Using Multiple Computer Monitor Screens on Windows to Get Work Done Faster and Multi-Task

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I have been using multiple monitors for about 10 years both at home and work. I think that having only one or two puts you at an extreme disadvantage in so many ways.  Having three or four or more is essential to get high-speed work done.

Having multiple monitors using video cards is the best way to go but will require a large computer and typically a workstation.  But if you don’t have extra slots and more than one video card, there are a few good USB devices available. The J5 Create USB to VGA and the Kensington USB 3.0 Multi-Display Adapter both work great and the prices are below $50 each. They have an adapter for both DVI and VGA so you can actually use any old used flat-panel such as a Dell flat panel. A 17 inch is fine because the 17 inch monitor has the same resolution as a 19 inch monitor and requires less space, especially when mounted on a multi-monitor arm. You can get these monitors on eBay or Amazon for around $45. Kensington says that you can run up to five extra monitors from even a laptop. I have found that running a few extra monitors via USB works great, I can’t even tell the difference from the monitors that are running on a video card. They display great without any weird glitches, they are fast and you can run movies. The J5Create product is equally as good. I have a few of them running along with a couple on my video card and when I’m doing websites or Internet marketing or creating business listings for companies I find that I am at least 40% faster than if I only had one monitor. My whole goal with my company is to create a lot of quality content really quickly at one half to one third of the price of a big marketing company or big marketing agency.

So for less than $300 I was able to add three monitors to my system. I also like using the multiple arm stands, I like the Mount-It! MI-756 Multiple 6 Screen Articulating product.

Something I really love about Microsoft Windows is that it supports multiple monitors very very well.

Online Business Listings. Missing Content is Not King on all those Internet Listings of Your Small Business

  • Your small business needs to be on multiple internet marketing properties (Online Business Listings).
  • There are about a dozen websites that are important for any business but especially critical for a local business with foot traffic.
  • When launching a new business (or one lacking content) start by opening each website in browser tabs and create the content (listings) on each with what is currently on your clipboard.
  • Internet marketing is a constant ongoing process that never ends and can take years or even a decade to fully reap its harvest, so keep building, especially as new opportunities evolve.

When it Comes to all Those Listings of Your Small Business, Missing Content is Not King. Facebook, Bing, Foursquare, YouTube, Google Maps/Local, Yelp, Trip Advisor, YellowPages, the list goes on and on. There are at least a dozen important properties for any business. They are all absolutely crucial for a local business with foot traffic. One way that I have found that works for getting a business online correctly is to make a list of all the places that need to be created, updated or improved. It is a daunting task for sure but if it is taken in bite-size chunks it is manageable. I start by opening each website in browser tabs on multiple screens and sign in to any accounts we already have created. I start creating the content (listings) on each screen/tab with what is currently on my clipboard, such as the business name, by pasting it into the appropriate box on each website. Your punch list will shrink as you close browser tabs on completed listings. But some seem to stay on the punch list for quite a while as it can be difficult to get them complete. They may be difficult to claim, requiring postcard verification through the mail (which my client sometimes throws away) or there is a robo caller that gets lost in my clients auto attendant phone system. But there is always a way to get the job done, even if you have to call Bing, etc. and explain the trouble.

All the web properties need to be monitored or even posted on and even have reviews responded to like on foursquare. But each one has to be dealt with individually and meticulously because all of them are so important and they each have their intricacies where they have to be analyzed and fixed and improved, pictures uploaded, text copied and pasted, etc.

The information about your business and your products or services is the most valuable asset you have to drive traffic and new customers to your business. Once you have all the website properties created you can make copies of all your business information (in various paragraph sizes) and save it on multiple devices. You can even save it in a notepad document, Google tasks, Google Drive, emails and any other digital place that you can quickly get to, so you can copy and paste it into more webpages, documents, emails, social media etc.

