Friday, June 30, 2023

The Power of Blogging: Why Everyone Should Start a Blog

 


In today's digital age, blogging has become an incredibly popular and influential medium for individuals and businesses alike. Whether you're a passionate writer, an entrepreneur, or someone looking to share your expertise, blogging offers a multitude of benefits that can positively impact your personal and professional life. In this article, we will explore the reasons why blogging is a worthwhile endeavor and how it can bring value to your life.

  1. Express Yourself and Share Your Passion: Blogging provides a platform for self-expression and allows you to share your thoughts, ideas, and passions with the world. It offers a creative outlet where you can write about topics that truly resonate with you. Whether you're interested in travel, food, technology, fashion, or any other niche, blogging gives you the freedom to explore and communicate your unique perspective.

  2. Build an Online Presence and Personal Brand: Blogging enables you to establish an online presence and create a personal brand. By consistently producing high-quality content, you can showcase your expertise and develop a reputation as a knowledgeable authority in your field. This can open doors to exciting opportunities, such as collaborations, partnerships, speaking engagements, and even career advancements.

  3. Connect with Like-Minded Individuals: One of the most rewarding aspects of blogging is the ability to connect with a community of like-minded individuals. Through your blog, you can engage with readers who share similar interests and build meaningful relationships. By fostering conversations, exchanging ideas, and learning from others, you can expand your knowledge and grow both personally and professionally.

  4. Improve Writing and Communication Skills: Blogging is an excellent way to enhance your writing and communication skills. Regularly crafting blog posts hones your ability to articulate ideas clearly, structure your thoughts, and develop a compelling writing style. These skills are highly transferable and can benefit you in various aspects of your life, including academia, professional communications, and personal relationships.

  5. Learn and Research: To produce valuable content, bloggers often find themselves conducting research, exploring new topics, and staying updated on industry trends. This constant pursuit of knowledge can lead to personal growth, expanded horizons, and a deeper understanding of subjects that intrigue you. Blogging encourages continuous learning and provides an avenue for sharing your newfound insights with others.

  6. Monetization Opportunities: Blogging can also present monetization opportunities. As your blog grows in popularity, you can explore avenues such as affiliate marketing, sponsored content, advertising, and even creating and selling your own products or services. While it takes time and effort to build a profitable blog, it can serve as a passive income stream or even a full-time career for dedicated individuals.

  7. Leave a Lasting Impact: When you publish a blog post, you're leaving a digital footprint that can impact others long after you've written it. Your words can inspire, educate, and entertain readers across the globe. By sharing your experiences, knowledge, and insights, you have the potential to make a positive difference in people's lives and contribute to the greater conversation.

Blogging offers a plethora of benefits, from personal growth and self-expression to professional opportunities and community engagement. It provides a platform for sharing your ideas, building your personal brand, and connecting with like-minded individuals. Through blogging, you can develop valuable skills, expand your knowledge, and even create income streams. So, why wait? Start your blogging journey today and unlock the countless rewards it has to offer.

Remember, the key to successful blogging lies in consistency, authenticity, and genuine passion. Happy blogging!

Monday, April 13, 2020

Twitter Q and A


How often should I tweet?

It depends on your business, but we suggest establishing a regular cadence of tweeting so your followers know when they are going to get updates from you.
What is the best time to tweet?
We’ve seen that there is double* the engagement rate when Tweets are published during the day (8AM - 7PM).  However, consider tweeting throughout the day to reach different time zones.
Which day of the week should I tweet on?
Test multiple days of the week to see what works best.  Saturdays and Sundays may have a higher engagement rate as that is when most people are not at work.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

healthcare.gov issues update

So....here's the latest.

My account on healthcare.gov did get created, well sort of. I received this email
But then went to confirm my address and alas received these messages
First told to wait...


Then after five minutes got the blame message above.

There are also other issues when navigating through the site such as the below code showing while starting the registration process.

Again these are complex systems but given the time and resources allocated I must agree that there really is no excuse at this point for these problems. 

Hey CGI Federal I'm a web project manager who can help!








A realtime look at healthcare.gov issues and problems

So I'm here watching the Energy and Commerce committee hearings on Fox News. As a web consultant I understand more than the average committee member the complexity of the construction and implementation of healthcare.gov.

But even after 3 weeks, healthcare.gov is not allowing users to register. I just tried to register and failed. This is in direct contradiction from testimony from the provider of  the account creation system.

See screenshots below. The first is a wait indicator which stayed on the screen for approximately two minutes. The second is the failure screen.




Friday, September 14, 2012

Concrete5 CMS - latest version offers new features

"Concrete5 is often seen as a solid alternative to the traditional big three (Joomla, Drupal, WordPress)" See full article

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Concrete 5 CMS - "sleek, responsive and easy to use"

We encourage all clients to consider a Content Management System (CMS) implementation. 73% of websites still do not use a CMS (w3techs survey). Without one your site will most likely become stale as editing pages is either too difficult or expensive. Potential clients/customers don't like stale content!

