Some of you know GEMINI Films originated in Grey & Bruce County offering both Melissa’s and my film, internet and teaching skills background.  We met working on a Disney kids Tv show called Jo-Jo’s Circus (which is supposedly a modern follow up to Micky Mouse).  When we left the fold of Cuppa Coffee Animation studios we came up to Grey & Bruce Counties doing film contracts together.  Yet, we realized local business needed more services in web commerce and internet marketing for economic growth.  So, we expanded by incorporated my vast web design skillset and started offering web development. This lead us not only to creating websites but also helping market local businesses online using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) techniques.  It became the difference between offering a website which no one finds, to one which could be found be a target market.

This SEO and SEM stuff has come a long way.   And then Social Media popped up….  Oh my!   Consumers demand businesses to be transparent.  Success in the marketplace depends on it people are saying.  And guess what, the customer is always right!

So, where does this leave GEMINI Films?  Well, not Films.. But marketing and education since anyone who knows Melissa or myself (Gem Webb) knows one thing for sure: we are teachers; great at educating with a high level of patience and background which is what all teachers need.

Currently we are in a transition of our career passions and heading in an education direction. GEMINIFilms will still exist as an education blog with another division of the GEMINI brand offerings through GEMINI Marketing.   We wanted you all to know across Grey and Bruce County in case you needed internet marketing education for your local business this year.

As of April 1st, 2011 GEMINI Films is no longer offering Website Hosting services to the Grey and Bruce County area.   And sorry to say this isn’t an April fools joke which is early.   We have decided to close down this offering as website hosting deserves a full time investment to protect you and your business which at this time is not how we think we can serve the area best.  The future direction for our company is going to be more focused around education and marketing which you will find out more soon.

Our clients are very important to us and we have been in negotiations for the past 3 months to find the best businesses in the area offering website hosting. We are fully confident in the level of service which we will be recommending to all our clients shortly through email for all your hosting needs.   We know that there is a certain level of trust which you have built with us and we are confident that you will feel the same with the businesses we recommend.

If you wish to figure out other options, here is a list we have compiled which may suite your hosting needs.  You are in no way obligated to switch to the business servers we are recommending, yet we hope that you do as we are offering “Free” transfer of your website with no incurred charges to their servers.

Local List of Companies Offering Website Hosting

1. AvenueA
2. Infinity Network Solutions
3. New Media Designs
4. Have1

Short list of other servers online for your website hosting needs if you want to compare local to global solutions : http://www.godaddy.com,  http://www.netfirms.com,  and http://www.bluefur.com

This does not mean you cannot contact us for recommendations as we do like to help people make solid internet business decisions.  Please contact us if you have any questions or are interested in our new endeavors at support@geminifilms.ca or at  519-534-2159.

Thank you, again, for putting your trust in GEMINI Films.

So many websites promote internet marketing business offerings for you and your business these days online and in your local area.  Yet, a normal ever day “non-internet” business might not have any idea what these things are or how to use them and why they should.   So, I’m gonna give you some basic insights into simple internet marketing techniques and where to start marketing your small business online.   Here is a simple three part process which you can overlay onto your business marketing online.

#1 Create content: You need content to share online that will drive traffic ( hopefully traffic that has at least 2-3% target market ).

• Write 300-750 words about something that your business is known for. You’ve got a write up of some engaging content that you are sure your target market will want to know about. Now what?
• You need a place to put your content. Start a Blog on your own website or a free blog network like on wordpress.com or Blogspot.com (These last two only require you to go to these websites and sign up getting you a username and password).

#2  Share the Content: You need places to share this new, original thought, creative content that you made. The best way to share your content of these blog “posts” is get accounts on the top 2 social networks.

• Create a Facebook.com profile account (which leads to you creating a fanpage on Facebook for business).
• Create a twitter.com account.

#3  Stick to a marketing schedule: just like you would in your “brick and mortar“business for marketing. Keep on creating the content and marketing it (sharing it) on your two social networks: facebook and twitter (copy the url of the blog post to share it).  Then repeat the process, going back to Step 1 and step 2, which needs to be repeated week to week at the very least.

• Get a calendar and circle 1-2 days a week that will be the days you add a new blog post.  Then circle another day to share the URL of your blog post on your social networks.

Ok, so now you know marketing is the same online as it is in the real world.  Schedules, content and places to share it.  The great news is that unlike the newspaper or the radio,  you don’t have to pay to promote it.  You just have to create the content, start FREE Social Media and Blogging accounts and stick to a schedule.  If there is one thing you should leave this article with, it is the hope that it is easy and simple.   I do this stuff on a much larger scale and want to give away as much info as I can and knowing that I gave back and helped someone gives me great satisfaction these days, as I am a teacher at my core.

Stay tuned for more internet marketing techniques and tips shortly, and remember, every great journey simply required a few first steps.

You’ve entered the lucrative internet world wide web with a personal or business website, in all its glory.  It could be from a basic html website to a complex Content Management system with a Blog.  I’m going to take my 15 yrs of internet website building experience and be straight with you. I don’t like to do work for free any more than you do.  Now, I do under promise and over deliver on every contract as stated in my own company motto.

I’ve realized over the years of doing client web contracts that people have a hard time understanding a non-physical product like a website. It’s like when you go buy a pet. You’re like  “Awwww, its so cute and pretty!” But then by the 3rd month, there is shots, pet food and even special bath shampoo costs. You don’t begrudge the fact that you have to pay for the upkeep of your pet because you love it and value it as a companion.  Websites are similar but they can also enhance your bank account as well as give you love.
Your website could be one of your most valuable business assets with the total success of your business hinged on it.   It can reach a new target audience around the world and link up with so many other websites.  Yet, still with all these positives, there are clients that don’t get the fact that when they call their web designer for an update or fix to their website that they may get charged $15 – $75hr depending on the complexity and time consumption of the task.  When your pet needs a hair cut, your vet isn’t being unfair by making this recommendation. You trust that they have your pet’s best interests in mind, just like your web designer is not ripping you off or being greedy.   They are using their skills to enhance your investment.

