PSPINC Official Company Blog

Google’s Consent Management Platform (CMP) Changes and What It Means

Sep

19

Have you ever gone to a website only to come across a pop-up asking you to consent to the site using your data? That is what’s called a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) message. But you may have also noticed that not every website shows a GDPR message. That’s because privacy laws in the European Union and the UK are different compared to the U.S. when it comes to collecting users’ data.

Advertisers can use IAB’s Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF) as a tool to hold them accountable and to comply with the GDPR as well as the ePrivacy Directive, a privacy law regulating cookie usage, data minimization, and more. When advertising with Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or Ad Mob, Google-certified Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) have IAB’s TCF integrated into them, making it easier to serve ads in the European Economic Area (EEA) and/or the U.K. Equipped with IAB's TCF, Google's CMPs, and GDPR messages, advertisers can easily serve ads in the E.U. and the UK. while complying to their privacy laws.

Google’s New CMP Requirements

Starting January 16, 2024, Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob will start requiring publishers and developers to use a CMP certified by Google. Why? Because IAB Europe’s TCF released a new version (v2.2) recently that comes with even stricter consent requirements, which include:

No longer accepting “legitimate interest” as a legal base of consent for personalization efforts.
Standardized data retention periods for third-party vendors.
Easy access for users to their CMPs for if they want to withdraw or modify their consent and preferences.

For those working with ad technology providers not registered with TCF, Google makes it easy with its Additional Consent specification. While many are already using Google-certified CMPs, those who aren’t will be affected by these new requirements.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#admanager #admob #advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cmp #digitalmarketing #eu #europeanunion #gdpr #google #googleadsense #iab #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #smallbusiness #tcf #tech #technology #uk #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 185 “Scam Letters”

Sep

14

Recently, our San Diego office received some scam mail disguised as a domain renewal. Upon first glance, it looked like your average domain renewal request, but since we manage our own pspinc.com domain, we immediately realized it was a scam. Apparently, some of our customers have also received similar letters, but have thankfully asked us first if they needed to make a payment. For our web hosting customers, please be aware that our hosting services include domain management (unless you have a separate contract with a separate provider), so there shouldn’t be any additional domain-related charges. If there are, please know that it will come from us at PSPINC directly rather than the domain registrar.

If you ever receive similar scam letters or emails, making payments will potentially result in:

· Unauthorized credit card usage or
· Loss of domain

Luckily, we’re here to assist you with any hosting-related and/or IT-related concerns and issues. So if you ever have any suspicions or questions about these types of scam letters, please reach out to our support team and they’d be happy to help!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #ecommerce #hosting #marketing #newsletter #officetips #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #webhosting

The Importance of Marketing Analytics

Sep

12

Marketing for your business doesn’t just consist of creating content and advertising it; it requires some analysis to result in an effective outcome. That’s where marketing analytics comes in. Marketing analytics refers to using data to evaluate marketing activities for their effectiveness. To make it easier, there are three parameters of marketing analytics you should keep in mind: the past, the present, and the future.

When analyzing marketing data, you’ll want to look back on what projects performed the best, which strategy was most effective, and vice versa. By looking at your current marketing efforts, you can better understand the current market and what’s working versus what isn’t. And looking into trends expected to continue and evolve will help set marketing plans for the future.

Benefits of Marketing Analytics

After collecting a mass of analytical marketing data from website tracking, product data, social media interactions, and transactional data, you’ll get all you can out of them. Using marketing analytics to your advantage consists of compiling customer profiles, monitoring campaign success, creating targeted personalization, and forecasting demand. This will all, in turn, help minimize costs because the data you use is data-proven to help your business succeed.

Marketing analytics will then benefit your business by giving you a better idea of how profitable your business and the market are, what your customers want and how they behave, and who your real competitors are. Overall, it gives you more insight into the market, how your company has performed, and where you should focus your efforts moving forward. But analyzing marketing data means nothing if you don’t act on it. When trying something new with your marketing strategy, the more data to support your hypothesis, the more likely it’ll result in success.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #customer #customers #data #digitalmarketing #market #marketing #marketinganalysis #marketinganalytics #marketingdata #marketingdigital #marketingstrategy #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 184 “Web Builders Vs. Custom Designed Sites”

Sep

7

Today, people have built many websites using popular web builders that make it easy for non-technical people to create a website. But as great as that is, many of those sites end up looking the same, just with different content. This isn’t to say that there aren’t great website templates out there because there are. But because of how popular these sites are, it results in a lot of similar-looking sites. The only differences are the images and word choices.

