Daily budget of your startup business life?

I had no idea that I'd be writing about Daily Budgets on things I learned 30 years ago! At times I'm shocked to see, hear about or even at times see myself over spending.. ahh, duh I'm not the only one guilty of doing this I'm sure. So, today, let's do a little comparison, thoughts and suggested ideas to help a startup break the mold and succeed.

Just an FYI, at the moment I'm sitting here writing this blog post my phone rings in silence with 5 missed calls from a number I've never seen before. Quick search on the web and it's a marketing company trying to sell me services. This of course is one of the worst ways to gain a new client, but in reality it works just not the "best business" practice is being followed. Email, Phone, SMS or even Snail Mail is SPAM and nobody likes it. Is this really the impression you want to give your .. clients?

For me, I refuse to feed the internet machine endless flow of cash, credit, debit etc.. whatever it is, it's going to be deducted from my bank account and at times of course.. Surprise! There's been a misunderstanding. not reading the "terms of service" or a update of change of services notice and now the invoice is much higher. Or even worse actually, the invoice did not come, the payment remains as the provider you've been using for months .. closed the doors.

I say everything from personal experience, I'm currently 54 and have the heart and soul of a 19 year old man who's just starting his own company. Well, I use that age to be correct as myself, I started my own business at 7 years old. Newspaper route, long days little money. Saved up most to buy a lawnmower and yes it was better than my own dads! I started going door to door in the neighborhood offering to cut the front, back or both yards for a discount. OMG, I was so stupid as I did not ask anyone what to charge etc..

Let's just say I worked my body to the core so daily workouts not needed. It did not take me long to understand I needed to change locations.. asking the families in your area that watched you grow up.. nah, not best route - lol. As in, was that me that egg'd your house? No. no way - LOL

So what's all this got to do with Daily Budgets?

Easy, it's not how much you make, how much you spend or even if you make no sale at all. It's all about what are you doing with your time right this moment? Reading my post? Ok, good but let's make it worth while eh?

Take a look at https://hostcops.com and let me know via the HelpDesk on the website if you'd like to begin a Startup Website Project with my services? I've been in business since 2004 and over 3,500 website projects. Host many, update just about all and can help you save time and money today! Well, at least within 1 business day.

https://hostcops.com

Have a Great Memorial Day!
May 27, 2019

Regards,
Scott

HostCops.com is a division of Snerdey Co.

Pen or Pencil?

An amazing birthday gift was given to me by one I call brother from another mother. For those of us who normally do not receive gifts from the top shelf. Let's just say it's nice to also be great friends. From the moment I got the email notice from an online shopping site I waited with great anticipation to use my new pen. The store also included the order details and price for a gift notice - oops! :)

The email contained photos and all kinds of details. It was shinny and brilliant like for some bank president's pen you know? The one they carry in their white shirt pocket, tucked under the jacket but just enough for us to see it but you dare not ask to borrow it cause it shines like gold. If I think back to my youth and those long nights playing with my cars and trucks while mom worked late with her best friend sorting checking accounts. At times I'd go to the bank during the day for lunch that was the most fun!

Back then everyone was so nice and helpful, in my case playful and fun. It was like my big playground. Even the President of the Bank would allow me into the big office. His golden pen was always in his shirt pocket and it was only for customers. But on his desk I had my selection of pens to choose from. I found one that was just wonderful to draw with. The designs I drew were on his walls along with his own kids artwork gallery. He had all girls so go figure.

When the pen arrived it was hand delivered by my friend a few weeks after the day. There was a slight delay as it was shipped, misplaced for a moment and then wow it was like my birthday all over again. Little party in my soul and it was only for a moment as I was working at the time. Before he left my office I quickly opened it and gave it a try. But right away something was wrong and we both thought it would need to be returned.

I went to use it with the slight twist and started to draw but something was not working. A pen should right when you twist it and you see the tip ready to go you know?  Upon closer examination it turned out to be a golden pencil. Wow!! It's great and I would have never got something like this for myself but as a gift from a brother it's priceless to me.

