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Blog, Helpful Hints and Tips, Internet Marketing Tips
How to fill out your free Manta Profile
April 17, 2012
With tens of millions of business profiles Manta is one of the largest business information websites on the internet. Creating a business profile or claiming an existing one is simple. If you have had any online presence with your business in the past Manta likely has a basic profile for your business already. So first step is to search Manta for your business by name. If you find it visit the profile and click the “claim this listing” link. If not you will be prompted to add a new listing. The procedure from here is the same.
Now you will need to either log in to an existing Manta account you own or create a new one. Manta asks you to give a name and how you are related to the business (owner, employee, or representative.) This will appear on the profile so it is best to use legitimate and complete information.
Then we are guided through a 4 step process to fill out the profile. First step is business name, address, and website link. Second you can add a description of 150 characters and 5 services so choose wisely. The third step allows you to choose 3 business categories. With lots profiles come lots of categories and Manta’s category match tool can be a little confusing. Make sure you double check the parent categories of your selections to find the most relevant category to your business. Step 4 is the up sale, ignore it and look for “No thanks. Continue to my profile. »” towards the bottom.
Now this is honestly a feature I haven’t used but you are prompted to import email contacts. This would help you to find people and businesses connected to your business on Manta. They support many common email services (gmail, yahoo, hotmail…) If you are setting this up for your own small business using more of the social features of Manta could be a real plus. You can choose to do this step now or skip and view your profile.
So now your profile has all the basic business information. There are a couple more things you can do to improve your free listing. If you have a logo to upload you should start there. You can edit your “metro area” and add a nearest landmark in the top area. Below that is a product area where you can create product/service pages with text, one image, and a link. With the free listing you can create 3 of these pages with max 250 and 3000 character descriptions, one picture, price, and a link. These are a great addition to your business profile with links to interior pages of your company website.
Back on the main profile keep filling out as much as possible because completeness of the profile counts towards Manta’s ranking of your listing. Make sure to add a detailed business description, it can be up to 800 characters. You can add business hours and a description, again put something just for completeness.
Finally at the bottom of the profile you have a few more fields to complete. Business info can be modified here along with adding brands carried. There is an additional information space of 200 characters and another 200 for Green Initiatives. Professional memberships, certificates, and licenses can be added as well. Then its just external media links and the obligatory Facebook and Twitter links.
It might take more then the few minutes Manta would have you think but creating a free business profile here is a must.
Written by Charlie
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Why website training is important for web developers and customers
March 25, 2012
Some web companies make a limited effort in training their customers because they will make money off of support requests in the future. Also, some web designers still do not install a content management system and make their customers pay to update their website. This is a short sighted approach. If the cusomter has trouble updating their own website, they will be less inclined to do it. They are even less likely to update their website if they have to call their web company and pay them for support. When we need to bill less than an hour to help out with website support everyone looses. The customer feels nickel and dimed, and we don’t want to stop what we are doing for 15 minutes worth of support.
If the website development customer is trained properly they are more likely to update their website, and refer your services to others. When the website is updated more frequently is usually becomes more popular, and the company is more successful. Instead of calling you for help updating the website, the company will be calling you to add new functionality, build another website, or start on another project. This type of work is far more profitable for both parties.
WordPress Training Video: How to add photos, PDF’s and MP3′s
We are sharing this video because we want to show you the level of service we provide for our customers. For larger websites we like to create a library of training videos so that they can refer back to them when needed.
Written by Charlie
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Blog, Helpful Hints and Tips, Internet Marketing Tips
Why is my Microsoft Adcenter Budget being spent on the first day of the month?
March 22, 2012
Recently we had a client who’s Bing PPC monthly advertising budget was being depleted during the first few days of the month. The client had been using a small monthly budget on Bing since the beginning of 2011. What had happened was that during the year Bing had completed their search integration with Yahoo. This increase in search queries and the advertising competition that came along with it had made their monthly budget too small. What before would easily cover a month was now being blown through in a single day.
The solution was quite simple, adjust the Bing advertising budget from monthly to daily. Luckily one of the other changes Microsoft brought to Bing last year was a simplified budgeting system. This was also another factor in why the monthly budget was no longer lasting the whole month. When the changes were rolled out in mid 2011 the daily budget became the new default and monthly budgets could no longer be divided evenly across the month.
To set a daily budget in the Microsoft adCenter you must navigate to your ad campaign. Once on the campaign you will see a link titled “Edit your campaign settings” on the line below the campaign’s title.
Your choices are either a daily or monthly and for daily budgets either standard or accelerated.
