Some of you may be hanging your head in chagrin at this very moment as you realize you’re guilty of such a post. Take a deep breath, slowly back away from the exclamation-point key, and we’ll work through your angst together. (OK so I’m a writer, not a therapist, but let’s use our imaginations today.)

Here’s the deal: If life changes, why shouldn’t social media?

I know, I know — you’re happy with the way things were, so why so many updates? Well, I was perfectly happy as a 5-year-old girl, watching Sesame Street and playing in the mud. I was also pretty content with the blissful naivety of my junior high years, including the 6-month phase where I wore overalls daily and crammed as many butterfly clips into my hair as spatially possible. (Don’t judge.)

But overalls don’t last forever (thankfully, neither did my awkward years), and progression is an inevitable and natural step in any arena of life.

The problem with refusing to embrace change is simple: If you don’t get on the bus, you’re going to get left at the station waiting for the next ride. You can balk at change all you want, but the changes are still bound to happen — regardless of how many angsty statuses you post.

Oft times with Facebook, for example, changes are initially optional for a month or two before updates become mandatory and you no longer have a choice in the matter. For businesses, do you really want to be two months behind your competitors when the updates are forced upon you?

I say, when changes come, jump in with both feet. Embrace the updates. Stay one step ahead of the curve. The online world is quickly moving forward and continually picking up steam — don’t be that person left sitting on your hands. (Though if you insist, I have a plethora of butterfly clips you’re welcome to borrow.)

What are your thoughts on the evolution of social media?

(D * V) + F > R

.. where
D = Dissatisfaction with the current state
V = Vision of the future
F = First steps
R = Resistance

When my business coach taught me this formula, the engineer in me thought “That’s not really a mathematical equation.” It’s not supposed to be

As I’m sure you know, we all have in us some level of “resistance” to change (for a really great book on the topic, check out The War of Art by Steven Pressfield). The idea behind the formula for change is that our dissatisfaction with our current state, our belief that things can be better, and our seeing the way to accomplish that must be GREATER than our resistance, or we will never change.

How does this apply to employee motivation? It’s actually really simple. If someone who works for you (or you yourself, for that matter) is having trouble making a change that they need to make, there is something missing from this equation.

For those who are not dissatisfied with their current situation, you must help them see the long term consequence of staying where they are. Questions are very powerful — what do you want to accomplish in your life? What happens if you don’t do anything about this attribute? How long have you had this problem, and how much has it cost you? Where does this fall in your list of priorities of things to fix?

For those who are perhaps dissatisfied but lack in vision of the future, you must become an excellent storyteller and help them see what the future CAN be like. Again, questions are very powerful — what is an example of someone who has accomplished this task? What is their life like? Do you think they would agree that it was worth the effort to get there? How long do you think it really took them to get there? How long would it take you?

Now, if you just go around making people dissatisfied with their current state and longing for a future state but having no idea how to get there, you’ll just create a lot of depression in the world! The “F” is a critical step.. first steps to getting there. It’s amazing how even very complex tasks can be made simple if you spend some time PLANNING. Sit down with your employee 1-on-1 and make a PLAN for accomplishing this task. Your plan should be VERY detailed and specific. It’s much easier to tackle a big problem when all of the thinking has already been done and there’s only executing left to do. It’s also a lot easier to hold people accountable if specific tasks have been outlined. If you leave the planning only partially done, the resistance will beat you because it’s much tougher to motivate yourself to do something when you really don’t know how to do it.

How do you motivate your employees?

