Validation of Viewstate MAC failed

The Validation of Viewstate MAC failed error commonly occurs when an ASP.NET application developer uses the Membership, Roles and/or Profile Providers included with the .NET Framework. The usual scenario is the developer creates the application on their local machine and stores the project files in a local directory. When the developer copies or publishes the project files to another local directory or to a remote server, the login system doesn’t appear to function properly.

The solution is to manually add the applicationName attribute to the node of your web.config file and give it a value. By default ASP.NET auto generates the applicationName using your project’s root directory path if the applicationName attribute isn’t declared in your web.config. The applicationName is important because your ASP.NET Application Service database uses it in a number of tables. The applicationName is a relatively long string of characters and will look similar to: cea2acdb-97b7-4b58-ad12-22efg3bd582q.

If you move your project to any other directory either local or remote, a new applicationName string will be auto generated and added to your ASP.NET Application Service database. Any new users, roles, or profiles you create will be tied to the new applicationName. Once you move your application to a new directory, any users, roles, or profile information you created while your project resided in your previous directory will not function or throw the following error: “Validation of viewstate MAC failed. If this application is hosted by a Web Farm or cluster, ensure that configuration specifies the same validationKey and validation algorithm. Auto Generate cannot be used in a cluster.” Each time you move your project to a different directory you’ll run into this problem.

To solve this, first go to the Server Explorer in Visual Studio and open the database containing your ASP.NET Application Service database. Right click on the table named aspnet_Applications (dbo) and select “Show Table Data”. Look to see what your ApplicationName and LoweredApplicationName fields are named. It should be “/”. If it’s named anything other than “/”, rename both fields “/” as shown below.



Next open your web.config file. Add the applicationName attribute to your provider declaration(s). You should set the applicationName attribute equal to “/” to match the “/” fields in your aspnet_Applications (dbo) table. An example is provided below:















Make sure you add the applicationName attribute to all your users, roles, profile, and/or any other nodes in your web.config or you’ll run into problems. In the example above I’m using both the Role and Membership providers so I added it to both declarations.

Once you declare the applicationName attribute, ASP.NET will always use that application name when writing and connecting to your ASP.NET application service database regardless of where your application resides.

Steve Kozyk
CEO/Founder ITegrity
skozyk[at]itegritygroup.com
www.itegritygroup.com

Website Privacy Policy Generators- Easily Generate a Privacy Policy

A privacy policy is one of the most important documents on any website. A privacy policy is technically a legal document or notice placed on a website providing information about how a website owner uses personal information collected throughout their website when someone visits it.

Privacy policies usually contain details about what types of personal information are collected, how the personal information may be used, the persons or parties to whom the information may be disclosed and the security steps taken to protect the personal information.
Why is it importance for me to have a privacy policy for my website?

1. A privacy policy enables you to provide full disclosure to the users visiting your website with regard to the collection and use of their information as outlined in your privacy policy.

2. Having a clear and simple privacy policy can make your site appear more trustworthy to your visitors, which can lead to a higher conversion rate and more sales!

3. A well crafted privacy policy convinces visitors that their personal information is safe with you reassuring them that they can trust you.

4. If you are using Google Adwords, a privacy policy can help improve your Quality Score, especially if you are collecting visitor names, email addresses and phone numbers via an opt-in subscriber box. And for Google AdSense publishers, Google now requires you to display a privacy policy on all websites that display AdSense ads or search boxes.

How do I generate a private policy for my website?

A simple and easy way to quickly generate a privacy policy is to use an online website privacy policy generator. An online website privacy policy generator asks you questions about your website and how you collect and use any information you may or may not gather about your site visitors. It will walk you through all the steps involved in creating a privacy policy and when finished, produce a formatted, customized HTML file containing your website’s privacy policy. A popular, no-strings attached and free online website privacy policy generator can be found on DMA’s website: http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/PPG/
If you use the WordPress blogging platform and self host you can install a privacy policy plugin from http://www.synclastic.com/plugins/privacy-policy/ that will automatically generate a privacy policy for your website and provide you options to customize it.

Whether you choose to use an online website privacy policy generator or write one from scratch yourself, follow the 7 steps mentioned below as a guideline to generate your own privacy policy:
1. Make use of simple language so that the privacy policy is easy to understand, read, and easy to find on your website. Always create a link to the privacy policy page on your site.

