| Navigation | Acting on items | ||
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| j/k: | next/previous item | s: | star item |
| space: | next item or page | t: | tag item |
| <Shift> + space: | previous item or page | e: | email item |
| n/p: | item scan down/up (list only) | <Shift> + s: | share item |
| <Shift> + n/p: | next/previous subscription | <Shift> + d: | share item with note |
| <Shift> + x: | expand folder | v: | view original |
| <Shift> + o: | open subscription or folder | o/enter: | expand/collapse item (list only) |
| l: | like item | ||
| c: | add comment | ||
| <Shift> + c: | view comments | ||
| m: | mark item as read/unread | ||
| <Shift> + a: | mark all as read | ||
| Jumping | Application | ||
| g then h: | go home | r: | refresh |
| g then a: | go to all items | u: | toggle full screen mode |
| g then s: | go to starred items | 1: | switch to expanded view |
| g then <Shift> + s: | go to shared items | 2: | switch to list view |
| g then u: | open subscription selector | /: | move cursor to search box |
| g then t: | open tag selector | a: | add a subscription |
| g then <Shift> + t: | go to trends page | =: | increase magnification |
| g then d: | go to discovery page | -: | decrease magnification |
| g then f: | open friend selector | ||
| g then <Shift> + f: | go to friends’ shared items | ||
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Google Readertag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/state/com.google/broadcastCLnBvIzOlJoCdjplb2009-08-07T20:03:38Ztag:google.com,2005:reader/item/c8f8cb53839fcc002009-08-07T20:03:38Z2009-08-07T20:03:38ZShare and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/dcf7c3108a823b482009-08-06T17:39:00Z2009-08-06T17:39:00ZBellingham SEO Internet Marketing, Web Design, Website Marketing, SEO, Social media marketing, Online Advertising Firm, Bellingham, Seattle, wa, washi(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/dc050eaab83909f02009-07-22T21:36:53Z2009-07-22T21:36:53Z(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/1835773d67da13532009-07-09T20:51:47Z2009-07-09T20:51:47ZTwitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/c653b8eca6c5d21d2009-07-02T18:49:15Z2009-07-02T18:49:15Z<blockquote>Shared by djplb <br> web design bellingham</blockquote> Studio staff share topics we discuss in our studio everyday (author unknown)web design bellinghamdjplbtag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/822458b2a474f0c92009-06-29T22:21:15Z2009-06-29T22:21:15Z<blockquote>Shared by djplb <br> Mindfly Web Studio Twitter Feed</blockquote> We make top notch websites every day for smart people who love their businesses! (author unknown)Mindfly Web Studio Twitter Feeddjplbtag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/97acb8a1a29825882009-06-26T22:50:13Z2009-06-26T22:50:13ZCheck out my <a href=”http://www.google.com/profiles/djplb.internetmarketing”>new Google profile</a>.(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/e423e678d00fc95d2008-10-16T22:12:00Z2008-10-16T22:12:00Z<p> <strong>Website Marketing Online</strong><br> <br> Online advertising and search engine marketing, (usual referral’s are SEO, SEM, PPC, Web 2.0, Blogging, Linking, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Banner Ads, URL Rewrite, Content Copywriting, or Back link popularity) have been sold like snake oils at a traveling circus from Bellingham Washington to Bellingham Massachusetts since the white text scandal. It seems everyone is looking for a quick fix and everything is going to go bonkers like the .com craze. While the economy settles to a rumble around us, small business is looking for the best bang for your buck, ROI (Return on investment), efficiency, go green. I noticed some of the first stocks to turn upwards were internet related, computer industry, or website marketing based, like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple. My presidential campaign slogan: Google ad-words internet marketing based advertising will save the economy, they make dollars and they make sense. </p> <strong>Paid Listings</strong><br> <br> You learn a lot about ROI while you get involved in a <a href=”https://adwords.google.com/select/Login” title=”Google Adwords Pay per click”>Google ad-words</a> or pay per click campaign because you can actually track your marketing budget’s success. Unlike paper advertising like direct mail, business cards, flyers; or media advertising like <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cyAqEjZ2as” title=”Funny commercials”>Television and Radio</a> you can analyze visitors’ activities to a very specific page of your site and visibly see the spike in traffic or bounce effect or bounce rate. That makes it very easy to justify spending dollars. For example, if you spend 100$ in sponsored listings and make 500$, you can usually assume then that a 500$ investment equates to a 2500$ return. A great way to cut some fat off of your PPC advertising campaign is to optimize the titles, descriptions, and landing pages for your sponsored links. Banner ads, the most targeted of all markets are a great way to advertise locally. A local daycare shouldn’t be spending advertising dollars in Seattle, it is a waste of energy and money, their relevant market is local to Whatcom County. <a href=”http://www.neighborhood-kids.com/” title=”Bellingham and Whatcom county fun for kids”>WWW.Neighborhood-kids.com</a> would be a perfect saturated target market for a local daycare. Sure, a lot more people would see the ad if it was on the Bellingham Herald, but how focused would that person on kid related activities be and what percentage of those viewers would have daycare age children? The point is you still pay for all those irrelevant views to your advertisement and then even the relevant views may not be in a phase of the “buying cycle”.