Recently, I’ve posted a couple items for sale on the ‘dangerous’ craigslist.org website. Namely, a riding mower and a chandelier that we replaced in the living room.

The advertisement clearly displays the specifications, and images of the mower, as well as the technical attributes, and price. It also displays in clear instructions that cash is only accepted, but PayPal and Visa/Master card are welcome. Seems simple enough, right?

Just a day or so after posting the advertisement, I began to receive e-mails regarding the advertisement, seemed innocent and genuine enough that simply read:

Is this item still for sale?

A valid, and un-obtrusive question from a seemingly reliable gmail.com email author, with a real name and seemingly un-alarming and somewhat personable human being. So, no reason to suspect anything.

I replied to the email:

Yes, this is still for sale.

Just MINUTES (if not seconds) after I sent my reply, (which is most likely a BOT which sent the email originally) I received a reply from the same author which sent it, and thus my suspicious self discovered the true nature of their contacting me.

Thanks for responding,  i would like you to remove the advert 
from the list cos i want to make the purchase asap and i dont mind
adding extra $20 to delete the ads from the list..Please let me
know if a certified check is ok.?  After the payment clears, my
shipper will come and pick it up at your location.  I would
have loved to come and take a look but I can't. My shipper will
though. If you can get back to me with your details I'll get the
check sent out asap. 

Need your full name and address, and your cellphone number, the
description of the item and the actual amount you want to
sell..

Thanks

Ok, so what part of the advertisement is this person missing here? CASH, Visa/MasterCard and Paypal are clearly printed on the advertisement as accepted payment.

Also, I became really suspicious of the last request for all my personal information, which tipped me off that this is a deceitful attempt to obtain my info for a grab at my identity!

So, I visited craigslist scam listings and you should to by going to their website: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

After I edited my ad, I placed a SCAM alert notice in the body of the advertisement, warning potential scam artists that I would pursue their identities, and pass it along to the authorities for charges if I discovered that they were trying to deceive me. The emails from the scammers abruptly stopped, and I have since sold all my items to real people interested in buying what I wanted to sell, and met some really nice folks in the process.

Morale of the story: Be careful when dealing with emails and people who appear to be something they are not!

Pianobar is a a free/open-source, console-based replacement for Pandora’s flash player.

For Ubuntu OS and many linux users, it provides you with all the same features and functions as the web based Pandora client, but with some really nice differences, and simple controls – and NO COMMERCIALS. Sorry Windows users, you’re SOL.

There is a version of pianobar for Mac OS X, and you can learn about it here.

Most of the features Pandora’s flash client has are implemented in the Pianobar terminal client. This means you can create, delete and rename stations.

Adding and removing artists or songs to/from a station is also possible through the easy to navigate menu options. Music tracks can be rated, temporarily banned and moved to another station. Sending the artist and song title information to last.fm (“scrobbling”) is possible with the eventcmd interface, which you can learn more about in another article. For now, let’s simply get it installed, and playing for you so you too can begin enjoying music while you read my other articles here on musiccityguru.com

NOTE: Users outside the United States can listen to Pandora through a proxy. Keep in mind that you are violating Pandora’s terms of use if you do so.

Downloading pianobar (and installing it)

To obtain pianobar, the best and most effective way is to add the Pianobar deb repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list file – this provides you with an easy way to maintain Pianobar when changes or updates occur.  Open a terminal window and edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

$ sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.lst

Add the lines shown below anywhere in the file (I added mine at the bottom).

#pianobar distribution
deb http://ubuntu.mirror.cambrium.nl/ubuntu/ oneiric main universe

Save the file, and simply update your apt-get:

$ sudo apt-get update -f

Once your update has completed, just use apt-get to install it, and you’re ready to begin using pianobar (in simple mode):

$ sudo apt-get install pianobar

If all goes well, you’ll be smiling. But, you’re not done yet, if you’re any kind of a nerd like me. You see, pianobar reads a configuration file for username and password information that it needs to log in to your Pandora account. If you don’t have a Pandora account, now is a good time to create one. Otherwise, proceed as shown below to setup the configuration file. To run your newly installed pianobar, and login, just activate it from the terminal window:

$ pianobar

You will be prompted for your (Pandora) username (email address) and password which is your Pandora account login and password. I don’t like having to provide this EVERY time I run pianobar, so being the lazy slob that I am, I worked up the configuration file to perform all the actions for me. I run it, it logs me in and begins playing a pre-configured channel I like to listen to. WHAT GREAT FUN!

Git users can download the latest installation version available here: https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar.git

git clone https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar.git

To install on Ubuntu >= 12.04

	sudo apt-get install
			libao-dev
			libmad0-dev
			libfaad-dev
			libgnutls-dev
			libjson0-dev
			libgcrypt11-dev
	make
	sudo make install

Be sure all of the above packages are installed, if you have to, install them one at a time.

I had to then move the exec file to /usr/bin

sudo cp pianobar /usr/bin
sudo chown root. /usr/bin/pianobar

Install Scrobbler-helper for LastFm

Visit http://askubuntu.com/questions/17482/how-do-i-set-up-last-fm-scrobbling-with-pianobar for more instructions on installing and configuring Scrobbler-helper for LastFm.

# sudo perl -MCPAN -e 'install Audio::Scrobbler'

Follow the prompts to complete installing the Audio:Scrobbler program which will provide the vehicle to send your song playing to Last.FM account.

Configuring pianobar (the cool stuff)

Download PianoBar Config File – Download a sample config file for your pianobar.

When it starts up, Pianobar always looks for a file named config in the ~/.config/pianobar directory and reads it’s contents for additional information at runtime. So, create that directory from your home directory and create the config file:

$ mkdir ~/config/pianobar
$ cd pianobar
$ gedit config

Just load the file into your editor of choice (gedit/vim) , make your edits and uncomment out lines, change the parameters for user and password to your Pandora account.

For now, I would comment out the event_command= line unless you know what your doing and want to perform scrobbling to a music site like last.fm (sorry, it’s beyond the scope of this article) When your finished, just save your changes, and set the config file to be readable by all:

$ chmod 0777 config

Then run it from the command line and you’ll get a screen similar to this: (versions may vary depending on when you’re reading this and the latest version available in the repository).

Then, sit back and let this little great app keep your toes tappin and your mind flowing at your UBUNTU powered (FREE) computer!

Addendum

When Pandora changes their protocol, which I have found they do, an update to the pianobar repository is usually quick to follow, so you might have to perform a few things to get it working when you get an error.

You’ll want to visit GitHub for the latest version here.

It took me a while to finally get things working with this new version because of the major changes in pianobar, and hope to do it again on my home machines.

