There’s an App for that! The Facebook App Store

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In the past few days, Facebook has announced – no, not another change to your page-but rather, that they are trying, once again, to have an app store. The Facebook app store will be called The App Center and is touted as being a way to make Facebook apps, Web apps and mobile apps easier to find. The hope is that by having a central location for apps, that it will be easier to find the assorted apps available.

 

However, this central location does not mean that developers would find their app in The App Center just because they comply with their guidelines. In fact, Facebook reserves the right to “remove apps that do not meet a high quality bar.”  It should be noted that Facebook’s standards are not as extensive as Apple’s, but they are design to serve the same goal: “To safeguard the user experience by excluding obnoxious, tasteless or otherwise undesirable apps.”

 

Of course, Facebook sees The App Center as more than “just a central location for apps” but also as a revenue making opportunity. Developers will have the opportunity to offer paid apps using an easily set up payment feature. In addition, Facebook will take a 30% cut of paid app sales.

 

So, what apps will be in the App Center? That remains to be seen. Be on the lookout for the App Center to open its virtual doors sometime before the end of the month.

About the author

Founder and President of Chakery, Malcom Chakery fully understands the workings of web based business operations. His expertise in marketing, SEO, web design and development, makes Malcom  qualified and successful in handling the day-to-day operations, sales and support of his clients. Malcom has a clear understanding of operational procedures, all aspects of website design, seo and promotional activities. As a stickler for detail, Chakery believes in providing greater than expected support, superior customer service and innovative programs that exceed customer expectations. To learn more about Chakery please visit www.chakery.com or call 1-855-CHAKERY.

Twitter Has Your Back: Twitter Protects Privacy

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Last week, Twitter announced that they will not turnover data on Malcom Harris, who is being prosecuted for his involvement in Occupy Wall Street last year. When the subpoena for records was not quashed, Twitter rose to Harris’ defense, pointing out that within its terms of service, Twitter states, “You (the users) retain your rights to any content you submit, post, or display on or through the services.” Furthermore, Twitter’s legal department is backed by the ACLU, saying that Twitter is standing up for free speech.

However, it should also be noted that last month, a bipartisan bill called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) was passed. The bill allows the Feds and corporation (i.e. social media, e-mail providers, etc.) to share Internet content without or other judicial oversight. However, CISPA has not voted on the Senate.

So what can you do to protect yourself when using social media sites? Here are 9 privacy tips and tools, and while some of them may seem to be “no-brainers” they still bear repeating:

  1. Never share personal information such as phone numbers, addresses or credit card info on your social media accounts.
  2. Choose a complicated password that has at least components (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols).
  3. Do not post pictures that give indicators of where you live or expose exact locations.
  4. Do not use the geotagging features as it tells people where you are at any time you decide to tweet, post, etc…
  5. Check your privacy setting to see who can view your profile and posts.
  6. Be sure you know and understand your employer’s social media policy.
  7. Cocoon is a service that protects your browser’s private sessions. There is a free version as well as a paid for version that is less than $10 a month.
  8. Disconnect is a free download that provides a suite of browser extensions that prevents third parties from following you around on the Web.
  9. PrivacyScore.com rates websites and Facebook applications based on what they do with user information and how they track users.

Yes, Twitter is willing to do their part to protect their users, but taking measures to preserve is our own responsibility.  Using the tips and tools above are a good way to help protect yourself. Of course, should you find yourself in a situation like Harris’ then knowing Twitter “has your back” is nice.   Happy Tweeting!

About the author

Founder and President of Chakery, Malcom Chakery fully understands the workings of web based business operations. His expertise in marketing, SEO, web design and development, makes Malcom  qualified and successful in handling the day-to-day operations, sales and support of his clients. Malcom has a clear understanding of operational procedures, all aspects of website design, seo and promotional activities. As a stickler for detail, Chakery believes in providing greater than expected support, superior customer service and innovative programs that exceed customer expectations. To learn more about Chakery please visit www.chakery.com or call 1-855-CHAKERY.

Making the Most of Social Media

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  • 225 million Twitter accounts
  • 135 million business professionals on LinkedIn
  • 70 million WordPress blogs
  • 39 million Tumblr blogs
  • 800 million Facebook accounts
  • 250 million daily Tweets
  • 100 million active Twitter users
  • 350 million Facebook mobile phone logins
  • 2 billion daily video streams on YouTube

 

Can you see a trend here?  Perhaps, something more significant than a trend? Most certainly! Social media sites are “the place” online. And, if you are eager to build brand recognition and make the most of affiliate marketing and promotional advertising, then social media sites are some of the best places to be.

