What 6-Way Power Seats Can Teach You About Website Design

Last night my husband hunted on Craiglist for my birthday present.

After 15 minutes he came running into my office and practically drug me back to his office to show me pictures of something most people use every day but might not think twice about....power seats....for my new diesel (monster of a ) truck.

Was I excited? You Bet!

A quick 60 minutes later and with some installation help from the seller, I was on my way home sitting in my new power seat with lumbar support. We actually changed out the front seats entirely and the new center compartment had an extra storage cubby as well so I was floating on high.

I wrote on my Facebook page recently about trading in my 2007 Yukon for a 2008 Dodge Diesel monster of a truck to pull my horse trailer. After driving with a friend to Wickieup to pick up her new-ish horse trailer with my Yukon and realizing that it had nowhere near the hauling capability that a diesel had, I decided to trade up (or should I say trade back). We sold our diesel last year when gas prices hit $5 a gallon. At the time it made sense but I sure missed that truck.

My new truck has nearly everything I wanted it to have originally except for a driver's power seat - at the time I didn't think that mattered. Fast forward a week from purchase and I realized that with my short inseam, without the ability to tip the seat down, and unless my shoe had a slight heal, it was actually hard to press the gas pedal down. So I compromised and pulled the seat forward enough to compensate. It worked...kind of.

While I was driving home last night a thought struck me that there are similiaries between designing a website and my new power seat.

I looked at the front seats that I took out of my truck last night and realized they were pretty run of the mill standard seats - no power, no options - they just moved forward and backward. They were pretty to look at, but other than being able to move forwards and backwards, they didn't really do much else. That meant that I had to have just the right leg length to fit into those seats...the seat couldn't be made to fit me. Unless I could find a way to be comfortable up close to the steering wheel, that seat wasn't going to work long-term for me.

When I got home I started adjusting the buttons on my seat to find just the right position. I like to sit up a bit higher so I can see the road so I raised the seat; but in order to make sure I can comfortably reach the gas pedal, I then had to tip the seat down so my legs didn't dangle (don't laugh!). Now that my seat was tipped down I found I could actually scoot the seat back since my legs were magically longer. After about 5 minutes I found what I was looking for. Presto, the perfect seat position!

So how exactly do these seats remind me of website design? This post I'll discuss the similarities and next post I'll discuss how you can get started.

Life without options can feel limiting, uncofortable and perhaps scary even when it leaves you in a situation where you don't have choices that resonate with you.

My previous standard one-size-fits-all seat is more like most of the run-of-the-mill website design processes that seek to either plug you into a template (a preconstructed website, while trying to and make your photos and content fit into that design) or simply give you a dollar per page cost without knowing what you need and what is comfortable to you. This can be limiting, may not speak to your target audience and myy not provide you with much return on investment because it wasn't really designed with you in mind.

Web design that seeks to help you improve your business by finding that perfect set of options for you is much more like my new 6-way power seat. All the same seat positions are available to each driver who gets in my truck, but it's the combination of those seat positions that makes the seat flexible enough to fit almost any driver.

Designing a website to fit you, rather than you trying to fit into it is rewarding because it takes into account your needs and then provides options that can reveal solutions that are powerful and perfect for your business.

Google Introduces "Interest-based" Advertising for Adsense

Calling all Adsense advertisers! Google announced that Adsense is undergoing some changes due to the upcoming launch of "Interest-based" advertising. My first thought was, what the heck is that?!

On their blog, Google explains that ....

"Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user's previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. "sports enthusiast"). To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network. As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the "sports enthusiast" interest category. To learn more about your associated account settings, please visit the AdSense Help Center at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310"

Although the description leaves something to be desired and is a bit cryptic, it seems clear that Google believes Adsense adversiers can look forward to increased visibility and bang for the buck in the future. Initially the offering will be limited to a certain number of advertisers as part of beta testing, but the remainder of users can look forward to seeing this in later 2009.

Anyone using Adsense will need to check their privacy policy and make any adjustments necessary to cover the new "Interest-based" advertising. The deadline for doing so is April 8, 2009. For info on how you can adjust your settings, you can visit https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557.

