Glide Design

3 Important Ways to Speed Up Wordpress

Chris Canada — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:52:16 +0000

Let’s say today is Moving Day, and one of your friends has offered to lend a hand.

At the outset both of you are in good spirits and optimistic that the work will be done before suppertime. However, as the day wears on it becomes apparent that not only will your move still be in progress at sunset – it won’t be finished today at all. You think to yourself, “How could this have happened? I didn’t think I even owned enough stuff to last for two days’ worth of moving!” As you mentally review the process that led to this development, you notice three things that especially hindered your progress:

You drive a Mini Cooper, as does your friend, which severely limited the number of boxes the two of you could carry at any given time. This made for a great many trips back and forth between old residence and new – no small task considering that the two houses are on opposite sides of town.
You and your helper spent an inordinate amount of time on your three futons. Happy as your were to inherit these, your first futons, from the previous owner of your old home, you nearly pulled your hair out trying to carefully maneuver each one out the front door and onto the Cooper’s roof, only to have to repeat the process in reverse at the other end.
You, the burgeoning rock star, meticulously arranged your expensive guitars and amplifiers in front of the door of a storage closet that you were certain would never be opened. This would have been fine, except that you forgot to first stash in said closet your hideously ugly luggage received as a college graduation present a decade ago. As you couldn’t very well throw away your beloved grandmother’s gift to you, and there was nowhere else to store it, you were forced to carefully extract your instruments piece by piece until the door could be opened.

Every time you click a link to a new web page, an electronic version of Moving Day takes place. All of the text and graphics that make up the page live on a server and, at your request, make their way from the server to your browser window. The speed with which this information loads can be hindered by the three general factors analogized in the above scenario. Namely, these factors are number of HTTP requests, size (or weight) of page load, and order of page load. Adequate attention paid to these can mean the difference between a six-second wait for a slow page and a seemingly instantaneous load, which can in turn mean the difference between a potential customer lost and one kept. What follows is a brief overview of the three factors.

“Rent A Truck” – Reduce HTTP Requests

Modern web pages are an amalgam of both internal and external data. That is, some of the information which makes up what you see onscreen appears directly on the underlying HTML document, and some of it exists in separate locations to which the HTML document links. Every time your web page needs a bit of the external data, it has to ask for it from the server. Each such instance – called an HTTP request – leads to time spent loading; more requests equal more time. If you’re editing the source document of your own web page, review and determine whether any of your external scripts, styles and background images can be consolidated. Another good idea is to set up expire headers for the various pieces of your site. When a browser is given permission to keep a snapshot of a given page for future reference, it can more quickly load that snapshot on the next visit to that page than having to rebuild the page from scratch. Anything you can do to reduce the total number of new requests will help.

“Fold The Futon” – Reduce Size Of Load

Even when all of this data is consolidated into fewer documents, it still “weighs” the same as it did separately. For example, 50 lines of jQuery script will take the same amount of time to be read and to run regardless of where it appears in the loading process. On the other hand, if those 50 lines could be turned into 25 we would see real improvement. Minifying reduces document length by removing line breaks, white space and comments. Many popular jQuery scripts (including the core jQuery script itself) are available in minified forms, and for Wordpress users there are plugins available (such as W3 Total Cache) which can minify your documents automatically. On a larger scale, the size of the transmission from server to browser can be reduced by way of gzip compression. Here is a good article which explains the ins and outs of gzip.

“Rearrange The Room” – Change Order Of Load

This factor applies to stylesheets and scripts. Stylesheets should always appear in the head of the document; this allows the page to quickly load the content into the appropriate layout rather than having to re-format content that is already loaded. Perhaps more critically, any script that can be moved to the bottom of the page should be. Scripts are inherently unable to load concurrently with other components of the page – including other scripts – so any script that precedes page content constitutes a road block to loading that content. The strategy here is to prioritize the speedy appearance of the page layout, because failure to accomplish this fundamental task is a quick route to a higher bounce rate.

