18 Tips for Beginner Bloggers       

1.) Choose a topic that you know, and are passionate about. This way you will never get bored and will keep your audience always interested and asking for more.
  

2.) Pick a topic where there is not a lot of competition. If your topic is too common, try addressing it from a particular angle or focus on a specific niche.  For example, there are many sites that talk about cars, but few that specialize in only one brand, and even fewer that focus on only one model. The key to be successful is to find a specific enough topic with a large enough audience.
  

3.) Contact Fasturtle; 888-468-8785, to setup a Blog account.  It’s inexpensive and a great way to promote your company.

4.) Use a minimalist philosophy, preferably using  a white background. This format is easier to read and pleasant to the eye when you combine it with color pictures.

5.) Use pictures to dress up your blog entries and give your blog a more professional appearance. You can find excellent pictures at a very low cost in istockphoto.com, or even in Flickr (don’t forget to ask the owner of the picture for permission before you use it).

6.) In one of your blog’s side columns, list six or seven links to authoritative sites related to your topic. When the search engine robots visit your blog, they will find these links and your blog will benefit by association

7.) Write in simple language, short paragraphs and using bullet points. These are essential guidelines for writing on the web, and will make your posts easier to read and understand.

8.) Always link out to the sources you use to document your posts. This is not only good etiquette but also a way to promote your blog and get links: when the people you link to find out that they’ve been linked to, they will most likely link to your post from their site or blog.

9.) Check your posts for spelling and grammatical errors. This will make your blog look more professional and will increase the probability of other people linking to it.
  

10.) Use labels to categorize your posts and keep your blog neatly organized.

11.) Participate actively in forums and discussion groups related to your topic. Find what are the most common questions and provide the answers in your blog. Then, direct forum readers to your blog. Try to also direct forum readers to other resources, or  answer without necessarily linking to your blog, sometimes. If not, you may be perceived as self serving and only interested in promoting your blog.

12.) Use HitTail to research topics to write about. HitTail gives you a list of the search terms used by those who came to your blog through a search engine. This search term list will give you ideas for future blog posts.

13.) Allow your blog readers to email your posts to other people. Also, give them the option to bookmark your posts using del.icio.us, furl, or any other social bookmarking service. You can go to  AddThis to download a smart button that makes it easy to bookmark your posts.  The easier you make it to share your blog posts, the more relevant traffic your blog will get. 
 
14.) Use Technorati tags at the end of your blog posts. Technorati tags are a way of classifying your blog posts by topic and have them added to Technorati’s index (Technorati is the most important search engine for blogs). Use this automatic Technorati tag generator to avoid having to create the HTML code manually.

15.) Syndicate your blog allowing your visitors to subscribe to your feeds through their favorite aggregator. This way, they will be automatically notified every time you update your blog.

16.) Post frequently. It is the only way to keep your audience interested and coming back. Two or three times a week is ideal. Once a week is the borderline minimum that I recommend to keep your audience engaged and maintain adequate visibility in the search engines.

17.) Keep a large number of posts in the main page of your blog. Search engine robots usually won’t crawl and index all your blog pages, however they will visit your main page frequently. The more content you keep in your main page, the bigger the chance of it popping up in the search engine results pages.
  

18.) Once your blog is established and generates abundant, relevant traffic, you can monetize more aggressively, maybe even by selling your own products.

*If you have any questions regarding Blogging, please don’t hesitate to contact Fasturtle at (480) 348-0467

WASHINGTON D.C., June 8, 2009 — Fasturtle Technologies has been selected for the 2009 Best of Scottsdale Award in the Web Site Design Service category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2009 USCA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

About U.S. Commerce Association (USCA)

U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a Washington D.C. based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USCA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

SOURCE: U.S. Commerce Association

CONTACT:
U.S. Commerce Association
Email: PublicRelations@us-ca.org
URL: http://www.us-ca.org

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Tune In Monday Morning at 8:00AM PST  
Tweet during the show and I will try to answer any questions
Listen to PURPLE COWch Internet Radio 

Thank you again Dave Brooks, Paul Redmond and the entire Fasturtle Team.

We had some interns in on Friday working on new t-shirt designs for Fasturtle. What do you think?

• You must have proven ability to reach decision makers and have strong closing skills.

• You must be willing to prospect.

• You must be effective at finding and closing new business opportunities, building relationships, and growing existing accounts.

• You must have good communication skills, be a self-starter, be client focused and money motivated.

• You should have an understanding of general business practices, marketing and advertising.

