Social Media Poll

What's your perspective on using social media?
Take our poll, please!

Do you use Merchant Circle?

Does your company take advantage of the free profile on Merchant's Circle?

Take our poll.

http://polls.linkedin.com/poll-results/99730/xclax

Local library chock full of good materials - drive to it!

Today I completed a book on CD by Jeffrey Gitomer titled, "The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching." The book was narrated by the author himself, and when he said "The End" today, I was happy to complete the accomplishment and yet a little sad to be done with it. It was a little slow in the starting chapter, but all-in-all very good. Books on tape or CD make driving alone valuable learning time. I will go back to my library for more self-improvements books like this one!

Connecting through Social Media

Yesterday, I decided to ramp up our efforts to market through Merchant Circle. However, when I searched for local businesses whose owners I've connected with through networking events, I didn't find many on Merchant Circle. Do you use Merchant Circle? There is a free level of membership, so it seems a no-brainer that a company would at least claim a listing there.

Take our poll. Do you use Merchant Circle?

Is your profile stale?

Stale bread is great for making croutons or breadcrumbs for recipes.

Stale online profiles are not good for much of anything!

Today I received the oddest e-mail. I had tried to link to an old business associate on Linkedin. An auto-responder e-mail arrived telling me that she was leaving her organization in October 2008 and the message went on from there. The only possible conclusion I could draw is that her linked in profile doesn't have a correct e-mail address.

This leads me to wonder just how many online profiles are out-of-date in major and minor ways.

Google changes how it looks at web pages

Did you know that recently Google adjusted its search index algorithm to consider page load time as a factor?

When the Internet started to become more commercial than research in nature, we used to say, if your page takes more than 8 seconds to load you've lost your visitor. What with dial up connections, it wasn't uncommon for people to click a link and then go get a cup of coffee, knowing it didn't really matter how well or how poorly a web page had been designed.

Well, back in the day, ISPs were a lot slower, but today high speed connections have significantly lowered that max load time you want for your web page.

If you have a website, make sure your images and other page elements are optimized. What does that mean?

Realize that for every image or flash movie file to load on your page, the load time increases. With photos use editing software to decrease the file size, without decreasing the quality of the visitor's experience in viewing the photo. There's plenty of affordable software out there, and/or if you are paying a web developer to work on your website, make sure they are optimizing your photos.

What's a good file size? Less than 150KB is probably a good start. Just bear in mind, that multiple images on a page add up. Try to stay under 400KB if possible.

Tomorrow's WOW Education Presentation, Linking Social Media Mechanisms

Tomorrow, I am educational presenter at the WOW group. My topic is a demonstration of how to link Social Media Mechanisms, such as Twitter to Linkedin to Blog to Facebook, etc. FUN FUN FUN!

What x What = Have?

I recently had the opportunity to attend a Brad Sugars Seminar. Many things he said that resonated with me as a businessperson, I took copious notes (wish my haphazard drawings translated better). One thing Brad said which has stuck in my mind like a ticking metronome is:

Be x Do = Have

Today I was tweaking our website to make it just that much more search engine friendly to our desired keyword search results, and realized that indeed I was doing something multiple times in an attempt to "have" desired results from our online marketing efforts. That outcome is to be found amongst the search terms that are most related to what we do.

So, in a perfect world, for maximum results, we should all be tending our website's content as if it were a garden in need of watering, fertilizing and weeding each day. The yield should be results in visitors who become leads, who become customers.

What could 10 minutes a day reviewing and adjusting your website or posting to your blog do for your online business presence? If you don't have time, consider outsourcing it. A shameless promotion, I know, but it really is what we do, and hope to help you be successful doing.

Kellee Gabel
President and Blogmaster of The Web Professional, Inc.

We're making it easier than ever to get a website

Check out, "5 Easy Steps Get a Website" on our website. We're working hard to make it easy for you!

Would you consider yourself a spammer?

Today I called 888-382-1222 to have my cell phone removed from telemarketer call lists. To do this you must call from the phone number you are removing. But, this exercise made me wonder. Wouldn't it be nice to have a place where we could request spammers not to e-mail us?

Oh yeah, there is a law. It's called the Can-Spam Act. In case you're not familiar with the terms of this law, and you like to use e-mail for business communications, here's a link: Can-Spam Act - FTC Website Link.
It doesn't hurt to familiarize yourself with these rules and abide by them.

