Websites can be one of the greatest tools for a business online. But, if you go down a path that is not a good match for your goals and budget, it can be an expensive and time-consuming headache. Purchasing a website design service can be tricky, simply because sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know and that can make it harder to ask the right questions. To help you out and get you oriented, we have written this awesome article about what you need to know before choosing a website design company.
1. Is the website design company established and experienced?
It’s important to find a website design company that has experience. You can measure this in years running their business, number of clients served and also through the quality of their web design portfolio.
Years in business indicates that the web design company is stable, is successful in running a business, and that they will be able to competently work with your business for long term results as they have done for their own. The number of clients served indicates that the company should be very familiar with the full spectrum of website projects and business verticals and won’t take on a project that they don’t have the experience in completing. It also indicates that they have had the opportunity to iron out their work processes and are familiar with, and are able to execute, deadlines and timeframes.
Three questions to ask are:
- How long has the company been designing and developing websites?
- How many clients do they have?
- How many employees do they have?
In order to try and save a tiny bit of money there is often a temptation to get your website designed and developed by a new company, a freelancer or a friend of a friends nephew that’s just graduated from college. Often freelancers and small-time developers just don’t have the experience they thought they did and what seemed like a money-saver can become an expensive repair job as you will more often than not need to start from scratch again. We have heard these unfortunate tales time and time again and we have found that going with inexperienced or cheaper companies and freelancers is often a short-term approach for ultimately what is a long-term project. Realistically, a website is an ongoing project and it is important to partner with an experienced and established company that will be there for the long haul, that has the experience to offer you ongoing support and advise and that is focused on creating a quality product for you.
2. What should I expect to pay?
A question we often hear is – “how much should I really pay for a website?”
Website prices can range a lot. You can get a website designed for as little as almost nothing and just pay for hosting, or the price can go all the way through to $35,000 and beyond. One of the interesting things about the web design industry is that you can get quoted a considerably different amount for the same job depending on the company that is quoting you.
As is the case when looking to purchase anything, there is a temptation to go with the cheapest option. You can buy website design services from between $300-$1100, however it is important that you understand what you are purchasing as these cheaper services always have limitations. Another important thing to consider with these cheaper products is that they are often out-of-the-box solutions and you won’t get the consultation and customization that can be critical so that the website is best serving your business interests. These cheap options can still work for some people, but not for all.
To a large degree the saying “you get what you pay for” holds true in the web design industry. However, there is a point where the price just keeps going up and the quality of the work or expertise doesn’t justify the cost.
Obviously price is dependent on the specific functionality that you require, but if you have a budget of between $3000 – $10,000, and if you follow the points in this article when selecting a web design company for you, you should be able to get a professionally designed and developed website for your business or project.
The best way to look a website is as an investment in your business. In retrospect, many web designers feel the same as they are investing their time into creating, managing and finishing a project they would like to see be a success. If you are prepared to pay a little extra, do a little research and choose the right design company, your website can be an asset and money making tool for years to come.
3. Do you have access to update the website content yourself?
Business doesn’t wait. So ask and make sure you will have access to update and edit the content of your website 24/7 on the fly or on your own time. This is most commonly achieved by web-based software called a content management system or CMS. Regardless of whether you intend to edit and upload the content of your website yourself or hire someone internally to do it for you, it’s important that your website is built on a content management system so it’s easy to make changes.
A CMS is considered as best business practice in website development for businesses small and large and has become fairly common these days. It is important to consider as if your website isn’t on a CMS, it can create a lot of expense later on when you’re wanting to change or add content. You also want to make sure that the CMS is an industry standard platform, that it’s easy to use, and that good training and support materials are available to you. WordPress and Joomla are both great examples of CMS platforms that meet these expectations.
4. Will you get support when you need it?
Does the web design company you’re purchasing the website from offer on-going support? If they don’t, this is a huge red flag. When you purchase a website, it is very important that you choose a web design company that offers reliable, generous and cost effective support on an ongoing basis. This is incredibly important as a website has a lot of different functions and aspects to it, and it helps to have professional assistance available when you need it.
Things you might need help with:
- Your emails
- Your domain name
- Your hosting
- How to use the CMS of your website
- eCommerce setup and maintenance
- Other general technical issues
Without quality support, you can find yourself in a predicament where you need to then find a different web developer to fix the problem that you have encountered. This can lead to an extraordinary amount of frustration, wasted time and additional expense on your part.
A story we hear often and our clients have experienced repeatedly is with freelance developers or small web design companies who start working on a project and are fantastic in the beginning, but within 6 to 12 months their enthusiasm and commitment wanes. Often they’ve started a steady job or taken on new projects and then old projects are not as fun to work on, or they don’t have time to work on them anymore. So make sure that the support is in place with a company that has support as a part of their business practice.
5. Keep all of your services in one place
It’s very helpful to be able to simply have one company handle everything that relates to your website and online presence. This is doubly helpful to the web development firm doing the work when troubleshooting any issues. Secondary services are anything that will support your business and your online presence. That could be graphic design services, copywriting, domain names, hosting, support, and, most importantly, online marketing and social media. You want to know that the web company you’re dealing with can offer a full range of services that relate to your website and that they have good, solid marketing skills.
Your website is an investment into the future of your business and it’s going to have a life-cycle of it’s own alongside your business. A website is a long-term project for you and as you develop your business. You will want to make the most out of your online presence using different services to promote your business, as you grow professionally.
6. Are there any additional or hidden charges
When you are purchasing a website and receiving quotes, in addition to getting a fixed project price, it’s important to be aware of any limitations, ongoing charges and costs that may be related to the website.
For Example: web hosting and support fees. It’s very common to pay for hosting on a recurring basis. But, you will also want to know about additional web development costs or future design costs. It’s good to know how much the ballpark design studio rates are per hour to cover your needs. And it’s also important to establish the project scope and prices straight up.
Sometimes without proper management, a design company can allow a project to go out of scope and budget or get delayed due to unexpected challenges. Suddenly you’re in a situation where you’ve invested money in to the project and now it’s more expensive than what was originally quoted. This can also happen because you have decided mid-way that you want more functionality too, but that’s something you should discuss with the design team first as additional charges would likely be expected in that case.
