Every business owner needs to be able to take a break at some point in time. When you have time to refresh, you come back with new ideas, you’re ready to dig in again, and you’ve had time to decompress, which is vital to anyone’s health. The big thing to consider when you’re a small business is whether to close down for the week, or get someone to cover you while you’ll be away. It truly depends on the type of business you’re running. This is a personal choice, and sometimes, walking away for one week won’t be as destructive as you thought, as long as your customers are notified. Not taking time for one’s self is sure to lead to stress, destruction and a lack of fresh ideas. Take time to recharge, we all need it. It doesn’t have to be a full week, it can be a day or two…but remember, if you’re exhausted, you’re not at your best.

*On that note, I’ll be heading out on vacation and recharging as well. It’s time for me to break free from my computer, decompress and refresh. I’ll see you next week, have a great week. I’m beach bound…

Wal-Mart and Google just may take over the world at the rate they are expanding their businesses and grasps! Okay, so maybe that’s a little extreme, but did you hear the news that Wal-Mart will be introducing some banking services and a debit card? Not far behind is the effort to offer mortgages and other loans. Hmmm, imagine paying your mortgage to the bank of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart isn’t actually opening a bank, but they will be offering check-cashing services, some bill payments and other services.

Quoted from NY Times

…wider offerings, like home equity loans and mortgages, which could turn Wal-Mart into a significant force in the banking world. Jane Thompson, the president of Wal-Mart financial services, called the prepaid cards and money centers “foundational products” that the retailer would build upon…Given Wal-Mart’s penchant for squeezing costs out of every business it enters — from oil changes to prescription drugs — the move is expected to jolt the financial services business

The introduction of such services represents an end-run around the federal government, which last year denied Wal-Mart a charter to open a bank amid fears that it would crush smaller financial institutions….The new products, like the prepaid Visa card, will be offered through third-party partners, allowing Wal-Mart to sell bank-like services without a government license

With Wal-Mart looking to work around government licensing, they are brazenly saying, we will find a way to do this because we want to….and so they did.

What do you think of this? Do you think it’s a good thing that it may change the industry, or do you think that it’s getting a little scary that Wal-Mart is touching and changing everything. With rapidly expanding Google and Wal-Mart, God help us if they ever combine! They may very well run the world sooner than we think!

I learned about a new site today called ComputerRentals.com. That’s an excellent service, because there are many times I could have used a laptop when I went on a trip. What’s cool is they don’t only do regular computer rentals, but they also do rentals for things like trade shows, conventions and meetings. You can rent a large monitor, a laptop, a kiosk, a desktop, you name it! Think about it, you can rent anything from an iBook to plasma rentals!

If you go to the navigation bar on the left, you can scroll down and find a city near you. In the top right hand corner of the page, click on the link for a quote and you’ll be on your way.

Maybe you want to try the new Tablet PC but don’t want to invest in one yet, until you’ve tried it, renting one is a great way to get your hands on it for awhile and deciding if you like it. Maybe you need a 5000 lumen projector rental for a project or meeting, no problem, contact ComputerRentals.com and you’re on your way. Bring your presentation to the next level!

What about a touchscreen LCD monitor rental for a kiosk. This great interactive unit will help make your station the hit at the next convention. When you need special equipment, turn to ComputerRentals.com and get what you’re looking for!

This post was brought to you by ComputerRentals.com.

*disclosure - sponsored

No wait…the contest isn’t here, you can win a very large monitor in a contest over at JohnChow.com. The monitor is no slouch either, it’s a 24 inch wide screen LCD, and I’d love to have that beauty on my desk!  BlueFur.com is sponsoring the contest. BlueFur is hosting Canada along with the rest of the world, and now they are offering up this great prize for a contest on John Chow’s blog.

I read John Chow to see what’s going on in the blog world, learn new ways to make money online, and see what latest evil plot John Chow is up to. Have you read JohnChow.com lately?

If you’d like to enter the contest, head on over, read the rules, email John with your entry and you can be entered to win too. Don’t try to hard, I want to win this one!

Ebay has created widgets that allow you to grab code and embed things you have found. This new information was discussed with C/Net’s News.com. There’s a short how-to video which shows the new widget handy code being used and being blogged. This new feature can be found on ToGo.Ebay.com.

