Diesel

Super-Webs-Information Highway the Right Way

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:00:00 GMT

If the show Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader is any indication that we don’t effectively use the information that we obtain; then it may be possible that the information that you are gathering on your website might be going to waste. If you are collecting names, phone numbers and email addresses, are you using that data to keep your customers notified or is it sitting on your web server or in your inbox collecting dust?

The easiest way to start getting that data working for you is to create email lists. Those good old fashion newsletters that have been around since the time of Prodigy and CompuServe are still a great way to keep your clients updated about sales and promotions.

So, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about the production and distribution of your newsletter. K.I.S.S – Keep it simple silly. Filling up an email newsletter with too many pictures, and useless information is a surefire way to get a response asking you to stop sending the newsletter.

Start with a template. Using the same format for each release that is branded in line with your company image, will keep it professional and crisp looking. Consider what you want to tell your customer – do you want to be informative, educational, or just promotional? I personally love getting emails and newsletters that tell me when my favorite things cost less. Most people really appreciate that kind of heads up info. On the flipside I really hate getting emails that tell me things I don’t want to know, like anything sad in the news that day, or those emails that tell me I will die if I don’t pass it on. That tangent leads us to my next point.

It is very important to make sure that you have permission to send a newsletter or any kind of promotion to someone’s email. It can be considered quite rude and bordering on harassment if you don’t secure that permission upfront. This is normally done on your website by offering the opportunity to receive an email newsletter by clicking a yes box. It is also very important to offer the recipient a very easy way out of getting your newsletter. This is normally done with a link at the end that says - If you no longer wish to receive this….It’s just a way to protect you and be polite at the same time.

If you are not familiar with how to collect data from your website and store it in a database then contact your web developer. This is normally done through forms on your website that are connected to a database on the backend. It is an invaluable way to control your own advertising and keep a client list that can be updated and used for superior marketing methods like a newsletter or even a coupon code campaign.

Sitefinity and Beyond

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:00:00 GMT

The Trump Network, KIA Motors, Kraft Foods, Quaker Oats, Vogue, Chevron and Diesel Web Productions all have one thing in common, they use Sitefinity. What does that mean for a website owner, or someone that is seeking a high quality web presence? It means, pre-made and ready to use add-ons, faster turnaround time for web projects, a visually stunning and intuitive interface but most importantly, the most effective way to manage and organize high volume data.

A site built with Sitefinity is already geared for any future technological updates, because the Sitefinity team is tuned into the web development community. They are constantly optimizing their tools and staying ahead of the competition by having their development fueled by their user’s feedback. It also offers smooth Google analytics integration and more advanced security features.

For those of you that are interested in marketing your website then you should know that a Sitefinity built website is optimized for search engines. One of the great SEO features are the ability to auto create an XML Sitemap which makes it very simple to submit to the search engines. There are also hundreds of custom controls available on the internet that makes search engine optimization and marketing simple, easy to manage and effective to use.

Social media is built in with tools that make it easy to update RSS feeds, Twitter updates and blogs. This is one of the best development tools for generating traffic and link building. If you are interested in reducing the cost of marketing then having your site built by a company that uses Sitefinity is the best strategy for the upcoming years.

OK, to reiterate what all of the hoopla and hubba is about:

Sitefinity is a development platform that is used to manage websites. It was built based on the ideas of WEB 2.0 and is one of the most flexible architectures available on the market.

Nice things for the web developer:

It is customizable
Integrates ASP.NET custom modules and controls
Supports Multiple Databases

What this means for you, the website owner:

Page edits can be as easy as drag and drop
Add on modules for Blogging, Lists, Voting, News Feeds
SEO Marketing made easy

In conclusion, web development teams that have chosen to use Sitefinity for their projects are smarter than the average developer. Most often they will not only be highly intelligent, but super friendly and just genuinely good people. They really are smarter though, because they are positioned for any advancements and additions for the next ten years. As technology updates, faster than teenager’s Twitter feeds, these developers will be ahead of the others. So if you want to make the other websites jealous, then select a development team that uses Sitefinity.

Your Number One Employee

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Let’s break this down and find out if you have a good perspective on how your website should be working for you. I consider my website as my number one employee. She works 24/7, can always look and act friendly and she represents my company exactly how I want her to. She’s my top sales person and she is my number one customer service representative. I’m paying her salary and I should expect the best - right? Your number one employee can be your website too. I call mine Webby, name yours whatever you want, but her salary should be distributed in 3 parts.

