They are membership renewals.

During 2011, it was a good idea to join 5 of your Local Business Organizations (LBO); in our case, 3 Chambers and a 2 local business organizations. But in January, at a time when cash flow is tight, all require that you renew your membership. You could be looking at several invoices for:

1. LBO 1: $275
2. LBO 2: $250
3. LBO 3: $200
4. LBO 4: $120
5. LBO 5: $100

That’s a total outlay of $945, which can add up to a serious dent in your finances so how do you decide what to renew and what to let fall by the wayside this year? Here are a few ways to make that decision.

So the question here is, “How do you determine value from the different LBOs and the bottom line is, are they bringing me business?” The first step is to look at ways they are marketing your business.

What types of opportunities do the organizations offer and what value do you place on them?

• Have you received business from word-of-mouth? Are you recommended by them?
• Does the LBO have a brochure and where do they rack them?
• Do they have office/storefront space?
• Does the LBO do print ads and how does that affect your business?
• Does the LBO have a website?
• Do you have access to get information on the website?
• Do they send out emails and do you read or delete them?
• Do they have regular networking events?

They all work in slightly different ways and the big dilemma is how do you keep track of what is working and what is not? Websites have an advantage of being out there 24/7 and when set up correctly, are trackable. Here are some tips to help you look at your web presence.

Website Traffic

Do you know how much traffic your website receives from the various LBOs that you joined? Do you know how much traffic your website gets anyway? Your web designer can help you to understand this.

If you are using Google Analytics (you need a free Google account), this information is easy to figure out.

Clicks to your website from theirs

First, you need to select the entire year as a custom date range. Then under “Traffic Sources”, open the “Sources” navigation item and click on “Referrals” to compare apples to apples. From the above example (of paulmycroft.com), you can see:

1. Organization 1 (#1) brought our website 45 referrals in one year whereas organization 2 (#2) brought just 40% of that with 18. That’s nearly 4 per month compared to nearly 2.
2. Referrals from #1 looked at slightly less pages per visit than #2 but spent longer.
3. The “Bounce Rate” from #1 was higher than #2, which means the visitor was more likely the click the “back” button from #1 than #2. However, referrals from #1 came from 15 different pages (articles, profile page, regular pages) whereas #2 was from just one page (profile). That indicates that website #1 was more active in linking to your website in a variety of ways than #2.

In other words, #1 was marketing your website better than #2, which resulted in 222% more referrals.

Who’s on First? Where do you Appear in Searches?

Who's on first?

The easiest way to find out if your profile page can be found is to search for your own business name. Which profile appears first?

If you appear on the first page for LBO #1, this is working for you for LBO #1. If your ranking is not working for you, LBO #2 could be off the first page and even the second. If it’s really bad, you could even be on page 10!

Your position may be a reflection of how “valuable” (on a scale of 10) the link from the LBO is to your website. Google places a higher value on websites who have a high authority and rewards anyone they link to with a higher rank.

In other words, if LBO #1 is ranked 8/10, you will benefit with a link from LBO #1 than from LBO #2, which is only ranked 3/10. It’s a popularity contest!

If LBO #1′s website has been around for a few years and they actively post articles, news and events, it can be worth joining just to get that valuable inbound link.

Use this free tool (www.opensiteexplorer.org) to input your web address then find out the best links to your website. The domain authority is the 3rd tab, which may help determine who’s on first and who’s on second. You want to be linked to from the most popular and smartest website in the class!

Networking Opportunities

Networking takes time and dedication. What types of opportunities do the organizations offer and what value do you place on them?

For us, one of our organizations offers a regular “Business-after-Business” at a member’s business location and is a popular event with nearly 100 people in regular attendance. This provides value in itself as the opportunities for work are greater as the atmosphere is more social, quality of attendees s higher, and the time is convenient. All these factors are more conducive to doing business and establishing a relationship, which hopefully leads to a business connection.

They also offer regular monthly luncheons with important, relevant speakers and a “Business-before-Business” for the early birds. A very active organization.

However, another of our choices offers very little in the way of networking—maybe 3 or 4 events per year—and usually gets average attendance. Not particularly inspiring.

How Well Is Your Business Marketed?

Do your membership dollars work for you? How well is your business marketed while you are busy at work? Hey, it’s always nice to get referral business.

1. Do they send out regular email notices?
2. Is your business listed in their membership brochure?
3. If someone walks into their office and asks for your type of service, do you get mentioned?

It’s no longer smart to join a business organization just because that’s the “right thing to do.” There has to be value in that membership otherwise it’s just a donation. And there’s plenty of charities who would gladly accept your donation.

