Author Archives: ernie

Cool Web Design

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Cool Web DesignDoes Cool Web Design Work

Fancy websites look great. They may even be considered cool. But does a cool Web design really work in terms of attracting clients and completing sales.? The bottom line for any company is whether an investment generates additional business. Designing and developing a website is really no different. The amount of money and time you spend developing your website needs to generate the customer demand that you’re looking for. It must meet the overall objectives of your company. All web sites need to be indexed by search engines. They need to rank high enough to be seen by people searching for your topic. And they need to be able to convert the reader to an interested customer. A tall order that goes far beyond what might be considered to be cool.

What About Search Engine Traffic

The writer believes that a cool website is not necessarily the answer. Design the website so that the search engines can find it. They need to index it for the search terms that relate to your companies services and products. The cool website with lots of graphics may not achieve those results. The search engines cannot properly index your website when there are lots of graphics.

Focus on search engine optimization or SEO as it is commonly referred to. This means having lots of original high-quality content that describes the services and products that you provide from your company. The search engines will index this content. They return it in the search results to people who are looking for these kinds of services and products.

You may also decide to have a cool looking website with lots of graphics. But don’t forgo the SEO approach to ensure the search engines will properly index your content. Proper indexing will deliver those results to people who are searching for the services and products that you sell.

Continuous Updates

Another common mistake is to forget about your website. After all it is online and available to customers to look at. This is so wrong.

Continuously update existing content, add new content, and keep it interesting for your readers and customers. If you do not follow this practice you will find that less and less traffic is directed to your website.

Add new content on a weekly basis. Try updating existing content. Focus on the older content to maintain its currency. Keep it related to your company’s products and services. The search engines love this. Maintain and update your website on a regular basis. They will reward this effort by improving the indexing of your content in better search results. This usually means more customers and more sales which is what every company is looking for!

For more web design details, click here.

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Young Investors are Hoarding cash

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Hoarding cashIt seems that young investors are Hoarding cash at alarming rates and leaving their savings to sit on the sidelines not earning any kind of income. Interest rates on cash investments are at all time lows while the stock market is booming and reaching record highs. So why are these young investors hoarding cash at increasing amount. They are missing out on the stock market gains that have taken place over the last six years since 2008. The markets have almost doubled since 2008 and your investments should have done the same. Sure there has been lots of ups and downs, but the overall trend is aggressively up!

Hoarding Cash – 2008!

The answer is the stock market crash in 2008. Also the corresponding housing crisis that started that year and continued for several years after that. Consumers who owned homes that were heavily mortgaged lost those homes. The value of the homes went down so much, well below the value of the mortgage. The stock market crashed. Anyone  who sold their stocks because they thought they were going lower locked in those losses. They never got back in the market. They lost big time. As we update this post there is another correction taking place in the fall of 2018. It may be time to take advantage of this correction and get back in the market. Invest in dividend paying stocks that have a long history of paying dividends. At least this way you will also derive some income from your investments.

The Answer for Many is Hoarding Cash

Many people are now hoarding cash figuring that if it is not invested in anything risky they cannot lose it. They also cannot take advantage of the increases in the stock market and housing either. The stock market as more than doubled since 2008. Homes are now well on the way to rebounding back to what they were pre 2008. Meanwhile those people sitting on cash are not only missing these gains. They are also losing in another way as well.

Inflation continues unabated at around 2% which means that the $100 in cash you had sitting in the bank last year will only purchase $98 worth of goods today. next year it will only purchase $96 and so on.  Inflation is silent and sneaks up on all of us and if you are sitting on cash you are actually losing money every year. If you have to pay any tax on the small income you do get on your cash, it only gets worse in terms of the money you have to spend on everyday living expenses.

The young investors have missed the boat in terms of the stock market gains, however they can still purchase dividend paying stocks from companies that pay well, have a record of paying every year and have a record of increasing their dividend each year as well.

 

Web Development

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Web DevelopmentWeb development Set Your Objectives

All of the posts on this website are intended for use by business managers and owners of small businesses. The first objective of web development is actually to develop the objectives for your website. What are you trying to accomplish by having a website? Are you providing information to your customers? Is your web site to be interactive? Do you actually complete sales using your website? Can customers contact you through your web site? How often will you need to update this website? Who will keep it current and will you have someone in your company provide this effort or will you contract it out to an IT contractor?

While some of these questions may seem basic, they have a huge impact on the amount of web development that will be undertaken and the overall design. As your company expands and grows so will your website. You may start off with a basic informational website and contact generation website and then later on expand to actually be able to take orders from your customers online.

Finally the answers to your questions will help to determine how large a budget you will need to set aside to support your web development and to also keep it current and up to date.

Define Your Goals for Web Development

Once you have set the objectives for your website, the next step is to set specific goals. These goals should be set in line with the amount of time it will take to develop your website. Factor in the cost of development and your budget. Finally don’t forget to set aside a budget for ongoing support and maintenance. Don’t forget the additional development that you may need from time to time.

An outdated web site can turn customers off. They may just go to another if the information you are providing is not current and up to date.

Web Development

Decide on Degree of Outsourcing for your website. Will you hire resources with the requisite skills in IT and website development? Or will you hire an outsourcing firm to develop your website and maintain and support it over the long-term?

These decisions will depend on the amount of control that you want to have. Web development, budget, and availability of the expertise that you need to maintain your website are factors to consider.

You may also want to have a conversation with someone knowledgeable in the business of developing web sites. Web development can be kept pretty straightforward without a lot of bells and whistles to avoid blowing the budget.

For more on web site design discussions, click here.

Retirement Income Strategies

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Retirement Income StrategiesDeveloping your own personal retirement income strategies can be a little daunting for many people. This can be a large complex problem if it is not broken down into individual small steps. But if you can break it down and use the assistance of a financial planner to help with some of the steps, consumers can end up with a well thought out plan that will help them meet realistic goals and objectives for their retirement. The wheel in the picture demonstrates how to get started. Not that this is a circular wheel with no end point. That is because after you have developed your first view or your retirement income strategies, each consumer will  at regular intervals update the plan following the same systematic approach. We will discuss each of these steps in a little more detail.

Retirement Income Strategies – Self Assessment

The first step is to gather all of your financial data that you have currently. This includes your current savings as well as your current debt. It also includes loans, mortgages and retirement plans that you may be eligible for when you retire from your company or personal plans. This is a snap shot of your financial situation at the present time.

Goal Setting

The next step is to set some realistic goals. These include when you anticipate retiring, when you will have your home paid off and how much debt you may carry into retirement. What are your plans for retirement? Will you travel a great deal or do you plan to continue working. What large expenses will you have in retirement. How do you see your life in financial terms when you retire. This leads to understanding the level of income you will need to generate to maintain the lifestyle that you desire in your retirement years.

Information Gathering

Gathering all of the information you will need to develop your plan is the next step. Investment plans, investment advisers, interest rates, dividend rates, payout rates from mutual funds, retirement plans, current expenses and costs for everything from heating your home to budgets for groceries etc should be considered. Use several simplifying assumptions to make it easier. Use a program or work with an adviser to completed your retirement plan strategy.

Retirement Income Strategies – Taking Action

Once you have a plan, most likely you will find that you need to make some changes. They could include focusing on paying off your home faster. Or saving more money for retirement that you planned, reducing your expenses etc. The important thing is to begin taking action now. Focus to ensure that your retirement strategy, goals and objectives can be met.

Reviewing and Updating

Are you done once you have completed all of these steps? Some people will feel that they are done and can afford to sit back and relax until they retire. This is not true. Our lives change, we retire earlier or later than planned. We have more expenses than planned, inflation is higher, our goals may change and on and on. At the very least review your retirement strategy once per year. Then update everything. You may find that your goals, savings plan etc may need to be adjusted slightly. You will want to ensure that you can enjoy the life you planned for in retirement.

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Should I cash out my pension?

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Should I cash out my pension?My company is offering a lump sum payout of my pension. I am wondering if I should cash out my pension. The payout is $261,000 and can be rolled over to a traditional or Roth IRA. Will I have to pay taxes on a Roth rollover? If I don’t take the payout, one option is to receive $1,577 monthly in a single-life annuity starting at age 60. I will turn 60 in December and my wife is one year younger. We will continue working until at least age 62. My wife and I currently have $700,000 in retirement savings (mostly traditional IRAs) and plan on working for at least another two years. We are debt free except for our home mortgage of $215,000. Should I take the payout or stay with the monthly payment? — Carl

Re: Should I cash out my pension?

The advantage of taking a lump-sum payout is that you retain full control over those assets. And unlike an annuity, you can pass any leftover money to your heirs when you die. But taking the pension in a lump sum also means that you’ll be responsible for managing those assets. Consumers in this situation need to ask themselves whether they want the responsibility and risk of handling this money, or whether they want the certainty that comes with a guaranteed monthly pension. The answer to the question in part depends on how you deal with risk and whether this kind of investment will keep you up at night. Many people will prefer the certainty of an annuity vs. the uncertainty of the stock market.

Life Expectancy and Should I Cash out my pension?

One other factor to consider is your life expectancy. If you’re in great health and feel confident that you’ll outlast the life expectancy used by your pension administrator to calculate your pension, then the annuity might be a better option. However, single-life annuities come with a drawback: that money ceases to be paid out when you die. For that reason, you may switch to a joint-and-survivor annuity if you opt not to cash out. Although your monthly payment would be smaller, those payments would continue to your spouse if you die before her.

