Archive for June, 2009
Destination Based Sales Tax for Web sites
Posted by jason in business tips on June 30, 2009
If you live in Washington state and you sell things on your Web site, this article is a must read!
In Washington state, our state legislature (in its infinite wisdom) switched us to a “destination based sales tax” state. For the past year, Web store operators in Washington state have needed to compute sales tax in a different way than they have expected. Even though this has been law for a year, we still get lots of questions about this.
Let’s take a common scenario: a user lives in Bellevue, WA and is buying an item from a Web store, based in Spokane, WA.
Old way: The Web store operator charged the sales tax due in Spokane, WA. Being that the store owner lives in Spokane, that’s something they can handle.
New way: The Web store operator charges the sales tax due wherever the item is being shipped to (i.e. Bellevue, WA). This means that every store operator has to know what the sales tax is everywhere else in the state. To add to the confusion, sales tax rates don’t obey city, county or even zip code boundaries, so there can be subtle changes based on exactly where the customer is located.
Note that out of state shipments still don’t require sales tax, unless you have a business presence in that state. Of course, always consult with a tax professional before proceeding with any of this!
Unfortunately, most ecommerce vendors still don’t support this “destination-based” system. Here are some tips for following the law:
- If using a “3rd party hosted” shopping cart, consult with your cart vendor before signing up with them. If they don’t support the sales tax system properly, there will be nothing you can do about it.
- If using a cart that you host yourself, see what the options are and see what it takes to set it up. Keep in mind sales tax rates change quarterly so you need to build in a way for updates to be made. The state of Washington makes sales tax tables available in a digital format, but it may take work to get those tables into your system.
How To Get Listed on Page 1 of Search Engines — Part 2
Posted by jason in business tips, newsletter on June 24, 2009
Want more tips on how you can improve your Web site’s rankings? In this concluding article we’ll discuss a few more things you can easily incorporate.
In last month’s article, we discussed the quality of your content. But, you should also be concerned about its placement. Your search engine-friendly content should be placed up at the top of the page, not at the bottom. For instance, it may not help you to set a scene of beautifully set tables, with fine wine and a romantic atmosphere – and then at the bottom of the page, state that you own a catering business located in the Puget Sound area. Instead, you should lead with this information and talk about the type of atmosphere you can create later.
The content and pictures on your site should also be well balanced. When it comes to text vs. pictures for a search engine, text always wins. However, it’s better for the user of your site if they aren’t overwhelmed with a lot of text. The converse is also true – be sure that your site doesn’t look like a picture book for kids. So, do choose your pictures carefully – they should illustrate and balance the text and neither be overwhelmed by, nor overshadow the text.
But, since your pictures aren’t recognized by search engines, it’s important to use ALT tags. Think of an ALT tag as a caption written in HTML code. A picture of a swan would have an ALT tag that states “this is a picture of a swan.” While it may not capture the attention of a search engine as much as regular text, this extra step certainly can’t hurt! ALT tags are also a nice touch for the visually impaired, as the browsing tools they use do recognize and describe picture ALT tags.
Which brings us to the next tip: think of your user first! Search engine rankings can be influenced by the number of visitors to your site. The more visitors, the better the ranking. If your site doesn’t function well, or is visually unappealing, chances are that you’re not going to see many visitors who stay and click through the various pages of your site. A low visitor rate may lower your chances of being found by a search engine. So, treat your site as you would your own physical business, keeping the user in mind – ensuring that it’s neat, tidy, and works well for your customer. This will help generate traffic and ultimately, the attention of search engines.
Our clients often ask us about the importance of including links to other sites. The answer is that they don’t often help as much as you might think. In-bound links are far more important in Web site rankings than outbound ones. In-bound links on a site are ranked by number as well as quality. The more in-bound links you have the better. But, where those links come from is also important. Industry-related in-bound links are going to fare better with search engines than unrelated ones. So, while cousin Vinnie’s link from his hardware store to your bridal shop site may be helpful, it isn’t nearly as great as a link from cousin Marilyn’s wedding cake business. And out-bound links may help if you have a reciprocal agreement, but the sheer number of out-bound links, or to what sites the links are directed, aren’t very important to a search engine.
In summary, there are a few easy things you can do to make certain your site is found by search engines. Put your customer first, use simple tools like alt tags, and provide a well-balanced site when it comes to pictures and text.
Guest Post: 5 Easy Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Website
Posted by jason in business tips on June 22, 2009
In this guest post: we’ve asked Practical Marketing Expert Stacy Karacostas to share some thoughts on how to drive more traffic to your Web site.
