BlogSource1: Making a BIG deal out of small business

MyWebSource1 specializes in helping small- and mid-sized businesses develop strategies to increase revenues, decrease expenses, and improve customer relations. We can show you the tools to overcome the challenges business owners face when establishing an online presence.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Tips For Bringing People To Your Web Site

There is a great mystery out there in the world known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This is the Holy Grail for web site owners. It is the phantom that they try to capture in their attempt to bring more people to their web sites.

SEO isn’t hard. It is time consuming and, if you don’t know what your are doing, can be a real headache without a lot of return on your investment. No one ever built a successful web site and did nothing with it. The good news is there are ways that you can help your web site yourself! Below, you will find some very good answers to having people find you online:

Building Your Web Site. When you begin to design your web site, the first thing you should consider is how SEO will factor into your marketing plan. What keywords and phrases will you use? How will content urge people to come to your web site and link to you?

Content. This is the single most important factor to any self-serving web site. Your content must have good keywords and phrases – the same ones you want people to find you on when searching the internet. Search engine spiders love that text!

Renew Your Content – and often! The search engines love it when you start making changes to your pages. If you cannot do this, then you can always blog. Blogging creates an RSS feed that allows spiders to find your web site. Make sure you follow proper anchor text linking in your blogs and tag keywords to help find your web site.

Longtail Keywords. Short, common keywords won’t get you anywhere. There are other web sites out there using the same keywords for a lot longer than you. If you have a web site that does video production, you might find it hard to get onto the first few pages of Google with words like “video”. Instead try
Cincinnati Video Production. This will help you get your business found more easily. Remember: Be precise in what you want your keywords to be. They will help bring people to your web site.

Links. Right behind content, you have to build up a group of links back to your web site – using those keywords and phrases that you are using in your text. Another important thing about links: If it is on a page that has nothing to do with your web site – it won’t really work that well for you. Make your links relevant! For example: If I wanted a link to my web site from this article, I’d put it as
Web Site Design and Marketing.

Anchor Text. When you create links within your web site between pages, make sure the links are using specific keywords in which you want to be found. For example: I might put the following as a link -
Web Site Hosting.

Title Tags. First, make sure you have a title tag on each page. Then, make sure it doesn’t say HOME PAGE. Your title tags should contain relevant keywords that will bring people to your pages.

Avoid Flash. I know. It looks nice. It is cool. Search engine spiders find this inedible. They hate it! Why? Because Flash is pictures and they like text. If you must use Flash, use it sparingly. Also note, not everyone has the latest update of Flash, so all that fancy design work may look like nothing on some people’s browsers. If you just have to have Flash, make sure you add some text below the movie frame. This is known as “below the fold.”

Javascript. OK, while you’re avoiding Flash, avoid drop down menus, too. The search engine spiders just don’t see it. Use it at your own peril.

Alt Tags. Every picture you use should have text associated with it to let the search engines know what it is about. These should be keyword rich words, as well. The text is referred to as an Alt Tag.

Social Networking. Use it. What is it? It is mySpace, Facebook, sta.rtup.biz, Linked In, and many others. Make sure you put your link back to your web site and make sure you comment on as many other member’s pages as possible. Social Networking will help your web site tremendously.

So, is that all there is to it? Nope. This will give you an excellent starting place, though. In addition to these things, look into a strong
Pay-Per-Click marketing campaign. Some people will tell you that Organic Search Engine Marketing is the only way to go, but a homogenous blend of SEO (what we’ve been talking about) and PPC (pay-per-click) will give you the most bang for your buck. Additionally, PPC offers the most obvious way of tracking where your money is going, so your accountant will love it too!

Good luck on this endeavor. It takes time, but it will definitely help you build your web site’s success.

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Monday, August 11, 2008

WHAT WILL $5000 IN ADVERTISING GET YOU?

WHAT WILL $5000 IN ADVERTISING GET YOU?
Playing it by the numbers…


NINE THOUSAND BLACK AND WHITE MAILERS. These have a 1% - 5% chance of NEVER being opened.


or...

TWO HUNDRED CLASSIFIED ADS - one every three days for one year. These have about a 3% chance of EVER being read.

or...

