by Admin on July 28, 2011
Potential clients often ask us about our hosting services. We are resellers for an excellent hosting provider out of Los Angeles. We only sell hosting space as part of our website design packages; we don’t sell hosting only packages.
Many website designers host websites on their own in-house servers; and that’s fine if they have the support staff, resources and expertise needed. We decided early on that we didn’t want to commit the resources necessary to do hosting right. And with all the great hosting companies out there, why reinvent the wheel.
When we started looking for a hosting company for our websites, one of our main concerns was uptime. I know, every hosting company claims 99.99% uptime. So we looked at other factors involved such as network monitoring, support, backups, etc.
The company we use:
- under loads their servers, so they run optimally and posts uptime reports
- has 24/7 technical support with Level 3 System Administrators
- uses Dual Harpertown SuperMicro Servers with minimum of 4 GB RAM and RAID 5
- has a network that is fully redundant, route optimized with the the best tier 1 carriers
- provides 3 levels of backups, including an offsite backup
Basically, what all of this means is if something goes wrong with the server our website is on, they can have us back up and running quickly (within minutes). That’s important if you depend upon your website for business.
When evaluating at hosting companies, look at more than just uptime. Look at their backup policy, support and network redundancy.
by blogmistress on July 27, 2011
We are always stressing the importance of optimizing pictures for load speed to all of our website clients as well as our blogging clients. Yes, it is an extra step, and, yes, it takes a little bit more time, but it is a very important step. Why? Because it makes your page load faster which is good for visitors whether they be web spiders or real live people. Optimizing pictures is just one way to speed up page load, but it is also one of the easiest. Google thinks speed is so important, they created a “Make the Web Faster” program and have built tools to help you evaluate the load time of your page and increase the speed.
Sometimes, people get the mistaken idea that optimizing pictures for the web will greatly diminish the quality of the pictures. Let’s look at an example:
Picture 1
Picture 2
Which picture do you think is optimized? The answer is picture 2. There is a slight difference in quality, however, picture one will load much slower. Is there enough difference in the pictures that you would turn off your website visitors with slow pictures just to get that very small amount of extra quality. Actually, I saved the 2nd picture using a medium quality. It could have been saved as high quality and it would have looked even better and, yet, still be optimized. I did this just to show the difference. The picture size is the same, but the file size of the 2nd picture is smaller so, it will load faster. Picture 1 is 291kb, Picture 2 is 29kb.
So, how can you optimize you pictures for speed? You can use tools such as PhotoShop Elements that have a picture optimizer included. This program costs around $80. It is also good for editing pictures for quality. Some versions of Windows include a photo program that you can use to compress file sizes of pictures. If you don’t have a tool available to you for compressing pictures, you can use a free online tool such as the image optimizer at imageoptimizer.net.
Don’t keep your website or blog visitors waiting on slow loading pictures. Oh, and by the way, many of your visitors may now be visiting you on their mobile devise and they definitely don’t want to be kept waiting! Optimize your pictures and help make the web faster.
by Admin on July 19, 2011
Facebook recently made it easier for Page Administrators to promote their Pages. Page Admins can now send their friends invites to Like their Page that appear as notifications, and not in the Recommended Pages sidebar module. This should result in a higher conversion rate since these invites generate both Facebook and email notifications, making them much more noticeable than appearing in the Recommended Pages sidebar.
Page Admins will now see an Invite Friends link in the right-hand admin panel when viewing their Page. When that link is clicked, they will see a multi-friend selector that will allow them to search for and select friends for invites. Selected friends will receive notifications on Facebook that display the name and photo of the friend who sent the invite. Selected friends, whose account notification setting permit, will receive email notifications. The selected friends are then required to click through to the Page where they can then decide whether to Like it.
One idea to help increase your Page’s number of Fans is to have several Admins with diverse friend lists send out invites.
Facebook seems to change the way they allow us to promote our Pages about every 6 to 12 months. So who knows if this is the last iteration they will come up with. My suggestion is to take full advantage of it while we can.
Let us know what you think.
by blogmistress on July 15, 2011
I saw a story on Mashable this morning about a man in Israel who attached a QR code to his mother’s tombstone. The QR code contains a URL for a memorial site set up for his mother. He said, “I was most concerned about 20 or 40 years from now, how will she be remembered … [I wanted to put] what’s in our memory into a place that doesn’t forget.” What an interesting idea. I’ll definitely have to bring that up when I speak to the Mid America Monument Builders Association convention tomorrow.
I wonder how it will work. Will there now be perpetual care memorial websites for our loved ones? Someone will have to continually pay for hosting and domain names for the memorial sites. Will we still be using QR codes 20 to 40 years from now? Will QR code readers still be available?