This article is by no means an exhaustive discussion of page load issues. For Firefox users, I highly recommend downloading the YSlow add-on to lead you through the process of understanding these factors. It grades your page on a scale from A to F and assigns grades to individual elements of the page’s construction that have influenced the overall performance. The add-on also contains more in-depth descriptions of recommended improvements than have been provided here.

You can download YSlow here.
(YSlow requires that you first download the Firebug add-on. If you have not yet downloaded Firebug, you can do so here.)

Don’t pretend to be an expert… become one!

Travis McAshan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:56:10 +0000

Experts are a “Dime a Dozen”

How long have you been in your industry? Can you safely say you’re an expert? Are your competitors educating your potential customers? In my opinion, experience is the greatest teacher but true experts don’t rely strictly on experience. You need to continually feed your mind and business practices with new information because just saying you’re an expert because you have 10 years experience won’t cut it.

So you wanna be an expert?

That’s great to know. The first step is to make sure you’re desired choice of topics makes sense both for your business and for your personal interests. It’s best to choose a subject that jives with your personality and lifestyle. There’s no sense becoming a world renowned expert at rock climbing when you’re afraid of heights, or perhaps the leading authority on South American arachnids if you specialize in real estate. Obviously, these examples are far-fetched but you get the idea. Put some conscious effort into finding your NICHE and stick with it.

What are you reading?

You’re ready to take your learning to the next level, that’s great. I remember reading a book somewhere that said if you read a book a week for 5 years you would be a WORLD leading expert in any specific field. I have no idea if this is true but if you read 260 books on ANY topic you sure should know more than the average joe. My first question is what are you reading RIGHT NOW? What about the last 30 days? The last year? If you haven’t read a book on your industry lately I would like to ask you if you have made any significant gains financially? Typically, people want to make more money, but they expect to do this without increasing their VALUE in their industry.

What are you waiting for?

Maybe your industry is boring? Maybe there simply are not enough books written about what you do? There are endless excuses to not spend time learning. I have always had an aversion to the desire to read during my first few hours of work, but in hindsight it was some of the most valuable time I have ever spent. So STOP with the excuses, start reading a book today. I know you have one or ten that are just waiting to increase your knowledge, give you expertise and establish you’re expertise.

How I saved $1932 in ONE hour…

Travis McAshan — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:36:59 +0000

I know what you might be thinking and the answer is NO, I didn’t “accidentally” over-bill one of our clients. Actually, quite the opposite, I simply spent ONE hour reviewing all the services and fees my business is currently paying. Here’s the low down…

The $avings:

Online Project Management Software: Downgraded my plan and saved $25/Mo.
Online CRM: Downgraded my plan and saved $12/Mo.
Old Online Invoicing Software: Canceled and saved $12/Mo.
Online Storage Software: Canceled and saved $20/Mo.
Internet Phone: Changed plans and saved $25/Mo.
Interest Account Swap: Canceled and saved $15/Mo.
Authorize: Changed features and saved $40/Mo.

The Breakdown:

In less than ONE hour I was able to save myself $161/Month (or $1932/Year) in completely unnecessary fees. I have to be honest that it was most alive I felt all week. There’s something refreshing and encouraging about saving money. ESPECIALLY when you don’t have to sacrifice anything to get the savings.

What About You?

Mostly my savings came through a combination of downgrading to more reasonable plans, canceling unused services, and negotiating better features with existing plans. Try it out yourself and see how much money you can save. Do it RIGHT now and if you have success post a comment below!

10 Common SEO Misconceptions

Travis McAshan — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:38:59 +0000

I’ve been focusing my latest posts debunking stumbling blocks to launching a successful SEO (search engine optimization… and marketing) campaign. I thought I would conclude the trifecta of “Three EXCUSES not to do SEO” and “5 Situations SEO is NOT Necessary” with this post about common SEO misconceptions. If you’re brand NEW to SEO, we thought it would be wise to add to your schoolin’.

#1. “We’re the industry leader… we’re guaranteed for #1 in Google”

Just because you’re the big dog in your industry means absolutely NOTHING to Google. Now, before you get your feathers rustled, having industry clout, leadership, and domination WILL typically set you up to be successful in online search. This is because there is simple more potential chances for people to link to your site, talk about you and increase your online exposure. But rest assured, don’t rely simply on your industry position to determine your online ranking position.

#2. “Our site gets TONS of traffic… we have to be ranking well”

You might be surprised to know one thing almighty Google doesn’t know, that is how many visitors are going to your website. Perhaps somewhere along the lines you had the idea that the more site visitors you get the better your search rankings. It’s OK, we debunk this myth all the time to our customers. It is patently false. (just a note that typically the better your rank, the more site visitors you will typically have)

#3. “We can hire a guy from overseas to build links to our site”

Don’t laugh. We have had quite a few requests about this. To be perfectly honest, we even thought about doing it ourselves just to say we tried. However, great link building is more than just submitting your website to random directories and other websites. A guy from India (racial profiling aside) does NOT know your industry, your client’s needs, and your business better than you. You should start every SEO campaign with sound SEO best practice principles.

#4. “Our site is already #1 in Google… we’re doing great!”

Hmmm, my first question would be #1 for WHAT? If you’re ranking #1 for “purple bumblebee jackets” and you sell clothes online you might want to see (1) how many visitors that term is bringing and (2) has it made you any money? Need a real world example? We hired an SEO company to do some work for us (yes, it’s a dark secret from a few years back), and they got us to #1 for “logo design austin”. They were thrilled, the ONLY problem was that term didn’t generate a SINGLE visit to our site in three months. Lesson learned… make sure you know you’re best possible target keyword terms.

#5. “We ONLY need to promote our homepage”

This is another unfortunate lesson we learned early in our SEO efforts. If you focus all of your link building and optimization efforts on your homepage you’re going to create an unbalanced and overall unhealthy search presence. The goal is to “diversify, diversify, diversify”. To use a gym work out as an analogy, don’t be the guy doing bench press five days a week. Make sure to build links and optimize the deeper and more information rich pages as well.

#6. “We added page titles and meta keywords… we’re good to go”

If I had a dollar for every time a client told me this I’d have… at least $37. The important consideration here is that while page titles are absolutely critical to SEO optimization, meta keywords do just about “NOTHING”. On top of this you’re just breaking the tip of the iceberg into the major points of on-page optimization you need to accomplish. Lesson learned, if your “SEO Guy” says he’s added the “meta keywords” and “you’re good to go”… please GO, go to someone else for your SEO needs!

#7. “We hired a fancy SEO firm… let’s relax and have a cocktail!!”

It’s an unfortunate byproduct of the nature of the SEO industry that some people are going to be taken for a “ride”. Just because you just signed a check for $2500 to get started with some fancy pants SEO firm doesn’t mean diddly squat. I have personally worked with quite a few “high-end” search engine optimization companies and to be honest I think it’s all hit or miss. Most of the time you’ll see a positive ROI but I have to admit it’s definitely NOT 100% of the time.

#8. “We’re in a referral-based industry… we don’t need random leads!”

I hear this daily from my clients and I simply have to shake my head and admit that they are missing the bigger picture. Just about all industries live and breath referrals daily. However, LISTEN when I tell you this, “if you’re business is 90% referral you still NEED to be highly ranked online”. The simplest reason is because every one of these referrals is probably going to look for you online, are they finding you? When you search your brand do you dominate the terms? Also, in addition to referred leads, all “buzz” or talk about you online is good. The types of things that generate great search optimization are simply REALLY great marketing ideas. Why not take advantage of them!

