Up Your Media Apple Web And Tech Blog

Up Your Media's Quick Tips Newsletter Volume IV

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

Rebuild iPhoto Library. From time to time, through no fault of your own, your iPhoto database may become corrupt and unable to view some of your images. Your first step in repairing those issues is to rebuild that iPhoto database. Quit the program and then reopen it while holding down the command and option keys until you're prompted to rebuild the library. You'll be offered a list of options, choose the one(s) you want and click rebuild. Go here for more information on the rebuild process.

Send bulk email to address book group. It's dead easy to create email groups in your Mac Address Book application, and just as easy to send a bulk email to that group. In your address book app, simply click the + (plus) sign in the bottom left of the window, title the group and drag contacts from the main database into the new group. When creating a new email in your Mac Mail app, click the address icon in the menu bar, then simply drag the group name into the address pane in the message. Your application will send the email to all addresses in that group.

Shortcut to your iPhone camera. Now and again you'll see something you need to shoot quickly. Rather than going from your lock screen to your home screen to your camera app, simply press the home button on your phone twice, click the camera icon and shoot. Tada.

Shaw Outgoing mail issues. I've had lots of calls lately from clients experiencing problems sending mail through their Shaw accounts. Don't bother waiting on hold for an hour or more, this solution should work for you. Go to your mail program, go to Preferences in the Mail menu, select Accounts and go to your shaw SMTP account dropdown box. Choose 'Edit SMTP server list' and click the Advanced tab. If your 'use default ports' is selected, choose 'use custom port' instead and input one of the custom ports available to you (25, 465 or 587) If that port still doesn't work, select a different one until your mail starts sending as normal. Let's hope Shaw works out this problem soon.

Change your computer's password. Believe it or not, you could someday forget your computer's administrator password. To change your password, boot up the computer from your original system disk, or a retail Leopard or Snow Leopard disk by holding down the C key as the computer starts up. Choose a language and click the arrow to continue. From the Utilities menu, choose password reset then input a password that you will remember. Unfortunately your keychain access utility, which stores the rest of your account's passwords, such as mail, skype, wifi etc, will be deleted, but at least you'll be able to administer your computer and perform software updates.

Now's the Time to Create Your Personalized iPhoto Calendars - Here's How

2011-10-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

As 2012 approaches, now is the time to create your own personalized calendar using iPhoto. This simple process is a big part of the iPhoto experience and can result in some beautiful, professional-looking calendars that use your own photographs and images to create a unique keepsake or gift that will keep on giving throughout the year. The skills will also apply to creating hardcover books and cards for all occasions.

The first step is to choose the photos you will use. Using the Command ⌘ key, click on the individual photos you want to include and then click the create icon on the bottom right of the iPhoto window. From there, choose calendar, and then choose one of the themes or designs available. If you want to use other images (art, cartoons, scans) that are not photos you must first import them into your iPhoto library.

After choosing the theme, you're greeted with a dialogue where you can specify what month the calendar will start, how many months to create, whether or not you want to include National holidays and even calendar events from your own iCal application, such as birthdays, anniversaries etc.

Each individual page gives you the option to include one photo or two, three, or even up to seven, and which photos to include for which month. There are layout, option and photos dialogues available in the lower right corner. You can always include more photos than originally selected in your project by dragging them from your complete photos list onto the calendar icon on your left sidebar. Many of the themes allow you to add a description to the photo. You can continue to edit, crop, or enhance individual photos by double-clicking the photo on the page.

Once you've arranged the photos in the order you prefer, click the 'buy' button and log in with your Apple ID. You can have the calendar shipped to yourself or shipped to the recipient. You can even have it gift-wrapped. Note, there is no volume discount, and your calendar will cost $19.99 whether you buy 1, 50, or 1000.

Troubleshooting a Troublesome Mac Video Tutorial

2011-09-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

The following contains a series of troubleshooting steps to resolve boot and performance issues on Apple Mac notebook and desktop computers. Includes chapters on Disk Utility, resetting the SMC, resetting the PRAM, blue and grey screen issues, video and power issues, target disk mode and preventive maintenance.

How to Change the Iphoto Event KeyFrame

2011-08-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

To customize the keyframe (poster frame) in your iPhoto events, start by choosing an event in the iPhoto Library. Scroll through the pictures using your mouse or trackpad by hovering over the event and slowly moving the cursor from left to right. Stop at the photo you've selected to be the keyframe of the event. Click the control key on your keyboard and choose the 'make key photo' option. Bada Bing

Changing Your Computer's Name and User Names

2011-08-02T10:33:00.001-07:00

Now and again I meet clients who have bought a used computer, pre-installed with an operating system and user accounts that become disconcerting for them because it's somebody else's name.

