Blog

The New Facebook Page (2012 Timeline Edition)

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:58:00 GMT

Facebook is about to transition business Pages to the new timeline format that most user profiles have already been transitioned to. All Facebook Pages will transition to the new format on March 30th, 2012.

What's Changing?

The new Facebook Pages have the same layout as individual user profiles. This means you can include a "cover photo" at the top of your page and the bar right below the cover photo will include some basic "about" information and access to the apps you are using on your page. In the screenshot above, you can see our Photos, Likes, Map and Videos app are all displayed below the cover photo.

Below this new header area, you'll see a two column list of you most recent posts.

Below, you'll find details of what's changing and how to prepare your Page for the update.

The New Facebook Page Cover Photo

The new cover photo offers a number of branding opportunities for your page. However, there are some limitations regarding how you can use this area.

SIZE: The optimal size for the new Facebook Page cover photo is 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. You can upload images that area larger than this, but Facebook will crop the image to these dimensions and it might results in some loss of quality. According to Facebook, the cover photo has to be at least 399pixels wide. We'd recommend uploading an image exactly 851x315 for the best results.
RESTRICTIONS: Your cover photo can not include any price or purchase information, such as "30% off" or "buy it at our website". The photo can't include any Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page's About section. You're also restricted from including references to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features Calls to action, such as "Get it now" or "Tell your friends." That's a lot of restrictions, right? You can still accomplish some creative things in this space. If you'd like some inspiration, check out some of the featured pages that have already transitioned to the new design at http://www.facebook.com/about/pages.
MORE HELP: Facebook has created a dedicated overview page and help section to guide you through the transition, so be sure to check out the resources they've provided too.

We think the new Cover Photos are a positive change overall - they provide a much better branding opportunity than the old sidebar images, but they also have a number of restrictions so you'll need to be creative when creating your image. If you need help, please contact us and we can start brainstorming.

Other Facebook Pages Changes

In addition to the new Cover Photo, the new Facebook Pages include a number of other changes.

DEFAULT TABS ARE GONE: In the past, Page administrators could specify a default landing tab for users visiting their page. In fact, you could also choose to display a specific page to users who hadn't "liked" your page yet and a different page to your fans. The new page format removes the ability to specify a specific landing tab for your Facebook Page. All visitors to your page are now forced to land on the default timeline. This is a pretty big change and it means you can't create landing pages to prompt users to "like" your page or "opt-in" before they see the rest of the content on your page.

APPS & OTHER CONTENT: Facebook Apps used to be displayed on the left side of the page in a list. In the new design, they are displayed at the top of the page in small boxes right below the cover photo. You can include up to 10 Apps on your Facebook Page (photos is included automatically) and you can specific the order of the apps in this area. The area will expand an contract as you add more apps. Unfortunately, this means only three custom apps can be visible below the cover photo.

In the screenshot below you can see Facebook's Facebook Page and their apps displayed as tiles below their cover photo. Notice only three apps are displayed (and the default Photos app).

This is what the list looks like expanded.

You can include a total of 10 custom apps on your new Facebook Page. These apps can display custom content or specific functionality. There are 12 tiles/slots available, but one is reserved for the photos app and the other is reserved for the number of "likes" your page has received.
You can control the order of all of the tiles, except the photos app, and the first three apps in your list will be displayed when your app list is open and closed.
You can specify the names and images displayed on each app tile. The images used in your tiles should be 111 pixels wide by 74 pixels tall.
Custom apps/pages are getting a little larger. Custom pages will be up to 810px wide in the new design, which gives you a little more room to work with when designing custom pages.

What do you think so far? Be sure to leave us a comment to tell us whether you prefer the new or old Facebook Page design.

Messages - An Inbox For Your Facebook Page

One big complaint many people had about Facebook Pages was that their was no way for users to contact the admin of a page. The new Facebook Pages also include a new "Messages" feature that will allow you fans to contact you through Facebook's messaging system. We're not completely sure about this feature yet. While it will provide users with a way to contact the admin of a page, it might also decrease the number of comments and wall posts you'll get on your page. You should experiment with this to see what works best for your organization.

The good news is that you have a choice, you can turn off private messaging for your page if you want to. To turn it off, go to the "admin" section of your page and then to the "Manage Permissions" screen. From there, you can choose to check or uncheck the box next to "Show message button on your page"

Once you’ve balanced the pros and cons of the private messaging system, if you choose to turn off private messaging for you page, you can. Facebook certainly did. Simply go to your Admin Panel, then click on Manage and Edit Page. On the Manage Permissions screen, you will see a checkbox for Show “Message” Button on your page. Simply uncheck that to turn off the private messages option.

