LinkedIn Showing Up For People Name Searches
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed that as I Google’d an individual’s name in order to find their websites or blogs that often their LinkedIn profiles are popping up for their name’s search results. LinkedIn has effectively leveraged their domain’s PageRank (7) along with a good link structure for individual profiles that includes…
Portfolio: Designing a Real Estate Technology Blog
Last month, we had the opportunity to design the Geek Estate Blog, a real estate technology news blog for vendors and professionals, which was founded by Zillow. Here’s a screenshot with a link to visit the blog: Drew Meyers of Zillow commissioned me to design the blog and we collaborate on its design and function.…
Tweak and Test, Tweak and Test
The beauty of the web is that you can instantly change things and quickly see how they work. It’s so fast and caters to my drive to constantly improve what I’m doing on the web. And with statistics programs like Google Analytics, I can look back and quickly see if what I’ve done has worked,…
Why Individual Post Pages Might Be Your Most Important Design Element
Your blog’s design is important. It needs to function properly. It needs to look pleasing and showcase your content. It also need to work for you – meaning, it needs to push your audience toward your goals. So here’s a bold statement: Your individual blog post pages might be the most important design element on…
Making It Easy For Prospects To Test Drive Your Products
Here’s one way to lower the bar for your product’s free trial: Don’t require them to give you their credit card! Insertit, a new codeless content management system, has a 30-day free trial … and on their signup button it says very plainly: “No credit card required.” They are differentiating themselves from the hundreds of…
More Bloggers Switching from TypePad to WordPress
I love WordPress if you can’t tell. We only do custom WordPress blog design. So you know why I love it when I see big-time bloggers like MicroPersuasion’s Steve Rubel making the switch. John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing has already done it. And I talk with more and more TypePad bloggers wanting to…
How To Make a Long Tail Business Even Better
Amazon is brilliant … Here’s why: If you’re read the Long Tail, you know that Amazon is a Long Tail-type business. So just this week, I just stumbled upon a new on-demand publishing business called Create Space. They offer a lot of similar services as Lulu and other on-demand businesses, including DVD, audio CDs, audiobooks,…
A Blog Can Enhance Your Traditional Business Website
Take your old static, dead and uneffective business website … and give it a big boost with a blog. You’ve seen those business websites that are nothing more than a copy and paste job from their brochure. They sit and collect dust on a server. And they don’t do anything for the business, other than…
Four Ways Book Authors and Writers Can Improve Their Sites
Recently, I’ve come upon a couple of writer/author websites that contain excellent content, but lack an effective design that could help take their websites and books to the next level. And I think blogs, in particular, those run by WordPress, are easy, affordable tools for marketing your book and writing skills and niche to a…
Even Celebrities Are Blogging
This Fast Company article — titled Celebrities Boost Their Brands With Personal Blogs — got my attention. Typically, celebrities start something first and then everyone else gets on the bandwagon, right? The article is loaded with good information, but these quotes stuck out to me: Blogs lend themselves to creating a casual environment with fans…