February 5th, 2010 the following presentation was offered to an engaged audience of entrepreneurs at LaunchCamp Boston.

The presentation covers four major areas

1. Domain Names
   1. How to Choose
   2. How to Register
   3. How to Retain
2. Why use WordPress for a website (even without a blog)
3. SEO
   1. Key Word Research
   2. Local SEO
   3. Directories
   4. Citations and Links
4. Website Redesign walk-through

The audience had great questions on choosing, registering and retaining domain names, key word research, WordPress for websites and renaming files. They also had great observations about the motives for the website redesign what made the changes appealing and effective.

Special thanks go to Selina McCusker for assistance with the slide deck design.

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More LaunchCamp presentations;

click the link to visit the speaker’s site and view the presentation

Mike Troiano on Achieving Scalable Intimacy

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– I will add more presentations as they become available.

Don and I took an idea and turned it into a WordPress blog during one business day.  Here is how we did it.

The Idea

There has been a significant rise in the number of requests to move blogs to WordPress.  I was dealing with three clients in one week on this subject and figured there might be a niche business opportunity targeting blog moves / migrations / transfers to WordPress.

Domain Names

First, I thought of the qualities of a good domain name.  I started with keyword focused names like;

BlogMigration.com or MoveMyBlog.com.

I hopped on IM with my buddy Don to throw some ideas around.  In the process we  confirmed that we could not use the phrase WordPress, but we could use WP, in a domain name.  So, we considered shorter, brandable names like;

Move2WP.com and Switch2WP.com

Well, the domain names were flying back and forth.  I was not wild about numbers in a domain name. Putting keywords in the domain name made it really long.  So, we settled on a memorable and brand-able name instead.  Thanks for the suggestion Don!  I hopped over to my account at Fabulous.com and registered the name for $8.

We Registered www.blogwranglers.com

• This name is memorable, but a tad long
• It is a dot com, but it has only one keyword
• It is not limited to one platform, which is good, but it does not have WP in it.
• Best of all it is a name that we could have fun with.

Like many other purchases registering a domain name is full of compromises.

Hosting

Having a dedicated server for my business, setting up hosting was pretty simple.  No great details to share here.  I also installed WordPress right away.

Theme

I simply used the WordPress Admin area feature to search for a free WordPress theme because I wanted to get something up fast. Momentum is key when you have a great idea.

The wrangler term suggested blue sky, green grass and lots of brown colors; dirt, horses and so on.  I searched for a theme based on the blue and brown and in less than a minute selected an eco theme to start things off.

Configuration

The first setting I changed was the title and tag line.  They have been refined a dozen times since then, but the message is getting clearer.

On the hosting account I configured the primary email account to forward to both Don and I. The rest of the email accounts forward to our individual day-to-day email addresses.  This way we do not have yet another email account to check

Plugins

Keeping it light to start with I installed just a few plugins

1. Contact Form 7
2. Sociable – removed due to 43 XHTML Validation errors
3. ShareThis
4. Retweet
5. Google Analyticator
6. Subscribe to Comments
7. WordPress Database Backup
8. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
9. All In One SEO Pack
10. Google XML SiteMap

Accounts

I created only a few important accounts to get things rolling.

1. GMail – BlogWranglers
2. Google Analytics – BlogWranglers.com
3. Twitter – BlogWranglers
4. ShareThis
5. Google WebMaster Tools – submitted XML SiteMap

I thought about Share This and a few other accounts, but used Sociable instead.  I declined to use TweetMeme, until they clean up their code so that it validates.

Content

Don was great and jumped in and wrote up the first three pages for the website.  I went in later and built the contact page and form.  We both provided complementary editing services to each others writing. That part was cool.

We had fun infusing the writing with the Wrangler theme. For example, the Contact Form button says “Give us a Holler” instead of Submit.  These subtle changes make a big difference.

No Dead Ends

Next, I revised every page to eliminate “dead ends”.  I added “call to action” text and a link to the contact page on the bottom of all three pages.

