5 Tips to Improve Your Website

Having a website is an important part of your marketing plan.  However, developing a website sometimes seems complicated and overwhelming.  Here’s a few tips you should follow to create a website that’s easy to use and will keep your clients coming back. 

1)      Include contact information on every page.   Be sure to make it easy for clients to contact you either by including an e-mail address, phone number or a link to a contact form on each page of your website.  People are lazy.  If they want to contact you and can’t easily find your contact information, they’ll leave your website.  And, you won’t have their business.

2)      Make sure everything works.   If you include links, video, or have widgets for auto-responders, be sure to test them and make sure they work.  People will make assumptions about the quality of your business based on your website.  Don’t lose business because you have website widgets that don’t work. 

3)      Update your calendar and content.  If your website includes announcements of special events or promotions, be sure to update these regularly.  Don’t let calendar items that have passed languish on your website for months on end.  It creates a bad impression.  Also, be sure to provide fresh, updated content to your blog on a regular basis.   When it’s obvious new articles haven’t been added for several months, that also creates a bad impression.  New, fresh content will not only keep your customers coming back, but it will also help improve your search engine ranking. 

4)      Keep your visitors on your site.  When writing blog articles, you may be tempted to provide links to other sites for reference information or to provide your reader with videos or photos of your subject matter.  Certainly, that’s tempting.   However, by providing these links you’re inviting your website visitor to leave your site.  Why would you do that?  If you need to provide photos or videos, create them yourself and include them on your blog. 

5)      Check your share buttons.  Social media is a powerful marketing tool.  If you include social media buttons such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ on your website, make sure you’re updating those sites as well.  All three allow you to create profile pages, which you should do for your business. 

Creating a website is the first step in creating an online marketing plan, follow these simple tips to make your website a powerful marketing tools and user friendly.  

Back to School Days: Sending My Child to College

This year, we crossed a milestone as my husband and I sent our first child to college.  We spent much of the past two years convincing him that college would be fun and one of the best experiences of his life.  For much of that time, he didn’t believe us.  Then, somewhere after his high school graduation ceremony we started to see him change his mind.  He didn’t discuss the change in his attitude with us.  We just saw it creep into his demeanor.  While we were glad he was going willingly and was even excited, it was still hard.

For some reason, he had to move to college on a weekday.  Luckily, none of our other kids had started school yet and my husband took off from school so we got to make it a family event.  A few weeks prior, my college-bound son had made remarks to my husband about what he could or could not fit in his car when he moved to school.  My husband looked him in the eye, put a hand on his shoulder and said, “You know we’re helping you move, right?”  My son was pleasantly surprised. 

On moving day, my son packed his own car.  He almost got it all in his own car, which seemed to be a point of pride with him.  To me, it was as if he was proving he didn’t really need us.  However, we had the mini-fridge in the mini-van.  Hah, son!  Can’t go to college without that! 

We made the 2-hour drive, found the dorm and started unpacking.  Somehow in raising my kids, I have convinced my kids I’m an idiot.  In many ways this is good.  They’ve never asked me to type papers, edit research projects or help with math past Algebra 1.  However, in some ways, it’s bad because they’re convinced if they don’t know something, then obviously I don’t know either.  Several times prior to moving day I had asked my son if he knew anything about the check-in process once he got to the dorm.  “Mom,” he said, “there’s no check-in process. I know my room number.  I just move in.”  WHAT??  They have a few hundred students living in this dorm and you don’t need to check-in, get a room-key, sign-in, nothing?  Again, my kids think I’m an idiot.  We began unpacking in the parking lot and took armloads of boxes and totes into the dorm, where, lo and behold, there was a check-in desk.  I laughed silently to myself.  Hopefully, in college he’ll realize that I’m not idiot after all. 

Moving his belongings went off without a hitch.  We stayed out of the way and out of the room because once my son, his roommate and all their belongings were unloaded, it was pretty crowded. 

After lunch, we walked around campus and took care of business such as getting a parking permit, picking up his books, getting him cash from the ATMs, and such.  How did I raise a kid to be 19 and not know how to use an ATM?  Oh yeah, he has no money.  I have to give him credit because only when he had a problem did he ask for our help.  I was surprised because, again, he thinks I’m an idiot. 

Once we were done, it was time to go.  Time to leave my baby.  As much as I’d worked to convince him to go to college, I couldn’t fathom him not living in my house.  Not saying good night when he came home from being out.  Not playing guitar or drums so loud I couldn’t hear myself think.  Just not being present.  I can barely remember my life before he was born.    

I reached and gave him a hug.  At that point, I couldn’t hold back the tears, but I tried to limit the number.  I didn’t want to cry but tearing up seemed okay.  I saw no tears in my son’s eyes, but he held our hug a little longer and harder than usual.  It was amazingly similar to when I dropped him off on his first day of kindergarten.  And, that turned out okay.  

