Archive for March, 2007

A new page on my main site, the Small Business Resource Center is a menu of SEO advice to feed search engines. Using a restaurant menu as an analogy, the new page gives my take and advice on search engine optimization.

Here’s a summary of the Main Menu

1. Keywords in the Page Title
2. Keywords in the H Tags
3. The Age of Your WWW Domain
4. The Size of Your Website
5. Backlinks (inbound links to your pages)
6. Keywords in Text Links
7. High Quality, Fresh Content

Two other lists include the appetizers and dessert. The concept will be in a series of reports beginning with “Google Page One in Just 9 Months” due for release later this week. Subscribe to this blog from any page to receive announcements in your email.

Learn why your website photographs may not be acceptable for professional printing of trifold brochures and other marketing materials like a business card or flyer. Any picture viewed on a computer monitor may look great on an illuminated screen, but they are usually low resolution and unsuitable for printing on paper. The file size online is small and low resolution (72 dpi or 96 dpi) and needs to be large (300 dpi).

Here is a comparison of a photograph intended for a client’s website showing why it would not be suitable for their trifold brochure.

The online version will look great (inset), yet the enlarged version is very fuzzy which will be unsuitable for printed materials. Zoom in 500% to test yours or use the following advice.

As a guide, most photographs for print need to be at least 1 megabyte (1000KB) file size. Check yours as you view the “size” column under the directory in your My Documents folders. Photos from your website can be 5KB to 50KB and look great. Better quality is required for print advertising.

View examples of printed material with photographs including trifold brochures, full color business cards, and post cards or flyers on my main site.

This free 17 page report in pdf includes website domain tips for small business owners that may save you money. My choice for domain registration is GoDaddy.com.

This free tutorial gives you step by step illustrated instructions for how to register while avoiding unnecessary add-ons. It’s easy to make errors or buy more than you need if you’re not careful.

A 5 year www domain registration and prepaid hosting for 24 months is less than $115 from GoDaddy as of March 2007. Once paid, you don’t pay again for 2 years.

The tutorial is loaded with additional bonus advice for small business owners who are buying a domain registration for the first time.

Download the zipped GoDaddy Domain Registration Tutorial in pdf here (right click and save target as). File size: 1.1 meg zipped.

Check the terms when you register a domain on specualtion. A website design client reported concerns that one of their www domains was hijacked. They asked me to investigate a domain registered on speculation for future use. Their site was supposed to be parked, but instead it displayed a one page directory with links and advertising.

The site was not hijacked because the temporary content is within the agreement terms for hosting with their service company. The income stream enjoyed by others while your sites are waiting for launch may be characterized as opportunistic by some, yet it is perfectly legitimate if the registrant accepted those terms.

Visit the welcome message of your parked domains. Is advertising shown? You may be entitled to a percentage of the revenue. It doesn’t hurt to ask.