Over the years, there have been two services in particular that claim to keep my Outlook Contacts. They both claim to keep them safe. They both say they can sync with your Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. So which is better?

Plaxo

Plaxo offers Plaxo Basic free and has fee services such as Plaxo Personal Assistant and Plaxo Platinum Sync.

Plaxo is an online address book service, plain and simple. With Plaxo Basic, the claim is that all your contacts from all your various sources are collected into one smart address book. Cool, right! All you do is import your contacts from all your sources – including email, phones, and social networks using their import tool inside your account. This tool imports from over a dozen different locations.

Then they help you to clean out duplicate entries by using a tool they call Dedupe. This tool is awesome to use. It allows you to choose which entry to use or merge entries. I have come up with some problems when names are not exactly the same. Therefore, some cleanup may be necessary.

Plaxo will store all your contents in their “cloud” for safekeeping. This is a lifesaver when your computer crashes and you’ve lost everything.

Now, so far, things are not completely automated. You still have to go in and press some links and buttons for all this to occur. If you want better optimization, they offer Plaxo Platinum Sync. This is where the cost comes in. If you have hundreds or thousands of contacts, I suggest you look into this feature. For $5/month they offer 2-way, real-time synchronizing, which keeps your address book consistent and accessible through your communication tools. For instance, if someone changes their information on Facebook, your Plaxo is updated and therefore your Outlook, mobile devices, Gmail, as well as your calendar are all synced.

What if you don’t want the Platinum Sync, but you want something else that will assist you with a lot of the mundane stuff like looking for new contacts, continually searching online for new information, etc. Plaxo offers their Personal Assistant for $6.67 per month. Again, if you have hundreds or thousands of contacts, this could really benefit you. This assistant proactively searches to make sure that your address book is constantly updating with the most current information. Also, you can upgrade to both Platinum with Personal Assistant, their most popular package for another cost. Make sure you check it out before deciding.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site and is used mainly for professional networking. LinkedIn has similarities to Plaxo in that it to collects contacts from various sources. They offer a Basic account free as well, but their contact importer seems very simple. It imports from your address book on Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL and other web mail providers or a file from Outlook, Mac Mail, other email applications or a spreadsheet like Excel. For me, it wasn’t as simple. I wanted to import from my Outlook, which mean that I would have to create a CSV file or a vCard file, which definitely wasn’t as easy as it sounds. I came up against complications where I had to upload my file to web mail source, then import from that web mail with LinkedIn. Of course, I loaded my account years ago, so I’m sure it’s slightly easier… Well, one can hope.  Upgrading costs from $19.95 to $74.95/month if you purchase annually or from $24.95-$99.95/month on a month-to-month commitment. You can compare their plans to see what fits best for your scenario.

LinkedIn provides ways to make Connections, Join or Create Groups, and ask for Recommendations. They also allow you to build on your specific skills, thus creating a sort of resume that can sell you to potential employers. For me, the recommendations have been an excellent way to gain kudos from people who I have done work for in the past. I take those recommendations and copy them to my website thus enhancing my website. I have also begun to list all of my skills so that I look even more professional.

I’ve never had enough contacts to warrant purchasing the updated versions of either of these services. LinkedIn is the one that seems to get more push to Connect with people, yet Plaxo is simpler to use and has an automation that I like. Event though I use LinkedIn the most, I have more contacts in Plaxo because it really takes MY contacts, the way they are in my applications, and then merges them into its cloud. Whereas with LinkedIn, it takes all my contacts as stated, but there is no merging, no duplicate removal or merging unless I upgrade. In addition, there is a huge push by LinkedIn to invite your friends to open their own LinkedIn account. Plaxo makes the suggestion to send YOUR info to your contacts. It just feels less intrusive to SEND my contacts, my contact information.

After you choose which service fits you the best, take time to familiarize yourself with that service. Get to know where things are and what that service can do for you. From my prospective, LinkedIn is more of a networking tool, working as a Social Network. That doesn’t mean that Plaxo won’t get there.

