BlogSource1: Making a BIG deal out of small business

Something to Ponder

2009-01-06T09:32:00.003-05:00

by James Fowler
http://www.mywebsource1.com/

I grew up in what is now known as the Rust Belt of America. The corpses of long-forgotten factories lie in ruins along streets that can no longer be maintained. Yet, somewhere amongst the ghosts of the Industrial Revolution, small business thrives. Time is almost reversing and people are making their livelihoods in local shops and home offices where they promote their skills rather than follow direction from big business management.

But, how do we get an entrepreneurial spirit? It isn’t like we were given this roadmap to look outside the box and do things on our own. Actually, it has been just the opposite. We are taught that there is structure in everything and it is our job to follow that structure. It is trained within our makeup to follow the establishment.

When you are young, we are told to listen to our parents. Meals are a set schedule, we are given orders to clean our rooms and take out the garbage, we go to bed at a certain time, and do what we are told by the management, i.e. our parents.

Next, we go to school and it is more of the establishment. The teacher puts you in a class, sits you in an assigned seat, and you study what the teacher instructs you to learn. In actuality, it isn’t even learning, it is memorization and regurgitation. If you do wrong, you are punished. If you do something right, you are rewarded with a foil star.

Finally, we graduate from high school and/or college, we go out to find a job and we are expected to be leaders – but we’ve never been trained to think on our own. We are still looking for direction.

So how does a person become a leader? How do these small business owners get the nerve to stand up against what we’ve all been trained to embrace?

Question: What made you decide to go into business for yourself?

Confessions of a Small Business Owner

2009-01-03T22:29:00.002-05:00

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

It has been over six months now since I quit my job and started my own business. Like most people who want to be entrepreneurs, I think I’ve always had a need to own my own business. Having the freedom of being your own boss is an incredible feeling, but it is accompanied by terror that makes most people hesitate.

I remember the day I came home and told my wife that I finally made the move and that the next Friday would be my last day of work. She freaked out! I assured her that there was nothing to worry about. I had some customers and we had money saved up. I needed her to trust me to do this.

A friend of mine – an accountant - has always wanted to be his own boss. We would talk for hours about starting a business and being successful. His excuse was that he never could settle on the right business no matter how much he wanted it. Personally, I think he is overcome by the fear of making that fateful step.

That step is really the turning point of success or failure. If you no longer have a safety net (i.e. a regular paying job) to fall back upon, you must succeed. Therein, lies the key and the conundrum. You have to give up your security to gain your freedom.

While I was planning this radical change, I spoke to others who owned businesses. I asked them about the growing terror I was feeling. Is it normal to not be sure of yourself? “Every day”, was their almost unanimous reply. When you are out there without a backup and it is sink or swim, you are going to have feelings of fear.

Now I am not asking you to go and give up your job to be a businessperson, but here are some of the steps I learned while making my fateful journey.

Insurance
Everybody needs it, whether you are healthy or not. In my case, I have some health issues and having insurance is imperative. The week I got married, I switched my health insurance over to my wife’s company. Other options could include finding alternative coverage. There are plans in which you pay into an account and draw from that money as you need it. Look into programs that cover small businesses and micro-businesses.

Equipment and Supplies
I own a web design and marketing firm. My equipment is basically a computer, printer, and backup hard drives. I also needed software, business supplies (business cards, brochures, etc…) and peripherals, such as a camera and scanner. Whatever you need, get it before you make the step of quitting your job.

Money
We all need it and in this economy it is hard to get a loan. Most banks will ask for two years of your income taxes to give you a loan. This means, for the first two years after you start your business, you will find it difficult to get a loan. So, you will need cash. When looking to make the leap to self-employment, make sure you have a decent cushion of money to hold you over. Another suggestion is to give yourself a salary. This way, you will make a certain amount of money per month and avoid the bank loan dilemma.

A Plan
This, of course, is the biggest need when starting your own business. Have a business plan. You will need one in any endeavor you are going to start. Most professionals will tell you that businesses have a better chance of succeeding if you have a written plan. Keep the plan flexible. It is going to change. It has to change if you are going to succeed.

Don’t Be Afraid To Fail
A young reporter once asked Thomas Edison if he felt like a failure when he tried over 9000 times to make the electric light bulb, without success. Edison replied “no” because he learned over 9000 ways how to NOT make a light bulb. The point is, your business may not be a success. Most people who make it don’t do it on their first try. It takes experimentation and utter failure to gain the wisdom to succeed. Don’t give up!

January 6, 2009 I will have been in business for myself for six months. I gave up my position as a Director of Marketing for a shoe company in June to become one of America’s thousands of small business owners.

My first day on the job, I panicked.

I didn’t know what to do first! I had spent the past 15 years going to work, having a clearly defined schedule to accomplish, and do my job. For the first time, I was solely responsible for my success and failure. My mouth was dry, my heart was racing, I was scared!

I’ll be honest: I did all right in June. In the month of July, I didn’t make a dime. My preparedness was put to the test. But August was all right, September became even better and October and November were amazing! I’ve never looked back.

Owning a business isn’t for everyone, but for me – I can’t think of a better way to live my life.

WHOA HO HO! IS YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS?

2008-11-19T15:14:00.005-05:00

http://www.mywebsource1.com/

No one needs to tell you that the United States economy tanked in September, 2008. As I write this, banks have been bailed out, the government is questioning the future of the “Big Three” car companies, and the internet is a-buzz with tales of woe on the holiday sales season.

But is it as serious as everyone is saying?

According to Forrester Research, we will spend an estimated $200 BILLION dollars online this Holiday Season – which is up from the $175 billion spent last year at this time. So how can you get a piece of this Internet Holiday Pie? Preparation.

If you haven’t started preparing for your online holiday sales, you are already behind the eight ball. Never fear though, because the present is better than any to start selling to your online shoppers. Just know, holiday shopping starts earlier than the “Black Friday” sales after the Thanksgiving rush and you should note this for next year.

Below are some helpful tips for getting the most out of your online store.

OCTOBER

Q: When should you start preparing online for the Holiday Rush?
A: Early Autumn (Anytime in October.)

If you have the type of online store that caters to consumers, start preparing with new “Gift” categories, create a wish list application and start offering gift cards so you can collect pre-sells.

Re-evaluate your inventory and lines of distribution so that customers won’t be let down with “out of stock” notices. Additionally, make sure you post a shipping deadline on your web site so that your customers know when they need to order a gift to have it delivered on time.

Start developing Holiday landing pages that will bring shoppers right to your gift selections. This should tie in with your pay-per-click campaigns.

Review with your staff the holiday protocol. Make sure your web design, purchasing, customer service, and shipping departments are all on the same page to make all sales go smoothly.

NOVEMBER

Prepare your email list for a blast email in the early part of November. This list should be uploaded to your newsletter service provider and ready to go when you are.

Your first newsletter should hit within the week prior to Thanksgiving. The reason I suggest this date is because the week of Thanksgiving, everyone is preparing for their holiday dinner or travel and your blast newsletter may get lost in the holiday rush.

If you are using Comparison Shopping Engines, make sure you prepare all of your Holiday Sales items to be competitive.

Launch your holiday pay-per-click campaign the week of Thanksgiving. This is also the time to launch your holiday category pages that you made in October.

Follow your pay-per-click campaign closely from now until the holiday season is over. People will increase their PPC cost and you don’t want to find yourself ten pages back for the entire season.

DECEMBER

Cyber Monday is December 1. All of your preparation comes down to this day, but don’t forget other sales days. If you celebrate Christmas, don’t forget your customers may also celebrate Hanukah, Kwanza, and other days of celebration.

Send out your second holiday email blast to encourage customers to shop from you. This should be done ten days to two weeks from the first. DO NOT spam your customers.

Keep an eye on your pay-per-click. You should be able to lower your cost-per-click the week of Christmas because your shipments will not reach your customers in time.

Send out another email blast on December 26. This is Boxer Day in many countries (including Canada) and a huge shopping day in the U.S.

While you are putting this all together, prepare for NEXT year by adding these dates into your calendar. This way, when October comes around, you will be ahead of the game and be prepared for the holidays.

As the old song goes, “The Season comes but once a year…” and it is imperative for your business to be prepared if you want to succeed. Follow these tips and prove the naysayers wrong by excelling in these tough economic times.

