Entries Tagged as 'Research'

Taking Care of Business

March 1, 2009 // Drew Stauffer

Freelancing on the side has always been a wonderful perk to choosing a design career. I do feel thankful that I happen to have a job that makes me happy and can enjoy doing all hours of the day. The downside to having a designer-type personality is that usually we tend to not be as on top of things as we should when it comes to business.

My freelance hours are limited to say the least and choosing the right type of client is just as important as getting new clients. I’ve been looking into customer relationship management applications to see if that might be a solution for developing a more established, organized approach to supplemental income.

For the most part many of these applications do a lot more than what I need as a single freelancer, but I do like their approach to crm as it pertains to my analytics. Analytics are such a huge part of a successful business online and a lot of people do not absorb that information as well as they could. You need to not only know where and how your clients are finding you, but which keywords are converting into sales more so than others.

Taking advantage of lead management software can really help organize your business and make sure that you are following through on every possible lead that comes your way. This really looks like  something that I am going to try out in the future and I’m anxious to see how well it can work.

If you have tried or have any thoughts about crm products please let me know in the comments below.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

A Big Thanks

February 17, 2009 // Drew Stauffer

Working through various technologies can sometimes give you nothing but a headache.

I’d like to throw out a big thanks to Douglas Bowman and Pablo Gomez for their help with the customization of Pablo’s Postalicious plugin.

Pablo’s plugin is a fantastic way to keep your blog updated with links from your delicious, ma.gnolia, Google Reader, Reddit or Yahoo Pipes bookmarks and I highly suggest it.

Getting What You Pay For

January 16, 2009 // Drew Stauffer

Being a designer, developer, and SEO, I always enjoy perusing other peoples’ sites to see how they lay out their content, write their code, and optimize their pages.

The new design on Jason Santa Maria’s site is incredible, and I love the build of The Posse Foundation. Lately I have also been focusing on reviewing service pages to see how other people explain what they do. SEOmoz does a great job of explaining their services and so does Top Rank Results.

During my search I ran across Shimon Sandler’s site. Shimon works as an SEO consultant and anytime SEO is involved it’s best to give the client as much information as possible. Shimon does a great job of laying out all the small details that clients need to hear. The SEO industry does have its share of shady characters, just like any other industry, and it’s good to know what you’re paying for when you enlist an SEO.
// Continue reading

Do You Understand What I’m Selling?

November 26, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Writing for the web seems to mystify a lot of people. Often, writers may have trouble when it comes to getting an effective point across. Two of the biggest problems with web copy is that users either a) leave the page not knowing what you’re talking about or b) have no idea what you want them to do.

I was talking to my sister a few months ago and asked her why she never commented on my blog or if she ever read it. She told me that she read it all the time but never understood anything I was talking about. Since she is the exact type of everyday business person I am hoping to sell my services to, this is a big problem.
// Continue reading

Search Quality-Defined by Google

August 6, 2008 // Drew Stauffer

Having an accessible website is one of the most important aspects of web design. Immediately following accessibility is usability. If a user cannot figure out how to use your site then they’re not going to stick around.

Have you ever wondered what steps Google takes to maximize usability? Most people might look at a results page from Google and think they just wanted to keep things simple - white page with 10 links to websites and very few distracting elements.
// Continue reading

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.
// Continue reading

Is Your Website Getting Indexed?

November 14, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

How often do you check to see what pages are indexed by each search engine? If you’re not checking on a regular basis you could be in for a surprise. Yes, Google is the dominant search engine, but Yahoo, MSN and Ask are still going to bring you a decent amount of traffic.

We recently re-organized an older site and re-wrote all the content to optimize it for a new set of specific keywords. After 301 re-directing the old pages and submitting the XML sitemaps to Google, I gave it some time to see what pages were going to get indexed.

// Continue reading

Blog Posts That Get Attention

October 30, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Over the next couple of months I am going to run a few experiments. Currently when I post anything, it’s usually fairly extensive. I figure if I’m going to take the time to write something then it needs to get my complete attention. I have over 30 blogs in my RSS reader and I’ve noticed that a lot of big names in the industry post a lot of short posts.

Problogger and SEO book are some great examples of posts that are extremely short but definitely get the attention of their readers and develop some great conversations between users.

Currently I have 69 RSS subscribers according to my feed burner account and I want to see if posting shorter articles, more often will bump up my subscriber count.

What do you think? Would you rather read a short post that provides quick info, or would you rather read a lengthy post that may or may not help you out?

BlogRush Frenzy

September 17, 2007 // Drew Stauffer

Driving traffic to your blog is one of the most sought after skills for any Internet marketer. Blog Rush has introduced a new widget that will allow you to increase your traffic by simply adding their widget to your blog.

BlogRush is a free widget that’s designed to promote websites encouraged around a 10 tier referral program. Just like any pyramid marketing scheme, the earlier you get in, the more traffic you can generate, so go check it out.

There have been many discussions about whether BlogRush will be harnessed by real Internet marketers or spammers. What do you think? Is this a good idea, or possibly too good to be true?

I am certainly going to be trying it out to see what kind of traffic they can produce. I will definitely keep everyone informed with the progress.