Internet

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) has taken a battering over the years from web developers due to it not supporting key web standards. The added work to get a website displaying correctly in IE6 can prove a real headache and one of the main reasons why we want it banished.

In recent weeks Google has criticised its' lack of security and blamed the loophole that allowed China based hackers to attack them squarely at the foot of IE6. Subsequent to this even the German and French governments have requested their citizens should switch from using the browser.

As of the first of this month Google started phasing out support for IE6 as stated in their modern browsers for modern applications blog post.

Starting a blog can be difficult, especially if you're still unsure exactly what a blog is or how to use it for your business!

I want to first allay any fears that you have to spend hours every day blogging or tweeting on Twitter (micro blogging) in order to make it worthwhile. This isn't the case, a good blog doesn't need to be updated daily but rather when you do blog, make a concerted effort, no one wants to read a hash of a post!

So let's get started and by the end of this post I guarantee you'll be wanting to start blogging for your business straight away!

Blogging for Business Basics

What is a blog?
A blog is an online journal which many use to share personal information but in this instance we're using it for business. You've probably read a blog without even realising it, whether it be a journalist on the BBC News website or clothing retailer, personal opinion or experience has the ability to grab interest.

How important is service to you? Even if you don't work in the service industry you have to deal with customers and suppliers, so being approachable and contactable is important.

Now I'm not going to name the company I'm referring to, I can see a few frowns on your faces, but safe to say the system of customer support this relates to is a common one.

If you deal with a large company there are usually many different channels to contact support, most common being telephone, email, support ticket or live online chat. Now if you provide these methods it's normally good practice to actually be on the other end to respond!

When supplying a phone number it's good that someone, especially between the hours of 9 and 5, picks up the darn thing or you have the ability to leave a voicemail! What's the point of a support number if there's no support?!

Naturally your next port of call is live online chat, except when you go to use it there's never anyone there to chat to! Live offline chat would be more appropriate!

If you ever needed inspiration to start a blog and tips to keep people returning to read it then the video below, titled How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself by Tim Ferriss, is a great place to start.

Having viewed it the other day I felt I had to share with you, it was that good, I hope you get something from it even if you have an established blog.

There's background to where and why he started blogging, including an embarressing telephone call to a blogging idol!

If you're thinking about starting a blog or have doubts as to where to start then watch this presentation:

Blog comments are a hot topic at the moment and something we're constantly reviewing. Since Matt Cutts, at SMX Advanced, announced the 'nofollow tag' no longer passes pagerank, the blogging and more importantly the SEO community has been discussing the merits of page rank sculpting.

Barry Welford's post, Blog Comments and Google, gives a great run down of the situation and the merits of allowing comments on your blog.

We, at Makak Media, are interested in how a blog aids your SEO efforts and attracts visitors to the site but at the same time we're also mindful that this blog is primarily there for the reader. It's not all about getting visitors and gaining page ranking if your content isn't of quality and your readers can't interact.

Read Only Comments

Securing your ecommerce website is a top priority to give customers confidence in purchasing from your store.

You may have payment options such as offsite or onsite payments. If you're using an offsite payment method, such as PayPal, customers are sent to an external site to complete checkout and so security issues are handled by PayPal themselves.

What about if you're using onsite payment methods, what do you need to do to secure the payment page?

The first thing you'll need to do is check your hosting package came with an SSL Certificate. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypts critical data, such as credit card details, providing security and data integrity for communications over networks such as the Internet.

I got tagged the other day by Patricia over at Wellwrittenwords and thought I'd join in the fun!

The Rules for This Particular Meme

* Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post. (see above)
* Share seven facts about yourself in the post. (see below)
* Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs. (see below)
* Let them know they’ve been tagged. (you’ll just have to trust trackbacks and such)

Without further ado here are 7 things you probably didn’t know about me:

Twitter is a powerful micro blogging platform but how do you find people interested in your niche market?

How do you find out what a particular hash tag represents?

How else can you get the most out of Twitter and maximise the time you put into social media?

I've gathered just 5 of a plethora of tools out there to help you answer those questions.

There are many more out there but here are 5 great tools I use regularly.

5 Great Twitter Tools

Twitter Search

Twitter search lets you search twitter!

#Hashtags

Discover what's behind a particular hash tag, which are popular or the latest tags out there in the twitterverse.

Twellow

Twellow is a Twitter Directory, a great way to find other people to follow on Twitter from your industry or who share the same interests as you.

Twopular

Follow Friday is a great way to share top people to follow on Twitter. The brainchild of @micah who also has a blog on Startups and Entrepreneurship.

Instead of searching for people interested in the same topics as yourself #followfriday gives you the chance to find recommendations from friends who they think deserve your attention.

You can waste time following some people who from first glance looked like good tweeple.

Recommendations take away the pain and gives everyone the chance to give their friends a chance to interact with more people.

Follow Friday is a great addition to give everyone a way to find valuable people to follow.

Give a short description of what someone tweets or if they're just a great member of the community simply big them up!

Today is (un)officially Blogger Appreciation day, well Darren Rowse started the worthy cause and Chris Garrett developed it into appreciation of those that comment on your blog.

It's your comments that highlight points missed or subjects to cover so keep them coming.

So here are the great and good that have all so far commented on my blog, it's only a new born monkey creation so props (respect cause I'm hip, on the cutting edge ouch!) to my early adopters:

Ed Rouch
Barry Welford
Rachel Phillips
Rob Safuto
Mel
Patricia Skinner
SexySEO