Web Starter Kit
Web Starter Kit
Posted September 23rd, 2011 by admin with No Comments
For a long time, web design was something which most businesses left to the professionals. Building an attractive, functional website which offered a smooth user experience took specialized knowledge and skill to pull off, especially when capabilities like e-commerce functionality were required. It’s not that HTML can’t be learned by the average person given time and a willingness to learn, but few business owners had the time or inclination to take it upon themselves to become their own web designers.
Reliance on a web design company to maintain and regularly update a site was a drain on resources and could make the cost of running a website far too expensive. It was not unknown for Web Designers to charge extortionate fees just to simply reword a paragraph or upload a new picture.
That’s the way it used to be, but things have changed in the last several years as WordPress and other content management systems have become readily available and increasingly user friendly. Once primarily a platform for bloggers (as in people maintaining online diaries rather than the broader sense of someone who has a WordPress or other CMS based website), individuals and businesses alike have become aware of the possibilities opened up by this easy to use, almost endlessly customizable and powerful content management system.
I want one of those
At Boost My Business we can get you set and running with a WordPress installation themed to match your own business from as little as £500. Our Web Starter Kit includes everything you need to get a business website online:
- Free co.uk domain name (www.yourname.co.uk) registered for 2 years.
- Website hosting for one year
- WordPress installation
- A theme styled specifically for your business
- WordPress usuage tutorial plus online support
- 500Mb web space
- 15 business e-mail addresses
- Website statistics – Google Analytics built in
Build a beautiful site
Just because your website uses WordPress as a framework doesn’t mean that your site has to be – or even look like a blog. You can use WordPress as a static website just as easily as you can a dynamic, frequently updated site like a blog. Of course, the Web 2.0 friendly features built into this popular CMS from the ground up allow for much more flexible web design. Designers can create static websites which offer some of the most important features of blogs, such as allowing easier two-way communication between site visitors and administrators, RSS integration and more.
There are a great many themes available for WordPress, to achieve your ideal website look. We recommend browsing Theme Forest to select a WordPress theme. With a such a wide range of themes to choose from, it’s relatively easy to find one which provides the look and feel you want for your site. We can then make adjustment to your theme,
WordPress isn’t the right choice for every business or individual who wants to build a website, but in many cases, this widely used CMS can offer visitors the best features of both static HTML based sites and Web 2.0 interactivity. Along with its search engine friendly nature, it’s an option you may want to carefully consider when investing in a new site.
Please get in touch to discuss how a WordPress site could boost YOUR business.
Use Social Media To Your Advantage
Posted December 8th, 2010 by admin with No Comments
Running your own small business can be a balancing act between your commitment to your business and implementing successful strategies to deal with all the additional areas that you need to focus on. Incorporating social networking into your marketing mix maybe something that you worry will take up a lot of time and provide little significant return. While that is a possibility if you are not sure how to approach this successfully, the reality is that if implemented in the right way, social marketing is a great way to develop branding opportunities, attract more traffic to your site, interact with your customers and the broader public, build links to your site and network with potential business partners, customers and business colleagues.
If you are well positioned with social media then you can achieve better results getting your brand name onto the higher ranking pages of the search engines. This also offers a unique opportunity to place your brand in your customers line of sight, giving you a higher amount of relevant traffic and a more proactive way to position your brand to prevent competitors from edging you out of the target markets view.
The next opportunity that social networking affords is the opportunity to actively draw traffic to your site. With well developed networking strategies you have a greater chance of getting quality traffic, and consequently higher conversion rates. Organizations are already making use of new and creative way to utilize the massive popularity of various social media to promote their particular product. Popular options include You Tube, MySpace and FaceBook. Whilst these have been seen as the popular desitnations of young people recent studies have shown an increasingly even spread of users across all age ranges. By using these tools creatively you have a good chance to capture your market share of the millions of users that are on the many social media networks, thereby getting higher quantities of quality traffic to your site.
