Proud Member of ADCMW

jawinn — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:52:14 +0000

This week we proudly joined the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington at the recommendation of the good people over at Schum and Associates. This seems like a good fit for Winn Web since our core business is suppling services to graphic design firms. We look forward to many fruitful years with ADCMW.

I want to pay thousands for everything except content

jawinn — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:03:29 +0000

This is something that has always both frustrated and baffled me. I see companies all the time that are willing spend big bucks to have their online corporate identity overhauled; including logos, web template designs, content management solutions, etc. Yet these same companies cringe at spending money on having a professional copywriter do their site’s content.

Copy is as important as the other two parts to a site (design and code). It delivers the message to the potential client and it optimizes your site for the search engines. People don’t understand how valuable solid copy is with regards to search. Natural search (results displayed on the left of a search results page) are FREE ADVERTISING. That’s right, you pay nothing for that. There are obviously many more factors that go into search results (which I will talk about in another article) but content is a major one.

What ends up happening time and time again is that the site is designed, partially coded and then we (the coder, designer, and the client) wait for weeks or months for the client to get the copy to us. This grinds the entire project to a halt.

There are basically two options in my experience. One, have all copy written before you start redesigning and programming a new site. Two, hire some one like my friends at www.homerowed.com to do your site’s copy.

To sum up just understand that content is just as important as the design and programming. If you don’t have content written for your new site, either write it ahead of time or budget for and hire a professional.

Dulles Regional Chamber Networking

jawinn — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:58:11 +0000

I was fortunate enough last week to attend a Dulles Regional Chamber event. I think it was their monthly mixer for February. For a while I have been hearing that Dulles is the friendliest chamber to (very) small businesses.

I have to say that they lived up their reputation in every way. I felt welcomed as a guest and all the ambassadors were super helpful in introducing me to the types of people. I made some new connections that look like they will turn into lasting business. That’s what it is all about in the end.

To make a short blog post even shorter I will say that IF I join a chamber this year it will be Dulles. It is nice to see some one looking out for the (very) small guys in business. Far too many other organizations have well deserved reputations for looking out only for the big guys and their hefty membership fees.

Business Knife Fights

jawinn — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:48:27 +0000

I just got back from one of my netwrking groups and don’t feel much better about the economy. It was the standard doom and gloom you are hearing everywhere. One thing that did interest me was talking to one of my good friends in business who is an attorney — to be precise he is a litigator. I asked him “how is the bad economy is effecting people suing one another?”

He told me that his firm is seeing a big swing in the types of lawsuits people are bringing against one another. The days of business divorces (one partner suing another over the breakup of a business) and law suits based on principal is pretty much over for now. The way it used to be would be one person saying “I don’t care if I burn the whole company down to prove to you (partner) that I am right” is over. Now the two parties will just sort out their differences on their own.

What is, I guess, not surprising is that larger firms are more so looking at suing if it makes good fiscal sense. “Will it cost us $50,000 to sue some one to make back $50,000.01? Let’s do it.” My friend told me that that scenario would never have happened when times are good because the same company would have spent their time and effort on something more important.

Attended Speed Networking on Thursday

jawinn — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:02:35 +0000

I was at the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce’s Speed Networking event yesterday morning at the Reston Sheraton. I was asked by my good friend Margo Wolcott of MW Studio to come along.

For $20 (non chamber member price) I got 4 minutes with about 10 to 15 different business owners or reps from larger companies. There was the standard continental breakfast of coffee, tea, muffins, etc. I ran into a few old contacts from my days as a Reston Chamber member, so it was good to catch up.

It works like this. There is the standard hotel conference room with a bunch of long tables with chairs on either site. Each pair of chairs has a number in the middle of the table; 1 though 30 or so. When you get into the room you just pick a chair and have a seat. The event coordinator tells you that one side of the table will not move, the other side will get up and move over one seat when the allotted time is up. You get 2 minutes each to talk about your biz; what we do, who we are, good leads, etc. Then the coordinator shouts out that every one needs to move; rinse repeat about 10 to fifteen times.

The event was pretty cool. I was able to make a bunch of new contacts very quickly. I think I even may get some new Web work out of a few contacts. The only downside to speed networking is that it is VERY noisy. I felt like I was in a sports bar with the big game on in the background, the only thing mission was drinks and smoke. I also liked that there was no hard sell by the chamber to get you to join. I hate when I go to an event like this and get assailed with “join us” material and “ambassadors.”

Would I do Speed Networking again? Absolutely. I love meeting a bunch of new contacts in quick and structured fashion. For the price you can’t beat it. There was a good mix of big and small companies, plus it wasn’t saturated with bankers, real estate agents, and financial planners (no offense to you guys but you are everywhere).

I will be hitting more local networking events and giving my reviews of them here. Check back for more news! Next up the Dulles Regional’s monthly evening mixer on Feb 19^th.

Google’s Getting Cheaper, Jump In!

jawinn — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:00:44 +0000

According to reports in CNN and Time, the cost to advertise on Google’s Adwords program is down by 20% this year. This is clearly due to the down economy as companies slash costs across the board.

This means two things for companies either currently advertising on Google or thinking about advertising on Google. First if you are currently using Google you can almost certainly review your keyword bids. You may be paying more than you need to to keep your ad rank. Second, if you are planning on starting an advertising campaign you may be able to lower your overall budget or use the same budget and buy more traffic to your site. Either way if you are savvy your company can profit from others spending less in online advertising.

Some Facts About SEO

jawinn — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:19:52 +0000

1.    Google changes their search algorithm about every 3 months. There are countless sites that had an SEO strategy, were doing well in search, and saw their search traffic plummet after the Google update.
2.    Over 60% of the world’s search goes through Google.com. Playing by their rules is key to succeeding online.
3.    Google’s algorithm for search (how they determine a site’s ranking order in search queries) is probably one of the most valuable trade secrets on Earth. They put different weight on different factors. There is no way to know exactly how these factors work together. To know them absolutely would be to dominate the Internet for any niche.
4.    Links from .gov and .edu sites are GOLD. Google gives a huge advantage to these links since they see .edu and .gov sites as having a higher integrity with regards to whom they link to.

Turkey Day and “Thank You” Gifts

jawinn — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:56:20 +0000

If anyone at all is reading this then you have truely found this post by accident. =) I just had a thought about a comment that was made at one of my usual networking groups a few weeks ago. The person, Barbara LaRock, noted that one should send out your corporate gifts on or around Thanksgiving. The logic being that your gift will stand out and not get lost in the crowd of all the other gifts that business owners send and receive around Xmas time.

New Site! New Services!

jawinn — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:25:39 +0000

A new site sure feels good. Especially if you are a web company. We were getting tired of being the typical small business that didn’t have a good representation of their capabilities.

Right now we are working to complete the new Winn Web site which will demonstrate our expertise in content management (WordPress). We hope to have WinnWeb.com up and running before Christmas. This site will eventially feature a large portfolio of our work, a blog to keep up to date on products and services, and links to all of our social site pages such as Facebook and Linked In.

In the coming months we will be unveiling some pretty amazing services in both the online advertising and gaming niches. Yes we know the two aren’t the most related of businesses but they have a ton in common. Mainly making money online with marketing and valued services.

Stay tuned for more on the latest developments!