Installing libgnutls-dev

Pianobar changed the way they communicate with Pandora, and thus, the following package had to be installed before I could get it working again:

sudo apt-get install libgnutls-dev

Then, I downloaded the very latest version of pianobar:

https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar/zipball/2012.01.10

Now enjoying pianobar again, until next time Pandora changes their protocol…

Update for Pianobar

Pianobar has changed thier tls_fingerprint info, so if your pianobar config fails to work because of the “TLS handshake error” – add this line to you config file:

tls_fingerprint = 2D0AFDAFA16F4B5C0A43F3CB1D4752F9535507C0

Web development doesn’t have to be a difficult position, if you have a toolbox of sorts, which can help you with the ‘heavy lifting’ of applications and provide easier tasks that get repetitive.

I want to share my tools with you, in the hopes that they may also lend a hand in the workings of your applications or website developments.

What Percentage is that of that thing?

What percent of this is that? This is an interesting little function that provides me with percentiles when I need to know the percentage of X value based on a total value. What percentage of X is Y? Boink! Answer is always correct, and I never have to touch the calculator.

function percent($num_amount, $num_total) {
    $count1 = $num_amount / $num_total;
    $count2 = $count1 * 100;
    $count = number_format($count2, 0);
return $count ."%";
}

echo percent(200, 1000);

Sanitizing form inputs for fun and profit

Today’s internet is a volatile environment where anything can happen, and without warning, usually does. It’s become common practice to protect your website and it’s server from being compromised by the ‘hackers’ who seek to find security holes in any system. To prevent such acts of senseless defacing and breach of security systems, it’s always a real good idea to protect your assets whenever you allow input from the dirty internet and it’s an even better idea to sanitize your data before storing it on your website’s database or file structure.

class Validator {
public $_filterArgs;

function removeTags($fieldName,
     $encodeAmp = false,
     $preserveQuotes = false,
     $encodeLow = false,
     $stripLow = false,
     $stripHigh = true) {

  $this->_filterArgs[$fieldName]['filter'] = FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING;
  $this->_filterArgs[$fieldName]['flags'] = FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY;

if($encodeAmp) {
     $this->_filterArgs[$fieldName]['flags'] |= FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_AMP;
   }		

  if($preserveQuotes){
       $this->_filterArgs[$fieldName]['flags'] |= FILTER_FLAG_NO_ENCODE_QUOTES;
  }
  if($encodeLow) {
      $this->_filterArgs[$fieldName]['flags'] |= FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_LOW;
  }
  if($encodeHigh) {
    $this->_filterArgs[$fieldName]['flags'] |= FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_HIGH; 
  }
  if($stripLow) {
    $this->_filterArgs[$fieldName]['flags'] |= FILTER_FLAG_STRIP_LOW;
  }
  if($stripHigh) {
     $this->_filterArgs[$fieldName]['flags'] |= FILTER_FLAG_STRIP_HIGH;
  }
 }
}

This function, saved in a class file, (call it validator.class.php) will greatly reduce the amount of ‘filth’ that could find it’s way into your forms, and basically strip off any unwanted ‘gunk’ that a malicious attacker might wish to inject into your website’s system. This is only one of many gunk-removing functions available for protecting your website from the myriad of attacks that lurk in the dark corners of the internet.

Short hand ‘if’ statements, save time and space

Decisions happen all the time in PHP and when you need to make a quick YES/NO decision, having a one-line snippet of code takes all the work out of building the ‘gate’ which can end up saving you TONS of time and space in your code.

Example standard decision:

if($answer == "no") {
   $response = "You answered no.";
}else{
   $response = "OK. You answered Yes." ;
}

Four lines of code to check what the answer was and provide an response based on that answer. Now, let’s shorten it to a single line with a shorthand ‘if’ statement.

echo ($answer == "no" ? "You answered no." : "OK. You answered Yes.");

Now, this is a very basic example, but you can clearly see how this single line of code does the work of the 4-line block of code. Works faster, and takes up less space in your code file. Less filling, and tastes great..

How Long Ago Was That?

If you’ve ever needed to know how long ago something was compared to the current time, this little function kicks ass and does it quite nicely.

echo TimeAgoEN($timestamp);

function convert_datetime($str) { 
  list($date, $time) = explode(' ', $str);    
  list($year, $month, $day) = explode('-', $date);    
  list($hour, $minute, $second) = explode(':', $time);         
  $timestamp = mktime($hour, $minute, $second, $month, $day, $year);         
  return $timestamp;      
} 

function TimeAgoEN($timestamp){       
    $now = time();    
    $then = convert_datetime($timestamp);    
    $difference = $now-$then;          

     $units = array( 'second' => 1,        
                            'minute' => 60,        
                             'hour' => 3600,        
                             'day' => 86400,        
                             'week' => 604800,        
                              'month' => 2630880,        
                               'year' => 31570560,        
                              'decade' => 315705600,    
                            );         

      foreach($units as $key => $val)  {      
           if($difference >= $val) {          
               $results = floor($difference/$val);                    
               if($results == '1') {
                    $ending = "";
                } else {
                    $ending = "s";
                }          

            $outcome = $results." ".$key.$ending." ago";      
        }    
      }         
    return $outcome; 
}

Convert A Birthdate To An Age

Rather than tell me the date of birth, sometimes we just need to ask “How old are you”? This handy function performs the calculations and returns the age value. Very nice little function, that can be adapted for several things.

function convert_birth_date_to_age($birth_date) {
     $today = gmdate("Y-m-d");
     $bday_arr = explode("-", $birth_date);    
     $today_arr = explode("-", $today);          

if( ($today_arr[1]<$bday_arr[1]) ||
    ($today_arr[1]==$bday_arr[1] && $today_arr[2]<$bday_arr[2])) {        
$var = -1;    
}          

return $today_arr[0]-$bday_arr[0]+$var; 

}

Serialize your data – complex information for a complex world

If you’ve ever needed to store complex variable in a database or a file, you’re probably aware that PHP can do amazing things to simplify performing this task. Using the serialize function, we can convert arrays, or complex data for use in files and databases.

// a complex array
$myvar = array(
	'hello',
	42,
	array(1,'two'),
	'apple'
);

// convert to a string
$string = serialize($myvar);

echo $string;
/* prints
a:4:{i:0;s:5:"hello";i:1;i:42;i:2;a:2:{i:0;i:1;i:1;s:3:"two";}i:3;s:5:"apple";}
*/

// you can reproduce the original variable
$newvar = unserialize($string);

print_r($newvar);
/* prints
Array
(
    [0] => hello
    [1] => 42
    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => 1
            [1] => two
        )

    [3] => apple
)
*/

In PHP 5.2 and later, we can perform this same form of serialization with jason_encode() functions, which is preferred now because javascript also supports this and we have an easier solution for it. Now you can use the json_encode() andjson_decode() functions as well:

// a complex array
$myvar = array(
'hello',
42,
array(1,'two'),
'apple'
);

// convert to a string
$string = json_encode($myvar);

echo $string;
/* prints
["hello",42,[1,"two"],"apple"]
*/

// you can reproduce the original variable
$newvar = json_decode($string);

print_r($newvar);
/* prints
Array
(
[0] => hello
[1] => 42
[2] => Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => two
)
 [3] => apple
)
*/

Hopefully, these examples will help make your life easier, and improve your ability to write effective and improved applications.

