Web Talk

How do people find your website?

Webmaster — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:24:20 GMT

Well... if you found this blog entry, then you may already have some idea. The quickest way to attract people to your website is to make it show up in the search engines.

On my home page I have embedded a YouTube video which was posted by Google on this very topic. Take a look & let me know if you found the video helpful.

Dana

For the New Year - confront your deepest fear

Webmaster — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:09:50 GMT

This bit of wisdom is from Marianne Williamson. I invite you to consider it as you begin a brand new year. - Dana

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate...

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our Light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,

to be gorgeous, talented and fabulous.

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won’t feel insecure

around you.

We are born to make manifest the glory of god with in us.

It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone.

And as we let our inner light shine;

we consciously give others permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear,

our presence automatically liberates others

Marianne Williamson

'Tis the Season...

Webmaster — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:18:23 GMT

Happy Ho Ho! Merry Egg Nog! ... and all those other holiday greetings!

A friend of mine posted an idea for holiday gift giving in this season that I'd like to pass along for your consideration.

This is supposed to be the season of peace on earth and good will to man. So instead of just racking up the credit card bills buying gifts, mightn't it be more meaningful to give of yourself? Your time, your talent, even your attention can be more valuable than the latest gizmo from Wally World or Q Mart.

You don't necessarily need to volunteer at your local soup kitchen (although I'm sure they would love any help you could offer.) Start small... Do you have people on your gift-giving list that you have no clue what to buy? Well, instead of 'what can you buy for them', consider 'what you can do for them.'

Think about it for a moment. What act of kindness/service would they appreciate?
Don't you know someone who would really appreciate your help with:
     *     Cleaning out the garage
     *     Changing the oil in the car
     *     Baby-sitting so they can have a little time off
     *     Shoveling snow off the driveway/sidewalk
     *     Learning how to use their computer
   * Driving to the grocery/doctor/etc.

As a gift, you could make up a certificate to give them reading "Good for ____________" (and you fill in the blank with your gift idea.) It doesn't have to be elaborate - it just needs to be a serious offer to give a little of your time, your talent, and/or your expertise.

The holidays are a time for us to share with friends and loved ones. What better way than to give of yourself?

May you and yours enjoy this holiday season!

Dana

Don't mean to toot my own horn, but...

Webmaster — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:48:32 GMT

Yeah, actually I do... I'm so excited because I am now a published author.

The anthology "Mon Coeur Mort" has just reached Amazon, both as a paperback and in Kindle format. It's a collection of short stories in the horror genre with the general theme of a broken heart or, to translate the title "My Dead Heart". One of the stories in it called "Wolf Girl" is mine... the first of many I hope.
I would be delighted to hear from anyone who reads the book what they think about it. Good or bad, constructive feedback is welcome.

The picture is a link to purchase the paperback book on Amazon. You can also purchase the Kindle format here: Mon Coeur Mort

'Linked In" Phishing Attack

Webmaster — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into your social networking site...

(for anyone who doesn't get the reference - it's fromJaws II (1978)... Yeah, so I'm old...)

You're probably familiar with the term 'phishing' by now, but just in case you aren't, it's what we call it when people try to steal your private information through emails, websites, etc. One method commonly used is to provide you with a fraudulent link. Check out Wikipedia for a full description at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing.

There is a new type of phishing attack that you need to be aware of if you use LinkedIn, because it looks a lot like an invitation from someone on LinkedIn for you to join their network. Or, worse, it may look like a message from LinkedIn telling you to go check your messages... and providing a handy dandy link (which, of course takes you somewhere else and presumably, tries to get you log in, thereby stealing your linked in username and password.)

This one is a bit scary to me because I use LinkedIn a lot and might have fallen for it, had it crossed my inbox. But thanks to a timely warning and explanation from Dave Hatter, I (and you, gentle reader) will now be on guard against such an attack.

The full story on this new phishing attack can be read on Dave Hatter's blog (here ) And, a big thanks to Dave for the warning.

As I have said before, NEVER NEVER NEVER click on a link if you don't see where it's taking you. And I don't mean the link text, friends and neighbors, I mean the actual destination link. The above link to Dave's blog is a good example. It says it's taking you 'here', but that's not the URL. I could have just as easily typed in "free DisneyWorld Vacation" or even "Message from LinkedIn" but where will the link actually take you when you click it?

For those of you who've heard this before, my apologies. Better safe than sorry. And for anyone who anyone who is still wondering what the heck I'm talking about, I have a blog entry about phishing in general and some ways you can tell they are not legitimate links. You can read more about it (here... if you trust my link, that is Bwaa! ha! ha! ha!!! [cue evil music...]

Be safe!

I've been called worse...

Webmaster — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:05:00 GMT

I honestly don't know if this is true... but it SOUNDS about right, don't you think?

Enjoy!

Railroad tracks.

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England , and English expatriates designed the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England , because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.

Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)

Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah

The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important?

A little humor helps us learn the lesson

Webmaster — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:37:00 GMT

... It seemed like a good idea at the time...

I really got a laugh out of this. The blog entry is about hiring a professional to design your company's logo, name, signage, whatever, but the first example was more of a joke. The company's name is "Kids Exchange".
Here's a picture of their sign:

Is it just me, or do they perform "Kid Sex Change" operations here? <G>

The blog entry is worth a look just for the chuckles, but it also points out real life mistakes people have made in their business advertising decisions....
http://nameflash.com/blog/

Enjoy.

Domain Name Prices are about to go up (again)

Webmaster — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:40:26 GMT

A quick 'heads up!' for all website owners - the cost of your domain name is about to increase.

On July 1, 2010 the wholesale cost of registering domain names will increase for '.COM' and '.NET' domain names (.COM by 7% and .NET by 10%.) This means the cost will increase for registrars (like GoDaddy ) and of course most of them are passing the increase on to us, the consumers.

If you only use 1 or 2 domains, that means you will be paying between $0.75 and $1 more per year for each '.COM' domain name you use (and around $1.30 more per year for a '.NET' domain name.) If, like many small business owners, you use multiple domain names for your web site(s), then the increase becomes more pronounced.

What can you do? If you renew your domain name(s) before July 1, then you can avoid the increase. AND DID YOU KNOW that you can register a domain name for up to 10 years at a time?

So let's do the math...

For each '.COM' domain you can save up to $10 if you renew for 10 years ($13 for each '.NET' name)
If you have multiple domain names, then multiply that savings per name.
Plus you don't have to worry about it again for 10 years (by which time, I'm sure the price will have increased again.)

But the deadline is July 1, 2010. So you will need to act now to beat the increase. If you handle the domain account yourself, that's great. If not, then contact your 'web person' and make sure this gets handled before the deadline. If you have any questions or aren't sure who controls your website's domain name you can contact me . I do this for a living.

Have a great summer... Start by beating the price increase.

Dana

What is an appropriate keyword for my website?

Webmaster — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:02:00 GMT

Why do we use keywords? Because we want people to find our website when they use search engines. And how do search engines rank our web pages based on the keywords we use? Oh, if only there were a quick and simple answer...

I just replied to a client about what key words we might choose for her new website. Her site promotes her services as a personal chef and some of the keywords she requested included 'diabetes', 'macrobiotic cooking', 'heart health' and 'high blood pressure'.

Now, before reading further, I invite you to test your own judgement and see if you come up with the same solution as I did.

The website is about a personal chef. The pages will include topics like

What is a personal chef / what duties do they perform?
Meals and how they are prepared
Credentials about this particular chef
FAQ about personal chefs
Contact page
Blog with recipies, tips & tricks, etc.

Some of the keywords requested by the client include

Diabetes
macrobiotic cooking
heart health
high blood pressure

Which, if any of those keywords would you pick?

I responded that we could create a page about macrobiotic cooking if that was actually an area of expertise, but I nixed the other three. Using 'diabetes' as an example, I'll explain why.

