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BlogEngine.Net Features

image I?ve received a few inquiries about the features that are available in BE.Net in our comments section. Here is the latest grid posted (showing 1.4 although they are now up to 1.4.5):

Feature table

This is a list of all the features of BlogEngine.NET

Current Version
1.4

License
Ms-RL

Cost
Free and open source

Server Requirements
ASP.NET 2.0 or Mono

Mono support
Yes

Localization
Yes, support for 31 languages

Multilingual
No

Multiply authors
Yes

Static pages
Yes. You can create pages not part of the blog chronology

Navigation
Theme based and a sitemap provider for static pages

Alternate front page
Yes. All pages can be the front page of the blog

Each author have own feed
yes

New comment notification
Yes. Either by RSS, ATOM or e-mail

Data Storage
Provider based. XML or SQL Server, MySQL, VistaDB and many more

Post rating
Yes. Visitors can rate the individual posts

Gravatar support
Yes as well as MonsterID, Identicons and Wavatars

Tag cloud
Yes

Post calendar
Yes. AJAX enabled

Search posts
Yes. Maybe the best blog search available

Search comments
Yes. The search can include the comments as well as posts

User control injection
Yes. Any user control (.ascx) can be added to a blog post

Contact form
Yes

Comment moderation
Yes. Can be turned on/off in the admin

Disable comments
Yes. You can even disable comments after a given interval of time

E-mail attachments
Yes. The contact form can send attachments

Post ordering
Descending by date

Categories
Multiple

Subcategories
Yes

Tags
Yes

Post Editor
TinyMCE but others can be used

Draft Mode
Yes

Auto save
Yes

Microformats
xFolk, Rel-Tag, VoteLinks, XFN, XOXO, rel-home, rel-directory, rel-enclosure

Other export formats
FOAF, SIOC and APML

OpenSearch support
Yes

Google sitemap
Yes

HTTP compression
Yes (optional)

Live comment preview
Yes

Post API Support
MetaWeblog (supports newMediaObject method

Post Moderation
No

Syndication feeds
RSS 2.0 and ATOM 1.0

Feedburner support
Yes

OPML support
Yes

Windows Live Writer
Yes, extended support for both posts and pages

Ping services
Yes. Pings various services and more can easily be added

Comments
Yes

Comment Spam
Invisible CAPTCHA and AJAX

Comment syndication
Yes, as either RSS or ATOM

AJAX enabled comments
Yes

Themes
Yes (master pages and ascx files)

User Security
Users and roles can be defined freely

Trackback
Yes, both send and receive

Pingback
Yes, both send and receive

RSS Aggregator
The dynamic blogroll aggregates feeds

Forum
No

Gallery
No

Plugins/Extension
Full extension model

Mobile device support

Yes, special theme for mobile devices

Referrer Logs
Yes

Import/Export

BlogML and RSS

Search Engine Friendly URLs
Yes

Cross-post
No

Spell checker
Yes (ieSpell)

XFN support in editor
Yes

Password Protected Posts
No

Blog By Email
Not yet

API
MetaWeblog, javascript API and full SOAP web service API

Tracking scripts
You can change your tracking script from the admin. Works on all themes

HTML header tags
You can add your own from the admin

File extension
.aspx by default, but can be changed in the web.config

Development principles
KISS and no third-party assemblies. Very small and clean architecture

Code syntax highlighting
Yes. C#, Java, VB.NET, HTML, Javascript and T-SQL

User Community
CodePlex

Documentation
http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/wiki

Sample Sites
http://blog.madskristensen.dk/

If anyone has other questions about implementation or ??? Please, speak up in the comments below and we?ll do the best we can to answer your questions about this great blogging platform.

Fully Leverage Apps – Replace Outlook

Yes, I crow the advantages of using Google Apps in small to medium sized-businesses and that MOST people can effectively replace Outlook and just use the fantastic tools available with Google Apps to accomplish this and still be effective in their jobs. However, I still haven?t cut that cord myself. There were a number of compelling reasons why not and Google, thanks to the boffins at Google Labs, have knocked down one more barrier for me, and perhaps for you as well.

