Sorry for the long time between posts. We've been really busy here - which is good. But as you know, when things get busy, all the "wanna-do's" (our blog) get pushed aside by the "have-to do's".
This is the third and final part of our series on Amazon AWS services. This post is on Amazon's "Simple Email Service" or SES.
Personally, I've been involved with large scale email marketing for 10 years now. I've set up and managed email servers for clients, and I've set up and run bulk email programs for email newsletters and marketing efforts. It's actually pretty difficult to do properly.
Let's use setting up and sending an email newsletter as our example that will lead in to why we recommend the Amazon SES service.
Let's say you're the owner or president or key manager of a business and you want to use email newsletters as a way of staying in front of your customers. Great idea, but where do you start?
If you're mailing list is under 300 people, you could just "bcc" (blind copy) your whole list and send right from within your email program (assuming you just want a very basic. plain layout). For very small lists, it's not a bad method. Most programs allow up to 300 bcc's, and you don't need any special programs, servers or help. With such a small list, you can quickly remove any bounced or removal requests you get.
A Simple Introduction to Amazon AWS Part Two - S3 Online Storage
Data storage and backup are critical to any organization's IT infrastructure. Just having a large, external drive attached to your office server isn't enough. While drive reliability has gone up, and costs have gone down, local (in your office) external storage is still subject to the weird and unexpected. Disks still crash, data is still corrupted and systems can be hacked. Worse, your office could be flooded (recall Tropical Storm Sandy) or you could be hit with a fire in your building. With more and more of your business being run on software, you need to make absolutely sure you have multiple, redundant backup stored at different locations. We not only backup all our web servers and data servers fully at our data center, but we also backup EVERYTHING to the cloud with Amazon S3.
There are great backup services out there like Mozy and Carbonite. They are easy, fairly inexpensive and reliable. But for this post, I am focussing on Amazon S3.
There are great backup services out there like Mozy and Carbonite. They are easy, fairly inexpensive and reliable. But for this post, I am focussing on Amazon S3.
A Simple Introduction to Amazon AWS Part One - EC2
Everyone knows Amazon.com for their online book sales and ecommerce offerings. But not everyone knows that Amazon also offers IT infrastructure for companies needing servers, cloud-based services and offsite storage. Its called Amazon AWS (Amazon Web Services) and it's a fantastic deal.
The next three posts are written for the small to mid-sized organization who may have limited IT staff and resources. Larger organizations most likely already know about Amazon AWS since the service has been around for sometime. In the next three posts I'll focus on the three AWS services I see as most attractive to small business - EC2 virtual servers, S3 storage and SES email services.
The next three posts are written for the small to mid-sized organization who may have limited IT staff and resources. Larger organizations most likely already know about Amazon AWS since the service has been around for sometime. In the next three posts I'll focus on the three AWS services I see as most attractive to small business - EC2 virtual servers, S3 storage and SES email services.
Dante's 10th Circle of Hell - Running Your Own Email Server
This is a very biased opinion, and is intended for those of you small businesses still running a mail server somewhere in your office. While the number of companies still doing this is declining, it still surprises me (and drives me crazy) when I come across a prospective customer still doing their own email.
Running and managing an email system is hell. Period. The risks are way too high. You can't convince me that having an aging piece of equipment, loaded with an aging piece of software, running on your insecure office network, is smart to do nowadays.
If you just consider the threats of viruses transmitted via email and the massive amounts of spam that has to be managed, this alone justifies NOT doing it yourself. Then consider the thousands of dollars of depreciating assets in your closet (server and software), plus IT costs for tweaking and maintaining, and the decision is even clearer. Finally, consider your organization's email retention policies and requirements for backing up and storing.
The answer, in my opinion, is changing to one of the cloud-based systems such as Google Premier Apps or Outlook.com.
We know, you love your Outlook client running on your Windows laptop. You've got all you emails for the last 10 years nicely organized in all your folders. Outlook has a great little calendar that ties nicely together and sends out cool little meeting confirmation emails. We've been through all the stages and have many customers who are in the various stages of email "sophistication". We understand your concern and don't want to upset your system. But hey, things change. If you're stuck in the "local email client" paradigm (an email client like Outlook running on your computer), it's time you learned something new. There are many supplemental benefits to doing so.
