We were impressed with all the travel related apps that have been developed. However, I wondered if only just one of these app’s could have all of the features. Out of the several purposes that these travel apps serve, we have narrowed down 5 categories of apps that are a must during your travels.

1. A language guide app- It’s a great tool if you are traveling internationally and want to communicate with the locals. There are certain places in the world that do not accept any other language other than their own; people won’t even answer questions properly if you talk to them in English. For such places, one of these language guide apps can be a life saver.

2. Expense report apps- Unless you are Donald trump, or someone who owns a private plane & gets complimentary hotel stays, keeping track of your expenses in the in your own currency is an important part of responsible traveling.

3. Packing list apps- This is another very important app. Now you won’t forget to put that insect repellent

4. Wi-Fi Finder & Skype- This is probably the most important app during international traveling. Imagine how cheap and amazing it would be to find a perfect wi-fi spot and upload that important presentation for your collaboration team, or make a call to your family with Skype, without any pocket wrenching international calling plans or millions of coins for phones.

5. Apps that tell you about local joints – These apps tell you where you can find local, non touristy joints in a city. Examples of such apps are Where and Urban Spoon. We believe that these are more important than City Tour apps since most cities have their own awesome tours with guides of their own.

6. Apps that give status of your flight- Do we even need to explain why this is a must have app category?

Sources:
http://www.geeksugar.com/home?page=3#post_4524721
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/09/07/travel/0907-IPHONE_index.html

Let’s flesh out something here. What if we were to give you an iPhone app that can be your personal travel assistant? Helps you make traveling lists, remind you of when to pick up clothes from the dry cleaners before the travel date, keeps track of your airplane arrangements, finds you hotels, reserves cars, tours trips for you and in the end, gives you a choice in which spas to treat yourself to.
Plan your vacation according to a theme- the app will be able to pull out information according to the theme and find options according to that. E.g., art- then it will find you museums and all art related venues in the area.

January 18, 2010 at 6:41 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Won’t it be nice to sit with a cup of coffee, at the airport with your iPhone, and rent an old classic movie right before boarding the plane, or on a super boring road trip?

In 1997, Netflix came up with a way where people could rent movies online and receive them by post. That was the end of Blockbuster and Hollywood video stores. Blockbuster and Hollywood stores accepted the defeat, and slowly, brick-and-mortar stores started closing down. But, world changes rapidly, and while people were busy renting movies via Netflix, something hit them hard.

Piracy arrived in its full swing. Internet gurus used their expertise & genius to rip copies of DVDs and distribute them via P2P sharing. The industry started feeling the impact much later.

Luckily, movie rental companies realized that the popularity of pirated video or audio is based on two facts: 1). A lot of people- even the conscientious citizens- do not feel guilty about committing a cyber crime and practically using a stolen commodity, 2). People hate waiting for anything.

Although, they knew that they couldn’t really do much about the first aspect, they did something to cater to the second demand- they made video content available online for rent. And so began the trend of online rental movie services where people can now buy memberships online, and watch a movie online instantly (if the movie is available). Hopefully, it’s slowly catching up.

To continue the story, we have heard about the ever so elusive “DashBuster movie rental app” (that cannot be found in the App store easily) for iPhones. Since video streaming has started on iPhones, a movie rental iPhone app would be the coolest idea since canned beers. It doesn’t just cater to the availability factor, but also addresses the anywhere, anytime factor as well.

January 14, 2010 at 4:21 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

There are those people who make long term investments. For them, investment is a slow process- low speculation, observing rise and fall in the market over long periods of time. Then, there are those who invest quickly, almost every day, called the day traders. For these folks, investment happens in New York minutes- observing the market is their daily morning ritual; most of the day traders are executives who lead very busy lives; their hectic schedules does not allow them to quench their thirst of following the stock market as much as they’d like to.

Here are some of the features that we think, would make an investment iPhone app an helpful companion to those who invest frequently.
1. Make stock prices, market commentary for each of them available anytime, anywhere,
2. Ability to make changes to investor portfolios from airports, hotel lobbies, restaurants, lounges without the presence of an internet connection.
3. Ability to connect instantly with investment advisors locally and internationally.
4. Get market quotes in real time
5. Providing tools for stock research and suggestions, tips, guides etc.

With a iPhone app, investment firms can not only enhance customer relationships by making valuable information available on their finger tips, but can also increase the volume of trade resulting in higher transactional profits.

December 17, 2009 at 5:16 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Apartment security companies provide their services on contract basis. Typical services called for by an apartment management group includes security guards, surveillance cameras, patrolling hours, check points etc. The security company assigns an admin to manage a set number of properties and they are responsible to ensure the operation is conducted smoothly. This includes ensuring security guards are scheduled for their shifts every week, the date and time is communicated to the personnel’s, all personnel check in at the start and end of their shifts, supervise all disruptions on the property and finally send daily reports to the apartment management group.

We had an idea, how about an iPhone app for the security management agencies. From the management side, an iPhone app can make things a lot easier for both- security guards and managers Here’s what we think:

1. Admin can review an entire list of apartment properties/ contracts assigned to them

2. They can create & revise time schedules for security guards patrolling the properties.

3. With the help of an iPhone, the admin can modify patrol checkpoints as needed and send a live checklist to all the guards. As the security guards finish going through each checkpoint, the admin will be able to see it live and know what checkpoints were checked at what time.

4. The security guard can take pictures of anything that he/ she wants to draw admin’s attention to (such as property damage), and, can create complaint reports.

5. The security guards can submit time cards through iPhones and the admin can review it on payday for payroll.

6. Security guards can also enter other information like mileage for their cars and submit all expenses that was incurred during the patrol

December 1, 2009 at 9:48 am | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Background: Each iPhone app is a process that, when started, runs (start executing whatever it is meant to be doing) on your iPhone.

Usually, on mobile platforms other than iPhone’s, multiple apps can run at the same time allowing users to play with an application, quickly switch to a background app, and go back and forth. When a background process runs on the system, it shares the system’s resources (memory, processor, power) with the foreground processes. Now, since most of the iPhone apps are optimized for best performance speeds, although they run as fast as

when only a single app was running, it forms a power sink. The higher the number of apps running simultaneously on your iPhone, the quicker it drains power.
Apple’s solution to this power loss issue is to use their infamous Push notification system.

Let’s see how it actually works, in the next article.

November 23, 2009 at 5:54 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

With their popularity and capability of providing information anytime, anywhere, iPhones can revolutionize the field of education. Here, we list 6 ways in which iPhone apps can become a student’s most personal learning assets.

1. Visualization apps for Visual learning aid: with their ultra cool graphics, iPhones can become excellent sources of mobile graphical learning- structure of atoms & molecules, flow of blood in the 4 ventricles of human heart, plotting of graphs of mathematical functions- there is no limit.

2. Apps that act as mobile flash cards, dictionaries and language learning tools.

3. Planners for students with time management tips and goal setting suggestions.

4. Apps that can help students with the tedious application process to universities. They can keep checklists, get information on universities and apply.

5. Students can collaborate, collect study matter and work on their projects anywhere anytime.

6. Teachers or professors can provide tests, quizzes and illustrations on iPhones to engage students.

What makes iPhone apps an important part of study aids for students is the fact that iPhones are becoming popular with teenagers and youngsters. If education can expand its media options from books, to web to iPhones, then education can be made more accessible and interesting.

November 20, 2009 at 1:24 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

As the football season kicked off we began wondering of features that an iPhone app could offer to help engage fans from tickets to game stats. So for all the football fans out there, here are our ideas for an iPhone app that can :

1. Access a schedule of games for favorite teams. 2. Show tailgating times so that fans can find out about pre game parties, events etc. 3. Make flight, hotel and car reservations to get to the game for those passionate about football are ready to fly out to see a game. 4. Help make the game a family get-together- send invites to friends and families. 5. Purchase tickets for the game 6. Share the details of your football match over Facebook, Twitter and email via the app. 7. Connect with other attendees for that particular game in the same seating area or section. 8. Buy souvenirs like team caps, shirts, jerseys on the iPhone There can also be a visitor loyalty program where frequent attendees can collect points and rewards to be eligible for various upgrades etc.

November 18, 2009 at 12:50 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Usually, doctors spend their entire time waiting, with breath abated, for a small beep in their pager, or the ringing of their phones fore-running an emergency. Can an iPhone app make a doctor’s life better? Let’s find out.

An iPhone app can help doctors in three areas:

1. Completing patient documentation- One of the most important aspects of a doctor’s job is to fill out the paper work accurately for compliance and record keeping purposes. Documentation involves recording patient history, notes on medication prescribed, and general observations of patient condition during each round, complications during pregnancy or other surgeries etc. How can iPhone apps help: iPhones can come handy in filling up information during doctor’s rounds, or during administration of a treatment on the spot. This will save a lot of time & paperwork. 2. Maintaining a regular interaction with patients- When doctors are not doing surgeries, or not feeling the pulse of a patient, they are working on the paperwork described above. An iPhone can definitely save time which doctors can use to interact with the patients. How an iPhone app can help: iPhone apps can set up follow up reminders, health tips after a particular treatment and by providing regular updates on patients’ conditions (blood pressure, heart rate, etc.)

3. Keeping track of administrative activities – Administrative activities such as schedules for staff, inventory updates, updates on occupancy, pending medicare and health claims, profit & loss charts need to be taken care of.
How an iPhone app can help: iPhone apps can combine all those about functionalities and help the manager keep up to date with the hospital’s current conditions via reports, graphs and quick edit functions for notes they might want to leave for their administrator or secretary.

