Does a negative comment someone posted about your services or business bother you? Even if your main business isn’t online this should be a major concern. Actually, many businesses are concerned about their online reputations and they taking proactive action to protect that reputation.

Why is the Issue so Important? 

Whether you are a local business, or an online business, you should be concerned about your reputation as this can affect your sales. Many marketing studies demonstrate that most consumers search for a product reputation before deciding to purchase it. When they only come across negative information, with no positive feedback, this could cause them to change their minds about the future purchase. This issue can break a business and even cause it to permanently close its doors.

What Can I Do About it? 

The solution is to monitor your business reputation frequently to see what is being said about you, and to take action against defamatory information. Even so, many businesses have found benefits in taking a more proactive stance, and hiring a professional Online Reputation Management service company to help manage their reputation.

What Does an ORM Company Do? 

An Online reputation Management (ORM) company uses many of the techniques a SEO company uses. These techniques can include:

- Article Marketing – to help establish credibility for the company.

- Social Media Management – help in answering customer questions, complaints, and offering information that puts your company in a favorable light.

- Posts to review, forums, and other blogs – This type of posting offers potential customers favorable information about your company.

The purpose in doing these time consuming tasks is to minimize any negative information that is posted about your company. So it is in your best interest to consult with a reputable company like Reputation.com, especially since Reputation.com is the leader in business reputation management..

Should I Hire an ORM Specialist? 

One of your options when it comes to your reputation is constantly monitoring your reputation by searching for your business in Google and other search engines, hoping that defamatory information doesn’t get posted – and if it does, then taking the necessary steps to repair your reputation.

However, this method can take time and in that time your profit could be severely affected. A more proactive approach you can take is to find a reliable ORM specialist who will ensure that positive information about your company is posted to the internet, so you are always seen in a favorable light. This solution will minimize any negative post, review or comment made, with the intentions of defaming your business.

I haven’t been blogging here lately. I’m sure that is readily apparent, I just thought I’d come right out and say that.

I have been pretty busy lately with wedding planning and work, so there hasn’t been a lot of time left over. However, I did recently start a new blog about Salem that I’m pretty happy with. It’s been around for a little over a week and so far the response has been great. This new blog also serves as a testing ground for some SEO methods I’ve been meaning to try out. So far, so good.

Work has been steady for the most part. I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries about HubSpot migrations and other web development projects. I’ve been working with some great clients and have been fortunate in being able to provide them with a better website for their needs.

I’m still around if you want to chat though. I can always be reached via my contact form or you can always find me on twitter.

Touching again on the topic I posted about a few days ago, I thought I’d mention a little more on moving from HubSpot to WordPress.

This type of blog migration is the most common request I’ve had this past year.  Initially they were kind of cumbersome, but now the HubSpot migration process is so streamlined I’ve been able to do basic migrations in a few hours time.

The basic type of migration I’m referring to refers to just migrating the HubSpot content to WordPress, along with all post images.  All of this pre-existing content would then reside in a WordPress site (along with the necessary redirects) with your theme of choice.  After that, you can add any widgets or plugins your heart desires.

I know that other companies charge thousands of dollars for migrating HubSpot blogs to WordPress, but if you hit me up before January 10th, I’ll perform a basic HubSpot migration to WordPress for you for $300.

Interested in getting your HubSpot website moved to WordPress at this price?  Then head on over to Blog Movers and let’s get started!

I have moved a lot of websites to WordPress over the past few years.  Many of these migrations have been migrations from other blogging platforms, such as Blogger or HubSpot, and others have been straight HTML sites that I converted over to WordPress.

I enjoy this type of work.  WordPress is a great platform for many types of websites, and creating dynamic, easy to use websites for clients does bring me some happiness.

That is why I just launched a separate website to focus on WordPress migrations.  Blog Movers is for moving websites to WordPress, and it’s people who want extremely flexible, SEO optimized websites instead of what they currently have.

The most frequent type of blog migrations I have done are HubSpot to WordPress and Blogger to WordPress, but I also have experience with other types of migrations such as Active Rain, Drupal, and Movable Type.

So if you or someone you know is thinking about moving their website to WordPress, head on over to blogmovers.net and let’s get started!

