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Archive for November, 2007

Peapod Jewelry: Handmade Jewelry from Maine

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Today flyte launched a new Web site for jewelry artist Ronna Lugosch of Peapod Jewelry.

Ronna creates nature-inspired, hand-crafted jewelry with a whimsical touch. Whether you prefer lobster tail or are looking for the perfect Christmas or Winter Solstice gift, you’re sure to find it in her online store.

Not into vegetables? You can also see a wide selection of animal-influenced jewelry Ronna created as well.

Visitors to the site can learn more about Ronna and how she creates her jewelry. You can also see her dressed as a giant peapod…if you wish.

Podster Ronna wanted to manage her own inventory, so flyte developed a custom-built e-commerce solution for her. She can add/edit/delete products and generate PayPal buttons without knowing a lick of code.

She just logs into a password-protected area of her site and can manage her gallery/jewelry store at any time, day or night.

Products can be assigned to multiple categories for easy sorting. She’s able to add related items as well, to help customers find just the right gift for them or a loved one.

Looking for a beautiful, unique gift for this holiday season? Check out Peapod Jewelry.

Looking for an e-commerce solution to help grow your business? Check out flyte new media.

Rich Brooks
E-Commerce Web Sites for Small Business

Posted in Web Site Launches | 4 Comments »

There’s More to Spamming Than the Letter of the Law

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Today I got an email from Dario R. Franceschi, dariof1@cox.net, to let me know about a fully leased NNN Retail/Office building for sale in Las Vegas.

I’m not in the market.

At the bottom of the email was the following haughty phrase:

Under Bill(s) 1618 TITLE III by the 105 US Congress, per Section 301, Paragraph(a)(2)of S. 1618, a letter cannot be considered Spam if the sender includes contact information and a method of "removal".

Not exactly.

That part of the law says that all "unsolicited commercial email" must require the name, physical address, phone number and the ability to unsubscribe. That’s not exactly the same as saying that the email I received cannot be considered spam.

I consider it spam. I’m sure just about everyone else who got it considered it spam. I certainly didn’t request it. I don’t know how Mr. Franceschi got my email. Maybe he bought a list. Maybe he harvested it off the Web. He certainly didn’t get it from me. We don’t have an "established business relationship."

If you’re tempted to buy a list, consider that there’s more to following the letter of the law. There’s the negative impact your email will have on hundreds or thousands of recipients. Especially if a few of them are bloggers.

There’s only one way to get a good list: build it yourself.

Rich Brooks
Opt-In Email Marketer

Posted in Business Philosophy, Email Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business | No Comments »

Should You Change URLs for Search Engine Optimization?

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

There’s a good Q&A over at High Rankings about changing URLs for SEO. Jill Whalen, one of my favorite SEO experts, suggested no. In other words, does www.yourcompany.com/red-leather-dog-collar.html do better than www.yourcompany.com/item123.html?

She said, and I agree,

"It is a common misconception that keywords in URLs are somehow helpful to search engine rankings, when in reality, they have very little (if any) effect on rankings."

Search engine algorithms change all the time, often in response to what search engine marketers are doing to game the system. So, there’s no way of knowing what the algorithms will be like down the road.

My recommendation is to keep your current URLs as they are; you may have build up some good incoming links and trust at the search engines for that page. However, you may want to hedge your bets going forward, and create more keyword-rich URLs.

One word of caution: don’t over do it. Search engines tend to frown on pages that seem "over-optimized." Be clear with out being pushy.

Rich Brooks
/search-engine-guy-from-maine.html

Posted in Search Engine Marketing | 8 Comments »

Who’s Linking to You: Counting Your Backlinks

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

Have you ever wanted to find out who’s linking to you?

Carolyn just alerted me to a cool tool to do just that and more called Backlink and Anchor Text Tool. Not the sexiest name I’ve ever heard, but it’s certainly keyword-rich. (Ditto w/the developer’s name: We Build Pages.)

What I like:

It provides all the incoming links to any URL you give it. (Yours, your competitors’, etc.)
It provides the anchor text used on those Web pages. In other words, you’ll know if someone linked to your site with the words "world-class company" or "fly-by-night operation." Since search engines pay attention to the words in a link, you want your incoming links to use the keywords you’re targeting.

What I don’t:

It ain’t quick. You’ll have time to go get yourself a cup of coffee. Or brew yourself a new pot. Or, write an entire blog post.
I couldn’t find any specifics on how the reports are run. Do they pull from search engines (Google is notoriously for under-reporting backlinks) or use some other method?

Still, this is a great tool for:

Web site owners
SEO experts
Narcissists
People ready to make structural changes to their site.

Rich Brooks
917 Backlinks (and counting…)

Posted in Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing | 5 Comments »

Highrise: Another Great Web App from 37 Signals

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

Highriselogo
I’ve been a big fan of BaseCamp from 37 Signals for a while. We use it as an online, collaborative project management application to help develop effective Web sites with our clients.

Recently, I discovered that the good folks at 37 Signals have released an online contact manager and simple CRM application called Highrise. For a while we’ve been looking for an online tool to share customer contact info among our crew, so I was excited to test drive Highrise.

Despite a few surprising omissions, my experience with Highrise has been great.

(more…)

Posted in Entrepreneur & Small Business | 6 Comments »

Two Things Google Says You Need to Know for Better Search Engine Rankings

Monday, November 26th, 2007

Two important statements came out of Google recently, and as Google goes, so does the search engine market. Make sure your search engine marketer knows about these two items.

