Category: Article

Starting a Small Business?

The following are a few things to consider when starting a business. What are your enablers? What is in your toolbox?

Word of Mouth – The most effective way to grow your business is by word of mouth. Having a website and a social media presence makes it easier for people to find and talk about your business.

Reviews and Testimonials – Most people seek out reviews before deciding to purchase. Allowing customers to review and/or provide testimonials on your website make this an easy win for your business.

Marketing – When marketing your business you need a call to action and your options are limited, usually to a phone number, business location or website. A website is open 24×7 providing information even when you’re not immediately available.

An Online Presence – What/who is your business, what does it do, how customers contact you, products and/or services and reviews and/or testimonials.

Business Costs – Any business needs to keep expenses low especially in the beginning. A website can help with this by being available even when you are not, automate tasks and provide a means to new customer acquisition. Our web design and hosting solutions are very affordable.

Getting Paid – A POS and billing/invoicing system is a no brainier. There are many options for getting paid but having a single payment system to track expenses and income make your life easier.

Need a custom app or software? We can help.

Need a website?

Need a billing/invoicing solution?

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Pages Your Business Website Should Have

Below is a list of pages that every business website should consider including if applicable. If you have more pages take time to evaluate if you need them or if they could be consolidated. If the pages are long, see about condensing them and weed out anything not necessary. It goes without saying that if you have a page required by law or regulation don’t get rid of it but maybe include those links in the footer. A customer doesn’t want to spend a lot of energy reading through a lot of information so if you can say more with less, do it.

Be sure and have each page complete before making the pages or changes live on your site. The days of sites having “Under Construction” notices are gone. If you’re going to have a site take the time to make the content right before publishing.

  • Landing Page (Header Menu)
    • An appealing page to grab the customer’s attention.
    • Be sure the page says what you do and/or offer. Keep it simple and short.
    • Include a call to action (newsletter, contact form, purchase)
  • About Page (Header Menu)
    • An expanded but still condensed description of what your company does.
    • Licensing that your company holds.
    • Who is behind the company.
    • Brief company history.
  • Services Page (Header Menu)
    • Details about services you offer
  • Products Page (Header Menu)
    • Details about products you offer
  • Portfolio Page (Header Menu)
    • Show off your work
  • FAQ Page (Optional) (Header Menu)
    • Most frequently asked questions and answers
    • This can be a time saver if you find yourself answering the same questions over and over.
  • Testimonials/Reviews Page (Header Menu)
    • Summary of what customers often say
    • Individual Reviews or Testimonials
  • Contact Page (Header Menu)
    • Photo of Storefront, Include a Contact Form, Address, Phone Number(s), Business Hours, Map
  • Blog (Header Menu)
    • Share information that is useful to your customers. What would a customer be compelled to read? Think about the FAQs.
    • Share information that adds value to products or services you offer.
    • Announce sales.
    • Announce new products or services.
  • Press/Latest News Page (Optional) (Header Menu)
    • This can be done in the Blog or the blog can be called News
    • Address media
    • List news articles about your business
    • Press Releases
    • Advertisements
    • Achievements
  • Privacy Policy Page (Footer Menu)
  • Disclaimer, Terms and Conditions Page (Footer Menu)
    • Outlines rules a visitor must agree to
    • Website Licenses
    • Copyright Laws
    • Patents
    • Trademarks
  • Sitemap Page
    • XML for search engines (Not in Menu)
    • HTML for users (Footer Menu)
  • Error Pages (Not in Menu)
    • A customized page for errors.
    • Collect URLs that don’t exist or error out so that these can be fixed.
  • Events Page (Optional) (Header Menu)
  • Advertising Info Page (Optional) (Header Menu)
  • Jobs or Careers Page (Optional) (Header Menu)
  • Search / Search Results Page (Header or Side Menu)
  • Social Media Links (Floating in Header or Footer and maybe different for mobile)

Menu Location Considerations

Top Navigation – What you want your customer to see first

Footer Navigation – Required Links, Extras

Footer – Include Phone Number, Address, Business Hours

If you need help with your pages, interested in having site built and/or hosted or just need a consultation contact us using the form below.

