out of the blue

In Michigan these days, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to run across good news.  Which is why when I ran across a contest that could help some of you Michiganders out there, I had to blog!

By now we all know the importance of having a good website on the internet, especially during a recession.  While many people are giving up their vacations, cable, and other luxuries, the one thing they’re not going to give up is the internet.  Think job search!

Therefore, it is increasingly important to make sure that your business, organization, etc. has a clean, attractive functioning website.   It does not have to be top of the line right now, just able to advertise your product appropriately.  Once the money comes in, then you can make the necessary additions.

But a lot of people don’t even have the money right now to get a lower-end site started and this is understandable.   It’s a catch 22 because you don’t want to have a free junky website representing your business and giving the wrong image to the customer, but you can’t make the money until you start to represent your business on the web…it’s a vicious cycle.  Two possible solutions for a new business owner:

*Enter the GreenLite Web Contest.  GreenLite Web, a web design company in East Lansing, MI recently launched a contest to design a site to a deserving business or organization.  Click here for more details.

*Go with a BizWebMachine site.  Your very own DPro Marketing in Rochester, MI has an affordable solution for starting websites for companies.  It’s a modular-based web design program that allows us to quickly and effectively build your company a website that looks profession and is not a template.  The finished product will look top-notch and compete with the best in the industry while at the same time, remain affordable enough for you.  For examples, check out ValhallaLodgeMi.com or Intelliroast.com.

Whatever you decide to do,  just hang tough.  Good times are ahead!

When checking my Google Alerts this morning, I came across a site worth sharing.  The flavored water company, Fruit2O, just launched their new site at fruit2O.com and it’s marketing at its best.  The colors are vibrant and the site navigation is flawless- easy for even the simplest of simpletons (me) to understand.  It doesn’t bombard the potential customer with useless information.  It just makes you want to drink Fruit2O.  Or look at the website- I must admit, the colors are so enchanting, I find myself clicking back and forth between Dproblue and Fruit2O just to look at the colors.  Check it out- you can get some good ideas for your own site- or just admire a good site.

Looking for some great music to use with your website that doesn’t have all that legal mumbo jumbo attached to it?  Well, I cannot entirely eliminate the jumbo, but I can help you out…check out Jamendo!! It’s a great site that has thousands of artists and their songs all available for YOU to use.  The catch?  All songs are licensed under CreativeCommons.  What is CreativeCommons you ask?  Basically it’s a free way of licensing your music that allows others to use your music for free, provided that they follow the restrictions that you place on it.  The most lenient of these licenses is the Attribution license.  It allows anyone to use your music (for commercial or non-commercial) provided that they give you credit.  It’s THAT simple.   There are a lot of CreativeCommons licenses, so it’s best that you read about them BEFORE you use Jamendo.  So to tidy up this article for the lazy:

Do you want to put music in a video or website you are creating?  Yes?  Continue…

1.  Go on to CreativeCommons and read about the different types of licensing and what they mean.

2.  Go to Jamendo and pick out your music using the simple CC Icons on the side of the site as your guide.

3.  Use the desired music and credit/license it appropriately.

Hope this helps!!

If you’re looking to turn SWAG (stuff we all get) into SYGO (stuff you give out), this is the article for you.  Figuring out how to make SWAG work for your business is an important marketing technique that should not be overlooked.  Simply throwing a pencil with your logo on it at your potential customer will not do any longer.  Not only may you poke someone’s eye out (if the pencil is pre-sharpened), you risk being thrown in with the millions upon millions of pencils and pens already out there.  Some tips for SWAG to work for you:

*Be creative.  Think beyond a pencil.

*Be attractive.  Ugly is not good.

*Link it back to your product or service.  If you are a microwave company handing out oven mitts, something is wrong.

*Size Matters.  What was that you ask?  Size matters.  Make sure your logo stands out. 

*Avoid stickers.  Stickers are cool…when you’re six.  Is your potential clientele six?  Awesome-then spring for the sticker!  The exception to this rule is if your sticker has convenient information on it that needs to be handy at any given time.

*Remember the web.  When people see your company logo, they will go online and search for you.  If your waterbottle reads “Hydra Blast” and your logo in reality reads HyDrAbLaSt!, your client may be confused.  Plan accordingly.  Oh, and while you’re at it, make sure you took down all those drunk HyDrAbLaSt!,weekend excursion pictures…yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

Some ideas to get you Swagging….

 *post-its

 *paper

*waterbottles

*cups

*Thumbdrives

*Mousepads

*etc., etc., etc…

Some sites to order Sygo:

*Branders.com

*Zazzle.com

*Throwthings.com

Ahhh….the economy.  I don’t think we can go a single post without some sort of mention or reference to the lovely Recession that we are in right now.  Of course, there are silver linings to every cloud, and the Recession is no exception.  Today’s silver lining:  Crowdsourcing.  Crowdsourcing is simple.  An obvious play on the dreaded outsourcing that helped land us in the Recession, crowdsourcing is utilizing the undiscovered talents of amateurs at minimal to no cost.  People of today are especially willing to work for free if it means getting their name out their on a worthy product.  So next time you need a fresh look or new idea, put the word out there.  Start a contest with the winner receiving credit for his or her work.  If need be, you can throw in a small cash prize as well.  Undiscovered talent is your best untapped resource-use it!

To learn more:  MSNBC Article on Crowdsourcing

When building your company’s first website, it’s important to keep the old KISS in mind…keep it simple stupid.  The reason? The answer:  The economy, of course!

Now, we both know that your company is going to take off with flying colors and sell more products/services than ever…but in today’s lovely unpredictable economy, it’s important that you stay based in reality and not sink all of your money into a website that no one will ever see besides your mother.  It’s of course important to build a website, but remember, websites can always be expanded upon in the future. Build a simple, professional website.  It’s a good base to have.  In the future when you sell a million of those legged blankets, you can have the all-out site that sings and dances and even emits smells from the screen….but for now you don’t need that much!

For your simple website, just make sure you have the basics. The basics would include:

*A clean, attractive homepage

*Working links/navigation throughout the site

*Enough information regarding your company to entice potential clientele

*Contact info

That’s it! That’s all you really need!! Just get your product/company out there and see if you have the stuff to move forward (alright, I know you do, see if people have the intelligence to recognize this…better?).  Once your website takes off and you’re rolling in money, THEN you can shell it out to build the amazing website.  But WAIT until this moment has arrived for you.

DPro has a good program for starting a basic website: BizWebMachine.  It allows for the quick and simple creation of a website that is not necessarily customized to the tee, but rather designed in a general manner allowing for the look and feel of your company but still allowing minimal cost.  In short:  it’s easy to build, but still looks amazing.

Check out one of our BizWebMachine sites:

Valhalla Lodge BizWebMachine Site

An important aspect of web marketing that is oftentimes overlooked is the choice of your domain name. While this choice initially seems like one that can be easily checked off the “To Do” list, it is, in fact, as important as naming your child. Your website, your company, your product, and you are going to carry this name with you for a good portion of your life (well, at least for the duration of the website’s life). Your domain name will not only affect how people view your product/company, it will also affect how many people actually visit your site (aka translating to your revenue)! Some important tips to keep in mind when sweating over your domain name (because now you’re aware that you should have at least one bead of sweat dripping off your forehead):

*Describe your product. Your domain name should be a simple, yet descriptive title of your product. Example: say you sell customized dollhouses. Your domain name should not be dollhouses.com, but rather customizeddollhouses.com. The reason for this is two-fold. One: This will make your website go to the top of search engine results, and two: those chumps sitting at their computer staring at the screen just typing in domain names blindly will have a better chance of finding you (come on, admit it, you’ve been known to do this-why do you think bored.com was such a success?).

*Leave out those quirky gimmicks! Sure, it’s cute when write your girlfriends that you are saving “All of my luv 4U,” but that’s not going to cut it when people are searching for your type. You need to be aware of any gimmicks you may be using-accurate spelling is usually best, although there are exceptions to this rule. Know your audience.

*Be aware of common misspellings. Even the word “misspell” is misspelled constantly (oh, the irony of it all). Therefore, when choosing your domain name, you need to choose words that the average Joe knows how to spell. This, many times, means leaving out those words such as receive (which is still the hardest word for me).

*Keep it a .com. This one is obvious enough- people always type .com first. This is going to be your ideal address.

*Short & Sweet. Enough said.

