Lets Talk About The Cloud

So the biggest question from the everyday user not on the same level as us GEEKS,

Is what is the CLOUD?

Definition AS PER WIKI:

Cloud computing means using multiple server computers via a digital network, as though they were one computer. ^[1] Often, the services available are considered part of cloud computing.

Traditionally, without a cloud, a web server runs as a single computer or a group of privately owned computers. The computer(s) are powerful enough to serve a given amount of requests per minute and can do so with a certain amount of latency per request. If the computer’s website or web application suddenly becomes more popular, and the amount of requests are far more than the web server can handle, the response time of the requested pages will be increased due to overloading.

Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT’s existing capabilities.

In the IT world cloud computing allows companies to provide services they may not otherwise be able to afford if they were to deploy their own systems. This then leads you to  CRM (customer relationship management) which is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth.

So not only is the cloud often more economical for users or companies in many cases, it also means that the amount of computing horsepower we need will be greatly reduced. This is especially significant as more and more of our computing needs are being served by smaller and smaller devices such smartphones and tablets.

In a cloud computing system, there’s a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user’s side decrease. The only thing the user’s computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system’s interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud’s network takes care of the rest.

There’s a good chance you’ve already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail account with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you’ve had some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn’t exist on your computer — it’s on the service’s computer cloud.

There are 3 different types of cloud computing discussed below:

Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS, gives business access to vital web architecture, such as storage space, servers, and connections, without the business need of purchasing and managing this internet infrastructure themselves. Because of the economies of scale and specialization involved, this can be to the benefit of both the business providing the infrastructure and the one using it. In particular, IaaS allows an internet business a way to develop and grow on demand. Both PaaS and SaaS clouds are grounded in IaaS clouds, as the company providing the software as service is also providing the infrastructure to run the software. Choosing to use an IaaS cloud demands a willingness to put up with complexity, but with that complexity comes flexibility. Amazon EC2 and Rackspace Cloud are examples of IaaS.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) clouds are created, many times inside IaaS Clouds by specialists to render the scalability and deployment of any application trivial and to help make your expenses scalable and predictable. Some examples of a PaaS system include: Mosso,Google App Engine, and Force.com. The chief benefit of a service like this is that for as little as no money you can initiate your application with no stress more than basic development and maybe a little porting if you are dealing with an existing app. Furthermore, PaaS allows a lot of scalability by design because it is based on cloud computing as defined earlier in the article. If you want a lean operations staff, a PaaS can be very useful if your app will capitulate. The most important negative of using a PaaS Cloud provider is that these services may implement some restrictions or trade-offs that will not work with your product under any circumstances.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is relatively mature, and the phrase’s use predates that of cloud computing. Cloud applications allow the cloud to be leveraged for software architecture, reducing the burdens of maintenance, support, and operations by having the application run on computers belonging to the vendor. GMail and Salesforce are among examples of SaaS run as clouds, but not all SaaS has to be based in cloud computing.

Thats all for now peeps our next article is going to go into the drawbacks surrounding the cloud.

 

Social Media & Reaching Your Consumer Base

So you are new to the social media world, or you have a small business you are trying to get off the ground.  With so many starting points, what is going to get you the most for your budget.  Also what are your goals and how easy or hard is it going to be to reach them?  Can you do it yourself or are you going to have to hire someone.

Well we can start with the obvious what is your business type and are you really gonna benefit from social media and the tools that are every where today.

Most small business models can benefit, so what is actually out there,  with so many platforms and companies that provide many so things that you can benefit from.  We will use two “fluid” companies than can give you the most.  Before we get there, ask your self this can you stay connected to your phone or laptop 24/7 pushing your company out to the public.   Most people are going to answer NO unless you are in fact a social media presence.

With an ever-changing online environment social media can run your business and bring in more revenue.  Getting to the point here, you have so many things on your plate outside of trying to build a successful business, get your website built, possibly a blog, Facebook, Twitter, Flkr, You Tube, Tumblr, Reddit, and Linked In just to name a few.

The building blocks should roll at the same time for example the “Big 3” your site, Facebook, and Twitter.   Your type of business will come into play here but for the sake of conversation we are going to keep it general.   So you have all three in place what now, how do you reach out to your consumer base, well the first thing is identify your base and find out what drives them.  Next equip your site properly with all the pertinent information and don’t overwhelm the consumer with information make them pick up the phone make them curious.   Also get an auto-responder at the very least and get those sign ups for your newsletter.  Without getting to far off track I will leave that to the next post.

So you have your Facebook and Twitter how are you going to get friends and followers, well that comes back to the old get your friends and family on board to start with.  Hoping that your business is legit that should be pretty easy to come up with the first 20-100 contacts.   Next reaching out with both platforms, is going to take posting accurate content and constant posts that are relevant to what you are doing.  But how can you do that all day everyday, two sources can help you Ping.fm and Sendible.   This will allow you to connect multiple social media platforms and post to all at the same time, this has been around for awhile but when looking at the mountain that social media is becoming it is important to remind the small business owner you can reach the masses.

Do you hire someone?  That is totally dependent on your budget and your knowledge of social media and what it can do for you.   At some point you are going to have to get out there and get a commercial or flyers or billboards depending on your consumers it is completely possible to make it using social media if you are in it for the long haul.   Set them goals see where things are at 6 months what have you achieve is the door opening or is the phone ringing.  With out going to far in depth Below are the two solutions check them out and see how they stack up!!

Check both of them out and see what you think, for all the monies worth our hands go out to Sendible, and for the free knock on your door and say this is what I am doing we will give it to Ping!

On that note we leave you with this>

 

Backlinking & Page Rank

So what is backlinking, in short it is the “art” LOL of creating links to your site and getting the consumer to “click”.  We have done alot of research on backlinks and the Page Rank Algorithm used by Google.

Web workshop describes PageRank as a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be. Also, the importance of the page that is casting the vote determines how important the vote itself is. Google calculates a page’s importance from the votes cast for it. How important each vote is is taken into account when a page’s PageRank is calculated.

Webseo depiction of Googles Page Rank explained.

PageRank is Google’s way of deciding a page’s importance.

Here is a link that breaks it all down for you.

The Algorithm is explained here

Below is an exert from a ezine article that we discovered that best describes backlinking.

Backlinking is the process of creating links to your website. Each link means that someone is trying to inform others about some interesting page he has found. Therefore, the number of links is a measure of popularity or reputation of the page. The number and quality on backlinks is the basis of the PageRank algorithm used by Google web search. Google is by far the most popular and widely used search engine. The main reason for this popularity is the fact that it returns relevant results for every possible search phrase. Because of this many webmasters are trying to get as many backlinks as possible.

You can get backlinks on blogs, forums, Web 2.0 sites, website directories, articles or websites of other users. The easiest way to get a backlink is to have some useful content on the website and other users will find it and create a link to your page. This is called natural linking. Other methods mean using blogs and forums where you can participate in discussions and with some caution you can also promote your website. Most forums provide a feature called user signature. This is a short text where you can describe yourself or list your websites. Most blogs also provide place with every post where you can put url of your website. There is only one rule that needs to be respected. Never spam blogs or forums. Be useful and contribute to the discussion. Try to answer some question or offer help to other users. This way it will be much easier to promote your website.

There are two types of backlinks. Some are labeled with the “nofollow” attribute, others don’t have it. This attribute tells Google and some other search

engines not to follow this link and such links also do not contribute to the PageRank of the target page. You will find that most links on blog

s are nofollow. The best approach is to ignore fact this and simply create backlinks wherever there is an opportunity.

Another important property of every link is the PageRank of the page where the link is located. The higher the PageRank the more the link is worth. This means that you should invest some time to find pages with high PageRank where you can promote your website and create backlinks.

There are many different backlinking strategies. Some internet marketers only use blogs and forums, other use article marketing exclusively. The best approach is to try all of them and then decide which method is best for you.