If you like outdoor adventure as part of your vacation, you owe it to yourself to do some whitewater rafting here in Maine.

We’ve got plenty of rivers and falls for all levels of whitewater rafting, from the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers to the remoteness of the Dead River or the challenge of Canada Falls.

And there’s probably no better group to take you than Northeast Guide Service. This small, locally owned whitewater rafting adventure company is Maine’s only service registered for swift water rescue, putting all your fears to rest.

You can find them near Moosehead Lake in Greenville, Maine. That makes them the closest whitewater rafting service to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine. They’re also close to Baxter State Park and Maine’s largest mountain, Mt. Katahdin.

In other words, they’re right in the middle of your Maine outdoor adventure vacation.

You can also find them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, or check them out on YouTube.

The website was designed and build by flyte, and we provided web marketing services as well.

Rich Brooks
Maine Web Design

Last week the good folks over at 207 had me come on to talk about zombies:

• how to make a zombie costume,
• how to prepare for the (inevitable) zombie apocalypse, and
• how to create zombie-themed websites.

I busted out one of my favorite zombie t’s and waxed philosophical on our undead brethren. We took a look at the CDC’s official blog post on preparing for the zombie apocalypse (for real!) and a great how-to video on creating zombie makeup where the major ingredient is toilet paper.

I also got to show a little love for the project I worked on with Josh Fisher, Zombie Ipsum: the lorem ipsum alternative for zombie websites.

You can watch the video on the WCSH website or check it out below:

Rich Brooks
Zombie Hunter

The first autumn leaves are starting to land in our yard, which means it’s that time of year again; time to start promoting my Web Marketing and Social Media for Entrepreneurs course at the University of Southern Maine.

On four nearly-consecutive Thursday evenings from 5-7 pm, I’ll be teaching entrepreneurs how to develop a web strategy that helps build their business (or non-profit) using the web.

We’ll cover:

• SEO (search engine optimization)
• Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
• Blogging
• Online video
• Email marketing
• E-commerce, and
• Developing a website that increases your online visibility, drives more qualified traffic to your site, and helps convert that traffic into business.

If you live within driving distance of the University of Southern Maine, and are looking to grow your business, you can take a closer look at the course description and register at the USM site.

Dates: 10/20, 10/27, 11/10, 11/17/2011 (note no class on 11/3)
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Place: Abromson Center, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME (directions)
Cost: $215

Register now!

Rich Brooks
“Teach”

Whether you live in Camden, Maine, (map) or you’re just one of the thousands of people who who love visiting Maine’s rocky coast in the Camden/Rockport area every year, you need to check out Megunticook Market.

Besides a great selection of wine & cheeses and a focus on local Maine foods, you can also get your parties catered through Megunticook as well.

I’ve known proprietor Lani Temple for a few years now, and she’s popped into our offices more than once with some treats. They’re always delicious and definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area. (And worth a drive if you’re not!)

Lani also often appears on 207, a popular evening news program, sharing recipes and tips with the hosts and viewers.

Megunticook Market also is on Facebook, so be sure to like them there.

Megunticook Market had launched their site a few years back, and were looking for a more updated look and more control over the content. We freshened up the design and rebuilt the site on WordPress, a popular content management system that’s perfect for most small businesses. Lani had a blog that had been built on TypePad. To make her life easier, we exported most of her old posts and repopulated them on the WordPress platform. Now she only has one login to manage both her blog and site.

If you want a great specialty market experience on the Maine coast, be sure to check out Megunticook Market in Camden, Maine. If you need a website that you can update and manage yourself, be sure to contact flyte today.

Rich Brooks
Hungry

Both of these events have very limited seating! Don’t get shut out! Early bird tickets are still available.

Social Media Marketing for Beginners – 6/14/2011

(Learn more and register)

This 1/2 day workshop is for businesses, non-profits and individuals who don’t have a social media presence, or are just getting started with social media, or just don’t know what to do with the social media they already have in place. A good portion of the seminar will be in how to set up your accounts the right way, how to find and network with people online, and how to avoid classic mistakes in social media.

Who Should Attend?

Any business owners, marketers, PR professionals or non-profiteers who feel like their being left behind when it comes to social media.

What Will You Learn?

• How to setup your Facebook profile and business page and get people to “like” you
• How to manage your privacy on Facebook and other platforms
• How to get started with Twitter and use it to drive traffic to your website or business
• How to build your LinkedIn network so that you can build your business
• How to blog for search engine visibility
• How to use videos to increase your online visibility
• Time management and social media

Is It Worth It?

Oh, yes. In fact, we’re so sure it will help your business we offer a 100% money back guarantee for all attendees.

Is It Too Basic For Me?

If you’re concerned that you’re a little advanced for this seminar, be sure to check out our Advanced Social Media Marketing seminar on 6/28!

Date: Tuesday, 6/14/2011

Time: 1pm – 5pm

Place: Portland Public Library, Portland, ME (directions)

Cost: $35 early bird tickets, $45 angry bird tickets

Advanced Social Media Marketing – 6/28/2011
(Learn more and register)

What to Expect:

This 1/2 day presentation is for businesses, non-profits and individuals who are active in social media (you blog, or tweet, or have a Facebook business page) but are looking to take things to the next level. You’re looking for advanced tools, tips and techniques to make your investment in social media pay off.

Who Should Attend?

Any business owners, marketers, PR professionals or non-profiteers who realize that social media is going to continue to be a big part of their marketing and communications.

What Will You Learn?

• How to get more people to “like” your Facebook business page
• How to maximize your Facebook experience with events, ads and networking
• How to create an irresistable profile on LinkedIn with video, blogs and more
• How to use Twitter to find and follow local people, industry leaders and anyone else you need to network with
• How to use a blog to dominate Google and other search engines
• How to encourage comments and shares on your blog
• How to measure your social media activity and improve your ROI

Is It Worth It?

Oh, yes. In fact, we’re so sure it will help your business we offer a 100% money back guarantee for all attendees.

Is It Too Advanced For Me?

If you’re concerned that you’re not quite ready for this seminar, be sure to check out our Social Media Marketing for Beginners seminar on 6/14!

Date: Tuesday, 6/28/2011

Time: 1pm – 5pm

Place: Portland Public Library, Portland, ME (directions)

Cost: $35 early bird tickets, $45 angry bird tickets

Rich Brooks
Never Met a Mic I Didn’t Like

I looked at a number of services, including Amazon’s new cloud music service (which started the conversation), as well as iOS friendly options like mSpot and ZumoDrive.

All of these services allow you to upload a certain amount of your music to the “cloud” so that you can access it from other computers and mobile devices. You can purchase additional space a gig at a time on most of these services.

To be honest, I don’t see the appeal. I can carry about 50G of music on my iPhone or 120G of music on my iPod and never have to worry about whether I’m near a wifi hot spot or whether AT&T is going to deliver my music back to me. Even that’s only a fraction of my music collection, so the idea of spending hundreds of dollars a year to access music I’ve already purchased just doesn’t work for me, and the iPod/iPhone option fits in my pocket.

One service that I really did like was rdio. Besides being able to upload your music you can access their music ($5/mo for web, $10 for web & mobile access). I’ve already discovered a bunch of great music. The interface and product search needs some serious work (genres? release dates?) but everything else is pretty solid. I’ve never been a fan of “renting” music, but I think that after my 7 day trial is up I’ll spend the $10 a month for access to a wide variety of music I wouldn’t have otherwise given a chance.

You can watch the segment over at the 207 website or down below.

Rich Brooks
Head in the cloud, music in my pocket

The Maine SBDC offers free one-on-one counseling to businesses at offices around the state of Maine. Besides counseling, the Maine SBDC also offers plenty of resources on their website, on everything from Developing a Business Plan to Marketing Your Business to information on Taxes and Bookkeeping. Entrepreneurs in need of inspiration and example can check out the site’s Success Stories.

Their new site also features events, workshops and small business news from around the state. It was nice to see that it didn’t matter who was putting on the event, even if it was being presented by a “competitor,” such as the Southern Maine Chapter of SCORE. The goal for the site, and the Maine SBDC is to help Maine entrepreneurs build successful businesses and improve the state’s economic status.