Another thing to consider are the particular limitations of the overall service, for example, limited hosting storage or design revisions. If the company is placing limits on these you can guess there’s a chance that you will be charged extra or experience some technical issues if you exceed these limits.
7. See samples of the work performed in the past
It is important to review and ask for samples of the work and craftsmanship that the web design company has produced in the past. This will give you a good reference point as to what they can provide for you. It’s important in these cases to not only look at the quality of the design, but also the functionality of the websites. Any good web design company should be able to show you a large amount of work that they have done. This will be a very good indication of the service and quality that you’ll receive from their company and it’s a great place to start in terms of evaluating the company.
Along with this, it is also good to review any testimonials or case studies that the company may have from their clients. It is good peace of mind to know that their clients are actually happy with the service that they’ve provided.
8. Keep it American
It’s always great to support and buy American goods and services, however in the web design industry there are a couple of other things to consider above and beyond simply supporting American businesses.
Within the web design industry there is a temptation to outsource development and support to overseas countries to save money, however this is often at the expense of the customer’s experience as there will be time delays and communication issues. And most importantly they just won’t understand you as an American small business.
Having American support and service means that the company you are dealing with will understand you as another American business and should be working in the same business hours as you are. Any problems are more likely to be resolved quickly and easily.
In addition to this, your website will load faster if it is on a server in the United States. Often times, even United States web design businesses use overseas servers which means that your web page needs to travel further when loading which can create a time lag. And out of sheer lack of knowing how to host a website, a web design company may just have bought in to a brand that they feel is a good choice. Feelings and business don’t mix — knowledge of how a business actually functions down to the core is a primary reason a business is successful. This is no different with hosting a website.
9. Are you working with the developer directly or is the company merely providing a turn-key website design service?
Maybe it’s due to the fact that technology is so readily available in this day and age and crafty businesspeople think they can get away with it, or maybe it’s the fact that some companies believe that they can truly be everything to everyone. In any case, there are companies that are out there masquerading as website design companies that don’t even actually do a single line of programming or actual design in-house at all. They outsource. As a matter of fact, they’re merely self-glorified order-takers with catchy buzzwords trying to make a quick dollar. Companies that are primarily print media are notorious for doing this since everyone believes that since they can put out a big production newspaper that they also can put out a big production website. You might as well find a way to set your money on fire, and be prepared to set a lot of it on fire, when dealing with one of these types of false-front companies. And there’s a good chance that the high price tag may just be a high price tag so that the real web design company or the person they’re outsourcing to in another country actually doing the work is paid a reasonable amount for their secrecy and the company selling the work makes an insane margin for generating a sale.
While that may sound fine to some people on paper, in reality what actually happens is your site will need to be updated and will end up breaking at some point due to a change in technology, an update to a CMS (which is notorious with both WordPress and Joomla) or you decide you want additional services and begin tinkering with the settings yourself and get lost. When that happens and you need help from who you bought your services from, you’re going to be at the mercy of whoever they contracted to do the job to still be around as the company who offered the service isn’t going to be able to service the request themselves. Hope, in this case, doesn’t float and you’ll just end up drowning in debt, wasting your time time and losing productivity and sales.
Getting around this is simple: Ask to speak to a developer and throw some technical questions at them. See how they respond. If you can’t do that, or they do speak to you and you feel like they’re just telling you what you want to hear just to take your money when you’re ready and willing to spend thousands of dollars, take your money elsewhere very quickly. Chances are you weren’t speaking to a real web developer. It should be absolutely no problem for you to take 5 minutes of a developer’s time from any size web design company to see if they can understand your needs and verbally conceptualize what it is that you need in technical terms. It’s what a website design company does by nature, so speak to the creators of your new site before you spend any money. They don’t have to be personable people (and often times they’re not), just knowledgable.
10. Is the web design company providing a mobile responsive website design?
This is critical in this day and age. Not only does having a mobile-friendly website affect your ranking positively with Google, but more than half of the people shopping for services or doing research are doing so from their smartphone or tablet. No one wants to pinch and zoom on a website to read or fill in information on a form.
Typically, a mobile responsive website should be included in the cost of having a website created, especially when having a website created on a CMS such as WordPress or Joomla as a mobile website is native to the most recent versions of both of these platforms.
At TurkReno Incorporated in Mobile, Alabama, we’re passionate about website design. We’d love to speak to you about your next project. We’ve got several ways to get in touch: fill out our free online estimate form, call us at (251) 279-0278, or visit our contact page and send us a message. We look forward to helping you with your next website design project.
Everything you need to know about SEO and Web DesignSeptember 4, 2017 - 9:13 pm
Hiring the Right SEO CompanyMay 4, 2017 - 9:46 am
Ten things to know when choosing a web design company
Business Plan, Clients, Design Concepts, Technology, Web Hosting, Website DesignWebsites can be one of the greatest tools for a business online. But, if you go down a path that is not a good match for your goals and budget, it can be an expensive and time-consuming headache. Purchasing a website design service can be tricky, simply because sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know and that can make it harder to ask the right questions. To help you out and get you oriented, we have written this awesome article about what you need to know before choosing a website design company.
1. Is the website design company established and experienced?
It’s important to find a website design company that has experience. You can measure this in years running their business, number of clients served and also through the quality of their web design portfolio.
Years in business indicates that the web design company is stable, is successful in running a business, and that they will be able to competently work with your business for long term results as they have done for their own. The number of clients served indicates that the company should be very familiar with the full spectrum of website projects and business verticals and won’t take on a project that they don’t have the experience in completing. It also indicates that they have had the opportunity to iron out their work processes and are familiar with, and are able to execute, deadlines and timeframes.
Three questions to ask are:
In order to try and save a tiny bit of money there is often a temptation to get your website designed and developed by a new company, a freelancer or a friend of a friends nephew that’s just graduated from college. Often freelancers and small-time developers just don’t have the experience they thought they did and what seemed like a money-saver can become an expensive repair job as you will more often than not need to start from scratch again. We have heard these unfortunate tales time and time again and we have found that going with inexperienced or cheaper companies and freelancers is often a short-term approach for ultimately what is a long-term project. Realistically, a website is an ongoing project and it is important to partner with an experienced and established company that will be there for the long haul, that has the experience to offer you ongoing support and advise and that is focused on creating a quality product for you.
