Facebook Changes Coming Soon….

My friends over at Mainstreet reminded me that some mandatory changes are in store at the end of March for Facebook business pages.  To learn more about what you need to do to make sure your business page won’t be negatively affected by these changes, visit the link below. If you currently have a custom landing page for instance, these will no longer be supported. If you need help...

Pinterest

I’ve been meaning to write an article on Pinterest but Jennifer Cario beat me to it and she did a great job of explaining what it is and how to use it both for fun or to gain exposure for your content online.  Here are the links to Part 1 and 2 of her series on The Simple Guide to Using Pinterest. Part 1 Part...

Kekaha Oceanside Vacation Rentals

Featured Website Project:  I just completed a website refurbishment for my friend and client, Kendall Koetje of Kekaha Oceanside.  Kekaha Oceanside features a selection of affordable and luxury beach homes and cottages on Kauai’s sunny, slow paced west side.  The new site is built on WordPress, an open source content management system where it can easily be managed through an easy to use...

Google Analytics Qualified Individual

I just finished taking my Google Analtyics Exam and I am pleased to report that I passed!  While I’ve been installing and reviewing my clients’ website analytics for years, I thought it was time to get my Google certification by taking the 70 question Google Analytics Exam, even though it meant giving up my Sunday morning beach time. Having just gone through some major...

Understanding Google Analytics

I just happened upon some great video presentations by Google Analytics for interpreting your monthly website reports.  If you are a client of Emagine you probably receive monthly analytic reports with graphs and data that might be a little confusing.  The following short video presentations will help you understand each metric provided in the reports to better understand how much traffic you...

STOP SOPA!

The internet we know and love is at risk. Help save it. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could profoundly affect the future of the internet. It’s called the Stop Online Piracy Act. The fact is that this legislation as written won’t stop piracy. But it would pose a serious threat to social media and user generated content sites (like YouTube) across the...

Wise Stamp Email Signatures

Here’s a handy tool for adding social media icons to your Email signatures if you use Gmail, Yahoo!Mail, WindowsLive Mail or AOL .  You can add inspirational quotes, your most recent blog post as well as your social media profile links for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, YouTube.com and many more!  The app is free and can be downloaded on the following browsers: Safari, Chrome and Firefox. ...

Website Check Up Time

Aloha & Happy New Year everyone!  Thank you for your continued interest in Emagine’s Small Business Marketing Blog. This is a great time of year, with resolutions fresh in mind to review your website and online marketing to make sure it is up to date.   If you don’t make it a habit to visit your website frequently, now is the time to have a look at it for outdated information,...

Oodle

  I just learned about another Free classified listing site called Oodle. Out to reinvent online classifieds, Oodle provides consumers with a friendly local marketplace to buy, sell and trade. Oodle Pro, launched earlier this year, enables local property managers, real estate agents and car dealers to join the conversation by adding their identity and reputation on Facebook and Twitter to...

Using Video to Showcase Your Business

On the recommendation of my friend Debra, I started playing with an online video creation site called Animoto.com recently.  In addition to creating low-budget videos to help my clients promote their vacation properties, I also used it to celebrate my daughter’s 16th birthday.  Its super easy to use, drag and drop and you can create a video from images, video footage or a combination of...

The Perils of Cheap Hosting

It seems like everywhere you look there are ads for cheap website hosting plans.  While they look enticing, (you could save a hundred bucks a  year) on further investigation these cheap hosting plans turns out not to be the best deal. Here’s an article about the perils of cheap hosting from my friend and associate, Terrell Sanders at MainstreetOpen,  my favorite vendor for dedicated...

Lae Nani Directory

Featured Website Project:  My latest project is a directory site featuring the privately managed condos at Lae Nani, a peaceful beachfront resort condominium property in Kapaa.  Designed to make it easier on vacationers to find the nicest, top-rated, privately managed Lae Nani vacation  rentals, the site features details and images for each unit, stunning photography of the property and...

Quick Response Codes

What is a QR Code? Have you been wondering what those funny black and white square codes are that are popping up everywhere?  They are called Quick Response codes, or QR Codes for short.  They are a type of matrix bar code that contains encoded information – that when scanned with a smart phone can instantly and automatically send a text message or email or direct you to a page on the web...

6 Reasons to Use WordPress for Your Website

Here’s an article about WordPress, from my friends over at MainStreetOpen.com.  WordPress is the open source content management system that I currently use to build websites.  If you are considering a website refurbishment (good to do every few years), you should consider WordPress!  MainStreetOpen.com explains why here… Six Reasons Your Website Should be Based on...

Kauai Banyan Inn

Featured Website Project:  My most recent project was for John & Lorna Hoff of Kauai Banyan Inn in Lawai.  Lorna contacted me in a panic because her existing webmaster had left her in a lurch, with her site down for extended periods of time and with not being able to make the necessary updates to the information.  She’s been in business for years, since 2002 and she needed someone...

ConstructionHawaii.com

My latest project was for Scott Doty of ConstructionHawaii.com.  Scott contacted me about 6 months ago when his website host had “lost” his site.  I was able to find an archived copy of his missing site on Archive.org and restore at least some of the content temporarily to his domain.  Since then we have created an entirely new website featuring recent projects, floor plans and...

Article Marketing Without Littering the Web

Today’s article is from guest author, James Wilson of Wireless Internet written as a follow up to the article I wrote recently called Article Marketing = Web Littering.  Take it away James….     There’s a lot of confusion behind article marketing. In March of 2011, Michelle wrote a post on article marketing, criticizing the practice of obtaining hundreds of low...

Google Sync

If you’re a Gmail user and you have an iPhone (or other mobile device) you’ll love Google Sync for keeping your email, contacts and calendars updated between your computer and your iPhone.  I like knowing that no matter where I add a new contact or calendar item that it will update across all my devices in my Google account. Check out this link for a short video on how it...

Mark’s Place Kauai

Featured Web Project: Mark’s Place Kauai is a plate lunch take out establishment known for its local favorites, creative daily specials and delicious desserts.  A subsidiary of Contemporary Flavors Catering, Mark’s Place is run by Mark and Wendy Oyama and their staff of dedicated employees.   Their eating establishment is praised and adored by locals and visitors alike for its...

Accessible & Organized Bookmarks

Here’s an Update to an old post on bookmarks: Foxmarks is now called Xmarks and is a great way to keep track of your bookmarks across multiple computers, browsers and mobile devices now too.  I just recently upgraded to Xmarks Premium (for $12/year) and now I can access my bookmarks from my iPhone, which is super useful!   Here’s the Original Post: A few months ago I was...

Kai Kanani Sailing Charters

Featured Web Project: Kai Kanani Sailing Charters is located on Maui, in Kihei departing daily for Molokini snorkeling, whale watching and sunset tours from Makena Beach fronting the Makena Beach & Golf Resort.  This is the 2nd website remodel for Kai Kanani that I have been involved with and working with Roger Gildersleeve is always a pleasure!   While the previous website had been very...

WordPress Updates

WordPress is a popular open source platform for building websites and blogs that I use frequently for my clients.  When properly configured and updated, the software is secure, easy to use, fast and search engine friendly.  WordPress achieves its reputation by providing frequent updates and support for third-party plugins.  It is important to have your WordPress website reviewed by a...

Brand Your Twitter Profile

Want to customize your Twitter profile with your business branding/logo or custom image?  It’s not that difficult to do, here’s how…. Create a Custom Twitter Profile Background: Create an image that is approximately 2000 pixels wide by 1700 pixels tall, making sure to keep your Logo/text content confined to the upper left hand corner and along the left side. Your custom...

More Ways to Use Twitter

Have you ever been interested in knowing what is being said about your brand, business, industry or a certain topic on Twitter?  Here are some tools that you can use to stay informed of the latest “tweets” about things that interest you and that could give you helpful insight in how to use Twitter for your small business marketing. Twitter Alerts Use TweetBeep or Twilert to set up...

How to Read Your Google Analytics Reports

If you have a website built by Emagine, you have Google Analytics, a website statistics program already installed.   Google Analytics is a free program that can be set up on any website or blog to track how many visitors come to your site, how they found your site, which keywords they used and which pages are the most popular.  Google Analytics can even track revenue and it’s sources if...