Windows 7 (W7) has arrived, with the usual fanfare from Microsoft and PC vendors. It has received rave reviews from even the stodgiest computer pundits, like Walter Mossberg, the guru of technology at the Wall Street Journal. There is no doubt that it is far superior to Vista–Microsoft’s worst OS since the short–lived Millennium Edition–and makes Windows XP, released in 2001, really show its age.

So should you upgrade your current PC to W7? That depends on several factors.

Vista users, unhappy with all its problems and irritations like nag screens and sluggish responsiveness, are in luck as almost any PC built for Vista has enough horsepower to run W7. Most importantly, a Vista PC can be upgraded to W7 without having to backup data, reformat the hard drive, reinstall applications, and restore data and settings. However, W7 drivers (the software that allows your hardware and software to communicate) may not be available for some of your computer components and peripherals. Microsoft has provided a downloadable utility called the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to assess whether drivers are available for your hardware. You can also check your PC manufacturer’s website for compatibility info.

Unfortunately for those still running Windows XP, upgrading to Windows 7 would be an arduous task as there is no direct upgrade option. All data would have to be backed up, the hard drive formatted and the Operating System (OS) installed from scratch. All the applications would need to be reinstalled (so you would need to find all the installation disks or downloaded install files), and all your data and settings restored manually. In many cases it may be impossible as W7 drivers are not available for many of the older components used in Windows XP PCs. In that case your only option would be to buy a new PC.

One caveat to consider when making your decision is that any new OS will have bugs and security issues. Many IT pros recommend waiting until at least the first "Service Pack" has been released, usually within six months to a year.

There are three versions of Windows 7 available to consumers: Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. There is also a "Starter" version which comes preloaded on netbooks, but is not available as a separate purchase. I recommend the Professional version as it has additional networking support and built–in support for backing up to home and office network storage devices, which are becoming more available and affordable day by day. The Ultimate version also has a built–in data protection utility called BitLocker and support for switching between any of 35 languages.

It looks like the dark days of Vista are finally drawing to a close, and Microsoft is finally giving some competition to Apple’s much lauded OS-X.

Many individuals and companies use Google’s free Blogger service – the most widely used blog platform – to share views and information. They also have websites, but not often do they integrate their blogs with their websites, which is a missed opportunity to increase SEO "scores". One of Google’s key factors used for ranking websites is a "freshness" gauge; that is to say, sites that add new content regularly are ranked higher than those whose pages are not updated frequently. So if you integrate your blog with the rest of your website content, and add some links between them, you will increase your rankings with each new post.

Fortunately Blogger has a powerful feature that allows you to export your entire blog to your own website. It works quite well, but like most things Google, it takes some technical expertise so is best done by whoever maintains your website. For example, you need to provide the access info and folder path for Blogger to upload the files to your web server.

The other important aspect of integrating your blog is to edit the Blogger HTML template to match the look and feel of your website. This also needs to be done by someone skilled in web development as you need to work with Google’s proprietary scripting language.

We integrated a blog for one of our clients, Maternal Instinct, and linked the blog to the home page. The blog itself has the same look and feel as the rest of the site. We also implemented some other Blogger features, such as placing a sign–up form on the home page so visitors can subscribe to the blog and have it sent to their email address whenever a new blog is posted.

The initial setup work and editing of the template takes a number of hours, but after it’s done and tested you have another way to boost your SEO and also keep your site fresh for your visitors. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to learn more about blog integration.

We admit it – we stole some of these from Vertical Response, the service we use for managing email campaigns. Considering how many campaigns we launch through their site each week, we don’t think they will mind. We hope these suggestions will help you grow your list, and please contact us if you have any ideas to add or have any questions regarding how to implement any of these.

1. Put an offer on the back of your business card or in your printed brochure to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
2. At any meeting, event, or trade show, bring a clipboard or sign–up book and ask for permission to send emails to those who sign up.
3. Include a newsletter sign–up link in your email signature.
4. Send an opt–in email to your address book asking them to join your mailing list. Individual personalized emails are more effective if you have the time.
5. Join your local chamber of commerce and email the member list (if it’s opt–in) about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter.
6. Give something such as an article, list of take–aways, or a whitepaper for free and require visitors to opt–in before you let them download it.
7. Trade newsletter or web site space with a partner, include a link for their opt–in form, and ask them to include yours in theirs.
8. Include a newsletter sign–up check box on your contact page and e–commerce check–out page.
9. Make use of your post–campaign reporting and contact all bounced email addresses via phone or snail–mail.
10. Include an opt–in form or link on every page on your site.
11. Don’t shrink your list by getting into trouble with SPAM–ing, using non–opt–in addresses, or emailing using your email client.
12. Include your sign–up link in all your emailed invoices.
13. Include a forward–to–a–friend link in your email campaigns just in case your recipient wants to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
14. Telemarketing – If you’ve got people on the phone, don’t hang up until you ask if you can add them to your newsletter.
15. Put a fishbowl on your counter and do a weekly prize giveaway of your product – then announce it to your newsletter. Add everyone who put their card in on to your newsletter list – note that you will do so in the contest description, of course.
16. Be sure to include a newsletter sign–up link on any networking site you use.
17. If you keep your newsletter subscription form simple, you will get more submissions – name and email address only is best.
18. Be sure to archive your newsletters on your web site (this is excellent for optimizing your site for search engine results too).
19. Promote your newsletter on e–zines or directories such as yelp, yahoo, and LinkSV.
20. Always strive to provide concise and valuable information to retain your readership as you grow your list.