Category: Web Design

How Much Should I Spend on My Business’ Online Presence?

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The easy answer to this question is: “As much as necessary and as little as possible.” But, of course that’s the easy answer and in business, there are no easy answers. Some experts suggest that you allocate 15 to 20 percent of your company’s annual income for the best results, but that answer is also a little too facile.

You know that you’re going to spend something for your business’ online presence and you know that it’s probably going to more affordable than print ads, radio or TV commercials, or sending out actual mail. But what you really need to do before you spend a dime, is decide what you want to achieve, where you will find most of your customers, and what aspects of online advertising and communication will give you the biggest bang for the buck by generating leads and sales and directing people towards your company.

Generally, you will have several main choices for your online spending: a website, which requires building it, hosting it and maintaining it; search marketing, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), digital ads such as Google AdWords, pay per click (PPC) campaigns, etc.; a social media presence, such as Facebook, Twitter, and all the other various platforms; review site advertising such as Yelp and Foursquare; and email communication.

The most important of these is probably your website. There you have some choices. You can build it yourself using any number of off-the-shelf templates, such as WordPress, or you can pay to have one constructed for you. Your other basic costs will include a web domain, web hosting, a web developer (if your platform needs specific functionalities that are not available as plugins or extensions), and perhaps a social media manager (if you don’t have the time or the knowledge of how to manage the different channels). And remember: as the world becomes increasingly mobile-centered, it’s best to have a website that will display properly on smart phones and tablets.

Paying for SEO is another essential cost for many businesses. There are several models in play. You can pay a monthly retainer, which is a set fee each month in exchange for an agreed-upon array of services; or you can contract for services at fixed prices. Two other options are project-based pricing and hourly consulting.

Of course, you need to be on Facebook. It costs nothing, unless you wish to pay for boosting your content. The main expense is in labor. Facebook pages need to be updated constantly. In many companies, it’s a full-time job.

Sites like Yelp and Foursquare that offer customer reviews are also helpful tools for directing customers to your business through their advertising options. Most (non-PPC) advertising is priced on a CPM basis – essentially the cost per thousand impressions. You will have to do a lot of number-crunching to determine if this option will net you a decent return on your investment.

Finally, email marketing can be the centerpiece of any effort to stay in touch with existing customers, while reaching out and finding new ones. You can use it to promote new items and offer special discounts to loyal customers or to simply keep your customers informed. Blast email programs are relatively inexpensive, but you will need to pay a staff member to keep on top of everything.

Now, once you’ve done a lot of thinking, planning, and budgeting, you can re-ask yourself the question at the top of this post: “How Much Should I Spend on My Business’ Online Presence?” With all of your newly acquired knowledge, however, you will still likely wind up with the same answer: “As much as necessary and as little as possible.” Like we said, in business, there are no easy answers.

How Important are Mobile-Friendly Websites?

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Here’s the quick answer: VERY. By 2017, it is estimated that there will be 150 million mobile websites – that’s 149 million more than there were in 2007. With 4 billion mobile phones being used, world-wide, it won’t be long before many people’s first internet experience will be through a mobile device. If your business doesn’t maintain a mobile-friendly website, you are missing the opportunity to attract customers over their mobile phones.

Google has already recognized this shift when it recently rolled out of a major algorithm update that is designed to allow mobile-friendly websites to appear higher in mobile searches, while non-mobile sites will experience lower rankings. So if you want your site to rank high in Google, it is now imperative that it is optimized for mobile.

However, SEO ranking is not the only reason to have a mobile-friendly site. The fact is, that sometime in 2014, mobile usage overtook desktop usage for the first time, ever. If your business’ site is not mobile-friendly, you’re running the risk of losing over 50 percent of your visitors. So if you want to keep the traffic flowing, it pays to make the move to mobile.

Here’s another reason. Optimizing a website for mobile has been proven to boost engagement by almost twice the average traffic per user. Since the vast majority of people tend to move between devices when completing a task, offering them an engaging mobile experience increases the likelihood that they will re-visit your website on a desktop.

