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Custom 800 (Toll Free) Phone Numbers

There are many companies that offer toll free numbers at a very reasonable rate and typically for an added fee a custom number can be acquired. The most famous is arguably 1-800-Flowers.  These custom phone numbers are easy to remember; however those that have blackberries and other non-traditional phones are unable to match these letters to numbers.  If your company has a custom phone number, make sure to always include the numeric version as well.

1-800-Flowers (1-800-356-9377)

PowerPoint Vista 2007 Bugs

pptfaq.com has begun a list of PowerPoint bugs and fixes for the new PowerPoint Vista (PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint 12).  Some of these include:

• Links to Excel items may break
• Internal links may break
• Chart templates may crash PowerPoint
• System Info missing
• VBA / Programming Issues

If you are experiencing any or all of these problems, visit pptfaq's PowerPoint 2007 bugs / problems page for possible solutions.  If you have been experiencing other bugs or problems please share.

Newsletters

Newsletters

In the next couple of weeks a new Visual Content Solutions Newsletter will be available.  Topics will range from effective presentation tips and little known web solutions, to endorsed product reviews.   If you would like to join, send us an email at news@visualcontentsolutions.com.  A newsletter submit form will be available shortly. 

Online newsletters have a valuable place for any company.  Visitors join newsletters because of a topic or offer that appeals to them.   These visitors are most likely highly qualified prospects or are already customers.  By joining a newsletter a visitor is giving permission for you to tell them about your services and products. 

Newsletter requests typically occur when purchasing a service.  However, the customer who visited your online store will quickly forget about your other services, unless you remind them.  A well written newsletter will not only provide information on the service previously purchased, but also will provide information regarding your other services.   

Have a newsletter?  How do you distribute it? How often do you send it?

Forget the Ampersand

As a designer I love the creative feel that an “&” ampersand brings to standard text.  My natural inclination is to use it every chance I get.  However, using it within key phrases on your website will mostly not bring you the results you desire.  If you think about your own search habits, when was the last time you typed an “&” into the search field?  Probably never, and most likely your visitors do not type in ampersands either.  Remember, if you would like to be found by the search engines your site copy should reflect how a visitor would type in text into a search field.

Editing Layered Text in PowerPoint the Easy Way

Do you work with animations in PowerPoint with layer on top of layer of text?  (In edit mode it sort of looks like a plate of spaghetti.) Only to find out that you need to edit the text in the middle of it all.  After countless hours of work, the last thing you want to do is pull your animation apart. 

However, there is an easy way.  Choose any unique word within the text field you wish to edit.  Go to the “Edit” dropdown menu and select “Find”.  When PowerPoint finds your word the entire field will now editable and can be modified without altering your animation.

Got a tip? Share a tip. Want more tips?

Free and Easy Webtools

I very rarely endorse or mention a product before first trying it myself, however I came across bravenet last evening and they had such a wealth of free webtools that I needed to share immediately.  In the upcoming weeks, I will be trying out several of these tools and writing amore in depth analysis of those I like.  In the meantime you can try them out for yourself and share the ones you like.  Below is a their list of free webtools.

Blog
Create an online diary or blog.

Chat Rooms
Host live chats with your site visitors.

Classifieds
Buy/Sell/Trade with classified ads.

E-Cards
Host your own custom postcard service.

Email Forms
Add a visitor feedback form to your website.

FAQ Service
Automated frequently asked questions.

Free Links
Build your own handy link directory.

GuestMap
Site visitors pin your map of the world.

Guestbook
The most popular guestbook on the Internet.

Headline News
Put live news on your web site.

Hit Counter
Track and graph your website traffic.

Horoscope
Daily Horoscopes on your web site.

Mailing List
Maintain a distribution mailing list with ease.

Message Forum
Message Board to host online discussions.

Online Calendar
Public event or scheduling calendars

Password Protect
Restrict access to selected website pages.

Photo Album
Store and share your photos online.

Redirect
Shorten your website address. (clik.to/me)

Site Search
Allow visitors to search your entire website.

Tell-A-Friend
Visitors promote your site and build traffic.

This Day in History
Find out what happened every day in history.

Traffic Exchange
Generate traffic for your site.

Vote Caster
Hold a multiple-question poll on your website.

Web Cartoon
A new cartoon for your website every day.

Web Poll
Embed a quick poll in your website.

Web Ring
Create a ring of sites with similar interests.

Speaking Characters
Create animated characters for your site.

Got a few others you would like to mention?   Please share.

Know Good Design

Is a Ferrari still a Ferrari if it has an old beater VW engine in it?  Many of my blog posts talk about the guts (code) of a website and how ignoring the backend is a common oversight during website development.  I speak of this so much; you may not realize that my background is in design, and that for years I commented on how no one really understands the value of good, quality design.  So when I saw John Jantsch’s latest post titled “Know Good Design”, I simply had to mention it.  Not only, does he speak to some of the benefits of “Good” design, but he opened it up to his readers to suggest places to find “Good” design.  To see a list of places his reader recommended visit John’s Duct Tape Marketing blog.

Add a Few Breadcrumbs to Your Website

Does your website include multiple sublevels of navigation.  One of the easiest ways to keep your visitor abreast of where they are is to use a breadcrumb trail.  Breadcrumbs typically appear towards the top of a webpage and can look like this:

Main > Services > Web > Banners

In this case you would be on the Banners page, within the Web section, within the Services sections, of the Main site.  Each of the three previous sections (Main, Services, Web) would then link back to their respective section.  Not only does this help keep your visitor grounded as to where they are, but also it will provide a mini-sitemap for search engines to follow.

Looking to create a breadcrumb trail the proper way?  Visit the University of Washington’s website for detailed instructions.

Website Guidelines by Google

Google has a wealth of information online to help both small and large websites understand what it takes to help Google find, index and rank your site.  One of the most important pages in their Webmaster Help Center includes the Webmaster Guidelines.  Google breaks these guidelines down to three categories: Design & Content, Technical, and Quality. 

This is by no means a complete list.  However, it does hit the major points and Google updates it regularly.  Unfortunately, many small business website owners and their developers don’t follow of even know about these guidelines. Not only are they useful does it assist with getting indexed by Google, but also by nearly all other search engines. 

How many of these guidelines are included in your company website? 

10 Website Reminders to Increase Traffic

1. When was the last time you update your homepage?
2. When was the last time you updated your website
3. Do you know when your website name will be renewed?
4. How you price shopped lately for a better/cheaper hosting package?
5. Do you have a plan to integrate traffic/revenue generating improvements?
6. Are you testing new key phrases this month?
7. Have you partnered with another company this month?
8. Have you converted your page titles to lowercase?
9. Have you placed a sitemap.xml file on your server?
10. Have you looked at your site’s statistics this month?

Did you answer yes to all of these?  At least one?  Share what you have done lately to increase website traffic?