We recently launched a website for a political PAC for a city as part of a larger agenda to add an amendment to the city’s constitution. We used the Econoweb model, which gave us a very dynamic website in a week that cost very little. The content and news on the website could quickly follow the evolving events. The opposition could not. Newspaper reporters were watching, and soon there was plenty of media coverage (three newspapers). To quote one reporter, our own website was better than the website the city had. The work, however, was really a community effort – what Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith in their book call “the dragonfly effect”. The website a Tualatin initiative for a city amendment to protect local parks (Measure 34-186). The vote is coming up March 8, 2011. The Econoweb website is at http://www.protecttualatinparks.org. If you wish to see what one of our Econoweb sites look like, check out this one. If you live in Tualatin, don’t forget to mail in your ballot.

The blog of this website (netadventures.biz) has already been converted to a similar type of blog. During the next few weeks we plan to convert the static part of this website to the Econoweb format. During this conversion you may see the static part at least partially down at times. The blog will continue to be up and updated at times, and can be reached during this change directly at http://www.netadventures.biz/wordpress/. This bypasses the static component.

This is a test for web design.

In doing web sites, I often get the question asked: “How much will it cost?” Let’s look at different types of web sites and relative costs. The price numbers here are from industry-wide reports.

The Minimalist Web Site
This is a low-cost web site designed to give you a presence on the web for a minimal amount of financial cost. The site has very few pages; yet even with this design is important to get professional help to keep your site from getting lost among the billions of web pages out there.

In addition to the home page, this type of site generally has an About page, a Contact Page, and perhaps a few others relative to your services, product, or vision. The total page count is low, perhaps no more than eight pages. This type of site is often used for a restaurant, barber shop, or shoe repair store.

Typically this type of web site cost about $800 – $3200. If professionally designed, it can be attractive with good content. The About page is often designed as being just as important as the Home page. It should contain a lot of the keyword phrases that would drive visitors to the site. The problem, however, is that this type of site rarely ranks well in the search engines. They have poor search engine optimization. If the site caters to a niche market, it is possible to reach the niche market, however.

Any business should have some type of web site today for those who will try to reach it on the Internet, even if it is a Minimalist. This type of site can meet that need.

The Content Management Site (or CMS)
This is a type of web site that offers strong support for a user that has content that is constantly changing. Examples include restaurants posting menus and specials, PACs, churches, and electronic stores. Most businesses today realize we live in a fast-moving world and have to adapt their message to this. Years ago when a hot news item on the evening news related to a health item I marketed, a friend would call me and ask me to get a web page up immediately to target from that.

Unfortunately, I told my friend, it would take Google over a month to find that page. Today, if you have a CMS web site with a good blog, you can blog the information and Google will find it overnight. Google loves dynamic sites, and CMS gives you that dynamic.

The cost for a CMS site? Figure about $7000-$31,000. Our church got multiple bids at about $7000. By working a bit we got a design company down to about $5000. We do CMS sites as low as $2000 including the blog. These sites are a combination of Minimalist and CMS, which eliminates the search engine optimization problem and gives you great positioning in the results.

E-Commerce Web Sites
The e-Commerce web site has the facility to take orders and payments online, shipping directly. Amazon.com, of course, is the more famous of these and is doing a great job of killing the local brick and mortar book stores. These E-Commerce web sites cost about $15,000 – $150,000 or more to build.

For a high end e-commerce site, you set up a merchant account with a bank that supports e-commerce. A second product, the shopping cart, supports your database of products or services with prices, information, and pictures. A “gateway” product connects the two. The order page on your web site simply drops the client out to the shopping cart, and that system handles everything from that. There are, then, three components in addition to the web site: the shopping cart, the merchant account, and the gateway.

