http://www.atilus.com/blog en harry@atilus.com Copyright 2010 2010-06-16T21:26:37+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/how_to_create_website_shortcut_to_my_desktop/ http://www.atilus.com/site/how_to_create_website_shortcut_to_my_desktop/#When:20:26:37Z Question of the day: How to Create a Webpage Shortcut On Your Desktop (Windows)? That’s the question I was asked today by 5 different people.  It makes sense for those who visit a particular website very often, sometimes it is easier to create a shortcut on your desktop rather than always looking for it. This method should work fine for Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Enough talking, here is how you can create a shortcut on your desktop for your favorite website: Place you cursor on an empty part of your desktop. Right click and select: New  > Shortcut A shortcut wizard will open up. Right Click On Desktop Enter Shortcut Destination   Enter the destination to the shortcut you want to create. In that case you will simply enter the website or webpage URL. Click Next Type a Name for the Shortcut Type in a name for the shortcut that will help you   remember what it is for. Once you have entered the new name, click finish. Test it   That’s it   Now you can create a shortcut for everything you need whether it’s a file, folder, or your favorite website. Just follow this instruction and you are good to go. 2010-06-16T20:26:37+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/what_your_site_can_look_like_a_design_trend_overview/ http://www.atilus.com/site/what_your_site_can_look_like_a_design_trend_overview/#When:14:38:32Z The web today has a very wide spectrum of creativity running through it. Site design has expanded exponentially over the past few years. There are a lot of things people are doing to get noticed and have their site stand out above the rest. With this in mind I am going to give a brief overview of four design trends that are popular today in the world of web design. Minimalism Minimalist styled sites are really popular right now. They offer sleek, simple design with an emphasis on content. You can go traditional black on white or mix in a color or two. The concept is “less is more”. Web 2.0 Web 2.0 touched down a few years back but is still a great design trend to use. It has grown a lot since its birth. Web 2.0 is “simplicity with flare”. Gradients, white space, icons, use of color, bold logos, and reflections are just some attributes in line with the web 2.0 design movement. Grunge/Texture Grunge/textured designs have become popular for companies and individuals looking for a more edgy appearance. These sites may follow some web 2.0 attributes but throw in textured backgrounds and dingy attributes/scenery to the mix. A good change of pace if you are going for that feeling in your website. Abstract/Large Imagery Abstractly designed sites are just that, abstract. They slightly fit any conformity or normal sense of structure. Along those lines are sites that use large images/illustrations. This use of imagination is for grabbing the user visually. Normally this style is reserved for micro sites and for the enjoyment of the user. These are just some of the styles that are out there today. What kind of site do you have? Does it fit in to any of these categories? Maybe it’s time for a design update. Web Design 2010-06-09T14:38:32+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/twitter_-_right_for_my_business/ http://www.atilus.com/site/twitter_-_right_for_my_business/#When:16:46:00Z I found an article late last night entitled “Bye Bye Birdie: Why Twitter is on the Outs” that really sparked my interested in writing this article. The question of  “Should your business use Twitter?”  has come up more than once and it’s mostly been lumped in with social networking. In general I feel, and this is entirely my personal opinion, the answer is simple - it’s a NO.  SHOULD YOUR BUSINESS USE TWITTER?  NO! But, such a huge conclusion requires some back story and justification. First what is Twitter? What is Twitter? Twitter’s mission, or explanation of their service has changed over the years. It started out as a “micro-blogging” service, that allowed you to answer the question, “what are you doing right now?” They have since updated this mantra to read “Discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.” Although each is relevant, the term “micro blog” might be the best answer to what exactly is twitter. It allows you to setup a page and immediately begin broadcasting content (small messages). Those that follow you are immediately notified when you post something. And alternatively you can read what others are writing and be notified when someone you are following makes a post. My history with Twitter: I was initially introduced to the service and started using it lightly in 2007 at a web application developers conference in Miami. Back then no one had heard of it (I feel like I should be wearing this T-Shirt). It was hot in the web development community, mostly because of its creator Evan Williams, who also created Blogger. It was hyped as the next big thing… and guess what, it’s become the next big thing. But, I personally feel it is a trend, a site that, while allowing a valuable conversation to be discussed, is being ousted by similar features on more relevant, and better aligned tools (ala Google Buzz or Facebook’s status tool).  I remember being introduced to the tool at the conference and literally thinking “what the f@#! is this? who is going to use it? and how will it make money?” To me it always seemed like a cool little tool, but one that the masses would never fully adopt.  And they haven’t.  