web presence

4 Proven Online Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business


Building it is not enough - if you want business to arrive, you'll need some proven online marketing strategies to drive it. Here are four to start Read more

4 Simple Ways to Increase Leads On Your WordPress Website


If you want to increase leads on your WordPress website, there's some work involved, but it will repay you with increased rankings on Google, which means increased visits and revenues Read more

Shared Hosting and IP-Based Spam Lists


Shared hosting is inexpensive for small companies starting out on the web, but it has its risks and downsides. Getting blacklisted can be very bad for Read more

A Friday Story, and Blocking Spam


Have you heard the Friday Story? It's about what happens when you consistently give something for free - and every business owner needs to think about it. We talk about blocking spam Read more

Article Keyword Research - Going Where The Traffic Is


Do your Article Keyword Research before you start writing blog posts, and your website traffic will improve fast. It's fast, easy, and it pays Read more

WordPress - Disable Comments


If you find yourself frustrated by spam and searching for wordpress disable comments or turn off comments wordpress, we're happy to help. The Quick Answer To How To Disable Comments In WordPress Log in and go to Settings, Discussion. Uncheck "Allow people Read more

Selling To People Who Want To Buy

Posted on by Karilee in Small Business Marketing 2 Comments

So You Sell Stuff…

You sell products.  Or services. And you’d like to sell more, to people who want to buy them. Seems like you’d want to let them know what you sell, particularly in the place that most buyers look first.

Start With Search. Most Buyers Do.

Electric_lawn_mower

Image via Wikipedia

Imagine the perspective of a potential customer, who wants to buy a product or service. If you wanted to buy a product or service, and you didn’t know where to get it, you’d probably start with a web search. Go do one. Notice what you type in as you search. Is it a brand you’re looking for? Is it a phrase describing benefits? Do a local search if that’s appropriate. See if you can find three companies that offer it on the first page of Google (or your favorite search engine).

“Huh?”, you say. “Of course I can!” But for many items purchased regularly, even those that cost hundreds of dollars, you’ll still struggle to find a seller who wants your money.

For example, let’s say I want to buy a lawn mower, and I don’t know what brand. I could search for lawn mower vancouver. Read more


What I Do For You

Posted on by Karilee in Small Business Marketing 9 Comments

Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz just posted a game about making sure your readers understand your business. Since Naomi’s posting for the second time on this topic, and she’s brilliant at helping tiny businesses get less tiny, let’s play her game. What you need to do is copy the following questions into a document, and then <drumroll> answer them. Then, for big bonus points, make sure your website answers them!

What’s your game? What do you do?

Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?

Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?

What’s your marketing USP? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan? Read more


Market-Responsive Skills

Posted on by Karilee in Website Creation 22 Comments

Creation of Marketing Materials Fast is Useful

They say “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, but this site was. WordPress installation, the first 17 pages of content, plugins, basic SEO… it all went up fast, because I needed a site and I had the knowledge that would let me build what I wanted.

I used a free theme, because I wanted this site to be representative of a basic business site that you could build inexpensively. I already had hosting, but for a starter business, a site like this could be up for the first month for under $10, plus the builder’s time.

Edit: Site is now running on a “Premium Theme”. We’ve matured to the point of needing it for Portfolios and such. Read more