Picture with Gene Simmons

March 18th, 2009

Matthew

genetandi

This is my son Tanner and I with Gene Simmons. Taken today at wilson creek winery.

Recession

March 10th, 2009

Matthew

We’re in a recession – so this is the ideal time to improve, maybe even expand, your website. Wait a minute: conventional wisdom advises that businesses need to knuckle down during times like this, be especially cautious. Don’t spend money, ride it out, etc. But who says anything about being conventional right now – especially when it comes to your web presence?

Recessions can present perfect opportunities for starting a new business. Just look at Whole Foods, Costco, Intuit, Applebee’s and Supercuts (all launched during recessions) as well as 16 of 30 companies that make up the Dow Industrial average (McDonald’s, General Electric, Disney) and other household names today. It’s all a matter of opportunity costs – which are less when credit is tighter and consumer confidence is low. There are other forces at work, too, during bad times: competitors may be weaker, reorganizing or closing up shop; buyers may be looking for less expensive alternatives; and customer loyalties often loosen, meaning they’re more willing to look elsewhere for a better deal. That also means big opportunity.

So if many entrepreneurs consider this period as prime time for a startup, the same thinking holds true for improving your online presence as well. Here’s why: ad rates are softening and if your product or service is truly unique, then launching during a downturn – especially if it involves innovative new solutions – could likely net new customers. All this is simply a preamble to the following 7 tips for positioning – or re-positioning – your site for success:

Take full advantage of SEO: Submit your sitemap to Google™, Yahoo!® and other search engines.

Add title tags and meta tags to your pages. Think about your keywords and how people find you.

Refresh your site content: Update, edit and fine-tune your text and images; add video and audio if possible; revamp your ecommerce strategy, maybe even your shopping cart.

Find more customers: Again, look to improve your SEO – and move beyond advertising banners and PPC to affiliate marketing programs, ad networks (remember prices are dropping), and focus on relationships and link building with partners.

Streamline your online look-and-feel: Rethink the appearance and functionality of your website.

Optimize your pages. Incorporate some of the many new open source tools to make it easier for your customers to interact with you – and find what they’re looking for, like a site search engine or user sitemap.

Consider a content management system (CMS): Not only are there a lot of free and inexpensive options available to you, in the long run you’ll save time and money on web maintenance and routine updates.

Start a blog: There’s never been a better time to add your own, unique voice to the blogosphere. Demonstrate your expertise as a knowledge leader in your field. Drive more traffic. And generate more business/professional opportunities through Facebook, Twitter and other social networking channels.

What is website propagation

February 26th, 2009

Matthew

You’ve registered your domain name, and paid for hosting with a hosting provider, and uploaded your website to the web server. If this is all done, why can’t you see the results of your hard work right away? What is this DNS propagation people keep telling you about?

In order to understand DNS propagation, you must first understand a little about how DNS works. When you set up your website with your hosting provider, they create a Master DNS record in their Domain Name Servers. Your domain registrar (the company you paid for the honor of owning your domain name) points to your web host’s DNS server as being the master authority of your domain.

When any outside source wants to know how to find your website, they first go to the registration database to find out who the DNS authority is for your website. Then they visit your hosting provider’s DNS servers to find out what the IP Address is for your domain name, and from there your audience can now view your website.

The problem with this whole scheme is that in order to speed up the rate at which their customers can view the internet, each Internet Server Provider caches their DNS records. This means that they make their own copy of the master records, and read from them locally instead of looking them up on the Internet each time someone wants view a website. This actually speeds up web surfing quite a bit, by (1) speeding up the return time it takes for a web browser to request a domain lookup and get an answer, and (2) actually reducing the amount of traffic on the web therefore giving it the ability to work faster.

The downside to this caching scenario and what makes it take so long for your website to be visible to everyone, is that each company or ISP that caches DNS records only updates them every few days. This is not any kind of standard, and they can set this time anywhere from a few hours to several days. The slow updating of the servers cache is called propagation, since your websites DNS information is now being propagated across all DNS servers on the web. When this is finally complete, everyone can now visit your new website. Being that the cache time is different for all servers, as mentioned above, it can take anywhere from 36 to 72 hours for DNS changes to be totally in effect.

New Office

February 3rd, 2009

Matthew

We are moving our office. We have been at the same location for two years now and our lease is up. The landlord wanted us to sign another two year lease and we feel that just is not a good idea. So we are looking for a new office space. We have a few good options. We will keep you posted.

