Would You Survive Without The Internet For A Weekend?

I was talking with a friend this morning about my friend's boss and marveling over the fact that her boss is the one entrepreneur I know that shuts the office door at 5PM and on weekends!

The subject came up as I needed to contact her boss and knew that she didn't have a computer at home ( is that even possible today?). As I continued my conversation with my friend I noted that her boss must not rely upon the internet being that she can survive a weekend without accessing email and such! I was quickly corrected and even more in awe!

Could you have this discipline? Is it discipline or just a system? What do you think of this? I am still in awe ......

What Do You Like The Most About Blogging?

I've been working more and more with blogs here at Today's Way. I'm always telling people what is great about blogging but now ... I am curious!

Please tell me what do "you" like the most about blogging?

• Is it that they build relationships?
• Are simply fun to let your thoughts out on?
• Serve as a release, a journaling of your thoughts?
• Help you reach your clients on a more personal basis?
• Serve as a personal page about you for relationship building with clients?

The list could be endless! So, please help me zero in on "you!"
What do you like the most about blogging?

Post your input here for all to see or ....
Email me at margieh@todaysway.net.
Call also if you like .. 310-306-1453.

Give Your Website A Review.

When was the last time you gave your website a serious review? Take a few moments and look at it as if you were a first time visitor.

Here are a few tips for what to look for:

1. Immediate Clarity On What Your Site Provides
   Probably the most important question to ask yourself when looking at your website is, "Can a visitor, within nanoseconds, know what you do and how you will benefit them?" If the answer is "no"... you are in trouble. If your visitors can't confirm that your site is where they want to be almost instantaneously to their arrival... then the next action they take is to click "off" your site. It's on to the next! Don't even kid yourself that a cute photo or a large heading will inspire curiosity. Clarity is what visitors want.
   
   Use the Golden Rule of online communications,
   Thou shall be ...Convenient & Hassle-Free!
   removing any need for the reader to think!
   x
2. Convenient & Hassle-Free To Navigate
   The Golden Rule doesn't stop with the first connection to your site. If you make it past "step one" the visitor needs to immediately know where to go next inside your site! You must make it convenient and hassle-free for the eye to "see" where "more" of what the visitor is looking for can be found. If not ... the next click is off your site!
   x
3. Convenient & Hassle-Free To Read
   Can the information on your website be read "easily and quickly?" Most online readers read from top to bottom ( not left to right) and initially all text is scanned. Some details to check on include:
   
   Choice of font style - Arial continues to be the cleanest and is seen from all computers. Paragraph Headings can vary in font style which can often help provide a path for the eye to follow.
   
   Choice of font size- Use a size that allows your quantity of text to be taken in "easily" with a glance. Not too big and not too small. Arial size 10 is a good choice. Size 12 can be appropriate if it is just a small quantity of text.
   
   Grouping of text - Is your text grouped in small paragraphs? Remember that the average reader is simply scanning your information. If you can group your text into smaller groupings, having the first line of each paragraph carry an important point ... you will be more successful in making your text work for you.
   
   Focal Points For The Eye To Follow - As you review your website pages, Do you find that your eye is directed through the pages? Does the use of bold, spacing, titles, background colors, pictures assist your reading of the pages or does it get in your way? Hopefully you are finding that your eye is following a directive path so that as you scan from top to bottom you actually get to the bottom! If you find that your eye gets confused or that your are "working" to read your information .. it's time for some changes!
   x
4. Clean & Appropriately Sized Images
   Are your images and/or photos up to date? Are they clear or fuzzy? Do they sit on your pages or have a white background around them? Do they need to have a drop shadow or a border or "something" to provide a more professional look?
   
   Photos can play a huge role in delivering your message to your website visitors. Make sure the quality of your images match the quality of your business!See what you come up with as you do your review! Very often the smallest of changes can make the largest of differences.
   

What did you discover about your own website? Do you have questions or even more input ??
Post a comment ... share with all of us.

One-Page Websites Can Provide You All You Need!

Having a web presence, of "some" kind is crucial to the on-going success of today's businesses. A single webpage or two can be enough to make a huge difference! A website's size is simply a result of the website's planned or actual use ... a single page might be all that you need to get the job done!

This past week I have created two single page websites and one two page website for clients. Each of these sites can easily be expanded as the need arises, but for now they simply make each businesses major facts available on-line. This may not seem like a big deal but look at what has happened to each business with just a page ...

• 24 Hour/ 7 Day Presence
• Referrals Have More Reasons to Call
• lPDF Order Form For 24 Hour Sales
• Location & Driving Directions
• Prospects Can Shop Them Easily
• Equally or More Competitive
• Visibility Expanded
• A Place To Gather E-mail Addresses
• Higher Level of Professionalism

The cost ? Today's Way pricing would begin at $200 for the most basic of single page websites that is custom designed.. This would of course include loading the page onto a hosting server and assisting you with acquiring your domain name. You can begin at even a lower cost if you use a template service of some kind.

What is a domain name? This is your www.xyz.com address! You lease it from a any of a variety of sources for a minimum of one year to as long as you desire. The cost varies from source to source. I have seen it as low as eight dollars a year. There are also periodic deals where providers of domain names will include them at no cost if you choose their company to host your webpage.

