We’re attending the RR Boot Camp again this year, and instead of the A-Team theme from before, it’s now called “Technology Marketing Speedway: Your Fast Track to Success”.  Kris and I attended last year, and it was a BLAST!

For those of you in the IT biz and who know what/who this is, then we hope to see you in Nashville next week!  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can hit up her seminar page here:

http://www.robinsbigseminar.com/

If you haven’t been to downtown Nashville, you’re really missing out! We were lucky enough to be part of the downtown Nashville scene at her event last year, and were grateful for the timing of it because we left a couple of weeks before the massive Cumberland River flooding that destroyed so many properties and damaged such great American icons such as the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It was utter chaos there, and we were so very fortunate to have been there beforehand when the nightlife was carefree and lively.  Knowing what we know about Nashville now, I’m sure the vibe will be right back where it was when we left.

The seminar was a big hit with us because we met so many great people and learned new techniques for pitching to prospects, maximizing dollars versus efforts, and how to use the technology at our disposal to market ourselves as the best choice for outsourced IT in our market. Valuable info, and many of the ideas we gleaned were put to use right away in order to practice what we learned. We’re hoping to spark that sense of urgency and inspiration again this year!

Look us up while we’re there, and see our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates…

The hottest news so far this quarter isn’t the Motorola Xoom or the new Apple MacBook Pro refresh, but the iPad redux – affectionately called the iPad 2 (very clever).  Since we at Asset Technology didn’t get invited, we’re following several sources for the press event scheduled today.

Follow MobileCrunch and their live blog of the event here:

MobileCrunch iPad 2 Press Event Coverage

Have you found a place in your heart yet for the iPad?  Or an Android-powered device?

Alert from Britt:

If you have a BlackBerry server with the BlackBerry MDS Connection service that will not run, go to the registry at ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BlackBerry MDS Connection Service’ and check the value of the ‘ImagePath’ string which looks like the example below:

 ”C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\MDS\bin\bmds.exe” -s jvmpath=”C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_11\bin\client\jvm.dll” -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -Xss64K -Xmx768M -Xms128M classpathdir=”C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\MDS\classpath\\” wrkdir=”C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\MDS\Servers\AJBREAL1\\” webserverdir=”C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\MDS\webserver\\” -rbes “AJBREAL1_MDS-CS_1″

More than likely Java has been updated to a newer version, and due to Research in Motion’s decision to hard code a path to another software vendors’ program, this can be incorrect. The most current version of Java will be in this location:  ”C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\client\jvm.dll” .  This can be changed by logging in and using regedit to alter the path.

Hope this helps!

USA today has a great article about the very same thing we teach all our Internet Marketing clients:

http://usat.me?41045464

Keep in mind, the purpose of your company’s site should be to inform while being “engaging” – no simple task for many fly-by-night website design firms.  If you combine the creativity of a great graphic designer, the style of an experienced copywriter, and the marketing savvy of a knowledgeable PR person, you have a site that will appeal to whatever audience your business is targeting.

Sounds difficult, right?  Not at all, actually.  Check the article, see what parts of your site need the suggested content, and start working on an upgrade plan today!

You may have seen Google’s newest feature, called “Google Instant”, the newest iteration of Google’s search query system.  When typing whatever words you’ll use to find a website in the Search field, “Instant” automatically completes the phrase when you’re typing, as you’re typing! This is different than the pre-designed search phrases that used to populate the drop-down boxes from previous versions, now it simply anticipates your query, letter by letter!

This new technology only serves to prove that ranking your website as high as possible within the search results provides the greatest benefit.  Why?  Because as you’re typing common search terms, the website links start populating below in the search results, even before you hit the “Enter” key, and you can really only see a few sites just below. And if you only see a few, the likeliest candidate will be within those three, which means that…

IF YOU AREN’T RANKING IN THE FIRST THREE RESULTS FOR YOUR CHOSEN KEYWORDS, THE LIKELIHOOD OF PEOPLE CLICKING THROUGH TO YOUR SITE HAS JUST BEEN SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED!

PCWorld has a very good editorial about its effects here:

PCWorld Article

Here’s Google’s announcement, and info about the new addition:

GoogleBlog Article

Ensure your site gets found right away for the products and services that make your company top in its field – use a qualified, experienced Internet Marketing agency to help guide you through these new technologies and deliver you the traffic you need!



Being an Internet Marketing firm, we are always asked the following question: “What works the best/fastest to get new business from the Internet?”
Now obviously this is a loaded question on many different fronts.  Most “marketing minded” people know that there is no “one thing” that  works, but rather a strategy of many things working together.  That combined with consinstantcy is almost ALWAYS a receipe for successful marketing (online and off). That aside, I will share with you a strategy that IS working very well for many of our clients.

I am sure you have heard of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing.  You know, the thing that made Google take over the planet.  PPC marketing is online ads that show up when people type in specific keywords in a Google search. Most businesses use PPC and end up throwing their money away.  This is because they are not doing some very specific (and strategic) things that are required to see results. 

There are 5 key components to successful PPC marketing.  I will go over these 5 key components using a fictisious client. In my example, we will assume the client is a Landscapeing company.  The business caters to both residential and business clients.

1. Strategic Ads – You  will need more than one ad.  You do not want one ad that tries to target two different markets (business and residential)
2. SPECIFIC keyword targeting – Your keywords are what makes the marketing dollars add up.  Don’t use general keywords like  “lawn care,” or you will be spending your money on people looking for better ways to take care of their yard.  Instead target keywords like, “landscape maintenance contracts.”  This will ensure that you are speaking to the right audience.
3. Landing Pages – This is  critical!  Do NOT send people to the Home page of your website when they click on your ads.  It is too general.  People do not want to peruse around your site looking for their answers.  Instead, send them directly to “landing page” that specifically addresses what they were looking for (I.e. – landscape maintenance contracts).  This creates much higher conversion rates.
4. Website Tracking (for conversions) – Without tracking, how do you know if your marketing dollars are working?  You don’t! Be sure that your website has tracking tools installed so that you know exactly who, what, when, where, and why you are getting hits on your website.
5. Phone Tracking (for leads / new business) – This is the important one that everybody leaves out.  Get a “dummy” number that forwards your calls to your “real” business number.  This will allow you to determine what business you are really getting from your PPC ads.

I hope this has given you some great ideas and insight to get started on your Internet marketing.  And remember, if you need some additional advice or just want someone to handle it for you, call us!  It IS one of our specialities..

Asset Technology – Technology Answers For Your Business

520-955-8503 OR 602-492-8503

So small, yet SO deadly to power supplies

After a year and 8 months, my beloved Roku HD Digital Video Player died.  It just up and stopped working.  AND just before I completed my Roku Beta 2.0 participation survey, which I was extended an invitation to.  I’ve got some very special beta feedback for them…

Apparently, the Roku product line suffers from poor power supply design, both internally and externally. The “wall wart” plugin power supply they provide with my version of the Roku player is a 1.5-amp 5-Volt unit, which is subject to power supply spike (overvoltage) failure or premature breakage due to too much current draw (undervoltage). How do I know? Well, my first clue the the new 2.5-amp 5VDC power supply they’re shipping with the players now. Oh, and I’ve repaired electronics for years.  Plus, if you Google the words “roku power supply failure”, you’ll get a ton of hits!  Ignore the SoundBridge posts, that’s a different unit with the SAME problem.

So, here’s what you do to fix it:

Choice #1: Buy Roku’s stupid 2.5 amp power supply to replace your old 1.5 amp one.  And hope it fixes the problem. Their # is 888-600-7658

Choice #2: Go through your junk drawer and find a spare wall-wart style power supply you’re not using anymore. First, check the sticker or printed part on the power supply to see that its output is between 5 – 6 Volts DC (VDC). The DC part is very important.  Second, check the diagram on the supply to make sure the label says the center part of the tip is positive (+) and the outside shield is negative (-). Third, check to make sure the end of the power cord snugly fits into the back of your Roku with no looseness or “play”. Fourth, check the power supply sticker again and ensure it’s AT LEAST 2.0 amps OUTPUT (but not more than 3.0 amps), or all is lost.  When in doubt, use a multimeter.  If you have no idea what I’m talking about here, see option #1.

