Website Development: Amateurs vs. Professionals

In an earlier blog post:  Website Design SEO: 150 Visitors a Day and Only 6 Phone Calls! I mentioned designing and building a website from the point of view of what product or result was to be achieved through the use of the website and not from a strictly visual aspect.

The same concept applies to hiring the right professional group to do the website design and development work for you.

Why Flash is Bad For Your Business

We have been preaching to our clients for years to stop using flash on their websites.  A website makes less money to the degree of flash and animation it uses.

Users don’t need to see ‘spinning globes’ and ‘dancing flowers’.  They need to be told what problem you solve and given the to solve it by buying your services.

Unique Content is King Within Online Conversation

Unique content is still king in online marketing. Search engines still love unique content, and the more useful content there is on your website, the more opportunities you give searchers to find your products and services. Here are some easy to follow online marketing tips concerning how to more effectively use original content:

• Record everything and transcribe it all into text. Interviews, training sessions with your staff, questions asked of you from your clients, surveys, conversations, product DVD’s, personal opinions, etc.

What Baseball Has Taught Me About Internet Marketing

I’ve been a huge baseball fan my whole life.  I follow the Chicago Cubs religiously and play Fantasy Baseball in my free time.

Baseball is the most highly staticized sport (possibly the most staticized anything), and the teams, players and coaches rely on and trust their stats completely.  If the game is on the line and your history and stats tell you that your best bet is to use Pitcher C vs. Batter A, then you put that pitcher out there and let him get to work!

How Social Media & YouTube Shaped the Nike Ronaldo Video

Madison Avenue must be reeling at the fast changes within our media world. How could they have predicted the sheer transformation of how YouTube, social media and the worldwide dominance of the celebrity mentality would shape how we market.

10 Ways The iPad Could Change Your Business

1. If your sales people rely on paper or drawing diagrams for presentations, an iPad gives them a way to perform the same task, and then email the notes to the prospect after the meeting.
2. Swipe credit cards on your iPad using Square.  Just a 3%-ish fee for the transaction which you would pay with any point of sale device, but no contract or monthly fee.  Your sales people could complete the transaction anywhere.

Social Bookmarking Does More Then Just Track Your Favorite Sites

By now we all have been using the bookmarking options or buttons from our web providers like “Bookmark This Page” or “Add To Favorites” but some of us are actually taking advantage of bookmarking sites like Delicious.  These sites will track all of the feeds or pages that you bookmark but in a social type of account so you can have access to all of your bookmarks from any ones computer, anywhere and at any time.  It sure beats wanting to show someone something you found and not being able to remember the link that is sitting at home on your computer.

Your Landing Page

When a visitor comes to your site, will they know what to do?

Within seconds of your landing page loading, the visitor should know exactly what action they are supposed to take.  If you want them to call you, your phone number should be visible and featured prominently.  If you want them to sign up for a newsletter, direct their attention to your sign up form and tell them to fill it out.

Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing

If you are looking into making money online, probably the easiest way is to get into affiliate marketing: promoting products and/or services and getting a commission on sales or leads you generate.

Getting started with affiliate marketing can be pretty overwhelming, especially since there are hundreds of affiliate programs and affiliate networks to choose from. In addition, the fact that there are already thousands of affiliate marketers competing for the same offers doesn’t make it any easier.

Why Twitter is better than Real Life

Someone posted a question on a forum today about whether Twitter was actually worthwhile or not in the marketing of their brand new website. It got me thinking about how people use Twitter, how I use Twitter, and what people who haven’t been on these social networks like I have for years think of it. So I thought it would be a good idea to write about it here, and come up with a few reasons why Twitter is an awesome marketing tool, perhaps even better than what you could do in three dimensions pre-internets.