One awesome woodworker in Kona is Andy at Boardworks Woodworking. His use of clean lines and exceptional materials make his custom cabinetry, custom made furniture and doors true works of art. When we were working on his new website, we often found ourselves sayings among ourselves that we would all love to have Andy's furniture in our homes. Even if you're not in the market for new cabinets or furniture, take a look at Andy's portfolio of work on his website.

When making Boardworks Woodworking's new site, we wanted to make sure that the focus of the website is Andy's work. In other words, his awesome portfolio of completed projects are his selling point, and the website should showcase what he has accomplished and what he can offer those seeking custom woodworking in the Hawaiian Islands. Fortunately, he has been taking high resolution pictures of his work for many years.

We look forward to seeing Boardworks Woodworking beautify more homes in Hawaii.

Here is a press release for one of our clients--Big Island Alpacas.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Tess Wilkinson
Big Island Alpaca Farm
808-640-4927
bigislandalpacas@gmail.com

“BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM” PARTICIPATES IN NATIONAL ALPACA FARM DAYS

On Saturday, September 25 and Sunday, September 26, alpaca breeders from across the United States and Canada will invite the public to come to their farm or ranch to meet their alpacas and learn more about these inquisitive, unique animals. On Saturday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and Sunday from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM will welcome guests!

BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM is located at 94-2088 South Point Road, between Mamalahoa Highway and Kamaoa Road.

To find out more about National Alpaca Farm Days visit www.NationalAlpacaFarmDays.com.

To learn more about BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM, visit bigislandalpacas.com or call (808) 640-4927.

Hawaiian Solar is a great local company that offers home and building owners the chance to (at least partially) break free from our high electricity costs. They have hot water, pool and photovoltaic systems and are the most experienced solar equipment dealers and installers on the island.

Like with most of our clients, we got to work closely with Ken, the owner, over a period of weeks to learn about his business and how we could convey what he does online. We certainly enjoyed learning about solar systems and why Hawaiian Solar is the local leader. We even got to design a face plate for Ken's new Segway--our first design for a Segway.

This week's business spotlight is Precision Auto. Their website is PrecisionAutoKona.com They are located at the end of Alapa Street in Kona's Old Industrial area.

I took our two vehicles to Precision Auto last week. Raymond, the mechanic, not only changed the oil, but also noticed some loose bolts in the drive train and fixed them on my truck. I would never expect that of one of the franchise oil change shops in town.

The big surprise came, however, when my wife thanked me for vacuuming the mats of her car after the oil change. I didn't. I'm not sure if it's part of their normal service, but it sure puts the "WOW" in my perception of them.

It's great to know that there are some reliable and professional mechanic shops in town. I'm sure there are a lot of them, but from now on, my vehicles will be serviced by Precision Auto.

In a nutshell, here is our advice for anyone starting an online business:

1. Do something that is congruent with your current business skills, interests and lifestyle. For example, don't try to start selling aloha shirts if you have no retail experience. Start with your existing business or business skills and see how you can expand what you are doing.

2. Find a niche. There is no use in trying to sell the same electronics online that all the big online retailers sell. You'll get no online visibility and, in the end, you'll fail. That said, if you have a gadget that is a better mouse trap, so to speak, consider online sales. Some of the most successful businesses we work with have niche products that are generally not available from other retailers.

3. Do a lot of research. This is, of course, related to #2 (above). Ask friends, business associates, family members what they honestly think of your idea. Also do a lot of online research. If you Google a term for your product, "titanium rings", for example, and find a hundred websites fighting for page 1 visibility on Google, consider a Plan B. If you ten possible competitors, you might have some opportunity. Make sure the playing field is not already crowded with established businesses.

4. Don't skimp on your website. Even though it is possible to "make a website tonight" or "website this weekend" avoid the temptation to do it yourself. If you're serious about your online business, hire professionals who will help you avoid the big mistakes and give you the best opportunity for success.