If you're interested in reading more about Google's interest-based advertising, you can visit the Inside AdSense Blog at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/03/driving-monetization-with-ads-that.html. Already there are multiple Google fans weighing in with over 80 comments and questions on the subject as of today, March 13th.

Wordtracker Giving Keyword Research a Facelift

Who out there researches keywords? If you ran away from the computer when I asked that question my sympathies are with you.


When Sumantra Roy first introduced the Keyword Efficiency Index and showed us how we could really determine which words to optimize our sites for in an effort to gain targeted traffic, he opened the door for massive crowds of people to work their way up the search engine ladder; I know because I was one of them (and so were my clients).



KEI compares the Count result (number of times a keyword is searched on) with the number of competing web pages and then assigns it a number (1-400) which pinpoints exactly which keywords are most effective for a campaign.

Companies like Wordtracker and WebPostion jumped on the bandwagon and saught to grab up the marketplace by offering tools to help with your search engine ladder climb.


But when the Internet took off (millions of websites rather than thousands), I saw a drop off in organic search engine optimzation. It seemed like competition had became so fierce that even if you would find the words you wanted to use, chances were that the KEI for that word was so low (less than 100) that you'd be trying forever to get your site noticed. It just became too tough to try and sit for hours sifting through keywords to help people searching Yahoo and Google find your site.


So the trend went from Organic SEO to Google's Pay-Per-Click program (Adwords) and was then followed up by the now popular Web 2.0. Latelly it seems all we talk about is the Web 2.0 craze. If you're familiar with it then you know how powerful it is to spread the wealth around - how working multiple networking sites can really help you bring in targeted traffic. If you're not familiar with it, check out this video by Mike Klinger, it tells you everything you need to know in less time than it takes to each lunch.


Last month I wrote to my ezine readers that they should consider returning a portion of their focus to Search Engine Optimization - that keyword research is still valid and we should do it. You might be thinking I'm crazy after just having told you how tough it is to actually do the research but trust me...the winds of change are blowing.


Wordtracker recently announced that they have redone their search tool. Although only select few of their customer base currently have access to the tool, we can expect to see it available to us within the next few weeks.Whereas the old tool focused specifically on KEI, the new tool will allow you to look at keywords through three important metrics:


1. frequency
2. competitiveness
3. commerciality

But the work isn't done yet! On their blog they've announced that with the new tool we will see as many as 9 times the keywords formerly available to us, a better measure of competition and commercial intent.

They are also asking us question such as:

• What metrics do you really need?
• Do you need prediction of the daily traffic a keyword may attract or do you just want to know the frequencies in our own database?
• How useful and accurate is the keyword effectiveness index (KEI)?
• What alternative ways to rank keywords would you like to see?
• How can we best report the competitiveness of a keyword?
• How do you uncover commercial intent?

What makes Wordtracker a standout product in my opinion is they are all about US, the person doing the research and they endeavor to make our lives easier. If you are a keyword research junky, I urge you to participate in the discussion they are hosting through their blog.

They key to gainig targeted traffic is to combine Web 2.0 with returned power of keyword research for a campaign that lets you take advantage of all the good things the Internet has to offer.

For more information on the Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI) see this post: http://www.wordtracker.com/database_help/keihelp.html

8 Ways to Look Your Best on Facebook

If you're on Facebook already then give yourself a big pat on the back. You've already taken an important step towards building your online business. If you're not on Facebook, what are you waiting for?

More and more increasingly people who have never been online or done any social networking are signing up with Facebook. Some want to connect with their past and others are looking to connect with their future.

But whether you're using Facebook for building a business or you want to stay in touch with people from your past (like you're high school and grade-school past!) you'll want to put your best "face" forward for the online world to see.

If you've joined Facebook and have no idea what to do next, take a look at the eight tips below. These are a great place to start.

Tip #1: Use a good, accurate picture
Facebook will allow you to upload as many pictures as you like, but you're only allowed one profile photo so be sure to make it a current picture of yourself! You may very well have some potential followers (business or otherwise) so select a photo that you are comfortable with everyone seeing and that helps you put your best face forward. As much as you'd like to, refrain from using a picture at that party you just attended that got a bit out of control because although your privacy settings can be engaged, no matter what, everyone sees your profile photo.

