MaineBusiness.com

Tourism's New Math: What Maine's Tourist Economy Needs Now

There's a front page article in the PPH today about a new method of calculating tourism's impact on the Maine economy, and a lot of people aren't happy about it. It's hard to know what the impact will be, but as the article notes,

If tourism promotion doesn't appear to be generating as much
bang for the buck as previously thought, [Vaughn Stinson, chief executive officer of the
Maine Tourism Association] said,
lawmakers could be less supportive of continued funding. His
concern is heightened by the state's budget shortfall.

The bottom line is that companies involved in the tourist industry here in Maine may be getting less support from the MTA, because there's less money to be spent on tourism marketing. This impacts ski resorts, hotels, B&B's, snow mobile rentals, restaurants, and a thousand other businesses that are part of or support the tourist industry.

If I were in tourism I would be planning ahead. Hopefully the funding will still be there, but the possible slack must be picked up by individual businesses. No surprise, but I'd be blogging, developing one or more email newsletters, budgeting money for search engine optimization, and reviewing my Web site based on my analytics. I'd be creating a presence on Facebook and MySpace. In short, I'd be preparing for the worst.

Even if the funding comes in at last year's levels, businesses that are marketing themselves--especially in a recession--will be in a better position to take advantage of it.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Maine Businesses

12 Web Marketing Ideas to Jump Start Your Business

You know those "new" episodes of your favorite TV show when a character gets hit by a car, and then all their friends gather by their bed side and retell their favorite stories through a series of clips?

Welcome to my clip show.

Here's a quick list of the 12 articles we published in flyte log, our monthly Web marketing ezine:

• Your 2008 Web Marketing Plan
• How to Use Social Media to Reach New Customers
• Business Blog Success: 10 Tips for a Profitable Blog
• Increase Your Search Engine Visibility: Three Things You Can Do Today
• Nine Indispensable Online Tools for Your Web-Based Business
• Four Tips to Maximize Your Email Marketing Results
• The Secret to a Web Site That Sells
• Six Blogging Myths That Are Holding You Back
• The Dangers of Relying on Google for Business
• Holistic Web Marketing: An Integrated Approach to Online Success
• Tracking Conversions: Does Your Web Site Turn Suspects into Prospects?
• Informational Products: Selling Your Knowledge Online

There's oodles of ideas in these articles that you can use to jump start your business and build it over the next year. If you'd rather not miss any new articles, please subscribe to flyte log in the box below.

Rich Brooks
Greatest Hits

Your 2008 Web Marketing Plan

There's light fluffy snowflakes falling outside my window this morning as I polish off another issue of flyte log, our Web marketing email newsletter...the last for 2007.

Rather than look back on 2007--as good as it was--it's time to look forward to 2008 and start making plans. Web marketing plans, that is.

Today's issue of flyte log is Your 2008 Web Marketing Plan, a month-by-month, itemized list of what you need to do to succeed in 2008.

Your Web marketing plan includes ideas on search engine optimization, blogging, social media, Webinars and more.

Why not take the first step in improving your chances for success in 2008 by signing up for flyte log now, so you never miss another issue?

Street Teams: Guerrilla Marketing for Small Business

Today we have a special edition of flytecast, our podcast.

What? You didn't know we had a podcast? No worries. Our podcast has been running on fumes lately, as each episode is basically a dramatic reading of our email newsletter, flyte log. On top of that, I think I'm an episode or two behind on even that half-assed endeavor.

In any case, I've been rethinking flytecast, and how to make more relevant for small business owners and more interesting for me. (Sorry, but I do figure into the equation.) To that end, I'm thinking about doing regular interviews with small business owners who have some sort of success story to tell.

In this episode I'm interviewing Annie Mahle of Maine Adventure Sails and the J. & E. Riggin, a windjammer out of Rockland, Maine. We developed their Maine Adventure Sails Blog.

During the time we worked with them, Annie was telling me about her street teams: loyal customers who market for her on her behalf. She created a loyalty program and rewards them for doing what they were doing anyway.

I thought this idea could benefit lots of other small business owners, so I asked her to be interviewed on our podcast. I'm still learning the ins and outs of the software, so I accidentally erased the opening piece where we talk about her upcoming cooking segment on 207, scheduled for Wednesday, October 17, 2007. (Sorry, Annie!)

In any case, you can listen to Street Teams, Guerrilla Marketing for Small Business and/or subscribe to flytecast through iTunes or the podcatcher of your choice.

If you have something interesting to share with other small business owners, and you'd like to be interviewed on the flytecast, please contact me today.

