This is a guest post by Leo Notenboom of Ask Leo!

If I told you that there was one fairly simple thing you could do, that once set up you’d rarely even have to think about it and that it could save you from almost any computer related disaster, would you be interested?

Such a thing does exist: it’s called backing up. If there were anything close to a magic silver bullet for recovering from almost any computer related problem, backing up religiously would be it.

Consider, for example:

• your computer becomes infected with a virus you can’t get rid of. Recover by simply restoring your machine to the most recent backup before the infection.
• you accidentally delete a file. Recover by restoring it from a backup.
• your computer’s hard drive fails and must be replaced. Recover by restoring your most recent backup to the replacement hard drive.
• you install some new software that, as far as you can tell, completely messes up your system and won’t uninstall properly. Recover by restoring your system from its most recent backup. Think of any computer-related disaster and there’s a good chance that a reliable backup makes recovery not only possible, but even easy.

Backing up does not have to be hard.

It’s been said that the “best” back up, like exercise, is whatever you’ll actually do — any backup is better than none at all.

But it’s not that difficult to create a backup process that regularly makes sure your precious documents, photos, files and even system changes have been squirreled away for safekeeping.

Yes, backing up can get complicated, but it doesn’t have to be, particularly for home and small business computer users. There are two basic and easy approaches that can provide the security you need.

The first is to purchase an external hard drive and dedicated backup software. Set up the backup software to take full backups of your system every week or every month, and then also take incremental backups perhaps as often as every day. Nothing older than a day can be lost since you can restore any file or even the entire system to its state as of any day on which the backup ran.

The second option that’s growing in popularity is to sign up for an on-line backup service. For a low monthly fee, these services install a small application on your computer that monitors for changed files and automatically uploads them to a secure location. You can then access those backed up files anywhere and restore them to any machine. While full-machine backups are typically impractical due to the massive amount data involved, if you have an always-on high-speed internet connection, online services may be a convenient and practical way to backup your most important data.

Remember, if your data is stored in only one place – be it on your hard disk or even in online service such as an web based email account – it’s not backed up and you risk losing it all. Resolve now to get a backup solution in place as soon as possible so that when, not if, disaster strikes you’ll be prepared to recover quickly.

Here is how it works: You sign up for a service such as Spam Arrest that uses a challenge/response system. Whenever someone sends you an email for the first time after you begin using the system, the email is not delivered to you. Instead, the sender receives an email saying that they have to click on a link, go to a website and enter a code. Only then will the email reach your inbox. If the email sender does not confirm by clicking on the link and entering the code, the email never gets to you.

Sounds great. The spammers won’t take the time to do this, so you don’t get any more spam. The problem is that

lots of people sending you email that you want will not bother to do it, either. Mystery shopping companies send out thousands of emails at a time. If they get a dozen, a hundred or a thousand challenge/response replies, they will ignore them. In fact, many of them probably have their email systems configured to send anything from challenge/response services directly to trash, so they will not even see them.

What this means is that you are going to miss out on mystery shopping opportunities. Worse, if an editor emails with a question and you do not respond, a report you completed for them might be rejected. Although they would probably call before rejecting a report, there is no guarantee that they would do so.

Of course, this goes beyond mystery shopping. Some of your friends may not understand why they are getting the challenge/response email and may ignore it. Some may be justifiably afraid to click on a link to a site they do not recognize in order to verify their identity.

There are ways to add trusted addresses so that they are not rejected or forced to go through the verification process, so you can avoid some of the problems of missing emails from family and friends. However, you are not going to easily add every possible mystery shopping company contact.

Yes, spam is a problem. But the solution is not to treat everyone—from mystery shopping companies to merchants with whom you have placed an order to your great-aunt Gerty—as a spammer. There are better ways, and I will address some of them in upcoming articles.

Make sure you don’t miss my tips on making sure you get mystery shopper job offers while avoiding spam. Put my RSS feed in your reader, or subscribe to get email alerts when I add new articles by entering your email address in the box in the right column under “Email Updates.”

This is a guest post by Leo Notenboom of Ask Leo!

Internet safety seems like an oxymoron these days with all the threats aimed at our computers. Staying safe online doesn’t have to be difficult, and this article covers the basic steps that every computer user should take. The phrase “Internet Safety” often seems like an oxymoron. Every day we hear of new threats aimed at our internet connected personal computers which seems to just make it that much harder to actually stay safe while connected online.

