Welcome to the world of crowdsourcing – the perfect way to get hundreds of logo designs from thousands of designers around the world – all for a few hundred bucks!

In this video, I take a quick look at LogoTournament – a service that we use and recommend.

What do you think?

• Still gotta have a website!
• The mobile wars are heating up.
• The cloud and web-based apps will become even more important.

What do you think?

It’s been interesting to hear all of the feedback about our new Forge3 website, and more specifically, about how we’re using social media, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more, to stay engaged and share information with you, our audience.

Enjoy the video, and be sure to become a “fan” on our Forge3 page on Facebook!

In this video, we take a quick look at TweetDeck – an application that makes it easy to stay connected.

And, while you’re at it, click here to join Forge3 on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter!

We use Wufoo on most client websites, and even use it for our own Contact Us page.

I’d love to know what you think.

To everyone out there that has supported the new Forge3 site launch with tweets, comments, emails, phone calls and more – THANK YOU!

In just a few short days, 1,000’s of you have visited the site and watched the videos. It’s great to know that you’re finding value in what we’re trying to do. It’s greatly appreciated!

And, be sure to become a Facebook fan and follow Forge3 on Twitter! :)

Forge ahead!

The first part of the video is stuff that we typically do for clients, and the second half shows some of the powerful reporting that’s available to monitor response and overall effectiveness.

Here’s the bottom line…

If you want to send a blast email to a large number of recipients, you should not use your regular email program (like Outlook or otherwise). Rather, you’ll want to use a system designed to handle the mailing – like the one shown in the video.

As always, I welcome your thoughts or questions.

Key highlights included…

• Gotta have a website!
• Be professional and use an email address @your-domain-name.com
• Forge3 uses GoDaddy private registrations for domain name purchases
• Twitter is a great tool to see what’s happening in your industry, and to stay in touch with the customer
• If you’re unsure about exposing your personal Facebook account to the world, create a fan page
• Twitter is all about listening, and then promoting yourself – in that order
• Transparency is good – and is becoming expected
• Go with your gut
• FarmVille is annoying, and Facebook is responding
• If you’re on a budget, at least have a single-page website
• Press releases are old school – Facebook, blogs and Twitter are now
• The Internet makes referrals easier and more effective
• Tell people YOUR story
• Go where your audience is

Have a question or comment? Let me know what you think.

A special thanks to Jeff Berdahl from Berdahl & Company, P.C. and Lehigh’s Small Business Development Center for hosting the event.

Stay tuned for videos of future events.

Here’s a quick intro and how we use it to store and share files with clients and team members.

What is Dropbox?

Here’s a quick blurb from www.getdropbox.com…

Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you’ve installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!). Because a copy of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website.

The beauty is that Dropbox keeps everything in sync – so if you put a file into the special Dropbox folder on your work PC, it magically shows up on your home laptop.

Forge3 + Dropbox

Before Dropbox, we manually emailed or posted client proposals, signed contracts, PDFs and other documents. It was a mess to maintain, and got in the way more than it helped. Plus, it required our technical know-how of using FTP, working with servers, etc. It’s not a good way to go.

Enter Dropbox. We now post all client files directly to Dropbox. Clean and simple. If a client needs to send a bunch of pictures for a website, they add them to Dropbox and we get them immediately. No more clogged emails. No more hassle. It just works.

Integrated and Seamless

Dropbox is a simple solution that gets out of the way. There’s a also great little program that you can install on your PC or Mac that creates a special Dropbox folder that looks just like the other folders on your computer. The Dropbox magic is that anything you put in that folder automatically gets synced to Dropbox – and your clients, other computers, etc. There’s even an iPhone app to access your files on the go.

Everything is password protected, and you choose who sees what.

Pricing

We’re using the free account which allows up to 2GB of storage. Other plans are available, including 100GBs for $19.99/month.

While it’s not important that you know the in’s and out’s of domain names, a high-level understanding is helpful.

Let’s take a look.

