Domain Name: $10 to $50 per year

The domain name is the name of your site.  The domain name for this site is “anthonymccloud.com”.  Expect to pay around $10-$20 per year to register a domain.  There are other features offered with domains, one of which I would strongly recommend you look into:  privacy registration.  This keeps your contact information out of the public WHOIS database, helping protect you from unwanted spam, solicitations, or fraud.

Hosting: $4 to $8 per month

A web host is where your website lives and functions.  Expect to pay $4 to $8 per month.  Some hosting companies even offer incentives just for signing up.  You could get $100 credit toward Google Adwords, or free SEO promotion through one of their affiliates.  When scouting web hosts, remember that you’re STARTING your website… you don’t need all the fancy bells and whistles that larger sites do.  Some key points to look at:

• Do they offer “cPanel” or a custom interface?  cPanel is easy to use and well-documented.  I would shy away from any custom back-end platform.
• Do they offer unlimited everything?  You’ll want unlimited bandwidth, storage, databases, email addresses, add-on domains, sub-domains, and technical support.  Any good host will offer these options if they want to remain competitive.
• Is their up-time 99% or higher?  The best features in the world mean nothing if they can’t keep the servers up.

CMS: FREE!

Back in the old days of the web, websites were created entirely of HTML files, all scattered into different directories.  If you wanted to change something on your site, you had to know the code.  Even minor changes (like a new layout or different colors) required a major overhaul and coding nightmare.  Those days are over, thanks to Content Management Systems (CMS).  A CMS allows you to create and edit content, as well as perform site maintenance all from a central page.  You don’t need to know any code, and you don’t need special software like Dreamweaver or Publisher.  You just need a computer with an active internet connection.  Some of the best free CMS platforms are:

• WordPress – most popular and user friendly
• Joomla – good balance of ease and features
• Drupal – most powerful, steep learning curve

CMS Theme (optional): $30 variable

One the best things about CMS platforms is that they separate “content” (words, pages, and pictures) from “design” (colors, layout, positioning).  This means that changing the look-and-feel of your site is as simple as uploading a theme.  There are tons of talented theme developers out there, and they charge very reasonable prices for their work.  Remember, YOU’RE JUST STARTING OUT… you don’t need some prestigious firm to create a $5,000 unique design, you just need something that gets you out there and makes you look good.  Check out places like ThemeForest, Theme Junkie, and ElegantThemes to find something you like.

An Example…

Joey Campbell is the owner of Campbell Consulting, and he wants a website for his business. He wants to tell people who he is, what his business does, where & when he works, and how people can get in touch. He registers www.campbellconsulting.com through Network Solutions and pays $15.00 for the first year ($11 for the domain, $4 for the privacy option). Then he buys a year’s worth of hosting through HostGator for $7 per month, or $85 for the year. He creates his new email address “joey@campbellconsulting.com” and installs WordPress with just a couple of clicks. Then he finds a killer WordPress theme on ThemeForest for $35.00. Lastly, he grabs a cup of coffee and prepares to start the morning, since starting his own website took less than a hour!  In total, he’s paid $135 for a full year of service, and will pay $99 each year. If he chooses to upgrade any aspect of his service, he can do so at any time.  He also has a really sweet website to draw in more business.

Are you in a spot like Joey?  Need a hand exploring your website options?  Hit the comments below or contact me.

There’s a disconnect in the nonprofit world. I read countless articles about technology and its powerful applications for the nonprofit sector, but seldom is there coverage of the critical interface between technology and communications strategies.  That’s a serious gap. What’s happened, in my opinion, is that many of us shy away from technology.  By leaving tech decisions to the IT department rather than schooling ourselves on these opportunities,we limit the impact of our communications strategies.  My advice to you is to learn what tech tools can strengthen your nonprofit’s communications strategies, and what choices you have. If you have an IT team or consultant, ask them to dig into the details. But get to know the basics yourself. That way you’ll make sure you get the right tool, and you’ll get the most out of it.

Gather the Right Information

Insight:  Don’t just ask for email addresses when you ask your audiences to subscribe to your e-news. Gather name, street address, zip code, how they heard about you. Take it one step further to do some quick surveying on issues.  Think more like a business in terms of figuring out the sources of these leads. You want more of them.

