"The Banter" A Quarterly Newsletter: Vol. 2, 2nd Quarter :: April 2006

Spring Is Here! Is Your Site Working? A Case Study: Strappity-Do-Da Product Highlight: Intersoft Re-Introduces xSellit Online Storefronts Our Clients in the Spotlight: Kowit & Passov Real Estate Group Tech Tips: What Is Port Blocking? Spring Is Here! At last, we're coming out of those dreary, cold winter days! The sun is shining... it's warming up... and everyone is starting to feel like they have more energy. Now's a good time to take a look at your Internet Strategy. Is it working? What's changed or different in your business? What can you do online that will make your customers happy? We have established a new philosophy for your web site. It's simple. What does it "DO"? If you can't answer that question, or the answer is "nothing", then something is wrong and it's time for you to give us a call, I'll bring over some bagels (or protein bars for you Atkins people), you provide the coffee and we'll talk through ideas that are realistic, practical and fit the budget. Read on for some other great articles in this quarter's Newsletter! - Joe Muttillo Back to Top Is Your Site Working? by: Joe Muttillo This is a loaded question! I mean, really, WE probably designed your web site, so it should be doing all the things it was supposed to do and more, right? Bringing in too much business to handle... Doing your laundry... Making coffee... (Ya, right) Except for the too much business to handle part. There are three elements to a successful site. Design Function The Right Traffic or "Eyeballs" All three of these must relate back to the site's established purpose. Some sites are put up for simple sales support, some for lead generation, some for selling, and some for customer service and support. So, to know if your site is working we need to know what your site's purpose is. What should "work" for you is probably different than what "works" for one of our other clients. Point is...times change...businesses change and your web site needs to change. Do you have new products or services to tell the world about? Have you created a new brand identity or logo and need to reflect the changes on your site? Have your expectations of what the web site should "DO" for your company changed over the years? Then let's talk. It doesn't cost anything! Let's chat for 10 or 15 minutes about your business, your target market, your new products or services and your wish list for your site. Pick our brains! We'll re-evaluate your site's purpose with regard to Design, Function and the Right Traffic. To chat, call Joe at 216.765.7351 ext. 103. Back to Top A Case Study: www.strappity.com Strappity-Do-Da Strappity-Do-Da is a start-up company that creates handmade adjustable, beaded fashion straps that attach to a bra, tank top, dress, or piece of lingerie. This unique product eliminates the unfashionable look of large, bulky bra straps that stick out from underneath women's clothing. With Strappity-do-da, women of all sizes and ages can now look pretty and classy by allowing these comfortable, adjustable beaded bra straps to show! Challenge: Strappity-Do-Da was looking for a cost effective website that they would be able to sell their products online. They were looking for a web developer that could create a powerful ecommerce system for them and wouldn't have to spend a fortune. Solution: Intersoft offered Strappity-Do-Da their xSellit Storefronts. xSellit is a low cost, templated ecommerce system. From viewing product details, to selecting products to purchase and to charging credit cards in real time, xSellit is the complete ecommerce package. And the best thing about xSellit is that customers do not need to take time to build their ecommerce store. Intersoft puts the entire system together, allowing Strappity-Do-Da and other companies to focus on the most important aspect...their business. Back to Top Product Highlight: Intersoft Re-Introduces xSellit Online Storefronts Intersoft's newly re-engineered xSellit online storefronts are eCommerce web sites designed to encourage repeat sales while saving you money. If you're thinking about selling online, then take a look at xSellit. xSellit combines the power of a full eCommerce storefront with the ability to choose from a variety of template designs. Unique, custom designs can also be added to further personalize the storefront. xSellit storefronts are ideal for companies or individuals that are venturing out into the online marketplace and realize two major things. First, they realize they can't do it themselves effectively. Second, they understand additional money is necessary to drive traffic to the web site. Can you truly do-it-yourself? There's a huge number of do-it-yourself "shopping carts" that are available online. Some are even free! Problem is, you either have to read through lengthy manuals to set it up or you have to know some level of programming to