December 2011
1 post
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“How many SEO experts do you need to change a lightbulb lightbulbs buy light...”
– (via clientsfromhell)
Ha! SEO humor, jokes funny Justin Bieber Beyonce pregnant baby Katy Perry.
September 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Business Bullpen / Our Team Blog: Focus, focus,... →
businessbullpen:
Last week Graham and I visited Tumblr’s headquarters in New York. As I walked through the double-glass doors, the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. With 30+ very creative people in the NYC office and an open space floor plan, I expected there to be a lot of noise. But there wasn’t….
My colleague at Business Bullpen traveled to NYC and DC last week and stopped...
2 tags
Things that go well together: SEO and copywriting →
businessbullpen:
What goes better than peanut butter and jelly? Stumped? How about keyword research and copywriting? Bingo!
Jessica and I recently wrapped up a project in which we provided our client AutoSport with extensive keyword research that was then rolled into beautifully written copy.
A post I wrote for Business Bullpen, a firm I’ve worked with for the last four years.
August 2011
1 post
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How to upgrade your MySQL in Godaddy →
I have a couple of blogs that were running MySQL 4.1 and needed to be updated to 5.0 so that I could install the latest version of Wordpress. Of course, Godaddy’s help section was not particularly helpful, so a quick Google search led me to this page, which outlines the steps. Piece of cake!
June 2011
1 post
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Protecting your domain name →
businessbullpen:
At least once a year, I get an email or phone call from a client because they’ve received an invoice from a company called Domain Registry of America. The “invoice” notifies the client that their domain is set to expire and they must renew it by completing and returning the “invoice.”
Here’s a blog post I wrote for Business Bullpen about protecting your domain name.
May 2011
1 post
4 tags
Hashtags and Keywords: When and how to use them in...
A blog post I wrote for @businessbullpen’s Tumblr blog.
businessbullpen:
Hashtags are used to tag Tweets with a particular topic, e.g., #SEO, #marketing, #Tumblr, etc. Hashtags can be used in the text (sentence) of a Tweet or placed at the end of the Tweet.
While some hashtags like #SEO can be incorporated into a sentence, most seem to be placed at the end of a Tweet merely to add that...
March 2011
3 posts
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2 tags
5 tags
Attention Android Phone/Tablet Users! →
If you use an Android-powered smartphone or tablet, you might want to read this article. Apparently a publisher installed some malicious code into some already-approved apps and when people updated their apps, the code started rooting through their phones pulling information and even listening for credit card numbers, etc.
According to the article, Google - which runs the Android Market - has...
February 2011
3 posts
3 tags
Google tweaks search to punish 'low-quality' sites →
eHow.com … you’re officially on notice.
4 tags
3 tags
January 2011
2 posts
3 tags
How to Download Your Facebook Information
Quick! How many status updates have you posted to Facebook? How many photos? How many did you post, but don’t remember posting? If you’ve ever been curious just how much information you’ve posted to the world’s largest social media site, or if you’re paranoid that one day Facebook’s servers and backup servers will suffer a massive data loss event, then, boy does...
April 2010
1 post
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Almost there...
The style of our new logo is complete, now we’re just working on the color sampling. We’re very excited about the new look and hope you will be, too!
March 2010
3 posts
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Optimizing Your E-mail Signature for Smart Phones
I got a call from a client today and they shared with me an experience that I had never given anything thought to. The client was out of the office, but was checking e-mail via his smart phone. He received my e-mail and within minutes, he called me.
Instead of using his “Contacts” in his phone’s address book, he just “clicked” on the phone number in my e-mail...
2 tags
LinkedIn Phishing Scam Warning; How to Spot...
Last night, I got an e-mail from someone purporting to be from LinkedIn informing me that they needed to confirm and validate my account. This is clearly a phishing attempt, so if you get a similar e-mail, do not click on the link in the e-mail. Instead, forward the e-mail to phishing-report@us-cert.gov.
Remember when it was easy to spot SPAM or Phishing attempts? English was clearly not the...
2 tags
20 Easy Steps to Add Google Analytics to Your...
Earlier this week, I saw a Tweet about adding Google Analytics (GA) to a Facebook (FB) fan page, so naturally I checked it out. The blog post came from a London-based Web development company called WebDigi, so kudos to them for sharing this with the rest of the world. The only problem I found with the blog post is that their instructions aren’t very clear, as evidenced by the numerous...
February 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Filing for an LLC in Virginia
I founded my business, CWI Media, in 2005. Though, at the time, it was called CWI Media & Marketing. In 2009 the business split into two separate companies and I renamed mine CWI Media. For years it was really an informal business, mostly freelance work for a handful of clients. Last year, however, business started picking up thanks to referrals from our existing loyal clients, so I figured...
7 tags
The Importance of Creating a 'Dark Site'
If your Web site crashed, or went down for any significant length of time, are you prepared with a remotely hosted back-up site, or what we call a “dark site?” If you are, congratulations! You can stop reading this post and go about your day. If you do not have a dark site, keep reading…
A dark site is a fully functional, branded site or blog that remains “hidden” on...
January 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Anti Social Media Behavior
I’ve gone dark. I’m off the grid. I’ve become a ghost. Well, sort of. I am speaking, of course, about social media and the ever-increasing privacy concerns that come with posting information about your life online.
It started some time ago with Facebook and MySpace. My profiles were at one time public and anyone could see them. After getting a ridiculous number of unsolicited...
3 tags
Don't Abuse Your Personal Social Media Brand
By Gary Cope
We all know one. A person on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn who abuses their status as your social media “friend” by inviting you to join Facebook fan pages every other day, sending out 500 Tweets before lunch, or even worse, sharing links to get-rich-quick schemes.
There are a couple of folks that I know in real life (IRL) and am also “friends” with on...
July 2009
1 post
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Digg Just Hijacked Your Twitter Links →
businessbullpen:
This is good commentary from Marco Arment, the Lead Developer of Tumblr, on some of the reasons why you should think twice before using URL shorteners.
Digg has apparently been a URL-shortener recently, but they’ve just angered a lot of people by changing the behavior of their shortened URLs to redirect visitors to a Digg page instead of the typical and expected link-shortener...
May 2009
4 posts
3 tags
It's as Simple as Being Indexed by Google and...
By Gary Cope
What a difference being indexed makes! I’m speaking, of course, about a Web site being indexed by Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN, the big four search engines. I manage several Web sites, but the biggest one in terms of traffic was not indexed and was actually blocking search engine robots from indexing the site via the robots.txt.
I’m not entirely sure why someone would do...
2 tags
Google Including Ads at the Top of News Result...
By Gary Cope
I’ve been using Google News for quite some time and earlier this year, Google - the dominant search engine - began including ads on the right column of its news search results pages. But today, I noticed something new … at least it was new to me.
My girlfriend will be the first (of many) to tell you that I am not exactly the most observant person in the world when it...
1 tag
Track Clicks of Shared Links with Bit.ly
By Gary Cope
Remember Tiny URL? I do. I remember it like it was yesterday … well, it was about six months ago, but in the world of social media six months feels more like decade. I discovered a new URL-shortening tool called bit.ly. I have seen it before and even used it because it’s shortened URL structure was slightly smaller than Tiny URL, but it wasn’t until recently that I...
2 tags
To Follow or Not to Follow ... on Twitter
By Gary Cope
Since joining Twitter in January 2008, I have posted more than 4,100 Tweets, received more than 500 “follow” notification e-mails and currently have 360 followers. At first, I did my best to weed out (i.e. block) the accounts using Twitter for the wrong reasons such as spamming, shameless self promotion or agressively pushing an agenda. But, with about 10 new follows a...
April 2009
1 post
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Without Direction, We’d All Get Lost – Especially...
By Donna Cope
Can you imagine getting ready to take a several-day long road trip and not taking along a map or GPS? You may eventually get there, but without direction, the trip is going to take much longer and you may never even reach your destination. Now imagine you are going to buy a house. You find a real estate agent and tell them you want to buy a three bedroom house, but that’s it....
March 2009
1 post
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Time Changes Everything - Even Marketing
By Donna Cope
I was just thinking about how much time changes things. We all know the effects time has on us in everyday life. Be it your memory, that extra little ache you may feel in the morning that you didn’t feel a few years ago, or that (gasp!) gray hair that has seemed to pop up overnight.
Time doesn’t just effect how we feel or look. It also has effects on how we think and...
February 2009
1 post
Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce 2008 Awards
By Donna Cope CWI attended the Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce annual meeting and awards banquet on Jan. 15, 2009. The event was held at Baker’s Best in Fairlawn and was attended by a record number of local businesses. In addition to the installation of the 2009 Board of Directors, the event highlighted many of the successes of the past year, recognized individual and community accomplishments...
January 2009
5 posts
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Don’t be the Itsy-Bitsy Spider
By Donna Cope So, I’m wearing my marketing hat again. I know what you’re thinking; what does the itsy-bitsy spider have to do with marketing? Glad you asked. I was thinking about this children’s song yesterday when I found a frozen spider on my deck. No kidding, he was frozen solid inside of his web. This spider didn’t make it back up the water spout. I’m sure you all know the song about a very...
2 tags
Good Customer Service Can Win Customers Away from...
By Gary Cope Sunday was a big day for football fans as the NFL’s AFC and NFC championship games were played. Both games were incredibly exciting and like so many football fans, I chose to watch the games with a pizza. But what delivery place should I order from? Pizza Hut? Papa John’s? Domino’s? I love Papa John’s and Pizza Hut has the stuffed crust pizza, but I thought I’d...
