In his June 22nd 2010 article, “Why Americans Can’t, Don’t and Won’t Read ” (Target Marketing ), he cites an example of direct e-mail abuse. Essentially, the subject line was sufficient to get him to open the email, but the copy desperately needed an editor…or two.

He asserts that Americans can’t, don’t, and won’t read because our brains have been re-wired and our time has been “hijacked by amateurs.” While I agree that our time has been hijacked by amateurs, I disagree that Americans, don’t and won’t read.

Americans aren’t dumb or lazy, we’re overworked and discriminating. (I recall writing something on this in June of 2009, Has the Internet Changed Writing for Better or for Worse?)

Hatch goes on to cite a huge list of statistics, massaged by a variety of sources, that muddy—and sully—some very valid points. If you skip over the listed statistics—at best taken out of context—and drop down to the “Takeaways to Consider,” there are a few good things here (at right):

He’s dead correct that if you’re not a professional writer and you have a message you need people to read: hire a professional writer. Americans’ brains haven’t been as re-wired as everyone thinks.

Yes, we’re pressed for time, but more importantly, with the advent of computer word processing packages, there is no excuse for poor writing. Way back in the hand-written, manual type-set days, editing was laborious. Prosaic prose was not only stylish, but expedient: in short, it took more time to edit a “brain dump” down to slick prose than it did to just type-set the brain dump. There were also far fewer people doing it, and they tended to take far more time with the process. Today, not only is self-editing fast and easy, a good chunk of the mechanical errors will be underlined for you by clever word processing packages.

The flip-side is that because the method is easier, there are a lot of people writing who haven’t bothered to master the craft. It is these people who waste everyone’s time and make hooking the readership more difficult for those who know what they’re doing. (I recall saying something about this in August of 2008: Good Marketing Equals Good Content)

So a resounding yes to Hatch’s points 1-4 (see sidebar).

Points 5 & 6 are also valid. SEM/SEO is not quite rocket science, but not for amateurs either. The underlying principals are simple: put content and links on web – Google likes. Doing this well is complicated, takes trial and error experience, and a brain that can analyze and act on the details. It also takes a clear vision of the goal. Generating top Google rankings and increasing traffic to a website is easy – getting quality traffic and conversions is hard.

The rest of his “takeaways” are quotes maligning the average American’s attention span. I think I can argue that if the topic is entertaining and informative, the average American can and will devote far more than 3 minutes (Web attention span average) or 20 minutes (general attention span) to your message. Here are a couple of unmassaged statistics to support my point:

1,052,803 titles published in 2009 (Bowker), selling $1.54 billion, with young adult the fastest growing segment. (Association of American Publishers).

Short attention span? Hardly.

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 784 pages – 11 million copies sold.
• Twilight: 544 pages – 17 million copies old.

I will offer up this analogy:

“A marketer griping about the American public being too (stupid, inattentive, etc.) to read or understand their message is like a writer grousing that the agent/editor is too (stupid, unimaginative, etc.) to see the genius in their novel.”

You can quote me.

Seriously, though, if you want your message to be read, please see Hatch’s points 1-4. Write well, write in an entertaining manner, and keep your message clear.

On a recent whirlwind trip to New Jersey, I begged a visit to one of my favorite clients’ sites, One More Smith Animal Rescue and Sanctuary.

I got my wish. Amy Smith took me out and I spent an hour snapping photos and petting cats. The Rescue is housed primarily in a converted barn with numerous fenced-in outdoor runs. Part of the barn has recently been outfitted as a medical facility. Purdy’s Perch has walls and floors covered in a substance that can easily be hosed down, a nice array of stainless steel cages, a refrigerator, HVAC, and a stainless steel veterinary table. Purdy’s Perch lets OMS care for their sick without putting them through the trauma of a trip to an off-site vet, though surgeries and spaying/neutering are still performed at the local vet’s office. It also lets them to easily put new rescues in quarantine. Penny the cat carefully watches over Purdy’s Perch.

OMS’s five resident goats make their homes in the barn as well, and have access to a huge outdoor field.

