2008-05-09T17:36:31-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/ Empowered http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/05/07_Web_Management_Updates.asp

Aloha!You have probably noticed the new icon in your mail management section of your ZeppOS website. This icon is titled "Create Auto Responder". This is the beginnings of a new feature in Mail Management that will allow you to create your own autoresponse when you are away from your work area. To access mail management, login to your website. Go to "Control Panel" >> Settings >> Mail Setup >> "Click here to launch".

2008-05-07T16:27:18-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/05/07_Viral_Socail_Networking_Site_gets_a_new_twist.asp

As web 2.0 grows, so does the technology that can be bound to it. Family tree sites such as Ancestry.com provide a way to build your family tree but do not provide a way to link us to the rest of the world. James Lee Sorenson plans to solve that problem. Sorenson has started a social networking website called genetree.com not based on friends, but family -- distant family. In fact, your network can reach as far as 12 generations with plans of expanding up to 20 generations as the social networking site grows.Sorenson: "In fact, if you were able to have a database, as far back as say 20 generations, you'd find just about anyone in a room, at any time, would have a common connection. Imagine yourself in a meeting of the United Nations and looking across from you, you realize you are related to that individual and how you are related. What a powerful influence that might be."Genetree.com provides a DNA kit which allows you to mail in your DNA sample which will link you to your distant past. Also, on genetree.com, you can create your own family tree which will also be linked to your genetree through your DNA test. Watch the demo video.

2008-05-07T16:12:32-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/05/02_The_Science_of_Web_Design.asp

Web Design is not my personal forte, while I appreciate and can critique design, I don't have the "eye" (natural talent) to create it. While I don't believe there is a true substitute for natural design talent their is a growing sector of the design industry that is turning it into a science. This means it can be taught and studied. You and I can create a brilliant design thanks to a few tutorials. Keep in mind though, you will most likely need a working knowledge of Photoshop (and have a copy: $999 - for full CS3 version). You should also know once the design is complete you will need to put it on the web... this is called cutting, to do that you will need a strong knowledge of CSS and HTML. That can be expensive and time consuming already, so if you don't have the time, call the professionals! :) Either way, you should have a look at a tutorial to have a deeper understanding of what is involved. The one below is a great starting point.  http://psdtuts.com/interface-tutorials/create-a-sleek-high-end-web-design-from-scratch/ 

2008-05-02T10:24:13-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/17_Choosing_appropriate_monitor_resolution_for_y.asp

The question has been what screen resolution should you design for? When is it time to upgrade to a larger width? Since as far back as 2001 the design community has questioned when the move should be made as the trend in monitor resolution has continued to increase. Seven years ago several studies showed that monitors with 800x600 pixels comprised over 50 percent. Based on statistics of websites in The Zeppo Network and confirmed by other recent industry studies visitors using 800x600 monitor resolution barely average 10 percent; year to date on EmpoweredInternet.com and other sites in the technology sector (See Figure B) this demographic comprises only 2 percent!  Further statistics from within The Zeppo Network show that non-profit websites have the highest amount of visitors still using 800x600 monitor resolution at 12 percent.  Based on reading the Web Analytics of your website you will be able to make an informed decision on what appropriate minimum size you should design your site to. *Figures below group Monitor Screen Resolution Widths into the ranges shown. Figure A: Average Resolutions of Non-Profit Organizations Figure B: Average Resolutions in Technology Sector  Figure C: Average Resolutions of Community Portal 

2008-04-17T22:46:32-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/17_Good_uses_for_Image-recognition_software.asp

Image recognition software that was once used for cracking CAPTCHA codes is now being used for catching criminals and finding children. Google is now working with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to automate a way of trolling through graphic video and images of exploited and abused children. Google's video section contains a large array of videos from the Internet. These videos are scanned by Google's new video frame fingerprinting technology for copyrighted or graphic material. For more than a year Google has been working with analysts in the Child Victim Identification Program to automate the review of 13 million images and video that the analysts once had to review manually. More info here: http://tinyurl.com/63n64m/

2008-04-17T12:49:38-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/09_Tracking_Referrals_and_34The_Stamp_of_Aloha34.asp

I have not yet had an opportunity to Blog on the various tactics of "Off-Page" Search Engine Optimization or on how to interpret the sources of web traffic using Google Analytics (though it is on my long list of to-do's).  In these future post I will be writing about the importance of quality inbound links as they pertain to both increasing how the Search Engines rank for your targeted keywords and also how to read the referral sources to identify what are quality sources. During a morning ritual of drinking Orange Juice and browsing web analytics across The Zeppo Network (as one would read the local paper) I noticed a referral which sent a good amount of traffic to Empowered.  More importantly, the traffic sent over had a better than average bounce rate with the most pages viewed and the some of the longest times on the site. The referrals came from a site called "The Stamp of Aloha" which provide a directory of pre-qualified companies websites.   Their goal is to provide information to on quality vendors looking to make secure buying decisions. I recommend you consider submitting your business for approval as a way to increase quality web referral traffic.

