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Oil Spill Information – TurkReno and ES Chamber Speaks Out

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We love our local media. We grew up listening to them. Heck, sometimes we are the local media when they get too bored or “busy” to report something. But this is unfortunately a topic that hits us and a good deal of our clients square in the chest. It affects our business in a way that some of you may not even imagine. What is it you ask? The Oil Spill and the media syndicating false rumors surrounding it. I want to be very clear about one specific point because it seems to get lost in the wash of commotion and heartache of wildlife being at risk. What is that point I want to be clear about?

DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON THE NEWS ABOUT THE OIL SPILL! EVERYTHING ON THE ALABAMA COAST IS JUST FINE! (Or at least it was when we wrote this…now, it’s really, really bad.)

We are tired of the fear-mongering and it has had a direct impact on our clients income which in turn hurts our income because they no longer have a budget to advertise in some cases. One thing that this has taught everyone is that regardless if it’s true or not (in this case it’s not), the fact that someone who has a very loud microphone keeps talking about it (AKA the media), the more tourists don’t want to come visit. There are not dead, oiled birds, dolphins or tuna on our coastline. There are not tar balls washing up that would be any different than any other day at the beach (it’s normal for tar balls to wash up at the beach). And there is no smell of oil in the air. The local media reported that there were tar balls but that they were not confirmed to be caused by the oil spill and that LESS THAN A DOZEN were found. Again, that’s not more than normal. Dead fish? Happens all the time. Is it the chemicals in the water? What makes you think there weren’t already chemicals in the water from boats before the oil spill?

It’s no longer comedic or a joke. We’ve gotten fed up with it and the tone of this article surely is indicative of that. And we’re not the only ones. The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce has spoken out against this fallacy of oil covering our beaches and the Gulf Coast being somewhere no one can visit right now too, and we commend them for it:

Friday, May 14, 2010

Dear Friend,

We are urgently working to combat the negative national media message and get the facts out to the United States and the world that the Gulf Coast, including Alabama, is open for business. Our goal is to pass the truth on. Yes, there is an oil spill, is it as bad as they say? You be the judge. At the bottom of this message is a link to information updated daily. It includes reports from NOAA, and daily pictures of the beaches in Baldwin County, Alabama. The beaches of Alabama and the Mobile Bay are very important to us all.. we are all working to be proactive and ready to protect our waterways and natural habitats, WE are committed to keeping you updated with the facts – not the fear factor.

The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce
www.eschamber.com

Here are a few facts from that link:

  • The Alabama Department of Public Health and Alabama Department of Environmental Management stated that there is no foreseeable need to close beaches and, short of a drastic change, they have no plans to do so.
  • Tarballs travel independently of an oil slick and are not an indication that the slick itself will travel in the same direction or to the same area. The oil slick still has not reached the beaches of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) forecasts, is not expected to for at least 72 hours. Forecasts beyond 72 hours are not available.
  • Although NOAA has closed commercial and recreational fishing in a limited area between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Florida’s Pensacola Bay, there is a large area of the gulf still open.
  • All appropriate preventative measures, including oil-absorbing booms, are being used along Alabama’s beaches, bays, inlets and sensitive areas in an effort to prevent oil from reaching our shores. Researchers and scientists have indicated that any impact directly on the beaches can potentially be cleaned effectively and fairly quickly.

GO TO THIS LINK FOR PICTURES , MORE INFORMATION AND DAILY UPDATES!:

http://www.gulfshores.com/issues

Darrelyn
Darrelyn J. Bender
President/CEO
Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce
P.O. Box 310
Daphne, AL 36526
251.621.8222
dbender@eschamber.com

What do you do in a case like this? Well, first: Speak out. Comment here. If you don’t think that’s good enough, call WALA, WKRG, or WPMI, The Press Register and the entire conglomerate of sites that run AL.com and NOLA.com and tell them to stop running stories about it. Second: Go share this and blog about it yourself. Third: Tell all of your friends it’s OK to come to the beach and business is still open for EVERYONE. This is a very passive-aggressive move from our own people! Airing headlines that bleed to lead, putting statements and then following up with “inconclusive” facts. Shame on you local media for ruining your own town and our economy!

