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Benefits of Hiring an Outside Company for Your IT Needs

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Mike in Web Design

Information technology solutions are something that every company needs. Having reliable IT support is absolutely crucial for a business, no matter what that business does or its size. No matter if you have ten clients or two thousand, IT is something that needs to always be reliable.

There are essentially two ways as to how you can approach IT solutions for your company. One is to hire one or more people and form an internal IT department. This works for some companies, but in many cases there is a better solution. That solution is to hire an outside company to take care of your IT needs. There are many benefits to having an outside company as your IT provider, and this article will list some of those benefits.

Out of Your Hands

Choosing to have an outside company for your IT needs will help streamline things. If you have an internal IT department, that department might need to occasionally outsource problems that they cannot handle themselves. With an outside IT company, you can be certain that this won’t be the case, as if they ever experience a problem dealing with your company they will solve it themselves.

If you ever experience an issue with your IT solutions, usually a simple call to your IT provider will solve the issue. That’s because they have everything set up the way they know how to do it, and can thus solve the problem easier.

Some IT and web development companies like Mentel, will even provide IT staffing. s a great solution for companies looking for help.

Cost

Outsourcing your IT to a company will likely be cheaper than maintaining your own internal IT department. This is true for a number of reasons. For one, having an entire additional department full of employees is expensive. Not only do you have to pay for salaries, you have to include other employee related costs too.

Additionally, if something ever goes wrong, downtime in the IT sector could mean a loss of business. Slow network speeds that last for hours or even days means less productivity, and ultimately that costs you money. With an outside IT company, you’ll be certain that any issue is quickly resolved and if it’s not you might receive credit.

Ease

With an outside IT company, you’re dealing with professionals. They will always be able to solve your issues, and do it in a way that is quick and professional. If you have an IT company come in when you set up your network, you can set everything exactly to your specifications and then stay with the same company for as long as business stays good.

Having an outside IT company is just simply easier. It’s less of a hassle, and it’s one less thing to go wrong. For companies of all sizes, it makes more sense than having an internal IT department as it means less to deal with. Consider hiring an outside information technology company today.

Image credit: http://www.findanitjob.info

Ehsan Bayat CEO

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Hosting Considerations in a Competitive Market

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Mike in Interactive Design, Web Design

Our word has gone viral; everything is online and we all strive to improve our websites, the way we market ourselves, and the efficiency of our communication efforts. As a result, there are numerous companies that all want to host your website. Finding the right company in a sea of options with frantic waving arms shouting, “come join my platform” can be stressful. There are many considerations that should be on the forefront of your reasoning; these include expansiveness, quality, and customer service. Speed is also important, and when looking for a provider that offers 1gbps unmetered, these considerations must be tackled until you have a solid reason to partner with the best company to suit your needs. This article will highlight some concerns you should have, and help you become more informed in your quest to find your ideal hosting solution.

How long is their arm?

I can’t stress this enough. When looking for a hosting provider, stay away from those operations with a limited reach. When it comes to hosting, look for a company with an impressive landscape of coverage, as this testifies to their ability to grow and meet high demands. This will attest to the sure signs of a company being stable and reliable, as they are assuming greater responsibility than “Joe’s Hosting Shack” from Small Town USA. After all, you don’t want to entrust your business and online reputation to a provider that is scrambling for the crumbs that fall from the big fat cookie in the distance. Go with a company that has a national profile.

Demand quality

In today’s technologic society, you must demand quality. E-commerce has become insanely lucrative for retailers. However, small businesses across the country report they are “less than satisfied” with their hosting service. We all know that servers can go down (from time to time) even with the best companies. But in times like this, customer service is paramount. In a consumer watch article published by PC World, the author stresses the importance of having your website hosted by a company with exceptional customer service on hand 24/7. The article examines a woman whose business was gaining steam and sales were going up. Then after a long holiday weekend the host’s server went down. The business owner was unable to reach anyone in tech support to fix the problem until the following Tuesday, and her web problems were only beginning to take on the semblance of a real nightmare. The author writes that The company’s self-touted 24/7 tech support turned out to be more like 24/5 since the support staff was never available on weekends. Even on weekdays, getting a response often took hours. The business owner decided she wanted out when she realized she had more than a dozen unanswered support calls pending, and she had to fight tooth and nail to get a month’s refund due to the issues.

This is exactly the kind of mess you will want to avoid at all cost. When you contact your potential hosting provider, site examples such as this one, and ask them how they would have handled this situation, had it been their server that went down.

