Recently, a client in the whole health and beauty business who provides Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture added massage therapy to her services. She wants to write a new page for her website to introduce this service. There are two options I recommend. 1. Write a blog post introducing the new service and categorize it as “news” and/or “new services.” Any blog category or post can be added to the menu like a page. Or, 2. If you want it to be a page then do both. Use the content from the blog post and insert it into the page. You can link the post and page to each other. Finding new information in more than one place on a website is a good thing!

I can’t emphasize enough how important blog posts are and should be a regular practice. Here are the reasons why:

1. Posts immediately get sent to anyone subscribed to your blog and encourage people to sign up
2. Posting enlivens your website and makes it more attractive to people seeking information
3. Posts get sent out over the internet apart from your website, pulling in new prospects
4. Posting enhances your search engine optimization and should be a part of any SEO plan
5. Posts can be added to your social networking and newsletter as part of your overall marketing strategy

So, When you think about new activity on your website, don’t forget the blog is waiting to work for you more than just a web page can. Need some training? Give me a shout!

Business owners in Massachusetts might know a little about the internet and may have heard of the popular CMS – WordPress. But, they don’t know enough to start a site by themselves, don’t have the time to spend learning the software, or don’t have enough digital design and marketing experience to make their business successful. Believe me, with thousands of new websites launching every day around the world, you need to be highly visible to stand out and capture your share of the market.

I have a long and broad art and design background: ten years experience at the Boston Globe as an information graphics designer and a over a dozen years of web site design and development. It’s a mix that is rare in the internet business. But I admit I can’t do it all, so I use relationships with experienced WordPress developers and shopping cart experts all over New England and the United States to call on.

I can not only handle all your requirements in developing a sound and attractive website, but also build it with attention to bringing you new customers. If you are not receiving email or calls based on your website at least several times a week, then you definitely need to make some changes.

Here is what I do to get a steady stream of interest:

1. Write and post a blog on subjects relating to your field every week if possible or at least once a month. Even a news release or a related article you can mention is worth posting. These posts go out on Google as a second, third or fourth link to your site.
2. Decide on two social networks you can link to in your side bar or footer. YouTube, Facebook or LinkedIn are several to consider. Try to keep up with the two you choose and direct those pages back to your website.
3. Start a newsletter and combine your latest posts and send out to your subscribers and clients by email. You can also capture new email recipients on the site with a Call to Action button and an Opt-In.
4. Include an easy to fill out form on your site with a message area, so you get some information up front.
5. Offer deals and discounts through Facebook or  other social media. Always add a link to the website. Don’t forget to include it on your signature of your email!
6. Make sure your site is mobile ready (responsive) so that phones and tablets can view it clearly.

if you aren’t doing many of the items listed above, you are losing in this marketplace. Your site should not just be a brochure but a marketing magnet!

They are offering a free trial of CoSchedule, a social media editorial calendar built exclusively for WordPress. It will help save time managing your blog and social media content by putting everything on the same drag and drop editorial calendar.

Click here to see what it does. (and get a free 14 day trial).

Here is something they published that will be useful as you write your next blog posts: 180 Power Words for Writing Emotional headlines, collected by copywriter Karl Stepp. Catchy headlines are one of the best way to up your seo.

Over half the United States population uses Facebook, growing 300,000 to 400,000 users per day. Google “Facebook Statistics” and you will be amazed. One site, http://expandedramblings.com, had so many different statistics, the author, Craig Smith, had to break it up into four pages. Take your pick: He offers 40 different FB page statistics, 27 mobile app statistics and 105 FB user statistics.

“Artist makes over $50,000 selling her artwork through Facebook.” I know this sounds like a trick. But, there are some valuable pointers in the original article by Cory Huff. Even though it was written for artists in particular, I think some of the lessons can be understood and used by all business owners.

Firstly, have a product or service to sell. Painters, Designers (of all sorts), Photographers and Inventors for instance. Then, write about it and publish it on Facebook. But, that’s the easiest part. You have to develop a fan base and nurture it. You do this by engaging your audience by corresponding with them. Ask them their opinion, ask for their suggestions. Post your work as it is being developed or created and be consistent. Don’t lose interest and not post for several weeks.

Another way to engage your audience is to create contests. For instance you can auction off an original painting. Or, give away a limited edition print. Get people excited. Give them a deadline to post their bid. If it doesn’t sell, try again later. Which brings us to another important point.

Check your Facebook Insights Page to find out who is liking your posts and when. Timing may be important but also finding out who is your fanbase. Women or Men, Millenials or Baby Boomers? Don’t hesitate to use Facebook’s advertising too. It’s inexpensive and you can decide how much to spend per day and the geographical area you want to target.

That’s it in a nutshell. You may want to read the original article at “http://theabundantartist.com/how-i-made-50000-selling-art-on-facebook/” or purchase their booklet through the link above.

Writing can be chore or even frightening to some business owners. All it takes is a little practice and perhaps reading a book on how to write well. I recommend you buy and read E.B. White’s Elements of Style. It is a small book that packs a lot of valuable information. The Seventeenth Rule states “Omit Needless Words”. You must be concise. Take out everything that is not useful. It is especially important in writing for the web.

Your web designer should guide you in creating the best relevant text (keywords) for your website. A keyword is a word or phrase related to your business that internet users would search for when looking for the products, services, or information you offer. If your webmaster is a good editor, they can whip that copy into shape in no time. Just keep writing and communicating what you know.

