Category Archives: Blotter

Schedule content before anything else

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Schedule content before anything else

Let’s update the procedures for building a website. Before considering the site architecture or web graphics, schedule content before anything else. We all know by now that having a website is not enough, and one thing many website managers have in common is that they forget that blog and content writers should be required to wear many hats. It’s no longer enough to send an email with a document attached.

Direct writers to post content “off page”
First, let’s tell it like it is – your content is more effective when it’s “off page.” Your customers come to your website because they need answers to a problem or want to contact someone to help them with an issue. They don’t want to read boasts about your company. Therefore, consider content on your website the window dressing that gets in the way of what they need. Unless your website is updated on an hourly basis or you are offering some other real-time service or product through it, users are ignoring your news feeds altogether. Instead of putting content above the fold, put contact information above the fold and relevant troubleshooting solutions. Most customers want answers from your website, not thought leadership. When you do put content on it, make sure it’s focused on solutions and value pertaining to existing services. This strategy is often more successful for funneling customers because it has context on your products.

Direct writers to post on multiple venues
Because a website is the auxiliary to an overall portfolio of managed digital services that support an overall media strategy, a good website manager funnels customers to a website from those “off page” resources they’ve negotiated. To schedule content before anything else means to find those resources and make sure the writers post to them. These resources include the following:

  • Customer feedback venues
  • Social media communities
  • Conference and Trade Show networks
  • Award and competition initiatives
  • Allied partners
  • Traditional news media

Have writers contribute using social media tools
The argument for posting to multiple venues is further supported by the ease with which writers can post to these outlets already familiar to them. The price of content writing reflects the ease. Website managers should put less emphasis on posting to their own websites and more emphasis on getting writers to contribute to those digital venues outside the company, especially LinkedIn and Facebook. A hired writer needs no special training posting to Facebook where a custom Joomla or complicated Word Press integration implies higher fees for the contributors.

Negotiate writers to create email “Newsletter” digests
Somewhere along the way marketers decided sending emails to customers and subscribers was a waste of time. reuters-news-digestIn reality, news digests that aggregate information is making a comeback. Check out Reuters.com‘s free news aggregation service that lets subscribers specify what headlines show up in their inbox. By hiring writers to create newsletters, you can pluck stories from them while maintaining a fresh and periodic media outlet that your customers will appreciate.

Pricing should be negotiated on an hourly basis
For far too long, website managers have considered a static word count the guidepost for paying writers. Because a picture is worth a thousand words and videos much more, the price of content writing should be based on time and quality, not quantity. Consider using oDesk or Elance online outsourcing venues which offer hourly tracking software to monitor contractors’ time on projects.

Buy in bulk when negotiating the price of content writing 
Contracting content in bulk allows website managers to schedule postings throughout the year, with designated posting times that are friendly to Google algorithms because it demonstrates freshness, originality and organization. It also saves website managers money. Contracting content should be for daily, weekly or monthly posts – ignore any advice suggesting there could be a one-time price paid for parking content on a website. (Google ignores websites with old news displayed prominently.)

Where five years ago it was enough to have a website, today’s successful marketing professionals know the elements to successful digital marketing derive from the division of off page referencing, including sourcing information from emails they receive on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. To schedule content before anything else means hiring writers based on these aspects.

Auto Scaling your bandwidth limits

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Auto Scaling your bandwidth limits

The definition of auto scaling is when the web server automatically scales due to spikes in web traffic. Nodes are added and subtracted like a rubber band. A feature offered only from the most reputable web hosting companies, automated parameters trigger increases when needed, automatically adding more nodes when physical demands are required on the web server.

Server hosts don’t like it when website managers use auto scaling to avoid reaching a site bandwidth limit. They don’t like it because with preset triggers there is no need to contract additional server hosting space that will go unused most of the time. By auto scaling your bandwidth limits, spikes are covered at a huge savings because you only pay for the spike. Billing changes proportionally with the instance of auto scaling, but paying for occasional usage is better than paying every month for capacity you don’t need.

Website managers make the mistake time and time again. First, they rebrand a client’s website into something beautiful and useful, but frugality gets them in trouble because they choose a hosting option that doesn’t allow for scalability in regard to pipe limits.

Only a few hosting companies offer it, including Amazon and Rackspace. Others will try to sell you on a dedicated server costing hundreds of dollars per month. But you don’t need to spend a lot to auto scale your site bandwidth limit. Avoiding the dreaded Bandwidth Limit Reached for this Site does not require buying extra capacity that you don’t need. Instead, auto scale your site bandwidth limit by insisting your hosting company provide the technology to do it. Or find a hosting company that does.

