EPR Creations LLC

Social Media Traffic

These numbers were just released showing the percentage of overall traffic per social media site:

• Facebook – 41%
• MySpace – 24%
• Gmail – 15%
• Twitter – 8%

My guess is that Facebook, Gmail, & Twitter’s share is rising while MySpace’s share is falling.

Another interesting trend is that Facebook is used as an email client.  I was talking to my wife about Facebook the other day and she does most of her emailing with friends through Facebook.  Think about it, you choose who can send you messages, so you automatically cut down on a lot of unwanted emails and wasted time by using Facebook as an email client.

Keep this in mind as you consider marketing initiatives for your company.  The trend may be moving away from email and towards email clients where the user can control who can & can’t email you.  They must trust you.

Setting up a 301 Redirect

What is a 301 redirect?

A 301 redirect is like a party that has moved. You arrive at the party and there is a sign on the door telling you to go to the next building because the party has been moved.

In a similar fashion, a 301 redirect is code that tells your browser that your website has moved from one location to another on the back end and automatically sends your user there on the front end. There are some handy reasons to set up a 301 redirect. A few of those reasons are to:

• Redirect users from http://yoursite.com to http://www.yoursite.com.  This is beneficial so that Google knows you just have one of those sites going.
• If you have changed company names, and thus URLs, your website can automatically send the user to your new website if they type in your old domain name.
• Say your business has a difficult name, you could redirect common misspellings of the URL to the real URL.
• The URL shortener sites use this technique to have a short URL point to a long URL.

So, how do you set up a 301 redirect?  First off, create a 1.htaccess file on your computer’s text editor.  Type in the text below, and then upload this file to the root of your website folder.  The most basic redirect is:

redirect 301 “/old/index.html”  http://www.newsite.com/

A second redirect is from http://yoursite.com to http://www.yoursite.com.  Here is the code for that 301 redirect:

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^dragonboatatlanta.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.dragonboatatlanta.com/$1 [L,R=301]

This should be a common step in setting up your website to make sure that the search engines know that you just have one site, and not two containing the same content.

And best of all, 301 redirects are SEO friendly.

Global Sales Growth

Company:
Global Sales Growth

Website Link:
http://www.globalsalesgrowth.com/

Date Launched:
April 2010

Design / Development Notes:
HTML, CSS, PHP, WordPress

Notes:
I designed this template and integrated it with WordPress so that my client could update content and update her blog.

Websites for Small Businesses

In the last few years, websites have gone under an important shift from static to dynamic purveyors of information.  Static means that the information is placed online, much like an advertisement, and it is there for people to come and see.  Dynamic content means that a web page exists, but it’s content is continually updated by outside content relevant to the page, whether through Twitter updates, RSS Feeds, or Blog Entries.

Dynamic sites, as the word signifies, are exciting.  They are always changing, and they give website users a reason to return to your site.  If your website content is the same as it was 5 years ago, you are probably not attracting many repeat viewers to your site.  You are losing out on business.  You wouldn’t put up a billboard and leave it the same for 5 years, so why have you done that with your website?

The Atlanta Business Chronicle just had an interesting article about small businesses & their use of websites.  According to the article, most small businesses still have a static website and they do not have E-Commerce capabilities built into their site.  So they are not giving their viewers fresh content and they are not offering their users a chance to buy into their idea or product.

The Internet is changing so rapidly that you must keep your website and your content fresh.  For real estate, location is the key (location, location, location!)  With websites, content is king.  You must have good, unique, and fresh content on your site to be noticed among the millions of new web pages being added to the Internet each day.

My Apple Story

I started using an Apple Macintosh Macbook laptop almost 2 years ago.  Before that, I had used two PC’s.  One was a Compaq laptop during undergraduate and the second was a Dell desktop that I used for roughly 5 years.  I love my mac.  Who knows what will be available in the future, but at this point, I can’t imagine ever straying from Apple products.