The Wacom Bamboo Pen is an excellent product, which comes with it’s own level of ‘learning curve’ and takes some getting used to while learning it’s capabilities. Surprisingly easy to install in and environment, the Bamboo worked well with my Ubuntu laptop and my working Desktop Pc.

I did some pre-purchase research for an affordable pen and tablet, to begin working with some of my hand-drawn digital skills. I found the Wacom Bamboo to be a great beginner item, under $100 and that afternoon got my Bamboo at the local Best-Buy on my way home from work.

Installing this little USB device on a Windows based computer would child’s play – insert the DVD and run installation crap, and reboot windows about 2-3 times, then plug it in and ‘shazam’. But this little geek decided he didn’t want to be ruled by the Ms, and I set out to install the Bamboo on my laptop running Ubuntu 10.10.

I figured “This will be easy, let’s just copy/paste the comands, like so.. and simply reboot the laptop like so…”

Dig, dig, dig… Oh, whats’ this little blog about Wacom’s Bamboo under Ubuntu 10.10? I read everything, even the poster’s comments and it looked fairly short-and-simple.

Three simple commands in a terminal window:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:doctormo/wacom-plus
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wacom-dkms

Then, just plug in the Bamboo (usb) and run a test to see if it’s working  using the “lsusb” command:

~$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 056a:00d4 Wacom Co., Ltd 
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:0745 Microsoft Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:2514 Standard Microsystems USB 2.0 Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

A smile creeped across my face, and I picked up the pen, thinking “No way.. Can’t be THAT simple, can it”.. I giggled with glee as I watched my mouse pointer follow on the screen as I hovered the pen inches above the tablet, and shrieked with joy as I began using my pen as a mouse.

Unfortunately for me, I have the hand-eye coordination of a sloth, so I knew this was going to be a steep learning curve, getting used to using this new device.

I recommend visiting this page on configuring GIMP and Inkscape to work with your Bamboo Pen (4×5), which contains useful information about configuring your tablet’s pressure sensitivity and other things.

So, for my first attempt at using a digital tablet to draw, I present a colorful artsy squiggle of lines, and other sample brushes I created in InkScape, and then toyed a but with GIMP.

Practice makes perfect, but I know I’m going to enjoy having this new device as the control is amazing, and I look forward to the creative flow that can come much easier now that my eye isn’t tied to a mouse for getting the art out of my head and onto the screen!

The Ubuntu Black Screen Of Death

Just when I didn’t think things could become more interesting – they definitely became more interesting.

I am appending this portion of my article with a bit of information that may come in handy if you should have happen to you, what I had happen to me.

It happened, but I didn’t think this was related to my recent installation of my Bamboo – but later I discovered it was, and it happened twice, actually.

Here’s what happened to me, which may happen to you, should you be in the same situation as I was (Wacom Tablet with Ubuntu 10.10)

Rebooting the computer after newly installing the Bamboo device yielded me with the Ubuntu Black Screen of Death. I was surprised at first, intrigued, and then later angry and then suddenly intrigued again to find out how quickly anyone can recover from the Ubuntu Black Screen Of Death.

The Ubuntu Black Screen Of Death is observed when your computer boots, and seems to be loading normally, but then it just stops, and your monitor remains completely blank and all hard disk activity ceases. No error messages, no nothing – just silent blackness and a dreaded feeling of death. I restarted my computer 3 times, and witnessed the same result over and over again. Despair, anguish and fear gripped me tightly, and I panicked and promptly went outside and smoked a cigarette to absorb the moment.

How To Recover From The Black Screen Of Death (After installing Wacom Bamboo Tablet).

Turn the computer on, and while the POST screen is displaying begin holding the LEFT SHIFT key. Keep holding it until you reach a screen that looks like this.

Select the line item that displays (recovery mode), which is similar in nature to booting into Windows ‘Safe’ mode.

The recovery mode provides many options for recovering your Ubuntu operating system, and are not included as a scope of this article.There are several other resources which cover this topic, but it is not the scope of this article to provide further details, sorry.

The Recovery Menu

Once in the recovery mode menu, I selected the “failsafeX” option, which provides you the resources to reset your Xserver configuration, and give Ubuntu a slap upside the head. Now, this was the trick for me, and I don’t guarentee it will work for you, because it’s all related to the new installation of my Wacom Bamboo Tablet and that’s all I will claim within this brief informative article.

Leave yourself a breadcrumb trail

The main purpose of this article was to do just that – leave myself a breadcrumb trail should I ever find myself in this situation again. It’s also to provide others with a path to recover as I did and provide information to you regarding my experiences with the Wacom Bamboo Tablet under Ubuntu 10.10.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and gained some knowledge and insight from it’s content.

Here and now we all have experienced the social phenom known as Facebook, if not, you probably won’t be reading this article then, but for the sake of categorizing the social online world, I present to you my list of ‘Facebook Users We Like to Avoid‘.

The “Update Bore-aholic”

“I’m waking up.” “I had tofu pancakes for breakfast.” “I’m so bored at work.” “I’m stuck in traffic, and need a drink.”

Holy crap, how fascinating your posts and updates are (not). Nothing is too mundane for this type of user to broadcast every single action that happens on a whim. People, just because you have nothing better to do with your time than to broadcast your every single move with the thought that it was the next terrific thing to happen to you – try reading a book, or better yet, get a hobby that doesn’t include using anything electronic.

The “Self-Promoter”

OK, so we’ve probably all posted at least once about some achievement in our lives. Sure, maybe your friends really do want to read the fascinating article you wrote about Argentinian ant farming. But when almost every update is a link to your blog,  your lyrics listings,  or your drab art show, you sound like a bragger or a self-centered careerist, which is a real turn-off.

The “Friend” horde

The average Facebook / Twitter user has about 120 friends on the site.  The social butterflies — you know, the ones who make life-long pals on the downtown bus — might reasonably have 300 or 400. But to have over 1,000 “friends?” Unless you’re The Pope or just won the lottery,  no one has that many friends. That’s just showing off, and it shows how shallow you are to the world that you would accept anyone that requests a friend or Follower.

The Town Crier

“Michael Jackson is dead!!!” You heard it from me first!
Me, and the 213,000 gazillion other people who all saw it on CNN. These users are the reason many of us learn of breaking news not from TV or news sites but from online social networks. In their rush to trumpet the news, these people also spread rumors, half-truths and innuendo. Users such as this are why Snopes.com is doing so well.

The T.M.I. Over-do-it’er

“Chad is heading to Walgreens to buy something for my pesky hemorrhoids.”

The boundaries of privacy and decorum don’t seem to exist for these too-much-information up daters, who offer up every personal detail about their sex lives, marital troubles and bodily functions. Thanks for sharing,  time to drop you now, perhaps block you too.