2. What should I expect to pay?
A question we often hear is – “how much should I really pay for a website?”
Website prices can range a lot. You can get a website designed for as little as almost nothing and just pay for hosting, or the price can go all the way through to $35,000 and beyond. One of the interesting things about the web design industry is that you can get quoted a considerably different amount for the same job depending on the company that is quoting you.
As is the case when looking to purchase anything, there is a temptation to go with the cheapest option. You can buy website design services from between $300-$1100, however it is important that you understand what you are purchasing as these cheaper services always have limitations. Another important thing to consider with these cheaper products is that they are often out-of-the-box solutions and you won’t get the consultation and customization that can be critical so that the website is best serving your business interests. These cheap options can still work for some people, but not for all.
To a large degree the saying “you get what you pay for” holds true in the web design industry. However, there is a point where the price just keeps going up and the quality of the work or expertise doesn’t justify the cost.
Obviously price is dependent on the specific functionality that you require, but if you have a budget of between $3000 – $10,000, and if you follow the points in this article when selecting a web design company for you, you should be able to get a professionally designed and developed website for your business or project.
The best way to look a website is as an investment in your business. In retrospect, many web designers feel the same as they are investing their time into creating, managing and finishing a project they would like to see be a success. If you are prepared to pay a little extra, do a little research and choose the right design company, your website can be an asset and money making tool for years to come.
3. Do you have access to update the website content yourself?
Business doesn’t wait. So ask and make sure you will have access to update and edit the content of your website 24/7 on the fly or on your own time. This is most commonly achieved by web-based software called a content management system or CMS. Regardless of whether you intend to edit and upload the content of your website yourself or hire someone internally to do it for you, it’s important that your website is built on a content management system so it’s easy to make changes.
A CMS is considered as best business practice in website development for businesses small and large and has become fairly common these days. It is important to consider as if your website isn’t on a CMS, it can create a lot of expense later on when you’re wanting to change or add content. You also want to make sure that the CMS is an industry standard platform, that it’s easy to use, and that good training and support materials are available to you. WordPress and Joomla are both great examples of CMS platforms that meet these expectations.
4. Will you get support when you need it?
Does the web design company you’re purchasing the website from offer on-going support? If they don’t, this is a huge red flag. When you purchase a website, it is very important that you choose a web design company that offers reliable, generous and cost effective support on an ongoing basis. This is incredibly important as a website has a lot of different functions and aspects to it, and it helps to have professional assistance available when you need it.
Things you might need help with:
Without quality support, you can find yourself in a predicament where you need to then find a different web developer to fix the problem that you have encountered. This can lead to an extraordinary amount of frustration, wasted time and additional expense on your part.
A story we hear often and our clients have experienced repeatedly is with freelance developers or small web design companies who start working on a project and are fantastic in the beginning, but within 6 to 12 months their enthusiasm and commitment wanes. Often they’ve started a steady job or taken on new projects and then old projects are not as fun to work on, or they don’t have time to work on them anymore. So make sure that the support is in place with a company that has support as a part of their business practice.
5. Keep all of your services in one place
It’s very helpful to be able to simply have one company handle everything that relates to your website and online presence. This is doubly helpful to the web development firm doing the work when troubleshooting any issues. Secondary services are anything that will support your business and your online presence. That could be graphic design services, copywriting, domain names, hosting, support, and, most importantly, online marketing and social media. You want to know that the web company you’re dealing with can offer a full range of services that relate to your website and that they have good, solid marketing skills.
Your website is an investment into the future of your business and it’s going to have a life-cycle of it’s own alongside your business. A website is a long-term project for you and as you develop your business. You will want to make the most out of your online presence using different services to promote your business, as you grow professionally.
6. Are there any additional or hidden charges
When you are purchasing a website and receiving quotes, in addition to getting a fixed project price, it’s important to be aware of any limitations, ongoing charges and costs that may be related to the website.
For Example: web hosting and support fees. It’s very common to pay for hosting on a recurring basis. But, you will also want to know about additional web development costs or future design costs. It’s good to know how much the ballpark design studio rates are per hour to cover your needs. And it’s also important to establish the project scope and prices straight up.
Sometimes without proper management, a design company can allow a project to go out of scope and budget or get delayed due to unexpected challenges. Suddenly you’re in a situation where you’ve invested money in to the project and now it’s more expensive than what was originally quoted. This can also happen because you have decided mid-way that you want more functionality too, but that’s something you should discuss with the design team first as additional charges would likely be expected in that case.
Another thing to consider are the particular limitations of the overall service, for example, limited hosting storage or design revisions. If the company is placing limits on these you can guess there’s a chance that you will be charged extra or experience some technical issues if you exceed these limits.
7. See samples of the work performed in the past
It is important to review and ask for samples of the work and craftsmanship that the web design company has produced in the past. This will give you a good reference point as to what they can provide for you. It’s important in these cases to not only look at the quality of the design, but also the functionality of the websites. Any good web design company should be able to show you a large amount of work that they have done. This will be a very good indication of the service and quality that you’ll receive from their company and it’s a great place to start in terms of evaluating the company.
Along with this, it is also good to review any testimonials or case studies that the company may have from their clients. It is good peace of mind to know that their clients are actually happy with the service that they’ve provided.
8. Keep it American
It’s always great to support and buy American goods and services, however in the web design industry there are a couple of other things to consider above and beyond simply supporting American businesses.
Within the web design industry there is a temptation to outsource development and support to overseas countries to save money, however this is often at the expense of the customer’s experience as there will be time delays and communication issues. And most importantly they just won’t understand you as an American small business.
Having American support and service means that the company you are dealing with will understand you as another American business and should be working in the same business hours as you are. Any problems are more likely to be resolved quickly and easily.
In addition to this, your website will load faster if it is on a server in the United States. Often times, even United States web design businesses use overseas servers which means that your web page needs to travel further when loading which can create a time lag. And out of sheer lack of knowing how to host a website, a web design company may just have bought in to a brand that they feel is a good choice. Feelings and business don’t mix — knowledge of how a business actually functions down to the core is a primary reason a business is successful. This is no different with hosting a website.
