photo credit: Yodel Anecdotal

It is hard to say quite where these beliefs come from but it is fair to say that many people are exploiting this attitude in order to make a lot of money themselves.

There are so many training courses, auto website generators, traffic boosters, SEO tools, Auto Twitter tools etc. exploiting this attitude that it is hard to keep track. Generally their sales page promises instant results, gives examples of successful users and shows you how little time and effort it takes to execute.

Unfortunately these tools are almost always trying to outsmart the one company that you do not want to mess with – Google. The main aim is to try and exploit the free traffic you would get from being listed high in Google for a popular keyword.

No matter how many tools you try and how clever you think these ideas are, you will never outsmart Google in the long run. To avoid sending you to auto-generated websites, websites filled with advert or even websites with malicious intent Google use some of the most sophisticated technology in existence.

Note – at this point it is worth mentioning that some people operate their online business this way, knowing that they will not overcome Google permanently. They work on a scattergun approach and make money while they can constantly changing, throwing away websites and trying new methods. This method may well be successful but I have no experience in it and don’t believe it is worth the effort. I also don’t believe in tricking users is in any way worth monetary compensation.

Google uses many methods to fight spam in the search engine results. Naturally, they do not want to recommend bad websites and your trust is fundamental to their success – if you find bad websites at Google you will use another search engine. In this article we explore the “Thin Affiliate” label Google has defined, how it is determined, the consequences of being one and how to recover from it if you are.

So, what is a “Thin Affiliate” and how does it relate to tricking Google?

Essentially Google does not want to send people to sites that do not offer valuable content. “Thin Affiliate” is a label applied when Google thinks you have created a site that is completely focused on affiliate links (PPC ads, paid adverts, links to other merchants etc.) and doesn’t offer anything else of value.

A good example of this would be a script that creates a website from eBay listings. It is focused on a certain group of products (e.g. Car Exhausts) and provides several category pages (e.g. Exhausts for different models). Each page lists the current eBay auction results with links, earning the website owner money for every click and/or sale.

Google doesn’t like this because the website is not offering anything new to the user. This model can be easily replicated and if they don’t take action, Googles search engine results would be littered with this type of website, pushing genuine Car Exhaust sellers down the listings.

Another example would be a blog that reviews laptops. The reviews are automatically generated from a mixture of Amazon reviews, other merchant sites and related information. The result is a jumbled mess and the content may even be “spun” (a process of replacing words automatically in order to create unique content) which makes the content unreadable. Not only is the site not offering anything new but it is not of benefit to the visitor in any way.

Unfortunately, the idea of a “Thin Affiliate” site is not always so black and white. You might create a website with a few unique articles and pages with links to eBay the same as our above example. Does the unique content mean Google will not penalise your site? What is the line that we must not cross?

How is your site determined to be Thin Affiliate?

There are many automatic methods that Google employ to penalise sites. If you have duplicate content, poor quality content, an unresponsive site, too much advertising, you are using cloaking etc. then it is likely that Google will recognise this programatically (i.e. without any human intervention) and you will be penalised automatically.

Being a Thin Affiliate is somewhat open to interpretation and not so easy to recognise using automatic methods. However, you could be penalised automatically for reasons like the following:

• No Content – if you have nothing at all on your site except adverts you will be penalised
• Duplicate or poor content – It is possible to tell the quality of your content automatically and Google are very likely to use this technology. Content spinning, duplicate content and badly written content will get you penalised
• Turnkey Solutions – Using a script that is known to generate thin affiliate sites can get you an automatic penalty. These scripts have a “footprint” i.e. something that gives away your site is using a particular script (e.g. html markup, particular file names/locations etc.)
• User Behaviour – it is possible that Google monitors its users behaviour to see how they react to a site. e.g. if the majority of users click back to Google, then it is safe to assume the site doesn’t offer anything of value for that keyword

While these types of automatic methods are no doubt in place, it appears that a lot of manual reviewing is being done by Google in this area. That is an actual person is taking a look at your site and deciding wether to cut off the traffic from Google or not. This is extremely important to remember – it is easy to circumvent filters and stay within a boundary, but a manual reviewer can always see your site for what it is.

Most likely your site will be flagged for review based on automatic detection, like the above. For example, if a lot of users are returning to Google straight after visiting your site then your site is added to a review list. Someone will then manually visit your site and make a decision on its value – is it a Thin Affiliate site or does it actually offer something useful?

It is possible that your site can escape a manual review for a long time or possibly even indefinitely, especially if your site is well established. However it can be reviewed at any time for many reasons – a competitor reporting you, visitors reporting you, change in Googles algorithm etc. so don’t assume it will not happen to you.

With all this considered, determining wether your site is Thin Affiliate or not becomes quite simple. If you were to review your site without bias, would you consider it useful?

How can I avoid being labelled a Thin Affiliate?

Back in 2007 Shoemoney posted a video with essentially the message don’t make google look stupid. The point is simple – Google is bigger than you, smarter than you, has more resources than you and will catch you out if you try and trick them. Don’t make them look stupid by putting useless sites in their index. According to Jeremy, Google use this video internally to educate their staff and help them understand more about this issue.

The only true way to avoid being labelled a Thin Affiliate is to make your site good. Add great, compelling, unique content. Provide a useful service. Offer reviews, advice, tips or even just a good way to compare products. Whatever you do, make sure its useful to visitors and you are proud to put your name to it.

What penalties can I get?

Typically you will receive a -50 penalty, which means you will be listed 50 places lower than you would have done previously for search terms. You may still get traffic from extremely unique keywords but expect your traffic from Google virtually disappear.

From my experience you won’t get banned outright and remember that other search engines behave differently – you may still get good traffic from Yahoo and Bing especially. Google will never contact you to tell you whats happened, nor will they give you any information whatsoever if you ask them. They keep all of this 100% secret to protect their methods so we can only maker educated guesses on what has happened.

My conclusion is that Google will not remove your site completely from the search engines because it is too clear a sign that you have done something wrong. By issuing the -50 penalty, many people will just assume that they have not got enough links or popularity and will continue to try and promote their site. This is my speculation, but I believe Google are happy for people to waste time like this instead of working on another way to get bad sites to the top of the search listings.

A complete ban is not likely for a Thin Affiliate site – this is usually reserved for Black Hat techniques (e.g. cloaking, blog farms etc.) and sites that are frequently unavailable.

How do I recover from a penalty?

It is the same as with any penalty from Google – fix the problem and apply to have your site reconsidered via Google Webmaster Tools.

Essentially if you have received this penalty, you need to add value to your site. Google deals with a lot of affiliate sites and as such they are not high in their priority if you are contesting a penalty – you will likely get ignored. Therefore you need to overcompensate and turn your site into something that they must pay attention to. Getting attention and links from other high authority sites will help, although it may still take a couple of months for Google to get round to reviewing your changes.

Some people may consider it a write off and start again with a new site and domain. This might be a better option, depending on how much time and money you put into the original site.

The Conclusion

So we have looked at what Google defines as a Thin Affiliate site, how they spot it, how to avoid it and how to recover from it. Essentially I would recommend your philosophy is to create a great website. Initially don’t focus too much on what Google wants, conversion rates, the best affiliate networks etc. – simply create a great website that people want to visit, with great content and some innovative ideas. Create a website you are proud of and that you are happy to tell your friends about.

Do this and you will never have to worry about being a Thin Affiliate.

What do you think?

Have you any experience with being labelled a Thin Affiliate? Want some advice on your site? Have something you wish to say?

If so, comment below!

Our first two reviews will be for the following books from Packt Publishing.

Magento 1.3 Sales Tactics Cookbook

A look at various techniques to increase sales when using the open souce eCommerce system Magento. Includes SEO techniques, improving customer experience, cross promotion and selling internationally.

From Packt: “Build a professional Magento sales web site, with the help of easy-to-follow steps and ample screenshots, to solve real-world business needs and requirements. Develop your web site by using your creativity and exploiting the sales techniques that suit your needs. # Provide visitors with attractive and innovative features to make your site sell.”

View Magento 1.3 Sales Tactics Cookbook on Packt Publishing

WordPress and Flash 10x Cookbook

Exploring the use of WordPress along with Flash to create rich blogs and websites. This book, amongst other things, covers the technical aspects of embedding flash in WordPress, essential plugins, video bloggin, using audio and creating animations, buttons etc. in Flash.

From Packt: “Over 50 simple but incredibly effective recipes to take control of dynamic Flash content in WordPress. Learn how to make your WordPress blog or website stand out with Flash. Embed, encode, and distribute your video content in your WordPress site or blog. Build your own .swf files using various plugins. Develop your own Flash audio player using audio and podcasting plugins.”

View Magento 1.3 Sales Tactics Cookbook on Packt Publishing

If you have any requests or suggestions for reviews of books, online courses, seminars, conferences etc. simply get in touch here with the details.

photo credit: Ezu

This is a guest post from Craig Smith of Trinity Insight.

Any internet marketer knows the importance of “optimization”. Simply stated, optimization is the effort to improve previous performance.

On the web, we do this via online testing and the monitoring of key metrics that associate to business goals. In the past, businesses were confined to conducting “split tests”, otherwise testing version “A” versus version “B”. These tests, albeit effective, were difficult to scale in measuring multiple elements on a page.

Enter multivariate testing; a new form of testing based upon technologies that allow for the measurement of multiple aspects of a webpage.

Multivariate testing is the process of creating varied “recipes” of web content, that are served to your visitors in order to decipher intelligence into which mix of messaging and imagery works best. In the past, this type of solution was only available to the very large enterprises who had substantial dollars to spend on additions to their content management systems. As eCommerce and internet marketing has progressed however, so has the availability of tools that execute these conversion improvement functions.

Simply put, there is no reason why your organization or business should not be improving your conversion rates through online optimization.

Why you need to execute multivariate testing

Testing is a fundamental aspect of direct marketing. Ask any cataloger over the last 100 years. They have been testing covers, layouts, imagery within the print medium as long as the market has been active.

For a print business, the goal is clear. Test different variations of catalogs in order to isolate the best performing version for upcoming campaigns. Seems pretty basic and simple right? Well, it is, but 90% of businesses that I talk to on a daily basis are not involved in testing in the online medium, even within the available tools today.

Think of your website as a brochure that has 2 seconds to peak someone’s interest. That is the exact environment that exists today. With homepage and key landing page bounce rates exceeding 40% many times, the lost opportunity with not testing is substantial.

Be it your unique value proposition on your homepage, messaging that relates to your key services or products, or just the shape and size of a button that you want to test, multivariate testing will help answer questions about your users and web content with hard data not gut feelings.

How it works

Most multivariate testing solutions are based upon Javascript technology and the “injection” and “swapping” of content within a page. The most widely used multivariate testing platform is Google Website Optimizer and this tool is also based upon Javascript.

Basically, each area of your webpage that you want to test is encapsulated with Javascript within the test set up process. Alternatives to each location are defined within the test set up and you set goal pages to accurately track which version performed best.

As users come to your site, they get served different versions. The version that they received is populated within their cookies, this way on subsequent visits they receive the same version.

A variety of metrics can be utilized to gauge performance with the most popular being conversion. Other metrics that can be leveraged are time on site, pages per visit, or the aforementioned bounce rate metric.

Challenges with multivariate testing

As in any technology solution, there are always challenges. With multivariate testing, challenges come into play with content management systems and eCommerce platforms. Because these systems are based upon templates and the use of databases to render content, some additional work needs to be done to ensure that tests function properly.

Also serving as a hurdle can be the “tagging” process that needs to be done regarding the site elements on a page. In situations which software is licensed and access to the source code is not readily available, the tagging process needs to be done by a software vendor and can equal headaches and expensive per hour fees for remedial steps.

Regardless of these challenges, multivariate testing is something that is a must if you operate a web-based or eCommerce business. To not test different types of layouts, promotions, and calls to action is flying blind and leaving dollars on the table. Complacency is the enemy of efficiency and don’t be complacent with the conversion rate of your website. Start multivariate testing today.

About the author

Craig Smith is the CEO of Trinity Insight – a leading eCommerce consulting company that specializes in multivariate testing.

photo credit: Thomas Hawk

Nobody can argue against the amount of opportunity we have in this day and age. Particularly in our industry, the internet, there are so many potential lives we could lead that we can literally be anybody we want to be.

There lies the problem. Who do you want to be?

Would you like to be a famous and respected blogger? A drop shipper, selling the latest products from China all around the world? A PPC expert making money from all the affiliate networks? Or perhaps you would like to dominate the latest porn niche?

As I will explore in this article, I don’t believe it is what you choose that matters – more the fact that you do choose it.

Why can choice be bad?

