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Swill Coffee
3366 Lakeside Drive
Reno, NV 89509
Thursday, February 9th
Drop in anytime between 10am and 2pm!
Is your website or Facebook page looking a little tired? Need some help updating content or coming up with a new approach to your web marketing plan? Want to brainstorm a blog or newsletter? Bring your laptop to Swill Coffee and work with Gertie of Waking Girl Web Design. Gertie will give you some inspiration or technical direction to get you started, and then you can take it from there! Get immediate feedback from a web design/social media professional, as well as other website owners!
Cost: $20 (and all attendees are expected to purchase an item or THREE from the coffee shop!)
Bring your calendar, as you may want more time and attention with a one-on-one session with Waking Girl Web Design!
Things you can learn from Waking Girl in 20 minutes and $25:
Things you can learn in 40 minutes and $50:
Things that will take at least an hour and $75:
E-commerce Websites and WG Consultation |
Waking Girl Web Design is announcing a new time and place to take care of all your website and computer needs.
One-on-One Consultation fee: $25, with a purchase from 88 Cups
Order a drink and then sit down with the Waking Girl for a 20 minute one-on-one consultation about your website. WG will brainstorm ideas for your site, make minor updates and improvements, and take notes for further updates that your website requires. After your one-on-one time, feel free to stick around to do your own website content homework, brainstorm with other clients, and get further help from WG, as time allows. Payment is due at time of consultation (check, cash, Paypal).
Gertie provided training that allows me to go into the site whenever I want to make a change or update. I have only worked on updating text, which she made very easy and understandable. For me, it is about dedicating the time to the task. The instruction from Gertie gives me full confidence that I can maintain the site to keep it relevant and productive. --Diane Mitchell, HypnosisBenefits.com
Want to learn how to update your own website? Schedule WG for an hour ($75)! This is an excellent way to have more control over your website at a more affordable price, so you can make updates whenever you want!
ITEX HOLIDAY FAIR: Tips and Tricks! | 10.18.10
I don't like to do anything speculative. I want guaranteed results. Tradeshows can be daunting; moving all that product, making signs, setting up tables. And then, there's no guarantee that anyone will stop by your booth, buy your product, or even keep you company! I would like to share some ideas to give your tradeshow experience guaranteed results.
First, the hundreds of people who attend the tradeshow should be seen as test subjects. This is a segment of the population that you have direct access to, for determining marketing strategies, and much more! Create a short, simple survey. Ask questions that will help your business, away from the tradeshow event. Put your problems out there to the people, in the survey. Maybe you want to change your store hours. Ask customers their favorite time to shop! Or, maybe you want to have more data to share in your sales calls. Ask tradeshow guests if they're satisfied with their health, their finances, their lovelife. Anything that you can turn around and share with potential customers ("Did you know that ___% of Reno residents wish they had more family time? Our catering business will make meals for your family, giving you more time!") Make the name and email address fields optional to get more data!
Second, be proactive. Take a stack of surveys and a clipboard, and now you have a mobile booth. If there is a lull in the action, run around to the different vendors, and ask them to fill out your survey. People will be more interested in what you're selling, if you don't come across as a salesman! Just focus on getting the survey data! Every single person who passes by your booth should be asked to fill out a survey. If your survey is easy enough, even kids can participate. And trust me, if you can get kids to stop at your booth, their parents will be soon to follow. It is hard to approach people if you're not a practiced salesman. The survey makes it easy to talk to people. You have an excuse to start a conversation now. Depending on your survey questions, it may be best if you ask the questions and fill out the survey for your guests. This will allow you to have a productive conversation, as well as give you immediate feedback about your questions, products and services.
Third, give back. Offer a prize to people who fill out the survey. Fold the surveys and put them in a box--draw a winner at the end of the event. The prize can be something simple, like a discount off your services. You can also offer a t-shirt, or something unrelated to your business, in order to get more people interested in the survey. Do not use the survey to spam people! On the survey, give a checkbox with prize options. People can check if they want a discount off your services, or if they want a t-shirt. This will help you determine who is in your target market, and how their answers relate to your business.