*Don’t be a thief! Sure, you might think it’s a great idea to steal a major company’s .com address, but in the end it could bite you in the ass. If I typed in Starbuckscoffee.com and get your jank coffee, I’m instantly turned off and in search for the real Starbucks. Think it through.

Once you do come up with the ideal .com name, SNATCH it up! Go to godaddy.com, check it’s availability, and purchase it!

            In today’s world, you can’t open or look at anything without being advertised to, even if in a subtle manner.  Even when you are walking down a crowded street, people wearing shirts with their favorite brand names on them are advertising to you.  Web pages are of course no exception.  The biggest and most popular of web pages (think Google) have advertising on their pages.  This is what makes the world go round:  advertising which equals money, money, money.  Therefore, when designing your webpage, it is extremely important not to overlook integration of ad space.  Even if your company does not currently have plans to put ads on your page, it is very possible that if your site gets a lot of traffic (as we all hope), you will be offered lucrative opportunities to advertise that you can’t (and won’t want to) refuse.

            Most web designers today have the experience and know-how when designing web sites to keep space available for future ad integration.  If this important aspect is overlooked during the design process, you are going to encounter problems when trying to integrate that much needed ad space in the future.  Adding ad space in the future will skew the rest of your site, causing it to be one of those sites that everyone immediately “X” es out of.  Believe me, in this case, your ad sponsorship won’t last for long in this case.

            There are some important factors to keep in mind when it comes to designing a website that has ad integration capabilities.  The first, of course, is placement.  You will need to maintain a delicate balance of ad space versus site content.  Obviously, you will need to make your ad in a desired location so that a company actually wants to buy the space, but you certainly don’t want it to overpower the content of your site.  A site is no good if all you can see is a giant cell phone, without being able to read any of the text regarding your bookstore’s great annual sale.

            Which leads to another important point…make sure that once you do have the privilege (yes, I meant to use this word) of integrating ads on to your page, to make them relevant to your viewer.  Sure, nothing can match exactly, but if I’m a dog lover and go to doglover.com and see an ad for a kitty litter box, it’s going to piss me off.  I’m not going to go back to doglover.com because they haven’t, in my eyes, stayed loyal to dogs.  Therefore, remember, your number one priority always lies with your potential customer!  Ads are indeed important to the success of your business and site, but you can’t have a business without a potential consumer.  Remember your audience.  DO NOT offend them.

            Other important things to consider when putting up ads besides placement and relevance are things such as color and the reputation of the company you are advertising for.  These may seem like obvious things, but remember all of the times you’ve gone to a site only to be blinded by a neon yellow box with a porn star in the middle (while you’re on a children’s site?)?   Again, do not sacrifice the reputation of your website for money.  In the end, you will lose money, and it won’t be worth it.

            Lastly, it is important to address the reluctance of many website designers/owners to put ads up on their website.  Many people consider themselves sell-outs if they put up an ad on their website.  I beg to differ.  As a consumer, I am usually impressed by the ads on a website. They actually, to me, seem to make the website seem more credible.  Granted, it has to be a reputable company and a relevant ad, but if a company I know and respect is advertising on a website that I am visiting, I am more likely to think, “Hmmm…must be a good site if they can get so-and-so to advertise on their page.”  Admit it-you’ve thought it too!

            In closing, ads can be your friend, rather than your foe as long as you anticipate them during the initial web design.  In addition, not only will they bring in extra cash from the ads themselves, but also can add to the credibility of your company.  If you can find a way to advertise on your site, do it. Just do it right!

Source:  Snell, Steven.  “Online Advertising and it’s Impact on Web Design.” 

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/03/online-advertising-and-its-impact-on-web-design/

When researching the average cost of any creative work it can get a little overwhelming. Many things have to be taken into consideration, such as experience of the designer, quality of work, and the time spent. The areas that I researched were commercials, web design, logo design, and corporate identity. To make it easier to grasp I’ll break it down into the most common price ranges for each area.
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Understanding the meaning of color as well as the cultural use of color and how colors interact is important in print and electronic design in order to convey the right tone, message, and evoke the desired response to the brochure, newsletter, ad, Web site, or other publication. Colors are non-verbal communication. They create a physical and emotional reaction.  From Jacci Howard Bear,

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