TSBlog

Electronic Marketing

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:03:56 GMT

Below are the talking points from my presentation for the FastTrac group. I enjoyed talking with you on this subject. Please contact me if you have questions.

1. Electronic Marketing

a. Inexpensive

b. All about activity

c. Need to keep it up

d. Going mobile

2. Social Networking

a. Facebook

b. Twitter

c. Linkedin

d. YouTube

e. Flickr

f. Photobucket

g. MySpace

h. Plaxo

i. Buzz

3. Blogging

a. Blog in current web site

b. Blogger

c. Wordpress

d. RSS feeds

e. Warning: Make sure can keep it going on a regular basis

4. Electronic Newletters

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

a. Perfect page

b. Links back to web site

i. Organizations

ii. Directories

iii. Vendors

iv. Customers

c. Google Local Business (Google Maps)

6. PPC

a. Google

b. Bing

c. Yahoo

7. Mobile Applications

a. Location senstive

b. Where

c. Yelp

d. Yowza!

e. The Find

f. Facebook, Linked in, etc.

g. SnapTell

8. Sites with more info

a. www.marketingprofs.com

b. www.pauldunay.com

c. www.hubspot.com

Should You Upgrade to Windows 7

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:49:11 GMT

Should You Upgrade to Windows 7

Finally, Windows 7 is here ...But is it worth it? Yes, absolutely. Windows 7 was well received when it was first released. It is considered to be one of the most convenient OS (operating system). It is also very stable and secure. So, why should you consider upgrading to Windows 7? Here's why you should:

Windows 7 has lower system resource requirements plus it can actually save power to boot, shutdown, restart and open programs a lot faster than Windows Vista.

Windows 7 works on virtually any computer configuration perfectly.

It allows you to access multi-media files in a single folder on your hard drive along with files that are in multiple locations.

With Windows 7, you can utilize a slide-bar to create your own security settings.

Another reason why Windows 7 has received great reviews is because it has no bloatware. One major complaint Vista users have made is that Vista included a lot of free trial programs that were pre-installed when you made a purchase.

These pre-installed programs simply weighed down the Windows Vista system. Vista users were required to pay computer retailers in order to uninstall programs prior to bring a new computer home.

Lastly, Windows 7 is basically a lot easier, faster and it has improved navigation features than Vista.

How to Use Your LinkedIn as Your Resume Profile

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:54:22 GMT

Today, there are several innovative ways for job hunters to attract potential employers. One way to help get your virtual resume viewed by employers is through LinkedIn …But first, your LinkedIn profile has to be up to par. The following are six methods to use to help boost your resume’s visibility on LinkedIn.

The first thing you should do is scan through your profile to catch any punctuation and spelling errors. There's nothing worse than an employer scanning through an applicant’s profile only to discover spelling errors and mistakes. Remember, it only takes one mistake to completely sabotage a resume profile.
Get a second opinion about your LinkedIn profile. Have a friend or someone you trust (with a critical eye) to review your profile and check for mistakes.
Only include experiences and skills that your potential employers will find interesting. In other words, create a scenario of what it will be like if they decide to hire you to work for their company. Don’t forget to stress upon your accomplishments and skills. Make sure you use attention-grabbing language.
Avoid using huge blocks of text. This makes it difficult to read. For readability, your profile should be scannable. For an easy read, use small paragraphs in your LinkedIn profile.
Hook your potential employers by making your profile exciting and conversational. Unlike a traditional resume, it is okay use more relaxed language such as "me, my or I" once in a while -- but not too often. You don’t want to give the impression that you’re conceited.
Ask people you know to write a well written review about you. For example, you can ask past employers to write a review about you. However, make sure their review is well written. Many employers frown upon recommendations that are poorly written.

Hopefully these six tips will help you improve your LinkedIn profile and get hired!

Social Networking Tips to Live By

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:34:56 GMT

There are dozens of websites where people have fun by being involved in chatting with friends, watching their photos, finding other friends and even, why not, falling in love. They are also known as social networking sites. Have you ever asked yourself why some of them are swimming in fame while others fail? Obviously, the most relevant aspect is their web-design, and if you happen to own such a site, take into consideration the following tips that will help you maintain it.

