Web Savvy Marketers

What You Know About Your Domain Registration Could Save Your Website’s Life

What to Know to Save Your Website's LifeImagine turning on your computer one workday morning to find your email isn’t working. Not only that, but your website is gone. Your coffee goes cold as you frantically re-enter the information, checking another computer to see if yours is just acting up. No such luck.

You immediately phone your Web Savvy connection, because, fortunately, you have one. Super Savvy Carolyn jumps aboard to resolve your website woes. Like a Sherlock Holmes sleuth, she must piece together the puzzle, collecting the missing parts until she figures out what went wrong.

It’s often not a pretty sight.

As a website owner, it is important to  know your domain name system and web hosting information. When you don’t have this critical information, your website’s lifespan could be abruptly cut short.

As in no website, no business.

Step 1. Your domain name.

Think of a giant telephone book for the internet where your website name, http://example.com, has a coordinating number, or IP address. Luckily, you don’t have to be concerned with the IP address numbers. It’s the domain name that matters, allowing users to easily navigate the web.

Your company domain name has an entry in the internet address book, where you pay an annual fee, much like you have to pay to own and operate your company in your town. Two commonly known domain name registrars are GoDaddy and  Network Solutions, where people go to buy domain names for their website.

What you need to know is where you have your domain name registered.

Step 2.  Your website hosting service.

This is the company that gives your website World Wide Web airtime space and connection. The hosting service is like the monthly rent you pay to keep your company store up and running. Instead of keeping your office doors open, it keeps your website working.

You also need to know who is hosting your website.

In the case of businesses, the web hosting service can be your one-stop provider. They can manage both domain registration and web hosting, safeguarding your website from internet death. If, however, you came with website in hand, your web hosting provider won’t necessarily have Step 1 and Step 2 details.

In order to keep the system free of glitches, you need to be aware of several things regarding these two steps.

Know your log in. Who is the administrative contact? What is the email on the account? What often happens is the email notification from the domain name registrant to pay the annual fee is overlooked. The email is either outdated, placed in spam, or simply goes unnoticed.

Know your password. Establish a system to retain this information for easy retrieval. It is important that you know how to access your domain name source to update it and keep it correct.

Know the contact person. Having one of the principals of your company as a contact, preferably as the name of the registrant, will allow you to keep a connection to your domain name should you move your website to another hosting service.

Know who bills you a monthly fee for your web hosting. If you’ve moved your website to another website hosting service, then you no longer need to pay for hosting at two providers. If you’re confused by what services should be closed, ask your current website hosting provider to review the information and make recommendations.

This knowledge eliminates not only possible website loss, but the extra fees you must pay should your domain name actually expire. The worst case is it expires long enough that it gets resold. Quelle horreur!

This is not a future you want for your website. Take the steps to be informed.

Flickr photo credit: Muffet

How Much Is It?

How Much Should I Budget for My Marketing?

One of the most commonly asked questions when discussing a website, multi-media production, or marketing campaign of any kind is…How much is it? For us, this is followed by “Depends on what you want. How much do you have budgeted?”

What we often hear is “I don’t have a budget in mind.” This is frequently the case with most small businesses in regards to all of their marketing and sales campaigns. It’s one of the few aspects in business that needs no budget but should happen just the same.

I wanted to blog about budgeting as part of the planning series, but wasn’t sure where to begin. Then Carolyn handed me an article in the Hartford Business Journal titled “How much should we spend on marketing?” According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses (under $5 million in annual revenues) should plan on spending 7% to 8% on a marketing budget. This means a $2 million business should be spending $160,000 annually, or just over $13,000 per month. Businesses that sell to a consumer base should be spending at least 17%.

As a marketing consultant, I may be kicked out of the club, but I must admit these numbers seem high to me. On the other hand, it’s a matter of determining how successful you want to be. Marketing is all about awareness. If your ideal customer isn’t aware you exist, it’s unlikely they will buy from you.

If you don’t currently have a marketing budget, start with small steps. Try 5% for a year. With a targeted marketing plan, you should see that investment pay for itself two or three times over in increased sales.

Photo credit: Philip Taylor PT   http://flic.kr/p/bDwJ11

What the Presidential Debates Can Teach Us About Social Media and Marketing

From the amped-up presidential debates themselves to the mega-wattage social media response, there are some marketing lessons to be gained from the matchups.

1. Stop interrupting.

When your clients are speaking, remember to listen. Fortunately, your conversations probably don’t take place in an environment of heightened competition. But it’s easy to see how  your audience can grow weary of a one-way tète-à-tète, even one where the other party doesn’t appear about to burst an aneurysm when they attempt silence.

