It’s a great thing when business owners come together to share their expertise. This happened at the PortTech LA Chamber in the beautiful Port of Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 13^th 2010. A wide range of businesses was represented, from Scandinavian technology imports to environmental monitoring and highway technology.

The uniting factor between all of the businesses, however, was the need for a stronger web presence. Jason’s topics included SEO, SEM, organic vs. sponsored links, and Google’s use of AdSense, AdWords, PageRank, and Analytics.  Several “real live” customer’s examples were used to illustrate to the group exactly what it looks like to attain an optimized website.

The meeting lasted just under 2 hours, but it seemed as if it went by in a flash.  The group had great questions and hopefully everyone took home one thing that will change the way they look at their website!

ALSO… we could not resist… we are now proud to announce that Golden Communications is a member of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce!

Jason Lavin guest speaker at PortTech LA

37Signals gives a great example of accentuating the positive when communicating with customers.

A blog is a broadcast, not a publication. If it stops moving, it dies.
- Andrew Sullivan

[via SwissMiss]

There’s nothing I like better than when a client teaches me a thing or two about doing business. Imagine how much I loved learning from my new client and friend Parviz Firouzgar at the AAA Gold Exchange one rainy Friday evening…

Parviz called late on Friday, seeking a new company to host his website www.aaagoldexchange.com. When I took the call, I mentioned I’d been meaning to exchange my old gold jewelry for cash, but had never gotten around to it. The consummate business owner, Parviz said, “bring your hosting contract and your old jewelry in tomorrow – I’ll sign your contract and give you a quote for your gold.”

Ahhh, how can you tempt a sales professional like myself more? The promise of a new client and cash in my pocket all from one visit? There’s a guy who knows how to read his audience! So, up I went, Saturday morning…rain coming down in buckets on my windshield…my GoldenComm hosting contract in one hand, gold jewelry in the other (and quote for the gold from a local jeweler in my back pocket!) (more…)

TechCrunch wonders if it’s time for Microsoft to change its culture. They have an interesting analysis:

The trouble, I feel, lies in the middle layer of the cake — as it does so often in real life (damn the jelly). The issue is that the best ideas often occur on the lowest levels, as much because those levels are highly populated as that they are the youngest and freshest, and these ideas must trickle up…. Unfortunately, when you factor in the inevitable corporate friction, you’re looking at years of development for a product which may or may not even be worthwhile. By the time the sausage is made, everyone has already moved on to quail…

Microsoft is simply too big and too inflexible to really push truly interesting products out the door as fast as they need to. This isn’t any sort of big revelation, but it’s a problem with a solution: turn the company upside-down…. The Microsoft method of slowly advancing employees’ responsibilities has created so many middle men that there is hardly any other kind of person working there any more.

Lindsay Robertson writes a Guide to Online Publicity for Dummies. It’s full of great stuff for bloggers and PR people.

Here’s a fantastic tip:

A Monkey Can Send a Mass Email: Build Relationships and Understand What Your Real Job Is

A publicist should ask him or herself not “How can I get my news/content on a blog?” but “What news/content do I have that this blogger will want, but doesn’t even know it yet? And especially: what do I have that’s better than what this blogger has already found on his or her own?” To paraphrase the famous Dale Carnegie quote: when you go fishing, you don’t put what you want (strawberries) on the line, you dangle what the fish wants (worms). Duh to that.

[via kottke]

I talk a lot about good practices in blogging for your business. A lot of times, I talk about how it’s done wrong. But today, Jason and I were discussing one of our clients, All Star Tire. The team behind All Star Tire’s blog does everything right.

* They blog about specific products they sell: TSW Wheels, DUB Spinners, Lumarai Wheels.

* They have great newpaper-like headlines for their posts: HRE Performance Wheels and Dymag Racing announce strategic partnership.

* They talk about their customers and the work they do for them: this Maserati owner and this Dodge Viper owner.

* They tag and categorize their posts with short, descriptive tags that make sense. Their posts also are short and informative.

* They educate their customers but more importantly, by doing this through a blog, they open a dialog with those customers.

These are simple bullet points to hit when you write for your own blog. Get yourself noticed and open up your business by talking about what you do, what you sell, to whom you sell it.

37signals has another great post on writing for your website. They do a great comparison between Samsonite’s About page which contains phrases like:

By identifying trends and interpreting travelers’ needs, Samsonite continues to infuse innovation and new ideas into travel, re-igniting the sophistication and experience of the past.

And Saddleback Leather’s The Saddleback Story which tells a personal story about their goods:

It all began when I had my first bag made while living in Southern Mexico as a volunteer English teacher to kids who needed a little help. I had looked everywhere for just the right bag, but with no luck…

In my search, I walked into a little leather shop and met the fellow working leather in the back. I asked him if he could make me a bag if I were to draw it out. I told him that I wanted this bag to be made so well that my grandkids would be fighting over it while I was still warm in the grave. He said “Si” and I said “Bueno” and that’s how it all started.

37signals gets it right:

A personal story like that is something a little guy can deliver that a big corp can’t. A tiny company can bring people inside the fold this way and turn a perceived weakness (small size) into a strength.

Too often I see small companies trying to sound corporate on their websites. They use corporate-speak that is worse than being impersonal; it’s just invisible. I, and probably most web users, don’t even read About pages when they talk in buzzwords and industry terms. But give me an interesting story and I’ll stick around. You’ll probably find your users will too.

If you want a little more on the subject, read 37signals’ entire post.

Woorkup.com covers How To Write News for your Website. It’s another great read for those who need a primer in creating web content. The bit on Content is excellent:

Don’t waffle. Explain everything without using any more words than necessary. Fill the first paragraph with a succinct summary of the whole article, then expand on it further down the page. Make your news accurate and easy to understand. Journalists will avoid stories that are overcomplicated or will cut out technical jargon. Their aim will be to encourage readers to read all the article. That should be your aim too. Always give a link to a contact, contact page or phone number.

Carsonified covers 10 Things to Consider When Writing For the Web. It’s a great overview for anyone who considers their web content. My favorite tip is this:

Avoid the use of ALL UPPER CASE in your copy as it takes 57% longer to read. Also avoid starting every word with a capital letter in your headings.

And though they cover “The Right Length,” they only mention sentences. One of the most important things is to keep your actual content short. No one goes to your website to read long pages of content. Be brief and to the point.