WordPress is an open source content management platform that allows you to make updates and changes to website content with relative ease.  Being able to make changes to your website on a frequent basis allows you to keep the content on your site fresh and compelling.  This article covers the basics on “how to” post new content, tag and categorize your content.  The WordPress platform is remarkably easy to use once you have an understanding of the functionality of the platform. Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s world of blogging and the web each small business has an opportunity for a voice in the marketplace. There are great blogging software applications such as Wordpress, Blogger, Joomla, and Drupal to mention a few that are free to use, three of those four are considered open source. That means that developers work on the application to invent, maintain and innovate the product for free so we can use it to get your message out to the world. 

So here you are sending out your message to would be followers, clients and participants (your community) and you have no data to tell you if your time is being well spent. Your first step would be to hook up analytics software (Revenflo uses Google Analytics, its free and packed full of info!) to see how many visitors are coming to your site each month. This will give you a good indication of how many visitors, which search terms, and overall engagement with your onsite content.

If your website is built in one of these content management systems they come with RSS built into the system. This makes it easy for visitors to subscribe to your information, each time you publish a new post it is pushed out from your site and can be subscribed to by your community in a  feed reader or aggregator. There are many of these on the web or you could also have the feeds come straight to your email inbox.

On-site analytics will give you great information about incoming visitors to your website but it will not give you the information about the outgoing content or RSS subscriptions broadcasting from your website. To track this data you will need a service like Feedburner, this is a Google product that monitors all of your outgoing feeds and gives you the ability to understand the behavior of your subscribers.

Tell me how you are tracking your website traffic or if you have questions about Feedburner or Google Analytics.

Jason Broadwater and Chad Smith from RevenFlo are interviewed live on the radio on WRHI’s Straight Talk (94.3 FM). Listen here

The fluidity of experience between the online and the offline has created a population of individuals who do not distinguish between when they are digital and when they are analog.

“I saw the office for lease downtown, so I got the address and I drove by it, I’m gonna email that guy and see if I can schedule an appointment.”

It’s not important to this person that when he “saw” the office he was online. It’s just the way that he saw it.  It’s the way he got the address too, but then he used the “car” technology to drive to the space, and so on… The point is that people interact with content and tools provided by digital media the same as they interact with their phones, their toasters, and their radios… it’s just part of their lives.

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Is your website lonely? When is the last time you listened to what your website had to say? Did you talk to your website this month? You should be ashamed! JK. Most people haven’t gotten to this point yet. Asking your website questions will provide great insight about your web presence and help determine the value of your communication. Let’s take a look at how this conversation may play out.

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The web today is all about information and if you (or someone you hire) aren’t working each month to publish information, update calendars, or write about your gadgets, widgets and other customer experiences then your site is just sitting there DEAD! You will need a platform and strategy designed to provide fresh content on a regular basis.

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Search Engine Optimization remains a growing buzzword. Pay-Per-Click has entered the common vocabulary, as well. But what of these for your organization? Being first sounds nice, but understanding the value of what you hire someone to do for you is not easy. That’s why SEO services, in our opinion, should be tied to some kind of defined return. This is not to discount more subjective value of market presence and leadership in a community, but just to say that measurable results help define the value of the service you are buying.

Web Marketing Nine:
Nine Necessities of Web Marketing for Service Businesses and Organizations
Download Full Manuscript

A website does not exist in a vacuum. It exists in a community of minds and media, a colloquial culture. It reflects your core values and presents your ideal brand, communicates your value and details your services, provides a due diligence resource for referrals and others, professionally positions you in the perception of the community, and more. Read the rest of this entry »

Web Marketing Nine:
Nine Necessities of Web Marketing for Service Businesses and Organizations
Download Full Manuscript

You can act, and there will be reaction. That’s never in question. Thus, doing something always affects change, but how much change and in what way altered and to what effect? These are the questions. The only way to know the degree to which your actions are effective is to define or articulate “effective” and interpret results in light of this articulation. Read the rest of this entry »

Web Marketing Nine:
Nine Necessities of Web Marketing for Service Businesses and Organizations
Download Full Manuscript

Consider search and site experience. When I say search, I mean your site’s relationship with search engines. When I say site experience, I mean your site’s relationship with its users. The two are interlocked and synergistic.

