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(Suggested reading for
business owners)
Taking Charge
—Byrd Baggett
If you would like to suggest a book, please email us! |
Our New Local site is now live!
If you haven't been to webtivitydesigns.com, have a look and be sure to leave feedback on how we can improve our website
to fit your needs.
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The Lounge:
What is fair use?
The Tech Report:
Viruses!
B2B Spotlight:
Elizabeth Leslie | Marketing
Max Media:
Balancing your marketing budget
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Customer Loyalty Matters
Webtivity Design Solutions "Thank You breakfast" was a great success.
Thank you to all of those long-standing and new clients that stopped by to say hello and mingle for a while. With representatives dropping by from both Bright House and SRQ Magazine, everyone was passing out their cards, seeking new services and business.
With great Coffee and awesome Crumb Cake served by the lovely Sara of Java Moon, no one left without a crumb of some kind whether it was on their clothes or with a crumb of information to use for their business. We hope that everyone will keep Java Moon in mind when catering his or her next event.
Webtivity Design Solutions wishes the best for everyone in 2007!
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12 Suggestions for Online Dating
There's a nervousness, thrill, and excitement that occurs when meeting a person for the first time face to face. Yet amongst the thrill, remember to always be on your guard when going out on a date with someone you barely know. Here are 12 tips on dating safety to help you
get started:
1. Arrange to meet them. When meeting for the first time, never allow your date to pick you up from your home. In fact, your date shouldn't even know your home address yet!
2. Meet in public places. For a first meeting, always meet in a public place where other people are in close proximity. You may also want to consider going out with a group of people, or a double date.
3. Go dutch by paying half of the bill. It's always respectful for the man to offer to pay the bill. Unfortunately, some men ruin the gesture by expecting something in return. Therefore it may not be a bad idea for you to go dutch. Pay half the bill so that you won't feel under any obligation to "return" the favor.
4. Remember that alcohol affects your judgment. The biggest threat to a person's judgment, when on a date, is alcohol. Not only does it affect your judgment, but alcohol also lessens your inhibitions. If you are drinking, keep your drink in sight at all times and don't get so drunk that you don't know what you are doing. Better yet, try to avoid alcohol on your first date.
5. Use your own mode of transportation. Provide your own transportation to your public meeting place and make sure you have more than enough gas.
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6. Don't assume that a man is safe. It's important never to let your guard down when on a first date. Never assume a man is safe just because he claims to be religious or a gentleman.
7. Don't let them know where you live.
If you want to see them again, arrange
a second date and then take it from there.
8. Avoid secluded areas. Remember - stay in a public place for your first date and avoid secluded areas such as parks.
9. Listen to your gut. If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. And if you haven't met them before, and you know at the beginning of the date that something doesn't feel right, then leave immediately.
10. Always let someone else know where you're going, and who you'll be with. You might even consider arranging a time to call and check in. Or you could arrange to meet up with friends later that night.
11. Give them your cell phone number. It's safer to give out a cell phone number instead of your home line.
12. Always remain alert. Even if you're having a blast and the chemistry is great, it's a good idea to remain alert the whole evening. Make sure you have a cell phone on you. Dating safely is very important. In the initial stages of dating and online dating, you are still getting to know someone you know very little about. By creating a safe environment to know the person, you're creating a better situation for yourself. |
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Name:
Lynda Scott
Occupation: Online Advertising Sales
How do your company's services benefit the general public?
With today's rapidly changing technology, Citysearch is able to not only make the internet more local for its users by providing more relevant search results but Citysearch also allows its users to post their own experiences with the businesses they have patronized. This brings about a more trusted, unbiased content.
Greatest achievement to date?
Raising my two daughters
Character trait you most admire?
Determination
When are you the most productive?
Early morning up until lunch. After lunch I start to wind down.
When are you the most bored?
I am most bored when I have very little to do. I prefer to be extremely busy.
How do you define success?
Success is when you go to a job that you love every day, work your hardest, pay your bills and then come home to your family and be able to spend quality time with them doing all the things you love to do as a family.
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Are you involved in, or have you had any experiences/extra activities that you would recommend to our clients?
Instead of using the word "exercise" I think it is better said to go out and have some fun! All work and no play means you have no life! I enjoy horseback riding, skating, skiing, rollerblading, boating,
hiking, anything but sitting around
doing nothing.
From your experience/expertise, do you have any suggestions for small to medium sized business owners just starting out?
