Pauli Systems, LC - Web Strategy | Web Development | Web 2.0 Integration

September 30 - You're invited to join us in ORBIT...

2010-09-03T05:09:00Z

We know you have technology issues and questions. Everyone does! And we also know that you may not have access to the people and resources who can answer those questions and resolve those issues. That's why we'd like to invite you to a new monthly online business owners' roundtable, ORBIT, designed to help small businesses like yours blast their online presence into the future. Please join us!

ORBIT will provide a fun, informal and congenial online forum for business owners (beginners to advanced) to openly discuss ANY and all web and technology-related issues specific to their small business. Maybe you have a question about search engine ranking, or how to integrate e-mail marketing into your existing online presence, or maybe you just have a general technology problem or question that you'd like to "put out there" for feedback. Bring your questions and you'll receive concrete feedback on how to make the web work better for you and create a web presence that rocks!

Each month one participant will have the opportunity to submit their website for review by the group, and engage in a roundtable discussion format that explores that particular website’s usability, search engine ranking, local marketing, and more.

The first ORBIT session is scheduled for Thursday, September 30th from 3:30 PM until 4:30 PM, and will be co-hosted by Birgit Pauli-Haack, Founder & CEO of Pauli Systems, LC, and Jane Freitas, Director of Operations, Pauli Systems, LC.

Login information for this online session will be sent the week prior to the scheduled date, to all registrants.

Getting the Click

2010-09-03T05:09:03Z

It’s just not clicking. You’ve peppered your website or e-newsletter with lots of links and graphics to support your sizzling content, but no one seems to care, (or, click). What can you do to improve the odds that your links will get noticed and clicked, (and lead your visitors to where you want them to go)? No worries. There are a number of steps a you can take, that will encourage visitors and customers to click on a link or graphic located on your website. Just take a look at the tips below, and try some or all to help get ‘em “clicking"...

Colors - Use contrasting colors for links. This makes the links stand out from other text on a web page. Also, avoid placing links against a patterned background, as it will make it much more difficult for your visitors to read the link text. Bottom line, the link color should stand out from the rest of the web page, and be easy to locate.
Link Traits - Underlining is still the universal indication of a link. Using the "underline" for links will send a clear message to website visitors about which text on the webpage is just text, and which text is actually a hyper-link. And along this line of thought, you should avoid using underlining for text that is not a link, just to avoid confusion.
Visible - It may sound obvious, but make all your links visible. Do not hide the links or navigation on a web page.
Textual - Text links have a higher rate of clicks than linked images. The one exception is typically a "Buy Now" button, which tends to be more effective than text-only "Buy Now" links. Keep this in mind when creating a linking scheme for your website.
Consistent - The location of links should be consistent as the visitor moves from page to page through your website. Do not move links around as the content of the web page changes.
Position - Place important links in a location that is easy for the website visitor to see without having to scroll. Position important links "above the fold" on the website. “Above the fold” typically refers to the portions of a webpage that can be visible without scrolling.
Font Style & Size - In order to make links easy for the visitor to see, be sure to use a font style and size that can be easily read. And, of course, be consistent with its use throughout your website.
Graphic Links - If you use image links, the clickable graphics should be vibrant and should stand out from the other content on the page. Use bright or bold contrasting colors for the graphic. Be sure to include appropriate ALT text, (i.e., text that is displayed instead, when an image cannot be displayed), for each linked image, so the visitor will have an indication of the material being linked to as they move their mouse over the graphic. Keep in mind that ALT text is not supposed to literally describe contents of the image -- iIt's supposed to be an alternative for the image, usually stating its purpose. For example, an image of a warning sign should not have the ALT text "a triangle with yellow background, black border and exclamation mark", but simply "Warning!".
Fresh Eyes - Ask a friend or family member to navigate your website. It may surprise you to learn what they see and where they click. A fresh set of eyes will give a good indication of how others will perceive your website and the clickable content.

Of course, these tips also apply to the links and graphics included in your e-mail communications and electronic newsletters. Take a look at the examples below; the links are in a contrasting color to the rest of the text, and the universal link trait of underlining is used.

Example 1

Example 2

Back to the Basics: Search Engine Ranking - Learn it From Google

2010-07-27T01:07:27Z

The last two weeks, I have done a considerable amount of teaching, and have participated in numerous discussions related to online presence, websites, and social media. Of course, many questions are centered around the question "how will we get noticed, and what does it cost to get a better ranking on Google?"

