How to Get Ideas (for Blog Posts)

May 6, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Over the last few years I’ve designed, built, and maintained quite a few blogs. Naturally, spending any amount of time writing you’re bound to hit a wall sooner or later, especially when you’re trying to create unique content on a regular basis. I get writer’s block just like everyone else.

Being a blogger, designer, and developer both for my full time job and freelance jobs, I stay pretty immersed in my industry for most of the day. Often, the questions that I get asked give me plenty of ideas for new content, but what if you’re not eating and sleeping your blog topics? I often get asked for blogging advice, so I thought I’d pass on this great tip.
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Wordpress Theme Development Presents: Elements of SEO

April 22, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Wordpress themes are an easy way to change the entire look of your website. Free wordpress themes are even better. Every time I develop a new theme for public use I end up using it myself. What can I say, I get too attached.

But as the saying goes, “If you love something, set it free.” So, I’ve decided to release my Elements of SEO theme.
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Keeping Clients Happy

April 14, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

It seems like there is a lot of negative feedback when it comes to website development and SEO companies. Every other client we speak to has something bad to say about the last company. We get very excited when we get one of these clients because it gives us the chance to blow them away. We know we are going to do a great job and we know the client is going to be excited about their new website. Here is a prime example:

You know the story of the Goldilocks? One bowl of porridge was too hot, one was too cold, and then one was just right. This analogy mirrors the experiences I had with website building companies until I was met by the team from Wildfire Productions. In this industry you often deal with way overpriced work, and on the other hand, lack of experienced work which will drag a project on forever. I dealt with both and was finally referred to Wildfire Productions who had fair, competitive pricing and more importantly, excellent work that was carried out in a timely manner. Here is my webpage to prove it: Popoyo House Rental.
- Chuck Jamison

Technorati Tags: happy clients, website development

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Start with Local Search Engine Optimization

April 7, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Whether you’re beginning a new SEO campaign or restructuring an existing strategy, you know that you have a long road ahead of you. Starting with local search engine optimization can be a great way to give your site an initial performance boost while you build long-term results.

This article is going to focus on two aspects of local search engine optimization:

1. What local search engine optimization can do for you
2. How to optimize for local search
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Organization + Exploration

April 4, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Ever lose track of all the sites you like to read? Remember when you used to stumble onto new sites only to discover the perfect resource? The days of not having time to roam and losing urls like pennies are over. Now there’s Alltop.

Started by Guy Kawasaki, Will Mayall, and Kathryn Henkens, Alltop is an organized list of sites arranged by topic. Whether you’re looking for SEO, design, education, politics, sports, or even the twitterati, Alltop has it.

I found quite a few new sites to add to my radar and I can’t wait to really dive into them. Check out Alltop when you get some time and let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Alltop, blogs, blog marketing

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Doing What You Love

April 1, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Most of the time client work isn’t going to be that exciting or glamorous. But every once in a while a client comes along that lets you have fun. Chris Cote, Editor In Chief of Transworld SURF magazine, decided he needed his own blog. Having worked with Wildfire partner John King at Transworld SURF, he knew who to contact when it came time.

From start to finish the project took about a month. Chris knew John’s work enough to just let him go. Design gets approved, I build out the blog, and we’re live. A truly extraordinarily easy process, and cotescube.com is born.

I would love to describe it for you but I think he can paint a better picture. Here’s how he puts it:

Cote’s Cube is a place for you to find epic gear, supremely cool restaurants and bars, skate spots (for mediocre skaters like me), look at art, see what happens at lame parties, check out my friends being all friendly and shit, and you may even learn something (god forbid).

I highly recommend Cote’s Cube for anyone who reads Transworld SURF Magazine or anyone who just loves the industry.

Technorati Tags: Chris Cote, cotescube.com

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Who’s running your SEO firm?

March 28, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Being employed by an agency and having my own SEO firm, I talk shop to a lot of individuals about SEO. Often, SEO is very new to people and I end up having to do a lot of talking. I certainly don’t mind though because I love what I do and I could talk about it all day long.

What I don’t understand is when clients want to rule the SERPs, seemingly want to know everything about SEO, hire you to do their optimization, and then they don’t want to implement the SEO that your firm suggests. It’s almost like they like the idea of SEO but not the actual work.
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Home Sweet Home

March 11, 2008 // Jaimee Wolbert

After moving across the country last year, we set out on a mission to find a new house. We had lots of factors working against us: first time buyers in a new town on a strict time frame. Fortunately, we found a cool local real estate site that had more user-friendly and detailed features than your standard MLS. The JournalHOMES website is a pretty handy little resource. In addition to your typical search tools, the site includes tons of tips and information:

Guide to New and Resale Homes - pointers for picking neighborhoods. A nice addition to the site, which has extensive neighborhood profiles.
Greenville, SC Real Estate Guide - some area specific information and general guidelines to keep in mind when house-hunting.
Upstate, SC Homes and Lifestyles - especially useful for new residents, like us. This provided a quick overview of the area’s attractions and community activities.
Strategies for Selling Your Home - although we didn’t have the need for this during our home search, it seems like it could provide useful insight in the future when we are on the other side of the fence.

Although we found a great home and moved in several months ago, I still like visiting the JournalHOMES site to check out some of the more interesting features. Looking at homes for sale in our neighborhood, historic sales prices in the area, and community information for the neighborhoods near us helps me continue to learn more about our new town. Plus, it’s always fun to relive the excitement of your house hunt!

Technorati Tags: moving, homes for sale, JournalHOMES

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Zero Out Your Margins

March 6, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Have you ever designed a beautiful website only to find that it doesn’t quite look right across multiple browsers? All browsers are not created equal, and often they have slightly different standards for presenting web pages. Internet Explorer can put a little margin here or Firefox can put a little padding there, and even the smallest differences can make your life a nightmare if you’re not prepared.

Developing websites without using tables can give a designer an extraordinary amount of control when it comes to how you want to style your design. Unfortunately with all that control comes a greater responsibility to make sure that each element stays in place across every browser that a user might open.
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Website Promotion Schedule for 2008

February 8, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Online marketing and website promotion is a long and grueling task. You need to make sure that you’re staying on top of many elements and consistently moving forward. The easiest way to do this is by making a list or schedule of tasks that you want to achieve and stick to it.

Since you can market and promote your website in so many ways its best to pick out just a few routes and focus your efforts. We’ll take a look at a few of these options and explain effective methods for organizing your time into digestible chunks.
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