Michael Mace Billings MT

From Resume.com An executive with long experience in the private sector, Michael R. Mace was chosen in 2005 as president of Rocky Mountain College specifically because of his business acumen. The private, liberal arts school in Billings, Montana had suffered five consecutive years of budget deficits but during his tenure Mr. Mace has engineered a remarkable financial and academic turnaround at the school. Within a year and a half, Michael Mace had eliminated Rocky Mountain College’s operational deficit and reduced the college’s overall debt by 20%. Before he came to Rocky Mountain College, Michael Mace had spent more than 15 years as the founding partner of Sterling Acceptance Corporation/D&M Industries, one of the nation’s leading value-added manufacturers and distributors of doors, windows, and other building supplies to residential and commercial clients. His accomplishments at D&M Industries include presiding over a 12% annual revenue growth rate and growing earnings per share by more than 21%. He also helped pioneer the key-card lock movement in the American hotel and lodging industry. In 2005, he sold D&M Industries and was named president of Rocky Mountain College, whose Board considered the business sector its best resource for leadership in helping the college overcome its persistent budgetary and accreditation issues. Through a combination of administrative savvy and financial expertise, he has helped RMC balance its budget, reaffirm its accreditation, and increase enrollment by 59%. He will be retiring from the RMC presidency in 2013 in order to re-enter the private sector. Alongside his work with RMC, Mr. Mace stays involved in his local community. A former board member of St. Vincent Hospital, he works closely with charities such as the American Cancer Society, the Boys and Girls Club, and the Peace Institute. Mr. Mace holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus in accounting and finance from Montana State University. A graduate of the Minnesota Executive Program at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson Graduate School, he has also completed an Institutional Education Management program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Objectives As the President of Rocky Mountain College, Michael R. Mace oversees an institution that is ranked by US News and World Report as one of the Top 10 liberal arts schools in the western United States. Education Harvard Graduate School Of Education Harvard Graduate School of Education, Boston, MA Graduated: July 2011 Grade: Institutional Educat University Of Minnesota - Carlson Graduate School University of Minnesota - Carlson Graduate School of Management, Minneapolis, MN Graduated: January 1996 Grade: MBA Montana State University Montana State University, Bozeman, MT Graduated: January 1974 Grade: Bachelor of Science Employment History January 2005 – Present: President Company: Rocky Mountain College Billings, MT Appointed president after 5 year college financial crisis because of business background. January 1989 – January 2005: Founding Partner Company: Sterling Acceptance Corporation/D&M Indu Fargo, ND Privately held asset holding company with investments in emerging middle market assembly manufacturing construction supply firms - Senior Level, Self-directed Entrepreneurial Executive. o Directed company revenue growth at an annual compound rate of 12%; Earnings per share growth at 21½%; Return on Stockholder equity at 26% January 1975 – Present: Owner Company: Mace Holdings LLP Billings, MT •Past General Contractor - Land and Housing Development; Annual Development and Construction Revenues, $13,500,000; Self employed in college as a general contractor under the Farmers Home Administration Housing Programs including land acquisition and development. •Originated Mutual Mortgage Group as an extension of corporate construction activities at Mace Holdings Inc. Grew into an FHA Direct Endorsement Underwriter, packaging and selling into securitized mortgage pools for small rural Montana banks. [Sold to Montana banking institution in 1988] •Former Montana Real Estate Broker – Certified Commercial Investment Member, National Association of Realtors; 1983 CCIM Certificate #1913 oConsultant Specialization – Alternative Conflict Resolution and Principled Negotiation in reference to troubled bank real estate credits. •For Profit Board Member – Coal Black Liquids LLC – Coal Black Liquids LLC – Development and commercialization of CO2-neutral biological conversion of North Dakota/Montana coal for agricultural fertilization and environmental remediation. Professional Skills Finance – Expert Hobbies & Interests Past Board member of St. Vincent Hospital, past board member of Head Start, past board member of Rocky Mountain Bank, past board member of guardian technologies. Rotary member. Support American Cancer Society, the Boys and Girls Club, the Peace Institute, the Yellowstone Art Museum. Supports the Billings Symphony. Past President of the Frontier Athletic Conference Counsel of Presidents NAIA, Fly Fishing, hiking, hunting, theatre both musical, symphony and opera.

