Winning Online

Came across an interesting video that tries to help the viewer visualize cloud computing, the ubiquitous service that in effect backstops our online lives but is very hard for the typical person to explain.

The video notes that by 2014 “over 60% of all server workloads will be virtualized” and that “predicted cloud revenue is $148.8 Billion,” up from $68.3 billion in cloud revenue in 2010.

The video - created by JESS3, a creative agency, and sponsored by salesforce.com - is called “The State of Cloud Computing.”

The Inc. 5000 ranking has been great for us in many ways. The latest — an article about Winning Strategies ITS in NJBIZ magazine — came out today.

The article talks about how WSITS has benefited as companies look to outsource their IT needs.

Read it here.

Like the shoemaker’s children who have no shoes, we are way behind on updating our Website. But we recently made a commitment to ourselves to make it a priority. We’ve held weekly meetings to figure out what we want to say and how we want it to look. And we’re getting close.

Stay tuned to see the new online face of WSITS …

We were really excited to find out that we ranked No. 2,172 on Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing, private companies in the country.  We were also ranked No. 261 in the IT services industry and 16th among New Jersey-based IT firms.

The Inc. 500|5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2006 through 2009. WSITS’s revenue increased 119 percent during the three year period.

Check out our listing.

This week’s Economist brings an interest cover and accompanying feature story related to very much the lifeblood of our company.  It ponders on the future of the internet and whether the medium’s foundation as an open-source, hands across the world, free and border-less entity could soon be a thing of the past.

Of the internet, the feature story posits, “Fifteen years after its first manifestation as a global, unifying network, it has entered its second phase: it appears to be balkanising, torn apart by three separate, but related forces.”These forces, as identified in the story, are 1) governments attempts to “reassert their sovereignty” and silo their own borders on the ‘net; 2) large IT companies - like Apple - gatekeeping their own platforms; and 3) network owners looking to treat “different types of traffic differently,” as in the debate over net neutrality.

With the game-changing power that the internet has brought to societies across the world, businesses, news, and one-to-one personal interactions, there is no doubt that those in control of its levers - at all levels of its production chain - would want to siphon off their piece and make their niches as profitable as possible. But the fine line between control and the net’s bedrock principle of openness could be a more and more difficult mixture to concoct. Apple has done a nice job of it. As a user of its products (iphone, ipad), there are times I do not realize that I am navigating through a curated network. Think the app store - where Apple decides what can and cannot appear on its platform - or its very dictatorial stance on Adobe Flash, where it essentially completely denies access to its network by a major player on the internet. Facebook has obviously done a nice job of this as well. Other than some blips as it got its young legs around big business privacy concerns, it does allow outside developers of applications to interface with its native technology (even if it does say how you can and cannot interact with its platform). And, 500 million plus folks seem to think its the place to be, so you cannot argue with that success. As long as its free, their concerns of control are allayed with every comment and “like.”

But when you start to look at how governments (like China or India of late) or Network providers (across the information superhighway) can or could have their hand in deciding what is allowed to appear on the ‘net, the very roots of and reasons for the internet’s ascension can quickly fold in on itself. For just as fast and relatively easy those with the will can erect something online, and its success can flower “virally,” that same truth can rear itself on the other side. The mightiest can fall at light speed with the sudden twinge of overreach or perceived view of over-importance (see MySpace, AOL, Friendster, etc). And for all of us who have grown up in this age, an open internet is second nature; therefore, we are highly attuned and sensitive to anything that smells of the opposite. So, when all is said and done, those in control of the internet’s future will not be the only ones calling the shots.

There have been scrolls upon scrolls at this point written about the battle royale of e-readers. While there are many e-readers who have come on the scene, Kindle is still the head of the class of reading devices and is the one I will write about on the dedicated e-reader front. When the IPAD burst on the scene - with its ability to do so much, including book reading - it ratcheted up the debate of which device to choose.

I write because I read New York Times writer David Pogue’s article-review-analysis on the new kindle today.

