Whilst enjoying the sunshine in La Managa in Murcia Spain recently we were able to pick up more Spanish business. Being a business that uses the web we are always able to pick up clients when we travel and last week was no difference. Before traveling we looked up a few domain names of the businesses we were visiting and one great domain name that one our of old friends at Cada Media was looking for was available.

Plural Domains

Even though may of us use search engines, may still type directly into the top address bar and guess domain names. This particular company exports motor bike helmets around the world, but had neglected to register the plural version of their company names, demonstrating that they actually have a few helmets to sell and not just one!

We registered the domain name and set up a redirect so the name will point to their original website.

Then when we were on the subject of domains  and emails the conversation came about to spam emails and viruses as one pc in the office was suffering after receiving many emails containing viruses.

Not missing out on an opportunity we were able to sell our Spam filtering services to the company and also to one of their sister companies too. The spam filtering service we offer allows business to scan just 1 email address or thousands depending on their needs.

Moral of the Story. . . .The Web is Everywhere and never stops, never sleeps, it’s a global village we are in and using the Web for business will increase sales, increase exposure to bigger markets and greater sales. Don’t be afraid to be part of it.

According to our friends over in ZNet.com the World Cup in 2010 has brought high volumes of traffic online with people using the web to find out information about the World Cup. In fact not just before a game, but whilst a game is actually being played.

Most people say that men can only do one thing at a time, well now we have that stats that shows that they can also use a laptop, iphone or even a desktop pc whilst watching the box!

Internet usage is on the increase in Ireland with broadband being rolled out to more and more regions. Speeds of 100mb now on trial in Wexford in fact means that businesses understanding it’s significance can avail of it’s use for voip calls, online backup, software as a service, online spam filtering and all rolled into the Cloud allowing a business to be virtual.

What does this mean?

It means that you don’t have to go to the office to check your emails, you don’t have to use an in house mail server for emails, you don’t have to store documents on an in-house server, you don’t need to use a backup tape unit, you don’t need to buy expensive software, you don’t need to worry about data protection act, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to get all of this on place either!

What do you do next?

Call Dave Jordan of Cada Media Ltd today to see how we can roll out a web solution for you and get ahead of your competitors.

The web is everywhere, be part of it!

053-9430748

Great and when is it going to be finished? Today we had another call from a business asking us could we start and finish a website in 10 days as he has been waiting over 2 years for the favour of creating a website to be completed.

Getting a website created for a business is like most things in life, there is a procedure and a process, bypass these steps and getting a mate or a friend to do it often leads to projects being put on the long finger and in fact, usually not being don’t at all.

If I take a look at the number of domain names that are registered in Ireland each year and then look at the amount of “Under Construction Signs” that are on the sites it would amaze you the volume that are not utilised for an actual website but rather a holding page that is permanently on hold.

Either the favour is not being worked on or the business is only using the domain name for email and does not really understand the impact of having a good website open 24/7 selling and promoting your business.  Whilst the under construction page has been on display often we find that a competitive business will and worked away and got their website up and runnign and is live in a google search. Mean while you seeing the guy or gal in Tesco and waving over wondering when they will ever get around to working on the site.

So by asking a real business to work on your website you are taking up a proper goal and deadlines with your web designer. “We need the website by the 1st September” etc. It has to be created, tested, marketed and proofed and live by then, can you do it?

Yes, Call Dave Jordan using your long finger you put stuff on and dial 053 9430748 today!

This year (2010) we are receiving many “website design” briefs in from businesses who have decided to look online to increase sales and promote their businesses. They have either come up with a design brief themselves or they have got in a marketing consultant in to help them do the website design.

Great, more inquiries, I’m happy, the guys in here are happy.

That is until we open the brief and it is nearly identical to the last one, except the name of the company have been changed! So some hero in an office has copied and pasted in a specification that was created for some other business and thought that it would do for their own business.

Who should design a website?

More and more these days we find that companies are willing to get anyone who owns a pc to design a website for them, Great work away and then later when it all goes wrong we get a call asking us to help out. We can and we do without saying ” I told you so…”  But if you want to get a job done right from the start going to a professional business may not be as expensive as you think.

Web packages can start off from as little as €600 these days, (I know you can swap them for a sandwich and marble too) but generally prices are not €20k or 30k anymore.

This image is just one of the pages from a 25 page web design specification that we received in and they client was looking for a website that had all the bells and whistles and they amount of pages was around 170 mark. We had emails flying to and from the clients making sure this was the exact design that they had needed and they were positive it was.

The Meeting.

They came to our offices and we discussed the objectives of the website and the reasoning behind the structure that they have come up with. Most of it was unnecessary and the goals of the project we defined by both parties listening to how the web really works and what they wanted to gain from the new website.

The website is now actually just a normal Content Managed Website that will have about 60 pages and their staff will be trained on how to make more pages if required in the future.

Their website specification made the price of the website much higher than it needed to be and finally now they will get a brand new website at a great price and with a proper structure and layout, not menu upon menu and everything being buried 4 or 5 clicks deep.

Designing a website is not rocket science, but it is a computer science and no matter what field in business you are in, you are in it for a reason. Hopefully because you are good at it. Therefore my rant for today is : stick to what you know in terms of business knowledge.

I have a ruler and and pencil, I’m not an architect !

So if you are starting to look at designing or redesigning your own company website and need to make a good first impression and not bamboozle your target market then talk to us today on 053 9430748

My name is Dave Jordan, I’m here Tuesdays & Thursdays, Try the veil.

Google have been contacting the people to who use their email alert service to tell them that due to the fact that not many people actually using the service they provide, they will be altering the way in works in the future. Interesting to see that people are not using it as we know that it can be an important tool when doing search engine optimisation and general web marketing for companies.

Google Alerts

Basically the way they work is to email you once someone puts in a search for a term or phrase that you have requested to be notified by email. It is useful if you would like to know for instance if a phrase is one that really is used by people to search for a product or service. Often when talking to customers and potential clients they will have a predefined concept into the words that people use. Most times it is actually not the phrase that would necessarily the one that would bring them the most amount of hits.

Google Adwords

This would be the next step up in looking to see which word you might pay Google if someone searched for it and to display your name first. There is a google adwords keyword tool that allows you too see which words are most popular and then actually put in a real time bid to get your name listed top of the listings.

To start working with Google Alerts or Google Adwords just log in into your Google account and start researching how it all works.

To start getting results straight away let Cada Media set it up for you and let you get back to what Your Good at. Tel : 053 9430748

See Below

*****

We're contacting you because you have an alert of type Web. We've decided to retire Web alerts because
(1) they are used by very few people and
(2) an alert of type Everything will find the same results.

This week we'll be changing all alerts of type Web into alerts of type Everything.
Your alert will continue to include results from all kinds of web sites.

You may receive more results after this change. If you find that you are getting too many results,
you can change the "How often" setting to "once a day" or "once a week." You can also change your search query.
You can do this on the alerts management page (www.google.com/alerts/manage),
or by removing the alert using the link at the bottom of each alert email and creating it again with different settings.

We hope that you'll continue to find your alert useful.

******

Wexford Bed and Breakfast Breaks at Kilmore Quay

Just a quick note to let our readers know that one of our clients, Groveside farm Bed and Breakfast in Kilmore Quay  Wexford, is offering a special discount for those looking to stay more than one consecutive night bb at their friendly bandb in Wexford.

Kilmore Quay Wexford is a delightful fishing village perfect for a romantic getaway or a stopoff from the ferry. Boat trips to the Saltee Islands are also very popular here for all you springwatch viewers!

Treat yourself this June and have a family friendly holiday break in Wexford - The Sunny South East!

Contact mary by email:  stay@grovesidefarm.com or tel her on: +353 (0) 53 91 35305 for more details.

Groveside Farm BandB Wexford:   www.grovesidefarm.com

Clonmines Joinery Staircase Specialists Wexford

Cada media are delighted to announce Clonmines Joinery Wexfords’ new look website at www.clonminesjoinery.ie.

Clonmines Joinery Ltd are based in Co Wexford and design and manufacture Bespoke Staircases including:

• Georgian Stairs
• Traditional Stairs
• Contemporary Stairs
• Straight Stairs
• Curved Stairs
• Wrought Iron Stairs
• Stairs Incorporating Glass
• Stairs Incorporating Brick and Stone
• Bespoke Staircase Design

Clonmines Joinery use the best timber, sourced from replenishable and well managed forests throughout Ireland, Europe and America. They also supply a comprehensive range of off standard custom designed window boards in both hardwood and softwood and are proud to be the only company in Ireland manufacturing curved window boards.

Cada Media Ltd wish Elaine, Willie and the team at Clonmines Joinery the very best with the new website.

If your looking for high quality Staircase design in Wexford, Waterford, Dublin, Kilkenny, Cork, Carlow and to the Uk then contact Clonmines Joinery Ltd at www.clonminesjoinery.ie

Gorey based online business

www.mydivert.com run by Joel Driver, has today announced a partnership which could benefit many of the thousands of Polish migrants now living and working in Ireland.

