The First Steps of Linking

May 9th, 2012

What is linking,  you ask? A linking campaign is the process of getting other websites to publish links to your website. Whenever there is a link that goes to your website, Search Engines notice. To search engines, it means you must have some relevant and valuable content if all these other websites are linking to you.

So how do you do it?

Inevitably, I build a website for someone and they ask me, why isn’t it showing up on Google? And the first thing I tell them is that we need to get their website published on all of the online directory’s out there that are talking about your company already.  Search for yourself on google and you’ll likely find all these “yellowpages” and “directory” websites that mention your company. They usually have your company name and phone number and maybe even your address. But no website!

So get in there! Click on each one of them, and then look for a link on the page that says something like: “Claim your business listing” or “Is this you?” Click on those and get your website listed on their site. You may have to setup a login on each one, I’d suggest you write a list of the websites that asked you to make accounts, and keep all the login and password info for them, just in case. You’ll probably come across several that will want you to pay them for the service. Whether you do or not is up to you, but I tend to shy away from it myself. I think there are better places to spend my (and your) money than on a directory site whose competitors offer it for free.

What are those better places? Everything from Google Adwords, to OTHER bloggers! If you’re truly serious about it, contact me and we can start a conversation on where to go to start your campaign.

Oh, and one other thing, if the content on your site isn’t relevant, current, and even FRESH, than those links won’t do you much good for that long. I’ll talk about that in another article, though.

 

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What a Maintenance Contract Really Means

April 23rd, 2012

I’ve had this come up before with clients, who don’t want to pay for a service contract because they can get cheaper hosting elsewhere. While it’s true, that you can do the work yourself to pay 5 bucks a month for hosting, there are a lot of issues with doing so. For example, I’ve seen a lot of hosting companies go belly-up; are you sure about the company you’re signing up with? Also, do you even know what to look for in a webhost? And finally, the fact is that a web design company that doesn’t sell their service contracts, likely won’t stick around.

Why does it matter to you what happens to that design company if you have your own hosting? Because now every time you go to change something or update something on your website, you’ll end up having to find a new web designer. And it means that the web designer that built your site probably wasn’t an expert in the field, but was doing it as a side job. There’s a good chance then, that your site will need extensive overhauls, or just completely rebuilt in order to keep up with future technology trends (which equals out to new devices not being able to see your site, or search engines not finding your site anymore). Or at the very least, the new web designer will have to charge you more just to make small edits, because of the outdated code structure.

When you sign up with a maintenance contract, you’re not just keeping your own site healthy, you’re now part of a relationship with a company that has a foundation. And that means they’re far more likely to still be around five or ten years from now.

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Kicking Off

March 28th, 2012

This week I’m finally kicking off the fetters of a day to day office, and putting my energies into my real passion, web design. Dauntless Development has grown quite a bit since it’s inception 3 years ago. For awhile there I teamed up with JP Technical to build websites for his clients. He does network maintenance and PC repair.

Thanks to that shot in the arm, I now have a good enough client base to really devote some time to Dauntless Development. So, for now I’m cleaning up the code on my website, and getting some better content updated on here. I’m working on a brochure now that will sell our services, as well as give a quick site review for companies who already have one. This is especially important because we provide website maintenance more often than just building fresh websites. Many of my clients (such as Peppercini’s and Lessard Construction) already had a website when they came to me, but needed a more affordable solution, or a someone who was more attentive to their needs with a quicker response time.

So that’s what’s happening with Dauntless Development now. Check back soon for more updates that are sure to come!

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A Night at the Roddenbury

March 12th, 2012

Ok, I had nothing to do with this or it’s name, but it’s so hilarious:

A Night at the Roddenbury

A Night at the Roddenbury

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“We ignore the mobile web at our peril.”

