I’m not in the market for a new car. But when I heard that the Mitsubishi Outlander was going to be offering the first online virtual test drives–I had to check it out. So I went to their website and signed up and while I was there I checked out the Outlander website and the car I would be test driving in November.

The website and the car have some cool features. On the website you can virtually walk around the car and view it from every angle. When you turn the car so it faces you, the video background behind it is in sync with the car’s direction. As you mouseover the car, little blue bubbles pop up and show feature specific details.

Wow! It has a 40GB Navigation/Music server with a stunning, full-color LCD touchscreen! And a USB port and bluetooth capability. I don’t have that in my 97 Acura. Too bad I’m not in the market for a new car.

It’s shown in a Leguna Blue, but you can easily change the paint color with a click of the mouse. If I were in the market for a new car I think I’d like the Leguna Blue.

The Mitsubishi Outlander virtual test drive campaign is web savvy marketing. The virtual test drive concept intrigued me enough to go to the website and register for a drive even though I’m not in the market for a new car. The website does a good job of presenting the car’s features. I can visualize myself in an Outlander. I just hope the virtual test drive is not too much fun because I’m really not in the market for a new car.
http://www.outlandersport.com/

Today, I committed to the ultimate blog challenge – blogging every day for 30 days.   This will be a challenge!  And I came late to the game, it started October 1, so I’m not sure how that works.  Do I have to double up on posts in order to complete the challenge?  Or does my 3o days start now?  I’ll deal with that later, for now, it’s time to start blogging.

My friend D’vorah Lansky invited me to participate in this 30-day challenge.  D’vorah is an active blogger and recently wrote the book , Connect, Communicate and Profit.  The book is all about building successful relationships online and I highly recommend it to anyone with questions about using social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or about blogging.

I’m always on the lookout for materials that inspire me with new ideas and one of the perks of signing up for the challenge, is that you get a free booklet, 7 Ways to Get Your Blog In Motion.   In the booklet, the first thing they suggest to fend off the fear that you won’t have anything to write about is to make a list of things you know about–just a quick list of things that pop into your head.  So here’s my quick list:

• web design
• image editing
• SEO
• E-commerce templates
• WordPress
• Google Checkout
• Google Analytics
• Website traffic statistics
• Dad’s 93rd birthday today.  Happy Birthday Dad!
• 30 day challenges
• Facebook movie – I gotta see it.
• Homeaway.com
• web hosting
• e-mail marketing
• the 10 pounds I can’t lose (another 30-day challenge?)

So in the next 30 days I’ll be writing about some of these things and some other things that pop up in my world of web design and internet marketing. I’ll also try to answer any questions that come my way.

My hope is that in the next 3o days, I’ll become more efficient in my blogging practice, and that I’ll provide a valuable resource for readers in the process.

Resources:

• Connect, Communicate, and Profit by D’vorah Lansky
• http://ultimateblogchallenge.com/

Times are tough.  Marketing budgets are tight.  Here are five free things you can do to bring traffic to your website and to your business.

1. Google Places – (used to be called Google Local) it’s a free listing that you can enter by going to www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter.   You enter your web address, physical address, a description of your business, your contact information, hours– you can even enter photos. Your listing will show up on a Google Maps when someone searches for your business type in your area.
2. Bing Local – Same concept as on Google Places only it’s on Bing.
3. Facebook and other social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter.  If you’re not there you should be — it’s word of mouth advertising. I’ve seen small business really benefit from communicating with their network (friends, fans…whatever you want to call them).  It’s a great place to promote your business events, specials promotions and communicate with your clients (friends, fans, etc).  Just remember like all networking activities you’ll benefit more from giving then selling.  Provide  information, tips, advice, and special deals, spread good will and your friends and fans will remember you and spread the word about your business.
4. Update your website regularly.  Install a content management system like WordPress so you can update your website on a regular basis.   Set up a blog that feeds through to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts so you reach out to all neighborhoods of your virtual network.
5. Google Analytics – You don’t really know if anything is working unless you have a way to track your traffic.  Google analytics provides lots of statistics about traffic to your website.

