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We all know, that in actual fact designers not only create images that are designed to catch the eye of the consumer, but to make a business appear professional also and indeed the core purpose of their work is to help convert potential customers into actual customers via brand/image and marketing materials linked in with this.
Is that all?
I’m sure a lot of business owners think that really is all there is to the design industry that serves them and the many designers that populate it.
In some cases (for some designers) that really is all there is to it – they don’t operate on many other levels other than to make their designs professional, pretty, and eye catching.
However there really are other aspects that must be considered when you commission a designer to develop the brand image for your business, a couple of these are explored in more detail now;
1. Target Market
Recently I was approached by a company interested in brand design; their product and service was one that should be targeting both men and women, and yet when I was shown the design they had received already for another designer I immediately noted some glaring issues with it.
The design itself was eye pleasing and on the surface of it a less experienced person may observe that it was a professional effort; but the designer had produced something which featured a stylised woman as the central figure within the logo and not only that despite the stylised nature of the image, she was clearly of oriental heritage.
I quickly pointed out to the customer that when one’s target market is male and females and not women only, that to gender bias one’s logo design is counter productive, and even worse to possibly alienate even more people by making the character a particular ethnicity when your product is targeted at all nationalities.
A creative must think, think, think, and then and think some more about the target market when they are designing. To enable that before they start designing, they absolutely have to ask the business owner about the business; who are the customers, how will the product or service be sold to them, and so on.
2. Colors & Tones
A long time ago now I wrote a very popular article entitled the ‘The Relationship Between Colors & Sales’ – I’ve long since populated the piece across the internet and you can thus read it on many websites.
Although as creatives we don’t need to enslave ourselves completely to the rules of color psychology, any designer working on a project should always keep this in mind.
In addition to considering the psychological effect certain colors have on mood and behaviour, which is well documented by the marketing industry, one needs to consider the socio-economic dynamic of the target market as this has some bearing on the tone of the color scheme chosen.
For instance it’s not uncommon for my clients to ask for a bright color scheme for their brand design, but this doesn’t always suit their target market; it’s known that low income groups are attracted to bright colors and thus if you don’t wish to attract low income groups a bright color scheme isn’t right for your brand design regardless of what you like as an individual.
When your designer goes to work and you review concepts it’s vital to appreciate the design isn’t supposed to necessarily appeal to what you like, it’s supposed to appeal to your target market and this may not necessarily be the same thing as your own favourite colors.
These are just a couple of important areas that must be considered by your designer before they start work on your brand development, some of the other areas include;
- Ensuring the design will work well whether printed billboard sized or business card sized.
- Making sure the company name is easily readable.
- Ensuring the design is neither too tall in height, or too wide horizontally; disproportionate designs can be more difficult to incorporate into layouts for print such as flyers, stationery, brochures and so on; this means these items may not look as good as they should.
Much of this advice can also be applied even when you already have your brand design established and have moved on to developing this further with your marketing materials.
It’s important that the designer working on your printed stationery and marketing materials appreciates the need to be sympathetic to the brand theme already established, and also has sufficient skill and experience to bear in mind that designs created must appeal to the target market.
About the Author
Tony Mack is an award winning graphic/web designer and internet marketing expert that operates One Source Graphics, Inc. He works with small local businesses and large internet based companies to create dramatic marketing material that they use to get more sales and more clients. In addition, he has a highly successful internet business that publishes e-products, learning products, iPhone and windows software, and has helped thousands of people learn and improve their own internet marketing strategies.
800-974-5580
TonyMack@OneSourceGraphics.org
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When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are six important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.
1) Do not use splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. In fact, they are just that — pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements
Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
3) Have a simple and clear navigation
You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will leave your site.
4) Have a clear indication of where the user is
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “abandon ship”!
5) Avoid using audio on your site
If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it — volume or muting controls would work fine.
6) The most important – Host only with a Reliable Hosting Provider.
Before Chosing a Web Hosting provider, read its reviews and always check the top 10 hosting providers. A good resource to research hosting providers is at Top10DedicatedHosting.com
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Huge Mistake #1:
Creating a Website with Flash
— Did you know in a recent study, top internet marketers discovered that having a website created with Flash, actually decreased the response from prospects and customers by as much as 370 percent?
Here’s why: Your prospects and customers are most likely visiting your website using all types of different computers, connection speeds and internet configuration settings…
What may look great to one visitor may not even appear for another! You could very easily have shelled out hundreds or even thousands of dollars to have a website created using the Flash technology, only to find out that some of your visitors will never see it! (Not to mention the loading times can cause your visitor to close your site, never to return again.)
Huge Mistake #2:
The “Internet Catalog” Approach
— You see this everywhere. Good, honest and hardworking businessmen and women get online to sell their products or services, and have a site created for them that contains a link to just about everything they offer on one page. Their thinking goes along the lines of, “…well, I don’t want to leave anyone out. If they come to my site, I want to make sure I have what they’re looking for…” — This way of thinking could not be further from the truth.
Here’s why: There’s an ancient rule that goes back to the very beginning of direct-marketing on the internet, taught by the richest, most legendary and well-respected internet marketers of all time…
“When you give your prospects too many choices, they become confused and aren’t sure what to do next. Confused people never buy anything.”
