Facebook: Are you part of the networking leader?

Written by: Brandy Semore - Production Director of Ingenux





Facebook is exploding in the business realm and now has a collection of over 200 million users. It has become a great tool to promote your business and market your product. A Facebook Page is a public page created for companies that enable you to share your business and products with Facebook users. The profiles are easy to create with Facebook's simple interface and it's free. Those interested in following your brand can become "fans", and when they do, all their friends will see this.

➢ The number of Facebook users between the ages of 35 and 44 has increased by 51%
➢ Facebook users among the ages 45-54 has grown by 47%
➢ Facebook users ages 26-34 increased by 26%
➢ More than half of the 140 million Facebook users are out of college

Here are some recommendations for promoting your business on Facebook:

· After joining, find all of your friends. With Facebook's "real time" updates friends can get updated information immediately.

· On your web site or blog announce that you are on Facebook and invite people to become your friend.

· Add a RSS feed on your profile for your blog or web site. That will allow your Facebook friends access your site immediately.

· Applications give you full power to say or promote anything you want about your business, and use the social tie-ins provided by Facebook to do this.

· Facebook has a powerful advertising engine that enables businesses to specify a specific demographic target.

· Polls provided by Facebook are great for marketers looking to get a quick answer about a particular feature they'd like to implement, or just to find out information and opinions from a specific demographic.

· Facebook Connect enables your website to easily integrate with Facebook.

· Keep your clientele up to date with your company by joining twitter also and then integrating your twitter account with the facebook account to keep them simultaneously up to date.

Ingenux is now a part of the Facebook movement, we would love to have you as a fan! Check us out!

Taking Your Business to the Web: Top 4 Common Mistakes

In speaking with thousands of business owners over the years, it is amazing how many business owners make the exact same mistakes over and over again. Many business owners don’t plan and assume their same success offline will transfer over to the world wide web. I have accumulated the top 4 re-occurring mistakes by business owners below that I have seen over the years. Making one or all of these mistakes could cost a company thousands of dollars initially, and take away from tens of thousands of potential dollars they should be making monthly from their website.

1. Done too early!
The biggest mistake most small businesses owners make is getting their website done too early. A smart business owner will first research their target audience in their specific Internet market, and only then build their website around their research.

A business owner needs to get training on how to find a target web audience in a specific niche market. They need to determine which keywords their website needs to be designed around, in order to bring in customers from search engines and other sources. A huge mistake made by business owners is they get their website formed around very broad keywords which have too much competition.

2. Pay too much or too little!
Most web development companies quote very high prices on web and graphic design, and most small business owners make the mistake of going with those companies. They charge for flashy features that will never bring in traffic and will never make the website any money.

Here's a simple question. Would you rather hire someone that charges $10 per hour and takes 50 hours to complete an assignment, or someone that charges $50 per hour and takes 10 hours?

Easy answer - you would take the $50 per hour at 10 hours! Why? Because the quality of work, speed, and the final product will be top notch!

You may also get a very low quote from an offshore company, but beware - there are many problems with offshore designers: their English isn’t great, you can’t reach them on the phone, the time-zone difference becomes a huge problem - while you’re awake they are sleeping, payment is a problem because you have to wire them money, trust and legal issues can be a huge mess, their marketing knowledge is very limited to their country because they have no knowledge of the marketing techniques and economics of your country.

We have built such an incredible reputation with our clients that 50% of our work comes from referrals. Because of this, we have no expense on advertising and are able to give you a low price. In most cases, we’ll be able to beat any price quote you get. Also keep in mind, that with Ingenux, you’re not getting just a website, you’re getting consultation, training, and a website that actually sells!

3. Making it too pretty and flashy!
One of the biggest mistakes a small business owner makes is they ask and pay for a website that is all looks and no sales, no marketing. They spend thousands of dollars on a “pretty” website full of flashy effects which brings in $0 in revenue. You have to ask yourself, what good is a flashy website when no one comes to it?

Sure, major companies spend a lot of money on making their website extravagant, flashy, and interactive, but they already have traffic because of their name. The last thing a smart business owner would do is copy the idea of having an expensive flashy website like those of Fortune 500 companies. A smart business owner understands that for a website to sell its main focus needs to be copywriting and marketing, and will put design second. Now why would Ingenux, a design/development company, tell you that design should come second?

Ingenux knows that for a company to be successful on the Internet, that company must direct their focus on marketing their website and worry about how it looks last. When our clients make money using our advice, training, and of course our design services, they are extremely happy and thankful. When our clients are happy, they bring us more business through referrals, and we become even happier. Sure we'd love to take thousands of dollars for a flashy site, but that is not what we're about. We would rather build a professional website that brings your company traffic which turns to revenue. This is what makes our website development company different from any other.

4. No traffic, no money!
Traffic = Revenue, period! Without a single visitor you are not going to make a single buck from your website, sorry, no other way around it. After you go through our free preliminary training and consultation, you will know exactly what you need, to make your business successful online. You will learn which keywords your site needs to focus on, what needs to be done in order to get traffic to your website, and how to turn the visitors into dollar signs!

By now we hope you understand how a company becomes successful on the Internet, and how it fails by making 4 huge mistakes. You are now educated and ready to proceed to the next step.

Microsoft Internet Explorer: The worlds most popular browser?

From the Developement Department at Ingenux
By Jeremy Ramsey

There was a time when industry leading web developers would not have thought twice before confirming that Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) was the world’s leading web-browser. MSIE's popularity is driven by its leading support for new technologies, it's ease of use, and it's integration with the world's leading operating system, Microsoft Windows.

