Additional Notes

Editor's comments delimited by < >

Zentech is approaching its 10th anniversary.

The audio of a Nigerian-like scam was played, see the links above:

Barbara called to thank Paul for solving the problem with the Celtic Festival web site.
The solution involved the HTML directive Pragma: no-cache which makes ones web browser use the actual web page, not the version in the cache, every time that website is accessed. This is desirable when the web page changes often and insures the viewer is looking at the latest version. The PRAGMA is not recommended for static pages as it slows the display of the page (it's not coming from the cache).

Coryon Redd is introduced. He'll be talking about internet marketing.
<Coryon's business is Batteries For Less>

The US does not have Labor Day on May 1 like the rest of the world.

Coryon talked about getting traffic to your site thru pay-per-click advertising.
<2 ad services were talked about Adword & Adsense>

Adword:
Use it if you're a business that wants to get traffic based on keywords related to what you do (as a marketer).
You can use Yahoo, Google or MSN. But Google, with Adword, is the most popular.
You first create an account at Google and then bid on keywords.
"Do not bid or put anything out there on the content network"; put it in the search network only. The 'content' is not the words people enter into a search engine but what's on a web page or in a Gmail email (Google Gmail searches inside your email). If you're in the content network, you may get traffic that just 'stumbles' upon words you used in your web page and that may be a less focused target than someone who gets to your site due to your more carefully selected keywords that they entered into a search engine.

Coryon explained organic searches as those that resulted from keywords you, the advertiser, did NOT pay for. These are the Google search results that are displayed below the sponsored links. <Supposedly he mention this concept on a previous show>

Keep an eye on the ROI (return on investment). Don't spend more on your ads than the money you make on the results.
It's easy to set up a Google Adwords account with a minimum deposit. Then you start bidding on the keywords.
You can exclude certain keywords like the word "cheap" if you sell only high end products.
Do some research before you spend money for something like Adsense.

Adsense:
With Adsense you syndicate Google's content and get money using your web page. You give Google your web page address and some info about it. You can then carry ads for other related sites on your web page.
You make a small commission of a few cents when someone clicks on those ads.
You need significant amount of traffic to your site to make much money using Adsense.

Social sites are not especially good for the advertising already mentioned. But there is another realm called social media marketing involving Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, blogs (Blogspot.com) and forums. As an advertiser, you have a lot of control over which sites show your ads.

Paul mentioned the Small Business Administration, which offers assistance.
They gave him some of the top reasons businesses fail. One reason is inability to adapt to change. What people buy & how they find out what to buy keeps changing.

Google Analytics helps you find out how your web pages are doing and where are you losing the viewer.
The service is free and you don't have to use Adwords to benefit.
<previous shows on internet marketing:
8-11-8
11-3-8
5-4-9>

Bettsie called to ask if you have control over how your Adwords account gets charged.
– Coryon says yes, you can set a limit at which Adwords turns off.
– He says keep an eye on what keywords attract customers vs. those that get customers to buy.

Win7 is mentioned as being better than Vista, the previous, panned operation system.
Coryon says if you buy a computer with Vista at this time, you'll get a free upgrade to Win7.
Snow Leopard has been released for the Mac.

Elmer Elevator (aka Bruce Stone) called to say if you have XP, why change.
Coryon says Dell now only sells computers with Vista. He also says that major software packages are dropping support for XP. Paul says that the tools Microsoft provides developers to create their programs are what limit the XP support. The software company may have less control over this than you think.

The disclaimer: views & opinions are those of the show's hosts only.

Paul mentions a couple of ways you can still install XP.
– Install a copy whose key has already been used. When XP checks in with Microsoft it will complain but you can, at that point, pay for a new license.
– Go to Overstock.com and search for Optiplex. You can get a refurbished 2.5GHz machine with 1yr warranty and with XP for $159.
– The caller says there are refurb units with XP for less than $100 at computer-show.com.

Dave called to say he's thinking of getting a 13" Powerbook Pro and wants to be able to run Win7.
– Paul thinks it likely will be able to do it.
– But he asks why do you want to run Windows? Some people only need to run specific applications like Internet Explorer. In that case you can use Crossover from codeweavers.com. Then you don't have to buy the windows operating system and you'll save money — Crossover is only about $49.
<see show notes for more info about running Windows on a Mac:
7-27-9
8-10-9>
– If you're doing training, as the caller does, that involves different applications of ActiveX and not just going to a few predictable sites, then Crossover may not be suitable. The full Windows OS should work better.
– There is also an ActiveX addon for FireFox . <I think this is the right one>

The same caller said some versions of Win7 will have a way of running XP for those applications that need it. Paul thinks it's just an emulation but will reserve his opinion until he has a chance to have a closer look at Win7.

Paul says that either MacBook or MacBook Pro does not have Firewire. It's useful when you've used up your USB ports. And you can string many devices on one Firewire port.

Coryon says that OpenOffice is available for the Mac and he uses it. And he thinks there is an upgrade package that gives you Snow Leopard and has iWork for about $100. Paul says Snow Leopard only works with Intel Macs.

Coryon will be holding classes about internet marketing.
 A beginner's class is Thur Sep 17 6-8:30pm at Nevada County One Stop.
The intermediate class is about link building, pay-per-click advertising and social media marketing. It's on Thu Sep 24 6-8:30pm
For more info go to sedcorp.biz.
530-823-4703
Coryon has a column in the Union every other Monday. When you get there, search for "coryon" to find the articles.
You can contact Coryon at:
coryon@gmail.com

At the business listing of Google Maps you can provide your business info so you can be found thru the mapping service as well.