Video, Video, Video
Thanks to greater bandwidth, cheaper storage, and a proliferation of products and services that make shooting, storing, viewing, and sharing video easy video will be king in 2010”

Unified and Video Search
Combined search – tools will become more common while Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines will combine traditional search results with real-time content (from tools such as Twitter) and video results—making searching easier and more accurate. Those who are building their personal brands will need to use various tools to ensure their visibility is positive and pervasive.”

Branded Partners
Often more traditional in their approach to marketing and delivering their services, professional-services firms (accounting, law, consulting, etc.) are going to jump on the “brandwagon” with reckless abandon in 2010.

Digital Dirt Elimination
As Google results affect more aspects of our lives (getting a job, a loan, a date, etc.), people will engage firms such as ReputationDefender, Defend My Name, and Online Reputation Manager to eliminate digital dirt.

At eye9 we understand that now more than ever, your online presence is more than just your site, it is about every aspect of your digital presence.  When we work with our clients our goal is to ensure your company’s message (brand) reaches your customers, no matter what online avenue they are using.  If these are areas you are interested in learning more about or you just have a general site question feel free to give us a call or drop us a line, and we would be more than happy to sit down and talk with you.

eye9 Design is a leading Denver website development company .

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A website has become one of the primary modes of communication in today’s business world. It has many advantages, including

• Omnipresent: a website is not limited by geography or time zones, and can be accessed 24/7 by visitors around the world
• Transient: did you decide you want to change that marketing tagline? Found a typo in that press release? You can change content and, unlike brochures or signage, it is instantaneously available to the world

However, there are a couple challenges that companies often face

• Expertise: websites are written in coding languages that most people cannot effectively use
• Frequency: website content has a notoriously short shelf life, and needs to be updated regularly to stay fresh
• Budget: paying web designer fees to upload a press release can be a drain on your budget

Content Management Systems eliminate these barriers. They allow anyone to update the website without technical knowledge, allowing more people throughout your organization to have a role in keeping your website up to date. It also allows you to focus your technology on investing in new web development features or increasing your search engine rankings.

We have covered “What is a CMS ” and “Why you need a CMS.” In the final part of this series we cover “What is the best Content Management System? ”

eye9 Design is a leading Denver website development company .

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I am sure that a quick Google search could return a number of articles from those with similar experiences, and perhaps tips to keep from “getting burned” again. However, I want to approach this article from a different angle, that of a potential service provider.

We often deal with clients coming off negative experiences with companies who lacked competence, were dishonest, or communicated poorly. For the majority of these clients, our steady, thorough, and documented approach to setting up projects allays their fears. However, there is a minority who unintentionally sabotage the RFP process because their previous experience has left them deeply hesitant.

So here are a few tips to help you navigate the proposal process with a potential design firm or SEO company:

• Ask but don’t assume : If you have a particular area of concern, be sure to bring it up in your conversation with the service provider. However, try to share it in a friendly manner that does not put them on the defensive by assuming they are just like that last company .
  An example of what not to say: “You know, graphic design companies always seem to be ripping people off. How do I know your cost is what you say it is?”
  Here is a better approach: “Communication and clarity are very important to me. I am coming off a negative experience with a previous designer, and I know from other experiences that can be avoided by establishing a thorough scope of work up front. How can I be of assistance in creating a detailed project description?”
• Everything in writing : A common problem our clients share is that their previous service provider was constantly submitting “surprise invoices” for work they thought was in the original scope of work. Ask your service provider “How do you setup a project so that the scope and cost are clear to both parties? How do you deal with out of scope work?
• Work milestones : ask the service provider if they can break up the project into 3-5 milestones that associate a payment with the completion of a task. As an example, we have setup small design projects with 33% up front, 33% after approval of site design, 33% on completion. This gives the service provider a tangible goal, and you the peace of mind provided by spreading out payments.

Leave us your comments. What are your recommendations for interviewing a potential service provider?

eye9 Design is a leading Denver design firm providing website development in Colorado and SEO Optimization .

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One of the most significant hardware changes in the last 5 years is the ever-increasing screen resolution (measured in pixels, such as 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high). Big, bulky CRT monitors have given way to sleek, thin flat-panel LCD’s . With this transition, screen resolutions have also changed, most notably the emergence of 1024×768 and the disappearance of 800×600.

