A creative and effective way for your business to help out non-profit organizations and charities is to use your company’s online resources.  Consider some of these ideas:

• If you don’t already have e-commerce features on your site, you can easily set up a pay pal account to accept online donations without having to purchase complex a shopping cart system.
• If your site currently incorporates e-commerce, add an option at check-out to include a donation into the purchase total.
• Use your social media outlets to share your support of your organization and let others know how they can help.
• Link your organization’s website to your own site and social networks to help out their SEO.
• Have an online contest.  For example, whenever your company’s facebook page reaches 1000 fans, you will donate $X to Organization X.

By using these and other tactics, you will not only be supporting a good cause, but you’ll be building your online presence and improving your site’s SEO in the process!

Despite that the average American is dreaming more about their upcoming vacation than their business, December is a time when website owners seek out opportunity to drive sales.  And it isn’t too late to take advantage of the holiday buying frenzy.

Things you can do to make money with your web site this holiday season:

• Add a new product variation to your online store – Shirt now available in teal!
• Make “kit” suggestions and sell them as a bundle package – How about a mug to go with those coffee beans?
• Suggest some creative cross-sell items for people to notice when they are shopping -While you are looking at this hot cocoa mix maybe you’d be interested in a new pair of fuzzy slippers?

Thinking of adding a photo gallery to your web site? There are a plethora of great gallery management tools available these days, some for quite a low cost or even free.

Sometimes the free tools are enough to get someone by for a while, such as Google’s Picasso or Photo Bucket.  These member-based photo communities are handy for sharing some portfolio samples or showcasing a recent event.  The typical drawbacks of free tools are:

• The gallery is separate from your web site (linked to a third-party).
• If they are community-based, visitors to your photos can detour to another member’s albums.
• There may be a limitation to how many images you can store in your free account.
• Audiences may perceive this kind of third-party tool as less professional/amateur.

If you are thinking about integrating a photo managing tool into your CMS web site, consider this option for Joomla.  One affordable option, JoomGallery, is quite easy for the novice website owner to self manage, plus it comes equiped with several wish list features – even picture ratings.  This comes in handy for a nightclub that showcases photos of its patrons dancing online, and allows the visitors to participate with comments and ratings online.  While other organizations may use the basic features and find ongoing photo additions a breeze.

You need “link juice” to increase your site’s ranking in the SERPs.  Here are a few easy, free link building tactics that can be used by any business owner!

• Donate your services to a good cause or have an event that will draw media attention.  Remember to take lots of pictures and video for posting on social media outlets!
• Write expert articles for an industry newsletter as a guest writer or even become a regular columnist.
• Run a comprehensive search of mentions of your company on the web and if you are not linked, ask for one!
• If you’ve received sincere thanks and praise from a client, ask them to post a link to your site on their personal website or profile.
• Be sure you are linked in the directories of all chambers or business organizations you’re a member of.
• Exchange links with business partners and referral partners.  Make sure you are “fans” of one another.

With the wonderful flexibilities of css (style sheets), we are able to create attractive backgrounds with minimal coding and without compromising a the efficiency of a web site.  Adding an elegant background element can help the web site to stand out from the crowd, or it can even send a message about what your web site is trying to achieve.

You might include a very simple pattern in the background like this example, and allow the pattern to stretch with the browser so it “fills up” the space on various computer screens.

Or, you might use a vibrant image that relates to a product you are selling.  Some sites about entertainment events (like films) format the background to look like a movie screen or the back of an invitation, for example.  Suddenly, you aren’t in an ordinary web site – you are part of an experience.

You can even get creative with your Twitter background, as shown in WEBii’s Twitter Profile.

…Drupal

My favorite feature about Drupal content management software is how easy it is to edit a content page.

With the top toolbar administration setup, you can simply stay logged in and browse the web site as if you were a visitor.  When you find a page that needs revising, there is a handy Edit link right there on the page for you.  This takes you straight to a comprehensive edit screen; after saving your changes, you are taken back to the published page to review.

Still racking your brain to come up with a quick way to build links to your website and increase your online exposure?  Fact: YouTube consistently ranks as a Top 5 Search Engine; last month alone it was used by 125.5 million Americans.

YouTube, like every search engine, uses its own algorithm and delivers unique results… video results.  To access the 125.5 million Americans using YouTube each month, you must have video content on the web.  This doesn’t have to be an elaborate short film by any means– it can be as simple as a slide show, webinar, or a quick infomercial.  If you want to get more creative with your search marketing strategy, try releasing a viral video!

You should use the same principle SEO tactics with YouTube that you would with more tradtional search engines.  When submitting content to YouTube, be sure to sign up for a director’s account.  This will give you more room to describe your business and you’ll also have the capability to put live links in video descriptions.  Video content is a great and relatively easy way to get top-ranking search results, so what are you waiting for?  Grab the video camera and GO!

Authorize.net.

In our years of e-commerce development we have worked with a variety of payment gateways to integrate a business’s credit card processing service with a web site.  Authorize.net is currently one of the most popular gateway services available, making it very easy to install for almost any shopping cart.  Most software already has a module available to integrate with this service, which saves both your development team and you time and money.

Love it or hate it, social networking is an essential aspect of business in the 21st century.  Social networking not only keeps you informed with regards to what your customers and competition are up to, but it is also one of the easiest ways to enhance brand awareness and credibility… or hurt it.  Pay attention to these tips that will help business owners obtain all the advantages social networks have to offer, while avoiding the potential hazards.

• We have two ears and one mouth for a reason… be sure to do more “listening” through your social networks than you do “speaking.”
• Keep it fresh.  Be sure to always have new and interesting content to keep your online audience engaged.  Try creating a routine, i.e. three facebook wall posts, three tweets, and three blog articles per week.
• Continuously build your social network by adding fans, customers, colleagues, networking partners, and other industry professionals.
• Maintain the same level of professionalism online as you do offline.
• Get involved in forums and discussions; if you read a comment about your business, respond!  Take this unique opportunity to directly interact with your customers and see what they have to say!

The following are social networks you and your employees should be utilizing:

-Your company should have a facebook fan page and a twitter account that are updated every couple of days.

-Create a LinkedIn profile for your business and encourage your employees to set up accounts to network with one another and other professionals.

-Blog, Blog, Blog.  You are an expert in your industry, right?  Well, share your expertise with the rest of us!

-Upload infomercials, promotions, or viral videos to YouTube.

-Create a Wiki for your business.

-List your business in local reviews/guides/forums.

-Add “share” links and badges to your website.

There are literally countless ways to interact via social networks.  If you haven’t already hopped on the social networking bandwagon, it’s not too late… but hurry!  As always, if you find yourself overwhelmed and in need of professional help, the experts here at WEBii are always happy to assist!

…Zen Cart

This shopping cart software can be a web designer’s dream.  The software was well thought-out by it’s developers and is managed mostly with stylesheets, making custom layouts within close reach; opposed to a less flexible shopping cart that requires heavy programming to modify the look and feel.  Furthermore, developers will be pleased to see the impressively organized code for this program, complete with a smart override system.