Use the same rule as in daily life - it’s better to study others’ mistakes rather than learn from your own. For instance, take a look at Facebook. It is popular including because web-designers imagined themselves being users and hence understood that clogging it with sophisticated graphics might hinder its popularity. Thus, the web-designers opining graphics attract more users are mistaken. The website will load slower and tiresomely and, as a result, it will dash the users away and it’s barely possible they return. So don’t complicate things, all you need for your social networking website is creating a comfy and friendly atmosphere, by creating a design which would be simple but with taste.

Raise your website’s interactivity with search engines. For this, learn and apply the SEO techniques, and it will smoothly head visitors to your site. Also, web-designers’ duty is to include entertaining things in your website. The point is that permanent chat and friend-making can be colored by certain software or games. Maybe some people are not eager for chat, but they will become fond of your software and will visit again and again the website just for running them a bit. Moreover, as soon as they like them, visitors will doubtlessly let know their friends about it. Remember, everybody like fun.

More and more projects consisting in social networking website running appear each day. It is hard to survive under this tough competition. When you open your website, watch it carefully and ask yourself why would people visit namely your social network website when there is an uncountable number of them within the Internet? The best tip you should know is – whatever you do in this regard, make it originally, like nobody. Add value by offering something other entertaining websites don’t.

And last but not the least, remember everybody place privacy above everything, so make sure your website guarantees this right so that users could feel safe.

Google’s Adsense Advantage in 2010

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:46:07 GMT

No program is more popular within the Internet than the Google Adsense Program. No matter whether internet promoters are freshmen or already experienced professional, this Program help both categories receive monthly profits. It consists in placing ads on your website. However you don’t even have to spend time on placing them, it is Google itself arranging everything. These are texts and graphics ads supplied to your website and placed automatically in compliance with your pages’ content. Money is earned by site owners from each normal click made by visitors.

Joining and using this Program is free, nobody charges you money for these ads. The simple first step to be done is to fill Google Adsense web application and wait for its approval. After receiving it (standard procedure takes 2-3 days), Google will supply a code following to be introduced in the webpage. Before applying, you should have content on your website, in order it can adjust ads by categories of content, which are wide enough, starting with gardening and ending with cars. Certainly applications from porn or hatred websites are rejected.

The Google Adsense big advantage is its worldwide availability, regardless of geographical area, since it uses many languages.

By staying home and owning a website, you can make money. Without taking account of the website’s rank or size, once your earnings from visitors’ click reach $100, Google will pay you monthly. Some don’t accept Google Adsense as they consider these click-on-ads throw users away from their site. True, there is a chance for that, yet, such anxieties must disappear if the website is interesting and captivating, as users will return.

Even though there is a possibility to place Google ads wherever desired in your website, Google suggests particular pages that attract more clicks. As additional possibility of gaining more earnings, you may choose as well to include Google search box on your page or Google’s Referral Buttons.

As a whole, there are already well-known facts about Google ad placing. For example, situating them on your page’s top-left is most efficient. Seek to place them above the fold rather than below, it works better. Also, including them close to ample content or navigational aids or even at the bottom of large articles will work fine likewise.

A serious approach also stands for creating tactful strategies that will both bring traffic to your website and make users click on ads and hence generate profit.

As a conclusion, we can assert that Google Adsense is a great modern way of generating supplementary revenues to website owners. Advices mentioned above are useful for the beginners using Google ads.

TracSoft Announces New Website - Strategic HR Partners

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:07:08 GMT

TracSoft would like to announce its newest website www.strategichrpartners.com. Strategic HR Partners is an employers membership association providing Human Resources products and services critical to companies of all sizes. Recruit, develop and retain your company's greatest asset, your people.

The services provided by Tracsoft were a custom website design, Flash technology, and website hosting.

TracSoft Presentations

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:29:32 GMT

Social Media, IT Disaster Recovery Planning, Google Tools

The Social Media Presentation helps HR and Marketing departments learn how to use social networking sites to recruit employees while building credibility and trust with potential customers. Expand your business and attract traffic to your site while learning about how to set up accounts, digital writing style, and employee use during work.

