Minnesota Online Marketing Blog

School administrators have declared a code yellow alert at Washburn High School for Monday in advance of Monday’s planned student walkout in support of school Athletic Director Dan Pratt.

District spokeswoman Rachel Hicks said this weekend that the alert, which normally is declared in response to a perceived security threat at a school, is being imposed as a precaution.

Students are rallying in support of Pratt, and said that he has been told he is being fired. The district disclosed last week, in answer to a Star Tribune inquiry, that it is investigating Pratt for a “private personnel matter.”

The district is not required by state law to disclose more than that unless it decides to impose discipline on him. However, the issue is said by students and others involved with Washburn athletics to involve whether proper approvals were obtained by Pratt for a scoreboard that was to be installed when the school’s athletic field was renovated.

Principal Carol Markham-Cousins told parents of the code yellow alert in a voicemail Friday in which she said that several hundred students, alumni and community members may participate in a walkout or sit-in. She asserted that “many rumors and inaccuracies” have been posted on social media about the situation but did not respond to a Star Tribune offer made through Hicks to discuss them. Pratt also has not responded to attempts to contact him.

Students who leave the school Monday will not be allowed to return, and students who stay but miss a class period will be considered unexcused absences, Hicks said. In both cases, they won’t be able to participate in after-school activities, the district said. Washburn has two baseball games and a tennis match on its schedule Monday. However, plans for both a walkout and athletics could be affected by a soggy forecast.

The district issued a statement Sunday evneing that said in part: "decisions related to Mr. Pratt’s employment with MPS have been and continue to be made by the school district, not by Washburn Principal Markham-Cousins or other school staff members. The planned demonstration in support of Mr. Pratt will not have any bearing on the outcome(s) of the private personnel matter."

Source: startribune.com
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Temple Israel, Minnesota’s largest synagogue, was plastered with graffiti Tuesday night, though Jewish religious leaders say the vandalism doesn’t immediately appear to be hate-related.

Purple spray-painted letters were left on all sides of the historic stone structure, including the synagogue’s large stately columns which front Hennepin Avenue in Uptown Minneapolis. The vandalism comes amid the celebration of Passover, a holy period for Jews which began Monday evening and ends on April 2.

“The timing of this does not go unnoticed for the Jewish community, whether or not that was the intent of the person who vandalized our building,” said Temple Israel senior rabbi Marcia Zimmerman. “It jogs the historic memory of vandalism throughout the world in the Jewish community…So I think that’s the piece we take notice of without even knowing the intent of the person who did this.”

Security cameras are located throughout the synagogue property and show a man vandalizing the temple sometime before midnight, said Zimmerman. Minneapolis police were called Wednesday to investigate the incident, she said. The synagogue planned to clean off the graffiti by the end of Wednesday.

Zimmerman said it’s particularly upsetting to see the synagogue’s grand columns marred with spray paint. Built in 1928, the synagogue is among the first in the Twin Cities and has close to 6,000 attendees — considered the largest Jewish temple in the state, Zimmerman said.

“It’s in purple and across the front pillars… which is our historic entrance,” said Zimmerman, adding that near the doors there’s a quote from Isaiah welcoming all to worship at the temple: “May this house be a house of prayer for all peoples.”

“There’s nothing obvious (hate-related),” she said. “There are letters, and it’s unclear exactly what they mean…Nothing like a swastika or anything that’s obviously anti-Semitic at this point.”

The temple has been the target of graffiti vandalism in the past along with other nearby structures in the neighborhood. And at that time, it did not appear to be hate-related, Zimmerman said.

The synagogue, which has already held two large traditional Seder meal ceremonies to mark Passover this year, does not intend to deviate from its plan to celebrate the remaining days of the Jewish holy period, with Shabbat services to be held Friday.

“We stand strong in our Jewish traditions, our Jewish beliefs and our Jewish work for social justice,” Zimmerman said.

“To arrive this morning, during this festival of Passover and to see the vandalism is, at the least, upsetting. We want to get to the bottom of it.”

Source: startribune.com
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A teenager accused in a string of drive-by shootings in March was charged as an adult this week with attempted murder.

Patrick Carl Timberlake, 17, of Minneapolis, was formally certified as an adult after the state Court of Appeals reversed a District Court decision that Timberlake should be tried as a juvenile for the March 5 shootings.

In the sternly worded order issued in December, the Appeals Court cited Timberlake’s violent past, lack of improvement in his behavior through earlier juvenile justice programming, and the “extreme gravity” of the alleged offense.

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear the case. Charges were filed the next day.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Timberlake with six felony counts of attempted second-degree murder for the benefit of a gang. The charges came nearly a year after prosecutors alleged he was the gunman in a series of gang-related shootings within a span of five hours in north Minneapolis. One victim was shot in the shoe, while another was shot in the neck but survived.

Prosecutors say the targets were connected to rival gangs of the Skitz Squad, a clique formed by Timberlake that was later linked to last summer’s death of 5-year-old Nizzel George, who died when a bullet pierced his grandmother’s house. Alleged Skitz Squad member Stephon Shannon is serving a 28-year prison sentence for George’s death, while a second defendant, Julian Kijuan Anderson, is being tried in the boy’s death.

Timberlake remains in the Hennepin County jail in lieu of $1 million bail. His next court appearance is March 22.

Source: startribune.com
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You probably understand the importance of your company’s website to your marketing and business success. But gone are the days where simply having a website was “good enough”. 15 years ago simply having a website was considered having a “web presence.” Today having a strong web presence is about more than a simple website – it’s about how that website interacts with both customers and the search engine technologies that decide when and where your business will show up when a potential customer does a search for a business like yours.

There are two kinds of audiences that will visit and explore your website. One is your human audience, the other are search engines’ spiders (or robots). While people visit your website to understand what your business provides, the spiders scan your website’s information as part of a process of indexing your website under certain categories within its mega-engine-listing. Search engines’ spiders also use the footprints of human traffic to your site to further determine which category your website really belongs in. These and many other metrics combine to enable search engines to bring up your website (and your competitor’s websites) when a person performs a search for keywords related to your business.Internet Marketing

In order to build an effective Online marketing website, there are four important factors to consider when developing, or re-designing your marketing website to yield maximum results:

The first factor is the look of your website. Since your primary audience is people, you need to make a great first impression. You want your website to be more attractive to customers, than your competitors’ websites. The old adage to not “judge a book by its cover” does not hold true for websites. If your business website doesn’t meet professional standards your potential customers expect, they will likely leave your site and find one of your competitors.

Professional means your website looks good, communicates its main messages clearly, is easy to use and navigate, and loads fast. Customers should know well what products and services your business provides within the first 60 seconds of landing on your main page. Your navigation menus and links should also be user-friendly. If visitors have any trouble navigating your site, they are unforgiving – and they’ll leave.

In many cases your website is your one-time opportunity to convince your potential customers that your business is THE right one they should chose, as well as to retain clients once you’ve got them, so it’s critical to your business’ success.

The second factor is building a clean coded website. Almost as important as your primary audience (people), your spider audience also goes through your website periodically to learn about your business. Thus, developing a clean coded (or SEO-friendly) website is very important. If your website is not coded clean, search engine spiders might flag your website as SPAM, which could prevent people from visiting your site.

You should be very selective when choosing a web design firm to develop your website. As much as you want to keep your web design price low, try not to make cost the only criteria when selecting a web designer. If you do, and you end up with a website that is not clean coded, you won’t get the results you want, and you’ll only pay later to re-do your website all over again.

The third factor is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Online marketing. Once you have a professional looking website that is also clean coded (like many of your competitors), you will want to rank your website on Google page-one for a number of keywords in your targeted geographic. When it comes to Online marketing, Google’s page-one is the premiere marketing real estate on the Internet.

Since the majority of people today search Google for almost anything they need on the Internet, if your website does not rank on Google page-one in your targeted demographics for a number of important keywords related to your business, (and many of your competitors do) many customers will never see you, they’ll go to your competition instead. Imagine how many sales you could lose to your competition if your website is not listed on Google page-one, and theirs is?

Today, many web design companies say they provide SEO services, but from my experience, only a small number are delivering the kind of ranking results customers want. Be very careful when choosing your SEO provider. For more information on how to select qualified SEO providers, go to Minneapolis SEO to learn more.

The fourth factor is to “get mobilized.” The use of mobile devices such as iPhone, Android Phone, iPad, and Android Pad is dramatically on the increase. In order to market your business effectively to today’s well connected and highly mobile customers, you’ll need a mobile version of your website. Overall, these four factors are the keys to Online marketing success for any business website.

