Web Designs for Small Business

Daybreak Web Designs has announced several important changes to www.commercial-fishing.org for 2009. Many of the improvements relate to coverage of 2008 events along the USA East Coast. Highlights of 2008 included industry happenings and trips into the field. In January, staff attended the MWA Commercial Fishing Expo where some of the nations top boat builders and equipment manufacturers were represented. Research at sea included observing scalloping during the March opening of the Elephant Trunk Access Area. Over the summer, staff visited several commercial fishing ports including Newport News and Chincoteague in Virginia, and Ocean City, Maryland. In September, events included a tour of New England and the Working Waterfront Festival.Craig Banks of www.commercial-fishing.org remarked, “Our trip to New England had a huge impact on the website. We got to see the New England groundfishing fleet, meet a lot of industry professionals and make a lot of friends. In four days, we visited Gloucester, Newburyport, New Bedford and New Haven. We shot over 700 pictures of the towns, ports, boats, commercial fishing gear and the Working Waterfront Festival”.

New to the site for 2009 is an online store which includes an extensive collection of commercial fishing, seafood and saltwater fish T shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops, raglans, jerseys, golf shirts and other apparel.

The site also received enhancements to the layout which improves navigation, user friendliness and offers advertisers more options. Several of the software changes were implemented by an associated design company. “We used O’Hare Sites for some of the restructuring because of their reputation for expertise in content management” explained Craig Banks of Daybreak Web Designs.

Added features for 2009 are a continuation of the overall mission of the site. Banks stated “Our goal has always been to provide members of the commercial fishing and seafood industries with the tools they need to improve their business, all in a single package. For example, commercial fishermen can read about the latest regulations, learn about upcoming events, visit forums and participate in political or industry discussions, buy or sell boats or equipment, post job openings for crew and even submit pictures of their boat, catch or home port. Our site stands out by providing those features in an efficient and easy to use format.”

For businesses that supply the commercial fishing and seafood industries, the site features a several important tools. Free features include press release and article submissions, as well as standard listings in the site’s business directory. In addition to basic free tools, the site offers paid advertising and an array of other promotional tools. For businesses that lack a website but want to get listed in the directory, special pricing is available for custom websites. This service enables small businesses to have an online presence and full use of the directory’s features.

These improvements to the site come at a critical time for many businesses. According to the site owner, “The last 2 seasons have been devastating to the commercial fishing industry. Fuel prices have skyrocketed while market prices have remained constant or dropped. Here in the USA, fishermen are faced with more and more restrictions, many of which have a stranglehold on their ability to turn a profit. We are hoping that people continue to use the site to promote and improve the commercial fishing industry, worldwide and here in the USA.”

On December 16, 2007 Commercial-fishing.org overtook several important websites to gain the Google search engine’s # 1 spot in the American market for the term “commercial fishing”. While Google is known for fluctuations in its search engine results and ranks are likely to change again, the upward shift in rank was an important benchmark for the site. The site has dominated the #1 spot since late 2007. In addition the site ranks highly for several other search terms that impact the industry.

Banks explained why this is so important, stating “Our search engine rankings remain a vital asset to our members. Anyone that needs to be found thru web searches or exposed to a wide range of audiences can benefit from our search engine rankings.”

Highcamera Aerial Photography added a new gallery to its website which includes thirty images the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia. These high resolution aerial photographs include famous Delmarva landmarks such as Assateague Lighthouse, Smith Island Lighthouse, Kiptopeake State Park and historic life saving stations along Virginia’s barrier Islands.

Virginia towns featured in the gallery include Chincoteague, Accomac, Wachapreague, Onancock, Painter, Parksley, Saxis, Deep Creek, Exmore, Tangier Island, Willis Wharf, Cape Charles, Cheriton, Oyster and Eastville Virginia.

Other images in the collection provide aerial views of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay and coastal barrier islands. Among the images are Tangier Island, Chincoteague Island, Assateague Island, Hog Island, Cedar Island, Wachapreague Inlet and Hog Island Inlet.

Prints of the images are offered in a variety of sizes on high quality paper and permanent vibrant inks. Each image purchased will be signed by the photographer and are certain to retain their value for many years to come. In addition to the collection of Delmarva aerial photos, the Highcamera website offers several Washington D.C. aerial photographs.

The Delmarva  aerial photo gallery was released just in time for Christmas and customer response was higher than expected. Highcamera owner Patrick Hendrickson remarked, “As soon as the gallery hit our website, the phone started ringing. A lot of people wanted aerial photographs of the area as gifts or for their own use.”

This is another case of a small business owner diversifying and using their website as a marketing tool. Daybreak Web Designs constructed Highcamera’s Delmarva Aerial Photography Gallery with search engine friendliness as a priority. The project paid off as the page got indexed right away and was highly ranked for search terms such as “delmarva aerial photographs”.

Highcamera is known regionally for high quality aerial photography for real estate, construction progress and advertising on demand.

Visit highcamera.com to view sample aerial photo galleries of Delmarva, Washington DC and coming soon will be more aerial photos of Virginia and Maryland.

Daybreak Web Designs has announced a new online resource which provides information on the Chesapeake Bay. The site is entitled “Chesapeake Bay News” and is located at www.chesapeake-bay.org. The project features Chesapeake Bay news, events, photo galleries, articles, book reviews, links, and other resources. When asked about the project, the site owner John Banks explained, “While doing research for our other projects, we realized there is a wealth of information concerning the Chesapeake Bay that comes from a wide range of sources. We were also made aware of the enormous number and diversity of the bay’s users. This project was created to act as a clearing house of information for anyone interested in the Chesapeake Bay region.”

The Chesapeake Bay impacts residents of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia as well as the millions of visitors that flock to the waterway each year. Included in the list of bay users are boaters, recreational anglers, charter boat operators, commercial fishermen, aquaculture workers, seafood lovers, bird watchers, nature lovers, artists, hunters, sportsmen, environmental groups, scientists, eco-tourism providers, beach goers, tourists, land owners, small business owners, government agencies and others.

The project comes at a time when the Chesapeake Bay region is under intense scrutiny and change. Known worldwide for its history as a vibrant estuary where oysters, crabs, fish and wildlife resided in enormous numbers, the bay is now threatened with pollution, over-development, declining stocks of its wild inhabitants and other critical problems. In addition to the marine life and wildlife affected, the people that live and work around the bay are also struggling to adapt to these changes.

The site features a number of tools that support interactivity by the people and organizations involved with the Chesapeake Bay. For example, organizations can submit press releases, news items, announcements of events, articles, digital photos, book submissions and other forms of information. Visitors can also submit comments in response to articles.

The resource is the next in a series of outdoor-related websites from Daybreak Web Designs. Being part of a family of related resources is one of the strengths of the site, as several groups of users can be made aware of the project, offering a higher level of diverse audience participation. The interaction and information sharing of the various bay users was a fundamental goal of the site blueprint.

John Banks, of Daybreak Web Designs explained the concept, saying, “Our sites include www.fresh-seafood.net, www.commercial-fishing.org, Maryland - Virginia Saltwater Fishing, Worldwide Charter Boats and Guides, www.chincoteague-island.net and others. The Chesapeake Bay site was the next logical addition to the family and has potential to be a very strong asset to both our business and to all the users of the Chesapeake Bay. This allows everyone that loves the bay to visit and find the information that pertains to their unique needs. The site also has an array of tools for organizations, small business owners and others that need to reach these audiences. The built-in interactivity is the real strength of the site. Thankfully, we have a strong team of technical personnel that support the technology.”

In phase II of the project, the site will offer reasonably priced online advertising for small business owners that need to reach audiences within the bay region. Other aspects of the second phase will include expansions of the photo galleries, articles and other resources.

If you are located in Maryland or Virginia and are interested in doing freelance web design or computer graphics

please visit our employment page.

These are some of our EzineArticles.com articles:

On December 16, 2007, www.commercial-fishing.org overtook several important websites to gain the Google search engine’s # 1 spot for the term “commercial fishing”.
Although Google is known for fluctuations in its search engine results and ranks are likely to change again, the upward shift in rank was an important benchmark for the site. The site continued to hold the #1 spot thru December of 2007.