Knowing how to stay safe online has become a practical requirement these days for anyone using a computer connected to the ‘net. Fortunately, a few relatively simply steps and a little education can go a long way to making sure that your internet experience is both safe and secure.

1. Use a Firewall – If you do nothing else, you must use a firewall. Firewalls act as a type of barrier between your computer and the internet, preventing remote computers from connecting to yours unless you explicitly allow it. A firewall can be a simple device such as a broadband router, it could be a feature of your operating system such as Window’s own built-in firewall, or it can be a full featured software package that you purchase and install on each computer. Which one you choose is less important than making sure you have one and that it is enabled and deflecting threats.

2. Back Up – Failing to back up your computer, or at least your critical data, is perhaps the most common mistake I see being made today. And sadly it can also be the most costly regret you’ll have when, not if, disaster strikes. If malware hits or hardware fails often your best if not your only resort will be to recover your system from its most recent backup. Don’t have one? Then you might be severely out of luck. I regularly hear from people who’ve lost all of their data due to a malware infestation or a hardware failure. If nothing else, invest in a large external USB drive and a good backup utility and start backing up regularly right away.

3. Keep Critical Software Updated – Every day people experience problems that could have been completely avoided had they simply kept their operating system and other PC software up to date. Both Windows XP and Vista make staying up to date very easy with “Automatic Updates” and I definitely recommend that it be turned on. Similarly, most other software and applications will now also check for updates and notify you as new ones are available. Make sure your system and applications are checking for updates regularly and installing them as automatically as possible.

4. Educate Yourself – No matter what else you do, no matter what other protections you put in place, malware authors can bypass it all if they can fool you into doing something you shouldn’t. The problem, of course, is that “what you shouldn’t” isn’t always immediately obvious. That’s why it’s so important to educate yourself on how to detect and avoid their attempts. In short: be skeptical. Don’t open email attachments or instant messenger downloads unless you’re positive they’re safe. Don’t click on links in email unless you’re positive that they’re taking you to where you expect them to. Don’t download and install software without first checking it for malware. Don’t ignore security warnings unless you’re sure it’s OK. Use strong passwords and never share them with anyone.

5. Scan for Viruses – Even with the best of intentions, viruses happen. Even with the firewall in place, the operating system up to date, and a healthy knowledge of what is and is not safe, sometimes something slips through. That’s where you’ll need a good anti-virus tool. There are many to choose from but the key factors boil down to this: select a reputable tool, enable its “real time” monitoring if you’re at all uncertain of yourself or others using the computer, configure it to scan your hard disk completely once a day, and make absolutely certain that it’s downloading the latest anti-virus information daily.

6. Protect Yourself from Spyware – Much like viruses, spyware can also occasionally make it through your defenses. Spyware is often relatively benign from a pure safety perspective – spyware doesn’t often erase your hard drive or send spam, for example. However spyware does represent an intrusion, often presenting ads or modifying other programs in ways you didn’t expect or ask for. And at its worst, spyware lives up to its name, spying on you and capturing potentially sensitive information. Anti-spyware utilities operate a little differently than anti-virus, so you’ll want to make sure that you have a good spyware scanner in addition to your anti-virus tools. Like those tools, you’ll want to make sure that it’s downloading the latest spyware information daily as well.

7. Secure your WiFi – The default configuration of most WiFi equipment, and certainly the easiest configuration to set up, is completely unsecure. That means that anyone within range of your WiFi equipment can monitor what you’re sending to and from the internet – including your account IDs and passwords. The same is true in most internet cafes and free WiFi hotspots. There are two steps you must take. First, at home, make sure you enable WPA security. This will require a password to connect to your wireless network, and will encrypt all the data so it cannot be monitored. (The older WEP security is no longer sufficient, as it is easily cracked.) Second, when you’re using an open unsecure WiFi hotspot, take care to only access sensitive resources through encrypted connections. That means making sure that any web page you’re visiting that requires personal information is connecting via an https connection. It also means that you shouldn’t be downloading or sending email via your POP3 or SMTP based email program unless you know those connections are configured to use encryption as well, since by default they do not.