Overcoming Obstacles to Gain Customers

2008-10-14T23:01:00.002-05:00

How do you bring new customers to your web site? The internet is full of web sites trying to entice people to come to their business. What is a business owner to do?

One of the first things you should look at is try to understand what reasons people DO NOT shop from you online. If you can grasp the reason they don’t shop from you, you’ll be able to overcome these resistances. The following will help you understand the needs to establishing your customer.

Obstacle One: Lack of Trust
No one knows who you are on the internet. A benefit and a flaw of this sales medium is anonymity. You are faceless and people fear that which they do not know or trust. Add the fact that the media does a great job of growing these fears, you have a recipe for no sales. People are afraid of losing money, having their identities stolen, or not getting what they order.

You have to build trust with your customers. One way of doing this is to make sure that there is easy access to your location. How many web sites do you go to that do not have any form of contact information on them? People need to see that you are open and willing for them to get in contact with you. Make sure this information is readily available on your web site.

Another means of gaining trust is to provide something for free on your web site. This doesn’t have to cost you anything, actually. It could be free information. It could be advice. It could be a chance to win a free iPod. Giving to your customer before you sell them something is a way to tear down this barrier. This is up to you, but building the trust between you (the faceless stranger) and your customer is essential.

Obstacle Two: Building a Sense of “Need” in the Consumer
Once you hurdle past the first obstacle and your customer thinks they can trust you, you have to give them a reason to need your product. A need can be anything you can think of to show the customer that they can’t live without your products. This could come in the form of testimonials (showing how others needed your product and what it did for them) or touting the benefits of your product. Remember: Don’t tell the customer the features of your product. No one cares. They only care about the benefits and how it will make their life easier. If the customer doesn’t think he will need your product, he won’t buy your product.

Obstacle Three: The Specifics of How This Product Will Help the Customer
OK, you’ve figured out a way for the customer to trust you. They think they need your product because it is addressing some problems they have, but now they ask, “Will this specific product really help me?”

They begin to question if your product is the actual product they need or if one of your competitors offer a better, more reasonable product. You have to show them in words on the internet on how this product will increase their current quality of life. Your products aren’t an impulse item like a candy bar or National Enquirer in the grocery line. This is something they are looking to buy at this time. You have to persuade them to make that purchase and punch in their credit card number. Your persuasion of your products will get you the price you demand and the sales from these new customers.

Obstacle Four: Is There a Sense of Urgency?
This is the most important of the four obstacles to overcome. You have the person on your web page. You’ve shown that you are a trustworthy sales outlet. You’ve given them a need to buy your products and shown them how you will enrich their lives by what you sell. Now, while they are here, you must show them the need to buy this product right now!

It is a natural tendency to hesitate. I can come back to your store if I really need this. It isn’t like you are going anywhere. I have this fancy bookmarking tool to come back any time I want. But the question is: Will they come back? Will they buy from you or the next person online offering your goods?So how do you overcome the lack of rush and instill a fear of loss that could be suffered if they don't act now? One way is to develop the idea that your product has a limited time of availability.Even if the product has every appearance of being available for a long time, let the customer know that the price could escalate. Let them know the prices are good only till the end of the month. If you want, show them that there is a shortage on the item. A good example of this is the Nintendo Wii.

The Wii came out at Christmas time a couple of years back, but Nintendo didn’t release millions of their popular game system all at once. They only released 5 or 10 units at a time to large resellers. They released 1-3 units to smaller establishments. Word spread through the stores and online that this was a hard product to get. People waited in lines. They pre-ordered and they waited months on end to get this coveted item. Is it really that scarce? Not really. Everyone I know who wanted one has a Nintendo Wii. What did happen was that they had to search to find a game system. Nintendo used this obstacle to their advantage and they sell out of the Wii System every time they open the flood gates to trickle out a few more.Your long-range focus should be one of building a sizeable list of loyal customers that can be a continual source of cash-flow for you. It is fun and financially rewarding (although challenging at first) to build an expanding list of responsive customers.When you do, they will be your asset for years and years. You will get better and better all the time at overcoming the four obstacles. As you do, your customer list as well as your business and income will grow.

Get Your Online Store Ready For The Holidays - NOW

2008-10-14T00:25:00.002-05:00

Have you started preparing your online store for the December holidays? If you haven’t already, you will find that you are already four months behind! There are numerous web marketing tactics that you should be looking at for the holiday season – online video, search marketing, email campaigns, online media, social networking – these are all cost effective ways for you to reach potential customers. These are customers that are actively searching for sales and deals right now!

But, why bother with online sales? If you have a brick-and-mortar store, your customers are coming in the door, aren’t they? What if you don’t sell items online? Maybe you only use your store for information and a map to get to your location. This is still the time to be getting ready for Christmas.

According to Advertising.com (http://www.advertising.com/) 84% of consumers will make online purchases this holiday season with most purchases happening in November and December. This study will also occur in local businesses, as well, but you must be prepared for the season.
There are some very important things to remember when you are preparing your online strategy for the upcoming holiday season:

1. Make sure you have the inventory to handle your online sales. A person who uses the internet to make purchases expect to have their orders handled in an expedient fashion. You must either have the inventory on-hand or be able to get their order out the door quickly and efficiently.

2. Customer satisfaction is the name of the game online. Price doesn’t mean anything if you have fantastic customer service in place. Make sure that your customer service keeps the customer informed with each step of the ordering process. Make sure you also post a cut-off date that you will ensure gifts to arrive for the holidays. This is a very easy thing to do and you can stop an angry customer before it becomes an issue.

3. Submit your products and sale items to Comparison Shopping Networks. These are places online that can get your products in front of people’s eyes and compare them side by side with similar products. You can find these at places like: http://www.valueclick.com/, http://www.shopzilla.com/, and http://www.pricegrabber.com/. Remember, people start buying online for the holidays in October. That’s now!

4. Prepare your web site for the holiday season. Change your keywords, tweak your online business, make sure that you are getting the message that you want to your customers.

5. Coordinate your print message with your online message. Don’t confuse your customers by having your online “summer” message disconnecting with the printed message that you are using to entice customers to your store.

6. Offer gift cards to be purchased at your online store. Gift cards can give you up front cash to help you through the months following the holidays. Offer them in both a traditional and electronic format and make sure they are near your navigation bar so that customers can easily find the link to buy a card.

The weather is still warm and we’re all still thinking Autumn, but you have to be ready for the holiday season months before it starts. Promotions take time and that time is now. Keeping ahead of your shoppers will make for a happy and successful holiday season.

Small Business Can Succeed No Matter What The Economy

2008-10-12T15:56:00.003-05:00

by Jimm Fowler
http://www.mywebsource1.com/

“How is business going?”

I ask this question almost 50 times a week while trying to sell my web design and marketing business. The economy is in the tank. The lending to businesses is teetering on the edge of calamity. What are small business owners supposed to do?

They advertise. They advertise and they are realizing the benefit of a web site. This is obvious because I see more and more people building their own business to stave off the failing economy. I see people working on small business ideas because they are so unsure of what tomorrow is going to bring. Our presidential candidates are offering vague suggestions of what they are going to do to help us.

It would seem by the bleak economic news that we see each day, starting a small business would be bad, but people are falling back and becoming self-reliant. What’s more, they are getting business! People still need things. The big businesses are not what drives today’s economy. Small businesses do.

Here is some advice to continue your business in our current financial state:

1. Stick to your guns. Don’t cut your prices even though you may have the instinct to go that route. The money is out there, you just need to find it. People don’t buy things they don’t need because it is 15% off. They buy things they need because they need them. The only thing you succeed in doing when you undercut your product is your profits and the perceived value what you offer.

2. Network and grow. What is your percentage of closing a sale? You need to know that number and then get in front of the people to reach those goals. Waiting for the phone to ring or come in through the door is a failing business plan. Go out and spread your name. Get people to know who you are and then get them to purchase from you. If you can close 25% of the sales you get, and you need 25 sales a month to survive, you better be talking to 100 people each month.

3. Contact those people that you have spoke with in the past. Whether you are sending out a newsletter, blogging, or just picking up the phone – you need to TALK to people that have shown interest in your product. Keep in touch with suppliers, too. These are your lifeline to future business and being on a friendly basis with them will keep you moving forward in the future.

4. Keep looking for financing. Just because the news is saying that we are in a money crunch doesn’t mean you can’t get the funding you need to continue your business to grow. You just have to be smarter in getting the funds for your business. This means you need to have a well, drawn out plan. You have to illustrate how that plan will be implemented and then you have to go after the people who will see your vision and offer you the money to succeed.