Small Business Marketing: Plan Now for Successful Holiday Season

               Freelance writer Phyllis Edson tells small businesses that if they want to have a successful holiday season, they need to implement their small business marketing plan now even though the holidays are months away. 

            Edson discussed a few reasons why August and September are the months small business owners need to be thinking about the holiday season. 

            According to Edson it takes three months to reap the rewards and realize the results of any marketing plan or effort.  Whether it’s print or web, you need that time to be able to build your marketing up.  Especially with online marketing, you have to give it three months in order for the search engines to help you out.  “If you want to have a profitable December, you need to be marketing in September,” she said. 

            Another reason Edson discussed for taking action now is to save money.  “By booking your freelance writer, graphic designer and printer now, you won’t be paying higher fees when their time is at a premium.  It’s cheaper to have your holiday marketing pieces, whether they’re print or web, done now than waiting til November or December,” she said. 

            Lastly, if you have a marketing plan in place well ahead to time, you won’t be scrambling to put something together at the last minute.  “Last minute efforts aren’t marketing, they’re desperate and rarely work,” she said. 

            “Now’s the time to plan so you are certain to have a marketing plan, implement it and can reap its rewards” said Edson.

            Edson is a freelance writer who specializes in working with small businesses.  She offers a variety of services aimed at helping small businesses increase online traffic.  Her services include: copywriting, web content, blogging, websites and more.  She has 20 years of writing experience.  Edson has written for a broad variety of organizations including professional associations, non-profits, think tanks, political/governmental agencies and corporations.   For each client, she says, she provides professionally written, well-researched products that satisfy the needs of the individual client and appeal to that client’s audience. 

            For more information about small business marketing, contact Phyllis Edson at 816-305-5828 or  e-mail her at phyllis.edson@comcast.net. For more information, visit her website at www.phyllisedson.com.

Grammar Tips for Kids

Learning grammar is boring.  But, knowing correct grammar improves writing, speaking, and communicating.  Studies show that as younger generations become more comfortable with e-mail and texting, that they become less concerned with correct grammar, punctuation and spelling.  These bad habits can easily be improved however with these easy tips. 

               Capitalization.  Always capitalize the first word of every sentence and every question.  Always.  Also, capitalize proper names.  For instance, capitalize the names of people, the pronoun “I,” as well as names of countries, states and cities.   If it’s something specific, it should be capitalized.  For example, the word restaurant doesn’t need to be capitalized, but the name of the restaurant, McDonald’s, is always capitalized. 

               Punctuation.    Every sentence should end with a period.  Every question should end with a question mark.  Of course, you can end sentences with exclamation points, but this is rare.  You should only use exclamation marks if you’re trying to indicate extreme excitement.  For example, Yippee!!  

               Commas, semi-colons and colons.  When in doubt, leave it out.   Most people, whether they’re grown-ups or kids, don’t know how to use colons and semi-colons correctly.   Unless you’re absolutely certain you’re using it correctly, don’t bother.   Using them incorrectly will make your writing confusing and sloppy.  However, rewriting your sentences so you don’t need them will make your writing more clear. 

               In general, kids should probably only use commas when putting together lists in a sentence.  Consider the following sentence and the use of commas.  “I painted my room and used red, blue, yellow and purple paint. “ 

               Paragraphs.  In general, the beginning of paragraphs should be indented 5 spaces.  If you’re writing a paragraph using paper and pencil, be sure to put your index finger on the paper where you want the paragraph to begin and start the first word of the first sentence of the paragraph to the right of your index finger.  All following lines should start to the left of that finger. 

               If you’re using a computer or word processor to write something, be sure to hit the “tab” key for the beginning of every paragraph, and the program will indent it for you.  Or you can hit the space bar 5 times or 5 spaces to indent the sentence. 

               Apostrophes.  Apostrophes, in general, have two purposes.  First, they help make contractions.  For example, the word that’s” is a contraction of “that is.”  You have to have the apostrophe to show that you’ve joined two words together.   Consider the following contractions:  can’t, won’t, don’t, isn’t.  

               Apostrophes also show possession.  When you want to show that something belongs to someone or something, add an apostrophe and an “s” to the owner’s name.  For example, Bob’s car.  Or, the car’s headlights. 

               The one exception to this rule is the word “its.”   You can’t add an apostrophe to “its” to show possession because then it becomes a contraction of “it is.”   If you’re confused whether you should use “its” or “it’s,” read the sentence aloud.  If you can say “it is” instead and have it make sense, then you need to use “it’s.”  If you can’t, then use “its.” 

               These are just a few grammar tips for kids.  Following these tips will help kids, and adults, improve their writing.