Jim Kahl, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Literacy Council Gulf Coast is very pleased with the results. “The new website has exceeded our expectations. It will be an excellent tool to bring awareness of our multiple programs and their impact on the lives of students. We are proud of our work through the dedication of over 700 volunteers to help students of all ages to become more productive and achieve their goals.”

Literacy Volunteers of Lee County and the Literacy Council of Bonita Springs merged on July 1, 2011 to form Literacy Council Gulf Coast, the largest literacy advocacy organization in the United States.  Last year, over 700 volunteer tutors taught English, conversation skills, reading, computer enrichment, and U.S. citizenship exam preparation to over 3,100 students.

Susan Acuna, President and CEO of Literacy Council Gulf Coast (LCGC), explained “we have been working with the team at Atilus for several months to design a website that gets noticed. We are thrilled to launch our brand new site: www.LiteracyGulfCoast.org. It is easy to navigate, interesting, and informative, with plenty of literacy resources available for our community. This site is fully functional and will make it easier for people to support us financially and as tutors.”

Over 900 moms and their preschool children studied English together to prepare their children to start school ready to learn. We are proud of our work through the dedication of over volunteers to help members of the community become more productive and to achieve their goals.

Harry Casimir, cofounder of Atilus and a member of the board for LCGC touted the benefits of the website. “Our firm has supported adult literacy in the community for several years. We are convinced this powerful website will serve as the primary advocacy tool for the agency. LCGC’s mission to ‘assist adults and children to acquire the literacy skills necessary to improve their quality of life’ is at the heart of this custom website. I believe this will be an example for other affiliate literacy groups who want to make a big impact in adult and child literacy.”

Literacy Council Gulf Coast is a United Way agency, a member of Literacy Partners, Florida Literacy Coalition, Inc., and Proliteracy.

For more information about local programs, please contact Susan Acuna at (239) 676-5202.

###

Call with Joe DeMike

Yes we do drink "Joe's Google Coolaide"... and so should you.

Atilus CEO Zach Katkin recently had the chance to be on a phone call with Joe DeMike, Brand and Reputation Marketing for Google. Here’s a quick screenshot to see just what kind of incredible opportunity this was for Atilus to be in on this up-close and personal explanation of new opportunities with the “Mega-Librarian”, Google.

Google AdWords Express gives ad-agencies a much easier platform to manage online advertising campaigns. It is anathema to think that a business today would forego a website as part of their marketing plan, but some do. In the case where a client wants to get results (but doesn’t have a website), they can link their advertising to their local business.

According to Google Here’s…

How it works

When people search your area for the products or services you provide an ad for your business will appear above or beside their search results. Your business will also be marked with a blue pin on Google Maps, helping it stand out to potential customers.

Example: Pizza restaurant
If someone searches for “pizza in San Francisco” (or if they’re already in San Francisco, just “pizza”) an ad for that restaurant could appear.

Watch the AdWords Express overview video

What's the Difference between AdWords and AdWords Express?

On that note, there are a couple of VERY interesting facts that we want to share:

• 20% of Google searches focus on Local Places.
• 97% of consumers research products online before they make a LOCAL purchase.
• If the search is being made over a mobile phone, the person will almost indefinitely make the purchase that very day.
• 62% of small businesses don’t have a website (NOooo! Say it isn’t so!)

Walk away with this point: If you don’t have a website, contact us today for a quote. If you choose not to purchase a website, talk to us about how we can drive business to your local store today with Google AdWords or AdWords Express.

Fishtale Sales and Service will keep you up to date with fantastic prices on new and used boats. If you’re interested in making a great purchase (or peruse the rest of their new and used boat selection), check out their 2004 Grady White 330 Express. 

Next month (March 2-4, 2012) the Bonita Bay Boat Show will be in town. Fish Tale Sales and Service will be highlighted with their Grady-White, Robalo, and Chaparral boats. This is going to be a great time – head on out and join them.

The design is easy to navigate to help you find the information you’re looking for. They’ll be posting their quarterly newsletter to give you the opportunity to look over back issues as you’d like.

We believe that this website will help a great local business become even more successful. If you have any thoughts, comments or questions, please make sure to drop us a line in the comments section below.

Better yet, “go fish” with Fish Tales!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Matt Visaggio
February 13, 2012
(239) 246-8116

“FISHTALE.COM MAKES WAVES WITH
BREATHTAKING NEW WEBSITE!”

BONITA SPRINGS, FL, Atilus.com, southwest Florida’s premier web design firm, is proud to announce the final launch of the newly redesigned website FishTale.com.

Founded in 1965, Fish-Tale Sales and Service, Inc. is the premier full-service boat sales office located on Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Today, the company is consolidated on eight acres of luxurious beach waterfront with direct access to the Gulf of Mexico and Estero Bay.

Fish Tale is an historical icon and local treasure.

The late beloved Bruce Fricke began working at Fish Tale in 1981. He started as a rigger and rose up to sales. Eventually in 1996, Bruce and Diane Fricke purchased the company, which has been family owned and operated to this day.

Fish Tale sells the finest Robalos, Chaparrals, and Grady White Boats. The marina, adjacent to the sales office, has the capacity to hold 250 boats in dry storage and up to 95 boats in water slips.

Travis Fricke, Vice-President of the Boat sales office, commented that “We’ve invested a substantial amount of energy into projects and capital investments to keep Fish Tale Sales and Service one of the nicest.”

“A beautiful website is the capstone of our commitment to provide the absolute best in quality boats, and a quality experience for all of the residents and winter guests that rely on us for their fishing boats, service, and events,” added Diane Fricke, Company Owner. “It’s a great communication tool for our customers and friends to use.”

For more information, or for a tour of the Boat sales office, contact Fish Tale at (239) 463-4448

  ###

1. Do Keyword Research. 

Before you write your first post, do some keyword research to optimize your post title for better results. For example if you are going to write an article called, Guide to Grooming your dog. The article can be highly informative and helpful to someone looking for that, but the problem with this title is it’s not targeted enough for the search engines. So you might change it to something like: Dog Grooming Tips for Shiatsu Owners

I always use the google keyword tool to see what terms are search the most locally. What you want to do is try to find search terms that are getting over 8,000-10,000 searches a month and that have low to medium competition. From there you can figure out if it will take you just a few articles or pieces of good content or 10-15 articles centered around the search phrase to get you the first page search results that you are looking to achieve.

2. Optimizing Your Headline. 

For the best title-tag SEO, your goal should be to try to put the keyword phrase in the headline or as close as possible to the front of the headline as you can. For example if I was writing for a real estate company and wanted to get searchers that are ready to buy, my headlines or sub-headlines would be:

• Bonita Springs, FL Real Estate Market Report: February 2012, or
• Bonita Springs, FL Mortgage Rates: February 1^st 2012

In both examples, I put the keyword phrase in the beginning of the title.

3. Optimize Your Post Slug. 

When you write the title for your new post, WordPress automatically generates the post slug for you by placing every word of your title into the slug URL. For example if the article is titled “The best ways to clean your Porsche 911”, the automatically generated post slug reads: /The-best-ways-to-clean-your-Porsche-911. Instead of having so many words you would change the post slug to /cleaning-Porsche-911 or /Porsche-911-cleaning-tips. By doing this the post slugs are using just the keywords that I want to optimize for in each post.

5. Optimize Your Images. 

Including a nice relevant image in posts helps visual learners to stay on a page and read the article. The mistake that is often made is that when the image is loaded it is not labeled correctly and is usually just labeled as picture.jpg. Instead when you save the image make sure to label the image as the keyword or keyword phrase that the article is about. In addition the “alt text” that wordpress allows you to enter is also labeled as the keyword or keyword phrase as well.