5. Avoid a huge inventory before you start. We've seen several businesses that have ordered thousands of units of products before launch, only to find that some items did not sell online. If at all possible, work with your supplier to get smaller orders of your products, even if the cost is higher.

Establishing and growing a business online is not easy. Perseverance, patience, creativity and attention to detail are all qualities that are essential to online business success. To that we would add an understanding that no person, no matter how smart or motivated, is capable to executing a successful online business without the help of talented, professional service providers.

When you have a few ideas, give us a call at 329-6077. We're here to help! Kona Impact.

EVERYBODY LOVES A BILLFISH PARADE!
HIBT PARADE SET FOR SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010

KONA–Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament organizers are pleased to announce the popular HIBT parade will held on Sunday, August 1, 2010, starting at 2:30 p.m. in historic Kailua Village.

The parade will begin at the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel and wind its way through Kailua Village ending at Hualalai Road. The HIBT parade will feature international teams including crowd favorites from Australia, South Africa, Tahiti, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Papua New Guinea and of course, teams from US, including California, Hawaii, Florida. Also included in the parade lineup will be Miss Billfish 2010, Kona Shriners and Hawaii County Band. In all, more than 26 parade entries will excite parade goers!

“We invite the entire community, young and old, to come and bring their families to this fun-filled parade. Teams are excited to be here in beautiful Kona, fishing 5 great days and look forward to the smiles that await them at the parade,” said HIBT Founder Peter Fithian. “The tournament also recognizes the long standing tradition of the Billfish Parade and really sees this parade as the official start of the 51st Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament.”

The Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament is underwritten by the generosity of the County of Hawaii and sponsored in part by Oceanic Time Warner Cable, KWXX Radio and numerous corporate and community donors.

For more information on the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, including team listings, IGFA world-record rules and a daily recap of tournament standings, log onto www.hibtfishing.com.

Those days are long gone and remnants of the last century! Not that they are still not important—they are—but the options for business far exceed what anyone could have imagined ten, even five years ago.

“Social Media” is Not Defined Well!

The new rage is “social media”. For some this means Facebook and Twitter and for others it means a broad range of ways to reach out to potential customers. The problem when everyone talks of social media is that no one can define what it is in a way that doesn’t include everything under the sun. These broad definitions give the term little meaning.

West Hawaii Social Media Survey

One study done in West Hawaii defined social media as Facebook, online video, Twitter, Email marketing, Blogs, LinkedIn, Forums/Chat rooms and bookmarking sites. So, basically social media is everything online other than a website (unless, of course, blogging is considered part of a website)?

Interestingly, when everything is thrown into the mix, business owners (or those who respond for the business—a big potential difference) find value. Value, however, is a relative term.

For example, when answering “Which of the following benefits, if any, do you attribute to your social media efforts?” only 40% cited “generated exposure for my business” and that was the item businesses cited most. Only approximately 8% said social media “helped me close business”.

Big Investment, Big Results?

One thing the survey did very well was to measure the time investment businesses put into social media to realize benefits. For example, if a company spent 1-5 a week on social media, only about 18% cited greater exposure as a benefit. Only about five percent who used social media 1-5 hours a week said it helped generate significant leads. I would add, however, that "greater exposure" is a fairly ill-defined concept.

Overall, the benefit to using social media (which is defined very broadly) comes from spending 20-40 hours a week on it. In other words, a half-time or full-time employee’s wages and benefits!

What Kona Impact Offers

At Kona Impact, we offer a better approach to so-called social media. First of all, we don’t believe it is a panacea for a company’s online marketing efforts. Our experience of doing this for years (and having mountains of data to back up our assertions) is that investing in a solid and effective website will be far more effective in generating exposure and sales for a business than to focus efforts on social media.

Second, we help businesses identify the most promising types of social media for the organization. All social media is not created equal, and instead of focusing resources on what is popular or trendy, we like to focus businesses on what fits their organization, marketing goals and resources. For certain, we would seldom recommend a business devoting half or a full employee’s salary to social media.

