May 5, 2015

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the value of professional services

Help!!! Pornographers Hijacked My Website!

Worst case scenario for a business website. If you think a professional web developer is expensive, imagine the cost of a complete rebrand and name change of your business. 

 

Among my favorites Portland restaurants is a white linen table cloth, yet affordable Indian restaurant in the stylish, bustling Northwest Neighborhood on 23rd Avenue. After several meals at this restaurant, I left two 5 star review on Trip Advisor, Google Reviews, and checked in on Facebook, not a common practice for me.

This was different. This was great food, in an otherwise empty place. I made it a point to sit near the window, visibly reveling in my meal to lure in passers-by.

A month later, I noticed a Grand Opening banner covering the very nice, presumably expensive lit sign on the front of the building. It had a new name on it.

September 8, 2014

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Image courtesty: androidvipclub.com

Turn off Autobackup on Your Android Phone

A recent rash of naked celebrity photos ganked from iCloud prompted me to turn off my Android auto backup feature. Apple’s notoriously secure storage cloud wasn’t so much secure as simply not a target of hacking efforts. Apple’s small but exclusive market share made them undesirable targets. Why create a virus that can only infect 10-13% of all computers when you can create a virus that will devastate 82-87%% of all PC computers? Thus, PC’s have been targets of hackers. Plus, most government agencies use PC’s.

August 1, 2014

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Expert, Guru, Ninja– Really?

Social media is an ideal venue for shameless self-promotion. LinkedIn in the premier spot for the budding wantrepreneur of all things “new media” to tout the titles, “Expert,” “Guru,” or “Ninja.” The problem is: it’s a lie.

 

The terms Expert or Guru are only true if bestowed by others who are professionals in your field. If you refer to yourself as a Ninja or Guru, it is guaranteed to be not only gross but untrue. Somethings are best said behind your back. If you’re claiming expertise show us your awards,  accomplishments or successful project outcomes. Emphasize the results of your work. Show us a portfolio, illustrious testimonials or give an inspiring TED Talk.

 

The key to expertise: It’s DEMONSTRATED and VERIFIABLE.

July 18, 2014

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Spam Bots Ruined my Bounce Rates

Evil Spam Bot Ruins Analytics

I was checking my Google Analytics numbers. I noticed a very high bounce rate and a ton of visits from seamalt.seamalt.com. I have no idea who that is or why they are visiting my site 38 times a day. I turned to Google for answers. Turns out an evil bot is probing my site and not even buying us dinner.

 

Seamalt is an Ukranian SEO company with an obnoxious search bot, pinging sites, blowing up analytics and ruining your analytics data to try to drum up customers. It’s spammy, it’s gross, it targets WordPress sites and I want it out of my numbers. You should too. If you want to get rid of Seamalt you have several options. I will be doing this for all of my current and future clients.

 

To Remove Seamalt: