Posted by marlene on July 28, 2010 under Technical Talk | 
Unless you’re writing a technical manual or in-depth instructions, less is more when it comes to your marketing efforts. If your brochure, sales sheet or website are too copy heavy, you can lose your customers’ attention and that can have a negative effect on your bottom line. Here are some tips for when you’re writing copy for your marketing and promotional materials, and websites:
• Be concise – state your facts and get to your point without too much fluff
• Use bullet points – short blurbs or lists are easy to read
• Write to your audience – use terms and phrases that everyone can understand
• Remember the important stuff – be sure all of you contact information is included and easy visible
• Proofread and spell check – have someone else read over your writing and check your spelling
Just keep these five tips in mind when you’re creating the content for your next marketing project and you’ll create the right copy.
(See in just a few sentence and bullet points, I was able to get my message out about keeping it light.)
Posted by marlene on June 4, 2010 under Technical Talk |
Using WebSwagger’s administration section to add and edit content on your sub pages is simple. And one of the easiest ways to get your text into the editor is to cut and paste it from a Word Document. To avoid any formatting problems and ensure the font of the new text stays consistent with the rest of your site, be sure to use the “Paste from Word” option in the editor. It’s easy:
1. Log in to your administration section and open the page you’d like to place your copy.
2. Copy you text from the Word document.
3. Click the Paste from Word button in the editor. It is a white square with a “W”.
4. Paste your text into the pop up box and check off “Remove Style Definition.”
5. Click “OK”
It’s really that simple!
And, of course, the WebSwagger Team is always available to make any edits or changes on your site. Just give us a call at (888) 772-6400.
Posted by marlene on May 28, 2010 under Technical Talk |
Unless you’re writing a technical manual or in-depth instructions, less is more when it comes to your marketing efforts. If your brochure, sales sheet or website are too copy heavy, you can lose your customers’ attention and that can have a negative effect on your bottom line. Here are some tips for when you’re writing copy for your marketing and promotional materials, and websites:
• Be concise – state your facts and get to your point without too much fluff
• Use bullet points – short blurbs or lists are easy to read
• Write to your audience – use terms and phrases that everyone can understand
• Remember the important stuff – be sure all of you contact information is included and easy visible
• Proofread and spell check – have someone else read over your writing and check your spelling
Just keep these five tips in mind when you’re creating the content for your next marketing project and you’ll create the right copy.
(See in just a few sentence and bullet points, I was able to get my message out about keeping it light.)
Posted by marlene on December 28, 2009 under Technical Talk |
Getting your marketing plan ready for the new year can be daunting. You definitely need a plan of action. Here are some quick tips to get you started on your business marketing endeavor for the new year:
- Do a Website update; refresh your site
- Focus on social media … Tweet, tweet!
- Comment on a blog
- Customize when you can on correspondence and e-mail marketing Campaigns
- Try video
- Run a contest
- Consider a sparing use of direct mail
- Review your brochure — both print and electronic
- Collect e-mail addresses
- Join a new trade association
- Ramp up PR
Get busy with planning basics. Have a happy and successful new year!
Posted by marlene on November 13, 2009 under Technical Talk |
F5 is a function key–available on the top row of most keyboards. It is known as the “refresh page” key.
F5 refreshes Internet browsers and other Web pages that either take too long to load; load incorrectly; or clears the cache to bring forward a newer version of a Web page.
Use F5 to clear or refresh anything that may be viewing a bit funky. It’s a great little shortcut!
Posted by marlene on October 5, 2009 under Technical Talk |
Not only do blogs need to be kept up-to-date (in terms of content), but is it is your responsibility to make sure that you are running the latest software version. Security best practices dictate making software upgrades as they become available–especially for onsite blogs. The reason: updates usually fix an exploit that is out there. Exploits are nearly always driven by an entity with not so nice intentions (i.e. spammer, mischief maker, or other). You can usually see what version your onsite blog is running once you login. It will clearly say — Version xxx; latest version available xxx. If you compare the two version numbers, you’ll be able to discern if you are up-to-date. If you pay attention now, you can avoid problems later.