Lastly, as a company that works with these issues day in and day out, we can almost certainly offer a business better results and significant cost savings by handling some, if not most, of their online marketing needs. We have numerous clients that outsource their online marketing needs to us, and have realized excellent return on investment from our work. Because we have the tools to prove our effectiveness, we show businesses exactly what they getting in terms of online exposure, website traffic and search engine visibility.

If your business is hearing the words “social media” a lot and trying to figure out how to become more effective and visible online, give Kona Impact a call. We have a perspective that comes from over ten years of online marketing and web design experience. Kona Impact | 329-6077.

A few months ago Steve Jobs, head guru at Apple, released a stunning and comprehensive statement about the use of Flash in Apple mobile devices. I believe there were six or eight reasons why he said that Flash would not be in ipads of iphones. This is big news, as there are over 30 million iphones and (predicted to be) 10 million ipads used by consumers within a year. That's, conservatively estimated, approximately 35 million people in the U.S. that will not be able to see Flash websites, animations, navigation buttons and video.

So, the question becomes whether it makes sense to use any Flash on a website.

At Kona Impact, we have moved pretty quickly to the "No Flash" side of the issue. We just cannot in good conscience create websites that are not fully functional for such a large, mobile and affluent group of web users. For certain, full Flash websites are dead. Should web designers add animated Flash headers or other animations? At Kona Impact, we say "no" because these elements are mostly just eye candy AND 35 million or so web surfers can see them.

As we move to a more mobile society (at least in terms of computing) it is important for web designers to ensure that the websites they work on will be accessible to mobile users.

An individual might offer initial cost savings. After all, he is probably working out of his house and thus has low overhead. It's also likely that he will be doing web design part time, so he will have other sources of income. That's, however, where the advantages stop.

A professional web design team will, almost certainly, be a better choice. The tendency of a lot of individual web designers is to over-promise and then spend a huge amount of time trying to figure out how to do what they have promised. After all, an individual's skill set is inherently limited, and it's very unlikely an individual will have top-notch skills at design, programming and online marketing. Most teams will have dedicated staff to each aspect of successful websites, as they are very different skill sets. So, in the end, many individuals either give up and don't deliver what they have promised, or they take much longer than is necessary to complete a website. At Kona Impact, we have numerous clients who have started with an individual and lost their money (the designer moves) or spent months waiting for their site.

The most important reason to hire an established company, however, is that the website will be better. A team of designers, programmers and online marketers will be able to excel at all aspects that make a website successful. Just the other day, we had acquired a new client. She said that she could not find the website of three of her local competitors despite the knowledge that they have websites. After about ten minutes we did find one of her competitors on the third page of Google's results. The design was terrible and there was no attention paid to search engine optimization. Her competitor probably saved some money but has lost a lot more more by not having an effective web presence. We are looking forward to helping our client look good and be found online. We are very confident that she'll be more visible online than any of her competitors.

At Kona Impact, we encourage our prospective clients to look at a website as a very high return on investment option for their business. A bad website will, over time, cost a business money because of lost opportunity. An effective website, on the other hand, should be a vehicle to help a business be found and attract new customers. Saving money at the beginning is pointless if the website is not found online and represent a business well.

While there are many essential tasks to running any business, the following are a few that are especially useful for a small, relatively isolated community.

1. Become part of the community through volunteer, sport or shared interest groups. This will not only provide access to pulse of the community and business information, but it will also become the a great referral network. In Kona, Hawaii, there are Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, paddling clubs and a large range of political, spiritual and cultural groups. Join one or two and become active.

2. Understand the reality of the online marketing. Many home owners in Kona do not live here. Most tourists will have already decided where they will stay, what they will do, and even, where they will eat before they ever get on a plane. More people who live here will Google for local information instead of using any of our three telephone directories. All of this means that a business must have a solid online presence.

3. Buy locally. In small communities, your web of referrals starts with developing ties with other businesses. Likewise, you can’t expect patronage from residents and local businesses if you source all of your services and supplies off-island. In the end, you will will receive more goodwill, referrals and support for your business by working with other local businesses. At Kona Impact, we see it time and time again that local businesses that support each other get superior products and services.

4. Offer unique products and superior service. Even little Kona, Hawaii has a Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, Costco, Lowe’s and Home Depot. Don’t waste your efforts trying to offer commodity-type products or services when a large big box store can do so more effectively and at less cost. The big box stores here have vision centers, but it takes two weeks to receive glasses. Several local optometrists have same-day service. Several local restaurants focus on fresh, local ingredients—things the chains can’t offer. Service providers don’t need to compete on price; offering superior service and local knowledge can overcome price disadvantages.

5. Go online. At Kona Impact we have helped tens of businesses develop online stores or offer their services online. They have, in essence, grown their potential market from 50,000 or so to hundreds of millions. We have helped lawyers, coffee farmers, jewelry stores, wholesalers and artisans(and many more) offer their products and services online. Many have been able to supplement or replace their locally-derived income with adding staff or physical locations.

If you do get a sales call for web design or online marketing services, here are a few important questions. If the salesperson cannot answer them to your satisfaction, hang up. If the salesperson does answer them to your satisfaction, take your time. Verify the information. Have the salesperson call you back in a week. Or, just simply ask for an email detailing the offer or product and then investigate the details at your pace. Never buy anything on the first call.

Questions to Ask a Company Cold Calling for Web Services:
1. Who are you? Where are your headquarters? How long has your company been in business? When you know the headquarters's location, you can check their Better Business Bureau information. Also Google the company's name and look at the second and third page of Google results. Look for blog posts complaining about the company. If you don't find any, it's a good sign.

2. What is your company's website? Where is the information detailing what you are selling on your website? Where can I find your terms of service?

3. If they are selling online marketing services, ask for five keywords that the company has tried to do well on in the organic Google rankings. This will tell you if the company is good at what they do. For example, if a company has focused on being found on Google for "web design in Seattle" or "Seattle online marketing", Google those terms. If you find the company in the top ten results, you can be reasonably assured that they good at what they do. If they don't have a good keyword strategy, don't use them! Simple: if they can't do for themselves what they want to do for you, they are no good.

4. Can you provide the contact information for five clients (in your area or state) who have purchased your services. Contact them. Verify results. Be skeptical. After all, it's your money, time and business!

5. What is your guarantee? (This is a bit of a trick question; a reputable online marketing will not make guarantees, as no one controls how Google or the other search engines rank items.) What happens if you don't perform as promised?

Kona Impact encourages all businesses who receive cold calls for web services to be very skeptical and ask a lot of questions. We get these calls one or two times a day due to the nature of our business, and, almost without exception there are better options at better prices. Some, if not most, are outright scams.

If your business is in Hawaii and you are looking for a reliable provider of web design and marketing services, give us a call at 329-6077.

Kona Impact was not part of the design and hosting setup of their domains, but we started working with them this year on their websites and have consulted with them on several website issues. In effect, they hired us to manage most of their online presence.

Well, several days ago they experienced a "perfect storm" of issues with their online systems. It was, to put it mildly, a mess. Without going into details, their problem was the result of multiple failures on multiple levels and it took two days to get things back the way they should be.

By hiring a local provider they were able to get their problems resolved promptly with a very high level of customer service. We worked on it Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Most web design firms on the Mainland do not have service hours that are convenient for clients in Hawaii. Few can assist clients late at night, and most are not open on weekends. No off-island web developers are able to visit the place of business to setup email accounts or trouble-shoot problems in person. We do.

Keeping a website online is not just a matter of "set it and forget about it." They are occasionally hacked. Servers go down. Automated updates can make functions inoperable. Domain registrations expire. Hardware fails. Email accounts can become full. Setting up email accounts can be a hassle. Much like a car or a home, websites do need to be maintained, and, they do occasionally go offline.