Google describes their Page Rank Technology

PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page's importance.

My answer is go ask Google. They publish everything they deem important on their website, Google for Webmasters. And, don't be afraid; most of the information is not technical, but practical and actionable.

How to Get Better Visibility on Google

USA Today interviewed Matt Cutts of Google, to get a primer on the four or five most important things to ensure good Google visibility. This video gets you started in just a few minutes:

SEO Site Review Session from Google I/O 2010

Invest another hour to watch the second video posted here. Matt Cutts and his team review sites for search engine optimization (SEO) during this year's Google I/O, the yearly Google developer conference. Again, very interesting insights, and day-to-day questions and answers. Below, we make some of the referenced links available to you, and provide links to Matt Cutt's and Vanessa Fox's blogs. If you have questions about your site and would like us to offer some feedback, make sure you post them in the comments section and we will answer.

It's your job as the site owner to be aware of these few key topics, so you can assist developers, friends and consultants in doing an optimal job for you. Remember, you are the content provider, and will also be monitoring your website. Here are some additional tools for you, all free all from Google:

Google Webmaster Central Blog
Read related articles about Google.
Google Webmaster Tools
Sign-up for an account, and let Google help you optimize and analyze the performance of your website. Find out what keywords get people to your site, what the back links to your site are, and how the Google crawler sees your site.
Matt Cutt's Blog on SEO
Matt Cutt works for Google Search and shares short articles on search engine optimization (SEO). Both videos in this post show him talking about Google's search engine behavior.
Vanessa Fox's Nine By Blue
Vanessa Fox developed Google Webmaster Central while working for Google. She is now head of the company, NineByBlue, which consults in online branding and optimizing reach for target audiences.

[technorati claim token QTCF7D2VXX2X]

The Idea of the iPad - I'd Rather Wait

2010-06-12T10:06:22Z

or Why I didn't buy an iPad?

My imagination tricked me into thinking I would love the iPad. I believed the advertising. And, it's completely true. It has changed how many people interact with digital content. I was drooling over the previews posted on various websites, (links are included at the end of this post). I could see how my parents or friends would love it. They are, for the most part, still struggling to integrate basic technology into their daily lives. The iPad is the perfect device for them; the time has come when technology stays out of the way, and, just like a car, you turn it on and just "drive". And, a smooth drive it is! The iPad is a wonderful magazine and book reader when you're on the road and in situation where you can't use a computer, but you need something to do, i.e., while waiting in a hospital, in an airport, or sitting on a commuter train.

During my first weekend back in the US, the lust for an iPad steered me towards the Apple store. I was finally able to put my hands on it! My husband and I gave it a good 60-minute run around the internet, and tested a few apps we have grown to love on the iPhone. I was fascinated with the touch screen user controls when flipping through photos, reading books, watching videos, and browsing the internet.

We punched in our favorite websites. Then, the first "oh, that doesn't work" or a few similar revelations, started to emerge. We were surprised that the limits associated with an iPhone experience, which we were ready to accept, felt entirely unacceptable on a device created to augment the current content consumption experience. And, as a result, our enthusiasm waned, piece by piece.

Here is our short list of the major deal-breakers:

No multi-tasking:

It's hardly an issue that the iPhone can't multi-task, but it is really unacceptable for a larger device. It seems this device is a returning time traveler, who went from the 21st century into the early 20th century, but hasn't returned for 7 years, and is now surprised how much technology has progressed while she was away. One example: I took a screen shot of an iPhone look-a-like application we created for a non-profit, and wanted to e-mail it to myself so I could show it to the client. Well, I wasn't able to use the e-mail feature to click on the attachment, and then attach it to a document. Instead, I had to go into the photo application and click on the "Share via e-mail" option, one at a time. Now, I would accept this on the iPhone, as it is meant to be used a "crutch", or a limited feature tool, but I am not able to accept that limitation on a computer device, as limited as it wants to be.

No Flash:

It might make sense on the iPhone, but it really gets in the way on the iPad, when you expect to be able to view all your favorite websites and see all the TV shows, etc., like you do on your laptop or desktop. A grudgingly, albeit, accepted annoyance on the iPhone, it is a deal breaker on the iPad. Seriously? Really. No Flash? No Fox TV, no Hulu, and no, no, no to lot of other websites. A plug-in that has been around for over 12 years, just came out in Version 10, and an army of web developers, designers and animators have used it to spruce up the web experience for three generations. And, now, I can't enjoy it anymore? Seriously? The touted 'alternative' HTML 5 is not yet up to the task, as the Apple HTML 5 Demo revealed.

