Posted by: Beverly on: November 6, 2009
There are a lot of different web hosts that exist. The key to choosing a good web host for your business is making sure the company is able to guarantee 98-99% uptime. Once you deploy your website, you want that site live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Some smaller web hosting companies can’t deliver on that.
In addition to checking out a company’s guaranteed uptime, do they have a local phone, (1-800 #) and email contact? A lot of good web hosts will offshore some aspect of their business, so be prepared to talk with a tech person overseas, if you live in North America. There is nothing wrong with tech support from someone overseas, as long as they are well versed in problem solving and can speak English so you can understand them. But without a phone number contact, there is going to be problems. Little things that you didn’t plan on – is going to require some communication with the web host, and, if they aren’t available to you, it is going to get in the way of your business success.
GoDaddy and “1 and 1″ web host are 2 examples of pretty solid web hosts. I have experience with both these web hosts, and I don’t have a problem with either. Additionally, Host Gator seems to be picking up steam. I know a few people who love Host Gator.
There are many other choices, and each with a system for responding to your problems. If you need immediate assistance, make sure your web host delivers on 24/7 phone support, or else your site and your business is probably going to experience a some kind of set back. At the very least, it can be frustrating when a web host is not prepared to support you. After all, you are paying them!
Posted by: Beverly on: November 5, 2009
Animoto.com, studionow.com, and vimeo.com are 3 examples of where the web is heading: the all important video embed.
I have given Animoto a test run and love it. I have clients who have given Animoto a test run, and they too, love it.
Studionow looks like a company out of Tennessee, but, their interface is a little confusing to me, can’t take it for a test run, and can’t find their pricing.
And Vimeo. If for no other reason, go to vimeo.com and look at their background – as the images move up and down with your scroller. It’s great fun. And vimeo is a video distribution site, not a video creation site. That’s the difference between vimeo and Animoto.
If there are some studionow.com folks reading this blog, I would love to hear from you. Maybe you could address some of the questions I posted above? Or if anyone has used studionow.com – I’d love to hear your feedback.
Posted by: Beverly on: November 5, 2009
Animoto.com, studionow.com, and vimeo.com are 3 examples of where the web is heading: the all important video embed.
I have given Animoto a test run and love it. I have clients who have given Animoto a test run, and they too, love it.
Studionow looks like a company out of Tennessee, but, their interface is a little confusing to me, can’t take it for a test run, and can’t find their pricing.
And Vimeo. If for no other reason, go to vimeo.com and look at their background – as the images move up and down with your scroller. It’s great fun. And vimeo is a video distribution site, not a video creation site. That’s the difference between vimeo and Animoto.
If there are some studionow.com folks reading this blog, I would love to hear from you. Maybe you could address some of the questions I posted above? Or if anyone has used studionow.com – I’d love to hear your feedback.
Posted by: Beverly on: November 4, 2009
If you’re frustrated with the php manual, check out this link. Digg it if you like it, (I did, it really helped me out with regular expressions and pattern matching).
http://digg.com/d373OH
Posted by: Beverly on: November 3, 2009
If you want to sell products online but don’t know where to begin, Paypal seems to have a pretty simple system. Establishing an account and using it a few times shows just how simple it can be.
Adding an ecommerce component to your website is not just for selling products, but allows those who care to shop online another way to interact with your website. Anything that clicks with users and engages them is worth pursuing.
So, establishing a website with a simple e commerce component has a double benefit: you sell products and engage users. Good for ROI, good for traffic, good for business.
What do you think?
Posted by: Beverly on: November 3, 2009
Google has collected a dreamy amount of information for each person that jumps on the bandwagon that is Google products and services. Forget “big brother” – if the U.S engages in another war, the FBI and CIA will turn to Google for their records – they are that good at collecting info.
And the way that Google continues to achieve this massive database is by winning the hearts and minds of each one of us, by giving us free stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love the free stuff! Google Analytics takes me precious little time to establish – and the information I get on users who come to my site is vital to my understanding of my own business growth.
It’s so interesting that when you capture people’s hearts, they are loyal to products and will overlook the fact that they are collecting all this information on us. Imagine if the former Bush Administration tried to harness some of that data? Oh, right, it already did.
Posted by: Beverly on: November 2, 2009
Alan Greenspan infamously said that individuals will act in the best interest to keep a company growing – and that the market will self correct. And so many free market people – myself included – believed this to be true, even though we didn’t have any proof. Proof in economics, in this case, comes from time. Economics is, after all, a pretty new science, fraught with snake oil salesmen who put a lot of complicated math equations up on a board and want us to nod in agreement. And I’m a HUGE fan of Greenspan! Would never call him a snake oil salesman, but what the U.S. economy has gone through from about 2007 and 2008 to the present (CIT ran a multi billion dollar tab for U.S. citizens to own and pay – and is now declaring bankrupcy, NPR news, Mon Nov 2, 2009) is sobering.
