Centiare — the online directory

If any of you have ever tried editing a Wikipedia article and found your efforts thwarted by someone who deleted all your hard work, you should be grateful for Centiare.com — the wiki that allows you to post articles written in the advocate point of view (APOV), and that allows you to own your own directory listing. I am in the process of building the pages for BIG Images — you can check it out here.

Centiare.com offers some incredible SEO tools that really help to develop rich directory pages that cross-link services, interests, and related content very easily. Not only that, but the people who operate Centriare are very helpful, offering tips and tricks to help optimally format the pages. They are so good that I got a personal phone call from one of them when they did not respond to an email immediately, letting me know that they were not ignoring me and would get to it as soon as they had a chance. That is customer service that you do not often get, and Centiare is free.

If you are trying to increase your business’s online exposure I highly recommend you check it out.

Screenshot of BIG Images logo on Centiare's front page as image of the week.
BIG Images’ Centiare directory listing made it to the front page as image of the week.

Official Poker, Inc. releases Poker Chip and Card Handling 4-DVD Gift Box Set

One of the best things about being an entrepreneur in San Luis Obispo, Ca. is that your not alone…there are quite a few other young men and women who are all making their own thing happen right here in my home town. Here in one example: Rich Ferugson, founder of Official Poker, Inc., has released an incredible set of DVD's demonstrating his skill and passing the knowledge on to us lay non-magic folk. Check it out, and go digg it.

Finally, there is a DVD Series that teaches Everyday people Everything with Poker Chips and Playing Cards. Why am I "DIGG'n" this so much?! This box set appeals to just about everyone I need to buy a holiday gift for! Poker, magic, card games, etc are very popular and this DVD Set works for all ages and skill levels. An incredible deal too! A must.

read more | digg story

Digital Content: to pirate or buy or…?

Until very recently there were two ways a company like BIG Images could get the software it needed. It could pirate the software. It could buy the software.

Pirating digital media like software is getting easier and easier with every passing day—the world of the torrent & gnuttela networks has seen to that.

Buying digital media like software is getting harder and harder—all the different serial numbers, registration systems, and rights-management systems have seen to that.

BIG Images buys all the software it uses. Managing the serial numbers & registration systems is becoming more and more of a logistical burden. On my laptop alone I have about 30 applications that require serial-numbers, many of which are part of site licenses, so I must manage the serial numbers per application, per machine.

There must be something better…

And there is! My third option for obtaining digital content: Open Source.
Why is this a big deal for a small business like BIG Images? Besides the obvious like complete customizability, scaleability, and rapid development and advancement (often faster than their commercial counterparts), there are NO serial numbers and rights-management systems—a complete lack of piracy control! Distribution & maintenance on a business-wide system is easier, faster, and less expensive.