Scribus similar to Indesign

Indesign and other programs may be out of reach for many aspiring graphic designers. I found a similar open source program called Scribus which is very similar to Indesign. This is a good program without having to spend 200-400 dollars.

Don't take my recommendation. Google it.

Downloading youtube Videos with Mozilla

I find myself finding videos on youtube or on other video websites but sometimes not all the time you go back to that video and its no longer there. I found an add on plugin called download helper. I found it a while back and its a small plugin that installs on your mozilla fire fox browser which essentially allows you to click the icon to download the video onto your computer.

The minus side to this is that some not all videos do not download. If you do download this plugin you will need what is called a video converter which essentially converts the video to play on your computer.

Although there are other download applications but I like this one because it does not have a ad pop up program.

http://www.downloadhelper.net/tutorial.php?id=x1U3B_IlPmM

The cool thing is if you have usb connection you can upload them onto your e-reader if you choose to view them later offline which for me is a plus.

PayPal going Square up?

I've been using square up for sometime and I would have to say its one of the best things since slice bread. If you don't know what I am talking about, its a phone ap that allows a user to accept credit cards via phone using a small square device to scan credit cards.

Paypal has developed their own version of square which should be interesting to see how it compares to Squares application. I tried to sign up to receive one but so far the Paypal website has only sent me invite only.

Once I get it I will post a photo of the new swiper and do a comparison.

Facebook advertising and my thoughts on NPRs article

I remember watching a posting by NPR news on a local pizza place in New Orleans who took a stab at using Facebook to draw customers to its new location.

They used the facebook fan recommends method with very little success. They spent around 240 dollars and only got back in customer return around 20 dollars.

So question comes up does Facebook advertising work for small businesses?

Here is the article if you would  like to listen in on the conversation from NPR news interview on the Pizza Delicious article.

I have done a few campaigns with some success and some with not much success. A lot of what has to happen on any type of advertising is that there needs to be a way to track your advertising budget.

For example their ad could of been something like; "Visit our store location for a free slice of Pizza. " Since it was the first time that they opened they need people to come by and try their pizza.

So my two cents for their facebook ad is just posting that your business is open is not enough to draw people to your small business.

You have to ask the question from their perspective: What is in it for me?

Google and Panda what it means to bloggers

If you are a blogger or someone who promotes products online via website then you may have seen a decline in website rankings. If not then you are in the right track. Panda if your not familiar is a Google program that learns daily on how websites interact with its searchers. So what this means if you have a site with low quality information chances are if you were on the top search your ratings may decrease.

Nothing to fear about the new Panda protocol it just means as bloggers we must provide useful information.  Google is cracking down on link website farms and spam websites so this is why many bloggers are seeing rankings changes.

Got Milk Font for your font lovers.

This is one of my favorite fonts that I have used from time to time for shirts in the past.

The font name for the Got Milk font is Phenix American

http://fontzone.net/font-download/Phenix+American/

Make sure you back up your fonts. This was a hard lesson I learned when my computer had gotten a nasty virus and essentially wiped my computer to a craw.

New Time line and what it means to small business

The new Facebook timeline has if you know changed how people create their Facebook fan pages for their business. Although I am not a big fan of the new timeline it, the new timeline offers a few features that for any business provides something more. It allows a business owner to tell their story and it features those who provide comments about your product as well.

I'm still doing more research on what other companies have done with the new layout but I'm sure many who had custom landing pages were very upset that one could no longer change the default page or at least that I know of.

Until then Facebook page has been bar none the best way to engage with your audience and see what they like about your business.