Through this article, I want to teach you how to backup this very valuable element of your Internet business. No need to be overwhelmed; the process, once learned, will take you less than 1 minute to complete.

Why bother?
Technology is imperfect; even sophisticated automatic backup systems can fail or corrupt. Your website- the central hub of your Internet business- is too important to take chances with! Even if your website host offers a backup service, you are still ultimately responsible for backing up your site. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t like to take chances.

Why is the database so important?
Think of the database as the brain of your website. The graphics make your site pretty and user-friendly, the code makes it function, but the database is where all the content and information lives. And unlike the graphics or code of the website, the content and information that’s stored in the database is often generated automatically through the functions of your website, and is therefore difficult or impossible to recreate.

For example, if you have an integrated shopping cart on your website, all of the customer information and order information is stored in the database. If you have any type of user registration, such as a mailing list, a blog which allows users to comment, or a membership program, all of that information is stored in the database. If you have an administration area of your site where you can write and modify content, upload pictures, and create new pages, all of that information and content is stored in the database. So if your database were to corrupt or fail, given these examples, you would have no order history, no customer information, no mailing list, no user records (logins, email addresses, passwords, etc.), no pages and no page content. You’d be dead in the water. Who knew the database was so important!

Back That Database Up!
These instructions area applicable to the most commonly used website database program, called MySQL (pronounced My S-Q-L or My Sequel). If your site is dynamic but doesn’t use MySQL, check with your developer or website host to learn how to back up whatever database is being used.

We’re going to use a program called phpMyAdmin (pronounced P-H-P My Admin) which works in conjunction with MySQL to make it easier to manage, by giving you an administration interface to work with. That’s as technical as this article gets, so keep reading!

The Big Green Note:
If these instructions don’t work for you for any reason or you need help, contact your website developer or hosting company.

Step 1: Login to phpMyAdmin (PMA)
A username and password will be required to login. If you don’t have the username/password what should you do? See the Big Green Note above, silly! (That was a test.)

You will access the phpMyAdmin program one of two ways, either:

a) by typing in the URL to PMA, such as www.yourwebsite.com/phpmyadmin or www.yourwebsite.com/pma

… or…

b) by logging-in to your web hosting control panel at www.yourdomain.com/cpanel and clicking the phpMyAdmin icon.

Step 2: Select your database

The top left side of the PMA homescreen shows a list of your databases. Don’t worry about “information_schema”, you’re looking for the one named something pertinent to your website. When you find it, click it. to access that database.

Step 3: Export
Next, click the “Export” button at the top of the screen.

Step 4: Confirm and Download
On the Export screen, you’ll see a bunch of overwhelming options with technical terms. Don’t worry about them, most of the default options are set exactly how you need them.

Ensure the “SQL” option is selected on the left and the “Save as file” checkbox is checked. Then click “Go.”

You’ll probably get a prompt about what you want to do with the file you’re downloading, just like if you were downloading a PDF report. Save it wherever you want.

That’s it, you did it! Repeat this process as frequently as you feel comfortable with. I recommend backing up your MySQL database at least once a week, but many companies that see high activity (new orders every day, new subscribers, etc.) choose to do it every day. Once you get used to the process, it should only take you 60 seconds.

I hope you rest easier knowing your website database is backed up. Any questions?

1. Find one new person to add to one or more of your networks. They could be a recent acquaintance, colleague, old friend, new customer, etc.
2. Reply or comment to two contacts you have minimal connection with to cultivate the relationship.
3. Connect with one potential customer/referral source by sending them a short personal message.
4. Recommend a LinkedIn connection.
5. Review the profile of a top referral source, send them a short message about a common interest you discover.
6. Post a link to one of your favorite articles or useful bits of information; relate why the article/info interests you.
7. Review second-tier connections for potential new contacts- request an introduction (LinkedIn) or introduce yourself as a mutual acquaintance of your common contact.
8. Read a recent group discussion, post an interactive comment.
9. Post a photo of something you’re working on. A photo is more eye-catching, creative and interactive than a simple status update.
10. Relate a personal experience to something work-related through a status update. (e.g. “Just finished helping my elderly neighbor bag his leaves. I like helping my neighbors and community, which is one reason I love going to work everyday.”)