While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does make it harder for new websites to stand out amongst the competition. That’s why many businesses decide to get their site custom-designed. It guarantees that your site will stand out and lets you add features that may not be available from templates. Get your site custom-designed by our expert design team with one of our budget-friendly web design plans.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websitebuilder #websites #wordpress

How to Repurpose Content

Sep

5

A large part of digital marketing today is creating content, but it can get exhausting having to constantly create new content for your business. That’s where repurposing content comes in. For those worried about Google and other search engines penalizing your site for duplicate content, it’s important to point out that repurposing content is not copying and pasting the same exact content and publishing it again. Instead, it’s updating outdated content and grabbing pieces you can use in a different format. So, since it won’t be identical content, you won’t be violating Google’s guidelines.

Repurposing content will increase awareness of your brand and make it easier to market your business. So, many companies employ that strategy, which allows marketers to focus their efforts on other marketing tasks. Content marketing through multiple different platforms has proven to be effective, but there’s only so much new content you can create on a regular basis. Here are some ways to repurpose old blog content:

Create a YouTube video

Create a (new) infographic.

Create a podcast episode.

Grab snippets (quotes, important statistics) for social media posts.

Updating Older Content

Repurposing content doesn’t just have to consist of picking and choosing snippets of blog posts, videos, social media posts, and other types of content to repost. It can also include updating older content. The business world especially moves at a fast pace, as things are constantly changing. With those new developments, you can make adjustments and additions. Some sites even let you change the publish date, so it’ll show on your blog as a new post, including Bloguru, our blogging platform. With Bloguru, you not only can manually adjust the post date but also the post time.

Repurposing content isn’t a replacement for content creation, but it will help you sustain the constant flow of content you’ll need to post to help increase brand awareness for your business. But, more importantly, blog posts may not be the best medium for your content or your business. So, experimenting with different mediums lets you figure out which works best for your content and which platform you should invest more time in. Repurposing content helps increase brand awareness, makes it easier for marketers, and gives you a better idea of what works best for your brand. So, it’s no wonder why so many companies do it.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #bloguru #branding #business #businesstips #content #contentmarketing #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #website #websites

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 183 “Free Social Media Marketing Tool”

Aug

31

Social media is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways for small businesses to market themselves. But for those who aren’t trained or experienced in design, creating visually appealing posts isn’t always easy. And we’ve probably all seen our fair share of less-than-ideal graphics floating around the internet. That’s why Canva, an online graphic design tool, is so helpful to even experienced marketers.

With Canva, marketers can pick from hundreds of templates and royalty-free graphics, images, and even video. We know our marketing team here at PSPINC loves using it to their advantage. With Canva, people can drag and drop elements using their editor to make the design phase simpler so marketers can focus on marketing your business in other ways. To learn more, check out our YouTube video that breaks down all the ways Canva can help market your business. And if you’re looking to outsource your marketing work, reach out to our marketing team.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #facebook #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #twitter #web #webdesign #website #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 181 “The Difference Between Localization and Translation”

Aug

17

Expanding your business to a foreign country is about more than just translating content. Language is complex, so even though the terms might be similar, they might not mean the same thing. Localization takes translation a step further by putting the foreign country’s culture into consideration. And sometimes, it can cause you to change your mind about expanding your business there if it doesn’t fit. For example, Procter & Gamble (P&G) introduced Pampers diapers to Japan in 1976 by showing an ad with a flying stork delivering Pampers to a Japanese family. But people in Japan were confused; Japanese folklore told of a story of giant peaches floating down the river gently delivering the babies.

So, when they showed this ad in Japan, it failed miserably. P&G didn’t know about this peach story until after the incident. They then changed the imagery to a peach, and it fixed the problem. But problems like this are why localization is about more than just language. It’s about culture, too. Our localization experts not only translate content from English to Japanese, but also review it to avoid any misconstrued information. And it helps avoid problems like this. Learn more by heading over to our Localization Page on our website.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #english #japan #japanese #localization #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pampers #procterandgamble #sales #smallbusiness #translation

Bloguru’s Twitter Integration Changes

Aug

15

Earlier this year, Twitter started charging third parties for API usage, which caused many websites to remove Twitter from their website. API stands for Application Programming Interface and lets developers integrate existing software systems into new applications. Usually, websites use APIs to share information or carry out diverse tasks. With Twitter’s new API changes, many websites have removed Twitter integration. Now, Bloguru has done the same.

