Seigfried Designs: Philadelphia Internet Services

Panoramio Photos Can Now Be Viewed on Google Maps

2009-03-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

Google has decided to use Panoramio to serve up images of locations from around the world. Anywhere 'Street View' is available, you can now see user submitted photos of locations, when you click the 'Explore this area' link on Google Maps.

Philadelphia, Wilmington, NYC are just a few of the areas where Street View is available, but after doing some checking around in some non-street view areas, I've found you can upload a photo anywhere.

What does this mean for you? Well before now you could only upload a company logo to the little red dot or pinpoint on Google Maps. Now you have the opportunity to add photos of your company's store front, interior, even yourself, if you're so inclined. This is a nice feature, especially considering it's currently very under used. Doing a search in my neighborhood of 10,000 people and at least 500 businesses I only found three photos, and that's in the heart of Philadelphia. Jumping out there now can get you exposure by being ahead of the curve on technology.

www.panoramio.com

There are of course some restrictions, here is the Photo policy for Panoramio:

Photo acceptance policy

Logos, mini-images, not real photos, scanned documents, text documents, screenshots, collages and copyrighted images from someone else are not acceptable in Panoramio because of legal issues.
You can't upload photos from someone else to Panoramio even if you credit the original author of the photo because you need explicit permission from the author to do so. We are aware that some people just want to contribute to Panoramio and illustrate a place with photos taken from the Internet, but that's not possible according to the law. Because of legal issues uploading photo from another author can lead to user deletion without notice.

Photos of businesses and descriptive texts are allowed in Panoramio, but advertisting printed over the photo or in the title is not acceptable. For example the title "Pepito's Bar" is Ok, however "Pepito's bar; snack and beer" or "Order prints and t-shirts, call 394845" is not OK. Panoramio is a site for exploring places and sometimes business are a part of the place, but Panoramio is not a place for advertising, so please, flag those photos as inapropriate in those cases.
Sexual explicit pictures are not allowed until we can develop a filter for this kind of content. Discriminative, xenophobic or racist photos will be deleted. Picture of children are especially sensitive, if we have the shadow of a doubt about the intention of the photo it will be immediately deleted. Nudity is a little bit more complicated to judge, but if the nude is suitable for a museum, then is suitable for Panoramio. Nudity is also ok for naturist locations.

Photos that are not illustrative about the place (people posing, pets, cars, planes...) are not suitable for Google Earth / Google Maps, but still are accepted in Panoramio because some people asked us to keep them. However those photos are only visible if you click in the "all" tab in Panoramio's map or if you go directly to the personal page of the user, you don't see them by default, so it is your choice to watch them or not.
If you want to report a photo that is violating this policy, please, click on the "inappropriate or offensive" link on the right sidebar of the photo. If the photo is not violating this policy, but you still don't like it, I would suggest you to take further action and upload your own photos to Panoramio. Each photo in Panoramio.com has a popularity level, so if your photo gets more popular, it would be more visible than the ones you don't like ;)

Daily Coupon for Website, Blog and Online Marketing Services in Philadelphia

2009-02-25T06:37:00.000-08:00

Recession Discount!
Contact us before the first day of Summer and get 30% off all web services we offer!

You can get additional, exclusive coupons, discounts and specials at our Twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/SeigfriedDesign

Every day a new tip and a daily special.

Google Maps – New Update for Business Listings

2009-02-24T11:09:00.001-08:00

It used to be that if you did a business search on Google Maps you would only pull up 10 businesses at a time. Recently Google has improved on this highly annoying and barely relevant feature by adding dots to the map for ALL listings. Now you get 10 listings on the left hand side BUT all the listings they have are represented on the map with a single dot.

So why is this a big deal?

Well now you can immediately see the density of listed businesses on the map. In the past the search feature had been so incredibly poor that if you did a search for a web designer in Philadelphia you would pull up ten listings, randomly placed throughout the city. Now all you have to do is do a business search and then zoom into the are you intended to originally. Ignoring the 'top ten' results, which are vaguely ranked at best, you can click on any dot you like to get more information.

So you can now find all the businesses listed in a particular area.

You can see IF you're listed at all and you can sign-up if you are not.

I've been playing around with this feature and it's very cool. I can now find the density of coffee shops in my are with great accuracy as well as places to cut my hair. I can located 'dead spots' where no businesses are listed for a particular category, not just in my city, but at the state and national level as well.

Looking for a part of Pennsylvania that is devoid of insurance companies? Type in 'insurance' at google.maps.com and zoom in on PA. The dots will multiply as you zoom in closer and closer and so reveal an area of the state you may want to pitch your services to.

Google Maps – New Update for Business Listings

2009-02-24T11:04:00.000-08:00

So why is this a big deal?

So you can now find all the businesses listed in a particular area.

You can see IF you're listed at all and you can sign-up if you are not.

Company Blogs – Do's and Don'ts

2009-02-06T08:12:00.001-08:00

If you have a website and you're considering putting together a blog there are a few things you should keep in mind when building it.

First, continue your branding techniques from your website to your blog. If your website is blue and gold, make your blog blue and gold. Include logos, catch phrases and similar navigation. Don't confuse people by thinking they've left your website. Don't settle for a 'template' blog if you can help it, because putting no effort into your blog design says you put no effort into the blog content.

Always link back to your main website and make reference to it in the blogs profile or about us page. I go so far as to include links in your sidebar that are the same on your website. Make it easy for people to travel back and forth between your blog and website.

When choosing a blog format, consider the ease of use for updating posts. If you've created a blog for someone but they have to know how to code or there are too many steps involved to make updates, you'll upset your client. Keep it simple. This is one reason I perfer Blogger over Wordpress, Blogger has a very simple, very easy to understand layout. For those of you who think Wordpress is just as easy, ask your grandmother to make an update and watch as she gets confused by the navigation.

Use images, to break up the constant stream of blocky text so that visitors are not overwhelmed by information. After all, a picture speaks a thousand words and will often be the factor that decides if someone will ready that post or pass it by without reading the title.

Use labels so that you can organize your blog posts by category as well as date. Most people are not going to be interested in what was posted on May 22, 2008 but a label like 'Knitting Tutorial of Doom” is descriptive and far more interesting.

Make sure that any widgets you use are user friendly and not terribly obnoxious. Avoid music widgets that blast songs at you as soon as they load, animations that draw the eye away from your posts or poorly designed widgets that don't fit the 'look' of the blog.

Allow Commenting, always. A blog is supposed to be a communication device between users and owners, use it. If you wanted to just post up info with no feedback, then create a newsletter on your website. This is a blog, let it live up to it's full potential. That being said, monitor your comments daily for spam and crazy people.

~
Alex Seigfried; Owner
Philadelphia, PA

Who's Talking About You Online

2009-01-28T08:43:00.000-08:00

Everyone who depends on their business's reputation should frequently Google themselves to find out who is saying what about you, online. The problem is, this isn't something you think about on a day to day basis, so weeks and months may go by where you're left in the dark.

Google Alerts to the rescue! This tool is a very quick and easy way to setup a daily, weekly or monthly report on your business or personal name. What Google Alerts does is take a keyword you want monitored and scans every page that Google indexes on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
*Note: You can also use this to keep track of your competition.

Example:

Say your business is named: Henry Automotive
You would go to www.google.com/alerts and monitor the keyword "henry automotive". Make sure to use " " around the keywords so that you're only searching that keyword combination and not 'henry' and automotive' separately.
Now you'll get a daily, weekly or monthly (you decide) email on links to articles Google lists on thier search engine.

Funky Results:
At first you will get a lot of older listings popping up over the course of a few weeks, but once they've been mentioned once, they won't be sent to your email again.

You may end up with other results for "henry automotive" that you have nothing to do with you, such as another automotive company or a sentences that are written like "... and I saw Henry. Automotive experts will..."

If you have a business or common name such as a toy shop I know called "Happily Ever After" or "John Smith", then results can seriously muddled. In those cases I would suggest adding several more alerts with additional keywords in them.
"Happily Ever After toys"
"Happily Ever After in Philadelphia" or
"John Smith" painter (notice how I left one of the keywords outside the " ")

~
Alex Seigfried, Owner
Philadelphia, PA

The Seigfried Designs Resume

2009-01-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

Choosing how a web company can be something of a mixed bag for many people. It's one of the last businesses to be reigned in by competitive pricing and mega organizations, so that there is no clear set of 'standards' for consumers to fall back on. After all, you can go to any mechanic, plumber, lawyer, doctor or corner store and get similar prices for the same services. But websites, internet marketing and other online services are in a constant state of flux, and vary from business to business. How then are you supposed to choose the right company, that will get you what you need, when you need it.

The first thing you should do is ask a friend or a trusted coworker for advice, a trusted referral is the best way to find information. If none are available to you, then doing a search for local companies is your second best bet, making sure to do searches for reviews of those companies.

The idea is to figure out what kind of a company you want to do business with. Do you like a friendly face, a firm handshake, professional distance or are you looking for a good price? Everybody likes a different style, which is why we have mom and pop operations and corporate giants operating in the same field.

Often I suggest to people that they should periodically do a review of their performance and re-submit a 'resume' to their boss or clients. Because over time you tend to loose touch with the people you work with, and they forget what you provide for them and what you've done in the past. So that being said, here is:

The Seigfried Designs Resume:

About the Owner:
Alex Seigfried is a contractor that provides a personal and human touch to web services, whether it be web design, pay-per-click, marketing, social media or just talking on the phone. He is honest and up front about his work, always detailing exactly what he does and the steps he takes to do it. The phone is always open for questions, comments, suggestions and conversations for clients needs, fears or general understanding of internet technology. Up-front prices are fairly calculated to make sure that you only pay for the time spent working on your projects, to the minute not by the hour. He will always honor an agreement made and has built a reputation for iron clad reliability.

What We've Done:

Provided dozens of small businesses and web professionals with unique and specially tailored websites, that meet the varying demands of each client.
Always provide free and useful advice to clients on design, marketing strategy and whether a service is 'right' for their business.
Taken clients from zero search engine ranking to the top spots on Google and Yahoo, for relevant keywords.
Increased sales leads and overall business income for all of our clients.
Providing comprehensive statistics and analysis, to craft an online business plan, where there was none before.
Made every single one of our clients happy with our services... all of them... period.

~
Alex Seigfried; Owner
Philadelphia, PA

Why I Grudgingly Accept Twitter

2009-01-22T10:15:00.001-08:00

Twitter is a service that let's you Micro-blog (140 characters or less) on it's website to keep your friends and followers updated on your current state of... whatever. The general idea behind it is that people can randomly shout out the tiniest minutia of their lives to an audience that may or may not be receptive.

But now that I'm researching it for a book ... I'm starting to see what everyone is yapping on about.

Some reasons that Twitter is something you shouldn't pass on:

It's a gigantic network of people, sheer numbers alone give it a high probability that you'll attract customers, friends and inquisitive clients.
It's quick and to the point, which is good for any announcement you may wish to make. Specials, Closing early, Questions, Reviews... it is a great way to sum up a short blurb without the hassle of emailing your entire mailing list.
It allows people to scan your posts and profile to get a first impression. Do they seem professional, friendly, do they frequently post, are you and expert about what your talking about. The open nature of a Twitter account can reveal more about what your business and you are all about, compared to a block of intro text on your homepage. It's more human.

Some reasons people fail at Twitter:

They don't post everyday. You just need to do this once a day, it could be anything at all, but you need to build the sense that you're a source of news that people want to check back with everyday. It's not hard! Write that the decaf is burnt today so your customers should go with a latte, tell people when the new shipment of dolls is coming, inform them you're thinking of green alternatives for powering your shop, keep people in the loop with what your business is doing.
Seeing Twitter as 'just some kid thing', like Myspace or Webkins. I learned this lesson, don't knock it till you try it. I've got five years of professional experience in dealing with new internet technology and ten more years of personal background. Twitter is a serious tool that can be leveraged to your financial benefit.
Not inviting your customers to join. Twitter is a lot like your website, you can't just build your profile and then sit on it, hoping that people will find you. Obama, FOX News... these people can sit on it and know people will go find them. More than likely, you're not that famous, so you need to be pro-active. Put a button on your website inviting people to join you on Twitter, put it in your emails, tell everyone you meet, even encourage customers face to face. You'll be surprised at the positive response.

~
Alex Seigfried, Owner
Seigfried Designs
Philadelphia, PA

The Importance of Creating a Web Presence Rather than a Website.

2009-01-19T12:26:00.001-08:00

It used to be a very simple thing to say to yourself, “I need to get myself online, I'll need a website.”

Although that may not be the wrong idea, today it's not necessary for it to be your first step, and it certainly shouldn't be your only step. The creation of a Web Presence is far more important than tossing down thousands of dollars for a quality website. Let's define what a Web Presence is.

Web Presence is where a business has created multiple avenues, on the internet, for people to find and contact your company. This relates mostly to social media, websites, blogs, sales pages and professional profiles, each of which presents your business information to appropriate parties.

Plain Speak: Create a free blog, myspace page, linkedin profile, twitter account, plaxo, etc. Spread yourself around the internet instead of being boxed into just your single website. Your web presence should be viewed like peanut butter, spread it out across the wonder bread that is the internet, thickly and tastily.

One of the biggest problems a business can face in today's online marketplace is the ability to compete on search engines. Listing sites, junk blogging and Google selling the dictionary to services like bizrate or amazon have turned search engine results into a seedy swap meet for many business categories. Just try doing a search for “plubers” or “shoes” in your local area and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's nearly impossible for a small business to compete against such websites, since they are small and don't generate as much traffic. Despite being highly relevant your business isn't being listed because of companies taking advantage of Google's automated algorithm.

BUT if you create a Web Presence, spread yourself around, you can attack search engines from many different angles. You may never rank very well for “roofing wilmington de”, on a one to one level. JohnSmithCars.com simply isn't going to the pull that FindAutoMechanicsList.com will, but if John Smith has ten different places it's increasing it's presence, it's like having ten different websites working together to achieve greater search engine ranking.

Seigfried Designs can help you create a Web Presence as well as layout a complete game plan for updating and staying on top of your social media needs.

~ Alex Seigfried, Owner; Philadelphia, PA

Using Blogger Instead of Web Design from Scratch

2009-01-19T11:38:00.001-08:00

Google's blogger is the herald of a coming “do it yourself” web design revolution. Although you still need someone who is a little tech savvy to get the most out of Blogger, it's the precursor to something much bigger. It's the first service where you can put together a reasonable website for your business, without the need of a professional web designer. My wife and I have done some experimenting with this idea and found that with a little tweaking, you can convert a Blogger blog, into a fully functioning website.

Here are a few simple ways to make the conversion:

Think about the typical pages you'll want for your website. Services, About Us, Contact Page, etc. Now write one post for each of those pages, inserting pictures, copy and links as needed. Label as you normally would.
Now the twist. Blogger assigns each one of your blog posts their own 'page'. If you go to your blogger blog and click on the title of any post, you'll be taken to a page that has just that post on it (all others disappear). You can then take the link for that post, out of your address bar (the thing at the top of your browser with the www) and save it as a link (copy it down somewhere for later, like a notepad file).
After you've saved each of your post's links, you want to go into your Blogger blog's Layout. Choose the Page Elements tab. What we're going to do is create a page element in your sidebar, the Links List element. Take each of the links to your posts, title them and add them to the Links List element. Don't forget to make a link for your Homepage, which you can either type up a static post for your homepage or just use the main link of your blogger account (insertname.blospot.com).

Now you've got a navi bar just like a regular website! It's a simple concept, but it's very handy since most people who use the internet are used to a certain format when they come to websites. Now that you've got a navi bar, people will start using your blog like a website. The best of both worlds, wrapped up in one.

Of course if you want your blog to have it's own unique look, instead of using the standard templates, you're going to have to get someone who's knowledgeable in CSS and Editing Images. This is where you can hire a web designer or web company to really make your new blog website shine.

Seigfried Designs provides web design services for blogger, wordpress and any other blogging format you care to use.

~
Alex Seigfried, Owner; Philadelphia, PA

Video - The Flip

2008-10-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last year I bought a video camcorder called The Flip and it's a really amazing device. So small it fits in your pocket, with an hour of digital memory and so easy to use a child could figure it out. What makes this device so compact is that it only shoots 'web quality' video, which means low resolution video that looks great online or in powerpoint presentations but you can't shoot a TV show or DVD movie with it. But for the purposes I'm using it for, web quality video is all i need. It's all ANYONE needs for their website, Youtube or personal home videos.

It's cheap. $130 for a digital camcorder is a great price.

Stick The Flip in your pocket and walk around your home or business, shoot video, interviews and personal messages. Video is the single most important multimedia you can have on your website, now and in the future. Nothing is more personal than a video, you'll connect with your visitors in a way that a block of text or a picture cannot. Be honest, open and yourself and watch your sales leads spike. Then distribute your video to Youtube, Veoh and many other video social networks, use thier 'embed' links on blogs and other websites... spread yourself around. Remember, it's not about having a website, it's about having a 'web presense', so get out there and let people know more about you and what you do.

Blogger vs Wordpress

2008-08-27T07:26:00.001-07:00

There seems to be two camps, when it comes to using a blogging service online.

Blogger or Wordpress

Both are good at what they do, but some people perfer one over the other. The difference comes from 'who is using the service'. Many people hire a web professional to create and maintain their blog, but some people like to do it themselves.

This is why web professionals like Wordpress the best, because they can have complete control over every aspect of their blog. Mainly because web professional know CSS and various programing languages that allow them to take full advantage of Wordpress.

However, there are also clients who just want the initial blog set-up and then THEY will do the changes and updates from there on out. These people prefer Blogger because the interface and usability is simple and straight forward to the non-technical minded. Having setup two blogs for clients, I've found they prefer Blogger and rarely have any problems adding widgets or content to their sites.

Pros & Cons

Wordpress:
Pro -complete control
Pro -static pages
Con -Doesn't allow for the running of javascript or any scrips via templates
Con -customization requires you to completely replace CSS, so there is no fiddling with existing code.
Con -interface if more for technicaly minded people
Pro -great community to lean on for support/troubleshooting.

Blogger:
Pro -Google search engine loving (self-promotion on Google.com)
Con -No static pages (you have to setup your own navigation to articles)
Pro -easy to use n00b interface
Con -easy intigration of html/java scripts via widgets
Pro -CSS is laid out so that you can alter the original code AND recover the default settings if you mess up.
Con -terrible support/troubleshooting good luck getting anyone to answer you.

Warning: Google Website Optimizer and Google Analytics

2008-08-27T07:24:00.001-07:00

There is trouble in paradise, for some reason, after utilizing Google Website Optimizer, all of my "Content" information stopped being recorded on my main Google Analytics Account. I'm currently working on a fix and will post my results here.

New Service - Blog Creation & Setup - Philadelphia Blogs

2008-08-20T10:24:00.001-07:00

Following trends and the natural progression of information technology online, we are now offering Blog Creation and Setup for all major blog services.

Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal Profiles & More.

We can:

Helping you get started by creating an account and teaching you how to make self-updates.
Making your blog stand out from the crowd by customizing templates for a unique look.
Intigration of your blog into an existing website.
Helping you make a website in Wordpress that is part blog and part static pages, that you can self-update.

Securing Your Gmail Account: New Threat - Philadelphia Web Design

2008-08-20T10:17:00.001-07:00

If you use Google products then there is a good chance you have a Gmail account. If your not sure then use your login and password for Adwords or Analytics to try and login to Gmail.com.

Your account is going to become unsecured if you don't take immediate action, within the week.

A hacker at the annual Defcon hackers’ conference in Las Vegas, has found a way to access your Gmail account and steal your ID information. He's releasing the tool next week to the general public. Link to article on hungry-hackers.com

How to Protect Yourself:
Google has recently made SSL encryption available to all Gmail accounts, for every action you take while using your account.

Log into your Gmail Account.
Click the Settings Tab.
At the bottom of the page, select "always use https'
Save your Settings.

Google Website Optimizer - Philadelphia Web Design & Internet Marketing

2008-08-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

Google's new tool takes the guesswork out of effective page design.
http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer

Before this tool came along, designers like myself would look at our website's page traffic and make guesses as to why one page was delivering results and another was failing. We were not only subject to our own guesswork but clients would happily chime in that they felt the color of a button or a spinning, flashing, animated gif would make the difference between success and failure.

No more.

With Google's new, FREE, tool I can now test different pages or different content on each page and get measurable results.

How it used to work:

Design a page.
Wait for Statistical data
Re-design whole page, one link, one picture...etc. (whatever I felt might make the page better)
Wait for Statistical data
...repeat forever....

How it works with Google Website Optimizer:

Design 5 different pages and/or 5 different pieces of content (picture, picture and text.. any kind of content from a link to a massive flash animation)
Google randomly serves up all 5 variations to visitors of your site
Get Statistical data on which pages/content was most effective
Use the most effective page/content on website.

It's the difference between Waiting to React & Taking a Pro-Active approach to web design. I encourage everyone to use this tool. Whether you are creating a new web page or you just need to trouble shoot existing web pages, this tool is for you.

Trouble with Bounce rates? Test new content.
Arguing about the best design for your site? Test the page.
Can't figure out whether flash animation or static pics is best? Test it!

Back to Basics - Philadelphia Web Design

2008-07-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

After reviewing the past couple of posts I realize I've been yapping on about social media. Well no more, it's back to basics people! I was asked by a few people at the conference I sat the panel of: "Where Should I Start?" Here are the top five things I think you should concentrate on, take them in order for best results.

Step 1
The Website
Your main brochure, your online store front, your little slice of the internet.

Let's go back and review that fact that you need one.

All of you.