Interview the provider
When looking for a company to host your website you must demand good range, quality and exceptional customer service. When contacting various providers, interview them and make hem earn your business. Ask them how often their servers go down, and what steps they take to correct the issue. Ask about turn around times, customer satisfaction rankings, and how expansive their client base is. You can’t power a jet with applesauce, so it only makes sense that if you expect to be a force to be reckoned with, your hosting provider must fuel your online presence with a powerful and reliable platform.

Image source: http://www.madtomatoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/web-hosting.jpg

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How to Get Started in Graphic Design

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Mike in Interactive Design, Web Design

Whether you’re looking for a full on career change or simply just a new hobby to make some extra money on the side, graphic design is a fun and exciting venture that attracts people from all different walks of life. Having graphic design skills is just as important as having writing skills in today’s digital world that’s full of info-graphics and digital displays. The great thing about graphic design is you don’t need to be an expert to create awesome things that you can either display on your free website from freewebsite.com, or even to work as a freelance graphic designers. You can do a lot of awesome things with just some basic background knowledge of different graphic design programs. If you’re interested in graphic design, check out these tips on good ways to get into the field and join the fun.

Web Tutorials

One of the best ways to learn the basics of graphic design is to simply just look at some web tutorials. There are thousands of free web tutorials for just about every single thing you can do with graphic design software, so search around the Internet to find some that fit what you want to do. Simply search for free beginners graphic design tutorials, and you’ll be able to quickly pick up some basic skills and go from there. Tutorials come in the form of videos and text graphics, so find a tutorial that works with your preferred method of learning. You might need to download some graphic design software in order to get the most out of these web tutorials, but if you can’t afford expensive software you still may be in luck; many public and school libraries have computers that are loaded with all the different kinds of software.

Courses

If you’re more of a hands on learner and prefer benefit of having a professional teach you, opt to take an introduction to graphic design course through your local college. For some people, learning graphic design through watching online videos can be tough and having a teacher around makes learning a whole lot easier. You may even find that you have a knack for graphic design, and you may want to even pursue a degree in the field. Taking some courses in graphic design will give you everything you need to start creating some cool stuff, so don’t sit around any longer and get started with graphic design today!

Teach Yourself

If you don’t feel like you’d benefit from the above choices and are a quick learner, teaching yourself graphic design is definitely doable. If you’ve got the software, play around with it to see what it can do and you’ll quickly start to pick up what works and what doesn’t. It may be a little difficult to figure out the more complicated things programs like Photoshop can do, but if you get stuck there are always the web tutorials. Whatever you choose, just make sure you play around with it because you’ll never learn simply by reading the textbooks!

Image credit: http://www.bls.gov/

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Piecing Together the SEO Puzzle

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Mike in SEO

When people attempt to put jigsaw puzzles together, many will start by locating the four corners. Then they will collect the edge-pieces and build the border before filling it in with the remaining pieces. SEO (search engine optimization) works very much the same way: before you can utilize the science of SEO, you need to construct a foundation, using such resources as Yellow Pages United and Facebook—the accoutrements of online marketing that hold the SEO puzzle together.

Finding the Four Corners

There are four main components that make SEO successful. Listing your business in an online directory that offers a website (so long as it is indexed to work with the search engines) is an ideal place to start. Facebook and Twitter can be joined together and linked to your website, and will serve as a force to aid in optimization. Also, Google + is a viable source for harnessing social signals to enhance SEO campaigns. In an article published by Search Engine Watch the author examines the importance of using social media outlets within SEO. The article states that links on SERPs are like shelves in a store: owning more shelf space, and the more varieties you have to offer, will drive in more clicks to the website. Further website promotion of your social media assets can only improve your end game. Once these vital components have been pieced together, it’s time to pick up the remaining pieces and start a strategic plan of action.

The Big Picture in Question

Using the right SEO strategies will help you see the big picture of your business for what it is and what it can become. But more importantly, SEO techniques, if correctly implemented, will drive more business to your website and you will be making more transactions via “clicks”. Here are things you can do:

·      Write a blog and optimize it
·      Link building to relevant sites
·      Keyword mapping
·      Social media marketing
·      Link baiting (social media will help here)

One of the most common in-home SEO methods that business owners are turning to is blogging. But be warned, writing a blog involves utilizing a science imbedded in your content. When blogging, key words and site linking are, of course, important. But the content itself holds even greater importance. After all, if you aren’t fresh and current with your subject matter and it isn’t relevant to your products or brand, you will not be reaching the wide audience you could otherwise be capturing. The first thing a reader sees is the title of your blog. Make it fun. Create a title that sparks interest by utilizing a play on words or a pun. The title will automatically tell a person if they want to invest in reading it, or give it a miss and search for something else. The title is the first impression, and oddly enough your SEO rests on a good title that wont send people fleeing the other way once they have found you.

