Tech

Image from sxc.hu user typofi

Although I wrote Is a Blog Right for Your Business? in 2007, people still mention the article or contact me with questions after reading it. Blogging has changed a lot since then, but one paragraph remains true.

Some people like to read blogs, others like to read newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and some read a few or all of them. No matter the method the information is distributed, each medium has one thing in common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter, your website and your business with all of these readers.

More people probably ask whether they should start a blog for their business today in a world where we have zillions of blogs and social networks vying for our tired, information-overloaded eyes. In my original post, I say the biggest factor in starting a blog is how often you can update it.

I don’t believe that anymore. I’ve been updating this blog once or twice a week for a long time as I’ve gotten busier with clients and volunteer commitments. I’m not going to throw up a blog entry just to keep up my “blog X times a week” quota. You don’t have time to waste and I’m not going to take advantage of your time by posting garbage.

If you can post a valuable post, do it. Even if it means you can only write a post once a month. It’s a way to give your website fresh content, something search engines love to gobble up. You may not have much traffic, but at least your site won’t look too static. If you’re active in Twitter, it may help to add a Twitter feed to your website. This adds more freshness to your website to keep it looking alive.

Part two of the blogging for business article discusses the use of blogs to manage a website. My my my. We’ve come a long way. When WordPress added “Pages,” it simplified using the blogging app as a website content management system. Many other blogging apps followed suit adding website features for easier management. Many of those blog apps don’t call themselves that anymore. They say they’re good for creating blogs and websites.

How has blogging changed? What do you think of blogging for business? How often should blogs be updated, or does it matter?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Meryl Evans

When I bought a Flip camera in 2008, I also grabbed video editing software. Before buying the software, I researched for a good editor that wasn’t fancy or power-packed. Just enough to get the job done without spending much time with the user manual. With new software, I can usually dig right in. However, past experience with editing software involved more reading time than editing time. After talking to a few folks and reading reviews, I went with Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Version 8.

I installed Vegas and never used it. Eventually, I uninstalled it because it took up unneeded resources and space. I decided to do a little winter cleaning by identifying the largest files on the computer. Three HD videos made the list, so that prompted me reinstall the editing software.

It can’t open the .m2ts files. This 2008 software has “HD” on the box, but it couldn’t open these files. I went to the website to see if the company had a patch or upgrade so it could open these files. It turned out they no longer support that version of the software. How hard would it be to create a plug-in to import these HD files? A search of user forums yielded nothing. I guess not too many people are using version 8 or they have cameras that don’t produce .m2st files.

Having learned my lesson that I don’t make time for editing videos, I looked around for freeware and cheap converter to convert these HD files into one Vegas 8 could handle. Unfortunately, no freeware app can handle these big files. Actually, there was one and it failed. Besides, I wasn’t comfortable using it because there had been concerns about the app having malware. (While working on this, I came across 10 Free Apps for Working with Video, but none could solve this problem.)

The trial version of Sony Vegas 11 converted the three big videos into one. Windows Media Player (Scroll way down to MPEG-4 section for why) couldn’t play it. Two other players could. Whew. I’m out of the video editing business. Back to using the old digital camera for videos.

I understand software companies have to draw the line in how long they support older versions of software. Is it fair to stop supporting a three-year-old app? Maybe Sony would’ve had a fan in me if they had a solution other than upgrade to 11.

What’s your take on software and support?

And now for your weekly links …

Brain food …

• How to Read Virtual Body Language in Email. Some people still don’t know how to write emails and rub people the wrong way. Here are 10 virtual body language cues.
• 20 Ways to Live a More Simple Life. Always try to keep kids’ activities to a minimum and possessions few. For more ideas … 100 Ways to Live a Better Life.
• 5 Unusual questions that freelancers MUST ask their clients. A keeper. When I meet potential new clients, I always ask how they found me. These questions are for after you’ve landed the client.
• 10 Best Ways To Show Gratitude For Others. Gratitude … it’s not just for Thanksgiving.
• 30 Top Facebook Apps for Business. Save yourself time … try this list first.