November 17, 2009 at 11:50 am | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

One of the most difficult tasks as a sales manager is to convince your sales team to adhere to their daily chore of making updates into your CRM system. Often sales managers find themselves lost in old records when looking for opportunities report, lead conversion time frame, etc. With a custom iPhone CRM application, your sales team will not have to wait until they reach office and then spend hours punching in half hearted collected information. It will allow your sales team to enter record and track prospects, project quotes, notes for meetings, assigned tasks from peers and supervisors, sales forecasts and sales schedules the minute they have a hot lead.Here are five features that we believe are essential in a CRM app:

1. Forms to input information on the field- e.g., details about the meeting with a client, or a lead etc.

2. A push notification alert whenever a new task is assigned to a member of the sales team.

3. A mini whiteboard or a discussions board where members of a team can discuss ideas, concepts and strategies.

4. The sales person can also feed in their milestones in order to track their activities with each lead. These milestones can be synchronized with the events of the in-office software helping the project manager get in sync with employee activities. A page that enlists all the leads that the salesperson has in the pipeline. Each lead can be clicked on to see which milestones on each lead have been done.

5. Should be able to access general team calendar and schedule meetings, events or calls. With the push alert system, a meeting can be set within minutes between the team members.

6. Quickreply, if the sales guy has a question while at a meeting then he or she can send a quick note to the sales manager and the sales manager can send the answer to query back reducing the turn around time from 6-12 hours to under 2 minutes.

November 16, 2009 at 11:52 am | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

There are probably several Astrology apps out there that will ping you with daily, monthly, or weekly generic zodiac sign predictions. But, people passionate about astrology are interested in charts, planetary transits and a lot more. An app for astrology can be built in two contexts:

A. An iPhone app as a tool for astrologers: a. The astrologers should be able to generate iPhone friendly charts and reports for their clients. b. The astrologers should be able to connect with their clients- answer to their questions or immediately provide their clients with the requested reports. c. They should be able to calculate regular features such as planetary transits, progressions, returns and generate interactive and easy to read reports for their clients. d. The app can provide the astrologers tools to make calculations such as Aspects between two planets, and houses based on geographic locations. B. An iPhone app for astrology lovers/believers: 1. Ways in which clients can request and see their birth charts, compatibility charts, anywhere and anytime. These charts can also be interactive or annotated. 2. A built in astrological encyclopedia 3. Customizable start up screens with client’s favorite dominant houses, calculations and other features. 4. Combining two charts and calculating composite charts. 5. A way to communicate with their astrologers e.g., in regards to their travel plans, medical decisions etc. 6. A way to schedule an appointment with their astrologer based on a calendar.

A comprehensive iPhone app like above can be built by companies, that provide astrology software, to promote their software in the eyes of the users and astrologers.

October 21, 2009 at 12:58 pm | Top iPhone Apps | 1 comment

After careful consideration of all the social media campaigns we’ve seen, we figured we’d summarize the main points from the top campaigns to help you figure out why it’s worth it or why it’s worth it to do it right. Right being successfully.

1. Be Remarkable.
Easier said than done. It’s funny. Many clients say, “yes, we want to be that,” initially. However, somewhere between the pitch and execution, that enthusiasm dwindles to the margins of being safe and predictable. I guess it’s similar to getting up to the edge of the highest diving board and having to decide whether to jump or climb down to a lower rung. You were pumped the whole way up. Eager to tell others what you had done. Eager to see the results. Eager to keep doing it over and over. When Freshbooks sent flowers to a customer who had been stood up by a blind date, they weren’t out to make waves (http://blog.mrtweet.net/how-freshbooks-built-an-army-of-evangelists-starting-from-one-special-tweet). Rather, they wanted to reach out to that one customer who needed it the most. While you can’t send flowers to everyone, there are things that you can do similarly to have the same effect on your customer/evangelist.

2. Be you.
For some reason, many companies have the desire to imitate what others have done to try and achieve the same results. Typically, they don’t. Why? Because in social media, you carve your own path based on your community of fans and customers, as well as your comfort zone and strengths. Think about it. The company you’re trying to imitate copied no one. They likely created that path for themselves based on a general knowledge and understanding of the online social world. Zappos isn’t out to be Nordstrom or any other online retailer. Their strategy suits their culture and employee comfort zone. Don’t mimic to mimic. Think more about YOU and your brand before you copy another successful company with dismal returns.

3. Be selfless.
It’s not about you. No, really. It’s not. It’s not about sales even (gasp). In social marketing, you have to be social. You can’t make friends always talking about yourself. People don’t want to be advertised to in a community. Listen to what people are saying and talking about. If you share the same interest, talk about it with them. Answer their complaints. Receive their suggestions. Promote them before promoting yourself. It will come back to you. PitchEngine and JetBlue have mastered this long-forgotten art. Most companies are still approaching social marketing as mass communications. This mistake can cost you your online reputation…and maybe even sales.

October 17, 2009 at 2:15 pm | Uncategorized | No comment

The answer obviously lies in your expectations and reason for building an iPhone app. Now, while we can’t really quantify expectation or make universal rules about them (since an average human being always expects more than reality actually permits), we can, though, provide you with some truth when it comes to reasons for an iPhone apps failure and success.

1. Quick download
Sorry about the instant gratification part, but most people don’t want to wait till the end of the day to see a screen, load. Faster processors, faster data processing, faster foods- people want everything done in flashest or flashes.
Who does it good: Google Mobile app is good example of a brand establishment app that is faster and better than the web service itself.
Who does it bad: On the other hand, Cisco’s global internet speed test- super slow in downloading and not that great.

2. How high is the “needed on the go” factor
Who has it: WebMD- No matter where you are, when you need information on basic first aid, symptoms, and CPR instructions, WebMD provides this quickly. Great example of an app that is required anytime and anywhere
Who doesn’t have it: On the other hand, Mastercard’s Priceless Picks app fails in this category

3. Functionality
Don’t try to fool your customers just because you think having an iPhone app with your company logo would be cool. If you decided to build an iPhone app, give people good functionality, and a good reason to like your app.

Who has it: Amazon app is great example of an App that is driving sales because of all the functionality it provides.
Who doesn’t: FedEX iPhone app does not offer enough features and is definitely not convenient. One consumer had commented, “The fedex app is also OBVIOUSLY not geared towards “regular” consumers. You can’t track a package based on a door tag number seems like that should be a fairly obvious addition.”

4. Innovative and creative ideas
Designing and launching iPhone apps is not just about simple throwing functionality on your face, but about providing it in an innovative and creative way. One change of color from orange to red, a slight change on how the screen opens, the graphics, the flow – all these factors define an app.
Who does it good: There’s also the CineVegas CineSlots iPhone App, a slot machine game for your iPhone or iPod touch that with each spin provides information on hundreds of films, honorees and wild stories that have happened at the world famous CineVegas Film Festival, now in it’s 12th year.
Who doesn’t: Audi A4 car challenge- the game is boring, marginally challenging and frankly, nobody is thrilled to play it. Not being able to stand up to customer expectations due to lack of creativity is one of the bad effects of not being creative enough.

5. Convenient to use apps; immaculate coding:
If one has to dig deep into layers of functionality to figure out how to delete an item then it’s not worth it. Also, it’s a pain to use an app that crashes and freezes every 2 minutes. Convenience and bug-less code is the key.

Who does it good: Amazon, again, for good performance.
Who does it really bad: AT&T- bad example of brand establishment. Their customer service is poor…and their app is poorer.

Sources: http://www.ismashphone.com/2009/07/corporate-branding-races-to-iphone-apps-winners-and-losers.html

October 12, 2009 at 11:59 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Correct me if I am wrong: Master Card’s priceless picks app is supposed to inform me about all those deals that deal maniacs like me would cherish. I like the concept, just that I think it could have been less hazy than that.

Let’s start with the praise: The app has a great introductory short, perky video (gets your spirits up); it has great colors and good presentation with a Google Maps background (the designer is definitely creative); the deals are shown on a 3D platform and allows you to search between: a. Priceless b. Dining c. Shopping d. Entertainment e. Other So far so good.

But then that’s where it started disappointing us: there is no search bar to type in the item you might be looking for. There were quite a few businesses that popped up around my neighborhood but majority of them did not have any “Offer details”.
The text included was pure disclaimers. The app allows you to add your own business in their database. I tried submitting a business to see how it works but was disappointed to see that the only fields I was allowed to enter was Title (14 characters) and description (25 characters) along with an address. I am not sure if a consumer can be well informed of the offer details with that short a text block.

Over all, we give 8 for graphics, 5 for functionality and 3 for real use. A very creative idea, drowned in incorrect fledgling planning; a few more updates to its functionality and the next thing you know, you might be actually using this app.

October 11, 2009 at 12:41 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

When it comes to social marketing, there are the basic 4 sites that everyone flocks to: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube. Those communities are effective and proven. No argument there. And for the most part, they do make sense for brands to be there, as that’s where most of the activity happens on the social web. However, I think it’s time for us to live up to the newness and cutting edge of the social web and start paying attention to some of the up-and-coming tools that some brands may not even be aware of.

1. Blip.FM Yes, you can create your own radio station. Then share it on Twitter, Facebook, Friend Feed, and any other site that allows you to post and share links. For some clients, especially venues and restaurants centered around a certain culture, Blip.FM really helps to engage the community who look forward to absorbing the music that is synonymous with your establishment’s environment. We’ve been using this tool for a client of ours, and it has greatly improved the interactions and engagement on the feeds that we post their song selections.

2. Pitch Engine
We’ve written about it before. But it’s ability to break through the Google clutter, as well as deliver a dynamic, informative news release, makes Pitch Engine the perfect tool for small, growing, and innovative businesses to share news and info with the world. With the capability to Digg, Tweet, tag, embed YouTube videos, add photo slideshows, and so much more, brands have no excuse to solely devote their communications to a Web 1.0 experience.

3. Four Square
Yeah, this is more of a mobile application, but if you’re studying the social web, you already know that it’s now moving to the mobile device. Four Square is the pinnacle of social networking meeting GPS meeting brand engagement. Restaurants and venues can now promote themselves through Four Square and have those coupons and promotions “pushed” to users phones when they are in the vicinity of the restaurant. Not to mention, Four Square ties in with Twitter so that users can share where they are and what new restaurant they have found.

