The article actually cites Akron, Ohio as potentially having fewer job candidates than other techy hotspots, at least, this was the case a decade ago. As technology has grown, so has the ability to recruit from anywhere in the country. Fortunately for TKG, we have not had to look much past our own backyard for great people. Besides the tech schools in the area, TKG has offered training in the form of the TKG Institute in the past. This gave us the ability to train and hire from a group of people with skill sets we needed – and we knew what they could do, because we taught them how to do it. I think this sort of training is going to become more and more popular. We have an employee who also teaches at the premiere university, Full Sail Academy in Florida. He says that the students know that if you go after a four year degree in any sort of computer related technology, your degree will be outdated by the time you hit your junior year. So, faster, more flexible training needs to be taking place for people to have the skill set they need to find a job when they graduate. I think this is going to mean that at least these particular degree programs are going to have to change and become more flexible – 18 month degrees, and so on. Get in, get the skill set and get to work.

Anyway, back to the article – the steps given are as follows:
1. Making use of the Human Cloud – hiring freelance worker who work from home – programming, copy writing, etc.
2. Become proficient at managing workers both in your office, and potentially, across the country or globe. TKG has employees in several states. We make that work by many methods, but utilizing so many forms of instant communication – texting, messaging, email, etc. enables TKG to have a presence in several states without the need for an actual office in several states.
3. Being a good manager means knowing how to create a relationship with people you might never meet in person. Knowing how to compile enough information from various platforms to make a hire, build trust with that individual, etc. are all going to be skills needed in this new business world.

The article was pretty good – give it a look if you’d like more information. I think what it all boils down to is that employers are going to have to be ready to get creative if they want the best folks working for them. Fortunately, the Web makes it possible to find the best person for your business anywhere in the world. You are no longer constrained to your own backyard…but sometimes, that’s where you find the best folks. My advice? Check the backyard – it will often have everything you need, but if necessary, be ready to branch out. It’s a strange new world out there, but it’s exciting.

Apparently some evil folks with not enough to keep them occupied found ways to put malicious code onto literally millions of websites. For the most part, this code was spammers trying creative ways to get links to their products or services (to mainly reputable sites whose owners have apparently employed more black hat SEOs – You’d think they’d learn after the whole Overstock/JC Penny fiasco). So, TKG has taken opportunity to greatly improve network security and believe that we have eliminated the threat entirely (at least for us and our clients).

(The following is from the email TKG sent out to clients, letting them know the steps we had taken.)
Here are the steps we’ve taken to ramp up security: (Warning: what follows is a bunch of geek-speak. For those not fluent in “geek,” the short version is that we did a bunch of stuff to make our websites much more secure):
• Put more stringent restrictions on FTP access to the server resources
• Tightened security on “open source” site management (WordPress, Joomla, XCART, OSCommerce)
• Implemented site-by-site security screens for current sites
• Performed file system audits to ensure file access is reduced to it’s most common operational denominator
• Performed data audits to ensure sensitive data is not being maintained on our database system
• Implemented server side application firewalls that evaluate and eliminate known threats
• Changed procedures for incoming site transfers to include audits on all of the above (TKG created sites were already secure)

The TKG blogs, being WordPress blogs, were among the sites affected. And as we say so often around here, TKG’s sites and blogs are like the cobbler’s children – they wait to get new “shoes” until after all client work has been taken care of.

WordPress has holes in it’s programming, and if you know how to work around the programming, you can spam the living daylights out of a blog with Trackbacks and spammy comments. When we got Websense and the other blogs back up, they were immediately SLAMMED with tons of spam – some of which was not family friendly, if you know what I mean. So, we took the blogs down again, added some of our own tweaks to “harden” the blogs and now we should be back in action!

Glad to be back! What have you been up to?

That being said, social media is good, too, and should be a secondary consideration. Jamie Turner over at Mashable has a pretty interesting post about the Social Media ROI Cycle. According to Jamie’s post, there are three stages of a social media ROI cycle: Launch, Management and Optimization. A bit backwards from the way we do and SEO strategy, at least from a web developer’s best practices standpoint. We would, depending on what the client wanted to undertake, recommend for a new site, while the copy is being developed, optimization going forward would be a great thing – ready for the search engines at launch. Any social media strategy should be on top of a traditional SEO campaign.

