Eddie Yu › Comments

This is a question asked frequently by small companies who are struggling to find an efficient way to share data and manage their increasing volumes of communications. Essentially the difference is having your email all stored on a central server and distributed from there, or being individually received by each mailbox from external sources. An important distinction should be made: POP3 (and IMAP) is an email protocol that handles how emails are sent and received. Exchange (for the purposes of this article we will be referring to Microsoft Exchange) is a server platform that allows mail processing using any protocol. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

A lot of online businesses today have realised the benefits of outsourcing work as it means they lower their overall costs as well as reducing risks. It also enables their e-commerce company to become a lot more competitive in an ever demanding business environment. The advantages are very appealing but outsourcing involves a considerable amount of management in order for it to work as efficiently as you would like it to. This applies to managing it in house and out of house in an intelligent manner. If you have any concerns about how to go about finding relevant information on how to manage outsourcers effectively, the best place to look is on the Internet. There are many articles written on how to approach the concept of outsourcing, the advantages of doing so and the pitfalls that you may come across and this includes employee backlashes. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

Online businesses in general can benefit from social networking sites, and if these are used correctly it can mean a lot of extra revenue from customers you would not normally have reached. There are many advantages to using these marketing platforms and this includes free advertising, building a solid customer base, establishing your own branding and gaining valuable industry contacts. There are many social networks available these days, so finding the right platform for your business is obviously something that needs to be investigated thoroughly. If you supply industrial equipment there is little chance of your business expanding into other countries or areas if you choose a social network like Facebook to market your products. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

I just had my birthday, my beautiful girlfriend surprised me with the most amazing birthday gift by taking me to Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons which is a luxury historic manor house owned by Raymond Blanc and the restaurant has 2 Michelin Stars. So what is the Nth degree and how does it help my mindset? Let me tell you a bit more about this amazing manor house. read more - Eddie Yu

Developed and released by Apple Inc as an audio-visual media platform, the iPad is one of the bestselling mobile Internet devices to ever hit the market. This tablet PC falls directly between a smartphone and a laptop in terms of its weight and size, but in terms of features, the iPad excels and leaves its competition in the dust. Although the iPad will only operate with Apple software and applications purchased directly from the Apple Store, it is still far more feature-rich than competing tablet PCs, and for Internet-based function, it bests any comparable smartphone. The iPad delivers a slew of advantages, many of which directly benefit a user’s day-to-day life. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

It's not every day you get to participate or play a part in world history, but last night I was privileged and humbled to be in such great company as a Patron of Peace One Day being able to support them in their great endeavours.   Yesterday was September 21st, the United Nations International Day of Peace, created and instigated by Jeremy Gilley, the founder of the non-profit organisation Peace One Day. His singular effort alone brought this day into existence, and since then he has worked tirelessly to institutionalize the day so that everyone on the planet knows about it.   read more - Eddie Yu

Most economists in the mainstream tend to agree that, because of the all-encompassing, come-one, come-all nature of the Internet, the web is one of the few legitimate venues to consistently thrive through economic downturn. This is not a fact lost on the average businessperson looking to create a web presence. Millions of newcomers venture into this realm every year, but over 90% will ultimately fail. Selling products online is not nearly as easy as big-name stores like Amazon and eBay make it look. It’s quite difficult to sell online, primarily because there are so many potential mistakes a person could be making. Below we will cover some of the top mistakes you should try to avoid when selling online. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

Black and white and a little on the wobbly side, penguins are cute, cuddly and considered to be relatively harmless. However, when we’re talking about a Google Penguin, we’re talking about a real angry bird. After the huge Penguin update (some call it an overhaul), there are more than a few web experts spreading the word that SEO is quickly dying on the vine. Google has never shied away from making huge updates to their entire format. Since Google owns the lion’s share of Internet searching, almost every online businessperson in the world (outside of China) relies heavily on Google for their search results, traffic, clickthroughs, sales, etc. But the problem Google has always had is that they focus on the larger, able-to-pay-millions advertisers, while the little guys get thrown under the bus. Enter Penguin. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

