By now, if you have not heard of Twitter, I hope you enjoyed your nap Rip Van Winkle. It seems like every net denizen and wannabe celebrity have taken up Twittering or Tweeting as their past time. Nowadays, it’s a badge of honor to have 10,000 or more fans and 2,000 or more Tweets. At 140 characters per Tweet, that’s 280,000 characters! How long do you suppose it takes to type 280,000 characters?

I don’t know about you, but Twittering takes time … too much time perhaps.

Fortunately, a few other people besides me have taken it upon themselves to solve the Twitter time management issue. Here is a video that explains how this new start-up, Flutter, is approaching the problem of not enough time to Tweet. Consider them the next wave of micro-blogging. They call it nano-blogging. Enjoy.

You’ve got your product, business plan, marketing strategies and distribution all lined up. All you need to get on the map is a web hosting service. Sounds simple enough, right? Not. Your next step is to consult some of the excellent web host review sites.

Why do you need to do this extra research on web host review sites? Once you start looking for a hosting service on your own, your head will soon be spinning with all the different offerings. Some require a substantial time commitment. Others offer space on the server in such varying amounts, you have no idea what’s right for your enterprise. Do you want a blog? How about shopping carts and secure servers for financial transactions. Before you know it, you’ll be so confused you won’t know how to make a decision that serves your business objectives. You’ll be afraid to commit to one or another for fear of your first six months of profit going towards getting out of a hosting service and finding another! This is no way to do business.

As hosting service options have grown more sophisticated, there are more and more considerations to take into account before signing up. Web host review sites started popping up all over the net, providing an array of services to help you to assess your needs before you plunk down your cash.

While there are many reputable web host reviewers, for your own peace of mind, take a sampling and put in a few hours of research time. You’ll find plenty of information which is consistent across the board. Then again, one review site may have an article which highlights concerns specific to your type of business. Most web host review sites offer a free e-newsletter. Subscribe to a few and read feature pieces in their archives for additional useful tidbits.

Check the blog directories for web hosting review blogs. Check out hosting message boards, chat rooms and forums for unbiased user reviews. Pay particular attention to articles and message board remarks that deal with hosting awards and e-Commerce hosting plans.

Peruse several web host review sites for web host comparison ratings and links to web hosting directories. If you’ve now determined what your business requires in a hosting service, search each review site for those handy tables which compare features of various web hosting services. If you see that ABC hosting service fulfills your business needs, gets rave reviews from users and pro web host reviewers and consistently receives respected awards, well, you may be on to something.

You’ll need to make a decision at some point. Don’t make a career out of your research, but be thorough enough to have confidence in your choice. Questions? Contact each of the hosting services for answers. A prompt, to-the-point response may make up your mind.

Now after all that, you still can’t decide, I recommend using

http://premierewebhost.com

For $6.95 per month that includes a Free Domain for life, you just can’t beat the value. Recently, they started offering unlimited hosting space and unlimited file transfers. This is great for storing large files like videos and photos.

I use my computer and work on the internet everyday. Like anything else that you do often and repetitively, I look for ways to save time and to save my fingers, wrist, eyes, back, and neck. I look for ways to improve my ergonomics.

If you work on the computer for an extended amount of time, it is important — vital — that you take breaks. For me, I remind myself to take a 10-15 minute break for every 90 minutes that I am on the computer. On my break, I flex my fingers, rotate my wrists, relax my back and neck.

This is what I do. I stand up from my chair, put my hands together in a praying position, then press. I do this for 15-30 seconds. Next, I hook the fingers of my left hand with the fingers of my right hand, and pull for 15-30 seconds. Then I extend my right arm out in front of me, flex my wrist down, and use my left hand to push it down for 15-30 seconds. After that, I flex my wrist up, and use my left hand to hold it up. I do the same thing for my left wrist.

The next stretching exercise that I do is to put both arms behind my back, hold my hands together and lean forward. This helps to stretch my back and shoulder blade.

To stretch my back, I try to touch my toes. I also hold my hands together with my arms outstretched and rotate like a windmill.

After stretching and relaxing, I return to the computer. In order to reduce the strain on my eyes, I sit back and lean against the back of my chair. I then enlarge my viewing screen so that I can still see the screen clearly from where I am sitting. The keyboard shortcut that I use to enlarge the screen is:

“CTRL” and “+”.
“CTRL” and “-” reduces the browser screen size.

The other useful keyboard shortcut is

“CTRL” and “t”.

This launches a new browser tab without me having to use my mouse.

Finally, I recommend alternating between using a regular mouse and a pen type mouse. This way, you can vary the motions that you do with your fingers and wrist.

Hope that helps. Please let me know of your favorite ways to stretch and be ergonomic.

Computers are becoming portable, and some don’t look like your average computer any longer. In fact, you don’t need a computer to get online in some cases, but you do need a way to connect to the Internet. In all situations, you want to have the fastest connection, and you want one that is relatively reliable. That means looking into all of the ways that you can get high speed wireless Internet access. This can be something you have at home, as well as something that you use when you are away on business or for pleasure.

When it comes to your home computer, getting high speed wireless Internet access is rather easy. You will want to get cable Internet, as this is the fastest type and you never have to worry about logging in. It is always on. For this type of wireless Internet access, you will need to have a router. You may have to go out and buy this on your own, but it is not too expensive. This is hooked up to your connection, and you then connect with the computers that you have in your home. This is easy and most can do this on their own.

If you have a laptop that you want to take with you for business reasons, or to stay connected while on holiday, you can find high speed wireless Internet access in many public places. This is sometimes referred to as WiFi. You can find this in some eating establishments, coffee houses, and in the lobby of various hotels. You do have to be careful when using this, however, as the signal is not as secure as the one that you use at home. If you want to do transactions of a financial nature, or anything else you deem personal, you should find a wired connection to use for those instances.

You may also want to get connected through your cell phone or other mobile device. This type of high speed wireless Internet access is not as good as the other types, but it depends on where you live. Most phones can now connect with the Internet with little trouble, but your high speed will not seem as fast as on your PC. You will find that data transfer will take longer and some things are just too big to load. However, if you didn’t have the high speed access to the Internet, you would find it virtually impossible to gain access at all.

In today’s high-tech Internet world, teleconferencing has become one of the most useful tools to facilitate increased productivity. It is also a very effective way to save time and resources.

Many of us have been at meetings or seminars where we find ourselves drifting off into our own little world whether it be through boredom or tiredness. However, there are several ways to ensure that this kind of meeting stays on track.

Consider producing an agenda which can be easily distributed to all parties prior to the conference. In this way attendees will be more prepared with suggestions or questions when the meeting commences.

Start on time. Yes, that sounds very simplistic, but what is the point is saving costs on traveling and accommodation if you waste everyone’s time who is attending? Remember the old saying “time is money” and try to stay strictly to the timetable.

Make sure everyone dials in on time. Again, no point in having all those people sitting around just because of a late phone call.

When it is your turn to speak, state your name so that your voice will begin to be recognized. People should be concerned about what you are saying and not wasting effort trying to figure out who said what!

Above all else, try to get people involved with the subject matter. It can be difficult to judge how a meeting is being perceived when you don’t have the luxury of observing body language.

The internet gives us time and location freedom. We can fire up our computers and connect with the global community from anywhere as long as there is an internet connection. That’s the good part. The downside is that our virtual team members are usually spread out geographically. In order to conduct business and collaborate on a project, we will eventually need to talk with our team live.

One solution for communicating as a team is by three-way calling. But if there are more people than three in different locations, three-way calling will not work. In the past, the solution to this was to rent a conference call number. Since that costs money and our team is virtual, who’s to pay for the conference call? Luckily, there is a free solution.

Recently, I have been using a free conference call service called freeconferencecall.com. By simply entering your name and email address, freeconferencecall.com will give you a conference call number that can accommodate up to 96 people for up to 6 hours. Not only that, they also offer free recording and a call log as part of their service. The only thing that the callers have to pay for is the long distance call. However, if you use a wireless carrier that has a long distance plan, you are covered there too.

The voice quality of the service is very good. The quality of the recording is very good too. After the call, you can simply download the audio file to your computer. Good stuff.

I highly recommend this service if your have less than 96 people that you need to conference.