Carbon Neutral Website Hosting and the 2010 Federal Election

A couple of weeks before the 2010 Australian Federal Election was called, we decided to promote our Queensland-based Carbon Neutral hosting services (GreenServe.com.au) to some of our more vocal Queensland sitting Members and candidates - as well as a couple of non-Queensland MP's who purport themselves to have vested interests in the Environment (let's say, a certain "Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts and Minister for Climate Change Energy Efficiency and Water" - among others).

Our logic was that a Federal election was about to be announced, and we assumed that most - if not all - candidates would be campaigning on a platform of local business/jobs and the environment.

After having researched each of our targets by determining the location of their chosen hosting solutions - the majority of which were located in the U.S., we sent an email (or completed online forms where we could not locate the candidate's personal email address) along with a press release for GreenServe.com.au. They read something like this:

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Dear [name of candidate],

I have just come across your website in educating myself about the upcoming election.

Whilst I doubt I am alone in suspecting that you will be campaigning on both local and environment issues, your website appears to be hosted neither in Queensland (Texas, USA, in fact) nor on a carbon neutral web server.

I would like to offer you the ability to host on a carbon neutral web server - located in Brisbane Technology Park - and provided by a hard-working Queensland small business.

Being a customer of our carbon neutral hosting solution also gives you the right to display an icon on your website, which promotes your website's carbon neutral status and confirms you as being on the cutting edge of the next generation of "green IT" solutions.

If you would like to consider moving your website to our Brisbane-based (servers located at Brisbane Technology Park), carbon neutral (fully offset) hosting solution, please check out http://GreenServe.com.au - or contact me directly.

If you require assistance in migrating or making changes to your website, we can help with that too.


Regards,


Ian Exaudi
Managing Director
Creative Intersection Pty Ltd

Phone: 07 3366 9935
Fax: 07 3366 9965
Mobile: 0402 844 804


Product Support:

USA: (617) 297 2327
UK: 020 8123 2780
EU: +44 20 8123 2780
AU: 1300 853 868 / (02) 8011 4575

479 Waterworks Road
Ashgrove West QLD 4060

PO Box 69
Red Hill QLD 4059
AUSTRALIA

---

So - interested in the response from your local member or candidate ?

Of the 19 emails we sent out, we received absolutely no response from 16 recipients ... indicating - we assume - that they either did not receive the email (fail on communicating with your constituents), or that they either do not care for the opinions or services offered by local businesses or for the environment.

A bit disappointing, really.


How does that break down for each party ?

Given the utter lack of responses, there's not much to break down really, but here goes:

Labor: 1 response - committed to current supplier but would consider in May 2011 when the hosting falls due (BTW: Fair enough. Pity that local member has just been kicked out of their electorate).

Coalition: 1 response - being invoiced by a Queensland company (which obviously uses an overseas hosting facility) - and that they would ask that supplier to "carbon neutralise" their hosting (whatever that means).

Independent: No response whatsoever. No surprise there from Mr Krazy-power-mad-North-Queensland-guy-currently-enjoying-his-15-minutes-of-fame-and-relevance (oops - couldn't help myself there).

Greens: Here's the weird one ... we received an email 2 days after sending out our emails from the Queensland Greens Federal Election campaign. This email did not mention our GreenServe hosting solution, but rather asked if any of our designer might "like to donate a little of their time and web design know-how to help out with our upcoming campaign". Hmmmm .... let me see (you can probably guess the volume of laughter in our office) ....

Family First/Democrats/other: Well, actually we couldn't really find any who had bothered creating websites and/or were visible enough for us to locate in the first place - so didn't send to any of them.


What does all this mean then ?

Not really anything - we just thought you might like to know.

... and of course if YOU care a little about the environment and would like your website visitors to know, then feel free to contact us about getting a Carbon Neutral website hosting solution happening for your website.

Update - Website Design for Medical Practices (AAPM) Presentation

Website Design and Content Management Systems Presentation - Update - The AAPM e-Health Professional Development Day, held at the Mercure Hotel, Melbourne was a great success with attendees learning all about many different aspects of e-Health for medical and allied health practices in Victoria - including website design.



Creative Intersection exhibited at this event, and presented on the topic of Website Design for Medical Practices.


We received some great feedback and were extremely encouraged that so many medical practices are increasing their understanding of the many benefits of well-designed, cost-effective, and owner-managed websites.

An Interesting Fact: Did you know that one of the biggest problems many medical practices have is attracting new staff, particularly doctors ? ... and the first thing a doctor usually does when considering applying for a position in a private practice is to check out their website to see if it presents itself as a professional business with a bright future.

That reason alone, we are told, is enough for many practices to get their website updated straight away.

If you are an AAPM member, feel free to contact us for details of the special rates we have negotiated with this organisation.

If you're not an AAPM member, give us a call anyway and we'll see what we can do to help you out.

Creative Intersection presenting at AAPM e-Health Professional Development Day

Through our partnership with the Australian Association of Practice Managers (AAPM), we have been invited to present at the e-Health Professional Development Day on 19th June, 2010 in Melbourne.