There is so much information online that sometimes you don't know where to start when it comes to doing research. Whether that is research on your business or perhaps a particular area of your business, I've often found that I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information on the internet.   One source of great research which comes in handy, which often gets ignored, is magazine research. You might be wondering how on earth research in a magazine is useful with all this technology at hand, however magazines themselves do a lot of research for you, so why not take advantage of that?   Piggy back research   read more - Eddie Yu

When the average Internet user visits a website, there’s a lot of information being exchanged between the computer or device and the web host. These transactions can unfortunately be breached—and quite easily—and thus hacking and identify theft are always major issues to contend with online for any frequent net user or businessperson. Knowing which sites to trust and letting users know that you can be trusted may all boil down to an SSL Certificate. Although you may have seen sites displaying an SSL Certificate, and although you may have a general idea that it is security-based, few people actually realize what’s at the root of this feature. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and like its predecessor, Transport Layer Security (TLS), an SSL is a cryptographic protocol providing tight security during data exchanges. Using symmetric encrypting for confidentiality and asymmetric cryptography for the key exchange, an SSL essentially encrypts information by scrambling various segments of... - Eddie Yu

For people thinking about bringing their businesses online, creating an effective business website may be all you need to propel your compel into the 21st century – finally. However, things are certainly not as easy as they were some years past. Web 2.0 shook up the Internet, and today’s social media dominance makes old-fashioned site design obsolete. And that’s not even touching on the constant changes made by Google and the introduction of Bing in the market. It’s not just enough to create a website. You must produce an effective site that bolsters your brand tremendously while still playing to its respective niche strongly. If this sounds like a tough job, rest assured that it is. This is why it’s always a smart idea to invest in some website design. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

For individuals not fully abreast of the keyword situation online, a long-tail keyword can be a confusing term. In other genres, like science and mathematics, “long tail” refers to centralized distribution or a probability distribution. In search engine optimization (SEO), however, a long-tail keyword is a phrase which contains three to five (normally) words that are searched by a number of Internet users as they seek information. Example: If a phrase like “losing weight without exercise” is a popular search term, this phrase ultimately becomes a great long-tail keyword. Since these phrases are much more specific, they’re overwhelmingly preferred by online businesspeople and search engines. Of course, these keywords constantly advance and change, especially in the genre of blogs. So if you’re searching for the best long-tail keywords to use with a blog article, you’re going to need some guidance. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

It’s hard to believe how much the Internet has changed since the mid 1990s when it first burst onto the scene, but here we are dealing with something that no one ever imagined in 2006, much less 1996. Every two years the Internet undergoes a complete overhaul in terms of how search engines recognize and rank content. So while the average user can still find their goodies by entering their preferred terms, business people have to consistently adapt in order to reel in the big fish. Any website that does well on today’s Internet has earned its stripes through hard work, creative and consistent link placement, and proper SEO. If you want any chance to succeed in the market, you need an SEO-friendly website. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

Having a flexible business means finding new ways to hold meetings and one of the most important things in business is meeting people and having face to face chats. More often than not, entrepreneurs flock to these members clubs where they once again work in a confined uninteresting space, but there are so many inspiring spaces that really they should go out and explore a bit more. Take me for example, I'm in between meetings today right now and I'm sat in a lovely coffee house outside by the Southbank Centre. This is one of those inspiring spaces. Art is all around me and there is a buzz of people. read more - Eddie Yu

If you’ve paid attention to Facebook lately, then you already know about Timeline. If you haven’t switched over when prompted, you will be automatically switched very shortly. This mandatory Facebook update is complete and ready to be instituted across the entire platform. Bringing a new visual design, a new ad layout, and more features, Timeline is something that, according to Facebook, should benefit both users and advertisers. But is it really all it’s cracked up to be? Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of Facebook’s new Timeline feature to see if it’s really worth all the fuss or if it’s just another monkey-wrench in your advertising program. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

