Michael Roebuck's Blog

BulletBlocker BulletProof BackPack

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:11:16 PDT

I live behind a corn field in Illinois. My idea of a traffic jam is a school bus or a tractor and I like it that way. I also have 5 kids, two of which are currently in High School.

We all know about the Columbine High School Massacre. That was all the way in Colorado. Must have been a big city, right? In the year 2000, my nearest town (Ottawa, Illinois) had a population of 18,307. Columbine, Colorado has a population of 24,095. But that crazy shooting stuff doesn't happen around me. We are safe.

I also live an hour away from Northern Illinois University and personally know 3 families that had kids directly affected by the shooting that ended with 21 people shot and 5 killed in February, 2008. My oldest starts College in 2 years.
Remember the Virginia Tech Massacre in 2007 that killed 32 people? The deadliest peacetime shooting incident by a single gunman in United States history, on or off a school campus. Both my brother and sister went to Virginia Tech. (Fortunately, not at that time)
I graduated Virginia Wesleyan College in 2004. In October, 2006 one of the security guards was killed by a knife-wielding attacker while making nighttime rounds on campus.

Still think I'm safe? My kids? Think you are safe? Your kids? What the heck is going on nowadays?

I predict you will either be on one side of the fence or another. Obviously these are extreme ends but one stating that we shouldn't glorify these deaths and create panic or the other side of arming your kids with bullet proof vests and possibly weapons of there own.

Being Web Designers, we do all kinds of work for all kinds of people. Imagine my surprise when I see information come across my desk about someone that sold bullet proof backpacks. Emotions ranged from interesting to rage. Interesting in the fact that it was a unique idea. Rage followed when I thought someone was trying to take advantage of today's violence in schools and instill fear in people.

After reviewing the website, BulletBlocker, I find the products were developed by a father who had 2 kids of his own. He saw a problem and reacted to it. He wasn't trying to capitalize on people's fear but provide some protection in a crazy time. I did pick up on the fact that these school killings are recent. Nothing bad happened when I went to school. Not to minimize Kent State or others but as far as I can remember, school shootings weren't really in the public eye. It just didn't happen. Now metal detectors and armed guards are commonplace.

As a Sociology major, I'd love to write about my thoughts pertaining to why these are crazy times, but let's focus on the BulletBlocker products. Regardless of what your personal beliefs are, this product is here and I'm willing to bet here to stay.

BulletBlocker products claim to be 100% Legal and state they are stylish Bulletproof Protection that you can afford. All BulletBlocker vests and backpacks are certified at NIJ Threat Level IIIA protection - the same quality of bullet proof protection that has saved over 3,000 police officer's lives.

My first question is, "What the heck is NIJ Threat Level IIIA protection and what does that mean to me?" After searching the web for a while, because I wanted my own opinion, not that of the vendor, I found:

Level IIIA offers the highest protection (most handgun calibers)
There's no such thing as a 'bullet-proof' vest. Any vest hit enough times, or by a high-velocity penetrating round, can fail. To help you determine how much stopping power you need against various weapons and bullets, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) developed its Threat Level Matrix. NIJ Certification tests are performed at approved independent labs like H.P.White Laboratories, Inc. in Maryland.
...Level IIIA body armor provides the highest level of protection currently available from concealable body armor and is generally suitable for routine wear in many situations. However, departments located in hot, humid climates may need to evaluate the use of Level IIIA armor carefully.

I'm not a gun person and I'm still not sure exactly what it means, but everyone seems to agree that NIJ Threat Level IIIA protection is the best.

Does it work? When in doubt, search YouTube. Someone, somewhere had to shoot one of these things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9ghbckC5js

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeIjx8-Lp4I

OK. So they actually do stop bullets. What about the style? Am I now carrying a 50 pound rucksack in addition to my 50 pounds of books? NO! I bought the Blue Executive Bullet Proof Backpack. It weighs a little more than a regular backpack, but the website does state the protection panel adds about 20 ounces. Note the protection panel does not seem to be accessible and I presume it can not be removed. The backpack is great and has pockets for everything.

I also bought the BulletProof Notebook. The original plan was to shoot at this one, but I feel enough people already did. I like the fact this notebook zips closed. It will most likely replace my current notebook that doesn't zip closed. I usually stuff it with client papers and don't always look the greatest at meetings. It also has many pockets and sleeves for notes, papers and pens. The 3-Ring binder capability is an added plus because it will allow me to add a few extra folders for even more client junk. It is not heavy and I believe the protective panel is behind the pad of paper and can be removed.

Both items arrived securely packaged and in good condition. They also came with a letter that I'm sure was written by the lawyers. It basically reads the items are sold "As Is" and the company is not liable for anything. The letter also includes a manufacture date and further states the items have a 5 year lifespan. I guess after 5 years, materials can break down and the bulletproof panels are not as good as when newer.

The only confusing part was the return policy. The website states two different policies:

If at any time, within 10 days of receiving your order, you are not satisfied with the fit, style, quality or design of a product(s), return the item(s) to us in like-new condition and we will refund your purchase price 100% or exchange the item. It's your choice.
Return Policy: Due to the nature of the products, under no circumstances will any returns be allowed, other than for defective manufacture.

BulletBlocker Warranty: BulletBlocker warranties all BulletBlocker products against defects in workmanship for 1 year from purchase date. and on and on....

In summary, the items were as advertised and seem to perform they way they were meant to perform. Would I buy all my kids one? I'm not sure. At $195 per backpack the price is very steep when you have 5 kids. Buying bulletproof inserts or bulletproof binders would be a cheaper alternative but the covered protection is less. When it comes to my kids, I'd rather them have more protection but you get what you can afford.

For smaller families, I would say a no brainer. Buy the backpack and hope it never has to be put to the test. Don't think that nothing can happen to you. The new school year is coming. Start saving now!

As for the backpack I bought. I will hand it down to my oldest son. He's currently taking the EMT class this summer at the local college and his current backpack has seen much better days. With only one more year of high school left, he can take it to college and hopefully never need to use it!

