Yesterday, August 23rd was a difficult day for Dovetail, but even more so for our valued hosting clients. We discovered early in the day that our primary Internet router was not responding to network traffic. This resulted in our web traffic failing to be served to the Internet, causing a wide-spread outage.

Ultimately, we were able to determine that the router was overloaded by traffic caused by a single, compromised host. Once that host was disabled we were able to restore traffic to all unaffected hosts starting at 6:15 pm. It is important to note that at no time was the affected host able to propagate itself within our network. This is due to the advanced segmentation of our network designed to mitigate against such a risk.

Compounding the issues, the nature of this incident presented to us many symptoms simultaneously. It was only by the systematic troubleshooting of each symptom (and implementing each solution in turn) that we were able to discover the true root of the problem and restore service.

We very much appreciate our customers, and we do not take for granted the trust that we had earned over the years. We also understand the seriousness of this situation.

We did not have access to some of the communication tools we have come to rely on during service interruptions, and have found that there is room for improvement. To that end we are reviewing better ways to communicate to our customers in the future, and will begin implementing them immediately. 

We are taking this incident very seriously, and hope that we will enjoy your trust, not through any statements or promises, but through our actions and continued quality of service.

Sincerely,

Michael Villa
CEO and Founder

Last Friday we jumped in to the fray and purchased several iPads from Apple. (We’d actually like to think that we purchased the one-millionth iPad, but probably not).

We handed out the devices and charged the team to do two things:

1. Integrate them into the day to day tasks here at Dovetail -- to find new ways to solve old problems -- to be more productive and to explore.

2. To innovate -- to use the experience to think about the web differently than we do today -- to discover ways to build upon the iPad as a framework for how our web will evolve and how we can revolutionize the work we do for our clients.

So with that, some bleary-eyed folks walked in this morning, and while we as we met around the conference table with a cup of coffee we were all intrigued about sharing and hearing the experiences of the last 48 hours as unapologetic Apple junkies.

I’m not sure what this experiment will yield, but I do know that such an exercise is a worthy investment for Dovetail to find out.

Time will tell and we shall see, and I’ll be posting throughout right here, so check back.

Do you have an iPad? Do you want one? Are you trying to figure out why anyone would? and Share your thoughts.

-- Mike

We continue to get more requests about the Regulation E opt-in process on our banking customer websites. To get up to speed, you can read my first post last week on recommendations and the second one this week “in English.”

Since then, we’ve prepared a sample page on the Dovetail site that provides an example of the combined technologies for a possible form. To check it out, just follow the link to the Regulation E Overdraft Opt-in Form Sample.

-- Mike

I’ve received quite a bit of feedback on my post from last week on recommendations for implementing a Regulation E opt-in form on your banking website. My favorite though was a request to see if I could re-write it in “English.”

I am certainly guilty of sometimes talking a bit too technically on such things, so with a bit of a mea culpa, let’s see if I can explain how the recommended scenario would actually work. And if I feel I have to get technical I’ll footnote it and put it in a “Techie Note” at the end of the post, so feel free to glaze over those if need be.

1. Create an online version of your opt-in form as a new web page.
    
2. Include all the appropriate verbiage recommended along with your overdraft fee disclosures as required along with fields where the visitor can enter their name, account number, date and opt-in or opt-out selection.
    
3. Once a user completes the form, they will click a button to send the request. The contents of the request as entered by the user needs to then be sent securely to the bank. The best way to do this is to send all submissions as a secure email to a designee at the bank or credit union. [1] 
   
   NEVER SEND THE FORM INFORMATION VIA UNENCRYPTED EMAIL. 
    
4. To maximize effectiveness of the online form, and minimize customer support needs, you will want to make the form easy to find and freely accessible to anyone. This will mean that you will need to properly authenticate all requests to validate them as true. [2]
    
5. Next, you will want to work with your web host provider to set the new form to only operate when visited by users with an HTTPS address. This will ensure that any contents submitted are encrypted at the same high standards as your online banking applications. [3] 
    
6. Now, add the page into your website’s navigation so that it can be found in your site’s menus easily. You should also provide the link to your customers in any notifications that are sent to them. [4]

Once you’ve made your form live, you will start to receive the opt-in (or out) requests securely to your bank or credit union. Hopefully this post is a bit easier to follow, but please comment, let me know what you think or if you have any further questions. Thanks.

-- Mike

Techie Notes:

Techie Note 2: Since there are programs (known as “Spam-Bots”) that search the Internet for forms and then submit bogus content, an anti-spam-bot technique known as CAPTCHA can thwart these entries by presenting an image of text that the user has to type in to confirm that the form is legitimate. Below is a picture of what a CAPTCHA form might look like.

[top]

Techie Note 3: HTTPS is driven by what is called an SSL Certificate. A certificate is a digital key that serves two roles, first it handles the encryption between the user and the site server, but second an SSL certificate also verifies the identity of the website owner (i.e. your bank or credit union) and helps to ensure that users are comfortable submitting their information.

Additionally, a specific type of SSL Certificate, known as an Extended Validation (or “EV” for short) has the added benefit of displaying green over your address bar in the browser (an example is seen below) and goes through more rigorous validation than a normal certificate.

  [top]

Techie Note 4: a friendly page address can go a long way towards making the form easy for customers to find. Perhaps an address like http://www.yourdomain.com/overdraft-opt-in might work well.  [top]

On July 1, 2010 the Regulation E rules established by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve take effect. By then all financial institutions must have in place controls that opt-out all customers from overdraft protection for ATM and one-time debit card transactions if they have not affirmatively consented, or opted-in for the service.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have received a number of inquiries from our bank and credit union customers looking for guidance on how to create online forms that can meet the opt-in and opt-out requirements of Regulation E.

Based on our research on the topic and various conversations with customers here is what we understand.

1. Before the compliance deadline, all customers must be set to an opt-out status for specified overdraft services.
2. Notification must be sent to customers instructing them that to continue the specified protection, they must opt-in.
3. The institution must provide a full explanation of the overdraft protection including all fee disclosures.
4. Customers can then indicate their consent for the protection or continue to opt-out.
5. Assuming that the first two requirements are met by the bank or credit union, they may direct customers to an online consent form in order to opt-in.

Suggested wording of the form is provided by the Federal Reserve and should include the ability to select the opt-in or opt-out status, the customer’s name, the date, and the customer’s account number. In order to request this information online, special attention must be paid to security.

The following recommendations offer a guideline for your online form.

1. Ensure that the form is only available through SSL encryption.
2. In order to help the customer verify the validity of the form, an Extended Validation SSL certificate (such as a VeriSign Secure Site with EV) is also recommended.
3. Use secure email to deliver the form contents. Sign and encrypt the email using a personal certificate associated with the recipient email address (such as a VeriSign Digital IDs for Secure Email).
4. Include a form validation such as the free reCAPTCHA anti-bot service to reduce the number of false form submissions.

Financial institutions that are users of the novo for Banking web content management system can meet all of these recommendations. If you’re not currently using novo for Banking, there are implementation steps that can be applied to your site as well.

If the above recommendations cannot be met for whatever reason, then we would further recommend that the website provide only a PDF version of the form which customers can print, complete, and deliver it to a branch personally.

For assistance, contact any of us here at Dovetail and we’ll be happy to help ensure you’re ready for Regulation E.

-- Mike

For anyone in banking, regulations are a constant, and rightfully so. However that doesn’t make it any easier for those who are responsible for ensuring compliance.

As you know, changes to “Regulation Z” (which became effective yesterday, October 1st) are impacting the way financial institutions have to post certain product and rate information.

As the go to web partner for over 40 banks and credit unions, we’ve seen a fair increase in support calls for users of our RateDisplay rate web publishing system. Specifically users are needing to alter the way certain tiered rate products are listed on their tables.

The great news is that we’ve got you covered. With the latest release of RateDisplay, version 3.11, users can now create a custom rate field. By using that field and making a few adjustments to the individual rate products, you can present these rates in a Reg-Z compliant manner.

If you are already on version 3.11, contact our Customer Service team to find out how you can rework your rate tables.

