But IE 6 Sucks!

Yes, it does.  But losing business sucks more.  Spending a few more hours on a site can help the client.  For each client, I think we need to check their server logs and determine their traffic.  It takes about 3 minutes of work to determine their audience and will help our clients. 

• If a client has a HUGE population of IE 6 users (like 10% or more), then we have to still code for them.  I could easily see this happening if our clients have older customers, lower socio-economic customers, or customers in developing countries.  Why?  Because they probably have older computers.
• If they have a 5% or less share we can just drop features and make small work arounds.
• If they have a 1% market share we can just ignore completely – just like we do for poor Opera.

My Gut Feeling

I have a sneaky feeling that it will be not a dramatic drop as we want.  I would love to see our server stats go from 4.6% to 0% in the next few months.  I just don’t think it will happen. I think it will continue trending down, but by next year we will only be a few percentage points lower.

Big Question – Our Web Site and Our Clients Sites

The big question is should we cater to 4.6% of our audience.  I ran our numbers and that is the number of visitors that came back – see attached chart.  I say yes, we should still provide a solid experience in IE6.  However, we can kill any fancy features and just do basic things.

In the last month we had 700 visitors in IE 6.  That is quite a few people (20 to 30 a day).  We had an inquiry just today from an IE 6 user.  Yes, I know a mere coincidence, but still there are people who don’t use it.   Would you design your store or restaurant to exclude 5% of your traffic?  No.

I did run a report and since August we have had 40 inquiries with IE6 as the browser (about 8% of our overall inquiries via the web form).  So, would we want to lose 8% of our business?  At this time, I don’t think we would want to do that.

So, says the Zen Master….we’ll see.

301 Redirect is the Best

If you are not going to build unique, indepdent sites, then 301 redirect all your domains into your parent site. A 301 redirect causes the domain to fully redirect and change its name to the site you are redirecting to.

It Creates a Nice Redirect

So if you 301 the domain www.paperst.com, then it becomes www.paperstreet.com when people visit www.paperst.com. This is proper as you don’t want two independent versions of your site running on the web under different domains – its bad for SEO.

WWW vs non-WWW

In fact, you really should not have a www and non-www version of your site, just redirect everything into the www version (or non-www version).  Have your tech person create a 301 redirect for your non-www version of your site into the www version.

301 Passes Over Link Value

A 301 passes over any link value (i.e. anyone linking to that previous domain).  So in our case, we are able to pass over all old value of www.paperst.com links to www.paperstreet.com.  This really helps if you have multiple domains with each their own value.  This is awesome when two firms merge as they get the benefit of both domains link power – if 301′d correctly.

No Direct Match for SEO Purposes with a 301

However, a 301 does not pass over any “direct match” value of the keyword phrases in the domain.  So any use of the domain is strictly from a link perspective and not “direct match” of the keywords.  Don’t let anyone tell you that buying 50 domains with keyword phrases in them helps, it doesn’t unless you create actual web sites with those domains.

So we created/modified a new tool to create all possible domains.

http://www.paperstreet.com/domain-research-tool/

Our new tool is based on a common keyword phrase tool that has been on the internet for years.  We revised it to be just for domains and put in common prefixes, suffixes, and domain extensions so that we can quickly build an idea list.

I am not stating that all our ideas will be available, in fact, a lot won’t.  But this tool allows us to quickly sort through what is available by putting up to 500 domains into a bulk registration tool and seeing what is available.

I figure saves us about an hour a day, so why not save everyone some time.

Directions – after going to see the tool here – http://www.paperstreet.com/domain-research-tool/

1. Modify Prefix, Extensions and Domains as Needed. The first comma is needed to not have any prefixes.
2. Add your “Keywords” in box 2. That is the real important step.
3. In all boxes, seperate words by commas with no spaces.
4. Click “Generate” to see all possible domains.
5. Paste those domains into a bulk register domain tool, such as GoDaddy.
6. GoDaddy or your preferred domain registrar will let you know what is available pretty quickly.

Our client file tool is an light weight tool that allows you to create an unlimited amount of clients, unlimited amount of file uploads. Sure there are lots of these programs as installed models and hosted models.  However, we found most are hard to use for a typical client, did not integrate into the site nicely, and/or had ongoing fees associated with them.  So we built our own.

