Dear Rich,
How important is the actual Web address in regards to search engines? Should I use a domain name based on my company name, or one that describes what I do? In other words, is there a benefit to going with organicbakedgoods.com as opposed to mycompany.com?
–URL Hunting in Unity
Can Mainers achieve Local Prosperity in a Global Economy? That’s the question and the theme of MEBSR’s 15th Annual Sustainable Business Conference, to be held Friday, May 16th, 2008.
We have two top-notch keynotes for the conference: Governor Angus King and Peter Vigue, chairman, president and CEO of Cianbro.
In addition to the two keynotes, attendees can chose from the following workshops:
and:
The conference will be held at the beautiful (and very green) Abromson Center at USM.
Time: 8:00am – 5:30pm
Date: Friday, May 16th, 2008
Early Bird Rate (5/6/2008): Members – $90 / Non-Members – $120
Regular Rate: Members – $120 / Non-Members – $145
Save some green…join MEBSR today!
Learn more about the conference or register now!
Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility (MEBSR), is a network of Maine businesses working together for sustainable
business success through social responsibility, environmental
stewardship, and economic prosperity.
Rich Brooks
MEBSR Vice-President in charge of getting the word out
Recently flyte designed and launched a blog called Turnaround Mindset for Ed Schaffer. Turnaround Mindset focuses on the approaches and techniques needed to turnaround underperforming companies.
The blog posts so far have been well-researched, and show an understanding of what it takes to turn a company around. As the current administration finally seems willing to admit that we’re in a recession, the ideas discussed at the Turnaround Mindset have become very timely.
Recent posts include:
Whether you work for a Fortune 500 company or a small firm, there’s lots of great business ideas in here that can turnaround a company, or even help it before it falls.
By the way, unlike a lot of the other blogs we’ve developed, this is a standalone blog. This was an original design by our own Andy Woznica. Like Title Success, another standalone blog (designed by Andy), this shows you can run a business with just a blog or a blog/Web site hybrid.
Harbor Fish Market is a real fish market and a Portland, Maine landmark. From its iconic red storefront (and logo) to its authentic seafood market, it’s a piece of Portland history. Heck, we feature Harbor Fish’s chalkboard on flyte’s own Web site.
So it was with great pleasure that we launched a new Web site for Harbor Fish Market last week.
You can learn more about the different varieties of fish, lobster and other seafood that Harbor Fish has to offer. And, if you’re looking for delicious seafood recipes so you know how to best prepare your flounder, haddock or lobster, Harbor Fish has you covered there, too.
Visitors to Portland, Maine, often come to Harbor Fish Market because it is a destination. Although there are plenty of places to buy lobster in Portland, Harbor Fish Market is where the locals go to buy fresh seafood and lobster. You can get a sneak preview of their seafood market at the site as well.
What Powers the Site?
Behind the scenes there’s a lot of cool programming going on that flyte developed specifically for Harbor Fish Market. We created an admin system where Harbor Fish can add, edit and delete products, as well as assign them to specific categories, such as fresh north atlantic ground fish or fresh large fish or steak fish.
Through the admin HFM can also create recipes and link them to the primary and secondary seafood ingredients.
When running a fresh seafood market, products come in and out of stock due to the season and the weather. Because of that, HFM needed a tool to quickly publish whether hundreds of products were in or out of stock. That tool was added to the mix as well to help inform site visitors.
Since Weekend Specials were a popular feature from the old site, we added a tool so that HFM could quickly add items to the specials from their products database, and add pricing and details to each item. Images are automatically pulled over from the database as well.
If you’re coming to Portland, Maine this summer (or any other time,) be sure to put Harbor Fish Market on your list of places to visit. If you can’t make it here, be sure to check out the Web site and put in an order for fresh Maine seafood delivered right to your door.
There’s great joy to be had living and working in Maine.
Today I got to make one of my favorite drives, up route one along the coast. My destination was West Rockport, and I got to drive through picturesque New England scenery (think lobster shacks and church steeples), by rocky coasts and on bridges overlooking the ocean. Although the sky was overcast and foggy, there was little of the traffic that often ties up the road in summer.
I was traveling to the Carver Hill Gallery where I was putting on my seminar Building Traffic at Your Web Site. I had never been to the Carver Hill Gallery, but I’ll definitely go there again. The artwork they had displayed inside and out was just brilliant…big sculptures, tiny paintings and everything in between.
Jana Halwick is one of the owners of the gallery and met me when I arrived. She couldn’t have been sweeter or more accommodating. She showed me where I was going to be speaking, The Cider Barn. To quote the Web site, it’s "a meticulously restored, mid-1800s, four-season barn, attached to the Gallery, can be rented for any special occasion." It really is.
The catering was great, too. Once I realized how close I would be to Camden, I contacted my good friend/client Lani Temple over at Megunticook Market and asked if she would cater. She said "sure" since she had just registered for the seminar anyway! I wish I had taken some photos of the spread; although they were "just" deli sandwiches and wraps, they were amazingly fresh, like everything Lani makes.
Lani was also good enough to man (woman?) the camera for a while. I uploaded the photos she and I took to flyte’s flickr account to a set called Web Marketing Seminar at Carver Hill Gallery.
It was also good to see old friends like Annie Mahle, (another friend/client), who runs Maine Adventure Sails. In fact, it was Annie who set up this event, as she didn’t have the time to come to one of my Web marketing seminars in Portland.
Yes, today was a good day in Maine.
Ever wonder how your Web site stacks up against the competition? Do other pet shop owners/business coaches/karate teachers get as much traffic as you? Do they get more page views, or do people spend more time on their site?
Well, now Google is offering a benchmarking service through Google Analytics, the free traffic reporting system they offer. You can measure your Web site’s results against that of your and related vertical industries.
For more details on how this all works, and how you can set it up, check out the newest issue of flyte log, our monthly email newsletter: Does Your Web Site Beat the Competition?
(If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve already read the rough draft of this article, since I blogged it last week. For the rest of you however, it’s new to you!)
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