The value of top search engine rankings is a no-brainer for any company which benefits from search traffic. I hope by addressing some fundamental principles you’ll have a better understanding of how to make your site perform better in search results. This process is referred to as search engine optimization, or SEO.

All of the elements included below are things you should be able to modify yourself with a basic website editing program (I like Adobe Contribute), without having to get a web developer or programmer involved. It’s important to remember, too, that this article is titled “The Basics” for good reason; there are many other known elements that contribute to search engine rankings which are more complex and technical to approach (I’ll address them in future articles), so be sure you keep realistic expectations.

How Search Engines Work

All search engines have their own mathematical algorithm which defines a value for each element of your site to arrive at how closely your website matches any given search that someone runs. For example, one search engine may give a higher value to the heading of the page, while another will give a higher value to the page title. Unfortunately, we don’t know all of the elements that search engines consider in their algorithm or what value they place on each element; these are closely guarded trade secrets.

Search engines use computer programs referred to as “spiders” which constantly “crawl” through your website and across the Internet. The more “spider food” you can offer to the spiders, the more they’ll like your site and the more information they’ll have to accurately index and rank your website.

A Word of Caution

Two things are very important to consider before you go too nuts trying to achieve a top ranking:

1) Search engines are smart. Don’t attempt to fool them by trying to exploit a known ranking element. Search engines catch wise in a hurry and abuse will lead to your site being dropped like a bad habit. I’ve literally seen companies ruined overnight this way.

2) Remember that websites are designed for people, not for search engines. It’s easy to get zealous in your attempts to better your ranking, only to decrease your sales conversions because your website is so user-unfriendly.

It’s All About Keywords

As you’ll read below, the common elements of basic search engine optimization are keyword consistency and prevalence throughout your site and individual pages. Choosing your keywords and phrases is very important, and should not be approached haphazardly. The SEO-conscious entrepreneur should start each project with keyword research, which will guide the rest of the site development process.

As search engines have gotten better and better at reading websites to decide how to index them in the search results, content elements of the site have become very important to the overall optimization success of the site (content=extra tasty spider food). That’s why identifying and utilizing your top keywords throughout your content and other SEO elements is so important.

Keyword research is an extensive subject, and will be approached in greater depth in future articles.

Search Engine Optimization Basics

Alright, let’s look at some basic elements that will impact your search ranking, in no particular order.

Domain Name
Your domain name is your www.whatever.com. Search engines have gotten good at reading these, so it’s important that they contain keywords pertaining to your product or service. For example, www.DMCS.com means nothing to a search engine, whereas www.PrivateScubaLessons.com is illustrative of a well-chosen domain name. (Rock on, @ScubaDivaLaura!)

Page Name
The page name is the actual file name of each webpage of your site, which trails the domain name. On a static site, it might be www.domain-name.com/this-is-your-page-name.htm. This is another place to be sure the name contains keywords that pertain to your page. A bad example would be “products.htm”, whereas a good example would be “cheap-golf-swing-training-products.htm”.

Page Title
The page title is what shows up at the very top of your Internet browser window, above the address bar. It should be unique on each page, pertain to the content of each page, and try to pull-in some keywords to match the other elements of your site/page. Something nondescript like”About Us” won’t help your ranking.

Headings/Headlines
It’s important to understand that a “headline” to a person is not necessarily a “heading” to the search engines. Just because it’s big and bold and at the top of your page doesn’t mean the search engines will recognize it as a true heading. Search engines look for the content contained between heading tags in the code, such as <h1> or <h2>, to determine which chunk of content is the primary heading, the secondary heading, and so on. Most website editors will automatically insert the correct code tag when you use the text formatting options in the editor, often found in a drop-down menu.

(common text formatting)

Headlines currently seem to be given considerable value in primary search engine algorithms and should be chosen carefully. Imagine for a moment, that the only element you could assess a webpage with is the headline: “Welcome To Our Website” wouldn’t tell you anything, but “5 Tips for Reading Faster” would tell you exactly what you’d expect to find on that site.

Sub-Headlines
Sub-headlines give you another opportunity to tell a person or search engine what they’ll find on that page. You can be a little bit more lengthy with your sub-headlines, but don’t go overboard writing a full paragraph in Heading 2 or Heading 3 format thinking you’re doing yourself a favor.

Content
As I mentioned above, search engines have gotten very good at reading content and assessing for themselves what the page is offering. Be direct about what you offer and sprinkle keywords (tasty spider food) throughout, but remember that it must read well to a person, not just to a search engine.

This is easier said than done. One of the most common failures I see online now, is someone who tried to “keyword pack” their website content to the point that it reads like a broken record, usually something like:

“Welcome to Cheap Tropical Cruises, your source for cheap tropical cruises. Are you looking for a cheap tropical cruise? You’re in luck, we offer cheap tropical cruises, so call us to book your cheap tropical cruise today so you can go take a cheap tropical cruise!”

Yeah, you get the idea. Don’t be that person.

Anchor Text
Anchor text is the term given to written content that is also a link. For example, these linked words in blue are anchor text: Elegant Website Design Portfolio. Understandably, when a search engine reads anchor text, it expects to find what the words are describing on the page being linked to. Wouldn’t you? Be sure you’re linking the keywords in the phrase for the benefit of the search engine, even if the user might be perfectly capable of clicking something less prominent. If you say “Click here to learn more about our water rights mediation services” and only link the “click here” you’re missing a golden opportunity; linking the keyword phrase “water rights mediation services” will be seen much more favorably by the search engines.

Image File Names
Keeping with our theme of treating each element of your website as a description of the content represented by keywords, image names should not be overlooked. While a person will see and understand what an image is showing, all the search engine sees is an image file named “DSC13285.jpg”, which doesn’t tell it anything. Name your images thoughtfully, like “remote-car-starter.jpg” or “junior-golf-swing-coach.jpg” instead.

Image Alt Tags
Any decent website editing program should allow you to add an alternate tag to the image when you insert or edit it. The “alt” tag is the text that displays if the image is not available. This tag facilitates visually-impaired people to use your website (which by itself should help your ranking), and it also adds another element that the search engines understand. The tag should be descriptive of the image as well as incorporating your keywords. For example, “The x-model small day hiking backpack for women”.

I hope this gives you some tangible tips as well as some philosophical insight for search engine optimization. Please leave comments and questions below!!!

These three sites offer similar features, such as profiles, status updates, ability to post links, etc., which makes it easy to erroneously see them as redundant. So in preparation for the presentation I gave at the Colorado Entrepreneurship Marketplace not long ago, I decided to address their different “personality characteristics”, rather than address the features each site offers. That approach seemed to click with people and I thought I’d expand on my slide from that presentation here in this article.

Comparing LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

Relationship-building
I’m a firm believer that business networking isn’t about who you know, but how well you know them. All three sites offer pretty good tools for building stronger relationships with your network.

Interaction
Networking is defined as “… exchanging information or cultivating relationships for business”. Obviously, in order to network, you must first be able to interact.

Least Distracting
Most people fear that social networking will take over their day and lead to total and complete distraction from their work, so I felt this was an important characteristic to include. Note the correlation between interaction, noise and distraction: Anytime you have noise and interaction, you’ll have more distraction.

Most Professional
LinkedIn certainly leads this charge. You won’t often see many “Going to the store to get kitty litter.” messages here, like you will on Twitter. The site centers around credentials, skills, references and cross-network referrals, thereby encouraging more professional interactions.

Most Viral
No, I’m not talking about the likelihood of catching Swine Flu from Twitter. “Viral” is a term we use in the Internet realm to describe how quickly and broadly information is organically spread between users. That funny email you got that was forwarded to you by your coworker, who received it from their friend, who received it from their brother in-law, and so forth, is a good example. Your coworker’s friend’s brother in-law didn’t ask or tell them to forward on the message; each person chose to do so, feeling that the people they were passing it on to would find value in it.

Viral marketing is the Holy Grail of Internet marketing. Getting regular Internet users to spread your information simply because they find value in it and choose to pass it on isn’t easy. That’s why it’s essential to bring value to the interactions you create, not only to build a stronger relationship with the person you’re interacting with, but also because the more value you bring the more likely it will spread virally.

Least Noisy
It’s hard to talk in a room where everyone is talking and it’s hard to listen and participate in a certain conversation when there are lots of other conversations going on around you. Just like in the “real world”, you’ll find lots of “noise” in social media.  Through practice, you’ll learn to filter out the noise in order to participate more effectively in the conversations that will serve you.

Most Flexible
Flexibility is being able to interact however you choose. For example, the features of Facebook give you a lot more options for how you interact than the 140 character limit of Twitter.

Network-building
I define network-building as both strengthening and broadening your network, and I believe it’s better to have a stronger network than a broader one.

In conclusion, it’s useful to note that none of these characteristics are inherently good or bad, so don’t try to think of them that way. All we’re after is understanding what to expect and which tool will serve you better for different interactions.

For anyone who has known me long enough or heard me speak, one of the consistent grumblings I make is about the lack of common sense in many Internet marketing approaches, usually supported by the quick-talking, sales-focused communication styles of self-proclaimed Internet marketing gurus. I encounter these people daily; people who exude the antithesis of techniques and values which I hold dear and are often identified by a “trust us, we know best” attitude.

Admittedly, I’m not an all-star sales-person; I’m not the guy who can sell water to a well. But I am a consumer, a business strategist, a statistics analyst and a person of integrity. Those qualities combined, I have some strong opinions about how business should be conducted, about what it means to create long-term loyalty, and about harboring societal values which cultivate a sense of global humanity.

Indeed, these values which I hold are a reflection of something more than money, and won’t connect with the person who cares only about the dollar. Greed is pretty low on my list of business objectives. Can I get a hoorah?!

With an eye toward establishing long-term growth and cultivating lasting customer loyalty, let’s take a look at some blatantly bad “marketing” behavior which lacks common sense:

Don’t Talk At Me
Engage with me. Connect with me. Listen to me. Find a way to help me.

Don’t Convince Me
If you’re trying to convince me, you’re not listening to my concerns and addressing them. If your product/service is of value than simply listening and addressing my concerns will illuminate the value.

Don’t Mislead Me
Even if my examination is discovering shortcomings in your offering, that’s an opportunity for you to improve. I don’t expect anyone to be perfect and some humility and desire for improvement goes a long way in building a long-term relationship.

Don’t Hype
You may be the best there is, but let other people say it. Self-proclaimed status is meaningless in today’s world where countless people are declaring themselves an expert, maven or guru.

Don’t Promise What You Can’t Deliver
I’m more likely to work with you for your solid skills, rather than your appearance of grandiosity.

Don’t Gloat
In the ever-changing online world, not many people stay on top for long. I’d rather work with someone who works twice as hard to achieve the same result as the guy who works half as hard, because the guy who works twice as hard is more likely to adapt twice as fast to changes.

Don’t Guilt
If your oldschool-style sales copy is still inviting my guilt for not buying into your offer, you’re only driving the nail into your own coffin.

Don’t Rush
I’m not in a rush, you don’t need to be either. If I have a need and I think you can satisfy my need, I’ll engage with you as long as necessary to ensure the need is met thoroughly. Rushing me only shows you care more about the immediate sale than the long-term relationship, which works against you.

Don’t Waste My Time
I’ll tell you what I need, you tell me what you can do for me. If it’s a beneficial relationship it’ll flourish, if it’s not the right fit, let’s move-on.

As was stated in the first paragraph, marketing is a process; a process which can and should reflect your values. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise in order to be different, stand out, and make sales should be avoided. Want to be different? Try being real! And remember, a little common sense goes a long way!

“Growing your network” could easily imply that the value of social networking is in the size of your network, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s not about the number of Followers you have on Twitter, Friends on Facebook or Connections on LinkedIn; it’s not about how many times a day you tweet, how many photos you post, or the number of discussions you participate in. The value is in the quality of the interaction, not the quantity. How many people you know is insignificant when compared to how well you know them and how well they know you.

Many self-proclaimed social media “gurus” or “experts” will mislead you and try to sell you  courses, programs, e-books, or strategies for growing your network numbers, making implications (carefully-crafted, legally non-binding ones) that greater numbers will lead to greater success. While these people may be proclaiming knowledge of social networking, their “expertise” is only in making a quick sale of a product which promises results it can’t deliver. 

(Professional copywriter, Brian Burns, wrote an excellent article on the social media guru-complex, which I’d recommend everyone read.)

