Outsourcing News and Tips

Search engine optimisation is a broad and complicated field. When starting out, many business don’t have the time, resources or knowledge to implement an effective SEO strategy, but it is important to have a basic understanding of the area. Lay out your goals, and evaluate your company’s budget and capacity, to assess whether you can handle SEO internally. If this is not something your business has the means for, you should start to look for an agency to help you.

Be careful when choosing an SEO agency. Many companies will promise you page one results, but be wary of those that do as it’s not possible to guarantee this.

A reliable SEO agency should have a solid reputation. You first point of call is to ask for references from other clients of the agency. Another way to check an agency’s reputation is via social media. Do some research and check Facebook or Twitter to view comments and testimonials from past clients. A good industry presence is another obvious way to assess an SEO agency. They should also be able to demonstrate the results they have achieved with previous clients.

It’s wise to pick an agency that has handled companies of your size before, and who have dealt with similar industries. Look at its previous experience and then talk to the agency, preferably face-to-face. It is important you discuss with them exactly what your aims are and make sure you fully understand what changes they intend to make to your site. It is paramount that you are happy with any suggestions before work begins.

Questions to ask an SEO agency:

What companies have you worked with before?
What results did you achieve for those companies?
Can I see some references from previous clients?
Can we meet in person to discuss?
What changes do you think you’ll need to make to my website?

Is Inception the Sci-Fi Film of the Year?


I went to see Inception this weekend, and my experience with it was incredibly quick, 148 minutes run with such speed you never feel the length of this dream-pursuit.

Being incredibly familiar with an idea of Wachowski brothers and their Matrix, this dream-noir knockout stands completely on its own.

With an average score of 8/10 and favorable reviews by most critics the film grossed $21.7 million during its opening day, while Inception’s opening weekend gross of $62.7 million made it the second highest-grossing debut for a stand-alone science fiction film, falling behind Avatar’s $77 million opening weekend gross in 2009.

Rotten Tomatoes ranks Nolan’s mind-crime movie at 87 percent fresh calling it smart, innovative, and thrilling rare summer blockbuster that succeeds viscerally as well as intellectually. Some reviewrs even called it as possibly best Sci-Fi Film of the Year.

Even though, personally I loved this film very much and would welcome a chance to watch it again, I'm just thinking is it real success of the Nolan's idea and great performance of the outstanding cast, or it has something to do with Internet, Social Media and Warner Bros. has spent $100 million marketing the film. I mean there are many other great examples of Sci-Fi mind-blusing masterpieces such as K-Pax, Vanilla Sky, Matrix and others, why there weren't so much buzz and early calls for best film ever .

Your thoughts?

P.S would also appreciate your TOP3 of Sci-Fi films. Here is mine

1. K-Pax,
2. Vanilla Sky
3. Inception

From ReadWriteStart materials:

Making IT as a brand? At the Computerworld Premier 100 conference this spring, several CIOs alluded to using logos or simply new names for their IT groups. During one presentation, for instance, Johnson & Johnson CIO LaVerne Council spoke of branding the company's IT department, including creating a logo, as part of an IT centralization effort. And an IT executive at Procter & Gamble noted that there is no more "IT department" at his company -- now it's IDS: Information, Decisions and Solutions.

As IT works to transform its culture from serving technology to serving customers, some leaders are concluding that the best way to communicate what their often misunderstood and overlooked organizations can do is to put a face on the department.

In the spirit of Nike ("Just Do It"), Burger King ("Have It Your Way") and nearly every product or service sold today, some CIOs are looking at the idea of creating logos and slogans not only to convey who IT is and what it can offer, but also to ensure that business clients won't forget it.

Using images and catchy slogans, these organizations and others hope to forge a strong association between the services users enjoy and who's providing those services, says Carolynn Benson, a consultant at Ouellette & Associates in Bedford, N.H. "When you market IT, you're setting the vision of 'Who do we want to be?' And then you try to capture that in a logo, through an image and a slogan."

While many IT professionals might deny being creative, an experts say that in the workshops, it never takes more than 20 minutes for a group to brainstorm some solid ideas. So CIOs should involve the technical staff in logo development, since it's a great team-building exercise and increases their level of buy-in.

