Thousands returned home to Galveston, Texas today after the city was blasted by Hurricane Ike almost two weeks ago. Warnings have been given to locals to be aware of snakes, mosquitoes, a lack of electricity and running water, destroyed homes, debris covering the area and much more devastation.

There are many ways in which you can help out the island of Galveston and other parts of Texas. The American Red Cross is an organization that is providing disaster relief in various forms. Blood drives are being held throughout multiple cities daily and it’s encouraged that everyone donate blood. The Red Cross lists the top 10 reasons to give blood:

1. You will get free juice and cookies.
2. You will weigh less - one pint less when you leave then when you came in.
3. It’s easy and convenient - it only takes about an hour and you can make the donation at a donor center, or at one of the many Red Cross mobile blood drives.
4. It’s something you can spare - most people have blood to spare… yet, there is still not enough to go around.
5. Nobody can ask you to do any heavy lifting as long as you have the bandage on. You can wear it for as long as you like. It’s your badge of honor.
6. You will walk a little taller afterwards - you will feel good about yourself.
7. You will be helping to ensure that blood is there when you or someone close to you may need it. Most people don’t think they’ll ever need blood, but many do.
8. It’s something you can do on equal footing with the rich and famous - blood is something money can’t buy. Only something one person can give to another.
9. You will be someone’s hero - you may give a newborn, a child, a mother or a father, a brother or a sister another chance at life. In fact, you may help save up to three lives with just one donation.
10. It’s the right thing to do.
    

The American Red Cross is also always excepting monetary donations and they have various funds to which you can donate to including the Disaster Relief Fund, Where the Need is Greatest Fund, Your Local Red Cross Chapter, and many many more.

Organizations like Relief International, the Gulf Coast Mercy Corps, and city emergency departments are all working hard to provide relief to the Galveston community. Galveston is seeking 2.2 billion dollars in disaster relief according to the Associated Press, in addition to the funds the city has already received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Its estimated to restore the port alone, to it’s original state, it would take at minimum half-billion dollars. Take part in a disaster relief organization, donate blood, or donate money to one of the disaster relief organizations to help Galveston and other cities damaged from the hurricane recover.

So what is a business owner to do? They have to start cutting the fat, and usually the first thing that they look to cut is the advertising budget, not realizing that the customers that are trickling in might just be due to the advertising and that those customers may even disappear if the advertising budget is cut.

What I propose to our clients is to ride out the tough times and instead of canceling or cutting their advertising budget in full, try instead to streamline and optimize their campaign and look for free or low budget campaigns. Here are few suggestions on what and how to get started. Most of these are online, but do not require extensive computer or internet knowledge.

1. Free local listings on major search engines and directories. This has been talked about extensively in many blogs and forums. Here are some popular sites you might want to start with.
   https://www.maps.google.com
   http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php
   http://listings.yellowpages.com/Services/ServiceClaimSearch.aspx
   http://advertise.citywaboo.com/signup/
2. Email Newsletter marketing is another free or inexpensive way to get in touch with those clients that have not come in to your store lately. Companies such as Constant Contact give you a 60 day free trial, and you can send up to 2500 emails at once for $30 per month. You can send as many times as you wish. Although keep in mind that you do not want to overdue it. Constant Contact provides many templates to use and is on a very user friendly format. We use them at CityWaboo to send out our weekly and monthly newsletters.
   http://www.constantcontact.com/pricing/index.jsp
   http://www.ratepoint.com/
3. Social networks have become very popular in the last few years. Make sure that you have a profile on them and are actively updating it. I’ve begun using the 2 hours I spent at night watching TV, to instead get onto to the social networks and add information to my business and personal profiles. Right now, the name of the game is optimization, and most of the social network sites populate your information on the major search engines.
   http://www.facebook.com/
   http://www.linkedin.com/
   http://www.myspace.com/
4. Local city guides have streamlined their operations in the last couple of years, and although most charge a small fee for enhanced listings, it is well worth it for all of the features your business receives. When we first started CityWaboo.com one of our first conversations was; what can we give our advertisers for $39.95 per month that would make a positive influence in their bottom line? Well we packed in a lot. By far, I think the features advertisers get on CityWaboo are unmatched by many companies. http://citywaboo.com
   http://local.com
5. In the same token as the National City Guides, there are local directories that cater to specific cities or specialties. For the past 4 years we have been operating a local directory called http://www.burbankglendale.com with great success for local businesses in the Burbank and Glendale community. Most of the time the investment is less then $30 per month and gets your business in your immediate community. These types of websites are community based so to find them look in your local community newspapers and chamber of commerce directories.
6. Pay per click or pay per lead models of major search engines is yet another way to get your business or website on search engines. Although many general keywords are expensive to be in the top results, most specific keywords are relatively inexpensive and can start for as little as .10cents. Make sure you specify your daily budget and make use of all the free tracking and researching tools that are provided. For Google.com visit http://www.google.com/adwords section. For Yahoo Search Marketing http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/

