If you conduct a little research using Google, you’ll find there’s quite a lot of information about micro-sites, but it can be confusing and inconclusive. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Some of the information is several years old, and Internet search has moved on
2. All of it is based (or even biased) on the opinions of the writer
3. No one knows the search engine algorithms

Perhaps it would be a good idea to ask why anyone might want a micro-site.

Link-building

This is NOT a good reason for having micro-sites, and the search engines (Google in particular) don’t like link-building schemes which try to artificially improve results. Thumbs down for this one.

Chasing keyword optimisation

Why not have a website dedicated to a particular search term or keyword? Perhaps, but is there a reason for not just having a dedicated page on the main website? There could be genuine reasons why you might want to separate out different aspects of your business (and thus your keywords). But it should be more than just targeting search terms … think about the benefits (or otherwise) to your human visitors.

Product or service differentiation

Picking up on this point in the previous section, if you are launching a new product or service you might want to consider a separate domain and website. If you are moving into a new geographic area, it can be important you’re seen as a company with local connections (in which case you may benefit from a local office too).

Special offers and promotions

This is used by big businesses as part of large promotional campaigns. It could be used to launch a new car, breakfast cereal, or movie.

Making it work

OK. So you’ve decided a micro-site fits with what you want to achieve, how do you make it work? Just building the site and hoping the search engines and visitors will find you isn’t going to work any time soon.

We often find websites left dangling in the ether because they are not integrated into a marketing campaign or strategy. So, create new incoming links from relevant sites to relevant content, but make sure it is relevant. You’ll also need to perform all the other marketing activities associated with a new product or service offering.

Then check the stats … is it working? … what changes can you make? … review and modify.

Some of the better resources I found on line are:

B2Web: Are Microsites Effective? Microsite Best Practices for Small Businesses

Spark Report: The 7 most important principles about Microsites

This time, John wanted an e-commerce website for his hairdressing scissor business. Did you know it isn’t uncommon for hairdressing scissors to cost over two hundred pounds a pair? The ‘Keiun Damascus R’ is over £500 … we were stunned.

With more than one website offering, the first step was to quiz John to find out exactly what he needed. One thing quickly became clear: John (a self-confessed computer beginner) wanted to manage and develop the site himself. We felt a WordPress site with an e-commerce theme would be the best choice. WordPress is quite straightforward to use, and there’s no shortage of people John would be able to call on for help in the future.

Finding a suitable theme wasn’t easy … there’s no ‘try-before-you-buy’ facility with most WordPress themes. We were guided by Alison, our WordPress expert, and she configured the chosen theme with several categories and the first 40 products.

As soon as we handed the site over to John, the phone calls and questions started. Luckily, John’s a quick learner, and within a very short time, he’d created new pages and added several other product ranges. John is just the sort of client we like to work with: he appreciates our hard work, gets stuck in, and won’t let his website stagnate.

John is known throughout the South East of England as The Scissor Man. Now he’s added the online hairdressing scissor shop to his scissor sharpening and maintenance service, he’s sure to become known right across the country.

If you know a hairdresser who’s looking for great service and quality hairdressing scissors, send them to www.thescissorman.co.

Ann’s micro business

Ann Douglas runs a typical micro business – there’s just her. Ann’s business is will-writing, and she’s based in Wootton Bassett near Swindon.

Our first project for Ann started a couple of years ago when she wanted a small website to promote her book about training dogs. She’d already approached a number of web companies, but none were interested because she only wanted a small site. She was on the point of giving up when we got chatting at FBBC (Faringdon Business Breakfast Club). Yes, of course we could help, and the Just Bark Back website has been live for a couple of years.

It’s always heartening when a client comes back and asks you to do some more work, so we were delighted to get the call. Ann had decided her will-writing business needed a showcase on the Internet, and commissioned us to write and build a two-page website. County Wills South West has been live for a couple of weeks, and Ann is gradually adding testimonials from happy clients. Although Ann now has two sites hosted through us, there is only one hosting fee. This is our standard practice – we have three clients with multiple websites paying the same single hosting fee.

Peter’s international joint-venture

Our second commission in March couldn’t have been more different. We’ve worked with Peter Hayes, MD of Lynq plc, on a range of projects since WORD-right was started in 2006. Peter’s software company has its principal client base in North America, and we’ve provided marketing support including copywriting, newsletters, brochures and website management.

Peter’s call came out of the blue: he was forming a joint venture with a company in Columbus Ohio (USA). Everything needed to be in place for a major conference in Orlando, Florida … in less than three weeks! No problem we said, what do you need? Well actually, they didn’t even have a company name!

