Damien Saunders

HOW-TO install Ubuntu using Virtualbox on a Mac

Damien — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:27:29 +0000

How easy is it to install Ubuntu on your Mac – this quick visual guide will have Ubuntu running within your Mac Snow Leopard OSx in under 20mins.

If you’re really keen – maybe you want to use my guide on Virtualbox & install Windows XP on your Mac

Getting Started

Follow my instructions to download and install Virtualbox on your Mac or Grab a copy of Virtualbox from virtualbox.org

Virtualbox Main Screen

Launch Virtualbox and click on New

2. Virtualbox Create New Virtual Machine for Ubuntu

Give your new virtual machine a name like Ubuntu
Select Linux and Ubuntu from the drop downs

Virtualbox Set Memory

Set base memory to at least 1Gb.
Don’t worry you can adjust this later.

Virtualbox Virtual Hard Disk

If this is your first time installing Ubuntu create a new hard disk

Always choose dynamically expanding, it kids your virtual Ubuntu that its got a bigger disk than it really has

You can alter where to save your virtual disk – or just accept the defaults for now

Just for precautions – you have to confirm again what you are doing

Virtualbox Virtual Machine is Ready

Finally – confirm all your settings and you’re finished setting up your Virtualbox Virtual Machine and ready to install Ubuntu (almost)

Amend Virtualbox Settings for Ubuntu Virtual Machine

To install Ubuntu in the Virtualbox virtual machine we have to tell Virtualbox where the installer for Ubuntu is saved on your computer
Start by pressing the Settings button

Click on Storage
Don’t choose the option to Add a CD/DVD device
Click to highlight the Empty disc in the left pane

Then in the right pane click on the yellow folder icon
Navigate to and find the Ubuntu Installer .ISO file you downloaded
(a .ISO file is a disc image kind of like a DMG file that is used on Mac)
Save your changes

Install Ubuntu in Virtualbox

When you press start you will see this funny screen. What it’s telling you is that the mouse pointer works only inside the Virtualbox window or only in the Mac and you switch between the 2 by pressing the Left CMD key on Mac keyboard
Don’t worry we’ll fix that!

Welcome to the Ubuntu Installer

Nearly time to go make a cuppa tea
Choose your language and locale settings

Enter some basic information about yourself
Now go make the cuppa tea.

Once the installation is done it will download the latest updates for Ubuntu.
Give it 5 more minutes

Ubuntu running in Virtualbox on a Mac

taa-dah! all done … now choose the Firefox icon in the top menu bar to browse the internet and check you can go online.
Congrats …

Getting your Mouse to work seamlessly

You get your mouse to work across Virtualbox and Mac OSx by choosing to Install Virtualbox Guest Additions

Start running Ubuntu if its not already then from the menubar along the top Choose Machine > Install Guest Additions

When prompted restart the virtual machine

HOW-TO install Ubuntu using Virtualbox on a Mac originally appeared on Damien Saunders on March 9, 2010.

Migrating your company website to Wordpress Self Hosted

Damien — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:54:54 +0000

Wordpress is one of the most popular solutions for blogging. What people don’t know is that Wordpress self hosted is the best solution for building a standalone SOHO / SME company website. We recently finished the migration of the mmCHANNEL company website from an in-house developed website (using PHP, etc) to single install, self hosted Wordpress installaton.

There has been some times when I felt that maybe Wordpress wasn’t right, but overall it’s going great and the results are visible!

mockup of the website created with Balsamiq

Why change to Wordpress?

Convincing the team we had to change was easier than trying to decide how to vote at a national general election. The key criteria for choosing Wordpress over other solutions (Drupal, Joomla, Do Nothing, Build It Again In-house) came down to a few points:

Low effort and zero cost – it was to be a quick win change and reduce the on-going effort
Features – it had to offer lots of features for a social media marketing organisation
Visual Style – it had to support themes and have something really great to show off

Reduced Effort and Zero Cost Deployment

Wordpress can be installed easily and comes with many configurable plugins. Thus reducing the migration effort. Drupal and other options would have had a steeper learning curve than we could afford and would have meant involving more of our technical resources.