A quick paste into some kind of Internet property can be done in seconds, such as your phone number, website address, address, description of products, pictures or videos. So grab a cup of coffee, sign in and and have your browser save all passwords and start the copy paste process. I am a big proponent of using multiple monitors and think that one or two just isn’t enough. I am convinced that you really need to have three or four or more to get high-speed work like this done. Something I really love about Microsoft Windows is that it supports multiple monitors very very well. You can have them all on video cards especially with a workstation, but it also can can be done much cheaper with a USB Multi-Display Adapter. DVI and VGA are available so you can use any old 17 inch flat-panel it has the same resolution as a 19 inch monitor and requires less space, especially when mounted on a multi-monitor arm. You can run up to five extra monitors even from a laptop.

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With such a vast undertaking on so many websites, the goal is to create and maintain a lot of quality content quickly and to actually complete all your listings! It simply must be done, and the reward is seeing your business live on these websites and the increase in sales!

Written by Terry Beasecker, B.B.A., M.B.A.

Terry Beasecker is an Internet Marketing Professional with an M.B.A. in Marketing. In 1994 he was one of the pioneers in identifying the upheaval that would happen to marketing due to the internet. Owner of JustPromote Marketing Company, (justpromote.biz) follow him on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/terrybeasecker) and Twitter (twitter.com/Terry_Beasecker).

Terry

Google Mobile Website Friendly Requirement

If you are one of the many website owners that received a message within webmaster tools from Google with a warning about your website not being mobile friendly, please take it seriously.

In fact Google may have already released an algorithm and experts in the SEO world are already hearing reports that non-mobile friendly sites were suffering following what may have been an update on January 24th.

Google has not called the update by any sort of name or even indicated that a change was made based on mobile usability. So for now website owners are in the dark about organic ranking algorithms.

As traffic and search engine use becomes more mobile than desktop, it makes sense for Google to be looking to ensure that they are serving mobile friendly websites.

The solution? If your website is on an old FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc platform or most other old websites, you may be looking at a completely new website built on Joomla or WordPress.

Ouch that hurts, but your business may need the upgrade anyways!

Content is King

The information about your business and your products or services is the most valuable asset you have to drive traffic and new customers to your business.

Make copies of all your business information and save it in multiple places and on multiple devices that you typically access. You can even save it in a notepad document, Google tasks, Google Drive, emails and any other digital place that you can quickly get to, so you can copy and paste it into webpages, documents, emails, social media etc.

A quick paste into some kind of Internet property can be done in seconds, such as your phone number, website address, address, description of products, pictures, videos etc.

Internet marketing is a constant ongoing process that never ends and can take years or even a decade to fully reap its harvest.

Using Google tasks and other tools for your business

Google Tasks, Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Sheets and other products are an amazing tool to help you start and quickly grow your business. They’re free and amazing. It is now easy to keep track of all the things that you have to do with Google. And they will automatically appear across all your devices inside of your google account. Because all these products can do everything that Microsoft office can do for you and save yourself the $185 charge for purchasing Microsoft office. If you need an office program on your desktop Windows PC you can use openoffice for free. Google tasks is a big asset to the new small-business owner. It is so incredibly powerful with the apps that are available on iPhone and android. They are outstanding, especially the paid ones, but the free ones are definitely excellent and definitely will do the job. Most of them work flawlessly and fast, don’t lose any tasks, quickly delete things and you could sort them by priority quickly by simply dragging one up or down. You can look at your phone and try to get something done if you have five spare minutes, which is absolutely crucial when you’re starting a business. Many times a small-business owner works 60 or 80 hours a week but you don’t have to if you manage your time wisely. Google tasks is such an invaluable tool that I don’t know how you could do it without it. The fact that it’s digital means that you can have tasks with names and addresses and passwords, and all that information is there that you can copy quickly to webpages and other things. Company address, business hours or text you frequently have emailed to customers can be made as a task. They can be copied and become calendar entries, an email, text for posting on Facebook, an addition to the website. You need every advantage you can get when you’re starting a business or when you’re trying to grow a business and need to be purposeful and intentional and powerful and you can’t be any of those things without the proper tools. Your competitors are already using them so you need to quickly get up to speed and put the tools to use heavily in your business.

