Author Archives: ernie

Small Business Web Page Hosting

Small Business Web Page HostingAfter talking to a number of small business owners, we have found that many of them would like to have a web site. They want one that they can control and do their own updates. One that does not have a huge expense associated with hosting service, web designer costs and so on. They are operating on a tight budget. They need a web page hosting solution that does not cost them a lot of money. It must be easy to update. They just do not have the time to develop the skills they need. Skills to arrange for hosting or to arrange to learn HTML or some other arcane language. But they want to be able to add their own updates. They want to post some of their own content without having to pay a web site manager a fee for doing this.

Small Business Web Page Hosting Solution

This is where our service can really help our customers. Clients can achieve these objectives. For a minimal fee on an annual basis, we can provide you with a location to host all of your content. We can set you up with a service that allows you to post your own content. If you are familiar with any of the traditional word processing engines such as Microsoft word for example you can use our service. It is very easy to use and post your own content including pictures and even short videos.

We will set you up with five pages that are generic in nature. Or we can customize to your business, and provide you with a login id and password. With some initial instruction you are ready to use your own web site to provide information to your customers. It is very easy and one of our customers has just done this and is ecstatic.  Click here to view his site.

If you would like more information about this service and pricing contact us using the contact page on this site.

Content Writing for a Business Web Page

Not everyone has the time or the desire to do even what we just described above. Some business owners feel that their time is better spent focusing on the core business and have someone preparing and uploading content to their website for them. They provide the general content which is then cleaned up and uploaded to their web hosting site. We can manage the site for you.

This package of services is a bit more expensive. But still much less than what larger web design companies are charging. Click here to view our services and let us know if there are any additional questions that you may have.

Your site can be up and running in less than 24 hours. If you already have your domain name, it can be pointed at our hosting service. Redirect of the IP addresses sometimes takes 24 hours to kick in. But then your customers will be able to view your products and services online.

Check out our services and let us know how we can help you get your business web page hosting service online!

Professional Web Designers

Professional Web DesignersWe have all seen all kinds of web sites. Some are complex and difficult to navigate. While others have lots of graphics and do not really say very much. They do not get the message across to the reader. There are fancy web sites, with lots of colors, and animations, etc.  That is expensive to create and to keep up to date. The more complex a site is, the more expensive it is to maintain and keep current. Is this what you need for a small business website?

Great content that gets your message across about your products and services, how to contact your company and information about how to use the products and services along with saving money is really what most people are after. The fancy bells and whistles do not really do a lot for people and in some cases frustrate them.

Professional Web Designers – Basic Web Site

That’s why we deliver a basic website that tries to meet the needs of small businesses without being over the top expensive. We even have an option where we will host a site for you, install a blog content management engine and the first couple of pages, and then turn it over to you to develop your own content. Of course, we can do that for you as well. We just wanted to give small business owners who are on a tight budget or just getting started another option for building their web site and keeping it professional looking. Click here to find out more.

We can add great graphics or pictures for you as well that you provide. These pictures are jpeg files that are kept in a gallery on your blog. They can be sourced and introduced to any page or post that you wish.

Dense information I.e. Heavily populated content is hard to read and most readers do not get past the first paragraph. Stick to the point and get your message across in a few sentences.

Professional Web Designers – Budget

But how much do they cost? Click here to view our rates or contact us for the special hosting option with the blog install. It is very inexpensive and as long as you are willing to do some work updating and adding content, it might be the right answer for you.

Is it worth it?  What is the return on investment? This is what everyone wants to know. Developing a basic web site that is professional looking is not difficult.  Your return on investment can be measured by asking clients to let you know how they found you and placing a counter on the web site. You can add contact forms and comment areas. Add the URL to your business cards and all other advertising. Get your website out there.

What about stats?

We also can install a stat counter on your site and arrange for an email sent once per week to you to advise you regarding how many people come to your site and return to your site.