Please note this article is my own personal thoughts. I have not consulted with BulletBlocker nor there lawyers and I have written this solely because of BulletBlocker being such a unique product. I neither endorse this product nor not endorse it. However, if given the opportunity, I'll start selling them! How could you not? It's a great product for today's crazy times. Be sure you check out there website for more information, statistics and news stories: www.bulletblocker.com

Yahoo! Fax Feature Workaround

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:05:25 PDT

If you receive copies of your Yahoo orders via fax, then you know that the fax feature has been "temporarily" disabled. Yahoo has posted an Outlook workaround for those of you who use Outlook as an email client. If you haven't read it, please go here: Yahoo Email Orders Help Article.

For those of you that don't use Outlook, or are Merchant Starters and don't have the order fax ability, here is your solution: Automatic Print Email

Here's how it works in a nutshell:

Set up a separate email address for orders only. (This is totally optional. But if you receive hundreds of orders daily, or don't want anyone accessing your email, it may be convenient.)
Set your Yahoo Manager to email your orders immediately and as an Adobe PDF attachment.
Load Automatic Print Email on a computer that will remain on. Set it up to read your email and set a filter to only print the order attachment. (My bigger accounts are set to check every 2 minutes.)
Watch the orders print automatically.

Once set up correctly, the Automatic Print Email software will log into your email account at pre-determined intervals set by you. It will scan your emails and print those that trigger the filters you set, such as orders. Instead of checking the fax for new orders, you simply check your printer.

Automatic Print Email comes with a fully functional 30 day trial period so you aren't out any cash while you check it out. If you do like it, the cost is only $49.90 so it's not very expensive either.

NOTE: The orders you print out will look just like the downloaded orders EXCEPT they will NOT have credit card data. Remember, Yahoo will NOT email credit card data on orders because it isn't secure. If you want credit card data, use the Yahoo solution as previously listed here: Yahoo Email Orders Help Article.

Here's how to set it up:

Determine an email address to send orders and Download and run the Automatic Print Email program. The rest of the rules pertain to the software program.
Set up a POP 3 Email account. If using a Yahoo Business Email account, remember to check the secure connection box and change the Server Port Number to 995.
When you hit Next, Be sure to select "Print Only Attachments"
Select "Advanced Options" and be sure to select "Yes" to print all pages of the documents.

Click "OK" to finish setting up the email account.

You are almost done now. You have set up the email address to check, now you just need to set up the filter to tell the software what emails to print.

Click on the "Filters List" button and "Create New Filter."
When setting up rules, because you only want to print orders, it's easier to set a rule stating what NOT to print. Therefore, I set my rule to state that if the subject doesn't contain "Yahoo! Orders as PDF" then don't print. Note that this screen gives you a check box providing the ability to delete mail from your mailbox. This is nice if you get lots of orders.
Next, select "More Actions." Here, you only want to print the attachment.
Click OK. You are basically done now. One last item to do is tell the software how often to check for email. To do this, click, "File" - "Options" - "Visual Appearance and Usage"
Under the left nav bar of "Visual Appearance and Usage" you'll see where you can select minutes and seconds to check your email.
Finally, after everything is set, you will see a little countdown timer on the bottom left corner of the main screen. This will tell you when it will check your email again. Other columns are pretty self explanatory.

That's it! I hope this helps you with receiving your orders. If you have any questions or need any help, please be sure to contact me.

Two New Yahoo! Enhancements

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:57:33 PDT

Customize buyer-facing order number prefixes

By default, order numbers displayed to your store customers are prefixed with your store ID. For example, if a customer's order number is 792, and your store ID is yhst-12345678911011, the order number is displayed to the customer as yhst-12345678911011-792 on order confirmation and order status pages in checkout, in order and shipment confirmation emails, and on printed order materials (order invoice and packing slip).

Now, you can customize what comes before the order number, using the new "Order Number Prefix" field in the Shipment and Order Status section of Store Manager. If your store name is "Widget World" and you want to replace the store ID in the order number with "widget-world," you can now go right ahead. Your customized order number prefix will be shown in the buyer-facing locations noted above. (Merchants should note that for printed order materials, the custom order number prefix will appear on materials printed to PDF, but not on materials printed to HTML.)

Replace your store ID in order numbers using the "Order Number Prefix" field.

Custom order number prefix displayed in checkout.

Specify a sender name for order and shipment status emails

Order and shipment status emails use a default sender name in the "From" field, pulled from the "Title" variable in your Store Manager. Should you wish to customize the "From" field, you may do so using the "Catalog Name for Confirmation/Update Emails" field in the Shipment and Order Status section of Store Manager. So if your "Title" variable was "All Paws Up - Pet Supplies for the Pampered Puppy," and you wanted your email sender name to simply be "All Paws Up," you can change this using the "Catalog Name for Confirmation/Update Emails" field.

Customize the sender name used for order and shipment confirmation emails using the "Catalog Name for Confirmation/Update Emails" field.

If you haven't yet enabled order and shipment status emails and want to learn more about setting these up, please see the "Configuring shipping and order confirmation emails" help page.

Hope this helps customize your Yahoo! Store a little bit more! As always, contact us with any questions or if you need help implementing these updates.

StuffBak Loss Protection

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Mon, 04 May 2009 06:25:25 PDT

The official description of StuffBak is: "StuffBak is a service that makes it easy for consumers and businesses to confidentially link important mobile assets to an international 24/7/365 recovery network. When a StuffBak-labeled item is found, the registered owner is immediately contacted by phone and email. StuffBak facilitates a speedy recovery and always thanks the finder."

In laymans terms, you place a sticker on your items. The sticker reads "Reward if Found" and has a phone number to call or a website to view if the item is found. Pretty basic. I'm normally not a fan of these types of services. I have my reasons. However, I bought something back in 2007 that had a StuffBak label included trying to get me to try the service. I tried the service and bought the "Mobile Professional Pack" for my keys, laptop, laptop bag, etc. I must have been feeling really generous that day. Then I forgot about it.

Last year, my son bought an iPhone and I found my folder of stickers and gave him one. He could barely afford the iPhone to begin with and certainly couldn't afford to replace it. We then forgot about the stickers.

