Being Smarter

It really isn’t that hard to get a website up and running these days, although if you’ve never done it before – then I fully admit – it can be tricky to know where to start.

The first thing you need before you go any further is a domain name and some webhosting – which is a place online where you can store the site files once it’s built.

We noticed this offer today, from one of the hosting companies we use and quite frankly, it’s too good to be true…

12 months’ worth of hosting plus a domain name for $9.95. This is amazing value. Don’t forget they are effectively hoping to make money in the following 12 months, assuming you renew with them, however the normal price is only $3.95/month – so it’s not going to break the bank.

The offer isn’t on their site – and the link below isn’t an affiliate one – this is a just a Xmas gift from the Being Smarter team.

Go give it a whirl – you’ve nothing to lose.

http://www.siteground.com/christmas.htm

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Diskeeper has claimed that every computer owner can do their bit for the environment simply by defragging their hard drives regularly.

By doing so, you can clearly improve the performance of your PC and the resulting increase in efficiency should mean that your PC uses less electricity.

It’s hardly surprising that Diskeeper sell defragging software, and whilst the software comes highly rated, as you know at Being Smarter, we’re always lookin to do things for minimal cost. The defragging program which comes with Windows is good. If you run it overnight once a month – maybe you’ll notice the meter whizzing round slightly less…!

www.diskeeper.com

(European readers only)

I suspect you may already have a favourite price comparison site, however it’s not good to rest on your laurels – there are new sites coming online all the time and this one is definitely worth a look.

As well as looking for the best deals in UK stores, you can now compare thousands of product prices from retailers in Europe as well as the UK.

By spreading the net wider and converting foreign prices automatically, the site greatly increases the chances of finding a bargain for your business.

You can check it out here.

You don’ have to always pay a fortune for business software. Over the last year or so the Open Source community and Web 2.0 community have made huge strides forward in providing excellent downloadable or web-based applications. The content management system which drives this website, WordPress, for instance is completely free.

There are all sorts of free software ideas scattered all over the site, however this site has an excellent collection of Open Source Alternative applications which compete very nicely with the likes of Adobe and Nero.

Whilst they are never going to give you the advanced functionality that a $700 piece of software is going to give you, it is entirely possible you don’t need that advanced functionality (for the moment anyway) and a reduced functionality application which is free will absolutely hit the mark.

Be careful of false economy. Don’t use free software if it’s going to take you twice as long to get things done. I would just recommend pausing before reaching for the credit card…!

D-link have recently released what they are calling an Energy Saving Router – it promises to use up to 40$ less energy than a standard wifi router. Considering a normal wifi router runs at around 12W, if it’s left on all day (which most are) it could add up to reasonable savings over a year, as well as being green and generally saving the planet of course.

The router saves power consumption by auto-detecting which ethernet ports are being used, as well as how long the incoming cables are believe it or not.

In addition, it will automatically switch off wifi when not in use.

Apart from all that, it gets good ratings too, despite it being a little pricey.

Go on – be green – take a look at it in action here.

If you’re in the UK, it would be worth persuading your webteam to install this widget on your intranet, to help staff within the company spot the latest bargains, as the latest feeds get pulled through automatically from Amazon’s current stock clearance.

If you don’t currently have mobile broadband access and you are out the office a lot, with a need for data, I suspect you spend a good deal of time working from coffee bars and taking advantage of their wifi access, free or otherwise.

Before you head out next time, it’s worth checking out Trustive – an excellent resource which has over 30000 hotspots plotted across 75 countries on a Google Map. Very cool.

They do a pretty good deal on wifi credits too which is definitely woth investigating.

They have also just released a dedicated site for iPhone users too to find wifi hotspots if you don’t have 3G coverage.

Price comparison sites cheap flights (UK) cheap flights (US) have relaunched with new features to make it easier to find the right deal for your personal or business travel.

You can now filter by date, price and airline and the site also remembers you last 5 searches, which is a nice touch.

Destination guides are also on the site now – always good to plan that business trip in advance.

Finally, there’s also a really useful Airlines Guide (right at the bottom of the homepage) for when you are desparate to get in touch with an airline and can’t get their contact details. They’ve pulled it all together for you here.

Happy travelling.

PS – if you want to know what cab fare you should be paying before you go, click here.