Building a good network, and asking for help couldn’t be more easy.  Ten years ago, this would have taken hours and hours, now just 15 seconds.

We’ll update this page regularly, and hopefully provide an Excel download once the list grows a little bit – so feel free to comment with anybody we missed.

1. 3w CSS Sites
2. CSS Breeze
3. CSS Chest
4. CSS Clip
5. CSS Count
6. CSS Daddy
7. CSS Dance
8. CSS Gallery.com
9. CSS Hampster
10. CSS-Imagine
11. CSS Impress
12. CSS Loggia
13. CSS Pick
14. CSS Rank
15. CSS Showcases
16. CSS Smooth Operator
17. CSS Star
18. CSS Tea
19. CSS Wrap
20. Fantastic CSS
21. Folio Stars
22. Host Pattern
23. Qindex
24. SEF Web Gallery
25. Select Web Design
26. StyleVault.net
27. Wooki.es
28. WP Elite
29. WP Float
30. WP Luxe
31. Your Site is Valid

Our partnership will entail:

• Web Content Creation & Management
• Social Network Marketing (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.)
• Press Release Distribution
• Customer Relationship Management
• Search Engine Optimization
• Forum / Message Board Marketing
• Blog Networking
• Trade Show Representation
• Product Placements

We look forward to the exciting opportunity and will of course post some updates here periodically.

First, why SEO over other marketing such as PPC?

Pay-per-click advertising is all very well, but it means you have to pay for every visitor. SEO is about getting free traffic from the search engines. Over the course of two years or more, nothing has a better return on investment than SEO. Thus, if you plan on having a website that runs for more than two years, search engine optimization should be a key part of your online marketing strategy.

So what is the worst SEO mistake that a company can make?

The most common mistake that organizations make with regard to SEO is bringing their SEO consultants into the process too late. Many companies fail to give SEO its due consideration during a website’s design phase.

So there you have it, from one of the godfathers of search engine marketing.

Brandt goes on to list several key aspects to a successful SEO campaign that need attention during the design process, or what we like to call “On Page SEO.” Some crucial SEO techniques your design might forget are:

• Search Engine Friendly URLS
  www.abc.com/your-keyword.html vs. www.abc.com/page1.html
• Text Based Navigation Links
• Use of CSS instead of Javascript or Flash

For more in depth info. on the why a SEO consultant should be contacted during a website’s design phase, check out the whole article or give us a call for an informative chat.

1. Less Is More
   The average user spends just 4.4 seconds on a page, don’t waste it with filler language or beat around the bush. The more clear and concise you can be, the better.
2. Important Information First
   Don’t leave your call to actions or main selling points to the end of the page, bring your visitors in and get them excited. Then add the supporting arguments and details. If you don’t, they may not make it to the important points.
3. Use Headings
   Break up long pages by adding sub-headings, such as the <h2> and <h3> tags. Make them catchy, relevant, and of course describe the content immediately following them.
4. Images
   Attractive images are extremely effective in selling your message (even subliminally), if used correctly. Make sure they are very clean and attractive. Spend a few dollars on professional stock photography to get your message across, my favorite shop is IStockPhoto.com by the way.
5. Establish Trust
   The internet is a low trust environment. Don’t oversell, or be pushy, or your users will surely hit the “Back” button. Take every opportunity to make your site & content more personable, after all this is sales, not promenade. And don’t forget the “About Us” page, they’re looking for it….
6. Be an Authority
   If you want to look up defenestration, you go to the dictionary. Visitors should leave knowing that you are the first stop, should they have a future need. Use action verbs, demonstrate credentials, and give away good great information, customers will thank you with their business.
7. Emphasize Key Terms
   Bold or italicize key terms and concepts. Drawing a user’s eye to a section’s key concept will draw them into the rest of the text surrounding them.
8. Use Lists
   Whenever possible. Which looks better?
   
   Bass, catfish, trout, sharks, stingrays, and tarpon
   – or –
   • Bass
   • Catfish
   • Trout
   • Sharks
   • Stingrays
   • Tarpon
9. Break Long Content into Chunks
   Break long articles, tutorials, or product listings into sub-pages, with a small (but descriptive) navigation menu to help visitors get to their desired location.
10. Highlight Quotes
    Nothing makes the impersonal personal like quotations from valued sources. Whether they take the form of testimonials, or quotes from industry leaders, be sure they stand out. For example: “This is a quote that is inline with other text, is it very noticeable?”

    “Or does this quote grab a little more attention?”

Whether you are looking to contract Rainmaker for your next small business website or somebody else article by Steve McKee should be required reading.

Read  “Make Your Web Site Work for You”

Here are some highlights:

Even in the age of technology there’s nothing more powerful than a first impression, and your Web site increasingly is your introduction. I used to counsel startup companies not to underestimate the need for a professionally designed logo. I stand by that advice, but now I extend it to their Web presence as well. You simply can’t afford to look anything less than first-rate online.

The Flash introduction is a little cheesy, but it does seem to capture the personality of the company. What it doesn’t do is communicate anything about what Health Barn is or does. That’s a big missed opportunity, especially given the short amount of time parents can spare.

Revat, which describes itself on its site as “the leading self-defense program for adults living in an urban environment,” appears to be off to a good start, but it’s missing the drama. The fear of being accosted is powerful, yet the Web site doesn’t capitalize on that. Imagine how compelling a mini-movie dramatizing Revat training would be to its prospective customers.

While diagnosing and fixing problems may or may not be easy, discovering a problem is very easy.

Enter BrowserShots.org to the rescue. BrowserShots allows you to check your web site’s appearance on literally dozens of browser and operating systems for free. You can then either view or download JPG images of how your site lays out in all of them. It usually takes 15-30 minutes to load them, but you can go do something else while it loads.

An example of AmericanVagabondPhotography.com in the Netscape Navigator browser on a Ubuntu Linux operating system. It’s not important that I don’t know what either of those are, what’s important is the site looks clean in whatever they are….

First, because many of these sites come up in major search engines for a variety of phrases, which can lead potential clients to your website. Second, it can help build your search engine rankings by giving you high quality, relevant inbound links to your charter or guide website. Most are free, and some require you to link back to their site from yours (reciprocal linking), but all offer web links as well as contact info pointed towards your business.

Here’s a list of 15 17 (*see below*) websites offering free services to post fishing reports on the web. Remember, you can post last week’s report to them all if you like.

***UPDATE: Thanks to the great response, we will be continually updating this list***

If you have or know of any other fishing report sites, please comment below and we’ll make sure they are added.

1. Big Fish Tackle
2. Best Game Fishing Directory
3. Fishing Reporters
4. Sportfishermen.com
5. ReelReports.com
6. Ultimate Bass Forum
7. ReelFishingReports.com
8. 2CoolFishing.com Message Boards
9. CyberAngler.com
10. Fish Eye Soup
11. FishingWorks.com
12. FishyFishing.com
13. LandBigFish.com
14. TheFishFinder.com
15. TheFishingGuide.com
16. US Angler
17. Waders On
18. Fishing Reports at Fintalk.com
19. Fox Lake Fishing
20. GoFishingForums.net

But never fear, you can sign up for Google Local and Yahoo Local within 10 minutes! Oh, and it doesn’t cost you a thing.

Google Local Signup
https://www.google.com/local/add/
*you will need a Google account to sign up, but it’s free too.

Yahoo Local Listings
http://listings.local.yahoo.com/