Don’t Differentiate On Price

Marketing Strategy on November 18th, 2011 2 Comments
What does your business do better than anyone else in your market? I hope you can answer that question. If you don’t, you’ll be forced to differentiate on price (and you will need to get comfortable with the idea of slashing your profit margins – not fun). Businesses that fail to differentiate are doomed to ...

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How SEO Will Keep Google + Alive

SEO, Social Media on November 10th, 2011 No Comments
I just read a thought-provoking article at the New York Times. It begins by noting the recent eulogies given to Google + by such sources as Slate and Forbes. To be entirely transparent, if you would have asked me before reading this article, I’d agree. I simply haven’t (yet) seen what differentiates Google + from ...

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Adjust Your Expectations

Website Design on October 27th, 2011 No Comments
I think it’s important to adjust our expectations every now and then. Take a company website, for example. What do you expect out of having a website built? Here are common expectations I come across: I just want something simple. Question: why would you ever tell a Web design company that? All this says is ...

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Come Learn Something For Free

News on May 16th, 2011 No Comments
I’ll be teaching a course offered by the Urban District Alliance Tuesday, May 17th at 6pm at OTC. The course is titled “Web Strategies for Small Business.” Best of all, the course is free. Some come on down and learn something! Click here to read the press release.

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Doing Good

News on May 12th, 2011 No Comments
Some call it “giving back.” I prefer “doing good.” 417 Marketing has exceeded my expectations as a business. It has given me so much. Liberty. Confidence. A part of my purpose. A way to provide for my growing family. It has been a huge blessing. When I reflect on these blessings, I feel motivated to ...

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What Your Email Address Says About Your Business

Email on May 5th, 2011 1 Comment
I have a theory. If you are in business, your email address can say a lot about you. That may not be something you’ve thought about before, but I think there is something to this idea, and I personally think there is a big difference in perception between yourcompanyname@aol.com and info@yourcompanyname.com. To test this idea, ...

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How to pick a WordPress Theme

Blogging, SEO, Website Design, WordPress on April 20th, 2011 No Comments
I’m a huge WordPress fan and advocate. In fact, I recently convinced a fellow Web Designer to start using WordPress as a platform. Why do I love WordPress so much? It’s open source, which means all kinds of people that are smarter than I am are developing extremely useful plugins and themes The Content Management ...

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Read This Before Building Your Next Website

SEO, Website Design on February 28th, 2011 No Comments
Congratulations! You’ve decided to build a website. Now where do you start? How do you find a quality website designer? Know Your Keyword Strategy You should be building your website with the goal of being easy for your potential customers to find. I realize this sounds obvious, but few people take this approach. People with ...

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Marketing is…

Marketing Strategy on February 16th, 2011 No Comments
Last week on our Facebook page we asked if our friends could sum up their feelings or attitudes towards marketing in one word. We were in the mood for a little word association. The results were equal parts revealing, witty, and enlightening. You can learn a lot by listening. Here’s what marketing is to those ...

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Best WordPress Plugins

Website Design, WordPress on February 14th, 2011 9 Comments
Before getting into the best WordPress plugins out there, let’s cover a couple of definitions for the uninitiated among us. WordPress is the world’s most widely-used open source Content Management System (CMS). While it is often used as a blog, WordPress is powerful enough to run entire websites. So it isn’t just a blogging platform. ...

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