http://archive.aweber.com/pg-webnewsA monthly newsletter about growing small businesses using the power of internet marketingThu, 31 Mar 2011 12:02:06 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/pg-webnews/1FOOM/h/Do_you_know_what_April_is_.htm Click "Show Images" or "View as HTML" for full effect. Dear , April will start tomorrow. So, I've decided to take this opportunity to do two things: Raise your awareness about something important Remind you of the importance of community service You see, April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month or SAAM for short. April is about shining light on something that our society likes to hide away. So, I'm bringing the issue right to your inbox. Every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted in the United States. Pretty bad, huh? But, it's down 60% since 1993. Still, the rate of sexual violence is unacceptable. We must do better. SAAM started in the 1990's. Raising awareness and educating people is making a difference. So, I encourage you to spend a little time this month expanding your sexual violence literacy. I won't bombard you with statistics, though you can find some more at the end of this message. Your local Rape Crisis Center likely has a lot going on in April. You can also check out national organizations like the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Giving some of your time or money would be a big help in reducing the devastating impact of sexual violence on our society. If you're here in the Triangle, the Orange County Rape Crisis Center has events scheduled all month, including lots of fundraising partnerships with local businesses. Yes, local businesses... that's what I usually talk about. This month's lesson: Ally your business with at least one charity. You'll help make your community a better place and show your customers that you're more than just a profit-hungry enterprise. You'll show that you care, and people like doing business with people who care. Whatever you do, include some community service in your life. As members of a community we all share the responsibility of making it a good one. Don't slack off. Every little bit helps. What am I doing besides sending out this message? I made the web page linked above for the Orange County Rape Crisis Center. I handle all their website needs for free. Enjoy your April. Educate yourself. Raise awareness. Do some good. Yours for Better Tomorrows, Peter PS: Here are more facts about sexual violence... 1 in 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape. For men, the rate is 3%. Victims of sexual assault are: 6 times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder 13 times more likely to abuse alcohol 26 times more likely to abuse drugs 4 times more likely to contemplate suicide 73% of sexual assaults are committed by non-strangers. 52% of rapists are white. 50% of rapes/assaults occur at or within 1 mile of home. 33% of rapes occur between 6am and 6pm. 11% of rapes involve a weapon. 60% of rapes/assaults are not reported to the police. All statistics are for the US and taken from: http://www.rainn.org/statistics www.PeterGrandstaff.com - SEO, Web Marketing and Design Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:02:06 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/pg-webnews/ugPg/h/Grandstaff_Small_Business_eNews.htm Click here to view this issue on the web. Hi , June has been a busy month. I'll get on to some customer retention strategies soon, first a bit of news. "Election" in Iran vs. The Internet There was an alleged election in Iran, but it sounds more like a stage show. The resulting protests have been going on for a few weeks now. The government is arresting and massacring dissidents who peacefully assemble. Now it used to be that when an authoritarian regime wanted to crack down on protesters it could do a great job of hiding the details from the rest of the world. Today, the internet makes this impossible. I've followed the news from Iran through Twitter, as have many journalists since the government expelled the foreign press. For the past couple weeks the evening news has been airing footage from Youtube, filmed by everyday people like you. Social Media and Customer Retention Iran has taught us that social media has proven its merit. Are you putting it to good use? Besides helping oppressed peoples to connect with the world, social media can be an excellent business tool. Does your business have a blog? How about a Twitter account or Youtube channel? Are you on Facebook? Perhaps that should be part of your customer retention strategy. The president is using all those as parts of his voter retention strategy. How will these things help keep your customers loyal? By keeping you in touch with them, and giving you an opportunity to remind them of all those great reasons they come to you. A few issues back I talked about contributing to web forums to build visibility, search engine rank, and demonstrate expertise. Social media is a great opportunity for you to demonstrate your expertise. Whatever content you decide to put out there, be it a Youtube video or a tweet on Twitter, do your best to make it useful. People can spot blatant self promotion a mile away these days. If all you use Twitter for is to post links to the home page of your website, then you're missing the point. People like information, give it to them. If you run a local independent movie theater then post links to reviews of the movies you're playing. If you run a garden supply store then post a daily gardening tip. Once you're maintaining a steady stream of useful content people will tune in. Then, when you do post the