The key is to remember that whatever you do, make sure that you track and analyze your results. It is imperative that you find out where every customer in your store or on your website is coming from. And remember economic times will eventually get better, if you remember to be frugal and result oriented now, imagine what you will be able to do when the times are better. Invest your advertising dollars wisely, track and record your results, and thoroughly analyze the results thoroughly and you’ll be on the track to increasing your visibility, traffic, and success!

The Democratic National Convention came and went, and now its time for the Republicans to have their chance. So who where the losers and the winners? No I don’t mean in politics, this is a CityWaboo Blog. The local businesses in Denver and Saint Paul should have capitalized on the tens of thousands of visitors that were hungry, sleepy, and wanted to party. Well maybe not party.

Most of the delegates that are at the convention are from out of town, so to find a place to eat, sleep and even find a local cleaners will undoubtedly result in a search for restaurants, hotels and cleaners in Denver or Saint Paul.

Here is where local businesses need to capitalize on the large amount of traffic that major search engines like Google and Yahoo, and local city guides such as CitySearch.com and CityWaboo.com receive. Just thinking ahead for couple of months can result in great short term business; which can translate into a positive long term reputation.

There are influencers in any arena, as I was flipping through the channels, I caught a glimpse of one of the local political reporters doing a story on what and where the delegates are eating and they were showcasing a sandwich spot 5 miles from the convention. I thought wow national coverage for a local sandwich shop. You can not buy this kind of publicity.

So what can that sandwich shop do to have more of a lingering effect from the national converge and also capitalize on the thousands of people that will come through their doors in the next 5 days; given that these people might not ever come back to Denver or eat at that sandwich shop again?

Below I am outlining some of the steps any business can take to make sure that their online marketing efforts are positive, lingering and can capitalize on busy times to offset the time of the year when business is slow.

1. Have an online presence. If I am ordering flowers or looking for a place to eat, at least I want to see what’s on the menu.
2. Check your business profile on major search engines. Type in your business name in Google or Yahoo search and see where your business profile is populated. You will be surprised at what you see. It’s like a market research on your business in 10 seconds or less.
3. Check the popular review sites such as Yelp, CitySearch, and CityWaboo to find out what your customers are saying about your business.
4. Don’t be disheartened about bad reviews, it is a chance to see what you are doing right and wrong.
5. Add your business to the above sites if you do not see them listed. Most sites will give you the opportunity to add a free profile. For an extra couple of bucks a day many site like CityWaboo.com will give you an enhanced profile, with all the bells and whistles like pictures, special comments, bold business name, multiple keywords and more.

Now that you have your profile created, it is time to put it into use.

