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| Total Unique Visitors: 1 |
| Visitors Out: 1377 |
| Total Visitors Out: 2764 |
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| Best Free Internet Marketing Tools |
| 2007-10-16 20:05:13 |
The “new marketing” or “Internet Marketing” buzz seems to hum a little louder with each passing day. You don’t have to look to hard to see some powerful case studies of extreme success built with low budget internet marketing campaigns. This seems to be the most powerful aspect of internet marketing, extreme exposure [...]...
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| Co-working and co-living |
| 2007-10-03 02:51:29 |
I just finished reading a book called “The Four Hour Work Week” which details how anyone can change their life from one dedicated to endless work and the 9-5 to going on “mini-retirements” across the world while still getting the same amount of work done. I admit this sounds impossible, but after reading the book [...]...
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| Perceived Value on the Web |
| 2007-10-01 20:30:50 |
One of the major aspects of any marketing campaign is to manage perceived value. Perceived value is simply the amount of money that one is willing to pay for a product or service (note: Not necessarily that you charge for a product, but the amount one would be willing to pay).
Now I have talked [...]...
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| Some of us need help writing (me?) |
| 2007-09-13 22:43:18 |
Any frequent reader of my blog has likely figured out that when it comes to grammar, punctuation, and spelling… well I need the help. I have always been of the opinion that some people are good at the technical details (we call them editors), and others know how to formulate sentences in a manner that [...]...
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| CSS TABS - CSS Only “DOM TABS” |
| 2007-09-12 17:46:48 |
While working on my company site redesign, and a new project CSS Uber Clean Gallery I came across a cool CSS trick
There are several variations of “dom tabs” out there, and lets be honest they work pretty well. If a user has javascript everything works as planned, and if not you can read all of [...]...
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| My latest brochure proof |
| 2007-09-11 18:18:05 |
After listening to a SXSW podcast about the 4 hour work week, I decided that I should really employee the 80/20 rule. That is to focus my marketing efforts on that 20% of my clients that bring my 80% of my work. Since I already focus heavily on customer satisfaction, instead of trying to be [...]...
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| affordable link building |
| 2007-08-22 03:06:08 |
I recently signed up for PayPerPost in an effort to see where the service played in the internet marketing landscape. I had originally thought of it as a high priced way to get exposure on large blogs, but after browsing around I realized it could be an affordable way to build links. While text link [...]...
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| Thoughts on Type |
| 2007-08-21 15:09:07 |
Some may have read over my two posts on the possibility of using times new roman on the web. You may have also noticed the criticism/disagreements I received in the comments section.
The argument is that there is no reason to use Times when a better typeface, Georgia is available instead. Times of course is [...]...
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| Proof that Times New Roman can be attractive |
| 2007-08-18 16:55:32 |
I stumbled across this site that uses times new roman effectively. He could have stuck with the tried and true georgia and looked like 99% of the other sites out there but he took a risk and it paid off. Kudos
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| Web Typography - 40 sources for inspiration and instruction |
| 2007-08-17 02:21:11 |
CSS, javascript, and flash has brought the web design community a long way in what we are capable of doing when it comes to typography. However simply being ABLE to take advantage of rich typography doesn’t mean that we all know how. So below are some resources to make it easier to find typographic inspiration [...]...
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| Ann Arbor Event, Troy Event - Become a Leader |
| 2007-08-14 15:38:56 |
For those who attended the Seth Godin event, you know how well the Connect Ann Arbor events turn out. You have another opportunity to network, learn, and be entertained.
Do you run a small business, large business, or team? Ever want to be a leader? This your chance. Famed U of M coach Bo Schembechler [...]...
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| Baseline & Gridding |
| 2007-08-01 21:48:24 |
The importance of setting up a baseline and grid to properly align your elements is finally getting the importance it deserves. It helps create a unity in your design and documents, allowing easier reading and a cleaner look.
Rob Goodlatte has developed a nice script to help you design that baseline, it’s free and extremely useful. [...]...
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| Web Design Marketing Podcast EP 5 - Competitive Analysis |
| 2007-08-01 00:56:01 |
[display_podcast]
This is one of the key elements to a successful web campaign, yet so few people actually do it! One of the first principals in marketing is a method in which you figure out your placement in the market, figuring out your placement is achieved by examining your competitors and seeing what you provide that [...]...
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| Breaking the Grid in Design??? |
| 2007-07-30 18:05:21 |
Blue Flavor has an interesting blog post on designing with out a grid. Very good read, and while I tend to stick pretty strict to grids, sometimes they can confine your thought and design process. There have been a few instances where I designed with out a grid, and afterwards cleaned up the margins by [...]...