In generations passed choices were limited. If you had access to a guitar, a grand piano or a football and some friends the chances are you would spend a lot of time doing that. To pass the boredom. You would be more likely to master it, to stick with it and make something useful of it.

In our generation, you can have a guitar if you want. Next week you can get access to a grand piano. At the weekend you can play a game of football, see the latest film, play the latest video game and so on. Do you ever get bored anymore? Your time and attention is split between so many things, how could we expect to master one of them?

Despite this, it does happen and it just requires discipline. In this instance you need to pick your field, pick it early and stick with it.

Are there any quick wins anymore?

In my opinion, there have never been any quick wins. I believe in luck… and let me explain what I mean by that.

I am in no way disregarding that it requires talent to achieve something good. It is essential. What I am saying is that many people have the talent it takes to start a software company, become a professional athlete or run a successful website. I believe there are many brilliant people who aren’t achieving what they are capable of and some that do.

The difference is timing or as I prefer, the luck factor.

In the excellent book outliers by Malcom Gladwell, this point is made very well and includes great examples such as Bill Gates (who was lucky enough to have programming access on a computer at the right time – just before the home computer revolution took off) and the hockey players who have statistically more chance of making professional if they are born in January (because try out cut off dates meaning they are older and stronger than players born in December).

Luck is not all you need, but it is a big factor.

How do you get lucky? Become the best you can be in your area. Don’t take on too much and when that opportunity comes along you will be ready.

How does this relate to internet businesses?

In our industry, there are an unlimited amount of opportunities. Every week there is a new tool, a new ebook, a new technique, a new script or a new research method that can make us millions. All of these opportunities have something in common – they give you the impression that making money is easy. Just follow these 5 simple steps and you could earn $1000 a day.

Lawyers call this technique “papering”. A typical web professional has so much information, potential opportunities and even blogs to read telling you about all this stuff that they have less time to actually do something. Lawyers will do this to each other during cases so that they have to spend more time (and money) on sorting out the latest letters, procedures etc.

Don’t let anyone steal your focus or steal your time.

As any web professional worth their salt (and not actively trying to sell you something) will tell you that you have to work hard to achieve success. I would like to add to this and say you need to work honestly.

Yes there are many of the blackhat crowd making a living by creating intriguing Facebook groups that require you to sign up to something or gaming the search engines with the latest trick, but it is not a predictable or stable path to follow. If your going down that path, your reading at the wrong place.

Don’t be tempted by the latest tricks. Don’t let anyone distract your focus. Have a great game plan, have 100% confidence in your plan and have 100% stubborn focus to see that plan through.

Are you a jack of all trades?

… and a master of none? If your skills are in marketing, why do you need to know how to code HTML? Focus on what is important and what you are good at. Do this throughout your life and accept the things that you just don’t have the time to fit into your life.

Committing to doing something is actually a very expensive thing to do. If you start down the path of learning a new language you are giving yourself less time to do other things – see your family, play football or finish that latest project. Analyse your life constantly and don’t take on any new hobbies or commitments unless you are 100% sure it will benefit you and fit in your life.

The most successful people are absolute masters of one thing, and know little about other things. As Seth Godin points out in his excellent book “All Marketers are Liars“, a frog can catch a living fly but not a dead one. It is an absolute master at catching flies with their tongue as that is all they are made for. Be the frog; find your skill and make it better.

If you are doing something, do it properly

My dad always said “if your going to do a job, do it properly” and I always try to remember this in my life. If you are going to start learning a new language make sure you do it to the best of your abilities. If you can’t, just don’t do it yet.

This applies to all areas of our life and business. Don’t start a new website unless your sure you can do it the best you can. I would make a guess that 80% of the internet is half finished projects, or projects that don’t get the time they need. Imagine what we could do with all that half effort and add it up to a full effort.

Do less, do more

Try doing less. Stop trying to read a book every week. Have less friends. Work on less projects.

What will happen? You will feel like you got more done. The books you read, you will read properly and take value from. You will have better friends and you will be a better friend. The projects you do work on will be more succesful.

Was it worth it? Is it worth it?

Are you getting anything from the book your reading? If not, drop it. Are you losing weight at the gym? Try a class instead. Do you check your emails every day? Try every other day.

Don’t take anything for granted in your life. There are many ways were we can cut down on the things we are doing, the time we are spending and the effort that we are wasting. Take some inspiration from places like Life Hacker and optimise your life.