Features

Wordpress plugins now have a one click install, so we could use Google Analytics, apply SEO tools & techniques and integrate with our ZOHO CRM and Mailchimp setup. Look at my list of Top 9 Wordpress plugins to get you started

Here any build it yourself website would not have been easy and Drupal and Joomla involve some ‘tinkering’ under the hood with FTP etc. Using Wordpress meant we didn’t have to worry about IP management, firewalls and secure access as much. I can add a new plugin at any time so long as I can login to the Admin site.

Show-off Wordpress Theme with a great Visual style

We wanted a visually rich theme (thanks Woothemes) and as we are a social media company it was important to show we can create our website with popular web2.0 tools and integrate with Twitter, Tweetmeme.

After looking at dozens of Wordpress theme websites we knew we had to chose a cool magazine theme and we decided it had to have a featured post panel. The featured panel is to show off not the newest news but selected posts. There were a few options that featured the newest post. Newer themes also used a Feature Category which Woothemes don’t.

Woothemes creations are brilliant and the new Custom Navigation Menu option was another solution that sticks out … I’ve applied it on this site too. Using the Wootheme Custom Nav means I can hide pages I don’t want in the menu structure and show only relevant Categories.

Issues & Hiccups

There were a couple of hiccups that took time to resolve and a number of little things that worry me.

PHP related issues – we quickly ran out of memory allocated for PHP and Wordpress. We still have a problem with upload filesize limitations

Apache related issues – we found that the server had a number of modules not enabled for URL rewrite (important for SEO) and image galleries

WWW, Performance and Permissions – we found it problematic to get the permissions set just right. The server is locked down to prevent external access and I’m based in the UK. Then a recent problem with our ISP needed a reconfiguration of the DNS which blocked access to Admin pages for a number of days

Forms and integration with MailChimp and Zoho CRM – I’m not a programmer, I have forms that submit user messages or details directly to our cloud based ZOHO CRM SaaS. However I can’t make my forms work correctly still and Zoho doesn’t like my field names.

Silly things – I want lots of plugins, but worry it will cause memory issues. There are lots of posts about having too many or just a minimal set of plugins! So here again is a shameless link to 9 Wordpress Plugins you should consider.

Multi-Users, Social Networks and e-commerce – I think I should have installed Wordpress MU (multi-user) so we can have better segmented or themed blogs. I also didn’t consider the need for clients to register and create a profile or logged in section for them. I can’t use BuddyPress as Woothemes don’t support that yet.

Different Templates and Themes for Different Pages – I want to create new templates with different looks so that landing pages can be just that little bit brighter. This will come in the next version of the website.

Finished Results and a Measure of Success

Prior to migration we didn’t have any statistics tracking our website usage – we now have Google Analytics and primarily use Analytics360 from Mailchimp as it shows us key events like blog posts, email campaigns, and integrates with Google Analytics as well inside Wordpress.

Success – hmm we now are running an Adwords campaign, building landing pages and doing more for SEO. We are ranking better under our own company name and number one on certain keywords that we were targetting.

Success is … the feeling that inbound marketing strategy is now generating new leads, which means one less outbound cold call a day!

Migrating your company website to Wordpress Self Hosted originally appeared on Damien Saunders on March 8, 2010.

Wordpress: 9 Plugins for any new install

Damien — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:07:41 +0000

Wordpress provides a great tool to build and run your own website – it has 1000’s of plugins that add functionality to your website. Here then is a short list of essential plugins to get you started.

Akismet

Akismet is included in every installation of Wordpress and so it make it one of the most popular plugins. There are better spam protectors, this doesn’t stop spam comments. You need a wordpress.com user name so that the plugin can sync over the internet.

This is what makes it great – Akismet shares info on known spammers, etc to save you alot of time and effort. It also has a pretty graphs page to remind you that it’s working.

WP-Spam Free

WP-Spam Free features in the Wordpress Plugins directory under popular downloads. It catches the Spam that Akismet doesn’t. Reason enough

WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache isn’t something you really need – its valuable for websites that get good volumes of traffic and if you’re wanting to tweak your settings and speed things up.

