Bizlinks

How safe is your password?

2011-12-15T17:58:00.000-08:00

Choosing a unique password is rule number one for online security, but it seems plenty of people are still unwilling to accept the inconvenience, preferring passwords that are easy to remember, easy to type, and most importantly, easy for hackers to guess.

According to an annual list of the most commonly used passwords, published by password management software vendor SplashData, the most common password for 2011 was password, followed by 123456, 12345678, qwerty, and abc123.

Splashdata bases its results on lists of pilfered passwords published online by hackers. Also in the top 10 were monkey, 1234567, letmein, trustno1, and dragon.

A few tricky people thought replacing the letter o in ‘password’ with a zero would throw potential thieves off the scent, but that configuration came in at number 18.

Using your favourite sport could also be a bad idea, with both ‘baseball’ and ‘football’ making the list. Three names made the list – ashley, bailey and michael – as did sunshine, shadow, iloveyou, master, and superman.

Check out the full list below:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

A QR code on your website can link to something special

2011-11-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

A QR code is a two dimensional barcode.

If you are a website visitor and have a camera phone, scan the image of the QR code. It will open a related web page on your phone's internet browser.

You can check if the camera has an inbuilt QR code reader or you can easily download a free QR code reader application.

For the website owner it is a chance to redirect the visitor to another web page that, for example, may have a Special or even a page designed for mobile phone users.

There are many websites that allow you to create a QR code image and then it's easy to add to your website.

Google Web Fonts

2011-10-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

To give website developers a choice of high quality fonts, Google have created Google Web Fonts.

On their website you can browse a catalogue of available fonts, learn about the font designers who created them, and copy the code required to use them on your web page.

The fonts in the directory are all released under open source licenses; you can use them on any non-commercial or commercial project.

Benefits of the Google Web Fonts include:
- A choice of high quality open source fonts.
- Works in most browsers.
- Extremely easy to use.

New Zealand domain name survey

2011-09-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

The New Zealand Domain Name Commission recently surveyed online participants about their domain name knowledge. Here's some interesting results:
- 67% of participants prefer to use .NZ for a website over .com
- trademe.co.nz is New Zealand's top domain name for awareness.
- 10% of participants who already own or manage a domain name don't know what a domain name is.
- 52% of participants would prefer to drop domain.co.nz for something smaller like domain.nz

What do you think about a new extension like .KIWI?
- 14% of participants who do not own or manage a domain name would prefer to use .KIWI over .NZ or .COM

Read the full Colmar Brunton survey results at the DNC website at http://dnc.org.nz/content/Survey_results_2011.pdf

The Readability Test Tool

2011-08-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

Writing good copy which is easy to read is an important part of connecting with prospective customers.

I came across this great website that provides a quick and easy way to test the readability of your website, proposal, brochure or other written material. It is the most flexible readability software for assessing readability formulas.

Go to www.read-able.com.

My website has the following result: "Has an average grade level of about 8. It should be easily understood by 13 to 14 year olds".

That's encouraging.

Pure SEO offers the best in search engine ranking

2011-06-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

When Richard Conway arrived in Auckland to start a new life he asked us to develop a website for his new website search engine optimization business Pure SEO. With many years experience in this field in the UK, he was hoping to help Kiwis improve their search engine rankings.

When Creative Embroidery asked if I could help improve their search engine ranking, I put the 2 parties together and the rest is history.

The NZ Herald recently ran an article on Richard’s company and it makes interesting reading. Go to www.nzherald.co.nz.

Your Trade Me listings on your website

2011-04-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

In September 2010 the first edition of the Trade Me API was released.

API is short for “application programming interface” and, in a nutshell, it’s a language and message format that will let a program or application that someone has built talk to information sitting in Trade Me’s database.

We have developed a PHP program that reads an XML file of all the Trade Me listings for Gelaskins and displays them on their website.

Check this out at http://www.gelaskins.co.nz/.

Click on each image to be taken to the Trade Me listing.

Bizlinks is 10 years old

2011-04-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought when I started Bizlinks in April 2001 that the company would survive 10 years on.

I would like to thank all those early customers who had faith in what I was doing and especially those customers who are still with me today. I must be doing something right.

Bizlinks will continue to work at it's core business - creating affordable websites using tried and true software while offering a personalised service.

