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Written by srtooley | January 8, 2012 11:10 AM in Marketing & Advertising
693 views
As a small business owner it's vital that your advertising dollars be spent efficiently. Consider the following when creating your advertising campaign: Identify & Zero In On Your Target Audience I can't stress enough how important your understanding of exactly it is who you are marketing your product or service to is. If you own a company that makes tennis rackets you might think your target audience is tennis players. You're right ... dig deeper. Perhaps your target audience is...
Written by srtooley | January 8, 2012 11:10 AM in Graphic Design
790 views
One of the biggest concerns of the online consumer is knowing which companies to trust and which companies to steer clear of. It's often difficult to determine who is and is not reputable in the online world. One way that you can help build consumer confidence is by including a well written About Page on your web site. Small businesses often make the mistake of not including an 'About Us' page on their web site because statistically speaking it's the least read page on your web site. However,...
Written by srtooley | August 18, 2011 5:45 AM in Graphic Design
925 views
MiNeeds.com has many different types of people that view the "Ask The Experts" articles. Small business owners from many walks of life use the section to talk about their niche and educate people in an attempt to show their knowledge and entice potential customers to try their services. I received an email tonight from one of the community members who stated that they would place negative reviews about my company if I didn't remove the negative review I left about their company on their public...
Written by srtooley | August 9, 2011 4:56 PM in Graphic Design
1 comments
| 1167 views
Free web site design is something that you do not hear about every day. Free? Yes! 100% FREE web site hosting, design and education. We are currently working with: http://www.traumaandresiliencyresources.org North Country Design announced last week that they will be accepting applications for non-profit organizations to receive web site design absolutely free of charge. "These organizations often give so much of themselves, we wanted to give them something back." said owner, Shawn Tooley....
Written by srtooley | April 24, 2011 8:05 PM in Other
677 views
According to the MiNeeds Email . . ."Under our new membership options, your Basic Membership will be upgraded to Standard Membership today." With this new billing package that MiNeeds has rolled out I wanted to go make certain that I wasn't signed up for something that I hadn't agreed to pay for. I had discontinued my paid membership a few months ago and when I went here: https://secure.mineeds.com/profile/account I found that I was automatically signed up for the "Standard" package TODAY...
Written by srtooley | October 5, 2010 8:30 PM in Professional
572 views
Prelude A few years ago when the economy went ka-put a whole new group of small business owners were created out of a neccessity for people to earn money for the well being of their families. Many of us worked long hours for jobs that we actually enjoyed doing. Yet suddenly, through no fault of our own, we were faced with unemployment due to the companies we worked for downsizing, outsourcing or worse ... declaring bankruptcy. As a small business owner that successfully created a small...
Written by srtooley | September 2, 2010 8:30 PM in Graphic Design
1164 views
Understanding RGB vs. CMYK We often work with clients that are new to the printing-side of things - so we are often faced with the same type of questions. "Why doesn't this look like the PDF I saw on my screen?" and "Is there an easy way to pick my color?" There isn't really a simple answer to this, but we thought it would be a good idea to discuss color gamuts. For those of you who want to get all scientific about it, we offer this explanation: Monitors emit light, inked paper absorbs or...
Written by srtooley | June 26, 2010 8:46 PM in Graphic Design
599 views
Pet peeve time. Lately there has been a large influx of people who simply copy & paste their sales pitch into the box of the need who obviously didn't bother to -read- what the customer needed. It's not only making yourself look foolish, it's highly inconsiderate of the person posting the need if professionals are going to simply slap something up there quickly without reading. I hope that people posting the needs here start disqualifying people immediately for an obvious copy/paste. I...
Written by srtooley | May 27, 2010 11:44 AM in Graphic Design
555 views
Making yourself accessible and allowing for 'Googlers' to find you quickly and easily just got simpler! The folks over at Google have introduced Google Places, complete with QR codes, (read my article about QR codes) a one-stop resource for listing your business on the web. Below are the features taken directly from Google's site. Businesses unlock their free business listing with Google Places, allowing them to enhance the content of their listings with...
