September 2011
4 posts
Google + Were you Invited?
A creative way to stimulate demand for your business is key.
When a company rolls out a new product they need a way to gauge demand. This way they can plan for appropriate budgeting and production reports. If a restuarant plans to start opening earlier for a breakfast menu then they need to plan to increase their staff and then decide who to market to. Is this going to be marketed to the same...
Social Media and Social Mention
Do you use social media in your business? It can be a great first step to communicating and building a relationship with your customers.
The # symbol, called a hashtag, can be used by someone on Twitter with your business name (#NextWaveServices) to mark keywords or topics (#webdesign) in a Tweet. This way you can do a search for Your Business name and see tweets posted. A person can choose to...
3 tags
Next Wave Backup Security & Encryption
Many have asked about the security and encryption of our online backup service, Next Wave Backup. We have answered many of our clients questions in this post.
The online backup is 100% safe & secure and we trust it with all of our personal and sensitive information. We have many clients using our backup service for both personal and professional locations. All our my closest family and...
August 2011
8 posts
Privacy Policy
One technical aspect to websites that is rarely talked about is the Privacy Policy. Any company that is going to sell products, or gather information from the end user needs to have a page on their website that states what it does with this information. This helps customers feel more secure with ordering, or giving out their e-mail address, and is in general good website design practice. A few...
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the new game in town. You probably in fact stopped by this website because of just that. You typed in “Rochester Website Design” or perhaps “Wooster Website Design” SEO is simply optimizing your website to draw in the clients that you want based on keywords they use to search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others. Both of our search terms...
Create competition
In the fourth installment in our series on how to increase website traffic, and in turn sales. We turn to a core value of democracy. Competition. Of course there are other people out there selling the same products or services that you are. That is not the kind of competition that we’re talking about. We’re talking about your customers. Or people in general. They like to find a good...
Update your site regularly
In our continuing series on how to increase traffic and drive more business to your website, we are looking at keeping it fresh and updated. Your website is not a business card, brochure, or yellow page ad. You decide what it looks like once a year, if that, and it manages itself. A website is a constantly evolving project that takes constant attention and updating to make the most of it. One of...
Topical Web Sites
In this second part of our series on how to increase traffic and drive more business through your website we need to look at another important aspect of the Internet. Knowledge. More and more people are turning to the Internet for knowledge, information is power. From simple things like what is your companies phone number or email address, to more detailed things like how to make a superb...
Get customers coming back to your website
Over the next several weeks, we are going to look at the many ways we can get customers coming back to your website. From product based sites, to service ones, or even ad revenue based websites. So you have just built your website, or maybe it has been up and running for years. Once you have attracted a new customer, how do we get them coming back over and over again? Short term specials are one...
WatchTed Talks: Rebecca MacKinnon: Let’s take back the Internet!
I see a growing trend that concerns me with websites. People are using them less and less. Your average person now visits one news website, and one social network, all of which are controlled by those large corporations.
We need to ensure anyone can be heard online.
July 2011
8 posts
Thank you pages
Almost every website today has a form on it, where customers can go and ask questions, post comments, etc. After the user has found your website, dug around a little bit, then said you know what, I have a question to ask, or a comment to post. They navigate over to your form, spend a few minutes typing it in, and press send. Then what happens? Well besides the email getting sent to you. The user...
Have you ever lost anything important? Try...
Tiger Tag is a unique system that returns lost items to their owners. Tiger Tags system allows you to report items missing like a global lost and found. You’re probably thinking, how much does this cost? Tiger tag is a free lost and found service, except for a small shipping fee. When you lose your item and someone else finds it, they can enter the ID of that item on tigertag.com so you can...
WatchTed Talks: Mikko Hypponen: Fighting viruses, defending the net.
The computer virus is now 25 years old. I do hope your computer has some anti virus software installed.
Know your customers
One of the most important aspects for all businesses is to know as much as you can about the people you are selling your products or services too. Big business has done this for years, they have shopper club cards, and online profiles for you to fill out, all helping them gauge how much they can charge for the new products that are coming out soon. As a small business you need to connect and...
Join the community on the net
In the sixth installment of our ongoing series on how to increase traffic and sales to your website we are going to look into making you have a little bit of fun while promoting your website. How can running your business be more fun? By contributing content back to the internet. My guess is that your passionate about your business, you want it to succeed. You love talking about it to almost...
Email Newsletters - a key to good web design
In our continuing series on ways to get new customers, and get the old ones to come back to your website we are looking at email newsletters. If people have purchased something from you before, there has been a certain level of trust between your business and them. They obviously like what you are selling or providing, so allow your customers to be added to some kind of list. Email newsletter...
Choosing a web design firm.
While you are searching the web, or asking friends and family for references on a good person to help you design your website. Keep several important points in mind: Check out your potential web design person’s website. If it isnt amazing, that is a bad sign.
Uncle Billy’s nephew may not be the best person either. You want someone who does this full time.
Ask them how they program...