9. Are you working with the developer directly or is the company merely providing a turn-key website design service?
Maybe it’s due to the fact that technology is so readily available in this day and age and crafty businesspeople think they can get away with it, or maybe it’s the fact that some companies believe that they can truly be everything to everyone. In any case, there are companies that are out there masquerading as website design companies that don’t even actually do a single line of programming or actual design in-house at all. They outsource. As a matter of fact, they’re merely self-glorified order-takers with catchy buzzwords trying to make a quick dollar. Companies that are primarily print media are notorious for doing this since everyone believes that since they can put out a big production newspaper that they also can put out a big production website. You might as well find a way to set your money on fire, and be prepared to set a lot of it on fire, when dealing with one of these types of false-front companies. And there’s a good chance that the high price tag may just be a high price tag so that the real web design company or the person they’re outsourcing to in another country actually doing the work is paid a reasonable amount for their secrecy and the company selling the work makes an insane margin for generating a sale.
While that may sound fine to some people on paper, in reality what actually happens is your site will need to be updated and will end up breaking at some point due to a change in technology, an update to a CMS (which is notorious with both WordPress and Joomla) or you decide you want additional services and begin tinkering with the settings yourself and get lost. When that happens and you need help from who you bought your services from, you’re going to be at the mercy of whoever they contracted to do the job to still be around as the company who offered the service isn’t going to be able to service the request themselves. Hope, in this case, doesn’t float and you’ll just end up drowning in debt, wasting your time time and losing productivity and sales.
Getting around this is simple: Ask to speak to a developer and throw some technical questions at them. See how they respond. If you can’t do that, or they do speak to you and you feel like they’re just telling you what you want to hear just to take your money when you’re ready and willing to spend thousands of dollars, take your money elsewhere very quickly. Chances are you weren’t speaking to a real web developer. It should be absolutely no problem for you to take 5 minutes of a developer’s time from any size web design company to see if they can understand your needs and verbally conceptualize what it is that you need in technical terms. It’s what a website design company does by nature, so speak to the creators of your new site before you spend any money. They don’t have to be personable people (and often times they’re not), just knowledgable.
10. Is the web design company providing a mobile responsive website design?
This is critical in this day and age. Not only does having a mobile-friendly website affect your ranking positively with Google, but more than half of the people shopping for services or doing research are doing so from their smartphone or tablet. No one wants to pinch and zoom on a website to read or fill in information on a form.
Typically, a mobile responsive website should be included in the cost of having a website created, especially when having a website created on a CMS such as WordPress or Joomla as a mobile website is native to the most recent versions of both of these platforms.
At TurkReno Incorporated in Mobile, Alabama, we’re passionate about website design. We’d love to speak to you about your next project. We’ve got several ways to get in touch: fill out our free online estimate form, call us at (251) 279-0278, or visit our contact page and send us a message. We look forward to helping you with your next website design project.
What To Expect From Apple’s Annual Spring Event On March 21st
Apple, Apple Inc, Events, Marketing, Off-Topic, OS X, TechnologyIt’s no surprise that Apple has a spring and fall event to showcase the future of Apple each year. This year is no different and the spring event is on March 21st, here is a rundown of things you should expect.
All and all, it seems to be a packed event. It will all go down March 21st. We’ll will be here to post the main points of the event. So stay tuned for it.
Via: HackInformer
Using SFC (System File Checker) To Repair Server 2008 Issues
Computer Repair, Microsoft, Repair, WindowsBoth Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 include the System File Checker (SFC) tool. Previous operating systems included this tool also. This discussion is specific to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. If you would like more information on previous operating systems see the following KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747.
SFC scans and checks all Windows Resource Protected (WRP) resources. Windows Vista adds the following new functionality to the SFC tool:
Common SFC Command Line Options
Here are some of the common commands you would use with SFC. Note you need to run SFC from a elevated command prompt
Scan entire system
SFC.EXE /scannow
Scan a specific file
SFC.EXE /scanfile=c:\windows\system32\kernel32.dll
Verify. This scans all protected files but does not repair them
SFC.EXE /verifyonly
Help for Sfc.exe
SFC.EXE /?
One of the new features of SFC in Windows Vista/2008 is the ability to run SFC against a offline windows directory. This is most useful when you are unable to start Windows and suspect file corruption. Generally you should always try safe mode first before doing this to see if Windows can start. To use SFC in offline mode you do the following
Advanced users may want to see what SFC is repairing on a system. When SFC runs it logs it’s actions to C:\WINDOWS\LOGS\CBS\CBS.LOG. You can find SFC specific entries by searching on [SR]. See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928228 for more information.
Example of How SFC Can Fix Issues
The following is a example of how the system file checker was able to resolve a issue on my own computer. The issue I encountered was that When I would go into disk management my disks would show up but none of the information such as the type of disk, size, active/boot/system, healthy, etc… would show up. I checked the system event log and found the following
FMIFS.DLL is obviously a file used by disk management to display this information. If I look up the error code C1 it resolves to ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT. So at this point I suspect that this file is corrupt. From within Windows I run the following command:
SFC.EXE /scannow
It runs and says that it has repaired files. To verify I look in the C:\WINDOWS\LOGS\CBS\CBS.LOG and see the following entries
From this you can tell that SFC compared the hash for fmifs.dll and found it wasn’t correct. It restored the backup from c:\windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-fmifs_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_54d7af8934ac24f1. After running SFC I was now able to open disk management and see my disk information.
Hopefully this helps explain how SFC can help you resolve problems on your computer and shows how Microsoft is committed to making Windows easier to fix when issues do occur.
Author:
Scott McArthur
Support Escalation Engineer
Enterprise Platforms Support
How To Test RAM Using Mac OS X
Apple Inc, Computer Repair, Marketing, OS XWhenever I get a new stick of RAM for my Mac or PC, I’m always eager to just plug it in and start using it to its fullest, but having worked on hundreds of computers and encountering dozens of bad memory modules has convinced me that thorough testing is a must. While off-the-shelf PCs can run a copy of the free Ultimate Boot CD tool to perform RAM tests, Macs are a little bit more complicated in this respect. If you’ve purchased AppleCare for your Mac, it comes with a bootable TechTool Deluxe disc, but you’re otherwise left to your own devices when it comes to hardware tests.