 

Many companies have found that social media sites are the best way to announce new business gains, link to current industry news and post topics that might be of interest to followers. In fact, Facebook has made it especially easy with the introduction of its Timeline feature where companies can engage with their customers through both public and private interactions.

 

However, there is a drawback to the power of social media. This adverse effect is how easy it is for people to express negative opinions and thoughts. These opinions can spread like wild fire and do significant damage to your brand. So what can you to protect your brand? Here are 4 steps you can take, as suggested by Website Magazine:

 

  1. Make sure that all communication is constructive as possible.
  2. When posts are made by your followers, respond as quickly as you can.
  3. If you are wrong/make a mistake correct it; when necessary, apologize.
  4. Have preset strategic guidelines for “what to do if…”

 

Social media is a rapidly growing platform. Make it work for you by having frequent posts, interacting with followers and quickly putting out fires before they spread. By taking the time to know your customers, you will build your brand one action at a time.

 

About the author

Founder and President of Chakery, Malcom Chakery fully understands the workings of web based business operations. His expertise in marketing, SEO, web design and development, makes Malcom  qualified and successful in handling the day-to-day operations, sales and support of his clients. Malcom has a clear understanding of operational procedures, all aspects of website design, seo and promotional activities. As a stickler for detail, Chakery believes in providing greater than expected support, superior customer service and innovative programs that exceed customer expectations. To learn more about Chakery please visit www.chakery.com or call 1-855-CHAKERY.

Website Redesign: Can You Repurpose Your Content?

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So, you have decided to bite the bullet and do a website redesign. You have analyzed your site’s history, set your goals, determined traffic during elements, found out what your guests are looking for and have vowed to have plenty of content. However, writing fresh content takes time, and that is something that many of us don’t have. Yes, you can hire someone to do it for you, but then you will be adding to an expense account. So what is the answer?

 

What if you can have great content for your website without having an SEO professional, and without spending hours creating totally new content? Interestingly enough, you can! This can be done by repurposing your content from your former site to work on your new one. There are two methods to choose from if you would like to recycle something already in existence-the format approach and the update approach.

 

The Format Approach

For many web designers, this is a very appealing option. Simply take content you already have and change it into a new format. Fan favorites for this change would be to use tools such as Slideshare.com to create a slideshow presentation. Add in some new pictures, perhaps some verbal commentary and, viola!- repurposing your content is done and also quite enjoyable. The second option is to do either a video or podcast of the original content. This has shown to greatly encourage interaction both with you and your site guests as well as interaction between site guests.

 

The Update Approach

This is when you take existing content and rework how it is written, sentence by sentence- being sure to use long tails and keywords that are prevalent to your site. The update format can sometimes take nearly as long as writing an article “from scratch.” However, taking this approach is great, if there have been some updates or changes in your field and you want to merely revise the current content.

 

So, is it okay to recycle web content for a web redesign? Absolutely! Choose one (or both) of these approaches and get your site up and going quicker.

 

About the author

Founder and President of Chakery, Malcom Chakery fully understands the workings of web based business operations. His expertise in marketing, SEO, web design and development, makes Malcom  qualified and successful in handling the day-to-day operations, sales and support of his clients. Malcom has a clear understanding of operational procedures, all aspects of website design, seo and promotional activities. As a stickler for detail, Chakery believes in providing greater than expected support, superior customer service and innovative programs that exceed customer expectations. To learn more about Chakery please visit www.chakery.com or call 1-855-CHAKERY.

Your Website Redesign Checklist

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There are many reasons why you might wish to redesign you website-rebranding, poor results and being outdated are just a few. After all, your website is much more than a place to share pictures or blog, your website affects your social media, e-mail marketing, lead generation brand awareness and even sales strategies.

So, if you are considering a website redesign, here is a brief overview of the checklist from Jessica Maher’s article 10 Step Checklist for Your Next Website Redesign. Keeping these, and other website design elements, in mind will ensure that your website is all that you want it to be.

 

  1. Analyze your current site’s history. Note the number of visits/visitors, bounce rate, time on site, SEO rankings for keywords, domain authority, total amount of sales generated and number of new leads or form submissions.
  2. Determine your goals for the new look.
  3. Decide what drives the traffic to your site – social media, organic versus paid, buyers versus browsers, etc. and invest your efforts there.
  4. Check out your competition. Use www.marketing.grader.com to get an understanding of how your site stacks up against your competitor’s. Take notes and see what you can do to be better.
  5. Identify your unique value proposition (could be read, mission statement). It should not be filled with a bunch of gobbledygook, but have simple language that conveys who you are and what you do.
  6. Remember, site guests want to know what you can do for them. Be sure your site answers this question.
  7. Be sure your site is designed for SEO.
  8. Have clear Calls-to-Action. Don’t design a site that is merely a brochure, encourage them to take action.
  9. Have an ongoing content strategy. This may be in the form of a vlog, a blog, press releases, etc. If you don’t have time to do it yourself, hire someone to do it for you. A website with 50 pages of content will get more search engine recognition than one with 10.
  10. Don’t forget the extras! Landing pages, RSS subscriptions, analytics, and “Share this” buttons.

