Greetings, this newsletter will discuss several ways to increase exposure and sales through your website by using blogging in the new year. Several customers have expressed a desire to use their blogs more effectively, while also describing the challenges and lack of understanding they face in communicating online. My goal here is to provide a timely, relevant example of how to use your blogs and remind you how to make updates through the SOS system.

CNN Money put out a review of Google Apps today in their small business section describing some of the hidden costs associated with the service. Considering that the base level of the service (with ads) is free, and installation can be done relatively easily by a novice webmaster (unlike Outlook Exchange) the service is hard hate.

I was installing Drupal the other day and got the following error:

The Drupal installer requires that you create a settings file as part of the installation process.

1. Copy the ./sites/default/default.settings.php file to ./sites/default/settings.php.
2. Change file permissions so that it is writable by the web server. If you are unsure how to grant file permissions, please consult the on-line handbook.

More details about installing Drupal are available in INSTALL.txt.

This past week I needed to create a Flash movie to play a short intro animation with text fading in and out and sliding across the screen and then have a play button for a short video clip within the flash movie. You can see the end result below, and if you've missed the sliding/fading part just right click anywhere in the flash movie (except on the video icon) and choose rewind, the right click and choose play. For your convenience (and since this is a complicated tutorial) I have attached the raw .fla file of the Flash movie you see below at the bottom of this tutorial so you can experiment and trouble shoote any problems you might run into.

Having a website is important if you're a small (or large) business owner and you want to stay visible in your community. More and more people are turning to the web for directions, phone numbers, and to get ratings and opinions. Not only is it critical that your business show up online, but when customers find you and look at your site you also need to make sure that it reflects the quality and professionalism that your business actually offers.