|2 GO 2| Marketing - Internet, Search and Marketing

I recently decided to embark on a project to create a Solar Powered Generator. It had been a while since I have had to apply my training I gained from the electronics principles courses I took  while I was in The United States Air Force, but much to my surprise I remembered a lot of my training having not used it in a while. There was an extensive amount of research and the most daunting tasks weren’t actually designing the Solar Power Generator, but finding places that had a good selection of low cost, but still good quality parts for building this project. I found that the best one stop shop for finding all the parts needed for the project was Amazon.com. After numerous Google Searches and countless hours online researching and asking questions, I finally came up with a solid product that was low cost, but efficient and safe. The goal of this project is to create a completely renewable energy server farm. The server farm utilizes a small community of Apple Mac Minis which consume roughly 45 watts to operate. The reason the 500 watt output number is needed, is because the output of the solar panel generator will interface with an UPS before the power reaches the Mac Minis.  A design flaw in this is the loss of energy from the solar power collected, to the Mac Minis themselves. The output is never equal to the input.

The first part of my project entailed laying out the technical specifications of what I wanted. Below were the requirements of what I wanted.

·          Safe for in-home use

·          Capability to provide at least 500W of power

·          Under $1000 in parts

·          Simple design that anyone can replicate

·          Portable, with the ability to disassemble and reassemble with ease

·          Will last a minimum of 3 years with no replacing of parts

Given those specs a few questions arose that I needed to get answered prior to the design and implementation phases of my project.  A few of those questions I came up with during my brainstorming the design phase are listed below.

1.      How many batteries will I need to support the 500 Watt output feature?

2.      How many Solar panels will I need to support the 500 Watt Output requirements?

3.      What are some safety considerations to look into?

4.      Why are Marine Batteries recommended?

5.      Do I need to use “sealed” batteries?

6.      How do I choose the correct voltage regulator for my project?

7.      Should I wire the batteries in parallel or series?

8.      How many solar panels will my project require?

Battery concerns.

There are several different options for batteries. For a low cost solution, used fork lift batteries from a military surplus store will suffice. If your generator is intended to be used in the home, it is recommended a “sealed battery” be used which can be achieved using a “sealed marine battery”. Other battery concerns are the length of life and quality of power production. The power production issues can be addressed by using a “deep cycle battery”. The batteries are the second most important part of the generator. Batteries dictate how often you must replace parts and how much power you can generate. If you wish to keep your generator outside, consider purchasing a battery box to help prevent the outdoors from ruining your battery.

Solar Panel Considerations.

Solar panels are probably the most important aspect of your design. Quality, price and durability are the three most important factors of concern when trying to determine which solar panel(s) you should buy. There are many vendors that supply Solar Technology and manufacture Solar Panels. A few of the Solar Panel manufacturing companies are Sharp, BP Solar, etc.

Key Components.

Solar Panel

Voltage Regulator

The voltage regulator chosen was a 7 Amp Charge controller made by a company called, “Sun Force”. You can buy the bundled Sun Force 60 Watt Solar panel with the 7 Amp Charge controller as well for under $500. If that price is a bit steep, for under $150 you can purchase the bundled 15 Watt Sun Force Solar Panel with the charge controller. The latter option has limitations on the power you will produce, but if is best to start off with a low scale solution until you have perfected you design. The great thing about solar powered generation systems is that they are very easy to scale and build onto. As power requirements are demanded, it is fairly simple to reconfigure your solar powered generation solution.

Resources.

Some great sites are available on the internet to refer to for the planning of your solar powered design. One such site, Solar Home, offers guides and tips as well as parts to build you Solar Project.

A few good books that are available to help assist in designing, understanding, and implementing a successful Solar Powered Generator Project are listed below.

Solar Power Your Home for Dummies.

Photovoltaics: Design and Intsallation Manual.

I used to work for a company I swear was not doing the right thing. Have you ever wondered if you could re-winded time, pause it, and then see what a person is really up to? The reason I ask this is because this telemarketing company I used to work for just seemed to dirty and scandalous to be legitimate. I was only 16 years old, so I was naive and it was the only company that would hire me during the hours I was at school, because they called and annoyed people from 5PM - 9PM when they were home. The company name was Skyline Productions, the name in itself from hind sight sounds pretty shady and unethical for a telemarketing company. The Skyline in “Skyline Productions” represents the street name the office was located in Northern CA.

Our jobs consisted on making phone calls continuously with a few breaks for 10-15 minutes and then we were off at 9PM. The people that worked there were extremely sketchy, one guy “Danny” was good friends with the boss whose name was “Ray”. Ray was fat and smoked a whole lot, Danny was a skinny guy who walked with a limp because he got injured in war (Danny was a US Combat Vet). Danny was a good guy, but I always had this feeling Ray and Danny knew more than what was going on. I always heard Ray comment on the “owner” of the company who never seemed to show up, and call only a few times to get the numbers for the night. Most of the time, it was Ray’s wife calling all the time to see how he was doing, even mistresses called his line a few times that I over head.  There were a few other guys there, mostly fat lumberjack looking guys like “Pau Bunion, but the most memorable other than Danny and Ray, was a guy named “Pat”. Pat was an uber douchebag tool, who was always having shit with his “old lady”, but seemed to bring just about every problem in his life, on himself. Pat would to to work high as fuck on drugs, not marijuana, like methamphetamine. It was sad to see someone so funny, but so lost in life. Pat would come in one week muscled out and ripped, then he would use meth for a month and get skinny and always have bloodshot eyes. In between these spells he would get fired, but Ray would always  “talk to Roy” and Pat would somehow be hired back on. A few times I got into it with the guys at work, but it was Ray who I have the most battles with. Ray was the boss and standing up to him will piss him off. God forbid that fat fuck Ray would get out of his seat, he was doing so to probably whip your ass.

Danny spent half of the week collecting money from customers on the tickets we wrote,  and Ray did sometimes as well. Both drove rickety vehicles, but Danny used this econo-line vehicle to go collecting the donations on the tickets. Danny and Ray always got mad when they came back to the office, if they went to a house and collected no donation. Ray would get more mad.It wasn’t until I saw Ray stress out on a few days we didn’t get a lot of donation tickets to collect that I realized, Ray the boss, was probably the owner, “Roy” he always talked about. And that the few phone calls, were actually other mistresses calling Ray to pretended to be Roy in order to scare us. I came to wonder, is this operation run by Ray and Danny is a silent partner, or can this really be a legitimate company? I never thought to find out, but it would be interesting to know.

There are so many social bookmarking sites out there it´s hard to figure out which ones are the most effective. We decided to investigate the main SBS available to make things easier for you.  After navigating the web for several hours we came up with a top 25 list of the most popular bookmarking sites and finally narrowed them down until we had our top 11.

The parameters used to grade them were: Page Rank and Web Traffic Position according to Alexa:

Page Rank   is a “uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page´s value” in other words, it tells you how important a page is and it´s relative importance in the web.

Alexa  is a well-known website that provides information on web traffic and ranking about other sites. Alexa helps us determine which websites have more traffic, awards a ranking and provides basic information about the site´s public.

First, we checked their PR, only five out of the 24 pages had a page rank lower than 7, we got rid of those. Next, we checked their traffic with the Alexa tool. The best traffic was 1 and the worse was over 185 thousand; since social bookmarking sites are all about sharing with as many people as possible, we left aside any pages with a ranking higher than 8,000.

The following are the TOP 10 Social Bookmarking Sites in the web:

1. Yahoo Buzz: Personalized content and search options. Chatrooms, free e-mail, clubs, and pager.
2. Flickr : Picture galleries available with chat, groups, and photo ratings.
3. Digg:  Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog
4. Technorati:  Real-time search for user-generated media (including weblogs) by tag or keyword. Also provides popularity indexes.
5. StumbleUpon:  StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more.
6. Twitter:  Social networking and microblogging service utilising instant messaging, SMS or a web interface.
7. Mixx:  Mixx is your link to the web content that really matters.  
8. Propeller:  Propeller is a social news portal, meaning that it is programmed by you – the audience. Our members post links to stories from all over the Web.
9. Delicious:  A social bookmarks manager. Using bookmarklets, you can add bookmarks to your list and categorize them.
10. Reddit:  User-generated news links. Votes promote stories to the front page.
11. Raw Hub: The Raw news with no fat. Users rate submissions to filter news and stories base on their quality, relevancy, and content. If Digg and Reddit were to have a baby, this would be their son.
    

  I´ve heard people arguing for hours about which type of marketing is more effective, online or traditional marketing.  Leaving aside my slight preference for the internet, I must recognize both types are very important, and that traditional marketing is not quite obsolete but important and key to push our online efforts.

 Why would you use only one hand when you have two to carry the heavy weight? Continue using the traditional tools, they work, and most importantly they act as a great support to your online marketing strategies. However, don´t be afraid to take advantage of the new and fascinating technologies and techniques used online to increase your return of investment (ROI).

 Giants, such as Dell, understand this perfectly. They use traditional marketing as a tool to bring potential clients to their websites.  The internet not only creates awareness of your product or service; it also educates and informs your potential clients; exposes your brand and identity; and accomplishes one of your main goals: generate sales.

  The reasons why people prefer internet are quite easy to understand. First of all, the research is much faster and easier. Clients do not need to leave the comfort of their homes to visit your store, or to be placed in hold while your representatives find the information they are looking for.

 It´s much easier to sit at home, in your pajamas, turn your computer on, and find the information yourself. Oh, and while it loads, you can check other websites, read emails or chat with your friends. Internet is a great research tool; you can learn about the store´s latest promotions and specials, addresses, inventory, terms and conditions, and find almost all the answers to your questions.

 And the greatest news is, it doesn´t only benefit your target audience, it benefits your business.  Being listed in the internet, preferably in the first page of the search result pages, exposes your products and services to millions of new customers gaining the so expected online presence.