Generally speaking, search engines think like this:
When a person does a search on a keyword, go fine any pages using that keyword (sometimes there are thousands) and order them by relevancy - with the most relevant page at the top. In other words, for a page to show up at the top of a search for 'Diabetes' (of which there are over 71,000 results on Google) it must meet these criteria better than the others:

The page or section topic must be about diabetes.
The word 'diabetes' must be used in the text several times. (it can also be used in links, text behind pictures, meta tags, etc.)
Any links on the page to other pages/sites about diabetes will help.
Preferably it will have multiple outside links (links from other reputable websites - preferably also related to 'diabetes') pointing to it.

    These are some of the generally acceptable means of using a keyword onyour website and are referred to as 'white hat' techniques (incidentally, the terms "white hat" and "black hat" refer to the old black and white cowboy movies where the good guy wore a white had and the bad guy(s) wore black.) If you meet the criteria, then your page will be ranked by how well you compare to the other 71,000 pages using the word 'diabetes'.

    Since many medical and health related sites will almost certainly be more relevant to the keyword 'diabetes' than a website promoting a personal chef, I judged that it would not make sense to use 'diabetes' as a keyword for my client's site. At best, it would come up in the search engines on page 14 or 25 (or 200) and nobody would ever see it.

And that's only if you follow the white hat techniques. You can actually do everything right and still get lousy search engine rankings, depending on the keyword(s) you choose and how well your competitors use the same keyword(s).

    Additionally there are "black hat" techniques which some sites employ to boost their ranking on search engines (remember: 'black hat' = bad guy... BOO!... Hisssssssss...) Using any of these techniques can actually harm your page's ranking:

The word 'diabetes' is thrown in multiple times even though the page is obviously not about diabetes.
The word is STUFFED into the page (used multiple times in such a way that does not make sense or does not read well.) - Keyword stuffing will get your site banned from some search engines, including Google.
The word is purposely hidden around the page so that the reader won't even see it. This will also get your site banned.

You can read more about black hat techniques here: http://blog.cincinnatiwebs.com/2010/02/11/seo-placement-firms--beware-geeks-bearing-gifts.aspx

Internet Ad Revenue Hit Record High In Q4 2009

Webmaster — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 09:08:00 GMT

Are we suffering from recession? How about an Economic slowdown?

Not online, and not as far as Internet advertising is concerned. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IA says that U.S. online ad revenue hit an all-time high of $6.3 billion in Q4 of 2009, a 2.6% increase over the fourth quarter of 2008 and a 14% increase over Q3 of 2009.

Matt McGee at Search Engine Land gives us the numbers which show that business is still going strong on the internet.
Read his article and take hope that business is still booming - if you know where to look.
http://searchengineland.com/internet-ad-revenue-record-high-q4-2009-39571

Who are you calling a dummy?

Webmaster — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:41:00 GMT

March is the month for Dummies!

No, I'm not insulting your intelligence. During the month of March, you can SAVE up to 50% on any of the
'Dummies' series books from Amazon. The selection of books is huge and they cover more topics than you might believe.

So, what is it that you need to understand quickly?

Windows 7?

Your new IPhone?

Stock Investments?

Facebook or Twitter?

Guitars... Bee Keeping... Crocheting?

Seriously, these titles and more are all available at great discount prices. Check out the selection and prices
at Good Guy Gifts.

But hurry... these prices are good only through March .

SEO Placement firms - Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts...

Webmaster — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:45:00 GMT

I just recieved this in an email:

Do you want the top placement in all the major search engines? If you are interested, allow us
in your reply and we'll do a complimentary no charge site assessment with no strings.

It seems like a reasonable, no risk offer. However, another email I received this week said

To heck with Google Adwords, I don't need them anymore and neither do you.

And another said:

Over the past few weeks the self-riotous eggheads at Google adwords have banned the

accounts of over 15,000 direct marketers Banned for life! Some of the most straight
up marketers I know. No reasoning, nothing. Just an email saying go away.

