In a recent poll on Linkedin, I posed the question a Yes/No question of “Do you consider it important to be able to export 100% of your data easily from an SaaS system".  Not surprisingly, all of the responses were Yes.

The point behind this question is that I have run across and use some SaaS services that do not make retrieving my data easily.  In some cases, it's virtually impossible.

With the understanding that by subscribing to a SaaS service, whether paid or not, it is my belief that we should always have the ability to export and/or backup all of our data on these systems.


The software may be property of the SaaS provider, but the data is the property of the subscriber.

It would seem that it would be in the best interest of SaaS providers to support this as a way to build trust and to distinguish themselves from the providers who do not.

I look forward to your comments.

We designed, developed, and launched a website for Langley-Scott.com whose services include antique and art auctions, appraisals, and consultations.

The new site I built for TopDog Halloween Madness Superstore is online now! Three stores in the Houston area at nearly 10,000 square feet each with thousands of costumes, countless decorations, prosthetics, special effect makeup, equipment, inflatables, accessories and more.

We just went live with a new website for Gas Storage Advisors. This site utilizes Content Management System (CMS), integrated Contact Relationship Management (CRM), and integrated website analytics and reporting.

"Gas Storage Advisors LLC assists Clients in developing, acquiring, and divesting gas storage facilities and services. Our team is composed of professionals who have long experience in all aspects of gas storage. This experience includes a grounding in end-user economics and the gas storage regulatory environment."

If you're interested in getting your kids started in programming, Microsoft Small Basic may be just the way to get there.. "Small Basic is intended for beginners that want to learn programming. In our internal trials we've had success with kids between the ages of 10 and 16. "


Kid's Corner - Beginner Developer Learing Center

Although I don't personally agree with this method, it can be effective for generating website traffic that is relevant to your site, which is the best kind as far as Google is concerned. Making the traffic relevant to your site is easy - target your competition in a friendly way.

Hold a contest where the rules require you to post your entry on your site, then post a link to your entry on the contest host site. This generates back links between the two sites, and if they are relevant, gets you higher rankings on the search engines.

The advantage to you is obvious:

• you get links to your site
• you get visitors to your site

The real winner in this method is the contest host who:

• gets links from every site that posts an entry on his/her site
• they get many

This makes their site appear as an authority on the topic. This helps them get higher rankings on search engines which means your potential clients will find your competitor instead of you.

The bad side to this, which I consider a scam, is that you are helping your competitor get more traffic and relevency than each individual site gets. I consider it a scam because someone is taking advantage of you for their own personal gain.