Another room inside the barn is affectionately called the “jungle room,” due to its huge collection of cat trees. Like Purdy’s Perch, this room has heating and air conditioning. It also has a radio that plays soft music and lots of food and water. The door to the outside has a cat-door in it so the residents can come and go as they please—which is essential because we all know that cats only do as they please.

Outside that door, you enter the first of three fenced cat yards. The third, Carina’s Way, is the most recent addition, made possible by a generous donation. All of these are outfitted with environmentally friendly mesh fencing that makes the runs feel like they’re part of the wooded spaces beyond. Nestled amidst the trees, are more cat trees as well as two large sheds that have been converted into outdoor rooms. The residents have lofts and tunnels to explore. Windows and fans keep the interiors pleasant. Logs, buckets and other objects provide places to play, climb, explore, or rest.

Also abundant are two-story dog-house-looking things fitted with pillows and cat flaps. Amy explained that these are important because the bulk of OMS’s 60 resident cats are either feral or solitary. The ability to remove themselves from the other cats whenever they want is important to their welfare.

OMS is big on the health of their animals and it shows. The facility is clean and the cat trees replaced often. They spay or neuter all new additions, make sure they have all their shots and treat anything that comes up quickly.

From a marketing perspective, I wanted to try and get a few heart-string-pulling pictures of needy and abused animals. The problem is that OMS’s residents are so well cared for that they’re energetic and happy. For those of you who are familiar with cat tail language, you know that when they prance around with their tail in the air, they’re happy. If the tip is crooked, they’re hyper-happy. Let me tell you, there were almost 60 hyper-happy cats in those yards. Five actively competed for my attention and I had a lot of purrs from them, leaving happily covered in cat fur. Whenever I crouched down to take notes, one bold fellow would climb up on my lap. Another stretched up my leg, asking to be picked up.

That brings me to another thing I discovered during my visit. I think OMS takes this particular accomplishment too lightly. It’s a story worthy of Smithsonian Magazine. They have developed a program using a combination of light, music and touch therapy to transform feral kittens and teen cats into cuddly, adoptable pets! Based on a therapy used with young children, I got to see first hand the results. Their most recent examples are three feral siblings. OMS acquired two and then the third two weeks later. The first two are almost demanding of attention and cuddling. The third, while curious of me, wouldn’t be approached. This therapy initially took weeks, but they’ve streamlined it to a 10-day rehabilitation. I’m impressed.

It was probably a good thing my husband forbid me to bring one home. I’d have brought home at least two (I’m a sucker for purrs.)

I didn’t get a chance to meet the k-9 residents, but there aren’t that many. They reside primarily in a converted garage. Like the indoor cat room, they enjoy heating and air conditioning. They also have couches and TV. The cats’ TV consists of a series of bird feeders strung up just outside the cat yards. I somehow think the cats have the better deal—nature smells and no commercials.

One More Smith Animal Rescue and Sanctuary has an impressive list of success stories:

• Rehabilitation of feral cats
• Feral cat life expectancy—Wild: less than 2 years. OMS: 8-14 years.
• 24-7 food and water
• Full-time care
• Superior, environmentally friendly facilities
• Heating and air conditioning
• Equipment and toys

While they’re happy to adopt out any suitable residents, the bulk must remain at OMS. They’re a no-kill animal rescue and they don’t turn away any animals. Monica and Amy Smith currently bear the bulk of the financial burden themselves.

They really need regular financial support. Re-occurring contributions of as low as $25 a month from a number of people would help tremendously. They also could use donations of food, fencing, cat toys, cat trees, blankets, cages, and traps (They’re cats. Any damage to their fencing results in a break-out, though they don’t tend to go far). 100% of donations go directly to the animals.

This is a wonderful facility run by two loving generous women and I’m honored to be a part of One More Smith.

Hidden in the health care reform bill was a little gem that really needs to be talked about.

CNN article “Stealth IRS changes mean millions of new tax forms”

The Senate Finance committee, headed by Don Baucus, D-Mont., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa — added a provision that means literally tons more forms for everyone to fill out come tax time.