The first third of Webby’s salary should be for the website herself. Dress her up; have her be dynamic, smart, friendly and accurate. The second third of her salary should be used to promote her, let everyone know that she’s there and that she can help. Get some money out there for link building, pay per clicks, organic SEO, whatever your preference is. The last third is spent keeping Webby looking nice and updated. She’s a modern gal and she should always be current with her information.

If you can see your website as your number one employee then you will understand what a powerful investment you have made in your company. As you become more dependent on your website for marketing, then you can begin to give it more responsibility in sales and lead generations. Does your website employee fit in with your company? Does your website say everything you want it to say about your company brand?

Brand Loyalty

Your branding must stay consistent from your company business card to other printed collateral all the way down to your website. Your brand is your company’s value from your products and services to your advertising, market position and company culture. Are you treating the website like the marketing tool that it is? In other words, does your website reflect the particular culture and value that you are trying to create and express within and for your company?

This doesn’t just mean that the logo and fonts are the same – that is only a small part of it, it means that your company’s message is strong and clear and always consistent wherever anyone will find it. That’s because people become loyal to a brand. If that brand should act differently, even one time, it can shake the roots of that customer loyalty.

When it comes to your website, if it doesn’t tell your customers who you are, what you do and why you are important, then your website is doing it wrong. However your customer finds your website, when they get there, they need to know exactly what your company does immediately. A website has roughly 20 seconds to grab the attention of it's viewer.

In any good movie you should notice something from the very beginning - they start in the middle of the action. A slow build up to the main action of your website is just a sure fire way to lose someone’s attention fast. BOOM! Start with the explosions immediately… let that customer know that there is something exciting here, something that they need and want and can’t possibly live without!

Your Website Should Express Exactly What You Do

How do you stand apart from your competition? The website is the best way to tell your story and to state exactly what it is that makes you different and better than every other company that is just like yours. Keep it simple and honest and highly flattering, but do it right away. Save the long drawn out stories about how the company was started for the biography. You only have a few minutes to let your customer know what you do.

Why is your company important? When employers are looking at a resume they will often times, just skim the top part; make a decision to skip over it if it’s not eye-catching, and move on to the next one. It’s the same concept with the website. Your company is important and the customer should know that by the time the page loads.

If you can think of your website as your best employee then you will be able to get the most out of it. If you continually add to the website’s value through maintenance, updating and marketing, then your website will continue to add to the value of your company and it's brand.

Web Design, Link Building not Stink Building

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Ok, watch this! I’m going to bold some of the following words to make a point. You’ve probably seen sentences like this across many pages on the internet:

Full Service Creative Media Agency, Happy Valley offers the best SEO and SEM service in all of Oregon.

Well those are keywords. They help search engines to know which information to return when someone is looking for, well for example, a Portland Web Designer See what I did there? Right! The search engines, namely Google, rank pages on unique content and basically websites that don’t overdo it with keyword stuffing.

Now that you have your website up and running, I wanted to let you know a few ways to get some more exposure. A good way to get more hits to your website that you can do on your own is to populate your site with interesting, unique and updated content. Now, some will do that with a daily blog, others will do it with informative articles. You’ve probably heard of or seen websites doing this, but why? There are two good reasons, Google page ratings and links.

If you have several other sites linking back to your articles and blogs then that gives your site more face space on the search engines. It gives your website more exposure because each of those other websites that are linking back to you not only appear in a Google search of your topic, but also allows visitors to their sites a doorway to yours.

Updated, unique content on your website gives you higher rankings on Google, because as Google crawls through the internet it ranks this material based on some criteria. That means that your site will start moving up to the first page of Google naturally, because your site is considered an expert on the topic that your unique blog or articles present.

Now, you could write articles all day or you could hire someone to do that for you. It’s not unheard of and this is why – you don’t have all day to write articles! You have a business to run and what a lot of your competitors do is they hire people to do their marketing for them. A Portland Web Design and Programming team, like Diesel Web Productions can help you with your SEO and SEM service needs. A fun way to provide some of your own marketing is through a blog. Consider setting one up, make sure to maintain it on at least a weekly basis, and try to make connections to your business. If you are a baker and you are blogging about cars, it might be fun, but it really isn’t bringing the most from your target market. So, try it out. Set yourself up with a blog for your business or place for news articles on your website and watch as your SEO works for you.

