The main reason I moved http://www.hotva.co.uk over from a HTML site to a Wordpress site was because the way I had set it up meant that if I needed to change information on the menu, the header or the footer I would have to do it on every single page. You can imagine the time it took to do this.

It is so much easier now and only needs to be updated on one page.

It was also a bind to update my copyright year, every year on every page. That was until I found this snippet of code which does it automatically. The video above shows you how to insert the code into a Wordpress footer.

Below is the code to copy and paste into your website. You will need to replace the year and Your Company Name.

<mce:script language=”JavaScript” type=”text/javascript”><!– today=new Date(); y0=today.getFullYear(); // –></mce:script> </p> <p>Copyright &copy; 2008 – <mce:script language=”JavaScript” type=”text/javascript”><!– document.write(y0); // –></mce:script>Your Company Name. All Rights Reserved.</p> <p>

Instructions if needed
Click inside the box and right click and highlight Select All.
Right click and select Copy.
Right click and select Paste.

It’s funny how when you create one post you come across problems which can then be used for further posts. In my case it was embedding a Camtasia video into this post and also adding code into a post. These will be the subjects of my next posts!

Express Scribe

Express Scribe is FREE audio player software for PC, Mac or Linux. It will play most digital audio file formats (including encrypted dictation files)

It’s really easy to download.

It can be controlled using a transcription foot pedal or using the keyboard (with ‘hot’ keys). As I don’t do much transcription I use the ‘hot’ keys. It would obviously be quicker to use a foot pedal but don’t feel I do enough transcription to warrant purchasing one.

SendThisFile

Sending large files via email can take a long time and sometimes they never arrive.

SendThisFile allows you to put a free upload box on your website that allows your clients to send large files, one at a time to you.

MyHours.com

myHours.com is a time management, timesheet and time tracking solution. It enables you to track your work time, projects you work on and tasks you perform. It is web based and can be used from any location at any time. myHours.com is free at the time of writing but states on their website “when we will start to charge for the use of myHours is still unknown”.

I did find this program to be very useful but it was a bit frustrating that I had to keep adding a task. As my tasks changed quite frequently I decided I needed it to be a bit more flexible.

I ran a report and was then able to export the report into an Excel spreadsheet. It maintained all the time formatting and I was able to use it in Excel instead.

PDF995

Pdf995 offers three products Pdf995, PdfEdit995 and Signature995. These are all free to download but will display a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the software. You can pay for the software and the sponsor page will not appear.

If you wish to combine a number of PDFs together then watch this video on how to do it with Pdf995.

Download PDF995 here

Filezilla FTP

Filezilla FTP is a software program that you use to upload files to a server. Filezilla is one of the best FTP programs I have used and it’s free. It’s easy to use and only took me a couple of minutes to download.

Download Filezilla here

Jing

Need some screenshots for your posts/articles then Jing is the software to have. It has been created by the makers of Camtasia, Techsmith so you know it’s going to be good

Download Jing here

CamStudio

If you are serious about marketing your business then you should have some video on your website or on video sharing sites.

I have created a number of videos now and I have to say before I started I was terrified. It really does grow your confidence and makes you think about your business.

I started off using CamStudio and edited the videos in Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with the Microsoft Office Suite, XP SP2 or later.

I started to have a few quality issues when I dragged the videos into Windows Movie Maker so I signed up for the free version of Camtasia.

I am now hooked on Camtasia and have purchased it.

CamStudio is really good though and is a good starting point.

Download CamStudio here

GIMPshop

GIMPshop is a free program intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop.

I’ve not really had much of a chance to use this, as I have PhotoImpact on my PC and that works fine for me. Try it out and let me know if it’s any good.

Download GIMPshop here

Wordpress

I believe that Wordpress is no longer just a blogging platform.

I have used it to create websites and even an e-commerce website.

Having a blog has so many advantages:

People can learn all about you.
People can engage with you.
People can learn from you.
Your website will have fresh content and be ranked better.

Download Wordpress here

Need some advice on setting up Wordpress check this article out 8 must dos for a successful Wordpress blog

Want to learn about Wordpress sign up here for my free Wordpress course.

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is opensource (free) software created by Sun Microsystems with the following products:

WRITER is a fully equipped word processor or desktop publisher software.
IMPRESS is a tool for creating effective multimedia presentations.
MATH is a tool for creating equations and formulae for your documents.
DRAW is a drawing package.
CALC is the spreadsheet program.
BASE is the database software.

You can save the documents in numerous formats and OpenOffice has the facility to export your documents as PDFs.

There is going to be a learning curve if you are used to Microsoft Office. As I have Microsoft Office I have only used it to export PDFs, as it maintains all the hyperlinks in the document.