Monthly budgets are really only a good choice for those with a very large budget. Google has fine tuned its spending to spread even the smallest budgets out over the course of the month. Bing has not perfected this for smaller budgets. That leaves us with a daily budget and we selected standard which evenly distributes the spending so the ad is seen throughout the day.
Written by Charlie
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Building a custom Facebook tab hosted on your secure server 2012
February 19, 2012
This tutorial will teach you how to make a custom Facebook tab using an Iframe that is hosted on your website’s secure server.
- We will not use static FBML which Facebook is discontinuing
- We will not use a third party app that will add a link to the bottom of your tab
This process requires that you have purchased an SSL certificate for your website so that you can create a page on https:// version of your website. If you do not have an SSL certificate you will need to follow our building an app with Heroku tutorial.
1. Create a folder in a secure directory to host your Iframe and build your tab.
Iframes should be 520px wide. Inside this directory you will have an index file. We use index.php, but other file extensions may work as well. There is certain code you must have inside the <head> tag of your web page for the tab to work correctly.
<meta property=”fb:app_id” content=”‘ . AppInfo::appID(304180146306161) . ‘” />
<script>
function popup(pageURL, title,w,h) {
var left = (screen.width/2)-(w/2);
var top = (screen.height/2)-(h/2);
var targetWin = window.open(
pageURL,
title,
‘toolbar=no, location=no, directories=no, status=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=no, copyhistory=no, width=’+w+’, height=’+h+’, top=’+top+’, left=’+left
);
}
</script>
<!–[if IE]>
<script>
var tags = ['header', 'section'];
while(tags.length)
document.createElement(tags.pop());
</script>
<![endif]–>
You can include Javascript, PHP and other types of code within your page. Remember that any files you reference in your code must also be hosted on the https:// part of your website.
2. Set up your app in Facebook Developers
Go to https://developers.facebook.com/apps/ and sign up as a developer if you have not already. After clicking the “Create New App” button the configuration can be a bit tricky.
- App Domain – Your website’s domain name, not the URL of your app files.
- Website - Not sure why, but you have to fill this in with your domain name or you will get an error when saving
3. Add the tab to your Facebook Page
After you create the app, you will see the AppID at the top of your page.
Find the meta tag in your web page files, paste in your App ID, and upload the updated file to your server.
<meta property=”fb:app_id” content=”‘ . AppInfo::appID(304180146306161) . ‘” />
Now to activate the app you will need to paste a custom URL into your browser.
https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=304180146306161&next=https://www.rolloffdumpsterdirect.com/secure/facebook/
Replace the app_id= with your app id, and the next= with the URL of your secure folder. It will prompt you to choose which page you want to add the tab to and then you are good to go. You can continue to update the contents of your secure folder and the changes will be reflected in the Iframe.
Resources
See our app in action - http://www.facebook.com/RollOffDumpsterDirect?sk=app_304180146306161
Download our source code - http://www.boomvisibility.com/files/iframe-template.zip
Facebook Tab Tutorial - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/appsonfacebook/pagetabs/
Facebook Apps Dashboard - https://developers.facebook.com/apps/
Written by Charlie
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Why we don’t like the Yelp review filter
February 13, 2012
For restaurants and products there is rarely a shortage of reviews, good and bad. The average restaurant has far more reviews than the average contractor or repair shop. The only reason someone would be compelled to write a review for a service business is after a negative experience. For that reason service businesses often resort to asking customers for reviews after positive experiences to balance out the bad. Unfortunately Yelp prohibits businesses from asking for reviews and can filter them if they think you might be doing so.
It doesn’t take much to figure out which reviews have been fabricated. I can usually read through a list and figure out which reviews are written by friends and employees because they are overwhelmingly positive, and often not very specific. I think someone would rather read 10 questionable reviews, than give the user no information at all. Filtering the most questionable reviews in a list of 50 makes a lot more sense than filtering 5 of 5.
For these reasons I think the Google places, online yellow pages, and the other local business directories are a better choice for service businesses than Yelp.
Why the reviews filter is unfair
Distinguishing real reviews from fake ones is a nearly impossible undertaking. There are basic restrictions, for example not being able to sign up for multiple accounts from the same IP address. Also, I don’t think the business owner account can write a review for his own business, but after that it becomes very difficult.
Many reviews are filtered because of the status of the user account. If user signs up for an account and posts a review it will be filtered unless they continue to use that account to review other businesses. I have heard of other companies that will have their employees “season” Yelp accounts. They have people use these accounts under fake names so that they appear to be very active Yelp accounts. Then they collect testimonials and post them using these accounts.
Furthermore, there is no effective way to prevent business owners from asking for reviews. If a business creates any sort of offline effort to ask for reviews there is no way Yelp could be aware of that. Yelp should not penalize business for actually getting customers to post reviews, rather than hiring someone to “season” accounts that can be used to get by the filter.
Written by Charlie
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Why are all of my Yelp Reviews Filtered?
February 5, 2012
One of our customers has been encouraging his customers to write reviews. We had the idea to link his local review sites from his home page and it worked well. He has 11 great reviews on Yelp, 13 on Google Places, and a bunch on the other search sites. Although many of his reviews are from friends and family, these are all legitimate customers. I was very shocked to see that all of his Yelp reviews became filtered the other day.
Most reviews are filtered because the user account is not active enough. If you sign up for an account and post a review, and never return to post reviews on other businesses then you review will likely be filtered. We don’t think that is the issue here, as many of the users who have filtered reviews on Tommy’s page, have non-filtered reviews on other pages. This seemingly happened over night, which had us looking through Yelp’s terms and conditions for a reason why.
1. You were caught asking for reviews which was against Yelp’s policy.
Read this snippet from the Yelp faq page.
Should I ask customers to write reviews for my business?
Probably not. It’s a slippery slope between the customer who is so delighted by her experience that she takes it upon herself to write a glowing review and the customer who is “encouraged” to write a favorable review in exchange for a special discount. And let’s be candid: most business owners are only going to solicit reviews from their happy customers, not the unhappy ones. Over time, these self-selected reviews create intrinsic bias in the business listing — a bias that savvy consumers can smell from a mile away. Don’t be surprised, then, if your solicited reviews get filtered by Yelp’s automated review filter.
As you can see from the image above, we are asking customers to write reviews, although we could modify it just to ask customers to read them. I can only imagine that Yelp would be thrilled to see their business profile linked from the home page. Another possibility is that a competitor marked all of the reviews as abusive. I would think that Yelp would be smart enough to prevent that from happening.
2. The incoming traffic to your Yelp page is coming from one website
Yelp may track the referral source of your reviewers. So if they noticed that all of your reviewers landed on your Yelp page by clicking a link on your website, or Facebook, or other page that sends up a red flag. An Yelp page where reviews were generated naturally would probably have most people find the page by searching for the Business on Yelp.
3. You are too perfect. All 5 star reviews
There could just be too much perfect feedback. It seems fishy when 100% of your feedback has 5 stars. You could encourage people to post a couple of 3 and 4 star reviews so that your rating seems more natural.
4. A link to your Yelp page link was “nofollow”.
Thanks to Larry from BlueHorseradish.com for finding this in the Yelp API
Don’t “nofollow” your links to Yelp. Any link back to Yelp or Yelp mobile should be follow-able.
We have contacted Yelp about this issue but their customer support continually responded with default “this is why we filter reviews” responses. They would not tell us anything else.
Written by Charlie
(5 Comments)
Internet Marketing Tips, Shameless Self Promotion
Link Building Ideas – A few ideas that have worked for us
January 29, 2012
I have found that I can go looking for directory links and submit comments all day long, but my best results come when I get more creative. As they say, the easier the link is to get, the less it is worth. Here are some ideas you might try.
- Offer to help with their website – I recently found a directory that had a member list in a PDF with no website links. I also found a non-profit or organization site where the sponsors were listed as an image. By offering to code these pages into HTML, I was able to secure links for my clients without the cost of sponsorship or membership.
- Build your own directory - I am not recommending building a directory that will only contain your website sites, and never changes. You really need to commit for this to work, but if you specialize in a particular field it can be a great help. We work with a lot of auto repair shops near us, so we built AutoRepairDelco.net. I used a wordpress theme called DirectoryPress and for $80 I was able to create a working directory in about a day. I am hoping that the directory will make for a nice ice breaker when approaching other shops. ”Hi, Id like to list you in our directory, do you need any help with your website?”
- Encourage link exchanges – This works well in our world of local auto repair shops. Don’t exchange links with just anyone, but if a body shop recommends a repair shop by linking each other it helps. These can actually be a great source of direct traffic. It never hurts to ask clients if they have friendly relationships with other companies in their field.
- Donate to Charity and Join Organizations – A lot of non-profit websites will have a sponsors page with a link. Again this works in our local SEO because the location of the organization helps our town name keywords.
Written by Charlie
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Custom Facebook Tabs – Making Iframed welcome page using Heroku – 2012
January 20, 2012
I had the following needs for my Facebook Welcome Page.