It's simple to personalize your computer by changing the computer's name as well as the user name.

To change the computer name, simply navigate to the System Preferences > Sharing > Computer Name.

Changing the user name and password is just as simple, navigate to the System Preferences > Accounts, click the lock and login to make changes and change your name and password there.

That won't change the home folder name, however. To do that, you must hold the Control key and click on the account name who's home folder you'd like to change, that will take you to advanced options where you can change the account name and home folder.

Up Your Media's Quick Tips Newsletter Volume III

2011-05-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some issues I've come across over the past month or so, thanks to inquisitive clients who offered me the chance to answer their questions.

Floating Dictionary. This one is fun and useful, bring up instant definitions right on your screen. To activate the floating dictionary, simultaneously click command, control and the letter 'D' while hovering over any word on your display.

How To Copy A CD

To copy a music or data CD

1.) Insert the CD, open Disk Utility (Go Menu - Utilities)
2.) Select the CD and click New Image - for image format choose DVD/CD Master
3.) Once that's created, insert Blank CD
4.) Select the new image you created and click Burn

Use Your Portable In Closed Clamshell Mode.

Perhaps you've cracked your screen and need to use your MacBook while you wait for a replacement part, or maybe you just want to use a larger screen than the 13" built-in.

First, connect a USB keyboard and mouse to your computer. With the computer turned on, connect the Apple portable (using the appropriate Apple adapter if necessary) to the appropriate port on the external display or projector and turn the display or projector on. Once your computer's Desktop appears on the external display, close the computer's lid. Once the lid is closed, wake the computer up by either clicking your mouse button or by pressing a key on your external keyboard.

Find the Source File in iPhoto

Where does the jpg go once you've imported it into iPhoto? You can find the root file by holding down the Control Key while you click on the iPhoto application icon, choose "Show Package contents." Browse through the folder until you find your Originals folder.

Return To Zero

To return to zero or go to beginning of your clip in Garage Band or iMovie, you have three choices, click either Return or Z or Home.

To arrange your iPhone or iPad apps

You can press and hold on the device's screen until you activate the feature and move your apps by hand OR you can open the apps interface in iTunes when it's plugged in and move them from there.

Control Display Resolution.

Many of us are better off using a display resolution that makes text and pictures easier to read on our screens. To change your display resolution, open the Display dialogue in your System Preferences and choose from the list until you find one you like. Lower numbers (800 by 600) will result in larger text and icons, higher numbers (1280 by 800) will result in smaller text and icons.

And that't it for this month, if you want your specific Apple computer question answered just email it to me and I'll do my best to find out for you.

Up Your Media's Quick Tips Newsletter Volume II

2011-03-14T18:21:00.000-07:00

Hi, and welcome to another edition of our Quick Mac Tips newsletter. These are some issues that have come up with my Apple cpmputer clients around Parksville, Qualicum, Nanaimo and central Vancouver Island in the past weeks.

In iPhoto 9 you can now choose to send mail via iphoto or your mac mail application I suggest choosing the Mac Mail program. Choose this option in the iPhoto General Preferences pane.

Hot Corners, is one of my favourite navigation features. If you're like me, you tend to have a lot of windows and applications open at once. In your System Preferences pane, go to Expose and Spaces, and pick Active Screen Corners, I like my top right corner to tile all open windows and my lower right corner to clear all windows and expose the Desktop.

You can add a photo or logo to your email signature by opening up the signature dialogue in your mail program and simply dragging the image directly onto that particular signature from either the finder or the iPhoto application.

Change your Safari homepage from the default Apple store to a page more suitable to you. In the Safari preferences pane, simply type in the url to your favourite page where it says 'home page'.

Need to translate text or full webpages, use the Google translator at http://translate.google.com/ . This free tool will allow you to translate over 50 languages

iTunes Radio contains access to hundreds of radio stations worldwide in every genre.

To save a PDF for the best emailing and sharing compatibility, choose print in your Pages, MS Word, Safari or Mail program, at the bottom left of that window you'll see the PDF tab, from there you can save the PDF or mail it directly

To type fractions go into the keyboard language drop down menu near the top right of your screen (the flag beside the clock) and choose to "show character viewer". From there you choose symbols, then number and number symbols, pick the fraction you want and click insert.

