Gympie Business Newsletter
Newsletter October 2010
October 31, 2010 by Siteadmin · Leave a Comment
Gympie Business Newsletter
Newsletter September 2010
September 29, 2010 by Siteadmin · Leave a Comment
Gympie Business Newsletter
Newsletter August 2010
August 28, 2010 by Siteadmin · Leave a Comment
Gympie Business Newsletter
Newsletter July 2010
July 26, 2010 by Siteadmin · Leave a Comment
Welcome to the Cooloolabusiness.com Newsletter for July 2010.
This month brings us to the start of a new financial year and hopefully the economic outlook is on the improve for small business. However, with a Federal election due in a few weeks time, current business activity levels will probably be unchanged until after the election.
It is a good time to look at your advertising remembering that the cost of having a website online for a year is about the same as a small 1 minute advertisement in the local newspaper. If you do place an advertisemenmt in the paper, remember to include your website address to let readers know where they can find more information about your business products and services.
MEMBER NEWS
Gympie Family Dental – We have recently completed re-development the Gympie Family Dental website. The site has been developed using a customised Genesis WordPress 3 release to provide a professional content management system and facilitate SEO for additional information to be added to the site. Visit the site now to find out more about the painless microdentistry services offered by this Gympie Dentist.
Hartbeat Training & Consultancy– minor updates have been completed for Cindy Hartwig to add information on the latest training courses including GP and Nurse CPR training courses and on Gympie Training Rooms for hire.
INTERNET NEWS
WordPress 3. WordPress Version 3 was released a few weeks ago. Some of our WordPress clients may have noticed an alert advising to upgrade to the the latest version with a link to perform an automatic upgrade when logging in to their CMS. In most cases, the WordPress automatic upgrade is faultless but sometimes complications can occur due to site software and plugin conflicts or other bugs. For this reason, we recommend that clients do not attempt the version upgrade themselves (at least not without undertaking database and theme backups first). We will be implementing a free version 3 upgrade program for all of our client sites in the near future (as we expect that there will be a minor point upgrade to correct some new Version 3 bugs in the next couple of weeks). Our upgrade program will include a full site backup to enable us to do a site rollback in case of any complications (we have learnt this necessity from experience with one of our own network sites – it is almost impossible to recover from a failed upgrade without a backup).
Backlinks & SEO – site owners should be aware of the importance of backlinks and SEO for website promotion to improve the placement of your website in search engine results pages. We regularly undertake link building programs for our sites as well as basic link building services for our client sites. If you would like to build some more links to your site, try the free version of the online link building program at www.imautomator.com as it will build links to your pages. We use the “Pro” version for our SEO work and can offer a full linking program on a service basis – contact us for more information on paid linking services.
Antivirus Program – Microsoft Security Essentials. Most reviews of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) have been favorable and the extent of protection is seen as relatively significant for a free product. We have trialled several free antivirus programs including AVG and Avast and the current version of MSE compares favourably with these. Microsoft is about to release a new Version (V2) with improvements in firewall & browser integration for online security. The new version will be even better and is now our recommended free software for protecting your computer from virus and malicious software. Microsoft Security Essentials can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx?mkt=en-au
Mobile Website Versions – In our June Newsletter, we mentioned that we were preparing a development system to be able to incorporate mobile versions of our WordPress websites for handheld device users. Although this may seem a bit futuristic, any doubters as to the potential that mobile brings to the e-commerce industry need only look at the recent second-quarter earnings report from Amazon, that revealed their worldwide mobile commerce sales in the past year surpassed $1 billion (Source: www.websitemagazine.com).
HANDY SOFTWARE
We regularly receive requests for information on image software and what is necessary to put photos on the web. Digital cameras and photos are very convenient and it is necessary to learn how to “process” them for use on the web as a photos straight from the camera are much too big. Processing a photo is called “optimising” and this can be simply reduced to a 2 step process:
- Reducing the photo dimensions – This is making the photo dimensions smaller. A typical photo may be up to 4000 pixels wide from a good camera and this needs to be reduced to fit the space available on the webpage usually something between 300 and 600 pixels wide (at 72DPI). The photo may also be cropped to remove unwanted edge areas first before size reduction.
- Once the photo has been resized, it is then further optimised to reduce the filesize by “compressing” the image. This process is basically a percentage reduction in the image quality to minimise filesize to achieve acceptable download speed – the resultant image is a balance between photo quality and filesize (site & page load speed is becoming more important as Google is measuring site speed as a factor in it’s algorithm for determining results ranking now – we have always treated page load speed with more importance than others and we still design page load time for dial up users unless a client specifically requests otherwise).