Do you see a pattern here? I do. I see that many so called "SEO Experts" are getting their come-uppance for using unethical "black hat" SEO techniques. Long story short - crime doesn't pay (... eventually.) They promised that you'd be at the top of major search engines quickly (within days or weeks.) And they were right... up until the point where they were busted. Now they have been black listed and can't get on Google at all. And if you put your site in their hands, neither can you.

I don't have a problem with the fact that Google (and other major search engines) are finally cracking down on companies that use these unethical SEO techniques. The problem I have is that people who fell for their "put you in the top of major search engines quickly" schemes are now also suffering the wrath of Google. If you have a site that is now "Banned for Life" from major search engines then your website is in some serious doo doo, my friend. Enjoy the immediate SEO results you had, because they are now gone forever and your domain name is now "banned for life". For you, the only solution may be to start over with a new site and domain name.

The lesson: Legitimate search engine optimization (SEO) takes time. It may be months or even years to climb to the top of search engine results and constant effort must be made to keep you there. There is no (legitimate) short cut. Anyone who says they can put you at the top of major search engines in less than three months is probably using techniques that will get them banned, just like these so-called 'straight up marketers'.

Have you been banned? You can check here to see of your website has been banned by Google.

And if you are still looking for legitimate search engine optimization (SEO) for your website, there are legitimate companies who do excellent work and who follow the rules. You'll know them by the promises they make. Particularly, they will tell you that SEO is an ongoing process. Changes to your website may only take a short time to make, but the responses by search engines will NOT happen in a matter of weeks. A more realistic expectation would be that major search engines will respond to your site in 3 or more months (brand new sites will take longer, even up to a year.)

Another misunderstood part of SEO is the promotion of your site through links, ads, articles, blogs and social networking, which NEVER STOPS. That's correct... you NEVER STOP promoting your website, whether you do it yourself or pay a company to do it for you, it goes on week after week after week. It doesn't have to be extensive (a couple of hours per week may suffice), but it must be consistent to work properly. You can do that work, or you can pay someone else to do it for you, but it needs to be kept up religiously to keep you climbing (and on top of) search engine results.

Sorry, but there's no quick and easy (legitimate) answer. But which would you rather have, false hope, or the cold hard truth?

Social Networking 101 - Part 1, Facebook

Webmaster — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:12:00 GMT

After reading the comments from our Small Business Marketing Workshop last week, I promised to do some blog entries on social networking, particularly Facebook, for people who are just getting started.  So here are the fundamentals:

1) Why use social networks like Facebook?
    Social networks provide a space for people to contact and stay in touch with other people. Used socially, that means you can find and stay in touch with your high school classmates, your family and friends, members of your organization, or people with whom you share a common interest. Many social networks let you post text, links, pictures, videos, and documents to share with your fellow networkers, which Facebook calls 'friends'.
    If the social network idea had never expanded farther than that it would still be a great communication tool, but it did expand into . In addition to a standard account, Facebook allows you to create a page specifically for a business, band, celebrity... whatever you want to promote. This way, you can keep your new Business Page separate from your personal account.

2) So what makes Facebook so great?
    It is estimated that there are somewhere around 200 million websites available on the Internet. According to Alexa.com the most popular website in the world is Google (no surprise there...) and the second most popular website in the entire world is Facebook.
Like many social networks, it's free to use. They do have paid advertisements if you're interested, but the service is free. The only thing you must have is an email address.

3) Alright, how do I 'get on Facebook'?
    By going to http://www.facebook.com and signing up. The main page will look like this:

Fill in the necessary information (First Name, Last Name, Your Email, New Password, Male/Female and your birthday) and click the Sign Up button.
    The next screen will probably be a 'Captcha' screen, which is to prove you are human (as opposed to a program trying to gain access) It will look something lke the picture below. In order to prove you're a real person, simply type the words you see in the picture with a space between them and click the button.

Next there are some wizards designed to help you get started, You can walk through these now, or deal with this stuff later by editing your profile. Once you've finished, take a look around the site and familiarize yourself with the default pages which come with your account. They are:

The Home Page

...and the Profile Page

Take a look through them. I'll cover details on each in my next entry.
Until then, enjoy!

