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101 Web Technology has come onboard as a sponsor of the Batemans Bay Youth Foundation (BBYF). We are excited to be able to provide assistance to this great organisation which enables youth from the Batemans Bay area to achieve their goals.

The Batemans Bay Youth Foundation was established in 1994 and as a result of approaches by the Foundation a relationship has developed with educational and corporate institutions so that additional scholarships can be made available. To date over $200,000 dollars has been provided in scholarships offered through this initiative.

These scholarships are in addition to those provided by the Foundation from funds sourced from other sponsors and donors.

The auDA Foundation is a charitable trust that was established by auDA in 2005. Its general objectives are to promote and encourage education and research activities that will enhance the utility of the Internet for the benefit of the Australian community.

auDA staff currently process grant applications and the Foundation typically offers grants in the range of $5,000 to $20,000 to not-for-profit organisations, students and research institutions.

There have been five grant rounds since 2006, totalling $1,286,338 in funding to 72 projects.

The auDA Board is conducting a review of the Foundation.  The purpose of the review is to:

• evaluate the effectiveness and reach of the auDA Foundation grants,
• evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the auDA Foundation operations, and
• provide recommendations to the auDA board about what changes (if any) should be made to the auDA Foundation charter and the operations.

auDA have drafted a Discussion Paper to set out the current situation and invite comments and suggestions for change.

The closing date for submissions is Monday 16 January 2012.
More information is available at http://www.auda.org.au/about/foundationreview

101 Web Technology has recently launched a new business line iApp Marketing. iApp Marketing leverages the power of collaboration to develop your ideas for iPod, iPhone and iPad applications.

Offering a Collaborative iOS Application Development environment we provide a confidential submission process for your iOS (iPod, iPhone and iPad) application ideas. iApp Marketing, will work with you to develop your application ideas for the iPod, iPad or iPhone. If approved iApp Marketing is able to fund the fund the development of your iOS application and work in a capped profit share arrangement. (ie: No Cash Down to you).

Alternatively you are welcome to work with any of our specialist user interface designers, developers and online marketers to help get your iOS application into the world.

If you would like to know more check out www.iappmarketing.com.au

The web development world has had to deal with Internet Explorer 6 aka IE6 for over 10years now and it has been the bane of our coding existence. Its lack of support for the box model, constant use of CSS hacks and conditional elements. The community has had enough, even Microsoft itself has dropped support infact IE6 died 1 March 2010. http://ie6funeral.com/

With the death of IE6 2.0% of internet users in Australia are still using IE6, but this is too much! We need to get IE6 usage down to below 1% to become part of the coveted Circle of Champions (http://www.ie6countdown.com/champions.aspx) We will join the ranks of Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.

If Australia is to join the ranks, how will we celebrate? what can we do? what pictures will best sum up the happiness the web development community feels at our achievements?

Hmm time to put on the propeller/thinking hats….

We have just signed on the dotted line and sealed our partnership with MailGuard. MailGuard is a 100% Australian Owned, operated and locally supported and is a leading provider of Cloud-based email filtering and internet security solutions for business. Their range of SaaS (Software as a Service) security solutions can provide you with effective spam, virus and malware protection. MailGuard also offer email continuity, email archiving, image monitoring and website monitoring services.

The partnership with MailGuard allows us to extend our offerings in the mail space, with increased storage, better spam control and seamless access between the office your smart phones, laptops and mobile device if your out on the road.

We look forward to sending our further information as we finalise our plans and the services provided in the initial phases. If you would like to organise a free 14 day trial of the MailGuard service, please get in contact and we will be happy to organise on your behalf. During the trial you will have direct access to our support team to answer any of those technical questions.

When you are searching for hosting for your business there are a couple of things to consider and price is not always the deciding factor.

Shared V Dedicated

Shared.

Often cheapest form of hosting, trouble is most businesss will start onsell at full price. Shared infrastructure can be bought for as little at 5;.95 a month for 1gb. Often hosting companies will carve that up to 100+ accounts charging 9.95 each. Makes good business sense, until some on the shared service uploads damaging code and the servers IP’s are blacklisted. This not only affects your site, but any one on the server. Think about it a server could have 500gb + of storage space. So simple maths that is 500 resellers, each selling 100 accounts, thats over 5000 websites out there that are sharing the same resources, same IP, same name server etc etc… The potential to go down hill very quickly is there.

Too often have we seen clients websites offline due to this issue.

Dedicated.

VPS Virtual Private Server. This is for all purposes your own server, though without the physical casing. We will most often have direct access to the administration of the box and more control over the resources and how they are used.

When you are buying hosting from your web development company, simply ask them. Where is my site being hosted and what is the configuration of the hosting? You as the business and site owner have the right to fully understand where your site is being hosted.

We have seen too many clients come unstuck in the shared world and have been offline for sometimes up to 48hours, while the IP is being cleared from the blacklists. At 101 we have a dedicated server with our own IP range, this means while there are multiple sites on the server, we have written each one of them and understand the code that is up there. Within minutes we are able to identify problems and have them resolved in a timely manner.

There is a sence of security that comes with a company that understands that your business is dependent on the reliability of your providers and that is why we will not recommend a shared reseller environment to our clients.

We have just launched a new website for HOTImage Photography Ulladulla. This business was struggling to achieve strong results within the search engines and would not even rank 1st using their business name, let alone Wedding Photographers Ulladulla.

Being a photographer based in Ulladulla a scenic part of coastline on the NSW South Coast, HOTImage Photography wanted to capture some of the coveted wedding photography market. After comments heard that they didn’t know they did weddings, or I really like your product but we have already booked with a competitor. HOTImage commissioned 101 Web Technology to develop an online marketing plan that would consist heavily of search engine optimisation and social media marketing.

The results speak for themselves within 24hours of launching the new site they ranked number 1 for their business name, within 2 weeks they are on the first page for Wedding Photographers Ulladulla and we have only just got started. HOTImage has further commissioned 101 Web technology to implement their internet marketing strategy for the next year and with results like this at the start of the process, who knows where we will be in 12months time.

If your business is struggling to be found on the internet, we can most likely help so drop us a line or send through an email we are always open to helping you make the most of your business’s web presence.

Take a look at HotImage Photography’s website

We have posted previously in our Internet Marketing category about Uneke Furniture and the success they have had simply by being involved in online forums, it was that post that lead us to the second re-development of http://www.unekefurniture.com.

For the second time round working with Uneke Furniture, 101 has not only created a fresh new design we have developed the business’ social media strategy for the next 12months. The social media strategy is leveraging the power of viral marketing, along with developing an online following with Twitter, Facebook and their regular online newsletters to subscribers.

The new website can be found at http://www.unekefurniture.com or Google phrase Canberra Custom Furniture.

With 101 on hand to support the mechanics of the strategy Uneke Furniture is well placed to further build on the exceptional reputation of this Canberra based business. If you would like to discuss your social media, internet marketing or search engine optimisation strategies please contact 101 Web Technology.

Normally we don’t post about our new projects until they are complete and launched. But this one is a bit different, we are excited about the build for Top Cat Charters in Batemans Bay. This site is really going to a great example of tying in all elements of internet marketing to give this business a fresh new face. The owners of the business have recently taken over and are keen to move the business into the next phase.

A major component of this build is the social media management which utilises Facebook and Twitter. Everyone that goes out on the boat whether its for a day of game fishing, whale watching or sightseeing, love the experience being on water is calming and people want to share those memories. Top Cat will be capturing those memories as tweets and status updates to share the experiences with past and new clients.

A big success factor for any business is the repeat and referral trade. As they say, give good service the client tells one person, give bad service they tell 10. Well why not tell 1000 people at the one time your great story with pictures. That is what 101 Web Technology will be enabling for Top Cat Chaters in Batemans Bay.

If you can’t wait for the new site you can take a look at their site here: http://www.topcat-charters.com.au/ (Just a holding page to get you to pick up the phone at the moment.)

Recently Aussies may have seen the king of retail Gerry Harvey (CEO of the Harvey Norman chain) on ACA blaming there reduced sales figures over Christmas due to lack of GST not being applied on online sales. Is it really the lack of a 10% tax, or is it just that online stores are simply providing a positive user experience and that is what people are preferring. Shopping online gives you access to the world a global range of products, more competition and offers convenience.

A lot of people may not realise that when they are on the internet shopping for a product they are going through many of the same motions you do, when your in the physical world. Im into cars and technology, so lets use cars for this story.

Im wanting to buy a new car and during lunchtime I head up the road to the local dealerships and I open the door to the showroom and I see the products. I review and look at each one and then I move onto the next showroom, repeating the process.

On my way to each showroom Im thinking about what I saw in the last one, I have narrowed down the model that I like Im now off to the next showroom to check out their offering. Now after going through 4-5 dealerships, I have picked 3 cars that I like from 3 different manufacturers. However at the end of the lunch time break and looking through the brochures that are all presented differently and the questions start, what are the specs again? what do I get for the money? what is standard features? what are optional features? what is the warranty? and the list goes on.

Take this same process online, I go one website like Redbook.com.au. I type in my criteria and select the cars I like, I am able to compare the cars side by side. I see the list price, trade in value, standard features, specs, fuel consumption and a lot of other detailed information. This view allows me to narrow down my choice quickly and easily, then Im off to the dealer to discuss price and get a drive.

The side by side comparison function is a great tool that allows users to quickly identify the product that best fits there needs. This feature is great for sites that allows them to present multiple products from there range in a single view. Another feature we have implemented is a virtual assistant who through a series or questions is able to deliver a set of products that may suit the user. Or Amazons referral feature, where when you are viewing a product you are told “people who bought this, also bought …..” I personally have used this feature alot. There are many ways to create a positive user experience on your website and it can be simply having contact details prominently displayed. This builds confidence in your product and builds repour with your business. Doing what you can to show that you are not a fly by night, will help with your user experience and you can compete with the so called “big guys”.

The user experience online can often be improved by looking at what the experience is like in the physical store. What information can you give the user to inform them enough to build confidence? Imagine the time when you have walked into a shop just browsing and the enthusiastic sales person comes up, (you know the one) and you get all the information about the product and other products all at once. What don’t you like about that experience? If your like me, its the fact that its an information overload, too much all at once.

For me I just want to see what I like and if I want more information, I will get up close to the product, step back check out the other product. Then when I do have the specific questions I do like a hand with my decision.

Learning from this experience and applying to your online store, you can scale back your detailed information and start introducing more information slowly as the user is progressing into the site. This process of layering provides the user cognitive keys that they are getting what they want, slowly they are making up there mind before you have even shown them a “order now” button. Its not smoke and mirrors, its about understanding your users and providing a positive user experience.

I do believe that a positive user experience will convert to more sales for your business, whether on or offline.