Is your website working?

Are My Sites Up? is a relatively new free web-based service that helps you keep track of up time for your websites.

The service will send you a SMS alert if your website goes down to help you respond faster and get your business back on line as soon as possible. Vital if you depend on online sales. Every minute your online business is down is money lost.

After being featured on Lifehacker and Webware, Are My SitesUp? have temporarily closed down new signups, but with a service as useful as this, they should be on your “watch” list. You can subscribe to their blog which will alert everyone when the service is open for signups again.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager

Quote of the day

A quote in one of my email newsletters caught my eye today.

 ”As you grow in this business, you learn how to do more with less.”

–Morgan Freeman,
recipient of 2008 Kennedy Center Honors Award

If you drop the “this” out of the quote, those words can hold true for small businesses.

“As you grow in business, you learn how to do more with less.”

Fantastic words to think on for the day.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager

Blog Action Day 08

Today is Blog Action Day. Through out the day, thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue – poverty. The purpose? To raise awareness and initiate action on this very important topic.

In keeping with that theme, I’m going to re-introduce you to Kiva. We’ve mentioned this company before, [Steve Lange wrote on becoming an investor/lender through Kiva]  but such a great company with a goal to bring people out of poverty by helping them start or continue their business is a topic worthy of more than one blog post.

Kiva.org is a nonprofit organization that lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in a developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty. You can look through the list of pre-screened entrepreneurs on the kiva.org website and choose one to send your loan, which can be as little as $25.00. You’ll receive updates and eventually, as the business succeeds, have your loan repaid.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro lending website and has brought together worthwhile entrepreneurs with people willing and able to aid them in their struggle to make a business dream live.

Too often we hear about the businesses that need thousands and sometimes millions of dollars to start or continue operating, but with small micro loans, these companies are starting and growing successful businesses.

Kiva.org – Loans That Change Lives
Make a Small Loan, Make a Big Difference – Check out Kiva.org to Learn How!

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software