My son also volunteers on the local ambulance. Last Saturday, he was on an ambulance call in a park where he proceeded to drop his iPhone somewhere. Before he could come home and tell me about it, the phone was found and whoever found it had called StuffBak who then called the house and spoke to my wife. The finder had already left town and was traveling to Chicago or else someone could have gone and picked it up. Regardless, a few days later my son received his phone in the mail. It cost me $20 reward money which I'm sure my son will happily reimburse.

Moral of the story? I have dug out my folder of StuffBak labels and have now labeled many more items that I carry around. Looking at the StuffBak website, The Mobile Professional Pack contains 16 labels for $60.00 and includes 2 years of return service. I volunteer on the Fire Department and have an iPhone myself. I'd gladly pay $60 every 2 years for it to be returned to me if I loose it!

The stickers come in a variety of sizes and are relatively small and out of the way.

Visit the StuffBak website for more information. I wasn't a very solid believer, but I am now!

www.StuffBak.com

Yahoo! Coupon Code Feature

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:48:37 PDT

Last month, Yahoo! upgraded the Coupon Code ability by releasing new features that give you greater flexibility when extending coupon offers to your customers.

You are now able to:

Create single use coupon codes
Easily exclude products from offers
Sort and filter your coupon data to provide greater insight into the performance of your promotions

From the feedback I've received, I don't think many of you fully understand what these changes mean to you. In today's tough economy, people are still shopping, but now they use coupons. Report after report all state the increase in coupon usage:

According to various ComScore reports:

11/06/08: "The number of users visiting these coupon sites, with an annual salary of $100,000 or more, increased by 37 percent in the third quarter, compared with the same time last year."
1/09: "According to a January 2009 ComScore survey, over 50% of consumers are using coupons more often as a way to cut back on their shopping expenses."
2/20/09: "Searches on the term "coupon" have more than tripled, and more than half (53%) of the online population is using coupons more often."

And this is what I found in 10 minutes of searching. I barely scratched the surface of reports published.

So, What's the big deal with the new changes? Let's discuss 2 of the big changes:

1) Creating single use coupon codes. A single use coupon can only be used once. Once it has been used, it will no longer work. Single use coupon codes are great when you don't want your coupon code published on everyone's website and emailed to everyone's friends. I understand that most of your coupon codes you may want to go viral. But here are a few options you may not have thought about:

You screw up on an order and want to give the customer a large apology with an expiration date.
You work a deal with a specific supplier who will reimburse you the money given on a discount. You can email all your customers giving each one a unique coupon code for $X off there next "brand y" product. (Yes, All Web can merge coupon codes into an email)
Refer a friend and either the referrer or both receive a coupon.
Sign up for your newsletter and receive a coupon.
You can print out these coupons and include with each order as a re-order incentive.

Use your imagination! Change it around a bit. Coupons are so easy to create and use that you can test different strategies to determine what works best for you. Single use coupons can be created in blocks of up to 50,000 coupons per code series.

tip: You no longer have to begin each coupon with a letter. You can now use numbers or letters in the beginning of the coupon code!

2) Easily exclude products from offers. Remember the old way? You had to list the item codes of items valid for that code. Meaning, if you created a coupon but didn't want a few items included, you had to list every item on the site except those few that were excluded. What a pain that was! Now, you can simply add the few items not included and set the code to either "include selected items" or "exclude selected items."

Being able to exclude items should allow you to be more creative as well. Let's face it, it was a royal pain to get item codes, especially when you are dealing with options! I would try to avoid coupons at all costs because of that. Now, we can test coupons that are brand specific very easily. Also, Yahoo added a handy little chart that shows the website in outline form. I can simply select a section and all items within that section are automatically selected.

In Summary....

The coupon code feature has been improved to a much easier user interface. If you haven't used coupon codes in a while, I highly suggest you at least take a look at them again. We know that people are looking for coupons and this is one more tool you may be able to use to capture that initial or repeat order with a lower cost per acquisition than Pay Per Click or some other marketing methods.

Give me a call and we can see how coupon codes may be useful for your company!

After reading this article, be sure to read my previous initial blog post announcing and explaining some more details regarding the new Coupon Features. The article can be found here: New Coupon Code Features - 3/5/09.

Yahoo!'s Cross-Sell features

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:41:42 PDT

In an effort to help merchants out in this current economy, Yahoo has started a campaign to push the Cross Sell feature and has drafted a letter for us developers to help get the word out. The cross sell feature is basically a way for you to ask the customer; "Do you want fries with that?" Many of my clients currently use it successfully and I would agree with Yahoo that if you aren't using it now, you really should give it a try. Below is some information as provided by Yahoo. Please review and give us a call if you have any questions.

In this tough economy, we are all learning how to do more with less. We want to help you get more sales from the customers who are already visiting your site. As an authorized Yahoo! Small Business developer partner, we are working with Yahoo! to help you easily and inexpensively increase conversions and order volume simply by making the most of features already included within your Merchant Solutions or Store account. As such, we'd like to call attention to Yahoo!'s Cross-Sell features, including Auto-Suggest and Product Page Cross-Sell.

Auto-Suggest is based on Yahoo! Behavioral Targeting technology, utilizing past purchase combinations and navigation history to automatically suggest items to your shoppers. Merchants using this feature have reported up to a 30% increase in average order values (AOV). In addition, 80% of revenue generated by cross-sell rules is generated by the Auto-Suggest feature, while only 20% is generated by manually created cross-sell rules. In short, the data proves that if you are only using manual cross-sell rules, you are likely leaving money on the table.

Product Page Cross-Sell is also included as a new feature, allowing cross-sell merchandising on both product pages and within the shopping cart. These options can use auto-suggestions, manually created rules or any combination thereof.

Cross-Sell placement is customizable through CSS and can be self-installed or installed in partnership with us. Please give us a call to discuss options for your company. With a 30% higher average order value, a custom installation of product page cross-sell in your templates will pay for itself in little time.

For more information on this feature, check out the Yahoo! Store blog posts on the topic:

Yahoo! Blog: Would You Like Cross-sell With That? Yahoo! Improves Cross-sell Feature

Yahoo! Blog: Optimal Cross Selling For The Holidays

Or, of course, you can always contact All Web Promotion.

Karl's Bachelor Party

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:42:09 PDT

As many of you know, Karl Ribas is getting married in a couple weeks. Congratulations to him and his lovely new bride. I heard through the "Twitter" vine that Karl recently had his bachelor party. That's nice. But why wasn't I invited?? I'll tell you why, Karl kept this day quiet because he knew he would be in for it. Let me explain....

Karl likes to play the occasional joke. Well, we all like the occasional joke. Take the following pictures:

For my birthday one year, my office was neatly packaged:

My iconic bobbing head doll was modified and outed my drag days:

My Therapy Buddy committed suicide:

And the list goes on. And on. And on.

With Karl being one of the masterminds behind all my troubles, My wife and I were looking forward to his bachelor party. We were looking forward to seeing Karl enjoy one of his last weekends of singlehood. We wouldn't be mean about it, oh no. We wouldn't have let him get arrested for peeing in public or anything juvenile like that. We had better things in mind: Like having him wake up in another state. And if we could swing it, fly him to that different state.

I have even heard rumors of local dancing establishments that put on quite a show for bachelors soon to loose there single title.

Was Karl scared to let us know he was having his bachelor party? From the pictures he's posted on Twitter, I'd say he didn't sit around the house with his friends playing Go Fish!

I say he was scared that he would be led around stage with a dog collar while dancing girls sat on his back. He was scared that another establishment would whip him with a steel studded belt and write good luck messages about him in places he couldn't reach with a sharpie. I say he was scared that he would have such a good time that he would forget what happened until the pictures were posted on this very blog! Ah ha! That's it! He knew Carrie and I would be there with cameras in hand waiting for the perfect picture that would immortalize him forever. Does such a picture exist?

Well, Karl. Let me tell you something. You don't cheat Carrie and I out of potential well thought out plans. You ain't married yet!

18 days my friend.

New Coupon Code Features

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:18:59 PST

Yahoo! released new features with there coupon codes that give you greater flexibility when extending coupon offers to your customers.

You will now be able to:

Create single use coupon codes
Easily exclude products from offers
Sort and filter your coupon data to provide greater insight into the performance of your promotions

You will be able to create two types of coupons in Coupon Manager: standard (the coupons you've always had), and new single-use coupons, which are created in series. Single-use coupons can be redeemed one time only, giving you the freedom to create offers tailored for specific customers without the worry of coupons being shared.

The following are some promotional ideas for you to consider:

Include a printed single-use coupon offer in outgoing shipments
Have multiple stores? Cross-Sell coupon offers in outgoing shipments
Offer single-use coupons via Live Chat agents where abandonment may be likely
Offer single-use coupons as incentives to increase customer satisfaction
Merge single-use coupon codes into email marketing campaigns

All Web Promotion already has the email capabilities to merge these single use coupon codes, one per email. Contact us for details!

Whether you're creating a single-use or standard coupon, you can now choose to exclude specific store items from your offer. Previously, you could choose which individual items to include in a coupon offer, or to include all store items. Being able to exclude items makes coupon creation a faster and easier process. This can be especially helpful if you carry a large number of products and wish to exclude only one or a few from a special promotion.

Enhancements to Coupon Manager give you new ways to sort and filter your coupon data. Coupons can now be sorted by number of orders, revenue, coupon code, type, expiration date, and conversion rate. New coupon filters also allow you to apply coupon status and time-period filters, and to download filtered coupon lists. You can even sort by offer conversion rate to quickly identify top performing offers and further build on that success.

No changes are required on your part to use these great new Coupon Manager features. Simply click the "Coupon Manager" link in the "Promote" section of Store Manager to get started.

Yahoo! Track Links Feature - updated

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:34:14 PST

Do you have an analytics program? You know, something that tracks your revenue generated from an E-mail, Pay Per Click, or some other kind of marketing campaign? If you are using Yahoo Merchant Solutions you do. Well, kind of.

Log into your store manager and look at your "create links" and "track links" options on the lower left hand corner under the the "Promote" heading.

This is actually a type of affiliate program Yahoo! offers but we use it to track revenue for various marketing campaigns. It's easy to use as well. Simply "create" a link and then use the link that Yahoo! generates as your destination URL for your marketing campaign.

You can even change the last part of the URL, or page to be any page on your site. Simply replace "index.html" with your landing page such as "specialpage.html".

For example, the Yahoo! generated link will look something like:
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?yhst-1234567+AWP5cr+index.html
You can modify the landing page by altering to look like:
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?yhst-1234567+AWP5cr+specialpage.html

Don't want to use the store.yahoo.com domain? You can customize the link further by using your domain name that is attached to your store. The link will then look something like:
http://mydomainname.com/cgi-bin/clink?yhst-1234567+AWP5cr+specialpage.html

Remember, the track link will only work on the domain registered with the Yahoo store.

When creating the link in the Yahoo! Store manager, you can also use basic html functions to make the link bold or different colors. This is nice to help differentiate various campaigns.

BE CAREFUL! Yahoo error page (404), by default, redirects to the index page if a URL is not found. Try using tracking links with a specific page to ensure that specific page shows up. Otherwise, you won't know if the tracking link worked correctly or you were redirected to index page because of error 404.

To view the results of the track link, view the "track links" section.

A few uses of the track link function include Email Campaigns, Pay Per Click campaigns, Banner ads or links from other websites, testing link placement usability on your own site, and on and on. Anywhere you want to view revenue or traffic generated from a static link.

I wrote about this back in 2006, but it is still an important tool in your toolbox! My previous post can be read here: Yahoo! "Track Links" Feature

Yahoo Gift Certificate Review

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:59:52 PST

With the Holiday season upon us, I have been getting several questions about how Yahoo Gift Certificates work. It's really quite easy, but does require a little thought.

Yahoo! Gift Certificates are designed for use on websites. They don't work very well with brick and mortar stores. The easiest way for a customer to use an online gift certificate in the retail store would be to create a dummy item for $0.01 and after the customer leaves the store, place an order for that amount. That will deduct the amount the customer spent from the remaining gift certificate balance.

Marking an order as fraudulent, returned, or cancelled will invalidate all gift certificate codes related to that order. If you go back and mark the order as "OK", the gift certificate codes will once again be valid.

