Target your audience

Hi Hello again...

Wow! What a weekend. Krishna Janmastami on Sunday and ISKCON founder acharya Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's birthday on Monday.
Curious? See Pure Bhakti.com for a good overview of what Krishna is about.

Thus Tuesday has arrived very quickly.

OK so BTW

We want to get people to get their butts on to our website. "Butt" HOW??

We gave you a few good tips a few days ago so you have already told a lot of people who now know about your personal or (more likely) business website.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Knowing who is going to purchase your product (or read your info if yours is an informational website) is half way to getting the website to them. Who is the audience that you believe wants what you offer? (Let's hope we don't mind doing a bit of research here).

Let's consider why we built a website. Just what are the objectives of your site? Sell products, yes, that's good. What products and to whom? Selling imported Frogs-legs and Truffles from Nice to upmarket restaurants and the Adelaide cafe and wine tasting chardonnay set? Good. we're getting specific. Now we won't market to the wrong audience. (You just try importing truffles, hope you've got a big bankroll).

Consider who wants to purchase your products and where you can find THEM.

Now you know who and where, let's think about how. Cold calling might help, also brochures given to restauranteurs detailing your quality product and how it will assist them make money (and whatever else). How about Google Adwords? (that's a whole study course in itself these days). Consider exhibiting at trade fairs.

In any case you need to develop a market strategy that is aimed at getting your product to the persons who NEED it. We're not trying to put your product into the hands of people who can't appreciate it ... we're getting it into the hands of those who will LOVE it, talk about it, share it with friends ... in short, bring you more custom.

Getting your product out there plus turning a worthwhile profit means a lot of careful planning and thinking.

'nuff 4 now.

Bless all souls
cha
terry
Drop in at Tweed Web Design for a look around and ask a few questions. You might be surprised how easy it all is.

Imagine being able to remember everything you want to. Evernote can help in this department.

Evernote is an online "notebook" that can synchronise whatever you care to save to it from your mobile phone, your home pc (or mac if your one of those mac people) and your (or anybody's) browser, so you never have to forget anything, ever.

Evernote can save all sorts of memories: websites, text, photographs and even search text in photographs. Handy when you use your phone to snap a shot of a cool restaurant (just tag it food or restaurant or yummy or whatever tag makes sense to you) and it's easy to find it again when you're out looking for an eatery, or emailing a friend about the cool restaurant; if only you could remember the name of it. Well now you can.

Check it on out and sign up at Evernote.com for a FREE 40mb account, or if you think you need it it's only $5.00 per month for a cool 500mb per month.

How good is your memory NOW?

Bless all souls
cha
terry

How to be seen

When you have a website the first thing you want is visitors to your website. So, how ya gonna get them to call?

OK!! The simple answer is to include your website address on every bit of business office stationery that you have.
That is:

• Your business card
• Letterheads
• Invoices and receipts
• Brochures and other promotional material

But what about:

• T-shirts
• Coffee cups
• Biros
• Matchboxes and cards

Furthermore put your web address on:

• All emails (in your signature)
• On the back of any greeting cards that you send
• On your store/premises window (if applicable)

But most of all tell people you know/meet about your website. Make sure that everyone knows.

Another way is to start a blog and blog about what you're good at so as to show people that you do know what you're talking about, and that you are actually quite good at your chosen field of endeavour.

This is just the beginning. There are lots of ways to promote your online presence. More to come later.

Bless all souls
cha
Terrence

1000 pardons please velly much

Hi hello...

It seems that apart from playing with the design functionality of Blogger blogs I have been neglecting my blog in favour of spending time with friends and watching the Beijing Olympics on the telly.

I really shouldn't apologise for such behavior, after all the Olympics are on only once in each 4 year period, and totally fascinating to watch.

Olympic Medal Count for Australia on 19th August at 6 PM:

Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
11	10	12

So that's about it for one August day with so many things crying out to be done in the life of today's busy web designer, after being at Kingscliff TAFE nearly all day getting an education (despite already being the local experts at web design) so we at Tweed Web Design can bring you lots more expertise.

