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Mobile Mondays
Published by: on 05-05-2014
So this week's edition of the Los Angeles Business Journal now includes a nice pithy quote from yours truly on how a brick and mortar business can utilize SnapChat to drive new and repeat business. Check out my quote. I want to thank Roger Gillott from Gillottcommunications.com for making the introduction to the LABJ. Also really amusing that maybe 15 minutes before I received my copy of the LABJ I had written a note to Jeff Sklar from www.SklarKirsh.com about something unrelated and there's his name right below mine. That's a crazy kind of Karma
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Published by: on 12-23-2013
Published by: on 03-04-2013
We�ve all heard about the frustrations of texting on a touch screen phone or tablet. The Android based, �swiping� style keyboard app, SwiftKey, attempts to simplify this everyday process and eliminates the pain that comes with having to use your touch screen keyboard. What sets SwiftKey apart from other swiping-styled keyboard apps, is their personalized predictive engine that predicts your train of thought and will offer up a suggestion of words. Now, what�s not intriguing is the simplicity of rapid speed typing, with a fast learning curve, accompanied by interchangeable keyboard interfaces, but it is the possibility of using this app in a professional or educational setting.
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Published by: on 06-25-2012
One of the biggest questions website owners struggle with is whether or not to use a fluid or fixed design layout. While there are positives and negatives to either, having an adaptable layout could turn out to be an advantage now that more and more people are using mobile devices as their primary internet source. Fixed layouts are in many ways more reliable because you see exactly what your users will see. On the other hand, if a user is on your site from a small resolution device like a mobile phone, they'll likely have to scroll though a lot more space on your site.
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Published by: on 05-29-2012
Mobile apps have become the breeding ground for new and unorthodox ideas in technology, and Bump is no exception. In basic terms, the Bump app allows mobile users to to transfer business and personal contact information with each other. How do they do it? You guessed it, by bumping. By simply bumping iPhones together, your contact list will immediately be updated with their information. Its efficient and playful enough to get even the most recluse of business associates to share their info. But that's not all this app does.
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Published by: on 04-09-2012
How long does it take you to narrow down your searches and find what you are looking for on online classified sites? With worldwide sites like Craigslist, it can eat up quite a bit of time to modify your search inquiry to find bed frames, mopeds, job openings, or even coffee dates that fit your criteria. If you've been wishing not only for easier sorting capabilities but convenient handheld access to such a forum, then let Craigsphone bring your wait to an end.
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Published by: on 04-02-2012
How often do you find yourself away on travel or simply pulling a lengthy night in the office and wondering if you properly locked up, turned off climate controls, or set lights or security features accordingly? This common scenario happens to the best of us and it can prove frustrating and distracting when we're in transit or just away from our homes, loved ones, and valuables, but with ADT Pulse you have the ability to monitor and adjust your dwelling's security system settings from anywhere.
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Published by: on 03-26-2012
Do you have a way to speedily print from your phone or tablet? While the need for hard copies of documents is getting gradually reduced through the availability of electronic copies, there are still many occasions for which a printed version is extremely helpful or even essential. While on a personal errand the unavailability of a printout might be a mere inconvenience, in a business setting it has the potential to be disastrous and reflect poorly on you and your brand. Don't get left behind; get a printing app like Epson iPrint.
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Published by: on 03-12-2012
How many times a day would you estimate you type "Thanks again for your help," "Running late. Be there in ten," "Thank you very much," and scores of other commonplace phrases, signatures, and abbreviations? While these formalities may feel like a nuisance, they can have a positive impact on how colleagues and prospective clients perceive your brand and professional persona so they should be de rigeur in your correspondence habits, and now with apps like TextExpander they take up a lot less time.
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Published by: on 03-05-2012
How many times have you as a consumer realized late in the work day that your pantry is missing some critical ingredients for the quick, healthy meal you were slated to make that night? Or, how often have you as a market manager or owner wished that there was a way to help consumers in exactly this predicament? Given the multitude of grocery list-making apps now in use, it makes sense that food supply brands should employ mobile strategies to interact better with their customers. Now there is a mobile solution called Grocery Glee to make life easier and more mutually beneficial for both sides.
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Published by: on 02-27-2012
How can you make not only your brand but your business persona stand out in the world of digital communication? As I advise my Los Angeles website design clients, it's important not only to be easily accessible to your prospective customers, but to catch their eyes and hold their attention in a way that is consistent with your messaging. With so many methods of electronic messaging that are in use both inside and outside of professional environments it seems challenging to make your correspondence shine in a sea of other texts and emails. Fortunately, there are inspiring and user friendly apps like Swakker to liven up your transmissions.
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Published by: on 02-13-2012
Do you ever wish the videos you create on your phone looked a little more sleek and professional than, well, a video you made on a phone? Certainly we would all like the video content we make and publish in our names to look as good as possible, but not all of us have the time or resources to go to film school. Now, with a highly user friendly app called Cinefy, you can make seemingly basic mobile footage into an eye-catching, effects-laden movie clip faster than you can say Eisenstein.
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Published by: on 02-06-2012
Did you know that according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey 45% of teens admit to texting behind the wheel, and that an estimated 500,00 fatalities have been determined to be the results of distracted driving? While many of us try to set the example and keep our smartphones out of our hands when behind the wheel, it's easy to give into impulse traffic slows and that message alert goes off, and it's easy to see why.
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Published by: on 01-30-2012
What precautions have you taken to ensure that your clients' personal data stays safe in the increasingly ubiquitous cloud-based world? There is no denying that cloud storage and software is great for preserving your files and superior for keeping us organized by consolidating our important items in one or two accessible places. However, with such a convenience come familiar security risks that often start with password theft, which is why we cannot highlight too many security apps and programs to ensure that your private information stays that way, especially if they can eliminate the hassle of password resets. Enter MyLok.
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Published by: on 01-23-2012
When was the last time you needed to find the answer to a question on the spot? This happens to most of us several times a day, so most the most likely answer is Google, right? Well, think about when you need the answer to a conditional, multi-level question. Entering it into a search engine- even in quotes- will pull up related information and links but finding a precise, whittled-down answer is a little harder. However, features like Siri and apps like Wolfram Alpha are making it much easier to perform research and devise solutions in seconds.
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Published by: on 01-09-2012
How are you making certain you stay on track with each of your New Year's resolutions...or just making sure you're up for that early conference call Friday morning? With holiday break at its end and business back in full swing for most of us, it's essential to have a comprehensive and instantly accessible to-do list like Wunderkinder 6's very handy app, Wunderlist.
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Published by: on 12-12-2011
What type of cloud storage is the best to suit your needs? With the mobile and PC spheres overlapping more and more, you have quite a few programs to choose from. Syncing up your devices and files through cloud storage can seem overwhelming at first but having the bulk of your important data all in one place that�s accessible from any location will really make your personal and professional life operate much more smoothly. You just need an easy app like SugarSync to tie everything together in a minimal number of taps to get you started.
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Published by: on 12-05-2011
When was the last time a meeting or transaction had to be put on hold because a critical shipment containing a single, contract, or other vital contents arrived late or was lost altogether? Aside from the professional sphere, how often have you been inconvenienced because a package for your spouse, child, distant relative, or even you got lost?
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Published by: on 11-28-2011
How safe are the cards in your wallet against the pickpocket you can't see? Mobile and digital technology is enabling us to complete a bevy of commonplace errands in a fraction of the time they used to eat up when performed manually. As previous Mobile Mondays have covered, everything from organizing your passwords to obtaining a signature to close a deal can be accomplished by opening an app on your phone.
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Published by: on 11-21-2011
What part of preparing for the approaching Thanksgiving holiday could you most easily do without? At the top of many people's lists is the task of grocery shopping, and it's no wonder. Braving the jam-packed parking lots and crowds, navigating aisle after ransacked aisle for the last can of cranberry sauce, and waiting in interminable lines don't make for the most relaxing evening, especially for those of us who work right up until the last minute. Now, I can't relieve you of supermarket duty but what I can do is steer you towards a handy, time-saving app to make this chore a little less painful: ShopShop.
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Published by: on 11-14-2011
Are you looking for a quick, cheap way to increase the strength of your WiFi signal? No one likes dealing with unreliable wireless whether they�re shopping, researching, transmitting messages, or corresponding in regards to a time-sensitive professional matter. I understand that more than anyone with the number of Los Angeles website design projects I keep up with simultaneously. While weak signal strength sometimes seems like something you just have to deal with, you might be surprised to learn that boosting those bars so can be as easy as cracking a nice, cold beer.
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Published by: on 11-07-2011
How many times have you jotted down important information from a meeting only to lose track of it in the pages of an already disordered and scribble-laden legal pad? In the increasingly fast-paced Google business world, as well as in many of our kids� academic institutions, old-fashioned pen-and-paper note-taking is giving way to electronic tablet-based organization tools like the iPad, Kindle, and others. Consequently, you have your choice of note-taking apps for your reminders, ideas, and projects.
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Published by: on 10-31-2011
How many times have you departed your office for a stretch of time only to realize that particular document, presentation, or other type of file you�re going be needing shortly is still on your PC? It�s enough of a nuisance when you�re a quick twenty-minute drive from your workplace, but imagine making this realization just as your business flight from New York to Tel Aviv has just taken off. Even with a mostly electronically based office like my Los Angeles website design company, such a dilemma is still possible.
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Published by: on 10-24-2011
Would you like to ALSO track sales opportunities through your mobile phone?
How do you, your partners, and employees keep track of your company�s various sales leads and transactions?
As I am constantly running around Los Angeles meeting our web design and SEO clients, the chance of making a potential deal turn into a lucrative close or an abrupt loss can happen in a matter of hours. So I think it's vitally important to keep a reliable sales log as current and accessible as possible.
Now, we�ve all filled in plenty of Excel spreadsheets and marked up our share of whiteboards, but in the growing Google economy, an app like Sales CRMEzi lets you consolidate figures, commissions, quotas, and more into your iPhone.
Sales CRM Ezi basically lets you organize, update, and share your leads anywhere from your phone.
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Published by: on 10-17-2011
How safe is your computer when you step away from it?
Even the best anti-virus and Spyware prevention programs and software cannot protect your PC if an actual person steps in and decides to go nosing around where they shouldn�t.
Usernames and passwords can only offer so much security if yours are easy to figure out or if the �intruder� happens to already know them.
I am constantly running around my office and I can easily see how someone could be waiting at my desk, turn the screen around and do things on my PC without me ever realizing it.
Now though, there is a first-of-its-kind piece of shareware called Lockitnow! that allows you to fully but easily lock your PC with your mobile phone.
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Published by: on 10-10-2011
Are You Ready for the Virtual World Yet of Videon Conferencing?
According to a recent study by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., the international market for video conferencing is anticipated to reach approximately $11 billion by 2015, and that is not simply because the capability is trendy.
The use of video conferencing saves business owners, along with their employees and clients, time and travel expenses, not to mention promotes a forward-minded �green� company image by reducing the need to use air or road transport to bring call participants together.
Furthermore, this technology also preserves the human touch of face-to-face interaction even when individuals are based in remote locations with varying time zones, or on especially busy schedules.
Given that my Los Angeles website design and SEO company has offices and affiliates across the country and abroad, I certainly know the value of being able to conduct remote business efficiently and economically.
For the many business leaders in similar situations it makes perfect sense that an app like ooVoo Video Chat should make this innovation available in reliable mobile form.
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Published by: on 10-03-2011
With the numerous lurking threats of viruses, identity theft, and other hacker trickery, keeping your various online accounts and profiles secure has never been more important, and this ties into a necessary evil with which we�re all familiar: passwords.
Does it make your day go any faster to revisit a site to edit your account, make a purchase, or complete any other basic task only to realize you forgot the very login information you created only a short while ago and will need to reset it?
Furthermore, do any of you enjoy having to come up with a nonsensical series of upper and lowercase letters and numbers for each individual account you have?
I didn�t think so, and neither did the creators of this great piece of mobile software ...
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Published by: on 09-26-2011
How Fast is Your Android Mobile Phone?
In an earlier post, we detailed several quick and simple strategies to speed up the operations of your PC, as it can get easily slowed down by a loaded cache, data history, and cookies.
As we�ve also noted on several Mobile Mondays, our smartphones have become portable- and in some sense even more capable - PC�s that we carry everywhere and use constantly to manage our professional and personal lives.
With all that use, they encounter essentially the same problems our desk and lap tops do; that is, their memory and space gets used up and they get sluggish. If this sounds like your Android, then History Eraser might be all it needs.
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Published by: on 09-19-2011
Are You and Your Mobile Prepared for the Worst Thing That Could Happen?
I mean besides your mother-in-law surprising you for a sleepover, the next worst thing is losing your mobile lifeline - ie. your cell goes on the fritz.
Backing up the files and information on one�s personal computer to protect them against power surges, viruses, and other hazards has become a pretty commonplace precaution.
However, now that a typical mobile phone is capable of storing at least as much data as a basic computer, it is now just as important to give it the same level of protection.
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Published by: on 09-12-2011
How many business cards do you typically collect at a given conference, trade show, or networking event?
How well do you organize and integrate them into your existing contacts without Outlook or some other CRM system?
With the days of the classic rotary rolodex falling behind us, it is ideal that we manage our new and existing directory of professional connections as we are now managing most elements of our lives; that is, accessible by a couple of clicks on our mobile devices.
