Who says we have to sit at desks to be productive? Leggett & Platt is showing off a product they have in development called the “Starry Night Bed.” I call it a bed made for web workers. Not only does it integrate the kinds of electronic controls we need to do our jobs, but it includes intelligence to make sure we get the kind of sleep we need to face a hard day of work.
The bed includes built-in electronics: wireless Internet connectivity and a wireless keyboard; a built-in iPod docking station; integration to life|ware Connected, a Windows Media Center program that controls home electronics; as well as 1.5 terabytes of storage to maintain your media collections.
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I was just relearning how to work with Google AdWords and noticed that its tutorials include quiz questions. Why? Because you may want to test your knowledge along the way and eventually become a Google Advertising Professional.
To do so, you need to pass an exam, which allows you to use a “Qualified Google Advertising Professional Logo” — important, I suppose, if you’re in the search engine optimization or online marketing business. The Direct Marketing Association offers its own certification program covering comparable topics.
But what about the rest of us: Does certification still have merit?
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If you’re wondering how to increase the number of people who sign up for your email newsletter, Don Nicholas, editor and managing director for consulting group Mequoda Group, has a tip for you: Don’t call it an email newsletter.
“That’s kind of an overused term,” he says. “It may have a little negative connotation.”
Nicholas, whom we profiled last week, specifically advises publishers on how to develop and refine their online strategies; but the recommendations he offers for converting website visitors to email subscribers are relevant for other kinds of sites too.
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In spite of the fact that some marketing people downplay the value of email newsletters in these days of saturated inboxes, Don Nicholas, editor and managing director for the Mequoda Group, says he has clients today who can prove that between 70% and 80% of every dollar they generate starts in an email newsletter.
Nicholas specifically advises publishers on how to develop and refine their online strategies. His Mequoda Summit Napa Valley 2008 takes place in April. But the recommendations he offers for exploiting the value of email newsletters and building web traffic are relevant for other kinds of sites too.
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We’ve shared six ways to start off secure in 2008, shown you how to keep your public wi-fi sessions secure, and supplied you with suggestions for free VPN solutions. But how about if you’re in the IT organization and you want to make sure that all those web workers with mobile devices are following company security policies even when they’re not connecting with the corporate LAN?
Fiberlink Communications calls it the “mobile blind spot,” the gap in network security that exists when notebooks or other devices are connected to the Internet but out of reach of standard security procedures. Its solution, Extend360, places an agent on the user device that constantly monitors for IP access. When an Internet connection is detected, the agent communicates with a management center that checks for compliance to corporate security policies and does what it needs to bring security up to date on that device. No need for the user to be proactive.
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Sure, they’ve heard the complaints and jokes about Indian accents. Yes, they know that when your computer is broken, you can’t always go online for the help you need to fix it. But the era of personal service outsourcing is here, and iYogi, a new service based in India, said it has already attracted 25,000 customers to its subscription technical support service — most of them American. If you’re a Web worker who doesn’t have ready access to corporate IT support, iYogi could become your next best buddy, for $99.99 a year.
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iPhones sales may have made France Telecom bright during the holidays and it could truly be the most memorable new product launch for 2007, but that doesn’t mean your corporate IT organization should have to support it. At least, that’s the conclusion coming out of Forrester, whose analyst Benjamin Gray, lists 10 reasons why the iPhone is not yet ready to be an enterprise-class mobile device.
It’s always possible that some of these obstacles will become history when Steve Jobs takes the stage at Macworld today, but read on for some of Forrester’s thinking…
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Last week, we shared the story of Michelle LaBrosse, who runs successful virtual operation Cheetah Learning. This week she shares the secret to getting that bonus or raise (or both) that you believe you deserve this year. These are strategies her own people have used on her — and that she has used to keep her workforce motivated.
First, make sure your company is performing well. If it isn’t in the black, your chances of profiting beyond a paycheck are pretty small. In fact, said LaBrosse, “One way to lose your job fast is to go in and ask for a bonus or raise when the company is doing lousy.”
Presuming the company is doing well, figure out what your role in that success is. “We just redesigned the website and sales went up 25%,” offered LaBrosse as an example. “They know sales are up. You say, ‘Is there any way I could get a 5% bonus?’”
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Who says we have to sit at desks to be productive? Leggett & Platt is showing off a product they have in development called the “Starry Night Bed.” I call it a bed made for web workers. Not only does it integrate the kinds of electronic controls we need to do our jobs, but it includes intelligence to make sure we get the kind of sleep we need to face a hard day of work.