Auto Scaling for WebsitesThere are many aspects to consider when choosing a hosting provider. But the biggest problem a website manager is likely to encounter – especially on shared hosting plans – is bandwidth limits caused by too little RAM. Most shared services allow a maximum 1 GB RAM at any one time, which means there’s no way to scale the traffic when a post suddenly goes viral. That means when your website gets more than 10,000 users at any one moment, users will start receiving errors.

Auto Scaling is the first – and perhaps most important – dynamic to look at when choosing your hosting service. But other aspects do matter.

  • Site Bandwidth Avoidance System – Remember that the website manager is the captain of the ship, so contracting a web hosting service that provides auto scaling is the first step. Once contracted, the website manager monitors the controls and sets autopilot, but he or she also needs to check in regularly to make sure the settings are correct for the site bandwidth limit avoidance system. A hired technician to manage the website’s server shouldn’t require more than a few hours per month. Check the logs and ensure the proper auto scaling parameters are in place.
  • Server Location Matters – The server datacenter location should be within 100 miles of your primary place of business with redundancy spread out. Most reputable auto scale website servers will have multiple datacenters across the continent. For instance, if your client is located in Greenville, South Carolina, you could shoot for a datacenter in Atlanta, Georgia, less than 150 miles away. Make sure there’s redundancy in other big cities like New York City; Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; Dallas, Texas; Los Angeles, San Francisco and Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • Network Transfer is also important – Users might have up to 3 terabytes of transfer assigned for a given month, but a viral post will exceed this limit in a matter of hours if you don’t have auto scale technology activated for transfer limits as well as for load balancing. A proactively managed hosting service has built-in technology that monitors the CPU and RAM resources and monthly bandwidth. The more traffic required, the more physical resources will be dedicated to the system – automatically.
  • No Shared Services – While those discount hosting services are tempting, shared hosting services will inevitably create problems when a website grows, usually because these services don’t offer auto scaling technology. Auto Scaling services are included in monthly plans costing less than $150/month, a price that will pay off in spades when your website goes viral.

If you plan in advance to use auto scaling for managing your site bandwidth limits, servers will upgrade automatically during times of intense traffic on a website. Should traffic on the website exceed expected levels, auto scaling responds with additional bandwidth to cover traffic.

Document management system roles

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Document management system roles

Website managers should assign the following document management system roles for sharing documents on a website – Users, Reviewers and Administrators. Once in place, the structured workflow of a document management system, or DMS, makes each of these roles accountable and responsible for finalizing documents. After all, it is the document management system roles that provide unique content for websites beyond what a simple content management system (CMS) like WordPress will do.

A generation ago, there were Electronic Document Management (EDM) systems that specified document extensions based on proprietary nomenclature. But for today’s document management system roles there are no limitations on what types of files these participants upload and manage. Static websites are no longer sufficient because websites are fast becoming the destinations for peer review of all types of content for compliance, legal or group review requirements.

For tracking, approving and storing electronic documents on a website, the document management system provides a library of PDFs, spreadsheets and other files that make websites useful for visitors looking for collaborative libraries where useful information can be easily accessed.

Overview of Document Management System Roles:

Document management system roles

  • User Document Submission – The common user can upload the document with specific naming and summary information accompanying it. Once uploaded, the user may also delete or replace the document. Users may or may not choose specific categories when submitting, but users do not typically have the ability to see other user submissions. Their document can be approved or rejected at any time by the administrator.
  • Automatic Email Alerts – Whenever an action is taken by a user the administrator receives an email alert. This parameter may also be extended to reviewers. Time stamps also help keep updates straight for all roles.
  • Administrator Approves Document – This role is typically a unique one assigned to an office employee who is responsible for approving submissions. Because some submissions may be of bad quality or otherwise inappropriate, the administrator has the ability to accept, reject or defer a submitted document according to predefined parameters.
  • Automatic Email to Reviewers – Once the document is approved by the administrator, an email alert goes to all reviewers who are prompted to log in and take action on the document.
  • Reviewers Download Documents – (Reviewers are assigned by the administrator.) Once logged into the DMS, the reviewer will see a list of the approved documents and the associated titles, details and users who submitted them.
  • Reviewers Score & Comment Documents – By writing a reviewer’s own comments and updating the status of each document to Accept, Reject or Defer, he or she provides feedback in a forum for other reviewers to see.
  • Reviewer Discussion – Administrators have the ability to run reports to aggregate all the comments and tally the votes for accepting, rejecting or deferring a document.
  • Reject or Accept or Defer Document – A running tally is summarized for the administrator to finalize a status for the document. Because parameters may differ for how a document is rejected, accepted or deferre, this subjective step may require offline processing and further discussions.
  • Library of Approved Documents – Once a document is deemed “approved” by the administrator, that document will be stored in a public or private directory, with or without reviewer comments in tact. A full audit trail exists for each document.

