Ask Mr Mark

There is something to be said for a strong virtual community. One of the key reasons I use StudioPress for WordPress website themes is because of their awesome support. Not just from the owners and founders, but from the serious community of professionals that exists within their support area. People who are there to help no matter the problem or your level of understanding.

I have been a StudioPress user since almost the beginning when Brian Gardner created his first series of themes. Whenever something didn’t make sense or I screwed up a site, I would log into the support area, post the question and within a few minutes to an hour, have some reply. Most times it would solve the problem or on that rare occasion I would hit a bad time warp… I would get someone who politely tell me it was their bedtime in some region of the world and that they would find the answer in the morning. Their morning. And not worry about it.

Trust me when I say that they help anyone no matter the level of understanding. We were all newbies once and the people behind StudioPress understand that. When I first started working in WordPress and themes, I asked some really stupid questions and I always got a polite, understanding, detailed answer that solved the problem.

If it is super time critical or I need specialized work done, there is the list of approved StudioPress web designers I could hire. The same people who often times spend hours in the support area, answering other questions for free. So it’s a win-win situation.

A while back, I did an upgrade and lost (or so I thought) some changes I made to an earlier design. Logged on, posted the problem and in ten minutes had it fixed better than I had hoped for. Come to find out that it was pretty much on my end. One line of code needed to be changed. But the response was almost immediate and the changes solved the problem and made it all work a lot better.

It’s not a closed community, like other CSM communities or forums. The people you meet there will also help point you to other great websites that offer other plug-ins or tweaking to super charge your website or to learn new tricks in design, programming and Search Engine Optimization. Stick around long enough and you will find yourself answering questions as well. Adding to the community.

The other reason I stay with StudioPress is that Brian (the founder) and his team continue to make the current list of Themes work even better. Not just building new ones, but going back and improving what they already created earlier.

From single site users to web developers, StudioPress has the the themes that work good, look good and are easy to maintain. Check them out and see what I mean.

Take care,

Mark Anthony

This past week I was passing through Santa Barbara and ran into Dee Elias. She is the brains, the enthusiasm and the smile behind Dee Tours of Santa Barbara. A limousine/tour/sightseeing company based off the beaches of this little piece of heaven.

Having some limousine experience in my background, we hit it off right away and started to talk. Her business is new, unique and with her personality, on the verge of doing some amazing things. She asked for my thoughts of her business and some better ways to get it into the minds, hearts and bookmarks of people coming to Santa Barbara.

You Asked…. So here it is….

The limousine/tour business is a male dominated, ego filled niche. So you will find resistance everywhere you turn. Something you have already encountered. Take it as a badge of honor, not as a knock against your business or your ability to make it into a success.

The product you offer is unique. You have a charming and disarming personality with a lot of enthusiasm for what you are doing. These are two marketing tools that will serve you well.

Now onto the Internet Marketing:

Get on your webmasters backside and get them to do what you are paying them to do: Build a friendly website.

Get rid of the flash on the home page. Flash was cool and fun to look at about 10 years ago. It doesn’t load well. Especially on mobile devices or iPads. My Android just laughed at it. If you are stuck on flash, at least have an easy to find, good sized click button to bypass the intro.

I believe your future is with traveling impulse buyers, many are seasoned travelers with mobile devices, smart phones and other wireless devices. Not sitting in the office, in front of a computer with a giant monitor.

You belong to the Chamber, get their annual survey and see where the visitors are coming from. Than jump online and find travel, weddings and tourist related blogs, forums and other communities of people from these places. Jump in and join their conversations.

You have a unique product in a beautiful town. Highlight both items a lot more. Nice sized pictures of the vehicle being enjoyed by your guests in various locations around the city should be on each page.

Give each photo a name that reflects what the pic is (mission_sb.jpg)and use alt text telling what the photo is. Search engines read photos giving you even more exposure.

Get thumbnail pictures of your “team members” next to their name. Maybe a little bio on why they love to do tours. Make them a person; sell the personality of the people and the passion of the business as well as the tours.

Do you see a pattern here??

Keywords are not accurate for what you told me you are doing and want to do. Plus keywords, page descriptions are missing from many of your web pages. Yes, search spiders still use them.

Let it be known that you can pick up at various hotels and that you can work with tour groups on a budget and on a schedule. Notice the word “can”. Not that you do or you do at all hotels, but you offer the ability to.

The text on the website is very corporate speak. Business talk is not for fun tours and group activities. Make it lite and tourist friendly. Bullet points of who you affiliate with and who you are governed by. (Reverse those. It’s better to push the community efforts than the legal stuff)

Get a toll free number. And ditch the plain looking business cards. Nice 4 color business cards cost about the same and look a lot better, especially if one side has a photo of the limo!

Get rid of the Yahoo email and get a Gmail account. Like I said when we talked, Gmail will open doors for you on the Internet like no other source. BTW, I don’t see any analytic’s on your website. So how do you know how people are finding your website??

Get on twitter and twit about your tours with photos and guests pitching in when they can. Same with FaceBook, flickr and webshots. Start a YouTube channel and post some videos of your tours and your town…. Sorry, but it’s all a necessity for the tour business.

When you create email accounts, profiles on other websites and social media, keep it all as close to your business name as possible.

Create a few other websites that can feed the tour website. I imagine a nice photo blog of Santa Barbara and maybe even a tourist type podcast. Both would help make you the resident expert in Santa Barbara tours and tourist updates.

It would not be me, if I did not suggest a blog. Either a stand alone or with the current website. Talk about the day, the guests and things that you are involved in. Nothing too dramatic or time consuming.

The blog would promote you, the tours, the people and the fantastic sights of Santa Barbara. Of course, this all leads back to the tours you offer.

That’s it on a first look. If you need any help or have questions with anything I said, give me a shout and we can talk.

Take Care

Mark Anthony