Brown Couch Consulting » Brown Couch Consulting Business

Giving web visibility to an all-volunteer non-profit

Daria Mark — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:57:31 +0000

Since I am in the web development business, I am always bombarded with ads for free website, “custom” websites for only $450, etc. The “custom” one I love the most. A “custom” website isn’t really custom – just like a “friend” isn’t really a friend.

But I digress. Speaking of free websites, a few months ago, a friend approached me about creating a website for the Better Health Project (www.betterhealthproject.org) , an organization that has been making large strides in improving HIV treatment in Cape Verde. Excuse my ignorance, but I first had to put Cape Verde into Google Maps, and now I know that it’s a country off the coast of Africa, comprised of small islands with a population in need of better HIV and medical treatment. The organization has its start with Tim Comeaux from the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, but the organization stands on its own and is not part of the health center itself.

So, why build a free website? When I first started my web consulting and website building business, I decided to do one free project per year. Last year, I built a site for IBEX Tours, a bioexploration (biodiversity exploration) non-profit which sends tours all over the world as an education and awareness effort for supporting and sustaining some of the most precious ecosystems.

As 2010 draws to a close, I will start on the lookout for the next pro-bono project.

Announcing a new client – Dr. Rebecca Caplan, Chiropractor

Daria Mark — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:19:48 +0000

Brown Couch Consulting is pleased to announce a new client: Dr. Rebecca Caplan, a chiropractor in Brookline. Dr. Caplan has more than 20 years of experience; she practices a wide variety of chiropractic techniques including Palmer Diversified Technique, Sacro Occipital Technique, Applied Kinesiology, and Activator Methods. We are pleased to be charged with helping Dr. Caplan gain more visibility on the web.

New Client – New You? Brown Couch helps Acupuncture Clinic of Brookline

Daria Mark — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:17:52 +0000

We’re proud to announce that the Acupuncture Clinic of Brookline has become a client of Brown Couch Consulting. We’re helping the clinic gain more visibility in the natural and herbal healing market in and around Brookline. They already have a website, but we’ve been making improvements in the SEO realm that are necessary to help the clinic to be more visible on the web and Google Maps in particular.

Spring cleaning – a redesign of Gretje Ferguson’s Website

Daria Mark — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:53:22 +0000

I’ve written about Gretje Ferguson before – she’s a photographer in Boston taking amazing images of everyone from her children and grandchildren to business professionals and authors. And now, Gretje’s site has a new look – thanks to her ever expanding list of offerings, we’ve split the menu into 2 and came up with a clean, fresh new look.

Take a look:

Chocoholics – rejoice!

Daria Mark — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:52:39 +0000

One of my biggest and busiest clients, IBEX Tours, has launched a new tour to Belize: Chocolate, Nature and Culture. I considered convincing them to rename the tour Chocolate: Light, Dark and Delicious. I’ve been working feverishly to organize the information before the travel program gets mention in the Rutgers Magazine. Needless to say, as I have been working long hours, and I ate through my stash of chocolate made at the Cotton Tree Lodge, the destination of the tour to Belize. How fitting! If you come across a Cotton Tree chocolate bar, sample it. It’s unique taste, with an almost creamy finish and low sugar content win my vote for the best chocolate. If only I could figure out a way to get another bar.

Getting it right or getting it right now

Daria Mark — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:42:56 +0000

I watch more and more of my clients struggle with the content of their website. How do you describe yourself? How do you describe your business? What colors to use? What information to post and what to keep private? All of these questions swirl around and become the proverbial writer’s block or developer’s block, I suppose, when putting together a site.

My best advise is don’t focus on getting everything right. Creating a website is much like writing a resume for your business. You’ll have to revisit it at least once a year if your business is doing well and more often if it’s not. Start off with the basics. Most businesses have a set of marketing materials even if they are oral and disorganized. Start with those and update them every 3 months or every month if time allows. It’s important to have a plan on how your site will grow, so when you add more information, it doesn’t become disorganized and you don’t have to spend money on a redesign. Having this basic goal – start off small and build from there – will help your business get a presence on the web, or reclaim the presence it might have lost.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Daria Mark — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:24:20 +0000

We often recommend a photo gallery for our clients. Not only do customers like to see many different pictures of a product (think Zappos with their 8 images of the same pair of shoes), but they also like to see pictures of your organization, your staff (think day spas) or meeting you’ve organized (think a professional organization such as NEWBO).

I am very pleased to announce that IBEX, one of our busiest customers, has posted a photo gallery of their destination countries and past tours. Check it out: http://www.bioexploration.org/photo-gallery.html. The pictures are breathtaking and we are adding more albums every week, so check back often. If that doesn’t wet your appetite enough, read through the tour descriptions and start saving for a trip of a lifetime.

Google, please find the real me

Daria Mark — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:31:55 +0000

I just attended a seminar on Email Marketing and Search Engine Optimization. Ha! I can see how you can fit email marketing into a 3 hour presentation (and Zak Barron did a good job on this) but it’s rather difficult to fit SEO into a 3 hour presentation. Nick Stamoulis of Brick Marketing did the presenting for this part. I really liked Nick – you can see that he is really passionate about his work and enjoys it (a rarety in these days).

Here is an interesting tit bit on email marketing that I didn’t know. What do you think is the ROI on an email marketing campaing? $10? $25? Guess again. It’s $48, which means that for every $1 you spend, on the average, you can get about $48. That is of course on the average, and would only work with a well executed email campaign and would vary by industry.

So, what did Nick teach us about search engine optimization? It turns out that a good website is just like a good piece of cheese – properly aged and well care for. The longer your site has been posted and active – the better. The more friends you have on the web (i.e. relevant links from trusted sources that lead from and to your site), the better. The cleaner your site is to the eye of the Google behemoth, the better you’ll rank.

It also turns out that Google (and search engines and machines in general) like logic, clarity and order. It’s not just good programming practice to clearly name your files and folders, but it’s necessary for google. It makes sense, right? Even humans can’t always figure out that famonbch.jpg is really family-on-the-beach.jpg.

Announcing new clients

Daria Mark — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:57:20 +0000

Brown Couch Consulting is pleased to announce two new clients – Village Green Renewal and Shannon Law Offices.

Village Green Renewal is a handyman shop in Brookline Village owned by Seth Barrett. Seth started the store in 2008 and has already been reviewed by the Brookline Tab and CNN. Brown Couch Consulting created a website for Village Green Renewal and is helping publicize the store in the local community. Look for this in our portfolio pages where we will espouse on the brilliance the shop and the site.

Shannon Law Offices is a small law office, also in Brookline Village, owned and operated by Christopher Shannon. Brown Couch Consulting has been hired by Mr. Shannon to create a web presence for the practice, starting with a website.

Well, now we have a face

Daria Mark — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:04:28 +0000

I wrote in the previous post about the challenges of defining what a consulting firm does for its customers. Having solved that problem, I moved onto another. How to represent myself? Post a picture to the site or not? Finally, I decided that since my business is very personal – and we pride ourselves on that connection with our customers, I should have a picture posted. So, here is my first professional headshot.

: Daria Mark, Principal, Brown Couch Consulting

This photo was taken by Gretje Ferguson (who is also a client of Brown Couch). Gretje partners with a makeup artist to offer a business headshot special for $300. Check Gretje’s blog for more info.

To most people, the idea of getting your picture taken can be daunting. Especially if this image is to serve as your business profile. I have to give Gretje a lot of credit. Not only did she make me feel comfortable during the whole process, but she also captured the image that best represents how I view myself. And for that, I am very grateful.