Web Technologies Specialist - Technologist

The White Paper and Webinar Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:25:00 +0000

August 7, 2013

The White Paper and Webinar Awards

A Proposal by Spencer Wade

White Paper: An authoritative report or guide helping readers to understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. White papers are used in two main spheres: B@B marketing and government. Many more white papers are produced for B2B vendors today than are produced for government agencies.

Webinar: The term webinar is actually two terms combined: web conferencing and seminar. The term refers to any service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. The service is made possible by TCP/IP connections on the Internet. It allows real-time point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers. Voice, text-based messages, and video chat can be shared simultaneously across geographically dispersed locations.

Technology and Users

Technology has become the driving force behind many of today’s fastest growing career fields. In all of its forms, and there are many, technology has changed the world. It has made its way into nearly every human endeavor, and, in most cases, drastically reduced the workload required of its operator. This is progress of the highest order, but it is not without its own problems. There is an enormous amount of learning needed to master technology. In fact, if one truly wants to become an expert then the learning never stops. Technology is constantly changing through modification and upgrades, so the only way to maintain a high skill level is to absorb as much information as possible every day.

The information necessary to stay on top of the technological game can be difficult to gather, digest, and use in a meaningful way. The Internet is vast and the information is found in many places. This makes it difficult and time consuming to bring it together, and more so to compile it in a meaningful way. Time is money in the modern world, and every second spent finding the right information equates to lost revenue.

The demands technology places upon its users in terms of time spent studying can be enormous. The whole experience can be overwhelming to many, but there is a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. That light is given off by white papers and webinars. These two resources are invaluable to technology users. They save all the time spent searching for the right information, and cover everything one must know in order to get the most out of a specific technology.

The definitions for white paper and webinar were given at the beginning of this paper to help the reader understand these terms. These resources have become the backbone of many users understanding of the technology they use in everyday life. Without this freely-given information, there would be much more confusion concerning, and misuse of, technology. The information found within these resources is directly, and specifically, related to a given technology, and allows users to quickly and efficiently become familiar with the technology in question. This is a godsend to the millions of people out there who are required to use technology they do not fully understand.

These very different resources, white papers and webinars, offer users a direct line to all the knowledge they need to fully realize their potential in a technology-dominated world. The use of both will greatly improve a user’s understanding, efficiency, and productivity when working with technologies in their personal and professional lives.

Award Creation

The stated benefits of white papers and webinars cannot be disputed. They are an excellent resource for any who would use them, and, best of all, they are completely free. This is incredible in the cash-based societies prevalent around the world today. Why these resources are free has been explained, but that does not diminish their public service value. It is precisely that value, and the relative obscurity of the developers of these tools, that this proposal is designed to address. Too long have these good Samaritans given of their knowledge and expertise with no personal return on their investment, so herein is proposed an award for the best webinar and white paper of the year.

The process of creating an award can be somewhat complicated. There must be many factors considered before finalization of the process. These range from the overall criteria the award is based on to the financial support available for related expenses. This proposal will lay out a rough outline of the specifications required to get this concept moving forward, and attempt to justify the decisions reached at each step. Every great idea must start somewhere, and creating an award for well-deserving developers, writers, and industry leaders begins here.

Overall Criteria

The purpose of each award, for both webinars and white papers, is to recognize excellence in the field. The winner of each award will be afforded the prestige of being named the top producer in their field for that year. There are no existing awards that would overlap with this concept, so the prospective constituency is not being served by any existing award family. The proposed award, being the only one of its kind, will not confuse the scope or damage the prestige of any pre-existing award.

The proposed award will be based upon the tabulated votes of real-world users. The voting system will be linked to all participating sites offering content that fits the definition of the two resources in question: white papers and webinars. Users who click the link to vote will be guided through the process, and given an explanation of the award and its purpose. These users will vote on the white papers and webinars they consider the most relevant and helpful. Each user will only be allowed to vote for a specific webinar or white paper one time, but may vote for as many different resources as they use and deem worthy.

The votes will be tabulated by a database system designed for this specific purpose. The first vote for a resource will be used to create a file for that specific resource, and subsequent votes will be stored within the file until the voting is completed at the end of the award cycle. The webinars and white papers that have accumulated the most votes at that time will be declared the winner. It is recommended that the voting last at least eight months of a given award cycle. This allows one month for tabulation of the votes, and making contact with the top three webinar/white paper vote-getters. The remaining two months will give ample time for travel arrangements to be made for the contestants, and allow an extensive publicity campaign to be implemented and directed toward the industry as a whole.

Naming

The proposed award will be named the White Paper and Webinar Awards. The possibility exists of finding an overriding sponsor for the event who will expect some kind of naming rights. If the sponsor is a private individual or a company, and they request their name be attached, it is recommended that a contract be signed that will detail how long the sponsorship will last, and what the procedures will be for extrication of one or both parties. There are guidelines to naming an award that should be followed as closely as possible. For example, if a private individual wishes to sponsor the award, and wants their name attached to it, it is recommended that the person must have a high level of visibility, name recognition, and distinction in the field. The contract is still a necessity in any scenario.

Financial Support of the Award

The preferred ways for financing the proposed award are either a lump sum contribution or a payment contract over time. This financing must include the costs of any related expenses such as travel and registration for the award nominees. The venue used for the award ceremony must be considered as well. Many venues will offer their services for free if the publicity campaign involved includes their information in a favorable light. These details can be hammered out upon location of a proper venue that fits all of the necessary criteria.

Breadth

The awards proposed in this document are not limited to sub-fields. They are inclusive of the breadth of disciplines covered by the white papers or webinars that are nominated. There are many topics, in a multitude of fields, covered by these two resources, and the only fair way to judge the best and brightest is to not limit the selections based on specific fields of inquiry. Each topic discussed in these resources is fair game, and the creators of the pieces nominated will inevitably come from a diverse range of expertise. This will allow for cross-industry interest to be generated for the award ceremony, and greatly expand the possible industries willing to get involved either through participation on some level or sponsorship.

Administration

The creation of an Awards Committee to oversee the process is recommended. This committee will be responsible for reviewing possible issues, and discussing recommendations brought by relevant, involved parties. The committee must be held in high regard, and be considered above reproach to ensure that the process of vote tabulation and award declaration is without suspicion. The committee should consist of industry insiders and professionals who will give up their rights to be nominated for a position on the committee. These members may be the same year after year if necessary, or a revolving system of choosing new members may be used.

Final Thoughts

The process by which a new award is conceived, created, and given to a deserving winner can be complex and time-consuming. The rough framework has been laid out in this proposal. There are many points that need to be fine-tuned in order to fully realize this vision, but the important thing is the idea itself. It has been far too long that creators of these incredible resources have gone unrecognized. This award will be a step in the right direction as far as rewarding and encouraging this diverse group of professionals to keep pushing forward. It is a proven fact that the better job they do equates to better materials for the general public to use to better themselves and, by extension, their organizations.

Welcome to the Worldwide Web

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:24:00 +0000

March 18, 2013

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What’s Internet marketing?

Welcome to the Worldwide Web: Step-By-Step Internet Marketing

by Spencer Wade

The business world in the 21st century is dominated by the worldwide web. The sheer amount of opportunities, and confusion, this has created is mind-blowing, and can be more than a little intimidating to decision makers; no matter their field of expertise. The fact that the Internet is still relatively young, coupled with the fact that its very existence promotes the creation and dissemination of new technologies on a daily basis, means that it is nearly impossible to understand the nuance and subtlety involved with internet marketing unless one is directly involved in the field.

The general lack of understanding concerning internet marketing is the purpose behind this article. Everything a person needs to know in order to properly market their business on the Internet can be found here, broken up into the ten key components of internet marketing, and a brief description of each is given to fill in some of the blanks. These steps will, if followed, be an efficient, cost-effective way to begin marketing your goods or services over the Internet.

Web Design, Development Strategy, and Web Promotion Plan

The business world of today has gone digital. It has been transformed into a world where the intangible has become just as important as the tangible. The physical structure that houses a business enterprise can actually be less intrinsic to that company’s success than the website that promotes that space. This is a quantum shift, to say the least, and companies either adapt to the new model or fade into obscurity and fail. The keyword of the day is web presence. That means website development and design are all-important for continued success in the 21st century.

A company website, or a personal one for that matter, must be informative and powerful to be truly effective. There are many web development companies out there that employ the very best professionals in the field to help you plan, design, and implement the best site possible for your intended business mission. It is possible to do your own web design for your site, but these companies offer affordable and high quality solutions to end-users that will most likely far exceed your ability.

The decision to develop and design your own website will take a great deal of creativity and color sense. Websites are simple code. The design is what sets one apart from the others, and attractive, eye-catching sites will far exceed the performance of mass-produced template designs. Search engine optimization, which we will go into a bit later, is very important when creating content for your site, so ensuring your site is search engine-friendly and keyword rich is of the up-most importance to the success of your site.

The website you design, or have designed, will require a good web hosting company to realize its full potential. Finding a good company to provide this service allows you to focus on the specifics of your web development and design, and leave the monotonous details of server specifications and configurations to the professionals. Companies like bluehost or hostgator are perfect choices, and offer excellent rates for their service.

Once the site is fully developed and designed, the next step on the path to internet marketing is the creation of a web promotion plan that includes the previously discussed web design and development strategy. Website promotion is the most important piece of the internet marketing puzzle. There must be a solid promotion strategy behind your website, or you will not get the site visitors that drive profitability. In order to create such a strategy, it is vital to define your objectives and your audience.

Search engines, and the ways in which they function, should be considered before every single internet marketing decision. Over 85% of people use search engines to find information online, so working with the engines instead of against them is of the upmost importance. Because of this dependence, the domain name that you choose is tightly wrapped up in the success or failure of your online venture. Try to choose a domain that is as specific as possible to your industry, and, if at all possible, purchase all the possible variances so someone does not come along and steal your good name.

No matter what you are selling, be it goods or services, there is always going to be competition for your customer’s dollars found on the Internet. If you open a browser and go to Google what do you find when you type in your specific keywords? The odds are good that at least the first page will be full of possible competitors, so take some time to look over their sites. This is free market research, and could give you some valuable insights into possibilities for your own design. Using someone else’s work without compensation is never right, but getting inspiration from related materials is fine. In fact, it would be foolhardy to not see how your competitors are selling themselves to the public.

One of the greatest assets any company possesses are the customers who keep it running. These people represent an excellent resource that should be cultivated at every opportunity. The statistics back up this concept: up to 42% of previous customers will be future customers. So, developing relationships with your existing clientele will improve your returns. You should never stop looking for ways to provide better service to these customers, and free offers and special discounts are excellent ways to generate brand loyalty. Once this has been established, you can ask these satisfied customers for referrals and testimonials. This will go a long way to promoting your business to like-minded customers.

