Posts Tagged ‘Tampa web design’

How the internet stole the election.

// November 12th, 2008 // No Comments » // Social Media

Over and over I find myself in a conversation with business owners informing them of the opportunities the internet provides in getting out their message, promoting their business, selling products, and building their brand. Obama transcended this concept into a presidential campaign.

Some say it’s never a good idea to talk about politics, but I think we can all agree that the recent presidential election has changed politics forever. Not only in how our political map is divided, but the importance of the internet in getting out the vote in this and every election to come. Obama launched an unprecedented internet campaign during his election that helped tremendously in tipping the scales in many of the swing states. Obama’s web team included the founder of Facebook a popular social networking website with 70 million users. He also had an email base of over 10 million names.

Obama leveraged social networking websites Myspace and Facebook. A UCLA survey of 272,000 college freshmen found that 86 percent spend “some time” each week on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Obama had 2.4million users as supporters on Facebook alone compared to McCain’s 624,000.

Obama posted nearly 2000 videos on Youtube, and launched a text messaging campaign. In fact Obama announced his VP choice at 3am via text message.

During the primaries, volunteers could sign in online, download a list of phone numbers and make calls from home to voters in the target states. A brilliant idea.

How are you using your website to generate sales?

Are you on the social 7 – Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, LinkIn, Twitter, Flicker, & Digg?

Create a professional website and attract business.

// June 5th, 2008 // No Comments » // Business

Are you unsure about how to go about creating a great website most business owners are!

Most Professionals (consultants, coaches, trainers, writers, designers, financial and employment professionals, etc.) want a better web site – a web site that actually helps attract more clients. But they have no idea how to do this. They don’t know where to start, what to do and how to make their web site truly effective.

A great website will pull in business and in the process you will build a solid marketing communication foundation for your business that will generate revenue for years to come.

Where do you start? Here are some important elements of a successful web site:


Quality Content –
Users quickly scan headings when they browse a website. They DO NOT read every word. Do you have your content broken up logically? Are you headings descriptive and captivating?

Functional Design – Potential customers form their first impression of your business based on your website. You need a design that looks better than your competitors! It also shouldn’t distract from the content or make navigation cumbersome. Don’t leave the design up to your cousin. How many customers can you afford to lose?

Navigation – Don’t make your users guess or think. They will quickly get annoyed and go to a competitors site. Clear, Easy, Intuitive navigation is key.

Call for Action – When people visit your site you want them to pick up the phone, fill out a form, send you an email, or buy something! In order to get them to do so you need a stylish, creditable, and informative site. Then you need to make a call to action.

Free Information – Offering complimentary information to potential clients at no charge is a great way to build a list of emails to use later when you begin your online marketing campaign. It can be a simple PDF related to your industry. But remember to keep the information relevant and useful. DO NOT make it another sales pitch!

Generate Traffic – Search engine optimization is a great way to build traffic. But it may not be cost effective for everyone. To make it more cost effective find your niche market! Don’t compete for rankings amongst broad keywords unless you have the marketing budget of Microsoft!

SEO: What you need to know! Part 2 of 5.

// May 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // SEO

PART 2 of 5
In the last post I ended by saying there are some things you should never do to optimize a website. Let me clarify by saying optimize your website for the long run. There are two types of techniques used in the SEO world. White hat SEO and black hat SEO. White hat SEO is the only kind of SEO we will discuss. Black hat SEO involves tricking search engines into ranking you higher. Eventually the search engine figures out your spam and then your site is banned from appearing. Most businesses are interested in the long term profitability, at least the successful ones are.

Optimization starts with content. You want to provide the content that people are actually looking for when they entered their search terms into a search engine. Relevancy is key and we always need to keep the searcher in mind. Once they land on your site the two main goals are impress them with the design, and provide the content they are looking for.

Attractive design is key element that is overlooked. Design includes functionality and hierarchy as well as an attractive color scheme, with depth, gradients, balance, and shadows. For more on design see this post on web redesign. People scan web pages a lot faster than print.

When thinking of content for your website think in terms of an outline:
Global Warming is affecting the Planet.

Polar Bears are Endangered.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne made the announcement in Washington on Wednesday, saying the decision was based on findings that bears’ Arctic sea ice habitat has dramatically melted in recent decades.

