Feeding Froogle: Search Engine Marketing for E-Commerce

Remember when the Internet was simple?

The all-important e-commerce beast Google Products was originally known as Froogle. Froogle was a pioneer in compiling products from many online stores and websites into one big "store front."

This idea we call "The Dog Pile" approach (by the way, dogpile.com was a pioneer in multi-engine key phrase searching, way back before Google was . . . Google) to product searching, has resulted in new opportunities for marketing discreet products.

Products are listed in Google Product Search by name, category, description, price, original website, and other attributes—sometimes, even a picture is used and indexed by Google.  The result?  A giant storefront you can be a part of.

Presumably, you want ALL of the information about your products to show up in search engines. And this is in addition to the traditional marketing of key phrases!

Why does this matter? Because, there are OPPORTUNITIES out there you don’t want to miss. Opportunities for not just a second or a third, but many additional store fronts.

Now add this: there's a synergy to be created between your product search results and your key phrase results. Done right, this causes dramatically higher search engine listings for both!

In e-commerce, there are other places to rank high. We don't usually recommend putting a great deal of effort into the "other" search engines, but in e-commerce you create traction for your brands by paying attention to several commerce tracking and promotional engines. These include Amazon, Google Products, Yahoo Shopping, eBay, Bing Shopping, Nextag, Shopzilla, and more!

Getting listed on some of these are free. Others have payment structures similar to Google AdWords and Pay-Per-Click, where you pay for views and clicks, or bid and pay a market-established rate for views and clicks.

To take advantage of these opportunities, you need to know how to feed them. Grossly over-simplified, that means you setup an account, then either manually enter your product data or feed a specially structured data file to each service.

Not a big deal, until you realize that to maintain ranking you need to monitor each service for changes in product listing requirements, or resubmit data after specified expiration periods, which may vary from one service to the next.

Of course, this is one of our areas of expertise. We've been feeding Froogle hundreds of thousands of products since it was a fledgling Google Labs pre-beta product. We've created top ranking for large sites and small, trained clients to manage their own data entry, and done it for them (when they realized that programmatically extracting thousands of products and attributes into specially structured files according to the requirements of each product listing service was something we could do better and more cost-effectively).

We often say that much of what we do isn't rocket science; if feeding the e-commerce search stream is something you're interested in doing yourself, good news: there are volumes of information available online on the topic.

But just because you can do it doesn't always mean you should. If you want someone to get you up to speed, or skip the learning curve and outsource it altogether, give us a call.


Happy Search Engine Marketing.

-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

Albert Einstein On Experimentation, Investigation, and Internet Technology

Albert Einstein didn't just pioneer modern physics with his enduring and revolutionary theory of General Relativity, he also said some smart stuff about the value of independent curiosity and experimentation. Let's apply some of this to how you can use the internet to help your business.

Words of Wisdom

1. "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
2. "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
   

If Al's second quote scares you, fear not; we're talking about research on our dime, not making mistakes with clients' time and money. Here's what it all boils down to:

• Ask, ask, ask, inquire, question, and ask some more.  Then experiment, test and do some more experimenting.
• Investigate and Innovate—don't be afraid to lead rather than follow. Then when you've got it all figured out, be sure to keep testing—and verifying results.
• Never settle into a finalized "method," because the only constant in the internet world is the light-speed change (get it, physics people? light speed... constant?). Yesterday's thinking never works for today's internet.

At CDLLC: we've already done the research. The experimentation, the investigation, the trial and error for you, on our dime. We've got close to fifty combined years of experience with this stuff. And we keep doing the research. It's part of our business.

Tested results are what matter, not just copying what you read in an instruction manual, or delivering the status quo, or doing what everyone else is talking about and doing. With the internet, any documentation on the right way to do something, especially SEM and SEO, is outdated by the time it's published.

And Google's "what matters and what doesn't" rules aren't published at all; experimentation and ongoing research are the only way to ensure the great results we deliver.

We're fond of saying that most of what we do isn't rocket science. Dr. Einstein, tongue planted firmly in cheek, would have said the same about his work. And he's still the guy we all go to when it comes to relativity... and space... and time.

