eeep! productions blog

Yes, it’s another new site! The artwork of Deedee Hampton, a painter who lives in Estes Park, is now live and ready for your viewing pleasure. She’s also started a blog in which she discusses her art, her process and other related topics. Deedee is a lovely and gifted painter whose pieces will particularly appeal to any woman who is “exploring her feelings as she journeys through life.” Here is my favorite painting that’s on her site (so far!). Please take a moment to visit her site and take a look. Of course, feel free to pass along the link to anyone you think might enjoy her work as well!

Fellow local artist Venita Hawkins-Bird came to me with a request to build her a website. She said she’s been trying to do it herself for years and it was finally time to turn it over to a professional. I’m so glad she did! I’m a big fan of Venita’s luscious collage work and I think that after you take a look at her site, you will be, too!

Venita, in addition to being a very talented artist, has a high-pressure tech-related job and is raising two wee ones. I do not know how this woman finds the time to get in her workouts, let alone time to make art. She truly inspires me, both with her artwork and her great attitude!

The photo displayed here is my probably my favorite piece by Venita. It’s huge (48.25 X 35.5!) and is a very commanding presence in a room, as you may imagine.

So go take a look. And if you’re local to Fort Collins, she’s on display at The Artists’ Nook this month. Her work will also be in Santa Fe the first weekend in August. And for your California folk, she’ll be showing at the Castro Street Fair in October. Keep an eye on her events page to see what’s happening.

Real quickly today, I’ve got two things:

1. Beginning next Friday, May 30, I’m closing the office on Fridays for the summer months. I find that it’s hard to plan an extended trip, even for just a week, but it’s easy to take one day off (or so I hear). If you call or email on Fridays, you probably won’t hear back from me until Monday, unless, of course, there is an emergency. If there is an emergency, don’t hesitate to call my mobile phone.

2. New article on the site entitled A Perfect Link.

For other news and a few thoughts on yesterday’s tornado in Northern Colorado and life priorities, read my most recent newsletter.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

A Perfect Link

By Sharon Housley (c) 2008

Webmasters are given the advice that they must attract links, but the key is not just to attract links… they need to attract good links. But what is the perfect link? The search for the perfect link need not be a quest in vain. Consider the following when attempting to attract links…

1. Related
   The best links should come from related websites which contain similar and related content but not the same type of material or content. For example: A link for baby clothing would benefit from a link that discusses baby care.
2. Anchor
   The anchor text (the “text” that is used in the link) should include keywords that relate to the topic covered on the web page that is being linked to. Anchor text should be varied; links that all have the same anchor text will appear manipulated and contrived to the search engines. Therefore, the text links should contain a variety of related words. Read the rest of the article here.

I have been known to complain long and heartily when I receive poor customer service. I do believe that the best companies are ones where the paying customer is number one. It’s a sort of modified take on “the customer is always right” — If I take the time to walk into your store to buy something, greet me, make me welcome, don’t smother me, but be available when I have questions. It’s not too much to ask, really. And I had impeccable training in this concept when I worked for The Container Store a few years back. I hold all of my vendors to that standard, which is also the one I hold to for my own customers. What do you need? I will take care of it for you.

I have noticed, though, that when I receive great customer service, I tend to just let them know how pleased I am and then proceed to hug them quietly in my heart. Instead, I should be shouting from the rooftops about how amazing a particular company is. So begins a new feature on this blog. When I work with a vendor or any web- or computer-related manufacturer/distributor that gives me awesome service, I’ll be writing about them here.

Looking for a bag for your laptop? WaterField Designs is, without question, the way to go. My local Mac support guy recommended them to me last year or so when I needed a sleeve for my powerbook. Their service and product were so great, I purchased from them again when I recently purchased a MacBook Pro with a larger screen than my powerbook had.

Product: Cases, sleeves, bags for computers, phones, ipods, PSPs, cameras…You name it. It is incredibly well made, good looking and very sturdy. I love my laptop sleeves. I can slip them easily into my bag of choice and the sleeve is easy to access and open when I’m standing on the security line at the airport, while juggling my quart-sized bag and carryons.

Service: Gary and his cohorts are so friendly and nice. The automated emails are kind and appreciative. They write personal notes on the packing slip. Emails are replied to promptly and in a very friendly manner. Almost as if Gary is your own personal friend, taking care of your case needs personally. And maybe he is…who knows?!

Price: I’ve seen cheaper (and those sleeves/bags/cases were really crappy quality, not to mention made in China), but I’ve definitely seen more expensive. I believe you get what you pay for, and I was more than willing to pay $40 to protect my laptop, which would cost many times that to replace.

From the Website: No mass production or overseas workforce. WaterField bags are designed and made in San Francisco, where rent is high, labor is expensive and competition is intense. We wouldn’t go anywhere else!

and

In a nutshell, WaterField products are ridiculously well-made, fastidiously designed, have more personality than you can shake a stick at, and are so “user-friendly”, that you can actually operate them with one arm tied behind your back. This turns out to be a huge benefit for high-frequency travelers; the busy, laptop-carrying, cell phone-obsessed commuting types; or the dual diaper/carrying bag parents.

So, if you need a new bag or case, definitely check out WaterField Designs!

Hi all! I just sent out a newsletter with some updates, the biggest news being that I am actually going to take a vacation April 23-30. I know…it’s about time.

I’ve also updated the site with a new article about methods for getting more inbound links to your site. Enjoy!

Snagging Inbound Links

By Andy MacDonald (c) 2008

Inbound links are now so important in the constant battle to achieve top search engine rankings, that tons of people are using every tactic under the sun to gain that one additional link. You must be careful when it comes to linking though. You could jeopardize your whole linking plan by getting links in a shady manner which could have an adverse effect on your search rankings. These inbound links are seen by search engines as votes for your site within a particular community of sites.