2008-04-09T08:15:29-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/07_A_higher_price_could_be_the_smaller_investmen.asp

We all experienced or have heard about this. We need a service and become a proposal from a legitimate vendor and we find it is too much or it just does not fit in our budget. Now we are looking for the same service but for a cheaper price and fortunately there is this nice guy who is telling us he will take care. He is offering the service we need "on the side" and he offers us a good price. Like "just pay me a 1000 dollar for now and we will see more later", we are glad. That sounds like a good deal when our proposal for a let's say  a professional web site was $5000. Ok, we pay and our friend get started and after a week he has done certain things and he comes back inquiring more money for the " next steps". we are ok with that since we have only paid a 1000 dollars so far. After a week our friend has finished some more steps and is inquiring money again, this time $2000 and so on. To make a long story short after you pass 6000 dollars we ask ourselves the first time if the vendor with the "professional proposal wouldn't have been the better deal, given that not to much is done in our new website. But now it's to late and our friend gets really greedy and is telling us that the project is much bigger then he assumed and he only can finish the website for another $3000. Now we are trapped. In the real case of one of my friends, he had paid 8500 dollars before pulling the emergency break and ended up going back to the serious vendor paying the price in the proposal additional to the money already spent and off course since the nice guy did this job "on the side" he is gone and there is no money to recover. After spending all this money and having a lot of frustration he found out that the higher price could be the smaller investment overall.   

2008-04-07T17:33:38-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/04_Windows_7_-_Sneak_Peak.asp

The buzz is just beginning. The rumors are already spreading. Microsoft is planning to get it's groove back with Windows 7, formorely codenamed Blackcomb/Vienna. This new operating system is scheduled to be released in 2010 and will hopefully not be continually pushed back like the Longhorn/Vista fiasco. Bill Gates and hinted at the failure of Vista and Microsoft has continued it's support of XP. Don't expect Microsoft to make the same mistake twice, although they don't have the powerful brand allegiance of Apple, they have more money and have been fending off competitors for more than 2 decades now. My guess is that Windows 7 will be a dramatic improvement in desktop interface and usability. Another thing to note is that the web has made a dramatic impact on everything, I would expect Microsoft to further exploit this and further integrate their current web tools with this operating system. It also appears that a Windows Server 7 is also planned. Well, for now, stay tuned. It looks like the Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs battle will only heat up. Maybe Linus will get involved soon. Conceptual VideoDon't watch too many YouTube videos on 7, most of them are fake or purely conceptual... just be patient... :) Checkout some early screen shots here:http://youtube.com/watch?v=dSD20aLhecI Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7

2008-04-04T13:19:27-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/02_ZeppOS_CSS_Navigation_Tips.asp

For the past few months I've been bugging Rob about tweaking the navigation system in order to allow more flexibility and to use list based navigation rather than table based layouts. I have to give a big thanks to Rob for listening and being really proactive about making the myriad of changes and requests I've sent in.So, we've got the [?NAV:Mxxx?] navigation now, which allows for loads of flexibility in regards to layout, hierarchy, and even cross-platform dropdown navigation (with the help of some Javascript). Over the next few weeks I'll be posting tips for creating navigation using CSS within the ZeppOS platform. Stay tuned!

2008-04-02T19:47:48-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/04/02_Google_Sitelinks_-_The_Deluxe_Listing.asp

For quite some time I have rigorously searched various SEO sources attempting to find a way to have a Google Sitelink or search snippet included with our results for Empowered Internet Solutions. I found many great resources which shared valuable hints but no definitive answers. After much optimization on our site Google has finally deemed us worthy to have their new deluxe style listing visible.  Many people ask me what they need to do to optimize their site to have this but again there is no definite answer. That said, I would like to share with you what I have gathered which should be helpful. What can you do to increase the chance of having sitelinks show up?You must have #1 page rank for the term searched (and hold #1 position) and from various experts tests, your site needs to be at least 18 months old to qualify. Many speculate that you must have a clear navigation with appropriate H1 H2 tags and logical internal linking however I have come across various sites which did not provide this and still were given the snippet. From my analysis on when we recieved our snippet, it was after an influx of traffic unrelated to our increase to a Google PageRank of 6. Which pages will Google choose to show?In a statement by Google, they state that the selection is completely automated. There is much thought in the SEO community that Google is analyzing user behavior (most likely gathered from Google Analytics) as the primary factor as well as site navigation in their selection. If Google selects sitelinks for you which you feel are invalid, you may access your Google Webmaster Tools account to remove a particular page from being used (there is just not any way to suggest what they should use). To learn more about snippets, I HIGHLY recommend you watch this video from Matt Cutts where he discusses the various elements of the snippet and view the official Google Blog on the topic. If you are really curious in diving deeper, I recommend reading Christian Mezeis Ultimate Google Site Links FAQ or check out Bill Slawsis review of Systems and methods for providing search results. You may also contact an Empowered SEO expert to provide analysis and consultation on your Search Engine Optimization by contacting (808) 593-0073.

2008-04-02T14:24:45-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/03/31_On-Page_Search_Engine_Optimization_Tactics.asp

From my experience the most important efforts always start at home. I have found the same to be true in regards to optimizing your website for the Search Engines. In its simplest form efforts on massaging information in your website would be considered On-Page Optimization whereas adding links to other websites which point to yours would be considered Off-Page Optimization. Here are some On-Page tactics for SEO:Domain and Page URL When choosing your domain name it is very helpful to include keywords in the domain or in the physical page paths. ZeppOS creates page URLs from the pages title which do wonders for SEO.Page Titles This is the MOST important element of On-Page SEO and is used in the search engine results.Meta Keywords, Description Although the weight of these tags has diminished, many Search Engines (such as Google) use the content of the description tag to accompany the link in your site in its results. ZeppOS gives you the ability to easily manage unique page titles and meta data for each page of your siteSiteMap.xml and Robots.txt The Robots.txt file instructs the spiders where not to waste their time visiting and it also tells them where to find your XML Sitemap. ZeppOS comes with a SiteMap.xml and Robots.txt generator which can be executed in a single click.Page Content There are many factors to consider in the content area of your page which include: Utilize Heading (H1 and H2) Tags as they work to create a Table of Contents for your website allowing the content to be easily indexed.Emphasize Key Terms by making them bold.Write the first sentence of your body text with care as it is the most important text for advanced On-Page SEO efforts (due to the implementation of Googles LSI algorithm).Keyword Density of just under 10% is highly effective. So if you have a 350 word article then 35 of the words should be a variant of the search terms you are targeting. Image ALT Tags used to describe images to the SEs (as well as to the visually impaired) and serve as additional SE food.Same-Site and Outbound Linking The way you link to internal links in your site and the way you link to other sites is very important to monitor.Same-Site link text, or the text which is used to be hyperlinked to other pages of your site must have your target keywords as having variations to your targeted keywords helps when linking through your site.Same-Site link URLs should be used to describe pages in your site (e.g.: http://bertholf.com/Search-Engine-Optimization.asp)Outbound Link Text is important for any sites you are linking to.The ZeppOS Total Site Management tool provides full control over every aspect of your site be it the title or meta descriptions for every page to the ZeppOS DIY SEO plug-in which allows you to generate Robots.txt, 301-Redirects, Sitemap XML files and so much more.Empowered offers an On-Page Optimization service which will set you up for success in the Search Engines, give them a call today at (808) 593-0073!

2008-03-31T09:18:04-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/03/12_Web_Analytic_Basics.asp

It is important that you understanding how your visitors find your site, what they do on your site and if they ever return. This can be very helpful in fine tuning your website so that you achieve your goal be it better sharing of information, selling your product or generating leads.  There are two different methods for identifying these statistics of your ZeppOS powered website.  Webalizer:The first is an integrated usage report called Webalizer this may be accessed by logging into your website and navigating Control Panel > Maintenance > Usage Report > Webalizer.  Google Analytics:From the link above you may also find a link to Google Analytics (http://google.com/analytics/) this is an exceedingly superior web analytics application which is the best took on the market to track and monitor the traffic performance of your site.  The above tools will provide you with critical data including: How are visitors finding you?There are three main paths for visitors to find your site:Direct Traffic Visitors who access your website by typing your URL directly into their web browser or return to your site from a saved bookmark. Referred Traffic Referred traffic consists of visitors who access your site by clicking on another website other than a search engine. Search Engine There are two main types of traffic originating from Search Engines, Organic (Free) and Paid. As there are a lot to understand about the various ways traffic reaches your site I will expand on this in a future blog. How do your visitors behave on your website?There is a great deal of value in identifying the patterns of visitors on your site. Things like:Average pages per visit How many pages do they view during a visit to your site? Bounce rate What percentage of your visitors are leaving your site before viewing additional pages? Average time on site How long are they hanging out reading your content? These factors among others give a keen insight to the effectiveness of your online presence. If you have an ineffective website, all the Off-Page optimization in the world will not solve the problem. How do they like the content offered in your site? This answers the question of which pages your visitors find most interesting.Top content This ranks the pages in your site by order of page views. Content drilldown - shows you a breakdown of all the URLs that were visited on your site. This will start to provide a better understanding on what types of content your visitors like the most which will also guide you to enhancing content on the lesser trafficked pages.  How often are your visitors returning?Visitor loyalty shows you howNew vs. Returning visitors This shows the percentage breakdown of new versus returning visitors. Visitor loyalty This similarly indicates the number of visits expanding on the returning visitors statistics. If you are running ads or radio campaigns as a way of generating new traffic, it's nice to know if you're continuing to get new visitors. It's also important to know if the visitors you've already gotten to your site are ever coming back. Visitor loyalty shows you the same type of info but with more detail, so you quantify how often your visitors are returning. What about Conversion rates for visitors on the site? How can I use Web Analytics to improve my Website?Stay tuned, this will be the topic of a future post (I will be watching to see if you do using Visitor Loyalty)

2008-03-12T18:24:48-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/03/27_Verifying_Your_Site_with_Google_Webmaster_Too.asp