Three members of the WORD-right & WEB-right team had a very busy eight days. It started with coming up with a company name … one which everyone in the US and UK liked, and for which there was a matching and available .com domain name. Apart from building the website, we also re-wrote a brochure translated (very approximately) from Dutch, and produced print-ready business cards.

The website look is based on a document design package Peter had bought online, adapted to the Internet, with content mostly drawn from existing sources. There were a few last minute hiccups with the emails – Lynq is hosting the emails while we’re hosting the website, so some of the domain’s DNS settings needed to be changed.

Peter was very pleased with our speed of reaction and quality of delivery (you can read his testimonial on the WORD-right Home page), and this is how it all happened:

• Original briefing conversation with Peter on 22nd March
• Company name (Cohesive Operations and cophops.com) agreed 25th March
• Website design presented and agreed on 29th March
• Cohops.com completed and live on the 2nd April.

We’re not often asked to do so much so quickly, but we’ll always find a way of delivering on time.

I can imagine lots of people reaching for their keyboards to comment. They might be saying, “The 500 million active users on Facebook can’t all be wrong.” My question to such commenters would be. “Wrong about what?”

Facebook says there are 23½ million users in the UK – that’s almost the same as every single person between 15 and 45.

Facebook says the average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook – does that include the 10 -12 hours a day Facebook is open in a browser tab on my PC?

The trouble with statistics, no one ever says on what basis they are measured or calculated – statistics can be manipulated (remember the old adage, “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics”?)

Why do people use Facebook? Here are some reasons …

• People – to communicate with other people – good
• Young people – peer pressure – bad
• Businesses – because their clients are there – no option

Are people happy with what Facebook offers (or delivers)? We hear comments like …

• “Its never going to be less popular.” – umm … never is a long time!
• “What you will find given a few years is that there will be 3rd party applications that will give you the experience your after.” – admission that Facebook isn’t expected to deliver for some time to come.
• “When I post something, I never know where it’s going to appear” – from a structural and workflow perspective, Facebook is a mess
• “Facebook: re-inventing the applications we’ve been using for decades in a more crap way” – from an IT professional’s perspective.
• “It confuses the life out of me” – and it’s constantly changing.
• “Not ideal but you can use the Notes app to leave longer updates” – said about the 420-character limit in some places (but it doesn’t tell you untill too late), by a Social Media Manager
• “The new group functionality is different than what we see here (old style group) but unfortunately there’s no migration path” – Social Media Manager in answer to the non-appearance of some groups

All these comments come from people who, like us, use Facebook every day for business as well as personal reasons.

Predictions about companies and technologies are notoriously wide of the mark, or even just plain wrong. Who, 30 years ago could have predicted the trouble General Motors had in the last few years (bankrupcy), or the demise and disappearance of British Leyland, Woolworths, MFI, Waterford and Wedgwood. IBM didn’t originally take the PC seriously, giving Bill gates his first opportunity. According to Tomorrow’s World, I should in 2011 have a little robot which automatically vacuums my house.

Most of these didn’t fail because their product or service was poor.

Facebook may evolve into something really good. But it has limited time to do this. How long? I have no idea.

Will one of the better products out there take over? Don’t know, and yes, there are better products than Facebook.

Will it be something completely new? More than likely.

Do I eat sliced bread? Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.

There are a number of reasons why a computer (portable or otherwise) could be slow to boot. If you’re having this problem, look down the list to see which might be affecting you:

• It’s very old
• Too many apps. are loading code when the computer starts
• There’s not enough RAM

What are the solutions?

If you computer is just old, you’ll either have to get a new one, or put up with the slowness. If there are too many apps. loading code, get a utility (or a friendly IT person) to help you get rid of those you don’t need. If there’s not enough RAM (you know you don’t have enough if the computer’s spec. says you can fit some more), buy some more memory. If you are going to buy memory, shop around … people like Crucial, MemoryC and Offtek can sell you perfectly good memory at a fraction of the manufacturer’s prices.

There is one other thing you can do … which I do on my Acer netbook and my 5-year old Compaq notebook … to get going quicker after you switch on:

… ALWAYS choose the ‘Hibernate’ option when you turn it off.

Occasionally this may conflict with something Windows is doing. Sometimes you will have to do a full shut down and restart. But mostly your computer will be up and running much more quickly than it used to be.

Oh, and if you have a Mac … I guess the bullet points are still relevant, but I don’t have one, so can’t offer any further advice – sorry!

For years companies have been subject to the ASA’s ruling about their paid-for advertising. The ASA regularly slaps the wrists of even the biggest corporations. Now these companies will have to smarten up their acts online too.

The news item on the BBC website this morning says:

From 1 March, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) gets powers to police the claims companies make on websites and social networks.

The rules cover statements on sites that can be interpreted as marketing, even if they are not in an advert.