Maybe tomorrow we'll actually have some real blog content such as tips on how to get your website found. C ya.

Oh by the way ... setting up the little pins on a Google Map was easy peasey.

NOT BIG ENOUGH??

Try this BIG MAP .. a bit off centre but that's easy to fix. Next time we know better.
The "View Larger Map" link actually takes you to a smaller map. Must remember to remove that link.

Bless all souls
cha
terry

Valuable people

Well, despite the Olympics some of us have lives to lead ...

As our clients are the sum and substance of our business in good times and in lean, we really ought to make sure that they are aware of how much they mean to us.

As such we would like to thank all of Tweed Web Design's customers, past, present and future for helping us to remain viable. We especially would like to thank our customer of the year, Zarina from one of our most important accounts as I believe that she is one of the loveliest persons on this planet, as visitors to their fine establishment will confirm.

I would like to offer my sincere thanks to a wonderful family that I respect very much. A look at their vision statement gives a clue to where their values lie.

"Our vision is to act as a force for good throughout the world. We achieve this goal through Education, Ecology and Ethics, and sharing our love for the Australian natural environment and celebrating the cultural and linguistic diversity of the world."

We, at Tweed Web Design, think that statement speaks volumes, and in appreciation we've have created the Tweed Web Design "Thank You" digital plaque which will be personally mailed along with a link to this blog.

Much appreciated Gilles, Zarina and family for being thoughtful, caring and intelligent people; if only more people shared your values and your love of life and fellow inhabitants of our amazing green planet.

Bless all souls
cha
terrence

Thank you Brendon Sinclair

Hi Folks...
It's me, Terrence, from Tweed Web Design, launching me ugly mug back into the blogosphere in 2008

We enjoyed an interesting visitor to our web development diploma course at Kingscliff TAFE today. Around middday Brendon Sinclair the well known marketing expert from Tailored Consulting, a web design and marketing consultancy on the Gold Coast, as well as author of the Web Design Business Kit from Sitepoint, instructed us eager students in various methods of getting your product into the hands of those who need it. Yes. Need it. We're not salespeople, we're here to provide web solutions, and if you're in business, without doubt, you need a web solution of some description, but ... I digress.

Brendon Sinclair is a truly fascinating speaker, a true blue Aussie (Australian) character with a heart of gold and a personality to match. During the hour or so of his visit to our web design and development classes, Brendon expounded on the actual process of "turning your liabilities into assets" (for those who haven't seen From Here to Eternity, this is a quote from this last century classic movie).

We won't talk too much about everything Brendon spoke about but he seemed very big on understanding what you don't know and outsourcing this part of your process(es). And being a people oriented person, Brendon encouraged us to thank our clients and to make sure that we control our own image as people can turn away from businesses that they fail to trust.

Credibility is a big issue in web design as certain unscrupulous individuals (dare I say firms?) buy themselves a copy of Adobe Dreamweaver and consider themselves web designers.

Of course, the ability to design a web page or two does not qualify one to become a web designer as there is much, much more to be considered besides the mere layout.

As a professional web designer running Tweed Web Design at Murwillumbah, in the subtropical Northern New South Wales of Australia, I am very aware that web design is a nest of different technologies (assuming I can use the word nest without seeming offensive due to the nested tables design debacle of a few short years ago before CSS became popular) not the least of which is web marketing, which is right up Brendon Sinclair's alley and well within his bag of magic tricks.

Since we are here providing solutions for those with problems to overcome, I'd best get at it as a colleague has the need to put those pin markers on Google Maps for his website and looks like I'm the man to do the research.

I'll be back soon with some more tips, tricks, accolades, whatevers, about the never ending saga of Tweed Web Design's dashing exploits with cyber-publishing in the 21st century. Just wanted to let you know about Brendon and give you a link so you can experience a little of his professionalism. Not that Tweed Web Design are any less professional, but we are specialists inclined towards small businesses and startup web needs in and around the Tweed Valley whereas Brendon is Gold Coast based and better suited to bigger businesses.

Thanks Brendon for sharing a few of your insights with us. Grateful indeed.

Bless all souls
cha
terrence