Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I have had a chance to visit a great many local area websites in the last few days. Most are on the order of what I do myself, design wise. Not super fancy, but workable.
What I was not too surprised about is the lack of material and imagination, though. Most of the sites look like set em and forget em sites. Probably a little pricey to set up, and of little real value.
If you happen to have a local website, the question is...how many hits does it get? Do you know? Are you keeping up with it?
Second, how much money has your site made you? Has it paid for itself? Can it be found on search engines for the products or services you have, instead of just for the name of your business?
Advertising on the internet is not the end all and be all of advertising. Whereas newspaper and radio is "immediate" advertising, the net takes a little longer.
NOW is the time to get your business online for Christmas. The beauty of a page with GetCalhoun.com is that it is as good quality, and often better than what you already have. More, GetCalhoun.com gets lots of hits. More, it is a search engine magnet nearly guaranteeing that your page will be found by searching for products and services, rather than the name of your business only.
For example, how many people search for "Kathy's Cloth Barn" versus how many search for "cloth in anniston"...
Kathy's site is geared to be found with the former search, but not the latter. Kathy will be found with either on GetCalhoun.com and this is the difference.
One of the greatest challenges I have to overcome is folks who already have websites that produce low expectations. It DOES NOT have to be this way.
While GetCalhoun.com can't make folks search for your company, if they do, you WILL be found. So, whether or not you currently have a site, you should be on GetCalhoun.com. Every time we pick up a new client, it improves the prospects for all the clients. It's a unique website advertising model, and one you shouldn't be without.
What I was not too surprised about is the lack of material and imagination, though. Most of the sites look like set em and forget em sites. Probably a little pricey to set up, and of little real value.
If you happen to have a local website, the question is...how many hits does it get? Do you know? Are you keeping up with it?
Second, how much money has your site made you? Has it paid for itself? Can it be found on search engines for the products or services you have, instead of just for the name of your business?
Advertising on the internet is not the end all and be all of advertising. Whereas newspaper and radio is "immediate" advertising, the net takes a little longer.
NOW is the time to get your business online for Christmas. The beauty of a page with GetCalhoun.com is that it is as good quality, and often better than what you already have. More, GetCalhoun.com gets lots of hits. More, it is a search engine magnet nearly guaranteeing that your page will be found by searching for products and services, rather than the name of your business only.
For example, how many people search for "Kathy's Cloth Barn" versus how many search for "cloth in anniston"...
Kathy's site is geared to be found with the former search, but not the latter. Kathy will be found with either on GetCalhoun.com and this is the difference.
One of the greatest challenges I have to overcome is folks who already have websites that produce low expectations. It DOES NOT have to be this way.
While GetCalhoun.com can't make folks search for your company, if they do, you WILL be found. So, whether or not you currently have a site, you should be on GetCalhoun.com. Every time we pick up a new client, it improves the prospects for all the clients. It's a unique website advertising model, and one you shouldn't be without.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Coupons have always been a major part of GetCalhoun.com. I encourage my clients to offer specials for our readers, and they always come across.
But, I took it a step further with the GetCalhoun.com Coupon Page on GC. I get offers from all over the place and when I like one, I post it. Yes, I do make a commission. I'm a capitalist. But, I also get to offer things you probably won't see elsewhere.
I just posted the wackiest offer I have seen. A place called, "RugSale.com" has a contest good thru August 21. Any purchase you make will be FREE if the temps go up to or over 115F in Las Vegas, NV at noon on August 28th. (I took the liberty of checking the record temps for the area. I placed the results with the coupon.) Read the fine print.
The catch...there is always a catch...is that you must purchase a rug on or before August 21.
However, if you like rugs, this is the incentive to push you over to their sales floor.
If you haven't been to the Coupon Page before now, now is a good time to go look at the Rug Sale information. I created a new page off the coupon page with the actual mail they sent me. After you read that, you'll know as much as I do, and you can determine if a rug is right for you!
PS... If you go late in the evening, be sure to check out the only known LIVE deer cam in existence that resides on an internet coupon page. Happy bargain hunting!
But, I took it a step further with the GetCalhoun.com Coupon Page on GC. I get offers from all over the place and when I like one, I post it. Yes, I do make a commission. I'm a capitalist. But, I also get to offer things you probably won't see elsewhere.
I just posted the wackiest offer I have seen. A place called, "RugSale.com" has a contest good thru August 21. Any purchase you make will be FREE if the temps go up to or over 115F in Las Vegas, NV at noon on August 28th. (I took the liberty of checking the record temps for the area. I placed the results with the coupon.) Read the fine print.
The catch...there is always a catch...is that you must purchase a rug on or before August 21.
However, if you like rugs, this is the incentive to push you over to their sales floor.
If you haven't been to the Coupon Page before now, now is a good time to go look at the Rug Sale information. I created a new page off the coupon page with the actual mail they sent me. After you read that, you'll know as much as I do, and you can determine if a rug is right for you!
PS... If you go late in the evening, be sure to check out the only known LIVE deer cam in existence that resides on an internet coupon page. Happy bargain hunting!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
I must confess, as usual, the things that look the easiest are often the most difficult.
I decided to change the mission of AnnistonAlabama.net a few days ago. I totally changed the look, and it is different than all other community websites now.