September 28, 2009 at 5:01 pm | Social Media | No comment

So, when businesses and brands, especially small or local businesses, first get started in social media, they come with visions and dreams of grandeur. “Everyone’s gonna fan me and follow me,” they (you) say. “I’ll be like Dell and Southwest Airlines,” is another thing they (you) say. Before you get defensive, this misconception is totally ok and normal. In fact, I think we are this way with most new endeavors. Otherwise, we wouldn’t do it.

However, it’s when reality hits and the uptake is slow that brand marketers tend to get discouraged and say, “It’s not working.” The first realization that should happen is that it takes time. Relationships, which are the real benefit of social media, take time to develop. People rarely get engaged for marriage in two weeks, let alone 2 months. The same is true for most relationships. They start and mature over time. What helps is your commitment and consistency. It’s ok if it seems like you’re talking to the same few people at the start (most of whom may be employees or family members – lol).

Commitment
Yes, I’m telling you to stick to your guns in the midst of little interaction and engagement. That will come over time. Like the adage goes, you have to crawl before you can walk. And, truth be told, you probably couldn’t handle an influx of engagement and response to your initial social media endeavors. True. Everyone wants the “Oprah” effect on every marketing endeavor, but no one prepares you for the operational and logistical issues that will arise. By continuing to participate in your social media channels, you’ll see your community grow and converse with you.

Consistency
By being consistent in your interactions, posts, and conversation, it helps your community learn when you, as a brand, are most active. Just like in college when you made friends based on having the similar schedule, your newfound fans, friends, and customers will adapt to the times when you’re active and expect you to be there as time progresses. Also, some people take consistency as this rigid schedule you must follow, which is not the case. By consistency, I mean being active at the same time(s) of the day, using the same verbiage/language and tone, and remembering what you’ve said previously.

At the end of the day, social media is not an end-all, be-all to your marketing or customer service. It is a great addition to what’s currently being done. When and if you decide to get active, be wise and engaging. The rest will fall into place.

September 24, 2009 at 7:14 pm | Social Media | No comment

As we’ve been helping clients and observing others using social media to help reach out/communicate to/interact with customers, we have noticed some divergence that tends to happen between the overall marketing strategy (both on- and offline) and the social marketing aspect. To help bridge the gap, we prepared a list of things to consider with your strategy:

1. Incorporate Social Media activity on your website
With the ability to imbed a Facebook fan page, twitter feed, blog posts, Slideshare presentations, and so on, you can begin to introduce your web visitors to your social media presence.

2. Email Campaigns are Still Effective
Share your social media updates, stories, and posts within your email campaign to help improve the click reports, as well as the amount of interesting content in the blast.

3. Email Signatures
If your company has an email signature, encourage employees to add links to the various feeds and communities you’re active in. It costs you nothing.

4. Business Cards
Include a short link to your Twitter feed or blog URL on your business card. People who you may quickly meet or run into at an event may find value in what you’re saying and may contact you for a business opportunity. Yes, it happens.

5. Social Media Releases
By having a social media release (whether in addition to or instead of a traditional press release), you can consolidate a lot of your social media activity in one central area for readers to connect to, as well as tie it back to your traditional interactive media. We recommend PitchEngine for this, but some news wires are beginning to add this as a service.

September 23, 2009 at 2:39 pm | Social Media | No comment

Philosophers say that thoughts provoke thoughts. That is why, we at ChaiONE, keep posting these ideas and thoughts about new iPhone applications. What we are trying to do here is explore an existing business model and formulate strategies on how the iPhone technology can help enhance the process flow and customer engagement.

Let’s take the example of CIB- commercial investment brokers.
An iPhone app can be built to enhance the user’s experience by filtering content relevant to preferences . The app will enable CIB to instantly share information with their users based on their wish list of needs and wants via Push notifications. Once a match is found the broker could connect with their buyers/ sellers and send relevant information as an email from within the app.

GPS/Map feature will allow users to conveniently navigate to the property for showings and a calendar to remind them of their daily/ weekly schedules. While at the property users can take notes, pictures and email buyer’s questions to the seller’s representative.

This platform could also be used to charge annual subscription dues, up sell on value-added upgrades and collect feedback for improvements.

September 21, 2009 at 12:17 am | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

ChamberMaster- Software to empower your Chamber of Commerce

At ChaiONE we not only review existing iPhone apps but also try to brainstorm on how different industries or companies can benefit from this amazing technology. We have already talked about how Starbucks, grocery stores, surveying companies could use an iPhone app. This time we decided to pick ChamberMaster.

ChamberMaster basically is a software company that provides front and back end tools designed specifically for a chamber of commerce. ChamberMaster provides excellent web design, web hosting, and non-dues revenue services that have helped hundreds of chambers. They are one of the best to design, develop, train and support member management software and web modules for any chamber.

We suggest an iPhone app that offers a calendar of events, RSVP for events, ability to add them to local calendar, payment acceptance, push notifications to inform people of new membership benefits, upcoming events (via pop ups and badges etc) . Integrate subscription billing and profile update options for ChamberMaster members to update their profiles and pay their member dues via their iPhones. To make the iPhone app intuitive members could share events, details, profiles over social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you are part of a Chamber please let us know if you see value in an iPhone app like this?

September 17, 2009 at 11:56 am | Top iPhone Apps | 5 comments

Almost all of the software technology today is based on modularization (which means dividing a long process into smaller parts, each representing an aspect of that process.) the reason why modularization is so popular with technology is because of many factors:

1. Each module can be tested separately and thus it becomes easier to catch errors.
2. If there is a problem in one module the other modules don’t have to be corrected.
3. Modules can be combined in multiple ways giving more options.

So, just like every other technology- iPhone Operating system is also modularized in the sense that it is made up of layers- each layer offers various functions that developers can use to build their applications. Below is a picture of the 4 functional layers of the iPhone operating system, taken from Apple’s educational website.

Let’s visit these layers in brief (as much as we can digest). The lower the layer is, the closer it is to the hardware and thus, takes care of the more fundamental parts.

Core OS & Core Services layer- when you take a picture with your iPhone, the picture is stored in your iPhone’s memory. Technically, what is happening here is this: the camera application on your iPhone takes the picture and gives it to the coreOS layer. The core OS layer stores this picture in the right place where.

Media- the media technology layer contains the functionality to support 2D, 3D, audio and video.

Cocoa Touch layer- this provides the infrastructure that all applications use- e.g., the windows, views, controls etc. It also provides the developer with user’s contact and photo information that the developer later on, uses with hardware to create applications.

The best part about this layered architecture of iPhone OS is that developers can develop apps using as many layers to get as much lower level customization as is needed. This is a very powerful feature since, this way writing simple app for iPhones doesn’t take a lot of time.

September 15, 2009 at 3:46 pm | Top iPhone Apps, Uncategorized | No comment

I was so excited when they told me that WordPress now has an app for its bloggers. Finally, all that loyalty to WordPress paid off- now I could blog right from my iPhone! I downloaded the app- it’s simple and has the same interface as the web version. Good thing is that as soon as you log into your account, the app asks you the number of posts you’d want to see per page. It’s always a good idea to give users personalization to their apps according to what they want to view/use frequently. Under the Posts category the drafts and published posts have no visual distinction. It would have been nice if there were some color scheme to distinguish the two. The reading screen is just half the page, the editor for typing is simple and it provides the HTML view only. If you want to insert a link, as soon as you start typing “www”, a screen pops up asking if you want to create a link; you can fill in the link and the hypertext and create and insert your link. Now that’s stylish. But, as I said earlier- the link will show as HTML code. One of features on the app lets you add a picture to a post from either your library or taking a picture real time. The idea is great except for the 3 times the app almost froze on me after I took a picture and tried to use it. After this, it was a deep dive into the rabbit hole- the screen often kept freezing and it became quite annoying after the 5th time. Also, I couldn’t find a way to delete my posts which means that either it’s not available (which is bad) or it’s just very hard to find it (which is worse). Overall the app is a 5 out of 10 just because of its performance and lack of some really obvious functionality. I hope this app gets better because it sure would make it easier for bloggers to post via their iPhones.

September 14, 2009 at 12:10 am | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Picture marketing rents out FotoZap as a tool for event marketing companies that engages attendees of an event to interact with the online brand environment. Traditionally, event-marketing agencies have on-ground teams that wear branded apparel of clients and increase mind-share by connecting with the audience of an event via group pictures, t-shirt give-away, product samplers, etc.

Before: One of the members of the event marketing team would take photos with the audience at an event or a retail environment. After taking the picture, the event manager scans an access code card that automatically gets linked to the picture taken. Audiences whose pictures have been taken, receive the branded access card containing the private photo code and a web address of a photo retrieval site. People can then log on from their home or office computer and go to the photo retrieval website, where they enter their unique photo access code. Participants can then either choose to share their photo experience with friends and family or order prints of those pictures.

After: With the advent of the iPhone and its 3.0 resolution camera one can do this entirely without renting a camera. All that event marketing companies have to do is make an iPhone app for themselves that can take pictures, scan access cards to link them to the taken pictures and then store the pictures on the company’s server. People will then be able to download those pictures or order prints from the event marketing companies. This way, the event managers won’t have to rent a special camera specifically for this task and won’t have to go anywhere outside their companies resources to organize the events and promotions.

September 8, 2009 at 3:15 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Specs Wine, spirit and finer foods iPhone app

1/8 parts gin, 1/8 part white soda, 1/8 vodka, some iced tea and 1/8 part reef and you can create a smooth evening cocktail for a calm Sunday night hangout. When it comes to throwing parties we’d all like to be excellent but hosting a great party also means keeping track of all those cocktails that you liked, all the drinks that went into those cocktails etc. Only if we had a personal bartender while we were shopping at Specs.

