Netklik

Simple Online Marketing Strategies

2010 Year in Review, Lessons Learned: Investing on your Business

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As 2010 year came to an end we knew it was time to review our year’s accomplishments and to start planning for the new year.

As some of you may know, I launched NetKlik over 12 years ago. At first we started offering Small Business Website Design with time we have added a range of Internet Marketing Services for Small Businesses. Over this period of time I have defined a set of business guidelines that have helped me to manage the business side of Netklik, you see as small business we suffer from the problems other small business do, which is finding the time to work on the business side of the business, as strange as the this may sound.

The year 2010 year was a year of growth, not only in terms of client’s and projects but also because we worked on taking the business to the next level, technology and business wise

As many small business do, we also struggle with time management. I started the year by thinking of ways we could optimize the use of our time.

In order to be able to work on this we needed to be able to track our time and have a better understanding on how we where using it.

As a result of this exercise, I realize it was important to set new guidelines and establish new work systems that would help me manage the workload and streamline our main processes.

Below are some of our accomplishments:

1. Optimizing our billing process
We decided it was important to break up our billing work in pieces. This way we work on it through the month. Instead of assigning a few days to only billing work.

2. Selecting a tool for contact management
We now manage our contacts, tasks and calendar through a contact management tool. All the information about a project or client resides in one place!

3. Streamlining internal processes with step by step instructions.
We now have a list of internal processes with steps by steps instructions that we can refer to every time it’s needed. We also add to this list on day to day basis.

6. Improved website design process by choosing WordPress and Thesis as development framework.
It was also important to work on a development system. WordPress and Thesis allows us to achieve this. I will write more about this on a different post.

7. Optimize and Improved client’s monthly marketing reports
We made our reports easier to read and added relevant and useful information. We will continue to work on them.

8. Found thinking partners
I heard about this term recently. I have team up with other professionals from web industry. It’s important for us to be able to talk about our ideas and brainstorm before putting them to practice, many times we also work together. This has added tremendous value to our work.

9. Investing in the business
Investing in tools like software for web development and business management. This is one of the most important lessons I learned. We would have not been able to accomplish half of the things that we did if we had not invested in the right tools.

10. Establish a system that allows me to incorporate new goals and objectives
It’s important to be able to write down every new idea, about the business or a project and have a system in place that allows me to incorporate this to a day to day work.

Let us know how your experience was for 2010 and join us and we will help you launch your online journey on 2011!.

Spice Up Your Website Internet Marketing

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I was thinking the other day about how we tend to have attitudes about certain things in our daily lives; many times we are not even conscious about it.

Again and again we stop doing things because we think we are not good enough doing them or maybe believe they are not right for us.

It got me thinking. Maybe we need to do a conscious effort to change our attitudes about certain things. If we do not change our attitudes we might be missing out on new experiences, new relationships, new successes and even new failures. By know, you might be thinking how silly it sounds what I just said. How can we be missing out on failures? Well, if you start to see failures as new learning experiences, you realize that the more you do and the more new things you try, even if they do not work out the way you expected them, the more you will be learning. Hopefully you will be able to apply what you have learned to your next experience, or at least you will be able to share it with other people so they do not make the same mistakes.

Isn’t this what life is all about? Well, let me tell you that the same thing applies to your website internet marketing strategy. It’s important that you are aware and open about constantly trying new ideas and the only way to know if they work or not is by trying them. Listen to your internet marketer suggestions or come up with you own ideas. If you keep doing the same old things, you will be getting the same results over and over again, and this is not what most of us expect from our websites.

If you want to improve your website results you need to spice up your Small Business Internet Marketing internet Strategies, try new things.  I know you will not regret it.

Why use WordPress for Website Development?

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As someone that has built web sites for the past 10 years, I have used  plenty of tools and applications, believe more than you want to know. Having had this experiences allows me to choose the right tool for the right project.

Reason we use WordPress for website development

One of our favorite tools when considering the creation of a website is WordPress and here is why:

Even though WordPress was designed for blogging, it can easily be used to run a website, with or without the Blog. It’s a great tools for small business owners because it comes with great feature and best of all it’s FREE.

