Last month's answer -

c) PDF stands for Portable Document Format

****************************

This month's question is:

The Treasury Department recently dropped its tax on long distance telephone calls that was established how many years ago?

a) 13
b) 37
c) 54
d) 108

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

Wi-Fi hot-spots for checking e-mail and hopping on the Internet can be found in airports, coffee shops, bookstores, and even some fast food restaurants. For the uninitiated, Wi-Fi hot-spots are areas where you can use your wireless laptop to surf the Web and check e-mail.

But have you ever wondered just how safe it is to connect? With the proliferation of hackers, viruses and identity theft at an all time high, you are smart to be concerned. Unfortunately, it is easy for a hacker to set up a Wi-Fi hot-spot to access your laptop, called an"evil twin."

An evil twin is a wireless hot-spot that is used to lure people from a nearby, legitimate hot-spot. For example, when logging in at your favorite coffee shop, you may have inadvertently logged into an evil twin Internet connection set up by the person working on a laptop at the next table.

Just like legitimate sites, evil twins allow you access to the Internet, but in the background they record everything you are typing. Log onto your email, investment website, bank account, or buy something online, and they are recording your keystrokes. You may be asking,"How do I protect myself at Wi-Fi hot-spots?" First you need to make sure the hot-spot is legitimate.

You can do this by asking someone who works at the Wi-Fi location; in fact, some businesses will give you printed instructions that include the hot-spot name. Even here you need to be careful. Many times, in an attempt to make you feel comfortable, the hacker will use an evil twin name that mimics the legitimate hot-spot and, on some occasions, the fake site may even show up at the top of your network list by having a stronger signal than the legitimate site.

The best way to ensure your privacy and safety when on a public"hot-spot" is to never access your banking, investments or e-mail when you are connected. If you only use these sites to surf the web and look up information, you should not have any problems with the bad guys of this world.

If you have questions about keeping your laptop secure when you travel, give our tech staff a call at 291-0370 ... they will be more than happy to answer any security questions you have.

Robin Robins, President of Technology Marketing Toolkit (TMTK), announced in her July newsletter that she has made Tom Malesic, President and Owner of EZSolution, her July 2010 Marketing Genius of the Month.

TMTK is a nationwide organization based in Nashville, TN, whose membership is composed of solution providers, computer value added resellers, managed service providers and computer consultants. Each member has the same goal,"to work on the business, not in the business."

In giving the award Robin said, Tom is admittedly one of my favorite Producers Club Members and someone I'm thrilled to present as this month's Marketing Genius of the Month. Tom has not only taken the marketing templates and campaigns I've given him and implemented them, but also IMPROVED them.

Earlier this year he shared with his fellow PC members a DVD and book he wrote.... He's also implemented multiple online and offline campaigns, incorporating everything from telemarketing to web videos. I wish I had a 1,000 more like him.

We have over 4500 clients of ours all delivering technical services from all over the world. Every month, we pick one company that really shines above the others not only in marketing but business operations as well. Tom has been a brilliant leader for this group and what really impresses me most about Tom and what we choose him for is his referral campaign. I want to underscore marketing is all great and you can put words on paper, but to generate referrals requires delivering great service and really running a business well. I have had other clients run similar referral campaigns, but none got results like Tom. The fact that you were able to get that many referrals is impressive.

During the last year EZSolution has been involved in many of the Robin Robins campaigns as you see below.

• Wrote a Book
• Wrapped 4 Vehicles
• Video DVD,"21 Questions That You Must Ask Before Hiring A Web Developer"
• Email Video tips: www.ezsolution.com/web/tip-of-the-week.asp
• Three Cross Sell Campaigns
• Back Up and Disaster Recovery Campaign (this is in progress right now)
• Two Joint Venture Campaigns
• Referral Partnerships
• Banner Ad Campaign with Comcast.net
• Banner Ad Campaign on Facebook
• YouTube Channel
• Twitter

Tom would say the idea he had the most success with, and enjoyed the most, is his referral campaign. The TV giveaway was just one of the many ways referrals happen at EZSolution. In the time frame from January 1 to April 30, 2010, this effort brought in 57 referrals. The winner, Ivan King of Meadowview Gazebos, won the large screen TV and provided six referrals.

Our new referral contest starts August 1 ... see all the details below.

We are giving away a NEW Dell Computer System to the person who refers the most business to us between August 1, 2010 and October 31, 2010.

How the contest works:

• Call or email us with your referral information.
• We will call to schedule an appointment.
• We will send you a check for $25.
• If your friend becomes a client we will send you a check for $50.
• We will also give your friend a $100 discount off our services.
• If you have referred more friends than anyone else, you win the Computer.

  Contest Starts: August 1, 2010 - Contest Ends: October 31, 2010
  The winner will be published in the November, 2010 newsletter.

  * In the event of a tie, the person who had the first referral will be the winner.

  ---

  Quote of the Month

  Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility... in the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have... is the ability to take on responsibility. 

  - Michael Korda

  ---

  Recently Launched Websites
  Primitives by Kathy
  www.primitivesbykathy.com

  Lancaster Road Runners Club
  www.lrrclub.org

  Chris Mayo
  www.chrismayoremodeling.com

  ---

  Great Success with EZSolution SEO Program

  The Uptime Group, located in Golden, Colorado, has been in business since 2001, serving the IT needs of small to medium-sized businesses in the Denver and Boulder metro areas. Originally started by Dale Laushman, the year 2003 saw the company partnering with Microsoft and becoming a Gold Partner.

  Also that year, Patty Laushman joined the company as CEO and immediately made marketing one of her main focused activities. With a master's degree in marketing communications, she quickly went to work on SEO and Google Ad Words, and within one week, she had her most important key phrases in the top slots on Google.