Starting in 2012: “All business payments or purchases that exceed $600 in a calendar year will need to be accompanied by a 1099 filing. That means obtaining the taxpayer ID number of the individual or corporation you’re making the payment to — even if it’s a giant retailer like Staples or Best Buy — at the time of the transaction, or else facing IRS penalties.”

“In essence, the 1099-Misc is having its role changed from a form for tracking off-payroll employment to one that must accompany virtually any sizeable business transaction.”

That means ANY transaction involving $600+ must be accompanied by social security numbers or EIN.

Aside from the ludicrous nature of this new law, which will cost everyone more money than you can imagine right now (you think businesses will absorb the costs of filling out thousands of forms every year, perhaps MILLIONS in the cases of places like Amazon?), the security implications are staggering!

Imagine all those social security numbers floating around in retailer’s databases. Talk about low hanging fruit! A cybersecurity nightmare.

The really funny thing is, it may end up costing the IRS -more- then they gain. The intent was to account for the gap between purchased goods and what is declared by small businesses. But small businesses as a whole don’t take tax deductions for every little purchase, mainly because it’s a pain to keep track of. However, now they’ll need to, which likely will result in SMALLER tax burdens but huge mountains of paperwork – AND it means more people will need to file more complex forms like Schedule C when in the past they only had to deal with 1040. Net result: IRS loses money, small business loses money, and the consumer loses money. Brilliant. Only the government could come up with something like this.

If you’d like to contact the Senate Finance Committee to express your thoughts on this new law (and it’s now a law, not a proposal) here’s their contact information – be sure to ask for their social security numbers so that you can 1099 them.

Senate Finance Committee: Call (202-224-4515), fax (202-228-0554) or write to:

The Honorable Max Baucus
Chairman
Committee on Finance
United States Senate
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Chuck Grassley
Ranking Member
Committee on Finance
United States Senate
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

View “Capitalizing on the E-Book Trend: Making an E-Book” as it appeared in Writers’ Journal.

As we move deeper into the Information Age, we’re seeing drastic changes in the publishing landscape. The e-book is yet one more piece of this mechanical puzzle, but it can be a lucrative one. Writers’ Journal will run a feature on marketing e-books so I won’t dwell on that aspect. What I want to impart to you here is how easy it is to create one and give you a few tips on making them effective.

To make an e-book you need four things:

• A modern word processing package that includes layout tools (MS Word, Open Office, Quark, etc.)
• A PDF distiller (You can buy the Adobe application for MS Word, or get a free one with Open Office)
• A good idea
• Solid writing

Images are nice, too, but not essential. (I have a trick for illustrating your e-book with free clip art without using a photo editing program! More on that later.) First, I want to mention the two different ways of compiling e-books.

The Mechanics
One way is to make a series of HTML pages and use a cheap or free compiler to turn the thing into an .exe file. Though this method is widely used, I don’t really recommend it for several reasons. While MS Word will allow you to create HTML pages even if you don’t know how, the problem is in display and distribution of the end product. The display is heavily dependent on the end user’s web browser, so you can never be certain they are seeing your book the way you intended…or even legibly if they downloaded it to a Blackberry or Palm Pilot. The second is that .exe files have a bad reputation for carrying viruses and the attachment might get stripped off by the user’s security features if it was delivered via email. Even if it isn’t summarily removed, opening the file will trigger all sorts of security warning screens that should make the end user edgy and mistrustful of the file, and by extension, your message.

The other way—the one I prefer—is to make a PDF e-book. PDF distribution is safer and easier to control. The major drawback has been that Adobe Acrobat Distiller is expensive. No more! Open Office (openoffice.org) is a free office package that includes an on-board PDF converter. The best part is that you can either use Open Office to create the file in the first place, or do all your layout in your favorite program and then import it into Open Office for conversion. I’m an MS Word user of 20 years, so I do all of my print layout in Word. Having said that, Open Office has almost all the same functionality. Are you most comfortable making PowerPoint presentations? Use that program. As long as it converts to a lovely PDF, the program you choose doesn’t matter.

E-Book Layout
Unlike a physical book, you can set security features on your e-book so that it can’t be copied or printed out. There are arguments both for and against this. How you choose to set it comes down to the purpose of the e-book. If you’re making your money on a per copy sale, then set the security features as tight as you can make them without making the book unreadable. If, however, the purpose of the book is to create a viral marketing campaign and your sales are going to come from up-sell packages or service sales, then make sure you have your name and url on every page and do allow printing…in fact, encourage it.

Whether you’re allowing printing or not, keep in mind that the pages are probably not going to be printed double-sided. This means that you don’t need to bother with pesky things like gutters and left verses right page formatting. You can have different odd and even number pages if you want to, but having all of the page numbers on either the left, right, or center is the best method.

One thing you do have to worry about if the pages are going to be printed, though, is printer margins. Most home printers can’t handle having the image go all the way to the edge of the paper and will crop off your lovely page with a .25 inch margin all the way around, so those of you with dramatic visions of full-color pages bleeding over the edges of the paper will have to adjust your mind’s eye a bit. You’re going to get a .25 inch band of white around the edge. Set your paper layout to .25, stay in the lines, and you won’t have anything important cropped off. If you’re going to prevent the user from printing out the book, then bleed, bleed, bleed!

You can orient your e-book in either portrait or landscape and no one is going to care. This makes the possibility of turning a PowerPoint presentation into an e-book a feasible one easy click, just remember that margin.

Do use page numbers in either the header or the footer. Also include your name, the book title and your url. Longer e-books might even include an index, table of contents, glossary, or resource list.

Use Color
If the e-book is going to be read via computer, people have color monitors. If they download it to their PDAs, the device is equipped to handle the color display. Color printers are so common now, there’s no real excuse for making an e-book in black and white. Just don’t go overboard. Unless this is a photo album or a graphic novel, your text is the most important thing you have here. It must be legible. Do use color pictures, color borders, shaded call-outs, reversed-out pull-quotes…wait a minute, this sounds like a webpage! You can see where HTML templates would be useful. In fact, if you drag out your well-read back issues of Writers’ Journal, my previous columns on web page layout and images contain useful e-book layout information.

One thing an e-book allows that print doesn’t is hypertext links embedded into the document. Use the same method in your e-book that you would on a web page. Make the title of the page “hot” (clickable) with the direct link instead of putting the link itself into the document ase you would for print. For example: Writers’ Journal Contests instead of http://www.writersjournal.com/CalendarofContests.htm.

Dressing It Up
MS Word has some useful layout features under “Insert.” (Open Office, WordPerfect, Quark, and other word processing packages have similar features.) “Insert > Picture from file” is one and “insert > textbox” is another. “Picture from file” allows you to insert any image you have stored on your computer. Let’s say you’re doing a booklet on yoga positions and you’ve had a friend take a series of pictures of you performing the moves you’re writing about. You can easily edit these using the tips I mentioned in last month’s column, then insert them into your e-book. “Textbox” will allow you to put in captions, or shaded side-bars or whatever else you can think up.

“Insert> Picture > AutoShapes” allows you to put in lines and to circle key points in your images. On all of these, right click on the thing you just inserted and “format” the “layout” to “square.” This will allow you to move the objects around and drop them anywhere you want so they can overlap or wrap around each other. Right-clicking on the objects also allows you to change which one is on top, shade the background, put a border around them, or even group a bunch together.

If you don’t have any pictures, you can use “AutoShapes” to put subtle color spots behind your text. When “format”ting the “layout,” just choose “behind text.”

Remember I mentioned a trick for illustrating your e-book for free? I lied. I have two!

First: There are a lot of wonderful background patterns available online for free. My favorite place to hunt for these is nasa.gov. Background patterns can be used to create colorful and interesting frames behind text box call-outs or even around the edges of your pages. Backgroundcity.com also has some great ones: they just require a proper image credit with a link, as does backgroundlabs.com. You do this by inserting the background as an image, then inserting a slightly smaller textbox with a solid background on top of it. Frame images this way, too.