5. Finally, keep looking forward. It really doesn’t matter what the economy is doing at this time if you have a great idea. You may have to curtail portions of your idea to meet with the times, but a money-making idea will always make money – no matter what the environment says. If you don’t believe that, go out to your local restaurant area and see if their parking lots are empty. Go into your local shopping district and see if it is a ghost town. Sales may be at different levels, but people are still shopping.

Go forth with your business and succeed. The only thing stopping you IS you.

Three Types of Website Traffic: Bringing People to Your Website

2008-10-07T14:50:00.004-05:00

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

Where does website traffic come from? You’ve had your website built and you are ready to attract customers, but how do you get them to come to you? If no one shows up to your web site, there is no way to sell your products or services. Just because you have a web site doesn’t mean people will come to it. There are three ways to get traffic to your web site, outlined below:

1. Pay For Your Traffic.
This is commonly referred to as “Pay-per-Click” (PPC) advertising. Basically, this means that you do not pay for the advertising unless your ad works! You only pay a fee, that you determine ahead of time, for the advertisement if someone clicks on your ad.

There are three major companies that do PPC advertising:
Google Adwords
Yahoo Network Sponsored Search (formally called Overture)
MSN AdCenter

There are dozens of other, smaller PPC advertising companies, as well, but these three will give you the most “bang for your buck”. It will depend on where your customers and clients shop that will help you decide where to place your purchases.

Once you decide on a PPC company to use, you create an account, decide upon keywords, and create your advertisements. You decide how much you wish to spend per day, where you want the ads to appear - geographically, and what time of day the ads can appear.

PPC advertising will most definitely get you results. It works. However, be forewarned, because without constant monitoring of PPC, you could end up spending money you do not wish to. For this reason, you may want to get a professional to watch your ad campaigns. This group of professionals – known as search engine marketers - can set up your accounts, pick the best keywords, and monitor the results. For this usage, a typical fee of 10%-15% of your advertising budget is the normal charge. Thus, for every $100 you spend on PPC ads, plan on spending an additional $10-$15 to your Search Engine Marketer.

2. Trade For Traffic
Depending upon your niche, this way of bringing people to your web site can be very effective. There are two ideal ways to go about doing this: Link Exchanges and Joint Ventures with Naturally, Existing Economic Relationships (N.E.E.R.s). This type of garnering web traffic is also a part of something called Organic Search Engine Marketing (SEO).

In a Link Exchange, you write an email to a website asking for them to put a link back to your own website. Typically, you will want to have the other website’s link already on your website and show that owner that, in good faith, you have already placed their link. Another way of doing this is to have website owners place your link on their website because you do business with them, write on their web boards, or comment on their blogs.

Note: Trade for Traffic is not easy. It takes work. Also, this type of web marketing is not targeted. The information is usually in a place that can have some benefit to people needing your wares and services, but there is no guarantee. The benefit of it is that it has a longer lasting effects on how people will find you and come to your web site.

The second option, Joint Ventures, is essentially where you would contact another marketer or company who had products that complements yours. You would try to convince these people to write about your products or company. They could place this in articles, newsletters, on their blogs, or in a video. This also takes work, but the aspect of getting other people to advertise for you has a stronger impact on the consumer than by interrupting their day with your ads.

The key things to remember about trading for traffic is that it is give and take. What people do for you today, you will have to return at a later date. It is a community effect and you have to hold up your end of the bargin.

3. Create Your Own Traffic.
Creating your own traffic is, by far, the best and easiest way to bring in people to your web site. The first way is to encourage customers to become repeat customers. Once a month, you MUST bring yourself to top of your customers mind and remind them that you exist. You can do this though an email, a newsletter, a fax, or whatever means you have at your disposal. Reminding customers to come back will ensure new sales. Change your web site often and give them an added reason to return.

Another important item: Have your web site address on everything you have in print at your business. Business cards, invoices, ads, envelopes, etc… are all ways for people to get in touch with you on your web site.

Bringing in new customers to your website can be more difficult. There are dozens of ways to do this, however. Create a video on your camcorder. Make sure you put your web site address on the video and have a page that hosts all of your (upcoming) videos. Most video sites will allow you to do this, today. Video is becoming one of the top-most searched areas on the internet. In a word, it is HUGE.
Grab people’s attention by writing articles and blogging. If you are perceived as an expert in your field, people will start turning to you for advice and resources.

Advertise on free web sites on the internet, like Craig’s List (www.craigslist.com). This is easy to do and will get your name noticed.

Create something free to give away, like an eBook, or a funny picture on your web site. Giving away something for free grabs people’s attentions.

So you can see, there are literally hundreds of ways to bring more traffic to your web site. You can go by three routes. Spend money and buy the ads to bring people to your web site. Spend time and get other people to bring people to your web site. Or spend resources and entice the people to come to your web site on your own.

Doing one of these three methods, if done with diligence, will bring people to your web site and increase your sales.

Demand Proof That Your Advertising Works: Tracking Ads

2008-09-07T18:10:00.003-05:00

by James Fowler

www.mywebsource1.com

How do you know if your ads are working for you? The internet makes it easy to track your return on investment through pay-per-click ads, but how can you track print ads? How do you monitor your radio and television ads? What do you do if your running concurrent campaigns?

One way marketers have done this in the past is to put a special code on the ad that a customer is supposed to use when they call the company in hopes of getting an additional discount.

For example, if you were running an ad for a Halloween Sale, you might have customers call in and say the code: BOO to receive an additional 10% off their order.

While this may prove some sales, how do you know your ad worked? You know which customers got the discount, but did they call in and have your customer service person offer them the 10% off? What about the customers that didn’t use the code? How about those that saved the ad and called in after the sale? This way cannot positively give you an accurate account.

Another way of tracking ads is the coupon. Likewise, while you know the number of people who have used the coupon saw your ad, what about those who buy your products but didn’t use the coupon? What if they buy something else outside of the sale item? There is no clear way to monitor the effectiveness of your ad…

…or is there?

Let us say you are going to do a direct mail campaign or rent a billboard. You want to know how effective your money is working for you. There is a way to do this by tracking the phone numbers and/or web address that you use in your ads. What’s more, your ad can be monitored each day for its effectiveness. The difficult work is done for you and you just need to worry about getting the sales!

Once you experience the power of the tracking technology by seeing the actual number of leads and hearing the actual phone calls, you will be able to track where you are most effective. You’ll be able to see and hear where your shortcomings are. You’ll be able to see what brings in results.

Why waste money on non-effective advertising month after month? Quit the guessing. Be smart in your spending. Arm yourself with the tools you need to make your advertising as valuable as possible. Think of how much money you can save by spending smart!

Here’s how it works:
ONE: You create a magazine, billboard, catalog, brochure, radio, or television ad. We take your phone number or email address and change it slightly to record the results back to you.

TWO: Immediately, those calls or the web site address comes to you, but are recorded so that you can monitor their results.

THREE: You click on the web site each day and can actually listen to the phone calls or see the results of the web site address provided.

You can see exactly who is answering the call to action from your ads!

I am sure that you can see the benefit in this method of advertising. The added cost (which is most likely less than 10% of your total cost of one mailing) can help you in honing your message and give you the answers to how well your advertising is working for you!

Contact us with your questions and find out how Smart Marketing with myWebSource1 can work for you and get a sample image of how this wonderful software works!

The Most Powerful Ten-Year Old on the Planet

2008-09-07T13:10:00.007-05:00

by James Fowler
http://www.mywebsource1.com/

No, it isn’t Superboy. It is the mega-powerful Google, which started just ten years ago Sunday, September 07. Google has been such a daily part of our lives, it is hard to imagine that it is only ten years old. Google was created between 1996-1998 by two Stanford students who hypothesized that a search engine that analyzes the relationships between websites would produce better results. Thus, sites with the most links to them from other relevant web pages appear higher on a search results list. Google use is so prevalent that the verb "google" was recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Their search engine was originally nicknamed "BackRub" because the system checked backlinks to estimate a site's importance. This same system is now used by most search engines today.

The company was originally started at Stanford University, but then later moved to a friend’s garage in Menlo Park, California. From there, they moved to their current headquarters in Palo Alto, California. It was originally funded with a $100,000 check from Sun Microsystems.

Where did the founders come up with the name Google?