Anytime you’re being voted for, you want to have as many votes as possible. However you want to be using tactics which are going to pay dividends in your linking strategy, not do more harm then good. Below I list some of the best and safest methods around for generating inbound links for your website. Some can be more effective than others:

Read the rest of the article here.

I just sent out a newsletter to all of my clients/vendors/colleagues about a small email glitch I had yesterday/today. Details are here, but if you sent email to websmith@eeep.com between 4:30 pm Eastern on 1/28/08 and 10:30 am Eastern on 1/29/08, please resend.

I’ve added a new article to the site. I think this one will be really helpful for everybody. Enjoy!

20 Simple Ways To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Site

By Penny Sansevieri (c) 2008

Embarking on an Internet marketing campaign doesn’t have to be difficult,
tricky, or complicated. Here are a few simple ways (twenty in fact) that you
can easily implement to get tons of traffic to your site right now!

1) Write articles: believe it or not this is an incredible tool for driving
traffic. Well-written, relevant articles can net quite a bit of activity to
your web site. Don’t forget to add your URL in your byline. Articles should
be 500 to 2,000 words in length. You can send articles to sites like: Article
City, Go Articles, Submit Your Articles and Ezine Articles.

2) Social bookmark *everything* - and I do mean everything - you can bookmark
each page of your site and each blog entry you post. While this might seem
tedious, it’s worth it. You’ll see a strong increase in traffic if you social
bookmark each page on your site and each of your blog entries.

3) List yourself in the best directories – you’ll have to pay for this
but since most people don’t do this (since everyone’s looking for a freebie)
you could really enhance your traffic by getting a listing: dir dot yahoo dot
com, business dot org, botw dot org.

Read the rest of the article on the website.

Howdy all! I hope that everybody’s holiday season is happy and bright so far. Remember to take a breath and don’t let those nasty shoppers get the best of you in the mall parking lot!

I added a new article to the site…it’s got a lot of helpful information about protecting the content on your website.

Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents, Oh My! Understanding Intellectual Property

You are a business owner with a web presence. During a routine Google search for your page ranking, you discover something disturbing. There is another company out there with a name very similar to yours and almost identical content on their website. What do you do? Is your company name and website content automatically protected by copyright law? Should you have registered your company name as a trademark? Can you demand that they change their name and dismantle their website immediately?

Intellectual Property can be a confusing topic, and one that all business owners should know about. Sadly however, many entrepreneurs simply don’t. Intellectual property is in very simple terms an idea that legally belongs to somebody, be they a company or an individual. Only the owner of that idea, or somebody the owner has a legal agreement with can use the idea. Generally, the owner of the idea is usually its creator unless someone paid them to create the idea, in which case the idea’s owner is the person who paid for the idea. There are different kinds of intellectual property, but for the purpose of this article, we will focus on copyright, patent and trademark.

(Read more…)

There’s a new feature on eeep.com! Check out my new and growing archive of website design, marketing and SEO articles. This area of the site will be a repository of articles I’ve found that I believe are of interest to my clients. In order to make it easier for you to keep up, I’ll post to the blog to let you know the archive has been updated. And now, without further ado, I give you…

Cornerstones Of An Effective Website

By Patrick Schwerdtfeger (c) 2007

Just about everyone has a website today. Certainly, if you’re in business one way or another, you have a website. And people have different objectives behind their sites. Some are content-driven. Others provide an online service and have sophisticated user interfaces. Others still are designed to entertain and amuse their visitors. But regardless what your website is designed to do, there are a few primary objectives you should keep in mind before you start building.

focus

This first website objective is FOCUS. Your site needs to have a narrow and specific focus. Why is this? Because there are literally millions of websites out there and the visitors you’re lucky enough to attract will only take a few seconds to decide whether they’ll stick around or whether they’ll simply click the back button and continue browsing elsewhere. Within those few seconds, your site needs to communicate exactly what
it’s designed to do so the visitor can decide if it meets his or her needs or not.

One of the best exercises to enhance the focus of your site is to establish a 15 to 25-word positioning statement that guides all your development activity going forward. Think about it like a mission statement. It should articulate exactly what your website does in just 15 to 25 words. (Read more…)

Hi all!

it’s been super busy here in the eeep! basement. I’m finally taking a few breaths tonight to announce the launch of my biggest project to date: The Memory Zone Scrapbooking Store, LLC.

They are located in Plymouth, Indiana. Rhonda and Marlene, the sisters who run the store, are completely devoted to their customers, providing great service and instruction. We also launched a great online scrapbooking store on their site.

If you’re in the area, please do go and check them out, take a class or two! If you’re looking for an online scrapbooking store, complete with free scrapbooking ideas and QuicKutz products, surf on over!

Today’s post is going to be quick and to the point(s). Have a great day!

WEB HOSTING SALE
I am having a hosting sale from now through September 30. All new hosting accounts opened at eeep! productions during that time will receive the first full month of hosting for FREE! This is on top of my usual 10% off pricing for a yearly contract. What a DEAL! Email me if you have any questions or are ready to sign up.

WEBSITES 101 FOR ARTISTS BOOK NOW AVAILABLE!
Some of you know that I presented a 3-hour class called Websites 101 For Artists at Art Unraveled earlier this month. The accompanying workbook was such a hit, I’ve decided to make it available for purchase on lulu.com, both in printed ($34.95) and downloadable ($24.95) format. If you’d like to make a purchase, please do so using the link below:

Websites 101 for Artists
by Tracey Kazimir-Cree

I also have two spiral bound, signed copies left over from the class. I will sell those for $25 + shipping. Email me if you’re interested!