Pizza shops, doctors, lawyers, bloggers, convenience stores, mega-malls, everybody should have at least a one page profile. You don't need a 50 page, blow-out animated, fully interactive super-site, all you need is presence. Get it listed on Google maps with a nice shiny new domain and you'll, at the very least, start getting some local lovin' from your customers.

Step 2
Create an Email List & Mail to It
If people like your product/service, ask them for an email address so that you can inform them of future events, specials and advice.

Do it ethically, go out of your way to MAKE SURE that the people you add to this list want to receive correspondences from you. The better the list the more likely it is that people will help you grow it by referring their friends, family and associates. Remember, a referral is worth 1000 cold sales contacts.

Step 3
Search Engines
Millions of people use search engines to find information on services and business, get involved.

Google has 66% of the online search market as of July of this year, it's the gorilla of search. This is where you want to start. Submit your website so that it gets listed on Google and wait two weeks. If you had a professional design your website than ask him to optimize it and if he can't get someone who can. To be honest, optimizing is a never ending battle against the forces of evil (listing sites, spammers and black hat marketers). To circumvent this problem, do a basic optimization and then take advantage of PPC and Social Media instead. Also use the tools at Webmaster Tools.

PPC
Use the Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) program: Adwords
Hire a professional, you can teach yourself but I don't advise it. I've covered this in a former post.

Step 4
Social Media
You're internet presence needs to be more than a website, think about your business as an all encompassing online entity.

I've been going on and on about this for a while now and I don't want to get too far into it.
Take the basic step of Googling your businesses keywords and look around for blogs, social networks, and forums that talk about the sorts of things your business does. Then have a conversation with people on those websites. DON'T SELL. Just talk. Get out there and be an expert at something, help people, give your opinion, gain a reputation as a knowledgeable person and you'll get referrals. Then start a BLOG!

Step 5
Shoot Video
Get yourself a camcorder and start shooting video of your business and yourself.

Get interactive, create a Youtube profile, start with either a tour of your facility or a personal introduction. Move on to giving seminars, lectures, informative video on processes, advice on how to save money or improve a product. Above all be yourself and create a personal connection with the online communities you interact with in Social Media (above).

Those are the steps in order that I think you should work on, you can go out of order if you want as long as website is still #1 on your list. This is a very general list and I can expand on any one of them, on request.

Making Your Blog Buisness Friendly - Philadelphia Social Media

2008-07-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

For the past two weeks I've been doing searches for blogs that would be appropriate for my client to advertise on. It's the dream of many people to blog for a living, to get paid to write about subject matter that is important to you. Well I have to tell you... you're making it difficult for me to pay you any money. So I've decided to put together some tips and guides to making your blog more attractive to businesses looking to capture your reader's interest.

Location Keywords
Since many of my clients are the contractor type, they have a service area. So the first thing I do is try to find blogs tied to location. However not many people think about putting a city, state or county name on their blogs. After all, most blogs are supposed to have a global appeal correct? Well not really. Some blogs talk about local issues, other blogs are geared toward the right demographic I'm looking for, while still more blogs happen to talk about the sorts of things that compliment my client's services. Examples: A blog about West Chester Courthouse Cases, A blog on Flipping Houses (if my client sells windows this is useful to me), A blog on being a retired Electrician (the tips and advice compliment home remodeling companies). Placing some location specific keywords somewhere on your main blog page (anywhere at all, doesn't have to be in the title) will open one more door of opportunity for you.

*You should NEVER write a blog for the purpose of gaining advertising. The result will be disingenuous and poorly written. Write what you want to write about, there are plenty of advertisers out there looking for your type of reader.

Posting Statistics
I want to see some sort of statistics on the amount of people view your blog. I DO NOT want to see all the clicks you have received during the history of your blog. I want to see a monthly count of Unique Visitors and if possible, how many are repeat visitors. Placing Google Analytics on your blog and then posting up the monthly results for those two items on the first of the month would be very useful to me.

Frequency of Posting
I'm not interested in a blog that doesn't post, at minimum, once a week. Ideally I'd like to see a post every day, but that's unreasonable for many bloggers who aren't being paid. I have to see that your producing articles on a frequent enough basis that it will draw readers back to your blog.

Adsense
If you use blogger, and even if you don't, placing Adsense on your blog will give me the ability to place ads on your website. If a business, like my client, is running a Content Network Campaign and I can pick your website on a list of available blogs, I don't even have to go looking for your blog. This is a no brainer, you get paid AND I don't have to do random google searches to HOPE I run across your blog in the haystack that is relative search engine results.

Take a Hand in Your Own Success
If you think your blog speaks to a businesses demographic, approach them and ask if they would like to place a link on your blog. It can't hurt. In many cases a business owner won't understand what your talking about, but if they are at all web savvy it will get them thinking about it and they may call you up a month or two down the road. Don't forget, business owners have to spend their marketing capitol carefully, the smaller the business the more careful they are. Let the owner stew over the idea for a while, they generally come around.

Make A Media Kit
If your not using Adsense but would like to sell space on your blog via banner ads, you should create a price list. Clearly state in your Media Kit what your offering, size of ad, length of term, cost and payment methods. If you're having trouble figuring out what you charge a company for a banner ad or text link on your blog then just think about what you'd like to be paid per article, ideally. Shoot high and lower your costs if you can't get any interest. The more traffic your blog gets and the frequency of your postings will weigh heavily on the price you can ask for. There is no industry standard for blog advertising so be prepared to bargain. This subject deserves it's own post, to be honest. There are so many different ways to charge for advertising online that several comparisons need to be made.

PayPal Buttons
Easy to make and implement on your blog, a perfect way for me to buy a link off of you with the company credit card. Set up the payment button, I pay you, you get an email to put up my link... as simple as that.

