Ideas Design, Inc.

FREE Website Matching Email Template

admin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:26:57 +0000

Between now and December 31st, any new paying client you sign up will receive a FREE Website Match – at no cost to you!

We’ll review your client’s website, and create an email template that looks like it. All you have to do is add content… upload the list… and push the “send” button.

Check out a video that explains it here

Say Goodbye to the black Google Bar

admin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:03:24 +0000

If you use Gmail, Google Reader, Google+, Google Search, Google Maps — indeed, just about any Google product — you’ve likely become familiar with that black strip across the top of the screen with links to the company’s other services. Google introduced it back in June. Opinions have varied ever since, but many of us have gone with: what on Earth is that ugly thing?

Wonder no longer, because the black bar is going away. In a blog post Wednesday, Google announced it would be replaced with a pop-up that appears when you mouse over the Google logo. There will also be a smaller, less obtrusive light grey bar dominated by a search box.

“Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo,” writes technical lead Eddie Kessler — whose Google profile identifies him as a “cat herder” — in an official announcement blog post. “We’ll show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off.”

Tips on Page Titles

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:39:27 +0000

Google shows the first 60 to 70 characters in the search results. Make sure your important keywords occur early in the page title for scan-ability. If your title goes beyond 70 characters Google may cut off the title before 69 characters and display … at the end of your page title.an on your brand.
Rather than making your page title just the keyword and/or starting your page title with the keyword, sometimes it helps to add in a descriptive modifier before your core keyword. This helps ensure your page is less likely to get filtered out of the search results (and thus makes your rankings more stable) while helping you rank for additional terms. For example, instead of Puma Ducati Shoes, you may want to use, Buy Puma Ducati Shoes.
Page titles are used to draw in clicks from search results amongst many anonymous competing offers, thus they present an opportunity to differentiate yourself from the competition and qualify prospects to your offer.
Good titles evoke an emotional response, ask a question, or promise something (that the landing page fulfills).
Since the page title is one of the few elements search engines can show searchers before sending them to your site, they place significant weight on the words in the page title. In addition, some people link to pages using their official page title as the link anchor text.
Overlapping modifiers in a reasonable and readable way allows you improve your relevancy scores for an array of keywords, but they still need to read well. Rather than loading up page titles with a keyword list it is better to write a clear compelling offer that contains your keywords and describes your services.
Qualifying the wrong prospective clients with a bad offer will lead to a low conversion rate, or wasting time servicing non-clients. For example, if you sell something that is high end you wouldn’t necessarily want to rank for your keyword with modifiers like cheap and discount, as servicing those people will waste your time.
Page titles should be differentiated from page to page on your site. Unless limited by the size and scope of your site, it is best not to have all your page titles follow the exact same formula across your site. You also should not use the same keyword at or near the start of every page title.
The format, order, and word selection of the words in your page title should be (at least slightly) different than the words in your meta description and on page headers.
If you have a strong brand you may want to place it at the end of your page title. If you have one of the leading trusted Internet brands (Amazon, eBay, etc.) then it might make sense to place your brand at the start of the page title. In most cases the page title should still be more focused on the page copy and searcher’s intent than on your brand.

What’s a Whizzy-Wig? (WYSIWYG)

admin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:04:12 +0000

I get clients asking me this question a lot. Which is a reminder that what I think is basic info, because I’m “in it” every day, all day, is not common knowledge for everyone else.

WYSIWYG (play /ˈwɪziwɪɡ/ wiz-ee-wig)[1] is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content (text and graphics) displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form exactly corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product.[2] which might be a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

The phrase was originally a catchphrase popularized by Flip Wilson’s drag persona “Geraldine” (from Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In in the late 1960s and then on The Flip Wilson Show until 1974), who would often say “What you see is what you get” to excuse her quirky behavior. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG)

It’s the way you see the type, in MsWord, exactly how it will print out, as you are typing it. If you hit italic, it goes italic, if you hit bold, it goes bold.

What you see on screen, is what you get on paper.

Or according to one entry in urbandictionary.com: 5. wysiwyg: A promise Microsoft never delivered.

29 BILLION ! ! !

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:32:26 +0000

If that number doesn’t pique your curiosity and make you start thinking then you are probably missing a big opportunity.