One of the first steps in Empowereds On-Page optimization service is enabling the Webmaster Tools provided by Google which include access to a wide variety of key data pertaining to your website. A site must first be verified with Google in order to take advantage of these tools. ZeppOS makes it very easy to do this through its Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plug-in. This plug-in may be purchased from your Empowered account executive or dedicated sales consultant.Once verified you are presented with a more complete and powerful set of diagnostic tools. For webmasters and B2B marketers alike this provides the ability to identify crawl errors, backlink inventories and page load times which are all available for you to study and review in order to integrate as part of your search engine optimization strategy.The next step is to prepare a list of the various pages in your website so that the Search Engines have an easier time indexing (or finding) the pages in your site. SiteMaps.org states:Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. In its simplest form, a Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.Web crawlers usually discover pages from links within the site and from other sites. Sitemaps supplement this data to allow crawlers that support Sitemaps to pick up all URLs in the Sitemap and learn about those URLs using the associated metadata. Using the Sitemap protocol does not guarantee that web pages are included in search engines, but provides hints for web crawlers to do a better job of crawling your site.The ZeppOS DIY SEO plug-in is continually upgraded to the newest standards and has wide adoption, including support from Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. It is in these engines best interest to work.Here are some reasons it is important to verify your site in Google Webmaster Tools:Using the webmaster tools can help you identify broken links. Once verified, the data presented can help you diagnose site problems and facilitate the spidering and indexing of your site. Google Webmaster Tools can provide information on items which may be affecting your site's performance in Google. Liking data can provide insight into the internal linking structure of your site. If you have internal pages that are not being crawled and are not inheriting Page Rank you can determine how these pages are interlinked on your site. Google Webmaster Tools provides a more accurate snapshot of backlinks to your site although Google still maintains that this is only a snapshot of the links to your site. For more information, tips, tricks and Google Webmaster Tools developments, check out the Official Google Webmaster Central blog.Call (808) 593-0073 to install the DIY SEO plug-in or to have an Empowered SEO specialist fine tune your site through our On-Page Optimization services.

2008-03-09T14:41:09-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/03/06_Empowered_with_a_Capitol_E.asp

I spent yesterday at the Hawaii State Capitol as part of Science and Technology Day. About 40 companies in the field of Science and Technology were set up in around the inner lanai of the Capitol building. Legislators, there staff, and other interested parties circled tables to find out what was happening in the Innovation space of Hawaii. Why was I there? Because as a Webolutionary representing Empowered Internet I was showing ZeppOS, an innovative technology that has been practically applied to over 500 companies and organizations. Hawaii has an old standing but hopefully fading sense of inferiority compared to the 'mainland' US. This comes from our agricultural 'plantation' roots as well as being a Kingdom overthrown. But in truth many profound innovations have come from within Hawaii as well as from Hawaii's sons and daughters. Norm Abramson working at the University of Hawaii helped develop the basis for ethernet. The Wikipedia states 'ALOHAnet, also known as ALOHA, was a pioneering computer networking system developed at the University of Hawaii. It was first deployed in 1970, and while the network itself is no longer used, one of the core concepts in the network is the basis for the widely used Ethernet.' Steve Case born and raised in Hawaii pioneered mass internet use with AOL. As I wrote to each legislator prior to the Capitol event, "Now Empowered Internet Solutions is leading a Webolution by empowering business owners, non-profit associations and individuals to take control of their own websites. The technology underlying this paradigm shift of websites without webmasters is called the ZeppOS, the Windows of the Web. ZeppOS is an innovative software conceived of and developed right here in Hawaii by Rob Bertholf. The Zeppo Network has obtained US patents for the software and is poised to change the way the web is used by making it as easy to edit, change and update a website as to write an email or a word document. We encourage you to meet us and see a home grown innovation that Hawaii can be proud of just as Hawaii contributed to the birth of the Internetwe are contributing to the evolution the Internet by empowering anyone to use this powerful tool for information, communication and commerce.We thank-you for your continued interest and support of science and technology research as well as the commercialization of innovations into new and productive industries in Hawaii and throughout the world." It is important for Hawaii to have confidence in support of its own innovations in the context of a global economy. That support can come in eliminating legal roadblocks to innovations, anti-business tax regulations as well as supporting investment through tax incentives, and proactively working to establish new companies as permanent residents of Hawaii. Empowered is such an innovative company. I hope that we exposed some of the residents of our Capitol building to the innovative energy of Empowered with a capitol E.

2008-03-06T18:29:30-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/03/03_Who_You_Gonna_Call.asp

The other day the new manager of a Hawaii Venture Capital company gave me a call.  It seems he had just received a $2500 bill from their existing WebMaster for the redesign of the home page and few other inserts of some news stories. He knew that their company would be changing the navigation menus and updating alot of content in the near future and so he thought to himself  "I know just who to call" About a month ago I had given a presentation to the law firm where he previously worked and so he knew that by Empowering his new companies website that would immediately eliminate costly bills like this and be able to execute the updates in house. So when you get your next bill from your web master and turn various shades of red...don't get mad...get empowered.  Who you gonna call?  

