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Bridges Authority Meeting 12/2/2010

qwebdesigns — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:09:59 +0000

I just received an e-mail from a friend a few minutes ago and wanted to share it with others who may be interested in attending. I know it’s short notice, but if you can at least show up for even a short period of time your attendance certainly will help. The e-mail I received is as follows:

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Subject: FW: Attendance needed at Bridges Authority Meeting!

Hello Everybody,

The Bi-State Authority meets to go over their financial plan this Thursday morning 10:00 am December 2, at Kye’s, in Jeffersonville. These last meetings in December are important, and we need to show up at all of them. We may not be allowed to participate at all of them, but all 4 local TV news channels and print media will be at them. If we show up in great numbers, our cause “No Tolls” will be the number 1 thing on the media’s agenda.

The elected leaders of our community still see us as a small group of nay-sayers. We are not small anymore, and our numbers are growing. Numbers will get the legislator’s, and hopefully governors attention. Tell as many people as you can to show up.

When you get to the meeting, look for one of our group at the door with No2BrigdeTolls stickers for you to wear.

We are already making progress and getting attention from the media and others involved. Here is the Courier Journal article from this morning.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20101130/NEWS01/311300051/1003/BUSINESS/Transportation+Secretary+says+bridge+tolls+still+under+review

www.No2BridgeTolls.org

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I plan on attending and hope to see several familiar faces there.

A Letter to the President

qwebdesigns — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 02:30:43 +0000

I have been very concerned about how unemployment insurance benefits are distributed. I finally contacted the white house today about it. I’m not sure anyone will respond, and less sure anything will happen as a result of my concerns, but at least I feel better having voiced them. Have you made your voice heard?

Follow Me on Facebook Button (or Follow Us)

qwebdesigns — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:55:46 +0000

Many people have the Follow Me on Facebook button on their blogs and personal web sites. Business owners are catching on and creating Follow Us on Facebook buttons for their business blogs and web sites as well. But as people who use the internet for business and not much pleasure, many business people need assistance in figuring out how to setup their button.

1. Login to your Facebook account

2. Click to view your profile

3. On the left side at the bottom, click on the “Create a Profile Badge” link

4. Near the center of the page, below the badge icons you will see some code in a box. Copy the code and send it to your web developer.

Your web developer will know how to get it into your web site or blog. Don’t worry about the icons. Your web developer can create new images and link to them directly from your web site.

I hope this information has been helpful.

Paperless Check Processing – Phone & Internet Checks

qwebdesigns — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:17:47 +0000

I’m extremely excited about a new service that I started using Tuesday … yes, 3 days ago! It allowed me to accept a client’s checking account information over the phone, and then process that check online from the comfort of the bed & breakfast suite I was in at the time. I was back home 24 hours later, and guess what. The funds were already in my bank account! Not a pending transaction … totally cleared and funds available to use.

There was No Signup Fee, No Monthly Fee, No Mail to wait on, No Bank Line, No Waiting Endlessly for the check to clear my account … I LOVE IT

I already have a link on my regular web site www.QWebDesigns.com/payment.php that allows people to go online and pay me by check without me having to process every check myself. How’s that for convenience?

Call me at 502-298-2802 for more details. This is a wonderful service that got the funds into my bank account faster than my credit card merchant processor does, and it doesn’t even charge me a flat monthly fee like my merchant processor does. Don’t get me wrong. I’m keeping my credit card processing also, but this gives people more options for paying me while also allowing me to receive money faster. You can get your money faster too.

(502) 298-2802

Groupon Merchants Telling a Different Story

qwebdesigns — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:38:22 +0000

When you reach the pinnacle of success as quickly and as publicly as Groupon has, it’s only natural to have some detractors along the way. But what started out as a few recent critics has turned into a virtual case of piling on.

The latest case of negative publicity for the wildly successful group-buying startup comes in the form of a survey conducted at Rice University. The study interviewed 150 merchants that have collaborated with Groupon to offer consumers daily deals on their products and services, and the results were not nearly as glowing as the reports coming from the two-year-old company’s headquarters in Chicago.

Thirty-two percent of the responding merchants said that their promotions, or Groupons, resulted not in profits but in losses, while 66 percent said their Groupons were profitable. More telling, perhaps, was that 40 percent of the business owners said that they would not run such a promotion again – a significant contradiction to the company’s data that states that 97 percent of merchants come back asking for more Groupon promotions.

Separate from the study, one of the “criticisms” Groupon has faced in recent weeks is that the promotions have become so overwhelmingly popular that it is difficult for smaller businesses to keep up with the demand they create. The most famous example is the case of a small café in Portland, Ore., in which the owner claims that she spent $8,000 of her personal savings to help cover the costs incurred from selling too many Groupons, of which the company took too high a percentage of the sales.

The incident was highly publicized and Groupon CEO Andrew Mason immediately took to the blogosphere to both apologize to the merchant and to defend his billion-dollar company’s business practices. That seemed to have quieted the criticism for the most part, but then came the Rice survey, which also revealed the following:

•    Among the service industries, restaurants fared the worst with Groupons
•    Salons and spas were the most successful
•    Unprofitable promotions were most prevalent from businesses that had low rates of spending by Groupon users beyond the deal’s face value and low rates of return to the business again at full price
•    Respondents indicated they had largely negative perceptions of Groupon’s competitors

Groupon has been called the fastest-growing company in history and was valued at over $1 billion before its two-year anniversary. It is on par with fellow startup phenomenon Foursquare for the amount of clone companies it has generated, with some very established businesses such as Travelzoo, OpenTable and The Knot also trying to get in on the daily deal/group buying action.

