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Using Facebook for your business

December 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I agree with LI, go with Facebook Page don’t use your personal account to promote your business.

Once you get 25 “fans” so you can get your own URL  ie www.facebook.com/buildyourwebsite rather than

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Build-Your-Website/149031868453993?ref=sgm which is what I have at the moment  because I don’t have more than 25 fans yet!

Log into facebook and go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ to do this.

“Facebook is a personal medium that seeks to engage people as people, since people want to connect with people, not with brick-and-mortar. People don’t like to be “marketed to” in social media channels.”

If you have a blog, link to it, both with automation and with manual engagement.  I use posterous.com. But I think it is also important to add personal content as well. I do find people engage more if I add a link and make a personal comment about it rather than just the automated link. Facebook is so much more personal than the rest of the web.

Filed Under: Internet-Marketing, Videos

Choosing a domain name

January 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A great first step to getting a website up and running is to choose your domain name.

Here are a couple of great articles to help
How to Select a Great Domain Name for Your Company by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson Web Marketing Today – Feb 17, 2009

Tips on Choosing a Good Domain Name : Considerations you should be aware of when registering your domain.

Once you have something in mind, you need to check that it does not belong to someone else. Check the  domain name commission.  When you have found something you like, that does not belong to anyone else, then you need to register it. I use KiwiWebHost to register my domain names and also for my web hosting. Registering a domain name has an annual cost of about $40 a year for .co.nz domain names.

A domain name is a little  like owning a personalised number plate . Then one has to “host” the registration ie put your licence plate somewhere – buying the car: Putting the domain name (licence plate) onto the files (the car). This is called the “hosting ” ie the space for the the files. You have to pay to have your files somewhere and then the name is added to the files. Hosting plans vary, I use $1 a week hosting from KiwiWebHost with additional web space. The $1 a week comes with 10MB but you will need about 40MB. SO purchase an additional 30MB at $3 a month or $36 + GST.

Filed Under: Begin Today, Encouragement, Internet-Marketing Tagged With:

Finding Your Website – Challenges for 2010

January 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

SEO Challenges for 2010 with Amanda Watlington . Dr. Ralph F. Wilson , Web Marketing Today

Amanda makes three main points
1.The time it takes your website to load is important. Fancy webpages that take a long time to come to download are not good as far as Google is concerned
2. Make sure you have claimed “your push pins” with google maps. Google Local Business Center.
3. Getting people to find your website is about more than being No 1 with a keyword.

I want to focus on no. 2: claim your push pin.

If you have  not added your business to Google maps , make a commitment to do this! In 1/2 hour you will be able to put your address, phone number and perhaps a photo of your business or you.  Then make another time to add some more content. The secret is to get  started today! Baby steps, one at a time and soon you will be running with your web marketing. Watch the video below to help you.

Here’s the link again Google Local Business Center

Another job for this month is to add your business to www.finda.co.nz

Filed Under: Internet-Marketing, Technical Help, Videos Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Getting lots of hits but no sales?

January 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m interested in buying a certain widget. I decide to do some research on the computer to compares prices and what is available. I find a great website. I’m not ready today to make that purchase, so I make a mental note to come back in a month or so. It was a big ticket item.

But when I return to the web a month or so later, I don’t seem to have bookmarked that page and I can’t remember the exact name. So I do another search and I find someone else’s website and I buy a similar product from them.

A website is a great virtual storefront. People enjoy window shopping, exporing. People can see what you are offering and can have time to think.   But…

“Once visitors leave your site, they’re gone forever – unless you have a way to drive them back there.” (Aweber)

That is why email marketing is so important. Email marketing means that you are going to be sending your current and potential customers a little newsletter regularly.

Remember Marketing is not about beautiful creative or catchy slogans. It is about drawing customers into long term relationships with your business. (quoted from here) Email marketing  gives you an opportunity for your potential customers to  know you and your product or service.  When that customer is ready to make that purchase, they will know where to find you. If they have questions, perhaps they will find the answers in your newsletter, or having got to know you a little better, they feel happy to ask. Perhaps they are a little nervous about buying over the web. Having people sign up for a regular newsletter helps convert visitors into customers.

Filed Under: Internet-Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

January 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Whole books have been written about SEO so the whole topic can be overwhelming but it need not be. SEO  means that search engines can find your website. If they can’t find you don’t go up the rankings on google. And then no one knows you exist on the web.

One of the great things about using wordpress is it is already search engine friendly:

“WordPress, straight out of the box, comes ready to embrace search engines. Its features and functions guide a search engine through the posts, pages, and categories to help the search engine crawl your site and gather the information it needs to include your site within its database.” read more here.

This article, Sustainable SEO: What Is It and Why Should You Care?,  sums up the essence of SEO

“No matter how you slice it or dice it, there are only two things you need to do to build a successful site:

1. Create and publish great content, and
2. Tell the right people about it.

Assuming that you know how to create great content (after all, you’re interested and passionate about your topic, right?) telling the right people about it should be your next priority.”

You can learn to do this yourself or get me to help you to Build Your Website.

Filed Under: Internet-Marketing Tagged With: ,