  Patty's Story:
  "SEO is not something you set up once and you're done. It requires ongoing maintenance to keep the top slots, and as my business grew, I had less and less time to do so. Also, over the last several years the industry has been maturing, and there is much more competition for the key phrases, the advertising costs have increased exponentially, and with Google constantly changing the algorithm, it has become too complicated for me to stay on top of the process. I needed someone else to do it for me, but, I have pretty high standards because I understand how it works and there are many companies out there that don't know what they are doing.

  There are not many firms doing SEO who focus on the SMB and service companies as small as mine. I had a lot of trouble finding a good vendor. At the time I met Tom and EZSolution, I was working with a local vendor, and was seeing no results, received no communication and was paying $300/month. I actually contacted Tom about possibly doing work for one of our clients, and when I found out about his pay-for-performance guarantee, I fired my vendor and signed up with Tom the very same day.

  I am capturing great leads that I knew were out there, but for the last few years, I just didn't have the bandwidth to do my own SEO and capture them. Just today, we received a call from an awesome lead that previously would have gone only to my competitors. I am thrilled. "

  In July, the Uptime Group achieved page one ranking for eight of their 10 key phrases, and page two for the remaining two phrases.

  We asked Patty what advice she would give to others thinking about whether or not to add SEO to their marketing toolkit.

  She said:
  1) Just do it!
  2) select your phrases carefully because that determines what type of prospect you will attract to your site, and
  3) use TOM and EZSolution!

  The EZSolution SEO guarantee is pretty simple: 1st page placement or you don't pay.

  We can make this amazing offer because we know how to deliver. EZSolution currently has over 60 clients in diverse industries, all getting 1st page placement. Call Tom now at 717.291.4689 for more information on how we can make your SEO words work for you.

  ---

  Tech Client Profile - New Providence Church of God

  EZSolution is pleased to highlight a new customer, New Providence Church of God.

  Located in Southern Lancaster County near the village of New Providence, New Providence Church of God is a robust congregation that has a strong emphasis on faith, family and community. It is a church focused on calling, equipping and sending: calling people to Christian faith, equipping for service and sending members in service roles locally and in other countries.

  Technology is very important in the work and worship at New Providence Church of God and EZSolution provided a significant upgrade to their server and workstations. To reduce costs, a version of Microsoft Foundation Server was installed and implemented. Foundation Server works well where the users are limited in number and cost is an issue.

  For more information about Foundation Server, call Jeff Weaver at 291-0370. To contact New Providence Church of God, call Cindy at 786-5580 or check out the church website at www.npcog.com.

  ---

  FAV'S
  This month we are introducing a short column called FAVS. We all have favorite websites for many reasons. Thanks to a suggestion by Bill Boyd of Brereton Manor, we will begin sharing those sites each month.

  Here is the website that Bill and his family find enjoyable:

  www.sporcle.com.

  This is a website of"mentally stimulating diversions", or games as we like to call them. Check it out. Thanks Bill.

  To have your favorite website included here, email rich@ezsolution.com

  It will be a community effort to build our list.

  ---

  Changes at EZSolution

  New Marketing Manager

  Rich Crockett our Service Manager since October 2008, has been promoted to the new position of Marketing Manager. When Rich joined EZSolution in 2009, he was working as a business consultant; he had previous experience as General Manager at TCW Computers, Manheim, Interim Executive Director at S. June Center, Lancaster and prior assignments in Operations, Business Development and as a Sales Manager.

  For those of you who had frequent contact with Rich, you knew he had a much broader business background than technology. Those broader interests also show up in non-work activity. Rich is a great cook, loves all things Vermont, has a sweet new granddaughter, directs a men's choir, sings with Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, road bikes and enjoys traveling with his wife, Mary Jane. We at EZSolution love marketing; one look at our vehicles will tell you we are innovative and focused. With so much activity in marketing it makes sense to have one person responsible for developing, tracking and executing the plans. Even when Rich spent all of his time in the Tech department, he was involved in marketing, having started and edited our newsletter.

  New Customer Service Coordinator

  On Monday, July 12, Brad Roth began his new position in the Technical Services Division. Brad has been promoted from Network Technician to Customer Service Coordinator.

  As the Technical Services Division has grown over the last two years, we have been working on ways to provide a better service model to you. One example has been to move many of you to EZSolution Total Care. This proactive model allows us to work on issues before you have a crisis. The advances in remote connection also allow us to fix many issues without the necessity of a site visit and thereby reduce travel time and down time.

  Later this year we will be implementing a program called Tigerpaw, which will centralize all of our contacts, databases, invoicing and ticketing. The goal is to give you cleaner, clearer and more seamless access to service and the information you need.

  In his new role as Customer Service Coordinator, Brad will be your first point of contact for technical questions, issues and scheduling. When you dial 291-0370, you will connect directly to Brad, who will be able to quickly assess your issue and schedule service.

  Please remember to contact Brad by phone at 291-0370 or email him at< href="mailto-ezsupport@ezsolution.com">ezsupport@ezsolution.com for technical service and support. If you contact another technical staff member, service may be delayed as the request will need to get routed to Brad.

  ---

  Referral Program
  We will pay you $25 for any one that you refer to us that we get an appointment with.

  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.

  ---

  Would You Like to Submit an Article, Story or Tip for The EZSolution?
  Do you have a funny story or resource to share with other subscribers? Send it to me! We are always looking for new and useful content to add to our newsletter, including partners who want to submit articles. Submit to rich@ezsolution.com

  ---

  :: View Newsletter Archive