You see, there are webmasters and web design companies out there that do their best to trap you into working with them. They hold your files hostage, make their set-up incredibly complex, and insist on billing you ridiculous amounts for even the smallest changes… all in an effort to get more money out of you and make it almost impossible for you to leave them.

Often times, when I start working with a new client, I am forced to deal with their existing webmaster, who quickly realizes that I am, in many ways at least, taking work from them and revealing their dirty little secrets to their clients. This, of course, is quite an uncomfortable for everyone involved.

The truth is, web design does not have to be complicated… and your webmaster shouldn’t be making it more complicated than it needs to be. But more than anything else, you webmaster shouldn’t be using his knowledge of the web design world to scam you into ridiculous monthly fees, outrageous maintenance charges, or threats of deleting all your files when you say you want to move to another design company (Yes, this stuff does happen and I hear about it all the time).

My belief is that web design should be easy. You, as the client, should understand the basics of what is going on… and you should, if need be, be able to go into your website and make basic changes on your own. You shouldn’t need to consult your webmaster if you want to change a page title or add another paragraph to your “About” page. These are simple changes and a good webmaster will make it easy for you to make basic changes on your own.

Just imagine having a website that every time you wanted to make a simple change or add or delete a paragraph, you had to call or email your web designer. By the time he or she gets back to you, several days have passed. Then, your designer tells you that in order to make the necessary change, he or she is going to charge you some outrageous fee, for something that doesn’t seem like it will take more than five minutes. But because you have no idea how to make the change yourself… and because the webmaster has access to all of your files, you are forced to use his or her services and pay whatever fee he charges. This is a common problem for many website owners and it is something I hope you will avoid at all cost.

That’s why, here at Silver Mountain Marketing, I believe in creating websites that are not only good looking, well-functioning, and profit-generating, but also easy to edit… and 100% entirely in your control.

The way I set up each and every one of my client websites is as follows:

1) I give you hosting on a server that you have access to 24-7-365. If you want to call the hosting company and change something with your account, you can do so… and you don’t need my permission. Your files are hosted on your server and you own everything on your site.

2) Plus, I make it super simple for your to make basic changes to your site. Because most of the sites I build here at Silver Mountain Marketing are built on the Wordpress Content Management System, simple changes to your website are as basic as editing a Word document. If you can use Microsoft Word or any other basic word processing program, you already have the knowledge needed to log into your website, make basic changes, produce new content, and upload files to your company’s website. I not only make it easy for your to make basic changes to your website, but I  will often times train you on how to make these changes for yourself – thus eliminating the need to contact me each and every time you want to make a change to your site.

3) And in the case that you do need something more complex set up, I will set it up for you and then teach you how to do it for yourself the next time around.

You see, there are a number of tricky traps that some web designers and web design companies set to trick you into working with them. These traps are set so as to make the designers themselves the linchpin in your company’s web presence.

The idea is that if they are linchpin and you stop paying them, they can simply walk away and your business falls down the drain. But as long you keep paying them and playing their tricky games, your website stays up and functioning as it should – despite the fact that it may be costing you a fortune and giving you constant headaches.

My advice to you is this: If you are currently working with a web designer that is playing games with you, get out of there as soon as you possibly can!

If you are currently working with a designer who is holding your website files hostage, making you pay outrageous monthly fees, or billing you for ridiculous amounts each time you ask him or her to make minuscule changes to your website, please get in contact with me today. I don’t play games like that and I wouldn’t wish them on anybody.

I am here to help you… and I want to make your life easier (not more complex).

In fact, that’s one of my number one goals here at Silver Mountain Marketing. I not only want to make websites that are good looking, easy to use, and profit-generating, but I insist on making websites that are 100% in your control!

If you are looking for a new web designer… or you have a new web design project that you need assistance with, contact me today and let’s see what we can do to get you on the right path.

Photo by music2work2

Here is what my screen looked like when it was all stretched out:

And here is what my screen looks like now (at the correct zoom level):

It’s a bit difficult to tell the difference between these two images (as they have been shrunken down here for design purposed) but the difference on my wide-screen monitor was both noticeable and annoying.

If you are having the same problem and the images/text on your screen appear to be larger than normal and a little bit fuzzy, here is what you need to do in order to fix the problem:

1. Go up to the menu inside Firefox and click on “View”

2. Then scroll down to “Zoom”

3. Then press “Zoom Out”

The shortcut for zooming out is “Ctrl + -”. The shortcut for zooming in is “Ctrl + +”. And if you want to reset your zoom back to normal, the shortcut for that is “Ctrl + 0″

They look a little something like this:

Every good web brand has a favicon! And not only do they have a favicon, but they have an icon that unique to their company and instantly recognizable.