A big item you need to know is if you cancel an order where a gift certificate was used, the gift certificate will not automatically restore to the balance prior to the order. You must contact Yahoo to have the amount restored.

Lastly, the email that is automatically generated once the customer buys a gift certificate cannot be altered. If you want a custom email you must set the gift certificate option to send manually and create the email yourself. Just don't forget to send it!

Gift certificates are a great way to increase sales, especially during holiday seasons. I hope this helps answer a few questions.

No More Google Tests

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:39:21 PDT

A client called recently and reported that the results for an A/B Ad Test they were running was out of whack. Google seemed to be favoring one ad over the other even though all the settings were set to show the ad equally.

After a quick call to Google, we find out that Google will no longer allow you to runs ads completely evenly. With the importance of Quality Score raised in the past months, that plays a factor into how often the ad shows. So the ad that Google deems more relevant to the keyword will get more play, even though we've selected it to run evenly over time.

Basically whichever ad is given the higher Quality Score in conjunction with a better CTR will appear more often despite having the setting to rotate evenly. It will still try to show them more evenly, but it most likely will give favor to the better performing ad.

I personally think this is a bad idea. We run A/B tests all the time to track effectiveness of ads and ensure we are always running the best possible ad. We also use this to track landing page effectiveness. By running the identical ad, we can track certain variables within a landing page.

Therefore, if any of you are using A/B tests for your Google ads, go check the data. It may start skewing very soon!

Introducing Yahoo! Web Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:31:49 PDT

Fresh off the Yahoo! Store Blog: The official announcement of Yahoo! Web Analytics.

As Paul writes on the Official Yahoo blog.... "...Any merchant that has tried to set up full analytics on their store knows there are challenges to getting full tracking from entry page to order confirmation. Today, I am happy to announce that we have completed the first phase of our product integration with IndexTools to solve that problem. Announcing Yahoo! Web Analytics for Yahoo! Merchant Solutions. Now merchants can enable analytics at the click of a button to capture full referral data, internal search keywords, step-by-step checkout conversion rates and filter and segment all of this to find meaningful actionable insights that translate into more revenue for their stores..."

Full post can be read here:
Introducing Yahoo! Web Analytics

IndexTools is now Yahoo! Web Analytics

Brandi and I had the opportunity to travel to Yahoo! a couple weeks ago for training on this new program. It wasn't new to us as we have been using a white label version of IndexTools for several of our clients for several years now. I was very excited to hear everyone could have the opportunity to use it.

If you have any questions regarding IndexTools or need help setting up, please be sure to let us know.

All Web Promotion Ranks Top 50

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:44:05 PDT

All Web Promotion ranks in the top 50 SEO Firms and Resources as reported in the August, 2008 issue of Website Magazine. According to the list, we rank 32. Way to go team!

Hilton Bad - Hampton Inn Great

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:40:27 PDT

Apparently Conrad Hilton's Board of Directors saw it coming so they started broadening there brands. I say Board of Directors because his descendants are too busy being in the news helping degrade his name.

I'm fed up with Hilton Hotels. Usually when you hear the name "Hilton Hotel" you think quality. Expensive, but quality. Apparently, not any more! (Quality anyway. They are still expensive.)

As you know, I was in San Jose attending the Search Engine Strategies conference and past years have stayed at the Hampton Inn on Old Tully Road. The Hampton Inn was clean, large rooms, well lit, large bathrooms, Free Internet, Free breakfast, Extremely friendly staff (The manager himself drove us to the train station one day and picked us up later that night.)

This year, I figured with the savings in taxi fare and my Hilton Honors free breakfast upgrade, I'd stay at the Hilton next door to the convention center. (Denise.... Never let me do that again!!!! You continue making the reservations!) Well, I did save on taxi fare but apparently they don't do breakfast here in San Jose. Chicago does, but not San Jose. Huh?? I need to be a gold or platinum or some other member but my Hilton Honors wasn't good enough here for access. There goes my savings! At over $15 for breakfast my days are not starting off very good.

The rooms at the Hilton are not the best. I guess most everything. The beds are actually comfortable which is a major factor. I'm not only picking on San Jose here either. The rooms at the Chicago Hilton aren't any better, but also has comfortable beds. Here are a few pictures of the lap of luxury:

No vents in the bathroom. Well, they have a vent, but no fan.

You can't see it very well, but the water is spraying from all areas of the shower. Make sure the shower curtain is closed before turning on the shower! Very old shower heads.

Can you see the puddle of water? Maybe you don't need to worry about the shower curtain. It doesn't do well anyway! I make a point to move the shower curtain to prevent water from leaking everywhere. Sometimes it's just not good enough. That probably explains the nasty tiled floor.

Here is my room. It's hard to see with this picture but the room is very dark. They use these tiny compact fluorescent light bulbs that don't give off much light. I'm typing this in a dark corner of the desk area. And I can't leave the desk because there isn't any wireless Internet access. Since I'm complaining about dark hotel rooms, the only hotel I remember being darker than this room is the Luxor in Las Vegas. Those rooms were very dark.

Anyway, I'm sorry Hampton Inn for not staying with you this trip. However, you were priced a bit high which caused us to shop around. Next year, I may stay away from the Hilton Brand altogether. I wonder if there is a Holiday Inn Express around here?

Search Engine with Most Relevant Search Results

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:04:56 PDT

Congratulations to Yahoo for receiving the 2008 Search Engine Strategies Award for the Search Engine with Most Relevant Search Results.

I knew that Merchant Solutions was the best hosting platform, now we know you have the most relevant search results as well.

Congratulations!!

More info on the: Search Engine Strategies Awards - 2008

Yahoo Store The Best E commerce Platform for SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:43:08 PDT

I was eating lunch at the Hotel here in San Jose and decided to check email from my phone. I received a blog post that really caught my eye. Scott Smigler of Exclusive Concepts had written a great article on why Yahoo Store was the best e-commerce platform.

Scott's company is like mine and they are also a Yahoo Partner. Anyway, I highly recommend you go and read his article titled: Yahoo Store | The Best E commerce Platform for SEO.

I don't want to copy any of his text because it's a new post and I want to be sure Google picks his article up first. But in my opinion, it's a good read all but one major flaw.