W3C Schools, part of the main international web standards organization (W3C) , reported that in 2003 almost half of its visitors were on the 800×600 screen resolution. That number has now dropped to 8%. The statistics for our website for 2008 put the number even lower at 2%.

Since both of the above statistics are for sites in the web design industry, I looked at the statistics for 2008 for several of our clients in a variety of industries

• Printing company for financial industry: 3%
• Non-profit serving the disabled: 6%
• Business management consulting firm: 3%
• Marine exploration company: 6%

Why is this important? Size matters because increased website widths allow for the user to see more content without scrolling down the page. As you can see above, throughout a variety of industries the 800×600 screen resolution is fading into obscurity. We recommend the 1024×768 resolution to all our web design and website development clients in order to “future-proof” the sites as much as possible.

Are there larger screen resolutions coming? Of course! In fact, some 70% of our visitors have screen resolutions greater than (and not equal to) 1024×768. However, on other site reports we looked at 1024×768 is as much as half of the traffic and this resolution does not show signs of disappearing soon.

This Denver design firm calls the browser wars in favor of 1024×768!

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So it begs the question…what is good design worth? What would you pay for a website that attracts new visitors, reflects your company’s unique values, and converts visitors into customers?

Here is what one customer had to say about what our design means to her small business.

The most impressive thing about working with eye9 is their ability to respond to my requests and develop a site based on my personal design tastes. Not only is the site aestheically pleasing, but it also suits the needs of my small business
Keri Welch, MementobyKeri.com

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When I began working with eye9 Design I had a pretty specific idea in mind. In the end, they far exceeded my expectations. People are amazed when they look at the site! Thank you for working so hard to perfect our website. You guys rock!
Jessica Yost, T. Garrett Construction

As one of the leading Colorado web design companies, our process-driven design achieves results every time. We start by listening to your needs, and have you fill out a web design questionnaire that gets at the purpose of the website, and who you are trying to reach. It also helps understand your website design preferences, so that we start off the project in the right direction.

Contact us today about redesigning your website!

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Off-page optimization is gathering quality links to your website using those same keywords in the link (anchor) text. This step is often neglected by many clients we speak with. However, off-page optimization is as important as on-page, if not more so. The quality and quantity of links from external websites, called “inbound links,” is paramount. If you look at the SEO industry consensus, the half of the to 10 factors have to do with inbound links.

Here is practical advice on how to gather internal links

• Send individually addressed emails to your colleagues, friends, vendors, and clients. Let them know about your newly optimized site, and ask them if they would link to your site.
• Tell them what you would like the link to say. This is extremely important. Let’s say one of your top keywords is “Denver ski shop.” When you ask your friends to link to your site, say: “The words used in the link itself are important to search engines because indicates what my site is about. So please use the phrase ‘Denver ski shop’ as the link to my site http://www.example.com.”
• As a general rule, avoid link farms and paid links. Natural links from colleagues and clients are more…well, natural. Search engines are always tweaking their results to reward real, natural, quality links.
• Utilize our link building services: we provide link building services to our clients through our partnership with one of the top 10 link building companies in the world. Your links are obtained from the right partners based on a thorough research of your competitors and potential business market space. We also keep in mind these quality guidelines
  • No Frame Sites
  • No Java script pages
  • No link farms
  • No redirected sites
  • No sub-domain sites
  • Keywords in anchor text

This comprehensive, two-pronged approach has helped us get a variety of clients and keywords into the top ten of Google search engine results pages. Contact us today about optimizing your site for maximum search engine penetration.

eye9 Design is a leading Denver, Colorado SEO company providing affordable web site search engine optimization to clients across the nation.

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Cell phones are a tool designed to increase your productivity. However, this particular device is accomplishing much the opposite!

As a leading Denver website designer, we have clients who come to us every week having had experiences similar to the story above. Except in this case, the cause of frustration is their website. Instead of giving them an online marketing tool that allows them to be more productive, it is far too complicated and has become a hindrance. In the end, they find themselves paying their web designer to make simple changes they would much rather be making themselves.

We use a variety of Content Management Systems (CMS), including Joomla and DotNetNuke. For those of our clients who simply need an informational “brochure website,” we use Adobe Contribute. We have implemented this CMS dozens of times for clients in virtually every industry.

Contribute allows you to add new pages, change text, insert pictures, add audio/video, build PayPal buttons, and more. However, the biggest benefit for our clients is not the features…it is the ease of use. If you know how to use word processing software like Microsoft Word, you can use Contribute.