Maybe the Rice survey can provide Mason, Groupon and the scores of imitators a better blueprint for success in this dynamic but relatively uncharted space.

Source: Website Magazine

Louisville Web Design

qwebdesigns — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 18:07:04 +0000

www.LouisvilleWebDesignCo.com

Web Design is Affordable – 4 Page Site for $240

qwebdesigns — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:13:05 +0000

You read correctly. You can get a 4 page web design for only $240. That’s $60 per web page for a basic web site designed by a college-educated programmer who is also BBB accredited. Want to see samples of what $60 per web page gets you? Visit www.QWebDesigns.com and click on Samples. Near the bottom of the page, you will see live samples of what can be achieved for $60 per web page.

Yahoo E-mail Scam

qwebdesigns — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:39:51 +0000

A friend or family member (John) sends you an e-mail stating that he has been robbed at gunpoint while on vacation in another country. John has no money, no cell phone, and needs $2,500 quickly to cover the hotel bill that he cannot pay now. The e-mail looks like it came from John’s Yahoo account. You have it in your address book, and you know it’s from John. What would you do? Calling him wouldn’t help because his phone has been stolen. Respond to the e-mail?

NO. Do not respond to the e-mail. Pick up the phone and call John. If you can’t reach him, then call a close friend or spouse. Call his place of employment to verify something, anything … really on vacation and didn’t tell you ahead of time?

A close friend of mine started getting calls from concerned family members stating that they received the above mentioned alarming e-mail. I got a call from her daughter almost frantic with concern. Since my friend was not at a computer, I tried to access her Yahoo e-mail account to change her password. You guessed it. I couldn’t get in. The account had been hijacked and the password had been changed. Yahoo did not make it easy for me to contact them about this matter. Their phone number was nowhere on the actual Yahoo site.

Save This Number

866-562-7219 will get you to Yahoo customer support. They can help you verify your identity and get you back into your Yahoo e-mail account. The general Yahoo phone number is 408-349-3300.

Not Done Yet

If your e-mail account has been hijacked, change your security questions and answers immediately after you regain access to your account. Otherwise, your account will be vulnerable to being hijacked again soon.

Don’t fall for the scam if it crosses your inbox, and please help anyone whose e-mail account has been hijacked. The internet can be a scary place. Please pass this information along to friends and family to help them be safer and more knowledgeable about e-mail & internet risks.

Courier Journal Hit by Recession

qwebdesigns — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:54:40 +0000

A sad morning. I was reading the Sunday paper today (Monday) and could not find the manufacturer coupons. Not one! Did I miss a section? Did someone jip me? How long have they been gone from the paper? It has been a while since I’ve clipped coupons, so I may be a bit late to receive the news.

When I saw the tv schedule section, I knew the recession had taken a terrible tole on the Louisville Courier Journal. The tv section was only 2 folded sheets! So thin that I thought the other pages must have fallen out somewhere. Nope. I looked very closely, and every day was accounted for in some extremely narrow columns with small print. Remember when the tv section was like another newspaper in itself? Remember when the coupons were dripping from the center … sometimes double sets of coupons? What happened to the days when the Sunday paper was so big and heavy that you had to bag it separately at the grocery store?

I remember when one Sunday paper was enough to cover the ground in Grandma’s back yard where my 3 sisters, a few cousins and I hung out eating watermelon and popsicles on a hot summer day.

Alright. I’m done crying for now. I miss the good ole days.

No Cash? Then Barter.

My Attorney Says I’m Special

qwebdesigns — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 23:36:22 +0000

That’s what I feel when I call and someone actually answers the phone. Not only do they answer the phone, but they don’t send me a bill after they have answered all my questions in detail. Keep reading to learn why I’m such a special case

Several months back, I quoted a client (John Doe) a very agreeable price for a highly customized web site and content management system. He paid half up front and the balance was due upon completion. I started the work, he loved the progress reports, and I finished the project. Guess what. After I completed the project and asked for payment, John changed his mind about what he wanted. He demanded that I do something that was not included in our original plans before he would pay me. Otherwise, I would be hearing from his attorney because he had already paid me a retainer.

Bring It!

Not many people know that I went to college for business administration and accounting before I started building web sites. I aced Business Law and knew that John couldn’t change the rules. The threat to sick his attorney on me just ticked me off. I politely told him that I would get back to him soon. Then, I took a moment to grunt a little before pulling myself back together. I looked closely at my materials & notes for John’s project, and I called my attorney. My wonderful friend informed me that I could stand my ground. I did not have to do the extra work. I could demand payment immediately, and inform John that my attorney is ready to contact him if there is a problem. I wrote John an e-mail rejecting his demand to do the extra work, and requested the money that he owed me. A few days later, John called me. He told me to come get my check.

Got Your Back

Even though I already knew I would come out on top if this situation got nasty, it was nice to have the freedom to get a legal professional to reassure me. It was even nicer to know that my legal professional is a member of PrePaid Legal, and I would not receive a bill for this, or any other services my attorney has provided. I have used my PrePaid Legal membership 3 times in the year I have had it. They save me money and continue help me sleep peacefully at night. At the end of every day, I hear that little voice in my head say “You are special Melissa. I got your back”. Chuckle at the humor, but think hard about the next time you may need to call an attorney. Will you worry about how to pay, or will you just start dialing … like I do?