<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>Websmith Group &#124;  Web Application and Software Development, Strategy and Consulting</title>
	<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com</link>
	<description>Websmith Group provides web application development, custom programming, website planning and consulting services to small to mid sized businesses, non profit and grassroots organizations, and the arts and entertainment industries. We educate, plan, consult, develop &#38; implement web based solutions.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:15:26 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	<!-- generator="WordPress/3.1" -->

	<item>
		<title>Infographic:  Women Small Business Owners</title>
		<description><![CDATA[At Websmith Group we recently received an email from Aldo Baker, Marketing Director at Bolt Insurance, sharing a new infographic in regards to women as small business owners. This infograph is an excellent resource that provides a way to visually understand &#8220;Women Small Buisness Owners&#8221; and as &#8220;America&#8217;s New Job Creators&#8221;. Via: Bolt Insurance]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/women-small-business-owners/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>10 Criteria for Selecting Business Software</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Selecting business software can be a daunting task. The good news is that there are plenty of applications available for supporting most critical business functions. However, at some point you may become overwhelmed with the number of options, features and pricing models. Organizations generally seek technology as a method to increase productivity, solve issues and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/tools-and-reviews/criteria-for-selecting-business-software/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>How Documenting Your Web Services Can Save You Time and Money</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Effectively documenting web services used by your business can save you time and money and also provide timely information in the case of a website emergency or future web enhancement project.  With the growing number of technologies available for enhancing business websites, it is likely that you will be served by multiple providers as your website grows.   Even if you have a dedicated web services team, is important that YOU, the business and website owner, are informed regarding the number of providers responsible for making sure that your website works. ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-development-tips/how-documenting-your-web-services-save-time-and-money/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Blog Posts Wanted:  Call for Submissions</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The primary goal of this blog is to provide guidance to business owners on how to effectively meet their business goals and objectives using web, mobile, and social media technology. In an effort to provide a diverse range of quality topics and opinions to our audience, we are currently extending an invitation to writers to contribute to the following topics ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/blog-posts-wanted-call-for-submissions/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>eCommerce Strategy:  Reducing Your Return Rates</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Online retail spending continues to grow, reaching $32.1 billion for the 3rd quarter of 2010; a 9 percent increase from the prior year (comScore).  One of the important steps to developing an effective ecommerce solution is identifying your return policy.  Whether your policy is &#8220;all sales are final&#8221; or &#8220;100% money back guarantee&#8221;, your primary [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-development-tips/ecommerce-strategy-reducing-your-return-rates/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Annual Review:  Communicating with Your Hosting Provider</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Many prefer a &#8220;set it and forget it&#8221; approach to web hosting.  Following the signup process, the top reasons that most people communicate with their hosting providers are: To make a change to their package, To request a site/server configuration change or To request technical support. Generally if there are no existing issues and the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-development-tips/hosting-provider-communication/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Are you using your customer data effectively?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A study performed by UC San Diego researchers estimates that in 2008 approximately 9.57 zettabytes of data was transmitted around the world.  Everyone is collecting data.  Many businesses are offering reward cards, coupons, premium memberships and other discounts in exchange for collecting customer data.  You can barely perform a simple task like purchasing milk without [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/business/are-you-using-your-customer-data-effectively/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>5 Reasons Cloud Computing Could Benefit Your Business: Redefining Your Data Management Strategy</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Before jumping into the cloud computing arena, it is important that you understand how the service can benefit your business and fit into your existing environment. A good solution should provide you with the ability to easily manage your files, reduce your maintenance time and costs and quickly adapt and scale as your business changes, without sacrificing security.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/tools-and-reviews/redefining-your-data-management-strategy-5-reasons-cloud-computing-could-benefit-your-business/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>5 Criteria for Using Third Party Apps and Plugins &#8230; for Business</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There are many third party tools, applications, and plugins available that will allow you to enhance your web application or improve your website usability. It is tempting to select the most popular free tool available because of the number of existing users and largely due to the fact that it&#8217;s free. However, you should take [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-development-tips/best-practices-using-third-party-apps-and-plugins/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Offering Effective Online User Support:  What types of assistance should you offer your web users?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you ever required additional assistance while online, only to learn that the company has provided no phone number or timely method of support? Or perhaps there aren’t any help files or knowledge bases available?  