Search Engine Marketing, whether it is paid or organic, is a science.
While it is true that you can put together an ad on Google or Yahoo!, pick a few keywords that describe your business, then bid on them and be up and running with a Pay Per Click campaign in a few minutes, the actual process requires considerably more thought. Here are a few key points to consider:
What is the goal of your ad? If you are an e-commerce merchant selling mainline products, you probably want to generate a sale. If you are operating a decorating business, your goal more likely is to generate a lead for follow-up. That goal will shape how you structure your campaign.
What kind of landing page do you want the user to click through to? Is it a specific product page with all the information necessary to complete the order or do you wants your customer to land on your home page in order to get more information about your company? You may want your ad to be product specific or have a more general message.
Is there a special "deal" that you can offer in your ad? Phrases like "free shipping", "save 10% now" or "sale ends tomorrow" create a sense of immediacy that can increase the likelihood someone will click on your ad.
You do not have to have the top ad listing in order to be successful. While being No.1 likely will bring you more clicks, you do not want to overpay for them. Typically, as long as your ad appears in the first five positions, and has a compelling offer, you will get your share of clicks.
The keywords you select for your ad are critical. In fact, the difference between a cost-effective campaign and one that just costs you money often is the keywords you select. Try to avoid buying general terms, unless your site has a very, very broad selection of product. The keyword "cars" might bring anyone who is looking for anything having to do with a car - that probably doesn't do you much good if you are selling radiator hoses. Stick to words and phrases that relate as specifically as possible to what you are selling. A good rule of thumb is that the more general a keyword is, the more expensive it is.
The page customers land on when they click on your ad should contain similar words to those used in the ad. Reinforcing the ad message is important for two reasons: first, it tells people they are "at the right place" and second it will help your Quality Score on Google and Quality Index on Yahoo!.
Google in particular attaches great importance to the relevance of your landing page and you may be able to secure a higher ad position with a lower bid than other advertisers.
Monitor your campaign regularly. This is particularly important at the outset when you are establishing what works and what does not. Pay per click advertising is not day trading - you do not have to be glued to the monitor but you do not want hours to go by without seeing if your clicks are converting into your desired result of sales or leads.
A large search agency might suggest that you need 1,000 or more clicks to determine if your campaign is working. As a start-up or small business, you (or your agency) should be able to draw conclusion with far less clicks than that.
Source from EntireWeb Newsletter.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
3 Simple Marketing Strategies for Your Small Business Explained
If you are in business for yourself then sooner or later you are going to be asking yourself the following questions:
How do I get more customers? How can I get my customers to spend more money with me? How can I get better quality of leads without breaking the bank account? Is there a better way of targeting my advertising so that I win much more than I lose?
Below are three strategies to attracting more business and making more money:
Strategy 1. - You Must Understand the Lifetime Value Of Your Clients
Every business owner needs to fully understand the life time value of their customers.
This is the total profit that a customer will bring to your business over the lifetime of your dealings with that customer. The following example will explain why it is important to know this number: Let us pretend you own a book store. If your customer spends $50 every time they walk into your store, and they visit once a month for 4 years, a customer is worth $2400.00. The math would look like this: $50 (average bill) x 12 (number of visits) x 4 (number of years).
Think of how much money you are missing out on if you were thinking of only one transaction?
Let us take a look at another example: John Smith sells a cd plus manual kit on how to self-publish a book. The initial manual set is worth $500. John knows that over the lifetime of a customer, a significant number will spend somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 with additional products!
By knowing his numbers he can afford to allocate a significant amount of money towards his advertising budget to bring in more customers. Why? Because he is equipped with information that he will make it up on average over the lifetime of the customer.
Strategy 2. - Build Up Your Customer List
Always collect their names, emails, and other contact information from your customers.
How will you stay in contact with your customers if you don't collect your information? And if you do ask for their contact details on your sales slips and invoices, be sure you are using them!
And if you are wondering how you collect them it is as simple as asking them for it. This is best done during your customers' purchasing process by asking them to fill out a form with their details. There are many successful companies who did this for years and would mail you catalogs in the mail.
Do not you remember getting them? And when you received these catalogs you would find a comfortable place to relax with pen in hand checking off or earmarking the items you would later order. This enabled these companies to make more money from their customers.
Another way to get your customers to give you their contact information is by having a monthly drawing in which a prize will be given. It will amaze you how many names you could collect by doing this.
Let us say you own a restaurant, you can offer a free dessert to everyone who drops their business card into a fish bowl. It is not impossible to collect over 1000 names over the course of a month. How much will a dessert cost? $2 - $3, if that much. If all business owners were to implement this marketing strategy alone, they would be protecting their businesses in the face of stiff competition. They could send out snail mail to their customers with special offers on slow nights and watch them come flocking in. This can also be done with emails and faxes.
Strategy 3. - Develop A Strong Relationship With Your Prospects And Clients
If you want to generate new business that you can keep for a lifetime then you would better make it a number one priority to keep in touch with your customers. The reason you would want to do this is so that you can remain at the top of mind with your clients. When they're ready to buy, you are the one they will think of first.
It is not unusual to hear cases in which a business will send out newsletters to their customers for years before they buy. You want to position yourself in such a way that when they are ready to buy, you will get the sale.
The lesson here: keep communicating and following up with your customers until they are ready to place an order with you.
Tips from EntireWeb Newsletter.
How do I get more customers? How can I get my customers to spend more money with me? How can I get better quality of leads without breaking the bank account? Is there a better way of targeting my advertising so that I win much more than I lose?
Below are three strategies to attracting more business and making more money:
Strategy 1. - You Must Understand the Lifetime Value Of Your Clients
Every business owner needs to fully understand the life time value of their customers.
This is the total profit that a customer will bring to your business over the lifetime of your dealings with that customer. The following example will explain why it is important to know this number: Let us pretend you own a book store. If your customer spends $50 every time they walk into your store, and they visit once a month for 4 years, a customer is worth $2400.00. The math would look like this: $50 (average bill) x 12 (number of visits) x 4 (number of years).
Think of how much money you are missing out on if you were thinking of only one transaction?
Let us take a look at another example: John Smith sells a cd plus manual kit on how to self-publish a book. The initial manual set is worth $500. John knows that over the lifetime of a customer, a significant number will spend somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 with additional products!
