Firstly, there isn’t a universally agreed upon definition, as many people use the term to talk about a variety of different services and systems. But at its core, cloud computing is computing technology that resides on centralized, off-site servers. These servers do the heavy lifting; they run the applications, store the data, and so on. Client computers utilize this technology over the Internet. If this sounds a lot like a mainframe, you’re absolutely right. Funny how all things seem to come full circle, isn’t it?

Another term you may have heard lately, which has a lot to do with cloud computing, is SaaS – Software as a Service. Essentially, these are hosted applications; software you use on a website. Like Salesforce.com, BaseCamp, Google Apps, and so on. These are not new concepts at all. They’ve been around for several years now. But the buzz is due to the business world’s recent eagerness to take advantage of the, well, advantages that cloud computing and SaaS can offer. Namely, cost and time savings. You pay for use rather than per installation, ensuring that you only pay for what you actually consume. And access to applications can, in theory, be instantaneous. No need to purchase, install, update and register your software.

Instead of setting up, installing costly software, and supporting a large number of client PCs, cloud computing allows you to have simple, “thin client” PCs for your users. The real horsepower is kept on the servers (i.e. in the cloud). Software is installed, upgraded, and supported in one place. Users simply use the software and applications as they need. All the client PC needs to do, at its core, is transfer and receive data over a network or the Internet, and display it to the end user.

Google and Amazon have been working with a cloud computing model since their inception. Cloud computing is basically what websites have been for the past 20 years. A simple request is made by the user to the cloud (i.e. a website), where a centralized server (i.e. the web server) processes the request, doing any required database lookups and calculations, and serving back the results in a small, simplified format. The user only needs a web browser, while the server houses the software for the database, programming language, and so on.

Questions that are raised surrounding cloud computing typically revolve around the reliability of the ‘cloud’, specifically the security and integrity of the stored data, hacker and virus protection, support for the applications and the hardware, privacy, encryption, and so on. That said, cloud computing and SaaS are on their way to mainstream acceptance, so be sure to throw out these buzzwords whenever possible. Makes you sound smart, you know.

How many times have you heard that? Seems to be common knowledge these days that if you don’t keep posting new content you will fail. And like most generalizations, it doesn’t always apply. If you have a blog that discusses the latest movie releases or you’re the New York Times, yes, there is an understanding that fresh content is core to your business model. But if you’re offering upstream oil and gas services, or home-based bookkeeping services, what then?

Posting new content simply because it’s new is pointless. If you actually something new to say, say it. If it’s actually going to add value to your visitors, say it. And if it’s actually part of your website’s objectives, say it.

A couple of examples of sites that do exceedingly well with very old content:

1. Wikipedia
   Sure, lots of articles are updated periodically, but the truly well done static content stands the test of time. And, as a result, ranks very favourably in the search engines.
2. Apis.ca – our ‘On Websites‘ section
   This content was originally done about six years ago. It gets about 2 or 3 updated paragraphs per year, if we’re lucky. But its content stands the test of time and, as a result, it ranks well within Google (check out a search for ‘what makes a good website‘).

So when you’re planning your next website project, be it a fresh site, redesign, or simply a marketing push, if one of your objectives is “fresh content”, stop. Think about the reasons why you want/need fresh content, and drill a little deeper toward the true objective.

Social media is not the same as a website, brochure, TV commercial or pay-per-click ad. Instead of simply broadcasting your message, the key is to offer value. This is after all a conversation, and conversations are not one way. The conversation won’t last long if all you do is talk about yourself. Be an expert or industry leader. Offer tips and advice, solve problems, make introductions. This is the value of any conversation, and this will lead to building a network of trusted relationships, which is the goal of social media marketing.

Here’s a simple roadmap for getting involved in social media marketing:

• Define your goals
• Choose your channels and secure your identity(ies)
• Understand the conversation landscape
• Create your communication plan
• Choose your champions
• Start

When defining your goals, think about the process you’d like your “listeners” or “followers” to go through. Will you direct them through your website or blog, or will you encourage them to contact you directly? Or perhaps your purpose is more branding or reputation related. Either way, you must start by defining what the finish line looks like.

Choosing the channels you use will depend on where your customers, competitors and influencers are. For example, LinkedIn is a place for business professionals averaging about 40 years of age. Facebook and MySpace have younger audiences who are principally engaged in leisure activities. You need to choose the appropriate channels based on what you’re offering.