It comes from the word Googol, which means 10¹⁰⁰ (the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros). Likewise, the name Googleplex, the name of the company's property, comes from Googolplex or 1 followed by a googol of zeros.

In the late 1990's and early 2000's, Google captured the attention of many internet users because of its clean look and consistancy, plus the way it placed a web page higher up on the search list based upon the achievements of the web designers. To this day, we only have clues to making your web site rank higher in this search engine - Google keeps the exact formula a closely-guarded secret.

In the year 2000, Google began selling ad space on its search engine based upon keywords used in the ad. The ads were text-based to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed. These ads were initially sold on click-throughs using a minimum of $0.05 per click. This was originally inspired by another company named "Goto.com" which later became Overture (which was then sold to Yahoo!). This advertising medium later became known as Google AdWords and

In 2001, Google started using PageRank, a method of telling people the importance of their web sites by use of a 1-10 scale. PageRank is based off of a number of factors of how your web site is built, including the importance of incoming links.

In recent years, Google has taken over other areas of the Internet with their technology.

1999: Google created the blogging software, Blogger, to allow people to platform ideas online.

2004: Google created Gmail, a free, web-based email program.

2004: Google created Google Earth, a satellite imagery program.

2005: Google creates Google Sitemaps and Google Webmaster tools to help in web marketing.

2005: Google entered into partnerships with AOL, NASA, and Sun Microsystems.

2006: Google created its Documents and Spreadsheets program to compete with Microsoft.

2006: Google accquired YouTube, the popular video sharing web site.

2006: Google accquired JotSpot, a wiki-based technology for collaborative web sites

In just ten, short years, Google has gone onto become the largest company in the United States, employing more than 20,000 full time employees. Additionally, it has been named the #1 company to work for, based on the fringe benefits its employees receive, such as: on-site cafeterias, massage centers, daycare centers, flex schedules and gaming consoles such as Nintendo's Wii, Sony Playstations, and Microsoft's X-box. Today, their estimated worth has risen from the $100,000 they started with initially to over $160 Billion.

Not too bad for a 10-year-old kid...

Tips For Bringing People To Your Web Site

2008-08-21T20:45:00.002-05:00

There is a great mystery out there in the world known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This is the Holy Grail for web site owners. It is the phantom that they try to capture in their attempt to bring more people to their web sites.

SEO isn’t hard. It is time consuming and, if you don’t know what your are doing, can be a real headache without a lot of return on your investment. No one ever built a successful web site and did nothing with it. The good news is there are ways that you can help your web site yourself! Below, you will find some very good answers to having people find you online:

Building Your Web Site. When you begin to design your web site, the first thing you should consider is how SEO will factor into your marketing plan. What keywords and phrases will you use? How will content urge people to come to your web site and link to you?

Content. This is the single most important factor to any self-serving web site. Your content must have good keywords and phrases – the same ones you want people to find you on when searching the internet. Search engine spiders love that text!

Renew Your Content – and often! The search engines love it when you start making changes to your pages. If you cannot do this, then you can always blog. Blogging creates an RSS feed that allows spiders to find your web site. Make sure you follow proper anchor text linking in your blogs and tag keywords to help find your web site.

Longtail Keywords. Short, common keywords won’t get you anywhere. There are other web sites out there using the same keywords for a lot longer than you. If you have a web site that does video production, you might find it hard to get onto the first few pages of Google with words like “video”. Instead try Cincinnati Video Production. This will help you get your business found more easily. Remember: Be precise in what you want your keywords to be. They will help bring people to your web site.

Links. Right behind content, you have to build up a group of links back to your web site – using those keywords and phrases that you are using in your text. Another important thing about links: If it is on a page that has nothing to do with your web site – it won’t really work that well for you. Make your links relevant! For example: If I wanted a link to my web site from this article, I’d put it as Web Site Design and Marketing.

Anchor Text. When you create links within your web site between pages, make sure the links are using specific keywords in which you want to be found. For example: I might put the following as a link - Web Site Hosting.

Title Tags. First, make sure you have a title tag on each page. Then, make sure it doesn’t say HOME PAGE. Your title tags should contain relevant keywords that will bring people to your pages.

Avoid Flash. I know. It looks nice. It is cool. Search engine spiders find this inedible. They hate it! Why? Because Flash is pictures and they like text. If you must use Flash, use it sparingly. Also note, not everyone has the latest update of Flash, so all that fancy design work may look like nothing on some people’s browsers. If you just have to have Flash, make sure you add some text below the movie frame. This is known as “below the fold.”

Javascript. OK, while you’re avoiding Flash, avoid drop down menus, too. The search engine spiders just don’t see it. Use it at your own peril.

Alt Tags. Every picture you use should have text associated with it to let the search engines know what it is about. These should be keyword rich words, as well. The text is referred to as an Alt Tag.

Social Networking. Use it. What is it? It is mySpace, Facebook, sta.rtup.biz, Linked In, and many others. Make sure you put your link back to your web site and make sure you comment on as many other member’s pages as possible. Social Networking will help your web site tremendously.

So, is that all there is to it? Nope. This will give you an excellent starting place, though. In addition to these things, look into a strong Pay-Per-Click marketing campaign. Some people will tell you that Organic Search Engine Marketing is the only way to go, but a homogenous blend of SEO (what we’ve been talking about) and PPC (pay-per-click) will give you the most bang for your buck. Additionally, PPC offers the most obvious way of tracking where your money is going, so your accountant will love it too!

Good luck on this endeavor. It takes time, but it will definitely help you build your web site’s success.

Web Sites are Green

2008-08-17T17:38:00.001-05:00

by Jimm Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

Living in the United States today, people are acutely aware of the need to “Go Green” in their everyday lives. We are all trying to shrink our carbon footprint. We’ve heard the news. We need to conserve if we want the planet to be inhabitable for our children. This method of thinking would have been unheard of 40 years ago. Today, it is “trendy”.

One way of going about this is to have a web site and be online. “He’s a web site designer”, you are probably saying to yourself, “of course he feels that way.” But it is true. By going online, you are shrinking your carbon footprint everyday. Technology is helping to forge a better tomorrow. Let me explain:

Paperless Society
F.W. Lancaster, the Informational Scientist who coined the term “paperless society” in 1981. With a paperless society, we would stop using print media and find everything online.

Is it a reality?

Not now, but as more and more web sites become interactive and better allow you to access information online, this thought process helps us to conserve our planet.

Online Literature
In the old days (circa 1989 or even yesterday), you hired a graphic designer to create a brochure and you sent it to a printer who would charge you around $400 per thousand to print and fold your brochure so you could hand it to your customer. The ink they used was then discarded and entered our waterways, harming plants and aquatic life. A simple solution to this is to cut back on printed literature and put it on your web site. Not only does this save you money, but it also helps the environment.

Now, think about the cost savings when you apply this same thought process to your hundred page catalog! You are saving money on printing costs and mailing costs. Your catalog is now in the hands of anyone who would like to view it and what is best, you are cutting back on waste for those who don’t want your services. Add a simple form to access your catalog and now you know exactly who was interested enough to look at your wares!

Conserving Gasoline
By putting your goods online, people can find what they are looking for without having to get into their vehicles and drive to different stores. You can join comparison shopping engines, use pay-per-click ads and organic optimization methods to get people to your site and show them what you have to sell. Less people driving on the roads means less energy wasted which helps in lowering gasoline prices.

Other ways of getting people through your front door is to blog, use social networking tools and sending out online newsletters. Most of these are free to use and won’t waste our natural resources.

Casting Out The Clutter
Everyday we are interrupted in our lives with advertisements. We see them on billboards, on television, in the newspaper and we hear them on the radio. We are so bombarded by these interruptions that we tune them out – unless they are really good or that we’ve heard or seen them so many times we can’t help but notice. In today’s world of marketing do these methods even work like they used to in years past?

Direct marketing works ONE PERCENT of the time – if you are lucky. This means that if you send out 1000 direct marketing pieces to customers, you might get 10 responses. If the item you sell is worth $100, you probably broke even. Most likely, 990 people just added to the excess of trash that we throw away each day. How many of those do you think recycled the paper?

Here are some facts:

50% of all junk mail (i.e. your advertisements) is thrown away without being opened.
Junk mail wastes an average of 8 months of every American life.
100 MILLION trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail.
28 BILLION gallons of water are used to produce the paper each year that makes junk mail.
The yearly creation of junk mail equates out to the emissions of 3.7 million cars.
An estimated $320 million in local tax dollars are used to dispose of junk mail each year.
About $550 million dollars is used to transport junk mail to your mail box.