Bonus Step: Understand Physical Security – An old saying that I’ve found myself repeating to people more and more in recent years is this: “if it’s not physically secure, it’s not secure.” All of the preceding tips are for naught if someone else who doesn’t understand these steps can use your computer and accidentally download malware. It’s all for naught if someone with malicious intent can walk up to your computer, reboot it, install software or hardware and walk away without your noticing. It’s all for naught if your computer can be stolen. Take care to understand just how physically at-risk you might be and take appropriate actions. Don’t let others use your computer until you’re comfortable with their understanding of the risks. Don’t leave your computer unattended if you can’t trust the people who might be able to touch it. Consider encrypting data on your laptop or other computer if it can be lost or stolen.

Everything I’ve outlined might at first seem overwhelming. The good news it that most of these steps are things you’ll need to do only once, and then consider infrequently thereafter. And to put it perhaps into a little bigger perspective they’re not nearly as overwhelming as the impact of an actual security problem if it happens to you. The practical reality of the situation is simply this: we as individual computer users need to take the responsibility of the steps required to Stay Safe Online.

Sign up for Leo’s FREE weekly newsletter and get his guide – “Internet Safety: Keeping your computer safe on the internet” – as a FREE gift. Sign up at http://ask-leo.com/

A good first step is to set up an email address that is dedicated to mystery shopping. Use that address whenever you apply to a secret shopping company. By keeping shopper emails separate from the rest of your emails you can manage them more easily.

A separate email address does not mean that you have to check email in multiple places. Depending on what you currently use to read email, you may set up your email program (e.g., Outlook, Thunderbird) to retrieve email from the new account, or forward email to your regular email address. Either way, use filters to send the mystery shopper emails to one folder where you can deal with them all at once, or ignore them when you are not actively seeking shop assignments.

You can also use filters to ignore certain types of emails. Let’s say you get a lot of emails with offers for airport shops and you never go to the airport. You can set up a filter to move anything that comes to your mystery shopper email address and has the word “airport” in the body to go directly to trash. (Check your filters carefully, and remember that if a shopper email comes in for a store on Airport Drive, it will land in the trash, too.) You can also use filters to manage other types of assignments you do not even want to see.

Reduce the number of emails you get by setting yourself to “no mail” with certain companies. Many systems (including SASSIE) have a way to stop the emails without deactivating your account. You may find instructions within the shopper emails or by logging in to your account. To get assignments you will need to remember to check the job boards. Stopping email can be a good idea if you are going to be away from shopping for a time, too.

Don’t let emails pile up. Deal with them promptly. Some can be deleted without opening, others can quickly be scanned and deleted, and some you will want to follow up on by going to the provider’s website to get more information and possibly apply for the shop. If you have been too busy to review shopper emails for a few days, just delete the older messages.

It is a good idea to keep some emails. For example, you may want to keep emails about mystery shopper jobs for which you have applied, at least until you know whether you got the assignment or not. It is also a good idea to keep emails offering assignments for which you have been accepted. Once in a while there is an issue about how much pay was offered or a condition of the shop. You may want to have that original email to back you up if there is a problem.

If you have hundreds or thousands of old shopper emails clogging your inbox, declare “email bankruptcy” and clear out anything more than 30 days old. Don’t have the nerve to trash all of those emails? Archive them instead. That way they will not be in your inbox, but can be searched and retrieved if needed.

Set up folders to hold the emails for assignments you have applied for, and those you have been assigned. You can then see everything that is pending with just a glance.

Email can be overwhelming. Take steps to organize and manage it so that your mystery shopper emails do not get out of control.

A while back I let you know about Field Agent, a smart phone app that connects you with paying assignments in market research. Now there is another: Zapiddy lets you make money with your smart phone while you shop. For every job you complete, you get paid and Zapiddy donates money to the Children’s Miracle Network.

For now the app is only available for the iPhone. Just download the free app from the app store, then set up an account. You can look for jobs through the app. You may be asked to answer a few questions, do a price check, or take a photo of a product in a store. Many jobs are location-based, and require that you have the GPS function enabled on your phone.

Jobs typically pay between $2 and $10. Although it may not be worthwhile to make a special trip to do a job, if you can squeeze in one or two between mystery shops or while you are running other errands, it could be a way to make a few bucks without a lot of extra work. On the “good karma” side, every time you do a job Zapiddy also makes a donation to your local Children’s Miracle Network hospital.

The Zapiddy app is available in the app store for the iPhone4 and 3GS. You can get more information at http://zapiddy.com/

Subscribers to my free Mystery Shopping Tips newsletter learned about Field Agent three weeks ago. Sign up for the Free Mystery Shopper Course in the box on the left and you will get a free seven-lesson course on mystery shopping, plus ongoing tips, industry news and newsletter exclusives. Get your free subscription today!

Do you have an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad? Want to use it to make extra money? The free Field Agent app can help you do just that.

Field Agent offers small market research jobs, such as price checks, short surveys and other jobs and pays you (in cash, not points or contest entries) for completing them. Some jobs can be completed from home, while others involve going to a store (such as WalMart) to check a display or demo, answer a few questions or perhaps snap and upload a photo.

Field Agent is a free app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad available in the U.S. and the U.K. Download it from iTunes, sign up with Field Agent, and set your preferences. When jobs are available in your area you can be made aware of these new jobs via email, SMS (text) or push notification. (With push notification, the app notifies you on your device with a sound or other alert, even if the app is not in use.)

Most Field Agent jobs pay between $3 and $12 each. They may be as simple as answering a question from home, or they may involve taking a photo and uploading it through the app. Payment for completed jobs is credited to your Field App account within 48 hours after completing the job, and can then be transferred to your PayPal account. Field Agent pays any PayPal fees for transferring the cash, so you get 100% of the money you earn.

Just as in mystery shopping, Field Agents get scored based on reliability and quality. All agents start with a score of 85. The maximum score you can achieve is 100. When you successfully complete a job, you get one point. Fail to complete a job and you will lose three points. Bonuses are available on some Field Agent jobs that can help you make up lost ground or reach 100 faster. Agents with high scores get first access to new jobs.

It is important to note that when you accept a job it must be completed within two hours. If you are out and about doing mystery shopper jobs or just running errands you may be able to pick up a Field Agent job or two to do on your way.

The major downside to this app is that there are not enough jobs to go around. New clients are being added, but the app is very popular so you probably will not get a large number of jobs. There are jobs available, though, so with patience you may have the chance to make cash with Field Agent. And by building your score, you will have first choice of jobs as new clients are added.

Why not download the Field Agent app today and give it a try?

If you print a lot, you know how expensive replacing ink and toner cartridges can be. This is a guest post from Steve McDowell about saving money by buying remanufactured ink cartridges.

In today’s world, it’s good to pinch every penny that you can, especially on things that aren’t a necessity. People are now learning that it’s a good idea to buy used and that it’s a good idea to purchase the generic brand of items that they used to purchase the name brands of. One way to save money is through purchasing remanufactured printer cartridges.

Ink cartridges are extremely expensive, and many people are surprised to learn that it’s not the cost of the printer that kills your wallet, but the cost of the printer cartridges. The printer companies know that they have you right where they want you and that they can charge whatever they’d like to for their printer cartridges, as you can’t print anything without a printer cartridge. But there is a way to purchase a printer cartridge a great deal cheaper.

Remanufactured printer cartridges are cartridges that have been reused and refilled. They’re less expensive because they don’t have to be made from scratch. There are, however, many companies online who try to sell remanufactured ink cartridges that are not anywhere near as good as the original. If you find the right company, the quality will never be in question. If, however, you find a bad company, you could be put off of remanufactured cartridges for life.

Here are a few tips that you can use to help you to purchase a remanufactured ink cartridge online successfully.

1. Take a look at the company – the company is at the base of everything, so you will want to make sure that they’re a genuine company. Do a search online through a search engine on the name of the company and see if you find any bad press. A lot of bad press likely means that the company is not a good one. You can also check out the better business bureau, as they have a great deal of information about most companies and will be able to help you to figure out if a prospective company is legitimate or not.
2. Look for a guarantee – does the company offer you a money-back guarantee if the cartridge doesn’t work, or do they leave you floundering on your own? A good company will offer some sort of a guarantee that the product will work correctly. Make sure that the company offers a money-back guarantee so that you aren’t left out in the cold if your ink doesn’t work.
3. Check out their customer service – if something does go wrong with your printer ink, how do you know that you’ll actually be able to get a hold of someone in customer service? Instead of waiting until something goes wrong, try contacting customer service before you purchase a product from the company. If they get right back to you and are courteous, you’ve likely found a good company to work with.

A good rule of thumb when purchasing remanufactured ink cartridges online is to go with your gut. If you feel that a company looks unreliable, they very well could be.

Not on Twitter? Don’t get it? Learn about Twitter and how it works here—be sure to watch the video embedded in that post. It is a great introduction to Twitter.

Now, let the tweeting begin! (BTW—you can follow me on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/CathyStucker.)

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Has your computer become the junk drawer of your electronic life? Do you have files stacked ten to a one-room apartment, e-mails were gathering mold in dark corners and bookmarks living in chaotic squalor? So much so that finding things on your desktop and hard drive had begun taking significant amounts of time?

If so, follow this simple three-step process to do a basic declutter of your computer and begin the process of simplifying your electronic life.

Step One: Set up a logical filing system.

• Try to mirror your paper filing system on your computer. The more your main folders resemble the names and categories you use to file paper, the easier it will be for you to both find and file various documents.

• Create a “working file” or “pending” folder, which lives on your desktop and can hold anything you are currently working on and need to access quickly and easily. While much of your computer may be used for the archiving of information, the “working file” folder can hold the most relevant information and projects.

Step Two: Organize your bookmarks.

Just as you may have random files floating around your hard drive, you more than likely have a ton of bookmarks that are not organized in any particular way.

Depending on which program you are using, find the “organize” feature. This will allow you to make folders with logical names that you can group and move your various bookmarks into.”

Step Three: Clean up your hard drive.

Because storage on most computers is not a big issue, a lot of people have a bad habit of using their computer as a storage unit, or even a dumping ground, for holding all kinds of information, whether it is still relevant or not. A few ways to clean up your hard drive include:

•Deleting any old working drafts of documents that are no longer needed or have been replaced by more updated versions.

•Deleting files that you created but never did anything with or have no documents in.

•Eliminating files that have different names but contain the same duplicate materials.

•Dumping files that are so old that the information in them is outdated and never used.

One caution: If you need to keep any files for a legal reason, either:

•Print them out on paper and keep a hard copy.

•Create a special folder on the computer for “legal.”

•Transfer them to a backup disk.

OK, now that you have a plan to follow, set aside 15 minutes each day this coming week (first thing in the morning works well) to work on decluttering your computer.

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The mystery shopping company will state in the shop guidelines how they prefer to have receipts submitted to them. These days, most prefer to receive them electronically. They may ask that you upload an image of the receipt when you complete your report, or that you send the image as an email attachment.

Of course, you should always follow any guidelines you are given by the mystery shopping company. If they say to use certain settings when you scan a receipt, or to keep the file size below a specified limit, do so. Also follow their guidelines regarding how they prefer to receive receipts and other documentation. Here are some general guidelines and tips for submitting receipts.

General – Put your name on the receipt, or attach it to a piece of paper with your name on it. This is especially important if you are mailing or faxing your receipt. Or you can attach your business card.

Keep your original receipt for at least 60 – 90 days, in case the mystery shopping company requests it. Keep the digital copy as long as you keep other tax records and receipts.

If you must send the original receipt to the mystery shopping company, always keep a copy, either a photocopy or a scan.

Scanning receipts – When you scan a receipt, set the resolution to 150 – 300 dpi. The receipt may have to be printed, and a lower resolution may not give the quality needed to make a readable printout of the receipt.

When the printing on the receipt is light, you may be able to make adjustments to the image to make it easier to read. Your scanner may have software that allows you to adjust the contrast, or you can use image editing software. I like IrfanView, which is free image editing software.

Cropping the image may reduce the file size. A larger file not only takes longer to send, it takes up more space on your hard drive.

Give the file a name that makes sense. Do not name it receipt.jpg. A better way is to name it with the client name and location, and the date. bigbox_jacksonms_021609.jpg. That is a long, but descriptive, file name that tells exactly what is in the file.

When you email receipts, do it as soon as you have submitted your report. Do not wait even 24 hours. Do it immediately.

Digital photos – Another way to create a digital image of a receipt is to take a digital photo of it. The suggestions for scanning apply here as well.

When taking the photo, keep the receipt as flat as you can. Avoid using the flash, if possible, as it may cause glare that will make the receipt hard to read.

Faxing receipts – Always tape cash register receipts to a piece of paper before faxing. Narrow receipts can get jammed in the fax machine and destroyed.

Mailing receipts – If you have no way of submitting receipts electronically, the mystery shopping company may accept a mailed receipt. You will also have to mail receipts if the company requires that you submit the original.

Always mail receipts promptly. They can not bill the client or pay you until they have the receipt.

Your mystery shopping assignment is not complete until you have submitted all required documentation including, in most cases, a receipt.