Small Business Web Design, Local Internet Marketing, Local SEO, Online Video, Training | LOCAL Na8ion West Palm Beach, FL

G’Day Local Na8ion!

It’s time for a Small Business Tech Review of the Apple MacBook for $1,299. I’m catering this review to small business people like myself who need access to reliable, low-priced, do-it-all computers. If you’re considering creating web content, audio, or video content for your web site or local marketing effort then I strongly recommend Mac’s, and I’m not an Apple fanboy.

While I’m not an Apple snob, I will admit to being a complete Geek. Don’t worry though, I won’t inflict my disease upon you! In fact, here’s what I usually say about business and technology:

“…with technology specifically we often lose sight of people. At exceler8 and Local Na8ion we love to experiment with the leading edge of web marketing and technology but we do so in the pursuit of value, not at the expense of it.” – Julian’s bio on Local Na8ion

For most of us, computers aren’t high entertainment as they are for me, they’re critical business tools. We take orders on them, make marketing materials, crank out business correspondence and balance the company books.

I’m a long time Windows user (aren’t we all) but I also really appreciate how Apple bounced back a few years ago and started making really high quality hardware and combining it with a rock solid operating system – OS X.

Today, there’s no way I’d buy a PC with the sad state of the Windows operating system (XP is now solid but feature-poor compared to Mac’s OS X and Vista is a joke).

I splurged on a PowerBook (the high end version) over three years ago and it was everything I’d hoped it would be in terms of being a digital creativity powerhouse. Apple has loads of built-in goodness when it comes to making user-generated content like audio, movies, and blog posts. For example, the bundled iMovie program that comes with OS X allows me to make all my Local Na8ion podcasts and it didn’t cost a thing.

Now that Apple allows you to run XP or Vista on your new Mac there’s really no reason NOT to buy a Mac anymore since you can now run legacy (er, old ass) PC only software on a Mac. In fact, a few months ago, PC Magazine listed the best (fastest) laptops to run MS Vista and the 17″ MacBook Pro was the top system. That says a lot of good things about Apple Hardware. Also, in my experience working at large companies, plugging an Apple Mac laptop in to your corporate network is dead easy.

Unfortunately my old PowerBook is now SO slow when I’m processing video (very resource intensive) for Local Na8ion and doing my client work I had no choice but to upgrade. Hey, that’s my excuse but Shannon didn’t buy it. This time around I went for the lower cost MacBook. There’s a $700 difference in the MacBook I purchased vs. the higher end MacBook Pro. What do you get for an additional $700?

1. Bigger hard drive (200GB instead of the 160GB I got). Big deal.
2. More mousepad gestures. Cool, but no big deal.
3. PC card slot (very helpful for business for high-speed wireless Internet cards so popular with road warriors like my wife Shannon). OK, I can live without it since I’m not a road warrior.
4. A dedicated NVIDIA GeForce display card

Now, that doesn’t look like $700 in value to me. In fact, I liked the smaller MacBook for its lighter weight and dimensions. The keyboard is nice (not as good as the Pro but still good) and the glossy screen looked rich and colorful in the showroom. A note on the glossy vs. matte display. People usually have a strong preference for one over the other with most coming down on the matte screen side. Why? The matte screen is much easier to read in outside lighting (the glossy display reflects everything like a mirror when outdoors). For the MacBook, Apple chose the Henry Ford Model T manufacturing method: You can have any display on the MacBook as long as it’s the glossy one. I prefer the glossy screen (it’s the glitzy Great White Way Marketer in me) so the glossy screen wasn’t a problem.

So how does my new MacBook perform? Everything is fantastic except for one very important thing – the display quality. If you plan on hooking up your MacBook to a larger external display I think you’ll be very disappointed with the MacBook’s screen.

According to post-purchase research I’ve done I’m not the only one. You can’t just blame it on the integrated Intel display adaptor either since it’s commonly used on Windows based PC’s and similar PC systems haven’t generated near the kind of angst that the MacBook screen has. In part, that’s because people expect Apple to nail things that involve design, look, feel, and craftmanship. Can you imagine an iPod with a badly pixelated screen?