Buying and Selling Text Links Are Evil

Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of
Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s
ranking in search results.

In the past, one way to get more incoming links–and thus improve your standing in the search engines–was to buy text links from other Web sites. Besides the traffic that you might receive, search engines saw these incoming links as "votes of confidence." However, Google has ruled that these links are there to artificially raise a Web site’s ranking, so they will be penalized.

To reduce the incentive to use text links Google is penalizing both the sellers and buyers of these links.

More info >>

Shared IPs Are as Good as Dedicated IPs

Lots of sites are hosted on shared IPs. If this had a negative effect
on ranking, it would harm most of the sites on the web–and that’s not
good for small webmasters or for our users. So, understandably, sharing
an IP should not have an effect your ability to rank.

My advice: don’t worry about it. Host your site however you think
is best, and instead spend your time focusing on the content–making
sure your pages are easy to navigate for users regardless of their
browser or hardware, and ensuring that the content you provide is
informative and unique.

This is a confirmation that Google has made several times before. So, if you’re getting pressure from your search engine marketer or your hosting company to upgrade to a dedicated IP, just tell ‘em to take a hike.

If you have no idea what this means, the upshot is that you don’t HAVE to know.

More info >>

Now, get back to writing targeted, keyword-rich content to improve your search engine rankings!

Rich Brooks
SEO for Small Businesses

Posted in Search Engine Marketing | 2 Comments »

Debbie’s RC World PayPal Scam

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

If you’ve received a receipt for your Payment to Debbie’s RC World through your PayPal account you can delete it; it’s a scam.

The goal of this phishing scam is to get you to click on the Dispute Transaction and give up your username/password at a fake PayPal site.

Item Name: Sportwerks Raven ST RTR Electric Truck
Cost: $175.00
Email: eric@debbiesrcworld.com

Remember: Never click on a link in an email. If you’re unsure, go to the Web site directly and log into your account.

Rich Brooks
Making the Internet Safer for You Since 1997

Posted in Ignore It! | 4 Comments »

Maine to NFL: Maine is Part of New England

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

I’m reading with a heavy heart today that what might be a historic game for my beloved Patriots won’t be shown on TV here in Maine.

Why? Because two giant corporations–the NFL and Time Warner–are having a pissing match over who’s the bigger dog. The NFL has placed the December 29th match up between the Pats and the NY Giants on their own NFL Network in their grand plan of trying to make it more difficult for the average fan to watch their local teams.

The NFL wants its fledging network on Time Warner’s basic cable…basically forcing everyone who gets cable in Maine to pay for football whether they like it or not. If the NFL had faith in it’s product it would allow Time Warner to carry the NFL network as part of a premium package and let those of us who are willing to pay for it pay for it.

Seth Palansky, the communications director of the NFL Network, and a man who obviously has never looked at a map, said,

The sad truth in this case is that if your outside the home market, regardless of whether you get the channel (on cable) or not, you won’t see it.

Ummm…they’re the freaking NEW ENGLAND Patriots.

It’s rare for me to get on the side of giant cable companies–just check out any of my posts on Net Neutrality–but the NFL is dead wrong on this deal. The last time they did something this bone-headed and fan-unfriendly is when they gave exclusive rights for the NFL video game EA, killing competition and reducing EA’s need to improve their product.

I know this post won’t do any good; I know that if the Pats go 15-0 I’ll be heading down to Boston to watch the game with my brother Doug.

However, the league should know that the only reason they make so much freaking money is because of the fans; fans they seem to be going out of their way to gouge. If enough of us get tired of being treated like the children in a messy divorce, we’ll go elsewhere. Hell, I’m just about ready to try and figure out NASCAR.

In the meantime, Doug, fire up the grill and I’ll see you on the 29th of December.

Rich Brooks
(Still a) Pats Fan

Posted in Off Topic | 4 Comments »

Blog Marketing Workshop

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

After a few months off because of summer break and a busy speaking-filled fall, we’re bringing back our Working Lunch Seminars here at flyte. But this time, with a twist. It’s during breakfast.

I tried to come up with something clever along the lines of Lunch & Learn, but as you can see, nothing clicked.

Nosh & Know
Munch & Master
Lox & Learn
Bagel & Become Able

So, I went back to my list of flyte-related puns and brought back "flyte school." (Jonathan also suggested this to me at one point, but I have documentation…somewhere…that proves I came up w/it first.)

So what’s the first class of flyte school?

How to Plan, Build and Promote a Business Blog

Entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes are realizing the benefits
of a business blog to establish their credibility and expertise,
increase their search engine visibility and connect with prospects,
clients and the media.

In this workshop you’ll learn:

How to get started in blogging
How a blog can attract search engine traffic
How a blog can deliver leads to your business
How to promote your blog and attract prospects and connect with customers

This workshop is limited to just 10 participants!

Date: Wednesday, 12/12/2007

Time: 8am – 9:30am

Place: flyte’s offices (directions)

Cost: $50, includes coffee & danish type edibles

How about doing this as a Webinar, Rich?

I’ve heard this question several times recently, and I am planning on offering Webinars in January. (Hopefully.) Just need to work out some details. Stay tuned!

Rich Brooks
Business Blog Speaker

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Web Marketing | 3 Comments »