Atlanta Boutiques is an online directory that provides information about the top boutique stores in the Atlanta metro area.  Visitors to atlantaboutiques.com can search for boutiques by selecting one or more neighborhoods in the Atlanta metro area.  Users can also narrow their boutique search by selecting particular types of items that they wish to shop for and get results containing only boutiques that offer that merchandise.  Apart from its useful search feature, Atlanta Boutiques also includes a blog that lists upcoming boutique events and specials, promotions and coupons currently being offered by member boutiques.

Atlantaboutiques.com includes social media integration like a rolling feed of the latest tweets from Atlanta Boutiques’ twitter feed.  Atlanta Boutiques chose our basic search engine optimization package to ensure basic SEO compatibility – Despite selecting our basic package, Atlantaboutiques.com is still on the first page of Google results for their top search phrase “Atlanta boutiques” – Congratulations Atlanta Boutiques!  This is a great accomplishment for a brand new site.

The following image is an example of the Atlanta boutiques web design:

This feed brought to you by Innoshare.com – A Atlanta search engine optimization company.

Why an eReader?

I am a software engineer and entrepreneur managing a web design and search engine optimization company in Atlanta.  I am also involved in an open source application security software startup and I am considering going back to get an MBA (while still running both businesses, of course) to fill in some of the gaps in business knowledge clearly not covered by my engineering degree.  Add to this a more than healthy interest in politics, and you get a widely varied melange of reading topics.

Traditionally, I have read mostly technical books as my primary interest was extending my technical skills and learning about constantly evolving software technologies.  A few years back, I broadened my reading list to include some classic fiction (re-reading JRR Tolkien prior to watching the LOTR trilogy) and lots of political biographies and strategy books.  Now, I’m reading a lot of business books (entrepreneurship, marketing, econ, etc.) and I expect to read even more books of this type in the near future.

Because of my very poor attention span (undiagnosed ADD, I’m sure) and because I find repetitive motion very boring, I do a good bit of reading on the elliptical machine at they gym where I am a captive audience.  It’s a real challenge to balance books of various sizes on the small ledge on most exercise equipment and turning pages is really a pain, so I’ve wanted to move to an eReader.  Add the positive environmental impact of fewer trees being cut down, less fossil fuel burned to deliver traditional books, and the generally lower cost of books in the electronic format, and I’m sold.

The eReader Contenders

Though there are lots of eReaders on the market, I narrowed the field to this short list:

• Amazon Kindle 2 ($259)
• Sony PRS-600 ($269)
• Barnes & Noble Nook ($259)
• Apple iPad ($499-$829)

	Amazon Kindle 2 ($259) Amazon is now a part of the “old guard” in eReaders and they clearly have ample experience as a book retailer.  At $259, the Kindle’s price is quite fair, but Amazon’s philosophy of proprietary lockdown with regard to their eBooks requires total commitment to Amazon as your sole content provider.  Despite the fact that Amazon is the 800lb. gorilla of online book retail, the number of available titles is limited due to the fact that they don’t support the ePub format and must rely solely on conversion of various titles to their proprietary eBook format (a format that other readers will likely never support). Pros: Amazon selection WiFi and 3G Connectivity with wireless purchasing and software upgrades Viziplex eInk Screen Software reader for PC, Mac and iPhone Cons: Proprietary Amazon eBook format, vendor lock-in Fixed keyboard Pay-per-document fee when reading office documents Cannot share books Black/white screen
	Sony PRS-600 ($269) Like Amazon, Sony has been in the eReader business for years, and the consumer electronics business longer than most of the other vendors have existed.  The PRS-600 has an eInk display like the Kindle and Nook, but adds a touch-sensitive screen for more intuitive navigation.  The downside of the touch screen is a slight reduction in readability, and a slight increase in glare and fingerprints. Pros: Viziplex eInk Touch screen Expandable memory (Memory Stick, SD) Cons: Clumsy sync software Lack of wireless/online purchasing Black/white screen
	Barnes & Noble Nook ($259) The Nook is offered at a price equal to that of the Kindle 2, and it comes with WiFi and 3G connectivity like the Kindle.  The Nook has a non-touch Viziplex eInk screen and is based on Google’s Android operating system.  The Nook can read eBooks in the open ePub format and for the first time allows the loaning of books purchased through the Barnes & Noble online book store to friends.  The Nook also includes a nifty color touch screen with soft keyboard in the place of the Kindle 2’s fixed keyboard allowing for greater flexibility and customization based on future software updates. Pros: Best book selection (over 1M books in B&N bookstore + free books in ePub format) WiFi and 3G Connectivity with wireless purchasing and software upgrades Viziplex eInk Screen Color touchscreen and soft keyboard Software reader for PC, Mac and iPhone User-replaceable battery Expandable memory (SD) Cons: Soft keyboard navigation confusing at first Main screen black and white
	iPad ($499-829) The iPad is by far the most powerful and sexy unit in this lineup.  It includes a beautiful color screen with LED backlight, a much more powerful processor than other eReaders, and lets you run all of the software from Apple’s App Store.  Straddling the territory between eReader and notebook computer, the iPad is truly a revolutionary device.  Still, if you only want to read books and don’t have an unlimited budget, the iPad is serious overkill in terms of cost and capability. Pros: WiFi and 3G Connectivity with online purchasing Color touch screen Compatibility with Apple app store applications Cons: Cost 3G connectivity requires extra-cost monthly data plan Battery life (compared to other eReaders)

The verdict…Barnes & Noble Nook

After reviewing all of the pros and cons, I decided to commit to the Nook.

I liked the slim form factor of the Kindle 2, but I really hated the vendor lock-in, lack of open ePub support, and pay-per-document fees.  I liked the intuitive touch screen of the Sony, but I didn’t like the lack of wireless purchasing, the sync software and the reduced readability of the eInk display due to the touch screen.  The iPad is an impressive product with far more capabilities than any other eReader.  Still the iPad is not yet available and the price premium over the other units was substantial (almost twice the price for the base unit.)  To enable wireless purchases when not in range of WiFi, you must purchase a more expensive unit with 3G and sign up for a 3G data plan at an added monthly cost.

The Nook gives me a great online book store with many available titles, but also includes access to the many free titles available from Google Books, public libraries, and other sources supporting the ePub format.  I like the crisp eInk display for extended reading, and the included 3G and WiFi connectivity is very convenient, indeed.  The addition of the color touch display and soft keyboard made for a nice compromise between the iPad and Kindle 2, and allows for some customization of features through future software updates.  I’m sure as the Nook matures, the software will become faster, easier to use, and will include some new features.

I’ll be receiving the Nook tomorrow, and will update this story with more impressions after gaining some extended hands-on experience with the unit.

This feed brought to you by Innoshare.com – A Atlanta website maintenance company.

What to Spend on SEO?

As many businesses enter 2010 and struggle to dig themselves out of the economic chaos of the last two years (the last ten years if you have a web design business), we have noticed a significant uptick in questionable claims and outright scams.  Consumer-focused scams targeting individuals looking for mortgage restructuring assistance and fake charities are perhaps the most insidious, but there are plenty of predators looking for business prey, too.

In our industry, one of the most sought-after and least understood services, search engine marketing, is a source of much spin and deceit.  To help small businesses seeking a little help in understanding the wild, exciting, and often false claims made by some unethical competition in the marketplace, we have assembled a list of search engine optimization myths we have heard, along with what we think when we hear these claims.

Search Engine Marketing Terminology

First, we need to define a couple of terms:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – This is the process of “tuning” the content of a website for relevance and developing a site’s backlinks to improve its significance to improve “organic” (not paid) search engine rankings
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) – Paid advertisements like Google Adwords, allowing auction-style bidding for listings that are generally displayed at the top and on the right side of search results pages
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – The process of reaching potential customers and clients through all visibility efforts that impact Search Engine rankings
• PageRank – Google’s proprietary metric (and associated algorithms) for measuring the importance of a web page
• Backlink - A link from another web page to a page on your website

Outrageous SEO Claims

Now, on to the wild and crazy world of SEO spin…

What they Say: We can guarantee you number one rankings on Google
What they Mean #1: We don’t really know how Google works, and we hope you don’t either

Any search engine optimization company that offers a guarantee should be avoided, period.  There is no crying in baseball, and there are no guarantees in search engine optimization.

What they Mean#2: We can make you #1 on keyword phrases that nobody ever searches for

It’s probably pretty easy to get a #1 ranking on “Norwegian yak’s milk suspenders” – Nobody ever searched for it (and nobody ever will unless they read this article)

What they Say: We can maintain your current Pay-Per-Click rankings while reducing your current Pay-Per-Click budget
What they Mean: We don’t know how to do basic math, but we will a get some of your money for a few months until you figure that out.

One of the beautiful things about Pay-Per-Click is that it is simple and immediate.  The bad news is that there are not really any cost-saving measures when comparing the same keyword phrases apples to apples.  If the top bid on a keyword phrase is $3.50, and you’re willing to pay more than $3.50, you can buy the first place listing (at least until someone else outbids you).  Under no circumstances can you get better rankings in paid listings by paying less.

What they Say: You don’t have to pay for backlinks – There are plenty of free links out there
What they Mean: I will list your website on the Opera Lover’s Forum.  It won’t help your rankings much, but it’s free!

The fact is that there are a handful of places that you can get free backlinks that are quite good (DMOZ, for example, if there is actually someone moderating the category you want to list in), but the reality is that many directory sites with a high PageRank require you to pay, usually on a recurring basis, for listing.  This can be worthwhile, but needs to be factored in to your overall SEM budget.

What they Say: We can get your website top rankings with our $29.95 monthly service
What they Mean: We hope $29.95 is a small enough fee that you won’t mind paying it even if your rankings don’t improve.

$29.95 may be a small price to pay for the peace of mind that you’re doing “something” with your Search Engine Marketing, but we prefer to analyze the value of what you pay and what you get in return.  If you pay any amount of money and get nothing in return, it’s a poor value.  There *are* some services that can be a part of an effective search engine marketing campaign, but certainly not the whole enchilada (probably just the guacamole).  Our monthly charges go to pay an actual human being to think about how to improve your rankings and make it happen – The charge is related to the number of hours that person spends on your site.  Simple, huh?

What they Say: We can increase your search engine rankings – No changes to your website required!
What they Mean: We don’t know how search engines work, but we know the idea of something for nothing is hard for some people to pass up – In fact, we’re counting on it

In some rare cases, we have found a customer whose website is well-optimized (good content, page titles, meta tags, intra-site linking, etc.)  Actually, strike that – We have never found a customer with a well-optimized website before engaging an SEO firm.  The primary reason for this is that you don’t know how to optimize until you know which phrases to optimize for.  You don’t know which phrases to optimize for until you do research.  You don’t do keyphrase research until you hire an search engine optimization company.  So, if you’re talking to a search engine marketing firm about improving your rankings your site is almost certainly not optimized yet.

What they Say: We get our Google Adwords cheaper because we buy in bulk
What they Mean: We are pretty sure you don’t know how Adwords works, but we can set your Adwords budget lower so you will see your listings appear in the same place at the beginning of the month and think we told you the truth

This is a pretty new scam that we just heard about today.  There is, of course, such a thing as an Adwords voucher, often offered by Google to people who create new accounts with certain vendors Google has a relationship with.  These vouchers are only valid for new accounts, so if you already have a campaign set up, they will be of little use to you.  As for “bulk purchasing” of Adwords…Think of it this way:  Do you know anyone who would sell you a dollar for 50¢?  I didn’t think so – Google won’t do it either.

This feed brought to you by Innoshare.com – A Atlanta web design firm.

But, I found this and it is hands down the best explanation I have seen yet!
The Social Media Manager is my Hero! “DRINKS FOR EVERYBODY!”

Read the Full Article at the Link Below:
http://www.outandaboutmarketing.com/2009/10/how-to-measure-social-media/

This feed brought to you by Innoshare.com – A Atlanta website optimization company.

We organized the new site to focus on three key areas:

• Packages with Up-Front Pricing
• Core Services (website design, search engine optimization, email newsletters, business hosting, etc.)
• Customer Case Studies

Core Services

Since our last major web design update, we have added some new services, and have gotten better at delivering others.  We wanted to make sure that our services were prominently presented on every page so that new customers could always find a concise list of what we do, and existing customers would be reminded of our capabilities every time they visit our site.