Over the coming week we will be contacting our clients not currently on the latest version, to discuss what your upgrade path is and what needs to happen. You may also contact us at anytime if you'd like to get the process started sooner.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter: @mikevilla

On Tuesday, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) issued a Fraud Alert indicating that fraudulent letters were being circulated to credit unions along with two compact discs labeled as training materials which the letter instructs recipients to review.

The release goes on to warn:

“DOING SO COULD RESULT IN A POSSIBLE SECURITY BREACH TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM, OR HAVE OTHER ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES.”

And further instructs that “Should you receive this package or a similar package DO NOT run the CDs. You should contact your NCUA Regional Office or the NCUA Fraud Hotline at 1-800-827-9650.”

You can view the original alert here and view the bogus letter here.

-- Mike

The other day, a White House special committee released information predicting the potential far-reaching impact of the H1N1 Swine Flu and urged businesses to prepare for a potential pandemic.

The next day I received a call from a customer wanting to understand what the impact would be on his company’s website in a pandemic. I have to admit that I was a little thrown off by the question. It wasn’t something I expected to be asked about and wasn’t immediately prepared to respond either.

Upon further reflection after the call, though, I had the opportunity to review our standard Disaster Recovery Plan and service offerings and was able to bring the unique question into standard operating elements. That is probably best advice I can give.

If you’re responsible for such planning in your organization check see what happens according to your current planning. See how they relate to the potential effects of an outbreak.

There are plenty of resources online from one extreme to another. The article linked above offers some good starters and the World Health Organization has a complete Pandemic Preparedness guide available for download.

What are your pandemic plans? Are you thinking about it? What are your thoughts? Comment here and let me know!

-- Mike

I recently came across a blog post from 2005 that laid out a “typical” web development lifecycle in a very creative way. It’s from a no longer active Japanese site, pingmag, and in the post titled The Website Development Process, the author uses some great photos to illustrate his take on the process. He presents the “programmer,” “designer” and “client” in various vignettes using little toy characters.

Of course, any attempt to generalize a web development process is going to be very idealized, and it probably won’t apply to a real-world project. (Just ask any project manager and they’ll confirm that for you.) However, that’s not really the point of the piece. It really does do a great job highlighting the typical milestones: definition, brainstorming, site maps, wireframes, design, client review, revision, production, presentation, beta testing, revision, and go-live.

I recommend you read the piece. You’ll get a chuckle as you do.

But there’s one thing that the article missed altogether. At the end of the piece, the go live is defined as the end, and though the piece comments about the need for a cure period where post-live issues are resolved, but it misses the biggest milestone of all – post-live maintenance and growth of the site. I often use the mantra that “your website is never done” – to be truly effective as a web presence you need to constantly update and adjust, grow and change  your site as your company does.

From the Dovetail perspective, that milestone is the most important. What happens after the project is “done” and the customer is handed over the keys to the kingdom. Of course, we’ve developed novo to help small and mid-sized businesses do just that – take control of their web and sales and marketing strategy by never forgetting that their site is never done and helping them to keep it fresh.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter: @mikevilla

I just read an article in the July 20th issue Worcester Business Journal entitled “How To Keep Business Tweets Out Of Court.” The title grabbed my attention right away (after all, I seem to be particularly drawn to the latest musings in print on the social media spectrum). 

As I started to read through the piece, I was hoping to receive some sage words of advice or specific examples of what types of Twitter activity has gotten businesses into hot water. However, as I read through the article a few things became apparent.

First, there was not a single, actual example that the reporter sited to demonstrate the types of problems that can arise. Does this mean the problem doesn’t exist? Not necessarily, but the article didn’t live up to the hype in the headline.

The article alluded to the release of confidential information as the most plausible risk for business. But if that’s the case then this is certainly not a new phenomena. This issue has been around since Eve leaked the secret apple recipe to Adam. More specifically, we’ve already answered these questions with email, instant message, texting and blog trends.

It seems to me that the article, and the editors of WBJ, would have been better served to publish a story outlining the types of policies and education that business owners should be working on.

The world of social media can be a powerful tool for business. From customer service, to web search optimization, to community building there is a lot of potential gain. However like anything, proper education and preparation are key to success (or failure for that matter). If you are going to embrace the blogosphere, then write a Corporate Blogging Policy. If you are going to “experiment” with social media, develop a Social Media Marketing Manifesto like the one I posted here in the blog. Know why you are there, what you hope to benefit from, and create some simple guidelines for acceptable use and content.

True enough, Twitter may or may not be right for your business but either way, don’t let catchy headlines scare you from taking advantage of the power of communication.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

In my last post I started discussing who benefits from using a CMS for managing web content. In that post, I talked about the IT Department. In this second part I turn my eyes towards marketing.

Fundamentally, marketing exists for one purpose – to drive sales. Whether through brand definition, community outreach, product launches, advertising, and so on all marketing functions ultimately lead towards increasing leads and supporting sales efforts. In order to do that the marketing team is constantly evaluating new ways to drive towards that goal.

Of all the areas in an organization the marketing department in many ways is the most dynamic. Whether driven by seasonality, customer response, new offerings or whatever, the marketing professional is constantly looking at the same things in new ways.

In order then to be successful at marketing, a company needs to be able to quickly execute strategies before windows of opportunity close. To that end agility is the name of the game. When marketing is then handcuffed by inefficiency or lack of control they are not able to perform at 100%. This can be especially true with the website.

By giving marketing the power to manage the website’s content, navigation and design they are best able to adapt the web presence to meet the needs of the day. Web content management then is the tool that is best suited to do that. Not only because it lowers the technical threshold necessary to work with the site, but because it also protects the the site’s elements from inadvertent changes. As opposed to website editors that just allow you to edit the code, a CMS system isolates the elements from each other and allows the proper process to be followed while still offering a fast-paced environment to work within.

Furthermore by lessening the technical aspects of updating the website the marketing team can move about freely within the scope of their efforts without having to rely on the IT Department or an outsourced vendor. This independence then translates to a more effective web presence and a bottom-line decrease in costs associated with the site.

So if you are in the marketing team at any company and want to have the freedom that web CMS can provide, be sure to consider novo, it’s ideally suited for your needs.

-- Mike

Follow Michael Villa on Twitter: @mikevilla

Over the next few posts, I’m going to shed some light on how Dovetail and a website built on novo helps different groups within the organization. Today’s focus is on IT.

From an IT perspective websites often play a conflicting role. As the technical drivers of the organization, it is necessary they play an active role in the website at some level. But it is often not their desire to be “responsible” for the website.

From technology review to due-diligence their input is part of the critical path to adoption. However too often the website does not move away from IT once selection is done. From the standpoint of being responsible for a site being up and available IT is certainly key, however they are not always the ideal group to deal with the overall production and upkeep of the site once running.

Technically, IT personnel will often possess the skills necessary to work with HTML, scripting and database technologies, but where they excel in that arena, they are not ideally suited for combining that within the context of a company’s marketing strategy.

We have found that clients who are able to leverage IT from a system selection and upkeep perspective while allowing marketing to utilize their team to maintain the site a stronger, more dynamic web presence is often the result. In this scenario IT is able to provide appropriate control and oversight while transferring the responsibility of upkeep to Marketing.

Would you ask IT to type all of your reports simply because they installed Office in the organization? Of course not. But that is often what happens with the website. To that end, allowing IT to help provide (and support) the web toolset fits in with their charge, and the website objectives all at the same time.

And here at Dovetail, novo provides a solution that is works for both sides of the website brain (IT and Marketing) because we are IT and marketing professionals ourselves. We’ve built novo to solve this problem.

So if you are part of an IT team that has been asked to be responsible for the website, take a look at the content management capabilities of novo, sign up for a personal demo and see how you can provide the company with the power to change the way your company sees IT’s role in the website.

-- Mike

follow Michael Villa on Twitter: @mikevilla

For many marketers today social media represents a brave, new world of online mumbo-jumbo where there are no rules and little perceived direct benefit; moreover some go so far as to believe that it is a fad driven by the young and unsophisticated. It is, however, much more than a trend for the internet generation. Social media as we know it today is just a modern expression of an age-old marketing strategy: to gain confidence in the marketplace, engage that very marketplace to speak openly and directly with you, and your target audience to promote your products, services and values.

With that in mind, I offer Dovetail’s Social Media Marketing Manifesto as a guideline for how we will take advantage of the medium.

