Properly using Categories in WordPress is an essential functionality that helps your visitors find information they are seeking, keeps your blog organized, and enhances your blog’s Search Engine Optimization. Best of all, creating and editing categories in WordPress is easy!
I hope this post helps, if you have any questions please feel welcome to contact us
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
Here is a brief primer on creating a blog post and adding an image in WordPress.
If you have any questions, feel welcome to comment.
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
09.26.2010
As we at Webvantix continue to work toward our big rollout, and lots of big changes are coming. There were several informative posts this week, as well as welcoming our newest guest blogger, Mike Lazarus from GL Computing who is an Act by Sage CRM expert.
Monday
Monday Morning Quick Tip: How Your Local Business Can Whip this Economy
We offered seven very specific ideas on How Your Local Business Can Whip this Economy on our Monday Morning Quick Tip.
Google Rolls Out Two-Step Verification for Google Apps
We also discussed Google’s announcement that they are rolling out a Two-Step Verification process for Google Apps, and other Google platforms are soon to follow.
Wednesday
Learn Google Adwords for Free-from Google
Google is initiating a free four-week Train and Learn program to teach business owners how to use Adwords to more efficiently promote your business.
Friday
How to Avoid Destroying Your Company with Bad Customer Service, Pt 3 of 3
Part 3 of our 3 part series on How to Avoid Destroying your company with Bad Customer Service highlighted how to work with your customers who need help regarding your product or service.
Mike Lazarus wrote his first guest post about the new in Act by Sage, 2011. A great piece on the ever popular Act CRM.
Continue to stay tuned to Help for the Online Novice for more ideas to help your business win the attention it needs, as we strive to bridge the gap between technology and main street.
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
Editor’s Note: We welcome Mike Lazarus as a first time guest blogger to Webvantix’s Help for the Internet Novice. Mike runs GL Computing and is an Act by Sage expert and Certified Act Consultant. You can visit his blog Life and Times with Act by Sage and follow him on Twitter @glcomputing. Welcome Mike!
Reprinted with permission from http://blog.glcomputing.com.au/2010/09/whats-new-in-sage-act-2011-sageact.html
Normally I try to get this out during the beta period. But, for various reasons, I’ve only been able to get to this now.
Sage ACT! 2011 has added a whole swag of new functions, improvements in usability and fixes to issues. I’m going to try and cover the ones that I have found to be most useful. Unfortunately, a couple are only useful to those within North America… but such is the lack of ability of the regional offices to test the functions and respond.
For the full, public list, please refer to these ACT! Knowledgebase Articles:
Obviously, before you upgrade you should ensure your system, and any add-ons or plugins, support the new version or if they need an update as I suggested in the article: Upgrading ACT!, especially when you are using add-ons
One change worth noting first is the product name changes:
Other than ongoing improvements in stability and speed, the biggest new items are:
Smart Tasks allow you to schedule a series of common and connected steps. You can use the Smart Task templates that Sage ACT! provides* or create your own using the Smart Tasks Manager. Smart Tasks can be run manually or scheduled to run automatically.
Note: I think this feature is the one that should easily justify the upgrade for most users.
You should have a look at the ACT! 2011 Smart Tasks video on YouTube
Outlook Integration allows you to synchronize your activities and contacts between Sage ACT! Premium and Outlook. You can set synchronization options to determine what information is synchronized. Synchronization can be scheduled to run automatically or manually run at any time.
Note: I strongly suggest users be careful with using these options as I’ve found some odd behaviour. While some of the bugs have now been fixed with Hotfix 2 for Sage ACT! 2011, others are still problems. For example, the fact that it doesn’t sync the country code with phone numbers makes it useless for anyone who wants to call internationally or to use the numbers when travelling – this is the same as one of the bugs I identified in ACT! Mobile Live.
Sage Business Info Services for ACT!* (provided by Hoover’s™) provides tools to access critical business information for your contacts and companies. With Sage Business Info Services for ACT!, you can:
Build a list of companies and people and then import these lists directly into your database. Access links from the contact and company Web Info tab. These links provide key information about your contacts’ and companies’ profile, financial details, company contacts, industry information, and company news. Subscribe to alerts to notify you when key changes occur for the contact or company.
*Requires additional subscription
Note: This service provides very limited benefit to those of us outside North America or United Kingdom as you can see from the Hoovers’ Companies By Geography list
*Requires additional subscription.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc.