Arctic Ice is melting ‘faster than predicted’.

The pace at which both the Arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet is melting has “severely accelerated” and could bring about rapid and unstoppable change in natural systems across the world.
Search engines can see which words are in a larger font. They also can tell if a word is in bold font. Words in a larger or bold font are considered more important. It is also important to make sure all content is relevant. Search engines compare your content and the words surrounding your content to other web pages with similar content. If there is consistency between your words an whats on the web it will help you some. To demonstrate what I mean look at our example. You can find content on the internet that talk about Polar Bears and Arctic Ice, or stories about Global Warming and Arctic Ice. Or Global Warming and Polar Bears, or Arctic Ice and Polar Bears. All your content should be somewhat interdependent.
SEO HOMEWORK FOR BUSINESS OWNERS.

  1. Ask your clients what search terms they would use to find your service or product on the internet
  2. Buy a domain name containing at least two of the most popular keywords.

Remember that the age of your domain is also considered by search engines so this will not immediately improve your search rankings. We are in this for the long term so this will eventually become less and less of a factor. In the next post I will be detailing more factors that affect your websites ranking.

Small Time -vs- 9-5 Design! Part 3

// May 12th, 2008 // No Comments » // Business

The final piece.

Work has been brisk so I have not had a chance to post as often as I would like. So I will be catching up this week. In the final part of this series I want to take a brief synopsis of a the typical experience of the client of a Brick and Mortar Horror Rush session website in a box deal. (That last line may have been a tad bit bias.) Or a client of Incept Design.

A day in the life a 9-5 client.

1. Okay so you walk in, call, or fill out a contact form and guess who the first person is that you are going to talk to? A sales guy who doesn’t know a thing about design an most likely has never built a website in his life. The only think on his mind is a commission. Which means unnecessary up selling. And don’t get too technical on him or he may have to put you on hold.

2. So you have told the sales guy everything that you want in your website. Next comes a meeting with the sales guy, possibly some member of management, and the designer. And after that meeting you have your idea of what you want, the designers idea of what you want, and finally the sales guy & management’s idea of what you want. Sometimes this works out perfectly well. The other half of the time it doesn’t.

3. If you like the initial look of your website consider yourself pretty lucky. If not, I hope you can nail everything down in 2 revisions. If an idea strikes you when your stepping out of the shower and your on your 3rd revision expect to come out of pocket. Believe me that will leave a sour taste in your mouth.

4. Then ask how much it costs to have your website burned on onto a cd so you will have a back up. Remember cd’s cost around a twenty-five cents a piece. Who knows you may need to bring that cd to us one day.

5. You have your website, now what? Are they going to help you market it? Are you just another website they built, or will they take ownership in it?

Brief life cycle of the client of a Incept Design.

1. Okay so you walk in, call, or fill out a contact form and guess who the first person is that you are going to talk to? Someone who is knowledgeable about the whole process of building a website! Instantly you can begin discussing details about your website without getting annoyed. You can even call or email us outside the hours of 9-5, and still talk to someone who is knowledgeable and able to answer all your questions. Never sales guy.

2. So you told the Incept Design all of your ideas. Now it’s time to meet face to face. These face to face meetings tend to gravitate towards Starbucks or our Office. We don’t mind. Or sometimes they gravitate towards happy hour. That still works out with us. Some great web advice and drinks on us. Or your super busy so you want us to come to your office…on a Saturday. Once again we still don’t mind. Either way you are in a familiar environment which allows your creative entrepreneurial brain juice to flow. And that is important.

3. So now your chances of liking you website increase dramatically since your ides haven’t been diluted by the sales team, and management. Thats less time wasted and a better looking website.

4. We burn it on a cd for you at no-cost.

I will leave you with this final point. The lifeblood of any growing company are referrals. A majority of us take ownership of our work and clients. We do what we love, while living outside of a cubicle. We strive to build a reputation that will bring recognition to our work, and we focus on building relationships by listening to our clients needs so that our services benefit you the most. We build websites and help you use them as a tool for your business.

And as always we urge you to be a smart consumer and shop around.

SEO: What you need to know.

