Achieving SEO success for your website, your blog or both has a lot to do with the web or blog page title for these two reasons:

1: Google and other search engines use your webpage title (the title that appears on the top of your browser) or your article title to help determine which web pages to index using a specific search term. When you do a search for a keyword or phrase you will notice that practically all of the website links that you see have the keyword or phrase in the listed titles of the queried results. Continue Reading »

As you are probably well aware, QR codes are everywhere from clothing to sides of vehicles. They are also visible quite frequently on websites and emails. What is the problem with that? Often times, people are viewing your website or email using the very tool they use to scan the code in the first place, their smart phone. Studies show that soon more people will be accessing the internet via their smart phones than their own PCs.

That is a problem that can hurt the number of people accessing your content significantly when using a QR code to market. How can we solve this? Continue Reading »

Marketing can be both expensive and time-consuming, and it also can fail to show a return on an investment. The cost and success of marketing often can lead to the success or failure of a business.

Lowering your marketing costs is not just about making more of an initial impact. It is most effective when a customer comes back again and brings his or her friends.

Here are some things to consider when marketing:

• Ability to track: Think of how you can track your campaign before you begin. If you don’t know the ROI on your marketing efforts, you won’t know if you should keep doing them or move on to something else.

Continue Reading »

As a small business owner or an executive in any size business, one of the toughest challenges you face is making important decisions on areas outside your core competencies. So when you hire a web designer or digital agency, sometimes you don’t get what you pay for.

Below are ten steps that you and your agency should address during any website creation or redesign to ensure that you have the most effective website possible and that you get a good return on your digital investment.

1. Know (and communicate) thy brand: It all starts with your brand, but many small businesses have trouble communicating their brand message. Continue Reading »

While I doubt there is anyone under the age of 60 who does not know who Steve Jobs was, there are many things about the man you may not know. Although he wore his private life close to the vest, there are some aspects of it you may not have known and will find quite interesting. Continue Reading »

“That will be $56.02,” said the woman behind the counter.

No matter how you look at it or how much more social media will become a part of our lives, it will never be quite the same as an in-person meeting. I have met many great friends and contacts via social media who I ended up meeting IRL (in real life), and will hopefully meet more in the future. There is only so much you can engage with a person digitally, and that disconnect from digital and real-life is hurting proper etiquette at times.

I keep getting emails with the subject line, “Facebook wants your opinion.” I keep seeing Twitter and Facebook updates that say, “Like this page.” or “This person wants you to do this.” Wait a second, I am a person right? Continue Reading »

When Apple came out with the iPhone, there was a lot said on how its software would not allow Adobe Flash. In fact, I would say most people were annoyed and confused. The annoyance came from having so many websites built in Flash and all of the video content that now no one with an iPhone could see. I was one of the annoyed. I assumed they made a mistake (rumors didn’t help) and the new software version and/or phone would include it. At the time I felt like Steve Jobs was being a jerk, and I was far from alone in that thinking. Continue Reading »

Clothing powerhouse Abercrombie and Fitch, whose consumers normally range from young teens to adults in their mid twenties, actually offered to pay Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, chief resident of MTV’s Jersey Shore, to NOT wear their clothing.

Being clever is the key for creating buzz and conversation. Actually leading to sales though, is another matter (see my article, “Buzz Doesn’t Always Equal ROI”). Nonetheless, it is a valiant effort by A&F to create some conversation. Continue Reading »

PR, marketing and advertising firms have been creating “buzz” since practically the beginning of time in one way or the other.

Most of these firms, to this day, measure their campaign’s success based upon numbers that could be downright meaningless.

Just because your press release made the New York Times and you were interviewed on The Today Show, it does not necessarily mean it translated into revenue and improved your overall bottom line. Continue Reading »