The South Alabama market cannot take this. This is unjust and it’s all from the media! Speak out and tell them to quit!  AND DON’T LET THEM DISTRACT YOU WITH ANOTHER STORY!! (People won’t stop thinking it’s unsafe to come to the beach until THEY SAY ITS SAFE – which it IS!)

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Los Tacos – 28991 U.S. 98 Daphne, AL 36526 – Great Fish Tacos

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Have you ever had a taco that you just couldn’t put down and when you were done with it you just wanted another one? We have, and they come from Los Tacos Fresh Mexican Grill in Daphne, AL. You can call them at (251) 626-6110. They’re right next to Taco Bell (imagine that) and it’s so much better. The prices and wait time is comparable so there’s absolutely no reason not to try them out. Los Tacos has eight different preparations of meat: Ground Beef, Chicken, Shredded Beef, Steak – Asada, Carnitas, Lengua, Pastor and Cabeza. And Los Tacos menu ranges from $0.79 to about $8.49 (Fajitas) and is mostly on the cheaper side.

We decided after talking to a very special relative that it would be a great idea to go try Fish Tacos. And I can’t say that I could have picked a better place to try my very first grilled AND battered Fish Taco. As Los Tacos menu states, Fish Tacos a battered or grilled Fish Taco consists of cabbage, pico and zesty sauce. We also had the Shrimp Tacos as well with some rice and Chips and Salsa.

Some of you may have had Los Tacos from the locations in Fairhope or Foley, maybe even from the Los Tacos van that can perhaps come to your place of work or even have your party catered by Los Tacos where you can “Spice Up Your Next Fiesta!”. We picked up a card at the restaurant that for Los Tacos Catering to call (251) 648-2788 for a personalized menu that fits your budget.

You can visit Los Tacos online at http://www.lostacos.org and see just about everything you’d like to see about their company including a menu. As stated on their site: “Los Tacos Fresh Mexican Grill has been been spicing up Baldwin County for over five years. With the addition of our third location in Daphne, you will have even more opportunities to enjoy the authentic flavors of Mexico.” There was a statement on the site that you could call the location nearest to you and have your meal available for pickup. Sounds like a great plan for lunch or dinner!

Overall Ratings:
Reviewer #1: 7.5/10
Reviewer #2: 8.5/10
Overall Score: 16/20

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Olive Garden Sucks

Olive Garden in Spanish Fort AL 36527 – Never Again

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At one point or another in our lives, we weren’t experts in our fields and we weren’t born that way either. We were the people who broke our backs to bring in money and grew up knowing what we didn’t want in our future and setting higher goals for ourselves. As a point of humility and openness, I happened to work at this particular Olive Garden I’m writing a review about a very long time ago before I even owned TurkReno Incorporated. I know that it may seem or sound bias to even go back to do a review of somewhere that I used to work, but the management and staff is 100% different now and my partner and I were hungry.

I am both gifted and plagued with a mind that never forgets – especially things that I was trained on or did repetitively on a daily basis. You may think that I am about to be overtly critical, but I can’t help to not remember the training and how I was taught to handle guests. I’m also, out of the remote chance of being libelous, omitting any names except for the General Manager at the end of the post. Here we go.

So what’s our beef with Olive Garden #1656 in Spanish Fort (located at 30500-D State Highway 181, Spanish Fort, AL 36527 – just in case somehow they manage to build two there’s a separation)? Let’s start from the top. We arrived at the restaurant at 6:45PM on a noticeably slow Thursday evening. A true “Hospitaliano” (Term registered to Olive Garden) experience starts off with you being greeted at the door with a warm welcome, not a blunt and unpleasant “How many?”. So we get seated in a booth. It takes approximately 6 minutes before our server even notices that we’re present only to be told their name and asked what we wanted to drink while they’re manning a completely empty section. The restaurant is NOT busy – at max, 20% capacity.

This isn’t being nit-picky, but I was taught to introduce yourself and give a presentation that includes offering a sample of wine, recommending an appetizer and an entree. Instead, we were thrown into the typical, apathetic “How can I help you?” that I could have gotten at McDonalds. So we give the server our drink order. They walk off before I can even get a word in edgewise to ask for an appetizer. The server comes back and I have to ask them what appetizer they would recommend to see if they’d possibly redeem themselves on the presentation. It took another 6 minutes to get our drinks, a simple un-sweet tea and water. 12 minutes to just start off == Fail.