occasional self promotion it will be seen in a totally different light. You're a trusted source now, not just another stream of marketing hype. Don't forget e-mail either. Keep up your e-mail marketing campaigns going - keep up anything you can to stay in touch with your customer base. If you aren't emailing your customers at least once a month, then you should hit reply and ask for help. I'll get you all set up. Finally don't forget the basics. Your customers have reasons for giving you their business besides your expertise. Keep your customer service quality high, and be very careful about changing your offerings. Before switching to a new distributor because it can save you some money, make sure you'll still be able to carry everything your customers want. So, get out there and at least get a twitter account. The learning curve isn't bad, but you'll benefit from observing some before you start tweeting. Here are some folks you can check out to see how best to use Twitter. @timoreilly Tim O'Reilly - CEO of O'Reilly Media @bobvilacom Bob Vila (Self promotional, but very informative!) @mashable Pete Cashmore - CEO of Mashable.com (Social media coverage, plenty of links to his own site, but links to others as well.) For news on Iran tune in to: @stopahmadi @oxfordgirl @tehranbureau @persiankiwi (MIA at the time of writing, hoping for safe return.) @omidhabibinia @Change_For_Iran Cheers, Peter (@PGrandstaff) PS: Get in touch if you need help with your social media and customer retention strategies! Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamed/3638703207/ www.PeterGrandstaff.com - SEO Web Marketing and Design Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:38:02 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/pg-webnews/27y.B/h/Grandstaff_Small_Business_eNews.htm Click here to view this issue on the web. Hi , May sure has flown by. I hope your month has been profitable. Have you gotten Google Analytics set up on your site yet? If you need some help, hit that reply button and let me know! One of my clients is so excited by his Analytics data that he checks it first thing every morning. It's always a pleasure to see someone take the ball and run with it. This month... Newsletter Contents And now for something completely different... This month I resolved to exclude Google from the newsletter. I was going to talk about customer retention strategies. It's all the rage these days, what with the economy and all. Then I watched a video on YouTube. This video blew my mind. It was the first announcement of a new Google product that will change the world, and how we communicate. So, I've decided to depart from my usual format and tell you about what I saw. Google's developer conference, Google I/O 09, took place May 27 and 28, this past Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday evening I saw on twitter that the Google Wave Developer Preview from the conference was available on YouTube. Wow. Google Wave is now being tested and extended by all the conference attendees, with the first accounts outside Google. It is a ¿communication and collaboration tool¿ to be released later this year. It integrates the functionality of e-mail, instant messaging, collaborative authoring, media sharing, and discussion forums into a single interface using a single protocol. The whole thing, server, protocol, interface, is free and open. Okay, honestly, you have to see it. It's such a paradigm shift that I can't just write up an explanation that will truly impress upon you what Google Wave is. I'll do my best though, as the video is geared toward a tech-literate audience, and is an hour twenty minutes long. If you want to dive in, they start showing Wave itself at about 7:30 in the video. Watch it on YouTube Here's the interface to Google Wave: This all happens inside a web browser. On the left are your folders and contacts. In the center is your in-box on the right is a Wave. A Wave is very versatile. It can be an instant messaging conversation, an e-mail, a photo gallery, a collaboratively authored document, or even a game of chess. Basically it can carry out any type of communication we do on the internet. All these varied forms of communication have a unified in-box. If you send someone an e-mail, and they open it while you have it open you'll see their response in real-time. If someone adds photos to a shared gallery the gallery pops up in your in-box. The Wave adapts to any usage as needed. Each user on a Wave can edit the Wave. You could post a list of action items for your team, add the team as users, and everyone could add, comment on, and assign items. You would see each others changes in real-time, with colored markers showing where others are editing in the document. You and your spouse could label your vacation pictures together from any two computers before embedding the Wave on a website for your friends to see. Of course, with everyone editing something you need a way to fix things, and see who did what. So each Wave has a time line. You can rewind, and play back all the changes to a Wave. If you and a friend are playing chess on a Wave you can rewind and see the whole game history, move by move. Sounds pretty amazing, but I for one would be frustrated that all my data lived on Google's servers. Remember how I said Google Wave was free and open? All the specifications and software will be freely available. Your company can run its own Wave server on your own domain name. Wave accounts on your server will be compatible with any other Wave account and you can send Waves to anyone. However, any waves that are only sent between your internal users will never leave your