How to save on office software

Hey guys!

Today we'll speak about saving money again. What most companies spend on most of all? Right, management and formalities. Collaboration software is one of these major things everyone spends on. Be it Microsoft Exchange Server or Lotus Notes, companies big and small spend thousands of dollars on e-mail systems. That sucks!

How can you save here? Use the power of internet! There are virtually hundreds of on-line collaboration tools and services, both paid and free. You can do a quick search on the topic and you will understand what I'm talking about.

Now after looking a little closer at the search results you can quickly realize that you don't even have to pay for these. Yup, you heard it right. No money required at all.

The best solution that works for me to date is Google Docs. You must have noticed that document samples for this project are shared via this service, too. Why is that? Simple! Why spend megabucks buying something that's free? At Google Docs you can have as many documents as you like. Together with check-box style sharing it's a very cool on-line service. Here are some more advantages it gives:

• Stable hosting (I actually saw the service being slow for only a couple times during two months)
• It's rapidly gaining the same features as the off-line suites like Microsoft office - Google is probably the richest internet-company on the planet so they experience no problem with funding at all.
• It even boasts some neat features never before seen in other office applications like recently added ability to include YouTube videos into Powerpoint'esque presentations
• You can save the documents for off-line use in Office and PDF formats and even synchronize them with the server, speaking of which...
• ...any on-line system of that kind is much more reliable than a usual one installed on personal computers) - you don't depend on the equipment itself, and if a colleague is ill or out for coffee it doesn't mean you can't get access to a document. That's really cool - I've been in such situations all the time before as probably have you yourself!
• They have a wishlist for new features to be added. Now imagine you ask Microsoft to add something. Yeah, I know. Wait 5 years till our next version comes out. And who mentions beloved MS bugs? )))
• ...and much more (they add value for free all the time!)

What's my point? Using on-line software at no cost at all can even save you money on hard disk drives and even on system administrator time - remember, all of these have to be configured and Google Docs does not!

Another advice is that you should always look for ways to save when doing business. Remember the two single objectives of any company that help earn big money?

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))

17 ways to increase blog traffic for free

I've been doing some research on the topic and here are some results of my studies:

1. Blog on a daily basis (or even more frequently) - when you update your blog several times every day, it helps to raise your page in Google search results (because the search machine considers frequently updated sites better as more active) and your readers see you are working all day long to bring them the best content you can.
   
   Blog after dinner and in other breaks. If you cannot write a whole piece, write it part by part, but still do: that pays off!
2. Write product reviews! People frequently search the Net for shopping advice on anything from books and DVDs to MP3 players and jet engine afterburners :) Choose a topic related to your site theme and write about products that fit to gain you authority and bring more visitors.
3. Top lists are another great idea. Things like "10 top sites on management" are very good for promotion and are, in my opinion, another form of review.
4. Funny quotes and jokes on your topic can be interesting to your visitors, too, because they help your visitors to relax while studying your site's content.
5. Featured articles and interviews with experts in certain fields are another nice way to entertain your visitors and share some valuable information with them. Always think of your blog (or any site) in terms of value you give out to the visitor. Put him or her into your shoes. What would interest youself?
6. Exchange links with other great resources in your field. That will be useful for increasing traffic and SEO of your site because search machines think of your site as more valuable if it's linked with others in the field.
7. Submit articles to article directories (I'll update this document with links to them this evening) - this one can be useful in terms of spreading links to your site.
8. Some bloggers suggest that you use video advertising and reports because they are closer to the visitor and encourage a more individual interaction. I didn't try these out myself, so I'll update you on this topic later. However, video ads are very easy to create - you just need a webcam and a free video-sharing service like Google Video or YouTube.
9. Forum advertising and value-added commenting. This one is cool as long as you really answer people's questions on forums and sites devoted to your topics, not just post a link to your site and encourage them to visit for the answer (most forum moderators erase this as spam so be careful to provide really interesting content. It's not that different from writing good blog posts).
10. Use pinging services like Ping-o-matic, Google Blog Search Ping Service, Technorati, FeedPing, Blog Flux Pinger, to increase article visibility and linking.
11. RSS submission is cool, too. Just add your RSS to services listed here
12. Include the site address in your e-mail signature (nice one to use if people you write to share your interests. For example if my own site is about website management, they should be interested in that topic, too)
13. Article submission to special directories like EZineArticles, FindArticles, GoArticles, ArticleCity etc.
14. Social Networking advertising - create engaging accounts and groups in these and post selected content there from time to time to get maximal response
15. Traffic Exchange Programs - try googling these - there are literally thousands of them. Find out yourself which of these suites you best
16. Answer people's questions in answering services like Yahoo Answers, AnswerBag, Answers.com, AllExperts and other ones like these.
17. Use Wiki-like resources like Wikipedia itself, eHow, WikiHow and others of that kind.

Please note that I only listed free traffic increase sources, while there are lots more paid services like banner networks, Pay Per Click systems and others.

I will be adding more ideas and links here so I suggest you check this page from time to time!