Ferrari Car Collection for sale website goes viral

2010-11-11T17:02:00.000-08:00

We are delighted to have developed a website advertising over 34 cars totalling $NZ15,000,000 that has been the subject of much forum chatter and speculation.

An Asian car collector is selling a number of Ferraris (25), Lamborghinis (3), Porsches (2) and other cars. With this huge collection of some rare and exotic vehicles all owned by 1 person, the number of website visits has gone ballistic.

An advert in the NZ Herald on Saturday resulted in 627 visitors to the website. But during the week adverts were placed on Craig's List and as forum discussions took off, visitor numbers started to skyrocket to 1093 on the 10th November to an incredible 8301 on the 11th. Then 8903 on the 12th and 9422 on the 13th. But the 14th saw only 3517 - still an incredible number of hits. But on the 19th it hit an all time high of 16847.

We look forward to see if this momentum continues.

Check out the cars at http://www.ferraricollectionforsale.com/. An early Christmas present maybe?

And yes, the seller has a number of serious buyers.

Trade Me has launched a new category to allow businesses to advertise their services

2010-11-10T11:38:00.001-08:00

The cost of listing your business on Trade Me (www.trademe.co.nz) is just $19 for 90 days. You can set this to stop after this period or automatically renew.

There is plenty of room for text plus they allow you a maximum of 20 photos.

Clients can leave their comments too.

To see the categories and to list your business, go to www.trademe.co.nz/Services/index.htm.

You will need to have an account set up with Trade Me first.

Maybe worth a trial run to see if you get any response. And since this is a new facility it will become more popular over time.

The Rugby World Cup and marketing rules

2010-10-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

Businesses must be aware of the rules contained in the Major Events Management Act 2007 which restrict the use of unauthorised or ambush marketing relating to this event.

During the protection period from 11 September 2008 to 21 November 2011 you must not make a representation suggesting you, your business or your brand have an association with the RWC when you are not an official authorised sponsor. You will be presumed to have made an infringing representation if you use a major event emblem or word in your advertising unless you have authority to do so.

You must not use the RWC and IRB (International Rugby Board) logos and images of the cup.

You must not use words including:

Rugby World Cup
RWC
RNZ 2011
International Rugby Board
Spirit of Rugby
The World in Union
Total Rugby
Webb Ellis Cup
World Cup 2011
Rugby New Zealand 2011
Rugby Football World Cup

and variations of these words.

If you would like to mention this event on your website, please contact me. One client has managed to word their RWC advert in accordance to RWC rulings and with their blessing. So it can be done.

Google Places

2010-10-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

Google's Local Business Centre has been re-branded as Google Places with lots of nice features. If you market locally, as a majority of businesses do, then this is an important part of your marketing mix.

The map and business names appear in many Google search results directly after the AdWords listings but before the organic search listings.

Google provide statistics showing impressions and actions that viewers have taken. Sign up at www.google.com/local/add.

One interesting idea is that you can create coupons that visitors can print out and redeem. This maybe an incentive discount or extra service at no charge.

Create a website for mobile phones

2010-08-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

Mobile web browsing is gaining popularity and acceptance thanks to the extensive proliferation of iPhones and other mobile appliances with surf-friendly interfaces. As a result it is becoming more and more important to offer a mobile-friendly alternative to your current website.

The mobile website must be very simple, images reduced to a minimum and load as quickly as possible.

One of the main issues is checking that the web visitor is using a mobile device and if so, redirecting them to the mobile version of the website. This task isn't easy and it took a lot of time to discover how it was done.

I created a web version at www.bizlinks.co.nz/mobile.

Contact me if you would like a mobile version of your website.

Government launches important tool against online scammers

2010-08-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

Developed by New Zealand’s internet safety group NetSafe, The ORB (Online Reporting Button) allows consumers to report a full range of cyber offences and crimes – such as spam, objectionable material, online traders, privacy breaches, scams, computer system attacks, and offending against children. The ORB can be previewed at www.theorb.org.nz.

These reports are then sent to the appropriate partner agency, those being: NZ Police, Customs, the Serious Fraud Office, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, the Commerce Commission, the Centre for Critical Infrastructure Protection, and the DIA.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs will receive scam reports via The ORB. In essence, it is an additional resource to report scams to Scamwatch and will be dealt with in the same way as current scam reports.

