Internet – The New Yellow Pages

January 27th, 2010

I was talking with one of my clients this morning and he was excited about getting leads from his new website.  He is a Doctor in San Antonio practicing Alternative Medicine.  I was telling him that the Internet is now the new Yellow Pages, and if you don’t have an optimized website, then your business is missing out BIG TIME. He concurred. 

I remember when my business spent $2500 per month for a yellow pages ad.  This was when everyone went to the yellow pages to find anything. (Not anymore)  $2500 per month might seem like a lot, but we were making more than double of what we were spending, so it was worth it. 

The Internet is like the yellow pages on steroids.  You are not stuck with your ad for 12 months before you can try something new.  You can run 2, 3, 4 or even a hundred varieties of your website in order to find out which one works the best.  And it doesn’t take long to find out.  Feedback is instant.  85% of people find new businesses on the Internet and 60% will research your website before they do business with you. 

If you can satisfy your visitors, you can start building a lifetime relationship with them.  Every customer has a LTV or lifetime value.  If they buy from you once and are happy with the experience, they will continue to buy from you in the future. 

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Business Tax Schedule – Federal, State of Ohio, City of Westerville

January 23rd, 2010

I looked everywhere on the web for this information and could not find it.  I paid to get it and thought it might help someone else out.  

This is a tax schedule for when taxes are due if you live in Westerville, Ohio.  Federal applies to all states, and the state tax schedules are for Ohio only.

CALENDAR OF EMPLOYER DUE DATES FOR 2010

(Federal:  Monthly or Quarterly depositor, State and Wstv:  Quarterly filer)

State of Ohio

City of Westerville

 

JANUARY

           

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for Dec 2009 if a monthly depositor

15        PERSONAL File and pay 2009 4th quarter estimates for federal, state and local

31        WSTV File and remit 2009 4th quarter payment with Form WW-1

 

 

FEBRUARY

           

1          Furnish 2009 Forms 1099 for payments to independent contractors

1          Furnish 2009 Form W-2 to employees

1          File 2009 Form 940.  Pay tax with form if less than $500.

1          Deposit FUTA taxes due if more than $500.

1          File 2009 Forms 940 and 4th quarter 941if you did not deposit all taxes when due

1          OHIO File& remit 2009 4th qtr payment with Forms IT 501(Ohio w/h)

            & SD 101 (School District w/h)

1          OHIO File 2009 Form IT-941(Annual reconciliation of Income Tax Withholding)

10        File 2009 Form 940 and 4th qtr 941if you timely deposited all required payments

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for Jan 2010 if a monthly depositor

28        WSTV File 2009 Form WW-3 (Annual reconciliation of Income Tax Withholding)

           

 

MARCH

           

1          File 2009 Forms 1099 and 1096 with the IRS

1          File 2009 Forms W-2 and W-3 with the Social Security Administration

1          OHIO File Form IT 3 (Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statement)

15        File 2009 Form 1120S, Sub S tax retn & pay any tax due; furnish a copy of Sch   K-1 

             to each shareholder OR file Form 7004 for 6 month extension

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for Feb 2010 if a monthly depositor

31        Due date for electronic filing of 2009 Forms 1099, W-2 with the IRS

            and deposit estimated tax

 

 

APRIL

           

15        PERSONAL File and pay 2010 1st quarter estimate for federal, state and local

15        PERSONAL File 2009 Form 1040, Individual Tax Return

            or file Form 4868 for 6 month extension

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for Mar 2010 if a monthly depositor

30        Deposit FUTA taxes owed through March if more than $500

30        File 1st quarter 2010 Form 941.  Pay tax with Form 941 if less than $2500.

30        OHIO File and remit 2010 1st quarter payment with Forms IT 501(Ohio w/h)

            and SD 101 (School District w/h)

30        WSTV File and remit 2010 1st quarter payment with Form WW-1

           

 

MAY

           

10        File 1st quarter 2010 Form 941 if all taxes were deposited when due

10        File and pay CAT if gross receipts exceed $150,000

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for Apr 2010 if a monthly depositor

 

 

JUNE

           

15        PERSONAL File and pay 2nd quarter estimates for federal, state, and local

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for May 2010 if a monthly depositor

30        OHIO File Form FT1120S, Notice of S Corporation Status (no extension available)

 

 

JULY

           

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for June 2010 if a monthly depositor

31        WSTV File and remit 2010 2nd quarter payment with Form WW-1

           

 

AUGUST

           

