We’re proud to announce the release of the Greensboro Housing Authority redesign!  As always, Beacon was right on-time with our deliverables, which is always our goal.  The client chose a soft launch date of December 1, 2011 because they wanted to show the new site to their Board of Directors at their annual meeting that day.

Their Web site was designed and constructed in-house several years ago, which meant that it was time for a completely new look.  The site also had content that was very out-of-date, so the client took it upon themselves to do a complete rewrite of the content, and restructure the site to be more intuitive.  Also, they wanted to get away from having to update the site by-hand using HTML, and wanted it in a content management system.  Finally, they wanted a new Web hosting partner.

Enter Beacon:

• We provided them with a brand-new graphical design;
• Developed it to display perfectly in multiple browsers;
• Implemented the new site into Cascade Server (content management system) to allow multiple users to update the content with an easy-to-use solution;
• Incorporated a new search feature;
• Imported approximately 60 pages of content, including 20 fact sheets about each of their properties;
• Transferred their Web site to a shared hosting package here at Beacon.

Several Beacon staff members made this project a success:

• Wendy:  Without much direction from the client, Wendy put together a design that they liked on the first try, which is phenomenal.
• Stephanie:  She was instrumental in getting the project off the ground, attending the initial meetings and providing meeting notes, the business requirements, and proposed site hierarchy.
• Zed:  He was thrown into the fire, as this was his first development project here.  He developed the front-end HTML/CSS/jQuery, and implemented the site into Cascade Server (which he picked up on very quickly), and entered most of the content.
• Tiffany:  Provided assistance and training to Zed.
• Justin:  Project Management and Cascade Server documentation & training.
• Beacon’s Technical Support Group (TSG):  And finally, no site hosting transfer is complete without the efforts of TSG, specifically Caleb and William, for setting up the hosting and troubleshooting some DNS issues over a weekend.

This is another high-quality design to add to our portfolio, and another non-profit site we can be proud of.   Thanks to everyone involved!

Before

After

The past three months has been filled with its ups and downs its twists and turns but we as a collective team persevered through it. “Why”? You must be thinking. It started back in June when I was given the assignment to take on the internal project of moving the company from multiple internal independent systems to one fully integrated platform, ConnectWise, to stream line our internal processes and hopefully make us just a little better then we already are.

ConnectWise is to house our client base, manage service requests, drive sales and marketing objectives, and of course, facilitate time reporting and billing. I must say this was not going to be a small task. I started out learning all I could about this new system through on-line courses and watching many, many helpful videos. This was all that was available at the time, for the system had not been installed on our servers yet so no hands on training. Once we had ConnectWise loaded on the servers, I was able to get into all the different components and start getting a feel for the system. Next it was time to put in place what I had taken in from all those hours of on-line courses.

So July is here and we have assigned a project team and an initial plan of attack along with an aggressive deadline of September 1^st to go live.  Being a small company, it was critical that we migrate quickly, but smartly in order to minimize administrative time and duplication of work in two systems.  The first thing that needed to happen was the initial set up of ConnectWise – the parameters and business rules specifically for Beacon’s needs. This entailed several meetings with department heads to determine what their current and future needs would be and ensure ConnectWise could fulfill the requirements. Meetings with the financial team were also essential to make sure all accounting and billing processes were being handled, and ensure we were headed in the right direction.  This may sound straight forward here, but trust me; it required many meetings and discussions about internal processes – whether to keep 13-year old business process in place – or possibly modify some of them to make things simpler.  Once the plan was complete and the management team was satisfied with the direction, it was time to make it happen.  First step - loading our customer base, followed by setting up the agreements for all of our existing clients to ensure proper billing (and templates for the future!) – which took us into August to get accomplished.

Now it’s August.  Launch date is looming close.  Testing time… especially now that we have some true testing now that we have some actual data to test with.  We expected multiple cycles and most everything tested out to be as we intended; however, as expected, some minor adjustments were required before management approved the system as production ready.  Thankfully, we just had minor issues and more importantly, they were discovered prior to going live - but still, a painful and stressful step with such a tight time frame.  With dedication, lots of support and total company buy-in, the light at the end of the tunnel became brighter week after week. 

September is a week away and we need to get the Beacon Team up to speed on how to use ConnectWise. So onward we roll down the valleys and around the turns of the path laid before us to get each member transitioned, depending on their department and responsibilities. I must stop and say that when you work with a great team, it shows during major business changes like this.