Also, research indicates that consumers are more likely to do business with an online retailer if it has a mobile-optimized site. And finally, many smart phone users employ GPS when they’re on the go. A mobile-friendly site that allows consumers to find nearby services and businesses while still in their cars can increase walk-in traffic substantially. Not only that, the use of bar codes on a mobile-friendly site can be used for instant discounts by those same walk-in customers.

To sum up: SEO, traffic, engagement, and sales are four good reasons why your website should be optimized for mobile as soon as possible. And remember, your competition is already making the move. If you don’t want to be left behind in this next technology wave, you need to make the transition, now.

Does My Company Need a Mobile App?

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There is only one way to answer the question: Does my company need a mobile app? And that is: It depends. It depends on a lot of things going on in your company and the type of business you’re in, so in order to answer the big question, you’re going to need to ask yourself a lot of lesser questions and keep probing until you have enough answers to get past the doubt.

Let’s start with some basic questions: Do you think that your business will benefit from having an app? Will the benefits outweigh the costs? What are your competitors doing and how will that impact your decision? These are not easy things to figure out, but perhaps using an analogy will help. Not too long ago, businesses didn’t have websites. If someone wanted to find your business they had the Yellow Pages and, if you could afford it, paid advertising in various media.

Today, you’d have a hard time finding a business that didn’t have a website. They’re just too valuable a tool for connecting with customers. Your business has a website and your competition does, too. Well, mobile activity is proceeding at a pace similar to the desktop/laptop activity of only a few years ago, and it may overtake it in the very near future. If you believe that most of your consumers will be on their smart phones most of the time, then you may well want to engage with them in that manner. And if your competition is already there, then you definitely need to consider having your own app, as well.

Today, the sectors that are most aggressively producing apps are restaurant and retail. Restaurant apps make it easy for users to find locations, review menus, place orders, and make reservations. Retail apps are very convenient when looking for a specific product or comparing prices. They are also used to find offer codes and coupons. And, of course, some companies, such as Uber, are totally dependent on their app. All these apps have specific purposes. So another crucial question you need to have a good answer to is: “What will your app do?” If you can’t readily explain your app’s purpose, you need to go back to square one.

Here’s another good question: “Is your current website ‘responsive,’ meaning does its layout adjust according to what device is being used to access it?” In the very recent past, most website interfaces were designed to work with a keyboard and a mouse on a large screen only; they didn’t work well on mobile platforms. But a responsive site can be accessed on a desktop or a smart phone and the interface will be optimized for each different device. If your business already has a website that’s mobile-friendly, an app might be superfluous; especially when you consider that apps have to be written and maintained for different platforms (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, etc.), but responsive websites are all-inclusive.

Finally, here are a few more questions that you should consider that relate directly to the consumers you would be trying to engage with your mobile app: 1) “Will your app make life easier for them?” 2) “Will your app make life less expensive for them?” 3) “Will your app make life more fun for them?” Remember, there are already thousands and thousands of apps out there. The world is not screaming for another one – unless of course, it can answer all of the above questions, positively. Then there’s always enough room for one more good one.

This list of questions is by no means exhaustive. But they are the kind of business questions you need to start asking yourself before going to the expense of creating and maintaining an app that might not amount to much more than an icon on page five on someone’s smart phone. If, when all is said and done, you can undeniably ascertain that an app will benefit your company because you believe it will make more than it costs in the long run, and that if you don’t have one you will lose ground to your competition, than you can pretty much conclude that you need it. But ask the questions, first.

Is e-commerce Right for my Business?

seo-618434__180According to the U.S. Census Bureau, retail e-commerce sales for 2014 were estimated at $304.9 billion, an increase of 15.4 percent over the previous year. They accounted for 6.5 percent of all total retail sales, up from 5.8 percent in 2013.

By anyone’s reckoning, that’s a lot of money, so it’s not unusual that many businesses are wondering whether e-commerce is the right way for them to go in order to increase their sales and beat the competition, especially since e-commerce – the sale of products and services over the internet – is the fastest growing segment of the American economy.

The beauty of e-commerce is that it allows even the smallest business to reach a national, or even a global, audience with its product or service at a minimal cost. Your customers can have access to information about your company 24/7, 365 days a year, and can buy from you at any time, day or night.

But before you consider whether or not you are primed and ready to become the next Amazon.com, you need to consider what it takes to become an e-commerce retailer.

First, you need to decide if you have the right type of product for e-commerce. The truth is that not everything can be readily sold over the internet, and many of the products that can and do, already are being offered by huge companies that essentially have cornered the market, making it difficult for a newcomer to gain any traction.

Second, if you do decide that your product is a good candidate for online selling, and that there is a potentially lucrative market out there for it, are you ready to make the effort into finding your customers? Because in order to do that, you’re going to have to create a winning website that can convince buyers that you are the go-to company for what they want or need.

Your online store will also need to be hosted and supported, either by yourself or by one of the growing number of e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify or Volusion. You also need to make sure that you continue to keep your website current with fresh content – your site ranking depends on it.

Then, you’re going to have to create a marketing strategy that maximizes your ability to reach your customers in the most cost-efficient way possible. That can include any or all of the following: SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click), social media, email, or video marketing.

You’re also going to have to figure out all of your logistics and fulfillment costs to see if they are less than your expected profits. Remember, shipping your product is not going to be free.

E-commerce can be an excellent choice for your business but you’ve got to take the time to learn how to do it properly. And that includes understanding not only its advantages but all of its potential pitfalls. So before you decide to launch into the world of online commerce, it makes sense to talk to an expert in the field. There are no shortcuts to success, but there are many roads that can take you there.

Apple’s iPhone 6 Release Highlights the Need for Responsive Design

The Apple iPhone 6 and 6+ have launched, and demand is so high users who order are facing order fulfillment delays reaching into October. The delays don’t seem to dampening sales, however. “Response to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has been incredible, with a record number of preorders overnight,” Apple told the Financial Times.

To avoid these delays, users are waiting in long lines at the brick-and-mortar stores of major retailers and wireless carriers who sell the phone. “There are going to be ridiculously huge lines,” Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, tells USA Today. “Demand for iPhone 6 is so high.”

Reports indicate many of those waiting in line may be app developers or their proxies. This is because developers are anxious to immediately update their apps to run on the new phone and new operating system. Apps for both Apple and Android products have skyrocketed, after all, following the general trend toward greater smartphone use.

What does this mean for businesses? To put it simply, increased. Just as the surge in internet use a decade ago drove companies online, forcing them to build an online presence in order to reach customers, the new wave of increased smartphone use demands that companies now field online sites that can be easily viewed and used on smartphones. When possible, companies are also developing apps to make connecting with customers even easier.

In the past, websites were designed solely for use on computers with relatively large monitors. As mobile internet was developed, users found these sites difficult to view and use on the smaller screens offered by portable devices. The original answer to this question was the development of separate, similar mobile sites designed to be easier to view and use on smaller screens.

The technology has advanced, however, and now websites can be built that automatically query the users device when they access the site in order to determine the size of the screen. Based on the answer, the site then chooses from one of several ready-made format options designed to best different ranges of screen sizes. This is called “responsive website design.”

40 percent of users will abandon a site that takes just three seconds to load.
40 percent of users will abandon a site that takes just three seconds to load.

Determining the right format for the user’s device isn’t the only key to responsive design, however. A properly designed website can also load faster on mobile devices. Even a good 4G connection loads slower than most wired or wireless broadband internet connections, and some flashy features like sliders and large-format graphics that look great on a large screen and load easily through a broadband connection can load dramatically slower on mobile connections. Responsive websites determine the user’s speed and delay or eliminate the loading of these bandwidths hog as necessary. Remember, as we have discussed in another blog article, 40 percent of users will abandon a site that takes as little as three seconds to load, and 79 percent won’t return to a site they previously had trouble loading. In this business, time is quite literally money.

How do you know if your site is responsive? Odds are, if your site wasn’t built in the last year or tow or hasn’t been extensively updated or overhauled in that time, it isn’t – or at the least isn’t using the current full capabilities of responsive design. Here’s a good way to check: Pull out your smartphone. Open your web browser. Enter your site address. If you can’t view or use the site easily, odds are your customers also can’t…or won’t.

