Yesterday one of my clients called to ask me for help comparing two versions of a legal document in Microsoft Word. He had sent a legal contract to someone who subsequently edited and returned the document, but without any indication of the changes made. Word does have a feature to allow you to compare two revisions of a document to find the changes, but some people find it clunky to use. I suggested an easier method that even a computer novice can do using the free Google Docs application. [More]
Nov 11, 2009 • by Jason Sherrill
In my previous post I shared a cry for help from someone who asked why products from his Google Base Feed were not showing up in the Google Shopping search results. The answer was obvious to me only because I'd encountered this exact situation several times before, but it's a common mistake that many people (including me) make, especially when starting out with Google Base feeds. [More]
Aug 14, 2009 • by Jason Sherrill
Today someone asked me for help to figure out why products from his e-commerce store have stopped appearing in Google Shopping search results. He has been submitting a product feed to Google Base for over a year and until recently, he generated a significant amount of traffic and sales from Google Shopping clicks. He had successfully validated his feed format and confirmed that it contained the required parameters. With one look at his feed format, I knew exactly why he his products had stopped showing up in Google Shopping results. [More]
Aug 11, 2009 • by Jason Sherrill
If you've ever called your utility company, credit card company or any large corporation, you've likely experienced the frustration of sitting on hold for painfully long periods of time. Some companies have helpful phone systems that will tell you that you're caller number X in the queue, or that your expected wait time is Xteen minutes. That's cool, and helpful, but today I saw something on one of my banking websites that I think raises the bar for companies providing telephone customer service. [More]
May 18, 2009 • by Jason Sherrill
Too often business people use the term resource to describe a human being, especially in the software development and marketing agency worlds. Statements like "Do we have any resources available for this project?" or "I need a resource with SEO expertise" put people on the same level as electricity, CPU cycles and bandwidth. Using the word resource to describe a human being makes people feel like a commodity and diminishes their individuality. Dale Carnegie said, If you want to win friends, make it a point to remember them. If you remember my name, you pay me a subtle compliment; you indicate that I have made an impression on you. Remember my name and you add to my feeling of importance. He also said, A person's name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language. I appreciate the unique talents, personality and perspectives that eac... [More]
Mar 27, 2009 • by Jason Sherrill