Successful networking is the cultivation of mutually-beneficial long-term relationships. (Read that sentence again.) Beneficial relationships are cultivated through sincere, genuine interactions, not hurried, self-centered, sales-oriented interactions (who wants to interact with someone like that?). 

With that philosophy planted in the forefront of your mind, let’s look at some methods for expanding your network connections across the primary three social networks I typically recommend for businesses: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. 

Incorporate Existing Connections
All three sites offer tools for searching your current contact lists (Outlook, Palm, Mac, etc.) and/or web-based email list (AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) to discover contacts who may be currently using these services. This is a great starting point for connecting with people you already know in order to use the tools and features of social media to further cultivate those relationships. 

For LinkedIn, click this link
or login and click “Contacts”, then “Add Connections” on the right of the blue section at the top, then the “Import Contacts” tab at the top. From this screen you’ll see several options for importing webmail contacts, address books, etc. 

For Facebook, click this link
or login and mouse-over the “Friends” link at the very top of the page, then click “Find Friends”. From this page you can search webmail contacts or click the “Upload contact file” link to import other types of contact files. 

For Twitter, click this link
or login and click the “Find People” link at the top of the page, then click the “Find on other networks” tab to search your webmail address books. 

Send Invitations
After you’ve searched through your contact lists to connect with people already using the networks, it’s time to send invites to those not already using them. Most of the networks make it fairly automatic to invite people after searching a contacts file, with messages like “We couldn’t find Jane Doe or John Doe on our network, would you like to invite them to join?”. Additionally, you can initiate the process independently from importing contacts using the instructions below. I’d recommend personalizing and customizing the email message that gets sent, and mention some benefits for participating. 

For LinkedIn, click this link
or login and click “Contacts”, then “Add Connections” on the right of the blue section at the top. From this screen you can enter First Names, Last Name and Email of each person you’d like to invite, as well as customize the invitation email they’ll receive. 

For Facebook, click this link
or login and mouse-over the “Friends” link at the very top of the page, then click “Invite Friends”. From this page you’ll need to enter the email addresses of the contacts you’re inviting, and add a custom message to the email invitation. 

For Twitter, click this link
or login and click the “Find People” link at the top of the page, then click the “Invite by email” tab. Twitter, unfortunately, doesn’t allow you to customize the email message that gets sent, so it’s not a bad idea to send a mass email from your email program to the same list of addresses with a personal message (be sure you BCC the recipients for privacy). This way they know it’s legitimate and it’ll be much more meaningful than the generic email Twitter will send them. 

Search for People and Groups
You’ve found your existing contacts that use social media and invited contacts from your address book to join you in utilizing social media, now it’s time to get serious and search the peripheral edges of your known network and start expanding your contacts. 

If you attended either of my social networking seminars, you heard me talk a lot about contributing value to the interactions you are seeking. Before you go adding new contacts who may not know you, or joining new groups which will bring new people to your profile, it’s important to be sure you have a completed profile and enough content on your profile to give someone a feel for what you’re bringing to the interaction. 

LinkedIn
LinkedIn has a very prominent search, with a text field and “Search” button at the top of the screen. Note the dropdown left of the text field which has options for searching people, groups, jobs, etc. Select what you’re searching for, enter the name or keywords in the text field and click “Search”. Click the “Join this group” or “Add to network” link when you find what you’re looking for. 

Facebook
Facebook’s search is the text field (says “search” in the field) and magnifying glass icon at the top-right of the screen. You can enter a name or keywords and click the icon (or hit enter). By default, the results will show “All results”, but you can click the “People” or “Groups” tabs to narrow the field. Similar to LinkedIn, you can click the “Join Group” or “Add as Friend” link when you find the friend to add or group you’d like to join. 

(Groups note: Be sure you join your local Chamber of Commerce groups on LinkedIn and Facebook!)

Twitter
Twitter doesn’t have groups (in the primary application), but you can still search for people. Click the “Find People” link at the top of the page, type in the name in the text field and click “Search”.

Twitter Search: http://search.twitter.com
Twitter has a very powerful search utility which, in all honesty, warrants its own article. It’s useful for searching for topics of interest (by keyword), researching information, seeking partnerships, following markets, industries and competitors, connecting with potential customers, and much much more.