Your Next Steps

Facebook Pages are changing whether you like it or not (no pun intended) on March 30th, 2012. You don't have to convert until then, but Facebook has given you the ability to preview how the new design will look on your page privately until then. Page admininstrators will see a new "preview" option when they visit their page. Here are some things you'll definitely want to do before the 30th.

Create A Cover Photo: Be sure to select a great image for your cover photo. Facebook Pages that don't have a great cover photo will look amateur without one.
Update Your "About Us" Info: Your "About Us" information is now displayed front and center on your Facebook page, so make sure you've provided accurate information in this area. The new summary "about" section can include up to 165 characters - we'd recommend using some of those characters to create a link to your website.
Update Your Page’s Basic Information – Click the "About" link and review your page’s basic information. Make sure it's up to date and accurate.

Other Resources From Facebook

Hopefully this post provides you with enough information to make the transition to the new page design a smooth one. If you have additional questions, post them in the comments and we'll help if we can. In addition, you might also find these official resources helpful.

New Facebook Pages – Facebook created a thorough introduction for the new Page design and the main features. This introduction also includes links to a number of example pages to give you some inspiration.
Facebook Pages Questions – The official help files for the new Facebook Pages include a number of answers to questions about the new design.
Facebook Pages Guide – Facebook created this 8 page .pdf ebook to walk you through the new page features. It also includes a thorough checklist to help you prepare for the transition.
Best Practice Guide – Facebook published this 14 page .pdf ebook to introduce a number of "best practices."

In summary, the new Facebook Page design include a number of positive changes, but also a few new restrictions and limitations that could impact your marketing efforts on the world's largest social networking site. Even with the new limitations, we're excited about the changes - how about you? Be sure to leave us a comment to let us know what you're thinking.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:34:00 GMT

Happy Valentine's Day from the team at AGENCY 3.0!

Cloaking: What's Cloaking? and why Google hates it.

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:34:00 GMT

Matt Cutts, the head of Google's Web Spam team, posted an informational video about Cloaking today. The video is below and we've summarized the main points for you. Cloaking is basically showing content to users that is different than the content you show to Google. We see (and hear questions about) this all the time. People are always asking us whether they can just include a ton of keywords in the code and hide it from the user - this is cloaking. Watch the video for more information.

Google's Definitive Cloaking Video

Main Points Of This Video

Cloaking is showing different content to users than GoogleBot
Cloaking Violation of Quality Guidelines
Cloaking is High Risk - it might lead Google to punish your site by lowering your search rankings.
It Is Often Used For Deceptive Reasons

We hope this short video helps to clear up some common questions about a search engine optimization technique that used to be common, but now can really hurt your placement in the search engines.

Platform Update: Customer Database Enhancements

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:51:00 GMT

We'll be rolling out some new features to all Platform subscribers this week. This free upgrade will include major enhancements to the customer database and how the application can be integrated with web forms. In addition, the update will include a new "site settings" panel, blog author enhancements and a number of usability enhancements.

Customer Database Enhancements

This update will allow site owners to collect additional information in standard web forms and have that information update the related records in the customer database. In addition, website visitors will be able to update custom fields using the "Update Customer Details" web form. As part of this change, three existing workflows are being enhanced.

Use form fields to collect custom information - The form builder is being enhanced to allow administrators to add custom fields from the customer database to be added to web forms. This new feature will allow you to setup custom fields in the customer database and then populate these fields with web forms.
Custom information can be edited by customers - The customer details module is being enhanced to allow site visitors or secure zone members to update custom information in the customer database. Site owners can choose to allow site users to update one or all of the form fields. All of the form fields will be added as a single block when you add them to the Update Customer Details form, but you will be able to remove individual fields to customize the fields available on the form.
Existing items can be assigned to a specific custom form - After a site has launched, you can attach forms to existing items and add values when first editing and item. This will help avoid having to click on "add custom fields" for every existing entity.

This new feature has been one of our most requested features and we hope this new functionality makes your website even more powerful. If you have questions about this feature, please contact us.

New Site Settings Section

We recently added "site settings" section in the admin area. This new section will be used to consolidate site-wide settings for your site. There are three specific items available now.

Shop settings - You can now define a shopping cart lifetime so you can define how long items are kept in a users cart after a customer leaves your website. You can also enable or disable the product feed.
Captcha settings - Allows you to define whether a to force server-side verification of Captcha fields on forms.
Facebook settings - This new section allows you to define settings affecting Facebook integration on your site.

We'll be adding more site-wide settings to this new section in the coming months and hope this makes it easier to manage site-wide settings that used to be spread across multiple parts of the application.

Blog Post Author Updates

Multi-user sites can now edit the author of blog posts and add an author bio for each user. Site users can upload an author photo and bio in the "my account" section. This bio can be attached to each of this users blog posts.

Usability Enhancements

In addition to the new customer database and forms functionality outlines above, this update will include a number of usability enhancements.

The links in the Live Feed on your dashboard will link directly to the targeted item instead of the main customer details page. We hope this reduces the number of clicks required to get to the information you are looking for.
When you edit content in the WYSIWYG editor the system will automatically insert paragraphs tags instead of line breaks going forward. In the past, when you hit "enter" in the editor it would insert a line-break instead of wrapping content in a <p> tag.
We've removed the automatic page refresh that occurred when you added a custom CRM field to a customer, case or order. This should speed up the process for you.
When you hit save, the page used to refresh and scroll back to the top of the page. After this update, it won't automatically scroll to the top so you won't lose your place on the page.
We've made it easier to select the country when setting up payment gateways, tax codes or shipping options.
We've updated the customer list so you can see all customers instead of limiting you to viewing the customers added in the last year.
All lists have been updated so they won't display items that have been disabled.
After this update you can use the selected web app template when adding new items.
We've edited the main menu so it loads the blog post list when you select a blog instead of loading the blog details screen. This should reduce the number of clicks it takes you to get to the blog post list. In addition, this edit has been applied to all other system lists.
FTP connection information will be shown in the file manager.

Platform Update: Modules, Mobile and More

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:17:00 GMT

During a recent upgrade, we rolled out a number of new features for all of our Business Platform subscribers. This update included enhancements to the modules functionality, mobile-friendly template support, customizable URL's for web apps and better integration of social sharing tools.

Modules

Modules can now be inserted inside of other modules and content holders. In addition, modules can now be inserted in blog posts and web app list and detail views.

Mobile Template Support

More and more users are accessing websites from devices like the iPhone and iPad. This release included functionality to allow us to create device-specific templates that can detect the type of device users are accessing your site from. Based on this information, the system can automatically use the most appropriate template for the device. In other words, this release allows us to create device-specific designs and automatically display the most appropriate design to the user.

If you have questions about how to implement this on your site, please contact us.

SEO Friendly URLs for Web Apps

The URLs for web apps can now be customized. In the past, items within a web application would have a URL that looked like domain.com/webapp_12345/itemname. The URL string can now be customized so it looks like domain.com/photography/portraits. You can edit the URL from the "Manage Web App" screen in the admin section of your website.

Social Sharing Integration

The system now includes the integration of three social networking modules. These modules include:

Facebook Like - This module will add a Facebook Like button to any page.
Twitter Tweet - This module will add a Twitter Tweet This button to any page.
Facebook Comments - This module will replace the default commenting system with Facebook Comments.

We hope you like these new features. If you have any questions about any of the features described above, please contact us.

The Benefits Of Email Marketing

Wed, 25 May 2011 14:32:00 GMT

Email marketing is a cost effective way to stay in touch with your clients and reach out to new prospects. Here are a few reasons you might want to use email marketing in your own business.

Email marketing is inexpensive - You don't have to pay for printing or postage when you are using email to communicate with prospects, the press or clients. Sure, you might have to pay a designer to help create a stellar design, but you don't need to pay printing costs for each run or pay for postage.
Email marketing allows you to send highly targeted messages - Since you don't have to print individual pieces for each segment of your list, you can send highly targeted messages. Big companies like J.Crew send highly targeted messages to their subscribers - men get one promotion and women get another. You can also segment your list and send prospects one message while reserving other content for current clients.
Email marketing integrates well with other marketing materials - You can easily customize the look and feel of an email newsletter so that it matches the aesthetic of your other marketing materials. You can leverage this design flexibility to extend your brand online. You can even create specific designs based on the season of the year, type of promotion you are offering, etc.
Email marketing incorporates some viral marketing - When you send information via email the recipient can easily forward this information on to other people they know. If you send something via snail mail it's harder for people to share with more than one person. Emails can be forwarded on with ease and it something people are already doing.
Email marketing helps you build ongoing relationships - you can stay in touch with past clients and share useful, fun, interesting information with them long after they have made a purchase from you. Email marketing can help turn one-time customers into repeat buyers.

This is a short list of ways email marketing can benefit your business. Are you using email to market your business online? If so, share your ideas in the comments below.

Meet Ella - Our Official Mascot

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:17:00 GMT

We recently launched a brand new website and everyone seems to be curious about the adorable pooch resting at the bottom of every page. Meet Ella, our official mascot. Ella is a four and a half year old Portuguese Water Dog.

