Creative and Expert WordPress Web Design Atlanta and the World
Stromquist & Company has an existing website for product information and online ordering. They asked New Tricks to help create a complementary new site to share information with their colleagues in the commercial and industrial control community. [Read more...]
Dene and I presented some Social Media Tips to a meeting of the Lady Rogue Business Network last night. Some of the tips were not exactly new tricks to everyone, but I guarantee that not everyone had done all of them. I think it was new information for most and I hope, for the others, it was a good reminder. I learned something new from Dene’s presentation. I didn’t know that I could customize my Google profile, so when I am finished posting the PDF file of the Five New Tricks of Social Media presentation, that is exactly what I am going to do.
Here’s the slide share version of the presentation:
For the past ten years, I ( Judi) had been working as a builder/developer converting warehouses into lofts, doing historic restorations of apartment buildings and rebuilding beach houses blown away by hurricanes. At one point back then, I Googled my construction company’s name. Lo and behold what came up was my dog, Craig’s blog on Dogster. Now you can just go read what happened on Craig’s site since he has posted on that subject, but I will go ahead and tell you that because of that incident, I found out how much search engines love the dynamic nature of blogs. At that point, I jumped in and changed my site to a WordPress blog and began to immerse myself in all things social media.
That turned out to be a really good thing that happened because right about that time construction industry was showing signs of slowing down. And by the time it did, I had found another very compelling occupation. Friends read my blog and then began asking me to help them with theirs. Then when friends of friends started seeking out my services, I joined up with Dene and away we went. Dene and I finished our logo and the New Tricks website and our business has been steadily growing ever since.
We have found that having an online presence with a blog format site is darn near essential if you have a product to see, a service to sell or are selling yourself, in the job market. One of our recent clients, Global Girl credits her blog with her recently being selected for a prestigious Washington DC internship. Having the blog gave her prospective employer a window into her work habits, her drive, her ability to write and think , her knowledge of social media, what she looked like, and so much more than she could or should not have put on her resume. Just a resume is not enough. People want to know who you are before taking a chance on you. By reading your blog they feel, rightly or wrongly that they know you. They can see what you are capable of .
People say that people prefer to buy from people that they know. I think that also holds true for employers bringing on new hires. It is good to have a referral before taking that step to bring someone on board. Whether you are selling something or selling yourself, you may want to consider getting yourself out there by blogging. Our motto is, ” It’s never too late to be the best in breed.”
Dene thinks not having a favicon on a website is the on-line version of your bra strap hanging out when you’ve gone to the trouble of dressing up and yet you forget to do the small things that matter. Maybe it is more like forgetting to put on your jewelry. But anyway we have noticed that lots of sites don’t have them! We are appalled because it is makes your site look unfinished.
Some of you may not know what a favicon is, and you may even have one but didn’t know it had a name. A favicon (combo of Favorite and Icon) is a small, 16×16 image that is shown inside the browser’s location bar and bookmark menu when your website is called up. It is a good way to brand your site and increase its’ prominence in your visitor’s bookmark menu.
Creating a favicon is fairly straightforward. You select and send us a picture, logo or other graphic (of any size / resolution – but remember it ends up being tiny!). You can also just let us grab one from your site. When you send it give us your website’s hosting information. We can make a fixed favicon or we can also do animated favicons. You can see an example on our site and also on the Asher PR site. We then upload the image it to your site through FTP and put a couple of lines of code in your website’s header file.
In order to do that we will need the name of the web hosting company, your user name and your password. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that you can call your hosting company and have them walk you through adding New Tricks as a temporary user, which will give us temporary access that you can eliminate later. We charge 100.00 to make and install a static favicon on your site and 125.00 for one that is animated. Such a deal.
Don’t you worry, the chicks at New Tricks will make sure your website’s bra strap is not hanging out.
Shawn Black came to us after he heard about the benefits of using WordPress as a website platform. He was especially interested in the searchability of these content management sites as well as the ease with which he could learn to maintain the site and have it be an active conversation with his clients. He had already started with some other designers but after meeting with us he completely changed directions. [Read more...]
Amanda Earley graduated from Tulane in May 2009 in Latin American Studies and International Development. She is now attending Georgetown’s Master’s Program in Latin American Studies and Foreign Service and was back off the Rio to do research this summer. She came to us wanting a blog site where she can write about her various projects as well as being a forum for people who are living and working all over the globe. [Read more...]
SplendidVid selected New Tricks to develop a portfolio website showcasing the work of three highly acclaimed media professionals. While the principals had impressive individual portfolios, they needed an online presence for their newly formed media production company.
In a few short weeks, New Tricks and SplendidVid worked together to create a site that speaks to a variety of audiences from “button down Fortune 1000 corporations and issue oriented political groups to hard rocking musicians and hip hop performers.” [Read more...]
Frustrated after her children kept losing their lunch money or notes to or from their teachers, mom and architect Tamara Jones searched for a means for them to keep up with with their essentials.
Tamara knew there had to be a better solution than the traditional way of pinning items to her little ones’ clothes. and the typical fanny pack was too awkward for children. What Tamara envisioned was a small necklace with a pouch. Something that her children could wear to hold some emergency contact information, a little bit of money and whatever small tokens they deemed essential for the day. [Read more...]