As an aside, something of particular importance nowadays is carving out your online identity across the various social media channels. Whether your plan on using them in the near future or not, securing your brand or identity is important. Just like the domain gold rush of the late 90s, each social media channel has its own fixed set of identities (e.g. Bob’s Fish House, Microsoft, etc.). If you’re particularly concerned with someone “squatting” on your identity, it would be advisable to create accounts in all the popular channels. Using a paid service like knowem.com can automate this process.

Understanding the conversation landscape means understanding what’s currently being said. See how others are offering value and building trusted networks, and take notes.

Your communication plan should focus on the types of topics to discuss, what to avoid, the tone of conversation, etc. This should be designed to present your company’s brand appropriately, and keep you focused in on your goals. Defining the frequency of your involvement is also very important. You don’t necessarily need to post a tweet every 20 minutes. You may decide that a monthly blog post is sufficient for your goals.

Choosing champions is a critical step that most companies overlook, and is one of the most common reasons why they fail. Champions are the communicators. They do the tweeting and facebooking and blogging. They need to clearly understand the communication plan, and be diligent with their conversations.

And finally, the key takeaway: Start. Don’t get paralyzed by over analysis. Take that first step, and get involved. Your customers are already out there, and they’re already talking about you. Your competitors are already out there, and they’re talking to your customers.

In short, PostEgram transforms your Facebook news and photos into full-color newsletters. You login to Facebook, run PostEgram, pick the “friends” and types of updates you want to include in your newsletter, and set it up to go off to Nana. The rest happens automatically.

You can send Nana monthly, bi-monthly, or even weekly newsletters. The total size of the newsletter is fixed, so you’ll have to be careful about which ‘friends’ and what types of updates you choose to send. And don’t worry about the obvious question; you can filter out specific updates.

Happy Facebooking, Nana.

Sound odd? Well, I’m sure 95% of it is. But what a novel, sweet, and original idea Fiverr is. People will offer to do an incredible variety of tasks, from the mundane, to the silly, or even the professional; all for just $5 (that’s US dollars, of course).

I’ve already spent about half an hour browsing through the different offers. Such as:

• I will send you a Hogwarts acceptance letter for $5
• I will draw a funny cartoon guy for you for $5
• I will do a “movie trailer” style voiceover for your website/podcast/business, etc… for $5

Now then. What could I do with a whopping $25? Let’s see:

• Get a logo designed
• Have a blog installed
• Have its design customized
• Promote the new blog through Twitter and Facebook
• Get a high five

Awesome.

The first major challenge we face when working with artists like photographers, is that they tend to be very involved in the design process. They have very strong opinions (naturally), but are very cognoscente of the effort that goes into a good design. Challenging, but rewarding.

The second major challenge, and the real purpose of this post, is the features and functionality that they require. Photographers will typically need the following:

• A content management system, so they can control all the content in the site.
• Multiple photo galleries - done in a slick, contemporary fashion - to showcase their previous work.
• A secured client area, where they can allow their clients to preview, order and pay for their photos (very common with event photographers, like wedding photographers).

To custom build something like this, even if we leverage an existing system like Drupal, will start in the $15-20,000 range. But photographers of Calgary, do no fret! A solution exists that can shave thousands off the cost your dream website: PhotoBiz.

PhotoBiz (www.photobiz.com) offers not only all the common features (like those outlined above), but some really slick ordering and proofing tools. Rather than turn this post into a long, drawn out love letter to PhotoBiz, I will let you, the eager photographer, check it out for yourself.

There are (of course) a couple of notable catches.

• PhotoBiz is a hosted service. That means that they handle all the hosting, including your email and domain name, and you pay on-going fees. The on-going fees are based on the total number of photos you have within your website. But hey, even if you’re paying $500 to $1,000 per year, it would take a long time to catch up to a $20,000 custom website.
• Design is limited to their templates. I’m sure they have some customization options, but you’ll definitely be working “within the box”.
• Apis can’t help you build your site. If you choose PhotoBiz, you’re basically on your own. But that’s kind of the point of this service, isn’t it?

Further to that last point, however, once you’ve built your new site with PhotoBiz, Apis can help you drive it to the top of the search engines.