Consumers should also note that rolling over a lump-sum pension payout to a Roth IRA would trigger taxes on the full amount. Because your tax bracket is probably higher now than it will be when you’re retired, you’re likely to be better off deferring that tax bill for now and rolling your pension assets into a traditional IRA.

Business Hosting Web

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Business Hosting WebBusiness hosting web sites play an increasingly critical role in the success of companies these days since more and more customers are looking for information online. Consumers are increasingly using smart phones and tablets to browse the internet and search for information. They are looking for information about products and services, they are making purchases, and they are communicating with their friends as well as the companies they deal with online. Some companies are doing more business online than through walk-ins. Others are driving more and more business to their walk-in stores driven by the information that is available online. Online sales are clearly the way of the future.

Business Hosting Web – Keep it Up To Date

If you just build a web site and then forget about it, the content will get stale, and your returning customers will not find anything new to review. When customers return, and they find new content, updated content, new services, and products, they will tend to book mark your site and return again and again.

We find that the best web sites institute a program to review all of their old content on a regular basis. They may find that they need to tweak the content here and there to correct information about products or services, and they may also be revising their policies from time to time. Use a sorting program to always update the older pages so that they remain fresh and current on your business website.

Business Hosting Web – Add new Content

Adding new content is important, as well. Fresh content shows readers that there will always be something to read about that they have not seen before. If you are selling product or services, then adding new content that describes the products and services from a different perspective can also be helpful. Prospective customers may not have considered the ideas and thoughts that are discussed in the new content.

Search engines will also notice and return time and again to index the new pages on your business hosting website. They will pick up any changes that have been made. The search engines recognize fresh content and updated content. They will rank your site somewhat higher in the results of searches.  A higher ranking means that your web site may appear in the first or second page of the search results. There is a better chance of being visited by someone looking for your topic, services, or product.

There is no use having a great website if no one can find you. If you are low down on the search results, there will be little traffic. It is a competitive environment. Business owners know they have to work at gaining the traffic, visits to their website, and conversions into paying customers. This is part of the new advertising media that all companies need to adopt.

Business Hosting for Web Sites

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Business Hosting for Web SitesSmall Business Hosting for Web Sites is critical for any business since this is really part of your advertising budget. As with all advertising, it is very important to make sure that your advertising is as effective as it can possibly be. What does this mean in terms of designing your website? There are a lot of technical details that the experts must take into account. However, we will discuss a few of the more important elements that any business must consider when they set up their business web site for the first time.

Business Hosting for Web Sites – Domain Name & Hosting

Choosing a domain name is almost as important as choosing the name of your company. This name will be synonymous with your company and will be how it becomes known online as well as with your customers. It should be easy to remember so that customers do not even need to look it up when they want to return. Selecting a hosting company is important as well since you want a company that has a well-managed traffic system, is on top of servers that are under stress, and has a strong security program to deal with spam attacks.

Business Hosting for Web Sites – Function

What is the function of the web site? Is this pure advertising? Is it designed to be the go-to site for your customers to find information about your products and services? Can customers place orders from your web site and issue comments and even trouble tickets for whatever you are selling them? Deciding early about these questions will drive the overall design and provide you with a better set of expectations for timing and cost.

Business Hosting for Web Sites – Marketing

Another point to consider is that this web site is your marketing site. It is the online presence for your company and it should provide the information your customers need to learn about your products and services, draw them in and convert them to customers who purchase your products.

Business Hosting for Web Sites – Keep it Fresh

It is also important to continuously update your content and keep it fresh so that the search engines have something new to index and see your website as a dynamic site with changing content. Better indexing leads to more visits and more customers. In addition, your customers need to know that your site is up to date. It must have the most current information about your products and services. You may want to have someone assigned to keep your site up to date and current within your company based on a schedule that has been developed.

Retirement Planning Before You Retire

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Retirement Planning Before You RetireVery few people think about Retirement Planning before they retire. They wait until it is getting close to the time they will be retiring. Retirement is not even in the equation when you are young or just starting out. There are far too many other things to consider, such as how you will spend your first paycheck. The car you will buy and the clothes that you will purchase. The same thing applies when you are raising a family and have all sorts of expenses, including the kid’s education, the mortgage to pay for, bills associated with the house, etc. Retirement is a long way away, and there is much time to save for that later.

No wonder people wake up one morning and realize that they will have to keep working for many more years than what they had planned because they did not save for retirement. What a shock to the emotions when you realize that you do not like your job, you want to retire, and you may even be downsized, yet you do not have sufficient savings to get you through your retirement years. This can be a serious time in your life, stressful if you still have lots of bills to pay and loans to discharge, not to mention getting the kids through school.

