My wife and I were recently driving back from a camping trip on a major freeway.  Our habit when driving the family mini-van with 3 grade-school aged children is to stop and grab some food at a predictable (if boring) franchised restaurant that we can visibly see from the free way in time to pull off the appropriate ramp.  This system has worked well for years although I would be first to admit that I wouldn’t mind if I never see a fast food chain restaurant again.  Sooooo…. this time we were coming up on a town that my wife and I had stopped in 10 years ago (pre-kids) and I happened to remember a restaurant that we had enjoyed that was not immediately on the freeway.  I jumped onto my Droid smart phone (oh so much better than an iphone in my opinion) which opened to google search.  Google was able to use my Droid’s on-board GPS to see where we were and list all nearby restaurants.  I quickly spotted the restaurant that I was thinking of, click on it and my phone gave us GPS enabled turn by turn directions to get there.  As we rolled to a stop in front of the restaurant I realized that we NEVER would have gone there if it were not for “mobile web.”   Score one for the little non-chain establishments out there that are slightly off the beaten path! 

As the popularity of these high-speed Internet connected smart phones increases this will sort of thing will happen more and more often.  Please drop me a line if you’d like to talk about how we might be able to use it to help your business.

Here’s how it works:  Set up a free account with Tungle.me.  Give them access to your Google calendar (or Outlook if that’s your thing).  Tell Tungle the regular hours that you set up appointments.  For me that’s Tues to Friday 9am to 5pm (doesn’t everybody avoid meetings on Monday?).  Tungle then shows the public the hours that you are free for meetings.  When visitors request a meeting Tungle.me sends an email letting you know.  If you accept, it notifies the person requesting the meeting and automatically ads it to your calendar.  Cool! 

If you’d like to schedule a free consultation about online marketing, please hit my contact page and click the link that says “schedule an appointment online.”

1. Inclusion in their online directory
   Generally speaking the phone book guys try to sell these services for a flat monthly rate and they want to lock you into an annual contract.  Flat fees are simply a way to try to hide that the advertising is not competitively priced.  They simply don’t tell you the per-click price.  Additionally if the big boys like Google don’t lock you into a long term contract, why in the world would you do it with a dinky little website like the phone book’s directory?  Usually they don’t guarantee you that a single person will click through the ad to your website.  Recently a client showed me a report that was provided to them as part a pitch to get the client to renew the service.  The report only showed “impressions” (number of times the ad was shown to someone) and didn’t even mention click throughs.  Google doesn’t charge anything at all for impressions.    They are totally free.  You only pay when a user clicks through and visits your website.  And if all that isn’t enough to cool you off on this idea….when was the last time you needed a product or service and thought…”Gee, I think I’ll look for it on the phone book’s online directory?”  Never.
2. Ads on Google/Yahoo/etc.
   Generally speaking the model that the phone book companies use for selling search engine ads is a flat fee for a specific minumum number of visits to your site.  When you do the math the cost per click is usually substantially higher than buying directly from Google.  You usually have little to no control over the search phrases that are used to attract your visitors or the geographic location that the ads are shown.  Of course when you buy directly from Google you have direct control over these variables and many more.  Even given all that, the thing that really turns me off to this pitch is the general lack of professionalism.  The pitch is usually given by a sales rep that knows little to nothing about how search engine advertising actually works.  If you hire them the work is often off-shored to a firm who’s primary concern is the speed at which they complete the task not the success of the campaign.

If you are serious about getting the most bang for your buck with an online marketing campaign, talk to a professional that specializes in this area.  Of course we’d love to help you out here at BP, but honestly just about anyone that claims to be a search engine marketing specialist is probably going to do a better job for you than the Yellow Pages in my experience.

1. You can pretty much always be first if you want….it’s just a matter of paying for it.  It is not terribly complicated to achieve.  If you outbid all your competitors on your desired search phrase and Google feels that your “page quality” is as good or better than your competitors, then you WILL show up first.  It will however often cost a significant amount for that privilege.
2. Although the general school of thought is that ranking higher means that you are getting more of an “instant gratification” type of visitor that is less likely to shop your competitors (ie more likely to buy from you), I have not always found this to be the case.  As a matter of fact, I have seen many instances when the 4th place placement (often top of the right column) does very well for itself.
3. Most importantly, business success is not defined by Google ranking. It’s defined by profit.  Much more important than an ego-driven desire for “firstness” is desire for profitability.  When you work with a professional consultant, they should be able to help you find what position yields the best return on investment.  One of the bonuses of that 4th position mentioned above is that it can be significantly less expensive that the first through third position.

- Make sure you actually own your domain name. A couple times in the last month I’ve run into folks who had a phonebook company or unscrupulous web developer register their domain name for them, and it turned out that these vendors registered the names in their own company names instead of the business owner’s name. This is totally unacceptable and if it’s the case for your domain name you need to contact this vendor and have them put the domain name under your ownership immediately.

- Set your domain name to auto-renew. Domain names are purchased from registrars like Network Solutions or Godaddy (to name a few). They have an option that will allow them to automatically renew the name when it’s about to expire on your credit card. Take advantage of this option so you won’t lose your name accidentally.

