The Kona Impact Blog

We at Kona Impact has always admired the work of local artisans. While we work with pixels and digital design, we certainly appreciate those who work with wood and hand tools. Kona, Hawaii is home to many highly skilled woodworkers and artisans, and when we get the chance to work with them, we always have a great experience.

One awesome woodworker in Kona is Andy at Boardworks Woodworking. His use of clean lines and exceptional materials make his custom cabinetry, custom made furniture and doors true works of art. When we were working on his new website, we often found ourselves sayings among ourselves that we would all love to have Andy's furniture in our homes. Even if you're not in the market for new cabinets or furniture, take a look at Andy's portfolio of work on his website.

When making Boardworks Woodworking's new site, we wanted to make sure that the focus of the website is Andy's work. In other words, his awesome portfolio of completed projects are his selling point, and the website should showcase what he has accomplished and what he can offer those seeking custom woodworking in the Hawaiian Islands. Fortunately, he has been taking high resolution pictures of his work for many years.

We look forward to seeing Boardworks Woodworking beautify more homes in Hawaii.

One of the great joys of running Kona Impact is working with huge variety of other businesses. There are few types of businesses with which we haven't worked.

Here is a press release for one of our clients--Big Island Alpacas.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Tess Wilkinson
Big Island Alpaca Farm
808-640-4927
bigislandalpacas@gmail.com

“BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM” PARTICIPATES IN NATIONAL ALPACA FARM DAYS

On Saturday, September 25 and Sunday, September 26, alpaca breeders from across the United States and Canada will invite the public to come to their farm or ranch to meet their alpacas and learn more about these inquisitive, unique animals. On Saturday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and Sunday from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM will welcome guests!

BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM is located at 94-2088 South Point Road, between Mamalahoa Highway and Kamaoa Road.

To find out more about National Alpaca Farm Days visit www.NationalAlpacaFarmDays.com.

To learn more about BIG ISLAND ALPACA FARM, visit bigislandalpacas.com or call (808) 640-4927.

Hawaii Island has, I believe, the highest electricity rates in the United States. Most of our energy comes from imported oil, which is burned, in our on-island power generators. With a relatively large area, small population and great distance from our fuel sources, we are mostly stuck with very high electricity rates.

Hawaiian Solar is a great local company that offers home and building owners the chance to (at least partially) break free from our high electricity costs. They have hot water, pool and photovoltaic systems and are the most experienced solar equipment dealers and installers on the island.

Like with most of our clients, we got to work closely with Ken, the owner, over a period of weeks to learn about his business and how we could convey what he does online. We certainly enjoyed learning about solar systems and why Hawaiian Solar is the local leader. We even got to design a face plate for Ken's new Segway--our first design for a Segway.

We're going to try and make a blog post every Friday about a local business we think is doing a great job. We'd like to highlight what some businesses (from our perspective) that do well and put a spotlight on excellence. Some will be Kona Impact clients; other are not.

This week's business spotlight is Precision Auto. Their website is PrecisionAutoKona.com They are located at the end of Alapa Street in Kona's Old Industrial area.

I took our two vehicles to Precision Auto last week. Raymond, the mechanic, not only changed the oil, but also noticed some loose bolts in the drive train and fixed them on my truck. I would never expect that of one of the franchise oil change shops in town.

The big surprise came, however, when my wife thanked me for vacuuming the mats of her car after the oil change. I didn't. I'm not sure if it's part of their normal service, but it sure puts the "WOW" in my perception of them.

It's great to know that there are some reliable and professional mechanic shops in town. I'm sure there are a lot of them, but from now on, my vehicles will be serviced by Precision Auto.

At Kona Impact we work with businesses at all stages of development--from idea stage to well-established businesses. It is our goal to help these businesses find effective ways to grow online. We have helped businesses go from nothing to $200,00 in online sales in less than two years. We have also seen businesses fail.

In a nutshell, here is our advice for anyone starting an online business:

1. Do something that is congruent with your current business skills, interests and lifestyle. For example, don't try to start selling aloha shirts if you have no retail experience. Start with your existing business or business skills and see how you can expand what you are doing.

2. Find a niche. There is no use in trying to sell the same electronics online that all the big online retailers sell. You'll get no online visibility and, in the end, you'll fail. That said, if you have a gadget that is a better mouse trap, so to speak, consider online sales. Some of the most successful businesses we work with have niche products that are generally not available from other retailers.

