Introducing Pam Schott, Support Guru

ArcStone welcomes Pam Schott to the team to head up support.

As some of you may already know, we've recently welcomed Pamela Schott to our team as our Numero Uno problem solver and general support go-to. Hiring Pam was one of our initiatives to serve our clients better when support issues arise, and we hope to continue refining our process.

A Little About Pam
So who is this Pam person, you ask? Pam hails from South Dakota and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2003. Since graduating she has worked for a national, a regional, and a local consulting firm where her roles were as diverse as the companies she served.

Pam's role at ArcStone is to facilitate general support triage for all of our products and services including AMO, CMO, Wonderfile, and all other ArcStone support issues. She's also the person to talk to if you want to purchase, renew, or transfer a domain.

How The Support Petal Works
We wanted to provide one point of contact to track and respond to all support requests. Pam is that point of contact. When you have a change request for your website or email, or if you are experiencing any problems, send an support@arcstone.com with the following information:

1. Name
2. Company
3. Website
4. Phone number
5. Email address
6. Description of the change, question, or problem
7. Related URL and website page information, if applicable
8. Any additional information that would help us to address your need or concern

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Spring Cleaning for Your Website: 10 Tidying Tips

Spring has sprung, though it may not be apparent to our brethren here in Minnesota. What better way to celebrate than by the annual tradition we know and love?

Yes - I'm talking about Spring Cleaning. It's our yearly effort to prune away the old and nurture the new. This year, we suggest that you don't stop at your house, garden, or workspace - it's time to clean your website.

Here are some ideas to give your site a refreshing new face for Spring.

1. Convert important documents to digital. This is a great way to back up your files, and it also makes your assets far more accessible. Once you transfer to digital, you'll wonder how you ever relied on the old hard copy system.



2. Peek at your competitor's sites. Not only will you get some ideas on how you can improve your own site, you may also pick up on a competitor's edge over your own business. Analyzing what "the other guys" are up to can help you focus your business goals and provide a product or service that will differentiate you from your competitors.



3. Clean up your footers and sidebars. Many websites forget to update information in the footers and sidebars, leaving old addresses, out-of-date copyright dates, or links that are no longer relevant. These small oversights will not help win over your visitors. They want to see a business that's on the leading edge - and that includes up-to-date information on their website.



4. Freshen up your About Us section. There's a good chance you haven't updated this content since you launched your website. If you're like ArcStone, your company has changed a great deal since you first built your site. Take particular notice of statements that mention how long you've been in business - this will need to be updated yearly!



5. Update your meta data. This is the information that gets crawled by search engines, so it's important that it's accurate and descriptive. For instance, a keyword-oriented title on your homepage can give you an extra nudge in optimizing your website for search engines. If you're not sure if your meta data is doing you favors, please contact Carrie at cdowning@arcstone.com for a consultation.



6. Review your terms of service. Most of us would rather curl up and die than read all that fine print, but rest assured that it's there for a reason. If your website has a privacy policy or terms of service page, take it to your lawyer to make sure all of your bases are covered. Misleading information is what lawsuits are made of.



7. Test all your links, both internal and external. Broken links can be incredibly frustrating for your visitors, and unfortunately it's all too common. The ever-changing nature of the web means that your links may be correct one day but not the next. Do your site a favor and click them all to make sure they go where they're supposed to. Try this handy link check tool from the W3 Consortium: http://validator.w3.org/checklink



8. Spell check. Get a good, patient proofreader to go over your site with a fine-tooth comb. You'll be amazed at the errors you'll find - and trust us, your visitors will notice if you don't fix them.



9. Submit your site to search engines and relevant directories. You don't necessarily need to go out on a year-long search engine optimization (SEO) campaign, but you should at the very least make sure your site is submitted to major search engines and directories relevant to your industry.



10. Update your photos. Nothing says "outdated" like a picture of a happy customer in tapered, acid-wash jeans. Your visitors want to identify with the images on your site, not wonder if you've had a customer since 1984. A few new photos can go a long way.

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Blog Post of the Month

Audio Books & The Breakthrough Company

I listen to a lot of audio books. I have had a subscription audible.com for over four years and have amassed a personal audio book library of over 150 books. For $21.95 per month I can download any two books in the audible.com collection - usually the retail value of each book is in the $30 - $50 range, so I figure it�s a pretty good deal.

>> Read the rest of this blog post

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• Introducing Pam Schott, Support Guru
• Spring Cleaning for Your Website: 10 Tidying Tips
• Blog Post of the Month