No browser cache:

Every time I hit a website that I've already visited, it's loaded again; I can't just hit the back button or forward button and jump between sites. Again, an annoyance on the iPhone on which I hardly browse, because of the tiny screen, but it's definitely getting in the way of my iPad experience. Of course, in light of AT&T doing away with the unlimited data plan, the ticker runs with any reload of a website you have just visited. That way, you are hitting the bandwidth ticker faster, of course.

Not more than 9 Safari tabs:
The OS will tell me that I am not able to view this page because there already 9 browser windows open. It's a content consumption device, therefore, I would prefer to see no limit on browser tabs.

Mobile version browser:

Any website that has a mobile version available might display the same version on the iPad, as on the iPhone. This doesn't really make sense, as the iPad screen is about 8 times larger. It looks clunky on iPad. I am always happy when companies have websites that change their behavior when you look at it through the tiny screen of an iPhone, and I've studied mobile web space a bit, and have had my share of problems. I still do not understand the reasoning behind the decision for the iPad to register with websites as a mobile device, when it is a full-sized screen device, and the browser renders large websites beautifully. Apple is in control of how their browser comes to a website; if it pretends to be an iPhone, then it is doing something wrong on behalf of their users. The NBC site, for instance, doesn't register as a full browser, it shows the mobile version, which might be OK on the tiny iPhone, but, on the iPad, it's virtually unreadable.

No camera:

Yes, it doesn't have a camera. As astonishing as this is, I was equally surprised when I learned that the iPod touch doesn't have a camera. Apple was very late to include a video camera on the iPhone -- about 3 years late to the game. Why do I want to have a camera? Because, then I would be able to use it as a convenient Skype device, that allows me to talk to my friends and family, without hauling around a big laptop or failing at the attempt with my iPhone.

Price/Value ratio:

Considering the convenience in digital content consumption I would have to give up using an iPad, the $499 price for the basic version, is way too high. We have seen wireless picture frame devices for $79, that allow photos, music and video playback from my computer on 8" screens, with a touch interface. And, I can plug my SM cards and USB into it.

Summary: For occasional, beginning online creatures, it is a fantastic device. It makes for a great online content experience. However, even novices will outgrow the iPad fast. No Flash definitely diminishes the online experience. No multi-tasking limits the sharing, and no camera diminishes connecting and subsequent sharing. There is a lot of catching up to do. A shiny cool interface does not make up for the loss of features dear to my convenience level since Win95, and necessary for an all around experience. The fate of my iPad would be that I'd use it extensively for a week enthusiastically, and then never look at it again, waiting for better things to come about. I like the idea of it. The practical implications, however, are less exciting for me.

All the photos in this post are from other tablets/slated products in the pipeline of major manufacturers around the world. I captured them from Tablets.com, a site reporting on the latest development of tablet devices. If you are still on the fence, browse there for a while and compare features, sizes and prices.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/first_looks_magazines_on_the_ipad.php

Content Matters

2010-03-05T10:03:02Z

Your website is your organization's greatest communication platform. Competition can copy everything you have, but it cannot copy who you are. Let your 'brand' shine! Connect to customers, potential members, etc., online with content that focuses on their needs, provides them with information, and communicates the benefits your products and services provide.

Fresh content personalizes your online presence and gives people something interesting to learn about your business, organization or about themselves. Whether you write a blog post, article, Facebook post or website page, you want your business to be seen as a vital resource. The right content inspires action and pulls people into your message. Publish content that people want to read, link, subscribe to and share. Use content marketing to generate a following that continually expands.

Deliver valuable information that people will talk about and share with others. Here are some very compelling reasons why your content matters as much as the design of a website:

Positions You as an Expert. Giving your customers the resources to believe in you is the new way to market. If you have good content, other sites might link to your content, increasing traffic to your site and potentially boosting your search rankings. Reliable and up-to-date content will increase your credibility, engage with your audience, and raise the likelihood that visitors will become customers.

Great content, blogs and articles can also serve as (free!) PR for your business, making you an informative and quotable resource to the press.