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2 WordPress Plugins You Should Be Using

Beyond getting into very specific individual needs or requirements most sites don’t need a whole lot but there are two plugins every site needs to have installed. These 2 plugins are packed full of features that you can control to a somewhat granular level. What’s even better about these is that they are free.

JetPack

JetPack in a few words is a miracle worker. JetPack is what provides site statistics, automates social network publication, security enhancements, site enhancements and a few SEO must haves.

Social Network Publication

If you are a blogger JetPack allows you to automatically publish/announce to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Tumblr when you publish an article.

Security Enhancements

No longer do you have to disable comments everywhere which also disables a huge key in SEO which is user engagement. JetPack in conjunction with Akismet will automatically block suspicious activity and spam riddled comments.

Site Enhancements

JetPack has a feature to speed up site images and take the load off your hosting. As an awesome bonus they also include Image Galleries and Sliders as add on features.

Feedback

JetPack delivers another must have which is a Contact Form. Another feature that prevents you from having to source another plugin to meet this need. It doesn’t stop there the Feedback feature also lets you manage your Feedback messages from the Administration Interface.

SEO

In addition to the Social Network publication and Comments enabled using the Security Enhancements JetPack has a few more features to bring to the table. JetPack can create your XML SiteMaps for Search Engine Indexing. If you don’t know what those are we should talk. JetPack can also automatically show related articles below an article. Showing related articles increases the chances of a visitor viewing more of what your site has to offer or User Engagement.

Statistics

If you are anything like me you like knowing that something you took time to create is paying off. How do you know if an article is? Site stats! JetPack tracks site statistics and provides insights to how well your content is doing. Want to know what days of the week, hours of the day and potentially what topics are your most popular? JetPack’s statistics are fantastic for this.

Akismet

Akismet is an anti-spam service that is really good at what it does. Mentioned above JetPack utilizes Akismet for some of its security features. Again I will mention that Spam prevention allows you to turn back on your comments and begin to increase your user engagement.

 

If you need help with these features or you are interested in having site built and/or hosted or just need a consultation contact us using the form below.

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What’s a Makerspace?

A Makerspace is typically a collaborative lab and/or shop with tools that range from the simple to the high tech. In addition to tools Makerspaces often offer coworking space and classes for adults and often children. Makerspaces are for artists, hobbyists, students, entrepreneurs, scientists, DIYers, etc.

In addition to Makerspaces there are also Hackerspaces, Techshops and Fablabs who offer some of the same features but can vary from a Makerspace. For more information on the differences Make Magazine has an article that explains.

A lot of Makerspaces are run by non-profit organizations with an emphasis on giving back to the community. You can find Makerspaces located in schools, libraries, community centers or standalone organizations.

Why does this matter to you?

The cost of being a member of a local Makerspace is way cheaper than buying and maintaining equipment that your local Makerspace already has available. The collaborative environment reduces time researching and developing your end goal. A presence in a Makerspace increases your visibility in the community allowing you to build a rapport without it being forced while at the same time accomplishing goals you would already be working towards. Education that can often be costly, distant and not geared to equipment or products you or your company use while education offered by a local Makerspace is going to be based on the equipment and software they maintain that you’ll be using.

We are fortunate enough to have the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in our home town of North Little Rock, Arkansas. They hold events throughout the year to include an Annual Maker Faire, classes for Adults and Children, Robotics competitions and much more.

What you might find in a Makerspace?

  • 3D Printer(s)
  • A Laser Cutter
  • Welding and other Metal Working Tools
  • A Lathe
  • A CNC Machine
  • Soldering Irons
  • Large Format Printers
  • Classrooms
  • Shared Collaborative Office Space
  • Meeting Rooms

What do they typically offer?

