Welcome to the November newsletter

For previous newsletters, tips and general support information go to: WhatsHappening

Topics:

• 1-Search Engine Aids
  
• 2-Promoting your web site
  
• 3-New RapidWeb web sites
  
• 4-Contact us via Instant Messenger
  
• 5-Firefox 1.5 released

• 1. Search Engine Aides

To get full value from your website it is important that your site does well on the search engines. Understanding how they work and what you need to do to make your site visible AND successful is critical.

To that end I have assembled a page search related links that can help you in your quest to achieve that number #1 ranking.

• 2. Promoting your web site

You've just spent a long time building and nurturing your site to completion. And you even are ranking well on the search engines. Now you can sit back and they will come...Not! The next step in launching your site is for you and your employees to use every means possible to communicate the fact to your existing customer base. There is a great article by Nick Wilson at Sitepoint.com called Website Promotion Crash Course and if you would like more information point your browser there.

There are a number of free, and effective promotion activities that can help you start to get the word out about your site. They can fall into four categories:

• Electronic Communications
• Tele Communication
• Printed materials
• Word of Mouth

Electronic Communications

• e-mail Campaign- Having every employee send out a brief description and the URL of your web site to everyone in their e-mail address books.
  
• e-mail addresses - Be sure to start using your URL in your e-mail addresses. Why should you be receiving mail at yourname@aol.com instead of yourname@companywebsite.com? AOL sure doesn't need the advertisement and in aggregate your staff are sending lots of e-mails every day. It will be a constant and subtle reminder to your clients and vendors to visit your web site.
  
• e-mail signature-Develop a common e-mail signature that highlights your web site and is added at the end of every e-mail your company sends out. This way the message gets out automatically at the bottom of each electronic correspondence.
  

Tele Communication

• Phone Answering-Every time your staff picks up the phone to answer a call, let them inform the caller of the new web site.
  
• Voice Mail- Have every employee change their voice mail message to mention the web site. Your clients want the information now and by giving them the web site address in the voice message you are affording them the opportunity to do just that...get the information now by going to the web site.
  
• Phone messages- Be sure that any after hours message or any message from an automated attendant also provides the url in a brief fashion.
  

Printed materials

• Correspondence- It is an easy task to automatically add a footer to a Word template that will be on every letter sent out. Again every employee should be in sync.
  
• Business Communications- All invoices, packing lists, statements and other printed materials should have your URL listed. It is often a simple task to have QuickBooks or other accounting application add the message to each printed page.
  
• Generate a Press Release-Web sites are still uncommon enough that your local newspaper and business news magazine will likely be willing to give your site some coverage.
  

Word of Mouth

• Talking it up- Be sure that you and your staff mention your "new" web site in every client conversation. An "oh by the way did you know" comment to close out the conversation will be appreciated by your client base as they are always interested in finding easier ways to find out what they need to know .
  
• Write the URL down- Have all staff write the URL down and use that oldest of high tech reminders, the post it note to keep it handy. You would be surprised how many employees I have spoke with that need to make a frantic five minute search for the URL or simply can't find it at all, even when it was requested of them.

Obviously, all of the staff will need to be pulling on the same oar for this free strategy to work and coordinating them in this activity will take some time. However, the work to make the site an integral part of your world is just beginning, not ending. You still need to develop a marketing & search engine strategy and promotional strategy but at least you now have your clients attention and it was done on a $0 budget.

• 3. Welcome to new RapidWeb Sites

Within the last month several new RapidWeb sites have come on line:

St. James Mercy Hospital When it came time for a major site update St. James chose RapidWeb. This site has over 250 pages but maintains a clean easily navigable design that lets a user find just what they are looking. They have integrated PayPal to accept donations.

SmokinLicious.com Need any smoking wood? Planning your barbecue menu for a great party? Then visit this site that uses locally grown hardwood chunks, chips and planks to produce some unique smoking products. This site integrated PayPal as both a shopping cart and payment processor.

Erie Builders Supply - Building Supplies - Olean, NY

Thanks to RapidWeb we were able to get our Erie Builders Supply web site up and running, quickly and efficiently. Our last host made it difficult to make changes and offered little to no support. We are pleased with the service, the support and the ease of operation RapidWeb offers us. - Kasey Tripodi, Erie Builders Supply

• 4. We are now online via Instant Messenger:

If the light is green we're home, if it is red, we are not. Either Voice or Text is fine. If you have video let us know.

If you haven't tried Instant Messenger as a business communications tool, you should. In most people's minds it is associated with their teenagers whiling away the afternoon. It is a great business communication tool. It is more immediate and reliable than email and can connect people over long distances very cheaply (i.e. free). To get your software and login go to the Instant Messenger website.

• 5. Firefox 1.5 released

The Mozilla Foundation has release FireFox 1.5. This is important for two reasons.

• 1. Firefox offers a more secure and productive web browsing experience. It is less susceptible to the browser based security threats to which Internet Explorer falls prey and it has advanced features that making browser more efficient like tabbed browsing. If you haven't tried this up and coming browser you should download it now and try it. The price is right as they say (it's free).

• 2. According to industry analyst and our logs this browser now has close to 10% market share. You as a webmaster that wants the reading public to be able to easily access your site need to verify that your site works properly with FireFox. If your site is not compatible with FireFox you will be turning users away and that just doesn't make sense.

If you have any questions about this Tip sheet or any other RapidWeb feature feel free to contact us.

Mike Blumenthal