We are offering three enticing incentives to encourage owners of websites that are in serious need of an upgrade. 1) A 20% discount of our normally competitive pricing 2) Free Web Hosting for 1 year and 3) Up to 80 % financing at 0% interest for 1 year to qualified upgraders.

The goal of our Cash for Web Clunker program is to make it easy for business owners to get that new 2010 model website. By now all business owners realize that their website is the vital to their success. And our aim is to reduce the economic barrier that might have created a roadblock in the past.

Just like the governments Cash for Clunker Program all good things don’t last. Our offer is on the table until the end of September.

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In an age of new technology we don’t have as many business lunches, golf outings, and other traditional networking events like we used to, but that shouldn’t stop your clients from talking you up to their friends, coworkers and beyond, should it?

We’ve all heard from SEO experts (like myself) that getting listed in online directories such as Yahoo!, DMOZ, and others will help to improve your search engine rankings; but there are some other places to be listed that can work twice as hard for you, if you put in a little time. A few of my favorite places are listed at the bottom of this post. Take the time to ensure your listings are correct then take it one step further….ask for some help.

The three sites I list all have the option to let people review your products/services. Every review or recommendation can set you apart from your competition. So go back to your best client and ask them for a few minutes of their time to rate, recommend, and/or praise you. I’m sure that if you have forged a good relationship with this client they won’t mind helping you out, even better, offer to help them to by writing a review in return.

These personal recommendations get added to your listing and the next person who comes across you will take what is said into consideration. This concept works just like social events where people can interact and talk about you only now you supporters can touch every interested person in the room instead of just one or two. With praise coming from current clients you’ll be guaranteed to capture more awesome clients without ever leaving your office. So in this competitive market, remember to get by with a little help from your friends!

What are you waiting for? Get listed!

Google Local Business Listing – http://www.maps.google.com
To have clients write a review on Google Local Business map listing pass them the exact link where they can review you.

To do this: Search your company name on Google maps, click the send link towards the top right of the page, follow the instructions and send the link to yourself. Now keep it in a safe place and pass it along the next time you get a compliment from a client. Instruct them to click on the link “Write a Review” below your companies name. They will need a Google User name but if they use Gmail or Adwords, or are just an avid google user they will already have one. If not the setup process is quick and painless.

Yelp – http://www.yelp.com

YellowPages.com – http://www.yellowpages.com

Both Yelp and Yellowpages.com often have standard listings on companies but to enhance your presence on the web and give your potential clients more info on you, create a username/password then add to your listing. To have clients write a review on either just pass along the link from your direct page.

What tactics do you currently employ to get new clients interested in you? Share with us!

There’s a lot of pressure out there to blog, to Twitter for business, to at least have a Linkedin profile for goodness sakes! And it’s true, you can’t “sit this one out” and “see where it goes.” Oh, it’s going. Our social lives and our business marketing will never be the same. Your business must participate in the online social sphere.  I’m just one more peer here to say, go on, try it.

It’s a curious feeling, even just posting photos that anyone could see, never mind a status update. So start slow. One site at a time, one profile at a time. Linkedin is an excellent place to begin, since it’s business oriented. When you’re ready to advance to the next level of posting videos on YouTube or setting up a Facebook page for your business, think of it as just that: for your business. It’s true, there’s blurring between the personal and the professional lines, you will be out there with your business – but take comfort in the fact that so is everyone else. That’s right, everyone is doing it.

As you get more comfortable, you’ll enjoy networking online because you’ll be finding old friends and new contacts. Your website will attract more traffic from the additional visibility. It will be worth it. And then there will come a day when you post on a blog and it gets some seriously snarky responses. And you’ll cringe and wish you had never set foot in cyberspace. But so what? It’s just people’s opinions and it will pass. And as they say, all publicity is good publicity. Just stay true to yourself, on message with your company, and keep making connections – online.

Just like the Internet itself, social media is here to stay. However, as with clubs or hairstyles, what networking sites are the “in” sites will likely always change. Social networking and sharing online will be a constant, just a continuously evolving one. And since consumers are spending time online, business are adapting and hanging out virtually as well. But what’s the right amount?

According to The Small Business Advocate blog, small business owners can easily get sucked into spending too much time socializing online, leading them to neglect “tried and true” traditional marketing efforts that are, in fact, working. While it’s definitely possible that online networks can lead to new clients, one may not see immediate gains, or any at all if it just doesn’t work for your business. Therein lies the secret, except that the secret formula for the ratio of social media to traditional marketing is going to be different for every business.

