4 Ways Small Business Websites Can Drive More Sales
A Mashable piece by vFlyer CEO Aaron Sperling on how businesses can better utilize their websites to drive sales. Read this article! It’s direct and practical, just like Aaron.

Breaking Down Clicks Per Connection On Facebook, Google+ and Twitter
A great post by Inman News Chief Evangelist Chris Smith about an experiment he did to find out where the content he was posting was generating the most engagement. More interesting to me than the results is the method by which he set out to quantify the relative engagement of his readers and followers.

3 Marketing Things We Do Wrong That We Could Easily Do Right
A short, succinct, and useful post on three common marketing mistakes and how to avoid them.

Top 5 Trends for Search & Social Media Marketing in 2012
The obligatory “2012 predictions” piece, but valuable nonetheless. Not surprisingly, mobile and social are the focus.

Unboxed: Even a Giant Can Learn to Run
New York Times profile of outgoing IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano and a short history of how he led the company’s remarkable rebound. I think the first of his four questions should be at the top of any business owner’s or professional’s list.

Microsoft Celebrates The Demise Of IE6 In The US
Finishing off this week’s Roundup is this TechCrunch article on how Microsoft is embracing the death of Internet Explorer 6, which clings to a 1% share of the browser market. Is this the other 1%?

I hope you enjoyed the Marketing Monday (Tuesday) Roundup this week. If you have any thoughts on the items posted, leave a comment!

vFlyer is hosting a FREE webinar, “Creating a Social Website,” tomorrow at 1pm PST/4pm EST. We’re thrilled to have Charity Hisle, social media consultant and founder of Socially Engaged Marketing, as our guest trainer. In her business, Charity works with apartment communities and small businesses to help them tap the marketing value of social media. She’s also an enlightening and entertaining presenter who consistently provides useful insights and examples in her trainings. I hope you’ll join us for her presentation tomorrow!

1. New stock custom themes in every account
It’s no longer necessary for vMarketing users to create their own custom themes in order to take advantage of the benefits that using a custom theme offers. We introduced 10 new stock custom themes and added them to every account! You’ll find the new themes in your list of theme options in the Flyer Editor (labeled “auto-generated”) as well as on your Themes page (where you can also edit them). Applying one of these themes to a flyer you’ve published is as simple as choosing the theme and re-publishing.

Using a custom theme instead of a standard theme not only gives you more control over how your flyers look. If you have a business subscription, it also lets you brand your flyers, choose from 10 different Craigslist layouts and 5 PDF layouts, and use the narrow blog HTML format. The new stock custom themes will make it even easier for users to take advantage of these features.

2. Flyer colors in Craigslist
We fixed an issue that was sometimes causing background colors in the flyer to change in Craigslist. We now generate a background image for those colors, meaning that the same colors from your flyer will appear in your Craigslist post.

3. Picture Module enhancements
Picture Modules in sites can now be linked to external URLs or internal site pages or content items.

4. Permalinks
vSites users now have full control over the permalinks of their site pages. Adding relevant keywords to page URLs is important for SEO purposes.

5. Bug fixes
We fixed a bunch of bugs across the board in vSites, several involving UI issues in IE8. While the fixes were mostly of minor issues, together they should make the site creation and editing processes even smoother.

A big thanks to all the new vSites users in the last couple of weeks as well as the early adopters who have continued to provide us helpful feedback and feature requests. Keep ‘em coming! And if you’re looking to build a website for your business, I hope you’ll check out vSites and contact us if you have any questions.

Here’s a graphic showing how the program works:

Resellers use our program to create marketing content for their own clients. They then sell this content to their clients at the regular price.  After they bring on 3 clients, they start earning 30% on each client they subscribe, or if the Reseller is paying, he or she gets a 30% discount for each client account.

Benefits of the program:

1. vFlyer’s platform is intuitive yet powerful.  Both of vFlyer’s services use a “fill-in-the-blank” template approach for adding content, greatly simplifying the content creation process.

2. Customization. vFlyer provides an extensive range of themes and layouts to choose from.  In addition to the ability to upload photos, videos, custom headers and integrate social media, users can also create their own themes allowing them to match their branding.

3. Flexibility. With vFlyer, you can grant access to an account to a client so that they can log in and make edits themselves or simply restrict access to yourself. You can also set up all of your client accounts under one login, making access to all of them super easy.

4. Save time while creating higher quality content.  The vFlyer platform is easy to use, enabling users to create professional-looking high quality content quickly and easily.

Interested in learning more? Check out the new Reseller page and the Reseller FAQ’s. To sign up, email reseller [at] vflyer [dot] com, or call 800-594-5930 x 5.

1. Enhanced site theme previews
We added a “Switch Theme” link at the top of the Site Editor that, when clicked, allows you to preview different themes applied to your site, right in the Site Editor. It’s a much simpler way to see how different themes will look on your website.

2. Video on listing detail page
We now display the video on the listing detail page if a video is embedded in the flyer.

3. Site Map and XML Sitemap fixes
You can now choose to show or hide a page in the Site Map. We also fixed a bug in the XML Sitemap that was preventing all site pages from being included.

Finally, we posted a very funny vSites video that our own Doug Ramsay created. We’ll be sending out this video to users in an upcoming service announcement, but you can watch it here as well:

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I have. After you watch it, take a look at how vSites is the best website builder for small businesses.

1. We expanded the number of default page templates from two to five. Now instead of just a Home Page and an Other Page template, you can choose from One Column, Two Column Left, Two Column Right, and Three Column templates. You can also still create your own page templates.

2. We now display the status of each site on the Sites Dashboard.

3. We fixed a bug in IE9 that prevented users from adding images from their library.

4. When multiple site menu items are nested under another menu item, the system no longer rearranges them.

5. We now allow unregistered users to select new themes through the Control Panel. Before, one needed to register in order to choose another theme.

6. We made a number of small UI improvements, particularly to the Freeform Editor and Add from Library screens.

We’ve gotten so many helpful comments and suggestions from early users of vSites, several of which led directly to improvements in last night’s release. And we keep seeing great new websites being published each week. If you have questions or feature requests, or built a website that you’re especially proud of, let us know! We would love to hear from you.

1. We now support the uploading of PDF and Word files to sites. On the Add Module screen, you’ll now find a File Module option. When a PDF or Word file is uploaded to a site, visitors to the site will be able to download the files. This feature is especially useful for rental applications and other forms.

2. vSites is now integrated with the image editing application Picnik! Now when you add a Picture Module, you’ll find an Enhance Image button; clicking it will expose the Picnik interface in the same screen. With Picnik, you can change the colors of the image, add text and effects, and make other enhancements to it, without ever having to leave the Site Editor.

3. When you switch to a different site theme, you now have the option of keeping your current splash images.

4. Column headings are now automatically re-sized based on the width of the column.

5. The Business Profile Module now displays the photo and logo if either has been uploaded.

6. Automated emails sent to you when the contact form on your site is filled out now include the phone number entered.

We also made a number of UI improvements to various modules and themes, along with several other bug fixes.

Thanks to all the early adopters of vSites for the great feedback and constructive criticism you’ve given us. In just these first few weeks, you’ve helped us improve the service significantly, and we’ll continue to add new features and fix bugs as they arise. Haven’t tried vSites yet? Learn what makes vSites the best small business website builder for people who never thought they could build their own website.