#accounting software cheap

[taxxbooks]

Streamline Your Finances with Top UK Bookkeeping Software

In today's fast-paced business environment, efficient financial management is crucial for success. Whether you're a small business owner, freelancer, or entrepreneur, keeping accurate records of your income and expenses is essential for making informed decisions and staying compliant with tax regulations. Fortunately, with the advancement of technology, managing your finances has become more accessible and streamlined than ever before, thanks to top-notch UK bookkeeping software.

UK bookkeeping software offers a comprehensive solution for managing your finances effectively. From tracking expenses and invoicing clients to generating financial reports and managing payroll, these software solutions are designed to simplify complex financial tasks and save you time and effort. Let's explore how leveraging UK bookkeeping software can benefit your business:

Enhanced Accuracy: Manual bookkeeping processes are prone to errors, which can lead to financial discrepancies and compliance issues. UK bookkeeping software automates tedious tasks and performs calculations accurately, reducing the risk of human error. By maintaining precise records of your financial transactions, you can make informed decisions and ensure the financial health of your business.

Time-saving Features: Time is a precious resource for any business owner. With UK bookkeeping software, you can streamline repetitive tasks such as data entry, invoicing, and reconciliation, allowing you to focus on growing your business. Automated reminders for overdue invoices and upcoming expenses help you stay organized and ensure timely payments, improving cash flow management.

Real-time Financial Insights: One of the key advantages of UK bookkeeping software is the ability to access real-time financial data from anywhere, at any time. Cloud-based solutions allow you to monitor your finances on-the-go using your computer, smartphone, or tablet. Instant access to financial reports, dashboards, and analytics empowers you to make data-driven decisions and adapt to changing market conditions swiftly.

Seamless Integration: Most UK bookkeeping software integrates seamlessly with other business tools and applications, such as payment processors, banking institutions, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. This integration eliminates the need for manual data entry and ensures data consistency across different platforms, improving workflow efficiency and collaboration within your organization.

Compliance and Security: Maintaining compliance with HMRC regulations and ensuring data security are top priorities for businesses operating in the UK. Leading bookkeeping software solutions adhere to strict security protocols and comply with industry standards to protect your sensitive financial information. Additionally, these platforms are regularly updated to reflect changes in tax laws and regulations, keeping you compliant and minimizing the risk of penalties.

In conclusion, UK bookkeeping software offers a myriad of benefits for businesses of all sizes. By automating financial tasks, providing real-time insights, and ensuring compliance with tax regulations, these software solutions empower you to manage your finances more efficiently and effectively. Whether you're a sole proprietor or a growing enterprise, investing in top-notch bookkeeping software is a smart decision that can help you achieve your financial goals and propel your business forward.

[yirontechnologies]

Optimize financial management for travel agencies with dedicated travel agency accounting software. Simplify bookings, expenses, and revenue tracking effortlessly.

[river-taxbird]

Have YOU got an old Windows PC Microsoft has told you can't run Windows 11? It's time to give it a new life!

How to install Windows 11 on unsupported PC Hardware using Rufus. You can also disable some other Windows 11 bullshit like data harvesting and needing a Microsoft account.

It has been in the news a lot lately that Windows 11 isn't allowed to be installed on PCs without certain requirements, including the TPM 2.0, a chip that was only included in PCs made in 2018 or later. This means that once Windows 10 stops receiving security updates, those PCs will not be able to (officially) run a safe, updated version of Windows anymore. This has led to an estimated 240 million PCs bound for the landfill. Thanks Microsoft! I get you don't want to be seen as the insecure one, but creating this much waste can't be the solution.

(I know nerds, Linux is a thing. I love you but we are not having that conversation. If you want to use Linux on an old PC you are already doing it and you don't need to tell me about it. People need Windows for all sorts of reasons that Linux won't cut.)

So lately I have been helping some under privileged teens get set up with PCs. Their school was giving away their old lab computers, and these kids would usually have no chance to afford even a basic computer. They had their hard drives pulled so I have been setting them up with SSDs, but the question was, what to do about the operating system? So I looked into it and I found out there IS actually a way to bypass Microsoft's system requirement and put Windows 11 on PCs as old as 2010.

You will need: Rufus: An open source ISO burning tool.

A Windows 11 ISO: Available from Microsoft.

A USB Flash Drive, at least 16GB.

A working PC to make the ISO, and a PC from 2018 or older you want to install Windows 11 on.

Here is the guide I used, but I will put it in my own words as well.

Download your Windows 11 ISO, and plug in your USB drive. It will be erased, so don't have anything valuable on it. Run Rufus, select your USB drive in the Device window, and select your Windows 11 ISO with the Select button. (There is supposed to be a feature in Rufus to download your ISO but I couldn't get it to work.?

Choose standard windows installation, and follow the screenshot for your settings. Once you are done that, press Start, and then the magic happens. Another window pops up allowing you to remove the system requirements, the need for a microsoft account, and turn off data collecting. Just click the options you want, and press ok to write your iso to a drive.

From there you just need to use the USB drive to install windows. I won't go into details here, but here are some resources if you don't know how to do it.

Boot your PC from a USB Drive

Install Windows 11 from USB Drive

If you had a licensed copy of Windows 10, Windows 11 will already be licensed. If you don't, then perhaps you can use some kind of... Activation Scripts for Microsoft software, that will allow you to activate them. Of course I cannot link such tools here. So there you go, now you can save a PC made from before 2018 from the landfill, and maybe give it to a deserving teen in the process. The more we can extend the lives of technology and keep it out of the trash, the better.