Do it yourself or hire a web site developer

The hard part is getting started and setting the basics up. Once you have a site, business owners can add their own content whenever they need to, or they can hire someone to do it for them. It basically comes down to the price they want to pay to keep a website up to date.
Check us out!

We provide hosting, a basic blog, add your content as needed, and help you grow as your business and online presence grows. It is an inexpensive way to get started.  Contact us today for a free estimate.

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Viable options to get out of student loan default and rejuvenate your credit rating

student loanDid you recently find out that you have graduated college not only with a degree but with a huge loan? Do you have a huge burden of student loan debt? The debt crisis is the next big problem that is paralyzing the US economy. It is crippling an entire generation. Studies reveal that there are increasingly large numbers of seniors who are still paying their student loan payments. They were incurred when they were in college. With the rise in the cost of education, no student or parent is able to bear the costs of college alone. They are resorting to student loans and are then falling into the trap of student loan debt. Most students wonder about the options they might take in order to get rid of student loan defaults.

Student Loans and Credit Ratings

When you’re more than 270 days back on your student loan payments, you will be considered in default. Getting out of such a situation is what it takes to deal with student loans. Most of the repayment plans and postponement options require you not to be in default. They might demand you to make 3 reduced but timely payments in order to qualify for the alternative payment option. Apart from that as long as you’re in default, you won’t be eligible to get new grants or loans. Nevertheless, check out some ways of getting rid of defaulted student loans.

Approaches to Eliminate Student Loan Debt

  • Cancel the entire student loan: You can get out of defaulted student loans if you can qualify for getting the loans canceled or discharged. This is perhaps the best option for a cash-strapped borrower as you no longer remain obligated to make payments. However there are restrained options for canceling student loans,. This option might not be for all kinds of student loan debtors.
  • Get a direct debt consolidation loan: If you owe debt on federal student loans, you can take out a direct debt consolidation loan so that youre able to combine your payments into a single monthly payment. The loan will carry drastically lower rates than what you were paying on the individual loans and hence you can also save a considerable amount of money. Once you get a direct debt consolidation loan, you can stick to making a single outgoing payment to the US Department of Education.
  • Get an alternative repayment plan: Yet another way to get rid of defaulted student loans is to set up an affordable repayment plan with the loan lender. Based on their personal financial circumstances, the borrowers have the right to request such repayment plans. Loan rehabilitation is also a way of changing the lender of the loan. After you make a certain number of payments, the guaranty agency or the US Department of Education will sell off your loan to a new lender and the new lender will put a standard 10-year repayment plan in place. This will ease off the pressure of monthly payments.

Therefore, when you’re spending sleepless nights worrying about effective debt management of your burgeoning student loan debt level, you may resort to any of the above-mentioned options. Repaying debt or canceling debt will help you boost your credit score.

Small Business Owner

Small Business OwnerThe small business owner knows that they need a website to have a presence on the internet, but seldom has the time or the skills to set up a website domain or a hosting site, let alone design a website that meets their needs. Once the website is set up, there is ongoing maintenance to add content that keeps it current with the products and services that the small business offers. Many small business owners will just shy away from doing anything at all in this regard or they will turn to companies such as ours to help them with their website design.

Various Approaches to Web site Design for the Small Business Owner

There are many different approaches one can take to set up a small business website. For example, some customers will obtain their own domain name and request hosting, then they will do the rest. Others want the domain name, the hosting, and the blog engine installed and they will then add the content using the user-friendly blog system. Then there is the business owner who wants a website and wants to hand over the content to a content manager such as ourselves to build the website and design all of the content pages.

We have listed the services we provide to small business owners on our website. Click here for more information. This is a guideline only and should be used to give some idea of what the potential costs are to set up a website and add content on a regular basis.

