Entries Tagged 'Copywriting Tools' ↓

Wouldn’t it be great to sync the contacts and events on your iPhone with Entourage on your laptop? Yeah, it would – if it worked. But, having exhausted the best minds at Apple and Microsoft in trying to find a solution, my recommendation is give Entourage the flick, and use Mail, iCal and Address Book.

“By this time, I’d had a complete gutful. I’d lost probably 3 days work – not to mention my tether.”

Know how to sync the iPhone with Entourage? Where you were you when I needed you?

An enforced iPhone 3G early adopter

I wasn’t going to be an iPhone 3G early adopter. Let the bugs get sorted out, then make the shift was my grand plan. But, then my old Sony Ericsson refused to charge any more and it was a mad dash to get the old data onto an iPhone before its predecessor kicked the bucket.

First impressions blighted by poor battery

There wasn’t much of a honeymoon. I’m not a big phone user, but even without using the iPhone as an iPod, browser, photo album or GPS, I was needing to charge every day. If you’re a serious business phone user, the iPhone is not yet for you.

Vanishing iPhone contacts

The iPhone didn’t synch with my Entourage initially but I was too busy to worry about it. However, matters reached a head when all contacts on my iPhone vanished. Gone. Not a trace. Not once. But twice.

Apple says Microsoft is causing synch problem

I went into the Genius Bar at Apple in George St, Sydney, and Alex, a nice young lad with curly black hair, was very patient but unable to solve the problem. He said he thought the problem was with my Microsoft Office.

Microsoft says I should reinstall Office 2008

So I get on the phone to Microsoft Support, and they run me through a few things. But after an hour or two, they have no more clues and suggest that I reinstall Microsoft Office 2008. Easy for you, I say.

Reinstall of Microsoft Office 2008 doesn’t fix synching problem

But I do as I’m told. I reinstall Microsoft Office 2008 – an exhaustive process since it involves downloading 5 separate subsequent and sizable updates. And then re-entering all your email accounts. And I have a lot of email accounts. Does the reinstall help? Not one bit.

Reset Sync history, they say

I get onto Apple Support again, and a pretty obvious solution is suggested. Reset the Sync History in iSync, they say. No skin off my nose. So I do. Does it help? Not a jot.

Reinstall of Mac OSX fixes syncing problem – for about 5 minutes

I call Apple Support. They run through a bunch of things, but none of them work, so after an hour, they say the only solution is to reinstall my Mac OSX from the install disks. And then all the updates. Sure, what the hell? What’s another lost half day by this time. So I do it. Does it help? Well, initially, yes.

Vanishing Contacts, Emails, Events

It all looked fab. The iPhone synched with Entourage 2008 on my G4 PowerBook and I thought the battle was won. But then I shut the laptop down and restarted, and everything was gone again. And I mean everything. Emails, events and contacts were gone not just from my Entourage, but also from iCal, Address Book and Mail. And off Mobileme. I’m weeping by this point.

Restore the iPhone, they say

I’d been having problems for more than a week, so I’m a little surprised when someone suggests a fairly obvious solution. Restore the iPhone. So I do. And the iPhone syncs with Powerbook. But then, when I make a change in one, it doesn’t show up on the other when I sync again.

“Synching problems between Entourage and Sync Services well known”

What was particularly galling was that everyone at Apple and Microsoft were acting like my situation was completely unusual. That they’d never seen anything like it. And, yet, when I did a Google search, I found lots of people having the same problem. In fact, I found one who said that “the synching problems between Microsoft Office 2008 and Apple’s Sync services are well known”. To everyone but Apple and Microsoft apparently.

Farewell Entourage

By this time, I’d had a complete gutful. I’d lost probably 3 days work – not to mention my tether. I’d been to the Genius Bar twice, I’d had about 5 lengthy sessions on the phone to Apple Support, and another one with Microsoft. Nothing had helped, and no-one took responsibility for fixing the problem. Life is too short. I gave Entourage the arse, and switched back to using Mail, iCal and Address Book.

My life is now blissfully in sync

And, as they say in the cheesy shampoo commercials, am I glad I did. As soon as they were set up, my iPhone synced first time. Events, Contacts and Mail were as they should be. It then synched with Mobileme. There they all were – admittedly they were all a day early – but I soon fixed that by setting the Time Zone. So my recommendation is clear: if you are a Mac user and an iPhone user, do not bother trying to sync using Entourage. Use the separate Apple Mail, iCal and Address Book programs and, who knows, your mobile phone and laptop might actually revert to being productivity tools rather than resource blackholes.

Know how to fix the iPhone – Entourage syncing problem?

So you know how to fix the iPhone / Entourage synching problem? Well, that’s great. To spare others the pain I went through, please share your knowledge with the support staff at Apple and Microsoft. But the horse has bolted for me. My Entourage days are over. But, now I must go. My iPhone has just reminded me – and my synched PowerBook has as well – that I need to be somewhere. Here’s hoping you find synching your life a whole lot easier than I did.

A tiny SEO job I did free for a mate has led to a fascinating brief from a massive new client.

“As Confucius once said, “To open yourself up to the possibilities of the universe, you occasionally need to do an SEO freebie’.”

