If you have ever wondered if you could use your crazy expensive cellphone data plan to get internet on your computer, read on!! (Note this article refers to tethering using an android based G1 and Tmobile service provider.  Tethering may not be available for your specific phone or carrier.  See below for details or visit Mobile-Stream’s Website)

In answer to the question above, Yes you can use your cellphone data plan to get internet on your computer!  The technology is called tethering and it is easier than you think to get started with it.

How Tethering works:

Tethering is the process by which you access your android phone’s 3G internet data plan connection (in my case the data plan that the Tmobile G1 uses) and use it to get online with your laptop / computer, through a USB connection.  Tethering allows you to connect your computer to the internet (at a decent speed) anywhere your phone gets a 3G connection.  It is a boon if you don’t want to pay extra each month for the aircard and the ability to get online from where ever you are.  I figure, we pay enough for our data plans, why not use them for our computer internet too.  The only limitation is that if you don’t have a data plan or you don’t have signal, you don’t have the internet connection.

How do I get it?

What you need to start tethering (this is a list based on what I have, the Tmobile Unlimited Data Plan and G1, etc.):

1. Tmobile G1 (Easy Tether Lite also supports Moto DROID, Milestone, Nexus One, HTC Hero, HTC Dream, MyTouch, and other Android 1.5+ devices.  It also supports Windows Mobile phones and Palm OS phones)
2. Data plan (I have the unlimited everything plan from Tmobile)
3. Access to the Android Market to get the app on your phone
4. Your computer
5. USB cable to connect phone to computer.

Setting it up:

1. Search for Easy Tether Lite in the Android Market
2. Install Easy Tether Lite to your android phone.
3. Follow the instructions for installing Easy Tether Lite to your computer.
4. Once all is installed, follow the instructions in the Easy Tether Lite app and boom, you have internet for your computer, anywhere your phone gets internet.
5. Note:  Easy Tether Lite is the lite version and after a time period will ask you to purchase it.  It’s not much $9.99 for unlimited use.  If you continue to use the service without paying for it you won’t be able to access https sites)

Tethering…

This app rocks for those, like me, who need the internet on the computer anywhere you are.  It’s easy, convenient and it works very well.  Please contact me if you want more info on tethering or how to do it.  Though I am not tech support for Easy Tether, I can help with basic setup, etc.  More info on Easy Tether Lite can be found here

Thanks for reading and I hope that you are able to make use of the Tethering technology out there.  If you like this article please leave a comment, digg it, post it on twitter and / or send it to your friends to read.  Big Cloud Media is all about helping businesses succeed online so we will continue to provide articles like this for our visitors.

Think of Big Cloud Media for all of your online business needs including websites, web-applications, website renovations, web marketing, etc.

Good health and good fortune.

Posted in Helpful Info, The Big Cloud, The Buzz on { March 2nd, 2010 } ~ No Comments

Tagged with: android phones • Big Cloud Media • data • data plan • internet • mobile internet • mobile stream • phones • T-Mobile • tethering

I have been tracking the winter olympics on TV and I finally made my way over to nbcolympics.com and I have to say Kudos for them, it rocks!  Often time the mega sites tend to be an extreme amount of info crunched into a small amount of space that we just deal with.  In the case of  nbcolympics.com, the layout and the way the info is presented actually makes you want to find out more.  This welcome change in presentation is refreshing and a great sign of things to come, hopefully.

If you are diggin’ the winter Olympics I highly recommend visiting nbcolympics.com and poking around.  You are sure to find something there that makes you go “wow”.

Thanks folks and have great day.

Big Cloud Media

Posted in The Big Cloud, The Buzz on { February 27th, 2010 } ~ 1 Comment

Website analytics…a marketers’ boon and holder of a wealth of information.  But what makes them good?  A whole lotta things and we will cover a few of them in depth in the paragraphs to come.  In the past we did a general overview of why website analytics were so important to businesses that had a presence online and we would like to offer a review of a free website analytics tracker that is both fun to use and very informative: GoingUp.com.

General Overview:

Snazzy colors, easy sign up, multiple implentation choices (types of code you insert into your site code to start tracking), and a great looking and informative UI, make this website analytics choice very promising.  The presentation of information is logically sound and almost all ajax driven, which makes for a nice look and feel overall.  Information tracked is extensive and coupled with graphs, charts and maps, the information is easy to comprehend and use.

Other things of notice:

• Multiple websites can be tracked with one free account
• Many choices regarding how info is displayed and what info is displayed
• Bulk Domain Analyzer (allows you to compare the Alexa page rank and Google page rank of multiple domains)
• SEO and Ranking tools (very helpful in determining SEO stats for comparison)

Information gathering:

GoingUp.com collects information regularly from the sites you include in your account.  They are rarely real-time though so make sure to account for how old the info is when doing comparisons to other marketing info.  Information gathered is pretty standard info: visitor count, visitor time on website, visitor locations (city), visitor operating system, visitor internet connection speed, etc.  This info is pretty standard for analytics and there is quite a bit of it. GoingUp.com uses tabs and menus to divide out the info which can be somewhat confusing.  Their information layout though is pretty easy to work with and that is what makes this anaytics option shine.

