New K101 Creations

This week I updated Kara's 101 Creations, LLC hand-made gift and scrapbooking web site with custom made invitations. Kara has been a customer of Budget Homepage since May 2009. Her web site is doing well with Google Adwords. Just this month her text ad generated over 1700 impressions per day and 44 clicks. This blows away any of the other ad campaigns that I have running. Clearly the type of product you are selling makes a difference in how many impressions an ad will generate.

It doesn't hurt for a web designer to review SEO tips every so often. Search engine optimization doesn't happen by accident. As I was reading some of the tips, I noticed that you really have to create a balance between human visitor and search engine. Each one is expecting to find information in a certain location. Often search engine requirements drive placement of information on a web site. How much you know about SEO can strongly affect your web design strategy. Everyone wants lots of visitors to their web site, but with millions of web sites out there, you need to keep raising the design bar just to stay competitive. That's why I tell my clients not to rely only on search engines to draw traffic, you must also use other marketing channels to promote your web site. A small business has to be very savy about marketing. How you promote your product or service can mean the difference between success and failure.

More layoffs @ MEDS

This week employees where I work were told they had to take additional weeks of layoff. After five months of working every other week, some employees will now have to continue this routine through September. Despite reports of an improving economy here in the US, there is no guarantee that "time off without pay" will end anytime soon. You can't blame talented people for looking at other opportunities in this environment.

This past week I have made a few changes to my web site and have started work on a craft directory site for people who want to list their hand-made crafts for sale. The idea here would be to offer a free page or link to a web site that features hand-made crafts. For people that want to sell craft items online, Budget Homepage would offer transaction processing. There would be a small fee for the transaction service and the site would be supported by ad revenue, similar to the Midwest Machine Shop Network site.

Ad revenue has been very disappointing this month, along with the number of visitors to the web sites that I manage. One report I found says that US broadband growth is the slowest it has been in eight years. I suspect that people are spending less time online and when they are online it is for watching movies and updating their my-face-tweet accounts. I have also been getting emails from people claiming that they can improve my web site listings. But often the tactics they use to improve search results aren't very ethical. I'm always looking for honest ways to improve search engine rankings and attract visitors. But it's hard to make improvements when everyone else is cheating the system.

Nextar X3-03 GPS Review

I recently received a Nextar X3-03 portable GPS as a gift. At first, I was reluctant to accept such a device knowing that I can hardly even afford to go anywhere. But, I decided to check it out and make my decision after I took it for a test drive. Nextar is not as well known as Magellan or Garmin, but their products have similar features. The X3-03 has a 3.5" touch screen display, 2D/3D view, MP3 player, and a Photo Viewer. Navigation is aided by clearly pronounced voice prompts and 1.6 million points of interest.

I like its ability to automatically recalculate your route for missed turns and voice prompts are timely and accurate. The MP3 player and photo viewer are nice extras, but will probably get very limited use. My biggest complaint is the accuracy of the touch screen. It seems to work best when you use the provided stylist instead of your finger. Unfortunately, they didn't provide a place to store the stylist on the unit, and it will probably get misplaced over time. 1.6 million points of interest sounds like a lot, but other units now come with 6 million.

Hopefully Nextar will provide a POI upgrade for this model in the near future. It should be possible, because there is an SD memory slot and USB port. The instructions state that you need to place your MP3 files and pictures on an SD card and then insert the card into the unit. This seems strange as most other devices allow data transfer over the USB port. The GPS device was not recognized when attempting to plug the unit into a computer USB port. So it looks like an additional device driver needs to be installed on the computer before this will work.

The Nextar X3-03 has some nice features and functions in an affordable GPS, but there are still some minor issues. If Nextar provides the necessary software and firmware updates, most of the issues could be corrected, but that remains to be seen. Speaking of updates, this week a new online book store was added to Poetlady.com. This new online store was created on my Amazon affiliate account and will feature books, DVD's, and video games. The Budget Technology Store, which was launched last week, will feature affordable computer hardware and software.

Cash for my Clunker

My 1997 Dodge Dakota is valued right at the spot that the government "cash for clunkers" program is offering. It is listed as having an average mileage of 13 mpg, so it is easily eligible for the program. If they hadn't mentioned that all the vehicles traded in on this program would be destroyed, I might feel a little better about taking part in it. It's a clear sign that I am too attached to the vehicles that I own, when I would be concerned about what happens after I trade one in. It looks like the money isn't going to last long for this offer anyway, but I still have to decide how much longer I can afford to drive a truck that gets 13 mpg. I've complained about Dodge products on here before and now that I have an opportunity to get a fair price, I'm having second thoughts. It's been a long time since I was foolish enough to buy a new car. If they had such a deal on used cars, I might go for it.

Speaking of deals, Budget Homepage has just been accepted as an Amazon Affiliate! The Budget Homepage Technology Store will offer our favorite tech products for home and business. Amazon is a great place to shop for tech products and we are excited to be part of their affiliate network. Amazon has the best product reviews and competitive pricing, so check it out!