Community websites seem to fall into two categories: They either look like they were cloned from all the others in a slick but busy style, or they are really clunky and amateurish. This happens because the designer either either a blog or CMS format like Wordpress, or some kind of beginner page maker that spits out a full site after only a few clicks.
Well...I wanted to do something different... I wanted to do something as sharp as possible using HTML. I think I'm on the correct track.
Whereas GetCalhoun.com is a workhorse, AnnistonAlabama.net is designed to be a showhorse. The ad prices will reflect this philosophy. It's going to be something Anniston businesses ought to want to latch onto. It's a clear departure from what I have done in the past. However, after all is said and done, it is a spinoff of GetCalhoun.com, which is the "everyman's" website. There is absolutely positively nothing like GetCalhoun.com that I have ever seen...and I have looked a lot. It's one heck of a solution for small businesses in the region. Every time another advertiser comes along, he makes it better for all the advertisers. There's just nothing better you can do with your ad dollar!
But, back to AnnistonAlabama.net. It's going to be a fine showcase website for business in Anniston, and businesses who support Anniston. It's going to be fine, because it will be seen by anyone wanting more information particular to Anniston... This means everyone from the little old lady in Arnet, Texas just fooling around to the mega-billionaire looking to escape California or Dusseldorf, Germany and bring his factory to Anniston. It's going to be a fine ambassador.
Oh yes.. about the simple I mentioned up top.... AnnistonAlabama.net is NOT a simple website. One of the simplest looking things about it carried me down coding roads I have never seen before. The slide show which is NOT designed for the platform I'm using to build the site, cost me right at 12 hours to figure out. We're talking CSS, Javascript, and some pestulent bit of stuff called Mootools, none of which I have much to any familiarity with. Sigh. It was fun to see it work, though. Finally. And until the browser boys throw a monkey wrench into the works sooner or later with their revisions, maybe it will keep working! I think the results are pretty darn neat!
I decided to change the mission of AnnistonAlabama.net a few days ago. I totally changed the look, and it is different than all other community websites now.
Community websites seem to fall into two categories: They either look like they were cloned from all the others in a slick but busy style, or they are really clunky and amateurish. This happens because the designer either either a blog or CMS format like Wordpress, or some kind of beginner page maker that spits out a full site after only a few clicks.
Well...I wanted to do something different... I wanted to do something as sharp as possible using HTML. I think I'm on the correct track.
Whereas GetCalhoun.com is a workhorse, AnnistonAlabama.net is designed to be a showhorse. The ad prices will reflect this philosophy. It's going to be something Anniston businesses ought to want to latch onto. It's a clear departure from what I have done in the past. However, after all is said and done, it is a spinoff of GetCalhoun.com, which is the "everyman's" website. There is absolutely positively nothing like GetCalhoun.com that I have ever seen...and I have looked a lot. It's one heck of a solution for small businesses in the region. Every time another advertiser comes along, he makes it better for all the advertisers. There's just nothing better you can do with your ad dollar!
But, back to AnnistonAlabama.net. It's going to be a fine showcase website for business in Anniston, and businesses who support Anniston. It's going to be fine, because it will be seen by anyone wanting more information particular to Anniston... This means everyone from the little old lady in Arnet, Texas just fooling around to the mega-billionaire looking to escape California or Dusseldorf, Germany and bring his factory to Anniston. It's going to be a fine ambassador.
Oh yes.. about the simple I mentioned up top.... AnnistonAlabama.net is NOT a simple website. One of the simplest looking things about it carried me down coding roads I have never seen before. The slide show which is NOT designed for the platform I'm using to build the site, cost me right at 12 hours to figure out. We're talking CSS, Javascript, and some pestulent bit of stuff called Mootools, none of which I have much to any familiarity with. Sigh. It was fun to see it work, though. Finally. And until the browser boys throw a monkey wrench into the works sooner or later with their revisions, maybe it will keep working! I think the results are pretty darn neat!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Community Alert:
New AnnistonAlabama.net website in building stage. Need photos...
Recently, I picked up a new domain name... AnnistonAlabama.net. After scratching my head for a month, I decided to turn it into a gift for Anniston from GetCalhoun.com. What the heck.
It comes in three parts... past, present and future. I'll be writing the history part. Mayor Robinson will take care of either the present or future, and appoint someone else to write what's left.
It will be neat. Folks from all over the world who are searching for information on the area will land on this site. What the site could use is some old old Anniston photos for the history part. There just isn't a whole lot available around here that I can get my hands on.
If you have historical pics of Anniston stuff, why not contact me here at GetCalhoun.com and let's put them on for everyone to see? The past part will mostly be about the founding of Anniston, so I'm talking really old photos, if you have them, say pre 1920. Jump in!
New AnnistonAlabama.net website in building stage. Need photos...
Recently, I picked up a new domain name... AnnistonAlabama.net. After scratching my head for a month, I decided to turn it into a gift for Anniston from GetCalhoun.com. What the heck.
It comes in three parts... past, present and future. I'll be writing the history part. Mayor Robinson will take care of either the present or future, and appoint someone else to write what's left.
It will be neat. Folks from all over the world who are searching for information on the area will land on this site. What the site could use is some old old Anniston photos for the history part. There just isn't a whole lot available around here that I can get my hands on.
If you have historical pics of Anniston stuff, why not contact me here at GetCalhoun.com and let's put them on for everyone to see? The past part will mostly be about the founding of Anniston, so I'm talking really old photos, if you have them, say pre 1920. Jump in!
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