Your site’s relationship with search includes your site’s natural ranking, presence, placement, etc. and that of a paid nature (usually pay-per-click). Regardless of what it’s called, it’s about relevant access. When your site shows up in search results, that’s when your site is present and accessible. Read the rest of this entry »

Web Marketing Nine:
Nine Necessities of Web Marketing for Service Businesses and Organizations
Download Full Manuscript

For businesses, professionals, and organizations existing in a local marketplace, Web IT is quite a challenge. The first question you may have is, What is Web IT? So, allow me to describe a services landscape.

Many of my clients will say, “I don’t know the first thing about computers and the Web and such.” These clients tend to see their physical computer and associate everything they experience on that machine as being one area of service, products, etc. Read the rest of this entry »

Web Marketing Nine:
Nine Necessities of Web Marketing for Service Businesses and Organizations
Download Full Manuscript

To achieve successful Web Development, you need:

• An understanding of the nature and significance of different major
  directions that lie before you
• A strategy for development (tool selection, customization plan, team
  orientation, etc.)
• A skilled developer or, more likely, team of developers Read the rest of this entry »

Web Marketing Nine:
Nine Necessities of Web Marketing for Service Businesses and Organizations
Download Full Manuscript

Design is about achievements in the visual. Strategic Design is about creating marketing goals that define what these achievements should be and why. You will need strategic design and architecture for your website (the next step after your strategy). Probably, the following goals will be the focus of your strategic design and architecture:

• Communicate to the visitor immediately that he or she is in the right place
• Communicate what he or she can do next Read the rest of this entry »

Web Marketing Nine:
Nine Necessities of Web Marketing for Service Businesses and Organizations
Download Full Manuscript

To create specific goals and objectives for the Web, you need a clear understanding of:

• The role your web presence can play in your business model
• Who you want to come to your website
• What you want them to do while there

Before you invest in the Web, you should have a clear understanding of what you are trying to do. I don’t mean in terms of understanding the Web and its possibilities (that comes next). I mean in terms of your own business or practice. What are your overall goals and objectives? Read the rest of this entry »

Web Marketing Nine:
Nine Necessities of Web Marketing for Service Businesses and Organizations
Download Full Manuscript

A website is an experience for the user. Inevitably, the site is defined in the mind of the user – a personality of sorts, a cumulative effect with the “sum is greater” principle at work. Your company as a whole has a presence for “the user” – clients and prospects in a particular community.

Working to understand your presence, attempting to articulate it, is a powerful experience in self-definition, which directly affects decisions, which determine actions, which create effect. Branding, to me, is all about developing that presence. First it is developed in your mind, developed around a table, then several, then out into the community perception. Read the rest of this entry »

Web Marketing Nine:
Nine Necessities of Web Marketing for Service Businesses and Organizations
Download Full Manuscript

It’s gonna take time. It’s gonna take money. (Just like the George Harrison song from the 80’s.) If you are not willing to give both, then you don’t need to bother with investing in the Web. Return comes from investment.

Many Web programs stall during the site build, which means you have run out of gas before you even have a website up online. Many more stall after the site is launched. Many clients don’t make the time or the commitment to keep the pedal to the floor and really generate some positive results. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve heard many people say, “I want to make sure I show up in Google.” And I completely understand why. Google has dominant influence on the online marketplace. But many may not know that being “in Google” is really being in several different places.

Primary Google Databases:

1. Google’s main index (organic search – free)
2. Google’s local index (service/product plus location – free)
3. Google’s AdWords index (pay-per-click)

When you search, results from these three databases display on the Google search page at the same time. They make up what people understand to be their results from a Google search.

For example, if you type in Web Marketing in Rock Hill, SC then you will get a page that looks like this:

Click image to enlarge.

Note that there are three sections to the results:

1. The “sponsored links” in the right column or sidebar (and sometimes in the shaded area at the top of the main column)
2. The small text links to the right of the map
3. The general links that start below the map

The sponsored links to the right come from the AdWords database, you will only display there by creating an AdWords account and creating a campaign. These are pay-per-click ads, so you will be charged every time someone clicks on that listing. The cost is based on both bidding and performance.