Additional note: This removes the requirement for having 4GB Minimum of RAM, but I think that requirement should honestly be higher. Windows 11 will be unusable slow on any system with below 8GB of RAM. 8GB is the minimum I think you should have before trying this but it still really not enough for modern use outside of light web and office work. I wouldn't recommend trying this on anything with 4GB or less. I am honestly shocked they are still selling brand new Windows 11 PCs with 4GB of ram. If you're not sure how much RAM you have, you can find out in the performance tab of Task Manager in Windows, if you click the More Details icon on the bottom right. If you don't have enough, RAM for old systems is super cheap and widely available so it would definitely be worth upgrading if you have a ram starved machine you'd like to give a new life.

[bunudaha]

Webhuma - Platin

In today’s world, platforms that provide access to high-quality digital assets for professional web designers, graphic designers, and content creators are of great importance. Envato Elements stands out as a leading name in this field. Webhuma.com is a unique platform that offers users unlimited download services with Envato Elements license sales.

With the 7, 30, 90, 180, and 365-day plans offered by grafikstok.com, users can choose a suitable duration according to their needs and enjoy the unlimited download service. These plans work by copying the URL of the content you want from Envato Elements Downloader and Adobe Stock Cheap Account pasting it into the relevant field on webhuma.com. In this way, users can easily download the content they want from the extensive library on Envato Elements.

Webhuma.com’s Envato Elements service operates fully automatically. Thanks to this, users can automatically receive their license key immediately after completing the purchase process. Customers can activate the service by using this license key on grafikstok.com and benefit from unlimited download options.

Webhuma.com, millions of high-quality digital assets are brought together for professional and amateur designers, photographers, video producers, and writers. You are in the right place to explore content in various categories such as graphic designs, stock photos, vectors, videos, music, sound effects, and software plugins.

Webhuma.com helps to speed up and facilitate design and content production processes by offering users the rich content accessible from Envato Elements Cheap Account at affordable prices. You can also take advantage of the Envato Elements license sales service offered by Webhuma.com to access unlimited download opportunities and access high-quality digital assets you need for your projects.

7 Day / Unlimited Download

$2,10

30 Day / Unlimited Download

$7,10

90 Day / Unlimited Download

$18,40

180 Day / Unlimited Download

$35,70

365 Day / Unlimited Download

$60

[genericpuff]

"As cheap as owning a tablet" as if those weren't expensive, as if you didn't need a decent art program,... Man, fuck Webtoons.

All the other expenses of creating a comic that Webtoons doesn't take into account:

The cost of software

The cost of resources (3D models, licensed font packs, etc.)

If you're an Originals creator or someone who wants to work with others (like myself), the cost of an assistant which is entirely out-of-pocket (the cost of resources is also out-of-pocket, Webtoons doesn't cover the cost of 3D models and other resources that creators practically have to rely on just to meet their deadlines)

The cost of learning how to draw to get to the point of creating a comic. Sure, you can start drawing a comic at any skill level, but if you want your comic to actually grow on a larger scale - which is exactly what Webtoons is compelling people to use their platform for - then you're gonna need to brush up on a lot of foundations both in art and writing that take years of work and practice.

The cost of actually making the damn comic, because that's hours of labor that are largely unpaid / completely voluntary. Much of those hours amount to just a little bit of content that the majority of people swipe through so fast they don't even absorb what they're looking at and never read again.

It's really easy for a company like Webtoons to say "making webcomics is cheap" when that same exact company has foot all the financial burden of creating a comic onto the creators. We all know who they're really trying to appeal to when they say creating comics is 'cheap' - other companies and investors who are also looking for 'cheap to produce' content that they assume is cheap because they're only putting in the bare minimum to sign them on and aren't the ones doing the fucking work. And we all know where that line of thinking leads, because it's exactly where we are right now with social media platforms and streaming services. Art has become "content" and the platforms hosting the content have become completely enshittified.

Man. Fuck Webtoons.

[feyspeaker]

Hi! I made an account just so I could follow your work. Your art is brilliant and honestly and inspiration to where I want to be. I’m an older artist who has all the anxiety when it comes to improving my process. I’m trying to get into digital portraits and I have so many ideas in my head, but it’s frustrating because I’m not where I want to be to make this happen. What are some tricks that help you/software do you use? Of course, you don’t have to share anything that makes you uncomfortable. I currently have procreate and an iPad, but I feel a little lost. Wondering if I need a different writing tablet and photoshop. Not sure. I just eventually want to find that 3D, but also artistic look you are able to achieve.

hey there! thank you so much!!

ultimately, I will sound like a broken record but I always recommend you sign up for local figure drawing or painting classes. have people pose for you at home and sketch with charcoal and paper. go to the zoo and sit down in front on an exhibit for an hour and try to draw the animals in front of you as fast as you can and fill a couple of pages, move on to a new exhibit and do it again!

nothing is more powerful of a tool to learn than whatever writing utensil you have in your purse and the back of a napkin when you see something you'd like to capture. I've spent quite frankly my entire rememberable life doing this. I used to spend every single day in middle school/high school/my brief failed stint in community college with a pack of cheap sharpies and a beat up binder full of old worksheets and homework to draw on the backs of.

drawing/painting from life will teach you better than anything.

I use a very outdated version of Photoshop, and only got a "nice" tablet in the past 7 months.

Also, a huge tip to you and anyone else reading this: do NOT get too focused on a "style" that you want. Obsessing over that just ruined me for years and years. I wanted so, so, so badly to be the next Matsuri Hino when I was a kid. I copied her work religiously and it NEVER looked right. Frustrated me to no end. And you know why my stuff never looked like hers? Because I'm not her! You can't force your art to come out any way that isn't natural, and the sooner you can accept the art your hand wants to create, the happier you'll be and the easier art will get for you.

The past couple of years before I started diving into this more realism based work, I was just shoving myself through trying to make what art I envied of others. Very stylized/textured watercolor comic book style stuff. And I just was NOT getting any better at it. I have always been more inclined toward realism work, but I've hated it and yearned for stylized work. Yoshitaka Amano? God, I just drooled over that artstyle and beat myself up for never being able to capture it in studies or otherwise.