The Really Bad Grammarian

“So sad about Fara Fauset but Im so gladd its friday yippeeee”.

Yes, I realize that the punctuation rules are different in the digital world. That doesn’t make it correct. No one likes a spelling-Nazi schoolmarm, but you sound like a friggin’ moron and you don’t care one tinker’s cuss what you say even if we can’t understand what you posted because you probably don’t either.  Your family always “likes” your broadcast, so you don’t get upset.

The Sympathy-Baiter

“Barbara is feeling sad today.” “Man, am I glad that’s over.” “Jim could really use some good news about now.”

Like anglers hunting for fish, these sad sacks cast out their hooks — baited with vague tales of woe — in the hopes of landing concerned responses. Genuine bad news is one thing, but these manipulative posts are just pleas for attention. You keep a box of kleenex next to your laptop, don’t you.

The Stalk-Lurker-undead-leecher

The true “Peeping Toms of Facebook”, these users are too cautious, or maybe too lazy (most likely too drunk), to update their status or write on your wall. But once in a while, you’ll be talking to them and they’ll mention something you posted, so you know they’re on your page, hiding in the shadows. It’s really a little creepy, actually, very creepy.

The “Face-Cranks”

“Jose isn’t really that impressed with those idiots who don’t realize how idiotic they are.”

These curmudgeons, like the trolls who spew hate in several blog comments, never seem to run out of things they couldn’t complain about.  Just keep spreading the love…

The Paparazzo

Have you ever visited your Facebook page to find that someone’s posted a photo of you from last weekend’s party — a photo you haven’t even seen? You’d really rather not have to explain to your wife why you were leering like a drunken hyena and French-kissing a bottle of Jagermeister at an office party. Avoid these users like the PLAGUE.

The Obscurist

“If not now then when?” “You’ll see…” “Peter is, small world.” “Dave thought he was immune, but no. No, he is not. And I don’t wish this for the world.”

I’m sorry, you’re not being mysterious — just nonsensical – now shut the hell up! Oh, wait here’s a button for that…

The Chronic Inviter

“Support my cause. Sign my petition. Play Mafia Wars with me. Which ‘Star Trek’ character are you? I sent you a heart! Here are the ‘Top 5 cars I have personally owned.’ Here are ’25 Things About Me.’ Here’s a drink. What drink are you? We’re related! I took the ‘What President Are You?’ quiz and found out I’m Millard Fillmore! What president are you? Which Smurf are you?”

You probably mean well, but stop. Just stop!  I don’t care what president I am — can’t we simply be friends?

The Chronic Zynger

This user’s profile page is just littered with broadcasts from every Zynga Game they make. Nothing but game broadcasts, and more game achievements and advertisements for joining in the ‘fun’ and playing games. Instant drop when those alerts begin creeping into my wall on my account.

Now excuse me while I go post the link to this story on my Facebook page.

Today, business success is being directly related to the online communication and formation of social networks to assist in many aspects of branding and attracting new customers as well as generating revenue from return customers.

The Importance of Establishing Your Business Online

Begin Branding your company name or products. Branding is one way to  various audiences that may interested in all the things you have to sell. Most importantly, remember that you are trying to reach people, not customers. Having established your company name or product brand on social networks (like Facebook) will already alert your fans of who you are, or who your company is, and since the many different social sites provide places comparable to info tabs, bios, buisness hours and more, it’s a snap to maintain information quickly and efficiently.

Simply fill out all the information forms that each network provides, and those keywords can help visitors find your page online. It’s also strongly suggested to remain active on each network your company maintains a presence, and stay up to date with your audiences.

Maintain Your Social Networks

It’s a common misnomer that “Build it, and they will come” is all that is needed to bring business from internet visitors. Not only is this incorrect, but it can also do more harm to your opportunities or potential customers. While it is advantagous to have links with your company’s name or product on social networking websites, it can be a real let-down for visitors to come to your ‘community’ and find nothing recent or outdated activity. Visitors require interaction, relevant data,  current information and a sign that there’s something ‘happenening’ at your page. A ‘dead’ scene will cause visitors to quickly exit from where they came from with little chance of returning. Ever.

Remember, social networking from a business standpoint isn’t just peppering your audience with advertisements about the latest ‘sale’ or ‘deal’ that your company is having.

It’s best to relate and communicate, providing an added value to your messages or posts. Create dialog by asking questions, and doing so at the end of everything you share is the one of the best ways to engage and interact with your audience, giving them an opportunity to provide feedback or gather more information.

Opinions Do Matter!

People you are interacting with through your social networks are the potential future customers, or quite possibly already are your current customers. I can’t emphasize enough the real business need to LISTEN to these people, as they may very well advocate for your company, or will be spreading negativity about your company. Either way, we all know bad news travels faster than good news – so it’s vital that you listen to what they have to say and take the time to respond promptly.

Despite what the content of your visitor’s post, you should refrain from deleting anything shared – unless of course it is something that has absolutely nothing to do with your business. Forget what is right/wrong about the feedback, respond quickly, and be prepared with a solution to make it a positive experience, and let your visitor be heard – which will provide them with validation that you are in fact, paying attention to their needs.  Let go of the ‘sell’ and drop any ‘ego’ to start talking with people, sharing with them and listening to what they are saying. It can get fun and creative and sometimes it’s not ‘all business’ – a balance between social and professional interactions and success will prevail!

Be Sincere.

Share your personalities, be real – nothing is farther from the truth and value than the statement ‘fake it until you make it’ . Doing so with your social network will be your undoing – fast. It’s easy to detect a liar, or if things just don’t ‘seem right’. Keep your site authentic while utilizing social networks to gain insight into what your ‘fans’ really want, by just asking them. Take risks or follow through with some suggestions from your fans.

Fearlessly engage these ideas with preparations for their failure, as the old cliche “it’s better to have tried, than not at all.” Your efforts will be recognized, and appreciated by your fans – and your customers.

Spend the time on your existing fan base, rather than time trying to lure new fans. If you do a ‘special offer’ – send it to your existing fan base first and let them feel special because you are treating them with favors not offered to others.

Moreover, be genuine and honest with your fan base, and you will earn their respect and build credibility among your long lasting community.

Never Say Quit.

Here’s the hard part. Dedication to your social networks doesn’t mean a lot of time and energy, but like all things requires time and energy to commit and spend at least 1-3 hours per week on your social community. Devotion is extremely important here, and taking the time can only work in your favor as long as you can work it into your day without half-measure. It’s easy to get distracted, and side-tracked into other things, but this one thing must be adhered to, to continue your relationship with your audience. If you lose track, or get busy and distracted by other things, let your audience know and provide a realistic time that you’ll re-connect and resume your interactions.

Actions Speak Louder!

