Have a blog? You will almost assuredly get comments. Unfortunately, many of these comments will be from supposed pharmaceutical companies, personal enhancement firms and numerous get rich schemes. To give you an example, this morning I "cleaned out" the spam comments that had accumulated on the blog over the weekend (over 200 spam comments were deleted). Tonight - a mere 12 hours later nearly 60 more spam comments had been added. 

Spam comments make you look bad and can easily be considered offensive to your blog readers. So what is a blogger to do?

I'm glad you asked.

There is a simple solution that is supported on all major blog platforms, re-captcha keys. A re-captcha key is:

reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service that helps to digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows. Check out our paper in Science about it (or read more below).

A CAPTCHA is a program that can tell whether its user is a human or a computer. You've probably seen them — colorful images with distorted text at the bottom of Web registration forms. CAPTCHAs are used by many websites to prevent abuse from "bots," or automated programs usually written to generate spam. No computer program can read distorted text as well as humans can, so bots cannot navigate sites protected by CAPTCHAs. 

For additional information go to http://www.google.com/recaptcha

I installed re-captcha in about 2 minutes and that included the time it took me to get the free code from their site. Simple and effective.

Now, when someone goes to leave a comment on the blog they are presented with a simple question that only a human could answer. The re-captcha inquiry looks like this:

Simple and effective, my comment spam will be virtually eliminated. As a side benefit, by having readers take just a moment to complete the re-captcha inquiry, we are all helping to digitize books.

What is your favorite way to stop comment spam?

What are you passionate about?

You have strengths and passions; hopefully ones that relate to your business. Unfortunately business also brings with it things that we are not passionate about and often things that we are not good at doing. What if you could spend your time focused on your passion; what would that mean for you personally?

Business partnerships can provide you with the magic wand you have always dreamed of. Imagine being able to focus on your strengths and passions while someone else handled the things you would rather put off until later. A good partner will complement you and your business. Their passions and skills should complement yours.

A good business partnership will allow you to increase your profits by being more focused and increase your happiness quotient by greatly reducing your stress and frustration. Good business partnerships create true WIN-WIN-WIN situations where you, your partner and your client(s) all benefit from the partnership.

Imagine being able to provide additional services to your clients, spend less time on drudgery, spend more time on your passions and make more money in the process. Business partnerships can provide you and your clients with true benefits.

Need an example of an effective partnership? Imagine that your business focuses on marketing or public relations and that your clients regularly approach you to handle their website needs. Although you love writing marketing copy and enjoy promotions your technical skills are not considered "geeky." A partnership with MMJ Technology where we provide the website framework for your clients while you focus on providing your amazing marketing copy and promotional services would allow you to spend more time with your clients, less time struggling with technical issues and provide your clients with a superior solution. Truly a WIN-WIN-WIN scenario.

Want to find out if a partnership with MMJ Technology would benefit your team? This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it today and we will have a short discussion to determine how and if all of us can benefit.

Let's face it - we have websites to help us make more money. If your website does not increase your revenue or lower your expenses, such as customer service, then there is not much need for you to keep it. At the same time, every organization needs a website in order to be seen as credible. Imagine your impression if you were looking to buy a product or work with an organization and you found out they did not have a website; chances are you would not be buying that product or working with that organization.

If you are still with me then you will likely agree that marketing is a key function of your website. In order for your marketing to be effective it needs to be timely and relevant to your audience. In order for your content to be timely and relevant you need to be adding and updating your website content on a regular basis. Enter a Content Management System (CMS).

Marketing your organization online is a process which rewards the swift and penalizes the idle. If your organization can not afford to have a skilled marketing professional and website developer on staff, then your website needs to be configured on a CMS.

A CMS allows you to easily add content to your website, modify existing content and provide your audience with timely and relevant information that causes them to connect with you and your organization - without having to pay a developer $150+/hour every time you want to make a change to your website. A CMS allows you to maintain your website without needing to know how to program in HTML, Java, Flash or the like. Virtually anyone who can create an email can add and maintain content on a CMS based website.

Most business owners and managers have no idea how to make changes or additions to their website. This means that most websites remain static and do not do a good job at marketing your organization. If your organization is not doing an effective job of marketing online then you are not converting your audience into customers. When you do not convert your audience to customers you are wasting your investment in your website.

There are several CMS systems available to organizations. Some CMS systems cost as much as $10,000 or more, other CMS systems are available as open-source and are absolutely free (i.e. Joomla! and Wordpress). Regardless of the CMS platform you choose you will likely need to invest some of your marketing dollars with a skilled web design firm to get your website setup and configured properly (this initial design, setup and configuration is generally no more expensive, and often less expensive, than paying a web developer to create a new site for you). The value of a CMS platform is ease of ongoing use and search engine optimization. Additionally, most CMS platforms have a plethora of plug-in modules that you can use to perform virtually any function needed. Using these plugins almost always saves you money as you are not paying for a developer to program new functionality for your website.

A CMS allows you to create additional web pages, modify existing website content, easily integrate photos and video, add new products, services and specials to your website - things that are always changing and are often not added to your website due to cost concerns. A CMS also allows you to create custom landing pages that pertain to specific marketing efforts and greatly increase your ability to convert your site visitors to customers.

So, finally - the five reasons you should be using a CMS for your website:

1. You can easily add, edit and maintain your content
2. You can quickly and inexpensively add functionality through plugin modules
3. You can increase your search engine rankings (regular and more searchable content)
4. You save money
5. You connect with your audience more effectively and make more money

You can have a static, boring website that is generally a waste of your time and money or you can have a dynamic and remarkable website that allows you to connect with your audience. Which would you rather have?

Want to find out how a CMS can benefit your organization? Contact us today at 616.457.0300 or by email.

"I already have a Facebook page."

I have heard this phrase a number of times over the last few weeks. It seems that many business people believe that since they have a personal Facebook page they did not need a business Facebook page. THINK AGAIN!

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I DO NOT recommend maintaining a separate business and personal social media persona. Given that, I do believe that you should have a specific business or organization profile when possible.

Facebook has two different types of pages:

• Personal pages are for us as individuals.
• Facebook Fan pages are for businesses and organizations. The key difference is that people "Friend" you on your personal Facebook page, they "Like" your Facebook Fan page.

Why is it important to have a Facebook Fan page for your business or organization?

1. People are more likely to "Like" a Facebook Fan page than to request to be a "Friend"
2. When people who “Like” your page interact with you on Facebook, this activity shows up in the their friend's Facebook news feeds (the stuff on the Facebook wall).
3. The more fans your Facebook Fan page has the more often your posts are displayed to others. Remember that each of your posts appear on your Fan's Facebook Walls; this means you get more "eyeball traffic" for your posts.
4. Adding a "Like" button to your business or organization's website provides another means of connecting with your Facebook Fan's friends and increases the reach of your marketing message.
5. Your Fan Page is public, which means it is visible to search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo (among others). Personal pages are hidden behind logins and not indexed by the search engines.
6. A Facebook Fan page provides you with a wonderful venue to communicate with your fans. Listen to them. Prompt them. Answer their questions and more!

Bottom line: A Facebook page for your business or organization creates more awareness and increases your exposure.

Do you have a Facebook page for your business or organization?  It is time! Click here to get started.

Need help with your a Facebook page for your business or organization? Drop me a note via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.