• Traffic
  Plain and simple, how many visitors are coming to your site on a daily, weekly and monthly basis? How many of them are unique, and how many of them are returning visitors? Do they come on weekends, weekdays, early morning or late at night?
• Sales
  For many businesses, this is the most obvious metric. How many sales are coming through your website? Are they returning customers who are coming directly to make a transaction, or are they net new customers? Is there anything that can be done to increase conversion rate?
• Phone calls
  For businesses that sell high ticket items or services, the purchase decision isn’t always made through the website alone. Thanks to call tracking technology, there are ways to see how many phone calls your website is generating.
• Downloads
  How many times was a whitepaper or brochure downloaded? Or how often is a particular resource accessed, and does it need to be made more prominent so more people can find it or does it need to be buried a bit because it’s taking up valuable real estate?
• Subscriptions
  Preliminary to any purchase decision, you may want to use your website to sign up email or RSS subscribers so that you can drip market to them and move them towards a transaction. How many of these subscriptions is your website currently generating?
• Rankings
  Related to traffic, rankings tell us where you are on Google for a particular keyword. We can track strategic keywords that you want to rank for, and we can show data over time to see how rankings are improving. A #1 ranking gets as much as 40% of the traffic for a given keyword, so it pays to know where you rank.
• Responses
  How many people are talking about you through social media channels? Is the content of their comments positive or negative? How does the web react when you post a news article, press release or other content?
• Loyalty
  Are your site visitors new or returning? How many times do they typically return before making a purchase decision? How long do they stay on site, and how many pages do they typically view before leaving? What is the last page they typically see before they go?
  
• Cost per action
  Take all of the money you are spending on marketing and divide it by one of these metrics (traffic, sales, phone calls) to get your CPA or “cost-per-action” number. How much are you paying for these metrics to go up? Is it profitable? and how does that compare to other marketing options you have?
  

When you work with an Skyhook Internet Marketing as your Arizona web design company, we’ll help you decide which metrics are important to your business, and we’ll help you set up a system that will measure them.

Unfortunately for us, many of these “competitors” compensate for their lack of experience with really low prices that are unsustainable (even for them), which leads to a general devaluation of our service offering. Unfortunately for you the business owner, the same lack of experience by novice web designers leads to websites that are low in quality, low in ROI and high in frustration.

Therefore, I present to you 5 questions to ask when hiring a web designer:

1. Do you understand why I need a website?
   I’m routinely amazed at how often this question doesn’t even come up. At Skyhook, knowing why we’re building a website is the most important thing we can take away from a client strategy workshop. Once your web designer understands the business objectives, they can start acting like an agency and suggest strategies and tactics that are in line with what you’re trying to accomplish. Occasionally, this means they will push back on your bad ideas — but that’s okay, you WANT that!
2. Can I see your visual portfolio?
   Do a quick check to ensure that your customers will dig the web designer’s visual style. Every designer has a visual signature, which needs to align with your brand. Notice that I said your customers. It’s not nearly as important that you like your website as it is that your customers respond to it (positively, with their wallets).
3. What process do you use to test your websites?
   One of the easiest ways for a web designer to skimp is in browser testing. A website needs to look good on a wide variety of browsers and operating systems, not just the one you or your web designer is using. It takes extra time to test thoroughly, but doing things right the first time avoids discovering headaches and landmines down the road.
4. How much experience do you have in the industry? Have you worked on a site like mine before?
   HTML and CSS aren’t difficult languages to grasp on a basic level, but it literally takes years to master them. How many websites has your web developer built? It’s not AS important that they have built a website in your industry before, but it helps.
5. What support do you offer after my website is built?
   Is your website’s code going to be held hostage after it is built? Will your web designer be responsive to make changes when you need them? Will you have the tools to make simple changes yourself? Most importantly, will your web designer continue to act like a true partner by notifying you when your website needs updating, improving or expansion?

There are obviously a lot of other questions that are important to ask, especially if you’re planning to treat your web developer like a long-term partner (as you should).

What has your experience been in hiring a web designer? Chime in below.

What does this have to do with your website you ask? In this article, I’m going to talk about backing up the computers in your office. But even if you don’t host your website from a computer in your office, it’s still sitting on a NORMAL computer (that’s all a “server” is) SOMEWHERE, and the EXACT same principles of good data management apply, only it’s easier to overlook because it’s not physically present.

