We are extremely excited to announce that MultiCOLOR Media will be launching a new website to manage the Website Hosting portion of our business. The Launch is currently set to take place sometime at the end of October to early November. The new site will allow for easy online ordering and managing of multiple domain names and web hosting plans as well as additional web services. Shared plans will start as low as $3.00 per month.

MultiCOLOR Hosting offers Green Hosting solutions to small and medium sized businesses in the United States. Our main focus is to be the #1 Hosting solution provider in our local market. We would love to hear any feedback regarding this announcement as well as any new feature requests that our current hosting clients would like to see implemented into the new website.

How is our Web Hosting Green?

All of the servers we use are 130% wind powered! That’s right! 130%! We’re not just trying to lower the enviornemental impact we cause, we’re trying to reverse it! Certified Renewable Energy Credits are purchased representing 130% of all the elctricity used to both power and cool every last one of these servers!

Stay tuned for more exciting news about MultiCOLOR Hosting in the upcoming months!

When should you redesign your website? That’s a great question. Just like clothing or hair, Website elements can go out of style very quickly. Technology is constantly changing and improving and you need to keep up with it or at least not fall too far behind. What’s popular today may not be popular tomorrow. Your Website needs to make an impact! When a visitor arrives at your Website you have anywhere from 5-10 seconds to grab their attention and make them want to stay.

Your site is a reflection of your business and needs to be professionally designed (most cookie cutter website builders just don’t cut it). It should be clean, easy to navigate and have well-written content. To determine if you should redesign your site, look at the following questions.

1. Does your site portray the image of your business that you want it to?
2. Was it designed/redesigned within the last 2 years?
3. Is your Website user friendly?
4. Does your Website currently get a lot of visitors?
5. Is your website converting a good percentage of visitors into customers?

If you answered NO to any of the above questions, than it’s definitely time to consider a redesign. A full redesign is not always necessary, many times a simple makeover to freshen things up can make a world of difference! Feel free to call us at 352-684-4976 to discuss your website redesign with one of our Project Managers.

Building a website that exudes trust is not always an easy task. There are a lot of untrustworthy websites on the internet and consumers are growing more and more cautious every day! That’s why in today’s online market you have to make sure that your website screams “YOU CAN TRUST ME!” so that your potential customers don’t mistake you for one of the not so trustworthy sites. The following 5 quick and easy things you can add to your website that can make the task seem a little more manageable.

1. Contact Information up the Wazoo!

Ok, all kidding aside, it’s true! Pay close attention to your own online habits. When you are shopping online and are looking at a website that you have never purchased from before, you immediately look for easy ways to get a hold of the company. You may not realize it, but you do it! So make sure you add as much of the following: Phone, Fax, Email (Multiple and by department if possible), IM, Contact Form and Live Chat.

2. Website Policies & Terms

Everyone feels a bit more comfortable knowing what to expect in advance to making a purchase, so make sure you detail the entire experience for your potential customers. Include: Shipping Info, Returns & Exchanges, Warranties/Guarantees, General Terms and Privacy (cookies and personal information sharing)

3. Good, Credible & Reliable Copywriting

Make sure your Website copy is “Human Readable” meaning it can be read by the average human and be understood. The last thing you need is for your online visitors to feel stupid for not understanding or getting lost in your information because of repeating keywords in awkward places. Make sure you don’t make it sound too farfetched and don’t overuse adverbs and adjectives. If your content is well-written and industry appropriate, you will go far building and maintaining trust.

4. User Testimonials & Reviews

Some of the most important content you can add to your site that can instantly lend credibility to your brand are testimonials & reviews. People looking to do business with you want to know if they are going to pleased with the experience. Make sure to put at least 5 – 10 testimonials, both positive and negative. Yes, I said “AND NEGATIVE”. Why would you do that? Well think about it… You are telling everyone that you have been in business so many years, and your service is superior and this and that, yet not a single person has ever been dissatisfied with your business? Really? Everyone’s expectations of a business transaction is different, hence you are sure to have some that didn’t like some aspect of it. I’m not saying you want to put the worst ones on there, but consider putting on 1 or 2 that mention a couple of things that particular customer did not like. This will add realism to your reviews and doing so will demonstrate confidence in your business and service.

