2008 March | flyte blog: small business web marketing blog

Archive for March, 2008

How to Keep Visitors at Your Web Site

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

Are you getting people to your Web site just to see them click away before visiting a second page? Do you have a very low conversion rate for traffic?

If so, there’s a good article over at MarketingScoop called Why You’re Losing Traffic and How to Make Them Stay.

The percentage of people who only visit one page on your site is called your bounce rate. Bounce rates vary between companies and industries, but lowering your bounce rate by just a few percentage points could result in thousands of dollars of new revenue.

There are lots of reasons why people click away from your site; the most prevalent is probably that they followed a link and after looking at your site, determined you didn’t offer what they needed. Not much you can do about that, but this article lists seven things you might be doing wrong on your site.

In my opinion, the most important is #3: Giving Web Visitors Too Many Distractions. I see this time and again on Web sites where site owners try and promote 20 different items. Terrible idea. You’re just giving you site visitors paralysis as they’re overwhelmed by options and the fear that they will make the wrong choice.

For the other 6 ways you may be driving away traffic, be sure to read Why You’re Losing Traffic and How to Make Them Stay.

Rich Brooks
Baby Please Don’t Go

Posted in Web Copywriting, Web Design & Development | No Comments »

Web Design Portfolio: Now With New, Slick Interface!

Friday, March 14th, 2008

It had been on my list to enhance the portfolio section of our Web site since we launched our new site last May. After all, although we offer search engine optimization, email marketing and business blog consulting, people still judge us by our looks…or at least the look of the Web sites, ezines and blogs we design.

Well, I feel like we took a giant step forward today with our enhanced Web design portfolio section. It shows off a featured selection of Web designs we’ve created over the past year or two. It also has a nice "enlargement" feature that you should really check out. Very slick.

We’ve also created a business blog design portfolio for some of our favorite blog designs from recent history.

You can see the enlargement action in the YouTube video below, but the live version is a lot smoother.

Rich Brooks
Web Design and Development

Posted in flyte news, Web Design & Development | 2 Comments »

Siphs: Share This Page Has Never Been Easier

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

If you’ve been looking for an easy-to-implement tool that will allow site visitors to share your content with their friends and associates, you should take a look at Siphs.

Sure, there’s been ways to share Web pages for almost as long as there has been Web pages, but Siphs seems to be doing things right.

Siphs Setup

Setting up a Siphs account (yes, Viriginia, there is a free version), is simple. Once you’ve done that you can generate some HTML code that you can add to whichever pages on your Web site you wish to share. You can also drop the code into a template to make your life easier. This works on both a blog or a Web site.

This creates an icon (or you can create your own) on your Web pages. When visitors come to your site and want to share your brilliance with their friends, they simply click on the link and are taken to a new page.

Depending on your plan you can customize the look and feel of this page as well. Not only can visitors send an email to friends (yes, this is also customized by you) but they can share it using a number of popular social bookmarking tools, including Facebook, Digg & del.icio.us among others.

Reporting

Another nice feature of Siphs is the reporting. On the reports page you get:

Recent Email Leads
Recently Shared (articles)
Most Shared (articles)
Shares Per Day, Week & Month
Shares by Medium

This last one is cool, because you can see not only who shared a Web page via email, but whether it was posted to del.icio.us, MySpace, Twitter or something else.

Responsiveness

Now, I’m not sure if you’ll have the same experience as I did, but I’ve found the team behind Siphs to be incredibly responsive and pro-active (God, I hate that word.) Shortly after I signed up, they followed up with me to see if they could do anything to help me. One team member reached out to me to get some feedback. I provided some, and most of my recommendations were implemented w/in 24 hours! (YMMV.)

I’ve been adding the code to more and more of our Web pages as I’m seeing the usage grow. Soon it will be on all the pages on our site, and perhaps integrated into our blog as well.

In the spirit of transparency, flyte’s become a Siphs affiliate. Of course, we wouldn’t be one if I didn’t think this product is a great fit for small businesses and Web developers alike.

To see Siphs in action, try it out on a recent flyte article: Business Blog Success: 10 Tips for a Profitable Blog.

Or you can signup for Siphs and add sharing to your blog or Web site right now.

