Paula G. Web Design

As long as you’re not living under a rock and actually use the Internet and e-mail (and if you didn’t you wouldn’t be reading this!) you have fallen victim to SPAM.  It is the equivalent of Junk Mail in your mailbox but worse — it comes in droves.  What’s worse is that for people using e-mail for marketing, you need to be worried about your valid e-mails being irretrievably lost in someone’s SPAM bin, being blocked, or being labeled as a spammer yourself.

The CAN-SPAM Act was passed into Federal Law in 2003 for the following purpose:

To regulate interstate commerce by imposing limitations and penalties on the transmission of unsolicited commercial electronic mail via the Internet.

Meaning, there was now a way to define and penalize those who engage in spam activities.

So, what does that mean for you using e-mail as a valid marketing tool?  After all, you’re not harvesting e-mail addresses,  sending bogus claims, or sending unsolicited junk.  (I hope!) How can  you make sure you are in compliance?

The CAN-SPAM implications are one of my favorite reasons for recommending everyone sending e-mail newsletters use a professional system.  They are set up to comply with CAN-SPAM and all the opt-in requirements.  It makes it easy for you to ensure you are in compliance and prove so in the event there is a dispute.

One of my preferred e-mail broadcasting and autoresponder systems is Aweber.  They have a great little FAQ entitled “What is the CAN-SPAM Act?”.

In it  they excerpt this important piece from the regulation:

According to CAN-SPAM, all email messages must:

• Offer a method for the recipient to opt-out (unsubscribe).
• Contain the sender’s valid physical postal address.

With a professional newsletter system these two requirements are automatically handled for you.  After all, if you are sending something out of your e-mail client (i.e. Outlook) the recipients do not have these options, so technically you are in violation of the act simply by e-mailing people in bulk who have not explicitly given you permission (even if they have chances are you only have a piece of paper or verbal record) who don’t have an easy way to unsubscribe.

You can get the full details on CAN-SPAM at the Federal Trade Commission site.

For simplicity sake, just know that this law applies to you and all your e-mail marketing as well. You are required to ensure you are in compliance and the easiest way to do it is to find a provider you like (I can recommend several) and spend the small fee to ensure piece of mind for you and your business.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Designing your website is a strategic undertaking.  To be successful you want to begin with the end in mind.  The site map is a tool that will help you do that.  The benefits of taking the extra time up front to complete this task will include:

• More effective website
• Reduced costs in the long run
• More ROI on your website investment because you can build on this strong foundation over time

Recently I had the pleasure of presenting  “Web 101″ with my colleague Chanin Walsh of Brown Dog Design for the Bucks County Network Now group. We often collaborate on the branding and creation of websites and this was our first chance to co-present at an event like this.

Chanin created the standout handouts and covered the topic of branding your business. I talked about planning your website and implementing your online marketing strategies. We then both presented ways you can save money when you work with a web team like ours.

I want to share with you a 6+ minute audio snippet from that talk. It focuses on the importance of the site map.  If you’re not sure what a site map looks like — here’s a picture of what one looks like (click to enlarge the image).

 It is a generic map, but gives you a sense that it is a visual representation of what you want to say and do with your website.

Now — listen to the audio clip and learn more about the site map and how to plan your website.

 Want to get started on your own?  Check out the Free Website Planner on the right sidebar - sign up and get one of your own!

RSS is at the heart of blogs yet many people don’t know what it is and why it is so great. I want to help you better understand not only the term but how you can use it to your advantage.

RSS stands for RDF Site Summary or Rich Site Summary. It is an XML format for delivering Web content. What that means it follows web standards in a way that is accessible across many different technologies. Think of it as one of those universal adapter type thingies you might buy for the house. Whether you have one brand or another, it works just the same.

RSS is at the heart of blog content allowing updates to be delivered to other Web sites and individual’s RSS readers as new content is added. This is the most exciting and important part of it.

Why?

Well, information coming at us from all sides on a daily basis. You might wonder, why do we need yet another delivery channel? Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of times clients will ask me if they can maintain the content on their website on their own. There are a number of different ways I can help make that happen. One way is to build the website on a content management system platform.

What is it?

A content management system (CMS) is a piece of software installed on a web server (where you host your site) which provides a foundation for many powerful website features. What that means is you build your website on this platform much like you build a house on a foundation. Typically the features available through a content management system driven website include things like:

• WYSIWYG editor so you can update your content on your own
• Advanced user permissions so you can have different people update different parts of your site
• Sitewide search
• Custom functionality through various modules
• Easier site management
• Integrated file management
• Template support to customize design

Do I Need One?

If you have a website that you want to update on your own regularly or want to have a lot of dynamic functionality built in, a CMS system may be for you. Some things you want to consider Read the rest of this entry »

The term SEO gets bantered about these days. It is everywhere. It is treated like the holy grail and consultants charge anywhere from a little to a whopping sum promising you outstanding search engine results. So what is the real scoop?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is the process of optimizing your web site for the search engines in an attempt to be one of the top results when someone enters one of your keywords into a search engine. Note that when you search in Google for instance, you will see many results at the top and side of the results that are sponsored ads. I’m not talking about those (but will define them in a future post). I’m talking about what they refer to as organic search results. That is, those results that the search engine determines naturally (aka organically) based on its algorithms for determining relevancy.