It is clear that website is one of the most useful channels to communicate your information to the public via the Internet. Today, people use websites for multiple purposes; such as to publicize information, to advertise products or services, to play games, and most importantly, to commerce Online (or E-Commerce). E-commerce website is THE most effective and low-cost business model compare to many other business models out there. With E-commerce website, customers can buy your products Online 24/7 while keeping your business overhead cost low.

In order to have a well-designed and well-functioning E-commerce website, you need a web design company that can custom your website that meet your specific needs at every level. This is a very important task, and it can be tough if you don't know where to start with and what to do in searching for a qualified E-Commerce web development company. Let me give you a few advices which may help you find a qualified web development company:

In my experience, not every web development company has the knowledge and tech supports to build and maintain E-commerce websites. Thus, before you decide to go with a web design company, you should research and read about them carefully from their website. Below are a few factors you should consider when searching for the web development companies that are qualified.

First, do not go with web development companies that provide replicated-template website designs. If you are serious about your Online business and want to build a brand name for your business, you don't want your website to be a copy-cat of other websites out there. The look and feel of your website should complement to the kind of products that you are providing, while the website design should meet your needs and taste.

Web design firms who provide custom website designs tend to know much more about Web Design, Internet Marketing, and Business Operation than companies who provide replicated-template websites. They are also much more interested in learning about your business and needs. In order to custom design a website catering to your unique business and meet your specific needs, they have to learn about you and your business as much as they can. -- This is the key to effective Online marketing. Thus, a custom website design usually costs more than a replicated-template website design, but it is well worth your time, money, and efforts to invest in a website that creates a lasting impression on your visitors while making an impact on your bottom line.

Second, find a Custom Website Design firm that can combine great website design with clean code to make your website User-friendly and SEO-friendly. You need a website that provides a great experience for the visitors when they land on your site such as well-constructed navigation menu and links. In addition, you also want your website to be easy for search engine spiders to crawl the site and understand your business base on its clean-code and smart-keywords-placements.

Third, find the web design firms who are comfortable in listing web design quotes and other charges in details right on their website. These companies often price fairly which enable you to compare web design price among other providers. One word of advice: Do NOT let "lowest price" be the only criteria in your decision; instead, try to go for the "midrange prices" because it will help you avoid the mistake that many people made and learned the hard way like the old saying: "What you paid is what you get"

Overall, if you are serious about your Online business and would like your time and efforts to be worthwhile, then the factors above are important advices you should take seriously into consideration when investing your heard-earn money into a business website.

If you are going to launch the website of your business and done with register domain name, web design, add the content, and set live, internet marketing strategies will be the next step for you to get profit from your website.
Internet marketing or the promotion of products and services online has become immensely popular simply because it comes with a lot of advantages. The internet is the only way you can reach millions of possible clients across the globe within a few minutes. This is because the World Wide Web is not only national but worldwide unlike other advertising tools like television, radio, billboards, and newspapers which will only reach a small number of potential customers. Below are some of the advantages that come with using the internet as a marketing tool:

• Pocket-friendly or cheap - internet marketing is far much cheaper when compared to other advertising tools like television, radio and print. In addition to this, some types of online marketing are not only free but highly effective as well.

• It is fast - through the internet, your campaign will be able to reach millions of people within minutes and at a very reasonable fee.

• Twenty four hours or maximum availability - your advertisement will always reach your targeted audience day and night.

• Communication between the company and possible customers is fast, reliable and very cheap - this means that anyone interested in your products and services will be able to learn more within a very short period of time. They will also be able to learn of any discounts and special offers promptly.

• It is possible to target people who are already searching for what you are offering by directing your advertisements to particular websites.

All in all, internet marketing seems to be the perfect tool of promoting the prospects of your business (specially small business) in the short as well as the long term and getting it from a professional further enhances the chances of making it big and quick. Contact our Minneapolis SEO Company today. For web design costs, please call 612.590.8080

If you tend to looking for a web designer in Minnesota, find a company that provides a service package where SEO is integrated. You may wonder why we have to decide like that. In this case, it because over 80% of online purchases originate come from search engines and most of them come from Google. Therefore, this is clear proof that you should consider a service with web design quotes that will make you an SEO-friendly web design. Below are some factors that you may consider as a website SEO-Friendly:

Firstly, you must think about the target keywords. All of us may or may not have heard about keywords, target keywords and their power in increasing your website's search engine ranking page (SERP). For SEO-friendly web site design in Minnesota, find a provider that will make use of the right target keywords to let people find out your service when they need to purchase something that you may be able to give them. These target keywords must be relevant to what you offer in your business, or they will be considered SPAM keyword by search engine algorithms (SPAM keywords are the keywords that help your site rank high in SERP but not relevant to your website or you do not offer the relate service). A good web designer will also use keywords when creating URL's, filenames, and content in your website. Of course, this step will help search engines understand your site better and find your web pages more quickly.

Secondly, take a look to navigation menus. Navigation Menus is how your website users will find the information they need as they go from one webpage to another. So, when your website has a good & clear navigation structure, it will make for good user experience. In other words, user will easy to get what they want from you site; and then they may stay longer on your site (If visitors stay long in your site, it will increase the bound rate of your site. This factor will be useful for your SEO process). In terms of Search Engine Optimization, navigability means allowing search engines to find the webpages on your site easier. This is to enable these search engine spiders to index such webpages when they contain content that is relevant to a searched keyword. A professional web designer in Minneapolis or anywhere will know how to design a webpage with a navigation structure that make easy for search engines to follow.

Finally, pay attention to Social Media Capabilities. Effective web site design will also include social media capabilities, let considering the fact that a huge percentage of online purchases also begin in the social media or social network. Links to sites like Google +,Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest etc. must be included in your website because they are a huge help in terms of building your brand online and contact with your potential client. Allowing your site visitors to interact with their friend or other people within your market through the social media can work great for SEO because they help increase the traffic that lead to your site. Besides, It may also increase the backlink to your site. The more quality links, the more recognizable your website is as far as search engines are concerned.

All of these factors play an important part in creating a good website for your business or organization. Needless to say, when you find the right professional web designer to create and maintain this site for you, you have a good chance of fulfilling your every objective for putting it up. You should also pay attention to their web design price. It’s usually that good designer will cost you much. However, you will get the value product from them.

In the last few years, in one his speech, Bill Gate said that “In next 5 years, if you don’t have a plan to do business online, it better for you to stop your business.” Therefore, this is the time for us to see the important of online business and internet marketing. However, most of companies can not apply internet marketing into their business campaign effectively. Below are some tops popular reasons that make an internet marketing campaign fail.

- Don’t have good resource: Some people think that internet marketing is not so hard. So, they tend to hire cheap resource to do the task. Yes, they can save some of money for that. However, that can also be a very serious mistake. It’s usually that cheap resources are people who don’t have good skill about internet marketing. Stupid guy do stupid things, they will take a lot of time to do the task; and sometime they process in the wrong way. Otherwise, good internet marketers are people who have good skill and knowledge about that field. Therefore, they can process the task better, faster, & more effective.

- Don’t know target client: I have read a phrase like this “we can not live for all people, we just live for the one who need us”. That’s right, your products can not supply to all clients. Therefore, you need to know who your target client is; and how you reach to them. If you pick up wrong target client, you will never see the effect o f the internet marketing campaign.

- Don’t have good plan: Even you do a simplest thing, you still need a plan. With internet marketing, you have to setup a very clear plan to follow. Depend on the plan; you may know which thing you need to do first, which thing can do later. Besides, keep track on the plan you can evaluate the result after a period of time. So, you may have some change for the next step.

- Don’t keep track the plan: As I mentioned, even you have a good plan, you till need to keep track the plan strictly to evaluate result after a period of time and get some change. Don’t wait unstill the campaign get done and looking back to see the bad result. This can be too late to correct.

- Set the target too high & Not Patient enough: All people want to get best result. However, you have to know about your ability and your skill to setup reasonable target. Don’t try to set so high targets and then feel disappointed because we can not reach them. Besides, you may know that internet marketing is a long term campaign. We can not see the result in some days or some week. If we have a plan to do the campaign in a period of 2 or 4 month, just follow it strictly. Therefore, not patient enough can be another factor that make your campaign going to be fail.

In general speaking, Internet marketing, also known as web marketing, online marketing, or e-marketing, is referred to as the marketing (generally promotion) of products or services over the Internet. This kind of marketing is very useful for small & middle business to promote their product with very competitive price. Therefore, if you tend to do business marketing, just hire good marketer, build up a plan, and then keep track the plan strictly. You will see the wonderful effective of internet marketing into your business.

ProWeb365: Minneapolis Internet Marketing Services, MN. We can transform your business vision into an effective online marketing website. Contact our Minnesota SEO Company today. For web design quotes, please call 612.590.8080