Develop a few samples and ask people, 'If you saw this, what impression would you have?'
Patty Azzarello, Founder, Azzarello Group
However, it's a good idea to also involve other groups -- including the marketing and legal departments -- before making any final decisions, she says. Marketing, for instance, can help you stay consistent with how the company brands itself for its customers, Archibald says. And you may need to check with legal about restrictions on using elements of the corporate logo.

Facebook's reputation troubles grow ever more, well, troubling for the company. Now there's even a Quit Facebook Day. The event is organized by two guys named Matthew Milan and Joseph Dee, who have set up a site to track how many people are committed to quitting on that day. They even offer a reminder service to remind you to quit. For the record, as of this posting they had only 70 signed up. I suspect that number will grow.

(Mashable) -- Social media management company Vitrue released a free tool Thursday, the Social Page Evaluator, designed to help marketers get a better understanding of a Facebook page's value.
Just submit a Facebook page URL and the app will come up with a valuation based on factors like number of fans, number of posts per day, number of interactions and so forth.ssss
It's a cool -- if not completely scientific -- way to gauge the potential value of your Facebook page to advertisers. The formula used by the Social Page Evaluator is related to the formula that Vitrue released last month to estimate the relative value of Facebook Fans to big brands.
The tool, which was built over 63 hours in a Startup Weekend-style project, is adjustable and interactive. For instance, the base rate of Earned Media Value (or CPM in more traditional terms) is $5, but this can be adjusted to a higher or lower value depending on the brand in question.
Likewise, there is a "Fan-tasize" section that lets you manipulate other features like number of posts per day, engagement level and Fan count to see how that affects the valuation.
You can also compare a Facebook Page with up to three other brands at a time and view a Page's value history. In addition to the valuation data, there is also a list of best practices for getting the most out of your Facebook Page.
So how accurate is this tool? It's difficult to determine, as it is based on a formula that, while derived from a study of large brands, is obviously not going to be applicable to all companies.
Still, it's a fun, easy way to get an idea of the factors that impact a Facebook Page valuation. It's also a good stepping stone for marketers to start thinking about the potential advertising power of a Facebook Page.

This section I devoted to my favorite writing-and-discussing activity - LinkedIn discussions - which often bring invaluable insights to my works and business - great thanks them for it!

List of best reports and overviews of the hottest Linkedin discussions divided into categories, choose yours and join conversation or ping me to refresh it:

Social Media
LinkedIn Discussion: Best Books on Social Media
Linkedin Discussion: Are Traditional Marketing channels dead?

Cloud Computing
LinkedIn Discussion: What are the benefits of cloud computing for non-business?
LinkedIn Discussion: Will SaaS replace on-premise ERP systems anytime soon?

Web Accessibility
Technology
Linkedin Discussion: What is the future of cross-mobile applications?
Linkedin Discussion: Will the decision to stop support XP in IE9 help to shift to Windows 7
Linkedin Discussion: How far we came in technology?
Linkedin Discussion: Will IE6 extinct after Microsoft ends support in July?

Outsourcing
LinkedIn Discussion: Australia - IT Outsourcing Provider or Buyer LinkedIn Discussion: What industries are free from outsourcing? LinkedIn Discussion: Post-recession outsourcing - are we moving in wrong direction? LinkedIn Discussion: Nearshore - the new Offshore?

Four months ago I started one sensible discussion on Linkedin around the problems with web accessibility and usability for seniors and people with disabilities. Despite Internet is undoubtedly one of the best things ever happened to people with disabilities, as it opened up a whole new world of information for people, who are blind, deaf or have some kind of disabilities preventing from independent information consumption, its potential still remains unrealized and sometimes unaccessible for those people.

The main topic of that discussion was about the standards and regulations that should be introduced to improve usability of web for seniors and people with disabilities. The main cause for the discussion was the statistics I saw after we submit some of sites we developed to the quality mark Drempelvrij, the organization which promote web accessibility in the Netherlands and act as a quality mark for sites that meet all the requirements assigning a special green logo. At the time we achieved a quality mark of Drempelvrij it was only a bunch of websites that meet standards and carried logo, predominantly government sites.

