Google has received some flak for the recent gmail outage yesterday. For 100 minutes gmail wasn't available to the majority of its 150 million users, myself included.
Was I upset, not really. Perhaps a little frustrated, but it's important to put things in perspective. I won't use those 100 minutes as a reason to consider 'in-sourcing' my email because to be perfectly honest, I couldn't do a better job than google at creating an email program and managing the servers associated with it.
I've worked for a number of universities in Canada all with in house email service. The IT staff did a fabulous job, but guess what: there were outages there too. No system will be 100%, and sometimes, it's better to sit back and enjoy the 100 minutes of silence than loose an hour of your life hitting the refresh button.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Keep the content flowing
Perhaps the most difficult part of maintaining a blog or even a website is keeping up a fresh supply of content. For most business owners, it's easy to understand why new content dries up so quickly. Most of us don't view our online presence as a primary revenue generator and if ever the choice is between doing some billable hours and writing a new blog article, it's usually the blog that suffers.
That being said, here are three quick tips for maintaining a steady stream of new material:
It is vitally important that you view your online presence as a core expression of your business. If the sign outside your storefront has a bulb go out, or otherwise needs repair, I'm guessing you make it happen. Potential customers will judge you by whatever you put forward, and if that happens to be an out of date website, they may make the wrong assumptions.
View your website or blog as you would any of your other marketing material. Certainly you don't hand out outdated business cards with phone numbers that don't work. Similarly you ought to avoid a website with broken links.
Set aside an appropriate amount of time to your online presence. It doesn't have to be every week. Even one hour a month will go a long ways to ensuring that your site doesn't wither. If you have nothing to write that month, then spend the time submitting to search engines, joining a social network, or finding link partners.
Do you have staff, associates, or even a peer group or business network? Find others with interesting knowledge and offer to let them cross publish their articles on your site. Give them a back link and it's a win-win. They get more exposure and your site gets more content. Visit OnTask Ergonomics for an example of the approach. They found a business partner that offered a service they previously hadn't and forged a relationship both online and off to better serve their customers.
That being said, here are three quick tips for maintaining a steady stream of new material:
Change your perspective
It is vitally important that you view your online presence as a core expression of your business. If the sign outside your storefront has a bulb go out, or otherwise needs repair, I'm guessing you make it happen. Potential customers will judge you by whatever you put forward, and if that happens to be an out of date website, they may make the wrong assumptions.
View your website or blog as you would any of your other marketing material. Certainly you don't hand out outdated business cards with phone numbers that don't work. Similarly you ought to avoid a website with broken links.
Make a Schedule
Set aside an appropriate amount of time to your online presence. It doesn't have to be every week. Even one hour a month will go a long ways to ensuring that your site doesn't wither. If you have nothing to write that month, then spend the time submitting to search engines, joining a social network, or finding link partners.
Delegate
Do you have staff, associates, or even a peer group or business network? Find others with interesting knowledge and offer to let them cross publish their articles on your site. Give them a back link and it's a win-win. They get more exposure and your site gets more content. Visit OnTask Ergonomics for an example of the approach. They found a business partner that offered a service they previously hadn't and forged a relationship both online and off to better serve their customers.
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