CONTENT, CONTENT,AND DID I SAY CONTENT!

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Chris Kaminski

I saw an article title the other day that read “Content is King “. On the Internet that is truer today, then ever. Search results today are content driven. To have a site that performs consistently well you need good and relevant content. I’m not talking about a few paragraphs with a couple of keywords. I’m talking about pages full of clear useful content related to your website and what your site is about.

If your site is like mine, then you are trying to sell a product or service, then that is what you write about. If your site is about real estate, have content that teaches people how to shop for a house or what to look for when buying land. Include articles about neighborhoods and school zones in the area, recreation then point people to these articles. If your site is about, gardening then have information about planting seasons, soil conditioning etc. You get the idea, what ever your website is about, have related content.

Good content is also multipurpose. Not only is it good for your web pages it is also good for your blog and for article distribution. Send your content out as articles through distribution services, this working with your blog creates back links. The more back links from credible sites the better your ranking .The better your ranking the more you website can work for you.

What should you use for content? The most popular topics by far are ‘How To” articles. Articles that offer tips, tricks, and short cuts have a very high readership. The more you let your audience know, the more they think you know. Current events are good if there is a way to work them into what your website is about. It lets people know that you are staying up to date on your topic. Stay away from opinions, opinion related articles tend to polarize one site or another, so should be averted, because you want the most traffic your website can generate.

Writing dos and don’ts.

- Keep it relevant. If your site is about cars don’t write about fishing.
- Know your topics.
- Know your goals, are you writing to attract sales for example.
- Know your keywords and where to place them, there are formulas you can use.
- Keep your content positive.
- Keep your content as current as you possibly can. You don’t want to be caught with information that is not up to date.
- Distribute. Take all that good content you have created (or had created), and double the mileage by using it on your blog, and using it to create articles to distribute through article services.

So the reasons for good content are many. It helps page ranking, it engages your audience and it brings them back and you can use it for distribution. The more people are drawn to your site, the more effective your site will work for you. In this day and age you can’t afford not to have good solid content.

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Your Website as Real Estate or Virtual Land Real Money

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Chris Kaminski

Here is a partial quote from a client:”… I Googled the value of my web site and it has almost doubled”.

Yes, you read that correctly, websites can appreciate in value. Actually there is a whole market built around the buying and selling of websites and domains by domain brokers.

My point is this … your website is real estate. You buy it, build it, improve it and you can re-sell it. And once you adjust to this many other things fall into place like marketing. Understand that your website is the same as a brick and mortar store and all the same rules of driving traffic apply. With that comes an increase in value.

 What is your web site worth? There are sites you can Google that will tell you the estimated value of your domain.  Don’t get your hopes too high; many things affect the value including age, traffic, and popularity of the keywords to name a few. The client example above is bakerstreetmusic.com (http://www.bakerstreet.com). He invested in a one page landing site, followed our recommendations was diligent in his web site listing and doubled his money in a few months.

 Bakerstreet.com is one example of real value in a virtual world and it is one you can understand because in a way you get something, you get ownership of a domain or website. Now let’s talk about “real” virtual real estate. Have you ever heard of Anshe Chung? Anshe Chung was the world’s first virtual millionaire, meaning her holdings in a make-believe world are worth more than $1 million in US dollars. And she made this money in the virtual world of Second Life (http://secondlife.com/).

 Second life is an entire virtual world it has towns, bars, clubs, shopping centers and malls. All the big boys are there Best Buy, Sears etc. You can go to concerts and shows and see bands like Aerosmith. People and businesses in this virtual world buy and sell properties, virtual properties but still property. People create avatars and live in this world and Second Life is only one example.

 Money is being made and it has not gone un-noticed. Caldwell Banker has been there since 2006 (http://money.cnn.com/blogs/legalpad/2006/11/anshe-chung-first-virtual-millionaire.html). To quote the article:” In March, the company put up for sale more than 500 homes in Second Life. This isn’t a way for Coldwell Banker to cash in on virtual real estate, says Young, but to find new ways to reach some of the estimated 80 million echo boomers and make them familiar with the Coldwell Banker brand says Charlie Young, senior vice president for marketing.

 So, what is the difference between virtual and “real” real estate? Well first there will never be a land shortage. How can you run out of something that does not exist in the first place? According to what I read prices tend to remain pretty stable no bubbles like in the real world. One big difference is the way a mortgage works, there really isn’t one. It is usually a small monthly fee paid forever unless you quit or sell. We are not talking thousands of dollars like real mortgages but you get 500 people paying you $20 a month and that is $10,000 dollars. Or you generate a store with sales and you have a business with a location to sell. Taxes, you cannot escape. Real money made in a virtual world is taxable.