If you are not familiar with the breed, Portuguese Water Dogs are originally from the Portuguese region of the Algarve. They are working dogs and were originally taught to herd fish in the the net's of local fisherman, retrieve broken nets and tackle or act as a courier from ship to shore. They have become more popular in recent years - the breed was a favorite of the late Ted Kennedy. President Obama's dog Bo is a Portie and was a gift from the late senator Kennedy.

Portie's have hair, not fur, so many people believe that they are hypoallergenic. Of course, their isn't really any proof that the breed won't bother someone with allergies, but lot's of people have told us that Ella doesn't agitate their allergies.

Ella spends most days in the office under a desk - waiting for someone to reach down to pet her head. She has a natural alarm clock and knows when it is time to call it quits for the day. At 5pm. (on the dot almost) she decides it's time to go for a walk and she won't give up until she is taken for a stroll.

Stay tuned. Ella is going to start making a regular appearance on the blog.

Adding Social Media Tools To Your Website

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:16:00 GMT

Social Media is everywhere! If you turn on CNN, the pundits mention their Twitter account. Television commercials and print advertisements are starting to point people to Facebook pages instead of websites. More and more businesses are setting up Facebook pages every day. Professionals in every type of business are creating LinkedIn profiles and sharing information with their peers. If you have a static website that reads like a brochure, it might be time to consider going social.

Should you socialize?

Lot's of marketing firms, consultants and big brands agree that social media can be a powerful marketing tool for business and non-profit organizations.

Realtors often tell their clients it is better to own than rent. If you are renting your home, you're probably not going to spend a ton of money renovating it because you are just building value for the owner - when your lease expires your investment vanishes with it. If you own your home you can invest in the property knowing that it is ultimately going to benefit you when you are ready to sell, right?

The same logic applies to building your web presence on the major social media platforms. You don't own Facebook (probably) and you can't control whether the terms of use, layout or functionality of you Facebook page changes. However, you can control everything on your own website. This is why we recommend having a strong hub (your website) and linking your hub to your social sites instead of relying exclusively on the social sites.

You can add a ton of value to your own website by incorporating social media tools and content.

Here are a few great ways to add social media to your existing website

Add Links To Your Social Media Sites

If you have a Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn company profile or other social media profile that you want to promote you should include links to each profile somewhere on your site. When people connect with you on one of the various social media sites you have the opportunity to continue communicating with them long after they have left your site.

We recommend incorporating icons for each site. The icons should match the look and feel of your site, but be obvious so users know what they do. If your site has a natural, earthy feel you might not want to pick shiny glossy icons. These should be an extension of your current design and should not be visually jarring to the user.

Connect Your Blog And Website

We generally recommend building your website and blog on the same platform (with the same primary domain name) so the search engine optimization benefits of blogging benefit your primary site too. If your blog is on a separate domain, we still recommend incorporating your latest blog posts on your primary site. Marci Anderson's website incorporates the blog into the main navigation and she shows a list of her recent posts on the homepage.

Tumblr, Posterous, Blogger and Wordpress.com are inexpensive services that let you setup a blog pretty easily, but we prefer for your blog to be hosted on the same domain as your main site. If abc.com is your main website domain, we think your blog address should be abc.com/blog not abc.blogspot.com.

Make It Easy To Share Your Content

Incorporate Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn sharing buttons on every page of your site. You can also incorporate multiple services with tools like ShareThis or AddThis. These services provide you with a snippet of code that can be embedded on any webpage. When the user clicks on the button they are provided with an easy way to share your content on a variety of sites.

We recommend including social sharing tools on every page of your site.

These three methods are easy ways to make your website more social without recreating the wheel. What do you think? Share your ideas in the comments.

The Handspring Puppet Company

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:18:00 GMT

In honor of April Fool's Day, we wanted to share something fun and creative with you. We planned on posting some elaborate joke or unbelievable story and then revealing the "surprise" at the end of the day, but it seems like these corny jokes are a dime a dozen today.

So, no jokes from us today. Instead, we hope to get a smile from you with this. This video shows amazing creativity, inspiration, fun and beauty and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