We are starting to get inquiries about Concrete5 specifically so it is quickly gaining traction in the marketplace. 311 Media can  implement concrete5 sites for as little as $500.

For more information read on or contact us.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Concrete5 vs. Drupal

We recently had a former client who is now using Drupal complain that when they create a site for one of their clients in Drupal there always seems to be "issues" in the handoff. There's a steep learning curve to using Drupal and its wacky interface even baffles seasoned web developers. There are a lot of "What!" and "Why did that do that?" when you try to edit pages in Drupal.

The Answer: The Concrete5 CMS. It's easier to use, easier to extend and like Drupal it's open source (free).

Checkout this comparision article between the two systems.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Another Concrete5 based site Launched

Longtime 311 Media Group client Annapolis Yacht Sales wisely chose to implement Concrete5 for their redesigned site that was launched on Sunday. The site features easy to update pages, tabbed interfaces to manage complex product pages and integration of social media widgets from youtube, facebook, flickr and more. Check it out at www.annapolisyachtsales.com.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Content Management Systems - Why You Need One

We couldn't have said it better ourselves... if you are a small/medium business or non-profit using a web developer or Adobe Contribute to manage your content its time to "step up" to a CMS.

Concrete 5 is our CMS of choice and we've tried them all. We've tried Wordpress, Joomla and Mambo among others. If you want a customized blog, WordPress is hard to beat but many developers try to use it as a CMS platform. It wasn't really intended for that and it shows in its limitations.

Joomla and Mambo are similar systems that offer lots of options and add ons. However almost all of these require significant developer time which is what we're trying to avoid in the first place. For a fairly tech savvy business owner, add ons and extensions can be implemented easily in Concrete5.

http://usentrepreneur.com/web-presence-coaching/

Content Management Systems - Why You Need One

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Local vs. Long Distance Web Developers

We've had a couple of potential clients emphasize recently that they wanted a local web development firm to help them with their redesign. I'm not sure it was so much a requirement generated in a positive way or if they had a bad experience with a developer who happened to be not local.  This was an interesting requirement since in most cases we only meet with the client two or three times depending on the size of the project. But it still says a lot about people's perception, in the age of Facebook that when push comes to shove they'd rather sit down across the table from someone in person.

So if you're a Florida based small or medium sized business we're your local web design and development firm. If you're not local we're still a good choice as I think its more about the service, the integrity and the results than the location.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

How Images Can Help your Search Engine Rankings

By hosting your images at one of the leading online photo/image hosting services such as Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket and others your search engine visibility will likely improve. Why? Most of those services provide a spot for a link back to your website providing customers another means of entry into your site and showing Google and other search engines a "high quality inbound link".

We're big fans of Google's Webmaster Tools. Check out a blog post from Google about Webmaster Tools and how inbound links can improve your site's search results ranking.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/10/good-times-with-inbound-links.html

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Sell Stuff on the Web update

In our last post we discussed our steps to sell my 13' Boston Whaler Sport. Well its not sold yet (low demand in the Fall/Winter) but the blog and other classifieds are doing well in search results. The blog shows up on page 2 of a google search for "Boston Whaler Annapolis" which is pretty amazing since the blog was first published about two months ago.

Blog is at http://bostonwhalerannapolis.blogspot.com/. And by the way this link will help improve the placement of the site in search results. Google counts quality incoming links in their "scoring" of sites.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

How to sell stuff on the web - case study

Since 311 Media is located near Annapolis so we have a boat. Got to have one in this area to enjoy the natural resources.  Just got  "new to us" boat in fact. So we need to sell our 13' 1967 Boston Whaler. Being a web design firm we launched a web blitz to get the word out. Makes for  a nice case study we thought we'd share with you. We did the following:

Research - being Google experts, we researched keywords via the Google Keyword tool that folks use to find used Boston Whalers. Based on that info we proceeded to...

Create a web blog in blogger using the keywords in the URL. Here we posted a detailed description (more keywords), lots of photos and a video using the embed feature on youtube.

Oh yeah, youtube. We posted the video there using keywords, link to our blog, etc to get it to come up in Google search results.

And of course the craigslist ad, again linking to our blog site. And an ebay motors listing (also free).

Finally we did some google searching to see what sites were highly ranked for our keywords. One stood out in particular, oodle.com, so we posted an ad there (and at a few other free sites), again linking to our blog.

We also used Google AdWords, paid advertising, to fill in for a few days until our "organic" search results start to really kick in. The budget is set at a modest $6 per day. Might get us a few clickthroughs.

So we've built our own "web" using popular websites, a new blog and advertisements strategically placed to create a lead generation machine.

THE RESULTS

The oodle ad is already first in Google results for certain keyword combinations. We're waiting to get the blog ranked higher in search results,  probably by later this week. The youtube video is already on page one of search results.

No sale yet but we're hoping. It is kinda late in the season. And now lets try word of mouth... if you know someone who wants a nice little boat, Contact Us!