News and Articles from Hyperlink

March 2011

Hello and welcome! It was a bit of a shock to discover that two months of the year has already slipped by and that it's now March. Pretty soon we'll feel that slight autumnal chill in the evening air with the heavy weight of winter leaning upon it.

Most people I talk to refer to the tough economic times and the prevailing uncertainty. I'm of the opinion that we've all just got to knuckle under and get on with it. The best antidote to uncertainty is planning. The plans that we need now are not the ones that served us well when times were good. The road we're travelling on now and the obstacles on it are different. I suppose it's all about driving to the conditions!

In this newsletter:

• Canterbury Earthquake
• How can we prepare for a disaster
• messageMaker -it's out there
• surveyMaker - progress to date
• checkOut - a simple, down to earth shopping cart
• Fixing and investigating bugs
• Time to check your website's performance?

Canterbury Earthquake

It's now a couple of weeks since the latest Canterbury Earthquake. Like you, I've been overwhelmed by the loss of life and devastation that's occurred. It tells us that as much as we think we control the world in which we live, we're just a part of it and are subject to laws that govern it.

Just like you, I've been thinking of ways in which I can contribute to the welfare of those who have been affected. I've decided that for every new job I receive I'll donate $100 to the United Fire Brigades Association Benevolent Fund (www.ufba.org.nz).

This fund was set up after the first Canterbury earthquake on 4 September to support firefighters and their families who had been affected. After this latest earthquake we know that about 40% of Christchurch area firefighters' homes have been destroyed or suffered severe damage. I'll continue to make this donation until the end of the year.

How can we prepare for a disaster

As business managers and owners it's important we think about what we should do in the case of a similar event. One thing that I've done for a number of years is to not only back up my data, but to have a copy of it safe at another location. This isn't expensive, you just need two portable hard drives that you rotate weekly. The hard drive that you have at work does daily backup and then each week replace it with the one you have safely stored off-site.

Hard drives are brilliant, much better than tape backups because you can immediately access the data just by plugging them into laptop or computer. For many businesses, your data is your business and without it you may as well be starting out again.

In relation to business continuity and succession I'd like to introduce you to Robbie Schnieder, from Succession First. While Robbie is not in the business of emergency preparedness as we know it, he is in the business of ensuring your business has in place those things to enable it to continue when you can't. I trust Robbie, he doesn't push but always listens. You can contact Robbie on 04 939 6748. Sometime soon he'll have his new website up (www.successionfirst.co.nz).

messageMaker - it's out there!

In my previous newsletter I gave you a bit of an update about what we'd been up to in the previous months. Well now I'm just over the moon to say that messageMaker (version 4.0) has now been released. I've created a website specifically for it. Go and have a look at www.messagemaker.co.nz.

In this version we've made some huge changes. We believe having the ability to understand your customers and to know what they're interested in is paramount. So, we've made customers and subscribers the central focus. There, you'll be able to see the emails they've opened, the links they've clicked and the products bought. All this enables you to understand your customers and then develop better and more targeted offers.

Visit www.messagemaker.co.nz to find out more about how it can help you in your business. All of our hosting customers who subscribe will automatically receive a 15% discount.

surveyMaker - progress to date

Now that we've got messageMaker completed, work has already started on the redevelopment of our online survey application. The new version will not only make constructing a survey easier by being able to drag'n'drop questions, but will offer a greater range of questions types, the ability to create multiple survey templates and to save and download graphical reports in PDF format.

surveyMaker has already proved to be a popular application for a number of organisations. We expect to be able to make a beta release available in about three months. Just like messageMaker this application will integrate into the customer and subscribers module.

checkOut - a simple, down to earth shopping cart

I'm being continually told that we don't brag much about the applications we've developed, so I thought I'd write a quick note about our mini-shopping cart that we've redeveloped in our new application framework.

checkOut is ideal for small businesses that have a small range of products to sell and where the normal online shopping cart, designed for thousands of products, is just the wrong solution.

With checkOut you can sell not only physical products but digital ones that can be downloaded at the completion of a transaction. We've kept the back-end simple, direct and focussed, without the unnecessary clutter and confusing add-ons of the bigger carts. This means you can get on with your business and not have to worry about whether you've made massive blunders on your website.

Thanks for being great customers!

I'd like to thank you all for trusting me with your website projects. I really enjoy working with you all and the projects you've engaged me on. I'm really proud of the work we have been able to do for you and hope you are delighted with everything you have received.

I could wish for nothing better than to get more people like you into our business. Therefore, if you're able to refer businesses or organisations (just like you!) that you know who need or will need a website, we will offer you a Prezzy Card preloaded with $250 to spend as you like.

Find out more about our referral scheme - and remember, on top of this, we'll also donate a further $100 to the UFBA Benevolent Fund right until the end of the year!

Fixing and investigating bugs

I thought I'd take the opportunity to outline our policy for fixing and investigating bugs. We sometimes receive calls or emails with reports that something is not working, only to find after examination that it's working as designed.

In cases like this we reserve the right to charge for the time taken to investigate and report back.

If there's a bug within:

• one of our own applications (either within the SMS or hyperPanel framework) we will fix it without charge as expeditiously as possible.
• an application that has been specifically developed for you (a custom application)and that application is still within the agreed acceptance (warranty) period it will be fixed without charge.
• a third-party application, any remedial work will be charged for.

Time to check your website's performance?

Things change over time, and generally speaking the shine that things once had fades and tarnishes. The same thing is true with your website. Keeping your website up to date is important, not only in regard to the material it contains, but also how it operates.

Sometimes it's good to do a bit of a stocktake to see if your website is aligned with your business goals. If you'd like a performance audit, give me a call. We'll arrange a 45 minute consultation at our office where we'll discuss how your website is performing and if there are things that we can change to make it work better, either in the traffic it receives or the number of enquiries. This consultation is free.

These audits should be done on a regular basis because it's so easy for business and website objectives to fall out of alignment. Further, websites are now such a significant business channel, you just cannot afford not to be where your customers are.