photo credit: lejoe

By Matt Cook
Point Click Media

Back in the days when e-commerce was first starting to makes waves in gaining peoples trust about providing valuable credit card information online, one of the trusted sites that popped up to the forefront was PayPal. Not only was it a well known and secure system for processing payments, it was quick and easy for online vendors to implement into their websites and allowed merchants to accept major credit cards, checks and money transfers online.

This is pretty much still how PayPal operates today. It’s probably not a shocking development to learn that it is also owned by e-commerce king eBay. PayPal continues to allow online vendors to sell goods via a PayPal account and then request payment from PayPal itself once they’ve accumulated a certain level of earnings. This is a great feature for small businesses who don’t have the budget to implement full blown shopping software into their website. It’s something that they can do pretty much all by themselves. There are also no monthly fees or sales limitations.

The scalability of PayPal however, has always been in question. Although PayPal is quite easy to use from a vendor perspective, it’s really not designed to be a full-on free shopping cart software. You can hook PayPal up to just about any existing cart software but it comes at a price. If your small business is working off of a limited budget, PayPal can quickly outgrow its efficiency when adding large numbers of products to an account. It quickly becomes a chore to continuously set up new products and modify existing products from your account. Moreover, PayPal vendor protection also does not cover digital goods and there can be hefty fees for charge-backs.

Not everyone is keen on handing their credit card information over to PayPal either, and some avoid it at all costs. Due to the sheer size of PayPal and number of clients in its Rolodex, it is a popular target for fraud, spam and scams. Be wary of this before you begin accepting payments online.

Overall, PayPal is a handy tool that can be used to kick start your e-commerce project, but it is best used for a few simple products. If your business only has a handful of products or if you’re an aspiring author looking to sell your book online, then PayPal may be a perfect solution for you; but you don’t necessarily want to be selling magazine subscriptions or an online database for a major product line. At this point a more customized online shopping solution is likely your best bet. In any case, make sure you do your homework with any shopping cart software to know what you’re getting into beforehand.

If you’d like to chat about an e-commerce solution that fits your business, contact Point Click Media.

photo credit: BaylorBear78

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games have wrapped up nicely with a golden bow for our host country on the world stage, and while the celebration winds down and the hangovers begin to recede as we ease back into our otherwise generally apathetic Canadian lives, it’s clear that we’ve reached a new standard, not only in terms of the performance of our athletes, but also in how we watch them.

CTV owned the tall task of covering the games wire-to-wire across 5 different time zones. Of course, their television coverage was top notch as usual; however it’s their online presentation that garners a gold medal from a user standpoint. Using Microsoft Silverlight technology, CTV has achieved perhaps the best online application system for watching live streaming events that we’ve seen to date. From the quality of the feeds themselves, to accessibility and usability, the whole CTV Olympic online experience was a real treat for Canadians to take advantage of.  It really showed off the power of Microsoft Silverlight as a streaming tool to many skeptics and opened up a door to whole universe of possibilities when it comes to streaming online television in the future.

Usability was the key to bringing universal coverage of the games together in Canada. With a multitude of networks sharing broadcasts of events, it was certainly a daunting task to bring everything under one roof. CTV took care of it by creating essentially a network of live and archived content that turned Canadian modems into virtual PVRs. Did you miss a goal live? Rewind the live stream. Oh, the men’s bobsleigh is in the final run? Switch that to TSN. Canadians were certainly given the opportunity to watch their athletes to the fullest, and in the online equivalent of HD quality no less. It will no doubt be exciting to see how the 2010 Winter Games streaming will pioneer the streaming of online content from now on. I know I’ll be watching.

If you haven’t had a chance to take in the online coverage, it’s not too late. Pretty much all of the Olympic events are archived at CTVOlympics.ca.

I before E - except on my PC

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

How would you feel if I offered you a brand new FREE 40-inch High Definition ready flat screen television, right now, no questions asked? Would you reply with: “No thanks, Law & Order looks much better on my black & white 19-inch Hitachi with limited reception and a missing volume knob.” ? Don’t lie now…

Well unfortunately it’s not free TV day at Point.Click Media, but there is a point to my rhetorical inquiry. Why would you want to keep a piece of technology that’s fit for the pit when there’s better, faster, stronger and best of all, FREE products out there ready to knock your socks off? I’m looking at those of you still plodding along on Internet Explorer 6.

So what’s wrong with IE 6?