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

FAQs are a great way to not only lower cost associated with customer support by reducing incoming calls or emails for simple questions, but also in building trust and rapport. Adding these will give an area where customers can view answers to common questions that someone doing business with you may have. This will go far and be very appreciated by your potential and current customers.

Wow, so we’ve made it to the endo of our series “New Website Development Planning Checklist”. Today’s topic is covering an aspect of web development that most businesses forget about or ignore all together with the mentallity of “Set it and Forget it”. Businesses have to understand that the Maintenance of your website is just as important as the initial development. If you don’t maintain your new website and constantly refresh/update the content your customers will slowly stop coming back to your site. Below is a list of what should be considered when it comes to maintenance.

3. Website Maintenance

• How often will your website need to be updated? (We recommend bi-monthly updates minimum)
• Will your site maintenance be done in-house (by whom?) or will you need us to put together a Maintenance Plan?
• Does your in-house IT Department the time and expertise to maintain your website?
• Will you need training in order to maintain your website?

Here is a list of possible Maintenance Tasks:

1. Checking internal & external links on a regular basis
2. Search engine positioning & resubmissions
3. Visitor statistics & reporting
4. Articles / RSS feed syndicated content updates
5. Updating images to keep website looking fresh

That’s all for now! Tune in next time for more great design and marketing tips from MultiCOLOR Media! Same Bat time, same Bat channel…

Happy Friday folks! Yes, can you believe it, another week has come and gone. Personally I feel the older I get, the quicker the time passes…? Does this happen to you? Anyway, today we are continuing our 5 part series “New Website Development Planning Checklist” (man that’s a mouth full) with “Part 4: Marketing”. Oddly enough, marketing seems to be one of the aspects of developing a new website that clients seldom remember. For some reason people think that if you build it…they will come! Sometimes that may be true with little or no effort, but for the vast majority of website it actually takes work! Here are some common things to think about regarding the marketing of your new site.

4. Marketing

How will people find out about your website? Come on people. If you want to make itin the online realm you have to self promote at any chance you get.

Will you be using “Paid” or free search engine listings? Both are required to make a good impact. Local Directories, Industry Directories, Forums, Blogs, Banners, Pay-Per-Click and Search Engine Listings are all examples of these.

Who will do your Search Engine Optimization? There are many aspects to SEO. At MultiCOLOR Media we make sure your Website is built with the search engines in mind and make sure it is optimized as much as possible. Another optimization service we offer is copywrighting. Good, well-written content is one of the main factors in your SEO campaign. Aside from these, a professional SEO Firm also will help by implementing and managing your search engine listings, Pay-Per-Click campaigns and social media profiles.

Do you currently have or will you be putting in place an off-line marketing program? No matter what anyone says, offline marketing is still essential to any online business. Think about it, look at big online entities such as yahoo, ebay, amazon, facebook, and many more. All this companies spend millions of dollars in offline marketing campaigns including: TV Commercials, Movie Spots, Postcards, Radio and more. You think maybe they’re on to something?

Do you have a budget set aside for an internet marketing campaign? When many businesses hire a web developer they get consumed over the costs involved in the development that they forget to budget for online marketing. It makes no sense. Most businesses have no problem spending $300 or more monthly in local coupon guide advertisements, but when it comes to spending a couple hundred monthly on an internet marketing campaign they think “it’s to expensive” or “I can’t afford it”. How can you not afford to? Thousands if not millions of online businesses would go bankrupt if not for the results gained from online marketing. Ask your SEO Specialist to go over options with you.

What keywords or phrases do you think people would use to find your business, products or services? This is simple. Keywords can be anthing from product names, services offered, brand names to city, state, zip code & counties served.

What information will bring visitors back to your site on a regular basis? Think about offering industry related articles, frequently asked questions, blogs, support forums, quizzez, polls, freebies, coupons, contests and more.

Will you need to re-design/re-print your business cards, stationary and/or  marketing & sales materials? Believe it or not, a lot of business forget about this very important aspect. If you have your website redesigned or developed for the first time, you should take a good look at all of your marketing materials and make sure that your company’s “Brand” resonates accross from your website to all of your printed pieces.

Consider all of these things when you call MultiCOLOR Media for your next web development project and you’ll be on your way to online success!