Clarence Low is the co-founder of Byte Technology, a website design and development company with offices in Monterey, CA and Denver, CO.  Byte Technology is MBE-certified with NCMSDC and has a reciprocal certification with the Rocky Mountain MSDC in Denver.  Byte Technology provides online marketing strategies and solutions to clients across the United States.

A: For a well-established brand with a decent customer base, your website will continue to generate good traffic by keep your inventory and featured items updated regularly. Folks tend to look for those deals on the home page. Traditional loyalty programs like frequent buyer cards work similarly in an e-tailer model, as well as discount codes to targeted customers. Additional features such as e-newsletter subscriptions are cost-effective and keep your e-store in front of your current customers.

LinkedIn and Facebook are wonderful online tools to promote your business and generate traffic into your website. These social networking sites have different purposes, though. LinkedIn tends to be used more by professionals to network amongst each other, while Facebook is more social and have been used to promote events, trends and company news rather than pure selling of products. Since they are free to set up and use, I would encourage you to try both and determine which is the better fit for your business.
 

A: There have been rumors and discussion about this for some time, but no official announcement from Verizon. I would think that at some point in time, it would make sense to promote the iPhone on another carrier, thus expanding Apple’s market share. If you really can’t wait to get your hands a device, you might want to consider an iPod Touch, which essentially has all the features of the iPhone, but not the phone or camera. I know a number of colleagues who use local wireless networks for their Internet connectivity, and have access to all the apps available in the Apple Store.

A: Pretty simple. On the address bar, type in CNN.com to go to the website, or to whatever you’d like to change it to. Then under Tools/Internet Options, the General tab will list the home page addresses along with buttons for “Use Current”, Use Default” and Use Blank”. Select “Use Current”. This will set the default website to CNN. Select OK and your done. Next time you open your browser, it will open to CNN.

A: Internet-based telephone services have been around for a few years, offering competitive services to the traditional land-based companies. Some even bundle other services into their offerings – Internet connections, fax, business plans, etc. Most of the time, your caller will not even realize that you’re using a VoIP service, as the sound quality is very good. However, in times when the Internet is lagging poorly, or there is a major service bottleneck, I have experienced dropout, stutters and crackles. Our recommendation is if it really a mission-critical device and you rely upon it, maintain a traditional land line.

A: In addition to remove the grime and junk off the surfaces, a periodic cleaning is probably going to result in more hygienic peripherals, especially if you share computers. Turn off your computer or laptop. Spray the spaces between the keys with canned compressed air to extract dust and crumbs. Be careful not to tip the can so far that the cold liquid sprays out. Then using a soft cloth with some Endust for Electronics or some other non-abrasive gentle cleaner, wipe the surfaces down. Repeat for the mouse.

A: Your easiest course of action would be to contact McAfee customer support and ask them to cancel and remove any recurring credit card charges from your account. Then uninstall the application from your Windows Dell machine. Same with Norton Anti-Virus on your laptop.

A: Yes! Google has a free application called Google Calendar Sync, still in beta (you can find it by Googling it) that you can download. Once installed, you can set it to automatically synchronize your two calendars throughout the day. I do recommend you back up your Outlook calendar on a regular basis.

A: Quick as you can, back up your data on the hard drive. You can always get a new hard drive, or new system, but the data is priceless. Once you have assured yourself that your data is safe, take the system to a local computer repair shop and have them diagnose it. Clicks and squeaks may indicate that the hard drive spindle may be on its last legs. Sometimes it’s more cost effective to replace it and restore the applications and data that was on the old hard drive, than to spend time fixing the squeak.

A: After a courtesy diagnostic on your machine, we found that there was only 512MB RAM in the system and 3MB space left on a 40GB hard drive. Coupled with a large number of applications, including Quickbooks and AutoCAD, our recommendation is to look at a replacement system. New systems are quite inexpensive these days and have large hard drives, lots of memory, and fast processors. You can consider a desktop or laptop replacement if you travel a bit. Depending on your printing needs, an all-in-one printer provides several functions – typically printing, fax and scans – but if what you’re really after is sharp consistent printing, I would recommend a color laser printer.

