Must Have Computer Apps – Mac Version

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Jonathan

I work in both the Windows and Mac worlds. I certainly prefer Macs, but necessity dictates that I be literate in both. Here are just a few of the applications I use everyday…on my Mac. I’ll deal with my favorite Windows apps in another post. These applications perform a variety of functions, and several of them have changed the way I work and play.

Forklift - This Mac only FTP client is much more than that. It acts as both a file transfer app and file management app. In some ways, it has taken over many of the functions of Finder. Regardless, it’s by far my favorite FTP client on the Mac.
Domainer – This handy little app helps me keep an eye on my Google PR as well as a host of other web metrics. While it doesn’t have as much data as it’s more expensive competitors, it is a really affordable option for the budget conscious SEO.
Billings - This billing application is a must-have for any small business. It provides elegant, professional-looking invoices, and its ability to provide year end stats will help you at tax time.
Little Snapper - This screen grab application is more than just for grabbing web clips. It organizes your screen grabs into an easy to use portfolio that helps you keep everything straight.
TextExpander - This piece of software is an absolute godsend. If you do any work at all on your computer, you understand what it’s like to constantly type the same bits of text over and over. Not only is it tedious, but it’s also a time-suck. TextExpander saves you from that by providing an easy to use system that helps you setup keyboard based shortcuts for the computer tasks you use the most.

Take the time to try out these useful applications available on the Mac. You won’t believe how useful they happen to be.

You Have to Tend to Your Website…But Not Too Much

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Jonathan

Websites are a lot like gardens. You have to tend to them regularly, and you have to be responsible with what you put into them. If you show them the least bit of negligence, you will see it shrivel up and die…in Google. Also, just like gardens, if you give them too much attention, you will likely drown them. In other words, treat your website with the same care you would any living thing you are responsible for.

Here are some ideas for keeping your website as relevant as possible, without completely overdoing it:

Don’t overdo your backlinking. You don’t want to call too much attention to yourself, and the surest way to do that is to point too many backlinks to your site too soon. The surest way to tank your website in Google’s results are to add several dozen (or more) links in a very short amount of time. They’ll red flag that quickly, and your site will suffer because of it.
Do get your site into local directories. This is especially true for those companies that service local clients (i.e. chimney sweeps, plumbers, contractors, etc.). This is the surest path to legitimacy in Google’s eyes.
Don’t buy backlinks. No matter how unlikely it is to happen, if Google discovers this, they’ll de-index your website. Plus, why buy something that can be gotten for free. There are plenty of free places to put your backlinks.
Do add fresh, relevant content to your website. This is precisely why blogs are so important. They add new content (if you update them) on a regular basis to your website, and give you an opportunity to display your expertise to your potential client base.

Websites are important because that is how people are finding businesses. The yellow pages are a thing of the past that will not be coming back. You don’t need a website that has all the bells and whistles, but you do need one that lets your potential customers learn about you.

SOPA and Getting GoDaddy’d

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Jonathan

GoDaddy, who had professed support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), has seemingly learned a lesson you wouldn’t think they would have to learn – don’t tell the internet masses they can’t affect change. When told about a plan on Reddit, in protest of GoDaddy’s support of SOPA, to coordinate a mass domain exodus from his company, GoDaddy’s CEO was nonplussed. He didn’t see their sales being affected very much. Essentially, he waved red in front of a bull, because they have now been forced to admit they lost a staggering amount of domains due to this campaign.

The heroic (only partial hyperbole here) denizens of Reddit understand the danger of SOPA, and what it will mean to the internet. Under this legislation, for example, banks and credit card companies would be forced to cut off funds to websites accused of intellectual property theft. Note the word accused. No presumption of innocence. No due process. For a much better breakdown and explanation of the larger ramifications of SOPA, see this Google Doc called “SOPA for Dummies.”

Jim Cooper (D-TN), my congressman, told the Nashville Scene “we must stop the damage that online copyright piracy causes our performers and songwriters without undermining the spirit of the Internet and our freedom of speech.” This is all well and good, but his sentiment is undermined by the continuing revolving door between government and lobbyists. Two senior aids for the congressman sponsoring this legislation, Lamar Smith (R-TX), are now going to work for entertainment lobbying firms. Of course, it’s the entertainment industry that has long been a proponent of any law that limits how intellectual property can be used.

Now, Reddit is taking aim at the politicians who are supportive of SOPA. The first one they are going after is Bob Corker (R-TN). In an effort to be non partisan, a Democrat will soon also be in their crosshairs. This shouldn’t be too hard since, tragically, this is the one issue that seems to bring Republicans and Democrats together. So, this coming election season, we’ll see if Bob Corker is the first politician to be “GoDaddy’d.”

Must-Have Tools For Your Website

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Jonathan

If you are a small business owner, you can do 1 of 2 things to enhance your website. Number 1, you can hire an SEO/SEM professional to make on-page SEO improvements to the site. Number 2, you can do something like that yourself. However, you will need to do some things to give yourself a fighting chance. Do yourself a favor, and add these free tools to your repertoire. You can thank me later.

