Broadstreet Blog

QR codes are not seeing the rate of success I expected when they first hit the scene. I'm not surprised to see businesses using them poorly, however I am surprised to see a large group of people who still don't know what a QR code is.

QR codes are basically square images that, when scanned with a smart phone, will take you directly to a web page with information you are seeking at that point. QR codes should be helpful and rewarding to the customer while building brand awareness and revenue for the business.

I have been increasingly frustrated at the amount of QR codes being used improperly. It takes a little time to use a QR code and a person should be rewarded for the effort. Using the QR code takes a few minutes - you have to dig out the phone, slowly focus and take the photo of the code, then wait for your phone to get to the website. When you finally arrive, if the destination is disappointing, you probably won't want to bother with a QR code in the future, thus giving the QR codes a bad rap and tossing the baby out with the bathwater as grandma used to say.

From my experience, here are some good and bad uses of the QR code.

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Update, 10/11/2011:   Facebook has postponed the beta version of timeline after Timeline.com filed a lawsuit. Timeline is currently only available to those who have Facebook’s Developer application installed.

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Sure.... your customers like you.

Your friends like you.

Your mom likes you.

But does Facebook like you?

Edgerank is Facebook's way of "liking" you.  Edgerank is a search ranking algorithm designed to help Facebook choose which posts should be placed on a person's feed.  

Creating a business page and updating your status does not necessarily mean all your fans will see that status update in their wall feed. The default view for all personal facebook accounts is the Top News view rather than the Most Recent view.  The Top News will show the updates that Facebook has determined the viewer is most interested in.

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Google’s Instant Preview feature gives new meaning to the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” 
 
The Instant Preview feature was rolled out without much fanfare so you may or may not be aware of it. Opinions vary on how much it affects SEM (Search Engine Marketing) or SEO (Search Engine Optimization,) but most strategists agree it places much more importance on design than ever before.
 
The Instant Preview feature provides a graphic overview of search results and enables people to preview the results right on the results page. This is done through the use of a magnifying glass icon to the right of your search results.
 
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I had a problem appear this week that I've seen before, but couldn't remember the best resolution for it.  

If you don't setup your ImageCache Presets correctly, you sometimes get caught with black stripes down the sides of your images.   In my case, this was happening in a view used on the Tyler Brothers website, in this case the page for Youth and Children's Carhartt clothing.

The solution to the black stripes is to define your "canvas" color within your imagecache preset.   Here's what I believe to be the best way: 

First, install the ImageCache Actions module.  This module gives you a great number of options to transform your uploaded images.  

Then, add a Define Canvas action.  The position of this action is important.  In my case, it needs to go between the Scale and Crop actions. 

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Seth Godin had a good post called "What did you ship in 2010?", which listed out all his accomplishments for 2010 and asked readers to think about our own.  Read it at Seth's Blog.

Sometimes we get caught up in the daily busy-ness of business and don't take a breather to see what we've accomplished.   Well, here's a list of things we've done  Broadstreet Consulting, 2010.

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I'm a little late sharing this but I just wanted to take moment to mention the very successful Bar Camp Charleston (www.BarCampChS.org).

There were dozens of interesting sessions covering everything from Linux to Web Design to Salsa dancing. There were 3 Drupal sessions. The first was 'Intro to Drupal' which was given by Nikolai Burton.  Nikolai runs Charleston Drupal Users Group (http://chsdug.org/) and also presented a session called "A Whirlwind World Tour of Film."  Nikolai was asked to do this session att the last minute and he filled in admirably. He presented to a packed classroom of more than forty people and it was a valuable session.

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Here's a Summary of my Presentation at DrupalCamp Asheville (NC), September 18, 2010.

 We tested Boost on www.busbeetruckparts.com and a test version of www.tylerbrothers.net.  Both of these sites have mostly anonymous users and fairly static content.  They are both hosted on a shared hosting service.  These factors make them good candidates for Boost.

You can get to the Boost Project at www.drupal.org/project/boost.

Apache Bench (ab) is a performance measurement tool that comes with Apache.  It comes natively on a Mac.  If you are using a PC, you need to load the WAMP or XAMPP stack to get Apache and ab.   Some links about ab and XAMPP: 

 XAMPP or XAMPP lite on a Windows machine:

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html#646

More info on the process: 

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Like most people, I started doing business with GoDaddy a long time ago, when I first started registering Domain names. Actually, my first domain—sliker.com in 1997—was done through Network Solutions, who I think had a monopoly back then. But like most people, when GoDaddy came out with $9.99 domains it was irresistible. Since then I have had hundreds of domain registrations and renewals at GoDaddy, and two different hosting accounts for my various customer sites and my own Web properties.

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Whenever I hear something that makes me want to read a certain book, I right it down in my Outlook To-Do list.  I have an Agenda item called "Books to Read"-- I add it to my list. 

This week, before I left on vacation, I checked my list and found Roy Spence's "It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For."    I don't remember where I heard about this book.  I thought maybe it was The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast or else Chris Brogan's Blog, but after a Quick Google search I don't think it's either of them.    Regardless of the source, I'm glad I'm reading it. 

Currently the front page of the Broadstreet Consulting site says:  

 Broadstreet Consulting specializes in helping small enterprises build and expand their business using the World Wide Web. 

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