Peggy Duncan's Suite Minute blog. Computer tips and tricks that make work easy.

Do It Yourself Search Engine Optimization – SEO
I’m excited to announce my new ebook, Shameless Self-Promotion: Do-It-Yourself PR. Get Found Online. Details are on my Website, including a partial table of contents and a sample chapter.
In the two weeks that it took me to write this ebook, I received calls from Fitness, [...]

Filed under: Business Growth, Marketing, Publishing | View Comments

If you’re already blogging, great! If not, what the heck are you waiting for? It’s probaby THE best way to ensure you’re showing up in the search engines.
Here are some enhancements to consider.
Note: SuiteMinute is a self-hosted WordPress blog so I’m able to add code/scripts for more functionality. Click here to read my post for [...]

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media | View Comments

When I started my business almost 11 years ago, as part of the Accounting section of my filing system, I had a folder for each vendor I spent money with regularly (e.g., gas, light, Office Depot, etc.). When I found myself sticking receipts in a To Be Filed folder, I knew my system was too [...]

Filed under: Business Growth, Data Backup, Filing, Organizing | View Comments

I’ve read several stories that report how President-Elect Barack Obama, like so many other people, is addicted to his BlackBerry. I’m sure he feels torn right now at the thought of having to give it up once he enters the White House. But I think he’s going to feel so much better once he gets [...]

Filed under: Business Growth, General Technology, Word-Excel-PowerPoint | View Comments

Addiction in the case for email can be defined as a compulsive behavior engaged in in spite of its harmful effects. If you’re hooked on email and find yourself checking it even when you’re working on something important and need to stay focused (including sleep), you’ll have to commit to breaking the habit.
For those of [...]

Filed under: Outlook | View Comments

They’ll start soon. Those pesky online holiday greetings from business associates you may or may not know will start showing up in your Inbox. They claim to be from people who want to “reconnect” with you.
Paaalease!
Popping a bunch of email addresses into a box and sending a generic message that makes me have to do [...]

Filed under: Business Growth, Marketing | View Comments

I’m still getting too many nods “Yes” when I ask seminar attendees if they’re still getting a lot of spam. If you are too, take these steps to end it.
Use a good provider. If you’re using Joe’s Internet Service with servers in his basement, he’s probably not using the best technologies to block spam on [...]

Filed under: General Technology, Outlook, Personal Productivity | View Comments

From a previous post, you’ll come to understand why I’m delighted to work with my new self-hosted WordPress blog. My main issue with it though is the clumsiness with formatting, adding graphics, etc. It isn’t smooth and simple enough.
But Microsoft is continuing to think, and they’re currently offering a free solution that has reduced my [...]

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media | View Comments

I wrote a recent article for SCORE Association’s blog on the process I went through to convert a free Blogger blog and a free WordPress blog to a self-hosted WordPress blog. And I am so glad I did.
I want my blog to be viral with you linking to it, downloading my blidget (the Widget in [...]

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media | View Comments

I was in a meeting recently with a group of solopreneurs. We pulled up each other’s blog and talked about each one. The most important thing I walked away with was this: since the purpose of my blog is to share helpful information and not about making money from ads, I should create Web banners [...]

Filed under: Business Growth, Word-Excel-PowerPoint | View Comments

A sheet of labels got stuck in my HP All-in-One LaserJet printer and I tried pulling it out. I got it, but I destroyed the sensor that lets the printer know I have a cartridge. After finding out it was almost as cheap to buy a new printer as to fix the old one, I [...]

Filed under: Business Growth, General Technology | View Comments

A financial planner sent me a letter that went into the trash the instant I opened it…without even blinking. Here’s why:

The letter was typed using the Comic Sans typeface. The typeface you select for your business correspondence should reflect the type of business you’re in. If you’re running a daycare center, a playful font like [...]

Filed under: Business Growth, General Technology, Word-Excel-PowerPoint | View Comments

Know any meeting planners? Send them this link.
I just bought a new laptop (more on that later). It gave me the power I needed to use Camtasia to update/edit a marketing video I’d created earlier.
In a previous post, I talked about how the Movavi Video Converter was the only software I found that was able [...]

Filed under: General Technology, Word-Excel-PowerPoint | View Comments

My latest book, The Time Management Memory Jogger(TM), will start shipping August 25, 2008. It is published by GOAL/QPC and becomes the latest in their bestselling series of books that focus on workplace improvement (over 10 million in print).
An editorial board had made some great suggestions that have made the book even better, and I [...]

Filed under: Data Backup, Filing, Personal Productivity, Publishing | View Comments

I just finished a training/consulting session with three officers from the US Air Force. It was so invigorating to work with this small team on their laptops with their own work. Each one had work they dreaded doing, and I was charged with helping them find a better way (my specialty).
After asking all the right, [...]

Filed under: Personal Productivity, Word-Excel-PowerPoint | View Comments

A tornado whipped through downtown Atlanta last month for the first time in history. I slept through it and so did at least five other people I spoke with. In fact, we didn’t even know about the storm until our loved ones called from out of town to see if we were OK.
Why is this? [...]

Filed under: General Technology | View Comments

The question about sharing the Outlook calendar with others comes up a lot in my workshops I conduct on managing time with Outlook. If you’re on an Exchange Server it’s no problem. But what if you’re working with a virtual assistant or you’d like a family member to always know where you are? There are [...]

Filed under: General Technology, Outlook, Personal Productivity | View Comments

Sporting News recently reported that heavy sports enthusiasts spend on average over 31 hours a week following sports. Amazing. I spend zero minutes a year on it.
If you’re going to get caught up in the festivities of the NCAA tournaments next week, remember that the work still has to get done. Since most people work [...]

Filed under: Personal Productivity | View Comments

I just got back from presenting my most popular seminar, “Conquer Email Overload with Outlook,” at a conference of magazine editors. If you think you have email issues, try being the editor of a popular magazine! They receive tons of irrelevant email from public relations companies and individuals trying to get press.
I have tons of [...]

Filed under: Business Growth | View Comments

If you’ve seen an email addressed to Undisclosed Recipients and wondered how it was done, here are two options (I’m using Outlook 2003).
First Option
When you create a new message, on the To line, type Undisclosed Recipients, and next to that put your email address inside brackets . Then see Step 5 below to finish the [...]

Filed under: Business Growth | View Comments

If you need to contact John right away but you can’t remember his name, here are four ways Outlook can help.

Search the Notes Area. If you made notes in the text area of John’s contact page, you can conduct a quick search to find any of the words. (Click Advanced Find (should be on your [...]

Filed under: Outlook | View Comments

I haven’t upgraded to the 2007 version of the Microsoft(R) Office Suite and don’t plan to anytime soon. (I will when I start getting training requests for it…hasn’t happened yet, and I’m glad.)
If you’re using the 2007 version, the new design could be slowing you down. It’s a brand new look and will take some [...]

Filed under: Outlook, Word-Excel-PowerPoint | View Comments

I’d been wanting to create my own affiliate program but didn’t want to spend crazy money every month paying for a service. Nor did I want to have to hire a programmer to make it happen.
idevaffiliate had everything I wanted, plus a lot of stuff I hadn’t thought of. The software is only $99 and [...]

Filed under: Business Growth, General Technology | View Comments