Introduction to Tech Nickel

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For the initial post on this blog – i’d like to take a minute and introduce the mission of the blog, and to let you know why we’re going to take some time to teach you about some borderline “nerdy” things. “Tech Nickel” is going to break down a lot of the terminology that surrounds any conversation you have with anyone who has spent far too much time in front of a computer. In order for the words to sink in – they have to be translated to plain english, or at least connected to items/actions that you could even understand.

Our goals:

1.) FREE INFORMATION: We’re looking to set free some information that will allow you to make good decisions, regarding your personal online properties (websites, social networks, etc.) – and to create an open forum that will be a great place to learn about how the internet works. We want you to know how it works, so you are protected from anyone who would try to either sell you something unnecessary, or would try to pull the wool over your eyes, and take money for services that are not being done.  I like to call this ‘snake-oil’.  There are many companies out there that will try to ‘educate’ you on what you need to be doing online, but could be just using scare tactics to get you to react – and since the company providing information is SO KNOWLEDGEABLE, they just decide to sign up with them.

2.) SIMPLE INFORMATION: There is a lot of terminology that flies around, and for the most part – it produces a lot of blank stares from the general public, and/or nodding through the conversation – in the hopes that it will turn towards something more comfortable if they don’t participate (if you are reading this – and have not experienced ‘slowly nodding until they are done talking’ situation, post a comment – I think we’ve all been there). We’re going to spend some time and go over many of the big topics/terms/vocabulary, and give analogies to help you understand the meaning and intent. We can’t claim to make you an expert by reading a post per week, and you won’t be fluent in nerd-speak by any means – but, you might be able to at least ask questions that will help you make better decisions online.

3.) RELIABLE INFORMATION: We’ll be up front and honest about this… we are offering packages of “Digital Services” at The Columbian – and this may be somewhat of a vehicle (at times) to get feedback on what the community would like to see us provide. But, first and foremost, we’d like to educate individuals, so they can make the right decisions when they are confronted by a fluent nerd-speaker. Even if you (as a potential customer of The Columbian) decide to ‘shop-around’ and talk with our competition, we’d like to make sure that you’re making an informed decision – and that you aren’t being oversold, or wasting the investment.  In the past few years (and continuing to get worse) it seems like you can’t throw a dollar bill without hitting a ‘web designer’… But, I can honestly tell you that few have the integrity and longevity of The Columbian.  We won’t oversell our customers, as we know how much it means to develop lasting partnerships with members and businesses in our local community, and your success is the only key to ours.

Our main goal – is to give you the opportunity to confront technical-types, and to prevent small businesses from being sold products or services that they don’t understand – and are too intimidated to react.

There is an incredible team of developers, managers, sales team members, strategists and support staff here at the newspaper – and I’m personally proud to be a part of this growing team.

Our offerings include:

• Website design
• SEO/SEM packages
• Business listing management
• Analytics/reporting
• Website hosting            …and much more coming soon!

If you have any questions about what we can offer – head over to http://adv.columbian.com and check out our available services, give them a call and tell them you read Tech Nickel, and we’ll hook you up with a FREE “SEO Review” of your website – so you can keep track of how well you are doing against your competition!  (This is a ‘snapshot’ of how well you are doing at the time of the report, and not to be meant as an analytics report – but more of a “polaroid showing the distance between you and your competition”.)

Until next time…