Posts Tagged ‘eHarbor’
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Derek Anderson, a customer-service representative at eHarbor, Inc., was named eHarbor’s Most Valuable Player at our monthly company-wide meeting on Monday, August 3, 2009.
Since coming to eHarbor three months ago, Derek has worked tirelessly to give our clients excellent support when they call in with questions. In fact, in July he set the record for taking the most calls in a single day: more than 150. Amazing. Customer service is important at eHarbor and its subsidiaries. I discussed how essential it is to take care of ecommerce customers in my blog entry, “Angry ecommerce customers fight back on Twitter.” Good customer care can make the difference between success and failure in any industry, but particularly online.
Returning to Derek, he is quite competitive, and not just in his work. He enjoys a good sporting event with coworkers and other friends. And he usually wins. Congratulations on this award, Derek!
This is the second time I’ve spotlighted the eHarbor MVP. You might remember last month’s winner, Alisha Walton. You can read about her remarkable story in my blog entry, “eHarbor June MVP returns to work after breaking her neck.” We have many great employees to spotlight. I’ll keep you posted on them at the start of each month.
Tags: award, customer service, Ecommerce, eHarbor, event, MVP
Posted in eHarbor | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
The unattainable goal for many search campaigns is the ever-elusive melding of PPC and SEO tactics for bigger and better top-line results. Theoretically, the two should go together like peanut butter and jelly.
That’s how Herndon Hasty starts his superb Search Engine Watch article, “Of PPC and PBJ: Combining PPC and SEO Effectively, Part 1.” His comparisons of search engine optimization to peanut butter and pay-per-click advertising to jelly are apt, and they work well through the article.
We’re starting a new blog on the newly redesigned Submit Solution website, which will soon be launched. We’ll be shifting attention from the eHarbor Blog to that one. You can find the rest of this blog entry there when it comes out. Stay tuned!
The photo of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of jacky_oh_yeah.
Tags: article, eHarbor, Internet Marketing, PPC, search engine optimization, SEO, Submit Solution
Posted in Pay-Per-Click, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »
Monday, July 13th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Have you noticed there is no definitive search engine for Twitter? There are certainly many attempts to search this social-networking site, such as Collecta, OneRiot, Scoopler and Twitter’s own search engine. But none of these delivers a structured, comprehensive view of what’s being said on Twitter.
The conversations are simply too fast to keep up with right now.
Google is a great tool for searching most websites, but it’s completely inadequate when it comes to finding or following a conversation on Twitter. Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, is at least making an effort to jump into the social-networking arena, according to an article in ComputerWorld, entitled “Bing beats Google to the punch, launches Twitter search.”
Bing has gone through and selected a number of Tweeters with the most followers and added their most recent tweets to their search results when you search for them. For instance, if you search for “Tony Hawk Twitter” you will find Tony Hawk’s latest tweet at the top of the page.
These are just baby steps into a whole new world of social media. The Internet was a big jumble of information before search engines came along to create some sense of order from the chaos. Chaos seems to rule social-media sites at the moment, but some structure could be coming soon. The algorithms will have to be even more complex and extremely fast to keep up with the instant nature of Twitter.
Search engines will have to find a way to rank Twitter results by the authority of the tweeters, how new the tweets are and how many people are talking about a specific topic, among other things. Important conversations could easily slip through the cracks if no one with much authority is talking about them and search engines focus too much on that aspect in their rankings.
There needs to be a balance between the chaos of conversation and the order or rankings. We’ll see what happens.
You can follow eHarbor, Inc. on Twitter to stay updated on all of our eHarbor Blog entries and other important ecommerce news.
The fake Twitter “Over Capacity” logo is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Mykl Roventine.
Tags: article, Bing, ComputerWorld, Ecommerce, eHarbor, google, Microsoft, news, online, search engine, Social Media, twitter, web
Posted in Search Engines | 2 Comments »
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Each month, eHarbor, Inc. singles out one of its employees as the Most Valuable Player or employee of the month. They announce the winner at a company lunch on the first business day of each month. The MVP is someone who has done extraordinary work, going above and beyond his or her duties to help the company succeed. On July 1, Alisha Walton was named MVP for her exceptional actions in June.
It takes an amazing kind of person to come back to work so soon after enduring a terrible car collision, a month-long hospital stay and several surgeries. Alisha is definitely an amazing person.
