Everyone who works with WordPress owes a debt to the many developers who have created so many awesome open source capabilities for the platform. As a WordPress developer, the AIM team has learned and integrated many solutions from the community. The AIM Style Vault plugin (now available in the WordPress.org plugin repository) is a way for us to give back something of value to that community.

I developed the original version of the custom style post type two years ago when I was creating our Netoro theme—an early take on a theme editor and the precursor to our ThemeBlocks solution. After using custom styles on our in-house projects for about a year, I decided to build a plugin to extend the functionality to use on other themes to accommodate clients who brought us pure styling jobs on existing sites. As I was creating the plugin, I tested it widely on themes I uploaded from WordPress.org, including many of the standard themes from Automattic such as Twenty-Eleven. I learned that, with the AIM Style Vault and a good grasp of CSS, a designer could take control of a basic theme and pretty much do anything with the presentation…and do so without having to create a child theme.

The Custom Style post concept plays a central role in our ThemeBlocks theme editor, as well. ThemeBlocks contains a basic style.css file, but it’s not intended to create a finished design. ThemeBlocks, using its Customizer options along with the Custom Style posts (derived from AIM Style Vault) is built for total customization. It’s not one design for every site like most themes. It’s one theme that can generate virtually any design. With the AIM Style Vault in your arsenal of tools, you’ll have an idea of what I mean.

If you’re interested in learning more about this free CSS styling plugin for WordPress, check out our AIM Style Vault page. And if you’ve downloaded the plugin and are using it, we’d love to get your feedback on how we can make it even better.

Fresh and shiny is good when it comes to blog posts (not to mention fruit) so it’s worth a little effort to freshen up older posts that can seem dated. I run into this all the time with WordPress updates, such as the recent media page changes with WordPress 3.5. The same thing can happen to any business blog post, whether it’s a product review, an advice post or just you being your normal engaging self.

Here are some things to watch for that can date your post:

• The publishing date (obviously)
• References to events (that were recent at the time of publishing)
• References to people (who were notable at the time of publishing but are not in the news currently)
• References to services or products that have changed since the post was written
• Photos of things that no longer exist (like the mustache you shaved off five years ago)
• Links to websites that are no longer there
• Lacking a reference to something that is now a vital part of the post topic (an article written prior to Pinterest’s launch that deals with online photo galleries)

Save the monkey!

About a year ago I wrote a review of an online photo editing app called PicMonkey. Oddly, I received quite a few blog comments from readers who used PicMonkey but were unable to save their images, and I suggested they contact the good folks at PicMonkey.com. At the time, PicMonkey.com was just getting started and they hadn’t rolled out their premium offerings. Eventually, I decided to update the post with some information about the new premium service, and that’s when it struck me that those comments hadn’t been about saving final images at all; my readers had most likely wanted to save their in-progress projects, something PicMonkey didn’t support. So I addressed that in my refreshed post along with the information about the premium service. After the update, the number of comments regarding saving files dropped significantly.

What was old is new again

Once you’ve updated an older post, be sure to distribute it again to your social communities. Automatic posting plugins generally work only when a post is published for the first time. I use HootSuite.com to set up new links back to the updated article. It’s free and easy–two things I love.

I hope this business blogging tip has been useful to you, and be sure to look back through your older posts to see if any of them need a fresh coat of paint.

Be sure to check out Seattle WordPress Design—Part 1: DIY

For Puget Sound area businesses that want a WordPress website built for them, the obvious choice is a Seattle WordPress design shop—a company that specializes in using and extending WordPress. As you surf local design websites, you’ll discover that most developers offer WordPress, but some companies use WordPress exclusively while others offer it among a number of options including straight HTML (old school), FLASH (the wrong school), Joomla (a WordPress wannabe), Drupal (for special needs) and a host of off-the-shelf platforms and technologies that, for most businesses, will prove to be inferior to WordPress. The reason you choose WordPress for your business is to benefit from its SEO performance and content management functions, so unless you have such specialized needs that they can’t be met adequately by WordPress, you should stick with a developer that specializes in WordPress. Why so? Because a WordPress exclusive developer is more likely to understand the options that will help promote your business while using a WordPress-driven website.