Gorey based Mydivert.com, one of the web’s most popular call forwarding services today announced the introduction of complete geographical coverage for Polish VoIP virtual telephone numbers. Now you can have a local phone number from any of the 50 local area codes in Poland, and have your family, friends, or business contacts call you – dialing in at local rates.

A virtual telephone number allows you to receive calls on a land-line, mobile phone, VoIP telephone, softphone on a PC, or send calls to your own VoIP provider or pbx where ever you are in the world!

The announcement has been described as a ‘breakthrough in communication for Polish migrant workers and their families’.

There are estimated to be over 2 million Polish nationals working abroad in the EU alone, with 700,000 living in Britian and an estimated 200,000 in the Republic of Ireland.

Joel Driver, CEO of mydivert.com, said today, “Our partnership with the leading national provider is great news for all Polish people working or living abroad. The new partnership enables us to pass on the services to our users at a fantastic rate. Anyone can have a local number in Poland now for just €2.95 per month. This is going to help thousands of families to keep in contact. That has to be a good thing.”

“We’re very excited to be the first service to partner with a Polish voip provider and provide this level of coverage.”, said Josh Stephens, technical director at mydivert.com. “Integrating the Polish DID into our platform opens great communication possibilities for the individual as well as for business use. The ability to receive local calls without the need for a physical presence in the area is at the core of our business. Our server grid is located in Germany and the Polish DID are mapped directly to us. This enables us to provide the highest quality calls for customers with at a very competitive price.”

The service at www.mydivert.com has no set-up charges and allows for unlimited incoming calls. If calls are forwarded to a landline or mobile phone then a small call forwarding charge applies. With a local telephone number on your phone, or mobile, your callers pay Local Call Rates when they call you.

Well done to all concerned, just jealous we didn’t set it up!

Indeed a strange statement to hear over the phone, but never the less one that is getting more and more common these days as we hear about companies and businesses in the southeast who have gone to look at their website to find it’s gone. Replaced with advertising for other websites selling similar products and services.

Stolen Domain Names

Expired domain names are often used as advertising boards once it has passed it expiration date. This means that the company who has registered the domain name will put display adverts or Google Adwords on the site in order to try to recoup some of their losses.

It is very common.

Today we had a call from a local business who had somehow allowed their domain name to expire, they said they were not contacted by their own web company and had no notification. We were able to do some research and contact a few people in the industry and the next day the company who had hosted the their website and registered the domain name were in contact with them and the website went live again.

It is important to remember when you have a website that if the domain name and hosting are on an annual fee then you will be getting invoiced each year. Not paying these fee’s usually results in disconnection. don’t pay your ESB bill and you get cut off.

I believe the same happened in this case.

If you have a domain name and website hosting package with a company such as this caller and wish to possibly think about moving to an office based web design business then whey not give Cada Media Ltd a call on 053 9430748 and ask for Dave.

The good weather over the past weekend brought more than the usual weekend activities of mowing, sawing and hammering in suburbia. It became the bar be que capital of world with every butcher being sold out of anything that slips between the grill and ends up on the hot coals.

Conversations came in many forms, but one that we noticed was common to many a few were started when a ring tone was heard and then a smart phone was produced with a slow motion effect to make sure all saw the new “12MT4″ model phone was on display. Ah I see you have the blah blah make of phone . . . . So what apps do you have installed?

Ours Apps, are who we are!

It’s great to see so many and may I just point out that these are not “techy friends” these are everyday ordinary people in Ireland from sales, banking, civil servants, library staff to myself web development.

The apps ranged from Wing Guru for the sailors, social media for chatter boxes especially Facebook, Twitter, linkedIn and then it moved to apps that suited each persons Job or sport.

Property sites such as MyHome and Daft are also were high on peoples lists and just to really look at these in detail, I also asked what screen people had their apps. If you have a smartphone you will know what I mean.

We found that many people sort their apps into categories on the phone, social, tools, referrence in that order!

If you have an App story we would be delighted to hear about it.

It’s great to see a local business in Wexford using all media to promote themselves and their new services and products.

Gravity Forest Park.

This local swimming pool in Courtown had their grand opening this weekend for their latest addition to the centre. A outdoor adventure centre with zipline, climbing wall, fan drop and two high walks and all side by side.

The management organised the opening day with traditional promotion methods including, signage, print, radio and all pushing their website address. Many companies forget to mention their website address and later wonder about poor web hits and even less inquiries.

If you have it, flaunt it!

They have also embraced social media and embarked upon getting envolved with their clients and engaging them in an online conversation and all the while promoting Gravity Forest Park

Well done to Shane and the rest of the crew at Gravity. Now take a leaf out of their book today, for help call Dave Jordan of Cada Media today.

