Entries Tagged 'Louie's Best' ↓

I am often asked how to get indexed quickly into Google. I am usually pretty good at this and I actually enjoy doing it quite. This is exactly what I did for a friend a week ago on his brand new site. I followed a set procedure that works for me in about 2 days, usually. This time it smashed my 2 day record and the site indexed in just 2 hours.

Amazing, right? I’ll just say how I did it. I guess I should preface this by saying that this was for a straight html page.

The first thing I did was create an rss.xml file (RSS feed) for the single page site and put a link to it from the page.

The second thing I did was write up a post about the site, with suitable links, on a wordpress.com blog that I keep primarily for this basis. I chose the tags for the post carefully. I chose related tags that are quite active on wordpress.com and a few that were less active.

Next, I used a pinging script that I got a year ago for some website. I had it first ping the wordpress.com blog to 23 sites that accept pings. Next I pinged my new site and its RSS feed. I waited about 30 minutes and manually edited my site’s rss.xml file to show an updated post time and then resubmitted the site to the 23 sites that accept pings.

Within two hours of doing the first work, I checked in with Google and sure enough, the site was already indexed. I was shocked! The previous best time had been 2 days.

Having a bank account that easily travels with you is a great thing. One of the problems I had when I was abroad was managing my bank accounts. It always seemed like a huge hassle to maintain an account for my Adsense payments as well as Paypal payments. Many of my income sources were only discovered once I was abroad. Not wanting to make a trip back to the US just to open a bank account, I had to search high and low for an easy to get approved for bank account.

I was able to find that with Account Now. They have both an Account Now MasterCard and an Account Now Visa account available. They are easy to apply for right online. All you need is a US social security number and a US address. You’ll get an account that allows you get accept ACH payments, direct deposit, and PayPal withdrawals. Not only that, but you’ll also get either a Visa debit card or a Mastercard debit card so you can have access to your money from the store and from the ATM.

When I say that it’s easy to get approved for an Account Now account, I am not whistling dixie. It doesn’t matter if you are listed on Telecheck or Chex Systems, you can still get an account. If that wasn’t good enough, you can sign up for their credit builder service and have your bill payment service report your monthly payments to the Credit Bureau. This way you can build a positive credit report.

If you are looking for a perfect compliment to an online business, you should be signing up for an Account Now Visa account today. You’ll be able to get an account that helps you manage your online business, no matter where you are in the world.

In my work, I do a lot of writing. I always have my trusty voice recorder at my side taking audio notes of important ideas and important work that needs to be completed. You never know when inspiration strikes. Before I discovered Dragon Naturally Speaking, I had to take the time to listen to my notes once every few days to remember the notes that I took. It was unproductive to say the least.

My workload got a lot lighter when I started using Dragon Naturally Speaking. I started off with Version 9. It’s great because I can have it transcribe my notes for me. Instead of me taking time out to listen to my notes, I can just access it in a simple text file. What is even more cool is that I have a little cron job that inserts the text notes into a database automatically. I have search through all of my verbal notes and find little nuggets of information that previously would have been lost somewhere in an audio file.

I have even started writing website content using Dragon Naturally Speaking. I just use my notetaker and “talk my content.” I can easily and quickly generate enough content for a small website. It’s great for getting a great idea off the ground quickly.

Now that the new version of Dragon Naturally 10 is out, I am excited to say the least. It means that the software will get even better and make my day even more productive. Just check out this NY Times Review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking . It gives a good run down of Dragon Naturally Speaking features and benefits. It’s worth your time.

Dragon Naturally Speaking comes in two different versions, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Standard and Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Preferred. Here is a screencast video that gives you a pretty good rundown of what Dragon Naturally Speaking can do for you and how you can benefit from it. I think it’s easier to see what it can do for you if you see it in action with your own eyes. Take a look:

In a word, I’d describe Dragon Naturally Speaking as amazing. It’s helped me become more productive and it has made it easier for me to manage all of my daily notes.

Over the last year, the commercial paper market has been drying up. With the recent crisis of Lehmann Brothers and AIG, the short term debt market has gotten even more tight. That’s a problem for the big Wall Street banks, right?

Wrong. The short term debt market needs to maintain its liquidity because that’s the market that businesses head to when they need short term funding. Properly running debt markets keep the financial system humming along.

For example, many large companies get credit on their accounts receivables by selling commercial paper. They can get cash now instead of waiting for payment. They use this cash from the short term debt to fund day to day business operations. From suppliers to utility bills to even payroll, expenses are paid for with these short term debt instruments. If you can connect the dots, frozen commercial paper market = no payday.

How close are we to seeing large companies miss payroll? Right now, it’s anyone’s guess. Something needs to be done about the crisis and it needs to be done right now. I think we could be on the edge of an abyss and if action is not taken, businesses are going to fold, people are going to lose their jobs and the economy is going to tank for a long time. The solutions is simple, get the debt markets functioning and then worry about cleaning things up.

Think of the US economy like a big ship whose the engine has exploded and a big storm is bearing down. We don’t need people passing along blame for the engine problems. We don’t need people talking about how to clean it up or even insisting on cleaning it up before it’s fixed. We need someone who can immediately get the engine going again, even if that means it needs to be Yankee rigged. Once it’s going again, clean things up and look at getting repairs done to keep a repeat from happening.

There are so many different ways to make a business more efficient. I was just thinking about this today when I saw a new paypal email touting their services as a way to make your business more efficient. It didn’t take long before my mind was swirling with ways to make a business more efficient. Here are just 5 Ways To Make Your Business More Efficient.

1) Automate every task possible. If it is possible to automate the task, do it. From bookkeeping to sales and everything in between, make automation your goal.

2) Keep good records. Everything that can be recorded should be recorded. From sales information to any of your business processes. It may seem trivial or even mundane now, but in the future, the information could be very valuable in making your business more efficient.

3) Catalog Your Waste. If you want to eliminate waste, the first thing you need to is catalog. Once you have cataloged the waste, you can start eliminating the most wasteful waste.

4) Properly Train Employees. Make it a point to not only train new employees, but follow up training procedures with current employees from time to time. Some employees may have forgotten their original training and refresher training can restore lost efficiency.

5) Negotiate discounts on everything. This is important. Negotiate discounts with suppliers every chance you get. Also negotiate travel expenses and look for every discount you can. You can also get employees to look for discounts by rewarding them with bonus for savings that result from their suggestions.

If you have more ideas to add to this, I’m all ears.