Firstly, I will not be describing what Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is. If you are interested jump over to our “Get Great Google Results in One Year“  page to read up.

SEO has been around for a few years now, longer than most sites have even lived on the internet, and all of them have some level of SEO applied to them. Most sites have their code tuned up at least once or twice a year. So what is going to happen when all of the sites on the internet are SEO-ed?

Imagine it, you are trying to optimize your site, a site that has been optimized many many times, and you can’t squeeze any more optimization-ness into it. So what do you do? You would have to invent some kind of SUPER-SEO to get a leg up on the regular SEO-ed sites on the internet, and only one site can be at the top of Google. So what that means is NONE of the sites on the internet are effectively SEO-ed and you start again from before SEO existed!

So you find yourself inventing a new industry, Super-SEO and you make a billion-trillion dollars. And eventually SUPER-SEO catches on that all sites eventually become SUPER-SEO-ed and then, AGAIN, none of the sites have any SEO. So you need to invent SUPER-SUPER-SEO… and it can go on again, and again, and again until the ends of time.

I have always believed that SEO is great for now, but it is an idea that just can’t last forever. It’s a flash in the pan, internet FAD and it can’t last. And the next internet billionaires who already know this are busy at work inventing the next big internet optimization or marketing fad, I call it SUPER-SEO!

So if you want to make a billion-zillion dollars get out your protractors and start thinking… SUPER-SEO!

Have a nice day!

While the phrases “New and Improved” and “There has never been a better time…” spring to mind when you are trying to be “creative” note how many times these have been used in advertising in the past.

The public today are looking for the B.B.D (Bigger, Better Deal), so how can you hope to compete in a market where your competitors are providing the B.B.D? The answer is simple. Be creative. These creative approaches may seem risky, however you have to be risky in business, why not in your advertising also. I am  not saying be insulting or offensive, but you need to WOW your audience, if not WOW, then at least give them something to think about or remember.

When you think of great advertising campaigns in the past which ones spring to mind? Is it Nike “Just Do It” campaign, THAT  ran in 1988 and we still remember it! How about “An apple a day keeps the Doctor away”? That was a campaign that ran in the 1900’s and it was advertising… you guessed it… Apples!

Looking back at great campaigns from history you soon see a pattern, they were all short catchy slogans, but beneath those slogans was a great product. And there is no point in advertising a sub standard product. But if you have a well polished and marketable product you need to be creative. Agencies are paid millions of dollars to think up simple ways to remember your product, the Nike “Just Do It” campaign was first created by Wieden & Kennedy in 1988, it was co founder Dan Wieden who first coined the phrase and now it is a part of history. Three simple words.

Which goes to show you how you don’t have to be fancy, just be creative!

Let me give you an example, we have a product called ActivCart, which is an e-commerce website program. We started out with a simple system and have gradually expanded it into a program that is used by some of the top online stores in Australia. Originally our “catch phrase” for ActivCart was “E-commerce systems”, however this was boring, unimaginative and uncreative. We needed to make a change. We conceptualized and trialed many variations but came up with the same results. So it was back to the drawing board. We needed to capture the essence of the program. We came up with a list of keywords, here was the top 3.

1. Smart
2. Simple
3. Easy

We looked at each of the words carefully, Smart was very accurate, not only was our software smart, but smart businesses were successfully running it.

When we looked at the word, simple, we needed to be very careful, we didn’t want people to think that the software was too simple and therefore not have the features people needed. Not only that it could have implied that the client needed to be simple to run it, again this was bad. So simple went out the window.

Easy was similar to Simple. However this was close to how to use the software, easy. But being creative we had to concede that the use of the word Easy was, frankly, overused and had lost its impact with the public.

So we had an adjective, now we needed something to represent how it, or we or they are smart. Again we looked at the options.

1. Think smart
2. It’s Smart
3. Go Smart

Think smart is used by another company, out it goes. It’s smart, well what is it’s, the software? No too confusing out it goes too.