server. You'll be able to have complete control over your data. That's what will allow Google Wave to change the world. If they made it proprietary and kept everyone's data on their own servers then it would never achieve worldwide use. One feature that is particularly amazing is real-time translation. If I speak English and Pierre speaks French, we can type to each other in our native languages and Wave will translate our messages in real-time. It can handle 40 languages. It's amazing. I was awestruck when I saw it. It's at 1:12:00 in the video. Okay, I'm going on pretty long here, so I'll wrap up with some highlights and further reading links for those interested. contextual spell checking - It doesn't check spelling against a dictionary, but within the context of how you use the word. So, if you write 'their' when you meant 'they're' it will catch it. It's so good that often it is so confident that it will automatically correct your spelling. If you type 'Icland is an icland." It will automatically be changed to 'Iceland is an island.' drag and drop instant sharing - drag some photos from your computer into a wave and your recipient will see thumbnails before you've even finished uploading. extensible - anyone can create new gadgets and features, like surveys, integration with other websites, or polls and surveys. embeddable - Waves can be embedded in websites and comments made on the website will appear in the wave, while comments added to the wave show up on the web. You can learn more at wave.google.com or check out a good article at CIO.com Cheers, Peter Images courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallkennedy/3574266616/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecuaderno/3577447523/sizes/m/ www.PeterGrandstaff.com - SEO Web Marketing and Design Sat, 30 May 2009 16:32:02 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/pg-webnews/d7Od/h/Grandstaff_Small_Business_eNews.htm Click here to view this issue on the web. Hi , Last issue I talked about spies, and getting free publicity. This month I'm going to talk about Google. In particular, Google Analytics. If you know everything you care to know about websites, traffic, and search engines then this issue probably won't interest you. Newsletter Contents Metrics and Your Website News From Peter Trivia: Where did Google come from? Metrics and Your Website Metrics have to be one of my favorite things about business internet presence. Everything can be tracked, analyzed, and optimized. Sadly many small businesses aren't taking advantage of this. Do you know how many visitors your website gets per month? Do you know where those visitors are coming from, and what they look at on your site? If not, it's okay. You're not alone, and there is help. There are a variety of analytics solutions for websites. Chances are that your site has some basic statistics available already based on the server logs. Check with your hosting company to learn how to access those. If you want enterprise quality metrics for your site you'll need something more sophisticated than log file analysis. Sounds pricey doesn't it? It's not. Google Analytics is one of the most powerful and widely used solutions out there, and it's free. Well, there is a limit of 5 million page views per month, but very few small businesses will ever come close to that. Once you sign up for Google Analytics you get a snippet of javascript code that will need to go at the bottom of every page on your site. If you're using a content management system then there should be a plugin available that will automatically add your tracking code. So, just copy and paste a bit of code, then you can log in and learn... how many visitors your site had how many pages each visitor viewed what geographical areas visitors were in what search terms or links visitors used to find you which pages get the most traffic which pages visitors most often leave the site from and much more! All that data is viewable in fancy graphs and tables anywhere you're connected to the web. Did I mention it's free? Don't put it off any longer. Go sign up for Google Analytics and get that tracking code onto your site. If you need some help getting going, just get in touch with me. News From Peter It's been a slow month on my website. I've been too busy to get a blog post finished. Cranking out content can seem like a chore at times, but it is rewarding. One of the things that has had me occupied is Google's release of the Google Analytics API public beta test. An API is an Application Programming Interface. In simple terms, it's a way of allowing different computer programs to talk to each other. In this case it allows people to create software that can access and make use of Google Analytics data. I've coded up a little Proof-Of-Concept using PHP that securely fetches data from my Google Analytics account and displays it. It isn't much to look at, but what's going on behind the scenes is pretty neat. The real coding I'm working on is a system to automatically e-mail key metrics to customers as often as they'd like. Trivia: Where did Google come from? Google came from the Computer Science Department of Stanford University of course. Have a look for yourself. Google was a very successful PhD project. I hope you had a great April, and that May is even better. Enjoy the low humidity while it lasts. Cheers, Peter www.PeterGrandstaff.com - SEO Web Marketing and Design Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:04:17 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/pg-webnews/yE1V/h/Grandstaff_Small_Business_eNews.htm Click here to view this issue on the web. Hi , Spring is here. We've had some lovely weather here in the Triangle, but I'm starting to wonder if the saying should be March showers bring April flowers. No complaints here, though I am looking forward to seeing more of the sun! I finally decided to write this in HTML since I'm archiving these on the web now. Let me know what you think of the new format. Newsletter Contents Free Online Publicity News From Peter Trivia: James Bond in Orbit? Free Online Publicity I want to tell you about a simple way you can increase your business' visibility online. It won't cost you a dime, just some time. You'll get links to your website, visibility in front of your target audience, and you'll seem like even more of an expert. You'll also get a chance to spy on your market a bit in the process. Find an online forum where people talk about your type of product or service. There are usually plenty to choose from, so it's best to hone in on the one or two with the highest PageRank and the most activity. If you're a coffee roaster you would want to visit CoffeeGeek and Home Barista. Read the rules, and Create an account for yourself. Make a signature for your account that includes your website and business name. In your spare time (It really only takes 10 minutes!) log into the forum and find a conversation you can contribute to. Get out there and answer a questions for a beginner. Here are a few basic ground rules for crafting your posts. Avoid self-promotion. Keep links to a minimum. Save it for the signature. Be helpful! That's right, don't talk yourself up. Self promotion is the result, not the means. The immediate goal is to provide useful information to people. By doing that you're truly promoting yourself, and you won't be filtered out as mere marketing noise. You position yourself as an expert by demonstrating your expertise, not by saying "I'm an expert!" Many forums have a link on their main page to view unanswered posts. I like to use that as a starting point so my posts are above the fold. Click here for a good example, a post I made on CoffeeGeek for Joe Van Gogh. Last but not least, while you're on these forums have a look at what people are talking about. It's a cheap and easy way to do some market research. News From Peter I couldn't tell you how many people I've met over the years who use a password that they know is insecure. Nine times out of ten it's because they don't think they can remember a secure password. I always give them the same advice: Pick a phrase you'll remember and use the first letter of each word. I posted a more detailed explanation on my blog, along with some videos. I recently discovered the BBC program MI-5. It's a great espionage / suspense show about Britain's domestic counterintelligence agency. Being quite tasteful, I find it a nice contrast to the gore found in American suspense TV. I'm watching Casino Royale (2006) again as well... it's great to see Bond's shoes well filled. Trivia: James Bond in Orbit? Yes, I've got spy fiction on the brain, but here's a James Bond fact for you. Asteroids are numbered as they are discovered, and whoever discovers one gets to pick a name for it. When the Czech astronomer Antonin Mrkos discovered asteroid number 9007 he felt he had to name it, of course, James Bond. James Bond is out there, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. I hope you found something useful, or at least fun, in this issue. If not, hit that reply button and give me a piece of your mind! Cheers, Peter Peter Grandstaff Web Engineering Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:27:02 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/pg-webnews/fLwh/t/Peter_Grandstaff_s_Small_Biz.htmGreetings , Welcome to the February 2009 edition of Peter Grandstaff's Small Business eNewsletter. Are you looking forward to the spring? We had a very cold winter this year in North Carolina. It actually got into the single digits one day! I know... I wouldn't last a day of winter up north! In this issue I'll cover the following topics: * Free publicity & enhanced search engine ranking * Random Trivia: Why's it called February? * Website News * * Free Publicity & Enhanced Search Engine Ranking * That's right, free publicity. Now, by free I mean you won't have to shell out any cash. You will have some legwork to do, but not too much. This month's tip will only work for certain kinds of brick and mortar establishments. Stay tuned for next month's issue to learn how to get free publicity online for any kind of business! 1. Display art in your store! If you have some free wall space then start an art show. Let local artists sign up to display their work for a month at a time. Obviously you need wall space and foot traffic to make it work. If your space could pull it off, go for it. You'll get word of mouth advertising from the artist and their family & friends. You'll also show your customers that there's always something new going on at your store. If you do it regularly enough, then eventually you'll start getting listed in local publications like the Independent here in the Triangle. Feel free to speed along that process by sending them a press release! So how does that enhance your search engine ranking? Well, once you start getting listed in print you'll also show up in the online version of those publications, with a nice link to your website. Every link to your website adds a little to your authority in the eyes of Google. The site that links to you also tells Google about you. If you get a bunch of links from local websites your website will start showing up higher in search results related to your locality. Bingo, increased search engine visibility, and all you had to do was