Quick Tips For Your Mac Computer from Up Your Media

2011-02-11T13:31:00.001-08:00

Here are some quick solutions to problems and issues I've come across in my work over the last 2 weeks, and thank you to those clients who gave me the opportunity to discover the solutions in the first place. If you don't wish to receive these regular informative emails please let me know and I'll remove you from the list immediately.

Lost your tool bar at the top of your browser or mail window? Look in the View menu of the particular application for the Show Toolbar function.

Looking for a specific link on a busy webpage (ie., contact, archives, faq)? Type command (⌘) f to Find that particular word and save your time and eyes.

Need info on a file or folder on your computer? Highlight the item, type command (⌘) I to Get Info, which will display many details including kind, size, date modified, sharing and permissions and more, depending on the item.

Need to type French Accents? Here are the steps to adding French Accents to your documents, type the option and listed key simultaneously, then the appropriate letter key.
Grave (è) – option + ~
Aigu (é) – option + e
Cédille (ç) – option + c
Circonflexe (ê) – option + i
Tréma (ö) – option + u

Syncing calendars from your Blackberry, PC, iCal and iPhone? It can be tricky, but the best bet is to export your calendars to a Google calendar and sync them to your devices from there.

Don't forget my MacBook and iMac upgrade hard drive special, 1 TB for the iMac for $199.00 or 500 Mb for a Macbook or Macbook Pro for $175.00, data transfer not included.

Running A Website in a Vacuum Sucks

2010-04-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

I’ve just finished going through the entire database of my Vancouver Island tourism directory at http://www.Vingo.ca. I made some changes to the ranking criteria and had to ensure everyone’s details were correct to keep things fair and just. The database contains over 650 websites, all based on Vancouver Island, with a tourism, shopping or services theme. Some of the sites have been listed with us as far back as 2007, and strangely enough, some of them look like they haven’t been updated since that time either.

I shouldn’t say I was horrified, but I was certainly surprised to see how few of these websites are incorporating social media into their sites. Of those 650 sites, only 56 of them use Facebook groups or pages and 49 have links to their Twitter accounts. And this is in a tourism-based economy struggling with recession and a strong Canadian dollar. Modern marketers all know that social media is a cheap and easy way to connect and create a dialogue with existing and potential customers.

Another statistic I found surprising was how few of these websites use and maintain a links page, fewer than 40% of the sites I visited were using the tool and fewer still keep that links page current. I realize that blind link trading is no longer effective in the SEO and SEM worlds, however living and working in an online vacuum is not the way to maximize your return on investment. Maintaining relevant link trades and providing your site with some placement and perspective within your local business context is key to success on the World Wide Web

Guerilla Marketing Your Small Local Business

2010-04-17T16:08:00.001-07:00

The successful promotion of a small local business takes either a lot of ingenuity or a lot of money, and sometimes both. Getting your brand out, no matter what product or service you’re offering your local community, takes a measured, considered and holistic approach that is not always easy to control.

Obviously your website is going to be a vital part of your campaign, but its importance and cost will depend on your product and your market. Will it be a two page online ‘pamphlet’ or a $5000.00 E-Commerce juggernaut? How you promote that website is the subject for another article, however Craigslist is one cheap way to advertise online, as is Kijij and the Used-InsertTownHere.com family of online classified sites. Other local directories and classifieds abound, and you should explore their availability in your area.

My particular one-man service business has a vast territory, upwards of 100-150 km in any direction, and as a result, I do a lot of driving. Advertising on my vehicle was a great way to reach a high number of people for a relatively low cost. I paid about $500.00 to get my car emblazoned with my logo and contact info. I spend more than that per month for a small 2 square inch classified ad in our local daily newspaper, (also a crucial spoke in my promotional campaign) however, my vehicle advertising travels with me everywhere I go.

Highway signs are another low cost, high visibility advertising opportunity. I’m not talking about the huge billboards that few of us can afford, but the small, 2 to 4 square foot signs you see on trees and hydro poles up and down the roadways. My rural district attracts signage by local businesses advertising their firewood, well drilling, tree topping and electrolysis services, and often you will find a cluster of signs around a crossroads or other landmark. Get yours printed on weather-resistant core-plast and keep them simple. People can’t read many details while zooming by at 80 km. The cost can be as little as $10.00-$20.00 each, which is a great return on investment.

