AGENCY 3.0 - Our Blog

Happy Valentine's Day

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:34:00 PST

Happy Valentine's Day from the team at AGENCY 3.0!

Cloaking: What's Cloaking? and why Google hates it.

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:34:00 PDT

Matt Cutts, the head of Google's Web Spam team, posted an informational video about Cloaking today. The video is below and we've summarized the main points for you. Cloaking is basically showing content to users that is different than the content you show to Google. We see (and hear questions about) this all the time. People are always asking us whether they can just include a ton of keywords in the code and hide it from the user - this is cloaking. Watch the video for more...

Platform Update: Customer Database Enhancements

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:51:00 PDT

We'll be rolling out some new features to all Platform subscribers this week. This free upgrade will include major enhancements to the customer database and how the application can be integrated with web forms. In addition, the update will include a new "site settings" panel, blog author enhancements and a number of usability enhancements. Customer Database Enhancements This update will allow site owners to collect additional information in standard web forms and have that information update...

Platform Update: Modules, Mobile and More

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:17:00 PDT

During a recent upgrade, we rolled out a number of new features for all of our Business Platform subscribers. This update included enhancements to the modules functionality, mobile-friendly template support, customizable URL's for web apps and better integration of social sharing tools. Modules Modules can now be inserted inside of other modules and content holders. In addition, modules can now be inserted in blog posts and web app list and detail views. Mobile Template Support More and more...

The Benefits Of Email Marketing

Wed, 25 May 2011 07:32:00 PDT

Email marketing is a cost effective way to stay in touch with your clients and reach out to new prospects. Here are a few reasons you might want to use email marketing in your own business. Email marketing is inexpensive - You don't have to pay for printing or postage when you are using email to communicate with prospects, the press or clients. Sure, you might have to pay a designer to help create a stellar design, but you don't need to pay printing costs for each run or pay for...

Meet Ella - Our Official Mascot

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:17:00 PST

We recently launched a brand new website and everyone seems to be curious about the adorable pooch resting at the bottom of every page. Meet Ella, our official mascot. Ella is a four and a half year old Portuguese Water Dog. If you are not familiar with the breed, Portuguese Water Dogs are originally from the Portuguese region of the Algarve. They are working dogs and were originally taught to herd fish in the the net's of local fisherman, retrieve broken nets and tackle or act as a courier...

Adding Social Media Tools To Your Website

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:16:00 PST

Social Media is everywhere! If you turn on CNN, the pundits mention their Twitter account. Television commercials and print advertisements are starting to point people to Facebook pages instead of websites. More and more businesses are setting up Facebook pages every day. Professionals in every type of business are creating LinkedIn profiles and sharing information with their peers. If you have a static website that reads like a brochure, it might be time to consider going social. Should you...

The Handspring Puppet Company

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:18:00 PDT

In honor of April Fool's Day, we wanted to share something fun and creative with you. We planned on posting some elaborate joke or unbelievable story and then revealing the "surprise" at the end of the day, but it seems like these corny jokes are a dime a dozen today. So, no jokes from us today. Instead, we hope to get a smile from you with this. This video shows amazing creativity, inspiration, fun and beauty and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. If you really want an April's Fool...

Turn Your Facebook Profile Into A Page

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:15:00 PST

Facebook profiles can now be turned into Facebook Pages. Many businesses created Facebook accounts before Facebook created "Pages". This means that a number of businesses have "personal" Facebook accounts that they use to communicate with their clients and network. In the past, if these businesses wanted to create a Facebook Page they would risk losing a number of their fans because the old fans may not go through the extra step of "liking" the new Facebook Page. Today Facebook launched a...

Simple Website Design Solutions

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:14:00 PST

Nick DeVita is a professional actor based in New York City. He needed a simple website to showcase his past work and provide easy access to his resume, headshots and other information. Instead of proposing a complex solution that would have been costly and difficult to maintain, we listened to what he needed and proposed a very inexpensive solution that can grow with him over time. His new website is built on the Wordpress content management system and it integrates his latest Tweets, a...