What to look for in a Seattle WordPress design shop

Once you’ve narrowed the field to WordPress exclusive developers, there’s still a large pool of companies to choose from in the Seattle area. Let’s break them down into categories:

• Trainers and tweakers: If you have a theme already in mind, you might need a coach to help set up the site, install plugins and teach you the basics. Anyone with a solid grasp of WordPress can help you at this level. They should also be able to make small design changes and help you understand how search engines work and how you can optimize your content and utilize social media to boost awareness of your website.
• Designers: Many graphic designers have moved into website design in recent years. They may not have the technical skills to build a custom WordPress theme for you, but they are likely to be able to customize an existing theme or framework , creating an attractive, professional-looking website presence for your company. As long as your technical needs are basic and you know how to write and optimize web content, a designer may be all you need.
• Developers: WordPress developers can build a custom theme that fully meets the needs of your business. The caveat here is that, although developers have the technical skills you need, they may not have the design and online marketing skills or business development background to help you decide what is needed. Once again, if you have those missing skill sets covered, a technical developer may be the right answer for you.
• Full-service: A full-service WordPress developer offers all of the above: coaching, tweaking, creative design, custom development, SEO, marketing, business development and content creation. Full-service WordPress design companies, such as AIM, are positioned to help clients for all of their needs, and over time, as a website requires updating, that is a big advantage.

How to judge the quality of a company’s work

It’s usually quite easy to judge the results of a web designer’s work because most companies include a showcase gallery. Visit the showcase sites and review them, and ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I immediately understand what the website is about?
• Is the site inviting or off-putting?
• Is it clean or cluttered?
• Is the navigation easy to use?
• Is there a call to action?
• Is it easy to find contact numbers and addresses?

Better yet, contact a client directly. While visiting the client’s website, go to their contact page and send them a message; let them know that you’re considering hiring the web development company and ask if the developer was responsive to their needs, if they helped the client understand the best options for their business, and were there hidden costs? I’ve found that most people are happy to help with a quick assessment. The worst that can happen is that you get no response.

Because the initial research steps are so important for website development projects, AIM has put together resources that may be useful to help get you started. Click here to see our website planning resources.

Seattle area businesses that are looking to set up a website with WordPress have lots of options to consider, from building it themselves to hiring a professional WordPress developer. In this post, we’ll share some of the things you should think about if you’re considering the Do It Yourself route; and  you may discover that it’s not quite as easy as it sounds.

You may also want to check out Seattle WordPress Design—Part 2: WordPress developers

Choosing a WordPress theme

One of the cool things about WordPress is that you can upload a pre-built theme that displays images, posts, pages and sometimes specialty content and all you have to do is add the text and pictures. Of course, nothing is quite that easy. First, there are thousands of themes to choose from, yet most of them are for blogging and unsuited to business. Searching Google or a theme store such as WooThemes.com or ThemeForest.net is your best bet for finding a theme suited to your business. You could also check out the new theme index called “There is a theme for that”, which offers an easy search experience so you can quickly view multiple themes from over 100 companies. Make sure that the theme supports branding options, such as adding your logo and adjusting theme colors to match. Buying a premium theme may pay-off in the long run with support that is lacking on a free theme.

Nothing free or cheap is easy

Once you’ve selected a theme, don’t expect to publish your site immediately. It’s possible that the ideal theme is waiting for you; a theme that is so perfectly suited to your business that you’ll simply add content, push the publish button then sit back as your phone rings off the hook with orders…but it’s unlikely. Themes are generic in nature, authored by someone who doesn’t know what you are selling, what is special about your business and what action you need visitors to take. To get the most from your website, chances are that you’ll have to make changes. The WordPress plugin repository, as well as premium plugins, may provide some of what you need, but that won’t help when it comes to styling or creating custom functionality. The only way to get truly customized is with expertise in WordPress and the various programming languages it uses, including HTML, CSS, PHP and jQuery, not to mention dealing with MySQL databases, hosting providers, domain management, email and other technical matters. If you aren’t an expert already, plan on taking a year or two for some intensive study. Otherwise, you’ll have to turn to a Seattle WordPress developer like AIM to help you get just what you need. That’s fine with us, of course, but it’s not so much DIY.

And then there’s the content

If you’re considering the DIY route, chances are you feel confident in your ability to create messages and content. You’ll also need to be up-to-date with ever-evolving search engine optimization strategies and tactics. Even more important on today’s Internet is how you integrate social media and share with invested communities. If you understand online marketing, user psychology and expectations, and how to promote your brand online then DIY may indeed be a good fit for you.

