It has long been a complaint from web-developers that the World’s most used browser, IE, in it’s various versions, is a substandard and potentially dangerous product.

The frustration for the IT community has been getting people to listen. “Who cares what a bunch of computer geeks say about IE ? It works ok for me.”

The fact is that even IE8 is one of the least standards-compliant browsers. The annoying part of that is websites which don’t display properly or give spurious ‘error on page’ messages. The serious side are the security holes which leave users open to possible abuse from cyber criminals.

Many people don’t realise that all the various browsers out there are completely free. It’s akin to being offered a brand-new 2010 Mercedes to replace your old, familiar but flawed Ford. Why wouldn’t you upgrade ?

Here is a sobering passage from the ABC news report today:

The Government is warning that people risk having their computers infiltrated and passwords stolen unless they install temporary fixes from Microsoft or use alternative browsers.

Here at AIS we prefer the Firefox browser, but Safari and Opera are also browsers we enjoy using.
We recommend trying a few and making your own decision about which one you’ll switch to.

Whichever browser you upgrade to, it is important to keep it up to date.

Link to full article: ABC News: Australian Government warns against using Internet Explorer web browsers Jan 20th 2010

Why am I not appearing higher in the Google search results ?

We will explain this concept here with minimal use of jargon (quite a challenge).

What is Google for ?
Simply put, Google tries to find relevance. So if you search for “ball-bearing manufacturers” and you are located in Australia, that’s what it will attempt to show you.

How does Google decide where to rank your website ?
A definitive answer to this would make me an overnight billionaire…it is one of the most closely-guarded secrets.
However, it goes like this;

1. Site must have relevant content
2. Site must have good quality incoming links.
3. Site should be regularly updated.

What does that mean for my website ?

What we are talking about here is [ Jargon alert ! ] Search Engine Optimisation, lovingly referred to by all the geeks as SEO.

This breaks down into two areas;

1. On-site SEO
2. (you’re ahead of me here) Off-site SEO

On-site SEO

Ok, I could fill a book with this stuff but here’s a clue as to what you need to do.

Think about what searches your potential visitors will make, e.g. “Where to buy ball-bearings” “ballbearing manufacturers in Victoria” “ball bearing makers”

Settle on about 5 or 6 and these become your ‘keywords’.

Now, as you make your website, ensure that the keywords and phrases are used frequently throughout the site. Crucially though, resist the urge to over-use them (known as keyword stuffing), your site may be penalised by Google.

If you have the skills, try to make sure your page titles and the address that appears in the navigation bar (e.g. http://www.billybobsballbearings.com.au/ballbearings/automotive/pricelist )..is relevant.

There is an awful lot more to On-site SEO, see ‘More Help’ below.

Off-site SEO
Ok this one is a little simpler, but still a challenge.

You must acquire inbound links (other websites displaying a link TO your site). The links will be rated by Google for relevance (in our example; www.ballbearingworld.com GOOD, www.icecreamproductsoficeland.com BAD)

Don’t be tempted to join any link-acquiring schemes and my advice is don’t even bother with link-swaps (you link to me and I’ll link to you). They tend to cancel each other out.

More Help
If you are feeling a little bewildered by now, I apologise but I have to inform you that we have only seen the tip of the constantly shifting ice-berg which is SEO.
In fact there is a thriving industry which deals with nothing else.

So, for more help, you are welcome to Contact Us and we will explain to you about our professional SEO services. This involves a 6 month period where the consultants work with you to tweak your site to best match your chosen keywords.
The service also includes acquiring good quality inbound links.

Full details can be found here: SEO my site

Recently however, we have had an experience which has reminded us that the best laid plans can come unstuck when one particular component fails.

The human component.

With 14 days to go until a family member’s birthday, we ordered and paid for a pair of pajamas from www.lovable.com.au - the official website of this Australian based company.

We received the usual auto email confirmation the same day, with the line:

Please allow up to 7 days for delivery within Australia

Well, the pj’s didn’t arrive and the birthday came and went.

I’ll spare you the details but needless to say several polite follow-up emails to lovable.com.au has to date* ( 6 weeks after placing the order ) failed to secure the goods.

There may be a genuine reason; they are out of stock ? they lost our order ? some clerical error ?

It should be noted that the pj’s in question are still for sale on the lovable website today.

The problem is, even though we have now secured a promise of a refund, there is still no explanation of what went wrong.

I will certainly be using lovable.com.au to illustrate to our customers this crucial principle of e-Business, that Communication is King.

Had we been informed of a supply problem and given the opportunity to choose another product from the lovable.com.au online shop, we would have cheerfully done so. Instead we are left disgruntled, out of pocket and pajama-less

Perhaps Lovable spent all their budget on their sexy website and the lovely Jennifer Hawkins ?
Maybe there was nothing left in the kitty for staff training ?

There’s an awful sinking feeling when you have bought something online and it doesn’t arrive.
So, as eBusiness people we must ensure we don’t fall into the Lovable.com.au trap.

It’s not enough to have the slick sexy eCommerce website, if the systems fail you, you need to be prepared to engage on a human level.

