PSPINC Official Company Blog

What is "The Cloud"?

May

28

In the tech world, you’ll hear the word, “cloud” frequently, especially when linked to services like iCloud and Google Drive among many others. But what exactly is “the cloud” and what role does it play in business today? The cloud generally refers to servers and the software and databases that run on those servers that users can access over the internet.

Types of Cloud Services

man in red crew neck t-shirt using laptop

Cloud providers that actively manage resources, or “services”, are known as cloud services. They can include products like data storage, applications, infrastructure, and development tools among others. These services are then categorized into three different service models:

Software as a Service (SaaS): Where cloud server providers sell software applications on a subscription basis online. Ex: Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, etc.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Where cloud server providers deliver computing resources like virtual machines (VMs), storage, and networks. Ex: Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), or any of PSPINC's SaaS business tools, among many other examples.
Platform as a Service (PaaS): Where cloud server providers host hardware and software on their own servers for those who need application development. Some companies, like PSPINC, have even developed their own web and email servers and systems. Ex: Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, etc.

The Importance of the Cloud in Business

Since there are millions of cloud servers located in data centers worldwide, companies and individuals from around the world can use cloud computing resources without needing to build and maintain physical infrastructure. Therefore, businesses only pay for what they use and can easily collaborate because users can access cloud servers from virtually anywhere.

With the minimal costs and stable infrastructure cloud servers provide, companies can then focus their resources on scaling their business up or down depending on demand. And since cloud providers also manage updates and maintenance for hardware, software, and security, it frees up internal resources. All in all, cloud computing has changed the entire business industry, letting companies focus on growth and innovation without having to worry about infrastructure management.

For more information or assistance on cloud services, don't hesitate to reach out to our experts.

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.

#aws #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cloud #cloudcomputing #cybersecurity #emailhosting #google #googledrive #hosting #iaas #ibm #icloud #microsoft #paas #saas #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webhosting #website #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 220 “Company Blogs”

May

16

You may have noticed that many businesses have a blog section on their website. While it can be great for announcing sales and pertinent company changes, businesses can use a company blog for more than just newsworthy topics. You can also use a company blog to build credibility with content marketing.

Content marketing is the creation and sharing of digital content and is non-promotional in nature. Since blogs are generally longer-form content, businesses can demonstrate their expertise while educating their customers as well as potential customers. You can add the blog as a separate page on your website or move it to a blogging platform like Bloguru. As a free blogging platform without ads, setting up your company blog has never been easier. Get started by going to bloguru.com.

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 #newsletter #pspinc #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websites

What is a Qualified Lead?

May

14

When it comes to a business’s sales process, lead generation is an important starting point. Lead generation is the process of identifying and developing potential customers to lead to a sale. But it’s crucial to remember that a lead differs from a qualified lead. A lead refers to anyone interacting with your business, whether visiting your website or calling your brick-and-mortar store.

However, a qualified lead refers to someone who hasn’t just engaged with your business but is ready to buy, which is determined through qualifying criteria. Qualifying leads will help streamline the overall sales process by weeding out disqualified leads and discovering patterns that will help inform future marketing strategies.

What to Do With Disqualified Leads

Disqualified leads refer to leads that have proven to be unqualified as suitable potential customers. This could include spam messages on social media or test form submissions from a coworker. In cases like that, it’s best to remove them from your sales pipeline because they aren’t worth the extra time and effort it would take to nurture them. Plus, that way, you can focus on nurturing your qualified leads. Other ways to deal with disqualified leads include:

1. Offer other viable solutions

In cases where a lead has been disqualified but could still benefit from something else your business offers, try offering them a better solution.

2. Nurture the lead

In cases where the lead has been disqualified but still has the potential to become a customer in the future, nurture that lead toward a sale by sending them relevant content and building a relationship with them.

3. Keep them in your database

Even though it’s a disqualified lead, keep their information in your database so that you know to instantly remove them without having to go through the process over again.