Fast forward to today, November 11, with two billing cycles behind us, I feel comfortable in bragging on a job well done by our entire team.  As with everything here at Beacon, it’s all about the team.  Yeah, I was tasked with overseeing the project and bringing all the pieces together, but I couldn’t have done it alone.  One of the biggest challenges I faced during this project was not having any prior knowledge as to how Beacon operated on a daily bases for you see I just started with Beacon in June and this was my very first assignment. So not only did I have the critical task of consolidating the company under one integrated system, but I had no previous knowledge of how the company operated or even used the variety of individual systems that were eliminated with this transition.  Maybe that was all part of the master plan !   As usual, I jumped in with both feet, rolled up my sleeves and accepted the challenge.  I have learned over the years that you can’t hit a target if you are not swinging at one.

Here at Beacon, we strive to make our clients and prospective clients feel like we are here to help. We want everyone to feel like we are all part of the same team and we all are working towards the same goal. We know that Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, and Web Development are areas of expertise that might generate a lot of questions for anyone not familiar in them and because of this we want to open up a line of communication for YOU to ask US questions. So if there is something you don’t understand or want better clarity about, now’s your chance to ask us!

To Enter a Question:

1. Send us a tweet using @BeaconTec
2. Make sure to include #AskBT in your tweet. This way everyone can see the questions being asked.

Answered Question: 

Answers to more in depth questions will be posted on the blog. Some answers might be in the form of a video while others are written out.  Any simple answers to questions will be posted on twitter. For answers posted on the blog, a tweet will be sent out notifying participants that a question has been answered.

Rules and Regulations:

*Beacon reserves the right to only answer questions we feel appropriate for the subject matters listed above.

*Profanity and slander are prohibited.

*Participants can submit more than 1 question but Beacon cannot guarantee that each question will be answered.

Well sadly, this is my last blog post at Beacon.  It’s been a great 10 weeks.  I really have enjoyed my time here.  Looking back, I can’t think of anything negative to say about my experience.  I want to take the chance to kind of do a recap of my time here.

When I came in the first day, I will admit that I was pretty nervous.  I hadn’t really had a lot of exposure to the kind of work that Beacon does so well.  I knew what most of the terms were from talking to a friend of mine who has been doing similar work.  However, the WMS team here helped me learn the skills I needed.  Everyone took time to show me how to do certain tasks and helped me with understanding the clients I worked on as well as what needed to be done for each client.  As the weeks have gone by, I have grown more confident in doing SEO work, managing social media campaigns, and working with PPC campaigns.  I know that I still have a lot to learn in these areas, but Beacon has given me a strong foundation on which to build.

I know that people traditionally think of internships as being filled with a lot of grunt work.  Getting coffee, running errands, doing tasks that no one else wants to do themselves.  That is far from the case here at Beacon.  As you can tell if you have been following my blog posts thus far, I have been an equal member of the WMS team.  I have shared the same responsibilities as everyone else.  I’ve done the same tasks for my clients as they did for their clients.  Often times, interns don’t get to offer advice and feedback during meetings as it is intended that they learn by watching.  Again, this is not the case at Beacon.  The WMS team meets weekly to brainstorm ideas for clients as well as share interesting articles or other helpful information and tools.  The leading of the meetings rotates each week and regardless of the fact that I am an intern, I led the meeting twice during my time here.  I also contributed equally with the team as much as possible.  I will admit that I often did sit back and listen during meetings.  I know that I do not have nearly the amount of knowledge or experience in this field, and as such I wanted to try to learn as much as possible when everyone was together sharing ideas.

Looking back, I have gained a lot of valuable experience.  There are several tasks and projects that I was able to work on and contribute to during the 10 weeks.  I can honestly say that anyone who is looking for an internship should consider Beacon.  The atmosphere, company culture, and employees all lend themselves to a great work environment.

Thank you to everyone here!  It’s been a great experience and I have learned a lot from you all.

I want to use this first entry to give you a quick introduction of myself. I want you to feel like you’ve known me for a while when you read my postings. I also want to develop what I like to call a “web relationship” with you. What I mean by “web relationship” is that I want you to enjoy reading what I have to say and hopefully continue to come back! I also hope not only will you just read what I’m posting but share it with others too and especially comment and give me your thoughts!