The field of economics is similar to the field of website design and search engine optimization, with the exception that web designers are in the dark ages, in terms of certification and standardization of delivery of products and services. Economics has been with us a while longer.
So it is understandable for small business owners to be lost in a sea of ambiguity when selecting whom to represent them in driving online marketing campaigns forward or developing their websites. Even the question of what makes a brand a brand has shifted with the recent revolution of ad dollars going from newspapers to online sources.
So, to solve for the potential of associating with a snake oil salesman for the website design of your business website or for an aggressive online marketing campaign, here are a couple of tips:
Again, big fan of the now “retired” Alan Greenspan, but, can’t deny the similarities between the field of economics and web development and web services. As both fields emerge, we are going to see more proof of stated “laws” and more standardization of practices. But for now, it’s best to conduct some good old fashioned investigative research and question/answer sessions just to find the right answer for you.
Posted by: Beverly on: November 1, 2009
How do people search?
Sometimes people mis-spell words. And we can and should capitalize on this fact.
Example: instead of Paris Hilton – maybe someone would type in Perez Hilton. Maybe that’s what PerezHilton.com was hoping for when he launched his blog. It is wildly successful, and part of that success comes from riding the success wave of Paris Hilton. The search phrase “Paris Hilton” is pretty big. And so, banking on humans poor ability to spell, and the added bonus of Perez Hilton and Paris Hilton sounding phonetically similar, this was a good move, don’t you think?
Another example: If you’re a mommy, then you’ve probably heard of the book series, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” It’s a very popular book series for expecting mommies. It is similar in nature to the “Dummies” series in that it is a highly recognizable brand.
A gentleman recently published a book that spins off of the already known brand of the “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” book series, and it is called “What to Expect When You’re Expected.”
Why do we care?
Because when users search a phrase, we know they will most likely put in more than one word in the search bar and most likely put in less than 4 words in the search bar (God bless research and trend analysis). So, a user will probably get out “What to Expect” or “What to Expect When” and leave the rest blank – and this guy’s book will, with time, have an increased likelihood of showing up just below this established product in the organic ranking, on page one.
Does that make sense?
Let me know and send me a note!
Posted by: Beverly on: October 31, 2009
Never personally used Bing, although I see Bing’s nifty advertising in Hulu.com (dump the TV and go forward with hulu.com and Netflix combo). And upon checking my Google Analytics account this morning whilst sipping away on my smoothie from Nectar – I see a trend towards more of my visitors finding me from Bing.
What the heck is Bing?
A quick Google search gives me this from Wikipedia:
“Bing (currently Live Search, formerly Windows Live Search and MSN Search, codenamed Kumo) is the name of Microsoft’s new web search engine…”
So, diversification again presents itself as a means of hedging yourself against small market fluctuations or volatility attributed to user preference and behaviour.
Simply put: make sure your website shows up in multiple search engines.
Have questions about this post? Don’t hesitate to get in contact with the owner of MAU Web Studio, LLC for a more in depth look at how economics and online web presence for your business are linked.
Happy Halloween!
Posted by: Beverly on: October 30, 2009
The “Cash for Clunkers” was another Obama success. The economy received a measurable boost and lifted the spirit of the American people. But now, the program is ending, and the word is out: the U.S. economy is suffering from a bit of a tumble. Not a big tumble, a little tumble.
Media will have us believe that we ought to spend our way out of this economic mess, but, I don’t think that is wise. The numbers show that people are hesitant to splurge. High unemployment usually lags behind any rise in the DOW Jones, and we as Americans recognize that we’re not out of deep water just yet.
Time to hunker down and continue to seriously look at what is working and what is not working in our businesses. Spending business dollars in areas that do not return or that do not position us for future growth is just bad business.
The world will get out of this economic mess, and our economy will never look the same again. This recession was a game changer.
Have any thoughts? Drop a comment.
Posted by: Beverly on: October 29, 2009
“Good design is as little design as possible,” Apple designer.
When Apple waged war with the PC, it was a quiet one, until Apple blew PC computers out of the water. By then it was too late. The business decisions Apple made for itself years ago were manifesting itself in real profits and PCs left in the dust. When your competition makes it THAT far ahead of you, there is precious little you can do, just to catch up – let alone to be the leader in the next big thing.
“Today, you find very few companies that take design seriously.”