Got a great Website? Congratulations! But as you’ve probably already realized, getting a Website is only half the battle…You still have to get people to visit your site.
In other words, while having a Website is a part of any good marketing plan these days, you also need a plan for marketing your Website. Otherwise it will just sit out there “gathering dust” on the Web instead of helping to grow your business.
So, how do you get site visitors? The first step is to make sure your site is submitted to the major search engines. Ideally you want this to happen on a regular basis—and especially anytime you add new content.
After that it’s time to do a little smart marketing—both online and off.
Below are 5 easy and inexpensive ways to drive more traffic to your Website:
#1 – Make it obvious. Be sure your Web address (your URL) is on everything you do and send out including business cards, invoices, articles, marketing materials, videos etc. And get an email address that’s attached to your Website (IE: yourname@yourwebsite.com). You’ll be amazed how many people will see this and visit your site to find out more about what you do.
#2 – Let the world know. Send an email to all your customers and contacts inviting them to stop by your new site. If you have a nifty free offer they can take advantage of while they’re there, all the better. Also put your Web address on all your social networking profiles. And of course, if you Twitter, Tweet about it.
#3 – Join the conversation. If you have thoughts, ideas or suggestions that might benefit your target market, try participating in online forums. These are Web pages or sites where people can ask questions and you can give answers. Many social networking sites have Q & A forums too.
Find ones your prospects participate in and do your best to be helpful. Don’t ever blatantly pitch your products or services here! Let your good advice be the selling device, and the link to your Website will start driving folks who like what you say back to your site.
#4 – Write about it. If you’re a writer, regularly submitting articles online is a powerful way to get tons of targeted traffic to your site. You can submit articles to directories like www.ezinearticles.com and social networking sites like www.Biznik.com.
Hundreds of these sites exist, so find ones that focus on your area of expertise. Include a bio with a little about you, a special offer (optional but highly recommended) and a link back to your site, and voila.
#5 – Use offline promotions. You can do all kinds of terrific print promotions to drive people to your Website including, but not limited to: postcards, classifieds ads, print ads, sales letters and more.
Again, having a free offer that they can take advantage of on your site gives them a good reason to visit. And it lets you collect their email addresses for future follow ups.
Now it’s time to get busy!
Each of these Website marketing tips is easy and inexpensive to implement. While it may take a bit of time and consistent effort for your Website traffic to really grow, if you keep using these tactics on a regular basis your visitor numbers—and your sales numbers—are sure to start going up!
Practical Marketing Expert Stacy Karacostas helps savvy entrepreneurs take the stress, struggle and confusion out of growing their small businesses. If marketing your Website—or your business—has got you tearing your hair out grab her FREE REPORT on The 7 Deadliest Small Business Marketing Sins right here http://www.7deadliestsins.com.
Have you used any of these tactics with great success?
What other tactics have you used to generate tons of targeted Website traffic?
Please do share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
Guest Post: 10 Steps to Brainstorming a Logo
Posted by jason in business tips on June 17, 2009
A logo is one of the cornerstones to any company’s marketing materials, including its Web site. We’ve asked Graphic Designer Anita Elder to share her thoughts on coming up with a great logo for business use. Anita is the owner of Lolalu Design of Seattle, WA.
Are you an individual or small business that knows you need some sort of logo to help identify you from competitors? Do you have no idea what you want in a logo, making it hard to talk to a graphic designer? Below are some quick tips to help articulate ideas to shorten the design process and potentially saving you some money.
- Look at the logos of other businesses in your industry. Do your competitors use solid, conservative images, or flashy graphics and type? Think about ways you want to differentiate your logo from your competition.
- Make a list of your values and circle the top three. Values are what appeal to your target market and are true to you as business. These things are so important that they become rules to guide your company. Values are who you want to be and how you get there. They are your culture.
- Make a list of brand attributes (metaphors, descriptive words and symbols) and circle the top three. The brand attributes are personality traits that reflect the idea that businesses can be viewed in much the same way that people are. We react emotionally to all our interactions with them. It’s important to ensure that these interactions are consistently on target with just the right business feel and tone of voice.
- Now that you have a list of values and attributes, what images, symbols, or colors come to mind when you think of them? Make a list of them.
- Round up a group of other people in your network. Share your values, attributes, images, symbols, etc. to get feedback. Often, you are too close to your ideas. Your network can see your business as a consumer/client and give you valuable information. They may come up with ideas you haven’t thought about. Be sure to write down all ideas, no matter how outrageous.
