Business Resources

social-media-web-content-trends

Social Media is Now King Over Email

It’s Official - People Now Spend More Time On Social Media Than In Their Email Inbox

At Hat Trick Associates, we have talked at depth about the continued power of email marketing. In a 2012 study in fact, 74% of respondents said that email was still their preferred method to receive commercial communications. But that doesn’t take into account that many people do NOT associated interaction with some brands and companies via social media as “commercial” communications, like they would a coupon or special offer, and that number (that 74%) is admittedly in a terminal decline downward. What does this mean? Well, your email list is still a very good way to get web content to your prospective clients and customers or current ones…and a “clean” list of email addresses of those you do business with or would like to still has tremendous value to your organization. But social media as a marketing strategy is no longer an afterthought, and for many businesses it has become “the” place that the bulk of their marketing can and should be applied.

Social Media Web Content Trends

This also doesn’t take away from web content SEO needs, and the fact that your homepage, overall website More >

The Importance of SEO, and Can You Do It Yourself?

Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is a rapidly growing form of internet marketing. SEO companies spring up almost overnight, but inside the ever-changing online world many of them die just as quickly.

Why is SEO such a booming business? As more commerce moves online, it’s only natural that marketing should move with it. Since billions use search engines daily, being found by search engines is obviously a vital part of every organization’s online marketing strategy.

Is SEO important for YOUR website? The answer is a certainly YES for commercial or informational websites; probably not as much for personal sites. The bottom line however - If you want people to find your site themselves, SEO is important. If you plan to make money from lots of people visiting your site, then SEO becomes not only important but essential.

The next question becomes, is SEO something you can do yourself? That depends. SEO requires basic knowledge of a website’s tags, an ability to learn which keywords to focus on, an ability to incorporate keywords into rich, informative articles that readers value, and other items. It also involves the ability to get backlinks to your site — a critical part of SEO.

Your SEO and Web Content More >
Web Content Writer Tips

Business Tips for a Web Content Writer or Graphic Designer

At Hat Trick Associates, we like to share information that better prepares ourselves and even our competitors when it comes to successful web content writing and other online services. (Why? Because we often partner with other freelancers in what we do, and education is a primary goal for our company) When being a freelancer things can go wrong because we haven’t properly prepared. Today we have put together a list of sort of rules to follow as a web freelancer or web content writer, let us know which of these you follow and which ones you wish you knew before something bad happened. Always get a deposit

This is a tricky one but a must. It is important that they give you a percent of the price up front to insure you get paid for your work. The typical rate is from 25% to 50% depending on the size of the project. However this can back fire for clients as I’m sure its happened to most of you, I recently hired someone to redesign WebDesignDev and I paid 50%, when he showed me the design I told him I liked the concept but it lacked design, he turned on me More >