Fourth, appeal to more people. If you offer a high-end product or service, you limit the number of people that will be interested in your item. To keep traffic moving to your booth, consider purchasing or making low-end products or services. For example, for the ITEX Holiday Fair, people are looking for Christmas gifts. If you carry an item that runs in the thousands of dollars, you may leave the show with no sales. If you use the surveys, you may still have a successful show, but wouldn't it feel great to leave the show with fewer items than you brought in? You can order nice gift items that display your logo (bags, aprons, t-shirts, balls), or put together gift baskets that include your business card and tie in with your main service or product. For example, if you sell mattresses, create a few gift baskets with products for sleeping (calming lotions, chamomile tea, pajamas, etc.). Use any baskets that you do not sell as prizes for your survey participants!
Fifth, get creative and stay creative. A lot of thought and planning goes into a tradeshow, but you have to keep your brain engaged until the event is over! If people are not responding to your product or service, change it up. Reduce prices, group items together, offer promotions! Get creative and stay creative! Do you see a vendor that offers a product or service that complements your business? Find a win-win; exchange items to take back to each other's storefronts. Consider changing up your product line for the event. Are you an artist? Your amazing $500 oil paintings may not be what people are looking for for Christmas gifts this year. Make a few smaller items that you can easily sell for $50. Or, be bold and bring your paints to the fair--offer small, personalized, custom pieces, made while you wait!
Sixth, remember the presentation. For the ITEX Holiday Fair, people are looking for gifts. Make special gift certificates with a holiday theme. Look around your home or business for fancy envelopes or gift bags. Turn last year's Christmas decor into holders for gift certificates.
Seventh, don't forget the children! Do you sell a product or service for kids (or for parents)? Make your booth kid-friendly with large sheets of butcher paper, markers and crayons. Let kids make wrapping paper while their parents shop!
Consider using Waking Girl Web Design & Marketing (http://wakingGirl.com) to implement these ideas into the ITEX Holiday Fair. Waking Girl will design surveys, graphics for t-shirts, and much more! 100% ITEX!
The Latest at WG | 9.27.10
New website! About time!! Websites typically need a makeover every 1-2 years, depending on your industry and content, AND how aggressive you have been in making updates. Or making ME make updates. ;) Take a look at the updated portfolio. There are 27 designs there to get your brain going. All but one website is LIVE in the portfolio. I will be posting a PRINT portfolio soon, as well.
Apprenticeship Website | 09.03.10
WG Web Design would like to announce another success story through the WG Apprenticeship Program. Apprentices through WG are taught how to make a website, from finding a client, to designing graphics, to building the code, to following through with the client. The Apprenticeship Program is a great way to see if students (and adults) want to pursue a career in web design. Apprentices learn the skills needed to build a website in its entirety. They also get paid!
Terran Billharz worked as an apprentice for WG Web Design on the new website:
http://carpetcleaningTAHOE.com
Client: A Better Carpet Cleaner and Summit Carpet Care
The carpet cleaning site was an interesting challenge. First, we were asked to re-design an old website for A Better Carpet Care, which services the Carson Valley/Reno/Carson City. When that site was almost complete, we ran into problems with the host and domain company. They didn't want to give the site up without a fight! Or, at least, some money.
The client asked us to re-work the design and content for a new domain and sister company, Summit Carpet Care, servicing the Tahoe area. Terran learned basic HTML code to build the website. He saw that there are many ways to build a site. He learned that a website is easiest to design and build if the client is very clear on what he/she wants.
He also determined that sometimes a simple website is more functional than an advanced one, in terms of search engine optimization and client usability. This website was something new and experimental, not only for Terran, but also for WG Web Design. This is WG's first commission-based website. Sales that come in through the website turn into payment for WG and Terran. It is exciting to be able to see our hard work turn into new customers for Summit Carpet Care! It is also a great challenge, as we are forced to constantly think of new ways to modify the website to bring in more sales.
We invite you to check out our work. Tell us what you think! And, if your carpets need cleaning, please consider setting an appointment through the website we made! http://carpetcleaningTAHOE.com
Your comments are greatly appreciated, as Terran can use this in his portfolio, as he continues seeking out website clients. He enjoyed the web apprenticeship experience, and hopes to continue in this field.
If you are interested in working as an apprentice for WG, let us know!
If you are looking for web work for your company website, and want the unique perspective of an apprentice, tell us that, too!
We want to give special thanks to Stephen Jaenchen, owner of A Better Carpet Cleaner and Summit Carpet Care. He made it easy to learn how to work with a client! Thank you, Stephen!
