The quest begins with a simple Google search “professional web design company;” because after all you’ve had the IT guy do your last site and his design skills leave much to be desired. Your search returns several astounding companies, and no surprise at the top of the list you find LevelTen. After a few minutes browsing our award winning portfolio, you take the time to fill out the free price quote and so begins the company website redesign.
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I initially began selling online media in 2003 with Verizon Superpages.com. I worked in the startup division that focused primarily on the Superpages.com product. Unlike traditional “Yellow Page” reps our division only focused on the pay-per-click and pay-per-call models. To make things more complicated I was assigned to sell Local Yellow page PPC Campaigns to National Advertising Firms and Search Engine Marketing Agencies. I experience tons of success landing large accounts to lock on to our platform. There was this one guy that never returned my calls, I believe he work with Level Ten Design and I think his name was Tom. I bet that company never made it without my Yellow pages PPC model I was selling. After landing a few big dogs like Travelocity, Reachlocal and Hilton Hotels through agency relationships I felt it was time to branch out and move beyond the internet Yellow Pages.

Zunch Communications at the time was one of my clients at Superpages.com and they had a need for a new sales rep. In early 2006 I made the move to Zunch and was one of the interactive marketing consultants assigned to take over the world. We primarily focused on Search Engine Optimization but were equipped to selling large custom wed design & ecommerce projects. The average SEO client spent around $4000.00 per month and average Web development would start at $50,000.

It’s amazing to see the growth of this industry over the past four years. The major corporations and local SME’s have began to understand the need for an online presence. The sophistication of the search engines has increased the need for a legitimate firm and the local mom and pop “chop” shops won’t get it done anymore. This is the reason I’ve aligned my background with a firm that’s proven success to many clients.

Let’s get ready to Rumble

Yours Truly

Cortney Butler
AKA Mr. Joy

XSL, ASP, ISP, SQL, POP, PHP…… Don’t they drive you crazy?! They do me. I constantly hear them thrown around the office in all kinds of situations. Here is another, API. What in the heck does this one mean? Well, API is one of the few I do know. API stands for Application Programming Interface. Wikipedia defines API as “a source code interface that an operating system or library provides to support requests for services to be made of it by computer programs.” Wow! Isn’t that a mouthful? Well to break it down, API is essentially a software program that takes a request (usually sent from an external software program), processes information, and returns a result.

A good example of this is the rate calculator available through USPS. When a customer is ordering a product online and wants the item shipped, the rate calculator API can be used. The e-commerce system electronically sends the “API” the shipping address and the total weight of the order using XML (another three letter acronym for Extensible Markup Language). Then the API takes the given information, calculates the different rates, and returns a response, also using XML, back to the e-commerce system. From there, the e-commerce system interprets the information, decides what shipping type was chosen, and displays the total shipping.

APIs are used for several different things. PayPal, Google Maps, and YouTube are just a few of the unlimited number of websites that offer an API. So the next time you are around the office and hear a bunch of three letter acronyms floating around, ask your co-workers what an API is, so you can be the smart one for that moment.

Last week, LevelTen held our second installment of the Synergy Online Marketing series: “Blueprints for Online Marketing Success.” Tom McCracken, President of LevelTen, gave a remarkable presentation on the Architecture of Synergy Online Marketing. With the tagline, “It takes more than just a website to have a big, successful online presence,” Tom explained the importance of building your website from the bottom up with all important elements in the right places.

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Google, Inc. officially announced Monday plans of next year’s release of the highly anticipated open-source mobile platform after months of “Google Phone” rumors and mania. Taylor gives more detail on her post earlier today. Below is the brief version as well as another exciting Google announcement.

The software driving the “Google Phone” is being developed with the help of 30 leading mobile manufacturers and operators, some of which belong to the “Open Software Alliance.” These engineers include the likes of Motorola Inc., Qualcomm Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Intel Corp. and German carrier T-Mobile.

In the same way Microsoft used outside developers to write programs for its Windows software platform. In the same way Windows is the default pc platform “Google wants to make its mobile platform the standard,” according to Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research.

The platform created to power the phone has been dubbed “Android,” appropriately enough, and the hopes of chief executive Eric Schmidt are that Android will, “Make it possible to do anything you can currently do on your PC to be possible on your mobile device.”

Open Sorcery
Last week, Google unveiled OpenSocial, a platform for creating software for social networks such as MySpace and LinkedIn. Open source tools and software have a special place in the heart of developers, programmers, and publishers including one of the then youngest co-founders of Google, Sergey Brin. Brin recalled working as a graduate student 10 years ago and building the online search giant using open-source tools, including HTML.

“We had a set of tools that were the open technologies of the time, and they allowed us to do great and innovative things,” Brin said. “The phones today are actually more powerful than the computers we used 10 years ago. I can’t wait to see what the next generation of innovators will do with these new tools.”

If you type in Google Stock on Google on the forth listing is an article produced by The Motley Fool, a popular free investing advice site, which according to one of their authors Google is the “Worst Stock for 2007.” Who’s the fool now? Free advice is often more costly than paid advice.

Will Google’s Stock Ever Stop Going up? I hope not. With the help of Dallas Investment Advisor, Matt McCracken, I purchased one Google share with my company IRA in mid October and it has increased in value by 20% in two weeks. With release of Android next year, some analysts are predicting shares doubling in their value of today. This does not make me anywhere close to rich of course, but maybe in 40 years I’ll have a good retirement on Google. Thanks GOOG.

If you are at all involved with marketing, particularly in the interactive venue, you have heard both terms. Yesterday, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, took these ideas one step further in formally unveiling marketing campaigns that combine the two, further propelling the growing popularity of social networking. He calls this new trend “pull marketing” in which consumers voluntarily endorse the brands and products they like. As reported in AdAge (November 6, 2007), he “unveiled a system in which marketers can marry an ad message to a user-initiated endorsement of a product or service.”

