06 Jul

Marketing your business with QR codes

What  is a QR Code (definition from Wikipedia)?  Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR codes now are used in a much broader context, including both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users (termed mobile tagging). QR codes may be used to display text to the user, to add a vCard contact to the user's device, to open a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), or to compose an e-mail or text message.

QR codes storing addresses and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or almost any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the telephone's browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is termed hard linking or object hyperlinking.

How can I use QR Codes? Examples include:

·         Contact page on your web site:  Add a QR code so visitors can scan from your page and automatically add your contact info to their phone.

·         Business Cards:  frustrated with the amount of info you can fit on a business card?  NO MORE, add a QR code and get even more data on your business card.

·         Print ads:  add a QR code to your print ads for visitors to enter a contest, visit your web site, print a coupon, etc.

·         Sign on your door:  add a QR code to the door or window of your business.  If you are not open when they stop by they can do things such as; view your menu, learn more about your business, get contact info and hours of operation, etc.

·         Brochures: add QR codes to your brochures.  By scanning they can visit your web site, call you, etc.  For B & B, Hotel or resort owners you could have a QR code in your brochure that would take users directly to your reservations page.

·         Coupons: Add a QR code for a coupon users can redeem in your store. 

The list of ideas is endless, please call our or email our office to discuss how we may design and customize a QR code for your business. 

What types of phones can use QR Codes?

Any smart phone with a camera and a barcode scanner app is able to scan and decode a QR Code.  We typically recommend the following applications for each device:

  • Blackberry
  • iPhone:
  • Droid:

Wanting business cards, brochures, flyers, signs for your store window designed with QR codes?  No problem, we design and implement your QR code into any marketing materials you may wish to have designed. 

 Sample QR Code


This particular QR Code reads:

Lori Anthony
269-655-4477
webdzyner5@msn.com
http://www.loriswebdesign.com
Web design, hosting, business cards, marketing materials and more. 

Call us today and get your business started with this new technology.

 

 

01 Jan

Computer running slow, error message popping up, what do I do?

Computer running slow or acting funny?  The problem may lie in your registry.  I would highly recommend using a registry cleaner on your system.  What does a registry cleaner do?  Read on below.

Purpose

Registry Cleaners are software utilities that attempt to remove configuration data from the Windows Registry that is no longer in use or that is unwanted on the system. Such data may include information left by software that has not been uninstalled completely from the computer, information that is no longer of use, or settings required for the operation of malware. A registry cleaner scans the registry, and attempts to pick out the unnecessary values in order to delete or repair them.

Advantages

Registry cleaners, or registry cleanup software, may improve the performance of computers by ridding the registry of redundant information.

Due to the sheer size and complexity of the registry database, manually cleaning up debris and invalid entries would be impractical, so registry cleaners are essentially tools that automate the process of looking for invalid entries, missing file references or broken links within the registry and resolving them.

The correction of an invalid registry key can provide some benefits. Noted Windows architecture expert Mark Russinovich has concluded that registry cleaners will continue to have a role until most applications have moved to the .NET Framework platform that does not rely on the registry for application settings.

Some registry cleaners offer backup and restore functions that allow the user to revert changes made by the registry cleaner in case they are undesired. A registry cleaner may be useful for someone that adds or removes programs from their computer very often; however, a virtual machine is a faster and more reliable means of reverting an operating system to a previous good known state in a testing scenario.

27 Mar

Email Configuration

 Email comes in a couple of different formats and this article will describe the terminology and the uses of each type.

POP mail account - this is an account that is created using your domain name for example lori@mattawan.org To download your mail into a program such as Outlook you may configure it by following these steps:

 

  1. Open your Outlook program and click on “tools”
  2. Once the tools menu is open click on “accounts”
  3. You will see a tab labeled “mail”
  4. Enter the name you would like displayed when you send mail for example Lori Anthony
  5. Enter your username example lori@mattawan.org and then enter your password
  6. Incoming mail server is POP3
  7. incoming mail POP3 mail.yourservername.com
  8. outgoing mail POP3 mail.yourservername.com
  9. Click on my server requires authentication and then click “settings”
  10. Under settings make sure that “use same settings as my incoming server”
  11. Under advanced make sure the outgoing mail SMTP is set at 26 (default is 25)
  12. and incoming mail POP3 is set at 110
  13. Click apply and your account is now ready to go.

