Author: Dave J.

If you read the instructions I posted yesterday for using iCal, you will see I recommended using the Firefox Browser. Firefox used to be called Firebird, and is a mozilla derivation, which means its roots are in Netscape.

With Internet Explorer development stalled by Microsoft, except in conjunction with new OS (is the Dept. of Justice on this?), I was thrilled as I found much new functionality in Firefox. It’s nothing fantastic, but there is an obvious effort to think about the user. Less header space, for example, lets you see more of a page at one time. Password storage is also more robust.

When you install, it automatically imports the IE6 Favorites. And I’ve found very little trouble viewing web pages that probably were only optimized for IE6. The only trouble I’ve had was getting the Java plug-in to install correctly.

Go for it! And don’t be afraid to make it your default browser.

I’ve gotten to play with some different software recently and wanted to dedicate this week sharing it with you.

Last month I posted that I had started playing with the iCal standard for Calenders. I still remain enthusiastic for what this can do for people and organizations. If people embrace the standard, it can be very powerful. From last post:

What’s facinating is that you can run several calendars on your PC, and subscribe to others from the internet. I could have one integrated calendar that shows me my wife’s schedule, my personal one, my church’s, and my co-workers’. You can update and syncronize from any location, if it’s posted to the web. There is even a great open source tool that displays the calendar on a website.

That post points at some possible resources I was checking out. Since then, I’ve set the calendar application for our church office. Next, I’m going to use it to keep a family calendar. I wrote instructions on using iCal (Word), both for the end-user to use, and the ‘webservant’ to set-up. Everything to do this is FREE.

Next, part II is about Firefox.

I was at the Pittcon show in Chicago earlier this week. A big show with a lot of 10 and 20 foot booths. Very few feebies to be had. But an amazing amount of candy bowls.

If you are going to put a candy bowl out at a show, fill it with something other than Starlight mints or a Brach’s assortment!! I saw one guy who had jelly beans in a bowl…loose jelly beans…eww!

You spent $3,000 to get the booth space, why go cheap on the candy???

I’m not a direct mail/email campaigner (yet), but here is a neat sounding tool. A software program that allows you to test response to different variables in a message. Testing your program is nothing new, but the software makes sure you test the variables in a way that can be statistically analyzed to create the most effective program.

I found an article about this technique in Quality Magazine. Seems the quality people think that marketers ‘wing it’ and look for glitzy campaigns by ad agencies who don’t understand the customer.

The software is a good idea for simple campaigns, but the company also does consulting for more complex programs. For $499, the software has to be a bargain if you can crank up the results of your campaign.

Found an article about small businesses awareness and use of PPC (pay-per-click) advertising: Small businesses not on the pay-per-click bandwagon yet, says new research

While the survey shows only 11% of SME (small-medium-enterprises) surveyed are even aware of PPC, “of those who use pay-per-click, the average business allocates 23% of its advertising to pay-per-click.”

Wow, 23%! But to make this data useful, it would be helpful to have the demographics of the companies. If these are B2B or B2C, local or national makes a hellava difference. PPC makes sense for my business, for others it doesn’t.

Last month I complained about the hassle in sending out a file for printing. Well, I’ve found that things are improving.

This week I produced a flyer for a tradeshow we will be at next week. I used our local Allegra Printing office to produce 200 pieces on their Indigo digital printer. The process was much smoother–here’s how to do it:

1. Go to their website, create an account and download their printing software. The software is a variation of Acrobat, I think.
2. Print your document using the ‘Allegra printer’ in your print dialog box.
3. Go back to their website, log on, and create a new job. When you click on a button to upload, it automatically pulls the file from your PC (no browsing).
4. Then you need to wait for the server to process the document and send you a link to proof it. This took a while the first time I did this. The link took me to a page where I could pull up a PDF file to view. This PDF isn’t high-rez, which made me a little more critical of one of my images, so I clicked ‘reject’ and tried again. When you accept, it notifies the printer and they can roll with the job.

Now with all that said, I can’t say it was perfect. The printers got concerned when I rejected my proof twice. Turns out they are new to this software and weren’t sure if I was having trouble with it, so they called me (nice service, though). They also asked me to stop by for a view of an actual proof. This step is probably a legacy from the older style of handling print jobs. As they and their clients get comfortable, I’m sure this step will be dropped.

I’m happy that I got to use whatever file types and software I wanted to generate my print job. Overall, very cool!

This nitwit has a one-two punch. It is from trade magazine T&MW’s email newsletter. The nitwit had purchased the top advertising slot on this newsletter.

1. Marketing speak Here is their text ad:

The Future of Test – Available Today

Product life cycles and manufacturing costs keep shrinking, but testing costs aren’t. Higher throughput and more complex products are putting greater demands on test equipment. And then there’s the issue of test asset obsolescence, especially where there are long product life cycles. Here’s the solution: www.aeroflex.com.

So are they a leasing company or a consulting service perhaps? I clicked on the URL to find out… (I knew this would be good!)

2. Bad landing page

The URL links to a thirteen page Word document. A Word document???? It is a white paper that apparently describes their product and its benefits. My eyes quickly glaze over as a I scroll thru the document looking for an answer, which isn’t readily apparent. They expect engineers to read this paper to see if it is relevant to them? Geez.

If you are like me, you got a vague email from Yahoo/Overture about their new SiteMatch service.

While it was clear that this was a pay-per-click service, it didn’t say much more about its value. Apparently you are guaranteeing that URLs in the program will be crawled and ranked in their new search engine which ‘serves 75% of internet users’. But will those pages rank any higher than sites listed for free? What do I really get for my money?

I turned to the ihelpyou forums for answers. Webmasters and SEOs there likened it to LookSmarts paid inclusion model, which MSN recently dropped. Informative thread, angry thread

The informative thread led to this post by a Yahoo staffer, which helps explains things. SiteMatch allows sites with dynamic URLs and frequently changing content to be indexed on a regular basis. No other real benefit is described. One would imagine that it would also allow URLs that aren’t being indexed to be included, but because SiteMatch has a quality review of submissions, you would think that a URL not worthy of the free index wouldn’t be worthy of a manual approval.

With a static, unchanging website and good rankings on the new Yahoo, I see no reason to join this program.

Jim Berkowitz posted a reaction to my earlier post about managing customer hand-offs within a CRM project.

As I prepare to launch our CRM project, he helps keep me focused on goal setting. My goals are simple. Execution is another case altogether.

(Next week: stories from the trade show I am at this week.)

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking directly or indirectly about Industrial Quick Search. For those of you who don’t really know what I am talking about, here is a good article by the InfoCommerce Group. This group is for the database marketing industry.

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