Targeted Communities

Craigslist.org
By now you must have heard of this. Sell your old couch, or buy someone else's. Find a house cleaner, a roommate or a beach house. The free classifieds are grouped by city, category and subcategory  and are as easy to post as they are to search. 

Meetup.com
A convenient, non-threatening way to connect to other people who share similar interests and live nearby. The gatherings are off-line and can take place anywhere, such as a coffee shop, bar, bowling alley or dog park. Browse by topic/type (graphic design, cat rescue, dogs, moms) or zip code to find a group to join. Members vote on where to meet next.  

Brain Candy, Time wasters

accessproject.net - interesting observations on human nature - An interactive art installation created by Marie Sester, a media artist based in New York. Video clips and still images show anonymous individuals tracked in public places by a robotic spotlight that responds to sound and motion. Interesting and creepy at the same time. (requires Quicktime)

Trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy
A delightful bit of interactive flash. Wait a moment for the page to load then use your arrow keys to send the nice line-drawn guy with curly black hair gliding among the clouds. Stay close to Earth and you'll encounter various other flying objects and individuals, or head straight up into outer space.  Great time waster. (Requires Flash player)

Accessibility: Well-Designed & Thoughtful

Website's with dated design methods and not employing even the most basic search engine techniques will be relegated to no man's land - never to be found, much less appreciated by a casual surfer or active consumer.

What is accessibility? Accessibility is a systematic way of designing that makes it easier for search engines to index your site, visitors to easily find what they need - and as a bonus it also makes it easier for the handicapped as well.  It's a win-win proposition!  So what makes a site "accessible"? The following features are integral to a well designed and accessible site:

• CSS & Table-less design
• XML Site maps
• Metadata - Titles, Descriptions, & so much more
• Organization geared to making content easy to find and descriptive links.
• Header tags that break up content and make it easier to read. They are an important part of a well-formed document on the web.
• CMS, Blogs, and Forums for relevant, and changing content
• Product & Consumer reviews
• A Media center to share information with prospects - press releases, white papers, and outbound links can share the happenings in your industry
• Test Test Test - exceptional search engine rankings are rarely an accident. It's WORK. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow so you must always be striving for  better alternatives and methods.
• Innovation - leaders are not content with a static, unchanging website - they continually innovate and improve and you should do the same.
• Networking - exchanging links and establishing relationships with others in your field.

Site Accessibility benefits EVERYONE and is the main ingredient in a website that meets your dreams and expectations.

October Only!

Get Domains, Hosting, and more at:
myhostinganddomains.com!

Local computer repairs -
Spyware, Virus removal,
Installs & Updates at:
ComputerWiz.biz

Free Reference Sites

All Recipes Free recipes

The Big Cartoon Database  Access to some of the best cartoons in the world

Constitution Finder This database offers constitutions, charters, amendments, and other related documents. Nations of the world are linked to their constitutional text posted somewhere on the Internet.

ConsumerSearch Like Consumer Reports, but free.

Family Search Internet Genealogy Service.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Geneology search services.

Go Ask Alice
Columbia University's Health Education Program.

College and University Rankings.
Education and Social Science Library, University of Illinois.

What is a DLL?

A .dll is short for Dynamic Link Library and your computer uses LOTS of them.  A .dll is a standardized set of instructions various programs can call on to do repetitive or boring computations.  Think of it as a chorus in a song - the part the song returns to over and over. Now think of several songs - and they all happen to have the same chorus. Each song can be very different, but the chorus is always the same.  That's what a dll does.  It's the chorus in the program's song.  When you have a corrupt or missing dll you may find that your program works just fine, may not work at all, or will work very slowly - depending on how important that "chorus" is to the "song". You can repair Windows dll's by putting your Windows XP or 2000 disk in the drive.  Go to Start - Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt.  In the black box that appears - type in "sfc /scannow" (no quotes).  It will scan your hard drive for missing Windows dlls and any Windows files that may be corrupted or missing and replace them with originals.  As for dll's in a particular program such as Quickbooks or Photoshop, that's not so easy.  You may be able to find the specific DLL and download it from the internet (do a Google search).  But if you don't know the specific DLL's name, it may come down to reinstalling the program (if you can figure out which one is causing the error!).  Computer repairs are not for the faint of heart - sometimes it can take a lot of trial and error before you can discover the real cause of the problem whether it's a pesky DLL.... or not.

