There are literally hundreds of applications and third-party services on the Internet that a business can use to track and analyze their website traffic. However many of them suffer from one of the following problems:

• offers too little or too much information
• overly complex statistics interface
• poorly illustrates data
• difficulty to install and configure
• costly

Instead of bombarding you with a huge spread of software no business would have the time to wade through, here is a succinct list of free or low cost analytic options that are considered to be the cream of the crop.

Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics

Google Analytics is a third-party service that can run on any web server without requiring special software. It is easy to install (only a few lines of javascript). One of its best features is that it is free to use. This has pretty much become the industry standard anymore when it comes to modern web analytics. It provides a good amount of basic information and it has a great interface.

CrazyEgg
http://crazyegg.com

CrazyEgg is an interesting third-party service that is also easy to install and bears no server requirements. What makes it unique is that it offers a number of overlays that will track what areas are popular to “click on” in website pages. In other words, it can give a good idea which areas within the site people are giving their attention. They offer a limited free package but it is rather inexpensive to upgrade.

103bees
http://103bees.com

This one is a third-party service as well and just as easy to install as the others. It is free to try out and very inexpensive to upgrade. It does, however, have a different focus than the others in that it is built around organic traffic (traffic from search engine or links from other websites). While the others mentioned do provide information in this regard, 103bees is built around it. This gives a refreshing perspective that is similar to a visitor’s journey to and through the site instead of just a report of what, when and how many.

Clicky
http://www.getclicky.com

Clicky is also a easy to install, third-party service. However this service offers something that none of these others do (and I think it is one of the most valuable) - it will show the path each individual user took on your site. You can view what page a visitor entered on and where they went from there. This can give really valuable insight into how visitors look for and digest information on the site. Also the higher level, paid versions offer ways to tweak the service to specific needs. It takes a programmer to set it up but it could be a good way to enhance traffic analysis.

There is one major drawback with this service however; the free package puts ads on the website it is tracking and for business this may not be good. You can upgrade to an ad free, paid version.

Mint
http://www.haveamint.com

This last one is for all of those businesses who either cannot or do not want to share their web traffic data with a third-party service. It is an inexpensive solution that can be installed on almost any web server out there (requires Apache, MySQL and PHP) and it will give you a good baseline of information.

The statistics interface is very pleasing to look at, however the data could be organized a little better and it offers little to no explanation as to what the statistics mean. It seems like a good solution for those who already have their feet wet with web statistics.

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This is an article I originally wrote for COSE Mindspring. I have posted it here for personal archival purposes. You can find the original article here.

The growth of the Internet and its uses has enabled business to operate in new and profound ways. Businesses can now use online services that allow them to sit across the conference table from people around the world (Skype) or have multiple people work on a spreadsheet at the same time (Google Docs).

Capabilities aside, one of the greatest benefits about these online services is the price point. Many great online services are free or very cheap to use. However the savings received as a user of an online service forces the business behind the service to seek alternate means of monetizing it.

The most popular way to monetize an online service is through effective advertising to its users. This process generally involves a degree of information sharing to the advertiser. If that information happens to be internal documents, potentially filled with ideas and trade secrets, so be it.

In fact, in the fall of last year there was a brief scare that Google, by way of their user agreement, was claiming the right to reproduce and distribute the documents created with Google Docs. This however turned out to be false - it only applies to documents specified as ‘public’ (see article resources for more information).

Still there is a lesson to be learned. Businesses must exercise great caution when using online services, especially when it comes to free ones. Be sure to thoroughly read all user agreements before agreeing or using a service. It would seem that this is common sense, but the truth is that many people and businesses use things like online email services and document sharing services without giving it a second thought.

If ever unsure about what a section of a user agreement implies, have a lawyer look at it or ask for clarification from the service provider. Historically speaking online agreements have been proven enforceable; be sure not to agree to something that may be regretted down the road.

All in all online services can be a great asset to business as long as care is taken in what services are chosen and the types of information shared.

Educational Resources

The Content in Google Apps Belongs to Google
Does Google own your content?
Gasp! Google Adapts and Modifies Your Docs & Spreadsheets Content?! Yes, But…
Warning: Google Docs Is NOT Safe

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This is an article I originally wrote for COSE Mindspring. I have posted it here for personal archival purposes. You can find the original article here.

