Having maintained over 50 websites for the past few years we have finally taken the plunge and started our own hosting company. The thought of starting it was planned for quite some time, it was just a matter of putting it into effect. You would think starting a hosting company would not be all that difficult...wrong ;)  So many things to learn and do that sometimes it was crazy. But, with all that said we are finally done. The business is: Veteran Web Hosting Like everything else Veteran Web Hosting allows a discount to all members of the Association of Computer Repair Business Owners. [+]

Many of you know Steve Cherubio the creator of PodNutz and you may know him as the guy who puts out those amazing Laptop Repair Video's. But, now Steve has come out with the TechSiteBuilder package. This product is specifically built for computer repair technicians/businesses that need to get an Internet presence. This is basically a turn-key operation to use. It comes with everything you need and all you have to do is put your information for yourself or your business into it. I could go into more details but no need, Steve has put a site up and you can see all that comes with the TechSiteBuilder. [+]

Great article on 2009 Internet Stats here Few things jump out at you. Being in business one of the blocks of number is: Internet users * 1.73 billion – Internet users worldwide (September 2009). * 18% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year. * 738,257,230 – Internet users in Asia. * 418,029,796 – Internet users in Europe. * 252,908,000 – Internet users in North America. * 179,031,479 – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean. * 67,371,700 – Internet users in Africa. * 57,425,046 – Internet users in the Middle East. * 20,970,490 – Internet users in Oceania / Australia. So you don't have to be a genius to see that no matter where you live there is a massive amount of people using the internet.  That being the case it's safe to assume there should be plenty of work now and in the future.  The Malicious Code numbers are [+]

**Edited 27 jan 2010... Now "Comptia" has changed their mind, or better yet clarified their position here. Seems now if you do or have done the A+, Net+ or Security Plus on or before 31 Dec 2011 then you are still good for life.... Not surprising that Comptia is finally on board and has changed their policies on how long cerifications are good for. Not sure if I really like this or not. Obviously having all the certifications that they are now changing to a "renewal" policy I am looking at it from that aspect. I can almost buy off on the Network+ and Security needing to be renewed, but having a difficult time with the A+ needing it. My mindset has always been that there is a progression path to certifications and it was: A+ Net+ MCP CCNA Then you could do the big boys such as [+]

I was at a business clients yesterday. I started working on their network a few months ago and as of yet they have not signed on for a "maintenance contract" which typically I would of been upset with by now but if they do not seem to care I am not going to hound them about it. But, I will bill them for each and every minute I am on site or my technician(s) are on site. Well yesterday was setup so the "old" computer person they had would come in and try to recover some old data that apparently only he and the owner knew about. They had been running a program to monitor all e-mail traffic and then log it into sql databases. Well someone should of coordinated better due to the "old" server that had crashed was at another [+]

If you notice a recent post has been removed. The reason for removal is simply this "I am done with anyone who is not looking to improve our industry in general"...I have many other things to focus on that I believe will help our industry and the small business owner and that is where I am going to put my efforts in the upcoming year. [+]

Paradigm Shifts for Techs: Managed Services Part 1 by Derek R. Iannelli, IT Strategist, Progressive Integrations, Inc., When I ‘closed’ my first M&S agreement (maintenance & support), I thought I finally figured it out, and if I could sell enough of them, our business would making the American Dream come true. That was 10 years ago. Until this past year, I still had the same thoughts regarding M&S agreements until our economy started to affect our clients too. Instead of the fluidity or automatic renewal agreements (essentially blocks of hours for them to use whatever way they wanted), I noticed a change in our maintenance appointments first. They started to turn them down because they wanted to save their hours. What ended up happening, no matter what type of convincing argument I had, was it inevitably turned into a B/F (break-fix, one-shot, one-kill) [+]

US Commerce Association - Ashley Carter As you can see we have won an award!!!! But, WAIT so did a million other people..haha This has got to be one of the best deals going and here is how it works. They  send out a million emails to different businesses and claim they won the award. Then they tell them they can use the pictures and even get a press release to go with the award...So far so good....... Now the good part For $79.99 I can get the award in a plaque...Or for $179.99 I can get the one in the picture and lastly for the package price of $199.00 I can get both.... Now it's not worth trying to contact them and get some verification because all e-mails come back with a generic response. I asked [+]

As some of you know I have written in the past about forums and the benefit of them. But, then out of nowhere Bryce Whitty from Technibble comes up with an amazing contest. Simple contest, just answer some general questions and the winner(s) get: Instant Housecall – Remote Support Software CommitCRM – Client Management/Relationship Software Podnutz Laptop Repair Video Collection – Training Videos to Repair Laptops and Podcaster SUPERAntiSpyware Professional – Anti-malware Software And to makes things even better there was not just one winner but three. Congrats to the winners and congrats to Bryce for putting on such a great contest. [+]

The Association of Computer Repair Business Owners new site is now online. Company Lookup – This is for Association Members to list their business and also for consumers to search for Members. Plus, it has “waysearch” built into it so it opens a map for the customers to find you. Make sure you use the “meta keywords” and “meta description” when submitting your business. You need to submit your own listing otherwise I would do it. But, if you do your own you can edit it whenever you'd like. One issue is the module is called SOBI and you can only submit thru Mozilla. Hopefully a fix is in the works. Blog – A blog has been incorporated into the site and like other blogs it has meta tags incorporated into it so feel free to fill them out if you decide [+]