Search Engine Indexing

We recently built a website for a small non-profit organization, click here to see the website. They had the domain, and we provided the hosting and installed a WordPress blog with the appropriate apps to support his website. We add some basic pages and then turned it over to the president of the organization who wanted to design and add his own content and images for his blog. With a small amount of training, they were in business and updating content as needed.

They wanted to know why their website was on the 1st page of search results for some search terms and not for others. The answer was pretty simple. They did not have any content on their website that used those terms and therefore the search engines would not index them for that term, nor would they rank them for that term. They were obviously going to think about this and decide if they were going to add more content or not.

Inexpensive Small business Owner Websites

The example we have discussed is one of the least expensive ways to build a website. Spending a  small amount for a domain name and hosting and then building and designing their own pages is clearly the way to go for this group. If they have the time to add their own content and are not too concerned about the time it takes, they can add content using the WordPress blogging engine, which is extremely easy to use and intuitive to learn.

For more information about domain name setup, hosting, web site design, contact us for more information today.

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Getting rid of your IRS tax liabilities – Don’t procrastinate when its the IRS

IRS tax liabilitiesOwing debt to the IRS is different from owing a debt to any other company or bank. What happens when you default making payments to a bank or a credit card issuing company? All they would do is make some calls to remind you about the payments. Then they turn over your accounts to debt collection companies. But such peace is not the situation when you have IRS tax liabilities. They will not leave you easily.

Therefore you need to make sure that you take essential steps in order to get rid of your IRS debt woes. IRS debt is not a simple kind of debt that can be repaid through debt consolidation or any other debt relief option. Neither can you discharge such debts through bankruptcy nor can you easily get rid of them? Check out the concerns of this article to know the options that you can resort to.

IRS tax liabilities – Get help with installment agreements

There are few installment agreements that you can  resort to when youre wondering about the ways in which you can repay your IRS tax debt. Check them out.

  • Guaranteed installment agreements: The IRS will only agree to this installment plan when the total outstanding balance is $10,000 or less. Apart from that, there are some other criteria that you should take into account. For the last 5 years, you shouldn’t have filed late. All your tax returns should have been filed. You shouldn’t have had any installment agreement in the last 5 years. Always agree to file on time for all the future tax years. The minimum payment the IRS will accept will be the total outstanding balance which will be divided by thirty.
  • Streamlined Installment agreements: When your entire balance which is due is $25,000 or less than that and you agreed to pay off the balance within 60 months. What happens if the total balance will expire within this 5 year period? The IRS will need the entire payment within the remaining SOL. The biggest benefit of a streamlined installment agreement is that there will be no federal tax lien
  • Partial payment installment agreement: What is the option when the minimum payments can’t be afforded through the guaranteed or the streamlined agreements. You may opt for the partial installment agreement. Here you can make payments according to your affordability. However, you must qualify for this installment option.

Offer in Compromise – Is this tax debt settlement?

Just as you can settle your credit card debts, you can also settle your IRS tax debt through Offer in Compromise. Depending on your present financial situation, you will be given the option of repaying an amount which is much less than what you actually owe. The IRS may waive off a certain portion of your debts. This will, therefore, facilitate the entire debt repayment schedule.

So, when it comes to repaying your IRS debts, you may find a solution in  the above-mentioned options. The sooner you repay them, the sooner you can understand the impact on your credit score.

Small Business Web Hosting Companies

small-business-web-hosting-companiesDo you run a small business and need an inexpensive hosting site to launch your business web site,? We can set you up with a five-page site and blogging platform that allows you to do your own updates at a very low price.  If you need us to help with updates and changes we are also available to provide assistance. This is our starter package for customers who are not sure of exactly what they wish to place on the web. Or perhaps just need a few pages of content. If you need more content, we would be pleased to discuss your needs. Check out our prices and services. Your costs will be kept to a minimum while you develop your strategy for an online presence. We focus on Small Business Web Hosting Companies and their needs.

Reduce Your Overall cost of being Online

Small businesses can save money by taking this approach and avoiding thousands in costs for hosting and web site maintenance while making their job easier and less costly.

