My Personal Finance Blog

If you work on a computer, a computer disaster is just waiting for an opportunity to happen. Yes, that sounds dismal, but computers should not be trusted too much. Even techies and data backup fanatics like myself are not safe; we are just more aware of the dangers than most computer users, and we know they are a reality. You will have something bad happen, it’s just a matter of time if you have not already had some kind of computer disaster experience.

My own computer disaster was just over a year ago, and ironically, I have been warning others about the dangers of computer disasters for years. I was working on projects just like any other normal day when it happened. Suddenly, the computer started acting weird, and then I received a cryptic error message that said something like this, “Your computer is totally screwed up. You will need to reinstall the operating system.”

Since the computer was locked up, I had to no choice but to restart, hoping it wasn’t really that bad. Upon the attempted restart, my computer was worse than the day it was made. As far as that computer knew, my hard drive was missing and the operating system did not exist either. Being a knowledgeable computer tech, I knew of several ways to access “lost” data. Every one of those techie methods failed.

So I proceeded to find a computer disaster recovery program just like any computer guru would do in this situation. I found a recovery program and then ran it. I was able to recover the drive, but, the most recent data, and the job I was working on when the computer failed, was unrecoverable. This recovery program was impressive. It recovered a drive that was completely inaccessible before. It recovered almost all of the data. That is an unusual level of success in this situation.

Guess what the recovery program was not able to recover. It effectively recovered all of the data I had already backed up, but almost none of the new (in progress) data was recovered. It was as if my computer selected everything that was not yet backed up and made only that data unrecoverable. It seemed like a conspiracy, but computer disasters are like that. The fact that any of the data was recovered is more than should be expected, but I wanted my new data, and I never did get it.

I can’t help but think of all the data loss horror stories I have encountered. It’s especially sad that four out of every five businesses that experience catastrophic data loss never recover. Eighty percent, and please read that again, 80% go out of business!

Data backups are your only defense if you lose your primary data. I was able to recover my data, but I had backups so I was not worried. I did learn to follow my own advice and back up more frequently, simply because I lost so much new data in this computer disaster experience. You will never be sorry when you have good computer backups, but you could very well be sorry if you don’t.

The reality is, you cannot afford to gamble with data loss. I have dedicated a section of my web site to computer disaster prevention and computer data backup for quite some time. Now I can give personal testimony that taking the necessary precautions is extremely important. You can’t stop all disasters from happening, but you can prepare for the worst so they don’t wipe you out. It could very well save your business.

If you have a website, you need to have it be seen – by search engines and by people. To do that, you need to make sure the search engines see you via high page rankings for your keywords. And building back links is one way to boost your page rankings; but you have to do this the right way. To help, here are some tips on things you should do (and things you should avoid) when you use link-building strategies to increase visibility.

1) Post a lot of relevant content.

Every time you post to your blog or to your webpage with content that is fresh, unique, and truly informative, you’re giving the search engines one more reason to make sure your visibility stays high so that you get seen. Posting relevant content does a lot more than that, though. It provides the opportunity for others to “like,” “retweet,” link to, or otherwise share your content with others. When you do this, you build quality organic back links to your blog or website, which further increases your visibility. (By the way, posting on other blogs or websites besides your own can increase your number of quality organic back links, too. Just make sure you put your website’s URL in your sig line for every post.)

2) Make sure your links are centered around specific keywords.

You really don’t want back links that have nothing to do with your website’s content or purpose. Because of that, make sure your links are centered around your keywords.

3) Place links within content properly.

When you write content, don’t direct people to “click here” to access another page on your site, etc., by making the words “click here” the link. Instead, make a keyword or keyword phrase your link. So, for example, if you’re talking about fishing lures with “fishing lures” the keyword phrase, you wouldn’t say, “For more information on top quality fishing lures, click here (with “click here” a hyperlink).” Instead, you’d say, “You can see some top quality fishing lures (with “fishing lures” the hyperlink) here.”

What you SHOULDN’T do

Finally, there are things you should NOT do to get back links, and that is to buy them, or “swap” them with other people simply to get back links, etc. You want links and back links that are truly relevant to your site. Search engines pick up on faulty back linking very quickly, and that could get you knocked right out of search engine results. Use the above methods to build quality organic links and back links, though, and you should be fine.

If you are looking for ways to reduce your grocery expenditure, this might just be the thing you are looking for. This is an extremely simple technique but it does require some effort and dedication. If you look at your grocery shopping list over some time, you will notice something peculiar.