The Website Wrecking Ball

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:14:00 PST

Want to have a little fun? Click this little link and you can unleash a virtual wrecking ball on our website. Actually, you can unleash this little wrecking ball on any website. Drag this link to your bookmarks bar: Katamari! Or copy and paste this url into the location bar on any site: javascript:var...

Platform Update: Google Maps API Issue

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:13:00 PST

We are currently experiencing a problem on some websites that use the Google Maps API to display data stored in a Web Application. The "marker" that indicates a specific location on the map is not loading properly due to a change in the javascript used to render the maps. The maps are displaying and the markers of the shadows are displaying, but the marker itself is missing. This issue is currently being corrected and we anticipate rolling out a fix for this later this week. Please bookmark...

Platform Update: April System Upgrades

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:12:00 PST

UPDATE (3/17/11 3PM EST): System update has been completed with issues. All systems are now operational, but Refer to a friend from custom web forms are NOT sending emails at this point. This issue is going to be fixed tomorrow. UPDATE (3/16/11 9:00AM EST): This system update has been postponed. During the upgrade procedure we encountered some issues. We rolled back the upgrade and will reschedule this. We will post an update when more information is available. We are rolling out a system...

Google Places - Local Search Visibility

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:12:00 PST

Google Places is Google's local business directory service. This service allows you to list your business in the Google Places directory and appear when people search for businesses like yours in your area. It is a very powerful way to highlight the location of your business, verify information about your business with Google so you can be found, allow your customers to connect with your business online and keep track of how people are using your listing so you can make informed marketing...

Our new Facebook page

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:11:00 PST

We recently launched a brand new page on Facebook and we hope you connect with us on the popular social platform. Why we created a Facebook Page We plan to use the Facebook page to share important announcements, events and more. We hope it becomes a great tool for us to share useful information with you. In the unlikely case that our website is not accessible, we will use the Facebook page to communicate system updates and important information. Even if you are not a Facebook member you...

Ridding The World Of Internet Explorer 6

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:10:00 PST

Microsoft released Internet Explorer version 6 ten years ago. As the world wide web has evolved, the code we use to develop websites has changed. Unfortunately, modern websites don't always play well with older version of web browsers. Microsoft recently launched a new website to help motivate people to switch from IE6 to a newer version of the software. According to Microsoft, even though IE8 is the current version of the software 12% of users are still using the old version of the...

Platform Update: Security Enhancements

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:34:00 PST

We are committed to providing a secure infrastructure for your Business Platform websites. In April we are rolling out some changes that will increase the security of sensitive information transmitted via your website. Our infrastructure is already incredibly secure (we've never experienced a single successful hack) and we are fully PCI compliant. These changes will only improve upon our already secure platform and help you better protect sensitive website user information like email addresses,...

Bing versus Yahoo - Who is winning the race for second place?

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:08:00 PST

In a new report from Statcounter, a free online visitor stats tool, the company breaks down marketshare for the major search engines. The report includes a few significant facts. Worldwide Search Traffic Bing is now more popular than Yahoo!. According to the press release, Bing overtook Yahoo! as the second most popular search tool worldwide. 4.37% of global search traffic goes to Bing. Yahoo! gets 3.93% of global search traffic. The clear winner in this is Google with 89.94% of global search...

Platform Update: System update planned for Feb 28th, 2011

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:34:00 PST

Business Platform subscribers are going to receive a minor upgrade on Feb 28th. This upgrade will include improvements to email campaigns and changes to the ecommerce and web apps systems. This update will not require any changes on your site, but might affect your use of the system in the future. Email Marketing Changes We are adding a new feature that will create a global black list for email campaigns: bounced emails due to "mail box unavailable" or "user does not exist" errors will be...