If your business was affected in the recent Southern California wildfires, data recovery company  DriveSavers wants to help. DriveSavers is offering $500 off data recovery services to victims of the disastrous California wildfires. The company says they can help recover digital photos, financial records, address books, passwords, personal files and other important data from your computer's burned hard drive. In addition, DriveSavers is offering additional discounts and support through their network of over 150 computer service providers in the region. "We’ve recovered thousands of burn-related hard drives that looked unrecoverable," said Scott Gaidano, president of Drive Savers. "By working with our network of computer retailers and consultants in the area, we can help people in this region get their data back."

If your computer has been damaged, DriveSavers recommends you give them a call at 1-800-440-1904 to find out how they can help you. In the meantime, follow these tips for the best chance at recovering your data:

• Do not attempt to power up a smoke-damaged or burned hard drive.
• Do not attempt to clean the hard drive.
• If the computer is wet from fire hoses, remove the wet hard drive. Do not use the drive; place it in a plastic bag with an airtight zip closure.
• If the drive is "sealed" in a melted computer, leave it intact and send the entire system to DriveSavers. 
• Keep in mind there may be live electrical cables at the site of your computer. Talk to your local fire official to be sure your area is safe before removing your computer drives.

Does your office celebrate the spookiest holiday of the year? If so, then your biz is in the minority this October 31. According to a new survey from  www.Vault.com, about 37 percent of employees say they celebrate the holiday with their co-workers, and only 27 percent actually dress up in a costume at the office. Of the respondents whose offices ignored the holiday, many expressed disappointment. Of course, it's a tough decision. If you do allow employees to don costumes, you risk the chance of workers showing up in risqué, indecent and possibly offensive outfits that would be more distracting than anything else. On the other hand, allowing costumes within reason could bring your team closer together. Or, there's always the compromise: Allow trick-or-treating from office to office, or bring Halloween treats to share during an afternoon office party.

If you're an e-tailer thinking about revamping your website for the holiday rush, you probably feel like you're running out of time. But not to worry, there are some quick and easy fixes you can make to get the most out of every customer who visits your site. Erin Presseau, strategic interactive manager for SilverTech, a website development and interactive marketing agency, has five top tips to get your site in the holiday spirit:

• Dangle a carrot. Give customers examples of how they can use your product to make their shopping easier. Prepackaged gift items are popular with consumers during the holiday season. Provide consumers with creative ideas about how to use your packaged gift suggestions to their advantage. For example, "Don't forget to thank teachers and coaches with this lovely candle gift basket."
• Optimize your site to grab free traffic. This method of advertising is virtually free and highly effective. Presseau says this is one of the most important quick fixes to your website you can make to increase holiday sales, since more than 60 percent of online shoppers will use a search engine to find a product this season. Choose appropriate keywords and insert them into URLs, page titles and content of your web pages to move you up in search listings.
• Countdown shipping days. Add simple notes and countdowns to your home, product and cart pages to remind shoppers how many shopping days are left and how soon they need to order to make sure their gift arrives in time.
• Guide consumers to jump "ship to shore" and not overboard. Be sure to provide customer service phone numbers and e-mail addresses, in addition to the location of your nearest stores, if you have any, should shoppers have technical difficulties while trying to process their order. Presseau says by providing important contact information, store locators, shipping and return policies within the pages of your shopping cart, you'll have a much higher chance of salvaging sales.
• Add promotions to receipt and confirmation pages. Promote universal products or seasonal items to your receipt and confirmation pages, which are the most printed and saved pages from any e-commerce site.