Find Buffalo Blog

The Buffalo Bison boys basketball team is absolutely a team. The Bison lost the schools all-time leading scorer early in the game, Josh Ortmann, who averages 19 points per game this season and pulled together to defeat Lakeville South 50-48. Ortmann turned his ankle grabbing a dead ball rebound as he came down on a Lakeville player’s foot awkwardly.

Senior Karl Olson hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 30 seconds left while Darrin Olmscheid and Eric Olson scored 11 points apiece to lead Buffalo who held a 21-17 halftime lead despite being out-rebounded in the 1st half 17-14. Buffalo’s players stepped up in the absence of Ortmann and turned in a fantastic team effort to gain the victory and a shot at the Minnesota State Title for Class 4A.

There has been no word on the extend of Ortmanns injury yet but early indications did not look good.
The Bison (27-3) pushed their winning streak to 17 games with the victory and will play at 8:00pm on Saturday night for the state title at Target Center. Good luck Bison!

Below are a few screen shots from Channel 45’s TV coverage of the game.

The Buffalo Bison used a nearly flawless performance in the first 18 minutes against St. Paul Johnson by shooting 73 percent from the field with just three turnovers. Buffalo built a 29-point halftime lead en route to an 82-61 victory over St. Paul Johnson at Williams Arena Wednesday morning in the opening game of the 2007 State Boys Basketball Tournament. Buffalo made 19 of 26 field goal attempts including 15 of 17 two-point shots in the first half.

• Click here to view game photos on FindBuffalo.com

Buffalo eventually built a 34-point lead in the second half before cruising to the victory. The crowd was packed with Buffalo fans as a reported 28 buses from the area brought students and fans to the U of M campus for the game.

Karl Olson scored 22 points and Darrin Olmscheid scored 21, 17 in the first half, to lead Buffalo. Buffalo (26-3), which was making its first state appearance in 76 years, will face Lakeville South (18-12) at Target Center in Minneapolis Thursday night at 6:00pm.

The Buffalo Bison (25-3) used a balanced attack to defeat St. Cloud Apollo in the Section 8 championship game 60 - 53 and advance to the state tournament for the first time in 76 years. Buffalo has made nine previous appearances in the boys’ basketball tournament, the last time in 1931.

Buffalo senior Josh Ortmann scored 16 points to lead four Bison players in double figures. Preston Whitaker scored 17 points for St. Cloud Apollo (23-6). The Eagles had five more field goals in the game and out rebounded the Bison 31-24 but could not overcome a 23-7 deficit in free throws.

Match-ups for the boys basketball state tournament will be announced later this week as other sections wrap up play. I’m hoping to duck out of the office next week and watch the tourney in person.
Click here to view the Buffalo Bison’s season schedule and scores.

Fox Sports North broadcasted LIVE from Buffalo, MN tonight, airing the Buffalo High School boys hockey game versus Duluth East. The home team didn’t disappoint upsetting the state ranked Duluth East Greyhounds 3 to 1. I watched the whole game on FSN and took some screenshots of the TV coverage to post on FindBuffalo. The Buffalo Civic Center was packed and the town will be buzzing about the game for some time.

You can view the recap and shots here.

It was strange to report on a game this way and take photos of the TV. I’ve gone to many high school events to cover them in person, but decided to capture the TV aspect of the game, since that was the biggest part of the evening … until the underdog prevailed! It all made for a great “made for TV” moment.

Over the span of the young life of the internet and websites, different things have taken the driver seat and been in control of where the buzz is at and where things are headed. From portals, to chat, to e-commerce, to search … new functionality has come along that captivated users, built passion and sent the masses of web staff scrambling to capture that buzz for themselves. By all signs, today’s driver is video.

More people are making videos, more people are sharing videos, more sites are showcasing video. USA Today featured an article today, Magazines start studios to join online video craze, in which the likes of Time and TV Guide are forming production groups to bring video content to users. Just one more example of how the holders and sellers of content are diversifying how that content is communicated. Just one form is no longer adequate. Don’t just print your story and take a few photos, but take along a film crew and create a video segment as well. Readers/users/watchers want a muli faceted experience and want the ability to see every angle, through a variety of mediums. As a constant consumer of news, articles and media … I’m all for it.

This all led me to think even more about video on FindBuffalo. This would be a strong differentiator … as the local newspaper, the local radio station, the city website … none of them … offer anything close to local content in video format. Whether it be an edited, overview of the city council meetings or the roving reporter on the street getting local thoughts on hot issues/topics. While video is not my forte, I would say I need to find a few opportunities to expose this advantage. I welcome any ideas.

I’m pleased to announce that FindBuffalo.com now has a section devoted to homes for sale in Buffalo, MN. Local Realtors can now submit their Buffalo listing for a free 60 day posting on our website at FindBuffalo.com/homes. Realtors are able to upload a photo of the listing, short paragraph about the home, number of beds, number of baths, square footage, MLS number and of course price. Along with the listing information, Realtors submit their email address, web link and phone number. Their contact information is displayed and linked with the listing. This provides a Realtor the following benefits:

• Free advertising for their listing
• One more marketing plan tactic for their customer
• Online marketing to a local audience
• Online marketing to those looking to move to Buffalo
• Branding/exposure of their name
• A link back to their site for SEO help

Could it get any sweeter? Feel free to comment and let me know. All that we ask in return is that they link to FindBuffalo from their website. This is also to their benefit as it gives their users/clients access to great local info. Next I will be looking to add a printable listing feature to the display so that a user can print off their favorite listings as well.

Since I rarely post on Real Estate, I thought I would also promote a few in the industry that have blogs I have checked out. I have come across their blogs through MyBlogLog and enjoy them.

Cari McGee - Tri-Cities, WA Real Estate

Monica Foster - Dallas & Forth Worth Real Estate

Kevin Boer - San Francisco Real Estate Blog

Damon Pace - Realtor Marketing

Teresa Boardman - St Paul, MN Real Estate

Teresa also has a great interview on her blogging life, from why she started to what she’s learned, read the interview. If any of you make it here, please check out our new listing feature and comment with your 2 cents or ideas to make it better for users or Realtors. Thanks!

Great websites come in “ones”, not hundreds or thousands. So why do so many small businesses buy a packaged web solution with their content all ready created, some design choices (nasty ones), and “Search Engine Tools”? I would rank their most common reasons as:

1. Price point
2. Turn-key with content & design
3. They don’t know any better

The first reason is easy to understand to a point. Every business and organization should be financially responsible and how great does a $100 set-up fee and $20 a month look compared to thousands of dollars for a custom solution? They think it’s priceless, but really it’s costly. These businesses range from Real Estate/Mortgage to Lawyers to Car Dealerships. They launch their shiny new pre-packaged site and join 50 or 100 or 1,000 other sites, saying the same thing and looking the same way. Instead of saying, “Here is what we do different to earn your business” they scream “At least we have a website that tells you nothing different that a bunch of others.” Search Engines could care else about these sites, they already have indexed thousands of pages with this content. Other sites? Not many see value in linking to you and your stale content. All these pieces result in few leads developed, converting only those that were seeking you out in the first place.

So what should these businesses do?
The first step is realizing the value in doing things correctly, even at small level. Here is what I recommend to those weighing out a fabulous 100 page pre-packaged website vs. a 5 page custom site.

1. A basic, clean and professional design is better than anything. Create, shoot or buy one good image (pro photographer) to build your image around. A simple layout makes it easier for users to both understand your site and use your site.

2. If you have very little creativity, hire a free lancer that does! Using a web savvy copywriter is the best bang for your buck. A good copywriter will interview your staff, find the key components to telling your story, give it some energy and also have some understanding of search engines and keywords. The bonus: Good copy can also be used or tweaked for print materials.

3. Answer the top ten. If your website does not answer the top ten questions you get from a prospective client on the phone or in person, your going to loose out when a potential client is comparing you or trying to get a feel for you. Sounds simple, but most websites fail this test.

So small business owners and decision makers, keep these points in mind and consider my parting point. What equation sounds better to you, little money for no leads or some money for more leads?

FindBuffalo.com has been available to the world for 45 days now so I thought it would be a good time to offer up a review on some of the keywords I’m starting to pull traffic for and also layout the sites I have managed to pull links from. As a quick review I will say that I have found it easier going to gain rank with search results on Yahoo than Google (still no major traction there), some progress from MSN and no love from Ask.com. Is there a trick to getting Ask to notice you? Let me know. So here are some specifics to what I can offer. If I don’t list an engine, I simply do not appear in their top 100 results. Damn you Google.

Search Term: buffalo mn - #5 MSN - #27 Yahoo

Search Term: golds gym buffalo mn - #1 Yahoo

Search Term: community center buffalo mn - #10 Yahoo - #12 MSN

Search Terms: buffalo mn news - #1 MSN - #3 Yahoo

Here are the links I’m aware of for FindBuffalo:
City of Buffalo (on drop down nav under community - org’s)
Buffalo School District - District #877
WrightSpot (Wright County Community Site)
DelanoMN (Delano MN Community Site)
Zion Lutheran Church - Buffalo, MN
Marci Weiche, Buffalo, MN Realtor
Wikipedia - Buffalo MN

Since day one I’ve had every intention to add some uniqueness to my blog template, just not time. I know there are about 10 other layouts I like better but I would want to customize them even more. I decided to concentrate on content, learning this blogging game. Finally I knew it was something I had to take the time to slap together after reading Lee Oden’s Blog Tips of the Week:

This week’s tips to bloggers!

1. Include a descriptive tag line near your blog’s logo or title. Give readers something to quickly understand the purpose of your blog
2. Give your blog some identity. Use your name, a catchy blog name, logo, unique design. So many great blogs are using the same blog template as everyone else. When you use a common blog template, it makes your blog look like a spam blog - splog.

So, mix in the logo colors of FindBuffalo, add some grid action and plop down the standard MN city sign for some local spin and visual depth and PRESTO! I did have to get a little help from a few peeps to get it to appear.

Here are 5 blogs that I visually enjoy when visiting:

• Gigaom - Love Business 2.0, love the Om, love the layout
• Search Engine Land - New & fresh from the vets of SEO
• MarlerBlog - Legal schemgal … it’ so clean - it’s dirty.
• Volksbloggin - Fun, fun & fun color scheme, hero shot, so unique
• N. Design Studio - Amazing. Free WP themes too!

Please comment on my new header (good, bad, ugly), much appreciation in advance.

I’m not taking $7.50 for this post as I want to write about this on my dime. I came across RockStartUp.com a few months back through one of the CSS gallery sites, maybe Remix. I was in awe. I love web, I love video, I love entrepreneurs and I love watching a business start up and go somewhere. Combine those and give some transparency to an idea taking flight, a web business making it’s way and I’ll watch daily (or check every day for a new episode). So far there are 6 episodes to date, keep ‘em coming. The first one highlighted founder/CEO Ted Murphy getting his VC money and getting things going. Some of the videos are great … the ones that cover more of the business side. The others offer some entertainment but I could skip those, but I can see how others tune in for that alone.

As far as PayPerPost, I don’t know where I stand. PPP should know that after watching RockStar, I went to the site, signed up but was denied as I had just started blogging at the time. I have yet to go back to resubmit now that I qualify. The plusses are a little coin for your efforts and having them put me onto new products or services. The fact that I can choose to post a little or a lot with these paid posts is enough control for me. The cons I guess are letting the money fog or direct your agenda or opinion. I know PPP doesn’t mandate a glowing post, but still … it does for many. You can also get more inner workings on PPP at their blog.

So I would recommend the RockStartUp vids to any web entrepreneur, it’s fun to watch someone making moves. As far as PPP, we all are in search of some currency, whether it’s cash, popularity, compliments, comments or just an avenue to rant. I’ll let you decide what your posts are worth.