So take control of your website tools with Adobe Contribute!

Brian Rants
President
eye9 Design

eye9 Design is a Colorado web design company, providing graphic design, web development, and SEO optimization.

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1. If you have space…use it
2. >>> !!! *** Be catchy *** !!! <<<
3. Web content and printed content are the same
4. It pays to be different

Myth #1: If you have space…use it

You paid your designer to create an effective marketing piece for you and they returned a comp that is 1/2 a blank page! Why is your designer wasting costly marketing “real estate?”

This “blank” area is termed negative space, whereas an image or graphic would be considered positive space. To a designer, negative space is just another tool at his/her disposal. Often negative space can be used to emphasize composition, create visual paths, direct the focus of the viewer, and increase the dramatic effect of the overall piece.

Great design is often strikingly simple.

Myth #2: >>> !!! *** Be catchy *** !!! <<<

Some people hold the sentiment that crazy shapes, bright colors and seductive ’starbursts’ are always helpful in attracting attention. Florescent pink anyone? The fact is, just because something catches the eye does not necessarily mean the viewer will be interested enough to open, click, or otherwise respond.

A good example of effective advertising is Apple. Their marketing campaigns are quite minimalist in appearance: black and white, vast amounts of empty space, and a subtle use of color. Their collateral is elegant and reflects an attention to detail. Apple users will attest that even opening the product box is an experience in itself. People buy into the (expensive) Mac lifestyle because its aesthetics tell you this is a quality “must have” product, not because their designers resorted to cheap, flashy design tricks.

There are a variety of ways to attract the eye of the visitor, and your industry and target audience always guide these. What is effective for a used car sale advertisement may not work for a software company website.

Myth #3: Web content and printed content are the same

In most cases, your website content should be different than the content from your printed marketing collateral. All your copy should focus on your target audience and be guided by your overall marketing strategy. However, website content is unique in several ways:

• Keep it concise: website visitors have, shall we say, very short attention spans! If your visitor gets the impression that finding the content she desires will be like finding a needle in a haystack, you can be sure she will leave and likely not return.
• Click here for more info: while brevity is essential, you also want your site to be an effective online resource about your services/products. Towards that end, you can allow visitors who want to know more to dig deeper. If you have 5 reasons your product is superior to your competitor’s product, provide them in synopsis form on your products page. Each reason can conclude with “click here for more info” which guides the interested visitor to a more in-depth discussion of the topic.
• Internal Linking: one of the benefits of the web is internal, contextual linking. By using hyperlinks, you can direct users in one section of your website to another relevant section with a simple click. Make the attempt to have at least a half dozen links in the content of every page that allow the visitor to move with ease throughout your site.

Myth #4: It always pays to be different

In business, we are always looking to distinguish ourselves from our competition. Companies can do this by emphasizing a unique philosophy, an improved formula, and better customer service.

Distinctive is also good when it comes to web design. It is important that your website is distinctive, from the look and feel of the site to the marketing message it carries. We accomplish this by having you fill out a web design questionnaire that (among other things) asks how you distinguish yourselves from the competition. Our design can then highlight your unique approach and benefit to your clients.

However, occasionally clients want to take this to an extreme, and end up with marketing collateral that is completely dissimilar from others in their industry. The famous Sesame Street song said, “one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong.” So while it is beneficial at times to buck the system, it is always a good idea to make sure your collateral is in line with the marketing best practices of your industry.

eye9 Design is a Colorado website design company, specializing in web and graphic design, web development, and seo optimization. Denver, CO.

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The alternative to tables is a newer method of coding called CSS – a.k.a. Cascading Style Sheets. In this method the web pages are created with the content, but without any (or very little) structure or formatting. Each individual page then references the single CSS file for structure and formatting. Then changes to the visual appearance of the site can be made globally from one single file.

Other advantages of CSS over tables include:

• Faster loading times than tables
• Extremely flexible for design choices
• Cross-browser compatible
• Search engine friendly
• Easier to maintain than tables
• More accessible on mobile devices than tables
• Accessible to those using assistive technologies

These advantages of CSS lessen the time required to code the website, reducing the overall cost to our clients. In addition, CSS also allows site wide changes to be made within moments. This means that website maintenance is quicker and less expensive than with traditional websites created with tables.

eye9 Design is a Colorado web design company providing innovative and affordable website solutions.

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