Alt News, Featuring Malaysia Web Design And Web Marketing Trends

Do You Need a Reason To Involve Twitter?

Jeremy Chan — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 07:52:27 +0000

For those who are active on Facebook, it is hard to get their attention to involving Twitter. The 140 text character limitation is not user-friendly for some users. After today’s incident, we found a good reason to join Twitter.

When both Instagram and Facebook are down for some unknown reasons, within few minutes #facebookdown and
#instagramdown #hastags have become trending tweets. Twitter pick up as mainstream social platform for users to communicate if ever the Facebook and Instagram are down.

Difference between facebook vs google marketing

Jeremy Chan — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 08:07:49 +0000

This is hot debate question in forum “Do I need to focus on Facebook marketing or Google marketing?” which strategy work best for my business.

Facebook is a more relationship building site where you are advertising to build a relationship for your market.
- It is a good way to keep your fans stay update, effective then newsletter subscription
- Targeting referring business
- Accumulate number of like lead brand impression
- Facebook ads is demographic targeted

Google is more of market search in need, where people are searching the specific keyword for products or services. For example a user search for car rental services means he need a car, or he search for mortgage loan when he plan to buy a house.

- Expand wider market with different keyword
- better drive clicks and conversions
- instant way to grow sale

Both are different tools with different ways of reaching people, conversion rates will differ as well as value.

How To Use Google Advanced Search Operator

Jeremy Chan — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 05:30:58 +0000

Some people have approached us saying “I can’t find the required result in Google”. Google can search more results than we might expect. General keyword searches only return broad results, for a more niche result we have to use ‘operators’ for advance search. For example, a “filetype:pdf site:gov.my act” search will only show all pdf acts released by the Government of Malaysia.

When we change the pdf operator to filetype:doc site:gov.my act, it only returns search results with doc files.

Google operator search

It is hard to remember all search operator in one go, alternatively we can visit this URL https://www.google.com/advanced_search for advance search.

How To Start A Business With Limited Capital?

Jeremy Chan — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 04:19:21 +0000

If you have a great business idea but lack funding, what can you do? OM/ONE is a good case study. They created a prototype video to grow public awareness and collect feedback, then they raised funds with donations and a pre-order strategy.

Different users may want different rewards, so Om Audio came up with a creative way to ask for funds:

Donate without reward
1USD – Our thanks and your name listed on our website
25USD – T-Shirt
179USD – The standard speaker + T-Shirt (created urgency by limiting it to the first 1000 supporters)
299USD – Premium design speaker
329USD – Standard speaker + limited edition T-Shirt
529USD – Premium design speaker + limited edition T-Shirt
1000USD – 2 Custom design speakers (pick your own color) + T-Shirt
3,000USD – Join the founder for dinner + limited edition speaker + T-shirt

The project was a success, and funds raised exceeded the base request.

How To Create Text Art / ASCII Art

Jeremy Chan — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 09:41:33 +0000

What is Text Art / ASCII Art?

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) art, text art, or word art, is the process of forming pictures from the 128 characters available in the ASCII chart. Those characters including numbers 0-9, letters a-z, A-Z, punctuation symbols and blank space.

ASCII Chart

Binary	Oct	Dec	Hex	Glyph
010 0000	040	32	20	(space)
010 0001	041	33	21	!
010 0010	042	34	22	“
010 0011	043	35	23	#
010 0100	044	36	24	$
010 0101	045	37	25	%
010 0110	046	38	26	&
010 0111	047	39	27	‘
010 1000	050	40	28	(
010 1001	051	41	29	)
010 1010	052	42	2A	*
010 1011	053	43	2B	+
010 1100	054	44	2C	,
010 1101	055	45	2D	-
010 1110	056	46	2E	.
010 1111	057	47	2F	/
011 0000	060	48	30	0
011 0001	061	49	31	1
011 0010	062	50	32	2
011 0011	063	51	33	3
011 0100	064	52	34	4
011 0101	065	53	35	5
011 0110	066	54	36	6
011 0111	067	55	37	7
011 1000	070	56	38	8
011 1001	071	57	39	9
011 1010	072	58	3A	:
011 1011	073	59	3B	;
011 1100	074	60	3C	<
011 1101	075	61	3D	=
011 1110	076	62	3E	>
011 1111	077	63	3F	?