- Your logo should be clean and functional. Your logo should work well on a business card or a billboard. A good logo should be easy to reproduce. Icons are better than photographs since they can be deciphered when scaled small. If you include too much detail, think about what it will look like scaled really small or on a fax.
- Using all the information you have gathered, sketch out some ideas on paper. Logos can be one of three types: font-based, consisting primarily of a type treatment; an illustrated logo that literally illustrates what your company does, such as when a house-painting company uses an illustration of a brush in its logo; or an abstract graphic symbol, such as Nike’s swoosh, that becomes linked to a company’s brand. You don’t have to be an artist. If your shape doesn’t look quite like it should, make a note of what it should be. The point is to get a rough idea to share with a designer.
- Explore your colors. One thing you need to be careful of as you explore your color options is cost. A five-color logo might look gorgeous, but the price won’t be so attractive when you put it on stationary. Try not to exceed three colors unless you deem it absolutely necessary.
- Take your rough sketches and ideas to a graphic designer. A graphic designer can take your ideas and give them some finesse, as well as make them digital. Since you have done your homework, you cut down on the amount of time a designer has to brainstorm with you, which could potentially save time and money.
- Next steps. Shop around for a graphic designer. If the price seems high, look at it this way—remember that a good logo should last at least 10 years. If you look at the amortization of that cost over a 10-year period, it doesn’t seem so bad. Sure, you can find a cheap designer, but you often get what you pay for. Be sure to get several versions of your new logo. At a minimum, you should request a color version, a black & white version and a reversed version. Depending on your design, you might also want both a horizontal and vertical version. Insist on getting vector versions of your logo (.eps) with the fonts converted to outlines. You don’t’ need to know what that means and you might not even be able to open the file, but it’s extremely important. You need to safeguard these files as any other business asset. Any time you work with a print company, print designer, web designer, etc. be sure to give them these files. They will love you! Have your logo designer also give you JPG or PNG versions of each version of your logo so you can use it in email, Word docs, etc.
With a well-designed logo, potential clients can instantly discover how your business can serve them.
How to Choose a Web site Domain Name
People ask us all of the time — how do I choose a Web site domain name?
From a technical standpoint, the process is easy. Go to a domain registrar, like register.com or godaddy.com and type in the domain name you want and purchase it.
From a marketing standpoint, the process is a bit more complicated. Your Web site domain name is your business address on the Internet. It may be the first place people interact with your business, and the name will be the Web site’s first impression left with a potential user. We have 4 rules for choosing a Web site domain name:
- Do a Dot Com. Your domain name will always start with your business name (like Curvine or 3M, or Microsoft), but there are a lot of different ways your domain can end. Which one should you use? If your business is in the United States, you should always choose to end in .COM, and never primarily use .NET, .INFO, ,US or .ORG. The reason is simple: if your domain name ends in something else, people will sometimes forget and go to the .COM version. If that business is a competitor, this could lead to lost business.
That said, there is no harm in buying other domain names to avoid having someone else by them. For example, Microsoft may purchase Microsoft.info even if they have no intention of using it.
For international businesses, it is worth noting what the most common practice is in the areas where you are doing business. For example, a UK based business may purchase a .com.uk domain.
- When possible, make your domain name easy to say. You will be telling lots of people about your Web site, and they might tell other people. It needs to be easy to say. If an average person can’t pronounce it, it means less people will find your Web site. Try asking a friend how to pronounce your domain name before buying it. Note that sometimes this isn’t possible. If your business name involves your last name which isn’t easy to say, than there’s really nothing you can do about it.
- When possible, make your domain name easy to spell. Just like the tip above, it is important that your potential clients and customers can spell your name. Some of these are obvious, words with -ance and -ence are often confused. Others are less obvious: when someone hears Eye in a domain, will they spell it Eye or I? Too is another word people have trouble with. Also, having two words that end and start with the same letter; like EvilLambda has two L’s — which people may spell with only one L. If these things can’t be avoided, consider purchasing the misspelled versions of your name so that people can be redirected to the right place.
- When Necessary, Be Creative. We have a client who opened a movie theater called Movies 8 several years ago. Not surprisingly, movies8.com was taken. He also had plans to open additional theaters with different names, so we came up with a creative name that could be used for all of them, seethemovies.com — it is both easy to say and easy to spell. It is still in use today.
So there are four tips on choosing a great domain name. We welcome your tips below!
4 More Things Print Designers Need to Know About the Web
Posted by jason in business tips on June 11, 2009
We posted our first 4 tips earlier this week, and got some great feedback on some other things that print designers need to consider when designing for the Internet:
1. Use Low Resolution Images: For print, you are probably used to 300 DPI or higher. For the Web, we can get away with lower quality work, 72 DPI is just fine. 300 DPI images wouldn’t add much, and would take much longer to download.
2. Be Flexible: When you print something, it should come out just the way you expected. On the Web, different browsers, different computer monitors, and different operating systems will mean that there will be slight variations between how your piece looks on each computer. These can include minor changes in fonts, minor changes in color, and even minor layout changes. There are techniques your HTML producer can use to minimze these issues, but it will never be 100% the same in every environment.
3. Use RGB, Not CMYK. All color on the Web is constructed using RGB. Make sure when selecting a color in Photoshop, that you do so using RGB.
4. The Web is not a print piece: In addition to mostly mechanical differences between Web and Print, it is also important to know people use the Web differently than they may use your print piece. Consider a postcard: It appears in the mail – it has two sides – and a potential “user” of your postcard will spend a specific amount of time looking at it and also will scan in it a specific way. A user of your Web site will be at a desk, using a mouse, and will be at a different point in their day. It may help t put yourself in the mind of a potential Web user and consider how long they might view your piece and what they may look for.
As always, please add your thoughts below! 
4 Things Print Designers Need to Know About the Web
Posted by jason in business tips on June 8, 2009
Many of our clients are Graphic Designers who need help taking a great design and making it into a fully functional Web site. We’ve prepared this list of tips that every graphic designer needs to know when making a design for the Web. We’re aiming this list at print designers looking to make the transition.
1. Know your Target Screen Resolution: In print, you need to know how long and wide a piece will be. On the web, that length and width is measured in pixels. For mass market Web sites, you should target your site to be no longer than 775 pixels across. The actual resolution is 800 pixels across, but we need to leave room for the browser window border and the scrollbar which may be on the right side. For Web sites targeted at a younger or more technical audience, you may be able to design for a high screen resolution — plan for 1000 pixels in this case. In any case, be prepared for your site to look different depending on the screen resolution settings on the user’s computer: some computers will show your Web site very small, on others it will take up the full screen. Vertically, there is no maximum length, but note that the user may need to vertically scroll to see your entire page.
2. Are you fluid? Sites like Amazon.com can fill up the browser window — try loading the front page and resizing your Browser Window. Witness how it distributes the extra space that appears when you resize the window. This is called a Fluid design. You can ask your HTML producer to do this, you just need to specify where the extra space should go.
3. Use Text When Possible: On the Web, there are two different types of text: text that is an unusual font and actually stored as a graphic, and text that uses an ordinary font that is stored as text. Text loads faster, but can vary somewhat from computer to computer. A graphic loads the same everywhere, but loads slower and can’t be read by a search engine. Text that is stored as text can only be one of 6 very ordinary fonts and can be edited easily, text as a graphic can be any font you wish to use, but is harder to make changes to. Our advice is to use text as much as possible, but use graphics when you need to — this means that body text and navigation elements should usually be kept to one of the 6 fonts that are on most people’s computers: Arial, Courier New, Georgia,Times New Roman, Verdana, Trebuchet MS.
4. Hire someone to help with HTML production: as a print graphic designer, we would recommend you have someone else help with the technical work (we, of course, think you should hire us, but any Web programmer will do). The skills that make you a great graphic designer will make the technical work involved with producing Web sites harder. It is a classic left brain / right brain issue — very creative folks will have a hard time with technical work, and vice versa.
That’s it from us, we welcome your input below.
Advanced Tips: 4 Ways to Improve an Email Newsletter
Posted by jason in business tips on June 5, 2009
We posted a beginner’s guide to email newsletters earlier this week, here is a list of more advanced tips for established newsletters. These tips will pay off more if your list exceeds 5,000 subscribers, and you are already following other best practices.
- Be Scientific: For someone who has an established list with at least a few thousand readers, why not try an experiment? Split your list in two and try a different promotion for each one. For example, for 1/2 the list, offer 50% the first hour’s fee. For the other half, try offering a $100 credit if they sign up for 5 hours (this promotion will change for different types of products and services). Then, study the effectiveness of each promotion — either in clicks or in new sales. Most importantly, try new variations at another time based on what you learned.
- Send Tuesday through Thursday morning: we mentioned this in our beginner’s guide, but it is something that would benefit a more established newsletter. In most cases, newsletters are best sent in the mornings on weekdays that are not Monday or Friday. With that said, consider your product or service — and consider whether it would be better sent some other time. For example, camping products might sell better on a Friday afternoon as that’s when people are thinking about camping.
- Watch your Words: Internet Service Providers and users use many different types of software to determine whether an email is to be considered Spam or not. Some criteria are technical — do you send your newsletter from a server that sends other suspect email, for example? Some are content-based, mentioning the word “viagra” may make your message more likely to be blocked. A full list of one software package’s tests are here. Even if your email legitimately uses content that may cause concern for anti-spam software, your email could still be blocked. Considered avoiding or using less words or phrases of this type.
- Customize Your List: With a larger list, consider subdividing the list into different types of users (you can do this with Constant Contact or with other providers). You can go in many different directions with this: You can split your users into different timezones which will allow you to send the email at 9am local time, no matter the time zone. You can split your list into different interest groups, promote a golfing product to golfers, and a gardening product to gardeners. Be careful about splitting your lists too much, no need to have lists of 10 or 15 people — it won’t be worth the time invested in doing this.
Blog Update
It has been three months since we started blogging as a company. We’re pretty happy with the success so far. We’ve created 18 informative blog posts covering all different aspects of Web site development (after importing previous articles we have prepared). Our blog is growing in popularity, with more than 3,300 pageviews last month. We’ve started some great conversations with a community of people and we’ve introduced new people to our company.
Our most popular posts:
How to Get Listed on Page 1 of Search Engines Part 1
How Much Does A Web site Cost?
Guest Post: Top 5 Tips For Building An Engaged Twitter Following
I hope our next few months are even more successful.
Beginner’s guide: 5 Steps To Starting an Email Newsletter
Posted by jason in business tips on June 2, 2009
Sending out a monthly email newsletter (or eNewsletter) is one of many ways to draw traffic to your Web site. This article is designed as a beginner’s guide to setting up an email newsletter. Here are 5 steps you can take today to take a newsletter from dream to reality:
1.Select a vendor to help send out the email newsletter. Using a vendor helps make sure your message looks professional and is less likely to be marked as spam. They also handle the task of removing people from the list when the ask to unsubscribe. We highly recommend Constant Contact, as we send out our own newsletter using their service. It is easy to use, relatively inexpensive and very popular. I’m sure other people have other services they recommend, perhaps they will mention them in the comments below.
2. Select or Create a Template. If you are using Constant Contact or another vendor, you can often choose from a series of pre-existing templates. This is a great choice, as long as you customize them to look like other marketing materials your company provides. Other people hire a professional to create a look that precisely matches other marketing materials. They key is to have blocks of content that will be filled in every month. We recommend 3 sections — one for some industry information (trends or new types of products), one for some information about your company (example: a new employee or service), and a free tip related to your industry (example: a plumber might have a tip on how to avoid leaks).
3. Compile your email list. You can start from your existing list of clients and people that you know. Make sure you have permission from those folks before you start emailing them — otherwise you may be subject to complaints, and (if you are very egregious) termination of your email newsletter, web hosting and even your Internet service. Ask anyone who you have contact with if they would like to be added to your free once-a-month email list, that means adding a form to your Web site and making it a part of your business process. Most people will say yes. Be sure not to buy, rent or otherwise acquire email lists.
4. Create your content. It is important to set aside a specific every month to compile your email newsletter, otherwise it won’t get done. Feel free to repurpose other marketing materials you create. For example, if you wrote an article for an industry magazine, try rewriting it to fit in your newsletter format. That way, you can save time and get the most benefit every time you prepare something. The key is creating a system that you can execute every month.
5. Send it. Even though this is for beginners, here’s an advanced tip; Make sure to send your email on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday morning . Emails sent on those days are more likely to be read. With Constant Contact, you can schedule this in advance. With other services, you can do this by scheduling or by preparing the email and then pressing send on those days.
Follow those five steps and you’ll create an engaging newsletter is likely to keep clients and customer focused on your business.
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About Curvine
Every company has a Web site. But most business owners don't know how to make their Web site generate leads and sales. Our firm, Curvine Web Solutions -- a Web site development firm located in Bellevue, WA, creates strategies, designs and writes code to make your Web site make money for your business.
Please contact us at 425-818-9096 to ask for a free proposal. You can also visit our Web site at www.curvine.com