One of my very first paying gigs for doing Internet work was a project a co-worker called Internet Resources for Christian Growth. This site combined an e-mail newsletter and an archive of the newsletters. This was in the very early days of the World Wide Web and some of the original features and aspects included;

• It was on free service without it’s own domain
• each archived issue was created as a static page using the formatting in the original e-mail
• Their was no search feature
• The images were not original or ideal for the job

If I could change things today I would definitely make sure that the project had;

• It’s on domain name - the shorter the better
• I would set up the site primarily as a blog so that each issue could be sent by RSS and e-mail
• Include a search feature and also categories
• Take custom photos to get the message across better

In a lot of ways I have learned from these experiences over the years. Of course I have always been an advocate of having your own domain but at the time (about 10 years ago) I wasn’t aware of how one could have been redirected to another space. I see a lot of bloggers registering a domain name and redirecting it to a free blog service and at that time for that particular project that may have been ideal. I mentioned custom photos and I have set up a set on my flickr account dedicated to this project I was working on way back then. I hope to continually post new versions of the photo I wish I could have posted on the site way back then.

to spur innovation it’s always good to look back on past projects. Can you think if things you would have said differently? Different images you would have used or different technologies you would have used? Sometimes we want to kick ourselves when we wish we could have done something a different way but how often have you gone back and looked at past work and developed new strategies and workflows? We’re you ever afraid of investing in a new technology because you were worried about the cost only to look back and wish you had taken the leap to explore and use the technology? What will change today?

It might not be completely obvious but SpinningSilk Multimedia is a division of a larger company, SpinningSilk, LLC. We devote the greatest amount of time to SpinningSilk Multimedia, the division this web site is based on but we do provide products and services which have a connection to our multimedia services but we chose not to advertise those on this site. We have been working on setting up SpinningSilk I.T. (I.T. as in Information Technology) as a place I we will blog about various networking, security, storage and the technical issues behind internet communication technologies like e-mail.

We also are partnering with companies like MXLogic, ITC Deltacom and are looking for other vendors who provide services we can resell and offer to our clients. While we currently won’t be offering onsite service such as computer repair, setting up or trouble shooting networks, etc. We will work to recommend partners we believe can provide you with the best service based on our research.

We will seek to provide non-biased platform information based on your needs. We will discuss our products from Apple, Microsoft, various PC vendors, networking providers can benefit you or your company based on your unique situations.

When people talk about computers and what they prefer, they will stand firm by the platform they use be it Windows, Mac or Linux. Interestingly enough all three also have web server software that host web sites, e-mail and other Internet applications. All three also have browsers and other programs that enable you to access the web via their respective platforms. Finally, you can find web development software available on all three platforms and this is where a lot of problems can occur.

For years Microsoft made a very popular, yet flawed product called, Frontpage. I admit when it first came out and was available I was attracted to it and its ability to manage a large number of pages as well as making it possible to design a web site in a visual format. However some of the biggest disadvantages of that program were that most people would use pre-installed themes making it easy to spot a Frontpage-designed web site quickly. Also, the code it created was become extremely bloated and hard to edit from a programmer perspective. Apple however has a current product, iWeb which sadly suffers from the same issues. While iWeb creates web sites that look way more beautiful than anything I ever saw designed by Frontpage, you can still spot from a mile off that the site was created from a basic template and has features unique to the product. In addition, the code it creates is way more complicated than it needs to be.

If these programs are so bloated and the results are so apparently uncreative from the perspective of the one who created the site then why are they sold? For one, both Apple and Microsoft sell those products as an added feature to increase sales and yes, they can be quite easy to get something up that is “quick-and-dirty”. That’s not always bad in some cases, but when it come to creating web sites for clients that communicate to a wide global audience we adhere to web standards, not Microsoft or Apple standards. Standards that can be created and produced in such a way that they work exceedingly well for the Mac, Windows or Linux desktop user. Another web standards issue to consider is the need to consider the different connection speeds of various web site viewers. Yes, a lot more people have high speed connections but many out there are still on dial-up.