The map links come from the Google Local database. You will only appear here by manually listing your organization with the Google Local database and confirming your physical address.

The general links starting below the Local results are the general Google results of organic search. You can manually add your site to this index, but you don’t have to. This is the Google bot, in the wild west of Google global search and index, and it will find you and index you.

Increasingly, you will need to learn of other Google databases (like GoogleBase, for example… every REALTOR should learn about this).

If you are a local business/organization, you should definitely list with Google Local. It’s free. It just takes the completion of a few tasks.

If you generate a lot of content – whether you have written it yourself or contracted it – you can repurpose it along the way. For example, as you write an article relevant to your industry or area of specialization, go ahead and publish it to your website. The web is about frequency. But then after you have 5 of them or 10 of them, then create a white paper by putting them together in a coherent manner. After you have 50 of them, put them together in a book. The white paper can be downloaded from your website, the book purchased online or given away in person or as a mailed gift. There is no substitute for quality content.

We experience successes on a daily basis. That’s our real portfolio. Adding a new flash object to a current client’s website based on the urgency of tax season or the recency or relevance of a featured construction project… Working with a sales professional to try and create online steps to make the transition from interested prospect to in-person deal closing a more seamless and compelling experience… Addressing some aspect of a client’s content management process for their website and introducing a plug in or a custom solution to improve productivity… Meeting with a client to go over their Google Analytics report and interpret visitor behavior and generate ideas for activity that could capitalize on that behavior… These are what we do from day to day, week to week.

School Districts have an enormous opportunity to invest in the Web and see quick and significant return.

You can directly affect communication among students, parents, teachers, administrators, staff, schools, departments, new hires, prospective hires, county’s, other districts, states, and any other organization with which you communicate.

You can create a consistent Web presence across your district, yet leave room for individualization and customization per-school, per-teacher, and even per-class. You can offer your teachers, department heads, administrators, etc. tools such as blogs and content feeding technologies for public view or for internal use. You can improve your teachers’ abilities to increase test scores by improving communications with parents and students, and you can increase your district’s marketability to prospective hires by providing a better due diligence tool for those interested (not to mention improving your brand at large).

Your website will have a public face and function as a public tool, but you will also have the ability to use the site as a medium to communicate internally for such activities as (among others) posting test scores, getting feedback, and administering professional development sessions and testing. The site will integrate with your current systems to the degree you see fit.

All of this is at your fingertips, and the whole system can be set up in a way that can be maintained by your internal staff – technology specialists, administrators, assistants, teachers, and more.

If you are ready to drastically improve your district and bring a whole new level of communications and connectivity into play, then please call RevenFlo at 803-328-6033 or email info@revenflo.com.

With all the new open source content management systems available, it’s very rare that a static HTML site would be a good idea. But it does happen occasionally. We were just hired by a client who has just spent money on developing a static html site but isn’t please with the design. He WANTS an online brochure and has no intentions of adding / editing content more than once per quarter.

He does not want to budget for a full customized theme or skin creation, and he does not want to use a free theme or skin that someone else might be using. He wants a simple original design, and wants only 5 pages, and wants to plug in the content that he already has. So, he has decided to do a static 5 page website with an upscale design.

You may ask: What about search presence? Well, using such tools as Google Local and Google Adwords, and the equivalent of these in other engines (plus directory listing and linkback campaigns), this client will have the ability to be present in search.

So, would the client be better off investing a little more money in a content management system… even with the situation as it is? Yes. It is always better to build in technologies that accommodate growth. But, all I can do is educate and present options. The client makes the ultimate decision.

We will still have a nice end result, and the site (if the client is right about how he plans to use the site over time) will still be a good investment.

There are many activities that can be done to improve your search rankings. Some of these include:

• Clean up your code
• Upgrade the technologies that your site is built in
• Better target your message
• Publish content on your site more frequently
• List your site with any and all available directories
• Encourage linkback, rss, trackback, etc.

Contact RevenFlo at info@revenflo.com or 803-328-6033.

If you believe that you could be getting more from using the Web than you are currently, then you should begin with web consultation. Many small companies or practices begin with this idea: “I need a website.” The problem there is that a website is not a pair of shoes. It’s not like you can look through your options, pick up the site you like, bring it to the counter, and purchase. The real question at hand is: How can I leverage the web to benefit my organization? To approach this question, you will be well served by putting a little money into consultation upfront, before plunging into “buying a website”.