If you’re just using the MacBook as a laptop, then by all means purchase the less expensive MacBook and save your business $700 in expense. If you like working with photos, images and er…web sites, which all rely heavily on display quality AND you use an external monitor, get the MacBook Pro. If you don’t need a laptop you can spend $1,499 for the iMac desktop and get the same exact processor (2.4GHz Core Duo 2) with a beautiful 20″ screen and a solid video card – the ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256mb of display memory.

I’m still undecided as to what I’ll do exactly. I might just get the desktop for the $200 more and use my old PowerBook when I’m out at the park with my kids. Then agian, theMacBook Pro is an awfully nice machine. Would you put in a good word with Shannon for me? Better yet, hire me so I can afford to buy one!

Here’s a video review of the Apple MacBook on my personal blog with some additional links if you want to know more about my MacBook display dismay.

Update: I’ve gone back and re looked using my 17″ Sony Display and I’m much happier with it. The crazy pixelation is gone. I’ve also continued researching my issues and found that most people are going with a maximum size of 20″ for their desktop monitor (my Samsung is a 22″) if they use a MacBook with an external display. 20 inches is sufficient to me and I’m now moving into new monitor research mode.

For now I’ve decided that I can live with the smaller screen (I still have two desktops after all) and don’t want to give up all the stuff I like about the smaller MacBook (and its great price) for either a desktop iMac or a much more expensive MacBook Pro. My original recommendation still stands – just know what you’re getting into before you buy!

QuickTime, iPhone or iPod Download.

In this three two-part series I discuss using social media to connect with local customers (run time 8 minutes).

First up, I’ll relate a personal story about a great new site called Alltop.com, and how using social media got Local Nation listed on the small business section of Alltop.

In my follow-up vlog session I’ll give you three practical uses for social media that can help you build traffic for your site and win new business from your local marketplace.

Saving loads of money on marketing expense highlights a fundamental value of social media marketing – that is, you can connect with customers online without spending a dime. The visitors I’ve already received from Alltop would easily have cost me thousands of dollars to acquire if I were to have used traditional online media like banner ads or offline media like Yellow Pages or Newspapers. Do I have your attention yet? Great!

Yes, using social media in your marketing mix will save you tons of money, but that’s not the only reason you should consider it. There’s also a very good chance that social media will connect you with new customers who aren’t using traditional advertising to find local products and services. This number is already large and grows bigger each day. Sure, some of them are younger and you may or may not care about this market (yet) but I can assure you that some social media tools connect with every age, race and demographic group. In other words, there are social media tools that you can’t afford to ignore.

I’ll end with a BIG THANK YOU to Guy Kawasaki, Kathryn Henkens, and Will Mayall who run Nononina the company that produces both Alltop and other sites like Truemors.

And now for a story about Julian (that’s me) and a guy named Guy.

Julian Seery Gude, editor Local Na8ion – Where you are is where it’s at.

Watch part II in our series on social media for small business and local marketers.

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We will give you three simple-to-implement tips that can rocket your site to the top of Google’s local search results. In episode 8 of Local Na8ion’s video podcast (run time 12 min) we detail how we used these exact methods to move Linda’s Cleaning Service – a house cleaning service in Wellington Florida – from page four of Google Local search results to page one. This didn’t take months, it took days.

We discuss

1. Using your city name in your URL (your web site address)
2. Putting your location information on your web site
3. Adding your business to Google’s Local Business Directory

Yes, you can do all of these things in 28 minutes, even if you’re not a techie!

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Corrections: apologies on our typo on slide 6 of the presentation (your NOT you’re – Yes we know the difference!). Would have taken 2 hours in video processing time to fix. Also, Linda has been in business since 2002 – not the two years I reported. Damn, I’m getting old.

Background: Linda’s Cleaning Service is my mother-in-law Linda’s local small business in Wellington Florida. Since Linda’s daughter Shannon (my beautiful wife and partner in crime here at Local Na8ion) and I are both web marketers it’s no surprise that we work on her site for free – and yes – Linda sends her cleaners to our house once in a while for free as well. Will market for cleaning!

Julian, editor Local Na8ion – where you are is where it’s at