Showing posts with label small business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label small business. Show all posts

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- 11:00 PM -

101 Subjects To Blog About in Daytona Beach

Choose the Subject of Your Blog Carefully

Below you'll find a complete list of business blog starter ideas. Choose the one (or two) that best fits your area of interest or expertise.

1. Scenic Photography around Daytona Beach-- Buying and distributing photographs to calendar companies, postcard companies, magazines, etc...

2. Baby Tips -- Have a resource site for new and/or expectant mothers and sell related products.

3. Wedding Ideas -- Make deals with local catering services, photographers, and bridal shops to receive a commission for sales generated from your Website.

4. Parenting Tips -- Write an informational e-book about parenting.

5. Pet Training in Daytona Beach-- Pet store online with free tips on training and grooming.

6. Camping -- Camping tips and resources.

7. Fishing

8. Travel (Tell others about the places your family has travelled - provide photos, maps, great eating places, etc. You can distribute a monthly "paid" newsletter about travel.)

9. College Resources (School supplies distributor, online college bookstore, etc.)

10. Crafts

11. Wood Products (Ideas for creative wood furniture along with instructions and material resources.)

12. Sewing (Share your special sewing techniques with others around the world.)

13. Office Organization (You'll find that people who run a busy office are always looking for ways to improve the office atmosphere. You can show how to organize, prepare paperwork, manage and distribute work load, etc.)

14. Music (Music lovers will adore you for building a resource site for music lyrics, musical instruments and where to get them, music reading tips, etc...)

15. Movies

16. Advertising

17. Gardening

18. Sports

19. Computer Training

20. Ceramics

21. Electronics

22. Business Services for Daytona Beach-- Bookeeping, transcription, accounting, computer programming, etc.

23. Special Interest (Perhaps you're a huge fan of a certain collectible item and would like to become a distributor or reseller.)

24. Horseback Riding Resources and Supplies

25. Bike Riding Resources and Supplies

26. Mountain Climbing Resources and Supplies

27. Racing

28. Fishing

29. Writing -- Provide writing secrets in a paid monthly newsletter.

30. Reading -- Provide services or materials that help children learn to read.

31. Surfing along Daytona Beach(in the ocean, of course)

32. Singing Lessons in Daytona Beach

33. Teaching Skill Course

34. Composing Music -- Resources

35. Instrumental (piano, guitar, drums, trumpet, etc...)

36. Cooking Tips -- Offer a cooking tips newsletter.

37. Cooking Recipes (Perhaps you've discovered the secret to cooking brocolli casserole just right, or... know someone who has?)

38. Jokes (Build a site of jokes to keep your visitors laughing and laughing and laughing...ha...ha... Send a joke a day via email for a small fee.)

39. Comedy (Not limited to jokes, but just fun stuff you find on the Web.)

40. Art around Daytona Beach-- Open an online art gallery.

41. Astronomy

42. Chemistry (Maybe you've found a simple solution to help students improve their understanding of chemistry and could sell a report about it.)

43. Engineering

44. Electronics

45. Vitamins

46. Medicine

47. Herbs

48. Mountains -- Books about, reports, travel guides

49. Oceans

50. Mysterious Discoveries -- Newsletter, books about, reports

51. Animals

52. Cultures -- Newsletter, reports, books

53. Religion

54. Geography -- Maps, guides, pictures, etc.

55. Holidays (Have a Holiday theme for your site - change your site to suit each season.)

56. Languages (Include a listing of each language you can find and provide links to Websites that teach different languages.)

57. Enviroment

58. Boating

59. Government

60. Psychology

61. Games (Provide links to places where people can play free games online -- not necessarily gambling -- but, Monopoly, Scrabble, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy found at Sony.com, etc.....)

62. Interior Decorating

63. Catering

64. Fashion

65. Farming

66. Garage/Yard Sales

67. Weather

68. Women

69. Men

70. Health

71. Excercise

72. Retirement (Information about successful retirement, best retirement locations in the world, money management, etc....)

73. Stock Market/Investing

74. Special Interest Books

75. Vacationing in Daytona Beach

76. Weight Loss (Tell how you lost weight to help others.)

77. Aging

78. Teenage Years

79. Home Care and Aid (Give tips about how to care for elderly or disabled loved ones, resources for medical assistance, etc...)

80. Grandparenting

81. Handy Work (Maybe you can offer great tips for fixing things around the house.)

82. Tools

83. Flying (airplanes, helicopters, etc....)

84. House Keeping

85. Flowers

86. Pottery

87. Children (Develop a site for children or about children.)

88. Gold/Silver (coin collections, value, going prices)

89. Unique Jewely

90. Cosmetics/Beauty

91. Hunting

92. National Parks in Florida

93. Archeology (An up-to-date factual site about ancient artifacts or a study of the history of archeology will be sufficient.)

94. Poetry

95. Shopping (Tell about your shopping experiences with local stores or National chains.)

96. Real Estate (Provide a free real estate site for your area.)

97. Safety (First aid tips and maneuver demonstrations for life-saving.)

98. Science Fiction

99. Marriage Secrets (Website tips for men and women to make their marriage work.)

100. News (Provide daily or weekly updated news for your local region.)

101. Entertainment (Your local area may benefit from an informative entertainment site -- new movie arrivals at the theater, special events in your town or surrounding areas, etc....)

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- 11:16 PM -

9 Reasons For Having A Website

While promoting my website design business I contact many small and medium size enterprises who don't have a website. Sometimes it is the perceived cost of a website that puts them off, but more often it is the belief that no one will want to contact them via the internet. The same companies would be horrified at the thought of not being in the telephone directory, but they don't appreciate how pervasive the internet has become and how important it is to have a presence.

Here are my 9 compelling reasons for having a website.

Customer Expectations

Customers expect to see you on the Internet. Many people (that's customers and potential customers) prefer to search for a company on the Internet rather than search their local Yellow Pages or newspaper.
To many, a business that is not on the Internet, for all intents and purposes, simply doesn't exist.

If you cannot meet this expectation then they will go to someone else. If you have no web site you have no chance to compete.

Open 24 hours a day

Anytime a customer wants to know about your company, it's products, opening hours or location they can get it with ease.
You business or organization will be promoted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to the whole world. Nothing else offers this flexibility. Your web site won't take holidays, have time off sick or ask for a pay rise.

You can even save on your time or your employees time by adding a "Frequently Asked Questions" page. This way customers can get answers before calling you.

Improve Communications

A Web site is an highly available, high-quality, interactive, full-color brochure listing all the goods and services you offer. It is a very effective and efficient way to communicate not only with potential customers, but also with employees and suppliers.

It can be easily updated, keeping your product listings and prices always accurate. Changes take effect as soon as they're posted online and everyone can see updated information without having to wait .

Improve your Businesses' Profile

You can build reputation, credibility and trust with potential customers. Web sites offer an ideal way of showcasing your previous work and accomplishments to potential customers.

There is also a large amount of prestige to having a website. It gives people the impression that you are savvy and smart enough to take your business up a level. Since a website is such a major convenience it also tells people that you are interested in sharing information with them.

Expand Your Business

The Internet takes away traditional business boundaries. When you go online people from all over the country, or even from around the world, will show up.
Somebody always wants your product or service. Promoting through the internet and drawing them in will help you expand.
If you are a not-for-profit organisation then a website will raise awareness and attract more donors. You can replace the distribution of costly printed materials and cold calling for support. You can attract a willing audience to your website and impress them with your message once they arrive.

Improve you Competitive Advantage

On a computer screen all companies play by the same rules. No matter what your size, a website offers your business the same advantage as your biggest competitors. A well designed website for even a one man operation can have the same presence as a multi-national corporation.

Cost Effective

A web site is very cost effective. While it cannot replace your existing sales, advertising, retailing, customer support and public relations efforts, it makes all these business functions more effective. And though web site development is not without cost, the cost is limited. However the reach of your web site is worldwide and 24 hours per day. Publishing on the web is very inexpensive. Changing the information on your web site is also fast and efficient, whereas changing printed material can be costly and time consuming.

Compare the cost of a small ad in a magazine (which is only available for a limited time) or the cost of printing and mailing catalogues versus the cost of having a Web site, which is available 24 hours a day. Your customers can have the current information or price list for your goods or services at any time, just by looking at the relevant page on your website.

In addition your site can include features that no printed brochure or newspaper ad can offer, such as video and sound.

Sell

An interactive online catalogue makes your company's products accessible everywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Selling online is a cost-effective ways to sell anything. It comes without the customary overhead of a physical store, like building leases, employees who need to get paid whether or not the register is ringing, and the myriad of costs associated with keeping the store running (utilities, supplies, maintenance, etc.).

While there are certainly costs for hosting your site, keeping it secure, sales transactions, hiring a Web developer, and more, the costs of running an online store are predictably lower than having a physical store.

Specialized Markets

If you have a specialty product or service and working within a limited geographic area then you may be wasting a lot of money promoting your business to an audience that is largely uninterested. Move to online advertising and promoting and, apart from removing those geographic boundaries, you have access to the special interest groups that are on the Internet for virtually any subject.