We order the Calamari as a starter. The server then takes our order, which is really simple: one Spaghetti with Meatballs and one Stuffed Chicken Marsala with extra mushrooms (yes, I love mushrooms as you may know from our previous reviews). It took about 10 minutes to get our appetizer and our salad with breadsticks. Now we’re at around 22 minutes, just to get started on eating – and we’re both starving at this point. The Calamari is sloppy: the breading is falling off of the squid and it’s almost as if it’s a little wet. Edible, but just not good at all. It should have been an indicator of the next to come. One of the “secret tricks” of Olive Garden is they hope you gorge yourself on the Breadsticks, which are good, so that they can distract you from how long it takes to get your entree. About 7 minutes later, we’re served our food. Here’s where the disaster sets in. As I said before, I ordered a Stuffed Chicken Marsala with extra mushrooms. Instead, I get this charbroiled stack of chicken with no mushrooms at all that would be easily comparable to the KFC’s Double Down in color and crispiness. Nothing wrong with my assistant’s food except he says it tastes like “Chef Boyardee with a splash of Chianti”. I ask my server, “Shouldn’t this have mushrooms on it, extra mushrooms?”, and they reply, “Yes, let me go get you some more.” It gives me some time to eat at least the mashed potatoes that taste like a ready-mix water and milk mashed potatoes.

So, I instantly grab my iPhone and start the stopwatch and start using the “lap” feature to record just how long it takes to get this remedied. It takes the server around 3 minutes to go and get a dish of mushrooms in sauce. At this point, I’ve already mentally talked myself out of putting in my mouth this disgusting failure of food in front of me. I ask the server “Would you eat this?”, and they reply, “Probably not.” They then ask if they would like me to get a manager and I tell them “Yes”. During this time, the table adjacent to my assistant and myself actually get served the same dish I ordered and it looks EXACTLY the way I wanted it – puffy, white chicken breasts topped with tomatoes, mushrooms and sauce. A manager arrives almost exactly a minute later (not hard to do since they were all huddling in the lobby anyway) and asks me what the problem is. I introduce myself and that I explain that I was a former employee some years ago. I then ask them “Would you eat this?”, and they reply the same as the server did. They ask what I would like to be done and offer to have the meal re-cooked for me. I say sure, and also interject that I don’t understand why this would have been served to a Guest and that the Guest behind them right now was eating what I was expecting to pay for.

Here’s where the Double Down begins. Both the server AND the manager forget to take the food away from me. I’m sitting here, watching the clock and now I’m taking photos of this heat-lamp baked crisp chicken and tweeting it by nine minutes into lap 3 and I’m getting mad. Why? Because I know that it should only take 8-10 minutes to get a Chicken Marsala and everyone is huddling in the lobby including our server and the manager. I’ve had to sit here for right at 20 minutes and stare at this nasty food that I’m about to be re-served. 15 and a half minutes later, I finally get my meal at 7:33PM – 45 minutes after into coming to the restaurant on a dead Thursday night starving.

But it doesn’t stop there. The manager didn’t really seem to care nor did he comp the Chicken Marsala even after agreeing with me that it should have never left the kitchen. I get the ticket and it’s $40.58 for two people. I could have easily cooked myself three evenings from Wal-Mart the Macaroni Grill Chicken Marsala for that amount and fed two. I’m not exactly mad about the service because I tip the server $5.00, I’m disappointed that they didn’t fix it by taking this nasty dish I had to stare at for 20 minutes off my bill.

“It sounds like you know more about my job than I do.” – Olive Garden Manager

I conference call with a neutral party and call the restaurant today. The same manager that was there last night was there and another manager was present. Since I was peeved enough to call, I wanted to speak to a different manager since the General Manager, Scott Dumas, wasn’t present so that I could get as many people involved in this horrible experience as could be. It took the manager 10 minutes to get on the phone while we had to shout over this loud, ear-drum piercing, Italian knock-off muzak before the manager requested answers the phone. I gave a good overview of what happened, explained that why I was calling was because of how much things had changed and because I felt as if I should have been given the dish for free. That manager said that “It sounds like you know more about my job than I do.” What. The. F*#K. Then they tell me that since it’s a credit card purchase that it will be Monday before they can even reverse and correct the charge through “corporate”. We’ll update and see if they actually do. But know that this leaves such a bad taste in our mouths that we’re going to see this one through since we paid for it and had such a horrible experience. Never again.

Overall Ratings:
Reviewer #1: 5/10
Reviewer #2: 2/10
Overall Score: 7/20

If you have a problem with the Olive Garden at 30500-D State Highway 181 in Spanish Fort, Alabama, 36527, I’d suggest you speak directly to Scott Dumas, the General Manager as of the time of this being posted, who can be reached at 251-625-1490 or call 1-800-331-2729 and speak to a Guest Relations Representative. You’re also more than welcome to leave a comment and we’ll approve it if it’s relevant to your experience at this restaurant.

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Opening Review: Dragon City Buffet – Daphne, AL 36526

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We recently visited the newly opened Dragon City Buffet, located at 28611 Hwy 98 Daphne, Alabama, 36526 on opening night (also St. Patrick’s Day) for a review since we’ve enjoyed so much of their delivery from their Dragon City restaurant further down 98. The restaurant is located in the old Rousso’s and Ruby Tuesday’s building, near the intersection of Van Buren St. and Hwy 98. They serve a wide variety of foods including Cantonese, Szechuan, Hunan, Sushi and even Hibachi. It’s not a traditional sit-down Hibachi Grill, but nonetheless Hibachi made-to-order and unique to any other Chinese Buffet in the area.

Their hours of operation are 7 days a week, Mon-Thurs.: 11:00AM to 10:00PM * Friday & Saturday: 11:00AM to 10:30PM * Sunday: 11:00AM to 9:30PM. They can be reached by telephone at (251) 626-5666 and Fax at (251) 626-2838.

Our initial impressions were that they were very busy…and the restaurant was quite loud with customers.  Lots of kids, so we would say it’s family friendly. The adults were being louder than the kids, but that’s to be expected in Alabama. There was a lot of activity from the staff attending to the buffet, but not really focused entirely on customer service or any type of personal attention. Room for improvement there.

Their Health department rating was at a 94 when we visited. We didn’t stare at the ratings, so not entirely sure what those 6 negative points were for. The food also leaves something to be desired. Almost the typical feeling of being full with Chinese food and then an hour later starving again. We sampled just about everything we could before we got stuffed. The pork-on-a-stick was very tender and fresh, but the NY Strip Steak was almost rare and we couldn’t find a knife in sight. The sushi had a very fishy taste to it and there wasn’t a huge variety and it wasn’t restocked before we left. If you want sushi, go to a sushi restaurant like Furama.

The lighting bad in some of the dining areas. The men’s restroom sink was completely covered in water and towels. It didn’t seem like somewhere we’d want to wash our hands and leave the bathroom with clean hands to eat. We’ll still give it to them that it was opening night, but still a very important place in the business to make sure is tidy.

When our drinks were empty, we did receive prompt attention. After that, however, we were served our bill way too fast. We felt like we were being rushed out so that they could turn as many tables as possible in their first night. Not exactly how we’d want to feel when trying to enjoy a meal. At least ask if there’s anything else they can get us or what we thought before the check arrives.

The cost of two people, both soft drinks and buffet, cost $24.70 – sort of pricy since you’d almost expect the drink to be included for that amount and the quality of food. Lunch is cheaper, but they don’t have the Snow Crab legs like they do at Dinner.

Our Scores: Reviewer 1: 6/10; Reviewer 2: 7/10 – Overall score 13/20.

In closing, the buffet doesn’t match their other restaurant in Daphne that fortunately delivers, and we’re totally grateful for delivery, decent Chinese food in Alabama. If you’d like to order their delivery service, which in our opinion is 100 times better than the buffet, call them at (251) 621-8501 or visit them at Fountain Square, 2101 Hwy 98, Suite J, Daphne, Alabama 36526 (across the street from the AT&T Store).

Don’t forget that TurkReno provides website design to Mobile, Alabama and the surrounding areas!

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Motorola S9-HD

Motorola MOTOROKR S9-HD Review With iPhone 3G S 3.0.1 OS – Newly Updated!!

