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Stop Spam Emails
Have you noticed a rise in the amount of Spam Emails? It’s not your imagination.
65% of all emails are spam. Every email is supposed to provide an “Unsubscribe” link. Often clicking that link, though it confirms unsubscribe, does nothing. A few days later the spam is back.
It’s not just independent companies but some really large companies like Trulia.com and Realtor.com seem to “refuse” to let anyone unsubscribe.
So how do we get off these lists? The CAN-SPAM Act is a federal law that’s supposed to protect us. File a complaint with CAN-SPAM.
Another option is to “block” the IP address (view the full header of the message) in your email. Find the senders IP address (it will be a series of numbers similar to this: IP 222.11.2.111. Jot down the number. Then login to your CPanel on your Web Hosting account and locate IP Block. Enter the IP address.
Contact Forms have seen a rise in Spam. If you’re website is built using WordPress, your best option is to use a plugin called Akismet. The cost is about $60 per year. It prevents the spam from ever reach your email account. Alert! Gmail accounts no longer accept details from Contact Forms. For more information, contact us.
What is Mobile Ready?
Some people think if your website is accessible via a mobile device then it must be “mobile ready”. Nothing could be more frustrating for mobile users. So what does a non-mobile website look like to a mobile user? Imagine taking the same website you view on a 17″ monitor and scrunching it to the size of a screen on an iPhone. The print will be almost impossible to read. So, what’s the answer? To provide a customized viewing experience for your mobile visitors. One challenge that you DO NOT want to deal with is to maintain two separate websites, one for mobile and one for desktop. The problem lies in that when you change or add content you have to do so in two places – essentially doubling your work. Our solution provides the same simple interface to make content changes in a single place and still provide a premium user experience regardless of their device.
Rock Your World!
What’s trending in 2013? Where does your business fit in? Were you rocking it out or hitting flats?
1. The Power of Women is Growing: The number of women-owned businesses is up 54% in the past 15 years.
2. The Middleman is Becoming Extinct: Attributed to the growth of e-commerce and how end-users are transforming the buying process.
3. Entrepreneurs are Everywhere: The power of start-ups should not be underestimated; an abundance of people are turning hobbies into businesses via economic opportunity and necessity.
Where does your business stand on it’s identity and promotion? Does your company have a credible website? The end to 2013 is approaching. Will you Rock Your Business on the web or try waiting another year? Will you be left behind by your competitors?
What’s in a “Domain” Name?
Choosing a domain name can be as important to your company as choosing the company name. In fact, in several cases, companies have changed their name to their website domain because people recognized it more readily than the company name. So finding a domain name can be very important. Choose wisely. Your customers need to type your domain in, so keep your domain name to no longer than 30 to 40 characters. If you need some help selecting your domain name, it’s something we include in the web development process. If you need help researching a domain name, we can help you find one that is easily found.
5 Tips for Recession-Proofing Your Web Site
We may be in a global crisis of some kind–it’s anybody’s guess. Maybe it’s a recession, maybe it’s a banking crisis or a credit crunch. We know it’s there because we can feel it’s effects. Most people are tightening their belts, watching costs, and planning more carefully to make sure their still here this time next year.
None of these tips is meant to be a one-time activity. They should all be continually ongoing exercises. Even if you don’t see results within weeks, don’t stop trying out ideas.
- Talk to Your Customers. Also talk to people who are not your customers yet, but should be. Try to figure out what motivates them. What’s the ambition, pain, or drive that could mean they use you?
- Be Willing to Be Wrong. You may not get it right the first time. Acknowledge that now and get over it. Its OK, it’s just the way it is. What you have to know that you can’t know is which will work best. Ready? Good.
- Fix Your Bucket. Imagine your web site is a bucket, whose job it is to carry water (visitors) from a basin labelled “new visitors” to a basin labelled “customers”. You have to pay for someone to deliver water into the first basin, and you also have to pay for someone to run between the basin, carrying the water. The bad news is, your web site is probably leaking, which means you’re losing precious water all the time. If someone can’t find the next link to carry them forward, or they get confused and think they’re in the wrong place, or they don’t know how to fill in a form, that’s a serious leak.
- Optimize Your Site for the Search Engines. It’s often a simple task to make your web pages more friendly to search engines. Here are a few tips for you and your designer: *Make sure your meta description and title are readable and meaningful. *Use plenty of headings in your text ensuring that they’re meaningful and readable. *Include a sitemap. These show the search engines you’re serious and you want them to index you correctly. *Add good, fresh, interesting, relevant, keyword-rich content. *Your website should be of a good enough quality to induce other sites to link to you, but watch out for any directories. Aim to get at least 20 inbound links to your site, more is better.
- Invest Wisely. Put a value on your site’s goals (which can be tracked in Analytics). Consider:
- What’s a new contact from a customer worth, on average?
- How many visitors do you need today to get a new contact?
- How much time and money can you afford to invest to get each new contact?
- What does that work out to be in terms of additional visitors? How much can you afford to invest to get X amount of traffic?
- How cost-effective would it be to fix your bucket to retain more visitors versus filling the funnel with more new visitors?
Once you’ve figured out your values, consider setting up AdWords pay-per-click ads (or consider Facebook’s ad platform too), which will help you attract additional qualified visitors for a guaranteed capped price.