Web Business Blog

Setting zoom on an embedded Google Map

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Many people have embedded Google Maps into their web sites. It is simply one of the best ways to help a customer find your business. One thing that I have noticed is that the zoom setting is no longer included in the standard embed code. Here is the typical URL string that you get from Google with their embed code.

https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&cid=11693638587365396049&q=Lightbarer+Web+Solutions&gl=US&hl=en&t=m&iwloc=A&ll=43.211393,-123.392488&spn=0.006295,0.006295&output=embed

All you have to do is add "&Z=11" right after the "output=embed". You can play around with the value to get the right zoom that you want.

Google Video covers Lightbox

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:00:00 GMT

I recently had to deal with this technical issue where a Google Video covers or is on top of a Lightbox. Most of us that work with Flash are familiar with the wmode property. The question is ... how do you add it to the current code snippet that you get when you want to embed a Google Video?

Answer:

Add wmode=transparent right after the question mark in the http string of the Google Video code snippet.

Have a nice day!

Outsource your web project to the USA!

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:00:00 GMT

A fact of business nowadays is that web design and development is being outsourced from the United States to other countries. But many find that time zone and language differences can gum up a web project. Lightbarer Web Solutions is a professional web design and development agency that is willing to provide the right service for your project. We provide a full array of services such as, web marketing, mobile applications, psd to web template, javaScript programming and more. No job is too small. We handle overflow work for various U.S. based web design and development agencies and these companies are very happy with our work. You'll be happy too. Give us a call at (541) 637-5208. You'll be glad you did!

Email as a form of Marketing

Fri, 28 May 2010 00:28:00 GMT

Do you have a customer list? Do you want to build a customer list? Would you like to promote repeat business among your customer base? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions you should be considering email marketing. Email marketing has been compared to social networking. Really, there are similarities but there are also some key differences. One similarity is that social networking and email marketing allow you to send a message simultaneously to a list of people. In social networking, your message is called a "status". Usually, a status is a very short message. Email messages can be much more elaborate than a status, allowing for a longer message, integrated links and embedded images. Also, email marketing has become sophisticated in the sense that many email marketing services provide analytics to show you who opened your email and which links that they clicked on. this allows you to see the effectiveness of your messages and refined your messaging over time. Plus, email marketing systems allow you to have various email lists so that you can tailor your message to various groups. Let's say you make sports uniforms. So, you could have a football list, baseball list and soccer list. Therefore, you would send a football uniform email promotion to the customers on your football list. Make sense?

Should you social network or email market? In most cases, you should do both. Lightwave Web Business platform has the necessary functionality to run your website, email marketing and social networking all from one service. To find out more about email marketing and other online strategies, contact us for a free consultation.

Thinking Local Roseburg

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:35:00 GMT

Many businesses are banning together for mutual benefit. Many of these arrangements can be called a "cooperative" or a "strategic alliance". There are many forms of alliances starting up and well in place all around the Roseburg Oregon area.

This impelled me to invest in a few web domains that can be used to the purpose of bringing a number of businesses together that can benefit from more exposure online. For the most part, more exposure for your business should translate into more chances to connect with new and existing customers.

Here is the plan ... to develop a number of web properties with other businesses that want to get more exposure on the Internet. Here are the web addresses ...

www.roseburgareabusiness.com
www.roseburgareafoodandwine.com
www.roseburgareaagriculture.com
www.roseburgareaartsandmusic.com
www.roseburgarealodging.com
www.roseburgarearealestate.com

These domains can be developed with a number of local businesses and professionals to attract visitors to Roseburg area companies and individuals. All of these sites focus on a particular business sector(s). If you would like to participate in this "web cooperative" opportunity please contact us. It does not matter if you have a site or not. This is an inexpensive way to multiply your marketing efforts.

Non-profit corporations. Sell donation memberships.

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Non-profit corporations usually accept donations. In these tougher economic times, it may be hard to get someone to give a large one-lump-sum donation but some people may agree to multiple donations made on a monthly basis but in smaller amounts. It would be good to offer an incentive to donate at certain levels. The incentive could be a coupon book with discounts at local participating retailers or a small thank you gift that can be displayed to show that the donor is trying to make a difference by giving to your cause. Lightwave web business platform has the ability to create "products" that set up a recurring charge to the donor through a seamless payment gateway. If your non-profit corporation needs a web site face lift, more donation options and new online strategies, please contact Lightbarer Web Solutions and we'll help you out.

How do I choose a good domain name?

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:00:00 GMT

If you are about to take your business venture online, one of your first steps will be to choose a domain name. You can simply choose a domain name that matches your business name. That would be the best route if your business name will be on your printed materials, your products, the side of your delivery van and on the sign in front of your store.

There is an alternative. That is to choose a domain name that describes your product or service. This strategy helps people to find your business based on keywords that they may type into a search engine. This strategy works if your product or service is very narrow and specialized. For example, if you are in the candle making business, you may choose www.decorativescentedcandles.com. Of course, this domain name choice would be the words that best describe your product or service.

Another strategy for choosing a good domain name would be to include the geographic region you are targeting in the domain name. Some businesses know that their product or service is meant only for the city or region where they do business. Many individuals will search the Internet based on a city or region such as "Los Angeles Restaurants" or "Orange County Flower Shop". A restaurant, for example, is a good example of a business that serves a narrow geographic region such as a city. Therefore, if your restaurant is "Pepe's Mexican Food" then you could choose the domain www.pepesmexicanfoodofsanclemente.com. This is a great domain name because Internet users will no doubt search for "mexican food san clemente" or "san clemente food". This is also a good alternative if you had your heart set on www.pepesmexicanfood.com but it is taken.

If you are about to take your business online and you think that Lightbarer Web Solutions can help you to be successful, please contact us and we'll help you to build your presence on the information super highway.

How do I plan my website?

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:00:00 GMT

The ground work that you do before starting the design and construction of your web site will ultimately make your web site more effective and it will accomplish what you want it to do. That is really the first item on your planning list. You should be able to answer the question: What should my web site accomplish? Then you put your mind to the next question: How will my web site accomplish that?

Here is a basic scenario. Let's say that the objective of your web site is to acquire sales leads. The next question would be: How can my web site help my business acquire sales leads? If you are speaking about your business to an individual in a face-to-face situation what would you say? Also, what differentiates your product or service from the competition? These are the kinds of things that must be presented in an easy-to-understand simple format on your web site that will help to convert them to your product or service. You may want to go so far as to create a video snippet that demonstrates or explains what you are selling. This makes good business sense. Especially, if your audience is large because it's as if your best sales presentation could be given hundreds or even thousands of times. Of course, every good sales presentation has a "call to action". Your web site should then have an easy-to-find, simple and quick form to fill out. It also helps to give the visitor an incentive to fill out the form. Once a visitor fills out the form, your job is to respond quickly. Lightwave web business platform has the functionality to build web forms that send SMS alerts to your cell phone. If you really want to respond quickly to your leads and "strike while the iron is hot", this is the way to do it.

If this makes sense to you, contact Lightbarer Web Solutions to discuss your web initiative and get on your way to collecting more sales leads!

Why should I put my business online?

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Before you start, you should be able to answer this question. Why should I have a website? Here is some food for thought:

Can you imagine this ... your business is offering the latest and greatest thing and you want people to know about it. So, you go out into the street and you start talking to people one at a time. Granted, every business owner need to talk with individuals about their business but a web site amplifies your marketing voice. It is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week to answer questions about your business like: Where are you located? and What are your business hours? and even better ... What are your latest specials?

Next, depending on your business, your audience may be local, national or international. How do you reach them if they live 200 miles from you? The Internet. Latest statistics show that 1,733,993,741 people worldwide have access to the Internet and use it. In North America 252,908,000 people have Internet access - that is almost 75% of the population. So, the potential to market your product or service to just a portion of that number could be a boom to your business. That potential cannot be overlooked!

There are many ways to get on the Internet so to speak. But a well designed web site can make your business seem like a giant corporation even though it may have only a few employees or even one. A well done web site can speak volumes about your company. You can present pictures, audio and video to captivate and educate your potential clients. Imagine this ... you want to visit a city for your vacation. If you are like me, you hop on the Internet and you check out what is going on there. Let's say you run across a site for a restaurant. On the site you see pictures of the latest dishes and people enjoying themselves there, you read favorable reviews and to top it all off, there is a coupon right on the home page for a 10% discount. That is a pretty compelling reason to go in my opinion.

If you think that I know what I'm talking about, why don't you get in contact with us? Find out more about what a web site can do for your business.

Implement, measure, react

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:00:00 GMT

Analytic software is useful only when it is understood. Sure it is nice to see your web traffic statistics but if you really want to harness the power of analytics you need to do three things - implement, measure and react. For example, you have come up with a campaign for your website. It is very important to build the pages and launch the ad campaign of course. That may be called the implementation. But with analytic software, you can measure it. You can see who is visiting your site, which browsers they are using, what is their screen resolution, what is their operating system and their geographic location. Plus, you can follow the path or steps they took while visiting your site. Did they stay on task? Where did they drop off? Seeing this kind of data can help you to react. Or in other words make adjustments to your site so that visitors reach the goal - a site purchase, subscribing to a newsletter, etc. This takes time and resources but if it makes sense economically for your business, then it is worth it. Lightwave has built-in analytics capability that can help you to measure the effectiveness of your website. Contact us and let Lightbarer Web Solutions educate you on what you can do to maximize the results from your website!

Photo galleries build trust and create interest

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:00:00 GMT

Picture galleries can be an effective tool for your web presence. It almost doesn't matter what business you are in. Consider these businesses and how a picture gallery is useful.

Building Contractors and Trades - A picture gallery showing past work tells potential customers the kind of work the company is capable of doing. Of course, a display of superior work will build trust. Trust leads to a business relationship.

Photographers and Artists - A picture gallery is absolutely essential. It almost goes without saying that a professional photo gallery presentation is just as important as the photos themselves. The work on display is essential to building trust.

Restaurants, Night Clubs, Bowling Alleys and Performing Arts Venues - Pictures of patrons enjoying themselves make others want to visit and try it out. They realize that they won't waste their time by visiting. Restaurants should have photos of signature food items.

Wineries, Museums, Botanical Gardens, Theme Parks, Attractions, Vacation Resorts, Game Ranches - Pictures of patrons at events and pictures of the facilities can attract people to plan a visit when they are in the area. They may even plan a trip around it. When in the area and before a visit to a place, people will use the Internet to see what is going on. If you don't give people a reason to visit, will they visit? The answer is ... probably not.

Reward your current customers

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:50:00 GMT

One way to reward your current customers is to send them a special "something" like a coupon or a two for one discount on an "anniversary" date. That anniversary can be a birthday or a one year anniversary from the date they last did some business with you. Lightwave has built-in management for triggering email offers on an anniversary date.

Analytics - What is a conversion?

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

A conversion is something that happens when your web visitor completes an interaction with your web site. It can be what you as the business owner or web marketer want it to be. For example, if a web visitor completes a form that subscribes him/her to your newsletter, that can be considered a conversion. Lightwave has an easy-to-use tool for building forms that automatically populate your customer database. As you build it, you can segment the database into groups and send email marketing campaigns that are targeted to your customer's needs.