Additional WordPress resources

So you’ve come this far and you’re determined to do it yourself. Take a deep breath and relax. It’s not as bad as it might seem because there are extensive free resources available to WordPress users beginning with the WordPress codex–a project that documents how WordPress works and how you can get the most out of the platform. A simple Google search for most questions pertaining to WordPress will return at least one codex page. Digging Into WordPress is another website I’d recommend, and the for-sale PDF is a better investment than any of the print books I’ve seen that cover WordPress in general and in-depth. In the Seattle area, you can also find WordPress coaches, development companies such as AIM that offer extensive training, meet-ups of all kinds and the annual WordCamp Seattle, where Pressies from all over the region congregate to learn and mingle. One word of caution, however; since so much has been written about WordPress online, and since WordPress, the Internet, search and social media are changing so rapidly, you need to be careful about applying what you read. More recent articles should contain information that takes into account recent changes, and authors that have a long history writing about WordPress tend to be the most reliable. The best check, however, is to talk to a pro or test what you’ve learned on a small scale before applying it to your website.

Time vs. Money

In the end, DIY may be cheap in terms of dollars but it won’t be cheap in terms of time. WordPress is an excellent platform, and many of its features are easy to learn, but putting together all the pieces required to build a professional website that adds value to your business takes time and knowledge. If you don’t have the knowledge already, you’ll have to budget in the time required to learn what you don’t know. You could spend hundreds of hours developing a website and still get it wrong. So you need to ask yourself, what is your time worth, and can your business afford the time it takes for you to get it right?

Who is a good fit for DIY?

In the end, I would recommend the DIY route for businesses that already have online marketing expertise, including a good writer, and someone who has experience working with WordPress and social media. In the Seattle area, with so many high-tech professionals around, you may already have resources available. But without these basics being covered, even a “free” website will seem like a waste of money.

One day the Earl of Bogland visited his friend the King where, over a luncheon of tasty raspberry muffins, pumpkin soup, asparagus hollandaise and succulent squid pie, the Earl innocently mentioned that he too wished to be a king.

“Well,” observed the King, “you don’t have a castle, my friend. In fact, that beaver’s lodge that you call a house isn’t really even fit for a beaver.”

“But I have just as much claim to be a king as you do,” objected the Earl, pointing out that his great grandfather Fledrick had been a king.

“Doesn’t matter what color your blood is, Earl. I’m telling you, get yourself a castle.”

So the Earl went home, determined to build a castle and become a king.

Looking around his soggy lands, however, he wasn’t sure how to get started. Castles were built of stone, he decided, so that’s what he needed. He could do this, he thought. He pictured noble ramparts and soaring towers. He ordered his retainers to gather up all the stones they could find and bring them to the driest patch of Bogland and there, a day later, he began building his castle.

It so happened that the King was hunting that day and chanced to ride by the Earl, who was sweating and swatting mosquitoes as he stacked stones. He’d managed to stack a ring of stones knee-high and about thirty feet across, and he was already running low on rock.

“Have you lost your mind, Earl?” asked the King from atop his mount.

“No, your Highness. Just taking your advice and building a castle.”

“And just how many castles have you built? Zero, I would say from the look of things. Building a castle is something you should leave to the professionals. What you’ve got there, I’d say, is more of a duck paddock.”

Earl gazed about dejectedly at his work. The King was right. Several ducks were settling in nicely within the walls of his castle.

“You need an architect, an engineer, stone masons, wood crafters, and blacksmiths. A castle in name only won’t make you a king.” And with that the King rode off chuckling.

“Drat,” thought Earl. He imagined that it might cost quite a bit of gold to hire all those specialists. Still, if that’s what it took to be a king then that’s what he would do. He saddled up his mule and rode into town.

At the first castle-building company—Blogget & Sons—the Earl was greeted with tea and crumpets and ushered into a plush room.

“What have you got to spend?” began Blogget Sr. rubbing his palms together then reaching for a crumpet. “Castles don’t come cheap, you know.”

“I’d like a starter castle fit for a king,” said the Earl.

“Can’t do it,” laughed the builder. “We only build expensive kingly castles fit for kings. For instance, did you realize that we draw our blueprints on the finest parchment imported from across several oceans infested with sea dragons. That doesn’t come cheap. And we tile every roof with genuine handcrafted gold-encrusted tiles made by a clan of leprechauns.”