Go smart was good, it was a call to action, Go, be smart or choose the smart product, Go smart was looking good and after discussing it further we settled on it. We now have a creative brand and a recognizable phrase to associate with it. So Go Smart – ActivCart is what we use in our adverting materials now. What we found was that it gave us the ability to stick into peoples minds. If you doubt it, see if you still remember it in an hour or a day.

So when you are working out your advertising costs next time, think of how your actual advertising is affecting your clients. A smart creative idea can mean the difference between remembrance and obscurity.

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Nike Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike,_Inc.

1. No flash for web browsing – To be confirmed, however in the Apple keynote address Steve Jobs demonstrates the Wall Street Journal website, which shows a space for a Flash ad which contains the familiar (for iPhone users) missing plugin icon.

2. No iSight camera (web cam) accessory sold separately. Users of the iMac or MacBook will know that all apple devices come with a camera of some sort.

3. No multi-tasking, unlike your beloved laptop that can burn a CD, browse the internet, download your photos off your camera, and check your emails, you will find the iPad is like the iPhone, and can only think about one thing at a time. So you will be having to stop what you are doing and change back and forth to get the job done.

Now all that aside, it is a beautiful device. And its size and portability look great. I honestly am contemplating one, but for me, I can’t justify it until I can think of a use for it. And as a web developer the limitations of not having flash in web browsing makes it a very limiting platform for online content. The same goes for playing games in Facebook, sorry, you won’t be able to, they are 99% all built in flash.

It should be very interesting what happens in the coming weeks before the product is available for sale, we should get a good idea as to who will buy and who will not. I would see a device like this being of great benefit to existing iPhone business users, it would expand the capabilities of what they are used to, without the limits of a small iPhone screen. And the integration with iCal, Address Book, Mail, iTunes and iPhoto means that everything you need on the device, be it, personal or business is at the, literal, tips of your fingers.

Just look at the thing, Apple designers have an eye for simplicity and beauty. All of their products, are clean and minimalist. Even with its limits, this device looks to be something quite impressive. I find myself, more and more, everyday, turning to my iMac, instead of my PC. Why do I do this? I look at my XP desktop and feel like I am stuck back at the turn of the millennium again, before the berth of Facebook. Sitting in front of my iMac or Macbook Pro makes me feel cooler, and more special.

For good measure here are the technical specifications of the iPad.

• .7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
• 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• 6GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive
• 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
• Built-in 25 Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
• Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
• Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system
• Accelerometer
• Ambient light sensor
• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
• 3G (optional)

Read the full specifications of the iPad here.

We will have to wait and see if the iPad is iGood or an iDud. But until then we can just sit back and start saving for the day they are launched.

More information to come, in the mean time check it out and decide for yourself, the Apple iPad, iGood or iDud?

In another post google as a Black Box Giacomo proposed that we talk too much theory and not enough application of it. So, lets skip the theory and get to what I know works from time proven methods on google. I know the following system works 100% of the time with google to attain rankings across a wide range of keywords. This is what I do with clients to build a successful site and has worked every time. The level of success will depend largely on the subject matter, it’s potential audience, and it’s level of competition on the net.
The following will build a successful site in 1 years time via google alone. It can be done faster if you are a real go getter, or everyones favorite a self starter.

A) Prep work and begin building content. Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a 100 page site. That’s just for openers. That’s 100 pages of real content, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright/tos…etc eg: fluff pages.

B) Domain name:
Easily brandable. You want “google.com” and not “mykeyword.com”. Keyword domains are out – branding and name recognition are in – big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to se’s. Learn the lesson of “goto.com” becomes “Overture.com” and why they did it. It’s one of the most powerful gut check calls I’ve ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding. (that is a whole ‘nother article, but learn the lesson as it applies to all of us).

C) site Design:
The simpler the better. Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. eg: keep it close to html 3.2 if you can. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring. Stay away from heavy: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them – there is little reason to have them that I can see – they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don’t appreciate (search engines distaste for js is just one of them).
Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.
You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root (this is rather controversial, but it’s been producing good long term results across many engines).
Don’t clutter and don’t spam your site with frivolous links like “best viewed” or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Learn the lesson of google itself – simple is retro cool – simple is what surfers want.

