Don’t Give up On LinkedIn Advertising
Another chapter in the great LinkedIn vs. Google Adwords debate
Blog
Chicago Music Exchange Roadies
While recently doing some work for our friends over at the Chicago Music Exchange, they recently updated their Team page…
Viewing Page Source on an iOS Device
If you’re ever in need to view the source for a page on your iOS device (iPhone, iPad), here’s a bookmarklet you can use…
Invoking a Sale
In her column, Tough Customer, Anne Kadet of SmartMoney outlines some of the techniques employed by charities to drum up sales albeit by playing on your emotions. Many of these tactics could (and should) be tested by the rest of us as well:
6 ideas for microcontent for Facebook or Twitter
Chances are you’re already experimenting with social media. Odds are you may not have a blog or skipped over starting one. Finally, some of you may have already tried the social media thing and have abandoned profiles.
It’s hard coming up with blog posts, so you probably figured, hey I can put up some witty comments every day, that shouldn’t be too hard. Sometimes it isn’t, but getting people engaged should also be a goal too (not just clicking on links in your posts, but commenting, liking, etc.)
Always Be (A/B) Testing
Always be testing. Have a hunch for a better subject line or call to action?
Enhance Your SEO with Social Media
Many of our customers are experiementing with social media with varying degrees of success. The first thing we ask folks when they want us to manage their social media for them is what is their ultimate goal? “To get more traffic to my website”. Ok, that’s a good start. Does “more traffic” pay your rent? Thought not. Ah, you want more sales, more leads. Now you’re talking our language. And, more importantly, something we can measure.
Boost Sagging Traffic with Newsletters
With this age of Facebook, blogging, Twitter and more, do people still send out newsletters? Yes! Its great to monitor the conversation of your product or service outside of your company walls in the social networks, but you should still keep a strong, curated message coming from home base.
Is an email address worth more than a Twitter follow?
I had a prospective customer explain to me (after asking if they were capturing emails for a newsletter):
“we kind of think of Twitter and Facebook registrations as a way to promote our blog posts and ad messages. So this is a form of newsletter”
Facebook Places, Badges and Then Some
I spent some time this week playing around with Facebook‘s new Places functionality, going against FourSquare, et al. Some first impressions:
Traveling with Yelp
While spending a few days in Montreal last week, I wanted to take advantage of the social web to help give recommendations of where we should go. My wife had picked up the prerequisite Fodor’s book for the city, but I insisted on letting the intertubes guide our journey (along with AT&Ts roaming charges, ouch)
4 Tips for Blogging for Your Business
If you have (or are thinking of) a blog for a business check out these 4 tips
You Lost Me At Hello
While reviewing a client’s engagement process today for one of their services, I noticed a few things they could improve upon…
Don’t Worry About SEO. Worry About the Content
I had a call from one of our customers the other day asking about search engine optimization (SEO). They were concerned about their SEO efforts and wanted to know how I could reassure them that we were doing the right thing and how it could be verified. First, they had the basics nailed: full product names, H1 and Title tags, Image Alt attributes, keywords in links. But they had bunk for most of their product descriptions.
Tools of the Trade
I’ve been wanting to write this post for awhile, just to let some of our customers in on our process and the tools that we use. Hopefully they may pick up a few ideas for their own business, based on our own experience running ours for over a decade.
Institute for Genomics & Systems Biology Launches Redesign
The Institute for Genomics & Systems Biology launched their new design last week. We were asked to redesign the site shortly after we completed the Chicago Center for Systems Biology website for the University of Chicago last year.
cre8 Gets Under CBOE.com’s New Skin
CBOE came to us with a new website redesign that was done for them in early 2009. The new templates needed to be integrated into their current website, merging CSS where necessary. Also, new interactive modules utilizing jQuery needed to be programmed. It all came together January 2010 when the new CBOE.com was launched. Here are some highlights of our participation:
Brochure and Flash Demo for Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)
We recently completed a brochure for the Options Clearing Corporation, see the pics in the full post.
CBOE Flex Options Print Ad
We wrapped up a couple of print ads for CBOE last month for their FLEX® Options product, see the sample in the full post below
cre8. Now iPhone friendly friendlier
We’ve always prided ourselves on cross-browser compatibility with the sites we develop for our clients here at cre8. Most recently, we raised the bar by optimizing our own website for the iPhone.
The Cat’s out of the Bag
...or rather, the air is in the bag. Our home-grown web app, Lead Zeppelin has taken off and is accepting beta testers!
Free Form Validation
Well, free in the context of saving a server hit or springing JavaScript validation messages on your users.
Practice Good Email Marketing Karma
I was talking to a customer today who had mentioned that they had obtained a large list of emails from their main office for prospects that hadn’t been closed yet. It may seem like they’re doing you a favor (hey, free leads!), but if you end up emailing these people, you’re really spamming them.
Managing Your Reputation Online
While doing some Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) for a customer, I noticed today that even if you delete a blog post on MySpace, it will still appear in your activity stream. Seems the only way to get that removed is to quickly carry out at least 5 new actions to push it off the list.
Latest CNX Print Ad
Stop the presses, er, um start them! We just polished off an update to CNX’s latest print ad (yes, we do print too).
CNX Just Released Valence v 1.2
Valence gives companies the ability to modernize RPG applications for web 2.0. Its a nice package that doesn’t require Websphere, Java or JSP.
CNX Valence Demo from COMMON 09
The folks at TechTarget were cool enough to give Richard over at CNX Corp some airtime and posted his demo up on YouTube. Some of our work can been seen from the video including the tradeshow booth design, the Valence and CNX logo designs, as well as some interface design on the Valence web app itself. Click thru to see the video…
cre8 is Now Managing the America for Bulgaria Foundation Website
The America for Bulgaria Foundation has turned to cre8 to manage their website. Google Analytics have been installed in the first wave of updates.
MIC Mods Make the Mark
One week after Market Intelligence Center had implemented our redesign and recommendations, the numbers speak for themselves…
cre8 Joins the Expression Engine Pro Network
After completing 5 EE websites, we’ve joined the Expression Engine Pro Network.
Pardon Our Dust
We’re migrating our site to the ExpressionEngine content management system (CMS) this week, so we’re eating our own dog food, so to speak. You may run across more than the normal amount of weirdness with our site. Not to worry though, pages will be polished shortly.
Stroik Architects Site Redesign. A Religious Experience.
We hope you feel the same way when you visit Duncan G. Stroik Architect’s new website. Beautiful, ecclesiastical architecture. And, its running on the ExpressionEngine content management system (CMS).
SUPER C, Just add water!
We released the revamp of Solis Brands’ site for their SUPER C product last week. Super clean, super miniml, SUPER C.
Wise Guides Online
We relaunched the website for Wise Guides today (formerally FanSherpa) the companion site for the successful series of sports stadium guide books.
Continuing OIC Updates
We’ve been working with the Options Industry Council to enhance some of their current landing pages, such as Getting Started in Options. We’ve reorganized some of the content based on their key performance indicators (KPIs), turning it inside out almost, giving users quicker access using deep links to content and increasing traffic to previously buried podcasts.
CNX Corp Redesign & Rebrand
We rolled out a redesign for CNX Corp today along with a spanking new logo. We also designed the logo for (and named) their new web application framework product, Valence.
Rothschild Investment Corp
100 years in the making, Rothschild is celebrating a century of service this year. And with it, a revamped website.