Connects to Customers: 90% of all corporate websites talk about how great the company or product is, but forgets about the customer. The right content attracts customers and retains their attention. Incorporate a 'News' section, and make sure it is updated often. Your news page shows visitors that you are proud of your achievements, and that you’re always striving to grow and develop.

Regularly updating or modifying your website’s content gives you an edge over the competition. People will keep returning to your site if they notice something new to see, learn from or enjoy each time.

Utilizes your entire web presence. Fact: Only 25% of people land on a site via its homepage. The rest are guided into various pages of the site, depending on the keyword phrases they use in the search engines. Delivering high-quality content on every page increases your chance of capturing a potential client or customer. Each page of content (with proper meta-tags, title, optimization, and submission) is indexed by the search engines, which increases your keyword coverage.

Increases Sales: Unfortunately, 76% of online shoppers surveyed report that content is insufficient to complete research or purchase online “always, most often or some of the time.” (from eTailing Group; click here to view press release in its entirety.)

Barcamp SWFL site in WordPress

2010-02-27T06:02:29Z

Barcamp SWFL was held in January 2010, and being presenters on RSS Feeds and holding a mini-WordCamp is was almost natural that we would do the web site in WordPress, too. It was very helpful spreading the word around South & Southwestflorida as we posted all new additions to the list of presenters on the site, each on in its own post, so we were able to share and syndicate it over the Internet. Barcamp SWFL & JuniorCamp had total 80+ participants. The energy amongst participants and presenters was inspiring, creative and productive. We will definitely be part of the next Barcamp SWFL.

Get the Word Out: E-Mail Newsletters

2010-02-05T10:02:42Z

E-mail newsletters are hotter than ever. They’re a great extension of your business’ or organization's communication toolkit, and offer you, and your clients, an excellent channel by which you can reach potential and existing customers.

Of course, before you create and send your e-mail newsletter, you’ll need to have relevant and timely content, or news, to share with your readers. The more content and news you generate, the more readers, or subscribers, you'll be able to attract and keep. Bottomline, content and news drives subscriptions! The quality of your content also sets the tone for how much readers will respect you as a source of trusted advice. If the content has obviously been copied, scraped, or lacks substance, it’s likely your readers won’t view you as an authority.

Making it as easy and intuitive to subscribe to your newsletter is important. After all, users are giving you permission to contact them. You wouldn’t want to mess that opportunity up! Make sure the sign-up (subscription) form is in a prominent, easy to locate place. Consider putting it close to any social icons you have displayed, such as twitter or Facebook? This indicates that this is an extension of your communications with the user.

Next, within the sign-up form, provide a short blurb explaining what the communication is about. This gets you and your users on the same page, so that they’re clear on what to expect from your content.

Finally, ask only for the user’s email address and name, followed by a big button with a verb label: “Subscribe.” Very simple, yet packed with just the right information! How frustrating is it when you attempt to sign up for an e-mail newsletter, only to be confronted with a form that asks for your address, age, phone number, mother’s maiden name, favorite pet…? All we really need is their email address and, if we want to push a bit further, their name. They are giving you their attention, so at least respect them and don’t ask for unnecessary data.

Prior to sending any e-mail broadcasts, you will want to make sure you are acting as a 'responsible' e-mail marketer, and will need to familiarize yourself with the "CAN-SPAM Act". This is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations. For more information about the CAN-SPAM Act, click here.

Congratulations! Your sign-up form is up and running, and you’re ready to send out some content -- time to figure out what the focus of our newsletter will be. Is your goal to build a following for your website content, announce upcoming events, keep members apprised of current happenings, etc.? No matter the focus or goal, you’ll want it to be as readable and scannable as possible.

Jakob Nielsen, a leading web usability consultant and 'guru', has this to say about how much time users spend reading a newsletter:

"Users spend 51 seconds reading the average newsletter. The layout and writing both need superb usability to survive in the high-pressure environment of a crowded inbox." Click here to visit Jakob's site.

Now that you've got solid content, and readers who want to subscribe to your newsletter, you'll want to take advantage of one of the numerous e-mail marketing services available, such as MailChimp, ConstantContact, JangoMail, AWeber, to name just a few. You can integrate these services into your site design via your online subscription form and setting up an RSS feed, or you can build a contact list within the service itself, and use as a standalone. The benefits of using one of these services is that they are generally low-cost and feature-rich, including access to e-mail campaign statistics, and the ability to integrate with other services, such as Eventbrite, SurveyGizmo, Salesforce, and more.