Here’s the problem with Twitter:  Twitter introduced the masses to the idea of a “status.” Allowing all of us to tell everyone we found necessary, or everyone that was curious, exactly what we were up to, what we were thinking, doing, etc. But, unfortunately I think others are taking the reigns and soon Twitter will be no more. Let me explain. As outlined in the terrific article Bye Bye Birdie: Why Twitter is on the Outs… very few people actively use twitter. Here are the stats from the article, broken out from the linked video regarding social media from Edison Research. Twitter Usage in America 2010 from Tom Webster on Vimeo. The Good:  only 5% of people in the US knew what Twitter was in 2008 Nearly 90% of people  in the US know what Twitter is in 2010! (That’s an 1800% increase!) The Bad:  in 2008 less than 1% of people in the U.S. were using Twitter in 2010 approximately 7% of people use Twitter The Ugly:  Only 1/3 of twitter users use it daily in 2010 roughly 41% of the population has a Facebook profile, making Twitter, relatively speaking, very well known, but not widely used. Conclusion Considering the ubiquity of twitter, the fact that it is here is undeniable. But, the numbers speak for themselves. As the video referenced above highlights towards the end, traditional media has been responsible for the explosion of the KNOWLEDGE of twitter. I remember it was being referenced daily during the elections in Iran as a source by CNN and others on what was happening on the ground at that time. But, awareness is NOT the same as use, and relatively speaking very few Americans actually use Twitter. And this makes sense. In comparison to similarly released tools from Facebook (which has a MUCH larger national and International audience) Twitter is confusing and requires one to duplicate their efforts (IE, why would I use twitter when I’m already connected to those that are important and can broadcast what I need on Facebook?). The answer is simple - Twitter is more public - but your average user may not want that and even if they do, explaining the difference is difficult. Finally, there’s the matter of simple business sustainability. How will Twitter stay afloat against juggernauts like Google? Google is already making money from AdSense/AdWords, monetizing their newly released Google Buzz through their network of small text ads. Twitter has yet to find a way to make money. For all of these reasons I believe that although Twitter can and does provide value, it will not generally be the best use of your time as a person or company looking to market your business online. It should definitely fall to the wayside at this time in terms of priority. And I hesitate to say this trend (twitter) will continue to be around in the next 2 years.  Business, Internet Marketing, Social Media 2010-06-08T16:46:00+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/linkedin_advertising_review/ http://www.atilus.com/site/linkedin_advertising_review/#When:15:13:10Z Are you thinking about using LinkedIN’s advertising? Well I was too! And as I explained in a previous post… I like to test all advertising and new technology on Atilus BEFORE applying it or pushing it to clients.  About two weeks ago I wrote a post about our decision to test out LinkedIN’s advertising system after being offered a substantial coupon via email. After two weeks of using the system (and the entire $250 coupon) we have come to some conclusions. LINKEDIN STILL HAS A WAYS TO GO BEFORE IT’S ADVERTISING SYSTEM WILL BE OF LARGE VALUE Okay, let me clarify some points on this. First of all, if you’re considering using LinkedIN you must first consider WHO is on LinkedIN… consider the website’s audience. Personally I like that it’s NOT facebook. It is not a site for everyone and their grandmother (no offense to grandmother’s out there). ...I love grandmothers (that was for you Jessica)... Attempts at getting inflated birthday gifts aside LinkedIN is a business networking site, geared towards the true networking of business professionals. Personally I am ONLY connected to people I have actually met and done business with. I don’t have “friends” on LinkedIN. However, I don’t really use LinkedIN. I keep my resume up to date. I keep my recommendations up to date (for Atilus’ references/testimonials). I will occasionally go on the site because an old associate messages me. But, other than that I don’t use the site. I only see it being used for the above purposes as well as two others: Searching for a Job Asking Questions (they have a nice, if redundant Q/A section) With that said… do all of the above offer enough opportunity for YOU (a potential advertiser) to get your message in front of a targeted audience? To give you an example if you were promoting a full-proof method to get hired, perhaps a guide to resumes/job solicitations, LinkedIN would be perfect. Personally, after millions of impressions and hundreds of dollars spent, we received only a few clicks and no actual leads. LinkedIN turned out to be MUCH more expensive, and less targeted (at least for our business), than other pay per click methods (AdWords, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook). Additionally even if the people on LinkedIN performing the activities I mentioned above appeals to you and your business, I think the system has just a little bit farther to go in the way of targeting. For example only a limited number of targeting options were allowed and geographically speaking, their are a very limited number of major metropolitan areas offered. This meant I had to make a trade off between how targeted my audience was AND I wasn’t able to present my message in front of a geographically relevant audience. Have your own opinions on LinkedIN’s advertising platform? Leave a comment!   Business, Internet Marketing, Pay Per Click 2010-06-02T15:13:10+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/standard_homepage_content_practices/ http://www.atilus.com/site/standard_homepage_content_practices/#When:16:32:53Z A website’s homepage is one of the most crucial aspects to any site. It can, a lot of times, make or break whether someone stays or goes. Every homepage should be made up of certain elements to draw in the user to want to dig deeper in to what that site has to offer. You should know what content to use and how to use it. Homepage content usually consists of a variety of things that your site has to offer. The whole idea of the homepage is to tell/show the user what you have to offer without telling them everything; a teaser if you will. At the same time you want to highlight/feature what your services/information/products are that the user is truly looking for and what you what them to find. So with this in mind we have come to what a homepage may consist of: Featured content What you want them to notice most (products, services, blog posts, etc.) is usually shown in a large banner area at the top of the page. Welcome text/images This text/images welcomes the user to the site to what you have to offer. Services This is what the user most likely came to the site for in the first place. I recommend highlighting these to be a main focal point. Blog/news posts List of recent posts or a snippet of most recent blog/news post is a good source of content to be displayed on the homepage. “Call to Action” Buttons A highlighted button/text that can easily direct people to important places on the site. This could be places that users will be going to on a normal basis if they are using your site for a service. Sometimes used for quick direction to a contact page. About us Sometimes companies will like to place a small teaser about who they are if they don’t have much other content to work with.   