Million Tips

Free Software to Recover Digital Photos

Jeremy Reis — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:42:57 +0000

Accidentally deleted photos on your digital camera? Have a corrupt digital memory card? ihatecrashes.com has a great article about a software package called ZAR which will recover your digital photos – for free! The company makes recovery software for computers and RAID disk arrays and provides digital photo recovery as a free feature of the demo. Read more about how to recover your digital photographs using free software at ihatecrashes.com.

Tips for New Business Owners

Jeremy Reis — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:42:36 +0000

Entrepreneurship is both exciting and nerve-wracking. Will I close enough deals? Will I make payroll this week? Am I doing the right things right? Is the cash flow there to keep the doors open?

The countless hours and hard work for your dream. There is often so much going on when you start a business and sometimes you need to stop, take a breath, and readjust your priorities. In this article from Entrepreneur.com, learn ten tips for first time business owners from focusing on your business to knowing when to call it quits.

Pay Off Your Debts Using the Snowball Method

Jeremy Reis — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:04:48 +0000

Dave Ramsey is the best known proponent of a debt payoff method called the “snowball method.” The snowball method is a way for you to pay off all of your debts: credit cards, car loans, student loans, house mortgage, and other debts.

The first step to creating a debt snowball is to list all of your debts with the balance owed and the minimum payment. Next, determine the total amount of money you can pay towards your debt each month. This number must be more than the total of your minimum payments, otherwise, you will never get out of debt!

Re-order your debts with the lowest balance first. If you have two debts with similar balances, list the higher interest rate first. Now, pay the minimum on all of your debts except for the first debt – apply any extra cash you have to that balance to pay it down first. After you have paid off the first debt, apply everything you were paying on that debt + the minimum payment on the next debt and pay it off (thus the “snowball” effect on your payments).

Why do we list the debts with the lowest first and not the highest interest rate first? Psychologically, it’s better for you to have some “wins” on your way to becoming debt free. As you pay off each debt, it is a win for you and you will begin to see progress.

Start a Project Right

Jeremy Reis — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:49:57 +0000

The Project Initiation phase of a project is probably the most important phase – if you don’t start the project correctly and build a solid foundation under it, you will find difficulty moving forward. A survey was taken several years ago at large corporations and the survey respondents stated they believed over 60% of IT projects were failures! That’s an amazing number and one which needs to come down.

Here’s a few tips for successful project initiation:

Develop a solid business case that describes the how and why the project must proceed. Include accurate financial projects in your business case.
Ensure your project fits into corporate goals, mission, and vision. A project which is not well aligned with your company is destined to fail.
Identify and get involvement by the key stakeholders for the project. At the very least, your management team should be involved and approve of the project moving forward.
Perform a high level risk analysis to identify some of the big risks involved with moving the project forward.

With these tips, you can start your project right and find success as a project manager!

How to Fix jQuery Scripts for WordPress

Jeremy Reis — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:40:00 +0000

WordPress uses the Prototype JavaScript library extensively throughout the core, so if you are implementing jQuery scripts you may be frustrated when they do not run, produce errors, or just don’t seem to work. The key is to replace the $ in your jQuery script with the word jQuery, for example, this code hides a paragraph:

$("div.contentToChange p.thirdparagraph").hide("slow");

If you placed that code into a WordPress page, it wouldn’t do anything. Instead, change the $ to jQuery, as in:

jQuery("div.contentToChange p.thirdparagraph").hide("slow");

Now, this code will properly function.

Implement a Results Only Work Environment

Jeremy Reis — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:13:57 +0000

A results only work environment, or ROWE, focuses on the productivity of employees and only rewards “getting the job accomplished.” The phrase was coined by Best Buy which implemented ROWE at its corporate headquarters and saw an immediate jump in productivity and job satisfaction in departments which adopted ROWE as a work strategy. Implement ROWE at your company to decrease employee turnover and increase productivity.

Use TweetDeck to Manage Twitter

Jeremy Reis — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:17:35 +0000

When you get to several hundred or several thousand Twitter followers, it can be difficult to manage the flow of information. TweetDeck is the best interface we have found to ensure communication flows with your most important followers and the ability to manage groups for multiple social media accounts.

Promote Your Book Through a Virtual Book Tour

Jeremy Reis — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:53:10 +0000

Many authors and experts are finding that live events and virtual book tours are a leading way to promote their books and expertise. A live event, or virtual book tour, can help you promote your book through a low cost and high impact method of marketing. A virtual book tour is similar to a physical book tour, the author “visits” several blogs or websites over several days or weeks to promote their book through blog posts, live chat, discussion forums, and live video events.

Live video events allow you to effectively communicate with your audience in an efficient and cutting edge way.

Get Involved in an Online Community

Jeremy Reis — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:48:43 +0000

If you are an author, consultant, or expert, become involved with an online Internet community in your area of expertise. Helping out others is a wonderful way to build your own platform and demonstrate your expertise – plus, its good to give back to others. Becoming involved in your virtual community is also one of the foundations if you want to hold a live event promoting yourself, your business, or your book.

Deck Your Office Out at Ikea

Jeremy Reis — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:48:51 +0000

I have the exciting experience of moving into a new office! As I planned out my first office outside of the home, we contemplated furniture options and decided Ikea is the best deal for new furniture for an office. As an Internet firm, the contemporary look of the office furniture is the perfect fit and the prices can’t be beat.

Assembling Ikea furniture has to be one of the easiest things – I was able to put together a glass desk, an executive chair, and two lights in under an hour.

If you’re looking at moving into a new office, consider Ikea as a great source for new furniture.