First, you need to get the fact that your site needs regular maintenance and most times you will have to pay for this. Next, you can figure out how to minimize these costs.  Get an invoice with a regular and detailed outline of tasks performed.  This way you can get familiar with things being done.  Lastly, any web designer worth their weight will tell you what you can do to improve and keep your website secure from viruses.  This might incur learning on your part, so take notes and do it step by step with your web designer.  But you still have to have annual or quarterly updates to your website and trust me, you don’t want to do it.  Unless you are familiar with your FTP server and backing up your website and possible database.   As much as you don’t want to spend on your pet or your website, they both need attention and regular maintenance and checkups.

Ps:  Web Designers have a long history of dealing with clients who are cheap and don’t want to pay.  Don’t be one of these, as everyone likes to be treated and valued fairly.

Ok, so you are looking for a website to be made for your company brand.  And you found us.  That’s great!  But guess what, since you are getting ready to invest some good money and build a relationship with a specific company, you should look at your options.  This is the first step of a person looking for a website design company.  You should go to each company and get an overview of their offerings and find out if they can do what you are looking for in a website.  This will give you a feel of the kind of hand holding and guiding through the sometimes confusing world of internet website building.  It will also let you know if the company will give you the sort of attention you need.  So ask the right questions, this will be another post shortly in the future or you can google: “questions I should ask a web company”.

Here is my short list of Grey County and Bruce County businesses which offer web design that I know of currently.  My list does not represent any opinion of ours if they do good work or not, it is just ones in the area which I know offer web design services.    If I missed your company, simply email me and I’ll add you to the list (you have to have been in business at least 3 years and have a good portfolio).  Remember, competition is a good thing, it forces us all to keep on our toes and provide better offerings to our clients, or else someone else will get the contract.  -giggle-

GEMINI Films Marketing (us)
519-534-2159

New Media Designs www.newmediadesigns.biz/
519-795-7253

Austin Graphics www.austingraphics.ca
519-389-4402

Websmart Consulting www.websmartconsulting.com
519-389-3077

Dragonfly Designs www.dragonflydesigns.ca
519-986-2912

Have1 www.have1.com
519) 376-6000

JCreativ www.jcreativ.com
226-668-1031

Creation Studio www.creationstudio.ca
800-552-4055

Canvas Studios http://canvasstudios.ca
519.832.3300

(image sourced from: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2408/2500425940_e4f755b550.jpg )

Here is an outline of things your website needs to have a chance of reaching your target market or audience.
1-  It needs Search Engine Freindly Urls = www.yourwebsitename.com/page_name.php or .html or any extension available by the programming language you had your website build in.  But do not have an url string for any page through your website like this:  http://www.yourwebsitename.com/%index.php?.27289_56/About_us%.php  etc, etc  This sort of url will not get rated well by Search Engines.
2-  Have a sitemap in your website outlining all your pages in your website. Best case would be to also have an XML file on your server which Google or other search engines could read and index.  “Ask your web designer to implement it, if this is coming across like instructions in another language.”
3- Navigation buttons that are crawl-able like dynamic text, not images only. This is just for good crawlableness for spyders to read all your content.
4-Have a Blog as a part of your website which you can author great content to profess yourself as an expert in your marketplace. (Then start a Facebook fanpage -wink-)
5- Have a contact page with a form which people can easily email you through, not just an email address they have to copy/paste into another email program.  “If it is to much work on the internet for people, it probably is.”
6- Have a subscribe to your Newsletter or Blog on your website to datagather emails so you can market to a database.  Say it with me folks: “my database is one of my most important items to help me promote my website”.
Ok, I got this off my chest.  Now get to it everyone.  You have work to do on your website.
Because it is one of the most important marketing tools you have!

Even if this is a little over your head the most I think basic website owners could take away from this is a linking strategy.  I watched this video and thought that when making pages of content for clients I could integrate a strong outbound linking document for them.  Most clients I have had are very wary of linking out as this could dilute there results of people contacting them for business.  Yet, I believe Google could reward you for linking out to products, services or even topics of interest in your business area.  So don’t be shy in creating a weblink network as it can also help grow your community online which we should all be actively helping each other.  This could be as simple as having a favorite weblinks page on your website or as complex as having specific OUTBOUND links on every page of your website. Remember, you could be linking to pages within your website also. Creating webpages dedicated to topics on your business area is a great way of professing yourself as an expert.  Thats one core to what blogging is all about.  Just remember to link to it and share it online.

Here is Part 2 of my FREE videos for marketing online with Twitter! This one covers some techniques of how to follow more people specific to your target market area along with using a powerful tool called Twitter Search. Don’t worry about the homepage of Twitter.com as it looks a little different. Websites change their homepage often. The most important aspect is the SIGN-UP button or the SIGN IN. Happy Tweeting!

Here is the first of 2 FREE videos I have made for all you lucky business owners wanting to market online with Twitter! This one covers how to set up an account and get rolling. Don’t worry about the homepage of Twitter.com as it looks a little different. Websites change their homepage often. The most important aspect is the SIGN-UP button or the SIGN IN. Happy Tweeting! I’ll have a 2nd tutorial video up next week also!