Lucky for me it was happy ending. But, think about the people who manage those online store websites and all those refunds etc they have to deal with. They cut cost in all areas they can and mistakes are made when building a website manually. I have a recommendation for anyone seeking to build an online store.

First - grab any 2 cent pencil and visit this free website software website called Prestashop and give their demo a test drive as it's the easiest online store I've ever had the pleasure of using. I was lucky enough to meet the founder personally and you just can't go wrong when it comes to choosing a great engine / software for your website. To give the site your own look and feel checkout the PrestaShop Themes on my website that will allow you to change the way your store looks to your visitors.

Any questions they have a great forum and if you're in need a free domain name bundle with discounted hosting you can visit my partner here.

Feel free to leave a comment about your experience with online stores or even your favorite pen or pencil you like to carry with you wherever you go. For me, it's my iPhone and I use notes application as I'm always on the go.

Be health :)
Snerdey

A Spec Of Sand

Beautiful Sand Castle on the Beach

A Spec Of Sand

Let's take a stroll along the beach and while we're at it learn about how a domain name is nothing more than a spec of sand when it comes to the moment you purchase the domain till the death of the domain. It will always be one domain name and to explain it more plainly let's call it... a spec of sand. Pretend for a moment you can reach down and grab some sand. Now, take one spec of sand or one piece of sand and look at it. Now, remember it.. drop it back into the pile of sand or entire beach coast line even a playground. Go find that same spec of sand.

Skip forward to the point that your domain name is hosted on an affordable hosting service that is most likely a shared hosting account. You've installed Wordpress and selected a great theme for the design like the sand castle above. It's pretty to many, complex to others and what's the point to some as eventually this castle will fade back into the sandy beach.

Now that our sand castle or website is completed we certainly want to get visitors to come see it and take photos or in this case put us in their favorite places within the browser cause most only take a few seconds to visit a new website only to quickly decide if they are interested and if so will come back later. Myself, I have 30 tabs open on my browser rather than favorite them all I keep the ones I need. Point is, not everyone is the same.

Getting traffic and the right kind of traffic to visit us is only one part but are you ready for visitors? What is your castle made of? How many visitors can it hold at once? Is it secure and safe for everyone who enters? This list of questions can go on forever as their are so many factors to consider when it comes to... is my website ready?

Building Foundation Strong and Secure

For most of us the domain, hosting, theme and spending one day or several weeks on making the website look and function the way we want it too. It's important to keep up with trends, current versions and updated website software such as Wordpress requires updating and in many cases updates can and in fact break the theme or the complete website. Not to mention hackers love to play hide and seek with many website owners as they enter the backdoor of websites and add hidden pages, dirty links and in most cases send out spam.

Service Entry - Back Door - Easily Opened - By Most Anyone

A Wordpress website has a login and admin control panel. It also normally contains plugins that allow the website to function in a special way like sliders, classifieds, photo galleries and of course ecommerce shopping carts. Oh, a hackers paradise once they gain access to a successful online store causing troubles foe everyone. So it's vital to keep the website protected 24/7 even while in production or coming soon stages.

Simple Tools Create Amazing Results

We're all masters of our own websites, even if you do not personally do the work. Someone is making a website for you or helping you. In my experience over the past 15 years or so is that some clients think a website is no more than a word doc, pdf or some fancy printable page. Not once really give any thought about all the work or the software making it all possible. 

Stone Master Gently Tapping On Cobblestone

Take a look at the photo above, the stones are sitting on sand that has been compacted, prepared for the stones. The hammers are wood and rubber allowing the stone master to tap or pound on the stones to make them level and semi perfect patterns. Not all are same shapes and sizes and for us, this like like the top of the website or the header area. Then the content, images, wording as well as the menu and of course the footer area of the website. It all has to be built and correctly, even if your just editing the theme you must be careful of typos, image optimizations as well as content that is SEO driven.

Success Is Not Instant

If you think about this, notice the walkway is starting to take shape. There's a road being built and there's lots of stones to put in place. Now, with a Wordpress website all the road is complete, once you have the website software installed it normally includes the basic and free themes to select from. But, for most of us it's not enough as we seek to be unique as possible. Notice the stones on top of the road, they represent the pages a client wants to add to the website. Home, About, Photo Gallery, Contact and normally a Services page.