Benefit: You’ll learn more about how various outreach techniques are working to validate (or not) marketing expenses and impact.

Send HTML and Plain-Text Newsletters

Insight: Many of your readers are likely to prefer HTML e-newsletters, so publish in both HTML and plain text versions. The format makes it much easier for readers to act. Studies show that HTML format performs much better in terms of click-throughs, forward to friend, etc.

Benefit: Better engagement with audiences, by giving them a choice of format and the opportunity to take action with a click. Caution: Don’t forego your text version. Many readers still prefer text.

Publish A Blog

Insight: A blog (an abbreviation of weblog) is a website that serves as an online journal, updated very frequently with commentary on one or more topics. Blog authors — called bloggers — commonly provide links to related information, with commentary. Because of their low barrier to entry (blogs are easy and cheap to implement), blogs are proliferating in the nonprofit sector.

Benefit: The “blogsphere” is becoming huge, with content feeds (RSS readers deliver blog content to interested audiences) growing at a rapid pace. Blogs are a great way to disseminate content in a timely way. Some high-impact ways to put your blog to use for your nonprofit include:

• Serializing content, such as daily reports from an oceanographer on an expedition or an advocacy campaign hard at work.
• Building community by providing a venue for multiple voices (staff and/or members, experts or others).
• Critiquing news items related to your industry as they occur.
• Reinforcing content disseminated via other communications vehicles — broadcast, print or online.
• Providing personal perspectives, which enable your audiences to get to know your nonprofit’s staff members.
• Strengthening relationships with your audiences by emphasizing the people in your organization

Use an Application Service Provider (ASP)

Insight: There are now automated systems, that you don’t have to maintain (they live in a server, which you access via the web) for operations from website content management and online donation processing to email messaging and online event registration.Consider moving these processes online and off your desktop computer.

Benefit: Easier software interfaces. Faster learning curve. Sometimes your software cost will be higher, but your total cost of operation (since you’ll save hours in set up and maintenance) will be lower.

Example:  Take a look at http://www.yourmembership.com.  YourMembership combines the power of social networking and pro-grade membership management software into one robust web-based solution.  For the organization, they offer tools for managing donations, fund raising campaigns, bulk email and messaging, group and chapter homepages, multimedia uploading, custom forms, email and newsletter templates, polls and voting, Quickbooks integration, and a variety of tools tailored to non-profit success.  For the members, they offer secure social networking options in a private community, with profile creation, picture/video sharing and “wall posts”,  forums, blogs, real-time chat, dues payments and donations, the list goes on.  For more information, check out http://www.yourmembership.com.

Develop a Search Engine Marketing Plan

Insight:  The best way to improve search engine positioning is to get links to your site placed at other web sites where your audiences already are.  Once you’ve identified key sites you’d like to be linked from (start with a list of the top 20), start calling or e-mailing. A great way to do this is to find an intern or volunteer to beat the bushes. Link placement isn’t skilled work (after you identify the key sites) but it is extremely labor intensive.

Benefit: Improved positioning in search engine results.Michael, thanks for your clear and practical ideas on how nonprofit marketers can put tech tools to work to strengthen their communications impact.

Now every project has its roadblocks, and ours was no different.  There were days when we could have easily been overwhelmed.  From my perspective as a network engineer, some challenges seemed insurmountable.  But we pulled together, completed the project, and made the client very pleased.  And it never would’ve happened without the guidance of our IT project manager.

How did she pull it off? She encouraged us to get innovative, to translate the business workflow into logistical processes, to be disciplined, and to take ownership for our work. She didn’t let us cut corners. She knew that, to save time at the end, we had to put in time at the start to plan.

Every meeting, she asked “What can I do today to help you get things done?”  Anytime we encountered a problem, she helped us devise a plan to overcome it.  Then, before implementation, she secured the sponsorship of the client’s executive team, which further secured the approval of the end-users.  She cleared the way for us to do our jobs, and was a buffer when things got rough.