The word “manifesto” is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as follows:

man·i·fes·to noun a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer.

Given that definition, it is our belief that …

• … that engaging in social media is part of, but in no way, the only way to communicate publicly.
• … that we cannot control the conversation, but will be an active participant in it.
• … that we have a responsibility both as a company and as individuals to be human, and professional in our online conversations.
• … that participating in social media will aid online marketing efforts to drive visitors to the Dovetail website, to generate leads and to assist customers in their use or our products and services.
• … that social media is not to be the center of our online efforts, but a means to drive visitors towards the web site.
• … that we will learn as much as we educate by listening as much as we talk.
• … that social media is fun, but that it is also work and should be taken seriously.
• … that techniques, strategies and tools will evolve over time.
• … that not all efforts will show results
• … that we should expect that results will often be different than those planned.
• … that our motives are genuine and guided by the core values of the company.

And, it is our intent to …

• … to utilize social media not as a gimmick, but as a means to communicate more openly, and more directly with those interested in Dovetail, it’s products such as novo, the company’s place in the world, and to present our employees as thought leaders in our industry. 
• … to actively participate in relevant conversations where Dovetail can add value.
• … to demonstrate the viability of social media in a overall web marketing strategy.
• … to express opinions and ideas.
• … to site and give credit to others who have points to make that we feel are of interest to us and our audience.
• … to utilize the social media sites and services that best reach our target audience.
• … to include social media concepts in both online and offline endeavors.
• … to communicate both as a company and as individuals.
• … to encourage, publish and reply to comments.
• … to adjust this manifesto as our efforts evolve.

There you have it, this is how we feel about social media as part of our marketing strategy. How about you? What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Let us know, and if you haven’t done so take the time to develop your own manifesto – it’s an exercise well worth the effort.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

Headlines for the past two weeks have been focused on the Swine Flu outbreak. Information is coming from several directions and people have questions and concerns. An interesting article on CNN’s website talked about how companies are planning for the possibility of a pandemic.

An interesting mention in the article is how Sprint used their “internal website” to post information for employees.

This is just one more benefit of an intranet within an organization. How many ways do you need to communicate with your staff efficiently and consistently. During any type of event, the intranet can be not only the way to get the message out, but also the de facto location that your employees will turn to in a time of crisis to understand how events may affect them.

Think about it and if you want to know more about how an intranet can help your company, check out my previous post on the benefits of an intranet.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

So you’re posting to Twitter, Facebook, etc. and providing regular updates to your status. You’re even using the platforms to generate web traffic by posting links to your site. But if you are relying on the quick link sites (TinyURL, Bit.ly, etc) you may just be minimizing the benefits. Doing so will eliminate the benefit of your updates for organic SEO by masking your site’s link with their short ones.

Yes, it’s convenient and sometimes that pesky 140 character limit to for tweets can get in the way when you have a lot to squeeze in. So whenever possible maximize your efforts by using blind URLs. Turn your long blog post permalinks into shorter friendly links that don’t take as much space when included in a message.

After all, http://www.dovetailinternet.com/BlindURL-Tip is a lot less wieldy than http://www.dovetailinternet.com/Blog/2009/04/25/Social+Media+Quick+Tip+Blind+URLs.aspx too!

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

It’s been well documented for years that one of the best ways to improve your organic search engine results is to establish inbound links from other websites. Here’s 5 tips on how to do it.

1. Industry Directories
   Pick an industry, any industry, and you’ll find a number of options for posting your site in online directories. Most are free, and besides helping to increase your inbound links, visitors to those sites will be likely to find you when they visit.
2. Complementary Reciprocal Links
   Take inventory of your business partners and other complementary companies. Check out their websites and reach out to them about the possibility of cross linking. You can link to them and they can link to you.
3. Press Releases
   Whenever you issue a press release, be sure to include links to your site. When the press release is picked up by other sites and posted, your links are typically embedded.
4. Blog Commenting
   Spend time on blogs? If so, don’t be shy – comment away. Lend your expertise in discussions that match your company. Then at the end of every comment include a simple, but consistent signature that contains your information with your website address.
5. Social Site Status Updates
   Sites like Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter are all the rage. Use these sites’ status updates to provide useful information about your company and its solutions. Answering a question on Twitter, post a link. Letting people know about a news item, post a link.

Now, of course these are only a few techniques and I could spend an hour on each but no matter how you link to your site, be sure your site is a destination worthy of the visitor’s time. Keeping your site current and relevant is the first part of success, and of course a solid content management system can go a long way to help you do just that.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

Today is Earth Day. According to Wikipedia, today is “a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment.” The mantra of the generation is the three “R’s” of environmentalism – Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Have you ever thought about how your web strategy can help you do just that?

Last week I had an article published by Worcester Business Journal called "Intranet Advantage: How an internal network can help your business." In it, I made the statement that

“…an intranet can help you reduce your company’s carbon footprint. With all your forms in one central location, and by providing employees the ability to fill them out online, you can eliminate unnecessary printing and copying.”

This is no trivial statement. Think about it. For example, an intranet where board members can login and receive meeting packets can easily same a ream of paper per board member (multiply that by 20 board members and you’ve save two cases of paper!). The time spent putting together those packages is also greatly reduced, adding efficiency and decreasing costs from administrative tasks.

Companies with intranets have come to realize that it’s not only environmentally beneficial to reduce waste created through print, but fiscally responsible as well. Many have also come to realize there’s another type of green benefit from an intranet. The green that shows itself as a positive impact on the bottom line.

At Dovetail, we work with many clients to build effective intranet solutions with our novo content management system. Check out the case study on our site for Westfield Bank to read about one example.

If you don’t have a solid intranet platform and are looking for ways to improve your carbon legacy as a company, consider one. If you do have one, ask yourself if you are using it as effectively as you could be to reduce waste. Why save a tree alone when together we can save the planet? Make every day Earth Day.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

Every business knows that a web site is a critical component of their marketing efforts, and at the same time agrees that keeping their site current is also critical. But many companies are simply unable to do so. They fear the technology, don’t have the time, or don’t feel they will ever see a return for the investment. Our company was founded on the principal that no business should languish online. To that end we created novo, our content management system. And for businesses in almost any industry novo is just what the marketing doctor ordered.

But many companies still feel that full content management is simply too big, too time consuming, or too expensive. At Dovetail we do our best to combat these misconceptions. And to make it even easier, we’re now offering novo in a new hosted option that’s flexible and affordable. Simply put, time to market can be faster, updates can be easier, and a real ROI can be realized.

So if you are looking at a way to get the most out of your website, partner with the experts at Dovetail and find out how you really can have the power to change the way you think about your website.

For more details and to find out how affordable web CMS can be, check out our novo options for small business today.

-- Mike

follow me on Twitter @mikevilla

We’ve seen an increase lately in customers wishing to implement intranets and extranets to improve their internal communications. In today’s challenging times companies can see real ROI on a solid intranet that not only reduces costs but actually improves employee morale and communication.

Here are some thoughts on why having a corporate intranet can be a real benefit to your company.

• Improved internal communications – store information centrally and know that everyone is accessing up-to-date information. Your intranet provides greater version control than shared folders. It is the location for approved pieces (not all the work-in-progress items).
• Increase communication and sharing – by putting best practices and resources in one place you create a more collaborative working environment – both internally and with your customers, vendors, distributors, strategic partners--everyone.
• Secure communications – instead of sending sensitive information, such as price lists, over email, make everything available in one password protected location.
• Improve customer service – when all employees have easy access to the same information, they can answer customer questions more accurately and quickly. Open up some of this information to your customers, and then they can get answers to their questions even faster.
• Reduce paperwork and email traffic – put all your forms in one central location and allow them to be completed online and you reduce the effort of sending these forms by email and printing them out
• Increase productivity, flexibility, accessibility – an intranet is more accessible than a file system or a virtual private network (VPN). With everything in a single location, employees can easily access what they want, when they want. Do employees work from home? Do they travel? Might they be working at night or on the weekend? Your intranet gives them access to whatever they need, whenever they need it.
• Build an online community - an intranet can provide things to organization members that the corporate office alone couldn’t provide, like an anonymous comment box. It can also help foster and create an online community within the organization. For example, the day after the company picnic, you can post pictures of the event.