Going by a recent report released by Forrester Research, Facebook is the number-one social networking site for people of all ages. By leaps and bounds, Facebook is the king of social media for its respective niche. Billions of advertising dollars pour into the network every year, and any business worth its salt has a fan page set up on the site in order to draw more people in. The fact of the matter, no matter how it’s sliced, is that having a Facebook fan page is better than not having one. Reaching more people and ultimately boosting brand awareness is something that even the world’s largest companies are spending a fortune on. It’s definitely something that every business should think about. However, things still have to be done correctly. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

Long before social media took the world by storm, blogging was all the rage. Setting up a blog and sharing your thoughts with the world was such a trend that it only took a few months before advertising played a huge role in the way people handled their blogging. It became a legitimate business opportunity, and still is. Does your business really need a blog to succeed? Well, your success isn’t contingent upon having a blog, but there are many benefits you can experience by taking the time to create one. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

Based on MySQL and PHP, WordPress is undoubtedly the web’s favorite free open source blogging tool and content management system. In fact, WordPress is so popular that it’s used to manage over 22% of all new websites and over 16% of the top one-million websites on the net. Obviously, these numbers include a lot of business websites. If you operate a business online and are looking at WordPress to help you manage your content, here are some of the best plugins the program has available for you to use. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

Those of us who live and work in large urban centres are, by now, probably very familiar with some aspects of “flexible working” – though we might not even notice it.  For those who live in rural communities and smaller villages, however, “work” has more or less the same definition as it did 100 years ago: you get up in the morning, go to work all day, and come home in the evening. read more - Eddie Yu

I came across this article recently and found it very interesting. Often people ask what one might do with a bunch of empty buildings if indeed offices became redundant. What I often say is that those old office buildings could be converted into homes, places where energy can be stored or even created, or I've even stated that they could become indoor farms. Little did I know that this was already in development. This solution would indeed work extremely well and it's possible to say that in the future, old abandoned office blocks could well be the place where your food might grow. Do you think this would be a viable solution, seeing that it would be a completely carbon neutral solution too? read more - Eddie Yu

It's probably the hottest day of the year today and I suspect being late in August, this might be the hottest time of this year. I think one of the most interesting things about the sun, especially in the UK is that it brings people out and there is an overemphasis of value placed on being "out". This is because of course we don't get beautiful sun here that often, and as humans, we crave what we don't have. If you went to live in Spain where there is a lot of sun all year round, you'd probably get tired of it after a while and then you'll be craving things live ice cream, or a decent fan, or air conditioning. read more - Eddie Yu

Telecommuting has become a double-edged sword for many employers and employees alike.  On the one hand, proponents claim it allows them to get more done, by removing the need for travel and the distractions of the office. On the other hand, some people say it’s much easier to slip into lethargy and lose motivation if you’re working in your dressing gown. Your level of productivity when working from home most likely depends more on you as a person, though.  All employees being equal (and we know they aren’t), the arguments are overwhelmingly in favour of working from home, especially in the digital age.   read more - Eddie Yu

If your organisation is planning any sort of change in the future, the people who work for you need to be made aware of the changes as soon as the decision is actually made. They are the crux of the business and you do rely on them for the success of it. You will need to maintain a good level of productivity throughout the change over, and this has to be kept very much in mind. Over recent years many businesses including the banking industry have taken full advantage of the fact that employing virtual staff to carry out various jobs is a step in the right direction when it comes to cutting their overall annual costs and sometimes vital for a business to succeed. read more - Eddie Yu

Everyone wants to be that person – the one whose staff are happy and free to come and go as they please, because they know at the end of the day results are delivered. But letting your staff change to a work-from home system requires a lot of planning, preparation and infrastructure, and it may require a dramatic shift in “business as usual”. There is a common misconception that technology allows us to work from home as if we were really in the office.  This is not entirely true.  It doesn’t mean that workers can’t be as productive, but it means that the way they work will change.  Here are a few things to consider when letting staff work from home. read more - Eddie Yu