All hard drives will crash one day, so be prepared with an IT Disaster Recovery Plan. Learn what goals of the recovery plan will help your business minimize potential interruptions and recover lost data. Determine the components of IT recovery with a checklist of inventory, procedures, and different ways to back up your media.

A presentation on the services and tools Google has created for the general public and business environment, including Web applications, advertising networks and solutions for business. This presentation contains the benefits of Google Tools including but not limited to – Gmail, Google Voice, Google Checkout, AdSense/AdWords, and Google Calendar.

Contact TracSoft at www.tracsoft.com/contactus or 706-568-4133

Linked In for Job Seekers and Employee Hunters

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:28:32 GMT

Over 45 million professionals, including myself, use LinkedIn to find and exchange information about jobs, opportunities, and easy-access to insider information. In today’s media savvy world Linked In has raised its own usefulness in creating Company profile pages that help the company attract applicants with targeted content, better visibility, and modules for more in-depth company information.

In Linked In owner’s own words, “Company Profiles is a research tool that helps users explore and find companies they would want to work and do business with. Company Profiles leverage our unique network data and surfaces the people you need to get business done.”

I personally used Linked In to find an internship right out of college, as well to get information about companies, policies, and the work environments that are tailored to my interests. Companies will have links to all their own employees on Linked In and finding someone within your own ‘network,’ is the best way to find a job. From one thing I have learned since college is, having a college degree is NOT enough – it is ALL about who you know.

Linked In uses its interactive web space to pull all information from different networks to fill in data about companies including recent hires, promotions, job openings, and who’s been in the news recently. You can see what the people who work at the company has that you do not have, and the module capabilities give a more interactive and dynamic approach to companies ranging from polls, highlighting recruits and/or employees, then to embedded video clips.

Check out the TracSoft Company Profile

Linked In has capitalized on recruiting and as a career development tool with their Company Profiles.

To set a profile up for your company:

1. To get started go to the Company’s tab, from there click on “Add a Company.”

2. Enter basic information about your company such as description, the number of employees, and the industry describing the work done at the company.

3. Follow Linked In’s wizard to complete your company profile. You will be able to add a logo, link to MapQuest, feed to your company’s blog site.

Why You Should Customize your Background on Twitter

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:01:55 GMT

Since Twitter began users have been able to upload background images to personalize their page, cute kittens and funky personality has been able to show up in mosaic form. The Twitter background has since taken over MySpace as the key medium for self-expression, personal branding, and personal fulfillment.

If you have never created your own now is the time with my step-by-step rationale on why the Twitter background is key:

1. Why should I create a custom Twitter background?

While wondering whether creating this background is even worth your effort, you may come across a few benefits to making your backdrop truly unique. This is your chance to express what you or your business has to offer. If you are an artist, a blogger, an entrepreneur or a web designer, show off your skill or passion through more than the standard 140-character limit. A common practice for branding techniques is using your face, contact information, or other additional bio information to help potential followers understand why people should follow and possibly do business with you.

2. Basic requirements for creating your own custom background

Now that you decided to create a custom background you need to know how to actually do this. First, got to ‘settings,’ ‘design,’ then ‘change background image.’ You can add any image from your computer as long as it is under 800k in size. To make sure the picture looks correct and covers all screen resolutions, the total image size should be around 1600px wide and 1200px tall. In the end your ideal background will take some trial-and-error, but if you are not a designer there are tools to help, including

twitterbacks

twitbacks

twittergallery

3. Start customizing and share

With these tools and the incentives of gaining followers, there is no reason you can’t create your own Twitter background in mere minutes, and don’t forget to link to your Twitter and other social sites to your blog to create a well rounded personality online.

Ruminations of a New Mac User

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:12:25 GMT

I have been a PC user my entire life - that is, until I recently switched over from a PC to a Mac. People ask me which do I like better and and if they were to get a new computer why should they choose that one. On a quick glance, the OS X operating system works faster and has been more reliable thus far, its appearance is contemporary and there is no registry to get agonize over to start using the computer.

My favorite things about the Mac in no particular order:

1. Plug-and-play: The first thing I noticed was it took less than five minutes to get my new computer booted, registered, and running.

2. Upkeep: About once a week the UNIX tells me there is an update to install where I enter my password and it installs as I work on whatever else I need.

