I built this for a presentation last week, but I’ve had lots of requests to see it again. This is a demonstration of how a web site is built using WordPress.

My friend Amber at National PC Solutions, pointed me to a quiz for website owners. Quiz: Is it time to update your website?

There were some really good questions, like: Does updating the content on your website require the involvement of your technical staff or a third-party web vendor? or Do you manually collect customer information and then re-enter into a separate database? or Does your site house “dynamic” content; i.e. – does the information on it change on a regular basis?

Focus Web Works has simple solutions for all the problems in the article. The one topic that was not addressed is follow-through. The internet is full of people who want to educate you up to the point where they sell you something. Then you will find that support falls on it’s face.

Before I ever sat down to code a website, I worked in the technical support industry for 7 years. 5 of those years, I trained support representatives. Before that I taught at the University of Arizona, while finishing my masters degree. In short, education is a cornerstone of what I offer clients.

The future of the Internet includes websites managed by their owners and I am here to help you get started AND keep going.

If you have any questions, just use my contact page

Sometimes you can’t be there to explain something in person. Sometimes it’s just plain easier to show people then to tell people. Sometimes you need to show something to many people, but they can’t all be there at once.

A great solution is a screen cast. That’s where you record a session on your computer and then share it on your website for others to see. You can share a PowerPoint presentation or even steps to setup email. Higher end solutions let you add custom artwork, audio and your branding.

Contact Nohl at Focus Web Works to learn how you can do this too. The software is free. We like Jing

Here’s an example (Just click on it to play):

Top 10 Tips for Using Twitter
When it comes to social media, no one “gets it” as well as Twitter. According to Econsultancy, as of Jan 2010, Twitter has 75 million user accounts, with about 15 million of that total being active users. See “20+ Mind-Blowing Social Media Statistics Revisited.” That’s a lot of people sending a lot of Tweets. This micro-blogging service makes it easy for small businesses and entrepreneurs to stay in touch with those who choose to follow them, and stay updated on new products, services, specíal offers, industry news and more. It’s a win-win for both the Tweeter, and their followers.

When it comes to using Twitter, there’s a right way and a wrong way to use it. Your messages must be kept short, under 140 characters, and they need to be helpful or informative. Don’t carry on about what you ate for breakfast, or the fact that you just brushed your teeth. People will unfollow you faster than they can hit the button, even if you do have good oral habits.

I’ve been using Twitter for a long time now and here’s what I’ve found works best when participating in this close knit community of few words.

1) Regular Postings: Now I’m not saying you need to post every day, although that would be nice. You do need to make an appearance on a regular basis. It’s like school – you need to show up to pass. Be a contributor that your followers get to really know and look forward to your Tweets. If you’re the type of person who needs to plan ahead, you can always use a service that allows you to schedule tweets in advance, such as Socialoomph.com

2) Retweet: If you see Tweets posted by other users that you think your followers would like, then retweet them. It only takes one click, and you’ll also be creating goodwill with other Twitter users at the same time. If you’d like, you can add a personal thought or comment before sending it. Also, make it easy for others to retweet your posts by adding RT buttons to your website or blog. It’s easy with the TweetMeme Retweet Button.

3) Be Helpful: Keep in mind Twitter is a form of social Media, so social interaction is key. It’s not all about you. Whenever a chance arises to answer a question, participate in a survey, or help solve a problem, do so. In this way you’re participating in the community. This also will help your brand and image when others know they can count on you for support or feedback.

4) Don’t Be A Follow CopyCat: Don’t follow everybody who follows you. This is probably my biggest pet peeve when it comes to Twitter. So many people turn this feature on to auto follow those who follow them. Why would you want to do this? I’d prefer that those I follow are people and topics I’ve hand-selected that interest me, and not a mish-mash of followers who may be ranting about things I have no interest in. Be selective in who you follow or your Twitter stream could quickly fill up with junk or spam. For quality people to follow, see – FollowOnTwitterLists.com.

5) What to Tweet: Make sure that the tweets you post are helpful and/or informative. Late breaking news pertaining to your industry, as well as any specials or sales you may have going on are always good topics. If you find something you think your followers would like, especially if it’s free or a bargain, share the love. Plus, if your tweets are good, it will encourage others to retweet them. For ideas see – ArtBizBlog.com

6) Comment: Particpate in the community by commenting on other people’s tweets. If you can answer a question, do so. It doesn’t hurt and people really will appreciate it when you take the time to comment on what they have to say. It lets them know that others are actually listening to what they have to say in the “Twitterverse”.

7) Say Thank You: When someone takes the time to retweet one of your tweets, make sure to reply to them with a “thank you”. Manners rule online as well as off, and they’ll like the fact that you noticed the retweet and took the time to show some gratitude. It may even inspire them to retweet more of your tweets in the future.