I am a user - a gadget geek probably - who actually has both devices. I purchased a Kindle just before last summer and picked up the IPAD WIFI/3G just before this summer. I probably rushed into purchasing the IPAD without thinking too hard about where each device would fit into my life. It’s like getting a new dog at the spur of a moment when you already have one - as my family actually did - and letting nature see how they coexist and find their new way in the world. The coexistence is confusing at first, and then acclimation ultimately renders a clear path, and you are left with an understanding of how the relationship will be.

For me, pre-IPAD, I had used the Kindle as an e-reader for books but more so on a daily basis as the device for all my papers and magazines, particularly the New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and the Economist. I learned to read on cardio machines at the gym in the morning - which changed my life (and the big font options and text-to-speech allow you to actually enjoy while running on a treadmill) - and I loved the fact that I could always carry around this small device (I have the 6″ version) and pop it open to read anything at any time. It was perfect.

Then came the IPAD. On the whole, the IPAD obviously allows you to do a lot more. From using applications to seeing things in color (gasp!), to traversing the ‘net on a super-fast N wireless connection, to email in a beautiful interface, to even e-reading.

My biggest dog-eat-dog coexistence worries with the IPAD were thinking about 1) how it would fit into my daily life between an IPHONE and a Laptop 2) how I would resolve the issue of e-reading and 3) what would be my dedicated daily device (who wants to be carrying around an IPHONE, IPAD, Kindle, lunch and gym bag?).

And to make it all the tougher, the Kindle application on the IPAD only allows for book reading; that means none of your daily/weekly/monthly subscriptions that you have on the Kindle are visible in your IPAD. This makes the daily dedicated device issue an all-or-nothing gamble. If subscriptions were to sync, your choice of what device to leave the house with would be one of daily preference.

At first, i stuck with the Kindle, which meant the IPAD stayed at home. That was my original plan, too: the IPAD would be my home device and the Kindle the traveler. But as I moved on, I started to become very aggravated with the subscription issue. Here I had this great device in the IPAD and I could - I should - be using it in the day. How dare Amazon force me to choose what device I use each day? So just like that, I went all Tea Party, and cancelled all subscriptions on the Kindle.

I transferred the IPAD into my daily device and the Kindle as the background device that would stay home, and be my “long-form” reader (as is the parlance of the e-reading intellectuals). For the New York Times, I started using the NY Times Editors Choice application for the IPAD. It’s highly deficient - a politically created half attempt - but it allowed me to read the Times at the gym, my books if I wanted to, and then gave me the opportunity to use the IPAD as my roving tablet at work. This worked for me.

Then, out of nowhere, subscriptions for the New York Times came to the IPAD, but in the form of the Barnes and Noble “Nook” e-reader application. More confusion! But it’s much better than the alternative. So I set up an account with Nook and have been subscribing on the IPAD ever since. It doesn’t resolve the multi-device subscription sync hopes with my Kindle device, but it works for me and gives me hope that Kindle can’t be far behind in figuring this out if a competitor did. And when it happens, I will move right over there and I have my perfect world.

What does this all say about the IPAD vs. the Kindle?

Well, from a reading standpoint, the IPAD is too heavy for reading for too long (there’s what “long-form” means) and the screen - which provides a beautiful touch screen interface and color - finds its kryptonite when exposed to the sun. It is rendered annoyingly unreadable and you find the thing you can see most clearly is your own visage, as the reflection from the sunlight creates a perfect mirror that obscures anything behind the screen.

The Kindle’s main limitation - it essentially does one thing - is what makes it the thing it is supposed to be: a dedicated e-reader. But because of that and its e-ink technology, you can really read it anywhere and for a really long time. It can go for nearly a week with the 3G - and now WIFI - left on; it can go for weeks going on a month with that technology turned off. The IPAD goes for about 10 hours - unbelievable from the PC/Laptop point of view - but paling in comparison to the Kindle.

My opinion is that if the subscription sync issue can be figured out, why not have both? If you were to purchase both WIFI versions of the devices, you’re looking at a pricetag of somewhere around $650, basically the price of the mid-range WIFI/3G version of the IPAD. With the subscription caveat, you will now have devices that speak to one another. One of the cool features of the Kindle and its IPAD/IPHONE apps is that your reading and how far you read on each of them syncs across devices. So, if i read to a certain location on the Kindle, when I open the book on the IPAD or the IPHONE it will offer me the opportunity to go right to that point, and vice versa.

Forever, we had, in essence, been buying one “device” for each book we bought, in the form of a single hardcover or single paperback book. Think of the IPAD as a hardcover and the Kindle as a paperback. These two devices are different and don’t necessarily cannibalize one another, but have the real opportunity to complement each other.

But for me, until subscriptions syncing get figured out, my Kindle - outside of my last vacation to the beach, where it was truly needed - has sat next to my bed as a prop.

Long Story Short: Source must be lowercase “yahoo” and medium lowercase “cpc”
By Matthew McQueeny

There are many articles out there on this topic.  And I found that while they get offer great instruction on integrating Yahoo Paid Search into the Google Analytics reporting dashboard, I also found that as the data accumulated nothing I did worked.  Following articles such as this or this one (which includes info for tracking Bing), I was able to ascertain how you get this kind of thing setup.

Google allows you to automatically link one AdWords account to one Google Analytics account.  However, as with any multi-platform paid search advertising campaign - a must today - anything beyond this single Adwords - Analytics tie in does not get correctly categorized within your analytics dashboard.While the automatic Google option allows you to see paid vs. nonpaid keyword performance, or cost per click vs. organic, you cannot see this information for another Google AdWords account or for a Yahoo (or Bing) paid search account.When you, for instance, set up a paid search campaign on Yahoo, all statistics in regards to keywords and paid or organic source attribution does not get categorized.

So, anything coming in from Yahoo - and the same can be said in the case of Bing - is attributed simply as organic traffic.  To get this quality information and have Google Analytics index it correctly, you need to manually append your URL with parameters that speaks analytics’ language and gives you the opportunity to fill in the descriptive blanks.  All of the instructive information out there tells you to go to Google’s URL Builder, which gives you a form where you fill in this descriptive information and the tool renders the appended URL for you.

However, like any open-source technology, directions tend to leave out gaping holes of information that tend to be integral to getting the thing to work.  Documentation can be sparse, with issues simply being echoed throughout the internet and answers few and far between.  Here are the basics to rendering your correctly appended URL, which will allow Yahoo Paid Search information to display in Google Analytics.

1.  go to Google URL Builder 
2. Input the URL of the ad’s destination
3. for “campaign source” input yahoo
4. for “campaign medium” input cpc
5. for “campaign term” input {OVKEY}.  This is Yahoo’s automatic keyword generator tool.  Whatever the word is that led to the click-through will be indexed automatically.
6. for “campaign content” input {OVADID}, this is similar to #5 but for the campaign content.
7. for “campaign name” input something that describes the campaign.  Note: if there are spaces put an underscore for the space (so “yahoo paid search” would be “yahoo_paid_search”)

When you generate your URL this is what appears (I use our companies Web site URL as the example):

http://www.wsits.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%7BOVKEY%7D&utm_content=%7BOVADID%7D&utm_campaign=yahoo%2Bpaid%20search

This URL is not exactly right yet.  You will need to manually alter this a bit.  You will see the the {OVKEY} was turned into %7BOVKEY%7D, {OVAID} was turned into %7BOVADID%7D, and without putting the underscores in yahoo paid search that this happened: yahoo%2Bpaid%20search.

So you will need to manually fix it to the following:http://www.wsits.com/?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={OVKEY}&utm_content={OVADID}&utm_campaign=yahoo_paid_search

Here is the key information from all this, however.  For source, you must put only “yahoo” in all lower case and for medium you must only put “cpc” and in lower case as well. The reason I note this is because Google URL builder will allow you to put whatever case you want and will allow you to really put in anything into those two cells.  You explicitly must put just “yahoo” and just “cpc.”  It is like a magic key that opens the door to correct indexing.  I grant you this from weeks of beating my head against a computer desk.