Why would you want to contribute to this?

Instead, try online advertising with either a pay-per-click campaign. This is really an ingenious method of advertising. You set up an ad. You decide which keywords will work best for you. You set a geographical location to place your ads and PEOPLE find you by typing in something related to your keywords. The PEOPLE come to YOU. These are people with an interest in something you are selling. You aren’t interrupting them. You aren’t filling up their mailboxes and lives with a deluge of unsolicited garbage to be tossed aside into our landfills. You are letting them come to you.

I do not pretend to believe that all paper advertising and marketing will stop. I don’t even believe that it will decrease to the point where junk mail is an occasional present in our mailboxes. But, if everyone started to move just 5% of their business away from the old, familiar ways of marketing – ways that don’t work anymore – then maybe we can help to reform our planet into a better place to live.

Go online. Sell online. Become a part of the solution for a better world.

WHAT WILL $5000 IN ADVERTISING GET YOU?

2008-08-11T22:06:00.003-05:00

WHAT WILL $5000 IN ADVERTISING GET YOU?
Playing it by the numbers…

NINE THOUSAND BLACK AND WHITE MAILERS. These have a 1% - 5% chance of NEVER being opened.

or...

TWO HUNDRED CLASSIFIED ADS - one every three days for one year. These have about a 3% chance of EVER being read.

or...

ONE HUNDRED THIRTY SECOND RADIO SPOTS in Cleveland. Are you targeting the right audience and are they listening? 95% will never remember…

or...

FIFTY 10-SECOND TV ADS mixed throughout the day on a local cable station. Did your audience get up and go make a sandwich? Again, 95% will never remember…

or...

SEVEN NEWSPAPER ADS – 3 columns x 3” (a little more than half the size of a note card).

or...

TWO TRADE MAGAZINE ADS in which you advertise TO your competition.

or...

A YELLOW PAGES AD about the size of a drink coaster for one year.

or...

ONE WEB SITE.
A web site professionally designed and online 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, no holiday pricing changes.

Located on a place that people actually go to get news and information – their computers.

A web site that will allow you make changes to your text and pictures when YOU want the changes made…

AND the best part of all…it won’t cost you $5000 to have a web site. You’ll have plenty of money left over to use on other marketing endeavors: Pay-Per-Click, Search Engine Optimization, your web site added to your business cards, letterhead, and invoices.

You’ll have money left over to advertise in other traditional marketing methods or even have a video made of your products and services. Why wouldn’t you want a web site that attracts customers to you? For more information: www.mywebsource1.com

Commandments of a Startup

2008-08-01T01:14:00.002-05:00

The Commandments of the StartUp

This isn't mine, but from a usergroup I belong to on Facebook. It is helpful if you are starting your own business and want to know what other people are going through. It was put together by a group of people who have been there. Done that. If you are starting out on your own, this is good to read. Some of this is aimed directly at us computer geeks, but some of it can be helpful if you are just thinking about opening up a corner store.

Here are the "Commandments of a Startup":

1. Your idea isn't new. Pick an idea; at least 50 other people have thought of it. Get over your stunning brilliance and realize that execution matters more.

2. Stealth startups suck. You're not working on the Manhattan Project, Einstein. Get something out as quickly as possible and promote the hell out of it.

3. If you don't have scaling problems, you're not growing fast enough.

4. If you're successful, people will try to take advantage of you. Hope that you're in that position, and hope that you're smart enough to not fall for it.

5. People will tell you they know more than you do. If that's really the case, you shouldn't be doing your startup.

6. Your competition will inflate their numbers. Take any startup traffic number and slash it in half. At least.

7. Perfection is the enemy of good enough. Leonardo could paint the Mona Lisa only once. You, Bob Ross, can push a bug release every 5 minutes because you were at least smart enough to do a web app.

8. The size of your startup is not a reflection of your manhood. More employees does not make you more of a man (or woman as the case may be).

9. You don't need business development people. If you're successful, companies will come to you. The deals will still be distractions and not worth doing, but at least you're not spending any effort trying to get them.

10. You have to be wrong in the head to start a company. But we have all the fun.

11. Starting a company will teach you what it's like to be a manic depressive. They, at least, can take medication.

12. Your startup isn't succeeding? You have two options: go home with your tail between your legs or do something about it. What's it going to be?

13. If you don't pay attention to your competition, they will turn out to be geniuses and will crush you. If you do pay attention to them, they will turn out to be idiots and you will have wasted your time. Which would you prefer?

14. Startups are not a democracy. Want a democracy? Go run for class president, Bueller.

15. You're doing a web app, right? This isn't the 1980s. Your crummy, half-assed web app will still be more successful than your competitor's most polished software application.

16. You will have at least one catastrophe every three months.

17. Outsource effectively, or be effectively outsourced.

18. Do you thrive on stress and ambiguity? You'd better.

19. The best way to get outside funding is to be successful already. Stupid but true. But you, cheapskate, don't need money, right?

20. People will think your idea sucks. They're even probably right. The only way to prove them wrong is to succeed.

21. A startup will require your complete attention and devotion. Thought your first love in High School was clingy? You can't take out a restraining order on your startup.

22. Being an entrepreneur requires a healthy amount of ignorance. Note I did not say stupidity.

23. Your software sucks. So what. Everyone else's does also, and re-architecting is the kiss of death for a startup. Startups are no place for architecture astronauts.

24. You do have a public API (application programming interface), right?

25. Abject Terror. Overwhelming Joy. Monstrous Greed. Embrace and harness these emotions you must.

Planning Your Web Site

2008-07-19T02:25:00.001-05:00

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

Proper planning is the key to success for your web site. It may be difficult to overcome the first impression of disorganized information, a terrible user experience, or the drivel of poor content. Will your web site visitors return to you? By planning your web site out, you will have the right elements to keep people coming back to your web site again and again.

There are several things you must prepare if you want to have a successful and timely web site. The following can be used as a check list to help you be on your way.

DOMAIN NAME
This is the first thing you need to start your web site. A domain name is a unique name that identifies your site on the internet. For example, www.mywebsource1.com is a domain name. You typically buy a domain name for one year or more. It is suggested that you buy the domain for a minimum of 3 years, however, because search engine spiders look favorably on web sites that plan to be around longer than a couple of months. By buying ahead, you help yourself with the search engines.

HOSTING
Hosting is the next thing you will need. You have your web site name, now you need a place to “host” the web site. Hosting is basically keeping your web site on an external server that connects itself to the internet. Good hosting companies offer special services like a free blog, an email with your web site name, and enough space to hold all of your information.

THE WEB SITE
Finally! What you have been waiting for! Gathering everything you need to build your web site. It is time to come up with a web site strategy and some objectives. What is your web site going to accomplish? What will bring people to your web site? What will you gain from your web site?

Styles of Web Sites: What is your web site going to do? Is it an informational piece that is just an extension of your business card and literature? Do you want to sell something by using eCommerce? Maybe you want to interact with your customers and collect data so you can better assist them?

All of these are viable web sites. What is most important is to stay focused on what you are trying to do. People do not want to be confused. If you confuse them, they won’t come back to your web site. One thought. One page.

Think about the colors that you want to use on your web site. Does it look good with your logo? Do you have a logo? If not, you should really get one and use it on all of your marketing materials.

Information to Customers: This could be your contact information and store hours. It can be interactive in the way of a form. This way, you can collect information through a database so that you can market information to your customers. Keeping a close contact with your list is essential to ecommerce success.

Pictures and illustrations: A picture says a thousand words, right? This holds true on the internet, as well. People are visual beings and good, eye-pleasing graphics will attract people’s attention. You can take the pictures with a digital camera and upload them to your web designer. Pictures can also be found on the internet, need to be purchased. Just because they are out there, doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to use them. You can obtain them through a variety of web sites that sell images or if you see a picture you like, contact the web site owner and ask them to use the picture. This works particularly well if you are adding product to your web site to sell. Manufacturers want you to use their pictures to sell more product.

Web Site content: What are you going to say? The truth of the matter is that how you say your words are more important than anything else. Search engine spiders (those little programs that find your web site on the internet) love text. They’d love if you wrote a book on the page topic. However, most people don’t want to read volumes of text. Make sure you are concise about what you say and use plenty of keywords so that someone will read it.

Products to sell: Decide what you to sell and how you want to present the items. Typically, you will need a name, a picture, a price, and a unique ID number for the product. Think of things like shipping and handling costs. Know the policy you will follow for international orders (if you plan on shipping out of the country) and the costs associated with this. Think about what you want to use as a merchant account or do you want an online merchant account, such as Paypal?

Marketing your web site: This is the hardest part for most people, but the most vital aspect of your web site. A web site has to be kept up to date and the information has to get out to your potential and current customers. How do you do this? There are plenty of ways including writing a blog, trading links with other businesses, and writing articles. If writing isn’t your thing, try going onto bulletin boards or other places where you can comment something and make sure you add your web site address to your signature.

Another way to market is sending out an email to people who visited your web site. You can find out these names by requesting this information on your web site.

If you want to have a successful web site, you should follow these steps. They are a good basic starting point to complete your goal of a web site and it is something that you should have in place when you meet with your designer. It will make the entire project move along smoothly and you will be happier that you have more control over your web site.

Making the Most of Your Garage Sale

2008-06-27T14:26:00.004-05:00

by James Fowler
http://www.mywebsource1.com/

It’s summer time. Children are playing out in the yard, the smells of burning charcoal fill the air as people grill their steaks and hamburgers, and everywhere you look, there are garage sales.

Garage sales are a type of small business. Granted, you are only open for two days out of the year, but why not make the most out of those two days? My neighbor is having a garage sale right now. She spent all day sitting out in the hot sun yesterday selling the “stuff” she no longer wanted. As I sat on my patio working on web sites, I didn’t notice many people stopping by, so I thought I’d do the neighborly thing and take a walk over. It was about 4:00 and I asked her how it was going.

“Not great” she replied. “I’ve been out here since eight this morning and I think we’ve made fourteen dollars.” (That’s $1.75/hour without a lunch break.)

Looking around, I could immediately see the problem. I bought a twenty-five cent item that I didn’t need and walked back home. I was going to offer her some advice, but it was already too late for this garage sale. Maybe she’ll read this blog and make the most out of her next one.

An 8-Step Guide to Selling More at Your Next Garage Sale

1. Plan Ahead. If you are going to have a garage sale, plan ahead. Don’t just throw a bunch of junk into boxes or onto tables. Make sure everything is easy to see and accessible. You wouldn’t walk into Kohls or Target and see items just piled up on tables. Don’t let your store look like that, either.

2. There is a Time and Place for Order. If you go into any store there are rows of items that belong in categories grouped together. The Men’s section, the Women’s section, the Shoe section, etc… So why do we go to garage sales and see children’s clothing next to a rusty grill and used fishing equipment? Organize items to sell. Guide people through the products of your past.

3. Make sure everything is clean. Don’t put out dirty or clothes that need ironing. Dust off the games, pieces of furniture, or electronic equipment. If you want to sell something, present it in a way that makes it appealing and doesn’t look like you dug something out from the back of your junk closet.

4. Put a price tag on everything. For the most part, people like to avoid confrontation. Many are afraid to be social, let alone confrontational. If you don’t have a price tag on everything in your garage sale, you are missing out on money. Some people will not ask for a price if they don’t see it and will just walk away. Remember, no one goes to a garage sale because they NEED something. They go to a garage sale because they WANT something (most of the time they don’t even know what it is) at a deal. You are still going to get the “professional” hagglers, but if you have a price tag on something, you’ll have a place to start. Have a price tag on everything.

5. Showcase the Stuff People Want. Let’s say you have a mini-fridge your kid used in college. You want that to sell, so you put a $45 price tag on it. Don’t put this item in the back of your garage with your old twenty-five cent Monopoly board on top of it. This is something that should be seen from the road. Showcase it! Put a big yellow sign on it that says, “Mini-Fridge: Gently Used, Works Great! Perfect for a Dorm Room or your Garage! $45.00” Don’t have a yellow sign? A package of construction paper and a marker are cheap to get at the dollar store. Get those big items out front where people can see them.

6. Show People it Works. Are you trying to sell that radio or 6” television? Put it in a place next to an electrical outlet and plug it in. People want to make sure that the radio they are buying for $5 is actually going to play. They want to know your junk isn’t actually junk but an unrealized treasure.

7. Market Yourself. Why don’t people know how to do this? My neighbor has (3) 8.5x11 store-bought, black and white signs promoting her garage sale. One is in her front yard and the other two are taped to telephone poles at the one end of our street. She also put a $15 ad in the newspaper saying “Come to my garage sale”!

The ad, obviously, didn’t work.
No one read it.
I didn’t.

She should have saved herself the $15 and made some big yellow signs with bold letters that directed traffic to her door. One on each end of the street, facing both sides of traffic, and a HUGE one in front of the house. Additionally, she should have put signs at all of the major intersections in her area. There are often places where you can post your garage sale for free online such as the local media. Google those resources, as well.

8. Talk to People. Once you get the people in the garage, talk to them. Greet them, say “HELLO”. Strike up a conversation…Now, I am not saying I want you to bull rush them at the door.

Just say “Hello.”

NEVER SAY: “Can I help you?” That is the wrong thing ever lead with because the answer is always “No, thank you, I am just looking.” The conversation is lost and you’ve lost your sale. Just talk and strike up a conversation. Tell them about all the fun little Tommy used to have playing on that Big Wheel. “Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do, I Do It For You” was playing on that very tape deck when I met my wife...” Talking will get people to be more likely to buy from you.

Following these eight easy steps should help your garage sale immensely. What’s more, there is an added bonus with these tips: You’ll probably make more money. More people will come to your sale, they will know how to find your wares, they will know the price and you will talk with them to ensure that they get what they are looking for and come back in future years. Good luck with your garage sale and I hope you sell a bundle!

WHO COULD USE SOME MORE MONEY?

2008-06-16T17:43:00.001-05:00

COULD YOU USE SOME EXTRA SPENDING CASH?

We live in troubled times where gasoline is over four dollars a gallon, grocery prices are going up. People need a little extra cash. There is little altruism left in this world, but I would like to change that. If you think you could help me, I’d like to help you.

How would you like me to give you ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS?

That’s right. I want to give you a hundred dollars for helping me out. All you have to do is introduce me to someone who would be interested in building a web site. If they decide to have my company build them a web site AND they tell me that you were the one who suggested it, I WILL GIVE YOU ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

There are no strings attached. You don’t have to sell the web site. You don’t have to do ANYTHING else after I sell a web site to your friend except collect ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

Introduce me to a person/company/business in need of a web site.
Have them tell me that you told them about myWebSource1.com when they buy a web site from me.
I’ll give you ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS upon receipt of their paid web site through my company, myWebSource1.

I am only offering this to you because you know me in some way. It is either through being a friend, a reader of my blog, or a member of one of my social networking web sites.

This offer is valid for only one person, per web site. The money will be given to the person whom the web site owner states that gave me their name. No one else will get the money.

If you know someone who is interested, pass their name along to me via my email address at info@mywebsource1.com.

So let me give you ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Send me a name of a company that needs a web site along with the person in charge and I will contact them. Everybody knows someone who owns a business or company. Why not make this work for you!

James Fowler
www.myWebSource1.com
info@mywebsource1.com

High Gasoline Prices Turn Consumers To Online Shopping

2008-06-08T20:05:00.001-05:00

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

Do you sell a product or service? Are you looking for a way to make money with a hobby or business idea? Maybe you should look to selling your business online. Even if you aren’t looking to have an ecommerce site, people are going online to find your business. If you do not have a web site, this is something you may want to consider.

The high price of gasoline does have one positive effect for consumers: As gasoline prices rise, people forgo driving their SUVs out to their local malls and start up their PCs to shop online.

As prices of gasoline threaten to peak over $4.00 a gallon across much of the United States, online sales are beginning to rise. According to Drapers.com, a website dedicated to the international fashion market, online clothing and shoe sales rose 38% in the past year. In fact, internet sales now are responsible for almost 2% of all sales made in the United States. This may not sound like a lot, but that number is over $50 billion dollars in US sales – almost double from the $24 billion dollars spent online in 2004.

This number continues to grow at a steady pace. Free shipping, discounts and ease of ordering over the Internet are also attributed to attracting customers. The war with Iraq and fear of terrorism are other reasons some Americans state as to why they are now shopping online.