Social media can be an excellent opportunity to build relationships with your audience. Establishing your presence (or your brand/company) on a variety of social networks available can be of significant importance. Your competition will be more than willing to capture the audience you leave behind by not taking action and being social! Do it, consistently and be dynamic – and have fun building relationships that can help grow your business and expose your business name to the world!

Nashville, Tennessee – Music City Guru, the world’s leading premier web development and hosting services company today announced it’s second year anniversary of operation in the middle Tennessee region, servicing over 25 customers across the United States.

CEO Scott Fleming announced the grand celebration during a private conference to commemorate the company’s birth in 2009, from it’s humble start in the small office located in Madison, TN.

“I’m very excited about the explosive expansion and growth this small company has experienced in the last year alone, growing our customer base by nearly triple it’s size.”,  the CEO Scott stated during a conversation with fellow entrepreneurials.

“We look forward to strong continued growth as our customer base continues to increase. Excellent customer service and modest pricing of our products and services keep our clients coming back for more, and provide unique niche opportunities for new businesses through good old fashioned ‘word of mouth’ viral networking.”

Music City Guru provides website design, business branding, website hosting and custom programming services as well as a wide variety of business-friendly services to small and medium businesses throughout the United States.

Extraordinary service and “Killer Talent” trademark the company’s motto to exceed customers’ expectations through expert vision and placing the customer’s needs as a focus in their strategies. Looks like a great recipe that’s paying off for this young and hungry company.

The celebration will take place at an undisclosed location with private invitations being sent to key individuals who are a part of the company’s success and growth.  ”It’s going to be quite an elaborate event, and we hope everyone attending will have a memorable time”, commented CEO Scott Fleming. “It’s only the beginning, and we want to mark this milestone so we can look back and say ‘Remember when we first started?’.

Happy Anniversary Music City Guru!

Music City Guru welcomes Affordable Computer Technologies to our marketing group!

Based in Hamburg  NY,  ACT provides value and service to the region with profound skill and customer service!

http://www.actwny.com/

Music City Guru Welcomes Webelenses.com

Webelenses is a professional camera equipment rental company located in Lebanon, Tennessee since 2006 providing photographers with quality photographic equipment and accessories with exceptional value and convenience.

Photographers rely on webelenses for a wide variety of camera accessories, including lenses which otherwise would not be available due to the high cost of purchasing them, some lenses have a price tag of over $1,000 – out of range for the noviced, or young photographer in need of a quality lens.

With a few mouse-clicks, customers can order the products they need, and have it delivered directly to their door for a rental period of their choosing. Local customers can simply drop in, and pick up the order as well.

The rental products arrive via Priority Mail (2-3 days) in a self-returning package, so when the customer is finished with the product, its as easy as applying the included self-adhesive label and dropping it in the mail. Convenience never got easier!

The website provided Music City Guru with an opportunity to create a solution where the e-commerce application needed to be modified to meet the needs of webelense’s business model, with added security in mind for their customers.

Using Authorize.net for payment processing, the secure transaction ensures customers are protected and have peace of mind knowing they’re shopping experience is in the hands of the best in the online retail business.

The website application received several design upgrades, and performance-enhancing code to streamline the processing and raise the level of customer experience to a higher standard and level of performance.

Music City Guru is proud to partner with this truly exceptional company, and we’re excited to announce the re-launch of their 2.0 website!

Visit www.webelenses.com today!

A long time ago, when the internet was reserved to only the big universities, and the military, I began my fascination with developing websites. During the early times, when color monitors weren’t even available yet, and the only way to access a computer was with a 300 baud modem and a terminal program, I learned the magic of websites, and how powerful they were in sharing information and ideas.

My father was a [middle school] teacher, and instilled in me early in life, to continue to strive to learn new things, encouraging me and my brothers to stretch our capabilities and challenge our minds with education and gaining knowledge. He loved reading, and I grew up reading a lot of computer manuals, once he brought home our first home computer, and Atari 400 (with membrane keyboard and 4k ram).

Everything I could get my hands on dealing with computers, hardware, software, and eventually – the code that drove the World Wide Web. HTML to me was a panacea of uncharted waters and I was immersed in it early – I studied modem protocols, ANSI code, Basic, Qbasic even assembler languages. C++ was fun, but back then, no one had a course on that, and we learned what we could from software magazines and tech rags. But HTML was easy, and I studied web pages and learned from those that were ahead of me.

I remember vividly as a young man, on weekends, staying up way past 3am to work on a game that we had hand-typed into the Atari 800 XL computer, in Basic and trying to trace the code to learn what each line of code did, and how making changes to it effected the overall outcome of the program. Many nights, instead of going out with friends and doing teenage things, I spent my time crouched over a computer keyboard, obsessed with a fascination of computing that could never be quelled.

Today, it’s virtual computers, terabytes of storage on your desktop, fiber optic connections at light speed, and super computers the size of a laptop…

One day came when I had to explain my work to someone who wasn’t as well-versed as myself, and I became mute – I didn’t know how to tell them how the application worked in a way they would understand it. It was indeed a language barrier; geek-speak to English! How could I translate it? How indeed?

This frustration went on for some time, until I began to use my sense of imagination and converted geek-speak to laymen terms in the form of metaphors, substituting the technical to something a laymen person could relate to.

For example, when describing “Disk De fragmentation” to a friend, I said “Defragging the hard drive is like a having closet full of shoes. You throw your shoes into the closet, and eventually they get mixed up with the other shoes. It takes a while to find the pair, sorting through a hundred shoes on the floor of your closet. Performing a “defragment” of your shoes aligns them in pairs, grouped by color, type and needs. Sneakers are grouped together, dress shoes together, slippers, etc. When you go to the closet, you find your shoes faster, knowing that they are in a place that you put them.”

Having used this metaphor, to describe this technical process, I was able to describe it to someone who doesn’t have the technical speak I do, and from there, I learned that I could communicate with the laymen folk about computing in a way we both could grasp – and it still works today.

When talking to my clients about the inner workings of a web application, I create a way to display it in their mind in a form they can understand, and it makes things go much smoother as the web design process continues. Along with this ‘talent’ I am also able to backwards-engineer their needs from their terms to technical terms, which provides me with an awesome ability to translate ideas into a living web application or web page.

While it’s not something I can put on my resume, I definitely feel that without this ability, the communication between my clients and myself would be much more clouded, and time wasted during the overall design process. I love working with people directly, and listening to their needs, and discussing their ideas and seeing it come to life on the screen. It’s a passion that I feel my father taught me, and I owe all I have to his dedication to learning, and continuing to strive to become something greater every day.

Thank you, Dad.

Web developers today have a wide variety of software tools available to get the job done and organize their work environment. Some products are available for a fee, of which some are quite expensive. For the casual user, or the financially challenged developer, this can be a barrier from getting started. In addition to the cost of the software, the learning curve on some packages is quite steep and can be very frustrating to the beginning developer or the casual web editor.