The average Canadian lifespan is now 80.4 years, so I’ll try to keep this as brief as possible, but there aren’t enough letters in the alphabet to create a volume of encyclopedias detailing the problems of IE 6. It was first released in 2001, which may not seem like a long time ago but by technology standards is as old as time itself. Do you remember your work station in 2001? That old milk carton with a 90 lb monitor you used to surf Napster before it got shut down? That thing came with IE 6. Why would anyone still subject themselves to such torture? Apparently self mutilation is a popular activity, as IE 6 still operates 23% of the overall browser marketplace today. It’s shocking. Old habits die hard they say….

A plethora of security holes and bugs, outdated technologies and rendering issues ensure that users who still use IE 6 simply aren’t able to get the most out of the web that they could be getting… and most people don’t even know it. To see a great example of what a webpage can look like in IE 6 versus other web browsers see our article on the browser wars. It is simply not the same user experience. IE 6 doesn’t include many new technologies that are now virtually imperative with proper web development. Many larger web-based companies have even begun shutting down support for the old maiden of madness. YouTube is a good example.

So how do I upgrade?

I thought you’d never ask.

If you don’t want to stray too far from Mother Microsoft, don’t worry, there’s still hope for you. We’re up to version 8 now folks. There’s also a variety of other browsers on the market that suit all of your web based needs: Firefox, Chrome, Safari… take your pick. If you’d like to do a little recon mission before upgrading your browser, I highly recommend the Which Browser For Me? site.

Hold up, cowboy. I’m still upset about not getting my free TV

OK, fair enough. I thought you might say that, but to be fair, nobody will be going home empty handed today. That’s right…

FREE BROWSER UPGRADES FOR EVERYONE!!!

You won’t regret it. Guaranteed.

If you’re having trouble focusing on the light of day after emerging from the dark ages, don’t adjust your set. Those menu buttons are supposed to work. This text is supposed to be here. Spread the word. Point.Click Media welcomes you to a new world.

photo credit: Search Engine People Blog

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

Last week we took a quick look at some of the most basic tools that Google Analytics has to offer and how it can offer valuable feedback data for your business. However, since Google Analytics is a free service for anyone who wishes to use it, naturally there is bound to be some negative PR from some of the naysayers out there. What we’re doing this week is looking at busting a few of those myths to prove that there’s no reason not to take advantage of this extremely powerful business tool.

Myth: “I don’t have much control over my data”

This couldn’t be further from the truth. You can virtually control any aspect of the data you wish to see or even the people you want to see it. Not only can you customize your data view directly from the Google Analytics dashboard, as with most Google products the system also allows for collaborative viewing and editing. This allows you to invite multiple users to your Analytics account.

It doesn’t stop there either. You also have the option of sharing your data with Google to either improve the Analytics product or simply for benchmarking purposes. In this case, your data is shared anonymously with others for Google’s benchmarking feature. No matter what options you may choose, your data is always well protected, which leads us to our next myth…

Myth: “Since Google Analytics is a free service, it’s very limited and full of security holes”

Limited? Hardly. The only thing limited about Google Analytics is the time you’ll be able to spend exploring the plethora of great features. The software not only tracks basic visitor data such as number of visits, return visits, page views, user location, etc… it also contains much more advanced features like cross data segmenting, event tracking, customized goals, and that’s only scratching the surface. You can even tie the system directly to your Google AdWords campaigns. To read more about how to use some of the endless parade of features with Google Analytics, visit Google’s support page at http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/.

As far as security goes, Google takes its users’ privacy very seriously in everything they create and Google Analytics is no different. They have entire teams and divisions dedicated to security and infrastructure on their end.  They have taken great measures to prevent data loss, and even offer advanced security, firewalling and routing to keep your data secure, and if you’re still worried about your data’s security issues, that brings us to myth #3…

Myth: “I’m stuck using their interface to view my data”

Maybe you don’t want to be accessing your data directly from the web. No problem. Google Analytics has a built in Export feature that allows you to save your data in a variety of formats (such as PDF or XML) so that you may keep a copy on your local computer or portable device, or even for just printing out and reading later. There’s even a function that allows you to email scheduled reports to your colleagues or your own email address. If you’re still not satisfied, Google also has a software product that you can run locally. You can find it at http://www.google.com/urchin/index.html.

Holy Hit Counters, Batman! As you can see, Google is always taking it to the next level. The days of silly odometer style hit counters embedded at the bottom of your website are long gone. With Google’s free Analytic service, not only is the price right, but you now have access to all the collected data you could possibly want for your business. Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of it?

I could go on and on, but now that you’ve seen the potential for the valuable visitor data offered by Google Analytics and what it can do for your website and your business, contact Point.Click Media to start implementing the right changes.

Image by Mark Knol

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to see who was visiting your website? I don’t mean just counting the number of hits with one of those horrible looking black and fluorescent green hit counters that you see at the bottom of some websites, but to see some actual data about who is visiting your site and what they’re looking for?