My history in website development and design began many years ago with SEO. I started my first website approximately 10 years ago with a stock template and quickly discovered that a website is useless if nobody but me could find it. Therefore SEO became one of my main disciplines.

My first job after moving to Oregon was for an online merchant with a heavy focus on SEO. I eventually left that company and started freelancing for SEO and blog development. Along the way I’ve worked with some incredible people in helping them improve their search engine rankings and thought it would be a good idea to mention them and describe a little of what they do and the results they have been shown.

Hard Head Graphix

Hard Head Graphix is a startup company that sells collegiate merchandise such as Oregon Ducks football helmets and Oregon Ducks hard hats. Their website recently launched, so their recognition in the search engines is pretty bare. However, some great results have been made for some key search terms related to their products. For example, their products couldn’t be found in the top 100 search listings but one of them is currently poised to land on the first page of Google! That’s a huge leap for such a new website!

Follow Through Cleaning

Follow Through Cleaning is a cleaning company based in Portland, Oregon that promotes the idea of green cleaning. They have been in the cleaning business for over 30 years and wanted to improve their online visibility for the services they provide. With steady efforts in optimization they have seen improvements in regards to search traffic and web referrals.

Mel Wagner

Mel Wagner is a broker dealing with Salem Oregon real estate. She uses her website to display her listings, and with a little effort every now and then she’s seen her website climb up the rankings in Google and other search engines.

Ad Media

My search engine work isn’t just Salem Oregon SEO. I also work with national and international clients. Ad Media is a marketing agency based in the UK that provides a variety of services such as mobile advertising and digital advertising. Their website was not very search engine friendly when I began working with them, but slowly we have been able to improve their website’s presence in the search engines and their rankings have been steadily rising in this competitive market.

Your Website

Are you happy with where your website is ranking in the search engines? Are you targeting the right keywords for your business? If your answer is “No”, “I don’t know”, or “What are you talking about?”, then you may be in need of some SEO assistance. A site redesign is in the works that will feature more on my SEO services, but in the meantime feel free to contact me about your SEO needs.

I’m not a fan of Mashable, and apparently my computer isn’t either.

I always knew that visiting mashable.com requires more computer resources than visiting other websites, so I decided to record my system monitor to see just how much of my computer’s resources were used to visit this site.

As you can see, my computer has to really work to render the Mashable website homepage. RAM usage spikes at 640MB, and my 6 processor cores (2.70 GHz each) have to pump up the output as well.

Seriously, Mashable? Over half a gig of RAM to visit your website? I think Jenny Craig has a warrant out for your website.

I came across a great post by Jim Connolly this morning describing how he added a new income stream to his business and avoided time wasters in the process.  What he said struck a nerve in me, and I feel what he said is too good not to share.

I would recommend reading the above linked article before continuing on, but if not, here is what I have to say about it.

First off, my hat’s off to Jim on how he’s handling this situation.  When people would contact him with a question that required a detailed and time consuming answer, he would send them a link to his new service page where he offers his paid services in increments as low as 90 minutes.  This quickly weeds out those who are truly interested in his services from those who are just looking for free help.

If you are working in a service orientated industry, such as marketing or web design, then you no doubt have been approached by people who just want to “pick your brain” on a certain topic.  I know I have.  Jim Connolly’s response to these types of inquiries is:

In my experience, 95% of those people are time wasters: Freebie seekers, who will suck up your time, knowing they have zero intention of paying you (or anyone) for professional help.

I am in total agreement with Jim on that, while I can also concede that a small percentage of these “brain picking” requests come from people who may not realize the exact nature of their request.

The whole “can I pick your brain” scenario is a blight on many professions.  The freebie seekers recognize the value in what the professional does or know, but at the same time they don’t want to compensate the professional for the benefits they can provide to them.

How has this new approach worked for Jim Connolly?  It sounds like it’s worked out great.  He has attracted many new clients who find his offering of mini-sessions at a lower cost a great fit to their business.  This kind of service model can be copied to many other business types as well.