Cobblestone Roads Are In Need Of Constant Repair

Like the road breaks, so does a website and oddly enough some of the worst breaks happen day one in the setup of the premalinks or menu structure of the website. So many times we see that a client has created a site, menu with 20 page and on each page has links to all the pages creating a negative SEO result for incorrect linking internally, not even talking about the links to other sites. These links are actually ether broken and do not work or looping causing a bot to ignore the content you have worked so hard on but you can see the site, the page but if it's not linked correctly.. you the only one that sees it.

Incomplete or Personal Choice

As humans we all drive different cars, taxis, buses, trains and even inside our homes we're different all created around the same idea of 4 walls, ceiling, floor and some windows etc.. like a website you want to make sure you also have all things in order. In so many cases clients say .. I love pink, black and purple and I also want the images to be perfectly clear without any distortion. Also like minimal with lots of white space. Look at this photo and think about it... do you like it? Is it interesting? Does it make you want to tell a friend? One needs to be careful with white space as it can cause the.. what is the point reaction.

Dark Holes Should Be Avoided

Creating a unique website can sometimes go overboard and actually loose visitors. Really have to be careful when it comes to advertising and paying money for people to see your website online such as banner ads, links and even directly listings. Kinda like leading a horse to water, you can not make the horse drink the water. Sure, you can bring it to it's lips, even pour the water on the horse.. it's not drinking cause it wants too. So money on advertising can and in many cases totally wasted cause the website was not ready.

Pitfalls and Dangers

Visitors to your website normally have anti-virus, anti-malware and even smart phones etc.. your website can, if not protected or has broken links, missing images or typos in code cause the site not to look the same to all visitors based on the device they are using. One of course these days make the site 100% responsive. Even more important is to us a plugin like Wordfence - free and helps protect the website from would be hackers.

My Road, err Website is Ready - Looks Great!

 

 

 

Now that you have secured your website, locked the backdoor and even updated all the plugins, software itself you want to make sure and backup the website. Not just one time, but in different ways. Via the hosting control panel as a server backup or contact your hosting company for instructions. Plugins can help, I love to use one called BlogVault not just cause I'm an affiliate and get paid for referring people like you to use it. More cause I use it myself and for my clients websites it's very easy for me to use. Give it a test drive for free. 

Everyone's Looking At You Kid!

This is the result we want in most cases to come up on the search results as first place or at least the top fold of the screen. Now that the website is protected, you've placed some ad's and see messages from visitors you're on the right track. Make sure and listen to the visitors feedback, especially if they complain something is not working - investigate it and fix it.

Unique and Narrow Path

Maybe your website is one product, one thing like the next best piece of bubble gum. You really want to modify your approach, selective on how you promote and even what medium you want to reach your audience with. I've seen TV commercial mention to visit the website for more information only to see that the website does not work on my android phone as the website has flash (flash is fading away) so you want to make sure you have a mobile version for visitors to see your website. These versions are normally highlights, specific and important pages of the main site. Reducing things we show visitors so it loads quick and not a lot of distractions.

Successful Paths Of Success

If you do it all correctly, take your time and learn how to build a website correctly and that actually depends on one thing.. what do you want the website to do for you? Best of luck to your projects and please feel free to reach out to me for consultations, recommendations as well as free quotes to help you get your website where you want it.

Regards,

Snerdey

404 Error - You found the Magical Pink Unicorn!

404 Error - You found the Magical Pink Unicorn!

Custom 404 Pages

When it comes to 404 error pages, these are vital to any and all websites. Especially what you did with the error's when they come. So many webmasters, newbies mostly.. take the helm and redirect to the home page.

What's a 404 Error Page? Well, when you're searching on the web and see a result you are interested in seeing more about. You click, once there you sometimes are redirected or you see an error page. The error page is mostly due to a deleted page that was indexed by search engines.

So, the reason for my 1 year absence is that I was not actually absent. I have two hands, and lots of projects going at one time. Not complaining, happy to have a waiting list. I'm working on fixing that.

To all you webmasters, business owners. Feel free to comment and post your custom 404 error page. Let's see how different we are, what works and I'm sure some guru's will comment about what we're doing wrong. That's called, corrective feedback.. we love it, so should everyone else.

Here's my favorite custom 404 error page created for the Shop Texas Business Directory

Yes, please.. let us know if you find our pink unicorn ;)

By the way, if your clients or your own business is located in Texas - USA then feel free to add your or their business to the directory. It's only $49 for a one time fee. No subscriptions. See the terms of service so you understand who is not approved. Also, listings must have a physical location or owned and operated in Texas.

We also offer Startup Websites for $450 and up that includes 1 year domain name, hosting and initial website up to 10 pages. It's Wordpress or Prestashop and we'd help you get it all installed. Setup and running. We'll even place a coming soon page on it for you for fee. And, yes even a custom 404 page.

Best to contact us for a free quote as we offer consultations to help you make the best choices possible. We've been doing this since 2004 .. yeah, we're old!

Happy Holidays!
Snerdey

Websites, it's a Love Hate Thing.

When it comes to websites there are many things that come to mind for most people. Either you love them or hate them and websites go to great extremes to get your vote of - Like but what happened to Love and Hate are they not what we humans decide on a daily basis?

Learning Curves
Either you love them or hate them, I don't really recall someone saying I love the learning curve of getting my website designed the way I want it done. I do however recall hearing others including myself how much I hate hard coding a website back in the beginning cause it was soooooo boring!

Domains and Hosting
Oh, here's a real eye twitching combination as if you forget to renew your domain name you hate that someone took it from you using some bot program and now want to sell it to you or the highest bidder! In regards to hosting, it seems many are always trying to find the best service and price and not so many are loyal to their supplier as everyone loves a good deal.

Website Templates
They look so easy on the demo and even the video showing you how to edit the design with ease. But, just like driving a car it looks so easy until you get behind the wheel and for everyone's sake I hope someone is sitting next to you holding the wheel and teaching you when you go, go, go cause it not chances are you'll stop, stop, stop. So just because someone says it's easy, it's best to have a helping hand when it comes to web design as there are more rules to follow other than color codes and easy checkout.

Drag and Drop or HTML
How about both as there is an actual "plugin" if you will that I totally love, yes click that like button and let's get going on the idea of total ease of web design. Of course that's not the only thing you should be concerned with regarding the ease of website designs using drag-n-drop website templates as you also have to be careful in regards to the legal part and not to copy someone's website content, photos. Love it or Hate it the law is everywhere when it comes to web designs.

I Love It!
The one thing I love most about hosting, providing domain names and even the webdesigns we provide our clients is the fact that we're helping them save money and time as if you do it yourself - sure, you can get someone online quick but is it correct? Will people love it? From my past experience since the birth of the internet most will hate it and for many reasons.

Why Hate It?
You might have a beautiful design and it's perfect colors, cool logo but if your content is not enough to keep the reader or searcher loving it for more than 5 seconds they are out of here and you can forget about them clicking like and if you gave them the choice they would mostly click Hate for many reasons but mostly it's loading too slow, some things that should click do not, too much animation, huge photos not optimized for the web and don't even get me started on online stores.. those are another topic all together cause they combine websites with retail and that takes pure balance to keep them surfers returning back for more.

Like or Hate?
Interesting, you don't see any Hate buttons only +1, Like, Share and one has to wonder why is that? I think most logically is possibly your competitors going around clicking Hate all day. So if my blog post today had a Hate It or Love It which would you click? Would you share it and tell others how much you whatever it?

I'm not scared... cause I'm just being me and sharing my thoughts so I really do not care what others think as that's not why I wrote this. Why did I go to Fotolia and purchase an image, edit it to my liking and post this blog post? Well, if you checked out the links I embedded into this post you'd understand.

Happy Holidays and hope it's full of Love with a dash of hate as you know you don't like something someone cooked and it's sitting on the table with one of your in-law's looking at you to see how much you will put on your plate with pure anticipation of the first bite you take of their humble pie :)

Ho Ho Ho!
Snerdey