Think of how much you can learn from actually listening to your customers, readers, and even your competition.

2. Keep your professionalism.

Here’s one where the temptation to respond in the social media and marketing sphere competes with the necessity to maintain a professional authority. Take Pizza Hut’s ploy, where an official live telecast attendee of the presidential debate was offered pizza for life if they dared to ask the age-old question, “sausage or pepperoni?”

What Pizza Hut allegedly meant to do is make sure “the real issues being debated in households across the country every night aren’t sidestepped by the candidates any longer.” What they actually did is help define the line for marketers.

Don’t cross over into murky territory unless you are willing to risk the old adage that no publicity is bad publicity. Are you shrewd enough to leverage it in a way that will be to your advantage? Ask Derek Halpern at socialtriggers.com; he’ll tell you that when it comes to pulling triggers, make them “hot.”

3. Find the balance.

In the 10:1 rule of Twitter, for every one time you tweet business, there should be ten mentions you make of other people. This ratio helps marketing efforts strike a balance between promoting yourself and making new connections.

The overall goal: Creating new relationships. Rather than running around in circles trying to outsell yourself and one-up the competition, take a seat and get to know your fans and followers. Show a genuine interest in them by sharing an outbound link or simply having casual conversation.

4. Save yourself by being you.

https://twitter.com/copyblogger/status/258398173779877889

Don’t lose yourself by speaking only to what you believe your readers want to hear. Wouldn’t it be a brighter world if all the promises made were followed through? Be that company.

Don’t just employ a meme, incorporate a hashtag, or use buzzwords just to participate in a social trend. The best way to be authentic is to stay with the voice that speaks for your brand.

Even if that voice resonates from a scheduled Twitter feed or Facebook post tool, there is still a person who crafts these social media updates. Make them as real as your readers.

What the presidential debates teach us about social media and marketingAbove all, have some fun. Perhaps the most fun for anyone was the social media feedback on the debates.

If you haven’t already signed on, do so. You can even skip the presidential debates altogether and get your game on with the the various social media strata.

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: kjarrett.

How to Use the Google Keywords Tool

You’ve been working on great content, linking up your social media, and including photos and videos. Now what? Time to tweak your site with some simple keyword research.

Find the right keywords for your blog posts

The Google Keyword Tool, originally created for ad campaign strategy, serves as a free and easy way to search for the best keywords for your blog post.  Give your blog improved search engine ranking by first doing a quick search.

Improve SEO with Keywords Search Terms

How do you choose the best keywords to use? Begin with terms you want to use in your blog post. Include short phrases, using different variations to see what your search generates.

Don’t be surprised to find that the terms you were considering do not show the best results. For example, if you were considering writing about cat memes, you would quickly figure out that the popular search terms center around pictures, pics, and captions.

Turns out not everyone knows what a meme is.

Your Keyword Choices Might Change

By playing around with the various options, you learn more about your keyword selection. By clicking “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms,” your results will greatly differ. Try both ways to see the best results.

When trying a “cat memes” keyword search, the search needs to be broad for any results. For the term “cat pictures,” the search must be narrowed to eliminate irrelevant keyword results.

For the “Sorted by” option, select “Competition” and then click on the arrow in the Competition column to sort from low to high. Look for low competition results with high monthly search results.  Concentrate on the numbers in the Local Monthly Searches column.

Clicking on a keyword idea will give you further options, including “Exclude term” or “Show more like this,” depending on its relevance. For example, the “can i has cheezburger” result, which turns out to be a website URL, might not be at the top of my keyword choice list for a cat memes blog. (But not to fear, there’s even an iTunes mobile app for this handy-dandy resource.)

The things you learn while doing a Google keywords search are not to be scoffed upon.

Remember to Use Your Chosen Keywords Selectively

Once you have your keywords, plug them into your blog post title, headline, and text. Add some tags using the variations that showed high monthly search numbers with low competition. Don’t over do it. You aren’t writing for search engines. It’s the quality that counts.

You can create a Google AdWords account using your Gmail or other Google account information. You are not required to pay for or begin an ad campaign. This eliminates the need to enter captcha information for each search.

Once you sign in, check to be sure you are looking under the “Keyword ideas” tab and not “Ad group ideas.”  It’s easy to miss.

With a little practice, you will become a keyword-tool-searching fanatic.

7 Things Every About Page Needs

Your About Page
Come out from hiding with an About Page that is clear and interesting.