I hear from the monument builders that I have talked to that there are headstones with built in video or audio components where you can hear your loved ones voice or see a video. Technology has now affected how we remember our loved ones after they die.
Facebook let’s you keep your loved one’s profile active as a memorial after they die. This seems like a great way for friends and family to keep the memories alive. Maybe, the same QR code that is on the tombstone could be added to the Facebook page for those that can’t make it to the cemetery. Will Facebook still be around 20 to 40 years from now? If not, what will take its place?
Genealogists spend a lot of time taking pictures of tombstones and doing research. How much easier will it be for genealogists of the future to research my generation? I’m not sure. It is interesting to think about what will last and what won’t, and how things may be 20 40 years from now. What do you think?
These days everyone seems to want to increase their website’s ROI. We’ve talked about how having a blog can help increase ROI by attracting more potential customers. But once those potential customers get to your website or blog, what are they supposed to do? That’s where Calls To Action (CTAs) come into play.
A Call To Action (CTA) on a website or blog is something that urges the website visitor to take immediate actions, such as “Download Now”, “Sign up Now”, “Click Here For xyz”, etc. CTAs often offer something free in exchange for information about the website visitor (e.g. name, email address). A CTA also provides a way to measure your website’s success.
Too often though, website owners come up with a CTA and never test it or modify it. They use the same CTA whether it is working for them or not. This is a mistake many people make.
CTAs should be A/B tested from the start. Even if the resulting action is the same (downloading a white paper for example), alternate text, button color and button positioning should be tested for effectiveness.
The words you use in your CTA are vitally important. Your CTA should be clear as to what you want the website visitor to do. You should use active words. You may want to use a sense of urgency such as Offer expires July 31st or maybe a discount for signing up early.
Button color can be an important element as it can be used to attract the visitor’s eye. Button positioning is also important for the same reason.
Having effective Calls To Action are essential to any website. And any CTA should be put through the tests and rated against alternatives. Yes, it is more work, but well worth it. It could be the difference in a CTA that works and one that doesn’t. An effective CTA can make all the difference in your website’s ROI.
by blogmistress on June 29, 2011
Recently, I wrote an article about local listings. Yesterday, we attended Herb Lawrence’s seminar “Get Listed Locally”, and what I found out was that only 10% of businesses have claimed their local listings! That was shocking. I’ll restate the statistic from the last article: Each month over 10 BILLION online searches are done by potential customers and 40% are for LOCAL businesses!
Even if your business, like ours, serves people in and out of your area, you should claim your local listing. Our business is a B2B that serves people in 7 different states (and growing). However, we know that we are still local as well. Have you claimed your local listings?
Here are some great tips from Herb Lawrence who is the Center Director for ASU’s Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center:
- Go claim your local listings at Get Listed. This service lists the main search engines and directories that you need to be listed in. It let’s you know if you are already listed and gives you links to claim or edit your listing.
- “Tweak out” your listings – Use your real business name consistently. Make sure that you use your keywords so people can find you when they are looking for you. Ensure that your information is 100% accurate, and make your business description compelling.
- Include the maximum number of photos and videos allowed. Take advantage of those opportunities (note to self: do that today!).
- Maximize ALL EXTRA details allowed and make sure the service section is complete.
- Create unique special offers and coupons.
- Generate citations or links back to your site. You know search engines love links back to your site and you can create some of those yourself by creating a profile in Yelp and Hotfrog, as well as others.
- Generate customer reviews. When someone says something nice, ask them if they would be willing to post that review on your Google Places page. This is an important part of getting your local listing in the “A” position, so make the effort to do this.
Thanks Herb for another great seminar that included important information that all small businesses need to know, and for these great tips!
by blogmistress on June 27, 2011
There are still small businesses out there that don’t have a website! They are missing out on one of the most effective and least expensive ways to reach their potential customers. Did you know that if your business does not have a website, you may be invisible to a majority of your target market?
Here are some tips for getting started online:
- Start small – if you are just getting started, or are strapped for funds, start small. Make sure you get a website that can grow as you grow. If at all possible, include a blog with your site. A blog allows you to easily update your site on a regular basis.
- Be sure to include a call to action. Give people a reason to interact with you, come to your business or contact you in some way. Offer a whitepaper or something of value to your visitors.
- Use keywords in your content. Help your target market find you by placing your keywords in your page titles, content and alt-tags.
- Include a picture to help break up your content – you don’t need a ton of pictures – just one is often enough.
- Write good content – make sure your content is compelling and interesting and simple.
- Use a content management system (CMS) for easy updating.
- Do it NOW! Every day you wait is a missed opportunity!