Career Past: Before coming on board at Beacon, I worked for a Top 100 Internet Retailer as a web marketing specialist. While there I was responsible for social media, email content, banner ads, certain IT responsibilities related to the Oracle software we were using (i.e. SQL, Product Data, Server Management), Sales for Categories/Affiliate Stores, Managed a few Paid Advertising Accounts (i.e. Working with the client to get banners onto the homepage, posting hot deals, getting them into emails, etc.), and the list could go on but I will just sum it up by saying Marketing on the web portal of this company. Now I know you’re wondering what made me leave this big company. Well let’s just leave it at personal reasons and a determination to find a company that would foster growth and continual learning.

Career Present: Obviously, I am now a Web Marketing Analyst for Beacon and thoroughly look forward to all the great things I will learn and accomplish here. I’ve been here for a week now and solely focused on becoming well acclimated to GA as well as starting to get to know the clients I will be managing. While I had basic knowledge of GA and what you could learn from it, I had no idea how much information could be gained and the depth of it. There is an overabundance of information that can be gained if you just spend the time to look into the different reports. Not to mention, I love that you can set up “goals” and have them tracked to see if people are accomplishing what you want them to on your site. Coming in I had basic knowledge of SEO but now I’m seeing it’s a world within itself and can be a little overwhelming. I feel like this is an area I need to spend a little time on so I can have a better grasp of it. I know a lot goes into getting websites ranked higher but I had no idea there were so many ways to do it. With all that said, I am looking forward to this new chapter in my career and hoping it’s a long standing one with Beacon!

Personal Background: While I don’t want to give away too much information here I do want to share with you who Ashley is. I was born and raised in from Oldsmar, FL but moved to Greensboro, NC at the start of high school. I graduated from UNCG with a Business Degree and concentration in Marketing. I’ve spent most of my working years in the furniture industry but after graduating switched career paths and began doing Web Marketing. Apart from working, I am the mother to a wonderful 9 year old boy whom I spend most of my time with. We live in the country on a horse farm and spend a lot of time just doing farm chores. I have 3 of my own personal horses, I board a friend’s horse, and I also train horses when time allows. Along with horseback riding, I also love traveling, riding 4 wheelers, wakeboarding, spending time with family, and hanging out with friends.

So there is a little bit of information on myself. I’m very excited about beginning a career here at Beacon and look forward to everything it has in store for me! TTYS

Lots of <3,

Ashley

As a developer, I demand good response time from the workstation I am using.  Back in the days of dial-up internet connections and the average machine possessing less than a quarter-gig of RAM, when your system stalled–you pretty much just dealt with it and sat patiently.  Today, this isn’t so much the case, or at least it shouldn’t be.  I still sit down on occasion to a desktop computer that seems to drag before pulling up a browser or explorer window.  I’m really not into deep modifications of the OS or registry tweaks, however, there are a few routine tasks I always go through when I optimize my machine.  There are two sides to the speed and efficiency of the computer, the user and the machine itself. Both of which can have changes made for improvement.  The user, dynamic in its demand towards the machine, ought to carry the mentality that the computer is a tool—and that sharp tools cut better than dull ones.  The following tips and modifications are discussed with relevance to the Windows OS environment, however there are Unix and Mac equivalents for most.

THE COMPUTER:

1.) Disable uncommonly used programs at startup to maximize system resources and response time.  It drives me nuts when I get on a machine that has a billion icons in the taskbar beside the system clock and it is very unlikely that even half of them are used in a single session.  AIM, Skype, Yahoo and other messengers, anti-virus applications and scanners (NOT firewalls), desktop and user enhancement applications, application and driver managers… These are all pulling on your memory and your CPU usage at some level or degree and in excess can rob you of speed.

How To:
a. Click Start, Run, and type: MSCONFIG

b. Remove services from starting up by clicking the Services tab on the System Configuration window.  Clicking on the checkbox to hide Windows services really narrows down the list and will list services that aren’t so crucial to your OS.  If there are components you can do without in the Windows Services list, the option is there to disable them.

Note: There is potential to remove functionality from your PC if you go disabling the wrong features–so it is important to know exactly what your working with before you go clicking (May Google guide you…).  For example, Synaptic is a common listing in the Startup list for laptops that use a touchpad.  You probably wouldn’t want this disabled.

c. On the startup tab, there is a list of all the applications that windows initializes for you when you boot up and log on.  My general rule of thumb, unless I use it EVERY time I turn the computer on–keep it off.