I guess my pet peeve is real spammers who send e-mails masking the sender name with my own e-mail address and other spammers who have xyz e-mail addresses at free providers like yahoo, gmail and others. What can one do? Report them I guess, but they're slippery devils, living under numerous aliases, changing their appearance and moving on to new e-mail addresses constantly.

A phone number would be helpful

It's nice that websites give visitors an easy way to send an e-mail - you know, a contact form. But what baffles the mind is finding websites that do not have a phone number listed. Today I visited a website for a plumbing company and it did not have a phone number.

Now, it would be great if a website visitor looking for a plumber had time to wait for an email to be sent, read and responded to, but it's unlikely for someone seeking a plumber in an emergency to wait this long. Maybe this is a good strategy for a company that only wants business some of the time, but only during convenient business hours...

Put your phone number on your website... Good idea? We think so.

Are you missing out on simple ways of bringing visitors to your website?

Today I was looking at a local newsletter featuring several businesscard-size ads being run by companies large and small. It surprised me to see that in these ads, some companies had forgotten to list their web site address. Not assuming these companies actually had a website, I did a search on the web and found their websites. Could it be the website is a newcomer to their marketing strategy?

Food for thought... if you've got an ad running somewhere, perhaps it's time to review and update.

What's the last time you updated your website?

Take Our Poll

Take a poll on billing practices

With all the postage price increases, companies are trying to save money wherever possible. Invoicing by mail is costly, including paper, ink, envelope and postage.

Nobody likes bills, but we'd still appreciate hearing from you, so give us your opinion about how you would like to receive billings.

Thanks!

It's a learning industry

The ever changing environment of effective marketing on the Internet and related channels keeps us ever learning.  Today I am excited to be attending ClickZ's Online Marketing Virtual Summit. 

Content is Still King

Are you measuring your website traffic and disappointed with the results or lack thereof from your Internet marketing efforts?

Are you measuring lead generation and where it's coming from?

Some things to consider before you throw out or discount the veracity of THE marketing tool with a 10-toe foothold for the foreseeable future:

1. Content is king! It's what drives visitors to websites, forums, blogs, facebook pages and more. Does your website sizzle and pop with exciting information or does it have the forlorn glow of a small ember from fires last stoked six months ago?
2. Does your home page feature inviting headlines that inspire visitors to dig deeper?  Website visitors need a reason to traverse your site. And, unless you're extraordinarily lucky and make sales from every first-time visitor, you will need to work on giving them a reason to return.

Let's face it, unless the Internet is a major focal point in your daily business life, sometimes this portion of your marketing plan can become stale. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

If you think about it, that seems most obviously counterintuitive to what we know to be true. Afterall, who in business today is not on the Internet at some point in their daily activities?

And, what about affordability?

Think about the cost of printed materials vs. the cost of updating your website. With printed materials, not only do you need to create the information and the printed piece, you then must find a way to distribute it. How does one replace out of date information in the hands of a tradeshow visitor from 6 months ago? With an up-to-date website, of course! A website's out there working for you 24/7, and if you've done your homework, those interested in you, your company and its products will come back again to find out what's new!

While you may find it difficult to give attention to keeping your website up to date and interesting, we are here with a reminder:  you can't afford NOT to.

Never fear, you can recover from your Internet marketing doldrums. Like all good habits, just get yourself into the groove.  Once you get your mind around the idea of posting every 2-3 days, you'll be thinking up news items to set you apart from your competitor. 

Soon, you'll be hanging 10 in the Internet surf just like the pros!

Article by:  Kellee Gabel, President of The Web Professional, Inc.

Getting our arms around a new way of marketing

In less than 18 months, the face of marketing has changed so dramatically, that even business people who were once resistant to online marketing now want to know what they should be doing and how much it will cost.

Social Media has found a rock solid foothold in how we promote our businesses.  Working in tandem with effective Search Engine Optimization and Marketing practices, the latest opportunities for inbound marketing are very important to success in today's businessworld. 

As with previous marketing endeavors, creating a well thought out plan of attack and then pursuing it vigorously will be key to reaching customers with your message.  Traditional marketing firms that know how to tap into these opportunities are still a rare find.  Collaborative efforts between the traditional marketing community and those who have created a niche in online marketing is a powerful approach to identifying the best fit for your business model and its individual needs.

The Web Professional, Inc. is pleased to work with you in identifying the appropriate approach to achieving the best outcome for your needs.  We invite your inquiry to learn more >>