For example, I do receive quite a few requests from people who want my help or advice in relation to their website or for SEO.  I’m appreciative for all these requests, but like in Jim Connolly’s case, many of these requests come from people who have no intention of paying for this help.

In the past I have been pretty forthcoming with this help, but have been horrible at setting boundaries at where this free help ends and where the paid services start.  In fact, if I were to add up the hours and hours I’ve spent helping clients improve their business without receiving any compensation, the number would probably dumbfound me.

And I have no one to blame for this but myself.  Had I set boundaries in the beginning I wouldn’t have been moved as much by Jim Connolly’s post today.

A method I’ve used lately when responding to emails requesting my advice is to offer some feedback to their problem and say that I would be happy to help them out if they choose to hire me.  Adding the word “hire” in my response has resulted in never getting a response back, but hey, it would appear that I did weed out someone who didn’t value my time or expertise.

In retrospect, I would say that a response like that is too passive, and doesn’t keep the door open to future business with the potential client.  This is why I really like Jim’s approach with his mini-session option.

And because I like Jim’s approach so much, it will be something I implement on this site soon.  It’s a great way to filter out time-wasters, while also increasing my base of prospective clients.

Thank you Jim for the wonderful tip!

photo credit

Social media is all fine and dandy within the confines of the internet, but have you ever considered what it would be like if the virtual reality of social networks like Twitter or Facebook were applied to your everyday life?

For example, let’s say that you’re having a barbecue in your backyard and many of your friends are over.  You’re all having a great time, eating good food, and maybe even having a beer or two.  Let’s just call this backyard event you’re having “Twitter” (or “Facebook” if you prefer).

The Spammer

During this barbecue you find yourself talking with a small group of friends, which is nothing out of the ordinary.  One of your friends receives a phone call, and pulls their iPhone out of their pocket to answer it.  If social media was a reflection of real life, you could expect to see some stranger popping their head over your fence and shouting to everyone that they know where you can get a free iPhone 4.

Business Marketing

Later on, while you’re still enjoying time with your friends, someone gets the bright idea of inviting someone new over.  Let’s call this person “Affordable Shoes”.  “Affordable Shoes” doesn’t really care much about your previous conversation, but they are quick to tell everyone in your group about a blowout sale they’re having this weekend.

“Affordable Shoes” isn’t known by most of your friends.  In fact, the only connection “Affordable Shoes” has with your group is that one of your friends likes to wear their products, so they invited them to the party.  They can really only be considered a friend-of-a-friend.

The Retweeting Egotist

Shortly after your encounter with Mr. Shoes, you hear one of your friends shouting from across the yard.  Apparently someone whispered something complimentary to your friend, and your friend thought it would be a good idea not to keep this to himself, but to let everyone know that someone thinks they’re awesome.

The Baby

You’re heading to the kitchen to grab some more potato salad when someone brushes by you.  You briefly glance at them and have to take a second look to soak in what you just saw.  This person has an 8×10 photo of their baby taped to their face!

At first you’re a little taken back, then you realize it’s your friend from college who had a baby 2 years ago.  You also remember that ever since she had that baby she started taping those photos to her face, changing them every week with an updated image.  Strange, yes, but then you realize she’s not your only friend that does that.

The Zombie

While you’re thinking your barbecue can’t possibly get any more bizarre, it does.  You see a friend of yours quickly approaching you, and you notice that his skin is pale and his eyes are sunken into his face.  When he comes to you he quickly tells you that you should go online and see this “funny picture someone posted of you”.  Immediately after telling you this, he rushes over to the next person and tells them the same thing.

You tell your zombie friend that he should get checked out, and a day or two later he is back to normal.

Is This Reality?

If you were to attend a barbecue with your friends and all of the above happened, what would you think?  That the world has gone crazy?  That you should schedule a CAT scan?

Well, guess what?  This is what Twitter and Facebook call “everyday”.

HTML5 video on Android is still a hot mess, and can be frustrating if you’re trying to make your videos playable on as many devices as possible.  I’ve struggled with this in the past, and have settled on the following method to solve my problem.

I used the Universal Video plugin and modified it to add a link to the video for mobile devices.  It may not be the most elegant of solutions, but as far as I can tell it’s been working great so far.

