Monday, September 7, 2009

A nice twitter trick

I have recently come across a technique that can help.

Answer the question of how do you make money using twitter.

Seems like everyone is talking about how it works but I haven't really seen the benefits as of yet...

So far my strategy has been, to launch and maintain this blog for interesting content and helpful tips to help my "potential" customers learn more about what goes into properly branding their company.

Next is to then try and post links to the post through my twitter updates so my followers can check that out.

but I haven't really seen this generate much activity at all.

How does one find the people that are looking for answer at that moment.

I hope everyone knows about "http://addictomatic.com"

this is a tremendous little tool that can show you the conversations around your search term in multiple areas, specifically in twitter.

But simply typing in "website design"
brings up so many conversations its difficult to find the folks that are struggling with find a solution I possess...

So simply do this trick which can help zero in on some relevant search results.

Type in the search string
best "" ?

by adding best in-front of search term then ending with a question mark your will find people looking for a solution.

Helping you zero in one who needs so help

I am going to be trying this technique for a while and hope that it will increase some genuine qualified traffic to this blog, my corporate site nopun.com with more desired call to actions of people filling out our get started form which should lead to more new active projects in the studio


How to write a Press release for when you get a new client project

I am gearing up for launching a press release campaign, and one of my biggest struggles is once I start I want to keep a consistent flow of articles going out into the world about nopun.com.

With that goal comes the challenge of what do you write about.
The previous blog describes how to write them, how to distribute them and gives some basic ideas on what to write about http://noel4nopun.blogspot.com/2009/08/writing-your-press-release-for-seo.html

But I recently read a press release about a design firm who was hired by a moving company to do their website.

Which I found exciting being that nopun.com designs for any industry but we seem to have some momentum in designing professional websites for moving and storage companies.

As I was reading I was getting a bit jealous that we weren't hired for such a project, but as soon as I got over my jealousy I realized this was a great example of a press release for the design company and (the client) the moving and storage company.

you can read the article here

But now lets try and analyize the structure so we might be able to apply this press release structure to how next client we sign on that can be beneficial to both us and the new client.

First off they announce that the design firm is a new member of the team, which I have often thought about, your graphic design firm you hire is not a typical vendor similar to your copy guy, printer or web hosting company.

We are more like the PR professional, copy writer and your executive advertising directors.
As graphic designers learn about your business and start developing assets, we learn so much about what makes your business work we often feel like we could sell your products and service. So seeing us as a new member of the team is a "must have" ingredient in writing this announcing new client type of press release.

Next we have the part that is beneficial to the design firm, announce who they are and what their primary purpose is making sure you spell out the keyword that would help in your search engine ranking.

Next have a positive quote from the "new client" describing how pumped they are to be working with the firm and hopefully the reason why they chose this firm.

I recall a new moving company that hired us who simply said, I went with you guys because you have experience in the industry and I don't have to bring you up to snuff!

Up to snuff!?

What a great quote I have wanted to use that in ads and direct mail pieces since it was said.

Now its back to the deisgn firm who can expand either on their concept of how they approach doing this type of project or other projects that they do as well.

Then the benefits of the new client, by doing this project the "new client" will be able to do this then that and even this which they haven't been able to do before.

Then go into detail about the new client
This press release is about the design firm but why not use this platform to cross promote the new client, they hired you, so why not give them a little something back in return.

For example when nopun was hired to do a motion graphics project for a new product offering from pr newswire.


I plastered this all over the place, or every place I could.
This blog, Twitter, facebook, linked in, and basically talked about it to everyone I came in contact with.

So expand on the client and what they offer.

But what I like best about this press release is the cross promoting they do for the client, they don't simply link to their corporate site, they created a separate link for their charities page, a wikipedia page, careers, how to book (the clients most desired call to action), reviews, and supplies.

So where as I am still jealous that nopun.com wasn't hired for this gig, I admire who they have hired and see that they will be in good hands.

And gives me a great example of how I can write a genuinely well written press release for any new client we may get that will benefit both us and the new client.


integrated capabilties

It is no surprise that there thousands of not millions of web developers out there, from novice wanna be's to over seas developers, to the small one person firms that claim that they can do it all.

No pun is a two person professional graphic design firm that doesn't believe we can do it all, but tries to be accommodating, if we can't do something we aim to either find the solution or a group that help with the solution. But the main thing we do well is brand a company.

Although the primary tool used for this branding is websites, its not the only thing we do, from customized powerpoint presentations, to motion graphics that can be used as a sales tool or even a commercial, we are pumped about design and love doing it.

Its amazing to us how one project can relate to another. How Once the website, is done then the brochure should follow suit, then the ads, direct mailers and even the business card, should all look like the same company. And each medium has its own set of challenges, print is more permanent than a website, and video is more linear than a flash interactive piece, but when we are working on any of these projects we are aimed at doing the best we can in that medium.


Friday, September 4, 2009

Benefits of an E-commerce site

During this difficult economic climate reports show that ecommerce sites are increasing in popularity.

Which makes since being that the cost involved with running an ecommerce site is far less than an actual brick and mortar store.

With an extra benefit of;
• Unlimited amounts of stock
• Open all day, every day of the year
• Operate in a near-automated fashion.

The biggest challenge will be to to make sure there is a market for your product then finding the most effective way to adversities to that market.

Making sure your site design is above the rest, that the site is easily navigated, that the copy is on the mark with telling your products story while be keyword rich for search engines.

Then employing a cross marketing strategy that can lead traffic to the site through blogs and social media, and PPC advertising along with genuine SEO work.

It will take a lot to get this store off the ground but once you have zeroed in on the right marketing metrics for your ecommerce site the rewards will make the hard work worth the effort.

If you have an idea for an ecommerce site and your not sure if it will be successful, contact nopun.com free of charge today and we can put your idea through our research tank to try and give you an honest (3rd party) opinion on whether we think launching that site would be worth the effort.

Steps on getting good client feedback

I recently began documenting the process our firm goes through when designing a project for a client. I was excited with the idea of sharing what I have learned in terms of the css coding and design techniques to make a website fully w3 compliant and search engine friendly. What I have found that is that the actual, developing the site is the easiest part of a new website process. Even with blasted internet explorer in the mix. The most time consuming and difficult part of the project is getting sign off on the actual design. I am inspired by your article to try and take some this steps and considerations, and apply them o my next web project to see if we can't streamline the design process to be as easy to do as developing the site. http://designm.ag/design/better-feedback/

optimize your site as you build it!

If clients can look at the whole picture from the beginning of the web project. Before the design begins, before programming begins and even copywriting. Their new website project will go as smooth as ever...

I have to admit I was one of those that would build the site launch it then add the SEO, then I stumbled onto a project where the SEO was done first, and I was amazed at how smooth it went, as I was designing the site with css and html I was able to add appropriate key words in the alt tags and links and naming conventions really saving time on double work.


Of course that only works if one firm is doing both SEO and the design,

Currently I am working on a project that I am working hand and hand with the outside SEO firm and I am just now about to review our designs with them for their input, I hope it will be as smooth as the other project...


http://econsultancy.com/blog/4547-how-to-optimise-your-website-from-the-ground-up

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Don't reinvent the wheel with your navigation

This blog discusses the fundamental of a great site navigation.

I love the point about other interfaces that users use other than your website. And to try and keep your navigation similar to help them through navigating your site... I think as designers we tend to try and create something cool and new, when I believe that we should keep the creativity in the design of the website instead of the website is navigated