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Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Marketing 101: How Did You Hear About Us?
 It’s something, I know, most businesses do not do. And it is the simplest gauge to find out how people are finding your business.
All businesses are in the marketing business. Make this a part of your everyday tasks.
How Did You Hear About Us?
Always ask – over the phone, email, or from your website – “How did you hear about us?” or “How did you find out about our company?”
Know where your business is coming from. Use your findings to determine if your advertising dollars are working or if your referrals are the best source.
Remember, it never hurts to ask.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:30 am
Comments: None | Filed under: Business, Web Marketing
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Response to Rebranding My Town, Alameda, California
In dismay to Alameda Sun’s article, Brand Name City, I felt compelled to write a letter to the editor detailing my views on re-branding Alameda. Here it is:
Money, meet mouth
As a local business owner, resident of Alameda for more than 30 years, and active member in my local community, I was shocked and outraged to read that the city of Alameda, which supposedly promotes “buy/shop local,” has contracted with design companies outside of our local business community to re-brand Alameda. It was also alarming to learn that local businesses were not even given a chance or an opportunity to bid on the project.
Whether or not the initial bid came in under the $75,000 threshold ($200 less), local businesses still should have been considered to participate in the bidding process. If an out-of-town company, after the bidding process was complete, won the job, fine, at least local companies would have received the common courtesy to compete.
I understand — to a degree —the need to re-brand our city and update the website to attract businesses, but again, local businesses, who know the town of Alameda, were not even considered. It’s also disheartening to know that our city government will be using our tax dollars to work with companies outside of our town. What is even more surprising is that our city can spend up to $75,000 without having to go through a formal bidding process.
From my own research, a number of marketing and web design firms in Alameda were never contacted. Heck, these firms didn’t even know the city was entertaining the idea of rebranding. The city says they wanted to find a company with experience building city websites and building a green identify. Just because a firm doesn’t build city websites doesn’t mean they wouldn’t do a good job. And who would know more about Alameda than its local businesses? I believe Alameda does have the resources to provide our city with a quality functioning website and brand identity. For instance, Jiva Creative or West Advertising, I’m sure, would have been honored to have been elected to re-brand our city.
I own and operate MJS Web Solutions, a local web development firm, and I am passionate about this town and buying and doing things locally. We are proud to work with many local firms and have helped organizations, including the Alameda Boys and Girls Club and the Alameda Midway Shelter, get online.
I always ask myself before going out of Alameda to do business, is there someone who can help me locally? And usually there is. You can see why I’m frustrated. What kind of example is our city government setting for the local business community and the businesses they are trying to attract?
Alameda may or may not need a new image, but was this the right thing to do?
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I hope this issue doesn’t get swept under the table and forgotten about. It’s too important.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:52 am
Comments: None | Filed under: Business, Personal
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Design Your New Website in 3 Simple Steps
 So you need to get your website up and running fast or you just want to know how it’s done?
A website can usually be broken down into 3 simple steps.
- Get a Domain Name
- Setup Web Hosting
- Design Your Site
1. Get a Domain Name
Whether you use your business as the domain name or choose a vanity domain name (i.e. ilovesushi.com), you will need to have it registered. A fun and useful tool for researching a variety of domain name ideas is BustaName.com. After you decide on a domain name, register it at GoDaddy.
2. Setup Web Hosting
Hosting is fairly straightforward. Two important considerations are web server uptime and customer service. It’s hard to find out if the company you’re choosing will keep your site up, but contacting customer service shouldn’t be a problem. Two companies I trust and work with exclusively are Westhost & Alentus.
3. Design Your Site
Whether you choose to design it yourself, go with a pre-designed website or hire a professional, you will need to have something available online (A one page website can be sufficient). There are many do-it-yourself choices: GoDaddy Website Tonight, Homestead, etc. You can also purchase a pre-designed website and have a web company or web designer set it up for you. Or you can hire a professional web design company and get the exact website for your business. Hiring a professional should offer you a completely customized website design, giving you a design that showcases your business and is well represented by your customers.