I finally essentially restructured my entire career around making the art that makes me happy instead of what I "wanted" it to look like. I was extremely depressed, my life was falling apart, and I still needed to make art to survive but I couldn't "art" if I was depressed and hated doing it, so I just had to step back and stop worrying so much about what I thought I wanted to make, and started making what felt most natural.

there's no easy way, and art can be a soul destroying path at times, truly. your software and hardware should come very last place compared to practicing from life (it doesn't matter if you want to paint cartoony stuff of realistic stuff, always start from life). naturally you will find what makes your heart sing the most.

I get a lot of messages from people telling me similar stuff "oh your art is EXACTLY what I want to do!" but I promise you that kind of thought process is chasing a dragon that is likely to harm or drag your creative process down. art style is such a deeply personal thing, so of COURSE it's important to find inspiration, but the second looking at someone else's artwork stops inspiring you and starts frustrating you, put it away.

There are some artists who I love, that I do not check up on often because their artwork ignites, like, serious bitter jealousy in me. It's the truth. I get so mad at myself for not being more like them, and it's such a poison. I think more artists should be transparent about this feeling because I KNOW the art community has a lot of jealousy and ugliness in it.

A fact of being an artist is that you will never be completely happy with a piece you make. You are always going to see the flaws, and that doesn't change whether you'd been drawing for 2 months or 20 years. Occasionally, you will get one piece that you are like "how did I make that???" and then get frustrated that you can't recreate it lol! It's a tough beast.

It's just really important to step back and work on yourself and where you are at, because at the end of the day, the way your soul wants to express artwork might be WILDLY different from what your brain wants, and it can be really detrimental to let those two go to war.

I hope this helps. I'm very passionate about this, and when I started out I ALWAYS ignored the artists who gave the same exact tips as above. I thought they were so annoying and unhelpful, but now I /get it/.

[beespaceprogram]

Sticker Cutter Research

I was looking into getting a sticker cutting machine, and I decided to start by looking into cricut which is a well known brand. I had a look at what models they had than their feature etc, but what I was most concerned about was their software. Printer companies like to lock you into a defacto subscription to support hardware you don't really own, and as I was to discover, cricut are operating in a similar way.

The cricut software is online-only*. To cut your own designs you need to use their software to upload your art to their server. There's no way to cut a new design without a logged-in cricut account and an internet connection. At one point in 2021 they flirted with limiting free accounts to 20 uploads/month but backed down after huge community backlash, as far as I can tell.

The incident spawned several community efforts to write open-source firmware for cricut hardware. Some efforts were successful for specific models/serial numbers, but require cracking open the case and hooking in to the debug contacts to flash the chip; not exactly widely accessible. Another project sought to create a python cricut server you can run locally, and then divert the app's calls to the server to your local one.

I restarted my search, this time beginning with looking for extant open-source software for driving cutters, and found this project, which looks a little awkward to use, but functional. They list a bunch of cutter hardwares and whether they're compatible or not. Of those, I recognised the sihouette brand name from other artists talking about them.

I downloaded the silhouette software to try like I did w the cricut software, and immediately it was notable that it didn't try to connect to the internet at all. It's a bit clunky, in that way printer and scanner software tends to be, but I honestly greatly preferred using it to cricut's sluggish electron app⁺. Their software has a few paid tiers above the free one, adding stuff like sgv import/export/and reading cut settings from a barcode on the input material. They're one-off payments, and seem reasonable to me.

This is not so much a review, as sharing some of the research I've done. I haven't yet used either a cricut or a silhouette, and I haven't researched other brands either. But I wanted to talk about this research because to me, cricut's aggressively online nature is a red flag. Software that must connect to a server to run is software that runs only at the whim of the server owner (and only as long as it's profitable to keep the server up). And if that software is the only thing that will make your several hundred dollars worth of plastic and (cheap, according to a teardown I read) servos run, then you have no guarantee you'll be able to run it in the future.

Do you use a desktop cnc cutter? What has your experience been like with the hardware and software? Do you have any experience from home printers with good print quality and user-refillable ink cartridges?

* Cricut's app tried to connect to more than 14 different addresses, including facebook, youtube, google analytics, datadoghq.com, and launchdarkly.com. Launch Darkly are a service provider that help software companies do a whole bunch of things I'm coming to despise, for example, they offer infrastructure for serving different features to different demographics and comparing results to control groups. You know how at various times you've gotten wildly different numbers of ads than your friends on instagram? They were using techniques like this to work out how many ads they could show without affecting their pickup/engagement rates. Scummy stuff.

⁺ Electron apps are web-pages pretending to be applications. They use heaps of ram, tend to have very poor performance, and encourage frustrating UI design that doesn't follow OS conventions. Discord's app is a notable example of an Electron app

[andmaybegayer]

Hello it's me with another very naive computer question!

One of the really common complaints you see about modern software (from Adobe, Microsoft, etc.) is the move from the single-purchase model to a subscription-based model. While I understand that people are upset about paying more money over time, this also feels like the only viable option for shipping products that work with modern OSes, especially Windows (I don't have any experience with MacOS). Windows pretty regularly updates, and if you want your product to continue to work, you have to continue paying your engineers to maintain compatibility through time.

Obviously I understand that there are lots of FOSS options out there, but for the companies that are built on making money from these sorts of software products, I don't see another way. Am I way off the mark here?

This is a really good question. I don't have a great answer, but the model I have in my head is that "traditional software distribution" is partially an artifact of an era where companies were starting to use computers but internet use was still spotty so providing support for software was just a very different ballgame. A lot of what I'm saying here is not like. Fact as much as it is my understanding of The Software Business from the side of someone who is a little involved in that but mostly not in that.

