Lifestyle and Leisure~

This post is NOT about web design or marketing, it's about reaping the rewards!

We all work hard, and many of us have had a difficult year. We all need to take the time now and then to reap the rewards of our hard labor and relax! If you are not fortunate enough to live here in Florida near some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, it may be time to give yourself a well deserved vacation. What better place to renew and refresh yourself and soak up the sun and culture than Anna Maria Island Florida and the surrounding Gulf Coast!

Pristine beaches, award winning restaurants, world class shopping and a special place for every mood that strikes your fancy. From charming and quaint beach houses to sophisticated and luxurious condominiums or homes, Anna Maria Island and her sister islands - as well as Sarasota and Bradenton, offer something for everyone.

Want to make your island vacation plans easy and stress free? I recommend Island Real Estate for all your Florida vacation or real estate needs. This Real Estate company has been around since 1970 and they know their stuff and truly enjoy assisting you with your dream vacation or real estate desires.

Whether it's a few days or for a lifetime ~ Island Real Estate can find you the perfect "peace" of mind.

The Economy & Advertising...

The economy is in a terrible state and has been for a long time now, and there is no reason to believe it will improve anytime soon. Most people and businesses are probably feeling the crunch. What's a person to do? You need business and customers. How will you get their attention in the most affordable way?

Your website and global Internet marketing is still the most affordable way to be visible and attract potential customers. Available 24/7 to the world. There is no other advertising option that can do that! As an example, take a $1500 website. Do the math!

• $125 a month
• $28.85 per week
• $4.12 per day

Now that is amazing! So put your advertising budget to proper use and make sure you have a good functioning, properly executed web site that is visible. If your website is not bringing you positive results, you need to re-think your marketing strategy and update or re-create your web presence NOW!

Email me your needs and desires and let's talk about it. :-)

Marketing

Research - analyze - implement. Basic steps to your website visibility. Social networking sites also play a vital role in your site being found in search engines. What would YOU type into that little Google box to find a business like yours? This is a good place to start. Proper keyword phrases are critical. But it goes much deeper than that! Code, website structure, relevant links and Blogging are also a must for visibility.

Give me a shout... let's talk about it!

Take control of your business growth...

Growing your business or company is much like growing plants. It all starts with an idea, a vision of something beneficial or needed. The SEED must then be planted, nurtured, cared for. A decision of where to plant it, research on how to help it come to fruition, and how to help it survive once it is rooted and growing. Once it "sprouts" you have to continue to care for it or it will wither and die. Poor planning in the conceptual state could result in no growth, stunted growth or it being lost in a forest.

Your website presence needs the same things as the plant. Take the time to understand what it is you want, (VISION/IDEAS) what you want the results to be, (SALES/MORE BUSINESS/RECOGNITION) where you want it to grow, (TARGET AUDIENCE) and how you will maintain it. SEO/UPDATES/NETWORKING.

With a good plan and time spent wisely, your business website presence and marketing should reap the results you desire.

Happy gardening! :-)

Creating The Feel & Look of Your Web design

The look and feel of your website must reflect your over all vision for your company or business. In my opinion, the "Header" is a very important aspect in creating the over all look. If the client has a logo, that is always taken into consideration, and a priority factor. Then the task of finding just the right visuals - image - to incorpoate into the over all feel. "Every picture tells a story," "a picture is worth a thousand words," you know the sayings, and it's true! I usually pull the entire color theme from a single picture, perfectly coordinating it through out the design.

It would be nice IF we could use beautiful high resolution images all over the website! BUT, this would not be wise as the pages would become to heavy, making the site useless. Always optimize your photos to the best download size while retaining the optimal quality... easier said than done sometimes. One or two fantastic images is always better than many images of less quality and impact.

It is always helpful IF the client has an "image" in mind or available. While working on http://www.wisernow.com/, my client had an image of an apple. That was all we needed, and the entire look took off beautifully!

Keep in mind that knowing WHAT you desire, and being prepared from day one in providing examples will only result in a more satisfying web experience.

In my opinion, the entire web page should not exceed 50k at most.

Woman With Websites...

Marketing to woman, woman owned websites, or a web audience that focuses on the female market, is proving to be very beneficial. The new year is off to a great start as LuLu Wow has attracted 5 new clients. Two are powerful and accomplished women that are authors and public speakers. One is a women Realtor, another, a women owned website, and lastly, a school in California owned by a women.
Marketing to and for women is specialized and a very needed service in the web community. I am enjoying all of these new projects enourmously!!

Marketing Events

With the holidays approaching - is your website ready? By now you should made some changes to your web site, a holiday promotion, thought, image... something to update your website to keep it fresh and interesting for your web audience and the search engines. These ongoing changes, be they small blurbs or big announcements are very important in keeping your website alive! Think of it like other media industries , print, TV or radio. You would not keep picking up the same magazine, or watching the same TV program if it was the same every month... ditto for your web marketing!
LuLu Wow includes monthly maintenance for all of our web design clients. If you happen to have a website that is basically dead because you have no way to add fresh information, give us a shout. We can provide you with this valuable service at a very reasonable fee.

Vision...

Vision - n.
The faculty of sight; eyesight: poor vision.
Something that is or has been seen.
Unusual competence in discernment or perception; intelligent foresight: a leader of vision.
The manner in which one sees or conceives of something.
A mental image produced by the imagination.

Creating a website begins with "vision." A spark, an idea that flows into the mind. What creates this "spark?" For me it is usually something as simple as a word, a picture or a color. Turning that VISION into a workable and awesome CONCEPT come from communication with my web client. Every client has a vision of what they desire their website to look like. Since we all see things differently, communication is the key to a beautiful and positive result. We will talk about color, shapes, style, emotion, and all possible aspects to have a genuine meeting of the minds. Then OUT vision begins to unfold and ultimately produce the desired outcome. Talk to me about your VISION!

LuLu

Using old browser platforms.

Okay, I have a huge pet peeve! Why in the world would anyone not update their web browser?? It's fast and FREE. Who would choose to keep an old - outdated browser? As a web designer I am not fond of Internet Explorer to begin with. Yes, IE7 has made progress, but they have a long way to go! Firefox renders properly and is totally up to speed. I know that I am supposed to work like hell to make my designs cross-browser compatible, but why should I have to continue to do this. Honestly, if someone is still stuck with IE5 I don't care how their web page looks. That may sound rude, but I will not cater to those that can not keep current with simple technology. I am starting to feel this way about IE6 users too! I would love to hear how everyone feels about this!

Go PINK for October!

I am "going PINK" for October breast cancer awareness month! Come on women of the web, and men too ... swap out your background webpage color to pink (I just did) add a "going pink" graphic, spread the awareness and be part of a solution! Let's PINK it up!

Visit http://pinkforoctober.org/ and get involved.