In our experience, a website will usually consists of these 3 steps.
If you have any questions or you would like assistance on setting up your own website, please contact MJS Web Solutions. We’re here to help.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 5:32 pm
Comments: None | Filed under: Business, Web Design
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Test Everything
 Whoops!
I almost sent out a confirmation email without seeing if I could login to their application or not. Well, I can’t. Good thing I didn’t send that email.
Test Everything
I learned that early in my career. There are so many things you have to check before launching a website, application or a simple web form.
What I learned was:
- Make one change
- Test it
- If it works, move on. If not, test again
If you test each change individually, you’ll always know what did or didn’t work. You’ll never figure out what isn’t working if you make too many changes at one time.
“Test, test and test again”. You can never be too careful.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 4:58 pm
Comments: 1 Comment | Filed under: Business, Computer, Personal
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Business is All About Problems
 Business is all about problems…hell, life is about problems.
It’s the businesses or individuals to be business or life troubleshooters. We’re choice making machines…us humans.
So successful businesses correct the problems.
In web terms…
Q: What is the problem you want to solve with your website?
Answer this question and you’re half way there.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 8:43 pm
Comments: None | Filed under: Business
Monday, February 23, 2009
MJS Web Solutions Now Offering Pre-Designed Website Templates
MJS Web Solutions is now offering pre-designed website template packages starting at only $499.
MJS Web Solutions continues to provide quality customized website services, yet we’ve recognized a growing number of start-up businesses are looking for a more affordable website solution.
Pre-designed website templates provide a quick, simple and affordable way to get a professional looking website. Choose from thousands of different industry website templates: Auto, Architecture, Business, Sports and many others.
In only 3 simple steps, you can have a completed website.
- Choose a website template that fits your organization.
- Fill out our Quote Request form
- MJS will contact you with a quote to get started.
All you have to do is provide us with copy and images for all pages. We’ll do the rest.
Mike Swartz says, “Check it out”.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 2:40 pm
Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Business, News, Web Design
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
It Pays To Have a Website
 Hello.
Been awhile, I know. But I have a good excuse.
I was on vacation in Ireland. Great country. Beautiful people too.
We lodged at the Croan Cottages. A very nice place to stay. The owners of the cottage live on the property with a farm and peaceful landscapes.
I asked my Father in Law how he found the place and he said the internet. I asked another guest on the property the same question. He said, he found out about the cottages on the internet. He said he typed in some keywords into Google and wah la.
The owner is now telling other businesses in the area to get a website because of the increase in business he’s receiving from marketing on the internet.
My Point
Even if your website is just one page, that’s fine, just put something up. If nothing else, get one domain and one web page.
On this page, simply list your business name, logo, picture of product(s)/service(s), something about the company and services, and how to contact.
There is no good reason why your business is not online.
Photo: An actual picture we took while visiting the Woodstock Gardens.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 5:38 pm
Comments: None | Filed under: Business, SEO, Web Marketing
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Focus on Your Customers, Not Your Competition
I just read some great business and marketing advice in Investors Business Daily (IBD).
Focus on your customers, not your competition.
Forget the competition. Doesn’t that make perfect sense? Don’t worry about what they’re doing, worry about what you’re doing.
I would say, “focus on your customer, but be aware of the competition”.
Your customer pays the bills, not the competition. Appreciate them, not your competition.
Have a great week.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 4:50 pm
Comments: 1 Comment | Filed under: Business
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Business is About Getting Things Done
Business is about getting things done or accomplished…finished.
If you don’t complete your projects you won’t make any money and there won’t be any reason why someone would use your services or want to work with you.
I do a lot of web and seo maintenance for my clients. They expect my company to deliver. I do and that’s why we continue to work together.
People hire you or pay you to do a job. It’s your job to get it done.
Posted by: Michael Swartz at 12:24 pm
Comments: None | Filed under: Business
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Constant Contact Doesn’t Know What RSS Feed Means
 Constant Contact support didn’t know what an RSS feed was.
‘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: Business, Web General
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