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If you’re just passing through or new to the area, you may miss this jewel called Ozio located in the southern part of Daphne on US Hwy 98, but it’s well worth actually stopping in and grabbing a bite to eat for dinner or lunch. We chose dinner and found a selection of gourmet pizza at its finest.

We arrived at Ozio shortly before 7PM to find an almost packed house lined up to enjoy fine wine, mixed drinks, cocktails, live music by Jeff Glickman on acoustic guitar and, most of all, pizza. It took a moment, but we were greeted with a smile and the absolutely most attentive and polite waitress that we’ve ever had to date.

Both reviewers had un-sweet tea but were offered wine, mixed drinks, and Coke-Cola products as an alternative. We started off our meal with the calamari appetizer, which was served lightly battered with a very delicate but spicy lemon butter dipping sauce unlike any we’ve ever had. One reviewer stated that the calamari was unique enough to be a highlight of its own for the restaurant.

The pizza we ordered was called “Gardinio”, created with fresh red and green peppers, Crimini mushrooms, sliced red onions and arugula. We later found out that the dough of the pizza is not actually tossed. Instead, it is kneaded by hand into the delicacy that it will be once baked. Made as a 14 inch pie, this pizza was both light, healthy and filling all at the same time.

As you can see from the picture, it’s a delicious, hand-made pizza that is served fresh. We didn’t ask if it could be made to order. But judging from what we saw in the kitchen it wouldn’t be hard to get your pizza exactly the way you prefer, given some time.

Ozio provides an atmosphere that’s available for special occasions, a reason to be romantic and families. When you consider the quality at the same price, if not a better price than the corporate chains that really never put that extra care into the experience like Ozio does, you know for sure that you’ve found a keeper.

You can find Ozio online at:

Twitter: @PizzeriaOzio
Facebook: Ozio

Ozio is easily the dining that you’d wished you’d always knew about – a best kept secret of the Eastern Shore and Daphne, if you will – for an absolutely world-class and stellar experience. The service alone was enough to want to go back, not just the food.

We love our local media. We grew up listening to them. Heck, sometimes we are the local media when they get too bored or “busy” to report something. But this is unfortunately a topic that hits us and a good deal of our clients square in the chest. It affects our business in a way that some of you may not even imagine. What is it you ask? The Oil Spill and the media syndicating false rumors surrounding it. I want to be very clear about one specific point because it seems to get lost in the wash of commotion and heartache of wildlife being at risk. What is that point I want to be clear about?

DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON THE NEWS ABOUT THE OIL SPILL! EVERYTHING ON THE ALABAMA COAST IS JUST FINE! (Or at least it was when we wrote this…now, it’s really, really bad.)

We are tired of the fear-mongering and it has had a direct impact on our clients income which in turn hurts our income because they no longer have a budget to advertise in some cases. One thing that this has taught everyone is that regardless if it’s true or not (in this case it’s not), the fact that someone who has a very loud microphone keeps talking about it (AKA the media), the more tourists don’t want to come visit. There are not dead, oiled birds, dolphins or tuna on our coastline. There are not tar balls washing up that would be any different than any other day at the beach (it’s normal for tar balls to wash up at the beach). And there is no smell of oil in the air. The local media reported that there were tar balls but that they were not confirmed to be caused by the oil spill and that LESS THAN A DOZEN were found. Again, that’s not more than normal. Dead fish? Happens all the time. Is it the chemicals in the water? What makes you think there weren’t already chemicals in the water from boats before the oil spill?

It’s no longer comedic or a joke. We’ve gotten fed up with it and the tone of this article surely is indicative of that. And we’re not the only ones. The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce has spoken out against this fallacy of oil covering our beaches and the Gulf Coast being somewhere no one can visit right now too, and we commend them for it:

Friday, May 14, 2010

Dear Friend,

We are urgently working to combat the negative national media message and get the facts out to the United States and the world that the Gulf Coast, including Alabama, is open for business. Our goal is to pass the truth on. Yes, there is an oil spill, is it as bad as they say? You be the judge. At the bottom of this message is a link to information updated daily. It includes reports from NOAA, and daily pictures of the beaches in Baldwin County, Alabama. The beaches of Alabama and the Mobile Bay are very important to us all.. we are all working to be proactive and ready to protect our waterways and natural habitats, WE are committed to keeping you updated with the facts – not the fear factor.