Please let us know if you need further explanation or would like a hand figuring this out.

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Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

WordCamp Victoria

Check out the various sessions.

WordCamps are informal, community-organized events for people interested in WordPress, a gold standard CMS tool. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other.

You can register here and if you are going to be there or want to hitch a ride, let us know.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

We have just developed a mobile-only navigation for the Hall of Frames in Arizona and used it to test on, which saved a heap of time and means we don’t need to buy a SmartPhone. Yet.

Hall of Frames home page before mimic

Here is how you do it. First, download Safari then go to the website you need to test on.

Click on Edit -> Preference, then go to Advanced tab. Check the check box for Show Develop menu in menu bar option.

Safari "User Agent" menu

From the main menu, select Develop, User Agent then choose your device. Here is the same Hall of Frames home page as it would display in an iPhone with our mobile navigation!

Hall of Frames website in an iPhone

Hall of Frames site page in an iPad

No need to buy a SmartPhone. Yet.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

Thank you to all who attended.

| Get your Presentation Pack

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

For example, do you know what your visitor share from the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) is? Is it under 50% or above 75% (like ours), which it should be?

Above: Good Search Engine Share

Above: Not So Good Search Engine Share

In the second pie chart (our client shall remain nameless – they have not yet hired us to help them in this area), the Referring Sites (other websites that link to yours) and Direct Traffic (visitors who get to your site by directly typing your address in a web browser or via a bookmark/favorite) require additional and separate efforts but we can definitely affect the Search Engine share! Here’s how.

In that second chart, total visitors equals 23,227. When we increase the 43.85% share to 65% and from 10,184 to 25,000, the total number of visitors increases to just over 38,000. This equates to an additional 15,000 visitors from the major search engines!

• Search Engines: 25,000 (65%)
• Referring Sites: 7,876 (21%)
• Direct Traffic: 5,138 (14%)

How can we help you achieve that sort of increase? It’s called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

First, we do an analysis of your current web traffic using Google Analytics to identify weak spots and areas of improvement then go through several phases after that (depending on your budget):

1. Initial traffic analysis
2. Keyword research
3. Keyword recommendations
4. Optimize your web pages using those keywords
5. Add additional elements to increase conversions
6. Ongoing monthly analysis

Working closely with the client at every stage is important so we make sure you understand what we are doing and why. If all goes well, your traffic share should increase to over 60% and sometimes, over 70%.

Please get in touch if you are interested in increasing your search engine share.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

Essential

1. Google Analytics for WordPress

Developed by Yoast, this is an essential one for hooking your WP site into Analytics.

2. WordPress SEO by Yoast

I thought that the All in One SEO Pack plugin was the best SEO plugin until I tried Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin. It actually previews your title and meta description tags and lets you know if you’ve missed an element in your post based on your targeted keyword phrase. It also adds sitemap.xml and Google, Yahoo! and Bing site verification functionality! Joost “Yoast” de Valk rules.

3. Mobile Edition

WordPress Mobile Edition is a plugin that shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site on a mobile device.

4. Widget Logic

This will allow you to display widgets on specific pages using a single sidebar. Without it, your widget would display on every page or post using that sidebar. For example, you might want to have a location map on every page EXCEPT the Contact page.

5. WP Database Manager

Your database is your heart – treat it right using this one. Allows you to schedule an automated backup via email, repair, optimize and more. Just get that pesky .htaccess move right to remove the warning message.

Useful

6. Maintenance Mode

Develop your blog while putting a “Coming Soon” message up to the public. Very useful.

7. CryptX

Email harvesters are the scourge of the Internet. Just add an email address to a post or page and let this one automatically encrypt it so the address can’t be recognized by those harvesters.

8. Kadom 125 Banner Ad Manager

Manage your 125 x 125 pixel banner ads using this and see how many click-throughs each one gets, useful feedback for the advertisers. Set up multiple campaigns and locations!

9. Update Notifier

I find this one useful for sending an automatic email to the client to let them know that there is an update to WordPress. This keeps them on their toes and invested in their blog. It keeps sending emails until it gets updated!

10. Social Profiles Widget

Add your social profiles using this neat sidebar widget. Has some sweet icon options too.

11. Post Expirator

With WordPress, you can schedule a post by putting a future date in but you can’t bring it down. Use this one to do just that.

12. Duplicate Post

You know, small can be beautiful and this one just saves time! Have multiple posts? Use this to quickly duplicate an existing one that took you an hour to create then off you go.

13. My Calendar

Seems to be the best WP calendar on the market today, has great customer support, and worth a donation. Allows location setup to save time, repeating events, and more!

