Here’s a quick video that Google put up on Youtube last year. It gives a good overview of what all that data in Google Analytics means, and how to act on it. Enjoy.
Newsletter Sneak Preview: Success in the Recession Case Study
I’m putting the finishing touches on July’s Small Business Newsletter. Use the handy form to your left to get a copy delivered to your inbox!
This month’s issue will feature a case study. I’ll explain how exactly one of my clients is doing more business now than he was before the recession!
Google Wave Coverage – May 2009 eNewsletter
May sure has flown by. I hope your month has been profitable. Have you gotten Google Analytics set up on your site yet? If you need some help, hit that reply button and let me know! One of my clients is so excited by his Analytics data that he checks it first thing every morning. It’s always a pleasure to see someone take the ball and run with it. This month…
Newsletter Contents
- And now for something completely different…
This month I resolved to exclude Google from the newsletter. I was going to talk about customer retention strategies. It’s all the rage these days, what with the economy and all.
Then I watched a video on YouTube. This video blew my mind. It was the first announcement of a new Google product that will change the world, and how we communicate. So, I’ve decided to depart from my usual format and tell you about what I saw.
[Read more…]
Web News – Bits & Pieces May 2009
So I simply haven’t had time to complete a real blog post in a little while. In lieu of a content filled post, I’ll just fill you in on what I’ve been spending my time on.
Password Safety & Security Made Easy
How secure is your privacy?
These days we all end up with tons of passwords. We rely on these passwords to keep sensitive information safe, but the truth is that information is only as safe as its password is secure. In my experience people tend to use simple, insecure passwords because they have a hard time remembering long strings of letters, numbers, and punctuation. Well it can be a lot easier than you might think. I found this video put together by AARP and Google that gives a good introduction:
I’ve been a fan of using initial letters from a phrase to form a password since college. That’s the method the Network Systems Administrator there taught me. What the video above doesn’t talk about though is complexity. Watch the longer video below for more on that.
A password made out of six lowercase letters is never going to be a strong and secure password, even if they are random. The best passwords are at least 10 characters long and include uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation. Okay, it’s about time for an example…
Google’s PageRank – What is it?
Websites can be confusing enough without thinking about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Throw that into the equation and most business owners start getting overwhelmed. You know you want your website to show up in Google, and there are a lot of folks out there who charge a lot of money to make that happen. If you want to get traffic to your site, you need to show up in Google search results. You can worry about pay-per-click advertising later, best to start with a strong, organic foundation.
One thing that can be confusing at first is the PageRank system used by Google. Obviously, you would like for your site to be in first place when someone searches for keywords related to your products or services. So, a PageRank of 1 sounds pretty nice doesn’t it. Well, it isn’t.
8 Amazing eResources That Are Free For Non-Profits
I recently met with someone at a local community outreach organization about bringing their internet operations up to speed. They were surprised to learn that they were eligible for free web hosting simply because of their IRS 501(c) (3) status. I couldn’t help but imagine that there are plenty of others who would love to know about this.
As I got to thinking about it I realized that there must be other great free for non-profit services out there. I’ve been doing some research and below you’ll find 8 useful eResources that are completely free to qualified non-profits. They include web hosting, marketing, software, and web application solutions.
Some of these are even free for anyone, and can be of great value to businesses, small and large. I include them because they can be especially valuable to non-profits. By employing free open source software you can keep your IT budget to a minimum without sacrificing.
Tuning In
I’m sitting at my laptop. My desktop is running Seagate DiscWizard. It’s a handy utility that came with my new hard disk drive. It’s copying my old hard drive onto the new 1 terabyte drive. The old drive is a 200 gigabyte that has been making some funny noises lately. It sounds a lot like cicadas. A high pitch drone that fades in and out periodically. So, I bought a new hard drive.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone loose a ton of important data from a hard drive failure… it’s never pretty. That’s why I’m excited that I tuned in and heard my drive making this noise before it died. I had time to get a replacement and save all my data.