It's time for your business to get serious about its Internet Presence. We're here to help.


-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President, Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

SEO/SEM: Are People Searching For the Words You're Paying For?

Business owners generally have a pretty good idea about what to say to their customers and what's important to them. Why? Because they know them.

But what about web-based, potential customers? Can you know customers you don't have yet, can't identify, and even once you acquire them might never meet?

Internet search-engine-based marketing (or SEM, of which SEO is a part) is different than making yourself available to people on terra firma. You need to know what people are looking for and how that relates to your business. It's not for the faint of heart, either.  You almost certainly want to hire an experienced, expert SEO/SEM consultant (and yes, that's us)

We could turn this post into an advertisement for what we do, but let's instead point you at a freebie: here is some information on "choosing key phrases". Go ahead and read it; we'll wait . . .

Head spinning? Asking yourself how you can check all that stuff? Let us explain the process:

When you hire CDLLC to do your SEO, the first thing that we do is look at the key phrases you're thinking about marketing. We look at your site, your industry, and similar or competitive businesses, and we create a list of keywords that we know we can use to boost your presence.

Why? because if you're an obstetrician (for example) and want to rank high for the phrase OB/GYN, OB-GYN, OB GYN, or OBGYN you'll find three problems:

1. competition for high rankings on generic phrases is tremendous
   
2. most people who search on any of those phrases are not really the people who are seeking your services
   
3. the four phrases look the same to humans, but are all different to Google.

We address these issues by gathering information on the words that you believe are important. We tell you how many people are searching for these words, and how competitive the fight for each word is.

Here is a simplified version of what it looks like:

Top of the list (competitive, popular phrases):

Bottom of list (unpopular, noncompetitive phrases):

And then the fun begins: we make sure you're spending your money going after the right traffic, in the right way. Which is fun for you because we do it for free, and fun for us because we understand and like this SEO stuff.

It's only after you have a good strategy and can spend your money wisely that we go to work. Yes, that's right; the research phase is on us. Contact us now if you like. We love working this magic.


-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

Two Cures for Boring Website Syndrome. Part 2: Content & Function

This is part two of our two part series on Boring Website Syndrome.. Part one can be found here, http://cdllc.blogspot.com/2010/02/two-cures-for-boring-website-syndrome.html

When approached by new clients, there are a few common opening statements, requests, and complaints we hear, such as:

• I need "Help" with my website.
• I need a complete "Redesign" (which a lot of the time has more to do with engineering than design).
• I need "something more 'current.'"

But our favorite opening statement—and perhaps the most honest—is this one:

"My Website is Boring."

The Boring Website Syndrome is our favorite because it presents an opportunity for further diagnosis. We have the opportunity to get to know our client better and probe for unique needs relative to the business they're in.

15+ years experience in internet consulting have taught us that Boring Website Syndrome breaks down into one of the following two categories, and often both:

1) The website looks old.
2) The website doesn't offer or do anything . . . it doesn't engage visitors.


Today we will look at #2 My Website Doesn't Engage My Visitors.



Have you ever thrown a party, only to see your guests milling around for just as long as they felt necessary to appear polite—and then bolt for the exit? More than likely, these people didn't feel engaged.

On the Internet, failing to engage your visitors means they'll be leaving . . . immediately. Let's look at what it takes to keep your visitors hanging around longer:

The first issue is content.  It's possible to have an incredibly ugly website that offers good enough content or functionality that the bad design does not interfere with its popularity. Some long-tail blogs are like this ["long tail," is a term coined by the book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.].

Want examples?  Click this link to see who carries Google's #2 ranking for "growing habenaro". Or look at Authorize.net's members' section. Although slightly updated in past years, the Internet's most prominent credit card processor has lived through poor organization and design inconsistencies, but it always "did the job".

The point? With incredibly valuable content (here content refers to words and functionality), it is actually possible to overcome poor website design (outdated fashion). However, it is the rare & very fortunate company that can simply say, "Click here to buy my stuff, and that's all you need to know," or, "Your eyes will just have to tolerate the pain of horribly designed site if you want my brilliant information." 