By knowing his numbers he can afford to allocate a significant amount of money towards his advertising budget to bring in more customers. Why? Because he is equipped with information that he will make it up on average over the lifetime of the customer.
Strategy 2. - Build Up Your Customer List
Always collect their names, emails, and other contact information from your customers.
How will you stay in contact with your customers if you don't collect your information? And if you do ask for their contact details on your sales slips and invoices, be sure you are using them!
And if you are wondering how you collect them it is as simple as asking them for it. This is best done during your customers' purchasing process by asking them to fill out a form with their details. There are many successful companies who did this for years and would mail you catalogs in the mail.
Do not you remember getting them? And when you received these catalogs you would find a comfortable place to relax with pen in hand checking off or earmarking the items you would later order. This enabled these companies to make more money from their customers.
Another way to get your customers to give you their contact information is by having a monthly drawing in which a prize will be given. It will amaze you how many names you could collect by doing this.
Let us say you own a restaurant, you can offer a free dessert to everyone who drops their business card into a fish bowl. It is not impossible to collect over 1000 names over the course of a month. How much will a dessert cost? $2 - $3, if that much. If all business owners were to implement this marketing strategy alone, they would be protecting their businesses in the face of stiff competition. They could send out snail mail to their customers with special offers on slow nights and watch them come flocking in. This can also be done with emails and faxes.
Strategy 3. - Develop A Strong Relationship With Your Prospects And Clients
If you want to generate new business that you can keep for a lifetime then you would better make it a number one priority to keep in touch with your customers. The reason you would want to do this is so that you can remain at the top of mind with your clients. When they're ready to buy, you are the one they will think of first.
It is not unusual to hear cases in which a business will send out newsletters to their customers for years before they buy. You want to position yourself in such a way that when they are ready to buy, you will get the sale.
The lesson here: keep communicating and following up with your customers until they are ready to place an order with you.
Tips from EntireWeb Newsletter.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
iLasik Technology
LASIK technology is the advanced technique uses for laser eye surgery. Lasik laser technology is the technical and the theoretical developments in refractive surgery long time ago and it was developed in year 1990 as a melding of two prior techniques. It quickly became a popular because of its precision and lower frequency of complications.
Nowadays the modern Lasik, which is known as the iLasik procedure uses two laser instead of one, as in earlier versions of the procedure. Facts about the iLasik procedure and the evolution of this technology are showing the great success in medication age, and benefits for those people seeking for eye surgery. How does this procedure works? As in the first stage of iLasik, wave front technology maps the unique characteristics of the individual’s eyes, and then an ultra fast, computer-guided laser creates a corneal flap. This laser replaces the hand held micokeratome blade used in order forms of mapping data guides a second laser for vision correction. The combination of these advanced laser technologies creates a custom-fit procedure clinically proven to provide excellent safety and visual results.
The introduction of the iLasik procedure means:
1. Most people are candidates and make an appointment and have an exam
2. iLasik technology is safe and proven
3. Cost is affordable.
4. The iLasik procedure is not complicated as it is fast and virtually painless.
5. iLasik is the proven technology based on the article about the Lasik usage in the military and NASA.
ilasik.com:
iLasik procedure is gradually replace many laser eye surgery technology, it is safe and effective than the Lasik. For more information, please read on the LASIK information at their website, you will find out more facts and information from there.
Nowadays the modern Lasik, which is known as the iLasik procedure uses two laser instead of one, as in earlier versions of the procedure. Facts about the iLasik procedure and the evolution of this technology are showing the great success in medication age, and benefits for those people seeking for eye surgery. How does this procedure works? As in the first stage of iLasik, wave front technology maps the unique characteristics of the individual’s eyes, and then an ultra fast, computer-guided laser creates a corneal flap. This laser replaces the hand held micokeratome blade used in order forms of mapping data guides a second laser for vision correction. The combination of these advanced laser technologies creates a custom-fit procedure clinically proven to provide excellent safety and visual results.
The introduction of the iLasik procedure means:
1. Most people are candidates and make an appointment and have an exam
2. iLasik technology is safe and proven
3. Cost is affordable.
4. The iLasik procedure is not complicated as it is fast and virtually painless.
5. iLasik is the proven technology based on the article about the Lasik usage in the military and NASA.
ilasik.com:
Today NASA and the U.S. military increase the performance of mission-critical personnel using laser vision correction technologies that have benefited civilians for more than five years. An all-laser form of LASIK has been tapped by the Department of Defense (DOD) and NASA to improve the vision of specialized personnel facing extreme, physically demanding conditions. “The DOD and NASA have validated the fact that today’s LASIK exceeds all established standards of safety and effectiveness,” said Steven Schallhorn, M.D., a retired U.S. Navy captain and leader of clinical research and studies done for the DOD regarding the use of LASIK.
Some notable results of the military’s evaluation of modern LASIK in 100 military personnel showed that 95% achieved 20/20 uncorrected vision or better. When asked, 100% of naval aviators having undergone the procedure would recommend the surgery to other naval aviators. According to Dr. Schallhorn, “technologically speaking, there is no better time than now to join the over 12 million Americans who have benefited from LASIK."
iLasik procedure is gradually replace many laser eye surgery technology, it is safe and effective than the Lasik. For more information, please read on the LASIK information at their website, you will find out more facts and information from there.
Exploring the Search Engine Path Less Traveled
The vast majority of internet users will use a search engine occasionally, if not frequently. Search engines are routinely included in browsers, no matter if you use Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, or Netscape, with the intent of saving the user time.
It may seem odd to talk about saving time on the internet. Thinking back to 15 years ago, the internet was just starting to burst into mainstream America. The speed and reach of the internet was mind-boggling at that time. Now we've come so far with the technology that we actually find ourselves wanting better and faster results. As is true with nearly all technology, the internet has evolved to be something much different than it was 5, 10, and certainly 15 years ago. But have internet users evolved in the way they use the internet?
We know that humans are creatures of habit. Most of us like to do what we are familiar with, see who we already know and get along with, and go places we already know we like. I think it's fair to say that the same can be applied to our internet habits.
New programs, applications, and websites are constantly being created and marketed to users. The ones that get a lot of media attention have a good chance of getting users to at least test them out, even if it's just on a trial basis.