Lecture of a Lifetime (click on the picture to watch the video)

Randy Pausch, a 46-year-old computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has terminal cancer and expects to live for just a few more months.

Recently he said goodbye to his students and the Pittsburgh college with one last lecture called "How to Live Your Childhood Dreams," on his life's journey and the lessons he's learned. It's become an Internet must see. I have found his lecture inspiring and know you will too... This is a link to the entire speech - maybe you've heard the excerpts...worth listening to the whole thing - it's awesome!  Just had to share.

A call for a free web site estimate can let us help you achieve your web site dreams.

• A well-maintained, updated web site demonstrates a commitment to your business. If you want customers and potential customers to take you seriously, you have to provide them with a web site that is useful, informative, and up-to-date. Don't allow your site to become outdated - you'll get better conversions if you embrace new technology and changing web standards   (What does an outdated look and message send to your competitors?)
• The cost of a web site re-design is often less than the cost of other marketing or advertising initiatives. It also typically reaches more people and lasts a lot longer, too.  Of course, your overall marketing plan should consist of a variety of marketing activities across multiple channels, but a web re-design often gives you a lot of bang for your buck.
• Your web site make you unique among your competition, and can even be a deciding factor for customers evaluating your products and services.  Studies in consumer behavior have shown that when people are presented with multiple options all at once, they often rely on intuition to help them make buying decisions.  The way your web site looks and functions when compared with your competitors will have a great deal of influence on how customers perceive your company, your capability, and your credibility.
• Decide which new web features are solid, useful web site improvements.  Don’t limit your idea of a “re-design” to include only things like Flash animation, new graphics, or a different color scheme. Instead, consider adding useful features such as a blog, an improved navigation system, better content or articles, perhaps even video and podcasts. Anything you can do to provide a better, more interactive, and more contemporary web experience is an excellent investment of marketing dollars. Creating the website of your dreams is not only possible, but affordable.

FREE MONEY. Earn up to $100 cash for each referral that becomes a new customer.  Register Here 

It doesn't matter where you or your friend is located, we can work with clients wherever they are -  by email, phone and fax. We are in Michigan, and have satisfied customers worldwide.  Visit our website at http://c-omalley.com.

What do our customers say about us?

1. Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to. Due to Google's aging delay for all new domains, your best bet is to use your existing domain/website if at all possible. If you're redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for your favorite keyword phrases.
   
   
2. Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines.  The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box. If those "someone's" are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. Optimize your site to meet their needs.
   
3. Research your keyword phrases extensively. The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. We can help you discover the proper key words through many resources such as Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Choose different search phrases for every page. Never use general keywords such as "dogs" or "vacation," as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.
   
4. Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research. This is what we do with every site we build. When you choose to have keywords researched, you may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site. For instance, let's say your site sells art. There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the art they're looking for.  Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for many kinds and styles of art. Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching.
5. Program your site to be "crawler-friendly." The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn't mean that you can't use these things on your site; of course you can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site if you do.  You'll need to make sure that you always have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site.
   
6. Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes (aka alt tags) as clearly and descriptively as possible. Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Don't make them guess. Avoid links that say "click here" or other non-descriptive words if possible. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site.
   
7. Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see." This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site.  Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience is important and if you can't write well, it's in your best interest to hire a professional (like us!) that can write keyword rich copy for your site. There is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly.
   
8. Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag. Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with every search engine. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines. It needs to accurately reflect the content of the page it's on.
   
9. Make sure your site is "link-worthy." Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. If your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites.
10. Add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don't simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something. It really is okay to have a business site that is just a business site and not a tome on the history of your products or yourself. 
11. Don't be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings. If you've done the above correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site over time. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions.
12. Inspired by other sites? Determine what it is you love and incorporate those elements into your own site - with your keywords and other SEO elements- you'll be more likely to enjoy the result and maintain it properly if it's a joy rather than an albatross.