By assigning the proper document management system roles, website managers generate content to a website’s library of approved documents while meeting deadlines and maintaining accountability. While the DMS is a single component to building a website, it is a powerful workflow tool within a content management system.

What’s more, a website manager delegating these document management system roles is no longer reliant on posting and managing documents on behalf of everyone; instead, the DMS workflow solution is self-sufficient. These three roles take responsibility for posting and managing files on one website so the website manager can sit back and watch the site build itself.

PBR’s model for rebranding a website

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PBR’s model for rebranding a website

Strategy for rebranding a website should be modeled after the folks convincing Asians to pay $45 for a PBR – fresh design and clever content sells.

At some point most website managers realize a website is dying. Remiss to update content, designs, features or pictures – it’s the rebranding that revives a languishing website. One of the cleverest of rebranding ploys comes from Pabst Blue Ribbon company who rebranded their infamous swill four years ago. Since then, they’ve proved it is about marketing the old name, it is about writing fresh copy explaining why it’s better than the predecessor, and it is about creating a “must-have” for customers.

Consider this new and improved Pabst Blue Ribbon brand, better than the proverbial hipster beer sold at dive bars or wherever America tries to be urban, built on the quality of the beer that in 1893 won a single blue-ribbon in Chicago. It’s the beer we’d buy for our mechanic or for a cousin changing the oil on his Dodge Charger. It’s  working class simplicity. PBR is that sincere American lager for blue collar men everywhere.

That paradigm has been flipped in Asia where Pabst Blue Ribbon sells for $45.00 per bottle. If you think your website is old fashioned or passé, it’s time for a rebranding. Rebranding a website that’s languished in years gone can be easily done if you follow PBR’s model. Google rewards domain names registered long ago, after all. Nostalgia in marketing should never be underestimated – nor should fresh new perceptions such as the way PBR has fused their graphics and verbiage using basic strategy that only Big Beer could pull off:

  • Intramedia WebsiteTell them how long you’ve had the website
    “Built in 1999” means that you’re legit. Websites are trying to build confidence in users by listing their founding date. Similarly, PBR is built on American Grit – by putting a blue-ribbon on their cans (reminiscent of 19th Century greatness), Pabst has assured 20th and 21st century Americans and Asians of its legitimacy.
  • Tell them you’ve had it tough
    What might have passed as great beer in hardscrabble nineteenth century America doesn’t compare to the fine crafted beers we know today. But customers appreciate a long and hard history leading to success. Think Levi’s blue jeans birthed from California’s 1849 gold rush; think Steve Jobs building computers in his garage; and don’t forget the New Coke failure of 1985 that led to the biggest rebranding in consumer history. All great businesses have a hardship story that consumers appreciate when communicated appropriately. Rebranding a website should include those tales of hardship.
  • Introduce your website to new markets
    Consider translation services to put your website on the cutting edge in a new country. The makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844 introduced their ale in the booming Asian market by marketing a sleek design in a high end box. They also created content campaigns celebrating the “German caramel malt (no-rice, all malt) and American cascade hops. Aged in new American oak barrels.” Selling America as a brand can be quite a boon. Consider rebranding a website based on patriotism and origin.
  • Your website can be great again
    Traffic to websites can change as quickly as Google effects changes to its algorithms, so rebranding a website as “Great Again” will keep people talking about how great the tradition is. For PBR, the simplicity of it’s working-class branding peaked in 1977 with production topping 18 million barrels. By 2001 the brand’s sales fell below a million barrels and the company was eventually bought by C. Dean Metropoulos. After falling on hard times, the website has become one of the most sought after brands in beer. In fact, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission forced two advertising executives in June 2011 to cease efforts to raise $300 million to buy the Pabst Brewing Company. The two had raised over $200 million by crowdsourcing, collecting pledges via their website, Facebook, and Twitter.
  • Charge a premium for your services
    If your cheap website wasn’t enough to attract clients, try going high-end!  Priced at 280.27 China Yuan Renminbi (US$45), the New Yorker‘s Evan Osnos recently remarked about how upscale PBR has become: “Somewhere over the Pacific, Pabst Blue Ribbon began putting on airs.”

pabst_08-MAY-2014

Remember, rebranding a website is a bold move meant to revive or defend your customer segment from going elsewhere. So, grab a cold six-pack of PBR and begin rebranding a website – just remember to put it in a nice box and call it sentimental.