Tip #2: Share and share alike
While filling out your profile, be sure to fill in things like your "Favorite Music". Your musical taste says a lot about who you are, so list your favorite bands in your profile's "Favorite Music" section. Don't be one of those people who says, "I like pretty much everything." BORING!

You're on Facebook to show people who YOU are so be specific and give artist names and possibly album titles. One popular tactic is to sort your iTunes according to the "Play Count" or "Last Played" tabs, and then copy down what you find. These tips also apply to your Favorite Movies and Books sections.

Although you may not find yourself landing any jobs from listing your music, movies or book interests, you must might find someone connecting with you out of similar interests and the possibilities for that are endless.

Tip #3: The more the merrier
For those of us who grew up in the pre-Facebook era, I know it can be embarrassing to reach out to old friends and say "will you be my friend?"

Well get over it because the social networking can only start when you belong to a good sized community who know and like you! Once you've joined a community you can begin making new friends and contacts. You'll also be that much more likely to hear from a random person (or two) that you knew back in grade school who's looking for exactly the product or service you have to offer.

Tip #4: Write it on the wall
Although most of us got into trouble for writing on walls as kids, Facebook wall scribbling is definitely something you need to do (and it's good etiquette)! Writing on a Facebook wall is one of the easiest and best communication features at your fingertips.

Because the wall is public and everyone can see it, you'll want to follow a few guidelines for posting.

• 
  Don't leave personal information (such as your new phone number or email address)
• Don't write any sensitive correspondence (such as how angry you are at your significant other or parent).
• Don't tell stories about wild weekend trips that you took (you know the one where you can't remember anything, but there are pictures you'd rather not see).
  

Keep your postings fun and interesting but leave sensitive stuff for personal messages or even email.

Tip #5: Connect the dots
No matter your use (business or personal) it's always a good idea to add your blog, or Twitter account to your Facebook page if you have one or both. This is made easy by various Facebook applications that pull in content from all over the Web directly to your page.

Instead of manually adding your latest blog post into Facebook, automate things (and save time) by setting up an application to share your newest posts whenever they go live on your site/blog. The more you update, the more your friends will keep coming back to your page, which is kind of the essence of social-networking.

Add your blog to your Facebook page by visiting the Blog It app or surfing to: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=14103720714

Add Twitter updates to your Facebook page by visiting: http://rumahabi.com/7-steps-to-connect-twitter-to-facebook-status-updates.html

Tip #6: Join a Network
What is a network and why should you care? A network can be a group of folks from places as far flung as your school, your company, city, or hobby you love. Networks can be just about anything.

Adding a network also give you the freedom to you manage your privacy settings on the site. By selecting your networks you'll then be able to set your profile's visibility within different networks. For example, you can let people in your city see your contact information, while you can give full access to everyone from your company.

Tip #7: Avoid "Facebook overwhelm"
Now that you're connected to everyone and everything, it's important you remember that yes, you do have a day job! Social networking is fun but everything in moderation. Remember to set your email notification settings so that you don't become flooded with hundreds of Facebook updates.

To set your email notification settings, click the "Account menu" and then "Notifications" and you'll be greeted with a huge list of Facebook events. To turn off email each time you receive a message, switch the radio button to "Off."

If however, you have "Facebook Fever," you can open the door for nonstop updates by going to the "Mobile" tab and activating your cell phone. Once you do this, you'll receive friend requests, messages, status updates on your cell phone

Tip #8: Be watchful
As with any other popular place, Facebook (and other social-networking sites) have its share of scammers. You can find these usually in the form of spam e-mail and random messages posted to your wall. Stay safe by not opening any links or files or Facebook messages from folks you don't know. Also, be skeptical of links posted on your wall that don't seem legitimate.
Hopefully this list of eight tips will get you started on Facebook, but if you require more assistance please feel free to contact me for help.

Daily Website Design Tip: Show Them How To Find You

Today is an interesting day for me. Over the last months I've been actively learning how to use all the major social media tools that have become popular...Twitter, Facebook, HubPages (goodness I could make a really long list here).

I realized that I had gotten used to all of my OWN social media tools and how they feed each other feeling like a fuzzy maze in my mind. That all stopped after I committed to spending some quick time each morning evaluating where I am at with each of my social media outlets (Twitter, Blogger, Facebook etc...).

Maybe you can relate to that fuzzy feeling? If you'd like to do something about it, I have a few tips for you that might help make everything a bit clearer and a bit easier to manage (for your customers too!).

1) Create a login sheet for all your social media outlets.
List each site name in bold and beneath it, the URL of your direct address (if you have one, such as on Twitter), and your username and password. If you've signed up for more than a few networking sites, this list will come in handy in a pinch!

For sites like Twitter, if you're not sure what you're address is, it's typically Twitter's URL followed by your username. For instance my Twitter address is: http://www.twitter.com/kgarren

2) Create a "Social Media Map."
Using a blank sheet of paper, draw your Social Media Map using circles to represent each social networking site and a square for your blog(s). Connect the sites together if a particular site feeds your iformation to another.

For instance, my Social Media Map starts with my blog. I currently have circles representing my accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo and others. Because my blog is fed to Twitter (via TwitterFeed) and Squidoo, I draw a line with an arrow from my blog to the Twitter and Squidoo circles. This tells me that information flows from my blog to Twitter and one of my Squidoo lenses.

With each new network you join, add it to your map. Spend 5 minutes a day reviewing your "map" and revise as necessary to stay current and in focus.

3) Show Your Customers How To Find You.
You'll also want your customers to know where you are online. To help them see your social media networking tools of choice, create a "Connect With Me" page on your website. For each of the sites your use that provide direct access to your profile or content (such as Twitter or Facebook) list these sites along with your unique URL.

Not only will customers who enjoy spending time on the Internet probably like to connect with you this way, the search engines will pick up and index your links as well.

p.s. don't forget to check your site statistics each month to verify what site is sending you the most traffic. Once you know, you are in a position to maximize the traffic and potential targeted customers you can receive increasing your efforts at networking and building relationships using that site or sites.

How To Build Income With Your Website - Even In Tough Times

I recently took a trip to Fry's Electronics which is like Disneyland for computer and techno geeks. My eyes always glaze over upon arrival at the nearly 30,000 square foot store that's packed from top to bottom with technology and tools I LOVE to have for my business and my websites. In past times I would wander through the aisles collecting goodies that I would take home and "try-out." Sometimes they were expensive, sometimes affordable, but more often than not they were things that I wanted to have but not necessarily things I needed to have.

Although instinctively I know the difference between want and need, but never had it been clearer to me than when the economy began to shift and people began to get nervous about keeping jobs, finding income (forget about building a savings account!) and spending money. I found myself faced with some tough decisions about where to focus my attention dollar-wise. What I once spent money on, I now had to figure out how to find alternatives for little cost or *free*.

Last week I received an email from a client that had me downright frustrated. My client is a wonderfully intelligent and hard working gal who has been diligently building her business. With the economic setbacks in the US she is struggling as her client base is shriveling up. As I read her email I was near tears. All of her hard work and dedication would be lost if she were to virtually close her doors due to the economy and the drop-offs in sales. Times are so tough that she cannot even afford to continue with her current paid marketing efforts.

Does this sound like you? Many of you are also entrepreneurs who might be facing similar worries about your business. You might also be considering cutting back on things like advertising or little freebies for your customers in order to make ends meet. Worse yet, you might be closing up shop altogether.

During this tough time I've begun to go back to basics with my client's websites. Specifically, I've gone back to recommending that sites be optimized organically for the search engines. What is Organic Search Engine Optimization you might ask? SEO is an "on-site" marketing technique that was extremely popular before anyone had even heard of social media.

Back in the "early days" of the Internet (before blogs, podcasting and social media) webby gurus focused a majority of their marketing effort time on search engine optimization. We worked on building a list of keywords for your site which relayed information to the Search Engines on all the special products and services you provide. The search engines then use these keywords to determine how to feature a site in the results list when a user performed a search. Your overall placement was determined using an algorithm that takes into account the keyword search the user completes and your keywords and content. Specifically, you could influence where in the list your site showed up based on where you placed your keywords (meta-tags) and also where you used them in your content. The best part is that unlike Pay-Per-Click you don't pay to have your site featured in their results list.