Creation of Social Content - Philadelphia Internet Marketing

2008-07-09T07:16:00.001-07:00

Normally I don't link to articles but rather digest information I read and then write my own opinion and take on things. But I'm going to make an exception this week for two reasons.

1) This is a very good article.
2) I have to prepare for the Social Media Panel I'll be sitting July 16th (next week)

So hear is Matt McGee with 12 Tips on Creating Content for Social Media

Modular Success: Building Blocks for Do-It-Yourselfers

2008-07-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

Through trial and error I’ve been discovering the best way to provide affordable internet services to small business but still retain the quality needed to succeed. After several versions of ‘Per Project’ cost proposals and trying out ‘All Inclusive Retainer’ services I’ve come to find ‘Modular’ services are the perfect solution.

What is a Modular service? I define it as a simple building block, a simple service that when combined with other modular services create a greater whole. Like Lego’s each modular piece (website, landing page, ppc campaign, 3 month link campaign, 2hrs of social media research) can be taken individually or in sets. Sometimes one module can be broken down into several smaller modules. The key is making sure that each service provided in this manner is a benefit and useful to future services. A client may not have the budget to afford a new website, ppc campaign, email campaign and research all in one go, but most can afford one or two at a time. The creation of a modular series of services, is a balance of time spent and self-sustaining work (low maintenance website or a self updating blog). This business model has let me become one of the most adaptable and flexible web service providers in my field.

Applying this same idea to other businesses and organizations you can see where some are succeeding and others failing.

Dell provides businesses with ‘All-in-One’ packages, you pay an enormous sum for everything you could ever need and many things you don’t. You get the Computer, Monitor, Peripherals, Operating System (Windows), Audio software, Virus Protection, Browser, Movie Maker, Solitaire, Paint… the list goes on. They give it all to you for one single stunning price that guarantees you’ll not be buying anything from them again for a few years. There are payment plans if you wish to pay 30% more for your computer over a longer length of time… what a deal.

Now the savvy consumer does a little research and finds out he can build a computer and get his software for almost half the cost if he’s willing to buy it in pieces. Although there is a learning curve to overcome, putting your own computer together is not as difficult as it might seem. BUT WAIT! Along comes this great idea, a modular idea, to provide pre-built boxes with ONLY the features you want. Newegg, Tiger Direct… suddenly you’ve got choices again. You can buy your computer in pieces and have them slap it together for you and it’s STILL cheaper than buying from Dell. In fact you can pretty much get anything you want, any software, peripherals, monitor, computer case color and have it shipped right to your home. This is the face of the new business model, giving people the tools to do it themselves.

A subtle change has taken place as the younger generations use an increasing amount of ‘do-it-yourself’ tools throughout the service industry. Realtors and Travel Agents are hardest hit by this idea and you can ask them how Travelocity and Realtor.com are changing the face of their businesses. People are increasingly using the internet to find things out for themselves where in the past they would have hired a professional to look for them. The Stock Market is another example, with online trading you can go and be your own broker or even play with your friends money (if they’re the trusting sort). The Modular business practice takes advantage of the ‘do-it-yourselfers’ by offering them pre-packaged products they can snap together and reach their own goals. Do you want to go on vacation to Florida? Go to Expedia.com and they have packages, or individual travel plans you can purchase as well as bundling a rental car into the mix as needed. Separately, while you’re putting together your dream vacation you may see an ad for swimwear, which is also something you might need. Now how long do you think it’s going to take for complimentary businesses like that to figure out that if they have a common payment and shopping cart system, they can make a bundle? If Expedia and Ralf Lauren decided to share a Pay-Pal account then the customer could buy everything they need in one place, quickly, easily, and on their terms it would create an even stronger incentive for customers to shop in one place. Now imagine the entire internet was linked in such a way, no more hopping around from site to site to buy things here and there, no more paying for shipping 6 different times in 6 different places. Each company could create a Module of it’s services and products and link it into a National or Global payment system. The idea is a little ‘out there’, at the moment, and not very cost effective with current technology, but it’s coming.

So what can you do to move toward a more modular model? I use the three tenants of Time – Money – Quality to craft well balanced services that are easy to understand and use. You can have two but never all three tenants, and you have to ask yourself what’s the most important two for your type of business? For me it’s Quality and Money, keeping the cost down while providing a superior service. The means I have to sacrifice Time, the time it takes me to do the project as well as putting in some time before hand to setup a modular system. As an example a roofing contractor may want to consider creating a modular system for new roof installations. One module could be for an Estimate, the next for selecting and purchasing materials for your home, another for scheduling a time and implementation of the installation. Each module would cost a reasonable amount, the customer could then walk away or proceed in buying the rest of the modules to complete their new roofing installation at their own pace, in their own way. There are endless variations to the module system, each module should be easy to understand, a reasonable cost and simple to close the deal. Your customer should walk away from the experience of purchasing an ‘Estimate Module’ with a feeling of satisfaction and control so that they will come back and take the next step in completing the entire roofing project.

To close, the Modular business model allows a non-expert the ability to put together a package of equal if not greater value than an expert. If you’re a professional and your modules are professional then the whole experience will come off professional, no matter how unprofessional a customer can be. Make your modules fool proof so nobody is made to look the fool and you’ll profit from the new ‘do-it-yourself’ generation.

Video & Your Website – Philadelphia Web Design and Internet Marketing

2008-06-25T08:01:00.001-07:00

As a business owner you realize the value of running a commercial on TV, it’s the single most effective way to sell your product. All the elements are there, a large captive audience (or too bored to change the channel), targeted demographics, visual branding of your logo and products/services, and the opportunity to put a face to that Yellowpages listing you shelled all that money out for.