(This is mostly about "business software", that is to say, accounting packages, creative suites, design packages, modelling tools, etc. This model does not explain like. Spotify. But that's much easier to explain.)

You're not wrong that the subscription model really make sense given modern software development, where patches come out continuously and you get upgraded to the latest version every time something changes, but there has been a significant change in how software is developed and sold that makes it noticeably different. I think that the cause of this is mostly because it's finally practical to do contract-style deals with hundreds of thousands of customers instead of doing one-off sales like we used to do.

In the Traditional model you charge a pretty sizeable upfront cost for a specific version of the software, you buy Windows XP or Jasc Paint Shop 7 or whatever and then you get That Version until we release The Next Version, plus a couple years of security and support. When the next version hits, we stop adding any new features to your version, and when that hits end of life, you maybe get offered a discount to buy licensing for the latest version, or you drop out of support.

Traditional software with robust support typically costs an awful lot, Photoshop CS2 was $600 new in 2005, or $150 to upgrade from CS, because you're paying for support and engineering time in advance. A current subscription for just Photoshop is $20/mo, and that's after twenty years of inflation. Photoshop is also cheap, a seat for something like SolidWorks 2003 could probably have run you $3000-4000 easy. I can't even give you a better guess there because SolidWorks still doesn't sell single commercial licenses online, you have to talk to their salespeople.

The interesting thing to me about Traditional pricing was that I think it was typically offered to medium to small businesses or individuals, because it's an easy way to sell to smaller customers, especially if it's the 90's and you're maybe selling your software through an intermediary reseller who works with local businesses or just a store shelf.

Independent software resellers were a big business back in the day, they served as a go-between for the software company and smaller businesses, they sold prepared packages in a few sizes and handled the personal relationship of phoning you up and saying "Hey there's a patch for your accounting software so that it doesn't crash when someone's surname is Zero, we'll send you a floppy disk in the mail with some instructions on how to install it." Versioned standard releases are a thing you can put in a box and give to resellers along with a spec sheet and sales talking points. This business still exists but it's much smaller than it once was, it's largely gone upmarket.

If you were bigger, say, if you were a publishing house that needed fifty seats of editing software you'd probably call the sales department of Jasc or whoever and get a volume deal along with a support contract.

Nowadays why would you bother going through resellers and making this whole complicated pricing model when you could just sell subscriptions with well-established e-commerce tools. You can make contract support deals with individuals at scale, all online, without hiring thousands of salespeople. You can even provide varying support levels at multiple cost brackets directly, so you don't need to cultivate a direct business relationship with all your customers in order to meet their needs. Your salespeople handle the really big megacorp and government deals and you let everyone else administer themselves.

It also makes development easier. You can also deploy patches over the net, you just do it in software. You can obsolete older versions faster, since you can make sure most people are using the latest version, and significantly cut down on engineering time spent backporting fixes to older versions. I think a lot of this is straightforwardly desirable on most software.

Now, there are still packages sold by the version, and there are even companies selling eternal licenses.

Fruity Loops Studio is still a "Buy once forever" type deal.

MatLab can be purchased as a subscription or as a perpetual one-version license.

Windows is still sold like this, but also direct to customer sales of Windows are minimal, Windows is primarily sold to OEM's who preinstall it on everything.

But it's a dying breed, your bigger customers are going to want current support and while there are industries where people want to hang around on older versions, for a lot of software your customer wants the latest thing with all the features and patches, and they'd rather hold on to their money until later using a subscription rather than spend it all upfront. Businesses love subscriptions, they make accounts books balance well, they're the opposite of debt.

Personal/private users who might just want the features of Photoshop CS2 and that's fine forever don't matter to you. They're not your major customers. This kind of person is not a person who your business cares to service, so you don't really care if you annoy them.

Even in the Open Source business world, subscriptions are how the money is made, just on support rather than for the software itself. You can jump through relatively few hoops to run Ubuntu Enterprise or SUSE Enterprise Linux on your own systems for free, but really there's not much benefit to that unless you pay for the dedicated support subscription.

In many ways I think a lot of things have changed in this way, I have a whole thing about the way medium-scale industrial manufacturing has changed in the past thirty years somewhere around here.

While there are valid reasons you might want to buy a single snapshot of some software and run that forever, the reality is that that's a pretty rare desire, or at least that desire is rarely backed by money. If you want to do that you either need access to the source code so that you can maintain it yourself, or you need to strike a deal with someone who will, or it needs to be software so limited that it (and the system it runs on!) never need updates. Very few useful programs are this simple. As a result subscription models make sense, but until recently you couldn't really sell a subscription to small businesses and individuals. Changes in e-commerce and banking have enabled such contracts to be made, and hey presto, it's subscription world.

[taxxbooks]

Conquering Tax Season: Navigating the Maze with the Best Business Tax Software

Tax season – that dreaded phrase strikes fear into the hearts of even the most organized entrepreneurs. Navigating the complex world of business taxes can feel like deciphering ancient hieroglyphics, leaving you lost and bewildered. But fear not, brave business owner! Enter the savior of sanity – the best business tax software.

Choosing the right software is like finding the Excalibur of tax preparation. It empowers you to slay filing deadlines, vanquish filing errors, and emerge victorious with maximized deductions and minimized stress. But with a plethora of options flooding the market, how do you choose the knight in shining armor that's perfect for your business?

Consider your tax battlefield:

Sole proprietor or small business? Look for user-friendly interfaces and affordable pricing, like FreeTaxUSA or Cash App Taxes.

Growing enterprise? TurboTax Business and H&R Block Self-Employed offer robust features for complex business structures and integrations with existing accounting software.

Need expert backup? opt for services with live CPA assistance like TaxAct Premium or TaxSlayer Pro.

Beyond ease of use, consider these essential features:

Form support: Does it cover all the forms your business needs, including Schedule C and 1099s?

Import options: Can you seamlessly integrate data from your accounting software or bank transactions?

Deduction guidance: Does it help you identify and maximize eligible deductions to save money?

Audit assistance: Does it offer audit support or insurance for added peace of mind?

Remember, the best business tax software is the one that aligns with your specific needs and budget. Take advantage of free trials and compare features thoroughly. Don't be afraid to ask for help from customer support and read online reviews.

Tax season doesn't have to be a battleground of stress and confusion. With the right business tax software as your loyal companion, you can conquer those daunting forms, claim every deduction, and file your taxes with confidence. So, equip yourself with the best weapon in the tax arsenal and march onwards to a victorious tax season!

Bonus tip: Remember, even the best software can't replace professional advice for complex tax situations. Consult a qualified tax advisor for personalized guidance and ensure your financial well-being.

By wielding the power of the best business tax software, you can transform tax season from a fearsome foe into a manageable quest. Remember, knowledge is power, and the right software is your ultimate tax-slaying weapon. Go forth and conquer!

[chaoskirin]

My Comment on the AI Accountability Policy Request for Comment

I sent in the following comment on federalregister.gov:

---

Hello, thank you for taking comments on this matter.

I have had a strong interest in Artificial Intelligence since I was very young, and I even used some of the first "artificial life" computer software in the late 1990s. I have been studying AI and applications of it for my whole life, and am well-versed in how it works. Currently, I'm pursuing a computer science degree, and my concentration will be in using AI in online security.

That is why I am qualified to say this: Tech CEOs and financers DO NOT understand the technology. I have seen time and time again that the people who use and promote this software don't understand that it stores data from art and writing that it has no right to have. They know how to use it, and they know that it has the potential to generate revenue, but they don't consider the people it hurts. In fact, they don't care about the people it hurts.

Technology should make our lives easier. It should enable us to pursue art, music, and writing at will, in our business AND free time. It should not take those opportunities from us. And if it MUST exist, it must only take from art which it is given. Currently, the art datasets that exist, which are based on LAION-5B and the like, contain literal BILLIONS of "scraped" art pieces, for which the original artists gave no permission. And these works are being used to generate money for those who own or utilize the software, with none of the profit going to the original artists. This is a copyright violation, and unacceptable.

Datasets must only contain Royalty Free/Creative Commons art, AND/OR art which has been commissioned and paid for to be part of the dataset. Should any art exist within a dataset that is NOT RF/CC, the original artist MUST BE COMPENSATED PER USE.

AI must not become a "cheap way to create art," as this functionality would break the backs of artists who are already underpaid. If AI is to exist, it must work IN CONJUCTION with artists to elevate them and pay them fairly. Use of a dataset should pay the ARTISTS, not those hosting the dataset or the software.

If the technology cannot accommodate this, it MUST NOT BE USED until it can.

[yirontechnologies]

Travel Agency Accounting Software

Travel agency accounting software streamlines financial management for travel businesses, offering features like expense tracking, invoicing, and reporting tailored to the industry's needs. Simplify bookkeeping and financial tasks with specialized tools designed for travel agencies.

[audio-luddite]

I was talking with a guy.

Hey if I am mentioning it here it was about audio.

The question was how to get started in serious audio (lets not call it audiophile yet). It is a remarkably simple and yet complex question. Spend lots of money?

So to start, the front end is the tricky bit. That is source and control. Source is what you are listening too. Control is selection of source, if you have more than one, and basic volume control. In most systems control is the preamplifier.

The back end is the speakers and power amplifier. Actually really simple. What fits in your home and how much can you afford. Easy to change if you want.

The first big issue is source. By that I mean hard copied media or virtual. The first is category is CDs and their ilk such as SACD etc, and of course Vinyl LPs. The second is streaming online.

The second one first. (interesting sentence that but perfectly correct)

Streaming is far from simple. It has the least initial cost for the media as it is just a subscription fee (forever). It has an enormous even overwhelming variety and quantity of content. It also is only permission to use the content, but you do not own it. You can have a huge "collection" but it is virtual. Also there is a controversy about payments to artists.

Often not said is that almost all the streaming services are at or below CD quality. CD quality is not considered truly great by the tribes. That is all I am going to say about that right now.

The hardware is not simple for high end streaming. In very general terms you need a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter), a box to buffer or hold the downloaded files, and a computer to do the downloads and host the streaming service software. That is three boxes. In high end they are all expensive of course.

There are devices that do all three things, but they are not cheap. They also do not have the quality of the "best" systems.

Audiophiles like dedicated computers and streaming servers and DACs of eye watering expense.

In summary the streaming front end is very expensive. In my looking about for adding that to my system it is thousands of dollars. Conservatively about $5000 for my quality goal. Emphasis on that is only the front end.

Now to my thesis.

I say the least cost path to high end sound is with vinyl. WTF?! A high end capable Turntable starts at hundreds of dollars. Much more can be spent, but in today's local classified ads there are dozens under $500 and a few very good ones up to $1000. An older model refurbished unit is perfectly fine for the job. And I mean high end sound extraction. Brands such as Technics, Rega, Thorens, Micro Seki, Kenwood, Pioneer are good candidates.

A high end phonograph pickup or cartridge can be had for under $500 bucks. I have three all around $400 ish or less. I like Grado, and Audio Technica. There are more, but I don't have any of those. Moving coils need not apply. Those are euphonic, which is they add seductive sounds that are not in the source material.

That is the whole vinyl source hardware list. Under $1400 bucks or less and you are up and running. The only caveat is your control preamp needs to have a phono input which most old ones do.

In my case have a high end hybrid tube FET preamp that can be had for $2000 or less depending on the phase of the moon. You need that anyway. My opinion is the preamp is the major contributor to the overall performance of your system.

So that brings the full front end to less than $3400 for a high end system. If you take into account all my extra phono cartridges I still spent less than that. Just.

There is an intriguing option in a high end integrated amplifier from Technics (SU-G700) that is a preamp and DAC and very good class D amplifier with a phono input for about $2400 USD. Just add speakers and turntable and you are over the threshold to high end. It is rather spooky. If I had to start from scratch I would be tempted. Far less than an ARC suite. I could no longer claim I was a Luddite though.

Yes with vinyl you still have to buy LPs, unless you are an old fart like me and have hundreds, but it is actually rather fun. Compared to the initial cost of a high end streaming system the cost of an extensive LP library looks reasonable. I search for high quality boutique stuff usually, but I also find stuff in the racks. Garage sales anyone?

I have high end sound in my home. I dare say it is the best sounding system I have every heard. Vinyl is not a compromise. There is a lot to be said for getting up to flip a record every 20 minutes. Hell I have a watch that nags me to get up and move if I stay seated for more than an hour. (yes I am a geek) It's good for you Mr couch potato.

Obviously to play at this game money will be spent. You can start off modestly and build over time (decades in my case) or jump in. In the end you will have a sonic place to spend time appreciating art at the highest level.

Interesting that I really cannot afford to add high end streaming to my system. I don't need to.

[handern]

hey do you guys want to know more secrets about museums

the new fashion is to make everything super fucking interactive and have screens everywhere right? here are my horror stories

First secret :

people in charge of putting the displays together often don't realize that if a thing has a battery you can't leave it plugged in 24/7 so they don't make a spot to allow unplugging of said thing

people in charge of putting the displays together don't think of easy ways to replace the computers when they die, so that's why you end up w "out of order" signs over touch screens that will stay there for years bc no money to replace it before the 5 years time period it was supposed to last

in a place I worked at, people in charge of putting the displays together didn't take into account that computers need to breathe, so they didn't put vents big enough nor ways to clean up the dust. 5000€ display lasted 6 entire months before it did catch fire

Second secret :

companies that make softwares the museum's displays are running on keep going under, bc museum always take the cheapest option and cheap options are always new companies that are going to go down under, but SMH museum budget makers never learn or care about that

company going under means that now the museum can't update the display's computer like, ever again bc nobody is going to update the display's software ever again so one day it'll just stop working completely

in a place I worked at, we had a computer running on Windows 98 bc of that. They have to buy old as shit computers in thrift shops, take them apart and put them back together then use half illegal ways to bring them back to life

[starsbegantofall]

Bernette 79 sewing machine and embroidery machine review - initial thoughts

I doubt anyone reading this has "embroidery machine" money in their bank account, so it would be helpful to no one, but I appreciated other people putting in their honest reviews when I make big purchases, so I will post mine in case it would be relevant in society.

First, I got this machine because I wanted a computerized machine with more options than my Hello Kitty Janome sewing machine which has 5 stitches, no ability to sew a zipper, and the button hole function/zig zag stitch no longer works properly, making it useful only for sewing straight lines. Most people would advise, stick with the antiques or non-computer ones because of planned obsolescence with newer technology, a statement I would normally go by except my mom finally messed up her retro machine built into the table, and I felt the Hello Kitty was relatively cheap so I got more than its money worth out of it sewing costumes and such over several years. Time for a big upgrade. Also I have the money and still plan to do a lot of sewing if society doesn't break down into a post-apocalyptic Mad Max dystopia.

However, I didn't need an embroidery machine at all. I do embroidery by hand if needed for costumes, my mom taught me the basics, and hand embroidery looks perfectly fine from a distance. But what I do want is a good deal, and reviews stated the combo machine is an excellent bargain bundled with the super expensive embroidery designer software and extra doodads in the Yaya Han version. Not too big or complicated, but versatile especially for costumers, which I am.

So far, after using it for sewing some skirts and two costumes, lots of mending and simple embroidery, I would say I made a good decision. There is a bit of a learning curve in the sewing machine itself and a huge learning curve for the embroidery part, which I expected. The computerized machine does some things that are inconvenient to me, although I suspect this inconvenience is to prevent you from sewing over your fingers by accident. I do like the semi-automatic needle threader, it only works like 50% of the time and seems to shred the thread when it does work, but at least I don't have to struggle to see the hole to thread with my elderly eyes. The automatic thread cutter and the semi-automatic bobbin winder is also great once I figured out how they worked. And the variety of stitches and machine feet is reassuring, though I've only used a few stitches and two feet lol. I already used the buttonhole maker, works just as I had hoped. The sewing is smooth and fairly fast compared to the old machines, and seems to not have much problem with thick fabric, although I haven't tried really thick fabrics yet.

The embroidery function requires taking several parts off the sewing machine and switching out with other parts, which is a bit of a pain if I ever want to switch between functions quickly. Embroidery machines are noisy and require monitoring because sometimes the thread tangles over nothing, like molecules of air are too big sometimes. But I like the possibilities of embroidering tougher materials that would cause me pain in my fingers to try to push a needle through, or perhaps making multiples of identical items, like patches with text. The auto digitizer is not bad for simple designs, and if I had a really cool design to digitize, I think I can wrangle the software into working without too much trouble. Currently trying to think of original designs to digitize, though.

There is an extra cost of having to buy multiple colors of machine embroidery thread which is different from regular thread and more expensive, and lots of stabilizer which is required for smooth results. But I managed to get a bargain lot of new threads from a reseller online, and I found advice on how to sort of reuse stabilizer scraps (though I still have to buy rolls of it especially for larger designs.)

So far I haven't broken anything except one needle. I'm happy with my investment, and look forward to several years of sewing, assuming the world doesn't destroy itself by then. If you are interested in perusing sewing machines be sure to check @20dollarlolita !