Domain names are like mailing addresses

We we mail a postcard, the mailing address tells the postal system where it’s going. So, for us, our Center Valley, PA post office will get it, look at the ZIP code, and put it on the proper truck. As it makes its way across the country, it’s handled and routed until it eventually ends up in its intended mailbox. It’s a simple system, and it works really well.

Domain names are just like mailing addresses. We we type www.forge3.com into our browser address bar, we’re telling the Internet where we want to go. The Internet is actually made up of a bunch of servers and connections – all of which know how to read our www.forge3.com “mailing address” to send us along to the Forge3 website server (which is currently located at Rackspace in Dallas, TX). The entire process takes milliseconds, and we’re soon browsing the Forge3 website.

It’s all about the pointers

So, our job is to tell the Internet where the Forge3 website is located. We do this by updating the domain name “pointers” – also called records – to point to the Rackspace server. Once we apply the updates, we wait 24-48 hours for them to take full effect across the Internet.

Proceed with caution

Messing around with your domain name can be confusing and dangerous – possibly causing you break your website, email and other mission-critical pieces of your business. This is why we have a master Forge3 account in which we manage all of our client’s domain names. We ensure that they don’t accidentally expire, and can make and necessary changes along the way. Regardless of who handles your domain name, just make sure it’s in good hands.

Let’s take a look at what you should know so that you can walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk.

Hits

First off, hits are useless. If someone tries to sell you an ad based on hits, run away. They’re either clueless or taking advantage of you.

Technically, a hit is the server’s response to a request. That sounds fine, until you realize that a single web page is made up of multiple pictures, graphics and other items – all of which are considered separate hits. So, as an example, when you visit the www.forge3.com home page, it generates 30+ hits. Needless to say, this number is useless for most of us. So, ignore it.

Visitors (usually called Uniques or Unique Visitors)

This is a better measure of activity. A visitor is counted when someone comes to a website at least once. If they come back later in the day, he/she is still only counted as one visitor.

For example, let’s say that we’re looking at monthly visitors, and I visit your website today. That’s counted as a visit. Then, let’s say that I come back the next week. This is still counted as a single visitor for the month.

So, if you’re buying an ad based on unique visitors, you’ll want to know how many visitors will see the ad and over what period of time.

TIP: Keep in mind that visitors are estimated. Why? Because most of us use multiple computers, phones, and gadgets to access the Internet. If I visit your website from my phone, and then again from my computer and laptop, this is counted as three separate unique visitors. This is because the website can’t tell that you are you - so it just counts each device as a separate visitor.

If you’re not, you’re probably at least curious about what the fuss is all about. So, let’s take a quick, high-level look at Twitter.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is all about connecting us with our audience – whether it’s our target market, clients, friends or anyone else that we care about. It’s a public forum to represent who we are and what we do.

And, more importantly, it allows us to keep our fingers on the pulse of what matters most to our businesses. If you engage the Twitter community, we’ll see market trends, hear feedback and engage with our target audience. This is powerful stuff.

How does it work?

Twitter is a very simple messaging system that allows us to send and receive messages to one another. These messages, called “tweets,” are limited to only 140 characters.

Here’s what a message could look like:

forge3
We’re ready to launch the new Forge3 website. What would you like to see on it?

This message is automatically sent to everyone on Twitter that cares about what we’re doing and has chosen to “follow” us.

But, Twitter is really about listening. So, anyone can send a “reply” to us using the following format:

clientABC
@forge3 I’d love to see some information on how to use Twitter.

The @forge3 part of the message is telling the system that the message should be sent to Forge3. It’s as simple as that.

Some real-world examples

OK. Now that you know the basics, why should you care? Here are a few real-world “tweets” to get kick-start your creative thinking.

JetBlue was one of the first big brands to use Twitter. The following example uses shortened links (from a service called bit.ly). This allows us to stay within the 140 character limit.

JetBlue
Our Sample Sale is going until 11:59 p.m. MDT today only. http://bit.ly/samplesale Mobile users: http://bit.ly/mobilesample

JetBlue also listens to messages written about them. And, more importantly, they respond publicly, like this:

JetBlue
@matthewfong We will honor the lower airfare & issue you a JB credit if your flight prices drop before departure :)

Should you use Twitter?