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Motorola MOTOROKR S9-HD

Motorola MOTOROKR S9-HD

I have been really wanting something that works well as a Bluetooth headset, as a real headset, to do A2DP on the iPhone 3G S. I decided to try the Motorola MOTOROKO S9-HD over trying the JayBird JB-200 Headset again.  Overall, it works just as bad as the ones with the adapters when playing music (very choppy, very random pauses).  However, you don’t need an adapter to get this pair to do Bluetooth iPhone calls or iPod.

I have been surprised with this new acronym that my iPhone doesn’t seem to be able to do (AVRCP), at least not yet.  It seems to also do the pairing automatically without asking for a code. The instruction booklet says that the code is 0000, but I didn’t ever need to put that in.  I’ll keep it simply for the fact that it does pair with our Broadcom Bluetooth receiver which is actually a Rocketfish Bluetooth Transmitter. It will work well as a diagnostic and day to day tool, and will be great for driving and hands-free.

=== UPDATE: 11/12/2009 ===
We wanted to write an update that these work PERFECTLY with the iPhone 3GS 3.1.2 OS. No skipping, techno sounds great, 100% all the way Motorola S9-HD! Worth the buy!

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TurkReno Celebrates First Year Anniversary

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On this day, one year ago, in the midst of economic chaos and one of the worst financial crises the world has seen in at least a generation, CEO and Founder, Mr. Taylor S. Ripley, laid the foundation to what would become one of the most successful web development and design companies in the State of Alabama. His passion for technology and his belief in the market’s need for a reliable service provider focused on excellence led him to take an incredible risk, which many would not have taken in an economic downturn let alone during such an uncertain time. Yet, his faith was well placed because what the market lacked was a business that applied a long-forgotten model, that of offering valuable services and the creation of a network of long-lasting partnerships. And so TurkReno Incorporated was born.

It has been a bumpy but exciting ride and TurkReno Inc. is living proof that a business that is client and service oriented can be successful under any market conditions. The company has become one of the most reputable providers of IT services with satisfied clients all over the world. We have risen through the ranks of our competitors and have become the #1 Eastern Shore IT service provider in our area by maintaining and expanding on the excellence we consistently achieve in the projects we undertake in the name of our clients.

We understand that our success hinges on the success of our clients and we know that reliability and dedication are the most the important qualities of any partner. TurkReno’s service packages are designed with you, our client, in mind. Service packages that consist to be a complete, custom solution that is adaptable to any project or requirements. Some of the services we offer include:

  • Website Design – Increase your business’ exposure and revenues with a custom designed website created by talented and certified professionals. With the added support of our complete web development solutions, we can create any solution that works.
  • Website Hosting – A reliable and fast service to house your website – second to none in this area guaranteed;
  • Print Advertising – A good advertising campaign targets your potential customers through numerous channels and one efficient and effective way is by using our print advertising service. We can provide you with any type of printing or publication that you may need, be it 1000 business cards or 1,000,000 flyers, we can take care of it;
  • Computer and Server Repair – Our licensed, certified and experienced technicians will keep your company running and efficient by taking care of all your IT maintenance needs;
  • E-commerce Web Site Design – Let us design your custom e-commerce website so your products can reach the whole world. Increase your sales by being available to potential customers 24/7.

We, at TurkReno Incorporated, believe in growth and innovation, which has positioned us as an industry leader. We are constantly expanding our range of services to provide the best and most complete solutions to our clients in Daphne, Spanish Fort, Fairhope, Point Clear, Foley, Orange Beach, Bay Minette, Gulf Shores, and Mobile, Alabama.

We celebrate one year of existence, growth and progress; of creating hundreds of successful websites for businesses worldwide; of undertaking amazing projects and consistently delivering results. We celebrate one year of creating a family of clients that will withstand the tests of time and the harshest market conditions under our wings. We know not what the future may bring, but we are confident that the only way for us to move forward is together as partners.

Most importantly, we want to thank each of our loyal clients and customers who have helped us become who we are today. Without you, we would not be here and our services would not be needed. Thank you so very much. We look forward to several more years to come, providing you each with outstanding and service that is superior to no other IT company in this region.

Cordially Yours,

Taylor S. Ripley

President and Chief Technology Consultant

TurkReno, Inc.