If you really want an April's Fool Joke

Google Introduces Google Motion - The mouse and keyboard were invented before the Internet even existed. Since then, countless technological advancements have allowed for much more efficient human computer interaction. Why then do we continue to use outdated technology? Introducing Gmail Motion -- now you can control Gmail with your body.
Google Docs Motion - From the beginning, Google Docs has been built with collaboration in mind. Everyone edits the same document and there’s no need to worry about attachments. While we’ve been very satisfied with Google Docs’ ability to facilitate collaboration between people working at different computers in different locations, we’ve always felt that there was a huge potential to push collaboration with Google Docs even further.
Huffington Posts Creates Paywall That Only Affects NYTimes Employees - In a move sure to irk at least two or three people who work for The New York Times, The Huffington Post (owned by AOL, our own masters in some degree of command) has put up a paywall that applies only to NYT employees.
Starbucks Introduces Mobile Barrista - We've all been there. You’re walking down the sidewalk with a huge craving for Starbucks coffee with no time to find a location and buy one (no "there’s a Starbucks on every corner" jokes, please). What if the solution was as easy as whipping out your smartphone to have one delivered to you without missing a step?
Groupon Purchases April Fools Day - For centuries, April Fools’ Day’s intellectual trademark ownership has been uncertain. That’s why Groupon decided to patent April Fools' Day. Everyone's favorite day of daffiness finally has a new owner—Groupon!

Okay. Back to work.

Turn Your Facebook Profile Into A Page

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:15:00 GMT

Facebook profiles can now be turned into Facebook Pages.

Many businesses created Facebook accounts before Facebook created "Pages". This means that a number of businesses have "personal" Facebook accounts that they use to communicate with their clients and network. In the past, if these businesses wanted to create a Facebook Page they would risk losing a number of their fans because the old fans may not go through the extra step of "liking" the new Facebook Page.

Today Facebook launched a new migration tool that allows profile owners to convert their old Facebook Profile into a Facebook Page. In addition to the new tool, Facebook has launched an extensive help section that details why users may want to transition their profile.

How to start the transition

To start the transition, visit Facebook's dedicated help section and read their overview. You can access the Facebook Profile transition help pages here. If you want to jump right in, click here.

Reasons you might want to transition

A page can have an unlimited number of fans, but a profile is limited to 5000 friends
Pages make it easy to run promotions and contests
Pages tie into Facebook's Advertising system so you can promote your Page with Facebook Ads
Facebook Pages allow the owner to access analytics about how users are interacting with the page
The Facebook API allows you to build or add applications to your Facebook Page
You have more control over the user experience on a Page than on a standard Profile
Pages can have multiple administrator accounts attached to them, allowing multiple people to manage the page instead of one
Pages allow you to send updates to all of your fans, like a broadcasted email newsletter
Pages tie into Facebook's location-based check-in system and profiles can't
Pages can utilize Facebook's "Deals" functionality to offer special coupons and promotions to fans

This is, of course, and incomplete list of reasons why you should consider transitioning your Facebook Profile to a Page. Are you planning to make the switch? Leave a comment below and let us know. If you have a Facebook page, please share it in the comments. AGENCY 3.0 has a Facebook Page and we would be honored if you became a Fan.

Simple Website Design Solutions

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:14:00 GMT

Nick DeVita is a professional actor based in New York City. He needed a simple website to showcase his past work and provide easy access to his resume, headshots and other information.

Instead of proposing a complex solution that would have been costly and difficult to maintain, we listened to what he needed and proposed a very inexpensive solution that can grow with him over time.

His new website is built on the Wordpress content management system and it integrates his latest Tweets, a small gallery of photos, video clips from some of his commercial work and a simple contact form. In the future, Nick might add a blog to this site, but he was not ready to commit to blogging full-time right now. Wordpress has a robust blogging system built in, so he can start blogging whenever he is ready.

In addition, Nick can login from any web browser and make edits to the content on his site and post new youtube videos or photos.

We helped Nick develop his overall website outline, customize the look of wordpress and then we put all of his content in place for him. This process was very budget-friendly, but we think the overall result is exactly what he was looking for.

Working with AGENCY 3.0 I was able to express what my wants and needs were for my website. Using those, they guided me through different web building sites to see what the best for me was. We ultimately landed on Wordpress.com. Through the website, They were able to help me create a design that fit me perfectly. They also used their experience to bring up features and design ideas that I never thought of integrating to my site. With all of this work I now have a fantastic website that I feel confident will assist me in enhancing my brand. Throughout the whole process they were easy to communicate with and always quick to respond to questions and ideas. I would highly recommend working with him for any kind of web design. Nick DeVita
http://www.nickdevita.com

Do You Need A Simple Website?

If you need a simple informational website like Nick's, contact us to learn more about how flexible some of our solutions are. We pride ourselves on recommending the appropriate solution for each client instead of just recommending every bell & whistle we can think of.

Watch Nick In Action

The Website Wrecking Ball

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:14:00 GMT

Want to have a little fun? Click this little link and you can unleash a virtual wrecking ball on our website. Actually, you can unleash this little wrecking ball on any website.

Drag this link to your bookmarks bar: Katamari!

