There is something special about receiving a handwritten notecard. It communicates that someone took the extra time to acknowledge you. I love sending notecards because I know how special they can be.

Unfortunately, I seldom actually send one out. It is worth the time to do, and it’s hard.

My first psychological barrier is that I believe my handwriting is terrible! Next, making sure I have cards and postage available, and then getting the note to the post office seems like an insurmountable problem.

Because of this, I’m always looking for technology solutions that help me actually send out thank you notes. Over the last few years, I’ve explored various options and platforms, yet none have quite fit my needs.

In my continuing quest, I recently came across Handwrytten (no, that is not misspelled!).

Cybercrime continues to grow, and no one is immune. Insurance agencies, small businesses, and even large municipalities like Baltimore are being hit with ransomware attacks and other types of cybercrime.

What would you do if your office was hit with a ransomware attack or one of your employees wired money in response to a phishing email?

I have written a couple of articles on how to spot phishing emails that you can review here and here. The best defense against a phishing attack is to make sure all employees are trained to question any email that doesn’t “look right.”

But even extensive employee training won’t guarantee that your organization won’t be a victim of a cybercrime attack.

Fortunately, the FBI maintains a website where you can report an incident. The full name is the Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

The title of this post might be considered classic clickbait, but I did get your attention. Read on to see if you have lost money that needs to be found.

Recently, I received a letter from the Tennessee Treasury Department, which generally is not a good thing. Fortunately, this letter had good news. It was from the Division of Unclaimed Property telling me that I might have unclaimed property worth $55. I was directed to the Tennessee website that provided access to the database of unclaimed property. I went through the process of verifying my identity and filing a claim. I received a check in the mail for the full amount.

Money that was mine that I had no idea was due me.

I suspect you understand that your website is one of the primary tools you use to engage with both prospects and clients. It is how many people find you and starts the process of understanding what you offer. It is also a channel your clients can use to access information, documents, and other tools to help them better manage their insurance program.

The expectation of website visitors continues to change. One engagement tool I have added to my website is the ability to automatically create playable audio for every article I publish using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Polly Service.

WordPress Plugin for Amazon Polly

Amazon Polly is a web service that automatically converts text to audio. Using the Amazon Polly plugin for WordPress, you can provide visitors to your WordPress website with audio recordings of your content. The plugin creates audio files in any of the voices and languages supported by Amazon Polly. Your visitors can stream the audio at their convenience using inline audio players and mobile applications.

You can configure the plugin to do the following: