As you know, we are always looking for ways to improve the level of service that Big Cloud Media provides and to move toward that goal, we have recently begun posting helpful tips on Twitter regarding Blogging, WordPress, Websites and Marketing (with a little SEO thrown in for good measure).

It is our aim to keep you informed on common issues that we have run into while completing our various projects and ways to avoid them. We also want to provide great advice and helpful burbs to educate, inform and empower you to make the web related decisions that will help, not hinder, your travels on the road to online success.

To make it open to everyone, we are using Twitter as the hub for the helpful info tidbits and we invite you to follow them via our @BigCloudMedia Twitter page. If you like the tweets, don’t like the tweets, etc. feel free to leave a comment or reply back to the tweet with your opinion. Feedback rocks, good or bad, and since we are offering up these blurbs for you, we want to know what you think about them to refine our advice even more.

You, our client or otherwise, are what keeps our doors open and we want to keep you informed, educate you and serve you in the best way possible with the best outcome possible, at all times.

– Forgive me for the shameless plug coming up but we gotta eat too. –

If you need a custom website / blog created or you need your current one updated, contact me right now via Twitter (@BigCloudMedia) or our contact form. If you don’t need website/blog help, tell us who does or tell them about us. Referrals are always appreciated.

– Ok, shameless plug is over. –

All that being said, I hope you will follow us on twitter and RT the advice to your hearts content.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned.

To iterate this website tip in the best way possible, I will simply say:

KEEP IT SIMPLE!!

I know it is a matter of opinion but honestly, simple is best.

Agree or disagree? Leave a comment.

Have a wonderful day!

Considering the impact that a website (or database) gone kaput can have on your mental health and your pocketbook, I want to make sure that the importance of this message is delivered without any distraction… pause for effect …

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!! 

Now that the importance of this message is out in the open, you can read on

This is a friendly reminder to back up your website (and database if you use one) to save yourself a lot of headaches.  It is super important, as mentioned previously, because it can save you a lot of time, money and your sanity (very important) fixing your website, if your website is a victim of accidental or intentional data loss or deletion.  Consider your back up an insurance plan for your website (and database) since it may not always be used but you can depend on it when you need it.

BACKUP VS. RECREATE

It is often the case that you have two options when your website/database decides to take its own life (or the user / admin kills it some how):

• Option 1: Restore from a previous back up
• Option 2: Recreate it cuz it is a goner

It should be quite obvious that the quicker and easier option is “Option 1: Restore from previous backup”.  Using this option, you may loose some data (this being any data that was not included in the most recent backup) but the issue is quickly fixable and most likely, cheap (yay for cheap!) to do.  The keys to Option 1 are that you backup often and consistently.  In this way the amount of data lost from a major malfunction or crash is minimal.

“Option 2: Recreate it cuz it is a goner” is the less favorable, more expensive and (most likely) the most time consuming option. This option is often the result of not having a backup to recover your data from or not keeping the backup current.  That being said, I highly recommend avoiding this when possible.  DELETION OF DATA IS IRREVERSIBLE OR EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO RECOVER without a backup and it is best not to risk it at all.

TO DRIVE THE POINT HOME…AN EXAMPLE OF IRREVERSIBLE DATA LOSS :

Jerry runs his own wordpress site and decides to make some changes to the database.  Instead of running a query to find some information, he runs the wrong command and accidentally deletes all of the data in the database.  Wordpress runs off of the info in the database so if there is no info, WordPress will not function properly.  If Jerry did not backup his database, he is stuck with choosing Option 2, cuz his site is a goner.  In this situation, the website files would be there but the information the site depends on to run would not be and Jerry is out of luck.

This could happen to you so don’t risk it.  Back up your website (and db if you are using one) consistently and often for best results.

EXTRA HELP:

If you are a WordPress user, I highly recommend the “WP-DBManager” plugin since it is easy to use and does a good job of backing up your wordpress database for you.  Due to the potential security risk of keeping db backups available, be sure to follow the instructions provided with the plugin regarding .htaccess files, etc.  Also keep in mind, this plugin only backs up your database.  Be sure to backup your website files as well to make it extremely easy to recover from a case of website data loss.

If you have any questions about backing up your website or restoring a website from a backup (or anything else I’ve previously blogged about), please feel free to contact me and I’ll be happy to help, advise, pitch my two cents, provide a solution or provide a shoulder to cry on.

