Mid Columbia Webs

Drive Traffic to Your Small Business Blog Using Twitter

Michelle — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:00:35 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Recently I read a post on ProBlogger titled Top Ten Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Small Business Blog Using Twitter. This is a must read post for any small business trying to figure out how to gain leverage from twitter.

A couple of points covered in this post are to complete your bio page. This includes your name, location, website url and a short bio about your business. Without this information, people have no idea who you are and what your business is about. People will typically not follow anyone without this vital information completed.

You also want to replace the default twitter logo with either your picture or your logo. Again, people want to know who is behind the account. Personally, unless I know the person, I will not follow anyone with the default twitter logo.

You’ll also want to create or have created for you a custom twitter background. This is valuable real estate to not only allow you to highlight your brand and provide more information about who you are and what your business is about.

Below is a short video which shows you what you need to change and where to go to make those changes:

Want us to create your custom twitter background for you? Just click on the link and order yours today.

Twitter Workshop Prosser WA

Website Traffic – Who’s Visiting Your Site?

Michelle — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:26:07 +0000

photo credit: kevinmarsh

In order to measure website traffic you need have a web analytics software installed. What is web analytics? According to wikipedia:

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage.^[1]

There are a number of free and paid options out there and I’ll list a few below but Mashable as a fairly comprehensive list. I do not recommend using any software which provides a visible visitor counter on your site. These statistics do not increase traffic to your site and make your website look outdated.

Depending on your needs, you can either track your traffic in real-time or a delayed statistics. You can use more than one option in conjunction as each provides different levels of data.

A couple which I found interesting based on Mashable’s post are:

1. VisitStats – provides real time website tracking, web monitoring software to alert you if your website goes down, touch mapping, and a tool for identifying your visitors by website, email, etc. Looks as though there is a free and paid version

2. Clicky – another offering real time analytics and has an iphone version

3. Woopra – real time analytics which I have used. User-friendly and has a wordpress plugin to allow you to easily integrate it with your wordpress site. I’ve had a couple of issues with it not displaying my current visitors stats within my website but I can view these stats when logged into my woopra account. I am not big on tracking my real time data so have not taken the time to find out why I’m having a problem.

4. Google Analytics – Google analytics is a very popular choice for the simply reason it’s FREE and provides good data. All you need is a google account in order to start using it. The easiest way to get google analytics on your site is to sign up for your google account, go through the steps of setting up google analytics and send the generated code to your web developer. If you have good technical skills you can certainly insert the code yourself, but if you are running a site with standard html pages, the code will have to be added to each page to monitor your site correctly.

You can get a general idea of how your site is performing by looking at the data in any analytics program but to really understand the data it’s important to educate yourself. I will be purchasing Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity based on the recommendation of a colleague.

Without analytics it is impossible to know how effective not only your website is but your marketing efforts to drive traffic to your site. There is certainly much more to understand when tracking performance but utilizing and understanding web analytics is a first step.

Domain Name Registrations Sale

Michelle — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:21 +0000

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

Do I Need an Email Newsletter Service on my Blog or Website?

Michelle — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:55:36 +0000

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.

photo credit: pbyrne

But I Don’t Have Time to Blog!

Michelle — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:16:59 +0000

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.

Have someone else in your company do the blogging for you

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.

Create a Blogging Calendar.

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.

Schedule Posts

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.

Strive For Good not Perfect

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.

Get Some Help

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