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| What the newspapers missed, and you might too |
| 2007-07-27 17:50:36 |
My company, 3.7 Designs had the fortune of getting a few mentions and the logo published in the local newspaper. Our initial impression of the article was that it would be a discussion of the collaboration that occurs between the companies in our office, however they instead chose to focus on the “cost savings” of [...]...
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| Ann Arbor Art Fair? Can It Teach Me Anything? |
| 2007-07-17 13:25:17 |
Ann Arbor — The “Mini New York”. To say that Ann Arbor puts a great deal of emphasis on it’s “rich culture” is speaking mildly. While I end up driving out to many other cities in Michigan and Ohio, I have yet to come across one that has as many art galleries, unique restaurants, and [...]...
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| My 15 seconds of fame with Seth Godin |
| 2007-07-11 15:08:54 |
While not as cool as Derek’s one on one talk with the master, I did end up getting some nice exposure during Seth Godin’s speech a few months ago regarding his new book The Dip.
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| Web Design Marketing Podcast Ep 4 - Online Branding & Exposure |
| 2007-06-29 20:26:42 |
[display_podcast]
Sure enough, not all marketing is done directly through your website. There are many other outlets to get brand recognition before users even come across your website. Most of these are inexpensive, if not free, and can be essential in getting your name out in both the industry and to your potential clients.
The Goal
The goal [...]...
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| You are the weakest link |
| 2007-06-11 23:16:00 |
Its no pick nick running a company, and after you get to a particular size you just have to accept the fact that you simply won’t please everyone. Hell, some companies have made a killing despite pissing off everyone (*cough* microsoft *cough*). Despite the fact that you will get the clients/customers who simply don’t understand, who are can’t be pleased, who are not worth the hassle; damn it, you have to at least try.
Your extensions, are you
I herd a smart man once say that everything about you and your company is part of your brand, down to how your receptionist answers the phone. I forget who said this however, apparently I am not as smart. That means that down to the smallest job in your company, that person reflects your company. You think dell outsourcing their technical support overseas effected their brand? Oh dear god it did…
Embody the brand
So its easy to conclude that making sure everyone who represents you and your company, understands the messag...
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| Niche Marketing, Important online and beyond |
| 2007-06-03 17:17:41 |
In my last few podcasts I have been discussing the importance of marketing to specific niches, groups, and demographics as a way to separate yourself from your competition. I think for many this is a hard task to do, as the thought of narrowing the possibilities of clients sounds like the opposite of what one would want to do. However what you will find is that it actually makes finding clients easier.
Its easier because….
I had the fortune of seeing Seth Godin speak about his new book, The Dip. Seth talked about how picking what you are good at and becoming the best in the world at it is an unbeatable marketing strategy. You could be an internet marketer who caters to everyone, and then battle over price to pick up each client. Or you could become the best in the world in a niche of internet marketing and those who fall in that niche come to you every time.
For example, you could pick museums. If you can develop a strong portfolio and expertise in marketing museums online all ...
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| Web Design Marketing Podcast (EP3) - Targeting Baby Boomers |
| 2007-05-29 15:14:18 |
[display_podcast]
In our last podcast I discussed why it is important to market to a specific group. Today I am going to discuss targeting baby boomers. I picked baby boomers first because they tend to have the most spending power, and are one of the largest groups at this point in time. (Ages 43 - 61).
The spending power of this generation in both consumer and services is hard to ignore.
Some of the things they respond to:
Status / Heros
Iconic Authority
Trailblazers
Items that are earned
Comfort
Perks
Anti-Aging
Baby Boomer Attitude
Baby boomers tend to be marketing influenced. This means that they are much more likely to believe what marketing material tells them compared to the younger Generation-X. They tend to be more resistent to technology, but have high desires for anything that shows that they have earned luxury and status. They are beyond their midlife and are starting to think about death and retirement, so anti-aging is very important to this group.
Example: Limo Serv...
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| Best Free Project/Time Management Tools |
| 2007-05-23 18:12:56 |
I will admit it, I hate the project management aspect of my job. While I love talking to customers and doing the actual work, the thought of trying to keep track of everything I am doing, need to do, and might need to do makes me vomit a little bit. The only part I dislike more about running a business is dealing with difficult people. Luckily, there are tools out there that can help make our management lives easier. The bad news however, is most of them are quite costly. Great, now we have to work more to pay for the tools that let us work more.
But wait!!!
Ahhh yes, there is hope. I have found a dozen tools that will help you manage your time, projects, and company with out costing you a penny. Too good to be true? You tell me.
