June 2011 – CityMax Small Business Website Builder Blog

4 Common Computer Fixes

June 24, 2011June 23, 2011 admin 1 Comment

When something goes wrong, it’s natural to want to ask for help from someone you feel is an expert especially when it comes to computers and software programs. However, there are a few simple tricks for fixing some problems that anyone can do. Below, I’ll go over how to do each one and why they can make a difference.

1. Undo a previous action

If everything had been working fine for a long time, but suddenly stopped working, think back to the last action you did before things broke. If possible, try and undo it. I’ve seen this commonly happen when a person tries to copy in code or some other information that they found on another site and put it on their CityMax.com website. Try to go back to your editing page and remove the code or snippet of information.

If your editing button isn’t working, it may be the new code you put in has broken the button. If this happens, go to “EDIT SITE” -> “MY PAGES” -> click the “EDIT” button beside your page. The code only breaks the page it’s posted on, but “MY PAGES” is a different page and may therefore get you access to edit.

2. Delete your cookies

A cookie is a small file that saves information like your login, so as you navigate your website, you don’t have to log into every page. Without a cookie, your computer wouldn’t be able to remember any information you might want to carry forward to other pages.

Why would you want to delete your cookies? Sometimes cookies become corrupted and cause problems with login or other actions, so they need to be deleted. Corruption can happen when your computer is trying to save a cookie file, but your browser crashes (e.g. Internet Explorer stops working suddenly), you lose your internet connection or for many other reasons. Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal and you can fix the problem.

How you delete your cookies depends on which browser and version you’re on (e.g. Internet Explorer 7.0). To find out which one you’re on, go to http://www.thismachine.info. Next, do a search on Google for “delete cookies” and your browser and version number.

3. Clear your browser cache

Your browser cache is a folder on your computer that keeps copies of pages (images, text, etc.) you’ve already visited online. If you go back to an already visited page, instead of having to download the page again, your computer will draw it from your cache. This makes your page display faster.

As your cache grows with more and more saved items, it may start slowing down your browser. In other cases, you may want to see a newer version of a page, but your computer keeps drawing the page it saved instead.

From time to time, delete everything in your browser cache (this is also called “emptying your cache” or “clearing your cache”). Depending on your browser and version, the instructions vary. Go to http://www.thismachine.info to find out what browser you’re on. Next, do a search on Google for “clear browser cache” plus your browser and version number.

4. Restart your computer

Sometimes the best fix is to turn your computer off and then turn it back on. When computers haven’t been restarted in a long time, sometimes they start to act oddly: programs are slow, pages freeze, clicking on something doesn’t work, etc. Restarting your computer clears out everything in your trash and all your programs by default have to be reloaded. This can fix a lot of issues.

Hopefully, these fixes may help you troubleshoot some of the problems you encounter on your computer. If you’re still stuck, contact the support team and remember to follow the 7 tips for better customers support.

7 Tips for Getting Better Customer Support

June 21, 2011June 23, 2011 admin 1 Comment

When you need help with an online application, a customer support representative can be your best friend. Your expectation is to have speedy help and a solution that works. But, did you know that you can greatly improve the service you get? You might be thinking: “This is where they tell me to be more courteous.” Sure, that’s always greatly appreciated, but I’m actually referring to providing information in your help request that will make fixing your problem faster.

Here’s information that will help customer service agents help you:

1. Include the web address of the problem page

This will save the support agent from having to look through all your pages for the right page and prevent any misunderstandings about which page is the problem. To get the web address, you will want to copy (highlight and press CTRL+C) and paste (press CTRL+V) the web address into your request for help. Usually it starts with http.

The web address of a page is near the top of your browser window

2. Include your login name

This information may help the support agent verify you are the owner of the website. Although they may have a way to look up your login name through your web address, it’s just another way to save them time so they can help you more quickly. On CityMax.com, you don’t need to include your login name if you have logged into your site and clicked on the SUPPORT link at the top.

3. Describe step-by-step what happened

Specifically, what actions did you do just prior to the problem occurring? What did you click on? Were there any options that you selected? Make it possible for the support agent to do the exact same steps as you to recreate the issue so they can see it firsthand.

4. Explain what you did to try and fix the problem

In some cases, you may have extra information that will help the support agent. You do not have to test your problem thoroughly, but it may be helpful to know the following information: Does this problem happen on more than just this one page? Has this problem occurred before? Did you change anything on the page recently before the problem occurred on it? Did you try to delete your cache or cookies or restart your computer (more on this in my next blog post)?

5. Copy and paste in any error messages

If an error message comes up whether directly in your web page or pops up from your computer, copy and paste exactly what it says into your message to your support agent.

6. Indicate which web browser you’re using

Web browsers are what you use to access the Internet. The most common ones are: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. They do not operate the same and on the programming side sometimes require special snippets of code to deal with different tasks. In addition to telling the support agent which one you’re using, the version of your browser also matters. Every now and then, a browser will be updated with new capabilities and improvements and they’ll go up a version from say 2.0 to 3.0. You can find out which versions you’re on by going to http://www.thismachine.info. As soon as you go there, it will automatically tell you your browser and version number.

7. Attach a picture

In some cases, a picture of what’s on your screen may be helpful. To do this on a PC, while the problem page is showing on your screen, press SHIFT+PrtScn to take a screenshot of everything that you see. Then, open Microsoft Word (also ok on Graphics programs) and paste (CTRL+V) in your screenshot. Save and include the file in your request for help. On a MAC, press COMMAND+SHIFT+3 and this will save the screenshot as an image file on your computer.

Here’s an example of a support request with just the right amount of details:

Hi,

I uploaded an image (tourist.jpg in my Tours Folder) without any problems, but when I posted it on page http://www.newyorktours.citymax.com/about_us.html, it looks distorted. I tried resizing it to 400 x 300 but the image looks stretched out. I left the image up there for you to take a look at it.

I didn’t have problems resizing and posting another image this way at http://www.newyorktours.citymax.com/testimonials.html (tourgroup.jpg in my Tours Folder).

login: newyorktours
browser: IE 7.0

Thanks,
Emily

As a former customer support agent and manager, my goal is to make sure you get timely help and walk away a happy customer. Hopefully these tips will help you get better and faster customer support.

In my next post, I’ll go over some common fixes so you may not need a customer support agent at all.

What to Put On a Restaurant Website

June 17, 2011June 17, 2011 admin 3 Comments

If you’re building a restaurant website or thinking of revamping your current restaurant website, here are suggestions on what to include:

Menu – If you have different options for lunch, dinner, etc., put them each on their own page. Show pictures of your most popular menu items. Post your wine list, cocktail list and/or beer list especially if you have an excellent selection. If you cater to special diets like gluten-free or you have a children’s menu, include these too. For food items with exotic names, explain what the meal is in plain English. Don’t forget to post the prices of each item.

Location – Post your address and a map to your restaurant (on CityMax.com, use the Map layout). Include information about parking like the cost of valet service or the best places to get street parking.

Hours – Post the opening hours of your restaurant. A good idea is to show this on your home page.

Reservations – List all the different ways a reservation can be made such as: phone, fax, online or via email request. For online reservations, OpenTable is the most popular third party provider for this or you can go the simple route of a fill-in-the-blanks form (on CityMax, use the Custom Feedback Form layout).

Private Dining – This section is for detailing any private rooms you have available for functions. Post photos of each room. Include a floor plan and graphics of how the room can be set up with long tables, round tables, U-shaped configurations, etc. Include the maximum number of people that fit for each seating arrangement or a stand up reception. Link to set menus that are available and your canapes/hors d’oeuvres list. Some groups may require a microphone, podium and/or video set up so if you provide these services, include pricing for them. Lastly, post contact information for arranging a private room.

Catering – Make sure to include your catering services. A price list with all menu items should be posted as well as whether delivery is available and in what area.

Twitter/Facebook – If your restaurant has an active Twitter account or Facebook page, post the logos with links to your account/page on your home page.

About the Restaurant– You may want to include some information about your restaurant history especially if it’s been around for a long time. If there are special architectural details, you may want to describe it here. It may help a potential customer who is looking for a particular ambiance to decide if your restaurant is right for their event. Make sure to include photos of the inside and outside of your restaurant.

About the Team – This section is valuable if the owners or chefs are well-known. Include a photo of each person or a group picture with a short description of each person. In particular, the chef’s culinary background should be included.

Awards, Reviews and Testimonials – Logos for awards your restaurant has won are great to post on your homepage. Have a separate page for reviews by established critics. For easier reading, include just a few sentences of each review and then link to the full article. Make sure to include who wrote the review and what newspaper, magazine or blog they represent. This increases your credibility. On another page, post testimonials by customers. You can collect testimonials through a feedback form on your site (on CityMax, use the Customer Feedback Form layout) or include a comment card when you give customers their bill.

Contact – Often, visitors to your site may be in a hurry to get a phone number, address or other contact information for your restaurant. A Contact section will speed up their time. If you have separate contact information for media inquiries, private bookings, employment opportunities, etc., post each of these too.

Optional Information – Depending on what is important to you, here’s a list of other items you can post on your site:

gift cards
link to your blog
cook book
recipes
charity work
sustainability initiatives
photos with famous guests to your restaurant
events (e.g. Mother’s Day brunch)
gallery (photos taken at your restaurant)
take out/delivery
job opportunities

Aside: Say “No” to Flash – A website can be designed using Adobe Flash software which is a popular way of having animated graphics on your site. It does make pages look fancy, but the reality is that you give up a lot in order to have it. iPads and iPhones will not show your pages properly. Depending on how you have set up your pages with Flash, only one page of your site may get listed on search engines. The main reason to not use Flash is your customers don’t care if there are animations on your page, they are looking for information.

The tips in this article are based on a study of 100 restaurants and my 12 years of experience in the website building industry.

Lessons From “The Art of Marketing Conference”

June 15, 2011June 15, 2011 admin

Last Thursday, I went to the Art of Marketing Conference and thought I’d share some of what I learned:

Be where your customers already are

If your customers or potential customers frequent a particular website, discussion board, etc., you should be there in some meaningful way too.

Post reviews of your products

You’re out with friends and one of them tells you about a product they think is amazing. Now, you’re thinking about getting it for yourself, but if you’re like 75 to 80 percent of people, you’ll search online for reviews about it first.

Testimonials, positive and negative, can help you make sales. Even the negative ones may reinforce buying a product. For example, you want a simple camera for taking photos without a lot of buttons. A professional photographer posts how they dislike a camera because it’s too simple for them and doesn’t have a lot of functions. Now, you know you’ve found a camera that’s perfect for you.

Create a workplace that reflects your company values

Ask yourself: What can you do in your workplace to get your staff to care more? At CityMax, for example, we encourage people to always be learning new skills. The result is we have an unlimited book budget for anything that will help you with your work directly or indirectly. I’ve seen people with books on business, psychology, creativity, programming and design.

Send the perfect thank-you gift

When you want to thank a customer, instead of sending the usual gifts, you can go one step further. Check their tweets (search their name at search.twitter.com) and see if they’ve got any special interests like a baseball team. Then, you can send them a thank-you card with a gift catered to them like a baseball jersey. This may be particularly useful to do with a customer who brings in a lot of repeat business. They’ll remember you better and they have a great story to tell about how they got the gift.

Test a marketing campaign before you launch it

Before you spend lots of money on a marketing campaign, test it as much as you can beforehand. For example, Google posted several videos for people to view for a future television ad. One stood out in terms of likes and views compared to all others. That video ended up being used for their Superbowl commercial — they bet on a sure winner. Here’s the video:

What Small Businesses Can Learn from LEGO

June 10, 2011June 15, 2011 admin

Last week, I was talking to a co-worker about LEGO and it got me thinking about how brilliantly LEGO has expanded. Here are some things that every small business owner could learn from them:

1. Look outside your primary market

Originally, Lego was geared toward boys until 1971 when they introduced furniture pieces and dollhouses for girls. LEGO also added the Duplo product line (essentially large-sized lego) for pre-school kids. Like LEGO, you should keep an eye out for new opportunities for your products outside your traditional buyers.

2. Use your product to help others

Since the 1960’s, teachers used LEGO as a learning tool. By 1980, the LEGO group caught on and established the Educational Product Department to expand the educational possibilities of using LEGO. When your product has a learning component to it, you may want to offer it free to schools and/or community centers. People will talk about it and since they’re already used to your products, they’re most likely to buy it for their own private use too.

3. Keep on top of industry and mainstream news

In 1985, with the ever increasing popularity of computers, LEGO introduced the Technic Computer Control. It allowed Technic robots, trucks and other motorized LEGO toys to be controlled by a computer. As a small business owner, it’s important to read up on what’s happening not only in your industry but what’s becoming mainstream. It may help you find inspiration for new product ideas and prevent your product from getting outdated.

4. Form partnerships with complementary companies

Nowadays, it’s common to see movie-themed LEGO sets like Harry Potter and Star Wars. You can also find LEGO video games and story books. The company smartly formed partnerships with products that suited their brand and you can do the same. Ask your regular customers for ideas or brainstorm your own from time to time.

5. Embrace your fans

LEGO has encouraged and embraced hardcore LEGO builders through competitions and clubs. In 1988, LEGO held the first ever LEGO World Cup building contest. You can also see LEGO exhibits and subscribe to the LEGO Club Magazine. When you notice your customers are banding together to use your product, look for ways to help them to connect with each other. It could be as simple as a discussion board on your website (on CityMax, add layout “Message Board”) or hosting meet ups for customers to share ideas.

If there’s a company that you aspire to be like, check online for their story.

How to Get Free Publicity During Sporting Events

June 7, 2011June 6, 2011 admin

Big time sporting events like the Superbowl or World Series are opportunities for small businesses to get free publicity. I live in Vancouver where our hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks, are in the Stanley Cup finals against the Boston Bruins. News outlets are going crazy right now for anything related to the Canucks.

Here are some examples of different strategies to draw publicity to your product or service during a major sporting event:

1. Change your store name temporarily

The Shark Club changes it’s name to the Vancouver Club temporarily

In one of the Canucks’ playoff series, they played the San Jose Sharks, so one of the most popular sports bars in Vancouver changed it’s name. The General Manager actually received lots of requests from patrons to change the name so he made the change while at the same time garnering free publicity. Shortly thereafter, all B.C. locations changed their name.

Boston Pizza changes it’s name to Vancouver Pizza

Pizza chain, Boston Pizza, got into the act too when the Canucks were set to play Boston. All locations in B.C. rebranded their store names including the Boston Pizzas in the Canucks’ home arena.

2. Serve food inspired by your team

May I have a Sedin Twin Burger please?

At Vancouver’s Opus Hotel, the executive chef made a burger inspired by 2 players from the Canucks team. You can also have it served with a Henrik to Daniel Drop Shot.

Local cookie company makes Canucks cookies

I showed up for work this morning to a table full of Canucks cookies from Sweet Chic’s Cookies. The perfect gift for a Canucks viewing party.

3. Make a bet with a similar business to yours in the opposing team’s city

Mayors, Governors, Premiers and Parks make bets

Politicians always seem to be getting publicity for stunts like this so why not you? On a creativity scale, they are usually on the tame side (clam chowder for Pacific salmon…boooooring!). I personally think making the losing mayor wear a spandex green suit (taken from 2 dedicated Canucks fans known as the Green Men) would have been far more entertaining as first proposed by the Vancouver mayor. The Vancouver mayor also used twitter to get ideas from locals on what to bet. It was another way to draw more publicity by starting a conversation with constituents.

God and the friendly wager

I must admit this is pretty forward thinking of the Roman Catholic archbishops of Vancouver and Boston to make a bet. The losing archbishop must make a donation to a charity and don the opposing team’s jersey in church on Sunday.

What I would like to see…

Two tour boat operators bet that the losing company pays to have one of the winning company’s boats painted in the winning team’s colors. Bet that boat will be popular with locals and tourists when they see it.

Two laundromat owners bet that the losing owner has to donate $200 in quarters for patrons of the winning team. Both owners should also deck out their locations with their team’s colors. The winning team will get tons of people doing laundry that day.

A floral shop uses flowers to recreate their team’s logo in their window.

An electronics rental store offers local community and cultural centers the chance to enter a draw where the winner gets a free setup of a large screen to watch the game.

Important: Tell the media!

Lastly, make sure you benefit from your efforts and contact the media. Start with local community papers and then work your way up to any media person or blogger you can find. Just remember when you’re telling them your idea to keep it short and punchy.

What Makes a Great Company Tagline?