The point is, to attract and keep visitors you must offer something valuable, words or tools, and in return they give something; their time.

It can be as simple as offering specific, detailed information about your offerings, or as advanced as leveraging your hard-earned, de-facto, "expert blogger," position on a topic.

Everything above discussed the "words" or "content" part of what a website offers.  Now let us look at functionality.

All of the "stuff" that can be done on a website is a comprehensive enough topic for a week of articles. So for now, let's just list a few website functionality ideas than will engage your visitors, and maybe even get them to return.  Consider:

1. How easy is it to give you money? Do you take credit cards? E-checks? Does your business accept these 24x7x365, from any computer or mobile phone, via an automated, no-staff-intervention-required method?
2. Do you accept reservations and appointments via an online scheduling system? Make it fast and easy for people to schedule with you from anywhere/anytime!
3. Are you taking advantage of an online store front?
4. Are you collecting inquiries from your website? This is the easiest way to convert curious visitors into customers.
5. Does your website include a Help or FAQ section? This brings customers back to your site, helps them solve problems, and converts them into repeat customers.

There are even more advanced offerings that are surprisingly easy to add to your web site, like live, online support, incident tracking/trouble-ticketing, optimizing your products into search-engine specific feeds, and creating password protected areas for "special people."  And people love when you make them feel special.

"Boring Web Site" means out-of-fashion, out-of-date, and/or non-engaging.  The solution?  Consult with a web firm about content, functionality, and style overhaul, using the above list to beging the brainstorming process over what your website should offer visitors.

You can even use CDLLC if you like . . .


-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC


-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

Two Cures for Boring Website Syndrome. Part 1: Fashion

This is part one of our two part series on Boring Website Syndrome.. Part two can be found here, http://cdllc.blogspot.com/2010/02/two-cures-for-boring-website-syndrome_23.html



We were recently referred to a new client who asked us to make their website more engaging.

The simplicity of the word, "engaging" is terrific. It's more personal than interactive. More descriptive than customer-oriented or useful.

And so the thinking began . . .

Generally, we're approached about existing sites with a variety of opening requests, including:

• People need "Help" with their website.
• Companies want a "Redesign" (which a lot of the time has more to do with engineering than design).
• A request for "something more 'current.'"

But our favorite opening statement—and perhaps the most honest—is this one:

"My Website is Boring."

The Boring Website Syndrome is our favorite because it presents an opportunity for further diagnosis. We have the opportunity to get to know our client better and probe for unique needs relative to the business they're in.

15+ years experience in internet consulting have taught us that Boring Website Syndrome breaks down into one of the following two categories, and often both:

1) The website looks old.
2) The website doesn't offer or do anything . . . it doesn't engage visitors.


Today, let's explore number 1, the Old Website.

This is the easiest one to qualify, but hardest to quantify.  It's very subjective. Website old-lookingness is a function of fashion. There were technologies in style 5-10 years ago that have gone the way of leisure suits and bell bottoms, and these technologies resulted in a distinct look, or "fashion," in the sites that employed them.

Some "old-fashioned" items:

* The gray-background, center-aligned website.
* Embedded background music.
* The 3 resizeable, big-bordered frames/panels.

. . . we could go on and on.

And there are technologies available today that weren't options 5-10 years ago. Some will stand the test of time, while others will go away. And this is one of the many areas in which we can help you. After so much time in the web world, we're pretty good at separating the passing, frilly technologies from the solid, lasting ones.

And, of course, we're well-versed in the latest design fashion—this includes the layout of your website container, global elements like navigation and search, the look of your deeper menus and navigation elements, and the division/layout of the primary page content inside each page container.

All of these, geeky as they sound, come back to the very practical issues of both the way your site looks and its function.

We've pointed out before that getting you set up on a Content Management System (CMS) creates drastic time and money savings by making redesigns and content publication a snap. Now let's add to that:


Making your web site look good, act the way you need, and easy to administer all go together. And we want that to be as simple for you as possible.


-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

Luddites: How May We Be of Service?

