Managing your Computing

BY KEVIN MACARTHUR

As the commercials ask, are you a Mac or a PC?

First of all, let me say that this is the best question I have had in all my time doing this column. As those inescapable television ads indicate, the world is generally divided into Mac users and PC users.

I would classify myself as a PC with an iPhone addiction. In reality, I have not had much of a chance to use a Mac on a daily basis, so commenting on the Mac experience would not be fair. The applications we run to support our clients are all Windows-based programs, so using a Mac in my profession would not work for me. And as far as at home goes, after spending 10 hours a day in the office and working on computers, the last thing I want to do is go on a computer when I get home. I thought about broadening my horizons and purchasing a Mac for home use, but then I looked at the prices of a nice Mac and that idea went away quick. Sorry, Mac fans, I have to defend Bill Gates on this one; at least he made the PC affordable.

My iPhone addiction, however, is a different story. I’m hooked and don’t know how I ever lived without it.

In case you are wondering, my two favorite apps for the iPhone are iFishing and Fast Lane. It is so cool to drive a car on your phone, and even cooler to catch a fish.

We are looking to drive more traffic to our Web site. My wife and I own a small e-commerce store and our sales have slipped over the past year. What can we do to drive more traffic to our site?

Well, Web sites are not my expertise, but I know enough to be dangerous. The first thing I would do is talk to your Web company. They should have the expertise to get your Web site more traffic. If they don’t have that knowledge, then you want to find someone who does. Let’s look at the terms that you want to throw out there to make it sound like you know what you’re talking about. I am pulling all these definitions from Wikipedia, so feel free to research more on your own. There is a lot of good information on that site.

a. Search engine optimization: The process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a Web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.

b. Google Analytics: A free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a Web site.

c. Pay per click: An Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content sites, such as blogs, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked.

d. Ad Words: Ad Words offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads. The Ad Words program includes local, national, and international distribution.

Drop some of those terms to your web company and see if they can help you. It is a good starting point on the road to achieving your goals for your e-commerce site.

We recently received a quote from an IT company to set up and install a server in our small office. At this time we just cannot afford the cost. We have one full-time employee in the office and a couple of salespeople on the road – all we want to do is get e-mail, calendar and contacts on our BlackBerrys and iPhones. Do we have any other options?

You sure do, it’s called Hosted Exchange. For a small monthly charge, you can rent an e-mail server with all the bell and whistles, including syncing up your portable devices, sharing calendars, accessing e-mail remotely and backing up your e-mails. Some companies even give you a copy of Outlook with your package.

The e-mail server is located in a data center and is managed by the company you are renting it from. They do all the work, support and configurations. You will be charged on a per-user basis or a block of user accounts, depending on the service provider. All you need is an Internet connection, preferably a fast Internet connection, and you will be able to access your e-mail anywhere, including from all of your different portable devices.

Note that DSL may not cut it in this environment. (Remember when DSL was considered fast? How quickly things change in the IT world.) You may need to look to ISDN, cable or T1 for your Internet connection.

There are a ton of Hosted Exchange companies out there, and the pricing model varies depending on what service level you choose. Do your homework and choose the one that fits your needs. ■


Kevin MacArthur is owner of Secure Networks, a technology consulting firm in Centerville. He can be reached at kevin@securebiznetworks.com.


Published in Cape & Plymouth Business September 2009