After reading Chris Brogan's blog entry on Aug 12, titled My Twitter Presence, I realized that there were better tools for keeping track of Twitter and other Social Media than what I was currently using.  So, I took his advice and installed Seesmic Desktop.  I'm not a hardc... [More]

There are a ton of tools out there to help small business owners stay organized, communicate better, and be more efficient.  Here are two of my favorites I think everyone should check out. Speedfiler - This is, without a doubt, the tool that makes managing my inbox almost bearabl... [More]

If you regularly communicate with groups of people, whether they be customers, vendors, or organization members using email or a print newsletter, you may be able to do so more effectively, saving yourself valuable time along the way. To determine if utilizing an email marketing service makes sens... [More]

One thing I love about living in Cedar Falls is the Sturgis Falls Celebration.   My family loves to sit at Overman Park, listen great music, and eat the delicious food (I'm partial to the mini donuts).  Over the past several months, Far Reach has had the opportunity to work with... [More]

I was recently on a website for a retail shop that couldn't answer the following questions…  At least not without combing the entire site, front to back, and top to bottom. What does the business do or sell? Where is the business located? How do I contact them if I hav... [More]

 Do you know if your website is up and running?  Most people just assume their site is working.  Unfortunately, that is not always a safe assumption.  I recently worked with a client who forgot to pay his yearly web hosting bill.  The hosting provider turned off ... [More]

Last Tuesday a major storm went through Cedar Falls. Some areas of town were hit with tennis ball size hail. Apparently when a storm hits, the out-of-town construction companies follow it. Those of you who have had hail damage probably already know this. When an adjustor gets on your roof to locate hail damage, they circle the spots with bright chalk. That makes it pretty easy for roofing companies to drum up leads. As a result of the circles on my roof, I had a guy stop by the house the other night wanting to know if I had chosen a subcontractor yet. He was very polite and told me he "wanted to earn my business." Such a simple phrase, but it really struck a chord with me. I can't remember the last time someone told me they wanted to "earn my business." Every company earns business, at least initially. The thing that always scares me is once they have my business, will they continue to strive to earn it? [More]

Early this week, I received an email from GoDaddy telling me to pre-register for a .co domain. I thought to myself, "What is a .co domain and why would I want to spend money to reserve it?" [More]

Did you know that all the major search engines give you the ability to list your business for free? Here are links to several.  Google - http://www.google.com/local/add Yahoo - http://listings.local.yahoo.com/  Bing - https://ssl.bing.com/... [More]

When we started Far Reach one of the goals was to have some fun.  So last year we started "Far Reach Fun Day".  Each month we try to get out and have some fun outside of work.  This month we went bowling.   Here are a few photos of our fun.&nb... [More]