For a low end e-commerce site, you can use PayPal. Your web site developer writes the shopping cart pages and PayPal handles everything beyond that. In fact, this is often the best way to start with a new e-commerce business. No merchant account is needed. In fact, your client does not even need to have a PayPal account. All they need is a credit card to make their purchase through the PayPal site. The disadvantage is that you web site developer has to rewrite your shopping cart pages whenever you change products or prices.

It is important in developing an e-commerce site that you minimize the work on the client’s part when they order. They click, you ship. If they have to mail you a postal order, you have lost the client. Also you should have your geographic mailing address and other contact information on your web site in case something goes wrong with their order.

Other Aspects

There are also many other web site features that can be added and will increase the cost of your web site.

• We can do extensive search engine optimization on an existing or new web site to improve your search engine results. For a serious web site, about $300-$500 can help a lot here.
• We can add more graphics, logo design, movies, flash, or animation on a per project basis. In other words, we can add a lot of complexity to the pages even with the Econoweb design. That can cost extra.
• Cost can vary with the number of pages on your website.
• You can add pull-down menus and a large selection of pages for extra cost.

Our advice is start simple, design well, and search optimize like crazy. Then blog as much as you can. Then expand based on where you see the most blog response.

A blog is online journal, published frequently (often daily). Each journal entry is called a “post”, and the posts are maintained in reverse chronological order; that is, the most recent is first. The word “blog” itself is a derivative of “web log”. The blog also supports comments and feedback from it readers, enabling it to potentially be a highly interactive form of communication with a global community.

Some of the reasons for blogging include:

• The blog allows you to respond dynamically to your vision. It’s easy to post and manage the contents of the blog with only a minimum of experience. No programming experience is needed. You are authoring and publishing at near-zero cost.
• The blog enables you to build trust and relationships with your clients (or readers).  It is a way of servant leadership. Business leaders today have learned how to use blogs to talk to their customers and to turn those conversations to serious business relationships. You can use your blog to serve your customers.
• The blog establishes your authority in the area of your expertise.
• Blogs, as a part of your social networking, provide a high level of search engine optimization when they are done right. There is a running joke among serious bloggers (Your competitors don’t want you to know this) that BLOG stands for Better Listings on Google. That is a true statement.

If you are trying to decide whether to blog or not, here are some issues you need to consider:

1. Do you have the time? Blogging and the related social networking are very time consuming. Bloggers often post one or more times daily in the one or more blogs they own and also post in Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and other networks. Their posting content involves time-intensive research.
2. Do you have a passion for your vision?  If the passion is there, those that read your blog will know it – and the opposite is also true. Are you willing to make the commitment for the research, writing, support, and all the peripheral work involved to make the vision work? Do you really believe in your vision, service, or product?
3. Do you have the knowledge? One goal here is to establish yourself as an authority on your subject. If you find yourself weak here, it shouldn’t be too serious a concern as you start. If the passion is there, you should be able master a subject in a relatively short time – at least know considerably more than most of your clients.
4. Do you have the necessary awareness of the new marketing paradigm using the blogs? If you don’t have this awareness, you will turn your readers off very quickly. This isn’t like television or magazine advertising.

In the old days a typical marketing phrase for success was “location, location, location”. Today it is “blog, blog, blog”. And your audience is global. The blog has become so important that people often just set up a blog and skip installing a static web site. You really need both.

Here is the basic game for most serious people using blogs and web sites. First, make massive use of the social networks: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace and more. Use at least some of these for quick, short, regular, and if possible daily postings. Use advertising sparingly, but tease their interests and draw them into your blog. Use quotes, inspiration, humor, and personal stories in the social networks with very short postings. In between, you are David with a slingshot aiming at their niche and need. Once in your blog, use your postings with content and stories – then call them to action. If that’s new for you, why not let Carl help you with your blog?

What are your visions for the coming year? For Carl, there has been on important vision he has been pursuing for some years and has finally birthed as we enter the New Year. Carl’s vision has been to develop a method of creating affordable and professionally designed web sites for individuals and small businesses. Typical costs this past year for Carl to create a quality small business web site has been $4,000-$5,000 minimum. My church website, for example, uses a template strategy and the quotes from the companies that proposed to do it were over $5,000. The economy is in a major recession, and most small businesses can’t afford even a template-based web site. In addition, some 46% of the small businesses don’t have web sites – and they almost certainly you won’t succeed without one.

Here are the specific goals we started with for this web site goal:

• Affordable – total cost had to be less than $2000
• Pages should load quickly
• Blog support included – we consider blogs VERY essential for the success of a web site today
• Professional design – Layouts, fonts, line spacing, and image placement are all professional controlled
• Content Management System design – This allows the user to quickly update pages of the web site, and this CMS should be database driven.
• High quality search engine optimization support. Many template-designed web sites have poor SEO. Carl wanted high quality SEO that is built into the site.
• Multimedia, graphic, and animation support. You should be able to “grow” the site with your needs.
• Quick development cycle – One way to keep the cost down is to minimize the development time.

Sound like a dream? This is available NOW. We call it an Econoweb site. Carl has samples out there now. If you a serious about getting your own professional-quality web site, contact us and let’s get started.

As we enter the Christmas season, for my family it is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, someone who changed my life and could change yours if you haven’t met Him yet. It is a season of births. Carl is celebrating this season as he shares the birth of a new product that he’s been working on.

Most of Carl’s market for the web sites he has developed and published in the last decade or so has been for small businesses and individuals. A good web site for this market will often cost $4000-$5000 or more. Today, with the recession, that price tag is really too high. Yet web sites are essential not just for businesses, but also for non-profit organizations, churches, and even personal visions. It isn’t an option any more – it’s a necessity for success.

Carl has developed a strategy for building professional web sites for less than $2,000. Yep, that’s right. Depending on my work load, this means you often get your site in only one or two weeks and it’s affordable for almost anyone.  This cost covers everything. You storyboard your site, supply the contents and basic information, pay the deposit, and we are quickly up and running with your site. Once that is done, you pay the balance, the site goes live, and you have a web site that is working for you. What’s more, it is easy for you to change the content or layout at any time.

Here are the basic features:

• Incredible Search Engine Optimization (SEO) included
• Fast page load times
• Maximum readability to engage and hold your reader’s attention
• Point-and-click design and font controls for updating the layout
• Both the static web site and its dynamic blog are database driven
• The user sees a Content Management System (CMS). You focus on the content
• Fast development time
• Blog included with spam control
• Automatic daily backup protection on the database
• Price includes first year hosting ($140/yr. after that) and domain registration

Why not get your site going today?

Isn’t it time to birth your vision?

As you design your pages for you web site (and posts for your blog), the fonts you use are an integral part of your message. Choosing the right fonts is very important. Match your fonts to the message and theme of the page. Here are a few basic definitions:

Typeface - a set or family of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity. Examples: Arial, Times New Roman.

Font – a specific size and style of type within a type family. Examples Arial Bold Italic, 12 points.

Two key issues affect your choice of font:

Legibility – how clear the words in the specified font appear.

Readability – How easy it is to read the words in the specified font.

There are really only two types of typefaces: serif and sans serif:

A serif font is a font that includes fine horizontal lines in the design at the end of the main strokes of the character that improves the readability of the text. The lines draw the eyes horizontally along the page, improving the readability of the page. Times New Roman, Palatino Linotype, and Georgia are all examples of serif fonts. This page is in the Georgia font.

A sans serif font, in contrast, is missing those lines. Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, and Lucida Sans are examples of sans serif fonts. Computer monitors generally can’t display the detail lines of a serif font well, particularly at small font sizes. As a result, a sans serif font generally has better legibility on a computer monitor. Arial and Helvetica are san serif fonts; but were not created for the screen and are generally not used in web sites. This paragraph is in a Verdana font.

When designing material for print, the Times New Roman serif is popular as the print resolution can easily pick up the detail horizontal lines that distinguish that font. Screen resolution with a computer is much less, however, and as a result the Times New Roman has poor legibility. The serif Georgia font is specifically designed as a good serif font for the screen.

This particular site uses Verdana as the primary typeface for the web site and Georgia as the primary typeface for the blog. With our Econoweb, you can decide what you want for each. Default fonts are set for the site, but sections of text within the page can be customized to a font, as was done on this page.

Font Use Tips:

• Don’t use too many typefaces on a page or it will look like a ransom note. Stick to two typefaces on a page at the most.
• Readability is generally the most important issue. Avoid using long passages in italics or in decorative fonts.
• Try to use fonts available to everyone on both PC and Mac systems.
• If you need to use a special font not available on the user’s system, set the design as a graphic image. With this trick, the user doesn’t need to have the font.

Another important issue is the color of your font. The color should be dark if you have a light background and light if the background is dark. Otherwise, you will have poor legibility (poor contrast). The exact color is also important, as the color is a part of your message.

On our Econoweb sites, much of the layout is controlled professionally. The line spacing and other style issues are set in the background, permitting you to concentrate on the content in the design and see a professionally-looking result page..

On your storyboards, mark the exact font you wish for each item (typeface, style, size, color). Unmarked areas will default to Verdana, normal style, 11 points with 14 points for headlines.

We’ve had some real exciting results this year with our increase in visitor traffic (http://www.netadventures.biz/results.htm) with several of our sites drawing an amazing increase in traffic. In some cases, overnight. I like the recent story of a group here collecting signatures for a petition for a ballot measure to protect Tualatin parks. They had the web site using weebly.com, a free web support service. The site was up (http://www.protecttualatinparks.org), and they contacted me to help them get some starter links into the site. I dropped a link from my blog and also one from Twitter into the site about 11 p.m. By the next morning the web site popped up as number two in results on Google and my blog post with the link to the post was at the top spot on the result page. Let’s take a moment and look at how that worked.

The three things Google looks for, according to Matt Cutts (Matt works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues.) are:

1. Links coming into the site and the quality of the source pages containing those links to you.
2. The content on your site and how the content is organized.
3. The activity and interaction with users that your site is experiencing.

We need to define a few terms in this list as a starter. What, for example, is “activity”? And does Google really treat a source page linking into your site as Google-neutral; i.e., does Google really democratic in how it sees its pages, even if quality is considered?) In all probability the answer here is that Google will say they are neutral, as my social network pages (my blog and twitter post are dynamic and treated as more important (higher quality) than static web pages. Google will tell you a social network page is really of higher quality because of its more dynamic nature.

In the example I gave earlier, the petition website dropped off the Google results the next day as Google holds it until it has proven its value. That takes some time. My blog link to that web site was still there the next day at the top of the results list. My link from Twitter was indexed immediately (the evening I put it there) in Twitter. For Google, however, it took it a few days for Google to find the Twitter link even though Twitter had already seen at and would be found if you searched on Twitter.

Now look at each of the three points we mentioned:

Links – Google based its early result pages on this years ago using a patented mathematical formula that assigned the page a “Page Rank” or PR based on the number and PR of the links coming in (what is now called “Google juice” minus the juice of the links going out of the page). Today Google rates the quality of a web page today on a much more complicated formula, but those incoming links are still very, very important.

Activity – This, along with your content, affects the quality of your site. Google likes to see users staying for some time at your site, going deep in your site. Google wants to see visitors returning to your site often. Also important is how recently they visited your site. In addition, Google is probably looking at how often people comment on your posts, join your email list, and if they bookmark your pages. Watch leaders on web sites, blogs, Facebook, and to see how they encourage interaction: give away books, poll you on a movie or other issue, or ask your opinion. Having and RSS feed from your blog doesn’t help much on this. Google wants interaction.

