4 Tips to Keep Your Website Ahead of the Curve. This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Sure, having a website for your business serves a practical need: to draw net-surfing users to your product or service. However, it's also much more than slapping on a run of the mill two-column template and calling it a day.
Nothing kills an online buzz like a poorly designed or drastically outdated website. Dry and boring default templates, broken assets, confusing pages and invasive widgets do nothing but harm a page's style, which in turn reflects poorly on the company. 2012 is heralding a new wave of innovative web technologies and design, and a page that stays in step with these trends is bound to pique interest and lower your bounce rate. 1. Don't Be Afraid to be Bold Mail Chimp. A bold design can be obtained with very little money, especially for those who aren't necessarily experienced in coding. 2. 3. 4. Residential Rebates - Home Rewards. Amazon.com Help: Send to Kindle for PC. Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)
Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution. This quote does illustrate an important point: before jumping right into solving a problem, we should step back and invest time and effort to improve our understanding of it. Here are 10 strategies you can use to see problems from many different perspectives and master what is the most important step in problem solving: clearly defining the problem in the first place!
The Problem Is To Know What the Problem Is The definition of the problem will be the focal point of all your problem-solving efforts. As such, it makes sense to devote as much attention and dedication to problem definition as possible. What usually happens is that as soon as we have a problem to work on we’re so eager to get to solutions that we neglect spending any time refining it. Problem Definition Tools and Strategies 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Learn Mandarin Chinese with Livemocha | Study Mandarin Chinese Online Free! TeachStreet | Find Great Classes and Courses - Learn Something New. Fifteen More Startups Poised to Make Waves in 2012. The Top 100 Websites of 2011 - Classic: Shopping.
Classic: Shopping Amazon The world's largest e-tailer began as an online bookseller and quickly branched out to sell everything from apps to gluten-free dog food. Tied tightly to Amazon's services, its Kindle has dominated the ebook reader competition and its Kindle Fire is poised to ignite more markets. —Meredith Popolo AirBNB Need to get away? Airbnb connects travelers in search of vacation rentals and short-term accommodations with those that have space to spare—or rather, rent. The Consumerist This snarky blog provides insight into the most pertinent consumer issues of the day.
Etsy Enabling crafty individuals and very-very small businesses to sell their unique wares—from hand-blown glass chess sets to geekery, Etsy seeks to "empower people to change the way global economy works," as stated in its mission. MenuPages That disheveled stack of dog-eared-and-soy-sauce-stained menus is now unnecessary thanks to MenuPages. Steps to renew a child passport. Deborah Stambler: Charity Checks: Giving Tradition. Our family is sort of loose on holiday traditions. It could be that having family scattered across the country is the reason for the dearth of holiday routine. Or maybe it's some notion of tradition=authority that scares my husband and I.
Now I'm picturing Santa Claus as The Man and it's rather silly. So this year, we're going to start a new tradition. What's easier than baking a Yule Log, less time-consuming than stringing popcorn-cranberry garlands and really helps others? I first learned about Charity Checks through a friend a couple of years ago. I thought it sounded great and never followed up. Good is a word that deservedly goes to Victor Dorff and Lisa Sonne, the husband and wife team who created and run Charity Checks. Let's say I buy $100 in Charity Checks. As Lisa explained, for many children this is the first check they've ever filled out and it's going to a cause the child has chosen and cares deeply about.
Since 2000, Charity Checks has been a labor of love for them both. Announcing the 2012 TED Prize Winner – The City 2.0. Private Selection(R) Frozen Foods « Campaign Homepage. Lessons. E-Billing.