If your business is not online – get started! Your customers will thank you and so will your cash register! We are now offering a starter small business website that can grow as you grow for a great price. This is a limited time offer! Click the button below to get the details!
by blogmistress on June 24, 2011
That is what everyone wants – to be number one on Google. So the question is: for what words? We’ve talked a lot about long tail keywords for better website traffic. Long tail keywords will also help you when you are trying to get ranked by Google. Studies show that people generally use more than one and often three or more words when they are searching. They do this because they want to find something specific. How specific can you get?
| Long Tail Keywords | Longer Tail Keywords |
| Real estate for sale in Dallas, TX | 3 bedroom, 2 bath home for sale in Highland Park |
| Bed and Breakfast in Eureka Springs | Historic Bed and Breakfast in Eureka Springs, AR |
| Dentist in New Orleans | Dentist who does invisible braces in New Orleans |
You can get pretty specific. The possibilities are almost endless. What you have to do is research those keywords to see if anyone is using them. You may be surprised. You can research your keywords with
Google’s keyword tool. You can come up with hundreds of relevant long tail keywords that people may use to look for your product or service. Now you just have to use them. Put them in your post titles, content and alt tags.
If you have a blog (which you definitely should), you can write articles on a regular basis and try out all kinds of variations on your long tail keywords.
Long tail keywords may not be searched as much as general keywords, but they are much easier to rank for because they are less competitive. If a dentist wants to rank for the word “dentist”, that is great; but if I’m looking for a dentist who does invisible braces (which is what I might type because I don’t know what else to call them), it won’t help me, as a consumer, to find a “dentist” that doesn’t offer what I am looking for.
This really does work. Try it out and let me know how it goes! Want to see how you are doing now? Sign up for a free website analysis.
by blogmistress on June 16, 2011
We have recently been participating in a great sales course by Frank Belzer and Rick Roberge for Kurlan and Associates. This program was offered to Certified HubSpot Partners. It has been quite a learning process for us. We have lots of experience with marketing, but not so much with sales. This 12 week course has taught us a lot about how we can do a better job defining what problems we can solve for our customers.
Rick Roberge recently wrote a blog article that struck home with me. He was talking about how often we tend to like to stick with people with whom we are familiar and comfortable. We want to talk to people who have the same problems as we do.
I’ve seen this many times at networking events where everyone from the same company sits at the same table and talks only to each other instead of talking to people that they might actually be able to help. I bet you have seen that too.
I’ve also seen that same problem online. Every industry seems to have its own jargon and special ways of communicating. Sometimes we use that same language on our websites, forgetting that people in our target market may not understand what we are saying.
Rick has five ideas that might help:
- Quit some of your industry groups and associations. Join some of the groups and associations that your customers join.
- Quit hanging around with people in your industry all the time. Go where your customers hang out.
- Quit talking to people that have the same problems and issues that you do. Start talking to people that have problems and issues that you can fix.
- Quit talking to people that have the same problems and issues that you do. Start talking to people that can help you fix problems and issues that you have. Read that again. It’s not a duplicate.
- Quit stalling and procrastinating. Module #3 addresses identifying, finding and attracting PEOPLE THAT WANT TO BUY WHAT YOU HAVE.
Good advice from Rick for any business. As he said, “It’s not rocket science, it’s sales.”
Frank and Rick are offering this same 12 week course as an on demand webinar series. The course is designed for Value Added Resellers / Individual Salespeople / Entrepreneurs / Owners / Channel Sales / Distributors / Dealers / Independent Reps.
The 12 week course costs $199. However, if you say that you were referred by Christi Wharton, they will give you the partner price of $149. Email me christi@wharton-marketing if you want to take advantage of this great opportunity to learn from some of the best in the business, and I’ll send you the link to sign up!
by blogmistress on June 13, 2011
When someone searches for your local business, can they find you or do you feel invisible? We help businesses all the time increase their visibility on the web so they can be found by people who are searching for them online. There are a lot of things you can do to help people find you online. One of the things that is often overlooked is claiming your local listings.
Each month over 10 BILLION online searches are done by potential customers and 40% are for LOCAL businesses! You can easily see how you are listed and add yourself to local listings through a great little website called getlisted.org. You just enter the name of your business and the zip code, and this website will check your listings in the major search engines as well as Yelp, Best of the Web and HotFrog. It provides you with links that will direct you to the pages where you can add or update your listings.
When you are looking at your listings, make sure you provide complete information. When people find you in local listings, give them as much information as possible. And, by the way, don’t forget to include your keywords in your information! Some of the local listing services will also allow you to post coupons and specials as well. That may be something you will want to consider adding to enhance your local listings.
As I mentioned, there are a lot of things you can do to help people find you online. Claiming your local listings is an easy step that every business can and should do!
If you are in the North Arkansas area, check out the Get Listed Locally seminar that is being held by the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center.
