http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com Doing Big Things in the Big Easy. Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:08:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/off-topic/the-who-dat-nation-celebrates/ http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/off-topic/the-who-dat-nation-celebrates/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:55:39 +0000 Chris H. http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/?p=224
A few great things that happened as a result of this win:

1. The Saints proved that they were the best team in the NFL this year, proving all the naysayers wrong at last.

2. The Saints gave the people of New Orleans hope that yes, it CAN happen to us.

3. The Saints Football Team provided the most positive press to the city of New Orleans and State of Louisiana that we could have ever asked for, and in doing so put an exclamation point on the recovery of our city and left a lasting impression in the minds of all viewers.]]> http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/off-topic/the-who-dat-nation-celebrates/feed/ 0 http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/off-topic/save-big-on-gas-with-rewards-credit-cards/ http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/off-topic/save-big-on-gas-with-rewards-credit-cards/#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:37:47 +0000 inlayout http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/?p=109 Honors credit card for my business and started making the most out of the money I spent on advertising by getting rewards points that went towards hotel stays at any Hilton resort. It’s worked out so well for me, that I now use another HHonors card for my personal expenses as well. I try to pay any bills I possibly can with the credit card, and I end up getting at least one free hotel night every month! Since I was never the type of person that was good at saving money for vacations, this has worked out very well for our family.

With the monumental rise in gas prices this past year, credit cards with gas rebate rewards have become increasingly popular. Keep in mind that there are many cash-back reward cards available, and they typically give you 1% – 2% cashback on any purchase. Well for gas, your savings can be much higher. Some of these new gas rebate cards are offering as much as 10% off for an introductory period! The Discover Open Road and BP Visa offer 5% for the life of the card. These are huge savings (0.20 per gallon on $4 / gal. gas) compared to traditional rewards cards. It really makes it worthwhile to get one just for fueling up, especially if you’re someone who drives a lot.

To help make these cards more available to the public, this weekend I launched Gas Rebate Credit Cards.com, a site with the top gas credit cards and my other favorite rewards cards as well. I plan on keeping it updated with the best cards as they become available, so check it out if you’re in the market for a rewards card!]]> http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/off-topic/save-big-on-gas-with-rewards-credit-cards/feed/ 0 http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/off-topic/katrina-days-book-by-new-orleans-photographer-now-available/ http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/off-topic/katrina-days-book-by-new-orleans-photographer-now-available/#comments Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:06:45 +0000 inlayout http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/?p=88 George Long a few months ago when we met and I was inspired by his excellent photography and his ability to capture the heart and soul of New Orleans through the lens.

At the time, he showed me a preview of his upcoming book entitled “Katrina Days,” which was a visually stunning look at some of the pitcures he captured following the storm. If you’re the type of person who likes the Time / Life “Year in Pictures” type-books, that highlight the great events of our time through photography, then this is something I think you will like. It’s also for the dedicated New Orleans residents who want something tangible to remember the events surrounding hurricane Katrina by.

I just got word that the book is now available through his website, and I placed an order. That’s what prompted me to write. It’s something I had been eagerly awaiting. To order a copy, visit: http://georgelong.com/book.htm]]> http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/off-topic/katrina-days-book-by-new-orleans-photographer-now-available/feed/ 0 http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/web-hosting/backups-redundency-everything/ http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/web-hosting/backups-redundency-everything/#comments Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:31:34 +0000 inlayout http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/?p=83 Francis Ford Coppola’s computer and backup hard drive were stolen, and he lost 15 years worth of data, including writing and family photographs. He offered a reward for its return, but he never did get it back.

On a much smaller scale, last month I had a backup hard drive fail, which under normal circumstances should be no big deal. I should be able to buy a new one and just replace it, but the problem was that I had stored some data on it which was not stored anywhere else – so it’s now gone for good. I have the option of spending a few hundred dollars on data recovery to see if it can be recovered, but I haven’t been able to decide if the data is worth the price.

What About Your Websites?
Just 2 weeks ago, there was a terrible fire at The Planet, one of the largest web hosting providers in the world. The fire interrupted thousands of servers, but supposedly no servers or networking equipment was damaged. Let’s suppose there had been damage. Suppose that your web server and its backups at your hosting provider were destroyed. Most people who work on static websites have copies on their local machine that they FTP. But how many websites these days are database driven? Are you backing up your databases? I don’t know many people who do, unfortunately.

Here’s What I Do.

I’ve learned the hard way. I’ve lost too many irreplaceable files over the years. I now have a library of digital pictures of my growing family from the past 5 years on my computer. Losing these files would be a great loss for me. So here’s how I’ve come to handle local data.

