The Portland Press Herald ran a photo today that was taken at the exact same time Jonathan took his photo yesterday of the amphibious car driving up Portland Pier just outside our window.
Yes, those are buoys floating down the street.
Toyota should contact the driver and ask if they want to be in a commercial for the 4Runner. This guy could be the new Jared.
I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate our friends (and business blog consulting clients) Katie Sternberg and Allison Kurpius of The Marketing Source…their blog, the Fix Your Marketing Blog, was named one of TypePad’s Featured Blogs today.
TypePad calls their blog "a castle of contemporary marketing wisdom with room after room of tools and resources for your perusal." Wow!
TP goes on to say:
[Katie and Allison] stress two things above all: don’t waste your marketing dollars and it is imperative to build a clear strategic marketing plan. Get an overview of current trends and Internet marketing while refreshing your memory with tips on traditional standbys like market research and customer service.
You will walk away with a carriage of do-it-yourself marketing ideas,
and a plan of action that begins with signing up to receive their free white paper, Marketing Plan or Marketing Mess?
I know I just blogged about them the other day, but if you’re a small business or non-profit looking for great marketing advice, be sure to check out the Fix Your Marketing Blog.
If you’re looking for help in designing, developing or promoting your own business blog, turn to the folks The Marketing Source turned to…flyte! (Did that come on too strong? Sorry.)
Gray & Sephie Cabaniss love dogs. They opened a retail store (and e-commerce Web site) called Agatha & Louise here in the Old Port in Portland, Maine, selling decorative items and gifts for dog lovers. Everything a dog lover needs from Airedale terrier needlepoint dog pillows to Yorkie dog ties.
They came to flyte because they were looking to market their store and drive more qualified traffic to their site. After meeting Gray & Sephie anyone would realize that they’re very passionate about what they do. A dog blog seemed like the best channel for their energy and passion.
So far, the posts run the gamut from serious (FDA Warning for Pet/Dog Food Recall) to the fun (Dogs in the Movies. Did you know that Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Snow Dogs is the fourth highest grossing dog movie of all time? It’s a travesty only made worse by the fact that Best in Show didn’t make the top 10.)
The blog covers dog breeds, dogs in the news, famous dogs and traveling with dogs, along with other dog-related topics.
Gray & Sephie are also busy collecting dog stories and photos from readers, so if you have a canine you’d like to share with the world, be sure to let them know!
If you’re a dog lover or just know one, be sure to check out Agatha & Louise’s blog.
We’re not getting much work done here today at flyte. Everyone keeps running into my office and the conference room to watch the effects of the storm. The road/pier to the left of our office is fully submerged. There’s actually lobster buoys floating aimlessly down Portland Pier.
Good tires are a requirement for a day like today, which is an interesting coincidence, given the email below.
A client (OK, my dad), recently forwarded me this email from "PayPal" to confirm his concerns that this was a scam:
This e mail confirms that you have paid V***** Tire Sales
(sales@v*****tire.com) $379.00 USD using PayPal.
This credit card transaction will appear on your bill as "PAYPAL *V*****
TIRE".
————————————————————————Payment Details
Transaction ID: 0EW23032ET502103Y
Total: $379.00 USD
Item/Product Name: Pirelli PZero Nero (M+S) P255/35ZR20 97W
Item/Product Number: 2528
————————————————————————Business Information
Business: V***** Tire Sales
Contact E-Mail: sales@v*****tire.com
————————————————————————Shipping Address
Shipping Info: D*************s
4310 T***** ST
Dallas TX 75423
United States
Address Status: Unconfirmed
————————————————————————
Wit h PayPal, you.re protected against unauthorized payments sent from your
account.This payment will not appear in your PayPal account until we verify
this transaction.If you would like to escalate this dispute to a PayPal
claim, you must do so or it will automatically close. A closed dispute
cannot be reopened or escalated to a claim.If this is transaction is not
authorized, click on the link below to fill a claim and cancel the payment.
Dispute Transaction
————————————————————————Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal TeamPlease do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response.
PayPal Email ID PP120
Although I couldn’t look at the original email and see where the link went (it certainly didn’t go to PayPal), I was able to confirm this was a PayPal scam similar to when Santa wanted my PayPal login info.
In other words: Ignore it!
Update: You may wonder why there are so many * in this post. I recently received a very nice email from the good people at V***** Tires. You can imagine how tough this has been on them, since they are in no way involved with this scam.
For whatever reason this post has risen in the search engine rankings and is hurting their brand. Since this scam seems to be past, I removed all of the references I could find.
I also want to thank them for writing me such a polite email rather than serving me with a cease and desist letter, or taking an aggressive stance. Other companies could learn from their behavior.
Thanks to Jonathan Braden for the cell phone photo of Portland Pier. It’s tough to make out in the photo, but that car is up to its headlights in water.
Flyte recently finished work for an extranet for Spurwink, a network of professionals providing mental health, educational and residential services to over 4,000 children, adolescents and adults throughout Maine.
With over 850 geographically scattered employees, it was often difficult to share resources and gain access to necessary forms. Spurwink’s previous solution made resources available while inside a Spurwink facility, but employees couldn’t access it from home. Also, changes and additions could only be made by someone with HTML knowledge.