Fortunately, with a little preparation right now, you can boot your Mac into Single User Mode and do a complete RAM test in the future. While you can run the necessary software in a fully-booted system, I recommend doing testing in Single User Mode where there are far less programs loaded in memory, and less chance of an important system component getting corrupted if your machine freezes or kernel panics — common symptoms of bad memory. A modified Mac OS X boot CD would be ideal, but that’s another post for another day!
DOWNLOAD MEMTEST
The testing setup isn’t terribly complex; I’ve taken the liberty of putting together an installable package which will put the Memtest utility into your /usr/bin/ folder. Memtest is a Unix command-line program that does the memory testing, and is the Mac equivalent of MemTest86.
MEMTEST USAGE
To run memtest on a new memory module, first shut down your computer and install the new chip. (Some helpful guides for doing this can be found at iFixit, if you’re unsure of the exact steps.) Ensure the chip is firmly in place, close up your machine (or don’t, if you’re a pessimist), and power it on while holding down the Command and S keys to force Mac OS X to boot into Single User Mode. Once you see a black screen with white text, you can release the key combination. After all the system logging is done scrolling past, type memtest all 2 to test all memory two times. Two passes should be enough to detect any blatant problems, but I wouldn’t hesitate to let it run for hours on end if I suspected an intermittent memory problem (memtest all). When complete, you should be greeted with “All tests passed” if your new RAM is in good condition. If your system locks up or freezes indefinitely during the test, you may have a bad memory module on your hands.
Thanks to OSXDaily and Command-Tab for the article.
Website Hosting – What Does It All Mean?
Marketing, Self-Advertising, SEO, SEO Methods, Server Configuration, Technology, Web Hosting, Website DesignWe understand the terms and products relating to running your own website may be new to many of you. In this section, we will attempt to explain what all of this means in order to assist you in determining which products you need. If, after reading the information contained here you still aren’t sure, you may email us and we will offer recommendations.
Domains
A domain represents the unique name assigned to an organization or individual on the Internet. For instance, we are all familiar with names such as google.com, microsoft.com, and so on. A particular name (domain) may only be owned by one person or company. To use an analogy, a domain represents your “street address” where you live on the Internet. A domain is the “home” address where a particular website resides.
The domain name is comprised of several parts. The last part of the domain (.com for instance), is referred to as the top-level domain (TLD). In theory, the TLD represents a type of entity: for instance, .com stands for “commercial”. It was originally meant to be for commercial enterprises (business), but has become something of a misnomer as even people with personal websites use the .com TLD.
Other popular TLDs include:
If you plan to have a website on the Internet, you will need a domain name for that site. If the name you want is already taken, you will have to find a different one. For example, if you wanted the domain CandlesForSale.com, that is already taken. However, the name CandlesForSale.biz is (currently) available. You could select the .biz name, or try to find an alternate such as Candles4sale.com (which is also currently taken).
There are literally millions of domains already taken so you may have to be creative in finding the name you want. But if you plan to put your own site on the web, you will need to identify an available domain. Once you do so, you should register that name immediately as it may not be available the next day.
When you go to our Domain Name purchase page, you will find a feature that lets you look up a name to determine whether or not it is available. It can be frustrating so be patient.
Hosting Plans
In order to make your website available it must be located on a “hosting server”. The type of hosting service you need depends on a number of factors:
All of the plans offered by TurkReno include a significant amount of Hard Drive space, more than most people will ever need. This is the space on the hosting server reserved for your content (HTML, graphics, pictures, databases, etc.). Even the lowest priced plan provides for significant storage space. In most cases, this is more than enough for a personal website, even if you plan to include a large number of pictures. For instance, if you plan to post photographs with an average size of 100k, 5GB of space would allow you to store nearly 500,000 photos!
Database files (MS-Access, MySQL, etc) are typically very large. However, even if you plan to offer several applications using MS-Access or MySql databases, 5GB would ordinarily provide more than enough space. Also keep in mind, if you find that you require more space than you anticipated, you can also upgrade your hosting plan at a later date.
The amount of “bandwidth” you may require on a monthly basis is also a factor in deciding which hosting plan you need. You can think of bandwidth (or information sent out from the server) as a water pipe. The more water you need to put through that pipe during a given timeframe, the larger the pipe you need.
For instance, let’s say the total size of your site content (text and graphics) is 1 Megabyte (1 Mb). If you expect 1,000 visitors to your site each month, and assumming each visitor viewed every single page on your site (a BIG if), your bandwidth requirement would be 1 Gb per month. On the other hand, if the total size of your site was 10Mb, you would require 10Gb bandwidth for those same 1,000 visitors. In short, your bandwidth requirements will be determined by the total size of your site, along with the total number of monthly visitors.
If you plan to develop applications that run on your site (e.g., database access, games, etc.) you will need a hosting plan that supports the particular programming language those applications are written in. These would include PHP, ASP, and others. It doesn’t matter if you code these applications yourself, have someone else code them for you, or purchase/download the application from another site (and there are quite a few free applications available for download), the hosting service will need to support the language the application was written in for it to work on your site.
All of the hosting plans offered by TurkReno Incorporated already provide free forums, blogs, and other common applications so you may not need to add any additional ones. If you do, we offer plans that include PHP, Perl, ASP, ASP.Net, and Java. We can also provide other prepackaged applications such as shopping carts.
If you plan to run one or more applications on your site that require database access, you will need to make sure the hosting service you use supports that database. Depending on the hosting plan, we offer support for MS Access, MySQL and SQL Server 2012.
If you plan to sell products from your website, or if you will be taking personal information, you need a SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate. The SSL has two major functions. First, it let’s the people who visit your site know that you are in fact who you say you are (by verifying your certificate). Second, it encrypts (or scrambles) any personal or sensitive information (such as credit card numbers) before that information is transmitted over the Internet. If you have ever shopped at eBay, Amazon or other such sites, you have probably noticed the “key” or “lock” that shows up in your taskbar. This tells you that you are on a secure connection. That secure connection is a result of your SSL Certificate.
Another consideration when trying to decide what hosting plan you need is the number of email accounts you require. For a personal site, you may require very few email accounts, if any. The 500 accounts that come with the smaller plan should be more than enough for your family and friends.