You might not get away with nailing a sign to a tree or hydro pole in the middle of the city, but the higher amount of pedestrian traffic lends itself to postering. I learned the art of postering 20 years ago as a young musician when it was the tried and true method of advertising a gig. The downside of posters are their fleeting nature, city crews tend to remove them within days of you putting them up, and there tends to be lots of competition However, you can still manage a big impact in a short time because of the high, street-level visibility and the low low cost.

These are challenging times for small business, and you have to be tenacious and creative if you want yours to be successful. Every and any angle that can give you a leg up on your company’s branding and visibility is worth a look.

So You Bought a New Mac, Now What?

2010-03-30T19:07:00.001-07:00

Congratulations, you’re one of the approximately three million lucky so and so’s who got a new Apple computer so far this year. It’s agreed, that sleek aluminum unibody looks gorgeous on your desk, but now that it’s out of the box, are you getting the most out of your new computer?

For those of you ready to dive in but just need a gentle nudge in the right direction, here are the first five things you should know about your Apple computer.

Menu Bar

Across the top of every screen lies the menu bar. It has consistencies across every application and is the key to the functionality of your system and commands. Ever-present in the top left corner is the Apple Menu, a drop down menu which holds root level commands over your basic system preferences. The Apple Menu contains some handy day to day operations, including force quit, software update, and a shortcut to your 10 most recent documents and applications.

To the right of the Apple is the active application preferences menu and next to that is a file menu (open, save, print etc.) edit menu (cut, copy, paste) a number of app-specific menus, (bookmarks, view, share,) and finally the help menu. It’s comforting to know that whatever program you happen to be using, the basic navigation is essentially the same. From the right side you can expect to see your Spotlight icon, active user name, keyboard language, clock, speaker volume, Bluetooth, Time Machine and various other icons.

Dock and Dashboard

The Dock is the graphical panel that shows your currently open and chosen favourite applications. You can customize the dock to sit on the left, bottom or right of your screen, or disappear altogether and reappear with the scroll of the mouse.

The Dashboard also lives in the dock and contains various handy tools and widgets such as calculators, weather reports, dictionaries and stock-tickers at the click of a button. There are hundreds of fun and/or useful little apps available for download at the Apple site.

Spotlight

This is the blazing fast and ultra-thorough search tool that appears at the uppermost right corner of your screen. It indexes every character in your entire home folder and can find not only files, folders and applications that match your search term, but also documents, web pages and emails that contain that term. It’ll also display exactly where in your home folder said document resides.

Time Machine

It’s true, sometimes bad things happen to good computers, and if something in your computer is going to fail, chances are it’ll be your hard drive. Time Machine is the built in, automatic back-up tool that can prevent that sinking feeling you get when you realize your computer has died, taking with it your family photos, music collection, masters thesis or client database. Simply attach external hard drive and never think of it again.

Viruses

The actual science on this matter is misunderstood. Apple quite rightly claims that its computers are immune to all viruses that infect PC’s. However that doesn’t mean there aren’t malicious files out there that can affect the Apple OS. True, the Unix platform on which the operating system is based is more robust and secure, but immunity to malware simply does not exist. The short answer is that yes, Mac computers can be susceptible to various non-PC based viruses. Anecdotally speaking, neither I, nor anyone I’ve ever met, has ever (knowingly) suffered from a computer virus.

In the future we will explore some more indepth features of your Apple computer. For now, the most important lesson to learn is that, short of physically breaking it, there’s not much you can do to ruin your new computer, As long as you keep your data safe, you can feel free to explore your Mac system, change the settings and layout to your specific needs and comforts without fear. Enjoy.

Up Your Media, Mobile Apple Service On Vancouver Island

2009-11-16T18:35:00.000-08:00

You'll excuse me if it's been awhile between blog posts, I've been busy moving my home and family Back to Vancouver Island from Ottawa where we'd spent the last year. Let's just call it a cultural exchange. The good news is that I'm now offering my mobile Macintosh Technician and Support Professional services here on the glorious island again, travelling from Victoria to Campbell River, Duncan, Port Alberni, Parksville, Ucluelet and beyond.

You may see my on the highways in my recently rigged out car advertising my business Island Mac Tech. Now that's what I call social media. I drive hundreds of kilometers per week on the Island's highways, both for business and for minor hockey and I pass thousands of cars in that period, roughly 10% of whom have Apple computers in their homes or businesses. Thanks to Scottsigns.com for the fantastic work, and to Shirra at SuperCraftStar for the design.