To this day, I still don’t know which I prefer more. Give each of them a whirl, and then share with me what you discovered.

Your “About Me” page on your website is your introduction to yourself and your product to your reader and potential customer. This is where you make your first impression with your reader. I tell my clients that the number one most important page on their website is the “About Me” page. Why is that?

1.     The Emotional Connection

You want your customer to have an emotional connection with you and ultimately your product. When you go to buy a product, you want it to know the person behind the curtain, so to speak. We look for an emotional connection with a person before we decide to buy into their product. The more we know of that person, the more we trust. You want to make sure that you emphasize that you are your business, by putting your name and face to your message.

Tip: Add a profile picture of yourself. Make it clean and fun.

2.     Building Trust

A huge part of making a decision to purchase a product is trust! Build trust in your “About Me” page by showing your customer that you are there for them both personally and passionately. Get behind your business 100%!

Tip: Be genuine about your passion and commitment to your business and customers!

3.     Building Credibility

Here is your opportunity to articulate clearly, what you offer – tell your background, your expertise, your story. Always bring all these back full circle and show how you can help with their problem or situation.

Tip: Remember, this is not a ‘Kudos to You’ page; it’s about how you can help your customer.

4.      What’s Next?

Think about where you want your customer next. You have traffic take advantage of it. Show your customer where you want them to go next. Create Action! What’s next? Do you want them to see your blog, sign up for a quote, download your latest report or song? Whatever your next step is, DO NOT let the reader punch out! Keep them on your site, learning of you and your product.

Tip: Make your next CALL TO ACTION clear! Make it quick! Put it at the bottom of this page.

Make your “About Me” page interesting, personable, and real.

Do you frequently check for updates to your favorite browsers? It is very important to me as a web designer to I stay on top of browser updates because I have to build web pages to accommodate the top browsers out there. With security leaks always an issue, and then HTML5 and CSS3 working its way into the World Wide Web, it’s extremely important stay up-to-date. I will admit the frequency of browser updates that Mozilla puts out on Firefox really annoys me. However, I take it in stride. Firefox is my favorite web browser because the engineers at Mozilla work hard to stay ahead of the browser herd.

On April 24, 2012, Mozilla released their upgrade to version 12 of Firefox. As usual, when Firefox told me of the update, I clicked OK and went on with what I was doing. I love receiving notifications of updates! Well, sort of! In the past, these pop-up notifiers didn’t always “pop-up” so I would end up being three or four revisions behind. Lately, Firefox seems to have covered that bug and now I seem to receive a notification about once a month, sometimes more, to upgrade my browser.

So, first off, if you have not updated your Firefox browser, then grab your copy NOW! Always keep your browser updated. It doesn’t matter if you use Internet Express, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or any other browser, ALWAYS keep it updated for safety’s sake at the very least!

Now, normally, as I said above, I just click the OK button and allow the update to churn in the background, doing its thing and then I go through the painstaking process of rebooting the browser. However, the latest news about Mozilla Firefox claims that they are changing the update process. You will no longer receive prompts to perform your updates. It will all happen silently behind the scenes.

On The Mozilla Blog, it states,

“Firefox simplifies the update process for Windows users by removing the user account control dialog (UAC) pop-up while maintaining the security of your system. Once a user gives explicit permission to Firefox on their first installation, they will not be prompted again for subsequent releases.”

All of this is due to occur in the next update, version 13.

I’ve just stated that I like to and need to stay up-to-date on my browsers. I’ve also stated that I am annoyed by the frequency of updates. So, how do I feel about this new update coming out in about six weeks?

First off, I don’t like background updating. As a Windows user, I never seem to have enough memory or resources on any of my machines to work and let background processes happen at the same time. I also worry about security issues. I like to customize my installations and updates as much as possible. However, the frequent pop-ups telling me to update Firefox really annoy me. So, for me… this is a mixed bag. I feel that if the engineers over at Mozilla can streamline the download process to make it fast, safe, and efficient, then I’m ready! I think time will tell if this is a good move. I know many out there are Chrome users. If you are, then this may be a no-brainer.

With all the new things coming out like HTML5 and CSS3, you need to remember to check for updates to your favorite browsers often! Firefox intends on making that process easier!

This last week has been a hectic one here on the tech side of web design. Many of my websites experienced either downtime or memory issues, which made it difficult for some to blog and others, just lost service. Even today, I am working diligently with my tech support team to iron out the last wrinkles of this issue.

Here is what happened. Last week, we experienced ongoing intermittent server problems including a significant attack from China. My tech support team literally worked around the clock to solve the cascading problems. In addition, random access memory (RAM) was set so high that when the attack came; systems overloaded, causing the downtime that we experienced.

According to my tech guru, RAM had to be reduced to help combat the hacker’s attacks. This reduction of memory caused problems with our WordPress websites and blogs. I was able to work out a temporary fix to the problem by deactivating plugins but that didn’t last long. Finally, today’s phone call to my tech guru, shed light on the real issues and solutions. My hopes are that starting tomorrow morning, the problems that we have experienced should finally go away.

To all my clients, thank you for your patience as I have worked through these issues this last week! If anyone finds any other issues pertaining to the cascade of problems, please contact me.

Backlinking is probably the most important factor taken in to account when assessing your web pages for search engine rankings. Last week, I wrote about keywords and keyword phrasing being important to search engines. Check out the article, “Have You Overused SEO in Your Website?” In that article, I stated the importance of creating keywords and key phrases directly related to the content of each web page on your website. I also stated to watch out for duplicate keywords and phrases. Google is serious about its process of collecting and indexing web pages.

Something else that is important to search engines like Google or Bing is backlinking. The backlinks that point to your website belong to the most important ranking signals in the algorithms of Google and Bing/Yahoo. It is not possible to get high rankings on these search engines without good links. Once a search engine has discovered that your website’s content is original and accurate, the next thing it needs to discover is whether your page can be classified as an “authority page” on the subject queried. This is determined by how many “authority back links” point to your page.

Google’s page ranking system is from a Page Rank (PR) 0 to PR 10. Ten in the highest score that Google places on a page. Here’s how it works. The more websites that backlink to your pages, the more your pages rank as an authority. However, this is the tricky part… you should not have just any links coming back to you. You must have quality links coming back at you. In other words, the websites that point back to you should have content that some how relate to your content. You only need a couple of PR 4 or higher ranked websites to make your pages more authoritative to search engines. Therefore, the quality of links pointing to your site is more important than the quantity.

As your page ranking develops and increases, you move further up the page in the search engine results.

I found this article, “How to Publish your Blog or Website to Google Currents.” I found myself a bit excited for something new to share with all my clients and friends.

Google is now offering a new service. It’s called “Google Currents.”It claims to take information from your websites or blogs & lets you view them in a magazine style on just about any mobile device. You can download Android & iOS versions of Google Currents’ app right from the website once you log in.

This app does have a very pleasing look. It’s not too busy, seems easy to use, and claims to be accessible offline. You can setup the app to download your currents automatically, automatically if Wi-fi, or manually. So, if you’re concerned that the app will eat up your data package on your cell phone, or if you only have Wi-fi, then it will still work for you. This makes it very nice for your mobile subscribers to stay up-to-date with your content.

I decided to try to set up my website in the Google Currents Producer. Right off the bat, I’m told that I need to log in using Google Chrome. This does not please me. I’m not much of a Google Chrome fan, but I proceed, trying to keep a positive outlook on this new product.