The real art, especially when trying to connect with potential customers, is searching for the types of conversations those people may be having. Imagine you were overhearing a conversation that a few of your “A”-list customers were having, what would they be talking about? Search it and see what you find. 

Group Discussions
Once you’ve joined various groups on LinkedIn and Facebook, look for ways to participate in the discussions posted on the group page, and consider starting your own discussions as a member of the group. This way you’ll be growing the awareness of your brand, communicating with prospective new contacts, bringing group members to your profile page (and from there to your website), establishing expertise, etc. Treat these group discussions like you would any business networking event and allow the specific topic to be a launching point for broader communications, new topics and relationship cultivation. 

Connect with Group Members
Both Facebook and LinkedIn list the members of any given group to other group members (not to non-members). Browse through them and see who you see, this can be a good “in” with your peripheral network.

LinkedIn, with its strict connection policy, allows you to extend and invitation to connect to someone whom you share a common group with, bringing new connections within reach that otherwise were outside of your network.  

While Facebook does not offer any different connection methods or additional profile-viewing privileges, it’s still a great way to connect with other individuals and organizations which you share a common bond with. 

Etiquette
This topic is also worthy of its own article, but for now I’ll mention two of the most important elements of social networking etiquette: 

1) Listen. As with any interaction, listening, asking questions, and reflecting back are essential ingredients for engaging with another person. 

2) Don’t pitch me! I’m not interested in interacting with someone who is constantly trying to sell me something. Company news, services offered, new products, specials and coupons are all acceptable to mention, but be sure they’re in balance with interpersonal, mutually-beneficial interactions. 

Other strategies will likely be covered in future articles, but for now let me conclude by saying, be you, be consistent, be interactive, lead by example and commit to slow and steady long-term growth of your social networks. By doing so, you will radiate sincerity and value in everything you do, which will invite others to want to connect with you. 

Questions or comments? I’d love to hear them, please post them below.

Social networks are quickly proving themselves useful across a broad range of applications for businesses.  They’ve broadened the reach to our customer-base, provided an excellent means for creating brand-awareness, improved our ability to connect and engage in a personal and meaningful way with our contacts, and much more. And best of all, they’re free!

On April 15th May 7th, I’ll be discussing various benefits and applications for a handful of popular social networking sites, with a focus on building your brand. You’ll learn how to create an effective presence, how to use the numerous features of each site, about proper etiquette, tricks for becoming more findable, and strategies for mixing social networking into your business marketing. 

PLUS, I want to hear from you! I intend to tailor the seminar to the needs of the participants, so speak up! Post comments below (by clicking “Comments”) about any general or specific questions you may have and I’ll try to address them in the presentation. 

I hope to see you there!

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - - 

After receiving several questions about the skill-level of this seminar, let me add a couple points:

1) This seminar is not focused on simply creating accounts, setting up profiles, and general site-orientation. This seminar will focus on concepts and strategies. It’s about using the tools of social networks to effectively market your business, grow your customer-base, generate referrals, bring traffic to your website, build and enhance your brand, and establish expertise. I will probably not spend much time on basic profile setup, but that’s not hard to learn and the process is quite similar across social networking sites. That said…

2) Even if you’re brand new to social networking, this seminar will be of benefit for you. You’ll come away with a broad understanding of how to put these tools to work for you, and what you can and should expect from using social media as part of the marketing mix for your business.

Thanks for the questions, keep them coming!

Website visitors want their question answered, want to hear your message, want to learn what they can learn and want to move on. With a website, you have unlimited space for content, but must accommodate the incredibly limited attention-span of average visitors. For instance, I know you’ve already started to lose interest in what I’m writing and have most likely scanned past this paragraph in hopes of learning something truly useful. You’re looking for something of value, for my take-away message, so you can move-on to the other 19 things which demand your attention before lunch.

One of the most essential components of effective copywriting is directly and succinctly communicating your message. I’m sure you’ve heard that before, but what does it mean to “communicate your message”?

