You can add any kind of file and save it into your Dropbox folder.  So say, Bill add a series of Word documents in his Dropbox folder and then shares that folder with me, I can then pull the documents out and edit them, view them and even add them back to the Dropbox to send back to him.  It is hard for me to hold back my urge to describe the service as some sort of odd time space worm hole – but to me, that might be the best way to describe it.

If you sign up for the free version of Dropbox, you get 2GB of disk space to save and send your stuff.  While that might not make it the perfect backup option – it does come in handy with collaborating on files with others. Check out Dropbox and let me know if you have found any other handy uses for it.

Making the right connections in business is a big part of the marketing game.  You don’t need to have a multi-million dollar advertising campaign.  You don’t even have to get a $2 advertising campaign going.  One of the best marketing techniques out there is to simple stick your foot in the door.  Make friends with people in businesses that can help you succeed.

Not to get into some circle of life mumbo-jumbo, but we are all connected. What you need to do is to find people and make friends that can help you out with your own marketing needs. Think of this as old school social network marketing.

As an example – lets say you are an artist.  To broaden your reach and to give yourself chances to get your artwork published or bought elsewhere, you might become friends with the guy who runs the art exhibit at the local museum.  You might become friends with local interior decorators to see if you can get your artwork picked up as something people would like to hang in their homes.  There are so many different professions out there that are interconnected, you really can’t throw a stone without hitting somebody in the back of the head who can help you.  You just have to sometimes think outside of the box.

The power of having a good social network of your own to lean upon  can do wonders for anybody’s marketing needs.  Not only can your friends help you with your business needs, you might also be able to return the favor, as well.

How important is it to have a degree in something?  Better yet, when it comes to a degree-less person and a person with a degree fighting for the same spot, who should come out on top?  There are definitely winning arguments on both sides, but I think more aspects should come into play.

I remember when I got my first job in the web hosting industry in the early 2000s, and I asked my current boss if I should follow the usual course and try to get certified in this, that and the other.  He told me he had walls of degrees, certifications and the like – but none of it means a thing if you can’t do the work.  So from that point on, I decided I would stay on my self-trained route and it has done me pretty well thus far.

Best Job Qualifications

So when it comes to one person like me without a degree in something or another and somebody with that degree, who would you pick?  I think other key things should come into play with any profession. 

• Experience
• Winning Results

If you can’t show you have both of those traits, degree or no-degree, you don’t deserve the spot. 

Now, there is always an exception to the rule.  For example, I am not going to a doctor without a medical degree, and probably don’t want to be defended by a lawyer without a law degree.  However, even in those situations you want somebody with experience or that can show you winning results of their hard work.

So next time you try to decide who should be getting a certain spot, remember that a self-educated person can be as qualified (if not more) than one who might have a degree.

Clicky Gone is a great program to use if you need to hide your selected windows from public view.  The idea here is to no longer close applications that are taking up too much space in the Windows task bar.  Instead, let Clicky Gone hide them for you.

This application is very small and really gets the job done.  It also comes enabled with a “Boss Mode” that should help you hide your eBay searching, and show you working, just in case the boss happens to stroll by your desk.    The Boss Mode will also mute your sound too.

Some of the other features included are:

• Click and Hide by holding down keyboard modifiers
• Run hidden windows application’s in the background, i.e Low priority
• Toggle all windows to hide and show
• Boss Key support, hide the active window and mute the sound
• A fancy menu that shows you all your hidden windows
• Prevent click hiding on full screen applications, i.e. Games
• Hide menu on applications caption and taskbar icon
• Process priority menu on applications caption and taskbar icon

Go download either the regular or portable version of Clicky Gone on its official web site.  It is one of the best freeware programs out there to hide your active windows.

Once you install it, the setup is pretty easy to understand.  You just setup how you want you desktop to be split, hit the OK button and it is done.  If you find yourself overwhelmed by having too many programs or windows floating around your desktop – give MaxTo a shot.  Previously I had been doing this same type of desktop reorganization on my own, but MaxTo does it for me – and in turn saves me a lot of tweaking time.

This is a ‘bit of a good surprise (well it was for me at least). Just found out that the latest edition of Ping! Zine should be in your mail boxes soon and I’ll have two featured articles inside. Be sure to look out for The Web Hoster’s Tool Belt and Firefox for Webmasters while reading this month’s edition. If you don’t have a subscription, you can always pick up the free digital version over at pingzine.com.

WebCanvas – This is a tool that will give you an infinite canvas to paint, draw or sketch out your ideas to others.

ReviewBasics -  The catch phrase is "content review made easy". You upload your work, invite people to review and you can watch you feedback come rolling in.

(xy)write it! – With this you can create, share and export documents for free.  It provides a simple way to share and collaborate on a document no matter your location on the globe.

Hopefully with these three you will at least have a new way to work on that project you have in mind or get your next big whatever your working on done.  The Web makes it easy to use the power of many to get a single task done…

so why not take advantage of it?

With a clean desktop I have more room to work. Now for designers you could see this coming in handy because they would have plenty of place to work on multiple images, files and folders and have them all saved to the desktop.

With my podcast – I do much of the same. I keep all the different segments I have recorded save temporarily to to desktop so that way I have them handy when I need them. That way when I finish my job or project I can just hit Ctrl + A then move them over to a new folder if I need to keep them or hit delete if I want to toss them away.

How about you? How naked is your desktop or have you tried it with a naked desktop? For me it is one of my easy productivity techniques that keep me sane.

It makes it much easier to check e-mail, browse the Web and work on an article all at the same time. Of course right now I am still amused by moving windows from screen to screen but I am sure that will pass with time.

One thing that never has gotten old yet is seeing my name in it. I really hope that doesn’t sound egotistical but I remember just being a fan of the publication and loving it – so actually being a part of the fun, it still gets me excited and hyped up.

Sidenote: Guess if it didn’t excite me like a gitty little school girl there wouldn’t be much point in doing it anymore.

So check out the Web Hosting Job Hunting Guide in this newest edition of Ping! Zine. Go download the PDF and let me know what you think.

Bonus: Want to do me a favor? Also in this edition of Ping! Zine the designer is holding a little contest and I am up for the “Funniest Writer of 2007″. Drop an e-mail to contest@pingzine.com and vote for Mitch!