Also, please feel free to leave a comment on this topic if you have experienced data loss, can expound even further on the importance of backing up your website / database or if you just have something to say.

Thanks for reading.

This is the first post in a new blog series I am doing geared toward helping those who use web marketing to succeed in their efforts.  I encourage you to leave your comments and tweet it as you see fit and hopefully, we can all learn something new.

So what is the key to a great web marketing campaign?  Some would say the delivery of the message is the key.  Others would say it is the platform.  Both of these are great answers and very important to the success of a web marketing campaign but ultimately, what makes a web marketing campaign a success is the website your potential customers are sent to.  More explanation below…

Make sure the target website converts.

For any web marketing campaign to be successful, the website you send visitors to must convert.  Sadly, you can throw all the visitors you want at a website that doesn’t convert and still be in the same situation you started in only with less money, more frustration and more visitors that are not doing what you want them to do.

That being said, it is extremely important that you make sure your website works the way it is supposed to and does what it is meant to do.  I realize that all websites are not about getting people to buy something but they are meant to get visitors to do something, be it read the posts, click on ads, sign up for services, etc.  If thewebsite does not serve this purpose, web marketing will ultimately fail to do what it is supposed to do.

To play the other side of the story, some web marketers would argue that the purpose of web marketing is to get people to the intended site and the job is done.  Honestly though, what is the point of doing the markeeting if the site doesn’t convert.  Yes the web marketing is complete and working, because people are visiting, but what is the value for our client if we get 1o,000 visitors to our client’s site and none of them take the intended action on the site?  The value is none.  This is a shoddy client experience and honestly, if I were the client, my web marketer would be replaced, quick-like.

Testing if the website converts.

There is a quick and dirty way to see if your website is converting already and it involves comparing your record of desired actions taken (such as sales numbers, ad click numbers, etc.) for 2 months and your website analytics for 2 months.  I suggest comparing 2 months of numbers so you can rule out 1 month being a fluke if your numbers are crazy.  Granted, it does take a bit of work to get to the results, but compared to a full-on marketing analysis, this should be pretty cake.

To get a good idea of whether your website converts, compare the number of actions you want completed on the site (such as product sales or ad clicks) to the # of visitors that you get per day.  Using this data, you will be able to see, over the course of 2 months, whether your site converted or not, what your conversion ratio was (both on a daily and monthly basis), and also the days when your site converted the most and the least.  Using this information, you can get a better idea of whether or not it would be beneficial to spend the money to get more visitors.  If your conversion ratio is low and your visitor count is low, I suggest you consider having your website reviewed (and possibly revamped) to improve it’s conversion, before considering additional web marketing actions.  If your visitor count is low and your conversion ratio is high, your website will likely see even more success with a targeted web marketing campaign.

Wrapping it up.

Ultimately, we all expect a return on the things we invest in and in the true spirit of your website being an investment, I hope that this post has provided you with a tool and some insight into how to get on the right track with it.  If you have any questions about web marketing, websites or anything else in this post, please feel free to contact me, as I would love to discuss it more with you.  Also, feel free to leave your comments below and let me know your web marketing story.

For an incredibly in-depth marketing analysis, in which we will take this method and expand it to gain even more insight into the results your website is producing, please contact me and request a free consultation.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next post in my Web Marketing Success Tips series.

If you are thinking of launching a new Advertising or Search Engine Marketing campaign, Google Insights for Search is a great tool that, when used correctly, can help determine the best search terms for the best times and locations.  Using Google Insights for Search, you can compare the interest in different search terms over time, determine search term interest trends over time, research search term interest by area and much more.  In this post, we will give a quick run through on how to use this awesome tool so you can make your next Search Engine Marketing campaign that much more effective. 

Step 1: Determine Your Search Terms

To start, determine the search terms you would like to build your campaign around.  The terms you use are completely up to you but I would suggest going with similar terms with slight differences (example:  landscaping, lawn care, lawn maintenance … all are services, centered around lawn care, that you pay for but each is a different term) once you have them down, enter them into the search terms box, comma separated, as indicated in the example image below.

Step 2: Determine Your Filters

The next step is to determine how you want to filter your results.  This is where you drill down the type of search you would like the results to come from (Web, Image, Product, and News), the geographic location (you can get down to the metro area level), time frame and categories, as indicated in the image below. If your marketing campaign is location based, you can research the interest level for your search terms, by the locations you are targeting.  Once your filters are selected, click search.

Step 3: Analysis of Results

The third step in this process is analyzing the results of your search.  Many tidbits of information can be gathered from the results but we will focus on 3 main ones: Comparison of Search Volume / Trending, Search Volume by Location and Top / Rising Searches.

Comparison of Search Volume / Trending

General comparison of the search volume for your terms is important because it indicates which term is being searched the most and also trending over time.  With this information you can plan out your advertising or marketing campaign based on when people search for that keyword the most and increase your chances of the campaign being successful.  Out of our example phrases, landscaping trumps the the other two in volume but it shares a common trend with lawn care.

Search Volume by Location

Google Insights for Search also reveals great data on the search volume, for your selected search term, by geographic location.  Using this information you can accurately plan your local search marketing campaign and target specific areas for different search terms.

Top / Rising Searches

The Top / Rising Searches section gives you great insight into other search terms, similar to yours, that are at the top  and also those that are rising in volume.  This information may help you determine what other search terms might benefit your campaign and give you an overall view of what people are searching for most often.

Review

So now you know the basics of how to use Google Insights for Search to improve your search engine marketing campaign.  We have covered how to get the report and a brief analysis of 3 different parts of the report.  If you have more questions about this awesome tool, visit our contact page and send us an email or call us at 210-519-7729.

Below are some live charts from the example search.  Enjoy.

Thank you for visiting.  If you have a website project or online marketing campaign to be completed, we can help you with that as well.  Check out our SEO, Folio, Web and Marketing pages for more information on our services and contact us to see what we can do for you.

If you have ever wondered if you could use your crazy expensive cellphone data plan to get internet on your computer, read on!! (Note this article refers to tethering using an android based G1 and Tmobile service provider.  Tethering may not be available for your specific phone or carrier.  See below for details or visit Mobile-Stream’s Website)

In answer to the question above, Yes you can use your cellphone data plan to get internet on your computer!  The technology is called tethering and it is easier than you think to get started with it.

How Tethering works:

Tethering is the process by which you access your android phone’s 3G internet data plan connection (in my case the data plan that the Tmobile G1 uses) and use it to get online with your laptop / computer, through a USB connection.  Tethering allows you to connect your computer to the internet (at a decent speed) anywhere your phone gets a 3G connection.  It is a boon if you don’t want to pay extra each month for the aircard and the ability to get online from where ever you are.  I figure, we pay enough for our data plans, why not use them for our computer internet too.  The only limitation is that if you don’t have a data plan or you don’t have signal, you don’t have the internet connection.

How do I get it?

What you need to start tethering (this is a list based on what I have, the Tmobile Unlimited Data Plan and G1, etc.):

1. Tmobile G1 (Easy Tether Lite also supports Moto DROID, Milestone, Nexus One, HTC Hero, HTC Dream, MyTouch, and other Android 1.5+ devices.  It also supports Windows Mobile phones and Palm OS phones)
2. Data plan (I have the unlimited everything plan from Tmobile)
3. Access to the Android Market to get the app on your phone
4. Your computer
5. USB cable to connect phone to computer.

Setting it up:

1. Search for Easy Tether Lite in the Android Market
2. Install Easy Tether Lite to your android phone.
3. Follow the instructions for installing Easy Tether Lite to your computer.
4. Once all is installed, follow the instructions in the Easy Tether Lite app and boom, you have internet for your computer, anywhere your phone gets internet.
5. Note:  Easy Tether Lite is the lite version and after a time period will ask you to purchase it.  It’s not much $9.99 for unlimited use.  If you continue to use the service without paying for it you won’t be able to access https sites)

Tethering…

This app rocks for those, like me, who need the internet on the computer anywhere you are.  It’s easy, convenient and it works very well.  Please contact me if you want more info on tethering or how to do it.  Though I am not tech support for Easy Tether, I can help with basic setup, etc.  More info on Easy Tether Lite can be found here

Thanks for reading and I hope that you are able to make use of the Tethering technology out there.  If you like this article please leave a comment, digg it, post it on twitter and / or send it to your friends to read.  Big Cloud Media is all about helping businesses succeed online so we will continue to provide articles like this for our visitors.

Think of Big Cloud Media for all of your online business needs including websites, web-applications, website renovations, web marketing, etc.

Good health and good fortune.