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Since we've been doing more strategy, it has become more and more necessary to formalize our 'ramp up' process for new strategists. Our strategist typically herald from the marketing side of the world & combine their knowledge with practical elements of technology. This dual-combo makes for a powerful strategist.

However, there is a BIG difference in doing one interactive project during a marketing career & actually being a qualified Interactive Strategist. As such, we put together "homework" for our planners and strategists to answer that at least give them some basic familiarity into combining traditional business with the world of interactivity. Here are the questions we ask...

History has proven to me that it is very difficult for clients to understand time & knowledge as an actual currency. If you're in the time & materials industry, you'll appreciate what I'm talking about. My wife, who's a lawyer, was kind enough to send me a song that really helps me bridge the gap with my clients :) [Remember, this is meant to be funny - don't get your feelings hurt!]

Nothing will make you more nervous than switching your entire business model to support a new technology :)  Particularly when that technology is ONLY supported by the Open Source community.  Regardless, it looks like we were right again - or at least not way off the beaten path.

Today, we had a client call us and ask if we can 'save' their website from an aggressive website designer that is holding their site hostage.  I told them yes and thought an easy solution would be to find a utility that allowed us to easily clone/grab their website.  I must say, I was surprised at the difficulty in finding a free utility to do this.

In the course of doing research for a client, I'm now experiencing what I've heard so many others complain about: Phone Prison. I used to believe that 'phone prison' was simply an older person's way of saying that working through a phone system took too much effort. Now I realize that there really are Phone Prisons - systems designed to keep you locked out from actually talking to a person!!!

CentreSource Inc. is pleased to announce that Kerry Woo has joined the custom web design firm as Digital Copywriter.

“We are very happy to have Kerry join our family,” said Nicholas Holland, CEO / President of CentreSource Inc. “His experience in print and online marketing, paired with his reputation for relationship management, is a welcomed resource to our firm. Our expansion of Search Engine Optimization and Marketing allows us to deliver not only pleasing, but profitable web design solutions for our enterprise clients.”

Nutshell: After having a terrible experience with them during my campaign (read more) & spending weeks to get it fixed, they decided to come back and harass me one last time - for old time's sake. Since I'm out of the race, I decided to close my campaign-related paypal account. Upon emailing them, they send me directions on how to close the account - which I perform successfully.

So, we've decided that its probably time to change our name :) After 3+ years in business, its become very clear that CentreSource is a case study in how NOT to name your company or create a logo. In the beginning, CS was envisioned (by me) to be a global outsourcing provider for a variety of services - kinda like LBMC. After 1.5 years, we decided to become a web design firm and the name became less of a fit. Moreover, we constantly have to explain the spelling since we pronouce it "Centersource" and when people read it they say "Centrasource".

Want to know the perfect formula on how to create a frustrating system, provide terrible customer service, and manage to drive a loyal customer to hate? Just take lessons from PayPal - they are doing a great Job at really screwing up.

Here's the magic combo:

First, PayPal created some security restrictions that 'automatically' triggered on my account. While they won't say, I'm guessing its because I accepted 20-30 payments before I attempted to make a full-withdrawal. Regardless, this sparked their security system and it asked that I certify my account (this is different than verify). To do this, I have to ADD MY PERSONAL CREDIT CARD to the account ?@?#$@#$# I also have to verify my SS#. The first step takes 1 week for the transaction to show on my personal CC#... The second step fails because they say that I've used my SS# at some point in the past.

I just found a great backup app (utility) for my USB drive. The app that comes with PortableApps isn't very flexible and it drove me to finding something better. Luckily, I found Freebyte Backup through PortableFreeware.com. They even told me how to 'make it more portable' by avoiding the installation and simply running the .EXE & creating my own profiles. Hope this helps others looking for a stable, feature-rich USB backup utility.