June 3, 2011June 3, 2011 admin 2 Comments

Did you know your company tagline can help you get new customers online? Let’s pretend you’re looking for a product on Google. You type in some search words and a long list of links appear below. You click on the first one and immediately scan the page to see if what you’re looking for is on the site.

If you can’t find it after a certain amount of time, you leave and try the next link. According to a Jakob Nielsen study, visitors will stay just 27 seconds before moving onto another site. Your goal is to make it as fast as possible for a visitor to figure out if you have what they want.

An effective tagline can be a big help. It always amazes me how so many of them are generic. Can you guess what either of these companies do?

Quality Service Pros
Approved professionals you can trust

Griswold
Quality. Value. Delivery.

What if I changed them to:

Quality Service Pros
SW Florida’s guide to finding the best contractors

Griswold Pump Company
Designer and manufacturer of centrifugal pumps

Unless your company is a well known brand like Coca Cola or MacDonald’s, follow these tips for creating a great company tagline for your website:

1. Clearly state what your company does.

2. If you only service a specific area, include it in your tagline (or at least somewhere near the top of your page).

3. Keep it as short as possible.

4. Use simple words that are easy to understand.

Remember, you want someone who knows nothing about your company to immediately understand what you sell. Try writing lots of taglines and let a variety of people tell you which one they like best.

5 Tips on Where to Insert Keywords

June 1, 2011June 15, 2011 admin 9 Comments

From my last 2 posts, you learned how to find keywords and got 47 blog topics for your small business. The next step is to insert your keywords into your CityMax site or blog post.

Before you start inserting your keywords, just a reminder that people will be reading what you write so make sure you don’t sacrifice writing flow to insert your keywords. Your end goal after all is to provide useful information so people will make a purchase and keep coming back to your website.

Here are the different places you can insert keywords:

1. Page content

Put your keywords into your writing. In particular, try to include them into your page headings and subheadings as experts believe putting them there gives them extra weight to the search engines. Generally, you want keywords to appear in 3% of the words on your page — this is called keyword density. You can use a free tool like KeywordDensity.com to analyze your page.

2. Image filenames and ALT tags

When you post an image, put keywords into the filename, but remember to put underscores or dashes between words. For example, if your keyword is “broadway musical” you might use filename broadway_musical.jpg. Additionally, put your keywords into your ALT tags (alternate text that appears when you mouse over an image) for your images. Since this text shows, make sure the text is relevant to your image.

On CityMax, click on the button. Select an image and make sure to fill out the box under “Alternative Text” (this is your ALT tag information). Here I’ve targeted “chess strategy” as a keyword:

Put keywords into your image's ALT (alternative) text

3. Links to your page

Put keywords into link text that is going to your page. For example, at the top of this post, I’ve posted link 47 blog topics for your small business. One of the keywords for the page I linked to is “blog topics” so I made sure to include that text in my link.

4. Title tags, meta description and meta keywords

When title tags are inserted in the coding for a page, your title tag information appears at the top of your browser window and/or browser tab.

Your meta description and meta keywords are also in your page’s coding. They’re not visible on your page. They tell search engines that review your page what your page is about. The meta description is a description in sentence form of your page content. The meta keywords are a list of keywords describing your page.

Generally, meta tags don’t carry much weight with the search engines like they did in the past. This is because people spammed them with their keywords to the point where they weren’t a useful summary of a page anymore. However, it’s still good to include them. To make them more relevant, I recommend only 1 sentence for the meta description and 4 to 6 keywords for your meta keywords for each page.

Another important point about your title tag and meta description is that they appear on Google when someone does a search for a page. For example, I did a search for “music lessons seattle” and the link was drawn from the page’s title tag (highlighted yellow) and the description from the meta description (highlighted pink):

On CityMax, you can set this up by clicking “Edit Page” and then “Properties.” In the pop-up, click on the “Meta Tags” tab.

Put keywords in your title tags and meta tags

5. Web address (URL)

As part of your web address, insert your keywords. For example, on CityMax you can customize each page’s web address by clicking “Edit Page,” then “Properties” and lastly “Main” tab. If your keyword is “new york walking tours,” you could have web address www.happynewyorkertours.com/new_york_walking_tours.html.

You now have the tools to write great articles for your site, find relevant keywords for your webpages and insert the keywords into your webpages.