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Jul 27

Week 68 @ywd tweets weekly roundup

This past week: I did research on QR Codes (guess what feature we will implementing on YWD in the near future?) and I found very interesting information about them. I’m sure you have seen them and most people are not sure what they are. I also read a lot of opinions as to why they will go away, and the same amount of opinions as to why they are here to stay. I’m of the view that they are here to stay, though they need to mature and become more integrated with marketing strategy. More on that in my post which I tweeted below; for today’s list of tweets I also touched on mobile, social media and SEO and included a great radio interview of Paul Chato talking about Tablets and RIM. Enjoy!

AM900 interviews Paul and @ScottTalkCHML asks him about Tablets. Listen! -> http://ow.ly/cr8rw
Paul Chato shares his views about RIM and Tablets in general, great listen!

There you go Twitter and SEO-> 10 Twitter SEO Tips
Concerned on how to apply SEO to your tweets? Search no more, great ideas on how to fully search optimize your tweets.

YWD has both Desktop and Mobile XML sitemaps-> How to submit a Google XML Sitemap file for your website
We all know now that mobile browsing is the future, for this Google wants to optimize your mobile search with mobile content only. Makes sense, does’t it? This why we are now providing you with a XML site map for your mobile content only. So Google has an easier time indexing your mobile content.

What do you think?-> 7 Ways to Spice Up Your Email Marketing
Good ideas, and if your not using email lists for marketing purposes you should. It is not spam if your audience has opted in to your list, and most people appreciate receiving news and updates straight to their inboxes.

Going mobile all the way-> JCPenney to replace cash registers with mobile checkout devices by 2013
It just makes life easier for everyone, soon there won’t be a need for paper (nor polymer) money!

Fully explained-> What are QR Codes and how to use them
As I mentioned on the introduction above, What QR codes are, how to use them and who should use them.

You really need to check where are they going to be displayed-> 10 Funniest QR Code Fails
I know some experts recommend to get inventive to display your QR Code, but at the same time you need to think about practicality. QR Codes are scanned by smartphones only. Knowing this, you need to put yourself on the person shoes, who will be doing this. Therefore the QR Code needs to be close to their phone camera and it should deliver meaningful information available on their phone.

New kid in town @Jugnoome -> Become Social in Social Media With Jugnoo
Jugnoome is a new web based tool to manage your social media accounts, with a bit of CRM input in it. Your are able to track your posts and compare them with your website traffic analytics. It is in beta phase now and free! Worth taking it for a spin.

Next Friday I’ll have another round up, in the meantime you can follow me and YWD on the networks below:

Don’t have a Your Web Department website? Sign up now or try it for free at www.yourwebdepartment.com

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/PFS4P6 68 @ywd tweets weekly roundup

Jul 25

What are QR Codes and how to use them

What are QR Codes (abbreviated from Quick Response Code)?

We see them every where, advertising posters, real estate signs, magazines and many more places. QR codes started being used in the automobile industry and quickly become popular outside the industry due to its fast readability and large storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes. In most cases you see them as black and white, but they don’t have to be like that. What it needs is high contrast so the scanner can read it, but any colour will work with it. No need to mess with the nice design work of an ad by plastering the ugly QR code on the corner.

How to use them?

Today the main purpose is to add more information or a call to action by directing the user to a website (and please let it be mobile formatted one), where more information is offered.
Best thing about sending the person to a website landing page is that you can track the scans for that particular QR Code. You can see if one QR code is working better than others.
Here is an article on how to do it: http://bit.ly/O9s6ok

Here’s a list of features that QR-code readers are generally equipped with:

Displaying text
Setting up system alerts
Adding events to calendars
Opening URLs in a browser
Collecting contact information (including vCards)
Sending email
Sending text messages (SMS)
Geolocation
Calling other phones
Connecting to Wi-Fi hotspot
Do a like on a Facebook Page

Browser have been able to launch and load email clients by just clicking on a email link for years now. With smarphones there is a whole bunch of things you can do combining QR codes with URI Schemes (Uniform Resource Identifier).