Used software CDs are golden on eBay

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Used software CDs are golden on eBay

Consumers are paying hundreds for used software CDs to avoid new cloud subscription fees and crippling cloud outages. Used software CDs are golden on eBay despite Big Tech’s effort to market the convenience of cloud subscription services. It turns out used software CDs are helping users maintain higher productivity while saving thousands in unnecessary upgrade fees.

That’s why you should save your used software CDs, or sell them on eBay.

The exploding market in used software CDs comes following news from companies like Adobe that are killing hardware installs via CD or download, all while launching scare campaigns telling loyal customers about the dangers of using older software. Adobe claims that buying a perpetual license on used software CDs could result in huge problems for users, but Blogger Michelle Marie called Adobe’s end to perpetual licenses a public relations disaster: “The reaction of Adobe users was immediate and furious. On articles and blogs announcing this change, user comments ran at least ten to one against the move, with many comments harsh and even brutal criticisms of the decision.”

Here’s why used software CDs are golden on eBay:

  • Cloud outages are a disaster to your business
    Adobe experienced an extended outage on May 15, 2014, which means millions of customers who use Adobe Creative Cloud couldn’t access the software services. A hard install on your own system would have saved a day of productivity – at least. Frequent bandwidth issues and connectivity problems, whether your problem or there’s, results in lost productivity.
Adobe admits outage

Adobe’s two-day outage prevented millions of customers from accessing Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and a host of other software applications.

  • Cloud price gouging
    Everyone knows that a car lease is a bad deal for individual consumers. Software works the same way. For example, an old version of Adobe’s Dreamweaver CS5 is listed for $359.00 on eBay.com, but that price is paid once. Savvy website managers have realized one hard install will pay for itself after 12 months instead of getting fleeced by Adobe’s  subscription service every month. Adobe’s leasing program means the new cloud-hosted version will cost $29.99/month in perpetuity!
  • Production software is different than desktop utilities
    Adobe’s argument against using old versions is a bad one for a production tool like Dreamweaver, Photoshop or Illustrator. While desktop utilities rely on security patches and compatibility liability upgrades, production software for building graphics, coding and managing files still relies on the same technology that was invented nearly a decade ago. Ask any HTML or PHP developer which coding tools he or she prefers and you’re likely to hear about the virtues of Notepad over the overcomplicated new coding management software. (For those who don’t already know it, Notepad is nearly the same free software come standard on PCs since Windows introduced it in 1985.)
  • Cloud subscription services can be rife with security flaws
    Two years ago both Apple and Amazon experienced breeches in their security when hackers accessed cloud accounts, deleting files and stealing information. On October 3, 2013 Adobe reported that hackers stole 3 million customer credit card records used for their subscription services, including all the passwords. The fact of the matter is that cloud services are dependent on password-based mechanisms and third-party security protocols that often fall into criminal’s hands or break due to the negligence of employees. Perpetual licenses are much less likely to expose a software owner to these type problems.
  • Software upgrades don’t always improve useability and can waste time
    There are countless examples of users complaining about disasters following forced upgrades. The Microsoft Community forum has thousands of posts from customers recalling their frustration with upgrades. Angry blogging occurs after nearly every Adobe Photoshop software upgrade, with users complaining about lost files and features, then the countless hours spent restoring their software to familiar order. Multitudes of Adobe plug-ins and presets are deprecated after each release of Photoshop while missing features in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 software required re-installation of 25 plug-ins following that release. For their newest version, Adobe lists these improvements for Dreamweaver CS6: Fluid grid layout for cross-platform design, CSS3 transitions, HTML5 code rendering with Live View and Multiscreen Preview, enhanced jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap Build framework support, optimized FTP performance. The Adobe “feature creep” isn’t worth the trouble.

Finally, many of us have collected used software CDs over the years, used once and dutifilly filed back on the shelf with the serial numbers and activation codes dutifully guarded. But now might be the time to sell them on eBay for extra cash. After all, used software CDs are something website managers everywhere need to maintain productivity.

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