Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

Hubris - definition: Microsoft's Passport

Before September of 1995, Microsoft ignored the Internet because their 16-bit Windows 3.1 operating system couldn't handle the 32-bit Internet world. With the introduction of Windows 95, Microsoft decided they owned the Internet. Instead of having separate accounts at dozens of websites, Microsoft decided that you will have one master account that you will use to log in everywhere. That account. . .

Microsoft Great Plains Installation – overview for IT Dir...

Microsoft Great Plains is main mid-market application from Microsoft Business Solutions. This is short article, written in question/answer/FAQ style to give IT Director/Controller balanced top level information on Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains implementation. If you have decided on Microsoft Great Plains as main accounting and ERP system you need to know some technical details on . . .

How To Write Super-Effective Ads and Sales Letters!

"The more things change, the more they stay the same". That saying couldn't be more true, especially when it comes to writing ads and sales letters. The same things that worked fifty years ago, continue to work today. Yes, times and technology has changed, but people haven't. At least, not the way we react to an effective advertisement. When writing an ad or sales letter, there are two critical. . .

15 Ways to Promote eLearning Programs

Pre-note: In this article, teleclass is an example used to illustrate one type of eLearning market. The tips work the same for other eLearning programs, including, but not limited to, teleseminars and ecourses. In the mid-1990s, the teleclass format began and was named, distance learning. During these early years, learning institutions, particularly universities, were chief users of this for. . .

Don't Use FFA's To Build Your Newsletter Subscriber

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, The initials FFA stand for "FREE For All" and my advice would be don't waste your time! FFA's DON'T WORK! FFA sites are directories where anyone can place their ad for free. And that's exactly what you get--a zillion people posting free ads. When you post your ad on an FFA directory or site, here's what will happen. You'll immediately ge. . .

SEO 101 – The Basics Of How To Get To The Top Of The Sear...

Search Engine Optimization (commonly referred to as SEO) is one of the best waysto get traffic to your site. The best thing about SEO is that the traffic you get is free! If you manage to get top ten listings in a major search engine like Google, you can get hundreds or even thousands of visitors to your site. Depending on your site’s subject matter, you might even be able to start earning a si. . .

It Really Is Simple RSS

I have 'Googlebot' coming to my site every day since a month ago I put up my first news feed, since then I have put up yet another. I never used to see 'Googlebot' much before, so it goes to show that if you want to be noticed by the search engines, you need to put up a 'news-feed'. All this re-submitting to search engines every month nonsense is just that, nonesense! I don't really think the . . .

Microsoft Great Plains: Interest Calculation Example – st...

This is intermediate level SQL scripting article for DB Administrator, Programmer, IT SpecialistOur and Microsoft Business Solutions goal here is to educate database administrator, programmer, software developer to enable them support Microsoft Great Plains for their companies. In our opinion self support is the goal of Microsoft to facilitate implementation of its products: Great Plains, Navis. . .

The Truth About Stuffing Envelopes And Home Assembly Prog...

Two of the oldest scams around appear to be as popular as ever. I'm referring to stuffing envelopes and home assembly programs. Let's talk about stuffing envelopes first.Ads for envelope stuffing "opportunities" seem to be everywhere--from your mailbox to your newspaper to your e-mail box. Promoters usually advertise that, for a "small" fee, they will set you up to earn big money by stuffing en. . .

Microsoft CRM Customization secrets – second edition

This article is for advanced Microsoft CRM SDK C# developers. It describes the technique of direct SQL programming, when SDK doesn't have the functionality to do the job.Introduction. Looks like Microsoft CRM becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. It is tightly integrated. . .

The Truth About Multi-Level Marketing

I know I'm going to ruffle a few feathers with this article, so let me just say right now that all MLM marketing (AKA network marketing) companies are not scams. Obviously, there are some good, reputable companies out there. However, there are so many bad ones that I'm compelled to lump the entire industry together. If you're thinking about getting involved with MLM, my advice would be, DON'T! . . .

Understanding Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are commonly misunderstood, in order to understand affiliate programs lets start with terminology. For clarification purposes, an affiliate is defined as any "referrer" or website that promotes a product in an effort to earn revenue. A merchant is defined as someone who owns a product and is sharing revenues with an affiliate based on the affiliate's performance. Affiliate pr. . .

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - A Business No...