3. Starting up - I open my computer to the screen lighting up instantly, networks found without any work required, and ready to use or get online in mere seconds.

4. Ease of Use: Apple’s best work is done on its own operating system where the applications are useful, enjoyable, and innovative. If I can’t remember where I saved a file, I don’t spend countless hours looking for it, instead I use ‘Finder' which searches the entire computer, including online documents.

5. Viruses: I have NEVER gotten a worm or virus (not to say a mac virus is unheard of, but they are much easier to solve and no virus scanning software is slowing down the system regardless).

6. Personalization: I have made my computer fit my needs through keyboard shortcuts, mouse movements, the holding dock, and easy to find applications.

The bottom line: the Mac is less of a hassle to use, is made to fit MY needs and is overall easier to use.

TracSoft's Newest Website

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:54:00 GMT

TracSoft would like to announce its newest website www.mybridgelife.com. The Bridge Church's community seeks to build bridges that span religious, racial, social and economic barriers and create a connection with God, People and Purpose that lead us to live more fulfilled lives.

The services provided by Tracsoft were a custom website design, Flash technology, and website hosting.

TracSoft's Newest Website

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:37:05 GMT

TracSoft would like to announce its newest website www.rightfromthestart.org. Right from the Start is a marriage and family initiative in Columbus, Ga dedicated to building strong marriages and families while offering education, pre-marital counseling and research on strong marriages building the community.

The services provided by Tracsoft were a custom website design, Flash technology, and website hosting.

How to use Twitter for Businesses

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:06:07 GMT

Twitter is a social networking site that lets businesses stay connected with their customers. A business can use Twitter to share information about the business and build relationships with customers, partners, or anybody interested in the business.

Twitter allows users to send and receive messages known as tweets. Tweets are posts to the author’s profile page and are delivered to the author’s subscribers known as ‘followers’. Tweets are a great and powerful way of having real-time communication with your followers.

How to start using Twitter:

Go to https://twitter.com/signup and fill out the four fields. Use the ‘Full Name’ field to put in your company name. After you sign up, you will be directed to a couple of screens to find people on Twitter that you may know.
Fill your information. When you arrive at your account page fill out your company’s information. Fill out as much information about your company as possible to help people recognize your company. You can add your company’s logo and a background image for your Twitter home page.
Find people and companies to follow. Use the search box on your home page to look for people talking about your company and products.
Post your message. On your Twitter home page you can now post your first message.

Follow Tracsoft on Twitter by clicking here.

What are Google Alerts?

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:58:21 GMT

Google alerts are emails sent to you automatically when there are new results based on your search terms. Instead of going to Google everyday and typing in what you are interested on, Google will email you when new results are available based on your search term. All you have to do is type your search term once and create a Google Alert. So what type of alerts can you sign up for? Google currently offers 6 types of alerts:

News Alert – email of the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice.
Web Alert – email of the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice.
Blog Alert – email of the latest blog entry that contain the search terms of your choice.
Video Alert – email of the latest videos that contain the search terms of your choice.
Groups Alert – email of new posts that contain the search terms of your choice.
Comprehensive Alert – aggregate of the latest results from multiple sources ( News, Web, & Blog) into one email to provide maximum coverage on the topic of your choice.

So how often will you receive alerts? It depends how you set up the alerts. If you specify to Google to check for new results once a day, you’ll get a maximum of one email per day. If you specify that you want emails as new results happen, Google will check for new results continuously and alert you every time it finds something new.

How do you sign up? Go to Google Alerts, type in the search term of your choice, the type of alert you would like (News, Web, Video, etc.), how often you would like Google to check for results, your email address, and Google will send you a confirmation email. Clicking on the link on your email will activate your alert.

The Importance of Google’s PageRank

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:38:50 GMT

What is PageRank? PageRank is a numeric value given by Google that represents how important a page is on the web. The value is from 1-10. Basically, this number is figured out by the number of links that point to your page. However, not all inbound links are created equal. Pages with more credibility that link to your webpage have more value than those with less. So how is this credibility measured? By their PageRank, of course. It is far more beneficial to your page to have a few links from pages whose PageRank is high than to have numerous links from sites that have a low PageRank. The PageRank value can be divided in the following categories:

0-3: New pages or pages with few links.

