Net Results
Helping your business succeed online.
Published by nrichmedia (www.nrichmedia.com)
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Volume 4, Issue 6 – December 2008
In This Issue
Welcome
The New Year is fast approaching and this is an excellent time of year to review what’s working for your business and what needs work. Advertising and marketing are expensive but necessary right? Yes, they are necessary but thanks to web logs or blogs, as they are more commonly called, your marketing can be free, more effective and in some cases it can even be a source of revenue.
As you know, nrichmedia is committed to helping environmental and social causes and our latest efforts have been in aid of "Dawn to Dawn" a local Action on Homelessness Society. They have produced a fabulous 2009 calendar featuring local, male business owners (including yours truly) tastefully photographed to showcase their topless physique. All the proceeds from this calendar go to Dawn to Dawn and they are for sale for $20 (pickup at office) or for $20 plus $10 shipping and handling for the West Coast of Canada and US. Please contact us for shipping and handling costs if you are East of BC. Your support for this cause would be greatly appreciated and the calendars make a great gift that lasts all year!
To get a calendar for FREE all you need to do is switch over to nrichmedia's Green web hosting. As a thank you to anyone who signs up for our green web hosting on a one or two year term we will send you the Valley Boys Calendar. Please click here for more info on our Green web hosting.
Featured Article: Blogs as Marketing Tools
Blogs are no longer just a daily diary of the events in an individual’s life. Many of them are educational, witty, savvy, perfectly targeted marketing strategies. By creating a blog for your business you can set yourself up as an expert in your field, promote your business through links and information, encourage people to return to your site on a regular basis and promote your products or services to your target market.
Blogs are exceptionally easy to start and use and people who subscribe to your blog through an RSS feed are alerted each time you post something new. You can add photos and content easily and it is equally easy for your readers to post their comments on your blog.
Blogs can be used for:
- building customer loyalty
- promoting events
- market research
- gaining a competitive advantage over companies in your field that do not blog
- boosting traffic to your web site
Even though anyone can set up a blog and there are millions of them out there, there are a number of ways to stand out from the crowd.
- Write about what you know.
It is important to tie your blog into your products and/or services so stick to what you know. If you aren’t the world’s next Ernest Hemingway, it doesn’t matter. If you are writing about what you know or what you have experienced that authenticity will shine through.
- Spend time learning about blogs.
By spending a little time looking at other blogs and deciding what you like you will be able to create your perfect blog in less time. Also, by learning the tools available to you you can save time when you are blogging on a regular basis.
- Focus on communicating not selling.
A blog is a community forum so be sure to keep your tone personable and try not to slip into a sales pitch. You are communicating and sharing information with your audience. You are imparting wisdom in the hopes that they will take the next step into your store or work place. You don’t need to give away all of your secrets but you do want people to find your blog interesting enough to return to time and again.
- Entertain, amuse and amaze.
You might not be able to accomplish all three in every post but keeping at least one in mind will make the writing more interesting for you and your audience. We all have limited time and people are therefore choosy about which blogs they subscribe to. The great thing about blogs is that personal anecdotes are encouraged. Share a relevant, funny experience, review an amazing new product, or reveal some tried and true tips from your industry.
- Choose good quality photos.
If you aren’t a gifted photographer consider purchasing small, inexpensive photos from companies like istockphoto.com. Your blog represents you and your company and people are drawn to clear, catchy images.
- Network. Network. Network.
Talk to other established bloggers that compliment your site and set up links to their site. You will gain credibility through association. Be sure to link to things on your website and on other sites that promote or compliment your business. Reply to people who post on your blog so that you reinforce the personable, community based feel to your blog.
If you make a commitment to posting to your blog on a regular (e.g. weekly) basis and make it a fun and/or learning experience for you, as opposed to a chore, both you and your audience will get the maximum benefit. Also, the more often you post the better it will be for your search engine results.
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Want more valuable information like this to help your socially responsible
business become an online success and get the results you've been looking
for? Subscribe to Net Results, our FREE
quarterly newsletter by filling in the form at the top left of this
page.
