The Internet was invented by the U.S. Department of Defense.

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This month's question is:

With New Year's resolutions fresh in everyone's mind, how many people are estimated to sign up for gym membership this month?

a) 4 million
b) 12 million
c) 30 million
d) 18 million

Be the first to call 717-291-4689 or e-mail Sue Worthing sue@ezsolution.comwith the correct answer to win a $20 gift certificate to Isaacs Deli or Starbucks!

Hackers Are Now Using Your Friends Accounts To Transmit Viruses

"Hey, I have this hilarious video of you dancing. Your face is so red. You should check it out!" If you've received a message like that through a Facebook or MySpace friend, you may have been exposed to the "Koobface" virus. Here's what's going on…

Hackers have now made a new cozy home for themselves on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Disguised as one of your friends, they'll send you a direct message with a video link attached. If you click on the link, you're prompted to update your Flash player to see the video, and therein lies the virus, cloaked in a "flash_player.exe" file. Once installed, this worm transforms your computer into a Zombie machine as part of a botnet (a network of computers that are controlled and used by the originator of the worm for unscrupulous purposes).

Are You Really At Risk? Some of the direct messages and tweets have titles that are very deceptive. Some of the more common messages will say, "Here's the video I mentioned…", or "LOL," or "My friend caught you on hidden cam," or "My home video :)" These messages are followed by a link directing you to a page to watch the video. These seemingly harmless messages can quickly infect your entire office network, allowing hackers a free pass in. In addition, they can block you from accessing important security updates, making your network even more susceptible to hacker attacks. In some cases, they use their free access to your computer to steal bank account information, credit card numbers, social security numbers and other confidential data.

How To Protect Yourself Awareness is the first step to protecting yourself. Make a copy of this newsletter and hand it out to all your coworkers and your friends and family so they don't get infected or infect you. Next, follow these three simple steps:

Frequently Change Your Password And Don't Use Easy To Guess Combinations. I know, it's a pain in the neck to change your password frequently, especially when you have dozens to keep track of. But this really is one of the best ways to avoid compromising your account on social media sites. Additionally, don't use simple passwords like "password" or "123abc." Include lower case and capital letters, as well as numbers. If a hacker is trying to crack your password and you never change it (or if it's super easy to guess), you make your account a prime target.

Avoid Downloads. Avoid downloading anything from messages on Twitter or Facebook, even if the message is from someone you know. As a general rule, never download any file if you are not 100% certain it is secure and virus free.

by Tom Malesic

Keyword selection is probably the most critical step of search engine optimization.

Why would I say this?

First let's make the assumption that you can get a first page Google placement on any keyword that you want. This may or may not be true but we need to start some where. Assuming this, wouldn't it be important to know that people actually go to Google and search for that keyword. You bettcha.

Here's how we start the process.

Step 1. Brain storm on keywords.
Start jotting down what you think people would type in. The bigger the list the better. You will narrow it down later. Write down individual words but also write down phrases. Here's an example: Landscaper, Landscaper Lancaster, Landscape Designer

Step 2. Check out the competition
Now that you have a list of keywords, go to Google and type in some of the keywords that you feel are the best words for you.

Do your competitors show up on the first page? If they do, let's check out what keywords they have thought of. To do this, go to the top of your browser and click on the word View and then select Source. This pulls up a page that looks crazy. It is the code of how the site was programmed. Don't worry what you are looking for is at the top of the page. You are looking for something that looks like this:

<title>Landscape Design & Landscaping | Lancaster, Reading, & Harrisburg | Earth, Turf & Wood </title>
<meta name="keywords" content="landscaper lancaster, landscaping Lancaster......">
<meta name="description" content="Have you been looking for an attractive landscape or hardscape creation?.....">

Look through their keywords. You might find some you had not thought of. So add them to your list.

Step 3. Research your keywords.
We use a website called Wordtracker.com to research our keywords. It allows us to research each keyword to see how popular and competitive it is.

Step 4. Analyze and select your keywords
Look through the report that you now have from wordtracker and select the keywords phrases that are popular and that you feel are most relevant to your business.

After all, why would you waste your time and money getting first page placement on Google for a keyword that no one looks for?

When you've decided on the right keyword phrases, you'll be several steps ahead of many of your competitors and within a short period of time will reap the benefits of your optimization efforts.

If you would like more information on how we can help you with your search engine placements, please call us.

I guarantee that we will get you first page placement on Google or I don't send you a bill.

Thanks - Tom

East Hempfield Township is located in the western heart of Lancaster County and covers 21.1 square miles with an estimated population of 24,000.