Wouldn’t you love to be the first result when someone searches for your business in Google? So would everyone else. That is why SEO needs to be taken with a grain of salt even though it is a wonderful marketing strategy. Read the rest of this entry »

The word ecommerce gets thrown around these days left and right. What does it really mean for you the small or solo business owner? If you are selling products and/or services online through your website and allowing customers to pay for them online you have an ecommerce website.

In order to sell products on your website and collect credit card payment information securely you need the following:

• Merchant Account
• Shopping Cart
• Payment Gateway (Software that sends the information to all parties involved)

Merchant Account

A merchant account allows you to accept credit cards as a form of payment. Typically you can accept credit cards three ways: swiping the card, keying in the numbers, and online via a website. For the purpose of this article I’ll be focusing on the via a website scenario. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes when I ask clients if they need or want an autoresponder the phone line gets dead silent. They are not sure what they are or when/why they might use one. The truth is that autoresponders are a critical component in having an effective website that is truly integrated with your marketing efforts, online and off.

If you break it down, an autoresponder is just that…. a piece of technology (in this case email) that responds automatically. Have you ever sent an email to someone who was on vacation and you got an “out of the office” reply? That is an example of an autoresponder. It automatically responds to whoever sends an email to that address and says “Hey I’m out of the office”. That is a simple and somewhat useful example, but it doesn’t begin to capitalize on the power of autoresponders.

Taking them a step further… an autoresponder can not only respond automatically to someone filling out an web form or sending an email to a particular address but can also respond to someone multiple times over a predefined time. Have you ever taken an eCourse? That is, a course that is a series of emails sent to you over a particular period of time? Well, all eCourses use some sort of autoresponder technology.

As any marketing expert will tell you, prospects need to be exposed to you and your message multiple times (the “average” facts and figures can change) before they buy. An autoresponder is an ideal way to do that. Read the rest of this entry »

What is web hosting?

I’ll talk about how to actually choose a web host in a future post, but first - what is a web host and why do you need one?

In a previous post I talked about domain names and URLs.  To further the analogy of a house started there …

If a domain name is your actual name/name of your business and the URL is the actual address (123 Main St.), the host is the actual physical house.  That is, where you actually have your stuff (in this case the files that make up your website).

The reason you need a web host to house your files versus just having them on your computer is that in order for other people to find your website (your house) it needs to be part of the world wide system of addressing and finding sites which is known as the Domain Name System (DNS).  The DNS is actually the big ole phone book of the Internet.  It associates the domain names with actual IP Addresses (which is a unique street address for a given computer on the Internet).
Read the rest of this entry »

What is a domain name, how does it work, and why should I care?

A domain name is a unique name on the Internet that refers to a specific computer or host of computers. What it does is literally provide a friendly, memorable name to a unique IP Address (that is a unique identifier for a computer on the web). So, let’s say you want to have your business name as a domain name. What you need to do is see if that domain name is available (remember, they are unique across the globe and someone else may already own it). To do that, you go to a domain name registrar like GoDaddy (there are many others like Network Solutions, etc.) and do a domain name search to see if it is available. So, for instance when I purchased my domain “thepaulagcompany.com”, I went to the registrar and did a search to see it was available. Then I chose to purchase that domain which can range from $9.99 and up. Once I did that, it meant that I owned the name thepaulagcompany.com. I didn’t have a website tied to it, I just owned the name. I’ll talk more about hosting and how all that ties together in a future post, but for now lets focus on just domain name and how that flows into a URL.

There are 2 parts to a registered domain name: the name and the extension. For example:

Name: thepaulagcompany
Extension: .com

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the biggest complaints I hear from people when it comes to technology is that they don’t understand it and no one speaks to them in plain English.  It is all technospeak and acronyms that leave their palms sweaty with inadequacy and fear.  While technology can be maddening, especially when it doesn’t work, it is a fact of life especially in business.

One of the things I pride myself on when I work with clients is that I will speak to them in language they can understand. I tell people up front - if you don’t understand, please ask. I will explain it as many ways as I need to so they can feel comfortable with their level of understanding.  I hate when people try to pull the wool over my eyes with terms and things I don’t understand and I refuse to do that with people I work with.

So, I wanted to start a little mini-series here on the blog where I get back to basics.  I will take different Internet technology terms and break them down into plain English.  For some of you it might seem a little elementary or simplistic.  That’s ok…  I can tell you that the best way to learn anything is to have to explain it to others.  That is why I never mind going back to the basics because even after over a dozen years working behind the scenes of the web, I benefit from the challenge.  It is like being a musician, it always pays to continually go back and practice major and minor scales.

If you have a term or technology you want explained in this series, just contact me and let me know. I’ll be happy to write a post about it.  And, if you want to keep track of the series in one place, just click on the “Web 101″ category on the right sidebar.