The auction is NOW open and will run through May 31st. Don’t miss the fun–this is such an easy way for us to join together to make a difference!

Here’s a few items available for bidding:

• For Readers Drawing: Choice of Kindle or Nook + $250 Gift Card
• Mystery Shopping Experience Drawing (Value: $1,000)     
• Apple for Everyone Drawing: MacBook Air    
• Afternoon Tea for 2 in the ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE with Crime Novelist Peter James – Just outside London!
• Kindle Fire Loaded with Contemporary Romance/Romance Suspense 
• Kindle Fire + $100 Amazon Gift Card from Author KM Daughters
• Get to know NYT best seller JAMES ROLLINS over lunch!! ~ Barbara Vey Reader Appreciation Package
• Arizona Gift Bag from Author Carrie Weaver
• Four Months of Self-publishing Mentorship with NYTimes Bestselling Author Courtney Milan     
• 3-night Stay at the Hilton San Diego Bay Front (4 Star Hotel) – Daily Breakfast Included 
• Kindle Touch 3G w/ Lighted Leather Case preloaded with over 30 Ruby Books!
• 2 Tickets to see CeeLo Green in Las Vegas!
• Weekend in Author Susan Andersen’s Cabin in the Cascade Mountain Foothills 
• Breakfast at RWA National in Anaheim with NYTimes Bestselling Author Sharon Sala
• Weekend stay at HIGH DESERT EDEN – the Vacation Eco-Home of National Bestselling Author Robin Maxwell
• One-week stay at TOPS’L Beach and Racquet Resort in Destin, Florida     
• One-week stay in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee – Deluxe Accommodations
• Tour the BILTMORE HOUSE in Asheville, North Carolina, with NYTimes Bestselling Author Jacquelyn Frank

Sally Bortz is a top-producing agent with Karp, Liberman & Kern Sotheby’s Real Estate, and has helped many people accomplish their goals over the past 20 years buying and selling real estate in the western suburbs of Boston, MA, including Newton, Needham, Wellesley, and Brookline. Her knowledge of the greater Boston real estate market is extensive and evident in the variety of properties I have sold.

Margaret Szerlip sets herself apart with strong negotiating skills and her uncanny ability to match the right buyer with the right house at the right price. She is able to unlock the hidden potential each and every house possesses allowing buyers to see a home’s true potential. Margaret is one of 1500 certified Global Mobility Specialists in the country and her personal relocation experience motivates her to make every move as seamless as possible.

If you’re looking for knowledgeable real estate agents in the Metrowest area, contact Sally or Margaret at 617-928-1212.

Contact Office To-Go today if you would like a custom website design built on the Genesis framework, web page or have any questions.

If you’re looking for one of the most experienced bands in Boston, Massaschusetts, and throughout New England performing at wedding receptions, college and corporate events, social events, parties and class reunions, the Jumpstreet band features female and male lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, drums, sax and trumpet and four-part harmonies for a full sound that will have audiences of all ages dancing!

Jumpstreet performs as a 2-piece up to 6-piece band and can add more pieces and/or vocalists to accommodate your needs.

Take a stop by their new site and view their impressive credentials and notable performances, you won’t be disappointed.

Contact Office To-Go today if you would like a custom WordPress website or have any questions.

 My colleague and friend Terri Brooks has a special offer for you. Visit her SendOutCards site for specials.

SENDOUT CARDS PACKAGES:

Option 1: $9.80 Retail Subscription for 20 points, which is about 10 greeting cards.  This option gets you a greeting card for about a $1.

Option 2: $31 per month Preferred Customer option.  You get a standard two-panel greeting for 62 cents per card (which is wholesale cost).  As a preferred customer you end up getting 20 to 30 cards and 4 or 5 gifts a month for $31.

The gifts are great for Realtors®, mortgage lenders, car dealerships, et cetera, to send a thank-you card and attach a basket, or box of brownies or cookies.

 
*Postage is not included in these packages. Prices are for access to the system to design and send your own custom greeting cards and gifts.

Office To-Go is very proud to design and maintain the ScottsdalePhoenixRealtor.com website. REALTOR® Nancy Merritt came to us for an updated website presence built on WordPress with IDXBroker customization.