With so many different marketing tasks, it’s best to streamline the overall process by determining how to qualify those leads. Every business’s strategy is different, but, at the end of the day, all that matters is that it works for your business needs. Lead generation is a great asset for businesses to build credibility, drive website traffic, and increase overall sales, but remember to focus your efforts on nurturing qualified leads.

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 #digitalmarketing #leadgeneration #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspinc #qualifiedlead #qualifiedleads #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #website #websites

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 219 “Reach International Customers with Localization”

May

9

Every international audience is different. Not just in their language, but also in how they behave and how their culture informs their decision-making. For businesses looking to branch out internationally, localizing their content effectively is vital to appealing to those audiences. That’s where localization comes in. It’s about more than simply translating written content from English to another language, it’s also about making sure the meaning of those words translates over.

In the 90s, PSPINC was known as “Double Byte Specialists” specifically because of our experience and expertise in localizing content between English and Japanese. Today, we continue using that expertise to build software and offer our U.S. and Japanese customers services. If you’re looking to localize your content for your Japanese audience, our expert team is always ready 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.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #japanese #localization #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #website #websites

What are (Web) Cookies and How Do Marketers Use Them?

Apr

30

If you’ve spent enough time online, you’ve probably heard of the term “cookies” before. But what does it mean? A cookie, also known as HTTP cookies or web cookies, is a code snippet added to a web browser when a user visits a certain website and consents to the website’s use of cookies. The user’s browser then stores that code over a predetermined time set by its creators or until a user deletes it, changing how browsers interact with certain websites.

So, how do you know when cookies are in action? If you’ve ever experienced these encounters, that’s how you know:

Returned to a website where you’re automatically signed in.
Found items still in your shopping cart.
Saw the physical store location you picked last time on an e-commerce site you’ve been on before.
Discovered the product you were looking at during another session advertised in your email or on another website.
Checked out a purchase with your payment and shipping preference already stored and selected.

How Do Marketers Use Cookies?

With cookies, digital marketers can learn more about users coming onto their sites and better track users’ behavior on their websites. Knowing how people behave makes it easier to target potential customers and market to your users in the future since it’ll give you a good idea of what works and what doesn’t work on your website.

What marketers use cookies for:

Targeting: more user data and behavioral information that will help define target audience groups.
Personalization: after signing up for an email newsletter or purchasing a product on a website, cookies will remember the info users have filled in for the next time they come to that website.
Tracking: with more data on users, marketers can then use that data to better market in the future with targeted marketing campaigns.

Overall, cookies can be an invaluable tool for marketers. With the ability to collect more user data, marketers can use all of that to optimize their future marketing campaigns, resulting in more effective efforts.

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 #cybersecurity #digitalmarketing #google #marketing #marketingtips #mobile #sales #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #website #websites

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 217 “Get Up to $300 of Google Ad Credit!”

Apr

25

We're happy to announce that for a limited time, you can claim up to $300 of Google Ad credit with one of our marketing plans! Regardless of where you are in your business journey, we have an experienced team to help you with your business needs that’ll work within your budget. All of our marketing plans will include a voucher for Google Ad credit up to $300:

Sprout Marketing Plan: $100 of Google Ad credit.
Grow Marketing Plan: $200 of Google ad credit.
Thrive Marketing Plan: $300 of Google ad credit.

Add paid search with Google Ads to your marketing plan to increase your business’s overall brand awareness at an affordable price. PSPINC has over 36 years of experience helping small businesses grow online. Get started today with one of our marketing plans, built to work with your budget!

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.

#ad #advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #google #googleads #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #ppcad #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #seo #smallbusiness #tech #web #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 215 “Google Analytics Update”

Apr

11

Last week, we received an email from Google Analytics, reminding us all about how they will be fully replacing Universal Analytics (UA) properties with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) on July 1. As a website owner, many of us know that using Google Analytics is vital in measuring how your website is performing. But if you haven’t switched your properties over to GA4 yet, you’re at risk of essentially starting over with new GA4 properties.

We recommend you switch over as soon as possible to build up website data so that when Google Analytics discontinues UA properties, you’ll still have some website data left. Plus, switching early gives you some time to learn the new GA4 system, if you haven’t already. If you’re not sure how to migrate your properties to GA4, reach out to our expert support team! Either call them at 1-800-232-3989 or email them at support@pspinc.com.

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 #customerservice #google #googleanalytics #pspinc #sales #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websites #websitetraffic #webtools #wordpress

Pacific Software Publishing Inc. Releases a New Company Logo

Apr

1

Pacific Software Publishing Inc. (PSPINC) is proud to unveil a new company logo and brand design. As expert designers and developers, they know just how important having a strong brand identity is and how important it is to update as the years go on. After being in business for over 36 years of experience, they've decided to move forward with a new brand image, starting with their company logo.

Integrating QR code technology into their brand connects them deeply with the technologies they utilize in products such as Click It Audio, and makes it easier for customers to get to their corporate website to explore their products.

"This new company logo will help better represent ourselves as an industry leader in QR code technology," stated Ryan Heinrichs, Chief Design Officer of PSPINC.

PSPINC strives to help companies of all sizes as an all-in-one business technology partner with all the products and services they’ll ever need. Just scan the QR code to terminate all your troubles in taking your business online.

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 #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #smallbusiness #tech #technology #update #web #webdesign #website #websites

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 213 “A Custom Web Development Case Study”

Mar

28

Custom web development can encompass several things, which can make it hard to explain. Every website owner needs something different, and they turn to custom web development when they require more than what’s traditionally offered by popular website builders. But they say it’s always better to show rather than tell, so we’ve included a case study of a large but recent custom development job we did recently with Don’s Group Attire.

Don’s Group Attire is a local group attire shop in South Seattle who were looking to fully customize their company e-commerce website system. If you go to our Web & App Development page, you’ll find the link to our case study on our custom development work for Don’s Group Attire, where we detail all the work we did for them and how the overall process went. For anyone curious about how the custom web development process works, check out our new case study!

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 #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #pspinc #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websitebuilder #websites #webtools

Google’s New Core Update: What It Means for Website Owners

Mar

19

On March 5, Google announced the details of their new core update, which looks to tackle lessening the number of spammy, low-quality content on Google Search. Every few months, Google releases a new core update, but this newest core update implemented changes to “multiple core systems”, which is “more complex” and will have a larger impact on website owners, according to Chris Nelson from the Search Quality team at Google. This time, the update aims to target the excess of spam that even we here at PSPINC have encountered.

Aside from just affecting Google Search results, this update will also affect Google’s email service, Gmail. To combat the spam excess, we recommend our customers to be vigilant of fraudulent emails, but Google is working toward reducing the number of low-quality, unoriginal search results. To do that, Google is actively updating its spam-fighting systems and spam policies to better address evolving cybercrimes, and their efforts are already starting to appear on the search engine result page (SERP).

How This Affects Website Owners

pspinc google search result with spam update shown

For every website owner, it’s ideal to rank higher up in the SERP by optimizing their website for search engines. But this update may affect how you optimize your site for search engine optimization (SEO), how your site ranks in the SERP, and how to rank higher on the result page. This update also includes trying to reduce “unoriginal content” and to focus on content “where it was clear that automation was involved”, which could include content created using AI tools, especially mass-content generation using AI. As a better indicator of how significant of an impact this update could make, Google has predicted that it will “reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%”, which could lead to a big shift in what users see in their SERP.

If your website isn’t ranking as well as you’d like, Nelson recommends reading Google’s SEO fundamentals page about creating helpful, reliable, people-first content. The important thing to take away from this update, however, is that if you already have original content made for users rather than search engines, you shouldn’t worry too much about how this update will change your ranking.

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.