Matt McCabe

Client Focus: Oregon Dairy Industries

Matt — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:12:47 +0000

http://www.oregondairy.org

Recently, Oregon Dairy Industries needed some help moving over to a new web host. We purchased a new domain at GoDaddy, set up a new hosting account, and migrated the site. After we were sure the new site was working and updated, we turned off the old hosting account and transferred the old domain name to the new hosting platform. Now, both OregonDairy.org and OregonDairyIndustries.org point to the new web space. When this was finished, we decided the site could use a little graphic update, so we did that, too. Need help migrating your site to a new hosting account? Contact us today!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Can you make a website I can manage myself? I don’t know anything!

Matt — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:49:26 +0000

As much as websites have gotten easier, there's still some things that you have to know how to do. Knowing HTML is a good place to start. Knowing how to compress images for web display is a good second skill. If you don't know either... Let's just say that you're driving on bald tires. You can probably go for a few hundred miles, but I'm not riding in the car with you. If your site is a blog and somebody else designed it for you, you can probably get by posting new articles, but if your site is more complicated - like a shopping cart, for instance - you're eventually going to need some backup. You really have two choices... Options for Running Your Own Website

Hire a Webmaster. Get someone on retainer that knows some web design, or at the very least some HTML and PhotoShop skill. When you get over your head (believe me, it will happen), you'll be glad you have someone you can call on. This can be your very knowledgeable nephew. I don't care. Just have somebody.
Start Getting Your Learn On. You have a long road ahead of you. Make sure you block out some time. You need to learn Photoshop (or an alternative program to compress images for web display) and you need to learn HTML. You can learn HTML in about a month with a good book. Photoshop is a bit easier to learn (at least for what you'll be doing), but the price tag is pretty hefty. $650, to be exact. Yes, yes, there are cheaper alternatives. You can investigate those. That will just take more research time.

What I'm really getting to here is simple. I assume if you're running your own website business, your time is money. I know mine is. Spending hours learning a new skill is hours that I'm not earning money. Now, if that skill will make me money, it might be a worthwhile endeavor. If it will only save me money, then it's probably not worth it. I'd much rather pay a guy to fix my car than learn how to fix it myself. I'd much rather pay a guy to do my accounting than figure it out myself. I'd much rather... well, you get the point.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

“I can give you a ton of referrals! Can I get a special rate?”

Matt — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:13:40 +0000

This one is tough, and I would imagine that it comes up for anyone that works freelance. Clients obviously can’t afford what you’re charging and they ask for a special rate because they “know people”. Why is this so common? I can give you some examples of where this kind of question does not come up…

5 Places You Can’t Get a Referral Discounts

The Doctor’s Office. You really need a heart transplant. You tell the doctor that your father might need one, too. Can he give you a discount?

A Car Mechanic. Scenario: Your transmission died. You get a quote from the mechanic. After calming your racing heartbeat, you ask, “If I can get four people to get their brakes done at your shop, can you lower my price?”

Power Company. You call your local power company. You tell the operator that you could totally sign up your neighbors for their service. Ask for a discount.

Grocery Store. Go to the manager of a store. Tell him that you have lots of friends that you’re sure will want to buy apples at his or her store. Ask if you can get a discount on *your* apples.

Your job. You go to your boss and say, “I can direct you toward lots of people who would love to work for you. Can I have a raise?” Depending on the industry, this may or may not work.

These situations might seem laughable to you. In some very rare situations, they might work. Are you the kind of person that might try this kind of thing?

I’m not that kind of person. I don’t haggle. I don’t ask for discounts. I try not to associate with people that would do this kind of thing. Why, then, do I keep getting these kinds of questions?

This kind of question is a back-handed compliment. It says, “I don’t feel that your services are worth what you’re charging.” It also says, “I think you’re a nice, gullible sucker. You seem like the kind of person who would believe my little story and give me a discount.” It also says, “Wow, you must be desperate for work. If just the ‘promise’ of more work will get me a discount, you must be hurting!”