2. Review and update your privacy policy from time to time to keep pace with changing rules, regulations and security standards.

3. Give a brief description about your company, and any special information that your website has. If your website does have special conditions for collecting information from certain types of visitors, you should state them clearly in your privacy policy.

4. Provide details about the information collected from users visiting your website. Visitors have a right to know what information you are collecting. For example, are you collecting personal details by asking them to complete an information request form or service application? You should also disclose whether your servers log visitor information such as hostnames and IP addresses.

5. Present the method(s) you use to collect information and whether the information you collect is automated. This type of information will provide your visitors a more complete idea of how you collect information.

6. It’s important for your visitors to understand how their information is stored by your company. They need to know where their information goes after it is collected and receive assurance that their personal information will be handled in a safe and secure environment.

7. If your company makes use of cookies or other tracking systems, your visitors must have a full explanation of which tracking systems are being used and the purpose of these systems.
Your online privacy policy should provide answers to all the questions pertaining to information you collect from your website visitors. They should be assured that there are appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures implemented to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information you collect online.

Having a clearly worded and thorough privacy policy will help improve your company image and make your website appear more trustworthy to your visitors, which can lead to better rankings on search engines and increased sales.

Steve Kozyk
CEO/Founder ITegrity
skozyk[at]itegritygroup.com
www.itegritygroup.com

Google Analytics- 10 Essential Google Analytics Features

Google Analytics is an enterprise-class web analytics solution offered free by Google. Google Analytics generates detailed statistics about the visitors and web traffic generated for a website. Using Google Analytics with your website is a great idea because it takes minutes to sign up for and will provide you all the necessary metrics you'll need to determine what is working, or not working, on your website for successfully capturing new sales for your business.

Its intuitive user interface provides you easy access to all data, allowing you to quickly obtain the key information you need for your website. Google Analytics keeps track of how all visitors found your website including exact keyword searches from different search engines and which other websites linking to you referred visitors to you. Google Analytics allows you to track the effectiveness of your marketing programs, email marketing, pay per click networks, unpaid organic search, and much more.

Google Analytics is also integrated with Google AdWords. Google Adwords will display an ad for your business on Google search results pages and their advertising network on a pay per click basis; that is, you only pay Google an advertising fee if people click your ads directing them to your website.

Google Analytics in conjunction with Google Adwords optimizes your online marketing campaigns by tracking your sites landing page quality and conversion goals. By using Google Analytics, you can determine which ads are performing well, and which are not, providing the information to minimize or select appropriate keywords for Adwords campaigns.

The following are 10 essential features of Google Analytics:

1. Google Analytics allows you to compare data about the performance of your site at two different time periods. It also allows you to chart the data immediately to get a better view of your site. It shows you the performance of your site based on area, city or country metrics.


2. Providing referring sites and search results metrics are the basic features of any analytics program, but with Google Analytics you can get statistics not only on the number of visitors a link partner is sending, but the quality of the traffic.


3. Once you have your business goals, for example sales & marketing, setup in Google Analytics you are able to determine and thus control vast amounts of data with regard to what's working and what's not in your marketing strategy.


4. Google Analytics allows complete Adwords integration. This means it provides data on each group, campaign, and keyword. Specifically, you can look at each of these areas and see the number of displays, clicks, your cost, conversion, etc.


5. It enables you to customize the rich features provided in your Google Analytics dashboard. You can move the most often used reports to the dashboard for fast access by just clicking the "Add to Dashboard" link.


6. The Google Analytics dashboard feature allows you to schedule and automatically send recurring email updates to yourself or other recipients within your business using multiple formats.


7. Google Analytics shows you the popularity and effectiveness of each link on every page of your site. These powerful and graphical reports display the effectiveness of your site design in a visual model.


8. Google Analytics's naviGAtion summary report shows where your users go from the homepage, or how most of them get to your contact page. If people aren't following your desired naviGAtion, it means you probably need to correct some things on your page to compel users to click on the areas you desire.


9. Google Analytics tells you what search keywords people are using to find your site. If certain keywords are proving hot, you might want to consider catering Google Adwords keyword buys, content, and offers to them. It tells you how your customers find you.


10. The search engine traffic metric illustrates which search engines are sending the most traffic to your website and how well it's converting into sales. This will help you optimize your marketing spend and SEO efforts.

In addition to the 10 reasons mentioned above, Google Analytics also has a "Report Finder" to help you search for your archived reports, helps you view your website's bounce rate over time, shows connection speed data which helps you determine how to prioritize and optimize your site's design and load time, and much more. To start using Google Analytics navigate to http://www.google.com/analytics/ . You can either register using your existing Google account, for example if you already have a Gmail account, or sign up for a new one. Google Analytics is a feature rich, free application that every website owner should consider integrating into their site.

Steve Kozyk
CEO/Founder ITegrity
SEO Web Development & Custom Web Site Design Company
http://www.itegritygroup.com

Steve Kozyk is the CEO/ Founder of ITegrity, an SEO Web Development & Custom Web Site Design Company based in San Diego California. ITegrity
focuses on many types of web development & design including health care web site development, corporate web development, small business web development, church web design, and Realtor web site design.

Website Maintenance- How to Maintain Your Website After You Launch It!

Maintenance is essential whether it applies to your car, your garden or your website. A successful website requires ongoing maintenance so it can attract, educate and expand its client base and generate revenue for your business. This means a website is never completely finished. It is a work in progress just like keeping your garden weed free and producing food for your dinner table.

Simply having a website is not enough. If you expect consumers to find your web site… and consistently return to your website, you must provide them with new and useful content to keep them engaged. You can accomplish this by providing useful tips and information about topics related to your business on your website. Write articles or manage a blog that focuses on topics you know a lot about that also relate to your business.

In today’s world it is the norm that a prospective customer visits your website before contacting you. In many cases they will already have a good idea about your company, products, services and how it will serve their needs before you directly speak to them. It’s imperative that you provide them with useful content that will help guide them to doing business with you. Ensure your website content is up-to-date and relevant by regularly maintaining your website.

The most important benefits of website maintenance are that it:

• Ensures your website is up to date


• Keeps your customers updated with the latest information about your company


• Makes search engine spiders happy and increases your chances for higher search engine rankings


• Enhances your marketing and promotional actions


• Provides information about who's linking to your site


• Improves your company’s brand image and aids in expansion


• Helps to solve and monitor possible operational problems and avoids potential catastrophes with clients

Seven useful tips for maintaining and keeping your website updated:


1. The main goal for maintaining your website is to keep your visitors coming back and attracting new consumers. If your site is not updated regularly, visitors will not bother to return. They need the latest and new information or resources to return back and find you. Hence, it is essential that you have fresh new content added regularly to your website.

2. Keeping track of your visitors’ activity on your website is essential. Website traffic analysis and statistics will help you plan more systematically for future business offerings and online activities. Try and use these statistics to your advantage and improve the features and pages where consumers visit the most.

3. Create a forum which allows your visitors to interact with each other and meet new people. This is a great way to increase the popularity of your website.

4. Create an e-newsletter which should contain articles, tips and tricks. This allows you to tell your visitors what's new on your website, inform them about special deals, and any promotional, educational or newsworthy events.

5. Incoming links are very important for ranking higher in the search engine marketing game; therefore, try to build strong incoming links. Keep track of all these incoming links and check back on these links regularly to make sure they still have your link on their webpage especially if you have agreed to participate in a reciprocal link exchange program where you are linking back to their website. The Internet is constantly evolving; if you have outgoing links on your website to other sites and they no longer work, search engines will penalize you for broken links.

6. Provide a form where all web users have the opportunity to provide feedback and suggestions for your site. Accept any feedback you have received seriously and reply as soon as possible. Feedback given to you by your visitors will help you provide more targeted content and provide you with better ideas for improving your website.

7. In addition to your website content, the design of your website is very important. The most critical thing to keep in mind is to keep it simple, easy to use but appealing. Research other popular sites and high ranking competitor web sites for content and design ideas.

It’s never a good idea to build your website and believe it’s a finished product once you’ve decided to go live on the internet. Just having a website is not enough as the Internet is constantly evolving with new ideas and technology. So should your web site evolve to capture new traffic and provide a compelling reason for consumers to return to and patronize your business. Whether you take the time to regularly update and maintain your website yourself or seek the services of a professional web development company to do it for you, remember it’s a vital part of being successful on the Internet. Best of luck!

Steve Kozyk<
CEO/Founder ITegrity
skozyk[at]itegritygroup.com
www.itegritygroup.com

Alexa Toolbar- How to Add it to Your Browser and Why You Want to Do It

A web browser toolbar is of great help for people who frequently surf the Internet for information.  Toolbars do not eliminate the work of searching. Instead, they assists in cutting your browsing time significantly so that you can devote more time to do what you want to with the information you gather.

There are numerous tools available on the Internet to help online surfers with web searching. One of the most valuable and useful tools is the Alexa Toolbar. Alexa was founded in April 1996 and was designed to provide an interactive web navigation system.

Did you know that Alexa is owned by Amazon.com? It is also possible to make your own personalized Alexa toolbar with your Amazon.com affiliate code. The valuable information about a webpage, and of course a complete website, provided by Alexa is truly amazing.

So, how do you add an Alexa toolbar to your browser?

It’s very simple. First, go to Alexa.com, then click Download Alexa Toolbar at the top right hand corner of the page. Next click on the install option provided on the following page. After you've finished installing, the toolbar will appear across the top of your browser.

There are two main features offered by Alexa toolbar:

1. Traffic Ranking: One of the most helpful features provided by the Alexa toolbar is traffic ranking of any website. Alexa toolbar tracks how people use the Internet and turns this information into ranking statistics for each site on the Internet. By now, most web marketers know that the Alexa.com ranking of their site is important. It gives an independent measure of your monthly unique visitors. Ranking 1 has the most traffic and so on. For example on the basis of most visited site in the world, Yahoo is currently ranked one by Alexa.
   
   This information helps you determine how well your advertising campaigns are going, how your rivals are doing and how to keep your website one step ahead of them.
   
   The Alexa information is also used by other search engines so you benefit from an increase in you search engine results page (SERPS) rankings as your site progresses up the rankings.



2. Related Links: Another vital feature of Alexa toolbar is it provides links to additional websites that are similar to the one that is being viewed.
   
   When you start searching the term on your favorite search engine, it gives a list of urls’ closely matching your search term in the search engine result page. This feature allows you to view a list of similar website without much of an effort – great for competition analysis. Also, you will be able to see a new set of related links on the toolbar that may be same or different from the earlier ones, which allows you to save time you would have otherwise spent for searching.

There are additional features that come with Alexa toolbar like a popup blocker, search engine entry box, a link to Amazon & Alexa website, and additional information about the current Alexa ranking of the website that you are visiting.

In conclusion, the Alexa toolbar is a valuable tool for determining a website's placement or position in the Internet world. It is interesting to note that Google also uses Alexa's information for ranking and indexing websites. Whether you just want to use the Alexa Toolbar's features for general web browsing or for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) analysis, I recommend going to http://www.alexa.com and installing the Alexa Toolbar in your favorite web browser.

Steve Kozyk
CEO/Founder ITegrity
SEO Web Development & Custom Web Site Design Company
http://www.itegritygroup.com

How to add a Google Toolbar to Your Browser and Why You Want to do it

In the simple terms, a toolbar is any row, column, block, etc. of buttons or icons that activate a given program function when clicked. They are designed to offer shortcuts to commonly used functions.

Google Toolbar for Internet is a feature from Google Inc. and it can be installed on almost any browser including Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox. To install Google toolbar on your browser, you must make sure you have the right operating system. I can be installed by clicking on to: http://toolbar.google.com/
It’s a worldwide accepted fact that Google is the most popular search engine amongst thousands of World Wide search engines. But if you have to pull up its home page every time you run a search, you’re wasting time.

The best way is to use Google from a toolbar and your search operation starts without even opening your browser. Google Toolbar have a shortcut to Google Bookmark page and Page Rank indicator, also you can login fast to your blog or Gmail account.
Google Toolbar was designed as a tool to make the Internet surfing easier and help people find the information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible.
Google toolbar offers major benefits and other miscellaneous useful features, which are listed below:

