So You Think You Need a Business Blog?
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 A client called recently saying that her business colleagues all said that she had to have a business blog. She wanted to know if I could set her up.
Sure. No problem. For me.
There are many blogging options which provide great ways for you to communicate with your clients and friends. I can set up a blog on a third-party hosting service that charges $0 a year, or you can add a blog to your existing site.
The challenge with blogs is that they require ongoing work by the business owner. Someone has to write the articles.
Read more on some low-cost, low-risk ways to start your blog and see an example of a business blog on Dangerous Common Sense ». |
Seeking Alternatives to the Death Penalty
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 The Unitarian Universalists for Alternatives to the Death Penalty asked Ozdachs to update their resources and rallying website.
We used a sober but professional look to help them share their stories, sermons, and invitations to participate.
The page where they offer buttons, bumper stickers, and logo shirts is also a good example of a simple PayPal shopping cart.
Check out the site and shopping cart. And, if you're sympathetic to the cause, pick up a button or shirt!
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Regency Limousine -- Tuned for Visibility
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 San Francisco's Regency Limousine is enjoying its 25th year of independent service. In this economy, owner Don Berger wants to make sure that every person searching the web for a limo finds Regency on the top of the results list.
This week Ozdachs added text, titles, and tags to Regency's home page to help Google understand that their site is all about limos. We also added titles and descriptions to the individual detail pages.
Now we're waiting for Google to revisit, re-index, and reposition the site.
Of course, when you're in San Francisco check Regency Limousine out for airport service, tours, and for all those special events when you want you want a professional, reliable, and friendly driver.
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Why Focus on Google?
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 When business owners ask for help appearing in Search Engine results, we talk about Google. We offer to tune the client's pages to match pages already on the top of the results in Google.
Why Google?
Because 79% of all searches go through Google. Second place world-wide is Baidu (China) at 9% . Yahoo! is at 7% and Bing (Microsoft's new search site) at 3%. (Data provided by HitsLink Market Share)
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If It's Online, It's Not Private
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 In mid-July Jenni and Josh Brennan of Abington, MA were sent the photograph of their own baby when they responded to a Craigslist advertisement for an adoption service. The service was a fraud, and the crooks had downloaded a picture of the baby boy from the Brennan's online family photo album. The fraudsters sent the real-life parents a photo of the boy, claiming the child was 10-month-old Canadian awaiting adoption in Cameroon.
The Brennan's have since put a password on their photo pages. (News story)
I found my own face picture on a web site published by someone who lives in my ZIP code, but whom I have never met. There was no fraud when my picture was posted, but it was jarring, nevertheless.
Whether you publish information and photographs on a business site designed to attract 1,000's visitors or whether you post to a personal blog which you think only friends and family visit, strangers can browse, copy, and "re-purpose" your material. There are legal remedies in case of fraud or invasion of privacy, but those are all after-the-fact actions.
Keeping only things you'd share with your grandmother on public, unprotected websites is a good first step. Don't publish any information you don't want the creepy person down the street to know, either.
And, don't worry about it too much. There's so many photos and bios on the web, that it is very unlikely that you will be the target of fraudster or trickster.
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News Snippets Available When You Want Them
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 The latest news about Internet trends, new client sites, web features, and the Ozdachs business life are now available on Twitter.
We're posting short, 140-character notes to let you know what news we've discovered and what we're doing.
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Call Your Web Designer and Internet Consultant for Free
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Google has invited me to have a free Google Voice phone number.
I can call anyone in the United States, or they can call me from a widget on my business website, for free. When someone calls the number, Google Voice will forward the call and ring several of my telephone numbers at once.
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