TurboTax home and business

I have been using TurboTax for home and business for more than 10 years. I’m highly impressed with this product, it’s always worked flawlessly, it actually makes taxes almost enjoyable. I highly recommend this product for business. You can buy from Amazon through their download manager, and the price is cheaper than buying the DVD but what I really like about it is that it imports everything from last years return that was saved on your computer. I recently switched to the website version and it also works great. It imports your name, your job employment, deductions, your bank accounts, children and all their information and social security numbers. Then all you have to do is change dollar amounts of any income, deductions, etc., It’s definitely a robust product that can handle many types of businesses, I think that if you weren’t confident that it was robust enough you could still try to do your own taxes with it and then print out what you have so far to take to an accountant.

Kensington USB multiple display adapter

I am a big proponent of using multiple monitors and think that one or two just isn’t enough. I am sure that you really need to have three or four or more to get high-speed work done. Something I really love about windows is that it supports multiple monitors very very well. It can be tough to have multiple monitors with video cards, but it can be done with a workstation especially. But if you don’t have extra slots, the Kensington Universal USB 3.0 Multi-Display Adapter is great and they have their price below $60 now. They have an adapter for both DVI and VGA so you can actually use any old used flat-panel such as a Dell flat panel and 17 inches is fine because the 17 inch monitor has the same resolution as a 19 inch monitor. You can get these monitors on eBay or Amazon for around $45. Kensington says that you can run up to five extra monitors from even a laptop. I have found that running a couple extra monitors via USB works great, can’t even tell the difference from the monitors that are running on a video card, they display great without any weird glitches, there fast and you can run movies. The J5Create product is equally as good. I have a couple of them running along with a couple on my video card and when I’m doing websites or Internet marketing or creating business listings for companies I find that I am at least 40% faster than if I only had one monitor and my whole goal with my company is to create a lot of quality content really quickly at one half to one third of the price of a big marketing company or big marketing agency. So for less than $200 I was able to add two monitors to my system. You want to turn off Windows animations they can slowdown USB monitors and your whole system too when it happens.

The Canon PIXMA MX922 Printer, Scanner, Copier and Fax is also ideal for the small business office

The MX922 could be used as an office or business printer, copier and scanner. It’s a residential grade unit at the high-end. If you don’t have in your budget the money for an HP office jet or something similar this could be the ticket at not much over $100. It has a network port so you don’t have to rely on wireless, but if you do want to run wireless it does have it along with AirPrint. The tray capacity is huge so it holds quite a bit of paper, it scans very fast and comes with a one-year warranty. I did a lot of research and found that for the money you can’t get more with anything else that’s for sure. The only thing I don’t like about this printer scanner combo is the software which has a desktop component to it, however once I learned how to use it, it wasn’t that bad, but it is quite cumbersome. The driver works fine however.

Canon Pixma ip7220 is a great printer for use in an office

A lot of times a business will use a residential grade printer for their office or business needs. The Canon IP7220 printer is at the higher end of residential printers so it is quite appropriate for business use. It prints fast and it prints good, it has wireless, and although it does not have a network port, if you have a wireless network that should be fine. I have had mine for quite a while and it has not dropped off the network at all. I’ve always had good luck with Canon, having an IP4200 which was like a tank, and I expected this model to be similar. It may be, but the only complaint I have is that it has a ridiculously low paper quantity for tray capacity. And it also does not have a paper feeder in the back with paper standing up vertically. It makes it really tough to see how much paper is left and when you’re printing a lot, paper becomes a problem. However it is very easy to load paper into the front tray, you can slip paper in quick and shove it back in and be ready to go. Another nice thing about this printer is that you can stack things on top of it because it’s flat since there is no paper loading from the top and the cover is quite thick so you could stack something heavy if you don’t have that much space in your office. If you don’t have a color laser printer in your budget right now, this would definitely be a printer that can handle printing brochures, orders, business cards, flyers, restaurant menus, etc. because it prints very very fast. It’s also using a popular inkjet cartridge with generics already available cheap, it uses the same cartridge as the MX922 printer, scanner combo.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, Marketing Companies

Grand Rapids is certainly not Madison Avenue, but there are some real big heavy Marketing hitters in the Grand Rapids and West Michigan area. As JustPromote Marketing Company I am a mere speck on the landscape. However I am providing a very valuable service to many. You see, marketing companies have a dirty little secret that results from them having to charge a lot of money because they have a lot of overhead in a building, computer software, etc. The secret is that you can accomplish most of what they do for 1/3 the cost.