Rich Brooks
Small Business Marketer

Web Marketing for Public Relations

I'll be part of an all-day conference for the Maine Public Relations Council this Wednesday, October 17. The annual conference's theme is "The Art and Science of Communication," and goes from 8:30 - 3:30 at the Sheraton Hotel in South Portland.

My topic will be Web Marketing for Public Relations. This is a new lens from which to view Web marketing, at least for me. However, in putting together the presentation I was just blown away by the tools that today's PR professional has at his or her disposal. I mean, I got really excited. I was pacing around the kitchen table as I was creating my slides. And the future looks even more exciting.

If you're a public relations professional, or you're just looking for ways to gain more visibility for your company you can't afford to miss the MPRC's annual conference. Admission is $100 for members, $140 for non-members. Details and registration information can be found on their events page.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for PR

Free Web 2.0 Handouts to Download

Yesterday I spoke at the Maine Marketing Association's Web 2.0 Conference; my topic was Web Sites for Action! Anne Kennedy of Beyond Ink spoke about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Aileen Cahill talked on Online and On Target which talked about the benefits of a Web 2.0 Web site and how to get your customers participating.

It was a great turnout--I'm guessing over 80 people--and there were a lot of good questions for all three presenters. Whether you were able to attend or not, the Maine Marketing Association has posted all three presentations up at their Web site for anyone to download.

PowerPoint handouts (or in my case, Apple's Keynote) are pretty hard to understand if you weren't there for the presentation, so if you review the handouts and still have questions on Maine Web Design or Internet Marketing, please feel free to ask.

What is Web 2.0 Anyway?

If you've been looking for information on Web 2.0 and how you can use it to turbo-charge your Internet marketing, I've got some good news.

The Maine Marketing Association will be putting on Web 2.0 - Internet Strategies for Power Marketing on Monday, May 21st, 2007.

There will be three workshops in this all-morning event:

• Online and On Target - Strategies for One to One Marketing at the Speed of Light by Aileen Cahill, author of Internet Marketing: Building Advantage in a Networked Economy
• Web Design for Action! by Rich Brooks (that's me!)
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by Anne Kennedy of Beyond Ink

The festivities begin at 8:30am and will be held at the Ambromson Center in the new Hannaford Hall building.

Registration is $35 for members and students, $45 for everyone else. Pre-registration is appreciated.

Rich Brooks
That's Me!

Drive More Traffic To Your Web Site

Would you like to drive more traffic to your Web site? Rank higher at the search engines? Understand how a blog or podcast could attract more prospects and customers? Would you like to know about new forms of Web marketing, like social bookmarking and tagging?

Well, we have just two spots left for this Wednesday's Working Lunch Seminar at flyte: Building Traffic at Your Web Site.

The session goes from noon - 1:30 and includes lunch. For details, directions, and to register for one of the last two remaining spots, be sure to check out our Web Marketing Seminars page.

How to Build a B2B Web Site

If you're audience is other businesses, you need to have a B2B approach for your Web site. Galen De Young provides a lot of helpful advice in an article entitled B2B Search Engine Optimization: Driving Conversion.

This is the 2nd article in a series, and this one focuses primarily on different incentives you might offer at your Web site to build trust and establish your expertise with prospective buyers. She covers newsletters, white papers, podcasts, case studies and more.

While not all of the elements might be right for your business, it's about testing out different campaigns to see what works, and using analytics to measure success and failure.

Sounds pretty holistic to me.

What Is Holistic Web Marketing?

Too often Web site owners focus all of their attention on ranking well at the search engines at the expense of building a Web site that will convert this traffic into business. Or, they spend a lot of money on a Web site design, but never sink dime one into promoting their site. Or they build up a big email subscriber base, but don't know how to get these subscribers to take action.

The problem is that these site owners are focusing on just one element of their Web marketing, instead of viewing their Web marketing as a whole.

Web marketing these days takes an integrated, multi-faceted approach if you want to succeed. To better explain how to create a more effective online marketing plan, flyte has created a model called Holistic Web Marketing.

You can learn more about Holistic Web Marketing at flyte's blog.

Free Podcasting Class Tonight in Westbrook

Just a quick reminder that MESDA's Web Design User's Group is hosting Secrets of Podcasting with Franklin McMahon of Franklin McMahon Studio tonight (2/19) at their offices in Westbrook. Attendance is free, but they ask you to register online so they know how many brownies to bake.

According to the email I received:

One of the leading podcast producers in the world, Franklin McMahon shares insights and provides advice on getting into this explosive new media market. Topics include production of podcasting shows both video and audio, how to market your show and how to use portable content to extend your brand globally.