Flyte has always thought of itself as a small business that helps other small businesses grow. That’s why we were so excited to be part of the site’s redesign. We met with the Maine SBDC and discussed with the their goals for the site, and their mission. One thing that wasn’t getting across was the free counseling that was available. Whether it sounded too good to be true or was just lost in the shuffle of the home page, people weren’t requesting the help they needed.

In the redesign we made the request for counseling a more prominent part of the landscape of every page, and included it in the navigation. We’re still working with them to streamline the signup process, but that’s another story.

Flyte designed the templates and built them out in HTML. The ME SBDC has an in house developer who then took our templates and configured them to work on their Cold Fusion-powered infrastructure.

If you’re a Maine based business looking for help on any aspect of your business, be sure to check out the Maine SBDC’s revamped website and request that free counseling. If you’re from out of state, there’s no better time to move your business or start a new business in the state. Maine offers the perfect work life balance for anyone who likes to ski, ride, bike, kayak, hike, or just about any other outdoor activity.

Rich Brooks
Flyte: Maine’s Unofficial Small Business Web Designer

Sometimes Google just isn’t the right place to get an answer on the web. Maybe you need an opinion, or the question hasn’t been asked before, or you need the wisdom of crowds.

Because of this, many question and answer sites now populate the web. In a recent segment on 207, Maine’s premiere evening new program, I talked about a few of these answer sites, including Quora, Aardvark and LinkedIn Answers.

All three sites offer unique approaches to getting your questions answered. Quora has a great sense of community, and many well known personalities ask and answer questions there. Aardvark is often a place to get an answer quickly, often in 10 minutes or less.

LinkedIn Answers is a great place to ask business questions of the LinkedIn community or answers questions yourself and establish your expertise there. I’ve often posted business questions such as “what do you charge clients for travel time?” and “how many times will you leave unreturned voicemails before giving up on a sales prospect?” Often, I’ll get dozens of great answers which I then turn into a blog post…giving credit to the best answers, of course.

You can watch the video on the 207 website or down below.

Rich Brooks
I Don’t Have All the Answers…So I Look Them Up

So, I found myself of 207 yesterday recording a segment on QR codes; explaining what they are, how to generate a QR code, how to read or scan one, and providing some ideas on how businesses and non-profits might use them.

With QR Codes being so popular in Japan, and smart phone usage exploding in the US, this is definitely something that all small businesses should pay attention to. Whether QR codes are a good fit for your marketing is something you’ll need to decide based on your business and audience, but expect to see a lot more of these 2D barcodes in the near future.

You can watch the video below, or on the 207 website if you’re reading this post in an email.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Small Business

Mental health professionals, psychologists and social workers are the first to admit that marketing themselves and their practice doesn’t come easy. That’s why we’ve partnered with Transdisciplinary Workshops to put on Expanding Your Mental Health Practice Through Web Marketing.

In this day-long workshop you’ll learn:

• How to setup a web site that engages your audience, establishes your expertise, and encourages referrals for your practice
• How to get your web site to rank higher in the search engines
• How to integrate a blog, video and an email newsletter into your web presence
• How to handle HIPAA and other Internet use issues unique to mental health practitioners
• How mental health practitioners can use social media appropriately; how to handle Facebook friendship requests, how to manage your privacy, and how to engage others in the social web
• How to market and sell information products such as e-books, online courses and webinars.

There are only 100 seats available, so please sign up early!

At flyte we’ve worked with plenty of mental health practitioners over the years, starting with my dad, whose web site I launched in 1997. It’s definitely a challenge to market something like mental health, and the education that social workers and mental health professionals go through rarely include a semester on marketing, much less search engine optimization.

However, to paraphrase one of my dad’s psychologist friends, “if you are able to help people live a healthier, happier life, then it’s your duty to market your services so that they can find that help.”

Date: Friday, March 11
Time: 8am – 3:30pm
Location: Regency Hotel, Portland, ME (directions)
Early Tuition: $150 (by 2/1/2011)
Tuition: $170

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing Presenter