1. Google Search Window: Take Google’s search window with you anywhere you go on the Internet. This built-in search window makes it incredibly easy to make a quick and efficient search regarding anything you happen to be reading. It helps people find the information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible.
2. Pop-Up Blocker: Pop- up ads – the little advertisement windows that sprout like mushrooms in a damp basement which are real impediment to productivity. Therefore, it’s better to use a pop-up blocker, which prevents these annoyances from opening as you surf the web. The Google toolbar has a built–in pop-up blocker that provides relief from this perpetual pest.
3. Auto Fill: The Google toolbar’s auto fill function can save you scads of time filling out order forms and other pages on the Web. The feature lets you store your name, address, and other information in one place of your computer. This allows you to automatically have any form filled in based on your saved personal information and drastically speed up the process of filling out forms and applications online.
4. Additional Features: Google is continuously making updates and upgrades to the functions represented on the Google toolbar. Now they have options for spell check, a word translator and an autolink feature that instantly provides a map of a given location, bookmarks, a VIN number that gives a vehicle’s history, ISBN numbers to book history, etc.

Google is also offering a new version of the Toolbar for enterprise environments. With this new version, an enterprise could distribute customized toolbars to their users pre-loaded with Custom Buttons for Intranet sites, employee directories, and frequently used information sources.

These are just a few of the useful features provided by Google toolbar. It should be clear that Google Toolbar is a must for anyone who uses an Internet browser on a regular basis for faster and more efficient Internet surfing experience.

Steve Kozyk
CEO/Founder ITegrity
SEO Web Development & Custom Web Site Design Company

http://www.itegritygroup.com

9 Critical Reasons To Build a Website for your Business

A website is an online representation of the company and is the most cost effective way to connect with customers all over the world and not just your physical geographic region.

With the rising competition in all business industries globally, and, with the shifting trends (towards technology) of the business market, having a business website is of vital significance.

When used correctly your business website can be an effective tool in marketing your business on the World Wide Web.
Going past just survival, if you want to thrive in your market then you should be more forward thinking if you want to establish your business as a leader and make your business stand out.
Being in the market is just not enough, people should mark and take notice of your presence then only your business will be successful and this can be easily achieved by a professionally designed website.
Below is list of 9 reasons of having your business website on the internet.

1. Gain an Edge Over your Competitors.
   Internet is a necessity of modern business life. Businesses that have a website are already at a huge advantage over their competitors. They not only have a wider customer base but they are also considered more professional.
   
2. Cost Effective Marketing.
   A business website has the potential of reaching millions of customers throughout the globe without spending or investing huge amounts of money. The number of potential customers contacted via your website and the costs involved puts the return on investment of a website on higher scale when compared to other marketing techniques, such as traditional advertising and on the road sales representatives.
3. Provides Complete Business Information.
   A business website can easily provide complete business information including your business policies, terms and conditions, phone and fax numbers, business address, directions, maps and special offerings. People can get all the pertinent details about your business just by visiting your company website.
4. Eliminate Time Constraints.
   A prospect can visit your website at their leisure without time pressure. This is one of the biggest advantages that web advertising has over other media. It allows unlimited time for a potential customer to explore your company and its products.
5. Continuous 24/7/365 Days Advertising.
   A website can be viewed any time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. To have a business website means 365 days continuous advertisement of your products and services. It helps to keep your existing and potential customers updated with latest information about your business.
6. Creates A Global Presence.
   A website has no geographical boundaries which enables people from all over the world to look at your products. This gives your small business a global presence and an ability to drive more sales and make more money.
7. Best Media to Showcase your Products.
   A business website enables you to post photographs of all your products and services along with technical details such as pricing, quantity discounts, color, size availability, delivery, shipping, scope, etc. This will give your readers and general idea and a sense of your business, range of products and or services and your offerings.
8. Ability to Attract New Suppliers.
   Your website will not only be visited by potential customers, but also by motivated suppliers who are looking for more customers who might approach you to sell their products at lower prices which gives your business the opportunity to expand. Adding new suppliers can help you to offer your customers more variety products at lower prices.
9. Create a Professional Image of Your Business.
   A website helps you to create a professional image of your business giving an impression that the company is credible and trustworthy. A professionally designed website can not only attract visitors (prospects) but can help convert them in buyers or paying customers.

A website provides benefit of saving thousands of dollars on traditional advertising medium and publicity. Also your products and services will be available to anyone anywhere in the world. This definitely helps business to expand and earn lucrative profits.

Steve Kozyk
CEO/Founder ITegrity
SEO Web Development & Custom Web Site Design Company

http://www.itegritygroup.com