Its nothing big, but we launched a small website for Superior Structure Today!   Superior Structure handles Basement Waterproofing and Foundation Repair in Atlanta, Georgia. Take a look at the site and let me know what you think.

I have been using Quickbooks for managing my business finances for years.  I don’t really do anything advanced with it, but I went with the best at the time.  However, I now on a mac and the mac version is not as nice as the PC version from what I hear.  That, plus I am looking for an online system (for many reasons).  A friend recently recommended Freshbooks (http://www.freshbooks.com).  I was a little apprehensive at paying $20 per month for something (I like paying up front and not being charged monthly).  However, I bit the bullet and registered last week.  After almost a week of use, I have to say I love it!  The time entry tool makes all the difference.  Updates that I used to not even worry about (5 minute updates that take 15 minutes to log) are now getting billed and I estimate that I have made over $250 in less than a week that I would have not normally billed for.  It is actually fun to do these small updates and watch the hours pile up!

I say give it a try if you haven’t already!

Ordered a new motorola droid from Verizon today.  They had the buy one get one free sale going on, so I upgraded my wife’s account as well.  It should be in tomorrow, so we’ll see how well it goes.  Everyone I have talked to has loved it.  It should be an upgrade over the Blackberry I am currently using, and it can’t be any less durable.  I’m on my 6th Blackberry in less than two years….     I’ll post some updates once it get’s here.

I really haven’t spent much time on the motorcycle parts website, so don’t be too harsh.  It is just more for fun and education than anything.  Total thus far, I’m in it about 4 hours from start to finish.

One interesting thing of note so far:  After posting a link to the site on a few other websites, Google picked the site up in about 30 minutes although it has assigned no trust to it at all and it shows for no searches except its own domain name.  Yahoo and Bing have yet to index the site to this day.

I’ll keep you posted when Google finally ranks this for my “used motorcycle parts” query and then we will begin tweaking the site to see how Google reacts.

I recently approached a potential client that sold used motorcycle parts. After doing a little market research, I was amazed at how bad this market was being utilized online.  Searching for “used motorcycle parts” on google resulted in a few decent sites, but the bottom of the first page was populated by page rank 2 sites and pages not related to selling parts.

This potential client has several websites, but one was already a page rank 2.  I tried talking him into allowing me to redesign that site and had it happened, I am confident that we could have made the front page of Google with just a little effort.  However, the client decided that they did not want to take a chance on my services and quit returning my emails.

So, taking it as a personal challenge and have a good platform to show what I can do, I decided to build a completely new website from scratch and push it to the front page of Google using proven white hat methods.  Below is a link to the website I built:

Used Motorcycle Parts

I used a motorcycle parts company’s information so that someone would benefit from the leads while I built the site (I contacted them to let them know).  Once the site is generating a significant number of leads, I’ll see what it is worth at that point.  Of course, I probably shouldn’t post it here for several reasons, including the fact that this blog might show up on google’s results before my parts site.

I’ve been happy so far in my career keeping it small, not having too much overhead or stress.  I don’t have to work as hard to make a living, and that is always a good thing.

Once upon a time, it was my goal to open a web development shop that catered to the local area market as well and handling clients nationally.  It didn’t work out, and I have been avoiding a serious commitment to making the local market work for me ever since.

I have decided that I want to go all out again.  I have been building websites for over 10 years, and have been piddling around for about 5 or 6 of those not pushing my business forward.  Now is the time.  It is time to have overhead, employees, and all the headaches and responsibilities that come with that. I feel like I have learned my lessons, both professionally and personally, and am ready to give 100%.  I still have to work on my organizational skills, but once I get this down the business end should be easy.

I now have a salesman that is about to start selling my services full-time, not to mention the numerous people that send me regular clients.  This is exciting and scary at the same time.  If he works out, we may have trouble keeping up with his sales.  If he doesn’t, it will kill our excitement and momentum moving forward.  Either way, I’m looking forward to see what he can do.

The first thing to take care of is office space.  I’m looking for something that offers retail-type exposure without having retail pricing.  I believe I have found the right property, but have made some special signage requests that may kill the deal.  We’ll see.

I’ll soon be revamping this site to be less of a personal blog and more of a professional website and I’m excited to see where this new path leads.