We want visitors to know what we want them to do and we don’t want them to read to the bottom of the page and wonder what to do next.

Posts

Next Don and I each wrote a post.  I wrote about a small trend I see driving the migration to WordPress.  Don wrote about the blog software used by the Top 100 Blogs according to Technorati.  WordPress is tops, being used twice as much as the next contender.

Links

Don operates a forum site that offer tips and was able to throw in a link to our new site.  He also found a couple of great blogs to leave comments on, which now link back to our new site.

What Did We Learn

Well, once we started to focus on content we did a few research based searches on the Internet and were greatly disappointed to learn that we were not the first to think of using the term Wrangler.  We had already named ourselves SEO Wrangler and Data Wrangler.  Oh well.  I figured, so what. No one can have a the sandbox all to themselves right?

Fun and useful domain names are available without having to go into the after market and spend lots of money.

Next Steps

I expect we will;

1. Keeping writing posts and articles
2. Continue building links to the new website
3. Evaluate submitting to a couple of directories.
4. Install an SEO plugin and get the meta titles and descriptions sorted out
   
5. Probably ignore the new BlogWrangler Twitter account and just use my account.
6. Setup a FeedBurner account and configure it
7. Consider designing a logo and a custom designed theme for the site

What Would You Do Next on Blog Wranglers?

Share your current suggestions in the comments area below. And thanks for stopping by.

How the IE6 beast was tamed

There is no immunity to the folly of Internet Explorer 6.   You can even find a website devoted to the demise of IE6.  JBS Partner’s first Drupal project fell victim to IE6.  After the brand new website went live, we learned that the majority of the client’s visitors use IE6 and were seeing a blank white browser page.  We also learned that they are located in rural areas and use dial-up to connect to the Internet.  I was told upgrading the browser could take over 30 minutes to just download the files.  So, we fixed the problem.  Here’s how.

The Server Config

On a dedicated server, we were running Drupal 5.1.5 on Apache 2.2.20 Unix, PHP 5.2.6, MySQL 5.0.67 and JQuery 1.2.6

I wanted desperately to fix this issue.  There is no shortage of articles on www.drupal.org about IE6, the WSOD and blank pages in IE6.  Rob over at Mustard Seed Media and I searched and searched for an answer to no avail.   Marc Ray over at Right Sprocket volunteered a strong effort. And my old co-worker Bob Caslin looked for a solution as well.

Drupal Performance

Initially it was discovered that visiting the Performance page and disabling Caching and CSS Aggregation stopped the IE6 blank white page problem.  However, that did not feel like a solution to me.  The site would have run just fine, but we hadn’t found the root cause of the issue.

Matthew Saunders referred me to Andy Lasda who found solutions in short order.

CSS Aggregation Solution

One of the requirements of the project was a backup of the database that emailed the .gz file to the site owner.  The 5.2 dev version of Backup and Migrate offers this capability.

However, the 5.2 dev release of Backup and Migrate also contains significant JavaScript to streamline select administration functions. It was this JavaScript that caused IE6 to incorrectly load aggregated CSS files.  This is why the CSS loads failed.  It was especially problematic after using the browser Back button.

It was also discovered that the dev version of Backup and Migrate was causing frequent PHP errors.

Moving to the stable version ( http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/backup_migrate-5.x-1.2.tar.gz ) did  not eliminate these problems.

The Backup and Migrate module was removed. Instead a combination of Mutt, Chron and a little scripting enabled the database backups to be emailed out and then deleted from the server so that they don’t accumulate over time.

Caching Problem Solution

It was also discovered that during the Drupal install file permissions were effected which prevented the web server from caching files to the temporary directory.    The group and owner was set to an account that is not the account that the web server runs as.

Server Performance Bonus

I also asked Andy to review the server’s overall performance. He found that it was quick and responsive.  Music to my ears.  The server load through testing remained at .4 and MySql performed up to standard.

