Deploy Your Mobile Initiatives Faster

Deploy your mobile initiatives faster

So you have this great new product, or your business is an amazing service that is going to solve a very big problem, but just how do you get people to know about your amazing product or service? As a saying goes, no matter how great your business or product is, your business isn't great if people don't use your service or product, and for people to use your service or product they first have to know of its existence. 

What better way than to penetrate the market using the mobile space? You could potentially reach 3000 people for as little as RM420 ($130). Find out more here.

Mobile initiatives should not differ from the deployment of any other project!

Deploying your mobile initiatives should be structured, and efficient. With the necessary steps put into place your mobile initiatives would be deployed faster.

Identify what it is you are trying to convey.

Filter through everything that you want to convey. Strip it down. Find out the essence of your full-blown marketing sentence and only give what actually matters. Words filled with clutter, (a lot of different focuses) disorientate readers and give too much for anyone to remember. Help them decipher what it is you really want them to know, and readers would be grateful for it.

Research on who you are reaching out to.

Are you talking to children, young-working adults, or adults? Women or Men? These things matter. Find out what makes them tick, should your words be more masculine or should it be soft and feminine? Does it reflect your brand promise? Would it be acceptable to speak in a certain manner to these people?

Create an appropriate Call to Action.

Call to Actions are a sensitive topic. Too strong of a Call to Action immediately turns off people. Too weak and nothing happens. Find the right balance between strong and weak. *what not to do is further elaborated below.

Deploy and collect analytics on performance.

All the planning and preparation is nothing without the action actually being carried out. A planner does nothing to make things happen. A great plan kept inside the drawer won't live up to what it is meant to do. Don't procrastinate and just get it done!

Review.

Deployment. This isn't the end of everything. Analytics collection help determine what it is that was effective so that it can be used again or is there something that could have been improved? Feedback, the honeypot of valuable information that could improve your approach to customers. You would know what they prefer and how they want to be approached in future.

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Earlier discussed a strong Call to Action is necessary for your potential customers/consumers to move to commit to an action. Here are two (2) Call to Actions that you should avoid:

1. Weak or no Call to Action

We often have this thought, but lets not assume that everyone knows exactly what to do. Sometimes it isn't to downgrade anyone, but it can be rather overwhelming for any first time visitor to know something immediately, when he/she is already tasked with figuring out what exactly it is you can offer to them, or whether they like you based on the first impression, they are experiencing.

2. Too Strong of a Call to Action

As I move along happily receive an SMS all of the sudden I am hit with a JOIN NOW pop up. What could be more terrifying than that? In the back of my head, it is spam or this is just another one of those schemes and not worth my attention. Now why would you want to give your 'potential' customers that feeling when you could ask them in a nicer manner?

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New to mobile? Need a faster and cheaper way to jump in to the mobile industry with industry professional support? Open up possibilities to 'mobilize' your business!

photo by Irita Kirsbluma

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Overcoming Procrastination

Few of us are strangers to the lingering to-do item - often a difficult or complex activity- that we just can't seem to bring ourselves to do. "I will do it tomorrow," we say. Yet when tomorrow comes around we often come to just the same conclusion again, and again this vicious cycle keeps going on and on. 

The big question, then, is: How do we recalibrate ourselves, our thinking so that we will muster up the right mixture of self-discipline and motivation to take the action now rather than later?

Here are a few suggestions for overcoming procrastination:

Break it down. Smaller tasks rock.

The manner in which a task is presented to someone has a significant impact on how motivated you will be to actually turn it into action. As you might have already presumed, if there is a greater significance and positive return the task requiring work would quickly turn into an action, whereas if it were the opposite of that, the task would be idle and continue to go through yet many more procrastinating vicious cycles.

Take a GPS device for example. Not everyone can read maps, but they sure can follow instructions one after the other. By breaking your project down into smaller, bite-sized pieces, the way forward becomes crystal clear and it is ready for action!

Create fear. {Accountability}

No one wants to disappoint an expectant audience. While most of us may not have an adoring audience, but we can all muster up someone to hold us accountable. By creating one you have placed a prick under your ass. Declare your intentions publicly to your team of colleagues, a family member, or a friend that is willing to nag you!

Work on the 'difficult' project a little bit a day.

Ice is hard to cut through, especially when it is in a very large block. Cutting through the ice would be difficult and almost impossible, but by thawing at it slowly but surely the ice gets cut right through!

When your brain starts working on a problem, it doesn't stop. If you get your mind wrapped up around it for a fair bit of time. One day when you come to sit down for work the brain subconsciously over time has already solved it, and the answer would be just right in front of you! Most of our greatest insights - those awesome A-HA! moments - arrive when we least expect them!

View deadlines differently. View it as an opportunity.