Note: When using an out of the box Dell or HP, you are likely running all kinds of background bulkware and services that the manufacturer loads onto the machine.  Whether you use it or not may take personal consideration with relevance to your needs.  I almost always have to go through this after buying a new system.

2.) Combine related software with more integrated software.  Rather than running 3 different messengers within three different processes you can find a variety of different multi-client applications to handle all your messaging needs.

3.) Windows does not necessarily provide the best developer environment.  There are however, plenty of applications and software out there to compensate.  Below are a few that I have made repeated use of and are the only programs I have running when I log in (aside from driver-related programs).

a. RocketDock : This is an application launcher which replicates that of the Mac.  The auto-hide and many other features make it a good way to organize and manage programs and shortcuts.   This program can be configured to use lower memory and beats the heck out of fumbling through the start menu.
Link:  http://rocketdock.com

b. Sizer : This taskbar tool helps you quickly resize windows and provides a tooltip box on windows when resizing.  I had to switch my monitor resolution back and forth in the past for smaller resolutions when debugging web pages.  This got rid of that hassle.
Link:  www.brianapps.net/sizer

c. Stick :  This application has a variety of uses.  Its core function is to allow the user to add tabs to the sides of the desktop screen for easy access.  There are many different tab types and tab uses that you can integrate with this:

i.    Text editor or Clipboard
ii.    News Feed
iii.    Interactive Calendar
iv.    Web browser tabs
v.    In-tab Explorer Window
Link: http://www.iwonderdesigns.com/stick/

THE USER:

1.)    Close programs when they are not in use.  This not only stops the program from taking system resources, but reduces window tabbing and searching.  Even with the introduction of the window preview on the taskbar in Windows 7, a hundred explorer or browser windows is still unmanageable in my book.

2.)    Reserve the desktop for current projects, materials, and resources.   Again, this reduces the need to search and find things you’ve already started on.  Its easiest to clear off the desktop as projects become completed and then I keep an archive in my user directory.

3.)    Remember to maintain structure with your directories and files.  Navigating, searching and finding already archived files takes less time if the directory setup is well-organized and sensible.

4.)    Learn to use the task manager and resource monitor.  This will allow you to easily identify what programs are misbehaving and to diagnose and fix the issue yourself.  Accessing the task manager and ending an erratic application is much faster than letting the machine lock up and allowing it to attempt to resolve the issue itself.

5.)    Learn system shortcuts that apply to the way you use the computer.  I try to keep my hand off the mouse as much as possible.  I feel that GUIs and navigating around windows and interfaces are slower than simply instructing the machine what to do with the flick of a few keys.

• Change between windows  : ALT+TAB  (Visual: WINDOWS+TAB in Windows 7)
• Minimize All / Show Desktop:  WINDOWS KEY + M
• Position window left/right (Windows 7) : WINDOWS KEY + LEFT ARROW or RIGHT ARROW
• Minimize Window (Windows 7) : WINDOWS KEY + DOWN
• Maximize Window (Windows 7) : WINDOWS KEY + UP
• Tabbing : Most windows have something called a “tab index”.  Rather than clicking around, you can quickly get to text boxes, links, and buttons by tapping the Tab key until you get a highlight over the object you want to interact with.
• Close Window : ALT+F4
• Wide-Spread Program Shortcuts:

• Copy : CTRL+C
• Cut : CTRL+X
• Paste : CTRL+V
• Print :  CTRL+P
• Select All : CTRL+A
• Save : CTRL+S
• New : CTRL+N
• Refresh : CTRL+R or F5
• UNDO : CTRL+Z
• REDO : CTRL+Y
• Select address/location bar:
  • Explorer: F4
  • Browser: F6

6.)    Learn to use the Run box.  Here are a few keywords that I have embedded into my brain as a result of repeated use.