3. Do a lot of research. This is, of course, related to #2 (above). Ask friends, business associates, family members what they honestly think of your idea. Also do a lot of online research. If you Google a term for your product, "titanium rings", for example, and find a hundred websites fighting for page 1 visibility on Google, consider a Plan B. If you ten possible competitors, you might have some opportunity. Make sure the playing field is not already crowded with established businesses.

4. Don't skimp on your website. Even though it is possible to "make a website tonight" or "website this weekend" avoid the temptation to do it yourself. If you're serious about your online business, hire professionals who will help you avoid the big mistakes and give you the best opportunity for success.

5. Avoid a huge inventory before you start. We've seen several businesses that have ordered thousands of units of products before launch, only to find that some items did not sell online. If at all possible, work with your supplier to get smaller orders of your products, even if the cost is higher.

Establishing and growing a business online is not easy. Perseverance, patience, creativity and attention to detail are all qualities that are essential to online business success. To that we would add an understanding that no person, no matter how smart or motivated, is capable to executing a successful online business without the help of talented, professional service providers.

When you have a few ideas, give us a call at 329-6077. We're here to help! Kona Impact.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EVERYBODY LOVES A BILLFISH PARADE!
HIBT PARADE SET FOR SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010

KONA–Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament organizers are pleased to announce the popular HIBT parade will held on Sunday, August 1, 2010, starting at 2:30 p.m. in historic Kailua Village.

The parade will begin at the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel and wind its way through Kailua Village ending at Hualalai Road. The HIBT parade will feature international teams including crowd favorites from Australia, South Africa, Tahiti, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Papua New Guinea and of course, teams from US, including California, Hawaii, Florida. Also included in the parade lineup will be Miss Billfish 2010, Kona Shriners and Hawaii County Band. In all, more than 26 parade entries will excite parade goers!

“We invite the entire community, young and old, to come and bring their families to this fun-filled parade. Teams are excited to be here in beautiful Kona, fishing 5 great days and look forward to the smiles that await them at the parade,” said HIBT Founder Peter Fithian. “The tournament also recognizes the long standing tradition of the Billfish Parade and really sees this parade as the official start of the 51st Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament.”

The Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament is underwritten by the generosity of the County of Hawaii and sponsored in part by Oceanic Time Warner Cable, KWXX Radio and numerous corporate and community donors.

For more information on the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, including team listings, IGFA world-record rules and a daily recap of tournament standings, log onto www.hibtfishing.com.

Kona Impact, like most other online marketing and web design companies, is very attuned to innovations and changes in the marketplace. In the old days, a marketing company would basically offer clients print ads (newspapers, yellow pages, magazine, direct mail, etc.) or broadcast ads (TV or radio). These slow-moving marketing outlets we fairly easy to understand and transparent to the business buying services.

Those days are long gone and remnants of the last century! Not that they are still not important—they are—but the options for business far exceed what anyone could have imagined ten, even five years ago.

“Social Media” is Not Defined Well!

The new rage is “social media”. For some this means Facebook and Twitter and for others it means a broad range of ways to reach out to potential customers. The problem when everyone talks of social media is that no one can define what it is in a way that doesn’t include everything under the sun. These broad definitions give the term little meaning.

West Hawaii Social Media Survey

One study done in West Hawaii defined social media as Facebook, online video, Twitter, Email marketing, Blogs, LinkedIn, Forums/Chat rooms and bookmarking sites. So, basically social media is everything online other than a website (unless, of course, blogging is considered part of a website)?

Interestingly, when everything is thrown into the mix, business owners (or those who respond for the business—a big potential difference) find value. Value, however, is a relative term.

For example, when answering “Which of the following benefits, if any, do you attribute to your social media efforts?” only 40% cited “generated exposure for my business” and that was the item businesses cited most. Only approximately 8% said social media “helped me close business”.

Big Investment, Big Results?

One thing the survey did very well was to measure the time investment businesses put into social media to realize benefits. For example, if a company spent 1-5 a week on social media, only about 18% cited greater exposure as a benefit. Only about five percent who used social media 1-5 hours a week said it helped generate significant leads. I would add, however, that "greater exposure" is a fairly ill-defined concept.

Overall, the benefit to using social media (which is defined very broadly) comes from spending 20-40 hours a week on it. In other words, a half-time or full-time employee’s wages and benefits!