Packages with Up-Front Pricing

Over the years, we have done a good job of giving our customers a fair price on the services we provide, and we feel our value has only gotten better in recent months.  Despite being very competitive on price compared to other Atlanta web design firms, we realized were forcing customers to call us before giving them any idea of how much our services would cost.  In our experience, if you have to ask how much something costs, you can’t afford it.  To address this problem, we published several pre-priced packages representing our most popular services to give customers an idea of what they can get at different price points.

Customer Case Studies

As our current customers already know, we focus on full-service website design and web hosting for small business.  We pride ourselves on giving customers a single point of contact for a variety of services so that our customers don’t have to pull out their Rolodex and call several vendors when they have a new project or a problem.  If you aren’t yet an InnoShare customer and want to know what some current customers are doing, look for the “featured projects” list at the bottom of each page of our website, or visit the customer lists at the top right of each service page.

We hope you enjoy the new web site, and look forward to helping you create a new look for your website, too.

- The InnoShare Team

This feed brought to you by Innoshare.com – A search engine optimization company in Atlanta.

Click Here to Launch Site >

New Website

Events Page

We Launched the New Fox Brothers BBQ website today and we are very excited. The new site allows Fox Brothers to update their site inside of a Content Management System. They now have the ability to update their website quickly and easily without having to call a web company.

New Website

Location Page

Tour Gallery

Right now the way it works is, it gives the user the option to check if they are or are not a residential address. It does not verify if the address is really what they selected. The problem is most people have figured this out and will not check the residential box in hopes of avoiding the extra charge. This translates to a nightmare for the person that sold the item to recover the three dollars. In the end more labor is spent trying to correct the issue than it is worth.

Now I understand as I write this some people would say “why don’t you write some software that fixes this problem?”. To that all I can say is, I am not a shipping company. Perhaps I have an old point of view on commerce but it seems not so long ago that if you provide a service or commodity you let people know what it costs. If people wish to use your service or goods they pay said price. I know it seems simple enough but UPS apparently has not figured out this form of commerce. This kind of goes back to the “why don’t you write some software that fixes this problem?” question. Could I? Perhaps I could but I kind of like to pay my rent and keep a roof over my head so spending six months writing a piece of software is not a viable option. I suppose I could take UPS’s method in to consideration. Sell a cart to someone and after the fact tell them “by the way, this is going to cost you $xxxxxx for me to make this work the way it should”. I am sure they would be thrilled. Thrilled as much as they are when they find out they are getting charged $3.00 extra to ship something when they go to pay for it.

Granted, there are third party solutions out there to remedy this issue if you don’t mind paying a boat load of money for them. I guess what I am getting at here is, UPS provides the service. They at some point have to determine if a address is residential or business. Why on earth would you not do it in the API? I do understand that people are always honest and will check a box that costs them more money……. Yea right. UPS has always handled my packages well. The problem is not the package, it is their service to their paying customers. All I ask is this, if you are going to sell something, let people know what it costs up front. This “oh by the way, I need another three dollars for that” method sucks big time. I hope USPS or fedex gets the memo so UPS might follow suit. They should rename the API to “UPS shipping API *(plus or minus three dollars)”.

tags: Residential, Delivery, Indicator

Park Tavern is the best brewery and restaurant in Piedmont Park and we have worked with them for about 2-3 years now. It’s been nice working with Park Tavern and at the end of the day everyone is working together to make a great website.

Check it out at www.ParkTavern.comOriginally when we met in early 2006 they had a website up, but they were no longer happy with it. The site was dated and they had used it for more than 5 years.
Here is the original Park Tavern website:

After working with them in 2005 we came up with a concept everyone liked and in July of 2006 the new Park Tavern site was launched!
The 2005 Park Tavern Website

After a couple of years Park Tavern decided it was time to start up another website. New social networking websites were growing and we saw an opportunity to incorporate newer technologies. We got to work right away and now we officially launched the new Park Tavern website!
The New 2009 Park Tavern Website

Bigger, Better, Improved functionality and all around a great looking website. We are proud to show the new face of Park Tavern on the web.

We want to thank everyone who helped us out and apologize to loved ones for the long hours.
We want everyone to go and check out the new website and let us know what you think visit www.ParkTavern.com and give us your comments, we read them all!

Why do I care about Windows 7?

I’m an open source fan stuck in Windows XP because of…

• The need to support a lot of Windows users
• The need to efficiently run key application software (like MS Office, Adobe CS, Quickbooks Premier, etc.)
• Access to key shareware and freeware that is Windows only
• The desire to sneak in the occasional game without time wasted closing tons of apps and rebooting

Sure, I know that most of my software can run on a Mac or even Linux with VMware, but I’ve found that I am very sensitive to UI latency and application performance. Running these programs under VMware on a daily basis simply requires more patience than I can muster, and I can’t afford to spend several thousand dollars to buy Mac versions of my apps right now. After much testing I have grudgingly found that a Windows desktop with VMware running Linux (and other guests) gives me the best mix of convenience and productivity.

The problem: Simply put, 32-bit Windows XP had begun to really blow in terms of performance. I frequently had my entire 3GB of memory used up (and a substantial amount of my page file) with dozens of large applications loaded. My laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad T60) can hold up to 4GB, but not with 32-bit Windows XP. Even before I launched a single client app, my Windows XP workstation took about eight minutes from hitting the power button to having all drivers and startup applications loaded and the hard drive idle (That’s with a Seagate ST9160411ASG 160GB 7200 RPM boot drive which was the king of mobile drives on Tom’s Hardware just a couple of years ago). Once everything was loaded, I had frequent multi-second pauses that made day-to-day document editing, mail checking and Eclipse compilation a real chore. I knew that I needed to look at an SSD to fix my IO performance issues, but if I was going to go through an OS reinstall, perhaps it was time to look at a new 64-bit OS to unlock some more memory. Windows 7 seemed to be the perfect choice.

The good (aka Windows 7 is FAST)

Windows 7 installation is quick. I installed the core operating system on a new Corsair S128 SSD I purchased in about 15 minutes. After becoming accustomed to the 30-45 minute installs for prior versions of windows, this was a real treat.

Windows 7 Installation Screen

Windows 7 startup and shutdown performance is amazing. In my testing, I was getting from power button to a usable desktop in under 20 seconds and shutdowns just as fast or faster. Apparently the startup performance is due to optimizations of things like parallel driver loading/unloading, etc, but I can say Windows 7 screams on startup and shutdown.

The UI and usability tweaks are quite nice. Compared to Vista, there are far fewer of those annoying “do you want to do the thing you just tried to do?” modal confirmation dialogs. All UI operations seem to be instantaneous with no lag or delay, and application launches are much more “snappy”.

The Bad

Windows 7 is not currently compatible with VMware networking For me, this was the deal breaker. I use VMware almost constantly for remote access to our production environment(s) and to test other guest operating systems that our customers are using. Regardless of whether I’m browsing or in an xterm using SSH, networking is a critical. Because I tend to be in a variety of places (in my office, in a coffee shop, at a pub) using a mixture of hard wire and public wifi, I need NAT to keep my networking configs portable. This workaround allows you to use a hacked version of host-only network sharing, but it was sadly not adequate for me. If you need VMware with networking, you can:

1. Stick with XP or Vista
2. Use the ugly hack above and live with the limitations of a static IP
3. Wait for a future release of VMware or Windows 7 (or both) with compatibility issues addressed

Windows 7 ran really hot on my Thinkpad. When docked, my laptop would occasionally go to sleep because it was getting frying-pan hot. In retrospect, I think this was primarily due to the fact that I never got all of the drivers installed (some chipset, video and other drivers and patches would probably have made a big difference here).

Conclusion

Windows 7 is very stable for a Beta, but it’s beta software. No complaints from me – It’s a great beta, but not be used for your primary desktop (if I ever expected otherwise, it’s mea culpa). If Windows 7 keeps its current performance chops and VMware becomes compatible with it, I’ll be upgrading ASAP. The OS bloat may still be there, but you certainly don’t see it in Windows 7 – The performance improvements are huge and would save somebody like me literally hours a week. If you need a new operating system immediately, you will probably need to make the interim jump to Vista (64-bit in my case), but you’ll want to put some money back for a Windows 7 upgrade shortly thereafter (as I am).