She provided us a clearly-defined scope of the project details.  It wasn’t enough for each team member to know their own roles, we had to know roles of everyone around us.  A typical example of our weekly meetings: “The ISP vendor will be onsite Monday, so the Network Team can run cables & install equipment on Tuesday and Wednesday.  While that’s happening, the Server Team will… “.  She clearly documented our progress, and recorded our project milestones.  She was constantly updating our web-based project management, so we knew instantly the moment something changed.  And she made sure that we were on-top of our own updates… miscommunication was the first step toward failure.

Her knowledge and expertise were key to our success.  I’ve worked a lot of projects in my time, and let me tell ya, good project managers are absolutely critical.  Without good, solid, experienced leadership, your project is doomed.  That’s why successful IT Project Managers get paid the big bucks… did I mention she clears a cool 6-figure salary?

Got a success story (or horror story) you’d like to share?  I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments section.

The BIOS wasn’t able to detect the hard disk. I took the hard drive out & slaved it into another computer. No dice. So what did I do? I remove the hard disk from the laptop and put in the refrigerator!

Now it’s important you don’t put the hard drive in the fridge for too long. I put it in for about 30 minutes, quickly attached the hard disk to an external hard drive casing, and connected it to a working computer via the USB port.

Surprisingly, it worked, the hard disk was detected! I copied the critical data that the user needed to the working computer as fast as I could.

I have done this a couple of times since then and it does work. However, I found it will only work for a brief period of time. Usually, you will have a period of about 15 to 20 minutes so you need to copy as fast as possible to your computer once the hard disk is working.

Somehow cooling the temperature of the hard disk helps a lot. Here’s another tip that I found. You can try tilting the hard disk sideways or at an angle about 60 degrees downwards. I found that by doing this, I can prolong the period by another 10 minutes or so.

However, I’ll caution you to only try this method when all other methods of recovering the data fails. There is a chance the hard drive becomes permanently damaged if it is in the refrigerator for too long.

Also, this method will only work if your hard disk is still spinning when powered up. If your hard disk does not spin and is dead in the water, then this method will not work.

I wanted to find something that did both antivirus and malware all in one. I also wanted it to be free of charge. To my surprise, I found a large amount of free antivirus and malware programs available for free. It would take too long to talk about them all so we focus also on my Top 3.

#3 – Avast! Free Antivirus – This is one of the more popular antivirus programs available. It’s antivirus detection rates are among the best. Avast has the most features of my Top 3. It includes full real-time capabilities, including web, e-mail, IM, P2P and network shields, boot-time scanning, and a behavioral blocker. Avast is also light on resources.

#2 – Microsoft Security Essentials – This is probably the best choice for average users because of the minimal user interaction. With automatic updates and automatic removal of threats, it’s an easy choice for those who aren’t PC savvy. The detection rates are excellent and it’s particularly good against rootkits.

#1 – Avira AntiVir Personal Edition – This is my top pick for one main reason. Its detection rate of malware is phenomenal!!! The majority of threats we encounter are some form of malware. Websites and file downloads still remain the leading cause for infected PC’s. These days Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Gmail scan all email before you receive it. The likelihood of downloading a virus through email is starting to diminish. Avira AntiVir is light on the resources and heavy of the protection. Download it, try it out and let me know what you think below.

#1 Business model and purpose

Yes, both websites and blogs, particularly a WordPress blog, can support just about any type of business model. WordPress developers have created plug-ins that can turn any WordPress blog into an e-commerce site, a membership site and more.

However, these plug-ins and add-ons can be more of a hassle than it’s worth. And finding the right plug-in may be a trial and error process. If your business model relies on the publishing of timely information, then a blog is likely better. However, if your business is meant to sell a product or service, then a website may be a better choice.

#2 Maintenance and time

How much time do you have to devote to the upkeep and maintenance of your business? A blog still relies on consistently publishing content. Despite contrary “rules” about blogging, you don’t have to blog every day or several times a day. However, people who subscribe to blogs do expect regular installments of new content. You can schedule your posts. However, it does require a bit more maintenance on your end. A website can be left alone for a month or two without any issues.