 

There is much more to a website redesign than changing the look of your logo and color scheme. It is the elements above that can make, or break, a good website. Talk to Chakery if you are interested in a website redesign, we are here to help.

 

About the author

Founder and President of Chakery, Malcom Chakery fully understands the workings of web based business operations. His expertise in marketing, SEO, web design and development, makes Malcom  qualified and successful in handling the day-to-day operations, sales and support of his clients. Malcom has a clear understanding of operational procedures, all aspects of website design, seo and promotional activities. As a stickler for detail, Chakery believes in providing greater than expected support, superior customer service and innovative programs that exceed customer expectations. To learn more about Chakery please visit www.chakery.com or call 1-855-CHAKERY.

 

 

 

10 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Organic SEO

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Organic and natural are no longer terms solely associated with gardening. For the past several years they are also part of the terminology used when talking about cultivating search engine results. As any business owner knows in order to make a profit, people have to know where you are. So, when it comes to online “advertising” a great way to do this is through the use of organic, aka natural, SEO that attracts the attention of Google.
There are no hidden tricks or Miracle Grow remedies to garner the attention of Google and other search engines, but there are a variety of things you can do to improve your rankings. To help, here are 10 steps you can take to improve your organic SEO:

 

  1. Have back links and hyperlinks to other sites, with minimal or no outbound and navigational links that do not work.
  2. Use Bold to highlight your keywords and niche phrases.
  3. Be sure your keywords are part of your web address.
  4. 75% or better of your back links are on relevant pages.
  5. Do not have pop-up ads!
  6. Your site has deep links.
  7. You get natural back links to 10% or more of your webpages due to your quality of content.
  8. You have keywords in your title tags and META data.
  9. Your Welcome page hyperlinks to the sitemap.
  10. You are not involved with link farms or cross-linking your assorted websites.

These are but a few of the steps you can take to improve your organic SEO. Keep reading the Chakery  blog posts to learn more about organic SEO and other elements of having a successful website.

 

About the author

Founder and President of Chakery, Malcom Chakery has extensive knowledge and experience in the workings of a web based business operations. Possessing great amounts of expertise in regard to marketing, seo, web design and development, Malcom is extremely comfortable handling all details regarding the day-to-day operations as well as the sales and support of his many high profile clients. With a clear plan in place regarding operational procedures, all aspects of website design, seo, and promotional activities are managed and overseen by Malcom before they are completed. As a stickler for detail, Malcom believes in providing greater than expected support, superior customer service, and innovative programs, making sure to go above and beyond customer expectations. To learn more about Chakery please visit www.chakery.com or call 1-855-CHAKERY.

Hiring WordPress and Joomla Developers

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WordPress Developer

We are looking for an energetic and experienced developer skilled in WordPress and Joomla plugin and theme development. The successful candidate should show proven experience in developing using the WordPress and JOOMLA.

Skills should include:

Excellent PHP/Javascript development with an understanding of SQL
Building web applications/services with advanced functionality
Proven ability to work with the WordPress API and JOOMLA
Good communication skills
Experience using project management applications such as Basecamp by 37 Signals
Ability to function within a small time with tight deadlines
Working knowledge of linux systems administration and configuration

Graphic Designer

We are looking for a skilled designer with an eye for creating striking websites using WordPress. The successful candidate should have the ability to develop WordPress themes using the WordPress API. Skills should include:

Excellent web design skills
Some familiarity of PHP
Examples of design work (logos, print, WordPress themes, JOOMLA themes)
Understanding of User Interface design
Good communication skills
Ability to function within a small time with tight deadline

 

If you are interested please send us samples of  your work to chakery(@)gmail.com. Please include links to your best work.

The Elements of Web Design by Malcom Chakery

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Your website is an extension of your company. Or, in some cases, it may be the primary location of your company. So, as the virtual representation of your business it is vital that your website be all it can be in order to build a successful business. So, if you are designing your own website, it is important that the final product contain 4 essential elements, so let’s get started.