If you plan to use your website to run a business, you may require more email accounts. If that is the case you can either purchase one of the other plans, or you can simply purchase additional email accounts for a small annual fee. In any case, your email accounts will allow you to have an email address with your domain name (e.g., turkreno@mydomain.com). The email accounts we provide are web-based so you can access them anywhere you have Internet access. As with the other items, you need to think through how you plan to use your site.
We also offer both Virtual Dedicated Servers and Dedicated Servers. Both of these give you full control of the server (as if it were located in your home or business site). Dedicated Servers are usually required by larger business or those wanting to provide hosting to other people. If you need additional information on our Dedicated Server plans, you can check out the plans in our “product store”, or email us at the link below.
Shopping Cart and Merchant Account
For those of you who plan to use your site to sell products, you will need both a shopping cart and a merchant account (if you don’t have one already).
The shopping cart allows you to build an online “store front” and product catalog similar to what you see at Amazon.com and other sites. We offer an inexpensive application called QuickCart that should fit your needs.
The Merchant Account gives you the ability to accept credit card payments online (through a shopping cart or other means). If you are already running your own “bricks and mortar” business you probably already have a merchant account. If that is the case, you will need to check with them regarding the ability to take online payments. If you don’t currently have an account, or you are just starting your business, you may want to check the Merchant Account we offer.
Search Engine Optimization
There are literally millions of businesses online. In order to compete with these, you will most likely want to ensure that you are placed in “Search Engine” results with the highest ranking possible. One of our products, Search Engine Visibility, will do that for you. It will evaluate your site and make suggestions to give you the best search engine rankings possible. You can also use Search Engine Visibility to submit your site to Google, Yahoo and dozens of other search engines, as well as web directories. One of the really great features in Traffic Blazer is an Search Engine Visibility tool that will tell you if there is a problem with your site that would prevent it from being listed in the search engines. For instance, many of the search engines will not list sites that have internal “broken links”. Search Engine Visibility will notify you regarding issues such as that.
Google AdWords
AdWords is a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising feature that will allow your site to be listed in the Google “Sponsored Sites” area of their search engine results pages. If you aren’t sure what this is, just go to google and search for “candles” or some other item. You will see the sponsored ads on the right. These can be highly effective depending on your type of business.
Placement of AdWords links are based on how much you “bid” for each click. That is, if you bid 35 cents for each click you will get a higher placement than if you bid 25 cents. The amount for each bid is deducted from your total credits only when someone clicks on the link to go to your site.
Closing
If you still aren’t sure what you need for your particular site, please feel free to contact our support staff.
What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
Alabama, Marketing, Mobile, SEO, SEO for Google, SEO Methods, SEV, SMOOne of the hottest topics on the Internet is that of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There is no question that optimizing your site to the extent possible is an important function. The operative phrase here, however, is “to the extent possible”. You can burn a whole lot of time and energy trying to follow every last “tip” you get for SEO (nevermind the fact that some of these tips turn out to be contradictory). In this article we will explain some of the fundamentals of SEO.
The actual programs that go out and look at all the sites built by Google, Yahoo! and Bing on the web to collect, classify, and rank them for the search engines are called “spiders”. They are also know as “bot”, “crawlers”, and a number of other names. Basically speaking, the spiders look through your site to see what you have.
Content
First and foremost, it’s all about content. We are talking about text content here; relevant content. Search engines love content rich sites. Flash intro screens may be all the rage, but they tend to be a problem for search engines and also are being discontinued. They can’t pick up any discernible content from Flash intro screens. Same thing applies to sites that have more graphics than content. Pleasing to look at, but they don’t do anything to help your page ranking. As it relates to SEO, you can actually wind up shooting yourself in the foot by making your site too flashy.
So when you design your site, make sure it includes lots of text-based information. You also want to make sure that the keywords you believe people will search for are used within that text. If at all possible, you also want to have more than just a few pages. A minimum of 20 pages would be our recommendation. Spiders just love to crawl around interconnected pages.
A number of years ago, many webmasters used a little trick of embedding and repeating “hidden” keywords on their pages. This is done by having text the same color as the background. For instance, if someone ran a dog grooming site, they would place “dogs” and “grooming” on the page in all the available areas not used by visible text. Don’t use this technique. The spiders see it for what it is and will actually penalize a site for “keyword spamming” as a result.
Spiders also love “fresh” or new content. Sites that don’t change much tend to lose page ranking. No one is interested in seeing the same information over and over again. So try to add new content as often as possible. Two great techniques for this are discussion forums and blogs. If you can get other people to participate in your forums and blogs, they in effect, provide content for you.
Meta Tags
Most spiders don’t really pay that much attention to meta tags, but even so, you want to use them. Your Title tag should be short and concise; no more than 60 characters or so. Same thing for the description tag: short, concise, and containing some of your keywords. Maximum length shouldn’t be more than around 160 characters.
We all put our keywords in the keyword meta tag, even though we know that most modern spiders don’t care. But there are things you can do that will hurt more than help. Spiders really don’t like seeing the same keyword over and over. No word should be used as a keyword more than three times. Using the dog grooming analogy again, having your keyword list contain dog, dogs, dog grooming, grooming dogs, dog salon, and so forth is NOT a good idea. This is more keyword spamming. If you can’t think of a more varied list of words or phrases, then just keep it to a few relevant words. You also want to keep the total character count for keywords to no more than 120 or so.
Links
The number of “referral” links you have (links to your site from other sites) is one of the factors considered when determining page ranking. Of course, link quality matters. Having people come to your site from cnn.com or msn.com carries alot more weight than having them come from one-eyed-llamas.com.
Try to get as many other sites to link to you as possible (many sites offer a reciprocal link feature). You have to work at this. It may cost you a little money, but putting ads on sites such as classifiedads.com or others like that certainly won’t hurt. For a small fee, classifiedads.com will “blast” your add to thousands of other ad sites. This serves two purposes. First, if your site is for business, it may get you sales or leads. Second, your site link will be distributed to other potential “referrer sites”. Even if you have to pay to get your ads or banners on larger sites, it may be worth it.
Site Map
A site map is nothing more than a page that provides a “road map” to all the other pages on your site. The spiders seem to like this (there is some debate) because if provides an easy means for them to access all the other pages you have. This can be particularly effective if you have a content-rich site.
