As many of you will have noticed, the Computer Aid blog (and even the main website) stopped working for a few hours today.

The joys of changing hosting companies.

I was originally with http://www.home-business-host.com/ for over 3 years.

They were great while Computer Aid was small: very helpful, and very reliable.

But over the last few months, it seemed that Computer Aid had outgrown the capacity of the shared hosting.

After a quick look around, I decided that a clustered hosting seemed like an ideal solution, but it was a more expensive solution.

It looks like when it comes to clustered hosting (like with many things in life), it becomes a case of: fast, cheap, reliable … pick any 2.

So I reluctantly went with: netfirms

They were cheap, but I read about many peoples bad experiences with Netfirms (mostly from 2006… so I hoped things had improved since then).

Well, I can’t comment on the speed yet, but as expected, customer support isn’t fast (so I had to really struggle to transfer my blog across.

My forum is still not working (and if me and netfirms cant fix it, then I might just dump it).

It seems that most problems arose from trying to transfer my site in a standard way: copy the files and copy the databases.

This worked to some extent, but it seemed that the .htaccess files I copied caused problems. But removing them didn’t help much either. Many people have complained about netfirms non-standard implementation of apache/.htaccess, I guess I’m another victim.

In the end, I created a blank blog using the netfirms control panel, then imported my original database, THEN copy my gila theme!

Anyway, I apologise for the outage.

I still have many plugins to enable, a forum to resurrect, and a re-installation of aw-stats… Looks like I’ll be busy for a while yet…

Posted by Computer Help as Business, Technical at 6:34 PM EST

3 Comments »

I just thought I’d let everyone know that some parts of this blog will become “paid content” sections.

To keep things fair (those who know me, will know that I’m a big fan of being fair, honest and open), it will only be selected posts… probably less than 10% of the overall blog.

The way I’d like it to work (this part is not finalised yet), is that paid posts will be split into 2 parts:

• The first part will be free and contain background information
• The second part will need to be paid for by paypal (I’m thinking around $4 - $8 per post), and it will contain the real interesting/vital information.

To be even more fair to my loyal readers, all new posts will be free, and a post might become a pay post only once it drops off the front page, and it shows a certain amount of long-term popularity.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and by looking at the stats on my website, I’ve noticed that certain posts are a lot more popular than others (even some posts from 2006 show up in my top 10 posts).

So I figured that if someone is looking for a solution to a specific problem, then paying $5 for the solution is a lot better than spending 10 or 20 times as much to have a professional tech fix the problem.

The stats also show that I get between 10,000 and 20,000 unique visitors per month, but only 1% will click on the google ads… each ad earns me an average of $0.23, with about an average of about 6 ad clicks per day, I’m getting about $40 per month.

I can easily see that most visitors to my site are looking for a specific solution… They read a relevant post, fix their problem, and then leave (rarely leaving any feedback, and rarely looking at other parts of the website).

I started thinking: If I could just earn $1 from each visitor, then my website would earn much more than Computer Aid!

So, I thought about how to increase my income from the Computer Aid website. Most solutions seemed to revolve around changing my website into a hard-sell site, with up-sells and continuity programs and all sorts of marketing stuff that I really didn’t like much…

So, I came up with a more subtle approach.

I’m not sure how well it will work, but its worth a try.

What are your thoughts? Do you think its a good/bad idea?

Posted by Computer Help as Business at 11:09 AM EDT

7 Comments »

Recently, I’ve been hearing lots of hype about the pepperjam advertising system.

It sound similar to Google Adsense, in that you can place contextual ads on your website.

So I thought: hey, I’ll give it a go.

After signing up (and being accepted), I manually selected who will be able to advertise on my website.

Now this can be both good and bad.

Bad in that either: I might have a limited number advertisers to choose from, or I might have too many (and need to spend a long time vetting them all).

Good in that I can have complete control what appears on my site.

So I selected about 12 relevant advertisers.

Some will automatically allow me to show their ad on my website, while others wanted to check me out first (I presume they check my website, to make sure it isn’t something like a porn website masquerading as a craft website).

I’ve had 2 advertisers reject me (I suspect it might be because they only want US websites, and mine is Australian).

There also seems to be 2 ways I can advertise

• place the adverts manually on my site (each advertiser will give you the code for the type of AD you want to display ie: anything from a simple text link, up to large animated graphic adverts).
• Use the pepperjamADS function

Now, pepperjamADS is similar to google adsense, except you select a range of ads (from the advertisers that are on your “partners” list), select the format of the banner (eg 728X90 leaderboard, 250X250 square, etc)

Once you place the code for pepperjamADS on your website, partner adverts are displayed as 1 or more text links (similar to google).

Since I only have 9 partners in my partner list, then I suspect the ads placed in the banner will be more of a random selection, than a contextual list.

So far, its all interesting, and shows a lot of promise.

But I have had one slight problem:

I tried the pepperjamADS vertical skyscraper/banner, and found that the wording seemed to get truncated (or the space allocated for the adverts wasn’t large enough… I’m not sure which).

The upshot is that many ads will end something like: “… for the best service and”

I figure: Its a new service, its bound to have some teething problems… I’m not concerned.

I’ll just send them a bug report, and see what happens.

I sent the report on Saturday, and by Wednesday night, I didn’t get any feedback.

Now, a small bug doesn’t worry me much, but not getting so much as a short email to say “we are looking into it” is a bit more worrying.

When a company doesn’t provide some feedback, then I start to question the quality of customer service.

At this stage I’ve removed all my pepperjamADS vertical adverts, and I’m going to wait and see what happens.

Hopefully, its just a minor hiccup.

Posted by Computer Help as Business, Review at 1:43 AM EDT

3 Comments »

I can’t believe this happened to me!

One day, around the beginning of May, I just didn’t want to help anyone.

I stopped answering calls, and I didn’t want to do this work anymore.

In hindsight, I can now see it had been building for a few weeks…

• i’d often work 10 or 12 hour days, for 6 days per week.
• I have very high expectations of myself, and the quality of my work.
• Mandy would book anyone who called… which would sometimes mean 5 or 6 customers per day.

Luckily I managed to not let my apathy show, while I was onsite… But a few minutes after leaving a customer, I would have an overwhelming feeling of sadness.

The weird thing is: I couldn’t understand why.

Well, me and Mandy managed to get over it.

As soon as possible, we arranged for me to take a week off (although I still had to do some “catchup work)… I spent a lot of the time sleeping, feeling depressed and withdrawn. By the end of the week, I was feeling better.

The week after was “reduced” duties (max of 2 customers per day).

The week after, I took another break, and did a lot of things that I had been meaning to do, but just kept putting off, as my workload had gradually increased.

Taking a “step back” as I did, I can see that Computer Aid is now a successful business, and it provides a high quality service, at fees lower than the industry average.

So we had to decide where to go from here…

There were many options:

• Sell Computer Aid (not what I really want to do).
• Work less (and increase my fees, but accept a lower income)
• Just shutdown Computer Aid
• Go to a purely contractor model (I do the occasional job)… but this option has its own set of headaches.
• Franchise. I don’t believe this works well with this type service industry

At this stage, I’ve reduced my hours to something more normal, and I will consider my future options carefully.

From now on, I’ll be sure to take regular vacation time… it doesn’t matter how much I like my job, its still possible to overdo it.

And for those of you who really like my blog, and might be worried that I might start posting less frequently: I don’t think so. I usually “buffer” my posts, so that they appear regularly… so they can take up to 2-3 months from when they are written, to when they get posted.

Posted by Computer Help as Business at 1:54 PM EDT

1 Comment »

I’ve had my first true non-paying customer (after nearly 3 years!).

A lady called Elizabeth Todd (ph: 0410 067 101), from Deception Bay, Qld, had non-starting PC.

It turned out to be a faulty motherboard, so I replaced it, did a repair install of windows, installed SP2, antivirus, etc etc.

All up, it was $140 for the hardware, and $140 for my time.

When I return the PC, she only has $140, but promises to give me the remaining $140 tomorrow.

Well numerous calls, and 6 months later, I’ve not seen the money.

I only started to call her 6 weeks after the payment was due (Computer Aid payment terms are 7 days) 

I’ve heard lots of reasons:

• I forgot.
• I get paid on (a day of the week), I’ll pay then.
• I asked my partner to pay… didn’t he do it?
• I’ve had a difficult week, I’ll pay next week.

But in the end, I’ve had to write it off.

But I’d like to warn anyone else: if you meet Elizabeth Todd (from Donowain drive, Deception Bay), don’t supply her with any goods or services unless she pays upfront.

Posted by Computer Help as Business at 1:51 PM EDT

2 Comments »

I had a company ask me to give a brief presentation to a delegation of about 16 Chinese officials.

It sounds interesting, so I agree. Just a 30 minute talk about maintenance and security on PCs and the internet.

I’m then told that they are senior government officials… some part of the police system… hmmm

It needs to be a simple talk about “what is the internet”, PC maintenance,  and the need to maintain PCs patched and infection free, as well as how to encrypt sensitive files… its all basic stuff (to me).

