I am teaching a class on how to boost your web traffic through paid and organic search traffic at Wilmington, NC’s Cape Fear Community College on Tuesday Mar. 25th from 6:00pm to 8:30pm.

The class is for anyone who wants to drive more traffic to their web site through paid (cost per click) or free (organic) searches. You will learn the basics and some advanced tips on search engine optimization and building links and how to track your website traffic.

Topics:

• Basics of Google Adwords Advertising Program
• Setting up your first campaign
• Writing effective ads
• Tracking your success; ROI, CPC, and more
• Basics of Search Engine Optimization
• The 4 elements of SEO
• How to build traffic through inbound links
• Tips and Tricks
• Intro to Google Webmaster Tools

The Class is Free

This is the second time I will be teaching this specific class, and I was well attended last time, so you must register before hand.

Visit www.cfcc.edu/sbc/ for more information.

Registration Information after the jump.

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I am still testing out OS X 10.5, and in the process need to ensure that once I convert my laptop I will still be able to sync my Nokia E70 with it.Out of the box, OS X 10.5 does not sync, but a simple install of the official Nokia iSync plugins adds the functionality back.  So far the calendars, contacts and todos sync without any big problems.

One todo from the phone, that was set to not have a due date, was imported with a 2015 date, but that is not a real issue.

• Download the iSync plugin from Nokia.
• Install it
• Relaunch iSync

This should work with any of the phones listed on that page.   

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While there is no statistical evidence that zombie outbreaks increase around Halloween, you can never be too careful. The following are some links and resources to get you prepared for the season.

Emergency Zombie Defense Station

You can never be too prepared. Learn how to build this important toolkit. Read more here.

The Zombie Handbook By Max Brooks

“The Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now. Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, this book covers everything you need to know, including how to understand zombie physiology and behavior, the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home for a long siege, and how to survive and adapt in any territory or terrain.” from Amazon

Top 10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack

1. Organize before they rise!
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use your head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don’t need reloading.
5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
9. No place is safe, only safer.
10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

Video after the break.

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“In April 2007, A List Apart and An Event Apart conducted a survey of people who make websites. Close to 33,000 web professionals answered the survey’s 37 questions, providing the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide.”

This is an exhaustive survey of who makes websites, including Project Managers, Webmasters, Developers and Creative Directors .

Some interesting results:

• 72.5% have their own blog.
• 46.5% had a field of study unrelated to current web work.
• 32.2% have only been in their current job 1 year or less.
• Project Managers had the highest job satisfaction (51.6%), Webmasters, lowest (40.3%)

View results here http://www.alistapart.com/articles/2007surveyresults

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On Wednesday night, I traveled to Chapel Hill to get a head start on the drive to CED’s annual Tech Conference. The conference was great, but that is another story. While sitting in a friend’s yard, we were interrupted by the Carrboro police looking for someone who had called 911.

My friend Blake Watters, knew immediately it was him. His Blackberry 8820 has a great feature, it allows your to accidentally call 911 while the phone is locked.  When in key lock mode, you get three options:

1. Unlock Phone
2. Emergency Call
3. Cancel

I guess some brain trust at RIM decided that instead of accidentally calling your brother or mother-in-law and leaving a garbled message on their voicemail, your phone should be able to accidentally call the police by sitting on your phone.

The best part is that since the 911 dispatcher has access to the triangulation information from the cell towers, they are able to find your withing a couple of hundred feet. The officers were understanding but I could imagine a time when they would not be so interested to learn about the technical reason you made a call to 911.

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I wanted to thank the nice people at AT&T and their PR firm for sending me both an iPhone and a BlackBerry 8820 to test out. Currently, I am putting the two phones through their paces and I promise a full report on the pro and cons of both phones soon. They are giving my Nokia N70 a run for the money but I have not made up my mind yet. Stay tuned…

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This article was originally published in the Oct. issue of Greater Wilmington Business
Unless you have been hiding under a rock all summer, you have been well aware of the public relations machine behind the launch of Apple’s iPhone. With all the focus on the iPhone and iPod, it sometimes looks like Apple is not in the personal computer business any more. October will mark the launch of the new Macintosh operating system (OS), Leopard, which promises to improve to include some pretty interesting and useful new features. All indications are that users will not face the types of problems that have confounded Windows Vista upgrader and the new version should run on most modern Apple hardware without additional RAM or other improvements. Traditionally, Apple OS upgrades have actually made older Apple computers run better.
In honor of the release of the new OS, I have compiled some reasons that now is a good the time to purchase a Macintosh computer.
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We have launched the new version of the web site for the Small Business Technology Development Center in Wilmington, NC.. (www.csb.uncw.edu/sbtdc/)

My goals in updating the site were as follows:

• Streamline the navigation and make content easier to find
• Build the site with current web standards and ensure ADA compliance
• Update content on the site to reflect new staff and documents.

Overall the site is a huge improvement over the previous version and can now be maintained by SBTDC administrative staff via Macromedia Contribute.

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Originally Published in the September Issue of the Wilmington Business Journal (http://www.wilmingtonbiz.net/)

A remote access VPN connections is sort of like a cell phone. At first, people said “why would I need one, I have a phone at home?” Once you are able to access your work computer from a remote location you will find yourself saying “how could I imaging living with out it.” Connecting to your office network remotely can be incredibly helpful when you travel or simply forget to send that email before you leave for the day.
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Originally Published in the August Issue of the Wilmington Business Journal (http://www.wilmingtonbiz.net/)

The “information super highway” was once the common way to describe the internet. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska became fodder for late night comedians when he said the internet “is not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes.” But however you envision this global network of connected networks, it is important to know that data is handled by a number of computers and can be read unless it is encrypted.

The founders of the internet did not see any reason to protect the data flowing around the networks because all of the information was for education and government uses. Today the internet is a very different place and digital data is often very private. Internet connections also now have the bandwidth to allow us to access company files, applications and servers when outside of the office or to link offices together to share resources. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is designed to allow data to be shared securely over the internet by encrypting the information as it travels. There are a wide range of options for VPNs and this article only scratches the surface, but should serve to illuminate some of the reasons why you would want to utilize some method of VPN in your organization. Read the rest of this entry »

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