It is, however, worth noting that our team is investigating a new API for our users in hopes of enhancing and upgrading the overall experience for our Bloguru users. If you’d still like to share your blog posts with your Twitter followers, copy your post’s URL and paste it into a new tweet.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#api #blog #bloguru #business #businesstools #developer #development #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #marketingtools #pspinc #smallbusiness #socialmedia #technology #twitter #twitterapi #web #webdeveloper #webdevelopment #website #webtools

Data Collection: Privacy Concerns and Regulation

Aug

15

Collecting data has become standard today as marketers use it to better promote their products. Efforts to better personalize ads have proven to be immensely successful, to the point of it becoming an expectation. But many aren’t fully aware of how much data companies collect on users, or how much gets passed around between third parties. And there isn’t much regulation on how much they can collect or what they can or can’t do with that data, which is how we got to where we are today.

With cybercrime only increasing in recent years, users want to make sure their data is safe. Generally, the more data you collect, the more personalized the ads will be. For marketers, more data collection makes up for better ads. But the increase in hacks has been too much for people to ignore. And it’s only revealed how easy it has become for criminals to hack people and how vulnerable their information can be. So, it only makes sense that many are asking for lawmakers to add more regulations when it comes to data collection and consumer privacy.

Current State of Data Collection

Advertisers everywhere have been digitally collecting data from customers for years now. But there are two major concerns over the amount of data companies collect: privacy and potential leaks. Most users don’t know how much of their data gets collected, nor do they know what they’ll do with it. That’s for a reason; companies prefer keeping their data practices discreet, especially for data they have no immediate use for. While this data they’re not immediately using may not be valuable today, companies argue it could be someday. At the federal level, there is no specific legislation that protects users’ data. But the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the power to protect customers from unfair or deceptive data collection practices. And they do so by enforcing federal privacy and data protection regulations.

The lack of regulations at the national level hasn’t stopped individual states from enacting some privacy laws of their own. Specifically, California, Nevada, and Maine have more comprehensive laws compared to those from other states. These privacy laws include the right of consent for their personal information, the right to request companies and third parties to delete their information, and the right to opt out of companies collecting or selling their data to third parties. On the other side of things, companies have stricter guidelines because of these laws, which include disclosing the kinds of information they’re collecting, what they intend to use that data for, and publicizing the identity of third parties, among other restrictions.

What This Means Now

Data collection practices have improved over the years as people learn more about how to keep their information safe from cybercrime. And with users demanding more transparency, more companies are complying by sharing more about their data collection practice. But it hasn’t reached the point of creating federal privacy laws; they are still only at the state level. Because of that, companies can still use, share, or sell any data they collect from customers without notifying them in most states. There also aren’t any national laws about notifying users about breached data due to leaks or other data exposures, nor are there any about third parties further selling users’ data.

In the last few years, people have realized that they aren’t as protected online as they thought. And it has just strengthened the need and desire for privacy laws at the federal level. This is a growing attitude businesses should be aware of, and the hope is, is that it will inspire more companies to be more transparent about how they collect and use customer data.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cybersecurity #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #security #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web

New Dreamersi FTP Feature Now Available!

Aug

14

Today, we’re happy to announce that our web hosting service, Dreamersi, has a new feature! With Dreamersi, more tech-savvy users can use the FTP features, which stands for File Transfer Protocol. Basically, what this means is that you can build your website by transferring files to a server. Web hosting like Dreamersi then hosts that server, making it much safer than hosting your site on a local computer, typically called the local host. But now, we’re adding even more security with a new FTP Access Security feature.
ftp feature screenshot

With this new feature, you can protect your site from potential hacks by blocking all FTP access or temporarily allowing access until midnight. When going back to editing your site, head over to the Dreamersi admin panel and scroll down until you reach the FTP Services section. Then, you’ll find the FTP Access Security icon. By default, Dreamersi has the “Permanently allow FTP access” option selected, but it isn’t something we recommend. With this new feature, you can either block all FTP access or only allow it temporarily until 12 AM PST. At midnight, your site will then block all FTP access to protect your site from unauthorized parties. So, just sign up for Dreamersi to take advantage of this new FTP feature to better protect your website. Only available for Dreamersi customers on the new V5 version (reach out to our support team for help migrating your Dreamersi site over to V5!) as well as new Dreamersi users.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.