Or copy and paste this url into the location bar on any site:

javascript:var i,s,ss=['http://kathack.com/js/kh.js','http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js'];for(i=0;i!=ss.length;i++){s=document.createElement('script');s.src=ss[i];document.body.appendChild(s);}void(0);

This fun little hack was created by Alex Leone, David Nufer, and David Truong. If you are curious how this works, check out their site at http://kathack.com/

Platform Update: Google Maps API Issue

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:13:00 GMT

We are currently experiencing a problem on some websites that use the Google Maps API to display data stored in a Web Application. The "marker" that indicates a specific location on the map is not loading properly due to a change in the javascript used to render the maps. The maps are displaying and the markers of the shadows are displaying, but the marker itself is missing.

This issue is currently being corrected and we anticipate rolling out a fix for this later this week. Please bookmark this post and check back for status updates and additional information. We will post updates when they become available.

Update (3/14 10:26PM EST): This issue has been diagnosed and will be fixed in the March upgrade, which is scheduled to occur on March 16th. (more information)

UPDATE (3/16/11 9:00AM EST): This system update has been postponed. During the upgrade procedure we encountered some issues. We rolled back the upgrade and will reschedule this. We will post an update when more information is available.

Platform Update: April System Upgrades

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:12:00 GMT

UPDATE (3/17/11 3PM EST): System update has been completed with issues. All systems are now operational, but Refer to a friend from custom web forms are NOT sending emails at this point. This issue is going to be fixed tomorrow.

We are rolling out a system upgrade to all Business Platform subscribers on March 16th, 2011 at 4:00 AM EST. This upgrade will take several hours but we do not anticipate any service interruption. This upgrade includes the launch of new menu modules, email campaign improvements and a number of enhancements. In addition, this release will correct the Google Maps bug we posted about earlier.

Email Marketing Upgrade

After this release, the system will automatically remove customers who mark your messages as "spam" from your lists. The customer will not be removed from your database, but they will be "opted out" of your list so you do not continue to email users who have reported your messages as spam. This will improve the deliverability of your email campaigns. In addition, the email campaign report will now show how many of your subscribers have marked your message as "spam". The report will not display specific information about what customer reported the message as spam due to privacy restrictions.

Dynamic Menu & Multiple Module Template Upgrade

This upgrade will dramatically improve the way dynamic menus are created and managed within the system. It provides additional flexibility to control the way menus are displayed and behave. Existing websites will not notice any change. We will publish a follow up post detailing how this new functionality can be incorporated into your site.

Security Upgrade To Web Forms & Bookings Modules

Secure connections for web forms with payment processing: This upgrade will cause all forms that request payment information to automatically use a secure (https) url. The form "action" will automatically point to a secure url when you create a new webform that processes a credit card payment. In the past you were required to manually edit the form "action" to point to a secure connection, but that will not be required after this upgrade. This will not be a retroactive change, so any existing web forms that collect payment information will not be automatically upgraded. These forms must be updated before our April upgrade or the will not continue to work properly.
Bookings module upgrades: This upgrade will make it easier to create bookings that require payments. We will be adding a new checkbox on the Booking details page that allows you to specify whether the booking requires payment or not. If you create a booking that requires payment, the system will automatically direct customers to a secure (https) URL to safely submit payment information when they visit the booking detail page from the booking list page. However, If the booking detail page is accessed directly, you will still need to manually update the form action to point it to a secure URL.

BUGS being squashed in this upgrade

We love fixing bugs!

This update will fix a number of minor bugs. These bugs have affected a small number of sites with very specific (unusual) use cases.

Fix the search form on the Support Central page
Fix an issue with Payment Express Gateway where payment status was set to SUCCEED, even though an exception was thrown; now if any error occurs, payment status is set to FAIL
Update copy product feature to generate a new product code and a new URL while preserving the ones of the original product
Fix an issue with PayPal Websites Payment Pro gateway causing recurrent orders older than 1 year to fail
Fix an issue causing QuickBooks to stop synchronizing for a site when account(s) are reset
Fix product export to include product grouping in exported product list
Fix a bug causing Google Maps to no longer display the position markers but only the shadow markers
Fix a bug causing workflows to not include invoice in email notification when using PayPal Websites Standards

If you have any questions about these updates, please contact us.

Google Places - Local Search Visibility

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:12:00 GMT

Google Places is Google's local business directory service. This service allows you to list your business in the Google Places directory and appear when people search for businesses like yours in your area. It is a very powerful way to highlight the location of your business, verify information about your business with Google so you can be found, allow your customers to connect with your business online and keep track of how people are using your listing so you can make informed marketing decisions. The best part - it is free.

You have probably seen Google Places search results when you have searched for businesses in your area. The screenshot below shows what the Google Places results look like for the search "pizza boston". The Google Places results appear at the top of the search results page, right below the search box and above the normal search results. This means that if you business listing performs well in Google Places, it could perform better than all of the other search results for the search terms you are targeting.