Flyte used Joomla, an open-source Content Management System (CMS) as a platform to build a better tool for Spurwink. Now all employees can gain access to the extranet with their unique username and password. There they’ll have access to the library of professional research, legal, policy and other documents and forms needed to provide the mental health, educational and residential services to their clients.
The extranet also serves as the organizational directory and internal news and events center. Leaders, managers and administrators in all departments have complete control over the content of the extranet through a Joomla interface, requiring no HTML knowledge.
For you Joomla geeks out there, we started with JCE WYSIWYG as a wysiwyg editor, but found it lacking. Spurwink was also underimpressed with that module. The document handling for that module was just a bit weak, which was one of the major concerns for Spurwink. After a bit of searching we found WYSIWYG Pro, which we found to be a much better solution for their document handling needs.
Just our .02.
Rich Brooks
Maine Web Design & Development
What’s the most under appreciated element of a successful site? The copy. Nothing is more important to the success of your Web site–yet more overlooked–than the words on the page.
Writing for the Web is a completely different exercise than writing for printed material. You never know where people are going to start (depends where the search engine drops them), what order they’ll read your copy (due to all the links), or how the pages will look (thanks, non-compliant browsers! I’m looking at you, Internet Explorer.) Unfortunately, most Web site owners don’t realize this until the 2nd or 3rd iteration of their Web site, if at all.
Thankfully, Susannah Ross has written a great article for old hands and newbies alike called 10 Tips for Building a Better Web Site.
From breaking up your information (#2) to using more verbs (#8) to
anticipating users’ questions (#5), she shines a light on issues you
may have overlooked the last time you wrote copy for your site.
If you’re Web site isn’t delivering the traffic or business you think it should, be sure to check out 10 Tips for Building a Better Web Site. If you need an expert opinion, maybe you need a Web site audit.
Yesterday flyte launched a new Web site for Concord Eye Care, a full service ophthalmology practice in Concord, New Hampshire.
The team of doctors at Concord Eye Care offer both LASIK and LASEK (refractive) surgeries, to combat nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.
If you are in need of an optician’s services, you can stop by their optical shop and choose from such brands as Marchon, Safilo and Charmant.
For site visitors who like their fonts big and their headers gigantic, each page gives visitors the opportunity of adjusting the text size with a click of a mouse. (Yes, I know that you can do this through your keyboard, but does everyone know that?)
Whether you’re looking for complete eye exams, help with your glaucoma or contact lenses, visit Concord Eye Care’s Web site or their offices located conveniently on the Concord Hospital Campus.
Rich Brooks
20/20 Web Site Development
I just received an email from Constant Contact (predictable, no?) about some changes to their pricing structure.
They’re continuing to offer a 60 day free trial for up to 100 subscribers. I think that’s pretty generous, and twice the average.
However, there is a change when the trial is over. In the past, if you were under 50 subscribers (very common when you start a list), you had no monthly fee until you hit your 50th subscriber. Now after you hit 60 days or 100 subscribers you’ll enter Constant Contact’s first pricing tier: $15/mo for 0 – 500 contacts.
Current people w/under 50 contacts will get a 90 grandfathered grace period, but then they’ll have to poop or get off the pot.
Despite the change in pricing policy, I still think email marketing, and Constant Contact specifically, offers an amazing return on investment.
If you’re looking for ideas and inspirations for creating a sustainable business, I’ve got the ticket.
MEBSR is putting on its Spring 2007 conference with two keynote speakers and one very handsome workshop leader. (At least my mom says so.)
I’ll be speaking on Holistic Web Marketing: An Integrated Approach to Online Success. If you’ve been looking to leverage the Internet to generate more leads, convert more visitors into customers, and connect with your customer base, this is the workshop to attend.
So what to do when you’re not learning how to drive qualified leads to your Web site and convert them? Well, Paul Farrow, former CEO of Moss, Inc. will be one of the keynotes speaking on "Sustainable Business: It’s Not If, But When & How." I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Paul over the past few months; he’s a great speaker, filled with great ideas, and worth the price of admission alone.
Brian Kuehl, partner at Clark Associates and Harvard Koeb Fellow will be the other keynote, speaking about "Turning the Ship: Environmental Transformation of the U.S. Economy."
Other workshops include:
In short, something for everyone.
The conference is Thursday, May 10th at the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport, Maine.
Through some weird loophole, if you actually pay on 4/30 it’s free.
To make your life even easier, I’ve attached the registration form. It also includes information on MEBSR’s June 7th Leadership Forum at the Mariners Church in Portland, Maine. That one I’m especially excited about, as Bo Burlingham, editor-at-large of Inc. Magazine and author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big
Hope to see you there!
If you’re a small business owner or running a not-for-profit organization, and you’re trying to get a handle on your marketing, may I suggest the Fix Your Marketing Blog.
Katie Sternberg and Allison Kurpius do a great job providing advice and information on a wide-range of online and traditional marketing, from Advertising to Writing for Business.
Recent posts include advice for non-profit marketers in how to engage their audience and information on virtual networking for small businesses.
Like many good business bloggers, Katie and Allison are obviously avid readers of other blogs and have shown me quality blogs that I might not have otherwise found.
You won’t be wasting your time with a quick trip over to Fix Your Marketing Blog.
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