Movie Theater Advertising – Just imagine this on a 40 foot screen

Ever considered advertising your business at the local movie theater? During the pre-show, theaters often display national, regional and local ads, before the previews and the feature itself. I’ve been researching cinema advertising for a while now, speaking with account representatives at Screenvision, and considering the options. Most importantly, I’ve been generating ROI goals, as theater advertising isn’t the cheapest form of promotion.

In-theater advertising offers another way to attract geo-targeted clients. It’s an appealing option that few local companies take advantage of. But the moviegoer demographics tell an encouraging story. Continue reading “Now Showing on the Big Screen… modMACRO” »

We’re building a new site for the San Diego Alarm Association (SDAA). Features include an association directory with contact information and company logos, and latest news section. The site includes a back-end that allows easy management by group admins, as well as an internal message board that provides members a simple way to share and communicate in a central, secure manner.

The site design includes a mostly grayscale look that’s professional and strong. Reds are used to offset the coldness while maintaining a security-enforcing feel.

We’re known for working with small businesses to create tailor-made websites and information systems. But lately, we’ve had a lot of people asking for pre-packaged, simple web solutions that can be launched in a matter of days. Start-ups and smaller firms sometimes just want to get online now, for cheap, then worry about building a “real” site later.

In keeping with our small business heritage, we’ve introduced Small Business Web Packages. They’re designed specifically for start-ups and smaller firms who need a quick, inexpensive solution to web presence. They are scalable solutions that include everything you need to get started – domain registration, web hosting, and a templated website. These aren’t full-blown custom sites. They’re packaged solutions that meet an immediate need. And they start at just $30/ month. Learn more

We do that. With so many opportunities, it’s difficult to develop a strategy that’s right for you. We can help. We’ll explain the differences and help create a plan that works for your business.

Well, yes and no. If you build it, they MAY come. I’ve seen great websites that could be a resource for a broad audience, but nobody shows up. Why? Well, usually it’s because nobody knows the website is there. How would they?

Websites generally exist to convert customers, to sell them something. E-commerce sites sell products. Other sites are selling the company, building trust and encouraging visitors to hire their services. Websites are built to convert. But you can’t convert people who never see the site. If you build it, they MAY come. Continue reading “If you build it, will they come?” »

Many of today’s mobile devices use a touch screen interface. A few examples include: Apple’s iPod Touch, iTouch, iPhone, and iPad. The same is true for Google’s Android and several Blackberry models. It’s important to design websites with these devices in mind. Continue reading “Web Design for Mobile and Touch Devices” »

We’ve established a simple, repeatable search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Our six step process applies to both existing sites and new builds. More importantly, having a clear, visual explanation allows clients to better understand SEO.

Search engines have purposely made their ranking systems difficult to master. As a result, SEO firms are reluctant to share techniques and successes. However, clients need to be given enough explanation to feel confident that their money is going toward meaningful efforts. Publishing our process is a move in that direction. And it’s a rare occasion in the industry.

Your website must be search engine friendly (SEF), whether you’ve contracted the development or you’re building it yourself. I ask clients everyday, what’s the point in having a great website if nobody finds it?

Search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be considered from the beginning of a web project. Consulting with an SEO professional is a great idea, but often overlooked or just not in the budget. It’s okay if you don’t want to pay for SEO right away. But it’s critical that you’re web developer build an SE-friendly site. This means that upon completion, your site will be in a good state to begin SEO efforts.

Some website development practices will help your SEO readiness, others will have no effect on search performance, while others will hurt your search rankings. If you plan to use an SEO professional after development you simply need to ensure the site is created in an SE friendly way. Avoid mistakes that will hurt your rankings. Remember, you’re not developing for SEO effectiveness, you’re developing to avoid SEO penalties. Here are a few basic elements to consider. Continue reading “Search Engine Friendly (SEF) Websites – Tips for Business Owners” »

In mid-2008 Google did a Q&A on their Webmaster Central Blog where they noted that Flash is now partially crawl-able. Through assistance from Adobe, Google’s bot can now read Flash files and index the text. However, the bot is not able to read text in images, whether embedded in Flash or elsewhere on the site. Googlebot is also not able to discover the links within Flash buttons. In short, Flash developers can be thankful that Google has been working to solve a small part of these restrictions. However, Flash and imagery must still be used intelligently (read sparingly) if SEO is a consideration for your site. And there are few instances where SEO isn’t important.

Beyond fulfilling 1NF and 2NF requirements, reaching 3NF normalization comes down to really one thing. You must remove columns that are not solely dependent on the table’s primary key. This is where some DB designers start to get confused. It’s easiest to evaluate 3NF failures by analyzing each column, one at a time.

Consider a basic users table:

Continue reading “Database: 3NF” »