Second: use “crazy” fonts. Fonts aren’t just letters anymore. You’ve seen “wingdings” right? At least one version of a “crazy” font came with your system so you could put in math formulas and arrows. There are very clever and beautiful artists out there who have created all sorts of picture fonts. Animals, holiday icons, lightning bolts…all sorts of things. The great part about these fonts is that you just put them into the fonts folder on your system and you can type them right into your document. Change the font size to make them bigger or smaller, change the color. Put them into a text box and you can have them appear behind the text. Fontspace.com has over 9,000 of them free and available to use.

One caveat with the free fonts is that Adobe’s distiller makes you embed the fonts before it saves out the file. Just go to your “Adobe PDF” tab, choose “change conversion settings,” “advanced settings,” “fonts,” and always make sure everything is embedded.

If you can’t find something useful for free, istockphoto.com has some fantastic background images as well as stock business-type photos for $14 or less.

The last thing I want to leave you with is the idea that your e-book really ought to have a cover. You put your cover on the first page of the document to make it look more professional, but you can also use the cover image as an icon when enticing people to purchase the e-book. Amazon.com claims that product images increase sales by up to 10%. Your cover image doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. Any image or color block you might use inside the book can be used to create a cover. Even a solid color with crisp, reversed out text can work. Browse titles in your genre for inspiration.

Most of all, have fun with it. Whether you’re using it as a showcase for your work, a means of enticing people to buy another product or service, or as a way to make money with little or no overhead, an e-book is a useful took to have around.

Angela Render is an author who has been editing and developing websites for over a decade. She teaches regular classes on internet marketing. Her internet marketing workbook, Marketing for Writers: A Practical Workbook, is available on her website at www.AngelaRender.com.

View “Pretty Posts Happy Guests” as it appeared in Writers’ Journal.

As I mentioned in my previous article, one of the ways to attract and keep loyal readers is to make the blog a pretty place to be. If you’ve been keeping up with the Writers’ Journal column “Photography Techniques,” then you’re also full of ideas on how to supplement your clever words with stunning images. The problem comes when you try and put those digital shots or high resolution scans onto the web. Fear not, with a few simple tricks and a free and easy bit of software, you can have your blog or website dressed for prime-time.

Before we do anything, there are a few vocabulary words and numbers you need to know in order to save you image in the correct format.

Color
RGB – (red, green, blue) One of the color mixing methods. Adding proportions of red, blue and green, creates all the various colors you see on the screen. TVs and Monitors use RGB to display images, therefore you want to save any images out for the web in this format.
CMYK – (cyan, magenta, yellow, key) This is a subtractive method of displaying color, which means certain colors are masked in order to form all the colors you can see. Printers and paper publication devices use CMYK.
Resolution – The level of detail an image has.
DPI – (dots per inch) Originally a unit of measure for print, it’s often used to mean pixels per inch which is the display resolution used for monitors.
Pixel—Unit of measure for web graphics. It’s derived from the points of light on your computer screen that, as a collection, make up the display you see. Sort of like the artwork of Georges Seurat, only using points of light instead of dots of paint.
jpg, gif, tif, png, psd, pdf, eps –These are all types of image files. Why so many? They’re all proprietary formats and they all have different quirks.

The most common image files on the web are jpg and gif. Jpgs are very compact files that download and display quickly. They can contain all the possible colors so they are the preferred format for images. Their compression means that they also degrade a bit each time you save them, so it’s usually best to return to your high resolution original each time you want to do something different with the image.

Gif saves as a slightly larger image file, is limited to 256 colors, and is generally the preferred display method for images that contain text because it is also slightly sharper. There is a quirk to gif formats in that they change the color from CMYK or RGB to “indexed.” This color compression does messy things to the image when you resize it so if you’re editing a gif, change the color mode from indexed to RGB first.

All this file compression is the reason your print publications are going to ask for the images as tif, eps, or pdf.

Png is an Adobe Fireworks file format. You can display png files on the web. Psd is an Adobe PhotoShop document. Psds, like tifs and epss do not display on the web, and you’ll probably only encounter them when working with PhotoShop. Then you’ll save the images out as either gifs or jpgs for displaying.

Uploading to the Web
If you’ve taken your pictures with a print publication in mind, which is probably a good idea, you’ll have taken or scanned them at a high resolution (300-1200DPI). Image files at this level of detail are huge, and far too cumbersome to download for casual display on the web. A typical monitor only displays at 72DPI, so anything above that is wasted anyway. So in the interest of download time and dissuading someone from simply downloading your image for their own use, you’re going to want to reduce the resolution to 72.

But first, consider how large the image will need to be in order properly display on the web. If you’re doing this to beautify blog posts, the software platforms have image uploading and inserting features built in. For most blogging packages, the upload process goes something like this:
1) Click on the insert image icon
2) Browse to the place on your computer where the image resides
3) Select the image
4) Tell the software if it’s small, medium, or large
5) Press the upload/submit button

The image then either appears in your post, or is available to insert into your post. Easy. A little too easy. If you’ve told the package to insert a thumbnail and the image is actually quite large, you’re going to have a problem with the software making decisions for you about how to reduce that picture. Most of them end up posting something that looks less than ideal. To combat this problem, it’s important that you crop and resize the image to the way you want it to look and then go through the upload and insertion process. Allowing the software to make decisions for you is a good way to start your journey to the aspirin bottle.

Sizing for the web
How big do you make it? Well, it depends on the image and how you want it to display. As a rule of thumb, if you want the image to appear in the body of the text with the text wrapping around it, you need to be concerned with the width. 200-350px (pixels) wide is a good, safe number that will allow people to see the detail of your image, while not having it completely distort the flow of the text. When resizing, make sure that you maintain the aspect ratio and let the height take care of itself. You will reduce the DPI to 72 at the same time.

For a panoramic shot, again, you are concerned with the width. 450-550px wide is a good bet. Don’t worry about the height.

If you are creating an image gallery where the person scrolls through from one image to the next with no text to worry about, you want to be concerned with the height. The reason being that your “next” and “previous” navigation buttons are probably going to be either on top or on the bottom. If the height varies, these buttons and everything surrounding your gallery will jump around on the screen. It’s especially annoying for the navigation because it means that the viewer has to look up from the image to move the mouse back over the navigation when they want to move to the next image. It breaks their concentration, not to mention it’s really annoying. 250-500px high is reasonable.

Now that you’ve figured out how to upload a properly sized image, I want to mention a few HTML code settings that you’ll find useful—align=left, align=right, align=center. I doubt you’ll ever have to look at it in code, but this is what the computer reads:

<img src=“your_image_name.gif” align=“right” width=“250” height=“300”>

The software packages allow you to select your picture and then determine its alignment. No alignment at all will default to sitting on the left side of the page with the bottom of the image in line with the first row of text. I can’t think of an instance where you would want that to happen, so you’re going to have to set the image to display some other way. To get the text to flow around the image, set the alignment to either “left” or “right” and it will drop the image down so that the top is in line with the text and the rest wraps neatly around it. Align=“center” centers the image on the screen and is the most ideal for your panoramic shots.

Editing your image
The last thing I want to cover is the software that you’ll use to edit your beautiful images. Professionals are going to use Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is a fabulous program that will allow you to do almost anything with your images. It also costs around $700. If you have a copy, and are intimidated by it, I highly recommend The PhotoShop WOW! Book by Linnea Dayton and Cristen Gillespie. It has step-by-step instructions to do all sorts of cool things.

For most people, PhotoShop is far more complex than you actually need. In most cases, you’re only going to be concerned with cropping your image to its essential part, resizing it, sharpening it and correcting for red-eye. Some digital cameras and scanners come with software that allows you to do simple things either in the camera or on your computer. If you can’t get the software to function or you didn’t get photo editing software as part of the package, I’ve found a marvelous free program that impressed the daylights out of me.

Pho.to (no www or .com, just pho.to) is super easy to use, covers all the basics, and has fantastic red-eye correction. There are other programs out there as well.

Good luck and happy posting.

Angela Render is an author who has been editing and developing websites for over a decade. She teaches regular classes on internet marketing. Her internet marketing workbook, Marketing for Writers: A Practical Workbook, is available on her website at www.AngelaRender.com.