• Advertising, Internet Marketing or Website sales a plus.

• Requires a team/company player, not a loner

• Must possess a valid Arizona Driver’s License.

• You must have prior income of at least $60,000.

• You should have good organizational skills and be responsive to company and client requests.

• Working knowledge of CRM software very helpful

Fasturtle Interactive is an organization that specializes in Interactive Marketing and Website development. Fasturtle Interactive helps organizations build their brand and identity thru traditional marketing and interactive design. Website development, brand identity, off-line marketing and on-line marketing are just a few of the services that Fasturtle Interactive has to offer. Please visit www.fasturtle.com for more information on Fasturtle Interactive, one of Arizona’s fast growing Internet Marketing companies rated by Phoenix Business Journal.

We offer:
Lucrative Commission Structure
Realistic First Year Income of $60K+
Medical and Dental Benefits, 401K with company matching
Great growth potential, in a fun environment!

Fax your Resume to: Fasturtle HR Department, 480-452-0926
Reference: Account Executive
EOE M/F/D/V

Follow these easy steps to cast your vote:

1. 1. Click here to visit the Ranking Arizona website
2. 2. Click the “Search by name” option
3. 3. Type in the word “Fasturtle” and select the first option (Advertising and Marketing / Internet Marketing / Fasturtle Technologies)
4. 4. Click the button “Cast My Vote”

From all of us at Fasturtle, we sincerely thank you for your support!

We’re always on the lookout for interesting characters, leave a comment with your Twitter favorites!

What is a mood board?

The folks at 404 Creative offer the following explanation:

A mood board helps establish the branding, design components, typography, imagery, and color palettes that will be incorporated in the design.

Isn’t it just an extra step?

Content and structure are vital to building a website, but as a starting point, a mood board establishes a general design direction. Even though assembling a collage may not be the right start for every web project, a huge benefit of constructing a mood board is the ability to rapidly communicate styles in a medium other than flat-out design mockups.

Something I can really appreciate as a designer is the opportunity for the client to see into my process/vision. A lot of people in general don’t understand that there is a process behind design. Beginning the design process with a collage helps show the progression from conception to completion. By first offering a generalized solution like a mood board, we can hope to eliminate some of the frustration caused by multiple design comps and revision rounds.

Where should I start?

Mood boards can be used in all types of design, created digitally or otherwise. I prefer using them to develop a website design because it gets me out of the rut of looking at a monitor all day. I like to work hands-on, and looking to magazines and other materials for ideas offers inspiration that is truly different and unusual.

Where you you start when proposing a new design to a client? Share your comments below!

Forget Me Not

In my experience, small businesses have a fear of being forgotten, so they spill the beans — all of them. All at once. Their website homepage can quickly become cluttered with every small detail. In an attempt to capture the visitor’s attention, this tactic overwhelms the user. Usually the user leaves frustrated and confused.

Less elements asking for attention, equals more emphasis on important elements. Can you imagine your focus on raising 2 children compared to 12! There’s nothing wrong with having 12 children, but the parent with 2 will be able to focus more centralized attention. And 12 are far more expensive! Your business can take the 2 child approach, letting your readers and customers focus on what really matters, and forget the rest.

The More You Say, The More People Forget

We all have a friend who sends loads of email forwards, or talks incessantly. Michael Scott, the boss on the T.V. show the Office, is the “forward” guy. The more our forwarding-frenzied friends send, and the more they say, the less we pay attention. If another friend only sends a forward every three months, we might be more prone to read.

Our designs, ads, business cards, and sales approach say something, whether verbal, written, or visual. Do they say too much though, and too often? Humans have a natural tendency to over-emphasize.

How do I incorporate Less?

Your first goal should be unifying your message — large businesses call this an IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) plan. Adapt your message for each communication tool you use. Think of your sales pitch, your website, your business card, and determine if the messages are cloudy and/or different from each other.  Why do you think Papa John’s napkins, pizza boxes, answering message, website, and staff all share the same message? It wasn’t on accident. Being clear and concise gives you a guideline for every part of your communication plan, and emphasizes unity and simplicity.

Remove the clutter. Trying to say two things on your homepage is more focused than trying to say five. You might need to say five, but emphasize two. Work with your designer to craft a unified message on your site and collateral. The result will be more focused, smart, and simple communication.

