? Or maybe just a hobbyist shutterbug? Either way, photo editing software is expensive. The standard is Adobe Photoshop and it is a beautiful product. However, it is very expensive. If you are looking for the same image editing and special effects power of Photoshop, take a look at GIMP. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and is another free open-source application with a vast following and support forum.
GIMP – Image Manipulation Program My biggest disappointment with GIMP is the multiple windowed interface verses Adobes single pane interface which seems and feels cleaner. However, with a little patience and practice, this is easily overcome, and once you discover the true power of this free product, you'll understand why so many people have turned to it. e-Mail Many users use, and are accustomed to, Microsoft Outlook Express which is free. Since it is free, there is no budgetary impact.
However, for those looking for another free alternative, I would like to suggest Mozilla's ThunderBird e-mail client. This e-mail application has all the bells and whistles of Outlook Express and is also available on Linux PCs.
Mozilla's ThunderBird e-Mail Client Do you use Yahoo, MSN or Google as your web e-mail address for your business? While these work fine, it is very cheap now-a-days to purchase e-mail with your own business domain name for under $10 a year! If you are looking for that extra personal business touch, consider upgrading your e-mail to match your business name. It will give your business a more professional appeal. Remember, anything that costs you money eats into your profits. While not every open-source product will meet your needs, take the time to look for ones that can replace your commercial applications. The savings in initial and yearly maintenance costs can be significant.
Text Link Ads – Where to Draw the Line
Today I would like to discuss contextual ads and use the company Kontera as an example. I just recently signed up for Kontera but have not yet added the ad code to my blog. I was utterly amazed at the responses that I read while doing a search for contextual links. Many viewers find them very intrusive to their viewing pleasure. You may have noticed going to a website or blog and moving your cursor, whether intentionally or unintentionally, over a double-underline link and having an ad appear on the screen. These are contextual ad links, of which, Kontera is one of many companies providing such services.
While I only did a small sampling of comments and articles from various websites, it got me thinking as to what is an effective balance between content and advertisement. At what point do the multitude of ads turn off the reader enough that they just decide to leave the website? And are they so discouraged from their experience that they decide not to return to the site again believing it is just an ad farm.
I think this type of question is best answered by the viewers and I hope that if any of you are reading this and have the time to express your feelings on this issue that you’ll do so. I would be curious to see how many viewers are for or against those contextual ads. Most people by now know what they are, but there are still some viewers who get confused and think they are actual links to other relevant information on the blog. This is where they may feel deceived or tricked into doing something that they originally did not intend.
As my blog grows and matures, I would like to find and honest balance between income and quality content for my readers. I know that products like Kontera are configurable, but before I just start dropping various types of ads onto my blog, I would like to know where to draw-the-line.
Choosing the Right Domain Name for Your Blog
Take the time to consider your blog’s name and how you want people to access it.
If you subscribe to an online blog service, your blog’s domain name will be something like, mysite.blogger.com. This format is slightly larger than a standard domain name, and it is harder for readers to remember. However, for casual blogging this is a great method and above all, it’s free and a good, fast way to get started in blogging.
The alternate choice is to register for your own domain name. You can read my previous article about choosing web hosts to get a better understanding about the costs and benefits of each method.
In this post, I would like to discuss the implications to your readers of choosing one method over the other. Your website name helps you build credibility and a sense of professionalism around your blog. Having a domain name that reflects your topic, theme, mood, or brand image, helps the reader to associate more with your blog. Above all, I think that this personalized domain name gives the blogger a truer sense of ownership and pride. This is your domain!
There are also the more tangible benefits as well. Your own domain means that you can have e-mail addresses branded with your domain name and depending on the name you chose, you may also get better search engine ranking.
I have been asked many times how I came up with the name SimplyWebtastic. Honestly, I came up with this name back in 1998 just as the Internet was getting it’s steam. For some reason, I liked it and decided to register it. Now, 10 years later, I’m finding a use for it with blogging. It may be slightly long, but I think it’s a name that is different and may stick in readers heads. If that happens, then it will have turned out to be a very good name! 
So, if you are thinking about blogging, give some (no a lot) of thought into how you want your name to show and what you want it to be. Let it reflect who you are, and I think you’ll get more enjoyment from the blogging experience.
New! Tip of the Week from SimplyWebtastic.com
If I get many questions or comments for further explanation on a TOTW, I will gladly try to write-up a more extensive summary in a future post.
For my first “Tip of the Week”, I would like to give you some advice about Article Submissions.
Google loves original content! When you submit your articles to online directories and services, such as EzineArticles and GoArticles, DO NOT place the same article on your website or blog. If you do, you may incur a duplicate content penalty from Google and other web crawlers. These companies may then remove your article from their index. The last thing you want is to hurt your page rank.
The best thing to do is either, not put the article on your site at all, or rewrite the artilce and only place that version on your website or blog. Let all the other publishers of your article incur the penalty while you benefit from all the back-links that your article is creating.
Beware Domain Hijacking!
Over the last few months, I have read many articles that have warned people to avoid doing any unnecessary domain look-ups if they are not going to purchase them right away. Apparently, various companies are monitoring the WHOIS database and other sites for the domain searches that are being requested. By the time a user decides to go and register the available domain, it has already been purchased by automated systems.
As a way of combating this tactic, try to have various combinations of the domain you are looking for already figured out on paper before doing a search. Be prepared to purchase your domain right away if it is available. Waiting a day, or even hours, could allow computerized programs to automatically purchase that domain before you get a chance to.
I usually register my domains at 1&1.com since they have one of the cheapest prices on the web. You pay only $6.99 for .com, .net, .org or .us top-level-domains (TLDs). They also include free, as part of the domain fee, Private Domain Registration, ICANN Fee and a 2GB e-mail account. Please take a look, you'll find them cheaper than GoDaddy.com, Yahoo or Network Solutions.