Google Adwords - gosh

I've just set up a Google Adwords standard account. I'm stunned. Now I kind of begin to understand where all those money Google makes come from. Gosh.

The joy of being a father

Flawless :-)

Online Automatic Update - how ?

Have you ever thought to use a versionig system (SVN for example) to build an automatic online update mechanism ? NO ? Think again. It will work. I don't know the alternatives, I haven't look at any, but it works for me as follows:

You must pay a little little extra attention not to get conflicts (or if you get them, to overwrite them, here you must make sure you NEVER commit user settings related files) and split the update into two parts:

• a "phisical" update mechanism (as oposed to logical) - phisical updates are where the versioning system will do all the job for you, updating files that changed and were commited by you to the update server and
• a "logical" update mechanism (e.g. database updates at software startup, after phisical updates took place)

If you have a pretty complex folder structure and want to update only what changed, SVN (or another versioning system for that matter) will do a damn good job. Some will say it's a huge hammer for a small nail but hey ? Do you want to do it right or you want to innovate a little and go into production with something that really works ?

Adaptiv software - web traffic analysis and SEO

Q1. How many of you have online websites (be it corporate/presentation site or online business, e-commerce) ? Alright, I see you.

Q2. Now, how many of you do know the number of visits you've had yesterday (or last month, for that matter), what search engine they came from, even more, from what site referring your site they came from, how many of them were new and how many of them were coming back, and what country/city did they come from ? OK, I see you too.

The current post is dedicated to the guys who raised the hands in response to the second question. Anyway, if you're not in that category, please don't go away, it means you have some experience is web traffic analysis, eventually SEO (if you've done one is highly probable you've done the other one, eventually with an expert) and you can complete the post with useful info (only if interested, of course :-) )

So, as I said, as we've launched our web site, http://www.adaptiv.ro we instantly became interested in the following 2 topics:

- Web traffic analysis and assessment - With a simple script or snippet of JavaScript or JavaScript + HTML you embed in each of your pages you'll get to know, for free, a LOT of useful information about your site. You'll know how many visitors you had, where did they come from (other site or search engine), what geographical zone are they, what keywords did they use to get to you etc. This is terribly useful information to have if you really want to know where do you stand in the virtual world.

So, here is what the StatCounter.com guys have to give you for free (for a limited traffic but if you get bigger traffic than what they give for free I am sure you can afford to pay) and you have the option do that TRANSPARENTLY, you don't put your logo on your site if you don't want. I'm using them and here's several samples of what you get for free, and in real time (immediately after the hit on your site, you'll have it reported into your StatCounter account):

- A Summary, will show you how many hits(page loads), unique visitors and returning visitors you had per day, in a selectable interval
- Popular pages, which pages of your site are most visited
- Came from, your visitors, where did they come from ?
- Visitor paths
- Keyword analysis, what keywords did they searched and got to you
- Country/State/City/ISP - Geographical / ISP information
- AND many others, go check them out !

Also, there is Google Analytics which also contains traffic analysis, but it also has a lot of tools and reports that allow you to assess also your online business performance, including integration with Google's AddWords and other useful stuff that I'm struggling to understand at the time of this post :-)) . From what I see right now, Google Analytics is a excellent looking and performing tool. It's not real time though, but that's not exactly a problem. You can assess tomorrow, today's traffic :-D.

Adaptiv Software web site is tracked with both StatCounter and Google Analytics for purposes of testing and getting familiar with these notions. What we have left to do is to figure out how to bring more traffic to our site. Isn't it ? :-)

- SEO meaning Search Engine Optimization - how do you build your website and what content do you put into it so that it is search engine friendly ? Oh yes, the term exists and it is a VERY powerful notion, as it can decide if you get 100.000 visitors coming from Google searches or you get 1000 visitors from there.

Now I'm sure you'll get TONS of SEO articles and techniques, TONS of software programs and consultancies who'll do that for you. But if you're interested, and being given that Google is the most used search engine out there, you'll want to go and see what they have to say.

I know there are lots of SEO resources and tools out there, I'm just giving a start point.

Also visit Google Webmaster Central and Google Webmaster Tools for a wider range of information in this area.

Now, take a look at Statcounter (excellent for basic + medium needs) and to Google Analysis (more advanced notions) and see what happens :-)

Facturi si Avize de Insotire a Marfii Gratis - de ce

Facturi Gratis este primul produs propriu lansat de Adaptiv Software, asa ca m-am gandit sa scriu putin despre el.

Facturi Gratis este o incercare (prima si in mod sigur nu ultima, indiferent de rezultatul demersului) a echipei Adaptiv Software de a iesi din tiparul "banu' jos ochii la usa" (vorba vine de a iesi, ca nu am fost niciodata inscrisi intr-un asemenea tipar, mai degraba de a demonstra ca se poate si altfel). In cazul Facturi Gratis, Adaptiv Software incearca sa foloseasca un alt tip de gandire si anume: Noi oferim un produs pe care dumneavoastra il folositi gratis, pe perioada nelimitata, indiferent pe cate calculatoare il instalati sau cati utilizatori al acestuia vor fi. Tot pe perioada nelimitata, clientul beneficiaza de actualizari si bug fixing, si aici intervine o aparenta "problema" si anume clientul se poate intreba pe buna dreptate:

"Cine imi garanteaza ca daca produsul crapa astia mi-l repara in timp util ?" Raspunsul formal este nemeni (revin imediat ca nu-i asa de simplu :-D ). Sau "Ma va despagubi Adaptiv Software daca eu sau firma la care lucrez sau pe care o administrez sufera orice fel de prejudicii in urma utilizarii produsului ?" Raspunsul este dat de licenta de utilizare a produsului : "Nu". Si urmatorul lucru care ii trece prin cap cititorului sau clientului : "Astia sunt sau fraieri, sau ne cred pe noi fraieri si incearca sa ne faca !"