Here’s what a “search” widget looks like. I put in HP Laptop as the search phrase, and in return, got code to paste in. Here’s the final result.

*disclosure - aff

Do you have books, old CDS or maybe DVD’s lying around taking up space? What if you could trade those books, games, movies and more for others you’d like? There’s a new service called SwitchPlanet.com that lets you place your items up for trade, and allows you to sort through other people’s goods and work out a deal. Registration is free.

If you go to SwitchPlanet.com you’ll see they have a huge assortment of good available for “switching”. You can sort by newest products, most popular, along with other options to help you find what you’re looking for. They also have things in categories in each section so you can easily find your favorites.

You make the switch using “Switchbucs” which work in their system. After you send something, you get credited with “Switchbucs” which you can then use for things you want. Their internal system will tell you when somebody is interested in something you’ve listed. The best part is it’s free; no sign up costs, no monthly or yearly fees to pay! This is a great way to get rid of stuff, while getting stuff you want! Check out SwitchPlanet.com today and start switching! This post has been sponsored by SwitchPlanet.com.

*disclosure - sponsored

You could be the winner of a cool 1GB flash drive. Are you game? Want to know the details? It’s so super easy, you’ll be blown away! My friend Colleen over at GeekySpeaky.com is holding a contest. Her blog is all things Geek and Cool, and Colleen’s fresh voice always keeps it interesting. She doesn’t try to talk over you, or at you, she talks so that everyone can understand what she’s saying. I love that, because there’s nothing worse then reading a tech blog and going, “Huh? What did that just say???”.

So here’s the scoop, to be entered in the contest to either win a 1GB flash drive, or the booby prize of a Futurama DVD head on over to GeekySpeaky.com and leave a comment on this entry. What, that’s it? Well, that will get you one entry. Want a better chance? Write about the contest and link back to the entry I just linked to, and you’ll get more entries! Just by blogging it, you’ll get three entries in the pot. There are other ways to get extra entries as well, so head on over and see how you can score more entries.

Winners will be picked by a random drawing. This particular contest will run until June 21st, so head on over and read all the rules and details. I’m in for 4 entries, what about you? I want to win the flash drive because, let’s face it, I’m a geek and love my computers. As for Futurama, hello Bender Baby, it’s a great show. Now we have to wait up until late at night to see it, how about having a DVD for some afternoon laughs!

When people talk about SEO, there are two different schools of knowledge. There are those companies that go for a quick fix, may send you a spike in traffic, but then it falls, you don’t make conversions, and next thing you know, that boost you saw, and thought would stick around was over with. A good SEO company that is unique and offers a strong base of knowledge and guaranteed results is ThinkBigSites.com. They are a website optimization firm who understands the value of keywords, key phrases, and making sure the structure of the site is in tact. They can help direct more website traffic to your site. ThinkBigSites.com has a unique and solid understanding of the link process. Link partners should be strong and relevant. Experience has taught them which links will help improve your site.

The other unique thing about ThinkBigSites.com is that they not only optimize your site, but can help you design your site. They’ll help you develop and enhance your site. Their niche is the small business, and they should be the first place you check when you’re ready to fully optimize your site for the best results, or let them help you design your site. With three levels of design options, you can choose what will best suit your needs, whether it’s a basic site, custom site or more. Go to their Options page to read more details.

*disclosure - sponsored

Blogger and Podcaster June Issue, First Half!

If you read my previous post, it complained that it was dedicated to the podcaster, and the blogger didn’t have much of interest! It ended up being user error, because this tech savvy girl did something very un savvy. She flipped to page 21, not page 2, and ended up missing the entire first half of the magazine! Imagine that, you bet my face is red, but I’m moving on, and ready to give you my view of the first half of Blogger and Podcaster magazine. If you haven’t gotten your subscription yet, on the sidebar you’ll see a link. Head on over and sign up today. You can get a free digital copy, or sign up for print and paper subscription for a fee.