 So there you have it, like Dire Straits said “Money for nothing”. Who knew?

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What is a web site?

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Chris Kaminski

Just what is a website exactly? Well by definition, anything connected to the World Wide Web.

In reality it could be hand coded pages, a blog, a shopping cart, or any other number of database driven applications. But all most people see is a “website”.

 A website is anything with a URL (Universal Resource Locator) or as you and I know them, a web address. Used to be a website was hand coded pages written in HTML. Things have evolved way beyond that. Now a typical web site is a mix of technologies and languages. A simple site with one index / landing page can take several languages, CSS for what the browser presents (what you see), JavaScript for any forms and form verification and a server script to format the form and either send it to email or a database. And, if we are using databases, that is a whole other side to a project.

So you see, when a client comes to me and wants a web site it can mean many things.

 What is the difference? Let’s start with a hand coded site. This is exactly what it says, hand coded, written by a human and, to get the most out the search engines, this is the only way to go.

I say this because clean code is very important to search engine placement. This includes the placement of key worded content, images, and accessory scripts. And follows rules like content to code ratio and site load speed to name a couple. On the optimization side there are rules like the ratio of keywords in the content, page titles, and link text. This is the short list.

Next is application software as mentioned above. These are more akin to applications and are ‘installed’ rather than written. Artwork and content are added during the setup.

Blogs and content management systems (CMS) are both software designed to let an end user modify and change their site. The CMS software being much more powerful in scope and options than blog software. Blogs are popular because they are easy to setup and more important to the end user, easy to use and update. There are many options and plug-ins available. On the optimization side they are quite limited. To help with search optimization we often create an index / landing page that looks like the application but actually links to it.

  Shopping carts, reservation systems, point of sale systems (POS) called transaction software. Again these are database driven, artwork and content are added during the setup. The administration back side handles everything from credit card processing through inventory control. They also have many built in marketing and email tools. Again from the optimization side they are quite limited. As with blogs and CMS software we often create a search engine friendly landing page.

 For a website to work it has to be a blend of design, scripting, marketing and it all has to be balanced correctly. You do not get this kind of expertise, control and level of optimization with application software. These include content management systems (CMS), blogs, shopping carts etc.  What you get is less cost and minute control to do what you want when you want, but warning there is a steep learning curve especially with a CMS.

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The new Consumer or The Consumer and the Handheld

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Chris Kaminski

Years ago I was predicting that handheld devices were the future. Then came the iPhone and wham the day of the handheld is here and it has brought a new kind of consumer.

 True Story, but first let me say that my wife is a pro bracket shopper, she knows how to find a price and where to get it. About a month ago one of my monitors died. I went straight to Best Buy thinking they always have the lower price. You think electronics you think Best Buy, right.

In the store they had a 23 in. monitor for what I thought was a good price. My wife takes out her phone, scans the bar code and a minute later it finds the same monitor for $50.00 less up the hill at Sears. She was able to do this standing right there in the store isle. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you the new consumer, armed with a hand held device.

 With this latest addition to the “I want it now” tool box a consumer has new power. They can comparison shop right on the spot or locate coupons, find discount codes or geo clues for example and present them right there. With this device a consumer can check movies, restaurant menus, get directions or watch your video while standing on line.

  As a retailer I will have to be more aware of my competitions pricing but also their stock levels.  It also tells me I can’t wait until my consumer finds my ad in the paper or hears it on the radio.  Repetitive advertising is great but consumers still have short memories and still need to be reminded WHEN they are looking for something.

 To deal with this your website will have to do double duty or you may need a separate site for mobile applications. Your search optimization will need to be more specialized, but the bottom line is your website, your web presence, has moved off the desktop and you need to keep up.

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Google’s need for speed means you need to check your website.

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Chris Kaminski

Not too long ago Google released a new search tool “Google Instant”.

Google Instant tries to speed searches by anticipating what you are going to type next based on what you have searched in the past. When you start typing Google offers you a selection of results and you can watch the results change with each letter typed. Google claims that it will save 3.5 Billion global seconds a day! I don’t know about you but I feel better knowing that I won’t be searching for the same thing fifteen years from now.

Putting aside the privacy issues and the file Google has on each and every one of us, let’s look at how this will affect your website and your search placement. In that same Google interview they stated they will pursue all options to shorten search times. At the top of the list was site load times and robot read times.