#9. “We just launched our website… we’ll be #1 in Google real soon!”

We try and try to explain the process to most people. However, depending on your state of economic dependence on new and fresh leads you might be “over-relying” on getting a great search ranking. If that’s the case you might want to re-evaluate your online goals. Great SEO is like exercise, doing it just one day gives you nothing, doing it for a week helps, doing for a month makes a difference, and doing it for a year will change your business. I think my favorite part about great SEO is the difficulty in ranking highly decreases the number of your competitors that are simply unwilling to work as hard as you to get there. So what are you waiting for again?

#10. “Our industry is too competitive to rank well… what’s the point?”

We have a couple of clients in industries like “real estate” and “residential construction” that are downright mortified by the uphill battle they face to compete with the “already established” Google ranking kings. Does this pose a challenge, by all means yes, does it mean that you will have to change your strategies, yes, does it mean you should crawl under a rock and give up? Absolutely not! A true entrepreneur and business owner never sees problems, they are simply challenges that have yet to be accomplished. Don’t be afraid, your persistence and effort will be repaid in due time.

A Last Word…

I need comments! I simple want to know I’m writing this stuff to people out there that find it interesting, inspiring, though-provoking, feather ruffling, clever or downright incorrect. I just want to know the web has a pulse and that requires a TWO-WAY communication. If you’re feeling charitable, slightly extroverted, or even this weird feeling, one that you have never had, to actually write your first comment EVER on a website… JUST DO IT!

Three EXCUSES not to do SEO…

Travis McAshan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:19:51 +0000

Every has excuses and we all know the famous saying, “everyone has one and they all stink…”. So, if your site doesn’t fall into one of the five reasons for NOT optimizing your website for search engines, then why not start now?

Excuse #1: “I don’t have enough money”

Yes, hiring a great search firm can be a significant undertaking in time and money. However, if you don’t have the budget there are actually quite a few things you can do yourself, or with the help of someone with even average technical abilities. There are books such as “SEO, An Hour a Day” and online sources such as www.seobook.com that have great plans you can implement yourself. Although it might not seem possible, you can actually make a HUGE difference while spending pennies on the dollar.

Excuse #2: “I don’t have enough time”

SEO is a long-term process that is flexible depending on your time. It’s also cumulative and all of your efforts will expound upon previous work. If you can focus 30-60 minutes a day on your website SEO you could potentially see dramatic changes in less than 2-3 months. If 60 minutes a day sounds scary then give what you have, perhaps it’s 15 minutes every other day. The goal is to create a plan and implement on whatever schedule you decide and simple STICK TO IT no matter what.

Excuse #3 “My website is terrible”

You may think your website would drive away even your most loyal customers. Perhaps, the hideous purple and green background with the silver 3D rotating logo makes you cringe. Whatever the case, this is a usual occurrence for our clients that decide to traverse the path of revamping their online marketing goals. While in a perfect world you would wait for a perfect website, if your budget is simply not available for the new site don’t let this stop you. Depending on your company goals there are some valuable goals for working around your site problems and still getting quality results in search engines.

The Final Recap

All in all, there are really no reasons you should not be optimizing your website for success online when it comes to being found in search engines. Search engine optimization is NOT as hard as you think. You simply need to accept the fact that lead generation and brand credibility are created through your company being found in Google. The next step is to get STARTED!!

Quotable Quote…

“I love the man who can smile in trouble, gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection.” – Thomas Paine, Statesman

SEO Optimization… Glide Style

5 Situations SEO is NOT Necessary

Travis McAshan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:22:16 +0000

In most situations, optimizing your website to be found online seems like an obvious company goal, but in reality, this is not always the case. In my experience, I’ve found there are a couple of situations where an SEO campaign is simply unnecessary.

1. You DON’T want your website to be found

There are some unique cases where having strangers visit your website will do no good for your business model. For example, if you have an online training tool for your specific employees or an online classroom tool for your students. Overall, this is a specific situation where it’s best to spend your resources in other areas.

