Bow Wow Beach

Bow Wow Beach
By James Fowler

Today, my wife and I found a new dog park to take our faithful mutt, Porthos ( a Dalmatian/Boxer mix). It was called Bow Wow Beach in Stow, Ohio, and it consisted of 7.5 acres of park facility with a huge lake in the middle of it. This park just opened a few weeks ago and it is, by far, the best dog park we have ever visited. A dog park, you ask? What does a dog park have to do with internet marketing? I asked myself the same question, as I sat under a shade tree watching Porthos run in and out of the water with over 200 other pets. I sat there and watched hundreds of dog owners and their children and asked myself, what non-profit shelter or local pet store isn’t out at this park recruiting from the faithful animal lovers that have driven here to allow their dog a bit of fun in the sun on a beach?

As our dogs are running around, people had three options: to watch their pets, talk to others about dogs, or do nothing. There is a captive audience from dawn until dusk made up of a very determined group of individuals who love pets – dogs, in particular.

I would share a web site address with you of this doggie oasis, but there isn’t any, which is a shame for the park’s committee in Stow, Ohio. These are dollars they are missing out on. A quick search on Google reveals one blog on the park, a newspaper article, and an announcement from a local Akron, Ohio animal shelter.

The park, itself, was originally a children’s swimming hole. The Stow park’s committee put up a fence around the 7.5 acre area and is now working on separating large dogs from small dogs. There is even a facility to wash the sand off your dog before you leave. Stow has the right idea. They need to follow through with it.

Some ideas that I would offer the City of Stow and local area shelters and businesses:

1. Put up a big sign at the entrance. At least let people know it is there.


2. Invite the area animal shelters to have a “day at the park”. While they are there, the city should collect donations from the patrons. Believe me, they have a gold mine here, added contributions to the park will only add to the benefit of this wonderful place and dog owners are willing to support a facility that makes their dogs happy.


3. Let local businesses pass out flyers or advertise in a “Bow Wow Beach” newsletter. Make sure other communities can participate in this.


4. Get a web site and announce upcoming events.

To the city of Stow, Ohio, I applaud your park facility and your efforts to make dogs and their very enthusiastic owners happy. Keep up the good work!

Confessions of a Search Engine Marketing Professional

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

A year ago, on July 1st, I started my business, www.myWebSource1.com. I had been doing search engine marketing (SEM) work for some time, but I thought it was finally time to make it official and start doing this for local businesses and non-profit organizations.

My first thought process was to design web sites for people and do them in a way where they had a good start with search engine optimization. Some of the web sites I saw out there were horribly optimized and relying solely on pay-per-click marketing (PPC) –or nothing at all!

After some time of this, however, I realized that many people already had a web site built for them by a nephew or cousin and they weren’t happy with the results. Some asked for a re-design, but others wanted to know how to fix what they already had. People understood a tangible web site, but finding out the non-tangible – what we do – was difficult for them to grasp. The needed a something to show them a way to make their web site matter. And thus, my SEO report was created.

This was something I was able to grasp!
I had a service to sell!

The SEO report is a search engine optimization paper, consisting of about 40 methods and suggestions for local businesses and non-profit organizations to examine their web pages, find the broken links, the misspelled words, the non-indexed pages and other problems that show poor presentation of a web site. It isn’t necessarily the aesthetic feel of your web site that is the problem, it could just be the way it is presented to the world.

Some things I tell every one of my customers is that to succeed on the internet, you need to do certain things for the search engines to find you. These can be done by yourself, if you have the time, or by a search engine professional. Here is a list of ten things you can do:

1 Have a Site Map – not just the Extended Markup Hyperlink (xml) that Google asks for, but an HTML one, too. This is especially helpful with search engines like Yahoo!

2 Use keyword metatags – these are words that describe to search engines what is on your web page.

3 Make sure that every page has a title. Nothing is more disgusting than finding out your web page is called “HOME”.

4 Create a blog. Most people think a blog is a kid’s thing or something done by musicians. There is nothing further from the truth. A blog can build your business on the web very quickly. More on this at another time.

5 Take those keywords I told you to use in Tip #2 and use them as hyperlinks in your blogs. This entire blog post is a good example.

6 Write articles and press releases. Submit them to web sites that will distribute them for you. Make sure to include plenty of links.

7 Submit your site to search engines. Make sure that each of your web pages is indexed by at least the top three search engines. (Google, Yahoo!, and MSN).

8 Join bulletin boards and online groups associated with your business or service. Post to these. Make sure to include a link back to your web site when you write in them.

9 Ask companies that are associated with your business to include your link on their web site. They may ask for you to do the same. If they do, make sure you add their link to your site.

10 Finally, don’t quit adding new content to your web site. The search engines love this and they will scan your site more often.

I hope you find these ten points useful. If you have any questions or would like to use my services, please contact me at www.myWebSource1.com or by email info@mywebsource1.com .