New Zealanders lose around $440 million to scams a year, and research commissioned by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs last year found that 15 percent of adults had been scammed or tricked out of money at some point. These are real victims who have lost money – sometimes their life-savings – to scammers.

Problems with sending emails through Xtra

2010-07-15T18:14:00.001-07:00

Xtra have a number of servers which they use to send/receive email. Typically when you set up your email accounts in the likes of Outlook, you have to enter the mail server and the particular port settings that relate to it and that determines which server you get to use.

Problems can be experienced relating to an old Xtra server which is being retired within 2 years and emails that are sent from other internet service providers or web hosting companies.

Email can be stopped with notification of this taking up to 4 working days.

Xtra have recommended that all Xtra customers update their email settings as per http://telecom.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1232/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvc2lkL3oxbm01TGNr.

Unfortunately their recommendation has only been passed on to customers who have contacted them with problems.

An end to all those Viagra emails?

2010-07-01T18:06:00.000-07:00

Great news from the website hosting company: "Our new spam filters are being tested out right now, as you can see by the new MX records we have for our email accounts. It should be finalised by late July or early August."

This might reduce the amount of unwanted spam emails. Fingers crossed!!

.CO is the first truly global, recognizable domain to come along in years

2010-06-09T00:51:00.000-07:00

Understood around the world as an abbreviation for “Company,” “Corporation” and “Commerce”, .CO is easy to recognize, simple to remember and flexible to use. It offers international recognition in a fresh landscape where you can still choose the name you want, not just settle for what’s available.

If you missed on the .COM or .CO.NZ domain name you wanted for your business, now is your opportunity to get the exciting new .CO version.

General registrations start on the 21st July, but you can pre-register now.

Yearly registration fees are about 3 times that of present domain names.

Contact me for more information.

Ongoing issues with emails being forwarded to Xtra email accounts

2010-05-19T19:38:00.001-07:00

If your emails are being forwarded to an Xtra email account, then it’s possible they are being delayed.

A few weeks ago some emails were taking 2-3 days to reach their destination and the problem was an issue between the hosting company and Xtra.

This has happened again today and the email log reads:

May 20 13:04:18 mlx1 postfix-outbound/smtp[20904]: 522AE1AB0030: to=, relay=mx2.tnz.mail.yahoo.com[124.108.96.67]:25, delay=1.3, delays=0.01/0/1.3/0, dsn=4.7.0, status=deferred (host mx2.tnz.mail.yahoo.com[124.108.96.67] refused to talk to me: 421 4.7.0 [TS02] Messages from 119.47.119.8 temporarily deferred due to user complaints - 4.16.56.1; see http://postmaster.yahoo.com/421-ts02.html)

The hosting company are investigating.

To overcome the problem we set up a POP3 mailbox so that Xtra was bypassed.

Problems with invoice printing now fixed

2010-05-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

The good people at Cashbook Complete (www.acclaim.co.nz) have just sent through an update for our accounting software to overcome the problem with the right-hand side of invoices being chopped off when printed from email programs.

A number of people have complained of this problem since Microsoft released an update for Explorer.

If you are looking for a well priced and simple accounting package, then have a look at Cashbook Complete. Cost is a one-off $240 incuding GST. The reason why we chose this program was because we could set up batch invoicing to reproduce the same invoices every month. No other accounting package could do this at the time.

FINDA offers discount for Bizlinks clients

2010-04-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

Finda are offering Bizlinks clients a 6 month 'Bronze' offer for $99 + GST. This is usually $295.00 + GST for the year. The benefits are:
1. All sponsored links disappear off their listings
2. Opening text is displayed on search result
3. One more category to appear in
4. More eyes on their listing!

A bronze listing shows in a group directly below the Silver and above any Free listings.

A Bronze listing offer includes:
• Up to 2 categories
• Map of business location
• Contact details With email & web links
• Up to 12 images
• Up to 8 products & brand
• Up to 3000 character business description
• Coupons (some limits may apply)

Business listings on finda.co.nz may also be found on wises.co.nz. As finda.co.nz is Google’s key NZ Business data provider, business listings can also show on maps.google.co.nz.