Obviously someone has to complain to the ASA for anything to happen – they don’t have the brief or resources to go out looking for dishonesty. That means it will be mostly the larger companies who are taken to task over their claims.

But that doesn’t mean small companies don’t have to bother. With the ASA’s ‘enhanced naming and shaming’ policy, your business could be severely affected by the adverse publicity.

And don’t think you can escape by using a domain name which isn’t a .uk, or a site which is hosted outside the UK – the ASA will be regulating businesses with a base or presence in the UK.

Do the new rules cover all online content? Well no … it covers content on websites and social media which can be interpreted as marketing or sales. And it will be the ASA which decides, not the content owner.

If you’d like to know more (and if your business or organisation has an online presence you should), visit the ASA’s CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice) website.

So, what better time to review your marketing messages and online copy. Why not contact a copywriter (WORD-right springs to mind here, and no surprise!) – they will help you get your marketing messages across, and still be legal, decent, honest and truthful.

Cloud computing and SaaS (Software as a Service) allows you to use applications without them being installed on your PC or server. All you need is an Internet connection and a web browser on your PC. Many people are moving to cloud computing, but it is right for you?

The ‘cloud’ is a relatively new term generally used with mass-market applications such as ‘office’ suites. Proponents draw a cloud with lots of computers attached saying you don’t need to know what happens in the cloud … it’s all a bit vague and fluffy.

SaaS (software as a service) has been around for about 15 years, and usually refers to a customised application delivered over the Internet.

So what are the pros and cons?

It’s no different from any outsourcing decision – there are just a few nuances because of the technology. In essence, if you outsource it can be cheaper, but you will lose some control.

Using the cloud

Google and others offering ‘office’ applications over the web will charge you a monthly or annual fee to use the applications and store your data. The service is scalable so you can add and subtract users according to your business needs. As you’re not running the application locally, the age and performance of your computer is less critical, but it isn’t irrelevant. What becomes critical is your Internet connection.

Google have a commendable record for keeping their cloud services on line and functioning because they’ve invested heavily in their technology. To start with, they have many servers in different locations. Google has also designed the infrastructure to continue functioning if part of it fails. If you’re considering signing up with a smaller supplier, check their infrastructure and business continuity planning (what they’ll do in the event of a failure).

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Specific business applications (accounting, for example), are delivered by SaaS. The questions to ask are still about their infrastructure and business continuity plan. Don’t be swayed by a percentage up-time. Check with the supplier what it refers to (e.g. the server is running or the application is available), and if it excludes anything, such as their internet connection – they might argue it’s not relevant, but it will still affect the service you get.

Lets pick out two issues you’ll have to consider:

1. Cost – cloud & SaaS
   The fees for cloud computing or SaaS are usually paid monthly (good for cash flow), and include upgrades to the application. It is certainly cheaper to start with as there’s no initial purchase of software licenses or equipment.
2. Cost – local applications
   If you run the application locally, you may not have to upgrade each time there’s a new version.
3. Access – cloud & SaaS
   With some (but not all) of these services, you can access your applications and data from anywhere with an Internet connection. It also means you don’t have to copy and synchronise data. Useful if you travel a lot, but of limited benefit if you only work at one location. Remember that if you stop paying your supplier, you lose access to the applications AND your data.
4. Access – local applications
   You don’t need an Internet connection to access your applications and data – broadband problems can mean days without Internet access.

Summary

Google is a large and stable company. Some of the newer players in the market won’t have the same staying power as Google, and are bound to disappear. What will happen to your data then?

If you run your application locally and the supplier fails, you may have support and maintenance issues but your application and data will still be available.

If you choose or have to switch cloud suppliers, how easy will it be to transfer all your data and adapt to the new systems and processes? Probably no less work than changing a local system.

Which will be best and cheapest in the long term? Only you can make that decision for your business.

A recent item on the BBC News website (Google Android apps found to be sharing data) rang alarm bells for us. According to research, apps which run on Android don’t always behave as you’d expect. A study by US researchers discovered that a large proportion of the Android apps they tested do not tell users what is done with data they gather.

Of the 30 apps they tested,

“… 15 of them sent location information to advertisers but did not inform users that data was being shared with those firms. Some apps gathered and despatched location information even when an application was not running and some sent updates every 30 seconds”.

This is very similar to the spyware which ends up on our computers. The study also found that,

“… seven of the apps shared unique identifiers, known as IMEI numbers, when sending data. Others despatched phone numbers or SIM card serial numbers.”

The Android permission system is rather basic, and although most apps do ask for permission to gather information, they don’t do enough to explain exactly where the data will be sent and how it might be used.