We at Thunderpaw wanted to point out that we are hosted on the green grid. We agree with companies on the board of directors of the green grid, like Microsoft, Cisco, AMD, HP, Dell, and others, that everyone should work harder at reducing their energy consumption and reducing their environmental impact.

Being hosted on the green grid means we’re using alternative energy sources for power, reducing coal usage, and investing in cleaner more renewable energy sources.

Thunderpaw is offering hosting to our clients at competitive rates that is green energy compliant.

We have been keeping our eyes on a developing security issue involving Network Solutions web hosting.

Someone has been able to access accounts across domains and take control of numerous web sites hosted with Network Solutions. These web sites have been infected with malware and corrupted files resulting in loss of google rank, and possibly spreading virus/malware applications to unsuspecting visitors. Many sites are finding they have been banned by virus blocking software due to this hack. There have been a number of recent attacks on Network Solutions. Other hosts are not immune, however, Network Solutions appears to be prime target for now.

While we’ve normally supported Network Solutions, there has always been a security issue with the way they handle their file structures for hosting accounts. This organized attack will mean Network Solutions must bring down many web sites and a complete rework of their security, resulting in extensive down-time for corporate web sites. This is having a particularly disruptive affect on any wordpress site due to database connections.

I am currently recommending all web sites hosted on Network Solutions migrate to a new host immediately. We at Thunderpaw are offering discounted rates for new clients who need immediate assistance in moving their web sites to new hosts.

Please contact us using the contact form and include a phone number if you need urgent assistance. It is imperative that sites be moved which use databases (like wordpress or any site using mysql). If you do not have a host in mind, we are capable of hosting many sites, and are currently offering a $20/month hosting account through Thunderpaw. We are limiting the number of new clients that we will accept, so please contact us prior to sending any payment.

In most cases, we can have companies moved from Network Solutions in less than 2 days.

references:
WordPress blog – file permissions matter – 4/13/2010
Computerworld – network solutions hacked, again 4/18/2010
WordPress blogs hacked at Network Solutions, redirected to malware

-David Lyle
Thunderpaw Web Security

Unfortunately, a lot of people fall for these gimmicks. SEO (search engine optimization) is not about getting to the top of google on a search word, or two, or twenty!

SEO is an ever changing art form. A lot comes down to honesty and integrity. Do you want your company website banned from google? Certainly not! That is typically what happens after one of these fly-by-night SEO companies is done. Why? Because they’re using “tricks” and scams to improve a single term. Eventually, google catches on, and guess who’s site gets blacklisted – yours.

What about other search engines and other methods of people hearing about your company? Don’t fixate only on google, as much as they are the big guy on search engines, there are tons of smaller web crawlers and engines that can bring you appropriate clients.

The reality is, you want relevant people visiting your site. You don’t want 20,000 hits from people that will either get angry or do not turn into customers.

So, what to do?

First off, your web site should work! As simple as this sounds, there are millions upon millions of sites that don’t work out there. Sure, all web sites will go through periods of transition, have some bad links, errors, etc; but your first focus should be on functionality. Can real people actually see your site? Can the crawlers? What about the blind? Mobile devices?

Also immensely important is content. Always has been, always will be. Nothing beats good content. The important part is knowing how to put it together, and how to present it to the world! That is the art form of true search engine optimization.

Next is site performance – speed. Faster is better. Fastest is best.

Obviously these are only basics, but universal. Without these, your site may languish in the back burner of the Internet.

At Thunderpaw we have the experience to do SEO properly. You won’t get blacklisted, you won’t get tricked. If you want to really improve your web presence performance, please contact us. We aren’t cheap, but we are good.

-David Lyle

Security

Most people don’t think about security when searching for a web design or Internet presence company, but it really should be a prime concern. You will be entrusting the inner workings of your organization with this company, so you absolutely must trust them. You wouldn’t give your master key to just anyone, so don’t do the same with your online presence.

Price

In many things, you get what you pay for. The same is true of web developers and all online professionals. As I often say, “if you have a $100 business, go with a $100 web site.”

