We Love Typography

Would you care to spend one, maybe two hours of your precious time looking at endless amounts of typography? Yes?  Then this is the place to do it. This page offers constant updated images of signage, hand lettering and other samples of type.

COLOURlovers

Colour Lovers is a handy website for designers and non-designers alike. It keeps you up to date on web, print, and fashion color trends and also allows you to create your own palettes and patterns.

The FWA

Aside from being a clean and well designed website itself, FWA (or Favorite Website Awards) features the best of the best in web design, including a site of the day and insightful articles about design in web and other media outlets.

FFFFound!

Keeping up-to-date on trends is the name of the game in the field of design (or really any field for that matter). Since it’s constantly being updated by members around the world, FFFFound! is a great place to pick up on trends, see what other designers are creating and get inspired.

W3 Schools

This site is less about inspiration and more about brushing up on Javascript code and HTML tags. It’s a great page to check out if you’re feeling a little rusty on your web skills or are wanting to learn more about it!

Thanks for reading through and I hope you were able to find some inspiration (or at least an interesting site to waste some time on)!

Take, for instance, the Batman movie series wisely ousting director Joel Schumacher and replacing him with Christopher Nolan.  Very good move, indeed.

And then there’s Yellow Bot.

Yellow Bot’s refreshing new spin on themselves has opened up new and improved ways for local businesses to connect with customers.

Reinventing yourself can be a great way to not only draw in new and old faces to your website, but by paying heed to Yellow Bot’s new design structure, you begin to notice a couple of subtle, yet possibly important ways for local business listings to say hello to consumer search:

1. Ease of Access: Right off the bat, Yellow Bot improves the one thing that escaped business owners from doing as soon as they got there: submission of business. Err, let me rephrase that: you could submit your business listing the whole time, it’s just for “user-friendly” experience, you kind of had to go Sherlock Holmes on the website before you could find the “Add Business Listing” icon.  Nowadays, there’s an icon at the bottom that’s big, blue and looking for you.
2. Speedy Exposure: Once you’ve claimed your business and added the proper information, Yellow Bot has always been very good about placing your listing up in a timely manner.  Only thing is, this time you’re the star of the show for a day.  By that I mean your newbie listing is given top-shelf treatment via any photos you’ve included.  You’re only given three picture slots, so make them as pleasing to the eye as possible, because the right picture just might turn in the lead you’ve been looking for.

Just like Google’s subtle change to their home page, the warm, inviting colors used by Yellow Bot make the site look appropriate for today’s web design pallets.  Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Yellow Bot lets you run rampant with your business listing, allows you to add numerous tags and such.

So go on, embrace change and get active with your business listing today!

As long as your numbers prove your design works (with either purely images or live text, also), then there’s no problem. This example, sent by Urban Outfitters yesterday, shows the email marketing trend that many large brands are going with. Without the alt tags (which just say a quick message about what the image is, if not displayed), the email would just be one big white box. A company like U.O. can certainly use their audience to their own advantage when sending emails: they are generally young and probably tech savvy, or at least understand that if you want to see the pretty pictures, you have to take that extra step to ‘Display Images’. It’s a gamble, but it looks like U.O., along with so many other companies, are willing to take it.

So once you get past the ‘Display Images’ issue, what should your all-graphics email look like? It should be worth the extra click, and I feel that Urban Outfitters accomplished that with this email. Their marketing is usually edgy, integrating popular art trends, and with this email they’ve decided to show that using a beautiful color scheme with bold letters is all it takes. Of course the words ‘Free Shipping’ are always a good attraction, but the graphic was only as busy as it needed to be, and as a customer I appreciated that.

The moral of the story: don’t over-stimulate your audience with tons of pictures. The message should be clear, and the graphics should only be used to add to it, not distract.

Early in the history of the modern Internet, the need for order was realized.  Authors and users both wanted some way to connect and that is still true today.  After many ideas were explored and tested on the live Internet, the best solution came in the form of a computerized searching tool -  The Search Engine.

It’s generally agreed that the first modern search engine was Archie back in 1990 which was soon followed by Gopher. These early engines were pretty good at cataloging and indexing files and file contents found on web-servers around the world. Many engines based on similar technology followed and were the popular ways to find things throughout the 90′s.  But, what really propelled the use of the Internet by the masses was the concept of PageRank based on Relevance. This was a new idea first introduced by the 2 year old company called Google in 2000. 