I’m also a firm believer that social networking is very important. Your web site may do the work in terms of giving information, motivating them to take action, and then giving that all-important call to action. The social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and your blog act as gates, leading the user to your site. Going back to that starter story – the social networks keep the web site going and helped Google to see it was important.

And don’t forget those keyword phrases. Those are always the front-end that draw the user into your social networks, blogs, and web sites. Your content should be built around them.

Need help getting your site drawing a lot of visitors? Why not contact us? http://www.netadventures.biz

What are some of your experiences in getting high visitor traffic for your web site?

We just finished battling an editing problem in WordPress, only to discover the problem was with Microsoft software, not WordPress. Praise God for open source software. Boo Microsoft. Here’s the basic strategy for blog problems:

1. If you have recently modified the WordPress code or settings, remove the code or restore the former settings first and see if this fixes the problem. Always start from your most recent change or system modification. Also, verify your host hasn’t made any changes, such as moving your site to another server.
2. Check answers in the DOC files at http://www.worldpress.org. (This generally won’t help much.)
3. This step involves using the WordPress forum. But first: this step is like this: Back up WordPress database -> Upgrade WordPress as necessary -> go to the forum ->check for previous postings on your problem -> Post your problem. Before doing anything else you need to back up your WordPress database. I added the plugin DBC Backup. It runs automatically every evening. Run it before tinkering with WordPress. Remember your postings are in a MySQL database. Copying your WordPress software is not a backup. You need to backup the database in addition. That’s where all your postings are located. The plugin backs up only the database. After backing things up, go into WordPress and update your version if necessary. Your Dashboard will tell if what version you have and if another is needed. If necessary, click the link to update and it will start. Forum people don’t like to talk to you unless you are using the latest version. On the forum, first search to see if your problem is there and resolved already. If not, post your problem.
4. While waiting for forum answers, disable all WordPress plugins. See if the problem is resolved. If so, activate the plugins again, one at a time, until the problem returns. Some plugins can interfere or can even be malware.
5. If the problem is still there, change to the default theme and see if the problem is still there. If the problem is resolved, the issue is in your new theme.
6. Try your blog on another browser. If the problem goes away with another browser (such as Firefox), the problem is with the browser. Our problem was with Internet Explorer 8 and went away when we went to Firefox. Don’t call Microsoft on that. They’ll tell you it is an IE8 addon you are using. Microsoft won’t take the fall. I don’t have any addons. (Hooray for open source software like WordPress and Firefox. Boo for Microsoft and other companies that make you pay for a new copy of your software when they update Windows. They require you to purchase a new copy – not an update. Both Adobe and Microsoft pull that trick. )
7. If you still have an unresolved problem in WordPress, try your blog on another computer. If it works there, check out your computer – run a virus/spyware checker and register cleaner as a start.

Then there is always the master guru, grand wizard, and dragonslayer at http://www.netadventures.biz.

Remember that when you enter a posting, or tweet as they are called, to Twitter that you are broadcasting information to anyone that meets either of these conditions unless you have secured your tweets on your profile.

• Those who are following you will see the tweet as soon as they go to Twitter and log in.
• Others will be able to see it if they search on the relevant subject area.

You will receive only the tweets from people you are following unless you are searching on a subject. When doing that, you receive the tweets relative to that subject.

Security Issues:

You should exercise caution when entering your posts if your postings are not secured – the default mode. If you are leaving on a trip, don’t advertise it on Twitter. There are those who scan Twitter to see who won’t be home for awhile and take advantage of that. DO tweet about your trip when you get back. If you are getting a divorce, one of the first things your lawyer will do is scan your postings to see what you have been doing online. If you are looking for a job today, there is about a 50% chance the prospective employer will scan the Internet for information about you. In the same way, it is not wise to post company information or your concerns about your employer.

Many people violate this rule. I try to honor it. Even if I’m out for the evening, I tweet about it AFTER I get back.