“I don’t care about any of that,” said Earl in confusion. “I just want a castle.”

“If it’s not impressive, nobody will think you’re a king,” noted the builder.

“How will the parchment and leprechauns make it any more impressive?”

The builder laughed. “If you can’t see that, you have no business being a king.”

The Earl then went to see Castles Are We: “That’s the royal WE,” joked the fellow who came to the shop counter to greet the Earl.

“What sort of parchment do you use for blueprints?” asked the Earl, not wanting to appear silly.

The clerk scoffed. “We don’t use blueprints, pal. We’ve got one design that fits all. It’s what you do with it that counts.” The man produced a picture of a small castle with a single tower and a few narrow crenellations. “You could use that tower for a master suite or a grain silo. Choice is yours. Cool, huh?”

“I don’t want to sleep in a grain silo,” sighed the Earl, and so he left the shop.

Outside, standing beside his mule and thinking that the dream of having a castle and becoming a king was all but lost, the Earl called out: “Can anybody help me?”

That’s when the Earl felt a polite tap on his shoulder and he turned around to find a smiling man who held a large key in his hand.

“What’s this?” asked the Earl.

“The key to one of the castles we built,” the man explained. “I thought you might like a tour. It’s just down the street and across the lake on that island. You can see it if you squint.”

The Earl squinted and he could just make out a distant turret or two rising from a small island in the lake. As he and the man walked toward the lake, they discussed the Earl’s needs.

“I see,” nodded the man. “You’re right of course that a king requires a castle. It’s the perception, you see. If the people see that you have a castle, they start believing that you’re a king. They take you seriously and they trust you. In fact, it’s quite important that the castle has certain features…”

“You mean like golden tiles and a grain silo?” interrupted the Earl.

“Not exactly, my lord. A king’s castle requires a throne room where the king holds audience and where the people can see him sitting on the throne. And a castle requires a large kitchen and an even larger banquet hall so that you can hold feasts and invite the people to partake of your generosity.”

“It sounds as if being king is more about the people than the king,” said the Earl, doubtfully.

“Indeed. That’s the price of being a king.”

They had come to the lakeshore where a boat waited to take them to the island castle.

“Are you ready to see what we offer, my lord?”

The Earl smiled and stepped into the boat. “Yes, I am,” he replied. At last he knew what he needed to become a king and who could help him achieve his goals. “By the way,” he asked, settling onto a comfy cushion, “how long have you been in the castle-building business?”

The man pushed the boat from the shore and hopped in. “Well,” said the man with a mysterious wink, “we’re not in the castle-building business. We’re in the king-making business.”

Whether you’re a king or a business owner, you need people to take you seriously. That begins with a website that is built by people who understand that the ultimate goal is not to build a website, but to build your business.

We love WordPress at AIM, and we believe that it is the best web platform and content management system in the universe, which is saying something because the universe is quite a large place. But we know that even a brilliantly conceived and delivered system takes some getting used to. We also love our clients. One of the services we spend a lot of time with for every client is training and providing documentation. From those sessions we have learned that there are lots of general questions that occur to new users. So, in an effort to save time, eliminate frustration and provide more WordPress love to that same universe noted previously, we hereby announce the creation of a new set of Working with WordPress tips designed to be useful to all WordPress users wherever they are in said universe so long as they have an Internet connection. Each tip is a short article with visual aids, easily reviewed and understood. We begin with a look at the WordPress visual editor toolbar. Prepare to be amazed with new knowledge.

Like dieters, most business blog owners start with the best of intentions. They know that blogging is good for their business. They know that it’s going to take some time and effort, but the goal is worth it; people will find them online, learn about their advantage and make contact…and that leads to sales. Yet within weeks (months at best) most new bloggers eye the task before them with all the relish of a dieter faced with yet another meal of celery and rice crackers.

To overcome the apathy, you need a strategy if you want to win. Your strategy has two key components: you need to know what you’re going to blog about and you need to sit down and write something. Professional writers know that part of the trick is just writing on a regular basis, whether the work is printable or not, the habit of committing your words to a word processor file is more than half the battle. The other thing we can learn from writers is that you should write what you know. Our 10 steps to effective blogging are the things you need to keep in mind as you begin writing.