A: As your website is indexed and ranked on the search engines and is “crawled” by Internet bots (the gremlins that help find websites), online forms without some way to mitigate malicious bots will typically result in submissions of this unwanted kind. One of the easier ways of eliminating or mitigating spam of this manner is to have your website programmer install a CAPTCHA, which is a series of letters and characters that a user has to type in before submitting a form. Bots cannot read and replicate the CAPTCHAs . There is a potential downside to this as sometimes the CAPTCHA application distorts the characters to the point that it’s hard to read and repeat. There are also server-side spam preventers the programmer can implement so that users don’t have to deal with CAPTCHAs. Talk to your website programmer about some options to determine the best course for resolution.

A: There are so many new technologies and applications that have been launched over the last couple of years that it feels like an inflective curve for Internet growth. The last few years have seen an emergence of social networking spaces such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, with numerous offshoot applications to connect people socially. These applications have evolved and matured, some even making some money. What really gets us excited is the emergence of iPhone application development. There are about 70,000 iPhone apps currently, some are good, some not. The best ones are helping extend a company’s brand, such as NBC, Time, Donna Karan. As the iPhone is made available on other cell phone carriers, we anticipate exponential growth of iPhone app users and a rapid adoption of this platform to extend a company’s marketing reach.

A: The pervasiveness and ingenuity of Internet to be a wonderful tool also can be used maliciously, i.e., spammers and malware. If you look closely at the Twitter requests, you may be able to trace that these folks’ link back to adult websites and such. Short answer, if in doubt, ignore or delete the requests.

A: As your website is indexed and ranked on the search engines and is “crawled” by Internet bots (the gremlins that help find websites), online forms without some way to mitigate malicious bots will typically result in submissions of this unwanted kind. One of the easier ways of eliminating or mitigating spam of this manner is to have your website programmer install a CAPTCHA, which is a series of letters and characters that a user has to type in before submitting a form. Bots cannot read and replicate the CAPTCHAs . There is a potential downside to this as sometimes the CAPTCHA application distorts the characters to the point that it’s hard to read and repeat. There are also server-side spam preventers the programmer can implement so that users don’t have to deal with CAPTCHAs. Talk to your website programmer about some options to determine the best course for resolution.

A: There are so many new technologies and applications that have been launched over the last couple of years that it feels like an inflective curve for Internet growth. The last few years have seen an emergence of social networking spaces such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, with numerous offshoot applications to connect people socially. These applications have evolved and matured, some even making some money. What really gets us excited is the emergence of iPhone application development. There are about 70,000 iPhone apps currently, some are good, some not. The best ones are helping extend a company’s brand, such as NBC, Time, Donna Karan. As the iPhone is made available on other cell phone carriers, we anticipate exponential growth of iPhone app users and a rapid adoption of this platform to extend a company’s marketing reach.

A: Most hotels have policies that require staff to verify your identity prior to allowing you to enter a room. For example, if you lost your room key, staff is supposed to ask for photo identification before issuing another room key. But that doesn’t always happen. So while I have always felt comfortable leaving my laptop in my hotel room while I am at a conference or meeting, I will take the following measures if I feel it’s necessary. 1. Lock my laptop in the room safe (yes , it fits) 2. Take it to the front counter and have it secured in their hotel safe 3. Take it with me, even if it may be inconvenient. Keep in mind that the data contained within the laptop is often more valuable than the hardware, so before you travel, I recommend backing up your data at the office.

A: Generally speaking, your company website should contain relevant, fresh content and allow visitors to qualify your business quickly. Your website is another impression of your company that visitors receive, so it should reflect your brand as accurately as possible. If you are selling a product, make sure the site checkout is secure so that credit card and personal information is encrypted during the transaction. Use appropriate high-quality images to create association to your target audience, i.e., completed construction projects if you’re a general contractor. One mistake I frequently see is an email address with an AOL, Hotmail, Gmail or similar consumer-centric domain. While these email addresses are appropriate for personal use, they leave a corporate or governmental officer with the impression that you’re not ready for prime time and not worth their attention.