The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce
www.eschamber.com

Here are a few facts from that link:

  • The Alabama Department of Public Health and Alabama Department of Environmental Management stated that there is no foreseeable need to close beaches and, short of a drastic change, they have no plans to do so.
  • Tarballs travel independently of an oil slick and are not an indication that the slick itself will travel in the same direction or to the same area. The oil slick still has not reached the beaches of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) forecasts, is not expected to for at least 72 hours. Forecasts beyond 72 hours are not available.
  • Although NOAA has closed commercial and recreational fishing in a limited area between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Florida’s Pensacola Bay, there is a large area of the gulf still open.
  • All appropriate preventative measures, including oil-absorbing booms, are being used along Alabama’s beaches, bays, inlets and sensitive areas in an effort to prevent oil from reaching our shores. Researchers and scientists have indicated that any impact directly on the beaches can potentially be cleaned effectively and fairly quickly.

GO TO THIS LINK FOR PICTURES , MORE INFORMATION AND DAILY UPDATES!:

http://www.gulfshores.com/issues

Darrelyn
Darrelyn J. Bender
President/CEO
Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce
P.O. Box 310
Daphne, AL 36526
251.621.8222
dbender@eschamber.com

What do you do in a case like this? Well, first: Speak out. Comment here. If you don’t think that’s good enough, call WALA, WKRG, or WPMI, The Press Register and the entire conglomerate of sites that run AL.com and NOLA.com and tell them to stop running stories about it. Second: Go share this and blog about it yourself. Third: Tell all of your friends it’s OK to come to the beach and business is still open for EVERYONE. This is a very passive-aggressive move from our own people! Airing headlines that bleed to lead, putting statements and then following up with “inconclusive” facts. Shame on you local media for ruining your own town and our economy!

The South Alabama market cannot take this. This is unjust and it’s all from the media! Speak out and tell them to quit!  AND DON’T LET THEM DISTRACT YOU WITH ANOTHER STORY!! (People won’t stop thinking it’s unsafe to come to the beach until THEY SAY ITS SAFE – which it IS!)

On this day, one year ago, in the midst of economic chaos and one of the worst financial crises the world has seen in at least a generation, CEO and Founder, Mr. Taylor S. Ripley, laid the foundation to what would become one of the most successful web development and design companies in the State of Alabama. His passion for technology and his belief in the market’s need for a reliable service provider focused on excellence led him to take an incredible risk, which many would not have taken in an economic downturn let alone during such an uncertain time. Yet, his faith was well placed because what the market lacked was a business that applied a long-forgotten model, that of offering valuable services and the creation of a network of long-lasting partnerships. And so TurkReno Incorporated was born.

It has been a bumpy but exciting ride and TurkReno Inc. is living proof that a business that is client and service oriented can be successful under any market conditions. The company has become one of the most reputable providers of IT services with satisfied clients all over the world. We have risen through the ranks of our competitors and have become the #1 Eastern Shore IT service provider in our area by maintaining and expanding on the excellence we consistently achieve in the projects we undertake in the name of our clients.

We understand that our success hinges on the success of our clients and we know that reliability and dedication are the most the important qualities of any partner. TurkReno’s service packages are designed with you, our client, in mind. Service packages that consist to be a complete, custom solution that is adaptable to any project or requirements. Some of the services we offer include:

  • Website Design – Increase your business’ exposure and revenues with a custom designed website created by talented and certified professionals. With the added support of our complete web development solutions, we can create any solution that works.
  • Website Hosting – A reliable and fast service to house your website – second to none in this area guaranteed;
  • Print Advertising – A good advertising campaign targets your potential customers through numerous channels and one efficient and effective way is by using our print advertising service. We can provide you with any type of printing or publication that you may need, be it 1000 business cards or 1,000,000 flyers, we can take care of it;
  • Computer and Server Repair – Our licensed, certified and experienced technicians will keep your company running and efficient by taking care of all your IT maintenance needs;
  • E-commerce Web Site Design – Let us design your custom e-commerce website so your products can reach the whole world. Increase your sales by being available to potential customers 24/7.

We, at TurkReno Incorporated, believe in growth and innovation, which has positioned us as an industry leader. We are constantly expanding our range of services to provide the best and most complete solutions to our clients in Daphne, Spanish Fort, Fairhope, Point Clear, Foley, Orange Beach, Bay Minette, Gulf Shores, and Mobile, Alabama.

We celebrate one year of existence, growth and progress; of creating hundreds of successful websites for businesses worldwide; of undertaking amazing projects and consistently delivering results. We celebrate one year of creating a family of clients that will withstand the tests of time and the harshest market conditions under our wings. We know not what the future may bring, but we are confident that the only way for us to move forward is together as partners.

Most importantly, we want to thank each of our loyal clients and customers who have helped us become who we are today. Without you, we would not be here and our services would not be needed. Thank you so very much. We look forward to several more years to come, providing you each with outstanding and service that is superior to no other IT company in this region.

Cordially Yours,

Taylor S. Ripley

President and Chief Technology Consultant

TurkReno, Inc.