This idea of ours, an iPhone app for Specs, is our way of creating the trendiest and classiest virtual personal bartender for those of you who love to party or, in general, take your drinks seriously (it’d be fun even if you don’t )

The app will have a personal Store locator, based on the GPS location of the user, the app will be able to locate and provide directions to the nearest specs.

Users will be able to browse through Specs delicious cocktail recipes, newly added products/ flavors using this app and make a list of items for purchase even before they get to the store. This will allow them to avoid the need to get lost in hundreds of kinds of alcohols; the app can be used to up-sell via make your drink feature where app users can choose a drink/mix/liquor/wine/liqueur of their choice and then literally create their personalized virtual drink. This drink could be shared via social media or email!

With the help of the app specs will be also be able to collaborate with other event/part organizers and help calculate cost for final purchase.

The apps can be designed to offer suggestions on which wine/scotch etc. might be best for a particular occasion and help the last minute customer to solve the ever-lasting “which one should I buy?” conundrum.

An app like this will be able to make alcohol buying experience not only fun, but also an new learning experience for Spec’s customers.

September 4, 2009 at 1:53 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

What is the development process of an iPhone application?

A lot of our customers are curious about how the development process of an iPhone application takes place. Here’s a quick look at the process:

1. Begin with Basics
The starting point for any new project is first figuring out the customer requirements, goals and functionality that they want. Where a customer first plans and discusses the purpose of the application with us. Ask for samples of benchmark apps based on the colors, flow and sleekness.

2. Take your ideas to the whiteboard.

After understanding the business goals and expectations we discuss ways in which we can achieve these four things:
a. Simple & intuitive User Interface
b. Easy to access functionality
c. Scalability
d. User control and personalization of the app

3. Brainstorm on Design

Our coder then brainstorms with the team on the flow of each functionally. There are a lot of creative sketches involved; usually we use the customer’s website for colors or look and feel to maintain brand colors. Then the designer comes up with a set of mock up screens that give an overview of the application.

4. Coding & Testing.

Once the client has approved of the screens, we proceed to coding. We don’t build the entire app in one go. We build it in modules so that it’s easier for the client to review progress and for us to track bugs; it also makes testing easier and quicker.

Then starts the process of feedback and changes. We give demos to our client and ask for feedback on app design, flow & planning which in turn, helps us in refining the app.

September 2, 2009 at 6:43 pm | Top iPhone Apps | 3 comments

1. Kraft- iFood assistant

2. Nationwide insurance app

3. ESNP scorecenter

4. iStanford

5. MedScape- WebMD

August 28, 2009 at 9:40 am | Top iPhone Apps | 1 comment

Indeed they are celebrating their brand- their name, their success, their eccentricities that have made them distinguishable; and, every iPhone user is invited to this fabulous celebration. In a way they are extending their ascendancy by asserting their classic identity in the hearts of their fans; brand position is a recent feat in the field of iPhones and here’s a list of 10 iPhone apps exclusively developed to establish brand:

1. Singer Pink- Entertainment industry can’t stay away from something as sassy as iPhone branding. Quick to take on the latest trends and coolest new styles of reaching out to their audience, many celebs, singer and bands have started promoting their music through branding iPhone apps. You can download the app free and can listen to 30 sec previews of her latest album. Singer Pink has a free app where you can check out 30 sec previews of her latest songs.

2. Ford Motor company- unexpected but amazing. This app apparently has nothing to do with cars. The iPhone app, called FLEX Photo Labs, is a mobile photo editing app that one can use to edit and prepare photos.

3. Coca-Cola- Coca Cola’s spin the bottle app. It does nothing, except that when you shake your iPhone, the coca cola bottle spins.

4. Star Trek app- Star Trek Phaser app is a game and a simulator, had many trailers and images in it to create a buzz about the movie.

5. Audi- Race your Audi to win!

6. Kraft iFood assistant- this iFood assistant is way more than just a grocery list app. It gives you recipes, how to videos, built in shopping lists and shortcut tips.

7. Stanford University- Stanford is one of those few universities who has understood the importance of iPhones and providing education in the field. And their passion for keeping up with the technology is not limited to their courses, but extends to their latest iStandford iPhone app. With the help of this app, Stanford stuendts can access a lot of web features and can also register. It is planned that more features, such, as knowing the position of other students in the unveristy campus will be possible with the help of the app. Go Stanford!

8. Sony Pictures Jeopardy app- the app lets you play jeopardy just like the real TV show online!

9. Walt Disney world secret app- “This Secrets Notescast is chock full of advice on where, when and how to experience the many hidden treasures scattered across the parks.” “No matter where your location in the vast Disney realm you can discover a nearby surprise with just a couple touches. This proved very useful in passing the time whenever we were waiting in line for our next magical ride.” Filled with over 180 fun, magical and surprising secrets of Walt Disney World(R) Resort, the new Walt Disney World Secrets Notescast App works as an innovative new guidebook allowing Guests to tour all of Walt Disney World Resort with their iPhone or iPod touch in hand as they discover one new secret after another in Magic Kingdom(R), Epcot(R), Disney’s Animal Kingdom(R) and Disney’s Hollywood Studios(TM).

In addition, this in-depth Notescast adds to a Disney vacation with the added bonuses of a Hidden Mickeys tour of over 80 Hidden Mickeys, as well as over 200 Fun Facts about this favorite Orlando vacation destination.

We are a race with possibly no neighbors. And so, in order to mollycoddle our lonely little hearts, we designed sports, arts, cultures and eventually, cool toys that we could play with. And just like a petulant child, when we get bored of our old toys, we invent new ones: newspapers, TV, internet are all becoming those old toys, and iPhones, currently, are our new toy. So why not use this new contraption to its full potential, just like so many companies have already started to.

August 24, 2009 at 2:33 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

First of all, the app loads really slowly.

Second of all, this app is a perfect example of the fact that a great idea does not ensure a good app. This is what the app supposed to do: find the closest cheapest gas station based on your current location. But, instead, it gives you two options- either a closer but expensive gas station or a cheaper but far away gas station. e.g., while I was driving through Galleria area in Houston TX, I was close to running on e and out I popped my cheap gas app. I was hoping to find which one of the 10 gas stations around that area (that I already know are there) was offering the cheapest gas. But it showed me that the cheapest gas station as 8 miles away from my current location while the other toggle view showed me the closest gas station which ironically had the highest gas price in the list. (pretty much defeated the purpose of Cheap Gas, I’d say) (Avoiding a possible accident, left stunned by the reaction of the dysfunction app, I pulled in to the next gas station to fill up gas.) Now I understand that for some species, driving 8 miles to get cheap gas would probably be an ideal solution, but I am more of an economy person and prefer a gas station that is close to where my car is running out of gas. But then, I am a skeptic and don’t believe in fueling obsessions.

August 21, 2009 at 2:41 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

In the desert of 30,000 apps, JP Morgan Chase app is almost an oasis.

It’s beautiful looking icon, simple & blue interface and quick download time nothing but calm your nerves. The first screen has log on, contact us and find ATM branch features.

The app lets you log into your bank account and lets you transfer or wire money. Although, the first screen gives a very classy impressing, the app loses its visual appeal the minute it logs you into your account. The first screen after you log in shows all your accounts, available balance, and allows you to access bill pay, transfer money, wire transfer features (which is a big deal when it comes to accessing bank accounts through your iPhone) ON A WHITE BACKGROUND;- very bland, and in a way it makes you lose your focus. A blue screen would have made a good visual transition. Remember that when it comes to designing and iPhone app- colors matter a lot! When you click on any of the accounts, it shows last 5 transaction done through their accounts (10 would have been better since it would give customers a better view of their recent spending summary, but let’s not get too greedy.) The only down part of this app is that it doesn’t let you transfer money to external linked accounts, which implies that you can’t send money to any accounts other than yours (even if it’s a chase account); although, you can “wire” money through this app, which will cost you 12 bucks extra (but why should you want to do that?). Chase should definitely consider adding this feature. Other than that, the app is great and we were fairly impressed with it.

August 20, 2009 at 10:14 am | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Before you develop an iPhone app for your company…
…make sure that it makes complete sense to get one.

Jof Arnold, web geek and entrepreneur, discusses the process of developing iPhone apps and gives out some handy tips and pitfalls to beware of.

(Don’t worry there is nothing technical in there.)
We loved the talk. It was short and gave us many ideas. Here are the five most important questions to ask before building an iPhone app for your company:

1. Do people need your services on the go?
According to Jeff, a company can use an iPhone app to drive sales or use a technology not available anywhere but on mobiles. The first and most important question to ask here is whether you can offer services that people would love to use/have access to anytime and anywhere. Is your audience a heavy iphone user?

2. What features and functionality are in it?
If the answers to above questions are yes, then what features would you want to add? Can you entice your customers to buy things by bolstering your presentation with the latest mobile tech? If yes, then in what ways can you, most effectively, use those features to make your iPhone app?

3. How much are you ready to spend?
If you decide to build an app, then be sure about how much you want it to cost. (Hint: think ROI). A well coded, reliable enterprise level iPhone app will cost you at least 10 – 20 k (if it’s simple) and 30-60k (if it has more bells and whistles.)

4. What is the element of Novelty in your App?
Sales driving iPhone app don’t just become overnight sensations anymore. You will need a committed strategy and planning to launch your app and “make” it a success. Jeff makes a valid point here, “There are thousands of other apps in there. 1500 apps are launched each day. What is new in what you are doing?”

5. Who is the app for?
You can use your app to do either of these things: establish your brand, increase sales by offering access to your services anywhere anytime, or enabling your employees by helping them connect to your company’s system such as Customer Relationship management software etc. Both have different criteria of success; success of customer related apps depends on how many people have downloaded it, while that of employee related apps depends on how convenient the app made your employees’ lives. Think about who you want to build it for- your employees, customers or both?