I?ve always relied very heavily on the Tasks feature in Outlook to help keep me on track and ensure I don?t miss any important deadlines. Most of these are initiated by emails and are just a quick CTRL-SHIFT K away. Now, the Gmail team has added Tasks as an option that you can turn on via Google Labs in Gmail interface (the normal as well as the Google Apps version). Not familiar with Labs? It should show up as a tab in your Settings page of Gmail. Or, you can use the quick link icon at the top of any Gmail page: image

Once in the Labs tab of Gmail Settings, you turn on Tasks by clicking Enable in the following section:

image

They also offer you some tips on accessing and using your tasks:

  1.  
    1. Manage your email workflow better by converting emails into tasks: "More Actions > Add to Tasks"
    2. ENTER creates a new task, TAB and SHIFT-TAB indent and un-indent, CTRL-UP and CTRL-DOWN let you reorder from the keyboard, and SHIFT-ENTER toggles back and forth between the detailed view for a task and the main view
    3. After turning Tasks on, turn on Keyboard shortcuts in "Settings > General" and then use "SHIFT-T" to create tasks from your emails – even faster than using the More Actions menu

 

image Once you?ve created a task, you?ll see your Task list floating on the page along with your inbox. You?ll see that you can mark a task completed, you can pop out the task list into a new window, there is a quick link to the Related Email as well. Yimageou?ll find an Actions menu that allows you to prioritize your tasks by moving them up and down, indent them (or not) to create hierarchies, Edit the details of the task as well as hide and show what you?ve accomplished. Clicking on the plus sign will add a new task; the trash can will delete the selected task as you?d imagine. Lastly, under the list icon at the lower left of the task pane, you?ll find another menu that allows you to Refresh, Rename or Delete the current list as well as to create a new list. Once you have multiple lists, you?d use this menu to switch between them.

The only item that is missing (and hopefully will get added soon) is the ability to add a deadline and have an alarm go off (email or otherwise) when a deadline or time before a deadline is reached. They are just soooo close.

In case you were wondering, what is the number one thing that is keeping me from completely dumping Outlook at this stage? Well, I?m managing to many simultaneous mailboxes throughout the day to have to log in and out of each one (or to keep different browsers open for each identity) so until I either simplify my life or I come up with a better solution, I may be stuck with Outlook.

Any thoughts, suggestions, complaints? Please use the comments form below to tell me what you think!

New Products RSS Feed for ASPDotNetStoreFront

I?ve just recently completed work on a New Product RSS feed for one of my ASPDNSF customers and thought I?d post it here for all to benefit from. This package uses the already existing RssFeed.aspx files that come with ASPDNSF for display. To use the attached XMLPackage, you?ll need to do the following:

Here are some of the more interesting things about the XMLPackage that might going through the code a good learning experience. The first is identifying the odd format that RSS feeds expect dates to be in. Below is the SQL code to format the date string (in this case for the item creation date (to be used as the published date) 

  <query name="Items" rowElementName="Item">
    <sql>
      <![CDATA[
                select top @Limit ProductID, ProductGUID, Name, SEName, Description, 
                LEFT(DATENAME(dw, CreatedOn), 3) 
                + ',' + ' ' + RIGHT('0'+CAST(DATEPART(DAY, CreatedOn) AS CHAR(2)),2) + ' ' + LEFT(DATENAME(m, CreatedOn),3)
                +  ' ' + CAST(YEAR(CreatedOn) AS CHAR(4)) 
                + ' ' + CONVERT(varchar,CreatedOn,108) + ' PST' AS CreatedDate
                from dbo.product with (nolock) 
                where Deleted = 0 and Published=1
                order by createdon desc
            ]]>
    </sql>
    <querystringreplace replaceTag="@Limit" replacetype="request" replaceparamname="limit" defvalue="5" validationpattern="^\d{1,10}$" />
  </query>


This formats the dates into a string that looks like the following:

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 15:40:02 PST

as opposed to a standard SQL date that look like this:

2008-11-28 14:34:05.920

I just found it much easier to manipulate this in SQL than in XSL.