Years ago Dad came home from his business and informed us, "They took away my calculator and replaced it with a computer." Like so many others during this time, he was pushed into accepting technology change.

Just last month, Dad-in-law announced something similar. "I got a computer so I could look up specs on our website.  It's quicker and easier than the paper catalog."  Slightly different from the above case, he was responding to the reality that technology makes a lot of things easier.

Do you know the word Luddite? Today its most-used form is to refer to a slow adopter of technology. But historically the term's roots are a reference to the anti-industrial revolution movement in the early 1800's. British textile artisans rebelled against wide-framed looms, fearing for their livelihoods in the face of technological advancement. They took their name from the fictional textile rebel Ned Ludd, and acted out by destroying mills and factory equipment.

Everyone resists change. Answer Guy Central is a whole business devoted to addressing this.

Evolution made us naturally conservative. But with virtually all of our evolving happening before technology we're stuck with this cool but hard-to-understand stuff and a fast-moving economy— and we have built-in aversions to both.

This aversion is no illusion. An interview with the authors of TechnoStress reveals that EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT of the population feels uncomfortable with technology. And there are real and measurable physiological stress responses to technology: sweating, increased blood pressure, elevated heart rate, and dry mouth!

Why is an internet company talking about Luddites and TechnoStress? Because we can help. There are all sorts of stress coping mechanisms, but let's take a lesson from the industrial revolution—outsource difficult change to the specialists (that's us).

Both of the Dads above had the same great reason for being late technology adopters, personally. They each run highly specialized businesses . . . so why be an expert in something else when you can rely on outsourced expert IT support to take care of everything for you?

That's what we do with websites, search engines, e-commerce, back-end business/database systems, document management, forms, online payment... whatever you need chances are we do it.

Anything that makes money, saves money, and/or increases efficiency . . . call us.


-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

"Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential," — Winston Churchill's SEM Part II

If you enjoyed our riffing on Confucius, you'll love what's next. Ladies and Gentlemen, Sir Winston Churchill will now address your needs for Search Engine Marketing!

Amazed that a man whose heyday was several decades before there was an Internet has so much to say on the topic? This will take four installments:

1. "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."
2. "Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential. "
3. "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
4. "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."

Today, #2:

In the previous segment we talked about the need to publish regularly. The success of your SEM efforts depends on it. Today, we extend that point to include the way you say things in your published works and what you say:

You say important things repeatedly.

Do you remember how many time you were told "look both ways before you cross the street!" as a young child? The message sunk in. We all know way more about Coca-Cola and McDonald's than matters, but we sure do remember who they are. And like these examples of repetitive message delivery, your job in SEM is to drive points home over and over again.

Whatever you feel about that message, the point is clear, isn't it? Tell a story. Tell it again. Then look for new ways to tell the story and new places to tell it in. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Which, naturally, brings us to budget.

We've seen businesses "do search engine marketing" once, and then stop. And it works! But just like with Yellow Pages advertising, the SEM work you do has a limited shelf life. Buy a Yellow Pages advertisement just once and it will become less useful when next year's version of the book comes out and progressively less useful over time as people replace the book that has your listing in it with a newer copy that has no such listing. And when was the last time you looked in a Yellow Pages, anyway?

The Internet has all but replaced that way of looking for people to do work for you, and a new version of the Internet "comes out" every single day. Churchill was right about that continuous effort thing, don't you think?

Lacking continuous effort, you'll ride an SEM campaign up the search engine rankings, sink soon thereafter, and then then sink even further until you start your SEM efforts again. And each time you allow a sink cycle you make it a little harder to climb back up.

Budget for Adwords, Pay Per Click, Sponsored Links, Off-Page Optimization, Blogging, and On-Page Optimization, implement them all, and stay on top of them.

Or . . . you guessed it . . . let us take care of the whole thing for you.

-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

"Never trouble another for what you can do yourself." -Thomas Jefferson and Web Design

In his letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith in 1825, Thomas Jefferson included the following two items in his Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life:

• "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today."
• "Never trouble another for what you can do yourself."

Just as with our friend Confucius, TJ's wisdom applies to your business web presence.