- An Iframe from an HTTPS site, without buying a SSL certificate for my website
- A welcome tab that did not require users approval to use the app. Did not want my Welcome page to display an authorization request.
- A page with a Like button, not the classic “Click Like Button Above” message
- No ads or attribution links
If you are ok with having a small 3rd party link below the page you can use Iframe Apps which eliminates the need for most of the steps below. If you have an SSL certificate on your site, see our build a Facebook tab hosted on your secure server post.
1. Install the Facebook Developers app, then create a new app, and sign up for cloud services.
This will create your own secure server space with Heroku. Follow the directions on how to set up an app using Heroku. Setting up the app with Heroku is not easy. It involves using the command line to register changes in the code and then upload. Here are some hints for using Heroku on Windows.
- Open you command line by searching for cmd.exe in your start menu.
- Type “heroku login” to sign into the Heroku server
- Download the app files by typing “git clone git@heroku.com:deep-winter-1234.git -o heroku” where deep-winter-1234 is the name that heroku has given your folder.
- Type “cd deep-winter-1234″ to enter the directory where your files were downloaded
- Find the Heroku files by going to My Computer > C: > Users > YourName > Heroku Folder
- Make changes to your files locally with a text editor then type “git commit -am” to register any changes to the local files.
- Type “git push heroku” to upload the new files to Heroku.
If you want to import personalized information from the Facebook API, then users will have to approve the app before using it. The default Heroku app requires approval. If you just want to create a basic welcome page then I suggest replacing the default Heroku code with this stripped down version - http://www.boomvisibility.com/files/heroku-template.zip.
2. Add a Like button to your Welcome page
You can treat your heroku page like any other website and use the same “Like” and “Send” buttons you would use on a website. I just used the developer code generator for these and pasted the code into the index.php.
3. Make your app a Facebook tab
After you get the page running outside of Facebook, you will need to complete your Facebook app settings.
To activate the app you will need to paste a custom URL into your browser.
https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=304180146306161&next=https://www.rolloffdumpsterdirect.com/secure/facebook/
Replace the app_id= with your app id, and the next= with the URL of your secure folder. It will prompt you to choose which page you want to add the tab to and then you are good to go.
So there you have it, a Welcome page that uses an Iframe on an HTTPS site without paying for an SSL certificate. It also does not require users to install it, and contains like and send buttons. If you want us to help you set up something similar be sure to contact us.
Resources
See our app in action - https://www.facebook.com/BoomVisibility?sk=app_233122110101136
Download our source code - http://www.boomvisibility.com/files/deep-winter-4269.zip
Download the stripped down app template - http://www.boomvisibility.com/files/heroku-template.zip
Facebook Tab Tutorial - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/appsonfacebook/pagetabs/
Facebook Apps Dashboard - https://developers.facebook.com/apps/
Heroku Directions - http://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/facebook
Build a Facebook tab hosted on your own secure server - http://www.boomvisibility.com/building-a-custom-facebook-tab-hosted-on-your-secure-server-2012/
Written by Charlie
(6 Comments)
Blog, Shameless Self Promotion
How much do websites cost? Websites that don’t cost a ton of money
January 8, 2012
As much as designers hate it, we often use templates for low cost websites. Getting a jump start on both the design and the development is a great way to cut costs, as well as the time needed to produce the website. Here are some advantages of starting from a template.
- Design Choices – We can sit with our clients and show them a variety of options.
- Lower Cost – You are getting a big head start on the design and setup of your website
- Shorter Project Length
- More budget for search marketing to get customers to your website
Here are some customers we helped with template based designs in 2011. All of these sites are built with a WordPress Content Management system and cost less than $1500 in total project costs.
If you want to take a look at some of the templates available try the WordPress.org Themes Directory or Themeforest. You can always try searching Google where you can find articles like Most Popular Free WordPress Themes.
After you find that theme you think is a good fit for your new website, give us a call and we will help with customizing it for your business.
Written by Charlie
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Latest Project – Non Profit Website Design
December 5, 2011
We provided a custom designed WordPress website for Arlington Cursillo in Virginia. We are really happy with the way the design came out, and we also got a chance to add in some custom features.
- Events Calendar – Feeds upcoming events to Twitter and supports adding recurring events.
- User Contributions - Website Visitors can submit a post from the front end of the website. Administrators are notified to approve the post.
- User Activity Monitor – Shows a feed of user activity, as well as what browser they are using.
- Custom Comments - Sign up for a schedule using a custom post type and comments
Written by Charlie
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