One key to properly providing an RSS feed for consumption is to provide the last build date so that RSS readers aren?t needlessly downloading articles. This is provided by determining the most recently created item and stuffing it into the LastCreatedDate. The RSS Channel includes Generator, Title, Link, Description, Copyright, Date, lastBuildDate, and image elements; all except the image elements are drawn from AppConfig or System values to minimize the need to modify this file unless you need to. This XMLPackage also includes the following elements of the RSS Item specification: title, link, description, author, guid, date, pubDate and image. In the case of Item, all the values are drawn from the product database including properly formatting the product link URL and the item image URL.

I?m looking forward to hearing how people are going to use this application. Please use the feedback section below to let me know what you think of this XMLPackage!

New Product RSS Feed v1.0 download

ASPDNSF ML v8.0.0.0 Released

ASPDotNetStoreFront released their latest version last week.  I?ve just recently finished a transition to the new version on one of my client sites (http://www.tobacco-barn.com) in conjunction with a design change. We?ve all been impressed with overall how easy the transition was. This particular site has a great deal of customization of various files in the system and with the addition of the ?In Store Pickup? option, we can now remove that customization from our list of code changes on every update.

We are also impressed by how quickly and effectively the Tabbed Interface for Products works and have even extended it to add a new tab if a product has a link to a video defined in the product?s ExtensionData field, a video tab will be added to the interface. The ?Customers Who Bought X also Bought Y? is another nice little freebie thta comes with this latest version. We also integrated the Viewing History feature and hope that this will help drive sales on this site.

Another nice feature is the redesigned admin UI. I?ll be the first to point out that I don?t like graphic updates just for the sake of doing so but the layout of menu options is just so much more compelling and thought out than previously.

We haven?t yet implemented and tested the full-text search capability but for those who have a lot pertinent information in product descriptions, this may just prove to be a god-send.

Here is their press release about the new launch:

AspDotNetStorefront ML v8.0 Release Raises the Shopping Cart Bar Gives Merchants the Tools to Tackle a Tough Economy

In the latest ML v8.0 release significant enhancements have been introduced in the platform to increase conversion rates, maximize performance, and reduce administrative overhead to put merchants in the best possible position to maximize profits and grow their online e-commerce sales in a slowing global economy.

Westlake, OH (PRWEB) November 12, 2008 — AspDotNetStorefront is proud to announce the latest release of its flagship AspDotNetStorefront ML e-commerce shopping cart platform. In the latest ML v8.0 release significant enhancements have been introduced in the platform to increase conversion rates, maximize performance, and reduce administrative overhead to put merchants in the best possible position to maximize profits and grow their online e-commerce sales in a slowing global economy.

AspDotNetStorefront ML 8.0 includes powerful, high performance, full-text product searching, helping shoppers find what they are looking for faster and keeping them anchored to your site. Additionally, AspDotNetStorefront will intelligently build related products as shoppers browse your site and display them on your product pages, allowing merchants to effortlessly increase upsell percentages and capitalize on cross-marketing opportunities. New inventory control features add flexibility to how out of stock products are handled on your site to reduce shopper frustration, and a reorganized and redesigned admin site makes performing common tasks more intuitive. Tabbed product pages make it efficient and attractive to organize complex product data, and "customers who bought x also bought y" capabilities are now included out of the box.

customers who bought x also bought y

We’ve gone to great lengths to focus our development efforts on providing tools that allow merchants to make the most out of every sale opportunity

"We’ve gone to great lengths to focus our development efforts on providing tools that allow merchants to make the most out of every sale opportunity," AspDotNetStorefront COO & Executive Vice President Dan Van Kuren remarked. "With more consumers indicating they’ll be shopping online this busy holiday season even in uncertain economic times, merchants need to take advantage of technologies that set them above their competition. Version 8.0 puts advanced capabilities within reach of ecommerce veterans and fledgling online businesses alike while maintaining exceptional ease of use and minimizing administrative overhead. Take our renowned SEO capabilities and add to that our constantly expanding feature set, and you have an ecommerce platform that can take you across the finish line in first place. This latest release demonstrates our commitment to helping our online merchants grow, regardless of what is happening in the market."