This is of course the best case scenario, but it makes the most sense. Once you launch, you manage, or analyze and tweak your on going SEO efforts, which might include some social media. Regularly re-examining your strategy will help you decide if social media is a good fit for your company. Regular tweaking of your ongoing SEO is a must. Good copy, a well developed site, and carefully constructed SEO is always going to give you a good ROI. Social media is great, and has been the icing on many cakes so far, and it will continue to be a major part of any online marketing strategy. But SEO is the cake, it’s fundamental.

I think a marketing budget is one of the last things that should be cut, right along with the rent and the lights. Marketing is what keeps clients coming through the door. This chiropractor either didn’t know that, or was in such deep financial trouble, that there was nothing he could do about it. I hope, for his sake and that of the web designer, that this thing doesn’t sour people for both of them. Makes for interesting reading, however.

Small business is all over the news these days. With unemployment down, folks are starting to understand that it is small business that employs most people in our country. Small business dictates the way our economy fluctuates. When you overtax or otherwise hurt small business, it has a huge and lasting impact on the country. Many small businesses need all the help they can get just to survive right now, so I have included below a few posts that I think will be particularly helpful to small business owners.

1. 5 Ways Small Businesses Can Use Tech to Save Money

2. Make Your Web Site a Daily Destination

3. How To Boost Your Business on the Cheap

Running a small business can be a challenge, but really a rewarding one. I love the ability to tailor my business to what our clients need. I can offer a service that will benefit the business and livelihood of others. But, the best thing about this job is making the web useful to my clients, and helping their business thrive. That’s what I get a kick out of everyday. I hope you found the posts helpful and as always, if you have one to share, leave it in the comments section. Check out the video – another little pointer for ya…

There are so many things wrong with this health care bill, I hardly know where to start. Congress is fine with this bill because they will not be subject to it’s consequences. They, unlike the rest of us, will still get to make their own insurance and medical choices. So if you are self employed or make more than $250k a year, you are in big trouble. If you are small business, you are in big trouble. If you happen to be older and sick, look out because the “board” might not think you are worth treating. The people that have insurance through big corporations are going to either pay more or receive fewer benefits when those corporations decide they scale back the benefits they offer! The only way to win is if you are on welfare… oh wait, people on welfare were already getting medical coverage through the state, so that means the states are going to be in just as dire a financial situation as the rest of us, as more and more people will lose jobs due to higher taxes, and apply for benefits.

There are many things wrong with this bill, but here’s a start:

1) Significant tax increases for small business and individuals in the midst of the worst economy in a generation, that will surely lead to the loss of jobs.
2) The likelihood (near guarantee) that insurance companies will go out of business leaving the government as the sole insuring entity, hence a single payer system. Insurance companies cannot survive the demands in this bill – they are businesses too, and already only turn 1-2% profit. (Single payer system = Governmental monopoly, socialism, tyranny)
3) This is almost the sickest part of all of this: the government takeover of student loans, i.e.> deciding which individual gets the loan, which schools get students through loans and the control this gives the government. Now the government can reward those institutions that sell their ideology and punish those that don’t. Don’t think they’ll do that? If they can pass a massive infringement on individual rights like this bill through unconstitutional trickery, they can certainly push their agenda through student loans. And please, remind me again what this has to do with health care?
4) The strain this will put on medicare, which is already tremendously in the red.
5) The gross infringement on individual rights created by this bill – it is not this government’s role to require us to buy an insurance policy or anything else – and the IRS will be enforcing citizen participation, with fines!… seriously?
6) The process – if this is the right bill for Health care reform, tell me why, do we have to resort to such underhanded, desperate tactics (bribes, special deals) to get it passed. It’s just wrong to pass such a massive piece of legislation with such partisan, divisive and likely unconstitutional methods.
7) Over control by the government will mean that you and your doc will no longer make your health care decisions. A board will do that, and let you know what they’ll allow. In response to this, we will lose doctors. This is already happening, and it will only get worse. Who wants to be told by the government how to do their job, and then be paid, too little, too late, for it?