Binary	Oct	Dec	Hex	Glyph
100 0000	100	64	40	@
100 0001	101	65	41	A
100 0010	102	66	42	B
100 0011	103	67	43	C
100 0100	104	68	44	D
100 0101	105	69	45	E
100 0110	106	70	46	F
100 0111	107	71	47	G
100 1000	110	72	48	H
100 1001	111	73	49	I
100 1010	112	74	4A	J
100 1011	113	75	4B	K
100 1100	114	76	4C	L
100 1101	115	77	4D	M
100 1110	116	78	4E	N
100 1111	117	79	4F	O
101 0000	120	80	50	P
101 0001	121	81	51	Q
101 0010	122	82	52	R
101 0011	123	83	53	S
101 0100	124	84	54	T
101 0101	125	85	55	U
101 0110	126	86	56	V
101 0111	127	87	57	W
101 1000	130	88	58	X
101 1001	131	89	59	Y
101 1010	132	90	5A	Z
101 1011	133	91	5B	[
101 1100	134	92	5C	\
101 1101	135	93	5D	]
101 1110	136	94	5E	^
101 1111	137	95	5F	_

Binary	Oct	Dec	Hex	Glyph
110 0000	140	96	60	`
110 0001	141	97	61	a
110 0010	142	98	62	b
110 0011	143	99	63	c
110 0100	144	100	64	d
110 0101	145	101	65	e
110 0110	146	102	66	f
110 0111	147	103	67	g
110 1000	150	104	68	h
110 1001	151	105	69	i
110 1010	152	106	6A	j
110 1011	153	107	6B	k
110 1100	154	108	6C	l
110 1101	155	109	6D	m
110 1110	156	110	6E	n
110 1111	157	111	6F	o
111 0000	160	112	70	p
111 0001	161	113	71	q
111 0010	162	114	72	r
111 0011	163	115	73	s
111 0100	164	116	74	t
111 0101	165	117	75	u
111 0110	166	118	76	v
111 0111	167	119	77	w
111 1000	170	120	78	x
111 1001	171	121	79	y
111 1010	172	122	7A	z
111 1011	173	123	7B	{
111 1100	174	124	7C	\|
111 1101	175	125	7D	}
111 1110	176	126	7E	~

The Steps Create Text Art / ASCII Art

1. Download the tool:
There are many online tool can create text graphic, but we prefer Ascii Generator 2. It is open source and free for offline usage.

2. After installation, open the tool and load image

3. Save the file

4. To publish the text Art as web, please select XHTML

Demo graphic: Cristiano Ronaldo

Was Your Site Penalized By Google? How To Resolve This?

Jeremy Chan — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 05:04:07 +0000

Recently one of our internal projects, ablynet.com was manually penalized by Google. This is serious because the site will not receive any organic traffic from Google. Imagine if this happened to a website that relies heavily on Google traffic, the business may face huge revenue losses or even shutdown.

In this post, we want to share our experience and the steps taken to recover from manual spam. If you are wondering whether your site has violated Google webmaster guidelines, identify the issue with the following steps:

1. Directly search for the domain name. If nothing is found, it is likely that the domain has been completely removed in search queries.

no result found for ablynet.

no result found for ableynet.com

no result found for site:ableynet.com

2. In Analytics, we found a huge drop in traffic, from 3000+ to 800+.

3. Webmaster tool also indicates dramatically drop on both web impression and clicks.

4. Then, oh no!! We checked and found this Webmaster Tools notification:- http://www.ablynet.com/: Site quality issues.

Google has detected that some of your pages may be using techniques that are outside our Webmaster Guidelines. The site has pure spam and as a result, Google applied a manual spam action to ablynet.com/. There may be other actions on your site or parts of your site. Recommended action: Update your site so that it meets Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Once you’ve made these changes, submit a reconsideration request.

Steps to resolve the problem:

1. Once we identified the problem, we quickly took the necessary action, shut down ablynet.com and created all new content.

2. Then we submitted ablynet.com for reconsideration

We told Google that we have taken action against the spam site, and sent the following message in Webmaster Tools.

“The previous project (Ablynet Social Media Site) was hacked by automated link submission tools. Every day, we received huge numbers of spam link submissions for approval, some links even bypassed our approval process and were published automatically. To clean up the site, we have completely revamped the site.”

