Today the focus of our Web Speak series is on the use of deep linking. Even if you’ve never heard the phrase, it’s likely that you’ve at one time created a deep link. At a minimum, it’s almost a certainty that you’ve followed a deep link that someone else has created.

The Short Version
Deep linking simply refers to links that send visitors to any page on your site other than the home page. While home pages are great places to start, a business may want certain visitors to start on a more specific page.
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This installment of our Web Speak series covers the basic definition and advantages of a CMS. Far from just another meaningless acronym in a myriad of computer speak, this tool can be a website owner’s best friend.

The Short Version
A CMS, or content management system, enables a website to be easily updated by someone who doesn’t have the training or background of a Web developer.
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Email. Used and abused.

For most of us today, email is an essential part of both our personal and work lives. If we don’t check our email for a few days, we probably feel lost. And if we don’t receive any emails for a day, we think something’s wrong.

Yet, we all see how email is abused daily. Even if we’re very careful with where we put our addresses online, chances are some junk mail - maybe a lot of junk mail - makes it to our inboxes.

Because of our love hate relationship with email, it’s no surprise that there are mixed attitudes toward email marketing.
It’s a direct, affordable way to communicate with your customers. But you don’t want to be that pest that’s cluttering their inboxes.
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Just about every discussion about social media includes the famous, or infamous, question: “What’s the ROI on social media?”

You may be getting closer to having an answer for your clients or your boss. A study from Wetpaint and Altimer Group confirms that communicating with customers through social media correlates with better financial performance.
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For lesson six in the August Ash Web Speak series, we’re going to briefly discuss the site navigation feature of breadcrumbs, also referred to as a breadcrumb trail. Despite the sometimes hokey names products like these get labeled with, the name of this tool actually represents its purpose and function pretty accurately.
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The fifth installment of our Web Speak series is about CSS, cascading style sheets, and what they mean for your website.

The Short Version
Cascading style sheets (CSS) allow web developers to assemble and update a site faster, more easily, and with fewer chances for error. This makes everyone happier.
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Picking up where we last left off, we’re now to the fourth lesson in our Web Speak series. Today’s topic is JavaScript.

The Short Version
JavaScript allows a higher degree of usability and interaction between humans and websites.
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At August Ash, we’ve been fans of Magento since it was first released in March 2008. The open-source community agrees, with more than 85,000 of us responsible for over 750,000 free downloads of the e-commerce platform.

With community interest so great, Magento’s creator, Varien, decided to step in with a paid version, the Magento Enterprise Edition, on April 15, 2009.
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The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s a trite expression, but in the world of business, it’s never been more relevant than it is right now.

Consider the most significant business tools and technologies that have emerged in the past 10 years. For that matter, look at just the past three years. We’re operating in a more advanced marketplace than we were 36 months ago.

Scores of new business owners every day are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of online tools such as e-commerce, blogging, and social media avenues like Twitter and Facebook. Advertising budgets, too, are phasing out phone book ads in favor of modern solutions such as pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns. (more…)

While online marketing isn’t magic and it isn’t free - it’s becoming much more affordable and effective than traditional marketing.

Of course, marketing online doesn’t mean you can forget all the elements of any good traditional campaign. You still need to have something to say. You need to have a product or service to offer. And you need to deliver your message to the right people.

But if you choose to do all of these things online - through a blog, a social media site, or one of many other channels - it’s generally going to be a lot cheaper than sending that same message on the radio, in a newspaper, or on TV.
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