AspDotNetStorefront ML Version 8.0 contains many new exciting e-commerce features, including the following:

  • Exciting new merchant control panel, featuring a new layout, and expanded use of Wizards to assist merchants in configuring their store features, settings, and capabilities
  • Tabbed product page presents all product details without the need for scrolling the browser screen
  • Dramatically Improved (Full Text) Search Performance, to identify root words, plurals, compound phrases, and search term reordering
  • Automatic display of Product Suggestions, based on previous customer purchases, This provides an Amazon.com like capability guiding customers to additional products of interest for purchase
  • Improved display of Product Stock Conditions, allowing merchants greater flexibility in indicating real-time inventory status
  • Support for credit card processing by Sage Payment Systems
  • Improved "Page Not Found" (404 handling) display, offering e-commerce driven search suggestions based on missing page attributes guiding consumers to the best fit pages and products.
  • Automatic display of a customers’ viewing history, allowing them to quickly locate and view recently viewed products
  • Automatic display of Related Products, based on heuristics of product-view data
  • Improved handling of "Delayed Capture" payment methods, to allow merchants to void non-completed orders
  • Improved compliance with XHTML display standards, including the ability to specify the exact "alt" text of a product image, for improved website accessibility for people with special needs and SEO indexing
  • 400% faster page loads than v7.0 version

Additionally, AspDotNetStorefront will be updating its online demo sites to better showcase our new technologies. Prospective customers will enjoy a greatly expanded product database to demonstrate the nearly unlimited capabilities of the AspDotNetStorefront shopping cart platform; developers and web designers can modify skin templates to see for themselves how easily professional e-commerce sites can be developed using the AspDotNetStorefront platform.

AspDotNetStorefront ML Version 8.0 is available for $1,295, with no monthly fees or annual commitments required. C# and VB.NET source code available. SQL Server 2005 or higher required, along with the asp.net 3.5 SP1 platform. For more information, visit the AspDotNetStorefront website at http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com.

About AspDotNetStorefront:
AspDotNetStorefront.com, a division of Discovery Productions, Inc., is a privately held company that provides online eCommerce shopping cart platforms for nearly 10,000 merchants and 6,000 developer partners. For more information, visit http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com or call 602-490- 0243.

###

If you currently use ASPDNSF or have questions about it, please use the Comments below let us know what you think and/or rate this posting for usefulness.

Google Apps CAN Secure your Company’s Data

Google announced recently that Google Apps has passed a SAS 70 Type II audit! The audit was performed by an independent public accounting firm to verify the technical processes and controls utilized by Google to ensure that customer information stays safe.

According to Wikipedia:

With the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), SAS 70 took on increased importance. SOX adopted the COSO model of controls, which is the same model that SAS 70 audits have used since inception. SOX heightened the focus placed on understanding the controls over financial reporting and identified a Type II SAS 70 report as the only acceptable method for a third party to assure a service organization's controls.

So, if you?ve been waiting to pull the trigger on converting your company?s Email and/or Groupware over to Google Apps for security reasons, you can now rest easy on this point. This coupled with their announcement that Premier Editions will include 99.9% uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) for GMail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sites and Google Talk.

If you are looking to get your business converted over to Google Apps, talk to the experts here at Exhibit A as we can help streamline this process for you.

Google Apps News Updates…

Google has recently announced a few new upgrades to Google Apps this weekend. One is exclusive to the Premier Edition while the other series of changes are to Google Calendar.

If you are looking for a compelling reason to move up to the Premier Edition, this may just be it. Not that I, or to the best of my knowledge any of my Google Apps clients, have experienced any significant loss of service in the past but you never can tell as the Apps become more and more popular?  Yes, Google has finally upped the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Premier Edition to a 99.9% uptime guarantee. That amounts to under 9 hours of downtime a year! You can learn more about this at http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/terms/sla.html.

Google has also announced a series of usability improvements to Google Calendar as well:

  • A whole raft of new keyboard shortcuts (visible by pressing ? key) for things like navigation (k and j for previous and next period,t for today), changing views (a for adgenda view, d for day view, w for week view, m for month view, x for four day view), performing actions(c for create event, e for event details and del to delete an event) and maneuvering about the application(/ to search, + to focus on a calendar, q for Quick Add, Ctrl+P to print, s for settings and, of course, ? for shortcut screen).
  • If you routinely have trouble getting everyone?s schedule coordinated, you can now automatically find the next available time period across those attending an event.
  • The application will also perform automatic time zone detection when you are traveling
  • If you frequently travel to another location or work with others in a different time zone, you can set up a secondary time zone
  • You now have more granular control over meeting reminders

If you?ve used any of these features and have a comment, or have questions about upgrading to the Premier Edition, please feel free to use the comments section below.