Relationships are an enormous, and vital, piece of any good web promotion plan. The relationships formed with customers are great for promoting your site through testimonials and referrals, as was discussed before, but they are far from the only relationships that are beneficial to a business. Finding and cultivating relationships with possible partners is just as important to internet marketing success. Try contacting the owners of websites that relate or add value to your products and services, and asking for link exchanges. This will connect your sites in search engines causing both sites to rise in relevance, and will give both companies access to customers they may not normally have attracted alone. This is a rare win-win in the business world, and should be taken advantage of whenever possible.

Communication is key in almost every human endeavor. This is just as true with website promotion as it is with any other type of advertising. It is all about getting your message across, and how does one do that if no one knows what that message is? It is imperative that you talk up your site constantly. This can be accomplished in a myriad of ways, but direct communication of the site’s mission and goals of service should always be included. Every piece of literature, business cards included, that your company puts out should do its part in promoting your site on top of accomplishing its intended goal. This may not be the easiest thing, or the most comfortable for some people, but, for every chance to give your website information to a potential customer you miss, you create an opportunity for your competitors. This is unacceptable in any successful venture, so make it your top priority to mention your website in every conversation.

One of the keys to successful website promotion is keeping a regular schedule of reviewing, editing, and upgrading your site and services. This will assist you in ensuring that your message is constant and unambiguous with regards to what you do, how you do it, and what it costs. By doing something productive to your site on a regular basis you can guarantee that your message stays clear, and your offerings are current and meaningful. Even if it is only 20 minutes a day, working on your website with your plan in mind will bring success sooner than you might think.

The Internet is a wonderful tool for promoting your business. One of the most important aspects of this medium is its ability to automatically track and record data. This allows for the testing and measuring of enormous quantities of data that directly impacts your business. The successful analysis of this wealth of information will give you the power to adjust your strategies, refine your product selection, and target specific visitors with directed marketing campaigns. This has the potential, if used in an efficient and responsible way, to dramatically increase the profitability of your business.

Establish Rankings and Practice Good SEO Techniques

There are many different search engine optimization (SEO) techniques used by websites to improve performance. The most widely used technique is the use of specific, appropriate keywords to move up the list of search engine rankings. These are the words that search engine users will input to try to find the information they are looking for. There are programs available that will provide the most used keywords pertaining to your product or service. These words can be placed in the titles, headings, and content of the website, and should be used throughout as often as possible without degrading the message you are trying to convey. This will allow your site’s visitors to easily find the content they are searching for on your page.

When writing content for your site it is imperative that you stay above 200 words. Search engines tend to favor sites that offer meaningful information, so regularly update your content to keep it interesting, relevant, and informative. Many sites use the blog format because of the preference search engines show toward regular content updates. This is, as was stated, very important in terms of the search engines, but should never be done at the detriment of your customers. You must never forget that your mission is to satisfy their needs, and providing useful insights and information on your site that directly affect their experience will always trump search engine results.

Another excellent technique for increasing your site rankings in search engines is the utilization of web links. These links, especially when used as previously discussed, will give potential customers alternate avenues to your site, and, in most cases, cost you next to nothing to implement. Exchange links, or links that are negotiated with other site owners, will create partnerships with industry specific companies that enhance your products or services, and, as their name suggests, will be absolutely free in financial terms. This is an excellent low-cost strategy for improving your site results and company profitability.

Effective Email Marketing

Email marketing is a relatively inexpensive way to market your business to potential customers. Many people think of email marketing as “spam”, but this is not the case when handled respectfully and offering things the recipients have either intimated they are interested in or explicitly asked for. The steps to effectively using email to market your company are pretty simple and straightforward. Yet, it is important that you follow them in order to keep your company from becoming an irritation to your customers. No one likes a spammer.

A good email marketing campaign begins with finding out exactly the audience you are attempting to influence. Tying your email campaign to specific historical purchasing trends is a good way to get a significant return on your investment. It is very important to try to make the email seem personal to your customers in any meaningful way you can. This can increase revenue by up to nine times compared to a similar generic email campaign. Make sure that your email establishes the value you can bring to your customers lives through the services you provide, the goods you offer, and any relevant testimonials that back up your points. This will please your customers, and increase brand loyalty.

Any successful email marketing campaign follows a specific life-cycle This life-cycle can be used to plan your campaign’s many steps, and analyzed to develop any necessary alterations to the original. Here is a summary of the life-cycle of a common email marketing campaign:

Acquisition: Identify your prospects and launch your campaign.
Persuasion: Engage your prospects by introducing sales opportunities. Reinforce your prior emails with follow-up campaigns that establish meaningful sales conversations.
Conversion: Seal the deal in order to grow your revenue stream. Address your customer’s needs and expectations, and define how you will meet each one.
Retention: Maintain contact in order to retain current sales relationships. Any new needs the customer may have can be addressed during this phase of the life-cycle.
Loyalty/Renewal: Engage customers in discussions about renewing contracts, upgrading service, or new product launches. Ask for referral or case-study permission.

It is important to remember to include calls to action and informational tools in your correspondence. The inclusion of contact phone numbers, email addresses, and company website is priority one in email writing. Provide testimonials and case studies to reinforce the salient points of the overall campaign. This is also a good time to exercise the partnerships you have created with other site owners by including referrals to their sites. When providing goods or services, it is a good idea to include any samples (pictures of work done, products sold, etc.) for your customers to review.

Affiliate, Reseller, and Associate Programs

The domination of your niche on the worldwide web will take many different steps along the way. There are innumerable ways to go about this, including all the things we have already discussed, and each of them has its own value to offer. Affiliate, reseller, and associate programs are just such a valuable tool for companies looking to expand their business in the digital age.

Many people probably have no idea what these programs are. Outside of the Internet these programs have no real meaning, though they do have their corollaries in the real-world. These programs are revenue-sharing arrangements between companies selling products and services. They offer commissions based on business you drive to their site. There is an easy signup process where you are provided a partner ID by which their system recognizes you. These are excellent ways to increase business, and require no financial investment or any kind of payment.

All that is required to take advantage of this opportunity is providing banner ads, small graphics, or text links from your site to the vendor. Whenever a customer is referred from your site to the vendor site their system will recognize your ID, and you will be issued credits for any sales they make to these customers. This is an excellent way to earn extra revenue from your traffic, and, especially if you can find a vendor that relates to your own products or services, offer extra services to your visitors.

Internet Marketing Consultant Analysis

It is very important to realize that in an environment as complex and prone to change as the Internet you will need the help of a professional to fully exploit the opportunities presented in the digital realm. Internet marketing consultants are an important asset for any company looking to make the most of the worldwide web, and their services are relatively inexpensive when compared to the possible revenue streams a good marketing strategy can open up to your business.

The highly skilled professionals in the internet marketing field can show you where improvements are possible. They will author a recommended course of action for your company to follow to reach the goals you have set for your efforts. It will address all of the areas they identify as strengths and weaknesses, and answer all of the questions you may have concerning the overall process. This insight and experience can be the difference between true success and mediocrity or failure.

Build a Responsive Opt-In Email List

An opt-in email list is the term used for a group of people, or businesses, who have given permission to receive “bulk” email. “Bulk” email refers to any email that is sent to many people at the same time. Typically, this is some form of mailing list, newsletter, or advertising. A company that can boast a responsive email list has a direct line to its customer base, and a better understanding of their needs. This is an advantage that every company should be fixated upon. There are several types of opt-in email:

Unconfirmed Opt-In: An email address is submitted to the list software, but no steps are taken to confirm the address truly belongs to the person submitting it. This can cause email from the mailing list to be considered spam due to simple typos in the original submission.
Confirmed Opt-In: An email address is submitted to the list software, and a confirmation email is sent to the address to confirm it is really the user. The email will contain a link or request a reply email to verify the user wants to receive emails in the future. This is the preferred method since if no action is taken upon receipt of the verification message the user will not continue to receive emails. This can eliminate any chance of spamming being attached to your company name.

Publish Articles or Make News

One of the best ways to drum up visitors to your site is to publish articles that pertain to the goods or services you provide. Finding ways to get mentioned in news stories is excellent as well. The ways to do this vary depending on your area and industry, but usually a charitable donation or giveaway will accomplish this while also enhancing your philanthropic reputation.

Writing and publishing online press releases is another excellent way to make a name for your business on the Internet. Press releases were once used exclusively with the media, and the distribution of your information was controlled by their choices. Today, however, an online press release allows your company to generate buzz for your products and services, and drive more traffic to your site. They are a great tool for increasing visibility online, and increasing your ranking in search engine results.

More than a third of all people polled (34%) said they went online for news within the last 24 hours. This number represents an enormous revenue pool of untapped customers, so online press releases, picked up by high traffic news organizations, can make a huge difference in the success of your online efforts. It at least makes their creation worth your time.

Run Contests and Giveaways

There are few more effective strategies for increasing traffic to your site than running an online contest or giveaway. Human beings are very fond of things they win, or are freely given, and will give their allegiance in return for the chance at being picked the winner. The creation of an online contest takes very little work, and, since the prize is inevitably one of your goods or services, relatively inexpensive to operate successfully. The real goal of any company setting up such an event should be the partnerships with other companies to enhance the reward, and further any relationships with partner websites you may already have. The most important aspect of this type of Internet promotion is the quality of the award given, and the perceived fairness of the contest.

Blog and Interact with Visitors

Blogging is an effective, efficient way to promote your site, your products, and your services. It allows for the creation of the most current, relevant content for your site, and will give your customers a reason to come back again and again. Return traffic breeds customer loyalty, and word-of-mouth advertising, that can dramatically increase your site’s popularity among your targeted audience. It also gives your visitors the ability, through likes and comments, to interact with you on a more personal level. This is proven to create an atmosphere of trust and good nature that will only strengthen their ties to your products and services. That, in the end, is the most important goal of any company.

It’s so easy, darling!

Internet marketing…I love you!

Conclusion

All of the information in this article has been compiled in an attempt to make the transition to an internet marketing strategy as simple and stress-free as possible. Most of these strategies are either very inexpensive or totally free, so they represent a negligible financial investment. What they do require is time, planning, and maintenance. While this may seem intimidating at first, it will become much easier with time and experience. In the hyper-competitive business environment of today, businesses have no choice but to put their best “digital” foot forward. Following all the steps listed above, and using the helpful tips shared, will give your company the best chance to make the transition a successful endeavor.