ONE HUNDRED THIRTY SECOND RADIO SPOTS in Cleveland. Are you targeting the right audience and are they listening? 95% will never remember…

or...

FIFTY 10-SECOND TV ADS mixed throughout the day on a local cable station. Did your audience get up and go make a sandwich? Again, 95% will never remember…

or...

SEVEN NEWSPAPER ADS – 3 columns x 3” (a little more than half the size of a note card).

or...

TWO TRADE MAGAZINE ADS in which you advertise TO your competition.

or...

A YELLOW PAGES AD about the size of a drink coaster for one year.

or...

ONE WEB SITE.
A web site professionally designed and online 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, no holiday pricing changes.

Located on a place that people actually go to get news and information – their computers.

A web site that will allow you make changes to your text and pictures when YOU want the changes made…

AND the best part of all…it won’t cost you $5000 to have a web site. You’ll have plenty of money left over to use on other marketing endeavors: Pay-Per-Click, Search Engine Optimization, your web site added to your business cards, letterhead, and invoices.

You’ll have money left over to advertise in other traditional marketing methods or even have a video made of your products and services. Why wouldn’t you want a web site that attracts customers to you? For more information:
www.mywebsource1.com

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Monday, June 16, 2008

WHO COULD USE SOME MORE MONEY?

COULD YOU USE SOME EXTRA SPENDING CASH?

We live in troubled times where gasoline is over four dollars a gallon, grocery prices are going up. People need a little extra cash. There is little altruism left in this world, but I would like to change that. If you think you could help me, I’d like to help you.

How would you like me to give you ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS?

That’s right. I want to give you a hundred dollars for helping me out. All you have to do is introduce me to someone who would be interested in building a web site. If they decide to have my company build them a web site AND they tell me that you were the one who suggested it,
I WILL GIVE YOU ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

There are no strings attached. You don’t have to sell the web site. You don’t have to do ANYTHING else after I sell a web site to your friend except collect
ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

  1. Introduce me to a person/company/business in need of a web site.
  2. Have them tell me that you told them about myWebSource1.com when they buy a web site from me.
  3. I’ll give you ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS upon receipt of their paid web site through my company, myWebSource1.

I am only offering this to you because you know me in some way. It is either through being a friend, a reader of my blog, or a member of one of my social networking web sites.

This offer is valid for only one person, per web site. The money will be given to the person whom the web site owner states that gave me their name. No one else will get the money.

If you know someone who is interested, pass their name along to me via my email address at
info@mywebsource1.com.

So let me give you ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Send me a name of a company that needs a web site along with the person in charge and I will contact them. Everybody knows someone who owns a business or company. Why not make this work for you!

James Fowler
www.myWebSource1.com
info@mywebsource1.com

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Sunday, June 08, 2008

High Gasoline Prices Turn Consumers To Online Shopping

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

Do you sell a product or service? Are you looking for a way to make money with a hobby or business idea? Maybe you should look to selling your business online. Even if you aren’t looking to have an ecommerce site, people are going online to find your business. If you do not have a web site, this is something you may want to consider.

The high price of gasoline does have one positive effect for consumers: As gasoline prices rise, people forgo driving their SUVs out to their local malls and start up their PCs to shop online.

As prices of gasoline threaten to peak over $4.00 a gallon across much of the United States, online sales are beginning to rise. According to Drapers.com, a website dedicated to the international fashion market, online clothing and shoe sales rose 38% in the past year. In fact, internet sales now are responsible for almost 2% of all sales made in the United States. This may not sound like a lot, but that number is over $50 billion dollars in US sales – almost double from the $24 billion dollars spent online in 2004.

This number continues to grow at a steady pace. Free shipping, discounts and ease of ordering over the Internet are also attributed to attracting customers. The war with Iraq and fear of terrorism are other reasons some Americans state as to why they are now shopping online.

In a recent survey from Shopzilla.com, 40% of internet shoppers say they have increased their web purchases to save on gasoline. With gasoline rising on a daily basis and people moving away from driving to the store and looking for products online, maybe it is time to build your web site.

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