Do you believe it’s 2010?  Time really flies when you’re busy building a business. Seriously, it seems like just yesterday, we were celebrating the new millennium.  If you haven’t updated your website design in the past several years, it’s probably time to take a look at the design to see if you should incorporate 2010 techniques and strategies into the design.

Just for fun I took a visit to the Wayback Machine to see how my business website has morphed over the past 10 years.  Here are 3 samplings–the first from 2001, the second from 2005 and the latest version from 2009.

Notice the excess of white space on the 2001 version.  That’s because back in 2001 the most commonly used  screen resolution was 800 x 600.  Now the most common size is above 1024 x 768 so on a modern monitor the 2001 version looks  like a postage stamp.  The 2005 version took up a little more screen space and incorporated a animated Flash header.  The 2009 version incorporates social network links and RSS feeds from relevant blogs.  It also is built using a custom WordPress design.

What’s changed in the last 10 years?  Specifically, what’s changed that  affects the online marketer and website design?  Here are a few things that are now commonplace now, which 10 years ago were a rarity online (if around at all) :

1. Higher resolution monitors. It’s obvious viewing the samples above how screen resolution has changed over the last 10 years.  A well-designed site will make good use of screen space.
2. Online video: Expanded broadband usage along with more personal computing power has allowed the usage of online video on websites to become the norm when only 10 years ago it would have been painfully slow on the majority of home computer systems. In addition the cost and quality of digital video cameras in the past few years has made video far less cost prohibitive for savvy online marketers. And of course  YouTube might have had an effect too.
3. Social networks: Forums and discussion boards have been around since the internet began, but the widespread popularity of social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and others as well as the use of blogging have changed how marketers communicate and network in the last few years.  The savvy business person is incorporating social networks into their marketing strategy and is expanding their network worldwide.
4. Smartphones: As more people access the web via their smartphone, the savvy business person will make their web presence more usable on the smartphone screen and will make sure they show up in Smartphone search results by getting listed in directories such as Google Local.
5. Google power: Is there anything Google can’t do now? Google’s been around for at least ten years, but they continue to develop tools for webmasters and site owners that are essential for managing and monitoring your website strategies.  Not just Google Search, but Google Local, Google Analytics, Google Checkout, IGoogle — these are  just a few of the Google tools I use on a regular basis and there’s many more.   Go to Google and search webmaster tools and see what they have to offer.

If you’re contemplating how to freshen your website for 2010, take a good look at the design and make sure the look is not dated.  Consider adding video.  Expand your online network through the social networking sites and make your presence there known on your website.  Consider how your website looks on a smartphone and if your’re found when someone searches for your type of business on their smartphone.   And finally, check out the Google tools and suggestions for managing your website.

The internet, in it’s short history, has been a great equalizer for small businesses. Small businesses are free to put up websites that promote their business, sell their products, services and applications and are assured that their information is served to the consumer in the same way that everyone else’s content is served. It gives all businesses the possibility to attract a worldwide market. Many of today’s internet giants–think Google, Yahoo, E-bay–started out as small businesses with great ideas. Because their ideas were allowed to be served to the public in a fair way, they were able to develop into highly successful businesses.

Some of the major network operators are trying to change that. They want to set up a tiered payment system for content providers. Theoretically, the premium fee would ensure the fastest download speeds. And lesser rates would result in slower websites. What does that mean? Network providers could decide what content is shown on their networks and at what price. Suppose AT&T decided they wanted to expand their web hosting business. They could effectively eliminate the reach of web hosting competitors’ sites by raising their rates or slowing the delivery of their material to an unpalatable crawl.

Given the fact that there are actually very few network providers in the US — especially in rural parts of the country — shouldn’t we be trying to ensure that everyone has access to all information on the internet no matter what network they can access. In some parts of the country consumers may only have broadband access through one provider. Even in populated areas the choice is usually limited to the phone company or cable provider for the area. Shouldn’t we ensure that your website is as accessible to everyone as your competitor’s website?

Do we really want want big business deciding what is available on the internet? If not, we need to ensure that net neutrality remains in effect. Please support the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009.