  • Prototyping Services
  • Meeting Space
  • Startup Accelerator & Incubator Services
  • Educational Opportunities

What’s in your area?

https://spaces.makerspace.com/directory/

http://themakermap.com/

https://www.meetup.com/topics/makerspaces/

https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_Hacker_Spaces

Do you have a local Makerspace? Leave a comment below and share.

Is WordPress is right for you?

I’ve heard and been told the following so many times and it drives me up the wall. A developer, associate, friend, uncle, brother, cousin told me that real websites don’t use WordPress or that a real developer doesn’t use WordPress. They are simply ill-informed or are not experienced enough to know why they are wrong.

Built in Support

While there are many developers who build from scratch platforms and do a very good job at doing so they are either a single developer or a small team of developers. What they are not is a company of approximately 500 employees backed by a community that contributes to a significant portion of the code base which WordPress is. This means constant testing, feedback, improvements, security patching and modernization. Is your single developer or small team of developers going to deliver the same level of work and fast enough to keep up with today’s level of cyber threats? 

Industry Adoption

According to BuiltWith.com https://trends.builtwith.com/cms WordPress makes up 52% of the content management sites on the internet making WordPress the most widely adopted platform.

Beyond saying there is a widespread adoption of WordPress and more specifically there are several Fortune 500 websites that trust in WordPress as a platform. Among these Fortune 500 companies are Sony Music https://www.sonymusic.com/, The Walt Disney Company https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/, the PlayStation Blog https://blog.us.playstation.com/, Target Pulse Blog https://pulse.target.com/, TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/, The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/, BBC America http://www.bbcamerica.com/, The Star Wars blog http://www.starwars.com/news, AMC’s The Walking Dead site http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead and Beyonce’s website http://www.beyonce.com/ uses WordPress to name a few. Source: WordPress.org and we verified each of the ones listed here.

What does WordPress offer?

  • The WordPress platform is free
  • WordPress empowers everyday users to edit and create their own content
  • A well designed intuitive Administration and Authoring User Interface or UI
  • In addition to Blogging WordPress is great for a Simple Web Presence
  • An enormous library of Plugins https://wordpress.org/plugins/ and Themes https://wordpress.org/themes/
  • An E-Commerce solution with the use of plugins
  • A Podcasting platform with the use of plugins
  • An automation platform for Social Media or to enable Marketing
  • Scalability
  • An extensive taxonomy
  • An API for those that want to create mobile or data as a service driven apps

Final Words

All that said you may have an ongoing relationship with a developer or a development team in which a heavy investment and/or other needs in some way outweigh or prevents the use of WordPress but it couldn’t hurt to sit down and have the discussion.

If you are interested in having a new website or updating an old one we can help. We offer design, custom WordPress plugins, hosting and desktop application development. Use the contact form below to find out more.

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Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automattic

https://trends.builtwith.com/cms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress

https://wptavern.com/sixty-three-percent-of-wordpress-core-committers-are-not-employed-by-automattic

 

Why Your Business Needs a Website

• Credibility – People put more trust in a business when they see a website. Having a website gives a sense of permanence and stability.

• Customers can find you

• Web Search – People tend to search for a business online before they decide to do business with them. Think about this the next time you’re on your computer, tablet or phone searching for products or services.

• Map Searching – With a website, map search results for your business will be better. Phone numbers and addresses placed in specific places are used by search engines to render results to the search page.

• Marketing is built in – A website is the modern equivalent of business cards, brochures, catalogs and portfolios to name a few. With a website you have the ability to change content without the cost associated with print. Marketing options are unlimited for a website and while ad space can be limited your website is not.

• Always on – Who knows when someone will decide to start searching for a business. A website is open when your business is not.

We offer Design, Branding, Domain Names and Hosting services. Contact us to get started!

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