14. AddToAny

Social sharing is essential these days to why not add this to every post. And don’t forget to make a donation to these fine WordPress plugin developers. Let us know if we can help you with your WordPress website.

15. Shopp for eCommerce

A solid eCommerce plugin with great support and plenty of options.

Don’t forget to make a donation to these fine plugin developers. Let us know if we can help you with your WordPress site.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

1. Site #1 (maggiemycroft.com, site has gone now)
2. Site #2 (zoemycroft.com, site has gone now)

What’s the big deal, I hear you ask? Well, both sites can be updated from one single installation of WordPress 3 using its less-than-obvious “multisite” feature. This is a major step forward for web designers and developers but more importantly, for clients, saving them money on web hosting and making life a lot easier.

It only took us a week to figure it out but figure it out we did! It was a bit of a “Eureka” moment (I actually pumped my fist), to be honest, as Site #2 became visible on its own domain name!

Our Situation

1. Site #1 (the dominant site – maggiemycroft.com) is hosted at 1and1
2. Domain name #1 (the dominant domain name – maggiemycroft.com) is hosted at Go Daddy but the DNS hosting is with 1and1
3. Domain name #2 (the domain name for site #2 – zoemycroft.com) was hosted and parked at Go Daddy

Rather than describe the initial steps we went through, here is a good video tutorial on YouTube on setting up the initial sub-directory or sub-domain.

Two Domain Names

The way that you get 2 different domain names to display (rather than maggiemycroft.com and maggiemycroft.com/zoe) is to adjust the A Record (for me, in Go Daddy) of domain name #2 (zoemycroft.com) to point to the IP address for domain name #1 (maggiemycroft.com).

Under your Super Admin/Domain Mapping control palette in WordPress( in the dominant maggiemycroft.com Admin), insert the IP address. Then add domain name #2 (zoemycroft.com) under Tools/Domain Mapping (in the zoemycroft.com Admin) control palette.

You should then be able to set your domains:

Once the DNS changes to the A Record propagate, you should see 2 different domain names.

Notes

You MUST have a static IP address for this to work! If it’s dynamic (sometimes on shared hosting), domain name #2 will go down when the IP address changes.

We had a lot of trouble identifying the IP address of domain name #1. We also had trouble getting the A Record change in Go Daddy to work. Our solution was simply to change the name servers of domain name #2 in Go Daddy to point to the name servers for domain name #1 at 1and1.

However, if you want email for domain name #2, you must only change the records for the website, not email as well.

Hope this works for you because it’s a great addition to WordPress.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

Things change rapidly on the internet so if you have your head down in the day-to-day running of your business, you just may not be aware (or understand) the latest trends that are now available (most of them are free) for you to take advantage of. Today.

If you don’t have time (or just want us to take care of the messy stuff), we are here to help. Let us know if there is something from this list that you would like us to take care of and we’ll get right on it.

• Update Google Analytics code to the latest version
• Improve your website page load speed
• Update title and meta tags, remove meta keywords tag
• Review/add WordPress plugins, update to the latest version of WordPress
• Do you have new content? Is it optimized for your customers to find it in the search engines?
• Can we write a keyword-optimized and linked blog post for you?
• Want to update your website yourself?
• Want to be listed in “Google Places”, add menu items, coupons, see where your visitors are coming from?
• Want to get into Facebook Business? Take advantage of the new on-site “Like” button and “Open Graph” technology to drive more traffic!
• Need help branding? Logos, print, web

Update Google Analytics Code to Latest Version

It’s a good idea to have the latest Google Analytics tracking code in your web pages because, in layman’s terms, it helps to load the code itself faster (see tip #2) and lets you place the code in other places aside from the (before update) recommended bottom of the page.

Improve your Website Page Load Speed

Google announced back in April that page load speed is now a major factor in its ranking algorithm. If you want to rank higher, your website needs to load faster.

First, how do you check your page speed? One way is to install the free Firefox add-on. Our Home page received a 75/100 score… not bad but could be better. Try yours.

Second, we have several techniques that we can use to help load your site faster including image optimization, replacement of a table structure with the latest CSS techniques, replace background image switch colors and more.

Update Title and Meta Tags

This is a key ingredient in how your website ranks and is displayed in the search engines. The Title tag is used by Google to rank you, the meta description tag is not used but is displayed so needs to be well-written. Are they optimized for your main keyword phrases? Are they too long? Do they even make sense to a human being? And as for that meta keywords tag? Delete it. It’s as useful as a chocolate teaspoon… except for misspeelings.