This is something Google should seriously consider tackling. Without going to the extreme of vetting all applications in the way Apple do for the iPhone, there needs to be safeguards built into Android itself. Only in this way can people be protected from unscrupulous application authors.

Unfortunately, Google don’t seem to be taking a responsible stance on this issue. They have said:

“We consistently advise users to only install apps they trust.”

But Mr Google, how can we possibly know which ones we can trust, and which we can’t?

The study’s authors say Android’s permission system effectively means users have to “blindly trust” the applications they install.

Mobile security analyst Nigel Stanley from Bloor Research said of the loose permission system,

“The blanket permissions a user gives on installing an app can give carte blanche to malware and spyware providers to collect as much private data as they want, under the protective nicety of a simplistic warning from the operating system.”

So next time you install an Android app, think very carefully about the permissions you give it. And if in doubt, check with the authors about exactly what data they collect and what happens to it – if they’re not open and honest about it when you ask, should you be trusting their Android app?

We were working with a client earlier this year, creating a website and hosting it for them. They’d registered the domain themselves, and given us access to their account to change the nameservers. For those of you new to websites and hosting, the ‘nameservers’ setting for a domain ‘points’ internet traffic for a website to where it is hosted.

Where possible, we like to manage both the domain and the hosting for the websites we build, using one supplier for the domains, and another for the hosting. This is both time-efficient (we know how these suppliers work), and it means there are no problems or surprises when getting the website live.

Where a domain has been registered elsewhere, we usually arrange with the client to transfer it to the domain registration company we use. We’d just like to re-assure everyone at this point: we do not ‘own’ the domain when it’s moved – we’re just the administrator. If a client wishes to take back full control of their domain, it can be transferred to their own account very easily.

Registering a domain? Have you checked the small print?

Getting back to our client, they’d registered with Easyspace. Easyspace charge £9.50 + VAT for two years (.co.uk), while our preferred registrar charges £5.90 + VAT. We discovered Easyspace wanted to charge £15 + VAT to ‘transfer out’ our client’s domain. As this equated to several years’ registration, the transfer charge seemed a bit steep, and we didn’t insist on the move.

Some months later, our client asked us to create a second website. They registered the new .co.uk domain themselves again, but with a different registrar. This time they chose UK2.net. UK2.net are cheaper, at £5.38 + VAT for two years. That’s good, isn’t it? Well yes, so long as you don’t want to move the domain, or do anything sophisticated with it. The ‘transfer out’ fee is £12.99 + VAT, but at least it’s only charged during the first two years of registration. But still not as good as our preferred domain registrar which doesn’t make any charge to transfer out.

The client recently asked if they could have all the emails for the new domain transferred to their original domain. That should be no problem … it’s just a question of setting up email forwarding. Oh dear! To make any change to a domain registered with UK2.net, other than the nameservers, the client has to buy an account upgrade – this would cost £16.99 + VAT per year. Needless to say, we’ve got round this another way.

A happy ending

You won’t be surprised to learn that our preferred domain registrar doesn’t make any extra charges on top of the .co.uk fee of £5.90 + VAT for two years.

The moral is: you have to be really careful when choosing who your domain will be registered with.

And the bad news is that most of the registrars we’ve come across (big names as well as small) are expensive or charge additional fees.

So if you, or a friend or relative, are thinking about registering any domains … give me a call. I’ll gladly talk you through the pros and cons … and tell you who we use!

I met Nick Faulkner at a 729 Breakfast Club meeting in Chipping Norton several months ago.  I already knew Nick through his other business – Persian carpets and enamelware – but didn’t know about his energy-saving interests. We arranged to meet in his Persian shop in New Street, Chipping Norton, where we had a chance to look at the stunning items on display.

Bolt Energy has several product streams, all with the common energy-saving theme. The flagship is the GATORBOXx. This was developed in the USA using NASA technology. It doesn’t look very space-age, but the electronics inside have helped to cut the power consumption on NASA’s spacecraft.

Electric motors are major users of electricity, and the GATORBOXx reduces their power consumption by around 15% without affecting performance in any way. Even around the home there are electric motors in load of things: central heating pumps, dishwashers and washing machines, fridges and freezers, computers and food mixers. On an industrial scale, these savings in consumption can be significant.

I won’t attempt a technical explanation here, but it’s all to do with bringing the ‘power factor’ closer to 1 (one). You’ll find more information about the power factor optimisation on the Bolt Energy website, and on some electricity utility websites.

Bolt Energy’s other product lines include low energy LED lighting, triple-glazing, clean air systems, and electricity micro-generation.

Nick is looking for energy consultants and potential installers for the GATORBOXx in the south-east. Again, there’s more information on the website. If you know of anyone who might be interested, get them to give Nick a call.

The website went live 10 days ago – do go and have a look at Bolt Energy