Community Is Their Business, A Night of Celebration In Happy Valley

Kelley Schaefer Levi — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:00:00 GMT

We’re excited to report that our Happy Valley Business Alliance website launch party and ribbon cutting ceremony was a huge success. The event, hosted by Diesel, The City of Happy Valley, West Coast Bank and the HVBA took place at Vintner’s Cellar in Happy Valley on Tuesday, July 13^th, had a great turn out and was the perfect way to celebrate the HVBA’s new website. The highlight of the evening’s events may have been when Happy Valley’s mayor, Rob Wheeler, congratulated the team on a job well done and called the folks at Diesel “marketing geniuses” for hosting a website ribbon cutting ceremony. How cool is that?

The HVBA is a community focused organization that supports and connects local business owners, bringing attention to their businesses, attractions and upcoming special events in Happy Valley. Passionate about maintaining a great place to live and work, the HVBA strives to promote a healthy business network, sustainable relationships and economic growth with community partners. In 2005, a few local business owners came together with the intention of maintaining the integrity and livability of their community. As this group connected, an alliance was formed so that each business would have a voice and could equally contribute to the economic development and success of the Happy Valley area. The HVBA was also formed so that business seeking support and looking for answers about operating business in the valley could gain access to resources and find what they needed.

We look forward to hosting more website launch parties with our clients in the future. It’s such a great way to build community, relax a bit after the completion of a big project.

Click HERE to see the HVBA website.

Photos provided by Bruce Butler. (Thanks Bruce!)

Tie a Balloon on It (The Good Thing Attached to the String)

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Some advice that was passed on to me by my former district manager was to tie a balloon to whatever you are selling. It is a strange and almost mystical effect that a simple balloon will have on a person. For those that are not deathly afraid of the balloon, there is an immediate knowledge that whatever that floating thing is attached to has to be good.

I used to allow the Boy Scouts of America troops to sell popcorn in front of the stores that I managed. They sold popcorn, we sold popcorn, but on the days they were out there I tried to boost sales for them. Helping a cause can be profitable for the soul and the coffers.

My advice was of course, tie a balloon in it. The kids got it immediately. So I filled four brightly colored balloons with helium and let the Boy Scouts tie it to their table. Instead of people walking by, with that distant look of if I ignore you then you won’t try to sell me something, they were briefly stunned by the magnificence of the balloon.

For a web business tying a balloon on your website is like having an interesting and informative article that points back to your website. Articles that are on the Internet serve many purposes. First, they are there to inform or entertain. The second is that they can serve directly or indirectly as advertising.

The direct method is a promotional piece about your product or service. The indirect method is using keywords that are linked back to your website. The good thing about these balloons is that they don’t pop, don’t scare people and can lift your business to new heights.

Part 6 of 6 in the Series: Tie a Balloon on It

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone other than myself. All material is copywritten and cannot be reprinted or copied without the owner's consent.

Even If You are Bad with Names, Everyone Should Know Your Name

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 05:00:00 GMT

I am terrible with names! It’s a pretty common phrase and can be a bit of a stigma in the business world. Even with the internet it can be quite a problem because it can be inferred that a company doesn’t care about their customer. I am terrible with names, but I never let it affect my customer service or my customer’s impression of me.

Frankly, the only thing I could do was to call every man I know SIR. You could say buddy, pal, whatever you want, but nothing says respect like calling someone sir. There is a side note. If a man doesn’t like to be called sir, he will say something about his father being sir or might just say don’t call me sir. Fair enough, don’t call them sir. It is so few and far between that this happened that I was able to remember the men that said that. Still can’t remember their names, but I know not to call them sir.

This will limit the amount of names that you do have to remember. People will tell you what they want to be called. Some like to be referred to by their first name or nickname. Try to oblige. Otherwise, the good ole standby is yes sir and no sir.

There is a tricky one when it comes to women. Living in the South for so many years it is engrained after year five to call a lady ‘ma’am’. Well, most women have come to accept it as a colloquialism, but wow – if they don’t like it you will know. In order to hide my secret of horrible name recall and my desire to please every customer, I modified the ma’am to a yes’m. This being short for yes ma’am. An “excuse me miss” also worked because it doesn’t have that older age modifier attached to it. I hardly ever had to use the words no ma’am, because I am a problem solver and ‘no’ is used in very few occasions. If you do have to say… that word… then try to soften it as much as possible.