In web context the translation is this: Eliminate the bottlenecks that slow down and reduce efficiency in your web content publishing process. i.e. : reduce unneeded expenses of both time and resources.

Everyone is a content contributor—or needs to be. Why send word processor documents to a webmaster for translation to "Internet language,"  when you can handle most of the work yourself in your content management system (CMS) , having authors self publish? Yes, there are times when you might want the kind of relationship with your webmaster where he does certain things for you that you could do yourself.  However, if someone's time is more valuable spent programming and working on databases and web servers than acting as an administrative assistant, shouldn't you strive to work that way?

With CMS, you can often publish web information as easily as you can write it on a word processor. That's the kind of process CDLLC implements, and you should ask us how simple it would be for us to do it for you.

Save time. Increase efficiency. Save money. Make your life and those of the people you work with easier and more satisfying.

Or just keep throwing away money instead; your choice.

-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

CMS is a Beautiful Thing, or Confucianism Part IV

"Good people distinguish things in terms of categories and groups."

In prior Confucianism-inspired posts, we talked about the benefits of using Content Management (CMS) at your website. We've made the case for organizing, ordering, and arranging web pages, so now onto breaking bottlenecks in controlling costs and maintaining efficiency while moving forward with today's standards. With navigation management addressed, here are some other bottlenecks that we eliminate by using a CMS:


1) Without CMS, each time you redesign the website look-and-feel you create a need for extensive programming. This becomes both a people management and a cost issue.
2) Now add the need for multiple contributing editors/authors having to get their content to a "webmaster," and costs explode. Again.
3) Adding functionality, like forms, e-commerce, and online payment? More programming and webmaster skills get added, too. A CMS reduces the costs associated with these—tremendously.

CMS makes life easier by separating/disentangling content editing, copy writing, and navigational elements of your web site, design, and functionality.

1) Design becomes a separate module- a wrapper for the web pages. With CMS you change this design wrapper in one place, and the changes take effect globally throughout every page of the website.
2) As many content editors as you need can login, protect pages, and change just the content they're responsible for without the risk of breaking the design.
3) Applications that "do stuff" are programmed and arranged independently, so modification and re-programming creates no risk to the rest of the website.
4) And while we've already mentioned this, it bears repeating for the cost savings it brings you: changing the order and hierarchy of the navigational links becomes as simple as making a few clicks with a mouse.

Sounds almost like magic, right? With a CMS, the magic comes from putting all your stuff inside a database, grouped and categorized with an eye toward Internet presentation as needed to suit your company's needs relative to customers, vendors, employees, and whomever else stumbles upon it. The pieces are stored separately so they don't get entangled with one another, and "global site elements", like search engine META tags, polls, online payment, and sign-up forms are all grouped separately so changes to them only have to be made once!

And with a database, EVERYTHING is easier to categorize and group. For example, if you set up and write an FAQ section and it grows unwieldy, it's stored in the database so modification of the Q&A is a snap.

CMS is all about simplicity. How much so? Let's take our buddy's words, and summarize them as though he was hosting a radio program, circa 2010:

Confucius, out. (thanks, Ryan Seacrest!)


-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President, Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

A History of Web Content & Confucianism

"Study the Past if You Would Divine the Future"


Confucius would say: The Internet is a Big Deal. And Big Deals Change, but then return to whence they came.

Or something like that.

The Internet has been “around” now for several decades. We can trace its beginning to when Tim Berners-Lee “invented” it (and no, Al Gore was not in the room), but the Internet didn’t start doing anything until 1991.

That's when the first web page went live. Hardly anyone noticed, since if you were on-line at all it was through a company like Compuserve or America Online, but the Internet was starting. What went on line was simple, though: the pages all looked the same, with either left or center alignment throughout, and a single column of text formatted in one font with a few different sizes for emphasis.

A few years later, we had tables, which originally were designed for presenting data in rows of the same ugly text. But them something amazing happened: people commandeered the tables for formatting how you saw things in addition to what you saw, and then CSS (bye-bye tables) came along, and that idea for consistent presentation was adopted by the pretty police, too.

