Check out our new blog platform

Hello all! You've probably noticed a gap in my blog posts here. That's because for the last several months I've been posting over at http://creative-emarketing.typepad.com It's typepad's new blogging platform, and I really enjoy the format it allows. Also, I've hosted many other clients' blogs via this typepad platform.

I'll try to copy some of the good stuff I've got going on over at Typepad back over here to my original blogger account, but you know how these things go. Clients have needs, children have noses to wipe and so on.

But thanks for coming around. And come visit me over at typepad!

Bravenet.com

One of the most valuable resources I've been utilizing has been the web tools available at Bravenet.com. When I was first evaluating websites with an eye towards helping businesses improve their traffic, Bravenet gave me a great selection of tools that became mainstays of my website optimization toolbox.

Like many of the companies out there offering programs and scripts which can be added to websites, Bravenet has two levels of service. The free services they provide come with advertisements and banners, but the pay services remove those tags. And, right now, they are offering two years of service for their web tools for the price of one. I've done more than a little research into the different services out there, and Bravenet's prices are very competitive.

Check 'em out. I'm sure they can help you as much as they've helped me.

(And if you don't want to bother, I can always fix things up for you myself!)

Building Our Communities

Much of the training I've received has been through the eMarketing Association. Through their thorough and productive tutelage, I've been able to apply the concepts and philosophies of eMarketing in effective and measurable ways. Through their openness to help me grow, I feel like I've become a member of their community.

So much of eMarketing that makes it different from traditional marketing is that when we interconnect our computers into a dynamic communications network, we don't just have extra platforms from which to shout the benefits of our products. We have the opportunity to connect with others who enjoy what we produce or the services we provide. This enables a level of connection with our clients that was not possible before. This enables us to create actual communities.

It's very exciting working in this relatively new marketing environment. I can't help but feel like I'm helping businesses in ways they never realized they could be helped. Once my clients see the potential of utilizing the internet and their website to create a community around their service or their products, the excitement becomes contagious.

And our clients or customers or consumers want to do more than just consume. So much of our consumption leaves us either feeling empty or just wanting more. When we can meaningfully connect with the products or services we use, our satisfaction increases and our loyalty to that brand grows.

Besides, most of us got into our businesses for reasons greater than simply turning a profit. Shouldn't our clients/customers/consumers feel like they are playing a more important role than simply consumers? Aren't they the real reason behind all our hard work? Don't they deserve the status of community members?

Feel free to connect with me at anytime in order to discuss how I might help you create your community.

Take care everyone.

Logos for the blogosphere!

I've been tinkering with a little graphic design. My strengths usually lie within the verbal realm. But since I've been working with more and more companies on a creative basis, I've had to expand my skills. Besides, it's always nice to start a new growth curve.

Well, what do you think? Does this logo work for you? For anyone else out there experimenting with this sort of thing, I found Macromedia's Fireworks to be a very workable program. Their help files lay things out very clearly, and with a little experimentation, you too can be tapping into those creative parts of your brain that you've probably neglected for far too long.

And, if you just don't want to learn something new, give me a shout. I'll try to work something up for you.

Capitalize on that new year's momentum!

Glad to see you all made it safely back from the holidays. If you're like me, you're probably taking this time to reevaluate your efforts from this closing year and motivating to refocus your energies towards the upcoming one. These are special moments of introspection and reflection that, for most of us, come but once a year. Capitalize on this energy and recreate some aspect of your business.

Maybe your business plan needs revitalizing. Perhaps you've been putting off that website overhaul. You haven't submitted any press releases as of late. Maybe it's time to re-draw your short and medium range marketing efforts. Whatever it is, take this opportunity when the days are short and talk is of a "new year" to move both your business and your self forward.

Before you know it, it will be spring and you'll be up to your eyeballs in business matters. The time is ripe, now, to create meaningful and lasting change in both you and your business.

Good luck.

First Posting!

Hello everyone! Glad you found your way here. This entire process of taking an idea of how to improve my parents' winery all the way to starting my own eMarketing business has been tiring, no-exhausting, but also very exciting and at times exhilirating. Once I got the website up and running, I realized that my work had really just begun. Now I need to get on with the work of search engine optimization as well as blogging the start of the biz and then tracking my marketing efforts. I gotta walk the walk, now, don't I? Who would hire me if I wasn't using the exact skills I was marketing?

Thanks for stopping in. I should get another post up in a couple days or so, once the initial onslaught of set-up dies down a little. Take care of yourselves.