Some cameras may come with image software and there is a lot of image editing software available for processing images and a few online sites also provide provide that capability. We have received recommendations for the following:
Online photo editor:
www.pixlr.com/editor or www.piknic.com – these websites allow you to upload a photo and use their systems for editing and optimising and then saving the new image back to your PC. Online systems may be OK for occasional use but uploading/downloading may become time consuming if you have several photos to optimize.
Free Software:
Paint.net – http://www.getpaint.net (take care – the big download buttons buttons are for paid software). This program is not the old Windows Paint program – it is an advanced, layer capable photo editor capable of complex photo editing.
Irfanview – www.irfanview.com – capable of editing, enhancing and optimising photos
Fly Free Photo Editing & Viewer Software – www.5dfly.com/free-photo-editing-software – capable of editing, enhancing and optimising photos with batch processing and upload Flickr/Google/Facebook. This software would be very useful for Facebook users.
All of the above would be good for preparing images to be sent by email. We still get questions from people trying to send large attachments to friends asking why their email bounces (some ISP’s have a 10MB limit on their email gateway). If you need to send large files(anything over 5MB is a large file for email), it is much better and quicker to archive them using Winzip or 7Zip and then send them by a free file transfer service like www.yousendit.com
MEMBER CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISEMENTS
(send us an email to advertise here for free)
Phone: 5483 6477 For all Printing in Gympie.
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Starclub Copycentre
Justin has some great specials for June/July 1000 Colour DL Flyers – $169 (was $270) 500 Economy Full Colour Business Cards – $85 1000 Colour Fridge Magnets – $499 (was $570) Signs and Stickers – %20 off |
| Eastwood Farm B & B
Winter magic! Breakfast in the sunshine on the verandah. Double rooms at $165.00 per night. Afternoon tea and breakfast included. Dinner by arrangement. Mention this ad for 10% off the nightly rate. Valid until 30/9/2010 |
Phone: 07 54831384110 Allen Road Chatsworth, Gympie Q 4570 Australia
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Gympie Business Newsletter
Newsletter June 2010
June 17, 2010 by Siteadmin · Leave a Comment
Welcome to the Cooloolabusiness.com Newsletter for June 2010.
We have another financial year drawing to a close with less than 2 weeks to the end of June and it has been a fairly tough year for most small businesses thanks to the global financial meltdown.
We have been able to maintain our annual hosting and domain registration fees again this year and looking back, we have kept our prices frozen now for a number of years due to decreases in data and infrastructure costs and our ability to offset some of our hosting costs through Google Adsense advertising. We will continue to freeze prices for our existing and new clients for the 2010/2011 financial year and continue to build our directory networks to benefit clients.
As it is the end of the financial year, remember that it can be a good time to make last minute stock purchases for tax deductions etc.
MEMBER NEWS
Chris Kath from Bamboo Refined has recently upgraded his website to use the WordPress platform to take advantage of content management and better SEO functionality built-in to the system. Chris is continuing to expand his eco-friendly bamboo flooring services with specialisation in the installation of his bamboo flooring products. Chris’s website is currently on page 1 of Google for the keyword phrase “bamboo flooring queensland” and the new site will make it easy for him to add new content and assist in improving his rankings for other related keywords.
If you are thinking about installing hardwood flooring, give Chris a call on (07) 5484 3663 to find out about the benefits of using eco-friendly bamboo flooring products.
My Way to Happiness – It Gets Better
Julie Gear has published an update to her successful first book and it is available online now from her website at www.mywaytohappiness.com.au
Julie wrote this book to deliver her message, describing how she has developed positive changes within herself. These changes have been small and large. Julie does not claim to have all the answers but, certainly, she explains the essentials that have made her a better person inside and out.
There are lots of self-help books on the market, but My Way to Happiness—It Gets Better stands out because author Julie Gear shares her success story in simple, easy steps. She doesn’t claim to have all the answers but instead wants to show how her self-development work changed her life. This book can be beneficial for teenagers, new moms, people with depression, those losing a loved one, or just simply for people who are searching for better answers.
INTERNET NEWS
Websites for Mobile Devices. We subscribe to a range of industry newsletters to keep up to date with the latest news in website development and we are seeing increasing talk about mobile websites or more correctly, having a version of your website that is designed to be accessible by mobile devices like the iPhone. We are in the process of developing a system for clients with WordPress websites that will enable us to create an addon mobile version of your current site that will make your site readily accessible to these devices. The new system should be available next month and we expect that we should be able to provide mobile versions of current WordPress Client sites for about $100.
Google Caffeine – Google has officially announced that their new web indexing system “Caffeine” is live on all Google pages. Google Caffeine is the name for the new method that Google uses to index web pages to index new web pages faster. This means that new content on your website will be shown more quickly in the search results. We believe that Googles preference is to be able to show the most up to date infomation in search results and therefore using WordPress and adding new, keyword-related content regularly will assist in getting better results placement.
