JillFlorio

A big, flashy car - whether a rental or your own - is only a come-on for thieves. Try a junker instead…

A big, flashy car - whether a rental or your own - is only a come-on for thieves. I try to keep a low profile during my own business trips so I don’t have to worry about people messing with my stuff, stealing my ride, or targeting me for unfriendly attention. Unless you really need to impress clients with your automobile, downsize your vehicular expectations.

I recommend those little boring motels right off the interstate for those quick overnights. There’s a good reason why it’s a great idea…

When you are driving between hotels and reserving inns online, it’s generally easier to book advance rooms at smaller towns. Not because you have to worry about larger cities being booked up or more expensive, but since they are generally easier to find. In small towns the Best Westerns and Super 8’s are right off the Interstate. You don’t have to drive around inside a new and confusing city when you’re tired and cranky! Yeah! You simply pull over, check in, and grab that well-deserved nap. Don’t forget to hang that Do Not Disturb door tag.

Common late checkouts are until noon or 1 pm. It’s a decent freebie for the asking…

A little-used feature at hotels are the free late checkouts. Just because your official checkout time is 10 or 11 am, doesn’t mean you have to hurry on those lazy layover days. Simply call the hotel office and ask if you can have a free late checkout. Then you can leave the hotel and have a great breakfast, see the sights…and THEN come back and pack up. Common late checkouts are until noon or 1 pm. I call that a SWEET freebie!

I like a hands-free device for driving, walking and conducting most business with my cell phones. The problem is finding a good one. I don’t like things INSIDE my ears or cords that dangle and twist too much or loud mikes that pick up every little bark and siren and breeze and my heartbeat too.

Maybe I am asking too much? Well, in a perfect world my headset would be cordless, sit comfortably on my head, have a few phone controls on the device itself and be a fair price.

I’ll be starting to review the headsets I stumble across, starting with the Jabra Ear Wave Boom.

Watch your laptop. Nail it down. At least back the thing up. Laptop theft in coffee shops is increasing.

In a disturbing new trend, crooks are snatching laptops right from the hands of cafe-going travelers.

According to the The San Francisco Chronicle article linked above, the Bay area is the major “hot spot” for this type of activity, although they mention Berkeley coffee shops are also at risk.

I’d suggest that any hip, urban center full of coffee shops and laptop people will only attract more of this unwelcome attention. Think New York, Seattle, Bellevue, Ann Arbor, Austin, Boulder. Coffee towns. Maybe your own town.

Will a laptop leash help? Maybe. Or enjoying your notebook at a coffeeshop with a friend, buddying up at cafe tables? Probably more so on that one. I’d suggest keeping your eyes open - not disappearing into your Internet world - and not going alone (if you can help it).

Lastly, and always important to do - back up your laptop. And keep the backups somewhere safe. It’s not the law, but it’s still a REALLY GOOD IDEA. If your precious laptop does get snatched, you at least will have your irreplacable data.

Stinky air passengers at large. Maybe even you. Gotta pass gas on the plane?

When you travel enough, you will eventually find yourself seat-belted next to a smelly troll. Someone with an Air Flavor. Could be the flavor of farts, feet, halitosis, or just plain old BO. Ugh.

I hate this. Can’t people shower before a flight? Wash their smelly clothes in a hotel sink or something first?

Have you ever been stuck next to a bad-smelling passenger?You can always try to change seats…although, admittedly, you are in a small confined area, breathing recirculated air. I’ve heard of flight attendants placing opened coffee packets in seat pockets around the offender. Hey, whatever helps!

Just don’t light a match to cover the smell. A plane recently landed because a woman in flight was found lighting matches (which are illegal to bring in planes) to cover the scent of her gas.

There is probably an argument here for ponying up for Business and First Class seats. Usually people paying full fares keep their clothes and bodies clean, and maybe brush their teeth. Maybe. But there’s no telling who is going to be gassy that day (it could even be you).

Remember, Beano is your friend.

Get live stock quotes from your cell phone.

Poking around my obligatory USA Today (free with my hotel room) and noticing I can check stock prices over my cell phone if I wanted.

I’m not a “play the stocks” guy. I understand we have a few mutual funds and have a few environmentally green stocks on the side, but I don’t check on such things. Not my interests, really.

But if I WAS on a business trip and I cared, it’s nice that I could just use my cell, anywhere I have a signal, and see live quotes.