The Google Places search results include your contact information and they show your business on a map with other similar businesses in your area. The results also include a link to your website and a link to your Google Places page. The Google Places page includes additional information about your business including your hours of operation, services offering, parking information, coupons, customer reviews and more.

How To Get Started

To get started, visit http://www.google.com/places and sign up for a free account. If you already have a Google Account you can use that to login. If not, you can create a free Google account in a few minutes and you will be able to sign up to start creating your business listing. Once you create your account, you will see a big button labeled "List Your Business". Just click on this button and Google will walk you through the process of creating your new business listing.

How To Optimize Your Listing

Once you have created a listing, you will want as many people to see it as possible. Here are some tips to help you optimize your listing and improve your visibility.

Only include your business name in the business title field - It is tempting to include extra keywords, your phone number or other descriptive text with your business name, but Google Places has guidelines that forbid this practice. You should only include your actual business name in the "Company" field. (source)
Make sure you have a physical location - Google Places is only for businesses that have a physical location. Google does verify your submission data, so if you don't have a physical location in a specific area don't try to cheat the system. Google Places does allow you to indicate your service areas. If you are located in Town A, but also provide service in Town B, just create a listing for your actual address in Town A and use Google's tools to indicate your service area. (source)
Add useful descriptions and choose the right category for your listing - Including useful information in the "description" field and choosing relevant categories for your business will help improve your visibility. In addition, this information will make the listing more useful to potential customers who are searching for your services. (source)

Advertising Your Listing

Everything we have described so far is free, but if you want to be more aggressive about promoting your business with Google Places you can use their new advertising service Google Boost.

Google Boost will help you create an advertisement for your business based on the information you provide in your Google Places listing. They provide suggestions regarding ad text, categories, keywords and monthly advertising budget. Once you setup your advertisement and confirm the settings with Google Boost, your advertisement will begin to display almost immediately. The advertisements are pay-per-click ads, so you will only pay when someone clicks on your ad. If no one clicks your ad, you don't pay anything.

Contact Us To Get Started

You can do everything we have described above yourself, but we know you have a business to run. If you need help setting up your Google Places account, please contact us. If you have questions, or if you want to share more about how you are using Google Places, please leave a comment.

Our new Facebook page

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:11:00 GMT

We recently launched a brand new page on Facebook and we hope you connect with us on the popular social platform.

Why we created a Facebook Page

We plan to use the Facebook page to share important announcements, events and more. We hope it becomes a great tool for us to share useful information with you. In the unlikely case that our website is not accessible, we will use the Facebook page to communicate system updates and important information.

Even if you are not a Facebook member you should bookmark the Facebook page so you can access it easily when you need to.

Do you have a facebook page? If so, share a link to your page in the comments and tell us how you are using your page to help your business.

Ridding The World Of Internet Explorer 6

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:10:00 GMT

Microsoft released Internet Explorer version 6 ten years ago. As the world wide web has evolved, the code we use to develop websites has changed. Unfortunately, modern websites don't always play well with older version of web browsers. Microsoft recently launched a new website to help motivate people to switch from IE6 to a newer version of the software.

According to Microsoft, even though IE8 is the current version of the software 12% of users are still using the old version of the browser.

Our Browser Testing Policy

Upon closer inspection of the graphic above you will see that the percentage of people in the United States who use this old version of the browser is less than 3%. AGENCY 3.0 does not support IE6 because of this. When we build a website, we test it in all modern browsers to make sure that the website works consistently across multiple platforms.

We don't guarantee that everything we build will look the same in IE6 as a modern browser because we would have to sacrifice functionality that can improve the experience for the majority of users. We do check the site in old browsers to make sure it remains usable, but it might not look exactly like it does in modern applications.

Platform Update: Security Enhancements

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:34:00 GMT

We are committed to providing a secure infrastructure for your Business Platform websites. In April we are rolling out some changes that will increase the security of sensitive information transmitted via your website. Our infrastructure is already incredibly secure (we've never experienced a single successful hack) and we are fully PCI compliant. These changes will only improve upon our already secure platform and help you better protect sensitive website user information like email addresses, secure passwords and payment information.

We have rolled out several security enhancements this year already. After the April release, which is scheduled for April 29th, 2011, we will start enforcing the new security policies. If your website does not comply, some features may be disabled. If you have questions about this, please contact us. Here is an overview of planned changes, impacted customers, required actions and timelines.