And he’s right.
The path and decisions Apple took years ago in design and brand image are as interesting as the ramifications of those decisions.
“We designers, we don’t work in a vacuum … we need business people, too.”
Beautiful.
Posted by: Beverly on: October 29, 2009
I often meet parents around the country and they ask me, “I have a son/daughter looking for a job. How is the market in Atlanta?”
For what it’s worth, from my 4 years living in Atlanta, there are a lot of good things happening in the Atlanta job market. And how I would approach a job search is not by targeting a city as much as targeting individual companies. At the end of the day, it is the company you’ll be working with, not the city, and while the city supports your living experience off work hours, focus on the company itself.
Back to Atlanta. Most of what makes Atlanta great stems from the higher than average core of intellectual talent that exists here. From this core, terrific businesses and start ups exist and grow.
For example, mobile technology. Atlanta is uniquely capable to handle the emerging demand for mobile technology, and, whether or not you’re looking for an IT job, look for companies who are strong enough financially to employ these expensive, in house or contracted IT jobs.
Did this blog post help? Let me know leave a comment.
Posted by: Beverly on: October 18, 2009
Competitive Analysis is an important step when creating and updating a website, because we want to know how the competition is faring, and be one step ahead of what they are doing. One thing MAU Web Studio (based out of Atlanta Ga, and focuses on web design, website development, with features not found in other web design companies) does well is competitive analysis.
And just because the competition is doing something, doesn’t mean you ought to pick it up and integrate it within your own site. They may be extremely inefficient, and you don’t want to replicate inefficient or ineffective processes. From this, a 100% academic approach is not the best approach. What MAU Web Studio has found is that a blend of common sense and competitive analysis is the best approach.
No matter what you see your competitors doing, the question ought to be, “how can I do this better, faster, with greater value, more robust, less expensive, etc.”
If you liked this blog post, check out our site, and don’t forget to leave a comment, we love our commenting bloggers!
Posted by: Beverly on: October 16, 2009
Corporations that wish to stay competitive will implement a variety of systems and processes to achieve objectives. For example, Toyota came up with Kaizen and Lean Six Sigma, and wiped U.S. Auto processes off the competitive map. U.S auto couldn’t keep up. Another example: all those books you see in the bookstore, such as “Who Ate My Cheese” or other “read this book and improve your bottom line – ” they will be picked up by managers and the managers will implement some ideas here and there and that is how businesses can grow and change.
Small businesses ought to capitalize on a new kid on the block. SCRUM. I’m confident the concept of the scrum has been around for awhile, but it did not seem to have any steam, until now.
So, investigating the concept and principles of scrum, reading white papers, talking with other folks who have professional training on how to use scrums – these are ways small businesses can leverage the tools and processes larger corporations do.
A scrum as it relates to your IT team or web developer can be particularly important, and is worth knowing about, and even implementing some concepts.
Posted by: Beverly on: October 12, 2009
Small businesses can look to economics and study what’s coming from this community to enhance business operations on its own scale.
Oct. 12, 2009 (Bloomberg) — Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson of the U.S. won the Nobel Economics Prize for their work on economic governance and the organization of cooperation.
“Ostrom has demonstrated how common property can be successfully managed by user associations,” while Williamson “developed a theory where business firms serve as structures for conflict resolution.”
“Ostrom achieved association that political, legal and economic rules either prevent or encourage efficient and sustainable use of resources. This confirms the link between the economy and the environment. Ostrom is one of the founders of organizational economics — the study of how institutions are created and developed and what impact they have on economic growth.
“Williamson’s work allows companies to better understand when it’s best to purchase goods and services from the outside versus produce them in-house.”
Posted by: Beverly on: October 10, 2009
I see a growing trend of people buying into multi level marketing businesses for a second income. What value and what kind of support and what role does the corporate issued website play for the individual who has bought into the multi level marketing business and who wants to grow their clientele?
Most of the time, you’ll be issued a website for a fee. Clients can login and purchase products via your website. Efficient. But managing that website and leveraging the power of the web to grow your clients is a different matter, and a different field, entirely.
For example, if you are a high school math teacher, you are pretty good at math, but as a teacher, you need to know a thing or two about the psychology of teens – an entirely separate field of study.
Choosing to hire a web developer to assume the responsibilities of managing and going after growing your online business is a big choice, because you don’t want to sink money in a person or a web company that can’t prove their work to be returning some kind of leads or increased sales.
Choices, choices, choices, if you’d like a bigger discussion on this topic, send me a comment and we’ll get it going.
