Stu Macik

Stu Macik offers advice, tips and opinion to small businesses looking to implement "Business Creative" internet marketing and technology solutions. Stu is a Web Marketing Consultant and Founder of Colorado based Broken Sky Studio LLC. He specializes in Custom Website Design & Development, Branding, Digital marketing and Social Media & Google Apps Set-Up, Integration, and Consulting for Small Businesses throughout the U.S.

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Another Broken Sky Studio New Website Launch, The Imagemakers, Ink! LLC Career Counseling, Coaching and Consulting

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R.I.P. 800 Numbers With Google Voice!

Still paying extra for a toll free number for your small business? Well my friend, here's a way to save yourself a few bucks (and who doesn't need that right now) and still give your (long distance) customers and clients a way to get in touch with you that's both free for them and you.

This can all be accomplished with very little effort by using a Google Voice call widget on your website or mobile site that allows your customer to enter their phone number which then calls their phone and connects them to you. All for free on both ends.

If it sounds too good to be true, I promise you its not. All you need is a free Google Voice Account and the ability to embed a few lines of code on your website. After using the service with several clients sites now, I can report that it's working flawlessly. Google has really ironed out the kinks on this product and made it into something genuinely useful for small business.

Anyway, give it a try and see if you can send your "Toll Free" number to Rest In Peace. I mean, what have you got to lose?

-Stu

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“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

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Firefox 4 vs. Chrome

Being that my business is web design and development, I guess you could say that I've almost had to become a browser geek. I have no less than ten of them on my Mac that I use for testing  but, like most of you, I'm using one of the "big boys" for most of my personal work and browsing on the web.

The two that right now that garner most of personal browsing time are the newly released and revamped Firefox 4 and the (frequently updated) Chrome browser from Google.

First off, let me say that both are extraordinary in their implementation and performance and I highly recommend both to friends and clients looking for a better browsing experience than what they may be used to, especially if they've been using Internet Explorer for any length of time. Even the just released IE9 is not in the same class as Firefox and Chrome but that's a debate for another time. Suffice it to say that MS, at this point, really IS trying to build a better browser and that bodes well for Windows users in the future. Just not quite yet.

As for my personal opinion, I think that with the release of FireFox 4 the scale has tipped back slightly (and I do mean ever so slightly) in the direction Firefox.

With Firefox 4, the speed advantage that Chrome had has now all but evaporated and, in my mind, Firefox just "feels" more solid in it's overall interface and implementation of extensions. Of course, some of this advantage comes from the fact that Firefox has been around for quite a bit longer than Chrome but nonetheless this is important to me as I use a lot of extensions (as well as customization). So if you're like me, Firefox is the better choice, at least for now.

On the hand, if extensibility isn't as important to you, I can say with certainty that you will be very happy with either browser. They're both fast and stable at this point although I will say that I have had more stability issues with Chrome lately. Compared to other browsers out there though, these are minimal and wouldn't get in the way of the average user, I probably put more stress on a browser than most people.

At any rate, give both Firefox and Chrome a tryout, if you haven't already. If you're one of those "other" browser users out there be prepared to be blown away. These are both excellent pieces of software and both are highly recommended. You can download FireFox 4 here and Google Chrome here

-Stu

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Broken Sky Studio Web Marketing, Design and Development New Website Launch Jo Myers Real Estate

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The most important aspect of bringing your business to the web and what you should pay for it is to understand that, as with any product or service, there are different levels of quality, competence, expertise and service out there. Today’s pricing for a website runs the gamut from inexpensive “do it yourself” services (google sites, intuit, etc.) to the “$500.00 website guys” to “professionals”. Here’s a quick breakdown and what kind of pricing you’re likely to find.

Read the full post: "How Much Should I Pay For A Website" via Business Creative Web Design, Small Business Branding and Marketing On The Web

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Who's The Best Domain Registrar?

I have clients ask me this question all the time and my answer is always the same. In my experience no one comes close to GoDaddy when it comes to domains and here's why in one word. Price! GoDaddy has the best prices for domains that I've seen including frequent sales (on certain domain types) and discounts on multiple domains. The only negative that I experience with GoDaddy for domains is their frequency of contact (emails and even snail-mail) but I consider it a minor annoyance when comparing their pricing vs. other registrars.

-Stu

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Dr. Jaclyn Kostner has made her reputation as THE Webinar Guru the old fashioned way. "She"s earned it". Her Firm "Bridge The Distance" is quite simply at the top of the mountain when it comes to training you and your business how to utilize webinars for online presentations, learning and meetings. Oh, and you don't to climb a mountain to get to see this guru, just give her a call and watch you productivity and profits grow! 

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3 Firefox Extensions For Better Browsing Privacy

I love Firefox. Even with the (much needed) competition from Google Chrome it's still my "go to" browser for the the majority of my browsing needs and version 4, which I've been beta testing for the last few months, is looking quite good as of the latest release (Beta 12).

One of the reasons I love Firefox so much is the depth and breadth of extensions available and while Chrome is slowly catching up they still have a ways to go in respect to the number of extensions available as well as their implementation and integration into the browser itself.

As for privacy extensions here are 3 that are all running great right now on the Firefox beta 4 that I really wouldn't want to live without in terms if privacy. Mostly because I hate the thought of  being "tracked" all the time by cookies, "super cookies" and other analytics. Here's a quick breakdown of my "big 3" privacy tools.

Better Privacy-Better Privacy is basically an LSO (Locally Shared Objects) zapper. LSO's are also known as "flash cookies" so if you're running Flash you ARE collecting these insidious little buggers and they ARE collecting information about you and your browsing. Deleting "regular" cookies doesn't do anything to these little guys so if you don't delet and or manage them they can literally stay on your system forever tracking what your doing and where your going. Better Privacy is great in that it lets you delete all the LSO's on your system if you like or you can "white-list" and protect certain LSO's if need be. I have to white-list my Banks LSO's for instance because they use them in the sign-in process but I have found this to be a very rare exception. Most LSO's are just used as tracking "Super Cookies" and have no added value to you at all, that is unless you like to be tracked!

Ghostery-Ghostery is an awesome tool as well in that it keeps an updated list of web "trackers" (that you can subscribe to when you set it up) that it blocks automatically whenever a page is loaded. Once installed you will be amazed at how many seeming innocuous sites are trying to "track" you and find out who you are and where you've been (by peeking at your cookies and LSO's). Needless to say this is one you'll definitely want to have for more privacy in your browsing in that it too keeps you from having every move you make tracked whether it be for serving you "more relevant" ads or other perhaps more nefarious reasons.

CookieKiller-Cookie Killer is the simplest of these three but not any less important in what it does. It basically lets you install a button in your status or toolbar that lets you "kill" all the cookies that you've collected during a browsing session. You have options to kill "all" cookies or just the page you're on if you like. Or you can kill all except for the page you're on as well so there is some flexibility there at managing cookies during a browsing session. Personally, I'll kill cookies several times during a sesssion just to keep "tracking" to a minimum but you do have to remember that when you do "kill" all of your cookies that you may have to sign back in to a site that you've already signed into earlier. Of course this really doesn't matter as much if you use a password manager like LastPass or 1 Password for Mac (which I also highly recommend) or even Firefox's own password management. For me the inconvenience of having to sign back in is worth the trade-off of know that I'm thwarting "trackers".

Anyway, here's to "safe" and "trackless" browsing!

-Stu Macik

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"Ok, this is a really big deal. We’ve got some “thinking” to do here. The content of your small business website is ultimately what’s going to determine if you’re going to have a new customer/client or not, so you need to have a well thought-out strategy as to what is most likely to “convert” a consumer who visits your site into profit for your business."

Read the full post "Content Strategy For Your Small Business Website" via Business Creative Web Design, Small Business Branding and Marketing on the Web

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"Google Apps For Your Domain is a free solution from Google for small businesses (with less than 50 users) and can typically be implemented in about one business day."

Broken Sky Studio-Google Apps Set-Up and Consulting

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Tumblr flat out rocks at being the “in between” Twitter and a full blown blog. I can’t say for sure if that’s what the Tumblr guys were aiming for, but what they’ve come up with is an incredibly useful tool that I’ve now started to integrate into my clients web marketing portfolios.

Read the full post Tumblr-The Super Cool “In Between” via Business Creative Web Design, Small Business Branding and Marketing On The Web

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Broken Sky Studio LLC Recent Project, Dr. Jaclyn Kostner's Bridge The Distance

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"It may not have been spawned from a Jackal but a heinous predator is prowling the small business community in search of prey. This beast…this marketing nightmare lurking in the shadows of the internet is a creature I call…the Anti-Site."

Read the full post "Beware The Anti-Site!" by Stu Macik via Business Creative Web Design, Small Business Branding and Marketing On The Web.

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Tip: Claim Your Directory Listings!

Here's a quick web marketing tip for small businesses. Be sure to claim any business directory listings that you find when Googling your business name. There are a lot of directory/review sites out there that may have listed your business without your knowledge. By claiming, as the owner of the business, the listing you can then ensure that the directory has correct and complete information. You also may be able to respond to reviews of your business if the directory is one that allows customer/client reviews.

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Nothing astonishes people so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It was recently projected that in less than 5 years more than half the browsing on the internet will be done by devices with mobile operating systems.

http://www.brokenskystudio.com/mobile.html