6. Identify key events or situations that you might want to capitalize. For florists, one of their busiest days is Valentines Day, for that sandwich shop the Democratic National Convention.
7. Each customer should be treated as a potential ambassador for your business and should be used to spread the word about your business.
8. Start directing your satisfied customers online to rate, review and recommend your business. This can be done in multiple ways.
9. CityWaboo offers business card size postcards that have your business information on one side and an invitation for the card holder to go on CityWaboo and rate, review and recommend your business.
10. Having a laptop or a computer in a corner, and having your customers rave about you right there and then.
11. Collecting customer email addresses at time of check out, you will be surprised how many people will actually give you their personal email addresses. Sugarcoat it with a discount offer. Use those emails to direct them to the review sites. (contrary to popular belief of sending them straight to your company website: see # 12)
12. Every business has heard of word of mouth advertising. Websites such as CityWaboo, Yelp and others have taken this concept to the next level. In particular CityWaboo brings back search results with local member recommendations and if you sign in, you can also see your friend recommendations. So the more people recommend your business, the more chances for your business to be shown. The best part of all— it’s free.

    Monitor your results; the best campaign is the one that is followed. So take advantage of busy times and convert those one time customers into ambassadors for your business.

For more information about Eduard Arakelyan and other business marketing information please visit www.citywaboo.com

It’s been over a month, and still when I approach our offices, these yellow page phone books are laying beside the door. I wonder… has the time of hard copy yellow pages passed us? I remember the days that yellow page phone books were the only source of locating business information, it seems as the age of the internet is ever growing, the dependence on these older, more traditional forms of information have dissipated.

More and more people are turning to the internet as their main source of gathering information. Thus, online businesses, online advertising, and online marketing are a growing industry separate and more effective than that of traditional methods. When businesses target demographics locally, online advertising can reach a more streamlined demographic, which suits a businesses needs more adequately, thus enhancing traffic to their business and in turn increasing profitability of the business as a whole.

People want ease when looking for information and they find this in the internet, with search sites they simply type in what they want and pages appear providing them with results, as opposed to flipping through a huge bulky paper version that may or may not provide results. People also want simplicity and prefer compact items, having a paper copy means finding a place for it, it also means knowing the correct spelling and city that it’s located in.

With the internet, none of that is necessary, a person doesn’t even need to know the name of the business when searching for a particular service. Keywords on the net have enhanced searching to a level that paper versions can not compare with. To bring further clarity, using CityWaboo as an example, a person can type in a number of things and receive results, using words that describe something, such as “great hair stylist” instead of looking up “Frankie’s Salon”.

It’s no wonder that these books have laid outside stuffed into the corner between the building wall and the doors. They provide minimal value to a “user” and in the age of the internet, people want simplicity, quickness, ease and choice.

Back to school doesn’t have to leave you singing the blues! CityWaboo’s bringing you our top three secrets to a flawless launch back into the school season.

1. Shopping is always a headache, especially with all the dress codes, but what’s even worse, is cleaning out your kids closets before you do the new shopping! Why not make it fun this year? Create a fashion show in your home, help your children put together outfits, or invite thier friends over for some fashion fun, and watch them strut there stuff (while you see if it fits or not) through the house. Then collect all of the “not gonna cut it” items, and take them to your local Salvation Army or Out of the Closet. This way you’ll have room for all of the new things that you buy.

2. School supplies are a must and every child wants the “coolest” new things. Give your kid some spiffy writing materials from The Paper Source. They have everything from creatively designed book covers to stationary and various office supplies. They even have kits like a locker decorating kit, and holiday kits. This is the perfect shop for getting all of the most unique and trendy back to school items for your kids, and you too!

3, Creating a place in your home solely for schools supplies is a must. Designating this area will help prevent you from rushing around the house 5 minutes before you’re supposed to drop the kids off at school. The Container Store will give you TONS of storage options for creating your school area. They provide everything from storage units to cute, colorful storage containers and additional storage items. Get creative! Color coding can help if you have multiple children.

Taking care of the old to bring in the new, adding some “umph” into your children’s school supplies, and organizing your home creatively and colorfully, can make all the difference to starting your school year off right! Good Luck!