- Don’t trust the auto-renew feature. I’ve seen times when the credit card on file has expired and an email notice about the impending loss of the domain name has gotten caught in a spam filter. Mark your calendar for a month before your domain name is going to expire and manually go to the registrar and renew the name.

- Watch out for “domain slamming.” Like “phone slamming” in the 90’s “domain slamming” is an unscrupulous practice in which an unethical company sends you something that looks like a bill for your domain name saying it’s about to expire. If you pay the “bill” what you are actually doing is switching registrars.

- Consider buying similar domain names to your own (or other common names for your organization) to make sure they are not used for a purpose you wouldn’t approve of. I was recently told of an organization that is local to me that had a domain name that is very similar to their business name registered by a group that opposes them politically. The end result will be an expensive legal battle that they will most likely lose.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions about this article. I’d be happy to help you any way I can.

I think there is a perception in the business community that green companies have to be “so green that it hurts” in order to genuinely be green.  Then of course they need to qualify for some sort of certification to prove their green-ness.  They can then proudly wear it not only as a badge of honor, but also as a notice to perceived unethical bloated resource wasters that their green company is superior.  On the flip side of this there is a perception of disdain for “green washers” who trump up their claims to green-ness for marketing purposes while not truly subscribing to green ideals.

I’d like to try to do my part to break down these perceptions by submitting that there is a “new green.”  Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think it would be better described as the “old green.”  It’s a common sense green that means that stewardship is important in all areas including the environment.  To that end I believe there is a title wave of green businesses (a silent majority if you will) that quietly go about their daily work making significant environmental contributions that are never acknowledged.

Here is a list of “green” items that I found while conducting an audit here at bpwebdesign.com.  I think the important thing to note is that I never set out to have a “green” business.  I simply wanted to have a responsible business that took care of our client’s needs as well as our own.  I think it’s that type of attitude that can popularize the green movement.

• recycling receptacles through out the office
• print-free project management system (web based)
• print-free billing system (web and email based)
• print-free staff time clock (web based)
• staff can telecommute (saves gas and car/road wear & tear)
• Modular office furniture salvaged from a closed office
• Exclusive use of NiMH rechargeable batteries
• Water cooler instead of bottled water
• We use doors/windows and our ceiling fans more than our Air Conditioner

I’m sure I could dig up many more, however I think you get the point.  Honestly I have no idea if we would qualify for some sort of green certification and I suppose it doesn’t really matter.  My point here is, it’s easy and fiscally responsible to incorporate many green functions into your business,  many times without really trying.  So….three cheers for all you accidental greenies out there!  Keep it up!

1. Determine site goals
2. Determine general communication that needs to take place to achieve the site goals
3. Develop online marketing strategy (search engines, social networking, etc.)
4. Develop specific content and logical grouping of this information
5. Determine specific technologies to be used to present content
6. Determine the graphical needs to achieve your desired goals with your specific audience
7. Develop the graphic design
8. Build out the site shell and develop interactive programming
9. Implement content in site
10. Proof site and take it public
11. Implement off-site online marketing plan
12. Implement regular site updates and maintenance
13. Analyse results, modify approach as necessary

1. Domain name – approx $10/year
   You pay this to a domain registrar (like godaddy.com) to have the right to use a name like:  yourcompany.com.
2. Website Hosting – approx $20/month
   This service makes your website available to users all over the Internet.
3. Initial Website Development (custom, professional) – $1,000 to $100,000 and up
   Generally speaking this is what you pay a web developer to build the website itself.  Personally I recommend that you find a developer that will give you a hard quote for this service rather than merely an estimate.
4. Maintenance  – variable
   For a custom site, maintenance costs are usually limited to irregular changes, like an address or staff change or the addition of a new service.  Some websites can go quite a while without any changes and some have a steady stream of updates that need to be made. 
5. Promotion – variable
   Most sites should have an ongoing campaign to drive traffic.  We’ve worked with clients who have been perfectly satisfied with a $20/month budget, and alternatively we have had single clients for whome we’ve managed $1,000/day budgets.

Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to run through this list to see how it would specifically apply to you.

1) Blogs are fantastic online PR tools that are inexpensive. They make it easy to reach out to your audience, set yourself up as an expert in your field and the search engines love them. Regularly blogging is a great way to work on moving your website up Google’s natural search results.  It has this effect because it allows you to easily add quality content to your website on a regular basis.  Having good quality up-to-date content on your site is one of the important variables with regard to search engine placement.

2)  So now that you know why you should blog, let’s deal with why you don’t.  I think usually it comes down to time management and prioritization.  Out here in the real world there is often a fire that needs putting out and it can be tough to get your blog to the top of your list.  Here’s my easy solution:  KEEP IT SIMPLE.  Keep your blog articles really short.  People don’t read long articles anyway!!!  A couple paragraphs is fine.  One of the reasons that I put off blogging is that I build up the job in my mind into something much larger than it really is.  So my advice is to tell yourself…I’m going to take 15 minutes and bang out my most recent insight, then I’m going to move on to the next fire.  Oh…and remember to run it through a spell checker when you are done.