When you are using social media you are provided with a unique opportunity to connect with your customers and the public at a more personal level. One common fear in small and mid sized businesses is that getting a bit more personal is potentially damaging, particularly if the comments are not what you might want to promote about your business. The bottom line here is that customers and the greater public are already talking about your business, and joining in the conversation may be more of a positive than a negative. Any good debate has two sides and if someone is dissatisfied with your service you have a better PR opportunity if you are able to successfully resolve or address these matters than pretending they are not there.
Finally, consider the interactive networking opportunities and link popularity that participating in social networking can create. More and more small to medium size businesses are realizing the benefits of search engine optimization and good links are a part of this process. When you interact with a large number of people you have a chance to create a greater number of links and thereby increase your search engine popularity via a number of good backlinks to your site. Many people also find that there are an increased number of opportunities to develop business relationships through social media. When these social media tools are used to communicate with others in your industry and your area of specialty you are presented with yet another opportunity to develop solid business relationships. The benefits of being well connected have long been recognized in the offline environment and you can put networking on your list for success online as well.
If you are a small or medium sized business owner, then now is the time to embrace the benefits of social networking media. Whilst the temptation is there to bury your head in the sand, the bottom line is it is here to stay. By embracing this media you are only limited by your creativity as to how you can make it work for you. There are many more ways than could be covered in this short space, so start socializing today and you will be on track to boosting your business quickly, creatively and cheaply too!
Benefits of owning a great domain name
Posted September 14th, 2010 by admin with No Comments
Greater authority, market credibility and trust. An industry specific generic domain can demonstrate all these attributes, because leading businesses in a particular field tend to own the relevant generic domain.
Easy to remember. If your domain reflects the product or service a user was interested in, they’ll find it much easier to remember. This is particularly true if the domain is an exact match to the searched keyphrase, with no additional words.
Additional traffic. Users will sometimes type a generic domain straight into their browser address bar rather than use a search engine. This is known as type-in traffic and is particularly significant for .com domains, but is also relevant for other domain extensions.
Helps with Search Engine Optimisation. The words contained in a domain are taken into account by the major search engines. Hence if your domain name is an exact match for a highly searched keyphrase, this will be taken into account by the ranking algorithms of the search engines and will help to place your website higher in the search engine results.
Save on Online Marketing Costs. As your generic domain is helping with search engine optimisation, you can spend less on costly online promotion techniques such as Pay Per Click advertising.
Ongoing competitive advantage. All the above factors mentioned so far add up to an ongoing competitive advantage for your business. If you use your generic domain to build an information rich website for your industry, it can help your business to become a “go to” resource and increase your market share. Equally, your competitors will suffer simply because they don’t have such a good domain name.
Excellent Long Term Investment. So far, generic domain names have proved to be excellent investments which increase in value as market awareness and the importance of the internet increase. A generic domain is a business asset and can often be sold on for a healthy profit.
Rare Opportunities to Buy. Contributing to the value of a domain is the difficulty in obtaining it. Once a generic domain is owned by a specialist business operating in the sector, it is unlikely to be available again.
Choose the right domain name
Posted July 5th, 2010 by admin with No Comments
Whether you already have an established offline business or you are trying to build an online business from scratch, selecting your domain name is now one of the most important decisions you will have to make! This is indeed a bold statement to make, so allow me back it up with some sensible reasoning.
The “right domain name” for an online business would be one that contributes towards enhancing both your image and your marketing efforts. It helps in bringing more traffic to your web site.
Here are some key factors to think about when choosing your name:
- Easy to Spell - If people can’t pronounce or spell your domain name properly, it is likely to cause you problems for you. If your spreading your message by word of mouth then a simple address will roll off the tongue.
- Short and Simple – Short names are easy to type and easy to remember. It’s possible to have up to 64 characters in a domain name but who wants to TypeInAHugeComplicatedSentance.com
- Brainstorm 5 Top Keywords – When you first begin your domain name search, it helps to have 5 terms or phrases in mind that best describe the domain you’re seeking. Once you have this list, you can start to pair them or add prefixes & suffixes to create good domain ideas. For example, if you’re launching a mortgage related domain, you might start with words like “mortage, finance, home equity, interest rate, house payment” then play around until you can find a good match.
- Memorable - Your domain name must be easy to remember, so that net surfers can instantly access your web site by typing in your domain name in the browser window. They might not bother to conduct a search for your web site if your domain name is difficult to remember and is easily forgotten.
- Avoid Copyright Infringement – This is a mistake that isn’t made too often, but can kill a great domain and a great company when it does. To be sure you’re not infringing on anyone’s copyright with your site’s name, visit copyright.gov and search before you buy.
- Reject Hyphens and Numbers – Both hyphens and numbers make it hard to give your domain name verbally and falls down on being easy to remember or type. Spaces and symbols are not allowed. Also, domain names are not case sensitive
- Create and Fulfill Expectations – When someone hears about your domain name for the first time, they should be able to instantly and accurately guess at the type of content that might be found there. That’s why I love domain names like Hotmail.com, CareerBuilder.com, AutoTrader.com and WebMD.com. Domains like Monster.com, Amazon.com and Zillow.com required far more branding because of their un-intuitive names.
- Relate it to Your Category - Your domain name should give some idea of the business you are in, and what your web site is about. The two famous web based brands Yahoo! and Amazon defy this rule. You can’t tell that Yahoo! would be the name of a search engine and Amazon would be a book store. But don’t let this change your mind. Amazon and Yahoo! have the advantage of being the pioneers in their chosen categories, along with consistent brand building efforts and a commitment for quality.
- Be Smart, Not a Smart Arse - Don’t try and be too clever with your domain name. You may think it’s catchy or cute but if everyone else you tell thinks it’s rubbish you are probably better off not using it. If it takes half an hour to explain why you chose the name, it’s probably a bad one.
Business Stationary
Posted June 25th, 2010 by admin with No Comments
Boost My Business use a reliable print service to ensure your business stationary of the highest quality and ALWAYS delivered on time.
A4 Letterheads
Our Full Colour Letterheads are printed on premium 100 GSM bond paper to ensure a high quality look, feel and finish.
Dimensions – 297mm x 210mm
Estimated Turnaround – 5 Working Days
| 100 | 200 | 500 | 1000 | 2500 | 5000 | |
| 1 Sided | £34.99 | £52.99 | £69.99 | £99.99 | £139.99 | £219.99 |
| 2 Sided | £38.99 | £57.99 | £66.99 | £109.99 | £154.99 | £239.99 |
Compliment Slips
Our Full Colour Compliment Slips are printed on premium 100 GSM bond paper to ensure a high quality look, feel and finish. Each compliment slip is precision cut to ensure each one is as perfect as the last.
Dimensions – 55mm x 210mm
| 100 | 200 | 500 | 1000 | 2500 | 5000 | |
| 1 Sided | £24.99 | £38.99 | £49.99 | £69.99 | £119.99 | £152.99 |
| 2 Sided | £28.99 | £44.99 | £55.99 | £76.99 | £134.99 | £167.99 |
Estimated Turnaround – 5 Working Days
Business Cards
Posted June 25th, 2010 by admin with No Comments
A quality business card can speak volumes about your company. In new meetings, and at business functions, it is often a point of etiquette (and common sense) to swap business cards with potential customers or clients. This exchange of cards can open new doors and generate new business. It is often the first piece of sales literature a new customer will see!
Our Business Cards are printed on thick 350 GSM card. They can be printed in Full Colour on one side only , or in Full Colour on both sides.
Dimensions – 85mm x 55mm
Estimated Turnaround – 5 Working Days
| 100 | 250 | 500 | 1000 | 2500 | |
| 1 Sided | £22.99 | £29.99 | £34.99 | £44.99 | £69.99 |
| 2 Sided | £26.99 | £34.99 | £42.99 | £49.99 | £79.99 |
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- Benefits of owning a great domain name
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