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Thursday, April 17, 2008
I was cleaning out my Inbox when I stumbled on a revised web usability study from the usability expert, Jakob Nielsen. Important point: “Start with highly information-carrying words”. These are also good for links too. Also check out: How to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines and  Posted by: Michael Swartz at 5:25 pm Comments: None | Filed under: SEO, Writing For The Web Monday, March 24, 2008
Hello. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I enjoyed the weekend by getting back on my mountain bike. Next weekend ought to be just as exciting… The 17th Annual Have a Heart Gala On Saturday, March 29, 2008 The Alameda Mayor’s Fundraiser Committee is hosting the 17th Annual Have a Heart Gala at the Albert DeWitt “O” Club benefiting the Alameda Midway Shelter for abused & homeless women and children. There will be dinner and dancing, an open and silent auction and a performance by The Sun Kings, Bringing the Sounds of The Beatles to Alameda. I am promoting the event, (1) MJS Web Solutions is designing the new website and (2) it is a wonderful and worthwhile cause that needs your support. For more information or to reserve your seat, please contact (510) 748-8410 or (510) 523-2377. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:39 am Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized, News Wednesday, March 12, 2008
‘O boy. I called Constant Contact support to find out if they archived the email newsletters in an RSS/XML feed. The support guy didn’t know what I was talking about. He didn’t know what an RSS feed was. Holy Mackerel! I figure anyone who has a web business these days would know about RSS technology. If you don’t, shame on you. What Does RSS Feed Mean? With an RSS feed you can ‘feed’ data into any source. A pda, smartphone, mp3 player, and in my case a website. I wanted to ‘feed’ my client’s archived newsletters from Constant Contact into my client’s website. So, I put a request into Constant Contact to have them provide a way to archive email newsletters via an RSS feed. The competition is doing it. I hope he passes along my suggestion. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 3:43 pm Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Web General, Business Thursday, February 28, 2008
I just updated the site recently and asked Google to re-index it. They did and now the site mysteriously disappeared from the top rankings. I hope that Google is just re-indexing it’s database and our site will show up in a few hours or days. Google DOES show the website in it’s database. To not worry so much, I had to do some investigating. I landed on this comment at High Rankings.com. We Don’t Have Control Over the Search Engines That’s pretty much what I explain to my customers. We don’t have control over the search engines and they don’t give us their algorithms. You work with the search engines. I’ve seen it before where a website drops and comes right back. It’s just the quicks of computers and the internet…I hope. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 7:07 pm Comments: None | Filed under: SEO Tuesday, February 19, 2008
E-Commerce Equals Convenience, Risk to Consumers An important finding for those who have online shopping sites or selling anything online.
This can be avoided, you know. You can increase sales by putting your customers at ease with their online transactions. If they’re concerned, tell and show them why they don’t have to worry.
Example: Check out PayPal’s homepage. Notice how PayPal tells and shows their customers about online website security. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 4:17 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design, Web General Wednesday, February 6, 2008
What do I write about when I’m so busy? I could write about how to save time or how to get things done faster. Or I could write about why I’m so busy. I’ll do both… I’ve been busy with multiple projects, including two website redesigns and many SEO and website maintenance projects and haven’t had enough quality time to devote to my blog. To help me manage all my projects and keep me on track I’ve upgraded my customer database to ACT! and I’ve also integrated Outlook 2003 into it. I’m also using Basecamp. Flag Emails in Outlook for Follow Up A cool feature of Outlook 2003 is the ability to flag email messages for follow up.
When you flag an email, a colored flag - in this case red - appears next to the email message and gets added to the Follow Up message folder. By doing this I can keep track of the main items I need to take care of first as well as keeping my Inbox clean. Mike Swartz says, “Check it out”. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:57 am Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Computer, Business Tuesday, January 22, 2008
My wife told me she wanted to send The Better World Shopping Guide website to all her Facebook contacts. I then realized the power of Facebook. We the people are becoming the influentials now. It’s happening with Twitter as well. Just telling people your immediate thoughts, desires, interests, and so forth. A word-of-mouth marketers dream come true. Now instead of the few influentials, everyone is becoming the influencer. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:07 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Business Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Well, I’m using a new To Do list program. I didn’t use a program before, I just had a piece of paper to keep track of my to do’s. Now I use the To List in Basecamp. Basecamp is an online project management service. It includes, Milestones, Whiteboards, Notes/Messages, Project Lists, Contacts, Calendar, and To Do Lists. To Do Lists in Basecamp are my favorite feature. You can create many types or categories of to do lists. And after you’ve completed the task, Basecamp records it and adds a strikethrough, just like you would do with your pen.
So far Basecamp has really met my needs. Easy to learn, setup and use. I may just toss out my current project management software and go with Basecamp. Mike Swartz says, “Check it out” Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:51 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Web General, Personal, Business Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Happy New Year! Have you made any New Year resolutions? I plan on expanding the business in a few different ways. One way is to broaden our network of designers and developers so we can accommodate our growing client base. Another is a new website for MJS Web Solutions. You know the old adage, “A carpenter’s home never gets built”? Well, us web designers know the saying. We were so busy last year, we didn’t have time to concentrate on ourselves, especially our website. Which brings up an article I saw last weekend, in the SF Chronicle, about small-business owners making New Year’s resolutions. What caught my eye was this quote from someone who had setup her new website: “Creating a Web site is a lot of work when you’re a small business without a marketing department,” she said. “You’re constantly proofing text and bringing people together to answer e-mails from the Web designer. It was an odyssey to get it done.” She’s right. It takes a lot of time and patience when building a new website. There is a lot involved.
The major challenge is time. Know that you will have to spend quality time on your new website. That’s good because it’s your business you’re showing to the world. Happy New Year! Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:42 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design, News, Business Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Happy Holidays. Are you taking some time off for the holidays? Are you promoting any specials for the holidays? If so, you’ll need to make sure you let your customers know. One easy way is to create a special signature file.
Click on Tools | Options and select the Mail Format tab. Click on the Signatures button to create different signature files. Mike Swartz says, “Check it out”. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 12:45 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Computer
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Write good web content. Easier said than done.
A website I own dropped significantly in rankings from Google’s search results today. It was #3 in the rankings for a top level keyword & domain combination. 
Remember a blog or two ago, I mentioned about 
Getting it done. Doesn’t it feel good to cross off items on your To Do list or finish that project or just get something accomplished and taken care of?
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