Eric Tapley

Building a car is a complex process with a large number of variables to incorporate, foremost amongst those is following safety guidelines and ensuring the vehicle protects passengers. Safety isn’t a box that’s put in the car after it’s built, or something to worry about on the assembly floor but not in the design studio. Safety is a core element of any car and, as such, must be considered at every stage of the process: planning, design, assembly, testing, and even marketing. (Forgive my gross simplification of the automobile industry, I’m a web geek, not an auto engineer.)

But what does this have to do with search marketing?

Search marketing is to your website what safety is to a car: a core principle that must be addressed at every step in the process. You need to plan for effective search marketing from the beginning. It must be an end goal that’s considered during the design of the site, writing site text, coding the site, adding a blog, developing a linking strategy with associations and other organizations… in essence, it’s as vital to the success of a site as safety is to a car. Minus the insurance, of course.

Search marketing is core. Consider it at the beginning and filter every aspect of the site through that lens. The result will be a stronger, more audience-focused site that generates leads and new business. Enough of that and you’re off to the dealer for a new ride.

It’s the time for new year’s resolutions: be more productive, lose some weight, make more money, and, of course, blog more often.

To be successful with these and almost any resolution you need to spend the one truly limited resource: time. Want to lose weight? Exercise and manage your diet. That’ll take about an hour of your time each day. Want to make some more money, perhaps by freelancing? Plan to spend more time working. Do you want to be successful with social networking and blogging? Give it an hour a day and you’ll see tremendous results.

Too often we pick too many goals and aren’t able to spend enough time with each. There are only so many hours in the day. So pick two and stick to them. I’m doing the same.

Good luck!

I’d like to share a new site launched for Melanson Consulting, a firm that is introducing “verbal branding” to the world. I worked with Steve Melanson, the principal, to define the goals for the site, architect the layout, determine the content needs, design and build the site, integrate the blog, incorporate audio and video, and plan a long-term strategy for success. I’m very proud of this site and believe it will achieve great results for Steve.

The team at Bresette worked to help me realize the vision of building a simple site that focused visitors - from top down, literally - on the video, Steve’s action elements (engaging him, his audio samples and downloadable book), and then onto the blog. It’s a straightforward and unusual layout that focuses visitors on each element as they naturally work their way down the page.

In addition to the site we created collateral material for Steve and ensured that all of it was consistent in terms of branding and presentation.

Credits: Eric Tapley, Adam Kaufmann, Tyler Shingleton

It’s more important to be honest than to be rich. Period.

My everyday work (often fueled with a healthy dose of techno) involves helping people and businesses build a successful web presence. That’s not all, of course, but it’s the major thrust of what I do and, in general, there isn’t a good framework used for this.

I don’t mean a technical framework, mind you, but a business framework. My clients focus on less important details (Will there be a “home” link? Where? What color?!) and not the fundamentals, like how the site is going to meet measurable business goals.

So I’ve created a framework. It’s not rocket science but it helps keep people on track.

In general the components are:

1. Acquire: Determine how you’re going to get visitors to your site and what number you need to reach your goals. If you want 10 contacts per month and it takes 100 visitors to get a contact you need a plan to get 1,000 visitors to the site, otherwise your goals are toast.

2. Engage: Once a visitor gets to your site what will they see? It’s not about colors, photos, or even the details of the text, the key is understanding what your visitor needs and building a site that will convey that message. Want them to call you? Make that clear. Engage them with your content, presentation, and the actions on the site.

3. Maintain: This is where people fall down. You’ve done the hard work of setting up a site, driving traffic to it, and encouraging them to take an action. Now what? Keep in touch! Use LinkedIn or Facebook, send out email newsletters, blog, tweet, whatever works for you. Just maintain and grow that connection you’ve worked so hard to create.

Keep these things in mind - how you’re getting visitors to your site, what they’re doing once they get there, and how you’re going to maintain the relationship - and you’ll see continued success and reach your goals.

This autumn I’m fortunate to be involved with three great events working for the greater good. I’d like your support if any of these are aligned with causes you believe in either by donating time, money, becoming a corporate sponsor, or just spreading the word.

• · Colitis Walk for a Cure (Oct 14)
• · Art beCAUSE Art + Wine Gala (Oct 24)
• · American Red Cross: Salute to Our Community Heroes (Mar 20)

Please don’t feel obligated by this request - I realize we each work to make a difference in our own ways - but if you want to help I’d appreciate your support of these causes and know it would make a tremendous difference.

GUTS + GLORY | Walk For a Cure for Colitis

I’ve suffered from Colitis since 2002. Thanks to the support of my wife Kate, family, friends, amazing doctors, and three surgeries I’m mostly well and my future remains bright. This isn’t the case for millions of others.

On October 14th Kate will be walking with hundreds of others (and our baby!) to help find a cure for Colitis. As a thank you she’s going to mail out signed photos of Baby Sam to all who make a donation, so this is both an opportunity to support a great cause and obtain some baby cuteness.

Kate has raised $300 toward her goal of $750. You can help by pledging online at: https://www.kintera.org/

ART BECAUSE | Art + Wine Gala

Art beCAUSE is committed to funding research dedicated to eradicating the environmental causes of breast cancer (another c-word I’m really not fond of). I’m a new Board member and am proud that 3000k was able to donate our design talent to the save the date cards, invitations, and other event materials.

On October 24th we’re hosting our 5th annual gala to honor pioneering scientists and announce this year’s Seed the Scientist grants. We’ll provide the art show, dinner, and wine - but we need you to bring the good time!

More info and gala registration: http://www.artbecause.org/artbecause/abweb/wineabout.asp

AMERICAN RED CROSS | Saluting Our Community Heroes

Our local Red Cross chapter has recognized and honored local heroes who’ve risen to uncommon challenges for years (among the many other incredible things our chapter does). Once again this March we’re celebrating people who make Central Massachusetts such a great place to live.

We’re looking for hero nominations, corporate sponsors, donations, and starting in January will be selling tickets to the event.

Nominate a hero: http://www.redcrossworcester.org/hero-application.php

Become a corporate or event sponsor: http://www.redcrossworcester.org/corp_partners/

Donate online: https://www.redcrossworcester.org/donate/online.html

Become a volunteer (lend your flair to make this a great event!): http://www.redcrossworcester.org/volunteer/apply.html

Thanks for your consideration of the Colitis Walk, Art + Wine Gala, and Heroes Salute. Please lend your support, join us at one of the events, learn more about these organizations, and pass the word along (this is a good chance to blog about a local event, hint, hint).

Or continue doing good in your own fashion, and have a better day knowing more about the great things ordinary people are doing for one another and our community!

I haven’t posted anything this year about my annual bout with poison ivy, but I have it yet again (and yes, once again it’s a bad case). This is such old news I just don’t have the heart to go into gruesome detail once again about all of it.

But it’s still affecting me, most immediately by affecting my sleeping patterns. Right now it is after 2:00a and I’m up, alert, when I should be asleep. I’m exhausted, mind you, but I just can’t sleep. And it’s thanks to the steroids and other meds I’m on to help manage the poison ivy. Every time I make a change to my dose - increase or decrease - my system goes all wonky for a few days.

I’m getting over the poison ivy so right now I’m on a downward taper of the steroids. It’s making me moody and sleep deprived. Ah, well, in a few days it’ll be over, and at least the itching has stopped. And in the meantime you know why I’m cranky and have droopy eyes!