August 18, 2009 at 2:42 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Hotels.com’s iPhone app just made me sad. When I heard of the app for the first time, I thought, “Finally there is someone who thought of us nomads who are always on a lookout for that perfect economical hotel to satiate our wander lust.” Hotels Near Me, I thought, was designed for me (or people like me)- to help us find the cheapest and closest available hotel of our choice (how silly of me to be excited about this)- but now, I feel bad about sticking to my false hopes. To begin with, the app is badly designed: as soon as you click on the app icon, a Splash screen zooms up 10,000% into a grainy bad resolution “h”. Now, hotel.com might presume that it’s a stylish way to hide the fact that they are later going to direct you to the safari browser (yeah we know, it’s shocking, isn’t it?), but it’s just in bad taste, and, completely useless. The main screen content is excellent though – concise, to the point, lays down the benefit of using this app; but, that’s where the excellence ends. An addendum to the app’s bad design is its just-as-bad functionality: after you have been cunningly directed to the safari browser, with no way of returning to the app, your first list will be a page full of hotels. It will take you 5 seconds to realize that that list is the list of hotels around the location of where you currently are (before you have put any search criteria in). This means that you can only use this app when you already are in the neighborhood of choice. If you were hoping to use this app to do quick research and reserve a hotel at your destination while boarding a plane – then this app is not for you. Also, the search option doesn’t let you choose more than one search criterion at a time (e.g., you can either choose according to dates of availability, or price, but not both.)

I have a semantic question regarding this app: In what language does “search” mean “back” because that’s what the search button at the top left corner of the app actually does- it takes you back to the previous page.

This app is a pure marketing gimmick that leads mobile traffic to mobile friendly Hotels.com page.

August 18, 2009 at 12:35 pm | Top iPhone Apps | 2 comments

This is part four of the series: 5 essential elements that form the backbone of an ecommerce website. Check out part three here.

Essential Element 4: Web Design & Navigation

Designing a website (by designing I mean planning and strategizing) requires you to get into the psyche of your customers. The sitemap should be well thought out or else a customer might feel lost, get frustrated and leave without making a purchase. Since, there is no easy way to figure out what is intuitive to your customers, two ways to ensure good web design are:

1. Using SEO to guide your website’s design will help you come up with a smooth navigation flow, right content and more pragmatic technical choices (e.g., which CMS suits your needs best.)

2. After your website is finished, sufficiently test drive it, keep asking for user feedback and use that feedback to refine your website.

Let us now look at the three important parts of your website that you should take care of:

1. Software: Content Management Systems are the best choice these days. They are highly modular, flexible and customizable; you won’t have to rely completely on your web developer for managing content and products; and, they are designed to be SEO friendly. The hard part is that with 10,000 CMSs floating in the web, which one suits your needs best is a tough decision to make. We recommend that you let your web developer choose one for you.

2. Banner messaging- Advertising through call to action phrases through banners is the most effective way of building trust with your clients, and, informing them about the latest in your online store (deals, media or press releases, events, product recommendations, your value proposition etc.). Just two important facts about banner messaging:
a. Customers don’t like flashy, extremely annoying flickering banner ads. Be simple, assertive and use catchy phrases on non flickering stable banners.
b. Flash banners equals long loading time equals customer frustration (and you definitely don’t want that.)

3. Get an SSL security seal to indicate that your website is secured. Nothing makes customers more relieved and trusting than this small seal. Also, provide your contact info, disclaimers, customer confidentiality policies etc. The more informed your customer is, the better he feels about being on your website.

Next: A well designed Feedback system

August 17, 2009 at 2:27 pm | Website Application Development | No comment

This is part three of the series: 5 essential elements that form the backbone of your ecommerce website. You can check out part two here.

Essential Element 3: Search Engine Optimization:

If you still haven’t started SEO on your website yet, then now will be the right time to start doing it- before you are completely invisible from the online market. A typical SEO process has four steps: 1. Competitor research 2. Keywords research 3. Technical SEO- inserting appropriate meta-tags, figuring out a better link flow etc. 4. Social SEO- adding more dynamic content to your website through a blog, improving page rank via link building etc. Although not a gamble, ideal SEO is still very hard to achieve; it requires experience, social and technical knowledge. There are 6 most important points to remember when you go SEO shopping: 1. Most SEO experts can complete steps 1 and 2 of the process described above, well; good SEO experts can probably achieve step 3; and, only exceptional SEO experts can successfully establish step 4.

2. Genuine, original, thoughtful and engaging content is mandatory (even if it’s just product descriptions).

3. SEO is not about increasing traffic on your website, but, about improving sales. If 6 months of SEO has not given you increased sales, then- traffic or no traffic- it’s not working.

4. Don’t think that you can build your website first and start SEO later. SEO can help you make important decisions about navigation flow, content, product placement, website design etc. in the beginning, saving you time, money and efforts.

5. Tracking analytic reports is the most important task in determining the success of SEO. They are the only non technical way of understanding whether your SEO is working or not.

6. Not every website needs a blog. Be absolutely convinced that you need or can maintain a blog; because, if not done properly or regularly blogs can become bothersome and money leaks.

Hope these 6 points steer your search for an SEO expert in the right direction.

Next: Navigation & website design

August 17, 2009 at 2:03 pm | Website Application Development | No comment

This is part two of the series: 5 essential elements that form the backbone of your ecommerce website. You can check out part one here.

Essential Element 2: Reliable Payment System

A secure and reliable Payment system is the most important aspect of your website. If you are selling products online then you will have to make sure that your website never crashes between transactions, people find your products easily and, most importantly, that they are able to trust you with their sensitive information.

A payment system has two aspects: a. Shopping Cart- Shopping carts are the face of your purchasing system. The more facilitated, faster and convenient your shopping cart is, the higher chances of you making a sale. Three most basic things to remember about a shopping cart are: 1. It should be intuitive 2. It should be crash proof and, 3. It should integrate with the product inventory, immaculately Failure to achieve any of the above would adversely affect the efficacy of your website.

Now, you can add as much functionality in your cart as you want- coupon codes support, RSS capability, recommend-related-items functionality, integrated customer reviews, product sharing and recommendations, multiple images support – but it’s important to make sure that the cart doesn’t take too long to load. A better coded shopping cart should be able to modularize functionality and load faster.

b. A Payment gateway- The best possible way to ensure reliability to your customers is to use a Payment gateway. A payment gateway is a third party service that automates the transaction between the shopper and the merchant; the gateway will take all the important information required to process the transaction from the customer and, use it to make the payment to the merchant.

The process spares the merchant from any liability of customers’ sensitive information being lost or compromised. Most Payments Gateways, such as PayPal, Authorize.net etc are similar in performance and thus your decision to choose a payment gateway requires a much closer look.

It’s always a good idea to research before committing to any one of them; always be aware of your gateway’s policies in situations such as theft, stolen information and wrong transactions and keep your merchant and payment gateway accounts separate. This provides you the flexibility of using a PG best suited to the shopping cart software used on your website while using some other PG for your merchant accounts.

Sources: www.practicalecommrce.com

Next: Search Engine Optimization

August 17, 2009 at 1:33 pm | Website Application Development | No comment

Essential Element 1: A reliable web hosting service/company/server

An ecommerce website lets you conduct your business online and five essential elements form its backbone. In this 5 part series we will discuss different options that you have while incorporating those elements on your website.

Reliable web hosting: There are three ways in which you can host your website: 1. Do it yourself: Any computer can be converted into a server. All you have to do is connect to the internet, get a DNS hostname, a fixed IP address, configure your router and firewalls to accept HTTP requests and install web server software (e.g., Apache, Microsoft Internet Information Server etc.) Upside: You get to learn ins and outs of System and Network administration; you will be in control of the kind of software being used. Downside: Making your system a server is like opening a can of worms -installing and maintaining a web server might take a lot more than simple googling, tracking hacks or keeping up-to-date with latest security patches would burn eyes, performing data backups might get labyrinthine and tedious. We do not recommend hosting your own website (even if it’s a small home based business), the learning curve might be too high for anyone not deeply interested into IT.

2. Hire an Admin: You can hire a system administrator, exclusively for your website.

Our advice: Don’t do it! Do it if you can afford to pay someone a full-fledged salary, if you are planning to start a large social community like Facebook, or if you are getting someone to do it for free. But if you are using your website to sells products or services, then hiring an administration would be an overkill. The best way is to go to a Hosting company.

3. Get a web hosting company to host your website: It’s always a safer to go to Web hosting companies as they are dedicated toward hosting. A typical Hosting company has server farms where many computers are connected to each other in clusters. This way, these companies are able to utilize the combined capability of several computers and thus, are able to host several companies. A word of caution: Before committing to a web hosting company always check their credentials, read reviews, ask for reference websites, learn about what software they use and most importantly, read all the things written in the small print. In short, know your web hosting company well before you hand them your website.

Next: A Secure Payment System

August 17, 2009 at 12:09 pm | Website Application Development | No comment

So, there are some brands who still just don’t get it. Whether it’s a decision or accident, not getting it can cost brands money, attention, and talent that they just can’t afford. As a sordid way of reaching out to these ‘lost souls,’ we wanted to do a quick synopsis of 3 things that brands get out being present and accounted for in social media.