Written by srtooley | May 27, 2010 11:44 AM in Graphic Design
521 views
Contrary to popular assumptions, designing a website for usability does NOT have to be boring. Customer friendly, easily navigatable, engaging content and legibility is primarily want all visitors want. They need to be able to move around your site and find exactly what they're looking for or they will move away from your site. Our lives continue to get busier and we are presented with an increasing array of ways of accessing information quickly. Almost everyone I know owns a PDA’s...
Written by srtooley | May 14, 2010 11:35 AM in Graphic Design
629 views
How many times have you been browing the interwebs and landed on a web page that was designed well but you didn't understand how to navigate your way through the site, sign up for the newsletter, find the price of the product or service that was for sale or contact the company? Too many times! These sites need a better Call To Action. A Call To Action is nothing more than the item on your web page that tells the user what you want them to do. Call Now. Save Money Now. Signup For My Free...
Written by srtooley | May 14, 2010 11:30 AM in Marketing & Advertising
565 views
Just a quick note: Today while meeting with a client I was informed about Seth Godin, a published author, popular blogger / maketing guru that is very inspirational. Some of his quotes that I now have posted on my wall include: On Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter) "Networking is always important when it's real and it's always a useless distraction when it's fake." About the 'Finish Line' in Small Business "In skiing the goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill - the goal...
Written by srtooley | May 14, 2010 11:30 AM in Marketing & Advertising
486 views
When someone hands you a business card or sends you an email asking for more information about your business, they should not automatically get assigned to your email list. Showing interest in your product or service is exactly that - an interest. They've selected you out of the masses to investigate and see if you have what it is they're looking for. If you have 100 people on your mailing list and only 42 of them open your newsletters - that means the other 58 really don't want...
Written by srtooley | March 7, 2010 1:07 PM in Web Designers & Computer Services
1 comments
| 509 views
So here is another idea, MiNeeds readers -- I want you to get some additional hits on your web site. In order to make that happen I am wanting to setup a program where MiNeeds community members review each other's web sites and list 3 things they love, 3 things they would change and an overall feedback. How To Participate 1) Reply to this message with the URL to your web site. 2) View the comments and select a few random sites to review. You can send your review directly to the community...
Written by srtooley | March 5, 2010 3:05 AM in Other
680 views
This is a request to the MiNeeds Staff from one community member. There are too many projects on MiNeeds that go unawarded. In order to maintain a professional relationship with the small business vendors on your site I believe that the following needs to happen: If a professional PAYS for a bid and that project is NOT awarded to anybody - the professional gets 1 free bid refunded to their account. If you read this and agree, please reply and sign your name.
Written by srtooley | February 25, 2010 8:14 AM in Other
553 views
Good morning, all. As I sit here this morning and sip at my steaming cup of hot cocoa and dream of when the big thaw will finally hit Upstate New York so I can start getting excited about Spring, Summer and Fall - I find myself wondering why so many people neglect to comment and rate other people's articles. As someone who tries to contribute to the community here and deals individually with many of our authors and community members on an individual basis I would like to ask that if you've...
Written by srtooley | February 21, 2010 3:34 PM in Other
448 views
(From Shawn @ NorthCountryDesign.us) Cmon folks - enough of the lurking and the lack of participation. If you read an article - rate it. Even a 5, 6, 7 or 8 can help the individual users who take their time to write on here. I don't operate a blog any other places (save for my web site) and I write specifically for MiNeeds. In order for this community to take off and to get more people communicating we have to work together to dive into conversations. Comment on articles, ask questions, PM...
Written by srtooley | February 11, 2010 5:21 AM in Graphic Design
436 views
Bidder Protection means that when you spend money on a bid and the job goes unawarded, you get that bid credited to your account. This allows professionals to bid more confidently. I am asking every single person on MiNeeds who reads this article to reply with either: Yes, I would like to see bidder protection. or No, Bidder protection is not important to me. Do your part and reply! If you're reading this message you can take 20 seconds and reply to it. The only way...
Written by srtooley | December 9, 2009 5:14 AM in Graphic Design
1 comments
| 457 views
I'm just asking everyone who can read this message. At the top of this article there is "My Questions" and "My Answers". On my end I see little red asterisks. Does everyone else see those or do I need to have the largest subscription to get access to this section? I'd love to start answering questions and helping more people with their graphic design or web issues - but it doesn't appear to be working. Thanks in advance for responses. Shawn