2008-03-03T09:34:17-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/28_Do_You_Want_a_Webolution.asp

I have been around the Web since its inception. My first exposure to it was from my first programmer with my educational software company Rising Wave in the 90's. Kevin Hughes, then a college student at Honolulu Community College, and now the World Wide Web Hall of Fame, showed me some weird looking code call HTML. I said to myself "Who would want to touch that?" and went back to developing interactive multimedia (the big thing of the day). For the first 10 years of the Web pretty much the only people who would 'touch that', HTML and its fancy new brethren PHP, ASP, CFM etc were programmers who took on the humble name of WEB MASTERS. Hey who I am to say anything about them, I was one for 7 years. Starting with my own site selling Blackbelt language learning online and then designing, developing and managing sites for others I used the standard web tool called Dreamweaver along with handcoding as needed. A million WEB MASTERS bloomed and proliferated over those years and every website owner needed one every time they wanted to make significant or even simple changes to their site.  Then a few years ago I met a young company that was out to change all of that. They wanted to Empower people to control their own domains (websites). Today I am leading the charge to Empower every business who is willing to take control of what is theirs and drive their business to the next level on the web. To me what I see is a complete paradigm shift from WEB MASTERS and the inevitable Web Slaves (the website owners), to empowered websites without webmasters. So revolutionary is this concept that most of the time I spend consulting with business owners is showing how it is not only possible but that yes they can do it.  In the course of any consultation there is a moment when they get it. Yes, it is like a light goes on. From that moment they are ready to be empowered. What do we call this phenomena of freeing yourself from the chains of the past, to the dependency, financially, timewise, and even emotionally to a web master? We call it a WEBOLUTION and I encourage every enslaved website owner or future web owner to join it and GET EMPOWERED!

2008-02-28T15:38:31-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/28_A_Click_Tale.asp

Understanding the traffic on your site is probably the greatest goldmine you have for your business.  It's full of all sorts of rich information, that if you know how to harness and utilize, can generate tremendous growth and productivity off of your site.Knowing all sorts of things like where users are coming from, what pages they visited, and how long they spent on your site can give you valuable information.   I'll give a great example from a webmaster friend who understands the importance of this.  Looking at his clients traffic numbers and statistics every day, he noticed an individual from London had come onto the site two days in a row and browsed multiple properties.  He told the realtors in the office to keep their eyes open for a call from London.  Sure enough, 4 days later, he called and they were ready for him.  The knew what properties he had browsed and were fully knowledgeable about what he was wanting.  They were able to provide great service.  There are a lot of ways to utilize traffic data.  It's important to know what your bounce ratio is - that is the percentage of users who have left the site in less than 10 seconds.  This will vary from industry to industry but you should aim to keep it as low as possible.  Another factor is how much time users have spent on the site.  There is a direct correlation between how much time they spend on the site to how productive your results are from the website.  There are a number of variables.  And someone who knows Web Analytics can always help review your numbers and give an analysis of your site and what you can do to improve it.  One of the tools we've recently discovered and enjoyed is ClickTale.  There are a variety of ways to track users as they visit your site.  The interactivity of the tracking tool is truly amazing.  We liked it so much, we've integrated it into the ZeppOS platform.  There are fees for using ClickTale, and we can guide you on implementing it and monitoring your traffic.  We're all about taking it to the next level.  And if you are, then you need to consider Web Analytics and specifically, ClickTale as a supplement to Google Analytics.  Feel free to contact us for more information.

2008-02-28T12:04:47-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/27_Keyword_Protection.asp

Earlier this month, there was an intriguing legal case between 1-800Contacts and a competitor, Lensworld.  The fight started when Lensworld bought keyword targets ads (such as Google Adsense and the ads that show on the right side of a search result) for 1-800Contacts, 1800Contacts and 1 800 Contacts.  It's a common practise, but 1-800Contacts filed a trademark infringement lawsuit.  It's not the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last.  The problem is, the ad networks are set up to allow you to do that.  You can purchase any keyword you want, even a trademark name.  The opinion is wide and far on whether or not its ethical.  Some contend that if you own a trademark and have spent the thousands of dollars to establish that name and brand, no one else should be able to benefit from it.  Valid point!  I don't want my competitors showing up when someone searches for Empowered or Aloha Media Group.  Their looking for me.  But it's a common practise.  Searching for brand names in google will easily show, a lot of people don't have ethical questions about purchasing ads for a keyword that is a trademark.  And what about the search engines and portals?  Where is Google on all this?  Silent for the most part.  They have built the infrastructure and have not put any restraint in for straining out trademarked keywords.  And can you imagine the technological/legal hurdles to accomplish that?  It's very thought provoking, and sure makes for great blog material.  If you have an opinion about this.  Post it now, we'd love to hear. 

2008-02-27T12:40:10-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/15_Yahoo_says_Microsoft....get_out_of_MySpace.asp

The Yahoo soap opera is getting very interesting from the news reports today.  The deal is from News Corp's Fox  Interactive Media and it's a very interesting merger.  They have valued the merger at an estimated $50 billion, a little bit more than the Microsoft offer.  Most of us have little knowledge of who Fox Interactive is and why on earth this deal would be taking place.  But with one domain name, you'll get a better idea:  www.myspace.com.  Yes, they own the infamous and top traffic site of My Space.  The major benefit of this potential merger is an advertising powerhouse that would have an astounding 35% market share of online advertising.  This is also a great way to stave off Microsoft.  And that is important to Yahoo, as they recently communicated in letter to their shareholders.  They implemented a new strategy last year (which has seemed like a great move in my interactions with Yahoo), and they fear the Microsoft bid would destroy their positive direction.  Personally, I'm much in favor of the Fox Interactive merger.  I think it allows Yahoo to continue their direction to do something different by continuing their diversity with more online advertising.  Many people in the media field are agreeing.  I think it is a brilliant step by Jerry Yang to not only avoid the Microsoft dilemna all together, but also to continue taking his company in the right direction. 