Looking for Cheap Exposure?

Then write up a press release about your company or product and release it to any of these No-Cost press release distribution sites. This is actually a press release written by someone who was doing research for a company that couldn?t afford the normal fees associated with the paid distribution sites that everyone is aware of?

13 No-Cost Press Release Distribution Websites: What They Offer and How to Use Them
First, some general advice for posting press releases to these sites:
Tip #1. Craft quality content
If you?re not a PR pro or you haven?t distributed a press release over a wire service, then you probably should not go this alone. You don?t want to distribute something that simply looks unprofessional, says Durazo. A quality headline, subhead, and body test require skill and knowledge of the press release format.
Tip #2. Pay careful attention to whether these sites mask your email address.
Durazo generated unwanted spam at first because he didn?t insert a generic ?info@? email address to the sites that published his personal email address on the press release web page.
Tip #3. Understand purpose of no-cost sites
The purpose of using the free distribution sites is to enhance search results for your company or client?s company. ?I would not use this to try and get media coverage,? says Durazo. ?This is great for search results.? Durazo was surprised to find releases he posted to free sites show up at the top of search results on the major search engines.
Keep in mind that registering for each site is time-consuming. Every one has different rules and protocol. The task took Durazo most of one day to complete.
Be careful when choosing upgrades. Some sites suggest costly upgrades that other ones offer for free. Review options carefully to find the most cost-effective selection. Always add keyword tags and hyperlinks when offered. They increase the optimization of the release.
Here are the 13 sites Durazo found and used for his client:

  1. 1888PressRelease
    http://www.1888pressrelease.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, optimization for search engines, personalized company profile page, distributed to growing list of distribution partners.
    The press release Durazo submitted to the site landed on page two of Google search results for his client. Submission was easy, he says; the site stored the contact information he submitted previously. The press release was approved within 48-72 hours.
    Upgrade options:
    o $10 guarantees immediate approval, placement above other press releases, permanent placement in the site?s database (other press releases may be deleted after one year), no ads present within the press release, etc.
    o $25 guarantees all of the above plus enhanced distribution, distribution to Google News, a product gallery, and five uploaded images.
    o $50 guarantees all of the above plus advanced placement, distribution via social media, and a video gallery.
  2. 24-7 Press Release
    http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, keyword tags for SEO purposes, email addresses masked to prevent spam
    The only issue Durazo had with the site was that it didn?t retrieve his contact info from previous posts. He had to reenter some of the contact fields. Also, the site did not guarantee that free press releases would be posted; they were limited to one per day. He liked that his email address was masked.
    Upgrade options:
    o $20 guarantees positioning above the free releases.
    o $49 guarantees increased SEO, distribution to major newswires, attachment of files, logos, images, and access to Web stats for tracking performance.
    o $89 guarantees maximized SEO, selection of 10 industry categories, next-day distribution, higher visibility and video inclusion.
    o $349 guarantees all of the above plus distribution to PR Newswire and 4,000 other websites and trade publications.
  3. Free-Press-Release.com
    http://www.free-press-release.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, posted immediately, optimized for search engines, press releases are easy to delete, keyword tags for SEO purposes, email addresses masked to prevent spam, indexing by Google within 24 hours.
    Durazo was impressed with the usability of this site. He had to cut his press release to fit the required 3,000-character maximum. But a Google search for his client?s name landed the press release near the top of search results, which made him very happy.
    Upgrade options:
    o $1 guarantees a 10,000-character maximum, indexing by Google within four hours, ability to edit the press release, attach an image, attach a PDF version, and send press release to subscribers, etc.
    o $5 or more guarantees all of the above plus indexing by Google within an hour.
  4. Free Press Release Center
    http://www.free-press-release-center.info/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, keyword tags for SEO purposes, email addresses masked to prevent spam.
    This was a fast and friendly, straightforward site, says Durazo. The coolest thing about it was the option to choose hyperlinks for keywords within the body of the press release. That is good for the SEO of the sites the release linked to.
    Upgrade option:
    o $2.99 guarantees three keyword hyperlinks, a top spot on the site for seven days, PDF download, inclusion on the front page of Yabadabadoo and Alert the Media, permanent placement on the site?s database.
  5. My Free PR
    http://www.myfreepr.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, posted within 24 hours, indexed by Google within two to three days.
    This site had some technical issues. The registration page was not easily detectable. Durazo had trouble finding the submit button after he uploaded a press release. The submit button was a disk-shaped clip-art image on the right side of the page.
    Though the site provided the option to bold and italicize text, Durazo says, he tried it and nothing happened. The site also appeared to allow users to upload images, but to no avail, says Durazo. The site did not mask email addresses, so it?s best to enter an ?info@? address, instead of a personal email address to prevent spam.
    Durazo liked the row of 24 social bookmarking links at the bottom of each press release. He liked the ability to download a PDF and/or print and/or email the press release.
    He found no upgrade options.
  6. Newswire Today
    http://www.newswiretoday.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, posted in the order received.
    Though the site was quick and easy to use, it would not allow Durazo to include a link to his client?s website. That?s because links on the free releases were granted at random. Some releases got them, some didn?t.
    Upgrade options:
    o $120-$399 guarantees same-day posting, distribution to major search engines, company logo/branding on the press release page, a permanent link to the company?s website, RSS subscription option, and top listing on the site.
    o $475 guarantees all of that for 20 reports/articles for a period of one month.
  7. PageRelease.com
    http://www.pagerelease.com/
    Registration/Login: Not required
    Features: Free press release submission, keyword tags for SEO purposes, email addresses masked to prevent spam (unless entered into the body of the release), hyperlink to the company website in the body of the release.
    Durazo liked the user interface of the site because it suggested ways to make the headline ?descriptive and compelling.? He also liked the spell-check feature in each field and the live preview box that allowed him to check the HTML formatting as he typed the body of the release. The site allowed one link per release.
    He found no upgrade options.
  8. PRCompass
    http://www.prcompass.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, keyword tags for SEO purposes, embedded YouTube/Google Video options, distribution to search engines, newswires and websites.
    The site invited Durazo to upload three images, an option that?s unusual for this type of site; most charge for that choice. Durazo was not allowed to delete the images he uploaded, so beware.
    Though the site said it masks email addresses to prevent spam, it did not, Durazo says. He was able to follow a link in a confirmation email that allowed him to edit the email address, so that he wouldn?t receive spam. His press release was approved and posted the next day.
    Upgrade options:
    o $1 per vote guarantees higher placement on the site, depending on the number of votes purchased (Note: There is a 100 maximum on number of votes that can be purchased).
    o $1 per publication guarantees targeting the press release to specific publications.
  9. PR.com
    http://www.pr.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, distribution to Google News, Yahoo! News, AskJeeves, Excite News, Topix.net, and MSN News.
    Durazo liked that, after logging on, he could click on the page that showed him the status of previous releases, and then submit new releases from there. The site remembered his contact info, so he didn?t have to reenter it.
    Be aware that the site does not mask email addresses.
    Upgrade options:
    o $29.95 per hyperlink added in the body of the release
    o $30 for next-day distribution
    o $30 per uploaded file/PDF
    o $60 per uploaded image
    o $30, $50, $60 or $100 for ?visibility enhancements?
  10. PR-inside.com
    http://www.pr-inside.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, email addresses masked to prevent spam.
    This site had the fastest submission process, says Durazo. It took all of 15 minutes from uploading the press release to posting. The press release was a top result for his client?s company name in Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, and MSN.
    He found no upgrade options.
  11. PR Leap
    http://www.prleap.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, email addresses masked to prevent spam.
    Durazo was annoyed with the site at first. It generated a password instead of letting him create his own, and it didn?t post one of his press releases because he failed to change the date of the press release to two days after submission. That?s the only way to get free submission. On the plus side, there was a contact box at the bottom of each press release that displayed a contact name, link to the website, phone number, and masked email address.
    Upgrade options:
    o $49 guarantees a 600-word limit, RSS/XML option, homepage display, bookmarking links, text links, and placement in the Moreover feed, Google News Feed, and Ask.com news feed.
    o $99 guarantees all of the above plus a 1,000-word limit, distribution to the United Press International and the Associated Press, next-day posting, one media attachment (an embedded video, image, PDF, or MP3), five tags, and social media distribution.
    o $149 guarantees all of the above plus a 2,000-word limit, five media attachments and 10 tags.
  12. PressMethod
    http://www.pressmethod.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release submission, next day distribution, automatic SEO, quick stats including how many times the release is viewed, email address masked to prevent spam (unless entered into the body of the release).
    This site had the fastest entry form, says Durazo. He also liked that it allowed him to edit or delete the releases he posted, and that it showed the number of times each release was viewed.
    Upgrade options:
    o $5 guarantees same-day distribution, keyword search on the site, distribution to the site?s press release, distribution network comprising more than a hundred websites.
    o $15 guarantees all of the above plus distribution to approved subscribers to the site.
    o $29 guarantees all of the above plus advanced SEO and distribution to Google News.
    o $39 guarantees all of the above plus distribution to Yahoo!, Google, MSN, Alexa, alltheweb, Hoovers, AskJeeves, altavista, and BigFinder.
    o $49, $59, $74, and >$74 guarantees variations of greater distribution and visibility.
  13. PressReleasePoint
    http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/
    Registration/Login: Required
    Features: Free press release distribution, posted immediately, image upload, four hyperlinks to the company and other external websites in the body of the release, keyword tags for SEO purposes.
    Durazo liked that his client?s logo was displayed at the bottom of the press release. The release was found on the second page of Yahoo! search results for his client?s company name. It appeared fifth and sixth in Google search results. Don?t forget to put ?PressReleasePoint? in the slug or you will get a warning message.
    Email addresses were not masked.
    Upgrade option:
    o $25 guarantees distribution to 50 suitable publications; 50 cents extra per additional publication

