Sozo Firm is  proud to announce the launch of Reputation Helper, a joint effort with industry seasoned professionals in the realm of combating internet defamation against corporations, small businesses, and individuals (including celebrities).

Reputation Helper has been several years in the  making with the guidance of Michael Roberts, one of the world’s foremost specialists in addressing the full spectrum of legal means on effectively combating online libel. In turn, Michael and his team will be providing the bulk of Reputation Helper’s services (in coordination with each client’s legal counsel) as we strive to help those on the receiving end of internet defamation go directly to the core of where those attacks are coming from.

Scores of web marketing companies offer online reputation management services, but most do so from a search engine optimization or paid advertising perspective (i.e. feature prominent Google AdWords on searches such as “company  name + complaints” or “company name + reviews”). While we’ve assisted and advised companies on similar reputation management strategies, Reputation Helper is much more than yesterday’s “use SEO to keep your name clean” approach.

Reputation Helper and our skilled professional partners work hand in hand with your attorneys to determine whom (i.e. a disgruntled customer) or what (i.e. a malicious competitor) is the source for anonymous blog posts/comments and libelous forum posts attacking your good name or that valuable brand of your company. While SEO and paid advertising does have its place, we believe that Reputation Helper’s full scope of reputation management services that address the broader issues as well as its core will be far more effective for most companies and individuals on the receiving end.

While some internet libel cases do go to court, frequently, our internet defamation specialists are able to settle with your antagonist out of court.

If you’re being attacked by anonymous bloggers or forum posters, or if your company is currently under fire with undeserved complaints leveled against it by anonymous “customers,” we encourage you to contact our team at Reputation Helper. Together with our partnering professionals, we’re here to serve you and help you find the source of the attacks and deal with them appropriately at the root of your problem.

Learn more about internet defamation.

Wow … I hate to cross my fingers too long, but is the economy continuing to pick up? Or, maybe corporate marketing budgets are directly correlated with the gold markets. If the latter is true, maybe I’ll be singing a different story tomorrow! These are the times when I just need to step back, survey the small and larger picture, and then apply business efficiency training to my own company.

Growing pains are good – as long as the end result is a more streamlined business that more effectively serves its clients and accomplishes its mission statement. My goal with the growth that we are experiencing is to not turn the company into one with octopus arms reaching out randomly in every direction with minimal input from the central control tower, but to formulate a business with loyal employees dedicated with the passion to put our clients first and to do our very best. Sounds trite, you might say, but try it, and you’ll see how hard it really is to deploy.

On another note, once we get a “breathing spell”, I’m eager to begin deploying our new corporate Sozo logo and new Sozo websites. Right now, most of our corporate properties don’t necessarily “mesh” together in uniformity. Over the next several months, there will be some major changes in our web presence. I can’t wait!

I love photography. If it was a profitable enough field, it might even be tempting to focus the remaining years of my life solely on that. However, I equally enjoy being an efficiency consultant and helping businesses and nonprofits streamline their operations in order to operate more efficiently. Photography appeals more to my creative desires while the efficiency consulting aspect appeals to the “brainier” side of me. Ever since I was a kid, my creativity went hand in hand with my burning desire to fix things and solve problems. Today, I keep very busy advising businesses on efficient practices while distracting myself from the computer with some wonderful moments in my photo studio – or, better yet, outside the office/studio on a shoot in the great outdoors.

Over the past couple of days, the Sozo Creative web design team sketched up a plan to more cohesively market the Sozo Photography Studio. Phase one was completed today with the launch of what currently are five micro websites:

1. Sozo Photo Studio: this will be the main site; this site was originally launched in December of 2009 but the current design is just a couple days old. Most of the old content (i.e. photographs) were removed though there are zillions of outdated, picture-less blog posts which we’ll gradually weed out. This site also is connected with our client portal so it will be the site we strive to drive the bulk of the traffic to and focus our branding campaigns on.
2. Andrew Jensen, Photographer: just a micro site using my name to retain branding for that as well as capture those specific searches
3. Teen Photographer: I enjoy taking photos of young people and decided to “experiment” with domains using those related phrases
4. Childrens Photographer: Same methodology as #3
5. Child Photographer: Same methodology as #3

If you visit a couple of the above links, you’ll notice that all five of the sites use the same template. Photography websites #2-#5 are basically just landing pages with almost every link pointing to the relevant pages on the main SozoPhotoStudio.com site. We have left the blog potential open on all the secondary micro sites, and I’ll get to that now.

Phase two with our photography marketing campaign will be to activate the blogs on websites #2-#5. Google tends to give better treatment to sites with more than one page. Now, admittedly, since websites #2-#5 all have a zillion links pointing back to SozoPhotoStudio.com, that’s not the greatest from an SEO perspective. But, we’ve got a plan, and we’ll get to that phase down the road. There are only so many resources (people & manhours) which can be diverted from working on client projects to working on in-house projects, keep in mind.

Phase three will be to develop the “static” pages on websites #2-#5 (i.e. the About page, Contact page, etc). This will remove the bulk of the outbound links to the main Sozo Photo Studio website, though we’ll still have plenty of links going to the main site since that is where the bulk of the photography galleries will be.

Phase four will be to develop individual galleries for the main SozoPhotoStudio.com website. The template design permits those galleries to be linked from the very top of the pages on the site throughout. We’re still finalizing the details on this one and we may jump around the phases a bit. We could run mini blogs for each category of photographic services or just hard link to a set gallery page for each category.

Phase five will be to crank up the action on the main SozoPhotoStudio.com blog. We’ll feature several articles (or excerpts) on the main front page. This will help significantly from an SEO perspective, though the template is still quite “SEO weak.”

Phase six – now that content is flowing on all 5 sites – will be to tweak the template on all five photographer websites to strengthen the home page by adding some additional homepage only static copy without hurting the visual appeal. That’s always the fine line with any kind of photographer website – you need lots of copy, typically, to rank well organically, yet a good photographer website is going to capture his/her potential client through the visual appeal aspect.

So, there you have it. And, the way that ideas have been flowing around here lately, please don’t try to force us to  hold our word on exactly what we plan to do. And (I like that word today), yes, as always, we haven’t spelled out all the guts and bolts and strawberry seeds. If we told you exactly how we structured a semi aggressive web marketing campaign like this one, then why would you need to hire us to do the same for you?

I gladly welcome Jessie Campbell this week to the Sozo team. Jessie brings to the table her graphic design and website design skills. Some of her past design work for Comcast has gone national with several million pieces printed and mailed. Initially, she’ll be working both on revamping our own websites as well as tackling some existing client website projects. She’ll also be working on several new websites representing the efficiency consulting aspect of Sozo. I’m looking forward to seeing how she’ll use her artistic skills to help take Sozo to the next level and beyond.

If you are a local business in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania – whether you represent a real estate office, restaurant, doctor or attorney – and you are in need of a new website or even a makeover for your existing business website, I invite you to fill out the form below. We’ll schedule a time to meet with you either at our Shrewsbury office at 73 E Forrest Ave, Suite 110, or at your business. Typically, we will travel to prospective clients in locations in Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, Bel Air, Forest Hill and Baltimore. If you live outside that region and would like to learn about our services, we’ll more than gladly set up a phone call or even a web conference to share with your our design capabilities.

Our creative web design team would love to put on their thinking caps and spin their propellers while dreaming up new and better ways to help your online presence be a success. And, what better time to take advantage of the remaining lull in internet marketing than right now, as the economy gradually begins to recover? Beat your opponents to the trophy! Go into website overdrive before they beat you, and you’ll never regret it.

Please fill out our contact form below or call me at 800.460.SOZO.