Speed isn’t everything, it’s almost the only thing. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until “something happens” in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request. Longer than that, and you’ll lose 10% of your audience for every second. That 10% could be the difference between success and not.

The pages:

D) Page Size:
The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can – I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Ya – that bites – it’s tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines, and it works for surfers. Remember, 80% of your surfers will be at 56k or even less.

E) Content:
Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren’t sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword suggester and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

F) Density, position, yada…
Simple old fashioned seo from the ground up.
Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don’t fret about it). Use good sentences and speel check it  Spell checking is becoming important as se’s are moving to auto correction during searches. There is no longer a reason to look like you can’t spell (unless you really are phonetically challenged).

G) Outbound Links:
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future).

H) insite Cross links.
(cross links in this context are links within the same site)
Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your pr value across your site. You do NOT want an “all star” page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It’s the old share the wealth thing.

I) Put it Online.
Don’t go with virtual hosting – go with a stand alone ip.
Make sure the site is “crawlable” by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main “topic index” pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content).
Don’t put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It’s worse to put a “nothing” site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start.

Go for a listing in the ODP. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don’t have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo (don’t hold your breath).

J) Submit
Submit the root to: google, Fast, Altavista, WiseNut, (write Teoma), DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part – forget about submissions for the next six months. That’s right – submit and forget.

K) Logging and Tracking:
Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files (don’t use a lame graphic counter – you need the real deal). If your host doesn’t support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can’t run a modern site without full referrals available 24×7×365 in real time.

L) Spiderlings:
Watch for spiders from se’s. Make sure those that are crawling the full site, can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system (use standard hrefs) to make sure the spider found it’s way throughout the site. Don’t fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by google or Fast. Other se’s are pot luck and doubtful that you will be added at all if not within 6 months.

M) Topic directories.
Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it’s topic. Go submit within the guidelines.

N) Links
Look around your keyword sector in googles version of the ODP. (this is best done AFTER getting an odp listing – or two). Find sites that have links pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on topic, in context links up your self as a collection spot.
Don’t freak if you can’t get people to swap links – move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don’t worry if site Z won’t link with you – they will – eventually they will.

O) Content.
One page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much “bloggin” type personal stuff and look more for “article” topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of “web speak” that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd.

Lots of text breaks – short sentences – lots of dashes – something that reads quickly.

Most web users don’t actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page by random, and a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They’ve got better things to do that waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whiz bang flash menu system. Because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don’t have the pull factor they do.

Use headers, and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

P) Gimmicks.
Stay far away from any “fades of the day” or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

Q) Link backs
When YOU receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through google and their pr value. Look for directory listings. Don’t link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic.

R) Rounding out the offerings:
Use options such as Email-a-friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your sites offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt you read so much.
Stay away from “affiliate fades” that insert content on to your site.

S) Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome
If you have an ecom site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don’t work at all. Think about what people want. They aren’t coming to your site to view “your content”, they are coming to your site looking for “their content”. Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (raise eyebrows…yes, I know).

T) Build one page of content per day.
Head back to the Overture suggestion tool to get ideas for fresh pages.

U) Study those logs.
After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you’ve gotten listed. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine what it wants.
If your site is about “oranges”, but your referrals are all about “orange citrus fruit”, then you can get busy building articles around “citrus” and “fruit” instead of the generic “oranges”.
The search engines will tell you exactly what they want to be fed – listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it’s just a matter of panning for it.

V) Timely Topics
Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site “Z” is coming out with product “A” at the end of the year, then build a page and have it ready in October so that search engines get it by December. eg: go look at all the Xbox and XP sites in google right now – those are sites that were on the ball last summer.

W) Friends and Family
Networking is critical to the success of a site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. pssst: Here’s the catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long term by the interaction – not by just reading.
Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you “in the loop” of your keyword sector.

