Archive for April, 2009
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
W00t! My guest post got published today in ChurchCrunch! I’m famous! Well, OK, maybe not. But that’s pretty darn cool. Thanks to John for giving me the opportunity.
Welcome to anyone who's arriving here from ChurchCrunch.
Welcome to anyone who’s arriving here from ChurchCrunch.
You know how hearing your voice recorded and played back always sounds weird? Well, reading your words on someone else’s blogs looks weird too. The words read better on his blog than they sounded in my head when I wrote it. I like it. I really like it. Thanks for the kind comments too.
This is a Guest Post by Conrad Walton.
The biggest hurdle to getting a web site up and running is people. That’s true in the corporate world and in the church world. Technology is easy and fun. Design is easy and fun. Getting people to understand and agree is the hard part.
Read the entire article at:
http://churchcrunch.com/2009/04/29/church-politics-people-and-web-sites/
Posted in church |
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
I’ve been working on making my site a little more appealing to the small or local business owner, the people that I really want to work for. I looked at some other sites out there and this is what I came up with.
There's always a point where the improvements start to make it worse.
I’m not sure that I’m happy with it. It’s better than it was, but is it as good as it can be?
It seems that in every creative process, there is always something else that can be done to improve it, but there’s always a point where the improvements start to make it worse. When you’re up to your elbows in pixels and div tags, it’s hard to see when it’s really “done”.
An outside pair of eyes looking at a design is always, always helpful, no matter how good you are (or I or my designer is.)
So, with that introduction, I’d love to hear what you think of the new design. If you are reading this in the blog, then you are still looking at the old design, which is now officially the “blog design”, which is meant to be more personal and funky.
Go look at the professional site and then tell me what you think, especially tell me how it can be improved. That would really help me out. http://www.walton.com
Thanks for your feedback. (and check out the new “modal contact box” now!)
Posted in design |
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
I’m reminded again about how much people DON’T know about this whole Interweb thing.
My wife was talking with a friend who said they spent 8 hours trying to get a web site up and running and it still wasn’t working. I was shocked. I can have a site up in 20 minutes, including registering the new domain name. Slap a little Wordpress on the old web host, make a few changes to the configuration, and blammo! instant web site. Child’s play.
Child's play.
At least it is for me, but then I’ve been doing this since 1994.
The basics of a web site are about the domain name, the web host, and the files to create the site.
A user types in a web address into their browser (IE, FireFox, Safari) and hits go. The browser tried to find out where the web host with that domain name lives. Once it figures out which server to ask for the web page, it goes and asks that server. The server thinks about it for a minute, then returns the correct web page that is then displayed in the browser.
This means that the domain name needs to be registered. It needs to point at the right web host server. There’s some configuration that needs to happen to make that work.
Next step is that the web host needs to point that domain name at the right directory on the web server. It’s possible to have www.domain.com point at one directory and blog.domain.com point at another directory which then creates two totally separate web sites.
The files in the directory need to be written in a way that make sense. They can be in plain old HTML, which is a fancy way of writing text. They are nothing but text put into a certain formate. If don’t want to learn HTML (and why would you these days?), then you can use an out of the box content management system. I use Wordpress for almost everything these days. That takes a bit of an install and there is one or two critical things that need to be set correctly, but most web hosts can set this up for you with a click of a button. Really. Click, bang, done.
There seems to be a few critical steps along the way to getting a web site up and running. Easy for me, hard for you. I once heard that brain surgery is easy if you know how to do it.
If you are having trouble trying to get a web site up and running, but are just having that one bit of trouble where something is just not working right, send me an email. I’ll totally help you out. I hate to see someone struggle with something that I can quickly and easily fix. I won’t design and develop a new Wordpress theme for you for free, but I’ll be happy to help you through the little problems along the way to getting your site up and running.
Posted in web site build |
Friday, April 17th, 2009
I try not to read StomperNet because they tend to just try to sell you smoke and mirrors most of the time. They are one of those “Make Your Millions On The Internet” kind of sites.
But…
I did watch a couple videos that got me to thinking. They seemed to make sense and pass the smell test. I think they might actually be right about this stuff.
You want more traffic to your web site? This might help.
I’ve read about the magic bullet of “Latent Semantic Indexing”, which is a complicated formula that indicates linking pages together on related subjects will increase your SEO. I think the technique works, but not because of Latent Semantic Indexing. It never quite made sense to me.
It doesn’t make sense to Google either, because, according this second video, they use a simpler method for calculating that all important page rank. This guy calls it “Referential Integrity”, which seems to be a made up name for it, since that term actually refers to a database management method and has nothing to do with search, but it’s as good as any other name.
He talks about “Topic”, which is the on page stuff, keyword density, etc., “Reputation”, which is the link text that points at that page, and “Confirmation”, which is the off site stuff, other sites linked to you.
So, the main point of this method is that Google looks at the way you link internally more than anything else. He talks about the concept of “whole truth”, which he defines as all of the truth about a page, but no more and no less. If something is always true about a page, then it’s part of the whole truth of that page.
Now, take that whole truth and use it in the links that you use to get to that page. His example is “chemicals” versus “pool chemicals”. This page is more specifically about “pool chemicals”, so you should use that whole term to link to it.
He also says that instead of messing up your nav bar, put links in the footer or in the body that use that whole term as link text.
This all makes sense to me and I’ll be using this technique on niche site of my own, as well as on a client’s site. I’ll let you know how it goes.
In the meantime, watch the videos, but don’t buy anything! Enjoy.
http://www.stomperblog.com/warning-advanced-seo-technique-does-not-work/
http://www.stomperblog.com/a-top-ranking-hiding-in-your-site/
Posted in web traffic |
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
I just want to highlight this line: numerous studies have shown that companies that keep spending on acquisition, advertising, and R. & D. during recessions do significantly better than those which make big cuts. That would be now and advertising would be a web site.
If you want your business to jump ahead, to succeed, then building a web site if you don’t have one will help. This recession is an opportunity, not a set back.
Numerous studies have shown that companies that keep spending on acquisition, advertising, and R. & D. during recessions do significantly better than those which make big cuts.
But there’s a trade-off: numerous studies have shown that companies that keep spending on acquisition, advertising, and R. & D. during recessions do significantly better than those which make big cuts.
In 1927, the economist Roland Vaile found that firms that kept ad spending stable or increased it during the recession of 1921-22 saw their sales hold up significantly better than those which didn’t. A study of advertising during the 1981-82 recession found that sales at firms that increased advertising or held steady grew precipitously in the next three years, compared with only slight increases at firms that had slashed their budgets. And a McKinsey study of the 1990-91 recession found that companies that remained market leaders or became serious challengers during the downturn had increased their acquisition, R. & D., and ad budgets, while companies at the bottom of the pile had reduced them.
Read the entire article at:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2009/04/20/090420ta_talk_surowiecki
Posted in business |
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
I’m here to help. Do you want my help? Do you care about making your business better?
My greatest frustration with my business is trying to get business owners to understand the value of a better web site, of SEO, of regular updates, of “conversation”, or any of the other things that we, as net dwellers take for granted.
what are the chances that any of the other millions of businesses around the world are getting it right?
It’s not that hard folks! “I need to get a web site”. Well, it will take you about 20 minutes to throw up a free web site at wordpress.com. Free.
A real live free business web site. I can show you how to do it. It’s easy. and free. and for your business.
Scoble talks about this very issue. There’s a huge market out there and I want to figure out how to crack it. There’s got to be a way.
How can I tell business owners about the easy, cheap, free ways to promote their business on the Internet? Please tell me.
Last week I was talking with Graham Weston, chairman of Rackspace (I now work for Rackspace) and I asked him whether he knew of anyone looking out for regular everyday businesses. I showed him the Web site of KSCO, a small radio station in Santa Cruz, and noted that it sucked, but that it is emblematic of a whole raft of businesses. Most of whom really don’t get the Web and understand how their customers are using it.
Heck, just yards from Facebook’s main building on University Ave is a great restaurant, Junoon. Do you think they get the modern Web? Absolutely not.
They have tons of Facebook employees as clients. Do they have Facebook Connect built into their Website? No. Do they have any real people on their website? No. Do they have any real interactivity? No. Do they have a mobile client? No. Do they have a community, er, forum? No. Do they have Twitter integration? No. Do they have a way to get people into the restaurant during dead times? No. Did they have any SEO help so people can find them easier? No (their site is largely Flash).
Now, if the business right by the front door of Facebook isn’t getting it right, what are the chances that any of the other millions of businesses around the world are getting it right?