You can set the security of your tweets so that only those who follow you can see them from your Settings option. If set to private, only followers can see your tweets and Twitter will not index them.

More tips:

Setting Up Your Account

• In setting up your account, use some variation of your first name. Using a variation of your last name is not personal enough on something like Twitter. And keep it short, which gives you (and those that reply) more message space. And your Twitter account name is important in the optimization of your tweets in the search engines.
• Use a picture that shows a close-up of your face is normally best for your avatar. Smiling face, of course. With only the default clipart picture Twitter uses, don’t expect people to follow you.
• Be sure to fill out your bio information. Use your full name. Use keyword phrases there that will trip those you want to meet. Share your personality here. You have 160 characters.
• If you set the tweets to private, only your followers can see them. In addition, Google and Twitter Search will not index them.
• When twittering for a company, these rules still hold. Use the logo as the background. Use a personal photo as your avatar. Let the bio show the company’s identity. Post as a person, not a depersonalized organization. Be sure to follow company policies on your tweeting for this account.

Using Twitter

• Click the Reply button in the lower right of a tweet to reply only to that individual. Click the Retweet button if you wish to tweet their tweet to all your followers.
• You have only 140 characters for a posting. Use them wisely. Tease and motivate the reader, then lead them to Facebook, your blog, or your website. To save characters, use web sites such as http://bit.ly to shorten the URL for the destination.
• Use your cell phone as an extension of your computer postings. The twitter address is 40404;. For example, to send an direct twitter message from your phone to another Twitter account, you would enter: (To) 40404; and (body): d accountname message. Great for keeping up with friends when traveling! You can also send to a list.
• You will quickly learn the abbreviations your friends are using: great becomes gr8, before becomes b4, you becomes u.
  Keep your postings interesting. Who cares what you had for breakfast? If something relational happened at breakfast, you should tweet on that.
• When someone tweets that they are following you, send them a thank-you, you will see this in your normal email. Reply to them direct mail from within Tweeter. (Remember you cannot direct mail someone unless they are following you.)
  You will notice that some of your followers occasionally will tweet a posting that is a thank-you to a list of friends. Looks boring, but it is important. Scan their list in their post – you may find a new friend there and you can click and follow. The reverse is also true. If someone helps you on Twitter, thank them.
• How often to tweet? Everyone has their own answer on this. Don’t tweet just to be tweeting or your people will quite following you. If you don’t tweet for a day or two, watch your visitor traffic fall off to your account, the web site, and your blog. Keep your life interesting and tell people about it.

Save tweets you wish to explore or use later. To do this, click on the time line that is under the tweet that shows how long ago the tweet was initiated. This brings up the tweet. The URL that is displayed now in the browser is the URL for that tweet. Save it in the browser Favorites. Another alternative is to save that tweet URL in an external program such as delicious.com or related tool.

• To find if someone is on Twitter from Google, search on firstname lastname Twitter. Use caution here. The results returned may not be a real person (C. S. Lewis, for example, is no longer alive but has a fan page.) Or it may not be the person you expect. Or a fake account on a real person.
• There are lots of good plug-ins for your Twitter account, but use caution. Some plug-ins are malware. Check with friends and get reviews first.
• Here’s a good URL to find tools for Twitter: http://oneforty.com/. Twitter’s mobile web site is http://m.twitter.com.
  If you are running a conference on Twitter, Have everyone agree to a hashtag and tweet against that using an application such as TweetDeck.
• Use http://MrTweet.com (@mrtweet) to find other interesting people to follow.(At the moment this is down until 9/10/2010.)
• Link your web site to Twitter. Link Twitter to your web site on your Twitter profile page.
• Check your “grade” on twitter at http://twitter.grader.com.
• Use Twitter to tease people into your blog. Twitter entries are indexed immediately.

Need consulting help on this or related issues? Contact us! http://www.netadventures.biz