It may sound a bit silly, but people can be really particular about how they are referred to. In written communication it can be a lot easier. Your customer’s name will most likely be in a field that you can easily refer to. Unless you have developed a solid history with a customer then do not use their first name. Sometimes, familiarity can be off putting. This really all depends on your style of customer service. Just knowing your audience, knowing your customer, will point to how you should refer to them.

One thing that I did learn though was that if you can’t remember a name at least have your name remembered. People use to come into the store and say hey Michael! I was being reviewed by the regional manager and one of my customers came in and greeted me. The regional manager was more impressed by this and kept it as one of the standards for customer service. If your customers know your name because of the good work you are doing then you are doing a great job.

Part 5 of 6 in the Series: Tie a Balloon on It

Stay tuned for next weeks topic: Tie a Balloon on It (The Good Thing Attached to the String)

Too Much of a Good Thing is a Bad Thing (duh)

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:05:40 GMT

When I first started out as a manager, I packed the end caps with hundreds of the same movie title. I thought it looked fantastic. Really all it did was show people that we had a lot of the same sucky movie that no one wanted… like Bewitched. OK, so the lesson I had to learn was that if you have a lot of a product in stock, only display a few of them.

This gives the appearance that the product is in demand. Demand will increase a customer’s attention to a product. This is along the lines of you want what you can’t have. This little thing clicks in some consumers heads when they hear the phrase limited quantities. Well bless them and their quirky little head clicking, because it directs them to buy a product that they might not have considered a need for before.

Keeping some things in a virtual stockroom can benefit your sales. Not everything has to be displayed on the website. Consider selling a few of one item per week as opposed to having the entire quantity on stock available. If someone wants more they will most certainly try to contact you.

Make sure that contacting you is made easy. There is nothing more annoying than trying to find a link that requires a microscope to find. Make the method of contacting you very apparent for the customer. You are probably really busy and can’t field every request immediately, but most people understand that. A 24 hour response can be acceptable depending on the level of service you offer to your customers.

The same can also go for the way your website is presented. If you have too much information displayed all on one page then it can overload the customer’s senses. It is difficult to have to cut through one hundred links on a page to find what you went to the site for. Instead, consider more pages that display your content cleanly. This often gives the impression of a professional that is organized and focused.

Try not to run multiple sales at one time. I tried this one time and my customers would often confuse the two sales. This caused problems because I had to go through the entire spiel of what each sale offered. If you have one or two sales that are clearly explained then it should be OK. Anything beyond the two sales may become overwhelming and completely ignored.

My wife and I often frequent a major craft store chain for her many hobbies. Every time that we have gone to this store there has been a banner outside offering a fifty percent discount on their framing services. I asked my wife, “If their framing is always on sale why don’t they just lower the price permanently?” She shrugged because only these things matter to me. Seriously, it really gives the impression that they are permanently over charging on their services. So once again, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

Part 4 of 6 in the Series: Tie a Balloon on It

Stay tuned for next weeks topic: Even If You are Bad with Names, Everyone Should Know Your Name

You Can Put Free on a $60,000 Car, but No One Will Want It

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:00:00 GMT

The word ‘FREE,’ when it comes to advertising has been so overused that it has lost a lot of its power. I wanted to test this theory, so we tried it out on our customers. We had some copies of the DVD Bewitched with Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman. No one wanted to watch it; we had warned people away from it when it first came out.

So, when it came to selling the ‘used’ copies, we couldn’t. So we tried to give them away with a FREE sign next to a stack of them. Once again, no one wanted it. We tried to include it in a combo pack of candy, soda, popcorn and a free DVD to no avail. People like free things, but if it is a copy of Bewitched, then it isn’t very enticing. Offer something of value. Include the loss in your advertising budget. It will get you much further than trying to give out something that no one cares about.

The other problem with the word ‘FREE’ is that some consumers will ignore it having pre-decided that there is a string attached. If the prize seems to be too valuable then most likely the service or product that it is advertising costs too much. That is a fair assumption. This is why many advertisers moved to the ‘give-away’ or contest. These two terms have less of a negative connotation and more of a positive oomph than their cousin ‘FREE.’

Use ‘buy this and get this FREE,’ if you must. It lets the consumer know that when they make a purchase that they are rewarded. Reward programs are the evolved application of this practice. Many people now look to stores, credit cards, and services to give them a reward for their patronage.

Consider a point to dollar system; many credit cards and retail stores will give 1 of their reward points for every dollar spent. These points can be used for discounts off of their products. Some stores will also offer logo branded merchandise for points. I remember one of the best forms of these promotions was green stamps. The grocery store my mother shopped at offered the stamps. We collected enough to get a wooden cabinet turntable and radio combo.

To keep track of this information may require a database. It is entirely possible to have this type of tracking system created. Just try to have a detailed idea of what you need before trying to explain it to a company. The more information you have about what you want will always serve you well.

Part 3 of 6 in the Series: Tie a Balloon on It

Stay tuned for next weeks topic: Too Much of a Good Thing is a Bad Thing (duh)

Whatever You are Selling - Put it Outside of the Store

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:00:00 GMT

When I was a manger, one of our sales initiatives was to sell 20% of our DVD product a week. The best way to do that was to setup some tables outside of the store and have a sidewalk sale. Even though there was a giant sign attached to the side of our building that let people know, We Sell and Rent DVD’s, we put the tables out there to make it more obvious.

Make it obvious. Your website was not created for a vacuum. It was created so that people could come to your site for the information or product that you have to offer. So put that information outside of the website with advertising, affiliate links, anything that you can think of to let people know that you are there. Even if you write a blog everyday, people are more than likely not to find it unless you advertise it.

Word of mouth will only get you so far. It might take a few extra dollars to plan an advertising strategy, but it is worth it. Put a big sign on the side of the Internet that says, ‘Sale This Way.’

So, the idea of putting everything on the outside of the store is to get people to come into the store. You want to put your quality merchandise out there to entice people to come in and purchase your other products. Just make sure that any website that you have partnered with is top notch. If whatever areas of business they may lack in; that impression will carry over to your company as well. Choose wisely when selecting a partner website.

Try to find a partner that offers quality services, but doesn’t offer your service. This way, both of your companies can refer to one another to offer what each other lack. You may even want to negotiate a deal where you get or give a percentage of profit based on their recommendation. It can be a nice way to earn a few dollars.

Part 2 of 6 in the Series: Tie a Balloon on It

Stay tuned for next weeks topic: You Can Put Free on a $60,000 Car but No One Will Want It

Tie a Balloon on It (and other Sales Techniques for the InterWebs)

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:00:00 GMT

I worked as a successful retail manager for several years (for a now defunct chain of video stores) and learned a few things along the way about sales. Not only did we have our weekly sales goals to meet, but each month we would have a monthly contest. These contests were arranged by the regional manager to drive the numbers up. If the team I was managing wasn’t in first place then we were in the top three out of fifteen hundred stores nationwide. The last year that I worked, my team successfully won a national sales drive by Entertainment Weekly. First prize was a trip for two to New York and everyone on the team received an Ipod Shuffle. Second prize was a set of steak knives. Not really, but that is my homage to the film Glen Gary Glen Ross which is a fantastic drama written by David Mamet about salespeople.

Some of the techniques I borrowed and others I developed on my own. I think many of the same principles can apply to boosting revenue for a website:

Someone Is Doing It Better Than You… They are Probably Cheating

It may sound bitter and even a little bit jaded, but the competition is probably cheating. If you are doing everything right and still can’t keep up with the competition’s numbers then they are either doing something very right or something very wrong. If they are doing it the right way then ask them for some advice.

There is a cutthroat camaraderie among sales people. Every person in sales knows that while their selling technique can be excellent, there is always room for improvement. Improvement in sales is measured by the revenue being generated, new customers and customer retention figures.

If the competition is doing well with their techniques and they are legitimate, then they should be happy to share how they are making those numbers. You may run into a few people that are not willing to share, but you can give most the benefit of the doubt; they are probably amateurs. Many people in sales that are just starting out try to keep their techniques close to the chest. They will either learn quickly to share with the sharks or they will eventually be eaten. Generally, the difference between an amateur and a cheater is that the amateur will tell you that they don’t want to share and the cheater won’t know how to explain their numbers.

No matter how tempting it may be, don’t cheat. The cheaters on the web use devious methods to gain customer attention or profit from breaching the privacy of others. These types of methods are completely documented across the internet. Some of them might include selling your customer’s information to leads companies to gain a little money. The problem is that they probably notified their customers in the fine print of the user agreement.