I often stop at local coffee shops on the island to work for a spell or just enjoy a hot dark roast. Drop by and say hello if you should see me at your local

iPhoto '09, A Glorious App for Disorganized Photographers

2009-05-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my new iPhoto program, part of the iLife ’09 bundle I purchased for $99 CAD at my local Apple vendor.

Like most folks, I’ve got thousand of unorganized photos culled from various computers, cameras and file systems over the years. They move from one drive to another, renamed, shrunk for web and dotted throughout my pictures folder.

The initial import was a breeze, a one-click ‘import to library’ function typical of most Apple programs. The photos are arranged in a beautiful graphical format. You can modify the size of the thumbnails in the gallery and easily expand to view full-size and back again.

The Faces feature is one of my favourites. It uses a newly developed facial recognition software. You begin by inputting the name of the subject in the photo and the program will scan the rest of your photos and suggest other instances where that face appears. The more examples you have of that face, the more precise the selections will be. It’s not foolproof but it is pretty darn accurate, and managed to accurately scan and group photos of my children over the years, right back to infancy.

Sharing is super-easy, with one-click interfaces for email, flickr and facebook. Simply select the photos you wish to email and choose what size you’d like to send the photos, iPhoto does the rest of the work. Create an album for facebook and flickr and it will batch upload the entire album to the account you’ve assigned.

You can flag or hide photos, sort, title and rate them. You can add location data, keywords and descriptions. You can send to iWeb, iDVD or simply burn to CD. You can even fix red-eye and build cards, calendars and other mementos, then order direct from the program.

My only complaint is its lack of duplicate finder capability. While it was easy enough for me to sort the photos by date and click and delete duplicate files by hand, it seems like it could be even easier, given the strengths of the rest of the program. All in all though, I’m loving my iPhoto ’09 by Apple, and if you’re a photographer or collector of snapshots, you’ll love it too.

Back Up Your Data!! It's Easy With Time Machine

2009-03-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

I received an all-too-common phone call from a frightened-sounding University student yesterday. He had accidentally knocked his MacBook off his desk and onto the floor, "It wasn't very high," he insisted, "But pretty soon the hard drive started making funny noises. I turned it off and when I turned it back on all I got was the grey screen." At that point I could almost hear the churning in his gut as he said, "How much to fix it and what are the chances of data recovery?"

Now I can't fault the guy for dropping his computer. Never mind it's a dumb-ass thing to do, but accidents happen to the best of us, and with a computer so versatile and robust it's easy to take it for granted and drag it into situations it should never be in.

I told the client that it was probably the hard drive and potentially the logic board that was at fault and that, since it had been dropped, it had voided any warranty. A replacement hard drive was likely to run close to $200.00 with the installation and software restore, and a logic board could be upwards of $1000.00 all told. Data recovery, if I couldn't do it here in the shop, was likely to start at $800.00 or more at a dedicated data recovery operation.

Money matters aside, this student likely had his whole year's work on his hard drive, complete with essays and notes, pictures, contacts, software and more, an entire year's investment in time and energy. But did he have a back up?

According to Apple’s own research, only 4% of users conduct a regular back-up of their important data. One feature common to Mac users, (and you can colour me guilty) is the sense of being bullet-proof. Which brings us to Time Machine, OS X Leopard's seamless and painless back up feature.

The Time Machine application is an integral part of the Leopard OS and its interface is as easy to use as anything else Apple. At every start-up you’re prompted to configure your Time Machine back-ups and asked where you’d like the back-ups to be stored. You’re also allowed to choose any files or folders you’d like to have excluded by the backup. After that Time Machine does all the work, automatically storing the contents of your home folder on your (preferably external) hard drive. Each subsequent hour the Time Machine will back-up only those files that have changed, storing them in an easily searchable interface on your new drive.

Restoring your system from the Time Machine backup is as seamless and easy as building the Backup in the first place. Simply find the date or the file you’d like restored in the quick look interface, click restore, and it’s done.

Let’s face it, even Macs die and not only through drops, spills and burlaries. With 1 Tb external drives selling for under $150.00, there is no excuse for losing a year or more's worth of effort and resorting to professional data recovery services charging a 'desperation premium'. Prepare for the worst, back up your data

When It Comes To Security, Apple's Got You Covered.

