Web Analytics Usability Testing Software » Usability testing

Xtractor Demo Del 2 – SEO Tool

Nick Kurentz — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:14:37 +0000

Xtractor is a SEO tool with webanalysis, statisics, custom reports, KPI monitoring, ROI reporting, usability testing, digital visability and much more. SEO made easy and quantified. Created by Online Services

Office of Services for Students with Disabilities

Nick Kurentz — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:24:08 +0000

St. Petersburg College recognizes the importance of equal access for all students. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the College and its Office of Services for Students with Disabilities seeks to ensure that admission, academic programs, support services, student activities, and campus facilities are accessible to and usable by students who document a qualifying disability with the College. Reasonable accommodations are …

Shaking things up in 2010

Nick Kurentz — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:09:40 +0000

We all know 2009 was a tough year – but at mygoodpoints we actually came out alright. It was in early January of this year that we made our debut as a company, negotiating those first unsteady steps before landing in Ireland’s nonprofit community.

Then, in April 2009, we battled through Vodaphone’s dragon’s den-style competition to secure a position and funding on their World of Difference Initiative. Quite a blessing and we counted it.

By May, we had closed a deal with Microsoft for free software and secured support from KPMG, whose sterling work helped us achieve charity status with the Revenue Commissioners (a CHY number) in under three months – an amazing turn-around! – making us the first online charity in Ireland. Leveraging our new charity status we were in September then able to garner half a million Euros worth of free ad words and staff volunteer support from Google Ireland.

Meanwhile, Digital Trading and Cream Graphics armed us with engineers and graphic designers to build our first version of the platform. Finally we closed the year by winning a place on a new programme from NDRC (National Digital Research Centre) with investment into our usability testing in 2010. (They also provided office space!)

All in all in 2009, we garnered somewhere around 1 million Euros in support, services and professional volunteer time.

www.mygoodpoints.org – let’s launch it

We expect our website to launch in the Spring of 2010. Mygoodpoints will provide consumers with an online account or wallet where they can gather all their unused loyalty points and value and donate these directly as cash to support the charity projects of their choice, at home and overseas. Following this, members receive feedback directly from the field, letting them see the real and direct difference their donations are making in people’s lives. Watch this space.

Right now we’re completing the build on our platform and putting the website through some usability testing (i.e., we’re figuring out whether users will like it). Let it be known that we’re looking to our growing community of supporters (that’s you!) to act as guinea pigs and tell us what about the site works, and what could be better. So if you free to help do give us a shout and we’ll put you to work!

Dublin to New York

Later this month, the team branches out from Ireland to conquer new territory in the United States. Killian will be on the hunt for more funding in New York while also following up on contacts he made there in 2009, including movers-and-shakers from the Clinton Global Initiative, the Jeffery Sachs-led Millennium Promise and DonorsChoose.org. In particular DonorsChoose.org have been great providing us with mentorship, support and even office space in New York, for which we are ever grateful! Do check them out, they are super!

For the second time in three months, Killian will meet with his contacts at the Rockefeller Foundation, the iconic philanthropy organization known for supporting terrific start-ups and businesses in all corners of the world. Fingers crossed we can inspire them to get onboard and help fund mygoodpoints in 2010 and beyond!

Closer to home, we’ll pursue new funding opportunities, including the new Arthur Guinness Fund, which continues the philanthropic legacy of the Guinness family supporting Irish social entrepreneurs. We have managed to get shortlisted by the Fund, and we’re counting the days until January 19, when we go forward to the next round of the competition. Stay tuned…

2010 – in it to win

All in all some great progress in 2009 but as Killian likes to say, this is a 50-round boxing match – and we’re only halfway through the very first round. Plus, we haven’t yet helped to alleviate poverty or fund a single charity project and until that starts we really will have achieved nothing. We still have a lot to do.

So yes 2010. Yeah. Bring it on…

What business goals do you have for 2010? Send us your comments!

SEO Pricing Comparision

Nick Kurentz — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:01:44 +0000

Search Engine Optimization Pricing Comparison

What should an SEO charge to get a client’s website to perform in Google.

What is meant by “perform in Google search results“?

Below are published examples of established SEO firms who post their price lists online (needless to say we linked back to the original source) I charge something similar to the example below. I’m often mystified by clients who have been counseled to pay for Google Adwords by web designers who do not have the clients best interests in mind: they wanna get paid for the website and suggesting that “all you need to do is buy adwords and…”.

Well Adwords ARE a good solution for *SOME* websites and *SOME* industries, for example IF you sold a product or service to other business owners (B2B or Business To Business), then Adwords could work out to your advantage… but if you were a doctor or a therapist or a divorce counselor…

Your prospective clients *could* shy away from your “sponsored links”, certain industries do not do well if the target audience is jaded against advertising. Those industries would fare much better if they were *magically found* in Google Organic Search Results

SEO Pricing

Search engine optimization is an investment that can continue to grow long after the project is complete. Generally speaking; natural “organic” rankings provide much more traffic than sponsored paid listings (some estimates say 3 to 1). In terms of your return on investment; that makes SEO very attractive. With the influx of new traffic, SEO should more than pay for itself in terms of increased leads and sales.

Primary Tasks in SEO

Research & Consulting
We perform a site performance audit; reporting your current ranks as well as those of your competitors. We then document our findings; giving you a solid plan of action for the SEO project.

Keyword & Competitor Research
We use a number of sources to develop a select and recommended series of keywords for your website. We provide you with a report showing current popularity for your industry keywords and their respective competitive value.

On Site SEO
Since your website is the one aspect of SEO where you have total control; we don’t miss any opportunities to make certain your site will perform well in search engines. We have developed our own proprietary formulas we use to optimize your site from the ground up: content, meta data, link integrity, site structure, image tags, titles and more. We prepare and submit a Google site map for your site.

Off Site SEO
Off site SEO refers to the factor that has the most influence over your ranking: linking. We use ethical, search engine compliant methods to obtain quality inbound links for your site. Directory and search engine submissions as well as industry verticals are excellent methods for obtaining quality links.

Reporting & Maintenance
Each month we document your rankings and inbound links

Additional SEO services
Blog creation and writing, Social Media Advertising, Press Release Distribution, Article writing & distribution, Paid inclusion, Search engine feeds, Landing page optimization & copywriting, RSS feeds

Services	Business Plan	Corporate Plan	MaxTraffic Plan
Baseline Reporting Using in-depth reporting technologies we provide a clear picture of your current organic rankings in the search engines. This includes positions on search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN. We also determine your current link popularity and search engine saturation. This report is used as a comparison tool to measure the effectiveness of our efforts and to gain insight about your existing search engine visability.

Steam Weekend: Football Manager 2009 [Deal Out of Date]

Nick Kurentz — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:24:51 +0000

and player data, featuring over 5000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database. Widescreen Support — As a result of usability testing on Football Manager™ 2008, this year sees widescreen support for the game for the first time, as well as lots of tweaks to the user interface for easier navigation. … Steam Weekend: Football Manager 2009 50% off! Valve Videos Sports Simulation …