By the way, as of November 15, 2011, we are currently ranked 5 out of 76,000,000 for professional web designer and 17 out of 135,000,000 for professional web design. Sweet.

Update WordPress

If you use this gold standard Content Management System, is it the latest version? Are your plugins up-to-date? Are you taking advantage of all the latest version’s brilliant new features (menus, custom post types)? Do you have the best plugins installed (too many can slow your site down – see item #2).

Or do you use Joomla? We can help there too.

Add New Content

To be truly successful in the search engines, you need to add content and pages to your website, especially keyword-rich, well-optimized content that your customers find useful. Do you know where to start? Can you even add content (see item 7)?

Write a Optimized Blog Post

Add the right keywords, some useful content, links to your target pages, then create a couple of good inbound links from other sites and you might just get a page 1 Google ranking. Plus it might just help your business anyway.

Want to Update your Own Website?

Do you want the power and be in control? Do you want to upload a photo gallery, write a blog post, update your mailing address? Then maybe it’s time for a WordPress site?

Get Listed in “Google Places”

Google Local has been renamed to Google Places and it has some awesome new features (which are free, by the way). You can add menu items, add a coupon, see where your visitors are coming from, and more!

Get into Facebook Business

Does your business have a Facebook Business page? Are your customers on Facebook? If they are and you are not, why not? Go on, give us an answer.

Facebook is rapidly developing its business side of things so you need to be on board… especially with over 500,000,000 users. How many potential customers is that?? Wow.

Take advantage of the new Open Graph technology from Facebook to drive more traffic!

Need Branding?

We don’t just do cool website design. We offer the whole gamut of marketing and branding such as:

• Email newsletters
• Print design
• Logo design
• Online marketing
• Pay-per-click advertising
• Search Engine Optimization
• Web traffic analysis
• Social media marketing

If you are interested in any of these tips, please get in touch. You never know, we might just be able to help.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

There is nothing worse than turning up to a location and finding that you have forgotten a key piece of equipment or that there is no internet access when you need it. Your attendees have given up their valuable time and expect to see a professional and slick presentation. Or at least what you promised.

We have come up with a great checklist that should help you avoid any pitfalls and make your presentation go as smoothly as possible. People remember a great seminar but never forget a bad one.

Research

It might be a good idea to make use of a questionnaire a week beforehand. Ask your attendees some questions that you can analyze to stress your key points in your presentation.

Seminar slide

Other things to find out in advance:

• Does the location have wireless internet (if you need it)?
• Does it have a projector and screen? Is the projector connected to an A/V system and can you plug your laptop into it?
• Is there food and drink available? If so, do you need to arrange a bartender or have sandwiches prepared?
• Is there enough seating? Arrange it beforehand to suit your style.

Equipment

You need to prepare slides. People will not listen for more than 30 minutes without visual stimulation so it’s good to let the slides speak for themselves. Like a great movie, you want people to be thinking about your presentation long after they have left the building.

• If you are serious, you should have a laptop.
• Take your power cord.
• Make sure the battery is fully charged up.
• Can you move through the slides with a remote control or can you do this using keys?
• A pointer can be really helpful to indicate items out of your reach. A laser is also good but use something.
• Video your presentation (for posterity or to post on your blog) and make sure there is enough tape to cover it! We learned this lesson the hard way.
• If you need to show web pages but there is no internet access, take screenshots of the page beforehand and save as JPEGs

Take screenshots

Slides

We use Keynote (on our MacBook Pro), an outstanding presentation software that leaves Powerpoint in the dust. If you make a lot of presentations and have a Mac, the cost of iWork ($79) is more than worth it. It will make your slides come to life and look highly professional with templates, which reflects directly on you and the effort you put into your branding.

Seminar slides

Your slides should include:

• An intro page with your logo, date and title.
• A page asking people to turn their cell phones off (just like the the movies).
• An itinerary of the seminar so people know what to expect.
• Your small logo in the bottom right corner of every slide.
• Bullet points and graphics; make each slide easy to absorb and memorable. Let the bullet points allow you to explain further.
• A “Thank You” page with a question (e.g. What is your next step?).
• A Resources page with links to all of your websites, social media addresses, blog, etc.).

Technique

Public speaking is not easy. It takes confidence to get up in front of tens, hundreds or thousands of people and stick to your point. But once you do this a couple of times, you start to develop your own technique, which may lead to more speaking engagements (if people refer you).

