TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPICS: CREATE A WEBSITE / CREDIT REPORTS

Will Rogers said "Buy land... they're not making any more of it." In a way, the same is true of real estate in cyberspace. So let this be the year you create your own website, using my step-by-step tutorial. Also in this issue, learn how to access your credit report online, and banish the Red X of Doom. Read on!

Setting Up a Website

YOU... dot COM! What could be cooler than having your name or business surrounded by a "www" and a ".com"? Lots of people hesitate to create a website, thinking that it's extremely technical and requires computer programming skills. Everyone has a friend with a Cousin Vinny who'd be happy to set you up for a small fee, but you really can do it yourself! Learn the simple steps in my Setting Up A Website tutorial:

http://askbobrankin.com/setting_up_a_website.html

Free Credit Annual Reports

Did you know...? The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act), gives every U.S. citizen the right to receive a copy of their credit report, free of charge once a year. A credit report shows you all of the info that consumer reporting companies may release about you to a third party, such as a lender, potential employer or landlord. This information includes mortgage, credit card and loan balances, and your payment history.

But don't confuse your credit REPORT with your credit SCORE. A credit score (sometimes called a FICO score) is simply a number ranging from 375 to 900, which is derived from the many types of information in a
credit file. Credit scores estimate the risk a company may incur by lending money or providing a service.

Yes, you can access your credit report online, but beware of sites that want to charge you a fee. To access your free credit report and learn more about the factors that may affect your credit score, follow this link:

http://askbobrankin.com/free_credit_reports.html

The Dreaded Red X

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when viewing emails or websites, the images do not appear, but a little red X shows up instead? Or maybe it happens when you attach pictures to outgoing emails, and the recipients complain that THEY get the Red X of Doom.

Sometimes it's human error, but more often it's yet another case of software trying to save us from ourselves... There are a bunch of reasons why you might see that annoying red X while viewing a website with Internet Explorer or an email with Outlook. Here are some of the possible reasons, and suggested fixes for each:

http://www.askbobrankin.com/red_x_appears.html

That's all for now, see you next time! -- Bob Rankin