We are happy to announce the launch of our latest client website, Hartland Farms Inc.  The Hartland Farms website is a full custom website design with a full administrative backend. The main functionality of the website is the tree catalog which list available trees and is fully controlled by the business. 

About Hartland Farms Inc
In 1991 Gary & Teresa Waters founded Outdoor Environments, Inc., a landscape and garden center located in the rapidly growing community of Grayson, Georgia.  In 1999, they expanded and opened a 2nd location 45 minutes North of Grayson in Braselton, Georgia.  The success of Outdoor Environments, Inc. allowed Gary to begin supplying others with “Quality Grown Trees” that he grew himself.  In 2000 Hartland Farms, Inc. was born.  Now with over 500 acres, and nearly 200 acres currently in production there is plenty of room to grow.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to set goals for your business and decide where you are going to spend some of your marketing dollars. If you don’t have a website for your business or your website is outdated, make 2010 the year you stand out online.

If you aren’t convinced that now is the right time to start thinking about your website, consider the following reasons:

1. Customers and potential customers need to know where to find you.

Every business can benefit from having an effective website. That being said, not every business needs the same type of site and not every business needs a large and expensive site. Many small businesses simply need a few pages with their phone number, address and directions to their location. This is going to allow new and returning customers to access the information they need about your business whenever they need it just by searching you out in a search engine such as Google.

2. Your customers are already shopping (and pre-shopping) online.

According to Forrester Research, online sales in the US are expected to reach $331 billion in 2010. This market is only expected to grow.

There will always be a place for brick and mortar retail shops, but e-commerce is something you shouldn’t ignore or resist. Not included in the $331 billion figure are consumers who went online to research, price, and comparison shop products before going into a traditional store to actually make their purchase. So even if you aren’t ready to sell online, a website can motivate your customer to buy from you.

Another promising statistic from Forrester states that although the economic downturn has impacted overall sales in nearly all areas, the online sales growth rate has diminished only slightly and continues its upward trend by as much as 13% per year.

3. The sooner you get online, the sooner you will start making new customers online. 

Building a superior online presence takes time. Having a website built can be quick, but getting into the search engines and ranking well for the keywords you want can take months, even years for competitive terms. The good news is that you can get started right now by going to Godaddy.com and buying the domain name (that’s your .com or .net address). The domain will only cost you about $10/year. The earlier you get started, the sooner you can start getting results.

If you are serious about making 2010 your year to bring your business online, be sure to attend the January Market and visit http://www.goebelmedia.com for more information.

We were very excited when Flat Shoals Elementary asked us to be a part of their 2009 “Career Day.” And although it was difficult to follow the policeman from the Fulton County Bomb Squad with his robot, we definitely considered it a success! It was surprising to see how interested the kids were in website design.

We made a 15 minute presentation and left 5 minutes for questions. However, we went over our time in every classroom because the kids were so curious! We started out with the basics like what a domain name is then discussed how subjects like math and language arts apply to our career. It is so important that they can connect what they are learning in school to the real world.

Here are some of the questions we were asked:
1. How much money do you make?
2. Can you make a game online?
3. Is it easy to create websites?
4. What is your favorite part about your job?
5. Is writing HTML boring?

Maybe we sparked some interest in a younger generation today!

In order to get your business on the web and see results, you are going to need four essential things:

• A Domain Name
• Web Hosting
• A Site Design
• Maintenance

Domain Name

Your domain name is your company’s address on the web. An example would be www.example.com. Short domain names are generally better than long ones. You can check for available names at www.ConnectivityPro.com. You can also purchase them there. If you need help purchasing a domain name, we can help you.

Hosting

After you have a domain name, your website cannot be accessed until you have hosting. When you buy hosting, you are buying space on the web. It is important to put your site on a reliable server. Our hosting has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means your site will almost never go down.

Design

A strong site design is important to the success of bringing your business online. You want a website that reflects your company image. The design needs to be clearly organized and have accurate information that is easy to understand. We offer a variety of design options for small businesses, ranging from simple online storefronts to complex sites with shopping carts, forms, and just about anything you can dream up. Our rates are extremely reasonable, and we pride ourselves on excellent client support, both during and after contract.

Maintenance

After your site goes online, you should have it updated regularly. Whether you want to update information or add pages, it is important that your website have a current feel. Updates are also an important factor in search engine optimization. Search engines favor sites with content that is regularly updated. You can pay a little more initially and have us develop an administration area where you can easily manage your site and update it yourself, or you can pay per update. All e-commerce sites come with an administrative backend that allows you to add products and to manage orders, payments, and shipping.