The idea behind this new venture expands on the notion of peer-to-peer brand recommendations combined with paid advertising from actual companies. Ads will be served up via news feeds based on criteria on members’ profiles (movie interests, age, activities, etc) or if that member has had a friend endorse that brand. From the marketer’s perspective, this allows for more control of what audiences receive their messages which allows for more efficient advertising. Read the rest of this entry »

It is a well publicized fact that with our American freedom to vote comes a very important clause- an American right to privacy for our vote. Not so well-known is the fact that every political financial contribution that you make is available for public viewing. This, of course, begs the question: Who makes financial contributions toward a political candidate whom they do not intend to vote for? Although I am aware that all financial contributions must be documented, I suppose I always assumed- incorrectly it seems- that there was at least some level of anonymity in supporting a candidate. Contrary to this assumption, political contributions can be searched by name, address, or even occupation. Once I got past my initial shock and slight disappointment, curiosity got the best of me. I mean, let’s face it, if you could find out who your boss was voting for, wouldn’t you be tempted to do so? Public accessible contribution documentation offers the next best thing. Is my artist friend a closet conservative? Where does everyone on Dancing with the Stars stand on political issues? Do I live in a neighborhood of Republicans? So, go check it out. Disapprove for a moment if you must, but then give in to your urge to snoop on your fellow citizen’s financial and political decisions. It’s the American way.

Myvirtualzone.com has recently introduced a new product to its line, designed to help eliminate stress in the office or home. The Zen Dolphin is a battery-operated, light-up gadget intended to simulate the swimming path of a dolphin through ocean waves. It is suitable for ages 10 and up, although I am still uncertain as to what sort of stress 10-year-olds are encountering. The illuminated base features a suspended dolphin that lights up and flexes its fins, appearing to gracefully swim atop your desk. It is complete with dolphin and ocean sounds, and the “soothing effect” may be adjusted with volume, light, and timer controls. Though I am certain that the dolphin is meant to alleviate stress through the suggestion of the peaceful swimming, my comfort is found in a bit more deviant manner. By staring at the mounted dolphin attempting to swim on my desk, it actually feels as if I am making progress during my day; at least I manage to move in circles. Whatever your reasoning, the Zen Dolphin is a fun novelty to add to your work day.

Find it here: http://www.myvirtualzone.com/detail.aspx?ID=14389

Recently, I wondered to myself, “What will happen on the road today? If only there was some way for me to know about the journey ahead.” Now, I’m not talking about the road of life here. I don’t get caught up in those sorts of clichés. No, I’m actually referring to my car ride home. Or to work or to that new Mexican restaurant I’ve been meaning to try. Anywhere, really. I want to know if my car is ready to sustain the onslaught of vehicle damages ready to attack from every angle. I’m no mechanic, however, and quite honestly, spending three hours daily at the Jiffy Lube to foster my peace of mind simply is not practical. So, where’s a girl to turn?

Carseller’s Auto-Horoscope, of course.

Just like typical astrology pages, the reader simply locates their sign and reads that day’s interpretation of the stars. Or if you’re like me, you also read every other sign’s information, cursing the date of your birth when it sounds like you would have been better off as a Leo. Unlike mystical, ungrounded astrological readings, though, which often leave me wondering what the reading is referencing, auto-horoscopes can be directly applied to your ride ahead.

Here is an example of my recent auto-horoscope:

Gemini

“Do not be frightened, if today for you it is necessary to leave on the automobile into the twilights, the dense fog, the strong shower and with other circumstances, which limit visibility. Under similar conditions you will feel yourselves sufficient- after all good - possibly, even only it is better than with the clear weather in the middle of day.”

I felt much better afterward; life can be so scary when you haven’t a clue where your fog lights might be leading you.

So, here’s the key- go see what’s on the road ahead. http://carseller.theautoreviews.com/horoscope/

For a while now, it has been rumored among news outlets, bloggers, and our very own Bryan Stoner, that Google would soon announce its very own equivalent to the iPhone, the gPhone. One blog article earlier this morning, even stated that Google would partner with Sprint for the carrier service just as Apple did with AT&T. Since I am a current Sprint customer, this was the highlight of my morning. Knowing that I wouldn’t have to eventually cave-in and switch to AT&T to get the “oh-so cool” iPhone, but that I could instead wait for the even better gPhone. However, the official Google press release today announced the introduction of an open platform for mobile devices called Android, not an actual Google Phone. When the announcement arrived I was, needless to say, disappointed.

Despite the lack of a new phone on the market, this is a good development for mobile phone technology as a whole, and one that will benefit cell phone users (the vast majority of Americans?) in the coming year. As the Google press release so eloquently explains it, “By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers. The end result will be an unprecedented mobile platform that will enable wireless operators and manufacturers to give their customers better, more personal and more flexible mobile experiences.”

So basically, this open platform will be able to power many different phone models across a variety of service carriers, some that have partnered with Google, including T-Mobile. This is certainly a change from the current closed system in which the big dominate cell phone carriers control which handsets work on their networks along with which programs can run on the handsets. This will also result in less expensive phones and smartphones with more user-friendly Internet services, says CNET.

This will ultimately make your cell phone the epicenter of your personal universe as it becomes more and more like a mobile PC. It will also mean more phones, no matter the carrier, will be powered by Google, so more Google ads will be seen by mobile users. Google, you are so clever.

Although I was looking forward to buying the gPhone, which may have looked something like the image below, I will still look forward to a fully-functional, less expensive Google powered phone sometime in the upcoming year.

Unless Santa decides to bring me an iPhone…