If you need a responsive web site designed, or an existing website overhauled to be responsive, at The Click Experts, we can help. We know responsive coding inside and out, and have the knowledge and experience to put it to work for you and your business. This means we can build responsive designs into both template and custom sites. We also build custom apps for both Android and iPhone, so if your company wants there to be “an app for that”, we can help. We offer free quotes, so there’s no excuse to check and see how custom apps and/or a website featuring responsive design can benefit your business. Don’t lose customers due to bad design. Contact The Click Experts today!

Apple introduces the new iPhone 6:

Bit by Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies Gain Ground

bitcoin2Bitcoin is gaining popularity very quickly in the online world. A number of large businesses have begun accepting it for online transactions, including Virgin Galactic, Lord & Taylor, Overstock, Newegg and Tiger Direct. Now Dish Network is getting into the Bitcoin game. Even companies like Amazon, PayPal, Ebay, and Apple are making moves that lead those in the know to think they are leaning towards adoption of the currency as well.

With all this positive publicity, Bitcoin proponents seem to be beating back the waves of negative press from early this year, including the collapse of Bitcoin giant Mt. Gox and the arrest of pioneer Charlie Shrem for money laundering. Issues remain, however, and it seems clear that many cheerleaders of Bitcoin, along with businesses considering early adoption, do not often truly understand what Bitcoin is and how it works, leaving the chance for users to be badly burned.

In this blog, we are going to explain in simple terms what Bitcoin is (and what it isn’t), how it works, cover a few of the issues inherent to the system, and hopefully leave you, the e-commerce business operator, with enough information to make an informed choice regarding accepting Bitcoin as part of your business strategy.

What Is Bitcoin and What Are Its Issues?

Bitcoin, simply put, is a “cryptocurrency.” While there are others (such as Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Peercoin), Bitcoin seems to have become the most common of these seemingly innumerable digital currencies on offer. Bitcoin is “mined” by computers. In simple terms, this means that users task their computers (at this point, usually specially-made, extremely powerful devices) to solving increasingly complex math problems, and are rewarded for doing so with currency.

Purchased or mined Bitcoin is stored in online “wallets”, encrypted accounts that record transactions in much the same way as a bank account. Coins are traded through public sites like Coinbase and Bitpay. Proponents of the technology claim that these encrypted wallets are anonymous, and hence so are transactions, making Bitcoin a favorite for shady deals around the worldwide. Unfortunately for those wishing anonymity, a growing amount of evidence is surfacing indicating Bitcoin is not quite as anonymous as many users think. For instance, if a wallet can be linked to a person, every transaction that person makes through the wallet can be tracked, since transactions are public.

It is also important to note that Bitcoin is basically unregulated, meaning that users have essentially no recourse if their wallets are hacked and the money stolen, transactions go badly, or computer crashes cause the loss of money (a very real possibility.) This also means your Bitcoin wallet cannot be insured in any way. In a very real way, it is the digital equivalent of having gold bars hidden in a hole in your backyard.

Bitcoin is also not a “real” currency. This means it is not backed by any bank or country,and hence, its price is subject to constant swings in value of extreme volatility. While some view this volatility as an opportunity for arbitrage in much the same way as day trading, price volatility makes pricing difficult for ecommerce businesses, and storing Bitcoin collected through sales can subject businesses to wild swings in the value of their Bitcoin portfolio. The nature of Bitcoin also makes it susceptible to price manipulation by individuals or cartels that control large amounts of it, and should any group control 51 percent of it (an event that is coming alarming close to reality), they gain almost unlimited power over price, as well as strange repercussions like the ability to spend the same coins over and over. Additionally, despite the fact that Bitcoin is not an official currency of the United States or any other country, the IRS has ruled that Bitcoin earnings are taxable and must be declared on tax forms, so if you’re looking to hide or shield your earnings from the government, you are doing so at considerable risk. We suggest consulting a tax professional in this regard.

