Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Like everything she want a two minute video today!  What about tommorrow.  If you give good advice that will work in the future your friend will not only thank you but it will also save you work. 

I would reccomend using wordpress, as it is easy to set up, there is a vast amount of support forums out there.  Most of the add-on called plugins and widgets are free and it`s very easy to post videos to your site.  There are a lot of good free themes that also combine a tabbed interface so that you can easily add web pages to your blog.If you use HostGator, as your host it`s very inexpensive and you get a large amount of bandwidth. 

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Arsenal Marketing
WEB 2.0 Internet Marketing for Business
http://www.arsenalmarketing.com
Joe@arsenalmarketing.com

Reach a larger audience!
Start blogging today!
Using WEB 2.0 strategies & techniques!

Joe, thanks for the advice.
Do many people use WordPress as a website host as opposed to its intended
blog purpose? She doesn`t want a blog at all, just a fairly simple and straight
forward site with the added video requirement. Is WordPress good for this?
Thanks.

Sorry it took so long responding. 

Yes, there are a lot of folks that make blog look like a web site.  Adding video is pretty simple as well.  However, if the customer just wants a web site then give her a web site.  I would also set the expectations before hand.  When the customer starts to find out how powerful blogs and social marketing are you know that the customer will ask you why you never recommended this as a solution.

Best of Luck!


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Arsenal Marketing
WEB 2.0 Internet Marketing for Business
http://www.arsenalmarketing.com
Joe@arsenalmarketing.com

Reach a larger audience!
Start blogging today!
Using WEB 2.0 strategies & techniques!

Your website is probably your number one marketing effort and serves as a calling card.  It may be the first impression of your business.  What impression do you want to make?

My firm is 25 years old.  Our website is currently in need of updating and I`ve been put in charge.  We offer services (accounting, tax, QuickBooks, consulting, etc.) and don`t need any fancy bells and whistles but the site needs to be clean, easy to navigate and asthetic.  Anything less costs us business.  We want our site working for us - that is why it is there.

15 years ago you would have spent thousands on a brochure.  Have you ever called a business that printed their brochure on 20# text on a crappy copier?  Don`t do your website on the cheap or you will get the same results.

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Check out my blog at www.GreenCPA.blogspot.com

I agree with CPA, your website is everything in todays business world. The more you invest and keep on the cutting edge on website development make you head over heels more desirable then your competition that is doing nothing.

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china business card / Wall Street Journal Reader

Wordpress is a powerful tool. Many places use it as a CMS for simple sites. Our company has done this for clients before. If you are looking to have a simple informational site, I would suggest using Wordpress. It will give you the power to manage your content and keep your website looking fresh, without messing up the layouts and logistics.

Uploading video is simple and easy. If you have any questions, shoot me an email, I`d be happy to give you some tips and send some links your way.

Cheers!

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HYBRID Digital Media
"Providing High Quality Design Solutions"
http://www.hybriddigitalmedia.com

As a marketer and graphic designer I see a lot of "do it yourself" marketing happening and it always comes back to bite the business owner.

Yes you can save money by doing it yourself--heck, I could change the oil in my car, but sometimes it`s better to let someone else who knows the ins and outs of it help you so you can get the job done quickly.

You can get a .mac account and use Sandvox or iWeb site building tools on the Mac which can help you to put a site together, but remember, these are just basic tools--they don`t think for you and they don`t help you with issues such as who to register a domain with and why, or who to host with, is the site professional and does it speak to your audience,etc.

I spend about 1/4 of even simple website projects educating clients about meta tags, SEO, CMS vs static sites, how a blog is different from a static site, what`s a good internet strategy for improving search engine rankings and the like, and clients need to know and understand these things so we can work on reaching realistic goals.

A web designer who has a track record helping other businesses can help you craft a site that does exactly what you need it to, and avoid trial and error and spending a lot of your time figuring things out.

Back to the oil changing analogy . . . I could spend two or so hours in my driveway under a greasy car changing the oil, or 20 minutes at the quicky lube center making some phone calls or working from my laptop.  I value my time and I let the experts show me how it`s done.


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Vann Baker
President/Creative Director
Design-First.com
"Creative Marketing Strategy That Works"

If all your friend is wanting is a presence on the web. Go to www.Blogger.com and create an account. It is easy, straigtforward and best of all free.  Just because it is a blog site you do not have to update posts everyday or ever if your don`t want to.

I created a blog site for my card design business. www.calypsoblu.blogspot.com

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View My Fast Pitch Profile: http://www2.fastpitchnetworking.com/emailsignature.cfm?P=5&I D=491119292920

I have no idea whether it will work on Mac or not but I have used Microsoft "Expression Web" (used to be called "Front Page"} for three web sites. This is one of the best programs  and you say you are technically capable.  Take a look at one of my sites, www.oldeworldelace.com, to see what can be done on this program.  It has a Google page rank of 4 and if you Google "Lace Curtains" you will find my site in the #1 spot on the first page..  I have not gone into Video but the program is capable of it.  Also the comment by one of your repliers - that you are probably locked in (using a free program) to a particular host - is very valid.  I have had to change hosts three times to find a good hosting service.  Incidentally, I ended up with GoDaddy where I have been very satisfied.

If you are going to set up a web site to sell product I would think it is worth your while to invest the $300-$400 to get a good program to maximize your profit capabilities. Forget all about the freebies.  Free programs are usually priced right.

Don`t use blogger ... for many reasons.

I use WordPress as a CMS all the time. Just make sure it is a self-hosted WordPress (wordpress.org) and not the other one (wordpress.com).

For a beginner though, I think TypePad beats WordPress.

I agree on the price thing too ... but sometimes you have to bootstrap your way to a better site, so I give people this option.