Questions about Deck Staining Tips.com?

I know that some are wondering what this site is about and what it will do for them. They also may think they will be continuously spammed with emails etc. Rest assured, this is not what the site is about. Deck Staining Tips.com is for information and information alone. What you see now for advertising is the only  type of advertising there will ever be. Even the Amazon ad will go away soon. I just do not like empty space on a site. It is just there as a filler.

Here are a few questions and answers.

What types of advertising will you be running?
The ads you see now are a good example. There is space for 8 and only 8 site sponsors (manufacturers or distributors) in the footer and the right side of the pages. The adds for preferred applicators on the right side of the home page. There will also be a small section for 200 x 100 ads for places like business card printers and other business related tools. The applicator locator page and the locator section in the forum are free to applicators.

What is the newsletter about and will I get spammed there?
The newsletter has yet to be decided on content but there will be no advertising. I have decided that it will only be a quarterly newsletter so you will only get it 4 times per year. I have other things to do.

How is the SMS/Text Messaging going to be used?
First off, let me tell you that the process for sending text messages is NOT automated. This is a manual process. The text messaging is to be used for getting the word out ASAP about things that may affect your business (i.e. product issues). Do you remember the story last year about the road construction projects being held up because the paint manufacturers could not get the pigment to make the striping paint? Well if this happens in this industry and a manufacturer makes us aware of the situation, we can get the word out immediately. Say for some odd reason they can not get their pigments and there will be a 2 week delay in shipments, well then we can send out a message like “Product Delay Alert – The stain manufactured by (insert MFG here) is going to experience a 2 week delay in delivery due to issues with raw material availability. This delay will affect the following products (insert product here)” or something to that effect.

We believe this will be helpful with contractors because they are not always able to get to the web sites, especially during the busy season. This is separate from the sign up for the site. You have to input your number and carrier on the home page to register for these alerts.

Who can post an article?
The quick answer is anyone. Even a home owner can chronicle their project in an article if they so wish. The long answer takes a little more time. Anyone is welcome to submit an article for publication. As a matter of fact if you want to be listed in the applicator locator, we require that you submit 2 articles per year. The screen shot on the right shows a result after 7 days of someone joining the site and writing an article. Just think what will happen after the site gets some more age to it? If you were to Google my area, The “Find an Applicator” page comes up in the search results. All articles are held for review before being made public. We check for things like SPAM, broken or non working links, proper categories, proper tags and SEO. We also check for spelling and grammar and that the article is a minimum of 250 words long. The article must be original, we don’t want something that you are publishing all over the internet.

Where will the articles be published on the site?
First off each article creates it’s own unique page and URL but this is automatic and you do not have to do anything. Let’s talk about the home page from top to bottom. First thing is the menu on the upper right side, these are static pages on the site such as the forum and applicator locator. The next line of menus directly above the slider are the categories. These are the different categories that your post may be assigned to depending on what the article is about. It may be assigned to more than one category also. Now we get to the slider, the slider shows the last 7 articles that are in the “Slide Show” category. Under the slider you will see 4 boxes and each box is a specific category (i.e. Decks, Fences, Log Homes, Products). These 4 boxes display the last article published in their respective category. Under these 4 boxes, the left column is labeled as “Recent Posts”. This column will show up the last 5 articles that were published no matter what category they are in. The right 2 columns pretty much explain themselves.

What’s up with the forum?
The forum is just a light weight version and is just an added tool on the site. I don’t anticipate the forum being the focus of the site but it is there as an avenue for customers and contractors to ask questions and have distributors and/or manufacturers of the products help with solutions. I do not want this forum to replace all the other valuable forums out there. It is nothing more than a site tool but it would be nice for you to participate some what. There are sections that you can not see at the moment because the public does not have access. Besides this site only targets wood restoration specifically. Showcase some of your work. Help out a home owner. I have seen some home owners on other site ridiculed for asking questions and told to hire a pro. We will not allow that to happen here. Someone that is a real DIYer is going to do their own project regardless of your help or not. The least you could do is help them do it the right way. After helping them, who knows, they may decide it is too much work for them and call you because you helped. Pay it forward and it will come back in spades.

How do I get signed up?
That is the easy part for you. For me this means work. I decided that the only sure way to keep out spam is to strictly regulate what members have access to. The only way to do this is to perform the functions manually. With that here is what I need from you

1. On the home page scroll down to the login section and register.
2. If you want to get text messages then you need to sign up for these separately on the home page.
3. After you register send the following information to applicator@xtremeseoconsulting.com

• Company Name
• Web Site
• City, State
• Phone Number
• DeckStainingTips.com User Name

This info is used to add you to the locator service and to open up closed sections of the forum. Marketing and Support forums are closed to the general public.

What if I have any questions you did not cover?
You can send your questions to info@xtremeseoconsulting.com, post your comment on this article or go to the forum and post your questions there.

Thank you all and welcome to Deck Staining Tips.com, enjoy your stay.

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