Rich Brooks
Share This

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing | 6 Comments »

How to Drive Qualified Leads to Your Web Site

Friday, March 7th, 2008

SEO is sexy.

Not in the way that makes one feel "randy", but in the way that it attracts the most attention when it comes to driving more traffic to your Web site.

However, there are many other effective methods to driving qualified leads to your Web site, including email marketing, blogs, article marketing, social media and more. There’s even traditional offline methods as well. (Yes, some people still watch TV and read the newspaper.)

If you’ve been wondering how to drive more qualified leads to your own Web site, I invite you to the next session of flyte school: Building Traffic At Your Web Site.

This seminar will be held at flyte’s offices in Portland, Maine. (Yes, I’m still working on Webinars! Get off my back!)

Date: 3/12
Time: 12 noon – 1:30pm
Cost: $50 (includes lunch)

Registration is required as we cap the class at 10 people. Don’t be left out, register today!

Rich Brooks
"Professor"

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Business Philosophy, Entrepreneur & Small Business, flyte news, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Web Copywriting, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing | No Comments »

How to Get More Comments on Your Blog

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Dear Rich,

I’ve been blogging for a little while now. My traffic is increasing, but comments and trackbacks are few. What can I do to increase the number of comments on my blog?

–Commentless in Calais

(more…)

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Web Marketing | 8 Comments »

The Bar Harbor Inn and Spa is Blogging!

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Flyte recently designed and developed a blog for the Bar Harbor Inn & Spa in Bar Harbor, Maine. The blog is currently being updated by Joanne Parkinson, a third-generation employee at the Bar Harbor Inn! (Man, talk about loyalty!)

There’s a nice photo of the Inn on the blog with a couple of kayakers paddling by. Looking out my window–despite the sunshine–it feels like we’re still a few months away from that.

Readers and subscribers to the blog can get updates on Bar Harbor Events and Visitor Attractions, among other things.

If you’re planning a trip to the Maine coast this summer be sure to check out the Bar Harbor Inn & Spa.

Rich Brooks
Business Blog Consultant

Posted in Web Site Launches | 5 Comments »

Gorgeous Flash Work for Boston University Summer Term

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

For the second year in a row, flyte was tapped to create an interactive Flash movie for Boston University Summer Term. BU’s Summer Term program is one of the premier programs of its type, attracting high school and college students from across the US and around the world.

The Flash movie includes lots of audio and video clips of students and Boston University to give prospective students a better idea of what awaits them in The Hub this summer…besides another World Series run.

To get the most out of the experience I recommend clicking on "Listen to Our Students" within the Flash movie and exploring the sections on Visiting, International, BU and High School Students. You can also listen to the sounds of Boston by choosing that link.

We also did additional Flash work that can be found in the High School programs section; be sure to "Listen to Our Students" there as well.

The Flash was designed by Ryan Goan and developed by Andy Woznica, although I believe there may have been some cross-pollination going on.

Rich Brooks
Hot Town, Summer in the City

Posted in Web Site Launches | No Comments »

How to Prevent Odd Text Formatting in Your Blog

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

Dear Rich,

I’ve been blogging for a little while and I’m stumped. As I look at the home page of my TypePad blog, each post seems to have it’s own formatting, and the formatting even varies within a post. How can I stop this from happening?

–Confounded in Camden

(more…)

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing | 4 Comments »

Blog Workout Regimen: How to Whip Your Blog Into Shape

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Atlas1
Do you know what gym regulars call the surge of people who show up in January as part of a New Year’s resolution?

Tourists.

The same could be true with the influx of businesses that join the blogosphere each and every day. The great majority of them start with good intentions, but then fall flat.

The problem with an abandoned blog is that it usually sticks around, available through a search engine query or a forgotten link. Later, a prospect finds it and wonders why your blog was neglected and may question whether your company finishes what it starts.

Atlas2 In this month’s award-winning flyte log* I’ve put together a "workout regimen" for your blog that includes the time you should expect to put into your blog on a regular basis. This regimen will add muscle to your blog and keep it from getting sand kicked in its face.

So, if you’ve got a new blog, or have been neglecting your current blog, be sure to check out Jumpstart Your Blog: A Business Blogging Workout Regimen.

* (award pending)

Rich Brooks
What a Man!

Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing | 1 Comment »