However, there are other sites on the internet that have been around but aren't getting the attention they deserve. Let's go back to search engines. Most people are familiar with the "Big Three" of engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google. If you've paid attention to web trends over the years, you know that each has had their heyday, with Google probably receiving the most attention in recent years.
This is a good illustration of the fact that what is popular one year on the web may be at the bottom of the list the next year. Does anyone remember when Webcrawler.com or Excite.com was touted as the destination search engine? It is all a part of the natural evolution and progression of search engines.
Another evolution of the search engine is the creation of the Meta search engine. Meta search engines are similar, in that you type in a term or phrase to be searched. The Meta search engine then gathers results from several different search engines, compiles them, and presents them in its own search results page.
The results from a Meta search engine will vary, depending on which other engines the Meta engine is pulling from. Dogpile.com, for instance, pulls results from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com, About.com, MIVA.com, LookSmart.com, and others. This quickly accomplishes what would take a user much more time to open all those browser windows and type in the same search term over and over again.
Another search engine, Widow.com, uses a tried and tested algorithm to compile its results and then order them in relevance, without sponsored results. When doing a side-by-side comparison of the five top search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, and Fastsearch), you'll see that Widow.com comes up with not only the most highly ranked results, but some very useful links that the other engines did not pull.
To illustrate my point, I looked at how the different search engines handle a specific search word. If we take a term that has been in the news a lot lately, "foreclosure", and type that in to different search engines, we'll see different results.
The only search engine that returned no sponsored results or ads was Widow.com. It sorted through the results, performed its algorithm magic, and produced variety and depth in its results page. Better yet, Widow has a nifty search term bar on the left hand side that allows you to pull up search results for related terms. Talk about saving time and energy!
Of course, the main reason search engines were developed was because the internet is so expansive. No human can search the entire web on their own, hoping to stumble upon the answers and information they're seeking. Search engines are tools to help users find pertinent information in a timely manner.
Taking a traditional approach to search engines is fine if you have the time, the motivation, and the desire. Sometimes the best drives are the ones where you only have a vague destination, right? So I suppose the same can be true of using one of the top five engines we've mentioned.
But sometimes, thinking outside of the box, can not only inspire new ways of thinking, but can help push you or your research in a different, better direction. The most efficient way to do that is to utilize a Meta search engine. Try stepping outside of your usual search strategies and see for yourself why it "is" sometimes greener on the other side of the fence. There's a whole wide world (web) to discover and explore!
Source from SitePro News Newsletter.
It may seem odd to talk about saving time on the internet. Thinking back to 15 years ago, the internet was just starting to burst into mainstream America. The speed and reach of the internet was mind-boggling at that time. Now we've come so far with the technology that we actually find ourselves wanting better and faster results. As is true with nearly all technology, the internet has evolved to be something much different than it was 5, 10, and certainly 15 years ago. But have internet users evolved in the way they use the internet?
We know that humans are creatures of habit. Most of us like to do what we are familiar with, see who we already know and get along with, and go places we already know we like. I think it's fair to say that the same can be applied to our internet habits.
New programs, applications, and websites are constantly being created and marketed to users. The ones that get a lot of media attention have a good chance of getting users to at least test them out, even if it's just on a trial basis.
However, there are other sites on the internet that have been around but aren't getting the attention they deserve. Let's go back to search engines. Most people are familiar with the "Big Three" of engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google. If you've paid attention to web trends over the years, you know that each has had their heyday, with Google probably receiving the most attention in recent years.
This is a good illustration of the fact that what is popular one year on the web may be at the bottom of the list the next year. Does anyone remember when Webcrawler.com or Excite.com was touted as the destination search engine? It is all a part of the natural evolution and progression of search engines.
Another evolution of the search engine is the creation of the Meta search engine. Meta search engines are similar, in that you type in a term or phrase to be searched. The Meta search engine then gathers results from several different search engines, compiles them, and presents them in its own search results page.
The results from a Meta search engine will vary, depending on which other engines the Meta engine is pulling from. Dogpile.com, for instance, pulls results from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com, About.com, MIVA.com, LookSmart.com, and others. This quickly accomplishes what would take a user much more time to open all those browser windows and type in the same search term over and over again.
Another search engine, Widow.com, uses a tried and tested algorithm to compile its results and then order them in relevance, without sponsored results. When doing a side-by-side comparison of the five top search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, and Fastsearch), you'll see that Widow.com comes up with not only the most highly ranked results, but some very useful links that the other engines did not pull.
To illustrate my point, I looked at how the different search engines handle a specific search word. If we take a term that has been in the news a lot lately, "foreclosure", and type that in to different search engines, we'll see different results.
The only search engine that returned no sponsored results or ads was Widow.com. It sorted through the results, performed its algorithm magic, and produced variety and depth in its results page. Better yet, Widow has a nifty search term bar on the left hand side that allows you to pull up search results for related terms. Talk about saving time and energy!
Of course, the main reason search engines were developed was because the internet is so expansive. No human can search the entire web on their own, hoping to stumble upon the answers and information they're seeking. Search engines are tools to help users find pertinent information in a timely manner.
Taking a traditional approach to search engines is fine if you have the time, the motivation, and the desire. Sometimes the best drives are the ones where you only have a vague destination, right? So I suppose the same can be true of using one of the top five engines we've mentioned.
But sometimes, thinking outside of the box, can not only inspire new ways of thinking, but can help push you or your research in a different, better direction. The most efficient way to do that is to utilize a Meta search engine. Try stepping outside of your usual search strategies and see for yourself why it "is" sometimes greener on the other side of the fence. There's a whole wide world (web) to discover and explore!
Source from SitePro News Newsletter.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Roxio Digital Makeover
In our life, we always have plenty of sweet and memorable moments and occasions. From time to time, this sweet memorable moments are worth to be keep and record down, either for future reference or share with your family and relative.
With the advanced technology and media tool presented by Roxio, the Roxio Extreme Digital Makeover is the great method to make your memorable moments to be recorded, it is a rich digital media suite, that not only used create multimedia slideshow, edit and allow you to product the show in segments with certain effects.
