Technology Consultants

2007 as nearly at an end and with a new year upon us, individuals and companies alike usually reflect on the events of the past year and make resolutions for the new year. This year, we’ve decided to make a few resolutions as a company and share them in this post.

1. Focus on the software - In 2008, we’re dropping internet marketing as a focus of service. This does not mean we will not provide existing customers with on going support or not provide internet marketing services with new sites. We’re choosing to remove internet marketing services as an independent service. Like a garnish compliments an entree, we will only offer internet marketing as a garnish to a Kensoft developed entree.

2. Products, products, products - We’ve been developing several in house app over the past few years to help manage clients, sites, documents, etc. In Q3 2008 we will offer these client requested apps for sale prepackaged as well as in tailored solutions form.

3. Tailored solutions and government services - In 2008, we will offer professional services to government systems and businesses alike. Professional services consists of tailored solutions, systems architecture and design and technology consulting.

If you’d like information regarding any of these service changes and additions please contact us at info[at]kensoftinc[dot]com.

With more and more clients asking, “what is ruby on rails and what is the benefit of using it over PHP or .NET?” my first response is the benefits with regards to internet marketing out of the box.

Internet Marketing 101 tells you to clean up your URLs to allow search engine to “spider” your site more efficiently. By default, RoR displays you urls in a “pretty” format. http://www.kensoftinc.com/[topicname] is alot easier to read than http://www.kensoftinc.com/page.php?pgid=34 for both human eyes and search engine eyes. To do this in PHP you need to use apache’s mod rewrite syntax and in .NET you need to customize your URL mapping.

It’s not hard to see why Internet Marketing companies who provide web development and web design are rapidly moving to ruby on rails as their language and web framework of choice.

This Lexington, Kentucky-base Internet Marketing firm will provide .NET and PHP upon request to clients, but we’ll fight tooth and nail to bring you to the light of Rails…..and not just because it makes internet marketing easier. There’s also the whole saving time and client’s money thing to discuss………..

So Microsoft’s “new” ajax library has been out for a few weeks now and I have to say I’m slightly impressed with the improvements over prior version code-named Atlas. Being a developer who uses internet marketing techniques when doing web development, I some times forget that websites are meant to be view by human eyes. These new aesthetic tools from Microsoft make it easier for this Lexington based programmer to accomplish tasks my clients want to see without taking too much time away from promoting their sites online.

I’m currently fusing this library into an ASP.NET project and I’m pleased to see the hang time Visual Studio displays whilst loading dll dependencies upon control drag have been drastically reduced compared to Atlas.

It’s controls are pretty well written and are more lightweight than I anticipated. Complementing the AJAX library, the AJAX Control Toolkit offers developers a rich variety of client-side controls and extenders. If you’re looking for eye-catching control behavior without having to go through the trouble of writing and testing extensive JavaScript code or adding complex animations, the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit offers the right balance. Way to go Microsoft! Now I can spend more time focusing on the Lexington and beyond internet marketing campaigns.

Now, if only they could put this kind of dedication into Vista more people might use it!

Maybe there are too many development projects in the world today or the moon is causing the recent paradox of the absentee programmer, but whatever the case I’m curious as to the percentage of development projects that are handed off to a new team of keyboard clickers after one or two teams have for one reason or another been ushered away from the project.

Ask any coder and I’m sure they’ll tell you some of the hellish projects they’ve been assigned to clean up or rewrite all together. I seems for the past year 70% or so of my work has been project clean up or app rewrites. Now, from a business stand point I’m happy to do this, but as the increasing market share of my workload shifts more to pickup/clean up projects I’ve decided to conduct a study of this paradox. I do have a few hypothesis but as more research divulges more concrete answers I will update this post. Until then, feel free to post your thoughts or experiences with pick projects; developer and user alike. I’d love to hear others stories.

I love where online marketing is going. That’s the best way I can say it. With each passing day, more and more advertisers are realizing old markets are old markets. Contextual advertising is the future of marketing…………period. A targeted campaign focuses advertisements based on the content being shown.

Not everyone who watches the Super Bowl wants to buy beer or eat chips, but odds are somone who visits a BMW enthusiasts site would want to buy BMW parts or see a new BMW or Mercedes ad, right? Or someone who visits a cooking site would want to see ads about pots and pans or cookware. Of course! Being an internet marketing geek of sorts, this growing market makes me excited about my industry. These days you can’t hire a web development company to build a site and wait for the traffic to roll in, you need to earn it!

Internet Marketing companies are starting to see the light and develop products that target ads based on the content of the site delivering the ad. One such company is Media Trust. Media Trust’s new product Advario allows publishers to specifically target campaigns based on content of a publisher’s site rather than a geographic or network blanket. The ads are specifically target by content therefore saving wasted advertiser’s money and saving the site user the hassle of instrusive pointless ads.

This product alone will make this Lexington based internet marketer’s job alot easier. Web development and internet marketing companies current techniques will have to be completely rewritten.

Since I’m a web developer and charge to build “web 2.0″ services I guess I should practice what I preach..right? I mean, if you’re a butcher how can you be a vegetarian, right? Well, I guess I’m the butcher you catch on break eating tofu.

Now, dont’ get me wrong…I think all the Web 2.0 stuff is cool. I love using RSS feeds for my daily news and podcasting for my favorite radio station, Bob and Tom, but is it too much? Flash, Ajax, RSS syndication, SEO, SES and tagging are all great tools for developers and marketers but I’m starting to see so many companies now trying to incorporate all of the above into their site(s). As a developer and consultant, I’m concerned for my clients and the web 2.0 world. Below are my objective thoughts on a winning site makeup in today’s internet market.

1. Develop a campaing strategy before you start building your site.

The majority of traffic directed to your site will come from search engines. Google, Yahoo and MSN in that order. Invest in materials that will educate you in the ways of optimizing your site for search engines to index or hire a consultant or firm to optimize for you. Bruce Clay, Inc. trained me in Search Engine Optimization and provide lots of info on their website.

If your site is already online, as most are, research SEO or contant an Internet Marketing team before contact or consulting a graphic designer. The most important attribute of a site in the Web 2.0 world is it’s online present number one, followed by design.

2. Pick one form a syndication and stick with it.

For many reason you’ll want to maintain only one form of syndication, whether it be RSS, Podcasting or an alternative. This will keep administration simple and keep options for your visitors to a minimum. This is a good thing. Google’s main page is a perfect example of what internet users want in a landing page. Content and one form of syndication for video and music and one form of syndication for content.

3 . Cut the fat.

Flash is a thing of the past. The days of flash intros and all flash sites are over. Sites today need to get straight to the point or visitors will quickly lose intrest. The average site has 2.5 seconds to catch the attention of a first time user. Most flash intros last an average of 15 seconds or more!

If you must use flash, use it only for banners. Always use an XML file for flash banner text. Even then consider an animated gif instead.