Furthermore, you’re already changing my opinion of your friends. In my experience, the people that push for a discount are also fairly difficult to work with, as clients. If you are a difficult person, why would I want work from your friends and family?

So here’s a statement: I do quality work. I charge what I am worth. If, after you are happy with my work, you would love to refer someone, that would be great. I get most of my business from referrals. I am not hurting for extra work. No, there are no discounts. Go online and you will find hundreds of foreign freelancers who will fall all over themselves to do your project for pennies. Good luck with that. I’ll be here to redo your failed project.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

What is a Podcast?

Matt — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:03:13 +0000

I simply can't say it better than the folks at Common Craft. This is the "Next Big Thing," people. If you have a good, viral podcast, you will have a great marketing tool!

Yes, yes... you may have noticed that I have yet to start one... I'm working on that!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Can I Pay for a Higher Listing on Google?

Matt — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:48:58 +0000

I get this call all the time. A client was just contacted by email or by a salesman on the phone. They were promised that they could get a higher ranking in Google if they paid some "service"... and the rate wasn't cheap. If you gave me half of what you're about to pay them, I'll increase your Google rank and keep you there.

That's really the key point here. Yes, there are ways to trick Google into giving you a higher ranking. But that's just it. They're tricks. The folks at Google are pretty big with the learnin'. How would you like to wake up one day and find that your site has plummeted in your Google listing, or worse yet... been removed entirely from the search engine?!

It is possible to get banned entirely from Google. How would *that* affect your business?

Here's an example of primitive tricks they used to pull in the "olden days" (circa 1995):

5 Ways to Get Kicked off Google

1. Use lots of keywords on your site that have nothing to do with your site. Lots of people use the words "sex" and "nude" and "Britney Spears" on search engines. Please don't be offended here, but if someone typed those things into a search engine and they found your website, do you think they'd be likely to stick around?

2. "Hide" keywords by putting black text on a black background. This is just silly, but you could (people did) hide text out of sight. That way, you wouldn't offend people, and "steal" a higher search engine ranking. This is much like the first way to get kicked off Google. Search engines actively look for "same colored" text on "same colored" background... they single them out to not be included on search results.

3. Use the same keywords over and over and over and over and... over. I sound like I'm repeating myself (I am), but if you sell tires and your competition sells tires, you might reason that you could get a higher ranking by using the word "tires" a lot. What if your keywords had the word tires repeated 25 times? Don't do it. Just don't. That's lame. How about a diversity of words? Pull out a dictionary. Pull out a thesaurus. They were introduced in grade school for just this point in your life. Seize the opportunity.

4. Create or link to a "link farm". At one time, your search engine ranking was based solely on how many sites were linked to you. Because of this, sites and services cropped up to merely link to your site. They would have links to hundreds of other sites, and this would boost your ranking, because you would be linked to hundreds of sites. Well, besides this being very dishonest, it just doesn't work anymore. Your search engine "reputation" depends largely on the "reputation" of the sites you are linked to. Link farm sites, once identified, are given a very low reputation. If you hang with the "bad kids" you become a "bad kid" as well. Be careful.

5. Allow hackers to manipulate your site. If you have a forum or take comments on your site, you will start to get spam comments. A lot of these are just mindless spam robots, but some of them are downright nasty. A hacker can put code into a comment field to try and attack computers that display the comment. Although this isn't something an SEO company will do for you (at least, I certainly hope not), this is another danger you need to look out for. Whatever software you are using for your forum or blog or content management system should have a way to filter/restrict/moderate comments. Use them. If you don't understand, either hire a webmaster or do some research. If you get booted from Google, it's hard to get back on.

Bottom line... you don't have to resort to hiring a "Search Engine Optimization" company to improve your ranking on Google. If a website is built the right way and properly maintained, it will naturally improve in the eyes of a search engine. If you offer relevant information or sell products people want, you will have no problem getting the traffic you need. Period. Get people talking. Interact with your peers online. Make sure your site has solid, standards-compliant code. Success will follow, both in and out of the search engines.

Next time you get this spam in your inbox or unsolicited call on your phone, ignore it and move on. Look there! I just saved you loads of money!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites