Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of deals on TV and all over the Internet advertising a quick and easy website for small businesses to get started online. Let me give you my personal experience with a lot of these websites – they are pieces of crap. Buying into the quick set-up, low cost model of Web Development & Marketing, is like buying a stationary bicycle – sure, you’ll be able to exercise but you’ll never be able to go anywhere with it.

At our company we take the time to ask all the necessary questions about the company, I want to understand as much as possible about the industry that they work in, who their target market is, what there short and long term goals are. In my mind (and in our development work) these are essential to the end product. When you’re buying a website from Espire Marketing you’re not buying a website customized to make sure that when we launch, you have all the right tools in place to reach your end goals – and to be effective in your market.

In this industry there are many options, sometimes it’s overwhelming to my potential clients because they simply don’t understand many of the things that I’m talking about. As a small business developer and marketer, I feel that it’s important that I educate my clients on the tactics that I’m using and why they will be beneficial. We have no secrets with our clients – the tactics that we put to use are put in place to make sure that our clients have the absolute best chance to compete and excel in their market.

Here is the real difference between what we do, and what the other guys do – when you get a website from us – every single aspect of every page – every keyword, link, button, and picture – is put in it’s place to maximize the usability and marketability of your website. I would rather lose money on a project than give my customers a product that doesn’t meet our high quality standards.

The entire reason that I started this business was because I really CARE about small businesses. My family’s company paid a lot of their hard earned money for a website from a company that was a grade A piece of crap. When I was hired to come in and clean up the mess – it took us almost a full year (and a few thousand dollars) to clean up all of the mess that the previous development company left for us to clean up. That – is unacceptable to me.

We build custom websites for our clients using the absolute best technology available that is not only beneficial to them now, but will carry their business into the future. If our clients are successful using our products, then it means that we did our jobs. No two businesses are the same – while they may sell similar products – each small business has it’s own character, special offers, and story to tell. There is no ticky tack solution in the world that can capture the imagination and entrepreneurial spirit that your business has to offer. Why settle for a pre-packaged, poorly planned, and terribly executed website – when you can build a custom website with us that will take your company into the future? For my company – and hopefully for yours as well – we don’t settle for just okay – we expect the best. And that is why we build custom websites for our clients. Thanks for reading.

Okay – so I recently subscribed to the #smallbusiness hashtag on Twitter and I really need to vent about something. Since subscribing I’ve seen the username @labwebde tweet 6 times selling their “affordable services.” I’ve taken a look at their work and there are a few red flags that really worry me about this company.

Normally I would let this go but one tweet really got me fired up because it is so misleading about what works and what doesn’t work online.

SEO a scam? Wow. SEO sets the foundation for every single small business marketing campaign. The thing that was really upsetting is that the company threw the word scam around without taking a look into a mirror.

Their twitter account has over 24,800 tweets – 99% of them trying to sell their services. Social media is about sharing information that will be beneficial to everyone – not about selling products. Even worse – I decided to take a look into their services. First off “affordable” is certainly A word that you could use for their services – I’d prefer to use the word CHEAP to describe them.

Take a look at this screenshot of one of their websites:

Notice anything strange? What is that buggy code at the top of the page showing some random number? It’s not a visitor count I can tell you that much – it’s just shotty work. On top of that after reviewing the SEO services for that clients website I noticed that they ranked either D or F on nearly every single important SEO initiative that would be beneficial to their clients and bring the real results.

I am pretty sure that a 5 year old with a few weeks of practice could create the website that this person used – and they charged up to $1500 for it!?

There are many things that are affordable in life – and there are many online services that are affordable on the Internet – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are beneficial. Think of it like this – if you buy some toys from the dollar store, they are certainly very affordable….but they’ll break in 3 months with any use.

I’m writing this article because people like this company give reputable businesses like mine a bad name. We offer our services for FAR LESS than larger firms but we ALSO give you everything that they would give you. Don’t get fooled by the “affordable” tag – it’s only that cheaply priced because they’re giving you the bare minimum to get your site up. You’ll find that they’ll leave you extremely disappointed and not prepared to succeed online. If you’re serious about succeeding online – you can’t skate by with the bare minimum.

At Espire we take our jobs very seriously. Deciding to work with us means that you’re putting your business’s online success in our hands. I got in this business to help small businesses avoid these type of cheap “get rich quick” type scams and to give them a value that they will see in their sales figures and feel in momentum. If you’re interested in finding out more contact us or take a look at our small business services. I promise you that you’re in good hands and we have a proven track record of success. Thanks for letting me vent – have a happy new year and a fantastic day.

It all started for me with the creation of the iPod. To that point in my life I hadn’t had my own portable MP3 player, I had been using a hand me down Walkman that my brothers no longer wanted as they upgraded their mobile music devices. I was instantly intrigued by the device as I started to see them popping around my school. It was so different than any other mobile music product that had ever been created – it was a creative solution to housing and playing music in the rapidly emerging digital music market.

I got my iPod and then the iPhone 2.0 came out – I had to have it – and so I did. The iPhone was a complete game changer from the very beginning and the team at Apple has only continued to amaze with what they have been able to do with that phone.

Technological advances aside – the real inspiration for me was seeing how well Steve Jobs and Apple commanded the respect of the industry, the buzz that it created around it’s products, and the constant attention that it’s brand received over these past 10 years. At least in my life, I have yet to see another brand that captivated it’s audience so well. Steve personally inspired me with his love for his work and his life. Watching the Apple events (which have been known to crash websites) was just so inspiring to see how much he truly enjoyed his work.

Steve Jobs is a man who I will truly miss – only time will tell how much his life impacted the technology sector. I pray for peace and comfort to be brought to his family and loved ones and I am just happy to have been alive to watch his story unfold. Here’s to Steve Jobs – Rest In Peace. To end this Friendship Friday I want to leave you with the words from Steve Jobs speaking to Stanford in 2005. My favorite portion of this speech comes around 08:11.

Here’s the main difference between Apple and RIM as I see it. Apple and Google are concerned on pretty design and profiting on their consumers time and time again while having to do as little as possible to create a REAL user experience for their users, while RIM is focused entirely on creating a fantastic product and user experience for their users.

First off – RIM has been at the forefront of smartphone technology since the term was created. Hell, Blackberry was the first phone ever associated with the term smartphone. Apple – has barely innovated a single thing about the smart phone – even the apps that make the iPhone so popular aren’t even a product of Apple. iPhone Maps – that is Google’s product executed on Apple’s device. Practically the only thing that is a product of Apple on the iPhone is the design and the logo on the back.

Meanwhile – RIM innovated and created the first mobile social experience exclusively for their devices with Blackberry Messenger – used by over 35 million people worldwide – completely created by RIM. Their email service is second to none – I get emails on my Blackberry faster then I do in my gmail inbox, I can reply to them easily with a QWERTY keyboard and no annoying auto correct that calls my buddy an asshole instead of asking him if he’d like to come over to watch the game. Oh also – on a blackberry device you’re not held hostage by their App World’s rules and regulations – you can download any program or application that you’d like OTA (over the air for newbs) – oh yeah and you don’t have to jailbreak it to do so. Their notifications system – second to none. Their international use – second to none.

RIM has failed to execute quickly on some devices lately – I bought a playbook and I must say I am not overly impressed with it. They have missed the mark as of late – but that doesn’t mean that they are not a viable player. I for one believe in RIM and believe that opportunities will arise for them to make a comeback bigger than ANYONE could ever imagine. And then – they’ll take their 35 million users worldwide and smile from the top.

I’ve had just about every type of smartphone you can have – and time and time again I come back to Blackberry. Why? Because when it comes down to it – I don’t want my phone cutting out because of how I hold my phone, I don’t want to have to open the 50-100 emails I get per day one-by-one just to get the stupid notification to go away on my phone, and most importantly I want the power to choose WHAT I WANT to do with my phone. If you’d like to be boxed in by your phone providers “App Store” guidelines – then go with some of the others – but if you like the freedom to do what you want – then pick the name that’s been synonymous with the word smartphone since the smartphone was invented – Blackberry.

My family’s business has been approached by both the local Groupon sales associates our radio advertisement salesperson, and other various forms of daily deals. At first – I bought into the hype, but my mother (who is a number cruncher) pointed out the actual potential risks involved. I don’t like to say other people were right and I was wrong very often – but I’ve tried to apply the Groupon model to just about any type of business and it simply doesn’t make sense.

Ever wonder why that same crappy restaurant seems to have a new Groupon every month? Well it’s because they are a crappy restaurant. They rely on Groupon to send them cheap clientele in order to try and scrape enough money together at the end of the month to pay bills. The only sense of loyalty to the business is because they’re getting a good deal.

I think the very same ideas can be applied to those who like to advertise in the monthly coupon mailers, or the “Dollar Saver” magazines of the world. The fact of the matter is – that if the only way your business can bring in money is to create “value” through de-valuing the products or services that you sell – you’re in trouble.

Instead of looking for that quick and easy way to put a band aid on your foot traffic and cash flow problems, why not instead take a good look at your business model and see what the real problem is. You might be able to scrape some food off the bottom with your coupon deals – but if people only come to you because it’s cheap – doesn’t that say a lot about your business in the first place? Just something to think about.

”Hello,

We recently announced upcoming changes to the maximum number of users for Google Apps. We want to let you know that, as a current customer, the changes will not affect you.

As of May 10, any organization that signs up for a new account will be required to use the paid Google Apps for Business product in order to create more than 10 users. We honor our commitment to all existing customers and will allow you to add more than 10 users to your account for flagladyusa.com at no additional charge, based on the limit in place when you joined us.

Sincerely,

Google Business Apps Team”

Jump on it.

First off let me start by saying – that I understand that outages happen. I actually was extremely understanding calm, cool, and collected through this entire experience (even joked with the customer service reps on the phone) that is until AT&T U-verse failed to follow through with their final service plan after a full 5 hours of sitting around – waiting for the SECOND technician of the day.

Okay now for the terrifying details. First off – who has two thumbs and hates computerized customer service – THIS GUY! For comedic relief we’ll call him computer eddie. It has become the norm for large companies to have them, AT&T even tried to get savvy with a computer that responds to voice – how quaint. The only problem is you had better be sitting in complete silence or you’ll be repeating yourself 15 times before you can go on to the second list of prompts where you get to talk to computer eddie for another 15 repeater.

Just a short 5 minutes after you’ve finished your fascinating introduction to AT&T’s “customer service” you should be connected to a live person in about another 1-3 minutes. This person will ask you all of the same questions that computer eddie just got done asking – how convenient!

The first time answering all of the questions about what my issue was and trying to trouble shoot the issues was no problem – however each time that I called back it was as if no one from the company had ever spoken to me before. Either they didn’t take notes to follow a customer issue call-to-call or the representatives with whom I spoke chose to disregard them completely. After repeating the same trouble shooting techniques with 3 technicians (yes three times – I told you they don’t take notes) they finally set up a time for a technician to come out.

Fast forward to today the technician shows up early in his 4-9 slot. I’m starting to feel as if I might be in good hands. 5 minutes after the tech comes in – he can’t figure out what’s wrong. He looks over to me and says “I’ll be right back.” I figure he’s going to get some tools for his truck. 20 minutes later I look outside and the truck is nowhere in sight. I walk around the house a bit confused – but indeed the tech was nowhere to be found. I walk back inside and figure maybe he had to go back to the warehouse to pick something up. Another 20 minutes goes by I walk outside and just happen to see the technician backing into the house two doors down from me’s driveway.

Again confused I walk down to see if he is indeed lost or if he had to do work down there. The technician had no clue that he was in the completely wrong place and looked pretty out of it in general. 5 minutes later he’s back to my place and “working” on resolving the issue. A full 2 hours after the technician arrives – he says, “I’ve got some bad news.” He informed me that it took him two hours to climb up a pole and use his testing tool to determine that there wasn’t anything that he could do. The actually testing process involves turning on a testing machine and listening for a signal (should only take 15 minutes tops.)

I then informed him that I needed my connection restored ASAP because I had a midterm the next morning – and clients awaiting some things from me. The technician calls his supervisor who says that with a full 3.5 hours left of sunlight that nothing could be done that day. Frustrated after having my entire day wasted – I call AT&T’s station manager myself – no answer. I then called AT&T’s main customer service line where I got to have another 15 minute bout with computer Eddie. Finally after like 3 more calls with the company and after threatening to cancel my services if it wasn’t handled properly – I got them to agree to come out that evening.

I was informed that my technician would arrive between 6:30-9:00 pm. HERE is the icing on the cake with how terrible AT&T U-verse customer service is…I was told to be expecting a call from a technician in just a few minutes – that was around 6:35 or so EST. 7:30 rolls around – no call. I let it go until about 8 pm EST and decide to get back in touch with computer Eddie and the AT&T “customer service” hotline.