3. We immediately received a response from Google, notifying us that they will review our request.

4. Two days later, we finally received confirmation that the manual spam action was revoked.

The entire process:

After all that, ablynet.com‘s traffic has still not recovered and none of the results are found in Google. As per a Webmaster Tools message, while there are no manual actions on your site, there may be other issues that could affect your site’s ranking or how it appears in the search results. Google determines the order of search results using more than 200 different signals.

We guess ablynet.com is in the sandbox again, and it will take time for Google algorithms to reevaluate and reposition the ranking. We will do a follow up post on the traffic recovery process soon.

Apple Swift Programming As A Replacement For Objective-C

Jeremy Chan — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 05:30:22 +0000

Objective-C was created by Brad Cox and Tom Love in 1983. Apple has used the code to develop apps for more than 20 years, but in our world of modern technology, the old programming code certainly has some limitations in speed, visuals and features.

At the latest WWDC 2014 (Worldwide Developers Conference), Apple announced Swift as their new programming language, to replace Objective-C. To sustain compatibility on existing apps and devices, Swift adopts safe programming patterns, and adds modern features to make programming easier and more friendly to new programmers.

The Swift code and C can live in the same app together, so programmers have more time to upgrade their apps. Users can get a basic guide at IOS Developer Library or download the free ebook at itunes

How To Setup Google Apps Mail In Samsung or Android Phones

Jeremy Chan — Tue, 20 May 2014 06:09:23 +0000

First, log-in to your Gmail account, and go to ‘Settings’ in the top right. The mail setting for POP and IMAP is similar. If you have no idea which to use, we recommend IMAP. Below is a guide for IMAP on Android phones.

Then double check that the IMAP or POP setting is enabled.

Go to your mobile phone and continue with mail setting.

Enter log-in details.

Select sync option.

Incoming mail server, IMAP setting.

Outgoing mail server, IMAP setting.

For synchronization frequency, the shortest time is every five minutes, while the longest is unlimited. By increasing sync time and activating the option to ‘automatically download attachments when connected to wifi’, you can greatly reduce data and bandwidth usage.

Users can delete an email account by clicking the Settings button in the bottom right.

Delete account.

IMAP Setting:
Incoming settings
IMAP server: imap.gmail.com
Port: 993
Security type: SSL (always)

Outgoing settings
SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 465
Security type: SSL (always)

POP Setting:

pop.gmail.com
Use SSL: Yes
Port: 995

smtp.gmail.com
Use Authentication: Yes
Port for TLS/STARTTLS: 587
Port for SSL: 465

What’s the difference between POP and IMAP?

	POP	IMAP
Delete email in phone	Email not deleted in web server, because the systems did not sync the record	Email deleted in web server, because the systems sync the record
Reply email in phone	No sending email added into web server	New sending email added into web server

Reference: https://support.google.com/

Serif vs Sans: The Final Battle

Jeremy Chan — Fri, 09 May 2014 03:59:35 +0000

We found an insightful info-graphic to share with designers. It explains the differences between serif and sans serif fonts, as well as the type of fonts to use in printing and web.

Graphic Source: www.urbanfonts.com

Tips for SEO Content Marketing

Jeremy Chan — Thu, 08 May 2014 08:47:04 +0000

Modern SEO is now more about crafting content so compelling that other people want to promote it by linking to it or sharing it, which increases your trust and authority, and helps your pages rank well for certain keywords.

Common misleading information about copy writing:

1. The article must have at least a 500 word count
Search engines do not care about your article length. As long as the article is well written and easy to understand, it is good enough.

2. High keyword density percentage
Matt Cutts explains that mentioning a keyword for the first time does help to improve rankings, but continuous repeats of the same keywords will not help, and you may even risk a penalty by search engine algorithms.

3. Better to have more content
Staying updated with fresh content is good, but the content must be informative and benefit the reader. Crap content, in any quantity, can only give a company or brand a negative reputation.

4. Hard sell your product
All visitors expect to get an answer or learn something from a website. When a website has too many promotional messages, the site can look “spammy” and be a boring read.

5. Write for humans, not for robots
Otherwise, as soon as search algorithms change, all your SEO efforts are gone.

Graphic source: contentverve.com