As we as a company continue to move into a virtual world, we have improved our telephone capabilities by integrating our systems with Google Voice. We now have one main number that we would prefer that all contact is made through: 1 (251) 279-0278 — Local to Fairhope, Alabama. This service not only allows us to be called on all phones simultaneously, but also the ability to receive voicemail from anywhere which is then automatically transcribed into a text message to our phones. There are other features that we are going to be using with this system.

From Google explaining the Google Voice System: “Google Voice is a service that gives you one number for all your phones, voicemail that is easy as email, and many enhanced calling features like call blocking and screening, voicemail transcripts, call conferencing, international calls, and more.” We would encourage all of our clients that are interested in this type of technology to go to Google Voice and sign up to be a part of the initial group before this becomes a major public service.

More info from Google: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

We appreciate your business and will continue to keep in contact with each of you.

Best Regards,

Taylor S. Ripley
TurkReno Inc.
P: (251) 279-0278
W: https://turkreno.com

Privacy Notice: This information is not to be collected for advertising purposes.

Doing keyword studies of your business a the key factor when your strategy follows Search Engine Optimization or niche advertising concepts. Of course, the page itself is what makes the reader choose to click, but the correct search engine optimization is what puts your business in front of the readers. The internet keywords must fulfill these criteria: they must be related with your niche, they must be realistic, and they must have a moderate competition. The target is to rank high on the search engine result page with the researched keyword, i.e. to rank better than the competing ones in the eyes of the search engines.

1. Use the Google Internet Keyword Tool
This is what makes it possible to make the research for your business. I have always used free tools, like SEO Book or Google. It is effective to pick long tail keywords, which have around 100 daily searches and to research the present top sites from the search engines result page.

2. Check Backlinks, PR and The Competition Of Each Site

These figures tell you whether you have chances to rank high with your business. Backlinks are the main figure, i.e. your site must have more or better backlinks than the site, which you want to beat. PR is the Google figure, which is usable but not accurate. The number of keyword results in the result you can have by typing quotes around your term and if the figure you will get is lower than 10,000 you have a winner.

3. Build A Keyword Matrix

First your business keywords must be long tail ones and highly related ones. The keyword set can contain both low and high demand keywords and you can start by typing some general keyword into your tool. Then add some words in front and after that term and you will get a nice list of terms. Then do the competition research.

4. Use a Keyword List

First, put all the keywords into your keyword list. Most article directories accept long keyword list. Then put your main keyword into the headline, teaser, many times into the body of the text and hyperlinked into the Author Box.

Use your secondary keywords at least once in the copy. You can pick the main keyword so that it includes all the other ones, i.e. the main keyword is the longest long tail keyword. This way your headline keyword includes all the other keywords, which helps your article to rank high on many result pages.

It is effective to use long keyword list with many keywords, because the keyword software figures are not accurate, so in this way you can guarantee that your business gets the biggest exposure.

The keyword research is very important. When you follow the development of your rankings, you will get a better understanding of which search terms respond to your efforts and which are non-working ones.

SEO should start wherever the SEO professional feels that the client needs to improve their image on the Internet.  There are times when you find clients that have had public affairs that they prefer to keep private, but just don’t on the forums and UseNets.  So, in a sense you want to “bury” this negative PR.  Even though it’s totally your risk to discuss further with the client the fine details of a bad day at their office that managed to get into searches somehow, its really not recommended.  If you know about posts like this, research them yourself and come to your own conclusions.  Sometimes, the people on the Internet may keep posts like this alive for any reason, so be prepared to take a working step several times to hide negative PR.

For Google, the only way to get ahead of bad news is to find news is to use similar channels that were used to add the bad news to begin with and put good news in it’s place.  Relevancy is a big part of how Google works, even if you are the only person reading the search.  If an article is relevant, new (or at least new to the URL), and sticks around for a pretty decent amount of time, Google will add it if it can be seen on a public network.

There are bigger problems that you can run into, even in the very beginning.  Google generally doesn’t always work as a magic genie.  You can’t just make Google do exactly what you want if their search engine already has a cache of what you’re trying to optimize.  Even inside Google Webmaster Tools under Overview, you should have a place to show where Googlebot last came to your site.

Usually when you know when Googlebot will come, it makes for better planning.  You can have a serious amount of traffic and Googlebot may not actually rescan your site for another month if Google thinks that statistically you shouldn’t have a good amount of traffic.  This also indicates Google Cache and Site maps.  The good thing also about bad PR is that if you have verified your site, you can remove things from Google’s cache after actually bothering with a removal submission.

Try starting also with maybe doing a Site map.  Later, I’ll do a great article about GSiteCrawler, which is a really easy way of getting a site map created for your website.