Why worry about an About Page?

It’s often the most visited and highest ranked page on a website . It’s your readers first impression of your business. It’s your chance to get personal and engage your readers.

Enough said?

It’s about your About Page and the success of your website.

1.  What, you don’t have an about page?

Perhaps you are simply negligent in creating an About Page. Maybe you didn’t really understand how. Or the thought of having to write one more thing doesn’t appeal to you.

Either way, your About Page is a necessary item which helps your reader to understand, well, what you’re about. It helps to title this page with About and not something clever, like “Get the Lowdown” or “Here’s Looking at Me, Kid.”

When it comes to your interface with the web, you want to be absolutely clear. You can get inventive elsewhere, as in its design. There’s no lack of inspiration for creative ideas, as the Best Practices for Effective Design of “About me” Pages shows.

2.  Give them a name.

Your name comes in handy when someone wants to tweet something interesting from your blog or create a link to a post. Most people want to know who they are tweeting about or linking to. If you have a team you wish to represent, you could make an “About the team” page or a biography page linked from your About Page. People want to build a business relationship with people.

You can use a name other than your real name. Some people wish to use professional pseudonyms for privacy, like Terry Starbucker, who goes a little deeper and adds a bang-up belief statement at his About Page’s bottom.

Include a first and last name and add a middle name or initial if your name is famously similar to other’s, such as Will Smith or Don Johnson.

Now you are not only more memorable, but search engines will be more likely to rank you for your own name.

3.  Show them your face.

When people know what you look like, they will be much more comfortable taking the next step. Whether you wish to be hired, recommended, or referred, sharing your arguably adorable photo will help to build relationships and trust.

Make this a real photo rather than a clever drawing or avatar where possible, although including a savvy cartoon in addition to an actual mug shot will demonstrate your impeccable sense of style.  Check out Web Savvy Marketers’ own brand of superhero graphic images.

Your readers will begin to feel like they know you when they have a face to go by and some well-written content expressed in your own writing voice.

4.  Video alone won’t do.

Think of the readers trying to listen from a less-than-private work space where your voice is an unwelcome addition. Including a video will work if you have informative text to complement your new YouTube fixation.

Keep it short and engaging, and by all means, include cats whenever possible.

5.  Don’t make readers think (too much).

According to Demian Farnworth, the law of the web is like gravity. It describes behavior. Only instead of what goes up must come down, what people read must be noticed like a billboard on a superhighway.

In order to get them to notice your billboard, you need to make it quick and easy to read.

Sure, you can be funny or outrageously cute. Whatever you choose to do, just use your own voice. Forget all that corporate jargon and express the inalienable right to be you.

The less readers need to think about what your About Page says, the sooner they will figure out who you are and if they like you.

6.  Will this story never end?

Your story has the potential to be a change-breaker, so tell it. Storytelling is powerful and seductive, and if it’s a good story, will automatically be replayed in the minds of your readers.

Keep one thing in mind. “The best way to persuade people is with your ears – by listening to them.” (Dean Rusk) Craft your story with your readers in mind.

7. OMG, I thought it was all about me!.

 Ask yourself, does anyone really care? If you’re writing a script to secure a reference in Who’s Who, then you’re probably not keeping your audience interested. Believe it or not, your About page is about the person who is most likely going to read it.

Why should this person want to read your site? What problems can you help them solve? What are they interested in? (Cats?) What’s in it for them?

Let your irresistible personality shine through in the telling.

Important tip:

Don’t forget to keep your About Page updated. If you include the mention of any dates, be sure to keep them recent. Otherwise, a new visitor might get the impression you are no longer in business.

 

Photo credit: Ainslee Erhard

 

 

How to Embed Video in Your Website

You can’t afford not to use YouTube video to enhance your website. Posting a YouTube video in your blog involves nothing more complicated than simple copying and pasting. YouTube hosts the video and provides the necessary bandwidth, making this a fully free service with all the video bonuses.

Here’s an example of an embedded video using the undisputed kings of the web video jungle.

Either find a video you want to embed or upload your own video to YouTube using your Google+ account to create your YouTube channel. This is a quick set-up process. Uploading a video to your new YouTube channel involves no code and YouTube walks you through it.

With your YouTube video on the screen, look below the video box and find the share button as displayed here:

How to embed YouTube video

By clicking the share button, the HTML code used for the video link is shown directly below the button. The embed button shows up to the right of the HTML code, as seen below:

Embed video with YouTube share button

You will find the HTML code you want by clicking the embed button and revealing the secret code, as shown:

embed video button

Next, click your mouse inside the embed code form field and highlight it. Right click the mouse while in the blue highlighted text and select copy from the drop down menu that appears, like this:

copy video html
Now go to the top of your website post and click on HTML, which changes your editing screen from visual to the realm of code. The only tricky part here is finding where you want to paste the code to embed your video html. Just look for the text where you wish to insert it and paste the html code on a line of its own.

Here’s what the embed code looks like for the video above:

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/l1-T_VHhcy8?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

You may also choose to further customize your YouTube video by selecting from the three other size options, as well as a custom size, as indicated above. The default size is the smallest size. The HTML code will automatically change to reflect the new dimensions.

By checking the enable privacy-enhanced mode, your readers can watch the videos without storing any information in cookies related to the videos viewed, just in case you need to be very sneaky. The HTTPS option is a higher security measure, and the old embed code option only supports Flash playback., which is not a good option for the iPad.

I changed this video to a smaller custom size, perfect for tiny squeaking creatures of the web video jungle.

Share your YouTube adventures, and share with us what you’ve embedded!

Why Use YouTube Video in Your Website


YouTube statistics alone can tell the tale of its consumer impact. Over four billion hours of YouTube video are watched each month, over 500 year’s worth are watched every day on Facebook, and every minute over 700 videos are tweeted.

Your YouTube video can increase your audience, improve your organic search results, and drive more traffic to your website. Join the web video revolution and watch with the rest of the world.

Video Tells a Story

The images and pictures people view remain long after the content departs. Like a good book, the words make a story, and the story produces an image in the reader’s mind. Your video instantly shares the story, informing and influencing your readers in less time than it takes to read a page.

In a few short minutes, you will convey an atmosphere that conjures up emotion, rather than simply conveying factual content that your brochure and website may already contain.

Up Close and Personal

You can unlock the power of video in an unscripted interview with an employer, a customer testimonial, or a personal, humorous product anecdote. Either way, only video can show the white’s of a person’s eyes in the telling.

Written content is no competition to the element of the human condition.

SEO With YouTube Video

It’s easy to guess the number one search engine on the internet – Google, but do you know who’s second? The Google-owned YouTube, surpassing other contenders such as Yahoo and Bing.

YouTube videos are well-positioned in Google searches, even ranking page one in placement. As an entertainment factor, videos keep your web page visitors longer, which builds a good score on Google’s search engine.

Established Community of YouTube Fans

The YouTube community continues to grow, giving extensive visibility to your video within its own forum. Your YouTube audience is global, and with the help of online tools, you can optimize your content for captions and subtitles in reaching the widest audience possible (see p. 63 of the YouTube Creator Playbook).

People like to watch video. Given the choice of reading a white page of text or viewing a quick three-minute video, admit it. You would choose video too.

Also, the more videos you have, the higher your YouTube channel will rank. Which in turn affects your Google search ranking.

YouTube is Social

After Google’s YouTube, Facebook holds the second place for online video content views. Video content published on YouTube gains increased social status with its easy-to-share format across other social networks.

Post your video on your Google+ and Facebook page, tweet the link, and let your followers circulate it onto other sites.

YouTube Travels Well

Video also has the advantage of being extremely mobile. Smart phones, MP3 players, and netbooks are more desirable for video viewing than document reading. This helps the already highly viral nature of video.

YouTube marketing is a new trend that your competition may not have capitalized on yet. So begin now to apply this strategy and stay ahead.

Watch for future blog posts to learn how to upload and embed video content into your website.

 

 

 

Seduce Your Readers With Killer Headlines

Headlines failed to capture this feline’s favor. Luckily, it wasn’t this headline that made the cover.

You write your blog to be read, don’t you? Never assume your cutthroat content will suffice in capturing your readers. You’ve got to lure them in with something seductive, serve them an alluring, juicy bit of words-a-la-mode in your headline.

Once you’ve got them in, there will be no escaping your mouth-watering feast of blog post rapture.

4 Simple Guidelines to Writing Blog Post Titles

1.  Create a sense of urgency and enthusiasm.

For a limited time only! Hurry. Act now. Don’t miss out. Infomercials nail this concept when they exhort you to “call within the next hour before this offer runs out!”

Borrow some enthusiasm for your blog post titles. Being positive and upbeat in life sells a person’s character. It works in your headlines as well.

All the excitement demands your post be read now! It just might save your efforts from being deposited into Pocket App, where items develop cobwebs and oblivion threatens.

2.  Deliver the goods.

Your content solves a problem for your reader. Your headline tells them the problem they can expect to have solved. Get them curious over what you have to offer.

Always ask, as my aunt advised me long ago, “What’s the payback for the reader?” At all junctures, content included, writers must consider this question.

3.  Be specific.

When you are short and to the point, your readers will instantly know whether or not this post is for them. Don’t be afraid to turn away certain people. In doing so, you are attracting the right ones.

“Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” The use of the word “these” grabs the reader with its specific indication of what’s forthcoming. Remove the same word, and the headline wilts in comparison.

4.  Include interesting and engaging verbiage, as well as keywords.

Write for humans first and search engines second. Your first task is to convince readers to actually lurk around awhile and read your content. Your headline is the curiosity-inducing one-liner that will invite them in.

Next, it’s important to attract spiders that will help your post get indexed by search engines.Using relevant keywords in your headline gives those hungry critters just what they are looking for.

Share in the comments some of the headlines you’ve used or seen that draw you in as its victim captive.

Flickr photo credit: cyawan

How to Write a Blog Post in 1 Hour or Less

7 Tips to Writing a Quick Article

There will be days when you don’t have an excessive amount of time to write a blog post. There will be occasions when you don’t want to spend that kind of time.

When duty calls you elsewhere, and you are unable to spend hours polishing up a single, elegant post, or to create a lengthy 2,000-word document, these tips will help you serve up a meaty post for your readers to chew on.

Compromising quality is not on the menu, however. Writing quickly doesn’t mean you do not write well. So roll up those shirt sleeves and let’s dig in.

1. Keep a list of ideas.

Don’t let that bit of inspiration die: jot your idea down in a small notebook or electronic file (my son uses his iTouch). Finding something interesting and relevant takes up much of a blog creator’s time. With an idea list, your new post awaits your writing in your back pocket.

2. Let your ideas sit.

Don’t try to force the creative process. That supporting information for your brilliant idea needs time to ruminate. When you let the topic sit and stew for a few days, its inherent brilliance will develop and the supporting information will gradually occur to you.

3. Edit before you start.

Your ideas will tend to accumulate like bunnies, so be prepared to cut and slash them. That includes eliminating any supporting ideas that don’t fit in with your main topics. Remember, you are writing a blog post, not a short novel. Some of those ideas you can always use for later posts, so don’t despair. We know how difficult it is to let go of them.

4. Use bullet points.

Organize your blog with text-simplifying bullet points or numbered points, like with 6 Uses for Effective Tweeting. Not only do you not have to worry about creating transitions from one idea to the next, your readers actually like lists. Lists are easier for the eye to follow.

5. Keep it short.

Try to keep your article under 500 words. This will help you to complete the assignment in under an hour, and it will keep your reader’s attention. Short blogs are not short on quality content; they simply deliver the critical information quickly. Save the longer articles for those that require more depth and information.

6. Come back later.

When an idea isn’t working, put it aside and work on something else for a short while. When inspiration hits, you can return to the original post. There’s nothing wrong with switching back and forth between writing articles. Employ this time-saving strategy to suit your thought processes.

7. Never save a good idea.

By this I mean don’t save time later, save time now. Write the posts that you know will come easiest. As Stephen King would say, the boys in the basement are talking to you (i.e., your muse, as in “the hard-working guys with Camels rolled up in the sleeves of their shirts.” ABC Good Morning America, 23 Sept. 1998).

Important note: Don’t forget to proofread your document before publishing. Otherwise, your piece might end up looking like something out of a pirate memo.

These seven simple steps will have you on your way to writing quick and dirty blog posts in a fraction of the time. Share your favorite blog writing tips in the comments!

What is a Marketing Plan?

It’s funny, but I’ve always thought of a marketing plan as a blueprint to your marketing projects. Over the years I’ve found that people have differing opinions on what a marketing plan should include.

Recently, I received a marketing plan from a client. It covered several topics, from positioning to the market environment. What it didn’t cover were the tools to be used in the marketing process.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s important to understand where you stand relative to the overall market, and to know things like point of differentiation and what your competitors are up to. But it’s also been my experience that most business owners know some of this already. What they lack is the time and expertise to create and implement a step-by-step marketing campaign.

When undertaking the task of creating a marketing plan, or having one created for you, be sure to determine what it is you want in the end. If it’s a better understanding of your market and where you stand, request that. If it’s a blueprint for all your marketing efforts, including a timeline and budget, request that. Both are important pieces of information to move your company forward.

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