As search engines refined their abilities to deliver relevant results to people searching for particular things, the art of  ’search engine optimization’ came into being.  Commonly known today as SEO, search engine optimization was the practice of writing web pages so that the content was easily understood by the search engines and indexed and cataloged accordingly. This practice soon turned into an abuse free for all as website authors learned how to trick the search engines to deliver pages that had no relevance to what the searcher was looking for. SEO picked up a bit of a bad reputation due to the exposure of this practice. 

Now, in order to be a viable search engine,  relevant pages must be found using more than the ‘on-page’ content. ‘Off-page authority’ has become the source of page relevance that the most successful search engines use today.  Why? Because it’s really hard to fake! Today’s successful SEO professionals understand this and work hard with their clients to create off-page authority.  SEO is quite a different art than it started out to be! 

So what does all this mean in today’s world and online-success? And, how does it relate
to a three legged stool!?  Especially when we’ve really only discussed two legs so far:
1.) Getting a website and
2.) Getting search engines to deliver it. 

First let me define modern ”online-success”.  In the business world and beyond, online success has evolved just as the web has. Originally, online success meant that you were successful in acquiring a domain and publishing a web page…  Tada!  that was it…  Whoopee do! 

As more and more web pages came online, online success became more than just having a web page, it was now all about positioning that web page so that it could be found…  SEO enters the picture.

In its first generation, it was possible for a  seller of GREEN BOWLING BALLS to be positioned #1 for someone searching for Bowling Green, KY!  Regardless of how many green bowling balls were sold, if any, it was deemed that being able to ”SEO” that position was online-success.  The thing was, in spite of occupying that position, true business success wasn’t really attained at all. 

Finally, online success has become a summation of 3 elements (here comes the three legged stool analogy) 1.) Having a website, 2.) the site being seen by relevant visitors and 3.) by a marketing term called Conversion.

Conversion is when an anonymous visitor finds a page, relevant to what they were looking for and becomes, or converts into, a customer, donator, member, contributor or whatever the goal of the web page was to begin with. 

Successful online marketing incorporates all three of these elements. In fact, it’s really impossible to eliminate any of them and still be successful. As a business owner, it’s easy to get caught up in web designer world where all you think about is the site itself. A website occupying a URL does NOT an online success make!  Some SEO companies will say over and over again that “it doesn’t matter how great your site is if no one sees it.”  And that is true to a point. To these companies, ”getting found”  may still be online success.  But a complete online marketer goes one step further and includes conversion as an equally important element in REAL online success.

Some were about Bing’s listing center being down for too long, but to Bing’s credit, maintenance issues for a listing system that big can take a while.

But the more and more I looked over the complaints, the more this issue reared its ugly head. It’s a problem I’ve ranted about many times: The arduous wait for your confirmation letter.

Bing’s listing response time is equivalent to that friend of yours who responds to a text message question a day and a half later, where not only do you forget what the question even was, you’re a little peeved it took so long.

The only exception being that message is your business listing. And since you’re queued up waiting for the letter to be delivered on horseback, the opportunity to be noticed on a search engine that generates immense traffic is being held captive.

Why it’s taking so long to address this is anyone’s guess. It would be in Bing’s best interest to have a listing center that goes toe-to-toe with Google. Not only does Bing have a pretty and diverse home page presentation to draw people in, their listing center is very beneficial for helping small to large businesses get their face out there.

As for the solution, well it’s pretty obvious in some areas (get a better delivery carrier, create an extension number addition for phone verification), but the one area that’s in need of a makeover is the means at which to wrangle in Bing’s customer support.

There’s this method, but I’ve been waiting in line on that one, too. Here’s hoping someone breaks through to them…

Even though a “brand’ is intangible, it refers to the reputation behind your company’s name. A carefully built brand is worth more in actual dollars than all the tangible assets put together. To start, you must decide how you want people to perceive your business – visually as well as internally. Create a mission statement.

I have some experience myself with brand loyalty, as many others do in their shopping. For instance, many people purchase only a certain kind of shampoo and have been using it for years because they trust the brand. Whether it has been in the family for years or just because the product is very efficient, the level of comfort your brand is very important for prospective and long term customers. So how do you go about creating brand loyalty?

Create a logo! Take Nike and Mcdonalds for example, you do not need to read the company’s name to understand what it is. Your logo should allow your brand to be instantly recognized by those familiar with it. To this extent, your logo helps create and reinforce brand awareness. The logo you create should be able to be used consistently in a variety of different media. It should be suitable for corporate letterhead and business cards, as well as for your website and corporate signage (if any).

