Tips For Making Your Website an Asset

Pick a Great Name – Once a website is established it can be expensive and difficult to migrate the site to a new name without losing ranking and traffic, so it’s important to pick a good name for the long term. Pick something as short as possible. Often your email and business cards will use your web address. Not only are long addresses hard to find, but they take time to spell while on the phone with customers or vendors. It’s also good to try and pick a name that can stay with the business as it grows. Try not to pick a domain that targets your city or local region if you intend to pull customers in from other areas. Get a name that can stay with the business even if it’s sold or the business name changes. Many professionals will pick a domain using their name (e.g. drjohnsmith.com) rather than something more generic that a future business owner can use.

Look For Value In Your Website – Traditional advertising (newspaper, TV, Radio, direct mail) is generally a one time experience. New artwork, copy and recordings are usually generated for each campaign. Your website is an ongoing value, it can be built upon, information can be updated and added without losing the market share you have already gained. You should be tracking incoming leads from the website, watching your traffic flow with a tool like Google Analytics and trying to put a monetary value on the traffic from your site. As a small businessperson it’s difficult to keep track of all the data that your business generates, but it’s good to have at least an idea of how many times your phone rings because of your website and what kind of dollar value those leads are spending with you.

Consult a Professional – Running your business website yourself can be a very rewarding experience, but sometimes a professional review can reap large benefits. Think of it like you would running a business expansion past your accountant or a new contract past your lawyer. A simple website audit by an SEO professional can help you determine if you are putting the right amount of resources into your site and find problem areas that can be addressed.

Your website is a tireless employee that works 24 hours a day. It answers questions for customers while you are asleep. Treat it like the valuable asset it is. Invest in your website and it will add value to your business and when you decide to retire your website will help you get top dollar for your company.

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Is your website in Joomla!? Are you tired of the difficult article management, having to install components for every mundane thing, frustrated with the Joomla upgrade process or just looking for something more mainstream? Converting your site to WordPress is a great solution.

Finding a Joomla! developer

Why would you want to leave Joomla!? Joomla! won an award in 2011 for being the best Open Source CMS and the Joomla! website boasts over 35,000,000 downloads. Unfortunately, Joomla! can be difficult to use, hard to maintain, vulnerable to hackers and not well supported. Joomla! developers can even be difficult to find.

WordPress, on the other hand, has documented 62 million sites and has a huge community and developer pool to draw from. Here at e-Marketing Partner we appreciate the Joomla! team’s efforts and contribution to the Open Source community, but find WordPress to be a superior product.

Restoring a hacked Joomla! site

Recently a client contacted us. Their Joomla! installation had been hacked and was down, they needed a solution ASAP! Fortunately we were able to port their whole site into WordPress and install it on our Managed WordPress Hosting solution in just a few days. The client is now up and running with a site that is all but indistinguishable from their old site and most of their previous functionality intact. We are still working to enhance some of their old needs and provide new customization to allow optimum communication with their audience.

e-Marketing Partner is a WordPress expert

If you need help converting your site from Joomla!, Drupal or even just standard HTML, e-Marketing Partner is here to help. Our Managed WordPress Hosting provides automatic updates to both the WordPress core and all the plugins you need for a well ranking. optimized, communicative site. Contact Us today for help getting your old CMS into a shiny new WordPress site!

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I was defending HostGator with some comments about their customer service when things took an unexpected wrong turn…

B:HG is the walmart of web hosting, but for their price point I think they do excellent.

J: If HG is Walmart, who is GoDaddy?

B: The dollar store

J: LOL

B: GoDaddy is like getting web hosting along with your taquito when you stop for gas.

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These are from and etsy shop and are available for purchase as a printable PDF.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/65865330/science-valentines-mini-cards-printable

It’s not too late, go get them and give one to the smart people in your life.

Don’t like those, here is a great collection of science themed love notes. You can even buy your sweetie a signed original Illustration for Nerds in Love

If Science isn’t your style, maybe you are more political. Ben has this great collection of Dictator Valentines available over on his site. Nothing says love like a Hitler card. Unfortunately, there’s no PDF to buy so you will have to wait until next year. http://benkling.com/valentines

Hope these help you get through your Valentines Day!

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If you are one of the thousands of small businesses in Colorado or across the US it’s time to let your light shine. The best way to do that in 2013 is through your website and properly implemented SEO. It’s easier and more cost effective than ever before to communicate what makes your business the best to the world, all you have to do is flip the switch and let your light shine.

If you feel like people don’t get your small business, have things to share with community and want more customers, your website and SEO is the best way to accomplish those goals. e-Marketing Partner is here to help, just contact us today to find out how to get the kind of clients you want.

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I had a conversation this week with a great example of this. A local business owner had a disagreement with his web guy. By the time it was all said and done the customer’s site ended up with a homepage saying he had been hacked. Incredible…

Of course, there can be extenuating circumstances, oftentimes financial, but there is NO excuse for leaving a client website with a broken, hacked or defaced website.

If you are breaking up with your web guy, or if you have been abused and mistreated in your previous relationship, give us a call. At e-Marketing Partner we try our best to be courteous and professional at all times, and we promise to NEVER put a hacked notification on any site.

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The response of the Raven Tools community has been mixed, with many users being forced to leave Raven Tools. Authority Labs, a competitive rank monitoring site, is seeing a windfall of traffic to their site and have posted a welcoming message on their blog.

The post Google fires another shot in War on SEO – Raven Tools drops ranking reports appeared first on e-Marketing Partner.

When Dr. Marble created his website he decided to create a large number of unique articles concerning common Foot and Ankle problems. It was only after creating these articles that we thought about foreign language SEO. Over the past several years we have been translating these articles and posting them every week or two. As a result, Dr. Marble’s site has seen thousands of visitors every week and ranks well for terms like “dolor de pantorrillas” and “bulto en el pie”. Pueblo Colorado has a large Spanish speaking population, so this strategy worked well for Dr. Marble.

If you have a product or service that is viable in a language other than English, foreign language SEO might be right for you. Contact e-Marketing Partner today for help writing content in other languages, translating content or optimizing pages for other languages.

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One of the traditions that has come down through my family from the old country is the culinary delight of Blinna. My grandmother often compared Blinna to an old dishrag. They are a very thin yeast pancake. They are cooked on a hot griddle, served flat and then rolled with syrup and butter. This is a meal my great-grandmother, Christina Urich Weber, used to make for the men working in the fields at lunchtime. She would prepare a large batch and so they were warm and ready at noon.

I don’t have my great-grandmother’s recipe, but this is a recipe from another Loveland Colorado woman named Florence Zeiler.

BLINNA
 
3 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 pkg dry yeast dissolved in 1 cup lukewarm water
2 cups scalded milk cooled
 
Combine to make a soft sponge, let set overnight or 
for several hours.
 
Scald 1/2 cup milk, add 1 tsp soda to milk, 
1/3 cup melted butter and 3 eggs beaten to batter.
 
Bake on a hot skillet, brushed lightly with oil the 
first time or if the Blinna stick. Brush with hot melted butter.

I made these this week for my sister and her children to rave reviews.

If you like this, or are interested in other German recipes I would recommend the German cookbook titled Küche Kochen from the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia International

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Progressive’s response? A series of tweets proclaiming their innocence.

A situation like this sounds like a nightmare. Hopefully your business does not routinely find themselves opposite your client in a courtroom, but you should be ready for complaints via the Internet.

Here are some tips for small business owners who want to get started managing their reputation online.

Create a Google Alert for your business name

Actively monitor your Facebook page for customer comments

Monitor other services such as Google+, Twitter and Linked In for possible negative comments

If you find a negative comment be sure to respond in a positive, professional manner.

Cool Off Scream, yell, complain to your colleagues, go to the gym, run around the block, whatever, but don’t respond while you are still angry.

Respond In Person Nothing is worse than what looks like a canned or automated response. This was probably Progressive’s biggest mistake. Rather than actively engaging they just sent Flo-bot out to do the job.

Don’t be sarcastic Be as professional as responsible, and if necessary, contrite when crafting a response. There’s no need to apologize if you being wrongly accused, but don’t be afraid to own up to your own mistake.

Present the facts Don’t go overboard on defending yourself, but share any relevant facts about the issue that may help mitigate the situation.

Offer a solution Share what you are going to do to correct the situation and/or ensure it doesn’t happen in the future.

Follow up offline Let the commenter know that you are going to follow up with a phone call or an email and discuss the issue one on one rather than in a public forum.

The Internet is where we do business, even for tiniest the most tech phobic business. Hopefully these tips will help you keep an eye on your online reputation and avoid the pitfalls that Progressive fell into.

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