Here are some examples of sites that have content and how it was used for the homepage. These are just a few examples of standard content and placement most likely found on a homepage and are good practices to be aware of. What do you have on your homepage? Web Basics, Web Design 2010-06-01T16:32:53+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/fort_myers_naples_court_reporting/ http://www.atilus.com/site/fort_myers_naples_court_reporting/#When:17:40:46Z We are proud to announce our new client Gregory Court Reporting Services.  After being introduced to Laura Gregory, the owner of Gregory Court Reporting Services, and a few meeting regarding strategy and marketing, we have officially begun work together in order to further market and promote the GregoryCourtReporting.com website. Initially we will be marketing the website via search engine optimization as well as making a few small adjustments. In the near future we hope to totally redesign the website and further market the website using our other tools (including pay per click marketing and social media). I’d like to personally thank Laura for taking the time out of her busy schedule to meet with me and to trust that Atilus will deliver increased visitors, leads and sales through our strategic search engine optimization package. For more information on the firm please continue reading… About Gregory Court Reporting Services Are you looking for court reporting in Lee County? How about court reporting in Collier Countyf? Whether your law firm is located in Southwest Florida or your case brings you here, Gregory Court Reporting Services has 5 locations throughout Southwest Florida to help meet your needs. You can rely on Gregory Court Reporting Services’ years of experience to deliver accurate legal records. No matter what you need, all of our records, transcriptions and other services are fully documented and archived. In addition to conventional fort myers court reporting Gregory Court Reporting Services also offers other transcription services including: Medical Examination Transcription Expert Witness Testimony Depositions Corporate Meetings (held in our gorgeous offices throughout Naples, Fort Myers, & Part Charlotte) Sworn Statements Private Conferencing (via state of the art video and audio conferencing equipment) Gregory Court Reporting employs the latest technologies to produce prompt, precise transcripts, while ensuring the integrity of the testimony. For over 20 years Gregory Court Reporting Services has been providing transcription and legal court reporters for thousands of clients throughout Southwest Florida. Business, Business Networking 2010-05-17T17:40:46+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/linkedin_advertising_first_impressions/ http://www.atilus.com/site/linkedin_advertising_first_impressions/#When:15:26:51Z A couple of days ago I received an email from LinkedIN. Background on my Experience With LinkedIN: I have been a member of LinkedIN since day 1, but honestly, up until recently I thought it was complete rubbish. It just tries too hard to be everything else, although I’m starting to appreciate some of the directions it’s gone in. What do I mean by “everything else?” Well, it has an update bar - like twitter (and more recently Facebook), it now allows “friends” not just business connections ala Facebook, it has a whole question/answer section (a great idea), but it too closely mirrors Yahoo Answers system. And much more (blogging, pictures, etc.)... But, amid all of this social media gobalee-gook it does have some awesome features: Interactive Resume - Your profile is MUCH more like a resume than other social networks and allows you to always have an updated copy - an do some personal branding should someone Google you. Recommendations - This is perhaps the greatest feature. You can quickly solicit others to write a recommendation on you or your company. Anyone on LinkedIN can quickly see how much love you have. Business-Centered - Regardless of the features, everything is more “business-centric.” I receive almost no spam, and this is a great place to keep in touch with business contacts. I don’t want to befriend clients on Facebook so they can see my drunken debacles (just kidding - “or is he?”). So a few days ago I got an email advertising LinkedIN’s own advertising network. Truth be told I had no idea this existed, and expected something akin to Facebook’s own advertising platform. Because the ad featured an enticing coupon, we decided to jump in. Before recommending any products/services to our clients we like to try it out ourselves in order to understand it both technically as well as financially (does it REALLY WORK and will it provide a return?!). Below is a list of first impressions, good and bad, as well as a quick summary.  LinkedIN Advertising Pros Easy to Setup - Setup took about 2 minutes which involved logging into my existing account, creating 1 small text ad, uploading Atilus’ logo, targeting certain groups/areas, and then inputting credit card and coupon information. Targeting - I love this about Facebook and now too, about LinkedIN. You can target people based on their position, demographic, geography, and much more.  LinkedIN Advertising Cons Limited Targeting - You can only target people by a few categories at a time (I believe it was 3) even though they offer the ability to target by much more, they get blurred out once you’ve selected three target groups. What does this mean? Well - our ad will be shown to nearly 3,000,000 people. I don’t want this, it’s far too many. I’d really appreciate the ability to further drill down to the exact people that should be seeing the ad. As it stands I had to make a sacrifice in terms of what department I wanted to show it to in exchange for a geographic location. Additionally, only a few major metropolitan areas are currently target-able (IE, you can’t just select “Florida” but instead must select Miami/Fort Lauderdale or Tampa/St. Pete).  Expensive - VERY expensive compared to similar offerings on Facebook and even much larger PPC networks like AdWords. To give you an example LinkedIN suggests a price per click during the setup process and it recommended $6/click. Even with the $250 coupon, that amounts to only about 40 clicks. Similarly, they have a very high daily budget - $10/day or a minimum of $300/month (if you calculate it that way).  