Why Your Website Needs to Be Social Media Friendly

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Mitch

Facebook Like ButtonFacebook just introduced a new set of social plug-ins designed to increase the integration of your website with Facebook users and their friends. Is this a good thing? Some may argue that Facebook is getting a little too powerful and throwing their weight around a bit much by asking site owners to add FB connectivity to their websites, even if it is a little “Like” button. I can see the point in this, why would anyone want to add someone else’s branding to their site? The answer? Only if you have much to gain by doing so. And in this case you do.

Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Social Media | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

My Favorite Video Converter

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Mitch

Picture of the band Balligomingo in MPEG Streamclip's ViewerOne of the most valuable tools in my web/video arsenal is a little open source application called MPEG Streamclip by Squared 5 software. I’ve found it to be extremely useful in my day-to-day needs. It’s lightweight and really fast. The Presets feature make setting it up for a project a snap. I use the Mac version, but it does come in a Windows flavor too. With the right plug-ins, it’ll read just about any file. Then it’s a quick job to output to many others, including my current standard for web video (H.264 Mp4). MPEG Streamclip does not output to Windows Media Video (that I know of) at this time. Add that and it would be the total package.

Continue reading →

Posted in Tools | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Types of Content Management Systems

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Mitch

In my last post, I discussed whether a Content Management System was right for you. This time we’re going to go over a few different types of systems. There are many on the market, ranging from enterprise level systems costing tens of thousands of dollars to open source systems with no purchase cost at all. With each increase in cost, whether its software or implementation, there is an associate cost in ongoing maintenance and time involved in learning the system. For this article I’m going to stick to three of the most common open source solutions, plus one commercial product that is not quite a full fledged CMS, but can fit the bill in many situations.

Continue reading →

Posted in Content | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Is a Content Management System Right For You?

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Mitch

FlySpec Web Page EditorContent Management Systems (CMS) are becoming an increasingly popular foundation for modern websites. In its basic form, a CMS simply allows you, the non-techy website manager, to add and change the content on your website yourself. This eliminates the need to pay for and wait for your skilled web person to make routine changes.

Being the aforementioned skilled web person myself, you may be thinking that I might tend to discourage the use of a CMS with my clients. Wouldn’t I want to do the work? That is far from the case. A client that chooses to use a CMS will have a more active and successful website than one who relies on me to make the simple changes, mainly because there are no worries about how much it will cost or how long it will take to get done. They have full control to do as much as they want whenever they want to.

Continue reading →

Posted in Content | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Domain Name – The Crucial Entry Point to Your On-Line Business

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Mitch

This post is the result of a recent encounter with an area business. The company has a number of existing websites, each with it’s own domain name. Long story short, these names and the associated websites were set up by a former employee. When this person left the company, the access information for the domain and web hosting accounts went too. Trying to get that access back has proven to be a challenge.

Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What is Technicalities?

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Mitch

I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting a blog for a while now. Until today I just haven’t made the time to do it. I run across all kinds of things in my day that would make good subject material, and my list has been growing more and more as the days pass.

Most geeky types such as myself choose to blog techy how-tos and reviews meant for colleagues, but I’ve decided that in my blog I will merge my geekyness with my business experience and write for my clients, prospective clients and business people in general. These articles will be designed to educate, clear up misconceptions and help you understand the increasingly technical world we work in every day. They will attempt to make you smarter about the digital world and hopefully allow you to make better decisions for your business.

One of the things I love most about what I do is helping people learn and become more successful. Therefor, please feel free to comment on my posts or contact me directly with any questions.

Technicalities, it’s what I do.

Posted in General, This Blog | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment