SOHO Blog

GoDaddy - Go get Original

CJWitte — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:30:42 +0000

A year has passed, and i forgot how shallow and lame the GoDaddy Super Bowl ads are. Every year i’m disappointed by how this company, and their fraud CEO endorses these chauvinistic ridiculous ads. Are they effective? Yup= boobs are effective in advertising. I read that these ads helped generate $11million in revenue last year. Original? not even close. Do they have a message? Well, they barely mention their product.

I rememer years ago, their CEO, Bob Parsons portrayed himself as a hard working, former Marine in a suit who built his business and refused to sell out. Now, that turd is wearing an earring, leather jacket and has totally copped out on coming up with any sort of creative marketing scheme. What has our world come to that all we require are boobs to buy a product?

Interactive Marketing… Getting started

CJWitte — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:19:43 +0000

I’ve met with many small businesses, and not surprisingly, one of their greatest challenges is trying to keep up with the technology advances that are happening at light speed. The transition away from yellow pages has already happened for “readers”, but advertisers are still spending thousands of dollars chasing eyeballs that don’t exist. The fear of having to learn a new technology is very real to someone who’s area of expertise is killing rodents, removing mold, fixing wells or hooking up light bulbs.

I recognized a while ago, that businesses don’t sit still. They are either growing or shrinking, and the difference between success and failure is unbelievably slight. So, as business owners, we have to constantly be aware of changing dynamics of our industries, new competitors and in this case, changing marketing methods.

So, back to the point- interactive marketing. Get a professionally designed website. Avoid the “do it yourself” websites- they are challenging to work with and they look like they’ve been designed by a novice. You can expect to pay anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 for customized website. Prices will depend on:

Number of pages
Is the design custom, or from a template or “do it yourself”
What type of functionality is required (database? calendar function?)
Does the site require flash? (some flash elements are good- but don’t purchase a flash website, it’s terrible for SEO)
Is the site going to be e-commerce?

Now, determine how many pages you require (ie, what will be in your navigation). Typical navigation “pages” are:

Home
Services
About Us
Contact Us
Testimonials, etc, etc

Once you’ve identified your pages, prepare to write content for them. More on this next post! I have to get back to Flight of the Conchords.

Starting a Small Business…The Seminar (We need your help!)

CJWitte — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:17:25 +0000

My company is initiating a seminar on “How to Start a Small Business: Tips on what to do and how to save money”. We’ll cover everything from incorporation, accounting, branding, banking, web sites, etc.

What i need to know, from everyone out there, is if you have been a part of a small business, or you are a small business owner- what have your experienced, or learned, that you would pass on to someone else about running a small business?