A pixel ruler will help you size pics for the web

Getting pictures sized correctly for the web can be a struggle without photo editing software.

On the web, dimensions are measured in pixels. Therefore, we found a pixel ruler for you to download. You can use this tool to measure the space on your web site, and then adjust your pictures based on what you measured using the pixel ruler.

It's a safe, free download, and it'll just sit on your desktop. It'll help you greatly as you're trying to correctly size photos for your web site.

November Web Coupons

Below are a few sample coupons for November. To upload them to your web site, you just need to click on the picture and save it to your desktop.

From there, you can upload the picture to the web site, so that it appears to your customers.

These are just sample ads that we've taken from the corporate circular in November; however, please let me know if you need them to say a different price and we can certainly adjust it to your specific pricing.

New Web Site Launch in Adams!

Congratulations to Adams Builders Supply in Adams, Minnesota!

They just lauched a tier 3 web site which allows them to make their own changes through an admin portal.

Welcome them to the forum!

New Web Site Launch in Huxley!

Congratulations to Quick's Hardware Hank in Huxley, Iowa!

Quick's Hardware Hank is a tier 3 web site, and it's completely new construction. They wanted a web site for a while and purchased a name! Now they're up and running!

Is Your Business Credible?

YES!

It sounds like an unnecessary question, but I pose it to start a deeper discussion. Knowing your stores as I do, you all run credible businesses. Customers respect your knowledge of the business; therefore, you have a solid reputation in your community.

For a second, imagine that you stopped bringing in new products, remerchandising departments, adding Power Programs, training your employees and providing great customer service. Customers would start to question your business' credibility, and they go somewhere else to buy hardware.

Think about your web site like that. If it's not updated or new or exciting, customers will not view it as credible. They will stop visiting your web site and go to another one.

Consider your web site another storefront. It's connected to your business but is a somewhat separate entity. Keep it updated; keep it current. Your customers will notice, and then, your web site will enjoy the same credibility that your business does.

Generic Web Banners Ready

We have developed a large stock of vendor web ads. We will upload these to your servers, and rather than reinvent the wheel, you can use this database. We will also commit to uploading/updating the ads periodically.

We're close to launching a few more web sites, so look for those announcements coming soon! We can welcome them to the user group!

Add Your Web Site to Your E-mail Signature

In talking to someone who works for a social media company, he passed along a little promotional tip that's as easy as changing your e-mail signature.

Just think about all the e-mails you send and receive each day. Maybe it's a lot, maybe it's not that many. Either way, your e-mail communication will probably increase over the next few years, and you'll probably communicate with your customers via e-mail more and more.

At any rate, consider adding your web site to your e-mail signature. Below, I've used myself as an example of what it could look like:

Brian Sonnenberg
United Hardware Distributing
www.hardwarehank.com

That's a pretty basic e-mail signature, but you could do something similar using your web site. It's another great way to advertise your web site. I'll continue to share more of these simple ideas to promote your web site.