New Servers Up & Running

Happy 2015 to everyone! In 2014, we finished our huge project of moving everyone over to our new servers. We are looking forward to a great year and wish all of you the best in 2015.

Be sure to visit our Tech Support page if you have any questions on the new email setup, or give us a call. Thank you.

By the way, if you haven't already, be sure to "Like" us on Facebook. Our Facebook address is facebook.com/WordWebDesign

Email Tips

E-MAIL TIPS

• When sending an e-mail to a single address, most e-mail servers will accept attachments up to 10mb in size.  However, when sending an e-mail to a large group of e-mail addresses, it's best to keep attachments down to 1/2 a mb or less.  If you need help compressing a file (to e-mail), just let us know.
• If you need to transfer large files on a regular basis we recommend using an FTP account. We can set an FTP account up for you, just give us a call for details.
• Proper e-mail etiquette calls for a "signature". Be sure to include your contact information. Most e-mail programs can save a signature and add it automatically to all of your e-mails. Let us know if you need help setting up a signature on your computer.
• Enter a subject on all e-mails. An e-mail with a subject is less likely to get marked as spam, and is easier to organize and find if needed for future reference.

Holiday E-Commerce Traffic Sources

SUPPORT LOCAL HOSPITALIZED KIDS

Looking to make a charitable contribution before the end of the year? Today's the last chance, and what better cause to support than local hospitalized children?

Please join WORD Web Design in supporting The Molly Thompson Memorial Fund. A gift to The Molly Thompson Memorial Fund makes a profound impact on the children at Randall Children's Hospital (Legacy Emanuel).

Learn more at http://www.milesfrommolly.org/Donate.htm

THE IMPACT OF THE "FISCAL CLIFF" ON SMALL BUSINESSES

Will the USA still stand strong after the "fiscal cliff"

Higher taxes, increased health care costs, worsening economy - what are the positives and what is the plan of action for small business? Small Business Trends compiled information from several media sources, regarding the upcoming so-called "fiscal cliff". We picked out four of them to highlight the general impact to small business.

CBS Evening News said an estimated 941,000 small businesses in the U.S. could face tax increases as high as $8,000 more a year. Many business owners, according to this article, say this increased taxation will deprive them of funds they could reinvest in growing their business and providing jobs. This will ultimately result in slower economic growth, unless sales are extraordinarily strong.

The Washington Post reports - Many small business owners worry the new Affordable Care Act will be anything but affordable, and could end up in lost jobs or shortened hours for employees. Employees may end up footing the cost of their entire healthcare insurance.

According to The New York Times - Whether lawmakers avoid going over the "fiscal cliff" or not, small businesses could end up dealing with the following. Loss of some depreciation allowances for capital investments, and some work opportunity tax credits, as well as possible loss of a temporary exclusion of 100% gain on certain small business stock. The enhanced charitable deduction for donating computers to schools and libraries could also go away.

The Weekly Standard published an interesting article - A peculiar side effect of a proposal presently on the table in Washington. The report claims the proposal raises marginal tax rates on small business owners (to 39.6 percent on those making over $250,000), but at the same time decreasing the corporate tax rate to 28 percent.

The above findings do not paint a bright picture, so again, what are the positives and what is the plan of action for small businesses?

First positive is tax deductions for start-ups are still available (reportedly they will even be increased).

A new 10% income tax credit will likely be introduced to counteract the cost of hiring.

Increased government spending for proposed infrastructural developments will likely boost some engineering firms, contractors, and material suppliers.

A new program started earlier this year, Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS) assists small businesses in sourcing financing.

Another positive, the current administration's failings could encourage them to come out with new tax cuts next year. It will likely be a political game (to make one party look better than the other), and it is unlikely they will fully compensate for (potential) increases, but it very will could ease the increased tax burden to some degree.

The importance of marketing, and building better relationships with customers, is greater than ever. Consumers still need your product, and sales must grow to compensate for any increased cost of doing business. User friendly up-to-date websites, online forms for patients, and social media are just a few of the ways to connect better with your customers.

Web design and marketing for small businesses and professionals is what we do. We are focused on making your business, clinic, or organization successful. That is our mission and we put it into practice in huge ways for many of our customers throughout 2012. Here are a few comments we heard this year from our customers and business partners:

After we enacted a new marketing campaign in October, for one of our customers, they said:  "November is usually a little slow, but this November was our best ever!"

Another customer: "8 out of 10 calls come directly from our website".

One customer had a slow beginning to the year, but they contacted us to build a new website and work on their online brand management. Since then, sales have increased dramatically. "We attribute all of our increase to the work WORD Web Design did for us".

We are looking forward to the continued success of our business partners in 2013.

ONLY 10% OF FRIENDS SEE YOUR POSTS

Facebook is now charging to promote posts. When you like a "Page" you will only see about 10% of their posts. To continue receiving all of their posts, go to their page, hover your mouse over where it says "LIKED" and click on "Add to Interests Lists". Be sure to add us, so you don't miss any of our posts.