Google Statistics – Americans conducted 15.9 billion searches in May, up 3 percent from April. Google Sites accounted for 10.2 billion searches (up 2 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.9 billion (up 6 percent) and Microsoft Sites with 1.9 billion (up 6 percent). This shows Google is still the dominant search engine with about 65% of search volume and more importantly, confirms the trend of continually increasing usage of the Internet to find products and services.
Don’t get left behind – order a Gympie WordPress website now and we will add a mobile wordpress version as a bonus for any new WordPress site (offer available from 26th July 2010 to 31 August 2010).
HANDY SOFTWARE
Acronis Drive Monitor 1.0.0.187 – If you want to keep tabs on your system in order to maximize its safety and security, we recommend Acronis Drive Monitor. Acronis Drive Monitor is a free, downloadable software application developed by Acronis to monitor server, workstation and PC hard disk drives. We have been using Acronis Trueimage backup software for a number of years to protect our data and have found it be excellent software. The Acronis Drive Monitor is a free tool they have produced to monitor your system and notify you of any predicted hard drive problems – read more here:
www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/drive-monitor/
MEMBER CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISEMENTS
(send us an email to advertise here for free)
 |
M1 First Aid & The Gympie Safety ShopMichelle is currently running a special on “Steel Capped Safety Boots”
Mention this advertisement and get a free pair of socks (Note: only available while stocks last) Order through the website or Ring Michelle now on 07 5482 1021 |
| Starclub Copycentre Justin has some great specials for June/July
1000 Colour DL Flyers – $169 (was $270) 500 Economy Full Colour Business Cards – $85 1000 Colour Fridge Magnets – $499 (was $570) Signs and Stickers – %20 off |
Phone: 5483 6477 |
 |
Gympie Meat HallOVEN READY MEAT LOAF
$5 EACH Savoury Meat Loaf with premium mince made with our own recipe. (PS: Grab a couple of Cheese Kranskys for the BBQ while you are there).
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Gympie Business Newsletter
Newsletter May 2010
May 12, 2010 by Siteadmin · Leave a Comment
Welcome to the Cooloolabusiness.com Newsletter for May 2010.
Our newsletter is a little earlier this month to accommodate a short week for the Gympie Show. Members are reminded that promotions can be advertised free in the Member Classifieds section of our newsletter.
MEMBER NEWS
Ray and Jenny Salmon are closing the Gympie Blockworks and are having a 50% off closing sale:
GYMPIE BLOCKWORKS
CLOSING DOWN SALE
All stock on ground half price
Starts 10 May 2010
Cash, Cheque, Visa, Mastercard only.
INTERNET NEWS
I attended an SEO seminar held by the DEEDI (QLD Govt Dept) last week and have written a detailed summary of the seminar on the cooloolabusiness.com website ( click to read a detailed summary – Gympie SEO Course). The seminar provided an overview of basic Search Engine Optimisation principles focusing on providing information for website owners on how to improve their search result ranking in Google. The information included some practical advice for:
- businesses must have their own domain name and website (relying on a page in someone else’s site or directory instead of having your own website is only helping their business not yours)
- Domain names should include your primary keyword where practicable
- using better keywords in your website (didn’t really go into keyword research – I suggest clients should look at the Google wonder wheel)
- using title and description metatags with keywords (all pages must have a title and description and these should be unique and relative to the specific page
- Website content – pages should be on s specific theme related to the keyword and include contact details on all pages. Didn’t really talk about page layout, H tags, keyword density, load speed, not using frames, removing css/javascript code to external files to improve page speed etc
- using video and Youtube (video is easier than you might think)
- Backlinks – didn’t emphasise the importance of obtaining links back to client sites
The seminar focus on simple on page factors really only tells half the SEO story but it is important as a foundation to obtaining good rankings. Remembering that Google has the single goal of providing the best result for a users search (they don’t want the user to go to Yahoo or Bing because they didn’t find what they wanted as this would impact on their multi-billion dollar earnings), a site owner’s job is to provide the best site with clear information about their business to help Google place the site in the results list. It has been written that Google tracks more than 200 On-Page factors and 500 million Off-Page factors. Some of the factors used in determining results placement including the age of the website (older sites usually get better ranking), the size of website (the number of pages), theming, and site authority. The number of links and the anchor text used in those links is important for determining site authority.
I will be adding to our SEO article series with more information on the factors which will improve your website ranking as time permits. If you have any SEO questions, send them to me by email and I will answer them for you based on SEO information provided by Jerry West of SEO Revolution and his “Google Best Practice Guide” (Jerry’s site has a lot of good free information on SEO apart from his paid newsletter, SEO tools and Google Guide).