<br> <br> <strong>Organic Search Engine Ranking</strong><br> <br> Natural search engine optimization is a horse of a different color, but still a pony. I’ve found most of the best tactics are done behind the scenes by the great and powerful Oz, the code gurus. Aspects of indexing a site’s content that are easy to figure are title tags, content, keyword density, internal links, site maps, and alt tags for images…just to name a few. Remember the search engines spiders’ are reading a site like brail, usually blind to most design features like color and creativity. The easier to use, more organized, and relevant a sites’ content the more likely it will have the answers the internet searcher is seeking sooner. <a href=”http://www.sensible.com/” title=”Website Usability”>Don’t make me think</a>. <br> <strong><br> Website Popularity Contest (the black sheep)</strong><br> <br> What if two sites are built almost the same? What if a site doesn’t meet certain criteria? The search engines will have to take into other factors. It is the search engines job to be the most popular so in turn they want to have the most popular sites populate for the princes and the paupers peeping their peeps. Therefore, they track hits to the site, links to the site, activity coming in from outside sources like articles or videos and so on. “Viral marketing” was coined based on the relation to the way a virus spreads person to person, like an old fashion <a href=”http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.informage.net/files/Pyramid_of_Capitalist_System.jpg&imgrefurl=http://informage.net/articles/2007/05/31/pyramid-scheme&h=618&w=500&sz=663&hl=en&start=3&sig2=BvW6zfsHUiMH0IgRZZYGTg&um=1&usg=__I57TWHXpQWraR_wjRaDl9OaM8mc=&tbnid=uVChe16HF05Q4M:&tbnh=136&tbnw=110&ei=99X3SI-vBIy6sAOp9YirDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpyramid%2Bscheme%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_en-USUS293%26sa%3DN”>pyramid scheme</a>. One of the best ways to keep your site popular is by having a blog and blogging. The big directory back links like <a href=”http://www.dmoz.org/” title=”DMOZ open directory project DMOZ”>DMOZ</a>, active popular hip trendy quirky revolutionary un-politically correct political stylish well written nerdy blog sites, and educational websites(.edu) are anchors also. <br> <br> <a href=”http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7F17.html” title=”Speaking in HTML”><strong>Old Money</strong></a><br> <br> The search engines also will take into consideration a site that has proved itself as a Big Kahuna, it has rode the waves since America online. <a href=”http://www.newser.com/story/30717/guess-who-has-the-most-trusted-brand-in-america.html” title=”Google is the most trusted brand in America”>Google is the most trusted brand in America</a> and it got there by putting it’s trust in trusting trusted brands. Start ups can earn some street creds by showing there website is a serious investment and they plan to be here for awhile.<br> <strong><br> Keyword Strategy</strong><br> <br> The most important part of all of these are…drum roll…keyword searches, besides viral marketing I guess…and just having enough money to buy anything you want. If you want to pop up for “Black leather purse”, first of all good luck. Second of all, you want to be the last website that person sees when in their buying cycle, Last?. Yes, last, they stop searching when they find what they like and…drum roll…make a purchase, or call you, or find directions. When you are buying BMW you search “BMW”, once you find that you want an X5, you search “BMW X5”, then “2003 BMW X5”, then “2003 BMW X5 Bellingham Wa.”. You must find you niche in the market and make sure your site is usable. I could pop up # 1 in the search engines for “ purple poslovian pirate puppies ” but what good would that do me? So if a company promises you ((<a href=”http://www.mindfly.com/blog/blog/admin/pages/www.dogpile.com” title=”up up and away”>#1 OVERALL IN GOOGLE</a>)echoing)…for what? And will it be my website or a listing on your site? Target those “buying” keywords! Visitors are great, buyers are necessary.<br> <br> <strong>Purple Poslovian Pirate Puppies (Analytics)</strong><br> <br> The most important part for you as a business owner in Bellingham or where ever, whether you are marketing internationally, over seas, or buying locally is supplying the demand. How do you know what is in demand without analysis. Get trendy, trends make mucho peso, look at NSync, they are like the cabbage patch dolls of the music industry but they dance. Be ahead of the curve, insider trading is legal online or is that offshore, I think…I can’t remember. Actually, don’t quote me on that. These search engine marketing robots show up somewhat unbeknownst and who they really, I mean truly are inside is still a mystery, they put up there walls to keep themselves from getting hurt. “You complete me” your website says. Maybe search engine spiders are eerily a lot like the Rene Zellweger’s of the WorldWideWeb but doesn’t that make you want your website to be their Tom Cruise?(minus the whole Tom Cruise thing)<br> <br> <strong>The Cold Hard Facts</strong><br> <br> Most of SEO and SEM results for the average yahoo can be likened to applying tactics to an Idaho power ball drawing. There is a lot of SEO 101 information up there in that blog post. This is just the tip of the iceberg and it is still an educated guess based on experience. A smart, original, and innovative business model is still the best recipe for success, we can ad rocket fuel and coordinates on your trip to the <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RtcMZGFgos” title=”Come into our planet soul”>planet Google</a>. <br> <br> <br> <br> <br><img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mindfly/~4/423854119″ height=”1″ width=”1″>David Johansontag:google.com,2005:reader/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/mindflytag:google.com,2005:reader/item/22e6acb5ed6bd02d2009-06-09T22:39:00Z2009-06-09T22:39:00Z<p> Are you sick of hearing about “these difficult economic times” and reading articles that offer tips for saving money? I hope not because this is another one. Here are a few Internet options that can help individuals save a few dollars, and they also allow small businesses and organizations to market their services for fairly cheap. </p> <p> <strong>Twitter Specials</strong> </p> <p> Although <a href=”http://twitter.com/” title=”Twitter: What are you doing?”>Twitter</a> is a great way to drive traffic to your site, small businesses don’t even need a website to open an account. To promote in-store business, offer occasional Twitter Only specials. Just tweet “Mention Twitter and get 10% off,” and see if any customers turn up. A Twitter account provides an inexpensive advertising forum for businesses, and a web-savvy customer will love saving money on all the special deals they’ll catch around town. </p> <p> One of my favorite local businesses to employ this kind of promotion is Mindfly’s neighbor, <a href=”http://www.filmistruth.com/” title=”Film is Truth 24 Times a Second”>Film is Truth</a>. I wasn’t even planning to rent a movie, but when <a href=”http://twitter.com/FilmIstruth” title=”FilmIstruth on Twitter”>@FilmIstruth</a> tweeted, “Mention Twitter and get any DVD rental for just a buck” a few days ago, I couldn’t turn it down. And when I returned my rental the next day, I was definitely more likely to rent another flick since I saved a few bucks the previous day. </p> <p> <strong>Knowledge is Free at the Library </strong> </p> <p> Speaking of movies and saving money, a great alternative to renting movies at regular prices or maintaining a <a href=”http://www.netflix.com” title=”Netflix website”>Netflix</a> subscription is with the <a href=”http://www.bellinghampubliclibrary.org/” title=”Bellingham Public Library website”>Bellingham Public Library</a> and <a href=”http://www.wcls.org/” title=”Whatcom County Library System website”>Whatcom County Library</a>. This option is especially nice if you’re interested in documentaries and other non-fiction titles (they have lots!). You can search their <a href=”http://catalog.wcls.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=rcat&reloadxsl=true#focus” title=”BPL & WCLS Combined Catalog online”>Online Catalogue</a> and place holds on any films or TV shows available in the system. You might have to wait a little bit longer to see some new and popular titles, but it’s all completely free (as long as you can avoid overdue fines). </p> <p> If there’s something you’d like to see that’s not in the catalogue, you can fill out a <a href=”http://www.cob.org/cob/asklib.nsf/frmPurReq?OpenForm” title=”Purchase Suggestin Form – Bellingham Public Library”>Purchase Suggestion Form</a>; basis for possible purchases are determined by appropriateness of the request to the library collection and available funding. If your suggestion is added to the library’s collection, the item will be held for you upon its availability. </p> <p> Along with videos, you can also request CDs and, of course, books through the library. </p> <p> <strong>Pay Bills Online</strong> </p> <p> This one is nothing new or original, but it’s still a useful tip. Going paperless when paying bills is an easy way to “go green,” and you’ll also save money on stamps. A stamp here and there doesn’t seem like much, but it can really add up by the end of the year, especially now that prices for <a href=”http://www.usps.com/prices/first-class-mail-prices.htm” title=”First-Class Mail Prices – USPS”>First-Class stamps</a> have jumped again. I could go into a rant about how much stamps cost <em>when I was a kid</em>, and I could really sell it if I said “two bits” instead of 25 cents, but now we’re getting off-topic. The point is that most banks and utility providers offer opportunities for online payment; look into it. </p> <p> <strong>Live Smart (and Cheap) with Smart Trips </strong> </p> <p> I feel like I can never praise <a href=”https://www.whatcomsmarttrips.org/login.aspx” title=”Whatcom Smart Trips website”>Whatcom Smart Trips</a> enough. It’s a great, local resource that helps you keep track of all your “smart trips,” which is anytime you walk, bike, ride the bus, or carpool in alternative to a single-person car ride. Along with the knowledge that you’re doing your part to reduce congestion on roadways and air pollution, and saving money on gasoline, Smart Trippers are eligible for plenty of savings and prizes. </p> <p> After you sign up, log on each month and record your trips. After 10 Smart Trips, you’ll get a <a href=”https://www.whatcomsmarttrips.org/content/discount.aspx” title=”Smart Trips Discounts page”>Discount Card</a> for special deals at over 100 Whatcom County businesses. Each time you make 100 Smart Trips, you'll receive a gift certificate to a local business. Participation as a Smart Trips sponsor is a great way for small businesses to attract customers who might not have otherwise visited the store or restaurant. </p> <p> Now that you’ve saved a little bit of money, you can put a few bucks towards a <a href=”http://www.mindfly.com/blog/Portfolio.aspx” title=”Mindfly's Website Portfolio”>beautiful new website</a>, just like you've been dreaming of all these years. </p><img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mindfly/~4/c_UWHarcD8o” height=”1″ width=”1″>Theresa Carpinetag:google.com,2005:reader/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/mindflytag:google.com,2005:reader/item/b39fe23f5423046e2008-12-03T16:50:00Z2008-12-03T16:50:00Z<p> Viral expansion loop, niche marketing, like a group on facebook or the greasers and sosh's of Twitter and it's many counterparts. Defining like minded groups ensures the handoff of your information, see I took sociology in college. </p> <p> For example, if I were to go to a <a href=”http://www.cssquirrel.com/” title=”Hawks eat squirrels”>cutting edge CSS blog</a> site and read some serious funk from the future, how would I knowif it were trick? Like butting into the middle of a conversation of long time best friends; I must find a common thread to weave my web of wonders. </p> <p> Facebook originally was designed for people to find other people that they shared a school experience with. Myspace was and is more clicky, a who knows who for the coolios. But David, what is the viral expansion loop and how will it work for me? Let us break down that question, "how will it work for me" it's always all about you.<br> No, it's always all about us. Who are your hommies from the hood? </p> <p> Niche marketing, direct advertising, smart bombs are the way of the future. If you were assigned to hit a specific chimney, on a specific hut, in a specific town, in a…you get the picture. You would have to drop hundreds of bombs to ensure the target was struck. Or else, you could drop one big bomb and blow up the whole town, that would not be nice, or more importanly not cost effective. The great thing about a smart bomb is you can hit that specific chimney with just one bomb and one fly over and garauntee success. But not all of us have the technology avialable for smart bomb advertising now do we. </p> <p> Maybe war is not the solution. I will move on to a less offensive analogy, hunting. It is duck and goose hunting season out in beautiful Ferndale Washington. All morning long the sounds of shotguns fill the air, run Bambi run. What, you can't hear them? That is because you do not live by a lake where ducks and geese come to chat and hang out. Hunters go to these lakes because they know ducks and geese will be there. Hunters even use duck and goose calling to simulate activity <a href=”http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047296/” title=”I had to do it”>on the waterfront. </a> </p> <p> What does the viral expansion loop have to do with all this red blooded American adventure? <a href=”http://www.ning.com/” title=”Ning viral expansion loop software”>Ning</a>, your personal free viral expansion loop software application at your service. Ning was launched from Silicon Valley by the creator of <a href=”http://netscape.aol.com/” title=”remember netscape?”>Netscape</a>. Ning is your duck pond! so you don't have to drop smart bombs. If you can gather all of your targets for targeted marketing into one place you can easily get your point across or pitch your product. Not only that, it will gain steam for you, more quacking more action. So now you can break down this ever popular social networking machine into specific niche's and let it work for you. Now the ever present internet <a href=”http://www.classiccarriageva.com/CoveredWagon1.jpg” title=”Go get em boys”>land rush</a> begins. </p><img src=”http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/mindfly/~4/2t5OX49Al3I” height=”1″ width=”1″>David Johansontag:google.com,2005:reader/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/mindflytag:google.com,2005:reader/item/e723c77715519c522009-01-19T18:07:00Z2009-01-19T18:07:00Z<p> I resisted twitter for as long as I could. I'd been deeply entrenched in web 2.0 and social media since I was old enough to type. Well, OK – really it was just for a year or so. I already had a personal <a rel=”me” href=”http://www.neighborhood-kids.com/super-mama/” title=”Single Supermama”>mom-blog</a> to rant and write and connect with other moms. I was on <a href=”http://www.last.fm/” title=”Last.fm is a music service that learns what you love”>last.fm</a> to track and organize and discover great music. I had a <a href=”http://www.facebook.com” title=”The ultimate time waster”>facebook</a> account so I could daily touch bases with friends I hadn't seen for 15 years. But I just knew that twitter was going to use up that last little bit of time that I couldn't afford to waste, and so I resisted. I was right to resist as long as I did. </p> <a href=”http://twitter.com/”> <img src=”http://www.mindfly.com/blog/image.axd?picture=twitter_logo_s.png” border=”0″ alt=”twitter”></a> <p> <a href=”http://twitter.com/”>Twitter</a> is <em>so cool</em>. </p> <p> It's hard to <a href=”http://tweeternet.com/” title=”a great resource for beginners”>explain</a> what Twitter is, or why it's such a fun application. In the main, it's just a tool for entering your current status: "What are you doing?" – and reading the status of all the other users you are following. But it's also much more. You can respond to other people's statuses. And you begin to feel as though you're part of other people's lives. </p> <p> Last week, one of my <a href=”http://twitter.com/verymom” title=”Balancing Everything”>favorite users</a> tweeted while giving birth to a baby, as I (and hundreds of other followers) read in anticipation. I also follow <a href=”http://twitter.com/whatcomcounty” title=”My home county”>@whatcomcounty</a> to find out the latest news in our area – what schools are closed for snow, upcoming events, etc. I follow several of my friends, just to see how they're doing. And some folks I just follow because I think they're funny or educational. I follow all of my co-workers and vice-versa. That way if one of is running late for work, we just send out a quick tweet and everyone is on the same page. </p> <p> All kinds of interesting applications have cropped up for Twitter users. One of the most interesting I recently found is <a href=”http://www.mrtweet.net/”>Mr Tweet</a>. If you follow Mr Tweet, it will "suggest good people and followers you are missing out on, recommend you to enthusiastic users relevant to you, and update useful stats of your twitter usage." It's pretty fascinating information. There are also apps out there that allow you to skim all tweets for keywords. For instance, if you happen to tweet about your troubles with Comcast service, <a href=”http://twitter.com/comcastcares” title=”Comcast service”>@comcastcares</a> will usually reply to you and see if he can help. It's impressive; I've seen it in action! </p> <p> I'd love to hear about your own favorite Twitter apps – maybe I can <strike>waste</strike> spare just a little more time in <a href=”http://twitter.com/sydneypaige” title=”follow me!”>my day</a>… </p><img src=”http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/mindfly/~4/ZsjXpCncMYs” height=”1″ width=”1″>Sydney Coletag:google.com,2005:reader/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/mindflytag:google.com,2005:reader/item/5d05684467161c562009-05-13T16:31:00Z2009-05-13T16:31:00Z<p> One of my jobs here at in the internet marketing and advertising department is to work with business owners on social media. Business owners are usually busy, so over the years I have developed "elevator pitch application". I will touch on that later. I know you don't have much time so I will get to the beef of this article. Most business owners are thinking it is time to address their websites SEO and SEM and start investing into online media marketing. There are literally thousands of web 2.0 style social networking sites out there to choose from. Social media interaction isn't for everybody, whether it be time constraints or spelling problems, most business owners won't take advantage of the free open networking web being built. </p> <p> <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z0h_c9eH-8″ title=”janet jackson song”>What have you done for me lately</a>? We use yellow page books as booster seats and watch the newspaper giants crumble at our feet. Bolder price tags and boxier contracts are steering the forward thinking entrepreneur towards infiniti and beyond. My grandfathers use the internet, as does their great grandson, so the age of online advertising is here. I have been an online marketer for years and I love fads and trends. The dot-com boom had some serious upside and so does social media. Not every little startup is going to be the next Facebook but the environments that do succeed must find their niche. What I mean by niche is they must be able to be exploited for public relations equalling foot traffic for business owners and money. I am not saying that Myspace is not hugely successful, but I will say that Myspace is not the best place to make a stand for most business. Advertising for a tattoo shop is a bit different than an allergy doctor. Still, most business owners want a piece of the fee-free pie and they don't always know what it is all about, but they can feel it coming. </p> <p> Mindfly's SEO marketing specialist works with the business contact and translates what their website is saying to Google's algorithmic spiders. Mindfly's designers and developers are insuring that these changes are being made with usability and functionality at the forefront. Mindfly does not want to and shouldn't have to do something twice. Face it, you can no longer afford to just assume that your website will be fine, it could end up costing you twice as much and have half the impact. The difference between the first page and the third page could only be a few more billable hours from your design and marketing consultant. The difference between the first page and the third page on the search results can be you owning a yacht or sporting a dingy. </p> <p> So I pitch social media marketing the same way I use to pitch websites or SEO. You may not see immediate results, but in three years you'll be happy with a firm cornerstone to build on. Internet searchers may not assume that you are social networking