Hackers, hurricanes, fires, flooding, power outages, denial of service attacks, application failures, employee error, sabotage and now terrorism are helping companies to focus on the necessity of a business continuity plan. Through the late 1990s as companies prepared for Y2K, many IT executives, risk managers, CFOs and corporate managers realized that recovering computing systems, networks and. . .

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Risk Analysis...

In the risk evaluation phase, there are a number of key areas that must be covered. One of the most important is to understand probable threats. In an ideal world, which most of us have noticed does not exist, we would identify and protect ourselves against all threats to ensure that our business continues to survive. Obviously, we are constrained by other factors such as budgets, time and prio. . .

Take The Path Of Least Resistance To Success

It's been said time and again that 95 percent of all online businesses fail. I don't know how accurate that statement is, but if it's anywhere close to the truth, I know the reason why. Besides being woefully unprepared and under- financed, too many online businesses try to reinvent the wheel. In other words, instead of applying sound, proven advertising and marketing principles, most onl. . .

Microsoft Business Solutions Customization options - Over...

Several years ago Microsoft purchased Great Plains Software, then Navision (Denmark based software development company). At this time Great Plains Software already was active ERP applications consolidation player - it already acquired Solomon Software couple of years prior. Then in 2002 Microsoft released Microsoft CRM (Client Relation Management system). Also Microsoft decided to attack ret. . .

How To Dramatically Improve Your Website's Conversion Ratio

According to the so-called experts, a decent conversion ratio is right around one percent. In other words, one out of every one hundred visitors to your website converts to a sale. Personally, I think a one percent conversion ratio sucks! My website consistently converts right around ten percent. And so do a lot of my Internet marketing collegues. I can assure you, the websites of superstars li. . .

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Reducing Your...

Like all plans, there is an ultimate goal to achieve. The goal in a business continuity plan is simply that: to continue your business in the face of a disaster or a disruption. A business continuity plan is not just for a disaster. It’s also for the smaller things in life, like your friendly neighborhood burglar who decides to borrow all of your computers or the small power interruption, wh. . .

Microsoft Navision Database: C/SIDE or MS SQL Server - ov...

Microsoft Business Solutions promotes Navision (former Attain) on US market as excellent manufacturing applications (formerly it was promoting Great Plains). Navision is available on its native (solid rock and recommended databse) and Microsoft SQL Server. You should consider several factors in deciding on the database selection. Currently Navision is supported on two platforms - Navision na. . .

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - The Business ...

Essentially, the plan addresses the who, what, where, why and when of recovery. Goal number one is to reduce the risk profile of the business. Goal two is to be well prepared so the impact of any disruption is minimized. Overall, the objective of the plan is to effectively minimize the chances of disruption and, if there is a disruption, to quickly implement the recovery and get the business or. . .

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Business Impa...

Business impact analysis is a critical part of the business continuity planning process. This step quantifies data and gets into the real world issue of potential losses that can negatively impact your business. It is used to understand the most important impacts and how to best protect your people, processes, data, communications, assets and the organization’s goodwill and reputation. Organiza. . .

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Selecting A B...

The risk analysis and business impact analysis have identified risks to key business functions. Also, the potential impacts and probabilities of these risks as well as the costs to prevent or mitigate damages and the time to recover will have been established. Evaluating and selecting strategies is based on using this knowledge. Strategy selection involves focusing on key risk areas and selecti. . .

Great Plains Customization – programming Auto-apply in Ac...

Microsoft Great Plains is one of three Microsoft Business Solutions mid-market ERP products: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision. Considering that Great Plains is now very good candidate for integration with POS application, such as Microsoft Retail Management System or RMS and Client Relation Systems, such as Microsoft CRM – there is common need in Great Plains customizations and integrations, es. . .

Do You Read On The Train?

I don't know about you, but I see more people with PDAs on trains reading things on there instead of reading paperbacks, or newspapers. Is this the future we are looking at? Will newspapers of a morning be unobtainable anymore? Will we get our daily news via the PDA? Perhaps connected to a "Smartphone" for downloading the newspaper to the PDA? Or will "Smartphones" take over the task of the PDA. . .

Microsoft RMS Customization – PO Items Receiving in Great...

Microsoft Retail Management (RMS) and Microsoft Great Plains are retail and accounting/ERP solutions coming from the same Microsoft subdivision – Microsoft Business Solutions. There is often common need to do integration between the two. Despite the fact that both systems come from the same software development company – the integration is not as simple as it probably should be. In each case. . .