By advertising exactly where your audience is, every penny you spend immediately becomes more valuable. So when an enthusiast sees your advertisement or reads about you on a message board, they go straight to your website. Never before has attracting a specialised audience been so direct and efficient.

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- 11:10 PM -

10 Tips To Help You Profit From Your Website

10 Easy Tips to Help You Profit From Your Website.

Hundreds of thousands of webmasters across the world make money online with their websites. Why not you? Here are 10 easy tips that you can use on your website to make it profitable. As with any good website however, you first need quality original content!

1. Google AdSense - Make money selling advertising space. While banner ads are not worth your time for the most part, Google AdSense is. Many web site owners make a comfortable living off of AdSense profit alone.

2. Affiliate Marketing - Make money referring your website traffic to other websites. Don't have a product? That is 100% O.K. Just add someone else product to your site by joining an affiliate program and forget about it. If you have related content (free information) you will see a slow trickle of income from your affiliate links.

3. Write an eBook - Sell your own idea or product. I know it sounds like a day dream, but people do this all the time. In fact, it is the most common method that people use to make money. Write an eBook, offer consultations, or make something people will use. In this category, you are only limited by your imagination.

4. Create an online directory - Sell text links. Add a directory area to your site and offer to place links to other web sites for a small fee.

5. Become a Paid Blogger. Offer to blog for companies. Blogging is fast becoming an important link building strategy for online companies. There are hundreds of small businesses that could benefit from a professional blog but, do not have the resources to hire a full time employee. You have a website, put it to use!

6. Open your own eBay store. Buy low, sell high. There is no easier place to sell than online with your own eBay store. You can concentrate on a particular type of product like coins and antiques or you can sell a wide variety.

7. Host an online competition. Offer prizes for the first, second and third place winners. Your competition can be on almost anything. Think of a way to offer a competition, create a small entry fee and you are set!

8. Create a member only area. You can create a members only site about anything from Fan Clubs, Online Newsletters, Courses and Training, Stock Trading Tips, Dating Sites, Personal Advice, Horoscopes, Family Trees, and so on. Again, your only limitation is your imagination. If you have a site already up and running, offer something in your paid member's area that they cannot easily get for free.

9. Begin a paid advice service. Free information is great and will draw readers to your site. Once there, help the reader out with some basic information. Save the real "meat" for those that are willing to pay a small fee.

10. Sell your site. Why drag on a project for years when you can get in, get out and turn a quick (albeit smaller) profit? Create your site, get it listed in the search engines, make sure you get a few dollars a week in online advertising and sell your site for a few thousand dollars.

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- 8:10 PM -

Does my small business need a website?

Question: Does my small business need a website?

It is a frequent misconception that your small business is "too small for a website". Quite the contrary: If you own or operate a small business in Palm Coast, Daytona Beach, Port Orange, Ormond Beach, or anywhere, for that matter, it is imperative that you have a presence on the World Wide Web.

Consider this true story:

Jessica and her family are relocating to Daytona Beach. Their daughter competes in the equestrian sport of eventing. They will need to find a suitable stable for the horse within a reasonable distance to their new home in Daytona Beach. Ideally, the stable would have a reputable on-site event trainer. Of course, they will also need an equine vet, farrier, and so on. Most of these services must be arranged before the horse leaves their current location.

How will Jessica and her family find the service?

Answer: The World Wide Web

Jessica goes to Google, Yahoo, and every other search engine and directory she can find, using every combination of keywords she can think of. Much to her dismay, very few stables come up in the search. Jessica knows there has to be more available to her than what she is seeing.

And so began Jessica's tedious task of calling, leaving messages, and hoping that someone would call her back.

How many good facilities was she missing because she simply couldn't find them?

Answer: PLENTY!

If your small business does not have a website, or has a website that Google, Yahoo, or other search engines can't find, you could be missing customers you didn't know were there. Whether you train horses in Daytona Beach, own a spa in Port Orange, or offer services of any kind anywhere, you need a well planned, well developed website.

Question: Should I design my own website or hire a professional web designer?

Wrong Answer: I can do it myself!

Correct Answer: Hire a professional website designer!

A website is a reflection of your business. A poorly designed website can make visitors question the quality of your service and turn them away as quickly as a well-designed website can draw them in. A professional website design incorporates design, content, and navigation together to achieve the best possible online marketing for your small business.