WordPress blogs are very easy to use, maintain, and keep up to date. If you already have a domain name, your company’s website can be up and running in 24 hours. Just point your domain at the URL we provide and your website will be live. Once we set it up for you and initiate your first few pages we can continue adding content for you or the web owner can take over. WordPress is easy to use and is much like using MS Word for example with a few twists. we can help you get set up and started and then provide support to you as needed.

Small Business Web Hosting Companies – Confirm your Cost

Check out our rates as well for basic page and post creation. Our rates are very reasonable. Once a web page is created, business owners can also make their own adjustments and updates if desired. The choice is yours. We offer flexibility and inexpensive business web sites. This is one of the most inexpensive and easiest ways to build your own companies website.

Don’t let someone try to tell you that a web site is a complicated process and only the experts can do it for you charging thousands of dollars. It is much simpler than that unless you have a sophisticated eCommerce site in mind.  Most business owners just need something to establish their presence on the internet and bring customers to their main business. We can help you with this challenge and make it easy and inexpensive for you at the same time.

Call or email us today for more information! Our rates are surprisingly low for the value you receive.

Do the IRA accounts have any effect on debt settlement?

debt settlementAn IRA is considered to be one of the best options for you to save money for retirement. There are various benefits of saving money through IRA’s, and the main one is the tax benefit. However, the question is can the IRA account help you with managing debts? Does it in any way affect your debt settlement ability? You will be required to know all of the details regarding the IRA accounts. You will also need to know your total debt situation. Who you owe money to. How much you owe and how long it will take you to repay these debts.

IRA and debt

There mainly are two types of IRA accounts and these are the simple IRA and the Roth IRA accounts. Both of these have some forms of tax advantages, but the benefits differ on the basis of account type. Put money into your IRA account so that you can go on to lead a stress free retired life. However, can you use the money from the IRA accounts to manage your debts? First of all, if you aren’t aware of the complexities, the most obvious fact is reduction in the amount saved. When you will be withdrawing money from the IRA or the Roth IRA account, it is going to result in loss of the total amount saved. Another disadvantage is that if you withdraw money from the IRA accounts, you will have to pay tax on that.

Still, if you are too deep in debt, and all other sources have been exhausted, using money from IRA accounts can help you avoid bankruptcy. The IRA accounts can help in improving your credibility to settle the debts. The IRA accounts have the capacity to stay put with the different types of retirement investments carriers like that of bonds and stocks, the money market funds and so on. Therefore, reaping the benefits becomes easy with the IRA account.

Debt Settlement Process

Debt settlement is the process through which the outstanding debt amount gets settled. So, if you can settle the debts, it becomes easier to become debt free, as the amount gets lowered. Although, not all creditors agree to settle the debts, you still can get some to settle debts. If you have been missing payments for quite a long time, and if you can exhibit that you are in serious financial hardship, and that there’s no way the creditor can get more than what you are offering; they may agree. Managing payments on a small debt is easier than a large debt. Therefore, if you can go on to let the money grow from the beginning in the IRA account, you can use some of it to make the debt payments, even after settlement.

However, if your debt problems are minimum and if you think that there are still other options, it would be better to try out those, rather than withdrawing money from IRA accounts. This is mainly because, there are tax consequences of the withdrawal. So, weigh all of the options, and the pros and cons before opting to use the IRA account.

Surprise – you are About to Retire

About to RetireA surprising statistic about people when they expect to retire suggests that only 23% of people expect to retire before they turn 65, While fully 69% actually retired before they turned 65. This is a really huge change in plans for many people. We wonder if they were ready emotionally and financially to retire and really not take another job. For many people it comes as a big surprise.