Search Meter

Are you inquisitive about what people are searching for on your site? Then this is the plugin. It keeps logs of the top searched for content and no content found search results.

All-in-one SEO

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an art, which makes this plugin an artists dream. Install the plugin and let it run. If you know what you’re doing then you’ll have lots of fun tweaking the settings.

For basic SEO, beginners should focus on your title and the short description as this is what shows up in search engine results page (SERP).

Analytics360 from Mailchimp

Mailchimp and Analytics360 adds armour to your integrated marketing and CRM toolkit. Easily track blog posts, email bursts and watch your stats

Wordpress.com Stats

Wordpress’ own stats engine is good. You can see what’s going on throughout the day unlike having to wait til the next day when using Google Analytics. Just like Akismet, you’ll need your wordpress.com username and API Key.

XML-Sitemap Generator

Another popular plugin for your SEO tookit. This plugin will generate a new sitemap every time you add a new page or post. Very helpful for keeping those search engine spiders happy.

WPtouch iPhone

A final plugin that’s more focused on usability than anything else. This makes your website optimised for mobile in a flash.

Wordpress: 9 Plugins for any new install originally appeared on Damien Saunders on March 8, 2010.

Android Market would benefit Developer instead of Apple App Certification?

Damien Saunders — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:29:32 +0000

Develop apps for Android or develop mobile apps for Apple, some days its hard to figure out just what to do. On this website I’ve written a lot on Android phones and apps.

Around 6000 apps have been removed from the Apple store recently due to their erotic nature. It’s not that Android Market has no quality control – Adult or Erotic does not exist as a content category in Android Market but dating apps or other soft-porn apps so far have not shown huge growth (ahem) on Android.

Why Android Mobile Apps and Android Market should appeal to developers

As a platform, Android should appeal to developers because

Android Market provides a multi-country sales platform for apps and developers.
Sales of Android handsets are around 60,000 units a month and expected to grow
Major handset manufacturers are supporting the platform like HTC, Google (HTC), Motorola, Sony Ericsson
International Mobile Operators like T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange have all been keen to sell the phones (in fact it was Voda that took Android to the rest of the world with its ‘exclusive’ of the HTC Magic)
Android Market is not as rigorous at quality control or moderation as Apple. You can add an app to Android Market in 24 hours

Why Android Market didn’t take off yet!

So the conditions seemed right for Android and the Android Market – but what happened? Nothing went wrong – it was just a freak set of circumstances

App Store has a PC & Mac client for easier discovery when Android doesn’t. Android Market website doesn’t allow you to make purchases.
Apps and Content installation is tethered to iTunes – have you tried to mount an Android in Windows Vista and given up?
iPhone launched first with much hype – the Android ‘major’ promotional launch came late in 2009 with the Verizon Droid in the USA
App developers were tooled up and focused on making and selling apps only for iPhone
Purchase and payments for Apps using iTunes was already setup for many existing iPod users buying songs and videos
Mobile operating systems (Symbian, Java, Android, iPhone, Blackberry) all differed in how to develop for them
Adult content and many apps didn’t need to have a home on the Android thanks to the mobile internet and improvements in HTML standards
Finally – App Developers stuck in the maelstrom of certification, moderation and content restrictions via Apple wouldn’t have wanted to start a new app development!

So what do you think? Does Google need to appoint a Director or Head of Android Market to focus on sales, promotions and support for Apps to make it easier for customers? Do the Handset Manufacturers need to do more?

Android Market would benefit Developer instead of Apple App Certification? originally appeared on Damien Saunders on March 4, 2010.

February 2010 – Top Post

Damien Saunders — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:53:14 +0000

Hi everyone

Here’s a short wrap up of what went down last month … more importantly what was popular reading.

I didn’t mention anything about Mobile World Congress as people like Ewan at Mobile Industry Review did a far better job!

And I noticed that quite a few people have now subscribed to the RSS Feed. Thanks.