The local data is the stuff on my computers in my house. I have to think about things like “what if the house catches fire?” or “what if a computer goes down?”

The computer going down is the easy part.
Have a backup hard drive for each computer. And when a computer gets old and goes into retirement, so does the backup drive. I no longer keep reusing old backup drives because they eventually fail, and the older they get the more likely they are to fail. The other reason is that if you reuse it you might not have enough space to backup two computers with it and have to overwrite some of your older files. (Been there, done that, and regret it) Get a new backup drive, they are relatively cheap these days.

For my wife, who uses her laptop in a lot of different places, I got this neat, portable WD backup drive, that uses USB, and doesn’t require another power source. It’s really amazing, at about the size of a PDA, it stores 320 GB of data! A little pricey, but I was hoping that the convenience factor would encourage her to backup more often…the jury’s still out on that one.

The house catching fire is more of a problem.
(For obvious reasons…but not necessarily because of data loss) Keep all of your most important files on your computers you use daily, and use remote, offsite backup that runs on a daily basis. If your house catches fire you risk losing computers and backup hard drives, including those retired ones described in the paragraph above. Believe it or not, remote offsite backup is actually affordable nowadays. I’m now using a company called “Mozy” (thanks to DazzlinDonna) who offers unlimited storage for offsite remote backup for only $4.95 per month, and I use it on both of my computers.

Don’t “set it and forget it though” with offsite backup or any backup program for that matter. Check all of the settings and options they give you. Make sure that you are comfortable with how they are handling your data, and how it is being stored / updated / or deleted. Yes, many backup programs and services delete old files that are no longer in existence at the backup source. Try a test “file recovery” to see if you can get one of your backed up files. When I first started using Mozy, I found out I wasn’t backing up everything I thought I was. I’m glad I tested it!

Web Hosting Data

What if your web host catches on fire? Or floods? Did you see Cedar Rapids, IA go under water the other day? Apparently New Orleans isn’t the only place susceptible to this type of disaster. Such a disaster could easily destroy a datacenter. Here’s how I handle website backups:

WS_FTP, one of the oldest FTP programs around, is still going strong and has a backup scheduling feature. I have an always_on desktop machine setup specifically for backups and web browsing. With this machine I backup all of my important websites, some weekly, and some nightly, depending on how often files change and who changes them.

As for the databases. I’ve posted about this program before because it was such a blessing; I really like Navicat. With Navicat, I schedule backups of my websites’ MySQL databases weekly and nightly, depending on the frequency of change.

This all gets done on the always_on machine dedicated for backups, and all of those backups get backed up to the remote, offsite Mozy backup as well. I also have backup web hosting, but that’s another topic that I’ll probably talk about more in the future.

Time to Think.

It’s a lot to think about, I know. Is it overboard? No, I don’t think so. There have been too many times I’ve needed to have “backups of backups” in the past. I’m not paranoid, it really happens. Suppose Mozy catches on fire? It could happen. During Hurricane Katrina, a lot of people in the City of New Orleans learned some important lessons about planning and emergencies. You’re never too prepared when it comes to this stuff.

Think of all of the possible scenarios that could happen with your data or connectivity, that could significantly impact your business or personal life. Where’s the weakest link? For business especially, there should be no single point of failure that can leave you inoperative for more than a few minutes or an hour. If so, it’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed.]]> http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/web-hosting/backups-redundency-everything/feed/ 1 http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/a-great-new-orleans-photographer/ http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/a-great-new-orleans-photographer/#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:04:45 +0000 Chris H. http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/a-great-new-orleans-photographer/ Problogger has a good post on the benefits of using your picture on your blog.

My time had come. I needed a picture for our firm’s website. I’ve been getting along with some crappy old pictures that I cropped from random photos for too long. So being the internet marketing hacker I am, I hit Google up for some “New Orleans Photographers,” and that’s how I was lucky enough to find George Long.

I actually requested quotes from quite a few of these gurus, but George was in line with the rest of their prices, and he could see me the fastest. I showed up at 9am this morning, and was amazed by his professionalism and attention to detail. Within an hour we had the perfect picture for Foreman & Pike’s “About Us” page, as well as a few casual shots I got him to do for my blog.

George’s studio is adorned with amazing pictures from his 30 years of photographing New Orleans and Mardi Gras. He’s even got a spectacular book of post-Katrina photos that’s about to be published soon. I highly recommend his work, and I plan on using his services in the future. ]]> http://neworleansinternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/a-great-new-orleans-photographer/feed/ 1