SCSC Web Dude Blog

Marini's at the Beach candy on beachboardwalk.com. Salt water taffy, caramel corn, chocolate covered bacon and fudge.

David Meerman Scott Freshspot Marketing You can buy attention (advertising) You can beg for attention from the media (PR) You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales) Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free: a YouTube video, a blog, a research report, photos, Twitter stream, an eBook, a Facebook page. This is Inbound Marketing and it works brilliantly.

From SitePoint Newsletter by Mike Burke tribune@sitepoint.com Add photos and video: Make sure you have great photo or video content to load on your Place. A photo of your office, products, or team are worthy examples. What would prospective customers want to see? Embrace service areas: If you're willing to visit a client location, add the service area you cover. This could be by distance (kilometres/miles), or by town/suburb. Write interesting copy: You want your listing to shine, so make your description upbeat, friendly, and detailed. Avoid keyword-stuffing, as it will fail to make sense for readers, but cover the facts. Complete all contact information and hours of operation: As well as providing handy information to your Place Page visitors, you look more professional by presenting a complete page. Utilize all five categories: Google offers five categories (such as "web design") to list your Place in. Make sure you use all five to improve your chances of people se...

Minimizing Your Text While Still Providing Value For The Reader Posted by Stoney deGeyter We don’t often realize this, but we can train our website content to do tricks. Unfortunately, most website content just lays around all day. This is why you see high bounce rates and poor conversion rates on so many websites. About the only “trick” this content knows how to do is to roll-over and play dead. But, those aren’t tricks at all. The opossum that streaked across the highway after getting hit by a truck can do that! What I’m talking about is teaching your content how to “engage”, “inform”, “speak” (call to action), and “convert”. Teach these tricks to your content and you’ll see a whole new level of performance on your website. The first thing to train your content to do is not to overstay it’s welcome. Like a neighbor you enjoy having over occasionally, there comes a time when they must leave. In the same way, you can train your content to know when to stop talking and show the visitor ...

Building A Stronger Call To Action For Conversation Growth August 18th, 2010 by Anil Batra Forms are everywhere on the internet, some convert great while other don’t. There are several factors such as call to action, images, copy etc. that all contribute to the success of a form. However, even a well designed form might not convert well if some fundamental things are not taken care of. In this post I am listing 5 fundamental things that could be preventing the visitors from converting. Consistency in Call to Actions – Consistency in call to action is critical for conversions. You cannot underline few links and not the other within the same context. Be consistent with your formatting. Making some links underlined while other not underlined makes user think harder than he/she should and increases the chances of bailout. See below; do you see the inconsistency in the links? I almost gave up on finding that “Register Now” link (yes it is obvious now because I have hig...

How To Respond To Google Place Page Reviews Small Business Update - ientrynetwork.net August 11th, 2010 by Scott Clark Google recently announced that Businesses with verified Google Place Pages can respond to their reviews like can be done on other review sites. This is a long-requested feature, especially by businesses that feel they were wrongly accused of something or that just want to offer a public “thank you” for a compliment. Yelp has long allowed responses in this manner, and I’ve seen many small businesses respond with jabs and poorly considered comments. With customers using online reviews as a part of the purchase decision , it’s more important than ever that you actively solicit reviews and manage them well . Responding to reviews should be done with care, however. Here are some tips for businesses who are going to begin responding to these reviews so you can avoid embarrassment and maximize the positive effect on your brand. Never be defensive about negative review...

Look for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk shots in this video. Nice production!

Prospering from Public Speaking There's a quote in an old Seinfeld episode where Jerry states, "According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death ... Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy." The fear is real, though; many people are absolutely terrified of speaking on a podium or into a microphone. There's even a term for it: glossophobia . In the last two months I've spoken at four different events, and received a number of invitations from event organizers for future gigs too. Go back a decade and you'd have never seen me speaking in front of a crowd. So, what changed? Well, I've learned a number of tips that helped me through that public speaking fear. The main one was having some confidence in my abilities. I used to spend all my time trying to work out what they wanted from me, and what persona to adopt on ...

6 Crucial Social Media Tips for Traditional Media from Mashable

This marine visitor center sounds very cool. Now we need an environmentally friendly transportation design to move people in, out and around. Rail so close is one possibility. Gondolas on the river? More pedestrian/bicycle corridors? I’ve always wanted a monorail over 17. Take the Highway 17 Express one step farther and call it the Santa Cruz Beach Special, paint it wildly. Mini cruise ships and trimarans on the bay with ports at the wharf? Talk to Mr. Beach.

These were found using Google Alert search for "santa cruz beach boardwalk". Started this list on June 2, 2010 Travel & Leisure - America's Best Beach Boardwalks http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-best-beach-boardwalks/3 10BEST http://www.10best.com/destinations/california/santa-cruz/santa-cruz/attractions/santa-cruz-beach-boardwalk/ NBCBayArea.com http://events.nbcbayarea.com/santa-cruz-ca/events/show/121733825-the-admission-free-santa-cruz-beach-boardwalk Zvents.com http://www.zvents.com/santa-cruz-ca/events/show/114503485-free-friday-night-bands-on-the-beach Ezine http://ezinearticles.com/?Popular-Attractions-in-Santa-Cruz,-California&id=4390830

by Brandon Eley of SitePoint Trubune Have you ever had one of those weeks where you had more to accomplish than you thought was humanly possible? Last week was like that for me. We had several projects that had to be completed by Friday, and it seemed like everything was working against me to achieve this. Normally, I'd have just worked late a few nights and it would have been done. Last week, as life would have it, my wife and children had several activities planned, so I was unable to work late on Monday, Tuesday, or Friday. I also had a conference call Wednesday night and a grand opening at a friend's new retail store on Thursday afternoon. So there was no working late any day last week for me.Sprinkle in the odd committee meeting, emergency email, or urgent phone call, and I was really starting to panic. I knew I had to get the project done, but how? Following are some of the measures that enabled me to complete the project in time. Limit time spent on email Email was check...

Wanted to catalog this comment: To you guys and all responsible for yesterday's Huddle: You have set a new standard. That was a spectacular show that stayed with me all evening. Many, as I, left yesterday's Huddle humming and walking with a bounce to their step. I could go on and on, but suffice to say, from beginning to end it rocked, it rolled, it hit the major topics with flair, humor and conciseness. It made me proud to be a part of company so dynamic, creative and heartfelt. No wonder we're successful. Thank you. -- Kevin Group Sales