Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Soon it will be time to update your marketing plan or make a new marketing plan for 2009. Shama Hyder of ClickToClient.com has a free online resource to help you plan your marketing activities for the new year.

Visit this link to download your free Online Marketing Guide today!
http://clicktoclient.com/articles/OnlineMarketingPlan.pdf

Saturday, October 4, 2008

What do I write about?

If you are new to blogging, you may be wondering what do I write about and who would want to read it? These are common questions. When you are starting your own small business, you may not feel like an expert in your field. But you are an expert. Your customers come to you because you provide a valuable service that they need.

You are working in your small business most likely because it is something that you love to do. Share your enthusiasm for your work in your blog. Write tips and news and articles to share with your customers. Read other blogs and articles in your industry and write summaries and link to their blog posts and articles. Be sure to give credit to the original author when quoting their work. It's not cool to plaguarize - that means take someone else's words and pass them off as your own. You are welcome to re-write ideas and concepts in your own words.

Common blog post ideas:
- Make top 10 lists eg. my top 10 favourite blogs that I read
- My top ten favourite blogs on How to Start a Small Business
- Link to another article or blog post
- Post weekly or daily tips on how to use your service better

Here is some good advice from Audrey of SisterInc.

Set up a blog and start writing about what you know. This is a great way to build expert status and to also get others involved with the conversation when they leave comments on your blog. The key to blogging is to blog consistently. This means that you should be blogging at least once a day and even more if possible.


Further Reading:
Read the full article on Building Expert Status.

Till next time,
Keep blogging!

Katy

Friday, October 3, 2008

Blog Writing Tips

Good blogs to read for Blog writing tips:

Daily Blog Tips
Here's an excellent blog post on 101 Blog Tips.
For more blog writing tips, visit the blog: www.DailyBlogTips.com


Out-Smarts.com
- Exellent resource for online marketing with social media
www.out-smarts.com/blog
Article on Corporate Blog Writing Etiquette

Here's another great article:
How to Start and Keep Blogging

Friday, September 5, 2008

Top 5 Ways to Increase Your Ranking in Google

1. Informative Content. Write clearly and accurately describe your topic. Provide high quality content on your pages especially your home page. Include keywords that visitors would use to find your website.

2. Build Links. Place links to your website on other websites with related content. These links help Google to find your site and helps give you greater visibility in Google search results.

3. Clear Navigation. Use logical menu structure to provide easy navigation to the content on your website. Every page should be accessible from at least one static text link.

4. Keyword Phrases. Visitors to your site will type in keywords to find your website. Be sure to use these keywords in your headers and in your website content.

5. Title Tag and Site Description. At the top of the browser, you will see the page title. Use keywords in the page title and the meta tag called description. To modify these, you will need to be comfortable using HTML. Your web designer can do this for you.

Need to increase your ranking in Google? Contact SeascapeWebDesign.com today! We have over 10 websites in Google’s top 10 for their keyword phrases.

Subscribe to Web Design and Marketing Tips by SeascapeWebDesign.com

Please let us know what you would like to see in these monthly tips, and send in any questions you have. If you know anyone else that you think would enjoy these tips please feel free to forward this email on to them or send us their email address: katy@seascapewebdesign.com

Cheers,

Katy, the Web Designer

SeascapeWebDesign.com
katy@seascapewebdesign.com

Monday, August 18, 2008

Your 1 Minute Introduction

I've been attending a lot of networking events recently. So I'm getting in some practice on giving my one minute intro. One of my favourite events is the eWomen Network event. They meet once a month for dinner or lunch and a speaker on a practical topic on how to grow your business. Here's some tips they gave me for giving a great one minute intro:

Here are some helpful preparation tips for tomorrow's networking event:


Spend some time today thinking about how you will introduce yourself to others tomorrow. We call this your "60-second commercial." You will be asked to tell us, in 60 seconds or less the following:

Who you are

What do you offer

What do you specifically need in the next 30 - 60 days

What do you plan to purchase, for personal or business reasons, in the next 30 - 60 days



One of the keys to the success of our networking events is our philosophy of "GIVING FIRST." Translated, this means we approach networking from a position of abundance, where giving to others leads to unlimited opportunities for all. Tomorrow, as you meet and connect with others, please approach all of your interactions from a place of "giving." Seek first to help others before being helped.

We promise, by engaging in our "giving" approach to relationship building you will gain more from this eWomenNetwork experience than you ever imagined.

Check out future events at http://www.ewomennetwork.com

For events in Surrey or Vancouver, BC Canada: https://events.ewomennetwork.com/event/calendar.php?lid=102

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Where is your RSS feed?

I recently had a faithful blog reader ask me this question. Good question, I thought, where is it? I hunted around Blogger.com dashboard and found it hiding under the Layout button.

Go to Dashboard. Look at the box at the top of the page titled Manage Your Blogs. Click on Layout and then click on Add Page Element. See the section Subscription Links (New!)Let your readers easily subscribe to your blog with popular feed readers. Click on the button "Add to Blog".

