3 Simple Ways to Market Your Business, Project or Web Site

Over the years, I have become a ‘bit of a marketing junkie.  I am always checking out the latest trends, following successful marketing techniques and trying to figure out how each works. For those not as familiar with the idea, marketing is the process associated with promoting the sale of a good or service you provide.

Successful marketing can be the saving grace for a failing business.  Here are three simple marketing ideas you can use to help your business, web site or project.

Be sure to drop in, leave a comment and let me know if you would like to see more “poor boy” marketing suggestions anybody can use.

On the Web Hosting Show podcast, we have done a lot of talking recently about web hosts that use Twitter, and how they use it.  Some use it for support, others use it for marketing, and the best ones use it for both.  Who are the most popular web hosts on Twitter though?

To put that question to the test, I thought I would compile a list of all the web hosts on Twitter that have over 1,000 followers.  Out of nearly 100 web hosts on the Web, here are the 25 that made the cut.

1. WestHost Web Hosting (WestHost) on Twitter = 1,804 followers
2. softlayer_news (softlayer_news) on Twitter = 2,609 followers
3. Sustainable Websites (sustainableweb) on Twitter = 2,946 followers
4. Surpass Web Hosting (surpass) on Twitter = 1,960 followers
5. Slicehost (slicehost) on Twitter = 3,500 followers
6. Six Apart (sixapart) on Twitter = 15,401 followers
7. SiteGround (SiteGround) on Twitter = 1,132 followers
8. Site5 Web Hosting (site5) on Twitter = 1,010 followers
9. PinchHost (PinchHost) on Twitter = 8,891 followers
10. mediatemple (mediatemple) on Twitter = 8,571 followers
11. GoDaddy.com Guy(GoDaddyGuy) on Twitter = 3,060 followers
12. lunarpages (lunarpages) on Twitter = 1,528 followers
13. linode (linode) on Twitter = 1,655 followers
14. LiquidWeb (LiquidWeb) on Twitter = 12,734 followers
15. Laughing Squid (ls_hosting) on Twitter = 1,079 followers
16. Joyent (joyent) on Twitter = 2,350 followers
17. JaguarPC (JaguarPC) on Twitter = 4,637 followers
18. Sunil Saxena (inmotionhosting) on Twitter = 1,259 followers
19. HostGator.com (hostgator) on Twitter = 4,668 followers
20. Hostcats.com (Hostcats) on Twitter = 1,299 followers
21. 123-Reg (123reg) on Twitter = 1,677 followers
22. Gary Jones (bluefur) on Twitter = 46,671 followers
23. dreamhost (DreamHost) on Twitter = 2,934 followers
24. FireHost Inc. (FireHost) on Twitter = 3,783 followers
25. INSANE Deals Only @ (HIVELOCITY) on Twitter = 6,508 followers

There you have it, 25 of the most popular web hosting companies that are on Twitter right now.  You can find a list of nearly 100 web hosts on Twitter on the Web Hosting Show’s web site.  Did your web host make the cut?

Here are the key features that I enjoyed the most:

• shorten long URLs (using bit.ly, snurl, twurl or is.gd)
• search tweets using Twitter Search and TweetScan, and follow topics in near-real time with saved searches
• automatically find tweets mentioning your @username

Another thing I really needed, which from what I could tell TweetDeck didn’t provide was multiple account support.  Since I am now working on my own Twitter account and the Lunarpages Twitter account, I needed a way to keep them both separate but running at the same time.

The only annoyance I have found with twirl is that when running multiple clients for multiple accounts, you can’t have one be a different color than the other.  If any developers are reading this, that would be a handy feature to toss in there.

So, twhirl gets my geek candy seal of approval.  Come follow me and see what I am doing throughout the day @mitchkeeler and @lunarpages.

Hey Mitch! Thanks for taking some time out from writing our Newsletter articles to handle a quick interview. 

Not a problem. Nice to be on the other side of the content stream every once in a while in front of my close and personal amigos, the always awesome Lunarpages clients.

You’re another one of those people who work for Lunarpages and does just about everything in every department. So what’s your official job title and what do you do for LP?

I don’t know if I have ever been given one? I guess officially I would be considered a Level One Customer Service Representative, Senior Forum Moderator, Content Writer, Sales Guy, Blogger and Official Odd Jobs Associate. Think I almost got everything covered there.

You can check out the rest of the interview on the web site.  Had been a while since I had done any sort of interview, hope I wasn’t rusty.  I guess what they say about, “time flying by when your having fun” is true.   End of next month will mark my two year anniversary of being with the company, and hopefully I’ll have many more years to come.

I do have to say I think I am getting a grasp on how to move around, edit and customize a wiki.  Thankfully, there is a lot of good help and resource information on MediaWiki’s web site.  If you ever find yourself building a wiki this is one nice resource your going to be using over and over again for sure. 

One of the most helpful have been the post about categories, think I have that about mastered by now.  I haven’t even started looking at all the extensions though.  Have any other wiki advice for me as I tackle this new project of mine?

Lunarpages WordPress Theme Design Contest – Series 1 Entries

Lunarpages WordPress Theme Design Contest – Series 2 Entries

So if your looking for a little insperation on your next WordPress theme design or your stressing over finding a great one to use, check ‘em out.  Lunarpages is also currently holding it’s third WordPress design contest right now – so if your a designer you got to check that out too.

The rules have changed a bit to include mention of the exact schedule for voting and submissions (also noted below) as well as voting by Lunarpages Staff, ensuring all votes are tracked and accounted for.

The prizes, however, are just as juicy:

• First Prize is $1,000 cash and 5 years free hosting on our Basic Plan
• Second Prize is 3 years free hosting + $300 cash
• Third Prize is 1 year free hosting + $100 cash

Entering is just as simple as before – just Submit Your Theme and you’re in. We’ll post the top 5 Best WordPress Themes each week starting April 21 right here on the Blog for our community to vote on.

Go submit your own WordPress themes!

Voting for the winner of the entire contest just started today too. Check out the top 12 of the 95 WordPress themes and then let the world know which is your favorite.  All of ‘em are Grade A quality in my opinion!

Lunarpages is having a WordPress Theme Contest!! All you need to do is design a unique WordPress Theme and upload it to our site for the chance to win! Just about anybody (with a few exceptions) can participate in the contest and the prizes are amazing!

What are the prizes?

First Prize is $1,000 cash and 5 years free hosting on our Basic Plan

Second Prize is 3 years free hosting + $300 cash

Third Prize is 1 year free hosting + $100 cash

Along with their logo design contest – things are really starting to get creative and fun over at Lunarpages. Oh yeah, might be worth mentioning they are one heck of a good web host too!

Covering topics like learning the basics of HTML might be shunned some places, but due to the nature of being a helpful resource for both hosting experts and novices, I have a better and bigger chance to write for a wider range of subjects.

Now don’t get me wrong – I highly doubt I am a really huge factor either way for it’s slowly growing success, I am just happy to be along for the ride and helping people who need it.

Lunarpages customer or not, I would highly suggest subscribing to the RSS feed for Lunartics and if you have any feedback, suggestions, thoughts or anything else – you know me I am an open book and easy to get a hold of.