Success Through Internet Marketing Services

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:18:00 +0000

March 15, 2013

Success Through Internet Marketing Services

by Spencer Wade

The realm of internet marketing can be an intimidating place for those who have never ventured there. It is full of industry specific terminology that can confuse even the brightest minds. This article was written to try to shed some light on the unknown in order to help companies looking for internet marketing services to find a partner they can trust to do the job right, on budget, and with their best interests in mind.

The first thing to do when discussing internet marketing is to break the whole up into its constituent pieces. Internet marketing is, after all, a broad spectrum of services, and not all of them will be necessary for every business. This is why a marketing development plan can be so important for a company new to the internet arena. Just as in other phases of business operations, it is best to proceed with a fully-formed vision of what you expect, how long it will take, and what it will cost to accomplish the goals you set. The company you partner with can assist you with your development plan, and offer advice on what services best match your company’s marketing needs.

For the purposes of this article we will be dividing internet marketing into ten subcategories. These categories will be explained in some detail before the top ten companies in that particular field are listed. Each of these companies does excellent work in their fields, and any one would be a valuable partner for your business. The differences between these firms is usually the cost of their services, and, outside of that, the other differences are negligible.

Web Analytics

Web analytics is a tool that measures web traffic to a specific website. It can also be used as a tool for market research, and to assess and improve the overall effectiveness of the site. Analytics applications can help measure the results of traditional print or broadcast advertising campaigns, and estimate how website traffic changes after the launch of a new advertising campaign. Web analytics provide information about the number of visitors to a website and the number of page views as well. This is a great way to gauge traffic and popularity trends that will be incredibly useful when doing market research.

Social Media Management

The term social media management is defined as applying social media in the knowledge management context to identify, share, document, transfer, develop, use, or evaluate knowledge. There are many benefits to managing social knowledge. When users have access to this information they have higher productivity and better performance. Utilizing us er-generated content through crowdsourcing can better leverage the collective and hidden knowledge of the company stakeholders and increase organizational learning. Due to the younger generations using social media as their primary form of communication when on and off the clock it is important to use social media to attract and retain talented young employees.

Content Marketing and Blogging

The term content marketing refers to any marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content to acquire new customers. The basic premise of content marketing is providing some valuable information or entertainment (content) that stops short of a direct sales pitch or call to action, but seeks to positively influence a customer in a specific way. This information can be presented in a variety of media formats including news, video, blogs, white papers, ebooks, case studies, how-to’s, photos, etc. The most important facet of content marketing is its appeal to the Millenial Generation. This demographic contains over 1.8 billion people, and in a recent Edelman Study over 80% stated they expect their brands to entertain them. That percentage represents over 1.4 billion potential customers!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is the process of affecting the visibility of a website in a search engine’s natural, or unpaid, search results. Basically, the higher ranked the webpage is on the search results page the more frequently a site appears in the search result list, and therefore will receive more visitors from the search engine’s users. SEO takes into consideration how search engines function, what keywords people use to search for specific information, and what audiences are using what search engines. This data is then used to optimize a website by editing content, HTML, and specific coding to increase its relevance in terms of keywords and remove any barriers to the indexing of search engines.

Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC)

Pay-per-click is an internet advertising model used to direct traffic to specific websites. In this model, advertisers pay the publisher, or website owner, when the ad is clicked. Bidding on keyword phrases that pertain to their target audience, or charging a fixed price per click, sites vary, but all will use display ads to show up on relevant search engine results or websites that have agreed to show them. PPC uses the affiliate model to provide chances for purchase anywhere the target audience is visiting on the web. This is truly a pay for performance form of advertising, and that is a rare thing in this day and age.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is software with a focus on getting leads from the top of the marketing funnel through to the bottom where they emerge as sales-ready leads. The prospects are scored on their activities, and presented drip campaign messaging via email and social channels. This allows them to be nurtured from first interaction through to sale. This is most commonly used in business-to-government (B2G), business-to-business (B2B), or long scope business-to-consumer (B2C) sales cycles. This is, to put it simply, the merger of email marketing and a very structured sales process.

Video Hosting Management

Video hosting management services provide unlimited storage of your content with guaranteed uptime. This is an extraordinary function for marketing any business in the web-driven world of today. Video is a key component in any internet marketing strategy. These companies offer batch uploads, video content management systems (vCMS), custom video players, live streaming video capability, custom video email creation, video landing pages to drive conversions, and video analytics to see who’s watching to better plan and monitor targeted marketing campaigns.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is simply creating an experience that turns visitors into customers. This can be a very complicated process due to the fact designing a site that best appeals to the target audience must, to truly be effective, take into account the human psyche and psychological tendencies proven over decades of study. The details of CRO are way too complex to fully elaborate on here, but, luckily for companies today, there are services available that are strategically aimed at doing this very scientific task.

Crowdsourcing

The practice of getting needed services, content, or ideas by asking for contributions from an online community, instead of the traditional route of employees, partners, and suppliers is known as crowdsourcing. This can be an online or offline process, but the concept remains the same; to combine the efforts of volunteers and workers, where each contributes a small portion, in order to get a significant, large-scale result. Where outsourcing is giving a task to a specific, defined group, crowdsourcing is giving the same task to the general, undefined public in hopes of a greater, more detailed result.

Email Marketing

The name says it all when it comes to email marketing. It is, at its most basic, marketing a commercial message to customers via email. That definition could include any email correspondence between a company and its customers, but it usually involves using email to send ads, request business, or solicit sales or donations. The primary purpose of email marketing is the building of trust, loyalty, and brand awareness amongst a target audience. This widely used, highly successful marketing strategy is expected to bring nearly $2.5 billion US dollars to providers by 2016.

Conclusion

All of the companies named within this article are market leaders in their categories. They have proven themselves capable of innovative solutions to improve web marketing processes and practices. Each has an exceptionally strong reputation in their field, and offer tremendous value to their business partners, There is no question that they are fully capable and enthusiastic about helping your business ventures reach their full potential.

Social Media Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:15:00 +0000

March 10, 2013

Social Media Marketing
by Spencer Wade

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself. Hence, this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than paid media.

Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns.

Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships. When products or companies join those sites, people can interact with the product or company. That interaction feels personal to users because of their previous experiences with social networking site interactions.

Social networking sites and blogs allow individual followers to “retweet” or “repost” comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the users connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company.

Through social networking sites, products/companies can have conversations and interactions with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience.

Social networking sites also include a vast amount of information about what products and services prospective clients might be interested in. Through the use of new Semantic Analysis technologies, marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and questions posted online. Understanding of buying signals can help sales people target relevant prospects and marketers run micro-targeted campaigns.

Mobile phone usage has also become beneficial for social media marketing. Today, many cell phones have social networking capabilities: individuals are notified of any happenings on social networking sites through their cell phones, in real-time. This constant connection to social networking sites means products and companies can constantly remind and update followers about their capabilities, uses, importance, etc. Because cell phones are connected to social networking sites, advertisements are always in sight. Also many companies are now putting QR codes along with products for individuals to access the company website or online services with their smart-phones.

Facebook profiles are far more detailed than Twitter accounts. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions. Videos can show when a product can be used as well as how to use it. These also can include testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product’s Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. Facebook promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.

As marketers see more value in social media marketing, advertisers continue to increase sequential ad spend in social by 25%. Strategies to extend the reach with Sponsored Stories and acquire new fans with Facebook ads contribute to an uptick in spending across the site. The study attributes 84% of “engagement” or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. Today, brands increase fan counts on average of 9% monthly, increasing their fan base by two-times the amount annually.

21st Century – Money Well Spent

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:11:00 +0000

March 6, 2013

21st Century – Money Well Spent
by Spencer Wade

Spending on Internet advertising in 1996 totaled $301 million in the U.S. While significant compared to the zero dollars spent in 1994, the figure paled in comparison to the $175 billion spent on traditional advertising as a whole that year. As the number of Internet surfers continued to rise, however, interest in the Internet as a mass-media vehicle increased. Online advertising grew to an industry worth nearly $1 billion in 1997. The Internet became increasingly popular in the late 1990s, and the viability of the Internet as a marketing medium emerged as more than mere speculation. Millions of surfers logged on to the Web each day, and many businesses were determined to reach this new audience. Web sites emerged for companies in nearly every industry, ranging from household cleaning products and cosmetics to electronics and automobiles. At the same time, many firms realized that simply creating a Web site wasn’t enough to create a solid Internet presence; they also needed to drive traffic either to their sites or to their specific advertisements.

For example, drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. launched an Internet marketing campaign designed to build brand awareness for Excedrin. For 30 days during the 1997 tax season, the firm proclaimed Excedrin to be the “tax headache medicine” on a variety of financial Web sites. To entice surfers to click on the advertisement, Bristol-Myers offered a free sample of Excedrin to anyone who entered their name and address. According to Business Week writer Linda Himelstein, “The response was as good as any elixir. In just one month, Bristol-Myers added 30,000 new names to its customer list—some 1,000 per day and triple the company’s best-case scenario. What’s more, the cost of obtaining those names was only half that of traditional marketing methods.”

Hoping for similar results, many traditional firms began incorporating the Internet into their existing marketing plans. Even technology industry giants like IBM Corp. and Microsoft Corp. began dumping millions of dollars into Internet marketing efforts. Many smaller firms, including Internet upstarts, turned to highly trafficked sites like Internet portal Yahoo!, paying for advertisements such as banner bars. In fact, Yahoo! was one of the few Internet-based firms actually able to earn a profit from online advertising. By developing technology that allowed it to track a visitor’s online activity and control what banner bars and button ads that visitor saw, Yahoo! was able to target its messages in a manner never before seen by the marketing industry. Yahoo! could also monitor the number of hits each advertisement received as a means of evaluating an ad’s effectiveness. This innovative technology, coupled with the site’s intense traffic levels, attracted dot.com upstarts hoping to reach as many Internet users as possible.

However, like most other ventures reliant on dotcom businesses, Yahoo! saw its customer base dwindle when the U.S. economy began to cool in 2000 and many dot.com firms were forced to tighten advertising budgets as they fought to stay afloat. Making matters worse, many industry analysts began to argue that online advertisements like banner bars were simply ineffective more often than not. Despite the dot.com fallout, though, the $8.2 billion online advertising industry did not disappear. The fact remained that millions of people were surfing the Internet on a regular basis, and businesses were not willing to turn a blind eye to this mass market.

A Computing History

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:07:00 +0000

March 6, 2013

by Spencer Wade

A computer is a general purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a finite set of arithmetic or logical operations. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem. Conventionally, a computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) and some form of memory. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit that can change the order of operations based on stored information. Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source, and the result of operations saved and retrieved.

