Friday, June 27, 2008

Got Used Guitars, Amps, Drums, PA Equipment? Buy, Sell or Trade Them at Wade's World in Scranton!

Used gear can be a valuable asset if you need cash or are looking to trade up to something special. Musicians know this, even if they're only amateurs. Guitar players, drummers and singers want the best stuff they can get to make their sound just right for them. In some cases, used guitars, amps, drums and PA equipment can be better than new stuff, simply because the brand or model you want has the right sound.

Everybody who does business locally has places that they favor. For my guitar-playing needs, I favor Wade's World in North Scranton. He's got all the usual stuff I either wear out or break (usually strings; picks like the Dunlop Tortex .88 mm's just don't break like the old ones). What I really like are all the axes he's got in stock. At any given time, there are a number of models I'd take home in an instant -- if I had the room!

Wade knows his stuff, too, when it comes to fixing things that break or installing new pickups, bridges, etc. He's not a luthier himself, but he knows one of the best in the area. In fact, simple repairs can often get done overnight. No waiting for your baby while some other guy sends it out for repair because he doesn't know the working end of a Phillips-head screwdriver from a vodka-and-OJ.

Naturally, not every piece of gear that somebody brings into Wade's World is acceptable for sale or trade. I'd never offer him my Les Paul Junior with the fire damage, missing pick guard, no tone or volume controls and crack in the top of the neck! The thing is, he's willing to give you free appraisals and sell your stuff on consignment for you, if you want.

The best part about Wade's World is Wade. If you don't know that already, go to Wade's World Music and find out for yourself. Party on, Garth!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Are You "Geo-Located" on Your Website?

You can stuff all the local keywords you want into your Web page that tell people "I'm in Scranton". That's so 20th Century. Haven't you heard of GPS?

There's a nifty tool you can use to narrow yourself down to the exact spot in your parking lot reserved for special customers or clients: Address Fix. Just go there, type in your address (don't worry, your information isn't stored or given away) and bingo! You get a map with a pointer that's very close to the right spot. Zoom in on the map, move the pointer around until it's exactly where you want it and the exact latitude and longitude for that spot is calculated and ready to go as code you can put into the [head] portion of your Web page.

Here's the location of the Scranton Portal:
[meta name="geo.position" content="41.437426; -75.658175" /]
[meta name="geo.placename" content="Scranton, PA" /]
[meta name="geo.region" content="US-PA" /]

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Scranton Equipment Rental Services -- Your First Shot at Fame!

Search for scranton equipment rental services and all that that search engines will give you is a crowded map of somewhat related businesses (if you count a pizza deliver service as related) and the rest are basically classified ads. Not one local equipment rental service has a website showing up in the results for this listing.

The problem is that these services know their business, but don't know Internet stuff. For example, did you know that the [title] code in a Web page isn't really there for you to put the title of your company first? No. It's an index title holder for robots to read. Therefore, if you put [title] Scranton Equipment Rental Services XYZ Company[/title], you'll be doing the right thing. If, instead, you do what most companies (and website builders who don't know SEO), you'll put [title]XYZ Company: We rent trucks, construction equipment and more![/title]. That kind of pitch is actually better put in your [meta] tag for description, since it will show underneath your title in the search engine results.

If you made a mistake like this, try fixing it soon. The next time the robots come around to peek at your site, they'll like the new title much better for your particular niche and will reward you with a better showing in the search results.

The Scranton Front Door Portal is online!

After hunting around for a decent portal to showcase the businesses that could use it the most, it was time to DIY -- Do It Yourself. In the spirit of "don't worry, be crappy and get something up there NOW", you can see the first draft of the Scranton Front Door Portal at: Scranton Front Door Portal

This portal will be very exclusive. It will be for particular niches or sub-niches that have a top spot available in the search engine results. These particular niches typically spend heavily to promote their businesses or professions, but clearly haven't gotten their websites (if they have them) indexed for their main keywords.

Only one category is live at this point: scranton equipment rental services. Within a very short period of time, you will be able to put those four words into the search engine and see the "placeholder" page for that niche. If you are just dying to see what a plain vanilla placeholder page looks like, go to Scranton Equipment Rental Services. Thrill to the trenchant text there! Click away at the poll for readers! Imagine your own rental service with a great spot in that search engine I mentioned.

Now imagine that same spot in the results leads to your website. Through the magic of computers, a kind of call forwarding can make that happen! Best of all, once yours truly either fixes your current page to rank well in search engines or has an exclusive team of Web page builders craft a website for you that will present the right face to your prospects and clients, you'll be able to stand on your own!