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http://www.brandbucket.com/ ( We offer a selection of quality hand-picked premium logos and domain names available for sale as ready-to-use brands for your business startup, new product name or blog name. ) My Brandbucket Profile – Need a domain/logo? Buy mine!

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Identify and Describe Your Target Market- Decide whether you want to target lthe entire webhosting community or only a segment of it such as small business websites. Describe your market.

For one, you need consistent advertising. Decide what you can do for your customers, what is the true beneficiary of your product or service. Create a ‘sell line’ that defines your company in a nutshell.

Customer Service – Employ people who can get on board with your brand  – One small non cooperative experience with a customer can greatly affect your business by word of mouth.

Public Relations – Keep the promises you make! Make it easy for your customers to do certain tasks (like return an item, buy online, etc) See what your customers are disappointed with, and make it better/easier

Use the internet – A company with no web presence is archaic. Even if you’re only interested in local sales right now, your customers are on the web, and they’ll want to see you there, too. Get it done now.

Kudos entrepreneur.com

In both Photoshop and Illustrator, you’ll find in the File drop-down menu an option for ‘Save For Web & Devices’. When you click this, a box comes up with a variety of options. Don’t stress! Make it easier on yourself and in the top left corner, click ’4-Up’. This will separate your image into 4 boxes, which will show you the quality for the size.

You’ll notice in the above screen shot that the drop-down menu on the right, labeled ‘Preset:’ is currently on PNG-24. This is where you can choose the different file extensions and then see their qualities and sizes.

PNG
PNGs are great for transparency when you choose the highest quality, but they are known for their large file size. If you use one or two colors, the size will be smaller than those images with every color of the rainbow. Keep this in mind when saving for web.

GIF
GIFs also do transparency, when you choose the highest quality, but they tend to put a white outline around your object or text.

JPGs
JPG is best for small file size, but you cannot do transparency at all. They are also notorious for pixelating or blurring text if you don’t choose the highest possible size.

These are certainly not ‘The Rules’ – as you’ll see in the comparison below, the JPG ended up being the largest file size, when usually it’s the other way around. When there are more colors in the mix, the JPG will almost always be the smallest size, but again the quality sometimes lacks.

Comparing the End Product
Seeing as my example was only one color, the file sizes are comparable. To show when transparency worked, I put the original image (the purple text) over the orange background.

The PNG file size was 10KB with great quality, and was able to do transparency flawless.

The GIF file size was 12KB, and although the transparency works, there is a white outline around the text. Unless your image will be on a white background, transparent gif isn’t usually the best option.

The JPG file size was the most with 19KB, and transparency was not an option. Here it shows that you are forced to have a white background around your image.

Hopefully this quick tutorial helps to clarify when certain extensions should be used, and what their shining qualities are.

I spent a lot of time with prospective clients and small businesses, learning about them and relating what we do to how they can sell more online. I get asked a lot of questions. Today I thought I would address a few of the most Frequently Asked Questions about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and online marketing.

>>>>> What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
There are two main component to SEO:
(1) Onpage Optimization or what’s happening on your website
(2) Offpage Optimization or promotion of your website through other websites.

Onpage Optimization tells the search engines what the page is about. This is done through a variety of ways including, but not limited to, keywords, page titles, page descriptions, metatags, and so on. The goal of Onpage is to make each page on your site unique, targeted to what people are looking for and relevant to them. Onpage Optimization alone will rarely help your site to be visible on the first page of Google (which is where all of the clicking happens).

Offpage Optimization is the promotion of your content by getting strong websites that are related to what you do (but don’t compete) to link to your website. These are called Backlinks. In the case of Backlinks we are looking for both quality and quantity. These Backlinks are like references to Google and the other engines — they help you to establish your authority in your space. I know a great deal about Organic Farming, Google. But don’t just take my word for it, check out all of these really great websites, blogs, directories, etc. that are about organics and farming that link to my site.

>>>>> What does Conversion Optimization mean?
A. Conversion is a fancy way of saying that someone met your goal or desired outcome when they landed on your website. You asked them to buy your widget, to complete a form or make a phone call…and they did. When someone lands on your site as a result of a keyword search they need to be guided down the path to an action. That action needs to represent your goals.

If you sell insurance and know that once you speak with someone on the phone, you can usually make the sale, then a phone call is your conversion. (Oh, and we offer phone tracking as well so you can measure those calls.) The same holds true if you want someone to send an email, that email or form submission is your conversion. Your website has to ask people to convert. If you spend money to market a website that doesn’t convert then you are wasting your marketing dollars. Conversion Optimization is a process that involves strategy, design and site structure to guide folks to your desired goal.