Each client has a unique login and can view only their files.  Each client and the firm administrator can view, download, add, and delete files for that client.  The firm administrator can of course see everything.

Admin

1. Login with Unique User Pass
2. Create New Users
3. Automatically create new folders for clients
4. Ability to login as any client and view/download/add/delete files.

Client

1. Login with Unique User / Pass
2. View File
3. Download Files
4. Upload Files
5. Delete Files

Included in Our Costs

1. PaperStreet Integration into your web site.
2. Training on Use of the tool.
3. Bugs / Error fixes, if any for first 30 days.
4. Customizations are done on an hourly rate.

Pretty nifty!  Here are some screen shots of an install.

Client Login

Client File System

As you can see it’s super simple.  But that is good.  Clients will use it more.  I call it the “Apple” model of design.  Simple is best for usability.  It kills all the usual clutter with file systems.

Let us know if you have any questions, comments or want a demo.

As it stands now, we are recommending that we create Wordpress intranets.  We fell in love with Wordpress awhile ago and it still is a very cost effective way to creating a content platform, whether it is a blog, a web site, an e-commerce store, or even an intranet.

You can install WP in 15 minutes and install about 5 to 10 plugins in another hour.  From there, it just needs to be styled to match the firm identity.  You can have a working intranet running, yours to keep, in less than a day; pretty easy and cost-efficient for most businesses.

If you don’t want to go the Wordpress route, then there are good resources too.  Other vendors include Sharepoint, ThoughtFarmer, Backpack, Vialect, Google Apps, and Intranet Dashboard.

For instance, if you don’t have time to setup Wordpress, then there are a variety of hosted models ready to go.  For hosted models, checkout Backpack.  For a one-time model that does offer ongoing support additional, then checkout ThoughtFarmer.com (nice design of a site).

I am biased against ongoing support though for software, so you will see that listed as a general con in the article.  I am also biased against services that cost above $1,500 for an intranet, as we can probably get an entire WP installed, customized, and trained for that cost.

The info below is our quick notes, pricing and other info.

Intranet Software

• Wordpress – http://www.wordpress.org
  • Costs – Wordpress is free, open source software.  Your cost is the time to hire a team to install, modify, theme and train.
  • Pros – Open Source, Free, Flexible, Tons of features.
  • Cons – None, other than WP has to be upgraded from time to time.
• Backpack – http://backpackit.com
  • Costs – $50 per month for 15 Users / $99 per month for 40 users
  • Pros -   Easy to setup, easy to use.
  • Cons – Ongoing subscription based service.
• Sharepoint (Leased) – http://www.getsharepoint.com
  • Costs – 1 to 10 users is $240 / 11 to 50 users is $390
  • Pros – Sharepoint leased service.  Setup for you and has tons of features.
  • Cons – Ongoing subscription based service.
• ThoughtFarmer.com – http://www.thoughtfarmer.com
  • Costs –  $109 per user
  • Pros – Many features.  Web 2.0. Style.  Support in year 2 is separate, but not required.
  • Cons – Non
• Vialect- http://www.vialect.com/
  • Costs –  $4 per user, per month (hosted models available too)
  • Pros – Many features.
  • Cons – Ongoing subscription based service.
• Sharepoint (Purchased) - http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx
  • Costs – $4,000 to $5,000 for 5 CALs
  • Pros – An overall integrated platform.
  • Cons – Cost.  Customization.
• Internet Dashboard – http://www.intranetdashboard.com
  • Costs –  $1,200 to $1,600 (getting official number from company email)
  • Pros – Single install with lots of tools.
  • Cons – None, other than costs, which are not confirmed yet.
• Google – http://www.google.com/apps/
  • Costs –  Free
  • Pros – Free, lots of features and applications
  • Cons – Different applications, no central area to manage all information.  Requires ability to use / install all features.

Typical Requirements from our Clienst

• Announcements
• News
• Search
• File Upload, Documents and Organization.
• Frequently asked questions.
• Links to Resources
• How-to manuals, software help articles and/or end user training information
• Staff directory with pictures, cell phone and other contact information
• Employee manual and policies and procedure manual
• Ability to access this from any location
• Staff profiles/bios
• Firm wide calendar with marketing events, birthdays, etc.
• Firm newsletter
• Press Releases
• Local lunch and catering menus
• Birthdays
• Secure Directory

Final Notes

If you know of a good Intranet, feel free to leave a comment.  We are always on the look-out for good solutions to offer to our clients.

Here is one of our standard inquiry forms with data excluded:

=============

Name: ***********
Firm Name: ***********
Email: ***********
Phone: ***********
Question: Looking to update our current website: www. ***********.com. Could you provide us with a quote? Would like to add some photos and possibly video to our site and email contact option.

Referral Page: http://www.paperstreet.com/webdesign.php

=============

In that case, the person visited our web design page and submitted their info.  How did we know that?  We used the HTTP_REFERER command.

Command to Use

‘HTTP_REFERER‘

The address of the page (if any) which referred the user agent to the current page. This is set by the user agent. Not all user agents will set this, and some provide the ability to modify HTTP_REFERER as a feature. In short, it cannot really be trusted.

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.server.php

Code to Use

<?php echo “Referral Page: ” . $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']; ?>

<?
function secure_page()
{
if ( !isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) || strtolower($_SERVER['HTTPS']) != ‘on’ )
{
header (’Location: https://’.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
exit();
}
}
secure_page();
?>

Just put that at the top of your code.  I recommend using an include file so that you only have to load one include at the top of your code (keeps it nice and clean).

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/passwords.html

It is one of my pet peaves when entering passwords.  I type fast, but sometimes inaccurately.  So often I have to retype my passwords, as I cannot see what I typed in to quickly check.

On my iPhone it takes forever to type if there is an error.  If you have ever entered a security key for WiFi, you share my pain (I always type into notepad and cut/paste if I am doing a long password such as that).

I have never understood why passwords had to be starred out.  It’s not like anyone is actually looking over your shoulder.  If someone wants to hack your account, there are a thousand better ways including packet sniffing, keyword tracking, brute force attacks, and a variety of other methods.

So why do we still star out passwords like your email or site is Area 51?  Habit? A false sense of security?

If we changed, would people gripe too much or think it’s less secure?  Probably, but it would be for the better.  Unfortunately, I think this is a losing battle as most people would think the site is less secure.  But it would be nice if all web sites stopped starring out password boxes.

Also on this topic, is confirming passwords.  Vidget Labs did a cool article on that subject here:  http://www.viget.com/advance/password-fields-are-annoying/

Don’t save your UTF-8 files with BOM as it creates issues.

=================

http://juicystudio.com/article/utf-byte-order-mark.php

“Headers must be written before any data is sent to the client. Unicode files may include a Byte-Order Mark (BOM) to help distinguish the big endian and little endian byte order. Unfortunately, the BOM isn’t understood by PHP. Upon encountering the BOM, PHP assumes that it is dealing with data, by which time it’s too late to modify headers. Solution? Save the file in UTF-8 encoding without a BOM.”

and

http://69.147.83.196/bug.php?id=44563&edit=2

“If file A or file B has UTF-8 encoding then you will get the error:

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session
cache limiter – headers already sent (output started at index.php:1) in
session.php on line 3

Using UTF-8 encoding WITHOUT BOM (Byte Order Mark) seems to fix the
problem.”

=================

If file A or file B has UTF-8 encoding then you will get the error:

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session
cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at index.php:1) in
session.php on line 3

Using UTF-8 encoding WITHOUT BOM (Byte Order Mark) seems to fix the
problem.

Here is how to write a separate .htaccess file to control only that subdirectory of files.  The key is only putting the .htaccess file in that directory and leaving WP main .htaccess completely alone.

1.    Write your typical .htaccess file.  In our case, we were rewriting simple terms such as:

http://www.domain.com/law/index.php?pagetitle=Headline

…to a nice name like

http://www.domain.com/law/Headline

We needed the /law/ directory to be excluded from Wordpress typical rewrite to display some custom Google Adwords pages.

2.    Leave alone the main Wordpress .htaccess file.  It controls everything else except the subfolder you are working with.  Don’t touch it, seriously.

3.    Simply put the new .htaccess file in the sub folder of Wordpress that you want to use.  In our case, our .htaccess language was just the following:

#LANDING PAGES
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)$ index.php?pagetitle=$1
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/$ index.php?pagetitle=$1

BAM, that is it.  All done and it works.