Building a website is something that has become relatively easy to do in today’s age thanks to a wide assortment of different tools and control panels. The average person starting up a web business can construct a fully functioning site in a matter of hours without any specialized education in computer or graphic design. However, building a website and building an attractive, appealing website are two different things entirely. One area of website building that may be lacking the necessary attention is typography. To put it as simply as possible, typography is the style and the size of font you’re using on your website. Most average text, like what you’re reading now, is usually formatted with a few basic typography styles, like 11pt Arial, 12pt Times New Roman, etc. While no one would suggest that you ever cling so tightly to the status quo of site-building, you do have to remain in the relative wheelhouse unless you’re looking to scare people away. Huge 72pt font with various... - Eddie Yu

We’re blessed, in a sense, that today’s technology enables the construction of websites and various page elements without one actually needing the possess advanced knowledge. Take HTML for example. Although this is the fundamental building block of webpages, few people actually know what it is. HyperText Markup Language is basically the language—code—websites speak, and without that, you wouldn’t be able to construct viewable pages. HTML was created by a physicist in the late 1980s and early 90s. Version 2.0, technically the first official version online, was made available in 1995. As you might imagine, a lot has changed since 1995. We’ve gone from basic CRT color TVs to HD flat screens; from bulky, unattractive cellular phones to sleek, slim smartphones. And, of course, from basic HTML to new various today, like HTML5. HTML5 is a major revision to other coding language like HTML and XHTML. It deals with every single aspect you could imagine concerning the way your content is built,... - Eddie Yu

If you’ve happened to watch a television show in the past ten years, you may have noticed a new trend. Instead of allowing the commercials to do all the advertising, networks have really taken advantage of the wider viewer angle provided by flat-screen TVs, and they have started putting advertisements in the corners of programs as they run. These advertisements are small and nonintrusive. Often you will find that a lot of these advertisements deal with social media on the internet, like Facebook and Twitter and YouTube. The point of that recent TV history lesson was this: Social media badges have become so popular that they can be found practically anywhere. Using them on your website is the obvious evolution of online business. Of course, some people are planning on operating serious businesses and believe that having these social media buttons displayed on the site will give it too much of a childlike look and feel. However, research shows that the most successful brands out there... - Eddie Yu

There was recently a lot of hubbub in the advertising world when Facebook decided the change the layout of their page. They went from a pretty standard format, where ads and personal content and other features all fit the basic screen, to a literal vertical timeline running down the center of the page. Facebook’s Timeline feature has since changed minds. Advertisers started spending more money. Ads displayed in this format proved to be more reliable. Pages began receiving more views. And the trust of the advertisers witnessed a huge uptick. How does any of this relate to you? It’s simple. If you are planning on using Facebook and are planning on creating an effective business page or a fan page, you will need to know how to effectively use Timeline to your advantage. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu

If you’re thinking about building a website to start up an online business, you have probably also entertained the idea of starting a social media presence to tie everything together. For instance, your main website, which will house your main business, will be interconnected with various streams of social media, perhaps video sites, social gathering sites, etc. So with all the many options out there available to you, have you ever considered using a site called Digg? Digg, simply put, is a social news site that receives its content from its many users. A basic user will upload their content to Digg, and the community at large thus votes on it. If it’s popular, they can “digg” it, and the content subsequently lives on and rises up through the ranks. If the content isn’t “dug,” however, it is instead buried and ultimately disappears from view. Any site such as this is a double-edged sword in that, for its ease of use and its massive potential for success in promoting your business and... - Eddie Yu

There are many different ways to communicate with your visitors when you have a website. Some site owners use simple text, and it can work quite effectively. Other site owners enjoy creating videos and posting them all over the place. Well, you can really split the difference here by creating a podcast. This is an audio file that allows you to speak directly to your customers using an MP3 file. Podcasts are easy to create, easy to upload and update, and visitors to your website will most definitely view your brand more seriously if you have a podcast. You will instantly come across as more trustworthy to your base at large. Click Here to Read Entire Blog - Eddie Yu