Tom Walker is the return guest and we talk about a dynamic digital catalog project that creates PDF documents and images personalized to the user’s needs. This is a good illustration of how running a business has changed in the digital age.

 

 WSP06 Marrying Integrators [29:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We also discuss the ups and downs of tying together a line of business software or other third party application to your company website. What happens when some function on your web site is not doing what you think it should? How to cut though finger pointing and just get the darn thing fixed.

In our Extra section I show you the inside numbers for traffic to this companion website. Click here if you don’t see the Tags and Tags Extra.

To return to the podcast click here: WSP 06 Marrying Integrators

I use a program called Urchin, which is the same basic engine as Google Analytics. (Well - actually I admit I use both.) Google Analytics is free and Urchin comes with the server hosting service. They both do essentially the same thing; give you information about how many people are visiting your site and where they came from.

In the screen shot below you can see stats from launch to this posting.

This second snapshot shows traffic recorded in the current calendar month.

Thanks to your interest the number of folks visiting and downloading the program is rising steadily. On average the number of visitors per day continues to rise exponentially. Thank you!

On the Extra section of the Web Strategies Podcast show six I also talk about the difference between tags and tags. Last time we talked about add-ons, tools for your browser that make it easier to see Meta tag information. That would include Keywords, Descriptions, and Page Titles mostly.

You should also be aware that your customers and colleagues may use tags to define bookmarks for various web pages they use. Over time the number of useful pages has increased to the point that Web 2.0 developers saw and filled a need to easily categorize our interests and share them. That’s the “other” kind of tag - and is best demonstrated by the site we mentioned last week - del.icio.us .

You may have noticed it took a little extra time to get the Web Strategies Podcast show six edited and posted. We hope to be weekly, but as a friend put it recently - “sometimes life just gets in the way”! We appreciate your support. Please invite your friends and colleagues to review our podcast on iTunes - just type in “Web Strategies Podcast” and we should come right up. The more reviews - the higher we rank - the more people will subscribe. Thanks again for your interest!

This fifth episode of The Web Strategies Podcast happened to be recorded a few days after four tornados ripped through an area about 15 miles from the studio. That prompted a discussion on Disaster Planning – Data Recovery and Hardware Restoration. This is important stuff for everybody. In the studio with me is Tom Walker, president of Web Teks and an expert on the strategic Internet.

 

 WSP05 Disaster Planning [27:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Podcast Extra:

Today’s Podcast Extra is about something called “Add-ons” for the Firefox web browser. Add-ons are mini programs that let you personalize your browsing experience - and if you are not using them, not only are you missing out - you may be drifting behind your competitors. There are all kinds of add-ons, the most popular are tools to help you block ads or download files.

The most useful (at least to me) are add-ons like web developer, which adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. Perhaps it is a little to geek side, but it has been downloaded over six and a half million times. Not just web developers, but us plain folks are using this tool bar to see how web pages are made.

Another Add-on category you should be aware of is SEO tools. There are probably a dozen good tools out of about a hundred or so available as of this posting. I use KGen (Keyword Generator) which is an add-on that allows you to see what keywords are strong on visited web page. For my own blog pages it lets me see which words will most likely be indexed, and it is useful in figuring out which words to use for social sharing. My hot list if Firefox add-ons can be found here: http://del.icio.us/tomanthonydotcom/addon

We will discuss social sharing and tags in an upcoming episode.

Next week we talk about the Big Catalog Project, and Marrying Integrators…Not that kind of wedding … tying together a line of business software to a website.

Welcome to The Web Strategies Podcast, show number 4, Us vs. Them

Standard Podcast [32:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Our guest

for the main segment this time out is Tony Scarola, one of our Web Strategies Podcast subscribers, a friend to the program, and a person who we trust as an expert network engineer and security expert. This time we talk about the age-old confrontation between the technicians and your staff.

WSP04 Podcast Extra Technology Audits

As a business owner you have either have money to burn, or a handle on your business technology infrastructure. If it is not practical to have a full time network engineer on staff, your company really needs an annual technology audit. Find a reputable integrator and hire them to send an experienced network engineer to your office. Make sure they physically inspect the network hardware in place, and inventory all routers, hubs, firewalls, servers and workstations in your system. Ask the company to chart out every machine on your network, how they are connected, and identify what services each is offering. This document should be easy to read and easy to understand. Here is a graphic representing the sample Network Map in Microsoft Visio.

Most of the time shortcomings in outdated hardware or software carry hidden costs. Most business owners simply cannot guess how much lost productivity is the result of a staff asked to make do with old dull tools. What you do not know can indeed hurt you when it comes to network security. If security were not your area of expertise, you would have no way to know how serious a risk your business faces every day.

Has your company experienced data loss due to hardware malfunctions, viruses, or other unexpected circumstances? One of the most common threats to business is the unintentional access to sensitive files by well meaning employees. The other more obvious threat is the deliberate destruction of data by disenfranchised workers. Both are preventable if someone in the know warns you ahead of time. All that said, what happens to your business if before work one morning an electrical fire takes out the bookkeepers office. How long would that take to recover without a working plan based on your current real world network? Makes you want to reach for Alka-Seltzer right now doesn’t it?

WSP 03

In program number three, we talk to Management consultant and author Lanny Goodman about The relationship between technology and business strategy. Lanny is the founder and CEO of Management Technologies Inc. in Albuquerque NM.

Lanny holds a BA in Fine Arts and an MBA in Financial Management, which gives him grounding in the tools and mechanics of business. His book The End of Management is scheduled for release later this year.

WSP 03 The relationship between technology and business strategy [38:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

WSP 03 Podcast Extra
In our Show Extra section after the interview, we talk about the diffusion of innovations and as an example discuss how easy it is now to use video to market your business.