For example, we design web sites for churches and agencies of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, a denomination that has many churches in rural areas without access to high speed connections. As a result, keeping our code clean and images optimized to load quickly are considerations to which we are committed. The current ARP agencies we have developed web sites for are World Witness and Outreach North America . We have also developed and currently maintain the sites for Unity ARP Church, Travelers ARP Church**, The Bridge ARP and Huntersville ARP. We hope to design and develop more web sites and podcasts for churches and other ministries within the ARP*. If you’re an ARP Church or ministry contact us and learn how we can create web projects that adhere to web standards so you have have the greatest outreach in your community be it a large metropolitan area or a very rural area with limited internet resources.

*This is not a site we have done but of course we would love any future opportunity to help with it’s development.
**Our home church - site is done “pro-bono” as one means of giving

If you’ve been on the Internet or involved in any kind of business development I’m sure you have heard the term, Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short. This is nothing new. Ever since search engines or directories have been on the Internet companies have wanted to be at the top of the listing.

I hate to use the term “early days” but the previous mindset regarding preparing a web site to be easily found by a search engine involved some back-end technical steps which at one time made sense when search engines and portals had more of a directory approach.  The initial approach involved adding what is known as “meta tags” in the code of the web site and while some of these are still important to a degree modern search engine optimization is focused and hopefully will always be focused on the actual content in terms of text, images and other non design elements.

In terms of marketing this is actually a huge advantage in terms of competition, making updates known quicker and standing a better change at being found. Provided a web site has compelling content and is updated frequently.

What are some ways to to optimize, design and develop a web site so one can make frequent updates and provide compelling content? Here a few things to consider;

• Have a web site designed around a content management system - The makes it easier and faster for the non-designer, i.e. owner or employee of a company to update a web site without asking the web designer to make those updates.
• Incorporate a blog feature on your web site - The search engines love frequent content and writing on the topic related to your business on a frequent basis increases your search engine ratings
• Register your domain name for more than one year. The more years the better as search engines like Google rate domains with a longer registration period higher as it makes them look less, “fly by night.”
• Include words in your title tag you think people will use to search for a business like yours
• When writing, write naturally. Be sincere and don’t try to trick the system by stuffing keywords in the document.

These are just a few tips but they are ones they have helped us tremendously in the past few years to the point we rank on the first or second page of important search terms, many of which we have a lot competition.

Some SEO resources you may want to look at include;

• The Search Engine Academy of South Carolina
• The Wikipedia SEO entry
• Google’s page about working with SEO companies

Again these are just a few resources. We are constantly looking at ways to optimize web site for our clients and also our own business so we can not only get more customers but also practice what we preach and become more experienced to help others. If you are struggling with getting good search results for your web site contact us and find out what tools and resources we have that can help you be more successful. Of no one can guarantee you will be number one, that’s impossible and always changes but we can help you get achieve greater visibility amongst all the other choices out there. What are your SEO Success stories or concerns?

My last post covered the “old school” method of marketing known as direct marketing. A method used to target a wide range of consumers in a particular demographic or “geographic.” Initially the direct marketing mindset was attempted on the Internet via banner ads, mass market e-mails (Ok, let’s just call it spam now)

In the beginning stages of when businesses started using the Internet they attempted to do things the way they were done in the older media of print, TV and radio among others. We were indurated with banner ads we soon learned to commit to a blind spot, pop-up ads we soon learned to remove through third party software or different web browsers.  thankfully things have changed and Google used their great search algorithm to not only return better search results but also to display ads in a textual form people would be more interested in seeing. This is an example of using the technology in the particular media to it’s greatest advantage.

Blogging and podcasting also take advantage of another aspect of marketing in the “real world” but aggregates the information in such a way they you can only do on the Internet.  People will look very suspect at companies who do blatant advertising but we get great assurance from talking to friends and third party authorities we can trust.  Even if I blog or podcast is on a businesses own web site people will place greater trust if they are being taught and informed as opposed to a forceful sale. Two great examples of how podcasting/blogging is used to market products are Photoshop User TV and The Adobe Creative Suite Podcast.  Both of these promote Adobe products and Photoshop User TV even has advertising but it’s advertising I don’t mind because I have already sought out the podcasts and blogs for their topics and more than likely I am a likely candidate to purchase either the Adobe products, software or camera equipment.

What aspects of Internet marketing have you grown to despise and which one do you find refreshing?