For more information, contact: Lisa Carter, finda Ltd
Ph: 0800 823 225 Fax: 09 583 0001 Mob: 021 907 897

10 Issues in website design and usability

2010-04-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

If you are thinking of getting a website, the following points are worth considering. I know some may seem logical, but it's amazing how often they are overlooked.

1. The First Glance
In general, people look at the top left corner of your website first. You should have your essential information there: what your offerings are and how your potential customers can get it. Some visitors are at your site only long enough to confirm that you sell what they want, and some are ready to buy. All visitors need to be able to tell what you do right away. Don't hide behind a splash page or make people wait while something loads - many won't take the time.

2. Navigation
When your customers want and need more information, they'll stay and look for it. Make sure they can find it easily. Put your navigation in the usual places, and make it very obvious what your visitors need to click in order to find each section. Don't have more than 5-7 choices in your main navigation and keep it consistent on every page. Let your creativity and uniqueness show in some other way - follow the rules when it comes to navigation.

3. Contact Information
Can customers (and search engines) find you when they need you? Your contact information must be clear and accurate. It must also be easy to find. Visitors will visit your website several times before they choose to go for your services or purchase. Don't make it hard for them to contact you when they're ready.

4. Call To Action
What do you want your visitors to do? It should be easy to find out how to complete an order through your website or get more information. Regardless of the content of the page make sure that you include a clear call to action. Make it easy for visitors to purchase or request information from you. Just be sure to make it very clear.

5. Above the Fold Focus
Many visitors won't scroll; most won't scroll unless you have already convinced them that it's worth their while to do so. Make sure important aspects are above fold. This is especially important on the home page. Visitors who've reached your FAQs page or your blog are probably interested enough to spend some time reading.

6. Inviting Content
To develop relationships with your clients, you need to have them visit more than once. In fact, most people won't commit themselves the first time they come to your website. You need to offer them something of value so they'll return. Do you have a blog, or frequently updated featured products? Have you got any useful information that you could offer your customers?

7. Well Organized Pages
Don't make your visitors search. Always ensure that your page layout is clear, concise and gives the visitor exactly what they want without having to search for it. Try to puty ourself in your customer's position and use what you learn from testing. Decide what you want to say and plan its organization before you write, so you can be sure to have coherent paragraphs.

8. Visual Appeal
While the content on your page is the most important thing, an attractive page will be more enjoyable and appealing for visitors. Choose colours that work well together, leave some open space so it's not too busy, and make sure you have everything lined up nicely. Even if you have not got artistic skills you can make a good impression - and you should.

9. Sincerity and Trustworthiness
The internet is all about trust. If you can ensure that your website is trustworthy, people will be more likely to complete an order. What's more, the search engines also base your rankings on how trustworthy they think your page is. Don't undermine your future success by trying to trick the search engines or mislead your visitors.

10. A Polished Finish
Do your links work? Make sure you check your grammar, spelling and layout are correct? Is all the information up to date and accurate? Your visitors would prefer to shop in a well kept and clean shop in the mall. They would prefer to purchase in a clean and well kept website too. They'll have less faith in you if you have errors on your website.

Are customers having trouble opening your website?

2010-03-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

A client has had intermittent problems opening their website. Clients are complaining about the same thing. It may be network related and to do with the customers ISP. To complicate matters, the domain name is registered with a different company to the hosting company.

An interesting tool you can use to see if the site is up is - http://isitup.org/. Just type in the URL and it will tell you if it is up or not. This can be a good way to tell if it's your network/computer causing the issue or if the site is actually down.

I would also recommend keeping a list of the ISP's your customers are coming from (the ones having the problems), so we can try and find some common occurrences.

Paymate Experiences DDoS Attack, No Risk to Customer Data

2010-02-27T15:38:00.000-08:00

With over 20 of my clients using PayMate to accept credit card payments, the recent unavailability of this service had many worried. At time of posting, the service is back up although their website (http://www.paymate.co.nz/) wasn't, although http://www.paymate.com/ was. This is what happened:

Online payment service Paymate is down due to a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack. The company's Vice President of Sales and Marketing Greg Quinn told AuctionBytes the site has been down since early yesterday morning, and at no time during the disruption has any user data or information of any kind been at risk.

Paymate is an accepted payment method on eBay, and the company said it was working diligently with eBay and its customer service teams to provide updates and ensure proper information was being delivered.