• cmd : This will launch the windows command line.
• msconfig : This will bring up your System Configuration window
• sysdm.cpl : This is the System Properties window.
• services.msc : Get to the services window to enable, disable, and set services up on startup
• appwiz.cpl : The add/remove programs window.
• mstsc  : Launches a remote desktop session.
• \\domain-name : Quickly launch an explorer window targeted at a location on the network.
• C:/D:/E:/etc You can type a drive letter followed by a colon to quickly get to portable media, network drives, or hard disks.
• Type in Windows Username : Will open ‘C:\Users\YourUserName’ which contains Documents, Music, Pictures, and other folders.
• Documents/Music/Pictures/Downloads/Videos : These will launch an explorer window opening the respective folder in your User directory.
• firefox/chrome/iexplore/opera/safari : Launch keywords for different browsers.

7.)    Create your own custom launch commands.  Simply make a shortcut of a file, executable, folder, webpage, or other object then cut and paste the shortcut into:

C:\Windows\system\system32

You will then be able to just press WINDOWS KEY+R and type whatever you named the shortcut to launch.  Using this technique with Batch Scripting opens up a whole world of task automation.

There are many times when you want to execute some javascript within your Dot Net page to give it that smooth client side processing without reloading the page.   One example would be when  you have a contact or registration page that needs to be edited before emailing or saving the page data.  You could accomplish this with some Dot Net validation controls, or by registering your javascript within your code behind.

If you already have some javascript that edits input fields and displays a popup box or does whatever it is  you need it to do and you want to leverage the existing work then you can also execute it from your Dot Net control.   You still want to edit the fields in your code behind in case the user has javascript turned off.  Yes there are still people that do this.   You can catch the click event with a custom validator in the code behind for this purpose and use an OnClientClick to execute the javascript edits.  Hopefully the javascript edit are executed the vast majority of the time and the code behind edits will have no impact.

Look at the example below.  Lets say you have some javascript called ‘validate’ that validates the fields on the form.  This is the work that you want to leverage in your new project. Placing this within your <head> tag would appear as so:

 function validate(theForm) {
            javascript edits here

           on err return false
           else return true
}

Now let’s look at your submit button.  In this example it is an image button.

<asp:ImageButton imageUrl=”/images/buttons/submit.gif” AlternateText=”Submit”  OnClientClick=”return validate(registrationForm)” width=”92″ height=”24″ tabindex=”12″ runat=”server” > </asp:ImageButton>

Notice the OnClientClickattribute.  This will execute your javascript validation.  Your javascript validation should return a true or false depending on whether validation passed.  The return is captured in the OnClientClick attribute and if it is false, control will not be passed to the code behind.  This will keep the Click event from firing and editing your data from within your code behind.

Now let’s suppose javascript is turned off.  We need to edit the page from the code behind.  So lets set up a custom validator below the image button as so:

<asp:customvalidator id=”registerPage” onServerValidate=”CheckPage” ErrorMessage=”" Runat=”server” ValidationGroup=”Page”></asp:customvalidator>

We will capture the Click event in our code behind with the following code:  Execute the custom validator, that will execute your code behind validation.

In another life, I was a Microsoft Office trainer and I found that quick and simple Excel tips were always a big hit in my classes, even with the Excel “experts”.  So here are a few Excel time-savers– enjoy!  BTW, I’m using Excel 2007, so though these features are (for the most-part) still available in other versions, the menu options may be different…

• Freeze panes– To “freeze” the top row of your spreadsheet so that the titles don’t scroll of the page when you move down
  1. Select the row below the row or rows that you want to keep visible when you scroll
  2. On the View tab, in the Window group, click the arrow below Freeze Panes
  3. Select “Freeze Panes”
• Open workbooks in different windows– Sometimes I need to open more than one workbook to compare the data.  This is particularly nice when you have dual monitors.  Unlike Word though, which opens a new window for every document, Excel opens every workbook in the same instance of Excel, so you can’t easily put them side by side.  Though you can use View, “Arrange All”, this is not my preference, because it squishes all the workbooks onto one small monitor.  The best solution I have found is to open Excel from the Programs menu more than once, arrange each instance in a different monitor and then use the “Open” menu in each instance to load the workbooks.
• Filter– I use filters all the time!  There’s just nothing better for locating a rogue piece of data or display just a subset of a list (just items assigned to one person in a task list, for example).  Filters can be used in combination with each other, so each additional filter added is based on the current filter.  To filter a table:
  1. Make sure that the active cell is in a table column that contains alphanumeric data
  2. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Filter
  3. Click the arrow in the column header
  4. Select or clear one or more values in the drop down box to filter by OR use the “Custom Filter” option, which allows you to filter by things like “Begins With” or “Contains”
  5. NOTE:  A cool new Excel feature is the ability to filter by cell color or font color, so you can also filter to show just the cells that have been formatted!  Select “Filter by Color” after clicking on the arrow for this feature.
• Format painter–The format painter is available in all Office products, but I particularly like it in Excel, due to the need to keep data consistently formatted.  The Format Painter copies the current cell’s formatting (fills, borders, font, etc.) to a different cell or group of cells. To use the Format Painter:
  1. Select the cell that has the formatting that you want to copy
  2. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the Format Painter icon.  NOTE:  If you will only be formatting one cell, click the icon once.  To copy the format to multiple cells, double-click the Format Painter and the tool will remain active until clicked again
  3. Click the cell(s) that you want to format
  4. To stop formatting multiple cells, press ESC or click the Format Painter icon again.
• Conditional formatting– When conditional formatting is applied to a cell, its appearance changes based on a condition or criteria.  There are many different ways to apply conditional formatting, but I find the most flexible is using a formula to determine which cells to format:
  1. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the arrow next to Conditional Formatting, and then click Manage Rules
  2. Click New Rule
  3. Under Apply Rule To, select whether to apply the rule to “Just these cells” or “All cells with the same fields” or “All cells”
  4. Under “Select a Rule Type”, click “Use a formula to determine which cells to format”
  5. Under “Edit the Rule Description”, in the “Format values where this formula is true”, enter a formula
  6. Click Format to display the “Format Cells” dialog box
  7. Select the number, font, border or fill format that you want to apply when the cell value meets the condition and then click OK.
• Automatically number rows– To fill a column with a series of numbers, the “fill handle” (black box in the bottom right corner of the selected cell; when you point to the fill handle, the pointer changes to a black cross) can be a quick and easy tool:
  1. Select the first cell in the range that you want to fill.
  2. Type the starting value for the series. Then type a value in the next cell to establish a pattern.  For example, if you want the series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…, type 1 and 2 in the first two cells. If you want the series 2, 4, 6, 8…, type 2 and 4.
  3. Select the cells that contain the starting values.
  4. Drag the fill handle across the range that you want to fill.   Note:  As you drag the fill handle across each cell, Excel displays a preview of the value that it will fill the cell with.
  5. To fill in increasing order, drag down or to the right. To fill in decreasing order, drag up or to the left.
  6. Note:  These numbers are not automatically updated when you add, move, or remove rows. You can manually update the sequential numbering by selecting two numbers that are in the right sequence, and then dragging the fill handle to the end of the numbered range.

PINES International, “The Wheatgrass People” just launched a newly developed ASPDNSF site Beacon Technologies was involved with the design, development, SEO set-up and launch.

A couple of unique features of this site:

• Customized promotion add-on that allows the client to set “volume discounts” (buy $40, get 10% off; buy $50, get 20% off; etc.) and notifies the customer on the checkout page with how much more needs to be added to meet those levels (“Buy $10 more to get 20% off!”)

• Extensive use of “topic” pages to provide customers with static content about the company, site and products

• Site search indexes topic pages as well as products

• SEO Friendly

• Client can modify entire header area of site via topic page in Admin

Great work Beacon Team!

1. The the plans and priority items that you set on the first of the year will likely differ greatly from your focuses on the last.
2. Appreciate, but don’t fall in love with your analytics tools – something better will be available next year.
3. Time on Twitter is rarely wasted – if it is important to your friends/followers, other people probably care about it too.
4. It is ALWAYS possible to further optimize a PPC campaign.
5. The only limits to testing are the limits to your own intelligence.  Okay, that is a little mean spirited, but not untrue.
6. The Blue Ocean marketing strategy doesn’t exist [for long].  There always is [or soon will be] competition for any solid plan.  You cannot hide success.
7. Complicated marketing strategies are like (old school) Christmas lights.  If done properly they can work great, but one missing item (bulb) can destroy the whole thing.
8. Remember that your clients goals are often more important than actual quantitative results.
9. Web marketing is about putting your client in the best position to succeed, but it’s not a guarantee for success.  This is actually an old marketing lesson, but it’s important to remember year in and out.
10. Not caring about New Year’s festivities (and being caught in the middle of Oklahoma) gives one a good chance at making the final 2010 post on the company blog.