Forwarder account - you may want to have an account name such as lori@mattawan.org but you would like it to relay to your current mail account for example if someone sends an email to lori@mattawan.org it would forward to webdzyner5@msn.com

Autoresponder - This is an automatic reply that you can setup for one of your existing email accounts.  For example if I was planning on going on vacation I could setup a forwarder that when someone sent an email to lori@mattawan.org it would send them back a note with something like this “thank you for your interest in Lori’s Web Design, we are currently out of the office until March 22nd and will promptly reply when we are back in the office.  If you need immediate assistance you may call us at 269-655-4477″.  Or if you have an email address for orders an autoresponder could be set to say ‘thank you for your order with Lori’s Designs.  We process orders Mon-Fri from 8 am to 5pm.  All orders received by 2pm EST will be shipped on the same day.”.

If you have other questions about email account please don’t hesistate to ask.

 

27 Mar

Search Engine Optimization

In today’s internet world if your site is not optimized you are going to be lost in the shuffle. There are many aspects to search engine optimization (SEO) and I will address a few of them here.

It is important to know also that not all search engines read a web site the same, so not all the rules below apply to all the search engines.

1. pick a domain name that is related to your business subject. For example michigan-hunting.com with a hyphen placed between the words of the url it identifies them as individual words and uses them as keywords.

2. Your title tag needs to be short and to the point. I am going to use http://www.michigan-outdoors.com as an example here. The title tag reads “michigan hunting and fishing” this gets right to the point of the site. A tag such as the official site of the michigan sportsman might be ok but would not key in on michigan hunting and fishing quite so well.

3. keywords: keywords used more than 2 times can be considered spam. In order to encompass your keywords and let the search engine grab them and create multitudes of keyphrases separate each word with a space not a comma. The following is an example of how these keywords can be made into different phrases. Keywords - Michigan hunting fishing sportsman squirrel deer outfitter charter boat lake walleye

Now here are some keyphrases that can be interpreted from these keywords:
deer hunting in Michigan
deer hunting
deer hunting outfitters in Michigan
charter boat fishing
lake fishing
charter fishing

4. Description of your site. Again be keyword specific and get to the point. I always say put yourself in the spot of your client and think of what to write in your description that would entice them to visit.
Examples:

  • Site for michigan hunting and fishing (ok)
  • Michigan hunting and fishing information with discussion board, fishing reports, hunting tips and techniques, listings for outfitters, fishing guides, resorts and sporting goods shops (better)

5. Next your home page content is very important. You want to have content that describes your site and reinforces your title, keywords and description. repetition is the key!

6. Link popularity - sites such as Yahoo and Google place a lot of ranking on how popular your web site is, how many links to your site is out there.

Web site popularity will be discussed in a separate article.

27 Mar

Email Spam

Spam is a nuisance and causes great grief to those who have to sift through tons of spam. I am listing a couple of helpful solutions to reduce your spam.

1. Create a hotmail or yahoo mail account to be used strictly for fill in forms on the internet. Some sites (not all) sell your information to outside parties. This is one of the ways that spam comes

2. After researching some information I have found that spammers use spiders to troll web sites and collect email addresses. By embedding your email into an image or a flash file they will not be able to capture your email address.

3. Finally if you are experiencing spam issues we can implement a spam assasin and spam box program. One thing to note about spam filters they are not fool proof and some of your wanted mail may end up in the spam box.

 

27 Mar

Analyze your web site needs

 Creating a great web site takes a little thought, this guideline will walk you through the steps of preparing information for your web site designer.

  1. What is the purpose of your web site?  Information, sales, community site?
  2. Who is your target audience?
  3. Put yourself in the mind of your audience what type of content would you be looking for when visiting your site? Make a list of that content.
  4. Develop a list of key words and phrases that accurately describe your business, product/service. These will be used for search terms for your web site.
  5. Besides general information what type of content will you offer on your web site that will keep it fresh and entice visitors to come back to your site?  Examples here could include: blog, newsletters, updated products/services, contests, forum on a topic you can offer expertise in, etc.
  6. Gather your contact information.  Also list the hours that the office is open for phone calls if you list a phone number as a contact.
  7. Do you have a logo?  If not, prepare information about your company and how you would like it reflected in a logo.
  8. Do you have a budget?  If so share it with the designer up front so they can tailor a web site and package to fit within your budget.