East Hempfield a township, having a strong presence of industry, as well as a strong agricultural base. Significant housing options complete the streetscape of this Township. With new project on the horizon, the Township feels strongly that assertive planning is necessary to guide the future growth of the Township.

EZSolution has provided support to EHT in the form of hardware and technical support for the many innovative projects the township has done and will forge into the future. One of the more progressive projects is the electronic storage of their documents.

Mark Stivers, Director of Planning and Development says, "I appreciate the work and effort of EZSolution. We have multiple computers and servers in our office. We don't have the time and energy to keep them all running. We depend on EZSolution to keep our computers up and our office running." This statement was never truer during the replacement of the administration's server at the end of 2008. Replacing a server is always a tedious endeavor but the staff of EZ Solution performed the conversion seamlessly."

Don joined EZSolution in August of this year. He comes with a background of more than 25 years of technology sales including consumer electronics, office printers, computer systems, networks and related software and equipment. During those years he has held several positions in outside and inside sales as well as positions in project management, sales administration, purchasing and retail sales management.

Don works with new clients, introducing them to the benefits of having a powerful website and showing them how EZSolution can design that website for them. In addition, he can help facilitate getting their websites noticed through Search Engine Optimization. He brings a talent for listening and understanding, which helps him analyze his clients' goals in developing or redesigning a website. His goal with each client is to maximize that client's return on investment from an EZSolution-designed website.

He is a graduate of the University of Scranton and is a US Navy veteran. His outside interests include music (both playing and listening), literature, physical fitness, hiking, hunting and travel. He is involved, along with his wife, Susan, in many activities at his church. He has two grown sons, David, a career Army officer currently serving in Korea, and Matthew, a Network Systems Engineer in the Washington, DC area.

Earth Turf & Wood

We recently had the pleasure to redesign Earth Turf & Wood's website. They had been a client since 2006.

This project was developed in conjunction with Marlin Miller, owner of MDM Creative. Marlin put together the concepts and the visual design. Heather (designer at EZSolution) took the designs and made the site come to life on the Web.

This team effort produced a beautiful site for Earth, Turf & Wood.

After the site was completed, Jared, the owner of Earth, Turf & Wood, called and said he wanted to talk about marketing his site on the Internet. He felt it was time to aggressively use the Internet as a lead generation tool. In the past years he had attained several clients as a result of his site. So he felt confident in this direction.

His other comment was, "I don't want to spend $12,000 a year on this." Thankfully, for the type of Google program that he needed, the cost is only $99 per month.

Within 30 days we were able to get first page placement on Google for the following keywords: Landscaper Lancaster, Landscaper Reading, Landscaper Harrisburg, Landscape Design Lancaster, Landscape Design Reading, Landscape Design Harrisburg, Landscape Designer Lancaster, Landscape Designer Reading, Landscape Designer Harrisburg

Here's what Jared has to say about EZSolution.

"Tom and the staff at EZSolution have been a great asset in aiding with the growth of our company. Their tech support, website design, and Google optimization have proven first class and the results have steered some great clients our way. We look forward to continued growth with them in years to come."

Glick Fire Equipment
www.glickfire.com

Spring Hollow Construction
www.springhollowconstruction.com

Gravenor Funeral Home
www.gravenorhomeforfunerals.com

Congratulations to our designer, Marie, and her husband, Terry on the birth of their son, Austin. Big sister Alicia is happy her baby brother has finally arrived.

Depending on the version of Windows you're currently running, installing Windows 7 on your PC may be a lengthy process. The first step is to go to www.microsoft.com, download and run Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to make sure your PC can run Windows 7, and then review the information below prior to buying or installing Windows 7 on your PC. Use this chart to decide if you need to do an upgrade or a custom (clean) install.

To upgrade an earlier operating system than Windows XP (for example Windows 200) you will need to purchase a full license of Windows 7 and perform a custom install.

Upgrade means you have go from Vista directly to Windows 7 by simply inserting the Windows 7 upgrade software into your PC's DVD drive and follow the instructions on your screen.

A custom (clean) installation is required if you are moving from XP or decide you want to erase the contents of your PC's hard drive. Your files, settings, and programs will not be transferred to Windows 7. That means that to install Windows 7, you'll need to: Backup all the files and settings you want to keep. Install Windows 7 Reinstall all your files Reinstall all the programs you want to use.

This takes time and patience and is more time consuming than an upgrade.

When your referral becomes a client (and has spent $1000 or more) then we will pay you $50 more. And, we will give your referral $100 off their purchase.