Monthly Archives: May 2010

Add a Video

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Adding video to your website helps drive your website.

Many people search Google for videos. Whatever your product or service add a simple video to convey your message.

How do I create a video?

This video (below)  is not  video at all, but a slide show.  While it is all labeled video on Google – your decision will rest on how much time you have to give to a video project.  Editing consumes so much time. Proofing and tweaking is critical as “timing” matters in  commercials, you can’t skimp on quality.

This piece (below) took  2 hours. It is custom, not automated. That time separates your quality from others.  It is 57 seconds in length. Make sure your viewer has time to read, but not get bored waiting for the next movement.

People value their time in their search. To this end keep your video simple and short. If you aren’t creating a “how to” video get to your point. Make your message represent your service and wrap it up. This is the same formula for any book or script: you need a beginning, middle and end.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.

Look at this one: “Clutter?” with a good visual move onto “what we do well” to help with your problem, more visuals; then all the areas (kitchens, closets, etc.) we can help with clutter and finally: who we are.

This video is hosted on YouTube, but used on my client’s Google Maps profile. Always with the website included: http://www.rylexonline.com/

Something simple without the editing challenge of video.  It’s a simple commercial. Visit my site for more elaborate ideas:

Domain Name

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Price change in domain name.

Today my resource for domain name (website name) purchase  announced an increase beginning June 18, 2010 for .com and .net name. The increase is 50 cents. Namesecure.com is the resource I use.

Namesecure was recently purchased by NetworkSolutions. I checked NetworkSolution’s pricing, which is not easily displayed. For a one year domain they begin at $15.99. This offers a couple of items with it, but if you are launching a full website these aren’t necessary.  They have another plan for $34.99 per year.

If this is your first time buying a domain name be careful. The price should continue to total under $10.00/year. GoDaddy is offering 6.99/year until you look up a .com and the price jumps to $10.69.

.com is the extension you want for your domain name. Others are cheaper, but the reason is simple: we’re still .com-minded.

Web Hosting

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Web Hosting is the only monthly/ongoing fee for a website.

What is web hosting?

Every website resides on some computer somewhere. These are typically called “servers”. (Part of the confusion for new website owners can be the different names used for the same item.) Servers are basically computer hard drives. Web hosting services have lots of these – stacks and rooms full of servers.

How to choose your web hosting begins with your preference. Most of my clients don’t have time or desire to research this and I handle it for them.  I set up their webmail as well.

But if you want to choose your own you need to research the company. Find out how to reach tech support. Can they be reached by phone? Email tech support is often enough, but you need to know how to reach tech when there is an issue. And something WILL come up.

Don’t base your choice on price alone. Have you ever had your computer’s hard drive get very sluggish as it ages due in part to reaching the used capacity? The same thing happens with servers. The more packed into them the slower they become over time. You do not want your website to download slowly due to the server. Don’t confuse this with your own (or a visitor’s) download time. This you cannot control. If a visitor tells you the site wouldn’t load – you check it out and it is fine – you can be comfortable it was on the visitor’s end.

If you choose your own web hosting you will need to provide your web designer with the user name and password and the name of the directory the website is uploaded into.

While cheap hosting isn’t desirable you don’t need to over pay. If you are using a simple site with static pages (no Flash, multi-media, audio, video, etc.) you can meet your needs for around $15/month.  You can pay less if you pay annually.

I stopped paying annually with the 2008 economy downturn.  I could foresee companies folding with my clients’ fees paid for a year. Another concern was maintenance expenses for web hosting (all those servers). I wondered if the companies would cut back on maintenance and upgrades to the servers which would mean declining performance to our websites.  I experienced this when one company was sold another. The hosting began to suffer. I now pay web hosting fees monthly on behalf of my clients. I am in a position to move my clients if the hosting begins to decline.

If you are launching an e-commerce site. There are a number of other issues and your hosting needs are higher. You must be on secure servers and there are associated fees.

Read the web hosting’s uptime stats. While some offer to credit you back should their down time be longer than 45 minutes in one month – read the fine print to see what this dollar amount will be. (It’s very small.)

There are a number of web hosting review websites you can check out. It’s a place to begin. Read the fine print and email any host you are considering. Their response time can give you some idea of their customer service attitude.