In a recent survey from Shopzilla.com, 40% of internet shoppers say they have increased their web purchases to save on gasoline. With gasoline rising on a daily basis and people moving away from driving to the store and looking for products online, maybe it is time to build your web site.

Losing the Safety Net...

2008-06-06T18:07:00.001-05:00

Today was my last day at work. For those of you that do not know, I have been Director of Marketing for Acor Orthopaedic for the past seven years. We parted on good terms and I wish them nothing but the best. Even still, saying goodbye to my friends was bittersweet. I met a lot of great people there over the years. I keep in contact with some of them and some of my past co-workers have become clients. Today, I walked in and was surprised by a table full of food and drinks. My co-workers had thrown me a surprise going away party, which was great of them. I will miss them, but it is time to move on.

Today is also the first day that I become a full-time entrepreneur. I have been working on my business – www.mywebsource1.com – for almost two years now. We do internet marketing and web design for small businesses, local governments, and non-profits. I have four people working for me and now I have cut loose my safety net. Part of me is elated. The other part is scared to death. From everything I have read and from every business owner I have questioned, this is how I should feel and there is something wrong if I do not.

So, I am taking the weekend off to gather my thoughts (as if I haven’t been thinking about this) and Monday morning I am getting up at my regular time, getting ready for work, putting my shoes on and making my twelve foot commute to my home office. Think of the gasoline I am saving?

I am happy about my decision. I am happy that everything has occurred the way it did at Acor. I didn’t want to end it with a hassle and it went smoothly. That is the way things should be.

Supporting the Troops While Killing Zombies

2008-04-19T11:59:00.001-05:00

Supporting the Troops While Killing Zombies
By James Fowler

Strange title, isn’t it?

I am a strong proponent of supporting charitable functions. When I started my business, one of the main mission points was to ensure that we gave back to the community and to other charitable endeavors. I am proud to say that this has carried through with all of my business dealings.

On May 23rd, www.NorthCoastNero.com , a live action role-playing franchise that I am part of, will be hosting Zombie-thon 2008 to raise money for the USO to give phone calling cards to our troops overseas. Our goal is to raise as much money as possible and have a lot of fun doing it in the meantime.

So what is Zombie-thon 2008?
Basically, it is an all-night event for men and women ages 14-adult to come out and kill zombies that have infested the woods in Northeast Ohio. The zombies are 100 volunteers that we have obtained for the entertainment of the participants.

How do you kill a zombie?
Zombies can be killed by either using a safe, NERF gun or boffer weapon. A boffer weapon is a sword or club made from safe open celled foam with a PVC core. These weapons are all ensured safe by our marshals. You must bring your own NERF gun, but if you don’t have a boffer weapon, one can be provided for you.

So how can this make money for the troops?
A portion of each entry fee - $30.00 – will be given to the troops. Additionally, participants are encourages to gather sponsors to give them a set amount for each zombie they kill! One hundred percent of all the sponsored money goes to our troops! For more information on this, please feel free to contact me at info@northcoastnero.com

When and where is the event?
May 23rd, 2008
Great Trails Girl Scout Camp
Malvern, Ohio

Directions to the camp can be found on our web site at www.northcoastnero.com

Is there anything else?
Of course! Pizza and beverages will be provided during the night of the event. Prizes will be awarded. And, as a special bonus, if you have never tried NERO – which is a fantasy live-action roleplaying game, you are more than welcome to stay for the weekend – a $20.00 value! For more information on this and our NERO events, please contact us at info@northcoastnero.com or by phone at (330) 807-2013

What is Tweek-IT™?

2008-03-01T13:43:00.001-05:00

What is Tweek-IT™?
By James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

The core of my business is working with local businesses in hometowns across the United States. The owners of these businesses typically work on a tight budget with little room to do things such as updating their web site on a regular basis.

This is where we got the concept of Tweek-IT™. With Tweek-IT™ the business owner can control the content of the web site, make changes how they want, to what they want and when they want it done.

What is best, Tweek-IT™ is simple to use! If you are familiar with popular software like Microsoft Word, you can use Tweek-IT™ to change your web site! Simply type, change links, or add pictures!
So what web site is the best candidate for using Tweek-IT™?

Businesses that have daily, weekly, or even monthly specials!
Organizations with an ongoing activity calendar.
An Announcements Page
A place to highlight important parts of your web site
Anywhere you want to make frequent changes!

Tweek-IT™ saves you money AND makes more money for you!As everyone knows, time is money. With Tweek-IT™, you save time because you no longer need to call someone to make the changes to your web site. Simply sign in to Tweek-IT™, make your changes and -minutes later – your edits are on your web site!

Be first with breaking news or specials when you want them because you have the power of Tweek-IT™! If you want to make changes on your web site, contact myWebSource1 for more details.

A Basic History of the Web: From Web 0.0 through Web 3.0

2007-11-18T01:03:00.001-05:00

Do you find yourself confused with all the talk about Web 2.0? Do you ask yourself, “What is Web 2.0? I didn’t know there was a Web 1.0 until I heard they were changing it! I’ve heard about this Web 2.0, but I can’t really explain what it is.” Well, never fear, because below is a brief history about the web and where the experts feel the web may be headed.

It wasn’t so long ago. The first email was sent in 1972 from BBN Technologies (Bolt, Beranek and Newman), a group from MIT and defense contractors for the U.S. government. This was still two years before anyone would even name what is known as the “Internet”. What we know as the World Wide Web wouldn’t come around until 1992. By this time, however, local network systems and bulletin boards were around and people were creating very simple web sites. There was no standardized code for web sites, but it was the time of what we now call…

Web 0.0
What is Web 0.0? This is the original web that first appeared in the 1980’s. It had little resemblance of what we see today when it comes to the internet. For those of you who may remember, Web 0.0 (or just the internet) linked different computers together. It was all about networks and programs to distribute information. This was the internet of the computer geek cloistered in his parent’s basement or the techno-mancer creating lists of information for others to view. This was the age when it would take 20 minutes to load up the text-based role-playing game that was no more than a glorified “complete this adventure” module. Each major town had its’ own bulletin board run by a local college student or techno-geek who manually kept the servers running so others could participate in the glory of chat and email.

Web 1.0
In the latter part of the 80’s, we soon moved onto Web 1.0 and stayed there for more than a decade. Some of us still haven’t let go of the apron string. This was the dawning of the age of eCommerce and catalog-web sites that ushered in eBay, Amazon, and others during the dot-com boom. It saw the creation of affiliate marketing and banner ads. Internet service providers emerged, such as AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe. The internet moved from the basements to the living room as more and more families started to see the web as a learning and leisure tool. In 2001, when the dot-com era ended, this became a turning point for the internet. People demanded more and this brought us into…

Web 2.0
Today, we hear this term all of the time, but it actually emerged in 2001 (and some say earlier, though Tim O’ Reilly hadn’t coined the term until that year). Where Web 1.0 was about a dialogue between business and customer, Web 2.0 is all about collaboration. It is about being able to use a program that doesn’t care if you are a Mac or a PC. It cares that you want to communicate and it wants to respond. Web 2.0 is the millions of blogs that people are talking about. It is the wikis that allow you to work with others and link information together. Web 2.0 is social networking, video and music sharing, search engine optimization, and collaborative tagging (also known as, folksonomy). Web 2.0 is when you decide the way your search engine or personal web site will look like (see iGoogle and Yahoo! 360). Web 2.0 puts you in the driver’s seat and gives you control.

Still not understanding Web 2.0? The best way to understand Web 1.0 versus Web 2.0 is to look at it from these standpoints:

Web 1.0 was about reading the information “they” wanted you to see.
Web 2.0 is all about writing and creating communities and sharing information.

Web 1.0 had advertisers telling you what to buy.
Web 2.0 uses other people explaining why they buy.

Web 1.0 was buying a program to work on your specific computer.
Web 2.0 is about applying a web application and web service.

Now that you have some understanding of Web 2.0, welcome to…

Web 3.0
I know what you are saying, “Waitaminute! I haven’t grasped 2.0 yet, how can Web 3.0 be here?” Well, technically, it is almost here! This comes from the imagination of Tim Berners-Lee, who is often credited with the creation of the whole web. What Web 3.0 will offer is ease-of-use. Currently, finding something online depends on what words are tagged or the keywords and phrases that are used. Web 3.0 will look at what you are searching and find it for you. The web will become your personal assistant. It will know what you want to do. The computer will understand your habits and will address them. This is referred to as semantic web browsing, and is only one aspect of the new Web 3.0. Some people describe Web 3.0 as the emergence of artificial intelligence; a time period when the computer will “think” about what you need and want. Maybe, Web 3.0 will introduce three-dimensional technology? No one knows for sure what the outcome will entail, because Web 3.0 has not had the time focus on the boundaries of its’ definition.

