SEMbyDesign

September 11, 2008

Your Domain Name – the keys to your (online) mansion

Filed under: Marketing Your Site,Traffic Building — Tags: — admin @ 10:50 am

I have talked in the past a bit about the importance of a good domain name, however, this post may even be a bit off subject for this blog. Keeping your domain name in your possession.

Recently, I have taken on 2 new clients who hired someone several years ago to build their site, and then let the site just sit there(a whole other blog post). Long story made short, we are looking at revamping their site, changing servers, etc, and they can’t get to their domain name to make the required changes.

One of the domains has page rank, has been around for a while and is getting very good traffic. We are looking to add ecommerce to it, and the current host can’t do what we need it to do. Getting in to the domain to change the name servers is proving to be a tricky task since the web guy who originally registered the domain for this client is difficult to get ahold of.

Business Owners, you should know that keeping track of your domain is very easy, and if you don’t have control over it, you should do so immediately. If someone besides you has control, you could have a difficult time getting to it the next time you need to, and think of all the items associated with the domain – your advertising, yellow pages, and most importantly, your email address. You don’t want to spend your time having to inform customers and associates of a new domain name – this could result in uncountable lost business.

September 9, 2008

Webmasters – earn money from your web site

Filed under: Marketing Your Site — Tags: — admin @ 8:31 am

Here’s a nice little way to get a monthly deposite in your PayPal account – Ads for your website. How this works is, you apply to post an ad on your website, and once it is reviewed and approved. Once you are approved, you can add urls for other sites, the company www.freebies4webmasters.co.uk pays you for each accepted url. Give it a try – you will be happy you did! This is a good way to add a little value to your blog or other site that you are having difficulty monetizing.

September 3, 2008

Valuable WordPress Manual for Newbies

Filed under: Building a web site,Content Development — Tags: , — admin @ 10:55 am

So you want to start a blog – perhaps I have recommended one for search engine optimization, perhaps you want to do it yourself, or you are not sure where to begin. Certainly I recommend WordPress, whether I set it up, or you want to do it yourself, for several reasons. One is that it is pretty good with the search engines, and it is relatively easy to customize and update.

One of my customers decided that they wanted to attempt it themselves so I recommended this e-book, Sites that Soar, an ebook — written by an artist. Written by Aisling D’Art – it makes the task of setting up, configuring, and customizing a new wordpress website less intimidating.

If you have problems you can always hire me! I love to help make your ideas come to life on the web!

September 2, 2008

Google Adwords and your business

Filed under: Marketing Your Site — admin @ 10:22 am

Google adwords is a great low-cost way to begin marketing your business on line. I have been using the Google platform for a little over a year now, and find that most small businesses could use it effectively to advertise. Reasons to use Google Ad words – 1. You have a product or service that many people search for or research on the internet before buying; 2. You want to drive traffic to your site in an effort to build brand awareness; 3. You have tried traditional, expensive advertising methods like newspaper or direct mail with limited success.

If you have a service that lots of people research before purchasing, be the authority resource on that topic, and drive people to your site with a targeted ad that displays when these key words are used for a search. This is a great method, because you receive the benefit of the traffic being very targeted in that the visitor is searching for the exact information you are putting in front of them.

By being the authority, you will also benefit from the natural ranking that Google and other search engines give you when you have great content, and you will keep visitors coming back for more if you have excellent information that is updated regularly.

Thanks! If you would like to learn more about the Google adwords program, please feel free to contact me. And, as always please feel free to comment! All comments are dofollow after a user has left 3 or more!

August 21, 2008

DoFollow Commenting – how it can help your site

Filed under: Content Development — Tags: , — admin @ 7:43 pm

I have discussed commenting on blogs in the past. I have promoted making sure the blog you are leaving comments on is DoFollow. So, I have opted to make my blog a DoFollow blog. Now, this is not JUST a DoFollow blog, I have installed a little plugin that makes this blog dofollow after a commenter leaves 3 comments. This will hopefully encourage good comments. I would love to have more comments, and you the commenter would love the backlinks! So, happy commenting! In the next few weeks I will also introduce a contest for commenting.

Happy Thursday! SEM

August 11, 2008

Article Writing for the Small Business Owner

Filed under: Traffic Building — Tags: , — admin @ 7:03 pm

I have mentioned article writing in several past threads as a way to gain web traffic. I have put this to work for several clients, but many have objections for one reason or another to actually doing this. Common objections are: No time, can’t or won’t write, or disbelief that it will actually work.

Objection 1: No time. Now, we are all pressed for time, the least expensive way to do the article writing is to do it yourself, since, as the business owner you have the knowledge to write these articles. I as your technical consultant, could find resources, but they may not convey the thoughts about your business like you can.

Objection 2: Can’t or won’t write. Now…not everyone has the skills to write, but again, you have the knowledge of your subject that will make for a good article, and we are not talking about a Phd. thesis here. Just a quick 300-500 word article that we can link back to your website. You write the content and I will do the techie stuff, deal?