// May 1st, 2008 // No Comments » // SEO

PART 1 of 5

The buzz that everyone seems to be talking about is SEO. In other words Search Engine Optimization. What is SEO? SEO is the process of making a website the #1 result on Google for a certain search term. Why would you want your website at the number one spot? It’s a sure fire way to boost traffic to your website.

Is SEO for everyone? In my opinion Yes, but only if it’s cost effective.

It is also the final piece in a website.

If your cousin made your website when you first open up back in 2002, maybe you should consider a re-design first. And make sure that developer is creating a web site that is WC3 compliant, with NO Tables. Incept Design will be happy to check your website for you! Email your link to alex [at] inceptdesign.com.

After you site is aesthetically pleasing with nice gradients, shadows, and colors & the code is clean, you are now ready to take the next step.

Ready to decide if SEO is a good choice for your business.

Lets say you own a health SPA. Right now you are nowhere to be found on Google. Your in a back alley of the internet, tucked away.

Now say your average client spends $350.00 per visit.

If your website were in the top 5 results from Google for “Tampa Health Spa”, Chances are during the course of the month you will gain at least at least 2 clients per month due to the increased traffic to your website from people finding you on Google. And with that second client you can more than cover the cost of the SEO process. And any additional clients are increased revenue.

Some other things to consider. You will not jump from nowhere on the web to the first page of Google with a month. It will take anywhere from 2-6 months for the SEO process to begin increasing your rankings. Don’t spend an arm and a leg on SEO either. 95% of all “known” factors involved in Search Engine Optimization are available on the Internet and can be found by anyone who spends some time researching it. How the developer applies these known techniques is what greatly affects rankings.

The experts in this field do NOT agree 100% on which factors affect rankings or how much each factor affect rankings. Honestly the only entity that could know for certain would be Google and the individuals that write the actual search algorithm. And lastly anyone who promises you the #1 spot on Google in a week for any keyword is going to get your site banned from all the search engines. There are some things that you cannot do to search engine optimize your website.

To be continued….

Alex A

Microsoft Servers have security issue.

// April 28th, 2008 // No Comments » // Business

Just one more reason to demand a developer that uses Coldfusion or PHP for your dynamic site.

Check out this article in Wired Magazine:

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/04/microsoft-datab.html

Unless you can determine the proficiency of your programmer…You taking a huge risk with the integrity of your data. Possibly exposing all your customers information and opening yourself up to potential legal issues.

Alex A.

Small Time -vs- 9-5 Design! Part 2

// April 24th, 2008 // No Comments » // Web

The jury is out regarding education but I can tell you that at the last design firm I worked at the “art director” graduated from an online university, one I hadn’t heard of before. And she even made a note to tell me that she graduated Summa Cum Laude. No Comment.

From what I have gathered in the trenches of the cubicle, as far as new technology and continuing education with 9-5 design firms. There isn’t any!! The designers and developers that work there usually knew their craft very well when they started. But they remain stagnant after assuming the position. Imagine 8 hours of irrelevant emails, meetings where the sales guy rambles forever, topped off with some dirty office politics, are you really going to be excited about learning new things related to your job? Probably not. 9-5′ers don’t learn anything new. That is until the market…oops, I mean boss demands it, and by that time they are way behind the curve!

When design shops open up they devise a system of one size fits all for e-commerce, content management, and web design. They stick with that system for years. And in the web world…those might as well be dog years because technologies rapidly evolve and die. Yet average consumers are oblivious to this. The fact is you may have a graphic designer creating your website. That may very well be O.K. Until you want that same website Search Engine Optimized and all your content is positioned in tables instead of DIV tags. I watched this go on at larger firms. Correct techniques were written off as taking to long.

The moral of the post….Research what your getting into and talk to many “web people” as you can. Who is trying to sell you and who is telling you real information? Who is relying on name recognition (e.g. Microsoft) and who is showing you functional design and code? Who will take the time to understand what you are looking for, and who will tell you that your maximum number of revisions are up?

You can enjoy a great personal experience with a seasoned freelancer or take your chances with a 9-5er.

Another way to put it…Some people prefer local restaurants, and some people prefer national chains.

Alex A.

Small business retailers in Tampa

// April 20th, 2008 // No Comments » // eCommerce

I recently saw a guy on the side of the road holding up a sign that I thought said “Westshore Pizza”. It later turned out to be a sign for “Old West Pizza” as I later found out when I had the craving for a Stromboli. I decided support this local business owner even though I was expecting something slightly different. It turns out that there is a new strip mall that lies adjacent to the super Walmart on 60 where I live. They are slightly behind the Walmart and less visible than one may want. While I waited for my cowboy sticks to finish baking I had a conversation with another retailer located in the same shopping center as he prepared for a grand opening celebration the developer had planned for the strip mall. I encouraged him to open up a sister store offering all the same merchandise he carried in his store online. It’s an opportunity to more than double your income! You can offer all your products to a global audience without the overhead. The only real cost would be for the development of the site and your hosting package. You’re going to spend some time entering products into your store through the Admin panel. Which can be done while enjoying a cold one on the weekend. It could be possible that your online store actually keeps your business a float, or a significant piece of your income. As i know from dealing with past clients. The moral of this post. If you are a local business owner specializing in a form of retail. Now is the time to seriously consider an e-commerce site as an added source of income as we enter into a period of “turbulence”

Alex A.

Small Time -vs- 9-5 Design! Part 1

// April 5th, 2008 // No Comments » // Web

My first full time freelancing project was for a Realtor during the real estate boom. It seemed as if every Realtor need a website where users could register and search listings. Realtors kept a lot of us busy, but all good things come to an end. From there I landed a sweet gig for a small marketing company ran by a very smart business woman who knew her craft very well. I picked up a lot on how to really market yourself. They had a genius of an IT person who was still earning his degree, he taught me a lot while I was there about a variety of topics mostly unrelated to the web development. After spending about a year there I decided to give up freelancing for a while and work full time at a design firm not located in the Tampa bay area. This included a long commute to work, an uncomfortable and cramped workspace with a sales guy constantly peeking over my shoulder, an old mouse, I had to bring my own cordless optical mouse from home, the expectation to work through lunch if the board had over a certain number of website, old technology, software, and one size fits all e-commerce solutions, an negative attitude toward open source or any non-Microsoft technology. I felt like I constantly had one hand tied behind my back while running on a hamster wheel. I can say that after this experience you are completely better off with a small team of great designers for 3 main reasons. 


1. The quality of work is the same or better. (Compare portfolios)

2. Less overhead means you get a better price. (Shop around)

3. Open and unrestricted communication between the developers and you. (Call or Email after 6pm)

Usually a few bad apples give smaller web firms a bad name, but it’s mostly because they don’t understand business as well as they should. It’s very possible get burned by a larger firm, the design firm I worked for had a difficult time convincing a few clients to sign after they had a raw deal with larger firms. 

This post is share some core differences to consider when choosing between a smaller or larger design firm.

Lets start with degrees and and education. According to FreelanceSwitch.com’s latest survey it is about 50/50 whether or not a freelancer has a degree or they were self taught.

I don’t have any information regarding design firms (still looking) but I would say more of the 9-5′ers have degrees from some type of college, university, art institute, or design academy than the freelance/entrepreneurial population. The fact I have degree seemed to help me in getting hired even though it’s not from a computer related field.

First I recommend taking a look at the portfolio and history of anyone you consider for web design, small or large firms. Do they have the level of design your looking for? Do they have references? How do they communicate with you? Do they have a web design blog or newsletter?

 

This is the first part of a 3 part series.

 

New Tampa Web Marketing Blog.

// March 29th, 2008 // No Comments » // Web

This blog is created and maintained by Incept Design. The content to be appearing will be advice for those interested in web design, web marketing, and way to approach different aspects of the web design and development world. Incept Design ask you, “Are you happy with your web guy?” If you said no then consider us! We offer every web service you can imagine. If you are happy with your web guy then stick around for advice and suggestions.

Tampa Web Marketing Tip of the Month:

What does your “about us” page really say about your company or business? Is it another sales pitch, or relevant information about your company, staff, philosophy, and location?

The time is now.

SPECIAL OFFER…

1 Year of managed hosting $300 ($25/month) per year.

Includes 2 hours of updates per month. (double the maintenance time!)

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Email: service (at) inceptdesign.com