Even there are various international accessibility initiatives such as Web Accessibility Project by World Wide Web Consortium, along with government standards (Section 508, UK disability Act etc) still most of web designers and developers don't follow them. As a result vast majority of websites are still not accessible and usable for most of people with disabilities and seniors. There were many disputes and legal cases when people with disabilities accused large retail chains and e-shops of having access barriers and violating Disability acts.

The discussion got a welcoming acceptance and attracted many professionals wishing to share their views on the given issue. Mainly, participants emphasized that regulation and laws as good as their enforcement, and the key factor is the industry adoption whereby the standard made by the businesses themselves will make it de facto approach. However, according to experts the private sector is slowly catching up the standard, while governments in developed countries are under the pressure already introduced series of guidelines for public websites.

There were many brilliant suggestions from discussioners ranged from delivering a good accessible code to brining in people with disabilities to design process.

However, just yesterday I realized that I missed one very important factor in that discussion, which even outweigh the problem of accessibility in some way. The problem has the same nature - accessibility, but this time not web but the Internet accessibility. According to federal working paper nearly 40 percent of Americans without internet access have disabilities.

People with disabilities largely cite the same reasons for limited access to high-speed internet as their non-disabled peers, according to the paper issued this month by the Federal Communications Commission. Cost is a top concern followed by limited computer literacy and a lack of interest in internet content.

But the white paper does point out that these barriers can be exacerbated for those with disabilities. For example, assistive technology devices some people need in order to access the internet can make new technology cost prohibitive

“Only 42 percent of people with disabilities have high-speed internet services at home –and an astounding 39 percent of all non-adopters have a disability,” said Joel Gurin, chief of the consumer and governmental affairs bureau at the FCC. “This is not acceptable and we are implementing an ambitious accessibility agenda to ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind.”

Although, the National Broadband Plan in US and some in Europe and UK includes the establishment of working groups and recommendations to update accessibility laws, there are obvious lack of initiative and enthusiasm to improve access to people with disabilities.


Full article on web accessibility can be found here

Everything moves to the Web! Everything goes Cloud! Such statements are very popular today. Not unreasonable though!

From Microsoft Cloudism to incredibly practical Google Docsism almost every IT powerhouse has some cloud offerings in its portfolio. Experts say cloud is going to be the next big thing after the Internet itself. Here is some other predictions on the Cloud market:

- If 2009 can be called the year when cloud computing moved out of the "early adopter" phase into the mainstream, then 2010 will be the year cloud computing transforms IT industry and change the way people and businesses use technology
- If 2009 was the year when the leading players such as, Amazon, Google, CA, Microsoft and IBM have all announced various initiatives in cloud computing, then 2010 is the year when major enterprises adopt cloud computing and deploy their mission critical applications
- If 2009 was a year of early adopters and changing concepts, then in 2010 we will see a pragmatic adoption and emergence of standards and best practices. In a word 2010 is predicted to be the Year of Cloud Computing Realism - according to many industry experts

The buzz about cloud computing has been deafening for the past few months. Especially, after Microsoft CEO says he has bet the company on the cloud and announce the kick-off of a company-wide refocusing on cloud computing. Seventy percent of the 40,000 people who work on software at Microsoft are in some way working in the cloud. The company plans to increase this figure to 90 percent.

Other major vendors making their way into the cloud. IBM, VMware, Amazon.com Inc, Rackspace US are all offering cloud solutions. With amazon at the forefront with its Amazon Elastic and Virtual Private Cloud.

According to Gartner global cloud revenue will increase from US$46 billion in 2009 to US$150 billion by 2013. So seems like businesses see substantial advantages to the cloud. And it's not surprise as Cloud already proved to bring many benefits from the ability to access your critical data and collaborate online with colleagues from anywhere in the world to managing organizations-wide sales, management and other critical functions through Web-based document management and customer relationships solutions to boosting productivity for building powerful applications for software developers. According to industry leaders the main three benefits that companies can derive from the cloud are:

Cost Savings: Corporate servers are estimated to run at only 15 percent capacity. Pay-per-use IaaS services can reduce or eliminate these investments as well as the cost of maintaining them. Running in-house servers as clouds, known as the private cloud, can increase utilization of existing investments.

