Did you see the Google.com logo for the invention of the Bar Code that happened on 7th of October 1952? Well today is October 7, 2009 at 2:15 AM in the morning and I’m looking at a barcode on Google.com instead of their famous rainbow Google. I wonder if you swiped this at the grocery store self checkout, would “1 Google.com for $220,000,000,000 plus tax” pop up on the screen. Where’s my print button, hope they take Visa.
My blog is non-commercial so you won’t find a bunch of ads or blog posts touting some affiliate program I joined, but I have to talk about my favorite email marketing tool. I have been doing email marketing for my customers for years and MailChimp.com is hands down the absolute best service I have used. I mean there is no comparison. I can give you a list of why I think this, but I don’t want to bore you with the details.
The important thing to spotlight right now is they have a new forever free plan. You get access to their entire platform, the cool reports, the easy to use well designed templates, the social networking, helpful tips, videos and a great blog, Google integration, awesome API… OK, I had to talk about some of the features, but the point is it’s all free for up to a 500 email address list and you get to send up to 3,000 emails per month.
So, if you are already using a service and you are paying for a 500 email or less list, you need to switch. If you don’t use a service and want to gain the obvious benefit from building and managing your own list, this is the one to try (they even have videos to walk you through getting started). If you want to give me some credit for giving you the 411 on this, please sign-up with this link – http://eepurl.com/d3kA.
If you don’t believe me when I say they are the best, check out this video and compare it to who you have used, then compare the cost. Sign up for a free account and give it a test drive. You can even leave your comments to ask me questions about how to use it, that’s why I’m blogging.
Well, that’s the end of this commercial break. We can now return to our regular programming.
I mentioned Ted.com in my previous post and decided to post some of my favorite talks. I guess this means I really like Ted.com and that would be an understatement. Some of the most inspiring presentations I have ever seen have been Ted talks. One day I hope I will be fortunate enough to attend and interact with these people. They are changing the world. I have so many favorites, I can’t list them all. So, in no particular order here are just a few of my favorites. Read more »
BumpTop is a very cool implementation of Window’s 7 touchscreen features. It looks like what they do on CNN or the movie ‘Minority Report’. It’s a 3D multi-touch gestural interface that makes your desktop fun, well fun until we all get use to it. Right now, I’m trying to wrap my head around the benefits for business, but its definitely fun for personal use.
In my past life, I was a musician, a music producer, and I owned a small recording studio. So, when I find ways to mix music and the internet I get a little nostalgic. inudge.net provides a fun little online music sequencer that makes it easy to create your own music. You place dots on a grid to trigger various color coded instruments. You can modify volume and pan (left to right balance of sound in your speakers) of each instrument and control the overall tempo of your song. You can even share your music through email or by embedding it on your website or social network profile. So, check it out and send me your next masterpiece.
Well I have spent too much time messing around with this thing and it’s time to get back to my day job.
Microsoft has announced a new program for Web developers to cop free software, support and advice. WebsiteSpark, which is similar to their BizSpark program, will provide developers with access to full-featured Microsoft development tools, platform technologies, and server products. So, if you have 10 or fewer employees check out the program.
Some of the best lessons I have learned about my customers’ businesses has come from their competition. Just browsing the sites of their competitors has given me insight into my customers’ industry, strengths and weaknesses, and business model. The competitor websites gave me inspiration to find recommended strategies and ways to help them innovate ahead of their competition. Basically, your competition can help provide you with a template to build upon. This is especially true if you are a small business trying to grow. So, in this post, I’m going to talk a little about improving your online strategy by learning from your competition.
Think about it, let’s say you are a computer retailer just getting started online. You can get a master class in online computer retail by visiting larger retailers like CompUSA or Dell.com. The same is true across most industries. You can learn a lot from your competition. You just have to recognize that you do have competition. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard small business owners claim they have no competition, but that is another subject. You do have competition and you can learn a lot from them.
When I develop websites for small to medium sized businesses I use their competition as a starting block. I have 5 basic steps that I use to analyze their competition. Since I deal with a lot of customers on tight budgets, I generally try to go through my list quickly. You can take these steps and make them as simple or complex as you like. To get the most out of this exercise you should repeat the analysis periodically to make sure you are keeping up with your competition. Read more »
Here’s word straight from the horses mouth, for all the people who didn’t believe me (LOL), Google does not use keyword meta tags to determine search ranking on Google.com. Google Webmaster Central Blog explains with a video and Q&A on why Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking.
Does this mean we should all rush to remove the tags or stop using them? No, there are other search engines that use them and who knows, Google may find a need for them in the future. So, we still have to do our due diligence in keyword research, effectively adding the keywords to our content, and basically continuing with our general keyword strategy. We just have to have it in the back of our mind that Google is going to ignore the keyword meta tag.