Although I wonder: the knowledge I’m giving should be easily obtainable within China.

Anyway, on the day, as I launch into my presentation, the translator/facilitator tells me I don’t need to mention the really basic stuff… they already use PCs and the internet, so I should focus on the PC security, in order to indicate the technical depth from by 20 years experience.

OK, so I use my presentation as a vague guide, and improvise. I end up doing a reasonable job (since I know a lot of this inside out).

At the end, everyone seems pleased, and I’m asked 2 or 3 relevant questions 

So despite some miscommunication beforehand, everything turns out well.

It feels strange to be in a room full people, but not understand a word that’s being spoken.

Posted by Computer Help as Business at 1:03 PM EDT

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Its always nice to have a customer compare my services to a competitor.

It gives me a way of knowing where I am, and where I could be.

In this case, the customer moved from a home office, to an office in an industrial area about 20 minutes drive away.

He thought he was now outside my “area” so he called another company to help out with a minor problem (new printer didn’t have a ethernet port).

So he looks in the Brissy YP and picks someone (I’m not in the Brisbane-wide YP…. yet. I’m just in the local yellow pages), .

They charge $100 an hour (I charge $70). They sell him a print server, and they set it up in difficult-to-use manner (but it was probably quick and easy for the technician to setup).

After 2 hours, the tech leaves, with no instructions on how to use the printer.

After a few calls, the tech admits he might have made a mistake installing the device, but can fix things over the phone.

Needless to say, the customer is not impressed, and so he calls me, and gets me to come out and fix things.

He doesn’t mind that I actually took longer than 2 hours, because he knows that I explain what I’m about to do, and I take the time to understand what he wants, and give him what he needs (even if he doesn’t know it!). Ultimately, most people don’t want to jump through hoops, in order to use technology.

Unfortunately, many techs love the complexity of technology, and so cannot grasp that most people want to avoid that complexity… they just want the convenience.

Posted by Computer Help as Business at 1:16 PM EST

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Having used MYOB for over 2 years, I find that its one of the few applications I deal with, that I struggle to understand (on a few levels).

I started off buying MYOB Business Basics. I’m a small business, and I got it for a good price, and some of the cheaper/free alternatives seemed very difficult to use.

I found the MYOB user interface could be better.

For some reason, it reminds me of windows for workgroups 3.11 (the predecessor to windows 95).

It just feels like an antiquated user interface.

But I don’t mind, I’ve used WFW in the past, so its not a showstopper… It just take a while to get my mind around things.

Of course, part of the problem is that I don’t have any accounting training, so I get by as best as I can.

After about 18 months, I decide to expand by taking on a contractor (or two).

By this stage, I’ve handed MYOB over to my lovely wife, Mandy.

She takes a look around, and decides that the best way to handle contractors (from an accounting point of view), is to get a more advanced package.

We download a few trials. In one case, we convert the MYOBBB data file to a MYOB Accounting V16 data file.

We eventually decide that MYOB Accounting V16 is best, as we already understand how to use it (so to speak).

Now this is where it gets confusing. We go and buy MYOBAV16 from officeworks, convert the data file over, go to register our company file, and we are told something like: “sorry you cannot register the file”).

After that follows many calls to MYOB, where we get all sorts of confusing statements like:

• You should have “upgraded” MYOBBB
• it will cost you $XX to upgrade your company file.
• We’ll give you the code for the initial registration of the company file, but you will need to apply to have it upgraded to MYOBAV16.
• its registered now, so you won’t have any future problems.

Mandy is worried that in 3 months time, it will ask for company validation, and we won’t be able to validate it (despite assurances that it will).

Sure enough, after 3 months we cannot validate the company file… the 1 month “free” support from MYOB is well and truly over… so it becomes even more difficult to get help.

With a lot of persistence, we eventually find a friendly support person, who explains that if we de-register the new MYOBAV16 serial, and request that the original MYOBBB serial number gets transferred over to the new package, then we can validate the company.

But the whole process is made more complicated by the fact that we also had some “test” companies.

It all got sorted in the end, but I’m left confused by all this validation and registration stuff.

Other posts at http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/635506.html seem a lot more critical of the software and the company.

Personally, I’ll seriously look at changing (if there is much choice in the marketplace)… if/when I decide to “upgrade”.

Posted by Computer Help as Business at 12:08 AM EST

1 Comment »

Is it just the way I write?

Am I a grumpy old so-and-so?

I believe I write objectively about my experiences, both good and bad, and I believe I should be free to express my opinion. If I’ve had bad experience with a company, then I say so. 

Anyway, for the second time in 2 years, I’ve been threatened with legal action.

Some guy calls me, saying he’s looking at my blog…

Me: “ok”

Guy: “i’m reading your post about Bxxxxxxx”

Me: “ok”

Guy: “guess where I’m from”

Me: “don’t know”

Guy: “Bxxxxxxx”

Me: “ok”

He then tells me he wants the post pulled immediately, or he will be talking to his legal representative.

I say I’ll look into it.

Anyway, I remove the references to Bxxxxxxx from the post (he didn’t say which post, so I made an educated guess).

The next day, I thought I’d better make sure the call wasn’t a crank call, and that it actually came from Bxxxxxxx.

So I email Bxxxxxxx, saying that the blog changes were only temporary until I get confirmation about who, what, etc.

Well, the reply was a legal ultimatum, saying things like: “posts regarding Bxxxxxxx in the blog section of your website amount to defamation” and “We are therefore giving you 24 hours to remove all posts relating to Bxxxxxxx”.

Um, the words don’t seem to make much sense to me… if I had a post that said nice things about Bxxxxxxx… then would that also be regarded as defamation? According to the wording of the email: yes!

And do the posts have to be removed? I don’t think so; so I decided to censor the relevant parts instead.

It seems like the email wording was composed by a lawyer who doesn’t know much about the internet… I was almost tempted to let the legal action proceed… just to see if the lawyer(s) behind this would shoot themselves in the foot. Unfortunately, I could not see my case as being as winnable as the 2clix/whirlpool case.

Well, as some of you already know, I believe that all litigious companies deserve the same fate: Bankruptcy. I think the time spent in obtaining legal advice would be much better spent improving the quality of a companies services and products. The word “microsoft” springs to mind with situations like this…

Posted by Computer Help as Business, Rant at 1:12 AM EST

4 Comments »

Since the start of August 2007, I’ve noticed the number of spam comments being captured by my blog spam blockers (akismet and bad behaviour) has decreased significantly.

Bad behaviour would easily block 500 - 1500 spam comments per week… now it seems to block 200 - 300 comments.

Akismet is similar: from 20 - 30 per day, down to 5 - 10 per day.

Admittedly, my website traffic has decreased slightly (about 20%). So, all I can think is that the spammers are busy brewing up some smarter spam bots. The drop in spam activity is also resulting in a drop in my website ”traffic”… but then, it was traffic I never really wanted anyway.

Posted by Computer Help as Business, Musing, Technical at 11:20 AM EDT

1 Comment »

A warm welcome to Todd Sullivan (based in Sunnybank Hills). He has just joined Computer Aid, and due to his location, he is able to cover a large area of Southern Brisbane.

Todd has many years experience in IT support, and website development and maintenance, and is a welcome addition to the team.

The suburbs Covered by Todd are:

Acacia Ridge, Algester, Annerley, Archerfield, Balmoral, Beenleigh, Belmont, Berrinba, Bethania, Birkdale, Browns Plains, Bulimba, Buranda, Burbank, Calamvale, Camp Hill, Cannon Hill, Capalaba, Capalaba West, Carina, Carindale, Carina Heights, Chandler, Chelmer, Coopers Plains, Coorparoo, Corinda, Daisy Hill, Darra, Drewvale, Durack, Dutton Park, Eagleby, East Brisbane, Eight Mile Plains, Ekibin, Fairfield, Fruitgrove, Graceville, GreenSlopes, Gumdale, Hawthorne, Hemmant, Highgate Hill, Hill End, Holland Park, Holland Park West, Inala, Kangaroo point, Karawatha, Kingston, Kuraby, Logan Central, Loganholme, Loganlea, Lota, Lytton, Macgregor, Mackenzie, Manly, Manly West, Mansfield, Marsden, Mansfield, Meadowbrook, Moorooka, Morningside, Mount Gravatt East, Mount Gravatt, Murarrie, Nathan, Nathan Heights, Norman Park, Oxley, Parkinson, Richlands, Robertson, Rochedale, Rocklea, Runcorn, Salisbury, Seven Hills, Seventeen Mile Rocks, Shailer Park, Sherwood, Slacks Creek, South Brisbane, Springwood, Stretton, Stones Corner, Sunnybank, Sunnybank Hills, Tanah Merah, Tarragindi, Tennyson, Thorneside, Tingalpa, Underwood, Upper Mount Gravatt, Wakerley, West End, Willawong, Wishart, Woodridge, Woolloongabba, Wynnum, Wynnum West, Yeerongpilly, Yeronga

Posted by Computer Help as Business at 12:02 AM EDT

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