As a result of her efforts over the past 27 years, Nancy has continually been a top-producing agent and received several awards for tops in sales and is a Zillow 5-star Premier Agent.

If you’re looking for Arizona waterfront property, golf course home, rental, single-family home, condo or luxury estate in the Scottsdale, North Phoenix, Paradise Valley or Fountain Hills, Arizona area, call Nancy Merritt at 480-286-7035. Nancy loves Arizona living and it shows.

Email us today if you would like an affordable, customized website or have any questions.

There are so many wonderful free tools, apps and plugins out there.  This week we’ve picked ten for you! Don’t forget to thank the providers or developers — whether it’s with a small donation or a thank-you on their blog, Twitter or Facebook. Let them know their kindness and work is appreciated!

1. An image editor and optimizer is a “must-have” if you have a website. Never upload images directly from a camera, they are too large! Web Resizer optimizes photos for web or email. Easy to use. Crop, rotate, resize, adjust contrast, brightness, saturation, add border, convert photo to black and white.
2. Don’t have the software you need to convert a file? Try Convert Files. Convert any document, archive file, spreadsheet, audio and video file from one format to another (up to 200 MB currently). Service is offered at absolutely no charge and without the need to download additional software.
3. I use this nearly every day in my business. PrimoPDF Converter – Convert 300+ file types to PDF. Convert any file that prints to PDF, including Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX), Excel (XLS, XLSX), PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX), Visio (VSD), Publisher (PUB), WordPerfect (WPD), OpenOffice, HTML, TXT, BMP, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and many more. 100% industry-standard PDF files. Easily create PDF files that can be opened in any PDF viewer, including Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader, and Nitro PDF Professional. Profiles include Screen, eBook, Print, Prepress, and Custom. Append PDF files. Combine each newly created PDF file into the one PDF.
4. If you can’t always add a comment personally on all your social networks, dlvr.it sutomatically distributes your blog to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more. dlvr.it is Bit.ly friendly, offers real-time engagement stats, hooks up with any analytics system, including Google Analytics and Omniture, add hash tags automatically. Target content to your social networks based on keywords, author, tags and more.
5. Another “must-have” in my office! DropBox – Terrific tool for collaborating with clients! Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically. Shared folders allow several people to collaborate on the same files. Control who has access to your shared folders. Dropbox uses military-grade encryption methods to both transfer and store your data. The free Dropbox account comes with 2GB of space that you can use for as long as you like.
6. Everyone likes help marketing their business. MarketMeSuite – Be Effective On Social Media! MarketMeSuite Is Your End To End Social Marketing Solution. Join Over 25,000 Businesses Already Reaching Their Social Media Goals With MarketMeSuite.
7. I liked this so much I upgraded to the paid version and use it in my Gmail every day. WiseStamp Email Signatures – Works with AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo. WiseStamp Email Apps enable users to bring functionality in every email they send. Check out their Apps gallery where you’ll find 14 social, fun and serious apps. This list will continue to grow, so keep checking back.
8. Videos are hot right now and being indexed by search engines. Viewbix lets you add interactive apps to your videos that engage viewers and drive calls to action. The apps overlay dynamic content on top of your YouTube, Vimeo Pro or Facebook videos to create a rich viewing experience that can be shared across the web, social and mobile platforms.
9. Absolutely love this software and have been using it for quite a while. DVDVideoSoft – Download FreeStudio for a cornucopia of terrific apps! YouTube apps, video and audio conversion and editing, image and photo, burning and ripping and more!
10. Found this cool tool for a client last week. Rafflecopter - Setting up a giveaway has never been simpler. A few clicks here, one over there, and — POOF! — you’re up and running faster than a greased pig on a slip-n-slide Plan & launch giveaways in minutes, not hours. Turn an ordinary visit into a fun, engaging experience. Verify winners and squash cheaters with 1 click.

And that’s this week’s freebies. I hope you find some new ones that you can use.  Do you have a favorite free app, tool or software you want to share?

Now, before anyone gets their feathers ruffled, there are good free themes out there, but unless you know it’s a trusted source or theme developer take heed.

Reposted with permission from Martin Koss

If you are using a free WordPress theme I urge you to consider shelling out a few farthings on a premium theme. No, I am not going to recommend any particular one, I’m simply going to tell you why!

Over the years I have tested more WordPress themes (and plugins) than I care to remember. Many were ‘ok’ but many were downright awful. But, that’s just the start of it. The big frightening thing about many (and I’m NOT saying “all”) is the use of code you cannot read and cannot edit out because you simply don’t know it is there.

It is the hackers best friend: Base64!

After scrutinising loads of free WordPress themes I found many had some base64 code injected into them… and that is bad! VERY BAD.

Base64 is a website hacker’s best friend. This horrible little bit of code can be used to insert evil viruses and hidden links in your WordPress theme – therefore, throughout your website. You don’t know it’s there. The hackers know that you don’t know it’s there. You don’t know what it is doing!!!!

So, bottom line; if you are thinking about using one of the many free WordPress themes out there, or if you are already using one, I seriously encourage you to think twice about it.

READ THE REST OF THE POST HERE and subscribe to Martin’s blog and check out his services!

Targeting the baby boomer demographic, Boomer Life Media is a New York City-based media production company focused on creating content for television, radio, the Internet and other digital delivery platforms.

Working in broadcast news, documentaries, corporate video and radio, Bryan Durr has been in the broadcast industry since the early 1980’s. 2009 marked an auspicious year for Bryan with his first Emmy® Award win for his work with the MLB Network. His work over the past three decades has included working as a videographer for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, BET, ESPN, Nickelodeon, Court TV, Classic Sports, Central China Television, MTV, WTN, and several international news organizations from Israel, Japan and Venezuela.

While he currently pursues creative projects like Boomer Life Media, Bryan is working as a senior video operator, and counts amongst his many show credits; The Tyra Banks Show, Nickelodeon’s METV and Teen Nick, Yes Network’s Center Stage, Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food, MTV Networks Total Request Live, The Seven, Real World Reunion and various MTV 2 programs. He has also worked on several MTV News and special events programs.

One of his main clients is the ABC Television Network where he works on ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He has also worked on the soap operas One Life To Live and All My Children, as well as ABC’s College Football Scoreboard Show during the football season.

Emmy® Award-winning Robert Agnello brings a unique, as well as diverse, set of skills in the fields of arts, culture and entertainment to Boomer Life Media.

Robert is also an Emmy® Award-winning composer and composed music for Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego, and served as the musical director for Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego. His other composing credits include the music for the popular television shows Out of the Box and Pete and Pete. Iggy Pop, David Johansson, Marshall Crenshaw, Syd Straw and others have also performed his music.

His career continues in media as the manager of the Good Morning America Studios in Times Square New York City. He also adds to his list of accomplishments; Owner of On The Lamb Productions where he is the creator and author of a graphic novel for kids and adults entitled Band of Innocence, which was published in 2010.

Contact Office To-Go today to see where your vision and our skills take you!

Your fan page can include a “like-gate” or reveal tab feature so a visitor “likes” your page before viewing more content (this has been proven to almost double your likes), newsletter sign-up, video, image gallery, or showcase your product or services.

Standard Facebook Fan Graphic Set includes: 180×500 banner, 520×600 graphic. Additional graphics available for 2nd reveal/after “like” and timeline image.

Online shop in Facebook! Bring your products into your Facebook Business Page and add as many products as you want. Using the WordPress platform and customized eCommerce plugin, hosted on a secure server, ensures your shop will comply with Facebook guidelines. Accept orders using PayPal (recommended), 2Checkout, Authorize.net or manual payment.

We also make custom Twitter backgrounds.

Contact us today for a quote for your custom Facebook Fan Page.

After much success working for others, Cynthia decided to step out of the box and start at eCLOUDbroker, a company that integrates today’s technologies in the real estate industry. In taking this step, Cynthia brings her knowledge, expertise and, most importantly, her passion to serve Palos Verdes Estates and surrounding areas.

If you are searching for your dream home, Cynthia Marrone & Palos Verdes Estates Homes will help you succeed in your quest.

Contact Office To-Go today if you would like a customized website or have any questions.