1. Feedback While some marketing executives are dreading the thought of hearing from customers, others see it as an opportunity to get ahead of competitors and really please future evangelists. Think about it. Who actually buys something with the intent of hating it? Are you coming up with “no one” like we did? Thought so. It’s important that you listen to the people who support you, whether it’s good or bad criticism. Chances are it might save your company…and your job.
2. Community Yes, yes, it’s an overrated, overused term. However, if you think about the benefits of community, you can see why this benefit is one that no brand should live without. Imagine you’re considering launching, or building, a new product, and you want to get a feel for its necessity in the market place. Rather than pay an arm-and-a-leg for a focus group, research marketing firm, and so forth, you can just pose the question to your community who more than likely buy your products faithfully. They will let you know whether it’s worth the risk or not. Also, aside from that, let’s face it. We’re all human. At times, we have days that are not so good as others. You never know how good you have it until your community reminds you why you’re special and why you make their day. Nothing like that warm, gushy stuff to keep you motivated!
3. Protection It’s weird, I know. Many brands think that by not participating in social media, they are protecting themselves. We think the contrary. By participating in social media and building relationships with customers, partners, vendors, and fans, these people help solidify your brand and your reputation. If there’s ever a rainy day or crisis, it’s this community that comes to your aid and protection. Domino’s and Amazon could have leveraged this through their recent PR blunders. However, they had no community built and trying to do so in the middle of controversy doesn’t bode very well.

August 5, 2009 at 11:15 pm | Social Media | No comment

Singer Pink, Ford motor company, Walt Disney, Sony pictures, Stanford University, Audi, and Coca Cola: they all have iPhone apps that sell one thing- absolutely nothing!

There are over 40 million people in the world that carry a touch sensitive phone slightly thicker than a chocolate bar. 80% of these 40 million, for various reasons, are obsessed with this phone of theirs. A steep rise in iPhone gaming apps and a feverish excitement about all the features native to the iPhone has left no doubt that they are today’s new media. And to some people (including the decision makers of those big companies above) this reason alone appears to be an excellent one to try out a completely novel way of establishing their brands- iPhone apps.

We believe that these companies have stepped on a gold mine of unconventional ways of reaching out and growing their brand’s identity. Here’s why.

What is a brand? – You may ask, and no matter what definition you refer to, the essence would be the same: a brand is a media induced obsession with an image, an idea or a concept; media being the operative word here.
So, eventually, a question about branding always becomes a question about media.

And in media lies our first reason.

There has been a drastic shift in the media trends in the last decade- from large glossy newspaper ads to wit and mega model infused Television ads, from convenient, navigable, interactive and entrancing websites on Internet to now, the iPhones. The methods of branding have changed according to the changes in media trends.

And today, iapp developers can pack everything- sales pitches, models, interactive websites and video games- into an iPhone app and put all of the above right into your hands of decision makers. As a consumer, you don’t need a TV, a PC or internet to know that Versace launched their latest summer line- all you need to have is one push notification from the Versace app to find that out!

Another, very obvious reason for considering iPhones as the new mode of branding is the accessibility to the right audience.

An iPhone costs about $200 with a 2 year contract or about $800 without one. 53.3% of the audience makes over $100,000 a year and 87% of them are between the age of 25 and 59 which means they form a strong consumer lobby for your products & services. These are the users who spend disposable income to try out new services and most importantly, understand the importance of being aware of the latest trends, and, are willing to pay for that awareness. In other words, if you want to inject brand loyalty somewhere, then iPhone user community is the place! That dynamic crowd: the crowd of who wants something new every month, are psychologically the most potent receptors of brand establishing flamboyance. In conclusion, iPhones are the media of the moment, and are a perfect way to reach your target audience. So, as much as it sounds like an overkill or an over the edge idea of using iPhone apps, not just as a dry selling apparatus or back end of offices, but, a creative way through which you can get people be obsessed with your brand, then think again. Entertainment industry has already started it; soon will follow the tech industry; the world will be coming tumbling after, and you want to be on this trail as soon as possible.

August 3, 2009 at 12:58 am | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

So, we handle Facebook fan pages for a few of our clients, and the one thing that we notice is that Facebook is, by and large, very disconnected from the client’s website. Management and content sharing takes a little more time and elbow grease to really get good results and activity happening on the page.

However, Facebook just implemented a new feature. You can embed a Facebook fan page on your own website! We’ve done it on our sidebar (look over to your right . You can also see another example with the Interactive Strategies conference here: http://www.is-conference.com/networking.html.

This feature allows you to bring some of the activity on Facebook to your website and vice versa. Site visitors can fan your page from your website rather than doing an unlikely self-led search in Facebook to find you. And visitors can see the community that’s been built around your brand. Social media no longer has to be its own silo, separated from your other online operations.

Now that your Facebook community is portable, it’s only a matter of time before you can get the iPhone from any carrier! (Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking!)

July 31, 2009 at 6:58 pm | Social Media | No comment

With all the buzz and rage about social media, most people limit it to Twittering, bloggins, and Facebook fan pages. While these tools are certainly important and worthwhile for organizations and brands to use, they in no way define social media.

The essence of social media is about relationships. Granted, these relationships are had and maintained through

technology, as well as through the sharing of information. It’s unfortunate that some people view information as hard facts, world news, and industry insights, as people’s interests are varied. You can build relationships in social media by talking about and sharing information on a hobby, favorite band or song, fashion, movie, jokes, childhood memories, etc. With the web, we all have a choice to consume and participate in whatever “floats our boat.” As a brand, you have to acknowledge that there are some people who value your information and others who don’t. Nothing personal. But it’s when you engage with those who do value your brand, your info, and your product/service that you find the true treasure in social media: community.

A passionate, informed community is what every brand needs nowadays to establish, maintain, and grow sales. And just because the brand isn’t participating doesn’t mean that the community isn’t already out there. The Moleskine journals and notebooks have a pretty strong community of loyalists unbeknownst to them. Likewise for other brands, in or out of social media.

Regardless of what tool or platform is popular at the moment, the community and relationships that your brand or business builds is crucial. Your community extends beyond tools.

July 30, 2009 at 2:00 am | Social Media | No comment

We found this video today:

The latest New York Nearest Subway Augmented Reality App for iPhone 3GS.

The App uses a combination of the GPS, compass and video capabilities of iPhones to offer a real time navigation along NY subways.

Augmented Reality is a small offshoot of a concept that has been the subject of hottest research in computer science- virtual reality. In AR (short for Augmented Reality), real time visuals are combined with unreal computer graphics to create a realistically interactive virtual environment.

So, developers of the world unite! AR is making it’s way through the coming days as Apple is going to make the API for AR available in September 2009.

There will be rise of a whole new generation of AR applications- from AR games to sophisticated navigation systems; from interactive mobile simulations to educational lectures and it will be very hard to not fall into the the temptation of using this delicious technology.

Our team at ChaiONE is also excited;- mainly because we have all had giant cups of coffee to stay awake all night;- and when they broke the news to us, our rheumatic fingers froze on our keyboards and ideas starting spilling out of our brains. Two months is indeed a long time.

July 28, 2009 at 1:17 am | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Avoiding them is impossible these days. They started as blogs, but over the past 5 years, they have infused the latest web design trends, shaved off all the messy coding, and evolved into systems, lot bigger than editors for personal

memoirs or daily journals: Content Management System are now the most effective way to build your website- whether you are a small to medium sized company, or a large corporation; sprouting out of every nook and cranny, CMS’s today have improved the standards on how websites should look, communicate and manage its content. We rate the following tools as the most effective CMS solutions: 1. Wordpress: Easy to install and administer, multiuser and ad-free- Wordpress is one of the most popular website building/blogging CMS. read more 2. Joomla!: A highly modular, flexible, open source CMS that can be expanded to include several features; it provides components that allow insertion of custom code, advertising links etc……. read more 3. Typo3 – We have one word for Typo3- extremely powerful CMS! The CMS has a community of 40,000 users that have, till now, produced around 1500 extensions to custom build enterprise solutions……. read more

4. Squarespace- the latest upcoming, highly modularized, extremely reliable CMS……. read more

5. Drupal – powerful and expandable, this open source CMS is known for high scalability, flexibility and best for SEO……. read more

July 23, 2009 at 6:33 pm | Website Application Development | No comment

Last night, we tried Pizza Hut’s latest iPhone app- iHUT; and here’s how we rate it: Five stars for graphics,two for performance, minus two for flexibility and three for intuitive flow.

Remember the call that you make to order your pizza? Well, iHUT basically replaces that call with a few taps on your iPhone. The advantage of this is that you don’t have to repeat your address or your favorite topping combinations in front of a bored operator; you can- instead- build your pizza via the iHUT app and save those combinations for the future orders as well!

Mouth watering- isn’t it? But wait! Before you get too dreamy, let’s give you the bad news. To start with, you have to sign up on pizza hut “website” before you can do anything with the app. There are three things frustrating about it: 1). You can’t order via the app if you aren’t a member, 2). The app doesn’t handle the sign up process (Why? It’s a 10 MB app! Why is it hogging all that space if it can’t even provide a simple sign up form? My money is on Pizza Hut’s quirk to make you go to their website for probably building brand loyalty 3). You end up trying out the boring iHUT racer game (a complete waste of time) Then, if you happen to choose delivery as your mode of ordering, the app will not let you enter any new location on the app (you can only choose from the locations that you have entered in your account on the Pizza Hut website). Now, before you grimace and blurt out,”What is the big deal?”, this is what it means: in order to get your pizza delivered to a place other than your regular places (e.g., your friend’s place), you will have to go to Pizza Hut’s website, login to your account, add that location, and then order your pizza from the app. Bothersome, cumbersome, unfriendly and all this makes using the app to order pizza POINTLESS! (if I am on the website then I might just order the pizza ON THE WEBSITE!)

After the mode of order, rest of the ordering process seems cool. We loved the option to put various toppings on left, right halves or whole pizza!

The performance of the app mildly disappointed us: three attempts, one crash and one hang up later, when we finally had our virtual pizza ready to order, all the pizza hut outlets were closed ( this was our bad luck though). While we know that it’s only an app, not God, normal apps that are as restrictive as this one, and 10 MB in size, are not supposed to crash. Also, the flow of the app could have been more intuitive.

Note: Do check out the deals section. You can see coupons hung on a simulated fridge image. Pretty cool look. You can click on the coupons to use them. Also, when going through a coupon/deal, the app will clear out the options that are not available with the deal.

