Net Magik Pros would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
See you in 2009!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Join local networking organizations
It's been since April since I have posted something on here. If you have been keeping up and reading this, I'm very sorry. This summer, during the 2008 Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival, we had a pretty bad storm with 60+ mph winds. This blew a tree onto the roof of our house, $6k and no electricity for most of the balloon festival. This made things very difficult to update the website during the festival. We did finally get all of that straightened out, plus a lot of updating to our house that needed to be done, we are still waiting on a guy to replace the roof of the house, plus we are getting a new window... and this list can go on and on...
Now, about joining networking organizations:
This is a great way of getting your website name out there. Here are a few organizations to think about:
Now, about joining networking organizations:
This is a great way of getting your website name out there. Here are a few organizations to think about:
- Local Chamber of Commerce
- Local Lions Club
- Business Network International
Thursday, April 24, 2008
SEO Truths V.S. Myths
Here are some truths vs myths of search engine optimization.
I could write this really big article about what is needed for search engine placement and what is not needed for it, but the truth is, nothing is actually NEEDED for good search engine placement. Keywords, Descriptions of pages, headers, tableless layouts, etc etc. This list goes on and on, but the fact is, there are 10 million little things you can do to get good search engine placement. There are also a few things that you should do no matter what, like place some relevant links on your site that don't compete with what you do. But even this is not necessary.
What we have found is if you make the web site good for your potential visitors, the search engines will follow. Search engines don't purchase from you, however, people do. I know that I could have gone on and on about this, but this is the cold hard truth.
Think about it.
I could write this really big article about what is needed for search engine placement and what is not needed for it, but the truth is, nothing is actually NEEDED for good search engine placement. Keywords, Descriptions of pages, headers, tableless layouts, etc etc. This list goes on and on, but the fact is, there are 10 million little things you can do to get good search engine placement. There are also a few things that you should do no matter what, like place some relevant links on your site that don't compete with what you do. But even this is not necessary.
What we have found is if you make the web site good for your potential visitors, the search engines will follow. Search engines don't purchase from you, however, people do. I know that I could have gone on and on about this, but this is the cold hard truth.
Think about it.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Check Credentials
Ok, first I want to say that this is not aimed at the beginning web designer/developer. We all have to start somewhere.
Recently, we have had several phone calls from people wanting to get a web site started. We are not comlpaining about that, but the phone calls have been coming in at an alarming rate. This is a good problem to have, at least better than the opposite of that!
Some of these people that want a web site have already started the process by hiring someone to create a web site for them, only to find out that the person that they hired has gone away, or gone out of business, off to college in another state etc. We have asked some of these people, that contacted us, if they checked out any of the other web designers work. Most of these people responded with something like "THEY HAVEN'T ACTUALLY CREATED A WEB SITE THEMSELVES, BUT THEY SAID THAT THEY KNEW HOW TO DO IT!"
We were suprised at their answer, but tried not to show it, and we followed up with another question. That question was "Does this other guy have a web site and did you check their own web site out?" The answer to that/those questioins were astounding. Generally the answer was "WELL, THEY DIDN'T ACTUALLY HAVE A WEB SITE THEMSELVES, BUT THEY SAID THAT THEY CREATED WEB SITES FOR OTHER PEOPLE. THEY SAID THAT THEY DIDN'T NEED A WEB SITE FOR THEMSELVES BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE TIME!"
Needless to say, we can help these people, and we could probably even take further advantage of these people if we were that way. We won't ever do that, but the point is, CHECK THE CREDENTIALS OF THE PERSON WHO YOU WILL POSSIBLY GIVE LOTS OF MONEY, TO CREATE A WEB SITE FOR YOU.
We understand that maybe you don't know what web design is all about, or how much it should cost, but there is a ton of information out there about that. Look it up so you at least have an idea. You may still not be able to create your own web site, but at least you will be educated enough to hire someone to do it for you!
As an example of what I'm talking about, I'm not a realitor, and I don't know the first thing about how much a house should sell for, but there are plenty of web sites out there that will educate me a little so that I'm more informed, and I definitely would not hire a realitor that lives in an apartment or has never even sold a house. That would be a GIANT RED FLAG!
I could tell you how much a house should sell for, but it would be a guess at best, but if I could "talk a good talk" you may believe me, even though my only purpose would be to rip you off!
All we are saying is that if you are going to hire someone to create a web site for you, check their credentials. Have the potential web designer/developer show you web sites that they have created. If they are just starting out, have them at least show you their own web site. Have them show you web sites that they have at least helped out on or contributed to. Make sure that their name is somewhere in the text of the web site or in some of the code of that web site. If you don't know how to look at the code, have them point things out to you, and then contact another web designer/developer and get another price quote. Ask the second web designer/developer about the first one. A reputable web designer/developer will at the very least tell you if they have even heard of the other. Try to ignore some of the bad things as the web designer/developer that you are talking to does not want to lose business to them, so they may point out some bad things, but unless they are telling you about how they have a current client that was ripped off (or something very major like that) then you have to keep in mind that they are trying to get your business.
