Updates Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Marketing, content, & technology to help printers sell more printing

Do you know anyone that does search engine optimization for a living? A typical day in their life might look something like this: Wake up. Put in an honest day’s work. Go to bed. Wake up. Discover that yesterday’s SEO rules no longer exist, and start learning new SEO rules. It’s not uncommon for Google to introduce big shifts to their ranking algorithm with little (if any) advance warning. However, the next big change is going to be different because Google has provided a solid date and plenty of information regarding the next big change they’ll be pushing our way on April 21, 2015. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Update According to Google, Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices. It’s no surprise that Google will be paying more attention to mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. Your Mobile Website Here’s something you may not know: Websites For Printers websites already have a mobile-friendly version, ready for you to use! For brand

Open a can of outstanding, we have some important news to share! It’s time to reveal a very big project that we’ve been working on for you; we are ready to roll out an update to the Websites For Printers order forms! The Best of…Everything! This update includes the best of the original Level 1 website order forms, the best of the Document Library order forms, and the best of the current websites’ order forms. These “best ofs” combine together to create a highly customizable, functional, and (dare we say) beautiful order form system on your Websites For Printers websites. We’ve also added items that we believe will show up on your “best of” list pretty quickly…things like the return of global questions, where you can define your question once and use it multiple times throughout all of your website order forms. We’ve also added question rules, so that the answer to one question (envelope size, for example) will determine the display of other questions (window selections, in our envelope example). Streamlined Pricing Management The new order forms will streamline the way pricing is displayed on your website. There’s now one place to manage all pricing displays for each order form. You’ll have the option to display everything from no pricing at all to a price calculated in real-time using a Harmony-enabled connection

We recently announced the passwords are being removed from the Ink Inc. packages. Instead of using passwords, the Ink Inc. packages will be secured by placing them behind the login of your MI4P.info account. If you haven’t already done so, it’s now time to create your account! The following video (4:36) explains how Ink Inc. customers can create an account at MI4P.info: http://youtu.be/vvWzf-PunfM Do you have questions about your MI4P.info account or your Ink Inc. packages? We’re here to help, just give us a call at 800-736-0688.

Starting with the March 2015 Ink Inc packages (which will be released in mid-January), Ink Inc. customers will begin retrieving Adobe InDesign files (and related artwork files) in a brand new way! The learning curve is pretty tame on this change, so if you consider yourself an old dog and hate learning new tricks, there’s no reason to worry. In fact, you’ll probably find this change makes things a lot easier for you, because we’re dropping the passwords that protect the monthly Ink Inc. packages. Instead of using passwords, the packages will be protected by placing them behind the lock and key of the Marketing Ideas For Printers Info Center at MI4P.info. Huh? Info Center? MI4P.info? What’s that? That’s where everything related to your account with Marketing Ideas For Printers is managed. (If you’re a Websites For Printers customer, you may already be familiar with the Info Center and MI4P.info. Now, you’ll find your Ink Inc. account information there as well.) Each month, we’ll continue to send you an email when the Ink Inc. packages are ready. Instead of including your Ink Inc. passwords, that email will contain a link that directs you to log in to the Info Center at MI4P.info to download your Ink Inc. packages. In

Who do you think is going to make more money? A printer whose web address appears on page 25 of your search engine results, or on page 1? Here’s the story behind that loaded question. If you search for “Ohio Printers” you’ll see Northern Ohio Printing (nohioprinting.com) right at the top of the list of Google’s organic search results. Northern Ohio Printing (nohioprinting.com) used to be on page 25, but now, nohioprinting.com is on page one … in the #1 position! How does something like that happen? For Northern Ohio Printing it happened because they upgraded their Level 1 website with Websites For Printers to the current Websites For Printers platform. We recently created a helpful web page you can use to learn about the SEO improvements that lead to more opportunities to sell printing. Selling more printing: that’s the very best reason to move to the current Websites For Printers platform. Want to get the sales opportunities that come with great SEO? We’ve got you covered!

We have exciting news…but only if your customers send you files electronically. (That was a joke — of course your customers send you files electronically!) We’re making some major improvements to the Send a File process on our websites, and the enhanced Send a File tool is now available on our demo websites for you to kick the tires. Every single improvement we made was focused on the goal of making it easy for your customers to buy printing from you. Among the improvements are: Your customers can now access the Send a File tool from any page in your website, not just their account page. Files start loading immediately upon selection, while your customers continue to provide file information. This means the files get a head-start on the transfer; your customers will think they hit turbo-boost! The whole process has been streamlined, so your website visitors never have to say, “Just send the file already!” Attaching files to existing orders is now a simple point-and-click. Now your customers can “fire and forget” their files. Once they’ve selected their files and clicked “Send”, their work is done; the website will do the rest. We’ll turn it on for all Websites

I truly can’t get enough of graphic design. There’s always something new to learn, and often times it seems there’s more than one way to get successful results. Some routes save more time than others and, incredibly, the time saved using Adobe Illustrator’s Symbolism Tool can be measured in hours. Wow! That’s pretty amazing, no matter how you look at it. The Symbolism Tool helps you create elaborate, professional designs that use the same graphic element with varying colors options, sizes, positions, opacities, and tints. It takes something tedious and frustrating and condenses it down to a few simple, easy steps. No matter what your experience level is with Adobe Illustrator, this tool is incredibly quick to learn and user-friendly. My first exposure to the Symbolism Tool was in creating the design for the newest Design Tip added to each Websites For Printers website’s Ideas Collection: Add Some Sparkle to Your Next Design With the Illustrator Symbolism Tool. As I was working on this Design Tip I was pleasantly surprised by the versatility and power found in the Symbolism Tool. With a few simple clicks I was able to create visually stunning design both quickly and easily. It was exciting for me to learn about this new tool. I have

We love adding fresh content to Websites For Printers websites! Earlier this week we added a new Design Tip to the Ideas Collection of the Websites For Printers websites. The new tip, Grab Them Right Out of the Gate, educates print buyers on how to use a gate fold to present big information in a small brochure. This is the kind of information that not only educates your website visitors, but positions you as the go-to printer with answers and solutions. Have a look at Grab Them Right Out of the Gate as it appears on one of the Websites For Printers demo websites. The new tip made its appearance not only on the website, but also in the latest issue of the twice-monthly Printer@Work email newsletter built into each Websites For Printers website. Each issue of Printer@Work features a tip from the Ideas Collection plus more fun sales-building content.

Subscriber List Import Reinstated Previously, we announced the removal of the email-list import feature for the Printer@Work email newsletter, to ensure compliance with changes in Canadian law that required “explicit opt-in” for delivering content such as newsletters, and to promote email best-practices in general. Due to several requests to reinstate that tool, we have now added it back, with a warning: use at your own risk — it’s becoming increasingly risky to send messages to people who have not explicitly expressed an interest in receiving them. Legal considerations aside, sending unsolicited email can do serious harm to your reputation and credibility as a business. By contrast, sending a newsletter that provides value to customers who look forward to getting it can be one of the best tools available to you for building relationships and credibility. After all, that’s why we created the Printer@Work newsletter! To import your email list, choose My Website from the Control Center’s main menu, and then select Subscribers from the Printer@Work sidebar menu. Export Customer Lists From Level 2 and Level 3 Sites We’re also happy to announce that you can now export your customer lists from your Level 2 and Level 3 websites. This was

Security has been a big topic in the past several months. As we continue to hear stories about security issues like the Heartbleed bug and the Target breach, security has been on everybody’s minds. So we thought now would be a great time to make an important change to how your websites handle your customer’s passwords. Starting July 1st, your customers will no longer receive plain-text passwords through their email when they indicate they’ve forgotten their password. Instead, we will be implementing the same password reset procedure that is used by many of the web’s top sites: users will receive a link to their email account which they can use to reset their password. You Are An Important Member Of Our Development Team! This update is an example of a change we made to the system based on input from our customers. You and your customers are an important part of our development team. You’re in the trenches, selling printing everyday, and using your WebsitesForPrinters.com website in the process. When something isn’t working as well as it should, you’re often the first to know. So keep those ideas coming, because you’re helping us build a better website — for you!

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