Now, I’m not talking about learning how to write code, or becoming a web developer overnight, though having some understanding of HTML (hyper text markup language) and CSS (cascading style sheets) can go a long way. And that is a strength of what you get from UpstartMediaMarketing. Either we teach you what to do, or we do it for you. It can’t be easier than that, can it?

Before you decide whether you want to use a template, theme or create your professional website from scratch, you’ll want to sign up with a strong web host. VPS (virtual private server) hosting companies are great for anywhere access and are great for data recovery and backing up a site’s information in situations of power outage, natural disasters or super storms. Services such as VPS hosting at MyHosting offer fast and easy setup that you can do without the help of an IT professional. You can install any application, change any file and have complete root access to your site’s server from anywhere online.

After you’ve signed up with a strong hosting server, you’ll want to get to work on your site’s appearance. Jeremy Anderson of eConsultancy.com offers some great tips that any designer (pro or newbie) should pay close attention to if they want to get the most bang out their site. Here are the top ones we liked most.

Site Audit

Before you begin to make any changes to your current site, you are going to want to review your site. Try to look at your site with a critical eye, as if you are critiquing someone else’s site. Are the colors pleasing to the eye? Is the font easy to read? Are you using all of the available social plugins? Also, do a search for sites that fall into the profession that is your competition. Do a comparison between sites that are getting more traffic than you.

Use Video and Lots of Pics!

Most users are visual consumers when it comes to anything. A picture (or video) can speak a thousand words and can be understood cross culturally. You can attract business from people who might not even have a firm grasp of the language that is on your site if you have video and images that will promote your product. So, get busy posting a gallery of pics and videos.

Get in Line

Using proper alignment on your sites pages can make a huge difference. Most designers like to separate their pages into three sections with an eighth to a quarter of the page for your banner, two vertical borders and the middle section as the pages main content section. Designers like to call this concept the “rule of thirds.” Since the human eye takes in information from left to right, if you place the most pertinent information at the left or center, then a person will stop looking once it has reached that point. If you want a visitor to find information easily, place your most important must-see info dead center or at the top center, so it’s easy to find.

Using these essential tips will get you off to a good start and even if you’re not getting 100 visitors a day, eventually you’ll be getting quality visitors who will hopefully become future clients and referrals down the road. Before you know it, you will be offering other web designers advice on how they can make their website more attractive.

Before we buy a new product or try a new restaurant, most of us look at the reviews at Amazon, or Yelp, or whichever online retailer or site we’re browsing, just to make sure we’re not wasting our money on something useless. Some reviews are worthless; the reviewer writes something like “great product.” That’s pretty helpful, isn’t it? On the other extreme, some reviews  are so glowing that can’t be real.

The best online reviews actually offer good, product-specific information and personal reaction. We all hope your review will be the last type. 

In the tabs below, First, I’ll discuss what makes a good online review and how to write a good online review. Then, under each tab, I’ll show you the steps to enter a review

Online company reviews are important to both customers and to businesses.  So we encourage you to write online reviews. 

Why is writing online reviews important to customers?  And why is writing online reviews important to businesses?

Almost everyone has gone to the internet to look for a product that they want to buy. The fact is, people read reviews. And, we all actually pay attention. And the better the review, the more we listen.

That’s not just me talking. According to Search Engine Land’s Local Consumer Review Survey, 52 percent of consumers say that positive online reviews make them more likely to use a local business. Even more surprisingly, 72 percent of consumers say that they trust these reviews as much as personal recommendations. 

Let me give you a personal example. I was searching for a washing machine. I did research to find out which product had the right features and price. I also used consumer testing magazines as well. I read about several similar products. Finally, I made my choice.

When I went to the consumer online reviews, I found out that the product that sounded good from the company website actually got almost all 1s and 2s on the review. Another, similar product, had a 4-5 star rating. I bought the second product. And I haven’t been disappointed. 

But businesses need these reviews too. Every business relies on word of mouth advertising. Obviously, as businesses, we hope for positive responses from every customer. But even a perfect business will get some customers that had a bad day or just don’t fit the business profile. So, customers may actually write bad things about your business. Is that a problem? No. That’s life and that’s business. 

How a business deals with negative reviews is more important to customers and to search engines. As a customer, if I see that a business replies back and either explains the situation in more detail or apologizes if they truly made a mistake, when I see that type of response from the business, I am more comfortable in giving them my business. If a company has lots of reviews and none are negative, I grow somewhat suspicious. 

But a business owner can also learn about what the public thinks of her business. I might think I run the best business, but public perception is truth, whether it is true or not. Online reviews actually help a business build the brand awareness that they want and help shape public response or correct problem business practices. 

Let me list 8 specific reasons why a business should use reviews:

• Increased Sales – People are always much more likely to purchase a product or service that has already been recommended by others.
• Understand and Better Serve Your Consumers – Online reviews can tell you whether you are doing a good job or what you are doing wrong and how to improve your service. 
• Improve Rankings – Online reviews work towards improving your websites ranking on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo! and more.
• Higher Keyword Content – Online reviews help your business website to have a steady influx of SEO keywords to define your business
• Allow Consumers to Have a Voice and Create Consumer Loyalty – Consumers who take the time to leave an online review for a business are far more likely to feel a certain loyalty to your business.
• Create Consumer Engagement – Reviews create a social community of consumer engagement that allows consumers to form an attachment to both the business and the other consumers as well.
• Let Consumers Do Your Marketing for You – A handful of positive online business reviews are are like micro marketing campaigns that keep working long after the online review has been posted.
• Reviews Breed More Reviews – When a business, product or service has already received reviews online it seems to encourage other visitors to leave their own feedback.

As customers, we want thriving businesses to be successful. They provide all of the goodies and service that we want. But we want the best to do better so that we always get to pick from the cream of the crop. That is what business is all about–providing something that people want. They’re happy. We’re happy. 

 However, what actually makes a review that is helpful? Let me show you how to write a review on google+, yelp, yahoo, and yellow pages that really works. I’ll explain what you should write that makes an effective review, and I’ll even show you the steps to write a review on four of the top review sites: Google+, Yelp, Yahoo Local, and Yellow Pages

Web Design for Kesler’s Market in Blackfoot, Idaho

UpstartMediaMarketing Web Design completed a new website for Kesler’s Market. Kesler’s is a Hometown Grocery Store–the only specifically hometown grocery in Blackfoot, and they are proud of that. They work together as a family and they wanted their website to demonstrate the feel of a family-oriented store. 

UpstartMediaMarketing Web Design created a website for Kesler’s in Blackfoot so that they can collect email from their store visitors. The email campaign will give price discounts and weekly flyers. In addition, we put a “specials” pop-up on the front page. 

A unique feature that we included on Keslers Market was their banner. Kesler’s includes the front of many small old-town building replica’s throughout their store. After taking many photographs, we created a banner which captured many of these replica facades. This made Kesler’s website unique.

Features of the web design:

• WordPress Content Management System
• Genesis WordPress Framework
• Custom web design
• Specialized banner on their website
• Several clip-art transparencies
• Pop-up “specials” 

We can create a great looking WordPress powered website for you. Contact UpstartMediaMarketing Web Design in Blackfoot and we’d be happy to help you with your website.

This video will review the marketing (functional) plan that you learned during the sales process. Then we discuss a launch process that will be designed to bring many new visitors to your doors when you are ready to reveal your website to the internet world.

This video is a review, so if you are familiar with the plan and a launch sequence, go ahead and skip to lesson 2. However, do not skip lessons 2 through 7, which build the foundation of a successful internet business.

Starter 1: Program Outline  covers the following topics:

1. Welcome and What is the Liftoff
2. Review the Marketing Plan
3. Outline the Steps of a Launch

[flowplayer src=’http://c676296.r96.cf2.rackcdn.com/UMMStarter1RevisedPlanLaunchSteps.mp4′ width=800 height=600] ]]> https://upstartmediamarketing.com/01-upstart-liftoff-outline/feed/ 0 https://upstartmediamarketing.com/02-the-purpose/ https://upstartmediamarketing.com/02-the-purpose/#respond Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:49:58 +0000 https://upstartmediamarketing.com/?p=105 The purpose for having a website is to present information that you have that you want others to see or have. You may want to sell products or you may want simply to be a resource on the internet for your particular topic. In either case, you are competing with hundreds of thousands of others to have your voice heard.

This video help to explain the importance of these three principles:
[flowplayer src=’http://c2887.r87.cf2.rackcdn.com/Starter3-3Purposes.Revised.mp4′ width=800 height=600] ]]> https://upstartmediamarketing.com/03-starter-3-three-principles/feed/ 3 https://upstartmediamarketing.com/04-starter-4-seo-and-keywords/ https://upstartmediamarketing.com/04-starter-4-seo-and-keywords/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:49:56 +0000 https://upstartmediamarketing.com/?p=173 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital component of preparing your web pages. SEO means choosing words that the customer naturally uses to find content similar to yours. Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Bing, and a host of others) rely on people typing search words. Then the search engines bring back web pages that match the keywords that you searched for.

Well, the better your web page, your article, your blog post, your recipe, or whatever it is on your website is “tuned” to a particular search word, the better chance you have of being found by the customer who just typed that word.

The thing is, this isn’t just a good thing to do; it is absolutely vital. The difference in a highly “optimized” page and a similar page is the difference between being on Google’s top 10 (front page) and being on page 20 or 30. Which page do you want to be on.

This lesson shows you the critical pieces to doing research BEFORE you put in your content.

Use these links to learn about Keywords. These videos are in the SEO and Link Building Category:

More importantly, this lesson helps you consider various content types which will provide high-value content to your visitors. High value content brings return visitors, which increases your search engine scores, which brings more visitors. The cycle continue.

[flowplayer src=’http://c676296.r96.cf2.rackcdn.com/UmmStarter6-KeywordCategories.mp4′ width=800 height=600]

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