Small Business Marketing Workshop 2010

Webmaster — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:40:00 GMT

Problem:
In today's economy keeping a small business afloat is more challenging than ever. When your days are spent creating your product or providing services to your clients, it's hard to focus on building your business.

Solution:
Marketing 201 for Small Business Success in 2010 . If you wear all the hats in your business and have to do everything alon or with volunteer help at your small business, here's a marketing workshop made just for you - presented at a local small business established in 1996.

What you get:

A start on a marketing plan outline specific to your business
A plan for a professional identity package
10 marketing steps you can take that won't cost you a dime
In depth knowledge of search engine optimization including key words, links, and submission
An understanding of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites to grow your business
An overview of pay-per-click and other search marketing campaigns
5 common marketing mistakes to avoid
Detailed steps to make your website more powerful
Answers to your questions about the internet and marketing
Small session size for one-on-one interaction with your workshop presenters

Where: First Farm Inn - 2510 Stevens Road, Petersburg, KY 40180
When: Sunday, January 31, 2010 from 2 to 5 p.m.

More Details: First Farm Inn or Cincinnati Website Solutions

Tepid Spamments - Nice, try, but No Cigar

Webmaster — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:33:00 GMT

Website promoters, take note:

As a webmaster for multiple clients, I also often play the role of blog administrator. One of my responsibilities is to approve comments made about the blog entries. It's not difficult, but one thing I have noticed is this:

Some people use a blog comment to post a link back to their website.And that is perfectly acceptable IF the comment is legitimate. In fact, if you or one of your minions is not currently reading and posting comments to blogs, then you're missing a great opportunity to get your links out into the ether - and we all know that search engines love finding links to your site.

The trick is that many times (over half the time, in my experience) the comment is not legitimate AND it contains a link to someone's website. Using a complex mathmatical equation which I just made up, I have identified a new species of internet communications:

                                                        SPAM + COMMENTS = SPAMMENTS

Up until recently these spamments were easy to spot because they contained gibberish or at best, really bad english. They might look something like this:

    slkje w okijoweko wkm b owokiw dswwexxosi w

or

    I have okay for you. Now girls going crazy for your manly... (well, you get the idea...)

Those were easy to spot and delete. Their message to the blog owner is quite clear; "If you don't administrate your blog comments (and many people don't) then you will never notice that this is gibberish, so I'm going to take advantage of your stupidity to promote myself."

But over the years spamments have proven to be highly resourceful at adapting to their environment. In fact, lately I've discovered a new subspecies of spamment - the TEPID SPAMMENT.

This brave new subspecies actually looks like a legitimate comment (with a link, of course) except that upon closer inspection one may notice that the comment is so generic that it might apply to anything - which is, I'm sure, the whole purpose of the tepid spamment - you can use it just about anywhere and it doesn't directly offend. Unfortunately for the blog owner, it also doesn't really say anything useful. Here's an example:

                                            Nice article. You provide a great service. www.cincinnatiwebs.com

Some of my clients have suggested that these comments are legit, but I recognize the TEPID SPAMMENT when I see it. IMHO (in my humble opinion) the tepid spamment is also sending a message to the blog owner, which says; "Okay, so you administer your blog comments, but maybe you're either stupid enough or desperate enough to get comments on your blog that you'll let this one slide, in which case, I get to promote my site without actually reading or caring about your blog entry."

The idea is simple: Get a list of blogs to abuse, create a tepid spamment generic enough to use on all of them, and spend an hour or two placing your link all over the internet. It's not a bad idea, really and I bet it works much better than the original spamments do. But it still makes me angry. These people are taking advantage of bloggers to promote their own site(s). And some blog owners don't even mind being taken advantage of... they'd prefer to see more comments on their site - even the tepid spamment.

So, What's a self-respecting blog administrator to do? Well, I have found a solution which satisfies my clients and appeals to my sense of truth, justice and the american way (Kids, don't try this at home - I'm a professional and I use all the proper safety equipment.) I remove the link and then post the comment. Yes, it takes longer for me to do that, but my client is happy with more comments on his blog and I feel I'm doing my job to protect my blogs from spamments.