O sa incerc sa explic ulterior care este in mare strategia noastra:

1.) Oferim un produs de calitate pentru a nu rani reputatia firmei. Calitatile acestuia vor deveni evidente pentru utilizatori pe parcursul utilizarii. Prin urmare nu avem absolut nici un interes in a oferi un produs de calitate proasta, deoarece, in cazul acesta pe langa ca ne-am pierdut timpul dezvoltandu-l, ne mai stricam imaginea ca si ofertant de produse si servicii software.

2.) Ceea ce noi urmarim prin acest demers este obtinerea de vizibilitate si credibilitate. Ceea ce spunem noi este: "Noi dezvoltam acest produs, il facem cat de bine putem, il actualizam cat mai des cu putiinta, este gratis deci puteti sa-l descarcati si sa-l folositi imediat, este usor de instalat si utilizat deci o sa va dati seama de ceea ce poate in foarte scurt timp. Daca sunteti satisfacut de produs si stiti cine l-a dezvoltat, atunci veti sti unde sa va indreptati in viitor pentru un produs de cel putin aceeasi calitate."

3.) Licenta de utilizare este atat de "zgarcita" cu garantiile pe care le ofera Adaptiv Software in legatura cu Facturi Gratis in principal pentru a feri firma Adaptiv Software de orice tentative de prejudiciere cu care s-ar putea confrunta in urma demersului de a oferi gratis acest produs. Riscul pe care vi-l asumati este minim: In cazul in care nu agreeati produsul, pur si simplu nu il utilizati. De asemenea in urma cresterii numarului de utilizatori a produsului, suntem constienti de faptul ca probabil ne vom afla in imposibilitatea de a satisface cerintele tuturor utilizatorilor programului, gratis. Ceea ce face momentan Facturi Gratis este sa satisfaca un set de cerinte de baza a unei majoritati a clientilor. Cu ajutorul dvs, al clientilor, noi speram sa crestem aceasta majoritate si in acelasi timp sa crestem si dimensiunea setului de cerinte satisfacut de Facturi Gratis.

4.) In cazul in care doriti un alt nivel de suport pentru produs, training sau un alt set de facilitati, eventual modificari la Facturi Gratis, care nu sunt incluse in planurile de dezvoltare pe viitor ale produsului, va rugam sa ne contactati pentru a ne da detalii.

5.) Dorim sa cream in jurul Facturi Gratis o comunitate de utilizatori si aceasta comunitate sa participe activ la imbunatatirea / extinderea produsului prin sugestii, evidentierea eventualelor probleme, cereri de facilitati noi.

Cam lung, in urmatoarele blog entry-uri o sa incerc sa detaliez o serie de facilitati si avantaje ale Facturi Gratis.

Lansare in sfarsit ! - http://www.adaptiv.ro

In sfarsit, am lansat site-ul firmei Adaptiv Software (firma proprie).

http://www.adaptiv.ro

Cu multa, multa muuulta intarziere (am muncit mult sa aducem in stadiu beta primul soft oficial lansat de Adaptiv Software si anume 'Facturi Gratis' ) dar important este ca suntem up & running.

Cat despre Facturi Gratis, in cateva cuvinte, este un program pentru emiterea / tiparirea facturilor si avizelor de insotire a marfii, personalizabile la limita inferioara acum (se poate specifica doar sigla care vreti sa apara pe factura), dar printr-un mecanism destept de templating si autodetectie a template-urilor, impreuna cu facilitatea de automatic update speram sa facem disponibile curand cateva modele noi de facturi, pe langa cel 'Classic' care este disponibil acum. De asemenea, pe langa facilitatea de tiparire facturi, Facturi Gratis mai ofera si posibilitatea de administrare (minimala) a listei de produse si servicii, clienti, angajati, definire serii facturi noi etc.

Sfatul nostru : Descarca si Incearca. Pagina 'Intro' contine cateva filmulete flash care tin loc de cateva pagini bune de help. Si sectiunea de help va fi extinsa in functie de cerintele utilizatorilor.

SI nu uitati : Facturi Gratis este ... GRATIS.

Multumiri cat casa echipei TEA COMMUNICATIONS pentru tot ajutorul si munca depusa in realizarea site-ului. Ei sunt in totalitate "responsabili" de identitatea vizuala a firmei Adaptiv Software. Ei sunt partenerii strategici ai Adaptiv Software pe tot ce inseamna "vizual".

De asemenea multumiri pentru ajutor echipei Mediatic pentru munca depusa, si inca mai mult pentru ideile destepte cu care au venit de fiecare data.

Concluzia: vizitati-ne si hotarati daca va putem fi de folos in vre-un fel sau nu :-)