Posted by Dan Romanchik on Nov 1, 2007 in
Web Development Startup Nation recently ran an article on marketing your website. The five steps include:
- focus on content and code,
- participate and network,
- build your word of mouth and viral marketing,
- create press and write articles, and
- sync up with search engines and online tools.
In my humble opinion, marketing your website is probably even more important than a site’s design or functionality. What good is having a fancy website if no one visits?
Posted by Dan Romanchik on Nov 1, 2007 in
Web Development On Work.Com, Richard Burckhardt writes about how to optimize images to maximize search engine placement. The article, Guide to SEO 101 – Image Optimization notes:
Google’s implementation of Universal Search has changed the whole search landscape and settled the often debated SEO issue of whether the use of ALT text and keywords in image file names have any effect on rankings. In two words – they do.
There are a bunch of other good tips, too.
Posted by Dan Romanchik on Oct 2, 2007 in
Web Development Startup Nation recently published an article “Eight Steps to Win at Blogging.” I could find only seven steps, but they’re all very good:
- Choose a host. Bodnar says outside hosts like TypePad, WordPress and Blogger are easy and cheap, “but you’re limited to storage size and features.†You get what you pay for, he says, when it comes to adding audio, video, links and content other than text.
- Hire a dedicated blogger. “Find someone who’s interested in it and will oversee it,†Briguglio says.
- Collect links up the wazoo. Both inbound and outbound links are vital – collect some “link karma” by directing your traffic to relevant sites, and you’ll see it coming around in the form of inbound links to your blog. The more inbound links, the more traffic and visibility you get. Briguglio recently blogged about Hershey’s Kisses and linked to the Hershey site.
- Set up an RSS feed. Really Simple Syndication is a code-based system that allows Web users to “subscribe†to their favorite sites – including your blog – for up-to-the-minute action and updates. On that note…
- Update constantly. A blog’s success depends on the regularity of its posts. “We have so much information on our blog that we rank very high on search engines,†Bodnar says. Searches find frequently refreshed, keyword-rich sites first.
- Read other blogs and comment on the posts. Get involved in the blogsphere to learn what makes a good one. A great way to start: enter “entrepreneur†at Technorati, a search engine now tracking 56 million blogs. You’ll find more than 200,000 examples of how it’s been done.
- Collect images, links, statistics and other sources to include on your blog. Think of it as your personal online magazine and make it as visually appealing as possible. Spend some time at a heavily stocked magazine rack and mine it for what works – and what doesn’t.
I really like the idea of making your blog your own personal magazine. Put stuff in that you find interesting, and chances are that other will find it interesting, too.
I would add a few items of my own:
- In addition to reading other blogs, get on mailing lists that discusss areas of interest. The incoming messages will not only serve as fodder for your blog, but if you stick your blog’s URL in your e-mail signature, it will help to garner readers for your blog.
- Use zookoda.com to set up a mailaing list for your RSS feed. Some people are not geeky enough to get RSS feeds, while others just prefer e-mail.
Posted by Dan Romanchik on Aug 29, 2007 in
Web Development 
FreeforInvestors.com is the latest creation of the Web Publishing Group. It allows investors to get free information from Dow Jones, The Economist, and a wide variety of investment newsletter publishers.
In addition to serving investors, it also serves the marketer who runs the site. The website captures the contact information of those requesting information, and the marketer plans to use this information in marketing his own investment newsletter and associated products.
Do you have a similar application? Give us a call and we’ll get you set up!
Posted by Dan Romanchik on Aug 24, 2007 in
Website Advice Over the years, I’ve been involved with many different online communities— some that thrived and were a joy to be a part of, some that devolved into a series of flames, and some that simply never seemed to get off the ground. On the Knight Citizen News Network, they’re running the article, “Twelve Tips for Growing Positive Communities Online” by Amy Gahran. The tips include:
- Are you right for this job?
- Publish conduct guidelines
- Set a good example
- Seeding: Invite and encourage civil people
- Prevent comment spam
- Work behind the scenes
- Highlight the best contributions
- Don’t allow anonymous comments
- Moderate comments and/or posts
- Require user registration
- Shut down destructive threads
- Keep your sense of humor
Read the complete article.
Posted by Dan Romanchik on Aug 21, 2007 in
Web Development Web Publishing Group and Mary Cronin Design have just completed a new, database-driven website for the West Washtenaw Business Association (WWBA). The WWBA brings together independent professionals and small business who are interested in improving economic, environmental, and security conditions within the community. The WWBA provides a forum for communication, group benefit participation, and social outreach.
The main design goal for the site is to promote member businesses. One of the ways the site does this is by hosting an online membership directory. Users can search the online directory by name or by category to find the products or services they need.
Another way that the website promotes its membership is by publishing news about member businesses. If, for example, a member business is having a sale, or is now offering a new product or service, or has purchased some new equipment that enhances their capability, they can submit this news via a form on the website, and it will appear in the website’s news section. Members will also be able to post help-wanted ads to the website.
To edit their directory information or submit news, members must log in to the website. Members in good standing were issued and sent login ids and passwords shortly after the site went live last week.
The new website also includes advertising opportunities for its members. Members can advertise on the home page or sponsor one of the directory categories. Advertisements on the home page appear at the bottom of the page, while category sponsorships will appear above the company listings.
The website will also help the WWBA administer its membership database. Included are screens accessible only to the database administrator that lets him or her easily add or delete members, assign passwords, and edit membership information.
Another feature that will help the WWBA be more efficient is a database function that will pull membership data directly from the online database. This will ensure that the printed annual directory has the most up-to-date information about member businesses.
Posted by Dan Romanchik on Jul 24, 2007 in
WPG Business News Web Publishing Group (WPG), Ann Arbor, MI is happy to announce that it is helping hospital patients recuperate in a more dignified manner while getting the care they need. How? By being part of the team that just recently released the website for RxPJs, a company that makes a unique line of garments for patients. These garments have an ingenious zipper design (patent pending) that accommodates IVs, casts, and bandages without the hassles associated with standard hospital gowns.
RxPJs.Com are the work of Blume Designs, a graphics design firm in Bloomfield Township, MI. WPG took the Blume designs and created the HTML and CSS needed to put those designs on the Web.
Posted by Dan Romanchik on Jul 24, 2007 in
Web Development,
Website Advice The Inc. magazine website has two articles on choosing domain names:
They both offer similar advice, including:
- always use dot.com and
- use company names and brand names.
Both are good pieces of advice.
Posted by Dan Romanchik on Jul 15, 2007 in
Web Development,
Web Tools Recently, I had to implement an events calendar on a website I was working on. My first idea was to find an open source package written in PHP. I did some Web searching and found the following:
After thinking about this a bit more, though, I opted for an online calendar. The two that I like best are:
Both of these calendars allow you to create a frame that you can insert into a Web page. I chose the SpongeCell calendar because it allows you to specify background and text colors. This capability makes it look like the calendar is actually part of my website website.
Another reason I went with this approach is that these calendars have more features than the PHP calendars. For example, they both will map a location.
These calendar services are really very good. Unless you need a very specialized calendar, there’s really no reason to build it yourself anymore.
Posted by Dan Romanchik on May 31, 2007 in
Web Tools Google offers free Google AdWords for nonprofits:
Google Grants provides eligible organizations with in-kind keyword advertising using Google AdWords so you can connect directly with your target audience. Through simple, short text ads that run on Google.com, thousands (or even millions) of people can learn about your organization online as they are searching for related information. When someone enters keywords (short phrases specifying a particular search query) into Google.com, ads targeted to those keywords appear alongside the search results.
For more information, go to the Google Grants page.