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Event CD-Roms
If you organise an event such as a conference or symposium, issuing a CD-Rom of the event afterwards can continue its effectiveness long after the evaluation sheets have been collected. The CD can contain audio, video or written versions of talks, presentations and seminars, together with additional material to bring a focus and to help draw out implications. Detailed reference material can be added. All content can be presented in an attractive interactive format. If extra capacity is needed, a DVD can be used in place of the CD.
E-mail campaigns
E-mail marketing campaigns are always effective, either in creating new customers, reviving old loyalties or annoying people so much they swear never to give you the time of day. We can help you go for the first two and avoid the third. The key is to stick strictly to rules of legality and courtesy. Make the content brief, recognising that the recipient is giving you valuable time in reading your communication. Ensure you have a clear business reason for the e-mail by using appropriately cleansed lists. Always provide a method of unsubscribing, and make sure those who do unsubscribe are immediately removed.
To avoid wasting money, make sure that your mailing software automatically removes undeliverable addresses as well as the unsubscribes; and narrow down the specification of your list as far as possible. Finally, make sure you are registered under the Data Protection Act if you are keeping any kind of database linked to your e-mail marketing.
Domain names
We often are asked which domain names are essential to own, since there are now so many. The answer is that it depends on your intended market and your likely competition. There's no doubt that the .com address still carries a lot of weight with many people, and is an obvious advantage if you trade internationally. The .co.uk and .ltd.uk domains might, however, carry more weight if you only trade within the UK - and add .eu if you trade in Europe. Some see .biz as trendy, others as tacky, possibly a generational thing!
If you are an organisation but not a business, then .org is appropriate; .net still carries some prestige because originally one had to be an internet service provider of some sort to obtain a .net address, but this is not now true. The other suffixes such as .tv and .me are not usually appropriate for most organisations.
Unfortunately, considerations of appropriateness are often outweighed by fear of what competing organisations might do, either deliberately or accidentally. If you think there is a possibility of predatory domain acquisition then it is necessary to acquire the main names relevant to your organisation, and possibly also alternative versions e.g. with hyphens between words. Today this is not a great expense.
Finally, it is important not to confuse domain names with company names. If you are a company and someone attempts to trade in your name you have an open-and-shut case against them, easily enforced through Companies House. That is not so, however, with domain names, where possession is definitely nine-tenths of the law.
Electronic documents
An electronic document can have several distribution channels and versions, each complementing the other. Typically the document would be formatted as an A4 size Acrobat (.pdf) file. This format has the advantage of being easy to create, either from Word or from professional page-layout programmes. The resulting document can be e-mailed easily, and will not usually be stopped by firewalls. It will also be more secure than a Word document - much more difficult to amend surreptitiously.
As well as being e-mailed, the document can be made available as a download from your web site. Recipients can also print out faithful hard copy versions, say, for circulation at a meeting. Finally, the same document can be used by printers to avoid further design and typesetting costs. If this option is in mind, a print-resolution version will be originated for print, then compressed to make a screen-only version.
Web site security
If you use a reputable service provider, it is extremely unlikely that your material will be hacked into on the server. To provide additional protection of sensitive information such as that conveyed in e-commerce, encryption and secure connections are routinely employed. Loss of data is also unlikely since the service provider will be running appropriate back-up software and will use off-site archiving. Add to this your local security measures such as a firewall, virus protection software and constantly updated operating systems/browsers, and the electronic arena is fairly safe.
The vast majority of security breaches are caused by human neglect, and this can be avoided by following simple rules. Attachments to e-mails should not be opened unless they are from a trusted source - .exe files should never be run. Passwords should not be obvious, and should not be written down anywhere that could be easily found by unauthorised persons. Once connection is made to secure information via a PC, that machine should not be left unattended. Passwords known to former employees or contractors should be annulled as soon as they are not needed. In any case, passwords should be changed from time to time, probably either monthly or quarterly.
Whether you are a sole-trader or a multinational, dealing with the human element is of prime importance. For more useful advice look at http://www.sans.org/top20/
CRM
We've completed a couple of jobs recently using Customer Relationship Management software, which is certainly a growth area. Such software allows for linkage to the internet and compatibility with many applications such as Word and Excel. Using CRM in this way can bring order out of chaos. If you want to know more, just get in touch.
Getting found
Many clients ask how they can come out top in search engine listings, particularly on Google. The answer to this lies in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).This is a fairly specialised job in which we adjust the page content of your web site to make it as visible as possible when the search engines 'crawl' your site. Use of key words in the text and metatags (hidden text), building links to as many other sites as possible and attending to accessibility issues are crucial methods.
In addition to SEO, a rapidly increasing number of companies are running paid advertising via pay per click (PPC). The most popular is Google Adwords. The general principle is that the more money you put into your campaign, the more often your ad will appear as a 'sponsored ad' link. When someone clicks the ad they are linked to your site, and your payment to Google (or other provider) is taken out of your account. This can all be made very sophisticated, but the key factor is how many of the click-throughs you can convert into sales. It does not solve all problems - but running a pilot isn't too expensive.
Passwords
Most people create terrible passwords, so here are some does and dont's.
DO use at least eight characters, put in random capital letters, include at least two non-letter characters such as numbers or punctuation marks, and if you must use words then string two or more together. Good passwords would be: flam1ngbu1Ld1nG, trEble#ch1n, s1xty4$qn.
DON'T use straightforward words, dates of birth, personal information or company information. Bad passwords would be: mark1951, widgetsltd, ingenuity.
In other words, although it's nice if passwords make sense to you in some way, they must not make sense to anyone else who might know your name or other details, your company details or the date of the battle of Hastings. And remember that dictionary attacks can try out thousands of words in seconds.
Browser wars...
Good news! It looks as if Internet Explorer and Firefox versions are converging, particularly in their attitudes to zooming in and out of the page, which is an important issue for accessibility of web sites. If peace really breaks out it will make the creation of well-behaved style sheets much simpler. There are plenty of other areas in which the protagonists can compete - user friendliness, security that isn't a hindrance, and maybe even a talking paper clip for the help screens.
It doesn't work!
The next time things go wrong, computer-wise, don't panic. List all the possible reasons for the problem. Then for each one ask yourself what else would also be wrong if that particular reason were true. For example, your e-mail won't work. Some reasons could be: computer not opening applications properly, no network connection, no connection of network to internet, your e-mail settings are wrong, mail server down.
Questions: do other applications like Word open properly? If not, it's a local PC problem. Can you see other files on your network? If not, check plugs and so on. Can you access web sites? If not, then it's a general connection problem. Can work colleagues access the same mail server? If not, it's your settings. Having passed all these tests, it seems the mail server might be down.
This seems logical when written down in order - but in real life we all go for the most obvious solution first. Next time, put on your deer stalker and follow the Sherlock Holmes method.