Another way to access the Layout page is to go to the Posting page and click on the Layout tab at the top menu.

View your Blog and you will see the orange RSS feed button. Users can click on this button and add your blog to their blog reader.

What's a blog reader? Good question. Look for the answer in my next blog posting.

See the excellent article "What is RSS?"

What is Link Popularity?

You may have heard the term link popularity. It is the total number
of links to your website from other websites or directories.

Why is Link Popularity Important?

Having many good quality links to your website will increase targeted traffic to your website. Google tracks these links to your website and rates your website with a Page Rank number. Websites with a Page Rank 3 or more are the best ones to place your website link.

From www.linkpopularity.com
Knowing who links to your site and increasing the number of quality links is an important part of any web site promotion effort. This free service allows you to query Google, Yahoo, and MSN and reports on link popularity.

Try out this free service today!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Top Two Marketing Tips of the Week

July 4th, 2008

Here is my top marketing tip for the week:

Super Duper FREE Online Marketing and PR Resources


including the Free Online Marketing Guide


I found this above valuable resource on mynameiskate.ca
Great name!


My top blogging tip comes from my favourite blogger at out-smarts.com

3 C’s for Blogging. Thanks Mhairi!

Happy Fourth of July to our American cousins to the south.

And Happy Canada Day last Tuesday to all my Canadian brothers and sisters! You rock, eh!

For more Internet Marketing tips, visit Katy's website at Vancouver Web Design and Marketing

Friday, June 27, 2008

Where does your website rank in Google?

Marketing tips for Professional Organizers in Canada.

To find how your website ranks in the most popular search engine, Google:

1. Go to google.com

2. Type "professional organizers" bc canada in the search box.

3. Click on Google Search button.

1. You will see the 1st and 2nd listings are for the Professional Organizers in Canada website:

POC BC - Professional Organizers in Canada
Get to know the BC chapter of POC - Professional Organizers in Canada.
www.organizersincanada.com/chapters/index.php?ishow=1&chap_id=3

2. Kudos to goodriddance.ca for having the number 3 spot on Google.com
Here's the listing:

clutter, de-clutter, Professional Organizer - Vancouver, BC
CanadaGood Riddance - Professional Organizers - Vancouver BC Canada, Professional Organizing Solutions. De-cluttering your house, One Room At A Time ...
www.goodriddance.ca/ - 19k - Cached - Similar pages

3. And my blog comes up number 4 and 5! Your blog could be here!

Web Design Secrets: Searching blogs for Professional Organizers in ...
professional organizers bc canada with no quotes and came up with nada to do with professional organizing. Then I put quotes around the phrase "professional ...
seascapewebdesign.blogspot.com/2008/06/ok.html - 43k - Cached - Similar pages


Contact Katy@seascapewebdesign.com or visit SeascapeWebDesign.com today to get your blog or website listed in Google's Top Ten!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

What is a Blog?

I recently attended a workshop on Blogging for Business given by Mhairi Petrovic on June 17th.

One of the attendees piped up: What does a blog look like? I imagine little comment balloons popping up when someone makes a comment on a blog.

(By the way, that's a great visual idea - having comments pop up in balloons when commenting on blogs.)

That is a very good question. What does a blog look like?

Most definitions say a blog is an online diary or journal. Sort of but not quite. Does anyone want the whole world to read what's in your private diary? I think not. They forget to add a very important qualifier to their definition of blog. It's a very public online journal. More like a column in a newspaper. I like this definition found on blogger.com:

A blog is a website. (It looks like a webpage.)
It's a website where you write stuff on an ongoing basis.
New stuff shows up on top so your visitors can read what's new right away.


And blogs are more interactive than the normal website. Visitors can comment on each blog entry and add their opinion or facts thereby creating a discussion rather than just a static webpage. And the blog poster can respond to the comments and the visitor can respond again. So then we have a conversation. This builds community.

If you're new to blogging, a good place to start is at http://www.blogger.com. This blog is built on blogger.com. It's free to sign up and start a blog. They have a tour explaining the features of the blog. And you can restrict you views your blog. If you're a bit shy at first, you can show your blog only to your friends and family. And then later on you can show it to the world.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

How to customize your blogger.com blog

I am learning how to customize my new blog. I clicked on Customize button on the upper right hand corner. I clicked on the Edit link for the title area. After searching blogsearch.google.com for other blogs with the name, Web Design Secrets, I decided to change my blog name. Too many cheesey network marketing sites with that name.

Tip: Do a search on http://blogsearch.google.com for the name of your blog to see if any other blogs have the same name.

You can always change your blog name to something else. But it helps your audience to find you when you are consistent with the name of your blog.

I figured out how to add my company logo to my new blog header. I created an image with Adobe Photoshop that incorporated my logo and the new name of my blog. I clicked on Customize and then on the Edit link in the header. This is where you can customize your blog title, description and image. So I replaced the text blog title with a customized blogger header featuring my company logo and the new blog name. Don't you think it looks great?!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Notes for Professional Organizers BC Canada

NEWS FLASH!!!

Turns out my blog is now visible on the Internet! 15 minutes ago I searched Google, Yahoo and MSN and my blog was no where to be found. My blog was still a well kept secret. But now since I have posted several entries, I am now listed on Google.

And if you search for this phrase on blogsearch.google.com:

"professional organizers" canada

you will find my blog entries come up in the top 10. How cool is that!

Note to professional organizers: Use the keyword phrase: "Professional Organizers" in your blog entry title and blog entry content to be found by your potential customers.


When you are conducting searches to find out where you rank in blogsearch.google.com, be sure to put quotes around your key phrase and then add BC, Canada to focus your searches to your area.

Tip: To find out how your blog ranks for the keyword phrase: "professional organizers" canada

Go to: http://blogsearch.google.com/ and type in the following phrase including the quotes:

"professional organizers" canada

To narrow your search to BC, type this phrase including the quotes:

"professional organizers" bc canada

Searching blogs for Professional Organizers in Canada

OK. I found that I needed to be more specific in my choice of search phrases for the blog search engines. I went to http://www.bloglines.com/ and searched for this phrase:

professional organizers bc canada

with no quotes and came up with nada to do with professional organizing.

Then I put quotes around the phrase "professional organizing" since we want to find instances of these two words together. And I took out bc and broadened my search to Canada.

And I hit pay dirt!

I found this blog where a professional organizer had attended the Vancouver Professional Organizers Conference in Vancouver. And she wrote in her blog all about it.
http://community.icontact.com/p/simply_organized_life/newsletters/simply_organized_life_newsletter/posts/your-simply-organized-life-december-2007-stop-catalogs

Searching for Professional Organizers in Canada Blogs

I went to http://blogsearch.google.com/ and searched for this phrase:

professional organizers bc canada

The results were few and far between.

The first is a link to a blog called Sea Bass Fishing. This blogger reviews websites in various industries. He has one page for Organizing Review. There are 4 website reviews. See them here:
http://segabassfishing523.miblogen.com/2008/06/04/organizing-review/

The next entry looks promising but it turned out to be a broken link.
National Association Of Professional Organizers
26 Mar 2008 by aleedean National Association Of Professional Organizers National Association Of Professional Organizers National Association Of Professional Organizers . National Association Of Professional Organizers said he had hitherto covered the heavens, ...
National Association Of Professional Organizers - http://journals.aol.com/aleedean/National-Assoc...

This is a great niche market for Professional Organizers to start blogging. Be the first to get noticed as an expert in your field.

Blogging for Business: Step One

Step One: Getting Acquainted

Choose a topic you are interested in. Acquaint yourself with the blogosphere using blog search engines to search for your topic, then spend some time reading and getting acquainted:

Here is a list of blog search engines. Go to these links and type in the topic you would like to learn about.

Technorati:
http://www.technorati.com/ - indexed over 112 blogs

Ice Rocket:
http://www.icerocket.com/

Google:
http://blogsearch.google.com/

Bloglines -
http://www.bloglines.com/

This entry on Blogging for Business belongs to Mhairi Petrovic at
http://www.out-smarts.com/

More steps to follow.

Nope. My blog is not found on Google, Yahoo or MSN. So for now, I'm safe from prying eyes. I can blog in secret.

I want to put my company logo on the header. I wonder if that's an option. Consistent branding across your website is very important.

In my expert opinion, it's best to have a blog that matches your website. So it looks just like another page on your website. This way your visitors do NOT leave your website when they go to visit your blog. You want to keep your visitors on your website as long as possible.
I know, I know... I'm advertising to prospective clients that THE next best thing to promote your business online is ... hear the drum roll ... to start your very own blog ... when I myself, the expert web designer doesn't have one. What! no blog? how could you? Blog feels left out when you don't have one. :-)

Well, there are so many questions to answer when starting a blog. The very first question they asked me on Blogspot.com is What is the title for your blog? I don't know. What would make a good title? I picked Web Design Secrets for my title back in March 2007. But now I think it's lame. And I'm still looking for blogs that are written by web designers and web marketing experts that I can look to for examples. I wasn't even sure where to look.

But just tonight, I was fortunate to attend an excellent presentation by Mhairi Petrovic of Out-Smarts.com. She told us how she started blogging incognito on myspace.com just to try it out and vent some of her frustrations. Then after this under cover experiment went well and she found she enjoyed venting and ranting anonymously she decided to start a blog for business. And she's gotten business from her blog. So it's working! Blogs do work!!!

That's really good advice. To start one for practice and see how you like it. I haven't told anyone about this blog so I don't think anyone has seen it. so let's see if it has been picked up by any search engines.

Sayonara! See you later!