Did you pick a good web address?  Are you stumped trying to come up with a good “.com” address for your company?  I help customers every day come up with domain names for their websites and email addresses (A domain name is the “something.com” or something.org” a company uses).  Here are the basic rules I follow:

1. A domain name must be easy to tell someone over the phone without spelling it. I would rather have a long domain name that was easy to remember versus a short abbreviation that I have to constantly spell out.

2. Your domain name doesn’t necessarily need to be based on your company name. While you may have worked hard to brand your name, consider choosing a domain name that communicates what you do.  A name like ChicagoPlumber.com will benefit you more in Google than HarrysPlumbing.com.

3. Buy aliases for easily misspelled domain names. My website is the perfect example of the need for domain aliases.  Most people don’t know that my last name has two n’s.  So, when I tell people to visit my site, EricSpellmann.com, most people forget the second “n.”  I registered EricSpellman.com and pointed it at the same site!  Roughly one-third of the people visiting my site enter the misspelling of my name!

4. Avoid hyphens at all costs. No one remembers the dash. You may have chosen a domain name with a hyphen in it because your competition already grabbed your preferred address.  However, you will discover that you have to verbally remind people to enter the dash when typing in your site.  In fact, a large number of your clients will end up forgetting the hyphen and going to your competitor!  You cannot let that happen.

5. Write it out before you choose it. Some people choose domain names without checking out how they look.  Why is that important?  Well, I once had a client that wanted to register a domain for a website called Lawyers Exchange.  I told them to pick a different domain name.  They didn’t understand until they wrote out the address: lawyersexchange.com.

Do the images on your website belong to you?  A large stock photography site, Getty Images, has started going after websites that contain their images without licenses.  The fines range from $500 to $2500.

Getty is finding these images using a specialized search engine that compares images found online with those in its database.  The technology is still relatively new, but if you want to see if anyone else is copying your images, check out Tin Eye, BYO Image Search Lab, and Gazopa(this site closed in 2011).

These sites have indexed millions of images found on the Internet and generated digital fingerprint IDs for all of them. When you enter a URL or upload a photo, these sites search through those fingerprints and give you a listing of “similar” pictures.

I’ve used these sites to locate other websites using my pictures without my permission.

Do you still own a fax machine?  I do.  But when it dies, I will not be buying another.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not naive enough to think the need to send and receive faxes will disappear.  However, a number of online services have sprung up that have effectively eliminated the need for a dedicated machine, and more importantly, dedicated phone line.

GotFreeFax – Think of this service as your emergency fax machine.  They are one of the few free sites that allow you to send a non-advertising-laced coversheet.. They limit you to two faxes per day, but, like I said, it is free.  This site is perfect when you are on the road and need to fax a contract, but only have Internet access.  Every business traveler should bookmark this site.

FaxZero – This site is similar to GotFreeFax, but it does insert an ad on the cover page of any faxes sent for free.  You can send up to 15 pages for $1.99 with no ad, though.  For a cost-effective, daily fax machine replacement (for sending), this site is great.

Email to Fax (TPC)(this link is no longer available) – If you have slow Internet or only have email access, this solution works great.  One of the few, free email-to-fax services, TPC allows you to construct an email message and have it delivered (and printed) at any fax machine.  The secret is understanding how to build the email address you are sending it to.  Along with GetFreeFax, this site is great in a pinch

Of course, you may want to receive faxes online, also, but that is another article.  In the meantime, to see comparisons between the different providers, check out FaxPrices.com.

Two years.  That’s right, for two years I have lived in the cloud.  No, not “clouds” like “head in the clouds!”  I mean “cloud computing.”  For those of you new to the newsletter, you may not be aware that I have been working toward a PC-software-free existence.

In other words, instead of buying a shrink-wrapped box of software, I have chosen to “subscribe” to online versions of the same.  That way, I can access it from any Internet connected computer on the planet.  No longer am I tied to PC-based licenses and questions of “What version are you on?”

These days, I just fire up my Internet browser (Chrome, of course), and log in.  Even if my computer died a painful death right now, all of my data (and programs) are safe and sound in the cloud.

I can work at home just as easily as at the office.  I can access all of my programs and data on my iPhone from anywhere on the planet.  It’s great!

But, I have gotten a little spoiled on it.  For instance, the other day, my office lost its Internet connection.  I was dead in the water…for a bit.  Then, I just took my laptop to a coffee shop and was back up!

Google has pioneered this exciting field with the Premiere Apps system.  My company is one of the few Authorized Google Apps Resellers in the country.  If you would like to know more about the cost-savings of moving your company to the “cloud,” just reply to this newsletter!