Closing
At TurkReno, we live, eat, breath, sleep and work SEO, SEM and SEV. We’d love to help you and your business be found online, no matter how complex or simple the project is. Give us a call today, (251) 279-0278, or contact us.
Don’t Ignore Your Business Plan
Business Plan, Marketing, Off-TopicA number of years ago a friend came up with a killer product idea targeted to fishermen. It was one of those devices that, when you think about it, makes you wonder why you didn’t come up with the idea yourself. I fully expected my friend to become a rich man. I planned to be there of course to remind him who his friends were when he was still “a nobody”.
He asked for my assistance in setting up his business and in designing his web site. Wanting a “piece of the action”, I of course agreed. My first request was “let me see your business plan”. To which he responded, “my what?” I managed to stifle a groan and instead offered to help him develop this crucial document. So we sat down together and came up with a three-page document.
The definition, and purpose, of a business plan is straightforward. It defines the goals and objectives of your intended business, and provides an outline of how you plan to get there. The plan we developed included that, along with an outline of how he was going to market the device. We left out the usual competitive analysis since his was a one of a kind product. We included a section that detailed how he would deliver the product. In his case, the best approach was the use of a 3rd party company for packaging and drop shipping.
My friend had not even considered a number of the items we incorporated into the final plan. Once completed however, the plan gave him a clear direction for operating his new business. He sold the device through his web site and did quite well. After 18 months, he received an offer for a buy out from a major fishing and outdoor product company. The deal was made and my friend walked away with a tidy sum of money.
Your business plan is an essential first step on your road to success. Making one up as you go along simply does not work. The plan provides a roadmap, and gives you a means to objectively analyze how effective your approach is. In a situation where you require a loan to launch your business, any bank or lender will require you to have a business plan.
The contents of a business plan can be as simple or complex as is required. For the vast majority or small businesses, a 5-10 page plan will usually suffice, depending of course on the business. While every business plan is a little different, the basic elements that need to be considered are:
You will find that these elements are given different names depending on whom you talk to, and the order is not always the same. But none of that is the essential consideration. The key is that you have a plan.
The Executive Summary is no more than a few paragraphs outlining your overall goals and objectives, along with a synopsis of how you plan to arrive at those goals.
The Business Description identifies what you plan to sell or offer, and the strategies you will use to succeed.
The Marketing Strategies section details the vehicles you will use to achieve awareness of your product(s) and/or services. In the case of my friend’s business, we described how we would use not only the web site, but also print ads in several fishing magazines, along with fishing forums and newsgroups. This section also describes how you plan to brand your product. For my friend’s product, we came up with a very spiffy but easy to remember name. And of course, he knew he wanted a website.
The Competitive Analysis section identifies what other companies offer the same or a similar product(s), realistic pricing structures, and how you will attempt to set yourself apart. Setting yourself apart is particularly important in a competitive market.
The Operations section describes your approach to the day-to-day operations of the business. It should include all the mundane details from accounting to distribution channels.
The Management Plan describes your general approach to the management of your business. Remember, 90% of small businesses that fail, do so as a result of mismanagement or poor planning.
The Financial Plan section identifies your need for a business loan (if needed), and your plan for paying off that loan. It also includes information about your break-even points and return on investment (ROI).
Let me end this topic with a question: If you were going to have a home built, would you just let the trucks with the cement, 2x4s, shingles, wallboard, siding and so forth just pull up to your lot, and then have the builders proceed with no blueprint in hand? Would you just hope for the best that the toilet bowl doesn’t end up in the kitchen or the exterior door doesn’t end up in the attic? Of course you wouldn’t. No sane person would build a house without a detailed blueprint.
Then why would you do exactly that with your business? Your Business Plan IS your blueprint.
The Problem with Internet MLM Programs
Abuse, Facebook, Marketing, Off-Topic, Rant, Self-Advertising, SEO Methods, TwitterInherently, Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) is a perfectly good business model; at least it started out that way. Companies such as Amway, Avon, Pre-Paid Legal, Plexus and others still use it, legitimately and with much success.
Originally, MLM was designed so that companies would have a way to develop a distribution network for their products. When a person joins an MLM company as a distributor, they earn commissions in two ways. The first is by the sale of the actual products. The second income stream results by recruiting additional distributors and then earning a commission on their sales. There is nothing inherently wrong with this business model.
The problem is the original concept of MLM has come under heavy abuse by scam artists. The advent of the Internet has only exacerbated that situation. The abuses fall into two basic categories: pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes. In both cases the emphasis has gone from the sale of a product to recruitment of additional members. Therein lies both the practical and legal problem.
Pyramid schemes have been around for centuries. Basically, they work like this: you pay into a program that, in theory, sells a particular product. You are also encouraged to recruit other members. In the case of most Internet MLM programs however, you don’t actually sell anything. The money you “invest” goes to the people at the top of the pyramid (the program originators). The people on the lower levels of the pyramid are promised huge profits, but in fact, they get very little or nothing.
Ponzi schemes are similar to pyramid schemes except there is no pretense of having a product to sell. You pay into the program and then recruit additional members to do the same. Chief among these types of scams on the Internet are the so-called “Randomizer” programs. The concept is similar to the old “chain letter” scams where you send $5 to the 5 people at the top of the list, and then put your name on the bottom. Supposedly, in a few weeks as your name moves up the list, you will receive a small fortune in the U.S. mail. As WC Fields would say, “there’s a sucker born every minute”.
Besides the question of legality (and that is a serious issue), the problem is these programs are created to earn money for those at the top. As an example, let’s assume a pyramid/Ponzi where each person has to bring in 5 new members just to recoup his or her original investment in the program. For instance, if your “entry fee” into the program is $25, a “payback” of $5 for each person you recruit for the program requires 5 additional people for you just to break even. Sound reasonable? It isn’t. Let’s look at the reality.
It’s all about simple math and the power of 5 (5x5x5x5…).
The first level doesn’t require anything to recoup the original investment since he/she is the scheme originator. The 5 people in the second level need 25 new members in order for each of them to break even. Those in the third level then need 125 additional people to join the program. Those 125 in the fourth level require 625 new members. The fifth level requires 3,125 new members. Level six needs 15,625 new members. By the time you get to level 7, a total of 78,125 new people need to join in order for the suckers on level 7 to just break even. God help the people in the next level, who need 390,625 new members. Just keep multiplying by 5. Before long, the number of new members required would exceed the population of the planet. These schemes simply, and ALWAYS, implode by the weight of their own membership and the requirement for new “recruits”.
