Free or low cost cloud services In your own website

– Google Site Search (100+ per year)
– Google Product Search ( consumer version)  (Free, but you need to do lots of homework)
– MediaFire (large-size file sharing) , go Pro for $9, $50

Free or low cost cloud services for your business operation

– Email: Google Apps email (FREE for less than 10 users, 7GB per user)

– CRM: Customer relationship management

• Would still have your salesperson keep you customer leads?
• An online hud of all your customer info
• Automatic following up over the sales cycle

Usually the CRM will have to team up with a powerful email platform

• ConstantContact (acquired Bantam Live, a cloud-based CRM provider)
• Mailchimp (Send up to 12,000 emails per month free)

– File backup & File Sharing

• Would you still believe that an external hard-drive is a safe?
• Advantages of Cloud-based solution: redundant power supplies, redundant data connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression) and security devices.
• Recommend, Carbonite, GoodSync

Oct 25 Radio Program in Mandarin
on SF Bay Area FM 92.3, BayVoice.net

Legacy of Cloud Computing

• The concept started 1 century ago
• Big companies generated their own electricity power supply
• Later, utility companies came in place to generate power for everyone
• “Cloud computing” is a computing paradigm in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software, and services, all accessed over a network.
• The network of servers and connections is collectively known as “the cloud.” The Internet is just the vehicle, not the “cloud.”
• Computing at the scale of the cloud allows users to access supercomputer-level power.

Free Cloud Applications that will benefit your websites

• Social network websites*
• Online file storage*
• URL Shortening Service *
• Digital Video *
• Online Presentation, Online FlipBook *
• Finding your way on a map *
• Creating your image album *
• Online Machine Translation *

Popular & Free Cloud Applications

• Online Email Services (Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, MSN )
• Photo editing software
• Anti-virus applications on the web
• Editing documents, spreadsheets and powerpoints
• Miscellaneous applications

Social Networking websites

Facebook, Google+, Twitter

Friend List (circle) / Video/ Photo/ Online Chat/ Video Conference/ Games / Events
* Applications on your website:

66 people like 希望之聲灣區生活台 FM92.3
Integrate the facebook feedback to each content page
Integrate the +1 , like button to website home and contents page
Your friends’ endorsements will boost your website ranking results (by person)

Finding your way on a map

The leading sites are Mapquest, Google Maps and Yahoo Maps.

Google Places (for Business)

* Applications in your website:

Post a map in Driving Direction page
Map all branch offices on a map
Locate the nearest service location to your home

Digital Video

Hulu/ YouTube, vimeo offer videos online for free. Users can download popular movies, TV shows and documentaries and view them on the browser.

* Applications on your website:

Introduction video for marketing purposes
Online Video training to existing customers
The second highest number of searches are on YouTube
Place your promotional video on a video sharing platform, attracting more visitors
Many existing tools for playing single videos, or video series in your own website

Online Machine Translation

Google Translate, Yahoo! Babel Fish Translation: free online language translation service instantly translates text and web pages. Good for personal blogs and public forums, but not suitable for official content from businesses or organizations.

Online file storage

MediaFire is a leading online file storage site. MediaFire may be used to host or share any files including documents, images, presentations, videos.

* Applications in your website:

Provide links for users to download large-sized files/videos
Allow your website visitors to upload large-sized file to you

Yousendit.com: Online File Sharing, Send large files, Managed File Transfer, FTP …

* Applications in your website:

Allow your website visitors to upload large-sized file to you

Creating your photo album

The best ones are flickr / Picasa.com

* Applications in your website:

Require less space, less demand, and allows for less reliance on the performance of your own server
Saves all your pictures; better performance than if saved on your own server
Multiple copies on the cloud
Includes many ready to use online tools: slideshow, photo album, light-box effect

URL Shortening Tools

bit.ly , Google URL Shortener

converts any URL into a unique short URL. When a user visits the new URL, the shortened URL redirects the browser to the real web site.

* Application on your website:

Are more visually appealing than the full (long) web address

Online Documents

Google Docs: Form

Collect information in your website by creating a web form in Google Docs.

Slideshare

Offers users the ability to upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and Adobe PDF Portfolios.

pageflip-flap.com

Transform your doc, pdf, word, movie into an interactive flipbook.

Please submit you question if you see any issue in this posting.

Please subscribe to my newsletter, if you would like receive more discussion on similar subject.

Or, Call DCS : Alex Hu (408) 929-4888

Step 1:  Start editing

Visiting www.google.com/placesforbusiness. you need a gmail account to sign-in

Step 2: Business Look-up

You will be asked to select Country and fill in your Business Phone Number. If your business phone number is already published, your business name and address will be populated by the system right away.

Step 3: Complete the form

Fill in the online form as detail as you could.

In the Categories fields, simply type in a few characters; the system will auto-complete matching category names that GP4B has prepared in advance.

As you scrolling down the form page, you will be prompted to upload pictures, and YouTube video.  Don’t skip these steps.  Research tells that visuals help increase the number of clicks.

Step 4: Submit the form.