I hope you will come to our company to do this work anyway, but I can’t have another online marketer go through this :).

You will then take your appended URL and put it into the destination URL field of your Yahoo paid search ad.  The final step to make this all work on the Yahoo administrator side is to go to “administration” and “tracking URLs” and set them to “Tracking URLs on.”

 By Ralph Serra

So we all know what a hacker is and what a hacker does, but can you honestly look yourself in the mirror and say that you have done everything possible to protect yourself against them? Until recently I know that I thought I was doing a pretty good job but deep down knew I wasn’t doing everything possible. It turns out that there are even small details that many of us overlook that can make a big difference.

The first thing I want to do is talk passwords. Whether you are going to admit it or not I know there are many of you out there who still use the ole’ birthday or address as your password. Not you? No you’re clever you use a pet’s name, son/daughters name, or even your anniversary; still no good. There are a few things to keep in mind when beginning to revamp your security level. The first tip is that your password should contain both numbers and letters quite simply that makes it even harder to hack. The pass word you chose should have nothing to do with what it is for, for example your eBay pass word should not be “ralphebay1”. Finally do not recycle passwords. Having one password for all accounts means that if a hacker guesses right once you are in trouble on many levels.

I recently read an article that listed the 20 most popular passwords, and I can’t say I was shocked. Below are the top 5. I beg you to please change yours immediately if any of yours are remotely close to these.

1.       123456

2.       12345

3.       123456789

4.       password

5.       iloveyou

The next thing that comes to mind when you think security is virus protection. I would say that the vast majority of people use whatever free software they can download if anything. Quite frankly this is insufficient. Can you really put a price on your privacy or your identity? In my opinion the peace of mind is well worth the few extra dollars you would spend on a quality anti-virus software.

If you want to take it a step further (which I strongly recommend) your next step would be a security assessment from a professional. Have someone who specializes in this come to you and customize a strategy that will keep you safe. One of our highly trained engineers can put together the perfect combination of anti-virus software, anti-malware software, spam filter, and firewall technology.

Ultimately the decision is in your hands. One thing I do want to touch on however is that Google was recently the recipient of a double Trojan virus. This made headlines and was quite a big deal. If it can happen to Google, it can happen to you… unless you consider yourself to be more tech savvy than the folks at Google. Please do not take this topic lightly, take a few minutes change up a few passwords, reach out to a professional and let one of us come up with a strategy that fits your needs.

By Ralph Serra

When we hear Google there are so many things that come to mind. It seems like they are consistently doing something that will have an impact on the way we compute. One particular service that Google offers that I use on a daily basis and have fallen in love with is AdWords. Google AdWords allows you to affordably and efficiently advertise your product, service, or organization. In economically trying times everyone seems to be tightening their belt when it comes to marketing dollars. AdWords allows you to spend less but at the same time still reach a large number of people.

As a marketing professional there are two things that really excite me about AdWords. The first is the brand equity that Google has developed.  Brand equity basically refers to what gives the brand value to you. In the case of Google, what doesn’t give them value? You know when you see Google stamped on something you are most likely not going to be let down. AdWords is no different. It has that same quality that you associate with other Google services and apps. The second thing that excites me is ROI (return on investment), which is usually the most important figure at the end of the day. ROI breaks it down and tells you how much money you made off of the money you spend advertising; this is highlighted phenomenally with AdWords.

Analyzing and tracking the success of your advertising campaign with AdWords allows you to do so many things. You can view easy to read reports that display all the vital statistics any marketer could wish for. The two main things when assessing your campaign are the impressions that you achieved and the CTR (click through rate). The number of impressions refers to how many times your advertisement came up when a search was preformed. The CTR refers to the percentage of the time that your ad came up and it was actually clicked on.

Outside of the basic principals there is a whole world of additional options that AdWords offers, allowing you to customize your advertising campaign. One particular component that we use here at WSITS is “geo-targeting” our ads. This allows us to specifically target the geographic area that we wish to show our advertisements. When you are paying per click it makes perfect sense to be as specific with the placement as possible, so when the ads do appear they have the greatest impact. For example, one particular campaign that we have run targets 26 different areas within New Jersey alone. These locations were strategically selected after intense research and consideration based on the client’s need.

