We have been working so hard this year that the time just flew by. We have learned so much and met so many great people, that it’s been worth all the hard work. We have developed new products like Facebook Application Development and Website Development, and have begun to really build a reputation for offering affordable marketing in Salem and surrounding areas. We have even bigger plans for 2012 and wanted to tell you a little bit about them:

For You:

1. Monthly Marketing Seminars – We are working on a plan to offer free Marketing Seminars to small business owners in the area.
2. More blogging – We are planning to do a better job of getting on here and telling you about what we’re up to and what’s new in the industry.
3. Even Better Service – We are taking advantage of some continuing education opportunities to bring you even more powerful SEO and Local Marketing results!
4. A Website Redesign – To reflect all that we’ve learned and all that we’d like to share with you, we are planning to beef up our website and add even more helpful content!

For Us:

1. Incorporation – The planning and preparation for this is already underway. We are excited to take Mobile Now Marketing to the next level.
2. BBB Accreditation – Now that we are a year old we can join the Better Business Bureau
3. Chamber Memberships – We plan to join the Salem and Keizer Chambers

And last but not least, we want to thank YOU for your support and patronage this year. We wouldn’t have grown so much if it weren’t for our clients, and we wouldn’t be so excited about the future if it wasn’t for all you future clients out there! 

I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year, and here’s to an even better 2012!

I just wanted to mention Small Business Saturday to everyone, in case you hadn’t heard of it. While sponsored by the giant American Express Credit Card Company, it is meant to encourage cardholders, as well as the general public, to shop small local businesses on Saturday. Being a small business fan myself, I think it’s really important to remember that small business is the lifeblood of a community. We wouldn’t have fun things like the Salem Saturday Market or the Festival of Lights Holiday Parade without the participation and support of small businesses. I hope that you will take some time to go off the beaten path and stop by a small business today while doing your holiday or other shopping.

Have a great day everyone!

“<strong>{The|The very} {crux|heart|core|root} of your writing {while|whilst} {sounding|appearing} {agreeable|reasonable} {initially|at first|in the beginning|originally}, did {not|not really} {sit|work|settle} {well|properly|perfectly|very well} with {me|me …</strong>

Throughout the awesome pattern of things you’ll receive a B- just for effort. Where you misplaced me personally was on the specifics. As it is said, details make or break the argument.. And it could not be much more correct here. Having said that, per…” - yes literally that was the end of the post.

So not only did this genius send me a nonsense comment, but he left all the alternate words from his generator in the post. Classic…

I’ll admit, I LOL’d.

So since I’m here talking about this I’ll just let those of you out there who may want to start a blog or other type of website that would accept user comments, to always set your content management system so that you review all comments before they post. Then you can set it so that a comment poster has to be approved at least once before being able to post unmoderated content. This way if you get someone that makes valid comments and you allow their comments to be posted, you won’t have to moderate their comments every time. Just a little tip to help those of you out there just getting started. Anyway, I’m super slammed so I’ll catch you all later!

First, we now have an office downtown. It’s in the Security Building right across from the Elsinore Theater. The new address is 161 High St SE #249, Salem, OR 97301. It’s small, but it does the job.

Secondly, we have been steadily growing, bringing on clients such as Cascade Pacific Lawyers, LLC (Salem), Guthrie Design (Salem), Ranny & Maude Chocolates (Chilicothe, Ohio), and just recently Tranquil Woods Assisted Living (Mission Viejo, California). One of our most high profile projects at this point has been the Salem Saturday Market website. It in almost finished and should go live within the next couple of weeks. As you can see, I’ve been very busy, but I couldn’t be happier about it.

You might be thinking to yourself “Hey, there were some out-of-state businesses listed up there!”. Well, that’s absolutely true, and I was just as surprised as you are. I have a few friends that have been impressed with my work and have referred me to people they know in other areas of the country. Thank you so much to those friends who had enough confidence in me to make a referral like that!

And finally, we have done well enough this year that we have decided to move forward with our plans to incorporate. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to do that, because quite frankly we weren’t sure how we’d do! I have been absolutely blown away by the growth we’ve experienced, and am looking forward to a great holiday season and a new year as a new S-Corporation!

Well, I have all kinds of other little things to share, but I’ll save them for later. Take care everyone!

So now that I have a couple of minutes, I would like to discuss something that has been on every web professionals mind over the past several days; the Google algorithm “tweak” that has targeted “content farms”.

I find myself very conflicted over this news, and the subsequent consequences for many sites that I consider to be legitimate sources of information (Demand Media and Huffington Post, for example). On the one hand, content spammers give SEO and SEM professionals like us a bad name, and I was stunned at how quickly my site was targeted by those wishing to post totally unrelated linkback comments on my site. I completely respect that Google has a right to protect their brand. When I perform a search, I enjoy seeing the most relevant sites near the top of the list, and I also appreciate that Google handles a tremendous amount of information and that they can’t catch everything. They needed to automate this process at least partially in order to keep up with the thousands of spammers and black hat SEO’s out there.

What bothers me though is that Google also appears to be judge, jury, and in some cases executioner in these matters, and that they have an increasing amount of control over the success or failure of a business’s advertising campaign. In particular, I have grown extremely frustrated with Google and their local marketing products. They are pushing them hard lately, but provide almost no support for them, and will manipulate customer listings at will with no warning whatsoever. Often those manipulations are erroneous and cause incorrect addresses or phone numbers to show up on listings, which can devastate a small business. Worse still is when a business tries to report the issue, Google can take MONTHS to respond.

I agree with Spiderman; with great power comes great responsibility. While Google strives to deliver relevant, quality content, they damage some legitimate content creators. Is an algorithm really the answer? Would a community controlled solution have been a better option? Something with a human element that would be better able to distinguish the scammers from the real deals? Does Google need to bite the bullet and hire a few more help desk people to resolve the support issues that their products are suffering from? I don’t think Google’s attitude of “it’s free, so deal with it” is going to work much longer. All of us that use their free services also create the traffic that Google makes their living off of. They wouldn’t have a 68% market share if it wasn’t for us…

So what say you public? What do you think of the changes Google has made? Discuss!

Related articles

• Google targets “content farms” in search tune-up (reuters.com)
• Websites to Google: ‘You’re killing our business!’ (money.cnn.com)