Make sure you have an affordable, targeted and trackable marketing plan in place. Monitor your website and make changes to pages or promotions that are not working. More and more people are letting their fingers do the walking on their computers to find products and services that meet their needs. Make sure you are there so they can find you!
If you were granted one wish, what would it be?
Good health and happiness always for my two daughters and their families!
You can contact Lynda at
lyndascott@citysearch.com
617-603-4943
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Profiting From Your RSS Feed
Subscriptions.
Subscription feeds are designed so that subscription fees are charged for unique quality content. Publishers include teaser copy in the RSS feed and readers have to purchase a subscription to see the content in its entirety. The New York Times was the first to introduce the subscription model. Initially the NY Times faced some resentment from users who had become accustomed to free RSS based content, but ultimately consumers realize that businesses must achieve profits in order
to continue.
The value of the content contained in the feed and the uniqueness of the content will determine the success of subscription based feeds. Simply put, if readers can obtain the same quality and quantity of content from an alternative free source they will. Not unlike magazines, if the content the publisher is providing is unique and valuable, the subscription model
will flourish.
Advertisements.
The web has undergone a number of revisions to online advertising models. Banner ads, once an effective way to generate valuable leads are screened or filtered by most novice users. Text ads have become commonplace and are far less effective than they once were, advertising in RSS feeds was a natural step for online advertisers. |
Contextual advertisements advertisements that relate to the webpage, or RSS feed's content achieve the highest rate of success. As a result, both advertisers and content providers should critically evaluate advertisement placement systems to determine which system produces the highest relevance in contextually based advertisements.
Google AdSense provides contextually relevant ads while Pheedo provides related category feeds. Publishers need to determine which model will produce advertisements that are relevant to the RSS feed's content and actionable by feed readers.
Hybrid Advertisements.
Other hybrid alternatives for profiting from RSS feeds include optionally giving subscribers the choice. A small fee for many might give subscribers the option to pay for the feed ad-free or view advertisements in the feed. The business model is reminiscent of adware in its infancy where users could use software for an unlimited amount of time. The software had embedded advertisements and publishers were compensated for ad impressions or click-throughs. If users preferred an ad free version of the
software they could purchase a
registered copy that would remove the
embedded advertisements.
Check out what Webtivity Designs Solutions offers |
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Why Your Business Needs a Blog
It is becoming more common but the big question I get when talking to people is "Why use a blog?".
A blog is:
* Easy to update
* Easy to get started
* Liked by the search engines
* Creating feeds automatically
* Allows people to interact with you
Before I start, let me take just a minute to define the term blog. The following is quoted from Dr. Mani one of the earliest marketers to embrace blogs.
"A blog is short for (web log) a sort of online personal diary where "anyone" can reveal his/her innermost thoughts, feelings, desires, dreams, ambitions, fears, hopes ... you get the meaning."
Yes, it's a website. With one small difference. It lists posts ordered by date in a personal journal format, and is easier to create than a website - just involves typing into a form and pushing the PUBLISH button"
The ease of push button publishing found in most blog platforms make them one of the easiest web sites to update. On most platforms you don't need to know HTML, though it does help. If you can create a word document you can update a blog.
They are extremely easy to get started. Blogger and Word Press both can be started without much more than creating an account and clicking a few choices. |
Now there are huge advantages to hosting your blog on your own domain. But even there, if you have cpanel hosting with Fantastico it is an almost fill in the blank process to get started. No great technical skills needed.
Search engines like blogs. They are usually updated regularly because it is easy. Compare the type and push a button to update of the average blog platform to creating an HTML page uploading it either through the cpanel or FTP. Much easier so it happens much more often. Blogs tend to have fresher content.
The search engines also like the RSS feeds that are created. Properly used feeds can allow you to generate links from other authoritative sites such as Technorati, Feedburner and others. These high PR sites create backlinks to your site which will make the search engines rate you higher. People can easily subscribe to your feed and know when you have updated your site through various RSS readers.
Finally, the biggest advantage is that blogs can be interactive. Most blog platforms allow your reader to comment on what you have written.
This does two very good things for you. You get additional updated content (which the search engines like) and you get feedback on what you have written. Which are you more likely to do? Click a comment link and leave your input on a blog or try and find a way to contact the average webmaster. Even if you do it is usually through a form or email, and it does not increase the content of the site. |
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