but they will find out eventually. You will sponsor a fun run but you won't set up a business listing with your logo on a free social network? "Why should I set up a social network for my company if I'm not going to be active?" This is a question I hear a lot. Social media branding is becoming more and more necessary. A great example of this is the social network Naymz. I set up a listing a few months back, invited some buddies and buddets to sign up and then never thought of it again. A couple months later I searched <a href=”http://www.google.com/search?q=internet+marketing+bellingham&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a” title=”Internet Marketing Bellingham Google Search May 13 2009″>"Internet Marketing Bellingham"</a> on Google and <a href=”http://www.naymz.com/search/david/johanson/2397535″ title=”Internet Marketing Bellingham”>yours truly</a> pulled up numero uno in El Googlio. This is an example of Mindfly Internet Marketing branding. Naymz is doing branding and online marketing of their own I just piggy backed them. I know that the listing will not last forever, the point is I have taken a few minutes in my circadian rhythm to ride the carousel of Google's algorithm. Did I mention it was free? </p> <p> Not every business owner out there is going to write three blog posts a day or or set up <a href=”http://www.crunchbase.com/company/tweetdeck” title=”Tweetdeck for marketing”>tweetdeck</a> to notify them when someone types in a relevant keyword. Most of the social networks out there need some pruning and weeding every once in awhile. I don't suggest for every client to have a twitter account or even a facebook fan page. I want every client to have the full spectrum, from branding to back links. No follow or not locally SEM works like word of mouth and SEO like those expensive sponsored ads you used to buy in the yellow pages. Don't get me wrong I love SEO and it is necessary for the local business owner these days. But, would you rather have a back link from a speckled red bellied bearded gecko stud directory forum, or a picture of you, logo, description of services, and a link over to your site on a meetup group social networking site in your community. Stop copy and pasting anchor text on .edu job boards, put down the energy drink, and shake some online hands. </p> <p> As Google goes semantic and breaks down relationships between hype society and deep rich data, small business environment must get with the program. Incorporating <a href=”http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets.html” title=”Google introduces rich snippets”>rich snippets</a>, <a href=”http://www.mindfly.com/blog/blog/post/2008/10/The-Incredible-Mobile-Stylesheet.aspx” title=”Mobile style web design”>mobile style sheets</a>, and multi-media branding (Youtube and Flickr ) into the web design and marketing campaign will be essential. The search results are starting to look less like the yellow pages and more like an <a href=”http://www.google.com/search?q=bbq&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a” title=”"BBQ" search on google ISP Bellingham Wa”>illustrated children’s book</a>, (BTW Hawaii BBQ and Noodle House, you have awesome prices, huge servings, you deserve a website = ) ) Internet savvy potential clients aren’t looking for a phone number as much as what relationships a company has locally, or what type of reviews a restaurant may have on a proven directory like <a href=”http://www.yelp.com/biz/hawaii-bbq-and-noodle-house-bellingham-2″ title=”off of Sunset”>Yelp</a>. For example – if I am going to hire a search engine marketing firm I would feel more comfortable if my <a href=”http://www.lifthill.com/images/storm-troopers-wdw-400.jpg” title=”Internet Marketing Storm Troopers “>cronies</a> back them or they have some comforting online reviews. The search engines are going social, multimedia, and want you to get involved! </p> <img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mindfly/~4/m8fmm4luGaM” height=”1″ width=”1″>David Johansontag:google.com,2005:reader/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/mindflytag:google.com,2005:reader/item/033547e1cfd023982009-06-16T20:59:00Z2009-06-16T20:59:00Z<p> In particular order, leading up to #1, but certainly not an inclusive list, the following is a sampling of ideas that relate to successful websites. The temptation was to do a “top 10” list, however websites are all different and their markets unique. </p> <p> <strong>10. Choose your web hosting company carefully</strong>.<br> Hosting costs are certainly worthy of consideration, but in the grand scheme of things they are a small part of the business operating costs. More important are the smooth functioning of your site, your email and your sanity. Don’t scrimp to save a couple bucks a month only to find your site down on a Friday night before a long weekend. Lost sales/credibility are irretrievable. </p> <p> <strong>9. Keep in touch with your clients.</strong><br> Great example of something we know we need to do, but few do well. If your website can capture any info from folks, you have the ability to stay in contact with them. Newsletters, surveys, and web 2.0 (things like <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Mindfly-Web-Studio/87777403410?ref=ts” title=”Mindfly Twitter”>Twitter </a>and <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Mindfly-Web-Studio/87777403410?ref=ts” title=”Mindfly Facebook”>Facebook</a>) work magic for future business. If nothing else, you are gaining name recognition. </p> <p> <strong>8. Stand out from the crowd.