Social Technographs Ladder updated

2010-01-30T02:01:07Z

A few days ago Groundswell author Josh Bernoff posted an updated version of the Social Technographics Ladder, the method to catogorize the activities intensity levels for Internet users on the participatory online space. With the update also came a change to include Twitter as a microblogging environment of it's own kind, that seems to change engagement levels, in the eyes of Josh Bernoff.

The Social Technographics Ladder was first published in April 2007 introducing the concept and the first % for the various levels of activities on the Web 2.0 environment. The participatory online space covers sites that allow user generated content, such as the whole blog-o-spere, review sites like Yelp, content sharing sites, like Flickr, YouTube, social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, online forums, wikis and usage of aggregation and syndication.

The levels were:

Inactives,
Spectators,
Joiners,
Collectors,
Critics,
Creators.

Bernoff and Li stressed that these categories are not exclusive. There are overlaps and depending on the site and interest of the user, individuals move up and down the ladder. "People participate in multiple behaviors, and not everyone at a higher level on the ladder actually does everything in the lower rungs." writes Josh Bernoff. This month's announcement added the "Conversationalists" between the Critics and Creators, which makes it harder to compare previous published data and follow progression. The Internet space does not stay still. Or does it? It seems that the Inactives are subsiding from almost half to a sixth of the online adult population. Almost every one got the bug and the buzz. The Spectators seem to have reached the plateau around 70% and so have the Creators around 25%.
The levels in between are fluid and with introducing a new category, are also not quite helpful any more. This Ladder seems to have run it's course.
It was interesting to watch the development over the last 3.5 years, when the socialnet, Web 2.0 finally went mainstream in about six, seven years of coming.

Below graphic shows the various activity levels in their development from April 2007 to October 2009 and January 2010.

Updated data was provided in October 2008

Expanded & updated data January 2010

Twitter & RSS Feeds

2010-01-29T09:01:41Z

You can use various web applications to deal with Twitter's RSS feeds.

TwitterSearch

Each Twitter Search has it's own RSS Feed. Enter the keywords, click on the "Feed for this query" link and add it to your RSS Reader. TwitterSearch is probably the best way to familiarize yourself with Twitter, by searching for a topic of interest. Just entering a few keywords will show you a set of Twitter users, talking about your chosen topic. Click on their Avatar (= profile picture) to check out the "ppl" (= ackrynom for "people"), and their other tweets (= posts to Twitter).

Sometimes a group of people (ppl) tweeting about a topic agree on a so-called hash (#) tag and a twackrynom, to post together on a particular topic. Southwest Florida Twitterers (also called "tweeple") post under #swflorida or #swfl. A trending topic right now is "#iranelection". Tomorrow starts the AAUW Bi-Annual National Convention, and you can follow #aauw09. If you would like to review the Google I/O conference (end of May, 2009), search #googleio.

TwitterFeed

Take any RSS feed and auto-tweet it with TwitterFeed and add a bit.ly link to it to keep track of click actions. Twitterfeed.com will auto-post any RSS feed you deem fit to post, and will do so automatically. The feed can be from your blog, from a client's blog or from any other RSS feed. Twitterfeed allows you to prefix and postfix the tweets. If you have an account and an API key for your url shortener, Twitterfeed will use it to shorten your blog url, and it will allow you to keep click-through statistics for your posted Twitter links.

RSS Friends

RSSFriends allows you to look at your followers, friends and favorites differently. The twitter.com web site is so rudimentary, that there are literally hundreds of twitter applications out there that make up for the short comings of twitter.com.
Many people actually do not speak of twitter as a web site, but as a platform, and there are rumors that extending the API (application programming interface) for commercial use might be a better business model than plastering advertising all over it.

Identifying A Phishing Attack

2010-01-13T11:01:57Z

Phishing is a form of fraud in which an email sender attempts to trick the recipient into divulging important personal information like a password or bank account number, by pretending to be a representative of a legitimate organization.

Even net savvy people have fallen victim to phishing attacks by learning the hard way, that they have been too trusting of the messages reaching their in-boxes: too trusting that the sender identification is accurate.

Who hasn’t done something in haste, because he was distracted or pre-occupied? Mistakes happen.

Here are the tools you can use to differentiate between a phishing attack and legitimate e-mail from your banks and credit card companies. You can learn an easy way to confirm your feelings about that dubious message. And, you might learn a thing or two about how the Internet works.

This trip will take you beyond your bank’s general disclaimer, to paraphrase, “Don’t follow a link in an e-mail to reach our bank’s web site; we will never ask you to verify your username, passwords, certificates, or other sensitive account information via e-mail.”

Our rational left-brain knows all that, but our emotional right brain sometimes ignores it.

Check the Domain, Traveler!

The example of a phishing attack I’m using, arrived in my in-box disguised as a message from the Colonial Bank. By the way, I don’t have a Colonial account or credit card.

Let’s identify the red flags that should go up immediately:

Why would this bank contact me?
Is everything all right with my accounts? When anything is wrong, they either call me or send me snail-mail.

So, that one was easy, since it’s from a bank with whom I don’t do business.

But, if it’s a bank I do business with, my preoccupation with money and current gas prices might make me miss the red flag.

Look twice at links and download buttons

Phishers rely on people to click on links in their e-mail without thinking.

We are all accustomed to clicking on links in our e-mail to get to more information about something that interests us. We have visited websites many times and nothing evil has transpired. But, sometimes the link says ‘Download.’

The word download means “Get software to install on my computer.” That is a tricky thing.

Many of us have clicked on downloads and been burned. Or, we find our browser toolbars full of notifications and icons that we never wanted but magically appeared. Periodically, we ask a nerdy friend to clean up our desktop and browser.

Here’s the e-mail that came into my in-box:

[caption id="attachment_102" align="alignnone" width="398" caption="Graphic: Example Phishing E-Mail"][/caption]

Here’s the address that was under the ‘Download Now’ link:

http://connect.colonialbank.b5d7z03jqj343lx262uc. secureserv.onlineupdatemirror6120f48zo9bf9r. colonial.certificaterenewal.uyyhg.com/logon.htm

The e-mail itself seems fairly well written. Gone are the days when we could identify phishers by the incredible number of spelling errors and bad grammar. But remember, phishers rely on people to click on links in their e-mail without thinking.

Don’t click anywhere unless you know for sure where on the net you are going.

A phisher wants you to click on a link because it will take you out on the net where he can do his dirty work. So, that’s where your behavior needs to change: don’t click anywhere unless you know where you are going.

The only way to know for sure where a link will take you is to learn to read the link to identify the party you will visit. Here’s how.

How to read a link address?

A link has two parts. One is the label, the text you see. In this example, the label is ‘Download Now.‘ The text can be anything. Ignore it.

The second part is the URL underneath the label. Every browser and e-mail program shows you the URL, either in your status bar at the bottom of the program’s window or in a tool-tip as soon as you hover over it with the mouse.

And, it’s the domain name in the URL that gives those creeps away.

Almost everyone today knows what a domain name is: it’s the www.google.com, the www.naples.net etc.

A website not only identifies the domain name but also has a file name or a folder name after the domain name, separated by a forward slash(/), like ‘education’ in home.naples.net/education. This identifies the specific page on the website.

For our quest to understand the link in our example, we ignore everything after the first forward slash . So we ignore the /logon.html. But that still leaves a domain with eight levels of sub domains, each level separated by a dot.

connect.colonialbank.b5d7z03jqj343lx262uc. secureserv.onlineupdatemirror6120f48zo9bf9r. colonial.certificaterenewal.uyyhg.com

Domain owners can add sub-domains, or additional words in front of their domain names separated by dots, to their addresses. Like home.naples.net or picasaweb.google.com, you can stack as many sub-domains as you want with a domain name.

This means I could get my self a sub-domain like: “check.your.account.at.colonialbank.naples.net.”

To the uneducated, that would make my site look as if it’s part of Colonial Bank. In reality, it would only make me a target for cease and desist letters and hefty fines. The Colonial Bank could find out with one step, whom to pursue. After reading this article, you’ll know, too!

The first thing to know about sub domains is that only the last two items of a domain name identify the site, no matter how long the sub-domains are.

To dissect this domain name (everything in front of the first “/”), we start reading it backwards dot-by-dot. You just learned that only the last two levels identify the base domain name. In this case, (drum roll please), we see: uyyhg.com

Huh? What happened to Colonial Bank? And, who are these people? Now you know, uyyhg.com is most certainly not the Colonial Bank.

So remember, to identify a Phisher, look for the ‘/’ in the URL, and go backwards two dot levels to see whose web site you will visit if you click the link. Don’t be lead astray.

That should be the end of it. Our example is definitely a Phisher.

The delete button will keep you safe.

Graphic courtesy of Rahul Bansal, DevilsWorshop.org.

Video: PSA - Think Before You Send!

2010-01-05T06:01:46Z

A one minute television public service announcement created in 2008, produced by Jennifer Marquis, sponsored by the City of Marco Island Department of Parks and Recreation and the Art League, Marco Island's Center for the Arts.

Back to Basics: E-Mail Marketing & RSS

2009-11-25T10:11:55Z

With 93% of all American adults using e-mail as their primary online communication tool, any content distribution strategy will need to include e-mail marketing solutions. So it is no wonder e-mail subscriptions for blogs and other sites are important and need to be optimized.

Three features any e-mail marketing system should have:

RSS Feed driven newsletters,
support for CRM sy stems and
a flexible API that allows access to the open/click statistics per subscribers.

Among the many companies offering e-mail marketing services, I have only found one that has all features and then some. We looked at Feedblitz , JangoMail, Constant Contact and MailChimp. Our clear favorite, (and, we are not getting any money from them or other perks), is MailChimp. It is easy to use - very important for our clients -, it offers back-end integration with a reliable, extensible API, and offers integration with major CRMs, such as Salesforce, Highrise and Batchbook. The flexibility is quite impressive. We have built various web sites that integrate via the API. Our site registration process synchronizes the MC subscribers list, and allows access to open and click statistics per subscriber. We have published our API Wrapper for Coldfusion as open-source, to remove barriers for other developers to use the system.

With MailChimp you can manage an extensive action and reaction history with your contacts. You are able to target specific groups of subscribers, and be more flexible in managing relationships. The closer you are able to target your communication, the higher the probability is that your service suits your recipients needs. We embraced MailChimp wholeheartedly after they also allowed for RSS driven campaigns to automate notification of your lists of updates on your blog. We have integrated quite a few news pages with MailChimp ,and our clients have been very happy with the outcome and the increased traffic to their websites.

Examples for an RSS feed campaign in Mailchimp

Examples of an RSS Feeds campaign in Feedblitz

Examples broadcast e-mails

ECOC:Site Updates
ECOC: Newsletter
NPC: RSS Feed monthly

Video: Immokalee Celebration of Cultures

2009-11-15T08:11:29Z

Highlight clip reel from Immokalee Celebration of Cultures, held September 18-20, 2009, in Immokalee, Florida.

Producer, Videographer & Editor: Jennifer Marquis-Muradaz

Feedly as Firefox Add-On and as Google Extension is brilliant

2009-11-15T02:11:56Z

I admit, I am always enthusiastic when trying out a new tool, service or method. So nothing new here, the new tool of the week is Feedly, an add-on for Firefox (also available as extension for Google Chrome, beta) and it lets me read my RSS feeds in a magazine style, using tags and topics to organize all feeds items. It has featured category, uses the pictures available in the feed to illustrate and to combine content and layout. Feedly makes it a pleasure to weed through my reading list.

This is a screen shot of today's edition:

Doesn't it look beautiful? It gives me the images, a headline, sharing links and fast access buttons to clear non-relevant headlines off the screen.

And if I wanted to join a conversation on Friendfeed, I would be able to do it directly from Feedly. Brilliant.

Try it out! www.feedly.com

Everyone comment on any site? Deal with it!

2009-10-03T08:10:19Z

Google Sidewiki has incredible large potentials in regards of participatory Net and communications with site users. It also has created some controversy among site owners and web site designers. The discussion is a similar to the one roaming the Internet when Frames came up, a way to load other people's web pages into a frame set as if it where part of the current site. The discussion is about if what's proper and that site owners are not able to control what happens on their sites. For now it only works with Google Chrome Toolbar.

You can catch up on the Google Sidewiki discussion via these few articles. Comment below if you find additional information.

Dealing With Google's Sidewiki Land Grab by Josh Bernoff (@jbernoff), Goundswell
Google’s SideWiki Shifts Power To Consumers – Away From Corporate Websites&;lt;/a> by Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang)

Google Sidewiki steps To Claim Your Site by Brent Nau, SMT Internet Marketing Blog

in reference to: Google Sidewiki (view on Google Sidewiki)