So for all of you photographers, rookies and seasoned veterans alike, PhotoBiz is something to look into.

They were given to us by our friends at Syscal, who originally received them from Dell. Given that those of us at Apis are the (so-called) social media experts, we were the ultimate recipients of these lovely gifts. And it has fallen upon our shoulders to help spread the gospel of the who’s, what’s, why’s and how’s of social media.

So if you’re interested in reading more about social media marketing (and specifically, social media influence) just give us a shout. We’ll happily give these books away to any Calgary folks who want to learn more about My-Twit-Face-Link-Space, and all the other latest and greatest tools that the kids are using these days.

• UMKK-9XM6-KJTN-YRC3-ZY (taken!)
• 4M74-SN9N-LNTJ-TDWD-33P2 (taken!)

Looks like both codes have been used up. Sorry, folks, but congrats to those of you who snagged ‘em!

P.S. Would you rather hire professionals to setup and run your pay-per-click campaign properly? Apis does that.

What exactly is new?

Google has added contextually relevant, left-hand navigation. It highlights some relevant search tools and allows for refinements of your search. Google has launched several services over the past few years that are powering this new navigation: Universal Search, Search Options panel and Google Squared.

The changes to the look and feel are subtle, and relate to changes in colours as well as the classic logo (e.g. drop shadow, addition of trademark symbol). The impression is still classically minimalist, and Google claims it is also “more modern”.

Changes are to the regular Google Search as well as the mobile version. How exciting.

Picture this scenario for a moment. Take a deep breath. Now read on.

How likely is this to happen? You’d be surprised, as most people believe their websites are being backed up, at least by their hosting company. Sadly, most web companies do not automatically backup their client’s websites. A lot will offer backups as an add-on, but that $2.95 per month shared hosting package you’re on almost certainly didn’t come with backups. And even if you’re working with a reputable and reliable web design company, they will only have your web files on hand, not including any you may have changed yourself. They almost certainly won’t have the latest copy of your database.

As such, most businesses are ill prepared for a data loss scenario. Fortunately, the solution is quite simple. We recommend a two-step approach:

1. Instant backups
   These happen directly on your web server. They backup your data (web pages, images, files, database, etc.) in case of ‘overwrite’ or ‘deletion’ situations. They will typically happen instantly or perhaps daily. They will guard against accidentally deleting some files via FTP, or perhaps overwriting some database entries.
2. Off-site backups
   These happen off your web server. They protect against data loss, as well as system configuration and setup (on virtual private or dedicated server setups). They will typically happen less frequently, perhaps weekly or even monthly. They are more geared towards catastophic failures, like a complete hard drive failure, act of nature (e.g. fire, earthquake) at your web company, etc.

The instant backups can typically be configured directly through your web hosting provider. If not, your web design company can certainly set it up for you. These backups guard against the most common problems, typically of a “human error” nature. It’s not enough to simply backup the data, however – you need to ensure you have a well thought out recovery plan. If and when something goes wrong, what is the process to get it restored?

The off-site backups typically cannot be configured by your web hosting provider. Some offer the service, however, through redundant server setups across multiple locations. This can become quite a costly endeavour, however. Backing up your data and system configuration periodically and storing it off-site is a great failsafe. The most common scenario where you’d need an off-site backup is hard drive failure. Even if you have instant backups, chances are that they’re stored on the very same server (and hard drive) that your website is on. If the drive fails, your website and your backup is useless. This can be overcome with a RAID array, but this still doesn’t protect your data from more catastrophic eventualities such as fire, theft, earthquakes,  and so on. These backups can be setup and configured by your web design company. Like your instant backups, you’ll also want to have a recovery plan in place to ensure a speedy restoration.

If you have a virtual private or dedicated server setup, you have probably invested a lot of time setting up the software and operating system to your preferences. Losing this setup and having to rebuild from a “base” server installation can be maddening. Off-site backups can be very useful to restore your system configuration, while potentially leaving your data alone.

In summary, every business with a website should have the following in place:

• Instant (or daily) backups  of your web files and database.
• Weekly off-site backups of your web files, database, and system configuration.

By having both backup systems in place, you will cover virtually 100% of all probable data loss scenarios. It’s quite simple to setup in most hosting situations, and your web design company should be able to help out.