What Kona Impact Offers

At Kona Impact, we offer a better approach to so-called social media. First of all, we don’t believe it is a panacea for a company’s online marketing efforts. Our experience of doing this for years (and having mountains of data to back up our assertions) is that investing in a solid and effective website will be far more effective in generating exposure and sales for a business than to focus efforts on social media.

Second, we help businesses identify the most promising types of social media for the organization. All social media is not created equal, and instead of focusing resources on what is popular or trendy, we like to focus businesses on what fits their organization, marketing goals and resources. For certain, we would seldom recommend a business devoting half or a full employee’s salary to social media.

Lastly, as a company that works with these issues day in and day out, we can almost certainly offer a business better results and significant cost savings by handling some, if not most, of their online marketing needs. We have numerous clients that outsource their online marketing needs to us, and have realized excellent return on investment from our work. Because we have the tools to prove our effectiveness, we show businesses exactly what they getting in terms of online exposure, website traffic and search engine visibility.

If your business is hearing the words “social media” a lot and trying to figure out how to become more effective and visible online, give Kona Impact a call. We have a perspective that comes from over ten years of online marketing and web design experience. Kona Impact | 329-6077.

Flash is a proprietary platform that allows animations, videos and interactivity on websites. For the most part, when you see animated web pages (or whole sites) you are probably seeing Flash. A lot of web video is encoded in Flash. Most only games are Flash. About 95% of a *notebook and desktop* computers have the Flash players installed. The problem is that 0% of ipads or iphones have Flash installed.

A few months ago Steve Jobs, head guru at Apple, released a stunning and comprehensive statement about the use of Flash in Apple mobile devices. I believe there were six or eight reasons why he said that Flash would not be in ipads of iphones. This is big news, as there are over 30 million iphones and (predicted to be) 10 million ipads used by consumers within a year. That's, conservatively estimated, approximately 35 million people in the U.S. that will not be able to see Flash websites, animations, navigation buttons and video.

So, the question becomes whether it makes sense to use any Flash on a website.

At Kona Impact, we have moved pretty quickly to the "No Flash" side of the issue. We just cannot in good conscience create websites that are not fully functional for such a large, mobile and affluent group of web users. For certain, full Flash websites are dead. Should web designers add animated Flash headers or other animations? At Kona Impact, we say "no" because these elements are mostly just eye candy AND 35 million or so web surfers can see them.

As we move to a more mobile society (at least in terms of computing) it is important for web designers to ensure that the websites they work on will be accessible to mobile users.

There are many choices for any business looking for a website. One of the big choices is whether to go with a web design company or find an individual to handle the project. It is a decision of great consequence, because the difference between an ineffective online presence and a strong online presence can result in a difference in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars a year in revenue. In reality, the cost of a website is very small compared to what it can do for a business.

An individual might offer initial cost savings. After all, he is probably working out of his house and thus has low overhead. It's also likely that he will be doing web design part time, so he will have other sources of income. That's, however, where the advantages stop.

A professional web design team will, almost certainly, be a better choice. The tendency of a lot of individual web designers is to over-promise and then spend a huge amount of time trying to figure out how to do what they have promised. After all, an individual's skill set is inherently limited, and it's very unlikely an individual will have top-notch skills at design, programming and online marketing. Most teams will have dedicated staff to each aspect of successful websites, as they are very different skill sets. So, in the end, many individuals either give up and don't deliver what they have promised, or they take much longer than is necessary to complete a website. At Kona Impact, we have numerous clients who have started with an individual and lost their money (the designer moves) or spent months waiting for their site.

The most important reason to hire an established company, however, is that the website will be better. A team of designers, programmers and online marketers will be able to excel at all aspects that make a website successful. Just the other day, we had acquired a new client. She said that she could not find the website of three of her local competitors despite the knowledge that they have websites. After about ten minutes we did find one of her competitors on the third page of Google's results. The design was terrible and there was no attention paid to search engine optimization. Her competitor probably saved some money but has lost a lot more more by not having an effective web presence. We are looking forward to helping our client look good and be found online. We are very confident that she'll be more visible online than any of her competitors.

At Kona Impact, we encourage our prospective clients to look at a website as a very high return on investment option for their business. A bad website will, over time, cost a business money because of lost opportunity. An effective website, on the other hand, should be a vehicle to help a business be found and attract new customers. Saving money at the beginning is pointless if the website is not found online and represent a business well.