We actually suggest a client get other quotes from other web designers, but we also inform the client about reputable web designers/developers in the area. As much as we want the client to get a good price (if they go somewhere else) it is equally important that this client choose another web designer that will not rip them off.
Here is a list of other web designers/developers in our area that we would happily recommend:
Recently, we have had several phone calls from people wanting to get a web site started. We are not comlpaining about that, but the phone calls have been coming in at an alarming rate. This is a good problem to have, at least better than the opposite of that!
Some of these people that want a web site have already started the process by hiring someone to create a web site for them, only to find out that the person that they hired has gone away, or gone out of business, off to college in another state etc. We have asked some of these people, that contacted us, if they checked out any of the other web designers work. Most of these people responded with something like "THEY HAVEN'T ACTUALLY CREATED A WEB SITE THEMSELVES, BUT THEY SAID THAT THEY KNEW HOW TO DO IT!"
We were suprised at their answer, but tried not to show it, and we followed up with another question. That question was "Does this other guy have a web site and did you check their own web site out?" The answer to that/those questioins were astounding. Generally the answer was "WELL, THEY DIDN'T ACTUALLY HAVE A WEB SITE THEMSELVES, BUT THEY SAID THAT THEY CREATED WEB SITES FOR OTHER PEOPLE. THEY SAID THAT THEY DIDN'T NEED A WEB SITE FOR THEMSELVES BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE TIME!"
Needless to say, we can help these people, and we could probably even take further advantage of these people if we were that way. We won't ever do that, but the point is, CHECK THE CREDENTIALS OF THE PERSON WHO YOU WILL POSSIBLY GIVE LOTS OF MONEY, TO CREATE A WEB SITE FOR YOU.
We understand that maybe you don't know what web design is all about, or how much it should cost, but there is a ton of information out there about that. Look it up so you at least have an idea. You may still not be able to create your own web site, but at least you will be educated enough to hire someone to do it for you!
As an example of what I'm talking about, I'm not a realitor, and I don't know the first thing about how much a house should sell for, but there are plenty of web sites out there that will educate me a little so that I'm more informed, and I definitely would not hire a realitor that lives in an apartment or has never even sold a house. That would be a GIANT RED FLAG!
I could tell you how much a house should sell for, but it would be a guess at best, but if I could "talk a good talk" you may believe me, even though my only purpose would be to rip you off!
All we are saying is that if you are going to hire someone to create a web site for you, check their credentials. Have the potential web designer/developer show you web sites that they have created. If they are just starting out, have them at least show you their own web site. Have them show you web sites that they have at least helped out on or contributed to. Make sure that their name is somewhere in the text of the web site or in some of the code of that web site. If you don't know how to look at the code, have them point things out to you, and then contact another web designer/developer and get another price quote. Ask the second web designer/developer about the first one. A reputable web designer/developer will at the very least tell you if they have even heard of the other. Try to ignore some of the bad things as the web designer/developer that you are talking to does not want to lose business to them, so they may point out some bad things, but unless they are telling you about how they have a current client that was ripped off (or something very major like that) then you have to keep in mind that they are trying to get your business.
We actually suggest a client get other quotes from other web designers, but we also inform the client about reputable web designers/developers in the area. As much as we want the client to get a good price (if they go somewhere else) it is equally important that this client choose another web designer that will not rip them off.
Here is a list of other web designers/developers in our area that we would happily recommend:
These are all very reputable web design/development companies. Your relationship with your web designer/developer is very important. It's part of what you are paying for. You should be very comfortable talking with them. If you are not, or if there is a problem communicating with them, then they may not be the "person for the job" and you should contact other reputable web designers.
The next post will be about Search Engine Placement Specialists. Truths V.S. Myths.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a bunch of different things. I'm only going to talk about one thing related to SEO this time.
Become an expert in your field of expertise. Get involved with writing articles for other web sites (like GoArticles.com), newspapers, magazines, books etc. Get involved with online forums and groups. Don't forget to write articles for your own web site too. Start a blog (like this one) and make sure you "tag" the keywords of your article in it.
There is a whole lot more you can do to help get the word out about your web site, and these things are just a few of them.
Also, don't forget to include your web site address when you sign your name on the article. This will drive visitors to your site.
Become an expert in your field of expertise. Get involved with writing articles for other web sites (like GoArticles.com), newspapers, magazines, books etc. Get involved with online forums and groups. Don't forget to write articles for your own web site too. Start a blog (like this one) and make sure you "tag" the keywords of your article in it.
There is a whole lot more you can do to help get the word out about your web site, and these things are just a few of them.
Also, don't forget to include your web site address when you sign your name on the article. This will drive visitors to your site.
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