Website Performance:

So far GoingUp.com’s service has not really affected my site load time.  The only complaint I have is that while the page is loading (for the first time) it has a small advertising link that shows up at the top of the page.  It is there for all of about 1/2 a second or so, depending on the connection, but I did notice it.

The Interface:

As mentioned before, the interface offers alot as far as ease of use and eye-candy are concerned.  With bright bold colors and many ajax affects, it looks great and is fun to use.  One thing to consider, it does take a zippy connection to get the full benefit of the analytics info GoingUp.com gives you.  This is mainly because of all of the ajax loads and the sheer amount of information loading at one time in the UI.  If you don’t have a fast internet connection, it can get downright annoying waiting for the GoingUp.com’s UI to load up.

Ending Thoughts

Overall, I likey.  The information presented is useful and presented in a way that makes it less boring to interact with.  With many options for changes in how information is displayed, you can bet that you will find a configuration to make you happy.  The perks are numerous with the SEO tools that are easy to use and pretty quick in their analysis of submitted pages, tips for improving SEO for sites that are registered in the system and the wealth of information that analytics offer in the first place.  The only thing I didn’t like about GoingUp.com was the load time of the backend UI with a less than optimal internet connection.  If you have a speedy connect and you want great analytics info at your fingertips, feel free to check out GoingUp.com.

Please feel free to leave your comments, suggestions, rants and raves by submitting a comment to this post.

Thank you and as always, for help with all of your web needs (websites, marketing, search engine optimization)  always think of Big Cloud Media.

Big Cloud Media

Posted in The Buzz on { February 15th, 2010 } ~ No Comments

Tagged with: analytics • Big Cloud Media • GoingUp.com • review • web analytics • web analytics review • website analytics

As it turns out, Google has some geniuses working for them.  Oh, alright, you already knew that but really, a Google provided fiber network for consumer use?  Hot diggity!  Sign me up!  Pure Genius!

Supposedly the consumers selected for this test run (the lucky 50,000 for now spread across the US ) will have access to a 1Gbps fiber connection at a price competitive with other broadband providers.  That’s a Gigabit per second speed.  In layman’s terms, insanely fast internet or “…internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today,” according to the BBC report.  Imagine having that kind of speed and power surfing the net or working online.  The possibilities are pretty amazing.  I’m drooling over it because I am a web guy and the more speed the better.

Although the service is quite limited (50,000 homes is not alot on the large scale) the service is crazy fast and competitively priced.  I say bring it on and serve it up to the rest of us asap.  Sadly they don’t listen to me much.

What do you think?  Is this yet another way Google will ultimately take over the world and rule us all or is it just another awesome thing that Google has come up with?

Leave a comment with your thoughts on the matter.

Thanks for visiting and have a blessed day.

Read the full BBC feed/article here…http://bit.ly/dta1EH

Posted in The Big Cloud, The Buzz on { February 11th, 2010 } ~ No Comments

Tagged with: 1 Gbps • Big Cloud Media • fiber • fiber network • Gigabit • Google • Google network • network • news • speed

I was reading through the web news today and I came across an article on new advances in email marketing.  Wow, thought I, this is definitely something to dig into and I should probably share it with you.

Apparently, Constant Contact and GoldMail Inc. are doing a dance which will result in more effective email offspring for everyone.  Through this union of interests, “GoldMail and Constant Contact small business customers [will be able to] add interactive slideshows easily to their Constant Contact emails and deliver richer email messages”.  And the best part folks, it’s free!!  Yeah buddy, ’cause you can’t beat that.  The rest of the article is located at http://bit.ly/djNc0b and I encourage you to read it if you want to know more.

The questions I have to ask is “Will it really improve the mass email offering or would we still just delete them?”  Sure interactive content is cool but do I really want it taking up more room in my inbox or spambox?  Imagine the possibilities, not only can you be spammed but now it can be interactive spam (lol).  Hopefully this is not what it would be used for but I could see it going south and just causing more issues if misused.

I have a couple clients that use Constant Contact currently and they love it.  The service is pretty awesome and they use it with regard for the people receiving the mass emails, so I see light at the end of the tunnel.  I just hope the users of this new service still follow the not-official-but-good-to-follow rules of email marketing:

1. Keep it short.
2. Keep it sweet.
3. Keep it relevant.

If so, we should all be safe and the experience of opening up a newsletter email might actually be more enjoyable.  :)

Let me know your opinions folks.  Yay or Nay on the multi-media mass emails topic and your thoughts about the implications.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Big Cloud Media

Posted in The Buzz on { February 11th, 2010 } ~ No Comments

Tagged with: Big Cloud Media • constant contact • email • email marketing • Information • marketing • mass emailing • mass emails

Hey folks. As your Arlington based Website Design / Marketing company, we want to make sure and keep you in the know with tips and things to watch out for so you can start improving your company presence online and your marketing efforts overall.

Today we will discuss tracking because if you can’t measure it, you can’t use it.  This is a simple concept that is often skipped over when going through the day to day activities of running a business and that is tracking information. I’m not talking about tracking sales and profits and all that. I am talking about tracking the events that cause your sales and revenue to go up. Now regardless of whether or not you have a service or product you are selling, you need to be sure to track the events that cause your sales so you can then capitalize on them and generate even more business.

So how do I track events?

There are several ways of tracking events online including website analytics and the built in analytics programs many email blasters and online advertising systems have built in. These numbers and figures are often over-looked but oh so important as they tell you what happened when and where specifically for those marketing efforts.  This info is crucial for determining whether or not that marketing effort (SEO, advertising online, directory listing, mass-emailer, etc.) is worth continuing.  Once you know what is effective, you can then try to duplicate that effectiveness across the board.

Tracking offline is often more difficult to keep up with but also just as important.  It could be as simple as asking the new clients that phone in where they found you or including it in the conversation when you meet with them.  For those selling products, you can include the “where did you find us?” question in the shopping cart sign up (online) or just ask the person buying from you and write it down.

Tracking does not need to be high-tech to be effective at giving you a bigger picture of where your marketing is working and where it isn’t.  Often times, asking your clients where they found you or how they heard of you can be great for tracking and conversational.

The point is folks, if you don’t track, you are losing out on bundles of info that you can use to get the edge upping the ROI from your marketing efforts.  Ultimately, if you can’t track it, you can’t tell how effective it is and then you end up with money spent ineffective marketing without the expected return.

I hope this post has been helpful for your business and I encourage you to start tracking as much as possible as soon as possible.  Here at Big Cloud Media we specialize in tracking.  We also specialize in installing tracking tools online, analyzing website analytics, comparing real-world numbers with online and offline marketing results and much more.  This is our passion so if you feel you don’t have the time to do it or the know how, we can help.  Once tracking is in place, you can then start seeing the benefits of it in the more effective marketing and the increased sales and client numbers that result from it.

Thanks for reading and contact us today if you would like to have a consultation about your online marketing and how to make it more effective.

Big Cloud Media

ps.  feel free to leave a comment about this topic or send it to someone you think will benefit.

Posted in The Big Cloud, The Buzz on { February 2nd, 2010 } ~ 3 Comments

Tagged with: analysis • analytics • consultation • effective • effectiveness • marketing • passion • ROI • specialize • tools • Tracking • web anlytics • website analytics • websites

Hey yall.  Good day and welcome to the new and improved BigCloudMedia.com.  After our last remodel, we decided we could do it even better and the result is out.

As with all things, constant improvement is necessary to succeed and so as evident by our many redesigns, we are constantly improving our offering for our customers.

Though we have a new look, we are still the same company with the same goals of servicing our clients in the highest possible way with the best possible results.  We still specialize in web-design, development and marketing and we would love to hear your feedback to on our new and improved website.

Also, we developed a new logo for ourselves in an attempt to reach the core of our being with our brand.  We now have our new logo up and ready to go for our marketing efforts so be prepared to start seeing it everywhere.

We are working with many companies in collaboration to offer our clients an even more broad range of creative and marketing services, so please, if you have a need online, call us first and get the real deal when it comes to web and marketing.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.

Big Cloud Media

Posted in The Big Cloud, The Buzz on { January 29th, 2010 } ~ 2 Comments

Tagged with: Big Cloud Media • logo • redesign • SEO • services • web design • website • website design • websites

Hey folks.

This post is about how to make sure your website headers match your content.  This is a short review of how to find them and also, what they should be.  You would be surprised how many website owners I have talked to that don’t know how Google and the other search engines are reading their content, and why it is being read a certain way.  Knowing and adjusting your website header content is a big step in getting your website on the right track for effective SEO and online marketing.

How do I see my website header tags and what is in them?

Here is how to check to see what your headers look like:

1. Visit your website.
2. Click “View” in your browser.
3. Click the “View Source” option.
4. When the source code loads, you should see something like the code listed below.  This blog is focusing on the meta tags “keywords” , “description”, and “title” just to keep things short.   They are labeled in like colors in the code below :

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr" lang="en-US">

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />

<meta name="description" content="Big Cloud Media is an Arlington, TX based, web-design, development and marketing company that builds business websites, web-applications, and marketing solutions." />

<meta name="keywords" content="web-design, development, marketing, business, Search Engine Optimization, websites, website" />

<title>Big Cloud Media Custom Business Website Design, Development & Marketing</title>

These tags make up part of what is known as the web-page header.  They suggest to search bots how to list your page in their search results and how to categorize your site.