There are basically 3 types of data failure

• System failure – You get a virus, install a bad driver or somehow your OS gets corrupt. This is the LEAST devastating kind of data failure because your data is not lost — you just have to do some work to get to it
• Hardware failure – Your hard drive crashes — Perhaps because it was just time, or maybe your computer was dropped/kicked/damaged in some way. This is BAD, and it is ultimately INEVITABLE. That’s right — hard drives have moving parts, and they will eventually break down just like any machine. It’s not IF, but WHEN.
• Disaster – Flood. Earthquake. Fire. Burglary. No matter how backed up you think you are, if your data is not backed up OFF SITE (we’ll talk about that in a minute), it could be lost in this type of event

The only way to protect against all three of these very REAL scenarios is to implement some kind of off-site backup. That means that your backups are not physically stored in the same place as the main system. Off-site backup is CHEAP and it’s not as difficult to set up as many people think, so you really have no excuse for not implementing it RIGHT NOW.

In my mind, the most important attributes of a reliable backup system are (in order of importance):

1. Off site
2. Comprehensive
3. Automatic
4. Easy to restore
5. Easy to set up

Off site – This is without a doubt the most important attribute of a good backup system. You can buy enough remote storage space to back up your entire machine for as little as $5/month. By backing up your data off site, you protect yourself against all 3 types of data failure with 1 backup. Now that’s smart!

Comprehensive – You usually don’t need to back up your entire hard drive, but you do want to make sure you’re capturing all of the non-replaceable information (documents, music, pictures, etc.). Other files like operating system or applications can be found again (even though with some difficulty), and you don’t need them taking up space in your backup process.

Automatic – I bet the reason you haven’t done a better job of backing up your data is because it’s such a pain, right? You may have a few DVDs or even a tape drive in the closet that you backed up.. When? Last year? Yeah.. Make it automatic and regular — otherwise, you’ll never find time to do it properly. There are many free or cheap software solutions out there that will do automatic off-site backups as frequently as you wish — even constantly! Think Mozy or Carbonite backup. For the do-it-yourselfers, a simple FTP program + a cron job, automator script or scheduled task

Easy to restore – How important is this? Well that depends on your business. Some businesses are losing money every second that they’re down, so you’ll want to make sure that your data can be restored quickly and easily. Maybe you even want to do a dry-run. Otherwise, as long as you aren’t going to be out for weeks while you get your backups online you should be fine

Easty to set up – Not the most important, but it is important. I’m a total do-it-yourselfer, but do you really have the time/energy/know-how to do all of this? If not, look into something like Mozy or even a professional service which will pretty much do it for you.

Backup Providers

My current favorite backup providers:

• Mozy – expensive but turneky (for the lazy or busy people)
• Carbonite – Similar to Mozy
• Crashplan – Haven’t tried them, but I intend to. They’re new and have some innovative features. Plus they’re cheaper
• Amazon S3 – lots of raw storage space for cheap, but requires some know-how
• Dropbox – Super easy to set up. Lots of additional benefits. Not as comprehensive since you’re limited on space
• Your web host – If you’re already paying for a web host, maybe you have enough space in your agreement with the hosting company to do your actual backups on the same server?
• Another computer – I back up my computer’s data to my web host. But I ALSO back up my web host’s data to MY computer in case THEY fail.

What are you doing to protect against data loss? Chime in below!

Making your website standout from everyone else is key to generating more revenue and receiving better qualified leads. One of the biggest problems for small to mid-sized business is developing a presence on the web. With millions of other sites, it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle.

Just as you strive to meet the needs of your customers, at Skyhook Internet Marketing we believe in customized internet marketing to help each of our Tucson clients succeed in their industry. We take pride in working one-on-one with each of our clients to provide personalized internet marketing solutions for their business.

Why Should I Consider Internet Marketing for my Tucson Business?

Research shows the top 3 search result spots on Google receive over 58% of all clicks from users. That means that no matter how good your site is, if you’re not on page 1 you might as well be on page 80. Here are several other reasons why you should consider investing in Tucson internet marketing for your business:

• Return on Investment- As a business person you understand the importance of return on investment. Our goal is to create a revenue generating machine that pays for itself hundreds of times over.
• Higher Conversion Rate- Getting people to your website is half the work. With advanced keyword and market research we can drastically improve the conversion rate of traffic to your site.
• More Sales-  Better qualified leads from high ranking search results means more sales. Google records over 2 billion searches performed every day. How many people are looking for your business?
• Brand Recognition- Internet marketing is one of the best ways to create brand recognition. An online presence can have a profound impact on the amount of customers you reach.
• Expand your Reach- With personalized internet marketing you can reach more customers by optimizing your site for all browsers (Safari, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.).

At Skyhook we understand that the success of your Tucson business depends on internet marketing. We have the experience and skills necessary to add value to your company. Through video and phone conferencing we can discuss strategy to improve your companies revenue.

Why Should I Choose Skyhook Internet Marketing?

With all of the ads claiming to increase traffic to your website and improve your search engine rankings you may be wondering, “why should I hire Skyhook to market my website?” The answer is simple: At Skyhook Internet Marketing we are serious about providing return on investment.

Our goal is to help small business’ increase their revenue by driving more traffic to their site and improving their conversion rate with more qualified leads. We stand by our work and offer a guarantee with all of our websites.

Call or fill out a quote request form today to learn more about how Tucson internet marketing can increase your revenue. (480) 331-8905

The other day I was curious who was out there, so I did a little bit of Googling and decided to save you some time by sharing what I found:

• Skyhook Internet Marketing. Yes, that’s us — We’re located in Gilbert, AZ. Our strengths are focused on all aspects of internet marketing including web design, web development, SEO, Paid search marketing (PPC), social media marketing, email automation, website hosting and so forth. We don’t do any traditional advertising (print, radio, television), choosing instead to specialize in online promotion.
• DGR Communications. Husband and wife team with a background in branding and copywriting. Services include web design, development, copy writing and brand consultancy. Honest, hardworking and very experienced.
• Impact Web Solutions. From their website, they appear to be more technically oriented with services in e-commerce, application development, database programming and so forth.
• Dream Fountain. Appear to have a bit of a technical orientation as well, and to focus mostly on web. Dream fountain also offers web hosting, domain services, e-commerce and marketing services.
• Rapid Media is a Gilbert, AZ based company with expertise in several areas of marketing both on- and off-line. Their web services include website design, website development and website hosting.

Web Design & Web Development

The web design process begins by defining your business goals (why you’re even building a website), then sitting down with a website strategy consultant to “architect” your website. Assuming you’ve already developed your visual brand, you’ll typically work next with a copywriter and a graphic designer to design a website that accomplishes your business objectives. Once you’re completely happy with the graphical concept of your website, the next step is to deliver finished graphic designs to a web developer or web programmer who will bring your designs to life. Finally, just because a website is built doesn’t mean people will come — the final step is to work with an internet marketing professional to get search engine rankings and generate buzz to drive traffic to your website.

Gilbert, Arizona

Gilbert, AZ is part of the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area and is located 25 miles southeast of Phoenix. Gilbert is a quiet and pleasant community that has been consistently ranked among one of the top 50 best places to live in the nation. The school systems are great, the business community is alive and well, the city has a rich history and the streets are safe.

WordPress is a popular free website platform that makes it easier than ever for webmasters with any experience level to manage a website. WordPress is a software program that runs on a web server (rather than on your computer) and allows you to easily update and maintain your website from anywhere with an internet connection.

What is the WordPress Design process?

The WordPress design process is very similar to any web design project. It begins by understanding the brand that is being represented and the underlying business objectives that the site is trying to accomplish. Next, a design and content strategy is developed that will meet those objectives. Graphical concepts are then developed for each page of the site. After the graphical concept set has been approved, it is delivered to a web developer or web programmer who will program the site to become interactive.

Why do I need a WordPress Designer?

At the end of the day, WordPress is really just a tool that makes creating websites easier. In the right hands, it can make the website design process quicker and easier and make the resulting webpage more powerful and search engine friendly.

However, it’s important to understand that although WordPress makes the website development process much more efficient, there’s a lot more that goes into building a good website than just a platform. Activities like content strategy, graphic design, conversion rate optimization, search engine optimization and advanced development features still require the help of a professional wordpress designer.

In other words, using WordPress as a part of your strategy will help you make a better website and reduce the cost of development, but it shouldn’t be seen as a “silver bullet” for online success.

About Skyhook Internet Marketing

Skyhook Internet Marketing located in Mesa, Arizona is one of the foremost local expert WordPress design, WordPress development and WordPress Marketing shops. Several of our members were key parts of the organizing team for Wordcamp Phoenix 2011, and we’ve been developing the vast majority of our customers’ sites on WordPress for the past 4 years.

The hopes of most are to be business owners, make their own schedules, and do what they love. While it may sound simple enough, often times the barrier of “how to start a business” can be so great that most people fail on one or more of their attempts. If we take a closer look at few of the more successful business men, we’ll see that there are a few common principles that really define their character.

Work with what you know:

Michael Dell is the mega billionaire owner of Dell Computers… but did you know that he was a college dropout? During college Michael began going from dorm to dorm offering to repair his classmates computers. He felt that college just wasn’t for him and wanted to start a business making his own computers. His parents thought he was crazy and that dropping out of college would land him jobless and on the streets.

Dell’s parents changed their minds however when he came to them and told them how he had made over $200,000 working out of his dorm room fixing computers. From Michael’s example we learn how important it is to fill a niche. He was confident that he could do something better than others and he capitalized on it!

Follow your Passion:

When I think of passionate business men two people come to mind. The first… Dr. Ferry Porsche. This Austrian automotive engineer once said, “I couldn’t find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself”. If you ask me that’s some serious gumption. His vision of a true sports car has made its way onto the posters of more 9 year old bedroom walls than imaginable. His most successful car, the 911, has become one of the most iconic sports cars of all time, just because he stuck with what he loved, and followed his passion.

The second person who comes to mind is Ralph Lauren. During the 7th grade Ralph got a part-time job working at a department store to help pay for his expensive tastes in clothing. With the help of a $50,000 business loan Ralph eventually started his own fashion line called Polo in 1968. He was determined to do what he loved most and although he took a few risks, it paid off in the long run.

Stick with it:

In all reality there is no perfect formula for starting a business. Now days, you can’t seem to get anywhere without some decent internet marketing and a solid website. But no matter what your idea of The American Dream is, don’t give up on it, because you could be the next Michael Dell or Ralph Lauren.

Express Your Passion Through Work :

The reason why Italians are known for their design and craftsmanship is because they are passionate about the work they do. It is hard to imagine some of the worlds finest clothes and automobiles coming from a factory with no color on the walls, no reminders of history and heritage, and no sense of pride among its employees… In the same sense your company serves a purpose and you should be proud of that. You can choose to be excited about your work, and personalizing your space can help you to remember that choice!

If you are passionate about your work you shouldn’t be afraid to let it show. Splashing some color on the walls can be a great way to personalize your office space and really set the mood for you and your employees. White walls can get depressing after a while, and by changing the colors you can not only refresh the look of your workplace but your attitude as well. Skyhook Internet Marketing is all about customizing and stretching the boundaries of creativity. Let your office reflect a little bit of you!

Use Space Wisely:

The first thing you want to do when you are personalizing your office or work space is to make sure that all of your needs are taken care of. For example, it wouldn’t be the best idea to fill your office with Love Sac couches and have no desk space if you were a engineer. You need to make sure that you keep things organized. Clutter can add to the amount of stress you feel, so you will want to minimize that as much as possible. Find a layout that works for you. Try putting your desk on a different wall for a change of pace. Maybe bring in some pictures from home to add a touch of your personality! The sky is the limit!

Skyhook Internet Marketing strives to express itself in every way possible. The employees are encouraged to offer suggestions and use their best judgment when handling difficult situations. Our office space is a reflection of who we are, what we do, and what we want to become!