As to the difference between PC’s & Mac’s, I had a friend tell me once that on a Mac, if you think you can do it, chances are you can.  It just works.  It’s intuitive.

One reason that I purchased my Mac a few years ago was because I wanted to learn how to use one.  If I ever needed to borrow a computer or use a Mac, I wanted to be able to know how to navigate the computer.  Up to that point, I had been pretty scared of Apple computers because I didn’t know how to use them.  They were different than PC’s.  Turns out it was pretty easy to use.  I love simple differences like being able to use the mouse pad on the laptop to easily scroll up & down on a screen.  You can’t do that on a PC laptop without using the scroll bar.

It’s funny now being a Mac owner.  When I run into other Mac owners, I always hear them say that they love their Mac.  I never hear PC owners say that.

Step 1 – Get Your Company Online

One of the first items I have most of my clients do is to submit their information to Google Local Business Center.  In doing so, Google finds out the important information about your business.  That information then shows up in the “Local Business Results” section of a Google Search Result, just like this image:

So, without having anything else online, you could hypothetically get in the top placement in Google for your local business without spending any time on Search Engine Optimization.

Here are the steps on how to do that:

1. Go to http://www.google.com/local/add/
2. If you already have a Google account, enter your email & password.  If not, no problem, just click ‘Sign up now >>’
3. If you don’t have an account, the first page will be setting up your account.
4. If you do have an account, click “Add a New Business” after you have signed in.
5. After doing that, you will be asked specific questions about your company.
6. Be sure to add all 5 allotted fields to Category.  Just start typing aspects of your business and Google will give you good ideas.  This is important as it will determine what search terms your business shows up for.
7. Click next and add all additional information.
8. Google will then ask to confirm that you who you say you are by calling your telephone or mailing a letter to your company address.  Through the call or letter, you will receive a PIN # that you will then need to type in.
9. After that, you are done.  Google should have your listing up within 24 hours.
10. You can then sign back in to your account to see how many times your listing has shown and how many times people have clicked on it.

The best news is that this is completely free to do.  I also recommend doing the same thing for Yahoo’s Local Business section.  The link to do that is – http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php

How to Add & Adjust an Image in Microsoft Word

You’ve just typed up a masterpiece, and all that’s remaining is that beautiful image to adorn the right side of your document.  But you go to insert an image, and it gets inserted within text, on the left side of the screen, and you just can’t seem to move it.  Frustrated yet?

Here are instructions on how to add and adjust an image within Microsoft Word.

1. Place your cursor where you would like your image to be located.  Your cursor will likely be on the left-hand side of your document.  Even if you want your image on the right-hand side, place your cursor at the level you would like the image.
2. Go to the Menu item Insert -> Picture -> From File…
3. Choose the image from your computer and press the Insert button.
4. Now, right-click directly on the image and choose the Format Picture option.
5. Find the area that refers to the Layout of the image.
6. Choose the “Behind text” option and click ok.
7. You can now move the image wherever you want on the screen, even behind text.
8. Also, after clicking on the image, you can adjust the size of the image (preferably smaller, you will distort the image if you try to go bigger) using one of the corner dots to drag that inside.

And there you go, you have added an image to your Word Document that you can move with ease.  If you have any questions about the process, please respond by issuing a comment below.

How to Write a Blog using WordPress

I have included instructions below on how to add a simple blog entry within WordPress. I use WordPress as a content management system for many of my websites and usually provide these instructions to my clients on how to enter their own blogs.

