Thank you, Jeff, for that welcoming introduction :) As part of living and breathing coreDNA from a technical perspective for the past, oh, how many years now, I am now excited to establish my place as the voice of the development team in this new home that is www.coredna.com. Now, the role I describe as "the voice" is definitely no reflection on that eighties mullet wonder Johnny Farnham, purely for one distinct reason: "The Voice" as he stood, was singular; our "voice" is plural. Here within the coreDNA team we have a number of vibrant, intelligent and dedicated souls committed to seeing coreDNA be more than just a website engine. With the amount of...

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Welcome back to 2010. In a 'cyber sense' I have defected from bwired to coreDNA, though physically, I'm sitting in the same chair. 2009 was a 'watershed' year for our coreDNA Internet platform as we gradually emerged from a strong client base to now include some of Australia's leading brand name institutions. There will be more on this in future blogs and a new coreDNA eNewsletter, which will be more specific to our channel partners and major corporations. For much of the latter part of 2009 we vested significant time and resources introducing coreDNA to the Ad Agency / Media network in Melbourne, which will extend to Sydney in...

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Knowledge is power, and a comprehensive analytics package used wisely can turn the meek into the mighty. Most have been quick to jump on the analytics bandwagon (who says no to detailed insight into target audiences and more informed decisions regarding website strategy?), but many are still unaware of the valuable research statistics packages such as coreDNA Statistics, Google Analytics and SiteCatalyst Omniture can provide. If you haven't taken the plunge yet, try Google Analytics first to see what it's all about- it's relatively...

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As a dedicated online shopper (particularly at this time of year when time is scarce!), I've noticed our overseas counterparts have become much more affordable than they were this time last year. What was once extortionate has now become quite reasonable. The Aussie dollar was hovering around 65c in December 08. One year on we're looking at approximately 90c, making purchasing from overseas much more viable. Ainslie Chandler's recent article in the BRW " Online Sells Itself " only highlights what we already know- global competition in the retail sector is fierce....

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Of the many key success factors we have identified for best practice online, usability may well be the most important, playing a critical role in the creation of a positive online experience. So....what does a positive online experience mean to you? According to Forrester Research , for many of us it's the ability to retrieve the information, product or service we want as quickly as possible. Forrester Research recently released a report identifying loading times as a major frustration for users, with half of all visitors abandoning sites if they perceive a page or feature takes longer than a...

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Rupert Murdoch doesn't appear to think it's the season to be jolly. Paying for our news online? Switching search engines to access that news? Sounds a bit like bah humbug. There may be viewers that will pay for original, valuable content (unless all news sources become paid) - but I think some of the companies engaging in these transactions might be biting the hand that feed them. Are they missing the big picture? Charging users for visiting will certainly reduce website traffic, decreasing reach and advertising spending with it (which in all likelihood would more than cover the costs of subscription!). And then there's the competition- with the growing number of widely...

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Last week we saw the introduction of EC2 be established as an alternative for the bold system admin. This week, we are here to give you an understanding of how and where the challenges for change can occur. Note: Amazon EC2 terminology are highlighted in bold Challenges: Now this is where my opinion steps in. I spent a good couple of weeks playing with this service (and, mind you, racking up a decent bill!) and here were the challenges I faced... 1. Persistent Storage I started off using a publically available Instance and as you do with any operating system, you...

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Lately, Amazon EC2 (Elastic Computing Cloud) has been one of the most exciting faces in the Cloud Computing world. The media hype and general chatter of what is now considered the future of hosting infrastructure incessantly tickle those technologically perked ears. But is it all that it's built up to be? This two part series the summarises the features and discusses challenges you will be presented with when jumping on the AWS bandwagon. Note: Amazon EC2 terminology are highlighted in bold Part 1/2: Features Features: EC2 allocates the hardware resources not to a virtual...

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So we know that having our businesses listed in Google Maps and other major search engines boosts search engine optimisation, providing users with a quick and easy way to locate us (by name or by keyword), while driving quality traffic to our websites... But how do we boost our results in this largely untapped area which plays a key role in boosting brand awareness? Here are some steps to be sure to follow:   1.    Make sure your website is search engine friendly Use title tags and descriptive meta tags to describe your web pages so that search engines "know" what each page is all about (these should relate to the...

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Real-time collaboration has become a part of our everyday lives, and social media has played a huge part in getting us here. While it all began as information sharing and social networking (literally), utilising social media is now part of many marketers job descriptions. From participating in forums and blogging; to VoIP and social networking; Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter; have become common terms in the corporate world. And they're boosting our rankings in search engines, increasing quality conversions and building brand credibility. How? The great thing about sharing on the web is that you share, he shares, she shares, everybody shares and all of a sudden...

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Social media has given rise to a new networked world, giving us more accessibility to organisations and the people within them. Social media is as much about keeping in touch and making new connections as it is about knowledge sharing. While there has been m uch discussion regarding appropriate use of social media by employees, it has largely centered around operations, resources, technology and appropriate use of such mediums on company time. But what about the other (much more concerning) issues? There is a definite lack of awareness about what I like to call the dark side of social media; the confidentiality, loyalty and privacy...

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