#3 Personality and ease of use

Some of your decision will be based on your personality. What format do you prefer to use? A blog is very easy to update and utilize. You may need help to find, install and set up the right plug-ins. You may also need help customizing a theme or adding a custom header. However, by and large blogs are very easy to use.

Websites can be trickier for some. That being said, many website developers and design software make the user interface quite simple. You can modify pages and add content without needing to learn or understand a design language.

#4 Goals

Quite often a blog and a website work well together. A website sells. A blog drives traffic and brands the business. A blog can speak to a niche within your niche. For example, General Motors has a main website. They also have a blog that is basically car talk. It’s for car enthusiasts and its run by a head honcho at GM. He loves cars. The blog helps brand General Motors and it connects prospects and customers to the business. It builds a community.

Before you make a decision about whether a blog or a website is right for you, consider these points. What’s the purpose of your site? What will offer the best customer experience? What will be easiest for you to use and maintain? Finally, what will best help you achieve your goals? To your success!

Always do a “.com” – This is critical, as the “.com” extension is the most common website suffix around.  Most web users will automatically put a “.com” at the end, and may not remember your “.net”, “.org”, or “.info”.  It’s just much easier to stick with a dot com.

Only one spelling – Make sure your domain name can only be spelled one way.  This will help eliminate spelling errors from your visitors.

No Hyphens or Special Characters – Don’t use hyphens or underscores in your web address.  This too causes confusion for your visitors, because it’s hard to remember where the hyphen goes.  Some users don’t even know where the hyphen key is on their keyboards… keep that in mind.

Short and Sweet – Keep your domain short and sweet.  The less there is to type, the better.

No Slang or Numerical Substitutions – Just because “Toys-R-Us” got away with it doesn’t mean you can.  Don’t use the number ’4′ for the word “for”, the number ’2′ for the word “two”, etc.  This leads to mistaken identity, mistranslation, and effectively, less visitors to your site.

The “Elevator” Pitch – Quick, you’re on an elevator, and the guy you’re riding with casually mentions that he wants to buy something your business sells.  What do you say?  You’ve only got about 15-20 seconds to pitch your business… about the time of an average elevator ride.  Your domain name should be something that makes sense to what you do, is memorable, and flows naturally when talking about it.

Coming up with a good, solid domain name takes some work.  Most domain names cost about $10 per year, but sometimes, they can be quite a bit more.  Be prepared for this, because a good domain name is an INVESTMENT.  Yes, most “.com” domain names are already taken, I understand this.  But you can search domain auctions for recently expired domains, or use a domain agent to negotiate a deal with the current domain owner.  I’m not going to lie, it can be a challenge to find that perfect domain name, but like every other aspect of business, it can be overcome!

Then I got into Content Management Systems like Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress. These CMS programs were like a godsend, because not only could I change the look and feel of the site without altering the content, I also didn’t have to worry about organizing a bunch of individual HTML files.  And best of all, they were free!

But the more I used these open-soure CMS platforms, I found some were better than others.  WordPress quickly surpassed all the others as my favorite CMS.  The setup takes less than 5 minutes, the code is optimized for performance, and the admin panel is easy to navigate.  Factor in the thousands of free plugins and extensions, out-of-the-box SEO options, and a huge development community, and you’ve got the most powerful platform for web development.

WordPress is great for a simple blog site, but with a couple clicks, it can become a forum, a jobs board, a corporate portal, a micro-blogging site, a classifieds site, or even a Facebook style social network.  You don’t even need a computer to update your WordPress site; I’m writing this post from my Smartphone! With so many options available, its easy to see why WordPress is my CMS of choice… it just works!

SEO Tip #1:

There is no mystic formula to the Google Top 10… and if someone tells you otherwise, they’re lying.  Stay current on SEO news, but don’t fall for the traps.  There are a lot of salesmen out there claiming to be “SEO Experts”, and they will try to sell you the best SEO software in the world.  Don’t waste your time or money on this snake oil.  Top search engine rankings are hard to achieve, and when done correctly, it takes a very long time.  

SEO Tip # 2:

Create an easy to follow design with a standard homepage, easily viewable links and a site index. This way, people and search engines can find their way around easily and so can people.  Think about it like steps… Homepage –> Category –> Sub-Category –> Content.