The Power of You

Conduct some smart research and learn how to build the foundation to the site that will ultimately house and run your powerful SEO engines. Having good content, a strong social media presence, and a quality foundation to support it all, will help propel your website up the ladder of higher organic placement. Then, if you are able to grace the first page of Google, the complete picture will be revealed, as the puzzle will be intact.

Image source: http://innovativemediaplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SEO-puzzle2.jpg

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Online Marketing: In House or an Agency?

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Mike in SEO, Social Media

When you finally decide that it’s time to market your company online, it can be tough to decide exactly how to do it. There are a number of different ways to approach the issue, but the biggest probably comes down to deciding whether or not to do your marketing in house, or hire an agency to take care of it. There are pros and cons to each, so when you finally make the decision, make sure it’s the perfect one for you and your company.

Big costs, big results

If you end up going with an agency, be prepared to pay agency prices. You’re paying for guaranteed results, so it’s not going to be cheap. An agency charges what it charges because it’s full of professionals who are dedicated to increasing your company’s awareness as a living. You’ll get everything that you want, tailored to your company’s needs. Understand that it will cost you, but may be worth it in the long run.

On the other hand, it’s not impossible to get agency style results without the help of a marketing company. If you have the time to learn online marketing, you may decide that doing it on your own can save you money while still increasing your company’s online visibility. It all comes down to being able to spend hours and hours learning about online marketing and understanding that it will take some time before you finally see any results (and those results may be small at first). It really comes down to your needs; if you can justify paying for an agency, go for it. If not, you may want to do it yourself.

Can you do it all?

Deciding to do all of your online marketing in house may prove difficult if your company doesn’t have the right skills. Going with a full service marketing agency assures that every need will be met, whether it’s design or targeting audiences. If you go in house, you might quickly realize that you don’t have all the skills needed to market as effectively as you want. You could hire an in house team to take over your marketing rather than going to an agency, such as a copywriter, designer, and an SEO professional. This will give you more control over your marketing, but it may be longer before you see results. Hiring an agency will guarantee that you see the results you want, much quicker than you would see doing marketing in house.

Control over different things

All agencies work differently and have a different culture. But there’s a big chance that when you hire an agency, not everything is going to be exactly as you want. Of course they’ll listen to your wants and needs, and you’ll definitely get results, but it may not be exactly what you were looking for since all agencies work differently. Hiring an in house team or learning it yourself gives you complete control over everything you’re doing. It may take longer to achieve results, but you will be guaranteed everything operates exactly how you want it to.

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How to Use Social Networking Sites to Increase Your Bottom Line

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Mike in Social Media

The last decade has witnessed the dawn of the ultimate way to communicate information: social networking websites. As if business competition isn’t fierce enough, you now have to learn how to make a presence on various forms of social media to reach your target market. Before you get flustered and give up on all the accounts you may have recently signed up for, take a deep breath and look at how specific techniques can help you increase your business through social networking. When you are ready to get going, check out www.clearwirelessinternet.net for the best deals on wireless internet for your business.

Picking Accounts

Between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit and Google+, there seems to be far too many networking websites to choose from. If you are new to the world of social networking online, it is important to pick and choose one account at a time. Many businesses make the mistake of trying to create a presence on every networking site imaginable when they don’t have time to keep up with it. Go back to your target market and consider where you think they might be looking at the most—Facebook is among the most popular for a wide variety of markets.

Choosing What to Post

Increasing your presence in the online world takes more than just creating a page on a social networking site. Once you have created the page, you must next figure out what you can post to attract attention to the business. All your posts should:

·      Offer something valuable to the reader (interesting facts, special events, etc.)
·      Not sound overly promotional
·      Offer an incentive for readers to look at your page and/or website

Avoiding Pitfalls and Blunders

While utilizing social networking websites is a great way to promote your business and capture potential sales, there are common actions that can have the opposite effect. If you overly promote your business, customers will view you as a company that only cares about sales. While you are certainly in business to make a living and to help your employees do the same, you don’t want to be perceived as too salesy or else your customers will avoid you.

Other mistakes actually have to do with a lack of action. When you sign up for a page on any social networking website, make sure you stick with it. Nothing looks lazier than a page that is half filled out or one with no updates. So not only do you need to complete your page in its entirety, but you also need to ensure that you have fresh content to share on an ongoing basis. Keep in mind that customers aren’t going to constantly refer back to your page just for fun—you need to offer something to get them there first.
Finally, make sure you keep your personal and business pages separate. Your personal social networking page allows more freedom to post what you want, including information you only want to keep between friends and family.