The icons you see show above are actually taken from a screen-shot of my personal computer. These are the sites I visit most… and so I’ve saved them as bookmarks on the top of my Mozilla Firefox web browser. You will note, however, that I do not have a description of these sites next to the icons. The reason for this is simple: I don’t need them!

That’s right, I don’t need to type out the description of each of these sites because their favicons brand them well enough that I am able to remember which icons belongs to which sites.

When it comes to branding on the Internet, this is the type of image you want to create for yourself! And that’s why you gotta have a favicon!

So, what about you? Where is your company’s favicon?

Grab it here: Free Twitter Success Report

The report is called “Why Being An Expert Is Making You Useless On Twitter“.

It was written by a friend of mine (named Laura) who works with small business owners and helps them succeed in the world of social media (very much like I do).

The report basically talks about how remaining TOO SERIOUS and PROFESSIONAL is actually working against you – which is something many businesses are guilty of.

In the report, Laura tells you why it is actually important for you to talk about silly and personal things like what you ate for breakfast and what you are planning to do on Friday night.

This is valuable information for any business trying to leverage themselves on Twitter – especially those of us whoa re actually trying to make money from our social media endeavors!

To get a free copy of this incredible new Twitter success guide, simply click here.

The report is free, you don’t need to enter your name or email in order to download it… and it’s filled with some great information I am sure you can benefit from. Enjoy!

Because we go through this process so many times, we’ve decided to set up a recommended resources page, where we list the companies and services we recommend for building your business’ online web presence. If you are one of our clients, we will direct you to this page from now on so that you can simply click and sign up for the services we recommend for your specific web-business undertaking.

To see the list of services we recommend for building your online money-making web business, just click here.

Basically, Gary is saying that you need to get in the trenches with your prospective customers and connect with them on a daily basis… over and over again. He suggests regularly using the major social networking websites as a way of doing this, but also suggests you spend time leaving comments on other people’s blogs, adding to discussions taking place in online forums, and helping others in the physical world.

Overall, I think Gary is trying to say something that I have been telling my clients here at Silver Mountain Marketing for a very long time. He’s saying that you can no longer throw up a website and expect to make money on the Internet. Succeeding online takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and constant improvement. But if you are one of those people who are willing to put in the work and passionately connect with the community that surrounds your business, you stand a very good chance of becoming a super-star in your specific industry.

Time and time again I talk to business owners who either have a website or have had one at some point in the past, but the site they have fails to produce any actual business because it was nothing more than a digital brochure… and brochures just don’t work anymore! These individuals have to be re-educated on what a website is actually meant to do and how it is to be used to make money for a business. Making money online has come a long way since the 1990s. Heck, things have progressed a lot in just the past two years… and the way businesses make money online now is significantly different than it was just a few years ago.

If you are one of those people who have a website set up for your business, but it is under-performing (for whatever reason), please contact me right away and let me see if I can help you turn your online endeavors into an actually money-maker. At the very least, let me help to educate you on what needs to be done in order to actually turn your Internet marketing endeavors into a legitimate source of income for you and your business.

I just finished reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s first book, “CRUSH IT: Why Now Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion“.

Gary is what he describes as a “Z-list” celebrity when it comes to social media use and building a brand through the use of the Internet and social network websites, but he’s really a social media superstar.

I’ve personally been following Gary for a number of years now and while I love him as an individual, his book left me sorely disappointed. I think the book would be a great read for some of my new clients who are unfamiliar with the social media world, but for someone like myself who has been doing this sort of thing for quite some time now, there just isn’t much new information to be found inside the book. To find out more, simply press play on the video above.

To learn more about CRUSH IT, purchase a copy of the book for yourself, or even read the reviews of hundreds of other people, just click here.

One of the most powerful ways of multiplying your business’ online sales (and increasing your website’s daily traffic) is through the use of an automated affiliate program. Using an affiliate tracking software such as iDevAffiliate, your business can take on an army of third-party salesmen located around the world… and the best part is that you don’t have to pay them a cent unless they send you a sale!

An affiliate program is simply a piece of software that integrates with your business’ “Buy Now” buttons or online shopping cart, so that when third party websites that are registered as affiliates of your site send you traffic… and one of their readers buys something from your site, the affiliate software tracks the sale and pays the affiliate his or her percentage.

Affiliate sales can be extremely complex or they can be incredibly simple. Most affiliate programs work by simply paying their affiliates a certain percentage of the sale. Of course, the more you pay your affiliates for each of the sales they refer, the harder they work to send you targeted traffic that actually wants to buy the products and services you are offering.

The real power of an affiliate program is that without it you are doing ALL the work to market and promote your business by yourself. But with the affiliate software and a team of affiliates in place, you now have a small army of people scattered about the Web who are actively working to sell the products and services your business provides!