1. Log into the back end of your website and you will come to the main screen of the administrator area.
2. Under the menu item ‘Posts,’ click on ‘Add New.’
3. Your cursor will start in the Title area.  Write a title for your blog posting.
4. Below that, you will see an area that looks much like a word document.  Begin typing your blog in this area.  You will find that you can bold words, underline, etc by using the buttons in that area.
5. To add an image, click the button that looks like a square right next to the Upload/Insert text above the post entry area.  This will load a pop-up screen where you can upload an image from your computer, or type in a URL of an image.  Be sure to choose the size and alignment for the image before clicking “Insert into post.”
6. Look to your right and you will see an area titled ‘Post Tags.’  Please write in the most important keywords associated with your article.  These will be important for the Search Engines finding your blog.
7. When you are ready, click the blue “Publish” button to your right.
8. Congrats!  You have just added a blog to your site.
9. Take a look at the blog at www.globalsalesgrowth.com/blog

How to Use Craigslist

I often encourage my clients to use Craigslist to promote their businesses. I just had a client tell me yesterday that he got two new customers as a result of a recent ad placed on Craigslist.

The main benefits of using Craigslist are that the ads can be placed in local markets, they are free to set up, and you can have an ad up and running in under 10 minutes.

I have done the following using Craigslist:

• Found a renter for my condo – twice (no agent commission)
• Sold a number of items such as electronics, musical instruments, and household items
• Obtained music gigs for my violin playing
• Sold a number of items for other people where I have taken a commission for the sale

Here is a list of steps to get yourself up and running on Craigslist:

1. Go to www.craigslist.org and find your city.  Click on that city.
2. Within that page, click on “My Accounts” on the left-hand side of the screen.
3. Sign up for an account with Craigslist (it’s free)
4. Once you have that squared away, sign in to your new account.  You are now ready to place your first ad.
5. Click on “Post to Classifieds” on the left-hand side of the screen.
6. Find the appropriate Type of Posting for your product or service.
7. Start with a catchy title for your item, then add a description.  Use a price that gives you a little room for negotiation.
8. Add Photos under “Add / Edit Images!!!  Very important.  I’ve found that people respond better to ads with photos.  You can add up to 4 images.
9. Click on “Continue” and fulfill the rest of the steps.
10. Since you have created a Craigslist account, every time you sign in, you will be able to see the ads that you have currently running and the ones you have done in the past.  This also provides easy access to delete your ad once you have sold the product or service.

My recommendation is to re-post your advertisement every 6 – 10 days.  If you try to re-post under that time frame, Craigslist will try to stop you.  The newest ads show up first as people search for products or services.  Therefore, it is best to refresh your ad so it is higher up on the list.

Although Craigslist is a great tool, I must also warn you of some potential problems:

• There are a lot of people trying to take your money on Craigslist.  If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.  For instance, if someone from the UK wants to buy your piano for twice as much as the price and ship it to the UK using FedEx, it’s not real.  As a general rule, I would stay away from international orders.
• If you sell a product and are to meet to exchange the product for money, choose  a well-lit area with many people around.  I always recommend taking one other person along with you so that you are not alone.

A final tip – for further safety, Craigslist allows you to use an anonymous email address instead of your personal one.  Do this to avoid potential spammers.

Any questions about using Craigslist – go ahead and leave a comment to this post.

StomperNet Disillusionment

I just returned from an Online Marketing Conference put on by StomperNet in Atlanta.  The conference runs through Sunday, but I left a day and a half early.  I walked out of 2 keynote speeches and wanted to walk out of the third today.  It was an astonishing disappointment.

Apparently they were able to charge a low price for the conference by allowing all of their speakers the chance to pitch their products.  So, the speakers didn’t actually teach anything about online marketing, they just spent their allotted time pitching their product.

I felt violated.  I spent money to attend the conference to learn about online marketing and instead I sat through commercials.

As someone attending the conference in order to learn how to better market the websites of my clients, I ended up pulling away very little about the topic that was to be the focus of the conference – “Online Marketing.”  StomperNet has pulled away from the core of what made them good in order to make a quick profit.

I guess the main thing I pulled away from the conference was that staying true to your core values as a company and staying true to what you do best will keep people more interested in the long run than violating trust and going for the quick money.  StomperNet has a great pool of knowledge on SEO and Online Marketing and they didn’t tap it at all.  Thanks for the unintended lesson StomperNet.