Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Is It Time to Redesign?

We are very thankful for the many website clients that have been with us for several years. Andi and I look back at some of the older designs and immediately start daydreaming on how we could improve on them. We have learned so much since designing those first sites! We do believe in keeping the general feel of your website consistent, but we also believe that a design review should ultimately occur every couple years. Some of the older websites are in dire need of a complete redesign while others just need a little 'sprucing up', but in either case, we feel that there are a lot of you out there that could benefit from a review. For our existing clients that have been with us at least two years, we are offering a free review with a 50% discount for any redesign work. Email support@halemultimedia.com and let us know you want us to review your website and make some recommendations.

Brian On The Radio

Another facet of Hale Multimedia LLC is Hale Broadcasting. Brian's father Howard established Hale Broadcasting over a decade ago and has been delivering an array of national radio programming to dozens of radio stations. Howard's success on the radio has inspired Brian to do more on the radio side of things. In February of 2007 Brian started providing Local News to KCMI Radio (FM 96.9 www.kcmifm.com) and found it to be a rewarding ministry. They really needed the help and Brian volunteered. Since then the station has asked Brian if he could provide National News as well as Christian News and he was happy to help. If you have any kind of event or news story, please submit it to brian@kcmifm.com and you may just get your news story on a radio station that can be heard around the world. (through our online streaming)

AgMarketOnline Sets Record

AgMarketOnline.com is an Advertising Cooperative established in 2004 to help our clients promote their websites through our national radio programs. As a website hosting client of Hale Multimedia, you currently receive a complimentary Level 2 Membership in our AMO COOP.

One of our primary goals is to establish a sense of community where members first look to other members when it comes to searching for products and services online. We are bringing buyers and sellers together through a well-established, easy to use website that is promoted nationally through Radio, Internet and Print Media.

AgMarketOnline.com has grown from a handful of hits a month to several hundred unique visitors every day with thousands of searches being conducted for a wide variety of products and services. Last month (March 2008) AgMarketOnline.com presented 20,874 unique pageviews to thousands of unique visitors. This broke our previous monthly record of just over 16,000 pageviews.

What does this mean for you? It means that your website is getting more exposure every day. Visit www.agmarketonline.com and see for yourself. There is a small counter that will show you how many times your business has been found when visitors search. Try it. Search for your name. You'll see the number of times your ad banner has been viewed. For any of our Headline Sponsors (banners that appear at the top of the page) we also provide a statistic of how many people have actually clicked through to their website from AgMarketOnline.com. A Level 3 Membership is what gets your banner randomly displayed at the top of all the pages and is available to our clients at 50% off of the normal $50 per month membership - or $25 per month (plus whatever you are paying for hosting).

If AgMarketOnline.com was just another website trying to sell banner ads online, then it would get lost in the shuffle. Let's face it, there may be more webpages in existence than there are human beings on the planet. How many website companies do you know of that have an network of 20+ radio stations in 7 States promoting their website? We do. Every single day, AgMarketOnline.com is promoted on great radio stations in Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas and New Mexico. This is an advertising coop worth taking a very serious look at. You receive this free membership by virtue of your hosting with us.

Marketing Tip #1

Marketing Tip #1 - Don't HIDE Your Website!

This sounds ridiculous, but follow me on this one... Let's say you're thinking of starting a new business... Would you open a new store, get a new phone and HIDE your address or phone number from everyone? NO. You would promote it as much as possible, right? You would probably hang out a sign, tell your friends and family and maybe even do some other advertising. Would you include your new business name, phone and address in your ads? OF COURSE you would! I have heard and seen some very good ads from our clients, but too many ads are leaving out your website address! Remind your advertising reps to include your website address in ALL of your advertising. It doesn't cost any more to include your domain name in your ads and it helps maximize your advertising dollars.

Reciprocal Linking

One of the best ways to increase your exposure on the internet as well as increase your search engine rankings is to develop an aggressive strategy of reciprocal linking. The questions most frequently asked are 1) who can we link to and 2) how do we do it? The general rule is that it is legal to put a link to anything or anyone you wish on your website. Whether they reciprocate the favor and link back to you is what requires a little more work. We have developed several key strategies to help you in this area. Interested in learning more? Email support@halemultimedia.com and ask us about taking advantage of our Reciprocal Linking Strategies.

Understanding Email

Let me take you on a trip around the world in a few seconds... a few days... or maybe forever... Send an email to yourself. Your email will travel an unpredictable number of places around the world, relying on factors too numerous to mention to eventually arrive back at it's original destination, or NOT. My point? Email is absolutely unpredictable and NOT to be used in a manner that you DEPEND on it for your livelihood. Many people believe JUST BECAUSE we are hosting their website, that we are also responsible for the performance of their computer's ability to access email. We are not. We do have some ability to help you with your INCOMING email IF you are using your domain name as your email address. If you are having trouble SENDING email, please call your internet service provider.

What is website hosting?

We have promoted our website design and hosting business for the past 12 years to a point where most people think of Hale Multimedia when it comes to hosting their website. This is great! We have successfully used our marketing expertise to brand ourselves as the one to turn to for website services.

However, this facet of our business is only a small part of what we do. Hale Multimedia began as a company whose primary purpose was to help others promote their website. We only started developing and hosting websites out of sheer demand. We've built literally thousands of webpages and are currently hosting around 300 websites, giving us the experience and client base to expand our services beyond simply hosting websites.

Technically speaking "Website Hosting" is little more than an empty storage locker. Virtually anyone can 'host' a website. As long as the website is there and the hosting company is up and running, then the world sees your website (provided there are no issues on the viewers end). We offer so much more than just website hosting.

All the work we do behind the scenes to make sure your site is on the search engines, the promotion through www.websiteportfolio.net, www.agmarketonline.com and others, as well as all the other exposure we have created for you is completely over and above what is expected of your normal website hosting company. We do it because we believe in promotion so much that we are giving these services to you at no additional charge. Search Engine Optimization alone can cost you hundreds of dollars if purchased separately from companies that advertise this kind of thing. We include it at no additional charge! We are also very generous with our knowledge and expertise in the area of website marketing and the very principles of website design. Most of our customers are not utilizing half of what we offer. We believe that without intentional, purpose-driven and effective website promotion, you might as well not have a website.