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Monday, March 24, 2008
Midway Shelter Have a Heart Gala
Hello.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I enjoyed the weekend by getting back on my mountain bike.
Next weekend ought to be just as exciting…
The 17th Annual Have a Heart Gala
On Saturday, March 29, 2008 The Alameda Mayor’s Fundraiser Committee is hosting the 17th Annual Have a Heart Gala at the Albert DeWitt “O” Club benefiting the Alameda Midway Shelter for abused & homeless women and children.
There will be dinner and dancing, an open and silent auction and a performance by The Sun Kings, Bringing the Sounds of The Beatles to Alameda.
I am promoting the event, (1) MJS Web Solutions is designing the new website and (2) it is a wonderful and worthwhile cause that needs your support.
For more information or to reserve your seat, please contact (510) 748-8410 or (510) 523-2377.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:39 am
Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Uncategorized, News
Monday, December 18, 2006
Monitoring Your Website Traffic
A client has asked me to monitor their website traffic, so I have to provide a list of each item we will be monitoring and why.
There are 3 main questions I have to ask before I begin monitoring random stats. I figure I have to know the following:
- How they found the website?
- Who are they? What do they want?
- Why they stay or make contact?
Then I should monitor
- Click-through path
- Time on website
- Referrers
- Keywords
There are plenty of website monitoring tools providing tons of data. Knowing what data you need first will be the pay off.
Cheers.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 8:05 pm
Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Apple’s Poor Release of iTunes 7
Hello.
I hope you had a great weekend.
Over the weekend (or Friday) I downloaded the new iTunes 7. Immediately afterwards I began to have problems.
I uninstalled iTunes 7 completely and reinstalled 6.X. Unfortunately I kept getting an error saying that it couldn’t find my Library file. I am checking the Apple forums to figure out how I can revert back to 6.X. I will let you know what I find.
Perception of Apple
I think it’s interesting that a lot of people (even Apple) perceive Apple as being so much more reliable than Microsoft. Believe me, Apple has just as many problems. And this release of iTunes from Apple didn’t even qualify as a beta release. Sheesh…get with it Apple.
I’m actually debating on purchasing a competitor. It’s really irritating that I have to use iTunes exclusively with an iPod. I don’t know why I’m so surprised; you have to do that will all Apple products.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Cheers.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:50 pm
Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Uncategorized
Friday, September 15, 2006
Wireless Security Virus
Logging onto my wireless network today I noticed one particular connection. Check out the last one.
This cracked me up. This is one way to get people not to join your wireless network.
Notice the network is unsecured. Why threaten us with a virus? Just secure your network. That’s dumb and scary.
Have a great weekend.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 9:18 am
Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Our New Blog
Hello.
We just upgraded our blog. Very exciting!
We are now using WordPress. The new software is so much better. With the new WordPress blog, you can search our posts and view posts by categories. (A request I got quite frequently).
Our new WordPress blog also has comment spam prevention, something our other blogging software lacked. This was one of the main reasons for our upgrade. The spam associated with our previous blog was way too time intensive to manage. Now we can monitor or completely turn off comments.
It may look the same, but underneath the hood it’s a whole new system.
If you want to test out the same product we are using, visit Alentus today to setup your new blog.
Mike Swartz says, “Check it out.”
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:16 am
Comments: 1 Comment | Filed under: Uncategorized
Sunday, June 11, 2006
What I’m Reading
I thought it would be fun to share with you what I’m reading at the moment.
- Maximum PC - I’ve mentioned this magazine a few times. If you’re a power user like I am, you’ll love this mag. The latest issue is filled with tips on updating your PC and OSX goes head to head with XP on a Mac. Guess who wins? You’d be surprised.
- You: The Owner’s Manual - I saw the authors on Oprah and had to pick up this book. It’s a really good read that helps explain how your body operates and suggests ways to extend your life here on earth.
- Call to Action - This book is chock full of excellent suggestions on how to increase your ecommerce revenue, from the colors you use on your site to the dialog you say on your site. It’s all in here.
- Website Measurement Hacks - It’s great to build a better website to attract more visitors and increase your income, but do you know if it’s working or not? Or how well? This book will help answer those questions and more.
I’m reading these books all at the same time. Yep, that’s right. They’re more like reference books than anything else.