For fun …

• Daily Infographic. Infographics are cool and provide neat insight. But really … most of them are not true infographics because they have a lot of content. Effective infographics let the pictures do the talking.
• 12 Cutest Finger Drawings. They do look like they have personalities.
• 10 websites that changed the world. Surprised I’m not familiar with most of them.
• 12 hilarious closed signs. Warning: PG-ish sign or two.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

This guest post comes from Cal Evans (no relation that we know of), author of Avoiding a Goat Rodeo: How to get the website you want.

Image from sxc.hu user ba1969

I’m a lucky man. I get to talk with a lot of developers and web development shops. No matter where in the world I am, one constant refrain I hear is, “Yep, we are done with the site, waiting on the client now to write the content.” OK, so most of my European friends don’t say, “Yep,” but you get the idea. Consistently, content is the last part of the equation in a website and one of the speed bumps many developers hit in deploying a website on time.

Don’t be a speed-bump

No matter what type of website you have, your content should be part of the planning stage. By the time you and your developer finish the planning stage, you will have thought through every page in the initial launch and know what content goes on it.

If you are building an application, your content list may be light. You may need nothing more than “About us” page, “Contact us” page and any other window dressing in a standard website. If you’re building an e-commerce website, you need to know what initial products that will be in the system and what you need for them. Do you need pictures and descriptions from the vendor? Do you need to produce a video showing your products in action? Think through these questions and a hundred more that will come to you during the planning stage.

Your painters wait

Software development is like building a house. When you’re building a house, you don’t wait until the walls are up and the painters arrive before you select the colors to use. You meet with your architect and plan that out long in advance so that when the painting crew arrives, the paint is already there for them.

The same concept applies to your website project. The planning phase of your website is the time to determine what content needs to go on the walls of your website — not after your developers finish.  One of the things you should have when you finish the planning phase is a “content list.” This is a list of the pages on your website that require content.  The “About Us” page is a good example. Your developers will be able to create the page on your website called “About Us,” but you will have to write the content for the page.

Once you have your content list, get started. If you are responsible for the “History of the company” page, or the page containing headshots of all the partners, don’t wait until the week of the milestone to start gathering your materials or hiring a photographer, do it now. Surprise your developers by being ready when they come to you for your content.

Wordsmith is a noble profession

A good friend of mine just joined a mid-sized company with its own web team. She was telling me about all the cool people that she works with on the team.

“… and they even have their own copywriter,” she said.

It struck me that this surprised her. Then, I realized the sad truth. Most people assume that owning a word processor qualifies them for being a copywriter.

If you’re spending a good chunk of money to have your website professionally created, don’t skimp when it comes to the copy. Budget for a copywriter to create all the written content you need. If you need video, find a professional who specializes in video for the web.

You are the expert in your industry. It’s your job to give guidance and make sure everything stays on message. You need to hire an expert in content creation to work with you to make sure your content is as professional as your website.

Let the painters do their job

Professionally produced website and web-based applications don’t come cheap. Given the amount of work it takes to produce them, they shouldn’t be. Your content, however, isn’t the place to cut corners. Work with professionals to produce content that highlights your business.

Deliver the content during the planning stage before it’s needed to ensure your website goes live on time. Don’t let the painters stand around.

About Cal Evans: CalEvans is a professional programmer, writer and speaker. His passion in life is helping people do great things with technology. His latest book, Avoiding a Goat Rodeo: How to get the website you want does just that.

Cal is lucky enough to be married to the lovely and talented Kathy, a fact that both surprises and delights him daily.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Because of my deafness, I rely on lipreading to listen. While I’ve worn hearing aids since I was a baby, I’ve always needed to read lips to “hear.” I do catch things from time to time without reading lips, especially a song I know by heart. I can follow it when I play it on my iPod.

Photo from sxc.hu user doc_

Listening Contrast

But it’s harder to follow a song playing it on the computer when there’s background noise. One cool feature in hearing aids is the T-coil. It blocks out background sounds so you can hear during a telephone conversation. It also works the same way for headphones.

This morning, Paul (the spouse) comes to talk to me. He stands right where the shades behind me reflected on his face turning it into a striped one. Although I could see his lips, the stripes distract me that reading his lips is as reading the mouth of an ostrich. So I ask him to move over a little so his face falls between the two blinds shedding the stripe look.

If you compare my lipreading skills with and without hearing aids, you can tell when I’m not wearing hearing aids because it can take a few “Huhs?” and “Whats?” before I catch something. “My mom needs the mop,” can easily be “My mom’s knees pop.”

I listen better when there’s a strong contrast between the words, visuals and sounds. A lighting issue, too much background noise or no hearing aid can all interfere with the listening experience. Just like on websites with little contrast between the background and the text. Poor contrast creates a more difficult online reading experience.

Reading Contrast

Online content requires a different style of type than print does. What works in print doesn’t always work online and vice versa.

In newspapers and magazines, what color are most of the words? What color is the background? Black words on white backgrounds, right? You may see color on occasion like in the print edition of USA Today, but usually the paper uses it for section names (green for money, red for sports, etc.), graphs, photos and other visuals.

Then why have we seen a bad trend of sites using a variation of gray text on white backgrounds? There’s little contrast. I have excellent reading vision (for now!) and it strains my eyes to read this. What of those with not so great reading vision?

Maybe web designers think black on white is boring because it has been used for so long. The first websites from my first foray on the Internet in 1993 all used white backgrounds, black text and blue links. It worked well.

Gray text challenges our scanning abilities because we have to work harder to distinguish the gray from the white. This doesn’t mean to avoid gray on white altogether. Some gray — just like some italics — is okay, but not when they show up in lots of paragraphs.

Granted, I’d rather read gray on white than black on hot pink or blue on red (red does NOT make a good background for a lot of content). The key is to have enough contrast without harsh colors. I don’t follow some people back in Twitter because I can’t read their content. One person uses yellow for links on a white background. Couldn’t see them at all.

Do you struggle to read online content because of poor contrast? Why do you think many sites continue using gray on white? How does a light contrast between words and background affect your reading?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

I was born and bred in Fort Worth. I’ve lived in the Dallas / Fort Worth area for my entire life except for the six years I lived in Washington, DC. So all my favorite teams are the ones from here including the Texas Rangers, Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Stars and the Dallas Mavericks. I stuck with all of ‘em through great years and forgettable years. When folks kept saying the Mavs were a joke and never contenders, I reminded them of the Mavs’ good years in the ’80s with Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Roy Tarpley and Brad Davis.

Thanks to Donald Carter for bringing the team to Dallas. Thanks to Mark Cuban for turning them into champions in a short 11 years. The Mavs almost did it in 2006, you know?

Meryl's Dad in USAF Uniform

Dads. Happy Father’s Day to all the involved dads out there who play catch with the kids, take them to school, help them with homework and be there for them. I’m lucky to be married to one of those dads. My dad (in loving memory) was one, too. We played catch many times, he took me to lots of Texas Ranger games, he embarrassed me on my way to school by waving at me while taking his morning walk and he was always there for me.

Best advice for the week: How to deal with criticism in one single step: “Don’t care. You’re not going to please everybody.” Even the nicest people have a few non-fans. You can produce the most beautiful work product and your boss, editor, client loves it. Someone, somewhere out there will hate it.

Brain food…

• How to Create a 5 Step Facebook Marketing Strategy for Your Blog: This one is doable for just about everyone.
• The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Taking a Vacation: Not just for entrepreneurs… Americans, too. My husband had been doing a lot of research on human resources stuff for his international company and Americans are sorely behind other countries in benefits and other areas. I challenged him by asking questions like “Maybe we have a better salary? Maybe we have a lower cost of living?” He had solid answers for all of them.
• 10 Reasons I Don’t Answer Your Email: I reply to most emails. The ones that don’t get a reply often fall into one of these 10.
• 3 Steps You Can Take to Reduce the Firefox 4 Memory Leak: Memory has been a Firefox problem for years. I had two tabs open and Firefox managed to hold on to 1,000,000K of memory one day last week! Bad, foxy, bad.
• World’s Worst Freelance Advice: Write what you know… seriously. If I followed that advice, I wouldn’t write about cars, Billiards or buffaloes.
• Book Marketing Q&A: Q&A worth listening to or reading.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Coolest (and 5 Worst) Father’s Day Gifts: My husband would love that Corvette Wall Shelf.
• 8 Weirdest Dog Breeds Ever: Some of these look familiar as they’ve appeared in movies and TV shows.
• Praha Opening: Choreography in a Skydive Arena. Very cool. Yes, watch to the smooth ending.
• 12 Funny Signs Found at the Beach: Some not safe for work.
• 15 Coolest Pictures Taken at the Right Time: I have one of those (not on Oddee, mind you). I captured a lightning bolt by the Washington Monument. I’m not a good photographer, but am proud of the picture that I have it on the wall in my office.
• Neon Movie Signs: Wow.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Tomorrow, my husband and I celebrate 22 years of wedding bellissimo. I don’t know how I landed such a great partner in life, but I do all I can not to take him for granted. I’ll stop with the mushy gushy. Just know that I did. I am. I will.