More on URI schemes: http://bit.ly/O9s53P

Here’s a list of some cool things that are possible:

Launching native Apple apps (Mail, Phone, FaceTime, Text, Map, YouTube and iTunes)
Running JavaScript bookmarklets
Opening certain IM clients (Skype, AIM, MSN, GTalk, ICQ and Yahoo)
Opening special applications (IRC tools, feed readers, FTP clients and SVN repositories)
Opening any application that registers a URI scheme when it installs on a platform

What makes this particular technique so amazing is that it doesn’t rely on the QR-code reader being very advanced; all it needs is for the app creator (be it Skype, Evernote or Angry Birds) you want to launch and interface with to use the system development API to register a URI scheme.

Who should use them?

Any business having a print ad campaign can enhance the ads by providing more meaningful information on the product or service. For example real estate sign in front of the house for sale is an excellent case for a QR Code. Now by scanning the QR Code on the for sale sign the person is able to find more about the property by landing on the property detail page the agent prepared in advance. Retailers could add the code on the product display to instructional video of the product they are looking to purchase, and the list goes on.

Are they a Fad?

There are lot of people saying they are because:

They are ugly
True but they don’t have to be. They only need high contrast on any colour.
You need a QR code app to read them
This is correct, but so does everything you want to do with your phone. It is not a big thing to ask a user to download the app to scan the QR code.
There are too many apps for sanding QR codes
When QR codes become more popular phones will come with QR code scanners in their OS. Just like Apple added the Twitter to iOS 5.
Loading the website takes too long.
It is just a matter of time when Web access for mobiles becomes faster; G4 anyone?

Summary

Just like with any other new technology there is a potential to reach out and give your audience more than just an ad. There are good cases for both B2C and B2B businesses for using QR Codes on their print material. Just make sure is something the experience is something the user expects, if it is a lading page on your website or blog make sure it is mobile optimized and track the scans.

Don’t have a Your Web Department website? Get yours at www.yourwebdepartment.com

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/LOmA4X are QR Codes and how to use them

Jul 23

On revamping our mobile website

www.yourwebdepartment.com as seen on mobile

The vast majority of people visit our public website using a computer or tablet, that’s true. But we’ve noticed that more are starting to come to us straight from their mobile. At Your Web Department we’re a small business ourselves, so we decided to make our mobile website work for us. How? Here’s what we just did:

We figured out the main objectives of our mobile website

Like in every website, when it comes to our mobile website the first thing we did was examine what we hope to achieve with it. Basically, we believe it is:

Get people to find us
No point in al this exercise if people can’t find us when they google us. So our Home page has some very concise copy describing what we do, which helps Google find us. And we’ve used YWD’s new feature that lets you submit a separate Google XML Sitemap for Mobile.
Show them our offering
We placed a useful YouTube video explaining how it works, which they can watch from their phones.
Help them get started
We included a form - which we easily customized for the mobile’s small viewport - so people can signup to get a website (for which they don’t pay anything until they go live) right from there.
Make it easy for them to reach us
Frequently, all people want is to be able to call us directly from the phone or reach us by email. So we’ve included a page with our contact info, tool-free number, etc.

Sounds like common sense, no?

We reduced the content on mobile to a minimum

Have you tried navigating through lots of pages of content on your iPhone or Android-based phone? Not fun. No matter how legible you can make text appear using the mobile-optimized version of your website that’s supplied for free with Your Web Department, it’s still kind of hard to read tons of material at small font sizes.

Although our ‘regular’ website has dozens of pages, its handheld version has now literally just a handful (no pun intended). YWD makes it very easy to target content for different devices on the same domain - great for Search Engine Optimization - which gives you virtually two websites in one. All we had to do was set most pages for computer/tablet display only, and just a few for mobile. You can do that without the need to do any programming.

We adopted a minimalist design approach

Your mobile website design and navigation should be simple. By restricting content and images to a minimum, the pages download extremely fast. The buttons on the Home page are huge - you can’t really miss them now, can you? - and tapping on the banner (also enlarged) takes you back to Home.