However, since the introduction of Mozilla's 'Firefox' line of browsers, these views of browser dominance are significantly changing. In 2002, prior to Mozilla's introduction into the web community, the MSIE line of browsers accounted for 83.4% of web-surfers on the net. One year after its introduction in 2003, Mozilla was offering a browser that supported many of the same features as MSIE. 2004 saw Mozilla take off in the internet community accounting for 16.5% of web-surfers on the net.

Since the rebranding of the Mozilla browser line to the new "Firefox" family, they're support and loyalty has continued to thrive. In 2006, Firefox 2 was released, this latest edition from Mozilla saw added support for the majority of MSIE features as well as several features that MSIE did not have at the time, including the ever-popular "tabbed-browsing". Within a year of its release, Firefox had skyrocketed to nearly 40% of web-surfers preferred browsers, while MSIE's popularity had stumbled to 56%.

2008 saw the release of the latest version of Mozilla's Firefox browser, Firefox 3. This version is nearly interchangeable with MSIE and provides additional security features and, what some have come to refer to as "true css", which allows for better interpretation of website coding and smoother more accurate renderings of what designers intended their websites to look like on the web. By the end of 2008, Firefox support had reached new record levels, accounting for 44.4% of web-surfers on the net. This milestone is considerably more significant than any before it because it marks the first time since MSIE's inception that has not held the majority of support. MSIE's share of web-surfers came in at 45.7%.

This year, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8, this new version has a slew of new features to better compete with Mozilla, including reported support of "true css" rendering. Only time will tell what effect this will have on the overall market, however, we can report that as of April:

*MSIE (All versions) accounts for 42.1% of web-surfers on the net.
*Firefox (All versions) accounts for 47.1% of web-surfers on the net

While we certainly recommend continuing to include MSIE in your website design plans, however it looks like Firefox may now be bringing the majority of traffic to your website.

Statistical information provided by W3Schools.com, they track all visitors to their family of sites and provide statistical reporting on every unique hit. Visit: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp for more information.

Just Because Photocards goes live with new business application custom built by Ingenux.

Just Because Photocards offers the ability for online users to create personal wallet cards with an image and information of their choice in four easy steps. These easy to make photocards can then be sent to friends and family enabling them to better know each others’ gift preferences, such as favorite flower, favorite perfume, up to several items on one card. Just Because Photocards’ members can store important events of their friends and loved ones and receive reminders for birthdays, anniversaries, graduations or any other special occasions as well as save all previously created photocards. Ingenux created the Just Because website to be very user friendly, enticing and exciting to use making it a must have to bookmark and use over and over again.

For more information about Ingenux visit http://www.ingenux.com/

Ingenux helps Stage One Productions step up to the competition

Stage One Productions, an Oklahoma based company, needed a new software to replace their outdated business management application and competition judging software. The new web based dance competition management solution provided a quick and easy way to manage dance studios and generate competition schedules. The web application ties directly into a new LAN based desktop application that allows judges to score each routine onsite and in real-time. Both systems seamlessly integrate to share and manage competition data, such as scoring and placement results.
Stage One hosts dance competitions in cities across the U.S accumulating into a National finals at the end of each year. Each competition event brings together hundreds of dancers, in 24 dance categories, all competing for titles and cash awards.
This new application combines faster compilation of competition information, from multiple stations, with added convenience and accuracy.
For more information on Ingenux, please visit http://www.ingenux.com/ or call 877-484-9025.

Local System Advertising selects Ingenux to develop a revolutionary digital marketing application.

Local System Advertising (LSA) will help small businesses increase revenue by providing the means to advertise in selected business establishments inside targeted geographic areas via the internet. Clients of LSA also have the option to install a monitor in their own place of business as location owners and run ads in-house; such as in their waiting rooms, reception areas, and restaurants for added income. All hardware is owned and operated by LSA and is charged a low monthly fee. LSA allows advertisers to upload their own ads, utilize the templates provided for easy start-up, and choose where and what time intervals they advertise on the monitors in their locations.
LSA partnered with Ingenux to create this revolutionary concept that will spawn a new proprietary operating system that will be the core of their integrated digital advertising software application that will allow LSA to manage and distribute advertisements across the U.S and Canada. LSA clients will have easy access to information and services provided, the ability to track their ads as advertisers and as location owners and can view when their contract renews, where their ads run and where they will be played next, all online via an easy web 2.0 interface.
For more information about Ingenux visit: http://www.ingenux.com/

New to Ingenux!

Jeremy R. Ramsey has worked with varying technologies in the field of data manipulation through various mediums with an emphasis on PHP/MySQL web development. Originally from Heidelberg, Germany he moved to the United States and began his career working with Bill J. Herrmann at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute in refining statistical trending processes. Mr. Ramsey developed several intricate systems that revolutionized the Information Technology and Financial processes of one of Oklahoma’s leading homebuilders. He is currently refining his PHP/MySQL skills and expanding his repertoire.

Travis A. Clark - Travis A Clark has over 15 years in the IT world, and within the last 10 has been almost exclusive in the web programming realm. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, ad agencies, and the newspaper industry as well as the oil and gas industry. Having grown up surrounded by the newspaper business, he has a belief in the written word, which along with his page layout experience provides him with a different insight on applications and web sites.

“For more information about Ingenux visit www.ingenux.com