How else can you stay focused and own your time?

• Drop wrong opportunities quickly – don’t throw good time after bad
• Plan your projects, set goals and stick to them
• Review your goals and processes regularly (I recommend every week) – are you on track? Can you put any projects on hold
• “How do you eat an elephant” – one piece at a time. Keep faith in the big tasks by splitting them into manageable chunks
• Be aware of priority – don’t let anything jump the queue unless it benefits you
• For those things you want to do, but can’t right now – put them on a list. Keep them safe and review often. But don’t do them until you can give them 100%
• Put all projects on hold, move them off main lists

Thank you for reading – I hope this inspires you to achieve more and make more fantastic contributions to this world. If you have any other tips, comments or questions comment below!

photo credit: Tony Austin

You are an extremely lucky person if you have never lost anything from your computer. As every day goes by more and more of our lives are held on hardware that at any time could fail without notice; photographs, movies, journals, business records, website files, databases, designs, contacts, emails and more.

This might sound like the introduction to a new backup solution but the truth is this is more like a self motivating post. Despite losing photographs, work and many gigabytes of MP3 I still don’t have a reliable backup solution. It is forever on my todo list and never completed, as there is always something better to be doing.

Until my inevitable post describing the loss of my entire digital life, I just wanted to talk quickly about using optical discs (DVDs and CDs especially) for backup; don’t do it.

Most likely you are using more sophisticated methods such as an external hard drive, but if you have any old backups on disc, get them somewhere safe. Why? Simply because optical discs degrade over time.

The lifespan of a DVDr could be anything from 2 years to 30 years depending on the quality, storage, temperature and exposure to light. As anyone who has burned discs before will know, even discs in the same spindle are of varying quality; some work and some don’t.

Without the need for research, debate, analysis or testing it is safe to say you shouldn’t use CDs or DVDs for backup if you have anything but short term intentions. With the amount of alternatives available, it is best just to get out of this habit and look at something else.

A quick overview of alternative methods:

• Cloud Storage – store your data online at places like Amazon S3 or Dreamhost Files Forever (my recommendation – let someone else worry about the hardware).
• Dropbox – Great automatic solution, requires no maintenance, but limited in size
• External Hard Drives – Applications like Time Machine on the Mac make this easy, but still could fail.
• Crashplan – Looked like a good solution. Similar to dropbox but with more space and scope. When I tried it took too long to upload and drained bandwidth.

Whatever backup system you use make sure it is feasible, automatic and reliable. Most importantly, just make sure you have one! (note to self…)

Suggestions, criticisms or opinions? Get involved and comment below!

For those of you that are not aware, these card readers look like a calculator with a slot for your card at the top. You enter your card, enter your pin, enter a code from the website and receive a code to type back into the website.

A number of years ago, while working for an upcoming warehouse software company, I came across a somewhat paranoid but fascinating solution one of our clients used to protect their network. We often had to access databases remotely and in this case we did so via a VPN (a VPN is basically connecting to a private network over the internet).

The added twist was that we had to enter an extra code. This code was shown on a little keychain dongle that had been sent us – while I don’t remember the name or details, the dongle gave us the password and it was different every time. We had excited conversations between ourselves on how this thing worked and how the algorithm could possibly be cracked. Soon enough we realised that the whole idea was a huge burden – many people needed to access the VPN from many different places and we only had one.

We toyed with the idea of setting up a webcam and broadcasting the readout via a webpage, undermining the security. Fortunately the client scrapped this security.

I write this because this is exactly the frustration we all face with bank card readers. Currenty I am in Asia (Koh Chang, Thailand to be precise) and I am carrying no less than three of these readers, one of which I had to have shipped from the UK after they replaced it.

The Barclays PINSentry Card Reader. I H8 U.

Why else are these readers a burden?

• They prevent multiple users accessing the account simultaneously (think business accounts and shared accounts)
• They require your card, so two items need to be carried at all times. Some people never use their cards and have no reason to carry them
• Card readers can break
• Card readers need batteries
• They are not convenient to carry

It is no doubt a big priority that these systems remain secure. Ultimately, that security is irrelevant if the customers do not use the service or transfer to banks that have a more user friendly security method. So, in my opinion, number one priority for bank and customer is the usability.