Reporting - Jury is still out on this one, but the reporting seems pretty rudimentary. How many people saw the ad, and did they click? LinkedIN Advertising Review Conclusion At the end of the month I will review everything and do a larger recap/review once we have some actual data to present to you. But, for now, the major advantage, as I see it, that LinkedIN offers is targeting. I always felt that, although performance on networks like Facebook, was always not as good as other advertising solutions like conventional PPC advertising (via Google AdWords) they do answer the question: “How do I get in front of an audience that usually needs my services or products, but may not be looking for them at this moment?righ” AdWords, gets you in front of that audience the moment they are searching, but every other opportunity is lost. If they’re not searching, you can’t get to them. With this kind of advertising, where you target them based on their position, employer, etc. NOW YOU CAN. For the future I see this being a tool great for B2B businesses, IE if you sell printers, computers, consulting, and any other products or services to businesses, this could be huge AND you don’t have to deal with (and waste your money on) the riff raff that are on other social networks.  It still has a ways to go (targeting needs to get better), but it looks like this might be an amazing advertising tool for businesses targeting other businesses down the road.  As an aside, because of the nature of the site, as well as the advertisers I do think LinkedIN will always be much more expensive than Facebook ads or even pay per click advertising. However, that may be a moot point if the people you target purchase or sign up more.  We’ll see… Internet Marketing, Pay Per Click, Social Media 2010-05-17T15:26:51+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/and_then_there_was_9...ie9/ http://www.atilus.com/site/and_then_there_was_9...ie9/#When:15:18:51Z So recently there has been some buzz about the new Internet Explorer that will be coming out in the near to distant future (no real launch date yet). Yes Internet Explorer might just be catching up with the times. IE9 previews have been opened to the public and things look promising. Internet Explorer 9 is boasting improved graphic capability, faster load/run times, and next gen HTML 5 competence (of course everything a browser should have).  IE9’s improved graphics range from full (to near full) CSS3 selector/attribute support to added color profiles.  Speed improvements were made to make the user’s hardware work better for them. Faster Javascript run times and accelerated text and video rendering are some of the speed improvements IE has made to their latest installment. HTML 5 support will give developers the tools necessary to help launch design and development into the future. Of course these are general improvements that Internet Explorer has been given. Plus IE9 is still in a preview/development phase that will still take some time to tweak to a beta release. And we all know how we love to get our hands on a beta release so we can talk smack about what is still wrong with it. Till that day comes keep up-to-date on the full line of what IE9 has to offer by going to their preview site: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/. Here you can find a list of demos and test ratings that IE9 is currently getting. The real question is, “Will this finally mean the end of IE6 for good? Will its eternal hold over some designers out there finally end with the birth of IE9?” I would hope so. I’ve long set that ship sailing and you should have too. Software and Applications 2010-05-07T15:18:51+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/does_my_website_hosting_matter/ http://www.atilus.com/site/does_my_website_hosting_matter/#When:21:20:33Z You damn right it does! (and Google’s here to back me up) When it comes to hosting we’ve done and seen it all. From both perspectives - your perspective as a client, you want your website to “just work” operate, come up, and your email to work. And as a development company, working with servers, with hosting reseller companies, etc. A quick back story on Atilus’ hosting: Initially we started out with the cheapest solution we could find. We could buy a large amount of space at discount host XYZ company and then resell to our clients for hundreds of percent profit! Unfortunately, it came back to blow up in our face - MORE THAN ONCE! Our first server went down - along with around 20 clients (only 20!) and was down for days. ALL of their emails were down - and what business doesn’t collapse now a days with out email? None, every business runs on email. We spent nearly 100 hours on the phone with support over those few days trying to correct the problem. We decided to switch hosts… but again, to a cheap host. And then it happened again! Despite all of these nightmare scenarios, this cloud had/has a silver lining. It was a slap in the face and a wake up call - don’t get greedy, offer a solid service at a competitive AND profitable price. Switching, and changing our prices has allowed our business to scale and our customers to remain blissfully ignorant of the nightmare of NO EMAIL. Back to you and your question: “Does My Website Hosting Matter?”  We are often asked about hosting. We talk about hosting at EVERY new meeting with a client and most have purchased, or are planning to purchase hosting, but have questions. Occasionally, we have a client that hasn’t heard about hosting. Hosting is simply where your website sits, the computer that serves it up when you type in your address. Your website has to live somewhere - your hosting is where IT (your website) is stored. Hosting Matters Hosting matters for 1 major reason: 1) Crappy Hosting Costs You Money - Subpar hosting will ALWAYS cost infinitely MORE than the price of a premium hosting service.  