The local ad opportunity (and the danger of losing it)

February 18th, 2009

This is amazing. This is exactly what I can do and want to do for small businesses.
Quoting from BuzzMachine The local ad opportunity (and the danger of losing it)
The promise of local ad support for news will come only if a new population of very small businesses can be served in new and effective [...]


Small Business SEO – Project Traffic Flood, pt 2

February 1st, 2009

I did some research on my new client, his site, and his industry. He has, or had, a web site built by someone else. I did some checking around to see where we stand before we begin. Here’s what I did.
Using the “SEO For Firefox” plug in and the Google Toolbar in Firefox, I found [...]


You Are Not Your User

January 30th, 2009

It’s really easy to believe that everyone else is like you. They aren’t.
Everyone tends to do it. It takes a conscious effort to not do it. I mean, you are a rational person. You believe everything you believe and think everything that you think. Why wouldn’t everyone else think and believe the same way? What [...]


Church Marketing Sucks: It’s Twitter Time for Your Church

January 23rd, 2009

Really? Is it really time for Twitter? They have clearly captured the platform and will be the way to the future of microblogging or whatever you want to call it, but I’m just not sure that the numbers are there yet. You need to have people to make it valuable. There are still too many [...]


Read Your Analytics Stats

January 21st, 2009

I was walking a client through his Analytics stats yesterday, explaining what each page, each section meant. I asked him if he ever looked at these since we set them up. He looks at them as much as you do, which is never.
e didn’t connect the value of what these numbers and charts mean [...]


Small Business – We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Web Sites

January 11th, 2009

I’m offended by the “greasy hair” stereotype, but other than that, this article has some true things to say. I came from the web development world, where a budget of $30,000 was average. I worked at a company that developed a web site and sold it for $580 million bucks.
You don’t need that. From [...]


How To Look Up Domain Names

January 5th, 2009

In the recent debate on how evil Network Solutions is, I neglected to give you the non-evil alternatives.
JumpDomain Whois
The easiest thing to do is go to an old registrar that quit answering my emails so I moved all of my domain names away from them. They had non-existant customer support, so I’m sure they [...]


Cutting Marketing Budget During Hard Times is Bad For Business

December 10th, 2008

Everyone knows that the economy is in trouble. How should you react as a small business owner? How are you going to pay the rent next month? Which employee are you going to let go? How will you keep your current clients? Don’t panic.
The easiest and quickest budget item fora small business to [...]


How to Convert More Website Traffic into More Customers & Sales by Inviting Prospects to Take Action

December 9th, 2008

SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources » Blog Archive » How to Convert More Website Traffic into More Customers & Sales by Inviting Prospects to Take Action
Here Are 3 Easy “Calls to Action” to Convert More Website Traffic into Sales on the About Us, Media and Contact Us Pages
1. On the “About Us” page, after your [...]


Last Edit for Web Site Starter Kit

December 9th, 2008

My wife went through the draft with her pen and marked it all up. Anything that she didn’t understand is being rewritten. Some of my organization wasn’t clear, so I’m making that a little clearer. We want to make Web Site Starter Kit the best it can be, which means clear, concise communication.
They haven’t [...]


Seth’s Blog: How to make money using the Internet

November 23rd, 2008

Seth Godin, as always, is correct about the way to make money on the Internet. This is as important to small business owners, churches, bloggers, and wanna-be millionaires. Look at your organization and figure out how to connect people. Connect you and your customers, your customers with each other. He’s got examples. Do this now.
Seth’s [...]


Create a Free Small Business Web Site

November 23rd, 2008

Note: This is for people who already own a business, but don’t have a web site. This is not about how to blog your way to millions. It’s not about how to create the next Digg or FaceBook. This will tell you how to get your business on the web for free. That’s it. Don’t [...]


Create a Free Small Business Web Site

November 23rd, 2008

Note: This is for people who already own a business, but don’t have a web site. This is not about how to blog your way to millions. It’s not about how to create the next Digg or FaceBook. This will tell you how to get your business on the web for free. That’s it. Don’t [...]


Free Small Business Web Site 12 – Fancy Stuff

November 23rd, 2008

Now that you have all of your pages, which has created all of your menus, and are filled with all of your content, what else do you want the site to do?
All of the fancy features that you want your site to do can be added using “plug ins”. Each plug in adds one bit [...]


Credibility

November 23rd, 2008

There are some things that a small business web site should have to establish credibility and not look stupid. You should make it easy for people to contact you. Yes, even your phone number. Being able to call up and get a real person, even if all you can say is “Sorry, I’m busy right [...]


Supercharge Your Web Site with Video | The Small Business Blog

November 23rd, 2008

While it’s true that video can increase traffic to your web site, and is generally a wonderful thing, please, please, please make sure that you don’t make it start it playing as soon as someone loads the page. Please let me watch it if I want to or ignore it if I must. Nothing is [...]


Six Reasons Why Blogs Are So Good for SEO – flyte blog: web marketing strategies for small business

November 20th, 2008

Here are the first three reasons that your small business really should have a blog of some sort. I know you want a normal “brochureware” site, but posting good content regularly is magic in terms of traffic and people finding out about your small business. Static pages are so 1998.
Six Reasons Why Blogs Are So [...]


Ask Me Anything About Small Business Web Sites

November 19th, 2008

I’ve put up a link under my short bio over there on the right. Put up a new head shot while I was there. If you click on the button, it’ll pop up a window and you can ask me anything you want to know about small business web sites. I’ll answer it as [...]


How To Create A Free Small Business Web Site – Step by Step

November 5th, 2008

There are a lot of business owners out there who have a vague feeling that they should have a web site, but don’t want to learn anything about it or spend any money on it. Maybe times are tough, but marketing is the only way that business will get any better.
f you have a small [...]


Free Small Business Web Site 01 – The Foundation – Wordpress

November 5th, 2008

Wordpress is a system that allows you to manage your content. You might call it a content management system, or CMS, but only if you cared about this stuff. It’s a system built on a bunch of files that talk to a database. Sorry if that’s too technical for you. There are a bunch of [...]