Surprise – you are About to Retire

For many people they end up retiring early due to health reasons. As long as you have your health there is a really good chance that you will continue working. But many are finding that their health gets in the way of working. They have the decision made for them. In addition, many companies regularly go through downsizing of some kind. The package offered to older workers is just to good not to take advantage of. For whatever reason, many of us end up retiring much earlier than planned. For those of you reading this post, the message is get your retirement savings in order. Make sure you have the flexibility at least from a financial perspective to retire whenever it is right for you.

Emotionally you may not be ready for retirement. You feel too young and you feel that you have a lot to contribute to the company and to society. You may miss the social life at work. Many have not developed the hobbies and the interests that will sustain them in retirement. Developing the emotional and social plans to be ready for retirement before you retire is something that many people may want to consider. Going cold turkey i.e. quitting work without a plan can be very difficult.

Take Stock of Your Situation Now

If you suddenly find yourself in retirement due to health issues or your company has downsized, it is time to take stock of your situation. Assess your financial readiness for retirement. Do you have enough money saved which combined with your pension will allow you to live in the manner you envisaged during retirement? If not you may have to take some steps towards either finding another job or downsizing your expenses.

Downsizing your expenses is best accomplished by first developing a budget. Figure out how much money you have in terms of income each month and then assess all of your expenses. If income minus expenses is a negative number, it may be time to cut back in some areas and reduce your expenses until the income“ expense equation becomes positive.

Take the time to be realistic about your retirement. Investigate self-help information available on this website and others. Figure out emotionally how you want to deal with retirement and decide if you need to downsize your home, your cars, your travel plans in order to fit your expense budget with your income budget.

The transition for some people will only take a few months, while for others it may take a year or more. Give it time and rely on others in similar situations for help and guidance. They may not be experiencing the same things as you are but they may have great ideas about retiring gracefully.

Professional Web Site Design

Professional Web Site DesignThere are probably as many opinions about professional website design as there are websites on the internet. Some people believe they should be flashy with lots of catchy pictures and colors. While others are much more conservative and frankly boring.  The bottom line is really determined by the owner of the website and the customers/clients/ readers or visitors think of the site and whether they come back for whatever reason.

Professional Web Site Design

Basic Functionality of a WebSite

The basic functionality of a site should include what services or products your company provides, where you are, and how to contact you. You will be able to include the URL on your business cards and people will be able to find you on the internet if they search specifically for your name or your company’s name.

Delivery Information

Your website can also deliver information. This can include sales promotions, information about new products, new staff members, and general information about the company. The sky is the limit in terms of what you may want to provide on your company’s professional website.

Increase the Customer Relationship

Providing social networking links, accepting and monitoring comments by customers, and adding testimonials are just a few of the things that can be added in this area. Basically, you are attempting to create customer loyalty in this area of your website. Customers might subscribe to a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, or an RSS feed to keep abreast of some of the products and services that you offer.

Full E-commerce Site

One of the next stages is creating a full e-commerce site that customers can interface with and order products and services. They should be able to pay for what they order and be able to also follow up and review the status of the order. This is a major step up from a basic site requiring much more in terms of design and back-office support.

Decide What the Objectives Are

Before you begin, we urge all customers to assess what their objectives are. A basic site represents your company. It is the online version of your storefront. It needs to be accurate, it needs to be pleasing to the eye without being complicated or gaudy, and it should deliver whatever you need it to deliver to your customers. Give some thought to what you are trying to achieve. You do not need a Cadillac design when you just want the basic information out there.

Hire the Right Company to Design Your WebSite

Most companies can set up basic websites and provide hosting. Not all companies can set up a detailed e-commerce site for prices that you can afford. Knowing your objectives and deciding what you need ahead of time will help a great deal.

Focus on Getting the basic Information to Your Readers

Start by getting the basic information to your readers. Spend the time you need to obtain the right domain name. The website design can always be upgraded at some future time. The domain name is the online version of your company’s name. It should, in some manner, be related to your company or the products and services the company provides.

Check out our services and prices here if you need help setting up your company or personal website. Click here

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