In an increasingly wired world, reputation is everything.

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Update: Full refund has now been received.

If you found this article helpful, please spread the word !

Wrong !

Let me share with you something I read today^:

The recession of 1923 to 24 plunged the United States into an economic quicksand that destroyed more than 10,000 businesses. Yet this was precisely the time that a man who lived by the creed ‘if you can dream it, you can do it’ risked everything to launch a small cartoon studio called Disney Brothers.

About 15 years later, doomsayers told two young electrical engineers they were sure to fail when they started their tiny electrical machine business during the Great Depression with $538 and one product. Undeterred, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard got to work in a rented garage.

Fast forward to 1975. Oil prices are soaring, bankruptcies reach record levels and one-fifth of the US population becomes eligible for food stamps. As economists declare a recession, two childhood friends make the first sale of their computer programming language and Microsoft is born.

Ok, there are not too many Bill Gates per generation, but the point is that keen entrepreneurs see the current crisis as a great opportunity.
Here are some reasons why:

Where does your website fit in ?

Lets assume you’ve budgeted for a new website design to support your new venture. (You have, right ?).

How do you machete your way through the jungle of information out there screaming for your attention and your website design budget ?

Simple. You find some web designers you can trust, and you ask their advice.

Ok, so how do you know who you can trust ?

1. Personal recommendation.

Talk to friends and colleagues, ask them who they use for domain name registration, website hosting and website designs. Ask them about their experience with their ecommerce website, what was the development process like, were the web designers fast, accurate, professional, trustworthy ?

What about since the website was live, are the developers noticeable by their absence ? Even if your site is built on a Content Management System model – and hence updateable by you – you will probably still have teething troubles.

It’s a huge weight off your mind to have chosen web designers who will continue to offer help and advice after the invoice has been paid in full.

2. Go surfing.

You know the websites you admire, the clear, easy navigation, cool colours, great presentation. Most people are proud of their small business website and (with the possible exception of direct competitors) will often be happy to tell you what they thought of the web designers they used.

Look at the foot of the web pages, you will often find a link to the web design firm who developed the site. Visit their website and browse their portfolio of websites. Then visit those websites, email the owners and ask for their opinion of their web designers.

3. Google for opinions.

You’ll find no shortage of opinions, blogs, forums etc with views about the best cheap hosting, domain name registration, small business website design and so on.

Just be cautious as this is the wacky world wide web and you shouldn’t believe all you read.

There are often entire websites setup to offer product comparisons, reviews, recommendations, top 10s and so on with the sole aim of promoting one product or company.

Caveat Emptor.

What can you achieve in 3 seconds ?….

Of course a website is neccesary for any and all businesses these days, but did you know that vistors typically form an opinion about your company within 3 seconds of arriving at your home page ?

I’ll just repeat that.
“…vistors typically form an opinion about your company within 3 seconds…”

That is important for any small business website, but it is crucial for your ecommerce website. Your ecommerce website must give a flawless, professional appearance if you are to inspire confidence and convert visitors into customers.

Don’t put it in the Too Hard Basket.

Once you have located the guys (or girls) you can trust, you’ll be surprised by how fast and painless the process can be. Make sure you know what you want in terms of design, have your products measured and weighed, have great digital photos ready to go and you may well see the birth of your new website in under two weeks.

And finally.

While you are talking to the owner of an eCommerce website, ask them how it felt the first time they made a sale while they were asleep…

…notice how you can detect a smile even over the ‘phone ?

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Author: Paul Jenkins of Australian Internet Solutions

^Quote credit: Darren Horrigan - Nett Magazine 19th November 2008

If you found this article helpful, please spread the word !

In this example, we’ll be using Microsoft Outlook, but the settings will be similar whichever email software you use.
(We use and recommend Thunderbird2 from Mozilla)

1.
Open MS Outlook and click Tools/E-mail accounts. Click Add a new e-mail account and click Next>

2.
Choose POP3 and click Next>

3.
Now we are at the TRICKY page ! Look at the screenshot below.
In this example our website is called www.sagan.com and our email address is setup as This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Carefully check your settings against these example ones.

Notes.
Your Incoming mail server (POP3) is mail.yourdomain.com, NOT This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Your Outgoing mail server (SMTP) refers to your internet service provider (ISP) and so for example, in Australia it might be mail.optusnet.com.au
If you don’t know this setting, try googling for it or ask your ISP.

Your User Name is your entire email address, not just your name.

4.
Finally click the More Settings… button and on the Advanced tab, ensure that Leave a copy of message on the server is NOT ticked.

5.
You are now ready to click Test Account Settings… you should get all ticks and then receive the test email.

————————————————————————————————–

Customers of Australian Internet Solutions are welcome to contact us for help.

If you found this article helpful, please spread the word !

Problem: You need to get a website, maybe sell some stuff online but the whole process is shrouded in buzzwords, geek talk and unhelpful advice.

Solution: These jargon-busting tips will certainly help you understand what’s what and give you some clues as to what your next move should be.

Ok here we go, don’t be afraid, I’m a professional…

What on earth is a domain name ?