He specifically states Yahoo Merchant Solutions is a great platform if you plan on or are doing a minimum of $500,000 annual sales. I respectfully disagree. Yahoo Merchant Solutions is an excellent platform for EVERYONE, with no suggestion of minimum annual sales. Where else can you have an easy to design website that includes a secure shopping cart for $39 month? He does mention it's scalable so as your business grows you can access more features but for the new person starting out, it's an excellent vehicle. We too looked at other platforms and seriously considered designing eBay ProStores at one time but no-one, and I mean No-One comes close to what Yahoo Merchant Solutions offers. As Scott mentions, That probably explains why 1 in 8 e-commerce sites are hosted by Yahoo!

So, great story Scott! I enjoyed reading it. And maybe you placed a minimum to ward off the low end design clients. The ones who want a site like Amazon for $300. That's OK. We have a $299 package and can work with them! (No Amazon though. Not even close for $299)

If you are on the fence about if you should use Yahoo Merchant Solutions, Go read Scott's article!

McAfee Secure Updates.....

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:03:26 PDT

In reference to my post yesterday titled, "Hackersafe - McAfee Secure vs. ControlScan" as well as a post by Cresta Pillsbury titled, "What is McAfee thinking?????", and to quote Bob Dylan; "The Times They Are a-Changin'".

Karl Ribas came into my office today asking what yesterday's post was supposed to mean. "It doesn't make sense," he said. After pulling up a website to show him, I see McAfee Secure changed there secure page and removed the link to the shopping sites. I really wish I has taken a screen shot, but I didn't.

It looks like McAfee has removed the big link to the shopping sites but replaced it with a smaller text link under the content. The second large link now reads, "Stay Safe From Online Threats" and links you to there Site Advisor product. Using Cresta's example, below is the screen shot of what her client site now looks like with the text link:

But, Wait.... Below is a screen shot of one of my clients and they don't have the text link:

What's going on McAfee? Are you testing landing pages? Anyway, if you look at the fist screen shot, the text link I pointed out now takes you to a listing of all the McAfee Certified Sites. I admit it doesn't take you directly to the McAfee Secure Shopping portal like yesterday, but it does have a rather large listing of alternative sites for you to browse as well as a really nice link smack dab center of the page that will take you to secure shopping portal.

Below is a screen shot of the landing page you go to if you click on the company link as shown in the first image:

If anything new happens, I'll keep you posted. Maybe McAfee Secure is testing landing pages. Maybe they have read our posts and maybe companies have complained. Whatever the reason, as long as traffic stops being diverted to shopping portals, I would think clients will be satisfied.

Hackersafe - McAfee Secure vs. ControlScan

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:28:31 PDT

It's been a while since my last post. The summer has been slow with major events but I'm currently watching a new event slowly unfold.

Back in July, 2007 I posted about HackerSafe and compared them to ControlScan. (Should you use Hackersafe? ControlScan?) HackerSafe has now merged with McAfee and has been re branded as "McAfee Secure." I won't go into the price increase of using McAfee Secure but will touch on some changes that I and others are seeing.

Last month I was talking with my good friend Cresta Pillsbury who used to work for Hackersafe. She was made redundant and now works for the E-Commerce Merchants Trade Association. We were discussing the HackerSafe merge as well as the benefits of ControlScan. She has recently posted her own blog post about HackerSafe here: What is McAfee Thinking??

Basically, she exposes McAfee's attempt to steal traffic away from there own merchants. I was dumbfounded when I originally read her post because I was completely oblivious to this trick and I usually look for this type of stunt.

Cresta writes, "Anyone who is currently using the McAfee seal on their site is actually paying McAfee to take their traffic and send it to their competitors. What?!! I know but check out this link. www.gothamcityonline.com, now click on the McAfee seal https://www.mcafeesecure.com/RatingVerify?ref=www.gothamcityonline.com , once you do this their are two different links that will take you to McAfee's secure shopping portal which lists your competitors products. one is the "Attention Shoppers" the other is your company name directly under your URL... So tell me this, how is McAfee helping to increase your conversion if you are spending money for good traffic and they are directing it elsewhere? How is that good business practices?"

I don't need to write any more on this. After you have paid top dollar for Pay Per Click, Email Marketing, SEO, or whatever you do in order to get a customer to your site, McAfee comes along under the guise of "Secure Shopping" and offers them an option to buy from someone else. And you pay McAfee for this service?

Needless to say, I've brought this to the attention of some of my clients and suggest if you use HackerSafe / McAfee Secure, please look into this.

Now, for my rant on third party security......

I'm not too sure I think paying for a third party secure shopping logo is a good idea. I specialize in the design of Yahoo Stores and Yahoo Stores are already secure. I make my own "Secure Shopping" icon and link it directly to Yahoos' Secure Shopping page.

As my previous post on the comparison of HackerSafe and ControlScan stated, we were really testing brand recognition to see if the third party security banner increased conversions or not.

I feel in todays marketplace, PCI compliance mandates security. In order to accept credit cards on your web site you must be PCI compliant. I've filled out several exceptionally long questionnaires sent to me by clients whose banks required this information as well as required the site be scanned by someone other than HackerSafe or ControlScan. (One of the other companies, www.securitymetrics.com has there own "secure" logo as well.) Therefore, I think it's the bank who dictates who ultimately needs to scan the web site. Also, if the web site wasn't secure, they wouldn't be able to accept credit cards.

In closing, while it's a hot topic right now, maybe this will eventually die away as the online credit card industry evolves. Whoever gets to the banks first will win and everyone else will try to hang on and tout increased conversions due to "Brand Loyalty." Wasn't the reason these companies started up in the first place to increase customer perception that the site they are giving financial data to was secure? I admit I'm a fan of the brand McAfee Virus Protection whereas others in my office prefer Norton and some even use AVG. But when I think of McAfee or Norton, I do not think web site security. Nor will I condone McAfee Secure as long as they continue to try to steal my customers by linking to a private shopping portal.