And why aren’t the tech bloggers helping them?
Read the entire article at:
http://scobleizer.com/2009/04/12/what-are-the-tech-bloggers-missing-your-business/
Posted in business |
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Since the weather has been bad, I haven’t been riding my bike at the beach as much I used to. When I say it was “bad”, I mean that it got overcast and in the 60s, with maybe a little rain. I do live in Southern California near the beach. We have expectations.
I had to run an errand in Santa Monica a week or so ago, and I thought it’d be great to ride up there by the pier. When I got there, I grabbed the bike from the back of the truck and found that it had a flat rear tire. I had to drive home and fix it. I’ve never done that before, so it was a good learning experience for me. Part of what I had to do was loosen the brakes so I could get the new, fixed wheel back on the bike. I figured it all out and got it all working again. I had a huge sense of accomplishment.
I do live in Southern California near the beach. We have expectations.
When I finally got back on the bike for a ride at the beach, it was a windy day. I felt like I was riding against the wind going North AND going South. I wear a heart monitor so I don’t work too hard, but this day, I was working hard and my heart rate was a lot higher than my friend the trainer would like to see it. I cut the ride short because I was out of breath and working too hard.
The next two rides were also like that. Some wind, high heart rate, and a ride cut short because I was done. I was struggling, out of breath, and sore.
The forecast was for rain, so, instead of leaving the bike in the back of the truck like I normally do, I bought it in the house. I noticed that the rear wheel wasn’t turning very easily. I looked closer and saw that the rear brake was adjusted too tight and was rubbing on the wheel. A lot. I guess I missed that detail.
How many details have you missed? What little thing that you always thought was fine is not fine? When was the last time you checked out the simple things on your web site? Is it listed in the local directories? How many backlinks does it have? Do you have an XML sitemap? Do you have a Google Webmaster account? When was the last time you checked your stats?
Maybe it’s time to check the brakes.
Posted in DNS, SEO |
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
It’s never been confirmed, but I’m here to say that it is real. I’ve seen it! I was driving down a desert road, late one night, and I saw a bright light in the sky, coming toward me really fast, …but that’s a story for another time.
It's never been confirmed, but I'm here to say that it is real.
I have been trying out building some niche web sites. I did my research and found 3 keyword phrases that I wanted to target. I threw up some sites for each domain name and each ranked on the front page of the SERPs. I was thrilled. Life was good.
Then it all went horribly wrong.
After about a month, they were no where to be found. I had built my backlinks. I had linked from other sites I owned. I wrote my articles on the article directories. I followed all of the SEO lessons that I’d been learning. Nothing. They were no where to be found.
For the next month or so, I kept working the sites, doing my SEO efforts, but after a while, I just didn’t care any more. I gave up and moved on to other things.
I just went back and checked this morning. They all have a PR of 2 now. Even the 2 that have no content. I didn’t do anything different in the last week on them. They just changed.
My guess now is that you should put out the new website with no backlinks for a month. Let it stand on it’s own for a bit. Don’t put a lot of content on it, just enough to get the keywords working. Use your keyword density and all that. Then add maybe one link after a couple weeks, then a couple more. It seems to be very touchy about how soon those backlinks are created.
I don’t think that all sites get a time out in the sandbox, but it appears more to be an effect of how many backlinks are created and how fast. A new site should have no backlinks, really.
Next time, we’ll try that. I’ll let you know how that experiment goes.
Posted in SEO |
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
I ran into a situation again where a client has owned a domain name for years, but now they are not happy with their hosting company, so they want to move their site to my servers and let me host them.
This is usually a simple, quick, easy process, but it turns out that their current host registered the domain name to them, the hosting company, and not to her, the owner of the company. Now that she wants to transfer the registration to herself, they suddenly are not answering her email or phone calls. Since they are legally the owners, they could tell her to pound sand and hold on to her domain name.
It’s not moral, but it’s legal.
This is a good time to do a “whois” look up on your domain name and see who is listed as the administrative contact. They are legally the owners of the name. If you are not listed there, ask to be listed. Find out who the name is registered through. The best solution is to register the name yourself and list the hosting company as the technical contact. Let them make configuration changes to the DNS or whatever they have to do, but you need to own the name by having it registered in your name.
Posted in web site build |