When you are lucky enough to experience good customer service, you just know it, and you walk away from the encounter with a great feeling, one of satisfaction where you say to yourself, ‘now that’s a company that cares about their customers.’ So, let’s talk Apple. With all the press about the iPhone 4 and it’s shortcomings and Steve Jobs’ notorious tin ear, their customer service is well above par, not perfect, but a model for most other companies to aspire to.
When I received my first iPhone 4 in the mail, the day before delivery was scheduled, I immediately had reception issues. Unfortunately those issues worsened to the point where one day I could no longer hear people speaking and they could no longer hear me. I walked into the Apple Store on 67th and Broadway in Manhattan, and was greeted at the Genius Bar by a very professional and kind person, who was able to squeeze me into a slot with a tech. It was determined that my phone had died, and was instantly issued a replacement. Alas, that phone also had issues, and even where cell strength was excellent, I had no signal. A week later at the Rockaway, NJ store I was given a new phone by a customer service PROFESSIONAL at the Genius B. Wow, impressive–most impressive. I was not interfacing with a snotty person who could care less about my problems, but someone who was truly concerned with my satisfaction. But wait you say, those phones were under warranty. Correct, but that’s not the whole story.
My first iPhone, a 3G was purchased in January 2009. For whatever the reason in February 2010 the phone could no longer hold a charge, or remain connected to WiFi. Something had gone wrong and the phone had become virtually unusable unless plugged in. I called Apple and they informed me that, like my Jeep, it was out of warranty–but, said the person on the line “take it to a store and they will probably be able to help.” Off to the Manhattan store I went, where they, yes you guessed it, they replaced the phone. Whoa! A company that stands by its product and its customers.
I think we often feel like we are giving away the store and the keys to it when we really go out of our way for our customers, and sometimes your good deeds will ultimately lead to nothing. At Webvantix we’ve spend extra time with customers and never billed them, only to lose them to another company because they offered them similar services for a few dollars less. My advice, let customers like that go, and focus on continuing to add value to the customers who stay with you. Strive to create great relationships by over delivering on a consistent basis and ultimately your business will be rewarded.
Just remember, return those calls and e-mails every day and put customer service standards into place, and your customers will love you for it!
I’m curious, does your company offer a specific outline for customer service issues? Please share them with us!
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix.
For any small businesses out there that want to use Google Adwords or who are using it and want to become more proficient at it, Google has announced the first Adwords Train & Gain challenge.
The challenge starts on October 4th and the program works as follows:
You will receive a weekly list of simple steps for improving your Adwords account and at the end of four week “you’ll be armed with many different way to improved your Adwords account” says Google.
Also if you complete all the steps and answer their questionnaire, you could win an Android Phone or even a trip to meet with an Adwords consultant in Sydney, Australia, for you and a colleague. Sweet!
According to Google, here’s what’s offered:
Improve Ad Text: Stand out from your competition by writing ads that highlight your most competitive features (low price, special service, free delivery, etc).
Use Negative Keywords: Specify which search tearms you don’t want your ad to appear on. This will help you keeps costs down because it prevents click from people looking for things you don’t offer.
Track sales and Leads: Se where your ad spend is working best and focus your money on the efforts that are generating business.
You can sign up for Train and Gain here
Also, as I posted last week, be sure to check out Google’s brand new Adwords Small Business Center here
We will be participating!
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
For those of you who have been, understandably, reluctant to add your sensitive documents in the Google cloud, Google has announced “Two-step verification” for its Google Apps and soon to come for all individual Google users. This will, according to Google, “significantly increases the security of the cloud.” Essentially, two-step verification will be set up by the Google Apps administrator, and will requires to methods of identification: a password and a mobile phone. The best part of this is that once you enter your password, a code is texted to your mobile phone, you then enter the code and away you go. If you don’t get the code, you are denied access.
This technology is similar to what online banks have been using for years and greatly reduces the capabilities of spy programs that are designed to watch you enter your password, as the code that is generated is different each time you access Google Apps. Very cool! If you want to read more about it, it’s on the Google Small Business Blog.
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
Because of this terrible economy most of us have had to make major changes to our expenditures. One aspect of the personal side that I have cut back probably 80-90% is restaurants. The fact is, I love great restaurants, so, with such a deep cut, one might think that it’s a bad thing, yet not at all. I’ve learned to cook and to take meals that I love at certain restaurants and replicate them at home, pair them with a great wine and viola, wonderful meal at a true fraction of the original cost.
That’s how we have to start looking at the current economy. Yes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If business is slow and continues to be slow, I’ve got one word for you, INNOVATE! Get out of that daily routine and try new things! Do something different and the gauge the results.
Here are 7 ideas that are quick and painless.
