Overview and Scope

This particular project was focused on creating and deploying a Blog style personal website rather than a business style website. The main objective was to create a clean and professional looking site that allowed to visitor to focus on content. There were several other objectives including the integration of a way to recommend books and music. Many people look to Pastors for guidance on books and music that will help them change and shape their lives, so this was an important aspect of the site as well. Finally, there was a goal to harness the power of Social Media and make sure that Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and LinkedIn connections could easily be within reach of the website content from each of those services.

This project was also a rare occasion for us, where customization was far less important than simply being able to deliver a nice looking and easy to use personal website quickly.

Social Media Integration

The integration of Social Media for this project was a no brainer. I don’t imagine that there is a Pastor on the face of the earth that isn’t at least using Facebook. As well, many Pastors are seeing the great potential that comes with using Twitter to instantly broadcast a message to thousands of people. In this particular case, Tad was also using LinkedIn to help connect with church members and ultimately, try and help them connect with other professionals. We set Tad’s personal website up so that every time he publishes a new blog post three things happen:

1. A Tweet is automatically generated announcing the new blog post and a shortened link is included in that Tweet which links people directly to the blog post.

2. A copy of the blog post, including media, gets posted to his Facebook wall.

3. A copy of the blog post, including media, gets posted to his LinkedIn profile page.

Unique Aspects of the Site

The primary unique aspect of this personal website compared to others we have done is the integration and implementation of the Amazon Associates code. Because it was so important for Tad to have a way to recommend books and music to site visitors, we recommended that he take advantage of the Amazon Associates program. Essentially, this enables him to recommend the books and music of his choice using some code snippets that Amazon created uniquely for Tad. By putting these code snippets in place, whenever a site visitor clicks on a book or a music item, they are directed to Amazon.com. If they end up purchasing that book or music at Amazon.com then Amazon pays Tad a small bit of change for referring the purchaser. It doesn’t cost the purchaser anything extra and it can help out a Pastor who is trying to help people change and improve their lives.

Pictures

Math-magical.com featured in the WooThemes Showcase

We have submitted a number of our other past projects to WooThemes and some other theme developers for showcase consideration. This is a win-win for us and our clients because we both gain website traffic and Search Engine Rankings because of recognition like this.

Case Study

The LeBlanc Agency approached us only a few days ago. Yes, you read that right, a few days ago. Ms. Julie LeBlanc, Owner of The LeBlanc Agency, was referred to us by long time client of ours. The nature of her project was simple but also quite urgent. Ms. LeBlanc made the decision some time back to discontinue her representation of State Farm Insurance and begin representing many different Insurance Companies as an Independent Agent. During our first conversation, there were several goals that were clearly communicated. First, she knew that her existing website and the content provided by State Farm would be disappearing within a few days. As well, she knew that many people would be trying to communicate with her using her State Farm email address, which would also be disappearing within a few days. Ultimately, Ms. LeBlanc knew that she needed a solution to both of these problems ASAP.

Domain Transfer

The first order of business was for us to work with Ms. LeBlanc and determine who her domain was currently registered with and what options were at our disposal. We quickly determined that State Farm was in the Domain Registration business and that they were controlling her domain. They informed us that they would not allow the domain settings to be changed while it was in their control. So, we immediately helped Ms. LeBlanc initiate and facilitate the transfer of her domain to us, StudioD.tv as the official registrar.

A Simple Business Card Style Site

Because of a newly formed business partnership, Ms. LeBlanc decided that the best course of action immediately was to engage us to provide a simple business card style website that provides clients and prospects with the most important essential information; address, telephone numbers, a link to send an email, a list of professional credentials, and most importantly, a professional headshot so that existing clients could be certain that they had arrived in the right place.

Email

Many times, email is taken for granted. In this particular case, Ms. LeBlanc had a personal email address that she could use temporarily, but ultimately wanted to ensure that she presented a professional image by having an email that represented her domain; ie, name@leblancagency.net

How we did it so fast

Once the transfer was official and the domain was back in Ms. LeBlanc’s control, we were able to have her website and email solutions in place within a few hours. So, how did we get that all done so fast? A combination of owning a hosting company and utilizing a web platform called WordPress. This combination really enables us to deliver a simple solution to people very quickly.

Pictures

Here are some screenshots of the new site for The LeBlanc Agency.

Game Changer

There is a potential game changer that has entered this space. Photoxpress provides “Images you want. Free.” So, if you are at all like me, your first question is, “is it really FREE?” In a lot of cases, FREE, means ad-supported. With Photoxpress it means, FREE, for up to 10 images per day. Equivalent to 3,650 images per year. Not bad. As with all stock photography and images, there are terms of use that the user must comply with. Suffice it to say this; if you need a stock photography and image resource to use on your Website or in your Email Marketing, Photoxpress should be your first stop.