• Dress accordingly. If it’s a lunch meeting, jeans and shirt may work. Something more professional, wear a tie.
• Make sure people can hear you; ask them. Is there a microphone available?
• Use name tags so you can see peoples’ names (also useful for networking). Your name tag should have your profession as well, which can stimulate a conversation. So instead of just, “PAUL”, I use, “Paul Mycroft, Web Designer.”
• Take questions as you move through the slides. I found this was helpful to keep people on your train of thought rather than take lots of questions at the end and not allow some people their question because you run out of time.
• Repeat any questions you get so everyone can hear unless it’s a small room.
• Use humour sparingly but only if it fits.
• Look around the room as you speak, don’t focus on the person who happens to be sitting in front.

To Finish

Prepare a table with:

• Business cards or other promotional material.
• An email signup sheet so you can follow up with and thank them later.
• Anything you want to sell (e.g. books, tapes, CDs).
• If possible, allow for some networking afterward, hopefully in a bar. Networking should be fun and can allow you to answer questions that you may not have had time for or if people are too shy to ask in public.

We hope you found these tips useful. If you have anything to add or think we might have missed anything important, please get in touch.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

Don't make a basic business mistake

Do you have any of the following types of email address for your business?

• yourbusiness@shaw.ca
• yourbusiness@att.net
• yourbusiness@telus.com
• yourbusiness@hotmail.com
• yourbusiness@yahoo.com

If you answered, “Yes” to any of these, you have made a strategic error which can be corrected. Why promote the service provider when you should be promoting your business? Where is the address of your website, the key ingredient of your Internet cake? Why are you hiding the website’s address?

An Example

Let’s use ABC Designs as our example company.

You have 2 options for an email address:

1. creative@abcdesigns.com
2. abcdesigns@shaw.ca (a local Internet Service Provider)

The first one not only contains your website address but has a branding or service associated with it. You could also have info@abcdesigns, paul@abcdesigns.com, support@abcdesigns.com, and allocate each address to a separate employee. The “service@” piece projects a feeling of professionalism to the recipient and confirms that they are dealing with the right department or person.

The same company that is hosting your website maintains your email address mailboxes and provides an ability (POP accounts are standard) to check them in an email client such as Outlook or Apple Mail. They also take care of spam filtering and making sure your email is backed up on their server. All included in your monthly hosting cost.

If you use Outlook, you can connect your email to your calendar, notes, projects and other tools, all in one place. You can share tasks with other employees and streamline your business branding.

Yes, you CAN pay extra to make your free email a POP one but why pay more when you have already paid for your web hosting?

And here’s the kicker. The email addresses stay with you as long as you pay for your domain name.

The second one? Let me ask you some simple questions.

If you are using a webmail service to check it (you log in at a web page; they host the email on their server), what happens if you switch to Telus or AT&T, for example?

What happens if the ISP of free email provider (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo!) is taken over and your email becomes newhotmail.com for example? You’ve had 1000s of business cards printed with the old email address!

What happens if you start to use a new way to email. e.g. facebook.com email?

That’s right. It’s goodbye email. All gone, maybe years of email communication.

Secondly, why only have one email address for your whole company? Would you set up:

• abcdesigns-info@shaw.ca
• abcdesigns-creative@shaw.ca
• abcdesigns-billing@shaw.ca

Of course not, that would be silly.

Conclusion

Take the time to learn how to set up email addresses on your domain name. Check the HELP section of your web host to learn how to set up and check them in an email client such as Outlook or Apple Mail.

Make sure it is correctly configured with Name (don’t use all lower case), Reply-To email, signature file and other important settings that are key in your online presentation.

You don’t have much time to brand when you send an email. Better make those seconds count!

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

Stand out from the crowd

An employee from a local coffee shop (a national brand, which needs no further mention) had walked in with full tray of sample cups with a new coffee they were promoting, and were just giving them away! This struck me as creative marketing for a number of reasons:

• It brought the product TO the customer
• The samples were free with no obligation to buy
• The employee wore the company brand
• The employee had stepped away from their comfortable “shop” environment
• They had chosen a place that would have the most potential for further purchase of the full product (i.e. a full, steaming cup of coffee)
• If successful, it would bring the customer INTO the store to possibly purchase other products
• Because the coffee shop was inside a larger store, that business would also benefit

As “big box” stores and convenient “all-in-one” malls are becoming more prevalent in our society, the small business owner must change their way of thinking if they are to survive and flourish against this type of competition.

Get creative!

It’s not good enough to rely solely on print advertising as the only method of advertising your product or service to the local community. As peoples’ social behaviour is changing by the week, so should your marketing techniques. To coin a fishing analogy, try some new lures and you may start catching a new, tastier fish.

This isn’t to say that some older, more tried and tested techniques should be completely cast side, you just have to add to your array of marketing channels.