Once logged in to Google Currents, it asks you to give your Edition a name and description. So I figured well, my whole website should be viewable here, let’s try it. So, I enter the name of my website and list its URL, Hafner Designs, http://hafnerdesigns.com. I will admit that this took some time to become accustomed to the process. It allows you to insert an image for a splash page and an edition icon. I added my logo, but it didn’t show up. I assumed it didn’t meet the size specific dimensions. You are able to add contents such as RSS feeds, Google docs, HTML articles, photos, YouTube videos and updates from social media sites. You can also add Google Analytics to keep track of the visitors using mobile devices.

I was not too impressed when I added my website URL and Google Currents immediately sought out my blog. It publishes nothing more than my blog. In and of itself, publishing my blog is fine, but I really intend the whole site to be visible. They do say you can put your “website” up there. So that was a failure. Benefit of the doubt here though… I did list my RSS Feed URL for it’s method of receiving information.

You would think with Google unifying all it’s Privacy Statements so that all Google sites shared the same common statement, that they would figure out how to allow you to use the same Content Ownership Verification code across the board. They don’t. I now have 3 “google*********.html files on my website. They verify for 3 different functions; Google Webmaster, Google Analytics, and now Analytics for your Google Currents.

I am still tweaking my website for Google Currents. I think it works well and may turn out to be a useful tool. I’m still working at getting the social media to post. The iOS app doesn’t seem to allow me to do the logins of all my social networks until I’m ready to share. Then when I do share, I have a blank post. Perhaps we’re still a little buggy.

Are you overusing SEO to boost your website content? Recently, I found this headline on one of the Site Promotion websites I visit periodically. It said, “Google Plans to Penalize Sites That Overuse SEO.” That’s definitely an eye catcher especially when you have worked so hard to get your website listed at the top of Google’s search results. Let me tell you, it is frustrating keeping up with all the advice out there about search engine optimization (SEO). One SEO “Guru” tells us to inject numerous keywords into web page Meta tags. It doesn’t matter if it’s exactly like your business. Another says that the benchmark algorithms have changed and Google no longer looks at keywords. Therefore, leave your meta keywords out of the equation.

So, we sit here staring at our computers, scratching our heads in this virtual tug-of-war, not certain who to believe!

When managing websites, I work hard to get them onto the first page of Google search results. I get numerous emails from different SEO companies; each has their own theory on how to get the best results. I’ve tried them all too. I want my clients to get the best rankings they can. However, let me just say, these “researchers” have my head spinning. 

Let me tell you what I have found that works. I don’t stuff meta keywords or phrases. I do use them, but I’m very careful with what I put in my meta tags. First thing to remember, Google is NOT the only search engine out there! It is, of course the biggest one out there, and many smaller search engine companies do follow Google’s lead. However, don’t be afraid to use your meta keywords and phrases. What I do is take focus points from the content of each page that I write and publish. I insert those page specific focal points into my meta tags. Be careful how many times you use the same keywords and key phrases. Search engines will throw out a page from its results if the same keywords are used on multiple pages. 

Here’s one more thing to think about. Check out your competition! Sure! Why not? You can bet they’re checking you out! Go to Google’s search engine and type in some of your keyword/phrase choices. Who comes to the top? If it’s you… Great! If not, don’t worry. It takes time for the search engines to do a proper crawl of your website. Assuming you are not at the top of the search results, look at who is. Is it a direct competitor to you?  If they are, you’re in the right ball park. If they are not similar to your business, perhaps a little tweaking and fine-tuning of your keywords is in order.

Remember this! Search engines are NOT looking solely at your keyword meta data! Search engines are looking for content! They are also looking for links to other websites within your content. If you link to other websites that have similar content, then you get a higher ranking. Pretty cool huh? So, don’t be afraid to link sources of your content. Now, I’m NOT talking about going hog wild and joining some “Link Exchange” or “Link Farm.” No, you want to link to sites where you know their business or product. Their business or product is similar to yours. Your content on THAT page that you are building is similar to that other website. I hate when I go to Google and I type in keywords that I am searching on, and I come up with results that have NOTHING to do with what I need. This is why you want your content keywords to be organic, representing the material on your website.

