Another Indoor Car Studio
We are working on another indoor car studio in Bay City. This time at the Labadie Toyota dealership. Shown here is builder extraordinaire Mike Kowalski. He has done wonders putting into place some of my ideas that he wasn’t to sure about when the project started. He was able to custom build the light boxes that contain 6,000 watts of daylight balanced light. Now that the weather is getting a little better in Michigan, Mike is trying to get the floor warm enough to paint. Then it’s time to hang the curtains and off we go!
I look forward to being able to pull some cars in and test the studio in about a week.
Can You Find My Business?
As the Internet continues to increase the amount of information available at a phenomenal speed some of the basics for business owners are still getting missed. Gone are the days of putting your business listing in the phone book and expecting to get phone calls. In fact I don’t know anyone that still uses the phone book. They are using the Internet to find everything either from their computer of cell phone. As with everything else on the Internet there are a plethora of business listing websites. Most will list your business for free and most require you to sign up in some way.
One very important element to remember is that we are dealing with computers. Remember the saying, “garbage in, garbage out?” This is very true and important to remember in the search engine world. Gone are the days of humans reviewing websites and listing them. The same is true of your business listing. It is very important to make sure that you check your listings and make the data consistant across all the sites the information is listed on. What does this mean? Lets say that your address is 123 North Main Street. This can also be listed as 123 N Main St or 123 North Main St or 123 N Main Street. These are all different addresses to a computer. Pick a way that you are going to list your address and be consistant with every listing for maximum results.
Also, be sure to search for you listing with each site. If you need to update the information claim your listing and follow the instructions for the website. If you are not listed at all be sure to submit your business and follow the conformation process.
So where does a business start when trying to get their information out and accessable to the masses?
The three places to start are:
Google – http://www.google.com/local/
Yahoo – http://local.yahoo.com/
Bing – https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx
Here are some high quality sites that will get you some major exposure because they feed to other major players:
InfoUSA – http://leads.infousa.com/Landing/UpdateListing.aspx
Citysearch – http://national.citysearch.com
Acxiom – http://www.acxiom.com (This company provides data to a ton of listing websites like Yelp, yellowpages.com, superpages.com, local.com and superpages.com. I have not been able to find out how to submit your data to Acxiom and all the links for doing so that I’ve seen on the Internet do not work.)
Following is a list of other listing providers that are simple to get listed with:
HotFrog – http://www.hotfrog.com/
MagicYellow – http://www.magicyellow.com/add_your_business.cfm
CityVoter – http://cityvoter.com
Angie’s List – www.angieslist.com (this site requires a small membership fee)
Discover Our Town – http://www.discoverourtown.com/
WCities – http://wcities.com (My city wasn’t listed and I couldn’t find a way to submit a listing automatically. I submitted an editorial content request. Don’t know what is going to happen yet.)
InsiderPages – http://www.insiderpages.com
YellowBot – https://www.yellowbot.com
Local.com – https://register.local.com
I’m sure there are other websites. These I found relatively easy to use and updated listing quickly.
Don’t have a website for your business? Looking for a website designer in Saginaw? Click Here to contact me for more information and a custom quote.
The Screaming Casanovas
Friday morning I got a call from Mike Magee. Mike has been working on a new regional website, Great Lakes Bay Scene, and wanted some pictures of O’Hares and Midland Street Pub in Bay City. They wanted pictures of Saturday night. This was fine because I wasn’t booked for Saturday and my wife and I could use a night out. We went early and had the the Saturday Night Special which is BBQ Ribs. The ribs were great! Juicy and fall off the bone well done. The ribs were served with a choice of potato and either a tossed salad or cole slaw. At 8pm the bar was a little slow and we new we had some time to kill. Fortunately an acquaintance saw us there and we killed the time with some good conversation.
The band at Midland Street Pub this Saturday night was The Screaming Casanovas. I had never heard them before. They started their set at 9:30pm and the bar started filling up at about 10pm. The Casanovas did a great job covering some 80’s and newer rock songs. They are quality musicians that put on a good show.
We had a few drinks, took a few pictures and went back to Saginaw. If you were at Midland Street Put or O’Hares on Saturday, Feb 6th, 2010 and want to see some pictures be sure to visit: http://greatlakesbayscene.com!
Phrases That Sell
When you are called upon to write website updates all day long ones creativity is sometimes lacking. This is where a book that arrived on my desk today comes in handy. A few weeks ago I was going through a creative dry spell and did what most people do – started searching on google. I found a this book, Phrases that Sell, by accident. Only seeing a few pages of the book I was intrigued. Managing the business development center for a auto dealership group I figured this would be a great reference book to have in our office.
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The book is laid out in a very orderly way and is easy to use. Following are a few examples:
Chapter 3 – Descriptive Qualities/Products and Services, under the section “Credibility” here are a few idea starters:
- A proven leader
- Proudly made in the U.S.A.
- The proven name in _____
- Trust our experience
- Find out why our customers return again and again
How about a few under the section “Fun, Fun, Fun”:
- Looking for a big thrill?
- Pleasure beyond expectation
- Get the most out of life
These may not be ground breaking . . . but they work. And the point is to be able to spur your creativity. Now that I have this book I can throw away my folder of direct mail that I’ve been saving to look at for word tracks. This book makes marketing phrase creativity a lot easier!