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Improve Your Business Now

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Mike in Social Media

Are you happy with your business? When most people are asked this question, few of them give a direct answer. If you’re just breaking even or you have a steady profit line, chances are that you want to see some growth. Growth however requires efforts, investments and changes – three things with which some people are averse. It is a scary thing, change, and most times it is because you’re always wondering if the changes you made were the right ones. Especially when some changes don’t have immediately measurable impacts, it is a disorienting feeling that you may have to stop doing something or start doing something else.

Once you overcome the fear of change, you will be able to expose yourself to the information and tools that you can use to take your business to a higher, more functional and much more successful level. The internet in itself is a great resource for the tools and platforms you will need to rev up your company’s performance. Some of these tools are free, some are reasonably priced and others are exorbitant. The onus is on you to pair your business with the best options that suit not just your budgetary needs, but your improvement needs as well. Below are just a few ideas you can investigate and apply to improve your business’ performance:

1. Expanding your network. It is a good idea to liaise with colleagues in industries that are complimentary to yours, to provide referrals, distribute business cards, brochures and other forms of marketing collateral. You can barter your services with them to save each other money while accumulating an established and mutually beneficial customer base.

2. Expand your community presence. By integrating yourself more actively in your local community, you increase your visibility to existing and potential customers, as well as affiliate businesses. This is social networking, the old school way; going out, shaking hands, making donations and sponsorships etc.

3. Expand your accessibility. Through the services provided by companies like Yodle, you will be easily found by customers who are looking for the products and services you provide. The technology is simple and effective, and if you have any doubt about it, read Yodle client reviews.

4. Expand your knowledge base. There is nothing more damaging to your business than a lack of modernity. All industries go through changes and advancements and if you’re not able to keep abreast of these upgrades and evolutions, your customers will give their business to your competition.

5. Expand your availability. People enjoy options when it comes to connectivity. They want it to be an even playing field so that no matter what their limitations are, you can be reached successfully via any medium. Make sure your contact information comprises all social networks and traditional phone/email information as well.

By employing the aforementioned strategies, you will be able to experience vast improvements in your business operations, your profitability and your exposure to your clients. We wish you the best of luck with it all!

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Most Inspiring Health and Beauty Ads

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Mike in Interactive Design

Of all advertisements in existence, whether or television, the internet or in magazines, there are probably none so carefully thought out as those made for health and beauty products. Perhaps that is why they tend to be more compelling than other ads, managing to capture so many emotions within their images. Humor, glamor, fear, insecurity, happiness, yearning, attraction…somehow, they always contain multiple elements and tell a story with sometimes as little as a single image.

It isn’t easy to pick which ones inspire us the most. After all, we all react to different stimulation, and so what moves one person might not register for another. But these are ten that I find absolutely breathtaking, and some of the next ads for health and beauty products around.

Hedkandi Salon

It is an old and well used trick of the trade to better emphasize the glamorous by putting it in dirty or underwhelming surroundings. This ad manages to do it very well. A dirty public bathroom, probably from a gas station or similar, barely catches the eye. Instead, you are urged to look at the beautiful woman looking at herself in the mirror, with the catchphrase “love what you see” perfect for the image itself. Clever and done with a great combination of both muted and bright colors that make her look even better in comparison to the gloom.

Hawaiian Tropic

Island or beach scenes always have a cheerfulness about them that is hard to resist. Much like “Before and after” photos at lifecell-anti-aging.com, this one uses the natural beauty of the water in this setting to really make it pop. For me, the best part of the ad isn’t the effects or even the model walking through the center. The most compelling element to this ad is the bright and sparkling blue that looks both calming and stunning. Between the water and the sky, I barely even notice the rest. But it still holds my attention.

Nivea

Clever concepts can sometimes win out, even when the imagery isn’t that brilliant. I think this ad could have been really dull with all the gray tones, even with the pop of bright red in the nail. It just doesn’t contrast properly for me. But the interesting idea behind it, with the nail cutting the can, actually saves it. Sure, it isn’t the most original premise for an ad. But it is done in a unique way that I think translates into a decent promotion for the polish.

Dentsu

It isn’t always easy to sell certain self care products to men. Especially anything having to do with the skin, an industry dominated by women. So this is a great ad that manages to cut through the gender bias and genuinely speak to males who might otherwise not be interested in such a product. Similarly to genf20plus.com, It shows straight away that it is something made for men who work hard, and need something intense to heal the damage it does to their hands. The imagery is masculine and more sincere than the patronizing tones of so many other male products aimed at a younger demographic.