As for the scientists’ warning that the overwhelming speed and volume of tweets “could harm [one's] moral compass”… I’m not sure I want to think about that just yet. We’re all experimenting, and businesses (and people) have to figure out what works for them. But you’ve been warned.

Web 2.0 allows programers to develop websites that invite people to participate instead of just publishing content. Ever heard of MySpace, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter? Well, all of these sites, and the rest of the social networking sites, are all made possible thanks to Web 2.0. And it doesn’t end there. Developers are looking for new ways to use Web 2.0. Companies want to build a social networking strategy within their internal networks that makes employees feel comfortable at work. It also helps employees feel more like part of a community while at the office, rather than just another cog in a wheel.

This excited and saddened me at the same time. It’s great that the web is developing great new technology in order to enhance our web experience. But for someone who just designed his very first website for a Law Firm (adradvocate.com), I realized that there is a lot more to learn.

The other thing I learned, is that NY1 is more than just a weather channel every 10 minutes!

For the complete report, click here.

The Beast
But wait just a second before you start cracking open the bubbly. Have you taken a moment to look at what the masses are coming to?? Have you missed to entire premise of steering people to your site. Have you looked at your site from the point-of-view of the customer. You could have the best optimized site in the world but it won’t mean a hill of beans unless when someone arrives they have found what they were looking for.

This is the classic cart before the horse story 2.0. So what about your site? Have you analyzed your site with the same vim and vigor that you analyzed your word tracker. Have you optimized the look, the feel, and the navigation. When is the last time you� looked, God forbid, at the content of your website. Even more relevant, when was the last time you added new content to your website.

I’m not disparaging SEO by any stretch. But what’s the point in steering people to your site only to have them leave as fast as they came. Consider “first impressions.”� Sometimes the only chance you have with a potential customer is that first impression. Two great indicators from analytics to study are bounce rate and average time spent on site. These will clue you in to whether your site has stickiness or slipperyness.

Was it worth it?? DEFINITELY.

I must admit, the week was a bit daunting from an information-overload point-of-view. But I left the conference with a renewed sense of excitement and direction. My hats off to co sponsors O’Reilly and Techweb for putting together a whirlwind week. In fact this was the first time Web 2.0 expo graced the big apple.

Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, gave a fascinating keynote on the history of web in New York.The beginning of the internet in NY, according to Fred, was in 1979 and Red Burns from the ITP program at NYU. He talks of the early days of dial-up services with companies such as Archie, Gopher, Prodigy. Prodigy was the first company to offer dial up access to the www in 1994. The term Silicon Alley was given to the NY internet efforts in the early 90s. There were many failures along the way and agency’s such as razorfish, agency.com and itraffic opened for business as the first internet agencys. One of the early successes with online publishing was in 1995 with the New York Times and their coverage of the Popes visit.� Doubleclick was the first internet to go public in 1997.

As the internet industry evolved, “all hell broke loose” in 1999 Wilson said. An IPO and acquisition frenzie ensued, over 200 startups were funded in ’99 and 300 in 2000. And as history is told the dot com bubble burst later the same year.

I remember several traditional design agencies who fell into this trap and switched all of their resources to web and later paid the price when the bottom fell. At that time CSD played it conservatively and tiptoed into web world and at the same time maintained a strong traditional presence. This allowed us to hedge ourselves quite nicely looking back.

Fast forward, Web 2.0 was coined in 2003 and the next wave of web evolution had begun. Web 2.0 companies such as del.icio.us emerged as the early champions of 2.0. Other key milestones were: About.com being bought by The NY Times in 2005 and in 2006 Google set up shop in Manhattan. In 2007 companies such as Buddy Media, Path101, Tumblr opened.

So a lot has happened since 1979. New York as it compares to Silicon Valley, has gone from 1/8th of the internet companies 1/3rd today. And as Fred Wilson projects that trend will continue.

Fred Wilson’s entire video can be viewed at http://laughingsquid.com/fred-wilson-on-the-history-of-the-new-york-internet-industry.

This was one keynote among many others that we’re totally interesting and educational at Web 2.0 Expo. I eagerly look forward to next year’s expo and am extremely exciting about implementing what I learned in my business.