2. Your site is already ranking extremely well

It could be that your in a relatively non-competitive market and you have a large advantage on your competition. You’re site is already ranking rather well, you’re more than happy with your lead volume, and you simply don’t want to fix what isn’t broken. While I salute you, the rest of the web might snub it’s nose at your rather fortunate situation.

3. You’re in a HUGE rush (or are desperate for new leads)

Perhaps you’re in a hurry to close new sales and if you don’t get a certain number of leads and closed sales in the next 30-60 days you’ll have to shut the doors. In this regard you’d be far better off with a quality PPC campaign. The problem with placing expectation and pressure on your SEO is because of the nature of a great SEO campaign. Great SEO is an organic slow-growing beast that becomes more and more powerful as you feed it. However, don’t expect your lion cub to turn into the king of the jungle over night… like all things in life, patience is rewarded.

4. You are going to completely rebuild your website

Over the past couple of years we have had a number of website rebuilds where the company came to us through the referral of an SEO consultancy. In almost every situation, the best approach is to build the new site with great SEO principles, but wait on the actual campaign until the new site is live. As soon as you launch the site a full blown SEO campaign is just what the doctor ordered to take your prize to the next level.

5. You’re developing a new web presence on a test server

This is another one of those unique situations but I had to include it on the list because of how often it’s popped up for us. In the last few years, it seems as if Google has become a voracious beast when it comes to new content. It’s scouring the web constantly looking for links to new pages. If you’re developing a site that you don’t want anyone to see make sure to password protect the server. We have found that “norobots” exclusions, drafted pages in CMS, and many in other situations, Google will FIND a way to your website pages whether you want people there or not. When in doubt about if your page is visible to Google, ask an expert!

Quotable Quote…

“Succeeding is not really a life experience that does much good. Failing is a much more sobering and enlightening experience.”– Michael Eisner, executive

10 Common SEO Misconceptions

Why you NEED a Facebook Business Page!

Travis McAshan — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:51:31 +0000

A little information about Facebook…

First off, if you have not yet heard of Facebook, thanks for coming out of your cave. I’d like to heartily welcome you to the Internet. But seriously, Facebook is MORE than just a fad; it’s entrenched and growing. Just check out these stats…

400 million active users (yes, we think this is a lot too!)
50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
35 million users update their status each day
60 million status updates posted each day
3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
5 billion pieces of content (links, updates, blog posts, photos, etc.) each week
3.5 million events created each month
3 million active Pages on Facebook
1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
20 million people become fans of Pages each day
Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans (paying attention?)

What is a Facebook Business Page?

A Facebook Page is a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users. However, after downloading the Facebook Pages Product Guide, I like their description…

A Facebook Page is a customizable presence for an organization, product or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users. The Page focuses on the stream of content posted by the Page administrators. By leveraging the real connections between friends on Facebook, a Page lets Fans become brand advocates. Posts by the Page will start to appear in News Feed, giving Pages a stronger voice to reach their Fans.

Have I lost you yet… do you still want one?

So you read the above description and it didn’t scare you off? That’s great, then depending on how you view Facebook, privacy crusher or ultimate connector, you might be curious how to accomplish the “creating, connecting and engaging” mentioned above. In this article, I’ll attempt to demystify the process.

Why does my business need Facebook?

If the astronomical numbers of Facebook don’t have your jaw dropping, then I think you may need to wake up to the realization that Facebook is a force to be reckoned with; and I’ll venture to guess that because their demographic consists of 25 years and up, your target customer is in there somewhere. However, there’s more… it used to be true that you had to be a Fortune 500 company with a multimillion dollar budget to afford advertising on a site like Facebook. Now, any business can create a Facebook Business Page and market it directly on Facebook.

You can connect directly with your customers…

And yes, this IS a good thing. Facebook says, “When your fans interact with your Facebook Page, stories linking to your Page can go to their friends via News Feed. As these friends interact with your Page, News Feed keeps driving word-of-mouth to a wider circle of friends.” We say, the more people see you, your company, your brand, you logo, your services and your products, the more likely they might want to buy from you when the time is right.

Never seen a Facebook Business Page?

If you really want to see a sample Facebook business page, check out Glide on Facebook. In fact, don’t stop there; why not become a FAN of GLIDE? Not only will you be immediately putting your newfound information to action, but for every business owner that personally becomes a fan of GLIDE on Facebook, I’ll gladly assist you in creating your very own Facebook page.

What if you’re too busy to update?

We all get busy, overworked and downright off track during the day to day operation of life and business. At GLIDE, we’re optimists that have been pounded into realists through life’s unending tribulation and trials. But we don’t give up, and we don’t back down; in fact we remain resolute and push forward. You, too, should press forward and realize that social marketing is not going away, and it is here to stay. For now just TRUST us, create an account ASAP, and we’ll give you some quality reasons to get started below.

Facebook fans can be paying customers!

You’ll need a few things to get started. The most important will be the name of your page and the profile photos. After that comes helpful contact and useful informational links. For example, if you are a restaurant or bar, detailed info like address and store hours will help. If you’re a band or a film, adding songs and videos is key. If you’re a brand or product, photos of your offering and hyperlinks to independent reviews will make an impact. Gather what you’ve got handy — and you can always add more later.

Create a Facebook Business Page in 10 Minutes

I have listed the basic steps as outlined in the Facebook “Step by Step” guide, and to be honest, they are the experts at what is required and what is most effective. If you would like more elaboration on the below steps, go here and click on the “Step by Step” tab.

Go here… http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
Pick a category and name
Add a profile picture
Add information
Make it rich and engaging
Publish
Update Regularly

Simple tips for keeping your facebook page “fresh”

Connect your blog to automatically update your Facebook
Post photos from SOME office event at least once a month
Create a give away or freebie to give to your fans
Throw a contest to give your services to a charity of one of your fans
Connect your twitter account to update your Facebook (or vice-versa)
Talk about relevant news that makes sense to your business

How to choose a URL for your Facebook Page

If you haven’t noticed the URL you get when you create a facebook fan page looks a lot like this… http://www.facebook.com/pages/Austin-TX/GreenScapes-Landscaping-Austin-TX/448663320260 (90 letters… yuck!). However it doesn’t have to be and as long as you have a little motivation you can get it looking like this… http://www.facebook.com/greenscapes (29 letters… much better) which is much more brand centric and also tremendously easier to read. One note, if you’d like to create your own specialized URL, you’ll need to have a minimum of 25 fans, so get the word out.

Log into Facebook… http://www.facebook.com/
Go here… http://www.facebook.com/username
Click on “Set a username for your Pages”
Select the page from drop-down and type desired URL
Click “Check Availability” button and cross your fingers
If it’s available just confirm and you’re good to go

Helpful Links:

Quotable Quote…

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” – Johann von Goethe

Inbound marketing is the “new hotness”

Travis McAshan — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:47:11 +0000

Outbound marketing is DEAD!

It used to be true that when most small businesses had a yellow pages ad and great word of mouth marketing, things were rosy. In fact many businesses are still using true “outbound” marketing techniques such as trade shows, print advertising, call centers, radio & television advertising, billboards and even infomercials. The whole idea is to PUSH/HAMMER out the marketing message, getting in front of as many people as possible with the hope of reaching a few quality leads. As we progress, we see that these traditional forms of marketing are becoming less and less effective for two important reasons.

Reason 1: People HATE interruption-based marketing

Think about it… when was the last time you stopped to talk to a telemarketer during a busy work day? That is if they even made it past the call blocker or caller ID. What about the last time you actually read a single piece of junk mail. Or perhaps you skip right past the commercials on your TIVO or maybe get all your music online without ever listening to the radio? And do we even need to mention email spam?