Firefox - There are faster browsers (Chrome) and more elegant ones (Safari), but there are none that have the add-on ecosystem of Firefox. Every optimization tool in the book is available as an add-on to Firefox. It doesn’t have to be your browser of choice for your personal browsing, but it’s a must when scouting out your competition.
SEO Quake - This Firefox add-on gives you the ability you the ability to see where you or your competitors rank in Google, Alexa or a host of other web metrics. However, do yourself a favor. If you are going to use this add-on, use it 1 of 2 ways. Either use it only sparingly, or disable everything but Google PR. Otherwise, you could find yourself unable to search Google for 30 minutes to an hour. They only allow a certain amount of searches of PR via their API.
NoDoFollow - This Firefox add-on gives you the ability to determine whether backlinks from a website are DoFollow or NoFollow. For the uninitiated, it definitely matters. DoFollow means the links allow the googlebot spider to follow the link to the website that is linked. NoFollow, obviously does not allow this.

None of these are guarantees that your site will rank at the top of the Google search results. There are too many variables in play to promise that. However, if you use these tools as they are intended to be use, you will certainly be a step ahead of your competition.

Basic SEO Tips For Your Website

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Jonathan

In today’s business environment, you need a website for a variety of reasons. It doesn’t matter if your website is intended to bring you leads. Legitimate businesses have a web presence. Plus, Google is increasingly focused on local search, so it isn’t a bad idea to stay in Google’s crosshairs. Here are some basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tips for you website. Just remember, any one technique will not work. A diversified SEO approach is much more likely to bring you toward the top of the individual keywords you want to rank for.

Keywords - This is the backbone of internet search. Think about this way: how do you search the web? If you want to find the best plumber in Nashville, TN, you enter “best plumber nashville tn” into your search engine of choice. Thus, if you are a plumber in Nashville, TN, you want to optimize your site for those keywords.
Backlinking - This involves links from other websites to your website. It’s pretty pretty basic, but it is absolutely vital. Whether you are commenting on blogs, forums or Web 2.0 sites, you need to be getting your website’s link onto other websites.
Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are not the end all be all. However, they are still quite important. The best online marketing can come by “word of mouth”, and social networks are some of the best places to do that. Remember, do it smart. No one is interested in looking at content online that comes across as “spammy.”
Content, Content, Content - Nothing is better than good content. Your pages, your blog posts and any other content should be of high quality. Use this good rule of thumb: would you direct your family toward it for information?

If you use a measured and well balanced approach to your website’s SEO, you are much more likely to achieve your online marketing goals.

Broadband Must Expand

Posted on November 29, 2009 by Jonathan

I just spent my Thanksgiving holiday in Gatlinburg, TN. The “resort” where we stayed did not have internet in each room. Internet was only available in the activities room. This is simply not acceptable.

This illustrates why the U.S. is lagging so far behind the rest of the world in broadband penetration. The technology is there. We simply need to put our resources behind it. Whether it is work or leisure, the internet is important in our lives.

I’ve complained to this “resort” for the past 5 years. Not only must they expand their broadband offerings, but our country must also.

I’m Now Using Google Voice

Posted on November 7, 2009 by Jonathan

Like many of Google’s beta products, Google Voice is currently invitation only. This past week, I received my invitation to join the many who are now using and enjoying Google Voice.

GV has many great features, but my favorite happens to be the ability to filter my calls. After I give out my GV number, I can route those calls to my home and/or mobile numbers. I can also place my number on “do not disturb”, and all calls go to voicemail. You are even able to set your account to only be available during specific times during the day. If you’re afraid you’ll forget to check your GV voicemail, you can set your account to email you anytime you get a message.

It’s the total control over who can call me and when that I like most about Google Voice. If you’re interested, request an invite from Google.

How To Make Your Home Entertainment Better

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Jonathan

On Tuesday, I gave a presentation to my BNI chapter on using the web and internet technology to enhance your home entertainment setup. My presentation centered on the ability to stream contentfrom the internet (Netflix was my specific example) to your television. This used to be only for those who were tech savvy.

That is not the case anymore. Here are some ways to enjoy online content from the comfort of your couch:

Netflix has enabled numerous devices (Xbox 360, Blu-ray players, tv sets, etc.) to connect to their online streaming service. For instance, I caught up on episodes of The Office, and I didn’t have to rent them from a video store. I simply watched them streaming on my Xbox 360.

Apple TV is Apple’s set top device that enables you to play any of your iTunes content on your TV. This is quite useful since many of us purchase both music and video from iTunes.

YouTube has made deals with many hardware makers to embed access to its service in their products in much the same way as Netflix.

If you own a flat screen tv and a laptop, you likely already have the ability to do this without any additional hardware. Most flat screen tv’s have a VGA input, and most laptops have a VGA output. Simply connect the two, and turn the tv into a large computer monitor perfect for watching online content.

We’re no longer tied to what the cable and satellite providers give us. We have choices, and that is never a bad thing.

A Useful Tool

Posted on October 21, 2009 by Jonathan

I ran across an ad for this tool in an issue of Macworld. It’s a USB 2.0 universal adapter from a company called Newer Technology.

The beauty of this little tool is its ability to connect 3.5″ or 2.5″ IDE or SATA drive to your USB 2.0 port. This enables me to connect a client’s hard drive in order to rescue their data. Essentially, even if you spilled water on a laptop, the hard drive might be saved.

A drive I’m working on now has stopped mounting in Windows. In fact, it asks the user if they want to format the drive, thus erasing all data. Using the adapter, I’ve been able to connect the drive to my Mac, and rescue much of its data.

Check out this very handy tool. I know it has already helped me.

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