About nrichmedia
nrichmedia creates innovative and unique web sites and other multimedia
for ethical and socially responsible businesses and organizations.
We also offer green web hosting, web site maintenance, CD-ROM production,
and more.
nrichmedia was founded by Nathaniel Richman in 2000. Nathaniel graduated
from the Vancouver Film School with a Certificate of Recommendation
in Multimedia Studies in 1997 and has been working in the web design
and new media industry ever since. He previously received a Bachelor
of Mathematics degree (Honours Actuarial Science) from the University
of Waterloo and worked in the pension consulting industry.
Nathaniel works with other designers and programmers, according to the
needs of the project, to provide the client with the most professionally
designed web site and other marketing material as possible.
"My Counselling Psychology practice has gone through a huge change in the amount of business it attracts. My site:judithbealecounselling.ca was up and running but I wasn’t getting the hits or responses from it that I had hoped for. In fact, it wasn’t even showing up on google searches.
After a couple of months I decided to call nrichmedia for help.
Nathaniel only needed a brief consultation and some basic information from me to do his magic and optimize my site. I had talked to a couple of other web experts before that had no idea about my particular profession and I was left feeling rather hopeless due to their suggestions.
It was a relief to finally talk to someone who understands the profession of counselling and psychology. In no time, I had referrals coming in and my site consistently came up on google searches. For a very reasonable cost Nathaniel was able to make changes that have resulted in attracting new referrals to my practice at a staggering, unprecedented rate. I had no idea my site could be so popular and successful.
At this time, four months later, I am at a point of having to turn people away or considering a waitlist. I really appreciate Nathaniel’s skills and understanding of my profession. This was a big factor in my choosing nrichmedia as part of my overall web team."
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Judith Beale M.A. R. Psych. Assoc., Judith Beale Counselling.ca
To learn more about nrichmedia’s services, view
our online portfolio, and read glowing
testimonials from many satisfied clients, please visit www.nrichmedia.com.
Green Web Hosting
nrichmedia is pleased to be offering green web hosting services. Our
standard package includes 500MB of disk space (which is usually way
more than most small to medium sized businesses require), email and
webmail accounts, and web statistics which allow you to track how many
visitors there are to your site, where they come from, what search
terms they used to find your site, etc.
What makes our web hosting green? A few things, really:
- Our hosting is shared on powerful, energy
efficient servers so the amount of electricity we use is minimized. We maintain our
own dedicated environment within these servers so that we have full
control over performance and security.
- The electricity used by the servers comes from hydropower, which,
although not ideal, is one of the more environmentally
friendly means
of power generation.
- We’ve purchased wind power certificates to offset the
amount of electricity that we do use. Wind power is, of course, a natural, clean, and abundant energy source with
little or no negative impact on the environment.
If you would like to switch to nrichmedia’s green web hosting,
please click here for details.
Charitable Causes
nrichmedia donates 5% of proceeds on all projects of $500 and above
to charitable organizations. We are pleased to have supported and continue
to support several worthy causes. To see a list of the organizations
we support, please visit www.nrichmedia.com/causes.htm.
The Not-to-be Missed Link: Simple Green Action’s Eco Tips Blog
This is an excellent example of a regularly updated blog that ties into a business. There are three bloggers who write about a variety of environmental issues from deciding on family size to planet friendly renovations. The blog features advertising for Cascades products and the blogs are a great compliment for a company that sells recycled tissue paper.
Visit: www.simplegreenaction.ca/eco-tips/blog/
Archives
To view previous editions of Net Results, visit www.nrichmedia.com/archives.htm.
Pass it on and Enjoy
Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone who might find
it useful.
Want more valuable information like this to help your socially responsible
business become an online success and get the results you've been looking
for? Subscribe to Net Results, our FREE
quarterly newsletter by filling in the form at the top left of this
page.
Printable
PDF Version
 nrichmedia
is located in Courtenay (in the Comox Valley, on Vancouver Island),
British Columbia, Canada, and thinks and works globally! Thanks
to the Internet, we're able to create web sites and other multimedia
for clients all over the world. You can contact us by
or by telephone, at 250.871.7424.
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