You can see this in action on any other video on this site.  Immediately below any video you’ll see a link to the “mobile video version”.  Clicking on that link will take you to a version of the video that is playable on Android phones, and which has been optimized for mobile devices.

Creating Mobile Video

Let’s start by making a version of your video for Android.  In this example I am assuming you are using WordPress and HTML5 video via the Universal Video plugin.  I am also assuming you have already created the mp4 and ogg video versions of your video.

I use Handbrake for creating mobile video as it is the simplest way I know to do this.  Open the mp4 version of your video in Handbrake and then select the following settings:

• iPhone & iPod Touch Preset
• Web optimized
• If the destination file ends in “.m4v”, edit it to end in “.mp4″

Then just click “Start” and Handbrake will create a version of your video that is playable on Android phones!

Poster Image

The poster image is an option you can use with HTML5 video.  This is the image that will be displayed in place of your video until the user plays the video.  If no poster image is set, most browsers default to using the first frame of the video as the image in question.

If no poster image is set there will be a blank spot on Android phones where the video is situated.  I don’t like that blank spot, so I choose to add a poster image to fill the void.

In the Universal Video plugin the mp4 and ogg video versions need to have the same file name, and I’ve kept the same pattern with the poster image.  So if your video file name was “twitter-photo” then the poster image would have to be “twitter-photo.jpg”.  I chose jpg as the image file extension because that image format can be compressed to a smaller size than other image formats.

The Code

Like I said, I modified the Universal Video plugin to allow for the addition of a link to the mobile version of the video being presented.  I added a text link below the video that links to the Android video version and wrapped the whole embed code in a div with the class of “html5-video”.

You can download the Universal Video with Android plugin here.  If you already used the Universal Video plugin, be sure to deactivate or delete it before installing the Android version of Universal Video.

How To Use

Using this modified plugin is just like using the original Universal Video plugin.  If your video’s file name is “android-video” then you will need to upload the following 4 files to your site’s wp-content/uploads folder:

1. android-video.mp4 (MP4 video version)
2. android-video.ogv (OGG video version)
3. android-video-1.mp4 (Mobile video version)
4. android-video.jpg (Poster image)

It is important that the files you upload follow the pattern set above for the plugin to work correctly.  The mobile video version must have the same file name as the normal video version with the addition of the “-1″ at the end, and the poster image must have the same file name as the videos with the “jpg” image extension.

After you have uploaded these files to the uploads folder, you can embed HTML5 video simply by using this shortcode that pulls everything together:

[video src="android-video" height="360" width="640"]

(I’m using the height of “360″ and width of “640″ as an example.  Be sure to insert the correct dimensions for your video!)

If you have done everything correctly, you will have embedded an HTML5 video on your site that also supports Android phones.  And if someone visits your site with a browser that doesn’t support HTML5 video, they will get the flash fallback option through Flowplayer.

If you choose to use this plugin version I’d love to hear your feedback.  You can respond to me either with a comment below or through my contact form.

photo credit

Twitter launched its own photo sharing service yesterday to all users.  You may have noticed the new icon for photos underneath the update box if you use the web interface.

This new service started rolling out for users a few months ago, but yesterday it finally became available to all users, not just the selected few.

I gave it a quick test this morning to see how it works, and so far I’d have to say it’s pretty simple to use.  When you click the update field to type out a new tweet, the box expands (like normal) but you’ll notice a camera icon right below the input field.  Clicking this icon allows you to upload an image to share.

After uploading an image, you’ll see a small thumbnail of your image immediately below the update box and if you have the option of cancelling the image simply by clicking the “x” in the upper right corner of the thumbnail.  To share the image with your Twitter followers, just click the “Tweet” button and your image is shared as a link.

Here’s a short video that illustrates the process:

When someone clicks on your image link they will be taken to the URL of your specific tweet, and it will look something like this:

Twitter’s new photo sharing service looks great so far, but it is limited.  It isn’t integrated with other apps yet, and there isn’t a gallery feature as of yet.  But this is a great first step by Twitter to claim their own space in the gigantic arena of photo sharing.

Have you tried Twitter’s photo sharing service yet?  What are your thoughts on it?