If you want a more leisurely read in a regular weekly digest – sign-up for the free email newsletter.

February 2010 – Top Post originally appeared on Damien Saunders on March 3, 2010.

Video & Integrated Marketing? Latest Internet Usage Video

Damien Saunders — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:46:06 +0000

Integrated marketing takes a new turn. This latest viral marketing video focuses on the state of the internet and is essentially a load of stats overlaid with a nice cheesy beat playing. All of the statistics are freely available metrics on social media usage, number of internet users, amount of spam mail.

Integrated Marketing Viral Video – State of the Internet

You have to watch the video first:

Even if you have watched this video infographic already and love it (yes I love it) watch it again. Think about what you like .

How does a Viral Video fit into a Marketing Communications Plan?

After watching the video … do you think Jess3 is a video production company? or a web research company?. In either case, ask yourself some of these questions:

what was the purpose of the video?
did it make you feel happy?
did you want to buy whatever it is they are selling
did you want to be part of ‘this’
but it didn’t mention any products! or prices?
what was the marketing message Jess3 were trying to convey?
and finally who are jess3?

Watch the video …

then have a look at

http://jess3.com/

did you watch the video first?

So if Jess3 was not who they seemed to be … is the video smoke and mirrors or snake oil?

Now have your say on Jess3 or the video

Video & Integrated Marketing? Latest Internet Usage Video originally appeared on Damien Saunders on March 2, 2010.

NewsRob best Android application for Google Reader

Damien Saunders — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:11:57 +0000

Newsrob is my favourite application for Android mobiles, it’s been covered in my 10 Best Android Apps list a few times. Newsrob integratess with your account for Google Reader (which allows you to manage and read all your RSS feeds). Newsrob recently turned 1 and celebrated by introducing a Pro version and an Adfunded Free Version.

What’s fantastic about Newsrob Pro

Newsrob Pro has a new feature that is great for any social media or mobile specialist. Newsrob Pro allows you to now share your articles with comments. In the free version you can only add it to your shared list.

The Newsrob Share with note is saved in the client until it next syncs with Google Reader.

Newsrob Free Version

The Adfunded Free Version is still the best Google Reader app. No features have been removed in the freeware version. The advertising is intrusive but you don’t notice this when you are on buses or the underground and ads only show on navigational menu pages. In the first image you can see the space that is ‘reserved’ for banner ads.

Newsrob has many helpful timesavers such as

Press the Star icon to indicate an article that is important to read again or print out at the office / home
Share by E-mail, Gmail to send that article straight to your colleagues
Offline sync / wifi download, so you can read articles anytime anywhere
Share Socially if you have Seesmic installed on your phone you can share the article you are reading there.

NewsRob best Android application for Google Reader originally appeared on Damien Saunders on February 28, 2010.

How to install Virtualbox on a Mac

Damien Saunders — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:48:23 +0000

This is 2 minute guide covering how to get Virtualbox and install it on your Mac. You would choose to use Virtualbox for 2 reasons

Virtualbox is freeware in comparison to Fusion for Mac
Virtualbox runs inside your Mac so you dont have to reboot like Bootcamp

It’s been some time since I visited my favorite topic, which is using my Mac OSx Snow Leopard to run virtual operating systems like Tiny XP, Windows 7RC or Ubunutu.

Getting Started with Virtualbox

You download Virtualbox from the main site, it should take only a few minutes. Always download from the main website just incase the files are corrupt or infected by viruses

Double click on the download to mount the .dmg file (for Windows converts a .dmg is like a disc image or an .iso)

Double click on the make package icon to run the installer. You don’t need to drag the icon to the Applications folder like other Mac apps.

Once its completed the install just close the Installer.

You can now think about how to install Windows 7, TinyXP or Ubuntu on your machine

How to install Virtualbox on a Mac originally appeared on Damien Saunders on February 28, 2010.

3 Reasons SMS marketing will die this year

Damien — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:55:13 +0000

Have you had a funny feeling in your pocket lately? Have you noticed a distinct lack of marketing SMS or that you only get SMS from your bank or your mobile operator – no more unwanted SMS. Smart digital agencies and mobile marketing specialists are already moving their clients from this type of communications.