Reputation Management 2013 by Brenda Segna

One of the biggest things that we can do for any brand in 2013 is to stay on top of the reputation management. In our world of Social Media and so many sites where you can add content about anyone there has never been a greater need for reputation management. A case in point is Manti Te'O's Twitter hoax! He convinced the world that he had a girlfriend, unfortunately this bad press about Manti Te'O is true and he will have a lot to overcome and it won't be easy. Once it's on the net, it's on there for good. But unlike Manti Te'O there is bad press on Facebook for brands that is not true and uncalled for, some from misguided souls, enemies and bullies. Some bullies never grow up. Bullies are mean and don't think twice of ruining the reputation of a brand online. They don't think and don't care about consequences, they let their anger and hatred fuel them and drive them. But what does this mean for the Brand? It means you need to stay on top of all information put on the web about you. You need to share so much positive information, truth about your brand on the web. When you respond to the negativity, never attack, always respond positively. Don't get in a pissing match on the web with your bully or hater. It will only hurt you in the end. To find out what is being said about your brand on the web, signup for Google Alerts! This will enable you to stay on top of things. If someone comments or posts negativity about your brand, remember to only come back with positive comments. "Brenda has helped me understand Brand Reputation Management and has done a great job for my company," said John Baugues of John Baugues Coal.

Brenda Segna Gets Down To The Basics

I love my job and every day brings new fun and new challenges. I have never been one to shy away from challenges, but I don't like being mean to people. And being mean is how some people choose to be online. Being mean, bullying, it doesn't end in high school. Some people just don't know when to stop! They don't get the facts straight and even when they are supplied they facts, they are so engrained in their negativity, their anger, their hurtfulness that they just don't know when to stop and they won't. They don't care if they hurt people, they don't care about anyone or anything but themselves. And because they don't care, I have clients who come to me for reputation management! Unfortunately reputation management or cleaning up all of the garbage online takes a long time. Especially if the bully keeps on attacking and won't back down. I have my bully that I deal with and just the time I think it's under control, she comes back at me attacking again. So for me it's an ongoing thing! Reputation Management isn't always easy. I have a client who has a bully in his life too. His bully pays thousands of dollars each month to keep attacking my client online. The lie that he is spreading is intended to destroy my client. Business can be so competitive that people will do anything to destroy a competitor. You don't have to be in politics to have a smear campaign done against you. My biggest piece of advice, if there is negative info about you or your company online, don't wait, get on top of it as soon as possible and keep on top of it! It's time we all take a stand against bullying online!

John Baugues, Jr. and Coalmine Development Fundamentals: The Right Location

John Baugues, Jr. and Coalmine Development Fundamentals: The Right Location With global energy demand on the rise, John Baugues Jr's coalmine investments illustrate the benefits of seeing - and filling - a critical need for natural resources. Coal fuels over 40 percent of worldwide energy generation, though it also finds significant use in steel production, cement manufacturing, and as a liquid fuel. With large proven coal reserves, the United States is in a favorable position to supply much of the demand - and smart coalmine developers like John Baugues and others are investing now to be a part of that supply chain. John Baugues Jr's initial investments in the Bull Mountain mine in Montana effectively kickstarted a trend to pursue untapped coal reserves in the "Treasure State" after little new mining activity in the state for several decades. Similarly, John Baugues Jr's development of a new coal mine in West Kentucky underscored the region's significant resources and their ability to meet rising demand for fuel used in pollution-cutting utilities. Domestic energy needs rely heavily on domestic coal production, and John Baugues Jr's shows that investing in local coal reserves to meet those needs is a winning strategy. Not only will John Baugues Jr's projects supply a needed resource, but they'll also generate new jobs and increased tax revenues for local communities. The lesson: with domestic and international coal demand on the rise, the time to invest in coal development is now.

Social Media Marketing and Ethics

What has happened to us since we've gone online or the internet has taken over our lives? I have never witnessed so much dishonesty or so many people try to swindle others!

For us here at Blast creative, we spend a good amount of time each week, correcting or cleaning up after businesses who have taken advantage of the innocent! It gets old after awhile and I have to admit, I wonder when people will still pooling their resources and go after these companies that are swindling them out of their hard earned cash!

Social Media Marketing, search engine optimization, online marketing, none of it comes cheap, it costs money, but you should get what you pay for and you shouldn't have to worry about getting ripped off. We need to start at least reporting these businesses to the Better Business Bureau so that they can compile a list and other business owners don't fall into the same trap!

If you need affordable, reliable social media marketing, online marketing, search engine optimization or web design, contact us at Blast creative, we are happy to help! We are honest, hard working and always deliver what we promise!

Social Media Marketing Tips by Blast Creative and Brenda Segna

Here is another great social media networking tip brought to you by Blast creative and Brenda Segna.

The most frequent question that I get asked is what time of the day should I make my posts on Facebook and Twitter and how often should I post?

The answer is going to vary depending on your target audience. Who is your target audience? What age range? What demographic?

If you are targeting high school teenagers, you don’t want to post before school gets out—for most that’s between 3 to 4. If you’re targeting college students—you have more flexibility if jobs don’t interfere.

For stay at home mom’s, early morning, mid-morning, early afternoon and evening. They have more flexibility with their time and typically spend a little more time on Facebook and Twitter.

Business Owner and Marketing Professionals-they are doing social media networking all day long and into the evening. Your posts for this genre have the best chance of reaching their targeted market anytime.

The general population-people working 9 to 5-you need to post early morning, before 7 a.m. or late evening after 8 p.m. They may check their pages on Facebook and Twitter periodically throughout the day on their cell phones, but the apps on cell phones are limited. So if you want to be sure that you reach your targeted audience, post before 7 in the morning or after 8 in the evening.

How often should you post? The first thing to remember that is people can get sick of all your posts rather quickly and can “unfriend” or “unlike” you with one little click of the mouse! I recommend a minimum of 5 posts per week. 1 per day, Monday thru Friday! Don’t make all of your posts about business either. Nobody wants to get hit up with a sales pitch every time they log-in into Facebook or Twitter.

Use positive quotes, funny videos from YouTube, share something about your business that is personal. A charity event, a night out with staff and post pictures! You can tag your friends in the pictures and all of their friends will see it!

Have different staff members make post—they should always identify themselves so that everyone knows who they are talking to!

You have the potential to reach the largest audience in history if you utilize your Facebook and Twitter pages correctly! Be smart, have fun and watch your ROI go through the roof!

For more information on Social Media Marketing, Web Design, Facebook and Twitter Page Designs or any of your marketing needs, please contact Brenda Segna at Blast creative today!

Every Company/Business No Matter What Size Needs To Be Social

By Blast creative and Brenda Segna

When I first joined Facebook it was to reconnect with high school classmates, to share pictures and updates with relatives who lived in Canada, Italy and across the country. But today, Social Media has revolutionized the way that we do business! Social Media Sites assist companies to give up to the date information to their clients and to receive comments and/or feedback from their clients/customers instantly!

Social Media has become the key to many companies, celebrities, and non-profits success. Has your company tapped into this powerful market yet?

According to The Wall Street Journal, the city of New York is seeking to hire an in-house social media specialist to handle their Facebook and Twitter accounts, confirming the fact that Social Media is the new frontier! It used to be that you had to run ads in the newspaper or magazines to reach your targeted audience, not anymore, thanks to Social Media Sites!

Should you tweet or use Facebook? Absolutely and use both! These social media platforms provide a powerful stage for success! For most of us, these sites have proven invaluable, driving sales and awareness like no other tool in history has done before!

If you are a new startup company, then part of your strategic planning should include social media sites! Part of your marketing budget needs to be earmarked for Social Media Marketing if you want to succeed in today’s world and stay steps ahead of your competition.

The world of Social Media is massive, the do’s and the don’ts, how to reach your targeted audience and the list goes on. It overwhelms many business owners and that is where Blast creative comes into play. They have a finely tuned process that enables them to gain the right exposure that will drive sales and company awareness for your business.

Business owners need to realize the importance of Social Media Marketing and the ability of these social media sites to gain the attention of your targeted market.

Blast creative assists business owners like financial, photographers, dentists, hotels, restaurants, construction, HVAC, hardware stores, real estate and others by managing every aspect of your social networking experience. We know all the social media lingo, we are continuously attending seminars and classes to learn the latest applications and tools, Blast creative can make a buzz about your business that will make an impact.

Over the past 5 years there has been a dramatic increase for Social Media Coaches/Specialists to assist business owners to correctly run their social media campaigns so that businesses are effective in obtaining customer attention and interaction!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an established business or just starting out, the use of Social Media in the year 2010 is key to the success of your business. This path of awareness supersedes traditional marketing paths and puts a real value on the customer base you are targeting. Word of mouth can now be found on Social Media Sites!

For more information, contact Brenda Segna at Blast creative today!

Basic Facebook

If you would like to learn more about Facebook, then sign up for my Basic Facebook Seminar on my Facebook page. Basic Facebook Webinar for beginners. If you own in a business in financial, photographers, dentists, hotels, restaurants, construction, HVAC, hardware stores, real estate and others, this is for you. Everything you need to know about setting up your account, finding friends, uploading and tagging photos, creating profiles, groups and like pages. Learn to grow your business on Facebook.