Maximizing what you get out of Photoxpress

Even though there are more than 600,000 photos and images available for download, you still might not find what you need at Photoxpress. My experience has been hit or miss. Even so, here are a few tips to make sure you get the most out of your Photoxpress account(s).

~ If you find an image you like, go ahead and download similar images at the same time. Chances are you might use them in the future.

~ If you have multiple authors for your Website, encourage each author to set up their own account and utilize both accounts to maximize the number of images at your disposal.

~ If you have future blog posts or new pages that are in Draft status, go ahead and download images that you might use for those. Especially if you haven’t reached your limit of 10 for the day.

What are you waiting for?

Head on over to Photoxpress, register for your account, and start downloading. And by the way, don’t forget to use the Social Sharing links below to share this post with someone else who can benefit from it.

Catering is a competitive business. Catering websites are competitive, too. Haw River is a Nashville catering business that grew out of many years of catering, restaurant, and event planning experience. A lot of the ideas for the direction of Haw River Catering web development and internet marketing were evolving during the Web Presence Development process. This project was a full Web Presence Development Project and also included our Pro Logo Design Package and Pro Email Marketing Design Package. The company, owned by two brothers that grew up in Haw River, NC, is targeting the high-end of the catering market and they are focused squarely on Weddings, Corporate Events, and Private Parties. Ultimately, the owners wanted to make sure that their Website and Web Presence included all the elements necessary for visitors to make a buying decision but they also wanted to make sure that they stood out above their competition.

The primary visitor for catering websites will be female between the ages of 25 and 55. As such, it was important to convey elegance and soft colors in order to make a quick visual connection. Because the catering business revolves around food, it was important to make sure that there were plenty of pictures of irresistible food. This was a big challenge for two reasons. First, the company is brand new. While both brothers have been in the restaurant and catering business for many years, they didn’t even have a menu at the time we were engaged to begin their Web Presence Development. Second, displaying large pictures of more than 40 main dishes could potentially lead to some serious usability issues. We were able to secure quite a bit of high quality stock photography of some very attractive high-end food. We used a select number of menu items and created a visitor controlled slide show to display some of the very enticing menu items.

Another important aspect of the scope was to present the “Full Menu” in a manner that was something other than a boring, never-ending list. (If you’ve ever visited other catering websites, you know they love lists that are a mile long). As such, we decided to organize the menu graphically by food type. We chose this method because graphic organization makes processing information more intuitive for a Website visitor.

Social Media Integration

Even though the owners of Haw River Catering are very new to Social Networking Websites and Social Media, they are embracing the concept with full intentions to leverage every connecting point possible. We have given them a Web Presence Development system that will automatically generate a Tweet from their Twitter account each time they publish a new Blog Post. As well, every new Blog Post published will also be published automatically to their Facebook Business Page. One of the owners is very active on LinkedIn so we have also integrated the LinkedIn page as well. Probably the most important tools for them in the future will be the use of their Flickr and YouTube Social Networks, because, after all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Unique Aspects of the Site

As mentioned above in the Overview and Scope section, the project called for many pictures of appealing food. We took the approach of a visitor controlled slide show to display a selection of foods that are available. As an added touch, every page has at least two pictures displayed as well. These pictures are selected at random when the page loads which brings in a nice dynamic element not usually seen on other catering websites.

One of the most important aspects of marketing a catering business is to acquire testimonials from past customers that can be shared with new prospective customers. We decided to use the Blog section of the site to share the testimonials. Because testimonials are typically short, we decided to customize the Testimonials Archive Page to display multiple full testimonials instead of short excerpts. This helps the Testimonials section of the Blog stand out.

Pictures

Home Page with Featured Content Slider

Menu Slide Show Page

Graphically Organized Full Menu Page

Customized Testimonials Page

Overview/Scope

The BenchMark Public Adjusting Group project was a redesign project. The client had several primary objectives. A new site designed to better meet current web standards, integration with Facebook, and an easy to use Content Management System was really the focus for this project. Another aspect of the project included creating a Contact Form that uses conditional logic to enhance the user’s experience. As a Public Insurance Adjuster and a company that provides Professional Services, they needed a website that would help differentiate them from their competitors. As Insurance Adjuster Websites go, many come across in a very gimmicky manner, in our opinion, by relying too heavily on Flash video of storms and disasters.

From a Social Media perspective, this particular client only uses Facebook at this point. While we believe Social Networking platforms and Social Media can certainly benefit Small Businesses, we feel that it’s also important to consider whether your market will interact with you on a given Social Network. At this point in time, the client is focused on building a following on Facebook and thus, only Facebook integration was included.

If you take a look at just a few Insurance Insurance Adjuster websites, you’ll quickly get the feeling that you could be dealing with a shady outfit. Our design helps break that stigma and paints this firm into a far more professional light. Rather than convey a shady persona and a gimmicky look, it was very important to immediately establish a trustworthy and professional appearance. One big challenge here was that there was a lot of information that the client wanted to ensure was accessible from the Home Page. By integrating the “Tabber”, we were able to help the client present a lot of information that was logically organized and still visually pleasing.

Before

The drab textured background wasn’t really representative of the company’s color palette. As well, the photographs and pictures in the old site were quite small and it was really hard to tell what was actually in the picture.

After

A better organized and more informative representation of the company and the benefits they bring to their clients.

Unlimited – in Shared Web Hosting terms

A while back, there was a commercial made by Metro PCS where they were mocking their competitors for making promises of “Unlimited” calling plans. (It’s a funny commercial, you can watch it HERE). In that commercial, the sales person kept saying, “Um” limited. When it comes to “Unlimited” Web Hosting packages, in most cases, they really mean “Um” limited. In other words, if you read the Terms of Service closely, the “Unlimited” plans are still, limited. So, if you find yourself lured by the promise of “Unlimited” domain hosting, file storage, and bandwidth, do yourself a favor and read the Terms of Service closely.

If it’s not really Unlimited, then why do they offer it?

The truth is, most Web Hosting Providers that make this offer know that probably 99% of their customers will never use more than several hundred megabytes of file storage and will also likely never have enough regular Website visitors to consume enough bandwidth or data transfer to cause a problem.

Is Unlimited Storage and Bandwidth really even possible?

No, not really. I like to use a pie analogy when talking about this subject. Think of the whole pie as the equivalent to the Web Server itself. Your Website has to be hosted on a Web Server. So, think of your Website as a piece of the pie. Keep in mind, that there are hundreds and maybe thousands of other Websites sharing this pie, or Web Server. If your Website suddenly gets a lot of visitors, your piece of the pie expands. But what happens if you suddenly get so many visitors that your Website starts consuming most or all of the pie, which is equivalent to the Web Server’s computing resources? All the other Websites that are using this pie, or Web Server, are going to experience some trouble. This isn’t fair to them, and as such, even a Web Hosting Provider offering “Unlimited” everything, is going to impose penalties for such actions. The same thing applies to File storage. The pie, or Web Server, is limited in it’s hard drive capacity. If you try to upload four terabytes of files onto a one terabyte hard drive, it’s not going to work.

How is StudioD.tv Hosting different?

We’ve designed our packages to be robust, valuable, and we’ve given them very specific limits. It’s important for you to know exactly what your limits are when it comes to your Website and Web Presence. Knowing your limitations will enable you to plan well and make sure that your Website isn’t inaccessible because of suspension. After all, the first action a prospective customer takes is to go to your company website and learn about what you do. We want to make sure that your prospects and customers can always access your Website. We have hosting packages to fit the needs of most Small Businesses. If you need help in making sure you choose the right one, you can contact us here.

Mystery Solved

Hopefully, this information has helped you gain a better understanding of why there is really no such thing as “Unlimited” Web Hosting. If you, or anyone you, know need Web Hosting services now, or will be needing them soon, we would appreciate you sending them our way. You can use the buttons below to share this on your favorite Social Network or even send an email of this blog post to someone directly. Don’t forget to tell them about our Launch Special; extra savings is always a good thing.

To celebrate our Official Launch, we’re taking an extra 10% off of our already valuable prices. Regardless of what service you wish to purchase, a 10% discount is waiting for you. To get your discount coupon code, simply enter your information into the form below. Once you confirm your email address, you’ll receive your coupon code good for a 10% discount.

Don’t forget to share this great deal with your friends and family.

Cheers!!

So, what is Web Presence?

In our attempt to define Web Presence we took a quick look at the definition for each individual word.

Web: noun 1. something formed by or as if by weaving or interweaving.

Presence: noun the state or fact of existing, occurring, or being present in a place or thing.

In essence, Web Presence can be defined as what is formed as a result of weaving your existence throughout the world wide web.

How can Web Presence be established?

Web Presence is established first by developing a Website that functions as your “Hub”. We refer to your Website as a “Hub” because if it is designed and developed right, you should be able to use it as your primary point of creating and publishing your company’s content and message.

Web Presence Development is a process, a journey, and a task that will last as long as the World Wide Web exists. We’ve developed a system, built around your Website as a “Hub”, that will help you establish, grow, and maintain your Web Presence. The good news is, our system won’t break the bank and it can be managed with only a small time commitment.

Want to learn more?

You can check out our Web Presence Development Package details here. You might also take a look at our Portfolio and take some time to review the Case Studies section of our blog.