SEO Tip # 3:

Pick your target keywords.  There is a free tool provided by Google to figure out keywords and variants. Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Ask yourself:  What are the top three to five words or phrases you would use if you were searching for the product or topic you are selling? Be sure that those words are on each page of your website, especially in titles, headings and at the beginning, middle and end of each page. It’s a good idea to use variations as well to give your site further credibility and increase the Long Tail.

SEO Tip # 4:

Content is king. Always will be. Don’t assume that more is better in terms of keywords. Do not fall victim to the temptation to simply keyword stuff your site otherwise two things will happen: you’ll get banned by the search engines and even worse, you’ll be ignored by the humans who land on your page. Both types of visitors can see through vain SEO attempts to trick you to get onto their site.

Instead, you want to target the fine line between having enough keyword relevancy to make it impossible for the search engines to ignore you but not so much that your human visitors find your content to be poor quality. Hire a professional SEO article writer if you have to in order to come across as professional. Keep fresh content on your pages and change your content regularly. You don’t have to waste what you’ve put effort and money into, instead move your old content into archives so it continues to work for you as well.

SEO Tip # 5:

These days, it’s all about social networking. Social networking, social book marking, forum posting and link exchanges can be invaluable. If you can get high ranking websites in your niche to exchange links with you, this can help. If you are blogging, comment on other blogs in your niche to get a link back to your site and generate interest from bloggers that frequent other sites in your niche. If you use tools like Technorati, Digg, StumbleUpon and other social book marking tools on your pages with appropriate tagging, you can bring relevant traffic fairly quickly, and it’s viral so others will do the same. Social networking activities are also indexed by the search engines.

In summary, there are basic to advanced seo techniques and seo tips that you can use to get noticed by the big three search engines. Your results will depend a lot on how narrow your niche is but there are some basic things you can do to be search engine friendly from the start. It’s never too late to optimize your site, though, so don’t lose heart if you didn’t follow these steps on your website from the beginning.

“Hi Anthony… I am reformatting my laptop and I don’t have my lenovo installation cd for the drivers.. I think I have saved all the drivers I need to but not sure.. I went into WIN32 and just saved the drivers folder to my external hard drive.. is this the best way? I also used Driver Max to locate the drivers on my PC but I don’t trust it.”

When it comes to rebuilding any PC, I would always recommend downloading drivers ahead of time from the manufacturer’s website. This ensures that you’re getting the latest drivers for your hardware, and makes the rebuild process less of a headache. I won’t discredit services like Driver Max, but like you said, you can’t trust it 100%.

Laptop manufacturers like Lenovo, Dell, Gateway, HP, etc. are great to work with, because their website is pretty comprehensive. All you need to do is go to their website, check the Support option, and find the Driver Downloads section. You can then drill down based on your product’s make, model, and serial number. Some even label their products with a specific reference code. Lenovo calls it a “Quick Path” code. Dell calls them “Service Tags”.

Since you’re using a Lenovo, head to support.lenovo.com, click the “Quick Path” link, and put in your device’s Quick Path code. Typically, this code can be found on the bottom of the laptop. It should be labeled. You could also allow the website to run the Autodetect procedure, if the laptop is still functioning enough to get on websites.

One you find the driver downloads, secure the network drivers first… be they wireless or wired. This will ensure that you can get back on the internet with the device once rebuilt. Download the drivers you need for the OS you use (pay attention to the version of Windows you will be using: is it XP, Vista or 7… x86 or x64, etc.), and save them to a flash drive, external hard drive, or burn them to CD. Once the laptop is rebuilt, check the Device Manager & see what hardware is missing. Then you can install only the drivers needed.

Obviously, this method won’t work if your laptop is completely hosed. If you don’t have another computer to use, grab a flash drive and head to a friend’s house, coffee shop, library, or anywhere else you can use a PC. If that’s not viable, let me know. I’ll get your laptop’s specs, download the drivers for you, and snail-mail you a CD. One way or another, your laptop will live again.

Got a question? Need some help? Ask away.