On the other note we still love the Google Keyword Tool to help us to the keyword research when we need.  There are so many tools available now, that are making life easier, so not sure how long we will all still be using our Google friendly tool.

Steve Job’s has had an impact in nearly all our lives in some way or another, through inspiration, passion, vision and most of all in his humble nature.  Our thoughts go to his close family and friends and we know that the world has lost a great person, but his legacy and contribution to the world will never be forgotten.

A great flashback on the life of Steve Jobs, only a snippet we know, but wow how he has changed the world we live in.

Thanks Steve Jobs and may you Rest In Peace.

Statement released by Apple’s Board of Directors

A great story on 60 mins last month, looking into the revolution in the retail market in Australia and overseas.

The story features Net-A-Porter (a few of my client’s favourite online shopping site, you know who you are) and a quick inside on the number of staff employed and how fulfillment works with online stores.

Australian retailers have to get smarter and not throw their hands up in the air.  It is not ‘too hard’, you need careful planning, an online strategy, a user friendly website (your online shopfront) and just a few other things and you are off and running.

It doesn’t matter if it takes you a bit of time to get there…but you need to start today!  As the story outlines shopping has not slowed down it is a $15 billion industry online.

Spend a few minutes, it is worth the watch.

This is the resignation letter Steve Jobs sent to the Apple board:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Joomla is a powerful content management system (CMS), which allows you to build websites and is a great foundation for your business to grow online. The number of pre-built applications and components that are available to configure and install in Joomla are endless and growing each day.  Oh yeah did I mention that Joomla is free?  That is the best bit, Joomla is an open source CMS, so it is free for you to use for your website.

Joomla Content Management System

Joomla has gained substantial momentum since 2005 and now at its peak (as seen on Google Insights).  There are a number of other open source content management systems that are now ‘on the market’, such as: WordPress, Magento & Drupal to name a few.

Over the coming weeks we are going to be updating this section with more on Joomla and it’s features, benefits and helping you find developers around Australia to help you build your website in Joomla.

If you need any assistance with your Joomla development, please call us today and we can guide you in the right direction.

Email Marketing 101 brought to you by Mailchimp.  A really easy to use do it yourself email marketing system.  Sign up today for free.

How good is your email newsletter list?

E-newsletters are a very important way of staying in touch with your market.  However, they’re also very irritating to the receiver if they aren’t wanted and worse still if the receiver has already requested to be unsubscribed!  How many times has it happened to you?  Some subject that you had a passing interest in three years ago meant you subscribed to the weekly email and you’ve been trying to get off it ever since.  Refer to my email marketing hints at Internet Marketing.

Well, in truth, that’s happening a lot less now as regulations have tightened up on the ‘unsubscribe’ issue, but the point is, your email list of customers and followers is only as good as the work you do in cleansing and segmenting it over time, otherwise all your great offers maybe wasted on the wrong people.  So, make it a rule to segment and categorise your list and customise your message for different audiences.  Then track the responses to your different offers to see what’s working for whom and adjust the offer and re-group addresses into common needs groups.  Most email packages provide good segmentation and response tools.  We work with clients to make sure they get the most out of email and help with the design and content.  If you’re just getting started, take a look at Mailchimp to learn about some of the hurdles in creating good email communications, especially the design issues.

Email Marketing 101 brought to you by Mailchimp – it’s a really easy to use do-it-yourself email marketing system.

Video brought to you by Mailchimp

Twitter has been around for a while now and although there are 1001 ‘Social Networking’ and ‘Twitter’ seminars available on the internet, I still bump into at least one person a day who asks me ‘What should I do with Twitter?”  After speaking to them for just five minutes you can soon realise there are a few basic questions most people have:

Twitter Common Questions

• What is Twitter?
• How should I or my company use Twitter?
• How am I going to benefit from Twitter?
• How do I monitor everything that goes on with Twitter?
• When will I get the time to post, what do you call them ‘tweets’?
• Finally…does Twitter work?

These are all fairly valid questions and from what I can see obviously there are many out there that still aren’t sure what to really do with it.  An easy answer for a web consultant is to say, ‘Let us look at it case by case (which is true), as every client, goal and business is different’.  However, even before that there are a few quick actions that will pay off later:

1. Even though you do not know what Twitter is, bite the bullet…just sign up and reserve your business name and/or main service keyword, then you can just sit on it.  You can do this by going to: www.twitter.com – no need any other software.
2. If  unsure about whether you’re interested in Twitter, maybe create a second account and start to ‘play’
3. Sign-up, do what is call ‘follow’ people (all this does is allow you to read their mini-posts) and then comment or reply if you want to.
4. That is it just ‘Play’, for at least 30 days!

Having dived into Twitter, not expecting anything, then speak to your web consultant and ask the questions above.  Also get ready to have a bigger discussion on Social Networking and how it can or sometimes cannot be good for business.  So in answer to the number one questions I always get “What should I do with Twitter?”, bite the bullet, sign up, ‘play’ and expect nothing, then let’s chat!

Google plays such a big part in our online life (yes I know that is scary), that these days whenever Google does anything, a buzz goes through the entire world wide web.  Everyone starts talking about it and all businesses start to think we need to be a part of it and/or we need to do something.

Free Website

Google’s latest ‘biggy’ is that you can now get free websites with Google, it’s called Google Sites.  So, you would ask, what does that mean to us web developers out there, what does it mean to us as a business?

The thing is, DIY websites, low cost sites and free websites have been around for years, not sure if you remember Geocities?  The effect that Google’s fee sites will have is that it will allow more users to experiment with a website and get to know more about the internet.  They will be more educated, which is great!  There will be no excuse why micro to small businesses are not online.  Once they are ready to upgrade to a site that is created based on their online strategy, then they will be comfortable to know they haven’t wasted any money on a Google site!

VIDEO by http://www.gettingbusinessonline.com.au

So, as web developers we welcome this new venture and look forward to seeing it providing more options for experimentation.  There will always be low cost/ no cost sites out there, bring it on Google!

Want to try it?

Then go to: sites.google.com

Many of my clients ask me about why they should have a Company blog and following that, ‘what do we write in it’?

As a rule of thumb, yes most businesses will benefit from a Blog.  But like most things in life, the best rule is to keep it simple.  You will hear me say this about how we approach all aspects of communications on line.  Also refer to my hints on blogs at Internet Marketing.

Writing a blog

There is so much information online now and few people have the time to trawl through paragraphs and paragraphs of information,  so short, sharp and straight to the point is best..

If you’re stuck for ideas, remember that your purpose is to be convincing so look for topics that will interest your audience:

1. Client case studies
2. Updates on your product / service offering (maybe new or an enhancement)
3. New staff members?
4. Useful resources for your clients (keeping in your industry)
5. Recent wins in your business (new offices, double the turnover)
6. Also why not see if anyone is reading your blog and have secret blog on competitions (for movie tickets or petrol cards)

Keep it simply, entertaining and light.  Don’t worry too much about optimising it, if it is not interesting it won’t matter how optimised it is for Google.

VIDEO by: BloggerHelp YouTube Channel