-- Mike

I can’t seem to go to a meeting these days without the topic of Twitter coming up. Twitter is one of the pioneers of micro-blogging – sending curt (140 character) posts with the goal of answering the question “What are you doing now?”

I’ve been using Twitter myself for over a year as an off-shoot from my Mind of Men podcast. My twitter ID is currently @mindofmen. And I’ve been very successful at using it to stay in touch with friends, follow interesting items, and meet new people along the way. And as a social tool it is really great. However most of the conversations I’ve had about it during business meetings center around trying to understand what the potential value is to using Twitter as a part of their online marketing efforts.

My normal response is simple. People are using Twitter (and other social media outlets like YouTube or Facebook) to converse – to share their opinions. And somewhere, somebody is probably tweeting (posting an update to Twitter) about your company. Could have been that they were on the way to your bank branch, had a great experience ordering online from you, or even perhaps that they weren’t too happy with an experience with your company. Either way there is a conversation going on out there, and by your company joining in you can change the monologue into a dialog.

Just tonight, I received a tweet from Lance Ulanoff, editor-in-chief for PC Magazine (I’m a follower of his Twitter account @LanceUlanoff) linking to an online article that talks about some big-name companies that are using Twitter in some pretty effective and exciting ways. So if you are interested in exploring a bit check out 10 Corporate Accounts Worth Following on Twitter.

And if you’d like leave a comment here, or send me a tweet, I’d love to have a dialog with you too!

-- Mike

Last night, NBC premiered a new show starring Christian Slater as a spy who gets his brain wiped after every mission to gleefully return to his happy, perfect life. The premise of "My Own Worst Enemy" seems to be the battle between these split personalities and how they must find a way to work with each other if they are both going to co-exist.

So let's extend that premise to your website, and more specifically the conflict between traditional and online marketing. Too often I am asked to help a client choose between the two. Which way should they spend their valuable dollars is inevitably a hot topic and one that has no perfect answer other than you need them both.

Marketing professionals can't ignore the power of what's going on in the Internet today. In just 140 letters, one can slam your reputation or laud your brand on Twitter. They can post a review on their own blog. A person can post pictures of the whole visit on Facebook and so on. It's scary, but keep in mind that they can do the same in 250 words by sending a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. By making a few calls to friends and family, one can relay a horror story or recommend a service. This new world order may be scary to some, but if you look at the base levels, it's really a new expression of tried and true characteristics of human nature.

I do think though that there is a very significant difference to Internet marketing versus traditional marketing. It has to be cost. The good news is that if you want to get your feet wet online, it's not nearly as expensive to try. It's fairly likely that if you print 50,000, 64-page, four-color catalogs, mail them out and they bomb, management will notice and you may pay the price, but you can run a month long online campaign for a fraction of the cost and it'll just be caulked up as a blip on the budget. You then have the freedom to tweak and try it again a few times.

Of course you will have to overcome objections by some who feel that any spending on Internet is too much, because "isn't everything on the Internet supposed to be free?" But that is topic for another post.

So watch out for those minefields and keep fighting because you may find that your own worst enemy is really your best friend after all.

-- Mike

Earlier this week I took a road trip into Cambridge with a client to visit HubSpot. The company has been getting a lot of attention about their Inbound Marketing system.

Straight from their website...

HubSpot is an inbound marketing system to help your small or medium sized business to get found on the Internet by the right prospects and convert more of them into leads and customers.  HubSpot inbound marketing helps your company get found by the qualified prospects that are looking for the products or services that you sell in search engines, blogs and the blogosphere, and social media.  Once these qualified visitors are on your website, HubSpot helps you convert more of them into leads and paying customers through landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics.

From everything I can see, they get it. Web marketing isn't just about search engine optimization of keywords, it's about helping to establish a complete web profile for your company that results in high rankings, higher traffic, and therefore better qualified leads.

They have combined knowledge and expertise about how to build a site that's optimized for the web, how to select the RIGHT keywords to focus on, how to use other forms of web communications to help create stronger inbound cycles. Most interesting to me though are the lead tracking tools that they have developed.

I especially like the fact that it's pretty clear from HubSpot's offering that they know it takes effort to establish effective web results. That there is no magic bullet. And that goes to the heart of what I've been preaching for years. You can't expect overnight results. You can't even expect you know exactly how people will find you. It takes time. With HubSpot though, smart companies who value that effort will see results.

Have experience with HubSpot? SEO? Or other insights, be sure to add  your voice and comment!

-- Mike

As anyone can tell you, customer service is everything. It's a sentiment that all too often today has become a cliche. But, I founded Dovetail on the desire to work as a partner with our clients. In fact one of our core values is wrapped around that very concept.

I recall seeing one of those office inspirational posters that said "Relationships take a lifetime to build and a moment to lose." I'm paraphrasing, but the statement is very true, and very powerful.

At Dovetail, one of the key ways we differentiate our products is by the myriad of complementary services we bring to the table. I've always known that without one, the other would be neither as potent nor appealing. And while we've never lost site of that, I have to say candidly, that over the year's there have been times when we've done a better job than others when it comes to service.

My goal, then with this post and those to follow is to openly discuss some of our challenges; both successes and failures. How we intend to learn from them, and ensure that you receive the service that keeps you coming back, that allows you to trust your company's vision with ours.

I promise therefore, our best effort... always; open communication as quickly as possible; and a true spirit of cooperation to achieve your goals.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back.

My blogging is not intended to be a one-way conversation, I encourage you to post comments as we go. I'll respond to each and every one publicly, right here.

-- Mike

Today, while you were quietly doing your job, living your life, maybe surfing the web you were most likely completely unaware that the single largest security patch effort in history was underway. It was revealed today that a serious flaw exists in all Domain Name System (DNS) servers. This flaw, which has been explained to be present since the earliest versions of the DNS protocol, could allow an unauthorized person to gain access to unique DNS information and effect a change to the server's DNS records. As a result a DNS poisoning would be in effect and the malicious entity could redirect traffic to alternate web sites.

Here's a link to the notification we saw today from US CERT.

Here's how it could have impacted you. For example someone could visit cnn.com and actually be redirected to some other site. A good hacker would make the alternate site a dead ringer for the original except perhaps ask for personal information. Imagine visiting your online banking site only to find out that you gave your personal information to an unknown person. That's the risk potential.

This flaw was discovered by Dan Kaminsky, the director of penetration testing for IOActive. Department of Homeland Security became involved and coordinated along with Kaminsky an unprecedented sharing of information with DNS vendors ensuring that a unified patch effort could be established. Those patches began rolling out as early as April, but this week, Microsoft included patches in yesterday's update cycle.

Currently the details on the flaw and how to abuse it are being held in tightest confidence by DIH, Kaminsky and the vendors, but a details are expected to be revealed during the Black Hat Security Conference in August.

For our part, Dovetail was alerted early today about the flaw and our Team is actively applying the patches to all of its systems.

This story is significant on so many fronts, but I think mainly because of the potential wide reaching havoc if the flaw had been discovered by someone else. Or if the coordinated effort failed, who knows, today could have been the day the Internet stood still.

-- Mike

Many people experience a bit of a slowdown this week. As vacations hit a peak, and Fourth of July weekend events take a bit of time to recover from, you may find that the phone is ringing a bit less and your to-do list isn't quite as out of control.

You may naturally feel like sitting back a little yourself, but this is a great time to take advantage of a little available time and take stock of your web goals.

So here's a few suggestions on the top 5 things to look at.

1. Design - Take a hard look at your website's design and branding. Is it still in sync with your overall efforts? If not, make a list of the top 5 things you'd like to address.
    
2. Navigation - Pretend you know nothing about your company and start a web visit. Can you easily navigate  your site? Is it intuitive? Are you reaching the pages you want your visitors to find? If not, make a bullet list of the top 5 areas in order of importance and then think about how you can re-tool your navigation to help people get there.
    
3. News - Remember we don't call these items "Olds" so why is your newest item so old? Take 10 minutes and jot down 5 recent newsworthy items. These could include new hires, new offerings, a new location, a trade show you're attending, anything can be news. Take the time to make it newsworthy.
    