Huge Mistake #3:
Optimizing Your Sales Site for the Search Engines
— You’ll see this taught in nearly every “internet marketing” course, manual or eBook out there… “You must optimize every page of your website for the search engines!” — In fact, this false teaching is accepted as ‘gospel truth’ so often that most web designers will offer to do this for you at no, or little extra cost…
What they don’t understand is that certain words and phrases must be either re-worded (to make it “keyword rich”) or taken out completely, just to be looked upon highly by the mighty search engines — and this could kill your sales, literally overnight.
Here’s why: When you or a hired web designer optimize your sales page (i.e. any web page designed to sell your products and services) to get a higher listing in the search engines, you’re going to have to sacrifice the pulling-power of your sales copy (i.e. written sales material) just to get those higher listings. Sure, this can bring you more traffic — but what good is all the traffic in the world, if your visitors arrive at your website and aren’t compelled enough to read why they should order your product?
For years, it has been taught that you should always try to find a “balance” of SEO (Search-Engine-Optimization) mixed with promotional copy designed to sell your products and services…
Wrong Again! — The truth is that you should never optimize your sales page for the Search Engines. Instead, you should create tiny “entry pages” for each keyword related to your product or service, (highly optimized for the Search Engines) and have them link to your main sales site! (We can show you exactly how to do this quickly and easily and get *massive* targeted traffic from the Search Engines – without ever *touching* your sales site!)
Huge Mistake #4:
Having a “Graphics-Based” Website
— Sure, graphics can certainly help us to visualize a particular situation or circumstance, product or service… But did you know that having a graphically-driven website can actually distract your visitor away from your sales message?
After all, your sales message (or “web copy”) is The #-1 most important factor in a website that makes money. If your visitors are paying more attention to your “professional graphics” than your sales message… you’ve just lost another sale.
Here’s why: You’ve got approximately seven seconds from the time your visitor arrives at your site, to the time they decide whether to buy your product, get more information or leave. If you’ve got a graphically-intensive website, your website will most likely still be loading past your seven-second time limit.
That’s a “customer-killer” in and of itself – however, the real reason lies within the fact that the bigger, brighter and more beautiful your graphics are, the more they will distract your visitor from your sales message. And if your visitor is distracted even for one second, it could mean the difference between getting a sale, and losing a customer.
Huge Mistake #5:
Designing a Website with Zero Marketing Experience
— Most web designers have no idea how to make money on the internet, with anything other than their design services. It’s not their fault – they simply have no or very little marketing and sales experience. After all, they’re just website designers…
However, having your website designed by someone with Zero internet marketing experience is like buying a street-car without an engine… it won’t go anywhere, and it’ll just waste your time and money!
For help on website design please give us a call at 800-974-5580
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Pinterest: Summing it All Up
By now, you have probably come to realize the importance of using Pinterest as part of your business’s marketing strategy. Social networking is the new word-of-mouth and, if you learn how to use it correctly, it can bring traffic to your website and business to your company.
Pinterest is more than a social network, it is a network about lifestyles where people share common interests. You need to find a way to make your company’s products or services fit into the lifestyles of Pinterest users. Finding new and creative ways that people can use your goods and services is the best way to get attention to your pinboards and your company. It is not simply about showing what you sell, it is about showing how what you sell can make their lives better in ways they did not realize.
If you are not already set up on Facebook and Twitter, you need to do that as well and be sure to cross-promote your company on all social networking channels. You need your company’s identity and activities to be consistent across all your marketing efforts. The truth is, not every Facebook user is on Pinterest or Twitter and not every Pinterest user is on Twitter or Facebook so you have to cover all of your bases.
When creating your pinboards, simplicity, creativity and organization is the name of the game. You do not want to overwhelm with too much on your pinboard that your message gets lost. At the same time, you want enough on there to pique the interest of users and have them look further—hopefully going to your company’s website. Make sure to also organize and title your pinboards so people know what they are looking at. If you are creating more abstract looking pinboards, you run the risk of people not understanding what they are looking at so a title would be helpful.
Finally, do not be a passive user on Pinterest. That is a surefire way to be overlooked. Pinterest users actively pin images and videos to their pinboards, comment on other user’s pins as well as sharing and repinning those pins. You need to become a part of the Pinterest community. By taking an active role and scoping out other user’s pinboards and commenting on them, you open the door for them to reciprocate and check out your pinboards and your company.
Joining Pinterest is free so you have nothing to lose by joining and seeing what kind of traffic and leads you can generate from it. Many big companies are already gaining tremendous traffic simply by having a presence on Pinterest. There is no reason in the world why you should not be able to reap the same benefits.
Tony Mack and his team of graphic experts at One Source Graphics, Inc., have already created some exciting pinboards that they would love to share with you. Go to http://pinterest.com/TonyMackGD and view their unique graphic design concepts. Follow their pinboards so you can see their creativity at work. You can also call them at 1-800-974-5580 to see first hand how their graphic design work can help your business and your bottom line.
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How Popular Companies are Using Pinterest
If you think that Pinterest is just for bored housewives or busy bodies, than you have not looked in to how this new social networking site can give your business a boost when it comes to leads and sales. Many of today’s top brands are using Pinterest as part of their marketing strategy and it is showing tremendous success. Consider this—five specialty apparel retailers had their referral traffic from Pinterest jump 389% from July to December of last year.
In order to have that kind of success, however, you have to be more than a presence on Pinterest. Unlike a traditional website where you simply post your company information with your “About Us” pages and descriptions of your products and services, Pinterest users are active members who do not just read and look. They are sharing images, ideas and information by pinning things of interest and sharing them with others who have the same interests. And that is what you need to do when you join Pinterest for marketing purposes—you need to actively engage in the pinning process creating pinboards that people can identify with and will want to follow as well as doing some pinning and repinning of your own.
Here is a look at some companies that have found a way to use Pinterest to their benefit:
Chobani
The Greek yogurt company may offer a simple and healthy product, but it is the way they are presenting that product on Pinterest that is interesting. Rather than just showing pictures of their many varieties of yogurt, they have pinboards with recipes that you can make using their product. In addition, they also have a pinboard that has nothing to do with their products at all. It is titled “Nothing But Good’ and it shows funny images that will bring a smile to your face. Here is an example of a brand using this new media to promote more than a product, but also a lifestyle surrounding their product.
Oreck
Vacuum cleaners may not hold much interest to people other than cleaning up messes, but Oreck has found a way to make this household appliance worth following. Their pinboards show beautifully laid out flooring (the cleanliness of the floors implies that their product produced that look without ever having to show their vacuums). They also have a “Furry Friend” pinboard showing images of pets which most people know is a reason to have a vacuum in the first place. Oreck has taken their product out of the image, but has created images that speak for the product.
Etsy
As a popular online shopping website with more than 50,000 followers, Etsy has definitely found a way of promoting its products through Pinterest. Their specialty is vintage and homemade goods and they show you through their pinboards how to apply these goods to your everyday life. They also make a point of showing you how to make your own products. Many of their pinboards feature ideas for the holidays and how their products can make great gifts. For them, it is all about thinking outside of the box.
Drake University
Who would have thought that a university needs a Pinterest presence? Well, Drake University did and they are proving to be doing a great job with it. Their pinboards are geared towards their student population complete with dorm room decorating ideas, school color-inspired clothing and study inspirations. They even devote an entire pinboard to their bulldog mascot. Drake University has found a way to connect with their students as well as attracting future students.
Peapod
As the largest grocery delivery service in the United States, Peapod has definitely found a way to tap into the Pinterest movement. Their pinboards feature images of how the food is delivered to you and which produce is currently in season. They also highlight their delivery trucks in one pinboard showing the many cities the trucks travel to on their routes. You can even see the green bins being loaded onto the trucks prior to delivery. This behind-the-scenes look gives people a chance to watch a company at work which people do not often get to do. By doing this, Peapod has found a way to make something that seems boring and mundane now interesting.
As you can see, it does not matter what type of business you are or what type of product or service you offer. If you think creatively and apply it to your Pinterest account, you can entice people to become instant followers. The important thing to remember is to keep creating and updating your pinboards and to follow others as well. If Pinterest users notice that you are recognizing them, they are sure to start recognizing and following you.
At One Source Graphics, Inc., Tony Mack and his team of graphic experts have already created some awe-inspiring pinboards that they would love for you to see. Go to http://pinterest.com/TonyMackGD and view their unique graphic design concepts. Follow their pinboards so you can see their creativity at work. You can also call them at 1-800-974-5580 to see first hand how their graphic design work can help your business and your bottom line.
In tomorrow’s post—final thoughts on using Pinterest in your marketing strategy.
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Pinterest and Marketing: A Winning Combination
Now that you have set up a Pinterest account and profile, you need to use it to drive people to your website in hopes that they become customers. You cannot simply wait for people to find you. You need to initiate activity that keeps people “pinterested” in what you have to say and, in this case, what you pin.
Here are a few ideas on how to get Pinterest users to become followers of your pinboards and, hopefully, future customers.
Create Pinboards that are Visually Appealing
After all, Pinterest is based on visual concepts so the more eye appeal your boards have, the more likely they are to get noticed and followed. So how do you create pinboards that attract followers?
- Design a pinboard that depicts the culture or mood of your business. There is nothing wrong with showcasing your staff during lighter moments or just doing their job and enjoying it. This sends a message that people at your company like their job, take pride in their work and, because of that, produce a high quality product or service.
- Combine your site’s blog content and visuals with your pinboards. You need to start making connections between all your social marketing tools so that your company’s message is coherent and consistent.
- Charts and infographics may sound boring, but if done correctly, they can relay some important information that Pinterest users may not know. For example, if your company sells exercise equipment, you can show a graph how the number of people exercising these days has skyrocketed or which types of machines benefit what parts of the body. There are many ways to creatively disperse information without having it appear like a business presentation.
- If you or any of your staff have published articles, books, e-books, etc., create a pinboard highlighting these points with a visual of the publication. You and your employees will come across as hard-working and driven people who are passionate about what you do.
- Your customers are your biggest marketers. After all, they continue to do business with you because they are satisfied with what they are getting. Use them to your advantage and show pins of them using your product or service. You can even use some of your best customer’s pins and create a pinboard specific to them.
Host a Contest
Everyone loves a contest even if there is no real prize. The mere joy of just winning is enough for people. So why not hold a Pinterest contest asking people to design a pinboard using some of your company’s visuals? You can even offer a special discount to the winner if they are interested in purchasing your products or services. You can also invite other users to comment and help determine the winner.
Include the “Pin It” Button on Your Website
Not everyone is on Pinterest so for visitors who go directly to your site through search engines, include the Pinterest button as you would a Facebook or Twitter button so that people can access you through here as well. Who knows—they may decide to become Pinterest users after seeing what the social networking site is all about.
Get Customer Profiles
What better way to see what you customers’ interests are than by following their pinboards and seeing what they like to follow? This will give you a good idea as to what they like and what their needs might be. You can install tracking software to see which customers find you through Pinterest. You can also keep track of any offers that they take advantage of and then use that information to send them more personalized e-mails or messages when you want to try selling them something else that fits in with their profile or past purchases.