About the Speaker: Franklin McMahon is a media artist, director, designer and photographer with an extensive client list that includes Microsoft, FOX, Time Warner, Yahoo, Amazon.com and CNET. He has created award-winning podcasts including the #1 creative business podcast Media Artist Secrets, which won the award for Best Business Podcast at the first annual Podcast Awards held in Ontario, California. The show has been heard on Sirius satellite radio and appears each month on the CD in Computer Arts Magazine, the world's largest creative design publication. In addition Franklin McMahon Studio has produced several top podcasts including The Mary and Karla Show, Rumor Girls, Rumor Girls UNCUT, CreativeCOW, Secrets of Second Life and Podmodel. Franklin also produces podcasts for Podshow.com, one of the world's largest podcast and entertainment content providers.

Franklin McMahon Studio podcasts have produced millions of downloads in 21 countries. He has appeared in several podcasting books including just recently "Podcasting Pocket Guide" by Kirk McElhearn (O'Reilly), "Promoting Your Podcast" by Jason Van Orden and "Tricks of the Podcasting Masters" by Rob Walch (QUE). His podcast work has been a featured profile on many network affiliate stations such as ABC-TV in Boston (Chronicle) and his podcasts have been featured in local, national and international news programs such as BBC News (The Money Programme) as well as being profiled on leading news web sites such as Wired (Wired.com).

DOOR PRIZE: Registered attendees will be entered in a drawing for the O'Reilly book, The Photoshop Anthology - 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques, by Corrie Haffly. You must register to attend and be present to win.

BTW, I was kidding about the brownies. See you tonight.

The Secrets of Podcasting

Just ran across this upcoming event at the MESDA Web site: The Secrets of Podcasting.

An excerpt from the description:

One of the leading podcast producers in the world, Franklin McMahon shares insights and provides advice on getting into this explosive new media market. Topics include production of podcasting shows both video and audio, how to market your show and how to use portable content to extend your brand globally.

There are a number of guidelines, standards and laws that address the issue of accessibility, and in this presentation we will review these and how they should influence your work. We will also discuss how good design techniques and standards-based approaches to web design make for best practice. And, we will briefly discuss the future of web design, content management systems and accessibility.

It's from 6pm - 8pm on Monday, February 19th at the MESDA offices in Westbrook. The class is free, but they ask you to register.

See you there!

Informational Products: How to Sell Your Expertise Online

Are you looking for new ways to reach more customers, establish your expertise and create passive streams of income (you know...make money while you sleep?)

If so, you'll be interested in the most recent issue of flyte log, our free email Web marketing newsletter. The topic is Informational Products: Selling Your Knowledge Online.

We talk about some of the common barriers small business owners and entrepreneurs have to reaching new customers and selling to them. We look at how informational products like ebooks or audio recordings can overcome distance, your limited time and even customer price concerns.

As an added bonus, we've created an audio version of the newsletter. You can listen to my mellifluous voice give a loose reading of the newsletter or subscribe to the flyte podcast to never miss an issue episode.

Just think...Rich Brooks on your iPod! Sweet!

Choosing a Web Host

Google "Web Host" and you'll pull up about 57 million results. If you're looking for an appropriate Web host, that's a lot of sifting ahead of you.

One of the decisions every Web site owner needs to make is where to host their Web site. In the same way you (probably) have to rent out office or retail space, your Web site needs space on a server so that your prospects and customers can access it.

In my experience, there are no great hosting companies. The few that I have known have decided to grow and put customer acquisition above customer support. In fact, ironically, my own hosting company, who I often recommend, is currently down right now. I have no access to my email or my Web site.

I'm feeling very professional right now, thank you very much.

When you are deciding where to host there are several items you may want to consider:

What are my hosting needs?

• Will your site offer e-commerce? If so, you may want to choose a host that focuses on e-commerce hosting, and perhaps even provides a free/included license to a shopping cart software like Miva Merchant. You may also require secure server space and the ability to install a security certificate.
• Will I include a lot of multi-media? With broadband becoming more common, more site owners are looking to add audio and video to enhance the visitor's experience at their site (often to the detriment of their visitor's experience, but that's another story.) If you plan on audio or video, or hosting podcast content at your site, make sure you have plenty of hosting space at your server.
• What programming does the host support? If your programmer/Web developer is programming the site using PHP or ASP or needs to access a MySQL database, can your host support that? Plenty of times we've needed to find new hosting for our clients because their current host didn't have the infrastructure to host specific types of programming. This is often a time to ask your programmer or Web development team to make a recommendation.
• Is there hosting that specializes in a specific need I may have? If you plan on building a Web site using a Content Management System (CMS) like Joomla or Mambo, or if you want to use your hosting to support a WordPress blog, there are many hosting companies that focus on these products. They often have "one-click" installation saving you hours of installation time and handfuls of hair. Check the discussion forums for these products to see if they recommend some specific hosts.