We already know there are rules to govern the code to content ratio, keyword density and placement, and content quality but this rule goes right to the foundation of every website. This rule speaks right to the background code, which by the way, has changed a lot over the years. Under this new rule the load and read speeds of your website will have a direct affect on your ranking.

How do you know if your website needs to be updated?

1- Web code standards and browser capabilities have advanced a lot in a short time. If your site is pushing five years since the last tune up, it is time to look.

2 – Was the original site written with outdated or obsolete WYSIWYG software? These are notorious for adding tons of erroneous code (Google already penalizes for this).

3- Copy placement. Search bots only read so many words in to a website. It is important that these be the important words. We call that “strategic copy placement”.

4- On-page optimization. Is your website easy for Google to find and more importantly, understand where you want to be listed? Older sites have little or no optimization at all. This is especially true with WYSIWYG and templates.

How do you fix this problem? Sorry, there is no short answer. The best thing to do is find an experienced website designer and get an evaluation. Not an artist turned developer but a good design / code / search optimization team.  I have argued this point many times in the past and won’t go into here. But, other than the graphic design there are two other components to a website. These two parts together are the most important components. First, the way the site is written and second is the search optimization, which includes current market research.

What the code should look like, again that is too deep to cover here. We coined a phrase a couple of years ago “search engine positive code”. This is how your website is presented to the search engines. You need to give it to them the way they want it. This is now critical to website placement and that is important in this competitive environment.

Once you have the evaluation tackle it one step at a time. You can re-do the code with minor changes to the design. Another option is to just re-do the index page. The occasional overhaul is part of the normal evolution of maintaining a website. Technology changes and you have to also, you can bet that your competition will.

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The Yellow Dinosaur (Death of the yellow pages)

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Chris Kaminski

Traveling down the road a few weeks back I noticed the now familiar line of yellow bags lining the road. Later that day I caught 3 random remarks in different places. All were negative. All along the lines of litter, useless, and saving trees hence this article.
You have to ask yourself, in this communication age, an age of Google and cell phones do we really need the yellow page phone books? This only leads to the next logical question, in this time of global warming and green awareness, do they not get it or do they not care? Since all the major publishers are moving hard to build their web programs you can only assume they don’t care. That, and they do not understand market delineation, there are just too many of them for any one to be of value.
For example, at our office we get 8. We are in a small county, less then 200k and we get 8 phone books, 2 from Yellow Book, 2 from Verizon, 3 from Bellsouth and now a new one littering the road, PDC. Guys, how many do we need?
Now don’t get me totally wrong, I still believe we need hard copies of phone lists but as an advertising vehicle, their main reason for being, yellow books have outlived their time.
The environmental damage goes beyond the trees. It includes everything from the chemicals used in processing and printing and the staggering amount of petroleum products used in production and transport. Who pays this bill, we do. Who pays the clean up bill for the books rotting alongside the road and in landfills, we do.
The phone book as we have known it has become obsolete. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, it’s just technical evolution. What is sad is their failure to adapt. Some call it revolution but either way, evolution or revolution there is only one survivor.

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Your Digital Footprint Online

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Chris Kaminski

Most people are aware of their carbon foot print especially in today’s ‘green’ world. But few are aware of their “Digital Footprint”. According to the PEW Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org) fewer are even concerned.

What is your digital footprint? Simply, it is information about you. How did it get there? Well mostly by you but also as more databases become available online is easier for the search bots to find it. Google your name or phone number (not so much with cell) and see what comes up.
The PEW Internet & American Life Project recently completed a study and here is some of what the found out.

Digital Footprints: Summary of Findings at a Glance

The nature of personal information is changing in the age of Web 2.0.
Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago.
Few monitor their online presence with great regularity.
Most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information.
Internet users have reason to be uncertain about the availability of personal data; 60% of those who search for their names actually find information about themselves online, but 38% say their searches come up short.
One in ten internet users have a job that requires them to self-promote or market their name online.
Among adults who create social networking profiles, transparency is the norm.
More than half of all adult internet users have used a search engine to follow others’ footprints.
Basic contact information tops most searchers’ wish lists.
Source: Madden, Fox, Smith and Vitak. Digital Footprints. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, December 16, 2007.