>>>>> More of a statement than a question, but…No one looks for my service online.
Simply stated: Yes, they do.

We partner with you to learn about your product/service/million dollar idea. And then conduct extensive research to find out how many people are searching and what words they use to find a product or service like yours. And remember we aren’t overly concerned with how you or Sally in your office would look for your service online, but how the world would.

>>>> And the ever popular…How much does it cost?
SEO is not a one-size fits all, package solution. After extensive research, we custom bid each and every project to create the right plan to address your goals, timeline and competition. We work almost exclusively with small to mid-sized businesses to create affordable, trackable campaigns that get your website seen and that guide folks to do something once they get there.

Bottom line is that SEO is about having a great website that guides viewers to an action and that people can actually find it when searching.

We’re all familiar with the idea of a website sitemap. It’s generally that convoluted page that has all the links that really don’t help you navigate to where you want to be because it’s not structured very well and it just goes on and on and on kinda like this sentence. Well, as hard as it is for us to figure out, the search engines just love ‘em (at least a version of them).

When our Google, Bing, or Yahoo overlords send out their robots to crawl the interwebs, the purpose is to gather all the information stored on your website. In an oversimplification, this is accomplished by starting at one website. Then they follow the links that are embedded within that site which lead them to another site. Those links are then followed and eventually they have a pretty good layout of the entire internet.

So what if you have a page that no one links to? Or you have some pages that you don’t want to be included in the search engine listings. This is where you can take control of your content. The first thing a search bot does when it visits your home on the web is look for a little file called robots.txt. This file should be located in the root folder of your domain. It is within this robots.txt file that you give the search bot either its all access pass, or a cease and desist order. It is also where you can point it to your xml sitemap.

The XML sitemap is the roadmap to your world but written in a format that computers can easily understand. The search bots like that XML part. We won’t go into details regarding exactly how to read or write XML, but if you’d like more information I encourage you to learn more.

Providing the search engines with this “map to your stars” will help you keep your entire site indexed. This is true whether the page in question is linked to from another site or not. Bear in mind though that the XML sitemap is not a magic pill. The XML sitemap won’t necessarily help this page rank higher within the search listings, but at least it will be accounted for.

So how do I make an XML sitemap?

I’m glad you asked. The easiest and most powerful way to include a sitemap in your Worpress powered site is through a plugin called Google XML Sitemaps. This plugin will not only make a map of your site but also notify each of the major search engines whenever you update your content. As an added bonus the plugin also adds the location of the XML sitemap to your robots.txt file. Overall it’s a win win for both you and the search bots.

What if I’m not using WordPress?

Well, that’s not ideal, but all hope is not lost. For Drupal you can find a module here. For those of you still using Movable Type the process requires more work but you can start by looking at this page.

The benefits of helping the search engines index your data far outweigh the time it will take to get an XML sitemap up and running. I encourage you to add this task to the top of your website priority list and help your search engine overlords help you.

Why’s he so excited?

Well, picture him riding in from the skies atop a link. Now put him aboard 1,000 more of those and his cowboy hat waving starts to be a bit more joyous, almost hitting a peak of excitement that makes you question his sanity. He knows the advantages link building can have on his business, and (pun intended) business is booming.

While there are a few minor annoyances to link building (i.e., some link directories have way too many guidelines, while others say it’s free to submit, only to queue your URL without further notice), you’ll start to see how much exposure your website can garner after obtaining a number of links.

Here are just a few reasons why you should stop worrying and fall in love with the link:

1. Google Ogles You: Not just them, but the other major search engines will start to take notice of your website with more links. More links to other sites, directories or mentions from an online blog can make you relevant and give you a rankings jolt.

2. Quality Links Earn Major Kudos: If Mr. Sellers’ cherry bomb helped quiet the mice problem in the basement of a local high school, the online student paper might reference his “heroics” and put a link to his website in the article. Getting links from well-established online websites like a school, your local government or any other major organization can push your presence up even further.

3. As Easy as 1,2, LSV: The process of filling out a link form is somewhat along the lines of entering your business into a local search directory.

4. …Or A Simple “Please”: Whether through email or over the phone, a simple request to a website for a link can get the job done.

In the end, link building can be seen as beneficial gossip for your business. It’s like a simple joke that gets passed around, and with each turn, new layers are added until eventually it ends up becoming a grandiose event that everyone’s in on.

There are numerous directories out there waiting for your gossip. Why not let them in?