By default deadlines are dreadful. Another take on a deadline can be viewed as a huge benefit to any project. Without the urgency of a hard deadline banging down on you, it is really easy for you and your client to lose focus. Agonizing projects are where the timeline just bleeds on and on, just because the flexibility is there.

Start without starting.

The trick is easy. Make the first step so small and easy that it doesn't create any resistance whatsoever. The idea of setting up an entire 'digital database' or creating a 'mobile marketing campaign' sounds big and difficult it immediately creates a shield. Your brain easily freezes up at the thought of it. So why don't, just, open up Microsoft Word or Xcode and creating a new file, or adding the title and saving it. Although it is something so trivial, the latter is the first step. It is tangible. It excites us.

Once you get the idea, you don't even need the full sentence - Yes, I have tried it and it works for me. I have to (ahem) write these posts for you to read you see! -

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The final thing is, finally, just you...

Think of your next big project - the whole thing at once - what happens to your motivation?

Now imagine 'just' doing all the little things that were recommended in this post!

What difference has this made in your life?

photoby {tyn}

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7 Quick Tips to Search Google like a Pro

I use Google many times a day. Chances are you still use Google in its simplest form, unless you are a tech geek. If how you use Google now is limited to just a few words and changing your form of query to find what you are looking for, then I am here to tell you that there is a better way and the best part is, it isn't hard to learn.

On the other hand if you already know how to use Google to its best, I suggest you bookmark this article! Then you will have the tips on hand when you need them, or desperate to find something.

The following tips are based on my own experience and also what I have sourced from the Internet. It isn't comprehensive, but it will greatly improve your search ability.

7 Quick Google Search Tips

1. Stock (Ticker Symbol)

Enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term, and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumbnail chart for the stock.

Example: qqq

2. Calculator

Need a quick calculation, but don't have a handy dandy calculator in hand, or just lazy to launch the calculator app, just type your expression into Google and Walah~ you have it solved!

Example: 1253 / 5.243

3. Word Definitions

Need a quick whip up on a word definition just use the simple command phrase "define".

Example: define:plethora

4. Specific Document Types

If you are looking for a file of a specific file type you can use the modifier "filetype:".

Example: "SMS Marketing" filetype:PDF

5. This OR That

When you conduct a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you are looking for more than one terms to match than you use the OR modifier. *the OR has to be capitalized.

Example: SMS Marketing OR Advertising

6. Similar Words and Synonyms

So you want o include a word in your search, but also want to include results that contain similar search words. Add the tilde "~" in front of the word.

Example: "SMS Marketing" ~professional

7. Site-Specific Search

What if you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase.

Example: "SMS Gateway Provider" site:www.everworks.com

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I hope this list of Google search tips proves to be useful for your future searches. Just hit Ctrl + D (Windows) or Command + D (Mac) and this page will be saved to your bookmarks. If there are more please feel free to share them in the comments below!

photoby thms

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3 Ways to Organize your To-do List

To-do lists are normally do what you can with whatever you have and where you are. Most of us do our to-do list in a particular order with a certain order or no order at all. 

1. Energy-based

This works incredibly well, because how we feel, in terms of energy, is something we can recognize no matter where or what we are doing. Using this context allows you to move things forward even when you are not feeling up to certain things.

I assign more energy to anything that is going to take a lot of my mental energy, less energy to anything that is fairly easy to complete and some energy to everything else. Using this method requires honesty. 

"I assign more energy to anything that is going to take a lot of my mental energy, less energy to anything that is fairly easy to complete and some energy to everything else."

One of the greatest benefits of using this is that if you are not feeling well (even when you are sick), you can still make some progress with tasks that require less energy. Do the opposite when you feel great. Even small steps forward are progress and it gives you momentum to carry on to finish up the bigger tasks.

2. Time-based

Your day is limited to only 24-hours and if you are trying to manage your tasks for different parts of the day, then you are using time-based would be a good option.

Let's say you check email every morning, so don't just write down email, but instead write down check email in the morning. For some of us once isn't enough, so write down check email 3 times today. When you find yourself feeling "lost" you can just look at the appropriate column on your list and get right back on track.

Time-based can be easy for anyone to lose track in being accurate. The key is to be accurate in your task descriptions so that when you encounter a situation that proves that tasks seem too overwhelming accurate descriptions help push you back on the right track. Just as you are running off the road you wouldn't want more clutter to make you go into a spin!

"Time-based can be easy for anyone to lose track in being accurate."

3. Priority-based

What is considered urgent/important, not urgent/important, important/urgent, and not important/urgent should be the "matrix" work well, because it allows you to quickly decide whether or not it is something that needs to be done now, later, or perhaps not at all. You will get better awareness with tasks and projects that are more important as well as more urgent, which allows you to finish your task list.