Here’s a tiny example, we lost email using a bad host a number of years ago and is reflective of what we experienced: If you lose email for 4 days and your company only has 3 people… and those 3 people (making $10/hr) can’t work because email is down you will lose roughly $720! This is a tiny company, with poorly paid employees. For a conventional website and email hosting a whole year will never cost $720. Even if you have hosted exchange (a much more conventionally expensive form of email) for 3 people it won’t cost anywhere near $720! I’m probably boring you with technical details. But… that’s not all…  Bonus Reason: Your Hosting Affects Your Marketing “Say what? How can hosting effect my marketing”, you’re probably asking? Well it’s simple, Google, and other search engines want to provide a quality experience for searchers… so if your website is NOT consistently up, you’re not going to provide that kind of experience. You will be ranked lower. Google has said this before, and Matt Cutts just reiterated it, your hosting affects your search engine results! Business, Web Design 2010-05-06T21:20:33+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/top_5_tips_for_managing_email/ http://www.atilus.com/site/top_5_tips_for_managing_email/#When:15:49:47Z Are you swamped by your email? Do you have tons of messages coming in everyday, so much so that you’re beginning to become overwhelmed? Me too! Or maybe you’re slowly getting more and you’re looking for tips on managing your email better before things get out of control. Regardless of what situation you are in, here are a few tips from me - Zach - an email master, that should help you out! Give me 2 minutes - read this article - and I promise you will save tens if not HUNDREDS OF HOURS over the next year(s).  I get around 100 - 200 emails per day, and send around 50 (in addition to any number of meetings and about a dozen phone calls). But managing all of this communication, particularly email is easy if you follow these tips for managing your email more efficiently: 1) Stay Organized What does your inbox look like… go ahead, take a look, I’ll wait... is it overflowing with thousands of messages? Or is it nice and neat? If it’s neat, move on, but if your “inbox” is where you keep EVERY message, you ARE going to have a problem. If not now, then pretty soon, your email will overwhelm you. Start creating folders, sub-folders, or tags for your messages immediately. Go through that large list, create appropriate folders, and start dragging and dropping. I particularly LOVE outlook because folders can be created in seconds, and email can be quickly organized. 2) Use Your Inbox as a To Do List Again, I love Outlook. Why do I love outlook so much (even MORE than gmail, which has a similar feature)? Well, as you may have noticed you can click on a message to flag it… when something comes into my inbox and I need to take action on it, particularly something important, I flag it, and move on. I will deal with it later. Everything in my inbox is an actionable item, everything else (stuff I’ve completed, people I don’t need to get back to, or newsletters) get filed immediately or automatically. The stuff in your inbox should ONLY BE STUFF YOU NEED TO DO WORK ON! And if there is ANYTHING that needs to be done in regards to the email, even a tiny-baby step at the end… it stays in the inbox until it is complete. 3) Automatic Filing That last tip brings me to my next tip… filing automatically. No matter what software you’re using for your email, it has a feature to AUTOMATICALLY FILE MESSAGES. Here at Atilus, I get about 1000 automatic notifications a month because of some of the software we have (analytics, scheduled invoices, etc.). I don’t need to read them all (although I do need to keep copies), but because of the way the software works I must get them. Instead of manually filing them each month (taking probably about 30 minutes/total), I’ve instead created rules in outlook to automatically file them away.  For more information on auto-filing emails in outlook check out “creating a rule” in outlook. 4) Say NO to Email “What, Zach… this article is ABOUT EMAIL… how can I say no to email!?” Studies have shown that multitasking actually SLOWS YOUR ABILITY TO GET THINGS DONE. You can get much more done if you “chunk” (I know it’s a funny word - it makes me think of a large chipmunk). Joking aside you’re wasting tons of time keeping your outlook open and jumping back and forth between new emails and the actual work that gets interrupted. Sure, your response time might look amazing to your clients or customers, but that is MEANINGLESS if you don’t get stuff done! So what do you do?! Only read email a few times a day. Outside of that… I turn it off and actually DO work. Spending a lot of time emailing (communicating) actually creates MORE WORK, which is great… but it actually NEEDS TO GET DONE! Writing emails however, although at times necessary, is not the core of what needs to be done. For example, I received a request this morning for a new possible job with information. I need to create a proposal. If I continued to spend all of my time emailing people, that proposal would not get generated.  What Should Your Email Schedule Look Like? This works for me: 1st thing in the morning, mid-afternoon (around 1pm - 2pm) and then again in the evenings.  Other than that… I’m working on the things that need to get done at the company, or work for clients.  5) Manage Expectations One of the big things I’ve learned in business, and in life over the last half decade is to manage people’s expectations. Be they friends, lovers, or clients, people have expectations of you - sometimes they are implied and not even directly communicated. So you need to take control. I remember reading about email response time expectations a few years ago (not sure where, or if the numbers are even that accurate), but apparently people expect a response to email in less than 15 minutes. That’s right, no matter where you are, what you’re doing, people want to get a response from you in 15 minutes. And is it any wonder? With smart phones and ubiquitous wireless access, you can have access to your email pretty much anywhere, anytime. Recently I was one of those people that wanted a quick response:   I emailed one of our software providers a question. It took them 5 days to respond. I was shocked. Although I never expected customer service from this particular vendor (they provide hosted project management solutions) I didn’t expect such a delay. We’ve spent literally tens of thousands of dollars with them over the last 5 years! But, in truth, it WASN’T an important question, and just needed to be answered “whenever.” Anyway, your customers are thinking the same way. And how do you deal with this? Be upfront about response times, and if you do receive an email, shoot a VERY quick one back letting them know when you’ll be able to answer or address their problem, question, or inquiry. It’s that simple. Hell - you can take a week or even months sometimes to address something, but just letting them know when will keep rapport.  CAUTION - be sure that you keep the message in your inbox (see tip #2) and DON’T forget what you promised.  