4-5: Popular sites with a good amount of inbound links.

6: Very popular sites.

7-10: Usually media sites or big companies.

So how do you measure your sites PageRank? You can download Google’s toolbar which will let you know your website’s PageRank by clicking here. If your PageRank is low, try to get more inbound links preferably from sites with a high PageRank.

Chamber Business Expo

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:34:55 GMT

Just a reminder TracSoft will have a booth at the Chamber Expo tomorrow August 12. Reggie Luther will also be presenting a "Google Tools" presentation at 4:45pm at the expo. Everyone that comes by the booth will receive a free 30 days of ManageTrac our automated network monitoring and management system. Also come find out how to win a free web site!

Come visit TracSoft booth at Chamber Business Expo

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:25:42 GMT

Hello Columbus!!! For those of you who don't know, there will be a Business & Healthcare Expo on August 13th at the Columbus Iron Works Trade and Convention Center from 12:00-6:00 p.m. TracSoft is proud to announce that we will have a booth this year! We will be giving away a free website, so please stop by our booth to get all of the details and drop your business card in the pot for one of our hourly TracPac giveaways! Even if you don't want to play, we would love to see you and share all of the ways we can make technology more effective for you and your business...don't get confused by the camouflage!!

How the Internet Changed Marketing

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:23:26 GMT

The internet has really changed the world that we live on. People can now do many thinks such as reserve a hotel, buy an airline ticket, research an automobile, check the weather, just to name a few, without leaving their house. So it comes to no surprise that the internet has really changed marketing.

The days of traditional marketing strategies such as trade shows, direct mail, telemarketing, print/TV/Radio ads are less effective than internet marketing. People now days have caller id to screen their calls and have the technology to fast forward through commercials. We now have access to the products that we are interested online. We can see the specifications of the product, read online manuals, and read online reviews to get educated on a product and make a decision. All of the information is available to us 24/7.

With internet marketing you can track your website’s visitors. You can research the visitors search terms and optimize your site for those terms. You can also find out conversion rates by comparing the number of visitors your website receives versus the sale numbers. If you are running email or ad campaigns, you can also easily track the links that have received the most clicks and tailor your campaign accordingly.

With internet marketing the cost is less than traditional marketing and you are reaching a worldwide audience. In today’s world, internet marketing is really a necessity if you want to stay in the game.

Organic vs. Paid Search

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:54:56 GMT

There are two kinds of online search results: organic and paid results. So what is the difference between the two?

Paid results are those that require a fee for the search engine to list your website in the results. The most popular form is the pay-per-click (PPC) where you pay every time someone clicks on your website link. The price for each click increases as the keywords get more competitive. Google Adwords is one popular form of paid search. In Google, the paid search results will appear at the top of the search results and they’ll be labeled “Sponsored Links”. So what is the advantage of paying for results? Your website link will have immediate online business exposure.

Organic results are put together by search engines and ranked according to relevance to the search queries. This relevance is calculated by factors such as keyword match and the number of sites linking to the website. There are many advantages of being listed under the organic results. These results cost nothing. Organic results are listed based on the search engines measurement of relevance and quality of the website. Also, organic results actually get more traffic. Most people click on organic results as opposed to paid results. Your website link will also get longer lasting rank. Search engines record your ranking history helping your website rank highly in the future. Search engines also reevaluate your rank every few weeks or months.

So what is the best fit for your business? If you want immediate online exposure, then the paid results would be the answer. However, do keep in mind the advantages of organic results.

Google Introduces Chrome Operating System

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:52:45 GMT

Nine months ago Google launched Google’s Chrome browser which is intended for people who spend a lot of time on the internet. Today more than 30 million people use it on a regular basis. Google recently announced an extension to Chrome browser which is Google’s Chrome Operating System. The operating system is an open-source, lightweight OS that is initially going to be targeted at netbooks. It will be available to the public the second half of 2010.

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds”, Google stated. Google wants the operating system to be simple to use “so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

This announcement by Google could change the market for operating systems. Microsoft, right now is the biggest operating system player with 90% of the market share. Will it work? We will see if Microsoft’s market share decreases as Google Chrome OS comes out next year.