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.

New SEO and Marketing Project

I am always excited when I get a new project, design, marketing or search engine optimization. Each project lends a new opportunity to be creative, solve problems and help clients with their web presence. This SEO project is for a major Art Appraisal website and will be a great challenge!

Niche marketing for women

As defined by Wikipedia - A niche market is a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a "Market sector." By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. A niche market may be thought of as a narrowly defined group of potential customers.

When I created http://www.luluwow.com/ a little over a year ago, I quickly realized that I wanted to focus on marketing to women. I defined my target audience into this smaller sector for several reasons.

1. I felt there was a real need for the focus on women
2. I knew it would be extremely difficult to get the attention and clients I wanted if I was vague, ie; website design.
3. I understood the old saying "you can't be everything for everyone!"

This marketing strategy has proven to be wise and successful.

I currently rank #1 on Google out of 133,000,000 for "web design for women!"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=web+design+for+women&btnG=Google+Search

I firmly believe that the first step of business, on the internet or off, is clearly defining your marketing and goals. The 5 W's, who - what- where-why - when , have got to be completely understood before you begin and then completely conveyed to your potential market.

You really can not do it all and be everything to everyone, so DEFINE what your great at and what you are passionate about and do it right!

New Web Design for LuLu

Fresh new web design look for http://www.luluwow.com/

I am liking this new design and felt it was time for an overhaul. Change is good and I like to keep things interesting. This web design CSS validates and is easier to navigate than the last design. Soon I will re-design this blog - again! I selected colors and content that i felt women could easily relate to. Let me know what you think!!