Some cheaters might also use programs to install adware on their visitor’s computer. This is also a huge violation of the customer’s trust. Most dastardly methods used by the cheaters are legally actionable. They may generate a few dollars but in the end, it can cost you your company. Be honest in all of your dealings because someone is always looking. Quick money is out there, but what you want is a steady flow of money. No matter how tempting it becomes, stay away from the techniques that are generally frowned upon by the Internet community. Word of a bad business spreads faster than a fire in a fireworks factory that has been doused with gasoline.

When considering advertising your company or electing a service that provides SEO then consider the provider’s reputation and ask about their methods. It is important to know the people that represent your company. Even if the work they do for you is entirely confidential and their work for you is faceless, you are responsible for the content that they provide. If they are a trusted and fair dealing company then you can rest easier that your advertising methods are legitimate.

Part 1 of 6 in the Series: Tie a Balloon on It

Stay tuned for next weeks topic: Whatever You are Selling - Put it Outside of the Store

How Felicia Day and Social Networking Will Save the World

Michael Whitlatch — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:00:00 GMT

I was thinking about how Felicia Day started her original web series the Guild. She originally asked people for money for start up costs. In exchange, the contributors were given credit - this is venture capital at its best. Felicia wrote a series about a niche market - video games; more specifically, the World of Warcraft. So by asking the Internet for money she produced a web series that entertains the masses.

Gaming is becoming more and more a part of our society because social networking sites are including them in their design. Games bring people closer together, even if it is to virtually smash, break, shoot or destroy one another. Even now it is possible to play a game on the Xbox 360 and share your achievements on Facebook. It is just a fun and creative form of gloating.

Big business has even begun to use social networking to keep employees from all across the world connected. Even more so, it has started to use the advertising potential that having 400,000,000 subscribers offers. Someone can actually go from reading an advertisement, be hooked, click a link and give into the power of instant gratification and impulsivity by buying that item they were just told about.

Could this power be used in other ways too? Could someone ask the Internet for four dollars a year to be contributed to a charity? Maybe the contributors could be given a badge of honor to display on their profile. What if charities that had similar causes joined forces and developed this kind of program?

OK, so why Felicia Day exactly? Well, World of Warcraft boasts 14 million subscribers. The cost for a one month subscription without a discount is currently $14.95. If every subscriber discovers the works of Felicia Day and donated a dollar a month to a cause of her choosing; that would be $168,000,000 a year. If you are familiar with Felicia then you will be aware that she has an undeniable charisma. With her charisma she could easily ask for four dollars a month to be donated. The calculator tells me that she could rake in $672,000,000 a year for charitable donation.

I am using Felicia as an example because of her budding cultural icon status. (As I am writing this article she was just mentioned by Stan Lee, creator of Spider Man, and many other heroes ... several times on his twitter account @smilinstanlee.) However, this type of plan could be executed by anyone with a website. If your business is interested in giving back to the world then consider a partnership with your favorite charity. Especially, consider the real power of the niche market.

With focused distribution of money to charities the world can change for the better. Including a button on your website for your customers to click and donate is a really simple but effective way to give to your charity. This is how the world can be made a more hospitable place.

So when you are considering additions to your website or even a redesign, think about how you can connect your charity to millions of other people. Consider the power of Felicia Day. Think about how having one button can save the world.

The Happy Valley Business Alliances Gets a Facelift of Sorts

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Diesel Web Productions is happy to announce that we have been commissioned to redesign and further develop the Happy Valley Business Alliance website.

With our main office located in Happy Valley, Oregon we are tied very close to the community within. Happy Valley strives successfully to build community and is one of the main reasons Diesel has chosen the city to grow its root there. This connection has reached past the residents who inhabit the city onto the business community as well.

The Happy Valley Business Alliance was initially formed as a group of local businesses asked to come together to solve a community problem and has taken form as an official alliance of business members supporting each other and their community ever since. To date, there are over seventy active business members listed, and is continuing to reach out to join forces with other local businesses as well.

Diesel Web Productions joined the HVBA in April 2010 and is anxious to get started with helping the alliance in increasing awareness of the groups’ benefits and help to promote membership. We hope to do this through the newly designed website currently underway and in other outreach promotions and support as well.

We all at Diesel are proud to help be a part of and create something amazing that will not only reflect ourselves and what we do, but our entire Happy Valley community as well.

