tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60236512007-05-25T11:35:15.015-06:00International PEG of the NSABlogger55125This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1131986679916534912005-11-14T09:42:00.000-07:002006-12-20T03:13:07.730-07:00

Heard the term 'Phishing' but not quite sure what it means? Phishing refers to the evil attempt by crooks to steal your identity by using fear tactics to overcome your common sense. This image represents a 'phishing' expedition for the account information of eBay users... Click on image to see it full size (opens new window) How do you tell if it's a 'phish' or not (other than its rancid

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1142959808730182872006-03-21T09:43:00.000-07:002006-03-21T09:50:08.743-07:00

For My Latest Posts Go to http://www.gemsolv.com/wordpress I switched to WordPress a few weeks ago and transferred all of my past posts to my new blogging platform. It's great & I highly recommend it. They have both a server based version that you load to your own web site (your or your ISP's server) or a hosted solution (similar to Blogger.com) that you post to. I started with the latter to see

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1140625834986081082006-02-22T09:21:00.000-07:002006-02-22T09:30:35.000-07:00

Well, I'm getting closer to shutting down this form of my blog as yesterday I installed WordPress to my site and transferred the content from this blog to that. From now on all new content will be posted there. Go to http://www.gemsolv.com/wordpress for my latest posts including what happens when your SEO runs afoul of Google ... Blogger has been a great tool for getting started with blogging

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1139361537126301062006-02-07T18:07:00.000-07:002006-02-07T18:18:57.180-07:00

Worried your mom, girlfriend, hubby or grand dad is going to run afoul of those nefarious phishers? The friendly folks at the FTC have your back, dude. Check this out. Finally, government that works! Click the friendly phish below... Thanks for reading... tom.gray@gemsolv.com GeMSolv.com

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1139328636030043212006-02-07T08:54:00.000-07:002006-02-07T09:17:30.620-07:00

Alright, look down. What color are your socks? Brown? Okay. What color are your pants? Blue? Errrr ... okay, no worries--here's the tool for you, an easy-to-use and free on-line color matching application from the makers of Color Schemer Studio. You simply pick a core color from its palette and it provides you a complete range of complementary colors along with their RGB and HEX numbers. So

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1139248007126438692006-02-07T08:53:00.000-07:002006-02-07T08:53:04.990-07:00

Somebody commented to me the other day on how cool the Apple iPod's navigations system is. His comment caught me by surprise because I hadn't really thought about whether it was cool or not. It just made sense. Like all good design there is a heavy dose of intuitiveness built in. I don't need to read the manual, go to a class or call tech support to figure out how it works. Rather it's, "Just a

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1134279186845033472006-02-06T08:43:00.000-07:002006-02-06T08:43:49.286-07:00

No, this is not the path I took to my car after yesterday's Super Bowl party! What it actually represents is a fairly simplistic model of the most common eye-movement pattern of a group of browsers viewing a web page. This research was compiled by the Eyetrack III team and released by The Poynter Institute, the Estlow Center for

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1139097887057299122006-02-04T16:52:00.000-07:002006-02-04T17:10:10.416-07:00

eMarketer Daily reports that while price is still the main factor in driving site commerce, good site design is good for business too. The article identifies several Critical Factors that influence your shopper's purchase decision... Prices :: 68% Shipping options :: 44% Product descriptions :: 38% Site Navigation :: 37% Checkout process :: 32% So before slashing your prices, consider

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1134481427160775432006-02-04T12:36:00.000-07:002006-02-04T12:37:38.226-07:00

No surprise here but content rules on the web according to Joel Walsh writing on webmasterbrain.com. Last June, Joel did a survey of "Google's top five pages for the five most searched-on keywords". What he found was that the writing quality of the content on these pages was significantly and consistently better than the content on pages that didn't make the grade (or rank, as it were). Common

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1138993738548660642006-02-03T11:16:00.000-07:002006-02-03T12:10:50.963-07:00

The pace of change on the net continues unabated. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water along comes a new term to baffle you. Wiki Wiki - means quick in Hawaiian and a Wiki describes a blog-like web authoring technology whose principal use has been to allow collaboration between small (think a corporate project team) to large (think Wikipedia) groups of users. Urban

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1138815326562726042006-02-01T10:35:00.000-07:002006-02-01T10:56:32.943-07:00

Saw something cool the other day at a conference I was attending. The keynote speaker demonstrated his Virtual Laser Keyboard. While I'd seen pics of this device, I'd never actually seen one in action. Pretty slick. It uses a laser to project a standard keyboard interface onto a flat surface like a hotel desktop or airplane tray table along with an invisible infrared plane of light that actually

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1138387153027197012006-01-27T09:25:00.000-07:002006-01-27T12:04:39.350-07:00

In my practice I work with several professional speakers. A great group of people and fun to work with. There is a website and weekly ezine publication from SpeakerNet News that has been successful in serving the speaking world by offering a forum for speaker provided tips, tricks, hints and advice on everything from how to get the best deals on travel (which they do a lot of) to how to

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1138315830373911432006-01-26T15:03:00.000-07:002006-01-26T20:51:51.640-07:00