Right after your submitting, Google will phone you and disclose your 5-digit PIN number. You should key in the PIN code in the Places editing page.  This confirm your ownership to this GP4B page, and wraps up the editing process.

Step 5: Verify the posting

Next major step is verify if your listing has been published and can be searched properly.

In this screen capture, it’s the result by typed search keyword: San Jose Acupuncture School.

Using same key-phrases in Google map search:

In this search example, the key words are “Santa Cruz Acupuncture School”

See the display layout in a different format.  Because the FBU is the dominated in Santa Cruz.

In this example, the keyword used is the major cross street near the service provider.

keyword: Fremont Warm Springs Massage,

It displays the pictures submitted to GP4Business by the owner.  The picture instantly singles out the service vendor’s listing from other competitors.

The Business Owner’s GP4B Detail Page:

The map icon on the right-hand side map takes users to a place page prepared by GP4B.  If the local business does not have a website,  it becomes your website.

Step 6: Performance Tracking:

After all the effort put in, you’d want to know the performance of your own business listing.  GP4B provides a report page for every individual Business Listing.

See the example: From the top:

The double line chart maps the daily fluctuation of map listing’s # of displays (impression) and # of clicks (action).

Next is the numbers: there are 4,628 impressions, 285 actions. Basically, the Map Listing has been shown 4,628 times due to Web/Map searches.  People have clicked on the listing 285 times after seeing the listing.  The Conversion rate is about 6%,  which is a pretty good number.

The lowest section of the page is the keyword ranking. It shows which search words have allowed people to see your map listing.  You may edit the contents of your listing based on the rankings.  Google tries to sell their AdWords service here.  No doubt, it’s a good reference for any business owner to use the set of keywords when bidding in the AdWords service.

Please submit you question if you see any issue in this posting.

Please subscribe to my newsletter, if you would like receive more discussion on similar subject.

Or, Call DCS : Alex Hu (408) 929-4888

Aug 30 Radio Program in Mandarin
on SF Bay Area FM 92.3, BayVoice.net

8/23/2011, 7pm, Outlines:

Planning for your online retailing store

Critical issues:

• Developer should be carefully chosen.  They will not just create a website for you, they should be able to help you keep growing your business, market your products.
• Choose a right Domain name
  • for easy searching (Human and machine)
  • for easy remember (Human)
  • highlight your products (against your competitors)
• Prepare all your product intro text,  images, options, and understand the shipping and handling cost.
• Payment: which type of payment would you plan to receive.  What’s the cost of using a payment methods.  What need to be set up when taking Credit Card payment from your shopper.
• Shipping: which carrier do you think is most cost-effect when shipping the products of your store.  Considering Real-time calculation?  Flat rate? charge by sub-total? charge by weight?
• SSL: Why do I need it. What is required when apply for SSL. Where I can get it?
• Shopping cart conversion funnel, set a Google Analytics to track the performance of your online store from start to end.
• Product marketing, built-in search engine friendly factors for organic online marketing

Please submit you question if you see any issue in this posting.

Please subscribe to my newsletter, if you would like receive more discussion on similar subject.

Or, Call DCS : Alex Hu (408) 929-4888

Aug 23 Radio Program in Mandarin
on SF Bay Area FM 92.3, BayVoice.net

8/23/2011, 7pm, Outlines:

how to bring your business online;
how to get start of your business website

Your Checklist

1. what is your position
– brand awareness marketing
– online brochure
– item for sale
– online service
—–> which type of website you should built

2. what is your offline status
– newly established business
– over 5 years experience in the industry
——-> do you aware of what /who are you competing with?

3. Scale and Budget
– what is your online plan in term of scale
– what is your budget plan
—–> be practical

4. Are your computer, internet literacy?
– My Son/Daughter take care of the online searching and fill online form for me
– Check my email only when friend told me to check it
– write and read emails many times a day
– shopping online from time to time
– eat, sleep, travel, shop,… everything online
——> Do-it-yourself, Staffing, or fully outsourced

Please submit you question if you see any issue in this posting.

Please subscribe to my newsletter, if you would like receive more discussion on similar subject.

Or, Call DCS : Alex Hu (408) 929-4888

Aug 16 Radio Program in Mandarin

on SF Bay Area FM 92.3, BayVoice.net

7pm, 08/16/2011, Outlines:

1. Do I need a website/blogger/facebook?
How they can help w/ my business?

a real case case: badminton store
– shopper limited to local market
– spend high cost to market over the nationwide magazine or convention
– spent extra cost for storage
– set up an online store by DCS on year of 2002
– present brochure-like detail to all internet shopper
– open direct support channel (email, online form,..) to your
shopper with minimum cost
– they sold out in 4 month. re-stock for any 1/2 container after 6 month later

2. What is the difference among website/blogger/facebook?

Blogger — a personal chronicle log that you like to share your
feeling and experience with other (Essay, Travel, Food, photography,
Spiritual,…)

Facebook — personal relationship permission-based marketing. Take
time, no pushing, not dominated. get your brand (name) out. earn
their trust. and finally convert to business.

Website – open to anyone has internet access. could be any contents
and online feature. Consistent and Continuous effort is demanded when
you expect any Return over investment.

3. How do I get started? (learn (by listen to this program), or hire someone)

don’t forget, there are already 270 million websites on 2010. How to
help people find your website when you begin to build your website is
critical.

Google is promoting heavily on what is a “High-quality website” idea.
We will look at it one by one along this program.

If you already have a website
– how to self-diagnose your existing website

if you do not have any internet exposure so far
– how to begin with, the strategy, the platform, the feature

Google keywords to locate me:
DCSproduction San Jose
數位創意 San Jose

Please submit you question if you see any issue in this posting.

Please subscribe to my newsletter, if you would like receive more discussion on similar subject.

Or, Call DCS : Alex Hu (408) 929-4888

• Direct links to translated pages. Readers do not need to return to the homepage to restart the browsing process. Clicking on an available language button immediately forwards them to the corresponding page.
• All contents are translated by domain professionals, not by an auto-translating program. There will be no misleading message on your official website.
• DCS provides training to the multilingual editors in your organization. Well-trained editors can take full control of the content updates and growth of the website.

Remark: please refer to this post from Google’s official Blog
More Guidence on Building High Quality Sites

Sep 27 Radio Program in Mandarin
on SF Bay Area FM 92.3, BayVoice.net

Please submit you question if you see any issue in this posting.

Please subscribe to my newsletter, if you would like receive more discussion on similar subject.

Or, Call DCS : Alex Hu (408) 929-4888

please correct row 13 of the tax rate list from 8.75 % to you local sales tax

for example
if you store is located at Santa Barbara City,  Santa Barbara County is 7.75%

in Row 13, Default for CA, it’s design to serve as a black hole.  When a shopper’s shipping address is in CA and is missed from 1452 pre-defined cities or areas, that default sales tax value kick in.  It’s different from the  CA state wide tax base.

CA sales tax is dancing again! Many of online store went thru. the adjustment on April 1st.  Now, it’s another wave of adjustment.  Online store  owners will not just need to modify their tax calculation in the online system, but also need to modify their tax rate in QuickBooks (or any other accounting softwares).

Please read
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/06/sales_tax_angeles_california.php

DCS team manages a couple dozens of x-cart online stores.  The tax rate change in your store will be proceeded ONLY AT YOUR REQUEST.  I am glad to receive your request in before 5pm June 30th, 2011.

Here is your options and service rate to proceed the adjustment:

Case 1. The tax rate calculation in your online store is base on shipping destination city/region.  You have 50+ rate setting in the store.

You’d like DCS to proceed with the rate adjustment for you. Please email back to me. So far, I got 2 requests.  The rate is at $40 per store.

Case 2: Your store has just one CA Sales Tax. And, you don’t know how to proceed. You like DCS adjust it for you.  It’s $10/store.

Case 3. Your store has set only one CA Sales Tax.  And, you can change the rate by yourself.
For instruction, please read this, and Do-it-by-yourselves (D.I.Y.)
http://help.qtmsoft.com/index.php?title=X-Cart:Tax_Settings#Managing_Taxes

If you have any question, please submit from
http://www.dcsproduction.com/service/customer-support
A service fee may apply.

Case 4. The tax rate calculation in your online store is base on shipping destination city/region.  You have 50+ rate setting in the store.

When you choose to Do-it-by-yourselves (D.I.Y.)
Please download the rate form
http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm

Please note: The CSV file is NOT x-cart import ready format.

If you have any question, please submit from
http://www.dcsproduction.com/service/customer-support

For detail info, please refer to

http://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-support/guides/ssl-certificate-introduction.html

DCS is a Comodo SSL reseller. Here is required procedure.

1) Check for available subscription term and cost

http://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-products/ssl/ssl-certificate-instantssl.html

Example: to order the next 3 yr of SSL
your cost is
$83 x 3 yr SSL + DCS fixed labor charge)

2) DCS invoice client for total fee

3) Collect exactly business info of the domain owner
=================================
if this is a renew, make sure its the same as last time
=================================
* Business name
* Department
* Address
* City
* State
* zip code
* Contact email address

the above info must matching the public WHOIS info.

4) Generate the CSR (Certificate Signing Request) from Hosting company (i.e. HE.net, or any)

5) DCS submit the business info and CSR to Comodo
if this is a renew, the domain’s username and password with Comodo is required.

6) Comodo will email to contact email address.

7) Comodo will alert DCS for authorization

Comodo will email domain owner and ask for validation documentation:
your Article of Incorporation, Business License, OR a phone bill with your address and business name on it is fine
=================================
Scan & Email: docs@comodogroup.com
or
Fax #: +1 866 831 5837 (US and Canada)
=======================================

9) Comodo will issue the SSL to contact email account

10) DCS install the SSL certificate and CA chain to domain

11) New SSL certificate will take effect after midnight server rebooting session.

12) Turn http to https for transaction test. Identify the new certificate’s starting and expiration date.