</strong><br> If you are in a competitive field, having a memorable and effective web presence is critical. In this day and age, template sites will get passed over without a second glance. Obviously, “standing out” can mean many different things, but the takeaway should be that your site needs to be noticed and acknowledged. </p> <p> <strong>7. Contact me please!</strong><br> So easy to skip this one…Make it super simple for folks to reach you, if that’s what you want. Is your email handy on all pages? Phone numbers? Seems sort of obvious really, but so easy to miss. </p> <p> <strong>6. Keep content fresh.</strong><br> This one has lots of reasons to be lower on the list, but I had to choose. Website content is so important from a SEO standpoint that it has the potential to be the most important aspect of your site. Think about adding a blog to your site. Keeping relevant content and semantically appropriate links, headers, etc. (really needs its own article). </p> <p> <strong>5. Mobile Accessibility</strong><br> Countries from around the globe are noting an increase in the number of people connecting to the Internet from mobile devices like the iPhone. As a result, ensure that your website is accessible from these devices. Create a set of CSS files to target this market. </p> <p> <strong>4. Clearly define the “Call to Action”.</strong><br> What do you want your audience to “do” once they’re on your site? Read something? Buy something? Fill out a form. Although the “to do” list can be extensive, make sure that whatever you want folks to do is blisteringly apparent. </p> <p> <strong>3. Make the site easy to navigate.</strong><br> Again, navigation ease seems obvious, but often missed. Ease of navigation is one of those intangibles that trip up even experienced designers. Just because you know your website backwards and forwards, doesn’t necessarily mean that your visitor knows where to go and what links to click. (Have you thought about doing a usability study? Mindfly can help.) </p> <p> <strong>2. Design your site for your audience.</strong><br> You may like rocket ships and <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzThkTRzsQQ” title=”Flamingos”>dancing pink flamingoes</a>, but is that appropriate for your audience? The site can be (and often is) all about you, but don’t over-do it at the expense of losing your customer. Remember your call to action. See #4 </p> <p> (Insert Drum Roll here) </p> <p> <strong>1. Define your audience.</strong><br> Spend some time researching your target market. Often, inexperienced designers produce designs that are simply “just designs.” Designing for the sake of a cool design has its place, but your new website needs to pull its weight. Instead of a missed opportunity, define your audience upfront and the project will be a success. </p> <p> </p><img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mindfly/~4/xzv5ds1Aq2A” height=”1″ width=”1″>John Raaschtag:google.com,2005:reader/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/mindflytag:google.com,2005:reader/item/942c8433838b20a52009-06-18T04:10:00Z2009-06-18T04:10:00Z<p> A lot of conversation has happened in the past few months (that I'm aware of) regarding applying OOP principles to CSS. Well, it's called OOP CSS. I'm not really sure if we're actually dealing with the technique is truely object oriented, but the result is close enough for those that have been bandying about the term. </p> <p> What is OOP CSS? I'll let the amazing Nicole Sullivan tell you in her Web Directions North presentation <a href=”http://www.stubbornella.org/content/2009/03/23/object-oriented-css-video-on-ydn/” title=”Link to WDN presentation of OOP CSS”>here</a>, which I had the fortune of attending in the flesh (or meatspace, if you will. Do we still call it that?) If you're too pressed on time to watch through the presentation, then shame on you. However I'll offer a crude explanation: OOP CSS is making "modular" classes of CSS rules that take advantage of the ability to apply multiple classes to an element. </p> <p> For more info, you should take the time to check out Jeff Croft's take on the subject <a href=”http://jeffcroft.com/blog/2009/may/20/applying-oop-concepts-css/” title=”Link to Jeff Croft's post: On applying OOP concepts to CSS”>here</a>. In particular, check out the many comments. </p> <p> This methodology can allow for some great reusability with CSS rules, with the intended result of reducing your stylesheet size. As an example that sprung out of Jeff's post's many comments, you could have elements representing success or error messages on a page that share the "message" class (with, perhaps, styles to help present a popup box-like appearance), but they also each have their own specific second class to help them gain unique styling traits, with the error message having the "error" class and the success message having the "success" class. This helps reduce duplicate styles, because both types of elements get the common "message" styles with them being defined only once in the CSS, with only the unique styles being declared separately. </p> <p> So what's the problem with this technique? That's actually a question that's bound to open a fistfight of spaghetti western proportions among designers thanks to the strongly held opinions about semantic versus presentational markup, the futility of trying to mimic programming techniques with CSS, etc. But from my viewpoint, it's a good tool for helping simplify stylesheets, by which we save our clients money, which makes us more competitive in giving them more for their dollar, which is a must-have trait in this current economic climate. </p> <p> But there is a major problem that we all need to be careful about, despite my approval. What is it? What possible blemish could exist? </p> <p> Think hard. It's the Internet. What possibly could ruin any good thing on the Internet? </p> <p> That's right. It's the undead shadow of life-stealing hunger that constantly radiates from Redmond. Despite having driven several silver stakes through its chest, even its own creator has been incapable of putting the dark beast to sleep. I speak, of course, of Internet Explorer 6. </p> <p> I have another, shorter, four letter name that I like to call it. I've been informed by my employers that I cannot use that word on this blog. So instead I'll call it Carl, Black Beast of the Filthiest Bog. </p> <p> Carl is a jerk. Or perhaps Carl huffed paint in high school and now simply doesn't know any better. Let this be a lesson to you kids, huffing paint will not make you into a good web browser. (Cue NBC's "The More You Know" Theme.) In relation to this problem, Carl has a really bad defect. Carl screws up when trying to render styles that are applied via multiple element declarations. </p> <p> What do I mean by that? </p> <p> Let's say you've got elements with the following class combinations: "error message", "success message", "error button". You create a style that applies to messages, but you want to create a style that also applies to just error messages (but not error boxes). What would you use as your rule descriptor? </p> <p> If you said ".error.message" or ".message.error", you've been paying some attention in class. However, you've got a problem when it comes to IE6 rendering these styles. IE6 is only capable in these types of declarations of reading the<em> last class</em> in the descriptor. So the first example would apply (in IE6) to all "message" elements, and in the latter it'd be all "error" messages. This quickly makes things difficult for OOP CSS if you're not extremely careful in how you name your elements and what styles you give to what rules. </p> <p> Having a hard time believing me? Please take a look at this <a href=”http://www.mindfly.com/blog/blog/testcases/ie6multiclasses/” title=”Link to IE6 Multiclass Support Test Page”>test page</a>, which uses lists as a simple example. View it in any average browser, then pull out your dusty system from the dark ages and take a look at it with IE6. You'll notice a slight problem with the list-item numeral markers on one of the lists. </p> <p> What do we do about this? There's a number of options. As much as I'd like to say "screw IE6" and just ignore it, that's not going to work unless the site you're building simply doesn't get IE6 visitors (which seems unlikely considering it's market share). You can also take an approach like Andy Clarke proposes with his <a href=”http://forabeautifulweb.com/blog/about/universal_internet_explorer_6_css/” title=”Link to Universal Internet Explorer 6 CSS by Andy Clarke”>Universal IE6 CSS</a> and serve IE6 a generic stylesheet to make it look clean and simple rather than feeding it the styles that the other browsers will receive. Or you can think out your class names with great care and make sure to arrange your styles with utmost care to prevent the need to refer to a group of styles with a mutli-class descriptor… </p> <p> What you can't do is go willy nilly and ignore the problem, or you'll lose any cost savings you gained with the OOP CSS techniques in the first place as you revisit IE6 again and again to make the page usable for people stuck on that doddering malcontent of a browser. </p> <p> Multiclass descriptors. Carl. Mortal enemies. Keep them apart if you want a clean site. </p><img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mindfly/~4/sVO2gVCRM0M” height=”1″ width=”1″>Kyle Weemstag:google.com,2005:reader/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/mindflytag:google.com,2005:reader/item/722964f8b22370602009-06-18T18:37:19Z2009-06-18T18:37:19ZCheck out my <a href=”http://www.google.com/profiles/djplb.internetmarketing”>new Google profile</a>.(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/3a3409d5c06e6e102009-05-18T17:23:53Z2009-05-18T17:23:53Zinternet advertising marketing in Music DJ I like hiking, Mindfly social media, seo website design web production sales networking semantic sports links sem wa(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/75ed0e274cfedc822009-05-15T22:33:24Z2009-05-15T22:33:24Z<blockquote>Shared by djplb <br> Spokane Lawyer attorney</blockquote> (author unknown)Spokane Lawyer attorneydjplbtag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/46cda7e797ec52a32009-05-15T22:32:48Z2009-05-15T22:32:48Z(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/9b84bafa8e33f2152009-05-12T21:24:04Z2009-05-12T21:24:04ZCheck out my <a href=”http://www.google.com/profiles/djplb.internetmarketing”>new Google profile</a>.(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/linktag:google.com,2005:reader/item/65d5faae0206d34f2009-04-28T22:22:00Z2009-04-28T22:22:00Z(author unknown)tag:google.com,2005:reader/user/06045223127894916350/source/com.google/link