6. Optimize Your Post Meta-Description. 

Your meta-description tag is a sentence or two that tells Google and the other search engines what your page is about. The meta tag is what shows up in search engine results below your page title and if it is well written you have a much better chance of getting a web browser to click on your site. There are only 156 characters in the meta-description tag so being brief, using the proper keyword phrases and having something interesting will go a long way. The meta-description doesn’t help your SEO rankings in Google eyes, but it definitely helps with clickthrough because it accurately summarizes the content on the page of the website and minimizes people clicking on your site and instantly bouncing off.

Bonita Springs, FL, Atilus, a Full-Service Internet Advertising Consulting Firm, is proud to announce its certification as a Google AdWords Certified Partner.

Atilus’ Certified Partner status was attained due to its accomplishments in internet advertising, total monthly budget under management, as well as retaining multiple employees who are AdWords Certified Professionals. This designation is offered to firms only after meeting strict criteria and thresholds.

CEO and Co-Founder Zach Katkin attributes this success to hard work and a growing reputation in southwest Florida. “Our firm manages multiple high profile client accounts throughout the area and nationally. We feel that Pay-Per-Click, and AdWords specifically, provides a tremendous return for our clients. Nearly every client we’ve ever setup an account for is still with us, and still using Pay-Per-Click – in some cases nearly a decade after starting with us. We’re proud to be working so closely with Google in an agency capacity to understand their tools and translate them into real sales and increased profits for our business customers.”

Atilus is the only firm between Tampa to Miami Florida with this designation. It proves as a true qualifier of the firm’s expertise in all of Google’s marketing tools – and in particular AdWords. “We consider online advertising, specifically in tablet, PC, and mobile format, to be the most powerful tool in a diverse digital arsenal of ways to market and grow businesses online,” Katkin remarked.

Becoming a Certified AdWords partner included Google training and is combined with extensive advertising and marketing experience. Matt Visaggio, Director of Marketing for the firm, pointed out that Atilus is in a class of their own. “We have a focused team of educated advertisers ready to mold and manage your message. This credential is another tool in our diversified digital toolbox to help advertise and promote Florida’s businesses. Being the only firm in South Florida with this designation is fairly remarkable. It’s a benefit to our clients.”

According to Google’s Partner website, the AdWords Certified Partner credential means Atilus, LLC has developed strong proficiencies in the following areas:

• Build team skills: industry recognized training to improve performance across search and display programs.
• Demonstrate proficiency: use profile pages to illustrate training achievements and certified Google skills
• Marketing support: gain new business and be visible to marketers looking for help through Google Partner Search - the online directory of certified partners

The southwest Florida web development and design firm has been accepted into the newly formed “Google Engage for Agencies” program. This program includes additional training for advertisers and coupons for customers.

“This is another benefit for our clients who advertise with us. All indicators point to the fact that Google will be integrating all of its advertising tools into the ‘Engage’ system to simplify advertising with the ad giant,” mentioned Katkin. “This should provide agencies and certified partners with advanced training and cutting edge information. It’s important that Atilus remains on the edge of technological advancements so that we can use our expertise to serve our clients. This achievement s demonstrates our commitment to remain at the forefront of our core business. We want to continue to be good at what we do. ”

View Atilus’ Certified Partner Page on Google

###

Every once in a while a company comes along with a large advertising budget and is able to dominate the airways and carve out a presence. This happens on all fronts – local and national. I commend the businesses doing this and it goes back to what I mentioned the other day about consistency (thanks again Guerrilla Marketing Remix). Local advertising in particular seems to hit that funny bone (even if that isn’t necessarily the point) and be exceptionally effective.

Appliance Direct

Locally Southwest Florida has experienced the funny, hour-long infomercials of “Appliance Direct:”

Then Came Morgan & Morgan

Not too long ago our attention was stolen away from appliance violence and directed to  ”Morgan and Morgan” through the radio and tv spots that just won’t stop.

John Morgan convinces us, with his soft Southern accent, that it’s insurance companies who are the real devils in legal proceedings and have been slowly convincing us that his firm is “for the people.” There’s not a friend of mine that hasn’t mastered their own impersonation of Mr. Morgan.