Time Tracking, in deeetail
If you are a service based industry, then you either charge by the hour or price projects based on how many hours you estimate it will take. Because of that, very detailed accounts of how you spend every minute is extremely impor...
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| CSS Typography - Taking back Times new Roman |
| 2007-05-09 20:09:41 |
Taking Back: Times New Roman
Yes all designers HATE times new roman, but let’s face it — on the web we are very limited on what fonts we can safely use. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am getting a little board of seeing Georgia as the only serif font on the web.
However there is hope. Yes times new roman is ugly, it is overused, and often by amateurs. However we can in fact use it to our advantage with the power of CSS and typography.
Using font sizing, weight, spacing, and leading we have a huge variety of options to tweak times new roman into something attractive. I am of the personal opinion that times new roman at small sizing is just plain hard to read. However if we blow it up we can see some of the more of the subtle styling of the font.
Luxury and Headlines
Look what we can do with just a larger font size and some generous letter spacing
Whitespace is luxurious
.luxury {
font-size: 36px;
font-style: italic;
letter-spacing: 1em;
font-fami...
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| Web Design Marketing Podcast (EP 2) - Your Target Market |
| 2007-05-04 00:13:45 |
Your target marketing is one of the essential elements to marketing your website. Too many people feel that their services are broad enough where they can target everyone! After all, targeting one group would simply be cutting our possible clients down. However, the truth is that if you market to everyone you market to no one.
Imagine these three advertisements
A woman is driving a nice luxurious car on a sunny day. She is dressed in a business suit, with a briefcase next to her but she is smiling and relaxed. The phone rings, with out having to do anything the hands free answers it. Her baby sitter is letting her know that dinner is prepared and in the stove.
A man is wearing a stylish suit, accompanied by an attractive woman at a night club. He goes to leave, and the valet pulls up a sexy and shiny new BMW. Everyone watches as he leaves.
There are ten shots of men, women, children, all driving a BMW. They are all happy and enjoying the car. Weather is nice, they are problem free.
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| Getting out and Staying In |
| 2007-05-02 15:29:57 |
It doesn’t take a long time of being self employed or freelancing to figure out that you can only make as much money or grow in relation to how much you can get done. When you have a small team, or a team of one, it is easy to get into a mode where you feel like you have to be constantly working in order to accomplish everything and be successful. Even if client work is done, you should be marketing, networking, planting seeds, tracking, accounting, planning, etc, etc, etc
It is not long before you are a work all day, every day type of person.
Work less? Get more done?
Ways to get things done, or “GTD” has become a trend in and off itself. Between motivational and strategical books, to developing systems out of moleskine’s, everyone wants to accomplish more in the same amount of time.
However I doubt the “buckle down and kick ass” method works for long blocks of time. It is human nature to get tired, worn down, frustrated. When this exhaustion set...
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| Web Design Marketing Podcast Episode 1 - Calls to Action How / Why |
| 2007-04-25 14:37:03 |
Introduction
Every site is selling or marketing something. Even this blog, I am trying to convince readers that it is worth their time to come back and read additional articles. On the business side of things, you literally have items/services to sell or leads to generate.
Even though many designers are playing the roll of marketers by developing and designing websites, most websites lack marketing polish. This podcast is a quick and easy way to get tips on how to make your website more effective in generating business, leads, and sales. Intended for both web designers and website owners, I will be going over practical tips on how you can help your website work for you.
Calls to Action How / Why?
Simply put calls to action answer the question “I am interested, but now what do I do?
It is extremely easy for users to get confused or misunderstand where you intend them to go or do next, after they have read over a page of your content. You might understand it because you designed it...
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| Ann Arbor Event - Seth Godin in Ann Arbor |
| 2007-04-23 15:43:45 |
Local to Ann Arbor or the Michigan Area? I have an exciting event that you really owe yourself to come to. Seth Godin, father of new marketing techniques will be coming to the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor on Tuesday May 22nd.
If you don’t know Seth Godin, now is the perfect time to come by and hear him speak about new marketing, successful marketing, and his new book “The Dip” which focuses on being the best in the world at what you do.
Find more information at the Connect Ann Arbor: Official Blog , and please help us spread the word by sporting a “Be There” badge.
Hope to see you all there, if you see me please come up and say hello!
Tags: Ann Arbor, blogging, Business, event, events, Marketing, michigan, networking...
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| The void and the separation |
| 2007-04-11 16:02:29 |
I often see voids between us “standard-ities” and the rest of the “web creative world.” We all have our “Happy Cog” role models that nod approvingly as we create clean, simple, content centered web pages that are accessible and validate.