At the centre of the universe is one small act of SEO kindness.

The ‘optimised’ website that showed no evidence of SEO visitation

A friend of mine asked me to look at his site and I didn’t have good news for him. Despite the fact that it had supposedly been search engine optimised, I could see little evidence of it.

The keyword strategy seemed flawed, but the damage was limited because they hadn’t really optimised for those keywords in any event. There was not a single keyword in any Page Title for example. He appreciated my candour but couldn’t afford my services. What the hell, I thought. I’ll do it anyway.

The freebie SEO job that snowballed

I spent a few hours doing keyword analysis and surveying what his competitors were doing. I then spent another few hours rattling off the page titles and meta tags for each page of his site. Unable to help myself, I went on to make recommendations about a switch of domain names, and crafted individual page URLs that were keyword-rich. In for a penny, in for a pound – I then rewrote the home page copy using the principles of Persuasive Architecture. All for the same very reasonable price of nada. But, as things transpired, I got paid back in spades.

I optimised for free but not without expectation

I can’t say I did this free SEO job without expectation. I’m not that altruistic. I did it in the belief that some day in some way I would be repaid for my efforts. My faith was rewarded – more quickly than I could possibly have imagined.

The web lets Karma work its magic

Within days of doing the work – and before my mate had even implemented my SEO recommendations – I got an email from a seriously large client who’d found me on a Google search. When we got to chat, I asked him what it was about my site that convinced him to get in touch. You guessed it. It was my blog post about the work I’d done for my mate. And he wasn’t impressed by my generosity of spirit. He liked what I had to say about Persuasive Architecture. He’s now presented me with a fascinating brief that I can’t wait to get started on, and I feel fairly confident it will cover the cost of the SEO work I did for my mate.

The devout atheist with boundless faith

I’m a devout atheist – don’t get me started – but I do have boundless faith. I genuinely believe that if you make a habit of doing good things that ultimately things will work out for you. This faith can be tested at times. For example, when you promptly respond to a request for a free SEO report card and you don’t get so much as a thank you – let alone a follow-up commission of more work. But this latest episode is a wonderful reminder of why economic rationalists never have any fun. As Confucius once said, “To open yourself up to the full possibilities of the universe, you occasionally need to do an SEO freebie”.

Americans and Australians have a different vocabulary. It’s not ‘petrol’, it’s ‘gas’. It’s not ‘takeaway’, it’s ‘to go’. It’s not an ‘invasion’ of Iraq, it’s a ‘liberation’.

Everything I’d read said that Wordtracker was the Keyword Analysis tool of choice for the serious SEO professional. But there are two reasons why it’s of limited value to local Search Engine Optimisation operators – the relevance of its data, and its very ordinary usability.

Is Wordtracker all it’s cracked up to be?

Most US SEO professionals will tell you that Wordtracker is the best keyword analysis tool on the market. Peter Kent says it – though he acknowledges a commercial relationship with them. But he’s not alone. So I left the comfort of Google’s keyword tools and explored Wordtracker but was totally underwhelmed.

Wordtracker’s woeful usability

The first thing that will strike any self-respecting SEO professional is just what a naff site Wordtracker is. It looks old and dated. But, worse than that, its interface is not intuitive – to say the least – and it just doesn’t let you do what you want to do.

Control over the keywords you choose

Wordtracker’s strength is that it really does throw up an awful lot of keyword suggestions. In an increasingly crowded market where everyone is looking to carve out a keyword niche, this is pretty useful. However, what I’ve found is that it’s far too hard to control what you include and exclude. And then you’ve got to export the data for inclusion in an SEM campaign. But, its failings are more fundamental than that.

Wordtracker tells you what Americans search for

The whole purpose of doing Keyword Analysis is to identify what your customers are searching for when they come onto the net. Now, while Wordtracker might tell you what US customers search for on the net, there is no guarantee that Australian users search for the same terms.

For Australian SEO work you need Australian search data

You may have noticed that Americans and Australians talk differently. It’s not just the difference in accents. We have a different vocabulary – in almost everything. It’s not petrol, it’s gas. It’s not takeaway, it’s “to go”. It’s not an invasion of Iraq, it’s a liberation. This different use of language is going to have serious consequences in Keyword Analysis. So, American-dominated data is of limited value – unless you have a global market. If your market is Australian, you need Australian data.

Why I prefer to use Google’s keyword tools

I still use Wordtracker – hell, I’ve paid the hefty annual subscription so I’m going to get my money’s worth. But my two preferred tools are both by Google – and not just because they are free. Google’s Keyword Tool and its Traffic Estimator have the huge fundamental advantage over Wordtracker that you can look at purely Australian results. Or purely NSW results. Or purely Sydney results. And know much more accurately what your customers are looking for.

Those of you foolish enough – like me – to upgrade to the latest Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac suite will have noticed – among other things – that it’s incredibly slow to open documents. I went searching for a fix and found this:

Basically, in Preferences, you switch off “WYSIWYG font and style menus”. You’ll find it makes a helluva difference. If anyone has any similar clues to cure Excel and Powerpoint I’d be thrilled to hear them.