Ann's Blog
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Am I blogging anymore? The answer is Yes - on my main website, NetMarketing-123, and I'm pulling those posts into my pages here on Savor! Just click the yellow box above this post that says "Read Ann's Other Blog" and you'll get to my latest posts.
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It's a new year and time for some new directions, so I will be turning in my "Savor Expert Blogger" key after this posting. I'll still be posting on my own website. and on the three additional business websites I've been asked to contribute to in the last year, so if you'd still like to follow my news and tips, just email me and I'll be happy to send you links to those sources.
Meanwhile, I'm grateful to Angela for allowing me this forum for sharing my information with you over the past year, and I'm excited to follow the new experts who come on board at Savor in the months to come. Thank you all for "listening" and for providing your thoughtful comments and feedback.
Ann Baker is CEO of Publicity Pros, and creator of the small-business publicity building services PR-123, SocialMedia-123, WebTraffic-123, Wordpress-123, and Facebook-123. She can be reached at Ann@PublicityPros.net.
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Last week when we had our first gloriously sunny day, after about 10 days of rain here in Southern California, I decided to take a drive up the coast to Malibu for a late lunch with my daughter at Gladstone's, a seafood eatery perched alongside Pacific Coast Highway on the last spot of land at the end of Sunset Blvd.
I was pleased to see that Gladstone's had an online reservation system, so I reserved for 1:30. I also called to specifically request outdoor seating overlooking the ocean. It was good that I called, because the hostess informed me no one could sit outside that day, because NCIS Los Angeles was on site doing a shoot for the show! Well, that was a fun piece of news and I was happy enough to accept a table inside, knowing I'd be able to observe the action of a TV shoot. I also hoped I'd get to see Linda Hunt in person, or perhaps LL Cool J. I was curious if he was as big and tall as he looked on camera! I requested a window seat.
When I arrived, I walked righ [...]
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As a Boomer who lives and breathes social media, SEO, and all things internet marketing, I'm constantly on my computer and I find that I'm struggling more and more with this one itty bitty problem -- itty bitty type! It is a pain, and it seems that smaller graphic design choices, devices, and apps are appearing every day! So I've concentrated on finding a few cheats for myself, and thought I'd share with you who are at or approaching the same stage:
Outlook - Zoom is your friend. Whenever you open or compose an email, click on Zoom in the upper right corner and increase to 125% or more. Similarly, when checking email via the Outlook Reading Pane, notice the zoom slider in the lower right corner. Grab and slide the pointer upward to 125%, 150%, or whatever's more comfortable for you to read.
Word - The standard convention for documents is 10 point type, which somehow seems to be shrinking! :^) So - if you're feeling feisty, just set your font size at 11 from now on and do [...]
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Last week I showed you an inexpensive software program for creating and editing videos. Here's this week's video on how to place your new video within your blog!
Ann Baker is CEO of Publicity Pros, and creator of the small-business publicity building services PR-123, SocialMedia-123, and WebTraffic-123. She is a Savor Mastermind Leader for Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Costa Mesa in Southern California. She can be reached at Ann@PublicityPros.net.
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Talking the talk - watch my first video for my Savor blog! I show you a quick and inexpensive way to get started making videos - without having to go on camera.
Ann Baker is CEO of Publicity Pros, and creator of the small-business publicity building services PR-123, SocialMedia-123, and WebTraffic-123. She is a Savor Mastermind Leader for Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Costa Mesa in Southern California. She can be reached at Ann@PublicityPros.net.
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If you're reviewing your books in preparation for year-end and realizing that you've done well, you might want to check out a little-known program that can save you LOTS in taxes - the Private Employer Benefit Plan, also known as a PEB Plan. I just learned about it at a seminar given by a group of CPAs and ERISA lawyers - and they explained that it's relatively new, most large businesses take advantage of it and save hundreds of thousands if not millions in taxes, and most small businesses know nothing about it even though they can have a PEB Plan too.
A PEB Plan allows a business owner to operate her company on a pre-tax (untaxed) basis, using an employee stock ownership plan that is set up to insure that the owner retains control of her company. The benefits to EmployERs are huge (hence the capital ER in the title of this blog) - saving many thousands in taxes every year. The nature of the stock ownership plan confers benefits on the employees too - which is a good thi [...]
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During one of our lively conversations at a recent Mastermind Group meeting, one member lamented the fact that a businesswoman friend of hers wanted to change email services, but couldn't do so because she'd lose her entire mailing list that she'd worked so hard to build. She happened to be using Constant Contact.
"What about her downloaded list?" I asked.
Turned out, she didn't know that you could download your mailing list - and she urged me to write about this in my blog because she said LOTS of people don't know they can do this.
So, for those of you using Constant Contact, iContact, RatePoint, Mailchimp or another other email service, you always have the option to download your mailing lists to your own computer. Look under the Contacts area and then look for "export" or something similar. Follow the steps to download all of your lists, which will typically go into a csv or excel spreadsheet. If you can't find the steps to do this, call the service's help line to find [...]