In the old days before the Internet, you had to have a lot of technology, supplies, contacts and connections, and a lot of things that required a lot of money. Nowadays you don’t need much really. A computer with multiple monitors, an iPad or android tablet and a smart phone.

What I’ve found is there are a whole a lot of companies and businesses in Grand Rapids, Grandville, Wyoming and other areas of West Michigan that need marketing and websites and other types of Internet properties but are not willing to pay up to $100 per hour to get it. So there they sit. They don’t get their marketing or advertising and the company suffers. It’s my passion to launch the company and make them what they really can be, successful with a new type of marketing on the Internet with their business information created and provided there mostly for free. In a nutshell I am basically an Internet handyman for businesses. I help to move your business forward and help accomplish your goals by using all of the Internet tools available. I am passionate about promoting people and their accomplishments and using Internet technology to help finish projects, get you more customers, sales, followers and interactions. What I’m not capable of doing is high level projects that are best suited for large marketing companies. I have been a crucial part of some businesses that could not have used expensive marketing companies or advertising agencies. It would be great to discuss your needs so please give me a call or e-mail.

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The tools available today are free. Content management systems and a whole host of free software that performs better than what you have to pay a lot of money for that was only available to the large marketing company or advertising agency.  West Michigan is a great place to live and work and I want to see successful clients, there are a lot of families dependent on it and also, there are a lot of people with great ideas but they just don’t have the exposure required to get them to the point of being a nationwide or even local success.

Getting back to that dirty little secret, what they have to do is have a large contract or monthly fee that you have to enter into. But as I learned in my marketing classes, the truth is that accomplishments and benefits can be grossly overstated and even fabricated as they tell you marketing jargon that you don’t understand like down on Madison Avenue in New York. By the way there is a Madison Avenue in downtown Grand Rapids.

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They told advertisers for years and years about the campaigns and TV commercials and how much it was bringing them, and then some of those advertisers figured out how to track on their own the sales that were made from advertising efforts. They did things like use special phone numbers that were printed on the advertising materials and commercials and guess what the phone barely rang. Today those big Madison Avenue companies can’t hide behind their fancy creative commercial advertising involving everything from movie stars to halftime shows.

On the Internet it is all completely trackable, we know exactly how many orders we got from every dollar spent. Also when I do work for you, you can see exactly what was done. I’m not much of a threat to the big Grand Rapids, Holland and Muskegon marketing companies and advertising agencies, because I’m not going to take any big customers and I can only handle so many little customers but if you are the fortunate company that hires me at my low hourly rate it can certainly benefit your bottom line, increase your sales, increase your profit and perhaps even keep your company in business. But what I’m doing is nothing special in fact you could do most of it yourself with a little knowledge, but I could probably do it a lot faster because of my knowledge and you may not have the time to accomplish what it takes. It’s a very time-consuming process. Dozens of hours to get your business up to speed on the Internet with the appropriate content and linking between all the websites, social media, tracking analytics installed, websites created etc. It does take a lot of time but I’m not charging a lot like the big marketing companies do. Their basically doing the exact same thing I am, they may have a couple small advantages over me and may be able to make something look slightly nicer, but those are few and far between, your basically getting the exact same thing from me at one third of the price. Send me an email at terry@justpromote.biz or leave me a voicemail at 616–439–4159 and we can start to talk about what I might be able to do for you.

I have registered the domain name GrandRapids.Marketing and pointed it to my website since all of my clients are in the area, and I don’t foresee working with businesses outside the West Michigan area at this time.

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