Mind you, if you send a tepid spamment to MY blog - I'll remove the link and use it as an example. So, in the immortal words of Pat Benatar (okay, so I'm dating myself...),

                                                "Hit me with your best shot... Fire Away."

How is your Perception? (something to think about)

Webmaster — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:25:40 GMT

This story is true. If you don't believe me, do a little research on Joshua Bell.

In a Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes:
a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, and continued to walk.

6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32..

1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed.. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days earlier, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100. This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised:

    *In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
    *Do we stop to appreciate it?
    *Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made; how many other things are we missing?

Here is one of the best lines I have read recently:

Life is not about waiting for the rain to stop, rather it is about learning how to dance in the rain.

Let's Dance...

Is your website content being ignored?

Webmaster — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:36:00 GMT

    You spent a lot of time and energy creating your website. The text you created for each page is valuable and useful information, But the question you need to ask yourself is this: Once a person get to your website, are they reading your content? Or are they ignoring most of what you wrote?

    Statistics suggest that most people do not read all the text on a web page. Rather they tend to Scan down the page for something that catches their eye. For instance - as you looked at this entry, what did your eye notice first? Statistics suggest that, whether intentional or not, you first noticed the larger bold colored text 'most people do not read...'

    The text does not have to be larger or bold to catch the eye, but it does need to stand out from the rest of the text..

                                                                       (... perhaps like this.)

    But catching a person's eye is only the first half of your job. The second half is to give them something short and sweet and to the point because drawing their attention to something is pointless unless it also arouses their interest. In fact it might even be considered irritating if you draw their eye to something and they decide that it is not interesting, or worse, that you're rambling on and on... Do you see how this long, drawn out example of large bolded colored text is not nearly as effective as the original short example above?

    So draw their attention to a section of your page with a short concise heading. If the heading arouses their interest, then they are more likely to read the paragraph or two of regular you have written about that topic.

    Search engines also love short, relevant headers. They should be placed inside Header tags (if you don't program your own site, ask your webmaster about Header tags) for greatest effect. So let's say you have a section on left handed Widgets. Perhaps it would look something like this:

Left Handed Widgets Cost Less

    It has long been know that left-handed widgets are rarer than their right-handed counterparts, but what may not be so widely know is that you can save an average of 15% when buying left-handed widgets... Here at "Widgets R Us" you can find all your widget needs, assuming, of course, that you actually need widgets, which you may not... In fact you probably aren't even reading this far into the paragraph, particularly if you clicked the link to go buy a left-handed widget, so I'll just blather on endlessly... blather blather blather... but hopefully your eye was attracted to 1) the header and 2) the bolded colored text. In fact, what I really wanted was for you to click on the link and go buy some of my left-handed widgets...

    Get the idea? What we really want is for people to be drawn to the topic "Left Handed Widgets Cost Less". Not everybody will care about left handed widgets, But those that do care are more likely to read the paragraph.

    And within the first sentence or so, give them another eye-catching bit of text. In this case it's a link which would take the reader to go buy a left handed widget. So they don't have to read the entire paragraph if they don't want to (and many won't want to.) AND WE DON'T CARE... what we really want is for them to go buy a left handed widget.

    Okay, don't get upset with me. The rest of the text should be valuable and relevant. But you should also understand that the people who read down that far are less likely to buy your left handed widget. And, after all, what is the primary purpose of your website? To inform or to sell?

    Have a safe and happy new year.

Internet Hoax - Get a free Sony Ericsson Laptop

Webmaster — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:00:00 GMT

...All you need do is send an email about this promotion to 8 people and you will receive an Ericsson T18 laptop. However, if you send an email to 20 or more people, you will receive and Ericsson R320 laptop...

                               OH, COME ON! (you can't possible believe that...)

