Erich Stauffer

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  • Write What Matters to Your Customer

    I’ve been building sites with the thought process that content matters more than SEO. I’ve been doing that by solving peoples problems. I look for those problems by finding sticky posts on forums, reviewing Yahoo Answers questions, and reviewing search terms for people finding my site (only works after you have content).

    Here are some recent graphs of sites once I started using this method:

    What I’ve learned from that is that there are direct search results related to doing this strategy and I spend very little time backlinking because I don’t have to. They customers find me because I’m solving a problem for them – they look for me instead of me trying to bait Google to make them find me over someone else.

    After reading what this sales guy, Frank Rumbauskas of Never Cold Call (Again), has written and listening to his webinar, I’ve realized that the crux of his premise is that by creating content on your blog or in an email or fax that you send, you’re answering a problem, fixing something that your customers care about.

    The result is that you’re spending more of your time finding out what problems your customers are having, solving those problems and publishing the results so that other people who are looking for the same solutions find you and hire you. You’re no longer selling, you’re taking business as it comes to you, and it will.

    Don’t get me wrong, SEO is not useless. In fact it can be often be very useful as 70-80% of all traffic is organic vs. paid. I make part of my living from SEO web design, but I also make part of my income from affiliate marketing. Those are somewhat in juxtaposition as I make money from people who want more organic results and from people buying ads that display on my sites.

  • Top Posts of 2011

    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2012

    We would like to thank you for your reading over the past year and look forward to 2012 together. As we look forward to 2012, lets take a look back at 2011.

    Here is a list of our top 20 posts from 2011 according to Google Analytics:

  • Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2012

    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Erich Stauffer Web Design and SEO

    We would like to thank you for your patronage over the past year and look forward to 2012 together.

    Here is a list of our top posts from 2011 according to Google Analytics:

    Convert Your Existing Web Site into a Blog

    Erich Stauffer is an Indianapolis-based SEO web design company specializing in converting static HTML web sites into dynamic, easily editable web sites with blogging functionality using WordPress – a powerful blogging platform that can be used as a CMS.

    You don’t have to lose the design you’ve already paid for. We can convert your site without changing the look. We’re not right for everybody, but for the clients we are, we do exceptional work.

    SEO Web Design Ensures High Search Ranking

    One of the easiest and most effective ways to drive traffic to your site is with content marketing via business blogging. No matter how your web site is setup now, we can add a blog and train you how to use it to effectively market your business.

    From the initial keyword and competitor analysis to the search engine optimization to the inbound marketing campaign, your website will be optimized to receive the traffic it deserves.

  • How a Trust Metric System for the Internet Might Work

    YourSCOR – A New Metric for a New Economy: Ebay came up with one of the first ‘social vetting’ mechanisms, which was their feedback system. For a while, people talked about how it was more accurate than a FICO score. What if there was a way to know ‘trust’ and ‘feedback’ “across all contexts”?

    SCOR stands for “Self-Compiled Opinion Report”, which is created by individuals and purchased by corporations like banks and human resource departments to get a better feel for who society thinks the person is. The site would allow you to bring in some ‘guided metrics’, but would also let you add your own. Guided metrics would include:

    • Linkedin recommendations
    • Ebay feedback rating
    • Flippa feedback rating
    • #of Twitter Followers
    • #of Facebook friends
    • YourSCOR recommendations

    It could also store achievements and statuses like:

    • Married or single
    • High school, college, post graduate education
    • Foursquare badges
    • Boy scout rank
    • Military rank
    • Tenured status at your job

    It could also compile the person’s FICO score (for a small fee), help you apply for credit cards (for affiliate revenue), and even pull background checks as an attachment. It would be like a personal Yelp.com or BBB where people could manage their own reputation online in one place, where they would have a publicly recognizeable score that would be trusted across the country. It may use a Pressure score like Product Management uses or a straight FICO-like score.

    Update from CNN 8/26/2013: “A handful of tech startups are using social data to determine the risk of lending to people who have a difficult time accessing credit.”

  • Indianapolis Acupuncture by Angelica Kokkalis

    One of our latest clients, Dr. Angelica Kokkalis, offers acupuncture in Indianapolis to those seeking alternative medicine from someone with a traditional medical background. Kokkalis, who is originally from Greece, has studied in both the United States and China learning both traditional western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Although she is well known for acupuncture in Indianapolis, Zionsville, and Lafayette, she also does analgesia, cupping, herb therapy, moxibustion therapy, quigong, and tongue diagnosis. According to Chinese Medicine, the tongue can offer great clues about the whole body. That’s part of what makes Dr. Kokkalis so helpful to her patients – she reviews the whole body, not just the symptoms – for a more holistic healing process.

    “For those who seek the wisdom and healing of ancient medicine in a modern era, Angelica Kokkalis offers that and more: the meeting and melding of East and West in a singular, compassionate individual,” Dr. Angelica Kokkalis is your Indianapolis acupuncture therapist. You can learn more on her website or by calling 765-497-0817.

  • Why Etsy, Kickstarter, and AirBnb Succeeded While Others Failed

    Chris Dixon, serial entrepreneur and investor in Kickstarter, recently wrote a post entitled “An internet of people,” where he asks why companies like Etsy, Kickstarter, and AirBnb are succeeding now when others like them have failed before.


    Before Kickstarter there were these metal things that started motorcycles.

    One of my most popular posts is on why Collegeclub.com failed when Myspace and Facebook succeeded and in that post I propose that the reason was bad management and the high cost of technology at the time (Leslie Perlow argued that Collegeclub was ‘Saying yes when they really meant no’), but when Chris Dixon asked Roelof Botha the “why now” question regarding web-based marketplaces, “He said something I thought was really interesting: marketplaces depend on trust, and trust requires knowing the reputation of a prospective counterparty. Today, for the first time, you can get background information on almost any prospective counterparty by searching Google, Facebook etc. Or put more simply: we finally have an internet of people.”

    Google’s authorship markup verification process has helped make the web less anonymous and so has Google+, which doesn’t allow pseudonyms, only real names. Brian Manning commented that, “eBay has been doing this successfully since the 90s. In the beginning their key hurdle to success was a lack of trust among buyers and sellers. At the time, they built extremely innovative tools that helped make users comfortable that they weren’t going to get ripped off; ratings and recommendations, slick complaint process, good customer service, etc. This was critical to their success. I recall reading that as trust among users increased so did eBay’s site usage and revenue. ‘Trust’ was their key revenue driver,” to which FAKE GRIMLOCK responded for the need for a “REPUTATION SYSTEM FOR INTERNET”. I agree, which is why I started YourSCOR, which was supposed to use metrics from eBay, Facebook, and Twitter to create a new type of credit score that people could control instead of corporations. It was supposed to be the “FICO for the Masses!”

    Apparently banks are starting to think the same way as this article points out, As Banks Start Nosing Around Facebook and Twitter, the Wrong Friends Might Just Sink Your Credit. Of course sites like Reputation.com have been around for a while, they are more like a super-sized Google alert with a dashboard (please correct me if I’m wrong). What’s lacking is a Klout-type mechanism for trust in people on the Internet. I may not be the one to bring it to the table, but surely someone will.

  • How to Auto-Forward Text Messages to Email in Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, and the iPhone

    It may seem counter-intuitive to some to forward a SMS message to an email address when most devices that can receive text messages can also receive email, but sometimes you don’t have access to your phone, yet you still need access to the text messages. This could happen if you lose your phone, leave your phone at work or in the car, or simply not be able to bring it to work or some other restricted location.

    I personally started using it when my customers started texting me long requests that I’d have to retype or manually forward to get into a usable form on my computer. It could also be useful for those of you who run a business on the side and want to keep your day job. You can use tools like this to forward text messages as emails to a personal assistant or your partner. For whatever the reason, you’re probably here looking for the answer, just like I was before I found the solution.

    Below are solutions for how to auto-forward your text messages to email for Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, and Apple iPhones.

    Android Phones

    TextBusy by Gatehill Software – $1.23

    I use TextBusy, which works great. It requires you to use a Gmail account to forward the emails so all of the SMS messages will be coming to you from whatever address you specify. Whatever bad reviews you see out there from August – disregard as those have been fixed by now as you can see by the latest review on September 15th. For $1.23 it’s well worth the money. It currently has 9 reviews on the Android Market.

    txtForward by Electric Pocket – $3.19

    txtForward txtForward automatically sends a copy of your SMS text messages to any email address you specify, for backup or as a handy way to get your messages at your desk.
    Send your SMS messages automatically to any email address, and easily back them up or read them from your desktop email client. It’s available for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile too. It currently has 38 reviews on the Android Market.

    SMS2Gmail by EireApps – FREE

    SMS2Gmail forwards SMS and missed call information to Gmail account. This application allows you to forward your SMS messages and missed calls to a user defined gmail account, and you can activate it remotely. If your phone is at home for example and you are not, send it an SMS from a friends phone or webtext and activate this service. It currently has 57 reviews on the Android Market.

    Blackberry Phones

    SMS Auto Forward to Email Pro by Value Apps – $3.99

    SMS Auto Forward to Email lets you forward all incoming SMS messages to an email address automatically. Very handy if you keep changing your handsets or like to delete your text messages. Keep a log/backup of all your text messages. Once installed and running, you don’t need to do anything. The app runs in the background and send every incoming text message automatically to an email address of your choice.

    txtForward automatically sends a copy of your SMS text messages to any email address you specify, for backup or as a handy way to get your messages at your desk.
    Send your SMS messages automatically to any email address, and easily back them up or read them from your desktop email client.

    Windows Mobile

    txtForward automatically sends a copy of your SMS text messages to any email address you specify, for backup or as a handy way to get your messages at your desk.
    Send your SMS messages automatically to any email address, and easily back them up or read them from your desktop email client.

    Palm Pre

    SMS Auto Forward/Reply by Grabber Software

    NOTE: This app does not work on webOS 2.x. SMS Auto Forward/Reply forwards text messages to the mobile number of your choice (number must be in your contacts). You can also send an auto-reply message to the sender. Your phone must be turned on and in coverage for this application to work. While this isn’t text-to-email, it may be the best a Palm Pre user can get. If you know of another app for Pre’s let us know in the comments.

    Apple iPhones

    Unfortunately, there are no apps to auto-forward text message from the iPhone (this is an opportunity for app developers!). For iPhones using firmware 3.0 or higher, manual forwarding of SMS messages is a built-in feature. To manually forward a text message, simply:

    1. view the SMS text message you’d like to forward
    2. select EDIT at the top of the screen
    3. check off the message(s) you’d like to forward
    4. tap FORWARD at the bottom right of the screen

    iSMS/weiSMS

    For those using older firmware, there is a third-party application for the iPhone, iSMS/weiSMS, with which it is possible to send text messages to multiple individuals as well as forward text messages.

    SMSD

    SMSD is a free and easy to use iPhone SMS management application which lets you delete individual Messages, backup all message through mail, manually forward messages, and manually Send/Forward messages to multiple contacts.

  • 6 Ways to Install Android APK Files

    MID Tablets had a post on how to add the Android Market app to a Coby Kyros tablet without rooting, but I wanted to revise the article to be about different ways to install Android APK files in general.

    Different Ways to Install Android APK Files

    There are various ways to install Android apps, which are really just “APK” files, besides using the Android Market. APK stands for “Android Package Kit”, which would be like an “EXE” on Windows PCs. While Android Market is the most popular and most trusted way to add and install APK files to your Android device, there are other ways to go about it. Here are some of the most popular:

    • Android Market – an online software store developed by Google for Android OS devices. Its gateway is an application program (“app”) called “Market”, preinstalled on most Android devices, allows users to browse and download mobile apps published by third-party developers. Users can also search for and read detailed information about apps on the Android Market website.
    • Amazon Appstore – a mobile application store for the Android operating system that includes a “free app a day” feature. Every day, an application, frequently a game, is offered for free. The Amazon Appstore is currently only available in the US and no official announcements have been made about increasing availability to other regions.
    • AppsLib – A marketplace aimed at all kinds of android devices; Appslib specializes in android devices that can’t get google certification; tablets, eReaders, PMPs and more. With over 30 thousand applications available, worldwide, it has a simple, hassle-free certification process, and all updates to Appslib are automatically pushed to users.
    • GetJar – GetJar is the world’s largest free app store with over 2 billion downloads to date. The company distributes more than 350,000 mobile applications across a variety of operating systems including Android, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and mobile web. 395,000 developers have registered with GetJar to distribute their apps.
    • Android SDK – a comprehensive set of development tools for Android. These include a debugger, libraries, a handset emulator (based on QEMU), documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Currently supported development platforms include computers running Linux (any modern desktop Linux distribution), Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later, Windows XP or later.
    • Easy Installer – a free Android app from Infolife, LLC that installs apps from APK files on SD cards. It lists all the apk files on the SD card, allowing you to select apps that you want to install. Click the “Install Selected Apps” button for easy installation.

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  • December 2011 Update

    This has been a busy month. We’ve been developing a new WordPress theme for use with all of our sites and it’s working really well. Let’s cover the sites recently converted to the new theme this past month.

    Managing Actions was converted from a management consulting business to a web site about management consulting.  The SDN continues to create fake news and has just recently started posting about individual topics versus news-bytes from its newsletter. eAccessories has had a lot of success this past Christmas season promoting ereader accessories along with Nook Share, which promotes nook covers.  Mobile Devices continues to cover – yep you guessed it – mobile devices, but now with the new, refreshed theme. Suzanne has began writing again on her popular motivated moms blog, And They Lived Happily Ever After, which also has a new, albeit different, theme. An Entrepreneurial Mind continues to add new posts and insights into what Erich is working on, dovetailing with eRich Online, which covers how to make money online. Learning Sets is a brand new site, but is already doing well, helping parents and teachers find educational science kits and toys for kids.  Lost Post, a blog about ABC’s LOST and pop culture in general, was also converted.  Query String, a web site that helps programmers find Google Map query string arguments, was also converted. Digitions, a blog about digital editions of books, magazines, and newspapers, has also been converted.  Geek Hand, which we wrote about in July when it was introduced, has also been converted and will soon be covering board game tournaments. Another one of our new blogs, C’outure, is now promoting high fashion clothes and accessories. Ether Fleet, formerly a network consulting service, now reports on cloud computing and GPS tracking software using the new theme. Stay Alert Energy is as bright as ever, continuing to post on how to stay alert. Erich Stauffer, the web site about the figurine designer for Arnart creations, has now branched out to cover porcelain figurines and other collectibles.  Webories, a web directories catalog, is now up and running after a long planning session.  And the last two new sites, Nookington’s and Item Processing, are both on the new theme and are providing quality content on Wii games, hardware, and accessories and items processing terms, respectively.

    Stay tuned as Cost Publishing continues to grow and provide guides to those looking to find information on the Internet.  Cost Publishing works hand-in-hand with the search engines to bring you relevant information about what you are looking for online.  Follow Cost Publishing on Twitter for more up to date information.