  1. Balance- A webpage should have visual interest. From colors and shapes to the sizes of your graphics and fonts, your website should encourage guests to interact without being distracting. This best accomplished by having a balanced appearance. You may chose a symmetrical  plan in which elements of your site are evenly spaced (e.g. a graphic on the left with text on the right) or perhaps you will opt for an asymmetrical plan in which unlike items of equal weight are used.  As you design your webpage, try several design layouts to find the one that encourages guests to stay.
  2. Repetition- Sometimes referred to as rhythm, repetition is the use of a pattern that gives a consistency to your site. This rhythm makes it easier for your customers to understand. Having sudden changes in the patterns, size or spacing will create an exciting rhythm but may not impart the feeling you want for your company. Keep in mind the features of Gestalt-proximity, similarity, continuance, closure uniform correctness and 1+1=3 effects.
  3. Emphasis- Often called dominance or the focal point, this is the element that lets people know who you are. Some ways it can be accomplished are through semantic markup, changing font sizes or images, the use of bold black type for headings, contrasting colors, putting important info in a text box or written on a curve or by using an unusual font for the most vital information.
  4. Proximity or Unity- Be sure elements are placed in such a way that they belong together. Use visual cues to let readers know an article is a unit-item near each other are related; those far apart are not. Unity can be established by consistent fonts, repetition of shapes, color or texture and thematic visuals of similar colors, sizes or shapes.

Using the principles is a must for having a website design that attracts and retains guest to your site. Each of these elements work together to create a site that is sure to encourage guests to spend some time getting to know you.

About the author

Founder and President of Chakery Design, Malcom Chakery has extensive knowledge and experience in the workings of a web based business operations. Possessing great amounts of expertise in regard to marketing, seo, web design and development, Malcom is extremely comfortable handling all details regarding the day-to-day operations as well as the sales and support of his many high profile clients. With a clear plan in place regarding operational procedures, all aspects of website design, seo, and promotional activities are managed and overseen by Malcom before they are completed. As a stickler for detail, Malcom believes in providing greater than expected support, superior customer service, and innovative programs, making sure to go above and beyond customer expectations. To learn more about Malcom and his companies please visit www.chakery.comor www.chakeryseo.com.

 

Should Children be on Facebook

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Today’s society is one that spends hours online-especially on social media sites like Facebook. However, what many people don’t know (or perhaps don’t care about) is that Facebook’s policy states that that its users must be 13 years old. However, this age limit is easily circumvented by merely lying about one’s year of birth.

A recent report shows that there are as many as 7.5 million children under the age of 13 (5 million of which are under the age of 10). Ironically, (and I must say a bit naively) Facebook spokesperson, Bret Taylor, appeared to be surprised to find that there were so many under-aged Facebook users. Taylor stated, “That’s actually news to me, we don’t allow people to have accounts under the age of 13.”

In addition, apparently, Facebook believes that 100 content supervisors are enough to meet the needs of the 600 million FB users. Now let’s be realistic. How are these 100 going to monitor all that is being posted-from inappropriate content like bullying or comments that have offensive language? Does FB they really think that 100 people is enough?

“So what is the big deal?” you may ask. Consider this: With minimal protection available for the average Facebook user, the preteens (as well as everyone else) are a predator’s playground. With just a few keystrokes and a basic understanding of geotags, a child molester, rapist, etcetera can learn where you live, what activities you enjoy, what school they go to, and many other pieces of personal information.

“Facebook was never intended for kids younger than 13,” she says. “Kids click on things. Which can be a problem, not just with friending people, but also the malware they pick up online.”

As it is not required that one use a real photo or legitimate name, your child may unwittingly interact/befriend a predator, thus bringing them into the safety of your home. More disconcerting, is that a recent poll showed that only 18% of parents had “friended” their children on Facebook, so they have no idea what type of online company or comments their children are exposed to.

Another reason that children should not be on Facebook, is the ads, the adult innuendos and other inappropriate comments that get made. Yes, these issues are a part of life (unfortunately) but that doesn’t mean young children should be exposed to them!

Facebook is a great tool with much potential. But like drinking requires one to be at least 21 and being responsible for yourself, FB should be only used by people who are of the appropriate age and maturity….hmmm, is 13 old enough? Let the comments begin..

About the author

Founder and President of Chakery, Malcom Chakery has extensive knowledge and experience in the workings of a web based business operations. Possessing great amounts of expertise in regard to marketing, seo, web design and development, Malcom is extremely comfortable handling all details regarding the day-to-day operations as well as the sales and support of his many high profile clients. With a clear plan in place regarding operational procedures, all aspects of website design, seo, and promotional activities are managed and overseen by Malcom before they are completed. As a stickler for detail, Malcom believes in providing greater than expected support, superior customer service, and innovative programs, making sure to go above and beyond customer expectations. To learn more about Chakery please visit www.chakery.com or call 1-855-CHAKERY.