Basic Facebook Webinar Topics
1. How to Set-Up Account
2. Facebook Layout
3. How Facebook Works
4. How to Deal with Long Lost Family Members
5. Your Profile Picture
6. How to Upload & Tag Photos
7. How to Write a Note
8. How to Post a Link
9. How to Upload a Video
10. How to Upload & Tag Photos
11. How to Create a User Name
12. How to Find Friends
13. How to Create a Group and a Fan Page
14. How to Invite People to an Event on Facebook

5 Big Things That Will Impact You with Google Caffeine

1. Social Media Sites is where it’s at! Twitter and Facebook have moved up in the ranks. With Google indexing Twitters and Facebook syncing it’s post with Twitter. This is good news for the little guy who is working his social media sites; this can really help with your search updates.

2. On and Off the Site Optimization Still Counts! When it’s all said and done, best practices still apply. Staying focused on this area keeps your program focused on gaining sustainable long-term natural search benefits, and not taking a backward-looking approach that just may jeopardize future returns for the sake of trying to spare last week's positive algorithmic bias. This means paying attention to core elements like content, link structure, site architecture and structure, promotion in the right offsite networks, and all other general best practices.

3. The index size, or “competition,” of single keyword search relevance will increase. Your web site will compete against a larger pool of web catalog pages indexed for single word brand or head terms. It appears that Google will index more pages on the Web, so the prospective “results pool” will be greater and thus more competitive for those trying to get to the top of the page. This adds value for searchers because it will possibly increase the preciseness of results.

4. You’ll see a boost in relevance for long-tail searches.In contrast to the increased number of pages being indexed for single word brand and head terms, the index size for multi-keyword phrase searches in Caffeine appears to yield less competition via Google’s Web catalog / Index. Therefore, if Google were to get a “Caffeine” jolt, your pages would likely compete against a smaller pool of pages for more exacting searches. This might be the key to Google’s logic when it comes to improving accuracy. This could also give larger brands an advantage for their product and deep level pages, which could potentially see a boost in relevance for long-tail searches.

5. You’ll get results (SERPs) in half the time, on average.While it would be hard to notice with the naked eye, the new engine appears to generate SERPs in half the time. This would improve usability and user experience on Google. After all, searchers want accuracy– but they also don’t like waiting around.

SEO Services In A Tough Economy

I don't know of anyone who isn't feeling the pinch in these tough economic times. Now more then ever businesses need good SEO services and Internet marketing to drive traffic to their sites. There are several things that can be done that to increase your sites page rank and drive traffic to your site.

A good SEO Service Provider and Internet Marketing Company will review your site and customize a plan that meets your needs and your budget. SEO is not rocket science, but it is time consuming and needs to be done consistently in order to see results.

At BLaST creative we have learned from years of experience that when doing white hat seo and organic seo that it typically takes 3 months before you start to see results. And depending on the competition and what they are doing as far as SEO, it could take longer.

Some things that you can do to help increase traffic to your site as well as increase your page rank and search engine listing.

1. Meta tags-if your site doesn't have them, they need to be added, especially a good description and keywords.

2. Heading tags, alt tags-if you currently aren't utilizing these on your site then you need to update them.

3. Content-is it fresh and does it contain the keywords that you are trying to target? If not you need to update this as well.

4. Backlinks-Google just changed their algorithm again, you need to get relevant organic backlinks for your site.

If you own a business in these genres, financial, photographers, dentists, hotels, restaurants, construction, HVAC, hardware stores, real estate or any business, and are interested in more information on SEO Services and Internet Marketing, please contact BLaST creative today!

Detecting and Fixing Site Visibility Issues

In terms of the Integrated Approach, site visibility refers to compliance of a page's source code with the requirements and needs of search engine spiders. This topic is based on the knowledge that the spiders are computer programs instructed to parse your HTML pages, then analyze certain page areas and undertake certain actions such as requesting other pages by following the hyperlinks found on the given page.

Thus, we can make the conclusion that specific page areas bear a certain importance for spiders and thus play a role in overall search engine visibility. Another conclusion is that consistent site structure is an essential factor for spiders to be able to effectively crawl your site.

Following are the main visibility problems that are usually encountered on a website (especially large sites):

• Broken links;
• Broken redirects;
• Missing ALT attributes;
• Missing TITLE and META (keywords and description) tags
• Old pages which are not regularly updated
• Deep pages (located far from the home page or from the page where the spider enters your site)
• Excessive length of TITLE and META tags

Most of these problems (except for broken links and redirects) will not frustrate your visitors. These flaws, however, are potentially dangerous for your positions in the SERP (search engine result pages) and for indexing of your whole site by search engine spiders.

Let's get into a deeper explanation for each of these problems.

Broken links
Broken links are a common scourge for webmasters, especially with large and dynamic sites. A search engine robot will not be able to access a page that is hidden behind a broken link. Most robots, however, will not stop spidering your site when they meet a broken internal link, provided they have some other links to follow. But if the broken link is intended to point to a strategically important content page, the page won't be indexed and the problem then becomes more serious.