    I am amazed at the stupidity with which some malcontents are trying to disrupt internet and email services. Even more, I am dismayed when I receive proof that people actually overlook the stupidity and respond to such feeble attempts, thus propegating the lie AND encouraging these morons to come up with even more banal, asinine fodder.

    Oh, I'm sorry... Was I ranting?  Yes, I suppose I was...

    And, why, pray tell, should I rant? Today it's because of an email hoax I received from a colleague - or, to clarify, this was an email begin forwarded by a colleague to exactly 20 people (might as well go for the gold...). The email title was simply "FW: Ericsson Laptop" and so I opened it and began reading it.. The message added by my colleague (who shall remain nameless because I hope she's already thoroughly humiliated and I do not wish to embarass her further) simply read "Do you know 20 people to send this to?"

The attached email message was preceded by the email headers of 3 previous recipients who had each forwarded it to 20 people also. So already I know that this one missive was already sent to at least 80 people, of which I was unfortunately one.

Now, to the actual email hoax that started this folly:

Strike One: The first line should have been a dead giveaway to anyone with half a brain (yes, I'm still ranting, sorry.) Presumeably a preamble included by whoever originated the email, it read "Snopes.com shows it as a legitimate offer." There was no link to Snopes.com, just the statement.
    ... HELLO?... Does that set off any alarms? Oh, but wait, it gets better...
    The next line read; "I DID check with Snopes - it IS legit... They're trying to match a recent deal by Nokia!"

    So the email starts off by suggesting that Snopes.com (a site which verifies or exposes urban legends as hoaxes, frauds, scams, ... and occasionallly as legitimate) NOT ONCE, but TWICE, and yet without a link to snopes.com with which to verify this offer's legitimacy. (Know why? Because if you actually went to snopes.com and read their report on this claim you'd see that it's COMPLETELY FALSE.)

Strike Two: The next giveaway was that the original message (text and all) was a graphic file - a picture. Now, friends and neighbors, there are a few legitimate reasons one might place text into a graphich file - particularly if you wish to use an unusual font which the recipient may not have on their PC. But another good reason to place text in a picture is to get past the spam filters which you know are looking for the very text you're trying to transmit. The filters can't see the text in a picture, so the email is more likely to bypass the spam filters.

Strike Three: And finally, the fantasy that any company will compensate you (with a new laptop in this case, but sometimes it's a promise of money) when you forward their email to your peers. (the poor company can't afford a decent marketing campaign, but they apparently can afford to give away new laptops...) And not just to you, but to EVERYBODY who likewise forwards the email to their peers. Of course there is no mention of a limited time or 'while supplies last'.

<climbs up on soapbox> (yeah, I wanna rant some more...) Now, what kind of pathetic loser actually creates such a flimsy and ridiculous hoax and sends it out into the ether hoping to create chaos? My first guess is someone who wishes to think of him (or her) self as a b@d@ss like the people who write malicious software, viruses, trojans and such. They hope to create mayhem and destruction with their evil schemes.  Unfortunately they aren't smart enough actually write malicious code, nor are they ambitious enough to learn how. So the only option they have (other than getting a real life) is to fabricate a lie and hope to lure you into viciously forwarding their email to your peers, where it will viciously annoy anyone with a brain. These people are not to be feared... they are to be pitied. (poor little pathetic losers...)

    The people who should be feared are those like my colleague who can read such obvious tripe and still manage to forward it to their peers either without thinking about the foolishness of their actions, or without caring about the foolishness of their actions, ... OR (Heaven forbid) actually believing the tripe and making plans for their soon to arrive new laptop. These are our peers... our colleagues and THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER! But they forwarded the tripe anyway.
    Why should we fear them? Because if they're thoughtless/careless/foolish enough to fall for this hoax, which is obvious and easy to identify as pure poppycock, then they are probably thoughless/careless/foolish enough to fall for the real threats. And worse... they are passing them on to people like us. (BAD colleague! BAD!)

Especially now, with the holiday season upon us, there are potentially dangerous websites, emails and social networking entries to look out for. Please, please, please... don't be a bad colleague. There's usually a reason an offer sounds too good to be true...

Be safe!
and
Happy Holidays!

Have You Updated your Website Today?

Webmaster — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:35:00 GMT

I just updated my website. Have you? Or, more to the point; When is the last time you made an update to your website? Yeah, I know... your website is great just the way it looks now. You've got all the information on it that you want. And, darn it, you've got too much other stuff going on right now and you just don't want to have to think about it.

Yeah, me too...
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BUT... (does this font make my 'but' look big?) your website really does need to be updated regularly. There are several reasons, but the two most important are these: 1) So people who came to your website last week have a reason to come to it again. and 2) Because search engines tend to rate web pages higher that have regularly updated content. That's one of the reasons blogs are good for search engine rankings - because they get updated regularly. And so should one or two (or more) pages of your website.

So how can we appease the search engine gods without rewriting the perfect text that already exists on our website? One thing you can do is to have a section of the page dedicated to updated content. If you take a look at CW's home page, you'll see in the right column a couple of entries entitled "Latest Blog Entry" and "New Article Published". I usually write a new blog entry once or twice a week, so this quick blurb about my latest blog entry can be updated that often, too. I don't write articles quite so often as blog entries, but the concept is the same.

Another example in the case of CW's home page is in the lower left column. I have a Featured Client Website section with a picture and link to on of our web clients. This gets updated each month. I also tell my clients when their site is being featured and that can bring in more traffic to my site as they tell their friends and clients.

Next, the wording can change to promote a season, an upcoming holiday, event, etc. You don't need to change the content of the page (all the important info can stay there, but word it a bit differently around the holidays. Reword it again around the Superbowl, Valentines' Day, Saint Patty's Day, etc. While changing pictures on the website doesn't do much for search engine spiders, it will be directly noticeable to your readers.

So what can you update on your home page without redesigning the whole thing every time? Here's a brief list of things to consider:

Blog entries
Social Media entries
Announcements of upcoming events, sales, promotions, etc.
Featured links to websites of your peers, colleagues, associates, partners, or websites that you particularly like.
Seasonal, holiday or event jargon

Are there others? I'm sure there are. Please feel free to comment and leave your own suggestions.

And have a great holiday season!

Free Anti Virus software

Webmaster — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:29:00 GMT

                  I don't use an antivirus program because they're too expensive

No, that's not a statement of fact from yours truly, it's the engraving on a headstone where a dead computer is buried.

                                                                    AND it's not a true statement...

There are free versions of antivirus software packages out there (and some free trials) that are well worth looking into.

This one was recommended by a small business group I belong to. They have a free version and a subscription version. http://free.avg.com/us-en/download?prd=afe

PC Tools has a free version of SpywareDoctor
http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor-antivirus/

AVG has both a free and paid version
http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

Norton has a 30 day free trial version http://shop.symantecstore.com/store/symnahho/en_US/ContentTheme/ThemeID.1313000/pbPage.Trialware_en_US/pgm.6037100/Currency.USD?resid=FyQ7DwoBAiMAAEbCGWoAAAAK&rests=1258301252419

McAfee has a 14 day free trial offer

http://www.real.com/dmm/realbroadbandessentials/antivirus?pcode=srchrv&ocode=search&cpath=ppcse&rsrc=gg_antivirus_X1free_anti-virus&SR=sr2RB46go16802sx3107pi2ai33&gclid=CLOo6-WxjZ4CFSANDQodOHPLpA

Personally I recommend paying for one of the big names packages. Yes, it seems expensive, but ask yourself these questions:

How often do you use the internet?
How often do you read email?
How often do you use a social network like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc.?
How often do you click on links in any of the above?

Every single time you do any of these, you are at risk of encountering some form of malware. so if you break down the cost of antivirus software by the number of times you are at risk, you're paying mere pennies for the security of keeping those viruses, phishing attacks, worms, trojans, (lions and tigers and bears... oh, my!) at bay.

Do you have a virus program you particularly like or dislike? Post a reply and let us know what works, what doesn't and what it cost.

Stay safe!