We assume that the mobile website to change

A CMS like Your Web Department makes it extremely easy to try new things, gauge their success, adjust again, etc. A YWD website is not static brochureware. It’s not set either in stone or bytes. We expect to add some (but not too much) content over the next few days and keep tweaking the design.

In the meantime, please tell us what you think!

Don’t have a Your Web Department website? Get yours at www.yourwebdepartment.com

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/NRfu1p revamping our mobile website

How to submit a Google XML Sitemap file for your website and get more traffic

Chart up A Google XML Sitemap can be a very useful tool in your overall SEO strategy. It’s a file listing all the pages in your website that you can submit to Google, helping it index your website faster and more efficiently, and ultimately bring in more traffic.

Sitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site we might not otherwise discover. Creating and submitting a Sitemap helps make sure that Google knows about all the pages on your site, including URLs that may not be discoverable by Google’s normal crawling process.

You can now submit an XML Sitemap for Mobile too

Your Web Department’s ‘Google XML Sitemap’ tool automatically generates the XML Sitemap file for you, so you can then submit it to Google. And if your website has a mobile-optimized version you can submit a Google XML Sitemap for Mobile as well.

YWD lets the same domain serve websites with distinct page structures, so submitting a separate XML for the mobile version of a website can be very helpful. It’s a unique feature of the YWD platform, as Google has just recently implemented support for a separate Sitemap for Mobile.

The steps

Pasting the XML file

Pasting the XML Sitemap into Google

Your website must be live and have at least one published page. YWD will only generate the XML Sitemap file about 24 hours after your website goes live.
In YWD, go to Tools / Google XML Sitemap and can copy the path(s) to the Sitemap file(s) and then submit it(them) to Google. Notice that YWD lets you submit a separate XML SItemap for Mobile. If you have a mobile-optimized website, you should use that option.
Login to your Google Webmaster Account (if your website has Google Analytics, Google Adsense or Google Search, you can use the same Google account). If you don’t have one, you can create one for free on www.google.com/accounts.
Click the name of your website, navigate to Optimization / Sitemaps and click the ADD/TEST SITEMAP button. Paste the path to the XML file that you copied from YWD. Repeat the process for the XML Sitemap for Mobile file if you have a mobile-optimized website.

That’s it.

Don’t have a Your Web Department website? Get yours at www.yourwebdepartment.com

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/P4rpez to submit a Google XML Sitemap file for your website and get more traffic

Are tablets going to take over from desktop computers - the interview

Scott Thompson of AM900 gave me a call the other day to talk about the future of desktop computers versus iPad-style tablets and the future of RIM. Of course, like every digital-age pundit I’m qualified to talk about anything I want to even topics I don’t understand. That’s what makes the Interent so wonderful, but I did once talk with a father whose son was also on the same soccer team as my son, and he worked for RIM, so that makes me an expert.

Have a listen.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Listen to this episode

If the player doesn’t work, click on this link to hear it at podbean.

Small Business learning: While you can upload and link audio in Your Web Department, go out and post them on YouTube (with a branded slate-still image) or create a library of audio events on sites like podbean.com as we have done here. The other benefit is that PodBean will publish your podcast to iTunes and other places.

And finally, anytime you can get content for a post, use it!

Related Posts:
How to publish podcasts using Podbean
How to record and edit a podcast using Audicity (cross platform audio editor-free)

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/MWiZ4Z tablets going to take over from desktop computers - the interview

Jul 20

Week 67 @ywd tweets weekly roundup

This past week: Your Web Department is the best tool out there for your business website. In today’s world the brochure style website does not work anymore, expectations are that any business website has to have up to date information, be mobile friendly and easily found information that the audience wants. The business website should also have SEO capabilities, the ability to track traffic and integrate social media widgets for your audience to share the pages they find interesting. Your business website needs to be the hub for your marketing strategy, the one place were you can own the message for your business and YWD can do all that for you. This week’s tweet collection is all about the business website of the 21st century.

RT @ywdtips: How to get statistics for your business website for free: http://ht.ly/cgZw6
Google is the king of search, and they want to keep that position for years to come. This is why they provides this type of tool for free. With YWD it is very easy to integrate Google Analytics tracking code into your website, we also provide a XML site map for both desktop and mobile websites. The XML site map helps Google to better index your website.