Start Retirement Planning Before You Retire

The best advice I ever received from a mentor was that I should set aside 10% of everything I earned for retirement. Invest it conservatively and only touch the money once it is time to retire. He told me this when I was in my early 20s, and if I had followed his advice from that day, I would be able to retire when I was 50, well before most people start thinking about retiring.

As it turns out, I was able to retire from my career job at 49 and went on to try some things that I had always thought about. I did not apply retirement planning before you retire advice; I just used the 10% rule, and it worked for my family and me. This approach gave me the freedom to continue working, to retire fully, or to retire and try a different career. This freedom and reduction in stress is really wonderful. Start now and save for retirement if you still need to do so.

Retirement Planning Before You Retire When you are 50

If you are just starting to plan for retirement and you are around the age of 50, you really do not have that much time left before you will be forced to retire either for health reasons, workforce adjustment, or downsizing. Pay off your bills, save everything you can, and have a financial adviser assess your situation regarding how much income you will actually have when you retire. It is never too late unless you are being walked out the door in a downsizing situation.

This approach will help you decide how many more years you need to work, how much you need to save, and how much you can spend while in retirement.

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Web site small business

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web-site-small-businessThere are many things to consider when developing a website for small business. Aside from the overall design, hosting, domain name, and registration, there’s also content that should be included on the website. We have tackled several of these issues on other posts on this website. One thing that most people, business owners, and website developers forget is security! This is an essential aspect of all websites, for small businesses as well as personal websites. If you do not pay attention to this issue, you will be hacked. It starts with having a secure password that is not easily figured out.

Web site small business – Security

Hackers can gain access to your website through many different means. They may come in through the back door through your hosting company. The situation develops when they gain access to the server that your site is hosted on. They come through someone else’s site, and they can infect your files.

Another approach is to provide comments on some of your pages. They come with links to malware, phishing sites, and pages that contain code that will infect your website. Always be careful about comments that you approve, and review all links before approving them.

Poor password policies can also allow hackers to gain access. If your password is not strong, you may find your site compromised. A password should contain letters, numbers, symbols, capital letters, and lowercase letters. If not, then your site may be accessible to hackers. Some people will use simple passwords, allowing hackers to gain access quite easily. Use a password design tool to pick one considered strong and challenging to break.

Website small business – Access

If several people access your site to perform various functions, they will all need a password to gain access. Password management is critical in situations like this. Frequent changes in passwords, security of passwords, and avoiding sending passwords by email can enhance the security of your business website.

In summary, protect your website, your passwords, and IDs for your website like it was your bank account. You don’t give that information out easily and don’t give out your passwords for access to your website easily, either.

One hacker even tried to guest post on one of our sites with hidden malware in the guest post. Fortunately, we caught it before it was posted to our website and did any damage. Always be on guard and use virus detection programs to check all of your software on your website and the pages posted on your Business website. Among all the other things you need to do on your website, pay a lot of attention to website security.

Self-directed retirement plans

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Self-directed retirement plansAnyone who is self employed and does not participate in a company retirement plan will be setting up a self directed retirement plan. Self-directed retirement plans are very popular with many people. They feel that they can do a better job than many financial advisers who are just interested in generating more commissions.

The reality is that it is very difficult to do well. Advisers are well schooled in risk analysis, reading financial reports, etc.. They cannot predict how the market is going to react any better than anyone else.. The vast majority of advisers are order takers. They promote diversity and re-balancing of your plan to ensure that your risk profile is maintained. These are good things to do, make no mistake. However, they are not something that the average investor cannot follow as well.

Self-directed retirement plans – Get Involved

This investor feels that consumers should take the best of both situations. Use an adviser and listen to what they have to say and recommend.  Do your own analysis and make your own decisions and be wary of advisers who are pushing a lot of sales so they can generate more commissions. I once had an adviser who admitted to me that he needed a few more sales to achieve a bonus level that would allow him to go on a trip paid for by his company. This was such a turnoff for me that I almost walked out of his office. Needless to say, I did not initiate any sales that day.

I also had an adviser that could not recall my name and was surprised when I moved my investments elsewhere. The message is to take control of your investments and make your own decisions. Ask for advice and seek out various opinions before you make and implement your decisions. At the end of the day, you’re the only one who will pay the price of a bad decision. Even if you rely on an adviser 100%, it is not their money that they are risking. It is your money and that is why it is so important to be involved and be informed.

Managing Your Own Investments

Managing your own self directed retirement plans takes time and effort. You need to read a lot, you need to understand what the market is doing and most important you need to have a strategy that you review and update every year based on how your investments are doing and also your personal needs. Our previous post talked about a simple retirement plan strategy that we have followed for our own retirement plan. Keep your costs down, be conservative, and go with high-quality stocks that pay dividends on a regular basis.