Download OpenOffice here

A lot of the above software has been invaluable to me and I hope it is to you.

Please feel free to add a comment below and let me know what is your favourite totally free software.

If you haven’t got access to this course yet, go to Courses tab above and grab it while it’s still FREE!

Thanks

I was recently sent a Word 2007 document and without realising it I opened it. I only have Word 2003 and a strange message appeared. It mentioned something about a compatibility pack.

I was actually in shock because I didn’t think Microsoft would create a tool for forward compatibility. I mean, create a tool that was actually useful and would mean that they could potentially lose out on sales of a newer version. I just had to check it out.

I downloaded it from here and it works a treat.

No more telling my clients that they have to save the documents in a lower version for me.

Well done Microsoft for saving me some money.

In brief he recommended that you should:

1. Set up Permalinks
2. Add the Plugin Akismet
3. Add Google Sitemaps
4. Add the All-in-One SEO Pack
5. Add a Web Feed Management Service
6. Add a Contact Form
7. Add Tags to a post
8. Keep the Design Simple

Below I outline what I have implemented on my blog and how I have done it:

Permalinks

This is the very first thing that I did before creating any posts or pages. Permalinks will give your posts and pages a meaningful name. If you don’t set up permalinks, Wordpress will name the post/page with an identifier such as yourdomainname/?p=5. This will not help the posts and pages to be found in searches. By setting the permalinks to name the post or page url to be the same as the title, it will greatly improve the Search Engine Optimization. For example this post will be have a url of http://www.hotvasoftware.com/8-must-dos-for-a-successful-wordpress-blog.html. If someone searches for help on what you must do to set up a successful blog then my blog is more likely to appear in the search results than a post with the url www.hotvasoftware.com/?p=5.

To set your permalinks go to Settings > Permalinks > Common Settings > Click on custom structure and add /%postname%.html. Patrick’s article stated to add /%postname% but I later read an article stating that adding the .html will allow the pages to be indexed quicker.

You must be aware that no blog post can have the same title.

Akismet Plugin

The Akismet plugin is a MUST. Akismet checks user comments to see if they contain spam or not. So far all my comments have been spam, so this is a lifesaver. The comments are moved into a spam folder for you to check.

When I downloaded Wordpress 2.8 and looked at the Plugins, Akismet was already there and required activation. To activate it you require an AKI key that is provided by Wordpress when you sign up for an account.

Where can I find my AKI key?

To find your AKI key log into your www.wordpress.com Account. Go to My Account > Edit Profile and your key will be displayed at the top of the page.

Google Sitemaps

As blogs are always changing, Google Sitemaps is an extremely useful plugin. It will keep an updated sitemap file of your blog. This contains links to all your Wordpress posts. This will help search engines like Google to crawl and index your blog pages more intelligently.

Google Sitemaps can be found at the Wordpress site. You must have knowledge of using File Transfer Protocol (FTP) in order to upload the plugin file to your web server. It was easy to download and I was able to generate a sitemap immediately. Google sitemaps will automatically update the sitemap according to the settings.

All-in-One SEO Pack

I decided not to add this as I found there were too many negative comments about it. Here’s the link All in-One SEO Pack for you to make up your own mind.

Add a Web Feed Management Service

I have recently done this and it was extremely easy. A web feed management provider will allow people to subscribe to your blog. They will then receive all the content from your blog without actually revisiting the blog.

FeedBurner is a free web feed management provider owned by Google. You will need to create an account (unless you already have a Google account) and then enter your blog URL and add “/feed/rss2/” at the end of it if you changed the permalinks as described above. If not, you can add “/wp-rss2.php” at the end of your blog URL. You are then given instructions on how you go about putting a link on your blog. Feedburner will provide you with information such as how many people have subscribed to your blog and what posts have been read. You can also add adsense to your feeds.

There are services available that allow you to see the content of multiple blogs in one program. One such service is Google Reader and if you already have a Google account just sign in with those account details.

Contact Form

I was glad to find out there was a plugin contact form to use, as I had so many problems in the past with finding contact form scripts and also spam. It is really easy to set up and can be found here. The user filling out the contact form has to answer a question set by you.

Add Tags to Post

Tags are basically keywords that relate to your page or post content. It is advisable to use tags from the start. They are micro-categories for your blog. If a user clicks on one of your tags then posts with similar tags will show. So how many tags do you add to your post? At the start I went a bit mad with tags and included every topic covered in the post. I have since discovered top affiliate marketers (or the SEO plugin they use) use about 5 tags for a post. I have just figured out that you can delete tags by using the Quick Edit feature.