But advertising on TV is expensive and unless you have a serious budget dedicated to it, this is out of the reach of most small businesses and professionals. End of story, you no longer think of video as part of your business plan and so for years have let the idea molder away in the back of your brain.

Well wake up.

Somewhere in the past 5 years the majority of Americans switched from Dial-up internet service to Broadband. During the era of Dial-up, video was not an option, it took far too long to load and play. But with the rise of Broadband came a greater capacity for dense media to be viewed and thus the creation of Youtube, Viddler, Veoh, CBS Online Shows…etc.

It cost companies thousands of dollars to put an ad on Television.
Get the video shot by a professional videographer: $2000
Buy ad space on television: $5000-Millions

It cost companies hundreds of dollars to put an ad on the Internet, sometimes LESS!
Get the video shot by a professional videographer: $2000
OR Shoot the video yourself: $0
Place on your website: $200
Place on Youtube: $0

It is cheaper than ever to get video to your customers and because of the distribution of online content it can reach a broader audience than TV ever could. Let’s also be honest with ourselves, TV is going to become just a facet of the internet in the very near future. So it’s time you figured out how video on the web works so that you can make the transition.

Online Video is low quality: If it wasn’t it would load slowly, skip, pause, buffer and generally just get in the way of your message. Shoot low quality, save yourself a few bucks if your hiring someone to do your videos. Many high quality videos that are converted into low quality just look terrible, so start at low quality to get an idea of what your getting.

The Blare Witch/ Vonage Effect: Camcorders are your quick and easy way to funny, viral and personal video. If your one of the many service contractors out there you want a one-on-one, personal connection with your clients, nothing gets more personal than talking to your camcorder as if it’s a home movie. Get real. You shoot a video that looks like stock footage, with happy shinny actors and you will exude a feeling of fakery. People these days want to see the real company, the real stuttering, sweating, but generally good nature guy who’s trying to provide a beneficial service to people. For examples see: Youtube… you may have heard of it.

Attention Spans or a Lack thereof: Keep it short and to the point, unless your doing an information based video. If visitors aren’t there to learn something then they have the attention span of goldfish for specials, coupons and you screaming SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! I suggest something funny, as it sticks in people’s heads better and has a high ‘did you see that video’ factor for friends and family.

Go Viral: Create a video that makes people want to show it to their friends and then make sure they can send that video everywhere. Providing a link, the file itself or tags from Youtube will allow people to pass your video along via their regular communications and blogs.

So go buy yourself a digital video recorder ( I prefer “The Flip”) and start shooting video.

Comments on Blog

2008-06-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

My fault, I left the comments on for this blog. You have to ask me for a link before I allow thoughtful comments. If you have something to say that's of note or that you make a good point I'll publish it in a post, request a link by clicking the Contact link on the right.

I appreciate and encourage comments, just don't think I'm going to let just anyone link off of my website. This blog is not an SEO tool, it's for informing my clients and interested parties.

Social Media Panel - Philadelphia Internet Marketing

2008-06-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

I've been invited to sit on a panel of experts to talk about social media, here in Philadelphia. Local IT professionals and entrepreneurs are going to be populating as small conference room looking for advise on how to use social media as part of their internet marketing programs.

I'm having trouble coming up with what to say. Not because I don't have a lot to say on the matter but I hold a negative view of social media as an advertising market. Most people who go and speak about this sort of thing, at conferences, are the usual Twitter fiends who are happy to ride the bandwagon of 'future promise' and 'incredible traffic'.

The problem with utilizing social media as an advertising tool is that it's not made for it. Most social media: blogs, myspace, shelfari, 43things, ListofBests, Twitter were created primarily as a way for people of similar interests to get together and talk about what they love.

Not a whole lot of people go to a social media outlet with a desire to have some company selling at them. "Hi! I'm R00f3rman345 and I wanted to drop you a line about this great shingle rebate!" Who wants to get that kind of stuff in their message box? That's spam.

If you create a a full profile for your company on myspace and you sell filing cabinets, how many people do you think are going to visit you? What's their interest? If a person is looking for a filing cabinet they're going to look for one on Google or Staples.com, nobody thinks to go to myspace. The only people who can successfully get sales through myspace are music bands and magicians.

People visit social media because they have a shared interest. AND YES, there may indeed be a dozen or so people (at most) in a geographical region who want to learn about 'Deals on Wheel Alignments', but the number is so puny as to not even pay for the effort of setting up a profile to begin with. Especially if you pay someone to set it up, you're never going to see a return on that investment.

The only social media I can see of relative use to a business is a blog. Some place where people can read interesting things on a daily or weekly level. Some examples of interest would be 'Contractor Reviews' (still kind of boring), Expert Opinion: Ask Yea Old Pluber Man (more interesting especially if he has a voice), About My Business (like this blog, learning about how I do things and talk about tech trends).

You may make the argument that it doesn't matter what you put on social media, you're just posting up a profile or an article for a good inbound link (search engine optimization). To that I say... SPAM spam Spam SPam sPammmmm. Way to go, you've just helped to devalue search engines and your own business a little more with each slapped together article you post. There is a reason that Google has to keep changing it's algorithm to get relevant results, and it's you.

A little advice, there are two ways to run a business: Milk a business or Grow a business. If you're just sticking things in social media for a link then your looking for a short term profit without a long term agenda. Give it enough time and you'll tank your business and deflate any trust between you and the consumer. Think long term, earn a consumers trust, Grow your business and the referrals will keep rolling on in.