Reason 2: The internet is RICH with free information

In the example above, you may not have spoken to a telemarketer in years but I bet you have ”googled” information about potential purchases and products multiple times in the last 24 hours alone. Why fly across the country to a trade show when you can get all the information you need right off a company websites? And who needs TV with 13 minutes of commercials for every hour when you can download your shows online?

What is “Inbound Marketing”?

So if you’ve stuck with me so far you’ll quickly find yourself asking the million dollar question, “What is inbound marketing?” It’s actually pretty easy to understand and not all that hard to begin applying; however, true success lies in wait for those who are willing to stay in it for the long run.

(1) Content – Content is the substance of any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the information or tool that attracts potential customers to your site or your business.

(2) Search Engine Optimization – SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. It is the practice of building your site and inbound links to your site to maximize your ranking in search engines, where most of your customers begin their buying process.

(3) Social Media – Social media amplifies the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic and nuanced and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site.

Content, SEO, PPC, Blogging and Social Media… ???

If you’re an overworked business owner, don’t fret too much; many of the services needed to accomplish the basics of inbound marketing are not as hard or complicated as they sound. For example, “blogging” is really just about YOU, the business owner, committing to writing about your business every so often, about the things that you normally do on a day to day basis. Typically, if done consistently, you would have fresh original content that’s automatically industry and keyword optimized, is engaging and shows your business has an online pulse. All that and you just threw up a few articles about your thoughts on the flower industry or how to save money on your taxes, or how to properly insulate your home.

Your website is your MOST CRITICAL marketing asset!

Do you think this is bold, presumptuous, cocky and just a little too confident? You might be right, but let’s talk again in 5 or 10 years. Show me the local plumbers or lawyers or builders who found a way to generate their leads online, and I’ll show you a company that is healthy and growing. My personal opinion is that there is simply not enough leads for word of mouth marketing to go around. I work with hundreds of businesses a year, and the ones that have a quality website that generate quality leads, are growing. The businesses that don’t, are failed, failing or are showing serious signs of trouble.

How do I get started?

So you might say, “I’m sold, how do I get started?” That’s a great question, and my first answer is call GLIDE… ha. OK, I might be jumping the gun here, but I’ll have to be honest that the first step is to find someone, anyone, that knows more about inbound marketing than you, and learn from them. When you feel like you have gleaned all you can from them, move on and up and find someone even more knowledgeable. Odds are anyone that has taken the time to learn a fare share of internet expertise would be more than willing to impart that with a humble request. Go ahead… try us to start with.

Quotable Quote…

“Set higher standards for you own performance than anyone around you, and it won’t matter whether you have a tough boss or an easy one. It won’t matter whether the competition is pushing you hard, because you’ll be competing with yourself.”
– Rick Pitino

Too many hats!

Autumn Morgan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:04:48 +0000

I know that men can take on several roles, such as husband, dad, worker, bill payer, and more, but I am a woman, so I started thinking the other day- what if women had a hat for each role they had to play. My list for a multi-tasking mom was so long, I realized we would either need a tall hat rack or a REALLY big closet. I know I wouldn’t get any hesitation from accepting an offer like that, right ladies??

If you are a wife and a mom, hats off to you already. (Like my play on words??) You have to be a loving, supporting partner for your husband; then turn around to teach a toddler not to climb on the stove, wipe a runny nose, take the toys out of the fireplace, take a DVD out of the dishwasher and hold an arm out just in time to catch her from eating the dog food. Oh and that jelly-stained t-shirt on the floor won’t wash itself, but if you’re pregnant (like me), the last thing you want to do is bend over to pick it up, so you learn to use your toes like a monkey. And all this almost in a single breath!