Unfortunately, the card readers are just the icing on the cake for me. Some of the other frustrations I find with online banking:

• Non standard login methods, preventing your browser or plugin (LastPass!) from working
• Incomprehensible design and technology decisions, causing major usability problems. (e.g. browser back/forward buttons causing logging out)
• Lack of stored data (most of my accounts only hold a couple of months statements)
• Lack of browser/device compatibility (no chance of banking online with my phone)
• Lack of reliable notifications for payments (did they receive it? what is the status?)

The Light

Fortunately, I have seen recently a couple of examples of great forward thinking in the online banking arena. Of particular note is Barclaycards excellent new online interface, launched around July 2009. As the screenshot below shows, you can see up to date graphs on your spending categorised by groceries/fashion/travel etc.

Barclaycard Online Interface - Click to Enlarge

As Barclaycard have pioneered, what else can we look into for our online banking solutions?

• Notifications – RSS, Text, Email and/or desktop messages showing transactions, balance, charges, statement available
• Phone integrations – an iPhone app for my banks, with push notification, would be immense
• Integrations – Achievable via notifications for a programmer, but some kind of integration with invoicing software or personal finance systems would be a big time saver.
• Better exports – ability to export all information, from all date ranges
• Better use of information – Imagine the information that must be available on each transaction? Location, company details, exact time, balance at that moment etc.
• Standardisation across banks, allowing the ability to view finances together (perhaps only realistically achievable by integrations)

Existing Integrations

I intend to investigate further, although it seems that existing websites bringing finances together in a truly automated way are still in infancy, probably due to our banking system here in the UK. It is only last year that the banks upgraded their systems to allow instant money transfers (instead of 3 to 5 days delay) – from a reliable rumour I heard, this was due to some banks using the equivalent of spreadsheets to organise these transactions.

Some of the sites that are worth investigating (thank you to Emma Davies of LoveMoney for her contributions here):
Mint.com – currently seems to be USA only
Money Dashboard – looks slightly amatuer, although claims to integrate automatically. Try with caution, I saw them spamming on money forums. Still in Beta with no launch date.
LoveMoney.com – A new UK only company launched in April 2009, with online banking launched in December last year. Constantly improving with updates every two weeks. Check out the Love Money Blog.
Kublax – a 2007 seedcamp winner, but faces closure due to lack of funding. Could be saved by Simply Finance so still worth keeping in mind.
Wehuhu – No integrations yet (manual uploads) but this is a new service and could be expanding soon.

With some digging around, there appears to be a resistance from the UK banks which is delaying these types of systems. Quote regarding Mint.com “They’ve said they aren’t going to launch a UK version for the forseeable future. None of the major UK banks have gotten on board to allow sharing of transaction data.”. Source: Money Saving Expert forums.

Imagine the Future

I am an optimist. I picture a time when I wake up in the morning, check my emails and see that I have received three payments with details of who from and the exact date/time they sent it. This summary also shows that of the five payments I sent yesterday night, three have been received successfully and two are still pending. My invoicing software is notified of the payments and marks the relevant invoices as paid.

Sat in my favourite coffee shop, I check out my iPhone banking app. I can quickly see the balance of all my accounts, credit cards (including available spend) and also that the two pending payments are now confirmed.

That evening I travel out of my home town and pay for petrol on my card in somewhere I have never been before. I instantly receive a text message to notify me of this transaction, due to its slightly out of character nature, with a web link and number to report the fraud and instantly freeze the card if necessary.

It is is the end of the month and I am checking my credit card statements. I can see easily what I have spent compared to the past 6 months, by category of expenditure. I can see a graph showing my expenditure over the month and realise that the first week I went a bit overboard on clothes shopping. My account shows that all bills are scheduled to be paid and calculates that there is enough money to pay them all, giving me a total of “free cash” that I can withdraw during the month.

This is just a sample of how much control we could have and how convenient banking could be. How nice would it be to see a cheap Macbook Air in the shop, check your finances instantly on your phone and only buy if you can? Not very nice for the banks it appears, which may be a reason they are dragging their heels when it comes to providing us with convenient information.

Why Banks should Embrace

More control over our finances should theoretically mean less mistakes, less people overdrawn, less interest and less fines; all this equals less profit for the banks.

The reality is that not everyone will embrace these new features. Offering this technology does not instantly make everyone in the country good with money – those who are too busy, too scared and otherwise not motivated will still make the mistakes they always have. The ones who are craving this power will reward the banks with more business.

Advancing the online banking technology will not put more money in peoples pockets, remove their greed or fix their lack of money skills.

Let me indulge you with an example. I always play it safe – if I have any doubt over how much money I have, I won’t buy. I am not tricked by overdrafts, high credit card limits or buy now pay laters. I like to think I know about money and I don’t like paying interest – I always pay in full and on time.

If I am given more control and information, I am likely to know exactly what I can afford and spend more. As a bonus, if I am told that buying a new espresso machine this month will only cost me £7.24 in interest if I put it on card and pay it the month after, I will be tempted to do so.

There is opportunity here for financial institutions to get a head start on others. I am not afraid to change to a bank that offers me more information, better access, more convenience and is more forward thinking. As banks know, an existing customer is more likely to take a loan or a mortgage or other products.

Better tools to access information and monitor information means people will be using the banks systems more. More usage means more potential for advertising, up selling and gaining customers trust.

If my bank embraced technology even slightly, I would respect them more and listen to what they have to say.

Solutions to Security

There still lies obstacles with security, put in place by self-righteous technology consultants and the paranoid media. Due to this mindset, usability is often completely ignored.

I admit I am not particularly security focused, but I believe finding a solution that is convenient to the user is essential. Regardless, here are some potential security starting points:

• Instead of card readers, how about additional security only when unusual activity occurs? (e.g. different location of login)
• Grant lower security to those who want it. Give us a choice! I will take the risk, because I know I won’t enter my details into www.barclaysbank.somerandomdomain.com/login
• Custom security levels. e.g. by default require additional authentication only when money is transferred (customisable by the user)
• Bio-metrics – some way off for mainstream (who of you has a fingerprint reader?), but should be implemented when feasible
• Trusted machines – link my laptop or desktop to the website, meaning I only have to jump through a hoop once

What do you think?

Are you happy with the banking system? Are you inconvenienced by the security, or do you not mind and prefer the peace of mind? Do you have any alternatives or ideas?

If so, comment below!

Unfortunately, import an SQL dump containing your data and table structure often causes timeouts via phpMyAdmin when the database is particularly large meaning you have to import data a table at a time (or even part of a table at a time) which takes a long time and is prone to error.

In the past I have done many things from writing custom import scripts to importing the database bit by bit. I have also used desktop tools (such as the excellent Sequel Pro for Mac OS X) although many web hosts disallow external access.

Fortunately I came across an excellent, flexible import script called BigDump which takes your SQL file, splits it and automatically imports it (via javascript reloads). Script and full instructions are available at http://www.ozerov.de/bigdump.php

Do you have any tips, tricks, advice or questions about importing/exporting MySQL databases? Get involved and comment below!

It is clear that this solution goes a long way to dealing with the spam problem and the webmaster is happy, but at what cost to the user? At best there is another field to fill out. At worst, if the image is hard to read or the user has some visual impairment it is a barrier for the user to completing the form.

Most good CAPTCHA implementations will include a visual (image with text) and audible (audio playback of the text) meaning that even those struggling to read the image will be able to complete the form. There are also usually options to “refresh” the image, creating a potentially easier to read image.

All of this helps but does not avoid the fact that the user is having to do more work to complete the form. We are always looking to increase conversions and should be looking at reducing the actions a user has to do (such as avoiding duplicate email and password fields) in order to increase the chance they will fill out the form.

So what about alternatives? A great example of spam detection is the excellent Akismet as popularised by WordPress. Spam is automatically detected by algorithms and tests on the Akismet server and this reduces manual checking to pretty much zero as well as leaving the user experience untouched.

So a use of Akismet or similar service is the ideal solution – the user does not see a change and the spam problem is still solved. The service should err on the side of caution, to prevent losing genuine information. Regular checks of the “spam” content should also be considered.

The second best solution, which can also be used in conjunction with an Akismet type integration, would be to improve your admin systems. If your form is submitting directly to email then it will be difficult to check and remove large amounts of spam. Having a tidy admin area with the ability to view/edit/delete data all together will reduce time spent on checking for spam.

Many CAPTCHA implementations are unnecessary and are done as either habit or due to some idea that it is a professional thing to do – question whether you will actually receive spam and is it better to deal with it manually?