Objection3: Disbelief that article writing works. How do we know until we get a few articles out there and see if it helps. This is a very low cost solution to test.

Have fun! SEM

August 8, 2008

Hosting Plans for Small Business

Filed under: Building a web site — Tags: , , — admin @ 10:01 pm

If you don’t have a site yet, let’s cover the basics of what you need to get going. First, you are going to want to find a host/name registrar that will be there for you when you have problems. Trust me, you will have problems at some point over the years. The main problems I have seen are mostly glitches, like email not working, or like your domain name not resolving(fancy way of saying that it doesn’t come up in your browser when you type it in). You want your host to be responsive to these problems.

Ok, never fear – the problems I have encountered have all been minimal. Next you want a host that is going to handle your bandwidth, meaning are you going to have a high traffic site(hopefully!) that is graphics or media heavy? E-commerce that requires a secure certificate? These are all considerations for your host. Also, what is your site going to be programmed in? Cold Fusion, PHP, ASP, JSP? These all require different types of servers.

Next you want to consider email services…most hosts offer some type of email, web based, pop or IMAP.

I mainly program in PHP, and use open source scripts, which many will install on your server with a click of your mouse. Also most hosting companies offer a 30 day money back guarantee if you don’t like the service, or if you inadvertently buy a plan that won’t work for the application you are attempting to use it for.

I have put together a Hosting Review page with hosts that I use frequently – I think you will find some useful info there, and you can click through to research any of the hosting plans. These hosts have all treated me well with the service they provide – I place all my customers on one of these hosts if they need a hosting plan. They are all one-stop, so you can purchase your domain name at the host as well.

Have fun! SEM

August 7, 2008

Certified Adwords Professional!

Filed under: Marketing Your Site,Work From Home — Tags: , — admin @ 10:18 pm

I am going to pat myself on the back for a second. I just got done taking the Google Certified Adwords Professional Exam, and I passed with flying colors. It was a difficult exam with lots of questions to try to trick you into clicking the wrong option, but I made it! I really enjoy putting together a good Adwords campaign, so if you are in Omaha, or anywhere else, for that matter and need some help with Adwords (or any similar CPC program like Yahoo or MSN for that matter) give me a shout!

I will post the official seal of the Adwords Professional as soon as I can, so as to comply with all the usage requirements, for all to see. I am pretty excited about this development in my professional freelance career here in Omaha. I think there is huge demand for it, and I think people should consider this type of advertising for *most* businesses. I have been successful with brick-and-mortar businesses, service businesses, and e-commerce businesses with CPC advertising.

Have fun out there! SEM

August 5, 2008

The Cubicle Life is NOT for me!

Filed under: Work From Home — Tags: , , — admin @ 9:15 am

As I write this, I am sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops, within earshot of 2 middle level mangers from a major corporation. (I know this by their professionally embroidered polos!) Their conversation consists of how their employees are resisting the 360 reviews and ‘self assessments’ – folks, THIS I do not miss. And this is why I want to make the coffee shop my only ‘cubicle’! These managers banter about ‘Emotional intelligence’ and other corporate HR buzzwords is not a part of my lifestyle.

Working for myself, from home, or where ever a client wants to meet me is the single highest priority – I get to spend some decent time with my kids, set my own hours(although I tend to be a work-a-holic and put in way too many hours anyway.) I am Employee of the month every month and have garage parking!

Anyway, this is just kind of a rant since I can hear the crazy-talk that I have worked so hard for 5 years to avoid.

Have Fun out there! SEM

August 2, 2008

Picking a great domain name

Filed under: Marketing Your Site — Tags: , — admin @ 10:39 am

Picking a domain name is quite possibly one of the most important things you can do when you are starting up a site, and possibly one of the most difficult. Difficult, because many, many domains have already been registered. Here are some tips:
1. When you are researching, it is fairly important to have a keyword in your name – for instance if you are selling jewelry, you should have the word jewelry somewhere in the name.

2. Don’t make it too regional if you are thinking of a national or international audience – in the case of jewelry sales in Houston, JewelryDesignHouston.com would not be a good name if you were trying to appeal to a larger audience than the residents of Houston.

3. Unless you are a non-profit organization or a college or university, try to stick with the .com extension – no one can remember the other extensions, like .biz too easily.

4. Stay away from special characters and numbers in your name. Dashes and the numbers 0-9 don’t make for names that are easily remembered.

In general, practice trying to tell someone the name out loud or over the phone if you can say it without having to explain it that is best, for example, we’ll use 4example.com – “hello Bill, my domain is w w w . 4 the number 4 not spelled out example . com.” This makes for a very confused individual on the other end of the phone.

You can go to any domain registrar to find out if your name is available – if it is not, sites like Premium Domain Name Auctions should have a great selection of names, or people willing to sell you your dream domain name.

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress