PSPINC Official Company Blog

PSPinc Ranked #38 Among Largest Minority-Owned Companies in Washington State

Nov

15

We are proud to announce that we have been ranked #38 on the Puget Sound Business Journal's list of the "Largest Minority-Owned Companies in Washington State".

The qualifications to be considered for this list as outlined by bizjournals.com are as follows:

"To qualify for The List, companies must be headquartered in Washington and should be at least 51 percent minority owned. Companies must have recorded revenue of at least $500,000 in 2016 and operate as an independent, privately held corporation, proprietorship or partnership (not a subsidiary or division of another company)."

A special thank you to our customers, colleagues, and employees who continue to make it possible for us to be ranked as one of the largest companies in this category. We are largely staffed by a diverse mixtures of cultural backgrounds that make up the very fabric of who we are. Not only do we value our organizational diversity, but we celebrate it.

#Blog #BusinessTips #CelebrateDiversity #Diversity #ENnews #Inclusion #MinorityOwnedBusiness #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

Opinion Stand Papyrus in Action!

Nov

14

Here at PSPinc we like to stay well caffeinated as we are hard at work on various projects. Currently we are trying out a brand-new espresso machine from our good friends at Agora.

Right next to the machine is a table tent with a QR code on it. This simple, yet powerful, table tent allows Agora to gather feedback on what the PSP staff thinks of the coffee (spoilers: there are a lot of happy faces).

Simply scanning the QR code with your mobile device will pull up the Opinion Stand icons. Clicking an icon safely and securely logs that result in the Opinion Stand admin panel for review.

Want to get more specific? You can provide a few additional details after clicking the icon (though not required) to gather more information about a user's experience.

Opinion Stand Papyrus can be tailored to fit your business's needs - the options are endless! Curious to learn how Opinion Stand Papyrus can help your business take the temperature of your customers? Visit OpinionStand.com or call us: 425-957-0808.

The term "QR Code" is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

#Blog #OpinionStand #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

Why you Should Know Bits versus Bytes

Nov

14

Bits and bytes are the units to measure computer data. Bit is short for “binary digit,” the most basic unit of computer data with a value of 0 or 1. On their own, these values are meaningless, but 8 bits grouped together form a byte. Basically, 8 bits equals 1 byte, and 1 byte represents 1 character, such as one letter or one symbol. All those bytes add up to a file size, for example, my running Word Doc is currently at 167 KB (167,000 bytes).

So why do you need to know bits versus bytes? Because the speed of data transfer is measured in bits and the amount of data storage is measured in bytes. Having this knowledge will help you make wiser tech purchasing decisions. What you need to know first, because you’ll see it in advertisements or on the packaging: a byte is represented with an uppercase B while a bit is represented with a little b.

When talking about bits and bytes you’ll also see the terms K for Kilo (thousand) or M for Mega (million) or G for Giga (billion). If you see Gb or GB, now you can identify whether it means Gigabits or Gigabytes by the lowercase or uppercase letters.

The latest iPhone advertises 64GB (64 billion bytes). That’s a lot of storage, but consider how many photos you take on your phone. If just one picture has a file size of 2 MB (and some files are much larger), that storage could fill up fast. That’s not even considering the size of apps and other files.

Think of it like a closet. The more space you have, the more clothing you can store. The more you fill it up, the slower it may take you to find an outfit. Well, similarly, the more you fill up the storage in your device or computer, the slower applications or files might transfer, upload or work.

#Bits #Blog #BusinessTips #Bytes #Computers #Data #DataStorage #DataTransfer #ENnews #FileSize #FileStorage #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

Distinguishing Hard Drive versus RAM

Nov

7

image source: pixabay.com

When talking with my dad recently, I realized he doesn’t understand the difference between a computer’s hard drive versus a computer’s memory. How can I blame him? Computers came into existence later in his life, plus we in the computing industry haven’t done a great job of distinguishing the two components. This month, let’s cover some computer basics and put an end to the confusion.

Our computer’s permanent storage:

When you store files such as a Word Document or photos, you’re storing them on your computer’s hard drive,or permanent storage. Back in the good old days, you might save these files onto something called a floppy disk, and later a USB flash drive, but your computer’s internal disk space is often referred to as the hard drive. More recently SSD (Solid State Drive) is becoming affordable and therefore replacing hard drives.

Our computer’s temporary storage:

You have probably heard the term RAM which stands for “Random Access Memory.” RAM is where data is stored or used temporarily in order for a program to work. When you use a computer application such as Excel or open a file or an email, those programs are all running on RAM. How much RAM your computer has determines how many applications it can run at one time. When you close a program, you’ve just freed up more RAM and your programs may respond faster. More RAM means you can run more programs at once without slowing things down.

#Blog #BusinessTips #Computers #DiskSpace #ENnews #HardDrive #Memory #PSPinc #RAM #SmallBusiness #Technology

Happy Halloween

Oct

31

Beautiful team.

#blog #businesstips #ennews #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #smallbusiness #technology #webhosting #website #webtools

5 Frightening Web Design Mistakes

Oct

31

image source: pixabay.com

Happy Halloween! To honor this frightfully fun day, we thought it would be a good idea to continue our website tips by giving a list of frightening design mistakes you should avoid. Let’s begin:

1. Confusing message. If your customers can’t tell who you are and what you do within the first few seconds visiting your site, why would they stick around? Make it clear right away what you do and what you sell.