Help Is On The Way

We offer a service to help our customers On page and Off page
On Page: Perugi Design will help you write your blog posts with regularity and competency. We back it up with Google Analytics and regular reports. If you use Twitter and Facebook, we will set up your site so that it automatically posts there also. We import and set up an SEO plugin that will guide in adding titles and links.

Off Page:Our highly experienced associates offer several plans to bring full SEO to your site. The starter package is priced affordably and you can build from there if you want more targeted keywords, posts, content blurbs on 3rd party sites, blog comments and link submissions. Innovative tracking software allows both our team and yours to closely follow the detailed results of your SEO campaign. You will have reports sent to you as often as you’d like, and everything is transparent.

On Page or including Off Page SEO gives you choices for marketing your business.

The salesperson was a young man interested in my business and how I market it. I told him that I blog, have several forms on my site, use Twitter and Facebook. My content and installed seo plug-in gets me in the organic area of Google search for WordPress Web Design. But I can do more. I’m not a marketing guru, but more and more I’ve come to see how internet marketing works. The salesperson, Zach, led me through all the points about how the software dashboard combines all the important internet marketing pieces. I’m already intrigued. What about reselling the product?, I ask. That I can do, he says. I can offer you a reduced price that anyone else can get. I may even buy it myself. If you are frustrated with trying to keep up with internet marketing media, this might be the answer for you. The down side is that it is not cheap. The advantage is that you have all the tools in one place which will save you time and confusion.

Business owners in Massachusetts might know a little about the internet and have some coding experience, and even have heard of the popular CMS of WordPress. But, they don’t know enough to start themselves, know the language, don’t have the time to spend learning the software, or don’t have enough design experience to see what will give their business the right look to be competitive. Believe me, with thousands of new websites launching every day around the world, you need to be highly visible to stand out and capture your share of the market.

Sometimes they contact Perugi Design. Deb has an extensive art and design background, ten years experience at the Boston Globe planning information graphics and a dozen years of writing html, css and web site code. It’s a mix that is rare in the internet business. But I admit I can’t do it all, so I am developing relationships with experienced WordPress developers and shopping cart experts all over New England and the United States to call on.

We can not only handle all your requirements in developing a sound and attractive website, but also build it with attention to bringing you new customers. If you are not receiving email or calls based on your website at least several times a week, then you definitely need to make some changes.

Here is what we do to get a steady stream of interest:

1. Write and post a blog on subjects relating to your field every week if possible. Even a news release or a related article you can site is worth posting. These posts go out on Google as a second, third or fourth link to your site.
2. Decide on two social networks you can link to on your side bar. You Tube or Facebook or Linked In are several to consider. Try to keep up with the two you choose and direct those pages back to your website.
3. Start a newsletter or use your latest post as a newsletter that goes out to your members by email. We can also easily capture new email recipients on the site with a Call to Action button.
4. Include an easy to fill out form on your site with a message area, so you get some information up front.
5. Offer deals and discounts through Facebook or Google Ad Words. Always add a link to the website.
6. Design the site so that phones and ipads can view it clearly.

So, if you aren’t doing many of the items listed above, you are losing in this marketplace.
Your site should not just be a brochure but a marketing magnet!

I recommended using a WordPress template or theme from WordPress.org. Choosing the right theme out of the thousand or so is a critical first task. Not only do I look for layout, but I look for good typography and flexibility within the theme. The themes come prepackaged and may look exciting on the whole, but the nuts and bolts don’t fit.

Bob worked on his text, while I went about finding the right photograph for his banner. What better image than Moby Dick‘s author, Herman Mellville’s desk? Herman Mellville wrote the novella Bartleby The Scrivener, where Bob took his name. Working in Photoshop added some mellow tones to the image and it more or less fit into the space for the banner. A font from Typekit helped give his banner a brand.

To make a long story short, we added the pages and text as well as images, the social media links and illustration. Bob is trained in WP and now writing blogs for his inside News page.

New Homeowner Services – First in a Series – Website Design for Relocating Business and Families
Posted: 17 May 2011 06:49 PM PDT
As spring is one of  the busiest times of the year for people moving into the Massachusetts area, I thought I would ask some local experts their advice on making the transition an easier one for relocating families and perhaps their businesses.  With that in mind, I have asked Deb Perugi of Perugi Design  to  give the small business owner who may have moved to the area some advice on websites and social media and how to update them.

Here are some of Deb’s thoughts:
Welcome to Suburbia!

If you’ve moved to the area and you have a business you run from home or if you moved your offices here, you may want to think about a new or updated website; one that you can maintain yourself and that takes advantage of new technology and social media.

Social media is a great way to inform your colleagues and business associates that you are continuing to offer the same great services in a new location.  But, if your website is three years or older, chances are you don’t have live links to social media. You are not taking advantage of all that Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In can do.

My husband and I moved to Framingham last year. I have a freelance business designing web sites and I provide WordPress design and development. My site, Perugi Design, was at least three years old, so I got to work and designed one that looks current and provides robust functionality and versatility using WordPress.

WordPress is an open source project, which means there are hundreds of people (developers) all over the world working on it.  CMS allows content creators, such as you, or an employee, to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files… and it’s free! You can make edits, add photos or video or run a shopping cart from any computer. Fifty percent of all cms sites use WordPress and its growing all the time.

Major web players use it: CNN, Wired, The New York Times and Martha Stewart Magazine to name a few.

Getting your new site set up and working for you is my job. My expertise is helping you move your look and content into 2011 and beyond. I can explain the process and I take the time to get it right and teach you all you need to know.

Thank you Deb.  I have seen Deb’s work and she is a true professional.  If you should have any questions please contact Deb using the contact information below.

Perugi Design and for pricing call 508-879-7347.

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