So, there you have it; a simplified history of how the web has progressed and where it may take us in the coming years. There is no need to be confused. It is a time to embrace the internet and participate.

Five FREE Web Applications for Your Mobile Phone

2007-11-04T22:36:00.000-05:00

Five FREE Web Applications for Your Mobile Phone

Everyone has a cell phone and most of us are emailing, texting, and searching for information online from our mobile units. Typing in long web addresses and text can be tough, but below, you will find five cool applications to add to your cell phone that will make life easier for you. The best thing is that they are all free.

01. Mobilicio.us
Mobiliciou.us is a mobile mashup that combines three different social bookmarking tools: del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com, and Wieza with Google’s Mobile Search tool to allow users to browse web sites over their mobile phone. This takes away the time-consuming process of hand typing your favorite web sites onto your tiny cell keypad. Mobicio.us and all the bookmarking tools are free services.

02. Nimbuzz
Headquartered in the Netherlands, this mobile service allows you to make international calls at the cost of a local call. Use Nimbuzz with your internet enabled phone to communicate with 35 countries. Some of the features include: Text messaging, Chat through popular internet services, and conference calling. Nimbuzz is easy to download and usage is free. Local calling charges still apply.

03. scanRToo bad James Bond didn’t have this application! With scanR you can use your cell phone camera to scan, copy or fax documents with to anyone you like. You take a picture of the document or information you want to send, upload the file to scanR, and the document is emailed to you in a Portable Document Format (PDF). scanR will also send the file to anyone on your email list, as well. Your cell phone camera must be capable of taking a 2MB picture. scanR is currently free to use, but they are planning on adding premium services in the near future.

04. Foonz
Foonz allows you to call a group of people at one time right from your cell phone. It has an invitation selection that sends a text message to your group that invites them to join in a call. Another great feature of this application allows you to record a message and send it out to your list. To sign up for Foonz, you need to register, create a contact list, and then dial. Foonz is a free service.

05. Nownow
How many times are you away from your computer and you find you need a question answered right now? Well, now there is Nownow to answer those questions for you –right from your cell phone! Just send a mobile email to Nownow and they will search the answer for you and return with up to three answers. Currently, they are in beta-testing and the price for your questions is free. They expect the cost to be less than a quarter per question once pricing is finalized.

The Ugly Truth about the Beauty of Flash

2007-09-09T21:48:00.000-05:00

Nothing creates a chasm between SEO experts and Web designers, like Flash. Flash is a wonderful program that brings moving pictures, cartoons, and total aesthetic license to web site design, but it is a nightmare for search engine marketing. The reason is pretty simple – search engines cannot easily index the contents of a Flash file and unless you create plenty of readable text inside a Flash movie, you can simply count this a lost cause for boosting your rankings. There are ways to work around this, but they are not easy and until search engines start indexing Flash movies as plain text, they are only a band-aid to the real solution.

The reason search engines do not index Flash sites is that they are too complex for the spiders to comprehend. The spiders do index the file names, but they cannot touch the most important parts that search engine marketers rely on to make a web site work.

Flash movies are made up of an extension owned by Adobe (called a *.swf file) that search engines cannot read. All search engines really dislike this format but they will index small portions of these files.

As a general rule, keep Flash files to a minimum on your web sites. You can use small movies in certain situations, but less is definitely best. This is not for just optimization reasons. Flash movies also take up me a lot of bandwidth on your computer.

More importantly, all people cannot view Flash. This means that unless the person trying to view your web site has the current Flash viewer on their computer, they cannot even view your web site! You want all people to have access to your site. There is a prompt to download the viewer when they come to your site, but not all people will add the file to their computer. This can potentially turn customers away from your business.

This is not to say that Flash should never be used in your web site. I personally think web sites designed with Flash are beautiful, but it should be used to add to your web site, not to define the site. It is wonderful for visual representation to your site, the majority of your web site still needs to be text for optimization.
So, how do you solve a Flash dilemma? The following is a list of fixing some of the issues:

Alternative Pages: Offer a duplicate HTML version of your web site that does not force the viewer to watch the Flash movies. This will ensure that your site will be indexed and people can view your web site.

Metadata: This allows you to input information into your Flash files that can allow search engines to read your web site. Flash offers the development tools necessary to do this.

Search Engine SDK: Adobe offers a tool called swf2html that allows you to extract text in your swf files and change them to html – thus making them searchable! While this isn’t foolproof, it puts your web pages much farther along for search engine optimization.

While all of these ideas cannot replace setting up proper search engine optimization from the start of your web site, it also means that you do not have to take your aesthetic site and scrap the whole thing.

Did the Chinese Hack into the Pentagon?

2007-09-06T11:04:00.000-05:00

Are the Chinese Using Hacking As a First Line of Attack?

According to the AP, the Chinese government denied claims this week that they tried to hack into the Pentagon’s computer systems in June of this year. This comes amid claims by the British that China also tried to hack into Parliament this year. Germany has also had problems with spyware and hacking programs attacking their ministries.

Is this the new method of war amongst the superpowers? Will hacking into defense systems be the way to drop the protective walls of a nation?

This all comes on the heels of a Financial News report this week that the Chinese military had hacked into Defense Secretary Robert Gate’s office in June. This hacking attempt prompted the takedown of their network for one week. The amount of information stolen has not yet been disclosed.

China denied any attempts to hack our computer systems. "Some people make groundless accusations against China" that its military attacked the Pentagon, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular news briefing.

"China has all along been opposed to and forbids criminal activities undermining computer networks, including hacking," she said. "China is ready to strengthen cooperation with other countries, including the U.S., in countering Internet crimes."

Earlier this year, the Pentagon stated that the Chinese had been looking at hacking as an offensive weapon as early as 2005.

While the possibility that another source could be disguising their locations and using China as a scapegoat to set off these attacks, the possibility is frightening that our own technologies could be used against us in future wars.

Do you believe the Chinese army is using hackers to probe our defense systems?

Is a hacker from another nation be the true culprit trying to bait the US, England, and Germany into a war with China?

What do you think?

eCommerce Solutions for your Web Site

2007-09-03T20:43:00.000-05:00

So, you want to sell stuff online? You may have a business or maybe you just want to de-clutter your home of those “hidden treasures”. Anyway you look at it, this is eCommerce.

eCommerce: The very word scares a lot of people, but there isn’t really any magic to it. If you want to sell online, you can do it! What you need to know are the types of eCommerce that are available to you and the methods that you can go about to start making money. Below is a list of the ways that you can get online.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C): This is the eCommerce that most people think about when they hear of selling online. With this style, you have an online storefront and customers come to your web site and buy things from you. Doing this typically involves having an online merchant account through a bank and paying a small percentage off of each sale to this merchant account. There is usually a monthly fee involved, as well, so you’ll want to make sure you are selling product to off-set these costs.

There are other, more cost-effective ways of selling online. One of these methods is with Google Checkout. This method allows you to sell online with the use of a credit card. It is similar to eBay’s PayPal, but lacks payment of cash from one person to another. Still, I know of people using this method now without an online merchant account. It may be something to consider if you just want to “test the waters” of eCommerce.

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C): I am sure you know of this type of eCommerce, though may be unfamiliar of the name. This is the type of commerce that people use on auction sites, like eBay or sale sites, like the craft web site called, Etsy. These type of sites usually ask for a nominal transition fee for allowing you to place an item for sale on their sites.

Business-to-Business (B2B): This type of site has been around for a long time. This type of transaction makes up the majority of all commerce online. Types of these sites would include, but are not limited to: Company Web Sites, Product Supply and Procurement Sites, and Pay-for-Information Sites.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B): How does this one work, you ask? This type of site is when the consumer requests a service from a business. A typical site like this would be the William Shatner promoted Priceline.com. You contact the business and tell them what you want to pay.

Adding an eCommerce model to your business does not have to be complex. Our services can either consult you on the processes to start your own online sales or we can set up everything for you.

Contact myWebSource1 if you are interested in selling online today.