It’s a frequent issue that comes up whenever I’m talking with someone about their website. There is so much to think about when getting your website going that it’s hard to keep up. It’s easy - really easy - to get swamped in the weeds of the fine-grain details and overlook elements that are essential to your site being successful. So if you’re not sure what’s missing from your site take note of the essentials below and make sure you’ve got them implemented. It’s your virtual reputation. Make sure you have the basics covered.

"About Us" page

This is an easy one to gloss over but people like to know that they’re doing business with people. This isn’t a 5000 word essay that would take a week to read, it’s an elevator speech and a resume all in one. Chris Brogan has an excellent example of a great “about” page. If a publisher, potential client, or customer landed on his page they’d immediately be informed about all that he does and what he’s accomplished. Read more »

Just a quick post this morning to let you know that we're now launching eBay Blackthorne MS SQL Database hosting!  Details are to come, but we think $50 per month for Blackthorne database hosting is a steal compared to the hundreds of dollars per month a dedicated Microsoft server would cost from any of the big hosting companies out there!  Our hosting is powered by the Rackspace Cloud so you know that performance and support will be second to none! Read more »

Recently I came across this article on Carsonified.com that goes over a questionnaire designers and developers might use to evaluate web projects. That got me thinking - Is there a way for my business to diversify by utilizing or creating a web application for it? And with that thought the wheels really started to turn.  I do web design and development and so I might consider expanding by partnering with a programmer to do the actual design and development work. However, I really started thinking about my clients and how they might be able to expand as well. As far as other businesses and business ideas I would imagine that some might do very well as a iphone/android app. Have you thought about this? Read more »

I talked a few weeks about about the basics of search engine optimization.  In that post I talked about how SEO is art and science and it takes regular, specific efforts to make sure that your site is well prepared to be indexed well by search engines.  I told you about creating pages with good X/HTML markup, the length of registration for your domain, and making sure you're using all your meta information correctly.  All of those elements lend themselves more to the science-side of the search engine optimization pr Read more »

An important topic for any website owner to invest time in learning would be the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). Early on in my experimentation with website design and development I learned that for any site to be successful that, not only did it have to look good and present itself in a professional manner, but the content had to be constructed with equal or greater care than the visual aspect of the site in order to perform well for its target audience.

There is art and science to properly optimizing your site. There is an entire industry dedicated to it, and if you're in the web design & development business you're likely to get spammed by companies offering SEO services and promising to produce dramatic results. However the basics of getting your website in to great shape to be found and crawled by search engines are not that mystical, or complicated - quite the contrary. It can be done by following sound coding and design principles and making a conscious effort to highlight the things that are central to the goals you're trying to accomplish. Read more »

How is your site doing?

Do you know? Are the keywords that you're targeting generating traffic?  How are people finding your site? What about your competitors - do you know how they're doing?

Getting quality visitor data from your website is key to any successful site. You need to know if your site is getting the exposure that you want. Competition is fierce, and getting quality results from your site is absolutely essential.

Actionable data is available if you know where to find it. Some of these you will have heard of, others may be new, but these tools are the ones that I’ve found most useful and valuable for my projects and clients. Read more »

Want to get a great overview for business applications of social media?  Look no further than Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

For those who work with social media, this is an invaluable introduction to the topic and gives great coverage to what companies are doing to adapt to this new world. The fact of the matter is that regardless of the size of your company, dealing with social media is not a choice, but that's not a bad thing.  However, what is important is that managers, executives, and marketing departments need to get up to speed on the various aspects of social media. Read more »

The way the world does business is changing has changed. There can be no doubt that the world wide web has forever changed the landscape of how the world conducts its business.

The playing field is (somewhat) level, and barriers to entry for the aspiring internet entrepreneur are few. But the question arises for those contemplating the jump in to ecommerce, what platform should I use?

There are numerous different platforms available for use from free to expensive, from easy to set up to needing an expert to get you running. This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of ecommerce platforms at all!  I've picked a couple of the more popular tools that I'm familiar with and that I think might be beneficial for those of you who are trying to set out in to the ecommerce world.

Some are subscription based, some are open source, some are proprietary paid platforms.  If you're looking to launch a store you really can't go wrong with any of these. Read more »

After many great learning experiences in 2009, my family and myself are hoping for a much better 2010! We believe that good things are in our future, and that the future is indeed very bright. Jim Rohn - a "business philosopher" - unfortunately passed away in early December.

Thinking through your new website

Building an effective website is can be a daunting task.  The excitement that comes from the initial decision to get online soon can give way to confusion on what to do and how to proceed. So what to do?  Plan.  What follows is a guide that you can use to plan your site and build something that will be an asset to your personal brand, or business. Knowing what you want to achieve with your website will go a long way in helping you get it done. Read more »