Have you ever been in a foreign country and tried to buy something from a clerk who didn't speak your language? It wasn't easy, was it? Particularly if it was a more complex sell; something more than pointing to a piece of Apfelstrüdel (Apple Strudel)in a Patisserie (bakery) with one hand while holding out a handful of Euros in your other. Frustrating, wasn't it. Why? Because without the seller

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1138133620792062392006-01-24T12:40:00.000-07:002006-01-24T13:19:44.640-07:00

I was recently reminded of a study that Jakob Nielsen published several years ago on how browsers view web pages. Nielsen, long considered to be the leading guru of web usability, found that only 16% of visitors read a page word-for-word while 79% only scan the content. What are the implications for your site? If you want to make it relevant to your visitors you should make it scannable through

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1137084880308069992006-01-12T09:08:00.000-07:002006-01-12T09:54:40.376-07:00

I'll admit it. I'm a huge Firefox fan. Me and about 100,000,000 other downloaders of this browser built the way a browser should be built. The small footprint, ease of use, tabbed browsing and incredibly customizable functionality via extensions and the like are just a few of the compelling reasons to make the switch. And even if you don't switch, make sure your site is Firefox compliant which

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1136477160745382652006-01-05T08:14:00.000-07:002006-01-05T15:43:22.506-07:00

According to a study released last fall by search marketing authority, iProspect, investing in organic, or natural, search may be the most prudent use of your search marketing dollars. By a better than 3 to 1 margin marketers surveyed stated that organic search optimization led to a higher ROI than did paid search (e.g., pay-per-click ads on Yahoo! and Google). Be aware that these were marketers

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1136404275778890752006-01-04T12:39:00.000-07:002006-01-04T12:51:15.820-07:00

EmailLabs reports that 51% of marketing-oriented email is sent between 8am and noon. More email is sent Tuesday but Wednesday earns the highest open rates, averaging close to 23%. Why? Probably because subscribers are catching up. What's this mean to your email campaigns? It gives you a place to start. Try testing different days and times for your communications and see if there is a significant

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1135729378690199292005-12-27T17:09:00.000-07:002005-12-27T17:22:58.733-07:00

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, has a new blog. His first post affirms the old saying that, 'the more things change, the more things stay the same.' He opens with an interesting bit of history in describing the purpose of the first browser... In 1989 one of the main objectives of the WWW was to be a space for sharing information. It seemed evident that it should be a space in which anyone

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1135707745942990032005-12-27T11:10:00.000-07:002005-12-27T11:22:25.953-07:00

According to Technorati (October 2005), less than 5% of us do so to make money. I think that, at least from a business blogging perspective, this is a little misleading. While many of us, I for one, would report that we want the "visibility as an authority" that 34% selected; why we want that visibility is no doubt to make money. Oddly enough, people pay authorities, aka experts, in their field

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1134738026155995512005-12-16T05:22:00.000-07:002005-12-16T06:00:26.216-07:00

I was working with a bike shop recently with an interesting problem. They had a snail mail list of over 10,000 names that they'd acquired over the years they'd been in business. While they periodically mailed the list with a newsletter or a promotion, this occured less than they'd like because of the expense involved. The solution was obvious, email the list instead but, as they'd never collected

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1134480971864578882005-12-13T06:35:00.000-07:002005-12-13T16:28:14.116-07:00

...and What it Means for the Internet Marketer...Googles new web clips service allows you to scroll RSS or Atom feeds above your inbox and messages. With Web Clips you can track your favorite blogs (like this one!!!), news, sports or anything else that has a feed attached to it. (NOTE: Don't know what RSS - Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication - is? Then click here for an easy

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1134397620659975192005-12-12T07:22:00.000-07:002005-12-12T07:28:16.956-07:00

Web site owners call me up and ask me to help them get more traffic to their site. But here's the thing. You can generate all the traffic in the world to your site and, if nobody buys, then what good does it do? They come.They look.They say yech!They hit the back button.Unless what you're peddling is so compelling, unique or of such incredible value, people will leave, and quickly; within 8

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1134393703233509392005-12-12T06:10:00.000-07:002005-12-12T06:30:05.710-07:00

File this under "DOH!—Why didn't I think of this and make a million dollars?" Great idea for those of us struggling to plug in all of our brick-style power adapters into one 5 outlet power strip. Yeah, right! Some genius came up with the ingenious Power Squid (available through ThinkGeek.com). I'm ordering mine today. Thanks for reading... tom.gray@gemsolv.com GeMSolv.com

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1134315706173739892005-12-11T08:41:00.000-07:002005-12-11T08:43:19.730-07:00

Are you visual? Do you like toys? Do you need a website developed or redeveloped? Then check out PingMag's very funky overview of the web site development process from the 3 inch high perspective of little Lego(tm)-like characters.

International PEG of the NSAtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023651.post-1134167299778962342005-12-09T14:58:00.000-07:002005-12-09T15:44:02.506-07:00

How do you build an email list? The simplest way is to ask. Ask who? Your existing customers for starters. Oh, and when you ask, offer something of value in return. The Oven (a great little pizza restaurant in Lakewood, CO) distributes a simple email sign-up form with all their meal checks. It's simple, it stands out and it offers to keep patrons informed of "events, specials and new dishes" if

International PEG of the NSA