I do a lot of work with nonprofit organizations along with our commercial clients. A hurdle I’m constantly facing with the NPOs is informing them of the value of optimizing their websites. Add to that the reality that many NPOs face a regular change in staff (particularly those who manage the NPO websites), and you can probably already guess the scenerio ( a true one) I’m about to share.

A nonprofit administrator once recognized the value of ranking organically in search engines. She contacted us several years ago and entered into a 12 month contract. Within those 12 months, we developed new sites for the NPO and optimized their existing site. Traffic went from a mere 100-200 visits per month (which is actually average for this type of client) to a whopping 16,000 + visits per month. Their websites ranked at the top of Google on many long tail searches within the 100 mile radius where they served.

Let’s skip forward a couple years. After the nonprofit’s initial 12 month contract expired, we continued to provide services to them on a pro bono basis (I hate seeing hard work go to a waste, and these continuing services were minimal but intended to keep their web presence strong). Administrators came and went at the nonprofit, and there arose a leader who did not understand how they arrived at where they were. Abundant web traffic and leads and community recognition was taken for granted. The new focus for the NPO’s web related projects became simplicity: how to manage our websites with minimal work.

And so they discovered a free flash based website program (begins with W and is three letters long, ending with X) and began the rapid transition and consolidation of their websites to W_X. I was concerned, yet I didn’t know exactly how to approach the situation. So, I gave a warning which was inevitably unheeded. The learning curve that existed was huge, and there didn’t appear to be any interest in acknowledging that the learning curve was there or that it needed to be minimized.

Now, the nonprofit has several W_X powered flash websites. Their high traffic websites are gone as is their organic ranking. Soon, they’ll be back to the 100-200 visits per month. Someday, another NPO admin may arise who will wonder why donations, community recognition and clients have trimmed to a trickle. And then the whole process may arise again – but, this time, it might not be so easy to get back to the top.

Don’t let this unoptimization process happen to you. You can turn your nonprofit’s web presence into a powerhouse for affecting change. But it will take work and lots of it. This particular nonprofit just sat back while the traffic poured through the fire hydrant hose of the web and didn’t know what to do with it. Because they didn’t perceive the value, they didn’t know the ramifications of shutting that traffic off. Yes, you can get serious about your web presence; but, you’ll have to work hard to keep it.

2010 is starting off on the very busy side – and that’s a good thing. I’d say companies are eager to exit the recession and are willing to once again free up their marketing funds for investing online. Wall Street’s economic news is relatively positive as of late and the typical consumer (excluding the many still laid off) is also lightening up from their 2009 firm wallet grip hold.

However, in the midst of all the positive economic news, we’re still running into the companies, non profits and even individuals who have been hit very hard by 2008-2009. Now, they are making one final desperate attempt to generate income, and sometimes it’s with a “thrive or go bankrupt,” “I’ve put my all into this one,” last effort.

At Sozo Firm, we welcome both. If you’re in marketing at a company that’s ready to see the green and you know your corporate site needs a critical look, give me a call anytime, and I’d be glad to help out. Simultaneously, if your business is struggling and you can relate all too well with the last ditch attempt, I’d be glad to brainstorm with you.

I’m pretty convinced the sun is starting to rise. This is actually the best time to plow forward with an aggressive online campaign while sprucing up the total web presence. Get a large foot ahead of the competition while they’re still conservatively sitting back waiting for an overhead sun.

The team at Sozo Creative just launched a new service targeting the local York, PA / Baltimore, MD region: the Sozo Photo Studio. The photography studio will initially bring creative photography services to the client’s location. Photography services include the following:

• Dance & ballet photography
• Wedding & engagement
• Family portraits, baby pictures
• Sports photography
• And much more

Sozo Photo Studio will primarily serve a 30 mile radius from their new location at Suite 110, 73 East Forrest Avenue in Shrewsbury, PA (they are moving in the first week of January; expect a couple months until photo shoots can take place on site – in fact, they prefer to do shoots at the client’s location).