Certainly, given the number of new prospects and reciprocal business connections I collect for my web design and SEO company in just a week or two, I appreciate a streamlined app for loading cards onto my phone
There are actually quite a few of these programs available, and we liked WorldCard Mobile the best
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Published by: on 08-29-2011
Ready for a new universal barcode reader on your mobile phone?
In a recent Free Friday post, we talked about how the use of customized QR codes can help promote a business by informing and engaging its prospective customers, and even directing them to enticing perks like coupons and exclusive downloads.
These capabilities are helpful to you as a business owner as they enable you to examine the marketing strategies, branding techniques, and website design of neighboring enterprises; and they�re also quite beneficial to you as a consumer by allowing quicker access to products and services that interest you.
Along with QR�s, other types of barcodes have gained ground and facilitated a need for the app that comprises this Mobile Monday�s recommendation:
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Published by: on 08-22-2011
A handshake is all it used to take.
Sometimes even a handkerchief or a napkin at a restaurant.
But not anymore.
Agreements you think you've made while sitting in a restaurant or even standing in line at the movies can fall apart or be challenged with the slightest shift in the winds.
While technology in this Google economy has made it easier and faster to do business, there remains a seemingly small detail that can cause you to torpedo important agreements or delay the completion of potentially fruitful transactions: obtaining a signature.
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Published by: on 07-11-2011
I really love my 46" TV and 5.1 channel sound system.
But apparently not everyone is glued to their flat screen like my wife and I are.
Today Robert Gonsalves (theaudiencerules.com) suggested that the way I watch TV is dying and my kids won't inherit it.
Since my kids are glued to their cell phone, I want to introduce you to a great free mobile download.
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Published by: on 06-27-2011
Welcome to my first post to the new "Motivation Mondays" blog series.
It's probably the first time in about 5 years that I walked into my office, pulled up my Outlook Inbox and had nothing I needed to do. Seriously if I needed to find motivation to do something, nothing is more motivating than having nothing to do.
I know this sounds a little strange because we are all used to being motivated by the mundane pressures of deadlines, bosses, clients, closing deals, having money in the bank to make payroll and the whole host of other things we keep pushing off. But in a surprising way, having nothing on my hit list today seems like more of a coincidence. Considering I was planning to start off my Monday with a Motivational post it seems like things are working out exactly as planned.
So in the spirit of motivating others I will start off my post with a pitch for being a better Rainmaker.
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Latest Blog Posts
- Jason Talks about Snapchat for Business
- 50 Reasons To Plan Your Mobile Website in 2014
- SwiftKey: A Game Changer or Just another Touch-Screen Keyboard App?
- Do You Use a Fluid Website Design? If So, You Need This Plugin
- "Bump" Into Business With The New Bump Technologies Inc. App
- Consolidate the Classifieds with Craigsphone
- Home Security in the Palm of Your Hand with ADT Pulse
- iPrint Simplifies the Mobile Printing Process
- Get TextExpander and Make Typing Less Tedious
- Consumers and Markets Get Speed and Simplicity from Grocery Glee
- Put a Personal Stamp on Your Texts with Swakker
- Want to Make Videos with Flair? Lights, Camera, Cinefy!
- Keep Yourself and Loved Ones Safe Behind the Wheel with SecuraFone
- Maximize Password Protection with MyLok
- Why Wonder When Wolfram Alpha Does the Computing for You?
- Wunderlist Wows When It Comes to Getting Organized
- Simple Interface and Generous Space make SugarSync a Sweet Deal
- FedEx Mobile is the No-Fuss Way to Track Your Important Shipments
- Are You Safeguarded Against Electronic Pickpocketing?
- Tired of Misplacing Your Grocery List? Shape Things Up with ShopShop
- Maybe All You and Your Router Need is a Cold Beer
- Notability Brings Usability to Your iPad Note-Taking
- Stay Connected to Your PC with iTeleport
- Pick Up Sales CRM Ezi and Retire That Dry Erase Board
- Use Your Mobile Phone to Keep Your PC Secure with Lockitnow!
- Video Conferencing on the Go: Do You ooVoo?
- Wouldn't You Like to Remember Just One Password?
- History Eraser Gives Your Android a Clean Slate
- MyBackup Pro Offers Software to Protect Your Android Against the Worst
- Mobilize and Organize Your Business Card Library with WorldCard
- Give Your Mobile Universal Barcode Scanning Capabilities with NeoReader
- Wouldn't you like to close a deal while standing online?
- TV's are Dying a Slow Death in Favor of Mobile Devices
- Can the Rainmaker Network help you get more leads? Seo Resources
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- Frequent SEO questions
- Optimization checklist
- Why we're good at SEO
- Web design tips Seo Case Studies
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