Dear Reader,

It's hard to believe that it is already 2009. I feel like 2008 just started! This past year has been a great one for Beyondus. You may have noticed we've been a little quiet on our own marketing efforts, but a lot has been going on behind the scenes.

• We welcomed several wonderful new clients in 2008 - thank you again and welcome!
• We've expanded our technical offerings to include a full-fledged content management system option (Drupal-based)
• We've assisted more clients with strategic marketing planning in addition to fulfilling project needs.
• Alessandro and I continue to be committed to the local WNY business community as well: Alessandro serves on several area boards and I am currently serving as Vice President of our ABWA Niagara Falls chapter.

Our internal team is also growing. In December, we welcomed Erin Lewis as Marketing Assistant - she'll be our right-hand-woman in a lot of marketing and administrative areas. Erin just graduated from Niagara University and is continuing on there to pursue an MBA with a concentration in marketing.
 
We know we have our clients to thank for where we are today - and we do thank you for your partnership with us. We always strive to improve ourselves and our services, and encourage you to contact us at any time with any feedback. Please feel free to email me directly with any comments or questions.
 
All of us at Beyondus wish you a prosperous New Year!
 

Privacy policies and terms of service are often overlooked when creating a website. There are many generators that supply websites with generic privacy policies or terms of service; but these are simply not adequate resources. These services cannot be customized to your business and may not be providing enough protection. If you are collecting user information, and/or provide a service or shopping via your website, you need a PP and TOS that protect you.

So what's the solution? If your company has legal counsel, we'd suggest asking them if your policy covers your company fully. However, if you don't have legal counsel or simply want to consult a specialist, please feel free to contact our new e-business lawyer: Deena Burgess, who's currently working on Beyondus' privacy policy and TOS! Deena's not only a great legal resource, but she's COOL. And unlike most lawyers, she often charges flat rates for project work (like terms of service or privacy policies) which makes her services more cost effective and budget planning-friendly for small businesses.
 
Learn more about privacy policies on Deena's blog: http://blog.ebusinesslawgroup.com/2008/08/why-shouldnt-you-use-free-terms-of.html

How do customers and prospects find your website? How do you want them to be able to find your website?

If your answers to those questions included "Search Engines" or "Google It," then we've got news for you: your Homepage is not your website's front page - EVERY PAGE IS.

Why is this? It's simple: keywords. Any page on your website is just one Google search away from a visitor, because Google indexes and ranks each page on your site individually by keyword. So visitors may not be sent directly to the home page. Since the front page may no longer be the first page a client sees, content on every page should orient the visitor to what your business and how the site is organized, in order to make the visitor want to see more. This makes navigation of your website imperative. Information must be clear, coherent, and easy to find no matter what webpage the visitor lands on.

Leverage the content on your site to your advantage and help build site traffic. Read on for a few ways to do this:

Read more

Businesses and Publicists:
Don't miss this great, relatively new resource for accessing reporters and other writers at precisely the moment they need you! Peter Shankman emails you queries 3 times a day of reporters asking for sources and experts! See Help a Reporter Out (HARO) now.
 
Journalists:
Take advantage of a free network of over 11,000 potential experts when you need help on a story. Visit the press link at HARO.

Rapid Growth:
Check out Ragan.com to see how fast HARO is growing; the site is getting a lot of attention and positive feedback from the industry!