Be an Expert
You want to be the go-to person when it comes to information in your industry. What better way to do that than by creating pinboards that show unique ways to use your products or services. By doing this, you will inspire others to think of your company in a different way than other companies in the same industry. You will stand out as an innovator who thinks outside of the box.
Link Your Pins
This may sound obvious, but make sure you provide your website link in any pin descriptions you have on your pinboards. This is important because if anyone wants to take one of your pins or share it with someone else, your website will be a permanent part of the pin so curious users can automatically click on the link and go directly to your site. The best way to do this is to have the link go to the original web page that has the pinned image. Doing this will allow visitors to go directly where they want to without searching high and low. You want them to find things easily rather than get frustrated and quickly leave your site.
Make Your Visuals Move
Still images are not the only pins you can use on your pinboards. Video images have their place on your boards as well. There is a separate tab for videos on the Pinterest homepage which means you will be featured here and potentially gain more followers.
When pinning a video, make sure it is something that people would enjoy. If the president of your company gave an important speech, you may want to include a part of that or show how one of your products is made. If you have that homemade chocolate shop, who would not want to watch chocolates being made? It is a great way to connect with people by getting them involved in your process and enticing them to look further.
Use Hashtags
Pinterest supports hashtag use so be sure to use them when tagging your pins to make the content easier during searches. You also want to tie them in to any special event or new product or service you would like to promote and link it with your Twitter account. This will tie all your social media together through cross-promotion.
Think Offline as well as Online
Not everything you pin has to be tied directly to your goods and services. If you sponsor a charitable event each year, for example, you can create a pinboard showing images (and video) of the event and begin the process of talking about the next one you are planning to sponsor. People will get excited to see what you have planned next.
Give Your Business a Personality
At the end of the day, it is your employees that help make your business work. So why not pay homage to them by creating a pinboard devoted entirely to them? This can give your company a personality. Show funny moments, celebratory events or special occasions. You can even include images of them hard at work. People will relate better to your company if they see the real people that they will hopefully be dealing with when they decide to do business with you.
At One Source Graphics, Inc., Tony Mack and company have already begun creating interesting pinboards on Pinterest. Go to http://pinterest.com/TonyMackGD to see their unique graphic design concepts. And do not forget to follow his boards so you can keep up with the many inspiring designs he and his staff have created. You can also call them at 1-800-974-5580 to see first hand how their graphic design work can help your business and your bottom line.
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Search Engine: It is worth cataloguing the basic principles to be enforced to increase website traffic and search engine rankings.
- Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
- Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
- Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.
- Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page. Like Title, META tags, Headers, etc.
- Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
- Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.
- Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
- Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
- Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see
where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you. - Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
- Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.
- When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer’s experience fast and easy.
- When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
- Don’t look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.
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So you want to create an account with Pinterest as part of your marketing strategy. Oddly enough, it is not quite as easy as it sounds because you need an invitation from them or someone you know on Pinterest in order to join. You can go to the Pinterest website and request an invitation which is usually granted with no problem. However, having someone you know invite you is a much quicker way of getting in.
Rules for Setting Up Your Account
Once you receive your invite, you can begin setting up your account. The first thing you want to make sure of is that you use the same e-mail address that you use for your Twitter account. This will allow you to share your pins through Twitter so sign up through the Twitter option as opposed to Facebook which currently does not have a link between their business pages and Pinterest.
After your account is created and active, you want to complete a profile of your company with detailed information including a link to your business’s website, your logo and a brief description of your business. One important thing when setting up your profile—there is an option that states “hide your Pinterest profile from search engines”. Make sure you have that option turned off or else your website will not get indexed in a search.
Abide by Proper Pinterest Etiquette
The main objective of Pinterest is to bring people together who have common interests and let them share those interests with each other. With that said, Pinterest definitely is a place for you to showcase your talents through creative imagery, but it is not a place to brag, boast or conduct any self-promotion. Remember, using social networking is a different type of marketing tool. It works on word-of-mouth (so to speak), not having hundreds of businesses bombard you with advertisements for their goods and services.
When you set up your business’s pinboards, do so in a way that does not alienate people. You want people to relate to your company and what it is you have to offer them. For example, if you are a candy shop and make your own chocolates, do not have pinboards with just pictures of boxes of chocolate. You need to show how the chocolate brings people together—maybe showing two best friends laughing over a box of truffles or a little girl giving a box of heart-shaped chocolates to her dad on Father’s Day. Whatever the visual is, you want to create a connection with anyone who sees it.
Become a Pinterest Pied Piper
So now you are set up on Pinterest with your account, your profile and your pinbaords. Now all you need are some followers. There are two ways that people get followed—by pinboard or by user.
The first type of following involves someone finding one of your pinboards that is of interest to them. They can follow that particular board and will be notified anytime you pin something new to it. The second type of following involves users themselves. You can follow a particular user and you will be notified anytime they pin something to any of their pinboards, not just specific ones. It is very possible that a pinboard may have more followers than the actual user which is what makes Pinterest so different.
But as a business looking to grow and make money, you want people to follow both you and your pinboards. There are a few strategies you can use for this.
Before anyone can follow you, they need to know that you exist. Put a Pinterest button on your website, tell people via Twitter and Facebook that you are on Pinterest and write a blog post on your site about it. You can even hold a contest or some sort of interactive event to get people to visit your pinboards and comment on them.