USA Today says to send a text message to 4INFO (44636) with: Stock Ticker (Dell) or Fund trader (AGTHX).

Have fun.

This is a super little book about blogging that establishes a niche of its own. Starting with the unlikely cover pic of an Eskimo with laptop, apparently blogging on a seat of furs in an expanse of endless ice and snow, the book logs into unusual textual terrain as well.

The first few chapters, 1 through 4, discuss the rise of blogging - what blogs are, how to find them on the blogosphere, how to subscribe to blog readers…there’s a swift grounding.

Chapters 5 through 8 cover the set up basics; there is actually (albeit barely) enough to get you off the ground from blog hosting to blog design.

Chapter 9 discusses blogorrhea, finding your voice, how to be interesting and honest online, editing your work, and building your audience.

The traffic chapter is concise - and far from comprehensive. Nothing here will teach you to get to the top of the search engine rankings. But the tips about sitemeters, IP addresses, page rank (and even Google bombing) are at least a start.

Pages 64-65 cover the basic elements of a post, from tips on titling, to time stamps, pull quotes, adding comments and permalinking. The next pages discuss why Times Roman and Georgia are the most common blogger serif fonts, and how Verdana and Courier new can be useful as sans serif choices. There is some neat stuff here I have not seen in other books of this ilk.

Especially enjoyable are the many chapters (about half of the actual book) about popular blogs in different genres. It’s neat to read the screen captures and mini-reviews of the best blogs in fields like politics and journalism, diaries and journaling, education and business.

The author’s personal blogroll is fascinating as well, including lists of neat blogs on art, cars, celebrities, design, food, gossip, pets, knitting, law, literature, sports and sex. These great lists are well worth the price of admission alone.

This is a really fun book. Recommended as a supplemental blogging guide, best used beside a more complete introductory blog text like Blogging for Dummies or the Everything Blogging Book.

The Rough Guide to Blogging at Amazon.com

Like many Dummies books, the Blogging for Dummies book is comprehensive! It’s a thorough introduction to blogging from rank Internet newbie, to the typical active blogger seeking to learn more about the medium.

As a 2008 book, it’s reasonably current. This is one of those Dummies books the publishers will need to update annually. I recommend readers always seek the latest possible edition of any blogging book, as popular technologies change so rapidly in the field. RSS, comment spam, social networks and podcasting are all given their due space. An entire chapter is devoted to adding and managing photos for your blog.

Two large chapters offer the fundamentals of blogging for business and adding advertising. This won’t be specific enough to get any would-be pro blogger rich, but *does* provide enough basics to get started with affiliates, AdSense, TextLink Ads, AdBright and the like.

Lots of screen captures and sidebars explain complex concepts quite clearly. I enjoyed one sidebar in particular about why comment spam exists (and hint; it’s more about page rank juice than possible click-throughs).

I’d recommend this book for the newbie through advanced blogging beginner. Intermediate level bloggers looking to to brush up on the basics would likely enjoy adding this as a reference to the bookshelf, and might find a few gems they originally missed.

Advanced bloggers won’t find much useful here…but as it’s a Dummies book, that’s to be expected!

From all the blogging books targeting the beginner, this one offers the most bang for your buck, and really does a nice job of holding your hand along the way.

Buy Blogging For Dummies at Amazon.com

Start your Own Blogging Business is short but dense with info. With absolutely no fluff, the book offers quick tips on setting up a blog to complement the small or home business.

Information (briefly) covers: choosing your blogging platform, planning your blog style, choosing a domain, selling ad space, optimizing layout and setting up news aggregators. Short passages introduce why you need to use something - for example, trackback URLs - and how to install them.

The section on making your media kit is unique among the blogging books I’ve seen, and useful enough to copy and stick in a business plan.

The last chapter inexplicably discuses whether your business should be a sole proprietorship, partnership, S or C corp, or an LLC. This is an odd choice for this kind of book, which until now has been all about blogging. Setting up the legalities of your business is something one would probably buy another book for! This was an odd choice to add to an already short blogger’s book.

At under one hundred pages, much of the richness of the blogging world just isn’t expressed. I am sure some readers will find this is all they actually need. Otherwise I suggest purchasing this *with* Blogging for Dummies and using them together.

Recommended for home and small office owners seeking a quick read about blogging, or for showing one’s boss how easy it can be to set up and run a blog for your business.

Buy Start Your Own Blogging Business (Startup books) at Amazon.com