Ineffective user assistance can frustrate your customers and create a negative customer experience. Therefore it is important to spend some time ensuring that you’ve offered effective user assistance.  Provided are the types of online user support that you may consider:]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-application-development/offering-effective-online-user-support-what-types-of-assistance-should-you-offer-your-web-users/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Your Web Project:  8 Ideas to Generate Buzz BEFORE Your Launch Date</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Your web project development is completed!   You are visualizing the thousands upon thousands of new customers and clients that will sign up upon realizing that your launch date has arrived.   However, you may realize quickly that marketing your new web application or website is an entirely different animal from implementing it.  If you [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-development-tips/your-web-project-ideas-to-generate-buzz-before-your-launch-date/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Getting Unstuck:  Confronting Your Stalled Development Project</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Moving Forward &#8230; Your development project is underway and you&#8217;re still revisiting the requirements and tweaking a few things here and there. Meanwhile, the project deadline is constantly changing and there doesn&#8217;t seem to be a solid deadline in sight. If you find yourself in this position, now is great time to stop, take a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-development-tips/getting-unstuck-confronting-your-stalled-development-project/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>11 Questions You Must Answer BEFORE Starting an e-Commerce Project</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The desire to make money is not enough to build a successful online business.  While obtaining a space to house your online store is simpler than finding a physical space to open a brick and mortar store, there aren't any shortcuts to implementing an online business.  You build an online business in the same fashion that you build an offline business.  Provided are eleven decisions you must make BEFORE  you begin an e-commerce project.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-development-tips/questions-you-must-answer-before-starting-an-e-commerce-project/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Offering Effective Online User Support:  The 7 elements of an &#8216;effective&#8217; online help system</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As more users are able to access business applications using any web browser or mobile device, giving your users the support they need, when they need it has become critically important.   Identify and develop an "online" help system for providing effective user support.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-application-online-help-user-support/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>BOOK:  &#8220;Getting Started: Planning Your Website Content&#8221;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Thanks for following the Websmith Group Blog &#38; Social Media Pages!  We&#8217;d like to offer you a free copy of the first revision of &#8220;Getting Started: Planning Your Website Content.&#8221; The goal for the workbook is to provide a strategic method for planning your web content. In the guide, we focus on: How to align [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/web-development-tips/book-offer-getting-started-planning-your-website-content/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>What&#8217;s New:  Finding Your Hedgehog Concept</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Some of our regular blog readers and site visitors may have noticed a few changes recently, the biggest of which is that we have decided to refocus our business on software development services and SaaS products, and are no longer offering web design and website development services.  To put it simply, we&#8217;re focusing on what [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/news/whats-new-finding-your-hedgehog-concept/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Cool vs Common Sense: Are we sharing too much of the wrong information</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It goes without saying that the internet has revolutionized the way we meet and stay in touch people and has transformed the way we find, use and share knowledge. According to Nielsen, at least 2/3 of the global population visits social networks. It seems that each day a new social media service is launched specifically [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/social-media-blog/cool-vs-common-sense-are-we-sharing-too-much-of-the-wrong-information/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>TOOL:  Learn the hosting provider for any website</title>
		<description><![CDATA[WhoIsHostingThis.com is a tool that will indicate the hosting provider for any website. They claim to provide more accurate results than similar sites such as DomainTools. It&#8217;s one of the more straight-forward tools available. Simply type the desired domain name in the text box on the home page, then click &#8216;Find Host&#8217;. The data provided [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/tools-and-reviews/tool-learn-the-hosting-provider-for-any-website/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Claim.io: Protecting your brand on social media networks</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Many companies have begun to incorporate social media into their marketing strategy.  Regarding online brand protection, prior to the rapid evolution of social media networks, businesses were mostly concerned with claiming their preferred domain name.  Currently, one of the concerns that business owners face is how to protect and claim their brand across the hundreds [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/resources/wsgpodcast/claim-io-protecting-brand-social-media/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Happy 5th Anniversary to the First YouTube video</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today marks the 5th Anniversary of the first video ever uploaded to YouTube. The video features YouTube Co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo (uploaded on April 23, 2005).  By October 2006, Google had purchased YouTube for around 1.65 billion.  Not bad.  Not bad at all. YouTube Stats 1+ billion views a day Every [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/social-media-blog/happy-5th-anniversary-to-the-first-youtube-video/</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>

