Capsaicin

Christmas hours 2008

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +1300

Capsaicin will be closed for normal business from the 20th of December 2008 and will reopen 5th January 2009. We are reachable by email, but won't be attending to or responding to anything non-urgent over this period.

As always, we are available to fix anything genuinely urgent if such a need arises (such as a website outage). In this case, please email info@capsaicin.co.nz and be sure to include the word 'urgent' in the subject line. All such messages will be automatically forwarded to our mobile phones so we can respond quickly.

Have a safe and relaxing Christmas.

Harvey & the team.

Source: Christmas hours 2008

Firefox download day

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +1200

Today is FireFox 3 download day. Mozilla are trying to set a Guiness record for the most number of downloads withing a 24 hour period.

Not much more to say really - FireFox is (in my opinion) the best web browser available, and most people already using FireFox don't need any other excuses to go grab the latest copy of their favourite software.
[[firefox-download-day.tpl]]
For everyone else still using a substandard offering from Microsoft called Internet Explorer, why not have a go at running FireFox and see what all the fuss is about?

Download FireFox here.

Source: Firefox download day

Issues sending email via Xtra

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +1200

I have been asked by a number of customers recently about delays sending email, and emails bouncing. The one thing in common with all these customers was that they use Xtra for their outgoing mail.

I sent the following message to Xtra, their response may be useful if you have been experiencing these issues.

Hi,

I'm a web developer and I host a number of client mailboxes, but they
use the Xtra SMTP server for outgoing mail.

In the last couple of weeks, I have a lot of Xtra custoimers complain to
me about outgoing mail problems - because I'm not an Xtra customer
myself, I have no idea what the problems are.

Can you please let me know if there is an RSS feed or newsletter I can
subscribe to so I can point these customers in the right direction.

Also, can you please comment on the following 2 issues customers have
been reporting to me recently:

1. Outgoing emails taking 1 week plus to be delivered in some cases.
2. Messages to hotmail addresses bouncing.

Thanks,

Harvey Kane.

And here's the response...

Dear Harvey

Thank you for your email.

We do not have a newsletter or RSS feed that you are able to subscribe to for updates, unfortunately. At least, not that I am aware of. I will look into this for you as a matter of interest.

We had a bit of a problem with one of our mail servers last week on the 6th of July, where in some cases it took up to 6 or 7 days for the email to reach its final recipient. We think that we have resolved this problem, however if you still encounter delayed emails then the best way to see what caused this delay is for you to provide the header information from one of the delayed emails and send it in to us, if possible. In order to find out the header information, please follow these instructions:

If you are using Outlook Express:
Right click the message, Choose Properties, Details, and copy the information from the Internet headers box, then paste it into your reply email.

If you are using Outlook:
Right click the message, Options, and copy the information from the headers box then paste it in with your reply.

In regards to the Hotmail issue, this is separate from the delayed email issue. Hotmail have been having some problems with their mail servers lately, especially in regards to receiving emails from our Domain name customers. This was apparently resolved around about a week ago now, so you might like to try sending this address another email to see if you (or your clients) get the same bounce back reply.

If you (or they!) still receive this error message, please provide us with the following information so we can investigate this in greater detail:

Email address you are emailing from:
Email address you are trying to contact:
A copy of the bounce back message you received in its entirety.

Once we receive this information, we can then pass it on to our Broadband 'Redcoats' team who will conduct a thorough investigation as to why this is still happening. As I said though, Hotmail have advised us that everything has been fixed about a week or so ago.

For future enquiries and self-service account options you may find Xtra's online site useful at http://www.xtra.co.nz/help.

Kind regards,

Customer Care Online

Generally speaking, we only host your incoming mail, and your ISP hosts your outgoing mail. So if you are having trouble sending mail, it's usually best to contact your ISP for support in the first instance.

Source: Issues sending email via Xtra

Complicated pricing plans

Sat, 24 May 2008 00:00:00 +1200

I have recently acted on a couple of things that have been on my mind for some time. I have got myself a decent accounting package, and joined the Gym.

Actually, that's not entirely true. One of these tasks has a pricing plan so complicated I'm still deciding what option is best for me.

The accounting package

I'm now using Xero for my invoicing and accounting, and couldn't be happier. It's not cheap compared to other options, but it's got some smart people behind it, and I like the concept of having them host it and me not having to deal with upgrades. Because I pay monthly, they have a financial incentive to keep me happy, and so far, I am.

The price is $49 per month.

The gym

It's little wonder I'm still deciding what to do about the Gym. Their 12 month pre-pay price is only twice as much as the 3 month price, so there is a very ddecent discount for signing up for 12 months and prepaying. But because I'm in a rental property, I may not be here for 12 months. To break the contract involves a penalty fee, but then that might still work out cheaper than paying for 2 lots of 3 months. Because I'm not a student / pensioner / beneficiary, I can't join for 6 months. The competing gym doesn't have a paper pricelist I can take away with me, and involves sitting down with a sales consultant to work out the right package.