The memory_limit in the php.ini file was increased from 32MB to 96MB which was a good idea.  Also zlib compression was enabled.  The following was added to the Drupal site’s /etc/httpd/conf/sites/www.xyadomain.com conf file.

# Enable file compression by MIME type
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
BrowserMatch \bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html

I truly hope that this is helpful to someone else as they troubleshoot IE6 issues in Drupal 5.1x.

Each server (hardware), OS, software, security patch level and configuration is different. We are hired to get the site working where it is hosted, rather than proving that it works on a developer’s machine.  I can certainly understand why some developers find it faster and more economical to only do projects if the client will host on their server, an environment that they are familiar with.  As in this case, getting to the root of the problem in an unfamiliar server environment is not always meaningful or affordable, while getting things to work is always meaningful.

By the way. I met all the guys listed above through Twitter.  Very good guys.  I can recommend them all.

What have you tried to solve your IE6 issue?

Wondering what’s needed to start your own web site? Thinking that a website will benefit your business? Here are the components of getting a web site on the Internet.

Here is a quick summary.

1. Define your purpose and target audience
2. Domain Name
3. Hosting
4. Web Site design
   1. images
   2. text
   3. functionality
5. Key Word Research
6. Link Building
7. Internet Marketing
8. Regular updates and maintenance

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Domain Name

The domain name is your unique address (or URL, Unique/Universal Resource Locator) on the Internet super highway. Without a domain name, the average Internet surfer will not find your web site.

The URL for this web site is www.jbspartners.com. See the name up in the browser address bar?

Like a car registration, Domain Names are registered and need to be renewed each year, or else they expire, which is not good.

Registering your domain name for as long as makes sense of your situation is recommend. Ten years often.

Please read the article on choosing domain names.

You may also like to read about various uses for a domain name. You can register a new domain name at www.jbspartnersdomains.com Privacy Protection, available when registering a domain name, hides your personal contact information, which is otherwise publicly available.

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Hosting

The is the special computer that holds all of the text, images and other assets of your web site. It is connected to the Internet and accepts requests to present your web site to visitors.

These computers are called web servers and generally run on Unix, Linux or Windows operating systems and use Apache or IIS or other web serving software.

The web hosting server may also support databases, content management systems, e-commerce functionality, audio and video content, private client areas that require logins and so on.

After a domain name is configured to “point” to your web server hosting account, there may be a delay of minutes up to 36 hours for the updated information to propagate across the Domain Name Servers (DNS) across the Internet. Only then will the web site be visible.

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Web Site

Web sites may appear to be simply comprised of text and images, and those are primary components. However let’s start by reviewing the question of why a web site?

Purpose and Motive – Why a web site?

1. It’s the thing to do
2. My competitor has one
3. My daughter, Uncle, Grandmother told me to
4. People keep calling to ask for hours and directions
5. Need an easy way for people to contact us
6. Show off our latest work
7. Attract new employees
8. Parking and driving directions are better in pictures
9. Want to sell beyond our local area
10. Preparing to sell the business
11. Required to meet our future growth forecast
12. Reduce walk in traffic
13. Improve customer service
14. Offer a wider range of products
15. My business coach told me to

Who is your target audience?

1. Current clients
2. Prospective clients
3. Government
4. Competitors
5. Current employees
6. Prospective employees

Describe the following about your target audience

1. Geographic range – town, state, national, international
2. Age group – 10 yr brackets
3. Gender – two choices
4. Position in the buying process timeline – research vs. ready to buy now
5. What other web sites do they visit?
6. Who are your most profitable clients?
7. Which clients will take your business in your chosen direction?
8. What do your clients have in common?
9. What are their education levels and income ranges?
10. Are your most frequent customers your best customer?

Conversion definition or What is the desired out-come?

1. Phone call
2. Email
3. Fax
4. Instant Message
5. Engage through social media – Facebook Twitter, Linkedin
6. Download
7. Sign up for newsletter or other
8. Drive to your location
9. Login
10. Purchase, complete e-commerce transaction
11. Click on an ad
12. Complete the Contact or Request form
13. Attend an event
14. Listen to a Podcast
15. Watch a video
16. Leave a comment
17. Donate

The information above really drives the remaining decisions.