Broken external links are not as critical from the visibility point of view; rather they state problems for the visibility of the site or page they're pointing to.

Redirects and broken redirects
Most common redirect codes are 301 (Moved Permanently), 302 (Found), 304 (Not Modified), 305 (Use Proxy) and 307 (Temporary Redirect).

As a webmaster, you may implement a redirect in a number of different ways: either by sending the corresponding HTTP headers from within your server-side code (PHP, ASP, PERL etc), or by putting the instructions into the ".htaccess" file in the directory on the server, or by putting a special META REFRESH tag directly into the HTML code of the page:

meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="0;url=http:www.mywebsite.com/new-file.htm
In this case, the user-agent (either a visitor's browser or a search engine spider) will treat the tag as if it has met a 301 (Moved Permanently) redirect.

Actually, from all the redirects enumerated above, only one (301) is considered search engine-friendly and is recommended by the search engines. The others have been abused by spammers in the past (and are still often used in black-hat SEO) for creating doorway pages for search engines and for cloaking a website. Thus, search engines apply strict policies to pages for which they get all the other redirect response codes from the server (300,302 and above).

Moreover, this redirect abuse led some search engines to ban sites that use META refresh tags for redirecting the visitor. AltaVista is the strictest: sites with the refresh attribute set to less than 30 seconds have been banned as spam. The policy of other search engines varies. In the past, Google hasn't been too worried about spam since it relies mainly on link popularity to rank sites - but they have recently started to pay more attention to these issues.

Because of this, we recommend that you use a server-side redirect with the help of a dynamic technology like PHP or ASP. If this isn't possible, use the ".htaccess" file (on apache servers) with the following line:

Redirect 301 /page1.htm http://www.yoursite.com/page2.htm

to redirect the visitors from page1.htm to page2.htm.

Broken redirects will lead to the same results as the broken links, that is, spiders will not be able to index the pages hidden behind the broken redirect, unless they find that page through some other links or redirects used on your website.

Missing ALT attributes
ALT attributes are used within the "< IMG >" HTML tags to describe images textually if the browser will not display the image. The ALT attribute is also useful in providing additional information when a user hovers the mouse cursor over a displayed image.

Nowadays ALT attributes are not as important for search visibility as they used to be a couple of years ago. Therefore, there won't be any harm for your rankings if you omit them. However, it's useful to include ALT attributes, especially to get your images ranked for particular keywords in the image search, which also brings you organic traffic.

Missing TITLE and META tags
This is probably the most serious gap in your readiness for the SEO campaign. The TITLE tag, META keywords and META description tags are the primary regions where search engines attempt to find relevant keywords for your site. If some of your pages are missing these TITLE and META tags, you should put these on your page before starting any further optimization analysis.

Old pages
One of the algorithms Google now applies for ranking Web pages is the SandBox algorithm. It means that the pages that haven't been updated for a long time will gradually lose their positions in the rankings even if they initially had high positions. Google constantly crawls the Web and adds thousands of new pages to its index. These new pages have unique content, but it is the novelty or “newness” of these pages that may cause Google to rank them higher than the actual content would otherwise dictate. Google assumes that newer pages probably contain more updated information than older ones. This process will gradually "dissolve" your site in the competition, while your pages get "crowded out" by the new additions from the top results.

To retain your high positions, you not only need to constantly add to your link popularity, but also update your pages often and add new content pages from time to time.

Deep Pages
An average search engine spider will not crawl your site deeper than 2 levels away from the home page and the most advanced spiders are instructed not to go further than 4 levels deep. Under "depth" we mean number of jumps which should be made from page to page along the links to get to the destination page from the source page (which is, most often, your home page). So, if a spider enters your site on your home page, it will read all pages linked to it, then all pages those pages link to and then most spiders will stop. If your site has any pages that link any deeper than this your site structure needs optimization.

It's important to understand that the link structure and file structure are two different things: you may keep all your 500 pages in the root directory, yet some of them may be 5 and more levels deep according to the link jumps.

TITLE and META tags length
The information placed in the TITLE, "keywords" and "description" META tags is indexed by search engine spiders for use on the search results page. There is a limited amount of space for these. If they are too long, they will be cut off in the search results display. Moreover, search engines will not read more than certain amount of characters in the tag. Even further, some search engine spiders may consider an excessive amount of characters as spamming. Therefore, it's useful to check whether the length of these vital page areas is within sensible limits.

For information Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing and Web Design, please contact BLaST creative today!

Gift Cards for SEO?

