Currently your options are to:

• Optimize for clicks: Show ads expected to provide more clicks
• Optimize for conversions: Show ads expected to provide more conversions
• Rotate: Show ads more evenly

When working with our clients, we recommend you use the Rotate option when you create new ads to provide you with testing which will be more effective. Then, once you have enough data to determine, you would change your setting to optimize for clicks or conversions. However, if you wanted to continue to evenly distribute your ads, this option will no longer be available to you next week.

The Rotate option will only be available for 30 days for newly created / enabled ads. After 30 days, the setting will then optimize to show the ads expected to provide the most clicks.

If you usually used the Rotate option, this is something you should keep in mind when optimizing your campaigns.

What do you think of the change? Will it affect how you run your AdWords campaigns?

Check her out on Facebook too!

Thank you to each of our clients who participated and submitted a testimonial for us, we are honored by all of the kind words!

If you would like to see what new features are available in this release, you can click here to read more about them.

If you were a Blackberry user before switching to an iPhone, you probably remember the red flashing notification light. Depending on how you had your alerts set up, this blinking light in the upper right corner of your phone would notify you of any new message / email / missed phone call / etc. while you were away.

After I switched over to the iPhone, I definitely missed this feature. I am not always at my desk and when I am busy, I may be engrossed in the project I am working on at the time. Little did I know that I missed a very important phone call while I stepped away from my desk. Sure, I could check my phone every time I am away from it to see if there is something I missed, but who remembers to do that?

With the new iOS 5 and an iPhone 4+, you can now utilize this notification feature! The LED flash can be set to notify you of any new messages by simply accessing the Settings > General > Accessibility. There will be a section for “LED Flash for Alerts”. Slide this ON and the next time you return from the copier and missed a call, you’ll know to check your iPhone.

Cover Photos

Cover photos are a huge improvement for Business pages as it expands the amount of real estate that you can customize for your branding. Originally Facebook only had the Profile photo that was a square / vertical rectangle that you could use to visually represent your business … now you have that square profile image in addition to a rectangular Cover Photo. This space is essentially your homepage banner, giving your visitors a first impression of your business, what you’re about and what they can expect from you.

The optimal size for the Cover Photo is 851 x 315 pixels

Highlight a Post

The ability to highlight a single post will allow you to expand any of your wall posts to the full width of the page. This will allow you to dedicate a larger amount of space and call more attention to a specific story. A post noting an interesting observation you had probably shouldn’t overshadow your announcement of your flagship product being released. Now instead of searching through each entry, you can select the Highlight button (shown as a star in the upper right corner of your post) to ensure it stands out from the rest!

Pin to Top

In addition to Highlighting a post to expand it, you can also Pin a post so it will remain at the top of your Wall. If you are constantly updating your Facebook business page (which we strongly encourage you to do) your posts from a few days ago will be continually pushed down the page, causing new visitors to possibly miss a very important message. By pinning a post to the top, you are guaranteeing it will be one of the first messages they will see. This feature can be utilized in many different ways depending on your type of business. Perhaps you have a new product launch date, an upcoming event or even boasting about a recent award you received … no matter the topic, it will be right at the top of your Wall.

These are just three of the new features available with Facebook’s new Timeline set-up. I’m sure there will be many more updates as time goes on, and I’m sure we’ll discuss them once they happen.

The answer: it depends

There are pros and cons to adding dated material to your website, most will weigh heavily on how often you are adding new content or modify content on your site.

Dated content may:

Pros

1. Give the visitor a sense that you are still an active site. This is critical for any e-commerce website, as nobody will want to place an order from a website they aren’t even sure is still an active company.
2. Give your content a frame of reference to go by in the future. An article on how to create a drop shadow in Photoshop may be exactly what your visitors are looking for … but not if your article is from 2006.
3. Give your visitor a reason to remember you and come back another time. Seeing recent updates on the site will reassure the visitor that you are dedicated to keeping your content fresh. If they know you will be updating regularly, they may come back to see what’s new instead of trying to search for another site to get their updates from.

