Monday, January 24, 2011

Beware of companies advertising based on suburb

JustLocal is about enabling people to find local businesses. That is businesses close to the area where they live, close to their work, or close to a location they wish to visit either for business or pleasure.

Today I found a legal company promoting themselves in Templestowe on the web. When I find a local company or business I add the site to the local search engine. The problem I find is many businesses tend mislead people as to the area they are located.

In this case the legal firm had set up sites covering different suburbs across Melbourne. Whilst it is possible they may have representation in each area, when checking out the site there were no contact details to indicate the location of the legal practice. There was a 1300 number and an email address different from the site domain. Using the email address domain I was able to track that the most likely owner of the site to be a Bourke Street based law firm.

It is very common practice on the internet for people to attempt to get as wide a coverage for their services as possible. There is nothing wrong in the practice as long as everything is done appropriately and the consumer is not misled. Ideally however the JustLocal approach is to make it easy as possible to find local businesses in the local area.

Next time your searching for a local business keep in mind  businesses will do what they can to get your business and you may end up with the extra time and inconvenience of their location not being where you expected.

With professional service firms also keep in mind they charge very high hourly rates and if they need to travel it will often be at your expense. I remember when working for a chartered accounting firm I'd travel an hour to the client, see the client for an hour and travel again for an hour to return to the office in St Kilda Road. The productive time for the client was an hour. The chargeable time was three hours plus car mileage. For some clients parking fees also applied. When looking for professional services it is prudent to consider travel time of the professional because it could end up being a considerable portion of the amount charged, as well as any out-of-pocket costs for the professional.

I personally feel tricking people into thinking they've found someone local is not the best way to get business and is something a professional firm should avoid. You want to deal with an ethical company and how they advertise is a reflection of their professional ethics.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Myspace - An end of an era.

The Australian subsidiary of Myspace is about to close at the end of this month. A couple of years ago I watched the traffic graphs and witnessed Facebook passing Myspace and to this day Facebook continues to grow.

I'm personally not a fan of Facebook because I think people's privacy should be number one on the agenda. People should be able to opt to share their information and not have it shared for the benefit of commercial interests, but what I think isn't particularly relevant because Facebook continues to grow.

Myspace was the "big" social site a few years ago and it has now been blitzed by Facebook. In this article one of three founding staff members of Myspace Australia shares their views. I think getting the inside information from someone who has been there, is excellent information which can assist all of us in our own business in some way.

I appreciate Alex sharing his story and thought it may be of interest to JustLocal friends. Thank you Alex for sharing.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.JustLocal.com.au/

Friday, January 14, 2011

MyAnswers: Internet Explorer - Entering wrong site address goes to Google search results

The following MyAnswers solution 2061 is now available:

In Internet Explorer 8 when I type an web site address wrong by one character I end up with the Google search page. All I want to do is correct the wrong character in the address bar but now it contains a lengthy URL. How do I disable passing the option to show Google search results?



Click here to obtain the solution.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

Thursday, January 13, 2011

MyAnswers: Spellcheck web pages using Opera browser

The following MyAnswers solution 2059 is now available:

This solution provides a handy technique to check the spelling in web pages on a site using the Opera browser.



Click here to obtain the solution.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

MyAnswers: Skype won't install on Android HTC mobile from Optus

The following MyAnswers solution 2057 is now available:

Why won't Skype install on my Android based HTC mobile phone from Optus?



Click here to obtain the solution.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

Thursday, January 06, 2011

MyAnswers: How to delete a Vistaprint account.

The following MyAnswers solution 2054 is now available:

How do I delete my Vistaprint account? With Vistaprint you need to set up an account to determine the full price including delivery for free offers as you can't get a total price without an account.



Click here to obtain the solution.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz

Monday, January 03, 2011

Word Check updated to provide spelling suggestions for misspelt words

Word Check provides the preferred Australian English spelling for words and until now provided the word was either found or not found. When a word is misspelt I've always wanted to provide a listed of suggestion words to help people using Word Check.

I've now completed an update to Word Check and now Word Check provides a list of suggested words which will often include the correct spelling of the word you've entered.

For the meaning or definition of words, I've now removed Wiktionary and provide links to a more authoritative resource. Using Word Check is still the best option to check words, as Word Check provides the preferred Australian English spelling. Spelling includes plurals and possessives, which are often not provided with many dictionaries, but often give us the most grief when it comes to spelling.

Please let me know if you find any problems. The dictionary is still evolving so if you find anything you feel needs to be reviewed, please don't hesitate to write to me and let me know.

Word Check is available via the main dictionary page and also directly at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/australian-dictionary/.

Thank you,

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/