SEO, search engine optimization comes all shapes and sizes, but gift cards? Well, in a round about way, you can utilize gift cards sites like CityDeals.com to enhance your SEO standings. By purchasing a banner ad from City Deals that links to your site, you basically have purchased a backlink for your site. The added bonus being that sites that are linked to City Deals are quickly indexed and pulled to the top of the search engines.

For sites like the Windmill Restaurant, a Montana Steakhouse, who has a page rank of zero, this can be very beneficial. For sites like Focus Sped, a school in Plano Texas that helps kids with Autism and other learning disabilities, this can not only help their page rank, but City Deals receives over 50,000 visitors a month with over 297,000 page views. Now that’s a lot of traffic, a lot of people viewing your banner ad and it’s great for SEO!

For sites like Doug Batts Prepaid Legal Services, it can mean a double bonus. SEO for page rank and literally thousands of visitors viewing his banner ad with the ability to click straight through to his site and that’s one way to generate new business for your site. Meredith Haberfeld Coaching is another site that reap the benefits of SEO from using City Deals gift cards site.


The thing that I like best about utilizing sites like City Deals for SEO purposes, is that not only do you help increase your own page rank, you get exposure for your business, plus you can shop for awesome deals on discounted gift cards.

Gift Cards for SEO? The answer to that question is an absolute yes! Take advantage of the sight today! For more information about SEO and Internet Marketing, contact BLaST creative today!

The $5 Article with Original Content

The world.wide.web has opened the door for new avenues of enterprise for many entrepreneurs including the freelance writer. The problem is that no one wants to pay for the services of the professional writer adequately. The request comes in for original content, a quote for statistics and lets don’t forget that you should be able to do this in 15 minutes.

The 15 minutes is my favorite line, obviously it’s not a writer who is making the request. The research alone for any good article is going to take a minimum of 1 hour. And while I am an excellent writer, even I need more than 15 minutes. Writing for the web has been a lot of fun and I’ve learned a bazillion things, but it is still work and worthy of decent pay.

Yes, there is plagiarism, but don’t assume or accuse every writer out there of it. I hate the ad that says; “I check for plagiarism,” so don’t apply. Okay, well if you paid more than $5 an article for “original” content, you wouldn’t get the bottom of the barrel writers.

I love writing! I love what I do, but like many Americans, I too am trying to make a living. I’ll give you original content, content that is SEO friendly, content that is full of facts, is accurate and up to date and original. But what I can’t do is give you that copy for $5.

At BLaST Creative we are certified in Internet Marketing and can assist you with all of your Internet Marketing needs. For more assistance, please contact BLaST Creative.

BLaST Creative Copywriting for Your Website

When I write an article for a magazine or newspaper, I get straight to the point. It’s necessary to have a hook in the first paragraph or you lose your reader. So you have to start with the facts immediately!

People surf the web in a similar manner to the way that they skim newspapers, stopping to read stories and/or blogs that grab their attention and they leave your site as soon as they get bored. So lets cover a few steps that will assist you in writing attention-grabbing copy.

The intro

When you are writing copy, the most important part of your content is the first sentence. In 30 words or less it is necessary for you to grab your readers attention and explain what it is that you want them to know. A boring intro can send your readers to another site.

Begin your drama from the first word

Try to make the first word of your copy as dramatic as possible. For example which of these intros do you like the best?

Having already burned 300 acres, the Cascade fire is still burning out of control.

Cascade Fire Crews brace for weather.

The five Ws and an H

So now that you have an intro it’s time to help your reader discover the rest of the story and you don’t want to leave them with any questions.
So reread your copy and make sure that you’ve answered the following questions:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

In everyarticle or copy, you’ll need to tell your readers what happened, who or what did it, but don’t worry about answering all six questions in the first paragraph.

At BLaST Creative we are certified in Internet Marketing and can assist you with all of your Internet Marketing needs. For more assistance, please contact BLaST Creative.

BLaST Creative Web Content

Let’s face it, the biggest reason that any of use the web is to save time. It’s waaay faster to look up what time the movie is playing at the local Cineplex on the website the to have to listen to all of the list and times, etc on the phone or even driving there in person to see what’s what!

The same is true for the content on your web pages. Your content needs to be relevant and short, if you have a lot to say, it’s better to write a paragraph or two and link the rest to a separate page, giving the reader a choice. Why have your visitors come to your site and what do they want to know? Let them have the information the quickest way possible.

Don’t use BIG words, don’t talk over people’s head, talk to the lay person. Speak in your own voice, don’t use words that are extraordinarily looooong!

It doesn’t matter if you are trying to register students for dance class, sell dance clothes, or just tell about your business, if people can’t understand what you’re trying to say, you will fail.

Even if you’re writing for a specialist audience, like doctors or rocket scientists, ask yourself if you’re using bigger words to help your site reach its goal or to make yourself sound clever.

Along that same line of thinking, don’t be too short, give descriptive detail so they know what it’s about instead of searching somewhere else because they need more detail.

If you are a business owner in any of these genres, financial, photographers, dentists, hotels, restaurants, construction, HVAC, hardware stores, real estate, or any business owner and want more information on Internet Marketing, please contact Blast Creative today!

At BLaST Creative we are certified in Internet Marketing and can assist you with all of your Internet Marketing needs. For more assistance, please contact BLaST Creative.

BLaST Creative Search Engine Optimization

There are lots of things that can be done for search engine optimization or SEO. One of the things that we do at BLaST Creative for SEO Services is utilize pay-per-click advertising like Google AdWords.

Google Adwords and other pay-per-click advertising networks work by paying a set fee every time somebody clicks on an ad for your site. This may sound expensive, but it really isn’t. You can set an amount of $25 per month and all of the other parameters as well. If people are clicking too much or not enough, you can change how it’s setup.
Other things that are helpful for search engine optimization include setting up a blog about your business, podcasting, utilizing online press releases, and of course you can always use traditional advertising through local newspapers or flyers.

In order for your website to do well people will need to find your site by utilizing search engines. Google is number one right now on the search engine lists, followed by Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Ask. There are literally hundreds of search engines, but if you can get listed on the top ones, the rest will follow suit.

BLaST Creative SEO Services can help your web pages perform as well as possible in Google and the other major search engines. There are literally hundreds of things that you can do to help your web pages rank higher in the search engines’ results pages.

But don’t waste too much,SEO techniques become obsolete rather quickly. Search engines have to constantly change their algorithms and they way that they index web pages, because some people try to cheat the system, therefore, the search engines have to stay ahead of the game so that it’s fair to everyone!

At BLaST Creative we are certified in Internet Marketing and can assist you with all of your Internet Marketing needs. For more assistance, please contact BLaST Creative.

Hyperlinks—To Underline or Not To Underline, That Is The Question

This week at BLaST Creative Web Design, we’d like to talk about hyperlinks or what you’ve probably heard called by it’s shortened named, links, are words or images that help with navigation, they take you to another part of the web page that you are on or even to another web page or web site entirely when you click on them.

In most cases the links that are present in the body of text are underlined and their color is different from the surrounding text, making it easier for visitors to spot your links. And in most instances, if you hover your mouse over them they will change color.

At BLaST Creative we like to be different, so we designed our website different from others including when it comes to the links. We did not applying the underline under the links. It’s really an easy thing to do, but we realized that our visitors would are familiar with the underline and but we wanted our site to be different, familiar as well, and we believed that people have had enough experience with the web that they will know to click on the navigation tabs without an underline.

Basically, you don’t have to underline your links, you can be different, but consider your visitors and what you are trying to accomplish? Is it worth not underlining your links?

At BLaST Creative, we decided to be different and unique by not underlining our links. You can too! Links are good and very beneficial for marketing, so answer the question for yourself to underline or not to underline and link away!

Why Businesses Need SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Services?

More than 70% of online consumers start their quest for a product, service or support call using a search engine. If you’re a business owner, how can you honestly afford NOT to be associated with this massive audience?

The bottom line is that you cannot afford to miss such opportunities. As a business owner you can use search engine optimization to drive more business from people who have never even heard of you before.

You need SEO Services, Internet Marketing Services and link building campaigns that work. SEO services and Internet marketing services will help generate sales for your business while increasing website traffic naturally. You need a search engine optimization strategy and link building campaign specifically designed for your websites products and services,natural SEO services and organic website promotion.

Achieving better rankings begins with proper web site optimization; a great link building strategy and well planned online marketing goals. But beware, some website services use tricks or claim to have secret tips they can't share with you. Your SEO provider should be able to share everything with you and strictly follow Yahoo, MSN and Google web master guidelines. If you have questions they should be clearly explained, as well explaining their site promotion techniques. SEO services should utilize top website optimization tools to analyze the top competitor websites.

Do you need expert search engine optimization services or top search engine rankings in organic results pages? BLaST Creative's experienced Internet marketing combines the highest quality website promotion strategies, link building campaigns and search engine placement to help you rank better.

SEO and link building strategies aren't just about fixing Meta data and submitting your site to directories. Quality link building will provide you hundreds to thousands of incoming links pointing directly to your website.

At BLaST Creative we will develop a link-building plan that is long lasting. Our services have an excellent track record increasing website rankings naturally. Highly competitive keywords will need a custom link building strategy to achieve higher rankings. This will also increase link popularity in the top engines. We use several variations of your keywords in your back links to get the perfect balance. This is important due to recent Google updates.

Pay per click advertising: If your company needs instant traffic during the website design process, we can provide help with online advertising. Maximize your current ad budget.

Growing Companies:

Companies can maximize budgets and web exposure with our business website solutions. Many companies simply can't afford a high monthly budget.

Website submission: Each URL submission to search engines. Do you need to keep your site rankings or link popularity up? The way to do that is with directories, press releases, article and Blog submissions that provide your website tons of new back links. Save by bundling your Meta Tags, URL submissions and keyword research. Have your website reviewed today and see the positive affect that BLaST Creative's Internet marketing services can have on your business! Learn more about our search engine optimization service, pricing or web tools contact BLaST Creative today.

If you are a business owner in any of these genres, financial, photographers, dentists, hotels, restaurants, construction, HVAC, hardware stores, real estate, or any business owner and want more information on SEO Services, please contact Blast Creative today!

How Can I Spend My Economic Stimulus Check?

Are you wondering what to spend your economic stimulus check on? If so, how about your front yard and backyard, give your home a face-lift with outdoor landscaping. The front of your house is the most visible, you want passers-by to stop, to admire your landscape and you want a PA landscaper like Designer Landscaping PA to turn your backyard into a personal outdoor oasis.

Backyard Allentown PA Landscaping Installations

You may think that backyard installations can have better or worse value return. And you would be correct a costly gazebo or storage shed wouldn’t have the same installation cost-to-property value ratio as a reasonably priced pond or swimming pool. Your first question when considering Allentown PA landscaping is what backyard landscaping project fits your lifestyle, that will tell which project to undertake.

If you dream of afternoon barbecues then a deck is something that you may want to consider investing in. If you preference is a calm, quiet evening dining, you mat want to consider a patio. If you like to retreat in your backyard to enjoy the peace, to meditate and enjoy nature then a pond/waterfall combination may be ideal. A swimming pool can be an amazing addition that the whole family can enjoy. Your Designer Landscaping PA backyard landscaping should be unique, not trendy, unless you're sure it fits your lifestyle and/or you plan on selling your home in the next few years.

Cashing that economic stimulus check, planning for the future can mean more than just spending more on your installation project or getting the most bang for your buck. A frequent example of this is an above ground swimming pool installation. If you have children, they may bug you to put in a swimming pool. Spending more on this swimming pool may increase its lifetime by an extra ten years. It may seem like a good idea at the time, but once the kids leave for college, you may not want the pool or the maintenance.

You could invest that extra money and in ten years use that money to replace the swimming pool. Designer Landscaping PA above ground swimming pool is one of the easiest installations to replace. Digging the foundation for the swimming pool is also natural ground preparation for a garden or patio.

Backyard Allentown PA Landscaping Care and Maintenance

Basic landscaping care and maintenance can be more about getting the most for your money. Planting or removing trees or other plants can provide many options and several of them can save you money and still accomplish comparable effects. Existing topsoil can often be revitalized in a relatively short amount of time at a significantly cheaper price. The most important thing is to ask a lot of questions before you make any actual plans. Talking to a Designer landscaping PA professional about what you want for your backyard landscaping is the best thing that you can do. Be sure to ask what your options are and make sure you can justify each decision to yourself.

This article was written for marketing purposes, if you are interested in learning more about article marketing or SEO services please email me for further information.

BLaST Creative SEO Services and SEO Copywriting

SEO Services and SEO Copywriting is taking off in our world today. Utilizing search engine optimization services can level the playing field for any business.

BLaST Creative SEO Services come in a variety of shapes and sizes and the cost can get really pricey as well. There is copyediting, copywriting, keywords, press releases, meta tags, blogs and the list goes on and on. And while it can be overwhelming, hiring an SEO Service Provider can make your Internet Marketing issues much easier to deal with, hire an expert to make sure that it's done correctly.

What to look for in an SEO Service Provider:

• Copywriting
• Copyediting
• Utilization of keywords
• Link building
• Web content
• Top Ranking in search engines
• Pay per click advertising

What can an SEO Service Provider do for you? What difference can they make for you and your business? And more importantly, what can you afford for Internet Marketing? Can your SEO Service Provider cross over to all avenues of advertising and marketing?

As a business owner, you need to define your marketing needs, and the amount of time and money that you want to invest in your marketing campaign.

And last but certainly not least, the exciting news about SEO Services is that thanks to the cyberspace, your SEO Service marketer can live anywhere and provide you with optimal results.

For more information on SEO Services and SEO Copywriting, please contact BLaST Creative.