Web hosting is the foundation for your online business. Make an informed choice.

Website Video Ad

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Add a Video to your Website

Everyone is looking to add video to their website. While camcorders are fairly priced you need considerable time to edit  and polish your video. The prep to write the script can be daunting or you chance losing your message and your viewer.

A slide show can be the answer.  Simpler and less costly. If you are considering using a video in your online advertising it might be the answer.

Animated Titles

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Animated graphics add the polish to slide shows.

Videos are a big item now, Great way to drive your website. But it sounds time consuming, and done properly will be, and costly. Considering these videos as short-lived and you will generate new ones periodically using slide shows is a much faster way to create content. Adding moving titles will keep your costs down and step up the end result.

Facebook Networking

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Why Facebook? Specifically is not “just Facebook” it is all social networking which helps drive your site. But if your business isn’t completely online you have more leeway.

Ignoring it isn’t a good choice, but the small business owner simply doesn’t have time to “tweet” (Twitter), blog, put up videos (though this one is growing and CAN be simplified – more another time), do LinkedIn, Digg and the rest of the bunch. On top of this Google Buzz is trying to grab a piece of the social network value, and Hotmail/Windows Live recently made a big change. Anyone using Hotmail needs to check all the new permissions, and decide what information they grant access to the whole world.

Somewhere you have to decide how much time you have to devote to this. Facebook makes it easy.

  • it isn’t going away
  • with over 450 million users – some are likely existing clients
  • Facebook is the simple to set up and use

Facebook Web Page/Business Page 1. Facebook requires you to have a personal page. If you are doing this for business purposes keep it to a minimum:

    1. name
    2. birthday (then go into Accounts ->Privacy Settings and turn this to “Only Me” (can view it)
    website – let everyone view this!

As of today:

2. Upper right corner you’ll see “Account” – click it, then click “Help Center”.

3. Bottom category “Ads & Business Solutions” – click- “Pages for Businesses” at the next screen choose “Admins: Creating, administering, and editing your Page”, next screen: How can I create a Page? Click to expand this heading you’ll find a click “here”.

4. If you aren’t a musician, choose: Brand, Product, or Organization

5. Page Name: two approaches – for keyword advantage you can tweak your business name to include a keyword. ex. www.brendasimon.com My Facebook page is Brenda Simon Web Design OR keep your business name as is. You can NOT undo or change it later without deleting the page and losing the value of postings, and your fans.

6. URL = website address: brendasimon.com

7. Logo: use your website banner, if you don’t have a proper logo. At your website: Put your cursor on the banner – right click – select “Copy”. Minimize your browser (upper right corner on PCs to the left of the red “X” you’ll see a “minus” sign). On your Desktop – right click – select “Paste”. At Facebook where it asks for a logo you’ll see a “Browse” button. The dialog box that opens lets you navigate to your Desktop where you saved the banner – click on it, then click “Upload”. Once uploaded you can move the small square to select the part of your banner you want to be seen. Since Facebook uses a perfect square and most banners are wider than tall this can be disappointing. (If you know how to crop in a graphic program of any kind you can trim your banner yourself for a better result.)

8. Post something on your Wall: “We’re proud of our service…please drop by our website.” Be SURE and use the “Link” button beneath your post to create an active live link back to your website. The simplest way: Open a new window in your browser – go to your website. In the address window (where you would type “www.target.com”) select the entire address (you want the “http://www.” included) – right click – select “Copy”, back to Facebook click on the Link beneath your posting right click – select “Paste”.

9. Used to be “Become a fan”, now is “LIKE” your own page. On your business page – lower left below Fans and/or “People Who Like This page”. Click “Like” – the only change you’ll see is that turns to “unlike”.

10. Invite friends. On your business page: Left side below your logo: “Suggest to friends”. Everyone in your personal page comes up – invite all, ask them to post. You can invite others from your email program, but they have to join Facebook.