Using a professional web designer to develop your website also means that your website will be created and tested to work on a variety of browsers. Although a majority of visitors are likely to use Internet Explorer, up to 30% could be using Firefox, Safari, or another browser. If you design your own website without performing cross-browser testing, you could be loosing 30% of your visitors without knowing it simply because your self-built website couldn't be viewed on the other browsers.

A good web designer also offers (at least) basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) advice. Using proper head codes, keywords, metatags, page titles, navigation layout, and links is essential for search engine success. A professional web designer will develop your website using these techniques and many others for online success.

If you know how to optimize your content to rank higher on Google and other search engines, understand how to use navigation techniques to move visitors easily through your site, and feel confident in your design skills to create a website that looks good - then build it yourself. Otherwise - hand it over to a professional so you can concentrate on what matters most to you - running your small business. Let you the website designer do what they live for - giving you a quality website.

It will be money well spent when potential customers are finding you with ease.

This article was written by Nate Shiflett, owner of Innovative Eyes Web Design, located in Palm Coast, Florida. His website design and visual graphics business caters to small business owners in and around Daytona Beach, Florida and throughout Central Florida. Nate believes that no business is too small to be seen on the web. Find out more about Nate Shiflett and Innovative Eyes Web Design by visiting his website at http://www.webdesignpalmcoast.com

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- 4:56 PM -

Steps to a successful web site.

Whether you decide to design your new website yourself or hire a professional web designer, a successful website must be developed with content, design, and optimization in mind.

The Content

Only you - the small business owner - can develop the content of your website. Because only you know exactly what your business does, what its goals are, and what you want to say about your small business. A copywriter may be able to assist you by putting this into words, but you are really the person who needs writes the content.

Break your content into small pieces that can be put into logical groupings (pages) within your new website. A good average is 250 words/page. Consider the keywords that visitors might use to search for you, and incorporate them throughout your website, with a density of approximately 3%.

The first page is your front door and should contain a brief description of you and your business: who you are, where you are located, and what you have to offer. Too much information on the homepage of your website can be cumbersome to visitors and may cause them to click away. You have merely seconds to grab your audience and entice them to stay. For this reason, take time to develop the content for this page. It will be well worth your time.

Develop the content for following pages in much the same way, keeping the information concise and on-topic. Incorporate references and ways to link to other pages within your website. Potential topics to consider are:

About Your Small Business, Industry News & Tips, Your Services & Products, Customer Testimonials, Contact Information, Employee Biographies, etc.

The Web Design (Layout)

Even if you have fantastic content, a poor web design that lacks originality won't keep your visitors on your website. A key ingredient to a successful presence on the World Wide Web is a well-designed website. And for many small businesses, it is worth paying a professional to web designer.

Take time to visit the website of your competition. Does it work? Does it draw you in, so you want to click deeper into their website for more? Or does it drive you away, leaving you uninspired, uninterested, and disappointed? You also should pay close attention to how graphics, images, and photographs are used throughout these website. Begin a list of images you will need to develop or gather to enhance your own website.

The most important aspect in your web design is the navigation, or the way you move visitors through your entire website. Make sure visitors can find what they are looking for quickly and easily. The obvious way this works is through the use of navigation bars. You can also help visitors move through your sites, and drive them to particular areas, by adding links to keywords throughout your web pages.

Optimizing Your Website

Optimization is the process used to bring your website to the attention of search engines. There are many different opinions on how this can and should be done. And strategies differ, depending on the size of your business, your product or service, and your budget. Yes, it's more than just submitting your website to Google.

As a small business web designer, I have many clients who are just starting their business and are on a limited or non-profit budget. So I believe it is always best to begin with the basics: a simple, logical navigation system that carries through your entire website; proper use of keywords and links within the body of your website; submitting your new website to free on-line industry directories where you may link to your website; and of course, submission to search engines. These are all things your web designer should be able to help with. Keep in mind that these are the basics. There are many search engine optimization (SEO) strategies available, like article submissions, back links, and pay per click campaigns.

No matter what your SEO strategy is, the hardest, but most important part is PATIENCE! It takes time for even the smallest changes to be picked up by the search engines. They crawl millions of sites each day, indexing the information and ranking them by relevance. The art of search engine optimization is extremely time consuming, so keep this in mind whether you do it yourself, or ask for the help of a professional.

This article was written by Nate Shiflett owner of Innovative Eyes Web Design, located in Palm Coast, FL. His website design and visual graphics business caters to small business owners in and around Daytona Beach, Florida and throughout the Southeast. Nate believes that no business is too small to be seen on the web. Find out more about Nate Shiflett and Innovative Eyes Web Design by visiting his website at http://www.webdesignpalmcoast.com