Be Personal: Again, I don’t need to know what you ate for dinner, but every now and then you should show your human side with a creative thought, quote, or other statement. Let people know you’re “real” and not just a lean mean business machine. You want to tread lightly in this area. Too personal is overkill, but a little can help in establishing a connection with your followers.

9) Post Pictures/Video: Remember, Twitter is not just for text. It’s easy to post short videos, and pictures too. It’s nice to mix it up a little and share content in other formats as well. Here are some resources – Video Sharing Websites for Twitter.

10) Talk About More Than Yourself: It’s not all about you, so please don’t make all your tweets one big marketing message, such as only tweeting about your latest press release, blog posting, or article that was published. No one will want to follow you if you’re one big commercial. Yes, some of this is fine in moderation, but you need to walk a fine line and mix it up with other helpful, interesting topics.

Now it’s time to start putting these tips into action. Social media is all about participating and listening to what others have to say. It’s all about creating and sharing information and becoming part of the community. If you approach Twitter in this fashion, you’ll not only have a lot more fun, but your followers will like and respect you – and if that doesn’t strengthen your brand, nothing will.

About The Author
Merle’s Mission Blog – “Rants, Raves and Random Acts of Kindness.” A self-proclaimed “Internet Junkie” with a passion for net marketing, affiliate marketing, and social networking. An avid Blogger and writer with several niche sites. Find out more at merlesworld.blogspot.com. Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/msmerle

On Friday’s I attend my weekly BNI meeting. It’s an amazingly productive way to speed up client acquisition.

This week we had a very full room. We had some great guests: Alex, a computer guy; Roxane, sells ad space at bus stops; Linda, runs an organic bakery; Jason, offers virtual office services. I’m looking forward to meeting each of them.

The main thrust of our meeting this week was to recruit people that we can refer business to.  Right now we have 10 people who are looking for personal banker. If you know a banker who wants a lot of business now, we would like to meet that person.

We are also looking for a Chiropractor, a Florist, a Landscaper, a Heating and Cooling Professional, an Alarm Systems Installer, a Hairdresser or Barber and a auto mechanic.

If you would like to know more about any of this post, contact me.

I’ve decided to start sharing what I’ve learned from dance cards and meeting the many interesting people in Tucson.

My first entry if for Dee Anne, the Director of Sales for AdVision. Her company places ads on all the bus stops in Tucson. That is a lot of bus stops.

Dee Anne has 25 years in the ad business. She started in radio in New Orleans and moved to Clear Chanel Radio in Tucson. She was recently offered a nice job with AdVision and had taken to it like a fish to water. She’s a really nice lady.

Dee Anne explained that her company has benches and signs all over Tucson and that advertising on them cost way less then you would imagine. Benches start at $37.50 per week. (That’s $150 for 4 weeks!) There is a one time fee to make the banner/artwork that goes in the ad, but you can use that for years. The posters last 9-12 months on the streets.

As a web site developer and host, I strongly encourage people to get their website out there. If you’ve ever driven across town, you’ve probably seen at least one bench ad.

If this sounds like something that would work for you, call AdVision at 520/292-6200 and tell them Nohl sent you

Every major search engine provides hints and tips about how to optimize your pages for improved rankings on their sites. But when you read these guidelines you quickly see that most of it is just their own wish list. Things like ‘Write for humans not search engine bots – or – do not hide keywords with a font matching the background color.’ It is all good advice but kind of general and already well known (for the past decade.)

But there are always things a search engine will not tell you. And, of course, these are the things that make all the difference in your SEO efforts and results. That said; here are eight things that Bing does not want you to know (or you can skip to the Magic Formula section at the end):

1.) Your Domain Name Matters
A Lot Search for just about anything on MSN / Bing and at least three of the top five matches will have some version of that keyword as the domain name. For example if you wanted to optimize for the keyword ‘my domain’ you should try to get the domain name ‘mydomain.com.’ If that is taken, opt for ‘my-domain.com.’ If that’s taken try for a name starting with ‘mydomain’ and ending with a word that is commonly associated. This is called LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing. A good example would be ‘mydomainname.com’ or ‘my-domain-name.com.’ BTW, Bing treats dashes as a space so as long as long as the dashes merely separate words, they are treated much like the non dash version.

2.) There is No Sandbox
Here’s some great news for anyone just getting started. Bing does not seem to care about the age of your domain name. There is no ‘sandbox’ like Google has. Many people, myself included, have registered brand new domains and had them ranking in a matter of days.

3.) DotCom Trumps DotNet
Today some search engines like Google will often give .net and .com virtually the same value, and possibly higher value for a .org that is for a recognized non-profit organization. Bing however appears to prefer the .com version. You can even see instances where a ‘.co.uk’ site gets high rankings simply because it uses the exact keyword in the domain name and .co is close enough to .com.

4.) We Like Sub Domains
Most web hosts will let you add sub domains to your website. On Bing, if you have the sub domain mydomain.mydomain.com you are in for some potentially great rankings. The same is true if you have my.domain.com, but to a slightly lesser degree.

5.) Less is More – Part One
We have been trained by Google to try to have hundreds of pages of quality content on every website. Bing adheres to the old policy that they are indexing web ‘pages’ not web ‘sites’ (like Google says they do, but Bing appears to really mean it.) This means each page is treated on its own merit so a site with one page has the same chances of being ranked as a site with 100 pages, because each page is genuinely treated individually.

6.) Less is More – Part Two
The same rule as above goes for on-page text. Pages with 800 to 1,200 words seem to do best on Google but on Bing the reverse is true, with 250 to 500 words being the magic number. Just do not overuse your keyword.

7.) Links are Nice But Not Required
Forget about spending your life building an ever growing number of inbound links for Bing. They do not need them. Your site, for now at least, is judged by its own merits, page by page.

8.) Be Bold not Strong
The original SEO method dating back to 1996 was using the H1 or ‘strong’ heading tags in your HTML. Forget them for now. Bing gives higher priority to how you would express importance in a word processor document; larger font and bolded text as the main markers.

Summary: I build hundreds of Bing (formerly MSN) targeted mini sites every year using the information above (as it has evolved) and the results have been consistent top ten rankings. You can do it too!

Here’s my magic formula for a one hour top ranking:
A.) Get the .com version of a three to four word keyword as the domain name (dashes are fine.)
B.) Use the domain name as the page heading in a bolded font, slightly larger than the paragraph text.
C.) Write 400 words of natural sounding text using the keyword up to five times.
D.) Mention the keyword once in the first sentence and once in the final sentence of the page – then up to three times scattered throughout the remainder.
E.) Bold one instance of the keyword. Italicize one instance of the keyword. Use one instance of the keyword as a link back to the same page.
F.) Always fill in your Title, Description and Keywords META tags. That’s it.

Good luck and take care!

PS: This works for Yahoo too.

About The Author

Mike Small is the president of DotCom Pirates,a different kind of SEO company dedicated to helping website owners optimize for pennies on the dollar. DotCom Pirates offers Do It Yourself and Turnkey SEO packages starting at just $49. Please visit www.DotComPirates.com for more information and our SEO gift.

And so, here it is. An incredibly complex combination of WordPress, CSS, HTML, XML and hard work.

I’ve put some effort into making this visit worth your while Notice the ‘Switch Theme’ drop down on the left. Give it a try. It’s fun. It demonstrates how a site’s content can be made independent of the site’s appearance.

This is a big deal if you want to have a site and a mobile site simultaneously. It also comes in handy if you have distinct audiences with special needs, such as kids or people with poor eye sight.

I’m using WordPress to demonstrate how easy it is to manage a site (with a blog) from my Smartphone while keeping things clean and friendly.

This is a work in progress so I look forward to your feedback.

Thanks!

It’s amazing how quickly patterns form. Some schools of thought say that it only takes three times to build a pattern. Other schools state that you begin to miss a pattern if it suddenly goes away.

How can you use that in your business? If you were sending emails like this one, you would be reminding people that you are there and are ready to help.

Just put this in real world terms; ever since we started sending these email, we’ve picked up a new project a week. When we stopped, people actually asked if they missed the message. Food for thought, no?

In case you’re wondering, our gnomes are hard at work developing our next web site for Focus Web Works. Features to look for include easy navigation and a blog to share news and marketing ideas.

Let’s talk soon

Nohl

When you are deciding how to spend you business dollars, how are you making your decision?

What you should be doing is asking questions and making notes. “How did you hear about us?” This tells you which of your ads or web sites are working for you.

Once upon a time, everyone said, “yellow pages.” Now, I don’t know more than one or two people who still rely on that medium. If you deal primarily with younger customers – downsizing your Yellow Page ad will save some serious green.

If you get lots of business by referral, how can you reward people for their support? For many people, the reward is to continue the quality of service that made them appreciate you in the past.  Some sort of carrot is still a nice way to say, ‘Thank you.”

If you are using multiple ads, do you know which ads bring in the most money? Make sure that your entire customer service team asks, “How did you hear about us?”

One method that we can help with is to setup different web pages for different promotions. This will help you track which promotions drove the most traffic to your web site.

Remember: a business without advertising is like smiling at someone pretty in a dark room. You know what your doing, but nobody else does.

Nohl