Yes, another short note. I had a post for this week all figured out in my head, but no time to type it up and present it to you. It’s bad enough I went to bed late a couple of times this week because of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. What do you know? I started writing about the book and it turned into a post on book summaries and editorial reviews.

On with the links!

Brain food…

• Six Reasons You Should Stick with Legacy Publishing: Yes, rejection is so rewarding.
• How to Be a Successful Ghostwriter: If I had the time, I’d love to pursue ghostwriting. I write because I love the work — not because my name is in print or e-ink. Then again, I may not be the best ghostwriter because it usually involves many phone interviews and listening to recordings. Not an easy feat for moi.
• How to Write Short Stories: “Dear Michael, The dog is in the oven. Don’t open it, it’s too late. I’m sorry.” Quite an opening, eh?
• 10 Facebook guides and blogs posts every non-profit should read: Great resource.
• Do welcome popups work? Personally, I close the popups without a glance. I’ll either leave the site immediately or read the article I came to read and leave. But you can’t argue data. Never hurts to test.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Wave at the Bus: For 170 days, a dad wore a different costume while waving to his 15-year-old son as he stepped into the school bus.
• 12 Geekiest Wedding Proposals: How appropriate: geek and wedding. As you know my husband and I celebrate our wedding anniversary this weekend and we’re geeks. We met the geeky way: on a BBS.
• 10 Weirdest iPhone Apps: Another from Oddee. I knew about several… but the others… odddddd… here’s one more: Kick to Pick App that lets babies choose their own name.
• Infographic: Left-Handed Facts and Statistics: Southpaws ROCK! Yes, I’m one of ‘em. If one parent is left handed, 33% of their offspring will be left-handed: My own personal data. My mom is a lefty, Dad wasn’t. They produced TWO lefties out of three kids. Dear husband is a righty (I know! Mixed marriage.) and I’m a lefty. We have three kids and 0 lefties. Yes, I know we supposedly have a lower lifespan than righties. That’d because everything is designed with a right-hander in mind and we have accidents as a result.
• How to Draw Creative Caricatures: I’m a lefty, but I never could draw decent stuff.

Whoops. I didn’t publish links last week! Guess what… the sky didn’t fall. Sometimes we can’t blog. It happens. So there are more links than usual because some of them are the ones I saved from last week.

Best quote in ages: “Never compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.” This comes from Michael Hyatt’s blog post, Avoiding One Great Temptation Every New Dream Faces. It’s easy — especially for writers — to dig a big hole for themselves. A friend publishes a book and announces another on the way. {Green} Another colleague writes for bigshot blog. {Green} Writer has 20,000 Twitter followers. {Green} [Fill in something another writer has accomplished that made you jealous.] {Green}

It happens to me. It’s hard not to compare yourself to someone else who does the same job you do. Writers are kind of like snowflakes. It’s hard to find two with the exact same careers. Sure, Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson have published tons of books in a similar genre. But how they got there is different. They do other things, too.

People may be jealous of you, but they’re not going to admit it.

Green is for recycling, the color of my eyes and the rockin’ Dallas Mavericks’ old uniform. What else is green?

