I remember when I was small I would always be told "put your listening ears on"....Always wondered what in the heck are listening ears...(That’s a joke).... Well, most of you get the concept. Listening ears have never been more important than if you are running your own service oriented business such as a computer repair business. Are you listening to what the customer’s problem is? Are you listening to what the customers’ concerns are? Are you listening to what the customer would like done? Are you listening? I've said it many times before but pretty much a tech savvy person can fix a computer or build a network...But, not just anyone can run a business. It's takes a special person to do that and special qualities in order to be successful. Customer service should be on the top of your list of things to do on [+]

If you receive the below e-mail it is a scam. You don't even need to read the entire e-mail, nor do you need to fill in the questions, and lastly you don't want to click on "reply" This is to inform you that you have exceeded your E-mail Quota Limit and you need to increase your E-mail Quota Limit because in less than 96 hours your E- mail Account will be disabled.Increase your E-mail Quota Limit and continue to use your Webmail Account. To increase your E-mail Quota Limit to 2.7GB, Fill in your Details as below and send to the E-mail Quota Webmaster by CLICKING REPLY: EMAIL ADDRESS: USERNAME: PASSWORD: CONFIRM PASSWORD: DATE OF BIRTH: Thank you for your understanding and corperation in helping us give you the Best of E-mail Service. As you can see they are asking for entirely way too much information just for going over your [+]

The Association of Computer Repair Business Owners has just reached a milestone in membership....1,000+ members as of September 2010. Each and every month membership is growing in the Association and interest in the group is increasing. What started off as a place for the small business owner to become part of a worldwide Association is now becoming a reality. About the Association of Computer Repair Business Owners The Association of Computer Repair Business Owners is a trade association of Computer Repair Business owners, dedicated to the advancement of the Computer Repair Business through the building of trust and professionalism of its members. Every association member pledges to adhere to the Code's standards as a condition of admission and continuing membership in the Association. Dan ACRBO.com [+]

Backup...Backup...Backup... It seems like no matter how many times you tell people that they need to back up their data they just don't believe it will happen to them. As you can see from this picture, there is an issue... [caption id="attachment_376" align="alignleft" width="675" caption="Bad Files"][/caption] The main issue is the drive has bad sectors/files on it and of course these are actually invoices that equal about $12,000 in billing that is suppose to be done "now".... Asked the customer if they had a current "backup" of their data and I received the "deer in the headlights" look and knew the answer without waiting. Now many many hours later and a late evening and the data is now recovered. Unfortunetely the cost would be less than a years worth of paying for backups. Backups are inexpensive and needed [+]

This is actually a local story I am going to be following about a server that supports Virginia state agencies and how it crashed. The interesting part is not as much that the server crashed but paying around $250K for an independent review as to why it crashed. I guess on a 2.4 Billion dollar contract paying a mere $250K for a review is not a bad thing to apease the customer. But, seriously what exactly are they going to review that could take that amount of time and money? Read more here [+]

Great article on SEO ranking factors. Results are based on 72 SEO experts and you might find some very interesting facts that you have been overlooking. Of course there are probably 72 other "Experts" that would say different things but it's a start. Read more here Dan ACRBO.com [+]

If you have not noticed Goolge is now using Google Instant and is referred to as a "new search enhancement". Personally I am not sure if it's really needed but I can see the reasons for doing it. Now when you go to www.google.com and start typing your search in the box it automatically starts to fill the page with possible results and the page changes as you continue to type. Google claims some crazy numbers such as 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, 30 milliseconds to glance at another part of the screen page, etc...Never really thought of the time sequence when I way typing a search for "order pizza" before ;) There are many benefits such as "faster searches", "smarter predicitions", and "Instant results". Maybe the biggest benefit is people will use their computer just a bit less due to the time [+]

Sometimes no matter how many times you explain something to a customer they just don't get it. I do Search Engine Optimization all over the United States for customers. Now depending on the type of business they have I pretty much know ahead of time if I can get them listed on the first page of Google and Yahoo. With that said just because you get them listed on the first page of major search engines that does not guarantee results. Point in case....Company out of California does pool renovations, design, repairs etc...They service the high end customers of California so you can pretty much guess where their customers live. Received the call from the potential customer and they said what they wanted and how their website was nowhere to be found on the search engines for any type of search. Did [+]

This is the type of e-mail's I get from others in the industry ;) Dan, I need your help. None of this crap works. I just finished reading posts on Technibble and Podnutz for the past few years and haven't made a dime. I bought e-books, video courses, audio courses, key word tools, and complete businesses in a box and NONE of them work. I am a member of some of the community groups in my town. I thought about going to a Chamber of Commerce meeting, but I bet they already have people there who are providing the exact same services I offering. So, I thought about building websites, but everyone I know already has one. I thought about offering SEO services, but I can't even remember what SEO stands for, so that's probably not the service for me. Plus, I never update [+]

Started receiving these new e-mail scams just this week. I must admit I almost fell for it. Was using my new iPhone (yes it drops calls) and saw this email that had a "subject" line of:  "David Beckham died" I thought to myself  "wow, I wonder what happen", now this is the normal thought most people would have and that is exactly what the email is hoping for. But, once you open the email there is an attachment typically titled "news.zip"... And it had content in the email that said: "Brad Pitt died along with 34 other people when the Air Force CT-43 "Bobcat" passenger plane carrying the group on a trip crashed into a mountainside while approaching the Dubrovnik airport in Croatia during heavy rain and poor visibility.  Please see attachment" Once I saw what it said and the attachment then I knew [+]