That should get you started on your way to a new web site.

 

27 Mar

Linking tips

One way to help increase your search engine ranking and to bring more traffic to your site is to link with other sites.  I would suggest linking with like related sites and also look for like related sites that have high traffic rankings.  How do you do this?  Go to Google and search out a like related site by keyword and see who pops up high on the list.

Next you will want to send a reqeust to the site asking permission to link to them and also ask for a return link back. 

I am also listing my current client list and what type of product or service they have,  you may find some link partners here.  You may view the website by clicking on the business name.  If you see someone you wish to link with let me know and I will contact the client and create the links.

  1. Bullshooters - They sell products for guns such as racks, stands, sighting in systems, etc.
  2. Hampels Woodland Products - They manufacture and sell a range of wonderful cases such as gun cases, knife cases, collectibles cases, jewelry boxes and much more.
  3. Michigan Sportsmen's Web - This web site is a community site dedicated to the outdoorsman and Michigan
  4. World Class Safaris - book your next hunting adventure here.  Offering hunts around the world, great African Safari package prices
  5. Rolling Hills Hunting Preserve - Pheasant and Chukar hunting preserve in Marcellus, MI
  6. Keeton in the Kitchen - Look for this show to be on TV soon.  Loaded with cooking tips and recipes this is a great web site.
  7. Oakwood Wellness - Health and wellness spa in South Haven, MI 
  8. South Haven Center for the Arts - Art association
  9. Valentino Walker Designs - Artist who designs painting and murals and much more.  You really have to see her work!
  10. Great Lakes Treasures - jewelry and much more
  11. Powell Custom Homes - Custom home builder in Mattawan, MI 
  12. McGillens Crossing - Commercial/Retail and Condo development in Mattawan, MI.  If you are looking for a new location for your business, this is the place.
  13. Freightliner of Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo - Freightliner sales and service dealer with two locations in Michigan (Grand Rapids and Mattawan)
  14. Brightside Coaching - Business and personal coach
  15. 255 Global - Insert media business
  16. Expedient Process - Van Buren County Process Server
  17. Enviro Safe - Products for wastewater, ponds, lakes and grease reduction
  18. Lake Michigan Boaters Assn - Community web site for Lake Michigan Boating Enthusiasts
  19. Aglow Angels - Angel dolls for children
  20. Seymour House B & B - Bed and Breakfast in South Haven, MI 
  21. Kalamazoo Avenue Band - Blues band located in Michigan - I'm also a fan!
  22. The House Business - Real Estate company in North Carolina
  23. Bangor Electronics - manufacturer or electronics in Bangor, MI
  24. Caribbean Connection - booking agent for bands in Michigan
  25. Family Pet Health Center - Veternarian office in Mattawan, MI
  26. JPW Services - Sprint and Nextel dealer with locations in Saugatuck, Holland and Zeeland! 
  27. Walts Products - Great products for aches, pains and other ailments
  28. Mattawan Business Association - business group for Mattawan, MI 
  29. Village of Mattawan - governmental web site
  30. Scott Graham - Attorney at law web site (new web site)
  31. Making Big Medicine - web site for the health care industry including career listings and networking
  32. Luhn and Oak Construction - Located in Kentucky

 

27 Mar

Tips for promoting your web site

As a business owner we compete normally with our local market, however, with the internet you are competing on a global scale.  With billions of web sites all competing to be the best what is it about your web site that makes it stand out and get noticed?
 
Here are a couple of suggestions....

  1. Blogs - you've heard about them, now take advantage of them.  Use a blog to write articles on subjects of your expertise or about what makes your products unique.  Then we setup RSS feeds so your blog pings sites to let them know you have made updates to your site and what that content is.  Benefits:  more keywords, more listings on the search engines!  Share info people are searching for, make yourself an expert!
  2. Once you have made the step to do something like this on your web site make the announcement.  Send press releases to your local papers and let them know about your web site and its impressive benefits to visitors.  Leave flyers out at places your clients may frequent.
  3. Look for web sites that accept articles and publish yours with a link back to your web site.
  4. Create a mailing list for users to sign up for news from your company.
  5. Offer specials, coupons, etc.  People love FREE stuff no matter what it is - info, coupons, help, etc.