Microsoft CRM Selection

Microsoft CRM is recent (2001) CRM answer from Microsoft and attempt top get market share from traditional vendors: Siebel, Oracle, Onyx. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. It is tightly integrated with other Microsoft Business Solutions products such as Microsoft Great Plains, Solomon, Navision (the last two in progress).We would like you to. . .

Microsoft CRM or Siebel

Siebel is traditional CRM market leader, however and mostly due to recession 200-2003, Siebel lost sizable portion of CRM market to new tiger, such as Microsoft CRM. Microsoft CRM s recent (2001) CRM answer from Microsoft and attempt top get market share from traditional vendors: Siebel, Oracle, Onyx. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. It is ti. . .

How to understand the Domain Name System

Ever wonder why DNS systems came into existence? Efficiency. Every computer has a distinct IP address, and the Internet needed an elite method for obtaining these addresses and for managing the system as a whole. Enter ICANN.The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number manages the DNS root of the Internet domain namespace. ICANNs role is to manage the assignment of identifiers, ensuri. . .

Network Monitoring for Serious eCommerce

In the real world, businesses come in every size, from self-employed entrepreneurs like me to mega malls like Wal-Mart. On the Internet, companies come in every size, too, from a stand-alone ebook sales page with webmaster and owner all in one, to 300 pound gorilla like Amazon, with over a million pages requiring the entire population of a small country to serve as webmaster. If your site is a . . .

How to Search your PC with Google Desktop

In this era of Internet, most people are frequent users of computers. Many of us use computers through out the day, accumulating morasses of information in various formats, which include email, digital photo, word document, spreadsheet, presentation file, ebook, article, other downloaded files, music, visited web pages, and many others. We stuff them in multiple folders in our PC. Before we kno. . .

Intranet Portal Project - RAD or Waterfall?

In this short article, David Viney examines whether Rapid Application Development (RAD) or Waterfall development methodologies should be used during Intranet Portal projects.Building BridgesI have often used the analogy of building a bridge to explain to business colleagues the difference between RAD and Waterfall.Let’s say that we are in the middle ages and the Mayor of Kingston-upon-Thames is. . .

Do You Want Your Own Fully Programmable ERP? - Part 1

We are in a transition phase in the Managerial Administration models of any company or Government, because three factors are summing for that: The new powerful business Information Technologies and its more and more smaller costs, like ERP, CRM, BI, etc., The creativity of the new MBA to generate value and its corresponding engineering - for example, Feedback Control System - in the administrat. . .

Does Size Really Matter In Our Digital Age?

Well, we’ve all seen the advert, but that’s not what I want to talk about, so get that out of your head straight away. No, let’s think about what many call the “Queen of Arts” - namely painting. Have you ever wandered around a huge Art Gallery and marvelled at the works by Tintoretto, Raphael, Constable or any master painter who has produced huge canvasses? Then again, we have many fine example. . .

Yes, You Can Use Hyphens in Your Domain Name: It Makes Th...

Most of the desirable one-word, two-word, and three-word dot com domains are taken. However, if add plurals and hyphenated terms, there is still some gold left in the domain name game. If you find that you need or want to use a phrase or a compound word with two or more words strung together, you can use hyphens. All of the search engine robots read a hyphen as a blank space so you don’t gain o. . .

Is Desktop Search Deserving?

Google, in their march to stay ahead of the pack of competition, has released Google Desktop Search. With Microsoft's MSN in the lead position and nipping at Google's heels, and Google's new shareholders to please, Google has more incentive than ever to deploy technology both better than the other guy's, and sooner. After all, the first to get loaded to the desktop is more likely to build and r. . .

Switchboard.com: The King Of Great Local Search

Forget about local search with Google, Yahoo! or MSN. They don't have a clue. When it comes to great local search, Switchboard.com is king!And no matter how hard Google, Yahoo! and MSN try, when it comes to local search, they'll never even be in the same league as Switchboard, because Switchboard.com gets it. Local search is what Switchboard does better than any other search engine or directory. . .

How To Get Paid Instantly Via Stormpay?

E-currency is very popular on the internet today. People use such electronic money as Stormpay, E-gold, Paypal, Moneybookers and so on... It helps us to pay for online products and services, it also saves our time. The problem is -- how to get paid instantly via stormpay, e-gold or any other e-cash? Online companies that trade real money for e-currency usually charge quite big commission, and a. . .

There Are Many Free Web Hosting Options On The Web, But D...