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Pick a web designer

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Chris Kaminski

In today’s world a business without a properly designed website is at a huge disadvantage. And just not any site will do, but one created with usability and SEO in mind. To work well a site needs to be designed properly, logically and cleanly. If it’s not then all your online marketing / PR / advertising and social media promotions to sell the site will just be wasted.
So much depends on the site design it is important to choose the right designer. So, here are a few tips to help you make the right choice.
1) Check out some of the other sites the designer has created. All creative designers have a unique style to them and certain elements common to .coms they develop.
2) Talk with the designer, tell him/her what your needs are. A good designer will be completely honest with you and be happy to tell you exactly his/her capabilities. The sign of a great designer is one that will ask what your current .com is, talk to you about your company and its goals and really get to know you. This is above and beyond, and what separates the good from the great.
3) Don’t separate the design and coding of your .com. You want one person or company conceptualizing, designing and implementing your .com. Splitting this is never a good idea and you will never get as good a product as you will if everything is done with one person or team.
4) Do separate the web design and the external marketing. Everybody can’t do everything. You want a designer who works closely with an SEO specialist. A proper web design starts with SEO and design from the very beginning.
Having the proper design is just the first step. It also takes a solid commitment to get your site a decent amount of steady traffic. And remember, once you start, it is an ongoing process from both your designer and SEO team for a time after the site is launched to build and maintain results.
When the website is created properly from step one, it will be something that you can build upon. You will have a valuable piece of virtual real estate.

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Importance of Web Design and SEO Combined
The 2 Golden Rules

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Chris Kaminski

I’ve seen it many times now, a great idea, an outstanding web site, big expectations and then, nothing. Why? Because they bought into the illusion that if you put up a website millions will flock to it and you will make millions of dollars.  Nothing is more false, websites  fail when one or both of the 2 golden rules for a successful web site are broken.

GOLDEN RULE ONE. Just like a traditional store you have to market and bring in traffic. To put up a site and wait to be found is suicide. This is a solid truth whether the shop is along side a real highway or the Internet super highway. Know your market, know your competition. Seek out a web designer who has marketing experience and works closely with an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) specialist. Not one of these “organic” people but a true specialist. They will provide the info and experience you will need to develop a good web marketing plan. Do this first!

GOLDEN RULE TWO. Ok, this is the second big mistake. It is also the most costly to fix or is in the end, fatal. Choosing a web designer. This rule is so important to success that I’m going to cap it: CHOOSE A WEB DESIGN, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION TEAM! We are all tempted to save money but this is truly a “penny wise pound foolish” situation. If you go to anything less, if you go to ‘someone who does it on the side’ or a “graphic designer” who will do a site, or any number of “dream weaver developers “(as we call them) your idea failed the moment you handed over your deposit.

There is so much more to a professional and competitive site than a cute design and a few key words. So much has to be done both on and off page and during the launch that you want a company that has more than graphic design abilities. You need a company with combined marketing skills and proven e-commerce experience. Site development and SEO will probably be one of the largest upfront expenses in the project. But it will be money spent wisely and in the end, much less expensive then doing it over again. Your company image, web site, marketing all have to blend and work together, see rule one!

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Taking a business virtual

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Chris Kaminski

The sudden change in our economy has accelerated a business trend that, until now, was moving slowly, “Taking a business virtual”. New technology, software and the Internet are causing forward thinking business owners to re-think how they do business in this new world and the savings can be substantial.

How? By moving their offices online. In the past this was only available to those who worked from home. But with products like MS Small Business Server, Sharepoint Services,  different collaboration software and a number of other online options all combine to now make this an attractive option for businesses with 5, 10, 15 employees or more.

First, think of what it costs to provide a “work place”. Expenses like rent, heating, lighting, furniture, building and grounds maintenance can run to tens of thousands a year, even for a small business. These can all be eliminated. Even with a modest investment in hardware and / or software, savings can be applied immediately and most times the ROI (Return On Investment) is in months not years. These savings will not only add to your bottom line it will also translate into more productivity and quality control, not to mention happier employees. You also eliminate many of the reasons an employee can’t make it into work, again increasing productivity.  These are all big pluses in my book.

Benefits to your employees being able to work from home are in the form of huge savings in commuting, child care, vehicle expenses, work clothes and the big advantage of tax savings offered through a home office.

Another nice benefit is to our environment, less power usage, less commuting means less fuel being used and less pollution.

The self employed have enjoyed these benefits of “working from home” for years and I know it requires a change in traditional thinking.  Now advances in communication and technology makes this an attractive new alternative for traditional business. A new opportunity to break away from the crowd and become the leaner, meaner, greener and more profitable business of the new world economy. For my company the savings amounted to almost $21,600 for the year with an initial investment of $5000.00. With a savings of $1800/mo my ROI is 2.7 months. That is a big boost to the bottom line. For me this decision was a no brainer.

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