Susan Finch - Web Solutions Provider

Putting Her Best Online Image Forward: Kay Hunter

Kay Hunter has been a client for a few years.  She's an etiquette and personal image coach.  She realizes the value of her professional image.  For the past few years I've been asking, quietly, to redo her website.  She's put it off.  She's had me work on new photography for her corporate presentations. I'm even displaying good and bad dining etiquette in many shots.  I was so excited when she asked me to redesign her site.  Kay is a beautiful and classy person inside and out. I wanted her site to reflect her style.

Happy Birthday .Com – 25 Years Old!

Symbolics.com was the first .com registered on March 15, 1985 for the “world wide web.” Today there are over 80 million .Com websites and the domain is a prominent feature of the internet.

The economic impact of .Com has been quantified in a study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). The ITIF found that the .Com domain serves as a platform for $400 billion in annual economic activity. .Com domain names drive more than $1.5 trillion in global annual economic activity, more than the global sales of medicine, investment in renewable energy, and government investment in R&D, combined. The ITIF estimates that the economic activity flowing across the .com infrastructure is likely to grow to $950 billion in annual revenue by 2020.

The .Com domain has defined a generation of innovation and entrepreneurism, serving as the launch pad for a new generation of companies that have transformed communications, commerce, entertainment and more.

“My young kids can’t fathom life without the internet. People above the age of 30 realize what a profound change the internet has had on human lives,” said Jason Teichman, SVP, Marketing & Product Management for Register.com.

Did you know?

• The most popular words among .com URL’s today include “home” (1.2 million), “online” (1 million) and “land” (891,000).
• The domain name system is used more than 1 trillion times per day… so in 1 second that is more than 20 million times.
• Policy Impact Forum panelist and former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said the .com domain has become a “common medium for humanity.”

r's but Rs - handy on plurals of abbreviations.

Letters, abbreviations, and numerals. Capital letters used as words, abbreviations that contain no interior periods, and numerals used as nouns form the plural by adding s.

    * the three Rs
    * the 1990s
    * IRAs for retirement
    * vol., vols.
    * URLs
    * ed., eds.
      BUT:
    * p. (page), pp. (pages)
    * n. (note), nn. (notes)
    * MS (manuscript), MSS (manuscripts)

Use of apostrophe. To avoid confusion, lowercase letters and abbreviations with two or more interior periods or with both capital and lowercase letters form the plural with an apostrophe and an s.

    * x's and y's
    * M.A.'s and Ph.D.'s (or MAs and PhD's)

Words in quotation marks. The plural of a word or phrase in quotation marks may be formed by the addition of an apostrophe before the s, with the closing quotation marks following the s (though rewording is usually a better option). A plural ending should never follow closing quotation marks.

    * How many more "To be continued's" can we expect? (not "To be continued"s)


Noun coinages. Words and hyphenated phrases that are not nouns but are used as nouns form the plural by adding s or es. To avoid an awkward appearance, an adjustment in spelling (or sometimes an apostrophe) may be needed.

    * ifs, ands, or buts
    * dos and don'ts
    * threes and fours
    * thank-yous
      BUT
    * maybe's
    * yesses and noes (or yes's and no's, especially if maybe's is also used)


Source: Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition and ProofreadNOW.com

Before you add a feature to your website, make sure you know what it won't do.

It is easy to research the latest and greatest features, tools, modules for your website.  Some even give you comparison charts for features they offer versus the competition. What they won't tell you is what they DON'T have that may be standard with the competition.  They may not tell you things you ASSUME (ASS-U-ME) they would have.

Ask the obvious before you commit to a new feature, add on, new program for your site.  Make a list of what you need to be able to do. Then, call their sales team to get them to explain how those features are in THEIR system.  If not, move on.  What are the deal breaker features you MUST have?

Perhaps you don't know the questions to ask. Perhaps you don't know what SHOULD be included.  Here's an example.

When I started with one of my favorite clients a year and a half ago, there were already many systems in place. Most of these systems: blog, cart all relied on GoDaddy.  I had never used their cart or blogs before. I ASSUMED they would be useful for businesses and have the typical features - like ACCESS TO YOUR SUBSCRIBER list.... but NOOOOOOo.  Their pedestrian blog system doesn't give you the ability to view subscribers or any details. I don't even know how many subscribers we have for that blog.  I switched their subscription form to Feedburner's.  It was a quick solution until the client decides to convert the entire blog to a new option such as WordPress, Typepad or ANYTHING else.  It also prevents five emails per day from going to subscribers and creates a digest.  I have never seen a blog before that did not have the ability to view your own subscribers.

Make sure, too, that your information and that of your subscribers is yours alone and that it doesn't go into some marketing pool by the hosting company. Ask them, "Where is this stored?  Who has access to our data?"

Sure, you may be able to implement some of these gadgets with a few clicks and minimal professional help, but it is really what you need?  Do you know what you DON'T know?  Ask the questions before you decide. If you need help, ask for help from your IT advisor, web goddess or the like.  We're here to help. We want you to be successful - it makes us look good.

SellStateNRES launches with full force.

When beginning and entire new system, setting up the system is only half of the project.  There is still that pesky issue of content and then those details.  After a steady march to the launch, the last two weeks were a complete workout in covering all bases, filling in all content and testing it from every angle.  The result is a beautiful site package for SellStateNRES in Nevada.

Did you tell everyone you changed your MX and IP?

There are times when IT staff changes, new contractors are in place and security is boosted or changed.  This isn't a problem, unless you forget to tell everyone who needs to know.

Do certain portions of your site or certain functions reside on other servers?  Is everything in one place? How about your mail, contact forms, scheduled tasks to update databases, lists and other items automatically? Are they all working properly since your recent changes?

If you've changed your DNS information, IP addresses, MX records it could affect these things. If you've moved your website, functions may not be set up as they were with the previous hosting company.  Are you suddenly getting less mail?  Fewer contact forms?  A simple lack of communication may be the root of the problem.

Time to Catch Up with Social Media

I had a call from a client that I've had since 1999. He's been very quiet lately.  He ranks high in search engines, partly because of the longevity of his sites and domains; and partly because he works really hard at being top dawg.  He's noticed a lot of his competitors have fallen away but there are new ones.  These new competitors have embraced every avenue of social media.  He's ready to jump in!

His checklist in no particular order:

• Create favicon.ico file for branding and eblasts, feeds, etc.
• Set up Twitter account
• Customize the twitter look to brand.
• Set up FB professional page
• Feedburner pages
• YouTube channel if you have videos.
• Have them all feed into each other
• Google site map
• Google profile and Google Maps
• Site maps to bing, yahoo, ask.com and google each month after updated.
• Setting up content into RSS feeds.
• Regular eblasts to existing clients and prospects.
• Auto responders for new subscribers
• Call for content from other enthusiasts and clients.  They love posting their own photos.
• Publicize his free classifieds listings more as it brings people to his site repeatedly.

"Susan Finch is always thinking of new ideas that are a few steps beyond anything in my head. I toss her an idea and it comes back amazing, and is always successful for us."

PetExpoUSA has made me blush

There are some clients that really let you be a part of the team.  Michelle Bucks and Connie Troncale have invited me into and made me a part of their PetExpoUSA family since the beginning.  I have so much fun plowing through their cryptic emails with half-instructions. They must think I like word puzzles. We laugh a lot and make great progress promoting their events, mainly because of mutual trust and enthusiasm.

This was in my inbox this morning and it made me blush:

"Thanks for everything Susan! You are so amazing really, our website looks beautiful and your attention to detail and focus is so helpful to me especially- Keep your fingers crossed for a big weekend!

We don't get much of a break, Pomona is coming fast!

My days are going to get more hectic, but I wanted to take the time to thank you for your professionalism, patience, creativity and devotion, you have created and developed the "face" of Pet Expo USA!

Michelle Bucks, President, CEO
Pet Expo USA

We have heavily utilized social media for the 2010 events.  Every day we are posting a few times to their blog, twitter accounts and making sure that our Facebook fan page has a lot of fans.  We are following, tweeting and linking our hearts out.  Because of the status of this events, there are a wonderful group of celebrities that are part of the Santa Clarita Pet Expo and Pomona including Shorty Rossi - the Pit Boss, Megan Blake and Smiley, Travis and Presley, Linda Blair and her WorldHeart Foundation. The other part of this event that makes it a great example of social media is the fact that they work to help so many rescues and shelters for animals. 

As a case study, the key is that your partners all need to be part of the social media world.  There are a few exhibitors that don't have websites, let alone Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.  We do our best to give them an online presence, as well.  Some mail in their business cards to be scanned for a logo. Brings back memories of the late 80's and early 90's; but I'm dating myself.

As their online marketing partner I send out correspondence on behalf of the website and PetExpoUSA. It's critical to show a big team.  I set up an @petexpousa.net email for myself so that I show as an official member of the event team.  This gives the exhibitors and sponsors more confidence because they realize there are a lot of us working to make this event successful.

Thanks, Michelle & Connie, for inviting me into this family.

Check them out on Twitter:  @petexpousa

Even though a site is down, you can still view it in Google.

A friend taught me a trick you can do on Google to access ANY site that is down.  The trick is that Google makes backups of websites all the time, and you can simply access the backup.

So if you ever need to get onto a website and can't, don't flip out, just do this... 

Go to Google.com.  Then type in the search box the word cache: and the website.  For example:  

cache:susanfinch.com it will bring up a cached version of the website.

Hope you can use this the next time you are having a frustration meltdown on the web like I was this weekend.

Thanks for the tip Mike from the ToiletPaperEntrepreneur.com

Combining Print, Mail and Web to Brand Your Image.

Wade Perry always has something fun for me to do each week. This week, we continued our branding efforts by creating two print ads and a postcard mailer.  He's pleased and very excited to get them out to his neighbors.

One ad is for his association newsletter. This is a great way to connect with people who may know you and are looking to do business with neighbors.  Advertising in local school programs is inexpensive and really helps the school.  It positions you as part of the community.

The other item is a postcard that will be mailed to his local farm.   The look with his beautiful images, logo and type treatment is part of the consistent presentation he makes in print, online, at his in-person meetings and in every aspect of his business.  People recognize Wade through these efforts and are signing up to do business with this man. Doesn't hurt that he's a very honorable person with which to do business.

Wade Perry is an associate broker with Coldwell Banker in the Denver area.