Brain food…

• Lower Your Printing Costs Up to 70% Without Changing Printer: Downloaded and installed. This lightens the ink. It’ll take some time to figure out what works best.
• Using Twitter to Support Your Business Social Media Strategy: Twitter does baseball. OK, I tried to do something different…
• 5 Lies Unpublished Writers Tell Themselves (and the Truths That Can Get Them Published): I’ve mentioned this many times include in my most recent real blog post on writer worthiness… writers are a business and that includes marketing.
• You Have to Suck First: When my kids complain they don’t understand something or they’re not good at it, I tell them they have to practice first and that’s what homework, studying and sports practices are for.
• Because Accidents Happen: Top 10 Doo-Dads to Keep Your Gadgets Safe: Love my BlackBerry Otter Box. Initially, I was afraid to order it because I thought it looked clunky and more for men. Well, I got many compliments and love the thing! I don’t use the clipholder. [Link: Erin Margolin]

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Line draw bike art: If you ever wondered how Superman or George Washington would look riding a bike, wonder no more…
• Star Wars and Disney Mashup: Had to share in honor of my dad’s memory. The kids loved hearing him talk like Donald Duck.
• New York Movie Map: Can you find 91 movies — all taken place in New York — in this poster?
• 10 Funniest Badly-Translated Ads: KFC isn’t finger-lickin’ good. They will eat your fingers off in Beijing.
• How to explain social media to your spouse: Tongue in cheek goodness. [Link: Jeff Hurt]
• 20 Funniest Captcha Art Pics: Some not safe for work / kids.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Something about my brain helps me stay organized. I like things to have an assigned spot because I know where to look for them when I need them. A cluttered room turns my brain to mush and weighs me down. I can’t focus in a messy area, so it’s a good thing I have a private home office space where I spend most of my day and kids’ stuff aren’t welcome. (Kids and spouse, however, are always welcome.) My house isn’t cluttered, but it doesn’t take much to make me squirm.

I’m the same way about my computer, its folders, its screen space. My filing system hasn’t changed much from the first time I settled on one.

Desktop

While modern versions of Windows do a better job of using a similar system and helping you save files to the Documents-type folders, some apps continue to post files wherever they like or in its own folders under Application Data. Some web browsers send downloads to the Desktop, which eventually clutters it.

My Desktop currently has two columns of icons and I make sure it stays that way as the Desktop has only frequently used apps that don’t start without my help. For example, I don’t need the anti-virus app on the desktop because it always runs. I also don’t need Adobe Acrobat on the Desktop because I rarely start the program. When I do, accessing it from the Start menu is fine. Usually, I click on a PDF file and that loads Acrobat. I use shortcut keys to run Word, Excel and other frequently accessed apps. Those don’t appear on the Desktop.

Yes, I use all methods for opening apps and files. Start, Desktop, Quick Launch, shortcuts. Everything has its place and I try to avoid having duplicates such as Word on the Desktop, Start and Quick Launch. It appears in none because I use a keyboard shortcut.

Three Rules for Writing Work Documents

1. All content in the Documents folder. This applies to everything, not just writing work. Content includes Word, Excel, backups for money apps, text, web pages, pictures, pdf, smartphone backup files, videos, music, emails, family tree and cookbook files. This makes backing easier when it’s all under one giant folder instead of all over the place. Windows has improved this by creating a Library of My Pictures, My Documents and My Music. Each time I load a new app, I check the options to make sure it saves all data files somewhere in Documents instead of Application Data.
2. Folder for work. All business work goes in the “Freelance” folder.
3. Subfolders in work folder. Each client gets a folder. If a client has clients, I create subfolders for the subclients. For example, I do content work for B2B Company that includes writing emails and landing pages. B2B Company has its own clients. The work I do for B2B Company is mostly for its clients and sometimes B2B Company itself.