11. In order for fans postings to be viewable with your own postings: On your business page “Wall”, look below the Wall posting rectangle – you’ll see a blue “Share” button below that: “OPTIONS” – click and allow Everyone to post. You’re finished. You do need to post and get others to post to drive your page. An active page hits the News Feed* on Facebook and factors into people finding you. You can link to pages on your website when you post. It’s always good to point to your website. Don’t drive yourself crazy – find a comfortable stride and consider it one more marketing tool – with no cost. Remember Facebook DOES include outside websites in its searches. It is presumed they give preference to those ON Facebook. *A NOTE ABOUT NEWS FEEDS

Currently only the owner of the page posting get into the feed. If I post on your Web Page – it doesn’t help drive it. It’s great for people who come to your Facebook page to see interaction, but you need to post frequently, and point to your website. OR ask a playful question. I posted “Who uses Bing?” and people responded. It gives them a chance to participate. When their FRIENDS see they are a Friend/Like your page – you now have a referral. Check out Facebook ads. They are a far better bargain than Google, and the nature of Facebook means your ads will appear to the demographics you are seeking. You define your demographics and Facebook already has the data on the 400+ million who have joined.

Final note: Once you have 25 “friends/Likes” you can get a Username – see the above extension in my Facebook page name – easier to remember.

PS – Yes, your daughter/son, family member can do this for you :)

The New Google

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Visit Google today.
You’ll find a handy left bar giving you more options to refine your search.

This has been in the works for almost a year. Since web designers optimize sites for search engines (SEO) we have been wondering what they were up to. This puts the results more in the hands of the user. If I know what I want I can tell Google how to refine my searches, without my changing my keyword search.

This can be a good thing for businesses. Google is now pulling from “everything” – social networking, paid, organic, images, Google Maps, videos (which can be a small slide show) from YouTube (and beyond) and discussion groups, etc..

What is helpful to “real time” searches is this handy way of NOT having to page through 10 pages of results to find what you want, or worse: give up before they find you. You can drill past the paid ads. (Though they continue to be prominent on Google.) That is the help to the organic websites (non-paying). You know who is searching for you, and while they might not get the exact keyword, this allows them to search within the search results without having to view 10 pages of results, which is tiresome.

It does mean social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) is more important to drive your website. Being on Google Maps is now more helpful – you’ll notice the “nearby” button – which will allow you to find more businesses in the location you are searching. Business owners: it puts you closer to your competitors. NOT pages behind them.

This change can be good news if you are driving your website.

Local Search

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Google Maps
Google Maps has always been an effective listing to get ahead of the crowd. With so many online, the competition is tough for businesses within certain categories. ex. web designer. If your business is specialized Google maps will most likely continue to work well for you.

Local Search Marketing
Now, we have new companies offering to get you ranked on Google Maps – within parameters, for a fee. It is a substantial fee.

How do you make a choice?
Can the companies be selling this info and NOT produce results? Part of your decision making comes from investigating the company: how long in business online is a BIG factor. It is too easy to charge you an annual fee and close shop. Local search marketing companies need a history.

The part of the equation difficult to pin down is: Google says they cannot guarantee placement on Google Maps, and suggest you buy their AdWords. Makes sense: if they are going to give a higher ranking it is going to be profitable for them. So, how can these companies say they can?

Part of the answer is in the keywords. If you are narrowing your keyword list to 5 – that is tough, for most businesses. The fine print of one company tells the client they, the company, can change up the keywords if they are not appearing on the first page Google Maps. The trouble with this is: keywords can be created and paid for by a client, but if no one ever searches under those words, these companies can validate themselves as delivering, but it isn’t “real”.
ex: keyword:
custom web designer loves Westies

That keyword could bring you to my website – but how many people will type that in a search? That is the trouble. Longtail keywords are known to deliver more “ready-to-buy-searchers”, to narrow down their search/save time. But choosing long tail keywords is tough, simply because: they ARE so long.

One company I researched had a video with a phone number at the end. Pricing sounded reasonable. Trouble came up when the no one answered either of their phone numbers and the pricing on the website was higher than the video. Since you have to make a decision somehow – this one is obvious.

One service these companies sell is to fill out your online directory listings. Fine, since most small business owners are short on time. But the fee is out of whack especially when one company requires you to fill in all the information and they will submit to listings.

I continue to search for someone who offers an affordable service for small business owners. The local search is the need for most of my clients, but someone who is interested in smaller budgets.