Keep the Design Simple

There are so many free Wordpress templates about. If you decide to go down this route then look at the code before you start. I recently did a project and gave my client the option of using a free Wordpress Blog template or having a customised website created. The Wordpress blog was the cheaper option and this is what my client opted for. I selected a number of templates for her to choose from but didn’t look at the code. When I came to updating the template that she chose I found the code was very difficult to understand. In my opinion, this is not good code.

This blog was created using a Wordpress Theme from Brian Gardner that I decided to purchase after reading Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook. The code was really easy to understand and it was well worth paying £37.29 GBP ($59.95 USD).

Good luck with your first blog and if you have any questions please ask.

You could potentially be losing out on business. Your next client could be in amongst those cards.

I am excited to say that there is a new gadget available, that may very well mean the death of the business card!

The MingleStick is a small device that uses infrared technology to transmit an ID from one device to another. This isn’t a gadget for someone who likes complex gadgetry, as there is only one button to click. The person you are connecting with must also press their button. What could be simpler?

It holds up to 500 contacts and it is easy to upload your contacts. You simply plug your MingleStick into a USB port on your computer and connect to the MingleStick website. You will set up a profile and have full control on what information your contacts will see.

There isn’t a security risk if you lose it, as it only holds your ID and no personal information. All the personal information is held on the MingleStick web server.

How much do they cost?

A lot less than business cards, unless you get the free ones from VistaPrint! One MingleStick will set you back $25.94 or £16.50 (exchange rate date 04-Oct-09). The more you buy, the cheaper they are. You could buy in bulk and sell them at your next social networking event.

Where can you use a MingleStick?

The MingleStick is a social networking gadget, it is not restricted to business use. You can gather contacts at various locations, including:

• During your time at University
• At Networking Events
• At a nightclub

The Benefits

The MingleStick has many advantages including:

• Extremely simple to use.
• Saves you time – you don’t have to enter details yourself.
• Saves on paper – less business cards to buy.
• Saves you money.
• Your profile can include all your social networking sites e.g. twitter and facebook and a photo. You become a real person and not just a business card shoved in the bottom drawer!

The Drawbacks

The only disadvantages of a MingleStick are:

• Not many people have heard of them YET!
• It’s no good if you are the only person at an event with one. Although, it would be a great topic of conversation.

Let’s start mingling the smart way.


Purchase your Social Networking Gadget NOW.

]]> http://www.hotvasoftware.com/the-minglestick-will-it-replace-the-business-card.html/feed 0 http://www.hotvasoftware.com/free-pdf-to-word-software-converter.html http://www.hotvasoftware.com/free-pdf-to-word-software-converter.html#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:50:15 +0000 Chris Beamish http://www.hotvasoftware.com/?p=697 So you have a PDF document and you need to convert it to a Word document. You don’t have to purchase any software to do this.

NitroPDF offer a free online PDF to Word Converter at http://www.pdftoword.com.



As you can see from the screenshot above it is extremely simple to use. Just find the file you want to convert. Decide if you want it as a Word document or as Rich Text Format (RTF). Enter an email address that you want the file sending to and press Convert. The document will arrive a couple of minutes later in your inbox.

I found that during the conversion process all my styles that I had set up in the original document were lost. So don’t expect perfect formatting.

I did some testing on whether adding security to a PDF would allow the document to be converted. If the security is set to Changes Not Permitted then the document will not be converted at all.

NitroPDF also do a free PDF to Excel online converting service http://www.pdftoexcelonline.com.

Happy Converting!

]]> http://www.hotvasoftware.com/free-pdf-to-word-software-converter.html/feed 0 http://www.hotvasoftware.com/the-benefits-of-hiring-a-virtual-assistant.html http://www.hotvasoftware.com/the-benefits-of-hiring-a-virtual-assistant.html#comments Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:33:58 +0000 Chris Beamish http://www.hotvasoftware.com/?p=673 Virtual Assistant vs a Temp

The first time that you utilise a temp it will work out cheaper but over time a Virtual Assistant will be more cost effective.

Repetitive Training:

Generally when you hire a temp on an adhoc basis it will be a different temp each time (a good temp will be on other assignments). Each temp you hire will need to be trained, introduced to the staff and shown where all the facilities are. This could take half a day before any actual work is performed.

A Virtual Assistant will provide you with a consultation to establish your requirements. You will only need to explain your methods once and the details will be recorded for the next time you use the Services.

Time Wastage:

You will pay a temp for coffee breaks, chats by the photocopier, and time spent using the facilities!

You will not be charged for any of these activities.

Minimum Hire Period:

A temp cannot be hired for one hour only and most temps want long term assignments.

If required, a Virtual Assistant can be hired for one hour only.

Repeat Business:

It is very rare that a temp will return to the same company, so there will be no need to make an impression. A temp is less likely to be proactive.

