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If you are like me, you have a ton of “Favorites” or bookmarks saved in Internet Explorer. I’ve always kept my favorites sorted into folders to make it easier to find them when I need them. It’s a much better strategy than scrolling through 200 or so URLS trying to find the one I need.

Well, my dad recently discovered the need for this as well and asked me how to sort his Favorites into folders. For many of you, this is old-news and you already know how to do it, but I know there are plenty of you who waste valuable time every day trudging through an ever-growing Favorites list trying to find, “you know, that one site with the thing written by that chick who wrote that book…” Yeah, I’m so gonna help you out here.

I made my tutorial into a handy-dandy PDF file (with screenshots of the browser with important stuff circled!) so that my dad could print it out and follow along. If you want to grab your copy, just right click and select, “Save target as…” and save it somewhere on your computer where you can find it. It’s a PDF file, so you need the free PDF viewer from Adobe, which most of you already have anyway.

No cost, no email opt-in required….just a handy little guide on how to get your Favorites organized so you can save some time and energy every day…my mission in life you know!

Free Tutorial on How to Organize Your Internet Explorer Favorites (right-click here)

Technorati Tags: Internet explorer, favorites, bookmarks, organizing your bookmarks, how-to, free tutorial, internet explorer hack

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I just received word from my hosting company, Dreamhost, that I have been given FIVE highly-coveted Dreamhost invitation codes! This is a fantastic deal for anyone who is thinking of switching to Dreamhost because these rare codes offer:

* FOUR TIMES the normal disk space and bandwidth at signup! This means that you will get 2 TERRABYTES of disk space and 20 TERRABYTES of bandwidth from day one!

* If you choose the ten-year prepaid plan, you get $200 off! (Cha-ching!)

I have five of these codes that expire exactly two-weeks from today and once they’re gone…well, they’re gone! So if you are interested in receiving one, this is what you do:

Send an email to me at info AT automaticmoms.com and mention, “Dreamhost Invitation” in the subject heading. Tell me what you plan to do with your new hosting (move an existing site, start your first site, create an online empire….whatever you want).  Be sure to tell me what kind of site you will be creating or moving to your new host!

BONUS: Here’s the kicker….if you request an invite, and your URL is family-friendly and possibly interesting to my readers, I will publish your link in a follow-up post! So whether you actually receive an invitation or not, you still get a little something!

Only five invites will be sent, and if you receive one you have to use it within one week! If you don’t use it, I will forward the invite code to someone else for them to use instead. All FIVE INVITES must be used! So don’t request an invite unless you are SURE you plan to use it! Cross your heart, hope to die, stick a needle in your eye k?

So email me at info AT automaticmoms.com with “Dreamhost Invitation” in the subject and let me know what you plan to do with your new hosting! I can’t wait to hear what you have planned!

Technorati Tags: Dreamhost, dreamhost invites, dreamhost invitation, hosting, hosting coupon, hosting deal

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In an effort to help Moms (and Dads, for that matter) who are running small businesses from home, I’d like to take a moment to challenge your current way of doing things for a moment.

How many of you are doing what you are doing because you don’t know how to do it any other way? What I mean is, are you settling for less than what you really want because a lack of knowledge or a fear of change are holding you back?

I’m so surprised every time I hear that someone with a small business is paying for a service or a product that is expensive or has fewer features simply because they are afraid to make the jump to something else. Even when they are dissatisfied, they stay put. Maybe I’m just one of those people who is willing to try most anything and I don’t have that concern about staying with something that isn’t working exactly the way I’d like. But I’d like to challenge all of you who own businesses to take a step outside of your current strategy and see if you can make small, incremental improvements in your business by trying something new.

The one area that I see this in particular is web hosting. I’ve been hosting sites for myself and others for well over ten years, probably longer than some of my readers have even been online or used email!

I know there are MANY people who are paying much more than they need to and receiving fewer features and perks that can make their businesses run more efficiently. It pains me to say this, but if you haven’t considered a web hosting switch ever, and are staying with another company despite knowing you can do better elsewhere, you are making a huge mistake.

Maybe you are afraid of changing hosts because you don’t know how to do it from a technical standpoint….how to switch your email, move your domain, transfer files etc. I TOTALLY understand your concern about that because it can be a daunting task if you have never done something like that before or have many sites and large amounts of data that need to be moved.

On the flip side, if you are a smaller business and expect growth in the coming months, this might be the PERFECT time to get your hosting house in order, so to speak, and get set up with a company that can grow with you and give you what you really need as a growing business.

Part of running an efficient business, household or family is anticipating obstacles and planning ahead. If you are just starting out or planning to expand an online business, this is the time to put systems in place to keep it manageable, healthy and efficient.

FINALLY, a solution…..

To that end, let me start by advising you if you are either just starting out hosting a site or sites or plan to expand in the next few months (I’ll get to you later if you already have an online empire you are intimidated to move): Start evaluating your hosting options now before it becomes difficult to switch later. And here’s a place to start and my recommendation: Dreamhost. I’ve been with them for nearly 8 years and believe me, I evaluated (and continue to evaluate) my hosting options before spending a penny. They are simply the best value for the dollar and never cease to amaze me with what they can do.

Just as a quick summary of what I’ve enjoyed as their customer:

1. Free domain name registration with all new accounts. They even renew it for free every year you are still their customer. It’s your domain and you can take it with you if you don’t renew with Dreamhost though.

2. I can host an unlimited number of sites, both top-level domains and sub-domains. I currently have 40+ sites of my own hosted by Dreamhost in addition to many sites I operate for others. I also have over 500 sub-domains and I pay the same monthly fee for hosting I would pay if I only ran one site.

3. I can install software on my site in just one click. They’re called “one-click installs” and they’re awesome. Wordpress (the software that runs AutomaticMoms), PHPbb, Pligg, Gallery, ZenCart, OpenX, Joomla, and more! Just enter a few items into a form and in less than 5 minutes your software is on your site ready to be played with!

4. I get technical support and customer service in plain English from nice people. When I submit a support request, I can tell them in advance what level of understanding I have on a subject and they reply in a way that makes sense to me. Most importantly, they are friendly and respectful and never make me feel dumb for not knowing how something works. They’re fast too!

5. The price is right and the features grow with my site. Dreamhost starts at just $5.95 a month and you receive 500GB of of disk space, tons of bandwidth and more. The best part? My account grows every week for free! So as my sites and needs grow, so does the amount of disk space and bandwidth at no additional charge. Dreamhost knows that sites don’t get smaller…only bigger, and they accomodate that need for me for free and without my having to do anything. Brilliant.

6. They listen to me and other Dreamhosters and actually take our suggestions to heart and make things happen. This is a very democratic company…they ask for and implement suggestions all the time. The Dreamhost you experience today will be nothing like the Dreamhost you experience six-months from now…it will be bigger and better and that’s due to suggestions from people who use the service every day.

7. Reliable much? Yeah! I’m been very pleased with their reliablity, speed and uptime. No complaints here! They’re on top of the whole technical thing so I can get down to business doing what I do. I think of them as almost like my personal IT team ready to keep things running smoothly.

SPECIAL OFFER ALERT….READ ON!

As my loyal reader, I’ve created a special offer for anyone interested in switching to Dreamhost:

Use the promo code: AUTOMATICSPECIAL (exactly like that, no spaces) and you will receive from me:

~ $50.00 instant coupon toward your new hosting account! It’s an actual account credit!
~ The free domain name registration that all new customers receive!
~ One ADDITIONAL domain name registration as my gift from me to you!

To take advantage of this deal head over to Dreamhost and use the coupon code: AUTOMATICSPECIAL and you’ll receive all of these goodies! Everything you need to switch, save money and expand your online empire to your heart’s content! Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: hosting, web hosting, webhosting, Dreamhost, hosting review

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In an effort to declutter our home and get ready for a move, I’ve been trying to find places willing to either buy used items or accept them as donations.

One thing that has really accumulated in our home that I have tried desperately to get rid of over the years are old books. We have used textbooks (I recently finished a degree so I have some stray books that were never sold back to the bookstore) and books that I accumulated from a used bookstore and a store that went out of business. I tried Amazon’s service that allows you to sell books to other users, but some of the titles weren’t purchased. When you list a book on Amazon, you name your price and hope someone buys it. No luck.

But I recently discovered a site that will simply name the price they are willing to pay…no messing around! While the amounts for some of these books weren’t extraordinarily high, they were better than nothing and allowed me to get rid of the books easily and get cash via PayPal in days! They even pay the shipping costs!

The site I’m using for my book decluttering project is Cash4Books and it’s super-simple to use! Just flip the book over and type in the ISBN number and the site instantly searches for the title and gives you a quote! You enter all of your ISBN’s in, and the page automatically updates the page with a running total of what they will pay you. It’s a really slick site and accomplishes my goal of decluttering in just minutes rather than storing the books forever hoping to get an extra buck or two later.

You know I like things that solve my problems, help me accomplish my goals and are fast. Cash4Books definitely meets all of my requirements! Goodbye books, hello closet space!

Technorati Tags: used books, sell used books, sell used books online, declutter, organizing, organizing tips

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I mentioned a few months ago about a great easy personalized gift and thought I would post a little reminder about Mother’s Day coming up on May 11th. There’s still time to order your own personalized engraved cake pan for Mom, Grandma, the New Mom in your family or even for yourself.

Here’s the original post, but I plucked some more graphics from the CaptainPantastic.Com site that are specific to Mother’s Day for you:

    A basket pan filled with flowers would be great for any Mom!  These pans come in bold colors to match kitchen decor as well as the raw aluminum finish.

    Each pan also has the name engraved on the bottom of the pan     itself to make it easy to match lids with pans at a potluck!

    I really like this pan! The inscription says, ”Made with Care…and Made to Share” 

   You can also get this one without the heading at the top, and   instead have just the first name engraved in the lower left corner.

There are even more great pans perfect for Mom on the site…

 
What I love about this gift idea is that it’s SUPER easy, but it looks like you went through a lot of trouble. It’s as simple as filling out a form and the pans are on their way!

So if you plan to purchase one for Mother’s Day, order SOON to make sure you get them in time!

Technorati Tags: Mother’s Day gift, Mother’s Day, easy gift ideas, personalized cake pans, engraved cake pan, personalized engraved cake pan, last-minute gifts

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