Create pinboards that are interesting and visually appealing. If you use SEO strategies on your site, incorporate those keywords into your pinboards to make a connection between the two. Keep your pinboards specific. If your business is a medical facility, do not have a pinboard showing all the doctors with their backgrounds. Break it down into specialties using visuals that are specific to those areas.
Finally, the quickest way to get noticed is if you notice someone first. You are basically initiating conversation by commenting on someone’s pinboard. By doing that, you will garner interest by having the person reciprocate and comment back as well as possibly having them visit your Pinterest account and see what you are all about.
One Source Graphics, Inc. has discovered the power of Pinterest. Visit http://pinterest.com/TonyMackGD and see what Tony and his team of graphic designers have on their latest pinboards. Once you see the high quality graphics they create, you will instantly know you are dealing with experts in the field of graphic design. Call them at 1-800-974-5580 to schedule an appointment and get an up close look at what they can do for you and your business.
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When social networking came on the scene, it was primarily used for personal reasons—finding old friends and reconnecting. Twitter, Facebook and MySpace are all used as a way for people to get in touch and follow each other—where they go, what they are doing and what they have to say. But as its popularity grew among social circles, companies soon discovered its power as a business development tool. Today, most businesses have a social media presence on either one or more of these outlets and they are finding that it has great benefits.
Pinterest is a newer form of social media that has taken off beyond what anyone probably expected. And just like the other networking sites, businesses have latched on to this popularity in another effort to generate business. The growth in Pinterest users grew 155% in just a one-month period. That is almost unheard of for any business—proof that social networking sites attract huge volumes of people.
How Does Pinterest Work?
Pinterest is a way for people to gather and organize images, recipes, videos and whatever else they find of interest to them on the Internet. Users create their own pinboards which they can title and organize. For instance, a future bride can have a pinboard of wedding gowns and another of bridesmaid dresses and so on. A pastry chef may have a pinboard with cupcake recipes and pictures and another of cookies. The possibilities are endless.
Users can also follow each other’s pinboards. If two people find, for example, that they have photography in common, they may decide to share their “pins” (the term used for what goes on a pinboard) and follow each other’s pinboards. You can even leave comments via e-mail, Twitter and Facebook.
The interesting part about Pinterest is that the link from where the pins come from is always part of the pinning process. If someone uses one of your pins or if you share one, the website link is always attached so you know just where the pin originated from and you can quickly return there if you need to. This is important for businesses as their websites can travel through the Pinterest world from one person to another for as long as it is shared, commented on or repinned.
The Pinterest Effect on Business
If you think this sounds like an odd way to market your business, consider this—a recent study showed that Pinterest has been more effective than Facebook at driving traffic. Bloggers and businesses have noticed that their traffic has increased at unheard of rates just from Pinterest. This is putting other social networking sites in a position to stop and take notice.
Because of its extremely high rate of growth, businesses are now including “pin it” buttons on their websites so people can easily pin their sites information onto their pinboards. And because the business’s link will always be a permanent part of the pin, it will be easy for people to simply click on it to get to your site quickly.
Pinterest was smart enough to recognize that effective social networking means merging the various media together. This is why Pinterest access can be gained through an existing Facebook or Twitter profile (although businesses still cannot connect Pinterest to their Facebook page). And now Pinterest users can post their pins to Facebook so their friends and family can see them and comment on them. This means even more exposure for your business.
Follow Us on Pinterest
One Source Graphics, Inc. is already riding the Pinterest tidal wave. Go to http://pinterest.com/TonyMackGD to see what exciting things Tony Mack and company are “pinning”.
Their expert graphic designers are looking forward to you viewing their pinboards and getting a good idea of the scope and creativity of their work. Website design, logo design, brochures, catalogs and magazines are just a few of the specialties that One Source Graphics, Inc. can help you with.
Your business is their business and they want you to be successful just as much as you want your business to succeed. Call them today at 1-800-974-5580 and see how a smart and creative graphics design team can change the look of your business.
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It is recommended to use keywords in page titles itself. This title tag is different from a Meta tag, but it’s worth considering it in relation to them. Whatever text one places in the title tag (between the portions) will appear in the title bar of browsers when they view the web page. Some browsers also append whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as for example Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or OPERA.
The actual text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page. In addition, all major web crawlers will use the text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your listings.
If you have designed your website as a series of websites or linked pages and not just a single Home Page, you must bear in mind that each page of your website must be search engine optimized. The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases you use in the content will draw traffic to your site.
The unique combination of these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search engine terms and techniques, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases you need for each product, service or information page.
The most common mistake made by small business owners when they first design their website is to place their business name or firm name in every title of every page. Actually most of your prospective customers do not bother to know the name of your firm until after they have looked at your site and decided it is worth book marking.
So, while you want your business name in the title of the home page, it is probably a waste of valuable keywords and space to put it in the title line of every page on your site. Why not consider putting keywords in the title so that your page will display closer to the top of the search engine listing.
Dedicating first three positions for keywords in title avoiding the stop words like ‘and’, ‘at’ and the like is crucial in search engine optimization.
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Hi,
Let me ask you…
What do you think makes for a good squeeze page?
• The headline?
• The pre-headline?
• The benefit points?
• The call-to-action?
• Graphics?
• The content you give away for free?
• Perhaps all of the above?
You’d be right in thinking that ALL elements need to work together like an orchestra so that your squeeze page performs at it’s best!
However getting all these elements in place takes time, practice and real skill.
Not everyone has the luxury of tinkering around with Photoshop layers, playing around with layouts, slicing images, and formatting them into tables so they display correctly on the web.
Those plain ‘text only’ squeeze pages that say ‘put your title here’, ‘put your benefit here’, ‘enter your call-to-action here’ from pre 2005, are just getting plain annoying and they’re
starting to lose their impact on visitors because they’ve seen it all before!
Nowadays you need something MUCH stronger and louder, with more impact and something that speaks directly to the visitor.
This is what my latest release of squeeze pages does. They grab the attention of your visitor, allow them to soak up the presentation, state strong reasons why they should sign up and finish off with a very clear opt-in form. With old style squeeze pages it’s been too easy to click the little cross in the corner on the screen, but with these squeeze pages, your visitors will think twice before leaving!
Check out the full package below – I’m sure you’ll like it:
To your success,
Tony Mack
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Why custom web design is better than common templates?
For every business the success is dependent on its customers view points and perception. This increases the need of a customized web site and web design. If you have made up of your mind to create your company website then choose a professional company which can make a website which is a projection of your ideas and business ideology. A customized website is a complete package of the proper content and designing combination which gives the image of your company. Common templates are also available but those are not good for the search engine optimization and in turn it will not help much to achieve the business goals.
Few facts are discussed here which will help you to understand the benefits of customized web design than common templates.
Custom design gives a unique look to your website and you can also upload the data as per your requirement. You can also add the extra features.
Images play a major role to project the company’s work. Most of the customers give little time and they normally avoid reading all the written content. Relevant images will give the proper idea about your company and its work. Images and presentation of the website can influence a lot in their decision making.
SPINX – is a Leading Web Development and Website Design Los Angeles company providing different services of Ecommerce Web Design Los Angeles, Website Design and Graphic Design in Californian and worldwide.
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1. Update the pages on your website frequently. Stagnant sites are dropped by some search engines. You can even put a date counter on the page to show when it was last updated.
2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not in competition with your own product.
3. You can allow customers to ‘opt in’ to get discounts and special offers. Place a link on your site to invite customers to ‘opt in’ to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons.
4. Add a link to your primary page with a script ‘Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites’.
5. Add a link ‘Recommend this site to a Friend’ so that the visitor can email your website link, with a prewritten title, “Thought you might be interested in this”, just by clicking on it.
6. Brand your website so that visitors always know they are on your site. Use consistent colors, logos and slogans and always provide a ‘Contact Us’ link on each page.
7. Create a ‘Our Policies’ page that clearly defines your philosophy and principles in dealing with your customers. Also post your privacy policy as well so that clients know they are secure when they visit your site.
8. Create a FAQ page which addresses most of the doubts and clarifications about your product or your company that are likely to be asked. This helps to resolve most of the customers doubts in their first visit to your site.
8. Ensure that each page on your website has appropriate titles and keywords so that your customer can find their way back to your site if they lose the book mark.
9. Never spam a client, who has opted for newsletters, with unsolicited emails. Later if they decide they want to ‘opt out’ of the mailings, be sure you honor their request and take them off the mailing list. They may still come back if they like your products. But they will certainly not come back if you continue to flood their email box with mails they no longer wish to receive.
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Corporate Website
A web site is a kind of billboard, and for most it can be the 1st sense of a business, then it must state something significant about it. The thing is, a corporate website is only a portion of marketing today. Additionally it is one of the most cost-effective solutions to promote your company, allowing prospective customers to view your information 24/7. Today, counting on advertising your business with billboards, newspapers, radio and Tv stands for a lot of dollars; having a corporate website is the perfect answer. A corporate website is an efficient method to use to teach and win over your target audience.
The value of a corporate website is the ability to keep up-to-date information online at a realistic price. The main purpose of a corporate website is to collect prospects that may be converted into buyers.
The meta-data in a corporate website is actually geared towards the requirements of the internet search engines, together with the objective of improving web traffic. In today’s economy a corporate website is recognized as a revenue generating element of the business.
The average turn-around time for a corporate website is actually 5-8 weeks, but our team can complete this within a couple weeks! It is not only important to reflect the company strategy of a organization through its web site but, it is just as important to engage your prospective customers as well as partners into conversation. The corporate website is normally a Jack of all Trades.
One Source Graphics, Inc. Corporate web styles are of highest quality for those corporate professionals and Small businesses, anticipating great return on their Internet solutions investment.
Each and every visit to a corporate website is a opportunity to acquire one more client and a chance to improve company earnings.
We measurably improve interaction between both you and your prospects with our corporate web designs, and we reduce costs as well as generate product sales using tailor made website solutions that are just as distinctive as your company is.
For pennies on the dollar, your corporate web design can be a billboard advertisement on the world wide web super highway. A corporate web design can certainly focus on your ideally suited client base and persuade them to look for additional company details about the products and/or services you provide. Our Corporate website portfolio consists of several of the largest to the smallest corporate and small businesses web sites we have designed with every type of budgets. Every great business idea takes wings with the launch of a professionally design and developed website.
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The best SEO strategy is a well-rounded one. If you’re already publishing articles, taking advantage of social bookmarking, participating on the forums, and Tweeting, that’s a great start. However, if you’re not guest blogging, you should be. What exactly is guest blogging? With guest blogging, you contact a popular blog owner in your niche, and offer to do a guest post. The blogger gets a small break from writing, and you get a valuable backlink. Even if you do not have your own blog, you can still take advantage of guest blogging. Aside from the link, what’s so great about guest blogging?