• Join your local business organization and network with local business people. Get your face known and start to volunteer your time.
• If that organization has a website and allows it, write some related business articles which will establish you as an authority (and get some links back to your website at the same time).
• If that organization has banner advertising linking to your business profile page, see if the cost fits into your budget. If they are available for $10/month, it can be a lot cheaper and more effective than print advertising. AND you can track visitors through web traffic reports to know how many visitors you actually get, giving you an exact ROI (Return on Investment).
• Make a presentation to that organization on a subject which relates what you provide to their business.
• Stay open later on one day of the week, especially when there are local events in the vicinity. It could mean an additional $200 in sales.
• When there are local events, set up a table for your business—nothing beats a sales pitch when a potential customer is standing right in front of you.
• Always carry your business card in your pocket—you never know when you might meet a potential customer.
• Think about email marketing. The cost of delivering an effective, branded email to a customer can be as little as 3¢/address and you put yourself in front of your customers on a regular basis. Start with ALL of your contacts then go from there.
• Form strategic partnerships with related businesses. Two voices can sometimes be better than one and you can connect from a new source of potential customers.
• Get involved in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn—but only if it fits. You can create events, to which you can invite other people. You can announce new products or services, or make an insightful commentary on a news item. Word can spread quicker than by word-of-mouth plus you can drive traffic to your website.
• Open up your business. If you are a financial planner, host regular social events at your office, maybe give a 10-minute talk on a new product.
• Sponsor a local sports team. Having your name on the jersey of the soccer team acts as advertising to potential business owners: parents and supporters.
• Volunteer for local events. Putting your face out there can generate business in its own right, just by being kind.
• Put your logo on some clothing such as polo shirts, t-shirts and baseball caps. And wear them.
• Organize your email. Add a professional signature and include it on all new email communication. You can resort to shorter signatures as you get to know the person.
• Update your website. Having a great website with current information can act as a strong support system when you are not available.
• Be approachable and always willing to give out some free advice. You never know when it may lead to actual business.
• Print advertising shouldn’t be forgotten—it depends on the community you live in. If it’s an older population, it can be very effective, younger and not so much. You be the judge.
• Be patient. Business can take weeks, months or years to cultivate.
• Have fun and try. What do you have to lose and you never know… you may discover a whole new way of doing business.

It’s a new world out there. Adapt your way of thinking and you never know what might happen!

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

Here are some quick tips to get you going.

Switch Domain Name Host

Are you paying $35/year to host your domain name? If you own 5 domain names, that can cost you $350 to renew them all for just 2 years! Why not switch to someone like Go Daddy, where domain names cost just $10/year? To renew those 5 domain names has just gone down to $100 for 2 years, saving you $250. And with the transfer fee of $8, you get one year free!

Switch Web Host

Again, are you paying too much money to host your website? A company like Blue Host charges upwards of $4/month to host 20 external domains so you can have all your smaller websites on one package. We’ve been happy with their service to-date and they have an excellent Control Panel and customer service.

Start an Email Newsletter

With the cost of print and mail going up, it can be costly to run a campaign to your customer list. Let’s say you have 1,000 customers. To design, print and mail a postcard would cost $420 just to mail! Thrown in $1 per print at FedEx Kinko’s and you are looking at $1,500!

With an professional email newsletter, once the initial design and build fee is paid (which can be about $500), the cost of delivery has gone down and you get to see who opens it, when they open it, which links they click on and much more. Also, your list can grow on its own, which can be a powerful and affordable way to tweak your marketing strategy.

WordPress Templates

Sometimes, the cost of designing and building a website can run into 4 figures. Why not purchase a pre-designed WordPress template, adjust it to suit your brand then launch and start updating your own site? And Google LOVES WordPress!

Install Google Analytics

Start learning what your visitors are doing on your website. Now.

This is so crucial, we can’t stress this factor enough. Why have a website if you don’t know what it is doing? Is it harming your online reputation? Do you get very little traffic from Google? Are people typing in some keywords that you haven’t thought about? Are you getting traffic from one particular site? Or one particular region or country?

Google Analytics if free. We used to be skeptical but have grown to love this tool and what it can do to help your business.

LinkedIn Profile

Get yourself a free LinkedIn profile or update the one you have. Add some Applications; if you have a blog, add it in; if you have an Amazon reading list, add it in; if you have a slideshow of your products, add it in.

Google AdWords

Are you paying too much for your pay-per-click advertising on Google AdWords? Can you tweak some ads or remove some dead keywords? Maybe geo-target your ads so they only appear in specific regions or cities (you can get this from Google Analytics)?