4. Use - How are people using your site? How would people like to interact with your company's web site? Pick up the phone and call 5 customers and ask them. And pick ones that you aren't as likely to talk to on a day to day basis. Not only will you be less likely to know exactly what they are going to say, but you may just convert the call into a sales opportunity.
    
5. Explore - Choose 5 websites that you enjoy, or find to be well done. Explore them. Understand why you feel these sites are winners. Make a list of these features and ask if you may be able to emulate them in some way.

Give my top 5 a try, but remember you should work this exercise into your routine once a quarter to maximize your web site's success.

-- Mike

If you read my post from earlier this week you know I had a quandary. I was trying to post status updates to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn at once.

So I posted a question to LinkedIn and sure enough got several responses. Two folks suggested a site called www.ping.fm. The service does just what many others said I could do, write an application to link to their API's and post at once. Of course, thanks to Mike from LinkedIn, I don't have to.

Want to check out ping.fm yourself, it's in beta so you'll need an invite code. So go to the signup form and use the code "pingyoulater" to get in.

Enjoy. And Happy 4th everybody!

-- Mike

As I was going through my mail yesterday after returning from a week away, I was skimming through the Worcester Business Journal and saw an article by Christina Davis called "An Editor Gets Hooked On LinkedIn." It was pretty much a primer, a business persons course in Online Social Networking 101. And as I read it I can't say I learned anything new but it was intriguing none the less. I've had a LinkedIn account for about 5 years now, and it laid dormant for about 4 of them, but in the last year I've been slowly building a network.

But the thing that's frustrating about the suggestions in the article were that one of the people interviewed talked about how important it is to keep your status up to date; to tell everyone what you're doing every day. Sounds great, but I also have fledgling profiles on Facebook and Twitter as well, so who's micro-blog is best? I don't want to, and really can't practically update all three together. I can't seem to get them to read off each other's RSS feeds and I've only downloaded one of their plug-ins for my Blackberry. So do I have to choose one network?

I think I'll post a message to my LinkedIn network and see if anyone has any suggestions...

-- Mike

So I'm back in the office after a week's "vacation." Of course vacation doesn't really mean no work these days, at least not for me. I carry a Blackberry which means that I'm never really away from work. While on vacation I must have dealt with at least 30 emails that came across. Of course I could have ignored them but then this morning would have been that much harder. As it is I have to review around 550 messages to make sure I didn't skip one that really needed a response.

I thank my lucky stars that our MailSweeper service does a great job filtering out the SPAM.

I remember though when email was useful. But today it seems to really be a time hog, stealing moments away from productivity in order to get another useless tidbit of information that someone decided was important for me to see. Now don't get me wrong, I know I created my own monster here, and email is incredibly useful, but it's still refreshing to run into someone that isn't running to their email all the time.

Maybe I should write someone a letter, or even better, make a phone call...

-- Mike

So what's your take on email today? In business? At home? Let me know.

In case you hadn't been paying attention we are in the midst of another round in the Browser War. The Mozilla Foundation just released their latest and greatest version of FireFox yesterday with version 3.0, Opera released version 9.5 last week and Microsoft is in throngs of beta testing IE 8.0, and then there's Apple who has released versions of Safari for both Mac and Windows now.

Once again as developers we are being challenged with browser inconsistencies and ever-evolving standards that make our jobs harder and projects more expensive for you. And, does it really matter what browser you use anyway? The answer is a 100% unqualified "Maybe!" As developers have to make choices it is very probable that something you do doesn't work in FireFox that looks fine in IE, or vice versa.

Our own decidedly unscientific survey shows that FireFox's market penetration is still hovering at around the 15% mark. Is it necessary to put additional resources at 15% of the market? That's a question that's important for you to consider when working on a website redesign. If it is then you need to be sure that you're budgeting time and dollars into that effort. If not, then just remember that when a FireFox fan reaches out to say hello.

-- Mike

Rolling out a new website can be an incredibly daunting, tedious and complicated process. This is especially true when (as is typically the case) the lion's share of the workload falls on a single person. If that's you, I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way.

When planning a web project you can keep your sanity if you are able to establish additional support through others. So where can you look? Well you should look both within and outside the organization.

Gain Support Within your Organization by:

1. Establishing the project sponsor and getting buy-in.
2. Creating a web committee with representatives from various departments.
3. Find and hire support personnel to aid in maintenance (possibly even an intern)

Gain Support Outside your Organization by:

1. Working with a marketing or advertising agency to ensure brand and message consistency. (like one of our agency partners)
2. Buying and using a web content management system. (like novo)
3. Hire a writer to help establish a single, consistent voice throughout your site.

And just keep in mind, building a website is not a simple task, it takes time and a team can be a sure way to help alleviate some of the pain.

-- Mike

Another year has come and gone. 2007 is becoming a distant memory. Amongst the fog that surrounds the holidays, the egg nog and sugar overload, did you make time to take stock and plan for 2008?

What did we learn in 2007?

Many things shaped last year in the world of the web, but I would propose the following were the most important.

1. Online communities and social networking were all the rage. Everywhere you looked someone was vying for your precious account name to be LinkedIn, MySpace'd, Digg'd, Twitter'd, FaceBook'd, YouTube'd, Gather'd, Yahoo'd, Google'd, and so on.
2. The mobile web became useful with devices from Apple and Nokia leading the way.
3. Millions were spent on SecondLife by users and companies trying to figure out what the virtual world is all about.

The user experience of the web made huge strides in 2007. People are spending more and more time connected than ever before, but when it comes down to it, content is still King. Yes, if 2007 showed us anything its that people are excited by new ways to use the web, whether it's a new site, or a new way to look at it, but when it comes down to it, the same lessons are still valid.

So, if you are looking at your site for 2008 and are ready to do something new, to grow your business, don't get distracted in trying to create the next great new thing - focus on your content. It's amazing how clear things become when you do.

-- Mike

At the beginning of the month, I offered up Five Ways You Can Bring Visitors to Your Web Site, and one of those five follows:

Have a clearly defined call to action. When someone visits your site, any page of your site, do they clearly understand what you want them to do to take the next step? Should they pick up the phone and call you, fill out a contact form, email for information, buy something, link to another site, whatever the purpose, make it clear and easy.

When it comes to it, this is more about understanding what you want to do, not necessarily what your customer wants to do.

Now I know what you're going to say next "But Mike, you just said that they need to know what they should do, that's not about me, it's about them, right?" And the answer to that question is Yes, but with one stipulation. You decide what options you're going to give them in the first place. And your options absolutely, 100% need to be dictated by what's right for you and your business.

So before you pick up the phone and call anyone about working on your site, take the time to really understand why you want a site in the first place. That call to action is everything. And whatever you determine is important is the right answer for you. So go for it! Be self-centered for a moment - it's OK. By doing so, you'll do yourself a favor, and make your site a winner for your visitors in the process!

-- Mike

From her first moments in Oz, Dorothy made her way through the myriad of challenges with a single-minded mantra - "Follow the Yellow Brick Road!" Every citizen in the Land proclaimed with confidence that to get what she desired she simply needed to "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," and her behavior from that point started with a single-mindedness that was worthy of any great explorer. And, ultimately she did get her wish - she was able to return to the one place she wanted to be all along. After all, there is no place like home!

At first glance, if we condensed The Wizard of Oz down to that paragraph it would appear that everything worked out perfectly. But if we take a step back and take the time to read the whole story (or watch the movie) we quickly realize that the trials and tribulations, challenges and dangers that presented themselves along her journey made her trip anything but simple, or perfect. And that is the point behind the concept that I went off on the other day.

Dorothy (and her little dog, Toto, too) wanted to go home. To not pass Go. To not go see the Wizard. To not Follow the Yellow Brick Road! That's where the Munchkins got it wrong. And if the they ran a business website they'd be in a lot of trouble! They didn't anticipate the behavior of the user. If they had, then Glenda could have just waved her wand and sent her home.

So, business owners - take the time to anticipate and understand your target web visitors. And you don't have to buy into a lot of mumbo jumbo to do so, just ask yourself these simple questions and you'll be well on your way to understanding your customer better then they understand what they want.

1. What types of user constituents are apt to visit my site?
2. How does each group work with me in the "real world"?
3. How can I mimic those interactions online?