 Thousands of companies have learned that going “online” saves them a remarkable amount of money.  Some have incorporated online tools that allow consumers to self service and to complete purchases online without support of their representatives, taking a huge load off their call centers and stores.

 If you already have a great traditional marketer but are looking for an online marketing professional to help you with your new website design, IT consultation and Search Engine Optimization, look for one who is willing to adjust to your needs and concerns with an extraordinary return of investment.

Over 1.5 million Facebook users are protesting the change to a new Facebook interface. This is an interesting thing to note, because it shows how things web designers do to ad more features or improve a site, may be taken negatively. Most web site users prefer to have a static look, meaning that any drastic change to a web site they enjoy will be a turn off and infact hurt the web site operator’s user base. It is important to understand that slow phasing of changes is much more accepted than a complete and drastic change to the User Interface. Currently the 1.5 million users jumping on the protest bandwagon only represent about 1% of the users at Facebook. If this protest catches wind, it could represent a larger precntage therefore causing Facebook to cave in to user requests to not change the UI.

The rule is clear as water: Treat your employees the way you want them to treat your customers.

You would be amazed with the solutions and ideas collaborators come up with in times of need, if you give them the chance. Of course we are not saying let them take direction of your company, we are saying: Motivate, Empower and Pamper. Teach them your vision and mission, share your numbers with them, provide the necessary tools, motivate and coach them until they are ready to fly solo.

For centuries employees have been forced to leave their brains at home and follow orders from their superiors, day after day, losing the capacity to react with logic when issues arise. They must stick to the chain of command, even if they know they are making big mistakes; they are not allowed to question the decisions of their superiors.

Leader companies are evolving, learning, changing. Let´s take, for instance, the example of one of the most valuable and profitable enterprises we know today, Google, the search engine titan. Google employees take advantage of great benefits, such as massages, unlimited gourmet food, dry cleaning, free transportation with internet, spa with pools, child care, free medical services, among others.

Google took the idea of pampering their employees to another level. But if you are not a millionaire, and you can´t afford such luxuries, there are plenty of other ways to keep your staff content, motivated, productive, and exceeding your expectations. And the great news is that money is not the only solution.

You want to cover the second, third and fourth levels of Maslow´s hierarchy of needs. In these three levels we find certain needs that employers can cover to ensure worker satisfaction: security of employment and property, belonging, respect of others, confidence and achievement.

Usually employees join you for several reasons: pay, stability, environment, opportunities and benefits. Once they are part of your team and have proven to be key players in your game, it´s time to tie them up. Besides providing constant feedback and coaching, you need to engage your collaborators making them feel involved in the decision making processes and challenge them to provide new solutions and ideas.

In general, human beings need to feel that they “belong” somewhere, that they are respected and that their work is appreciated; they need to feel useful and that they are being coached to succeed. Are you giving your helpers these types of perks?  Are you considering their ideas and developing their skills? These “free perks” could really make a difference in your personnel rotation levels.

Remember, you and your clients directly benefit from your employee satisfaction levels. The positivity at work is contagious and critical; empowered personnel with clear goals will take your consumers through a totally new and pleasant experience.

Destination Marketing: Going the extra mile!

Would you like for once to enter a question in a search engine and actually find the answers you were looking for in the first place? Of course you would! And so would your visitors…

SEO for dummies #10, the last release, strives to create in the entrepreneur who is starting and enhancing his website the urge to provide the visitors an unparallel service, excellent and rich information and to raise satisfaction levels along with the ROI.

There are hundreds of thousands of mediocre websites, some of them have done a great SEO work that takes them to the first SEPR, but they have failed in providing the right answers and to satisfy the needs of their particular niches. Eventually, this will translate into a decrease on the website’s credibility and trust, affecting conversion rates and sales profits as well.

Successful websites will anticipate user’s needs and create solutions designed to satisfy them, giving them exactly what they expect when they click on the link, focused, clear and valuable information.

Visitors will not be forced to keep searching the web for the right responses, they have all the answers they need in your website. Your goal is to become a MUST read; a favorite; a bookmarked site they return to over and over; a site that those who enter recommend to their friends right away.

If you focus not only into reaching great traffic levels, but into becoming an authority of your niche; if you strive to offer excellent resources and solutions that make your users come back; if you decide to turn into the first and last page your visitor needs to go it in order to get their questions answered; you became what many others call, a Destination Marketing Site.

Yes, this means a lot of work. But, have your heard the old saying: “No pain, no gain”? In order to get to the top, you need to use different paths, you need to make an effort; you need to work with an excellent SEO professional that understands your own needs and goals; you need to set yourself apart from the rest.

Why is it so important to retain customers, if there are so many people online I can get to? Easy! You need gain a positive company branding and to increase of your credibility in order to augment your return of investment (ROI). Creating loyal readers and buyers is the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to not only keep them coming back, but also have them spread the good word about your business. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful and cheapest tools available. Use it!

This is all for now. We hope you enjoyed reading and learning the SEO basics with us. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please, feel free to contact 2go2 marketing.