Posted by: Beverly on: October 9, 2009
Won’t pretend to know all the answers. I know millionaires and I know household incomes of 40,000 with a family of four. And between these two extremes are all different kinds of talent and experience. Housewives and househusbands who barter for 5% off a piece of furniture or stove show the same kind of acumen for selling that entrepreneur who buys and sells businesses for a living.
So, what’s the trick?
Sadly, there is none. But what I have found to work is that relationships that work are worth their weight in gold. When I have a thriving relationship, then I have access to that person as the center of their own universe – and each thriving relationship means a potential access to at least a few hundred of their people in their own network. How to sell is a matter of being clear and maintaining good relationships and bringing in the new relationships that will allow a business to grow, or for more commissions to be made, or whatever your bottom line is. It is a long term strategy, but, I have seen it work again and again, over the long haul. What’s more, I’ve seen people with increased satisfaction with their own lives when they get on board with this whole “relationships are more than important – they are vital” ideal.
And increased happiness cannot be quantified.
Posted by: Beverly on: October 8, 2009
Long tail keyphrase search means a person will type in more than one word into Google search bar when they are cruising the web.
To think that a person will only enter one word in the search bar is incorrect thinking.
When designing anything for online viewing, the content needs to be written not with keywords in mind but keyphrase combinations in mind.
But, which keyphrase combinations to choose from? It will vary, depending on the website and the audience the owner is trying to reach.
Simply changing your frame of mind from keyword to keyphrase is the first step forward. Now that you’re thinking how your target traffic is behaving, it’s time to write better content. Finally, it’s time to test.
Contact MAU Web Studio for the suite of steps to improve your website for better conversion.
Posted by: Beverly on: October 7, 2009
One of the first things I bought when I set up shop was a printer/scanner. My partner said there was a hex on the house because none of the printers he ever bought in his entire life lasted longer than a year or two.
Never personally owned a printer or a scanner, and not believing in hexes or the transferability of voo doo beliefs – I blew 200 dollars at Circuit City for a basic printer/scanner in one.
Never mind if you can get a better deal, I am sure you can, but, being new in town, sometimes you just want what you want when you want it, right?
It lasted less than a year and a half. What’s worse, it was just the printer that broke, not the scanner, but, because the two were one unit, when one went, so did the other.
So, the curse did transfer to me.
Enter the 30 dollar printer from Walmart. It works smashingly. And I don’t miss the scanner, for now.
Same goes with developing websites. It’s sexy to want all the bells and whistles, and it costs money, too. And getting to a coutoure level website with a perfect fit takes more than just a few rounds with the web developer to get it just right. And that takes time.
If you’re in the market for a website, usually, simple is the best way to go in the beginning. It becomes your workhorse. With time, you’ll realize what you must have – and it’s probably not ALL the fancy bells and whistles – like a printer scanner combo, but just a printer will do, thank you very much.
Posted by: Beverly on: October 6, 2009
When I was in college in Iowa oh so many years ago, there was a project given to us: design a feasible, sustainable, green approach for a society to live, and forget oil. I was excited – but I and a friend of mine, (who is brilliant and is now a civil engineer) were sorely disappointed when the professor laughed, spouting, “can’t be done.”
OK, so it was the 90s, and yes we were in Iowa, but dismiss those stereotypes of Iowans, please, because those who come from families who live from the land respect it and treat it better than those who don’t.
And, it was possible, the time just had not yet arrived.
Cruising the net for something good, I came across Brad Pitt’s “Make it Right” campaign for sustainable housing that is efficient and robust, and yes, earth friendly, in New Orleans, post Katrina.
Yes!
Sustainable housing. We are moving forward. It just took creativity and hard work, (and some loot and a name like Brad Pitt, but I digress).
It only took a decade, but, “take that professor!”
With great expectations, we move forward, whether people notice in the beginning or not, that change is happening every single day, for the better.
Posted by: Beverly on: October 1, 2009
Beverly here, geek wannabe and Owner, from MAU Web Studio, LLC.
How did you find this blog? Just curious … drop me a reply!
Anyway, I’ve been experimenting with blogging on Merchant Circle as a means of increasing and solidifying web presence. Merchant Circle, on a most basic level, is a *free* directory, anyone can leverage. I put the free in asteriks because nothing is free. Our time is worth money …
So, putting energy into Merchant Circle does have a payoff: the words are indexed and are competitive in the organic section of listings against even mammoth companies like the Yellow Pages (not a big fan, by the way. Just because you’re big and old doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing)
And as long as I visit my MC account and feed it regularly, I see a payoff in my time. But, I don’t know if the payoff is any larger than other options we have: a paid listing somewhere, or, the big one: press coverage, (that’s the holy grail, in my book).
