Affordable Web Site Design

This article explains how to add new users to Google Analytics. As of this writing, Google Analytics offers two different access levels you can assign to new users. This allows you to have a user or group of users act as administrators, with full control over the account, and also to have a user or group of users have access only to the reports and not to any of the administration features that would give someone full control over the account.

In order to access a client’s Analytics reports, I prefer to have that client add me as a user with access only to the account reports. This allows me to log in and review that client’s reports through my existing account dashboard. This makes it really easy to keep an eye on a number of different client accounts all at once.

Here’s how to get that done.

1. Log in to Analytics
2. Scroll down on the homepage and click the link that says “User Manager” as seen below.
   

   The Analytics Home Screen

3. Toward the top right of the User management table, click the “Add new user +” button as seen below.
   

   The User Manager

4. Enter the user’s email address. It’s important to note here that this email address must already be associated with a Google account, so it’s important to enter the correct email address. If you’re one of my clients, use my johncrenshaw.net email address. Otherwise ask the person you’re trying to add to your account which email to use.
5. Select “View reports only” in the Access type drop down menu.
6. Finally, and this is a killer feature of Analytics, you can assign access to website profiles individually. If you’re only tracking one website with Analytics, you won’t have much to choose here, but if you’re using Analytics to track more than one website, you should see a list of all your sites. You can select any or all of the sites to control which of those this new user will have access to.
7. Hit “Save Changes” and you’re done.
   

   Adding the New User

   If you’re in need of someone to manage your AdWords PPC campaigns or give you greater insight into your Analytics data, get in touch with me here. We offer great rates for those who contact us through this blog.

This is a follow-up to the previous article about adding a new user to Yahoo! search marketing. In this article I’ll cover adding a new user to Microsoft’s equivalent of Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdWords, known as adCenter.

Steps to add a new user to adCenter

1. First, you have to have an adCenter account. If not, go here and create one.
2. If you already have an account, login here.
3. Once logged in, click on “Accounts and Billing”
   
4. Then click the “Users” sub-tab
   
5. Click the “Create User” link toward the left side of that page
   
6. The form is pretty self-explanatory. You’ll need to select a user name, password, and email address. If I’m managing your account make sure you enter my email address. The address info can be changed later and therefore doesn’t need to be accurate right now.
7. Beneath “Communication preferences” do me a favor and make sure you uncheck “Yes, sign me up to receive Microsoft adCenter Member Communications such as news, updates, offers, and tips!”.
   
8. Then, beneath “Account Roles and Access” select the account to assign this user access to or assign them access to all account (most people only have one account listed here so this selection isn’t important in that case).
9. Finally, make sure “Advertising campaign manager” is selected as the user’s role. The other option grants the user complete access to your account, including your billing and contact information and the right to create and delete users and accounts.
   

That’s it, you’re done!

This article explains how to allow other users access to your Yahoo Search Marketing account. This is something I do when managing Yahoo PPC campaigns. Yahoo has three access levels, any of which you can assign to new users on your account.

Adding a User to Yahoo PPC

1. First, log in to your Yahoo advertising account by clicking here.
2. Once logged in, click the “Administration” tab.
3. At the administration page, click the “Master Account Users” link just below that tab.
4. Next you should see a list of users on your account. In most cases, you’ll be the only one.
5. Now click the link toward the top left of the list of users that reads, “Add a Master Account User”.
6. Most of the information is self-explanatory, so enter all the easy stuff.
7. Next, select “Non-administrator”.
   1. A bit about choosing the master account role: You have a choice between “Administrator” and “Non-administrator.” Administrator means the user will have complete access to everything on the account…in other words, he/she will see everything you see and be able to do everything you do (assuming you’re the account owner). That includes creating new users, deleting users, managing payment methods, etc… For the purpose of managing an account, I only need “Non-administrator” status, so make sure the “Non-administrator” radio button is selected.
8. Next, select “Campaign Manager”.
   1. A bit about choosing the new user’s role: You have three options here, 1) Account Manager, 2) Campaign Manager, and 3) Analyst; these represent different access levels and I’ll explain those in more detail here:
      1. Account Manager: This is full access and is pretty much the same as setting the Master Account Role to “Administrator” as described in part 7.1 above. The only difference being that an account manager cannot add or remove other users from this account. He can do everything else an administrator can.
      2. Campaign Manager: This is the role I need to manage a client’s account. This role allows me access to everything in the account except for the “Administration” tab, where any sensitive payment and account access information lies. In simple terms, this role allows me to create and manage ad campaigns, and nothing more.
      3. Analyst: A user with this role can see everything the “Campaign Manager” can see, but he can’t change anything. In simple terms, look but don’t touch.
9. Finally, click “Save Changes”. Within about 10 minutes the new user you added will receive an email at the email address you entered inviting him to log in.

Google’s recently added the ability to target Pay Per Click campaigns to specific areas by simply drawing a border on a map around the area you want to target. Any searches inside that area will see your ads. This is one way of implementing “Geographical Targeting” and this article explains how to set it up.

1. First, log in to your Google AdWords account and select the campaign you want to setup.
2. Once you’ve done that you should see the campaign summary screen with several tabs above a blue graph.
3. Click on the “Settings” tab and you’re presented with a list of settings specific to this campaign.
4. The second section on that screen should read “Audience,” with two subsections, “Locations” and “Languages”. Under “Languages,” click the “Edit” link next to the word “Targeting”.
5. You should see a window like the one below (I’ve already done this so it’s fully populated…yours may be empty).