Choice #3: Go online and find a used power supply that fits #1 or #2 above.

Choice #4: Start a FaceBook and/or Twitter campaign to further raise awareness of this awful problem (i.e.: bitch a lot) and promote the hell out of it, hoping Roku will actually take care of their loyal customers. In the meantime, while you wait patiently for the world to change, see #1, 2, or 3 above.

After I finish writing this post, I’m off to file complaints with Roku, the CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Commission), the FTC, the CIA, INTERPOL, and anyone else who will listen.  If the folks at Roku were smart, they’d step up and recall the hopelessly underpowered plug-in power supplies and give their loyal owners new ones.  I’ll hold my breath and wait…

I recently purchased a Droid X phone from Verizon. For the most part it is great, but I use it for business quite a bit and have noticed some issues that need to be addressed asap. One of those issues is the fact that every time I set an appointment on my Droid, it marks it as a “private” appointment in my Outlook calendar. If you are experiencing this problem then i have a work-around for you. When you setup a new appointment on you Droid, you can hit the menu button and select “show extra options.” Now your appointment that you are creating will have a privacy setting at the bottom of it. By defualt it is set to private, simply change it to “public” and it will show correctly in your Outlook.
I have not found any way to make this change permanent so I guess we are all going to have to deal with these extra steps until an update comes out…

If you are interested in using the internet to market for you, then you need to know the basics first.
Basic #1: Your website needs to be setup to close the deal. If you are successful in markting through the internet then the final stop is your website. Don’t do all that work just to get someone interested and then have them pull out at the last minute because your site is lacking…
Basic #2: The rule of thumb for marketing is that no ONE thing works, but rather a combination of things. This rule applies just the same for internet marketing. Be sure you are doing a combination of things to get business on the internet.
Basic #3: Make sure you can TRACK your progress. If you don’t know where that client came from then how do you know if your markting is working? There are many different ways (tools) to track internet marketing progress. Don’t skip this..

Now that the basics are out of the way I will give you a 40,000ft. picture of what IS working right now:
-Pay Per Click (make sure you are using landing pages)
-Search Engine Optimization (this means internal site optimization, external optimization (blogs, articles, press releases), and local optimization (Bing local, Google Places))
-Video (this brings emotion to your site and can also be a way to make your marketing viral)
-Email (not to be confused with SPAM – there is a HUGE difference)
-Socail Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc.)

If you need someone to look at your business to help you develop an Internet Marketing Strategy, feel free to call us. We specialize in business to business Internet Marketing services.
Asset Technology – 888.627.7381

Well Windows 7 has been out for a year now and has overtaken Windows Vista. there are still many people that have the impression there is no need to go to Windows 7 as XP still works, Windows 7 is just a fixed Vista, blah blah blah. Unless someone uses it and understands the benefits they will always have preconceived notions of what it is or does. From the features below you tell me, should you?

The other question that goes along with it is what version to buy. Well talking on the business side of things. You need at minimum the Professional version, however there are some benefits to going to the Enterprise or Ultimate version that could save downtime or data theft. If either of those are of value or importance read on.

Ultimate and Enterprise are basically the same, only licensing and purchasing methods are different. Ultimate = Retail, Enterprise = volume license.

Now for the fun stuff:

The built in windows backup will make full system backups for quick recovery using Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) images. The VHD images are mountable and bootable making for easy file recovery and quick system restores or virtualization.

BitLocker is a feature to encrypt hard drives, volumes, and files. Using this encryption USB drives and hard drives can be encrypted in-case of loss or theft protecting valuable company data.