X) Notes, Notes, Notes
If you build one page per day, you will find that brain storm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! 10 minutes of work later, you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it’s a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

Y) Submission check at six months
Walk back through your submissions and see if you got listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months. If not, then resubmit and forget again. Try those freebie directories again too.

Z) Build one page of quality content per day.
Starting to see a theme here? google loves content, lots of quality content. Broad based over a wide range of keywords. At the end of a years time, you should have around 400 pages of content. That will get you good placement under a wide range of keywords, generate recip links, and overall position your site to stand on it’s own two feet.

Do those 26 things, and I guarantee you that in ones years time you will call your site a success. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines. If you build a good site with an average of 4 to 5 pages per user, you should be in the 10-15k page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to “do something” with.

Well, firstly… the internet marketplace has never been stronger, it seems one of the only places that the GFC has not yet touched. In spite of the dire predictions of lower consumer spending, there seems to be a steady trend of “spend, spend, spend” on the internet, and eCommerce is a strong internet platform to sell. Naturally you are interested on how you can capitalize on this seemingly limitless technology. Well it is not as hard as you think. It is not something I like to do, however I would like to talk for a second about our eCommerce application ActivCart.

We are planning a huge product launch very soon, the new version 4 system is like nothing we have released previously. We are talking a complete ground up rebuild, with new and easier ways to integrate it into any website. Plus a HUGE suite of new features, including Order Management, Reporting, Sales Reports, GST Reports, Email Marketing, Live Chat, Event Viewer and much more to name a few. This new system is something that can get you up and running very quickly, whether you have a website or not.

Now that the gratuitous sales pitch is out of the way we can focus on how you can get a leg up on the world of ebusiness.

Advertising
Ok, you have heard all this before. But internet advertising is one of the strongest and most proven methods to get results there is. You can get up and running within minutes and start drawing traffic immediately.

Search Engine Optimization
SEO is something that goes hand in hand with internet advertising. Unlike internet advertising, this is a means to an end. SEO can give you much free traffic to your site, which allows you to reduce your marketing spend and increase your bottom line.

Blogs
These are very interesting, it is something that practically started overnight, however blog writing is something you can get into, it is an enjoyable past time and if you are good at it, you can earn a little money on the site writing for other blogs on the internet (as a side note: I am available to write for anyone interested!!! ) These are also great for SEO, drawing quality traffic to your site, which in turn leads to higher sales.

And there are many more methods to get started. Without giving away too many trade secrets, we have a very proven method for getting started in a competitive market.

And secondly… the internet is an evolving being, constantly changing, what is popular today may not be tomorrow, for example, who uses MySpace anymore? It’s all Twitter and Facebook, but who knows what it will be in 2010. It could be you. If you are interested in getting started in an online business we have a very proven method to get up and running. You can contact us here.

There has never been a better time to get started with your own online ebusiness. It is cheap and there is a client base out there on the internet, no matter what you are offering, someone is looking for it. What are you waiting for?

Why is building client communities important for business? Simply, it puts you and your client on a level playing field. It gives them the feeling of being a part of a community of like minded people. For example if you are a fan of our work, you can look on our new FaceBook Fan Page here. We are currently building our own client network, based on our research the clients who are involved in your business are the ones with a passion for it. And those people are the ones that are loyal if you treat them right. And social networking can help.

So where do you start?
Firstly you want to find out where your potential clients are “hanging out” online? Facebook is a good place to start. And it can’t hurt to ask some of your clients if they are on Facebook or MySpace. This will give you an idea of your client bases online activities, and help you decide where you need to target your social networking. But you have to give them something, if you are giving away free samples, try offering them to people who are fans on your Facebook page, if you are good at writing quality content  blogs that your clients would be wiling to read, then get a few of these pre-written so you can start your social networking with a few well written pieces.

For the purposes of this article, we will assume that Facebook is your chosen method. With Facebook, you can create pages, and your clients can become fans of the page. A page is basically a regular Facebook profile page, however it can be for practically any purpose. Have a look at our Facebook Page here.