Cost savings extend to the desktop as well. With SaaS, no software needs to be installed, saving time and money for IT departments and end-users. Since data is stored in the cloud, users can access their applications anywhere from any device with an Internet connection.

Agility: By using IaaS services, enterprises can scale up or scale down on an as-needed basis and pay only for what they use. In the past, scaling service delivery could take months. It can now be done in minutes.

Focus: IT departments can spend less time on deployment and maintenance and instead focus on more strategic initiatives that will have top and bottom line impacts.

All these benefits can be very useful in today's economy when businesses are very conscious about their costs and productivity. Despite concerns around connectivity, integration, security and regulatory compliance the rapid progress of technology innovation and broadband connection will eventually help to address most of today's concerns.

Ok, with business part we've done! Not completely - as there is much more to be said and discussed. However, in this post I'd like to discuss what are those benefits of the Cloud for non-business users, for us. How we can benefit from the Cloud outside the office, (ok - nowadays it's rather to say outside work environment as anyone can continue to work outside the office, partly thanks to the Cloud). Yes, surely some work applications can still be very useful outside, for example Google Docs, sometimes very useful to check your monthly budget sheet on your smartphone or web photo galleries or anything else that stores your personal info online.

However, all this we already using for years and used to it, so there should be something completely innovative which "will change the way we use technology" - as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in its letter to employees. Actually, he managed to name the benefits of cloud for non-businesses, in his speech he talked about immense potential of the cloud for researchers and scientists. "With the Cloud researches might be better able to run experiments quickly and analyze more data if they are able to access public cloud services".

What benefits of the cloud for non-business users do you see?

Everything moves to the Web! Everything goes Cloud! Such statements are very popular today. Not unreasonable though!

From Microsoft Cloudism to incredibly practical Google Docsism almost every IT powerhouse has some cloud offerings in its portfolio. Experts say cloud is going to be the next big thing after the Internet itself. Here is some other predictions on the Cloud market:

- If 2009 can be called the year when cloud computing moved out of the "early adopter" phase into the mainstream, then 2010 will be the year cloud computing transforms IT industry and change the way people and businesses use technology
- If 2009 was the year when the leading players such as, Amazon, Google, CA, Microsoft and IBM have all announced various initiatives in cloud computing, then 2010 is the year when major enterprises adopt cloud computing and deploy their mission critical applications
- If 2009 was a year of early adopters and changing concepts, then in 2010 we will see a pragmatic adoption and emergence of standards and best practices. In a word 2010 is predicted to be the Year of Cloud Computing Realism - according to many industry experts

The buzz about cloud computing has been deafening for the past few months. Especially, after Microsoft CEO says he has bet the company on the cloud and announce the kick-off of a company-wide refocusing on cloud computing. Seventy percent of the 40,000 people who work on software at Microsoft are in some way working in the cloud. The company plans to increase this figure to 90 percent.

Other major vendors making their way into the cloud. IBM, VMware, Amazon.com Inc, Rackspace US are all offering cloud solutions. With amazon at the forefront with its Amazon Elastic and Virtual Private Cloud.

According to Gartner global cloud revenue will increase from US$46 billion in 2009 to US$150 billion by 2013. So seems like businesses see substantial advantages to the cloud. And it's not surprise as Cloud already proved to bring many benefits from the ability to access your critical data and collaborate online with colleagues from anywhere in the world to managing organizations-wide sales, management and other critical functions through Web-based document management and customer relationships solutions to boosting productivity for building powerful applications for software developers. According to industry leaders the main three benefits that companies can derive from the cloud are:

Cost Savings: Corporate servers are estimated to run at only 15 percent capacity. Pay-per-use IaaS services can reduce or eliminate these investments as well as the cost of maintaining them. Running in-house servers as clouds, known as the private cloud, can increase utilization of existing investments.

Cost savings extend to the desktop as well. With SaaS, no software needs to be installed, saving time and money for IT departments and end-users. Since data is stored in the cloud, users can access their applications anywhere from any device with an Internet connection.

Agility: By using IaaS services, enterprises can scale up or scale down on an as-needed basis and pay only for what they use. In the past, scaling service delivery could take months. It can now be done in minutes.

Focus: IT departments can spend less time on deployment and maintenance and instead focus on more strategic initiatives that will have top and bottom line impacts.

All these benefits can be very useful in today's economy when businesses are very conscious about their costs and productivity. Despite concerns around connectivity, integration, security and regulatory compliance the rapid progress of technology innovation and broadband connection will eventually help to address most of today's concerns.

Ok, with business part we've done! Not completely - as there is much more to be said and discussed. However, in this post I'd like to discuss what are those benefits of the Cloud for non-business users, for us. How we can benefit from the Cloud outside the office, (ok - nowadays it's rather to say outside work environment as anyone can continue to work outside the office, partly thanks to the Cloud). Yes, surely some work applications can still be very useful outside, for example Google Docs, sometimes very useful to check your monthly budget sheet on your smartphone or web photo galleries or anything else that stores your personal info online.

However, all this we already using for years and used to it, so there should be something completely innovative which "will change the way we use technology" - as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in its letter to employees. Actually, he managed to name the benefits of cloud for non-businesses, in his speech he talked about immense potential of the cloud for researchers and scientists. "With the Cloud researches might be better able to run experiments quickly and analyze more data if they are able to access public cloud services".

What benefits of the cloud for non-business users do you see?

Being a fan of Blogger.com many times I was tempted by fellow marketeers, friends and colleagues to explore some other services, which were as they recommended as good or even better than Blogger. Although, I realized that services such as Wordpress already provided more options for customization and integration, something prevented me from betraying my beloved service for blogging. However, I launched several initiatives on Wordpress as well as Microsoft Spaces.

The thing about Blogger is that it provides an unique opportunities to create and run a perfectly shaped and stuffed platform for your thoughts and opinions without much knowledge in HTML and CSS. Offering various built-in themes and fair lavel of customization Blogger allowed you to be an architect and web-designer without any corespondent skills, nice isn't it.

However, with lapse of time more and more people, attracted by possibilities to create their mine of thoughts within 20 min turned to blogging and literally flooded the Internet with armies of similar one-to-another blogs, by that time only dozen of Blogger themes were available. Being busy with engine and integration innovations the Blogger team left customization on the shoulders of users. So savvy bloggers turned to the thorny world of HTML in attempt to differentiate their journals from the rest of twins. The solution was clear - if you want something unique go and change it yourself. Personally it took me hours of sleepless nights to re-design selected standard themes to the way I like. Moreover, new gadgets like Blogumulus (3D tag cloud) took another portion of sleepless nights to be adjusted :) Even so I still wanted more customization, more features. And finally it's happened!

First - New Pages Option - an ability to add stand-alone pages such as an "About Me" page
Next - Blogger Template Designer - design and template maker option

In this post I would like to concentrate on the second one as first is very simple and comprehensible ( just go to edit entry menu and click on the 2-tier upper menu "Edit Page" button, that's all), while the second one is a field for your fantasy and imagination. First what you need is to go draft.blogger.com page to start template marker. In the layouts section you will see the option for Template Designer.
It allows you to pick 4 themes styles (simple, picture window, awesome and watermark) within these 4 styles there are many various themes to choose with different colors and designs. Almost for each theme you can add/change background image (Blogger provides a great collection of iStock images for you:), customize fonts, colors and even play with CSS if you know how than click advanced tab on the left :)


On the left there is layout tab where you can completely change your layout design - header, footer, tabs, width of the page, sidebar everything.
You can see all your tryouts without applying them, just hide the instruments by clicking on the expand view cursor on the bottom of tool box. That's all, for more information - just try it yourself, you'll enjoy! Here is some of my masterpieces (first one you already see beyond this article):