A launch party and ribbon cutting ceremony for the new website is set for July 13th, 2010 and will be held at Vintner's Cellar Winery located at 15711 SE Happy Valley Town Center Drive in the Happy Valley Town Center, 157th and Sunnyside Road, Happy Valley from 5:00 to 7:30 pm. Stay tuned for more information on both the new website and the launch party!

The Money in the Details is Web Presence

Michael Whitlatch — Tue, 25 May 2010 05:00:00 GMT

If you have ever heard the idiom, 'the devil in the details,' then you may think of that one little point that may be overlooked that could sink your entire endeavor. In any profession, be it house-painter, surgeon or pilot, the details matter because one mistake can be a crushing blow to your reputation. Small business owners and large corporations often make this mistake by overlooking the importance of their web presence.

Not every business has the luxury of being able to throw unlimited resources at a problem. When working with a budget, every dollar spent needs to be on quality. That is why it is important to have a strategy in place when getting your website up and then spread out to the world. The strategy should be a low cost solution that offers high returns. On the Internet, this equates to high traffic to a well designed website that reflects the value and importance of the product or service being offered.

If the goal is quality, then when it comes to building a website, the do-it-yourself approach will in the end cost you money. The real rookie mistake that most business’s make is shorting the budget for the website. Building a site without a team of professionals is like building a store and forgetting to put in the front door.

Today's consumer is highly sophisticated. Everyone is an expert when it comes to advertising because we are constantly exposed to it on every radio, television and web page we visit. We know that when we are buying insurance we have a few choices. We can buy from the really talkative lady, the quirky and smart talking lizard or the former president of the United States on the show 24. So when it comes to a website, do we buy from the shady looking one that looks like it was made in 1997? Or do we go with the one that looks like they know what they’re doing?

Your website is your reputation. Word of mouth has taken on a new meaning. Instead of telling someone about a great thing we just found - we can link to it. It goes the same for something that we want to warn another away from. In this environment the only way to go is professional. Anything else will be passed up and another company will end up getting the money.

The best way to stay in budget is to find a company that offers it all. You want them to be able to build the site and then market it as well. If you don't know SEO (Search Engine Optimization) then your web company should. Once they have developed the website, they can do the hard work of getting people to your site. This is an area of expertise that is both time consuming and requires experience to be effective. Let your team of web producers do their thing while you can focus on yours.

Also consider how long your website has been out there. A lot has changed and some of the technologies that were used in the past are now obsolete. Consider getting an update, a face-lift, so to speak. Keep the look, feel and functionality of your website up to modern standards.

Your business has a reputation to build and maintain. Use the Internet to showcase the talent and effort that has gone into your enterprise. The focus put on web presence today is that detail that should not be missed.

Oh, for the Love of Community and Color on Walls!

admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:00:00 GMT

There’s another exciting event happening this coming weekend, The Art on Alberta Art Hop, a day long celebration held each May on NE Alberta Street. Matthew Allen Productions, who is also a partner company with Diesel Web Productions, is participating in the event by hosting one of several mural painting experience and is asking for you all to show your smiling faces, check it out and lend a hand in the art making process. It’s good for the community, and its also good for the soul!

COLLABORATIVE MURAL PAINTING EVENT

WHAT: Collaborative mural painting event; come watch and participate

WHERE: Alberta Street between 18th and 19th as part of the Art on Alberta happenings.

WHEN: May 15th. 9am to 6pm.

Come on out to lend your hand, your brush, or just your blissful personality. Murals have the quality of bringing communities together to enjoy the event itself with the long lasting results. The content of the mural loosely depicts some of the various energy and community conscious actions implored by the Community Energy Project. The imagery will reflect local house-environments depicting many factors that make a house or a building sustainable and also show the sustainable practices of the local urban landscape.

This mural is to be installed on the exterior of the Community Energy Project building at Alberta and MLK Jr Blvd.

Coordinated by Art on Alberta and The Community Energy Project

Organized by Esteban Camacho Steffensen

Directed by Esteban Camacho Steffensen, Robert Maxwell Humphres, and Matthew Allen Wooldridge.

[The Mural Team working with Matthew Allen Productions – MatthewAllenProductions.com]

Sponsored in part by the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

Congratulations Guys! Diesel hopes it's a fabulous turn out and event. We can't wait to see what you come up with. We LOVE our team!