And as users, we shouldn't put up with being forced down long, winding roads either. So when you're on a site and can't get what you want quickly, share your needs - We don't need no stinkin' Yellow Brick Roads! We need to get home!

-- Mike

Last week when I talked about web log reports and analysis of them, I thought I had a handle on the topic, but since them I've been bombarded with a term that was new to me. It's behavioral analytics. So I've been trying to find a succinct definition of what exactly the topic is about. And after several searches on Google, Wikipedia and Ask.com I was exasperated to find no single good answer. A bunch of sites and services spouting off about the topic, but no solid definition that I could find.

So the best I can do is surmise that behavioral analytics is tied to trying to predict what a visitor going to be seeking by examining the trends to help find patterns thereby yielding what they want, and thus what you want them to get. WHAT!? Exactly. Give me a break! What's real anymore? I can't tell. If I knew what somebody wanted before they asked for it then we wouldn't need websites, or newspapers, or stores or anything...

-- Mike

I was thinking some more about my Fuzzy Math/Twisted Science post from the other day, and got to thinking that I didn't mean to come across as though there's no value in your web reports. On the other hand completely, you should, but only if you do so with an understanding as to what you're looking at.

So with that in mind, here's my top ten list of important things to understand when you review your traffic. If you want to reference a sample log report, check out Dovetail's Sample Hit Report.

1. Visitor vs. Hit - Everyone wants to know how many hits their site got this month, last month, last year and so on, well I have news for you. Hits don't mean a thing. A hit is just a file - an HTML file, a graphic, a video etc, so if you have 10 graphics on a page, you're going to get at least 11 hits for every view of that page.
    
   You can see how that number quickly gets inflated. So pay attention to your visitor sessions - they are much more meaningful - you can assume that a singe visitor session is a unique person browsing your site for a single period of time - which, based on the site, will cover dozens, hundreds, even thousands of individual hits during their session.
    
2. Page Popularity - Check and see which pages are the most and least visited. This can be useful on any number of counts. You can validate if a traffic driving campaign is effective, or not, if visitors find you through your home page, or other entry point etc. This can help know which pages get the most "eyes" and thus deserve more of your attention in terms of offering up content.
    
3. Entrance and Exit Pages - "Which door do your guests use to enter and exit your house?" My mother used to ask that, which usually meant, make sure the front hall is cleaned best. The same holds true here, not everyone goes straight to your home page - if they come in through a search engine any page is fair game, so understanding where they start is important. Likewise the last page is important too, if it's a "thank  you for buying" page you're doing OK, but if it's a shopping cart page, sales are being left on the counter.
      
4. Referrers - Who's linking to your site. Does someone find you from a search engine, banner ad, or friendly site? This let's you profile traffic before it gets to you so you can understand better how to find your audience.
   
5. Keywords and Search Engines - The Big Kahuna - search engine results! It's one thing to want to be found by a keyword of phrase, and completely another to actually be found by it. Sometimes you've got it all wrong. Sometimes your content isn't supporting your desired words, either way these reports can show what searches were successful at finding your site. This can validate or undermine an SEO or PPC campaign so you can really see how important they are.
    
6. Understanding Geography - The first W in WWW stands for world, but the world starts right outside your own door, so understand where visitors are coming to your site from geographically and understand if you're capturing the right folks. It doesn't do a whole lot of good to receive an inquiry from Queensland, Australia if you're a plumber in Spokane, Washington. BUT BE AWARE: geography is based on IP address, so they can be skewed heavily based on how people connect to the Internet. (Did you know AOL is based in Virginia?)
    
7. Technology - What kind of computers and browsers and operating systems are people using today? It's important because you need to be sure your site works best in the most popular, and conversely if only a small percentage of visits are in one area, you may choose not to spend valuable resources to be compatible - you decide, but either way it's important to know this information.
    
8. Time - We all need more, and never have enough, so it's even that much more critical to know when during the day, week, and month your site is most heavily used as well as how long the average person spends at your site or page.
    
9. Errors - Chances are even the best built sites occasionally experience issues, so knowing how often is important for sure. It's also a good gage to know when your site might be outgrowing its current server or host provider's capabilities.
    
10. Return Visits - Perhaps most import is return traffic. We talked last week about bringing people to your site, if it's working they often come back and this is one way to determine that.

OK, that's it for now, hope you find this useful and as before, if I've forgotten something or you want to weigh in, I encourage you to comment right here at the bottom of this post by clicking the "comments" link.

-- Mike

Last week, I talked about five ways to increase visitor traffic to your website, and one of those items was:

"Pay attention to your traffic. Do you know how many people are even visiting your site? Be sure you know how to find and understand your site's traffic logs. And if you don't know, then find out... "

But here's the thing, there is a lot of useful information buried in your web stats, but most people just don't understand how to interpret them properly. I've said for years that too many people apply "fuzzy math" to their hit reports, that the promise of web analytics is a "twisted science." Why?  Because simply put, too often gathering analytics is about impressing the boss, and not making sound business decisions.

So, don't make the same mistake, take the time to understand what your hits are telling you in context with what you really want to know. A million hits to one site can mean something completely different to another; and a million hits don't mean a thing if you can't correlate them to some other useful metric - like say sales!

-- Mike

If you read my post from earlier this week, then you may have been saying to yourself "OK, Mike, I got it, but now get off your high horse and tell me what I can practically do!" OK, I will, because you're right in a way, not making the time to update your website is usually just a symptom of the real issue. And what we have found is that people just don't know where to start. So I like to suggest that they start with some simple starting ideas.

The following are thoughts anyone can use to achieve some outstanding results with a web site.

1. Know thy visitor! I can't underscore this one enough, understanding your audience is the basis on which everything you do with your site should be based. Take the time to understand who is coming to your site and who you want to come to your site. Are you trying to attract prospects, customers, partners, dealers, prospective employees, clowns and elephants, etc. Whatever the answer [and yes it's OK to have several] then be sure you have areas of your site to talk directly to each of them.
    
2. Give them a reason to come back. Providing solid, predictable and valuable content on a regular basis is a great way to keep your site fresh and attract returning visitors. Publish news and announcements, update events you'll be hosting or attending, post to a blog, record a podcast, publish a newsletter, create a resource directory, offer a valued link library, host an industry research area, and so on. The ideas are endless, and so can be the value to your target visitor.
      
3. Have a clearly defined call to action. When someone visits your site, any page of your site, do they clearly understand what you want them to do to take the next step? Should they pick up the phone and call you, fill out a contact form, email for information, buy something, link to another site, whatever the purpose, make it clear and easy.
    
4. Small, regular changes are better than infrequent, drastic ones. Don't wait until you have enough updates to bother. If you think it, do it! The quicker your ideas are translated into reality, the sharper, more interesting and better they will be executed. If I asked you how often you were going to update your site and you said "a few times a year," or "once a quarter," or even "once a month" - I'd probably reply with - "don't bother!" Seriously, don't get overwhelmed by the prospect. To quote Michael Jordan and Nike - "Just Do It!" - and do it regularly.
    
5. Pay attention to your traffic. Do you know how many people are even visiting your site. Be sure you know how to find and understand your site's traffic logs. And if you don't know, then find out, and if you don't have them, change host providers. Plain and simple, traffic trends can help you to appreciate which areas of your site are working and which are less then favorites.

And finally, understand the simple fact that your website is never done! It's not like a brochure or commercial or any other media around, because you always want to be changing it, adding to it and making it better. So try thinking in these terms, let me know what you think and how it works, and share your experiences by commenting right here on this post.

-- Mike

It's amazing how often I walk into a company and hear that "my website doesn't work, has never worked, was done years ago and hasn't generated a thing for me!" And it's always followed by - "but, this time it'll be different!"

In a situation like that it's with a little trepidation that I begin to speak, because there are many excuses as to why a website doesn't generate business, but more often than not there's one real reason. Them! Plain and simple, it's not a priority, - they put it up and like a brochure leave it to get dusty on the shelf.

If a company isn't able to devote the attention and time to a website to make it a living, breathing, dynamic version of the real-world company, then why would it work? And nobody wants to hear that they may be part of the problem. So, how do I come back from this scenario? Dig. Dig deep to understand what the obstacles are that prevent the site from being a priority, and give them the tools so that they can make time and not excuses.