Website Meta Keywords

The website meta keywords can be found by the <meta name=“keywords” tag:

<meta name=“keywords” content=”web-design, development, marketing, business, Search Engine Optimization, websites, website” />

The content=”…” portion of this code is where you indicate which keywords you would like your site to be associated with.  The catch here though is that you want them to be relevant to your code in your webpage.  If they are not, it can hinder your SEO efforts.  It is a good idea to repeat the keywords that you want to be found by in your content several times so that your keywords line up with your content.  Do it with class though and make sure that the sentences make sense.  There isn’t a point in trying to appease the search engines if you lose visitors in the process.

The Meta Description:

The website meta description can be found by looking for the <meta name=”description” tag:

<meta name=”description” content=”Big Cloud Media is an Arlington, TX based, web-design, development and marketing company that builds business websites, web-applications, and marketing solutions.” />

The meta description is where you give the search engines a short blurb about the webpage.  This is often, in the Google search, the description that shows up under the search result.  Sometimes the search engines will create their own for your site but if your description matches your content, it is likely Google will use it.  Having an accurate and concise description of your site will also help your SEO efforts later on down the road.  The more your headers line up with the content, the better.

The Title Tag

The title tag is can be found by looking for the <title> tag:

<title>Big Cloud Media Custom Business Website Design, Development & Marketing</title>

The <title> tag is your page title and also the text that appears in your browsers window bar.  This should be intuitive and match up with your page content as well.  The theme here is continuity.  If your page is about Dogs, the title should include “Dogs” in it.  The title of your page helps in your suggestion to the search engines about how your site should be listed and in what categories and search terms.

Why should I care about my meta tags?

Ultimately, it all comes down to how search engine friendly do you want your site to be and also, what does the search engine see when it reads your page.  The more things that are missing, the less likely your site will be listed correctly and associated with the right search terms.  Checking your headers and making sure they are accurate can also help to make your SEO efforts more fruitful.

This blog came around from a real-world situation I recently came upon.  I recently met with a prospective client and after doing a site overview (which includes checking their header tags) we found random stuff in them including unrelated words, references to other companies, etc.  Their header tags were hindering their progression online and were definitely not helping their SEO efforts.  The prospective client had no clue until this was addressed by us.  Thus, this post, my effort to help you all know a little more about the content that represents you online.

If you have more questions about any of this, please leave a comment or contact us right away.  We would be more than happy to help you in your specific situation.

Thanks for reading and I hope that this post has been helpful for you.

Big Cloud Media

Posted in The Buzz on { December 8th, 2009 } ~ 5 Comments

Tagged with: Big Cloud Media • bigcloudmedia • code • content • description • effective • effectiveness • Google • keywords • meta • meta-tags • online marketing • SEO • source • tags • title • website • websites

Hey hey folks.  I just wanted to tell you about an awesome group on linkedin.com that we started with the simple purpose of promoting business between the members.

The group is called The Market Place and membership is open to all businesses on linkedin.  To join The Market Place click here.

Once a member, please post about your business and what you do, what makes your services stand out, etc.  You can also post news articles, ask questions of the group, start discussions, and get to know the other group members.

Thank you and have a great day.

Big Cloud Media

Posted in The Buzz on { December 3rd, 2009 } ~ 2 Comments

Tagged with: Big Cloud Media • business • linkedin • linkedin group • linkedin.com • promote • promote your business • The Market Place

This is an exiting time for Big Cloud Media.  We just finished the revamp of our website and we also just finished the rebranding effort that was long overdue.  After consulting our clients on the values of a web-presence that matches the company, we have filled our own words and completed the task.

This redesign of the company has certainly been a learning experience for us and from it we will certainly provide more insightful consultation on these matters, having been through them first hand.

Watch for our logo to start appearing places.  We are developing new strategies and other offerings to compliment our newfound approach to web-design, based around the Return on Investment standpoint.  Sure we can build websites and web-applications custom to businesses, redesign websites and web-apps etc. but what is the purpose if the client does not know how they are doing now or what is happening on their website that needs changing to be successful.  This knowledge is key to effectively improving things online.  We start there and give a unique insight into what needs to be done to improve the Return on the Online Investment and how to do it effectively.

Our new logo is:

We are super exited folks about our new approach, new website and new logo and we thank you for your support. 

God bless.

Posted in The Buzz on { November 13th, 2009 } ~ 1 Comment

Tagged with: Big Cloud Media • business • effective • new approach • new logo • new look • return on investment • services • website • website design • websites