Google Phishing Emails - Update

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:32:33 PDT

Last week I posted a quick comment about a recent rash of Google Phishing Emails I have been receiving. I stated that everyone at some time or another has probably received a fake PayPal or Credit Card email stating to log into your account immediately or else it will be shut down or something like that. These are from the bad people who want your login information so they can buy stuff with your money. I was a bit confused why someone would want access to your Google Adwords account because anything you link to could be easily tracked down. One of my clients fell victim to this fraud and I'm still confused as to why.

My client had an ad group created for "Ringtones." His settings were adjusted to accept a $25,000 daily limit with each keyword set at $18.00 max CPC. The fraudster then bought dozens of ringtone related keywords. The puzzling part was the actual ad was jibberish and the desitination URL was an invalid domain. In fact, it was available to purchase. The fraudster was either testing something out or just had too much free time on his hands.

Either way, we worked with Google to fix everything, but the only thing the fraudster really did was waste several hours of time.

I'm not going to post screen shots of the ad or what everything looked like as I don't want to give this guy credit, but we did get the clients password changed and everything seems to be running smoothly now.

So... What did we learn? Change your passwords to something not easily guessed or figured out and most of all, never click on a link to log into your account from anyone! Actually go to the website and login. I would like to think that if your account is about to be shut off, the company would put some kind of message on the site once you logged in without having to click on any links within an email.

For your reference, below are copies of 3 different Google Spoof emails that I have received:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Google Adwords Customer, Your ads have stopped running because we were unable to process your billing information.
To activate your account and start running your ads, enter your billing information.

In order to activate your account and start running your ads, enter your billing information.
Pease sign into your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login, and update
your billing information.

Once your account is reactivated and your billing information has been processed,
any your ads and campaigns can begin running immediately on Google.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does
not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Google Adwords Team

Dear Google AdWords Customer,

Your ads have stopped running because we were unable to process your billing information. We will reactivate you account after you update your billing information. In order to reactivate your account, please sign it to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login, and update your billing informatio

Dear AdWords Customer,

The ads in this account are not running. All other account activity has been stopped.
Any edits you make here will take effect only if you reactivate the account.
If you would like to reactivate your account, please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your billing information.

Google Phishing Emails

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:44:00 PDT

I just wanted to write a quick post pertaining to a rash of Google Phishing emails I've been receiving lately. Everyone at some time or another has probably received a fake PayPal or Credit Card email stating to log into your account immediately or else it will be shut down or something like that. These are from the bad people who want your login information so they can buy stuff with your money.

Apparently they now want to increase traffic to their websites by writing fake Google Adwords ads from your account. Anyway, whatever the reason, be careful.

Here are copies of 3 different Google Spoof emails that I have received lately:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Google Adwords Customer, Your ads have stopped running because we were unable to process your billing information.
To activate your account and start running your ads, enter your billing information.

In order to activate your account and start running your ads, enter your billing information.
Pease sign into your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login, and update
your billing information.

Once your account is reactivated and your billing information has been processed,
any your ads and campaigns can begin running immediately on Google.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does
not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Google Adwords Team

Dear Google AdWords Customer,

Your ads have stopped running because we were unable to process your billing information. We will reactivate you account after you update your billing information. In order to reactivate your account, please sign it to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login, and update your billing informatio

Dear AdWords Customer,

The ads in this account are not running. All other account activity has been stopped.
Any edits you make here will take effect only if you reactivate the account.
If you would like to reactivate your account, please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your billing information.

Google URL Policy Update

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:33:27 PDT

Google will be updating it's display URL policy beginning April 1st. This change marks the beginning of a stricter stance on display URLs. No more re-directs or vanity URL's will be allowed. Google states that this policy will be strictly enforced regardless of past approvals and will apply to all advertisers.

Basically, the new rules state the display URL will need to match the destination URL. Most exceptions that were allowed before will no longer be approved.

Here are a few examples that will not be approved:

www.Google.co.uk - this URL leads to a different site

www.Gogle.com - this URL simply redirects to www.Google.com

www.Gooogle.com - this URL leads to a page showing content identical to www.Google.com
Google will also not allow the use of multiple domains or branding and vanity URLs.

What about Yahoo Tracking URLs?
Google understands that many advertisers utilize tracking URLs within the destination field of their ads. Therefore, if the URL of your landing page matches that of your display URL, your ads will be approved.

For example:
Display URL: www.mydomain.com/widget
Destination URL: http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?yhst1234567+a1B2C3D4E5+widget.html
--> Landing page URL: www.mydomain.com would be acceptable

Display URL: www.mydomain.com/widget
Destination URL: http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?yhst1234567+a1B2C3D4E5+widget.html
--> Landing page URL: http://store.yahoo.com would not be acceptable

Are sub-domains or extra text still acceptable?
Yes, the use of sub-domains and additional text within the display will continue to be acceptable provided the top-level domain matches the URL of your landing page.

For example, display URLs such as the following:
sub.google.com
google.com/extratext
www.google.com/extratext
would all be acceptable for the landing page URL below, as the top-level domain of google.com is matched:
http://sub.google.com/miscellaneous

Finally, note that you don't have to change your ads. Existing ads within your account will not be immediately affected by this change. However, if Google receives complaints regarding specific violations of this policy, they will review and take the appropriate action. (Usually at 5:00pm on a Friday night). I would however, suggest that everyone check their account for potential blatant violations.

For more information regarding the update, look at the Google Blog

Nice New Yahoo! Feature

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:52:58 PST

A few new features have been announced from Yahoo. One of which spurred this blog entry. I normally don't blog about regular updates as other people already do that. But imagine my surprise when I received my American Express bill and saw several hundred dollars worth of credits! I didn't have to do anything either, it happens automatically. Very Cool!

OPEN from American Express: 5% discount for Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and Yahoo! Search Marketing with your American Express Business Card

Through this partnership, small business owners can use their Business Card to automatically reduce their costs of doing business with Yahoo! Search Marketing and Yahoo! Small Business services. Business Cardmembers will receive a 5% discount on Yahoo! Search Marketing's online advertising and promotion services in addition to Yahoo! Small Business's comprehensive, easy to use services, including Web site hosting, e-commerce, business e-mail, and domain name registration.