How will this increase your bottom line? Well, basically if your clients are involved in these pages, they will be more likely to remember your brand and message.

It may sound like a lot of work, but it only takes 30 minutes every couple of days, and you do want to keep it updated, people keep coming back to see the latest content or offerings, so keeping things up to date is the most important thing.

In almost all cases doing this costs only time so give it a go, find a social media outlet and get interacting with your people. It just might be the best thing you can do for your business.

Well lately Apple has been doing things quite right, while Vista was being such a headache for mainstream PC users, Apple was busy making sure that you don’t have the same problems on a Mac, and you don’t, seriously. Are you concerned about viruses? No need on a Mac.

If you have been one of the unlucky many to be caught by a virus on your PC over the years fear not, Apple computers don’t get them, and that means less stress, less worry and less expense in Anti-Virus software. I have both Mac’s and PC’s and one of the best things about them is the fact that you can browse and download emails in confidence that you are not going to open a nasty one that will delete all your data, eat all the food out of your fridge, leave drinks on your coffee table without a coaster, make long distance phone calls on your phone and leave the toilet seat up!

So let’s say that you buy one, okay so what if something goes wrong? Well, I have had experience with that too. One of the keyboards stopped working on some of the keys, while this is a major problem for workflow, I was straight on the phone with support, who easily helped my try to diagnose the problem, when one could not be found the support tech dispatched a new keyboard. All I had to do was put the old one back in the box the new one came in and send it back, free of charge. And it was a fast turn around AND I could track it all online. Pretty neat huh?

One of the things I need in business is Microsoft Office, you need Word and you need Outlook, so you want Office and guess what, you can, Office:mac is Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Outlook (although they do not call it Outlook in the mac version it is called Entourage). So taking your word documents to a mac is definately do-a-ble!

The operating system is stable, compatible and bug free, are you hearing me Vista users! It is very intuitive to use and you can’t really make a mistake with the system, one of the nice things is that it can think for you, now that may sound scary, but it’s not. All the scary configuration that you need to go through on a PC aren’t available to break on a mac, while they are there for advanced users to find, people who are playing in the control panel can’t do any lasting damage to the system, and a fix is as simple as turning the off switch that you were messing with back to the on position.

So I would expect at this point you are at least considering buying one? Am I wrong? Well if you are and I am not wrong, you will probably be interested in some of the cool new features that the new iMacs are sporting. Firstly, the screen, Apple claim that the point of the design of an iMac is to show off the display, and this is true, they are so minimalistic, it is just a screen, with an Apple logo! But it is a nice screen and the new ones are now 21.5″ and 27″ wide screens. With very high resolution. The other new features are the fact that they now come with a wireless keyboard and mouse, now interestingly they come with a very weird wireless keyboard, it has no numberpad on the right, which is a little annoying when you use it. That was a bizzare choice for Apple  if you ask me.

But they have made it up by giving us a new toy, a magic mouse. Spooky!!!! No not really, however it claims to be the most intuitive mouse you can have, instead of click buttons the entire top surface of the mouse is touch sensitive, which means you can click, scroll and do plenty more, by just rubbing your fingers across the surface.

Another good feature that isn’t really a feature is the fact that it is the entire computer, I have moved mine dozens of times, the reason I do this is because I can, there is literally two cords that go into the back. Which means its a simple matter of unplugging the power cable and your off. Brilliant!

It also plugs straight into your iPhone or iPod with no dramas at all. So no hunting for drivers or downloading software, it just works. And that is the best feature of all, it just works. It is pretty to look at, is a talking point with friends and it just works. What more could you want, and they are more affordable than you may think.

There you go, they are quite good, oh and you can run word on them, or Windows, if you are so inclined. Just have a play with one for a while, if you are not entirely confident using a computer, I bet that after an hour of playing with one, you will get the hang of it, they are simple intuitive, pretty and safe, all the things you want and need. Now that Windows7 is out it will be interesting to see if the frustrated masses will stay loyal to Microsoft or defect to the dark side?