Who is on your website team? Can they provide you with the service you need? Are they willing to do house calls? Are they willing to work late, come in early or work on weekends to keep your businesses online? If not, give Kona Impact a call. We take our responsibility to keep our clients' businesses online very seriously. Kona Impact: 329-6077 (Note: we seldom accept new clients outside of the 808 area code).

This question is certainly one that every potential client should ask. After all, there are many cut-rate and budget web designers out there. Many, for example, price their projects really low with the hope of getting a foothold in the web design business. They also know that they really don't have much experience or a credible portfolio, so they think they will build a business by practicing and developing their skills with a slew of budget projects.

At Kona Impact, we understand that individuals who start a web design business need to develop their skills and one way to do so is to price projects way below cost. If the buyer understands what he or she is getting and is relatively unconcerned about design and function, we see very little wrong with this. After all, not all businesses value their online presence equally.

This issue came to mind the other day when we reviewed a site a client had done by a local guy who does budget websites. We weren't surprised when we found the website to be sorely lacking in many respects.

The biggest problem was that the designer had absolutely no understanding of the search engines and how to build a website to be found online. One has to wonder what the purpose of a website is if it cannot be found online. When clients ask us which is more important, the design of a website or the search engine visibility, our answer is an unequivocal "both".

The other problem we found was that it was nearly impossible to find a contact number for the business on the website. What is the use of a website if it does not provide ways to contact the business? At Kona Impact, one of the first issues we address is how to make the contact information salient on the website.

We don't mean to denigrate the work of others, as we are sure that every project--budget or high end--is done with constraints, be they time, financial or the demands of the client. What we do believe, however, is that a professional web design team is going to give a business the best long-term return on investment. Most of the websites we make pay for themselves in a few months, so going with an unproven and untested web designer might save some money right away, but it does not take long for an unprofessional job to start costing the business potential revenue. It's not what a business makes, but it's what a business could have made.

When you're ready for professional web design from a team that has works on tens a websites a year, give Kona Impact a call at 329-6077.

We have a HUGE announcement coming in July about some new products and services we will be offering, but, alas, that will have to wait.

This week we did, however, add some of our more recent projects to our our website portfolio page.

Some our our favorites include:
Wakefield Coffee, a small family farm that sells some awesome Kona coffee.
Buns in the Sun, a wonderful local bakery that has the best breakfast in Kona.
Keala.com, a bed and breakfast in Kealakekua.
Precision Auto Kona, an awesome mechanic in Kailua-Kona.

We do have many other website we have completed recently, and, over time, we'll add them to the website, too. As always, we love offering top-notch website design services in Hawaii. Our skill set, portfolio, customer service and commitment to excellence have made us the top web design company in Kona, Hawaii.

Just yesterday, we came across a business card we really like. The front side had the usual business info. On the back of the business card was "Perfect is close enough." Those four words are great way for him to make a statement about who he is and how he runs his business. Succinct. Noteworthy. Effective.

Jobs gave six reasons why the iphone and ipad will not support Flash. Taken as a whole these are certainly the proverbial nail in the Flash coffin for Apple's mobile devices. Some may say, "so what", but at Kona Impact we have identified this as a fundamental shift in the way companies like ours designs and programs websites.

The reason is simple: there are 40 million iphones and the estimated sales for ipads this year is 10 million. For the most part, the users of these devices are tech-savvy, mobile and more affluent than the average person. In other words, this is a huge market of potential customers for our client's businesses. To ignore them would be a very bad business decision in our opinion.

So, at Kona Impact, we have decided to no longer use any Flash on our websites. We will continue to use JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS--the standards of web design and programming tools well-supported by all standards-compliant browsers and mobile devices--including the iphone and ipad.

If your company wants to reach users of iphones and ipads (as well as any other computer browser) give us a call. If you have a full Flash website, we can help keep the essence of the design and make a site that is standards-compliant and highly functional. 329-6077.