420 Creative Blog

Aaron Wall on Social Media Guruism

2009-11-06T15:19:32+00:00

Social media, used as a means to make money, is - mostly - useless.

Read the whole article though. He goes on to make some interesting and 100% valid points on social media (Twitter and Facebook in particular).

Quickly Make Any Page Print Nicely

2009-11-06T02:54:54+00:00

Ever go to a website with really crappy (or non-existent) print stylesheet which means, if you go to print the page ALL the garbage on the page? Yeah well, aside from berating the site owner, now there's a cool little tool you can use: The Printliminator. And best of all, it's just a simple little bookmarklet.

Not being a big fan of printing web pages to begin with, I haven't tried this. But, if you prefer printing out articles and whatnot, this may be the indispensable tool for you.

Reduce Your Junk E-mail to Zero in 3 Easy Steps

2009-11-04T09:31:50+00:00

Junk email is a serious pain in the you-know-what. You know the kind: Nigerian scams, body part enlargements, how to increase your site's rankings and so on and so forth.

1. Make sure your email is encoded on your website

Obviously, having your email address on your website is important if you want people to get in touch with you. But don't make the mistake of putting it out there all defenseless. Make sure your Content Management System automatically encodes or obfuscates the email address so it's not easily harvested by spambots. If you're unsure how to do that, ask your web designer.

2. Enable anti-spam measures on your website's hosting account

Your web host should provide a few different levels of spam prevention. While some of it is 100% in their control, they should have anti-spam controls available within your control panel. If you don't have anything like SpamAssassin, it's best to ask your host what measures you can take. If they can't give you a good answer, switch web hosts.

3. Set up your email program to identify junk and toss it

This step varies depending on the email program you use, but any email program worth its weight will have ways for it to identify junk email and then either toss it into a specified folder or delete it altogether (so you don't have to deal with it). Apple Mail and Microsoft Outlook both provide these things, as do other popular ones (including Gmail, Yahoo! and other web-based ones).

Will these tips work?

Your mileage may vary, as they say, but using these 3 tips have kept my inbox virtually spam-free.

Awesome Design: RamiroDelgado.com

2009-11-03T09:18:19+00:00

When you think of radio personalities or that same voice you hear on a bunch of commercials for various products, it's unlikely that you think of the person's face. That, however, is what makes this site so great:

Ramiro Delgado is a voice over professional. His site (which I can read!!) is not only well designed (and appropriately fun-looking), it focuses on just one thing: his voice. You won't find a photo of him, just copy to entice you to click around some more and his radio and TV samples. Nice.

Another reason to love EE

2009-11-02T21:31:27+00:00

I like WordPress. It certainly has its place, its advantages, etc. But even so, seeing stuff like this makes me smile because I know ExpressionEngine is just a better CMS platform.

Click image to view larger

And yes, EE can handle complex site structures. :)

Lightboxes and keyboard accessibility

2009-10-31T03:30:46+00:00

Roger Johansson:

Lightboxes can be very annoying to people who do not use a mouse. The problem with keyboard accessibility isn’t launching lightboxes. That part usually works well. But after that the trouble starts.

7 Steps to a Killer Website

2009-10-30T08:05:03+00:00

Too often business owners get a website built and then watch it sit there taking up server space. It's when their visits hit rock bottom (read: 0) that they start to get frustrated and don't see what the point of a website is in the first place. Well, apart from knowing how to market a website (from SEO to PPC and other marketing media), your website needs to be able to attract, inform and convert. Here are 7 steps to do that.

1. Know your customer, know their problem

People don't start looking for a product or service until they realize they need something. In other words, they have a problem that needs solving.

Your website needs to address both: the customer and the problem. Really knowing your customer will make creating a website that will appeal to them much easier. This means really understanding what works for them and what demographic you're serving. Does it mean that you won't get sales from other demographics? Not at all, but aiming for a specific audience is better than casting so wide a net that you don't hit anything.

So on your website, you better be speaking to your core audience and you better be talking about how whatever you sell solves their problem. And frankly, it needs to be done well enough that they'll see it and read it before they can click away, and so that it motivates them to click further.

2. Define your specific service

Be sure you've made it clear what it is you provide exactly. While that may seem very obvious, it's easy to fall into the trap of writing about how great you are or how you're the best without ever really saying what it is you do. Spell it out. Short and sweet works best.

3. Develop a clear message

While you're telling your audience what it is you provide and how it can help them, be sure it's clear. In fact, it should connect the dots for them. In other words, your overall message needs to connect their problem and your service clearly and succinctly.

Hint: that's where a great copywriter can help.

4. Give 'em a little something

Whether it's a case study, portfolio sample, free white paper or a data sheet, demonstrate how you've provided a solution for others. Obviously this will help showcase your skills and services, but it will help your prospect imagine themselves being helped by you. If you can include a testimonial for extra punch - people love to use products and services that have worked for others as opposed to trying the unknown.

5. Start connecting

Don't just let your site sit there. Start inviting people to connect with you. This can be in any number of ways, including:

Twitter
Facebook
A monthly or quarterly email newsletter
A blog
Community / user forum

Connecting with others will help you start to develop a fan base that will inevitably sing your praises. More importantly though, it shows that there are actual people behind the company willing to talk with and hear from customers, rather than at them or avoid them altogether.

6. Make it easy for someone to become a client/customer

This may seem like a no-brainer but there are plenty of websites that make it incredibly difficult to figure out how to get a product, become a member or whatever. Be sure you make it easy. Is your site a membership site? Make the registration visible and easy. Do you sell downloadable products? Make that download link easy to spot!

7. Provide the service you promised

Whatever it is you provide, you're promising your prospect that you're going to get that very thing. The moment you falter, you've broken that promise. That means weakened trust and dissatisfaction which will ultimately lead to a bad review or worse, a bad reputation (if it happens enough). It's easy to forget what you've promised, but don't do it!

Optimizing Your Site for Bing

2009-10-29T08:32:28+00:00

Aaron Wall at SEObook.com:

"In the past few years, SEO has been about all-Google, all the time, so the rule of thumb is to optimize for Google, and the rest pretty much takes care of itself.

"This advice still stands."

But there's more to it than that. Be sure to read the full post.

Why It’s Vitally Important to Trust Your Search Engine Marketing Company in a Down Economy

2009-10-29T03:11:04+00:00

Scott Buresh at Search Engine Guide:

With pull marketing, you are able to target a potential customer at the exact time he or she is seeking your products and services regardless of any declines in the marketplace.

That's the crux of the article. Still a good read though if you're not fully convinced.

Google Maps Navigation

2009-10-28T19:08:07+00:00

The Apple Blog:

"If you’re the CEO of TomTom or Garmin, you may want to sit down for this. Google is working on a turn-by-turn navigation app that it will be offering for free on Android 2.0 handsets. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s working with Apple to bring it to the App Store, too."

I'm crossing my fingers.