She was riding a motorcycle in May when a car came and hit her at full speed, knocking her to the ground and breaking her neck. Thankfully, Alisha’s neck injury did not paralyze her. She spent a month in the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah. You can read a quote from her about her experience in a Daily Herald article, entitled “UVRMC trauma team: Life in the balance.”
Six days after her June 3 release from the hospital, Alisha returned to work while still wearing her halo and being confined to a wheelchair. Amazingly, she got right back into her job, despite the pain and struggle she faced. She has a great sense of humor about her situation. For instance, she said her hobbies include photography, reading, surfing and now wheelchair racing. Her spirit is truly indomitable.
I’ll keep you updated on MVP winners each month from now on. We have quite a few exceptional workers at eHarbor, so it will be great to give them the recognition they deserve. By the way, I was also named the MVP for June along with Alisha, but I prefer not to call attention to myself. It’s nice to be noticed for my hard work on the blog and other projects, though.
Be sure to enjoy our great blog posts on ecommerce and search engines next week in the eHarbor Blog!
Tags: article, company, Daily Herald, eHarbor, humor, MVP, news, positive, provo, utah
Posted in eHarbor | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
This is my last blog entry about eHarbor, Inc.’s softball team this season. We played what turned out to be the last game of our season on Wednesday, July 1, 2009. The playoffs were a double-elimination tournament and we lost our second game.
We started our season with a perfect 5-0 record. We then ran into some of our league’s best teams and our success was tempered with four losses. But our final record of 6-4 was still the best record we’ve ever had. We put up a great fight in the playoffs, losing after a great effort in our first game and then having our post-season come to an end last week.
All in all, it was a great season. We might play again in the fall, so I’ll keep you posted if we do. Even though the season is over, we’ve still got plenty of great information about eHarbor that I’ll be happy to share in future blog posts. Not to mention all the important updates on ecommerce and Internet marketing.
Stay tuned to the eHarbor Blog!
Tags: baseball, company, eHarbor, event, game, provo, sport, update, utah
Posted in Fun, eHarbor | 2 Comments »
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
By Robert Lockard
John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence and went on to become the second president of the United States, wrote on July 3, 1776:
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.
What he was referring to was, of course, the Fourth of July. His words are literally fulfilled every year on July 4 as we celebrate our independence as a nation and a people. Few holidays measure up to the greatness of this one, in my mind.
Here are some interesting facts I recently learned about the Fourth of July, which I would like to share with you:
- The first Fourth of July celebration as held one year after the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. In Bristol, R.I. and Philadelphia, citizens fired 13 gunshots in honor of the 13 colonies.
- Bristol is also noteworthy for having the highest number of consecutive Fourth of July celebrations, starting in 1785.
- The term “Independence Day” was first used in 1791.
- In 1870, nearly a hundred years after the country was founded, Congress made Independence Day a federal holiday.
- In 1931, Independence Day became a paid federal holiday.
I must say I’m impressed by the Fourth of July celebrations I’ve encountered in Utah. As a newcomer to this land, I am excited to see what America’s Freedom Festival holds this year. It will culminate in the Stadium of Fire at Brigham Young University’s LaVell Edwards football stadium on July 4. I don’t know if I’ll be able to attend that event, but I hear it will be great.
Be sure to keep coming back to the eHarbor Blog for tips on ecommerce and Internet marketing. But in the meantime, enjoy your Independence Day!
The photo of fireworks in Salt Lake City, Utah is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of deltaMike.
Tags: eHarbor, event, Fun, history, holiday, origin, past, positive, provo, United States, utah
Posted in Fun | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
By Robert Lockard
What a game our softball team played on Wednesday, June 24! The other team pulled ahead to an early eight-point lead, but eHarbor, Inc. closed the gap and remained tied for several innings before the other team finally scored a few runs at the end to barely beat us. It was an exciting game, even though we lost.
Here are the highlights of our first postseason game:
- Two players went 4 for 4.
- One of those players got an in-the-park home run, two doubles and a single.
- The other player got two triples and two doubles.
- eHarbor CEO Oliver Bigler managed to hold onto the ball at home plate as a runner smashed into him. Thanks to his effort, the runner was out.
The good news is we are not out of the running, yet. This is a double-elimination tournament, so if we win our game tonight, we’ll still be able to move on. I hope to report good news in my next blog entry about our softball team.