get it going. Then factor in the integration of online credit card processing and other "tools" and there's a good chance you will quickly find you are in over your head. Maybe you are part of those that can accomplish the setup correctly. Then you are faced with time. All the time you spend on the development of your eCommerce store is time taken away from your business. From selling... to managing... to strategic thinking... to marketing and more. OK, what about getting buyers to your site? Now, if you realize that you need to get someone to help you put up your online storefront, you will quickly realize that this can get pretty expensive. Typical, average solutions can range from $10,000-$20,000. This eats up a lot of the budget for marketing you site. And you know you need to drive traffic to your new store or it's like opening up a store in the middle of the desert. No one will come. So, what can you do? xSellit bridges the gap. Since WE do the work for you, it frees you up to do what you do best, run your business. And since they are template based storefronts with defined functionality, it won't cost you nearly as much to get started. Just how much is xSellit? $1,695 design setup fee and $99/month. That's it! Find out more and visit our web site... www.GoxSellit.com! Back to Top Our Clients in the Spotlight: Kowit & Passov Real Estate Group Website: www.kowitpassov.com Kowit Passov Group had a vision to create "the best retail brokerage firm in Northeast Ohio". Now, in their 10th year, they've become the largest "retail only" firm in the real estate market. Specializing in areas such as Property Management, Acquisitions & Office Leasing, they are committed to exceeding their clients needs and strive to provide them with the most current real estate information available. Visit their newly re-designed web site for Retail Property Listings, Office Property Listings or submit a personalized search by City and Property Size. Back to Top Tech Tips: What Is Port Blocking? Some of you may have already experienced Port Blocking. Port Blocking is when your ISP (Internet Service Provider), the company that provides your Internet Access, restricts certain ports of your Internet Connection. Large ISP's such as, SBC & Earthlink, as well as smaller ISP's, reserve the right to restrict access to Port 25 (SMTP). Port 25 is the Internet's sending port. All emails being sent are typically sent through TCP Port 25. Every Internet application, such as email, ftp (utilizes Port 21) and the web (utilizes Port 80) are assigned a port number by the Internet Assigned Names Authority (IANA). Since most ports are standardized when your computer needs to send an email, it connects to a server on port 25 and sends the email. Why Do ISP's Port Block? The reason why most ISP's block Port 25 is to reduce spam and viruses. Spammers will sign up for high-speed Internet Access accounts (DSL, Cable, etc) and run their own mail server (SMTP engine) to deliver their spam messages. This server delivers the spam emails from their computer bypassing the ISP's mail server, which cannot see the spam messages being delivered. When an ISP blocks Port 25, these SMTP mail servers will be unable to send their spam emails. Instead, the spammer must send their email out through the ISP. The ISP then is able to monitor the emails and will be able to detect a spammer so they can shut them down quickly. Recently, newer viruses called, "Commercial Viruses", have infected thousands of computers. These viruses do not disrupt your computer's functions or cause anything "bad" to happen to your computer. Most people do not know that they have been infected. These viruses install an SMTP engine on the infected computer allowing spammers to connect to the infected computers behind the scenes and send out their spam emails. The infected computers are called "Zombies". By blocking Port 25 these "Zombie" computers will not be able to send spam emails unknowingly. Is My ISP utilizing Port Blocking? Anyone who uses a third-party mail server like Intersoft's, will only be able to receive emails but not send them. You'll be able to receive email from mail.yourdomainname.com (since POP3 utilizes port 110), but won't be able to send email. So what does this mean for Me? Port Blocking is probably not a temporary solution. Most ISP's will probably adopt Port Blocking in the near future. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to change this. The only option, if your ISP port blocks, is to use their outgoing server to send your email messages. Some ISP's allow you to Opt-Out of Port Blocking but it depends on the ISP. But keep in mind, that if you do use your ISP's SMTP server your email should still go out "FROM" your domain name, it just will be sent through your ISP's mail server instead. If you have tech question that you would like us to write about email us at techtips@intersoftgroup.com. Back to Top