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Current Website Design, Web Hosting, and Search Optimization Offerings

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Current Web Design, Web Hosting, and Search Optimization Offerings

Over the past few months, we at TurkReno have had a wonderful time supporting our clients and meeting new clients providing professional services such as Website Design, Website and E-mail Hosting, and Search Optimization from both the aspects of Social Networks and Natural Organic Searches. From a recent statement by Taylor S. Ripley, Owner of TurkReno, he gave the following information:

“To our existing clients: Thank you several times over. Without people and businesses like you, we would not exist and we owe it all to you.” He later moved to say that (the clients) should “Continue to rest at ease as you have from the beginning of your service” and that “Your continued support and requests have been or are being completed with one-hundred percent of our ability. As always, we look forward to how we can use the latest trusted and stable technology to serve your needs.”

“To our new and potential clients: If you’re not with us, we offer our website for you to review in consideration of becoming one of our clients. We have expanded our portfolio three times over since we began November of 2008 and continue to have room for any and all additional clientele. Our deployment strategy for the Mobile Bay area was solid and we have continued to be prosperous since our initial launch. We offer Web Design services which consist of basic HTML or CSS designs, to completely dynamic Content Management Systems that are scalable enough to operate as social networks or ecommerce platforms. Our servers are connected to seven ISP Backbones: AT&T, Cogent, Global Crossing, Level3, Savvis, Abovenet, Comcast, and Verio. Wherever you are, we are too.”

In regards to Search Optimization, Mr. Ripley commented that: “We can easily show you how to aggressively take over any natural and organic search result terms with very little money or investment. Our methods are tried, tested, and proven ‘white-hat’ techniques that work one-hundred percent of the time since they are based off of International Website Design Standards. We are also prepared to help you embark or further your journey on services such as Twitter, Digg, Mixx, Facebook, and MySpace as well as help you get listed in key local directories.”

Mr. Ripley later went on to say: “The TurkReno Content Network, comprised of every client hosted by TurkReno, has a wide variety of media including Advertising Agencies, Fine Clothiers, Detective Agencies, Corporate, Legal Counsel, Adventure and Sports, City-Wide Directories, Unique Handcrafted Goods Sales, and other Basic Informational websites.”

“We want your business and want to offer you the chance to let us serve you with one free month of hosting. This is a limited time offer and a hosting contract is required to continue to use our hosting after the first 30 days. All sites are subject to content approval and our Terms of Service. All that you need to do to take advantage of this offer is contact us via our website and mention code ‘HOST-RENO’ and we will take care of your needs from there.”

At TurkReno, we don’t just make impressive websites, we create solutions that work. Contact us today via our website, https://turkreno.com, via telephone at (251) 279-0278, or via our contact form at https://turkreno.com/contact-turkreno.html. TurkReno, Incorporated, is based in Daphne, Alabama and services the surrounding Baldwin County cities: Fairhope, Spanish Fort, Foley, Elberta, Orange Beach, Silverhill, Robertsdale, Gulf Shores, Point Clear, Bay Minette, and parts of Rural Baldwin County. Our website hosting and website design service is available internationally.

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Also listed at:

PRLog

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Google Voice

TurkReno Contact Information Changes; Partnership with Google Voice

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As we as a company continue to move into a virtual world, we have improved our telephone capabilities by integrating our systems with Google Voice. We now have one main number that we would prefer that all contact is made through: 1 (251) 279-0278 — Local to Fairhope, Alabama. This service not only allows us to be called on all phones simultaneously, but also the ability to receive voicemail from anywhere which is then automatically transcribed into a text message to our phones. There are other features that we are going to be using with this system.

From Google explaining the Google Voice System: “Google Voice is a service that gives you one number for all your phones, voicemail that is easy as email, and many enhanced calling features like call blocking and screening, voicemail transcripts, call conferencing, international calls, and more.” We would encourage all of our clients that are interested in this type of technology to go to Google Voice and sign up to be a part of the initial group before this becomes a major public service.

More info from Google: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

We appreciate your business and will continue to keep in contact with each of you.

Best Regards,

Taylor S. Ripley
TurkReno Inc.
P: (251) 279-0278
W: https://turkreno.com

Privacy Notice: This information is not to be collected for advertising purposes.

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Important notice: GeoCities is closing.

From Yahoo News —
Dear Yahoo! GeoCities customer,

We’re writing to let you know that Yahoo! GeoCities, our free web site building service and community, is closing on October 26, 2009.

On October 26, 2009, your GeoCities site will no longer appear on the Web, and you will no longer be able to access your GeoCities account and files.
What You Need to Do
If you’d like to move your web site, or save the images and other files you’ve posted online, you need to act now by choosing one of the following options:

Download your files to your own computer.
With your pages and images saved offline, you can re-create your site with any hosting provider.

To quickly download your published files, visit your GeoCities web site, right-click on each page, and choose Save Page As… from the menu that appears. Choose a location on your computer to save your files, then click OK or Save.

Don’t Wait
Please be aware that after October 26, your GeoCities files will be deleted from our servers, and will not be recoverable. If you’d like to save your files, you must download them now or move to Yahoo! Web Hosting. If you need assistance, please visit the help center.

We want to thank you for being a GeoCities customer, and hope you continue to enjoy our other Yahoo! services.

Best regards,

Yahoo

So.  We offer hosting.  We may not have been around as long as a dinosaur like GeoCities (God knows I had a few accounts there), but we can take care of you if this is what it comes down to.  Contact us today at https://turkreno.com and find out what we can do for you!

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Mobile Alabama Port City

Quick Web Development and Design Hints For Hard Economic Times in Mobile Alabama

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Last week I had the opportunity to talk to a leading industry analyst about a number of potential small web site investments that marketers and publishers could make to yield the biggest possible pay-off. The premise being, of course, that in economic hard times site owners needed to stretch their budgets to do more than ever – and generate real returns.

While we are hardly entering the hardscrabble environment of a previous Internet-era, it’s always good to revisit first principals when it comes to website design and development. Namely, that everything can be continuously measured (and optimized) and the digital medium is accountable: we can truly measure its impact to the bottom line. No guessing about what audience saw what ads here!

Our conversation ranged from the impact of search to social application widgets, like those from Rock You, to advanced analytics. So, for struggling site owners, here are my three quick web hits for hard economic times:

1. Acquisition: Reaching new customers or audiences is key. To do so as efficiently as possible, investments in Search Engine Optimization and Paid Search advertising efforts are key. Consumers aren’t searching any less in tough times (and given the fact that there’s no cost, they may be doing even more searching), so optimizing one’s pages for natural search engine optimization is critical. Think of every page as a homepage, an inventory that can be accessed in any conceivable manner regardless of typical ecommerce or content flows. Ditto for investments in paid search and paid inclusion. Now’s the time to really revisit these strategies.

2. Conversion: Optimize conversion flows endlessly. Digital properties are all about “flows” or the paths that consumers take through a site or application on their way to completing a task. As I’ve written about before in Our Brave New Beta Future: Site-side analytic tools like SiteCatalyst, Hitbox and WebSideStory are great for serving up general reports on success ratios but yield few clues as to why users exit a flow. That’s because users exit on a page, not going from page-to-page. To ensure that you are designing for maximum conversion, Avenue A – Razorfish employs a proprietary tool called Advanced Optimization that allows us to track user behavior at the page level.

This allows us to see exactly where users click on a page, the amount of time spent filling out form fields, how far users scroll, how much time they spend watching a video, interacting with a flash module and more. Using a solution like this typically yields fantastic returns. I’ve personally seen clients get 25% lifts to their conversion rates and “based on sales volumes” have seen yearly revenue increases of $2 million or more based on slight, strategic, design tweaks. Also, don’t forget about implementing multivariate testing as well (think of it as A/B testing on steroids) to determine the best and most effective mix of creative, copy and page design elements.

3. Retention: If you haven’t experimented with social media or other participatory digital concepts now is definitely the time. It’s just as important to maintain an ongoing relationship with existing consumers as it is to acquire new ones. Social media, if nothing else, is geared towards fans of your brand or site. Whether it’s chunking up your video assets for distribution on YouTube or launching a new campaign or page on Facebook, it’s definitely time to consider small initiatives here. A couple personal favorites are working with emerging web application providers like RockYou (which has incredible reach) or creating custom social media experiences, such as Red Bull’s Roshambo on Facebook. These speak to brand loyalists in meaningful was (most of the time) and may even net you a convert or two.

Of course none of this can be done too cheap, tiny budgets still won’t get you a whole lot, but these tactics are the perfect remedy for hard economic times. And, come to think of it, maybe even for not-so hard times.

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