Bitcoin volatility, Jan- July 2014.
Bitcoin volatility, Jan- July 2014.

Should All This Scare Me Off Bitcoin?

Maybe, maybe not. Bitcoin does have some powerful advantages, or else it wouldn’t be so popular. For one thing, it is almost an instant transaction (at most, within 10 minutes.) When a user hits “buy”, the money is moved almost instantly. Online payments such as e-checks can take days to go through, and even sites like Paypal often charge fairly steep fees for their use. Almost all businesses also know the drain that is merchant fees, and the haunting nightmare of chargebacks. Bitcoin, in addition to being instant, is free to use. This could save your business thousands of dollars.

Bitcoin also helps avoid the hassle of doing business overseas, dealing with foreign exchange and the reticence of sites like Paypal to allow users in many countries to use their services. These people also often have trouble with using banks or other financial institutions for online business. Bitcoin is a potential way around these issues. Another advantage of being an early adopter of Bitcoin is how popular it is: many users are using it as their primary way to pay for online transactions. In the world of e-commerce, the physical location of your business is nearly irrelevant, so being the first or one of the first in your particular niche to accept Bitcoin can set your business apart from others, attracting customers that may simply refuse to do business any other way and thus direct all their business to those companies that accommodate them. (It’s like taking Discover Card, if Discover Card was actually popular.)

While there will always be some risk, many of the issues around Bitcoin can be dealt with appropriately. For instance, while volatility cannot be controlled, regularly converting Bitcoins back to dollars or another currency of your choice can sidestep some of the risk. Additionally, Bitcoin earnings can be reported to the government in a legitimate way, avoiding tax issues. Again, consult a professional. Good online security can help prevent hacks and thefts of Bitcoins, in much the same way good physical security thwarts robberies of brick-and-mortar stores.

I’m Sold! How Do I Start Accepting Bitcoin?

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If accepting Bitcoin seems to be right for your business and you need help integrating it into your e-commerce site, or if you would like a custom e-commerce site built for your business and taking Bitcoin is a requirement, here at The Click Experts we can help. We have the skills and knowledge it takes to integrate Bitcoin (and other online payment methods such as PayPal and Amazon Payments) into your site, increasing the payment options available to potential customers and attracting more business. What’s more, we do these things the right way, not the easy way, minimizing risk to your business and your finances. We offer free quotes, so contact us today to see what we can do for your business.

The Surprising Uses of Pinterest for Online Business

Pinterest, long considered an irrelevant-to-business haunt of women who have delusions of Martha Stewart-hood, has been waging a battle against that perception for the last year or so. Now it has made its most aggressive move yet in its bid to oust Facebook as the king of social media- or more realistically, carve out a niche for itself as a respectable competitor.

While Facebook and Google+ have both been offering place search for some time, Pinterest is a late-comer to the game, only having begun offering the service, which it calls “Place Pins“, six months ago. In that time, however, the company has managed impressive growth, now boasting over a billion (yes, billion with a “b”) Place Pins, on over 250 million boards, in locations representing over 300 countries or territories.

Pinterest Places California

Not content to rest on their laurels, however, Pinterest has upped the game, making the place-search process more intuitive and easier to use. The company already uses Foursquare for venue information (have you listed your business there yet?), and has now enlisted the services of Twofishes (an open-source geocoder also by Foursquare) to parse searches to separate the “what” of the search from the “where”. This leads to easier searches and better results, increasing the odds of users finding what they’re looking for and doing so easily and quickly.

What does this mean for your business? To put it simply, more visits to your brick-and-mortar store. Users can take pictures (for instance, of a meal, or a cute new outfit, or a cool doodad) and pin it to the board, coupled with an address, a location on a map, and even other contact details. Businesses can also do the same. Think: a user can log in from their smartphone, look for boards that contain pins in the local area, and find pictures and posts from other people relating to the subject in which they are interested. They can find your business, and if they like what they see, they can immediately find the phone number and address, complete with a map directing them to your store.