Catering to your current clients | 1.27.10
The most important people to consider when planning your website is your current clients. Many site owners get sidetracked thinking about NEW clients that might happen to find their website amongst the millions of sites out there. Yes, new people will find your website, but let's start with the guaranteed folks--the people who already have your business card in their pocket, or your calendar magnet on their fridge. Your website should have all the information on it that your clients ask about regularly--payment address, store hours, special promotions, etc. It's also a good idea to include a way for clients to pay for your products or services, right there on your website. With Paypal, it's fairly easy to add that option. And, Paypal allows customers to pay with a credit card, whether they have a Paypal account or not.
Things have changed. Many of us are swamped more than ever with, well... life. For me, if I need to find a stamp and an envelope, the chances you'll receive my payment right away are slim. Could be that your clients are in the same boat. Give them a way to pay you! Paypal also allows you to set up regular payments for subscriptions or recurring services/products.
If you are on a Trade Network, or accept payment in some other fashion, put that option on your website, too! Waking Girl now offers an easy way for ITEX clients to make payments, right from the Waking Girl website.
The benefits of taking payments on your website are two-fold: first, you get paid, and second, you get repeat traffic to your website. Now you can update your website regularly to show new products and services. And, even better--the more your current clients visit your site, the better your search engine status is! So that means--new clients will be popping by soon!
Link backs | 10.08.09
Blogging on your site is a good way to sneak in linkbacks, like the one below:
Featured in the National Website Design Directory.
I'm not really taking up any major real estate on my website, I'm including the necessary link for the link exchange, and the link is nestled within INFORMATION that my client may use (but I doubt any clients will use the directory I'm linking to). See how this works?
Links are not offensive on a website if they're given in an informative way.
I link, therefore, I am | 09.03.09
Question from a client :
This guy wants to link exchange. What do you think?
Answer:
definitely NOT!!
the only sites it'd be even minutely beneficial to link with are sites/businesses that you want your actual customers to use.
and then... the way we'd link to them is by doing a feature story on the front page.
otherwise, your site loses credibility. people think you're just offering information to MAKE MONEY. when, in fact, you're offering information to EDUCATE so that they can be better dog owners, and some day take one of your classes. :)
any email that is boilerplate (i was looking at your website and thought it would be interesting...), TOSS IT!
if someone from a related business sends you a REAL email (Hi BEAR!), forward it to me, and i'll see if it makes sense. :)
The intricacies of Domain Names | 08.10.09
Have a peak at an email I sent to a client: website, carsoncounseling.com; business name, Carson Professional Group. General words to live by for every business are underlined.
Now, here's the deal on domain names... the shorter the name, the better. The easier to remember, the better. And then, most importantly, you want a keyword in your domain name.
If someone is already using CPG's services, they will already know the domain name (if it's been told/given to them by their counselor). If they can't remember the web address, they may remember their counselor's name. If I type in: stephen nicholas counselor, carsoncounseling.com comes up first! If I type in: linda furbee counselor, 2 pages from carsoncounseling.com are in the top 3 listings!
The only way to compete with the MANY directory listings that the counselors are in, is to keep the word COUNSELING in the domain name. Avoid directory listings if you have a website! They tend to do more harm than good. Exceptions: small, local directories that include your URL in the listing and charge less than $50/year.
Next, and this is the most important part: If someone is in need of a counselor in the Carson area, they will never type in the words "carson professional group." They may type in "carson" and they may type in "support group." And maybe, one in ten thousand will type in, "I need professional help."
Good domain names have the most used search words in the domain name. Counseling and Carson are the most important words for what you do.
If I type in: counseling carson city, CPG or one of its counselors is listed 4 times in the top 10 local business results. This is unheard of! Most of the listings point to carsoncounseling.com.
If I type in: carson professional group carson city it is the top listing (but I am probably the only person who will ever make that search).
In my research for this email, I'm seeing a really BIG area where the counselors can improve the website's ranking even more. Right now the website is not competing with other counselors, it is competing with userinstinct.com, manta.com, superpages.com, psychologytoday.com, and a long list of other business directories! Each directory listing makes it one web entry harder to find carsoncounseling.com.
HOMEWORK:
Finally, if you have a specific search phrase that is important for your practice, let me know what it is. Your page can be tailored to include those words and drive clients your way.
All websites have different search needs and nuances. Contact Waking Girl Web Design for an analysis and ideas on how to increase your quality traffic!
Website To Go! | 04.02.09
See our latest work!