The first electronic digital computers were developed between 1940 and 1945 in the United Kingdom and United States. Originally they were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs). In this era mechanical analog computers were used for military applications.

Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space. Simple computers are small enough to fit into mobile devices, and mobile computers can be powered by small batteries. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as “computers”. However, the embedded computers found in many devices from MP3 players to fighter aircraft and from toys to industrial robots are the most numerous.

The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technologies, automated calculation and programmability. However no single device can be identified as the earliest computer, partly because of the inconsistent application of that term. A few devices are worth mentioning though, like some mechanical aids to computing, which were very successful and survived for centuries until the advent of the electronic calculator, like the Sumerian abacus, designed around 2500 BC of which a descendant won a speed competition against a modern desk calculating machine in Japan in 1946, the slide rules, invented in the 1620s, which were carried on five Apollo space missions, including to the moon and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient astronomical computer built by the Greeks around 80 BC.The Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD) built a mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex system of ropes and drums that might be considered to be a means of deciding which parts of the mechanism performed which actions and when. This is the essence of programmability.

Around the end of the 10th century, the French monk Gerbert d’Aurillac brought back from Spain the drawings of a machine invented by the Moors that answered either Yes or No to the questions it was asked. Again in the 13th century, the monks Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon built talking androids without any further development (Albertus Magnus complained that he had wasted forty years of his life when Thomas Aquinas, terrified by his machine, destroyed it).

In 1642, the Renaissance saw the invention of the mechanical calculator, a device that could perform all four arithmetic operations without relying on human intelligence. The mechanical calculator was at the root of the development of computers in two separate ways. Initially, it was in trying to develop more powerful and more flexible calculators that the computer was first theorized by Charles Babbage [14][15] and then developed. Secondly, development of a low-cost electronic calculator, successor to the mechanical calculator, resulted in the development by Intel of the first commercially available microprocessor integrated circuit.

Databases and DBMSs: Making Data Your Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:05:00 +0000

February 13, 2013

What is a Database?

by Spencer Wade

The term database refers to any organized collection of data. This data is typically organized to model aspects of reality in a way that supports processes requiring this information. The term is correctly applied to data and the supporting data structures, but not to the database management system, or DBMS. A database data collection with DBMS is known as a database system.

It is implied by the term database system that the data is managed to some level of quality. This is usually measured in terms of accuracy, availability, usability, and resilience. The quality management seen in the database system is evidence of a general-purpose database management system. A general-purpose DBMS is a complex software system that meets many usage requirements to properly maintain its often large and complex databases.

The use of client-server, real-time transactional systems where multiple users have access to data highlights the importance of DBMS. In these systems, data is concurrently entered and inquired for in ways that preclude single-thread batch processing. Most of this requirement complexity can be found in personal desktop-based database systems.

There are many well-known DBMSs available today. These include DBMSs from Oracle, FoxPro, IBM DB2, MySQL, SQLite, Sybase, Linter, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. Databases are not usually portable across different DBMS, but different DBMSs can interoperate to some degree using standards like SQL and ODBC together to support a single application built over more than one database. DBMSs must also provide effective runtime execution to properly support, in terms of performance, availability, and security, as many database end-users as needed.

The classification of databases is directly related to their contents. Bibliographic databases, document-text databases, statistical databases, and multimedia objects databases are just a few examples of the different types. Databases can also be classified by their application area. Examples of this classification method include accounting, movies, banking, manufacturing, music compositions, and insurance. The term database may be narrowed to specify particular aspects of the organized collection of data, and may refer to the logical database, the physical database as data content in computer storage, or to many other sub-definitions.

Database Concept

The concept that led to the development of the database has been evolving since the 1960s. This was primarily due to the increasing difficulties in designing, building, and maintaining complex information systems. This was especially true when dealing with systems that have multiple concurrent end-users, and contain a large amount of diverse data. Database management systems have evolved as well in order to facilitate the effective handling of databases. DBMSs and databases are different entities, but they are inseparable. A database’s properties are determined by its supporting DBMS.

It is believed, though it may be argued, that a 1962 technical report was the first to use the term “data base”. In the intervening years, there have been enormous strides made in processing power and speed, computer memory and storage, and computer networking. This growth has been reflected in the size, capability, and performance of databases and their respective DBMS. For many years, it has been deemed unlikely that any complex information system could be built effectively without a proper database supported by a DBMS. Database usage has spread to such a degree that virtually every technology and product relies on databases and DBMS for its development and commercialization, and companies and organizations rely heavily on them for their operations as well.

There is no clear, accepted definition of DBMS, but it is widely accepted that a system must provide considerable functionality to qualify as one. Its supported data collection must also meet usability requirements to be considered a true database. This basically means that a database and its DBMS are loosely defined by a general set of requirements. All existing mature DBMS meet these requirements to a great extent, and less mature DBMS strive to meet them or are converging to meet them.

Evolution of Database and DBMS Technology

The definition of the term database, as was discussed earlier, coincided with the availability of direct-access storage from the mid-1960s onwards. It represented a fundamentally different approach from the tape-based systems of the past, and allowed shared interactive use rather than simple daily batch processing.

The earliest database systems were primarily concerned with efficiency, but developers already recognized that other important objectives existed. One of these objectives focused on making data independent of the logic application programs, so that this data could be shared among the different applications. This was a groundbreaking change in database development and usage.

Since the 1970s, there has been an exponential increase in capacity and speed of disk storage and main memory on computing platforms. Database technology has kept pace with this explosion, and by doing so has enabled the creation of ever larger databases and higher throughput volume. This has allowed the development of many of the applications we use on a daily basis; both in personal life and business.

The general-purpose database, in the beginning, was navigational. The applications would typically access the data by following pointers from one record to another. At this point in database development, there were two main data models being used. The hierarchical model used by the IBM IMS system, and the Codasyl model implemented in products like IDMS. This remained the case until 1970.

It was then that Edgar F. Codd proposed the relational model. This model departed from the norm by insisting that applications should search for data by content rather than following links. This was necessary to allow the content of the database to evolve without constant rewriting of links and pointers. The relational model consists of ledger-style tables that each correspond to a different type of entity. Any new data may be freely inserted, deleted, and edited in these tables, and the DBMS is responsible for maintenance necessary to present a table view to the application/user.

The term relational comes from entities referencing other entities in what is known as a one-to-many relationship like a hierarchical model, and a many-to-many relationship like a network model. So, a relational model can express both navigational and hierarchical models as well as its tabular model. This allows for pure or combined modeling as the specific application requires.

Relational models, in their earliest forms, did not make relationships between different entities explicit in the way users were accustomed to, but as primary keys and foreign keys. These keys can be seen as pointers, of a sort, stored in tabular form. The use of keys rather than pointers obscured relations between entities in the way it was presented, so the relational model was considered to emphasize search over navigation. It was deemed a good conceptual basis for a query language, but not so for a navigational language.

This gave rise to the development, in 1976, of the entity-relationship model. This model gained instant popularity for database design since it emphasized a more familiar description than the earlier relational model. In time, entity-relationship constructs were retrofitted as data modeling constructs for relational models, and the differences between the two became irrelevant.

Relational system implementations lacked the automated optimizations of conceptual elements and operations when compared to their physical storage and processing counterparts. Their simplistic and literal implementations placed heavy demands on the limited processing resources of the time. It took the arrival of the mid-1980s, with its increases in computing power, for relational systems (DBMSs and applications) to be widely deployed. In the 1990s, relational systems became the dominant system used for large-scale data processing applications, and still hold that lofty spot today. The dominant database language for the relational model is SQL which has influenced the evolution of many other database languages.

The inflexibility of the relational model has increasingly been seen by users as a limitation when dealing with information that is richer or more varied than the traditional “ledger book” data of corporate information systems. This issue is most prevalent when modeling multimedia databases, molecular science databases, document databases, and engineering databases. The rigidity in the relational model is due to the need to represent new data types other than text and text-alikes. Examples of unsupported data types include:

Graphics – Pattern-matching and OCR
Multidimensional Constructs – 2D geographical, 3D geometrical, and multidimensional hypercube models.
XML – Hierarchical data modeling technology evolved from EDS and HTML used for data interchange among dissimilar systems.

Object-oriented methodologies, focusing on encapsulated data and processes, brought on more fundamental conceptual limitations. Traditional data modeling constructs emphasize the total separation of data from processes, but modern DBMSs allow for limited modeling in terms of validation rules and stored procedures.

Attempts have been made to address the issue of conceptual limitation. Banners such as post-relational or NoSQL are prime examples of this movement. The development of the object database and XML database were noteworthy steps in the right direction, but relational database vendors have combated this competition by extending the capabilities of their own products to support a wider variety of data types.

Final Thoughts

Database technology has grown from its archaic origins into an ever-changing field of complex technical innovation. There are breakthroughs being made every day that open up the possibilities offered by databases and DBMSs, and this will only expand with the influx of resources being funneled into development from all over the world. The next few years should be a very exciting time for database users. The sky is the limit for this technology moving forward.

Not Your Ordinary Cup of Coffee: Object-Oriented Design in Java

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:57:00 +0000

February 11, 2013

Object Oriented Design (OOD)

by Spencer Wade

Object-oriented design (OOD) principles make up the core of object-oriented programs and systems (OOPS). It is the process of planning a system of interacting objects for the purpose of solving a software problem. An object contains encapsulated data and procedures grouped together to represent an entity. The object interface, or how the object can be interacted with, is also defined. An object-oriented program is described by the interaction of these objects. Object-oriented design is the discipline of defining the objects and their interactions to solve a problem that was identified and documented during object-oriented analysis.

There are innumerable ways that programmers use object-oriented design in software development. Many of these programmers tend to have a very one-sided view of OOD; especially when working with Java. Programmers often chase design patterns like Singleton, Decorator, or Observer without giving enough attention to object-oriented analysis, or following the core principles of using OOD with Java. There are developers and programmers of all skill levels who have never learned the correct design principles, do not fully understand the benefits a particular design principle offers, or are unsure of how to properly apply these principles when coding.

The most important thing when working with OOD in Java is to strive for cohesion in any solution, code, or design. Taking the time to look over successful applications of OOD in Java coding can be very helpful, and examples of open source Java OOD can be found all over the Internet. Apache and Sun offer excellent views of how Java coding should be tackled using OOD.

These examples are helpful, as was stated before, but they can never replace the importance of real world experience. This type of learning teaches not only the basics of successful design, but also gives users an idea of what happens when these design principles are violated. Mistakes teach valuable lessons in life and programming, so novice designers and those with little experience will benefit greatly from seeing firsthand what works and what does not.