Inevitable Evil of 'Local Listing Sites'

2008-06-17T07:23:00.001-07:00

I'm fuming mad this week, I've had it up to my ears with listing sites who scrape the yellowpages and toss together sloppy and innacurate information about my clients. Spelling errors, incorrect phone numbers, misdirected email addresses, wrong street address, wrong catagories of services... it's unbelivable.

The focus of my wrath today is BytheZip.com. At first glace this is an everyday local listing website that promises to get you ranked well on search engines. Benine, no big deal, lets see what they can do for us... right? WRONG. (My client signed up for their service without talking to me first, so I take no responsibility for getting in bed with this company)

After three weeks I started my usual quarterly session of Googling my client's name to see what comes up. Well let me tell you I've found a load of crap that I'm very unhappy about. First off BytheZip.com uses, what i now call, a 'lazy link' on it's website and other affiliate and third-party sites.

What is a 'lazy link'? It's a link that was put together by a lazy code monkey that looks like this:
See more about PJ Fitzpatric here: http://www.bythezip.com/Companies/1000011804.htm

When it should look like this:
See more about PJ Fitzpatric here.

They use this lazy link everywhere, they're spamming the following websites with poorly crafted and often outright wrong articles and listings:

Technorati.com
yourvirtualmainstreet.biz
wordpress.com
localbizpress.com
philadelphia.craigslist.org
delaware.craigslist.org
gtrends.4rev.net (dig link)

They wern't given permission to do this, they are just doing it over and over again. This makes my client look like a real tool to these online communites. Also, nothing written in those articles is approved or goes through myself or my client before it's published. If it had they wouldn't have started a blog with Guard spelled as Gaurd or placed us on a national Dig link when we're a local company. This kind of blatent misuse of name for better rank on a search engine is unethical and worse, damaging to the reputation of my client.

And there are tons of these sites doing this every day. Here is a list of some of the worst offenders:

Yellowbot, Superpages, Hotfrog & Insiderpages.

The problem is, you can't stop them from running around posting up incorrect phone numbers all you can do is go to their site and complain or join their services and correct their incompentence yourself. So every 4 months I have to get on search engines and fix the crazy, lazy, irrisponsible websites out there.

Lesson to take away from this? Google Thy Self. Frequently.

Misleading Terminology and Statistics: Philadelphia Internet Marketingd

2008-06-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

This week I'd like to point out a few misleading ways some companies sell their online services to 'internet virgin' businesses out there. Most business owners don't know anything about search engines, websites, blogs, social media or even how to properly use their own office computers. So it's no surprise that certain online service providers use misleading sales tactics to secure some 'sucker money'.

First off let me say that I'm not talking about the crazy local web dude who charges you a massive lump of cash and then disappears the next day.

I'm talking about BIG players, who should know better but employ tactics that are unethical to get the maximum profit off your ignorance. Yellowpages.com (a subsidiary of AT&T), InsiderPages.com, BytheZip.com, ServiceMagic.com... mostly listing sites although I'll cover a few points that independent operators use as well.

1 ) Raise Your Rank on Google by using our listing service.
Let's start with SEO (search engine optimization), the term most used is 'raise your ranking' on Google/Yahoo/'insert search engine name'. Listing sites employ a sales tactic in which they tell a business that by getting their website listed on there's that it will improve your rank on search engines. The misleading part of this sentence is that it's not YOUR website that is getting better ranking but rather that they use THEIR website to place high on a search for say... 'swimming pool contractors'. That may be a bit confusing so let me use a visual example:

Go to Google and do a search for 'swimming pool contractor':

You'll see I've circled in red, "ServiceMagic.com", this is one of the listing sites I mentioned. You pay Service Magic a monthly fee and then their website comes up when people do a search for 'swimming pool contractor'. Not your website, in fact your website just gets a link off the servicemagic.com website... next to all your competitors. Your business website IS NOT getting a better ranking for being listed here AND your competitors are all lined up right next to you when people click on this link.

1) Impressions
Another misleading tactic is how some companies bandy about the term 'impressions'. An impression is how many times somebody has viewed something. So say if your website on google got 23K impressions that means 23K people looked at your listing on Google... they DID NOT go to your website. If they had went to your website it would be called a 'click' or 'visit'. Impressions are simply an indicator of the amount of potential traffic on a search engine, not actual traffic.

However if we're talking about an Online Newspaper, you're very interested in Impressions. You want to know the average rate of impressions to get a feel for how many people visit their website, and whether it is worth your time to buy ad space there. Now the way I handle this is that you should always take the number of impressions a website gives you and cut it by 1/2. So a website that says it gets 10K impressions, should be reduced to 5K impressions.

Why do I cut it their number in half? Because Impression tracking doesn't take into account multiple visits to the same page by a single visitor. So if you assume that everybody visits a page at least twice then you get a more (but definetly not perfect) accurate number of real traffic.

3) We're ranked 16th most popular website on the Internet
This is a despicable tactic used by Yellowpages.com and I encourage you to spread the word wide and far. Yellowpages.com is indeed a very popular website... Nationally. However most businesses don't operate on a National level, they service a local area. Do not be swayed by arguments that they're going to generate tons of sales leads for you because of their popularity. Ask for specific numbers of visitors in your service area, whether by state, county, city. If they can't give you a hard number then don't bother. Unless you're servicing a major urban area you're going to find the numbers in say... southern Delaware, less than stellar.

That's it for now, my little daughter Maya (8 months) is being demanding today. I'll check in next week as usual.