A deadline that is due today is more important and requires more attention and energy at this moment more than fixing a problem isn't really a problem right now. Take into careful consideration what you consider to be urgent/important or important/urgent. Both directions seem strangely similar, but do not be fooled, because what is considered urgent may not be considered important, and as for some it may be very important but not urgent. Take time to categorize your items carefully to avoid future issues.

"Take time to categorize your items carefully to avoid future issues."

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Keep these combinations in mind. You can use a combination of these types of context. No matter which way you decide to go, or in what order you use them, it is important to add meaning to your tasks in a way that uniquely suits your working habits.

photoby Peter Blanchard

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Automate Everything

Automation can be a tedious task, but often you would tell yourself that this will eventually have a greater outcome, just that you just don't know where to start? 

Automation can be essential for upscaling and improving competitiveness, but quality or reliability shouldn't be sacrificed where efficiency is gained.

Contesting yourself

Thinking about automation is like staring at a unorganized kitchen waiting to be cleaned out. You walked into a disaster that has already happened, and the best part is you have not even started let alone know where to begin.

If you are thinking along the lines of, "Hey I need to automate everything that I am currently manually testing, along with all the things you and your project team would be testing before releasing software updates to your customers. Before even starting you might just throw in the towel and walk away, without even starting, because the task can seem extremely intimidating.

The key here is to take the challenge head on and strip down the massive task into smaller byte-sized pieces and get the work going!

Choosing a section

Cleaning a kitchen is crazy, but the process can be made easier (not so scary) if you started in a small corner with one small thing, and worked your way slowly across the kitchen, picking up things that were not meant to be there and putting them in the correct places - and before you know it, the kitchen is organized and clean again (I bet that you would have found some utensils you have not seen for a very long time).

This rationale works with test automation as well. A massive project can have a big bunch of work, but you, or your developers and project management team can choose one small area to start with that you would love to see covered by automation. Then focus on that part, and move on slowly across the project and picking up things along the way that also require automation - and before you know it, the project is suddenly fully automated and ready for action!

Getting Started

The key to anything is actually to get started. It can be small and it does not matter, because the key is to start with something and eventually you will build enough momentum to carry on and finish up what you need to. You can use Selenium or any user interface (UI) testing to start. As an example here is how to get started in a corner (as earlier highlighted):

1. Pick your feature to put under test automation.
2. Code some tests around a single feature in your project - you can use Selenium to record a small, short set of test modules.
3. Get a few servers (make your life easier and get some servers from a host like EVERWORKS a reliable host provider from Malaysia).
4. Get a continuous integration system, CI, (eg. Jenkins) up and running.
5. Find a Jenkins plugin for your version control system (Plugins Here!).

There are other alternatives to Jenkins, Github, or Selenium out there, but for plain reference and ease of the majority, I have provided these three (3) as some examples.

Please take note that there will be a definite learning curve if you have never used either Selenium or Jenkins ever before, but in a few days (investment of a little effort and time - it shouldn't take long to learn the basics of either) you should be well on your way.

Your benefit

The minute you get started, the faster you will get some great know-how on things such as:

1. Testing Framework Knowledge
2. CI System Knowledge
3. Your own CI System
4. One part of your project is already under automated testing
5. Positive attitude to tackling large daunting projects

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Now that you have done most of the heavy work of getting the CI into place, getting automation to work in your next task will be smooth; and before you know it, you will have already created a bunch of modules ready for automation, creating a snowball type like effect as you continue to get your game on!

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Akamai to acquire Prolexic, then Incapsula to be acquired by Imperva!

Last few days, we received an email about from my old friend, Oliver Kwan (who is current Vice President of Sales - Asia in Akamai) that Akamai is planning to acquire Prolexic as part of the plan to extend its leading web optimization and security offerings by adding cloud-based security solutions to protect data centers and enterprise applications

More information about Akamai to acquire Prolexic (www.prolexic.com), you may visit http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2013/press_120213.html.

Today, and i got another email from our CDN and DDoS partner, Incapsula that they have acquired by Imperva.

This two news has shared one important message to me, that how important DDoS protection is to us in the near future.

Today, DDoS has become a very common tool to attack or bring down a web service. 

Below is annoucement email that we received from Incapsula an hour ago. 

Dear Incapsula customers,

Last week Imperva announced that it will be acquiring Incapsula. 

The Imperva-Incapsula relationship is not something new and has always been very tight. Incapsula was spun out of Imperva a little over four years ago, and since then Imperva has been the sole investor in Incapsula and has also been a major distribution partner for us. 

By acquiring Incapsula, Imperva is doubling down on its investment, with the intention of further accelerating and growing our business. Incapsula will continue to operate as a separate company, under the Imperva umbrella, allowing us to maintain our focus and agility while adapting to the security and application delivery changes in the market and responding to customer needs.