Folder System

The folder system looks like this:

Documents

• Freelance
  • B2B Company
    • Marketing Automation Company
    • CMS Company
  • ePublisher Company
    • Computer Hardware Company
    • Health Services Company
    • ePublisher Marketing –> I do content for the client, but I make sure the subfolder has a different name.
  • meryl.net: business-related, blog and guest blogs I do for others
    • Receipts
    • Blog posts
    • meryl.net archived –> When I create archives for old stuff, I give them a unique name as I try to avoid having two folders with identical names. Sounds trivial, but makes a difference especially when searching.
• Emails
• Education: volunteer as I often volunteer for schools and school work – both as a student and educator
• Finance: Quickbook and Money original and backup files.
• Pictures
  • Family
    • Kid 1
      • 2000-2005 (from early to pre-digital camera days when I had fewer digital photos)
      • 2006
      • 2007
      • Repeat for all.
    • Kid 2
    • Kid 3
    • Husband
    • Me
    • Print: I have professional printers print select photos. My photo printer does a nice job, but not to the same quality as professional services. I have family albums (real ones complete with plastic pages) and people look through them all the time. When I download new photos, I put the ones I want to print in this folder for the next time I order prints.
  • Friends
  • Others
• Music
• Textfiles: This is the personal version of “Freelance” folder that contains stuff related to my kids and non-business content.

Some people opt to do it the following way and it works. I had already created my system before this setup came about.

Library

• Documents
  • See above system. It’d fall under here except for pictures, music and videos.
• Pictures
  • See above system for pictures.
• Music
• Videos

I rarely use the search feature to find files. Yes, it takes a few clicks through folders and subfolders to get to the document I need, but I find them quickly. Without those subfolders, I’d be looking at a long list of hundreds of files.

How do you organize your many files?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

My little guy, who turned eight yesterday, will be in third grade next fall — in the latter half of his elementary school years. Years ago, I started a tradition in writing a letter to my children on their birthdays reflecting the past year. I showed my daughter several letters on her 16th birthday as a way to connect when we went to breakfast for her birthday. But I think I’ll give all of the letters to them on their 18th birthdays. (Unless you have a better idea.) So daughter gets hers next year.

Eight is a great age. Still young enough to be adorable, like cartoon and other movies tween boys typically don’t watch (He asked to see The Wizard of Oz and Aunt E gave him the DVD and we watched it together. 12-year-old brother didn’t join us.) and doing crafts like Pearler Beads. It won’t be long before I’m a mom of “older” kids who don’t do the cute stuff anymore. I try to make the most of every day of his life and his siblings’ too. They’re only a certain age for one year, kids for 18 and adults for way more than that.

Mazel tov, William and Kate.

Brain food…

• The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We’re All Going To Miss Almost Everything: If I can’t get into a book, I dump it. Too many books out there, on my shelves and in my Kindle to waste time on the unworthy ones. I also went through my wish list and deleted a bunch of books with this thinking in mind. [Link: Elisa, my sister -- yes, that would be Aunt E]
• The top 9 lessons I wish I knew when I started my business: I’m grateful I had my meryl.net email long before I started the business. It’s also sad because I’ve used it as my primary email for so long because lots of spam come to that account. I’d love to wipe out and change my email address (while keeping meryl.net, of course). But I’d have to forward all messages to the new address and spam will follow.
• Letter to Beginning Writers: Applies to all writers. [Link: BubbleCow]
• 6 Ways a CRM Tool Can Help a Freelancer: The hard part… finding the right one.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Don’t Just Polish Your Nails — Geekify Them: Takes patience and tiny fingernail brushes.
• Video Game Alphabet Pattern: Lemmings! I spent hours on that game. I feel like a geek failure as I don’t know all of the games.
• 12 Most Bizarre ‘Royal Wedding’ Merchandise: Why would anyone want a life-sized picture of Will and Kate on a fridge? Crown jewels? Prepare to LOL.
• Better Book Titles: “This blog is for people who do not have thousands of hours to read book reviews or blurbs or first sentences. I will cut through all the cryptic , and give you the meat of the story in one condensed image.” [Link: Elisa]

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Being your own tech support person speeds up fixing the problem. While you’re not the expert in whatever fails to work the way you expect it, many companies have set up self-help systems anyway or they’ll ask if you did this ‘n that. So trying to solve the problem — or narrow it — can save you time as you’ll have the answers to standard tech support questions.