We’ve been doing Mobile Site versions and iPhone and Droid App development for a while now. The requests are steadily increasing, which is nice to see my client base “getting it” when it comes to technology movements.

For those of you who haven’t started to consider how this might be a wave you want to ride, here’s a few stats to get your heart pumpin’ and your brain spinnin’.

Droid App development is seriously increasing and has been and will continue to be a major player in the app market. Surpassing iPhone this summer with number of downloads.

ABI Research said that between April and June, 44 percent of the mobile apps downloaded were for Android devices, compared to 31 percent for iOS (iPhone) devices.

It also said that Android smart phone shipments grew by 36 percent, compared to 20 percent in the first quarter. Apple’s iPhone shipments slowed to 9 percent from 15 percent in the same time period.

New stats are not in on how the recent iPhone 4s sales have affected this data.. stay tuned for an update on this soon, no doubt.

The overall number of downloads are projected to more than triple to 29 billion this year from about 9 billion last year, with the number of smart phones in the world growing by about 46 percent.

That’s a pretty impressive number to ignore. Give us a call to discuss how mobile sites and apps might help you out.

You can’t handle the truth!!

admin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:09:08 +0000

I got this link from a fellow art director and thought it was hysterical.

7 ways to build your email list

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:29:12 +0000

1. Ask everyone that comes to your place of business.
Put a sign-up sheet at your register or reception desk. Ask callers on the phone. If you’re a web-based operation, send a follow-up after an order asking if they’d like to continue to hear from you. Have your employees and staff ask too. Don’t be shy! Studies have shown that over half of people will provide their email addresses if asked.

2. Ask people you meet in professional settings.
There’s a lot of networking going on at trade shows, conferences, seminars, and industry events— tell your new contacts about your email newsletter and ask them to subscribe, too!

3. Use a “Join My Mailing List” tool to sign people up.
There are easy-to-use buttons and widgets to help you capture people’s interest in you. Most email newsletter services, like Constant Contact, for example, provide easy to use, copy and paste code that you can insert into your website, Facebook page, blog, LinkedIn profile and in your outgoing emails. They’re easy to use. People just click on the link or button and get taken to your quick sign-up page. Their email goes automatically into your contact database. Couldn’t be easier!

4. Don’t forget about social media.
People love to share great information. Be sure to use a Social Share bar/button/link so your subscribers can forward your newsletter, put it on their Facebook pages, or Tweet it.

5. Cross-promote yourself with a related business or organization.
Got a good relationship with a business that’s complementary to yours (such as florists and chocolate stores; theaters and neighborhood bistros)? Promote each other in your respective newsletters by being “guest contributors” and writing a newsletter article for their audience, either one time or on an ongoing basis. You’ll also benefit by the perceived endorsement from the other business, making their subscribers more willing to give you a shot.

(Just a friendly reminder that the fine print in almost any Terms of Service says you can’t borrow, rent, purchase, or swap email addresses. So please don’t do any of that stuff.)

6. Promote your email newsletter in all your printed collateral.
Put a simple message on your business cards, brochures, advertisements, sales kits, and direct mail letters.
Some ideas:
- “Sign up for our email newsletter for insider information and discounts at….”
- “Get our monthly newsletters with tips on how to get more business.”
- “Receive our weekly email newsletter for exclusive coupons.”
- “Let’s stay in touch often. Sign up for our email newsletter.”
- “Ask us about our email newsletter.”

7. Use incentives to get new sign-ups.
Offer a monthly prize drawing or freebie like a guide, discount, or giveaway to entice people to leave their email address. If you have employees, run a contest (with a great motivating prize, of course!) to see who gets the most new names in a certain period of time.

Screencast Demo

admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:24:01 +0000

This is a screencasting demonstration video that showcases a Student Document Management System, a web-based custom application developed by Ideas Design, Inc.

Tredhed Monthly Review – Volume 3

admin — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:13:21 +0000

This is volume #3 of the Tredhed Monthly Review, a monthly video magazine that was produced for Tredhed.com.

Tredhed Monthly Review – Volume 2

admin — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:12:10 +0000

This is volume #2 of the Tredhed Monthly Review, a monthly video magazine that was produced for Tredhed.com.