Most small business owners know they could do everything they needed to do…if they just had a little more time.  While we can’t build time machines, we can manage the time we have much better – and the Internet can help.
But before I start listing my favorite tools, you must promise me something. No tool will manage your time for you.  It will simply assist in the process.  To maximize the effectiveness of any time management program, you must incorporate it into your life…every day.

My favorite online helper is Google Calendar.  Its simplicity and ease of use make it one of the first sites I check every day.  With its handy sharing capabilities, my receptionist can update my calendar instantly, enabling me to see the update on my iPhone without having to sync!

Another great site is Remember the Milk.  Ironically, the strange name makes it easier to “remember.”  This site will organize your tasks and remind you until you do them!  They have a great iPhone and Android app so you can see your list while on-the-go. You can organize your tasks any way you want and even set repeating tasks.

Finally, if you are a gmail user, turn on Priority Inbox. See the video. It sorts your most “important” e-mail messages to the top of the list.  You can train it over time.  Trust me on this one.  It saves me a ton of time.  I tell people that their job is to make good decisions on what’s important, rather than what just arrived three minutes ago!

Ever heard of Steganography? It’s the art of hiding secret messages in plain site. In the computer world, we are usually referring to hiding messages within images: actually storing the message in the image.

The picture doesn’t look any different, but with the right software, the receiver can decipher the hidden message. Technically, you could use this procedure to hide your passwords in a vacation picture on a thumbdrive. Even if you lose or someone steals the thumbdrive, your data is safe, because all they see is you and your date on a beach!
Some people in the government worry that terrorists are using pictures on seemingly innocent websites to send messages to each other. Perhaps.

To learn how to utilize this fascinating procedure, just Google the word steganography. Many tools exist online that allow you to easily create your own hidden messages.

I truly love Windows 7.  One of my favorite features, though, are gadgets.  Don’t know what they are?  Think of a gadget as a little program that runs on the side of your screen.  It can be as simple as a clock, or more complex like a network utilization monitor.
It just sits there doing its thing, ready for you to check it out any time.  Windows 7 has some great gadgets and their free!  To see them, click your start button, then “All Programs,” Accessories, and then choose “Windows Sidebar.”
Some of my favorite gadgets are the analog clock, Facebook, and my CPU meter.  Basically, that last one shows me how hard my computer is working.  Don’t go crazy with gadgets, though.  Every gadget you add to the sidebar takes up a little bit of memory and a little bit your computers processing power.  Too many will slow your system down.
But choosing your favorites can give you easy access to information you check regularly.

Keeping your kids safe on the Internet is critical.  The biggest player on the Net recently acknowledged that fact by launching the Google Family Safety Center.  This site provides a number of resources for parents.
My favorite links are the videos. Presented in easy-to-understand, plain English formats, these videos give you real world strategies to effectively manage your kids’ online experiences.
In addition, if you click on the More Resources link to the left, you can  find links to some great interactive sites that teach kids how to be safe on the Internet.
Of course, don’t forget my favorite parental assistant, K9 Web Protection.  It makes monitoring your kids’ Internet usage a snap.  And it’s free!

If you have been reading my newsletters for very long, you might remember a recent review of a site called Picnik.  It allowed you to work with photos without buying expensive software like PhotoShop.
Well, I’ve found a site even better: Aviary. Actually, it’s a free suite of tools allowing you to work with both image and audio files.  When I first fired it up, I was blown away with the number of PhotoShop-like tools at my disposal.
I could work at a very granular level with an image, copy background colors, even use the “magic wand” to custom select complex areas of the picture. And yes, it supports layers.
If some of these terms don’t make much sense, don’t worry: They have a great Tutorials area to show you how to use the site.
All aspiring graphic designers should check this site out.  It won’t cost you a dime and when you’re done, you’ll be a step ahead of the pack when transitioning to PhotoShop.

If you are like me, your inbox is full every morning.  I probably get a hundred email messages per day on average.  Obviously, I skip some to read others.  Wouldn’t it be neat if my inbox “knew” which messages were more important and grouped them together?  Well, the guys at Google have added that feature to Gmail.
At first, it simply separates the messages sent DIRECTLY to you from the automated newsletters and BCC jokes you get.  But, you can start telling Gmail which messages are more important and which may be sorted to the bottom of the pile.
I like this concept, and will put it to the test.  If you are a Gmail user, look for the New Features link at the top of the page to enable this cool option. To see an example of how it works, check out their cute YouTube video.