Restaurants preparing to follow Pizza Hut should remember that, while building iPhone apps for ordering is something that is becoming a necessity, the usability of the app decides its popularity; and if a user needs a missing manual to understand the app, or, go through multiple restrictions to order food, then you have definitely gone wrong somewhere.

July 20, 2009 at 6:19 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

Now that people can subscribe to material on their iPhones, newspaper industry has strong reasons to want iPhone apps: a newspaper on iPhones is more accessible/user customizable than its web counterparts; it is available to readers even when they are not near an internet source; it is handier and greener than paper based subscriptions; and, it can utilize all the three media- audio, video and print- to present news/stories.

iPhone newspapers might also be able to save the diminishing newspaper advertising. Today, people consider building websites a better investment than small newspaper ads that costs a lot and only to appear at the back of a newspaper for short time. A website, on the other hand, for a nominal yearly price, can simulate a virtual showroom where business owners can not only showcase their products/services, reach a wider audience irrespective of where they are, but, can also hold e-commerce transactions.
While the above fact is true- it’s not as simple as it sounds.

The only way for someone to find a product or service on the internet is through search engines and to show up on these search engines is by making a website more search engine friendly. The are two factors that make SEO a dodgy process are, first, SEO experts prefer to get you visibility within local listings since it’s easier and more feasible; second, SEO has its own weight- you have to hire a specialist, wait for at least 6 months before it starts showing results and sometimes, you might not even get a single customer but a lot of traffic of surfers. It’s still low cost though.

On the other hand, local newspaper advertising is, although a bit expensive, more directed; it is also the faster way to get to the local audience. If someone is looking for a plumbing company in New Jersey, it’s easier to appear in a local New Jersey newspaper, where people are sure to find you in the advertisement section, than to compete with 100s of other plumbing companies for showing up on the first page of search engine results.

iPhone newspapers can combine the good aspects of both the media- local visibility, without having to resort to search engine enhancements, of newspaper advertising, and, low cost multimedia advertising on the web.

Having iPhone newspapers was definitely a smart move; but, ads along with the newspaper will be a win-win situation for all the three- newspaper industry, advertisers and the readers.

Another way in which iPhones can be a great help to newspapers is by utilizing the high quality video and still camera that comes with the latest 3.0 iPhone; journalists can capture, record news /videos on the spot and report right then and there. A journalist-friendly editor that can combine video, images and written content is all that is needed.

July 17, 2009 at 2:56 pm | Top iPhone Apps | No comment

When many people hear Facebook, they immediately think social networking and maybe youth-oriented technology. However, Facebook can be one of the best, cheapest, and easiest ways a business or organization can start and manage a community of interested fans. Rather than get into the mechanics of how to use a Facebook fan page, it’s important to consider the benefits of having a community for your brand. To help make it easy for you, we’ve developed a short list of reasons of how a Facebook community benefits a business:

1. Evangelism
By having a group, regardless of its size, of dedicated and captivated fans, a business has contact with additional mouthpieces who can help spread and echo major company news and announcements, as well as evangelize the service and skills the business excels in. You can’t buy this or expect to generate this enormous gift through tv and radio spots or print.

2. Whuffie
Tara Hunt applied the SciFi term “Whuffie” to the idea of social capital, the ability to influence and persuade people who trust you through relationships on- and off-line. By building a group of fans, your business can garner some Whuffie that will leave you as a trustworthy source of information with whom your brand has built a connection. Whether it be influencing them to buy your product or merely suggesting where they can get a good bite to eat, your company can influence those who trust you.

3. Feedback
We all like to think we know what we’re doing all the time. However, there are times when some feedback is necessary, whether it’s solicited or not. Your Facebook community can be a great source of life-saving ideas for your business, or just good critiques on areas of improvement for a product or service you offer. With a community, communication is a two-way flow, so don’t be afraid to listen to what your fans are telling you. It might save your business…or lead you to the next pot of gold.

4. Defense
Now, we say this not to be construed as a directive for you to be defensive. You will see that by starting a community while times are good, you have a sounding board and go-to group of advocates that you can set the story straight with in times of trouble (not that we wish times of trouble on you). You will see that by having a relationship with your fans and the people within your community, they will come to your defense when others try and bash and malign the company unjustly.

July 17, 2009 at 12:45 pm | Social Media | No comment

At ChaiONE, we are crazy about iPhone application development. We keep churning out new ideas; slashing or discarding them; develop elaborate plans to implement them; risk analysis and so much more. The whole week is usually a big whirlpool of brainstorming around the ChaiONE office.

So, on weekends, we allow ourselves to rest, and take our usual official brainstorming into the casual atmosphere of Starbucks near Galleria. And this past weekend, while discussing our latest ventures in iPhone apps and its potentials, we whipped up an idea – iPhone app for Starbucks. We gave the app all the obvious features- a Starbucks’ store locator, a mini iPhone ordering system that will not only help people bypassing long lines, but will also be great for making large corporate orders (usually more than 5 drinks at a time) sound less tedious. We also included a nifty digital scanable version of the Starbucks card, one that can be recharged directly via iPhones. But we were looking for something more than this. We wanted to use the power of iPhones of connecting people and come up with a Starbucks app that was not just a matter of convenience; but, a matter of style, class and branding. So we tried to conceptualize Starbucks; the services that it offers and what comes out of those services. We noticed how Starbucks lets you concoct your own personalized drinks. You go to the counter, come up with a funky combination of pumps and shots and you can have your personal drink. And we added a virtual drinks feature to our app concept which can let you make your drinks virtually, order them, share your recipes and store them for future orders. We also noticed that Starbucks cafes host a lot of book club events and community activities; and, the café is practically an unofficial hub to many Meet Ups. Wonder if an iPhone public calendar of events can greatly improve the way in which people find Starbucks events; people will be able to find the nearest Starbucks café and look up events calendar to find events of their interest. Finally, we thought of the Starbucks’ green campaign. An iPhone app would be an ideal way for Starbucks to infuse its green movement by making it a part of its in house environment; it’s only an iPhone app that can literally hand down this campaign directly into the hands of millions of Starbucks fans, concerned about their environment, and, who want to do something about it. In a matter of a few hours, the ChaiONE team had come up with an entire concept of a iPhone app, custom designed for Starbucks, brimming with features . It’s wonderful to know how this tiny piece of technology can inject so much more life into something that already seems to be so alive. Do you think this app could come handy for Starbucks users?

June 25, 2009 at 11:29 pm | Top iPhone Apps | 2 comments

We know that Facebook has revolutionized the way most people spend their time at work, by not working. We also know that while the phenomenon of spending a ton of time interacting with old friends and college buddies gives managers a headache, it also makes them wonder if they could increase collaboration within the company.

As Enteprise 2.0 guru and Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee said in November 2007

We need to keep in mind that most E2.0 tools are new, and that their acceptance depends on shifts in perspective on the part of business leaders and decision makers, shifts for which the word ‘seismic’ might not be an overstatement. Enterprise 2.0 tools have no inherent respect for organizational boundaries, hierarchies, or job titles. They facilitate self-organization and emergent rather than imposed structure. They require line managers, compliance officers, and other stewards to trust that users will not deliberately or inadvertently use them inappropriately. They require these stewards to become comfortable with collaboration environments that “practice the philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes, rather than making it difficult to make them” as Jimmy Wales has said. They require, in short, the re-examination and often the reversal of many longstanding assumptions and practices. It is not in the least disrespectful or contemptuous of today’s managers to say that it will take them some time to get used to this.

Dan Farber from ZDNet had this to say back in Feb, 2008:

I have a feeling that social networking adoption will sneak up on companies, as IM did in the past decade, faster than Forrester’s survey indicates. It will happen in pockets rather than as large scale deployments, which will happen when the large enterprise vendors that corporations like to deal with build it into their platforms. It will be driven by those “stewards” mentioned by McAfee who viscerally get the value of a social Web in business. I’ll predict 2009 as the year of enterprise social networks.

Is his prediction true? A Gartner study on Enterprise Social Networks found a crowded market in the medium sized business segment.

A Forrestor research shows the leaders in this space:

I went ahead and tried out Social Text that is featured in the Gartner study and Jive that is the clear leader in the Forrestor study. After several attempts at signup failed, I found Social Text to be more like a groupware system of old. To their credit, they did send me an email today apologizing for their server issues. Jive was better, but still looked and felt more like a bulletin board type discussion forum than an engaging social network.

Have you found any social networks that create engaging relationships between the user and their clients while providing avenues for collaboration in a secure environment?

June 2, 2009 at 7:05 am | Business Transformation, Social Media | No comment

My wife Seema recently got an offer to work from a leading wedding decor company as a business development manager. The company has been family run for years and this would be their first hire. The negotiations and discussion on roles and responsibility went through several revisions over a few weeks.

I thought to myself, what is it thats making this process take such a long time. Small businesses are extremely busy, usually a very small group wearing multiple hats. So they really should be completing this process faster so they could get more help.

I spent some time with them earlier in the year briefly and then again yesterday. I identified the following issues:

1. Trust – They didn’t want to bring someone in who wasn’t family and might steal their trade secrets.

2. Pay – They didn’t have a clue how to evaluate someone’s skills and make a correct offer that only brings him/her in but also retains them.

3. Business process – They didn’t have any computer software that would allow a new hire who had not been with the business for a while to make sense of anything worked. It was all in the owners heads and on pieces of paper.

What was clear was that they wanted to grow exponentially, get on the web and automate their business process.

As I worked through with them, I realized that this is not specific only to them, but to almost all small businesses including ChaiONE. Here are my recommendations to them on how to go about resolving each issue:

1. Contract to hire – I asked Seema to work for them for a month in exchange for them to do our wedding decor at no charge. This would help them see her style of work, her communication skills, work habits, organizations skills and more which would help them get to know her. This would also help them feel comfortable with her and learn to trust her.