But, now our ears and eyes are being violated by Kia… (see I too like to use over the top language).

Billy Fuccillo and Caroline Are Getting HUGE

Most  recently the airwaves have been accosted by a New York transplant peddling his Kia’s along with his side kick Caroline (I bet you just pronounced that like Mr. Fuccillo does in his commercials!).

Billy Fuccillo’s (I know I didn’t even know his name before I started writing this…) advertising has gotten “HUUUUUUUUGE-GA.”

True story, a friend recently moved down to SWFL from New York, saw the Kia ads and flipped out screaming at the TV that the Fuccillo’s were following her!

These ads definitely evoke emotion, and not generally the ones associated with what you might consider “good” advertising. But I’d argue the contrary…

In just the last few months it seems like they’ve used every media tool to promote themselves, and their zany, direction-less advertising to the Southwest Florida consumer. And, at least if their advertising is to be believed, it’s been successful. They’ve most recently exclaimed that the dealership in Cape Coral is the largest Kia dealer in the United States.

(Although I could not find proof of this online.)

Regardless of whether the advertising is true, has translated into sales, and of your personal opinion of the style of the ads or dealership (which we’ll come back to in a minute) it seems to have been effective:

They opened only 1 year ago and now they seem to be the largest car dealership in the area (if only based on their advertising presence). And that is the point. Regardless of how you feel about the ads, they have been effective, in that EVERYONE KNOWS WHO THEY ARE.

I was even listening to 99x the other day (the local “rock” station – rock is in quotes for a reason) when they brought on Billy to explain that 99x was “HUUUUGGGGGEEAAA.” If this is not success I don’t know what is – here’s a local media station, leveraging the notoriety of an ad campaign slogan to sell it’s own products (although it’s probably just reinforcing the original advertising more!). I just wonder if he was paid for the spot?

Sure the ads, and slogan are annoying, sometimes inappropriate, and always rambling (I like that Billy seems almost drunk in many of the ads), but you must concede this point – you know who they are, and so do your friends. Not only that, but they have more reviews than any other dealership in the area – dealerships that have been open for years!!!!!

But there in lies the rub…

Go Look Up The Fuccillo’s Online

Go ahead… I’ll give you a minute (and even provide the link). And this is where the true point of this post is revealed.

As you’ll see, unfortunately, most of their reviews are pretty bad.

Bad advertising can be good advertising, if it’s done enough, and creatively. But not even great advertising can plaster over a poor customer experience – and a poor customer experience is almost immediately visible if you go online.

What you may notice in your searches is a number of problems with their dealerships (even the new ones where – after years of experience, and the opening of dozens, one would expect the bugs to be worked out) as well as a swath of even WORSE press should you decide to start to type Billy’s name in Google’s search box and auto complete starts up.

What you may find is that Google suggests:

• Billy Fuccillo Drugs
• Billy Fuccillo Arrest…

Now I’m not condemning this dealership, nor Mr. Fuccillo’s vices (or the one Google auto-complete suggests he may have), no, the point is that the Internet is the great equalizer, and the hoardes of bad reviews on Google Places should be enough for you to question using this dealership.

Great Customer Services is Just Business As Usual

Poor Customer Service Can Destroy a Company

Great customer service may not necessarily help your brand online, but poor customer service, absolutely WILL HURT your brand.

The old business marketing saying seems to continue to be true (and magnified with the power of the Internet):

If a customer likes your services, he/she will tell 1 friend. If a customer doesn’t like your services, he/she will tell 8 friends. 

Make sure you’re thinking about your Internet brand as you make real world customer service decisions as many times, those seemingly private customer interactions may lead to poor reviews, and exponential bad press for your company online.

What is a (Web Design) Wireframe? Or What is a Wireframe Design?

First things first, before we get to pricing, let’s talk about what wireframes. In the course of designing a website, there are some pretty basic steps ALL web designers should take you through. Much of these steps (and the level of detail on these steps) will be dictated by both your developers’ experience, your own budget, and both your developer and your time. The larger the project, the higher the budget, and the more time you have to dedicate – generally speaking – the more detailed these initial steps will be. These initial steps include all of the planning phases, before any designs are presented or any coding begins.