Cons

1. Give the visitor a sense that you are not still active (if your content is not updated often). This is very important when it comes to any seasonal content. Even if it is not dated, a website that still has Christmas content featured in January or an upcoming event that actually happened two weeks ago will give users a negative image of your dedication.
2. Give visitors unreal expectations. For example, if you post occasional sales on your website and your customers have seen them listed in your archive, they may assume that there could be one coming up and hold off from making their purchase. All dated / time sensitive content should always be removed once the final day has been met.
3. Give visitors an incorrect assumption about how old the content is. Dated material on the wrong content can cause visitors to question the content itself. The housing market has fluctuated greatly over the past few years, but what worked 10 years ago may still work today. An article written on ways to improve your chances of selling your home may be something that is relevant for multiple years down the road (we all know improving kitchens and baths are where it’s at) but by adding a date stamp, their may be an assumption that it was only correct during that timeframe.

These are just a few of the pros and cons to adding a timestamp to your content. Only you will be able to determine the frequency of your updates and how well it will work for your site. For some, the positives may far outweigh the negatives, and for others, it may not be worth the hassle. That’s all I have for this Thursday, February 23rd, 2012.

Today our servers were updated with the latest versions of system, security and control panel updates. One of these updates may affect your account … but in a good way! All of our hosting accounts have been upgraded from Fantastico to Softaculous!

Fantastico was a great system to allow you to easily install a wide variety of scripts to your website with the click of a button. However, since this system is not updated as frequently, many of the scripts were needing to be manually updated to keep up with security fixes. Thus we are upgrading our packages to Softaculous!

All of your favorite scrips are still available: WordPress, Joomla, phpBB, Drupal, Magento, Gallery, Zen Cart and 250+ others just waiting at your fingertips!

Current Fantastico Users

If you have already installed a script using Fantastico, you will need to sync those installations with Softaculous. The steps are below:

1. Log into your Control Panel
2. Click on the Softaculous under the Software section
3. In the upper right corner there is a Synchronize with other Auto Installers icon (orange sync logo). Click that icon. Note: you will only need to do this once
4. Click on the checkbox to the right of the scripts you wish to sync to Softaculous
5. Click the Sync / Import button

Once complete, you will be able to manage your scripts under the All Installations section (crate icon in upper right). This is where you will go to upgrade or remove currently script installations.

If you have any questions or trouble upgrading your scripts, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

According to Google, by definition:

Invalid traffic includes both clicks and impressions on AdWords ads that Google suspects to not be the result of genuine user interest. This covers intentionally fraudulent traffic as well as accidental clicks and other mechanically generated traffic. Although advertisers are not charged for these clicks or impressions, this traffic may still result in valuable site visits and conversions.

This is comforting to know that Google has your back to combat these clicks, but have you ever wondered exactly how many they are finding for your Campaign? Here’s a simple fix to show you exactly how many Invalid Clicks are being excluded from your Campaign proactively.

1. Log in to your Google AdWords account
2. Select the “Campaigns” tab (if it is not already selected by default)
3. Under the tabbed navigation, click on Columns > Customize Columns
4. Under “Select Metrics”, choose Performance and scroll down to find Invalid Clicks
5. Click on the “Add” link next to the Invalid Clicks option (should change to “Added”)
6. Click Save

You will now see a column listing the Invalid Clicks you received during the time period you have selected.

While this should not be your only method of monitoring your AdWords Campaigns for invalid or fraudulent activity, it is nice to see that Google is doing their part to help your budgets stretch a little bit further to reach your targeted audience.

To achieve this, simply follow this easy method:

1. Locate the Firefox application on your hard drive
2. Get Info on the application
3. Click on “Open in 32-bit mode”

Next time you launch Firefox, you will be running in 32-bit mode.

Verisign, the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world, announced that domain name fees for .com and .net registrations will increase around 7%. This new price will take effect on January 15th, 2012.

Our .com and .net domain registration / renewal pricing will now increase from $12 / year to $13 / year.

If you currently have your domain registered through Modern Leaf Design and would like to renew before this price increase, please contact us ASAP to take advantage before the updated pricing.