The Carlton Club just launched their new redesign check it out -> http://ow.ly/ch58x
The Carlton Club is in The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Chicago, a Four Seasons Hotel. This long time YWD client went through a successful redesign, with all previous links remaining the same - so the redesign didn’t negatively impact search.

FreinMeister Air Brake Education & Teaching resources just launched their new website on YWD Take a look-> http://ow.ly/ch5OA
Another great case study of how quickly a business can launch a great looking website on our platform.

YWD has a Mobile only XML sitemap for your website, target mobile search on your website-> http://ow.ly/chbjp
All experts (and really you don’t need to be an expert to agree with this) are saying that mobile web is the future. Since the content for your mobile audience needs to be different form your desktop website, why not index it separately from your main website. Google has added the Mobile XML site map to their ‘Webmaster tools’, and we just took advantage of this opportunity. Now when doing a web search on a smartphone links for your mobile website will appear in the search results. One more way to not disappoint the mobile user.

You have a choice! -> RT @techvibes: Firefox Sets Sights on the Next Frontier
Just like on you PC, you don’t have to stick to the browser that comes as default on your phone or tablet. Firefox raised the bar for user experience on the desktop computer, now they trying to do the same on mobile.

Is #strategy still worth a business owner’s time? http://ow.ly/c9jxx
More than ever, read why.

Here, even Herbert thinks is a good idea-> Advantages of a Mobile-ready Website
70% of businesses still do not have a mobile version of their website. Don’t you want to be ahead of your competition by being the first to have a mobile ready website?

YWD team member Sam Heron shares forms best practices with YWD-> Forms are a window to (the website’s) soul
At YWD we put a lot of effort in developing (development is always ongoing at YWD) the forms manager. Read why forms can be a powerful tool for your business.

Do you use Flipboard? best way to browse trough your social feed-> How Flipboard is changing everything
I have to admit I am big fan of Flipboard and I do recommend it to everyone I know. It is the best way to read all your social media feeds, they are all presented in magazine style format. I believe that it will change the way we consume news and educational material.

Next Friday I’ll have another round up, in the meantime you can follow me and YWD on the networks below:

Don’t have a Your Web Department website? Sign up now or try it for free at www.yourwebdepartment.com

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/O33JY2 67 @ywd tweets weekly roundup

Jul 19

Forms are a window to (the website’s) soul

Self-serve answers

Everyone’s searching for the answer (I know I am) so for today’s article let’s say we found it. One step further, let’s say it’s a form. A form on your website might seem like a little thing, but it says so much about your company, your outlook, and your business practices that you might not even realize you are saying.

Forms are everywhere. A website without a form is a canoe without a paddle. We convert leads with forms. We grow user lists with forms. They help us be personal without being personally there. For everything they do they CANNOT be an afterthought.

How do I structure a good form?

What are you going to do with it? Now answering a question with a question is generally bad manners but it gives us a place to start. If your form is going to be feeding some kind of database (and it should be - See YWD’s Mailchimp integration) then you want to separate first and last names. Contact information is also (obviously) important. After that you can decide to get as much information out of folks as you want. Various studies have shown that a shorter form is not more readily filled out, so feel free to get industry specific information from your visitors.

One thing to think about, there’s an entire science devoted to the structuring of questions. Your use of wording, tone, and clarity all play into how your visitor will see the form experience, and your company, and your brand by extension. Take the time to think about what informaiton you need, and how you’re going to ask for it.

And now, everything else

Now that you have something that looks like a form, with fields - properly formatted, you need to build everything around the form, the behavior and then get people TO the form. The ubiquitious ‘Contact’ form is the most common form out there, but forms can do so much more. Campaigns with hidden landing pages (and unique forms) can be created to track specific initiatives. In a system like YWD there is no limit to the number of forms you can create. Take advantage of it.