Who knows? Only time will tell…

Essentially, they are all the same, and they are all around $700. There are some variations but basically if you’re looking at one, you’re looking at all of them. While they are not fast, have a small screen, no CD Rom drive, micro mouse track pad and miniscule features, you would imagine they are useless, right? Well, sadly for the most part you would be right.

However, they are very cute, and everywhere you take it people will say “Oh my goodness, how small is that!”, but the cuteness will wear off as soon as you try to do too much with it. And the frustration of hitting the wrong key on the tiny keyboard will make you forget how little you paid for it.

So if we are going to compare apples with apples, we need an example. So we will compare the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with the Asus EeePC 1002H.

So a quick comparison below:

Need I go on?

As you can see they are evenly stacked, it basically depends on if you like gloss or matt screens? Whoopee!

So we have established that they are basically the same specs and the same price, but just to look at it, I would have to say that the Dell is the winner, it is clear when you are looking at it that someone has at least tried to make it look like designer accessory, as opposed to a useless computer that you will probably never use.

To look at them positively, they do have a very good battery life, I can say from experience that you can watch more than 2 hours of videos with the screen brightness turned all the way up and still have a little battery life to spare, they are also the most portable computer you can own, so if you do need something to check your emails with while you are on the road that is light and relatively easy to use (if you have small hands), you have found what you are looking for.

But what about speed? No. None in here.

So they are slow and small, but let’s say that you are a regular internet user that just wants something cheap, that you can watch some YouTube videos and check your facebook with, you would probably consider one of these, they are cheap, they have a 12 month warranty, and when it breaks you can throw it in the bin and buy a new one. Perfect!

I personally am in two minds as to what I really think about them, I can see why people would want one, but if you get one, try to load a few web pages into internet explorer and see how long it takes for you to get up and go use another computer, I know it won’t take too long. But let’s look at it practically. The next type of computer you can buy from Dell is a full sized Dell Inspiron 15 for $699*, wait… that’s the same price, and it has a CD Rom drive, bigger keyboard and 15 inch monitor. Well isn’t that interesting?

Well there you have it, if you want to buy a small netbook for under seven hundred dollars, buy a full sized Dell Inspiron 15, you will find more uses for it, and it won’t make you squint.

*Prices correct at time of publication.

I must admit, I was at first hesitant at creating my own FaceBook profile. But eventually I gave it a try and never looked back.

FaceBook is a great way to keep in touch with people that you may not see too often, I will admit that for some people it is the only social interaction they have, but for the healthy ones, it can be a quant way of keeping in touch and meeting new people.

All you have to do is remember to log in and update your profile with some note or anecdote about your life. The typical post would go like this “Iain is hungry” or “Iain wonders the meaning of life” for example. Your friends will eventually find you and ask to be your friend on FaceBook, you accept and then you can see their notes or anecdotes. You make comments on theirs and they make comments on yours and the fun begins.

Is that all? You may ask. Well, no… on top of the basics of keeping people up to date on your life, and being updated on others, you can also upload your photos into galleries for your friends to view, chat to your friends live, and write stories for people to read, for a start. But on top of that, there are scores of nerds worldwide developing applications for the FaceBook website. My apologies to those of the nerd fraternity, but you know what you are. These applications can be a lot of fun, and I have spent, perhaps, too much time playing some of the fun little games that are available for free on FaceBook.

Now that is all well and good, but how can you take advantage of all of this?

Finding new mediums to promote your business is hard. All of the good angles have already been done to death, and newspaper advertisements are so Stone Age these days. So where can you break into a market that is largely untapped and in most cases, unheard of, by mainstream business?

You could try Google Adwords and get your business at the top of Google searches, but then you would have to pay $3 – $15 per click to get any real presence there, where else can you go where there are hundreds of millions of people online?

