Building an E-Community Web site around your organization or customer base

Summary: You can organize a real community around a shared interest or a common passion, and keep it organized via a custom-fit E-Community Web site.

We all belong to groups, associations, classes, or simply "crowds" that do stuff together. Take, for instance, your daughter's fourth-grade class or her soccer league.

Usually, a soccer-parent community exists only on the noisy sidelines and its only "Web site" is a printed phone list or maybe an online message board. No need to get fancy with it, really.

But there are other common interests that bring uncommon opportunities. Many communities are too vibrant or lucrative to be contained in a Yahoo! message board. Or they are too specialized or private to fit in Facebook's idea of a group page. These groups need to own their Web space, an E-Community with secure access, unique functions and special group rules. Our favorite example is the site we maintain for our client called Gospel Gigs, This online community enables hundreds of different Southern-style gospel vocal groups to share their music, tour schedules and other news with each other and with their fans and supporters. Today the site is clocking 10,000 visits a month by its registered users. The musicians and their fans keep coming back because they share a passion and because the site meets their unique preferences.

(But Optimal Process also produces smaller E-Communities. Heck, they all start out small!)

Click here for more information on E-Community sites
or contact Gary Bridgman at 901-428-5966.

Help Wanted

Optimal Process, a Memphis based software development firm since 1986, has an opening for a sales representative. Our products and services include: Web Based Tools (Email Broadcast, Events, Survey and Data Collection Forms) Community and Ecommerce Web Sites Custom Software for Operations and Marketing Applications.
You will receive an industry competitive no cap commission plus salary and expenses. In addition you will receive comprehensive technical support as well as training.
You must be self motivated and an entrepreneurial spirit. You must have experience with customer relationships, a good business background , excellent communication skills as well as a basic understanding of the web and software applications.
No technical skills required.
To apply, send your resume to jobs@optimalprocess.com Absolutely no phone calls.

Optimal Process is now a proud sponsor of BUVAD

Optimal Process is now a proud sponsor of the Non-Profit Charitable Organization based in Uganda called BUVAD.

OPI will be providing web services at BUVAD.org to help BUVAD spread the word about their mission and grow their projects with donation drives. By sponsoring such projects such as BUVAD, Optimal Process is making an effort to support a positive change.

You can find their website at http://buvad.org

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Local high end retailer, Joseph, has gone nationwide with its e-commerce Website.

Memphis, TN- Local high end retailer, Joseph, has gone nationwide with its e-commerce Website. The Website is a catalog of the store's live inventory of shoes, handbags, and jewelry. In order to compete online with national retailers, Joseph found a niche that helped even the playing field.

Josephstores.com gets search results on Google's front page and competes with large companies like Neiman Marcus, Ebay and Zappos. They do not have an entire staff of web people and developers and a network of paid promoters dedicated to making their site rank highest. They simply use their resources smart and efficiently with the help of Optimal Process. Optimal Process works to get their rankings the highest in Google's Product Search. According to Optimal Process CEO Steve Cantor "previously, front page ranking for e-commerce took months of dedicated, hard work. Now its quick with Google product search and the right combination of product search attributes. No, it doesn't take the place of getting your site to rank high, but it can get you in front of a potential customer who is searching for a specific item in your catalog."

"Optimal Process can take inventory from a company's current system and upload it to Google Base." Optimal Process' Alan Zellner says "we know how to separate out the right attributes to get a high ranking." That high ranking is the key, since the top three product search ranking leapfrog web searches to appear at or near the top of the first page.

Google product search is a free service, unlike Google Adwords which is pay per click and is also extremely competitive to get impressions. The impressions on product search can be more effective than pay per click (Google adwords) due to the specific nature of the search. "If a customer searches for a Stuart Wietzman spectator pump, there is a great chance one of the top results will be at Josephstores.com", Joseph's Barrie Wurzburg says.
Optimal Process works to optimize the attributes of an inventory to maximize the effectiveness." Josephstores.com has gotten thousands of clicks from google product search and is now routinely turning those clicks into conversions (sales)" according to Mr Zellner.

First Cobia of the Season Caught on St. Patrick's Day (with the Luck of the Irish)

March 17, 2009 - Orange Beach, AL - Capt. Jeff Colley with Killin' Time Charters out of Zeke's Landing Marina in Orange Beach brought home the first Cobia of the season on St. Paddy's Day.

Each year about this time anglers start hitting the water trying to be the first one to catch a Cobia.

Pictured are anglers Dr. Steve Haley, Jason Haley, Nate Haley, Cullen Haley & Ethan Haley with their two Cobia. The larger Cobia weighed in at 67 pounds. The Haleys come down to the Alabama Gulf Coast from Memphis each year during Spring Break. This year they will take home the prize of being the anglers to catch the first Cobia of the season.
Capt. Jeff said that they were fishing about 150 yards off shore just out of Perdido Pass when they hooked the Cobia. They caught the fish on spinning rods using jigs for bait.

Congratulations to Capt. Jeff and the Haleys for landing the first Cobia of 2009.

PROTECTION AGAINST SQL INJECTION by Steve Cantor of OPI

There’s an old saying “That which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger”. And so it is with Internet Terrorists. They constantly abuse, vandalize, steal and destroy whenever and whatever they can. We may think we know their preferences and behaviors but we don’t. We can try to prevent it from happening but we can’t. But certainly we should do everything reasonable to be prepared and defend against what we do know and inform others of our experience. Hopefully, with a global effort we can keep this to a minimum.

It’s as if every morning when you leave you house, you see someone hanging around your door. They have a massive toolbox and they trying every possible way to open your door.

A SQL Injection uses a programming trick in which the terrorists insert a nasty program into a web page which is gathering information. The receiving program inadvertently will execute the nasty program.

Optimal Process hosts SQL databases for a variety of clients. We have taken significant steps to confront and combat these sorts of attacks. These steps are implemented without interruption of services. In fact, most of our clients may not be aware to the extent of protection they are getting from Optimal Process.

When you are looking for a vendor to provide database services, ask yourself what type of services are important to you. We strive to be the type of vendor that maintains good relations and stays on the cutting edge for our clients. We pass down what we learn, that is just a great way of doing business.