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Which piece of the price chart would you like?

February 4, 2012 By Lucilla Feliciano Leave a Comment

As a small business we are always looking to shape-up our business and try new ideas that we put into practice. Recently we decided that we needed to provide a better understanding of pricing for the websites and blogs we design, develop, and or implement. Instead of just providing one option to small, medium, and large sized organizations, we decided to offer a wide variety of options to choose from that will fit your business goals.

Starting the Conversation at a Price Point

From the options we are offering start from $399 to $7999.99 on up. As you go up in price, there are more details that are enhanced, added, created, and customized for your web or blog to function as people search for your services.

There are small companies and organizations that still don’t know why they are not attracting new clientele.

How can you stand out amongst all of the companies that provide the same service as you?

By providing new customer’s a place to read more about your customer service accolades, how you have been recognized by your peers in your specific industry, and what new services or products you will be able to provide for them in the coming year.

We invite you to take a look at our new pricing chart and give us your feedback on where we can start off for your specific needs.

Compare Features & Pricing

	$399+	$599+	$999+	$1,999+	$4,999+	$7,999+
Home Page
SEO Enhanced
PHP
Blog & RSS Feed
Unlimited Blog Posts
Content Editor
Newsletter Set Up
Sharing Via Social Outposts
WordPress or other CMS
Unlimited Pages
Creation of Social Outposts
Periodic Backups
Editorial Calendar
Custom Art Design
Professional Photographer
Customized Mobile Site
E-Commerce
Content Creation
Logo Creation
Multi-Language

Filed Under: Blog, Small Business, Uncategorized, Web & Blog Design Tagged With: Price Chart, Web and Blog Design

Shape up your business for 2012!

January 19, 2012 By Lucilla Feliciano 2 Comments

It is a new year and during this month we know that many people will be making resolutions to lose weight, eat healthier, become organized, and enhance their personal lives in all sorts of positive ways.

Resolutions?

What resolutions will you make for your small to medium sized business or organizations for this New Year?

Every business should have a need to re-organize and re-structure for the new year. Setting company goals for individuals who help run your business is something that should always be done but more importantly to provide focus to those employees on what you expect of them in the coming year.

As a previous employee for companies like Perkin Elmer LLC and Pitney Bowes we had our performance reviews. In the case of Perkin Elmer, we actually wrote down what we wanted to learn and achieve for the coming months and years. It was up to us in being proactive with our short-term and long-term business goals. Proactive employees means successful projects for the upcoming year translating into a healthier business environment.

Shape Up Your Business

How do small and medium sized companies help shape their business?

If you still don’t have a website, or feel the one you have is not living up to your audience’s expectations, make sure you get one made by professionals you can trust. The team and I are ready to help small and medium sized companies with enhancing their web presence by starting with a current state assessment of where your business is and how they are using the internet to market services.

Another way you can shape up the company is by looking at your current marketing strategies. If your company needs help with marketing strategies we can provide detailed recommendations and observations of what is being done well or even better yet identifying areas that need enhancements to meet current business goals and assure the best quality services.

Consulting with our team regarding the content of your website can also help you reach new clients and also put the spotlight on your management and resources while highlighting their expertise and how they can help new and returning clients.

As I have stated before, attracting clients with quality content is important and when it comes directly from your organization it shows that they you are committed towards creating better relationships with your clients and audience.

How has your company started shaping up for this year? How are you involving your resources (employees, management, and staff) to meet those goals?

Photo Credit by by eclipseGrafx

Filed Under: Blog, Small Business, Web & Blog Design Tagged With: Shape-Up, Small Business, Web Design

6 Ideas to Create Content for Your Corporate Blog

January 17, 2012 By Raul Colon 2 Comments

It still amazes me on how many people don’t see the purpose in writing a corporate blog. On many occasions someone wants to establish their online presence and they just want a static page. When I ask business owners why there is only a static page, their answer is that they don’t know what to write about on their corporate blog, or even worse that they don’t have time to be online.

When individuals are so resistant to set up a corporate blog it is obvious that they don’t see the value in establishing one. But maybe if they could get an idea of what they can write about it might sound more appealing to them.

5 Suggestions on what to write about in your corporate Blog that can save you time and money:

1. Answering the FAQ’s of your prospective clients

It is great to have a FAQ page on your site but if you can also use your blog to clear answers with more detail, I can guarantee that in the long run it will be useful for you. It can even save time because instead of writing an explanation you can just point them towards the details on your blog.

For example, we answered the question in our blog regarding what music you can play on a website. Thankfully the post has been viewed by many people and in researching the topic, have come in though Google which can be converted into clients.