Principles of OOD in Java

The list that follows defines and describes some core principles that developers must keep in mind when working with OOD in Java coding. These principles represent some information that all programmers need to know to be successful when working in this medium. These principles are:

DRY: DRY, or don’t repeat yourself, means just what it says; never write duplicate code. Use abstraction to group common things together in one place. For example, if a hardcoded value is used more than one time consider making it a public final constant, or if a block of code is located in more than one place try making it a separate method. This is a general rule of thumb, but, as with all things, there will be exceptions. The benefits from doing things in this way can be clearly seen when it is time for code maintenance.
Encapsulate What Varies: Change is the only constant in software development. This is a truism and leads to the next design principle; encapsulate what varies. The code expected, or suspected, of being changed in the future should be encapsulated. Encapsulation of code allows for easier testing and maintenance. In Java coding, it is best to make variables and methods private by default and increase access step-by-step from private to protected. The Factory design pattern in Java uses encapsulation on object creation code to provide flexibility when releasing new products. The code, due to its encapsulation, is not impacted by this change, so the programmer does not need to rewrite anything.
Open Closed: Classes, functions, or methods should be open for extension, or new functionality, and closed for modification. This is an excellent principle for preventing changes being made to functional, tested code by anyone other than the developer.
Single Responsibility: This principle is based on the assumption that a class should never have more than one reason to change, and should always handle single functionality. In Java coding, it is unwise to put more than one function into a class. By doing so, coupling between the two functions is impossible to prevent, so if one function needs to be changed there is a good chance that the coupling will be broken. This will require another round of testing to safeguard against any unforeseen problems cropping up in a production environment.
Dependency Injection or Inversion: The framework will provide the dependency, so that is not an issue for programmers. Spring framework achieves this beautifully. Any class that is injected by DI framework is easy to test with mock objects, and easier to maintain due to the fact that the object creation code is centralized in the framework, and the client code is entirely free of this clutter. There are multiple ways to implement dependency injection.
Composition over Inheritance: Whenever possible, it always best to favor composition over inheritance. This point is highly debatable, but composition seems to allow more flexibility than inheritance. Composition gives the option of changing the behavior of a class at runtime by setting the property, and using interfaces to compose a class using polymorphism. This provides the flexibility to upgrade implementation at any time.
Liskov Substitution: This principle states that subtypes must be substitutable for super type. It is closely related to both the single responsibility principle and the interface segregation principle that will be discussed later. In order to follow the Liskov substitution principle, all derived classes and subclasses must enhance functionality; not reduce it.
Interface Segregation: The interface segregation principle states that a client should not implement an interface if it is not necessary. The most common problem that arises from ignoring this principle happens when an interface contains more than one function, but the client only needs one of them. This is one of the reasons that interface design is so difficult. Once the interface is released from development, it cannot be changed without breaking all implementation. In Java, interfaces with only one function mean fewer methods to implement, and an overall easier task to complete.
Program for Interface not Implementation: Always program for interface instead of for implementation. This will lead to more flexible code that can coexist with any new implementation or interface. It is best to use interface type on variables, return types of method, and argument types of method when working with Java.
Delegation: This principle basically means that it is never a good idea to try to accomplish all the necessary steps alone. Delegate everything possible to respective class. Equals and hashcode methods in Java allow users to ask class itself to do a comparison of two objects for equality. The greatest benefits of this principle are ease of behavior modification and minimizing code duplication.

Final Thoughts

The listed principles of working with OOD in Java will help users write flexible, higher-quality code by maximizing cohesion and minimizing coupling. As in all things, theory is only the first step. Developing the knowledge necessary to properly apply these principles takes real-world experience and trial-and-error. This will give the programmer the tools to know when they are violating a key principle, and compromising the flexibility of the code. These principles are not fool-proof, and like all things in life they are to be used as guides and not blindly followed. It is beyond question that when working with OOD in Java these core principles will allow developers to make fewer mistakes, and get the upmost out of their coding work.

White Papers and Webinars: Free Information Fast

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:54:00 +0000

February 10, 2013

by Spencer Wade

Technology and Users

White Papers

There are countless white papers available on the Internet today. These white papers are divided into three categories: backgrounder, numbered list, and problem solution. The definitions for these categories are listed below:

Backgrounder: Describes the technical and/or business benefits of a certain vendor offering. This can be a product, service, or methodology. This type of white paper is best used to supplement a product launch, argue a business case, or support a technical evaluation.
Numbered List: Presents a set of tips, questions, or points about a specific business issue. This type of white paper is best used to get attention with new or provocative views, or cast aspersions on competitors using fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Problem/Solution: Recommends a new, improved solution to a nagging business problem. This type of white paper is best used to generate leads, build thought leadership, or inform and persuade stakeholders.

These papers can be combined in many ways to better accomplish the writer’s goals. There are, however, some caveats to combining them. For example, a numbered list may be combined with any other type, but it is unworkable to combine the detailed product information of a backgrounder with the industry-wide perspective of a problem/solution white paper.

Most B2B white papers argue that one particular technology, product, or method is superior for solving a specific problem. They may present research findings, list questions or tips about an issue, or highlight a particular product or service. These papers are marketing communications documents designed to promote the products or services from a company. They use selected facts and logical arguments to build a case favorable to the company publishing the document.

In June of 2010, Stephanie Tilton published an article that reaffirmed white papers as one of the most important tools companies have for accomplishing all of the previously stated white paper goals. Here is a sampling of the research from her article:

70% of IT buyers used white papers to get information on enterprise technology solutions in the past three months.
77% of respondents responsible for either making B2B technology purchases or influencing purchasing decisions read at least one white paper in the first six months of 2009, with84% rating white papers as moderately to extremely influential when making final purchasing decisions, and 89% passing them along to others.
Trial software and white papers are the most utilized, along with being the most effective, forms of content for researching IT problems and solutions.
More than 76% of IT buyers use white papers for general education on a specific technology topic or issue.
Over 73% of IT buyers use white papers to investigate possible technology solutions for the business/technology need.
68% of IT buyers use white papers to learn about a specific vendor and their solution technology.
93% of IT buyers pass along up to half of the white papers they read/download.
36% of IT buyers made a purchase as a result of reading a white paper.
32% of IT buyers included a white paper in a business case to support a purchase.

The statistics listed in Ms. Tilton’s article give all the evidence needed for arguing the case for white papers. These documents are created with an ulterior motive, but they give anyone who uses them free information. That is priceless in technological fields. In fact, it is downright altruistic of the companies who spend the time to do the research and offer it freely to any and all who would use it.

Webinars

Webinars are inexpensive, beneficial tools that can be found online covering a broad range of topics related to technology and its applications. They allow their host to speak directly to an audience in real time. A webinar can be offered as a one-on-one session or given to an entire virtual classroom or conference. The number of viewers is secondary in importance to the overall use of time, the participation, and the feedback afterwards.

The number of webinars offered is growing by leaps and bounds. There is no end in sight to this unprecedented growth, and new uses for the medium are being found all the time. There are countless ways that these webinars can help users reach their goals. Below is a list of just a few of the ways in which webinars can accomplish this:

Raise awareness and ideas for products and services.
Increase productivity and connectivity with educational opportunities.
Build relationships and reputations based on real life interactions and experiences.
Develop high conversation rates benefitting income and profitability.
Listbuilding and creation of virtual audiences.

Webinars give the host immediate authority on their chosen topic. This is actually one of the main reasons people attend webinars. They are looking for new information and ideas from specifically targeted industry leaders. This is excellent for building lists of fans who are hungry for the knowledge offered as long as it is current, meaningful, and, above all else, valid.

Final Thoughts

Brand Spanking New Web Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:51:00 +0000

February 8, 2013

by Spencer Wade

Web Technology

The development of new web technologies is one of the reasons programming is such an exciting field. There are few things more pleasing than getting your hands on cutting-edge technology, and bending it to your purposes. New technology turns every day into Christmas for developers, and the gifts just keep getting better and better. This piece will discuss some of the technology that has been released to the programming community, and give some indication of the ways these breakthroughs are being used in the industry. Most of these are already available for commercial and private use, and they are definitely worth keeping an eye on in the coming year.

getUserMedia

There are many APIs out today that are mistakenly labeled “HTML5”. This is not the case with getUserMedia. It began its life as a HTML5 device, but was later renamed and hived off to W3C’s WebRTC suite of specifications. The getUserMedia technology, or gUM, gives access to a user’s microphone and camera. As a part of the WebRTC suite of specifications, gUM enables peer-to-peer-in-browser video conferencing. The fact that gUM has other uses means it has been separated from the rest of the suite.

In Opera 12 final for Android, Opera Desktop, and Google Chrome Canary camera access was successfully implemented. Opera and Chrome do not yet have microphone access as the specification is still being worked on, but there is a JavaScript snippet called The gUM Shield addresses this issue. When video is streaming from the device, it can be made into the source of a video element, and positioned off-screen if necessary. It can then be copied to canvas and manipulated as required by the user. There are also tools available that allow the gUM data to be copied into other formats for easier manipulation.

Giving web applications the very same functionality as native applications is the primary mission of gUM, and it goes a long way toward accomplishing this lofty goal. Functionality is the real key in any new technology, and as functionality grows in production browsers, there will be an incredible amount of web-based QR code-readers and augmented reality apps developed.

SVG

Scalable Vector Graphics are nothing new in the development industry. They have been around for quite some time in Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. It was not until Internet Explorer began supporting it in IE9 that SVG became fully realized. Sadly, by this time it was largely overshadowed by HTML5 even though they are, at heart, different tools for different tasks.

Canvas 2D is an excellent tool for quickly adding graphics to a given screen, but all you can do is paint the graphics. There is no record of what is where, or what is layered above or below as is found in Photoshop or similar tools. All records of these layers must be kept in a separate JavaScript code. With no DOM in memory, this technology is superfast, and works wonders in video games requiring speed for proper performance.

SVG is an excellent tool when a DOM is required due to its ability to allow users to move and animate objects independently with JavaScript. Since shapes and paths are described via markup, they can be styled with CSS. Text remains text in SVG, unlike canvas where it is turned into pixels, and is mash-uppable, accessible, and indexable. This is excellent for modifying text, but the real standout feature of SVG is that its vector based. Illustrations, graphs, and user interface icons are just as clear on a large screen TV as they will on a mobile device. This is of the upmost importance in this Internet-everywhere age. SVG even allows for the inclusion of Media Queries. This gives the response time necessary to keep nuances of shading and detail when size is reduced.

SVG has garnered support from all the latest browsers. It has great mobile support on all platforms with the lone exception of versions of Android older than 3.0. There are many online tutorials and articles available that go into much greater detail when discussing SVG and how it may be used. That is a bonus for all of the newbie developers who may not have had any exposure to SVG. It would be a great benefit to anyone starting out with SVG to take the time to visit these sites, and get acquainted with all the ins and outs of this tool.

WebGL

Web-based Graphics Library, or WebGL, is managed by the Khronos Group. It is used, in tandem with HTML5, to produce 3D graphics. WebGL is notoriously difficult to learn and master due to the fact that it is extremely low-level. It runs on graphics processing units, and is actually a JavaScript port of OpenGL. OpenGL is a long-established set of APIs used by game developers. These developers are the target market for this tool, so WebGL is expected to replace OpenGL in game development.

The difficulty in learning WebGL is a major hurdle for many users, but there are resources available to help with this learning curve. WebGL is not just for game developers either. There have been music videos, excellent graphics, and professional visualizations created with WebGL. Here are some excellent resources to use:

Raw WebGL 101
Learning WebGL
WebGL 101

WebGL can be found on almost all browsers, excluding IE10, and is equally prevalent on mobile operating systems as well. It has been excluded from Internet Explorer 10 due to Microsoft’s refusal to support it. This is an internal decision made by Microsoft, and should not be interpreted as a failure of WebGL.

File APIs

File APIs give JavaScript access to files on a local system. FileReader is the most commonly used API, and is available in IE10, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox platform preview. It provides an API for representing objects in applications, selecting them, and accessing their data. It is possible to upload files into a browser and discern information such as name, size, and file type without having to query the server. The files can also be opened and manipulated. This amplifies interaction in browser-based applications making them more like desktop applications.

Traditional image upload dialogue is great, but it can be upgraded by allowing dragging and dropping into the browser rather than navigating through the specific file system. This allows the user to start with a normal file and progressively add enhancements. If the user detects for HTML5 drag and drop support, and locates it, they can replace the input with a drag target for the image. Now when an image is dragged into the target area the FilReader API shows a thumbnail of the image. There are also specifications for writing and manipulating file systems, but, as of today, these are not currently usable due to cross-browser insufficiency. Here are some resources that may be of use:

The W3C File API
Exploring the FileSystem API

Final Thoughts

The technologies described here are only a small sampling of what is available to users in 2013. These tools represent the cutting-edge of web technology, but in a field that changes as fast as this it is only reasonable to assume that the next great tool is already coming down the pipeline. That is just one of the things that make technology so exciting to work with. There is never a dull moment, or a penultimate tool. Things change. Adaptation and enthusiasm are the still the best tools we humans have.

Prezi: Reinventing Web Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:49:00 +0000

February 8, 2013

by Spencer Wade

The world has changed for the better today, my friends. There is now a way to take all that old content you have lying around your site, and turn it into something brand spanking new. It’sPrezi! An absolutely free site that gives users the ability to reformat content into just about anything they can dream of. Prezi has tools and templates galore to help you make something you can proudly show off on your site. It takes no time whatsoever to get acclimated to the Prezicontrol system, and before you know it you’ll be displaying content in ways you never imagined. From presentations to straight text you will be hard pressed to find another site that gives as many options for refreshing content as Prezi. Try it out for yourself, for free, and I’m sure you’ll agree with me. Prezi is just what the site doctor ordered.

Programming: Abacus to Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:48:00 +0000

February 8, 2013

What is Programming?

by Spencer Wade

Computer programming, often shortened to coding, programming, or scripting) is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. The source code is written in programming languages like C++, C#, Smalltalk, Python, Java, etc.. Programming’s true purpose is the creation of instructions that tell computers how to perform specific tasks and exhibit desired behaviors. Writing code requires expertise in many subjects. These include knowledge of the domain, algorithms, and formal logic.

A debate has been raging over the extent to which writing programs is considered an art, an engineering discipline, or a craft. The reality is good programming should be the measured application of all three, and the goal is producing an evolvable, efficient software solution. It is important to note that the criteria varies considerably when defining software as efficient or evolvable. The field differs from other technical professions in that programmers do not need a license or any other certifications in order to call themselves programmers or software engineers. Due to the fact the discipline covers so many areas, that may or may not include critical applications, licensing is a question mark for the profession as a whole. The field is self-governed in most cases by the entities that require the programming, and in certain instances this can mean strict working environments. For example, the military uses AdaCore and requires a security clearance to do any programming work. The debate is still ongoing in the US, but in many parts of the world portraying oneself as a “professional software engineer” without licensing is illegal.

There is another debate going on in the field of programming that focuses on programming languages. It concerns the extent to which the language used to write a program affects the form the final program takes. This debate is similar to the one in linguistics and cognitive science surrounding the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. This hypothesis states that a spoken language’s nature influences the habitual thought of its speakers. In other words, different language patterns produce different patterns of thought. If true, the mechanisms of language condition the thoughts of its speakers, so representing the world perfectly through language becomes impossible.

The History of Programming

Simple arithmetic was the pinnacle of human computing for millennia. The abacus was the only mechanical device for computing numbers for thousands of years of human history. It was invented sometime around 2500 BC, and was not surpassed until the Antikythera Mechanism was invented around 100 AD. This device was used to track the lunar-to-solar cycle in order to hold the Olympiad on the same day in different years. In 1206 AD, the Kurdish scientist Al-Jazari constructed automata that used pegs and cams to sequentially trigger levers. These levers in turn operated percussion instruments that caused a small drummer to play various rhythms and patterns.

In 1801, the Jacquard Loom used a series of cards with holes punched in them representing the pattern to follow when weaving cloth. The machine could produce different weaves by using different cards, and this was its groundbreaking feature. Punch cards were used in 1830 to control an invention called the Analytical Engine. The very first computer program was written for this engine to calculate a sequence of Bernoulli numbers. The Industrial Revolution accelerated the development of computer programming into what we know today. Numerical calculation, predetermined operation and output, and conceptually easy to use instructions for organization and input were all products of this mechanical boom in human history.

Herman Hollerith, in the 1880s, invented a process by which data was recorded to a medium that could then be read by a machine. All prior readable media, such as punch cards, had been for giving instructions to drive machines instead of data they could use to perform specific tasks. The punch cards that he used were different in that they used a keypunch, sorter, and tabulator unit record machines to encode the information to the cards. These inventions formed the basis of the entire data processing industry. In 1896, he founded a company that later became the core of IBM. A control panel was added to Hollerith’s machine in 1906 that allowed it to do different tasks without having to be physically rebuilt. By the middle of the 20th century, there were several machines functioning as archaic computers, and each had control panels that allowed them to perform a sequence of operations. These were the first truly programmable machines.

The advent of von Neumann architecture allowed computer programs to be stored in computer memory. The earliest programs had to be crafted using the instructions, or elementary operations, of the particular machine, and these instructions often had to be written in binary notation. Different model computers used different instructions to perform the same tasks due to the limitations of early programming languages. This was the case until assembly languages were developed to allow programmers to specify each instruction in a text format, and abbreviations for each operation code were substituted for numbers an addresses being written in symbolic form. Assembly language is more convenient, less prone to human error, and faster overall than machine language, but due to the fact that assembly languages are little more than different notations for machine languages any two machines with different instruction sets also have different assembly languages.

The first high level programming language, dubbed FORTRAN, was invented in 1954. A high level programming language is defined as one that allows for the creation of programs using abstract instructions. This allowed programmers to specify calculations by entering a formula directly into the code. The actual source code is converted into these instructions using a program called a compiler that translates the FORTRAN into machine language. In fact, the name FORTRAN actually stands for Formula Translation.

There have been many other languages developed including those, like COBOL, specifically for commercial programming. Yet, most programs were still entered using punch cards or even paper tape. As the late 1960s rolled around data storage devices and computer terminals had become inexpensive enough to directly type the programs into the computers. Text editors were developed allowing changes to be made to a program much easier than if using punch cards. Punch card errors meant that the card had to be destroyed, and a new one created to replace it.

Through the years, computers have made exponential leaps in processing power. This has allowed for the creation of new programming languages that are even more abstracted than the underlying hardware. These modern languages include C++, Python, Visual Basic, SQL, Perl, Ruby, C#, Haskell, HTML, PHP, Java, and Objective-C. There are literally dozens more programming languages available for use in the modern era. These high-level languages often come with greater overhead, but the increase in computer speed has made these languages much more usable and practical than in the past. Languages like these are typically easier to learn, and allow the programmer to work more efficiently and with less overall code. However, they are still impractical for some programs that require low-level hardware or maximum processing speed is vital.

Computer programming is a popular career today; particularly in the developed world. Due to the high cost of these programmers in the developed world, some programming has been outsourced to countries where the labor costs are low. These low cost alternatives have caused instability in the profession in developed countries just as was the case with manufacturing.

Modern Programming

The field of programming in the modern world is a very complex and lucrative industry. There are technological breakthroughs happening all the time, so a programmer must be a student their entire career in order to maintain their skills at a high level. It takes serious dedication and energy to stay on top of an ever-changing field. This is imperative, however, if the programmer wants to stay relevant and educated on the latest languages and their uses.

The approach to development in the software industry is as varied as the languages used to write programs. There are some fundamental properties that every program must satisfy in order to a successful venture. The following properties are among the most relevant:

Reliability: This indicates how often a program’s results are correct. Conceptual correctness of algorithms, logic errors, and programming mistakes can all affect this metric.
Usability: This basically refers to what is known as “the ergonomics” of the program. This is the overall ease of use of the program for its intended purpose. The usability of a program includes a wide range of textual, graphical, and hardware elements that improve the clarity, cohesiveness, completeness, and clarity of a program’s user interface.
Robustness: This is how well a program anticipates problems not due to programmer error. These issues can include incorrect or corrupt data, lack of necessary resources, and user error.
Maintainability: The ease with which a program can be modified by developers in order to improve or customize, fix bugs, or adapt it to new environments. This is where best practices during initial development make all the difference. The end user may never notice this property, but it can affect the fate of a program over the long term.
Portability: This is the range of hardware and operating system platforms on which the code can be interpreted and run. This depends greatly on the facilities provided by the platforms. These facilities include system resources, expected behavior of the hardware, and availability of platform specific compilers for the language of the code.
Efficiency: The amount of system resources a program uses is known as its efficiency. The less resource usage the better is the rule in computer programming.

Final Thoughts

The development of programming throughout human history has always been an exciting and rewarding pursuit. The rewards we as a species have reaped from this avenue of endeavor are exhilarating and life-changing. The concept, when realized fully in our time, is one of the most beautiful and meaningful creations of the human mind since the advent of language itself. The possibilities open to humanity thanks to this field are endless, and each new day brings another revelation to us all.