[makuojinanwa]

How To Create A Content Marketing Strategy For Your SaaS Business

Whether you're starting conversations that engage your target audience, sharing information that positions your SaaS business as an industry leader, or simply drumming up business for your SaaS product, you need an effective SaaS content marketing strategy.

Why you may ask?

Because 63% of customers cite web pages during their evaluation process. And on the average, companies that blog receive 434% more indexed pages. If, on an industry-wide scale, you have nearly 10 times more leads from long form blog posts than short ones, then content marketing is a priority if you want to grow your SaaS business long term.

In this guide, we'll discuss SaaS content marketing strategy. And by the end, you'll know what content strategy is, why you need one and when to apply it. Then you'll get a step-by-step process of creating a content strategy unique to your SaaS business.

Defining SaaS Content Strategy

If you don't understand content strategy, we'll explain what it is before we get to the why and when.

So what is content strategy?

Content strategy is simply all the content processes a business employs to get prospects to buy their product or service. There's

#Audience Research

#Business Model

#Content Ideation

#Media Platforms

#Content Creation

#Distribution &

#Evaluation

And as a SaaS business owner, SaaS content strategy is simply a content strategy that accounts for your SaaS business model.

SaaS companies like Canva, Buffer and HubSpot have executed robust content marketing strategies that have scaled their lead generation and subscription efforts.

Specifically, Grammarly has a blog that educates their readers on writing styles and technique. Their blog has over 100,000 subscribers and their content has over 5 million views.

These readers get freemium access to their editing tool. They number 30 million users. And a good number of these readers end up paying for their editing software.

As a SaaS business owner, you can aim for similar success, cheap and exponential business growth, with an effective SaaS content strategy.

Benefit Of SaaS Content Strategy

Focus stands out amongst content strategy benefits like exponential growth and cheap lead generation. Joe Pulizzi stressed the importance of content strategy and expanded on focus as a SaaS content strategy benefit when he said this…

"We need to create a business strategy for our content. That means saying no to many channels and content types, and focus on where we can build an asset, an audience, overtime."

- Joe Pulizzi

A good SaaS content strategy saves time and energy that would otherwise be spent talking to the void. Strategy quickly gets you closer to what works. By studying your target market, you discover not just what to say, but where and when to say it.

Let's take HubSpot for instance here.

HubSpot's blog posts are comprehensive guides to unlock business growth via sales and marketing. Their blog content has a strong bias towards explaining theories and practices. But on their Instagram page, we observe something different. Content is more conversational and personable. Learning takes a back seat to experience and entertainment.

Their blog readers and Instagram followers are different. And even when these audiences overlap, we see different attitudes for different platforms. And in this case, the same lead is in a different mindset depending on which platform they consume HubSpot's content.

We can see that HubSpot's approach to content creation and distribution considers platform culture when talking about the same topics. These content strategy insights come from studying market behavior on search engines and different social media platforms.

So now they don't have to work mindlessly. They have knowledge and a plan on how to use relevant content to generate leads and sales.

This is the process of creating a content strategy and you can do the same for your SaaS business.

When To Use SaaS Content Strategy

From time to time, I find founders and aspiring entrepreneurs asking when to use content strategy in their business.

My answer?

Start as soon as you can. In fact, you should have started yesterday even if you don't have a product or market. Surprised? Let me explain.

Early Stage SaaS Companies

You see, a content strategy is valuable because of what it makes you do. You can't have a strategy to engage a market if you first don't know your core service or product, and who would need your offer.

Say you're a digital marketer helping e-commerce stores increase website traffic. And you hope to sell software services to e-commerce store owners in the future. You could use a content strategy where you document your process of helping e-commerce websites grow their traffic.

Now you're engaging your market while figuring out other problems they may have that would be worth a SaaS tool. Before UberSuggest, Neil Patel ran his digital marketing blog for many years. He offered educational content to digital marketers and online entrepreneurs on how to grow their businesses. Now his SaaS tool, UberSuggest, helps entrepreneurs with keywords for their content marketing efforts.

Established SaaS Companies

On the other hand, established SaaS businesses can improve the value of their business by having another option to generate leads and sales. Outbound processes like cold calling and emailing can be effective and sustainable. But adding inbound processes like content marketing to the mix increase lead gen options and strengthens outbound processes too.

Regardless of where you are in your SaaS journey, creating a good SaaS content strategy keeps you in touch with your product and market.

Now having understood what a SaaS content strategy is and can do, let's get into the weeds of creating one.

Defining Your Market

All effective SaaS content strategy starts out with a defined market. As a SaaS business owner, ask yourself these questions…

Who needs what you sell?

Why do they have this need?

What would they feel like when said need is satisfied?

What else do they do outside finding said satisfaction?

These questions give you an opportunity to understand your market. Say you sell business software to freelance writers and content creators. Freelance writers and content creators need high paying clients and commercial success with their audience respectively.

But is that all?

It isn't. Dig deeper.

For a freelance writer, higher paying clients mean

Reduced Anxiety

Meaningful Work &

Time Freedom

And for the content creator, a profitable product they own means

Income Stability

Creative Freedom &

Work Satisfaction

As an owner of your business software, you now know what your editing or invoice software actually means to your market. You know their needs and what they'll feel like when satisfied.

So it's time to find them.

SaaS Content Strategy Platforms

We've answered the above questions for your hypothetical software business except for what content creators and freelance writers do outside their core jobs.

Answering the last question brings up more questions…

Do they consume business content from online gurus?

Do they take courses from fellow writers and bloggers?

What about search and social groups where they interact with fellow content creators and freelancers?

Remember, we're trying to find out their hangout spots online. So wherever they spend their time online is a potential content strategy platform. Content strategy platforms are places that shape your tone and approach to creating engaging content that converts prospects.

You can speak with your customers to get an idea of how they spend their online hours when they're not working. Of course you can't go around asking awkward questions like

'Where do you spend your time online?'.

