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Several years ago, people were limited to surfing the web on their desktop or laptop, and only when they were in a place that offered a reliable internet connection.

Today, many people own smart phones and tablets with high-speed wireless internet connections that put the web at their fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The popularity and widespread use of mobile devices means you can reach people more than ever before at any time.

So, how do you reach this always online, always surfing audience effectively?

The answer is quite simple. Go mobile.

A mobile site doesn't need to be complicated. It's good practice to develop, alongside your full-fledged website, a smaller, concise and efficient mobile version. Mobile sites are websites that are designed to function on a mobile device such as an iPhone or iPad. They are usually simplified versions of your full site, offering up your key messaging, a list of services, a section for news or blog posts and a page that lists contact information.

Having a basic mobile site running side by side with your full site means you'll be accessible to anyone, anywhere, on any device.

Work with your web designer/developer to create a mobile site that targets your audience properly. Take advantage of their knowledge and experience to get your mobile presence up and running smoothly. For more information about the effectiveness of developing a mobile strategy, contact us today and we'll answer your questions.

Over the past few days, a new threat to open-source websites has been affecting websites all over the globe.

This attack is occuring against ALL – WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal sites (and possibly other open source sites) across the entire web hosting industry. All major, small, large, medium, hosting companies, and their clients are being impacted. This is by far one of the LARGEST and very EFFECTIVE Cyber Attacks in recent days.

Exposing your sites to hackers is the single largest danger that companies of all sizes face when using free, open-source software like Wordpress. It's true that many of these options are inexpensive, but does saving a few dollars really justify exposing your website to such dangers?

Below we have included a couple of news sources with more information:
Maclean’s
IT World Canada
PC Magazine
PC Pro
Smart Company
Tech Week Europe

At c-Seven, we use closed-source software, the Mantis CMS, to build all of our websites. Closed-source software is safe and secure. Updates are made automatically, our servers are secure and because the software is closed-source, only our development team has access to make changes. This means you will never, ever have to worry about hackers on the other side of the globe breaking into your site and causing inexplicable damage.

We hope your sites remain untouched by this new threat, but if you've got an open-source site built on a platform like Wordpress, we recommend you read the following articles for further information. You should also change your password to something strong, including upper and lower-case characters, numbers and special characters. Make sure you're password is between 8 - 16 characters long.

1) Brute force attacks – security essentials:
http://blog.mochahost.com/brute-force-attack-what-is-this-attack-about-and-how-to-protect-our-sites-against-it/

2) WordPress – security tips:
http://blog.mochahost.com/important-tips-on-wordpress-security/

3) Joomla – security tips:
http://blog.mochahost.com/important-tips-on-joomla-security/

Last time, we talked about how big of a difference you can make when using custom photography. This time, we're going to talk about taking the time and effort to work alongside a professional copywriter to take your business to a new level, both on and offline.

Taking the plunge and hiring a writer to develop your communications and key messaging is vital. It's easy to tell apart the businesses who've used a writer versus the ones who haven't.

With an experienced writer on your side, the possibilities are limitless. A good copywriter can keep your messaging and content short, concise and impactful, offering up the information you need your customers to know as efficiently as possible. Users today have very short attention spans. They don't read your content, they only skim it quickly and you only have a few seconds to grab their attention before they've left your site for good and you've lost out on a potential opportunity. Making sure your content is to-the-point while making an impact is what separates a good business from a great business.

Your writer can make sure that your messaging remains consistent across the mediums you use to reach potential customers. From websites, social media sites and email newsletters to traditional marketing such as advertisements, brochures and tradeshow booths, a good writer knows that your business needs to communicate a strong, consistent message with a similar tone throughout.

In a world where less is more, it's incredibly important to have someone on your side to keep your message simple and impactful. Consider working with a professional writer on your next marketing endeavor.

Have you ever visited a website and been utterly captivated by the photo choices they've made? Have you ever undertaken a search through stock photos sites and wondered why the search results didn't look half as impactful as the photos from a certain site?

The reason, is the use of custom photography. Absolutely nothing works better for your site, advertisements, tradeshow booths or other marketing collateral than custom photography from a professional photgrapher.

Photographs are a very powerful and effective means of conveying your message. They're usually the first thing a visitor to your site will pay attention to and it's important to use appropriate photography to get your message across quickly before you lose the visitor's attention.

Have you ever visited a site with a photo, then a few days later you see that same photo on someone else's website? That's no way to stand out from your competition. With custom photography, you're calling on the experience of a professional photographer that can cater to the unique needs, services and products of your business. From product shots, to photos that capture your subject matter, to team headshots, it's always a pleasure to come across a site with great photography that people won't see anywhere else.

Next time, we'll discuss the importance of working with a professional web copywriter, which, when combined with the work of an experienced photographer, will help take your marketing to a level many businesses never reach and leave an impact on your visitors that will keep them coming back to you over your competition.

Today, most websites, large or small, are made with content management systems. Some of the most popular options out there are open-source, such as Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal.

You may be wondering just what 'open source' means.

Basically, open source solutions, like Wordpress, mean that the source code that the system is built on is accessible to anyone and everyone, anywhere in the world.

There are benefits to this type of CMS. Having the system source code available to everyone means that talented developers can contribute powerful and effective plug-ins, components and features to the overall system and many can be installed separately onto each site, or they can be combined and used as part of an overall 'theme'.

One of the drawbacks to this method of adding features onto your site is that these plug-ins developed by contributors often require version updating, at least several times a year. To someone with little to no experience in managing a website, updating these plugins can be an intimidating task. What happens when your update isn't compatible with your version of the CMS? What if you needed to update the whole system before upgrading a specific plug-in? What if the update breaks a part of your site?

Who do you call to help update and manage your open source website? The difficulty in keeping everything working properly is that many times there's no support available for the CMS you're using. Even if you hire a company to manage your open-source site and deal with these problems for you, they may not be able to resolve the problem if the original developer who built your theme or plug-in is unavailable. Many times support emails will sit in someone's inbox for months going unanswered.

The other significant issue that arises with open source solutions is that many plug-ins or entire systems can be exploited. Not every coder out there has the best of intentions and sometimes they can find security holes in your site, thanks to having access to the source code. Once they find these holes, your site is left to the mercy of developers who can install malware, or carry out other harmful actions that can affect both you, and more importantly, your customers. If someone is affected by malware they caught from your site, chances are you've lost them for good as a potential customer.

What's the solution?

One of the best things you can do to avoid problems is to choose a closed-source, proprietary content management system. CMS' like these are much more reliable, because the teams who built the system can maintain it for you. Any updates or plug-ins are added on behind the scenes, on a secure, restricted system that only the creators of the CMS have. You'll never need to worry about having to upgrade anything or risk someone hacking into your site with a closed-source CMS and many proprietary systems can easily offer the same kind of tools that any open-source system can, only much more safely and securely. Also, the teams behind these CMS' are always available to field support emails and phone calls.

Want to find out more about the benefits of a closed-source CMS? Contact us today and we'll answer any questions you may have.