• Identify the reason someone is coming to your website. Literally write a document with a heading “Why is someone visiting my website?” and list possible reasons. Addressing those reasons with your copy is your primary job.
• Generally, a website visitor has a question and/or a need. Identify them in writing and make addressing them the primary function of the content. Trying to sell apples when the visitor needs oranges will result in failure.
• Identify and list your desired action(s) or result(s) from the visit to your website: Is it to receive a phone call? Maybe to make a sale? Is it to build your reputation or increase brand association?
• What experience do you want the visitor to retain after they’ve left the website?

With this information you have a framework to work within; you know what “message” you need to communicate. Now you get to the harder part, which is actually trying to put these concepts into written form. Here are some important points to consider:

• Most website visitors average around 10 seconds on a homepage. Format your content in a way that’s easily scanned and easily digestible in a short time. Keep paragraphs short and place the thicker content deeper into the site where you know someone has more investment and interest in reading it.
• Use bullet-points to isolate key information knowing that may be all someone reads on their first scan.
• Write as if you’re speaking to a person, as opposed to submitting an essay: Relationship-building should be a goal in all communication.
• Repeat key messages and information.
• Provide overview information along with optional detailed information, for visitors who may be interested in learning more. For example, list Service A, Service B and Service C as bullet-points, but link them to more detailed information.
• Repeat key messages and information.

Remember that effective copywriting is a skill. Just because you can speak and spell doesn’t mean you’ll be fantastic at distilling and communicate your message effectively without lots of practice, anymore than saying that because you can hold a tennis racquet and can swing your arm you’ll be a professional tennis player. Consider consulting with a professional, especially until you gain more confidence in your writing abilities. I’m always pleased to recommend professional copywriter, Brian Burns.

Practice these skills, keep writing and re-writing and you’ll be well on your way to effectively communicating your message.

Having an understanding of the “big picture” is essential to the success of any Internet business. Just like learning the elements of construction, you’re wise to learn the lingo of Internet business, about the tools and resources available to you, about business models, and about successful strategies.

These things are a part of the concept behind this blog. I hope to bring some of the terms, tools, concepts and strategies into the forefront of your awareness to help you have a better understanding of the big picture, in hopes that this knowledge will help you to be more successful with your Internet business.

Obviously, there’s a lot of territory here to cover and it’ll take time. I’m very interested in hearing your requests, questions, comments and feedback which will help me tailor and prioritize the topics discussed here. Let your voice be heard!

Web video has numerous uses and offers tremendous benefit by personalizing your website, reducing content someone has to read, catering to the short attention span of visitors, and more. Future articles will address specific and more sophisticated uses for video, but this will get you started immediately.

What you’ll need:

• Digital point-and-shoot camera with a video mode, or a digital video camera.
• Tripod- even a cheap one is fine (hand-holding your camera is too shaky)
• A YouTube account (www.YouTube.com)
• (optional) FTP access or a way to edit your website (CMS, template system, etc.)

Step 1: Shoot your video. Try to keep the total video time under 1 minute. Remember to use a tripod to avoid the “Blair Witch Project” camera effects. (Although, didn’t that movie make hundreds of millions of dollars?)

Step 2: Copy the video off your camera onto your computer (consult your owner’s manual if you need instructions).

Step 3: Create a free YouTube account at http://www.YouTube.com and upload your video (you’ll only have to create an account once). Be sure to give the video a juicy, keyword-rich title, since that’s a primary component in YouTube’s search algorithm. Avoid “My Video” and try more for “Amazing widget device adds 200 yards to your golf swing”.

Step 4 (optional): Copy the “Embed” code from your video and paste it into the code of your website, blog, MySpace page, etc. If you’re unsure how to do that, consult a professional. If you choose not to “embed” the video on your web page, it’s still completely accessible through a direct YouTube link (copy the “URL” code of the video) which you can send out in an email, post on a discussion forum, print on a mailer, and so on.

That’s it, you’re now the envy of your competition and the delight of your customers!

If you’re not sure what you’d use video for, here are some simple ideas:

• Personal introduction (”Hello, I’m ___, let me tell you about my background”)
• 1 minute presentation, AKA “elevator speech” (describe your product/service, primary benefits, competitive difference from other companies, etc.)
• Product demonstrations
• Tutorials / User guides
• Guided tour (overview video for each page of your site)

Do you have ideas on how to use quick and easy web video? Post your ideas, comments and links to your online videos that you’ve done below!

And……… ACTION!