What about the rest of the world?
It is no secret that marketers, graphic designers, and Advertising agencies are often looked down upon focusing too much on the design and throwing music/sound and animation in where ever possible - however they make up a large percentage of those driving the development of web pages. These groups often focus on branding over content. What exactly is said is not important, it is the message that the sites themselves give off. This often means more focus on graphics, and a few specific messages.
Many times this also leads to excessive animation, flash intros, and *gag* music.
Who is right?
Like most of you, I read mostly coder/web designer specific blogs. Those writing on these sub...
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| Justified horizontal navigation with liquid layouts |
| 2007-04-10 03:57:57 |
The use of horizontal navigation on web sites has been around for ages, and with the extremely vast differences between browsing resolutions the need to have a site that is liquid is becoming increasingly more important. This presents a problem however, for us standards based coders when we try and combine the two practices.
How do we ensure that our horizontal navigation fits with in our liquid design beyond simply centering it?
Searching the internet I was never able to find a solution, until one day it struck me. So simple, yet I had yet to see it?
Start with foundation
Like any navigation, we will start with a list - after all, navigation is simply a list of pages that you can browse through.
<ul >
<li><a href="http://www.3point7designs.com//index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="aboutus.html">About us</a></li>
<li><a href="services.html">Services</a></li>
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| What would you like to read? |
| 2007-03-26 22:28:45 |
Watching my feedburner stats, it looks like I have loads of new subscribers compared to even just a year ago. Since most remain silent in terms of comments, I would like anyone who has taken the time to subscribe to have some input in some upcoming articles.
I have some ideas brewing about business, wordpress cms, typography, liquid layouts, design, and seo… What topic would you like to read about? Are there any ideas/questions of any of those topics (or any topic at all) that you would like to read about?
Leave a comment, I promise it will be worth your while
Tag: blogging...
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| Blogs I read |
| 2007-03-23 00:28:45 |
I just came back from talking to a group of students over at WCC about running a web design company, daily life of doing web design, and rambled on about plenty of pointless stuff I am sure. One of the questions that asked after my waffling was what blogs I read to stay current.
So here are my favorites
Design / User Experience Related
Emanuel Blagonic
John Dilworth
Jason Santamaria
Cameron Moll
Matt Heerema
Andy Budd
North Temple
MezzoBlue
Andy Clarke
Jeff Croft
Veerle
Front End Coding
Circle Six
Robert Nyman
Johnathan Snook
Monday By Noon
Garrett Dimon
A List Apart
456 Berea Street
Chris Heilmann
WebAxe Podcast
Dustin Diaz
Bryan Veloso
SEO
SeoMoz
SEO Book
Stunt Dubl
Dave Naylor
Search Engine Land
Gray Wolf
Hopefully this is helpful, obviously keeping track of them in an RSS reader is the preferred method!
*EDIT: This is where I got my business cards printed
Tags: blogging, CSS, design...
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| The need for inspiring projects |
| 2007-03-14 18:00:58 |
Running a small design firm it is easy to get spread thin trying to appease as many facets of business yourself in an effort to keep overhead down. Because of this the tendency is to lose site of why you started design in the first place, design itself. The focus becomes about growth, success, networking, efficiency, each project becomes “another project” instead of “a new project.”
Because my business model focus’ on customer retention over customer acquisition, this seems to multiply itself. Branding and consistency is important, so advertisements, postcards, websites, all start to feel and look the same.
Revitalization
When an exciting and fun project comes along it seems to re energize my love for the web and interactive design. I was lucky to work on two sites run by a company that is like non I have ever seen before. Professional Communications, Inc, pioneers of I-Opt (organizational development/engineering) is a creative, unique, and different. Eve...
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| Tagged | Top Five Reasons I Blog |
| 2007-03-07 03:45:41 |
I have been tagged by Brett Terpstra of Circle Six Design. Which means I get to rant about myself a bit (which is always fun) and then make other people write as well (woohoo).
1. I like to teach
This is the most likely reason that I continue to blog; but it really isn’t the reason that I started blogging. I admittedly started blogging because I wanted recognition. Yes I am a self serving bastard at heart. It seems however that I am embarrassed about it, thus allowing my teaching/helping tendencies to overpower my deep self promoting urges. Most of my articles/posts are instructional in nature, covering seo, coding, design, business, etc.
2. I like to have a place to rant
It doesn’t happen all that often, but when needed it’s nice to have a place to let off steam. This includes talking about weird personal stories or when shitty things happen. Even though it is probably not a frequent method of use - I like the idea of having a “rant stool” in reserve if n...
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