  1. WordPress is an amazing content management system that offers small businesses an easy way to manage their website.
  2. SEO: We all know the importance of Search Engine Placement and Google loves WordPress sites. WordPress excels on ease of publishing and making changes to your web pages content. We all know that getting good search engine rankings requires fresh, unique content , so having a system that does not get in your way when you want to update your website is a great advantage.
  3. Website Design: Another great features for Small Business Owners when considering WordPress is that it’s possible to design their website with their unique design style. One of WordPress core elements is something called a theme. This is essentially the design template that controls the look and feel of all of the pages throughout the site. At Netklik we excel in WordPress Customization, particularly WordPress Thesis Customization. Creating a custom look for your web site, will allow your website to look like a real website and not like a blog. Most important as a result of using WordPress your business will have a Search Engine Friendly Web Design
  4. Affordability: We understand that keeping your website affordable is key for small business owners. As I mentioned before, WordPress is a FREE tool that comes with a huge collection plugins. There is literally a WordPress plugin for everything. This is another key feature for small business owners, it cuts down on web development time and there for costs.

    Do you want to know more about WordPress website Development?

    Request a Small Business Web Design Free Estimate or contact us to learn more about why WordPress Website Development can be the right choice for your small business.

Brain Gym for Small Business Owners

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It has been a while since my last post, I have been very busy with work and it has been hard to keep up with the blog.

I have had some changes in my schedule and I had to replace my morning walks with a visit to the Gym. I have never been a Gym person, basically because I prefer to be outside and enjoy nature. My visits to the gym started me thinking, why is it that we always want to see immediate results even though when we know that it’s not possible. It seems like our brain enjoys playing tricks on us. The reasons to go to the Gym should be to stay healthy and fit; these are a long term goals and it’s important for us to accept it and not ask ourselves if the Gym is really working for us every time we are getting ready to go.

The same thing applies to internet marketing, and I can tell you this as a small business owner and also as someone that specializes in small business web site design.
When your business has a website, you need to constantly work on your website, review existing keywords, add new keyword phrases, create new web pages, revise landing pages, participate in social media websites, etc. The list seems endless, and sometimes small business owners do not focus enough in all this website work.

Your business should participate in all these activities not because you will see results today or tomorrow, but because you need to invest in the future of your business and it’s another important way to assure that your business will stay healthy and fit.

Remember do not let your brain play tricks on you if you do not see the expected results today. Internet marketing for small business is a long term process, just like going to the gym.

Contact us for more information about our Small Business Web Design Services, Affordable Website Maintenance Services or for a Small Business Web Design Free Estimate.

Reasons Why We Can Offer you Affordable Internet Marketing Services

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When it comes to prices, I know that our prices are affordable. Through the years we have focused our Internet Marketing Services towards small business owners. When I start to work on a new project with a client, I always  look at the big picture and think about it in terms of the beginning of a new relationship that we can continue to go through time.

Many times people have asked me what is it that we do to keep prices affordable and the answer is that we work very hard on doing most website design an marketing projects in house. In some cases this is just not possible, but thanks to the fact that we partner and are part of a network of other small web and marketing companies we are able to offer  equal quality services at the same affordable rates and same  response time that our clients are used to receiving from us.

Below is a list  that will give you a  better picture about the  Internet Marketing Services we offer:

  • Full service web design and marketing
  • Simplifying the complexities of the Internet
  • Grow by targeting the right audience
  • Very affordable rates
  • Analyze Internet marketing campaigns
  • Scan the Internet market for new and creative marketing tools and ideas
  • New keyword phrases to target, every month

Our Affrodable Internet Marketing services  include:

Our  prices are based on the amount of time it takes to provide each service.
The small businesses in our portfolio, are PROOF that affordable internet marketing services do not equate with poor websites or porr performance on the search engines!
Let us help you achieve your goals, contact us for more information about our affordable internet marketing services

Honest and Affordable Website Maintenance Services for Our Clients

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I can understand why sometimes the process of creating a website can be overwhelming for clients. The decision of creating a website is usually followed by a new set of responsibilities; one needs to answer questions, collect information and make decisions such as:

1. What is the right domain name for my website?
2. Do I need a logo? In case a logo already exists, is it in the right format?
3. How many pages does my new website need?
4. What is the right content for the selected pages?
5. How do I want the website to look like?
6. How am I going to market this new website?