With the invention of social media however I've seen a sharp drop off in SEO - a lot of marketing efforts have been shifted towards "off-site" marketing techniques (blogging, podcasting, social media) to build incoming traffic to websites.

Ideally, you would combine both methods to have a complete marketing system in place. If you're not already doing so, I want to encourage you to consider Organic Search Engine Optimization as an option for getting your website seen in these tough times.

Just in case you need a bit of encouragement, here's some reasons organic search engine optimization is well worth the effort:

• You don't pay a per-click "fee" to the search engines for visitors to your site which means it can potentially have a higher ROI than pay-per-click search listings.
• When done properly it has an advantage over Pay-Per-Click since PPC allows anyone to increase their bid for a search term you use thereby passing you in the results listing.
• Software makes it easier than ever to track your results and to influence your search engine position.
  

If you'd like information on how to get started with SEO one of my favorite companies, Wordtracker, has launched a step-by-step instruction toolset (complete with videos, reports and guides) to help you learn Organic Search Engine Optimization - and best of all it's FREE. Checkout Wordtracker's Top 10 Free SEO & Keyword Tools And Reports From Wordtracker for further information.

Are You Using Your Website Properly?

I recently asked a prospective client how she was using her website and after a long intake of breath (from her) I realized that she didn't actually know. What I meant when I asked was "for what purpose do you intend to use your website?" The answer could range from branding, to informational, to sales, to social media and so on.

What I discovered was that she had worked long and hard to create several sites for her varying businesses, but none of them was really doing much for her. None of her sites were creating any real synergy each other nor were they helping her to building relationships with people on the web. One of the biggest things this client wanted her websites to do was to position her as an expert on the Internet. Certainly a website should be able to that, right?!

Websites can be used for many things these days. By the way, I am using the term "website" loosely in that your website might be built from html, a blog or template - but for this article, I consider all of these a website.

I see people everywhere using websites to brand themselves as experts, and it's working!

But what makes what they're doing different than what my new client had done?

Good question!

While most of us understand the concept of branding and we have an idea of what it is (just a logo?)...you may find it difficult to explain. What is branding? How can you use it to really set yourself apart?

While doing some research I came across an outstanding article from a logo design firm that answered these questions. The following is an excerpt from that article titled More Than Just a Logo, Building Your Brand in 2009.

More Than Just a Logo, Building Your Brand in 2009

What is a brand?

A brand is a mix of both the visual and the intangible. When you think of the golden arches of McDonalds, you immediately think fast food. When you think of Nike's iconic swoosh you instantly think of sneakers. When you think of Google, you think of searching the internet.

Your brand should ultimately be the mental picture that forms when someone thinks of your business. Branding is not just about separating yourself from your competitors; it's about getting prospective customers to see that your business is the only solution for their problem.

How Does My Company Achieve This?

Brand Promotion
Let the world know about your business professional image. It might be just a logo now, but remember this is the first experience a potential customer will have with your business, so get it noticed. Place your logo on a website, place it on a business card, and place it on a sale sheet. Do any and everything to start building visual recognition for your brand.

Brand Reputation
Think of your brand as your reputation. It should reflect you and your company. You wouldn't want to show up to an important meeting in sweatpants, or in need of a shave. Although it sounds obvious, your brand must always look professional and industry appropriate. Your logo should not be used or associated with business without your permission, nor should it be used to
endorse any activity you wouldn't want to associate with your business.

Brand Consistency
Ensure that you are consistent with the visual aspects of your brand. Make sure your logo has a uniform and consistent layout. Different colors, and fonts and multiple versions of your logo will be confusing to your customers, vendors, and employees. Make sure your logo is uniform across all media and look the same whether on a website, brochure, or business card.

Article More Than Just a Logo, Building Your Brand in 2009 was originally written and published by Logo Design Guru.

So over to you, are you using your website to help establish a brand for your business? If not a website, are you using a blog or social media to establish a brand? If not, it's time to think about branding yourself using at least one of these popular forms of media.

Remember, by readily providing a consistent and positive image of your business and providing the right information to your target market - you are branding yourself.