Google & Facebook in the News

Misc. collection of recent news regarding both Facebook and Google:

• German official: Facebook must delete faces
• Google cutting 4000 jobs at Motorola unit
• FTC finalizes privacy settlement with Facebook
• Google to pay record fine for tracking Safari users
• Google to include people's Gmail in search results.

Google Pushes Out Panda Update

Google rolled out the latest update to its Panda algorithm yesterday.

The company posted the news  on Twitter, saying this update will affect about one percent of search results.

New data refresh of Panda starts rolling out tonight. ~1% of search results change enough to notice. More context: goo.gl/huekf — A Googler (@google) July 24, 2012

The previous update (3.8) occurred a month ago — on June 25th.

Panda rolled out initially in February 2011 and was designed to remove low-quality/thin content from Google’s search results.

Yelp & Bing Join Forces in Local Search

Something to be aware of for local SEO - Bing has teamed up with Yelp to increase Yelp coverage in Bing local search results.

You can learn more at The Bing Team's blog: http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2012/06/14/bing-and-yelp-help-you-do-more-with-local-search.aspx

What does this mean to local business owners? We recommend adding (or claiming) your business listing in Yelp. It's free to list your basic business info and pictures.

Social Marketing Chart

Interesting Social Marketing chart, but can you spot what's missing? A major, but relatively new, social media player is missing from this chart.

Click on above image to zoom

The answer is Pinterest.

Best Time of Day for Facebook Posts

Do you read every post in your Facebook feed? With so many posts each day, it's no surprise most of us skim through, or completely miss, many posts.

It's easy for your posts to get lost in the crowd. However, there are a few ways to get your posts noticed.

1. Post something interesting, or useful!
2. Use pictures, or links to websites (links bring up a thumbnail picture from the site).
3. Post at the right time of day

Number three, in the list above, can use some explanation. When is the right time of day to make posts to Facebook? Well, they actually have an answer for that! Studies have been done, and although there are many variables (depending on your demographics), they have discovered links sent between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. get the most views. One study released recently by the link shortening and tracking service bit.ly actually narrowed it down to Wednesday at 3 p.m. as the absolute best time to post on Facebook all week.

Your audience could be different, but time of day (and even time of week) is something to consider. Generally comments or links posted after 8 at night or before 8 in the morning are most likely to be missed.

“While traffic starts to increase around 9:00 a.m., one would be wise to wait to post until 11am,” bit.ly said in a blog post. “Traffic from Facebook fades after 4:00 p.m.”

Facebook Timeline - Image Sizing

Facebook Timeline is old news (at least in today's digital age!), but many are still confused with how Facebook formats images. Here are a few image sizing tips:

• Cover Image (main image at top of screen) - 851px by 315px
  Note, you can upload other sizes (up to 2048 by 2048), but they will be cropped & sized down
• Profile Picture - recommended upload 180px x 180px (Scales down to 160x160, and 32x32)
• Timeline Photo Post - 404px by 404px
• Milestone Picture - 843px by 403px
• Thumbnails - 90px by 90px
• Ad Picture - 110px by 80px
• Favorites/Apps - 111px by 74px

Looking for a really sharp Cover Image? Give us a call, we'd be happy to design one for you.

Search Engine Alternative

Duck Duck Go

Duck Duck Go, a start-up search engine, is competing by leveraging the public’s recent concern over Google’s privacy policies. According to Fred Wilson, a principal of Union Square Ventures, a venture capital backer of Duck Duck Go, other vendors should do the same, saying “We should encourage web and mobile services to lead with their privacy practices and let users vote with their feet. This is an opportunity for new web services who can use privacy as a basis for competition as Duck Duck Go does.” Duck Duck Go says it does not collect or share browsing history, and it articulates understandable privacy policies, including one that is illustrated and starts with this image:

DuckDuckGo.com is still tiny compared to the top four, at roughly 45 million searches per month. But it is growing rapidly in recent months as concern over Google’s privacy policies have grown.

Excerpt from Small Business Trends article by Anita Campbell (founder of Small Business Trends, and owner of BizSugar)

STOP sopa

There are two pieces of legislation, currently being considered by Congress, that will seriously endanger the very freedoms America was built upon - specifically free speech.

"SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act propose massive new regulatory powers over the Internet that will seriously endanger free speech and the constitutionally upheld principal of Fair Use. These bills would create broad powers to remove entire web sites by manipulating the Domain Name System (DNS) and Internet search results, all without any action from a court of law. Blogs, status updates, consumer reviews and even links to other web sites may make web sites a target to be blacklisted. Smaller and independent ISPs will be particularly hard hit trying to police their users to avoid interruption of service.

These bills are not the way to address online piracy. SOPA and PROTECT IP are bad for TierraNet, bad for our customers, and bad for the Internet. Our favorite websites -- Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube -- even your own blog, and your favorite online store -- will all be permanently wounded.