Hourly vs Flat Rate

If you’re getting a flat rate – you’re getting a pre-made template. That may be perfectly fine for your needs, or it may not. However, for more complex needs, often you’ll be looking at an hourly rate. The benefit here is customization. Overall, both result in similar prices for similar product.

Who owns what?

Be very wary of any company that doesn’t make it completely clear who owns what. Do you own your own domain name or does the design company? Do you own the hosting or does the design company? I’m sure you can see the dangers of letting your design company own your business domain name! At Thunderpaw we always make sure that YOU own your name and hosting. You won’t be left in the dark with us. Additionally, if you’ve found yourself trapped by a previous company, we are adept at recovering lost domain names and web sites.

Johnny come lately

A lot of Internet web developers and designers have only been around for a couple years. That’s fine, and usually results in less expensive service. This is a business consideration on your part – do you want to save a bit of money by going with the new guy, or can you afford a bit extra to go with depth of experience like Thunderpaw?

Quality

Can the company actually do what you need them to do? Will you receive quality work or not? If a web site – will it work with all the major browsers? Do you need a blackberry(tm) friendly site? Is it important for your site to work for the visually impaired? On email marketing – will the company run your good name through the gutter just to get a sale, and will that result in your company being permanently banned?

SEO

If a company acts as if they know all the tricks to SEO, they’re lying. Search engines are constantly changing and evolving. If the company only speaks in terms of getting a “top” listing on Google, they’re only doing a tiny bit of SEO. SEO isn’t a trick, and it isn’t something you do once and forget. It involves hard work and dedication and NEVER ends. If you’re paying a one time fee for “SEO”, you’re getting ripped off.

Your Internet presence may include a web site, message boards, social media, email, image and text advertisements, and possibly much more!

Not taking your presence seriously is the biggest reason companies fail to see results from their online presence. If you take your online presence seriously, give us a call or email. We will work with you on your needs, up to and including written articles.

-David Lyle

Even though new media isn’t so new, companies still struggle with how to manage a viral Brand campaign in an environment that is both international and completely uncontrollable. Social networking happens real-time and when it works well, it gives a Brand a near instant viral boost. But when it comes under attack, or fails, it can bring near instant disaster. Such an environment needs both a solid plan, and a spirit that everyone in the company can adhere to when rapid response becomes necessary.

For instance, Nestlé has been under pressure from Greenpeace for a number of years for its use of palm oil (the creation of palm oil is blamed for deforestation). Most companies have plans in place to manage stray complaints or localized problems, but what happens when a Brand comes under attack from organized and passionate opposition? Damage control.

• Nestlé mess shows sticky side of Facebook pages

Greenpeace launched a concerted campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, encouraging a boycott of Nestlé products until the company stops using palm oil. Provocative videos, as well as modified Nestlé logos quickly spread around the Internet. Nestlé’s first response was to try and censor the videos and logos citing copyright infringement. When Greenpeace supporters took the fight directly to Nestlé’s Facebook fan page (complete with altered logos), Nestlé responded by deleting the posts. This quickly back-fired, by giving Greenpeace a lot of free advertising and bringing the campaign into the spotlight.

Any posts in support of Nestlé were quickly drown out in the outrage, as were many of Nestlé’s attempts to refute Greenpeace accusations.

• The Rainforest Alliance and Nestlé Nespresso Announce Advances in Quest for Sustainable Quality Coffee
• Statement on palm oil

There are a number of lessons to be learned. A primary lesson is that as much as companies would like to think that they can “plan for the unexpected,” relying on the impossible gives a company a false sense of security and often leaves them open to being blind-sided. No one can plan for the unexpected.

There is no doubt that Nestlé has a thoroughly thought-out plan for dealing with negative press. The problem is that they relied on the plan when they needed to adapt.

One thing is certain: the Internet and Social Networking change directions faster than hummingbirds, and Brands need to be nimble to keep up. Advanced planning is not enough. What’s more important is that there be a designated hierarchy of decision makers, trusted to deal with unexpected events. Having a reliable expert to outsource to or call upon for advice can greatly assist in times of difficulties. Social Networking experts have experience dealing with the medium and can advise on which things can be ignored, which things demand attention, and what kind of attention they require.