OK, the jig is up. Google has a simply magnificent piece of web-based software available to anyone and everyone who wishes to use it, and here’s the best part: It’s free. I’m talking about Google Analytics.

Google Analytics was first released under its current form in 2006, and has since grown into a supernova of website statistical data available at your fingertips. All that’s required is to sign up for a free account, set up the Analytical code through their easy-to-use interface, and paste the code into your website. Then sit back and watch the data roll in.

“All right, so what exactly am I getting here?” is what you maybe asking. To list off all of features within the Google Analytical system and their advantages could take eons, but here’s a Coles Notes version of some of the key features you can expect to find from Google Analytics via their custom reports:

• Site Usage: Find out how many people are visiting your website, what time of day they’re visiting, and where they’re coming from. Are they typing your website address directly into the address bar, or are they finding you through search engines? Also, find out percentages of unique traffic vs. returning traffic.

• Visitor Trends: How many pages do your users visit on your website? Which ones are they visiting most? How long do they stay on each page? Additionally, you can also identify where your users are from, whether they are local in your city or if you are getting traffic from Botswana. What browser are they using? Are the majority of my users on a dial-up or high-speed internet connections?  All of this data is ready available.

• Traffic Sources: In addition to finding out where your traffic is coming from, you can see how people are finding your website. What keywords are they searching for when they find you? Am I getting traffic from the Facebook group I created? How about from that association that I joined last month? It’s all covered.

• Cross-Data Referencing: Google also allows you to pinpoint your demographics even further by allowing you to filter multiple categories. What percentage of my traffic from Vancouver is using Internet Explorer vs. Firebox browser? Out of the 100 people that visited my website last weekend during our big trade show, how many went to our landing page?

• Goals: If you are selling a product or service directly online and wish to track the conversion rates, Google has that one in the bag also. With their Goals feature, you can set up custom goals for your website and receive reports on how many units you’ve sold online, or how many times your support manual was downloaded. All incredibly valuable information that is now a must have.

This, folks, is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re drooling at the possibilities of what your business could accomplish with this amazing market research and you need a towel, contact Point.Click Media to find out how to implement this outstanding feature on your website today and take the first step in getting your website to work for you.

Mozilla’s Firefox 2

Improved Tabbed Browsing

If you haven’t used a browser other then Internet Explorer 6 yet, you’ve been missing out on tabs. Tabs give you the ability to open new web pages in the same browser window, with each tab labelled so you can easily switch between your pages. Gone are the days of four browser windows for four different web pages. Internet Explorer 7 now sports the tabbing feature as well, and did a good job implementing it, but Firefox 2 has much more control over the tabs with the new ability to re-open recently closed tabs in the history, and having individual close buttons for each tab. There is also a tab dropdown menu if you have multiple tabs open. Tabs have just gotten a lot more user-friendly and once you use them you won’t know what you did without them.

Spell Checking

Most word processing programs spell check your text with red lines under the offending words, giving you the ability to right-click and choose the appropriate correctly spelled word. Firefox 2 now has this ability built into the browser, so any hotmail emails you shoot off to friends or family, webmail you send to an important business associate while away from the office, or even that new blog you want to start now has automatic spellchecking. There is now no excuse for bad spelling while on the Internet. Now if only Microsoft would put that in MSN messenger those .

Search Suggestions

Like most internet users, you probably use Yahoo or Google for your web searches, If you do then this feature is for you. While it’s nothing new to browsers in the past year or so to have the search engine built into the browser, If you use Google or Yahoo, Firefox 2 now has the ability to suggest search terms while you type. As you begin typing your desired keywords in the search field, Firefox will give you a drop-down menu of search possibilities. This can be pretty convenient and saves time and typing.

Session Restore

As a company that does a lot of Web Development, Session Restore is probably one of Point Click Media’s favourite new features of Firefox 2. For example when testing new web builds certain things can cause the browser to become unstable and crash, causing us to sometimes lose all the pages we were working on. Not anymore. If for any reason Firefox 2 crashes or is required to close by another program, it can recover your web pages, downloads and any text you had typed in a form. It will ask if you want to restore the last session or start a new one. If you want your stuff back just hit restore and you will be back up and running like nothing happened. Great Feature!

Web Feeds (RSS)

For those who are not familiar with it, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication which means sites that support this feature can “syndicate” or send news information to your RSS reader without you having to go to the page. Both IE7 and Firefox 2 have these readers built in now, joining the Mac Safari browser which has had RSS capabilities for quite a while. Do you have a favourite sports or news site? It probably has an RSS feed which means you can get sports scores and news headlines right in your browser waiting for you. Once you subscribe to the RSS feed on the site, you will receive automatic updates from your chosen site either in an RSS reader of your choice, or on your browser toolbar or bookmark menu. Firefox 2 has done a good job of organizing this feature to make it easy to use.

Live Titles

In older versions of Firefox you could always put your favourite bookmarks right in the browser interface. Now in Firefox 2 these bookmarks have what are called “live titles”. If the page your bookmark is linked to changes its title, the change will be reflected in the link. To test this I used an Ebay auction where the title changed as the bids and time left changed. This feature allowed me to continue working while watching that item I’ve been trying to find forever.

Old Standards

Firefox 2 kept many of the great things about the original Firefox like live bookmarks, popup blocker, etc. and gave them all an upgrade to run more efficiently. This means that Firefox 2 uses fewer system resources than the older version, which is wonderful when you are busy and have multiple applications open.

Security Features

We all know the Web has a dark side, but both IE7 and Firefox 2 have done a great job in adding security. Firefox 2 has upgraded capabilities such as:
Phishing Protection – Phishing is an attempt to pass off a website as a reputable and secure source for the purpose of obtaining financial information from web users. Firefox 2 will now alert you if it suspects a fraud and will help you find the correct website.
Automated Update – Firefox will automatically detect and download patches from Mozilla for any threats that arise. Another welcome feature returning from the old version which leads to…
Open Source Support – Since Firefox is based on open source code, there are thousands of developers available to quickly fix any holes discovered in the browser software and send the changes to the updater for public distribution. Open source guarantees that developers outnumber hackers for this software.

Add-on Ability

Just like its older brother, Firefox 2 allows you to add new features via its add-on website, . There’s something here for everyone, whether you want to control iTunes from the browser window, see the weather forecast each time you open Firefox, or whether you want to change the look of the browser. Firefox comes with the ability to skin the browser and make it look as different from the way it came as you want.

Final Thoughts

After spending some time using the new browsers, Firefox 2 has really impressed me, and that gets harder and harder to do after all the browsers I’ve had to use over the years. It seems we have a real browser war on our hands like we haven’t seen since the 90′s with Netscape and IE. Microsoft is putting in a very solid effort with Internet Explorer 7, and the new features of Firefox 2 this new war could take quite some time to be decided. Personally, I’m voting for Firefox 2 as it’s simply a better experience and easier to use. The session restore feature is a hands-down game winner. Believe it or not, Mozilla has stated that Firefox 3 should be ready for possible release this time again next year. So who knows what the future of the Internet Browser will be, but certainly it’s not going away anytime soon. To go to the Mozilla site and download Firefox 2 Click Here

Point.Click Media Productions tests its sites in all major browsers. If you don’t know if you are reaching everyone possible with your web investment, don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.

Running a small business can be a challenging endeavor, especially when you are looking to get the kind of software that an office needs for basic functions. E-mail has become such a necessity to business life that if you don’t have you could be in danger of missing out on possible sales. Some companies even have multiple email addresses and often from more than one provider.

In today’s technologically driven world one name has become king of the hill when it comes to productivity software. Microsoft. Yes, the almighty Microsoft Outlook. It is probably what most people who have ever worked in an office are using everyday to keep track of their emails. You may even have it open right now. But Outlook and its parent package – Microsoft Office – are unnecessarily expensive and sometimes prohibitively so. This means some people will use older versions that are out of date and may be vulnerable to the numerous email attacks out there. If you are running a small business or are looking for a way to cut costs, a free alternative would be a great advantage right? Does such a thing exist in a quality package? Yes it does.

Mozilla’s Thunderbird is a cross platform open source email client created by the same development team that created Firefox – the Internet Browser leading the new wave of alternative browser technology that has been giving Microsoft’s Internet explorer some much needed competition in the last couple years.

At its core, Thunderbird has all the features of Outlook’s smaller brother Outlook Express. It can store emails from multiple addresses and locations but also has some of the more full-featured capabilities that customers look for such as rules to sort emails automatically, junk mail filters, multiple security features, anti-phishing protection and free automatic updates. Since Thunderbird is open source software, the code it was built on is supplied free of charge to programmers around the globe, making extensions possible. Extensions are free of charge downloadable add-ons to Thunderbird that give the program more advanced features that even Outlook may not have. This lets you decided how powerful an email client you want or need for a very attractive price – FREE.

We here at Point.Click Media Productions use both Outlook & Thunderbird at our offices so we can keep in touch with the cutting edge of email techniques. Our email hosting packages have been tested with several email clients and have proved quite flexible to whatever email client you choose.

To find out more about our email packages contact us by choosing the Contact Us option on our website.

To find out more about Mozilla’s Thunderbird and how it can help you save some of your company’s money, click HERE: