Really Go Green.

E-mail, e-Zines, blogs, and websites do a great deal to cut down on paper consumption and waste. You can easily implement methods like printing double-sided, using PDFs instead of paper documents, and using DVD or CD Business Cards.

And by purchasing energy-efficient office machines like inexpensive printers, scanners, and netbooks, you can help conserve energy too.

Review Your Web Hosting Plan.

If your website has been around for longer than 5 years or so – it’s time to look at your Web Hosting Plan again.

Web Hosting is cheap these days, and if you are paying more than around $8 a month for a shared hosting plan – you can stop now.

Dump Your Expensive Merchant Account

It is easy to wait too long to make this move. (I know!)

When you need to cut some costs, start shopping around for lower Merchant Account rates. You may also want to consider using low cost alternative online payment services like 2CheckOut or PayPal.

Consider VOiP

VOiP is Voice Over Internet Protocol. It’s basically phone service via the Internet – with substantial cost benefits over traditional telephone networks.

Check out Skype or Vonage to compare features and prices. (If you are considering MagicJack, look very closely at their privacy issues).

Eliminate Non Essential Land Lines

Do you really need a fax line, business line, and home phone line?

If you are a very small business – you probably don’t. You just think you do.

But if you think a bit harder and really look at it, you’ll probably see that you can get along quite nicely with just 1 or 2 phone lines/numbers.

If you feel you must have more than 1 line, and you need fax services as well – you can always sign up for an inexpensive Virtual PBX Service.

See? You can always cut back just a little bit more if you have to.

What Is A Blog?

Well…this is a Blog.

It’s a type of website that is frequently updated with articles (“posts”) on topics that the Blogger (you and me) wants to write about.

It is so very simple to set-up, manage and update a Blog, that I can’t imagine anyone not taking advantage of it!

What Part Of Free Is Not Good? 

No web master or web designer is needed to start a Blog.

All you need is something to write about.

What is your business, hobby, or passion?

If you know how to use a word processor, then you have everything you need to start Blogging.

Didn’t I Say Something About Free?

If you have been looking for a cost-effective way to keep in touch with your clients & customers  -  it doesn’t get much easier than setting up a free Blog.

Simply visit: Wordpress.com or Blogger.com and set up an account.

Then when you are ready to get serious, you can move up to your own self-hosted and full featured Blog from Wordpress.

(There are 2 versions of Wordpress: Wordpress.com is free with hosting included. Wordpress.org is free but will require you to register your own domain name and pay for Web Hosting).

For now you probably will want to stick with the free hosted version at  Wordpress.com -  just until you get comfortable with Blogging.

Don’t Forget RSS

One of the great features of Blogs is that no matter how often you post (daily or weekly) your site visitors have an option to subscribe.

Each article you write (and video or photo you shoot) can be delivered by RSS to your subscribers automatically.

Is Blogging For You?

We think so at Studio Logic, but we don’t know everything, do we?

Start a discussion below by leaving your comments – and don’t forget to subscribe to our Blog  if you haven’t already.

Let me know when your Blog is live!

Economic Downturn.

Financial Meltdown.

No matter what we call it, many of us are looking for practical ways to cut costs and keep our business afloat.

The good news is that there are creative ways for us to save money without having to sacrifice productivity.

Let’s look at one of the more interesting ways: Open Source Software.

What is Open Source Software?

“Open source software (OSS) is defined as computer software for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license, that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain.

This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms.” – Wikipedia

Take a look at this list of popular Open Source Software: 

•    OpenOffice
•    Wordpress
•    Mozilla Firefox
•    Mozilla Thunderbird

All of these applications have one important attribute in common: they are all FREE.

While large commercial software companies may want you to believe that “free software is worth every penny”,  I can tell you from experience that the programs I’ve listed are very capable and robust applications.

So, one of the easiest ways for your Small Business to cut costs is to stop paying for expensive commercial software packages and “upgrades”.

With open source applications, there are no discs to buy – no software “keys” to worry about.

Just download the application, and get to work.

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is the most popular open source application for Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Graphics, Presentations, and Databases.

This is an absolutely free software suite that can read and write files from other common office software applications.

Wordpress

Wordpress is the extremely popular free, open source Blog Publishing application.

The free-hosted version www.wordpress.com is the fastest, easiest way for you to get started on the road to Blogging.

Just set up your Wordpress.com account, and you are Blogging in minutes.

The self-hosted version www.wordpress.org will require you to get your own web hosting account.

While this makes the initial set-up a bit more complex, it does provide you with the means to fully control your domain name and Blog content.

In other words, you can do what you want with your self-hosted Blog.

Either way, the Wordpress application is free. Additionally, there are tons of free “themes” and plug-ins which will allow you to dress up your Blog any way you want.

As a matter of fact, this Blog is running just fine – thanks to Wordpress.org.

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is the free and open source web browser that I can’t seem to stop talking about. In my mind, Firefox is the fastest, most secure, and fully customizable way to surf the web.

I use it everyday, and simply love it.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source Email and News Application with tons of features not normally found in email apps.

One of the more interesting features is that you can integrate and use various Web mail accounts from one inbox.

Are you a Gmail or .Mac user? You can access your accounts in Thunderbird by simply providing your user names and passwords.

Cut costs, stay productive.

This is my short list of Open Source Software that will help your business save money and hum along as it always has.

Why not try one of the applications I’ve listed, and see how you like it?