We all know we need to keep our websites backed up, but let's be honest: how many of you actually follow through and keep a current backup?  And I don't mean just files; you need to backup your database also.  Good intentions don't count when your site has been hacked or your server explodes.  We can take the pain out of backing up your site, but you need to set it up now - not after your data has been lost.

If your website doesn't have a mobile version, you must correct that!  Too many sites either display poorly on mobile devices, or even worse, don't display at all.  Recently I tried to visit a site on my iPhone, but it opened up to a blank white page; when I got back to the office I browsed to the site on my laptop and found that it's built entirely on Flash.  That results in nothing to display on the iPhone!

Luckily, when I initially tried to visit the site I wasn't looking to buy or researching a company I may want to do business with; if that had been the case, they would have had a lost sale.

Face it, we're all bombarded with too much information today and the last thing we want to do is read more of it - UNLESS there's something in it for us!  If you want to make sure that your subscribers read your newsletters, and maybe even pass them along to their friends, you should concentrate on providing helpful or fun information rather than dragging on about your company and how great it is - BORING!

Newsletters aren't so much about promotion as they are about creating and maintaining relationships with your customers.  By providing helpful or fun content, you'll make your readers look forward to the next issue rather than just deleting it unread from their inbox - or worse yet, unsubscribing themselves from the newsletter.  Which brings me to another point: your newsletter should always include an Unsubscribe link; not only is it rude not to do so, it's actually illegal.

It's time to start thinking about your company's mobility.  No, not upward mobility - how you can take advantage of the fast-growing mobile device market to promote your brand.

The key with mobile apps is to come up with an idea that's helpful or fun, making people want to use it, all the while discretely promoting your brand.  I love an app that a friend's company developed for the iPhone, that showed the UV index for your current location - the precise location, of course, thanks to the GPS in  the user's iPhone.  It was developed for a suntan lotion company.  Helpful - yes.  Blatant advertising - no.  Branding promotion - yes.

There are tons of good apps out there, but a great idea is just waiting to be dreamed up and developed for your brand!  What is your product or offering, and how might it relate to a mobile device?  How can you make life easier or more fun for your customers?  Put on your creative cap and let's start dreaming.

Or in this case, the keyword star.

As the web matures and becomes more entwined with our lives, sometimes words aren't enough to attract search engines.  The latest buzz is that having videos on your site will not only give you more interesting content, but may also help with your search engine placement.  Search engines are trying to give more variety in their results, and the word is that the algorithms are stacked to give preference to pages including video.