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

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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.

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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.

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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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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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Back Pain No Mas

January 24, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Back pain has plagued my life ever since I started skateboarding around 6 years old. Who knew that falling on the concrete over and over again would catch up with me. Fast forward about 22 years and I still have a pretty significant amount of pain.

I’ve been to numerous doctors and chiropractors on the east and west coast and no one has ever been able to provide any answers as to why I am having this pain. MRI’s, CT-scans, Barium CT scans and every other test possible has been done and nothing has ever given me an answer. For a few years I was running very habitually and that definitely helped out a lot.

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Bad IE

January 15, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Due to some nasty rendering in Internet Explorer were going to have to put the new theme on hold for just a bit. We should be able to get her back real soon.

Georgia on my Mind

January 1, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Possibilities from design to design are unlimited. Take a look at the CSS Zen Garden for example; all of the designs published at the garden use the exact same HTML. The only difference is the way they are styled. With the advancements of CSS, a designer can do almost whatever they like on the Internet.

Designer Roadblocks

One limiting factor that web designers are plagued with is the variations of web fonts. Sadly, we are limited to a safe list of about nine web ready fonts that are pre-installed on everyone’s computer. Personally whenever I am looking to get a little crazy with my web fonts I go to typesetter where I can compare fonts side-by-side, instead of experimenting with CSS until I get the look that I’m going for.

I have always been a fan of minimalism and with this new ‘08 design I wanted to get back to that type of style. I didn’t want to beat my users over their heads with drop shadows and bevels. I wanted clean, elegant, and timeless. Any veteran designer can look at a range of designs on the web and say, “I remember when that was popular.”
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