The answer is somewhere you have heard of but probably don’t completely understand. It is of course, FaceBook. With more than 250 million active users (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics) and a growing demographic of those 35 years old and older, it’s not hard to get your business name in front of a lot of people today. And it is not like those people just check it quickly and leave, there are more than 5 billion minutes spent on FaceBook each day worldwide.

From those statistics you would think that there would be advertisers lining up and down the street to get their ads in front of that many people. But no.
While there is a huge amount of advertisers on FaceBook, there are none of any substance. The quality of advertisers needs to be raised, and it will once it catches on. But if you are quick and act now you can get your business advertising on FaceBook for a ridiculously low cost. While Google can charge you up to $15 or more per click, FaceBook ads can cost less than a dollar per click, based on the demographic you select.

Both Adwords and Facebook let you control this amount, but unlike Adwords you can literally get started for a few cents, while you can do this on Adwords, your ads won’t show until you enter an amount that puts enough weight on it for it to display.

And that is the other thing, if you want your ads to be displayed to 35 year old, investment bankers who live in Brisbane CBD and are interested in German Sports Cars, you can! Because FaceBook has so much personal information about its users, you can target your ads right down to the exact type of person you are wanting to market to.

Not interested in paying for advertising on FaceBook? No worries, why not create a Fan page! Basically you create a Fan page and people become fans of it. What does that mean? Well, say I become a fan of your page, that notification “Iain is now a fan of Red Basketball Hoops”, for example, is displayed on my profile page, my 100 or so friends will see that I have become a fan, they in turn become a fan and so on.

This is great if you have a product that you can promote, and it helps if it is cool or popular, I am not sure people will become a fan of “Strategic Marketing Strategies in the South Pacific” but if you are selling digital camera’s and you have a good brand, this can be a way of promoting your brand at no cost.

So it’s food for thought really, most businesses would jump at a chance to get into an untapped market, but its up to you. Start investigating this for your self and see if it is truely suitable for your business needs. There are heaps of websites out there that offer advertising, this is just one of them, and you need to make the decision for yourself as to which media is the right one.

Lets keep it simple, website hosting is your little piece of the internet, it is where your website lives, so in that regard, it’s kind of like property. So you rent your little 1 bedroom studio hosting space, and your website lives there. That’s basically it.

But what is it really? Well, website hosting servers can be very complex, and they vary greatly from one to another. When choosing a web host you want to make sure that it is physically located in the country that you are wanting to market to. This is important for search engines to know where your site lives and to target your results to people in those countries.

Some simple questions to as ask:

1. Where is the server located? 
If it is located in the U.S. and you want to market to Australia, you need to ask if it’s possible to host on an Australian based server. If not, find one that does.
2. What capacities do I get on my account?
 Like broadband internet, there are many plans and options you can choose. Basic plans for Australian servers are around 1 gigabyte of bandwidth and 1 gigabyte of disc space with unlimited email accounts and shouldn’t cost you more than $400 per year for a basic plan.
3. Are there excess charges?
 When you go over your limits are there charges on your account? If so you may want to weigh up your options.

Something important to remember, is that some custom websites that are developed need to work on a specific type of server, for example, if your website is build in ASP.NET (a Microsoft scripting language) you will need to host on a Windows server, where as, if your website is built in Perl (a Linux scripting language) you will need to host your website on a Linux server, although you run Perl on Windows, it is not common practice for Windows servers to support it. This is not always the case, and there are many variables, again it is best to ask your web developer what server requirements you need for your website to work.

So website hosting is important, it is the location on the internet where your website lives and can be served out to your viewers. But what is a domain name?

Well, you probably already know that a domain name is your www.com address, so a domain name is your web address (another property reference). How it works is it translates your name into the location of your hosting server. For example if your hosting server is at location 74.125.45.100 (Click that, it’s Google’s home page) the domain name is a mask for that address. This is a convenience as you do not have to remember that whole number, and you can just remember a simple name. From there your hosting server translates your domain name and serves your website files.

If you are ever unsure about what your host tells you, simply ask, web people are more than happy to explain how things work.