Unsolicited email has become well more than a casual nuisance - it has become a productivity and security threat over the years. In fact recent reports show that SPAM email now accounts for about 95% of all email traffic on the Internet today.

However there is hope for your inbox. There are a plethora of great tools that can help you cut out SPAM for good. Here are a few tools that can help you fight SPAM on your computer.

Cross Platform

These tools are available to you whether you use a Windows, Mac or Linux computer.

Thunderbird - This is an alternative email client to Outlook that you can use for managing your contacts and email messages. One of the advantages is that it has good SPAM filtering tools built-in that learn how to better classify SPAM as you use it. It also has a great list of add-ons that can improve the way the applications function according to your needs. However it may not be a good option for someone who has been used to using Outlook.

There is also a new application that is based on Thunderbird (and a few other applications) that is up and coming. It is called Spicebird, and it is supposed to be an improvement on Thunderbird’s abilities. However it is very young and may not be ready for prime-time use. It is only currently available for Windows and Linux.

Both of these are free and Open Source options.

SpamBayes - This is a great filter tool that is able to learn as is goes and gets better and better at identifying SPAM the longer you use it. The algorithms used in this application set are the basis for most of the other tools listed in this article. It does integrate as a plugin for Outlook, however it seems to be designed for the more savvy user and may not be a good option for everyone. It is also a free and Open Source option.

For Windows

There are many free and non-free options in this space that supplement Outlook. However many of these are either too complicated or offer little to no improvement.

Spamihilator - This is one of the best tools I have seen for Windows to actively stop SPAM. It is independent of the mail client and works equally well with Outlook as it does with other mail clients. It is kind of like a maid, it checks your email for you and clears out the SPAM and then when you (Outlook) check it later all of the SPAM is already cleaned up. It also learns and gets better as you use and automatically reconfigures Outlook to send mail through it. Plus it is a free application.

For Mac

Mail - This mail client comes included with every copy of OSX and it has a built-in Junk filtering program that slowly learns how to better classify SPAM as you teach it by marking email as SPAM. I have been experimenting with this feature for a while now and it seems to be somewhat of a slow learner.

For Linux

Pretty much all of the mail clients for Linux have built-in SPAM filtering tools including the popular applications like Evolution and KMail. Another feature of many of these mail clients is that they are designed to integrate with other filtering programs as a supplement to their built-in features.

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This is an article I originally wrote for COSE Mindspring. I have posted it here for personal archival purposes. You can find the original article here.

Email has become one of the cores of communication for any business and is one of the quickest, most cost effective ways for a business to get things done. However, email does suffer from some limitations.

One of the most common struggles I see small (and large) businesses facing is being able to send files to others over email. With the growth in size for the average file attachment and the advancing technology in email filtering, it is becoming harder and harder to get a file through to someone over email.

One way to overcome this issue is to host the file on a server somewhere and have the intended recipient download the file themselves from the Internet. However this option presents its own issues considering many small businesses may not have a server to host the file. Another issue with this is how to protect the file such that only the intended recipient gets access to the file.

Thankfully there are many free and low cost options provided by third party companies to over come these issues. Below is a short list of some free and low cost options.

drop.io - This one is quick, free and easy. It also supports password protection for your dropped files. You can mange your files and others can retrieve the files through a web browser.

DropSend - This one offers a little application that you can download and run on your computer to send files. Recipients can get their files from a web browser. They have a free package which allows you to send a limited number of files a month.

youSENDit - This one seemed a little complex but it offered a way for others to send files back to you using your account as a drop box. However they only offer a temporary free trial and then you have to start paying if you want to keep the service. On the other hand this one boasts itself as being HIPAA compliant.

pando - This is more of a full featured file sharing application that you download and then share files over their servers. They have a free package and you can upgrade as you need.

Any one of these options can make it possible for you to get documents where they need to go regardless of the limitations of email.

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This is an article I originally wrote for COSE Mindspring. I have posted it here for personal archival purposes. You can find the original article here.