When I first began the life of becoming a web developer, I didn’t have much in the way of money to invest in high-end programs, or software packages to begin. I had WordPad, notepad and something I used called Nino (a Linux based text editor).

Since then, I’ve relied on some free tools and aside from one package I did invest in later, I still use these free (Shareware/Freeware) software tools today in my workings.

IDE editors

An IDE editor provides you with the framework to write web pages, whether it is in HTML or Php, JavaScript or any of the thousands of different languages (insert yours here) required to do website development work.  The IDE editor for me is like a Cub Scout knife, with a wide variety of functions and tools that give me the power to get into my code and really get my hands dirty with writing.

I love using my IDE editor because I was raised writing HTML code by hand, and it’s been a private joy of mine to be able to maintain the structure and format of my code.

The IDE of choice for me is PSPad, written by Jan Fiala, from the Czech Republic.  PSPad is a free editor with an amazing array of functions and things it can do. I am still learning the ways of PSPad and with each new discovery, I find myself saying “Well worth the money I paid for this software”. (I have donated the $8.00 a few times now through the website).

I think the first thing I found about this software is that I could write my own code snippets, which automated the process for so many things for me, it’s like having pre-recorded macros in a library and I only had to enter a single keystroke and the screen populates with the code snippet I need. What a timesaver!! I was hooked, and I’m still in love with this software.

The second thing I found in PSPad that I didn’t find in any other free editor, was built-in FTP client support. It provides me the ability to login to a remote site, browse files and edit them on the server, with a backup copy stored locally. Projects and other excellent tools abound with this software and I can’t say enough good things about it without running out of room in this article. PSPad is my number one tool, and the free price tag wasn’t the real reason for loving it, but it sure helped when I needed a low cost solution in a hurry to let me get into the web development mainstream.

FTP Clients

In order to work on websites, you will need an FTP client. Without it, I don’t know how files can be transferred. I immediately found Filezilla, which is a freeware FTP client that is more than capable in its abilities to handle my workloads. It has an excellent “Site Management” tool, which allows me the freedom of exporting all my logins and credentials to an XML file which I store on a USB key, and can transfer from my desktop to laptop on the go, and not have to worry about passwords or login info.

The ability to handle multiple ftp connections simultaneously gives me the freedom to work on multiple hosts at one time, and I have full control over how I want the files to appear, and the layout of the application is as flexible, giving my work environment total fluidity and ease of organizing my files and directories.

Filezilla automatically updates itself when new versions are released, which I really like because I hate having to do it myself. Filezilla is by far my favorite FTP client, and again it’s a free product.

Compression Rocks!

If you have several files that you need to upload at once, or in my case sometimes thousands of files to upload (or download), a real time-saver is to compress them into one archive file, and then decompress it when it’s completed uploading (or downloading). It saves time, and that’s money in my world, so it saves me money – period. To do this, I like using a product called Winrar.

There are several compression software packages available as freeware, and I was a big fan of Win Zip for years, but recently changed my allegiance to this company as it works fast, and it works well.

You might already have a preference, if so, use what works well for you.

It’s often said “Money makes the world go ‘round” and sometimes I tend to agree, but there are something’s in life that are free, and the tools I’ve talked about  here are just that. So if you’re just getting started in web development, or you’re a programmer who’s looking to use something different and exciting, then feel free to check these items out and add them to your growing software arsenal. I can honestly tell you there’s no shame in using tools that didn’t send you to the bank for loan and still work as well as the day you got them – if not BETTER.

You can download PSPad free at www.pspad.com

WinRar is available at www.win-rar.com

FileZilla is available at www.filezilla.com

First impressions are lasting impressions, and in some cases, can often make the difference between a sale and a no-sale. In the world of the internet marketing, first impressions of a website are often the deciding factor if your visitor stays to click or leaves your site immediately.

Thus, we introduce the term “Bouncing Customers”

What’s does ‘Bounce Rate’ mean? And why should I care?

A “Bounce Rate” is the term used to define the percentage of visitors that came to a website, and did not click on anything else, or waited for the page to load, and then left (usually using the ‘back’ button). The higher the number of the bounce rate, the higher percentage of visitors that never took the time to read your opening page, or investigate other areas of your website further.

OK, let’s assume you’ve got your website launched, you’ve refined your keywords, and strategically written your content, (or your hired web developer has done this for you) but after looking at your Google Analytics reports, you realize that your landing page has a bounce rate of 91%. So, it’s a good thing, right? Higher scores are good, yes?  NO, sorry, but we have some lovely consolation prizes for you on the way out, thanks for playing – NEXT!

This actually means that 91% of the users (potential buying customers) coming to your site are quickly glancing around and leaving, deciding immediately that this site isn’t for them. Like walking by your storefront, stopping for a pause, looking in the window, and continuing on their way. No sale for you. Not good. Think they’ll be back? Doubt it.

One of the easiest, low-tech ways to encourage users to stick around and look at your products or services is to catch their attention with an engaging headline.

Recent research suggests that users decide to stay or leave your site in 8 seconds or less — in that short amount of time, headlines are the one piece of copy that users will actually read. So, you have just 8 seconds (or less) to attract the attention of your visitor.

For more help with writing effective headlines for your website landing page, visit this helpful article at Google’s website.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, from the mind of a madman, I present:

7 Actions to Prevent Visitors from Bouncing from your website

1. Answer a question(s). In my previous article, “What has your website done for you lately?” this point is really hammered home. When a visitor comes to your site, they’re probably not wondering “Wow, I wonder what this company is doing today?.” Instead, they’re asking, “Do you carry the product I really want”? Which question would do you answer? Best is to answer the latter and you’ll keep more visitors, and retain their attention.
2. Remove those obnoxious auto-play videos. Your visitor’s first reflex if a video starts playing and music that sounds like a bad 70′s porn flick comes streaming out of their speakers is to immediately hit the back button. Remove the video altogether, or at least have it paused, giving your visitor the option to play it when their ready, and have set the speaker volume to their own comfort level.
3. Improve the pageload time. If your webpage was built to include a gaudy flash object with a “loading..” bar, that takes even 5 seconds to load, you can rest assured the visitor will have hit the back button LONG before that. Remove that retched flash object that’s slowing your page load, and replace it with a lighter, simpler JPG image and if you have to animate, then use JavaScript, not flash – you’re visitor’s will appreciate it, and stay longer.
4. Write a better, engaging headline. A punchy, take-action headline will keep visitors. Instead of “Enterprise Security Solutions for A Web 2.0 Workplace”, try “Protect Your Network”.
5. Move the important stuff up. If you have a store, show your products near the top of the page. If you’re promoting a candidate, put that message at the top. Most important, always put your call to action up high, front-and-center.
6. Dump the stinking popups. I shouldn’t even have to say this, but if you have a popup or other annoyance on your home page, get rid of it – NOW!. You’re losing a lot more than you’re gaining, plus you’re making me hate you more and your visitor won’t come back to your website ever again, and will tell everyone to steer clear of it every chance available.
7. Kill the scrolling text, flashing text and anything in PINK. I won’t go into details, but what you may think is catchy, is actually really annoying, and drives visitors back from where they came faster than a stink-bomb at a party.