Don’t Go Overboard with Less

The theme of this article is that less is more. I stand by my argument that less is indeed more, but, be clear enough to give the important information out. No more, no less. Being vague is just as bad as providing every detail all at once. Some customers love getting all the details (and you can provide them), just don’t let those details cloud your message.

This video should really drive home the point. Enjoy!

Microsoft redesigns the iPod package

I enjoy sharing things @jayrobinson, and we have a company Twitter account @fasturtle. We started talking about our favorite people to follow and we thought we’d share them with you.

Jay
@jasonfried - because he started 37signals and he’s probably a genius
@mike9r - smart designer and budding Cocoa enthusiast, he provides interesting links and tips
@cabel, @stevenf - the founders of Panic Inc. provide some good insight into the Apple developer community

Amanda
@creattica - consistent quality design links
@aisleone, @konigi - love their tweets and blogs for design / web tips

Paul
@snookca - keeps me up on all the latest developer news, Mac software, and productivity ideas
@cameronmoll - provides some design-related links and humor

What it boils down to is that we are folks who love the Web, and we want to meet other people who are just as passionate as us and love to share things about the Web. So follow us if you’d like, post your opinion to our new poll in the sidebar, or sound off in the comments!

We are also looking for a Account Marketing Manager. Please send your resume with cover letter to us to be reviewed. Or, check out the job posting at CareerBuilder.com →

We are also looking for a Sales Superstar. Please send your resume with cover letter to us to be reviewed. Or, check out the job posting at CareerBuilder.com →

This is the most common misconception I hear when I talk to people about e-mail marketing. Many think that the sheer volume of e-mail that we all receive on a daily basis has ruined the effectiveness of e-mail as a marketing tool. And the fact that spam has received so much attention in the news lately also hasn’t done much to instill confidence in this medium.

In my opinion, the idea that e-mail marketing is no longer effective really stems from people failing to make the distinction between spam and legitimate, permission-based e-mail marketing. While it’s true that spam is not an effective marketing tool — it never really has been — permission-based e-mail marketing continues to be a

• tremendously powerful
• easily trackable
• instantly measurable way to market your product or service.

A recent DoubleClick study reports that 69% of American e-mail users have made purchases online after receiving permission-based e-mail marketing.

That’s great news for companies who continue to use e-mail as a marketing tool. The fact that almost 70% of people have made purchases as a result of receiving an online promotional offer demonstrates that e-mail remains one of the most effective marketing tools in history.

Legislature is reviewing law to make email marketing illegal.

Marketing Myth #2: E-mail Promotions Will Damage My Credibility

There is a pervasive myth among some small- and home-based business owners that using e-mail as a promotional tool will cause subscribers and customers to have a lower opinion of your business.
Now, I’m not sure who started this rumor, but I’ll bet that it was someone who didn’t do a very professional job of putting together their own e-mail campaigns!

If you launch a poorly designed e-mail campaign, of course you will damage your credibility. The same goes for a direct mail campaign filled with spelling mistakes or an offensive newspaper advertisement. However, if you spend some time creating a well-formatted promotional e-mail that is of real value to your customers and subscribers, you will actually enhance your credibility.

In a recent report, eMarketer found that 67% of US consumers said they liked companies who, in their opinion, did a good job with permission e-mail marketing. This is proof that an e-mail marketing campaign that is well-designed and properly delivered will actually enhance your credibility among your customers and subscribers, as opposed to damage it.

The key to delivering an e-mail promotion that your opt-in list will appreciate is paying attention to quality. Here are three easy steps to ensure that your customers and subscribers receive professional, quality messages from you every time:

Make sure that your offer is directly relevant to your subscribers’ interests. If they opted-in to learn more about gardening, don’t send them offers for candles.

Be sure to proofread everything you send out at least a couple of times. And get someone else to proofread it for you as well.

Sign up for a free e-mail address at each of the most popular e-mail services, like Hotmail and Yahoo!, and test your e-mail promotions to those addresses before you send out your mailing. This will help you catch any formatting glitches that might show up in those services.

Remember, if you are selling a product or service over the Internet, e-mail is probably the only dialogue you’ll ever have with your customers and subscribers. This means that, along with your web site, your e-mail messages are the only tools you have to build trust and credibility. If you do a professional job creating and testing your e-mail messages before sending them out, your customers will get a great impression of your business and feel comfortable conducting business with you.

Marketing Myth #3: My Customers Will Think I’m Spamming Them

Here’s where we need to talk a little bit about the difference between spam and legitimate, permission-based e-mail marketing. Spam is basically unwanted e-mail that has been sent by a company with which the recipient has had no prior contact. Spammers usually get their lists of e-mail addresses by “harvesting” them from newsgroups and chat rooms, or through a wide range of other unethical sources.

Permission-based e-mail is quite the opposite. Marketers who practice this type of e-mail marketing have previously been in contact with the individuals on their opt-in lists. The people who make up their lists include current and former customers, as well as those people who have left their e-mail addresses with the company for the purpose of receiving e-mail from them — be it a free eBook, a newsletter, or promotional messages.

And studies indicate that e-mail users are well aware of the difference between the two. According to IMT Strategies, more than 80% of people feel negatively towards spam, whereas 78% of the people surveyed in a recent DoubleClick report said that they wanted to receive e-mail from their favorite online merchants.

Now, if 78% of people actually want to receive promotional e-mail from you, you’re doing terrible damage to your bottom line if you aren’t using e-mail as a marketing tool. And unless you really are spamming, you don’t need to worry that your customers will think that you are (as long as you follow a few simple rules like providing clear unsubscribe instructions). Your customers are smart enough to tell the difference.

Marketing Myth #4: People Will Unsubscribe From My List If I E-mail Them

Another really common concern among online business people is that their customers and subscribers will start unsubscribing from their list if they receive promotional e-mails. The only time these companies e-mail their customers and subscribers is when they want to notify them of some company event, like a move to a new location or a total redesign of their web site.

It’s true that if you never send any e-mail to your customers and subscribers, you won’t get any unsubscribes. There’s nothing for them to unsubscribe from! But what was the point of collecting all those e-mail addresses if you aren’t going to use them? The fact of the matter is that people who leave their e-mail addresses with you fully expect to receive e-mail from you. Why else would they have given you their contact information?

Still not convinced? According to a joint study recently released by The Direct Marketing Association and the Association of Interactive Marketing, 63% of companies surveyed reported that e-mail marketing was their most effective customer-retention tool. A “customer-retention tool” simply refers to a method of preventing your customers from buying products or services from your competition rather than you.

Customer retention is one of the most important aspects of any business. Losing a customer to your competition is very harmful to your bottom line, because one existing customer is more valuable than a list of potential customers.

And remember, a few unsubscribes here and there isn’t going to destroy your business. In fact, people who unsubscribe from your list as a result of responsible, well-written e-mail marketing campaigns are actually doing you a favor! After all, why would you want to waste your valuable time and resources on people who have no interest in your offer?

Marketing Myth #5: E-mail Campaigns Are Difficult To Design And Deliver, manage the process

Whenever I’m talking with someone who insists that e-mail marketing doesn’t work, I always ask them if they’ve ever actually tried it themselves. Most of them admit that they haven’t. When asked why they haven’t tried it themselves, the answer is almost always the same: They think that the process of creating and sending out an e-mail promotion is too complicated or too difficult.

Those of us who do use e-mail as a successful marketing tool know that nothing could be further from the truth. Once you’ve learned the basics, the process is a breeze. And there are new tools being created all the time that make the process even easier.

When we conducted a comprehensive survey of our customers and subscribers, we asked what some of the biggest challenges you faced as marketers were. Here are the three most common answers:

• Growing and Managing Your Opt-In List
• Writing Effective E-mail Promotions
• How to Avoid Having Your Legitimate E-mail Promotions Mistaken For Spam

Final Thought

Armed with some basic information and a few simple tools, any business can make e-mail a profitable component of their marketing program. The truth about e-mail marketing is that it remains an incredibly powerful and cost-effective way to sell goods and services, despite what the people behind the myths would have us believe.

The key to making e-mail advertising work for your business lies in understanding how it can help you build and maintain relationships with your customers (and customers-to-be). The responsible use of permission-based e-mail will allow you to tap into the profit-generating potential of your opt-in list more efficiently — and cost-effectively — than any other marketing tool.

And of course, we can’t forget our great company newsletter of the same name, TurtleTalk! It shows up every month so sign up now in the form at the bottom of the site. We promise no spam, and you can unsubscribe in one-click.

See you out there!

As of January 1st, Fasturtle Technologies is renamed Fasturtle Interactive. Don’t worry… we’ve been around since 2000 and we’re not going anywhere but up! Along with the new name, we’ve got a refreshed logo to share with you.

Our goals for the new year include improving accessibility for everyone, optimizing websites for mobile use, ensuring all work is standards-compliant, and developing quality content for our blog.

What goals do you have for 2009? Write your comment below!