Mike Swartz says, “Check ‘em out”.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:23 pm
Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized
Saturday, March 25, 2006
There is No Shortcut
Tonight I attended an “Introduction to Pilates” class at Mariner Square. It was a really fast introduction, so I picked up a Pilates book we have to learn a little more and really enjoyed this quote, in the book, from Stephen R. Covey…
“We live in a modern society that loves shortcut techniques. Yet quality of life cannot be achieved by taking the right shortcut. There is no shortcut. But there is a path. The path is based on principles revered throughout history. If there is one message to glean from this wisdom, it is that a meaningful life is not a matter of speed or efficiency. It’s much more a matter of what you do and why you do it than how fast you get it done.”
If you take the shortcut, you miss the learning process of getting there.
Think about this quote when you’re waiting for your website to be #1 in Google. It takes time and patience.
There is No Magic Bullet
I just read a great interview about a gentleman who earns $10,000/day from AdSense. He says “there is no magic bullet…through testing you can always improve.”
I spoke about this before…making minor changes to your website can have a dramatic effect on your overall bottom line. Learn from Yahoo, Google, Amazon. All are successful websites that haven’t really changed that drastically over time, but only improved on a good thing. Check out the path or growth of these sites at Wayback Machine.
Anyhoo…
Stephen Covey is right. There is no shortcut, but there is always a way.
Have a great weekend.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 1:08 am
Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized, Web Marketing
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Read This Headline! Click Here Now!
I was writing an email and looking for that perfect Subject line and it dawned on me that writing or choosing a Subject line in an email is the same as writing headlines for your website, marketing campaign, advertising, etc.
Subject lines and headlines both need to be concise and to the point and intriguing enough for the reader to proceed further (i.e. opening the email or buying a product).
An Attention Getting Device
I learned in my first days of public speaking to open your speech with an attention getting device. Something that would grab the audience by surprise and redirect their attention to you, the speaker, and what you were going to say.
Grab the attention of your audience. Get them interested.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 12:17 am
Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
A Hard Drive Crash is Only a Click Away
 Hello and Happy New Year!
I hope your new year is going well. Mine is off to a running start. I just had to deal with a potential hard drive/computer crash. It didn’t happen, thank God, but it could of.
Last week I heard a clicking noise in my computer and it wouldn’t shut down correctly. This clicking sound is usually associated with the read/write heads of your hard drive. I was right and I scared myself into purchasing a new Seagate 250GB hard drive. I chose Seagate because it is not a Maxtor, the clicking drive, or a Western Digital, which failed on me twice. Seagate also offers a 5 year warranty and by the time 5 years is up, I’ll have to get another drive anyway.
Anyhoo…
I spent most of my week and weekend preparing for the reinstall of all my files, operating system and applications. Good thing I prepared because the install went without a hitch.
The reason why I’m telling you this story is:
- If you hear a clicking sound in your computer immediately get a new hard drive, no questions asked. It only cost me $100 for 250GB of space. That’s less than $.50 a gig.
- Maximum PC, a magazine I subscribe to religiously, helped me out immensely. Usually each issue has some kind of “How To” article or review on the latest components. The “How To” articles that came in handy for me were: “Upgrade Your Hard Drive, Step by Step”, “Slipstreaming Windows XP” and “Installing WinXP – The Right Way”.
Check out a copy of Maximum PC today. Heak, get a subscription ; it’s only $12.00 a year. You’ll be glad you did.
Mike Swartz says, “Check ‘em out.”
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:56 am
Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Uncategorized
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
What’s New?
Hello. Hello.
A lot has happened since I last posted, so I’ll get right to it.
I bought a new home (where moving next weekend), got in a car accident (not my fault) and will have a new office location.
Yes, it’s official, we are moving into our new home this weekend. I’m surrounded by boxes - living in and out of them. I can’t wait ’til we’re in our new place so I can live again. Purchasing a home wears me out.
MJS News
I removed the News section on our site. I figured the blog was sufficient enough to tell our news. I’d also like the blog to take a new direction. More personal, like a true blog should be.
Anyhoo…since I removed our News area, I’ll inform ya about what is happening at MJS Web Solutions.
The company has reached a new plateau. We’ve teamed up with Gunderson Design, a local print media and design company here in Alameda and have been working with Allan Mann Communications providing expert promotional marketing services. Both partnerships are good news for our customers too.
Web News (Domain Registration)
There’s been a lot of talk about Google tracking how long your domain name is registered for. If your domain name is only registered for 1 year (or less), Google considers this domain as temporary and might not index your website. It’s recommended that you register your domain name for 2 or more years.
Well, that’s our news in a nutshell. I hope to be back to blogging regularly after the move.
Have a great week.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 12:08 am
Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized
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