 

You will find that there are quite a few items which you get over and over again. It could be your favourite snack, salad dip or a specific brand of tea.

 

Now, you can’t get coupons for these regular items all the time and frankly speaking, it is too time consuming to look through the newspaper and collect these coupons everytime.

 

So here’s what you do.

 

In summary, you need to set up a system for emailing companies to request for these coupons. The task of emailing each company may seem hard but if you break it down to small steps done on a weekly basis, it becomes very easy.

 

Here are the step-by-step instructions:

 

1. Identify grocery items that you purchase regularly. Keep a list of it.

 

2. Locate the company that manufactures each grocery item.

 

3. Do a search in your favorite search engine and find the company’s URL.

 

4. Visit the manufacturer’s website and copy down its contact email address.

 

5. Prepare a brief email to the company. Keep it simple, polite and clearly state the following things:

 

- If you have or have not tried the product.

- How regular you purchase the product.

- The name of the store you frequent.

- How you use the product. This is also a good opportunity to compliment the product.

- Your full name and mailing address.

- Lastly, put in your email address.

 

Example:

 

Our family always enjoys a big Saturday morning breakfast together and it always includes a large portion of Aunt Jemima Buttermilk Pancakes. The pancakes are yummy, quick and always come out perfectly.

 

I would like to receive product information including recipe ideas, new products launches and coupons which may be available in the future. Please add me to your company’s mailing list.

 

Thank you,

Your full name

Street Address

City, Town Zip code

Email address

 

Now you might not receive any response. These companies receive a lot of emails from consumers so it might take a while before you get any response from them.

 

It’s vital not to get discouraged by it. If you send enough emails, the effort will pay off and you will soon see your inbox filled with coupons. All you need is a little dedication and soon, you will see a steady flow of coupons coming to your inbox without you lifting a finger.

 

Happy sending those emails!

The first thing comes in mind when people thinking about unexpected incidents when they drive is how to protect themselves from big loss. In this case, car insurance comes as the perfect solution. Many people have been testified that they could obtain huge benefit from it. And anyone should do the same thing. In fact, considering the important function of it, every state obliges the car owners to have it once they buy car. It delivers protection both to the driver and also passengers. In managing the need to obtain car insurance, everyone has done any efforts to find the best one. Another thing they usually consider is the price of the insurance. Though they mostly find insurance in high price but they always have the opportunity to get cheap car insurance.

So, how they can find the best cheap car insurance? The answer is they only need to access the online service that helps them during the process. From the beginning, it already gives necessary support because people can find the online car insurance quotes as many as they need. It definitely assists them in recognizing the main requirements of good car insurance. And if they are done with it, they can have more information by reading all the related articles. Once they have known what they need, they can find top listed insurance agencies throughout the states.

Are you thinking about buying a home? The time may be right to make your move out of the world of renting and into that of home ownership. There are many advantages to buying a home. However, the first step is get pre-qualified with a mortgage lender today so that you know what kind of home you can afford and so that when you find the right one, you are ready to make an offer.

The Advantages of Home Ownership

1. Home Equity–Although we have been in a declining market over the past few years, historically real estate values go up over time creating home equity for home owners. This equity occurs in two ways. First, as you make your monthly payment a portion goes to pay down the amount you owe. This is called principal pay down and creates equity in your home. The second way equity is gained is through home values going up. This has not happened as of late but because home prices are down this may be a great opportunity to get the home you have wanted at a reasonable price.

2. Tax Savings–None of us like paying taxes. When you get a mortgage at the time of buying a home, you create a great opportunity to save money on your taxes. The property taxes and the interest you pay on your mortgage is a tax deduction. For example, if you end up paying 30% of your income in taxes then you essentially get 30% of your house payment back in tax savings. This is a huge advantage of home ownership over renting. You will want to consult with your tax advisor regarding the tax advantages.

3. Settled In–When you become a home owner, you are able to settle in. By this I mean that you are able to decorate and remodel your home the way that you choose. You are able to make friends with neighbors and know that you will be there as long as you choose. If you have children you are able to settle in to the schools and local sporting programs. There is a feeling of security and consistency that comes from buying a home rather than renting and being at the mercy of a landlord.

If these advantages are what you are looking for, you should look to get pre-qualified with a mortgage lender to see what price range home you should be looking at. Once you know what price home you can comfortably afford, you are able to look at location, style, and the size of the home that you want to pursue when buying a home. Finding a lender is easy online, and oftentimes you can get multiple mortgage quotes for your mortgage loan with one application.