I was informed by the representative that my technician was on the way and to be expecting a call at any time. I hop off of that call – 9:15 pm EST rolls around and still nothing. I get back on the phone to call AT&T and they inform me that the technician wouldn’t be able to make it that evening and that I’d just have to wait for the morning. What the hell!?

My wife and I sat around for 5 hours awaiting an issue to be resolved – one that AT&T promised to resolve that evening – and after all of that waiting they didn’t even have the decency to give us a courtesy call to let me know they weren’t going to make it!

The moral of the story is – if you were thinking of signing up for AT&T U-verse TV or Internet – just don’t do it. Never have I experienced such a lack of customer support and service – and never have I seen a company do so little to keep a customer for over 10 years (dating back to my first cell phone with Cingular, now AT&T)

The problem with my service has since been restored but the issue is far from resolved. No apology from the company, no offer to have my service pro-rated for the month. Nothing – a complete lack of customer care. As a result of this my wife and I will be switching to a company who actually treats their customers as humans.

Seriously – don’t sign up for AT&T U-Verse – when it comes down to it – they just don’t care about you.

I launched this website back in 2008 not knowing where it would lead. If you’ve followed me from the very beginning you know that we’ve covered just about every major topic in business and internet marketing that you can think of. One day an ex-coworker complimented me on how smart I was for “self branding” myself with this website. At the time, I didn’t quite know it, but that’s exactly what it ended up doing for me.

In the past few months while my amount of posts has diminished – business has been growing astronomically. We went from just a name on paper to serving clients all over the country in just a few short months.

I wanted to write to update all of you and to say thank you for all of your support, all of your kind words, and for just reading. I take what I do very seriously and it is nice to have readers who also take their work seriously.

That’s all for now – please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or ideas that you think we can help with. Till next time…

Technology for small businesses is sometimes a tricky subject. Many small businesses are apprehensive to technological changes because of the immense training and learning curve that is perceived to come along with technology changes.

More often then not, a small business owner doesn’t have the time to keep up with all of the latest technological changes that occur on a daily basis. It is my opinion that the further behind a company gets in the technological side of business, the bigger the edge could be for their competitors. While it may seem like a daunting task to update some software here, or update your collaboration services there, it is in the business owner’s best interest to work with the changes.

With this most recent economic downturn that we’re coming out of, most businesses looked towards their internal inefficiencies and decided to cut off the fat. What that does for employment numbers isn’t always good, but what it creates is a more efficient and well rounded business that will be able to expand more effectively when the economic turmoil subsides.

Some businesses will choose to look even further into the companies numbers and determine which of their current technological assets are inefficient and remedy the situation. It is important to note that technology is designed to make human interaction less painful and more efficient. It should be dually noted that technology will do the same for your business.

There are many amazing collaboration tools, devices, and software programs for your company to consider when you’re trying to “cut off the fat” from your productivity levels. I currently am working with the family business to switch our current mail services over to google because of the additional productivity and organizational tools that it will afford the business moving into the future.

The VP of the company (also my mother) is ready to embrace these changes, because she understands what needs to be done to get us working as efficiently as possible, but she still is a bit apprehensive because of the additional training it will involve for the rest of the company. Completely understandable.

As a young 20 something male whose been exposed to an entire life of technology I have trouble understanding that. When I have a question I turn to my favorite search engine and start typing. Generally it only takes me about 2 or 3 searches to find the precise information that I’m looking for. However, I do understand that not everyone was raised in that environment and it can be extremely overwhelming. The good news is, that the internet and the companies that have created these new technologies have multiple resources for you to find whatever information you’re looking for.

I guess my point is through all of this is to not be afraid to take that leap into the technological world. Once you’ve settled in on something that will work for your business and get working with the newer technology, you’ll find that the rewards will be astronomical. Time is money – and new technology saves a whole lot of it.

Involver – The social media marketing company has launched something that they might be worth a shout. They recently launched a new technology SML or social mark-up language. This new technology promises to give us the non-developer types the ability to create high quality content on their social media pages.

The overview page doesn’t offer much in the way of information as to what the technology will actually allow. However it does promise to give you the ability to do more with your social media campaigns, deliver more to your users, and give you the ability to get creative with your social media marketing campaigns.

I have contacted Involver and requested a demo. My hope is to share all of the capabilities with you upon completion of that demo.