One thing that I always require out of a hosting company is 24/7 toll-free tech support. Sure, I like to figure things out and get my hands dirty...however, if a client needs their site live to take advantage of the Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa rush, I want to know there's a knowledgeable person that can be reached by phone who can get a site up and running.

One thing that's not on my list is price. Not that price isn't important, but value trumps price every time. One bad customer service experience or one overlong call in voice mail hell can blow any savings you may have thought you were going to get from a cut-rate hosting company. Choosing a hosting company based solely on price is the most costly mistake you can make.

There are several Web host ranking Web sites out there, but buyer beware: it's easy to put up a bogus Web host ranking site and make your own company come up first. Double-check any results you find with other ranking sites and also do some Googling on these companies as well as checking out different discussion forums to see what people are saying about the hosting companies.

Internet Marketing for Values-Based Businesses

I'll be running "Internet Marketing for Values-Based Businesses," a workshop at the MEBSR Annual Fall Sustainable Business Conference.

MEBSR--Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility--hosts this event every year...which is why they call it their Annual Fall Conference. The theme of this year's fall conference is "Practical Tools for Business Success."

How does an ethical business succeed on the Internet where email spam, click-fraud and search engine schemes seem to rule the day?

By enabling a long-term solution that engages the Four Pillars of Internet Marketing. Learn how to use search engine optimization, permission-based email marketing, blogs, podcasts and non-malevolent viral marketing to engage like-minded customers and prospects, drive more qualified traffic to your site and convert that traffic into business.

Besides my workshop, there will be two keynote speakers, Kevin Hancock of Hancock Lumber and John Warner, the Director of the Center for Green Chemistry at UMass Lowell.

Date: Friday, December 1st, 2006
Time: 8am - 5pm
Place: University of Maine Hutchinson Center, Belfast, ME (Map & Directions)
Cost:

• $100 MEBSR members ($150 after Nov. 10th)
• $150 non-members ($175 after Nov. 10th)
• $15 students ($35 after November 10th)

I know the 10th is coming up soon, so please register now! You can call 207.338.8908 or download the conference PDF.

Internet Marketing Seminars in Maine

For those of you with a desire to learn more about Internet Marketing and a burning desire to meet me in person, next week is your Mardi Gras.

Monday, October 16: I'll be presenting "How to Plan, Build and Promote a Business Blog" for MESDA from 6pm - 8pm at their offices in Westbrook, Maine. Entrance is free, but they ask you to register for a door prize. (Directions.)

Tuesday, October 17: I'll be part of a panel put on by the Maine Marketing Association called "Right On! Staying on Message No Matter What: Crafting and Communicating Effective Messages That Will Break Through the Clutter." It's from 9 - 11:30am at the Glickman Family Library on the USM campus in Portland. Roy Heffley is the keynote speaker.  The cost is $35 for members, $45 for non-members, and $15 for students or anyone with a fake student ID. You can register via email or just show up. (Directions.)

Wednesday, October 18: Is the first class of the Web Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses at the University of Southern Maine's Center for Continuing Ed. The classes continue each Wed. evening (10/25, 11/1 & 11/8) from 6:30 - 8:30pm. The cost is $195 and you can learn more and register here.

Thursday, October 19: I'll be taping a segment for WCSH's evening news magazine 207. Topic and broadcast date TBD.

Whether I get any real work done next week is also TBD.

Web Marketing Course at USM

If you enjoy the subject matter of this blog, but you'd prefer a little more interaction and perhaps specifics on how YOU can implement some of these ideas on your own Web site, blog or email newsletter, I've got good news.

I'll be teaching a course called Web Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Business at the University of Southern Maine this month as part of their Center for Continuing Education.

We'll be talking search engine optimization, email marketing, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing, e-commerce, home page strategies and more. Last time we got into wikis.

The course will be Wednesday evenings from 6:30 - 8:30pm, October 18th - November 8th. For more information and to register online check out the Web marketing course page on the USM Web site.

Not sure if this class will help? Here's an unsolicited thank you email I received:

Rich,

Thanks to applying what I learned from you to my new site, in the last month I have zoomed up in the Search rankings (when any part of my name or ‘Maine’ is included with key terms, I get at least three listings on first page), increased the amount of time people are spending on the site, increased my new visitors to 25% of my traffic and tripled the rate of new subscribers to the ezine. 

Chris Trout

OK, enough self-love. Hope to see you there.