This whole thing is something I never thought I would see in America. We planned to teach our children about individual liberties, Capitalism, States Rights, and the Constitution by allowing them to live it, experience it for themselves. Now, I am afraid these lessons will be gotten only from the history books. Thank God we homeschool, and for now, can choose our own books, or they probably wouldn’t even read about it in history class.
Some additional commentary:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703775504575136133814210008.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/22/andrea-tantaros-obama-pelosi-reid-health-care-cbo-abuse-power/
http://health.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/03/19/here-comes-the-health-care-bill-%e2%80%a6-there-go-the-doctors/

1.The first post I have for you includes 9 tips for Small Business Bloggers. Very interesting read:
9 Tips for Creating More Small Business Blogging Ideas

“We all know by now that consistent small business blogging can drastically improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and overall web presence. Additionally, a small business blog can increase your opportunities to interact with (and highlight) your customers and provide an additional occasion for you to share your expert knowledge.

Unfortunately, nothing stops a would be small business blogger faster than a perceived lack of time, and the frustration that comes with a lack of ideas to blog about.”… I don’t want to repost the whole thing here, so follow the link I have provided, but you get the gist, the author has some really great ideas for you!

2. You all know that I think LinkedIn is a great marketing tool. This gal has a great post on 5 methods to getting the most out of LinkedIn.
Here’s a tidbit from her post which I have linked to above: “LinkedIn, however, stands apart from the crowd. The roots of popular sites like YouTube and Facebook are founded on the entertainment side of things. But since its creation, LinkedIn has been geared toward the professional business crowd.”

3. The basics of social media marketing: Face book and Blogging. Lee Odden did a great post about this back in September. His post Social Media Marketing Basics: Facebook & Blog Promotion has a lot of relevant information for Fan pages of small businesses. Check it out when you’ve got a few.

4. Here is a great post from over at Mashable – Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them This post also has a great list of other posts at the bottom that you might want to check out. This is common sense stuff, but it can’t hurt to hear it again.

5. This post is also found on Mashable, I wanted to include it because it lists all the best places to promote your blog. Really a great resource! Top 20 Ways to Share a Great Blog Post

Of course this isn’t all the knowledge of the web, but these bits and how to’s will give you any needed boost for your business blog. It’s a great tool when you know how to use it, so get your studying done! I’ve already done the research!

We are currently hiring for two positions:

IT Customer Support
and
Graphic Design Manager

The IT Customer Support person we are looking for needs to really enjoy people and communicating with them as much as they enjoy all things tech. We try to provide our clients with the best possible customer service, so this part is even more important to us than your technical skills.

TKG is also looking for a Graphic Design Manager who wants to be a part of a team. You need to have at least two years experience designing for web and print. If you’re interested, we’d love to see your stuff, so pass along your portfolio when you submit a resume.

Benefits include medical insurance, life insurance, 401k, paid vacation and holidays, a bonus system, great team members, and the occasional game of pool, foosball or darts! More information on both of these positions can be found at the links above or inquire with Stacy Hoffman. We look forward to making you part of the ever growing Karcher Group!

Openings include a search engine marketing job working with our amazing SEO and SEM department. The other is a website design job with our incredibly talented Design department.

If you are interested in working in a fun, fast paced yet laid back environment, please check out our job postings and submit a resume.

So, I think this is a kind of cool idea, maybe a little scary if you have decided to be all worried about another flu. The site can give you information about where it started, how it is spread, any new cases being discovered. It also has some tips on how to avoid spreading the swine flu (and really, any other illness). The site has an up to date newsfeed as well as a Google map displaying where new cases have been found.

I know this new swine flu is really nothing to joke about, as it has resulted in some deaths and illness, as any flu does, but I think keeping a cool head, (sorry, another bad pun), washing your hands, and not panicing are the best ways to combat it. If you feel sick, stay away from people! Otherwise, we all go about our business, and try to be smart about not passing on germs. I certainly am not going to stay off of planes, trains and automobiles, just to avoid getting some pig virus!