1. Frequency—Publishing frequency is great as long as you have something interesting or valuable to share with your audience. The rule of thumb is to publish as frequently as you have good material.
2. Assessment and Quality—It won’t help to publish someone else’s insights. Your content must be your own and it must be interesting or valuable for your audience. You need to assess your strengths–are you a good writer or do you present your ideas better on video? Would photos tell your story better than words? You must be realistic or your strategy will not succeed. The trick is that you need to incorporate some type of description even if you concentrate on showing images or video. Captions for photos along with descriptive alt text can go a long way. For videos, the best idea is to include a transcript of what is discussed.
3. Access to assets—What do you need to create your post? Do you need a photo? Do you need a quote? Do you need recent sales figures? Gather your assets before you begin writing. Often times the assets are the article. This post began as a simple list of the 10 things I do.
4. Set a regular time aside—This one may be the most important. Commit to a time and you’ll do something. Don’t commit and the task will be delayed over and over.
5. Keyword-rich topics—Using keywords in your content is still an important part of search engine optimization. If you’re selling widgets in France it helps to use the terms “widgets” and “France” somewhere in your post.
6. Include links—Link to related content on your site. For WordPress users, your tags and categories are one built-in way to do this. You can add hyperlinks in your content, as well.
7. Reflect your expertise—Blog about what you know. Don’t blog about pruning roses if your business sells manifolds.
8. Support your brand—What do customers say about your business? Whatever it is, that’s your brand message. If they love your customer service, share it online with helpful customer support blogs. If they love your specials deals, give them online specials.
9. Build communities—Part of a successful blogging strategy is to broadcast your content via social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Creating a big, active community is worth the effort of friending, following and pinning to reach people who share your interests. Keep in mind that your objective isn’t to sell to your communities; you want to share value with them so they go to your post. Their presence on your website is what will boost your Google search position.
10. Market your content—Once you publish valuable content, let people know about it, primarily your online communities. Tweet, post, tag friends, send emails, join conversations, leave links.

Final thoughts on making a successful blogging strategy

Marketing used to be a big-budget, shotgun blast of promises and hype. No more. For small businesses, effective marketing today is engagement and sharing utilizing your strengths coupled with the steps listed above. Your blog is your most effective tool, so use it. We would love to hear how you create a blogging strategy or overcome the difficulties of regular content creation, so be sure to share your stories.

In “Rework” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the authors recommend that when making a hiring decision, if all other considerations are equal, go with the better writer. That’s good advice, particularly for businesses that want to compete online. You need a good writer who understands your services and products and can tell the inside story.

The pen is mightier than the mouth

An engineer who can write for a lay audience is far more valuable than one who cannot, but an engineer who can write only technical documents—although that may be part of the job requirement—is less valuable than the former employee who can also write blog posts or Facebook updates. And since search is based on text, if you think you should hire someone who is a great verbal communicator but can’t write a coherent sentence, forget it. You’ll still need that employee with good writing skills to create a text summary of the audio or video that your “communicator” delivered.

How do you know who’s good?

You need a sample of the candidate’s writing in order to judge their skill. Do NOT use their resume, since that could have been written by anyone. As part of your interview process, create a simple test whereby each candidate needs to describe the same thing, such as one of your products or services. Give them each the same background materials as a basis for their description and provide each with the same amount of time to complete the test. Having set up the test properly, you’ll be able to compare apples to apples.

Need some help scoring the test?

If the winner of your writing test isn’t obvious, here are a few ideas to help narrow the samples down to the best one. If you know a professional writer, tell them what your goal is and have them look over the top candidates and make comments. There are also some online tools that can help. Writing Tester will evaluate any text you paste into a field and return two values: you’ll see the reading grade level of the sample, and a “readability” score. Ideally, the reading grade level shouldn’t be too high for the sample (say 8-12) since you’ll want to communicate to as many people as possible, but the higher the readability score the better. You can also have candidates take a quick online test that presents multiple choice answers to given sentences that may or may not be correct; click here to try it out.

The big takeaway is that writing skills are more valuable than ever in business due to the importance of online marketing and social media. If you already have this skill set covered, great! But if not, you might want to look for good writing skills in your next hire.

