Whether you are going to unveil a brand new product or you are going to tell the world about new management, there is always the question of timing. When is the best time to break the news to the world so that you can maximize the exposure and coverage that you may receive?

Interestingly, it seems that many companies like to choose Tuesday as their primary product release day. Why Tuesday? Well, many people are too busy catching up on their work and getting back into the groove of things on Monday, but they are usually better prepared to digest your news the following day. Time the announcement a little later in the week and it can get lost in the mix.

On the flip side, it seems that product announcements very late in the week can be useful too. By making an announcement on a Friday, some outlets may feel compelled to take action with your news that day. This is because they usually don’t work on weekends, so they want to clear out their plates before leaving for the day. Contrast this with a Wednesday or Thursday where they can fall into the “I’ll do it tomorrow” pattern.

What’s your take? When your company is preparing to make a major announcement, what day of the week seems to be the most ideal?

One of the best ways that you can save a lot of money on both your home telephone line and your business phone is to take the route of VoIP with a service like Skype. By making the majority of your calls via the Internet to other Skype users, you can substantially reduce the size of your phone bills. After all, Skype-to-Skype is always free.

However, you may not feel as inclined to have your computer on all day solely for the purpose of making phone calls and, if you turn it off, you don’t want to miss any incoming calls either. Thankfully, there are solutions like the ASUS Skype Video Phone Touch that work without the aid of a full computer.

As its name implies, this device will allow you to make Skype calls directly, both voice and with video. One of its most interesting features is the 7-inch touchscreen display, making it the first touch-enabled Skype videophone in the world. You can access your full Skype contact list via the touchscreen interface. The built-in webcam holds up your half of the video equation and the integrated WiFi means that you don’t need a wired connection to your modem or router either.

The Asus Videophone Touch SV1TS is virus-proof with no software installations needed. As with the conventional computer-based Skype utility, you can make calls to regular landlines and mobile phones with Skype credit too. It is on sale for $209.99 on Amazon.ca, representing a 25% savings over the regular price.

A couple of weeks ago, we put our first call out for a Bluefur customer of the week. Well, it’s time to highlight the first submission!

By his own admission, Derek Semmler looks like an “everyday American man.” However, you’ll quickly learn that there is more to this father of two. He’s got tattoos, piercings, a shaved head, and a menacing goatee. And he rides a Harley to boot. Needless to say, Derek is no ordinary dad!

Over at Derek Semmler dot com, you can learn about this “inner WordPress Ninja” as he “shares tips and tricks to get the most out of your blog.” He also prides himself as being a “Consulting Ninja” for people who want someone to do the dirty work for them. Go to Red Staple Media to see some of Derek’s portfolio.

He’s a busy guy, so we’re not quite done yet. As it turns out, Mr. Semmler also calls himself a “Money Ninja” at My New Choice. There, he discusses “all you want to know about personal finances and money management.” Talk about well rounded!

Send a brief bio and site description to blogfeature@bluefur.com to get featured in a future “Customer of the Week” post. Thanks!

There are all kinds of interesting WordPress themes out there for you to consider, so it’s important that you find one that best suits your personality and the niche for your blog. A good theme to consider for travel blogs is Comment Central, which is available as a free download.

The colorful theme makes each of its components look like a natural piece of paper, rather than a digital box to fit your words. For instance, the main content area looks like a torn page from a notepad. The sidebar almost looks like a luggage tag or something similar, easily blending into the rest of the theme’s aesthetic.

On the technical side, you get a total of two columns with a left sidebar dropdown menu. This is widget-ready, making it easy for you to configure the content you want to include in your sidebar. It’s not quite a jungle safari, but the grungy look could be a great fit for your blog!

For more information, a preview, and to download Comment Central, point your browser over to the WordPress free themes directory. Based on ten ratings thus far, Comment Central has an overall score of four stars out of five.

After many years of debate, planning, and construction, the day is finally upon us. The 2010 Winter Olympic Games kick off today in Vancouver and Whistler, so be sure to watch the Opening Ceremonies this evening from BC Place Stadium. With that in mind, let’s dedicate today’s speedlink to the Olympic spirit.

Earlier this week, Ed Lau packed up his camera gear and chased the Olympic flame around Richmond. He wasn’t satisfied with seeing it just once, so he followed the torch bearers as they navigated their way around the Vancouver suburb. Some great shots there, Ed!

Heading to downtown Vancouver, John Biehler went on quite the adventure. He had the opportunity to ride the zipline over Robson Street and he shot a video of the experience too! If you’re in the area, you can ride the zipline for free today!

Heading closer to the water, Gus Digital gives us a brief explanation of the Vectoral Elevation, which is a part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. Not only can you see this piece of spotlight artwork online in real time, you can actually submit your own designs and have the lights point the way you want too.

Shifting gears away from the Olympics, Damien Riley takes us for a trip through his time machine. In his post, he considers what his life (and the world) will be like in 2012, 2022, 2032, and 2042. Where will you be thirty years from now?

Do you work from home? Lexi Rodrigo has a great post up on Freelance Folder discussing five bad work-at-home habits that you will want to avoid. Do you work in your pajamas? Are you skipping your vacation time? If so, you may want to change things up!

Hi everyone! I would like to formally announce that BlueFur is now under new ownership! The former owners Gary and Lisa Jones decided they wanted to focus on a new area of their lives and we have worked with them over the last few weeks to make sure the transition would be a smooth one. We wish them the best! We will be continuing their goal of making BlueFur the best hosting company possible!

Who are the new owners and what is our background? My name is Ben Welch-bolen and my business partner is Joel Brown. I’ve been working in the hosting industry for over ten years and Joel has been in the industry for the last five years. We both entered the hosting industry because we were frustrated with the lack of quality customer service and we knew we could do better. You can count on us and our staff to provide great customer service and to always be working to improve it!

What can you expect under our management? There will be no disruption or changes to your service and you can rest assured our goal is only to improve BlueFur! Below is our plan for the next six months to improve BlueFur. We will be updating the blog frequently with the progress of our plans, and we will do major updates every few months so you know what the future holds.

1. The first major improvement you will notice is that and the support department will respond within minutes to your support tickets every minute of every day! If you want to test this or say hi just email Support@BlueFur.com. The sales and billing departments will be open during business hours during the business week and will respond very quickly as well.

2. In the next 4 to 8 weeks we will also be launching live chat for support and sales so that you can easily jump online and get help with any support issue. We will send out another announcement when this feature is ready! We will also be improving the support setup so that customers can rate each ticket and staff member they interact with. We will review this info every morning to make sure we are doing a good job and to get feedback from you.

3. Over the coming months we will be greatly improving the hardware BlueFur is built upon. For our shared and reseller customers we will be increasing both the performance and reliability of the servers by upgrading the hardware on those servers and by adding RAID 10 so that if a hard drive dies on the server it will continue operating with no problem. We will also be rolling out a new and improved backup system.

4. Over the coming months we will be rolling out a new robust billing solution that will feature some major improvements! This new billing system will allow you to login and view all your services with us, make changes to those services, order new services, view past invoices and a lot more! We know the current method of billing and invoicing is unorganized and we plan to change that very quickly. We have talked to a lot of customers and this was one of the first things they mentioned they would like to see.

5. As we finish the major changes mentioned above we will start to roll out some great new features and products! Things like redundant centralized email, business class hosting, VPS, and a lot more!

I would also like to hear from all of you! My email is Ben@BlueFur.com and if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, feature requests, or anything please email me! Joel and I are always available if you need anything. Feel free to leave questions in the comments too!

Thanks,
Ben And Joel