Combine this with the ability of Pinterest to promote your business (both online and brick-and-mortar) organically, and you have what looks to be a winning combination. Pinterest is, in its very essence, a platform more amenable and designed for commercial use, in a way Facebook can only in its wildest dreams. Pinterest users regularly sharing things such as recipes, fashion finds, cool gadgets, fun craft ideas and the like with each other. While this may not translate well for every business, many enterprising owners will be able to shoehorn even unconventional businesses into this arena.

Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, we have you covered. At The Click Experts, we offer comprehensive social media management. We can help you establish and grow your business’ social media footprint, including building profiles, managing accounts, and making posts, all across a wide variety of platforms. We can even link those accounts to your business’ web site. Don’t have a web site yet? We can help you with that, too. We build custom pages, with attention to detail and prompt service. Our knowledgeable staff know the ins-and-outs of online business, and deliver professional results each and every time. To find out what we can do for you, contact us for a free quote.

Want to know more about using Pinterest? Watch this quick, informative guide:

Net Neutrality Falls: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, America

angrycomputermanThere’s a joke Will Ferrell makes: “Before you marry a person you should first make them use a computer with slow internet to see who they really are.” It’s funny because it’s true. Ever think back to life just 15 years ago and think, “How did I ever deal with dialup internet?” The world has changed so much, so fast. We as a society have become used to having information available at the snap (or swipe!) of our fingers. We expect entertainment to be instantly available on demand. Surveys by Akamai and Gomez.com found that 47 percent of users expect a page to load in two seconds or less, and 40 percent will abandon a site that takes more than three. Additionally, KISSmetrics reports that 79 percent of online shoppers won’t return to a site with which they had trouble, and 44 percent will tell friends about a negative experience. Time is most definitely money: a one second delay could cost your business 7 percent of its conversions. Clearly, loading speed matters. That’s why net neutrality matters.

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What is net neutrality, you ask? Simply, net neutrality is a policy literally as old as the internet that internet service providers (ISPs) such as your cable or satellite company are not allowed to favor one site over another. That is to say, net neutrality dictates that end users ought to have access to any site they want with the same speed and efficiency of other sites. In other words, net neutrality dictates that ISPs cannot charge sites for faster access to consumers. There is no pay -to-play on the internet…or at least, there wasn’t until recently, when the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. struck down the FCC rules requiring net neutrality. This January 2014 ruling opened the door for ISPs to begin charging some sites for faster access, and companies like Verizon and Comcast have already burst through into the scene, already reaching agreements with companies like Netflix to charge for faster access.

How does this matter to your business? After all, you may not have a large company. You may think your business is unlikely to be targeted. Here’s the good news: It isn’t…at least directly. That’s the bad news: This still affects you. Why? Simple. Chances are you pay for website hosting. Chances are that company is big. Therefore, chances are your website hosting company is likely to be targeted. If they don’t pony up the dough, your website, along with all the others they host, are likely to get throttled, which means, as we covered above, lost sales for your business, and perhaps a significant amount of them. Do you think they’re going to just pay the money and absorb the additional cost out of the goodness of their hearts? Of course they aren’t. You’re going to get dinged for it. That’s bad news for your business, but don’t freak out just yet.

Although the FCC says they don’t plan on appealing, this court ruling isn’t necessarily final, and the FCC is also working on amending the net neutrality rules to make them enforceable and able to withstand future legal challenges. Additionally, Congress could pass a law explicitly requiring net neutrality and outlawing pay-for-play practices. If you want to get involved to enforce and protect net neutrality, writing or calling your representatives is a great idea.

You can also help your business by taking steps to let your page load faster regardless of net neutrality. There are plenty of things you can do, such as streamlining your page by reducing graphics and other flashy whiz-bang features, and by using software that caches the page in order to help it load faster. Did that just lose you? It’s okay, we’re here to help. At The Click Experts, we are experts in designing web pages that load fast while maintaining slick design and curb appeal. We can also evaluate and help with your hosting. Best of all, we’ll take a look for free and let you know how we can help! Contact us today to see what we can do for you.

 

The Young Turks break down the net neutrality ruling and what it means for the country:

 

Arthur Chu Has a Superpower, and You Can Use It, Too!