A: I believe your biggest culprit here is using an older browser that was originally released in 2001. Microsoft recently released Internet Explorer 8, which offers improved speed, security and moves closer to adopting widely-used web coding guidelines. Websites created today also tend to integrate contemporary applications and plug-ins that weren’t around eight years ago. I would recommend you consider upgrading Internet Explorer, or take a look at other browsers such as Firefox, Safari or Chrome.

A: Most mail servers set an allowable number of email messages to get sent per day from your computer, in order to control outbound spam. Some are set at 250 or 500 messages over a 24 hour period. You’re probably receiving the error since you’ve exceeded this limit.
I would recommend that instead of taxing your Outlook and the mail server, to look into an email service provider such as Constant Contact or MailChimp to provide this service. It would go out from a vetted fulfillment center, probably look a bit more professionally formatted, and protect you from getting grey- or black-listed.

A: A simple solution that has worked for me is to purchase an HDMI switch. It’s a box similar to a USB splitter, but larger, and works the same way. The one I use has inputs for three HDMI devices to a single output. The beauty of this device is that it will automatically sense and switch ports to the active feed. This solution effectively doubles my available HDMI ports to my set, but I wouldn’t be opposed to a set upgrade, either!

A: Pay-per-click campaigns are generally funded with a monthly budget and management fee, based on how aggressive and expensive certain keywords strings are. For example, a national moving company may have a Web site with a keyword string of "national office movers." The bid rate for that string may be worth $3 per click, meaning that if your sponsored link on a search result were clicked on, your account would be charged $3. The real metric is to understand the potential rate of return for a campaign. You may determine that the cost of a six-month campaign may generate enough leads and closes that it will easily justify this strategy. I recommend speaking to a certified search engine professional to learn more about the options and strategies involved with a pay-per-click search engine campaign.

A: You might have your access control set too high on your wireless router. Log into your router and see if there is an advanced setting called Wireless Access Control. If this is enabled, you might see a list of devices with their MAC addresses checked. Try disabling or turning off this access control, save your settings, and log back out.

A: First off, do not use any industry household cleaners like Windex, 409, or vinegar-based solvents. They will damage your screen. There are commercially-prepared solutions specifically made for this purpose available at places like Office Depot or Staples. Another easy way I have found is to use a soft cloth and barely wet it with a little water and a quick swipe of mild liquid handsoap. Gently wipe the screen surface and dry.

A: Bing is Microsoft’s search engine application to go up against giants like Google and Yahoo. Bing offers similar functionalities such as intelligent search suggestions as you type in search terms, and a list of related searches based on the semantics of the search terms. Bing is an evolution of previous Microsoft search applications – Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search.

There are some nice features within the application, such as video previews, 3D map views of businesses and landmarks, and local searches of businesses with reviews.

I encourage you to check it out and use it for a short time to decide if the quality of the search results and your user experience warrants a change from your current search engine application. You can find it at www.bing.com.

A: No, please please please don’t toss them into the dumpster. They will contaminate the landfill will all sorts of toxic metals. Instead take the energy and time to recycle them properly. Recycled material will one day become parts for new electronics. There are a number of local outlets that will recycle your electronics for a nominal or no fee. For example, Office Depot and Staples have recycling programs where you can purchase a recycling box for a small fee, and they will recycle almost whatever you can fit inside the box. All things electronic including cell phones and batteries can be included in the box. Larger entities like a recent LG/Waste Management/Comcast recycling event will allow you to drop off material for free! Just remember to erase or destroy your hard drive of any personal data before you drop them off.

A: Once you’ve logged in, go to the Friends list on the top of the Web page. You will see your current list of friends, with an X on the right side of their box to Remove them from your list. You will see a confirmation screen before it takes effect.

A: We recommend installing a solution called a CAPTCHA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha) for the form page prior to the submission button. CAPTCHAs are letter/number challenges that must be retyped into text box to validate the form. Because computers or bots cannot resolve the word or phrase, the amount of false submission is mitigated significantly. While it is an extra step for the user to complete, most users are familiar with it and are not turned off by it.