-- Mike

It never seems to cease to amaze me the way that technology has revolutionized the way to work and communicate.

I'm sitting here on the Long Island Ferry, in the middle of the Long Island Sound. It's expected that there'd be wireless on board these days, and sure enough there is, but I'm connecting on my cell over their network.

Though this is not new, it's still amazing the reach the 'net has to every corner of our lives - and think that as a nation we are well behind other parts of the world when it comes to mobile, personal communications.

- Mike

Just yesterday, I was on the phone talking to a prospective customer about the many ways they could re-vamp their website and make it an integral part of their business. We talked about many things, but the one that really had legs in their case was the thought that their site could become an online resource which shares their expertise with the world.

Too many times companies view knowledge as something that should be held inside the organization.

"If we let it out then people won't need us!" is the most common fear.

While this could be true if done to an extreme, our experience says the opposite, that giving a little yields a lot.

So if you're looking for a new way to capture leads from your site, give your visitors something; allow them to have direct access to your brain-trust; and keep giving them more. By doing so, your may just find that your site becomes a destination that harnesses the web!

-- Mike

We've been very busy for the past several months, and a lot of effort has gone into creating this exciting new look. We've change our logo, our brand and our website all at once!

Of course, the question you may have is "Why?"

It was 1999 when I launched Dovetail and we came up with what has been a great identity for over eight years now, but like many things it was time for a change. Dovetail as a company still embraces the founding principles of the Company by working with all types of companies to create "Internet Solutions That Fit." But the time came to update that message a bit.

Surely the Internet today is nothing like it was at the end of the last century. New and exciting things are coming out every day. Web 2.0 is a concept that is making its way into business magazines and the evening news alike. And businesses are looking to understand how to take advantage of this "second wave" of the connected generation.

Thus the new Dovetail. We've made our logo more modern and created a concept that really describes what we are all about. We work with you to maximize your investment in the web. Thus our new motto was born...

"Dovetail Internet Technologies - Harnessing the web. Putting you in control!"

So whether you're a long-standing customer or someone looking for something new - the new face of Dovetail is welcoming you. Same great products and services, same great service, same great people. We are Dovetail and we welcome you to explore our site.

-- Mike

I just can't emphasize enough how important customer service is to all of us at Dovetail. Since the very earliest days as a company offering personal, quality, courteous and professional service has not only been an accidental side effect , but it is one of our strongest core values.

in the business climate of today, it's the personal connections we make that allow us to grow. And to me, customer service is one of the more lasting ways to make (and sustain) personal connections. As a small business ourselves I know that we will always choose a smaller (even possibly more expensive) vendor if the personal sense of connection, integrity, and service are established.

That sense of importance was most-likely fostered by my parents from the youngest of days. My dad was in academia meeting the audio-visual needs of my alma-mater, the College of the Holy Cross, for over 35 years. And the biggest thing I learned from watching him over the years was that it didn't matter whether you were a student, a new associate professor or the President of the college, you treat everyone with respect in the same way. Of course it's up to you and your skills to prioritize accordingly, but you always offer your best.

At Dovetail, we embrace the same spirit collectively as a group. Even when a customer is having troubles and clearly feels that we have made a mistake (and believe me, we have occasionally) we strive to get to the root of the issue, find an equitable resolution and allow the customer to move on with their day. Sometimes that focus may seem indifferent but know that we are working our very best to get the issue fixed.

I like to think that's why we have so many long-term customers. So if you're looking at a new web partner who will work with you and provide the best possible service, give Dovetail a try - you may just start the first day of a great long term personal connection.

-- Mike

I've been spending Tuesday nights with my mom for the past several years, and we have a tendency to get absorbed by whichever reality contest is going on at any given time of the year. First it was American Idol. But now it has turned to ABC's Dancing with the Stars. I think there's an innate desire in all of us to see the underdog have a chance at glory. Its the David vs Goliath story being played out in front of us every week.

As I have been getting sucked into DWTS this year I have observed something very interesting. If you watch the show you know that the talent has been outstanding to the point that half of the stars had a chance to go all the way (with apologies to Jerry Springer, we never thought you were going to go all the way but thanks for the laughs). And this was really the case with the final three: Joey Lawrence, Emmitt Smith and Mario Lopez.

This week Joey was sent home leaving the battle between the judges favorite (Mario) and the "Cinderella Man" (Emmitt). I don't know who's going to win but I am hoping Emmitt takes it all.

Why? Because he represents to me what we are here at Dovetail. Many times we are part of a selection process where we are by all expectations an underdog. We're a small company, not as flashy as some bigger competitors. We're not always as comfortable with a new dance right away, but we come out and do our very best and impress. We work hard. And we surprise people along the way. We can really move across that dance floor when we're asked to perform.

So give us a shot. We'll surprise you too if you'll just ask us to dance. 

Then after calling us, pick up the phone next Tuesday and vote for Emmitt!

-- Mike

Welcome to Net Results the podcast from Dovetail Internet Technologies, LLC. This is episode one.

In this show your host, Michael Villa, introduces the Net Results Podcast by describing the goals and format of the show.

Following that introduction, Mike shares the story of how the Net Results podcast came to be and sheds some light on why any business should be considering podcasting for themselves.

Finally, at the end of each show we will bring a podsafe music selection listen to hear Mike's choice.

Please share your feedback, comments and requests by calling our comment line at (206) 888-6465.

Links from this show:

• Podcasting from Wikipedia
• Podcast and Podcast Subscriber Statistics - from Feedburner.com
• The Podcast Consumer Revealed: An Exclusive Early Look at the Growing Podcast Audience by Edison Media Research
• Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting

Music used in this show:

• Opening Theme: Back Burner by Bob Hughes
• Mike's Theme: If This Guitar Could Talk by Mean Gene Kelton and the Diehards
• Podsafe Music Selection: On a Podcast by Cruisebox

How to Listen:

• Subscribe with iTunes
• RSS Feed
• Download this Episode

I live in Auburn, MA. I called home yesterday and was talking with my wife, Lisa. At one point in the conversation she took the cordless phone outside and I could hear a whole bunch of racket. It sounded like a med-flight helicopter was landing in my back yard. I asked what was going on and she told me that she wasn't sure but there were a lot of police sirens, and there were helicopters hovering overhead. That's plural. Multiple whirly-birds.

So while I was talking I did a quick check on news sites and found out that a bus traveling from New York to Boston had overturned on an exit from I-290. That's just a mile from my house. Apparently the driver of a Fung Wah bus had misjudged and ended up going off the highway. 35 people were injured and taken to area hospitals.

My first reaction was "there goes the drive home." Figuring the commute would be crazy, I headed home at the end of the day. To my surprise though, since my drive doesn't take me directly to the affected routes, I was OK.

When I got home, sure enough, at least one chopper could still be seen circling over my house. Round and round, back and forth. Quite the buzz in the neighborhood.

Despite the obvious nightmare this must have been for those involved in the crash, I have to admit that it's always fascinating to hear about such events through the mouths of children. The minute I walked in the door I got the news from my three oldest, Katie, Tony and Elisabeth. While Katie and Tony were pretty a matter a fact about the incident. "A bus fell over and some people got hurt" my daughter Elisabeth was intent on letting me know that her brother "was going to be on TV."

Now like I said, we are about a mile from the site where this happened. I was pretty sure that my wife hadn't dragged to kids to the site to gawk. And sure enough she hadn't. But as Elisabeth put it... "Tony was dancing around the driveway, waving his arms, and talking to the man in the helicopter. Hey Mr. Cameraman! I wanna be on TV!!!"

Alas, I'm pretty sure that I didn't catch him during the Channel 4 or Channel 7 news. (Yes I did watch to see) But he sure made the headlines in my house!

Today is a day like any other. A Tuesday in August. Which means for me that my allergies are in full swing. [I'd like to shake the hand of whoever invented Claritin.] Blurry eyes, sneezing and all! And typically off to a late start in the morning. So I thought I'd chronicle my day for the Blog... not a special day, but just another day.