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Have you heard of Arthur Chu? I hadn’t until recently. However, if you’re an avid fan of the gameshow Jeopardy, you probably have. He is, quite simply, perhaps the most polarizing champion of that show’s long history, and when his 11-show winning streak ended on March 12th, his winnings of around $298,000 stood at the third-highest total ever. You may be thinking, “Fine, so he won a lot of money. That’s great, but how does that mean he has a superpower, and why does that make him so polarizing?” The answer may surprise you.
Arthur Chu is so controversial because he used his superpower to win, and here’s the kicker: his superpower is nothing more than math. Yes, math. As in, that subject you always knew your teachers in school were lying about when they promised it would come in handy one day, and time has, up til now, probably done nothing to disabuse you of that feeling. But if it can help you make some big money, that may make it interesting indeed. So how did Arthur Chu use math to be so successful at Jeopardy?
In short, Chu used game theory, a mathematical model of decision making that is particularly useful in economics, psychology, and biology, as well as for, you know, winning games. Namely, Chu skipped around the larger-value squares in the game, looking for Daily Doubles and denying them and the higher awards to the other players. He also, at one point, made a final round wager that tied him with an opponent instead of the more common wager to win by a dollar, because game theory favors that strategy when a player is unsure of their answer. These tactics are against the social mores of the game, and were what made him so controversial, yet also so successful.
But how does this help you and your business? After all, you’re unlikely to get on Jeopardy any time soon. You can, however, still use math to help your business. Don’t know how? That’s okay, here at The Click Experts we do, and we can help! From managing your PPC campaigns effectively with mathematical models to using statistical analysis on your website traffic to ensure the efficacy of your SEO and content, we have the know-how to make the superpower of math work for you! In the same way Arthur Chu optimized his winnings and reduced his risks by following the appropriate mathematical models, and the same way the Oakland Athletics revolutionized baseball by playing Moneyball and became successful despite revenue woes, we can put your business at an advantage in online marketing without costing an arm and a leg by using math to ensure our strategies are rigorously effective. Contact us today for a free quote, and put us to work making your business’ online presence the best it can be.
Watch Arthur Chu in action:

Don’t Drop the Ball on Your New Year’s Resolution for Your Website!

nyetceblogThe New Year is upon us. It’s a time for fresh starts and to make new decisions. Chances are you have made some resolutions along these lines. If you are a business owner, one of those resolutions may be to finally get your company that website it needs, or to finally get your existing website into optimal shape. Businesses without an adequate and professional online presence are increasingly being pushed out of the market in today’s business client, and the path to business success these days often leads straight through the Web.

If you have ever considered getting a website for your business, you know that it is a complicated prospect. There are lots of choices when it comes to domains and hosting, and myriad choices for the platform on which to run the site. On top of that, designing and building a website is a complicated process that is time-consuming. Some companies offer “free” websites and “all-in-one” services, but when you read the fine print, you find that the monthly fees are much higher with these companies and “free” becomes anything but. What’s worse, you don’t own the finished site. If you ever want to switch hosting, you cannot bring the website with you, and are forced to start from square one.

Having The Click Experts design and build a professional website for your business is the solution. Savvy business owners know that letting professionals do their jobs is the best way to succeed. Don’t waste your own valuable time muddling through the design process. We take the time to get to know your business and its needs, then take the guesswork out of the design process by recommending the right CMS and E-commerce platform for your business. We design and build the site for you the way you want, and you own the finished product. Let us make the process of designing and building a website for your business simple and easy for you, and avoid the long term nickel-and-dime tactics of so-called “free” website builders.

If you already have a website for your business but are looking to upgrade, redesign, or add custom or advanced functionality, we can help! We offer custom coding and software solutions for any situation. Don’t settle for a website that is less than exactly what you want. Let The Click Experts design a solution for your business and give your site the custom functionality that will optimize performance and set you apart Don’t wait for the website of your dreams any longer. Set your business apart from the crowd. We offer solutions to fit a wide array of budgets and applications. Contact The Click Experts today and let us provide you with a free quote.

5 Resolutions for Your Business This Year:

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