And in case you aren’t aware of it, Pyramid and Ponzi schemes are illegal.
Are all of the MLM-type companies on the Internet scams? No, they aren’t. There are numerous perfectly legitimate affiliate programs that use similar models. Some of these programs do make money for the hard working affiliate and are operated in a professional and ethical way. The operative word is some.
If you are contemplating this route you would be well advised to do your research. Join some of the many Internet Marketing forums and ask other people. Check the scam monitoring sites available on the Internet. If all else fails, ask an attorney.
But as a basic guideline, the formula is simple. If the primary focus of a particular program you are contemplating seems more focused on recruitment than sales (especially when there appears to be no actual product), and the claims of instant riches sound too good to be true, I would suggest you run for the hills. Once the program has reached its point of diminishing returns, the program owner will fold the tent and you will be left holding the (empty) bag. And for these reasons, we prohibit any kind of MLM activity on our network. Buyer beware.
Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae – Our Thoughts
Gaming, Marketing, Microsoft, Off-Topic, Rant, Reviews, Sony, TechnologyIt’s finally out… the demo of Final Fantasy XV, aptly called Episode Duscae. Many have been waiting for the release of this demo, bundled exclusively with Final Fantasy Type-0. While we’ve played EVERY Final Fantasy demo (and game) that’s ever been on the market, we can’t help but notice that the demo of the fifteenth iteration of Square-Enix’s headliner …lacks. We’d really like to focus on what we didn’t like about this game.
1) The music. The music, to us, is disappointing. We’ve attended Distant Worlds and we’ve met Uematsu… Disappointing. Yes, we know that Uematsu is not doing the music officially anymore. But, the branded music that we’ve all come to know, such as the opening theme, the level up/XP screen and the game over screen are now represented with pillowy piano music and zero semblance of their very well known ancestors. We’re reminding ourselves again, this is the demo so maybe it will be different at actual launch (whenever that may be…). As is, no bueno if they’re not going to play the right music — let alone the right THEMED music — for the right scenes to their core fanbase. We don’t care if you make an improv version of the Opening Sequence/Prelude. Just make it the actual Prelude and not fluff.
2) The environment. SquareEnix has had PLENTY of time to get zone creation right. If you’re avid fans of the series like we are, you know about Final Fantasy XIV and 1.0’s copy/paste failure. Lots of us were disappointed to find that we couldn’t go pet the huge thing in the lake because there was an apparent zone line restricting us from going farther. Or the fact that some of these boulders became absurdly similar as we started running around. No real place to hide or climb. Perhaps they will put a jump accessory in the game. And perhaps SquareEnix will actually use the knowledge they’ve learned from FFXII and FFXIV to make a truly open-world, Non-MMO, offline game again. There were some things that we really liked, but this article is about what we didn’t like.
3) The narrative. We felt disconnected with the story they were trying to tell. We’re not all Japanese-esq twinks who have a kingdom to inherit (see the game for reference of Noctis being a prince). At least in the Final Fantasy VIII Demo, there was an apparent story to connect to with a sense of urgency and understanding. We did not feel compelled to go fix a car, instead that very purpose of playing gave me more of a reason to want to go explore.
4) These supposed hints at “something coming soon.” The ending of the demo says so. Please: kill me now. Also, this. Are we supposed to be happy they’re going to put the summons they should put in any Final Fantasy into the game? Are we supposed to be happy they’re going to respect their beginnings of the series? Are we supposed to be happy that it’s apparently a big deal for SquareEnix to do right by the series and provide an experience that satisfies new AND old gamers? No. No, We’re not supposed to be happy because we EXPECT this already — otherwise, it’s not really a Final Fantasy game and only another X-plus-Z:A5C weird numbering story of Final Fantasy that we never wanted to really play.
5) The (seemingly) pointless item collection. We’re sure that picking the items up had something as a reward — and it would be unsurprising if there was not any reward — but the only thing we truly HAD to pick up was the Behemoth Horn. Anything beyond that was, we guess, for Potions and Antidotes to be restocked with.
What we’ve seen with all of the fanfare and social media hype, and based off of our own experience, the demo is truly not that promising. Right now, this is a rental title and not a midnight launch title. But, let’s be fair. It’s just a demo and the main title is only 60% completed. We’ll see…
OK Bicycle Shop – 661 Dauphin St, Mobile, AL 36602
Food Reviews, MobileOn any given day that you happen to be in downtown Mobile, Alabama and have a craving for beer, sushi and/or tacos, the OK Bicycle Shop and Dauphin Street Taqueria should be your absolute first choice. This past Sunday, we decided to begin our reviews of Mobile, Alabama food at this lovely establishment. Since the OK Bicycle Shop is open every day from 11AM until 3AM (and serving food until at least 2AM), we were more than happy to grab a bite of Mexican and Japanese in the same sitting. I believe a recent episode of Louie called this a “Bang, Bang”, except here you can stay in the same restaurant. And yes, they sell bicycles (and deliver on them) too.
Sampling an appetizer from the Liquid Lounge side, we decided to have the Calamari Salad – which is marinated squid with herbs. Out of all of the dishes we ate in this sitting, this was the only one we knew that could be easily replicated elsewhere. A very sizable amount of food compared to other sushi restaurants though. Served cold.
For under $50 plus a good tip, a Mexican/Japanese dining experience like this is a must-do if you’re in the area. If you visit in the evening, there’s a good chance you’ll be visiting when there’s some local musicians playing in the courtyard. Parking is available either in one of the many surrounding parking lots or on the street. Stop by and you won’t be disappointed.
Food Photos
Here are some photos we took of the delicious food from the Dauphin Street Taqueria and Liquid Lounge.
Menus
Provided below are menus from the OK Bicycle Shop, the Dauphin Street Taqueria and Liquid Lounge.
Overall Score
We give this visit an overall 8.5/10 score. The OK Bicycle Shop is a “must visit again.”
The Plug
Looking for a review of your restaurant or venue? Look no further. We also make websites, do online event promotion and social media for restaurants. Contact us and we’ll make arrangements to stop by.
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