All posts by Michael Croteau

About Michael Croteau

Michael is a passionate web designer with a taste for philosophy, political science, chess, finely roasted French-pressed coffee and all things aesthetic. He specializes in bringing Small Businesses into the modern marketing era with customized, user friendly and effective web design and graphics.

5 things your website needs to make money for your business

Responsive_Web_Design_for_Desktop,_Notebook,_Tablet_and_Mobile_PhoneConsistent marketing message

Most people don’t realize that the first step to creating a website that converts traffic into new leads and clients is clear and consistent communication across all media channels!

Imagine you have a pet store that set’s itself apart with “awesome stuff”. A natural tagline on the website is something like “Awesome stuff for your furry friends!” and it has an upbeat and playful look and feel.

However, the facebook page is all about “natural stuff”. Organic pet food and pet health is the message here,  which is arguably “awesome” but the awesomeness is implicit rather than explicit.

This disconnect can be enough to make a visitor question if they are in the right place, or worse, it may make them think you are trying to trick them. If your visitor is into the idea of “awesome stuff”, then “heathly natural stuff” might make them think you are trying to sell them “expensive stuff”. Continue reading 5 things your website needs to make money for your business

3 Custom wordpress development questions to consider before spending money

confusion

Deciding to upgrade your website can be a big move for a small business. There are so many decent themes available for platforms like WordPress that it is easier than ever for entrepreneurs and startups to look good online, but if you are growing as a business there comes a time when you start to think about ways to solidify your brand online.

How can you tell if you are ready to spend money on customizing your website and how can you make sure that you get the most out of it? Make sure you’re ready to take the next step by asking yourself these three simple questions: Continue reading 3 Custom wordpress development questions to consider before spending money

Could you tell if your website was hurting your business?

Your website could be hurting your businessFor many business owners this may seem counter intuitive, but I’ve been talking about this since I got into WordPress Development back in 2009. I would say 9 out of 10 times my business web design clients ask the following question: “How can advertising online hurt my business?” But this is a fundamental misunderstanding about the way we interact with companies in the modern world.

It is hard to imagine a flyer or a 30 second radio spot actually hurting your business as long as you are not paying more than it’s worth, but your business website is not an advertisement.

This is because your website doesn’t go to your customer like an ad does. Your customers come to your website, the same way they come to your business. There are a lot of custom web design and development companies out there, but not very many understand this important dynamic. Most are focused on appearance or robust code, but not many are driven by marketing and conversions and understand the psychological dynamics involved in creating a successful website for business. Continue reading Could you tell if your website was hurting your business?

Photo Blogging for Trades and Craftsmen

Photo Blogging for Trades and CraftsmenOne of the most common complaints I hear from small business owners who are trying to get onboard with the internet age is that blogging just takes up too much of their time!

Believe me when I say, I can certainly understand where they are coming from, but I also know that for almost every business, there is usually a viable shortcut. This week I’d like to talk about one of those viable shortcuts that can be incredibly useful for craftsmen and trades people.

If you are running a painting or interior decorating business, or you have a building company, or even if you are an artist; in fact, if you have any business that consists of transforming physical reality, you can easily boost your online presence with photo blogging. Continue reading Photo Blogging for Trades and Craftsmen

Adding a Video to Your WordPress Site.

This is a short instructional video on adding a video to a page or post on your WordPress site.

If you are a client of Arise Advertising Arts please feel free to contact me for help with anything on your site. If you are not currently a client but you have a small business and would like to develop a professional online presence quickly and easily, please contact me today so we can get started!

Long story short, with a WordPress site you simply click on the “text” tab and paste your video embed code where you want your video to show up.

There a lots of different video services out there like Viddler and Vimeo, and thus many different ways to get your embed code, but most of them are fairly similar and based at least partially on the standard interface set up by youTube which is why in this tutorial we use a youTube Account.

This is part of a series of quick, very basic tutorials I am putting together for Arise Advertising Arts Clients. My goal is to help ensure that small business owners in the local market have access to the resources they need to stay current and active on the web.

Formatting Page Content on Your WordPress Site

This is a short instructional video on the different content formatting options available to you as you publish a new page on your WordPress site.

If you are a client of Arise Advertising Arts please feel free to contact me for help with anything on your site. If you are not currently a client but you have a small business and would like to develop a professional online presence quickly and easily, please contact me today so we can get started!

Long story short, with a WordPress site you have two modes of content entry. One is plain text (in the text tab) which most users should use only for adding code snips, like video embeds or paypal buttons. The other is the visual editor (which is in the visual tab) and has an editing toolbar very similar to most word processing programs.

We cover the basics of changing font sizes, and colors, bolding and italicizing, text alignment and the like. There are also a couple of important points for those of you starting out that are mentioned in the video including the paste as text feature and the toolbar toggle

This is part of a series of quick, very basic tutorials I am putting together for Arise Advertising Arts Clients. My goal is to help ensure that small business owners in the local market have access to the resources they need to stay current and active on the web.

WordPress Page Publishing Options

In this short instructional video I will walk you through the different publishing options available to you as you publish a new page on your WordPress site.

As always, if you are a client of mine, please don’t hesitate to contact me for technical support. Remember that all of my clients get up to two hours of custom web work (above and beyond standard maintenance) included in the monthly package. I’m here to help!

This is part of a series of quick, very basic tutorials I am putting together for Arise Advertising Arts Clients. My goal is to help ensure that small business owners in the local market have access to the resources they need to stay current and active on the web.

Adding a New Page

In this series of instructional videos I will go through the basics of creating a promotion page for your business on your  WordPress site. This video covers the very first step, adding a new page to your site.

This is part of a series of quick, very basic tutorials I am putting together for Arise Advertising Arts Clients. My goal is to help ensure that small business owners in the local market have access to the resources they need to stay current and active on the web.

Adding a PayPal Button

I had a client ask me about how to add a payment button to her website, so I’ve put together a quick video that shows exactly how to create a paypal button and add it to a web page on your wordpress site. You can see the whole process from start to finish in the video below so now she can update her online promotions whenever she wants!

As always, if you’re a client of mine and you have questions or comments about how to better utilize your website for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Remember that I offer up to two hours of custom work (above and beyond basic maintenance) per month to all of my clients. I am here to help!

Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great day!

Log in to WordPress

I am beginning a series of short video tutorials as a resource for my clients. These are not going to be in depth technical tutorials about code development or design, they will be simple and straight-to-the-point videos about how to use a WordPres site.

I will cover the basic functions a user will need to get business moving, so my clients can make changes to the information on their site, post new content and start driving traffic.

This first tutorial is the most obvious, “How do I Log In?”

I hope this is helpful! The short answer in text format is: Continue reading Log in to WordPress