I could go on and on with this list. The process of creating a website requires a lot of energy from all parties involved, but especially from the business owner.

I always explain to my clients that in a way, the process of building a website is never completely done. The moment a website is completed is precisely when they need to start thinking about their website in a whole new way and website maintenance becomes vital . Below is a list of things that I suggest clients keep in mind once their website is launched:

  1. New content on your website gives visitors a reason to visit and return to your site.
  2. Always keep your website updated, keep content and photos current.
  3. Your website can help you implement and test new business ideas.
  4. Get a blog and post frequently relevant business and industry information. This is a great and affordable way to add new content to your small business website.
  5. Find new ways to engage clients, for example add videos, use surveys, request client testimonials, etc.
  6. Test your website strategies, use google analytics to track changes and additions to your website, review results and continue to make changes to improve your results.

At Netklik, we understand the importance of providing honest and affordable website maintenance services for our clients. Our website maintenance fees are on a per minute basis. So, if a small business website owner is requesting a change of their adress on their website pages, and this takes 8 minutes to do, the client will be charged for 8 minutes. It’s as simple and affordable as that!

We also provide web maintenance services to websites that have not been created by us, remember, let us help you in your online journey, contact us for more information about Affordable Website Maintenance Services

Marketing to Hispanics: 5 Things You Should Know About U.S. Hispanics Online

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We are aware of the growing Hispanic  community in the United States and in Latin America, and we specialize in Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) geared specifically towards this market.

Why should you work to reach the Hispanic Internet Market?

According to 2011 trends from emarketer.com,  show that Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of the US population, and eMarketer expects the Hispanic online population to grow by nearly 10 million people between 2010 and 2014. Next year, eMarketer forecasts 32.2 million Hispanics, or 62.9% of the US Hispanic population, will be online. The results of the 2010 census could push those estimates up even further.

In order to remain competitive, companies must gain a real understanding of the Hispanic consumer experience and purchase orientations.

I just read the following article that talks about:

5 Things You Should Know About U.S. Hispanics Online by Lynn Currie

Let us help you in your online journey, we will work closely with you to assist you in the best way on how to exploit the growing hispanic search engine market. Contact us for more information about Hispanic Internet Marketing.

The importance of Websites for Small Businesses

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Your website is an integral part of any business, small or large. In fact, for a small business, the role of the website is even more important, only because a small business may have less marketing resources than a larger business.

Often, when I start to work with a new client, my relationship starts with the business owner. The advantage of this is that I get to know the heart and soul of the business and I also have a clearer picture of what the business goals are.

In the process of growing the business, many times it’s important for business owners to bring in a new marketing professional to assist them with marketing efforts such branding, brochures, newsletters and of course the website.

This is a very important move for the business owner and also is a good sign that the business is growing.

It’s important for the  business owner to understand is that the transition from being involved with the site to not been involved should be done slowly. I understand that the main reason for having a new marketing person in charge is to help the business owner free up time. But as you may know by now, it’s not the same to tell someone “I need you to be responsible for preparing the next brochure” as saying to the same person, “I need you to be in charge of the website”, because as we know, your website internet strategy is not as simple as a brochure.

Let me give you a visual example. Let’s say that you are in the restaurant business and own and operate a small restaurant; you have had it for a few years, and the restaurant is doing great. One day, you hear that the retail space next door to yours becomes available; it’s a great opportunity for you to expand the restaurant. Then, you choose to hire an architect to help you redesign the new space. You could decide that the redesigning task is too big and not in your area of expertise, and you let the architect make all the decisions. Most probably this is not a good idea, because as you know, the architect does not have the same restaurant experience as you do, as the business owner.

What I am trying to say is that it’s important that you do not separate yourself entirely from the website, in the same way that you can not separate yourself from your business.

You, as a small business owner need to be involved and understand your internet strategy because nobody else understands your business better than you do.

Contact us for more information about our small business internet marketing services.