2008-02-15T10:47:37-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/12_Ideas_Away_From_Your_Desk.asp

Have you ever had ideas (for edits to your Empowered website, ideas for your next book, answers to the mysteries of human existence, etc.) when you didn't have a computer handy or even a pen?If you have your phone handy, you can save that thought easily. Just use Jott.First, set up a free account at www.jott.com. Once you are registered, you use the toll free number provided to Jott yourself the idea. You speak your idea to Jott for up to 20 seconds, and it converts and e-mails you the text (or texts you the text!). Of course it's also available to you in text in your login on Jott.com. By the way, those last three sentences you just read were pasted in from my Jott, and some of the content on our Empowered site was pasted in from Jott.Jott is useful for a lot of other things, of course. You can Jott your co-worker or team too. WordPress, Blogger, TypePad or LiveJournal? Jott straight to your blog! You can Jott to Twitter, or even use Jott to add a reminder to your Google calendar. What's next? ZeppOS developers? Jotting directly to your Empowered site?

2008-02-12T00:05:45-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/11_Yahoo_Says_No_Thanks.asp

In the internet soap opera of 'Daze of Our Lives', we have a not so un-expected twist.  Yahoo! rejects Microsofts offer, politely of course.  So where does this leave things?  Well its far from over.  Microsoft could forge ahead without permission and start buying up shares regardless.  There's a lot of speculation, but we'll just have to wait for official reaction from Microsoft. 

2008-02-11T11:16:58-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/08_Who_owns_WEB_2.0.asp

Web 2.0 is the next generation of web development. Here is a list of current web 2.0 tools and who owns them. For instance, Google owns YouTubeYahoo owns Flickr, Del.Icio.usAOL owns Nullsoft, Mapquest http://www.mydigimedia.com/tipsheets/WhoOwns2708.pdf

2008-02-08T12:41:27-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/01/31_Internet_Outage_across_Africa_the_Middle_East.asp

Today the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa were experiencing wide-spread Internet downtime. Apparently a ship's anchor may have broke two main cables somewhere in the Mediteranean. The effects have been fairly devastating for businesses, phone networks and tv networks. Places such as Dubai are hit the worst. This could take almost a week to fix but is really shedding light on the regions dependence on the Internet.  Read more here: CNN.COM So what would you do? How would your day-to-day be effected? Could you even work? Are you prepared?   

2008-02-07T09:56:58-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/04_Creating_Drop_Down_Menus_in_ZeppOS_is_a_breez.asp

Ok, I have to say I was a bit skeptical when Rob said it could be so easy to change out (or add) a fully customizable drop down menu to my clients ZeppOS website. But I'm a believer now. Rob walked me through the drop down menu conversion process on one of my websites today. I was really impressed with amount of customization Open Cube allows and even more impressed with the way the Open Cube code gets dropped in to the ZeppOS design interface with just a few clicks. Rob has made the process simple and painless, which is especially nice for the programming-challenged folk like me. I prefer the new menus because they are easy to configure, and there are a ton of attractive menu samples to choose from as your starting point. Within a few minutes you can customize your colors to match your site design and copy and paste your code into ZeppOS and youre done! Im also stoked to know that the code needed for these drop down menus is SEO friendly and works well in IE and Firefox browsers. In short, heres how to do it:Log in to ZeppOS, go to the Control Panel, then Design and Manage Menus. Click on the Launch Editor link.a. Select a Menu Template (found on the left)b. Click on "Customize Menu" (lower right)c. Configure Menu as desiredIf you are familiar with the Open Cube interface, make your changes using the various options listed in the left hand column. If all those options are a bit intimidating, choose the Quick Color Editor icon in the top row of icons, about half way across. This is an easy way to visually change the colors of the sample menu to the colors you want to match your design. Just copy and paste the RGB values in place of the existing colors.d. Custom PublishChoose File, Custom Publishe. Set both "CSS Stylesheet" and "Menu Code/Add Ons" to "External" and click Nextf. Copy and Paste the CSS into the CSS box back in the ZeppOS Control Panelg. Copy and Paste the Javascript into the Javascript box back in ZeppOS Control Panelh. Press Update.i. Lastly, go to your skin(s) and replace your previous menu with [?NAV:M111D?]Voila!

2008-02-04T23:52:43-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/03_Google_admits_indexing_error.asp

With the recent changes that Google made at the end of the year, many clients benefited, especially those on ZeppOS.  However, in an odd turn, a number of companies that have been in the top few results for years were relegated to number 6 position with no explanation.There were many ideas as to why and a lot of speculation (the SEO industry tends to conspiracty theory rather easily about these things).  And for good reason, dropping to below the top five could mean sudden death in the SEO game.Though it seemed unlikely that Google would invoke a four or five-place penalty, the number of webmasters reporting the problem gave more weight to the growing urban myth.Search Engine Roundtable reports that Matt Cutts confirmed a glitch with Google, and that they are in the process of resetting everything back to normal.  You can take relief if you were one of those clients.Explanations weren't really offered. I guess even Google is able to make a mistake.