What is hosting? The pages of a website need to placed on the internet so that they may be accessed by visitors. The companies that have the computers that do this are called hosting companies. They also include other services such as:

• Domain E-mail Addresses,
  joe_smith@xyzcompany.com
• Webmail - World Wide Access to Email
  Capability of retrieving your emails from the web as well as on your computer.
• Web Statistics - Tracking Visitors To Your Webpages
• Other services vary per company.

Today's Way is happy to help you know what might be best for you. You can always reach us at 310-306-1453 or post your questions here and let us all help you out!

Pay Per Click Advertising

Today's Way has discovered and is thrilled to share with you, what we consider to be the very most "effective" way for a small and medium size business to "safely" invest dollars into pay per click advertising. NOW, it is extremely easy for local business people to feel secure about placing ads on all the major search engines ... "ALL" for a very low budget ... a minimum of $100 per month!

Let's start at the beginning. Advertising is putting information or a message "out there," in most cases strategically placed where your market will find you in an accidental way or with intent. Pay per Click advertising is when you place an "ad" on the search engines and/or on-line yellow pages ... for which you are required to purchase a keyword (or keywords) to go with your ad. A keyword is what people type in as "what" they are looking for!

When a searcher uses your keyword, your ad appears in the order of how much you paid for the keyword., i.e. if you paid more than anyone else, your ad is the first ad on the search engine page. So, what is the secret to making Pay Per Click such a great deal now? A company called ReachLocal. They are the link to your success with Pay per Click.

Here's How It Works! Choose Local, Regional or National Advertising. The first step is choosing where you think the people are that are looking for your product or service. ReachLocal will only show your ad when people from your chosen locations do searches.

Local: Choose 10 cities or up to a 50 mile radius If you are a retailer of local service and have a certain income requirement (for example), you might be more apt to search for specific cities or communities vs a mile radius. Your budget would be more efficiently used. Minimum of $100 per month.

Regional: Choose up to 20 Metropolitan cities. These would be cities throughout the United States, as New York, Miami, Boston, etc. Minimum of $200 per month.

National: Includes the entire United States! Minimum of $500 per month

Create Your Ad!
The ad is an easy to fill in form that will be seen on Google, AOL, ASK, Yahoo!, MSN, and the internet yellow-page sites such as, SuperPages. Includes Dynamic Ad - meaning that the first line of your ad will automatically become the keyword entered by the searcher. Can be changed as your campaign progresses.

Optional - Submit Your Keywords
After you create your ad you may send keywords that you think might work for you campaign. Keep in mind that ReachLocal will still manage the use of those keywords based upon your budget and your campaign results. They might see similar keywords that will work just as well that cost a lot less. ReachLocal's expertise is in choosing your keywords. You can leave the entire process up to them. They will change weekly, daily and/or as the need presents itself. You may call and speak with them about the selected keywords, you may also ask them to use only a selected few keywords. However, keep in mind that they "do" know what they are doing!

Choose Your "Click-Through" Page.
This is the page of your website you would like the ad to click to. It should be an expansion of the message of the ad. Landing pages are created to allow a more exact follow up to your ad and allow you to "summarize" your business on one page. The landing page can then click to your website.

Choose Your Reporting Schedule!
This is where you receive your return on the investment! You can receive updates via e-mail on your campaign as frequently as daily. You receive the following information:

Dollars Spent: Daily consumption of your budget
No. Of Visits: How many times your ad was clicked.
Total Calls: How many people telephoned you.The number they called from Optional - A recording of the call.
Total E-mails: How many people e-mailed you. The e-mail address they used to e-mail you.
Other Events: Other website pages they visited in addition to the click-through page.

Enjoy your new clients! That's it! Sit back and receive your telephone calls and e-mails and new orders.

How Well Are You Using The Internet? Do You Know?

There are a few questions to ask yourself when you first sit down to review your business and how you can immediately start to make it grow!

1. Does your business have a website?
   x
   YES
   Is it doing al lthat it could for you?
   Does it create new busines? How well?
   DO YOU KNOW?
   
   NO
   Maybe now is the time to create a website!
   Maybe not!
   DO YOU KNOW?
   x
2. Do you send newsletters that create new business?
   x
   YES
   Is it's success justifyoing the time put into it?
   Are you using the newsletter as effectively as you could?
   DO YOU KNOW?
   
   NO
   Why not? Could it help you? YES? NO?
   DO YOU KNOW?
   x
3. Is your daily interactive email heling your business?
   x
   YES
   Great job! Congratulations. BUT, could it be even better?
   DO YOU KNOW?
   
   NO
   Why not? How could it help?
   DO YOU KNOW?
   x
4. And what about all the additional resources out there?
   Blogs, Video, Audio, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization,
   Tele-Seminars, Webinars, and more!
   Are these for you?
   DO YOU KNOW?

Think about each of the above four questions.
Post your answers here and see how we can help you!
You can also contact me via http://www.todaysway.net/
... it's your choice!

Keep your business growing ... know what you are doing and why!!!