Looks like GoDaddy is currently running a sale on domain name registration in celebration of the Super Bowl. I always encourage my customers to register their own domain names to avoid a designer hijacking their website.
Now you can for a limited time save money with the domain registrations for $6.99 at GoDaddy
One of the very best kept secrets to an effective small business blog or website is an email newsletter. Your readers (prospects and customers) subscribe to receive emails from your in the form of a newsletter or promotional marketing emails.
You’ll want to offer your customers something of value in each newsletter or promotional email you send out. You could also offer your readers something for free in exchange for signing up to your email newsletter. A free report or a coupon always go over well. If you can offer your readers a small gift, you will get more signups on your email newsletter list.
There are two basic types of email services you can get, one is just an email newsletter service and the other has the additional functionality of an autoresponder. If you just need to send out a basic email to one list, once a week or once a month, a email newsletter service will work perfectly for you. Mid Columbia Webs recommends Mad Mimi, it is super easy to use and your just fill out your form and send out the newsletter.
If you need to have a few different lists – one for clients and suppliers, or clients and prospects, or keep your clients of each product or service separately, you may want to go with a more advanced option. Mid Columbia Webs recommends Aweber for the client who needs multiple lists. You can house as many lists as you need and can really drill down to which type of customer is on each list.
An additional benefit to Aweber is that you can set up an autoresponder. You set up a series of messages to go out to people on your list, and whenever anyone new joins your list, they are automatically queued receive the messages on the chosen dates.
An example of an autoresponder is if you want to educate your clients about your company. you set up the messages ahead of time, and when someone signs up, on Day 1 they get your welcome message, on Day 2 they get a message telling them about your company. On Day 4 they get a list of all of your services. On Day 6 they get a link to your blog. On Day 7 they get an email asking them if they have any questions.
You can use an email autoresponder or newsletter service in many ways, and Mid Columbia Webs can help you set up your mailing list on your small business website or blog.
Not utilizing an email newsletter service, is a common small business mistake, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to reach more people and retain the readers you already have. Don’t wait one minute longer!
P.S. Call or email Mid Columbia Webs today so that we can get working on your small business website and/or blog with email newsletter service.
When I tell businesses that it is important to blog to help grow their presence on the internet, one of the first things people say is “But I don’t have time to blog”. I realize when you are running a business adding one more thing to the to do list can be daunting but there are ways to get around this.
Yes, you can have someone else within your company be the official “voice” of your business. Make sure to read the posts before they are published to ensure you feel it is appropriate but assigning this task to someone else gives you the ability to focus on other aspects of your business.
You don’t have to publish post daily but ideally you should be posting weekly (I know, I know I need to follow my own advice. 
) Make a list of all the things you can blog about then take a twelve month calendar and determine what posts you are going to write in what week. That way you aren’t struggling to come up with an idea of what to blog about each week.
Here’s a little secret. You can actually schedule posts in WordPress! I’ve spoken to one business where the owner said she simply doesn’t have time on a weekly basis to blog, she’s so busy. She did say however, that she’ll have slow days and could probably sit down and write a number of blog posts all at once. If you are in the same situation, sit down and write a bunch of blog posts and then schedule them to go out at a pre-determined time.
Many people get caught up in the idea that their blog posts must be perfect before they can be published. Get rid of that mind set right now. I can tell you I am way more comfortable getting my hands dirty in coding WordPress than I am in writing. Truth be told I’m not comfortable with writing at all, it is a struggle for me and I am very critical of my writing skills. Even with that, I’m learning to just get it out there and realizing that with time and practice my writing skills will improve. As long as my spelling and grammar aren’t horrendous I should be able to get my point across. It is more important for you to WRITE and get the information out there than to agonize over perfection. Set a timer and give yourself only a set amount of time to finish a post and get it posted or scheduled.
One of the struggles I run into frequently is WHAT to blog about. If you struggle with this as well, there is help out there. Blog Energizer will send you a list of ideas every month of what you can blog about.
The most important thing to remember, is a blog can help you get your message out to your potential customers and allow them to get to know your business. Blogging really isn’t that daunting of a task if you just sit down and get it done.
photo credit: casey.marshall
I’ll be the speaker at a Twitter Workshop sponsored by the Prosser Tourism Committee. I’ve been on twitter since May of 2008 and I’ve learned a thing or two in that time.
In all honesty it took me a while to “get” Twitter. Small business owners do need to pay attention to Twitter and other methods of Social Media simply due to the fact that is where people (potential customers) are. YouTube is now the 2nd largest search engine on the Internet.
From the sources I’ve read there are approximately 78 million registered users on Twitter. Its hard to know how many of those registered actively use twitter, but still even if only 10% were active that’s nearly 8 million people.
This workshop may be the first of many offered on Social Media. This workshop is for those that have never used Twitter or have recently set up an account and are really not sure if Twitter is for them. I’ll be covering the below topics:
This will be a two hour workshop with the second hour dedicated to a live demo and Q&A. It will be held on November 10th from 2:00pm to 4:00pm at the Benton PUD on Gap Rd in Prosser.
If you have any questions regarding this workshop, pleae be sure to contact me.
For the WA Grape Society site, we created a custom template based upon the original html site. They were happy with the look of the site, but wanted the ability to update the content themselves.
We added an image rotator to the home page, to allow for displaying the logos of sponsors. For this site, it is set up to look like a standard html site, they were not in need of the blogging functionality at this time.