Armed with these tips, you will begin to see a lower Bounce Rate in your Analytics reports. Lower bounce rates can me higher visiting times on your site, as well as higher returns in your cash register from generating sales from your website. After all, isn’t that why your business has a website? Isn’t it? If you can’t answer this question, then I suggest you read my previous article (What has your website done for you lately?) which can give you more insight into this answer.

Please feel free to contact Music City Guru for more information about lowering your website’s Bounce Rate, and attracting more customers to your door, through your website.

“It’s a good thing”, as Martha Stewart once quipped, in her approval of a product or service or thing.

Viral marketing and viral advertising are “buzzwords” referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of virus or computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. (Wikipedia)

One effect form of Viral Marketing is leveraging the social networks, such as Facebook, or Twitter, to promote your online marketing and drive awareness and traffic to your website, and subsequently, through the front door of your business establishment. It is a method of connecting directly with your targeted audience to communicate information, news, and advertisements.

An Example, if you please..

In this down economy, small businesses are struggling to keep customers buying, and even more difficult to increase their customer base. Let’s take a look at a small business, and how leveraging Viral Networking can help increase both return business and new business.

By using Viral marketing methodology in the design of the website, the visitor is drawn to the small familiar icon with an action-item request to “like” the article they are are reading. By “liking” the article, in this example, the visitor’s Facebook status is updated with a line of text showing that they “Like” this article, and displays a link to the website’s page where others can locate the article.

A look at the profile page, shows the results:

The advantages of Viral Networking in this use, are tremendous! First and foremost, the power of Viral Networking shows that if a Facebook user posts a link or makes a “LIKE” about something, it’s an invitation for their connections or “friends” to view it, and chances are pretty good that they will want to know what that “Like” is about, and subsequently, click on the link which brings them right to the website. “Like” pages have become a very important form of creating new visitors, as well as maintaining recurring visitors to their website.

Back-Linking for “Juicy Juice”

In the SEO world, this is known as “back-linking”, which is proven to become a valuable form of gaining ‘respect’ from the major search engines. Back-linking goes like this; Google looks at a website and looks through it’s massive data archives to see if there are any other websites who “respect” this website with their links to it. The more links to this website found, the more “respect” or credibility that website has as resource or form of authority on a topic, or information. The more links, the more people like, and if people like, Google likes, and the rankings for the website increases in form of returns in search queries that match the content of the website. As Martha puts it “Its’ a good thing!”

So now, step back and look at the bigger picture. A small business owner needs to increase foot traffic into his establishment. He posts big signs on his windows saying “Free Beer on Friday Nights!“. Despite the fact that he’s giving away free product, he sees little increase in traffic on those nights, and is becoming frustrated.

He calls his Guru, and says “Hey Guru, I want to advertise my Friday night Free beer special on my website so I can pack in my club on Friday nights. Post it on my website, please.”

“Sure thing Mr. Customer” says Guru. “But I can do one better for you. Posting it on your website is just another way of hanging a poster in your window. If no one sees it, it’s useless. Let’s put it on the website, and use Viral Networking to post it in several other places too, so more people will see it, and when they share it, even more people will see it.”

You can do that?

“You can do that?” queried Mr. Customer.

“Of course, Mr. Customer! That’s why I’m your Guru.” proudly grins The Guru.

Before he knows it,  Mr. Customer is beginning to see a noticeable increase in traffic coming into the establishment on Friday and Saturday nights, so he decides to leverage the Viral Networking for other areas of his business, promoting his lunch specials, and Wednesday night Party specials, and Sunday football.

That once lonely club, struggling to get foot-traffic through his front door, is now a regular hot-spot for the area, and his business continues to increase with new prospective customers every day, all thanks to the power of Viral Networking.

“Its a good thing” – Catch it!

Contact Music City Guru today and let us show you how the power of Viral Networking can work for your business or brand! 615-541-9327 or email info@musiccityguru.com

Music City Guru is proud to welcome Tennessee Soy Candle & Bath Co. to the MCG marketing group!

Based in Fairview, TN, The product selection and soy candles they offer make an excellent gift for anyone on your shopping list this holiday season, or anytime!

http://www.tennesseesoy.com

The Story behind the scene

Its’ a blessing how this company came to the Music City Guru Group. You see, the most powerful method of advertising is still ‘word of mouth’ so to speak, with referrals coming from your customers, friends or family. I’ve always advocated that promoting your business through networking with friends, and family will have a positive impact and since it’s just your time invested, the ROI is enormous.

The Power of Networking

A friend of ours, who knows about Music City Guru, was talking casually to one of their friends, and they had brought up their company’s website in conversation, to which Lisa recommended they call Music City Guru (and gave them our business card! Another strong point when networking is to have plenty of business cards handy!).

MCG received a phone call, and listened to their story of how their current webmaster ‘abandoned’ their website, and their business was losing revenue due to the delay in launching the website.  Black Friday and Cyber Monday were fast approaching, and it was apparent this company needed their website launched as soon as possible.

No Time To Lose

There was no time to lose, as every day offline was revenue going out the window, and MCG responded promptly in providing a dynamic hosting and e-commerce website solution. In just 2 weeks, the website is ready to process orders, and is being hosted by MCG. Launched in time to capture the holiday season orders, and more! On time, and on budget, another disastrous event is adverted.

Music City Guru is proud to announce this excellent company to the marketing group!

Does your website cry out for a make-over?

Depending on the age of your website, you can easily tell a lot about it’s technology used to create it and if that technology is outdated, it may be causing your business more harm than good. Chances are, if your website was built over 2 years ago, it’s a prime candidate for a Music City Guru makeover.

Any regular visitors to your website can quickly become accustomed to navigating your site, but if they stop coming, or your seeing a steady decline in your visits per month, it could be because the website design is broken, or has stopped providing the single purpose – to drive business to you.

You might get lucky enough that a visitor will actually take the time to tell you that your web site is broken, or a URL is dead, or an image does not appear, but that is very unlikely to happen. What generally happens is they simply go on to your competition’s website to get what they need. That is, if you should be so lucky because today’s web isn’t usually so compassionate.

Check your website!

If you’ve not visited your website in some time, now is the best time to give it a revisit. Grab  yourself a nice cup of coffee (or drink of choice), fire up your computer, sit down and take some time to really look at your website. You might be surprised at your findings, but this test will give you better insight into how hard your website is working for your business.

I now present to you, my top list of killer items to look for when reviewing your website for potential misfires or errors:

Where’s the picture? What happened to the picture?

Do all your images show up on the website? If your website has any of those red X’s, or the image is not displayed, it means the file on your website may have been removed, or the image tag is incorrectly pointing to the filename of the image. While it doesn’t break the web page from loading, it could break the design or layout of the page, making it a mess to navigate, or view.

404 Errors are a killer!

Whenever a website has a link to another website, a hyperlink is used, which provides a connection to the content contained on another website. However, if your website’s hyperlinks become outdated, or no longer work it’s a sure-fire killer for your visitor to click away to your competitors website in search of what they’re looking for.  Today’s websites are constantly changing, and webpages die or are replaced frequently. It’s important to make sure all your weblinks are current, and accurate. Nothing drives visitors away faster than a website that has poorly connected hyperlinks, and can be driving your potential customers away faster than you think.

Speed Kills!

Today’s web-savvy people are not patient! In this “instant on” age, visitors to websites are very demanding when it comes to time, and they don’t waste it waiting for a webpage to load. If your website is slow to load, and has a “loading..” box where a bit of flash or some other cool application is firing up, it’s a red-flag to the visitor to immediately hit the “BACK” button to return to the search engine that referred them to your website, and you can rest assured, they’re never coming back.

The killer “ENTER SITE” blasts your visitors back to where they came from

The biggest web kill for any visitor is a “ENTER SITE” link from a splash page that loads instead of the website content. This type of design has been frowned upon severly in the last few years of design, and I will bet my buttons your “Bounce Rating” is over 70 pecent or higher, as it’s a definite fact that 99% of web visitors never click the “ENTER SITE” link for fear of what’s behind that link. Get your webmaster on the line, and get rid of that killer blast page, because its driving your visitors to your competition like hot poker through the eye.

The dreaded FORM of death

At the very least, all websites which provide information, offer a way for visitors to reach the business or person who is the contact for the website. How many times have you filled in a form, with your name and email address, and before you click the button, suddenly get a chill of ‘dread’ sending your email address and name into the internet ‘abyss’? If you’re like me, I simply stop and ask myself “do I really want to send this information to a total stranger?” If your visitor doesn’t feel comfortable with your form, for a varied amount of reasons, you could be losing out on potential client or new business opportunities.

If your website contact form isn’t working, then it’s just simply wasting time, and that’s a definite web kill in itself, driving business away from your company or service. Take a moment, visit your website and fill out the form and submit it. Are you getting the email from your form? If not, it’s time to call your webmaster, and ask “Where’s my mail from my website going?”

Does your website form send the visitor a confirmation e-mail message telling them that their information has been received? If not, it’s so missing out on a great opportunity to thank your visitor for coming to your website, and if your business has a special “thing” happening, you could tell them about it in the email as well! Another great way to reel in your visitor’s and attract them to your door. The power of communication with a little gratitude and humility goes a LONG, LONG way with your potential customers, even if it’s just a little e-mail that tells them you are grateful for visiting your website.

And, What About The Floor Show?

The very first thing a website must do, is to provide a purpose, or provide an answer to a visitor’s question. The website must present to the visitor a fix to their problem, or give them clear information to allow them to decide if the question is answered, or the problem is resolved, or can be resolved. That is why visitors come to your website; they have a need, and if your website isn’t fulfilling it, then it’s causing more damage to your business than helping.

Load each of your web pages, and while looking it over, say outloud “Does this page provide and answer to a question, or does it solve a problem?” If you answer honestly, and it’s NO, then you’ll do well to add this page to the list that would be for a Music City Guru Website Makeover!

The “Green Flash” on the Horizon

Todays’ wireless world is visiting your website on devices that are no longer reserved to web browsers with windows XP. No, today we have a laundry list of cell phones, smart phones, PDA’s, tablets and the list goes on ad nausem. With that said, your website may not even work on these new gadgets, thus leaving your business out of the running for these potential customers, who are feeding off your competition’s websites which display very nicely on thier little hand-held gadgets.

If you don’t own a web enabled smart phone, check with a friend, an borrow it for this very important and revealing step.

If you have a web enabled smart phone (of course you do, doesn’t everyone?), punch up your website on it, and while it’s loading, ask yourself “Does this website still serve it’s purpose as I visit it from my phone/pda/smart phone?”

When your website loads, and you see that big grey box where your flash header should be displaying, then congratulations, you’ve just successfully answered the biggest question this article is about – Does my website need a makeover? Call your webmaster and begin the makeover process!

For more information on your website and the miraculous makeover process, please call Music City Guru today at 615-541-9327 or contact us through our web form.

Welcome!

Music City Guru is proud to announce it’s latest member to join our growing group of partners, Mike Scott & Associates.

Mike Scott and Associates offers seminars that are custom-fit to your organization. Before securing seminar dates, a full customization process is completed. Preplanned implementation support calls are scheduled after training.

Mike Scott believes that any time invested in training must provide information that has immediate and applicable take-home value. Leverage of “information-to-application” is what he stresses.

Mike uses his in-depth knowledge of training, employee development, and business to help professionals quickly and fully absorb and utilize the information he teaches.

His experience includes professional executive recruiting, Manager of Recruiting and Training for Reed Tool Company in Houston, and Human Resources Manager for the Energy Banking group of Republic Bank, now Bank of America. Mike started his own training and development company in July of 1984 and regularly speaks, designs and conducts training programs for both large and small companies, like McDonald’s Corporation, Ernst & Young, AAA and many others. His unique and interesting style and immediate payoff results in additional work with his client companies.

He served in the U. S. Army for four years through the rank of Captain. This included a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam. Mike earned his BS in Business and his MA in Psychology from North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. He now lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Visit http://www.mikescottandassociates.com

Music City Guru announces the launch of it’s podcast service, which began on November 4th with the 1st episode. Episode #2 was a pre-recorded episode from 2007, and I decided it should be launched because it never got aired when previously recorded.

What is a podcast?

The MCG podcasts will start out being limited to about 20 minutes length, and will gradually grow in content and style as I “Cut My Teeth” on podcasting. I’ve got the recording software setup, and some entry-level hardware to allow me to record with ease, and as time goes on and I get more comfortable with podcasting, some additional hardware *might* be brought on board, but for now, due to budget constraints, the needs are being met, although the ‘wants’ are crying out for a shopping spree at Sam Ash Music here in Nashville to ‘browse’ the goodies. (It’s all about the geek-warez).

You can listen to the podcasts right from the browser, or download the mp3 file to your iPhone or music player of choice that supports mp3 format. Or, if you’re using your RSS reader, you can easily subscribe to the feed and listen from within your reader. I’m a big fan of Google Reader, for my RSS and podcasts that I have subscribed to. Although, after being introduced to the Android Market, I found several podcast apps for my Droid, and I enjoy being able to listen to my subscriptions whenever I need from my Droid.

There’s so many ways to listen, I just hope you enjoy the program, and feel free to contact me from the contact form page with your comments or feedback. I love getting emails and texts from others who offer such great feedback and interesting comments. The podcasts are indeed  a great learning experience, and I am having fun doing it, so I hope you enjoy it as well.