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:

• Add carsoncounseling.com/COUNSELOR-NAME.html to your directory listings, or
• Remove any listings that come up under your name (start with the listings that charge a monthly/annual fee).
• Include your web address in anything you do on the web (press release, newspaper article, blog posts, emails, etc.).

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:

• Frequently change your title tags (that's the text at the very top of your browser).
• Write, write, write! Your front page is the most valuable section of your site. Become a reporter for your business. Tell us what's going on!
• Use your website as a file cabinet. Google likes to see bulky websites. Store information (files) on your site (proposals, invoices, old advertising campaigns).
• Travel the web, and leave your url everywhere you go (be sure not to violate any forum rules!).
• Include a link to your site in your emails.
• Visit Yahoo Answers and answer questions related to your industry. Leave your link in the source field.