June 22nd, 2011

Here’s a very interesting paragraph I found on designfestival.com. I think it really highlights the need for us to consider cellphones when we build websites:

Estimates put the combined number of smartphones and other browser-​​equipped phones at around 1.82 billion by 2013, compared to 1.78 billion PCs. Reliable stats on mobile browser usage are notoriously difficult to find, but regardless of the source, the trend is clear. According to StatCounter, the mobile share of overall web browsing is currently sitting at 4.36%, and while that figure may seem small, bear in mind that’s a whopping 430% increase over the last two years. And this is just the very beginning of mobile browsing. We’re never going to spend less time on our phones and other mobile devices than we do now. Inevitably, more powerful mobile devices and ubiquitous internet access will become the norm. And the context in which those devices are used will change rapidly. The likelihood of our potential customers being on mobile devices is higher and higher. We ignore the mobile web at our peril.

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Fresh Wallpapers

December 6th, 2010

It’s time I started making my wallpapers more public! So, to start with, here are some of my Intra-Solar_system wallpapers. Post in the comments and tell me what you think! Trying out the Image posting system, it’s been awhile since I’ve used it.

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What does it take to get my own site?

December 3rd, 2009

My goal in all of this is to make this whole process easy for you. So we start the process with good communication:

Step 1: The Consultation

The first thing we need to do is sit down together and talk about what you are looking for in a website. What is your end goal? What would you like it to do for you? When we’ve established the basic goals of your site, the rest will all revolve around achieving that goal. We may talk about what you want your website to look like, too. In that regard, it’s helpful if you have looked at other websites already and picked out a few that you like. That way we can see what elements of the designs you liked and I can implement those into your business’ website design.

After I get a good idea of what is is you want and need, and we’ve talked about our options, I’ll provide you with a proposal that will outline the work I’ll be doing and the product you’ll be getting, along with the costs. If you like it, we can sign the contract. By the signing of the contract, most websites will be done within 30 days. Of course, if it’ll take longer, we’ll have already talked about that, and it will be in all the paperwork.

Step 2: Construction!

Now that we have our plans laid out, I’ll start building the site. I’ll need two things from you at this point: 1) Any photos we’ll be including in the site design, and 2) the content for your website (the text for what it should say). We will have talked about those things during the consultation as well. Writing content can sometimes be difficult, so if you need help with that, I can certainly offer some good suggestions, or base content, and we can work from there.

As I flesh out the design of the site, I’ll be sending you a few site designs and you can tell me what you like or don’t like about them. This process may take a few iterations and back and forth communications so that we can get it refined to be exactly what you want. But it usually won’t take too long.

3) The Finished Product

When we’ve finished designing the site and you like what you see, I’ll put it all together and show you how to use any features that we’ve implemented. From there, we’re done!

A note about what hardware you need:

You don’t need ANY hardware for this process. I will take care of all of that behind the scenes, and you don’t need to worry about anything technical. Really all that you have to think about is what you want, and communicate that with me!

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Why should I buy a website?

September 21st, 2009

I’ve talked to several people in my time that have asked, “why do I need a webpage?” Well the first answer is pretty well-known. A website can be a great marketing tool to get new customers. In fact, current statistics show that 75 percent of the American population uses the internet. Anymore, you would be hard pressed to find a company who doesn’t use the internet on a regular basis for something. Even harder would be to find a company that doesn’t have access to the internet in some fashion or another. The bottom-line, is that your market base is on the internet, whether old or young. Your competitors are likely there, are you?

But maybe you get all of your customers from word-of-mouth. Maybe you don’t sell anything online. Perhaps you feel you don’t even need to market your product. Can a website be useful for you? Of course! In fact, most of my clients operate by word-of-mouth, and don’t use their website as their primary marketing tool.

Instead, they may use it as a reference. Take Snowflake Cakes for example. By utilizing a full gallery of images of their work, they’re able to share it with other people so their customers can see instantly the quality of their product. From there, word of mouth spreads even better.

Think about it, you need to get a fancy cake to celebrate something. A friend tells you they used a company called Snowflake Cakes, and that they were great. What do you do from here? Do you call them and talk to them to find out more information? Perhaps. But what if that friend of yours also gives you their website, “SnowflakeCakes.com” and says there are pictures of their work on there? Most likely you go look it up, and just like that, you have pictures of their work.

Would you like to be able to put photos of your work in the hands of people who hear your name? They instantly associate good, quality products with your name.

Now that’s powerful. That’s a website.

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