Google still uses the description meta tag to grab a description of the page to display on the search engine results page, but this tag does not hold any weight in the search engine ranking. Basically, keep SEOing your pages, but don’t look to gain an advantage from Google for keyword and description meta tags.
Everyday I face another deadline. In my rush to keep clients happy, I sometimes over look the simplest of things. Yesterday I had a Datagrid that would not bind when the Datagrid’s page changed. I checked everything. I checked my list of common problems, double checked the code, rewrote the bind code, I copied and pasted the grid to another page, deleted it on the original page, saved it, and copied it back (VisualStudio has a weird Datagrid bug and this helps sometimes), then I spent 15 minutes searching Google for answers. Then it hit me, check the Viewstate. Surely it couldn’t be something so simple as disabled Viewstate. Duh! In my rush to improve performance I turned off Viewstate on everything including the Datagrid. I turned it back on and the Datagrid magically paged through all of the records.
Mistakes like this cost me time and time is money. Granted, after 10 plus years developing, I don’t have as many of these types of mistakes as I used to, but I still run into these problems every once in a while. So, I added “Check Datagrid Viewstate” to my database of common problems. I have things like check for null values on Request, Session and Viewstate values on the top of my list and some other stupid mistakes that I have had problems with. Anything that I messed up on more than once or that took me a long time to figure out makes my list. I also have a common development checklist that lists things like spell check and reminders to update certain configurations. My problems database and checklist has saved me time in the long run and they are two of the most important items in my development toolbox.
So, what are your most common mistakes on your projects and how do you make sure you aren’t wasting time and money on silly little mistakes.
Bringing your company or organization online is simple, affordable, and smart. You don’t have to know anything about computers or technology; you just have to use the right company or online service to help you. Most importantly you have to remember that your website is part of your business and you have to treat it like a business. In this post, I am going to explain a thought process for planning your website that you can use to help get everyone involved in the development of the site on the same page.
For your website to be effective, you have to create a plan it to address your goals. Here are some things to think about for your website:
Google’s New Logo, Well New Font
Did you see the Google.com logo for the invention of the Bar Code that happened on 7th of October 1952? Well today is October 7, 2009 at 2:15 AM in the morning and I’m looking at a barcode on Google.com instead of their famous rainbow Google. I wonder if you swiped this at the grocery store self checkout, would “1 Google.com for $220,000,000,000 plus tax” pop up on the screen. Where’s my print button, hope they take Visa.
Interactive Marketing
My blog is non-commercial so you won’t find a bunch of ads or blog posts touting some affiliate program I joined, but I have to talk about my favorite email marketing tool. I have been doing email marketing for my customers for years and MailChimp.com is hands down the absolute best service I have used. I mean there is no comparison. I can give you a list of why I think this, but I don’t want to bore you with the details.
I mentioned 
BumpTop is a very cool implementation of Window’s 7 touchscreen features. It looks like what they do on CNN or the movie ‘Minority Report’. It’s a 3D multi-touch gestural interface that makes your desktop fun, well fun until we all get use to it. Right now, I’m trying to wrap my head around the benefits for business, but its definitely fun for personal use.
In my past life, I was a musician, a music producer, and I owned a small recording studio. So, when I find ways to mix music and the internet I get a little nostalgic. 
Microsoft has announced a new program for Web developers to cop free software, support and advice. 
Some of the best lessons I have learned about my customers’ businesses has come from their competition. Just browsing the sites of their competitors has given me insight into my customers’ industry, strengths and weaknesses, and business model. The competitor websites gave me inspiration to find recommended strategies and ways to help them innovate ahead of their competition. Basically, your competition can help provide you with a template to build upon. This is especially true if you are a small business trying to grow. So, in this post, I’m going to talk a little about improving your online strategy by learning from your competition.
Here’s word straight from the horses mouth, for all the people who didn’t believe me (LOL), Google does not use keyword meta tags to determine search ranking on Google.com. 
Everyday I face another deadline. In my rush to keep clients happy, I sometimes over look the simplest of things. Yesterday I had a Datagrid that would not bind when the Datagrid’s page changed. I checked everything. I checked my list of common problems, double checked the code, rewrote the bind code, I copied and pasted the grid to another page, deleted it on the original page, saved it, and copied it back (VisualStudio has a weird Datagrid bug and this helps sometimes), then I spent 15 minutes searching Google for answers. Then it hit me, check the Viewstate. Surely it couldn’t be something so simple as disabled Viewstate. Duh! In my rush to improve performance I turned off Viewstate on everything including the Datagrid. I turned it back on and the Datagrid magically paged through all of the records.
Bringing your company or organization online is simple, affordable, and smart. You don’t have to know anything about computers or technology; you just have to use the right company or online service to help you. Most importantly you have to remember that your website is part of your business and you have to treat it like a business. In this post, I am going to explain a thought process for planning your website that you can use to help get everyone involved in the development of the site on the same page.