Deny HTTP calls in APIs

What is changing: After this release you will not be able to connect to the API via a non-secure HTTP connection. You will only be able to use secure HTTPS connection.
Why it is changing: We have not forced customers to access the API via a secure URL in the past. The option was always available, but not mandatory. We want to eliminate the risk associated with transmitting data over non-secure connections and will force a secure connection going forward. Starting in April of 2011, we are going to enforce this for all sites.
How this might impact you: All sites and applications using the Business Platform APIs over HTTP will cause an error. If you have developed or implemented a solution using our API's you will be required to update the application to make sure API calls are made via a secure connection. There will not be any system downtime as part of this change.

Deny HTTP calls that include customer sensitive information

What is changing: After the April release the system will not allow forms on non-secure connections to transmit payment information.
Why it is changing: We have not forced customers to process credit card forms on secure connections in the past. However, every payment form that we setup when developing your site was created using a secure connection. If you have added a payment form to your site that is not on a secure connection, this form was transmitting payment information in a non-secure way. The system would previously allow this, but after this update the system will require that all forms that transmit credit card information are on a secure URL. This option was always available, but not mandatory when users setup their own payment forms. We want to eliminate the risk associated with transmitting data over non-secure connections and will force a secure connection going forward. Starting in April of 2011, we are going to enforce this for all sites.
How this might impact you: Users will need to update their websites so that payment forms are on a secure URL (https) instead of a non-secure URL (http). You can check your current forms by visiting the page with the payment form and looking at the URL in the address bar on your browser. If the address starts with HTTPS your form is configured properly. If the web page address begins with HTTP it will require an update. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Upgrade the Dreamweaver Plugin to require HTTPS login

What is changing: The Dreamweaver plugin will require a secure connection after this release.
Why it is changing: This is also changing to improve site security.
How this might impact you: Users who are using the Dreamweaver plugin should update their installation of the plugin to the latest version. The old version will stop working after this update.

If you have any questions about any of the changes mentioned above, please contact us.

Bing versus Yahoo - Who is winning the race for second place?

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:08:00 GMT

In a new report from Statcounter, a free online visitor stats tool, the company breaks down marketshare for the major search engines. The report includes a few significant facts.

Worldwide Search Traffic

Bing is now more popular than Yahoo!. According to the press release, Bing overtook Yahoo! as the second most popular search tool worldwide. 4.37% of global search traffic goes to Bing. Yahoo! gets 3.93% of global search traffic.

The clear winner in this is Google with 89.94% of global search engine traffic.

United States Search Traffic

In the United States Yahoo! at 9.74% still retains its lead over Bing at 9.03%. Google's share in the US is 79.63%.

The full press release can be found on the Statcounter website.

Platform Update: System update planned for Feb 28th, 2011

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:34:00 GMT

Business Platform subscribers are going to receive a minor upgrade on Feb 28th. This upgrade will include improvements to email campaigns and changes to the ecommerce and web apps systems. This update will not require any changes on your site, but might affect your use of the system in the future.

Email Marketing Changes

We are adding a new feature that will create a global black list for email campaigns: bounced emails due to "mail box unavailable" or "user does not exist" errors will be recorded in a Global Black List and the system will block from sending campaigns to that email address for 45 days unless the recipient verifies via double opt-in.
Block list emails report: the email campaigns report page will display how many recipients are black listed due to invalid email address and also have the link to open a report to show the email addresses that are invalid. Users can unsubscribe those invalid email addresses using the action drop down at the top of the results.

These new features are designed to reduce the likelihood that email campaigns are marked as SPAM.

New limits on the number of products and web app items displayed on a page

What is changing: Going forward, the system will impose a limit on the number of web app items and products displayed on a page. If your page displays more than 500 items, the system will force pagination (page numbers).
Why is it changing?This change will improve system performance and scalability. When a website displays a large (more than 500) number of products or web app items it affects the overall system load and could cause performance issues.
How will this impact you? Pagination is generally in use on most sites, so there should not be any design impact or need to modify your site. The good news is that product pages and web app item lists should load faster.

New limits on the number of products and web app items that can be imported at one time

What is changing: Going forward, the system will impose a limit on the number of products and web app items that can be exported or imported at one time. If your import or export exceeds the limit, the items that exceed the limit will be ignored and you will have to perform a subsequent export or import to complete the process. The limit will be set to 10,000 products or web app items for imports done through the Admin interface of your site.
Why is it changing? This change will increase system performance and scalability. Similar to displaying a large number of products or web app items in the same page, importing or exporting these resources are affecting system performance, and we want to prevent future system failures.
How will this impact you? Customers with large number of products or web app items will have to perform multiple exports/imports to update the products or web app items on their web site. We have update the interface so it includes options for importing or exporting large intervals of products (first 10,000, next 10,000, etc).