3 tags
Using Your Camera Phone to Post Pics to Twitter
By Gary Cope In part two of our series on “Connecting your cell phone to your social networking sites” we show you how to post pictures to your Twitter account using a third-party application called TwitPic. Now, with any third party application, you must trust the application before you use it. Why? Because to use TwitPic, you must provide your Twitter username and password. That being said,...
2 tags
Linking Twitter with Your Cell Phone
By Gary Cope Here at CWI Media & Marketing, we have preached the benefits and advantages of using social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. If you run a business, hopefully you’ve taken the initiative to set up these accounts. But, did you know that you can take those social networking sites on the road with your cell phone? At the very least, all you need is cell...
3 tags
How to Create an Effective Logo Design
By Donna Cope What does your logo say about you? Do you even have one? In order to effectively brand your business and stand out in the market, a logo is a must. A logo also gives your business credibility. People perceive the business or person with a logo to be more established than the business or person that doesn’t. But not just any logo will do. Your logo needs to stand out and be...
December 2008
2 posts
5 tags
Do you Blog? Got Tumblr?
By Gary Cope Do you blog? If so, which blogging service do you use? Wordpress? Blogger? Typepad? Those three seem to be the most popular, at least in our circle of blogging friends and clients. I have used Wordpress extensively and it is my blogging platform of choice for business-related blogs because of its seemingly infinite variety of plugins. Wordpress and Blogger are both free while Typepad...
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The Benefits of Giving Back
By Donna Cope At this time of year, most people are more charitable, which is great. But, why not be charitable all year? If you invest in your community, you not only help it, but it will help you in so many wonderful ways. The most important, of course, is how it helps on a personal level. But, by helping build a successful community, you in turn help build a successful business. If you...
November 2008
4 posts
3 tags
How Social Networking Sites Work as Free Marketing...
By Donna Cope I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I use sites such as Facebook to network. Does it really work? The simple answer is, yes! If used effectively, these sites can help build customer relationships, which is essential in gaining customer loyalty (we all want repeat business, right?), they put you in more places (the more places you are, the easier it is for someone to find you)...
1 tag
From Cell Phone to iPhone
By Gary Cope I recently wrote a guest blog post for Handshake 2.0 (www.handshake20.com) in Roanoke. Below is are the first two paragraphs of the post followed by a link to the full article. Your current two-year cell phone contract is about to expire and you are thinking about dumping your brick-sized flip phone with that one button that works only occasionally. This is your opportunity to get a...
4 tags
How Google Used Twitter to Fix Its Webmaster Tools
By Gary Cope Ah, behold the power of Twitter. I’ve preached about the business benefits of using Twitter and shared examples of other Tweeple who have had problems solved when the company with which they were having issues with saw their gripe-filled Tweets and contacted them to fix things. Well, now I am one of those stories. Last Wednesday, I wrote a blog post called My Beef with...
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My Beef with Google's Webmaster Tools
By Gary Cope As a Web designer, Webmaster and inhouse SEO/SEM, I was THRILLED when Google announced that its Webmaster Tools had added a “Linked From” feature. This new feature finally allowed Web site owners to find out which URLs were linking to “not found” pages on their site. For example, let’s say you did a redesign and in the process, renamed some of your URLs. If...
October 2008
3 posts
3 tags
Strengthening Customer Relations with Social...
By Donna Cope Yes, I’m going to write, once again, about social networking. I am a convert. At the beginning, I would rather have gone to the dentist and had every single tooth pulled with no anesthesia. The thought of creating a MySpace or Facebook page or even … GASP, using Twitter was out of the question. I thought it would just be one more thing to keep up with and would be a...
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Social Networking as a Marketing Tool
By Donna Cope Are you social? Most people would probably answer “yes.” But, are you really? In today’s world to be social doesn’t just mean you say “hello” to people as you pass them on the street or go to every party to which you are invited. Today, being social means being social on the Internet, too, and it is almost as important as face-to-face. Facebook,...
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How NOT to Use Twitter
By Gary Cope *This post is about Twitter, a microblogging tool. If you don’t know what Twitter is, click here for an explanation. Twitter is no longer an exclusively techie/dork medium. Real estate agents, TV stations, newspapers, and even Britney Spears are using Twitter. Depending on your social media savyness, it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks to really get the hang of...
April 2008
1 post
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Mass Mailings Made Easy
By Donna Cope CWI Media & Marketing now offers a very convenient and cost-effective, complete start-to-finish handling of a mass mailing postcard project. Send us your mailing list and we can have approved postcards printed, labeled, stamped and mailed within a week, saving you time and money. If you mail them yourself, you will have to pay the regular first class rate, unless you get a...