Blog Set up a blog on your website and start creating content and keep creating it. All kinds of good things can come of it, and at the very least, you have new content on your site, and Google LOVES new content!
Volunteer your expertise Are you really good at something? Why not offer your expertise.
Create A Coupon Set up a Coupon on your website that requires a visitor to submit their e-mail and start building an e-mail opt in list.
Sell on your Website Got a few unique products that you sell? Why not add them to your site and the whole world can become your customer base!
Create a YouTube Page Want to get people’s attention? Create quick 2 to 3 minute videos, upload them to YT, then add them to your blog. Learn more HERE.
Follow People on Twitter from Your Local Area Don’t listen to what other people say about Twitter, people use it and love it. Reach out to people locally and it will help drive more traffic to your site. Think of it this way, people see you are a local business, they check you out via Twitter, clip your coupon and come in and spend money–see how it falls together!
BONUS IDEA: Spend some money on your business Everyone ‘s got spend-a-phobia right now. But, let’s remember, spending money drives revenue growth (it’s called investing). Here’s an idea: if you have a Facebook page for your business take $50 and earmark it for ‘Advertising on Facebook.’ If you set up the pay per click program for radius around your business and at $1 per click 50 people click onto your ad, and then land on your site. Ten of those people clip your coupon and then spend $500 at your business. Wow, not a bad investment. Learn more here about creating business locally with Facebook here.
Do you have any additional ideas? Please share them with us.
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
Chrysler-Jeep and bad, bad customer service
Living in the country in the northeast dictates that you need a four-wheel drive vehicle. When it was time for a new car I chose a brand new 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee LTD, with the V8 HEMI–wow, here a luxury vehicle with more get up and go than my 5 series BMW, and moved through deep snow like it was not even there!
Unfortunately the moon roof developed a leak that was once so bad that I returned to my car after a movie to a literal pool of water in the passenger side foot well. Not good. So, I dug around the Jeep website to find their customer service number(they did not make it easy), and contacted them.
Sorry, said the snotty girl on the other end of the phone, it’s out of warranty and there is nothing we can do. By chance, as a friend was purchasing a vehicle from a dealer in the area that also sold and serviced Jeeps, I stopped by the service department to discuss the issue with a service rep. He said the whole upper upholstery would have to be taken down to fix the issue and it was about $1000 job! He suggested I contact their liaison to Jeep, which I did. The liaison indicated that Jeep had ‘closed’ the issue and that nothing could be done to help, and that was their final decision.
A few weeks later, angry and feeling like a company I endorsed because I loved their product had ignored me, I found myself in another Jeep dealership several states away, for a much needed oil change. When I told their service rep my story, he said, “let’s take a look at it first.” As soon as he looked it the moon roof he said “the timing is off and it’s not closing properly.” They fixed it in 30 minutes.
In an effort to make this story short I have not gone into detail about the customer service line and the person with whom I interacted, but it was a pathetic excuse for customer service.
Soon it will be time for a new car–will I buy another Jeep?
Do you think I should? What do you think they should have offered to do?
Stay tuned for our final installment on this three part series on Customer Service, which is an example of how a company handled an out of warranty product and kept a customer forever!
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
Part 1 of 3
This is a story of two vastly different companies, with different approaches to customer service. One bad, and I mean really bad, and the other good, and I really good!
First, a short back story.
One aspect of our business that Webvantix takes very seriously is customer service. As a matter of fact, part of the reason this company was started almost four years ago was as a response to customer service issues in this business. Another firm, in an unrelated industry where I was a partner, had retained a web development company, that, to put it bluntly, never returned correspondence–phone calls, emails, smoke signals, nothing. Additionally, with firsthand knowledge, we were not the only customers they ignored. Strange.
So when Webvantix started, one of our standing orders was that we return all e-mails, and phone calls the same day–customer, prospective customer, vendor, prospective vendor–we are always in touch. My belief, personally and professionally, is that if someone does not return your e-mail or call, in this day and age of ‘immediate technology,’ they are saying directly to you, that you’re not worth their time or the effort, a metaphorical blow-off!
Our next installment will highlight an interesting story of how companies should not ignore customer service, yet still do.
I’m curious, what customer service mandates does your company have in place?
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
My name is Preston Ehrler and I started Webvantix to bring professional website design and website redesign to businesses that desperately needed help. Additionally, Webvantix blogs about ideas and tips for marketing your business online. Our team is comprised of individuals who are highly skilled in the fields of social media marketing, design, coding and programming. If you need our help, or simply have a question, we welcome your contact!
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