2          File 2009 Form 5500 OR file for an extension on Form 5558

2          File Form 941 for the 2nd quarter of 2010.  Pay tax with Form 941 if less than $2500.

2          Deposit FUTA owed through June if more than $500

2          OHIO File and remit 2nd quarter payment with Forms IT 501(Ohio w/h)

            and SD 101 (School District w/h)

10        File Form 941 for second qtr of 2010 if you timely deposited all required payments

16        Deposit federal payroll tax for July 2010 if a monthly depositor

 

 

SEPTEMBER

           

15        PERSONAL File and pay 3rd quarter estimates for federal, state, and local

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for Aug 2010 if a monthly depositor

15        File calendar year return, Form 1120S, if you timely requested a 6 month extension

 

 

 

 

OCTOBER

           

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for Sept 2010 if a monthly depositor

15        File 2009 Form 5500 if you timely requested an extension on Form 5558

31        WSTV File and remit 2010 3rd quarter payment with Form WW-1

           

           

NOVEMBER

           

1          File Form 941 for the third qtr of 2010.  Pay tax with Form 941 if less than $2500.

1          Deposit FUTA owed through September if more than $500

1          OHIO File and remit 3rd quarter payment with Forms IT 501(Ohio w/h)

            and SD 101 (School District w/h)

10        File Form 941 for the third qtr of 2010 if you timely depsoited all required payments

15        Deposit federal payroll tax for Oct 2010 if a monthly depositor

30        Remind employees to submit a new W-4 if withholding allowances

            will change for 2011.

 

 

DECEMBER

 

15     Deposit federal payroll tax for Nov 2010 if a monthly depositor

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Domain Renewal Scams

January 18th, 2010

I just got notice from one of our clients that they had mistakenly thought that Domain Registry of America was sending them a bill for their domain renewal.  They paid them 4 times what they should to renew their domain, and DROA is not even the current registrar.  DROA sends a statement that looks like a bill and tells you that your domain is going to expire.

Not only do you lose a lot of money, these domains are not transferred easily.  The domain needs to be “unlocked” and an authorization code provided.  If you are with Super Cool Sites your domain will renew automatically.  We will bill you once per year for the domain renewal.  The cost is $9.99. 

I took the following definition from Wikipedia for “Domain Registry of America”:

The Domain Registry of America is an Internet domain registrar based in the Canadian province of Ontario best known for sending solicitations for business that resemble legitimate invoices.

In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with the company for practices such as transferring domain registrations to their service under the guise of domain renewal, a practice known as domain slamming, and having hidden fees. Despite this action, the company still sends mass direct mail to consumers resembling invoices with “domain name expiration notice” in bold print. Targets for the company’s mass mailings are known to be in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States with information obtained in violation of their ICANN registrar agreement.

They have also now (Aug 2009) started emailing potential customers with an email scam, purporting to indicate that the transfer of a domain is ‘not complete at this time’, and requesting the domain owner follows a series of steps to complete the transfer to DRoA. These are highly misleading emails.

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SEO Scams

January 15th, 2010

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the art of making a website move higher in the search engines, like Google, Yahoo, etc..

The people that would like to scam you out of your hard earned dollars never stop.  The proliferation of SEO scam emails is unreal.  It seems like everyday I get one, promising to get my website on the first page of google.  Here are a few things to watch out for.

1.  Anyone telling you that they can get you a first page ranking for a monthly fee, but only as long as you continue to pay them.

Proper SEO entails several factors, title tags, proper keywords, alt tags, relevant copy, building meaningful links, social marketing and much more.  Once these things are done, if you stop paying a monthly fee, they will not go away.

2.  If you get an email from some SEO expert with no website URL, be cautious.  Any SEO company should want you to investigate their website in order to give you more information.  Also look at their email address.  If it comes from a gmail or yahoo email account, this is another warning sign.  How can anyone be an expert in SEO when they don’t even have a website?

3.  Free Trial Service with access to your website.  DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!  Never let anyone have access to your files unless you are absolutely certain they are accountable.  You might as well give them access to your bank account.

4.  A company tells you that they will submit your website to 1,000 search engines.  Let’s face it Google does more searches than all of the other search engines in the world COMBINED!  Work on google first, then Yahoo and MSN.  With these three you have covered 98% of the market.

5.  Flat-Rate and Low Monthly Fees.  Good SEO is not cheap.  Several companies charge hundreds of dollars per hour all the way up to $1,000 per hour!  SEO takes a lot of time.  It can take months before the results start to show.

There can be several other things to watch out for.  If you have any questions, or would like to post your experiences, please do.

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