Blog | K.E. Loveless, Web Designer, Developer, Internet Marketing, Web Consultant

Practical Tips: Retrieve a Stored Password

From a compatriot web developer down south:

Have you ever let Firefox or Chrome save a password for you? Then time goes by, and suddenly you’ve forgotten what that password was?

I got a new phone a few months ago, and the phone’s Twitter app asked me for my password, but since it was saved on my computer (and old phone), I never had to type it in, so it escaped my mind. I tried everything I could think of, but no luck. If only there were a quick and easy way to open up Chrome or Firefox and turn those password-asterisks into normal letters…Luckily, there is!

via Practical Tips: Retrieve a Stored Password by Playing Around with Code : Namas Solutions.

Filed Under: Blog, Computer Tips

Why good storytelling helps you design great products — Tech News and Analysis

It’s not uncommon for designers to confuse a beautiful looking product with one that works beautifully. A great technique for creating smarter, better products is to approach them using story-centered design.

via Why good storytelling helps you design great products — Tech News and Analysis.

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Your Business, Marketing Strategy, Notebook, Starting a Business

Some lesser-known truths about programming

Great programmers spend very little of their time writing code – at least code that ends up in the final product. Programmers who spend much of their time writing code are too lazy, too ignorant, or too arrogant to find existing solutions to old problems. Great programmers are masters at recognizing and reusing common patterns. Good programmers are not afraid to refactor rewrite their code constantly to reach the ideal design. Bad programmers write code which lacks conceptual integrity, non-redundancy, hierarchy, and patterns, and so is very difficult to refactor. It’s easier to throw away bad code and start over than to change it.

via Some lesser-known truths about programming.

Filed Under: Blog, Computer Tips, Services

10 Business Card Mistakes You Might Be Making | Fix, Build And Drive™

So if you are ready, pull out your business card, lay it on the desk near your computer, pull out a pen or highlighter and be ready to identify the mistakes you are making Here are the 10 business card mistakes people make: #1 Small font size – Some of us have perfect vision. But if that’s what it takes to read the letters and numbers on your card, you are asking for trouble. Because most of us don’t. So today or before you print your new cards, please walk them around to a variety of people and ask a simple question: “Can you tell me what this says?”

via 10 Business Card Mistakes You Might Be Making | Fix, Build And Drive™.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Strategy, Starting a Business

10 Must Read Blogs for Entrepreneurs 2012 Edition

10 Must Read Blogs for Entrepreneurs 2012 Edition | |.

Filed Under: Blog, Computer Tips, Growing Your Business, Starting a Business

Yelp Extortion: The Lawsuit’s Dismissed. Are They Back At It In 2012?

In October of 2011 a class-action lawsuit against Yelp claiming that they were removing negative reviews in exchange for “advertising” was dismissed with prejudice (meaning they cannot be sued again for the same reason). It’s now January of 2012 and already it seems the complaints of extortion are not going away; instead they appear to be growing more frequent in numbers as awareness has risen that something fishy could be going on at Yelp.

via Yelp Extortion: The Lawsuit’s Dismissed. Are They Back At It In 2012?.

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Your Business, Starting a Business

How to Find New Business Ideas in Everyday Life

“The world around you is filled with ideas that can be useful,” says Andy Boynton, co-author of The Idea Hunter (Jossey-Bass, 2011).

None of those ideas will come to you by thinking really hard in a vacuum. You have to get out in the world and practice behaviors that lead you to new ideas. “Innovation is not about how smart you are; it’s about the hunt for ideas,” Boynton says. “Behavior trumps IQ.”

via How to Find New Business Ideas in Everyday Life | Entrepreneur.com.

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Your Business, Marketing Strategy, Starting a Business

10 Things to Outsource to a Virtual Assistant | Entrepreneur.com

Using a virtual assistant can shave hours from your workweek, but knowing which tasks to delegate can be tricky, whether you’re starting or growing a business. Most virtual assistants are contract or freelance workers who do their jobs from home and focus on administrative tasks that are similar to those of an executive assistant or secretary. Websites that specialize in contract workers, such as odesk.com and elance.com, have thousands of listings for virtual assistants.

via 10 Things to Outsource to a Virtual Assistant | Entrepreneur.com.

Filed Under: Blog, Computer Tips, Growing Your Business, Starting a Business

Why Print Ads Still Work – Forbes

For years, clients and media planners applied an approach of looking primarily at circulation figures when evaluating magazines and other print publications. Other forms of traditional advertising were also analyzed with a single-focused measuring stick that included TV viewer ratings and opportunity-to-see figures for out-of-home billboards. Then, interactive marketing came along and suddenly advertisers and marketers began discussing conversion rates, average time spent on site, video interaction rates, cost per click, cost per action/acquisition, website bounce rate, and on and on.

Seemingly overnight, marketers were able to get their hands on quick and precise metrics that went beyond simple reach and demonstrated perceived audience response. Suddenly, clients surrounded by an abundance of digital riches are requesting and requiring that all other media channels deliver more. Magazine readership data doesn’t seem to be enough today. In addition, post-execution ad-recall studies cannot be delivered tomorrow and, therefore, lack the immediacy so many 2012 advertisers desire.

via Why Print Ads Still Work – Forbes.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing Strategy

Letters of Note: Ogilvy’s 12-step method of writing copy

David Ogilvy was one of the original, and greatest, “ad men.” In 1948, he started what would eventually be known as Ogilvy & Mather, the Manhattan-based advertising agency that has since been responsible for some of the worlds most iconic ad campaigns, and in 1963 he even wrote Confessions of an Advertising Man, the best-selling book that is still to this day considered essential reading for all who enter the industry. Time magazine called him in the early ’60s “the most sought-after wizard in todays advertising industry.” His name, and that of his agency, is mentioned in AMC-TV’s Mad Men for good reason. The letter linked below, written by Ogilvy in 1955 to a Mr. Ray Calt, offers insight into Oglivy’s personal routine for writing copy.

via Letters of Note: I am a lousy copywriter.