A domain name is a phone number.

It’s a what ?

Ok, it’s not a phone number as such, but that’s a good way to think about it. Just as your phone number is a unique code to locate your telephone, a domain name is simply a unique code to locate your web site. Here’s an example: billybobsbanjos.com

Warning! Jargon alert: Domain names are also known as URLs (Unique Resource Locators) and URIs (Unique Resource Identifiers). Just so’s you know.

Domain names are registered on a yearly or two yearly basis, some have restrictions on who can register what. Here’s a guide that explains the restrictions: Domain eligibility criteria

Ok I’ve registered my Domain name, why do I need Hosting too ?

You need your website to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, right ?

Your hosting is simply the space you need to rent on someone else’s computer which is on all day and all night.

That’s it really, but hosting accounts also provide lots of other useful stuff too.

Here’s a short list of some of them:

o Email addresses. If your site is called billybobsbanjos.com you might like to have some email addresses like ‘ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ’, ‘ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ’ etc.

o Count of visitors to your site. Better than that, many hosting accounts offer full statistics about your visitors, their location, how long they stayed on your site etc.

o File Management. A basic way to move your website files and photos from your computer, up to the hosting computer, so that they can be displayed on the web.

There are many providers of hosting. Some are free (but hampered by advertising) and there are various types and flavours of paid hosting available.
Be careful to read the small print as some great deals have a few hidden costs.

Great ! We’ve registered our domain and bought a hosting plan. So why don’t we appear in Google or Yahoo ?

Ah, the Big Question: “How can we appear higher-up in the search engine’s results ?”

Hold on, what’s a Search Engine, and does it run on unleaded ?

A search engine is a very clever bit of software that reads what’s on the internet and offers you a list of relevant websites, when you search for something.

The most common search engines are called Google and Yahoo.

Right, so we need to be right up high on the search results so we get noticed, how do we do that ?

Well, the process of making your site appear high up in the search results is called Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, which is easier to spell.

I could tell you that there are many books and thousands of websites devoted entirely to SEO. But that would be understating it, in fact there is a whole new multi-million dollar industry flourishing with the simple purpose of improving your results in the search engines.

Sooner or later, you will meet someone at a dinner party who tells you “I’m in SEO”, it’s inevitable.

So do I need SEO for my site ?

If you are hoping to gain lots of new visitors, for example if you have an online shop, then yes. If it’s a personal or family or club site that doesn’t rely on high numbers of new visitors then no.

So, SEO can help your site be more ‘visible’ to searches, it is relatively expensive but can quickly pay for itself if it drives lots of paying customers to your site.

Ok I’m ready, give me another three letter acronym (TLA)

Right, how about ‘S.E.A.’ ?

Didn’t we just do that ?

No, that was SEO…pay attention at the back please.

SEA is Search Engine Advertising.

Simply, paying for small ads to appear on the Google or Yahoo pages when someone does a search. They are clever enough so that they’ll only appear when someone has done a search which is relevant to your website.

The way they work is on an auction system. So for example you might ‘bid’ 20 cents for your ad for billybobsbanjos.com. Another banjo website might have bid 30c for it’s ad.

Nb: If that sounds expensive, note that this is Pay Per Click advertising, so although your ad may appear thousands of times, you only pay your 20c for each time the ad is clicked.

So when someone searches for ‘banjos’, alongside the ‘proper’ search results (also known as Organic search results), will be the paid-for ads.

In our example, the other banjo website’s ad will appear first and your ad second.

They are both relevant to the search, but one bid was higher so it’s ad is placed highest.

In reality, there are likely to be enough paid-for ads to run over several pages, so being in the top 8 or 10 is crucial as most people never get past the first page of search results and hence would never see your ad.

As you might expect, there is a little more complexity to it than that, but it’s not too hard to setup a Pay-per-click ad for yourself and see what happens.

For a more serious marketing approach it’s worth using a specialist company to handle the campaign for you: Click for more info..

Someone mentioned Frontpage, what’s that ?

There are many tools that can help you to make your website without knowing all the fiddly gobbledy-gook programming stuff. Leave it to the computer geeks, we like it !

Frontpage is the Microsoft version of a website building tool.

It helps you to build your site on your own computer and then move it up to your hosting computer so that it will appear on the web.

Update 2010. Frontpage has been dead since 2006 and is now not supported by most Hosting environments. In other words, don’t use it.

My hairdresser said that he likes to Joomla, should I report him to the authorities ?

Joomla is in fact a very clever system of making websites known as a Content Management System (CMS). There are also other CMS’s available, for example Drupal.

Once your website has been built using the Joomla system, you will be able to make changes to it easily and securely from within your web browser itself. No need for any extra software like Frontpage.

Joomla sites are incredibly versatile and powerful but they do a take a little bit of setting-up. If you are a bit of a closet techie you should be ok, otherwise it’s worthwhile getting a web design firm who specialise in Joomla sites to build your site for you and teach you how to update it.

Declaration of interest: The author works for Australian Internet Solutions, who specialise in Joomla websites. He likes to answer questions about setting up websites, so feel free to ask a question.