Its a good idea to try out someone before you bring them onboard full time. We do that with our hires here in the US and are trying to do the same with our hires in India. Sometimes the timing might not work for someone to work after their regular job, but if they really want to work for you, they will put in the time. 37 signals talks about this in their book Getting Real.

2. Commission based pay – The company had offered her a mix of salary and commission initially which she promptly turned down. It was going to be a 50% cut in pay from her previous job. Their next offer was a % only based off of net profit. We then asked them for their numbers from the previous year and countered with a % that seemed fair to both parties, which after some thought, they accepted.

If you are a growing company that needs to hire for sales but wants to reduce the risk of a full time employee, consider commission. Put them on a commission that rewards them for the work and makes them feel like a partner. Instead of using forecasted numbers, use the prior year numbers to come up with a rate that would work for both parties.

3. Simplify process – If you are still using paper and files/folders to run your business and don’t want to spend a ton on software, consider free tools on the web. Google docs is a simple and easy way to do proposals, track earnings, inventory and spending. I advised the company to make a concerted effort to put down the intellectual capital that was stored in their heads online. Seema could then get to it from work or from home.

Its tough to take time away from daily business activities to learn complex new software. But start simple, start with free online tools that can capture the data so if you are not at work one day, your new hires know where to go to find the information. If they can’t get the information to do their job, they will fail! Once this stage is complete, then look into better solutions that can provide business efficiences and accelerate your business!

Seema took the job and is starting today. They dropped the title of business development manager and instead will refer to her as a partner. What a great way to increase employee engagement from the get go!

Thanks
Gaurav

May 28, 2009 at 8:58 am | Business Transformation | 2 comments

As you can see, I have been on a mission to get this blog going. It first started with our wedding blog and now become more stable with my passion for helping companies with launching products/services online.

I went through many SEO plugins and here is my top 3.

1. All in One SEO pack

2. Google XML Sitemap creator

3. SEO Slugs

You can search for them in the Plugin installer within Wordpress and install them.

Good luck!

Thanks
Gaurav

May 28, 2009 at 8:56 am | Internet Marketing | No comment

Rice University is holding their annual business plan competition April 16-18, 2009. This is supposed to be the biggest (42 teams) and the richest ($810,000) in the world. There were teams ranging from Canada to India presenting today. I am on the lookout not for the winner, but for the team that presents the top ideas that aim to transform the way we do business/lifestyle today.

One team that stood out today was Captain U. This company is connecting high school athletes with college programs and has already made $60K in revenue so far.

Over the next two days I am going to look out for and find the team that effects business transformation best.

Stay tuned!

May 28, 2009 at 8:54 am | Business Transformation | No comment

Search Engine Optimization process has been changing with time. SEO Consultants monitor the trend of search engines and accordingly make shift in their SEO strategies.

SEO Consultants use various techniques to bring their site up on the search engines but still the ignorance of basic principles of optimization kills the search engine rankings.

It has been old saying in SEO that – “We don’t make the pigs fly.” This still plays the most important role in optimization and the subsequent business generation.

We need to have an optimized website to optimize it further. Well optimized website comes up with a better design, optimized coding, etc.

Once we have a website designed and developed well we need to make it placed properly in search engines.

Some basic but still the most important factor is to take care that we do not do any mistake in basic processes.

The challenge, though, is that the search engine industry changes more quickly than most, so something that used to be a sure-fire SEO strategy can suddenly become useless…

Deadly Ignorance #1: Improper Use Of Your “Title” Tag

Not only does your title tag tell the search engines what your webpage is about, the title also appears in the search results for your site, as well as at the top of your visitors’ browsers while they’re on your site.

So this is DEFINITELY where you should put your best keywords!

But we routinely see site owners making pretty basic errors with their title tags, costing them good rankings, and sometimes, even their credibility.

So avoid these common title tag mistakes:

a. Not including a title tag at all

If you leave your title tag blank, your visitors will see “untitled document” in the search results, and the top of the browser.

This makes you look careless and unprofessional. Besides, who searches for untitled documents? You’re squandering an opportunity for better SEO, and you’re missing out on sales!

b. Using your URL as the title

Some site owners use the URLs of individual pages as the titles.

But, while a title tag like “sallysbeautyshop/cosmetics/product123.html” does contain the business name, the product category, and the product name itself, it’s not very helpful to your rankings.

Remember, your title tags are for keywords.

c. Using a friendly greeting instead of a keyword-rich title

There’s nothing wrong with a friendly greeting… in person.

But your title tag is the wrong place to say hello to your audience. And again, who searches for welcome messages?

d. Stuffing the title tag with single words

Don’t take the shotgun approach and fill your title tag with a list of words off the top of your head in the vain hope of attracting traffic.

Instead, use one or two of your TOP keyword phrases (but keep it under 70 characters so it fits on one line).

Your title tag is easy to find and easy to change in your HTML code. On most web pages, it’s right at the top, below your “head” tag, and looks like this:

Deadly Ignorance #2: Misusing Your “Keywords” Meta Tag

Once upon a time, the search engines really cared about keyword meta tags, and would determine your site’s relevance based on the content of this tag.

Well, those days are long gone, and a keyword meta tag — even one that’s well-written and contains just a couple of your best keywords — will NOT help you get a higher ranking.

BUT… a poorly written meta tag CAN get your site penalized!

So our best advice is to use the meta keyword tag for what it was intended: to help you quickly and easily identify, in one line of HTML code, what keywords you’ve optimized that page for.

Meta tags only appear in your HTML code, not anywhere on your site. They’re usually placed very close to the top of the page, near your title tag, and look like this:

Deadly Ignorance #3: Keyword Spamming Or Stuffing

The more keywords you have on your site — and the more places you repeat them — the better your search rankings will be, right?

Wrong!!

That may be the way it worked in the “olden” days, when the web was in its infancy, but the practice helped websites get high rankings for topics they didn’t even cover.

So these days, Google’s algorithm (the formula it uses to figure out where to rank pages on the search results) is much more complex than that, thanks to years of dealing with people trying to fudge the results.

So don’t even bother with these outdated tricks…

Typing your keywords over and over again in very small font at the top and bottom of your page — blocks of tiny text either in the copy or the header tags don’t improve your relevance

Increasing your keyword density above about 10% — you end up with a page full of text that doesn’t make sense to anyone reading it

Using “invisible” keywords (white text on a white background). This one is SO frowned-upon that it can get you delisted from Google altogether!

The only foolproof strategy is still to find out what kind of quality, relevant information your customers are searching for, and then give it to them. In the long run, it’s by far the best strategy.

Deadly Ignorance #4: Using Irrelevant Keywords To Attract More Traffic

So, you found some great keywords with low competition and great traffic numbers… but not quite on target with your website?

For instance, when Sarah Palin broke big in 2008, she was one of the most searched-for terms in the country. But if you’d put an article about her on your website, it wouldn’t have increased your sales!

If people come to your page or website in search of a keyword phrase, and find that your site has nothing to do with it, they’ll just leave again…

… so all the traffic in the world won’t help you if it’s off target.

And you can even end up diluting the theme of your website and irritating people so much that they report your website as spam to the search engines. And that’s not worth any number of extra visitors!

Deadly Ignorance #5: Creating Useless Content

The Internet is swamped with low-quality articles and blog posts that are created for NO other reason than to get better rankings.

But consider this: It can take potential customers 6 – 8 visits to your website — and significant exposure to your content — before they feel comfortable enough to make a purchase from you.

If the only content you’ve posted is just a few keywords repeated without any real substance, why would anyone bother coming back to read more?

This tactic can harm your reputation and your credibility… and once those are gone, it’s almost impossible to get them back!

Deadly Ignorance #6: Using “Doorway” Pages

When was the last time Google or Yahoo purchased a product from you?

We’re guessing NEVER, right? So why would you create pages on your website that are exclusively for them? But that’s exactly what people do with “doorway” pages (pages with very little text, but very high keyword density).

For example, if your page only has four words on it, and two of them are “sailboat,” that gives the page a keyword density of 50%, which is great for search results…

… but if someone actually searches on the term “sailboat” and lands on the doorway page, there’s nothing there for them! They’ll have to click further into your site (and for each unnecessary click you ask visitors to make, you lose a large percentage of them).

Doorway pages are really frowned upon by the search engines, because they clog up the index with junk. It’s just too easy to produce thousands of these pages that have a very high keyword density, but no real purpose, other than trying to build links and direct traffic to a single site.

Before you put a doorway page up, remember to ask yourself if it’s actually providing useful information to your potential customers. If so great. If not, don’t do it!

Deadly Ignorance #7: Bait and Switch – “Magic” Pages, Redirects, and Cloaking

Search engines want to make sure that once they’ve indexed a page, the visitors they send there see the same thing they did. However, this isn’t always the case.

Some site builders build two versions of their sites. The one for the spiders is full of the kind of stuff the search engines like. The one that regular visitors see is full of the flashy, off-topic effects that look cool, but it isn’t the relevant, content-rich site it’s advertised as.

This is a strategy that will end up hurting your business!

Your customers end up at a website that may not contain the keywords they were searching for, and instead, get to one with animation and all the bells and whistles that may not be important to them.

More importantly, the search engines feel ripped off, too.

When customers start pointing this kind of fraud out to them, the search engines are pretty good at delisting the offending sites. Is a few weeks of increased traffic really worth the risk of getting booted off Google for good?!

Finally, don’t use spammy redirects on your site. These redirects send visitors from a page they think they’re going to (one that’s been optimized for the search engines), to another one altogether.

This deceptive method has been overused, and the search engines no longer fall for it. It can get your site penalized or delisted.

When you can save your site from being hampered or being lost, So why take a chance?

Always be careful in choosing a SEO Consultant, make sure you get ongoing advice from an SEO expert who can tell you which strategies are working right now…

… as well as show you the strategies that you should AVOID.

May 28, 2009 at 8:19 am | Internet Marketing | No comment