You would hope that naptime is a time to relax and read a book, but I work from home, so naptime is still a whirlwind for me most days. I grab all my notes (that have been colorfully decorated with crayons), clean the peanut butter off my computer screen , toss on my writing hat and get to work. Really, as hectic as it can get even in those couple of hours, I adore it. Writing is my biggest passion aside from being a mom; I can create, think, problem-solve and eat some lunch in peace. I even play some Classic Sinatra in the background- can it really be any better than that??

If I am lucky on a particular day, I have time to do a little blogging (sounds like a dance, doesn’t it?) and edit some photos for my personal blog. But I get distracted by other blogs, and I run off to create some rendition of an idea someone else had. That’s when I put on my crafting/home decorating hat. And I must say, my home is starting to look like a million bucks for the price of a few Goodwill items, paint and a little tender love and care. Too cheesy? Sorry.

Yards don’t maintain themselves either, by the way. But I’m not so much of a gardening hat wearer. It depends on my luck with a particular plant, I suppose. I try every year though! I cut grass, trim weeds, edge bushes, and plant a garden. I have the best luck with herbs, but only harvested 3 tomatoes last year. Eh, it’s almost spring, so I can try again, right? By the way, mowing over dog toys is NOT a good idea. Just a little side note.

Aside from all of these things, I am a cook, a baker (a candlestick maker!), a vacuum repair-woman, a carpet steam cleaner, a baby-maker, an organizer, a HUGE list-maker, a dog trainer, a toddler teacher, a friend, a listener, a community volunteer, a church member, a student, a daughter, a granddaughter an aunt and a sister. Now, if you are a woman, and you have any of these hats to wear, I applaud you. Because I (as well as you) are probably exhausted but loving all your hats more than you knew you could. You know what I say? You deserve that big closet!

New Inspiration for a New Year

Autumn Morgan — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:03:45 +0000

At Glide Design, our newest way to inspire is our website- revamped, redesigned and rewritten to be more useful to our clients. In celebration of this and a new year, I wanted to help awaken new creative interests with our readers. Aren’t we all looking for new ways to enjoy life and expand our horizons?

Learn a new instrument.

One year, I decided to learn how to play guitar, and I am enthralled with trains. So on weekends, I would strap my guitar on my back and hop a train. Some of my most enjoyable memories were of riding trains with perfect strangers, sharing smiles and conversations and always finding a new adventure.

Discover a hidden love for a different music genre.

I used to listen to mostly alternative rock and contemporary music, mainly because that’s all I could find on the radio. Then I took a music class in college that challenged me to listen to Celtic music, Classical music, really, really old music (I don’t know what else to call it!), and music right through the 60’s and 70’s. That semester I discovered how much I loved instrumental music and music from the early 20th century. I am now hopelessly in love with any and all music from the 20’s to 40’s.

Find a new author.

Or just venture out and read a book in a genre you normally wouldn’t. Last year, I decided to read a book a month and I found that I was mostly choosing really amazing but emotionally draining fiction books. So this year, I am switching every other book to non-fiction. That should keep me a bit more stabilized this year!

Cook or bake something new.

I am not much of a baker. I try my best, but one of my measurements is always off and my pies come out concave. So while I will always try to work on my measuring skills, I decided to “master the art of French cooking” this year. Being that I am half French, and I am in love with cooking, this is perfect for me! I’ll admit, my first attempt at a French dish was the worst thing I had ever made, and was promptly thrown away and escorted out of the house. But my second attempt was pure heaven. I’m getting the hang of it now!

Do something (anything!) new.

Learn a new language, find a new gardening technique, train yourself to ride a mountain bike, run a 5K, take up photography, collect antiques, remodel a room (well, LIGHT remodeling… or just paint), learn outdoor survival tools, delve into a new area of art, study an artist or musician, skydive, try a zip line, climb a mountain, sew, craft, recycle, join an interest group. The possibilities are endless!

Be inspired and enjoy your life to the fullest! I hope this is your best year ever!