It is interesting to talk to business people and see how they view online reputation and the idea that another business might think about googling their name to see what comes up. Many people have no idea that because they have not put up a website themselves that someone might have put up something about them!

Negative Reputation?

I urge serious businesses to think of online reputation as a conversation, if your name is being mentioned in a conversation you hope it would be favourable, 9 times out of 10, it’s not.

Bad news travels fast and even faster online, reputation in business is not restricted to word of mouth on the golf course, or how often your advert appears on tv, it’s happening everyday by people on their mobiles updating social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook and local listing sites like Yelp or FourSquare.

Company names and products are mentioned talked about all the time, but many companies don’t think about thier online reputation or the management of it.

Talk to Cada Media to get the balance of online and offline reputation right, call Dave Jordan today on 053 9430748

We often get into conversations with clients about the Internet browsers they are using. Many don’t think of upgrading it to a newer version or installing an entirely new browser such as

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari
• Maxthon
• Internet Explorer
• Opera

Why upgrade your browser?

Your current browser displays the web as you like it? You don’t trust all the requests to install this, install that. It’s true, we are all pestered with requests to do so, but there is a reason behind it . . . if you stop and think about the bigger picture of why you are being asked to upgrade.

Now before everyone harps on about security issues or bug fixes, look past that and think about the benefits of having the latest version of anything. The new features and accessories that they provide to keep you ahead in an every growing technical age. Some of the requests are to install a Java Script or a new version of Flash. (99% of people have no idea of what these are and reject the request)

As you may or not know there is a cloud over the horizon that has been looming for a while now. It is spoken in the Sunday papers, business networking, tech forums and is a great buzz word of tech talkers. It is “Cloud Computing” and the idea of putting data in a remote location in order to allow it to be accessed via any location. Bit like a website in basic terms if you think about it. It is this accessing remote data that has been talked about in disaster recover situations where we hear about big companies with hundreds of employees and the building burns down. They simply move to a new locaiton with and access their emails and documents from their server and continue working.

Great for large business but is it necessary for small businesses. It is important for us all but in order to even start going down that road you must have the right vehicle and in computing terms that means the device or software we use. The software we use is changing as we see more and more software being used on the net.

But if your Internet Browser is an old version you will not be able to get involved and engage in these changes in technology. Have you every listened to someone brag that their phone is just a phone and it is great. That may be true for them but for those who know the benefits of having a phone that also accesses emails and and the web, we know it can change the way we work. Change our lifestyle and even the way we accept payments.

Now apply that philosophy to your web browser. Imagine what you are missing out on and the features that are available these days. The browser is not just a click forward or backward, ckick Home. The browser is a piece of software that is able to doing online transactions, word processing, drawing and in fact most tasks that a computer can do, but only if that software is the latest version.

This maybe something called Java Script, as it sounds, a programming language that coffee drinking programmers came up with that runs scripts that perform an operation either on your computer or to a online file.

You need it.

Other languages such as HTML version 5 are also being updated to help the processing of data on the Internet. Older browsers are being phased out in order to help the new world order where browsers are the one piece of software that is crucial to the running of all programs as they are run within it. Some functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers.

So if you are still clicking on “ignore” or “reject” think again about what you are rejecting . . you are rejecting change to business and the new business models that are vital in business today.

Upgrade your browsers by clicking on any of the links above.

Someone in our local chapter of BNI here in Gorey described our meetings like that once and I think it sorta stuck with me as I can see the similarity in some ways.

What he was referring to was a meeting of BNI in Wexford and they way that it is structured and organised to help people meeting but not for romantic reasons, but rather business networking!  . . . . .zzzzzz, lol,  you still reading. . . ok

Well tonight could be your night to meeting that someone special, business wise I mean. Tonight is an open meeting of the Gorey Chapter of BNI. I have spoken about this before in terms of Networking in Wexford and it is on at 7pmin the Ashdown Park Hotel,

Remember bring loads of business cards!

BT taken over by Vodafone

Great news for some, hassle and agro for others!

If you are a BT broadband customers and you have found that you can not send emails since last week it might be due to the new settings that you will have to make to your our going server in your email program. It’s not us who changed these, its the Internet service provider themselves.

mail.vodafone.ie

That is the new out going mail server for the BT/Vodafone broadband customers. I wonder did BT or vodafone tell anyone or just put an advert in the Nationals about this. Only because we get about 1 call per day asking why they can’t send emails and when I explain they usually laugh and suggest that they would have received some notifuication about it.

Well I’m telling ye!

If you can not send emails, double check with your IPS, Internet Service Provider as they have setting they need you to have on your PC in order to send emails.