Photo from sxc.hu user laser

Tech support often follows a script. You contact them to report a problem. “Is it plugged in?” “Is it turned on?” They’ll continue down the list from the simple to the complex depending on your answers. Think of it like a flow chart: if yes, go this way. If no, go that way.

These steps are not in a specific order as different problems call for different approaches. The 10 steps will solve the most common problems.

• Reboot or shut down/turn back on. This works for almost every computer, accessory, mobile device and other electronics. When my digital video recorder (DVR) freezes or acts weird, I shut it down and turn it back on. This solves the DVR’s problem 99.99 percent of the time. We had to call the service provider once or twice in all these years. With laptops and PCs, try to shut down the computer before rebooting. Sometimes it can take a long time to shut down. Go do something else for a while and if the computer looks frozen, then turn it off. Wait a few minutes before turning it back on. I had a monitor acting weird (the other was fine) and asked my husband about it. He told me to turn it off and back on. (I can’t believe I didn’t even think of this.) It worked. I had never encountered this problem and sometimes we overlook the obvious.
• Run and update your anti-virus (daily) and anti-spyware software (weekly). I know plenty of successful professionals who don’t have their anti-virus applications automatically checking for updates on a regular schedule (more than once a day). Sometimes a situation requires turning off the anti-virus app and people forget to turn it back on. They forgot they turned off the software and never turned it back on. Most standard anti-virus apps run a full-system scan at least once a week.  Make sure yours does.
• Check cables and switches. The cable on my printer sometimes falls out. (The cable is barely long enough.) So first thing I do when printer doesn’t turn on — check that cable. My son has a laptop that only works if plugged in because the battery is dead and not worth replacing. He said the laptop wasn’t working. It was the surge protector where he had it plugged that was turned off.
• Go to manufacturer and developer websites. Manufacturer and developer websites often have forums, Q&As, support pages, knowledgebases and documentation with common problems and their solutions.
• Search the problem. Some of us forget that people experience the same problems and post them somewhere outside of the developer or manufacturer website. Look at this post I did in 2008 that solves the problem of the mouse not working in Microsoft Word. Notice the latest comment is a couple of months old. This is a three-year-old post. It’s tempting to ask a blogger, writer or expert for help. They won’t all respond or take the time to help because they get many requests like yours. They’re not trying to be rude, but they have jobs to do plus they are thinking “Let me Google that for you.” Be specific as possible in your search by entering error messages (if you get one) and the name of the application. Copy the error message or take a screen shot.
• Know how to save, export and import files in different formats. Many people emailed me when Office 2007 came out because they couldn’t open the .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files. Two solutions: Have the sender save these files as .doc, xls and ppt, and download the free Office file converter from Microsoft. Make “File > Save as” your friend. Thankfully, we’re seeing more standard formats like CSV files and ical, which you can import into Outlook, Gmail, Apple Address Book and more. Also find a resource (search for them — many free ones out there) that lets you save files into Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format because the reader is free and everyone can open and view them.
• Narrow down the causes. A new tablet kept posting a notification that the new microSD card may be corrupted. I looked for a microSD card reader so I could test it out to rule out the possibility it was a bad card. Two of my readers were broken! Luckily, I found one and it confirmed the microSD card worked. I also verified there were no files on it. If it had files, I would transfer them somewhere else for safekeeping before reformatting the card. Problem solved. No more notifications.
• Uninstall and reinstall. After trying everything, remove and reinstall the app unless it’s something big like an operating system. First, back up your data files to a safe place.
• Test it on another computer or app. A client’s website looked weird in Firefox. Rather than panicking thinking the client’s website had a serious problem, I checked the website in other browsers and it showed up fine. The problem was a small one (it would’ve been a biggie had it happened on all browsers).
• Backup and sync all data. I have a stand-alone external drive that holds a backup of all my computer data AND I also backup to a cloud service. The cost of various backup solutions have gotten cheaper so there’s no excuse for not having a backup. Remember to backup your devices, too.

Solving the problem on your own saves time, avoids sugary sweet scripts thanking you for being a valued customers and how they want to help you or waiting for someone to respond to your call or email. Even if you can’t find the answer, you have a list of steps you’ve taken and can get through the script faster.

What tech support tricks do you have?

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