Contact Information about author
Daniel Durazo
Director of Public Relations and Multicultural Marketing
RightMinds
1500 East Main St.
Richmond, VA 23219
804-915-1351
Ddurazo(at)rightminds(dot)com
http://www.rightminds.com/
http://danieldurazo.com/

The above is from an article posted on Marketing Sherpa.

Google Moderator Now Part of Apps!

imageGoogle Moderator is a new (beta like most everything else out of Google) product from the boffins at Google Labs. This is a great tool for collecting questions or ideas and votes on questions from a group of people. True to Google?s credo of ?eating one?s own dog food? (or DogFooding), they are using this to collect ideas and votes from Apps administrators.

You?ll find a link in the left column of the Google Apps Admin Help called Suggest a Feature that will take you to their moderator app. When you sign in, you can suggest new features, view the suggestions of others and vote Yeah or Nay on them.

This is a great way to do brainstorming in your organization and to keep a permanent record of the conversation. Set up a Moderated Series and open it up to your whole company. After a set period of time to collect the best and the brightest ideas in a on online Greenlight session. You can then have the group (or a subset of the group) go back and vote on the ideas to see what gets the most traction.

Other Labs features available are Google Code Reviews and Google Short Links.

If you need assistance in setting up Google Moderator for your Google Apps account, please reach out and contact us for an appointment to set this up.

Comments or thoughts on this new product? Use the comments below to let us know what you think!

GMail moves one step closer to replacing Outlook

One of the things that has kept me from moving from Outlook to using Gmail as my primary email interface (besides being able to aggregate a bunch of different addresses into a single interace) has been the lack of canned responses.

Well, it looks like this is no longer a problem. According to Google engineer Chad Perry in this posting on The Official Gmail Blog, they have finally added this feature!

If you’re sick of typing out the same reply every time someone emails you with a common question, now you can compose your reply once and save the message text with the "Canned responses" button. Later, you can open that same message and send it again and again.

You can even combine this with filters to set up autoresponders.

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Gmail already lets you create filters based on a combination of keywords, sender, recipients, and more in your incoming messages. Turn on Canned Responses in Labs, and you can set a filter to grab one of your saved responses, create an automated reply, and hit the Send button for you.

The addition of Canned Responses to Filter Actions opens up the door for much greater use of this tool for businesses! If you are using Google Apps and want some help figuring out how to implement this in your business, drop us a line.

As always, your comments are welcome (and encouraged) below!