My friend Gene called me on my home phone to ask for my business phone number, in order to pass it along to a potential customer. Gene is one of the brightest, more insightful people I know, and he has a website for his own business. But it did not occur to him to simply give the potential customer my web address.

Lesson learned: Not everyone in my world is Internet savvy. Levels of experience dip and sway from people who use email and do nothing else on line;  who surf but don’t bookmark;  who buy online but don’t know how …

You’ve been selected to be the project manager for your company’s website. It’s a big project, but a fun project… so be excited about it. You might not be aware of this, but you can have your web developer help you. Not only will the website turn out great due to collaboration, but you will be successful at yet one more project.

Based on over 13 years of experience, here are some tips on how to make this work.

1. Hire the right web developer.
There are many web development companies out there who can do the technical aspect of the job. But …

You have a good well designed website, one that serves as a resource to all its visitors (clients, vendors, prospects, and employees alike). You produce regular articles, either for your blog or newsletter. You have a valuable product or service that you want to share and a unique selling proposition. Now you just need to figure out how to direct people to your site, and not just any people, but those who will produce a good return on your investment.

That means knowing your audience and targeting your outreach. How can you spread your content to others …

A couple of months ago I had the good fortune to attend a Learning Cafe lecture entitled, “Opening the Black Box of Marketing,” offered by Dennis Erokan and Barbara Irias of the Placemaking Group.

While they introduced the audience to their ABCs of Search Engine Optimization, the main thrust of the presentation was actually a reminder that online marketing is, indeed, marketing.  In order to do it right, you need to treat your online marketing as a tool, not an end in and of itself.

Isn’t all marketing supposed to be marketing?

Yes it is, but in the rush …

And that question is: What’s in it for me?

That’s what visitors to your web site want to know. They want to know why they should care about your product, why they should consider using your services. Yes, it’s all about them.

Yet I see a lot of web sites with content that proclaims We’re wonderful! Maybe you are wonderful, but your visitors care more about themselves.  To turn those readers into clients, let advertising your wonderfulness come secondary to answering their question.

Here are some ways to let them know what’s in it for them:

• Talk to them. Increase …
  Read More…

How are blogs different from other websites? To understand how blogs work, we need to describe the features that make them unique. A typical blog will include:

Posts. Posts are content entries presented in chronological order, with the newest ones on top. Each post will also be archived at a permanent URL to encourage other bloggers to link to your posts. Each post will display its author’s name, date, and category it belongs to.

Comments. Each post will have a reader section to allow readers and other bloggers to carry on a conversation. Although there are risks to making comments public, the …

As we run our businesses we are seeking to keep our competitive advantage and push the potential of our businesses farther. One simple best practice that has the greatest return is “know your audience.”  Simple as it sounds, it is one of the most frequently neglected marketing tools.

1,2,3 Easy. Capture your existing client data. Track your marketing and sales communication activities. Analyze the client data to make smarter business choices. Customize your approach to achieve more powerful results. Sounds like more work than the return. Where does it payoff?

Optimize Time. Save money by optimizing the …

Blogging for your business can take a lot of time. To make your time and effort count, you want to make sure you choose the right direction for your blog. Business blogs can fall into three main categories:

1. Marketing
Marketing blogs are designed to build traffic, awareness, and sales. The focus of your marketing blog can be to:

• help visitors understand and interact with your market
• raise awareness and visibility
• sell specific products
• support current and prospective customers

2. Public Relations
Public relations blogs are designed to enhance image and influence public perception. The focus of your public relations blog can be to:

• deal with negative press and …
  Read More…

A webinar is a type of web conference. It can be either be one-way, from the speaker to the audience with little audience interaction expected; or two-way with full participation expected from the audience in terms of polls or question and answer sessions.

The first thing to do is find a service, such as GoToWebinar and review their detailed instructions. They offer a checklist:

This is a good checklist and GoToWebinar has a lot of information for each step. What I want to add has to …

When a new computer is bought, it comes with a limited number of fonts installed by the manufacturer. In the web design world these system defaults are called the web-safe fonts. Of course, anyone who does graphic or web design work is not satisfied with this visually boring set. As a rule, all designers install additional package of fonts which allow them to be more creative with their digital artwork. And this is where the problem can arise.  Once you install fonts of your own, you cannot guarantee that everyone will have those fonts.

If you are sending your design to …