Consider ad copy that’s full of hyperbole such as “this is the greatest cat bath ever” or “you won’t believe your eyes”. Most people see such claims as marketing excess and pass them over. Search results work the same way. When a result pops up in Google or another search engine you’ll see a title link and a description. Sometimes the description is a weird collection of snippets and sometimes it’s a useful guide for what’s on the page. In this post, we’re going to share a few tips about writing descriptions that help earn those clicks.

Metatag Descriptions Sell the Search

Clever folks like you and me know that its best to add your own metatag title and description; if you don’t do it, the search engine will try to do it for you, and the results are seldom pretty and often embarrassing. But some people go to a lot of trouble to create a title optimized with keywords but consider the description to be a waste of time since it isn’t indexed by the search engines. Unfortunately, that’s where they are terribly, horribly mistaken. The description counts quite a lot because people read it to get a sense of what content they’ll find on that page. It may not help your result show up for a particular search, but it can and should help people decide to click on the result.

See what the cat drags in

Let’s think about a real-world example. If someone has a dirty cat and you sell a cat bath product, you need to share that message clearly and concisely in your description. Let’s say your cat bath product page includes a demo video and some testimonials from local cat groomers. Here’s what you might write in the description:

“See a video demonstration of how our cat bath is easy to use and won’t freak out your cat then read what professional groomers have to say about it.”

That’s a lot better than this:

“This is the best cat bath ever and the only cat bath you’ll ever need. Your cat will thank you and purr with delight after every glorious bathing experience.”

Let’s sum up

The description should be a brief summary of the content on your page that suggests what a visitor will learn or experience if they click on the link. On the Internet, sharing is always better than selling. It’s a chance to convince a reader to click your link. You won’t convince anyone to click by over-promising or by being vague. You will convince them by being straight forward about the content and addressing the reason that likely prompted their search in the first place.
Some additional quick description tips:

• Keep metatag descriptions to less than 160 characters with spaces
• Use proper syntax and punctuation
• Don’t get cute and use texting abbreviations to save space
• Humor is okay if it conveys what the page is about and isn’t offensive

If this post was useful, you might want to check out our tips for SEO content optimization.

…one giant leap for small business websites

Welcome to the new AIM website. Previous visitors will notice the fresh presentation and new branding focus, but some of the biggest changes will be found on our Services page. AIM has always tried to deliver small business websites with no surprises; that idea is the basis for our free website mockup offer. We’re going even further to help customers understand the best options for their needs, to include preplanning and analysis as part of our proposal process (the stuff we do to win your trust and your job before you spend a cent), and to make the entire process transparent so you understand where your money is going and what value it provides.

Fixed website development pricing

Now we’ve added a fixed pricing model that allows customers to calculate the cost of a website with any of our selected options; check off the option desired and the total is calculated at the bottom of the page. This tool is particularly useful when shopping for a web developer. If you ask for a quote from another web development company for comparison, be sure to request that they itemize the list.

Evaluate your website

We’ve also added a tool that helps people quickly grade the competitiveness of their website or the websites of competitors. Our Website Evaluator asks you eleven questions and returns an overall grade based on your responses. The areas being graded are those that have a real impact on search engine results position, the website’s overall ability to be found online and the user experience for visitors.

The new Get Growing option

Over the past several years our Get Growing websites have evolved from a simple design with growth potential to a modular approach that allows clients more latitude in design to fit their needs while keeping costs low. The new Get Growing package is the culmination of what we’ve learned from our customers. On a competitive basis of comparing apples to apples, AIM’s Get Growing websites are likely the best business website deal in Seattle. But it isn’t just the design flexibility that makes our entry-level web solution so attractive; it’s the fact that you get our expert help in putting the right modules in place to meet your needs and then we add your brand elements to make the site unique. No template solution or tweaked WordPress theme can match this approach. The real magic is that the Get Growing site is built on the same foundation as our most complex customized websites, which means that it can grow and evolve as you need it to. And that means you won’t have to build a new website a few years down the road when your business expands or changes direction.

AIM higher

Why are we evoking the moon landings in our new branding messages and images? It’s all about your aspirations to do more, to earn more, to provide better service and options. AIM is a small business designed to help other small businesses succeed in what has become the most important and most competitive marketplace in history—the Internet. We’ve seen clients use our websites and strategies to build successful brands and businesses, and we want you to succeed, as well. The first small step you can take won’t cost you anything except the time to talk with us about how we can help you.