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Top 10 ways to tell if your company web site stinks

November 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment
top-ten

As you can imagine, we see a lot of web sites in our web design and marketing business.  Today I thought I’d share a humorous look at what’s wrong with many of them.

And so, this is our ‘top 10 ways to tell if your company web site stinks’:

top-ten10. You have an animated cartoon character that you grabbed off of freespinningicons4you.com. Ummm, I’m not even gonna go there.

9. You haven’t updated your site since 2004… and you’re proud of it (ie. you display ‘last updated October 2004′)

8. Nobody has a clue what your site is all about and what your company does … except your cousin Benny who designed the site for $50 and a 6-pack

7. There is no contact form or any way to get a hold of you …(c’mon people, don’t you want people to contact you? It’s not a bad thing … really!)

6. Poor and inconsistent navigation … dude, don’t you think people are having are hard enough day already?

5. Your still measuring “hits” to your web site and even have a “counter” to tell the world (ugh!)

4. Your music audio or video starts playing automatically. STOP! First of all it scares the %^%&^&% out of people. Then they’re scrambling to turn it off!

3. It’s sooooooo pretty … with all kinds of Flash and incredible graphics … but it doesn’t DO anything to support your business goals and make a connection with your visitors.

2. Your site has 15 automatic pop-up windows that annoy the heck out of your visitors and distract them from the actual site … trust me – they are not gonna come back!

And the number one reason why your web site stinks is …

1. Oh yeah, you don’t have one.  Smile

Seriously, there’s a lot more too it than this humorous list … but if your web site has “issues” … or you don’t have a web site for your business … take action today. Give us a call at 503.581.4554 and I’d be happy to sit down over a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and talk about how to take your web marketing to the next level.

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Los Angeles Real Estate Investor Web Site Launches

October 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
www.mrjmassey.com

Mr. J. Massey, a Los Angeles real estate investor, recently launched a new web site created by The Third River, Inc.  Mr. Massey was referred by another local California real estate investor and author, Mr. Matt Theriault.

Mr. Massey needed a web site that he could control and provide the opportunity to showcase his investment properties, provide real estate investing advice, as well as showcase his public speaking and direct sales coaching.   After discussing options with The Third River, an real estate web design company, they worked together to come up with a powerful, flexible web marketing platform.

Platform:  WordPress

Key Features:

  • Content Management System allowing 24/7 editing by Mr. J.  Massey
  • Ability to ‘Feature’ content and articles in a rotating slideshow on homepage
  • Integration with Social Media
  • Custom Header and icon integration
  • Email Newsletter

Screenshot

www.mrjmassey.com

www.mrjmassey.com

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Ready to Learn Ready to Work announces new web site

October 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Ready to Learn Ready to Work

Ready to Learn Ready to Work, a cooperative venture of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, Keizer Chamber of Commerce, the Salem Keizer School District, and E3: Employers for Educational Excellence, recently launched a redesigned web site designed by The Third River.

Sue Bloom, the co-coordinator of the program, contacted Tim Fahndrich about doing a redesign due to a number of challenges with their existing site.  Challenges included a) the lack of ability to easily add and edit site content and keep it up to date, and b) the need for a revised information flow when educators request guest speakers for their classrooms.

The Third River, Inc., and active member of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, provides web design in Salem Oregon, as well for clients all over the country.

Platform:  WordPress

Key Features:

  • Content Management System allowing for easy updating by organizational staff
  • Ability to load documents, flyers, and related collateral
  • Request Speaker forms that coordinate request forms between educators and staff

Favorite New Feature:  Ability to easily update the site without having to wait on a web company

Screenshot:

Ready to Learn Ready to Work

www.workandlearnnow.com

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City Saves $19,000 by using WordPress

August 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Wordpress

I’m often asked about the cost of developing a new website … and many people are justified in being concerned about the cost when developing a site the traditional way.

However, I recently read a story of how the small town of Albert Lea, Minnesota used WordPress (one of my favorite content management systems) to not only improve their website, but do it at a fraction of the cost of traditional development.

WordpressThe City of Albert Lea had solicited bids from local web development consultants, and was facing project costs of between $10,000 to $30,000.  In a chance meeting, another local consultant shared the wonders of WordPress, a free “content management system”.

As reported by the Albert Lea Tribune:

It (WordPress) is a Web-based content management system that allows officials in each department to change their pages without needing much knowledge of Internet language, said Teresa Kauffmann, the city’s public information coordinator.

Some cities pay a consultant $10,000, $20,000, even $50,000 for a Web-based content-management site that looks professional and is consistent through and through. …

… Kauffmann was in charge of the site’s revision, and last October she put together a committee of city officials to advise her.

She said the committee decided to shoot for a site using a content management system — or CMS — but it was outside of her Internet skills. The city began seeking estimates from Web design companies. When the estimates returned, they realized the city couldn’t afford it.

“We just didn’t feel we could justify spending $20,000-plus on a Web site,” Kauffmann said. “I happened to run into Jeshua Erickson on the Pelican Breeze one day, and we talked about Web sites and how he was developing them using WordPress.”


The City of Albert Lea ended up paying Mr. Erikson under $1000 to install and customize WordPress for their needs.  While in our opinion the city got a steal of a deal, it demonstrates the dramatic cost savings that can happen by using WordPress.

WordPress is a very powerful, flexible, almost infinitely extendable, and search engine friendly web platform.  While project costs will still vary using WordPress, it is still dramatically lower in most cases vs. traditional web development.  For example, while we’ve seen costs go as high as $9,000 for a very complex implementation, most of our projects are in the $1500-2500 range.

If you’d like information on creating a “content management system” web site for your business or organization, give us a call at 503.581.4554.

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