Small Business Website Design Blog
Nuggets of info that help you make an informed decision for your website design strategy.
Google LOVES a good blog so we’ll own it: This slog…er…I mean BLOG is mostly about executing effective SEO. Let’s call it like it is. If you’re reading this page, it must be working, eh?
The Power of Video & Getting More Customers
Discover the power of video marketing for small businesses. Learn about the various types of corporate videos that can enhance customer outreach and internal communications while increasing brand awareness and expanding your customer base.
University of Arkansas Marketing Genius
Sometimes A Great Idea Is Right In Front Of You! Small Business Insights: Marketing A while back I went to my first University of Arkansas football game. It was a spectacular fall day...too warm for November 1st, that's for sure. As we made our way to the cheap seats, we made the obligatory stop at the concession stand for an $8 souvenir mug of Diet Coke and a hot dog. Once seated, we immediately took to eating our almost entirely tasteless "meal" of encased meat--it was a spectacularly bland dog. But just as the first wave of belches began to percolate in my still hungry gut it occurred to me: how was it possible that the vendors within this glorious steel and concrete shrine to Razorback pigs had missed the marketing gold that is (insert drumroll here): "Hawg Dog?" For those of you not living in "The Natural State" of Arkansas (where there is no formal recycling plan; turns out "Natural" is a [...]
Marketing Emails-How Kohls Is Abusing Their Mailing List
Be Good To Your Customer & Respect Their In-Box! Small Business Insights: Marketing My wife recently signed up with the Kohls mailing list in an effort to secure the occasional coupon and special offer as we entered the back to school and consumer-spending-frenzied-fourth quarter. And because she's been around me just long enough, she used our mutual Yahoo email address vs. her personal account. And in case anyone wasn't listening closely let me repeat that little pearl of advice: Secure a Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail account and use them specifically for mailing lists, registrations, and similarly disposable instances. They are easy to get, plentiful and available from any machine with an internet connection. The first marketing email came in this past Monday and congratulations to them for keeping very close tabs on new sign-ups and getting right to work. As one that spent several years in retail internet marketing, I know that's important. And with retail taking it's current [...]
Winning The Domain Lottery: Selling A Valuable Domain
When A Domain Was Caught Up In A Bidding War AKA: The Good Old Internet Gold Rush Days Back in the mid-1990’s (or more fondly, “ancient times” as we know the internet ages at the same pace of a dog), I had a fine civil servant’s job in Sonoma County, CA. And like everyone else I’d found myself quite amused by the new internet and my Mac Performa (rockin’ the 4 megs of RAM, baby!). To get perspective on just how long ago this was, my co-worker Sue did a little moonlighting as a realtor agreed with me that the internet had genuine possibilities as a tool for selling houses. This was a cutting edge idea, no doubt about it. Put up the house listing, add pictures and sales information…it was pure genius. Armed with a recent dalliance with “Photoshopping” my face into famous pictures and scenes (alas, those are long lost) and emailing them to amused friends at [...]
Why We Don’t Offer Email Accounts
Looking For A Company Email System? Run, Don't Walk From Accounts Tied To Your Hosting Small Business Insights: Email Any self-respecting website designer that includes hosting as a service likewise offers email accounts as well, right? That's just how things are done. I mean not only email accounts, but unlimited email accounts with unlimited storage. And a free dessert. And a ride home after the show. At The Affordable Web Guy, we've decided to not offer email accounts and here's why. The big boys do it better and we can't match the services, scope, and scale of major players like Google Suite (Gmail) and Microsoft's Office 365 (I just threw up in my mouth). Yes, it's true. While we appreciate your confidence in our top shelf personal service, we don't offer what some might consider a cornerstone feature. It's not a complicated explanation. The long-story-short answer is: We could offer free accounts but we've found them regularly unreliable and stripped [...]
It Ain’t Magic. It’s Just Good Service
Earn Your Client’s Trust & Keep It Small Business Insights: Customer Service Just about every time I turn around, there is some new piece of technology or some new buzzword-filled marketing trend, that is claiming to be the magic pill that web-based businesses have been searching for to get more sales. Just do this one unique thing, they tell you, and all your e-commerce dreams will come true. The “one thing” almost always conveniently involves spending money on a product or service that promises to be the “it factor” you’ve been missing. Can I tell you a secret? In all my decades of experience as a small business owner myself, I’ve only found one thing that really works, and it’s as old-school as it gets. What I’m talking about is great customer service. Taking care of people is the oldest practice in the book, but it works. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten contracts because, according [...]
