Recently in General Category

This was my first trip to Omniture Summit, with my expectations and excitement growing significantly during the two weeks leading up to the trip to Salt Lake City. As it was stated in the Twittersphere, this was going to be “THE” web analytics party of the year.  The Summit most certainly lived up to this name.

 

POSTED BY MIKE, 2009

     I'm turning 40! I can't believe this milestone came so quickly. It seems like only yesterday for so many of my previous milestones: First day at school; first car; graduating high school; graduating college; first day at my first "real" job; my wedding day (Love you, Dear!) and of course, the birth of Lucas (who, as I write this, is outside playing up a storm in a t-shirt and shorts!) I can't remember ever still being in shorts at this time of year. Thinking back, the summers have been getting warmer and longer. Surely a sign of climate change! Not to mention the shorter winters and less snow. We can barely squeeze in 5 or 6 weekend trips to the slopes, anymore.

     Enough sulking! I was completely blown away that the family all pitched in for the new truck. Actually, it's an SUV, but I like the more manly description of truck. I need something to set me apart from the rest of the crowd on the roads - I'm not sure they even make small cars any more. At least the gas prices have come down and we won't go broke filling the thing up after all the 1 mile trips back and forth to the store. I'm starting to think society has reached the peak of laziness. When I was a kid, we used to ride our bikes to the store just for some Necco wafers. But, it was cooler back then and I have to admit, I take great comfort in the A/C havens of car (now truck!) and home. I'm just glad we didn't settle in the parts of the country that seem to be getting hit by hurricanes or forest fires or earthquakes these days. Is it just me, or are these events increasing in frequency?

     Maybe Lucas will be able to report on this at his 40th b-day... after he finishes playing in the fallen leaves, or course!

POSTED BY LUCAS, 2040

     I've just received a wonderful 40th birthday present, snow! My Dad handed down his childhood toboggan a few years ago, but Jason hasn't been able to use it since it hasn't snowed. We've been having fun today riding the toboggan and making snow angels. I started to think that he wouldn't be able to enjoy snow anymore, like I did as a growing up. The weather has been really strange this year. I was getting used to hearing reports of hundreds of people dying in storms but this year the weather has been pretty calm. Maybe the climate has stabilized and we can expect regular season changes from now on.

     It's been an exciting week. I traded in my gasoline car for an all electric car. All of the gas stations in our area finally converted their gas pumps to electric car charging stations. I'm so glad since gasoline is so expensive now. Gasoline powered cars have become a rare thing. They are just recycling the materials from the old gasoline cars to get them off the road. It's taken a while to get people to upgrade their cars, but it's been worth it.

     Initially I was depressed about turning 40, but things have never been better. It looks live we've done enough to get things back to normal. It's nice to know that Jason will be able to live in a world where he won't have to worry about the climate.

POSTED BY JASON, 2072

    Wow, I can not believe I am turning 40 years old. At least I do not feel 40 yet, so I have no complaints. Maybe I will feel more my age once I have children of my own, which should not be long now since just a week ago the doctor confirmed that Linda was pregnant. What a great birthday surprise! I wish my father could be around to share this moment with me.

     Just the other day Linda and I were cleaning out the attic and we found my fathers old toboggan. It made me think about him and how close we were. He was taken from us a few years ago due to sun exposure and I miss him every day. Some of my fondest memories of my father was with that toboggan and those winters upstate. I can not even recall the last time I have even seen snow, it has snowed around here in about 10 years. It worries me to think that my child may only witness snow through a television screen. It is strange how much I do miss that cold snow.

     Everything has changed, though. We are seeing diseases that we can not explain, let alone cure. Hell, we can not even go outside for more then a few hours a day, and some days the exposure warnings don’t let us out at all. With the days being so hot it is a shame when you can’t spend it at the beach.

     We watch the news and see constant forest fires just west of here. The smoke lingers in the air, making it hard to breath and giving the air an eerie grey glow. I am still trying to get used to it.  The sea level keeps going up, much faster then the Corp of Engineers can even work to slow it down a little. I do admire the resources that the government puts in to trying to combat the rising waters, but I also feel it is a waste of good tax money. They have already raised our taxes 4 times in the past few years to try and combat all these problems we are having.

     I hear Linda calling me, I will try to write more later. I know I have been a little neglectful lately.

(7 Months Later)

     Gaaash, Our doctor is unable to diagnose Linda’s disease, and she is getting weaker with every passing day. I think we are both drained due to losing the baby. Neither of us are sure we want to continue on. Most of the time, doctors cannot diagnose the cause of illnesses, but I think it is due to the unpredictable weather we have everyday. Our bodies are experiencing extreme cold one day and extreme hot weather the next.

(6 Months Later)

     Linda passed away today. We had been living without a doctor for the last 6 months. Almost everyone in our town has been wiped out in the last few years.  I am so frightened!  Just across the street I can see the factories, which are still in operation, because machines do not get effected by the weather.  Who will use these products once everyone is gone?

(3 Months Later)

     I am getting weaker every day.  I see machines and robots everywhere. I wonder if I am the last human being on earth or if there may be a few more strugling with their diseases.  I wish we could reboot the climate. If humans survive I hope they will not play with nature, or take things for granted, as we did.

>>>SYSTEM DATE: 2098-10-15<<<
>>>No human activity for 20 years. Shutting down all systems.<<<

  
EPILOGUE
     The events depicted above might seem extreme or exaggerated to you, but although they are fictional, there is a hint of truth in every fiction. Our current world is plagued by conflicts because of scarce resources and environmental disasters.  Hurricanes, tidal floods and landslides occur more frequently and our nature is losing its beauty due to pollution. If we preserve our nature, we preserve the beauty of the world we live in, which increases our quality of life overall. Even if you might not agree with our view on climate change you have to agree that the benefits of using our available resources efficiently are self-explanatory.

     The topic of resource dependency has been recently brought up more and more when talking about national security.  China’s oil consumption has more than doubled in the last decade and there are 1,300,000,000 Chinese people, who would like to drive a car, just as you do. Whether you like it or not, just like a company traded in the stock market, we are competing as a nation with other economies worldwide for resources, goods and services. If we are wasteful, we will have the same prospect future as a wasteful company.

     If we can ease some of the resource conflicts we are currently steering into, we all will live better and probably longer. You might ask yourself, “but what can I do as a single person?” Well, If you were to run a company and could reduce your cost per manufactured product (=resources) by 15%, would you not do it?  Now, just image the effect on oil dependency if the U.S could save 15% of gasoline on every mile driven by a car. Also, aside from the effects for a single nation, think about what efficient use of resources can do for humanity as a whole. Think about what we could do with all the money that we save. Think about what the future could be like if we can make scarce resources plentiful.

Below you will find a few links, leading to interesting information on how to save resources.

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_improvement.hm_improvement_index
EPA Website – This link leads to the homepage of the EPA and the “Energy Star” seal. It has plenty of information available on how you can make you household more energy efficient.

http://www.charitywater.org/
Charitywater – Checkout this interesting charity, which is trying to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

http://www.ftc.gov/energysavings
FTC – This great website presents tips on how to save energy in your household in a very appealing and easy to navigate format. Check it out; your savings might pay for your monthly cell phone bill.
 

This Blog Action Day post was a collaborative effort by:
Ali, Software Engineer
Mike, Support Director
Phil, Network Manager
Robert, Software Engineer
Shad, Developer

 

It’s not often you get an opportunity to launch a content management solution for a client that utilizes every aspect of the system out of the gate.  We’ve recently been able to launch a new site for WLCN HD TV18, a new digital station in Charleston, SC and had just that opportunity.

This site was built upon the powerful ExpressionEngine content management system and has given WLCN the ability to control nearly every aspect of the site’s content.  Most importantly, by implementing a site on top of an existing CMS framework, we were able to develop and deploy the site in a fraction of the typical site design time.  We were also able to deliver tools that in the past would have sent a site into the six-figure range.

Just some of the site highlights that a powerful CMS solution can provide include:

Through diligent testing and market research I have determined that if you're reporting the user sessions that your analytics system, such as Omniture, is using you're way under reporting success.

By studying the average number of people standing behind a computer user in stock photos, it becomes very clear that you must multiply user sessions by a factor of three (the Average Bystander Session: ABS).  The ABS is often referred to as a passive user or collateral impression.

Example:
Omniture shows 21,000 sessions in May X 3 ABS = 63,000 TruSessions^TM

In order to come up with this rock solid, analytical approach to proving success we monitored the stock image market over pages upon pages of results to determine the TruSession factor of three (90% of relevant stock photos show a total of three persons huddled around a single computer).  However, our research has shown that for dinner parties a TruFactor of four is required; as shown in this example.

The TruFactor is really just a way to illustrate what may be happening on a site and does not reflect any true value to you, the owner or decision maker who needs to use this type of data.  So..what's the value of it? 

Answer, not all that much.  User sessions, impressions and other metrics have their place.  They are very valuable in determining the overall health of your site, traffic sources and popularity.  They do not show the client (this may be you) if your site is working.

It's Clear I'd be Reckless to Consider Using TruFactor.  So How Do I Judge Success?

Great question, we try to lead our clients to look at the real value metrics and not aggregate numbers.

I came up with the concept of TruFactor to illustrate the absurdity of some of the metrics I have heard people use over the years.  In truth, if your site is designed to transact any type of business the one key metric you should watch is... are you ready?

How Much Money Did Your Site Make!

Once you start measuring success based on a cost and return basis, all the other metrics make sense and you can then leverage your more traditional stats to improve the bottom line  watch how this works:

OLD:  My PPC campaign is great, I'm getting clicks at just $0.75.
NEW: I'm showing a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 571%  For every dollar I spend I'm seeing revenue of $5.71!  How can I make this even better?

OLD:  Wow, I got 20,000 visitors to my site last month, I'm super and smell great!
NEW: Hang on, I'm only seeing an average value of $0.10 per user on my site.  What type of on-site improvements can I make to increase the value of my user base?  Am I paying for traffic that's just not qualified?

I think you get the idea, when you put dollars into the equation, it makes all decisions much easier.  My plea to you is to stop making revenue decisions based on non-revenue based analytics.  Like Deep Throat said, "follow the money."

When you start following the money, you'll find plenty of business.

Disclaimer: TruFactor is complete BS and Fuel Interactive, it's employees, and subsidiaries do not recommend smoke and mirror type reporting.
We do recommend checking out Shutterstock for great prices on a wide selection of royalty free stock photography.

It happens in every project from a site design to a search campaign, you start out working with one set of requirements and end up building something much more robust.  It’s a fact of nature, but the question remains, how do you control scope creep?

Before I share the top five things we do to manage scope creep, let’s get one thing straight.  Scope creep is not a bad thing; it’s a great opportunity to make a project better.  The challenge is to properly estimate and implement the new elements of a project while balancing budget and timeline expectations.

Scope Creep Buster #1: Determine the Scope Up Front

Your scope can’t creep if you don’t have a scope!  Any time we find a project that’s gone rogue it’s usually because the up-front planning was never done.  If you want to minimize the chance a project can spiral out of control, make sure you’ve got a clear project plan, site map, and deliverables.  The graphic to the left is a simple site map we do for any new site.  While it’s not complex, it does clearly indicate what is and what is not included.

Scope Creep Buster #2: Consistently Review the Plan
Imagine going on a cross-country trip and only looking at the map once in your driveway and again when you get to where you think you’re going.  This is just as crazy as developing a project plan and only looking at it when you are finished.  I recommend you constantly have your project’s map out to make sure you’re on the right road.  If you’re not meeting to discuss a project and its status on a weekly basis you’re asking for scope creep.

Scope Creep Buster #3: Address Changes Quickly
This is the seed from which scope creep grows.  Your client (or you if you’re a client) asks for a simple change to a project that only takes an additional half hour so the agency knocks out the change and doesn’t make note of it.  If this happens 10 or 20 times over the course of a long project, you’ve got significant scope creep.  Before any change takes place, no matter how simple it appears, both the agency and client need to be aware of how it will affect the overall budget and scope.

Scope creep often leads to budget creep.  When you encounter a change that will affect the budget, be transparent and share what the cost increases will be as soon as possible with everyone involved.  In most cases the additional budget is well spent, but the time for that decision is when the change happens, not when the invoice is delivered.

Scope Creep Buster #4: Embrace the Timeline

The simple act of time passing causes scope creep and budget bloat.  Every project we undertake has a detailed timeline, as indicated in the adjacent graphic.  What this does is limit the likelihood that a project will go on indefinitely and grow beyond its original scope.  I recommend you keep an eye on timelines and adjust them accordingly.  This results in projects getting done, clients and agencies being happier, budgets staying in line and the scope being confined.

Scope Creep Buster #5: Be Realistic
In truth you can’t stop scope creep, but you can control and minimize it with these tips.  Most of the time a little scope creep is a good thing because it can improve an overall project.  Where scope creep becomes a problem is when it’s not addressed until after the fact. 

Be realistic, when planning budget in time and money for minor changes to a project’s scope and don't forget to document it properly.  If you’re realistic and proactive about the scope of a project, it leads to a better working relationship with everyone involved.

MYRTLE BEACH, SC – April 1, 2009: Fuel Interactive, South Carolina's #1 interactive agency, has announced a groundbreaking new service to clients to retroactively optimize online marketing campaigns.  The new service offering leverages technology from Archive.org's Wayback Machine, which delivers archived versions of older websites.

The technology, the specifics of which are a closely guarded secret, is based upon updating the cached versions of older sites via a proprietary retro-posting technique on the popular Archive.org toolset.  By effectively posting a new content to a previously released site, Fuel Interactive has been able to break the real-time marketing ceiling, which has typically been seen as a insurmountable barrier in bringing product/content to market and on which Albert Einstein was working at the time of his death.  Now we finally have an offering that gives Fuel the opportunity to promote new products and services back as far as 1997, the date when Archive.org was launched" commented Director of Business Strategy Pete DiMaio.

James "Jim" Woodring, long time client of Fuel Interactive, was interviewed regarding the new service.  "I was initially surprised that development team at Fuel [Interactive] was able to offer such a compelling system.  After approving the process on my site I was amazed that the system had actually been up and running for three weeks by the time I returned to my office [three blocks away] and I had thousands of dollars in bookings, including a couple that had just completed their vacation and had already posted a positive review on Travelocity."

"We created retro-optimization because, at Fuel Interactive, we ask a lot of 'what if' questions and we're technologically innovative," said Fuel Interactive president Will McIntosh..  "We thought, hey, we've learned a lot about web design and development and SEO and analytics- what if we had that business intelligence for our clients 5 years ago?  Well now we do. Retro-optimization is a powerful technology, limited only by your imagination, and we can help you imagine more and newer ways to use it- in fact, we combine retro-optimization and multivariate testing and then we retro-optimize the best retro-optimizations to exponentially power your business forward."

Web 1.5, the previously undiscovered land between 1.0 and 2.0, ushered in with the launch of Retro-Optimization and puts control back into the hands of large corporations.  "The end consumers have had too much power for too long with web 2.0 and it's about time that [control] it's been given back to the faceless corporations that are running the show," said an anonymous CEO who looked a lot like Dick Cheney.  The genius of web 1.5 is that it gives consumers the ability to get their hands on new products and services after they undergone years of trial an error prior to their initial development.

Brian Carter, Director of Search Marketing for Fuel responded, "You may ask why then haven't we seen anything from say 2010 injected back into 2008?  Because retro-optimization will become illegal next year- so hurry up and order your retro-optimization services now, before your competition does, or did."  Brian continued: "While our Retro-Optimization is still in beta, we look forward to our clients having enjoyed the system in the upcoming previous years."

Headquartered in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Fuel Interactive provides all interactive services in-house through expert developers, designers and marketers with more than 583 years of combined marketing and Web development experience who understand the potential of well-done, effective online marketing.

Fuel Interactive provides clients a variety of services to create dynamic, individualized interactive marketing solutions that range from Web site design and Web hosting to such online applications and programs as search engine optimization, online media creative, Pay-Per-Performance and email marketing. The Agency provides clients with an easy, cost-effective way to tap into the online market without having to dedicate important time and internal resources to achieve meaningful results.

Conversion optimization is one of the most valuable tools to improve a site’s performance from the time it goes live throughout the entire lifespan of the site. Through a process of continual testing including A/B tests and multivariate tests, the sites conversion tools can be dramatically improved.

The Situation

Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday (www.golfholiday.com) began running an aggressive pay per click campaign to drive consumers to complete an online form for a vacation quote request. The form was effective, converting at approximately 5%, though no testing had been completed to determine if the form could produce superior results.

With a high volume site, such as this, even a minute increase in conversion rate would result in a dramatic improvement in leads.

The Insight

People don’t like to fill out long forms. If we could reduce the perceived length of the form we can improve conversion rates. Our plan was to implement a multiple phase A/B test. We would begin by testing just one or two variables and use the most effective form. Through this process we were able to isolate what factors improve performance.

Through the course of four A/B tests we were able to determine the optimal form layout, maximize conversion rate and gain a better understanding of how consumers interact with the site.

The Result

In the case of Golf Holiday, we changed the one column to a two column layout and were able to increase conversions by 7%. We then coded the form to hide optional content unless the visitor wanted to request specific information. Once again we were able to increase conversion rate another 20%.

