Fambul Tok: Community Reconciliation in Sierra Leone and Beyond

Last week flyte launched a Web site and blog for Fambul Tok International, a face-to-face community-owned program that brings together perpetrators and victims of the violence in Sierra Leone’s eleven-year civil war.

Fambul Tok, Krio for “Family Talk,” emerged from the unique approach to community reconciliation pioneered in Sierra Leone. Visitors to the Web site can view an annotated slide show of the elements of Fambul Tok, learn more about Fambul Tok – The Film, sign up for the email newsletter, or check out the FTI Blog: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Peace.

In addition, FTI is fully embracing social media, with presences on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.

Both the site and the blog were designed by the always talented and ever charming Braden Buehler of Narrative Design, and developed for the WordPress platform by flyte.

To learn more about Fambul Tok be sure to visit the site and check out this video on YouTube:

Rich Brooks
WordPress Design & Development

February 8th, 2010 In Web Site Launches | 1 Comment »
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Maine Subaru Deals: Adopt a Subaru from Evergreen Subaru

Needed: warm and loving garage for some of Maine’s most adorable cars.

Or, at least, that’s the gist of this new blog from Maine’s Evergreen Subaru: Adopt a Subaru. Loving families can peruse litters of both new Subaru vehicles and gently used Subaru (and other) vehicles.

In addition, Maine car buyers can read expertly-written auto blog posts to help them choose the perfect vehicle for their family, like:

If you’re looking for a car in Maine, be sure to check out Evergreen Subaru’s main site and their new Adopt a Subaru blog, designed by flyte and powered by WordPress.

And won’t you take one of these babies home? I mean, I dare you to just look into those headlights and try and say no. They’ll melt your heart, no matter how cold the Maine winters get.

Rich Brooks
Business Blog Design

February 5th, 2010 In Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Web Site Launches | No Comments »
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Business Blogging Webinar: Take Your Blog to the Next Level

The other day I presented at a tourism conference on social media. By a show of hands I asked how many people were on Twitter, had Facebook fan pages, and blogged. I was surprised–and a bit disappointed–that blogging trailed Twitter and Facebook.

Not that I don’t love Twitter and Facebook, but blogging has so much more to offer your business. It offers unparalleled search engine optimization, it’s a great tool for establishing your expertise, and you have greater control over your own content, not relying on the continued popularity of a social media platform.

In my opinion, there’s no better tool in your Web marketing toolbox than a blog.

If you don’t understand why, or you want to know how to attract more readers to your blog, or you need your blog to generate more online leads, than you should check out flyte’s upcoming webinar: How to Plan, Build and Promote a Business Blog. With 60 minutes of content and 30 additional minutes of Q&A, you’ll leave the webinar with renewed blogging energy and ideas on how to make your blog work for you.

Date: Thursday, 2/11/10
Time: 1pm – 2:30 ET
Place: Your desktop
Cost: $50 Now just $30! Save $20 w/discount code “baseball”

There are a limited number of seats (yes, even webinars have “seats”) so register now!

Rich Brooks
Blogging About Blogging Since 2004

February 4th, 2010 In Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, flyte news | 3 Comments »
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How Do People Find My Blog?

Dear Rich,

This may be a stupid question, but how do people find my blog?

–Blogging in Baileyville

Dear Blogging,

There are no stupid questions while the person asking is still in earshot.

Yours, however, is not stupid on any level. I have been asked this many times. The simplest answer is, “the same way they find your Web site: through search engines.” By creating a new blog post you are also creating a new Web page, and every Web page is an opportunity to rank for another search term at Google, Bing or Yahoo.

To take full advantage of this you should perform a keyword analysis so you know what your prospects are searching for. Once you know the phrases that are most likely to attract the right type of audience, make sure you use these phrases in your titles, tags, categories and body copy. Your post title, which becomes the page title, is half the battle of attracting your audience.

