A web 2.0 video

I really liked this video that outlines how the change from text to hypertext has changed the way we look at things, process things and learn things.

A little Orwellian but ... then... so is our life

Ebay Stores to go

Taking a page from the amazon book of marketing, it would seem that ebay has created a store that you can place on your website.

I took a few minutes to grab a few items and try it out.

The interface is very easy and you can create a store with YOUR products or other peoples (OPP) products in about 5 minutes.

To check it out: http://togo.ebay.com

Of course being an SEO and Traffic Driving sort of guy, I couldn't resist trying it out with some info products I'm interested in. Here's the store I created:

XLsuite Features Reviewed

XLsuite Features

Contact Management

The contact manager includes 3 views.

Contacts List View

Contact list allows you to view your contacts in a list view. Names and quick contact info like email and phone numbers are available for quick reference.

Contacts General Page

Contact Page (General View) shows you a detailed view of the contact in question. Things like their password, history, comments and testimonials are all available by clicking the tabs at the top of the contact screen. Data entry is smooth and fast using AJAX calls to save the data live when a use tabs out of a field or hits return. A desktop feel was the goal with the contact entry and editing. Additional fields can be added using the “Add Fields” link.

New Contacts:

New Contact page is accessed from the top “Contacts” menu or from the text link at the top of the General view. This allows you to see all the available fields for a fast contact entry experience. Tag fields let you easily categorize the contact and the referral field lets you link the contact to an existing contact in the database. This makes it easy to track how your contacts came to you as well as future integration with things like affiliate programs and commission tracking for sales agents (inside and outside).

Import Manager:

Import File:

The import module allows you to import contacts from any datasource.

Simply save your data in the .CSV format. Browse to the .CSV file on your computer and upload it to the system.

Data Mapping View:

You will then be shown a visual representation of the data on the left side, and the fields in your XLsuite database. Simply pick up the XLsuite field name in question and drag it to the corresponding field name in the CSV that you are importing. You can manually configure all of the data to import into the specific fields that you want to use. This is good for bulk imports from lead generation sites, your contacts from Outlook or other CRM's or even an excel spread sheet of your members.

Search Functions:

Search Functions:

There is a “quick search” that is available at the top right hand corner of the screen at all times. This quick search will search the field names. It's good for finding things like contacts, specific forum posts and general information (like type Vancouver and get all your contacts in Vancouver, as well as any forum posts that mention the word Vancouver).

By clicking the word “SEARCH”, a more advanced search will pop down from the top right corner. This allows you to search with more detail. Each field in the database can be separately searched, simply type in the first few letters of a field name and the available fields will drop down from the list.

Saved Search:

Once you've created a search that you will want to do frequently, you can save that search for future use by clicking the “save search” button. From then on simply clicking the “saved search” word will display your list of saved searches, so it becomes a quick matter to find things like leads in a specific area or for a specific sales agent. It's also great for creating reports, carefully stacking your search for the right criteria will allow you to create powerful reports that will give you business metrics at the click of a button.

Resources Section:

Content Management System (CMS)

The resources section has the Content Management System as well as information about how to use the system and information about XLsuite.

CMS Layouts View:

Within the CMS the “LAYOUTS” view allows you to set up constant elements of your page. The background image, navigation, header, footer, sidebar... the look of every new page you create. Multiple layouts can be used to define sections of the site.

CMS Pages View:

The “PAGES” view allows you to create and edit the pages inside your website. “ADD CHILD” to your main page, inherit the layout from the page you are creating, you can create as many pages as you need and group them accordingly.

CMS Page Editor View:

The specific pages can be set up to use plain text for maximum flexibility. Other options include using Textile markup or even a Rich Text Editor using the FCK Editor (we recommend using plain text or textile over the Rich Text editor since the code that it spits out will work, but is pretty “bloated”)

Of particular note is the “SLUG LINE” function that let's you place your page exactly where you want it in the URL. This is excellent for SEO purposes as it does not show any extensions and displays dynamic pages simply as URL addresses like : Xlsuite.com/training/how-to-use-the-cms

Please see the “how to use the CMS” document for detailed “how to” information.

Near Future Additions:

On deck soon is an addition to the CMS to include the snippets module, which will allow further content segregation and easy placement of repeat elements.

Content Section:

The CONTENT section has several planned features for things like banner ads, links, polls, forms and other elements you'll use on your site. Currently implemented functions include:

RSS Feed Importer:

This allows you to import feeds from multiple sources and tag them. You can then publish those feeds on your site as a quick way to create dynamic content. Setting up the feeds is as easy as plugging in the feed URL and selecting what you'd like to TAG it.

You can add multiple RSS feeds to your feed reader and tag them with multiple tags. So for example, if you enter 6 feeds from various sources, you can tag them all “industry_news” and then display the industry news on a page on your site. The 6 feeds will be merged into one new news feed that can be displayed either in order, or even randomly (which adds big points to your SEO value). This is a powerful way to integrate with other sites as well, feeding things like project changes, favorites, expense reports or forum posts to a side bar or page on your site.

Please read the “XLsuite Render Feed Syntax” post in our Documentations forum for more info:

http://xlsuite.com/admin/forum_categories/1/forums/5/topics/165

ADMIN Section:

The admin section holds the account payment information as well as the “my account” link which will quickly bring you to your account general contacts page.

The Groups and Permissions sections are also located here.

Groups Manager:

Groups section allows you to set up various access groups for your domain. Things like Client / Prospect / Moderator / Supplier. You can use these groups to quickly define who has access to various parts of your website and content.

Permission Sets:

Permissions allows you to assign permission sets. This is a way to group certain permissions together (like edit contact / edit estimate / view payments (but not edit)) into quick permission sets that you can use with your groups or assign to specific parties.

What's next?

We're working hard to bring you full email integration, template engine and a file manager next.

More features will follow including all of the content sections (as snippets) sequential mailing for lead generation automation and of course our integrated MLS listings manager for our Real Estate Clients.

Import Manager Module

Thank you Harman for a very functional import manager. We'll have to get some CSS work done on it, but overall it's very nice.

You can load a CSV file into it, have a visual representation of the data (see the field data), and then drag and drop the XLsuite database fields so that they line up the way you want.

It's a very intuitive design and while it only works right now for contacts, you can see how we'll be able to extend it for things like the product catalog, email and even blog and forum postings and other "imports" from external systems.

All this should make it much easier for users to get their current client information into the system and start to use it effectively and quickly.

Next up? Francois has made good headway on both the RETS integration and it's listings section as well as taking a good first stab at the asset manager, which is now functional in XLtester.com but hasn't been ported over to the live version on XLsuite.com

Harman is focused on getting our mail integration happening. Both on the personal email level, and on the mass mailings front. The two should come together next week some time and be available to users soon.

Free Article Submitter Software

While article submission isn't anything shockingly new to the world of SEO, many people STILL don't do it... and for good reason.

It takes so incredibly long to do manually.

I'll admit, I had tried article submission at one point, but after I finally found a few article dircetories to submit my articles to, then after manually copying and pasting my information into the required
textboxes on each submission site, I quickly realized that my time could be better spent doing something else.

Then I came across a free program created by Brad Callen and Bryxen Software, Inc. that allows you to automatically submit your articles to hundreds of article directories with a few mouse clicks. Basically all
I had to do was input my article criteria into the software, ONCE! Then, the program would automatically fill in all of the required data at each of the submission websites. Pretty incredible if you ask me.

The only part I didn't understand was why the program is free... but I can't argue with that I suppose.

The software currently contains around 700 article directories, all free to submit your articles to. It is the most straightforward program that we've come across, in that all you need to do is:

• 1. Input your article details (i.e. title, article body, bio,
  etc.) into the software
  
  
• 2. Click on the directory you want to submit to

Then the program will automatically fill in your article details.

Just click the submit button and your article is instantly submitted to the directory. You can then move to the next directory, go through the list, and by the time you're finished you'll have roughly 700 one way
links pointing to your website.

I can't think of an easier way to get links. Of course, if you're going to get links this quickly, it's important to submit different variations of your articles, to make things look more natural to the search engines.

You can do this very easily via Article Submitter when you create your project in the beginning.

The software is constantly being updated and there is an incredible community of users established that allwork together to make the software better and better, so you know you're getting great value for the money.

To check out the software, go here:

Article Submitter Software

Why frames are bad

Who would you like to call about your property needs now? Bret Schillebeeckx? Or Kevin Boyle.

This is a royal Snafu for Bret I would imagine. Now, let's be clear, I was clicking away in the window to his VOW service trying to figure out who was providing the underlying tech.

It did illustrate the dangers of creating things that reference off site content inside a frame on your website. At least in this case, it's another realtors site that's inside his own (weird, but at least in context) imagine what else could be in that box without you realizing it.

Not the best plan for brand security.

XLsuite Approved for ISP edition of Google APPS

XLsuite is a ruby on rails based business management application aimed at providing a fully hosted solution that can replace the multitude of various applications that are needed to manage a business.

This is obviously a loft task for a small group of coders, so it is with great excitement that we are able to announce that yesterday, we were approved for the first stage of integration with google's hosted applications.

So now (ok not yet, but we'll tie our systems into one login very soon) we'll be able to offer an integrated solution that includes the google calendar, email, personal start pages and docs.

This is a very big deal as it will drastically cut down our production time, tackling the calendar was a daunting task to say the least, so being able to pull in the world class

What is Radio selling?

I found this article interesting about the audience shift in radio

What is Radio Selling?

in Finance | Music

I’ve been thinking about music and radio a lot lately, especially given all buzz recently on Satellite radio. (Recall we visited this topic over the summer).

Here’s a simple question that many people get wrong: What does (terrestrial) radio sell?

Think about it for a moment before answering.

If you are like most media consumers, your answer will be “advertising.” Since Radio is media, and most media rely on advertising, it’s a reasonable conclusion.

That answer, however, is wrong.

READ MORE

Ruby Scripts on Hot Scripts

I find it interesting that "wares" sites like hotscripts.com and spicescripts.com are starting to show ruby on rails scripts.

A few months ago, they didn't even have RoR on the horizon, now radiantCMS, typo, instiki and others are starting to show up regularly on those sites.

Guess XLsuite had better set a release date and spend the time to set up a pad file for our application distribution. Even if most of the people on those sites are really looking for PHP scripts, it's worth it just from the link back point of view to set up those sites with our code.