The official opening date is January 11, 2010. Leading up until that time, the photographers are offering some specials to local dance studios as well as to amateur models interested in expanding their portfolios. Sozo Photo Studio is also offering some TFP (time in exchange for photos) photo shoot opportunities to models, amateurs & wannabees. All three of these opportunities are available for a limited time.

At Sozo Firm, we’re excited about the current restructuring and brainstorming taking place as we strategize (is that a word?) to more efficiently and effectively succeed entering 2010 and beyond. We’ve recently broken Sozo Firm Inc into a set of three focused divisions: Sozo Creative, our creativity division; Sozo Logic, our consulting division; and Sozo Ad Agency, our marketing group (all three new divisions will need websites built). Sozo Photo Studio is the first service to emerge from this recent restructuring as we strive to become a company more involved with our local communities. It will be exciting to see what the days ahead hold for us.

You’ve got to make the time to read through it carefully. And then, having done that, be sure to pass it on.

Seth Godin’s blog announcement about the ebook

Direct link to download Seth’s free ebook (pdf)

It’s Christmas time at Sozo Firm. It’s also a big month for us as our big move is looming near on the horizon. Last night, we put our thinking caps on and dreamed big as we worked through our company’s strategic plan for 2010. A key part of that plan is further diversification and even building out our consultation services to include non web based assistance to small businesses and nonprofit organizations. I’ll fill you in on those details in time …

Merry Christmas from Sozo Firm

For now, it’s that glorious winter wonderland season to extend to you some incredible offers. And, these specials are valid only for the first small businesses or nonprofits that take advantage of them, plus, they expire on December 31st, 2009 at 11:59 pm.

We presently have two Christmas deals which we’ve written about on the Optibits blog:

1. Ongoing Adwords management
2. Ongoing search engine optimization services

These are really both incredible options, especially for that small business which is dreaming big for 2010. The contract details are spelled out on the Optibits blog, but, basically, it’s a one year contract with payments broken down into 12 monthly affordable sums.

If you’ve got any questions, you know you can contact me at anytime. We look forward to serving you and helping your business or organization succeed in the coming year.

Ps: If you’re interested in taking advantage of either or both of the above specials, we’ve got a special, mini quote request form for them here. Be sure to enter the special offer codes – special offer SEOxmas2009 or special offer XMASAD2009.

Sozo Firm’s web design division, Sozo Creative, announced today some incredible recession buster deals on small business and nonprofit website design. Sozo Creative has primarily been our division for generating marketing blogs and simple micro websites in the past; now, however, we’re expanding into developing simplistic, search engine optimized brochure sites and blogs for individuals, small businesses and nonprofits.

Sozo Creative is offering four earth shaking web design deals (and these won’t last too long so hurry over there and get your feet in line now before it’s too late):

Get Your Own Blog

This is a perfect package for the nonprofit that realizes the importance of putting a foot out front and interacting with its audience. Sozo Creative is offering blog development plus web hosting and ongoing maintenance (60 minutes per month) at the unbelievably low rate of the design fee plus $55 per month.

The Bargain Website Deal

If your nonprofit or business has had the same simple, barely functional website for the past six years, this is the perfect deal for you. For just the design fee plus $25/month (for website hosting & 30 minutes/month of support and website updates), the Sozo Creative design team will hand you an up to 10 page website powered by a content management system so you can freely make textual changes whenever you want. A blog can even be added to it at no additional charge.

The Affordable Website Deal

If you need more ongoing assistance with your website (updates and support) plus you’d rather spread out your web design payments over time, they also offer a deal with a design fee and $65/month ongoing. This includes all your web hosting plus 60 minutes per month in support and website updates.

Your Own Website Plus Adwords Management

If your nonprofit or small business needs a new website coupled with Google Adwords campaign professional management, then this is the basement bargain deal you can’t pass. With a design fee and $85/month ongoing, the Sozo Creative team will help your organization’s web presence soar to the next level.

Be sure to contact Sozo Creative quickly to reserve your spot in the inevitably long line that will be forming! You can request your new website through their online contact form.