Rich Brooks
Business Blog Marketing

Photo credit: James Lumb

February 3rd, 2010 In Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Copywriting, Web Marketing | 4 Comments »
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Mainely Mara – Exclusive Deals on Portland Maine Boutiques & Spas

We’re in the midst of a custom design and programming job for MainelyMara, a company that gets insane deals on boutique and spa services in Greater Portland, Maine. However, during the ramp up to Mara launching her site, she’s running a pre-launch special. You just need to sign up at her Web site to activate your free membership.

I can’t tell you what the reward is, but if you enjoy pampering yourself, and you live or vacation in southern Maine, you should really take advantage of this offer while it lasts.

MainelyMara’s brand ID was created by talented local designer Arielle Walrath, which we then integrated into a coming soon page site and a Constant Contact email marketing account.

Go ahead, pamper yourself.

Rich Brooks
Waiting on my mani/pedi

February 3rd, 2010 In Web Site Launches | No Comments »
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New Designs for Affordable Websites from flyte

Starting at just under $2K, our ProSites have always been a good choice for startups or companies that want to take some of their “Interweb funds” and put it towards some search engine optimization, blogging or email marketing.

This past week we introduced three new designs, Textures, Bright Lights and World Travel, as well as retiring some of our older designs.

Besides the great price point, all of these ProSites are built on WordPress, a simple-to-use content management system (CMS). That means you can add, edit, and delete content, pages, upload images, and embed videos to your heart’s content (or to your business’s needs.)

These sites have been built to be flexible enough to fit almost any kind of business, and you can change the navigation to fit your offerings, whether they’re services or products. They work great for non-profits, too.

But wait, there’s more!

Through the month of February (that’s 2010), we’re going to include a free blog with every ProSite. For search engine optimization, establishing your credibility, and as the hub of your social media activity, there’s no better tool than a business blog, and with the new ProSites, they’re integrated into your website. They’re the perfect compliment to an effective Web presence.

Be sure to check out the ProSites at our Web site, or just reach out now and contact flyte today.

Rich Brooks
Affordable Websites for Small Business

February 1st, 2010 In Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Design & Development, Web Site Launches, flyte news | No Comments »
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How to Keep People from Unsubscribing from Your Ezine

We recently did a post on How to Build Your Email Subscriber List and another on How to Segment Your Email Subscriber List, so this Q & A seemed an appropriate bookend to the series:

Dear Rich,

I’m getting a lot more unsubscribes lately from my email newsletter and I’m not sure why. What can I do to keep people from unsubscribing from my list?

Frustrated in Farmington

Dear Frustrated,

There are a few tried and true methods to keep people from unsubscribing from your list:

  • Stop publishing new email newsletters; if they don’t get them, they won’t unsubscribe.
  • Threaten them with bodily harm if they do.

Unfortunately, the first option won’t help you grow your business and you’ll still be paying monthly hosting fees, and the second one isn’t very cost effective given all the necessary travel.

If you are suddenly getting a spike of unsubscribes look to your behavior:

  • Did you stop delivering on expectations? If you promised monthly information-rich email newsletters during signup and you’re suddenly sending weekly discounts from the company store, you may get a lot of unsubscribes.
  • Did you recently make a major change your email newsletter? People want consistency. A change in design, layout, name, or adding lots of advertising or banners can all turn subscribers off.
  • Did you stop providing value? Let’s face it: none of us would be too upset if we started getting less email. Every email newsletter you send out comes with an implicit invitation to unsubscribe. Sometimes the value to provide is no longer relevant to a subscriber; if you sell kids clothing and they suddenly became an empty-nester, your email newsletter no longer holds any value. Other times you put your own interests, such as selling your Webinars or widgets, before the needs of your audience. Whatever you send out, make sure that it provides value to your audience, otherwise they’ll unsubscribe in droves.

Rich Brooks
Email Marketing for Small Business

Photo credit by saneboy

January 28th, 2010 In Email Marketing | 4 Comments »
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Customizing Your Facebook Fan Page

If the number of invitations I receive every day to become a fan of yet another eatery in Des Moines, or an interactive agency in Tuscon, is any indication, companies of all sizes are realizing the benefits of a Facebook fan page.

Then how come they’re all so boring and repetitive?

Without taking some steps to customizing your Facebook presence, your fan page will look like every other page on Facebook. It’s time to stand out from the crowd and customize the look.

Using FBML (Facebook Markup Language) you can add a box (tab) to your fan page where you can render HTML or FBML to enhance, customize and brand your little area of Facebook.

(As you can see, flyte has recently created a branded landing page for our Facebook fan page.)

You should customize your landing page with complimentary graphics that you use in other marketing material, especially your Web site, blog and email newsletter.

You can make it the landing page for non-fans in the Wall Settings section of your fan page admin under the setting “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else.”

Special kudos to Ryan Goan, our creative director who designed our new landing page, Gloria Maher who developed it, and Chrystie Corns who inspired us to add more color to our own landing page.

If you’d like to customize your Facebook landing page, contact flyte new media today.

Rich Brooks
Facebook Marketing for Small Business

flyte new media on Facebook

January 27th, 2010 In Social Media, Web Marketing, flyte news | 2 Comments »
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SEO and Social Media Consults Giveaways

This is the last week to enter for two of flyte new media’s Web marketing giveaways:

Search Engine Optimization:

Would you like your site to rank higher at the search engines? Do you wish you could attract more qualified leads to your Web site? Do you wonder why your competition beats you at Google?

If so, register for our Search Engine Optimization Consultation, that includes two one-hour consultations, a review of your site and recommendations, and a mini-keyword analysis from Nicki Hicks, our search engine marketer.

Web Marketing / Social Media:

Are you struggling to understand Facebook? How Twitter can help grow your business? How YouTube can attract qualified leads to your Web site? Whether a blog will increase your search engine visibility or eat up your last remaining free time?

If so, register for our Web Marketing / Social Media Consultation, with your man about town, Rich Brooks. We’ll talk about social networking sites, blogs, video and anything else you need to drive more qualified leads to your Web site and grow your business.

Both contests wrap up on Sunday, 1/31/2010, so be sure to take advantage of this offer if you’re looking to build your business in 2010.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Small Business

January 25th, 2010 In Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Web Marketing, flyte news | 3 Comments »
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How to Segment Your Email Subscriber List

Dear Rich,

I don’t want to send information to subscribers that they’re not interested in and risk having them unsubscribe. How can I do a better job delivering only the information they want to receive?

–Confused in Cornish

Dear Confused,

You ask a good question, and your solution probably lies in segmenting your list and delivering on subscribers’ expectations.

The signup process is an excellent time to have people self-select their interests. Most email service providers, (we use Constant Contact,) will let you create multiple lists that target the different interests of your readers. This is email segmentation.

For most small businesses I wouldn’t recommend having too many choices; first off too many choices can lead to the would-be subscriber feeling overwhelmed and choosing nothing at all, and also it puts an increased burden on you to create multiple email newsletters.

If you already have a list, you can still create segmented email lists.

Some email service providers (ESPs) allow you to create interest groups based on subscribers’ behavior. For example, if you run a pet store and a number of subscribers click on a link to see your baby snakes offer, you may create an interest group around reptiles and send out targeted messages to that group.

If you have had a list for a long time, you might consider sending out a survey to your subscribers and ask them what type of content they’re looking for. Depending on your industry and your audience, their needs may shift over time. Once created, you can invite people to sign up for these new segmented lists.

If you’d rather not run separate lists, you might consider just putting a table of contents at the top of each newsletter, and let people click down to the article they’re interested in. This may prove to be easier to manage, and has the added benefit of some cross promotion. People who would have subscribed only to your gardening tips lists might be intrigued by your articles on patio repair and maintenance.

The other part of the equation is to deliver on expectations: if people are expecting information-rich articles and you start delivering Sunday flyers, they’ll unsubscribe in the time it takes to hit a button.

Do YOU have any techniques on segmenting email lists?

Rich Brooks
Email Marketing for Small Business

January 24th, 2010 In Email Marketing | 2 Comments »
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