Tools We Use

Living Websites

Now, not everyone needs a website. But almost anyone presenting themselves, their organization, their products and services to a large audience can benefit from one.

There are many reasons for developing and maintaining your own website. You may want to get noticed by a lot of people or sell a lot of product, or you may just want a place to present yourself in a more detailed or graphic way to those you already know.

The Computer Spirit specializes in clear, crisp websites that tell your story. That doesn’t preclude selling an item or two, or a service online, or accepting payment through your website. And, we do take basic steps to insure that your site is noticed by search engines, including linking your site to related sites.

But mostly, we focus on you and your message. We want visitors to your site to really “get” who you are and what you’re about. And, we want you to love your site!

If you’ve got a website already, it may be a good idea to have The Computer Spirit review it and suggest possible improvements.

e-Newsletters to Stay in Touch 

Relationships are the single most important asset to a business and they don’t just happen because you have a good idea and a passion or because you have a great looking website. Connecting with people (and other spirits) happens through regular communication.

It takes time, money, and effort to connect with clients, and it can take, on average, about seven communications to generate a sale from a prospect. So, marketing your business isn’t an event – it’s a series of related events. It’s a process… it’s a relationship.

We suggest using email marketing to stay in touch with customers, nurture prospects, provide useful, timely information, and announce promotions and special offers. And, you can use it for your personal holiday greetings and family announcements, too!

Your e-newsletter provides a good opportunity to get personal with your clients. Use it to express your uniqueness, your opinions, and your ideas about what’s going on in your world and your client’s world.

We love connecting with folks through e-newsletters.

WordPress and Constant Contact

These days The Computer Spirit helps folks develop successful WordPress websites and publish Constant Contact e-newsletters that assist them in bringing their message to their community and keeping it there. Used in tandem, these tools make a wonderfully woven tapestry! To The Computer Spirit, life – and hence business – is all about relationships. Websites and e-newsletters are great tools for cultivating relationships and building community.

WordPress

We recommend and build blog-based websites employing the WordPress platform. WordPress started as just a blogging system, but has evolved into a full content management system and so much more through plugins, widgets, and themes.

The WordPress platform is developed and continually upgraded by hundreds of developers and is available free as open-source software. More than seventy million websites (updated January 2013) now use WordPress  – we’d say that’s quite a spit in the bucket!

Thousands of available themes allow developers to access a wide range of looks and functionality quickly, and even change looks instantly. Thousands of plugins and widgets allow developers to customize not only the look of their website, but the functionality as well.

WordPress is pretty easy to use – even for those with limited computer experience – and especially after the initial setup. WordPress is designed to make you website easy for today’s web crawlers to find – thus moving you up the line in search results.

All of this makes WordPress both a powerful platform and a lively community with loads of support.

Constant Contact

We’ve used Constant Contact for a number of years now and love it!  The Computer Spirit is a Solution Provider, and has attended Constant Contact University. Constant Contact is revolutionizing the way small organizations create and grow customer relationships.

And, did you know that besides e-newsletters, you can also use their tools to support Event Marketing and Online Surveys?!

With Constant Contact, you can:

• Choose from more than 300 easily customized email templates—or create your own from scratch.
• Create highly visual, professional-looking email newsletters and promotions in just minutes.
• Drive more traffic to your website with focused, targeted email communications.
• Build and manage your email list – import existing customer lists, add names individually, and capture contact information from website visitors.
• Measure your email campaign results instantly – check your open rates, review new subscribers, and see who opened and clicked on each link so you can tailor your follow-up communications.
• Send automated communications to new sign-ups via an autoresponder tool.
• Communicate with your audience with confidence, knowing that Constant Contact will take care of getting your email delivered and keep you CAN-SPAM compliant.

And, you can try Constant Contact FREE for 60 Days!