In today's cloud-based, software-as-a-service, tons-of-free-or-low-cost-storage world, you can have a powerful, feature rich, SAFE (as in virus screened) and SPAM-free email system for $50 per user per year. Trust me, that's a fraction of what it's costing you now if you're running your own email system. The two products I typically recommend are Google Premium Apps and Outlook.com. Google because I know it best, use it myself, and think it's a great bargain. Outlook because I have many clients who are "crack-addicted" to their Outlook client which I "think" offers a better interconnection between web and machine systems. There are many other email providers that can offer cloud-based enterprise email.
If you have a relationship with a company who maintains your email server and office network now, ask them their opinion. If they're honest, and not interested in just keeping the email server ticket running, they'll help you out. If they tell you to keep your email server, start thinking about a new IT partner.
Running and managing an email system is hell. Period. The risks are way too high. You can't convince me that having an aging piece of equipment, loaded with an aging piece of software, running on your insecure office network, is smart to do nowadays.
If you just consider the threats of viruses transmitted via email and the massive amounts of spam that has to be managed, this alone justifies NOT doing it yourself. Then consider the thousands of dollars of depreciating assets in your closet (server and software), plus IT costs for tweaking and maintaining, and the decision is even clearer. Finally, consider your organization's email retention policies and requirements for backing up and storing.
The answer, in my opinion, is changing to one of the cloud-based systems such as Google Premier Apps or Outlook.com.
We know, you love your Outlook client running on your Windows laptop. You've got all you emails for the last 10 years nicely organized in all your folders. Outlook has a great little calendar that ties nicely together and sends out cool little meeting confirmation emails. We've been through all the stages and have many customers who are in the various stages of email "sophistication". We understand your concern and don't want to upset your system. But hey, things change. If you're stuck in the "local email client" paradigm (an email client like Outlook running on your computer), it's time you learned something new. There are many supplemental benefits to doing so.
In today's cloud-based, software-as-a-service, tons-of-free-or-low-cost-storage world, you can have a powerful, feature rich, SAFE (as in virus screened) and SPAM-free email system for $50 per user per year. Trust me, that's a fraction of what it's costing you now if you're running your own email system. The two products I typically recommend are Google Premium Apps and Outlook.com. Google because I know it best, use it myself, and think it's a great bargain. Outlook because I have many clients who are "crack-addicted" to their Outlook client which I "think" offers a better interconnection between web and machine systems. There are many other email providers that can offer cloud-based enterprise email.
If you have a relationship with a company who maintains your email server and office network now, ask them their opinion. If they're honest, and not interested in just keeping the email server ticket running, they'll help you out. If they tell you to keep your email server, start thinking about a new IT partner.
Cover Your Assets
Do you know how and where you business domain name (yourcompany.com) is controlled. Many times the business owner, or their administrative assistants have no idea.
Your domain name is a key business asset and needs to be protected.
In the olden days (five years ago in Internet time), when you wanted to buy your domain name, someone on your behalf would contact a domain registry (such as Network Solutions, GoDaddy, Register.com, etc.) and fill out all the application information for you. Since it was technical in nature, you passively went along with what they recommended. Whoever filled out your registration form (typically your web site developer or hosting company) usually became the technical contact and the administrative contact responsible for the management of your web domain.
Your domain name is a key business asset and needs to be protected.
In the olden days (five years ago in Internet time), when you wanted to buy your domain name, someone on your behalf would contact a domain registry (such as Network Solutions, GoDaddy, Register.com, etc.) and fill out all the application information for you. Since it was technical in nature, you passively went along with what they recommended. Whoever filled out your registration form (typically your web site developer or hosting company) usually became the technical contact and the administrative contact responsible for the management of your web domain.
You Don't Need One Web Site. You Need Five.
Virtually every company today has a presence on the Internet - most have only their primary web site. Very few companies today really understand the Internet, content marketing and social media. Most limit their web presence to a cookie-cutter web site, with a few dozen content pages (which never change), and looks like dozens of other sites. The result basically is a “web billboard” that has no uniqueness or authority. With so many web sites out there, the question begs to be asked: What is your company doing differently on the web to attract new customers?