Virtual Assistants are self-employed professionals. It is important that we exceed your expectations so that you use our services again. We will offer suggestions for process improvements.

Virtual Assistant vs a Permanent Employee

Employee Overheads:

There are a number of employee overheads that you will need to pay, these include holidays, sickness, maternity leave and a pension.

As a Virtual Assistant operates on a self-employed basis you would not have to pay for holidays, sickness, maternity leave or a pension.

Constant Workload:

If you do not have a constant workload for a permanent employee, there will be times when they are costing you money.

You can utilise the services of a Virtual Assistant as and when required or on a retainer basis.

Additional Equipment and Space Required:

Additional equipment may need to be purchased for a permanent employee and desk space sought.

Virtual Assistants operate from their own premises and utilise all their own equipment.

Need a Virtual Assistant? Visit Help on Tap and start saving money.

]]> http://www.hotvasoftware.com/the-benefits-of-hiring-a-virtual-assistant.html/feed 0 http://www.hotvasoftware.com/full-time-employee-vs-a-virtual-assistant-cost-comparison.html http://www.hotvasoftware.com/full-time-employee-vs-a-virtual-assistant-cost-comparison.html#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:39:35 +0000 Chris Beamish http://www.hotvasoftware.com/?p=535 Full-time Employee vs a Virtual Assistant Cost Comparison

Want to SAVE over £30,000 in business expenses this year?
If you answered yes, read on …

COST COMPARISON	Full-time Employee	Virtual Assistant
Hourly Rate of Pay	£10.00	£18.00
Fringe Benefits @ 30% (Retirement Plans)	£3.00	None
Overhead Rate @ 60% (Office Space, Equipment and Office Supply expense, Insurance, Compensation, Overtime Pay, Administration Costs)	£6.00	None
Total Effective Rate of Pay	£19.00	£18.00
**Hours Per Year	2,080 hrs	480 hrs
TOTAL Annual Labour Cost	£39,520.00	£8,640.00

Difference = £30,880.00 per year

By hiring a Virtual Assistant…

You SAVE over £30,000.00 per year!

Although the Virtual Assistant’s hourly rate is more than the employee’s rate, you save the cost of benefits and overheads that would have to be applied to the new employee’s wage. Virtual Assistants are usually more experienced, more efficient, and better connected than the employee. You will need to devote far less time to the project to get the same results, only 480 hours a year versus 2,080 for the new employee.

**Remember, with a Virtual Assistant, you only pay for the time on task by the minute! You don’t pay for socialising, hour long lunches, frequent trips to the bathroom or cigarette breaks.

Your employee’s 8 hour day can be crunched into 3-4 hours with a Virtual Assistant.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant is more cost-effective. A Virtual Assistant will go above and beyond the normal assistant’s duties to impact your own productivity. No task is too big or small for a Virtual Assistant to handle. Even if you only have 1 hour of work a month. You wouldn’t be able to hire a temp for just 1 hour but you can hire a Virtual Assistant for 1 hour.

*Source: Virtual Assistant Networking Association Cost Comparison
(Converted from $ to £)

The Largest Global Network Online for Successful and Aspiring Virtual Assistants

If YOU want to save £30,000 a year and hire a Virtual Assistant visit Help on Tap for more information.

]]> http://www.hotvasoftware.com/full-time-employee-vs-a-virtual-assistant-cost-comparison.html/feed 0 http://www.hotvasoftware.com/free-software-word-to-pdf-maintain-your-embedded-hyperlinks.html http://www.hotvasoftware.com/free-software-word-to-pdf-maintain-your-embedded-hyperlinks.html#comments Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:25:44 +0000 Chris Beamish http://www.hotvasoftware.com/?p=407 I have been testing a number of free PDF converters to find one that will maintain all my embedded hyperlinks. By embedded hyperlinks I mean a link within text e.g. Help on Tap will contain a link with the full URL of my Virtual Assistance website. I want that to be clickable once the Word document is converted to a PDF.

I have now found the answer and it is using OpenOffice. OpenOffice is free opensource software that is available to download from www.openoffice.org.

As you can see from the image below, OpenOffice has a number of applications including Spreadsheet, Text Document, Presentation and Database. It is possible to save any documents produced in these applications to their equivalent in Microsoft e.g. you can save a Spreadsheet as an Excel Spreadsheet. I highly recommend you download the software and try it.



To convert to PDF:

1. Click on Open a Document.
2. Locate the document to be converted to a PDF and click open.
3. On the top menu click File > Export as PDF.
4. Click on the Security tab if you want to add security.



5. Click Export.

Note that the PDF will not open automatically, you will have to locate it.

(P.S. I used ScreenHunter 5.1 Free Download to capture the images in this post – so unbelievably easy to use).

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