2009-03-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

If data and internet security is an issue for you and your computer, the new Leopard OS X operating system from Apple is sure to help you sleep nights

Parental Controls

As the parent of an 11 year old, I dread the internet and any unfettered access my children may enjoy. Porn, violence, creeps and predators all pose hazards to our children. The new parental controls in the Leopard operating system are robust and comprehensive, allowing you to place time limits on your child's usage, to block broadly filtered and/or specific Adult or other sites, to limit the programs your child can use and even to log email and chat messages for parents to monitor. They're available in System Preferences under Parental Control.

User Accounts and Filevault passwords

For any government worker, medical practitioner, business person or researcher, it's imperative that one protect one's data from prying eyes. Apple's user account setup can effectively give varying levels of security depending on your specific needs. The user accounts and keychain passwords can keep your data relatively safe when sharing a computer with others in a home or office environment. Users with particularly sensitive data can store their entire home folder in an encrypted disk image using Filevault, or you can just as easily encrypt specific files.

The EfI Firmware password is a feature that can protect your entire computer from being booted with an external disk if that computer should fall into the wrong hands.

Just another reason, you should'a bought a Mac.

Tax Incentives For Your Computer Upgrade

2009-02-20T06:27:00.000-08:00

In our recent Federal budget, the Harper government has offered a tax incentive to all businesses to upgrade their computer systems. A 100% deduction is in place from Jan 27 '09 to Feb 1st 2011 for the purchase of all computer hardware and software packages, which means that that RAM and hard-drive upgrade you've been looking forward to can now practically pay for itself when you figure in the speed and storage benefits combined with the tax savings. Splurging on that new Airport Extreme base station, OS upgrade, Time Machine and Mobile Me account, all the while fully and seamlessly integrating your Apple technology into your home and worklife has never been so easy and appealing.

Web Advertising Rising While Newspapers Fail

2008-12-23T06:44:00.000-08:00

According to research firm eMarketer, Internet advertising will grow this year while traditional media such as newspapers, magazines and television continue to fall. US spending stands to reach a total of over $23 billion this year with yearly increases of over 10%. Cost effectiveness and accountablity are some of the reasons cited for the steady increases while claims that net advertising is recession proof are also heartening in these apparently bleak economic times.

Paid search ads through Google, Yahoo and smaller engines and directories will make up nearly half of that spending while banner and classified ads will comprise nearly 35% of the total. Video advertising also stands to grow by almost 50% per year.

Linking Strategies For Traffic and Robots

2008-11-04T05:29:00.000-08:00

To achieve any level of traffic to your website, you need to develop a series of inbound links from relevant sites and dedicated web directories. The links themselves will drive a certain amount of traffic to your site, depending on how busy that site is, but the true value of that inbound link will be in the 'link popularity' your site will achieve. Google robots and other search engines will view these links and rank your site higher in its database because of the perceived popularity of your site.

It's important to choose relevant links to your site and not just random link farms whose generality and lack of relevance can actually hurt your site. The best way to find relevant and well-weighted directories and link sites is to do a google search within your niche. For example, for a vancouver island tourism site, google 'vancouver island tourism directory'. For an Ottawa tattoo studio, search for 'Ottawa search engine' and 'Tattoo link directory'. The top hits listed are the sites you want to be affiliated with, for their Google relevance will transfer itself to your site.

There was a time when most link and web directories offered free linking, but sadly those days are gone. Most of the most important directories these days charge for listings, anywhere from $30.00 to $250.00 per year. Do some research and find the best opportunities for your particular niche with the best return on investment.

Linking is important. Don't ingore it.

What do people have against meta tags.

2008-08-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

Through my work with Vingo.ca, my Vancouver Island Travel Search Engine, I regularly have to dip into a website's source code to pull the company's description from their meta tags. Fully half of these sites, even the pretty ones, have ignored their meta tag keyword and description fields, the first step in effective search engine optimization.

Your meta keyword field should be littered with significant and descriptive words about your business, page or product, preferably words that appear in the text of the site. Separate them with commas and string them together. (ie., web, web tech, web tech blog, web blog,...). Your meta description should be a sentence, (a long sentence), also full of those same keywords but in an easy to read description. This is how you'll be identified by the search engines.

Visit my site at Up Your Media. Don't be shy, dip into my source code to see what a properly optimized meta stack looks like.

Programs like Dreamweaver make it easy for anyone to build a website, but too often these budget priced websites, though they may look good, have forgotten the basics, making it far more difficult for customers to find you. If it's worth building, it's worth promoting.