2. Too much text. Okay too much of anything is bad. You can have too much text, too much white space, too many images, too many fonts, too many colors. This is where templates come in handy. A template can guide you in the fonts and spacing; you just need to add some high-quality content and imagery.

3. Hidden contact info. Your email, phone, address, or a contact form should be easy to find and readily available to people. If not, you may lose their trust.

4. Not mobile-friendly. A responsive design is a must-have. Your website should be easily viewable on all devices. Don’t expect that people are only searching and viewing your website from a PC.

5. No privacy policy. People may not take the time to read it, but for many of them, it’s a comfort just to know you have a plan in place for keeping their data secure. Get a GDPR approved privacy policy on your site asap.

Hopefully you’ve come away this month with some great ideas for designing or refreshing your company’s website. If you’d like to talk to the professionals, give us a call at PSPinc about customizing a site to your needs. We are here to make sure you have a great experience and come away with a BOO-tiful website!

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology #WebDesign #WebHosting #Website

Your Website: More Improvement Tips

Oct

24

image source: pixabay.com

All month long we’ve been giving tips on how to improve the look, feel and functionality of your website. The end goal is to create a site customers feel comfortable navigating.

If your business is brand new, this might be a good time to consider getting a professionally-designed logo. Logo design comes in several forms for several budgets, depending on the extent of what you need. You can hire a graphic designer to quickly create something, or you can hire a branding expert to not only design your logo, but really analyze your brand as whole.

Logo design isn’t just for startup companies. Perhaps your business has been around a long time and your logo could use an update. Just like images should be crystal clear and high quality, so should your logo.

The next thing to consider is website layout. We have templates you can choose from, which takes all the guesswork out of layout and fonts and white space and the things mentioned in our previous blog post. Customizing a template website is a great way to create a professional, organized website for your business. Learn more about WebdeXpress today.

Finally, people won’t stay on your website very long if they don’t think it’s secure. Make sure your website is secured by a Secure Socket Layer (SSL or TLS) certificate. A secure website with encryption technology is marked by a little lock icon in the URL. If the lock isn’t there, the URL line will advertise “Not secure,” and you can be sure to lose visitors really fast.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology #WebDesign #WebHosting #Website

What are good strategies in regards to using satellite websites for SEO??

Oct

21

Use blog and Social Media Sites to publish your article.
http://www.bloguru.com

What are good strategies in regards to using satellite websites for SEO??

Creating multiple one page sites that link to your main website seems like a good idea for increasing the search ranking of that main site. However, it may backfire if you created those pages yourself.

What do I mean?

It appears as though search engines like Google can detect these artificial websites created just to link back to your main website. If you implement this approach, your main site may be blacklisted by Google and not show up in search results at all.

The overall strategy, however, is not too bad. Having many links to your website does increase your search engine ranking. You just have to do it organically.

Below are a few methods for increasing your search engine visibility organically by linking back to your website.

Create and send articles to news sites, blogs and social media sites.

Ask friends to link to your site and in exchange you will link to theirs. (This practice is called reciprocal linking.)

Ask people to review your business online.

Promote your satellite sites and social media.

Key is not to create any site just for the sake of creating more links.

#PSPWebMarketing #blog #businesstips #dreamersi #ennews #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #smallbusiness #technology #webhosting #webtools

Your Website: The Look and Feel

Oct

17

The look and feel of a website tells you a lot about a company. If you visit a website with a bunch of text, low-resolution images, too many ads or pop-ups, what kind of impression does it give you? You might start to feel like the whole thing is spam, or low-budget – and all of that reflects back on the business. Your website is your first impression for most, so make it a good one.

First things first, image quality needs to be light, bright, clear and professional. If you are using your own photos, the subject should be back-lit. Watch for shadows or unnecessary things in the background of your pictures. Don’t use any pictures that come out grainy or pixelated.

Consider using stock images for free or for a small price. If you have specific things that need to be photographed, it might be worth hiring a professional photographer to do the job. It’s said ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ and if that’s true, well, depending on its quality, a picture can really sell something or turn people off.

Keep plenty of white space within your site. Don’t over-clutter with images or banner ads. Don’t have too much tiny text. If someone needs to put on readers to read your content, you’re doing it wrong. And finally, pick one or two easy-to-read fonts you can use throughout your site.

Just remember, keep it simple, keep it organized, and if at the end it feels like a site you would feel comfortable browsing, you’ve succeeded. Stay with us for a few more final tips next week.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology #WebHosting #WebTools #Websites

Your Website: Smart Functionality

Oct

10

Whether you’re starting to design a website from scratch or considering improvements to what you have, think about websites you like to visit. What kind of website looks professional to you? What kind of website makes you feel comfortable and secure?

The first thing to consider is your domain. Is your URL address easy to remember? Is it easy to spell? Avoid a domain name with too many words and try to avoid hyphens altogether. A good rule of thumb to remember: if you tell someone to visit your domain and they can’t write it down, is it simple enough for them to recall from memory?

Keep your navigation menu as simple as possible. It looks cleaner, organized and professional. Remember to have contact information easily visible, but links to your blog, store hours or testimonials can be placed at the footer of your site.

Today, many people are searching and shopping on their devices, so it’s more critical than ever to have a mobile-responsive website design. This is where your website adapts to the screen size on which it’s viewed. Make sure all your links and forms are working in all versions of your site.

Finally, we recommend having an “About” section that tells a brief history and shares your company values or mission statement, so your customers can gain more trust in you by having a better understanding of who you are.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology #WebHosting #WebTools #Websites