The Art of Doing Business

Increase Conversion Through Trust

2009-10-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Ran, online marketing manger of Wood and Beyond Whether you are selling a product online or promoting a service, the days of evaluating your success based on traffic to the site are probably over. Today the name of the game is how well you are able to convert your traffic to undertake the desired action which profits your business. If you are selling online the desired action is a

Emerging online marketing trends

2009-09-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

Seriously, are you still using your website as an online brochure? If you are, you are missing the boat. And that boat is a Party Boat hosted by your competitor’s with all your customers on board . . . Emerging online marketing trends Source: IMGBranding Published: Friday, September 25, 2009 Increased adoption of multi-channel distribution models - Regardless of wherever else you sell,

Sustainability trends that are changing the business landscape

2009-09-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

Recently, we launched a new DBA. Because we registered it with the City, it was avilable for all those who market to new businesses. Within days a flurry of junk mail ensued and no less than 4 telephone books showed up. In the Age of the Internet, why on earth are we producing telephone books and more importantly why are we chopping down trees so that I can recive 4 new telephone books? It

Are keywords dead?

2009-09-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

Back in March, we asked this question. Most of you thought if they weren't dead, they were probably on life support. Here's what Google had to say recently - Google doesn't use the "keywords" meta tag in our web search ranking. What does this mean? Should we eliminate keywords? There are those who say save the space, don't include them. Google acknowledges keywords neither help or hurt

Top 10 Websites

2009-09-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Alexa.com has released the latest Top 10 Websites by Traffic. Google has taken over the #1 dethroning longtime holder Yahoo! Even more interesting is that Facebook has surpassed Yahoo!, as well. Google has three properties in the Top 10 with Google, YouTube and Blogger - do not underestimate the power of Google! Can't think the folks over at Yahoo! are to happy about the slide.Also

Was Your Installation Successful?

2009-09-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

So, I hadn't yelled at the tech folks (and I use tech very, very loosely here) over at 1and1 in awhile. There is a weird glitch with 1and1 that doesn't allow you to automatically upgrade the WordPress. I decided to upgrade it manually causing all kinds of problem,s not the least of my own stupidity on not backing up first - yea, I know!While I didn't have high expectations, I figured maybe I'd

And they told two friends . . .

2009-09-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Understanding the concept on social networking - When I was a kid, you know back in the stone ages - there used to be commercial for Breck Shampoo - "and you told two friends, and they told two friends, and they told two friends . . . The idea was that happy customers would share their experiences with friends, who in turn would pass it on. Ultimately, this became known as viral marketing.Fast

Can you match my business card?

2009-08-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

ne of our clients - HLAW - came to us looking to update their website. They had two requests Make it simple to update Make it match their existing business cards. OK, done. We opted for a WordPress platform that they can manage through a hosted dashboard - no html skill needed. And we selected a nice clean template consistent with their business cards. http://hlawsf.com/ What can we do

How can it be August already?

2009-08-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

We've been busy. One of the projects was a new website for Barry-Hill Realtors. The client was looking to increase online visibility.We opted for a Wordpress blog and iRealEstate theme.We really liked the tabbed browsing for listings, tips and the blog. Check it out and tell them Doherty sent you.

Building in Joomla!

2009-07-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

MediationSF wanted a professional looking site that wasn't too flashy. We opted for a Joomla CMS platform with a Vintage Themed Template. Very simple and elegant.The Joomla format allows for multiple users to contribute to the site. Any user with basic word processing skills can update it by adding content, managing images and keeping company critical data up-to-date via a simple, hosted

Microsoft chases Google

2009-07-06T17:50:00.001-07:00

Microsoft has launched its answer to Google. So far, MicroSoft has not been able to break into the Google dominated search space, but knowing Microsoft they're not likely to give up easy. So, should you spend a lot of effort optimizing for Bing? Well, not until demostrate some market share, but it couldn't hurt to submit your site to Bing.To submit your site to Bing:To request that Bing crawl

Creating content

2009-06-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Often the hardest thing about blogging is thinking up content. Obviously, if you are launching a new product or service - there's plenty to blog about. But, what if you are just working away - what can you possibly write about?Events and happenings in your industry or consider creating a calendar for your industry.Use Google Alerts to stay on top of relevant keywords and comment on media stories