SEM: The New Way to Turn Dollars Into Customers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:46:00 +0000

February 6, 2013

What is Search Engine Marketing?

by Spencer Wade

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a blanket term used to describe all forms of internet marketing. SEM concerns the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages through optimization (on-page and off-page), and through paid placement, contextual advertising, paid inclusions, and other advertising avenues. SEM can be a broad term for a plethora of website marketing techniques. These include everything from search engine optimization where a higher search result is gained through adjustment or rewriting of content to pay-per-click marketing where the focus is solely on the individual paid components of the marketing strategy.

What is the Market for SEM?

The market for SEM is growing at an exponential rate. In the US alone in 2008, advertisers spent $13.5 billion on search engine marketing. The fact that the technology involved is so complex means that a secondary SEM agency market has evolved to handle the workload. Many marketers find the complexities of search engine marketing difficult to understand, so they rely solely on third party agencies to manage their endeavors in the field. Google Adwords, Microsoft AdCenter, and Yahoo! Search Marketing are the largest vendors of SEM service. They expect SEM to grow much faster than traditional advertising, and even outpace other channels of online marketing.

SEM History

In the late 1990s, the number of Internet sites dramatically increased. Search engines were developed to help users find specific information quickly. The firms developing search engine technology developed business models to finance their services, and the field of SEM began to grow at a dramatic pace. As of 2007, pay-per-click programs proved to be the primary revenue streams for these firms. Google has grown to dominate this market through their Adwords service, so Microsoft and Yahoo announced, in 2009, their intention to join forces. This alliance was approved by regulators in 2010, but Google has yet to be replaced as the preeminent service in SEM.

Search engine optimization professionals have offered new services year by year. Many of these services are geared toward helping clients understand and use the advertising avenues open to them through search engines, and new agencies have formed through the mergers of many marketing and advertising firms to better serve their clients in these areas. SEM, coined by Danny Sullivan in 2001, covers the spectrum of activities involved in SEO, submitting sites to directories, managing paid listings, and developing online marketing strategies for organizations, individuals, and businesses.

Metrics and Methods

There are many metrics and methods used to optimize websites through Search Engine Marketing. The following list includes many of these, and a brief description of each:

Keyword Research and Analysis: There are three steps involved in this process of keyword research and analysis. These are (1) ensuring the site can be indexed in search engines, (2) finding the most relevant and popular keywords for the site and its products, (3) and using those keywords in a way that generates and converts traffic.
Website Saturation and Popularity: The presence a website has on a given search engine can be analyzed through the number of pages indexed for the site, or saturation, and how many backlinks the site has which is known as its popularity. This requires keywords people are looking for being included in the content of the page, and these keywords ranking high enough in the search engines rankings. All search engines have some form of link popularity in their ranking algorithms. There are tools that measure various aspects of saturation and link popularity such as Link Popularity, Search Engine Saturation, Top 10 Google Analysis, and Marketeap’s Link Popularity.
Back End Tools: The back end tools in SEM include Web Analytics and HTML validators that provide data on a site and its visitors, and allow for site success to be accurately measured. Log file tools, simple counters, and more sophisticated tools based on page tagging are all tools used on the back end to deliver coversion-related information. Validators monitor the invisible parts of websites to highlight potential problems and usability issues. This helps to ensure that a site meets W3C code standards.
WhoIs Tools: These tools reveal the owners of various websites, and provide information relating to copyright and trademark issues.

Paid Inclusion

The need for search engine developers to turn a profit was the impetus behind the advent of what is known as paid inclusion. This is where a company is charged a fee by the search engine developer for the inclusion of their site in results pages. Paid inclusion products, also known as sponsored listings, are provided by search engine companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

Structured as both a filter against superfluous submissions and a revenue generator, the fee covers an annual subscription for one webpage that will automatically be catalogued regularly. Some companies have turned to a non-subscription based pay structure where listings are displayed permanently. A pay-per-click fee may apply in these instances. Search engines are all different. One may only offer paid inclusion, though this has been proven to be less successful, while others offer a mix of per-page and per-click fees with web crawling. Google does not allow webmasters to pay for listings, and advertisements are shown separately and labeled as such. The rise of paid inclusion has its detractors as well. Many believe that it causes results to be returned based more on the economic standing of the website’s interests, and less on the relevancy of the site to end-users.

The line between pay-per-click advertising and paid inclusion is debatable. There has been a move by some to insist that paid listings be labeled as advertisements. This move has been counteracted by others stating that since webmasters do not control the content of the listing, its ranking, or whether it is shown to any users it cannot be identified as an advertisement. The debate is still raging among SEM professionals. Yet, paid inclusion has advantages that cannot be denied. It allows site owners to specify schedules for crawling pages. Usually one has no control over when their page will be crawled, or even added to a search engine index. Paid inclusion is particularly useful when pages are generated dynamically and modified frequently.

Search engine optimization, of which paid inclusion is a part, allows firms to test different approaches to improve ranking, and see results within a couple of days instead of weeks or months. The knowledge gained from this experimentation can be used to optimize other pages without paying the search engine company for those as well.

SEO Comparison

Search engine marketing is the broad term that includes search engine optimization. SEM includes both paid search and organic search results. SEM uses paid advertising through services like Adwords, pay-per-click, and article submissions to ensure SEO has been done. Analysis is performed on the keywords in both SEM and SEO, but not necessarily simultaneously. SEM and SEO must be monitored and updated frequently to reflect evolving best practices.

There are certain contexts under which SEM is used exclusively to mean pay-per-click advertising. This is particularly true in the commercial advertising and marketing communities. The wider search marketing community is engaged in other forms of SEM such as search engine optimization and search retargeting.

The field of SEM contains the rapidly growing environment of social media marketing (SMM). SMM exploits social media sites to convince consumers that one company’s products or services are valuable. The field of SMM has experienced a broad range of theoretical advancements in its short lifespan. This includes search engine marketing management (SEMM). This relates to activities including SEO, but focuses on return on investment (ROI) management instead of relevant traffic building. It also integrates organic SEO in an attempt to get top ranking in search engines without using paid services or pay-per-click SEO. This is the future of SEM in the social media dominated world we live in.

Conclusion

The broad spectrum of services and firms that offer SEM to their clients is growing every day. This is a direct reflection of the industry’s growth as a whole, and its importance to the marketing community in terms of dollars spent by clients. The next few years will see an explosion of new methods and technologies that will allow a company’s marketing dollars to go further, and give clients the means to achieve their marketing goals without relying on traditional marketing. The future is now in SEM, and the future looks bright indeed.

Networking: Connecting the World One PC at a Time

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:44:00 +0000

February 6, 2013

Networking: Connecting the World One PC at a Time

by Spencer Wade

The Internet is an amazing piece of human creativity and ingenuity. It allows computers to be interconnected, share data, and work in harmony with one another to accomplish tasks via a network. What is a network? That is a question with a somewhat complex answer. A network is, by definition, a group of two or more computer systems linked together. There are many types of computer networks. These include:

Local-Area Networks (LANs): The computers in a LAN network must be located close together geographically. Almost 100% of the time these computers are in the same building.
Metropolitan-Area Networks (MANs): This is a data network designed for a large city or town.
Home-Area Networks (HANs): Any network contained within a home that connects a user’s digital devices.
Campus-Area Networks (CANs): The computers are all located within a defined geographical location. This area constitutes the perimeter of a campus or military base.
Wide-Area Networks (WANs): Computers are located far apart geographically, and are connected by telephone lines or radio waves.

There are also characteristics of networks, along with the specific type, that are used to categorize different networks. These characteristics cover everything from how the network is constructed to how it interacts with the other systems in the network. These characteristics include:

Topology: This is the geometric arrangement of a computer system. Common forms of topology include a bus, a ring, and a star.
Architecture: There are two broad classifications of networks all computer systems are broken into. These classifications are peer-to-peer and client/server architecture.
Protocol: The defined set of rules and signals computers on a network use to communicate is the protocol of the network. There are many forms of protocols used by networks today, and these vary from network to network. Popular forms include Ethernet and Token-Ring Networks.

Network software is a general phrase used for software designed to helpset up, manage, and monitor computer networks. There are software products and applications available to users today that are able to manage and monitor networks of all sizes. This means there is a software capable of managing the largest enterprise network all the way down to the smallest home.

A network computer is a generic term given to any computer with minimal memory, disk storage space, and processor power designed to connect to a network. The concept of a network computer is based on the assumption that many users who connect to a network do not need all the computer power normally associated with a personal computer. The network servers supply the necessary computing power for these users.

The old concept of diskless workstations, computers with no disk storage on their hard drives, became the basis of network computers. These computers are wholly dependent on the network servers to store any and all data. Network computers go one step further than diskless workstations by minimizing the amount of processor power and memory they need to do their tasks. Network computers are often called Net PCs, Internet appliances, or Internet boxes.

Network computers reduce the total cost of ownership for users. This is due to the fact that the machines are less expensive than their fully loaded counterparts. The savings in hardware alone can be extensive, but network computers also have another benefit. They can be administered and updated simultaneously from a central network server.

The information given concerning networks thus far has merely scratched the surface of what a network actually is. There is as much information about a specific network available to users as one could ever ask for, and more than one could ever hope to digest in a short period of time. There is also an abundance of terminology that goes with networking. For example, computers on a network are often referred to as nodes, and devices that allocate resources for a network are called servers. These are just two of the countless terms associated with computer networking.

Network Security In A Nutshell

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:41:00 +0000

February 5, 2013

Network Security In A Nutshell

by Spencer Wade

There are many questions one finds themselves asking when network security is the topic of discussion. The most obvious questions would be what network security actually is, how it functions to protect you, how it works, and what the benefits are for business. These seem straightforward and easy to answer, but a trusted IT partner should be consulted to answer these questions for you.

Most small and medium-sized businesses do not have the IT resources of larger companies, so network security is not always sufficient to protect these companies from threats. Larger companies can afford the sizeable budgetary concerns that arise from strict security protocols. This desire of major firms has had an excellent secondary effect on the industry. It has advanced the science of security and lowered the cost for technological defenses against outside threats. This means small to medium-sized businesses can now afford the same level of security larger companies have come to expect over the years.

What Is Network Security?

The answer to the question, “what is network security?” is very simple. Network security is defined as any and all activities designed to protect your network. These activities protect the integrity, safety, reliability, and usability of your network and data. Security that effectively protects a network targets threats and eliminates them before they can enter your network and spread.