2. Client or Customer Accomplishments

In our case, customer accomplishments are very important. So if we can find a way to congratulate our customers it might be a good idea to write a few paragraphs about their accomplishment and how that client is tied to you. If the outcome or accomplishment is directly tied to any of your team’s efforts it makes it even more important for you to include a post regarding your client.

Example: When we launched Food Truck Freak a few months ago for a client they received good press coverage andwe highlighted their accomplishment by writing:

“CIMA goes along for the ride with Food Truck Freak in Chicago”.

3. New Products or Services

If you are launching a new product or adding services it is a good idea for you to let your customers know via your blog. Communicating things via your blog can help you reach your audience directly and also clear any questions that your prospective customers might have at a faster pace than publishing a Press Release or any printed material.

Example: We announced how we started our translation services and also changed our website into a Bilingual One.

4. Previous Comments

Make sure your posts have an area to comment. This is another source for future posts. Based on what your audience is asking via the comments area or conversations that are going on in that area, you can generate future blog posts. If you can answer the question quickly answer it in the comments section. If the answer is complex or detailed, I recommend writing a follow up post so your answer can clear the questions of others.

Example: Based on previous questions we had in our comments when @margieclayman offered to write a guest post for us we took the opportunity to have her straight to the point post on “ Five Keys to Look For When Searching for a Website Development Partner“

5. Partnerships

If you join up with another organization it is great that you share the great news of the new partnership. This not only shows your new partners that you are excited about the relationship, it also allows your clients and customers to know who you are aligning with to serve them better.

Example: Soon we will share more insight into our partnership with our business partners Chris Brogan, Rob Hatch and the rest of the Human Business Works Team. (News & Press area).

6. Tutorials

Similar to answering questions, you can create a post with a tutorial of a process in order to further educate your customers. Instead of running them through the process in an email, you can create a resources section in your blog that is available for everyone to review and understand.

Example: We love to learn from other blogs so we make sure every once in a while we add a tutorial or answer questions that might be useful to our readers like ”Exchanging your LinkedIn Info via QR Code” and “3 Ways To Make Your Keywords Useful On Twitter“

Do you have any other suggestions on what things you can write about on your blog?

photo credit by Keith Williamson

Filed Under: Blog, Blogs Tagged With: Blogs, Content Strategy

Websites not just your home for the holidays

December 22, 2011 By Lucilla Feliciano Leave a Comment

As the holidays approach us we see many people creating content about celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Christmas Giveaways, and Christmas Cookie Recipe Bake-offs. Everyone wants to create a list of the Top 10, Top 50, Top 100 blogs, websites, and influential people of the year to drive those people mentioned to the source that names them. What better way to get people to visit your website than mentioning them as the best at a specific genre?

Where are you announcing your events or latest news? What about your holiday party that your company or organization will be hosting as you invite your community of readers and members to join you?

I see many folks using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google + to make sure everyone reads their holiday experiences. But these networks shouldn’t be your main source of imparting information to your clients or community members. What would happen if these social networks all of a sudden stopped working? How are you going to get information to your readers if you are solely making social networks your home?

Networks and Platforms Should Complement Your Website

Your company needs to make sure that these networks compliment your website which should be your home everyday and not just for the holidays. What we do for our customers at CIMA is create a website that you can call your home.

A Place Where People Can Find You

When customers look for your company or organization, they are going to see if there is a website first. These days one of the first questions we ask people we encounter who state they are a small to medium sized business or organization is the name of their website. It amazes me how many companies don’t have a permanent home where customers can learn more about their product and services.

If you are a small to medium sized business, you need to make sure you have a website to let people know that your brand exists. We also see the other side where small to medium sized companies have a website but it is deadspace or looks outdated. Information has not been updated and the commitment to create content just isn’t there. At CIMA we have created content for our customers. But who knows your business better than you?

One of our clients, RomyBaez.com, sells car insurance, life insurance, and business insurance along with other types of insurance. In his latest blog post, he writes about the importance of having vital insurance information before you purchase a car. The website was made for those looking for all types of insurances in Puerto Rico, created with content in Spanish, and is his homebase for returning and new clients. As a small business, Romy was conscious of having a website where his potential clients could contact him for a quote. Can you upload important documents for your clients to download on Twitter? I have not seen that feature at all.

Although it is great to use social networks to update information about what your company or organization will be doing for the holidays, don’t forget that a website created by our team will celebrate with you everyday of the year.

Filed Under: Blog, Web & Blog Design Tagged With: Brand Management, holidays, medium business, Small Business, websites

What to translate on Your Web Site!

December 15, 2011 By Raul Colon Leave a Comment

Like many other small business owners I know who had translated their web sites I was hesitant to translate my corporate site into Spanish. It clearly involved a lot of work. Most of the key areas of my site have been moved over. I have also translated the latest posts. Preferably you can translate 100% of the site but in the case that you can’t do 100% at once here are some tips on how we prioritized what to translate first:

1. Most Visited Content

Take a look at your analytics software and see what content has been viewed the most or created the most interactions. Once you have determined what people wanted to read the most you can include these as top items to translate.

2. Updated & Fresh Content

If you look at a post and it has content that is not fresh or the situation has changed I would leave those posts as a last priority. Make sure you transfer content into the language a new audience of people wants to read about and look for. If you find content that can be updated go ahead and update both posts. If the updated content has relevance with your audience feel free to put it as a priority if not then leave it towards the end.

3. Key Services and products

Make sure you translate information on your key services and products. If you went through the trouble of translating your site you have to make sure these items get put on the top of the priority list. This will open the possibility of people searching for your products in the target language to find you.

4. What is Relevant to that Target Market

Take a good look at the content that might resonate with the possible visitors and community you are translating your corporate website for. Capturing their attention more often was the main reason why you decided to move your site over. It might be a good idea if you also move those items in your priority list.

Overall I really recommend that you move as much of your site as you can. If you are not sure you can handle translating 100%. Translating parts of the site, prioritizing your most relevant content, might not be a bad idea.

If you don’t have all your content translated make sure to explicitly explain to your customers where that the content has not been translated. Also set clear expectations to explain if the content will be translated and what else they should expect in the future on having more translated content.

Would you see any value in translating any of your online presence to a new audience like for example Spanish readers?

Interested in translating your website?

Filed Under: Blog, Small Business, Web & Blog Design Tagged With: Translated Web Site, Translations, Web Design

5 tips on quickly enhancing Google+ Branded Company Pages.

November 8, 2011 By Raul Colon Leave a Comment

Since Google + was launched a few months ago, the presence of any business was initially left out of the equation. Yesterday Google opened up its Business Pages to the Public and our staff and myself have been creating pages of some of our clients and our own CIMA IT Solutions Google + Profile.

We wanted to share with you 5 initial tips on quickly enhancing your Google+ Branded Company pages.

Take a look at the video we included below with simple instructions on creating a page. Below are some more details on how we set up our page.

Create a Short link for your page

As soon as we set up our page we went ahead and created a shortcut on http://gplus.to for CIMA IT Solutions Corp. We ended up getting a shorter link that is http://gplus.to/cimapr. Google + is known for having long urls to reach the profile.

Another option towards creating your own short link is if you use the Genesis Framework like we do on wordpress. By creating a Redirect url (a trick I learned from my friend @ChrisBrogan) like this one http://cimapr.net/gplus . This link will move people towards your Google+ branded page.

Add a Badge to your Page

To facilitate individuals circling your page on Google + create a badge like the one I have included below:

You can create this badge via copying some code created here http://widgetsplus.com and pasting it to where you want to add your badge. ( I also have to thank Chris Brogan for sharing this info with me)

Complete your Business Profile

To give your profile and page some credibility, I highly recommend including as much information as possible but keep it brief. Feel free to include enough information to spark the interest of those that landed on your Google+ Branded Page. We made sure to give it the human touch and added links to the profiles of our teams and leadership.

Share Your Content

If you already have content created on a blog feel free to add a few of your best past posts. We will be sharing past posts and new ones as they become available. This is yet another way to get new people interested in the previous content you have created.

Add Some Photos

What a better way than to add life to your Business Page Profile in Google+ than adding photos of the company or organization’s events. Make sure to share the story behind the pictures. This might spark a few conversations and keep Google+ users interested in what you are currently doing or generate questions about past experiences.

We will be writing and sharing a series of posts on this new channel for business. If you need help in enhancing your Google + Branded Pages feel free to contact us or in the comments area.

Also feel free to subscribe to our newsletter to get future posts on the subject.

Additional Resources we found online

A post on Google+ from Susan Beebe

Pages are extremely similar to profiles, but they have some key differences:

- Pages can’t add people to circles until the page is added first or mentioned. Learn more.

- Pages can be made for a variety of different entities whereas profiles can only be made for people.

- The default privacy setting for elements on your page profile is public.

- Pages have the +1 button.

- Pages can’t +1 other pages, nor can they +1 stuff on the Web.

- Pages can’t play games.

- Pages don’t have the option to share to ‘Extended circles’.

- Pages don’t receive notifications via email, text, or in the Google bar.

- Pages can’t hangout on a mobile device.

- Local pages have special fields that help people find the business’ physical location.

- Learn more about local pages.

Video to Set Up Your Google+ Branded Page from John S. Haydon

10 tricks for using Twitter

October 25, 2011 By Raul Colon Leave a Comment

In order to find an effective and efficient way to use Twitter, here are 10 tips that may be useful for any Twitter user. Whether you’re new to Twitter or an experienced Twitter user these tips can help you get more results.

1. Use a tool for managing your tweets.

In today’s mobile world it’s easy to stay up to date with Twitter. With so many available applications to choose from such as: Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, and others can enhance the experience of Twitter.

2. Rotate links in your Tweets.

You should rotate where you place a link. Sometimes you should place it before the message which causes the user to see the link and then the message. This may increase the readers curiosity. At other times you can place the link in the middle of the message. It is a good idea to alternate the structure of your “tweet” so they do not all look alike.

Example:

Before the message: “http://about.com – Portal to find useful and interesting information.”
After the message: “Portal to find useful and interesting: http://about.com”
Middle of the message: “Portal to find useful and interesting: http://about.com information.”

3. Create “tweets” with no more than 120 characters.

Tweets that are less than 120 character make it easier for others to “Re-tweet” and pass the information along.

4. Create lists to filter messages from users by topic, relationship, or events.

As the number of contacts you have grow, it becomes more and more difficult to read through all of your messages. Having lists allow you to better control the flow of messages and interaction with other users.

5. Understand how to use “hashtag” and its many features.

A “hashtag” is a keyword which is placed with a number sign (#) in front. This allows the Twitter platform to easily find users that have used that keyword in their tweets.

6. Include a Background on Your Profile that identifies you, or the effort that you are running.

Twitter provides a generic background designs for its users, however, you have the ability to create your own background. This is very useful if your a business because it allows you to make your presence in Twitter stand out. Your background imagine can be as simple as just your logo, but I recommend having key features of your business on that background.

7. Complete your profile and highlight your interests so others with similar interests can see you as a potential contact to follow.

Be sure to keep up to date photo of you and information describing your interests. Creativity is always welcome.

8. Add links to your profile.

This will help to direct followers or visitors to your blog, or anywhere they can find more information from you. I always recommend to include your blog or website.

9. Share “tweets” from other users.

Twitter is a channel of communication whose purpose is to share information. Be sure to share and pass on information shared by others. If you only share what you create you miss the opportunity to create new relationships. Many users choose to stop following users when messages are often personal propaganda only.

10. Never click on links from strangers they usually arrive via a special ”DM” (direct message).

Many people receive private messages which may have malicious code that can take over your account. Once you see suspicious activity call the Twitter security team they will show you how to precede.

These are 10 tips and tricks on how to use Twitter. If you have some tips for Twitter users post in the comments below.

If you need help on improving your online presence for yourself or your business feel free to send us your contact info!

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Filed Under: Blog, Twitter Tagged With: Resources, Social Media, Tips, Twitter, Twitter Tips

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Starting the Conversation at a Price Point

Compare Features & Pricing

Resolutions?

Shape Up Your Business

1. Answering the FAQ’s of your prospective clients

2. Client or Customer Accomplishments

3. New Products or Services

4. Previous Comments

5. Partnerships

6. Tutorials

Networks and Platforms Should Complement Your Website

A Place Where People Can Find You

1. Most Visited Content

2. Updated & Fresh Content

3. Key Services and products

4. What is Relevant to that Target Market

Interested in translating your website?

Create a Short link for your page

Add a Badge to your Page

Complete your Business Profile

Share Your Content

Add Some Photos

Additional Resources we found online

A post on Google+ from Susan Beebe

Pages are extremely similar to profiles, but they have some key differences:

Video to Set Up Your Google+ Branded Page from John S. Haydon

Other External links

1. Use a tool for managing your tweets.

2. Rotate links in your Tweets.

3. Create “tweets” with no more than 120 characters.

4. Create lists to filter messages from users by topic, relationship, or events.

5. Understand how to use “hashtag” and its many features.

6. Include a Background on Your Profile that identifies you, or the effort that you are running.

7. Complete your profile and highlight your interests so others with similar interests can see you as a potential contact to follow.

8. Add links to your profile.

9. Share “tweets” from other users.

10. Never click on links from strangers they usually arrive via a special ”DM” (direct message).

Fill the short contact form below!

Need help improving your online presence?

Fill the short contact form below!

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