Geographic Search Targeting Window

6. Click on the “Custom” tab at the top of that screen.
7. Next, toward the top left you should see this: “Map point | Custom Shape | Bulk”. Click on “Custom shape”.
8. Then draw your custom shape on the map by clicking once to create a “post”. By creating several posts, you can outline a shape of the Geographic area you want to target. To close the shape, your final click should be on the first post you created, completing the enclosed area. Here’s an example of one I drew. Once the shape is complete, the inside will turn a semi-opaque blue as you can see in the image below.


A Custom Shape Drawn on the Map

9. Keep in mind, you can zoom in and out by clicking the +/- buttons on the map and you can pan (move side to side) by clicking and draging the map. This allows you to get the area you want to outline inside of the map window.
10. Once you’re happy with your shape, click the “Add” button just below the box with a list of the coordinates outlining your shape.
11. And finally, click the “Save” button at the bottom left of that screen. If you screw up and need to start over at any point, just click cancel and re-open that window.

Working on a number of different web development projects over the years, a standardized process has sort of naturally evolved that I’ve then adjusted into a formal workflow, which allows me to get projects delivered to the client as quickly as possible while ensuring I don’t miss any steps or overlook any key details.

I’ve always found having a process in place for any type of project to be beneficial, and a number of different business systems have been developed over the years to guide people in project execution. In another life I spent some time in quality control at a development company, during which I studied Six Sigma and the great management philosopher, W. Edwards Deming, among other things. One of the ideas at the core of quality control systems like those is the need to document the steps required to complete a project and to use that documentation as a sort of living instruction manual that evolves as new things are learned and different, perhaps more effective, ways of doing things are discovered. This is one of the first steps in working to improve the quality of any product or service, and it’s something I’ve been doing for a while now in a number of different areas of my business.

That said, here’s a little peek at the system I’ve developed for web development projects. For my clients reading this, I hope this provides some insight into how I tackle projects like yours so you know what to expect during the process. For anyone else, I hope this helps in developing your own documentation if and when you find you need it.

Read the rest of this entry »

In combination with Adobe’s LiveCycle Designer, Acrobat provides a really easy to use method of distributing and collecting questionnaires. I’ve recently started using these questionnaires for client projects for a number of reasons that I’ll go over here.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you currently own a website, you probably deal with one or two companies on a regular basis, your hosting company, and your domain name registrar (the company you have your domain name registered with) - for some people, these two companies are the same.

Domain Name Servers

Since it’s possible to have a domain registered with a completely different company than your website is hosted with, there has to be a way to “point” the domain name toward the server where your files are hosted. That’s exactly the purpose of the Domain Name System, a world-wide system that keeps track of where each and every registered domain name points to. Imagine the Domain Name System as a phone book…when you enter a domain name into your web browser, such as http://johncrenshaw.net, the Domain Name System looks up the unique IP address of the computer that domain name refers to. Your request is then redirected to the appropriate computer.

One of the most obvious benefits of this system is that it allows you to change the computer your website is hosted on without changing your domain name. Another benefit is that it allows for easy-to-remember website addresses; without the domain name system, in order to visit this website you’d have to type http://67.210.98.225 instead of http://johncrenshaw.net…the latter is obviously quite a bit easier to remember than the former, and the Domain Name System keeps track of this IP Address-Domain Name relationship.

Now it should make sense that in order to change hosting providers, we have to tell the domain name system which computer our website files will be hosted on. We do this by changing the Domain Name Servers for our domain name.

Changing Domain Name Servers

Although this all may sound complicated, changing domain name servers is actually pretty easy, although it may be slightly different depending on the company you have your domain name registered with. We’ll outline the steps to change domain name servers if you registered your domain through GoDaddy.com, then we’ll provide some links to instructions for changing domain name servers with other registrars.

Changing Domain Name Servers with GoDaddy

1. Visit GoDaddy.com and log into your account
2. Select the “Domains” dropdown menu item toward the top of the page
3. Select “My Domains” in that dropdown menu (this should take you to a page with a list of your domains)
4. Check the box next to the domain you want to change
5. Click the button toward the top of the page that says “Nameservers” - the button also has an image that looks a bit like a stack of gold coins (this should display some text boxes with your current name servers listed)
6. If you’re new host is not GoDaddy, check the radio button that says “Custom nameservers”
   
7. Enter the name servers as instructed by your new hosting provider. (contact your hosting provider if you’re not sure what your new nameservers are)

Ok, I only left the test theme that I’m working on up here for 3 days, but I got what I needed out of it. I really didn’t want to keep it up for too long as I’m planning a major launch for that thing and don’t want to let the cat entirely out of the bag too early. I’m going to launch that theme, along with a couple plugins I’m working on, and a new site, all together as part of a major promotion. I’ll keep you updated on how everything goes.

New design, right? Well, I’m testing out this Wordpress theme as I’m going to be releasing it publicly in a week or so and I wanted to play around with it. I’ve designed several other Wordpress themes, this being my second public release, and I’ve found that I can’t quite get a good feeling for what I like and don’t like about a theme until I’ve used it…there’s really no better usability test than actually using it.

Anyway, that’s what’s up with the new design, it’ll only be up for a week or so while I put some finishing touches on it.

Google Gadgets is something that I think is really going to be looked back on as a missed opportunity by a lot of people, including me if I don’t get moving on it. I think it’s an incredible opportunity for advertising and something both me and my clients can benefit tremendously from, especially if we get in early.

I’m going to be testing the waters a bit here over the next few weeks and I’ll keep you posted as to the progress.