Saatchi & Saatchi

I love any ad that manages to bring a taste of the surreal to the picture. But too often they get too abstract and it doesn’t mesh well with what they are trying to get across. While it looks nice, the lack of connection to the product defeats the entire purpose. This ad doesn’t have that problem. It connects the imagery perfectly to the point of the product, as well as the tag line. But it is still surreal and creative, making the viewer more likely to remember it.

TBWA

This came from another series of ads showing a bandage being removed from someone’s body with nothing underneath, suggesting it had been completely healed like it never happened. I was never a fan of those ads, which I found more nauseating than interesting. This version is much better. The zipper in the skin is weird and maybe not entirely relevant to a simple bandage. But it is still more memorable and less icky than the old ones. It shows that the same concept can be adapted for more compelling viewing.

Lexum European Eye Clinic

I see this ad as an example of what I was saying before about ads being too surreal. This one might be a bit too out there to really connect with the product. So why do I have it on my list of best ads? It is just too beautiful and creative not to put on here. The entire series of similar ads done by this eye clinic are breathtaking. It is also something I never would have thought of myself, so how can I not be impressed by their ingenuity?

Absolute Yoga

Tell me you can look at this ad and not want to be able to do that. This is like the poster for fitness as a whole, and it is hard not to get pumped for your own workout when you see it. Not to mention the bright (but unusual) colors and you have a fantastic ad. Who wouldn’t want to try out this yoga program when they see this?

Alka Seltzer

There is a pig in boxing shorts and gloves in this ad. I feel like that is all I really have to say in order to endorse it. After all, that isn’t something you would expect to say, and it is definitely a clever and funny way of expressing indigestion and heartburn. Both things often caused by pork and the numerous other foods shown in the picture.

Chuo Senko

This one both grosses me out and creeps me out every time I see it or any others from the series. Talk about an image that will stick with you! Advertising a sanitizer, it takes various items like doorknobs and buttons, and replaces them with filthy hands. The tagline is “What you really touch?” Which is enough to make me want to buy the product immediately just to stop feeling like I am shaking hands with a diseased severed hand every time I walk into a room.

Do you have a health or beauty ad you really love? Let us know in the comments.

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Infographic: The Value of a Website

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Mike in Interactive Design, Web Design

Do you know the true value of a website? This was a nice infographic that I saw the other day that breaks down all of the things that go into a website as well as the current economics around websites and website development. Its a relevant infographic from a company call WebStarts, who sell website builder services.

The Value Of A Website - An Infographic from Webstarts.com

WebStarts

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Guest Blogging Like a Boss

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Mike in SEO, Social Media

Photo Credit: http://robbieabed.com/

Guest blogging is a great way to get your links out there. Google has begun taking some very aggressive action against blogs and websites that constantly use the same link text and link networks. Due to this guest blogging has risen in popularity quite a bit and is easily becoming the most sought after way to build links and to increase traffic. You may want to become a guest blogger to help promote your site. Listed below are some key tips to ensure you will get your content posted and that you won’t be hurting the site you are being posted on.

Lower the links- It is very easy to get denied when trying to submit a guest post on someone else’s blog. Loading up your blog post with a ton of links is the most surefire way to never have your post see the light of day. Most blog’s will only allow two outbound links. Sending someone a post with a sea of blue links that all link to your ads and sites and where ever else is just considered rude. Don’t be that guy.
Does it make sense? - Sending out a guest blog post that has poor grammar and spelling errors is also not a great idea. If you are serious about being a guest blogger take the time to proofread your content. If you are not a great writer or English is not your language of choice, consider outsourcing through content providers. Research what you are writing about, if you are doing an article on say Oracle, Oracle Corp at a glance, then take some time to read the news about them. Just going and on about the same thing doesn’t make for exciting reading.
You never comment- Blogging is a relationship that you and the person that is providing you with a guest slot are building. If someone is kind enough to allow you to post on their website scratch their back and stick around to comment. Comment on posts other than your own, and try to follow up on any comments that are left are you own posts. Look at blogging as a community you are trying to foster a good image while you are there.
Follow directions- Not following directions will always get you in to trouble. Most blogs that accept guest posts have strict guidelines that you have to adhere to. These may range from how many words you need in the post, to how many links, and what types of topics you can post about. Sending out baseball articles to a knitting blog is probably not going to go over very well.
Value- Trying to come up with new and engaging topics is probably the hardest part for many people. Writing articles that have not been gone over a million times is hard to do. Try not to just re hash things that you have seen. Providing new fresh content is what bloggers want.

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