ATILUS - Web Design | Internet Marketing

Breaking News - Google Changes its Name to Topeka

I was a bit stunned to find out this morning that Google has officially changed its name to “Topeka.” This ofcourse is in response to the Mayor of Topeka, Kansas, changing the City formerly known as “Topeka” to Google. According to Google’s blog:

Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.

Thank God! I personally was getting sick of saying “did you Google me?” and look forward to being…

Topeka’d?

For more information check out the article on Google’s Blog.

Crazy, Amazing Technology… is This All Necessary?

I know I’m probably going to get shot for writing this…

(an aside: how many other business articles do you read that start with the author talking about getting shot?)

Boring Story Time:

I purchased a pair of headphones yesterday evening. I live in a condo complex where the walls are thin, and I tend to work late. I listen to music while I work. I’ve decided that rather than keep my neighbors up, neighbors I’ve recently befriended, I would instead use headphones to listen to my late night jams. To make a long story short (”SHORT?! This is already TOO long Zach!”) I found a great deal on a set of head phones that are usually $100+ (CowBoom.com - interesting website), ordered, and away I went. 

Today I got a delivery confirmation email letting me know that the item had been shipped along with a USPS tracking ID. I went to the website, input the ID and got an update… it had left CA.

HERE’S WHAT’S INTERESTING

(I know you want to skip to this section, but read the story…)

You can sign up for active notifications on the package, via email. EVERYTIME, the status changes, you will receive an email. If you have email on your phone things get even more interesting… Instantly, your package flies to TX, gets scanned, USPS servers get updated, an email comes to you, you’re phone picks it up… no matter where you are, within a few seconds to a minute you will instantly know every f#@‘ing detail of your package.

Beautiful…

Okay, it’s not beautiful, I’m being sarcastic, it’s pretty neat, but is all of this information REALLY necessary? Before your package would just come, when it came…

Now you have the opportunity to bite your nails in anticipation each time your phone beeps. Now you can analyze the time it takes for the package to move halfway across the country, and become anxious and upset as to why it takes 2 days to come to you EVEN THOUGH IT’S IN YOUR HOME STATE: 

“It’s just in Jacksonville, why don’t they just drive it down today!!!!! I need my bloody headphones…”

Of course I’m just kidding, but it has me wondering is this all…

Information Overload

I guess I’m thinking about all of this because of a Frontline Episode I just watched over in PBS entitled: “Digital Nation.” Basically, what are the effects of all of this technology, how is it changing the way we live, behave, interact?

I don’t know about you, but I see a big danger in concentration. It has been increasingly HARDER to stay on task on accomplish a goal. For example… this whole article is a distraction. I was working on something else, when an email arrived, I remembered about my order, checked the status… and off my brain went. Now it just so happens I could indulge in such distractions today, but I should probably be doing something else… 

Okay, going back to something else. 

Thank you for listening to my rant.

- Zach

Rework - The Business Book You Must Buy

I made a quick pit stop last night after a meeting at the bookstore. I was hoping to pick up a book on copywriting, but was stunned to find “Rework” available at my local Borders. I thought Rework, the latest book, formally written and conventionally published by 37signals, wouldn’t be available at a local bookstore. I was wrong. 

Why You Must Read This Book

Why do you need to go out, pick up this book and read it… and then re-read it…

Well we’ll come back to this in just a minute. I promise. 

I picked it up - it’s very unassuming with very little conventional information on the back cover and decided to go for it. I respect Jason Fried and everyone at 37signals and we absolutely love their Online Project Management Software. We use it every single day here at Atilus. You’ve probably used Basecamp. This is the book about the business practices 37signals employed to become so successful and bring us Basecamp.

Here’s why you must read it… it’s short, quick, to the point, revealing everything you ever knew about business to be potentially right, and also highlighting the normal business stuff that gets us all in trouble. 

Do you hate meetings? I sure do… they’re a waste of time, usually full of BS, and as the book states.. 

[meetings] often include at least one moron who inevitably gets his turn to waste everyone’s time with nonsense. 

Who Should Read the Book

You will probably especially appreciate the beginning of the book, addressing Rework’s audience. This book is not for conventional business people. People with business degrees, MBAs, seasoned professionals with tons of employees, eeking out a living or the captain of a dying ship. No, this book is for a generation ready for change (no matter what their age). A generation who understands the ability for technology to transform, how to harness it, and how to take charge of your own destiny, if only in a small way.

Are you ready for a change?Ready to make money at something you love - even if you don’t make millions, or don’t even drop your day job? 

Then Rework is for you. It’s for the people who’ve been in business, who feel like they work all the time, but never get ahead. If you’re simply stuck at a boring 9 - 5 job and wish you could do your own thing, work for yourself, and make money doing what you love, rework is also for you. 

I highly recommend checking it out!

Comcast - Slow Internet Connection

I thought I would post this on our blog to see if anyone else has been having a similar problem, or going through similar situation with their Internet connection. 

We’re a web company, we use the Internet, a solid connection is the most important thing in our business, without it, almost no work can be done. It is very important. But, lately I’ve noticed something on my home connection and was curious how many other people out there have experienced the same thing. During the day my connection is great - roughly from the hours of 7am - 7pm. But after that, I’ve noticed during the last couple of weeks, the connection almost completely dies. Sure, I can surf, read text, but when it comes to anything else - it’s just impossible. No video, no audio, no HULU!!!!! - it’s just too slow.

I’ve done some speed tests on the connect and during the day I get an average of: 

• 11.5 mb/s down (not too shabby)
• 2.5 mb/s up (this is fantastic)

But in the evenings that drops to: 

• 0.25 mb/s down
• 1.25 mb/s up

A 98% DROP IN SPEED!!!

I’ve checked to make sure no one is on the connection, nope, my router is completely secure with multiple levels of protection. The only thing I think of is a) comcast throttles back the line drastically in the evening or b) it has to do with the “shared” nature of cable. In regards to the second one, I’ve had cable based broadband for roughly 10 years, and always thought this was a marketing myth made up by the suppliers of DSL. 

Has any one of you experienced this kind of problem with Cable or Comcast before?

AdWords Professional Search

Looking for a way to find THE BEST companies or individuals qualified to manage pay per click marketing campaigns? Try Google’s new AdWords Professional Search. I got an email this afternoon from Google, regarding some updates to the platform and thought I would also introduce everyone to this cool little tool.  

First, here’s some details about the tool, as well as some recently added functionality:

We recently launched Google Professionals Search beta https://adwords.google.com/professionals/search/– an online directory where advertisers can locate certified partners – and wanted to let you know about the new features we’re adding.

From April 20th we’d like to offer advertisers the option to specify a location in their search and request partners with specific vertical expertise using the Industries Serviced option.

If you’d like your company to show for location based searches you can now choose to add office locations to your profile.  To ensure you appear for local relevant searches follow the instructions below:

1.    Log in to your Google Advertising Professionals account at https://adwords.google.com/professionals/
2.    Navigate to your Company Profile page here https://adwords.google.com/professionals/account/
3.    Find the  Office Locations  section, click the edit button and then input your office locations

Go ahead - do a search - Atilus is on there. We’ve been certified AdWords professionals for year, and enjoy utilizing pay per click marketing for many of our clients. It offers advertisers the ability to immediately bring in quality, targeted traffic, often at a smaller price than other more conventional forms of online advertising. And it totally destroys conventional marketing tactics like, yellow page and newspaper ads.

If you ever want to know more, contact us.