On page 7, there’s an article about writing without editors coming in to shape our work. They state blogs work well for the short attention span, and I find that to be true. I know I can go through a bunch of things, skip and change topics, whirl about and come back to the original. Small bursts of writing work well for me. That’s not for everyone. Though I don’t feel that blogs are replacing news outlets, I do feel they are like giant editorial sections with opinions, views and bits of personal flair added in. If people come to blogs looking for a professional voice, edited and told what to write, you’ll lose their personality, which is what makes them so special in the first place.

There’s a  short clip about Technorati’s big change, one which I wasn’t crazy about, but it speaks of “technorati authority” if that’s important to you.

Have you heard the latest controversy about the military trying to quiet the soldiers voice on blogs. There’s an article by Shelly Brisbain that discusses this topic and looks at different points of view on it.

You can also earn about Jaiku, micro blogging on a quick piece that starts on page 8. It it similar to a Twitter, where you do a quick burst of comment.

If you like to network, you can see a list of upcoming events for bloggers and podcasters on page 10.

Page 13 brings us an article by Paul Colligan speaking on Adsense. As I’m an Adsense user and have been for over a year, reading his tips, I see they are targeted towards those who haven’t had a lot of luck with it. One of the tips he offers is pre made templates for Adsense. The last tip on Adsense says “it may not be right for you”. There’s your big 7th truth. Yeah…felt disappointed in that closing bit. Otherwise, it’s a nice article for beginners.

Every time I try to move past 13, to 14 or beyond it goes into processing mode. I’ve attempted 3 times, so if you’d like to know what those last 7 pages are about, I guess you’ll have to get your own copy!

Edit: Can you believe it, how embarrassing! When I opened the magazine, I somehow managed to open it to page 21, not page 2. I didn’t notice until I received a comment from the magazine, and they mentioned some pieces in the comments, that I didn’t remember seeing. I went back, reopened it, and lo and behold, there they were. Shame on me for not noticing MY USER ERROR! I’ll be looking at the first 20 pages and commenting in another post. I apologize and truly, it was a simple error that caused me to overlook the beginning. (Deb/edited June 13)

Start original article:
Blogger and Podcaster’s June issue is heavy on the podcast front, as the first half of the magazine is devoted to podcasting. There were some pieces of useful information in an interview that suggest ways of increasing traffic on the blog front.

I’m in the middle of the magazine at this point, and am hoping there will be more information geared to the blogger as well. Ahh, I’ve come to an article on stats that discusses how to interpret stats and how to use them to help you better market. Unfortunately again, the article is slanted for the podcaster, rather than the regular text blogger. It’s about downloads and knowing how many people are listening.

Coming up to pages 42 and 43, there hasn’t been much directed at me the blogger. Sure I can read and learn about podcasting as well, but a magazine called Bloggers and Podcasters, you’d think would show an even amount of information. I’m also hating that I can’t turn off the audio ads. The ad runs about 30 seconds, and you need to turn down your speaker volume, since they don’t offer an option.

On page 45 is discussion from Miles Durfee, who has started IBNMA, which is an association for bloggers and podcasters and this new media front. They are looking to form an association which preserves integrity, and what I wonder is if their idea of integrity is the same as others. Is there issue with paid blogging, or is that considered unpure? I notice one of the comments on the article discusses wanting to keep the medium “pure”…and there are different definitions floating around the internet, of what people call pure and what others call making extra money. Some would call pure as elite, and I do hope that this isn’t an angle the association will be aiming for. I hope pure means clean, not elite. I do hope to support them, so I will watch to see where they go with this. I think the idea behind education is a great one, and helping bloggers and podcasters learn more, express ideas and offer research and opportunities to connect and discuss where the future of this media is headed is a good one. This one page article, was the only thing aimed at me, the blogger. How sad, though nice article from Miles.

An interview and a list of advertisers, and as a blogger, I’m not addressed in this issue. While I think a feature focus episode is fine, I think you’ve just alienated and said that for the entire month of June’s issue, we have not spoken to the blogger, but only the podcaster this time. I had really hoped for a little bit of content to dig into, as I so enjoyed the previous issue. I’m disappointed in this issue, and would have been upset had I paid for the print and paper version, being totally overlooked. This was a free digital version, so all I’ve lost is a little time. While I support this magazine, I hope there will be more balance in the future.