2013: 500% More Network Capacity, 600% More Websites on Service

In 2013 we experienced fantastic growth. The number of websites using Incapsula grew by 600%, our traffic grew by 500%, and we grew our network to almost 500Gbps in capacity, across 15 worldwide datacenters.  

We introduced new features such as automatic backdoor detection, LoginProtect 2-factor authentication for web applications - and a complete new framework for creating custom caching policies for maximum website performance. Incapsula is now used by some of the largest consumer electronics brands, online retailers, financial institutions and SaaS services worldwide. 

The future looks bright and exciting. With the additional Imperva backing, we are planning great things for 2014. 

We just launched our new security engine with its IncapRules language, enabling enterprise customers to take advantage of the most granular controls to protect their web applications, and we are planning to almost double our global network, with four new datacenters coming online in the next 30 days. 

Incapsula - Model 2104 is not just about website security and acceleration. Incapsula is now a full-blown, Cloud-Based Application Delivery Network. 

The differences between a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and an Application Delivery Network are huge: it’s like static content vs. dynamic applications, bare metal vs. cloud, or the old way of delivering web applications vs. the new way. 

We will soon be releasing some great new features which will help our customers continue to scale their online businesses in a more effective and resilient way, using means that were never before available to them. 

These are exciting times for Incapsula and our customers and we promise to continue delivering!

Gur Shatz,
CEO and Co-Founder, Incapsula

Source @ http://www.incapsula.com/blog/incapsula-to-be-acquired-by-imperva.html

At EVERWORKS, every of our solution has the same working concept like what Prolexic and Incapsula do now - that is giving you the simplest and easiest ways to establish your internal DDoS solutions.

More info about our DDoS protection, visit EVERWORKS.com or our product page at http://www.everworks.com/Services/DDoS.

We at EVERWORKS.com has working with both of this DDoS protection for some time, and both their pro and cons. We believe both are still among the best DDoS protection solution for Malaysia or even Asia web hosting industry.

The implementation of their DDoS solution is pretty much easy, and you just need to change your DNS setting to their proxy network.

Client with server colocation and dedicated server in Malaysia can simply deploy this solution without have to move your server from one datacenter to another.

Stay tuned! We will be posting another interesting blog that related to the different between Prolexic and Incapsula.

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3 Recent Twitter Changes You Should Know

We live in an age where we can't live without social media, and man is it tough to keep up with all the small bits and pieces that Social Media has to offer, especially when there are so many small task changes. 

Twitter, with 215 million active users also needs to constantly change to keep up with the ever changing waves.

As Twitter continues to grow, the company is making changes more often, making it easy to miss them. In case you missed them, I have collected the most recent Twitter changes to bring you up to date.

1. iOS 7 Updates

Hoorah Twitter has joined on with iOS 7, announcing a new version of Twitter for iPhone and iPad with a refreshed design.

These updates come with some new features as well, including the ability to see what is trending with music with #music on iTunes Radio and searching Twitter with Siri.

Shared Links in Safari also lets you see what links have been shared by people whom you are connected with on Twitter.

2. Twitter for Android Tablets

Twitter for Android has been around for a good time, but the Twitter experience has only just recently been optimized for Android tablets. 

The app has several unique features that were developed with the help of Samsung.

The app started out on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1-2014 Edition.

A lot of people still want to use a more powerful client.

3. Twitter Alerts for Emergencies

Twitter's users have grown organically into a place for updating breaking news and emergencies, and Twitter has caught on (thankfully) and introduced Twitter Alerts to make this process smoother and more reliable.

After releasing Lifelife last year to help Japanese users find emergency accounts during crises, the Twitter team has moved on to helping users globally.

You will need to sign up for alerts before you will receive any notifications. You can sign up by visiting twitter.com/[username]/alerts and subscribe to the account's alerts.

When you are subscribed to an account's Twitter Alert, you will either get a SMS notification as well as a push notification if you are using Twitter for iPhone or Twitter for Android.

Alerts will also appear in your Twitter timeline with an orange bell icon to distinguish them from regular Tweets.

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Twitter has grown relatively quick, and there are likely to be more changes in future.

If I missed anything, please let me know in the comments below.

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Celebrating EVERWORKS 9th Annual Dinner

Recently EVERWORKS celebrated its 9th Annual Dinner, where all deserving employees who have put in their efforts, time and dedication were appreciated. It was a time of bonding for the EVERWORKS' family.

Performing "Yee Sang" a traditional Chinese celebration for Chinese New Year, wishing everyone good health, abundant prosperity, and good luck!!

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This is what it feels like to be part of the EVERWORKS Family. Everyone has been really working very hard for the whole year! Great job everyone!! This isn't the whole family, but you know who you are!!

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