How kids Use the Internet for Purchasing Decisions

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I recently had the opportunity to observe my son decide which was the right video game he wanted to purchase with his own money. Below are some of the questions and thoughts that came to his mind.

1. How am I going to recuperate this money, once I spend it?

2. Should I try to sell one of my old video games? One that I do not enjoy playing anymore? How much would I get for it?

In the past, when the games he wanted where gifts, he would choose a game that he played at a friends house, games that he had seen on tv commercials, or even games he heard other kids talk about.

The difference this time was that he was going to get the game with his own money. After a visit to the store and finding out how expensive the games were when he buys them with his own money, and finding out how little money he would get from this old game, things did not look so great.

He decided he would have to get a less expensive game so he wouldn’t spend all his money at once. He still needed to choose the game. This time he asked me if he could go online and look at the games. We sat together at the computer and to my surprise he was looking at reviews and videos of the video games. It did not take him very long to choose the game he wanted. Of course he did not want to wait for the game to be shipped. We checked online to see which store carried his game and went there the following day. He decided he was going to sell an old video game, despite the fact that he was not getting much for it, so we wouldn’t have to spend more of his own money. To our surprise he got more money for his video game than what was offered to him at the first place he went.

I was amazed how the internet helped him make a decision that he was happy with.

Snapshot of our Website Design Process

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Many of you have asked me about how we came up with our new website design, so I have decided to write a post about it.

The website redesign was in our TO DO List since the beginning of last year, and it was very important for me that we were able to check this off our list.

As some of you know, I like to paint and illustrate in my free time, yes, your heard right, I said free time, you might be thinking who has free time?. Since this is something that I truly enjoy doing, I make a point of allocating special time for it.

I decided to give this project a twist by starting it the old fashioned way, and by this I mean the very old fashioned way! With a pencil and paper.

I was happy with our current logo and we knew we did not want to change it, so choosing the Space theme was straight forward.

Sketches

After the first round of sketches I came up with the following drawing. We knew it had several graphic elements that could be used in different parts of the website.

Digital Illustration

After completing the sketch, I knew I was ready to make a digital version and work on the colors on the computer. After a few tweaks here and there, this is what we came up with.

Netklik Illustration

Header Design

We were happy with the illustration design but it was really not the right proportion for us to use on the website header. By working with the illustration in Photoshop we created the following header design.

netklik Website Header

At this point, we where happy with how the website was starting to look. We decided to pause our design efforts to work on the technical and marketing aspects of the website.

As you all know this is our day to do work, but it’s very different to work on a client’s website then it’s to work on your own business website.

Below are some questions that we needed to be answered:

  1. How do we want to present our information to our visitors and how do we want to organize this information ?
  2. How many website pages do we need?
  3. Which are the minimum required pages for us to launch our website?
  4. How do can we add to the website Spanish, how should integrate it to the website?
  5. Which keyword phrases should we use for both English and Spanish?

We worked on answering these questions and we came up with a plan and requirements for launching the website.
While going through this process it was important to be able to define which was a required need and which was a desired need.
Once we had gone over this process we where ready to continue to work on completing website design process.

Website Content

Once we knew how we wanted to organize the information on our website, we knew exactly for which pages we needed to create content.
It was necessary to work our Keyword Research and choose the best phrases to market those pages.

Creating a WordPress Website

Our step by step process and making sure we answered all the questions before continuing to the next phase made easier the actual process of building the website.
Since we started the website design project We knew that we wanted to work with wordpress.
At this point the goal was to put together all the pieces of the puzzle, which is precisely what we are good at.

New Year Card

After we completed the website! I thought the project would not be completed without a hand painted version of the illustration which many of you received, we hoped you enjoyed it.

Lessons we Learned

  1. It’s difficult to work on your own website when you are very busy taking care of your business.
  2. You need be able to separate your basic website needs and your desired website wish list. In other words it’s important to break up the project in smaller projects, this will help you to accomplish your goals as you go.
  3. It’s also important to plan each phase and make sure you do not move to the next phase until you are ready.
  4. Sometimes we need to take small breaks when we are moving between stages of the project. This allows us to have a better view of the entire project, helps us make changes and also assures us that we are on the right track.

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