An example, from their website. Those two video created by Zoey and Chris with the Roxio Digital Makeover. Both segments movies are "A walk in the park" and "Wedding day crunch". I think the "Wedding day crunch" multimedia slide show for couple Michael and Monika is the best and capture all the sweet moments for the couple. At last, they helped them to turn the shoeboxes of photos into a very memorable show and presented on their wedding day, this was the most touching part
, what a Roxia Extreme Digital Makeover can bring to you.
Besides these, you can Watch for the show above and enter the contest. You can be featured on the show or win some prizes/ digital goodies such like HDTV, cameras. For more information, please visit for their website.
With the advanced technology and media tool presented by Roxio, the Roxio Extreme Digital Makeover is the great method to make your memorable moments to be recorded, it is a rich digital media suite, that not only used create multimedia slideshow, edit and allow you to product the show in segments with certain effects.
An example, from their website. Those two video created by Zoey and Chris with the Roxio Digital Makeover. Both segments movies are "A walk in the park" and "Wedding day crunch". I think the "Wedding day crunch" multimedia slide show for couple Michael and Monika is the best and capture all the sweet moments for the couple. At last, they helped them to turn the shoeboxes of photos into a very memorable show and presented on their wedding day, this was the most touching part
, what a Roxia Extreme Digital Makeover can bring to you.
Besides these, you can Watch for the show above and enter the contest. You can be featured on the show or win some prizes/ digital goodies such like HDTV, cameras. For more information, please visit for their website.
The Ten Concepts for Software Engineer (4)
9. Security
With the rise of hacking and data sensitivity, the security is paramount. Security is a broad topic that includes authentication, authorization, and information transmission.
Authentication is about verifying user identity. A typical website prompts for a password. The authentication typically happens over SSL (secure socket layer), a way to transmit encrypted information over HTTP. Authorization is about permissions and is important in corporate systems, particularly those that define workflows. The recently developed OAuth protocol helps web services to enable users to open access to their private information. This is how Flickr permits access to individual photos or data sets.
Another security area is network protection. This concerns operating systems, configuration and monitoring to thwart hackers. Not only network is vulnerable, any piece of software is. Firefox browser, marketed as the most secure, has to patch the code continuously. To write secure code for your system requires understanding specifics and potential problems.
10. Relational Databases
Relational Databases have recently been getting a bad name because they cannot scale well to support massive web services. Yet this was one of the most fundamental achievements in computing that has carried us for two decades and will remain for a long time. Relational databases are excellent for order management systems, corporate databases and P&L data.
At the core of the relational database is the concept of representing information in records. Each record is added to a table, which defines the type of information. The database offers a way to search the records using a query language, nowadays SQL. The database offers a way to correlate information from multiple tables.
The technique of data normalization is about correct ways of partitioning the data among tables to minimize data redundancy and maximize the speed of retrieval.
Troubleshooting is often characterized as a skill but there are learn able concepts that make you more efficient than just running by instinct. For example, when you see your programmer burning a hole through their screen grab a coffee and talk them through an example of the "division by halves" method of solving complex problems. When you're in the heat of battle you often don't think consciously of these simple tricks.
With the rise of hacking and data sensitivity, the security is paramount. Security is a broad topic that includes authentication, authorization, and information transmission.
Authentication is about verifying user identity. A typical website prompts for a password. The authentication typically happens over SSL (secure socket layer), a way to transmit encrypted information over HTTP. Authorization is about permissions and is important in corporate systems, particularly those that define workflows. The recently developed OAuth protocol helps web services to enable users to open access to their private information. This is how Flickr permits access to individual photos or data sets.
Another security area is network protection. This concerns operating systems, configuration and monitoring to thwart hackers. Not only network is vulnerable, any piece of software is. Firefox browser, marketed as the most secure, has to patch the code continuously. To write secure code for your system requires understanding specifics and potential problems.
10. Relational Databases
Relational Databases have recently been getting a bad name because they cannot scale well to support massive web services. Yet this was one of the most fundamental achievements in computing that has carried us for two decades and will remain for a long time. Relational databases are excellent for order management systems, corporate databases and P&L data.
At the core of the relational database is the concept of representing information in records. Each record is added to a table, which defines the type of information. The database offers a way to search the records using a query language, nowadays SQL. The database offers a way to correlate information from multiple tables.
The technique of data normalization is about correct ways of partitioning the data among tables to minimize data redundancy and maximize the speed of retrieval.
Troubleshooting is often characterized as a skill but there are learn able concepts that make you more efficient than just running by instinct. For example, when you see your programmer burning a hole through their screen grab a coffee and talk them through an example of the "division by halves" method of solving complex problems. When you're in the heat of battle you often don't think consciously of these simple tricks.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Medical hair restoration
Thinning hair problem, hair loss are very common problems, in fact these problems can be caused by several source such like over stressed, improper time for the dine, inherit generation to another. Losing your hair can have a devastating effect on every aspect of your life both social and professional.
Premature hair loss problem could be a trouble, suffering and difficult to find a cure in many years back, but today, many scientists have gradually found the solution. In Medical Hair Restoration (MHR), they provide a professional hair loss treatment to help people learn the facts, and help them to find the best treatment methods that would able to cure their hair loss problem.
In MHR, hair transplantation is the only really effective way to ensure your hair restoration. At MHR, the professional will help you to identify the hair loss problem with analysis the source that causes your hair loss or thinning hair, then they will use the micro-graft transplantation method, which replicates your hair in healing growth and natural hair direction and pattern that using varied groupings of the microscopic one ~ three follicular hair units. MHR can solve all the hair problem and bring back your confident and pride.
Premature hair loss problem could be a trouble, suffering and difficult to find a cure in many years back, but today, many scientists have gradually found the solution. In Medical Hair Restoration (MHR), they provide a professional hair loss treatment to help people learn the facts, and help them to find the best treatment methods that would able to cure their hair loss problem.
In MHR, hair transplantation is the only really effective way to ensure your hair restoration. At MHR, the professional will help you to identify the hair loss problem with analysis the source that causes your hair loss or thinning hair, then they will use the micro-graft transplantation method, which replicates your hair in healing growth and natural hair direction and pattern that using varied groupings of the microscopic one ~ three follicular hair units. MHR can solve all the hair problem and bring back your confident and pride.
For more information about Hair treatment, you can visit to their website or sign up and receive the free educational DVD package, as well as the free personalized hair analysis to identify your hair loss problem. You can also made a call to them, they professional teams are ready to solve all your doubts.
The Ten Concepts for Software Engineer (3)
5. Hashing
The idea behind hashing is fast access to data. If the data is stored sequentially, the time to find the item is proportional to the size of the list. For each element, a hash function calculates a number, which is used as an index into the table. Given a good hash function that uniformly spreads data along the table, the look-up time is constant. Perfecting hashing is difficult and to deal with that hash table implementations support collision resolution.
Beyond the basic storage of data, hashes are also important in distributed systems. The so-called uniform hash is used to evenly allocate data among computers in a cloud database. A flavor of this technique is part of Google's indexing service; each URL is hashed to particular computer.
Hash functions can be complex and sophisticated, but modern libraries have good defaults. The important thing is how hashes work and how to tune them for maximum performance benefit.
6. Caching
No modern web system runs without a cache, which is an in-memory store that holds a subset of information typically stored in the database. The need for cache comes from the fact that generating results based on the database is costly. For example, if you have a website that lists books that were popular last week, you'd want to compute this information once and place it into cache. User requests fetch data from the cache instead of hitting the database and regenerating the same information.
Caching comes with a cost. Only some subsets of information can be stored in memory. The most common data pruning strategy is to evict items that are least recently used (LRU). The prunning needs to be efficient, not to slow down the application.
A lot of modern web applications, including Facebook, rely on a distributed caching system called Memcached, developed by Brad Firzpatrick when working on LiveJournal. The idea was to create a caching system that utilises spare memory capacity on the network. Today, there are Memcached libraries for many popular languages, including Java and PHP.
7. Concurrency
Concurrency is one topic engineers notoriously get wrong, and understandably so, because the brain does juggle many things at a time and in schools linear thinking is emphasized. Yet concurrency is important in any modern system.
Concurrency is about parallelism, but inside the application. Most modern languages have an in-built concept of concurrency; in Java, it's implemented using Threads.
A classic concurrency example is the producer/consumer, where the producer generates data or tasks, and places it for worker threads to consume and execute. The complexity in concurrency programming stems from the fact Threads often needs to operate on the common data. Each Thread has its own sequence of execution, but accesses common data. One of the most sophisticated concurrency libraries has been developed by Doug Lea and is now part of core Java.
8. Cloud Computing
In our recent post Reaching For The Sky Through Compute Clouds we talked about how commodity cloud computing is changing the way we deliver large-scale web applications. Massively parallel, cheap cloud computing reduces both costs and time to market.
Cloud computing grew out of parallel computing, a concept that many problems can be solved faster by running the computations in parallel.
After parallel algorithms came grid computing, which ran parallel computations on idle desktops. Grid computing is widely adopted by financial companies, which run massive risk calculations. The concept of under-utilized resources, together with the rise of J2EE platform, gave rise to the precursor of cloud computing: application server virtualization. The idea was to run applications on demand and change what is available depending on the time of day and user activity.
To be continued..
The idea behind hashing is fast access to data. If the data is stored sequentially, the time to find the item is proportional to the size of the list. For each element, a hash function calculates a number, which is used as an index into the table. Given a good hash function that uniformly spreads data along the table, the look-up time is constant. Perfecting hashing is difficult and to deal with that hash table implementations support collision resolution.
Beyond the basic storage of data, hashes are also important in distributed systems. The so-called uniform hash is used to evenly allocate data among computers in a cloud database. A flavor of this technique is part of Google's indexing service; each URL is hashed to particular computer.
Hash functions can be complex and sophisticated, but modern libraries have good defaults. The important thing is how hashes work and how to tune them for maximum performance benefit.
6. Caching
No modern web system runs without a cache, which is an in-memory store that holds a subset of information typically stored in the database. The need for cache comes from the fact that generating results based on the database is costly. For example, if you have a website that lists books that were popular last week, you'd want to compute this information once and place it into cache. User requests fetch data from the cache instead of hitting the database and regenerating the same information.
Caching comes with a cost. Only some subsets of information can be stored in memory. The most common data pruning strategy is to evict items that are least recently used (LRU). The prunning needs to be efficient, not to slow down the application.
A lot of modern web applications, including Facebook, rely on a distributed caching system called Memcached, developed by Brad Firzpatrick when working on LiveJournal. The idea was to create a caching system that utilises spare memory capacity on the network. Today, there are Memcached libraries for many popular languages, including Java and PHP.
7. Concurrency
Concurrency is one topic engineers notoriously get wrong, and understandably so, because the brain does juggle many things at a time and in schools linear thinking is emphasized. Yet concurrency is important in any modern system.
Concurrency is about parallelism, but inside the application. Most modern languages have an in-built concept of concurrency; in Java, it's implemented using Threads.
A classic concurrency example is the producer/consumer, where the producer generates data or tasks, and places it for worker threads to consume and execute. The complexity in concurrency programming stems from the fact Threads often needs to operate on the common data. Each Thread has its own sequence of execution, but accesses common data. One of the most sophisticated concurrency libraries has been developed by Doug Lea and is now part of core Java.
8. Cloud Computing
In our recent post Reaching For The Sky Through Compute Clouds we talked about how commodity cloud computing is changing the way we deliver large-scale web applications. Massively parallel, cheap cloud computing reduces both costs and time to market.
Cloud computing grew out of parallel computing, a concept that many problems can be solved faster by running the computations in parallel.
After parallel algorithms came grid computing, which ran parallel computations on idle desktops. Grid computing is widely adopted by financial companies, which run massive risk calculations. The concept of under-utilized resources, together with the rise of J2EE platform, gave rise to the precursor of cloud computing: application server virtualization. The idea was to run applications on demand and change what is available depending on the time of day and user activity.
To be continued..
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Ten Concepts for Software Engineer (2)
1. Interfaces
The most important concept in software is interface. Any good software is a model of a real (or imaginary) system. Understanding how to model the problem in terms of correct and simple interfaces is crucial. Lots of systems suffer from the extremes: clumped, lengthy code with little abstractions, or an overly designed system with unnecessary complexity and unused code.
In modeling, there are ways you can iterate towards the right solution. Firstly, never add methods that might be useful in the future. Be minimalist, get away with as little as possible. Secondly, don't be afraid to recognize today that what you did yesterday wasn't right. Be willing to change things. Thirdly, be patient and enjoy the process. Ultimately you will arrive at a system that feels right. Until then, keep iterating and do not settle.
2. Conventions and Templates
Naming conventions and basic templates are the most overlooked software patterns, yet probably the most powerful.
Naming conventions enable software automation. For example, Java Beans framework is based on a simple naming convention for getters and setters. And canonical URLs in del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/tag/software take the user to the page that has all items tagged software.
Many social software utilize naming conventions in a similar way. For example, if your user name is johnsmith then likely your avatar is johnsmith.jpg and your rss feed is johnsmith.xml.
Naming conventions are also used in testing, for example JUnit automatically recognizes all the methods in the class that start with prefix test.
From generation of HTML pages to sending standardized support emails, templates are an essential helper in any modern software system.
3. Layering
Layering is probably the simplest way to discuss software architecture. For each software component, count the number of other components it relies on. That is the metric of how complex the component is.
For example, there is a progressive increase in the cummulative complexity of each component, but not in the immediate complexity. Put differently, a good software system consists of small, reusable building blocks, each carrying its own responsibility. In a good system, no cyclic dependencies between components are present and the whole system is a stack of layers of functionality, forming a pyramid.
Among tools that help engineers deal with system architecture are Structure 101 developed by Headway software, and SA4J developed by my former company, Information Laboratory, and now available from IBM.
4. Algorithmic Complexity
There are just a handful of things engineers must know about algorithmic complexity. First is big O notation.
Your code should (almost) never have multiple nested loops (a loop inside a loop inside a loop). Most of the code written today should use Hash tables, simple lists and singly nested loops.
Due to abundance of excellent libraries, we are not as focused on efficiency these days. That's fine, as tuning can happen later on, after you get the design right.
Elegant algorithms and performance is something you should not ignore. Writing compact and readable code helps ensure your algorithms are clean and simple.
To be continued..
The most important concept in software is interface. Any good software is a model of a real (or imaginary) system. Understanding how to model the problem in terms of correct and simple interfaces is crucial. Lots of systems suffer from the extremes: clumped, lengthy code with little abstractions, or an overly designed system with unnecessary complexity and unused code.
In modeling, there are ways you can iterate towards the right solution. Firstly, never add methods that might be useful in the future. Be minimalist, get away with as little as possible. Secondly, don't be afraid to recognize today that what you did yesterday wasn't right. Be willing to change things. Thirdly, be patient and enjoy the process. Ultimately you will arrive at a system that feels right. Until then, keep iterating and do not settle.
2. Conventions and Templates
Naming conventions and basic templates are the most overlooked software patterns, yet probably the most powerful.
Naming conventions enable software automation. For example, Java Beans framework is based on a simple naming convention for getters and setters. And canonical URLs in del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/tag/software take the user to the page that has all items tagged software.
Many social software utilize naming conventions in a similar way. For example, if your user name is johnsmith then likely your avatar is johnsmith.jpg and your rss feed is johnsmith.xml.
Naming conventions are also used in testing, for example JUnit automatically recognizes all the methods in the class that start with prefix test.
From generation of HTML pages to sending standardized support emails, templates are an essential helper in any modern software system.
3. Layering
Layering is probably the simplest way to discuss software architecture. For each software component, count the number of other components it relies on. That is the metric of how complex the component is.
For example, there is a progressive increase in the cummulative complexity of each component, but not in the immediate complexity. Put differently, a good software system consists of small, reusable building blocks, each carrying its own responsibility. In a good system, no cyclic dependencies between components are present and the whole system is a stack of layers of functionality, forming a pyramid.
Among tools that help engineers deal with system architecture are Structure 101 developed by Headway software, and SA4J developed by my former company, Information Laboratory, and now available from IBM.
4. Algorithmic Complexity
There are just a handful of things engineers must know about algorithmic complexity. First is big O notation.
Your code should (almost) never have multiple nested loops (a loop inside a loop inside a loop). Most of the code written today should use Hash tables, simple lists and singly nested loops.
Due to abundance of excellent libraries, we are not as focused on efficiency these days. That's fine, as tuning can happen later on, after you get the design right.
Elegant algorithms and performance is something you should not ignore. Writing compact and readable code helps ensure your algorithms are clean and simple.
To be continued..
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Ten Concepts for Software Engineer
The future of software development is about good craftsmen. With infrastructure like Amazon Web Services and an abundance of basic libraries, it no longer takes a village to build a good piece of software.
These days, a couple of engineers who know what they are doing can deliver complete systems. In this post, we discuss the top 10 concepts software engineers should know to achieve that.
A successful software engineer knows and uses design patterns, actively re-factors code, writes unit tests and religiously seeks simplicity. Beyond the basic methods, there are concepts that good software engineers know about. These transcend programming languages and projects - they are not design patterns, but rather broad areas that you need to be familiar with. The top 10 concepts are:
1. Interfaces.
2. Conventions and Templates.
3. Layering.
4. Algorithmic Complexity.
5. Hashing.
6. Caching.
7. Concurrency.
8. Cloud Computing.
9. Security.
10. Relational Databases.
To be continued..
These days, a couple of engineers who know what they are doing can deliver complete systems. In this post, we discuss the top 10 concepts software engineers should know to achieve that.
A successful software engineer knows and uses design patterns, actively re-factors code, writes unit tests and religiously seeks simplicity. Beyond the basic methods, there are concepts that good software engineers know about. These transcend programming languages and projects - they are not design patterns, but rather broad areas that you need to be familiar with. The top 10 concepts are:
1. Interfaces.
2. Conventions and Templates.
3. Layering.
4. Algorithmic Complexity.
5. Hashing.
6. Caching.
7. Concurrency.
8. Cloud Computing.
9. Security.
10. Relational Databases.
To be continued..
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
7 Tactical Reasons to Use Mini Campaign Websites (4)
6. Accelerate Comprehension & Shorten Sales Cycle: be clear, be understood, be direct, and sales will follow.
Campaign websites get right to the point. They present the marketing message quickly, and promptly direct people to take action without making them wade through mission statements and corporate histories that for campaign purposes just get in the way.
The longer it takes for someone to understand what the campaign is all about, the less likely they are to stick around long enough to make sense out of it. This is why we strongly recommend adding video and audio to the presentation. Video and audio allows you to say what needs to be said in the most understandable, persuasive, and memorable manner.
When it comes to website visitors you probably only have one shot at making a lasting impression, so do not blow it by delivering a boring or confusing presentation.
7. Support Other Advertising Efforts: supplement other marketing material with engaging, viral presentations.
Campaign websites can function as landing sites and contact venues for print, television, radio, online video, banner, and display ads, as well as for articles, newsletters, and news releases.
By segregating your campaign site you can more easily track responses better than if the campaign material was integrated into your corporate site. Separating your campaign website from your main site allows you to experiment with marketing tactics aimed at new or alternative audiences, with approaches that may not be suitable for your regular site visitors. You may not even want your regular customers to know that it is your company that's running the campaign, so people will regard it as something completely new.
Additional
Today companies, especially small and medium sized companies, have to be different to be heard. They have to be bold and innovative and constantly try new approaches to reach their audiences.
By trying different tactics using different websites delivering alternative presentations, to alternative audiences you expand and build your business without the concern that these bold new approaches will negatively affect your more conservative existing clients.
Campaign websites get right to the point. They present the marketing message quickly, and promptly direct people to take action without making them wade through mission statements and corporate histories that for campaign purposes just get in the way.
The longer it takes for someone to understand what the campaign is all about, the less likely they are to stick around long enough to make sense out of it. This is why we strongly recommend adding video and audio to the presentation. Video and audio allows you to say what needs to be said in the most understandable, persuasive, and memorable manner.
When it comes to website visitors you probably only have one shot at making a lasting impression, so do not blow it by delivering a boring or confusing presentation.
7. Support Other Advertising Efforts: supplement other marketing material with engaging, viral presentations.
Campaign websites can function as landing sites and contact venues for print, television, radio, online video, banner, and display ads, as well as for articles, newsletters, and news releases.
By segregating your campaign site you can more easily track responses better than if the campaign material was integrated into your corporate site. Separating your campaign website from your main site allows you to experiment with marketing tactics aimed at new or alternative audiences, with approaches that may not be suitable for your regular site visitors. You may not even want your regular customers to know that it is your company that's running the campaign, so people will regard it as something completely new.
Additional
Today companies, especially small and medium sized companies, have to be different to be heard. They have to be bold and innovative and constantly try new approaches to reach their audiences.
By trying different tactics using different websites delivering alternative presentations, to alternative audiences you expand and build your business without the concern that these bold new approaches will negatively affect your more conservative existing clients.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
7 Tactical Reasons to Use Mini Campaign Websites (3)
4. Target New & Alternative Audiences: create new markets for old products and services.
Not every audience for a product can be approached with the same tactics. Specific brand or campaign sites allow you to customize your approach for new or alternative audiences appealing to their specific lifestyles or behavior patterns.
If you had experience running a sales staff or rep network, you know that salespeople who call on one specific market are rarely successful when asked to simultaneously call on another. Different markets require different approaches. Like a one-size-fits-all hat, it rarely fits anybody. Customize and isolate your approach to different markets, so you can speak directly to that market's needs and attitudes.
The marketplace is often more innovative than the marketer in finding new ways to use old products; ways the manufacturer hadn't realized existed. Ask your customers how they use your products and then go after that market with a direct campaign that takes advantage of that specific niche.
5. Isolate & Differentiate Brands: target specific audiences with specific tactics.
Companies that provide a large number of products or services often confuse potential customers by presenting far too many options and alternatives. The result is the Web-visitor does not buy anything because they do not want to purchase the wrong thing, or not get the best deal. Even if you get the sale, you may lose the customer because they made the wrong decision.
You want to provide prospects a limited number of distinct alternatives, just enough so they feel they have been given a choice, and do not have to look elsewhere. But too much choice within the same product category creates buyer indecision. If a product or service is aimed at a particular market because it has specific features, create a separate website to sell it. Isolating a product line on a separate website allows you to create a distinct image and brand story for that offering.
To be continued..
Not every audience for a product can be approached with the same tactics. Specific brand or campaign sites allow you to customize your approach for new or alternative audiences appealing to their specific lifestyles or behavior patterns.
If you had experience running a sales staff or rep network, you know that salespeople who call on one specific market are rarely successful when asked to simultaneously call on another. Different markets require different approaches. Like a one-size-fits-all hat, it rarely fits anybody. Customize and isolate your approach to different markets, so you can speak directly to that market's needs and attitudes.
The marketplace is often more innovative than the marketer in finding new ways to use old products; ways the manufacturer hadn't realized existed. Ask your customers how they use your products and then go after that market with a direct campaign that takes advantage of that specific niche.
5. Isolate & Differentiate Brands: target specific audiences with specific tactics.
Companies that provide a large number of products or services often confuse potential customers by presenting far too many options and alternatives. The result is the Web-visitor does not buy anything because they do not want to purchase the wrong thing, or not get the best deal. Even if you get the sale, you may lose the customer because they made the wrong decision.
You want to provide prospects a limited number of distinct alternatives, just enough so they feel they have been given a choice, and do not have to look elsewhere. But too much choice within the same product category creates buyer indecision. If a product or service is aimed at a particular market because it has specific features, create a separate website to sell it. Isolating a product line on a separate website allows you to create a distinct image and brand story for that offering.
To be continued..
Thursday, September 4, 2008
7 Tactical Reasons to Use Mini Campaign Websites (2)
2. Use Alternative Tactics: experiment with non traditional campaign and sales' approaches.
Most companies follow a consistent sales approach that they have found successful. This is both a good thing and a bad thing: following a plan that has worked in the past aimed at your traditional customer base makes sense, except that it also limits you in reaching new audiences for your products and services.
There may be markets for what you provide that you have not ever thought of, or that you are afraid to approach because they conflict with your current methods, promotions, or initiatives.
Why give up on these potential customers when you can create an audience specific Web-presentation on a separate campaign website aimed specifically at that market. With a series of highly targeted websites you speak to the needs of specific audiences and at the same time insulate your regular clients from the alternative approaches.
In a highly competitive marketplace, your competition will be looking for every opportunity to take advantage of markets you ignore. Do not let them. You can get to them first and establish your company as the niche leader. All it takes is a little imagination, effort, and a budget to implement. This way you can have your cake and eat it too.
3. Create Urgency & Impact: campaign sites urge quick response, while creating a memorable impression.
Website visitors are always complaining how much time it takes them to search for and find the products and services they need. This often translates into complaints about download times, but the fact is, with the extensive availability of broadband, it is not download times that frustrate people, it is having to search through multiple pages and levels, in a hide-and-seek game to find what they want.
A campaign or brand-specific alternative marketing site gets right to the point and delivers the information or the promotion referenced in your email, banner, and print ads, or television and radio commercials.
And if you use a signature video Web-host to deliver the information, you are making sure the presentation has impact; so even if a visitor does not view everything, they at least get the core message in a way they will not forget.
Your targeted marketing sales pitch will not get watered-down by extraneous information that just gets in the way. Depending on how the site is constructed and what the marketing objectives are, a campaign specific website can create a sense of urgency by building in a time sensitive expiry date.
To be continued..
Most companies follow a consistent sales approach that they have found successful. This is both a good thing and a bad thing: following a plan that has worked in the past aimed at your traditional customer base makes sense, except that it also limits you in reaching new audiences for your products and services.
There may be markets for what you provide that you have not ever thought of, or that you are afraid to approach because they conflict with your current methods, promotions, or initiatives.
Why give up on these potential customers when you can create an audience specific Web-presentation on a separate campaign website aimed specifically at that market. With a series of highly targeted websites you speak to the needs of specific audiences and at the same time insulate your regular clients from the alternative approaches.
In a highly competitive marketplace, your competition will be looking for every opportunity to take advantage of markets you ignore. Do not let them. You can get to them first and establish your company as the niche leader. All it takes is a little imagination, effort, and a budget to implement. This way you can have your cake and eat it too.
3. Create Urgency & Impact: campaign sites urge quick response, while creating a memorable impression.
Website visitors are always complaining how much time it takes them to search for and find the products and services they need. This often translates into complaints about download times, but the fact is, with the extensive availability of broadband, it is not download times that frustrate people, it is having to search through multiple pages and levels, in a hide-and-seek game to find what they want.
A campaign or brand-specific alternative marketing site gets right to the point and delivers the information or the promotion referenced in your email, banner, and print ads, or television and radio commercials.
And if you use a signature video Web-host to deliver the information, you are making sure the presentation has impact; so even if a visitor does not view everything, they at least get the core message in a way they will not forget.
Your targeted marketing sales pitch will not get watered-down by extraneous information that just gets in the way. Depending on how the site is constructed and what the marketing objectives are, a campaign specific website can create a sense of urgency by building in a time sensitive expiry date.
To be continued..
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
7 Tactical Reasons to Use Mini Campaign Websites
How many websites should your company have?
That is a question that comes up often in discussions with clients, but perhaps the idea has not crossed your mind. Why would any company need more than one website? Not to be glib but the answer is as many as you need, but how many is that?
If you are a large corporation, it is fairly obvious that you need a separate site for each brand you offer, and a separate site for corporate background material and perhaps investor information.
But what if you are a small or medium-sized company with a limited number of products or services? Then the question becomes, do your products relate to one another? Does one item flow into the next? Is your audience for each product or service the same? And what about totally different audiences for the same product: audiences that need to be approached with totally different tactics? And then there are special circumstances like new product launches, time sensitive marketing campaigns, and limited availability offers?
Mini Campaign Websites and Alternative Marketing Websites are an effective method of enhancing your marketing efforts and targeting optional audiences you wouldn't have otherwise reached using your traditional sales marketing approach.
1. Focus Your Presentation: eliminate distraction and non relevant clutter.
It is human nature to want to get your money's worth, but when it comes to website marketing this can be counter-productive. Wanting to cram everything you provide into one website aimed, or more to the point not aimed, at every interested audience only creates clutter and confusion. Forcing visitors to sift through reams of material only creates frustration and irritation, and with a click of a mouse they're off to the next competitor listed on their favorite search engine before they even get to your relevant information.
A campaign or brand specific website allows you to get right to the point. Greet your targeted audience with a signature video Web-host supported by appropriate images and text. If a lot of text material is required, then have it turned it into an audio presentation so the material is made more accessible, understandable, and easy to absorb.
A focused brand or campaign site shortens the sales cycle by making what you provide clear and distinct; it provides visitors with the sense that you are both competent and innovative in what you do and how you do it.
To be continued..
That is a question that comes up often in discussions with clients, but perhaps the idea has not crossed your mind. Why would any company need more than one website? Not to be glib but the answer is as many as you need, but how many is that?
If you are a large corporation, it is fairly obvious that you need a separate site for each brand you offer, and a separate site for corporate background material and perhaps investor information.
But what if you are a small or medium-sized company with a limited number of products or services? Then the question becomes, do your products relate to one another? Does one item flow into the next? Is your audience for each product or service the same? And what about totally different audiences for the same product: audiences that need to be approached with totally different tactics? And then there are special circumstances like new product launches, time sensitive marketing campaigns, and limited availability offers?
Mini Campaign Websites and Alternative Marketing Websites are an effective method of enhancing your marketing efforts and targeting optional audiences you wouldn't have otherwise reached using your traditional sales marketing approach.
1. Focus Your Presentation: eliminate distraction and non relevant clutter.
It is human nature to want to get your money's worth, but when it comes to website marketing this can be counter-productive. Wanting to cram everything you provide into one website aimed, or more to the point not aimed, at every interested audience only creates clutter and confusion. Forcing visitors to sift through reams of material only creates frustration and irritation, and with a click of a mouse they're off to the next competitor listed on their favorite search engine before they even get to your relevant information.
A campaign or brand specific website allows you to get right to the point. Greet your targeted audience with a signature video Web-host supported by appropriate images and text. If a lot of text material is required, then have it turned it into an audio presentation so the material is made more accessible, understandable, and easy to absorb.
A focused brand or campaign site shortens the sales cycle by making what you provide clear and distinct; it provides visitors with the sense that you are both competent and innovative in what you do and how you do it.
To be continued..
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