Google Earth 5.0

February 3rd, 2009

Matthew

Google Inc. GOOG today announced the launch of ocean in Google Earth, a new feature that enables users of Google Earth to dive beneath the water surface, explore 3D underwater terrain and browse ocean-related content contributed by leaders in ocean science and advocacy. The new version of Google Earth also introduces Historical Imagery, a feature that enables users to virtually travel back in time through archival satellite and aerial imagery, Touring, which makes it simple to create a narrated tour in Google Earth and share it with the world and Google Mars 3D, which features hi-res imagery and terrain of the red planet.

“With this latest version of Google Earth you can not only zoom into whatever part of our planet’s surface you wish to examine in closer detail, you can now dive into the world’s oceans that cover almost three-quarters of the planet and discover new wonders that had not been accessible in previous versions of this magical experience,” said The Honorable Al Gore at this morning’s launch event in San Francisco. “Moreover, with the new historical imagery feature, you can look back in time and see for yourself the unprecedented pace of change taking place on the Earth — largely because of human influences. For example, you can watch the melting of the largest glacier in Glacier National Park—the Grinnell Glacier—image by image, for the last decade.”

“In discussions about climate change, the world’s oceans are often overlooked despite being an integral part of the issue,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. About one-third of the carbon dioxide that we emit into the atmosphere ends up in the oceans. Furthermore, biodiversity loss in our oceans in the next 20-30 years will be roughly equivalent to losing an entire Amazon rainforest, but this goes unnoticed because we can’t see it. This is why today’s launch of Google Earth 5.0 is so important - it gives us an opportunity to change everyone’s perspective.”

Ocean in Google Earth combines sea floor terrain and expert content to provide users with an opportunity to explore some of the most difficult-to-reach parts of the world. Virtual travelers to Hawaii, for example, can examine underwater volcanoes, see videos about the exotic marine life of the region, read about nearby shipwrecks and contribute photos and videos of favorite surf spots.

The ocean feature is on by default in the newest version of Google Earth. As users zoom in on the ocean they will see a dynamic water surface, and once they dive beneath the surface they can navigate 3D sea floor terrain. The feature includes 20 content layers, containing information contributed by the world’s leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers.

“What this project helped me begin to understand,” said John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Maps, “is the role the ocean plays in global climate change and the impact that humans are having on the oceans and the creatures that live in it. It was a serious omission on our part not to include a better treatment of the oceans when we launched Google Earth, and I’m very happy that we’ve been able to address that. We now have a good substrate for publishing and exploring data about the ‘other’ two-thirds of the planet.”

The new feature was developed in close collaboration with oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle and an advisory council of leading ocean advocates and scientists.

“I cannot imagine a more effective way to inspire awareness and caring for the blue heart of the planet than the new ocean in Google Earth, ” said Sylvia Earle. “For the first time, everyone from curious kids to serious researchers can see the world, the whole world, with new eyes. In a stroke, Google Earth brings life and character to the blue part of the planet, and makes obvious the many ways land, water, atmosphere and living systems connect. Many ‘aha!’ moments are sure to come as people discover new patterns, new correlations, and countless personal discoveries while vicariously diving into the waters of the world.”

The announcement was made this morning at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, one of the nation’s leading institutions for scientific education and research. Following the announcement, local fourth graders participated in an interactive lesson on marine ecosystems, designed specifically by Academy educators to use the new ocean feature. “Information technology is key to the work that Academy scientists and educators do, and Google Earth is a leading example of such technology,” said Dr. Greg Farrington, Executive Director of the Academy. “Ocean in Google Earth opens up a new world of opportunities to explore and educate the public about the least understood parts of our planet.”

Also launched today:

Historical imagery: In previous versions of Google Earth, users could only view only one set of imagery for a given location. Now users can activate a time slider to see both newer and older satellite imagery from around the globe, enabling them to observe a single location’s development over time.

Touring is a simple new way for users to create narrated tours of imagery and content in Google Earth. By simply pressing the “record” button, users can fly from place to place, zoom in or out and click on content balloons, providing voiceover narration along the way. Whether creating a tour of one’s family home or an in-depth study of environmental change, the tours are easy to create and even easier to share.

Google Mars 3D is the latest stop on Google’s virtual tour of the galaxy. Users can travel to Mars with the click of a button and see high resolution imagery and 3D terrain. They can fly to the top of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in our solar system, read geo-located excerpts about different locations on the planet from A Traveler’s Guide to Mars, observe where various Mars Rovers and Landers have touched down and much more.

GPS Tracking - Previously only available in the Plus and Pro versions of Google Earth, now all users can upload tracks from GPS devices (including many Garmin, Magellan, and NMEA-compatible devices) to Google Earth, making it easy to visualize and record running, hiking and biking routes.

Google Earth 5.0 is now available in 41 languages (previously 26): English (US), English (GB), French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Dutch, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Thai, Arabic, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Indonesian, Czech, Greek, Norwegian, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Filipino, Slovenian, Serbian, Catalan, Latvian, Ukrainian, and Hindi.

Product descriptions, visuals and more can be found at http://sites.pressatgoogle.com/ocean

Broadcast quality b-roll is available at www.thenewsmarket.com/google.

About Google Earth

Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google’s search service to make the world’s geographic information easily accessible and useful. There have been over 500 million unique downloads of Google Earth since the product’s launch in June, 2005. Google Earth can be downloaded for free at http://earth.google.com/.

The Best Marketing Ideas for 2009

January 23rd, 2009

Matthew

1. Local Search.  Newspaper readership, Yellow Pages use, and TV audiences continue to shrink, making local consumers, hard to reach. The good news is that more and more consumers are going online and using local search to find everything from attorneys to plumbers to child care. For you, local search can be far less expensive than traditional marketing. It also can deliver a much better “cost of acquisition.” Since local search zeroes in on your own highly targeted audience, you’ll get leads that are more relevant and it will take less time and money to convert those leads into customers.

2. Online Video. . Studies show that video can boost click-throughs 50%. It also boosts your search engine visibility. That’s why smart marketers are starting to use video in eMail, eNewsletters, microsites, press releases, and in advertising and awareness campaigns on sites like YouTube and Facebook. During 2009, experiment with using video! Some ideas: product demos, testimonials, introduction to your website, special report, a status report (e.g., progress on a project or how you’re renovating your offices), etc.

3. eCommerce. Online sales continue to grow. More and more customers are staying in the comfort of their own home and saving the gas to make purchases. If you do not sell online. You really should.

Holiday Online Sales Were Up

January 7th, 2009

Matthew

Although the growth is small. It is growth.

Jimmy Kimmel Live

December 16th, 2008

Matthew

Yesterday was a strange and exciting day.  I went to the taping of the Jimmy Kimmel show because the cure was playing on the show and were scheduled to also play a free concert. Thanks to my new bff Cliff. I got tickets to both the show and the green room.  Robert Smith was not having a good day so I did not bug him as much as I have in the past.  In fact I only took four pictures of them. Two of them while they were playing. Below are pictures of the taping of both jimmy kimmel and the cure live.

Taping of Jimmy Kimmel

Taping of Jimmy Kimmel

THe Cure live on Jimmy Kimmel

THe Cure live on Jimmy Kimmel

We Fly

December 12th, 2008

Matthew

Yesterday marked a great milestone for us. We can now fly to meetings, lunches, etc.  Here is a picture we took flying over Temecula going toward pechanga.

Back From Hawaii

December 2nd, 2008

Matthew

I just got back from vacation and I wanted to share a few pictures with you. This time around was about celebrities, the yard house happy hour, and snorkelling.  We came across another filming location of Lost at the tropical farms macadamia nut farm. This is their submarine at the ponds dock.

We happened to run into John Locke ( Terry O’Quinn )at Teds Bakery near sunset beach. He was getting coffee and was on a morning walk. He is a very nice guy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also drove by Dog the Bounty Hunters Office as they were filming. I decided to wait an hour to get a family picture with Dog and his sweet mullet for our Christmas Card but he was too cool for us. The entire cast of their show seemed liked they were to be busy for us little people. I was disappointed but maybe next year. I did take a picture of Tanner ( my oldest ) in front of their office.

The other famous sighting was Wally Amos ( famous amos ) he was having a meeting outside of a coffee house in Waikiki. I did not take a picture because my wife said I was the biggest nerd alive because I wanted a picture with the “cookie guy”. So I had to prove to her that I was not that nerdy.

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