1. Guest blogging is a great way to get more exposure.
Let’s face it – every website owner on the planet wants more exposure. After all, more exposure means more traffic, and more traffic means more profits. It’s the core of every SEO strategy.
With guest blogging, your name, your link, and your content get posted for the world to see. And, with guest blogging, your message gets out in front of a very highly-targeted group of people. After all, these people are already interested in your niche (or else they wouldn’t be on the blog to begin with!) All you have to do is impress them with your content, and they’ll head over to your site to see what else you have to offer.
2. Guest blogging is a great way to establish yourself as an expert.
Want to show off your knowledge? Publish a guest blog post. A great guest blog post shows readers that you really know your stuff, and that you are a great source for fresh, relevant information. If you can wow readers with your knowledge, they’ll be more likely to click on your link and buy from you.
3. Guest blogging is a much better use of your time than blog commenting.
There are people out there who sing the praises of blog commenting, but much of their work never generates results. After all, they have to find a dofollow blog, read a post, make an intelligent comment, then cross their fingers and hope their comment gets approved. If it doesn’t, their comment doesn’t give them a backlink; it simply goes into a black hole!
A good portion of bloggers simply delete any comment that has a link in it, or any comment that uses a keyword instead of a real name. That means all of your time spent blog commenting may very well be a waste!
Instead, guest blogging guarantees that your link will be seen by spiders and readers alike. Plus, if people like what they see, they may link to it themselves. A great guest blog post can generate dozens of quality backlinks. Blog commenting can’t hold a candle to it!
Remember – when it comes to every SEO strategy, time is money. Are you getting the most out of both?
Want to take advantage of guest blogging, but you don’t know where to begin? Let Nicole Beckett do the work for you! She is a former journalist who knows how to provide you with SEO content writing services that grab readers’ attention!
Read original article
Do you Agree or Disagree? Have a Comment? POST IT!
[color_box title="About the Author" variation="primary_blue"]
Author: Nicole Beckett
Company: Premier Content Source
Region: Texas
Website: premiercontentsource.com
Author Comment / Biography:
As a journalist for both TV news and print media, Nicole has been writing professionally for more than a decade. Her work has been featured in television newscasts, in commercials, in major newspapers, and on websites around the world. As the owner of Premier Content Source, Nicole specializes in SEO content writing that grabs readers’ attention. She handles well-researched and compelling custom SEO articles, blogs, newsletters, press releases, premium PLR, and professional editing and rewriting services for her clients.
[/color_box]
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It is the search engines that finally bring your website to the notice of the prospective customers. When a topic is typed for search, nearly instantly, the search engine will sift through the millions of pages it has indexed about and present you with ones that match your topic. The searched matches are also ranked, so that the most relevant ones come first.
Remember that a prospective customer will probably only look at the first 2-3 listings in the search results. So it does matter where your website appears in the search engine ranking.
Further, they all use one of the top 6-7 search engines and these search engines attract more visitors to websites than anything else. So finally it all depends on which search engines the customers use and how they rank your site.
It is the Keywords that play an important role than any expensive online or offline advertising of your website.
It is found by surveys that a when customers want to find a website for information or to buy a product or service, they find their site in one of the following ways:
• The first option is they find their site through a search engine.
• Secondly they find their site by clicking on a link from another website or page that relates to the topic in which they are interested.
• Occasionally, they find a site by hearing about it from a friend or reading in an article.
Thus it’s obvious the the most popular way to find a site, by search engine, represents more than 90% of online users. In other words, only 10% of the people looking for a website will use methods other than search engines.
All search engines employ a ranking algorithm and one of the main rules in a ranking algorithm is to check the location and frequency of keywords on a web page. Don’t forget that algorithms also give weightage to link population (number of web pages linking to your site). When performed by a qualified, experienced search engine optimization consultant, your site for high search engine rankings really does work, unless you have a lot of money and can afford to pay the expert. With better knowledge of search engines and how they work, you can also do it on your own.
5 Bonus Articles about Search Engines:
search engines 1
search engines 2
search engines 3
search engines 4
search engines 5
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07
Do you want to be the next YouTube, Flickr, Match.com or Facebook? Then, you need to find the right social networking software. Dating sites, friend networks, video sharing portals are all built on networking platforms that give members control over their personal profile and encourage user-generated content.
If you can get it right, Social Networking is the key to the kingdom. You will never have to worry about your next blog post, because users will post and manage their own content. You will be free to focus on the important stuff like marketing, partnerships and monetization.
Of course, great social networks need great software. No one wants to play on a slow network and users won’t create profiles if they think your software isn’t secure. When choosing a social networking platform, you need to make sure the software looks professional, is stable and will be around for the long haul.
Here are the programs and platforms you’ll encounter in your search for social networking software.
BoonEx Dolphin Social Community Software
Now on version 7, Dolphin is a fully mature network platform with lots of Web 2.0 features: forums, blogs, groups, video sharing and recording, private chat with video, built-in music player, whiteboards, and even an open source iPhone App that you can connect to you social network. Dolphin has an community of collaborators building extensions and offering support — this is an important thing to look for when choosing any open source software! There is a nice marketplace set up that allows new users to purchase things like installation services and templates.
Though open-source, Dolphin isn’t exactly free social networking software. You’ll need to pay licensing fee if you want to completely brand your social network as your own.