These are all RUSH JOBS (a rush job means the client calls me and says, "EEK! My website disappeared! Make me a new one! A new website is put together in the next 48 hours and posted LIVE on the web. Rush jobs are only for clients who are willing to give WG artistic license with their websites.)
Journey of Sound
Designing With Nature
Thriving Community
I have a stack of designs and websites that don't seem to be happening because the client can't make up their minds or just don't like what WG is all about. Don't waste WG time if you don't like what you see, and aren't willing to give up some control to the experts (and control freaks)!
2009 Scholarship Contest | 02.27.09
Waking Girl Web Design to select third annual winner of the WG Anti-Scholarship, for students going directly into the business world from high school. The prize money, $500, is to be used for special training, tools or supplies to start a business. Winner to be announced here and Perham High School, Perham, Minnesota.
Your website has no soul | 02.22.09
Waking Girl has been hard at work in the same groove for about two years. Now it's time for a change. I'm not talking about some lame change offered by a smooth talking politician--I'm talking about taking my life back. WG hereby declares that it will not create anymore websites that have no soul. I'm tired of surfing the same old websites on the same old internet. I'm not going to be a part of that. I'm tired of being asked for a discount on the discounted price, and then being ordered around as if YOU know what's best for your website. I got into this business to avoid slave labor. I got into this business because I'm a leader, I can manage myself. I know what I'm doing.
What am I doing?
I'm quitting.
If you want a website from Waking Girl Web Design, you're going to have to get on your hands and knees and assure me that you will not get in the way of the artist. That's what I am, and that's what this is all about. Art. If you want a color-in-the-lines-primary-school-worksheet I can direct you to several great template-based web designers. I can also encourage you to NOT have a website. If it's going to look like everyone else's, just put your measly advertising budget into better business cards.
Yeah, business cards. The whole world knows what those are. They won't be freaked out by your standard cardstock rectangle. And your insecurities about you, your business and your advertising--will not be at the forefront of your mind as you twiddle your thumbs waiting for a customer.
You can be confident knowing that your business cards did not scare one customer away.
Let's face it--websites are now a mandatory part of owning a business or running an organization. In other words, you have a lot of competition. Not only are you competing with everyone in your industry, in your town, but now you're competing with ALL the websites on the web.
How will your website stand out? After hours of searching, how can you expect anyone to remember your website, much less your widgets?
I'm tired of coloring inside the lines only to see your website fail. Clients who are stuck inside the box are becoming a major liability to me. I can't put your website in my portfolio, I can't show unique web concepts to new clients, I can't raise my rates because you're barely holding on.
I'm cutting ties from this co-dependent relationship. I will not help you fail.
Ok, maybe that was a little harsh. Having a standard, boring, commonplace website doesn't mean your business will fail. It just puts you on the same team as those people who throw trash out their car window. You're littering. You're making our drive on the information superhighway dull and trashy.
And what a time to do that! We're on our way into a depression. The only businesses that will succeed are the ones that can adapt (or have deep reserves of precious metals). That means you need to do something new and different and feel confident about your decision. Maybe you need to cut all your staff and run everything solely through your website. Maybe you need to put a twist on how you offer your goods and services. How in the world wide web will you be able to come up with these adaptations if you're afraid of a unique website?! Your fear will kill all your ideas, all your enthusiasm, all your business survival skills.
Oops. I made it back to the insinuation that your poor website indicates an upcoming business failure.
Don't worry--you can always ask for a bailout.
We can trust that our elected officials will not bring change. It must come from us. It will come from everyday people doing everyday things in a new and better way. It will come from business owners putting out a new and better product and service, reflected by their new and better website. It will come from consumers making new and better choices in how they spend their money, reflected by the websites they browse.
I am making a first step. As a business owner, I am doing something new and better: catering only to clients who are offering something new and better, and are willing to reflect their change in a new and better website.
If that's you, I can't wait to chat.
New Year, Old Advice | 01.25.09
Ok, I'm just going to throw it all at you again. I come up with instructions for myself or for my clients (or for the pro bono family member), to increase page ranking, invite traffic, and otherwise cause mayhem on the world wide web. And then I start to doubt that it works. Maybe it's the client's refusal to follow directions, or Google's frustrating lag (that's lag, not leg; when it comes to SEO, there's no instant gratification).
Eventually, you see results, if you just DO something! You don't have to do EVERY search engine optimization trick. Just start with one (or better yet, get your secretary to start on one of these).
Waking Girl Emergency SEO Tips:
Break a lag! Get started today!