This probably sounds way too techy for the average person (or too expensive), but it isn’t anymore.  Adobe Flash, combined with Open Source projects, is changing the business landscape when it comes to collaboration technologies.

Here are two products that I use quite often that has made me look impressive to many customers.  Their purpose is to collaborate online, but I use them to get things done fast without traveling to meet in person.

DimDim (www.dimdim.com) – Webinar online meeting place

This is the free cousin of Webex and GoToMeeting.  Free  is correct.  You can host up to 20 people at a time, and you can have as many meetings as you want.  Use your own teleconferencing service, or they provide one for free.  Share your screen, power point presentations, PDF files, use a whiteboard, and best of all – record what’s happening in full vidoe.  Many of the recorded webinars you see on my site are recorded through DimDim.  Sometimes I’ll host a meeting that I’m the only participant of, just so I can record the presentation.

Have more then 20 people?  This is still a cost effective solution.  For only $20 per month, you can host as many meetings as you want with up to 50 attendees.  The reason I like this product is that there are no other free solutions that let you host up to 20 people. (note – looks like times are tough because it used to be $8.50 per month for up to 100 attendees.  Oh well, still a good deal)

One of the things DimDim is missing is passing control of your screen to someone else, or taking control of another’s screen.

Acrobat Online (www.acrobat.com) Resource Sharing and Collaboration
This is similar to DimDim, but the focus is on sharing resources – from files to your screen.  Very simple to use (even simpler than DimDim).  The Screen Sharing feature allows you to pass control, and take control of the computer screens.  I use this a lot when helping clients with simple problems (like using applications, training, etc…).

This is a free service too (or I wouldn’t be recommending it), but it’s only free for up to three participants.  Not much of a meeting there huh.  That’s why I only use this to either post files online and share them with colleagues, or more importantly, to share my screen with another person – or view their screen to help them with problems.
Both of these applications work well on PC and Mac – which has become a requirement for me lately now that Macs are more affordable and increasing in popularity.  They both also work with various browsers (like Firefox).

Hope this helps.

Jim

I conducted some research on this subject, and created a presentation to explain it all.  Hopefully it will help you with the question of how to process credit cards.  By the way, now that I understand what’s going on, I’m going to change my provider and save some money!

Here’s a couple of articles I found with some good information at:

Taming the Beast

Payment Gateway Primer

Enjoy.

In this video, I explain exactly how I do this, and I even demonstrate how I cut the cards.  You’ll learn EVERYTHING you need to print quality business cards (none of this perforated junk), and represent your company well.

I’ve also attached two files to this post.

1.  Powerpoint template for business cards  Business Card templates

2.  Exact wording for email to send to Office Max for printing.  Email for OfficeMax