If you follow these 5 tips for managing email, you should be able to save time and do business more efficiently over the coming years. As always, if you have any questions, or tips of your own, feel free to comment below. I’ll be happy to hear from you! Business, Software and Applications 2010-05-06T15:49:47+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/luxury_rv_resort_florida/ http://www.atilus.com/site/luxury_rv_resort_florida/#When:16:34:51Z Are you the proud owner of a luxury RV? Maybe you own an American Coach, or a Damon. Personally, it’s always been a huge dream of mine to have a motorhome and then tour the country, and end my journey at a pristine destination right on the water, preferrably here in South Florida.  As a quick side note, one of the reasons this is a goal of mine, is because my grandfather did it. He and my grandmother retired and traveled the country for nearly a decade in their motorhome. Whenever we were close by we got picked up and traveled all across the North East and down to Disney World - some of my best memories involve that old motorhome.  But the question has always been - once you have your dream motorcoach, what now? Where do you go? Well, a recently launched project of ours is here to answer your question, providing an amazing resort-like experience for those with luxury RVs. We are happy to announce the final launch of Everglades, Florida based Luxury RV Resort company, Evergladesisle.com’s website and Internet marketing. We have been working with the team at EverGladesIsle as well as their marketing company AdSource for about 6 months now and are pleased to announce the successful re-launch of their newly designed website. In addition to a gorgeous new website, featuring information for Motorhome owners as well as existing residents of the resort, it also has videos relating to the everglades and a South Florida centered blog. We provided the following services:  Website Redesign Blog Implementation Search Engine Optimization Pay Per Click Marketing So if you’re looking for a luxury RV resort in Florida, please check them out! Thank you again to everyone at EverGladesIsle & AdSource.  2010-05-05T16:34:51+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/internet_success_takes_hard_work/ http://www.atilus.com/site/internet_success_takes_hard_work/#When:22:26:46Z I was going to write a productivity post, but that needs to wait for another time, as I stumbled upon something even more juicy this evening while perusing LinkedIn.  Thanks to Neil Patel for this great find.  I just got done reading an awesome post over at Daily Blog Tips entitled: “Interview: 12 Top Online Entrepreneurs” odds are you have probably heard SOME of the names on the list and, if, like us at Atilus, you work in the web industry, odds are you’ve heard of everyone on the list. Basically it is a survey of 12 of the most well-known and successful online entrepreneurs in regards to how they work, and how HARD they work. The 12 interviewed included:  Trent Hamm Collis Ta’eed Chris Garrett Dan Schawbel Jonathan Volk Yaro Stark Shawn Collins Chris Pearson Neil Patel Aaron Wall Rand Fishkin Darren Rowse And you may be completely blown away by the results. You see, we get asked to do numerous AMAZING web ventures all the time, but more than planning, money, strategy, or any other “thing” you can bring to the table we like to discuss good ‘ole fashioned HARD WORK. Based on the interview, these top entrepreneurs are no strangers to hard work and despite ALREADY BEING SUCCESSFUL they continue to work their asses off cultivating their businesses, pleasing their customers, and bringing business in the door. The Internet is no different than any conventional business. Sure, your 100+ hours/week can result in larger returns than other businesses or ventures, but it still takes dedication. I highly recommend checking out the post.   Business, Internet Marketing 2010-05-04T22:26:46+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/how_to_make_a_css_3_button/ http://www.atilus.com/site/how_to_make_a_css_3_button/#When:16:35:53Z CSS 3 is being incorporated into web design more and more as we progress into the future of designing for the web. Browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari are two of the main browsers that currently support some of what CSS 3 has to offer (unfortunately Internet Explorer is still trying to catch up). With this said about CSS 3 being the future let’s put it to good use. CSS 3 has a number of new features that are just waiting to be tapped into but in this article we are just going to focus on what it can bring to the design table as far as making buttons are concerned. I’m going to make a simple button using purely CSS 3. Let’s start with a basic set up for a button: <a class="button" href="#">Button</a> Now the CSS: a.button{ background: #7e7e7e; color: #fff; display: block; font-size: 16px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; height: 35px; line-height: 35px; width: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; } The CSS used above is standard today and can be seen by all current browser types. This is purely CSS 2 at work here - nothing special so far. Now let’s add the magic (in this case magic = CSS 3). We will be adding a border radius, box shadow, and text shadow . Here is the code: a.button{ border-radius: 10px; -moz-border-radius: 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc; -moz-box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc; -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc; text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333; -moz-text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333; -webkit-text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333; } Now you are probably wondering what the extra lines are under the CSS 3 attributes that start with –moz and –kebkit. These signify the browser engine that is rendering the CSS. –moz is for Mozilla Firefox and –webkit is for Apple Safari. Without these the browser won’t know to render the CSS (for text-shadow you probably don’t need it but put it in anyway). The reason for this is that CSS 3 is not fully integrated into browsers yet and requires you to tell the browser engine that is rendering the code to call its name out and tell it to. Eventually we won’t need these prefixes but for now they are necessary. But I digress. I’m going to add one last style to the mix for good measure – a bottom border. So all together we have this: a.button{ background: #7e7e7e; border-bottom: 1px solid #575757; color: #fff; display: block; font-size: 16px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; height: 35px; line-height: 35px; width: 100px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 10px; -moz-border-radius: 