The final alternative would be to make the CAPTCHA less obtrusive, more fun or easier in some creative way. Microsoft have the initiative ASIRRA which shows promise – the user is asked to identify pictures of dogs and cats. A simple click by the user is all that is needed and in tests many found the exercise fun.

Some websites also offer simple random questions (e.g. what is 3 plus 5?) although these are potentially circumvented as well as lacking the fun appeal to most users.

In conculsion I stress that you should consider first and foremost whether you need spam protection. If you need to, try to ensure the spam protection does not intrude on the users experience – your conversion rates will reward you.

Do you have any CAPTCHA tips, tricks, advice or questions? Get involved and comment below!

photo credit: Bull3t

The www prefix is essentially a subdomain of your website and although many people will type it in, some may just try to enter the domain itself.

Many websites, including high profile ones, can’t be accessed without the www subdomain. For example, barclaycardunwind.co.uk is inaccessible while www.barclaycardunwind.co.uk is.

This is essentially a DNS or server configuration problem, so a single solution is not available for everyone but it should be straightforward. Contact your web host if you are not sure or modify your server configuration if you know what you need to do.

Once you can access your site without the www, make sure that the traffic is forwarded to one or the other to prevent potential duplicate content issues with google.

Make sure you do it, or risk frustrating and/or losing a lot of your visitors!

Google Gears was released in mid 2007 and, as described by the big G themselves, “enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to your web browser.”. This is a slightly generic explanation and the aim of this post is to show exactly what Google Gears does and how you can benefit from it.

Essentially Gears (the official name, to reflect the open source nature) extends your web browser. You perform an install at http://gears.google.com/ which is available for most modern browsers. A website can then use the following features via Gears:

• A local server, to cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) without needing to contact a server
• A database, to store and access data from within the browser
• A worker thread pool, to make web applications more responsive by performing expensive operations in the background

But what does this actually mean and what makes it good?

Offline Functionality – By using Gears, the application and data can be stored offline and the user can perform tasks without an internet connection. Data can then be synchronised once an internet connection is available. A great example of this is Google Mail – with gears you can view your emails, reply, send new, access your address book etc. and everything is performed once you get an internet connection. See also the todo list application Remember the Milk.

Faster Sites – Gears can store files, data and code on a local web server, meaning your machine shares the processing power and reduces the need for data transfer. WordPress implements this well in the admin area, speeding up many tasks.

Quicker Searches – Full text searching can be performed locally, meaning less server resources are used and quicker results for the user. MySpace takes advantage of this feature.

Threading JavaScript Code – On a more technical level, the WorkerPool functionality allows Javascript to be run in the background without affecting the browser. This essentially means that script execution is not stopped on the website while this Javascript is running, meaning a more user friendly experience and hopefully the disappearance of the “A script is taking a long time to run…” dialog boxes.

GeoLocation access – Google Gears can request the geographic location from the client (if there is a GPS device such as on an iPhone) or from the network information (IP address etc.). This is made simple for the coder and allows the web application to know with accuracy and efficiency where the client is located.

What else can Gears do?

Gears is still in Beta and is not recommended for public use yet (despite many Google Applications using the technology). Gears provides an interface between the website and the clients machine, meaning that in future websites will for example be able to:

• Encode video/audio locally
• Send notifications to the users desktop (e.g. Windows XP bubbles or OS X Growl style notifications)
• Access files locally
• Ability to resume file uploads
• Use the clients camera

Some important information

Google Gears needs to be implemented so this is an extra strain on lower budget websites and applications. Also, the client needs to install an extension to their browser meaning your typical user won’t have the software available. This means that at the moment only hugely popular technical/professional style sites are implementing gears.

The popular Firefox plugin Grease Monkey, which basically allows you to use scripts (or your own code) to modify websites on the fly, can be used to implement Gears features even when the website hasn’t implemented it. See the Google article Gears Monkey for more information and a script for Wikipedia.

The actual name of this technology is Gears. Google renamed it from Google Gears in order to reflect the open source direction of this project. Many people still refer to the technology as Google Gears, including myself, due to the ambiguity of Gears.

What other web applications are currently using Google Gears?

Here are a few I know about:

• Google Reader
• Google Docs
• Drupal
• Somethings
• Picasa
• Buxfer
• Mind Meister
• PassPack
• Google Calendar

Do you have any Google Gears tips, tricks, advice or questions? Get involved and comment below!