January 30, 2008
OK if there were ever a project, I wish I had done, it would be this – 23 Things on a Stick (http://23thingsonastick.blogspot.com). It’s a self-directed tutorial on Web 2.0 applications. (For readers outside of Minnesota – we put everything on a stick at our State Fair and I presume that’s the etymology of the name.)
Anyways, the first task on the tutorial is to start a blog (so I’m going to cheat and use Byte of the Week http://byteoftheweek.wordpress.com/). In fairness, I’ve done a bunch of the tasks already – but there are a few I haven’t so I’m excited to get going on it. I won’t send emails on my progress, but I will post updates on the blog.
You can see a list of the 23 things here:
http://23thingsonastick.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-are-23-things-on-stick.html
Anyone can lurk around the event. It looks like official participation is limited to folks related to libraries, but I think they’re pretty loose with their definition. If you really want to participate and don’t have a library affiliation, please let me know and I’ll hook you up. If you decide to participate – please let me know.
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23 Things on a Stick, Web 2.0 | 
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Posted by Ann Treacy
January 23, 2008
Generally I’m not a big fan of music playing in the background of a web site. You just never know if the visitor might be sneaking a peek during a staff meeting or having a sleeping child nearby.
But sometimes music can be fun. Recently I created a fun online holiday card for a resort and we used some music in the background. To do it, I had to find royalty free music and I thought I’d share the site:
We used a clip from this Christmas site: http://feelslikechristmas.com It was free.
For a wide range of music: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free The music is free, a donation of $5 is suggested, which is darned close to free.
Another good range, of fee-based music: http://www.musicbakery.com
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Posted by Ann Treacy
January 21, 2008
Last year I worked with Ferguson Financial Group on their web site. Specifically, I performed research on the best keywords for them to use on their web site. They used those keyword terms in their titles tags and in the content throughout their site.
They recently contacted me for a checkup. I was pleased to see how well they were doing for “certified financial planner Minneapolis” with the search engines – but their focus had changed a bit – and they added a great new financial articles/blog section to their site.
So I renewed the research related to financial terms and now they’re focusing on wealth management and made some changes to highlight the articles section.
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Posted by Ann Treacy
January 19, 2008
I just finished a new look for Timber Bay Lodge & Houseboats. We created a bunch of new tours too – so you can get a look at the inside of the houseboats and cabins.
The goal of the redesign was twofold. First, we wanted an updated look. Second, and this is mostly me, the old site backend included a lot of files in folders, which I think can make pages more difficult for the search engines to find. So I flattened the infrastructure of the backend significantly.
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Posted by Ann Treacy
January 9, 2008
I had an email this week from someone who was considering an online shop. They wondered if they could do it themselves. So I wrote up two routes to take. I thought some of the Byte readers might be interested too.
Open a Yahoo Store
You don’t have to know html. You set up your shop by completing their online forms, which might include selecting background colors and layout, uploading photos, and choosing your shipping options.
The starter package starts at $40/month with a $50 start up. There is also a 1.5% transaction fee. There are a couple of services similar to Yahoo but I think they are basically the same. Here’s more info on the Yahoo options: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/plans.php
The online shops can look quite nice. The monthly rates can seem high if you don’t make any sales. If you want to save money or want to do it yourself I think this is a good option.
Use PayPal
Again there are a range of similar services, but I’ll use this specific as a blanket description. You do need to know some html. The assumption is that you would have a web site. Maybe you created it, maybe someone else created it.
PayPal will only handle the e-commerce transactions. On PayPal you answer a series of questions such as price, options, tax and shipping costs. They will give you the code to paste into your site that will show up as a “buy now” type button. (So you need to know enough html code to paste that code into your page.) Once someone clicks on that they will get to a PayPal site, which you can customize to some degree, and the transaction will take place there. Once the transaction is complete, they will be sent to a confirmation page back on your site. Learn more: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-overview-outside
There is no setup or monthly fees. The transaction fee starts at about 2.6%. People are comfortable with the PayPal name, but the transaction isn’t exactly seamless. Users will recognize that they are using a PayPal process.
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Posted by Ann Treacy
January 9, 2008
Today we launched the new and improved Britz Store Equipment web site. Britz sells commercial equipment, such as work tables, sinks, and walk-in coolers to grocery stores, restaurants, delis, and shops like that. They have a good looking site. We didn’t make any significant changes to the site layout or look. Their trouble stemmed from the fact that the web site was created almost entirely from graphics – so the search engines didn’t have enough text to define the site. So their ranking wasn’t as high as it could be.
As I said, the new site launched today so we’ll keep an eye on how Google feels about their new use of text over imgages.
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Posted by Ann Treacy
January 2, 2008
Squidoo (http://www.squidoo.com) is a web site that lets you build one-page web sites quickly and easily. The idea is that everyone is an expert on something – and Squidoo is the place to showcase that expertise. Squidoo will put ads on your page – but they will give you commission on the clicks on your ads or you can donate your commission to a charity.
You can set up a Squidoo in 7 steps – not experience building web sites is required. Most of the steps include one or two quick questions. The hardest part, especially if you’re just writing an article to test the tool, is to write the article. Here’s my test Squidoo: http://www.squidoo.com/mnresorts
I hope everyone has a safe and prosperous New Year!!
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Posted by Ann Treacy