In the meantime, read the first article in the series and the summary of the Gympie SEO seminar to get a better understanding of how to improve your rankings.
MEMBER CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISEMENTS
(send us an email to advertise here for free)
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Jims Cleaning – “Have your house cleaned FREE for a year” Book any cleaning job between now and the 31st of August and you automatically go in the draw to have your home or office cleaned FREE for a year.* Gympie to Tin Can Bay
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED *Conditions Apply Call in and meet the Jim’s Cleaning Team in the Pavilion at the Gympie Show. |
131 546 |
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Freemasons Hotel Bistro is open all over the Show week-end. Monday to Saturday Sunday Lunch and Dinner specials for the week The Freemasons Hotel |
Gympie Business Newsletter
Newsletter March 2010
March 16, 2010 by Siteadmin · Leave a Comment
Welcome to the Cooloolabusiness.com Newsletter for March 2010.
Some long term Members may recall our old newsletter that we discontinued a few years ago. We have decided to re-commence a regular newsletter after discussions with some Members who would like to be kept up to date with our news.
In our new newsletter, we will bring you some regular sections including Member news, Internet news, handy software programs and member advertisements.
MEMBER NEWS
We have been “snowed under” over the last few months developing new sites and systems for our members. We are now specialising in custom Wordpress development as WordPress offers many advantages over standard HTML design and other development systems.
Our latest WordPress Member site is M1 First Aid Safety Supplies, a shopping cart system for Michelle at M1 First Aid & Safety Supplies that offers online safety product ordering (and not forgetting that we have developed a custom WordPress system for Version 3 of our Gympie Business Directory at www.cooloolabusiness.com).
With the completion of version 3 of the cooloolabusiness.com directory, we have introduced some new and beneficial features for our members. The most important feature is that each member is provided with an individual listing page that can display a Business Description/Profile as well as your contact details and a live Google map. We are happy to keep your listing page updated for you and urge all members to review their listing and send us a profile or description that tells visitors what products you sell or services you provide. Adding this information to your listing page will add a lot of value to your listing, make your listing easier to find for visitor searches and give you better backlinks to your websites. Also, in about 2 weeks time, we will be syndicating the content of these pages which will provide more backlinks and help your Google rankings – so please send us the descriptions to update your listing (you can email this to us or use the Listing Update Form provided under the Member Tab on the website)
We still provide our standard HTML design services for managing our Member sites and some new sites like the just completed re-development of the Weeroona website at www.weeroona.org.au
Our development services are undertaken in-house here in Gympie (not just outsourcing to other companies to do the work). We don’t have to cold call or employ any special sales tactics to source new clients or development work – our workload in looking after our clients and their “word of mouth” referrals usually exceeds our time availability.
INTERNET NEWS
We have recently changed ISP providers. After relying on the excellent service provided by Westnet for the last few years, we found the we were starting to exceed the data bandwidth provided for our 20GB ADSL plan. Our options were to increase our bandwidth with Westnet or find another provider. After reviewing the plans offered (and researching customer service capability), we opted to “churn” to Internode.
So far, the new ADSL2 50GB service from Internode has been very good. The “churn” changeover process was handled faultlessly and their customer service has been excellent (phone calls were answered without being placed in a lengthy queue and without the difficulties of trying to understand someone in a foreign call-centre). If your are regularly exceeding your download and need a better plan, I would have no hesitation in recommending that you include Internode as a potential provider – their website is at www.internode.on.net.
HANDY SOFTWARE
In each Newsletter, we will try to give you some information about some of the software programs that we use that you may find useful in your business. The program we have selected for this newsletter is one we used as a free version but found it was so good that we had to purchase the pro version.
The program is Roboform, a small utility that manages your passwords – it is secure, remembers your passwords and other details you wish to store and can then complete these details in webpages and forms for you. We have found this software invaluable and time saving in our operations as we have a lot of passwords for membership sites and online systems that would take forever just to find sometimes.
I recommend that you download the free version by clicking the image above.
(In our next edition – “Open Office” Free software that is comparable to Microsoft Office and we have an instruction video for members explaining how to use open office document templates).
MEMBER CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISEMENTS
Gympie Meat Hall – call and see Gary and get 10% of any order over $100 by mentioning that you are a member of cooloolabusiness.com (by the way the cheese kranski is very good).
Note: if you would like to have a classified advertisement in our next newsletter, please send the advertisement to admin@cooloolabusiness.com
Gympie Business Directory is a web promotion service for Gympie businesses provided by cooloolabusiness.com