Absolutely! Why not?

• It’s free
• It’s an easy way to keep up with the latest news and trends concerning your business
• It offers a direct channel into your target market and your customer’s minds
• It provides transparency and breaks down the barriers between you and your customers
• Everyone else is doing it – if you’re not, the perception is that you just don’t get it

And, be sure to follow @forge3. We’ll see you on Twitter!

To determine the effectiveness of your website, you need to track the activity generated by it and measure it against the cost the create and maintain the website. Here are a few suggestions to consider.

Google Analytics

This one is a no-brainer. Every website should be connected to Google Analytics – a free reporting system that provides a ton of info about your website visitors – including how many, where they came from, how they found you and much more. You could spend a day drilling into the data that Google Analytics provides.

So, if you only care about website traffic, Google Anlytics can help determine your website’s ROI. However, if you’re like most businesses, you care more about selling a product or service. So, we need other ways to track and determine ROI.

Dedicated Website Phone Number and Email Address

Let’s assume that you sell a product or service. When someone calls or emails, how can we determine that they came to you via the website?

At the very least, you should establish a dedicated email address that is only used on your website (something like website@yourcompany.com). Then, each time you receive an email to this address, you know that the customer came through your website.

The same is true for phone numbers. Using a dedicated phone number helps track website activity. But, it might be tough to setup a dedicated phone number with your phone company or existing phone system. We need an easier option.

We often use and recommend a service called Grasshopper. This web-based service allows us to setup a dedicate toll-free and/or local phone number for your website, and automatically forwards incoming calls to your current phone number. The beauty of this solution is that it’s cheap (about $10/month), and provides detailed reporting on call activity.

Just Ask!

When I get a call from a new client, one of the first questions I ask is, “How did you find Forge3?” I then take note of their response and store it next to their other contact info. This “old fashioned” approach works just as well as the high-tech ways above – as long as you’re consistent about it.

Pulling It All Together – Determining ROI

Once you have the tracking pieces in place, the final step is to relate the website activity to the cost of the website.

For example, let’s assume that your website costs $10,000 to create, and that, on average, you receive 25 sales per  month via the website totaling $2,500. Doing the math, you’ll break even during month four, and begin to make money in subsequent months.

Prep your clients and colleagues BEFORE you check-out for your hard-earned trip.

Here’s how to do it.

A week before your scheduled trip, add a simple line to your email signature. Something like this is what I use…

NOTE: I will be out of the office with limited email and v-mail access Sept. 12th – Sept. 19th. Please contact me ASAP with any time-critical items.

–

Jeff Teschke | Forge3, Ltd.

610.555.1212 office | 610.555.3434 mobile | www.forge3.com

Forge ahead.

Then, during the time that you’re away, add an “out of office” message to your email account letting folks know that you’re wrapped up and won’t be able to respond as quickly as normal.

Here’s one from a recent trip I took to Aruba.

Hello, and thanks for your email.

I will be traveling internationally until Saturday, September 19 with limited access to email and voice mail.

If your request is urgent, I will reply to your email as quickly as possible. Alternatively, feel free to call my hotel directly at 1-800-845-4226.

Otherwise, I’ll be in touch upon my return.

–

Jeff Teschke | Forge3, Ltd.

610.555.1212 office | 610.555.3434 mobile | www.forge3.com

Forge ahead.

This approach works really well, and allows you to sit back, relax and enjoy the trip.

And, feel free to send a postcard my way!

Forge3, Ltd.
P.O. Box 108
Center Valley, PA 18034

The business world is changing. Technology is allowing us to become more efficient, productive and social. If you’re not using today’s tools, you’re missing the boat.

The new Forge3 website is all about sharing information and exposing you to today’s web-based tools and technology. This stuff will change your life. Seriously. My goal is to show you how.

So, sit back, relax and explore. And, be sure to check back every week for new stuff.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know.

Welcome to Forge3. I’m glad you’re here.

Forge ahead.