There are 3 very good reasons that this year is the year SMS marketing will die.

1. High Cost of SMS Marketing Campaigns

Sending an SMS campaign still has real costs – typically these costs would double if you want customers to able to reply to your ad message (for example – to get a free code, answer a quiz question or just to reply with STOP). So a campaign with a set of 1000 numbers may cost you up to £100 – and if only 5% respond then your campaign costs are £2 per response.

The same £100 budget could be used smartly on a Google Adwords Campaign and a trial budget of £1 a day would last about 3 months! You would serve out 1000’s of impressions a week and get more CTR or leads.

Targeting Mobile Search or Mobile SEO would also be an attractive option for would be marketers.

2.Limited Marketing Budgets for 2010

Many companies are cutting their budgets again for this year. Predictably, high cost campaigns with low response rates will be the first to go. SMS campaigns that focus on buying something, going somewhere or ones from unsolicited sources are all suffering. Even banks will stop sending balance alert SMS’s unless it can be adfunded.

3. Strong Smartphone sales means you need to use a mobile website or app

All smartphones will come with unlimited monthly internet plans and have access to some kind of app stores. The better smartphones will be more like pocket computers with big screens, HD video playback and more. Customers will be able to connect almost anywhere with your brand.

Strong Smartphone sales including Androids (from manufacturers like Google, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola) will increase in popularity along with iPhone and maybe Windows 7 mobiles. Nokia will continue to have some dominance in mass market 3G devices.

Finally .. now is the time to build a mobile marketing plan that is integrated – think mobile search and SEO – check what your website looks like on your mobile phone. Then contact me.

Now have your say … will SMS Marketing die in 2010?

3 Reasons SMS marketing will die this year originally appeared on Damien Saunders on February 26, 2010.

5 Essential tips for promoting your charity or cause using mobile marketing

Damien Saunders — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:44:59 +0000

For non-profit organisations, charities and cause related marketing the mobile can provide the best integrated marketing solution for campaigns. There are a number of tools and techniques which can be used to promote your cause or help to raise donations.

1. SMS Premium Text Donations

Making donations using your mobile is as simple as sending a text to a special number. For the not so concerned and the lazy its a quick way to send a few dollars, euros or pounds to a worthy cause. The SMS premium text solutions that you choose must work across all major operators and the solution should mean that the service provider and operator minimise their cost for the charity.

2. Mobile Apps & Games – Branded Content

For cause related marketing and integrated marketing mobile apps and branded games are a viral marketing tool. Today’s mobile phones allow for fun based games which also can teach the user about your cause (ie teaching people how to take care of their land or water supply). Development of an app does take budget – but the rewards are something fun that can be easily promoted via the iTunes Store, Android Market or your own web or mobile site.

Of course any app should link to your mobile site and allow the user to sign-up for email alerts or status updates.

3. Mobile Internet and Websites

Mobile websites are no longer the little brother. As more people get smartphones with richer functions a fully ‘grown up’ website can be created for customers to experience. The same points apply – allow people to sign up for alerts to stay in contact or to download any mobile app straight to their phone.

4. Campaign Tools & SMS Status Alerts

Once you have people opted-in to receive status alerts, you will be able to quickly let people know about important events and invite them back to your mobile website to make a donation or find out how they can help. It makes sense to have a solution that integrates with a mobile and email CRM allowing for campaign promotions.

5. Branded Content – Videos, Music, Tones, Images & Wallpapers

Branded content is one of the best ways to get recognition of your brand. Wallpapers can be downloaded to desktops or saved on phones (even shared with friends!). Content like videos can also feature your brand as part of the digital overlay or a pre-roll or post-roll sequence

It is also easy to build your own digital download content shop into any existing web or mobile site using solutions that mmCHANNEL provides (who I currently work for).

Now have you say … are you working with Charities?

5 Essential tips for promoting your charity or cause using mobile marketing originally appeared on Damien Saunders on February 22, 2010.