Chavvon Smith’s Blog

With the release of the iphone, all the other smart phone providers are playing catch up.  The iphone is simply more attractive with more appeal.  Blackberry is a close second, but I think the new Blackberry Bold will close the gap.  This phone has the touchscreen and graphics we all like, but keeps the blackberry business and productivity tools that we love.  A pic is below:

The New Bold has a nice touch screen, good looks and many cool features.  It should be released any day now.
Chavvon Smith

I do quite a bit of search engine marketing for clients on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and other sites like business.com, yellowpages.com, etc.  Getting an effective campaign setup takes a strong grasp of graphics & design, analytics, and research.

Getting a campaign established is very time intensive if you want to do it right.  If you sell computers, it’s easy to think of the main keywords.  Computers, PCs, CPU, etc.  These “easy” keywords are very expensive so you can increase your returns exponentially if you can find keywords that aren’t so common.  You usually find these keywords by accident and it takes months or even years to find them all.

The last few months, I found a pretty cool tool called KeywordSpy.  KeyworkSpy has an agreement with ISPs such as Verizon, Comcast, SBC, etc. to read the logs and see what companies are advertising on what keywords.  The concept is very simple, but the value is tremendous.  Now, instead of having to do research on keywords, you can look up a company that’s in your space (i.e. Dell.com) and see all the keywords they advertise on.  The keywords won’t all be a fit for you, but it’s a great place to start.

Take some time and visit KeywordSpy.com

Chavvon

I’ve had a Verizon Palm Treo 700W for the last 2 years and when my contract expired I switched back over to ATT as fast as I could.  I’m not sure how good or bad the Verizon network is, but the Treo ruined the entire experience.  At first I thought it was Palm, but then after reading countless reviews, it seems to be the Palmo/Windows combination.

As I was looking at new phones on ATT, a few phones were in the race.  Iphone, blackberry curve, and Palmo Centro. After learning that I couldn’t get insurance on the curve or iphone (I have small kids), it was quickly narrowed down to the Centro.  It’s not as jazzy as the other two, but it does all I need.  Basic Internet, email, scheduling, and text.  In addition, they gave it to me for free. Whoohoo!!

I’ve had the phone for about 3 weeks now so I know it well enough to write the pros and cons of the phone.

Pros:

1.) Great size

2.) Nice finish

3.) Easy to navigate from section to section (email, phone, etc.)

Cons:

1.) It seems I always have to place a phone call twice.  The first call is always disconnected.

2.) The ringer stopped working until I dropped it one day and it worked again.

3.) Buttons are pretty small

4.)  It’s really annoying how it shows alerts in the top right hand corned and you need the stylus to access them

All in All, it’s a good phone, but I still have two weeks to decide if I’m going to keep it.

Chavvon Smith

Technology is our core business and managing customer desktops is a big part of that business.  When you have access to a client’s PC and you can configure it for remote access, things are great.  Every now and then, a client will get a new PC or be on the road and you just don’t have the opportunity to update the PC with all the bells and whistles.

In comes CrossLoop.  CrossLoop offers a nice utility (rebranded VNC) where users can just download the client and we instantly have access to the PC through a unique share code.  It’s simple, thin, and clients can install it without hassle.  It’s saved the day many times….  Give them a try.  It’s free.

Chavvon Smith

I received my login information today to try the dim dim beta product.  I’ll be posting my experience comparing it to a paid product like WebEx.

Chavvon Smith

I’ve been doing web-conferencing lately so I decided to explore the products on the market. I came across a product called Dim Dim that’s been getting good reviews. It’s in closed beta, so I have yet to see it. It’s free so let’s hope it works well. I post an update once we try the product.

Chavvon

I like to try new technology and I typically sign up for about 2-3 services everyday. I always uncheck the boxes to receive newsletters, announcements, etc. but I ALWAYS get added to some newsletter or mailing list that wasn’t even on the page to uncheck.  You can sneak in one newsletter, but please honor my request to be removed off the list!

Chavvon Smith

I’ve been doing web-conferencing lately so I decided to explore the products on the market.  I came across a product called Dim Dim that’s been getting good reviews.  It’s in closed beta, so I have yet to see it.  It’s free so let’s hope it works well.  I post an update once we try the product.

Chavvon

Since late October, I’ve noticed that my verizon fios Internet service is MUCH slower. Pages error out, things take longer to load, etc. Then one day I typed in an incorrect URL and got a Verizon search page. Verizon is watching all website entries and redirecting users to their own search page when a URL is typed in wrong. This is making the service much slower and it’s enough for me to start looking for another provider. I temporarily changed the DNS servers to OpenDNS.com and that’s fixed the problem…..until they do something else.

Chavvon Smith

It seems that everyday I read an article about the huge losses these financial companies have incurred and the management that’s being fired as a result. If ALL the companies are posting huge losses, I would think it’s a market issue and not a management issue. Citi, Merrill Lynch and all the others seem to make it a habit to promote new management when the market is crashing. If they would keep the existing management in place, they would be able to recognize the market issues when they start to arise the next time. Experience plays a huge factor in recognizing market trends. Stop trying to find a scapegoat and just stick out the troubles. Brighter days are just around the corner…

Chavvon Smith