The payoff

If someone fills out the form, trusts you with their personal information, now you need to deal with this responsibly, and give something back. Immediately when someone fills out a form they are typically shown a ‘thank you’ message or are redirected to a page with similar messaging. I have filled out lots of forms that promised 48 hour response time only to hear for the company a week later. Be responsible with your follow-ups. If someone puts themselves forward as a lead for your business, do what you promised and follow-up promptly.

A great way to get people to fill out your form in the first place (to get this whole process started) is to offer them something upon completion. The best ‘value-add’ is a document of some kind related to your business, or whitepaper. These days it costs nothing to create a 3-5 page document, brand it with your company’s logo/header and save and upload it to your site as a PDF. Companies like Hubspot have made a gigantic business of using this method to drive traffic to websites.

Creating froms in YWD is SO easy. Everything is laid out step-by-step. You can even clone forms on your site to create unique forms for different pages or campaigns.

Don’t have a Your Web Department website? Sign up now or try it for free at www.yourwebdepartment.com

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/NTx1o9 are a window to (the website’s) soul

Jul 18

Great photography from our clients websites - Part IV

The Carlton Club in The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Chicago is a destination club that offers the ambiance of an urban spa, and an executive fitness center, along with the luxury of private dining and meeting facilities, all located in Chicago’s smartest neighborhood. With their magnificent location and luxurious body treatments and services, The Spa at The Carlton Club is the perfect place to unwind, relax and rejuvenate yourself.

A client of Your Web Department since 2008, the Carlton Club website recently went through a complete redesign process. Making use of stunning photography, the new website just went live to rave reviews. The sophistication of the brand is reinforced in every page and every photo, with the elegant use of colours and the serene composition. The human element permeates most of the shots, making the content more approachable.

The website is easy to navigate, very fast and search engine-optimized, as are all Your Web Department websites which include the AT&T Performing Arts Center, The Toronto Design Exchange, PricewaterhouseCoopers and thousands of other business websites of all sizes throughout the world.

The website was created using YWD’s website building platform and its powerful Content Management System (CMS) without the need to hire a programmer or write a single line of code. Content sliders and other interactive elements were seamlessly integrated into the design, and the content can be easily updated directly by the client.

Here are a few examples of the great photographic work you can find throughout The Carlton Club website.

Don’t have a Your Web Department website? Get yours at www.yourwebdepartment.com

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/MI4iTO photography from our clients websites - Part IV

Great potography from our clients websites - Part IV

The Carlton Club in The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Chicago is a destination club that offers the ambiance of an urban spa, and an executive fitness center, along with the luxury of private dining and meeting facilities, all located in Chicago’s smartest neighborhood. With their magnificent location and facilities and luxurious body treatments and services, The Spa at The Carlton Club is the perfect place to unwind, relax and rejuvenate yourself.

A client of Your Web Department since 2008, the Carlton Club website recently went through a complete redesign process. Making use of stunning photography, the new website just went live to rave reviews. The sophistication of the brand is reinforced in every page and every photo, with the elegant use of colours and the serene composition. The human element permeates most of the shots, making the layouts more approachable. The website is easy to navigate, very fast and search engine-optimized, as are all Your Web Department websites which include the AT&T Performing Arts Center, The Toronto Design Exchange, PricewaterhouseCoopers/Debt Solutions and thousands of other business websites throughout the world.

The website was created using YWD’s website building platform and its powerful Content Management System (CMS) without the need to hire a programmer or write a single line of code. Content sliders and other interactive elements were seamlessly integrated into the design, achieving outstanding results.

Here are a few examples of the great photographic work you can find throughout The Carlton Club website.

Don’t have a Your Web Department website? Get yours at www.yourwebdepartment.com

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/MI4iTO potography from our clients websites - Part IV

Jul 17

Our first FREE webinar is today at 2pm EST. Join in!

The Your Web Department people will show
how you can design, build and update
a website for your business in minutes.

Open to all: no registration required

Simply click the link below
on Tuesday 2pm EST and join in

www.anymeeting.com/ywdwebinar1

More info? Contact Your Web Department otherwise, see you then!

from YWD Blog - YWD Blog http://bit.ly/MgAQHD first FREE webinar is today at 2pm EST. Join in!