Daybreak Web Designs is proud of the progress made by www.commercial-fishing.org. The goals for the website was to create a resource that hat would benefit commercial fishermen as well as businesses and organizations connected to the commercial fishing, seafood and aquaculture industries.

The site officially opened in January of 2007, offering the commercial fishing sector with tools such as a business directory, web forums, news, articles and other resources.

Tools on the site allow members to directly contribute information and discuss issues facing their industry. The site also accepts press releases, articles, business directory listings and other content from the commercial fishing and seafood industry.

Our emphasis has always been on the site being interactive. The idea was to give people that are connected to the commercial fishing industry a variety of tools that allow them to share information, promote their business and learn about industry changes.

Daybreak Web Designs, specializes in analyzing the behavior of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. This experience was in place at a critical time for the commercial fishing industry

For the last 12 months we have worked to present content that is of benefit to the industry. Having the tools in place to allow others to contribute content was a vital component for us. The quality and quantity of the site’s content helped us during the Google re-alignment and much of that content came from the commercial fishing industry, so everyone benefited.

Search engine results change daily but commercial-fishing.org stands a good chance of staying in the top results for a variety of key phrases not only with Google but with Yahoo and MSN. These ranks allows the us to offer some of the best online advertising values available to those businesses that provide commercial fishing-related services and equipment.

We are proud to have a presence on Squidoo. Members of the Daybreak Web Designs team have published over 100 lenses!

Recently our account has been awarded Giant Squid status on Squidoo. This is another asset that the Daybreak Web Designs team has attained to help provide the best service possible for its customers.

Many of the lenses associated with us serve to boost traffic to our client’s sites and projects that we own. Lenses also generate income and we are proud to donate a portion of that income to worthy causes.

Special recognition goes out to the talented assistants that work for Daybreak Web Designs. Many of these artists and technicians donate countless hours of community service, both here on Squidoo and in the local community.

For September, we are pleased to announce another in a series of projects by Daybreak Web Designs. The site is entitled “Worldwide Charter and Guide Directory” and is located at www.charter-guide.info.

The project allows business owners such as fishing charters, fishing guides, hunting guides, lodges, nature tour operators, sailing charters and others in the outdoor adventure niche with a variety of tools.

The Worldwide Charter and Guide Directory is the next in a series of outdoor-related websites from Daybreak Web Designs. Being part of a family of related sites is one of the strengths of the site, as human traffic can be directed to the project, offering business owners assurance of their information reaching potential customers. Related sites from Daybreak Web Designs include Maryland - Virginia Saltwater Fishing, www.fresh-seafood.net, www.commercial-fishing.org, www.chincoteague-island.net, www.tidewater-virginia.net and www.virginia-beach-va.net.

For details, see the full press release.

A peer’s blog often focuses on the uses of Squidoo, both in SEO and as a source of income.

He was kind enough to publish our thoughts on the subject of Squidoo and how it’s used by the web design community.

View Chuck Huckaby’s Work at Home Business Opportunities blog entry here:

http://work-at-home.business-opportunities.biz/2007/09/10/squidoo-fans-tell-how-its-helping-them-make-money/

A simple sitemap is an important tool to insure that every page of your site gets indexed.

A sitemap can be a manually coded page that lists all the pages of the site, or can be created via special tools such as www.xml-sitemaps.com

Once sitemaps are created and installed, their locations should be spelled out in a robots.txt file.

Here is information on creation of a robots.txt file which will assist search engine robots in indexing your site:

Each site should include a robots.txt which specifies sitemap locations.

To specify the location of sitemaps, just put a line like this anywhere in your robots.txt file:

Sitemap: http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
or
Sitemap: http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.html

Replace the Sitemap: http://www.yoursite.com/ with the actual full URL. For example, if www.yoursite.com has a sitemap file called sitemap.xml in top level, the reference would be like this:

Sitemap: http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

If you have more than one sitemaps you can either create a special “sitemaps index” file that links to all of them, then put a link to the sitemaps index file in your robots.txt file.

An simpler process is to simply list more than one sitemaps in the robots.txt file.

Example:

Sitemap: http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.html