It was a short jump to limited interactivity. First we had Javascript, which when combined with CSS became Dynamic HTML. But at the same time there were problems between different browsers as we all started noticing that Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari didn't do quite the same thing.

Then e-Commerce came along. Site management tools. Software to make creating web pages easy. Everything was exploding by the year 2000, and over the last ten years all the tools, all the technologies, and huge changes in the way people do business evolved into what we have today:

Everyone is a web publisher.

But all the tools and all the ancillary ideas that the tools have created (or is it the other way around?) haven't made this any simpler. "Site Management" has become "Content Management", and while it's more precise, it's also more involved. Distribution of your information is important, too; not everyone who wants to hear what you have to say wants to take the step of coming to your web site, and many people who do so are using SmartPhones with tiny screens. We have blogging, Social Networking, and now the dreaded Search Engine Optimization. Yikes.

So the future is based on the past, and while we all might like to think that we're creating cool new stuff the point of all these tools remains getting your information in front of your clients. A simple task, made far more complicated by technology.

At CDLLC, we manage the technology for you. We know the past, and can future-proof your web/business needs. We use (for example—here's one more piece of "progress")—database-driven web sites separated from your content to make redesigns easy.

You become a content editor, not a programmer. We do everything else.

Because even as things get harder and harder, easy still matters.

-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

scams.... I get 'em too

[ADDENDUM, 2009.01.09: There is another scam out there which attempts to get you to pay more for your domain, and possibly transfer it to a different domain registrar. It usually comes in the form of a postal mail from a very official sounding name, like National Domain Protectors or US Domain Registry Keepers. I've uploaded an example a client sent me, below and to left.]

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE











[END ADDENDUM, 2009.01.09]
# # # #


Several CDLLC clients have called in the past two weeks and inquired about the following email scare/scam. What follows is basically a fear-based attempt to lead a business owner to believe s/he is missing out on the "land grab" phase.

If there is enough interest, I will elaborate on the value and/or potential detriment to your business from having multiple domain names, and I can write a brief summary of how copyright, trademark, establishment of first use, etc, are interpreted by law on the internet. Post a comment if you are interested.


# # #

From: Alex.Tao
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 1:29 AM
To: Crockett Dunn
Subject: crockettdunn for domain name

Dear crockettdunn:
We are Shanghai Chooke Network Information Technology Co., Ltd, which is the domain name register center in China.I have something need to confirm with you.
We have received an application formally,one company named "Yunda (China) Investment Co.,Ltd" applies for the domain names(www.crockettdunn.cn www.crockettdunn.com.cn etc.) ,and the Internet keyword(crockettdunn) on the internet November 28, 2008. We need to know the opinion of your company because the domain names and keyword may relate to the copyright of brand name on internet.
we would like to get the affirmation of your company,please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.

Kind Regards,
Alex.Tao
Tel: +86-21-62416070
Fax: +86-21-62597835
Email:alex.tao@chooke.cn
Shanghai Chooke Network Information Technology Co., Ltd
website:www.chooke.cn

"HELP!!!! My Internet/Email is Broken!!"

"My Internet is Broken," is perhaps the most common tech support request experienced by Information Technology professionals since the emergence of AOL, Mindspring, and Earthlink.

AOL and Mindspring/Earthlink came along and offered the previously super-nerd-accessible-only INTERNET to the masses. There were two major results:

1. This accelerated internet usage to the point where we are today. What was previously referred to as the "information revolution," (analogous to the industrial revolution), is now more of an, "interconnected collaboration revolution."



2. An explosion in the size of the IT support industry
   

The top two support requests for new users typically are either, (1) my email is broken, or (2) my internet is broken.

CDLLC clients, being curious and of above average intelligence, routinely ask me how the internet works.

In response, we suggest a tool that provides a tiny glimpse behind the scenes of what we all take for granted as "the internet," and, "email."

Having said that, I am pleased to offer the following tool to CDLLC clients who desire a peek behind the curtains...

BEHOLD:

Visual IP Trace

***note, there is a free trial available if you click the "HOME" link on the top of the page after following the URL.

Download it here.

.