Creative Intersection's Managing Director, Ian Exaudi, will be presenting on the topic of "Website Design for your Healthcare Practice".

As with just about every industry, there are some golden rules that can help make a success of launching a website - including content management systems, general marketing efforts, Search Engine Optimisation, and just "good old" web design.

If you are a practice manager or an administration professional in the any of the medical fields, contact AAPM to sign up for the Professional Development day via the link above.

iPad and iPhone Application Development Services

An endless world of possibilities presents itself when "game changing" devices like the Apple iPad are released to the public.

There are many thousands of commercial (and free) applications available through the iPad and iPhone App Store ... from GPS navigation and business presentation applications to fishing games and a virtual box of chocolates.

Endless opportunities exist for the right idea to be brought into life and on to an iPad or iPhone screen.

... and ... businesses can create their own limited-release applications for internal use without having to go through the effort of seeking approval through the App Store.

Just imagine - your property inspectors, sales force, or consultants can work while they are in the field and push the results of their work directly into a live database for storage, sharing, and processing.

At Creative Intersection, database-driven, online-enabled websites and applications have been our bread-and-butter for nearly 10 years now - and the iPad and iPhone are exciting new platforms to deliver exactly this sort of "Web 2.0" functionality.

We have recently purchased two iPad WiFi + 3G devices to use as test and demonstration machines for our iPad development work, and have already started working on cutting-edge ideas under our ongoing AusIndustry-approved Research & Development program.

Call us to arrange a meeting to discuss how our team of designers and developers can build your next iPad and iPhone application.

How do I advertise my business in Google ?

Online advertising can be simple, effective, and inexpensive.

Advertising your business in the "Sponsored Links" part of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is surprisingly simple - and can be relatively inexpensive ... and give great return on your investment compared to many other forms of advertising.

The practice is called "Search Engine Marketing" (or SEM for short). In a nutshell, it involves a business choosing keywords or phrases which they consider relevant to their business, and then having their advertisements (ads) shown on the result page when a user types them into a search engine.

Some Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) companies pretend that their "Guaranteed First Page in Google" service isn't SEM-related. The fact of the matter is that the only real way to guarantee a first-page ranking for any keyword is to advertise (and to out-bid your competitors in doing so).

For example, typing in "web design Ashgrove" into Google.com.au will give you a bunch of results that fit the search term (including yours truly - Creative Intersection and KISSites) ... and will also show ads for businesses that believe some or all of those words (web, design, and Ashgrove) are a worthwhile thing to attach to their business advertising.

The advertising service offered by Google for this is called "Google Adwords", and other search engines have similar services (Bing and Yahoo! have their own systems). To keep this blog simple, we will just talk about Adwords - although most of the other services are very similar in their approach.

Anyone can set up an Adwords account and start advertising almost immediately.

You simple create the account, hand over a credit card for payments, and set up your campaigns, Ad groups, keywords, and ads.


How does Adwords work ?

How it works, then, is that you decide how much you are willing to bid for a successful click on your ad for each keyword or phrase.

The instant a user types in a search query that matches your keywords or phrases into Google, your bid is compared to those of your competitors and a ranking is decided based on the highest bids. If your bid is not high enough, you won't be on the first page.

You don't pay for the "placement" or "impression" of your ads. You pay when a user clicks on the ad and goes to your website (or wherever you send them).

Google also does some further analysis to ensure "fairness" and helps your ad get a little higher if it has struggled unfairly for some time. At the end of the day, though, you have to bid enough to be competitive.

Google also considers the "Quality Score" of your ads so that if your ads - and the service/product you provide - are more relevant to a user than your competitors' ads, you get away with paying less for higher rankings in the "Sponsored Links" area.

You can set other limits, such as a daily budget and a regional relevance (i.e. only users who are located within 40km of your business at the time they search will see your ad).


How much do I have to bid per click ?

The Cost per Click (CPC) that you need to bid depends primarily on the competition surrounding that ad.

For instance, some sources say that in 2009 the most highly priced search terms in the U.S. were (in USD):

• "mesothelioma treatment options" - $69.10
• "mesothelioma risk" - $66.46
• "personal injury lawyer michigan" - $65.86
• "student loans consolidation" - $62.59
• "car accident attorney los angeles" - $61.44

Thankfully, mesothelioma treatments, personal injury/car accident lawyers, and student loans are not the fields that most of us are in ... and so our bids can be a lot less.

Whilst it is against the Google Adwords policy for us to disclose the amount Creative Intersection pays per click for advertising, generally-speaking most advertisers in Australia tend to bid less than $10 per click. Whilst this sounds like a lot, remember that a well-written ad with a good website behind it might bring in business at a 10-20% success rate (or higher if you're in the right field and your website does its job too). If each sale is worth $500, then you're easily making back your investment (at 10% success rate, your advertising would return $500 per $100 spent - a 500% ROI). That's probably a lot better than your local newspaper advertising is giving you right now ... and it's measurable!


So why would I need help with SEM ?