RevenFlo tracks and analyzes overall site performance by aligning data on visitor behavior with predefined goals and objectives. Your quarterly report from RevenFlo will be, in terms of deliverable, a presentation of these data along with associated consultation and proposals in the context of your predefined goals and objectives.

You will have ready online access to your data, which will include information on page views, visits, visitors, geographical locations, and much more – all displayed in easy-to-use, interactive media like line graphs, bar graphs, and pie charts.

Your data can also be aligned to specific goals by tracking specific conversions or actions taken by visitors. For example, our tracking capabilities can pinpoint a visitor’s entrance into the site and track his path to a specified conversion.

We can also measure where visitors may be exiting out of the sales process. Thus allowing us to examine a particular page that has a high exit rate. What is discouraging people at that point? While examining that page, we can view visual overlays of the page itself with data on each link on the page (showing how many times it’s been clicked, for example).

We can look at data in years, quarters, months, weeks, single days even, with hour by hour tracking.

We offer both a quarterly report and vlog reporting (as a tool of tutelage with the frequency determined by client).

RevenFlo develops high-powered, cutting edge, fully professional websites. We predominately work in php/sql and open-source content management systems but can develop in any platform or language going.
What does this mean to our clients?

One of the ways in which RevenFlo excels is in creating websites that are publishing systems as opposed to a collection of web pages. Our client’s needs not only include the website as experienced by their prospect or customer, but also the administrative interface by which the client can control his or her own content. We build systems that fit your operating and management plan (which we can help you develop).

We also excel in building for you client management areas. In other words, your clients can benefit drastically from the ability to log-in to your website and view information that is specific to them, their projects, and their accounts.
Three Aspects of Development to Consider

1. What is the site experience for your prospect?
2. What is the site experience for your client?
3. What is the site experience for your staff?

These questions must be approached through the context of your company’, organization’s, or practice’s goals and objectives.

Thus, effective web development is not just about understanding code. It’s about understanding business… your business.

Use the Web to:

* Demonstrate the quality of your work
* Illustrate your experience
* Explain your process
* Educate your consumers
* Communicate with prospects and clients
* Report on current jobs
* Professionally position your company – to difrerntiate
* Allow those referred a due diligence medium
* Generate leads
* Build relationships with subs and service providers

There are so many builders and developers these days. How do you stand out? How are you positioned in your marketplace? How easily can someone engage with you? Must they take a committal action in order to begin to engage with you and your company? How high is the barrier of entry in terms of someone beginning a relationship with you and your company?

Your website is someone’s way to engage with you and begin a relationship – no commitment, just as part of their casual due diligence process.

Specific options for your Website:

* High-Quality Design
* Virtual Tours
* Impressive Display of Portfolio
* Interactive Maps and Directions
* Contact Information and Forms
* Interactive and Download-able Spec Sheets
* About/History/Bio Copy and Photos
* Blog with RSS Feeds (allows easy publication of content by you and easy syndication of that content by others)
* Indexed, Searchable Educational Articles
* Testimonials
* Video/Audio
* Video/Audio Blogs
* Social Networking (YouTube, Etc.)

RevenFlo will establish and manage your hosting accounts to the degree you want us to. The vendor relationship will be between you and the hosting company. RevenFlo will be logging hours to do any hosting-related tasks on behalf of the client.

How Does RevenFlo Add Value in Web Hosting?

For some clients, we don’t add much value to their hosting situation. If you are inclined to work directly with the hosting company (call them if site is down, log-in yourself to create email accounts, etc.), then paying RevenFlo to do these things would be a waste of your money. We only add value to those who want us to take care of everything for them. Many busy professionals don’t have the time, the knowledge, or the inclination to worry about web hosting issues. They just want us to take care of it and report to them any pertinent information. You play it how it suits you best.

1. Set goals and objectives
2. Create a budget and an action plan
3. Monitor progress, revise activities

Whether your objectives lie in…

* Lead generation
* Direct sales
* Service enhancement
* Brand equity building
* General marketing
* Some combination of the above

…our system is your clearest, most comprehensive, most effective option.