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc; -moz-box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc; -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc; text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333; -moz-text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333; -webkit-text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333; } Now as long as you are viewing this in Firefox, Safari, or some other CSS 3 rendering browser you should see this: (I have provided an image version for those without browsers that handle CSS 3). If you wanted you could even create a small gradient in Photoshop (or equivalent application) and add it to the button for more effect. And that’s it. Simple, right? Here is a cheat sheet of all CSS 3 has to offer. Now be wary when using CSS 3 in your designs. Remember that not all browsers support this so be sure that whatever you are designing works with and without the CSS 3 attributes you assign to it. Or you could just not care and do whatever the hell you want. Web Design 2010-04-23T16:35:53+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/the_truth_about_online_business_services/ http://www.atilus.com/site/the_truth_about_online_business_services/#When:12:35:01Z Are you thinking about switching some of your businesses core services online? Thinking about making the SAAS (software as a service) jump? Well before you do, READ THIS! Online Business Services (SAAS) Before we begin, I’m sure you’re asking yourself: “What does he mean… what are online business services and what is this SAAS stuff?” It’s basically conventional software or key components of your business that are now featured on a website. Here are a couple of examples we use here at Atilus.  Project Managment  Instead of having a centralized server house project management software we utilize the online service, Basecamp to manage all of our projects.  Accounting Instead of installing a new version of quickbooks each year, we pay a monthly fee and use Quickbooks’ online version.  During our daily conversations with businesses we learn a lot about each of our clients, and if there’s one thing we have a passion about (other than web development) it’s business. So, occasionally we also make recommendations on business services like the ones outlined above. But the question is… do the pros outweigh the cons, and will YOUR business really benefit? So let’s take a quick look:   Pros Nothing to Install - Software and service is housed on someone else’s servers. You don’t have to worry about minimum requirements and compatibility.  Lower Up Front Cost - You don’t have to but a piece of software with a big initial price tag, instead you conventionally pay a small recurring monthly fee.  Possible Lower Total Cost - Depending on the service, their pricing model, and how often you conventionally upgrade, saas may in fact be less expensive.  Global Access to Data - Most services are online, meaning you can access your information anywhere with an Internet connection (including a cell phone!). Reduced Maintenance Fees - This is a big one. Here’s a quick example. A company I used to work for spent about $5000 setting up sophisticated exchange email (exchange rocks, but it’s expensive and complicated). Then the server required monthly maintenance (about $300 in an IT persons time each month). At the end of 2 years, that’s $12,200 JUST FOR EMAIL - AND THE BULK OF THAT COMES FROM MAINTENANCE! Instead you can now get a hosted exchange account for as little as $15/box/month and the price for the same size office would be $5400 in 2 years (a savings of 65%). Cons Possible Higher Cost - Not all services reveal a savings, in fact some are much more expensive. Case in point, Quickbooks - the very reason I’m writing this post! We would buy a new version every 3 years for about $100. Now we pay about $30/month, every month meaning our cost has gone up 900%. Holy shit! BUT… we weighed the pros: our accountant can access it alongside us from her office, we can access the data anywhere (including a clients office), and we get continual updates, saving us valuable bookkeeping and accounting duty/time. Well worth the extra money.  Data Security - This is a biggie and differs based on services, products, and packages. Security may be an issue in your industry, so be sure to check into this before you make a decision.  Helplessness - What happens if a service goes down? Helplessness. Unlike your own server or software, where you can call someone to get it fixed… you just have to wait. I find this very much akin to flying, sure everyone KNOWS its safer, but they’re still scared to death! Why? BECAUSE THEY GIVE UP CONTROL! In truth we’ve used about a half dozen applications online for the last couple of years and have had little or no problems the entire time. And if there ever is an issue, its fixed quicker than we could call an IT person into the office to fix our server.  Business 2010-04-19T12:35:01+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/social_media_-_so_should_my_company_care/ http://www.atilus.com/site/social_media_-_so_should_my_company_care/#When:13:19:43Z Lately, more than any other question I get asked about Social Media. If you’re like most businesses I’ve talked to you’re probably wondering: What do you think about social media; is it right for your business? How do you implement social services and which ones are best? How much does it cost, I’ve heard it can be expensive? All good questions. And, I’ll be addressing all three here. Your Website First, let’s talk about your website because that’s absolutely mandatory BEFORE you decide to jump into social media. I don’t care who or how you got your website, but you MUST have one. And, without getting too technical, it should be setup in such a way so that it compliments any possible social media marketing you’ll be doing. If you are curious as to whether your website is properly setup, drop me a line (zach - at - atilus dot com) and I’d be happy to take a look.  