A: This is a judgment call. Because these are all folks you know and do business with, your e-newsletter will likely not be marked as spam by them. Your vendor may have a system that will allow you to import this list from Excel, but only after acknowledging that these folks are not from some list that you bought. There may be some other conditions that they’ll require in order to accept this list. I recommend reading their terms and conditions for managing your lists so you don’t get onto their radar as a spammer and get a nasty call.

A: We live in a society where our perception of down time is getting shorter and shorter, and that we need our information oh-so-quickly. While there are times when it makes sense, e.g, natural disaster situations, I do miss the times when I could sit down with a cup of coffee in the sunroom, unfold the Sunday paper, and leisurely read the articles and the circulars. I even remember as a kid spending time hunting down those “before and after – what’s different” comics. So I am saddened by the loss of these agencies, as there is an intrinsic value to having ink rub off on my fingers and the crackle of the page that a mouse click will never have.

A: I cannot address your concern about your wife peeking into your laptop, but there are instances where viruses or malware can infect a computer and use a browser to send emails or launch applications/searches unbeknownst to the user. Your best bet if you haven’t already done so is to install an anti-virus program such as Norton Internet Security or 360, update the virus definitions and perform a full scan of the computer.
It is useful to be cognizant that some websites are prone to being hacked or vulnerable to malware, such as gaming sites, file/music sharing sites, “hacker sites”, etc. Visit these sites and download files at your own risk.

A: Good news - Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8.0 moves closer to interpreting industry standard code and style sheets that other browsers have already adopted. So there is a better-to-good chance that if your site was coded recently using best practices, the site will display fine in IE 8.0. Bad news – Microsoft tends to march to its own beat, so it’s hard to ensure your site will display correctly or not break when others use it to visit your website. This is the challenge of all website programmers - to ensure that their sites have current major cross-browser compatibility.

A: I would check with your provider to see if they can increase the limits for your account.  Providers such as Gmail now have significant file size and email limits of around 20MB.  Another possible way is to create a free account on www.YouSendIt.com.  There you can attach files less than 100MB and send them along to multiple folks.  They also have several paid options for delivery.

A: One simple way is to first create a new folder under your main Inbox directory, e.g., Inbox/MySecondEmailInbox. Do this by right-clicking on the Inbox folder along the left Mail Folders display pane, then selecting New Folder. Name it whatever you wish.  Then go up to the File menu, and select Tools/Account Settings.  In the new window that opens, select the first tab (Email), select the email account you want to segregate, and select Change Folder at the bottom.  Expand the Personal Folders directory, and find the new folder name you just created. Click OK, and close up the rest of the open windows.  Your settings are ready to go!  Send yourself a test message to the new email address and verify that it is now flowing into that new folder.

A: It helps tremendously that you have the system restore CDs and driver disks that came with the machine.  Since the previous owner did not remove his data, it would be a courtesy to him for you to remove it.  I would evaluate the programs already installed on the computer and try to determine if they were installed legally.  He may tell you that they were installed using cracked software, in which case I would lean towards wiping (erasing) the system and using the restore CDs to get a clean system.  An advantage of doing this is also having a system without his data, and applications that you can install that are licensed to you.
The typical exercise in using the restore CDs is to boot the system from the CD-ROM drive and following the directions on screen.  If your system does not boot first from the CD-ROM drive, you may have to change the start-up order from the boot screen.  When you fire up the PC, you will see options for F12 that will allow you to change the boot order for the computer.  Select and re-order it so that the CD-ROM drive is first, followed by the hard drive.

A: This is a pretty simple and painless exercise.  Just create a new Gmail account.  Once activated, go into your old (current) Gmail account and share your calendar with your new Gmail calendar.  When you log back into your new Gmail account, and set up your calendar, you will see the old calendar and can continue to make new entries and edits to it.  You can keep the old account active as there are currently no restrictions on having multiple Gmail accounts.