Elgg Social Engine
Elgg is the underlying social engine which provides the building blocks to create social applications and sites. The default install includes profiles, groups, blogs, the ability to embed or upload a variety of media, simple social bookmarking tools, tags and categories, and a microblogging feature called “The wire” which is akin to running your own twitter service. Elgg is a fully extendable networking platform with an active development community and 766 available plugins at last count. There are plugins to add everything from geolocation capabilities to an in-network marketplace.
For users that require more robust support for their social networking site, there is also a fee-based Enterprise edition available from elgg.com.
Mahara Social Networking Software for Educators
Mahara, which means ‘think’ or ‘thought’ in Te Reo M?ori, features a weblog, resume builder and social networking system to connect users and create online learner communities. Basically, this social networking software helps webmasters set-up an online community centered around sharing ideas and files in pursuit of education. Users can upload a variety of portfolio items and then control who has access to which files. Mahara is in-use by several universities internationally. For even more educational awesomeness run Mahara and Moodle together.
Community Engine Plugin for Ruby on Rails
CommunityEngine is a free, open-source social network plugin for Ruby on Rails applications. Drop it into a new or existing application, and you’ll instantly have all the features of a basic community site. The software has everything you need to get started — profiles, blogs, private messaging, events and forums. Visit curbly.net for inspiration and to see what types of social nets are currently using the CommunityEngine.
Read More: Social Networking Software: 12 Ways to Build the Next, Best Social Network
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07
WordPress, long known as one of the most popular blogging platforms, has turned into so much more. With the release of WordPress 3 “Thelonious”, the platform really steps into its own as a powerful content management system for writers, designers and everyone else to create or manage stunning, cutting-edge websites.
Most people prefer WordPress because it is not only is it easy to use, it’s totally free. You can host your WordPress blog on your own servers or use free hosting with WordPress.com. Either way, using WordPress to manage your website is easy—add pages, delete pages, schedule content, add functionality with plugins and connect to the WordPress community.
The first thing most WordPress users learn to do is change their theme. There are hundreds of free WordPress themes available to download as well as many premium WordPress themes with special features such as built-in SEO. Installing and customizing WordPress themes is your ticket to creating brilliant websites that are also user-friendly. Changes to WordPress in the last year make installing new themes easier than ever. For newbies, it’s a good idea to start with a WordPress tutorial on how to install a new WordPress theme or change an existing WordPress theme.
In fact, most users will get the most out of WordPress by using and learning from the many free WordPress tutorials available online. Finding useful WordPress tutorials on the web will show you to create stunning websites with this free platform, and even add unique features to make your website stand out.
Moreover, you can make your WordPress website accomplish even more things by adding some of the numerous WordPress plugins available—also for free or nearly free. There are literally hundreds of WordPress plugins that you can effectively put to use to create a highly user friendly website.
WordPress is a well-supported, open-source platform with a giving community of users. You can find a WordPress tutorial for just about anything. Whether you are completely new to blogging or a guru-in-training looking for advanced tips and WordPress support, you will find all the help you need in the WordPress support forums or one of the poppular WordPress-dedicated blogs. There are several WordPress tutorial forums where you wil find many of your questions already answered.
Gone are the days of having to hire an expensive programmer to get a custom content management system developed to manage your company website. Today you can find thousands of websites powered by WordPress. Even large websites like the New York Times, are installing WordPress to create professional quality websites in just few clicks.
Spend some time learning the WordPress basics and you’ll find that this platform can take your website way beyond blogging. With WordPress 3 finally released, now is the perfect the time to jump on the WP band wagon.
[...]
Source: Beyond the Blog: Get on the WordPress Bandwagon
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Referrer logging is used to allow web servers and websites to identify where people are visiting them either for promotional or security purposes. You can find out which search engine they used to find your site and whether your customer has come from a ‘linked site’. It is basically the URL of the previous webpage from which your link was followed.
By default, most hosting accounts don’t include referrer logs but may be subscribedd for an extra monthly fee. If your web host does not provide a graphic report of your log files, you can still view the referrer logs for your website by logging into the host server using free or low-cost FTP software, like these:
FTP Explorer: http://www.ftpx.com/
LogMeIn: http://secure.logmein.com/dmcq/103/support.asp
SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com/
FTP Voyager: http://www.ftpvoyager.com/
The log file is available on your web server which can be download into your computer later. You can use a log analysis tool, like those mentioned below, to create a graphic report from your log files so that the files are easier to understand.
Abacre Advanced Log Analyzer http://www.abacre.com/ala/
Referrer Soft http://www.softplatz.com/software/referrer/
Log Analyzer http://www.loganalyzer.net
You can view the files using Word, Word Perfect, txt or WordPad files even if you don’t have the right tool. This information is very crucial to your business and marketing plans and is not advisable to neglect it.
In addition to identifying the search engine or linked site from where your visitor arrived, referrer logs can also tell you what keywords or keyword phrases your client used for searching.
As referrer information can sometimes violate privacy, some browsers allow the user to disable the sending of referrer information. Proxy and Firewall software can also filter out referrer information, to avoid leaking the location of private websites. This can result in other problems, as some servers block parts of their site to browsers that don’t send the right referrer information, in an attempt to prevent deep linking or unauthorized use of bandwidth. Some proxy software gives the top-level address of the target site itself as the referrer, which prevents these problems and still not divulging the user’s last visited site.
Since the referrer can easily be spoofed or faked, however, it is of limited use in this regard except on a casual basis.


