Generally speaking these are:

1. Audience  - who is going to see the site, what do they need to know, how best to get their attention through words and pictures, etc.
2. Sitemap – what are all of the pages and sections for the site and how will they relate to the audience.
3. Wireframes – combining the above two resources for a guide of what content will need to be presented (and to whom) how exactly will each page look from a content perspective. A wireframe is simply a guide, using boxes, of where the designers will (most likely) put your final content in the final approved design.

Here’s an example of some wireframes:

Now these two wireframes are fairly small to fit here, but even small you can see what’s happening. The first image is a wireframe of a homepage. the very top white bar has some links, then there’s a black bar where the navigation will go, a central placeholder for a central image. The second wireframe is an example of an internal page. And here are examples of the final presented (and approved design)…

So now you can see how, from the wireframe, a final design is created. For a FINAL view of the website we used for this example (and created) you can visit Fishtale.com.

Standard Rate for Wireframe Design

Back to the initial question that was recently posed to us – what does a wireframe design cost? Well here’s the difficult part – a wireframe, be it one created digitally, or one sketched out on a notepad in our or your office – is included in almost EVERY project we do. Additionally, it’s not a stand alone step. In fact it’s one of the few steps that really can’t be done at all unless you go through the other aforementioned planning steps (mapping out your audience and mapping out your content). Although many times it can be skipped entirely on a simpler site.

However, if you positively absolutely have to have a number I would say that if you go through the above steps with a company, through the wireframe process (so this does not include an actual design presentation and then any coding) I would estimate the planning and wireframe creation to cost anywhere from $500 – $2500 depending on the complexity of your site and situation.

And that is the final idea to keep in mind – if you’re building a web application (let’s say a social network akin to facebook) your planning, and subsequent wireframes, will be MASSIVE and cost will expand in lockstep with the complexity of your project.

After all you will need designed pages to accomodate all of the different elements that go along with having a complex web application (what’s it look like when users login, is their an admin section?, what does that look like, etc.).

If you have any additional questions about wireframes, or want to add to the discussion please leave a comment and we’ll make sure to get back to you promptly.

This is a special guest post courtesy of our Payroll company Olde Florida Payroll. We’ve been using their services for years (thanks for saving us big dollars over PayChex!), but they always send these helpful email newsletter. With the launch of our new site we’ll be working together to bring you the best of their helpful information. As always if you have any questions or comments, feel free to add your two cents below!

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued additional guidance for employers on reporting health care costs on an employee’s Form W-2. This new guidance (Notice 2012-9) changes some requirements and provides additional details that employers and payroll providers will need to understand as they prepare to meet the new informational reporting requirements.

Who cares? Does this apply to me?

Most readers of this newsletter work for small employers. If your business filed fewer than 250 W-2s last year, you’re exempt!

We’re a big company — what should I do?

Read through this summary, or consult the official IRS bulletin by CLICKING HERE.

Next, consult with your health benefits broker.

Your broker should be skilled at navigating clients through the myriad changes in U.S. healthcare law. You’re paying for that expert advice, so seek it!

Once you’ve obtained a solid understanding of what benefits need to be reported and how you’ll calculate them over the course of 2012, contact our firm. Olde Florida Payroll will design the perfect reporting mechanism to post these contributions on employee paystubs (if you wish) and appropriately on this year’s W-2.

Summary of IRS Bulletin

The Notice reiterates that this reporting is informational only and does not cause employer-provided health care to become taxable to the employee.

• Effective date. The requirements remain effective for 2012 Form W-2 reporting, which generally will be issued in January 2013, and reporting is not required on any forms furnished to employees prior to January 2013. Small employers (those filing fewer than 250 W-2s in 2011) are exempt from reporting until further guidance is issued, not merely for 2012 as previous guidance had indicated.

• Which employers must comply? The general rule remains that all employers that provide health coverage are subject to the reporting requirements, except Federally-recognized Indian tribal governments. The notice expands this exemption to cover employers that are tribally chartered corporations wholly owned by a tribal government, until further guidance is issued.

• Which employees are affected? All employees are still generally included in the reporting requirements, except individuals who would not otherwise receive a W-2 (i.e. retirees, COBRA participants).

• Coverage to be reported. The notice further clarifies and defines the types of coverage that must be included in the amount reported on Form W-2.
• Notably, EAPs, wellness plans, and on-site medical clinics only need to be reported if the plan is subject to COBRA (or other Federal continuation requirements) and the covered individual is charged a premium for the continuation coverage.
• Also excluded from the reporting requirements are vision and dental plans that are excepted benefits under HIPAA (generally with policies, elections and/or premiums that are separate from those of major medical coverage). Previous guidance used a somewhat different standard for excluding these benefits: whether the plan was “integrated into” a major medical plan. This new standard is more familiar and generally understood by the benefits community.
• The Notice emphasizes that an employer may include on Form W-2 the cost of coverage that is not required to be reported, such as coverage under a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA), a multiemployer plan, an EAP, wellness program, or on-site medical clinic, provided such coverage constitutes applicable employer-sponsored coverage and the cost is properly calculated.
• The Notice clarifies that the reportable cost does not include excess reimbursements of highly compensated individuals that are included in income because a self-funded plan violates the nondiscrimination rules in Code Section 105(h) nor taxable coverage due to an employee being a 2% (or more) shareholder in an S corporation.

• Calculation of amounts to be reported. The Notice retains the availability of several calculation methods that may be used to determine the reportable cost of coverage. For insured plans, employers may report the amount of the premium charged by the employer; self-insured plans may use existing COBRA calculation methods.

As a special offer we’re offering all attendees (and anyone considering attending) a special gift…

Free Website Review!

Business Expo, Medical Expo, Real Estate Expo, Communications & Technology Expo, Franchise & Investor Expo, International Business Expo, Job Fair, Home, Garden, Décor & Remodeling Show, Hospitality & Tourism Expo, Government & Education Expo, Barter Expo, 36 Success Seminars, 300+ Exhibitors Plus Much More.

117 Consecutive Sold-Out Trade Shows, Over 22,739 Exhibitors, Over 957,000 Attendees, Millions of Dollars in Transacted Business, Partnerships, Alliances, Contracts, New Customers, New Relationships, New Products!!!

Presented by Broward County Chamber of Commerce, Miami-Dade County Chamber of Commerce, South Florida Chamber of Commerce, Monroe County Chamber of Commerce, Central Florida Chamber of Commerce, Miami Herald, Clear Channel Communications, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Minority Chamber of Commerce & Many Other World Class Organizations!

@ The Signature Grand
6900 W State Road 84, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33317
Over 25,000 Sq Ft of Exhibitor Space

Thursday, March 15th 2012

EXCLUSIVE EXHIBITOR ONLY NETWORKING & EXPO Noon – 2pm
VIP NETWORKING & EXPO 2pm – 4pm
SUCCESS SEMINARS & EXPO 3pm – 9pm

25+ Reasons to Exhibit at FLORIDA SUCCESS EXPO 2012:

Secure new business contacts, develop prospect database, accelerate the sales process, access the decision maker, provide hands-on exposure to products and services, identify and assess new markets, maintain market viability, introduce a company to a new market, launch a new product or service, counteract competitor claims, generate media exposure, build brand awareness, recruit new distributors, retailers or representatives, recruit personnel with specialized skills, network with the regional business community, expand your business out of county and Internationally, gain customer feedback, maintain profile with competitors,  test the market for new product or service development, identify and assess new markets, getting your customers to buy more, maintain  or extend relationships with existing clients, trade show return-on-investment is lasting, market research, prevent client switching. INFO: (954) 565 – 5750      www.ChamberRSVP.com