New Sites

We launched the website for Green Garbage Designs. They specialize in eco-friendly clothing and jewelry. Go check them out for some cool gift ideas for the holiday season. We are also about to launch a new website for Jack Lannom. The site is complete but just waiting for the final edits before going live so check that in a few days.

A few new sites…

I’ve been working on a few sites over the past couple of months. 2 are complete and 2 more are about to launch. On the AgencyWeb side of things we launched the new Universal Healthcare Consulting website. I am proud of it and pleased with how it turned out. It is built entirely on wordpress so the client can update content themselves if they want. I also built the new AgencyWeb (my other company) site. It’s still being worked on as we are adding content as we create it but the framework is done.

I am also 99% finished with the new site for Jack Lannom - Lannom Worldwide, and Green Garbage which is an environmental clothing and jewelery company. That is is really cool in my opinion. So hopefully I get the last bit of content from those guys and it launches soon. I’ve also designed a few new logos and have been tweaking up the Digital Skratch site so go check that out.

Wow lack of updates…

Man it has been a long time since I updated this blog. I have been busy this summer. I helped to form a new web marketing company - AgencyWeb - so that has been taking most of my time. We have offices in Pompano Beach right on the water at a Marina. I have also been doing some traveling, I went to Arizona for a week for my friends wedding and then to Maine for 2 weeks to visit friends and family. So between setting up the new office and traveling I have neglected this blog.

We have also started to work some with the Alt Space Art Gallery in Coconut Walk down in the Grove. If you are in the area you should check out their gallery for some pretty cool original paintings, and limited edition apparel. So if you purchase anything from those talented artists you will probably get some Digital Skratch buttons and stickers in your bag!

I would also like to pay my respects for those who lost their lives on the September 11th attacks.

TV crosses over to the web

The marketing or web department at CBS knows what they are doing. On the television show “How I Met Your Mother” they seamlessly work websites into the shows plot that are actual sites and adds some interaction and content.

During a recent episode Lilly and Marshall needed extra money to pay for some improvements on their new apartment. So Marshall creates a website to sell his wife’s clothes. They mention the address on the show lillyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com and again after the show. Rather then just having it be another promotional site for the show they are actually doing some good. The website sells items from the show for a fundraiser for the LA Children’s hospital which I thought was very cool.

Also in a previous episode about Robin and her embarrassing past as a teen pop star in Canada, they showed her second music video. When I was watching it I was wondering if they would have a link to it on youtube or another website. At the end of the episode it said go to myspace.com/robinsparkles to see the rest of the video. I thought that was a brilliant way to showcase the video, and create more content and information about the fictional 80’s pop star.

This is a great example of how some subtle cross promotion mixed well into the plot of the show can help extend the following of the show beyond the television and to the internet.

Crazy Fast Logos

Here is a video that features over 5000 Web 2.0 logos in less then 6 minutes. It is quite impressive and crazy to see.

Little things add up

Today I was going through client websites and updating some basic seo information such as robot text and fixing canonicalization issues on my own time and I got to thinking.

Over the years I found myself always going back through my clients sites and making small minor improvements. Even if we were not paid to do regular maintenance on the sites and just did random updates when the client requested I would often go in free of charge and make minor improvements. Many times they are only things that probably I would notice. But those things over time help keep the site fresh and little improvements add up. The changes would be small graphical improvements, adding favicon logos, iphone bookmark logos, google analytics or improvements with cleaner code.

Clients would greatly appreciate this attention to detail which has enabled us to slowly grow our base of close clients. Often times a small improvement or doing that little extra thing is all it takes to set you apart.

Mobile Tools

So it has been awhile since my last blog post. Lots has been going on with both work and personal things. With that said here is an update with some really cool Web 2.0 sites. I am going to start to post these cool sites on a regular basis so check back for those.

These three sites are perfect for iphone / ipod users or anyone who travels lots and would like to make better use of their time.

http://www.dixero.com
It is a service that is prefect for people on the go or like listening to podcasts. Now you can stay up to date on your favorite blog sites while you travel. It is a service that allows you to listen to rss feeds via a computer, ipod etc. It is currently in beta version right now.

http://spanishpod.com
This service allows you to learn spanish via your ipod or iphone. There is a free 7 day trial with access to the paid lessons and after that you must pay to continue.

http://www.wirenode.com
This service allows you to design and build mobile websites with relative ease. It also has it’s own version of analytics available.

Design Can Change

In the latest issue of Print Magazine it calls on Graphic Designers to do their part to be more environmentally friendly and how as designers we can help get the message out to people. It mentions a website - Design Can Change - in which designers can pledge to do their part. The site has ideas on how designers can help the cause. Go check it out and read up on how you can help.

New Layout

We have a new layout up at Digital Skratch. It uses the same color scheme and content and similar design elements as the previous layout. Though this one is more web 2.0 looking and not really “framed in” I’m pleased with how it came out and looks cleaner and more user friendly. We also went with a similar design to our sister company Thats My Ad. To have some type of co-branding between the two.

Google is still fast

Back in March we made a post called “Google is getting fast” which I talked about how fast pages are changing positions. I decided to check it again to see if it was still the case.

Last week I searched for “clean web design” and Digital Skratch came up in posistion #54. After deciding to optimize for that term I checked the results every few days. At first we dropped to position 72, and then regained to spots 54 and 53. I checked it today and found our site listed at the bottom of page 1 in the #10 spot!

Again this is proof that proper SEO and ongoing website maintenance should be at the top of your list if your website or online marketing is important to your business.