Some of the expert Search Engine Marketing help that Creative Intersection, and other SEM professionals in our field, offer has to do with:

1. Tracking the performance of your ads to ensure that clicks result in actual orders or enquiries - ensuring Return on Investment (ROI)
   
2. Reducing the number of "dead" visitors by providing ads that entice real customers and ignore those that are not really looking for what you are selling
3. Improving the Quality Score of ads by taking into account the many factors that make up the Quality Score
4. Advising on new opportunities (in keywords and places to advertise) that can help improve the ROI of your online advertising
   

Other places your Adwords ads can appear

As you can see on our blog, we carry Adwords advertising as a publisher. This is called Adsense, and will be covered in a later blog. Basically it shows ads just like on Google and then pays us a small commission when a user clicks on that ad.

Adsense can be a significant revenue stream if you have enough visitors coming to your site (like on a blog or other regular publication).

As an Adwords advertiser, you can choose to be shown on "content networks" (such as Adsense) and "search partner networks" such as Youtube.

This carries both great reward and great risk since the relevance of ads shown outside of the Google SERPs may not be as accurate as within Google SERPs.


Drop us a line if you would like to talk about how you can set up a Search Engine Marketing account for under $1,000 per month - including $500 actual advertising spend as well as monthly analysis, reporting, and optimising to improve ROI.

Environmentally-Friendly Website Hosting

Having a website is a necessity for just about every small business.

It needs to be engaging, well-designed, succinct, and always-available for potential customers to visit.

The availability of a website (the "uptime") is related to the quality of the hosting provider ... you know ... those weird little guys who sit in dark grey rooms with lots of large monitors looking at the flow of data among computers, routers, and servers around the world.

It's a cool picture, for sure, but in the real world web hosting is provided by companies - both big and small - who own "servers" and other infrastructure, and who on-sell this capacity to customers who do not want to own the infrastructure. It doesn't have to be "flash", but it does have to be robust and reliable.

Creative Intersection has been a website hosting provider for many years now, and have recently begun offering a special type of hosting solution that is "Carbon Neutral" in the form of our GreenServe.com.au Eco-friendly hosting product.

Have a look at this recent case study published on the "Dynamic Small Business Network" website.

http://www.dsbn.com.au/articles/case_studies/Dishing-Up-a-Serve-of-Green.asp

If your business needs high-quality, reliable website hosting (with or without being carbon neutral), contact Creative Intersection web design and hosting services by clicking the link or pick up the phone and call 1300 853 868.

Top 10 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tips

Second only to having a quality website in the first place, being found in the major search engines can be vital to the success of your online presence.

As you can imagine, with many hundreds of millions of searches performed through search engines every day and billions of web pages to choose from, having your site appear in the top few results in any search engine can be a hard ask.

Search engines, these days, work on the principle of "relevance". In other words: How relevant is a web page to a person looking for a certain thing ?

Despite the outrageous claims made by some SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) "experts" (sales guys, mostly), there really is no way to absolutely guarantee an organic top ranking in any search engine (appearing at the top of a search result page without paying for advertising placement).

There are many things that SEO professionals like ourselves do to analyse the deficiencies of a website and actions we can take to achieve fast, positive results. But, there are also a few things you can do yourself to get the ball rolling.

Here are our Top 10 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tips

1. Content is King .... Make sure that the contents of your website is concisely written and relevant to someone who visits your site.
   
   
2. Update your content regularly to keep increasing your relevance.
   
   
3. Include regularly updated non-sales content such as Tips, Helpful Information, and General News.
   
   
4. Be aware of your customers' requirements ... if you know what a searcher is likely to type into a search engine, make sure you have plenty of relevant content that covers that subject.
   
   
5. Meta data (keywords and descriptions etc, hidden from the viewing public) is rarely used by search engines these days, but it certainly can't hurt to have ... make sure you describe the content and purpose of each page accurately and succinctly.
   
   
6. Inbound links (links to your site from other sites) are seen by search engines as a recommendation of your site and hence your site's relevance to a user can increase. DO NOT arrange links from irrelevant sites or "link farms" as many search engines will now penalise you for irrelevant links.
   
   
7. Don't use Flash for your entire website ... As fun and exciting as Flash can be, most search engines cannot view content within a Flash file, so using Flash for significant content (or even the navigation) of your website is a sure-fire way to never be found.
   
   
8. Structure your website in a logical, clear way (this also makes it easier for a user to find their way around).
   
   
9. Submit your business and website to local listings, including Google Local Business Centre. This will help search engines to know where your business is located relative to a searcher's location.
   
   
10. Consider Search Engine Marketing (SEM). This is paid advertising using, for example, Google Adwords to be placed on search results pages within the advertising space (i.e. not part of the organic results).

The number one thing to remember is that, just as Rome wasn't built in a day, your search engine rankings won't increase dramatically overnight without some professional SEO intervention. It can take weeks for search engines to re-visit and consolidate your content, comparing your site to the millions of others they visit each day.

Of course, if you would like to talk about how we can help to fast-track massive improvements in your search engine rankings, we would be delighted to sit down with you to chat about our Search Engine Optimisation service and what it can do for your business.