Getting creative

2009-06-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

When times get tough, entrepreneurs need to get creative.Industry conferences and seminar can be expensive, but they are also great ways to network and stay abreast of what's the newest trends. In tough economic times, our marketing budgets can't always support the ticket price. However, many conferences will let you attend if you volunteer some hours to the conference.For the cost of a couple

Blogging matters

2009-06-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

For those of you following our little traffic ranking exercise - When we started this exercise (9/22), Dohertyassoc.com had a Alexa traffic rank of: 3,740,178. In October, we had a traffic rank of 1,969,422, January 2009 was 1,183,946, April we had gotten to 869,376.Currently Doherty's traffic rank is 1,696,815So what happened? We got busy, and let the website slide and lo and behold - no new

April Update

2009-04-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

Like every small business - when we get busy we tend to market less - bad, bad bad! We know, it has been crazy!! Here is a quick update on just a few of our projects:SF Business Services is updated weekly with the latest SF Business News and Events.FitBizTools has been busy with a large eCommerce project providing the customer an opportunity to market to numerous channels from a single database

Internet Strategies

2009-03-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

It’s not about building websites - it’s about building online businesses . . . How many of you have a website? Uh huh. How many of you have updated it in the last month? Exactly. What is your page rank?, your Alexa ranking? or even your link building strategy? Not sure, call us we can help!Internet Strategies

Are keywords dead?

2009-03-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't say they are dead. I like what Scott said. "They're not feeling well". Content is key when engineered properly for search engine optimization. Keeping in mind your title and descriptions in both the code and content do play a major role in your search engine optimization. Izzy Macaluso Keywords are not dead, but content is far more crucial in this

What do you do different?

2009-03-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

I teach business planning to entrepreneurs. What do you do different? This is always the first question I ask. Are you faster? Cheaper? Better? Understanding how we differentiate ourselves in the market is key to developing a successful marketing strategy and ultimately a successful business. If your customers have three options (or some amazing multiple thanks to the Internet) why do they

Keyword Density

2009-03-05T15:46:00.000-08:00

Keyword density is how often your keywords show up in the text of your site. If they never show up - then the text and the keywords seem unrelated - if you over do it then it's just a spam site.But as poor Goldilocks found out - it's not always easy to get it just right. No more then 2-3% of you text should focus on one variation of a keyword or keyword phrase. Some people debate this and will

Search Engine Ranking Factors

2009-03-02T15:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a great analysis of many SEO topics which shows the most important factors as ranked by a group of 37 experts. Check it out - it might just be a good refresher http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

Social networking sites - what works for you?

2009-02-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

We asked, here’s what you told us – LinkedIn is my preferred professional networking site, followed by xing.com and then by Twitter and Plaxo. Facebook is only used for private networking to stay in touch with family and friends. Oliver SchmidI don't like Twitter at all! LinkedIn works for me - just have to sift through the spam which can be frustrating and time

Ten Common Website Mistakes

2009-02-11T19:31:00.000-08:00

Not enough inbound links - it is the the #1 way to build page ranking and increase visibility in organic search. Develop an link strategy to increase your rankings.Every title is just the name of your company - search engines read the title tag to get a sense of what the page is about.Pictures are not named - use Alt Tags to identify picture content, so searchers will find them in Google image

How often should I update my blog?

2009-02-09T18:36:00.000-08:00

This probably the question we get the most. We recommend that you update your blog at least once a week. That ensures there is fresh content for both your readers, as well as the search engines. We write our business blogs because we want potential customers to do something – hire us, buy from us, etc. Make sure there is a call to action in everything you post – such a “Contact Us to Learn

How do you come up with fresh content for your blog?

2009-02-01T18:32:00.000-08:00

We asked, here’s what you told us – I would suggest having guest bloggers and interviewing people for you blog. Doing so will give you exposure to their following and they benefit from the exposure to yours. Paul Castain Consolidated GraphicsKeep looking at related websites and news for ideas. Do not write long posts or don't try to write everything under one heading. You

Small Business Survey

2009-01-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

From SB Cal -Last week I sent you our annual survey and the response has been a bit slow as we have just under 100 responses. Please take a few moments to complete the survey and forward to other small business owners. This is our chance to tell legislators and the Governor what small business is thinking and what are our concerns.The results of the survey will be sent to every legislators and