It's reminicent of the scene from Monty Python's meaning of life where John Cleese is explaining 'the lower peg' to the class.

Sometimes, you get the feeling that you get a selection of plans solely for the purpose that you choose the wrong one. Why can't Gyms do what Xero does and offer a fixed price per month?

It's complicated

When your pricing structure is so complicated that you need to have consultants to explain it to customers, this doesn't do great things in terms of trustworthyness.

If customers find it a piece of cake to sign up for your service, then that leaves a positive first impression. If they have to argue with a consultant about arbitary rules and then go away and think about it, this is a very poor way to start a relationship. As it stands, I'm thinking about not joining the gym just to spite them (despite the fact that I need exercise more than anyone).

I can even remember those companies I deal with that have extraordinarily simple pricing plans - I recommend these companies to people because it's easy to recommend them.

SecurePayTech (who provide payment systems for websites) - you start on the lowest plan, and if you exceed your allowance, they move you up to the next plan automatically. Awesome.
Xnet (who provide my internet) - the plan includes 0Mb of data (that's zero) and you pay $1 per Gigabyte you use - extremely reasonable.
Xero (mentioned above) - Online accounting for $49 per month. And $25 per month to add another business to your account.

Then there's the companies out to screw you - I remember these too:

Vodafone (mobile phone + internet) - charge a reasonable amount for mobile internet access, but if you go over your allowance they absolutely screw you. You are free to upgrade your data plan, but aren't allowed to downgrade.
The National Bank - Every so often I get a letter detailing the new bank fees. They never make mention of what the old fees were, so I'm left wondering, "what's changed". Obviously something has increased in price (hence the letter), but it's impossible to know without something to compare against.
The Labour government - between working for families, KiwiSaver and these artificial new tax cuts, it just seems like more ways to screw middle-high-income New Zealand at great expense to the taxpayer. It's great that the web development industry gets lots of work writing online calculator scripts for Government websites, but I think we would all prefer to pay less tax and not bother with all this complicated nonsense.

Keeping it simple

Does your business have a complicated pricing structure? Does it need it?

Source: Complicated pricing plans

Manage Bookmarks with Google Browser Sync

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:00:00 +1200

I have just spent the weekend reinstalling Windows Vista on my notebook after a disasterous attempt at installing the new service pack.

This process isn't fun, but it's times like these that Google Browser Sync really comes in handy.

Google Browser Sync

Google Browser Sync is a little add-on for the FireFox browser that syncronises your browser data with other computers. Effectively, you store all these things with Google.

Bookmarks / Favourites
Stored passwords
Stored cookies
Browsing history
The tabs you have open

Why?

In case you are wondering why any of this is a good idea, there are 2 reasons why I think this is cool.

Firstly, when your laptop crashes / gets dropped / is stolen, your bookmarks and cookies are safely stored at Google HQ - making it a whole lot easier to get Firefox back the way you like it. If anyone has previously lost bookmarks in a Windows reinstall, then this should appeal to you.

And secondly, it manages the bookmarks etc between more than one computer - if you want your bookmarks and passwords to stay the same as you roam between a home and work computer, then let Google Browser Sync deal with that for you.

I have been running this little program for almost 2 years and have been extremely happy with it. It's free, and simple to install. It only works on the Firefox web browser, so this is another reason why you should be switching.

Download Google Browser Sync.

Source: Manage Bookmarks with Google Browser Sync

Change of contact details

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +1200

Please note our contact details have changed, as of April 2008.

Phone: +649 950 4133
Mobile: +6421 811 951
Address: 165 Clark Road, Hobsonville, Auckland 0618, New Zealand.
Email: info@capsaicin.co.nz

Please update your address books accordingly.

Source: Change of contact details

What does it look like? How much does it cost?

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +1300

If you are selling products through your website, there's a good chance your visitors are wanting to know:

What does it look like?
How much does it cost?

If you can adequately answer those 2 questions, visitors are willing to forgive a great deal of other mistakes. Of course, there is more to selling online than these 2 things, but this is a great start.

Pricing

Make your pricing schemes obvious and straightforward. If you are selling something that has many different pricing options (such as software with different licences), then use tables and pictures to make the pricing clear. Customers need to be able to work out what price they need to pay, otherwise you aren't really giving them a price.

If you offer custom products or services, it may be appropriate to show some example projects with indicative prices.

If you are selling internationally, consider a range of currencies, or sticking with US dollars, which most people are familiar with.

Pictures

Pictures are hugely important for closing a sale. Often, you have to work with images that aren't ideal, but having better images than your competition can often be the only point of difference that is needed.

Use big pictures, and big thumbnails. Miserable little thumbnails do nothing to promote a great product photo. I like to use 150-200 pixels for thumbs, and 500-600 pixels for a full size photo.
"lightbox" style popups are the best way to display larger images. These are fast to load, easy on the eye, and don't get caught by popup blockers.
Make sure the images aren't stretched - this requires having source images that are a reasonable resolution.
Take good photos. You don't always need a photographer, but do take into consideration basic lighting and composition when taking a photo. If your photo comes out dark, or is shot from the wrong angle, it's hard to get the image presenting well.

This isn't easy, and that's one of the great things about it. If you can go to the trouble of getting your images looking good, then you are one-up on competing sites.

If your product website doesn't have pricing or images for each product, this makes the sales process that much harder - do you have a good reason for not including these on your site?

Source: What does it look like? How much does it cost?

5 Quick SEO checks - Is your site in good shape?

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +1300

I'm always explaining to people that having proper SEO (search engine optimisation) on your website is important. Without wanting to sound clique, the website is a marketing tool that takes a lot of time to get right. And SEO needs to be a part of that mix, whatever your business.

But how good is your SEO?

Here are 5 quick SEO checks you can make yourself to see if your webpage has at least the basics of search engine optimisation intact.

1. How good is your homepage title?

Here's how to check if your title looks good or not. Open up your homepage and look at the text at the very top of the screen, usually in a blue bar. This is your title.

The title should not start with your company name. Your company name, in most circumstances, should be at the end of the title.
The title should not be longer than 70 characters.
The first part of the title (before your company name) should be made up of phrases that you would expect people to search for. The example title above includes "PHP Web Development" because I'd like to be found for that phrase.
The title should read well to a person, and make sense. People will be clicking on your title in search results, so it needs to sound good.
If you are targeting a specific local audience, make sure you mention the location or country in the title.

If you answered yes to all of those items, then your homepage title is probably in good shape. Titles are important on every page of your site, so take the time to apply this same check to other important pages too.

2. Consistency

Start by picking the first phrase in your title, in the above example, this is "SEO".

Does this phrase appear in the first major heading on your page?
Does this phrase appear at least once in the first paragraph of body text on your page?
Does your page contain a "couple" more mentions of the phrase elsewhere in the content?
Do you use variations of the phrase in other parts of the page? A variation of "SEO" is "search engine opmimisation" or "search engine optimization".

3. www vs non-www

Here's an easy check to see if you have a duplicate content problem on your site:

Visit www.yourdomain.com
Visit yourdomain.com (note no www on this one)

Do they both work?

If yes, great. Users will be typing in both versions of your URL so you want to make sure you don't give them a nasty error message.

But the job isn't over yet. It's important that on one of these addresses, it redirects to the other. If it has been setup correctly, you should see the address bar change automatically to www.yourdomain.com when you type in yourdomain.com

To see this concept in action, try visiting capsaicin.co.nz and watch how it sends you to www.capsaicin.co.nz - this is how it should be. If your site doesn't do this, then this is a SEO problem area.

4. Nice URLs

It's now 2008, and we should all have nice URLs on our websites by now. By nice, I mean simple and logical enough to instruct someone over the phone. Or obvious enough that you could look at the address on a piece of paper and have a fair idea as to what you might find on the page.

www.capsaicin.co.nz/web-development/

Above: Pretty obvious as to what you might expect to find on this page right?

www.facebook.com/b.php?k=100000010&n=-1&rl=4&o=4

Above: Impossible to tell what the page is about, and not at all easy to explain over the phone.

Homepages don't usually suffer from this problem, but your important subpages might. Look through your important subpages that you want to be found by search engines and ask yourself honestly if the addresses are easy to say, and are logical.

If they are, great.

5. Tracking and monitoring

If you have to phone up your web developer and ask for the password to your web stats package (or have to ask if you even have one) then you have failed this check already.

Part of running a website is understanding how it is being used, whether your marketing spend is paying off, and looking for ways to improve it's performance. This is especially important if you are spending money each month with Google Adwords.

Google Analytics is a free website statistics package - it's free, and the detail available is great for business owners and experienced marketers alike. Every website should have a statistics package of this level installed, and should be checking it regularly.

It is almost impossible to run a successful website on autopilot. The owners, developers, and marketers need to be keeping an eye on the key metrics, and then testing, tweaking and adjusting to continue the improvements.

How did you do?

These are just the basics. If your site isn't getting most of these right, then it's likely there are other problem areas that have also been missed.

Let's get it fixed.

Capsaicin offer professional SEO reports starting from $200.

Source: 5 Quick SEO checks - Is your site in good shape?