Most of the manufacturing of these products and their parts are done overseas and we are consuming them like crazy.  What are we producing that other countries are consuming like crazy? What do we have that is so valuable it makes other countries line up to buy it? Not some cool device that can easily be duplicated, but something that is unique, difficult to duplicate, and high demand. In short, something that will create millions of jobs and will place our country back in the position of a producer.

Up until recently, there didn’t seem to be an American company that had the drive, insight, or innovation to produce something that was a game-changer. Then I read about Google’s self-driving car. Yep, Google, the search engine giant, has stepped out of their box and tackled something kids (and adults!) dream of. Google has the mapping data, technology, connections and money to make this dream a reality. Not only is their self-driving car cool, but it would be very difficult for other countries to quickly duplicate or catch up with what Google has already done with it. This innovation has the potential to create millions of production, management, and research jobs here in the United States.  People around the world would be knocking down our doors to purchase self-driving cars.

Now, the most important question: Will Google keep the production of this car in our country? Will they use their power and insight to create jobs here and keep the innovation, secrets, and technology here?

Google, you have the power to make a huge difference. Please use that power to help turn this great country around. You have officially grown up from being solely an internet and search company, and in my eyes, are now a company that can go down in history as turning our country around when it was on the brink of collapse. Google, what will you do?

Photo By: kb35

Today we suffered from an outage on a few of our primary sites because our server company, Rackspace, went down in one of their data centers.  My first step to address the issue was going to myrackspace.com to submit a ticket.  That didn’t work because it was down too.  Next, I tried calling our account contact phone number.  Busy signal!  Thirdly, I tried calling the support 800 number.  Busy too!  So what did I do after that?  I went to Twitter http://search.twitter.com and searched for “rackspace”. Instantly, I was presented with thousands of tweets of others complaining about their servers/sites being down.

Rackspace Is Down - Twitter Updates

I knew at that point it was not something that was specific to our servers.  I then went to @scobleizer‘s profile and his tweets confirmed the outage.  He also tweeted a couple of references to check for status.

While Twitter didn’t solve the problem of our servers being down, it sure did take me out of complete panic mode because I was at least able to see what was going on.

Thanks for saving my sanity today, Twitter!

Google’s real-time results are also pulling in other data, which includes latest updates from blogs, videos, news sites, and even images. The screen shot below shows a search on “Tiger Woods” and how some of these sources are mixed directly in on the first page of Google’s search results.

If you are an internet marketer, you need to be aware of these changes and create videos, optimize images in your content, participate in blogging, and participate in real-time social networks if you want to stay on top.

See my other posts about similar topics

• Google Search Sidebar
• Twitter is Important For SEO
• This is for all of those long-tail SEO skeptics
• Have you seen Google’s new search options?

This new sidebar will be placed as a permanent fixture in the Google search engine.  This means more people will click these options.  If someone is doing an organic search for your niche, Google is making it even easier for them to search other verticals such as videos and blogs.

So how can you prepare for this?

• Create videos around your niche and post those videos to YouTube and other popular video portals.
• Optimize your images (image name, alt tag) for the page you place them in.
• If you don’t already have a blog, it’s time to get one.  Focus your blog around your niche.
• Submit press releases for product launches or announcements.
• Participate in industry specific forums.  Don’t spam, but participate.

My son started kindergarten this year and within the first week it was very evident how troubled the California school system is right now. While California is in pretty deep financial turmoil, my guess is that other states are having similar pains too. The first day of school, the teacher had an orientation with the parents before class started and mentioned that they have no supplies and would appreciate donations. She gave all of us a “wish list” of items that she would like for the class. These were basic things like crayons, pencils and other arts and crafts supplies. By the expression on her face, it was evident that she was troubled and that it was hard for her to ask us parents for this. But what’s great about the people in our community (and this country, for that matter) is that we pulled together and were able to provide the classroom with the supplies it needed.

Now, over a month later, my son’s teacher called another parent meeting. This time around she expressed her concern that she is the only teacher for a class of 29 four to five year old kids. Now imagine for a minute trying to educate 29 four to five year olds by yourself. I have 1 in my house and I can barely get him to focus for even a few minutes. My son’s teacher had two choices: 1) Lower her standards as a teacher and provide our kids a lower quality education or 2) look for alternatives. Thankfully, she chose the latter. She proposed a plan to the parents in which she asked that we allow her to split up the class into two sessions. One in the morning and one starting midday. This will allow her to have two classes with 15 kids in each class, and require her to work 2 additional hours per day with no extra pay. But this is what she proposed because she refuses to lower her standards; she knows that smaller groups means more attention for the children and a better overall education. All I can say is “WOW!”. Many would probably just lower their standards.

What is the main problem here?

There is no money for our schools, so our entire school system is understaffed. This results in fewer teachers and more students to a class, which results in a poorer education, which results in harming our kid’s future and the future of our country.

So, of course, this got me thinking. How can schools and classrooms save money to put towards hiring more teachers? Being the techie that I am, I tend to always look at technology for ways to streamline things.

Reduce the sheets of paper and folders our kids take home. It’s not free to print up multiple sheets of paper each day. Most of what is sent home is announcements and printed homework. My son brings at least 3 sheets home per day. Now multiply that by 29, add the cost of the paper, ink and staff time involved in printing. There is definitely an unnecessary cost that can be avoided.

So I asked myself, “How can we reduce this paper waste and cost?”

• Each class should have its own private web portal where the teacher can login and post notes, announcements, upload homework assignments, etc. Many colleges are already doing this, so why not elementary schools?
• Each parent will also have a login where they can access the daily notes and homework. It should be the responsibility of the parent to print out the homework and send it back the next day with the child.
• Parents should be able to leave private messages through the portal for the teacher and vice versa.

So how much would this save? First let’s look at the current costs.

• Cost of paper = 2 cents per sheet. Multiply that times 87 (29 kids * 3 sheets per day) and you get a cost of $35 per month.
• Cost of ink = 3 to 7 cents per sheet depending on what type of printer (ink or laser). That would cost the class $53 to $120 per month in ink.
• Cost of labor = $240 per month. I am calculating this at an hour per day at a $12 hourly rate. I am assuming that an assistant does this and it takes them at least an hour to prepare, print and distribute the printed material in each child’s folder.
  Total Cost: $395 per month

Now let’s look at the cost of a web portal.

• Using a free open source solutions such as http://moodle.org/ = $0
• Maximum of $30 per month in hosting

That would give the class a total savings of $365 per month by using technology as an alternative.

I like the idea of doing a split class (after noon and morning) but it is not fair to have the teacher work these additional hours for no additional pay. So how about this – let’s pay the amazing teachers who are willing to make these types of sacrifices that additional $365 per month.

BTW – teachers don’t get paid enough.

In today’s economy, almost every business is looking for areas where they can cut costs. What many don’t realize is by using technology and tools that are so readily available, you can cut some very common and significant costs. Here are a few common expenses that can be cut by using some basic technology that you probably already know about.

Business LAN Line

A business LAN line can run you upwards of $50, depending on all the added features you have associated with. If you have a small office environment and your business doesn’t perform any type of outbound telemarketing services, then you may be able to go without a LAN line. This is especially true if you have cell phones. Why pay the costs of both a cell phone and a LAN line? An alternative would be to sign up for an online 800 phone service such as RingCentral. Online 800-number services can cost under $20 per month and give you some pretty neat options. For example, RingCentral allows you to setup an 800 number with multiple extensions. You can then setup each extension to forward to another phone number (ie. your cell phones). Each extension can even have its own custom greeting and voicemail message. This makes it easy to provide multiple people in your office with their own extension they can give out to clients.

Printing and Mailing Invoices

This is one of my huge pet peeves. I can’t tell you how often I still get invoices through snail mail from companies I do business with. Why not just produce a PDF version of the invoice and email it? Or just email me a Word.doc copy of the invoice. Even that would be better than a printed copy coming through the mail. I recently received an invoice from a company that had a $1.50 balance due. Come on! Do the math. 42 cents for a stamp, plus the cost to print and buy the envelope, plus time involved in preparing and mailing it… the company just lost half of that $1.50. It would have been much easier to just email me the invoice.

Files

Are you still filing your documents and storing them in file cabinets? Eeek! A better way would be to scan your documents and save them to PDF. Then store those PDF’s in an organized folder structure on your computer. Or better yet, build a database to store your information in. Just make sure to have a backup system in place.

Image credit: Caitlinator

For Online Classified Flyers

Online flyer ads are great for promoting products or services online, but are most effective with a targeted title. Since these are syndicated to web directories and indexed by search engines, it’s important to keep search terms in mind. Think about what you are offering, then think about what your buyers and clients might actually type into Google. An effective title will synchronize these two concepts so the searcher finds just what they’re looking for – your ad. Many people, to their own detriment, try to title their flyers with catchy phrases, much like they would title an article, essay, or blog post. This creativity is lost on an online flyer, since buyers and clients rarely conduct a search using that phrase.

For Blog Posts

A blog post is a whole different ball game. Think about your Blogsite from the visitor’s perspective. Try to title your posts in such a way that would appeal to a visitor, as well as search engines. Search engine optimization definitely has its place, but remember,  foregoing the usability of your site and the functionality of your posts for a little SEO juice is not going to encourage visitors to return or refer others. If you are clever enough to title your posts in such a way that they will be search engine friendly and visitor friendly, then you’ve found the jackpot. Remember also that you can always use tags and titles for an SEO boost, without compromising the user experience one bit.

Whether a blog post title or a flyer title, it is often the reason that someone decides to read further or move along. It is worth the time invested to put some thought into who your audience is and what they’re looking for. Now go and title wisely!

Image credit: Paul Worthington