Posted by Nancy on September 18, 2009 under Technical Talk |
Have you “Googled” yourself recently? The Internet has transformed just about everything we do. We use it to catch up on news, shop, market our businesses, reconnect with people in our past, research products and so much more. The trouble is that with so much that is useful, there are also possible negatives.
Social media and review sites are great; but have you checked out what each say about you and your business? Part of your online marketing needs to be managing your reputation.
Start by ensuring everything you post on the Internet is how you want people to see you. This includes posts you make to your personal accounts like Facebook, myspace, you tube and Linkedin accounts. Remember, if someone “Googles” your name (especially if your business name includes your surname), these accounts will show up in search results. If you’ve made an inappropriate or negative comment people may see it.
Also, be sure to see what people might be saying on review sites about you. If there is something negative, try to address it as soon as possible. And, don’t be afraid to ask the person to update their review with the positive outcome. A great way to manage positive reviews is by including testimonials on your site.
With so many people researching products and business online before doing business with them, it is important to make sure you have a professional, positive image on the web. So be sure you “Google” yourself frequently to ensure your online personality is what it should be.
Posted by marlene on July 21, 2009 under Technical Talk |
We sometimes get questions about webgraders and their outcomes. Why do certain sites score higher than others? Aside from some basic onsite code issues such as 301 redirects, image alt tags and site metadata, webgraders evaluate sites on a number of other criteria such as:
• URL birthdate – older URLs are given more credibility
• Expiration date of a URL – sites with an expiration of more than a year are more favorable
• Inbound links
• Outbound links
• Directory listings in DMOZ, Yahoo and Zoom Info
• Bookmarking site links and other social site connectivity
• Blogs
• XML output
It is important to actively market your site and create monthly todos to ensure you can grow your overall site score. Just because you build it, doesn’t mean instant traffic to your site. Newer URLss, in particular, need to work extra hard to achieve visibility in this Web-centric world.
Please feel free to call or email us to find out how we can assist you with enhancing your onsite code or social visibility.
Posted by marlene on June 29, 2009 under Technical Talk |
Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal entry or on-line essay that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site—in this case, WebSwagger. Why is blogging so popular? Here’s a jaw-dropping statistic that we want to share with you. Last year there were 173 Million blogs. This year there are 2.3 Billion blogs. That is an absolutely explosive growth in blogging! But here are some more compelling statistics …2 new blogs are created every second, and there are 33,000 new posts every hour.
Why are blogs so important for your small business? Blogging gets the buzz going. It helps you target audiences that you might not be able to reach through conventional marketing. The key to Internet marketing is making your business’s presence known across a multitude of Web sites.
Here are some tips we recommend on how to utilize blogging to market your small business:
- Add new blog posts to your website three to five times per week to keep people coming back.
- Create hyperlinks to your blog on other sites’ discussion forums.
- Join a network of like-minded individuals on sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn. The reward: Strangers may start recommending your thoughts and your Web site to others.
We hope you find these tips helpful. Happy Blogging!
Posted by marlene on June 20, 2009 under Technical Talk |
If you want to receive information through your Website, you might want to consider a functional form that gets delivered to an e-mail—right from your Website.
You’ll need to convert a Word document into an interactive form. Everyone has Word, right? Well, not exactly. While it is a popular word processor, not everyone will have this software installed on their computer.
This is where Adobe Portable Document Format, or PDF for short, comes in. The only software required to open and use these files is the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. Most Online users already have Acrobat Reader already installed.
Next, create the interactive PDF form. Once complete, it’s ready to be linked for download, attached to e-mails, saved to disk, and printed. A convenient print and e-mail button can be inserted into the form–a nifty little timesaver. Applicants can fill out and return the form with all the information intact using the free Acrobat Reader.
Here at WebSwagger, we always have the solution to help your small business. We just used this technique for a client who had a five page questionnaire we converted into a functional PDF form that gets automatically delivered to their e-mail. It was cost efficient to do and is working just great for them!