Review Magazine Photo Shoot
I was getting ready to head over to Pit and Balcony in Saginaw to photograph the evenings performance of Five Women Wearing the Same Dressand I got a call from my wife. Review magazine need a cover shoot. She was going to arrange the models and get setup the set and we would do the shoot when I got home. I arrived at the theatre with a few minutes to spare. After unpacking the gear I found out that the play was delayed for 1 hour. Great! This ment that the play was not going to be over when I needed to be at the next photoshoot. The cover shoot could not be delayed because the magazine was going to press the following afternoon.
Scrambling the theatre director suggested that we stage some shots with the actors that were there and in costume and then I could shoot the 1st act and leave when I needed to. This worked out great and we were able to get an entire cast photo, which sometimes doesn’t work out after the show.
After shooting the play I rushed home just as the models were arriving. We hadn’t done a full fledged photo shoot at our house before and I realized that I didn’t know where all the plugs were. So as I scrambled around setting up lights and gels my wife fixed makeup and got the models dressed. An hour later we had a nice selection of pictures for me to edit.
Following is one that didn’t make the cut for the cover of the magazine but was one of my favorites from the night!
Want to hire David Defoe for your magazine, website, senior pictures of wedding? Contact me online
Coincidence or Competition
Last year my wife took over as the state director for the Michigan Galaxy Pageants. We have learned a lot over the past year and are working to make this the premiere pageant in Michigan.
Once the venue of the 2010 pageant was secured we posted the dates so that the potential delegates could mark their calendars and get ready for the pageant. Now that the pageant is approaching we have been informed by many pageant moms that the Michigan Coed Pageant is scheduled for the same weekend. We had our date posted many months ago. Is this coincidence or competition?
As the March 19th weekend of the pageant approaches we are not concerned with the competition. We have the best show planned that the pageant world in Michigan has ever seen! When this pageant is over there will be plenty of talk about how the Michigan Galaxy Pageant will have set the bar as the new standard in fun and entertainment. If you are looking to be part of the best beauty pageant in Michigan for 2010 visit www.michigangalaxypageants.com! If you want to witness the greatest pageant in Michigan you can get tickets for this years pageant in Saginaw Michigan by clicking here.
The winners will go on to compete at the Galaxy International Pageants that will also be held in Michigan this year. For more information about the international beauty pageant visit: www.galaxypageants.com
Michigan Galaxy Pageants is a natural beauty pageant featuring ages from 6 and up. Girls divisions are:  Little Miss (ages 6, 7, 8), Pre-Teen (ages 9, 10, 11), and Jr Miss (ages 12, 13, 14). The divisions for older girls and women are: Miss Teen (ages 15-18), Miss (ages 19-29), Ms (ages 30+ and unmarried), and Mrs (ages 20+ and married).
Attention Grabbing Display
I have to admit that sometimes it’s easier to do something for another person that your wife. Well . . .  I’m not sure that I worded that first sentence correctly. It’s more like it’s easier not to do something for family when you said you would than it is for another person or business. Such was the case this Christmas season. My wife used some dead space in the back of her retail store to setup a nice wintry display. It was really nice and I promised her that I would take a picture. Well it’s approaching the end of January and I finally got a picutre. I feel really bad having delayed so long, really I do!
Restaurant Review
About a hear ago my Debra, my wife, and I decided we were going to create a website to review restaurants in Saginaw, Bay City and Midland. We did a few reviews but nothing much happened with the site. As usually happens with this stuff – after a few posts we just stopped posting.
We decided that part of our strategy for the new year is to get the site going again. Previously it was called the Tri-City Review. But the name of the area we live has been changed to Great Lakes Bay Region. So we have changed he name of the site to Great Lakes Bay Review. Clever huh? Even though we have already purchased the domain name, we are still getting things setup. The site is currently located at http://defoenet.com/review/
We look forward to a great 2010 and hope that you read our food and restaurant reviews!
The Kidsake Foundation
I just had a nice visit from a friend, Jenny Rogers-Belleau. I had forgotten about a foundation that she was trying to setup in the Great Lakes Bay area for mentoring youth through arts based initiatives. I knew my wife had been working with Jenny to help with an event that Kidsake will be putting on in February 2010.  As part of the event they are bringing Lunafest to Saginaw. This is a great opportunity for women of all ages to . . . well . . . help women!
Lunafest will include:
Becoming a Better Me Essay Contest runs from Dec. 1 – Jan. 15; winners presented in a fashion show before each film. Lunch/Dinner served by partner The East Side Soup Kitchen. Vendors will be on hand for fun shopping, activities and more!
For more information visit:
http://thekidsakefoundation.com
Apple Mountain Wedding
This summer I had the pleasure of being the photographer at many weddings working for Mid-Michigan Wedding Photographers. Following are a few pictures from a wedding ceremony that took place at the Apple Mountain Wedding Chapel and the reception took place at The Hellenic Center both in Saginaw.
Want to book David Defoe as the photographer for your wedding? Click here to contact me or visit www.mid-michigan-wedding-photographers.com