I also believe that you give credit where credit is due! If you’ve learned something from a website and you are using their material in your page… credit them! Link them! You’ll find your page ranking will grow stronger and you will begin to see better search results.

Here’s a video that I found useful. Of course, this is what inspired me to write this post.

As a web designer, I do my best to make my websites hit the top of the search engine results. Let me tell you, it is a battle, especially when the rules are always changing! It used to be that all you had to do was input a “title”, “keywords”, and a “description” in your meta tags of each of your web pages. It’s not that way anymore. Of course, the meta tags are still important… don’t leave them out! Some of the larger search engines are not using them as they used to but the smaller engines do. Now, search engines such as Google, read the content of the pages we write and the bots bring that content back and disseminates. This allows for better results when you do a search. 

I already use the rel=”author” in my meta tags, but found out recently that it can also be used in sharing links too. Use the rel=”author” attribute in your content. That’s right! Apparently, this “rel” attribute is part of the open HTML5 standard, so we’ll see more about its uses.

Ok, let me tie this together.

Have you gone to Google Search, typed in your search parameters, and when the results get back, you notice someone’s picture next to some of the results? And, as you sit there, “Oooing and Ahhing,” you begin to wonder, hey… how did they get their picture there beside the search results! They did it by using the rel=”author” attribute within their links. When used properly, the result shows your profile beside the articles and blogs that you author.

How do you do that?

Well, I’ll do my best to help you understand, because unfortunately, it can be a bit of a hit or miss as to whether your content gets accepted or not.

Google is piloting the display of author information in search results to help users discover better content. To identify the author of a blog or article, Google checks for a connection between the content page, an author page, and a Google Profile. Pretty cool, don’t you think!

So, what’s the advantage?

If you or your client is a content creator, this is a very important feature. It allows you indirectly to claim authorship or your own content in Google search results.

Personally, I enjoy seeing the profile pictures of the author who wrote an article that I have read.

Now here’s the kicker! In order for this to happen, you need a Google Profile. Make sure that your profile has a good, recognizable headshot as your profile picture. Add all your statistics that you want the public to know. From there, you must then verify authorship of your content by associating it with your profile. Of course, as with everything Google, there are no guarantees that your profile will show in web searches and news results. As I said, they are just beginning this process, but I’m already beginning to see results.

Ok, so show me how already!

There are two ways to link to your Google Profile.

The first method is using the rel=”author” attribute and it’s a two step process.

Note: With websites or blogs that I build, I insist the client MUST HAVE an “About” page! If you don’t have one, Shame on you! Now create one and all will be forgiven! Once this is done, link the “About” page of your blog or website to your Google Profile.

Here is one example taken from Google Webmaster’s Pages:

1. You write an article for a website, which also has an author page on the same website.

• The article should link to your author page on the same site using rel=”author”, like this example:

<a rel=”author” href=”http://www.hafnerdesigns.com/about/”>Heidi Hafner</a>

• Your author page should link to your Google Profile using rel=”me”, like this example:

<a rel=”me” https://plus.google.com/114132316683908733932 “> <img src=”//www.google.com/images/icons/ui/gprofile_button-16.png”> </a>

Your Google Profile should link back to your author page on the website. When you add this link to your profile, be sure to check the “This page is specifically about me” checkbox. This creates a rel=”me” link to that author page.

 2. You write an article for a website, and you have no author page on that domain.

• The article should link to your Google Profile using rel=”author”, like this:

Check out <a href=”https://plus.google.com/114132316683908733932″ rel=”author”>Heidi’s Google+ profile</a>.

• Your Google Profile should link to back to the website’s home page.

Lastly, Google gives us a link where we can test our markups. This tool only does a single page at a time.

Now, let’s go set up our Google Profiles!

… more later!

So, I have been testing out the <audio> tag and am having some trouble. I see Remy Sharp’s shiv (http://html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js) which helps quite a bit for Firefox, Chrome, etc. However, I am having trouble getting the tag to work in older versions of IE. I’ve found that if I use the <embed> tag, it works just fine in IE, but then there’s the problem where the embedded player is visible in other browsers as well. What can you advise for a scenario like this where only one player shows?

<section>
<h2>Audio Control Test</h2>
<audio controls=”controls”>
<source src=”tracks/song.ogg” type=”audio/ogg” />
<source src=”tracks/song.mp3″ type=”audio/mpeg” />
<embed src=”tracks/song.mp3″ type=”audio/mp3″ autostart=”false” loop=”false” />
Your browser does not support the HTML5 audio element.
</audio>
</section>

Let me know if you’ve found a workaround for  the <audio> tag to work in IE 7 or IE 8, by leaving me a comment.

So, you’re thinking of building a website, right. Perhaps you already have a website and you want to make some improvements. You should consider some very essential things before you go designing your website. Let’s discuss a few very important rules about designing a website that performs well.

1. DO NOT use splash pages!

A splash page is that first page, also called a landing page, that you see when you first load a website. They may contain just a logo, or a flash video, or perhaps just a picture with a link on it that says, ‘Enter’, or ‘Click Here to Enter’, or just ‘Welcome’. There is NOTHING on this page, NO CONTENT! As a visitor to your website, I’m inclined to hit the back button and return to my search criterion because I have preconceived ideas of what your website is all about. If I am on a dialup connection and I hit that slow-loading splash page, I’m going to bail out right away because I don’t have the time to wait for your page to load. DO NOT let your visitors have a reason to hit the back button! Create a landing page that offers purpose! Chuck the splash page!

2. DO NOT use excessive banner ads!

Across the Internet, you will find differing opinions about banner advertisements. These are those flashy colorful advertisements created to draw the eye and cause a visitor to click on it. First off, when you have a visitor on your site, you want to keep them there to learn more about your business. Remember, that each page of your website is valuable web real estate so be sparing with banner ads. Make your pages POP with YOUR content first! Then you can choose to weave RELEVANT affiliate ads throughout your content. Make your visitor feel welcome on your site instead of assaulting them with ads that may or may not have anything to do with your business.

3. Avoid using audio on your site!

Nothing is more annoying then to land on a web page that has blaring music set to loop forever while you are trying to read content. If you feel that your site MUST have audio embedded in your pages, make sure the user has some control over it. Allow them to adjust the volume or mute/stop the audio.

4. Avoid excessive pop-ups and pop-unders!

A pop-up is a browser window that appears out of nowhere, as you are viewing content on the web. A pop-under is similar to a pop-up except that it displays windows behind your web browser window. Both of these are annoying and intrusive.

There are three primary types of pop-ups:

1. Those that appear when clicking something on a web page
2. Those that appear at random
3. Those that appear without user intervention, (This being the most aggravating variation)

There can be legitimate reasons to want pop-ups on your website. For example, you want to capture users for newsletters and you don’t want them to forget to sign up. Pop-ups can be useful…or should I say, the idea of capturing an audience for a newsletter can be useful. Current browsers now have pop-up blockers built into them. Most users turn the setting on in their browsers to BLOCK pop-ups, so putting pop-ups or pop-unders into your web pages will be hit or miss at best.

Instead of adding annoying pop-ups or pop-unders to your pages, use your web real estate carefully and place your signup forms or ads on the pages or create a page just for signing up. If you MUST have a pop-up or pop-under, DO NOT put it on your landing page!

5. Create simple and clear navigation!

Provide simple, clear, very straightforward navigation on your website. Make sure it makes sense! It is advisable to stay away from Flash based menus or complex multi-tiered dropdown menus. Sub menus must make sense too. Categorize sub menus under the correct main navigation button.

Also, as your visitors are reading and enjoying your website, make sure they know where they are on your website. You want your visitors’ to be able to browse all relevant information. If your navigation is confusing or simply doesn’t make sense, they will “bail out” and you will lose traffic!