What Is Network Security and How Does It Protect You?

The next question to address is, “what are the threats to my network?” There are many answers to this question, and none of them are good for companies. Many threats to networks spread over Internet connections, and since all business today is conducted via the web our networks are susceptible to attack. The most common of these threats include:

Viruses, Worms, and Trojan Horses
Data Interception and Theft
Denial of Service Issues
Zero-Day Attacks
Hackers
Spyware and Adware
Identity Theft

How Does Network Security Work?

Understanding network security is realizing that no single solution will ever protect against a variety of threats. Effective network security consists of multiple layers, so that if one layer fails there is another to take its place. Hardware and software are the tools used to achieve network security, and these must be updated and managed regularly to maintain a high level of protection for systems and data. New threats emerge continuously, and the security software must be able to counteract whatever it faces. Network security systems consist of many components, but none more important than the software and its updates. When these components work together they minimize maintenance and improve security. A list of some of these components follows:

Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware
Firewall
Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

What are the Business Benefits of Network Security?

There are many benefits to your business adopting a network security system. The company will be protected against disruption from outside sources, and this will keep the workforce more productive. It will also allow the company to meet mandatory regulatory compliance with state and federal agencies. Most importantly, it will protect your customer’s data thereby safeguarding against legal action due to data theft. This kind of protection is priceless when considering possible damage to the company’s reputation.

How Security Pays Off

Businesses today require a network security system even if they do not rely heavily on the Internet. Partners, customers, and vendors will expect you to protect any and all information they share with you. The fact that network security has become a must for all businesses is not a bad thing when you look closely at the potential payoffs a company can expect to see. Here are just a few secured network benefits:

Customer Trust
Privacy Assurance
Encouraged Collaboration

Taking a strong stance on security assures customers that all sensitive information they share with you is safe from access and exploitation. This includes everything from personal information to credit card numbers. This will foster an atmosphere conducive to partners sharing more sensitive information like sales forecasts or pre-release product plans with you that may help to do business with them. The same security that protects the information they share also allows your partners to access your network securely, and this will make greater collaboration possible.

Final Thoughts

Network security has become more than a luxury. It is essential to all companies looking to do business in the globalized world of today. As a certified CompTIA Security+ IT professional I can tell you that security is one of the fastest growing fields in IT. Security threats are increasing in number and severity, and there is an enormous gap between IT professionals working in the field and IT personnel needed. This means enormous opportunity for both the IT professional and the companies looking to protect themselves from the threats they face. Even in the face of difficult economic times companies are looking to increase their security budgets. This shows precisely why network security is so important to both companies and IT professionals.

Google Analytics: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:37:00 +0000

February 4, 2013

Google Analytics: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

by Spencer Wade

Analytics is defined as the discovery and communication of patterns found in data. This is most valuable in areas saturated with recorded information, and relies on statistics, operations research, and computer programming to gauge performance. Google Analytics is the focus of this blog, and it favors data visualization to communicate its discovered insights.

The newest version of Google Analytics, released to users in phases from 2010 to 2011, is an excellent tool for analyzing data related to website productivity. It is made up of a plethora of cutting-edge features including an intelligence engine that is second to none, custom variables, expanded goals, mobile reporting, and many more. This blog includes some screenshots of the new and improved Google Analytics, and defines, to the best of its ability, the uses and benefits of the interface.

Navigation

The newest version of Google Analytics has adopted the look and feel of the Google navigation bar released in February of 2010. The new navigation bar focuses on the following selections:

1.) Account Home: This is where all the accessible accounts are found.

2.) Dashboards: This is the page containing all the dashboards available for a specific account.

3.) My Site: All reports can be found on this page divided between reports and intelligence.

4.) Custom Reports: This page allows creation and management of custom reports.

5.) Account Manager: All accounts with user access are listed with links on this page.

6.) Settings: Page containing all accounts with administrator access where settings may be changed.

Account Home

Google Analytics v4 changed the face of the Account Home page. It became a dashboard display, and the ability to see metrics on this page was lost. However, Google has replaced the metrics with links that can be used to access specific reports pertaining to a chosen profile. The icons on the page will link to the main reporting tabs: traffic sources, content, conversions, and visitors.

Improved, Multiple Dashboards

One of the best features of Google Analytics is the ability to create multiple dashboards. Each dashboard may contain a set of any graphs the user chooses. This feature is excellent for large organizations that have many employees because it allows them to use the tools for their own specific work-related needs. Dashboards can be set by hierarchy, department, interest, or any other rule the user deems appropriate. As can be seen in the screenshot below, Google’s naming convention has been adopted in Analytics, so all boxes are now called widgets. The widgets are significantly more customizable than in the past, and it is now possible to define which metric will be seen as well as which visualization you prefer.

The dashboard functionality is excellent with one glaring exception; no button for adding reports to the dashboard. Traditionally, there was always a button in all reports allowing reports to be added, but it has been removed by Google for reasons only they understand. This means that the process of adding reports to the dashboard is more difficult than in previous versions.

Report Nomenclature

BUsers of past versions of Google Analytics will notice that, with changes to the interface, the names of reports have been changed. These names may sound a bit strange to those accustomed to the older versions, but the changes were made to make the names more accurate and intuitive. Here are a few examples:

Technology tab contains Network Properties and Browser Capabilities tabs.
Pages tab contains the Top Content tab.
Goals tab is now Conversions tab.
Engagement tab now contains Visit Duration and Page Depth tabs.

User Interface Improvements

In the screenshot below, the Google Analytics user interface can be seen, and the improvements made since the last version should be clear to previous users.

Conclusion

The release of the updated and improved Google Analytics tool is incredibly significant news for users and the industry in general. Google has raised the bar once again when it comes to usability and data visualization. There are, unfortunately, some issues that need to be addressed by Google as soon as possible. These issues range from importing campaign data into Google Analytics to the usage of Adsense clicks as ecommerce transactions. Once these issues have been addressed Google Analytics will be as perfect a system for users as can be constructed in today’s technological climate. In closing, Google has given users tools to make their lives easier, and for that they receive an excellent rating from this user.

SEOmoz: A Path to Power in Search Engine Optimization

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:30:00 +0000

February 3, 2013

SEOmoz: A Path to Power in Search Engine Optimization

by Spencer Wade

SEOmoz is one of the great names in SEO. Founded by Rand Fishkin, it has grown into the best website for SEO beginners. They have also developed online SEO tools that are possibly the best that can be found.

SEOmoz is an incredible asset due to the tremendous amount of free SEO information that can be accessed through their site. The SEOmoz blog is always full of SEO tips and case studies, and their Whiteboard Friday is an awesome resource.

The SEOmoz site offers a paid member option called SEOmoz Pro. This membership gives full access to the SEOmoz suite of tools, and, more importantly, gives members entry into advanced SEO training workshops and training courses. The company offers a 30 day free trial of SEOmoz PRO, so sign up and play around with it to see if it’s right for you.

“Effectively Manage Your SEO” is the caption found on the SEOmoz homepage. In order to facilitate management of your SEO, the site gives users the ability to create campaigns for the different sites you own. As a PRO member, you can create up to 5 campaigns. This will help you in many ways when dealing with SEO.

Rank Tracking

The first step in improving your search engine rankings is knowing where your pages rank for specific keywords. Tracking your rankings over time will show you exactly how your SEO efforts are affecting your keyword rankings. SEOmoz Pro allows tracking of keyword rankings in Google, Yahoo, and Bing. It also allows you to view your rankings over time in charts designed to display the results found.

SEOmoz Pro makes it possible to connect your Google Analytics account to SEOmoz. This gives the user traffic stats for different keywords. This feature can be used to identify keywords that do not rank high, but still give the site some traffic. Focusing SEO efforts on these keywords can boost traffic for the site once the rankings have improved. The only negative in this area is that rankings are only updated once a week; daily reports would be much more helpful.

On-Page SEO Reports

On-Page SEO Reports are very useful tools. They become even more important if you are new to SEO. Basically, a report will tell you how optimized your pages are for a specific keyword. The report gives results in a letter grade format; from A to F. The factors used to determine your grade are also given in detail. The factors are categorized by importance, so focusing SEO efforts on the most egregious errors will greatly aid in improving your search engine rankings.

Upon completion of site setup, the SEOmoz crawler will analyze your site for SEO related issues. These issues are displayed in one of three different categories depending on what type of issue is found. These categories are errors, warnings, and notices.

The findings of the Crawler can be quite important to fix. Issues like duplicate content and broken links can cause serious problems for an SEO user. The Crawler is able to identify these issues so that they can be rectified efficiently. Once issues are identified and remedied, your site will never again miss out on all the potential revenue lost to these mistakes.

Link Analysis

The Link Analysis feature is a standalone tool powered by SEOmoz’s incredible Linkscape Database. This database boasts an amazing 1.2 trillion crawled URLs in its inventory! This is an awesome collection of data that is available to all SEOmoz users.

Using a variety of metrics, the Link Analysis Tool compares your domain with up to three different competitors. These include SEOmoz’s proprietary metrics such as Domain Authority, MozRank, Page Authority, and MozTrust. It also displays other important metrics like total links you have, number of linking root domains, and number of class C blocks that are linking to you. You can also check the backlinks to your site and your competitor’s sites. By studying the external links you can do a comprehensive competitive analysis on your competitor’s linking profile. This will allow you to see where your competitors are getting links from, and find sources of links that you can use as well.

Other SEOmoz Offerings

Up to this point, I have only brushed the surface of what SEOmoz offers. The examples listed represent only a small portion of the available tools found at the site, and the descriptions given are only basic in their scope. SEOmoz Pro offers a Q&A Forum where users can get answers to all their questions. There is an extremely large, active, and helpful community of SEO professionals found there that are ready, willing, and able to lend their expertise to any issue you may face after becoming a member.

The forums you find there are full of information. These forums are set up to be browsed for answers to commonly asked questions, or you can ask specific questions that pertain to issues that are not listed on the board.

SEOmoz hosts webinars for its Pro members every month. These webinars focus on SEO or marketing topics, and end with an extended Q&A session. All in all the webinars average 90 minutes, and are full of useful information for SEO professionals and novices alike. These webinars are also archived at the site for easy viewing at any time, so even if you cannot make the start time for a particular webinar you can still watch it.

Final Thoughts

SEOmoz is a site that is well worth your exploration, and the Pro membership, for anyone serious about SEO, is well worth the cost. The tools are of the highest quality and their usefulness is beyond question. As a SEO consultant or provider, the Pro membership is a necessity. It will prove its worth on a daily basis in innumerable ways, and will open up revenue streams for you and your clients you had never dreamed possible.