Big Ahha

Sometimes you should just trust your gut, your instinct, your inner self, the little voice inside your head. The problem is we sometimes over think our decisions and we convince ourselves that an outcome is more likely to fit within a desired result when our initial reaction was more on track with the actual outcome. That might be a bunch of mumbo-jumbo but all it really means is that sometimes, not all of the time, you should just trust your gut and ignore the other influences that are trying to convince you to go against your core feelings.

Bestselling business author Seth Godin and bestselling management author Tom Peters recently appeared together at a forum called “Inside the Entrepreneurial Mind.” They discuss things like the effect of social networking on brands, the importance of blogging, and what affect the credit crisis and election have on small businesses.
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We received the following email recently here at Big Ahha HQ:

Hello, my name is Chuck XXXXXXX and I am an internet marketing specialist. I was looking at websites under the keyword cuban coffee and came across your website http://bigahha.com. I see that you’re not ranked on the first page of Google for a cuban coffee search.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.

There’s no reason you can’t have a top three ranking for the keyword cuban coffee based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site.

What Chuck failed to see is that Big Ahha doesn’t sell or have much of anything to do with Cuban coffee beyond consuming a cup or two when given the chance.
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If only Albert Einstein had been a web designer. Sure, we may have been without the Theory of Relativity, but his words sure make a great mantra for web design.
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You would think that losing months of photos and important documents in a hard drive crash would teach one a lesson of the importance of backing up files. I can say that I half learned my lesson. After CrashGate ‘07 I began periodically backing up files, but as time went on those backups became more and more infrequent.

And now the hard drive crashing goblins have reared their ugly heads once again. This time a little over a month’s worth of photos and work files were lost. This week has been like the movie Groundhog Day, as each day has been spent reliving work that I previously had completed.

Heed this call, people of the interweb: Backup your files while you still can!

So I was struck by lightning a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t that big a deal really. Luckily the guy upstairs felt it wasn’t my time and the only after effect was a numb arm for a couple of days. But in the vein of life flashing before your eyes I saw this new start up on Guy Kawasaki’s blog the other day.

It is a company called Kronomy. If you go to Guy’s post, Make Your Life Flash Before Your Eyes, you can see his example using the new app. Like Guy I think beyond showing someones life I see a lot of potential for businesses to use this technology internally and as a marketing took to communicate within teams and to potential clients. It has the “sexy” factor that can keep people engaged in what you are trying to communicate. Check it out and ask how you could use it at your company.

Oh and on a side note, most lightning strike deaths occur after a storm moves through an area so just because the storm is over doesn’t mean you may not be in for a shocking experience if you wander outside. Do yourself a favor and wait at least 30 minutes after the last lightning strike. That’s the recommendation from FEMA Thunderstorms and Lighning.

Usability is often mentioned as a cornerstone of good web design. Website usability is about creating efficient and intuitive experiences for the people who use your site.
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So while Brad was checking our site stats the other day he noticed that we were getting some traffic from an unexpected source. It appears people have been coming to our site while searching for the terms “making mojitos.” How you might ask?

Back in February, Brad and I went to a conference in Miami. While blogging about the conference we also gave some insight into the meals we had. In this post I mention that we had some Mojitos at a restaurant called The Latin American. I added the Tag “Mojitos” to that post and voila we are now getting traffic via that Tag.

Now that was one isolated post that included a Tag not associated with our business and we are getting traffic from it. Just think if you had a Blog on your site where you posted about topics relative to your business and your customers.

Just another reason to consider having a blog on your site.

And for all of those people looking for “making mojitos”…here is a link to the Bacardi site where you can find out everything you need to know to make them at home.

And if you haven’t tried it, Orbit gum by Wrigley comes in a Mint Mojito flavor that is a favorite of mine.

Alright time for a trip back to the 80’s. We all remember Field of Dreams , the baseball movie with Kevin Costner . Even if you didn’t see the movie you probably heard the quote…”If you build it, they will come!”

Well the business world isn’t a Hollywood movie with Kevin Costner. This quote comes to mind quite often when working with clients who have had a website for awhile and just aren’t seeing the results they hoped for. Having someone build a site for your business is only one part of having an online business and a small part at that. What is your strategy for marketing your website? I’m sure you have thought about how to market your business but specifically how are you driving people to your website?

Just because you build it does NOT mean the business will come.

Have you thought about any of the following?

• Email marketing campaigns to existing and or potential clients
• Sponsored links on search engines
• Google Ad words
• Start a blog about your company
• Create a MySpace or Facebook page for your business
• Make sure your website address is on all other marketing and client touch point material
• Check to be sure your site and your business is listed on all of the online directories of local businesses in your area
• Ask vendors or business partners to place reciprocal links on their sites and you will do the same for them

Those are just some of the ways we help our customers create and implement a strategy to successfully drive more business to their websites.

Because if you just build it and don’t do the rest you could end up all washed up like Kevin in one of his less popular movies.

Waterworld

Brad and I often talk about what type of company we want Big Ahha to be. How many employees we should have, how do we want to grow, what should our focus be etc.

We have always looked at 37signals as a company that seems to be built around core principles we strive to embrace at Big Ahha. A recent post on their blog, Signal vs. Noise sums up our feelings on growth and when it is ok to stay small. Here is the link below.

Finding the natural size of your company from the Signal vs. Noise blog.

Another book I found very interesting on the subject is Small Giants : Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham. It’s a great read with some awesome examples of companies who made conscious decisions to stay small when they could have expanded.