Home and Key Landing Pages

Does your Home page speak to your visitor? Can you change it up so it sends people down the right funnel in your website? Does it have enough keyword-rich copy? Do you have a new line of products, which need promoting?

What about the main landing pages on your site? If someone landed on them directly from a search engine, are they good enough? Do they “say the right thing” then send people to your target pages?

A few tweaks here and there can have a dramatic boost in your rankings and traffic.

Review Title and Meta Tags

This one is often overlooked and underestimated. Are your too long? Do they say the right thing?

The Title tag is what appears as the 1st LINE link in a search engine results snippet. It isn’t actually visible on your web page; it is visible at the VERY TOP of your web browser. We  recommend no more than 60 characters (otherwise the search engines cut it off with a …) and position your main keyword phrase at the beginning.

Title tag in a web browser

e.g. POOR: Paul Mycroft Design provides professional web design and email newsletter marketing (83 characters)
BETTER: Professional Web Design | Email Newsletter Design | SEO (55 characters)

This is what it looks like in Google:

Search engine result snippet

Secondly, adjust your Meta description tag, again not visible but still important as it can be displayed under the first line in the above snippet. Try to use 12-15 words and keep it short and sweet. Mention your company name too and keep it relevant to what is on the page.

Lastly, use the Meta Keywords tag to list 6 keyword phrases visible on the page.

Add More Pages

Take this opportunity to add more keyword-rich pages. Learn which are your strongest phrases from Google Analytics then write pages around them and link to them internally. Give your visitors what they want!

Use your Blog

Do you have a blog but don’t use it? Did you pay all that money to have a web designer install it on your website and you don’t have the time to write? Well, you need to find the time, my friend. This particular article took us 1.5 hours to write but we know that many of our customers will find it useful.

Home Page Now, Site Later

Is your web designer willing to build you a Home page only then add pages later? This can be a great way to affordably establish yourself on the Internet and service your customers at the same time.

We did this for The Royal Dar, a local Vancouver Island Indian restaurant, and they are enjoying some traffic. A group of 10 women recently used their Home page to book dinner using their Facebook pages! Nice!

Payment Plan?

Is your web designer willing to put you on a payment plan if the budget is too high? Have you asked? If he or she is willing, this can be a great way to get your website up now then pay for it later. And everyone wins.

. . . .

Please let us know if we can help you with any of these tips to boost your website.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

Some acronyms:

• SEO: Search Engine Optimization
  SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “organic” (non-paid) search results. These days, it involves many things including keyword research, integrating those keyword phrases into the web site in a “search engine-friendly” way, increasing the number of quality pages for the visitor, and generating high-quality inbound links.
• SERPs: Search Engine Results Pages

Myth #1: There is only one search engine worth bothering about

Due to the excessive marketing of a certain search engine (which shall remain nameless), many clients think there that only one engine that exists and only one that matters. However, it’s common knowledge in the SEO world that THREE engines currently dominate the market for search – Google, Yahoo!, and MSN or Windows Live as it’s now re-branded – and they will all refer traffic to your web site in different quantities using different search terms. They will probably show different results as well for a single search.

A web site will often get traffic from a number of different sources so it’s crucial that all of these sources are valued and nurtured because if one fails for any reason or changes its algorithm (the way it calculates ranking) and you drop like a stone, you have the others to fall back onto while you figure out how to resolve the issue with that one. If the client can rank well for their search terms in all 3 of them, they are doing well.

If they are a client of yours, they may also email you about a search they have performed in their chosen engine using a random search term, asking you why they are not ranking on the first page for that particular term. When you explain that they are in fact ranking on the first page in the other engine and are on page #3 in their chosen engine, they may start to realize that there is more to search than meets the eye.

Myth #2. It’s all about the meta tags

I lose count of the times I have heard a client ask me, “It’s all about the meta tags, isn’t it?”

Meta tags are separate “labels” inside the head of a web page that describe what the site and the page is all about. They are invisible to a web page’s visitor yet are used by some engines to rank and others to display in their results pages. The 2 most widely recognized are the “meta keywords” and the “meta description” tags. Others can describe a page’s author, create a redirect, or show whether the information is copyrighted.

Since the engines use a wide variety of factors to determine site rankings (Google actually has a “secret sauce” of over 200 calculations that it uses to rank), optimizing a page to rank high is a joint effort. You should use everything available to you that the engines might give some weight, and therefore you should certainly use meta tags (including the meta keyword tag), along with every other legitimate, acceptable technique available.

Myth #3. If you submit on a regular basis, you will rank higher

You do not even need to submit once but it won’t hurt you if you do. If you can establish a link from a web site that is already indexed and ranking, you will get “spidered” by the “spiders” or electronic robots that the search engines use to gather information.

Myth #4. Google PageRank matters

PageRank explained on Google’s site:
“PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages’ relative importance.”

You can install the Google toolbar, which will display a little green bar and a number from 1 to 10. However, that number is only updated every 3-6 months by Google so you can find pages with PR8 below pages with PR4.

A good SEO campaign will automatically increase your real and true PageRank (as measured by Google, not indicated in your green bar, which is usually outdated) without your specifically setting out to increasing it on your own. Since PR doesn’t bring you traffic and sales (nor rankings), increasing it should not ever be the main goal of your campaign.

Myth #5. It’s all about links

Actually, that should probably read, it’s all about “link authority.” True, links play an important role in how a search engine ranks your web page. But it’s not ALL about anything.

For example, your web site must be important because you have 1,000 links coming in, right? Wrong.

You may have 1,000 links coming in but 90% of those links are from generic “snake oil” link farms or web sites that have NOTHING to do with your site’s subject. In other words, you are not as important as you thought.

It’s about both link QUALITY and, to a lesser extent, QUANTITY. If you are linked from a web site that already has good rankings then your site will benefit from that “link juice” because that link will show the search engines that your site is important enough to be linked to and give you credit for that with a decent rank.

Myth #6. Now my new web site is launched, if I sit back and wait, the phone will start ringing

Wrong again. The phone will only start ringing if you treat SEO as ONE of the pieces of your marketing efforts. If you concentrate on one aspect and rely on it to make your business successful, you will ultimately fail because you have failed to grasp the notion that a successful business relies on many constantly-fluctuating factors.

You need to announce your web site to the world then work on it constantly, trying to improve it and your visitor’s experience while they are there. Treat it as your storefront, welcome people in then give them things to do and look at. Remind them that you are striving to improve and will always have something new for them to look at, encourage them to return by keeping in contact with them.

Your web site is your storefront. Sitting in the back in a dark room will not make it a success.

Myth #7. An SEO company guarantees you a #1 spot

No one can guarantee anything, especially when it comes to the quirky and mysterious world of the search engines. If they do, run.

A more realistic goal may be first page rankings for your chosen search terms while continuing to improve traffic using an increasing number of terms that relate to your business. Look to improve, not to settle.

Myth #8. A Flash site ranks well

A 100% Flash site is notoriously difficult to rank. Because the search engine “spiders” love fresh content that is “readable” such as text you can highlight with your mouse, and web pages that contain lots of great keywords, which make sense to the visitor, they struggle with Flash because it is an embedded movie file. You cannot highlight anything with your mouse.

That’s not to say you won’t rank but it will be difficult to achieve goof high rankings for specific search terms.

Myth #9. Submitting to 1,000 search engines will help you

As mentioned, there are only a handful of search engines that people actually use so why submit to 990 others when they will have absolutely no bearing on your traffic? Many of these will bring you no traffic at all and you may waste time and money on trying to get listed in them.

If you can get listed on the most important ones, those results may be shared with other engines. For example, AOL is powered by Google – get into Google, you’ll probably get into AOL.

Myth #10. If I rank well today, I’ll rank well next year

Proper SEO requires a lot of constant effort and vigilance. Working with a professional can help you immensely as they do a lot of the SEO “grunt” work while you concentrate on other important aspects of your business.

If your site has been designed and built well in the first place, it may continue to perform well. However, as the web improves and adopts new technology, it’s important to stay ahead of the game and, ore importantly, your competition.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com

WordCamp Victoria

WordCamps are informal, community-organized events for people interested in WordPress, a gold standard CMS tool. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other.

WordCamp Victoria 2010

With several clients already on WordPress, this was an excellent opportunity not only to learn about the upcoming release of WordPress 3 but to learn more about what this tool has to offer businesses and how we can implement WordPress-based solutions for them.

We attended the following sessions:

• Chris Burdge – Promoting Your Blog Using Social Media
• Tris Hussey – WordPress 3 SEO
• John Overall – 10 Features To Maximize Your Self-Hosted WordPress Website
• Tim Ayres – Blogging for Business
• Robin Heppell – WordPress For Your Business Website
• George Plumley – Converting Existing Sites to WordPress

WordCamp session

(yep, that’s me standing at the side)

All in all, a thoroughly worthwhile event, not only for the inspiration it gave me but the ideas and possibilities to develop PMD further.

Get in touch! PMD (Paul Mycroft Design) (250) 245-8777 www.paulmycroft.com