I urge you to take a moment to let your representatives in Washington D.C. know your feelings. Please EDUCATE yourself about this proposed legislation, VOICE your opinions, and EXERCISE the right to free speech on the Internet that we take for granted." - Brian Scott, CEO of TierraNet

RESOURCES:
http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html

Electronic Frontier Foundation - Stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation

Marketing in a Down Economy

"In a slow economy the one thing to boost is sales and marketing" SmallBiz Technology

"It certainly makes sense to think about new ways to market a business right now – and the biggest growth of marketing will be online." Wall Street Journal

"In a sputtering economy, small businesses are often quick to rein in their marketing budgets. But that may be a shortsighted strategy. Glum economic times can be an opportunity for small companies to make inroads on their competitors' turf and re-energize their marketing efforts." WSJ Small Business Report

2012 Tax Trends for Small Business

Are Large Corporations skipping over taxes, while small & medium size businesses (SMB) carry the burden?

We found this article in Small Business Trends. It may be useful for small business owners to be aware of these potential trends:

http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/12/top-10-small-business-tax-trends-2012.html

The 10 main points highlighted in this article are:
1. Taxes will remain a political football.
2. Tax audits are on the rise.
3. Uncertainty about health care rules remains.
4. Some favorable business tax rules will be extended.
5. State and local governments scrounge for new sources of revenue.
6. Unemployment taxes will go up for some employers.
7. Estate planning for business owners remains challenging.
8. Filings will be almost exclusively online.
9. Low interest rates will have an impact.
10. The U.S. tax system will continue to become more and more complex.

Phone 'Rootkit' Maker Carrier IQ May Have Violated Wiretap Law In Millions Of Cases - Forbes

Phone 'Rootkit' Maker Carrier IQ May Have Violated Wiretap Law In Millions Of Cases - Forbes

Is the American Jobs Act good for Small Business?

This article was originally published in Small Business Trends, and written by Rohit Arora. He was named "Top Entrepreneur of 2011" by Crain's New York Business. Rohit is CEO of Biz2Credit.

While President Obama urged Congress to pass his $447 billion jobs bill combining tax cuts and new government spending, skepticism remains as to whether the package could kick-start the stalled economy and if it would indeed pay for itself as the President promised.

President Obama’s “American Jobs Act” proposals include a 50 percent cut in payroll taxes, incentives for businesses to hire returning veterans and people who have been unemployed for more than six months, and new spending on America’s infrastructure. The President said that the proposals would not increase the growing federal deficit, and that he has ambitions for long-term deficit reduction through spending cuts.

Although the President’s intentions are good, the plan is unlikely to have the intended effect and may not even pass Congress. The plan is well intentioned, but a little off the mark.

• The number-one issue right now is empowering entrepreneurs to start small businesses. To do that, they need capital. but banks simply aren’t lending. Many big banks have reserves on their books. President Obama should take a page out of Ronald Reagan’s 1987 playbook and vow to increase taxes on assets that are sitting idle if the banks do not reach certain small business lending plateaus.
• Although the President insisted that his proposals would pay for themselves, he did not say how. There is a high likelihood that the measures will add to the growing government deficit, which puts a burden on the economy and small businesses in particular.
• When government revenues don’t match its spending, it looks to increase revenue. My fear is that small business owners will suffer. Entrepreneurs don’t have lobbyists like big corporations do and thus are less likely to sway government leaders against taxing their businesses.
• Providing incentives for hiring returning soldiers is a worthy and sincere aspiration. However, the reality is that many veterans do not have the job skills to compete in today’s technology-driven economy. Any proposals should include some sort of training for veterans so that they can develop marketable skills – a 21st century G.I. Bill, so to speak. When people have skills they get hired. The same applies to long-time unemployed workers. Editor's Note: What are your thoughts? Is Rohit off base on this point? Is not the training our soldiers receive often technology-driven? Is it applicable to the civilian job market? That may be a legit question, but there is certainly not a lack of job skills such as dedication, hard work, discipline, and team work!

There are three things the President should have suggested, but did not:

1. Provide incentives for small business lending. Tax incentives for hiring are nice, but if you don’t have capital to launch the business, they do no good.
2. Encourage foreign direct investment into new businesses. China has been very good at this. New companies create jobs. Editor's Note: The views expressed in this article are those of Rohit and do not necessarily represent the views of us or small business.
3. Focus on reducing the deficit, which is a time bomb. Who will be most likely to pay the piper? Small business owners, who don’t have lobbyists and are an easy target for higher taxes and increased fees. (It won’t be the poor or the big corporations that pay.) A large government deficit limits access to capital for the private sector in general and small businesses in particular, as they do not have access to public markets. The deficit is exactly the opposite of what small businesses need to help bring America out of its stagnant economy.

President Obama is correct in saying, “Ultimately, our recovery will be driven not by Washington, but by our businesses and our workers.” In order to do that, small businesses need an environment in which they can grow. He also was right when he admitted that people cannot wait 14 months until the next Presidential election for the economy to turn around. While the new measures would likely spur employment (currently at 9.1 percent) and some growth, they are not enough to solve the country’s economic woes.

Mile from Molly

We support The Molly Thompson Memorial, a benefit for the Children's Hospital at Legacy Emanuel. A week from this Monday, you can too, simply by going out to dinner! Learn more on how you can help at http://www.milesfrommolly.org/Mollys-Events.htm

 

Word Web Design on Facebook

Visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/WordWebDesign
Click the "Like" button to keep up-to-date on important marketing news for small business, and to see our latest designs.