So, I will continue to invest some time in growing my MC account – for now, and the quest for continuous improvement continues.
As a friend of mine once said, “in business, you’re either moving forward or moving backwards. There’s no standing still.”
Posted by: Beverly on: September 29, 2009
Press Releases is the definitive answer – for now. It is more than an emerging trend. Without a PR strategy, you are really working way too hard! Good PR begins with good relationships with the proper reporters, and packaging what you do everyday in a newsworthy gift wrapping.
PR is not recognized by web developers as essential for web presence, traffic building, and conversion – which is why you ought to RUN TOWARDS THIS UNDERUTILIZED MECHANISM OF GROWTH!
Want a press release or something else written up for you? That’s what MAU Web Studio does. We’re a web studio, but immeasurably more, everyday.
Posted by: Beverly on: September 29, 2009
A couple of open source content management systems are available, with support, from the open source community. Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress are 3 options that an organization can choose to use for their main website. The advantages of choosing one of these three, which are content management systems, is their relative ease of use, after the user gets over the learning curve of each systems ins and outs.
Thinking of a new website for your organization, or, thinking that a different approach or a website redesign is the next step forward for your organization?
Choosing a content management system may be a good choice, depending on the overall picture – or the overall scope of the project, and its life.
Scope:
The overall scope of the project includes what you want the website to do for you. What you want included in the website.
For example, if you want what’s called dynamically updated content, a login for registered users, a newsletter – then, there are Joomla! templates out there that can serve you very well for *free* or very little money. Just learn Joomla! enough to get your needs satisfied.
Let’s say, for example, that you are in a church, and you want a splashy site with a couple people in the organization in charge of updating the site with new information, adding new church members, posting pictures of the last picnic, introducing new members or comments from the minister on a weekly or monthly basis – then again, a Joomla! site might be an excellent choice for you.
If you need a logo, help coming up with content that is effective for the web, and don’t have a strategy or timeline or any knowledge or inclination to learn any technology, then, it would probably be a better use of your time to hire out a company who can produce a custom website.
So, content management systems are great whether you set them up or you have a web professional set one up for you – and then teach you what you need to know so you can self sustain. Content management systems may be a great choice if customization isn’t your thing, and you want to plug in a pre-fab template that looks splashy.
Posted by: Beverly on: September 24, 2009
More people are selecting WordPress as their main website – and dropping the false idea that they need to hire a fancy shmancy developer to code for them.
Why?
There is a greater possibility of autonomy with WordPress.
WordPress is a plug and chug, drag and drop interface. You do not need a fancy shmancy coder or developer for you to get up and running in minutes.
For the do it yourselfer: you will need to know some basics, but buying a copy of “WordPress for Dummies” is a lot cheaper (probably 25 bucks, new, right?) than a few hundred dollars to hire a web developer.
You’re also going to need to be comfortable with technology and want to learn some new things, but again, for the do it yourselfer, and for the person who has the time to invest and wants to save some money, WordPress is a great choice to leverage for your primary website.
Already have a website and want to take it to the next level? Well, there is a huge community that will support you, if you’re willing to do the research. Again, you’re trading in your time – instead of paying a developer to do it for you.
If money is not the issue and you just want some control over your website, then WordPress may be a good option, because you probably aren’t interested in learning html, css, php, etc, and the WordPress interface is very manageable, versus the solid block of code staring back at you with the html, css, php, etc.
Every choice has its ups and downs. Nothing is a home run. Haven’t even delved into Joomla! or Drupal – two other choices that are very powerful, and is designed to allow you self-manage more. Choices, choices, choices.
Posted by: Beverly on: September 16, 2009
Why not give the world of the internet a whirl. Better yet, let’s look more closely at the tools that separate the children from the adults in this competitive game.
Truth is, when we talk about leveraging the World Wide Web for the purpose of having solid web presence and selling our products and services via the internet, it is still the wild, wild west out there.
Think Annie Oakley.
What I’m kickin’ my boots at is that the game is wide open, if only we leverage the proper tools – not start shootin’ in any ol’ direction.
The ONE ACT OF LEVERAGING GOOGLE ANALYTICS will give you so much understanding about what is performing well and what is underperforming, we’d have to be silly school girls to not pay attention.
Google Analytics allows you to see which cities and geographic areas IN THE WORLD are truly bringing in the bacon for you. With simple map overlays and a very, very simple look at visitor traffic, you will have information worth thousands – at your fingertips.
Get in contact with mauwebstudio.com – located in the beautiful city of Atlanta – and let’s get down to business.