The Internet has changed the way we communicate and interact with each other. We all turn to Google, Bing, Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc. as the first step in the purchasing process. It’s the norm for today. The individual does his or her own research for quality, value, cost and has 80% of the shopping decision complete when they make the call.
That’s why it’s critical to the success of your company to have a Web marketing strategy designed for this behavior. You have to be found on the web, and then your story and product and value has to be compelling enough to get the phone call or email.
Is your site visually interesting and does it get your message across quickly enough? Web design is in the midst of a huge change right now. Tied together with responsive (mobile) design requirements, web site design is now moving toward large “in-your-face” graphics, short quick tag lines, contact forms and calls to action. Flash is out, JavaScript “sliders" are in.
At the same time, Google has changed how it ranks site. It’s now all based on trust and authority, which really means “quality content”. So, if your site is being designed for a quick, powerful message and call to action, where do you put the story and all the quality content?
The answer is in your blog and your social media outlets. If you don’t have a blog now, get one. Internal to your site, or external to your site (opinions differ) but in the long run, it really doesn’t matter. You just need a place to tell the world all the smart things your company has done, and how to solve problems your targeted audience may encounter.
So, today, you no longer need one web site. You need five.
You need your primary site to be visually attractive and informative. It needs to be easy to see what your business does better than your competition. And it needs to be easy to get in touch with you.
The other four sites are made up of your YouTube channel, your Facebook page, your LinkedIn company page, and your Twitter presence. These are just the basics. You can add many more social outlets, online document sites, press release sites and industry associations. It takes a lot of time and it requires good quality content with a common message of your value proposition to drive all these pieces.
If you need help, drop us an email at info@cms4i.com.
The Internet has changed the way we communicate and interact with each other. We all turn to Google, Bing, Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc. as the first step in the purchasing process. It’s the norm for today. The individual does his or her own research for quality, value, cost and has 80% of the shopping decision complete when they make the call.
That’s why it’s critical to the success of your company to have a Web marketing strategy designed for this behavior. You have to be found on the web, and then your story and product and value has to be compelling enough to get the phone call or email.
Is your site visually interesting and does it get your message across quickly enough? Web design is in the midst of a huge change right now. Tied together with responsive (mobile) design requirements, web site design is now moving toward large “in-your-face” graphics, short quick tag lines, contact forms and calls to action. Flash is out, JavaScript “sliders" are in.
At the same time, Google has changed how it ranks site. It’s now all based on trust and authority, which really means “quality content”. So, if your site is being designed for a quick, powerful message and call to action, where do you put the story and all the quality content?
The answer is in your blog and your social media outlets. If you don’t have a blog now, get one. Internal to your site, or external to your site (opinions differ) but in the long run, it really doesn’t matter. You just need a place to tell the world all the smart things your company has done, and how to solve problems your targeted audience may encounter.
So, today, you no longer need one web site. You need five.
You need your primary site to be visually attractive and informative. It needs to be easy to see what your business does better than your competition. And it needs to be easy to get in touch with you.
The other four sites are made up of your YouTube channel, your Facebook page, your LinkedIn company page, and your Twitter presence. These are just the basics. You can add many more social outlets, online document sites, press release sites and industry associations. It takes a lot of time and it requires good quality content with a common message of your value proposition to drive all these pieces.
If you need help, drop us an email at info@cms4i.com.
What's All This Panda and Penguin Stuff?
If you've been interested in better Google rankings, chances are you've heard of Panda and Penguin. You're asking yourself what in the world do these two cute animals have to do with Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
Well, turns out Panda's and Penguin's have a huge impact on web marketing. Before I explain, let me lay a little foundation.
Google has always used a complex search algorithm to evaluate a web site's relevancy in respect to search terms. In the early days it was easy. Pretty much just the number of key words on a site. But that was too easy to fool, as the spammers soon learned.
Keep in mind though, Google's product is the "search result". The quality of their search result is very important. If you get nothing but spammy sites returned from a search, you'd soon stop using that search engine. So, in order to provide the highest quality results, Google has always had to manipulate their algorithm to stay ahead of the spammers. As Google got more sophisticated, so did the spammers. New, legitimate SEO companies appeared on the scene to provide "white hat" SEO techniques that were effective and legal (with Google). But soon good SEO companies figured out how to use "proper" SEO techniques to their advantage. The system became gamed.
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