OPEN Savings is a benefit embedded within all American Express Business Cards. American Express Business Cardmembers simply need to use their credit or charge card for purchases with any OPEN Savings partner to take advantage of discounts. The savings will automatically appear on the Cardmember's monthly statement and can be tracked when accessing an account at www.open.com. OPEN Savings discounts are calculated on the full transaction amount, including any taxes and surcharges. Terms and conditions apply.

Since I mentioned one, I feel obligated to mention another......

American Express CID Codes

The payment gateway that Yahoo! Store uses, First Data Merchant Services (FDMS) Nashville Platform, now supports CID (Card Identification) codes used by American Express credit cards. Using the CID functionally give you added security and can qualify your transactions for better rates from American Express. Merchants who would like to accept American Express as a Payment Method with the CID code on their Stores will need to publish their order settings with the proper risk tool setting once this functionality has been released.

New Yahoo Form Regulations

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:02:49 PST

In an effort to improve security, Yahoo! will be upgrading the pro-forma script (form submission) functionality. If you are using the Yahoo! Form script, this applies to you. Merchants typically use this for newsletter signups, "contact us" forms, or price-quote requests. The pro-forma script security changes will ensure form submissions are properly associated with a store ID and that all email recipients of form submissions are approved. Once the changes are in place, your site will be automatically protected. However, you must take immediate action to use the new approved format for the pro-forma functionality. Otherwise, you may not receive submissions using the old format.

---------------------------------------------
WHAT STEPS DO I NEED TO TAKE?
---------------------------------------------

New URL for form submissions.
The following change will be required within your form tags sent to this script:
<form method="post" action="http://<accountname/yhst1234>.stores.yahoo.net/cgi-bin
/pro-forma">
where "accountname" is your store ID or yhst number. You will need to confirm this revised tag is used for each form sent to this script on your site. After updating the URL for form submissions, you will need to publish your site.

Approved email recipients.
Previously, any names listed within the form as values for owner received the email:
<input type=hidden name="owner" value="me@myname.com">

With this update, merchants must now enter the list of approved form submission recipients in the "Email To" field of the Form Submissions section in the Order Emails page (or the Fax & Email page for Merchant Solutions Standard and Professional merchants). Email addresses should be entered one per line. If you have a form that uses an email address not specified in the "Email To" field, that form submission will not be delivered.

Thank-you URL and Continue-URL under your store domain.
Previously, merchants could specify any URL to take shoppers to for the confirmation page (thankyou-URL) or after leaving the confirmation page (continue-URL):
<input type=hidden name="continue-url" value="http://anydomain.com">

Now merchants will need to specify a page within their store domain to send shoppers to.
<input type=hidden name="continue-url" value="http://merchantdomain.com">

---------------------------------------------
HOW DO I KNOW MY FORMS ARE SET UP CORRECTLY?
---------------------------------------------

If you have active forms on your site but are not receiving form submissions, then you likely have not made all of the required changes.

Confirm your form is submitting to the new URL:
<form method="post" action="http://<accountname>.stores.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/pro-forma">
and that you are using the correct account name.

Ensure that any email address listed in your forms also appears in the "Email To" field on the Order Emails page (Fax & Email for Standard and Professional accounts). You should receive emails of the form submissions to the owner addresses specified in your form, provided you are submitting the form to the new URL and have specified all email addresses.

Ensure your shoppers are being directed to a confirmation page under your domain after submitting the form and after continuing from the confirmation page.

For full details about the newly revised pro-forma functionality, please refer to Yahoo! help documentation.
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/store/edit/regular
/regular-12.html

Unlimited Email - Not Unlimited

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:45:37 PST

The other day I tried sending an email to a Yahoo! Merchant Professional client and it was promptly returned to me stating the account had been suspended. This concerned me as I maintain the website and wasn't aware of anything. The website was live and working, but why wasn't this particular email address?

I logged into their email control panel and saw a message in red stating the email address had unusual activity and the account was blocked from sending, saving or receiving emails for up to 48 hours.

This was unacceptable as who can be without email for 48 hours? I called Yahoo! and had the engineers take a look around. A little later I received an email stating it was fixed. I responded it wasn't. Time ticked away and eventually I called back and was then advised to delete the over 416,000 unread messages in the account. Basically, my client saved copies of orders, delivery confirmations and apparently everything else that they ever received via email. I deleted the sent mail and few folders containing older confirmations and everything started working again.

Moral of the story.... If you use the webmail feature on Yahoo! Bizmail, delete some email every now and then!

Another Moral..... Deleting 100,000 emails 100 at a time via an Apple iPhone while sitting on the side of the road is not fun.

One Laptop Per Child

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Roebuck) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:46:50 PST

I can remember hearing about this mythical $100 laptop and thinking how cool it was. To be able to produce a computer that could be given to the masses. What a cool concept! I joined the chat groups and immediately wanted to buy a bunch of these laptops (at $100 each) to give to the local schools or families that couldn't afford a computer. Unfortunately the computer hadn't been made yet. It was only a concept.

Well, the concept has materialized. Many of you know that I have 5 kids; my wife runs a daycare; we are foster parents; adopted from China; visit and donate to a school in Mexico; basically love kids and want to help every single child we can. So when the opportunity to buy these universal laptops became available, I jumped on it. Partly because I want to help and partly out of curiosity. The plan is to give one to the school I help in Mexico and let the All Web employees determine the fate of the other.

My laptops were delivered yesterday and I started playing. Honestly, I thought they would be a little more user friendly but I don't know the Linux operating system and assume I'm unfairly expecting them to be like Windows.

I was able to get on my secure wireless network at home and surf the net with ease. I made a video with the built in camera and played a few games. I couldn't chat with anyone but was able to find my way around fairly easily. The battery life seems great and the whole thing is extremely lightweight and compact.

I gave the computer to my 6 year old and he had a great time with it. Along with my 16 year old son. Even my daughter was impressed, but only after she could log into MySpace.

My initial blog plan was to review the laptop in detail but decided against it. The program is new and apparently open source so developers can write programs as needed. I'm so excited that this One Laptop Per Child initiative has become a reality that the only thing I can say is praise. Congratulations to Nicholas Negroponte (Founder) and I hope you continue the effort.

Please check out the website at www.laptop.org for more information. This is truly a phenomenal concept and needs the support of everyone.