If you sell products or services online and you are looking for a way to quickly and easily increase your sales, an affiliate program might be just what you need!

Here at Silver Mountain Marketing, we recommend an affiliate tracking software called iDevAffiliate. We recommend it to most of our clients because you can purchase the software for a low one-time fee and host the tracking software on your own server, which means there are no monthly fees or excess charges for having a large number of affiliates.

I could easily go on and on about affiliate programs, affiliate marketing, and how to acquire more affiliate sales, but I think that’s enough for today.

If you have a question about integrating an affiliate program into your business, please don’t hesitate from contacting us. Affiliate marketing really is one of the fastest and easiest ways of making more money in the constantly changing online world! If you want to make more money in your business this year, let us help you set up an affiliate program for your business today!

Here are some things to look & consider as you conduct your review:

• Is Google Analytics successfully tracking all the pages on my site?
• Are all text and images elements in alignment?
• Is my CMS (Content Management System) up to date?
• Have all of my plug-ins been updated lately?
• Are all of my plug-ins functioning as they should?
• Is my contact information correct?
• Does the information on my About page need to be changed/updated?
• Do all the forms on my website function as they should?
• Are there any broken links that need to be tended to?
• Have I updated the copyright date and notice in the footer of my website?
• Do I need to make changes to my website’s Privacy Policy?
• Can my customers easily find me via popular social networking websites?
• Do I have a customized Twitter background? If so, does it need to be updated?
• Are there any processes taking place on my website that could be automated in order to save me both time and money?
• Does my sales copy need to be changed?
• Does my shopping cart function as it should?
• Do all of my order buttons work properly?
• Is my affiliate program successfully tracking referrals and paying my affiliates as it should?
• Do my email follow-up sequences need to be updated?
• Does my site need a totally new design or major overhaul?
• Do I know how many people visit my website/blog/social media sites on a daily/monthly basis? Are these numbers continuing to grow – month after month?
• What needs to be done in order to make my website better/more profitable?

If you need help updating your website, automating your web sales, or turning your business into a social media powerhouse, please contact us! This is what we do!

Thumbnail photo by Phillip C

Over the past three days I have successfully re-launched one of my biggest online products and increased my monthly income for this particular money-maker by over 350% in just three short days.

Here is how I did it… and how you can do the same:

You Need An Audience Of Some Kind

Before you can even think about launching or promoting a product/service, you need to build an audience. In the world of the Internet, that means a substantial readership, a list of email subscribers, or a healthy following on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Without a readership and/or list, your launch is most certainly going to fail. This is why gathering customer email addresses early on in the life of your business is so important.

You Need To Have A Relationship With Your Potential Customers

Even a large email list does not guarantee online success. On top of having a substantial list of potential customers, you need to have an ongoing relationship with the people on your list. They need to hear from you on a regular basis, trust you, and view you as a valuable source of information. Without this, you are just a salesman sending spam to their inboxes. With the right relationship, however, you come across as a trusted friend informing them of an offer so good they’d have to be nuts to turn it down. This is what you want!

Drop The Price… But Only For A Limited Time

To make your promotion super successful, consider dropping the price of your product or service by a substantial amount. Then, let your customers know that they can take advantage of your special offer, but only for a limited time (This is important!). Limiting the time during which the sale is to take place forces your prospects to act.

Don’t Be Afraid To Sell… And Sell Again

Finally, when it comes time for the sale to take place, send out an email, hit the social media sites… and SELL, SELL, SELL! Don’t be afraid to ask your customers to buy. If you’ve done the previous steps correctly, your customers will be thankful that you’ve reminded them about the start of your sale. Of course, you don’t want to be too pushy or too over the top, but you don’t want to be too timid either. At numerous times throughout your promotion, let your customers know that the sale is taking place, that it will only happen for a limited time, and if they are interested in what you are selling, they need to act fast! Do this, and you’ll be surprised by the results you receive.

So, there it is!

1. Get an audience. If you don’t currently have one, start one today. Constantly work to grow your readership and increase your influence. Start an email list today!
2. Continually create relationships with your customers. Use social media. Find out what your customers want most. Show them that you can be trusted.
3. When it comes time to sell your product, drop the price… but only for a limited time. Make sure your customers know that the price has been dropped and by how much! Be sure they know that this extra-low price will only last for a while. Be sure they know exactly what day and time the sale will end.
4. Finally, get out there and sell… sell… sell. Blast your email subscribers; get the word out on social media sites; and post about the sale on your website. Remind your customers that the sale is taking place and that they need to act fast if they want to take advantage of this one-time deal.

Do these four things and you’ll have one heck of a promotion… and by the time your sale comes to and end you should have a health chunk of change in your bank account as well!

If you need help with your next product/service promotion, send us an email. We’d be happy to help! It’s what we do.