The Corporate Muse

Welcome to the second issue of The Corporate Muse! Though this issue is meant to be informative, it breaks the rules a little by including some personal references. Hope you enjoy. As always, we welcome suggestions and/or questions. 

 Deliberation

Anatomy Of A Website

The list of things I didn’t know before we began to build our first website goes on for miles. For instance, though included in our Microsoft Office package, I was clueless as to the purpose of Front Page. I learned. It took three months to unveil our design to the world. Proud parents of our newborn baby site, we breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. Then came the next lesson—web creation, like giving birth, is just the beginning. It will always be a work-in-progress.

Once we jumped on the World Wide Web bandwagon, the lingo and acronyms became second nature. Phrases like WYSIWYG (pronounced wizzy-wig, it stands for “What You See Is What You Get”) and HTML (hypertext markup language) no longer appeared terrifying. Several books from the library and tutorials on the Internet made the construction a little easier. Soaking up all the gathered information and regurgitating it back into the Front Page program resulted in a true WYSIWYG!

The next concern hit immediately … SEO … or Search Engine Optimization. Another completely new entity, this aspect didn’t seem too important at first. But study proved this to be crucial to website maintenance. The search engines, like Google, Yahoo and Alta Vista, send out “robots” or “spiders” (okay—let’s tell the truth—“spies”) into cyberspace to find what’s going on out there. They look for new sites and keywords to describe those sites. If the proper descriptive words aren’t there, the site is shoved to the bottom of the list (and if you’ve ever been on a search engine, you know just how long those lists can be). That’s bad news for anyone hoping to gain business or income from the Web.

Meta tags—keywords used to describe what’s included on a page—suddenly seemed important. These handy little phrases are only visible to search engines and not the general public. Sounds like a great deal, doesn’t it? That’s what we thought when we stuffed HTML full of them. But http://tools.summitmedia.co.uk/spider/ (a spider simulator that tests how search engines react to web pages) scored our site on the low end. Back to the drawing board as they say.

A few more tutorials and books later, we figured out we’d failed to give our site a proper Title tag. Missing this basic step meant pretty much no exposure in the search engine underworld. The title shows up as the name of the site regardless of the address. Run your cursor over a toggle button of a website or window and the title is displayed. This may have helped in the rankings. Checking a keyword (from the Title tag) on Yahoo resulted in a coveted #7. Still no luck with Google.  

Maybe in this “raising” of a website, taking an SEO class should be the next step. It certainly can’t hurt. There’s a great one at http://www.gnc-web-creations.com/seo-optimization.htm. And the best part? It’s free!

The Internet changes daily and it’s hard to keep up. By the time we get this whole SEO stuff figured out, there’ll be something new to worry about. For now, we’ll keep learning and forging ahead. The more information we gain, the more solutions we can offer to those who seek our services. And that’s what it’s all about. 

Bonus site:  http://www.searchengineformarketers.com/ (You’ll find tons of useful information here.)    (SKC) 

       © QuickSilver Copywriters 2005 – Andy & Shawn Catsimanes; http://www.quicksilvercopywriters.com/; mailto: andy_shawn@quicksilvercopywriters.com; Sign up for The Corporate Muse: admin@quicksilvercopywriters.com. 

Inspiration

A woman on a TV obsession forum admitted to struggling with addiction to a couple of specific shows. She cited her involvement in the stories as the reason she couldn’t give them up. It got me thinking about writing. Anyone who’s ever put pen to paper hopes for just such a response. Hooking the reader, listener or watcher to keep him/her tuned in is exactly the point. This thought segued to one about salesmanship. As writers, we rarely think of ourselves as salespeople, but in essence it’s what we are. Whether we scribble fiction, nonfiction, poetry or copy, we want to sell our characters, ideas, creativity or product. If you’re a little intimidated about selling yourself, aggressive marketing probably doesn’t fit in with the image of the dream job you can’t wait to get to every morning. Here’s the good news. If you use words to persuade, then you’re a salesperson. So stay strong in your resolve to write and keep up the good work!  For more on the subject read:  Mark Barnes, Marketing Virus—Every Writer Needs To Catch It..

Imagination

Speaking of TV, our family plans to join the millions turning off the over-watched medium during the week of April 25^th through May 1^st. Sounds scary, doesn’t it?  Actually sitting and talking or reading—heading outside for a walk or bike ride—or engaging in some other worthwhile activity. Hey, maybe we’ll get the basement or garage cleaned. When you think about it, the possibilities are endless. Still the idea of missing my favorite shows makes me a little sad. It won’t be easy. But the reasons to not watch are more convincing than those to indulge in a little mindless entertainment. Studies show TV viewing plays a big part in both obesity and the rise of ADHD. If this fits in with your outlook, won’t you consider joining us? To learn more, go to:http://www.tvturnoff.org/. 

Thanks for reading. See you next month!

Andy & Shawn Catsimanes

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