Where can I find free web hosting?There are hundreds of free web hosting services on the web. You can type “free web hosting” into any major search engine and get an expanded list. However, when you sign up for free hosting account, you are basically signing an expanded advertising agreement. What exactly is free hosting?In exchange for free hosting, the company can place ads your website. T. . .

Software Companies, Don’t Sabotage Your Long-Term Success!

Over the years, I’ve paid a lot of attention to how companies recruit computer programmers. During that time, I’ve noticed how managers frequently make hiring decisions that seem to make sense in the short term, but which result in long-term chaos. I’ve seen the kind of havoc that this can wreak, and how devastating it can be to the company’s future.I’d like to say a few words about that toda. . .

Choosing Domain Names for Professional Sites: Six Guidelines

A professional or business site is one where the primary purpose of the site is to facilitate business transactions. You can sell items directly online or exclusively offline, but the result is the same. You want customers to buy products and/or service directly from you. To create a domain name for this type of website here are a few guidelines: Shorter is better Make the name easy to pronou. . .

Six Ways To Create a Keyword-Rich Domain Name

An effective domain name can help to brand your site. It can also communicate to your customers the types of products you sell online. An easy to remember domain that describes your services should be the goal of every site owner. Here are some techniques that you can use to create the best domain name for your company.Describe your products or servicesOne way to come up with an effective do. . .

An Informational Website Provides the Ultimate Flexibilit...

Content is KingIf you provide great content online users will make sure that they can find your website. You can create a domain with hyphens, longer phrases and words. You don’t want to use the 67 character maximum allowed for domain names, but 15 plus characters is totally acceptable. To make your domain name memorable, it should be a short phrase that describes your website, your products. . .

Counter Strike, The Beginner of Broad Band PC Gaming

This is the world of 21st century, the century of technologies. Every thing is fast now a days and as far as the Computers and games are concerned, they are at the top of all. Every one these days like playing games and some of them love it. Well few years ago PC gaming was not so advance and usually was single user based and if any one wanted to play with any other player then one must have an. . .

My Yahoo Search - Beyond Bookmarks

Yahoo has long offered email, an online calendar, notes, bookmarks, and more through their free My Yahoo service. Now Yahoo has expanded this service even more by adding My Yahoo Personal Search to the mix. Personal Search is another way of storing bookmarks, but with more features than the older bookmarks offered. To use Personal Search, you add a My Yahoo Search button to your browser links b. . .

Ten Ways (plus 1) to Save on Printer Ink and Toner Cartri...

Are you getting tired of the high cost of printing? You’re not alone. Many consumers are up in arms. For example, they believe paying $22 per ounce for printer ink and $150 to $300 (or more) for a toner cartridge is way too much. Most of the major printer manufacturers have adopted the same marketing model as the razor blade, TiVo and cell phone industry. Simply stated, they sell you the printe. . .

Future for Internet Marketers

Have you ever attended a class where the instructor followed the Socratic method of teaching? You remember, only questions, no direct answers. Some discussions lend themselves best to that format, and this look at some possible future trends in Internet marketing is one of them. Mainly because there are no answers at this point, only the questions we pose!Internet marketers by and large are use. . .

Google Tests Expanded Search To Include Printed Works

Google Labs is currently testing Google Print, which returns results from within scanned printed books along with Google's standard web search results. The searcher doesn't have to do anything special - the printed work results are already included in the Google database. Searchers have the option of narrowing their search by including, for example, the word "book" in their search terms. For ex. . .

Stay In The Know With Google SMS

The Short Messaging Service (SMS) from Google sends short, quick, text answers in response to your queries from an SMS-enabled mobile device, such as a cell phone. For example, you can look up phone numbers and addresses of local restaurants, do local phone book searches, compare prices from online merchants in Froogle to those you find in local stores, even look up definitions of words from th. . .

Do I Need an RSS Feed?

Do I Need an RSS Feed?RSS has been around for more than 10 years but has only recently become popular. RSS provides headlines and summaries of information in a concise and standardized way. Benefits for Publishers1.) Avoid Spam FiltersStatisticians estimate that 70% of the email transferred each day is spam (unsolicited email). With that statistic, even opt-in users risk losing valuable message. . .

Free Internet Access

Internet access can be expensive. The high monthly fees that some Internet Service Providers charge is ridiculous. As a result, many people use their local library in order to obtain free internet access. Is it possible to have Free Internet Access from the comfort of your home? YES, if you know where to look. This is a little secret that the major Internet Service Providers don’t want you to k. . .