I keep telling people, she's good! —Darryl Caraway
Journal
Cell Every Thing
Saturday, 09 January 2010 03:08
Technology advancements for cellular devices are worth watching. To keep up with the latest, I signed up for no less than twenty e-newsletters from all over the world. (Do not try this using your main email address!)
Over the last decade, cellular technology—phones, PDAs, digital book readers, pads & tablets—has out-paced traditional desktop computing. Even for the casual computer user, a mobile device will replace the computer on his desk...in this decade.
Mobile-friendly marketing will soon go from "optional" to "required" so, expect pressure on large and small businesses to produce mobile media. First, households are already dropping conventional telephone service and desktop computers for mobile-only phone service.
Second, changes in the way consumer data is stored and processed will reduce the dependence on desktop machines. Database storage and processing is shifting to a system called cloud computing. "Clouds" are high-end networks of database computers partitioned into rentable space and sold to giants like Amazon.com and Yahoo.com. Changes in consumer habits will result from the increasingly efficient management of data, innovation, and lower market prices.
In the late 90s, businesses were doubting the need for their own website. Some small businesses and organizations are still very much behind the technology curve. However, a sensible amount of research can reveal opportunities to by-pass traditional computer purchases and move directly to mobile technology. Rather than replacing old desktop computers with not-so-old desktop computers, consider faster, cheaper, smarter, mobile products.
Lego Set Marketing
Thursday, 07 May 2009 17:00
The fun in a Lego set is that you can build something interesting with just a few pieces. You can always add more pieces or rework everything. No matter how you arrange the blocks, they always fit together.
For a sizable fortune, corporations hire ad agencies to create an assortment of building blocks for an entire year of advertising. Whenever an ad is needed, someone pulls from among those building blocks that all fit together.
Beyond marketing, the Lego set paradigm drives our fashion, meal planning, even architectural choices. The building blocks established by a single piece of marketing collateral can lay the groundwork for your brand. Add-on marketing pieces for the Pearson, Stan Sargeant, and Caring Nanny projects were developed reusing the simplest arrangement of colors, shapes, textures to brand their outreaches. Lego set marketing is a common sense approach which will save you about half a billion dollars.
Hosted E-commerce Stores
Sunday, 03 May 2009 17:00
There are several hosted online stores developed for boutiques and small businesses. A hosted e-commerce store is when you set up a storefront on a website owned by a third party.
A storefront at Ebay is a hosted e-commerce store. A private e-commerce store is when you set up a storefront on a website you personally own. Amazon.com is a privately owned e-commerce store. The sites listed below are hosted storefront opportunities, they also have corporate offices in the USA.Some hosted storefronts are free. Some charge a minimal fee and come with upscale services. Unless, you are trying to present a branded corporate atmosphere, a typical paid storefront is usually a bargain.
Get Maximum Exposure
Sign up with multiple websites, be sure to get as much exposure to your store as possible. And don't forget to blog about your business. My favorite blog host is WordPress. Also, if you haven't already, register your domain name now! ASAP!. Go to Camelback Domains. You can point your new domain to your online store if you aren't ready for your own website yet. If you already have a site, you can still point your shopping link to your a hosted e-commerce store. As your sales grow, you'll know when it's time to create a private e-commerce site. Check back with Foresytz anytime you are ready to go to the next level.
Protect Yourself When Signing Up With New Sites
Follow a few rules before offering your personal information on "hot" new sites.
- Carefully read terms and privacy policies.
- Give as little personal information as possible.
- Avoid using home address & telephone numbers. Often home addresses are unused and unnecessary.
- Protect your inbox. Despite what the vendor mayrecommend, if possible use email addresses from gmail or other vendor with excellent spam protection.
- Never give your main bank account information, unless the company has a sterling reputation. Open a second bank account at your bank if possible.
- If credit cards are necessary, consider using an alternate card with a low credit limit, a gift card MC/VISA loaded with a sufficient balance, or apply for a PayPal debit card.
- If a secure registration link is offered, use it. Your personal information will be encrypted as it is transferred over the internet.
- Some sites won't allow you to delete your store or registration information from their database. There may only be a way to "disable" it from public view. Check the sites terms and conditions.
I Can’t Decide
Thursday, 18 December 2008 00:00
I completed three versions of my website in 2008. Several alternate layouts were attractive, but you know when something isn’t quite right. Inspiration is important in any design discipline.
I draw mine from several sources. A weekly visit to the bookstore to flip through new books is refreshing. A small hint though, it’s not always the posh booksellers with the best selection. One of my favorites here in Arizona is one of those booksellers that force you to leave the store to buy sleepwear. Really inconvenient! But their inventory of design books and periodicals is good.
Another source of inspiration comes directly from packaging design. Bundles that attract you from across the room are worth studying. The same is true of architectural design. What’s going on inside? How to get where you want to go? Two things that architecture has in common with web design and two things that should be communicated almost immediately.
A major source of design inspiration comes from web technology itself. There is new innovation every month in the software industry. And some new launches are well worth the learning curve. I think the new version of Joomla falls into that category—site owners write that down. I invested more time and energy on this version of my site. It’s fully content-managed and can be reorganized virtually by the push of a button. Everything I invested on the front end will save time when the winds of style change...soon.
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A Flair for Classicism
Saturday, 20 December 2008 00:00
There's a relatively new design discipline in the interiors industry—Interior Redesign. Interior Redesign takes rearranging to a another level. Kimberly D. Pearson is a certified interior redesigner with a flair for classicism, and we just completed the first phase of her site. This project was especially refreshing because her industry is modestly (as opposed to fiercely) competitive at this time. I have a few secrets when it comes to taking the lead in a market at this stage, and Kimberly is getting ready for the next step.
In general, business owners in the "style" industry should infuse their marketing outreach with their own personal style and mannerisms. There's enough cookie cutter marketing out there to please everybody, so people really do appreciate a break from the monotony. We decided a little motion on the landing page was important for this audience. Also, this is a brand development website which I often like to to focus a visitor's attention on some sort of "dashboard" (as I call it) in the center of the screen. However, for this project, the ability to expand the content in the future was a priority. There also needed to be a place for seasonal outreaches as well as a place to feature specific galleries.
