Intense

HTML 5, everyone’s new favorite web standard, now has a logo! Woo!

Isn’t that just a beautiful little orange shield? So strong, so steadfast. I might faint.

Well, I know how it happens. I am in the web marketing industry after all. What you’re looking at is mercymemorial.org (yes the hospital website) appearing on the first page of Google search results for the phrase “web design Monroe, MI.”

Not a fellow web designer’s site, not a directory, not even an article on web design or anything even slightly related to the industry. Nope, the #10 spot on Google for that phrase belongs to the hospital.

Guess it doesn’t say much about stepstoolmedia.com, being outranked by the place I was born for a completely unrelated industry keyword string, eh? To be honest, we haven’t been targeting phrases like web design or website design. Our keyword research originally indicated that it wasn’t worth the content investment. We’re gearing up for a full-on SEO campaign targeting the entire South-Eastern Michigan corridor including Monroe soon, though.

You’re going down, Mercy Memorial!

Hey everyone! Pretty much everyone at Stepstool will be out of reach for the next few days, until October 1st. We’re putting the final pieces in place to move back down to Monroe, Michigan!

When I officially opened Stepstool this May, I thought I had some idea what starting a web marketing agency would be like. I pictured the legwork involved in getting new clients, I anticipated the 8-12 month sales cycles. I planned for difficulties in finding staff and subcontractors, cashflow nooses, communication failures, deadline setbacks, and nearly everything I had encountered in my previous agency positions.

What I did not anticipate, plan for, or even think of is the rapid fatigue that tends to set in at the end of a project. It sneaks up on you just as you think things are getting under control, just as you feel you’ve got it right. This summer, with the way things have been moving for Stepstool, I’ve experienced more of it than I’d like to admit. At first, I hated it, but as it stayed I started to understand what it was really telling me. I’m on the right track. And it’s all thanks to:

So what’s new at Stepstool? Many a thing, many a thing.

We’re busy scheduling nearly out entire August’s worth of work. With a new agency subcontract, and a few secret-for-now projects that will be released early in September.

I’ve also been working on recruiting businesses to assist me in a super-special case study surrounding local SEO and cumulative effects. I’m hoping to start collecting data by mid-August, and publish my results about 4 months after that. Just looking for two more businesses to get in on the program. I’m offering 75% off normal rates, so if you’re looking for some local search engine optimization this is the deal for you!

I’m also in the process of hiring an account representative in the Monroe, Michigan area. While Stepstool is currently located in Ontario, Canada, we’ll be moving down to Monroe soon, and would like to begin the process of helping local businesses in that area. If you’re looking for work, and can work in the south-eastern Michigan region (Monroe and the surrounding area), make sure to contact me for more information.

In addition, I’ll be taking a deeper look at the web marketing industry and activity surrounding Monroe, MI via a Tuesday-morning blog series, title to be determined. The first Monroe-centric post is set to debut on August 3rd!

As you can tell, the newsroll has been dead for a little while now. Two weeks actually. Don’t take this as a sign of inactivity however! I’ve been involved in several projects that have consumed the majority of my time, and really haven’t had the time to continue posting. That is going to change today, however.

I’m not any less busy, just changing priorities. Client projects are still #1, but I’m bumping my personal side projects to the back burner to focus more on building the Stepstool Media Management brand and business. So what’s been happening at Stepstool?

A New Project

We’re working with a client to develop a next-generation intranet application. The application, which is Joomla based, is going to feature several custom developed modules that will provide the client with advanced integration with their existing business tools. One of the coolest features of this application is a room booking system, which will allow members of the organization to search for meeting rooms in-building that are open at a certain time, with searches that can be refined by number of available seats, availability of A/V equipment, physical location, and other criteria.

A New Programmer

To assist with the new project, and hopefully with future work, we’ve subcontracted Chris McBride as our new programmer. Welcome to the team, Chris!

I hope to return to the normal daily blog schedule soon, so keep posted!

http://wordpress.org/development/2010/06/thelonious/

More detailed analysis coming soon!

I spent a good hour this morning catching up with my RSS reader, absorbing industry news, and generally making sure the web marketing industry didn’t fall down around me while I wasn’t looking. While the change that can happen in one week is incredible, it is pretty status quo. This week in web:

• Google Caffeine is Live
• SEOmoz breaks down ranking factors in Bing vs. Google
• Search Engine Land talks about CPC in B2B PPC!

From a couple of day’s ago: Google’s new search index, Caffeine

Most web marketers and SEOs knew about Caffeine a while ago, and how the anticipated changes to the algorithms that determine a website’s ranking on Google will be modified

. The biggest difference is going to be how content freshness influences ranking, as Google’s efforts are now focused on delivering real-time results.

Hello Friends, Clients, and Colleagues,

Today I am proud to announce the launch of stepstoolmedia.com, and the public release of Stepstool Media Management!

Stepstoolmedia.com was fun to build. Developing the content for the site, I really gained insight into how it is that web and lifestyle media marketing and advertising can help businesses, B2C or B2B. To make things a little more immediately fun for my visitors, however, I decided to run a contest!

Somewhere on one of the pages of stepstoolmedia.com is a picture of a golden egg. Find the egg, click on it, and you’ll be directed to a page with a form. Simply fill out the form, and you’ll be entered into a draw with everyone else who finds the egg by Noon on June 11th to win a $25 Tim Horton’s gift card!

Thank you everyone who helped make Stepstool possible!