January Newsletter 2009
Posted by Administrator (boyd) on Jan 05 2009
Website design and development blog >> Newsletters

January 2009 - Welcome back!

This month we are featuring an article from IT specialist David L. Moore from "I hate my PC" on buying computer hardware, and how much you should be spending.  We also have the first article in a series on easy ways to promote your website online, and a new product for the BCMS system: MP3 podcast manager.

Article: Promote your business without a blog

Writing your own blog is a great way to promote your business, but lets face it. It's hard work. You need to create interesting, and on topic articles to attract readers, and then you have to do it again, and again, to keep them.

If you aren't blogging at least a few times per week, then you are unlikely to attract the regular readers that you need to create the community that will make your blog successful.
So if writing your own blog is too hard, why not use someone else's blog?

Read the full article here.

Product of the month

MP3 podcast manager

Do want to offer podcasts or sound files on your website? Well this inexpensive little upgrade to your BCMS package might be just the thing. Easily upload, and update your sound files, and display them with a simple little flash audio player. Check out the demonstration here: MP3 Podcast Audio Player

Feature: Just in Time Storage

Just how much is enough when buying a computer?

It is a question I often get asked and the answer is different every time.

If I was to state a number in this article, right away I’d be open for ridicule and the longevity of the information would be microscopic. Sadly, a little further down I’ll have no choice but to record some numbers. Worry not though, I have a way around this – read on for “the secret” to buying technology.

The rules I use around buying computers and just “how much” of anything you should buy are these:

1. Buy just enough and
2. Buy just in time

Let’s use a simple example to clarify this concept.

Say you need some extra storage, hard disk space in this case. Right now the largest size External Hard disk I’ve found for $199 is 750GB. In today’s terms that is quite a lot and I am sure if you hunted around a bit more you could do better.

Now without looking into the crystal ball, let’s see what we can get for $399. A quick search shows that the maximum I can get for that price is 1000GB (or 1 Terabyte). You can get that much for slightly less than $399 but that is still the maximum I can get for that price.

So right away you can see that purchasing two 750GB drives is the same price as buying one 1 Terabyte drive yet it provides you 50% more storage.

But let’s think about this further. We all know that storage is getting cheaper. This happens almost weekly. So considering that it is unlikely that you’d fill your 750MBs right away why would you pay for all of them now when, in 6 to 12 months time, you’d be able to get them for half the price?

Thinking further still we realise that every hard disk will fail..one day…guaranteed…even your external backup hard disks. It is also generally true that newer drives fail less than older drives. So does it make sense to have one large one with everything on it from the last year or two? No, of course not. So, other backup considerations aside, if you have 6 months worth of stuff on one drive and more recent stuff on a new drive it is clear that the current important data is safer.

By buying just in time and just enough you save yourself money, increase your storage capacity and improve the reliability of your backups.

If that makes sense to you then hold onto your hats.

The exact same set of principles applies to how you go about purchasing your entire range of computing needs. Bleeding edge is always bleedingly expensive. Just enough is just about right. You can spend $2000 on a good computer today or $4000 on a great computer, which is maybe only really 25% better, and still have to replace either purchase in 2 years time.

So here’s a rule of thumb that you may find useful:

Ask your tech salesperson to show you the most expensive computer related gadget on the floor. Calculate half to 35% of the price they tell you for that gadget. Now ask them to show you the best one for that price.

Buy the cheaper machine!

I’ll probably be taken out in my sleep for telling you the above but the choice is yours. Of course, budget should be your overriding factor in technology purchases. Never ask a salesman to show you “what they think you need”. If you can afford to buy in the value band then the above strategy is pretty good.

Buy well my friends.

David L. Moore - www.Ihatemypc.com.au

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