Archive for February, 2010

business owner, where would you look to find a web design company to build a website for your business.
- Mike S. 26 / M / New York, NY

Our company, 3PRIME, LLC in North Haven CT, makes websites. One of our particular skills is fitting keyword goals, business goals and budget together to make a perfect fit for our clients.

Consider this. You are looking for a business website. You could look at:

1) Search engines, find a local company that you can meet with, this helps ensure that your needs and their abilities are clearly communicated.

2) Websites you like and contact the company that built it, this can eliminate time and effort in getting a custom website design.

3) Freelancers, can carry a lot of unknowns, but may be more affordable.

Those are all places to look. However, what you may or may not find is someone to make sure you are buying just what you need.

I also recommend that you place a priority on being able to develop a great relationship because there’s no reason your website should sit idle once complete. Make your new website part of your business development plan!

What is a free way to get my business website ranked higher?
- Shane S. M / Tampa, FL

It’s always helpful to have more information about your domain and keywords but here are some general things you can do:

1) Make sure your home page title tag has your major keyword and regions of influence. So if you have a shoe store, you might have your title tag be:
Kids Shoes Tampa FL | Bridal shoe packages in Florida

Try and draw out a niche for yourself and try and get the best ranking you can for these more specific phrases. It’s far easier to gain a ranking for so called “long tail” search terms that specify your region.

2) Improve your link popularity, which means to get more links pointed to your homepage. Links are perhaps the most important measure of whether your website deserves a first page ranking in Google. Some methods to do this are:
a) Exchange links with other business websites in your area
b) Find stories on blogs related to your industry and comment on them, making sure you take advantage of the [Website] field when placing your comment.
c) Setup a twitter account and make posts/tweets about inner pages on your website with a link to the page.

If you spend 1-2 hours per day doing the above, you’ll see your rankings start to rise after 3 weeks and continue to as long as you remain diligent in your new, free SEO ranking improvement habits!

What the quickest sources of website traffic (paid and free) ?
- Joel B. M / Marseilles, France

In terms of speed, nothing beats Pay-Per-Click.

You can setup an adwords account in 1 day, create your campaign and have your ads on Google within hours. This is for paid traffic.

For free traffic via SEO, I think that we are pretty fast, meaning we can get you in Google for your domain name, or name of your business within a week or 2. Competing for general phrases takes months and shortcuts are generally not to be trusted. Short term goals like your service plus cities and towns nearby (4-6 word phrases) i.e.

North haven ct seo company
or
google.com/search?q=North+haven+ct+seo+company

Can usually be earned in a matter of weeks.

So if speed is the primary factor, PPC is the service for you. 3PRIME can help you create the account, or campaign or both.

We know that the West Hartford Food Pantry will make every penny of the $6400 count towards helping low-income families and soup kitchens feed the hungry. Good job!

USA upset Canada 5-3 on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals

Image Courtesy of NHL.com

I’m entering new product to the market (forex trading robot), to be sold on clickbank.com. How to increase number of affiliates selling my product? Any forum where I could advertise? Maybe there are some sites where affiliates look for new products? Any ideas?
- Kamil B. 30 / M / Zielona Góra, Poland

There are a lot of affiliate directories out there but what you’ll probably find is that 5% of your affiliates produce 90% of you sales.

Try and find websites that have an audience that would buy your product, and convince them that if they allow it to be sold on their website, that they will make a steady profit from the affiliation.

Does anyone know… how to get freelance web design projects?
- Arun G. M / Trivandrum, India

I see you’re in India, I’d guess you’re looking to provide the service outside of India. Your best bet is going to be to try to do one of 2 things:

1) Create accounts and build a reputation on the freelancer type websites.

2) Target an area where you have some knowledge and market yourself to that area. This could mean an industry, like medical, travel, e-commerce, or it might be an location you have some experience with. The choice should be based on your personal experience since to get projects you’ll need to introduce yourself and convince your potential customers why they should hire you.

Good luck!

How do I find a promoter or investor to develop a great idea for a website ?
- Subhash S. M / New Delhi, India

Find someone in a related industry that is successful and plan and execute a pitch to them about why they should invest in your idea.

Identifying the right person to present to is half the battle, the other half being a clear, concise presentation of your idea, what’s involved to startup and at what point business begins to break even and turn a profit.

Thanks!
- Subhash S. M / New Delhi, India

My pleasure, another bit of Free Business Consulting from 3PRIME.

Besides Dreamweaver, what would you say are the most marketable skills for a web designer in today’s market?
- Joshua G. 28 / M / San Diego, CA

Dreamweaver isn’t a skill, creating manageable code to present web pages is a skill. Similarly, photoshop and illustrator aren’t skills, creating modern relevant web and vector designs are skills.

As a web design company, 3PRIME considers what we do to be the next stage in professional web design. Besides designing a website that fits the customers needs and budget, you should be creating websites that will work well in search engines and provide the critical opportunity for visitors to convert into contacts.

I’d say the 2 most marketable areas a web designer should focus on, besides translating client conversations into a satisfactory web design, are search engine optimization principles and visitor conversion and traffic analysis.

Are there any tips for getting into graduate or medical school with a lower (still > 3.0) gpa?
- Kasey L. 24 / M / Nolensville, TN

I have 3 suggestions, but it’s not my area of expertise…

1) Research the professors you’d be working under
Make sure they know your purpose is not to help you get in but to find out if you are a good fit for their program. They don’t want to work with students just there for a degree, they want to form productive relationships, if you give them the opportunity, it can kill 2 birds with one stone.

2) Identify high needs by the institution you are applying to
Maybe they need to grow their bi-lingual students, maybe they want more girls, find out, it could make all the difference.

3) Make sure your cover letter and application are geared for the specific institutions
Consider your audience, they are the decision makers. What can you offer that no one else can? Failing that, what can you offer that few can?

All the best!