let some artists hang some pictures. If you're going to do this in your store, start off with a set of rules and stick to them. There will always be someone who wants to leave their art up longer or hang it somewhere odd. Just remember, you're doing them a favor. They can play by the rules or find some place else to show their art. I suggest staying out of the art sales loop altogether. Let the artists sell their work if they like, but leave that up to them. You have enough going on without becoming an art broker. * * Why's it Called February Anyway? * Well, the name comes from the Latin word februum meaning purification. This name came from the Roman holiday that fell on February 15th, Februa, which was a festival of purification. February was originally the last month in the year, and wasn't added until 700 BC, along with January. Before then winter was considered monthless. It wasn't until 350 BC that things were rearranged and February became the second month, as we know it. * * Website News * Not much news to report about PeterGrandstaff.com this month. There is a new blog entry up that provides a good overview of Google PageRank and what it means for your website. Read it at: http://www.petergrandstaff.com/seo/googles-pagerank-what-is-it I've been spending more time setting up an OpenX ad server and building a new informational site about coffee. Since you're a loyal newsletter subscriber I'll go ahead and let you have a sneak peak: http://www.DontCallItGourmet.com/ * * * Thanks for your time, I hope you learned something useful. As always, I love to hear from all of you. Drop me a line by replying to this email. Have a Great Day! Peter Grandstaff www.PeterGrandstaff.com PS: Of course, if you're totally fed up by this email just follow the link below to unsubscribe, and I'll stop bothering you.Sat, 28 Feb 2009 09:52:03 -0500http://archive.aweber.com/pg-webnews/T8oJ/t/Peter_Grandstaff_s_Small_Biz.htmGreetings , Welcome to the January 2009 edition of Peter Grandstaff's Small Business eNewsletter. I hope you're having a great start to the year! In this issue I'll cover the following topics: * New Year News * Giving Back & Getting More * Small Business Marketing Tip of the Month * * New Year News * We have a new year and a new President here in the United States. It's nice to hear the emphasis this new administration is putting on community involvement and volunteerism. It's a message that should be front and center, and I hope it stays there... but I'll get back to that topic below. So far half my new year's resolutions are holding up. I find that if I know there's one that just isn't going to last it's best to just drop it and create a new one that seems more likely to stay on track. Give it a try if you're feeling bad about breaking your resolution! I've posted a rather lengthy (Even worse than this newsletter!) blog entry detailing 8 eResources that are free for non-profits. Making use of these could save an organization thousands of dollars a year, or more! Some of the resources are even free for anyone. You can read the whole article here: http://www.petergrandstaff.com/blog * * Giving Back & Getting More * So, the economy stinks. Sales are down. We don't know quite what the government is going to do to fix it. In tough times like these, more than ever, we all need to work at improving things. If you're thinking about starting a business, DO IT NOW! By building up our own little corner of the economy we help the whole. Plus if you learn to run your business during lean times and still turn a profit, imagine how well you'll be doing when things improve. Another way for us to strengthen our foundations and prepare for the future is by giving back to our communities. It might be donating products to a local charity, or volunteering your time to help out a non-profit. Don't forget that there are opportunities to give back all around us. Maybe you could just take young entrepreneurs out for lunch and let them pick your brain. Whatever you do, just try to help others. It won't make you any money today, but in time you might be surprised at the return on such a simple investment. By getting involved you'll strengthen your networking connections in the area. You'll also be able to strengthen the notion that your brand is a community brand: and that's priceless in a community oriented area like the Triangle. * * Small Business Marketing Tip of the Month * Find a way you can give back to your community that complements your own business, and get your customers involved, or at least aware. If you own a shoe store, get in touch with a local homeless shelter or the Salvation Army and find out the best way to donate shoes. Then set up a big, bright donation box and offer a small discount to anyone who donates a pair of usable shoes. If you run a restaurant why not invite a local charity to bring its volunteers in for free appetizers once a month... of course they can pay for more food or drinks if they want it! Don't forget about the word-of-mouth advertising this could create either. Give back and you'll earn trust and respect from your customer base. You'll build business relationships and make a small difference in your community at the same time. * * * Well, thanks for your time. Have a great new year! Keep working hard and smart in these tough times! Cheers, Peter Grandstaff http://www.petergrandstaff.com PS: I'd love to hear your thoughts or questions. Just reply to this email to get in touch with me! Of course, if you're totally fed up by this email just follow the link below to unsubscribe, and I'll stop bothering you.Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:28:15 -0500