Additional context questions

1. Is there an existing logo?
2. Is there a tag line or slogan?
3. Is there an existing color palette?
4. Does the web site need to coordinate with existing collateral?
5. For how many years will the web site exist?

What pages will contain the information presented on the web site?

1. Home
2. About Us
3. Services
4. Employment
5. Testimonials
6. News and Events
7. FAQ
8. Resources
9. Map / Driving Directions
10. Contact Us
11. Privacy Policy
12. Terms of Service
13. Site Map
14. Thank You page, custom 404 page
15. and many others

What graphics or images will enhance the web site?

Providing three to five web site addresses with a description of the aspects or components that could be applicable to the project can point the designers in the right direction.

The Copy, Content, Body Text, Words, Messaging
A professional writer brings tremendous benefit to every project.

1. Will interview the business owner
2. Will maintain the “voice” of the business consistently
3. Can interview satisfied customers to obtain unique testimonials
4. Can incorporate completed key word research into the text
5. Will use a style and format appropriate for the web
6. Will write copy that is compelling
7. Will write copy that is free of grammar, spelling or punctuation errors
8. Let you focus on running your business
9. A professional writer always saves time
10. The business owner reviews and approves all text

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The Process

Web Design

The designer will assimilate the information provided and produce a “mock up”. This is a graphic image of the new web site design which we will review together. This is the time to make suggestions. Three reviews is the maximum.

Photo Research

Photography can be a vital component of the project. There are a number of options to obtain legal images.

1. Hire a photographer for all images
2. Purchase images. www.gettyimages.com or www.comstock.com have a vast choice of professional quality images
3. There are lower budget image web sites but copyright infringement becomes a trickier issue.

Finding the image that comfortably fits with the color scheme and the design can be a very time consuming process. Obtaining approvals from the client can extend this portion of the project.

Writing

The copy for each page will be produced and reviewed with the client. We will review body copy, as well as headlines, callouts, testimonial snippets, tag lines, button names and any other text on the page.

Production

Once the design mock up is approved, it goes into production and is converted to HTML or xHTML. At this point the design is set. A possible next step would be to install the web site into a Content Management System. This is software that makes many web site editing tasks very simple to complete by the owner.

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Key Word Research

What are the key terms, related to the project, that the public is entering into the search engines? Rarely does the client know all of them. We need to generate a list

These terms have a couple of factors.

1. Competition – How many other web sites are “competing” for that term?
2. Relevance – How relevant is that term to the project?
3. Quality – How often is the term searched for on the Internet?

Terms are selected by balancing these factors.

The selected terms are then incorporated into the pages of the web site. This aligns the active searchers on the Internet with your new web site.

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Link Building

Links to your web site are very important for the popularity of your web site in the search engines. There are many ways to build links.

1. Press Releases
2. Articles
3. Gaining listings in directories
4. Local Search Marketing
   1. Registering with local search web sites
5. Registering with relevant social media sites
6. Submit to DMOZ and Yahoo directories
7. Request links from other web sites
8. Newsletters and Discussions
9. Write reviews
10. Interview other business owner’s that also have a web site
11. Offer an ebook or something of value free in exchange for a link
12. The list is endless

We can tailor a program with a one time or monthly link building program, or both.

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Additional Marketing and Promotion possibilities

1. Pay-Per-Click advertising
2. Print Newsletter
3. Electronic Newsletter
4. Social Media Marketing
5. Brochure design and printing
6. Video marketing
7. e-cards
8. e-books
9. Corporate Identity packages – logo, stationary and business cards
10. Blogging
11. Podcasting
12. Speaking
13. and on and on

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Updates and Maintenance

The web site needs to be kept up to date. It should be monitored and the information about visitors should be tracked and analyzed.

Please read more about web site statistics and analytics here

I encourage you to leave a comment or question below. Thanks you.