Recent Articles From EvanCarmichael.com http://www.evancarmichael.com/ http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/How-to-Use-the-Wordpress-Admin-Page--Posts--Wordpress-Design.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/How-to-Use-the-Wordpress-Admin-Page--Posts--Wordpress-Design.html Blogging is all the rage for businesses today. With more than 115 million blogs, individuals and businesses are jumping on the bandwagon in droves. This article deals with what a "blog post" is and how to create a post using the WordPress blogging platform. If you're new to blogging, posts are the entries that bloggers usually (but not always) display on their home page. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/4-Steps-to-Optimize-a-WordPress-Page-For-Search-Engines--SEO.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/4-Steps-to-Optimize-a-WordPress-Page-For-Search-Engines--SEO.html The pages on your WordPress site (not posts) are your most important links to the outside world. Why? Because pages change much less frequently than posts and serve as the core message of your business. If building a WordPress website is like building a house, your pages are the foundation. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/3-Qualities-of-a-Good-WordPress-Theme--WordPress-Design.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/3-Qualities-of-a-Good-WordPress-Theme--WordPress-Design.html I recommend a WordPress design for all my clients with established businesses. Once you've used HTML landing pages and one-page websites to find out if there's a market, the next step is to build out more optimized and targeted web pages to attract more attention and get more traffic. This is where WordPress comes in. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/Two-Common-Problems-With-Keyword-Tools--Search-Engine-Optimization--SEO.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/Two-Common-Problems-With-Keyword-Tools--Search-Engine-Optimization--SEO.html When you use Google's tool to select keywords for your site, you will most likely come up with dozens of words or phrases that either 1) don't generate enough meaningful traffic or 2) are too competitive (and therefore too difficult) to carve a niche out of. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/7-Reasons-to-Use-a-WordPress-Design-For-Your-Business-Website.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/7-Reasons-to-Use-a-WordPress-Design-For-Your-Business-Website.html I recently saw a statistic that 1% of all websites run on the WordPress blogging platform. There is good reason why that would be the case. Here are my Top Seven Reasons to Use WordPress for Your Business Website. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/Five-Steps-to-Finding-the-Right-Keywords-For-Your-Website--Search-Engine-Optimization-SEO.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/Five-Steps-to-Finding-the-Right-Keywords-For-Your-Website--Search-Engine-Optimization-SEO.html Keywords and phrases are the foundation of search engine optimization. To find out which keywords will be most important for your service business in Denver, ask one powerful question: What do people type in the search box when they look for companies like yours? It doesn't look that powerful when written on paper. In fact, it's a very simple concept to skip over, but as you drill down to what people really put in that little box, you'll see all kinds of things pop out at you that you may not expect. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/9-Components-of-Good-SEO--How-to-Help-People-Find-Your-Service-Business-on-the-Internet.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/9-Components-of-Good-SEO--How-to-Help-People-Find-Your-Service-Business-on-the-Internet.html Millions of people search for service businesses every month. When they conduct those searches, they aren't looking in newspapers or ads in the hard-copy Yellow Pages. Over the last fifteen years, the Internet has become the dominant technology for local service business searches. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/Controlling-the-Assumptions-in-Your-Sales-and-Marketing-Strategy.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/Controlling-the-Assumptions-in-Your-Sales-and-Marketing-Strategy.html When you incorporate a new strategy into your service business there are certain assumptions that are made upon which the success of your strategy relies. These assumptions need to be monitored and controlled to give your company the greatest chance of accomplishing your stated objectives. The assumptions we make as business leaders are limited to two primary areas: 1) the external environment and how it will change, and 2) the industry in which we operate. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/Markus-Frind-and-Plenty-of-Fish--A-Case-Study-in-Effective-Sales-and-Marketing-Strategy.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/Markus-Frind-and-Plenty-of-Fish--A-Case-Study-in-Effective-Sales-and-Marketing-Strategy.html A couple weeks ago, I read one of the most compelling articles on a growing business that I have read in years. In his article entitled, "And the Money Comes Rolling In", Inc. Magazine writer Max Chafkin talks about Markus Frind's strategies for growing his personal dating website, Plenty Of Fish. Frind's idea was to build a basic user-content-driven website and pay for it with ads. He started from scratch and built out a minimalist site by anyone's standards (look at it now and there still isn't anything too impressive - distorted personal pictures and a heart favicon). But the idea resonated with thousands of people who were paying for a dating service and looking for a free alternative. He is now clearing $5 million a year after taxes. He has a handful of staff members and a nice, but mostly unfurnished, office in Vancouver. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/How-to-Be-Different-in-a-Homogeneous-Business-World.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Small-Business-Consulting/3776/How-to-Be-Different-in-a-Homogeneous-Business-World.html It's hard, isn't it? Making your service business stand out from the rest is a challenging task. When it comes down to it, every realtor helps people buy or sell property. That's it. Every consultant offers advice that will either help people avoid pain or increase pleasure. Every doctor diagnoses illness and prescribes a remedy. Every salesperson offers a product that is strikingly similar to the competition's offering. What do you need to do to stand out?