Tags: baseball, eHarbor, event, Fun, game, oliver bigler, provo, sport, utah
Posted in Fun, eHarbor | No Comments »
Monday, June 29th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Microsoft’s Bing “decision engine” is still making headlines weeks after its May 25 debut. In the Business Week article, “Bing Gains In Search Share,” author Paul McDougall points out Bing’s share of the search-engine market increased from 13.7 percent in its first week to 16.7 percent in its third week.
In my earlier eHarbor Blog entry, entitled “Bing decision engine good for online marketing,” I said Bing can be good for ecommerce. It will probably force Internet marketers to get more specific in the keywords they target for search engine optimization and pay-per-click campaigns.
Plus, Bing includes a cashback feature that allows online shoppers to compare product prices and earn discounts at certain stores. If you’re looking to expand the number of potential buyers you reach online, you would be wise to take part in this service.
The Business Week article also says Bing is trying to compete with Google and even emerge as the top search engine some day. However, Google accounts for 65 percent of all searches done online right now, so it might be years before we’ll see who will be the victor.
Competition is great and it’s certainly going to inspire better services in both Bing and Google. Hopefully, these changes will continue to benefit the ecommerce industry.
The photo of Bing vs. Google is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Tom Purves.
Tags: article, Bing, Business Week, Ecommerce, eHarbor, internet, marketing, Microsoft, news, online, Pay-Per-Click, positive, search engine, SEO
Posted in Ecommerce, Search Engines | 5 Comments »
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
eHarbor, Inc.’s softball team closed out its regular season on Wednesday, June 18 with a 6-4 record. That is the best record we have ever had.
The final game gave eHarbor a rematch with one of the teams it lost to a few weeks ago. You can read about that game in my blog entry, “eHarbor, Inc. softball humbled by 2 losses.” The good news is that our loss against this team was by a much closer margin than in our previous game. Hopefully, we’ll meet them again in the post-season, which began this week, and we’ll win when it really counts.
Here are the highlights of our last game of the season:
- Two players went 3 for 3
- Our outfielders made several amazing catches
- Our defense was strong, keeping the other team from scoring too many runs
Some season highlights include:
- The top batter on the team went 13 for 15
- Two players had batting averages above 80 percent
- 12 of our 13 batters had batting averages of 50 percent or better
- Oliver Bigler, our CEO who is featured in BusinessQ magazine, went 10 for 17
As I said before, our record this season is quite good for an Internet marketing company. We’ll keep you posted on our post-season games in the eHarbor Blog. We hope to make it all the way this year!
Tags: baseball, company, eHarbor, oliver bigler, orem, positive, provo, sport, utah
Posted in Fun, eHarbor | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
By Robert Lockard
As promised, here is a follow-up to my blog entry on the eHarbor summer party, which was held on June 12 and 13. That was a fun event. Many eHarbor, Inc. employees came to Kelly’s Grove in Hobble Creek Canyon, near Springville, Utah, on that Friday night to enjoy a barbecue and play games.
I had expected to watch a movie on Friday night, but we instead sang karaoke. It was a lot of fun, and we learned more about each other’s personalities through our singing than we would have by watching a movie. Oliver Bigler, our CEO who was recently profiled in BusinessQ magazine, emceed the karaoke and he even sang a couple of songs, himself.
My wife and I don’t have any camping supplies, so we decided to go home that night instead of camping out with many of the other families in attendance. The sky had been threatening to rain most of the evening. We heard thunder and saw lightning several times before we finally headed home.
On the way, the rain became so heavy it was almost blinding. It felt like a flash flood. Being from Washington, I’m used to heavy rain, but this was beyond what I’m normally prepared for. It was as though someone was dumping a bucket of water on our windshield every second we drove.
We stayed off the freeway and took a regular road home because I could hardly see the lanes, and I felt safer going at a slower speed. We made it safely to our destination and enjoyed the rest of the storm from the safety of our home. I love falling asleep to the sound of rain. The thunder was elegant, as well.
On Saturday morning, I had planned on returning to the eHarbor summer party, but the clouds still threatened to rain, so I thought it best to do something indoors. I heard the E-lympics were fun, though. I would have liked to have seen and participated in them. Oh well.
Tags: company, eHarbor, event, Fun, game, oliver bigler, positive, utah, weather
Posted in Fun, eHarbor | 1 Comment »