2008-02-03T21:36:30-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/01_Under_the_Sea....asp

A few years ago while touring a data center I came across a great map of the internet's undersea world. And today, while purusing www.Digg.com, I just happened to come across another map that showed the same thing. This map was just updated to show the recent outage as well. It was very interesting to learn that the majority of the global networks are the result of old under-sea land lines instead of newer satellite technology. Thomas Friedman also talks about this phenomenon in his book "The World is Flat", in the early 90's there was alot of money to be made by laying and controlling the ocean fiber lines, however the majority of those companies went bankrupt and got bought out. Small Version - click here for full size

2008-02-01T19:36:45-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/02/01_Microsoft_makes_historic_bid_to_buy_Yahoo.asp

Fresh off the press, it has been verified that Microsoft has made a $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo. The specifics still linger, and time will only tell what becomes of this. The story is that Microsoft offered Jerry Yang at Yahoo quietly and he said no. Then, Microsoft harnessed the power of the press and went public with it. It could all be drama with Yahoo declining, but then it could be a very different story. What does it mean to the rest of us who can't even fathom what $44 billion is like? Well its about more than search. It's probably more about combining resources for online paid advertising and other tools Yahoo has leverage of. Neither of them can really compete at this time with Google on organic search. Although, I will note that Yahoo has made some very positive and dramatic changes in 4th quarter of last year. The problem Yahoo has is getting people to go back to Yahoo. Once clients move away from a service or product, its much harder to get them back than it is to get new ones. Yahoo was once the giant we all used to some degree, and now few of us do. It's a valuable lesson for all of us about paying attention to our clients and users, and the price we can pay when we don't!What does Microsoft stand to gain in this deal besides a little more of organic search marketshare and online paid advertising?15.6% combined share of Internet visits (twice Google's)28% of search (depending on who you ask)Yahoo adds 35% of the Maps/Local sector (slightly competitive with Google)10% of online shopping directories87% of portal front pages83% of web-based email services (still light years ahead of Gmails numbers)12% of online news and media39% of business information contentFlickr would give Microsoft 12% of the photo marketSo there is benefit in this for sure for Microsoft. I'm not sure what this means for us but more consolidation in a field very dominated by very large companies. That may not be a bad thing since Google has grown out of control. Time will only tell. But, the problems inherent with search aren't likely to be fixed anytime soon by Yahoo, Microsoft or Google. What we need is more standardized platforming and more intuitive search tools. What we would hope for is more R&D on organic search results, and more attention paid to users getting the results they are wanting. We have to be fair and say that neither Yahoo or Microsoft has a long history of the latter. We can learn a number of lessons from this. First, that Yahoo paid dire consequences for not paying proper attention to the users of their product. And secondly, a positive note. They diversified and made the best of a bad situation. That is what has kept them going until now.

2008-02-01T16:45:44-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/01/31_A_new_revolution_in_communication_emerges..asp

My exit paper in college was based on wireless technology and where its going. I truly believe that wireless technology will change the way we use the internet in an always connected way. This generation is a based on a communication NOW mission and wireless internet and communication technology will be the transport. Rob Bertholf, CEO foretold this need for up-to-the-minute communication by creating ZeppOS total website management. Click Done.  The 700MHz band is the new transport for this technology. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) mandates that by Feb 19, 2009 that the entire UHF TV band will be switched over to digital. This opens the whole 700MHz band up for grabs. The price of the entire spectrum is set for more than 30 billion dollars. However the auction will occur in blocks. A large block has a bidding reserve of 4.6 billion and this reserve has just been exceeded. The prospective bidders are Verizon, Google, and other smaller companies. This band is costly and coveted because this 700MHz band is a lower frequency. This means you can transmit further at lower power. In other words, 1.4GHz - 2.4GHz (current cell phone traffic) transmits at 5 mile per tower where 700MHz can transmit to more than 20miles per tower with the same amount of power.  What does that mean for us as a company? It means that we are way ahead of our time. As this communication revolution begins its next stage of development, more and more people are going to be looking for a way to update their website on the fly using their personal communication device. In the next 2 years, we are going to see a huge change in how people are connected this global network we call the internet. To learn more, the Tech Republic did a nice write up here:http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2347-22_11-88267-185443.html?seq=100 

2008-01-31T15:04:55-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/01/30_Understanding_The_Importance_of_SEO.asp

For most new site owners, the prospect of unlimited traffic and visitors converting into actual contacts is reason enough to put your brick-and-mortar operation online as quickly as possible. You have a great looking site, intelligently written copy on all the pages, and a clear understanding of what your site needs to do for you in terms of income or interest generation.Before we really dive in on that any further, I would like to throw some numbers at you in regards to the internet we have today. There are over 8 billion websites out there, and the numbers are growing exponentially by the hour. There are 4 major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN/Live.com, & Ask.com) to which you can have your website show up on when your target audience is seeking your products or services. You have your own set of numbers as well; the number of local competitors in your industry, compounded by the number of national competitors as well. All in all, it's safe to say that it's a mighty big ocean out there with only a limited number of ways to get seen.But that's not entirely true. The search engines are great for sending traffic, but based off of my first statement about the number of websites out there, it becomes obvious that there are millions of places to generate a buzz about your website on different marketing channels. This would be where the importance of SEO (search engine optimization) would logically come in to help you get your company seen.SEO requires quite a bit of footwork by someone who understands what websites are qualified to market your site. Most commonly, some qualifiers for this would be; The websites relevancy to your siteHow established the subject site is within it's industryHow well the search engines rank the subject site for any given number of search termsIf the subject site will send qualified traffic to your siteThe site owner does not practice any questionable methods which the search engines frown onThere are more things that could go to that list, however, my point is pretty clear. It's the same kind of methodology that we as people use whenever we are establishing business contacts; we look for redeeming qualities and practices that will not hurt our own reputation which will only lead to good business transactions. Your website is your virtual salesperson, so it needs to be associated with trustworthy sources.There are virtually countless other innovative ways to get attention all over the web. Submitting press releases online is a great way to build awareness to your site, or a new product/service you want to announce. Setting up a company blog is also a stellar way to get a faithful following of people who will always be in the know when it comes to what you have to offer. Both blogs and press releases have the ability to be republished and redistributed thousands upon thousands of times across the web at little to no cost to you besides the time it took to prepare it!Empowered Internet & ZeppOS offer some great ways to get started on optimizing your web site for search engines, however, it's always advised that you look into launching your new site with a full blown online marketing campaign. Even if your site has been up and running for awhile, it is never too late to get started on it. Talk to your rep from Empowered Internet to learn more about making your site shine on the web.

2008-01-30T16:27:00-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/01/30_Simplify_Bookmarking_Madness.asp

Have you seen those clever bookmark tools all over the web? You know, mouse over, you get a drop down with a ton of book mark site options... Well, it just so happens that there is one company that exclusively distributes these and even has content management system plug and play code... enter www.ADDTHIS.com. These guys are great and they're being used all over the web. They simplify the madness that is bookmarking. The ZeppOS integration can utilize this in 2 easy steps, first you need to be on your website and on the page you want to allow others to bookmark and make sure you're logged in. 1. Click the Plug Icon on the segment you want to add it to. 2. Choose AddThis.com bookmarker DONE!!! And if you look on the top right of this page you'll see the one I added.   

2008-01-30T16:15:30-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/01/27_Mail_Management.asp

Do you need to reset your email password? Do you have a new employee that needs their email account activated? Do already have an email address and  you need all your mail forwarded?  Tools, like the mail management system, are being generated daily for your convenience. To access this system, log-in to your ZeppOS control panel, go to settings, then click on mail setup. On this page click on "click here to launch" to start editing your mail accounts.

2008-01-27T19:01:48-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/01/18_Drop_Down_Menus_SEO_friendly_Browser_Complian.asp

Few things excite me like a compact and easily customizable SEO friendly cross-browser and 508 compliant zero JavaScript capable dynamically driven menu!Whew... while you take a breath from that last sentence, let me tell you why you should be as excited as I am!  Drop down menu's have always been out of the reach of the average designer because of their complexity and difficulty to customize; too often do I see a drop down menu that ripped from another site and clearly did not belong on the new site it was placed into. Now even if you were skilled enough to create a menu which looks professional to the web visitors, have you stopped to think what do the search engines see? Many times 60% or more of the website is consumed by nonsense code and the only part of it which has any value is buried in a complex array.If that wasnt bad enough anytime you update a page in your site, you historically had to go through and update each page with the new menu structure. Recently, however, OpenCube launched version 6 of their QuickMenu application which now reads an unordered list (<UL> <LI>) which is dynamically generated through ZeppOS allowing for clean code and a platform to style your menus. As some of our design partners know, ZeppOS has had the Expanded menu tag to supported the Suckerfish and Son of Suckerfish way of styling for over a year now, however this took a high level of CSS mastery. Through a new integration partnership between OpenCube and The Zeppo Network, Inc., you may style your drop down menu directly through ZeppOS with just a few steps have your drop down menu configured.What does OpenCube have to say for themselves?QuickMenu bridges the gap between pure CSS and critical script only features such as delay timers for enhanced user control. Developers who have previously worked with hand-me-down CSS code will find QuickMenu to be a true purists solution presented in a user friendly well documented format.There are many effects and styles which may be easily added such as rounded edges as you see in the menu bar on our site. To learn more about what is possible for your site give a call to the Empowered creative team or a ZeppOS Creative partner today!

2008-01-18T01:27:32-08:00 http://empoweredinternet.com/blog/2008/01/11_Google_Analytics_releases_new_tracking_code.asp

Google recently released a new tracking code which enables many new features highlighted by Event and Outbound Link Tracking.   Additional features include a more compact and faster source file which allows for faster download time, automatic detection of HTTPS and increased namespace safety. Although the previous tracking code (urchin.js) is still supported, you will not benefit from the new features unless you update to the new (ga.js). As of January, the new code was updated in ZeppOS upgrading all clients to the new tracking code at once.  A clear advantage of partnering with a ZeppOS distributor is the ability to stay on the cutting edge of technology at all times! If you are not taking advantage of viewing statistics through Google Analytics place a call to your account executive to learn how you can get in the know!

2008-01-11T23:49:23-08:00