8:25 am - arrive at work, fire up the laptop and get to a cup of coffee quick

8:35 am - got my coffee in hand... boy this a good cup... reading my email from last night

8:45 am - need to pack up my cell phone that died and was replaced by Verizon last week, tape it up and call Fed Ex

9:00 am - So what do I tackle first today - let's look at the Dovetail newsletter I'm working on getting out and pick some topics

9:15 am - got my topics and start generating requests for help by posting it to our internal Dovetail Blog

9:16 am - Ben's already replying to the Blog post with ideas and content, discuss and pull some more together

9:45 am - Time for another cup of coffee so I can fuel some meeting prep work I need to start

9:50 am - Working on finalizing new Dovetail Service Ticket System

9:54 am - Mark chimes in on the newsletter content and will get me some photos we can use for one piece.

9:56 am - Back to my prep

10:09 am - Mark stops by to bounce some compilation issues he's dealing with off of me... unfortunately I'm not much help

10:15 am - Back to my prep

10:40 am - Ben stops by to tell me about how one of our APC UPS services may cause some problems but that the developer is sending a hot-fix over now

10:49 am - The fax rings, go check it out, I'm expecting a fax from a new customer... WOW! That's great I can get a low low mortgage rate if I just respond to this junk fax... crumple, crumple, toss...

10:50 am - I ask Ben on some thoughts about the service ticket emails ... back to prep

11:24 am - Ben stops by needing to do some brainteasing... But I have to make him wait...

11:26 am - Just finished the service flowing...

11:27 am - "OK, what's up, Ben?"

11:30 am - Seems like we got a call from a customer dealing with an interesting network question wanting to separate their LAN traffic to two separate ISP connections.... Ben and I spend a bit of time white boarding the options, confirming theory and best practices.

11:53 am - Ben goes back to his desk to think through the detailed response and touch base with the customer

11:58 am - time to get some lunch...

12:34 pm - Mmmmm. Good lunch! I'm on a low fat / low cholesterol diet so I've become an expert at ordering healthy from anywhere. Today's stop... McDonald's - Yes you can eat healthy from there - a side salad with lo cal dressing and a grilled chicken sandwich, naked... tasty and only about 10 grams of fat... well back to the grind... still have more flow prep to do for service.

2:05 pm - Finished service tickets... just in the nick of time too. I'm about to go into a project planning conference call to discuss a number of development tasks and my service training is right after that... So stay tuned and I'll give you some exclusive behind the scenes on what we'll be rolling out to help track and monitor incoming support.

3:05 pm - Had a great project planning conference call. Looked at some feature requests and agreed on an approach that works for everyone. This is what it's all about - coordinating with the development and planning expertise Mark brings to the table, getting the attention of the sponsors and project managers and agreeing on a course of action. Now it's time to setup the projector for the Team and I'll be training on the new service ticket system which will be launched shortly thereafter...

5:02 pm - Wow, what an afternoon. A good meeting with the team on service and support tickets. We are going to launch our new system with customers tomorrow which entail the launch of our internal help desk solution. We will be able to quickly capture incoming support incidents, assign them unique tracking numbers, automatically email customers with information, track the activities associated with them and improve the overall flow of support for Dovetail.

5:34 pm - End of the day. Need to complete a few clean up items for the day and then I'm heading out. Gotta run to a volleyball game - my wife and I coach the teen league team for our church - a lot of fun. Wish us luck!

I was driving back to the office the other day from lunch when I came across a funny thing. On the side of the road was a caution sign indicating there would be street sweeping for the next five miles. I moved into the left-hand lane expecting to come across a few slow-moving sweeper vehicles on the right cleaning up. And if that were what I ended up seeing, I'd have had nothing to add, however the scene I saw had me laughing so hard I almost drove off the road.

As I approached the flashing lights ahead, I passed a Massachusetts state highway truck on the side of the road with a crew standing there. To my surprise there was no sweeper vehicle in sight, but rather one of the crew leaning against the truck taking a break and he was holding a broom! Yes, a broom! I have to imagine that sweeping any road by hand is a nearly impossible task and I assume that the crew was simply doing some clean up that the vehicles couldn't get too. But it still struck my funny bone pretty hard.

After I regained my composure (and control of my car) I got to thinking about the metaphor I had just witnessed. You might have a tool that will do the job, but do you have the experience to know if your selection of tool was the best it could be? Yes my friend on the side of the road with the broom could have swept the entirety of Route 9 West, but he would probably retire before he finished the job.

Whenever I approach a project I ask myself several quesitons:

1. Have I seen this type of project before, and if so, what worked then?
2. What didn't work then? Should I use the same tool again?
3. Is there a related project that might have a similar solution to the one at hand?
4. If the tool can do the job, is it the best tool for the job?
5. Have newer, better tools been built since then?
6. Can I make an existing tool better?
7. Should I build a tool to do the job?

These and other questions (and I suppose their answers) have been developed because of the depth of experiences that I've come across over the years. Using that I think I've typically made the right choice more often than not.

So next time you want to sweep the highway, don't just grab the closest broom you can get your hands on or may never finish what you start out to accomplish.

It occurs to me that when people first contact us here at Dovetail, they are looking for a service. Maybe a host provider or web design company or a provider of content management systems. And we certainly offer those services and products. But I don't think about Dovetail as just another web company. When I started Dovetail it was much more than that. And today that is still true.

Dovetail is all about improving the way people work with companies. Part of our goal is certainly to offer quality at a reasonable price to our customers, but what we really want to achieve is a positive impact on the lives of "regular folk." When web surfers come across a web presence powered by Dovetail, we want them to have a positive experience, one that lets them do something better than they did before.

For example we just completed a new website for a bank here in Massachusetts - Middlesex Federal. This was their first website ever. I think that when their customers visit the site they'll find it professional and useful. They can find out information more easily than before. Potential new customers can get information about their competitive deposit and mortgage rates easily. And we've made sure it's just as easy for bank staff to keep that information up to date.

Another example is a custom printer of bags in Missouri - Bags & Boxes II. They opened up their ordering to the world - their existing customers and new ones alike. It's an integrated online e-commerce site. Yes, we've helped them execute a business strategy, but we've also enabled their target customer to have a convenient way to work with them.

That's a great feeling. And that's what Dovetail is all about!

It's amazing what you can do with the web today. But even with all that's possible, too many companies fall into the trap of ignoring what's practical.

Go back to the basics.

No matter what your goals are for your website keep the three basics in mind at all times... Effective Design, Clear Navigation and Great Content.

Your website design says more about your company in 5 seconds than anything else. Don't worry about creating the next great piece of art - design doesn't have to be art - Good design's role is to establish credibility in a way that fits its intended audience.

Navigation is part of the design - but rather than being graphical design, it's information design. Your navigation has the single purpose of escorting your visitors to the information you want them to see. That's it. It doesn't matter if it's "cool" or "fancy" it just has to be clear - and obvious.

But then there's the content. Content is King! Your site's content is the story of your company - an autobiography if you will. You've got a story to tell and people want to read it. Take the time to develop good content that's interesting and informative.

When you go astray in a web development project, just go back to the basics. Whatever the issue, if you hold it up against the design, navigation and content goals you'll find your direction.

- Mike

PS. If you want more on this topic, check out my Building a Better Website webinar from last August.

Welcome.

I'm Michael Villa (but you can call me Mike). I'm the President of Dovetail Internet Technologies, LLC. My goals for this Blog are simple. Many posts will chronicle what's going on at Dovetail, but I'll also provide personal insights, thoughts, and opinions on challenges, pitfalls and trends surrounding the Internet.

A little bit about me.

Dovetail finds its home in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts and I've spent my whole life in Central Mass. I graduated in 1991 from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. After spending almost 6 years working for a local ad agency as a graphic artist, I began working with the Internet in 1996. In May of 1999 Dovetail was born.

It's been a wild ride since then. Over the past seven years I've had a front row seat to the Internet bubble's boon, burst and resurrection. I've had the pleasure of working with hundreds of companies over the years to host and build their websites, and I've been lucky enough to benefit from many lasting professional relationships - a few have been with me personally now for a decade!

I've seen a lot. And I've developed my own modus operandi regarding the Internet. Sprinkled with practical ideas and proven techniques. I look forward to sharing many of them with you in the posts here.

Enjoy!

- Mike