New Year, BEWARE, Forward Multimedia Is Bigger & Badder!

Yay it’s 2013…never mind the 13 at the end for the superstitious, it’s a new beginning. Let’s be optimistic this time and pay no mind to the traditional wearing off of that ‘new year’ smell, it happens to the best of us but we have to still resist. For me it’s look out 2013, Forward Multimedia is going to rip you a new one!

Yes, we’re talking websites, our raison d’être and for those of you who were twiddling your thumbs while your competitors forged ahead with their websites last year, please stop twiddling your thumbs…

Back to serious…I’ve never been complacent with my website nor my business- being the new kid on the block, even now still less than 2 years old, meant I had to work hard on all fronts which has paid off and is still paying off, for example:

• Securing a consistent first page ranking on Google for 3 major keywords in local search
• Earning a reputation as someone knowledgeable about the workings of local e-commerce
• Able to rely solely my online marketing to grow my business without paid promotion
• Adding well known businesses to my portfolio
• Being hired for my online marketing services ‘à la carte’ and bundled with new websites

The above is not me beating my chest and being smug but to make a point, and the point is that I’ve always made a point to practice everything I preach to clients, not to prove  a point, but to be AN ACTUAL LIVING example of what they can achieve by implementing the same things (point count: 4- or is it 5?!).

I preach that everything I do on my own website can be duplicated exactly on yours. There are no other web designers (yet) who can do this like me in Trinidad & Tobago- but there will eventually be, giving me formidable competition when it’s my clients’ websites versus theirs.

But that’s maybe someday, but not THIS DAY!

So let’s make hay while the sun shines, and that’s just an expression for I don’t know the Trini equivalent of hay (maybe cane-top?). I’ve also always cautioned about only trying to be better than your competition without aspiring to be the best as such a strategy only works till your competitors catch up so let’s be smart.

I’ve made some changes to my site for your enhanced experience

Nothing too drastic but substantial, most will be rolled out in the first week on January 2013 and all within the month. Here is a guide so you’ll be aware:

• Some fresh new slides on the homepage, some serious and some cheeky
• Changed the main menu to feature 2 services: Website Design and Online Marketing with the sub-services as only means to their ends
• Added shortcut buttons on the homepage for my main online marketing services
• New video produced by me with ME on it- as an example for your own
• My E-Commerce book will be published by chapters instead ( I just don’t have the time to write the entire thing so this is easier and gets the info to you)
• More tutorials via video and more article series
• Re-written a few pages: Email Marketing. Social Media Marketing, You Tube Videos, Maintenance and eventually most will be re-written
• Only bad news: Changed my payment options to FULL PAYMENT IN ADVANCE and this only because my hand is forced here with too many sites taking agonizingly long to complete, sorry!

My previous 2013 Overview article listed some of the new focus areas for 2013. Notable is an emphasis on website design and online marketing as a bundle for new clients especially with the T&T Small Business Network website poised to take off this year which I plan to make full use of.

ESPECIALLY NEW FOR 2013: Monthly Maintenance Plan

I want to highlight this separately as I want this to be one of the crown jewels of the Forward Multimedia experience. This came about as a result of my observations of many of my clients’ websites: that many were left untouched after they launched and not not necessarily the fault of the owners. Care and feeding of a website goes beyond simple ‘watering’ and requires a degree of involvement that most don’t have the time to give. While I can give a big speech on why they should, it won’t solve the problem overnight so I devised this solution.

My monthly maintenance plan gives a fixed 2 hours of my time per month on a website for a special client price. Unless the client has a specific update, it gives me the free hand to do whatever I think is in the interest of the site’s promotion and development. This is a win/win situation as for a minimal cost the client can concentrate on his other business operations while leaving the site in good hands and not having to worry about it.

Yeah…bigger and badder!