For previous newsletters, tips and general support information go to:http://www.rapidweb.info/index.php?WhatsHappening

Topics:

1. Search Engine Placement Class
2. Virtual Reality Tours
3. Keep 'em coming back
4. Just a little e-commerce
5. New RapidWeb web sites

Search Engine Placement Class - October 30

Learn how to develop a strategy to help your web site be more easily found by the major search engines. This class will provide background information on the workings of major search engines, and specific steps your company can take to improve the ranking of your site.

Understand how site construction techniques affect your rankings.

Learn how to focus your search placement efforts for the best results.

Understand the role of metatags and how they influence success.

Learn how to craft meta information to improve your rankings.

We will examine actual sites to see how they ranked and how their rankings could improve. We will explore some of the major search sites in depth to better understand where and how they get their results. This seminar is similar to the one in June but will incorporate new information and additional examples.

The class is being co-sponsored by Greater Olean and will be held at StartUps? in Allegany on October 30th at 9:30. To register contact Meme at Greater Olean

Virtual Reality

We have completed another virtual reality tour. You can view it at http://www.ogh.org/index.php?VirtualTour. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Keep 'em coming back

It is a standard advice in the internet world to "keep your site fresh" so that people will continue to visit your site. Exactly, what does that mean? In most businesses, the reality is that many pages of content just don't change that often, and change just for change sake is not a very productive strategy.

Let's take a look at a site and how they addressed this issue.

Casey, Halwig & Hartle http://www.caseyhalwighartle.com is a funeral home in Olean, NY. The idea that they hit upon to keep 'em coming back to their site was the on-line obituary. Obituaries are typically written by the funeral home director, faxed to the client, changes are faxed or called in and then the final copy submitted to the newspaper. They are also one of the most read pages in the news paper. By putting their obituaries on-line, Casey Halwig & Hartle not only gave their clients and their relatives a compelling reason to visit their site, but they streamlined the approval process. Now, the client views the obituary on-line and e-mails in changes. The final revision is then forwarded to the local newspaper by e-mail. By moving their obituaries on-line Casey Halwig & Hartle not only increased their web site visits but provided a much appreciated customer service and streamlined their work flow.

Just a little e-commerce

The appeal of e-commerce is obvious. It allows your organization to do business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The drawback? Cost. To implement a full fledged e-commerce solution requires an annual security certificate, much more expensive hosting & more expensive design. Your annual costs could increase by $700 or $800 a year and your start up costs could be in the $5000 range. Clearly, it only makes sense if you are selling on the Internet full time.

What should you do if you just want to accept that single sale or donation and can't rationalize a full blown e-commerce commitment?That's where PayPal steps in.

PayPal, the largest internet money broker, offers a solution that integrates very will with RapidWeb, and it is very inexpensive to operate. Whether you want to sell just a few products, accept the occasional donation or want your members to be able to pay for their membership fees electronically, it will work well with your site.

You can go to the developer section of PayPal, or we can integrate it into your site In the end, you will have customer friendly e-commerce that can accept credit cards 24x7.

The up front cost is significantly lower (we charge $400), and there are no on-going annual fees. PayPal provides the secure certificate, the cart, the credit card processing & fraud prevention. By using PayPal, you can accept credit card payments without having a credit card merchant account and without a credit card machine. PayPal's price is 1.5%, an amount less than you would pay if you processed your own credit cards

Here are some examples of RapidWeb sites that have implemented PayPal e-commerce on their sites:

http://www.ogh.org/index.php?DonationForm - Olean General is now accepting PayPal donations.

http://www.hamburg-chamber.org/membership/membership.html - The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce is now allowing new members to sign up and pay on-line

http://www.ceramic-stone.com/index.php?Order%20Page - Ceramic Stone accepts orders and payments for their grave stone flag holder.

New RapidWeb web sites

Since our last newsletter we have added a number of new sites:

Blumenthals.com designed sites:

http://www.ogh.org/ Olean General Hospital's site has over 150 pages and forms and was created in just 2 months.

As a FULL TIME communications director I was skeptical that I would have the time to become the web master for our new web site as well. But RapidWeb is so logical and easy to maintain that it just hasn't been a problem at all. - Gail Speedy Director of Communications

http://www.oghfoundation.org/ As we progressed almost 4 weeks into Olean General Hospital project it was decided that a second site - Olean General Foundation - should be added. Not a problem with RapidWeb!

Our former web site was tired and in need of updating. Bruce Cummings, our new President/CEO requested a complete web site overhaul ASAP. With help from Blumenthals.com, RapidWeb and our enthusiastic staff, we were able to get not one but two sites up on time (8 weeks) and on budget. We were very pleased. Karen Fohl Foundation President and Vice President of Institutional Advancement

http://www.prairiedogregistry.com/ - The Prairie Dog Registry. Jodi wanted a truly interactive community site that reflected her interest in prairie dogs and offered end users the opportunity to add their own content and pictures as well. After baby sitting Jodi's prairie dogs for the weekend and visiting the site, even I (the last of the great pet animal curmudgeons) was converted.

Hi, I found the URL to your site from your posting at the yahoo pd group, the site is excellent! I hope that more people see it, it's the best one I've seen anywhere!- Connie PrairieDogRegistry.com visitor

If there is anyone else in your organization that would benefit from this newsletter, please let me know and I will add them to my mailing list.

We hope you find RapidWeb and this newsletter useful. If you would like to be removed from our list, just send us an e-mail to let us know. If you have a RapidWeb story or an interesting web site tale, pass it along for publication in our newsletter.

Michael Blumenthal