Within each separate campaign there exists a unique advertisement(s) that will appear based on the key words or phrases associated with the campaign. This translates to individuals in selected areas seeing ads that were tailor-made to strike their interest based on what it was they were searching – and where they live.

Doing daily reports on these ad campaigns also allows us to optimize our results. Keeping a keen eye on daily statistics helps us to recognize trends and ultimately make any improvements that will get our clients ads on the screens of potential consumers.  We can test and execute any changes instantly and chart the fruits of our labors at times within hours. Once these changes are made it will be easy to measure the effectiveness of our changes. At that time we can opt to make another change or run with what we have implemented.

Google AdWords offers so much more to users. Individuals, companies, and organizations that may not have been able to find a good way to advertise within their budget have now found an answer to their prayers.  As of August 2009 – year to date - 72% of all searches preformed on the internet were being done through Google. Google’s search technology is also used by AOL, Ask.com (3.23%), Earthlink, and NYtimes.com, opening up additional advertising channels to optimize your potential even more.  This is very impressive considering Yahoo - coming in 2^nd in search share - was only at 16.6% and Bing, in 3^rd place, had 6.67% of all searches happening on its revamped search engine.

The more our firm implements AdWords campaigns, the more institutional knowledge we ascertain. And there is always something new and exciting to discover, test, and analyze. The work we do with Google AdWords and SEO (search engine optimization) is like nothing you will ever learn in a classroom.  For Winning Strategies, years of industry experience and creative minds complemented with a quality service really create lighting in a bottle.

By Ralph Serra

It is no secret that in recent years print news and print media have taken a serious hit. There are several factors that have contributed to this decline, however one of, if not the main reason is the internet. The integration of the internet into our lives as a culture means that we can simply search for any news we desire at any time we want. With such a convenience at our fingertips, why would anyone want to pay to have print media and news delivered periodically?

Print news and media have held on for a few reasons. First and foremost for some people it is tradition. Older generations are not as tech savvy, and have lived lives where they read a paper or a magazine for entertainment and news. They are not going to be easily swayed to embrace the internet culture. Other reasons include the ease of flipping through a magazine or a paper and the feeling you get. There is no question that getting news online is easy, but you do not get the same experience as when you flip through a paper. In the past reading news on the internet was a much slower drawn out process than reading an actual paper. Readers are also less likely to read advertisements when reading the news online and that is where the real money in print media and news comes from.

Earlier last week, Google revealed a new hub called “Fast Flip.” This new hub was designed to make reading news online much quicker and more visually stimulating. Google even went as far as to get the publishers involved as well. They will be sharing advertising revenue with the publishers, so they are no longer the enemy of the print world. Because they are no longer the enemy, participating publishers will allow Google to link to their sites directly from the new hub. Everything considered, this really does have a tremendous plus side for both parties.

When you go to Fast Flip, you see three rows of periodicals laid out. The top row is based on popularity, it includes recent, most viewed, and recommended. The second row is broken down into sections; this includes politics, business, U.S., world, sports, etc. The third row is broken down by sources. Some sources include BBC News, New York Times, Business Week, Newsweek, and The Washington Post.

This layout allows a reader to quickly and efficiently flip through and see what they want to read. At the same time they are viewing the ads along the sides of the page. This makes the whole online reading process much more like the actual act of reading a news paper or a magazine. While making it more like reading an actual news paper it also eliminates the main problem with previous online news reading: the fact that it is so slow.

Only time will tell how the new hub will be embraced by the public, but in my opinion it is a great way to read periodicals online. I simply go to the site, scroll through, see what catches my eye and take it from there. If there is something specific I am looking for I can select a source or section I would like to view. Or if I really do not know what it is I am looking for I can see what others have most viewed or recommend. Dare I say this is almost a luxury? No more inky fingers from news papers or pop-up plagued online news. The sky is the limit.