In today’s world, it’s more effective to have a website that has some automation. I cannot say enough about Joomla, and it’s free! I hooked up Nichols Insurance Group in Lakeland with their own Joomla website.

Joomla does take a bit of tweaking to change the default template (which isn’t very attractive). This is where I come in. I encourage my clients to learn the back-end so they can easily add pages themselves (including pictures) so I set-up the framework, style it and make it search engine friendly (which is very important). The stock versions of Joomla are not friendly for search engines.

Nichols Insurance Website Almost Done

Here is just a few of Joomla Features:

• Your customers can easily create their own accounts, and you can keep any page you want private to the public. For example, if you look at the screen shot above you will see the get estimate widget for an insurance quote. If Nichol’s really wanted to, they could force people to create an account first and make it visible only when someone is logged in.
• Joomla has widget friendly sidebars so you can easily place Twitter, Facebook and other widgets in seconds just about anywhere on your website.
• Custom Google Maps have come a long way. Make it easy for your customers. Check out the demonstration here.
• Don’t spend thousands on a website when you can get this for a few hundred. Joomla can easily be restyled if you want a new look in the future, without compromising your search engine rankings. For more information, you can contact me here.

Be Sure To Customize Your Directions Page Like This

With Joomla, you can even add cool photo galleries like this!

Visit My Menu Florida For More Information

Every once in a while I find a great new company in Lakeland Florida. In this tough economy, businesses are finding it more difficult to find effective advertising. Basically, your ad will go on a place mat at participating restaurants in Lakeland.

I think it’s a great idea, and for people like me it will work. When I go to a restaurant I have to wait for my food, so I’m always looking for something to read. Karla from Ad Mats To Go goes one step further, she prints them on quality paper with full color!

Here is a bit more about Karla:

Admats-To-Go reaches hundreds, if not thousands, of potential residential and commercial customers each week. This is a low-cost, yet long-term method of reaching your target market in a relaxed, low pressure environment.  With Placemat Advertising you get a captive audience.  Your advertisement will also be listed on the restaurant’s menu website where customers also have the opportunity to visit your website to learn more about the benefits of your products and services.

Your advertisement will be on the restaurant tables before a minimum of 5,000 viewers putting you directly in front of your customers for 3-4 months at a time and shared even more when taken home as to go menus!
When you visit a restaurant and you’re waiting for service – you would welcome the opportunity to read something placed directly in front of you.  A dedicated audience for at least 15-20 minutes?  WOW!

Do any of these individuals meet your potential client profile…
•     Business associates meeting
•     Friends catching up
•     Families enjoying a meal together
•     Couples enjoying happy hour
•     Seniors enjoying early bird specials

The value of the potential audience you can reach through this method is only exceeded by the extremely low cost of advertising. Compare that to radio or television advertising…especially with XM and TiVo – no fast forwarding or changing the channel during commercials and you receive contract exclusivity. This means no other advertiser in your service category will compete with you on that placemat for the term of your contract. You will also be extended the opportunity to renew prior to the acceptance of another advertiser in your category. Each restaurant has a minimum run of 5,000. A discount is offered when purchasing more than one location or when advertising on more than one placemat in a different restaurant. You provide the art or our price includes a custom designed ad by our professional graphic artist and the placemats are professionally printed in full color. Just think – placing your ad on the restaurant’s placemat reaches your target residential or commercial clients in a very influential way.  Reading your advertisement could trigger a need they didn’t realize before seeing your advertisement.

This is a great opportunity – call or e-mail us today!

We live in Lakeland, Florida, so this isn’t a normal occurrence. At first I thought she was crazy, but I grabbed my camera and ran out side. Here are the photos (and a couple of videos):

This is what we saw first. A Parachute

There isn't an airport in North Lakeland

I noticed he had a fan motor on

Then we realized he was landing in my neighbors yard:

This is a photo of him after he landed. He packed up and started walking away very fast…like within 20 or 30 seconds and started walking down the street, I should of offered him a beer:

He landed an packed up quick

PS: I live on West Campbell Rd In Lakeland Florida

When: November 5th, 2009 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Why: Benefit for women battling cancer

Click the Ad For More Information

Unfortunately my hair is too short and too gray to take advantage of this!

Last night was a special event, which was suppose to end with figure 8 racing and a demolition derby. I couldn’t believe how busy it was there. Usually the line to buy tickets is about 3 or 4 people long. Last night we had to wait in line for about 30 minutes, which was fine because many spectators showed up for the demolition derby.

Everything was going well, until the extended intermission in an attempt to sell more concessions. The management did a great time boring us to death during this long one. They have a 50/50 raffle, and this week it was up over $300.00. The last racing event was a 50 lap race. At the end of this one the winner of the raffle was to be announced. They were about 10 laps into the race when it started drizzling. The announcer said “Don’t worry folks, we just checked the radar and it’s just a passing shower”. I was impressed that they had a meteorologist on the payroll.

Some people did start trickling from the stands. I think they just wanted to claim their shelter in case it started pouring. Well, it did. As Forrest Gump says, it was “raining sideways”. Now everybody got up at the same time, some to leave and some to find an overhang to stay dry. The problem is, the only place to stay dry was the Bottleneck exit. My brother in law was getting nervous with his 4 year old in his arms because of the confusion, and so wasn’t many other people. I could clearly see it in their faces.

The problem? Half of the people were seeking shelter from the rain, and the other half just wanted to leave. This created an almost trample in the exit. Half the people were just standing there, and the other half were trying to leave. People started actually yelling, saying “come on, move it. I just want to leave”! There was no management there to direct or secure an exit line.

When we finally got out we took a breath of relief. Looking back there was still many people trying to bust through. This place is an accident waiting to happen. I sincerely hope the Fire Marshall looks into this.

Google Map Image Showing Bottleneck - The exit ws the only shelter from the rain - Click To Enlarge

I went on their website this morning and there is nothing on their website. I want to know, who won the 50/50?