Your website is the glue to your internet marketing efforts. You have a number of different ways to market yourself online, SEO, article marketing, enewsletters, blogging, blah blah blah… but they all come back to your website. They direct traffic back to your website, where your authority in your industry is confirmed, trust in your product(s) is underscored and this is where contacts and sales ACTUALLY happen. It’s just like a conventional brick-and-mortar business, sub in a website for the building, and Internet marketing for any other kind of conventional marketing. You wouldn’t be advertising your product or service without a building or at least a phone number to call for more information would you? Same goes for social media… YOU NEED A WEBSITE. What is Social Media? No use talking about all of this, without defining it. For the sake of this essay/article, I’m defining social media as a “social network.” Although other types of technology could possible fall under this category (blogging for example) this doesn’t seem to be what most people are interested in or talking about when they mention “social media…” more often they are referring to Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, etc. Social Media is it Right For Your Business? I’m going to go against the grain here and say, social media, is not right for a majority of the businesses we work with. But, notice how I said “we.” A majority of Atilus’ clients have been in the B2B sector, they are businesses that service OTHER businesses. So is social media right for your business? The answer of course is a question:  That depends. What kind of business are you?  Here’s the breakdown of whether or not it’s right for your business: IF YOU ARE A B2B BUSINESS - SOCIAL MEDIA IS TYPICALLY NOT FOR YOU IF YOU ARE A B2C BUSINESS - SOCIAL MEDIA IS DEFINITELY FOR YOU It all comes down to relationships. The problem of “if you should implement social media, or “why should you implement social media marketing” is easily and quickly addressed if you simply analyze your customer relationships. If you’ve spent some time on twitter or facebook you probably understand, in part how people communicate on these services and what they are looking for. They are intensely personal environments, where people connect to each other as well as to brands/products they love.  Do you have a product or service that falls into this category?  Would adding this help solidify those relationships?  Does it enable faster communication, dissemination of information to your customer or clients?  If so, then… implement social media now. How do you implement social services and which ones are best? Implementing the service(s) is fairly easy. There’s very little technological knowledge or hurdles to over come. However, if you have a proper website, one setup with particular types of technology you may be able to kill a couple of birds with one stone. For example, if you have a blog on your site you can link popular services like Facebook/Twitter to automatically update WHEN you post a NEW article. So you write an article and immediately all of your fans and followers are intantly notified. What services are best? Well, that depends on you again. What isi your audience, clients, or customers using? And how do YOU plan on using these services. Twitter is very straight forward. A mini-blog, while facebook allows for some other fancier ehancements. Regardless of WHICH service you use, your priority needs to be dedicating some time to managing your account and relationships across that service. It’s completely useless and a little ugly to have a stale account. Just like a stale website or blog. So you or someone else should dedicate some time to the technology. How Much Does it Cost? Free (sort of)! More than ANY other thing on the web, I think social media is for YOU! AND ONLY YOU! (I’m talking about setup and maintenance here.) This is a relationship we’re talking about, I don’t think you should be delegating this task or relationship to an outside company, marketing, or *GASP* PR Firm. Are they really going to be able to speak in your voice and handle any situations the exact way you would? Chances are no. Plus, they don’t know your personal friends on Facebook, twitter, myspace, etc. so how are they going to contact them in a personal, meaningful way? When it comes to  implementing social media for your small business - for those most part I recommend doing it yourself, or atleast hiring a company to coach you through setup, and maintenance, which will only take a few hours at most. But, that’s the easy part, the hard part is managing it - and rest assured… that DOES COST. It costs either in YOUR TIME, or in the money you pay an employee to do it.  And keep an eye on it. In our business, we implemented social media for awhile, it was fairly automated, and allowed us to connect - yet another way - with a group of contacts, particularly through facebook. For the amount of time it took, it WASN’T WORTH IT FOR US TO ACTIVELY MAINTAIN. Your business may be very different. Again, it’s about your clients and what kind of relationships work best with them. If you sell custom furniture keeping an active portfolio and notes about your company up on Facebook is probably a fantastic idea (and solicit your users to take pictures of your products - for a FREE give away). That last idea is the final thing I’d recommend. Using the tools in a creative way, centered around your business and clients’ wants in order to provide a better experience for your existing customers and recruit new ones. One to many communication, where you speak and your customers read/listen, is no longer the ONLY thing possible. Now you can solicit and get help from your clients - no matter where they are. Use this to your advantage and think about what will prove to your potential customers - watching your service from a distance (in social media-ville) - that they need to act. Business, Business Networking, Social Media 2010-04-06T13:19:43+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/breaking_news_-_google_changes_its_name_to_topeka/ http://www.atilus.com/site/breaking_news_-_google_changes_its_name_to_topeka/#When:14:24:22Z 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. Internet Marketing 2010-04-01T14:24:22+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/crazy_amazing_technology..._is_this_all_necessary/ http://www.atilus.com/site/crazy_amazing_technology..._is_this_all_necessary/#When:13:57:51Z 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 Business 2010-04-01T13:57:51+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/rework_-_the_business_book_you_must_buy/ http://www.atilus.com/site/rework_-_the_business_book_you_must_buy/#When:20:20:22Z 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? Business 2010-03-31T20:20:22+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/comcast_-_slow_internet_connection/ http://www.atilus.com/site/comcast_-_slow_internet_connection/#When:14:25:01Z 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? Business 2010-03-31T14:25:01+00:00 http://www.atilus.com/site/adwords_professional_search/ http://www.atilus.com/site/adwords_professional_search/#When:20:13:15Z 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.   2010-03-30T20:13:15+00:00