What is a "Cult-Neutral" Consultant, and why does everyone keep telling me to get one?

The CDLLC Alliance consists entirely of Cult-Neutral Consultants.

huh?

Think of Vendor Neutral consultants- they have no motivation to sell you THEIR single product. Vendor Neutral consultants can properly align their objectives with your business goals.

So here is the deal about Culure Neutral Consultants: All great businesses- ranging from Google, to Yahoo, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (Goretex), Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, all the way to Hilton and McDonalds- have unique, highly effective, deeply engrained, corporate cultures based on mutal trust and team building exercises.

At CDLLC, we celebrate individuality. It has been found that when we allow each team member to do things as s/he pleases- let each member "shine"- a very natural, collaborative, interdependant and synergistic system begins to form.... a self-organizing system, like in nature.

The fun thing about being Culture-Neutral, or a cult-neutral consultant, is that CDLLC's team gets to join its client''s teams for jusst a little while, and enjoy the richness of your company's unique corporate culture (While, of course, solving your IT problems, whatever they may be: typically making your www properties, including intranets, extranets, and portals, better.)

That's the joy in it. How can a consultant burn out if s/he never settles? CDLLC's team members find joy not only in constant stimulation, but also satisfaction from producing highly effective, high-quality work: whether it be streamlining your businsess processes, hooking up a web-commerce system to your existing inventory/fulfillment systems, establishing and secure, password-protected, employees-only intranet, complete with central document repository and user/group-based security (for example, "sales group" might not need to access the documents belonging to "budget committee.") Anything that allows us to make your business better is our pleasure.... whatever the task, CDLLC members take great pride and derive much joy from servicing you well.

Anyway I love this stuff. Anyone interested in a shot at joining the cult-free team, contact jobs@cdllc.la.

Anyone who needs to figure out how to derive value, even if not by direct sales, or measure ROI from their website, contact info@crockettdunn.com.

What's SQL Injection? Some new drug or something?

In a nutshell, "SQL injection" is a way to hack into a website, break it, or otherwise make a big mess of it. SQL is a database language, that uses statements like INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE.

Think of SQL injection as analogous to Microsoft's buffer overflow problems (you know those windows updates that you get at 3AM every morning- a lot of 'em fix Microsoft's failure to properly handle buffer overflows) .

So both buffer overflow and SQLinjection happen when you put a bunch of extra stuff into a URL in your address bar, in such a way that it gets dumped onto the server and actually runs the words you put in the URL.

For example, http://crockettdunn.blogspot.com/?andDeleteAllOfCrockettsBlog

Obviously it's not that simple, but that's the idea.

"But Crockett," you ask, "why do I care about SQL injection?"

See below:
from the article, link to article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998271.aspx:

See SQL injection attacks on the rise During the past few months, SQL injection
attacks have been used to break into hundreds of thousands of Web sites powered
by Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) and SQL Server. The attacks
pass unauthorized SQL queries to backend database servers, where they perform
any of number of actions, such as deleting entire databases or tables and
modifying various types stored data, including text and HTML.Microsoft, SANS, Shadow
Server, Trend
Micro, F-Secure, and
numerous other organizations have written about the ongoing problem, which has
been occurring since at least last March. In a nutshell, the bad guys are
exploiting flaws in ASP.NET applications to inject unwanted HTML code into
database records. That HTML eventually winds up in Web pages. When you browse to
the page, the HTML code tries to exploit security vulnerabilities in browsers
and related tools to install a variety of malware onto your PC.These attacks are
possible because of security bugs in various ASP.NET-based applications.
Apparently, many developers have overlooked the need to properly sanitize input
supplied by Web users.For example, a Web form might ask people to enter their
name and e-mail address to sign up for a newsletter. Along with that
information, a hacker could add some special characters and a valid SQL query
statement. If that input isn't properly sanitized before it's sent to the SQL
server, the server might be tricked into executing the query supplied by the bad
guy.The solution is to audit your Web applications to make sure they sanitize
user-supplied input. Microsoft's article
entitled "How To: Protect From SQL Injection in ASP.NET" explains the required
steps.