The conversion optimization program for this form
resulted in a 28.4% improvement in success rate.

The Facts

Conversion optimization can work wonders for any site regardless of the goal is to gather leads or generate revenue. In this example we optimized a request form, though optimization is also just as effective in improving the rate in which a consumer finds this form. Through A/B and multivariate testing the entire site can be analyzed and improved from the time the visitor enters the site to the time they complete a form or make a transaction. Thorough testing is the keystone to maximizing the success of an interactive marketing campaign and delivering the best possible return on investment.

The number of new articles on these topics per day is at least 50... 50 good ones.  How do you keep up?  How do you know which ones to read?  How can you filter the god from the bad?

You don't have to.  We do that for you.

Josh Williams, Shannon Sell, and I (Brian Carter) post the best of the best SEO, PPC, social media, and online marketing articles in a special FriendFeed "SEM, SEO, PPC, social media, media placement links, articles" room.  (If you don't use FriendFeed, check that out too- it's a way to aggregate all your most important social networking feeds in one place.)

Get most useful, most relevant-to-the-real-business-world info there.  Check it out!

  As a recent college graduate and someone who is brand new to the world of email marketing, I found out quickly that simply “sending out a few emails” can be a little demanding.  Why?  Every day is a deadline.  Every email that gets sent out is different and every client has their own revisions and input as to how they would like it to look.  The goal is to get the proof done perfect and on time.  Depending on the design, amount of text, and whether or not a template is available, this can take anywhere from ten minutes to two hours (or more!).

Keeping the “creative-building” time down to a minimum is a key part of keeping clients satisfied with the work being done which, in turn, keeps your business growing strong.  However, it’s important to note the old saying from mom…“Haste makes waste”.  How do you keep your emails rolling in and out in a timely fashion, without sacrificing simple mistakes (ie spelling errors, missing links, etc).

The answer is obvious and simple – put a system in order, and stick to it.  If you are new to email marketing, using the system pictured here may be a step in the right direction for you.  If you are a veteran, using this general idea may help you to install a working system that will allow you to double-check your work before sending the proof onto the client.  Whatever the case, installing a system in your every-day email tasks will allow you to pick up better on mistakes, both minor and disastrous.
 
In looking at this chart, you’ll notice that I follow a system of putting text in before adding images.  I find that this is easier because it allows you to see the space that is left once the text has been added.  This will tell you what you should resize your images to, and will keep your email looking clean and in order.  Also, make sure that all of the links to the images are correct and if possible, link all of the images.  The more links you have in an email, the more click-throughs and hopefully, the better the return.
 

When I used to look to hire a new developer I would look for a specific type of person. They had to have a 4 year degree in Computer Science or a related field. I have hired a lot of people -- some were decent, some not very good,  and some were outstanding -- and realized that the type of education they have isn't as important as the type of person they are.

When I look at the employees that have exceeded my expectations there's no pattern related to their level of education. We've had people with Masters degrees, 4 year degrees, 2 year associates degrees, and people that were self-taught with no formal education.  
Those that have had higher education come from a range of disciplines including computer science, graphic design, space science, communications, psychology and philosophy. Neither the length nor the type of education seems to be an indicator of the level of success the employee will have with our organization.

So what makes a developer great? I can sum it up with a single word:  
passion. You have to love developing; you have to love problem- solving; you have to love learning; you have to love thinking both logically and laterally. Most importantly, you have to continue to push yourself every single day.

If you're not passionate about what you do, you won't ever improve.  
You'll be stuck programming the same way for the rest of your life and you'll never get that "eureka" moment where you figure  out a new way to solve a problem. That's the reason people get into developing; that's what pushes people every day; that's what makes a developer great.

Developers often look back at code they wrote a year or two ago and grimace as they think to themselves, "Did i really write that?". It's ok to think that way. In fact if you don't think that way, you're probably not pushing yourself enough. The day you can look back at year-old code and not see a discernible difference between the code you're writing today is the day you need to look long and hard at yourself and decide whether or not you've lost the passion.

We're always looking for talented developers. We employ all types:  
XHTML/CSS gurus, Coldfusion junkies, ASP and ASP.NET enthusiasts, PHP aficionados, JavaScript connoisseurs and much more.

If you feel like you have the passion, or if your current employer has somehow drained it from you, please send your resume to developerjobs@fuelinteractive.com