BizProducer.com Blog

Rent a domain name!

2011-03-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

In today's competitive domain name market, it's often very challenging to find the domain name you want for your organization. Let's face it, all the good ones are taken. So, you either have to be very creative and flexible with your brand, or, buy a domain name from someone. Buying a domain name can sometimes be too large an investment for some individuals. It's often just not feasible to buy a $10,000-$20,000 premium domain. But, what if you could use a domain of that stature, and not have to purchase it? Domain name rental! So, we are proud to bring you our latest project, DomainRentalAgent.com, a site that brings domain name owners and prospective renters together. You're welcome.

Stop paying so much for your cell phone!

2011-01-19T19:21:00.000-08:00

Cell phones. We all have them now, and, some of us have more than one. Most of us are paying ridiculous amounts of money for these things. In most cases, the efficiency gained by having a cell phone isn't worth that large amount of money expended every month! Even if it is, why not cut costs, get better service, and SAVE MONEY!

Yes, we're going to tell you how you can do this...

So, what if there was a cell phone company that sold you reasonably priced, popular, quality phones, with NO CONTRACTS - EVER. What if this company also didn't charge you taxes and extra fees? And, what if they didn't do credit checks? Additionally, what if this company offered you the service of using a MAJOR cell phone network, offering you unparalleled service nationwide? Lastly, what if the plans were incredibly priced and packed with unlimited calls and texts nationwide, saving you hundreds of dollars?

Well, there is such a company, and we encourage you to check them out:

InfinityMobile.com

2011 Resolutions for you AND your business!

2011-01-02T15:57:00.000-08:00

With a fresh new year, we start to reflect on the past, often getting lost in it, when we need to look at NOW. It's a new year and all you have is NOW. So, beyond making good on your personal resolution, what about a resolution for your business or web site? Here are some suggestions for you, and if you need help with these, you know who to call.

Increase web site traffic by 150%
Increase usability and accessibility of your web site and applications
Develop efficient processes and techniques to streamline your business functions internally, AND, for your customers
Reach out to your audience more and listen
Blog more (I know, I know.)

These are just a few suggestions. Maybe you don't even know where to start with your resolution. We can help there too by doing a comprehensive analysis of your situation. Let's make 2011 a great year for personal growth as well as business growth. Cheers!

Cyber Monday - an e-commerce landmark!

2010-12-20T18:24:00.000-08:00

In 2010, comScore reported the first-ever $1 billion online shopping day, an increase of 16 percent over 2009.
-Anderson, Mae (2010-12-01). "Cyber Monday biggest spending day online ever, firm says sales top $1 billion". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-12-02.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you're not selling your goods and services online, you're missing out - big time. But, don't get frustrated! It's not difficult, and we're here to help you! It's what we do, and we do it well. We have been setting up successful e-commerce solutions for businesses of all sorts for over 10 years. We know the best practices, the best tools to use, and can answer ALL of your questions.

Let us take the time to walk you through your business scenario and show you how affordable and easy it can be to take advantage of e-commerce, shopping carts, drop-shipping, product subscriptions, Amazon.com, Google Products, Shopzilla, and more... Contact us today and let's see what's possible!

Customize your Blogger.com Blog!

2010-10-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

Tired of the TIRED blogger templates that everyone already has... why have your blog on a different domain than your web site? And, more importantly, why have it look different from your web site? Leverage the use of a customized template and take advantage of the true power Blogger can offer you.

Want an example - you're looking at it. The new BizProducer.com Blog: blog.bizproducer.com

If you are ready to take your blog to the next level and integrate it with your current site domain and web site design, give us a call. Here is an example we just did for a client: http://blog.beautifulcurls.net

And, don't forget to actually blog on a regular basis!

Mailing lists and your organization

2010-09-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

One of the best things you can do for your business is to keep your prospective and past customers available to you, so that you may keep them informed and aware. The best and most efficient way to do this is with an electronic mailing list. There will always be an opportunity to capture targeted customers in a database - whether it's a simple "Join Our Newsletter" sign up box on your web site, or an option when your customer checks out through your shopping cart, it's an incredible tool that shouldn't be overlooked.

E-mail to your customers shouldn't be abused though. Too many emails from you will annoy many people and result in them leaving your list. Also, don't try to sell something every time. While it's most beneficial to you to send out coupons and promotions, take the time to just touch base and let your customers know what you're up to. Thank them just for the sake of gratitude - at the very least, this will contribute to your brand awareness.

If you need help, we can consult with you to determine the best strategy to implement a mailing list for your organization. We have experience with all sorts of implementations, big and small, and can provide you with the right solution for your specific needs and budget. Contact us today!

Voice/Face Recognition on iPhones

2010-08-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Once again, the debate has risen about technology versus ethics. Apple is working on a patent to protect iPhones with voice and face recognition. While this may make iPhones suddenly unattractive to hackers and thieves, it raises the question of how the technology may be used in other ways. Will cameras and microphones be able to ultimately track us down, thus invading our civil liberties? Are you concerned that companies developing this type of technology have social malice in mind, or, are they innocent?

Follow your heart, be conscious, vote with your wallet.

Technology limitations and keeping up with the demand

2010-06-15T08:12:00.001-07:00

Lately, many events and how they relate to technology have been quite eye-opening to me. With the amount of advanced technology we have today, we still have many problems. Is technology solving these problems or making them worse?

For example, if you have been on Twitter lately, you may have noticed that their system has been maxed out a few times a week, sometimes several times a day. Do they really not have the server, bandwidth, and load-balancing capacity to handle us hammering their site? Has the use of it grown faster than they can grow? At least they have a cute screen that tells you of this overload.

Even more disturbing, the Gulf of Mexico oil leak disaster. Let me get this strait: So, I can log on to the Internet with my wireless laptop, sitting in my back yard, and I can see a live, full color video stream of the oil spill. Great. Do you think we could maybe stop it? I'm sure my understanding of all the circumstances is very minuscule, but, it just seems a little out of balance.

If you haven't seen this yet - check it out:
http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com

Molecular computers and more...

2010-04-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

Researchers have created a computer just two molecules thick. The computer can repair itself, solve complex problems, and evolve - similar to a human brain. It's still in the beginning stages, but the possibilities are exciting - even scary. Merging technology into life in the literal sense... what will be the ultimate outcome of this? Let's hope it's positive and it will solve problems. Here is a link to the article and another related article by a blogger who calls himself a "Positive Futurist":

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36788441/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/

http://positivefuturist.com/archive/324.html

Gaming can make the world better?

2010-04-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

Game designer Jane McGonigal suggests gaming can solve the world's problems in this great talk on TED.com:

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

I really like the parallels she draws about human behavior in games and in real world situations. Very thought provoking. Maybe technology will save us after all?

OUTER APPLY

2010-03-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

MS SQL 2005 offers a great tool called OUTER APPLY. It has more than once came in handy in terms of optimizing query performance and getting the results need. It works best in an INNER JOIN situation where you want to get the TOP 1 from an inner select query. In one situation, we had an INNER JOIN with a subselect query on an indexed temp table with about 7 million rows. Running the query took over an hour until we changed to OUTER APPLY, in which case it ran in 8 minutes. Here is an example:

SELECT C.ID_CUSTOMER, C.CUSTOMER_NAME, L.LOGIN_TIME AS LAST_LOGIN_TIME
FROM CUSTOMER C
OUTER APPLY (SELECT TOP 1 LOGIN_TIME FROM LOGINS WHERE ID_CUSTOMER = C.ID_CUSTOMER ORDER BY LOGIN_TIME DESC) L

Here is a link to a great article about this and CROSS APPLY:
http://riteshshah.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/cross-apply-and-outer-apply-clause-in-sql-server-2005/

Bow to the power of Twitter

2010-03-24T10:18:00.002-07:00

Whether you like it or not, social media has taken over and is here to stay, for now. People are moving in droves away from newspapers, television, and other "old" media sources. Technology has made social media more acceptable and in many cases, more credible. More people are willing to trust these "front-line", real-time social media platforms. Every substantial business with an online presence now must have a Twitter, whether they find immediate value in it or not, because their competitors have one.

Twitter, maybe the greatest idea ever, showed how powerful it really is this week when Conan O'Brien decided to follow a random person. She is now being showered with a media blitz, gifts, and over 22,000 followers as of today.

Overall, we're still coming to terms as a society with the power, accessibility, and possibilities of social networking. Let's embrace it, and see where it takes us.

Oh yeah - and don't forget to follow us on Twitter!

Revenue from online surveys?

2010-03-24T10:18:00.001-07:00

So, with the economy the way it is, people are definitely looking for creative ways to make extra money, working harder. There is even a national television ad campaign for a web site called BigSpot.com that acts as a portal to many of these "paid survey sites". Well, in case you are interested, we reviewed over 20 of these sites and have captured the top 4 performers.

Overall, many of these sites simply add points for every survey you take into a sweepstakes. We haven't won any sweepstakes yet. But, we have made over $50 in a few weeks just getting started in our trials. Additionally, some of the surveys lead to you trying out new products that they send you. An interesting window to look at the market research industry. You're not going to retire from the income, but it's fun to get $10 PayPal payments in your mailbox once or twice a week. Anyhow, here are the top performers:

1. http://OpinionOutpost.com
2. http://SurveySpot.com
3. http://lightspeedpanel.com
4. http://www.valuedopinions.com

Domain Name Value, Sales, and Appraisals

2010-03-24T10:17:00.001-07:00

Imagine if you could go back in time and secure ownership of valuable land across the landscape of the world. You would, in today's times, be very wealthy. Think about the landscape of possible domain names. Anyone can buy one for a reasonable price, but the good ones have been gone for years. Domain names still often sell for ridiculous amounts of money. Business.com was purchased for $150,000 in 1997, sold for $7.5 million in 1999, and then for $345 million in 2007. Unbelievable.

Will this trend continue? Will domain name values mimic property values in terms of inflation and sales? It's really hard to predict how new technology and media may or may not effect this arena. One thing is certain though; at under $10 a year, it's not a bad investment to hold on to a decent domain name that has potential, especially if it's serving a current purpose or redirecting traffic to another site for you.

The future of the domain name industry is certainly going to be exciting. There have been many domain name extension additions from .cc to .tv, but .com seems to be holding it's ground as the dominate top level domain name extension.

If you have a domain name and are curious of the value, we encourage you to get it appraised by at least a couple sites such as www.YourDomainValue.com for example. We wish you luck as a domain name tycoon! :)

Powerful 3rd party ETL SSIS data flow tool

2010-03-24T10:16:00.004-07:00

If you have spent a considerable amount of time developing SSIS packages, you know that using all the source, transformation, and destination tools can sometimes get tedious, especially in terms of slowly changing dimensions. SQLBI has come up with a Visual Studio component for SSIS called TableDifference. It is a incredible simple and powerful transformation tool that allows you to bring in two sources, an existing table and your source query, and it will compare as you define, inserting new rows and updating others where told. The speed and efficiency of this tool is amazing. The best part is, it's free! There is a version for SQL 2005 and SQL 2008.

Let us know if you would like to learn more about this tool and how it can enhance your ETL. We have many templates and examples of how it's use can be beneficial!

Where are we with Web 2.0?

2010-03-24T10:16:00.003-07:00

So, Web 2.0? It is as ambiguous as it sounds. The grand vision of our web content being transformed into something far better than it was in the late 90's has happened. But since that point, have any distinct technologies became far reaching enough to change the game with the exception of Google? Sure, Flash is great and mobile use is huge. But, we're not seeing the masses accessing the Internet through massive, movement rich video interfaces. Have the limitations of bandwidth and accessibility set us back? Or, are we more practical in these changing times, focusing more on the needs than the wants? I love seeing online companies doing something different, something WAY OUT THERE. But, are sites like Facebook really the best we have done so far? What's next?

In terms of design and functionality, it seems like so many web sites these days are simply Blogspot or social media centric sites. Everyone is in a box. I am proposing Web 3.0: A technology platform that lets everyone freestyle design with capabilities that will make Flash and Silverlight look like CSS, but be usable by even the least technical people. I don't even want to try and wrap my head around how this will be done, but I'm sure someone will.

MS Analysis Services and Excel 2007

2010-03-24T10:16:00.001-07:00

Ok, here's your dilemma... You have a data warehouse and you are confident it was built correctly. All your data is there. You aren't willing to invest a substantial amount of money into the purchase of an enterprise reporting suite. Beyond that, you aren't about ready to tell executives they are going to have to be trained on new software to do their ad-hoc reporting. Many people can find themselves in this situation after initial data warehouse development has exhausted deadlines and budget. But, at least your data is there and you know it's good.

So, consider this. Microsoft Analysis Services and Excel 2007 integration. Everyone knows Excel and most people with the ware withal to understand ad-hoc analysis can use a pivot table. It can be a challenging task to create the cubes in Analysis Services, but if your data warehouse developer did a nice job with the initial setup, they should be able to finish the job. Also, as something to look forward to, this integration improves with Excel 2010 using the new "PowerPivot" technology.

In conclusion, this integration will give your users a powerful set of tools. Also, consider the more standard reports to be developed in Reporting Services and give the die-hard power users access to Report Builder 2.0 (SQL Server 2008). Now, you have a COMPLETE Microsoft data warehouse solution!

ETL Design Documents and Business Validation

2010-03-24T10:15:00.002-07:00

Having been involved in data warehouse projects of all types and sizes, there seems to be one area that always proves challenging: ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) Development and Business Validation.

So, you're at the point where you have exhaustively met with your business stakeholders and data experts, mapping every possible field and piece of logic available to hand over to your ETL developer. Will this hand-off be smooth? Can you assume your developer will understand the context of each detail. How will they validate their results? Do they even understand what the data means and how it relates to your reporting measures?

Now, the last thing I want to do is have more meetings. However, this may be the most important meeting you have. I have found it helpful to have the ETL developer start development on their appropriate fact or dimension and then meet with business and data experts to run through scenarios and make sure the requirements were translated appropriately. An activity like this can save you countless hours and bridge the ambiguous gaps that will plague your project timeline.

Conscious Web Design

2010-03-24T10:15:00.001-07:00

Consciousness seems to be a real buzzword these days. As I have practiced social consciousness in many aspects of my life, I have found myself trying to find ways to apply it to technology and business. Besides the obvious techniques of efficiency and conservation, what can we do to make our actual work reflect our passion, and futhermore, can we even do so in the quantitative sense?

It all seems to boil down to a constant question to yourself to make sure you are doing everything you do with the utmost integrity: Asking every question you can of the client. Making sure they are aware of every risk, reward, and possible outcome in between. Taking every step to make sure the project allows for maximum success and scalability within the scope. Feeling good about a project at the time of completion, knowing you will be involved in the future as the need arises.

Now, something else to consider... With this integrity and consciousness on the forefront... Do we take it upon ourselves to discriminate what projects we take on? Are we above engaging with organizations that we despise based on some moral ground that we have evolved within ourselves? I guess it's all situation specific, but in my experience, I will typically look into these opportunities as a priceless learning experience that may change the way I view something. I cannot limit myself based on what I know, because I am thirsting for more knowledge and drowning in information.

Microsoft Report Builder 2.0 - Thank you!

2010-03-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

If you are a user of Microsoft Reporting Services in the SQL Server 2005 sense, I'm sure you have some sort of experience with Report Builder 1.0. I am guess that if you are a developer, you are probably one of the only proficient users of this tool in your organization. If not, you probably spent more time training staff than you did building your Report Builder Models. Well, if you're still stuck in this box and you have plans to migrate to SQL Server 2008, help is on the way.

Report Builder 2.0 offers much more functionality and a friendlier Office 2007-ish interface. This actually will prove to be a usable tool for your ad-hoc business query users. And, you won't have to exhaust yourself training them! Among the easy feature we have found useful are the wizards and functionality to export to Word. Business people LOVE this once they understand the context.