Instead, you can say something like

'What's your most inspiring piece of educational content in the last 2 months?'

'Who's making content that gets you excited?'

'What obstacles do you face that often hinder your productivity?' (By the way, whoever is offering courses or creating content to solve that problem is a potential content strategy platform.)

Get a list of these content strategy platforms and go to work studying your market. You'll find yourself in reddit channels, comment sections of Instagram accounts and YouTube channels. You'll pick up Twitter trends and read blog comments.

Before long, the picture of your market becomes clear. You'll be full of content and distribution ideas for your content marketing campaign. Your SEO keyword search would be much more robust instead of staring at keyword software charts with frustration.

Back to our hypothetical software business. Your market research would take you to content strategy platforms like Ali Abdaal, Dan Koe, Zulie Rane, Gary Vee and Roberto Blake. These creators serve the typical content creator and freelance writer. Observe how they talk and what they talk about in the comment sections of these influencer accounts.

Now you know exactly what your market wants and you know how to create content for them.

It's time to engage and convert.

Engaging And Converting Your Audience

Many SaaS companies get it right up to this point but skid off track at this crucial bend. They lose because they want to engage their prospects on the company's terms. Don't make that mistake.

Remember our earlier conversation about HubSpot's approach to their blog and Instagram accounts?

Good.

They observed that business owners on search engines such as Google, have search intent to learn about new information and products to solve business problems. So HubSpot's blog attracts them with big prominent blog titles and small author bylines.

Blog Titles

Picture of HubSpot's SERP

Blog Titles and Author Bylines

Picture of HubSpot's Blog Post

You get the sense that it's ideas first before people. On the other hand, business owners and professionals who want to unwind while being social on Instagram, dictate HubSpot's Instagram approach to content creation. Here, social interaction and entertainment are priority over ideas and education.

Personality Over Theory

Picture of HubSpot's Instagram account

It's not enough to create content, you have to do so native to each platform. This is where strategy bleeds into tactics. Let's talk team building.

Building A Content Team

Having understood what it takes to create a practical SaaS content strategy, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get to tactics. You could start solo but at some point, you'd need to build a team.

We'll examine 4 factors that determine the success of your team. They're

Vision

Roles

Collaboration &

Accountability

We'll begin with vision.

Vision

Your vision is volume and creativity. You have a SaaS content strategy and ideas to engage your prospects. But to get results, you need to create and distribute as much content as possible.

We're talking 20-30 social media posts daily with at least 3-10 social engagements per post. Write blog posts, record podcasts and YouTube videos on a daily basis. Repurpose your long form posts for social. You want to find what sticks.

This is hard work but that's the real secret to content marketing success.

Especially at the beginning, you have to find out what actually works. So volume and creativity is the vision when hiring a content marketing team. At such volume, in 3-5 years, you'll evaluate content activity and do more of what engages your market. And consistent sales roll in.

There are no shortcuts to this game. It's not a sprint or a marathon, it's both. The long hard road is the easiest and shortest one. Get to work. As entrepreneurs, we instinctively understand that outbound processes like cold calling are a numbers game but we don't apply it to content marketing.

There are so many intangible content marketing skills that can only be mastered via the fire hose approach. So when building your content marketing team, your overarching vision is that big is better.

Roles

You want big and better, so it's time to get you a content marketing team who can achieve your goals. I'd say that there are 3 major content marketing roles.

Director

Manager &

Creative

When you were creating your content marketing strategy for your hypothetical SaaS company, you played the director role. In addition to setting the vision for content strategy, a director of content analyses and adjusts content efforts to achieve customer and company goals.

The manager is in charge of content production and adjacent processes. They hire creatives, supervise them and build systems that guarantee the right flow of content creation and distribution.

Creatives create content assets, engage with professionals within your business and prospects via content strategy platforms. They also collaborate with both manager and director to improve their creative processes.

Collaboration

Team collaboration with each other and the larger organization decides success. On the director level, they have to find a balance between customer satisfaction and company goals.

When creating a content strategy, these 2 criteria guide the content strategy process. Many times, the director is the link between C-suite and the content marketing branch of the company.

The manager, in many ways, is the middleman. They make strategy, from the director, and tactics from creatives, align. Giving strategy legs, and tactics direction, leads to a successful conveyor belt of content assets and development of customer-company relationships.

Creatives who collaborate effectively with their managers, get to do meaningful and result-driven work.

Accountability

Accountability is probably the only way to see through projects. We'll look at 3 ways to hold both you and the team accountable for your roles.

I. Set Realistic Goals

At the beginning you want the team to start with small achievable goals. A social media content creator who hasn't done more than 5 posts a day shouldn't start their first day on the job creating 30 social media posts daily.

II. Set General Guidelines And Standards

Something as simple as adequate communication during work hours should be basic. Team chats and emails shouldn't be left unattended for 3 days without prior notification of a new development. Team members should attend meetings.

III. Assign Specific Tasks To Individual

A good example here would be creatives being in charge of content creation and distribution. They're not responsible for engagement results. That's the responsibility of the manager and director.

Conclusion

As we draw this guide to a close, it's important to note that content marketing strategy will always be worth its business results. And since ever-changing markets affect business results, you'll always have to evaluate your tactics and strategy.

At the beginning of your content marketing efforts, a strategy, content schedule and distribution map, should be the goal. It isn't about the number of views as it's about the number of content pieces you create. And that's why volume is important.

A year or 2 into this flurry of activity, all content strategy platforms would show noticeable patterns of engagement. Some content pieces would have more engagement than others. This is where evaluation comes in.

Ditch what doesn't work and do more of what does. Scaling what works at this point would grow views and traffic. Just as we discussed, content marketing strategy is the first in a series of steps to generate leads and sales for your business.

If you have further questions about SaaS content strategy or content marketing in general, leave a comment below and it'll be addressed.