DDoS attacks are not uncommon. Last August, Facebook, Twitter, and LiveJournal were victims of Distributed Denial of Service attacks (see this report from Mashable). Over the years, other sites in the industry have experienced such attacks, including Atomic Mall, ePier, Andale and ChannelAdvisor.

In a statement today, Paymate said it was unclear who launched this week's attack against it and what their motives might have been. According to the statement, "The company expects the DOS issue will be resolved quickly and that it will soon be back to providing its customers the fast, safe, and reliable experience they've come to expect from Paymate."

Paymate is keeping users updated through posts on its Twitter account.

For more information on Denial of Service attacks, see the following resources.
Understanding Denial-of-Service Attacks from US-CERT - link
Wikipedia entry on Denial-of-service attack - link

New website for FuelTurbo uses Google Translate

2010-02-25T15:01:00.000-08:00

The Fuelturbo unit does the following:

The FuelTurbo unit is a high performance mobile polishing and cleaning system for diesel fuel and fuel tank systems. It allows you to safely recover, recycle and reuse diesel fuel that might otherwise be discarded or become a major problem for diesel engine reliability. Although a high tech system it can be operated by anyone with basic mechanical skills. No fuel pipes, supply or return lines need to disturbed from the engine / equipment that is being serviced. No particular knowledge of the engine or equipments fuel system therefore needs to be known by the FuelTurbo technician.

Because it's being marketed worldwide, we added a Google Translation at the bottom of each page. Have a look at http://www.fuelturbo.com/.

Problem with printing our invoices

2010-02-25T14:55:00.001-08:00

Do you receive our invoices via email, and when printed, the right hand side is missing?

This problem is actually the result of a recent Microsoft Windows update, which affects the way Explorer produces printouts. Microsoft products such as Outlook, Outlook Express, etc. are all driven by Explorer - and it is the change to Explorer which results in a chopped off right-hand margin when printing HTML-based email. This will affect anyone who use Microsoft programs for email, and who have also received the applicable Windows update. The accounting software people are currently looking into this issue, but cannot give a time frame for a fix (if any). It may be something Microsoft corrects with another update.

New logo

2010-02-25T14:54:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Rochelle O’Loan for the new logo and website redesign. I’m very impressed with her design skills and she’s available for any design work from February 2010 once her new baby has arrived. Contact me if you would like to use her services.

Website load speeds are now important

2010-02-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks, there has been lots of talk about Google’s suggestion that page load speed may become a ranking factor in 2010.
While nothing has been confirmed yet, recent comments from Google Software Engineer, Matt Cutts make it seem increasingly likely, so we thought we'd provide you with all the information you need in order to prepare for this new ranking factor.

Why is Google Interested in Page Load Speed?
Google wants searching to be fast and efficient and for users to have a good experience. Google believes it would be fairer for faster sites to be higher up in the search results, so Web pages with faster loading times would have higher rankings than slower ones.
According to Matt Cutts, page load time is already a factor in AdWords advertising searches. He also suggests there is a strong push from within Google to make speed a quality factor in their search ranking guidelines.

How Will Speed Affect Rankings?
There are over 200 other ranking factors that are taken into consideration by Google, so just how important is a quick load time going to be?
With so many ranking factors to be considered, Google will be concentrating on the extremes, for example a page that take 60 seconds to load, or a page that takes a split second. Web pages with an average load time may therefore not initially be affected, however, as faster sites will be given a boost, your rankings may be affected eventually if much faster sites are pushed higher than yours.

How Are Load Times Measured?
According to Google, load time data will come from information sent by users of your site who have installed the Google toolbar and opted for enhanced features. This means it is representative of a global average of real users, which they feel is better than using a spider to gather the data.

Google have already added a page speed report to their set of free webmaster tools at http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools, so you can obtain a summary of the following:
- How long your Web page takes to load
- A graphical history of your Web site's speed over the past few months
- How your load time compares to other sites

What Causes Slow Load Times?
There are two main factors that influence your page load times:
Hosting: Your site's load time is impacted by the quality of your host's connectivity, so Web hosts with slow servers or insufficient server space to cope with demand, and offshore hosts, for example, may put you at a disadvantage.Site Development: Poor site development including improper use of scripts, too many large images or media-heavy sites and invalid code can all slow down your page load times.