JOB DESCRIPTION
If you’re tired of the corporate grind and looking for a team with a flexible work environment, keep reading. Our environment is fast-paced, hard-working, and constantly learning. We work with small and medium sized businesses all over the country and need more team members to help improve our constantly growing process.

This position will focus on providing immediate programming support to client projects as needed. It will also include managing a team of diversified programmers to accomplish client projects within the scope and timeline required.

We work in a virtual environment with lots of online collaboration, so your physical location doesn’t matter to much. You do need to be available for standard business hours from 9AM-5PM as well as for any project emergencies (if needed and hopefully very rare).
ABOUT THE PROJECTS & SYSTEMS
We work with a variety of projects and systems, from very basic CMS systems to very advanced, custom developed PHP apps. Some run a modern, current codebase and some were built over a decade ago and still need to be maintained. We need someone who is flexible enough to work in a variety of projects and systems

• Manage a team of up to 6 other programmers for various client projects.
• Assign tasks, review work, bug test, troubleshoot, and communicate clearly with the client.
• Assist with correcting coding errors or bugs in projects that may be a priority.
• Collaborate with the design team to provide input on features.
• Provide feedback to the team regarding ideas on improving programming workflows, frameworks, and plans

MUST HAVES:
4+ years of real world experience in web application development with specific experience in PHP, MySQL, Javascript, jQuery, AJAX and HTML/CSS. Experience with WordPress development as well as working with e-commerce systems written in PHP.

Project management and team leading experience also needed.

LOCATION:
One of the perks? Work from wherever you like. One exception, we’re looking for someone on the east coast time zone. You do not need to relocate, but we’d prefer you be in our timezone for easier communication during regular working hours.

JOB DESCRIPTION
If you’re tired of the corporate grind and looking for a team with a flexible work environment, keep reading. Our environment is fast-paced, hard-working, and constantly learning. We work with small and medium sized businesses all over the country and need more team members to help improve our constantly growing process.

This position will focus on providing immediate design support to our clients with the guidance from our Creative Director. Tasks will include general print design work such as logos, business cards, brochures, flyers, newsletters, etc. and could include design of website layouts and frameWe work in a virtual environment with lots of online collaboration, so your physical location doesn’t matter to much. Since this is a contract-hourly position to start with, you don’t need to be available within specific time-frames, just need to be able to complete tasks by the assigned dates.

KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY
• Creatively design client materials (web & print)
• Work with our creative director to achieve client requested results

MUST HAVES:
2+ years of real world experience with Adobe products (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, etc.) and example portfolio of both print and web design work completed.

LOCATION:
One of the perks? Work from wherever you like. One exception, we’re looking for someone on the east coast time zone. You do not need to relocate, but we’d prefer you be in our timezone for easier communication during regular working hours.

Interested? Contact jobs@designextensions.com

Not surprisingly, the same principle applies to search engine optimization.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to be everything for every potential customer, or targeting a half-dozen potentially profitable keywords and phrases on every page. Resist the urge. The best SEO content isn’t the longest, or even the most keyword-rich, but the content that’s pointed firmly in the right direction.

Here are three quick tips to help you study your SEO aim:

Target one keyword or phrase per page. Pick one term to focus on, and then devote your webpage, blog post, or article specifically towards it. That will keep you from having to form awkward sentences and headlines to mention it two or three times. Once you have targeted that keyword or phrase a few times, move on to the next one.

Make a keyword list and move through it. That approach is going to take more time, but you’ll achieve better longer-term results by thinking week to week and building slowly, rather than trying to optimize your site for dozens of keywords at once. Remember that good SEO takes a little bit of patience.

Know where your profits are. The keywords you should target first aren’t necessarily the ones that get the most traffic, but the ones that convert at the highest rate. Know your metrics well enough to identify them, and concentrate your firepower where it matters most.

Concentration, focus, and persistence are more important to search engine optimization than almost anything else. Keep that in mind and you’ll always be firing your optimized content with a steady hand. SEO can be confusing and many businesses don’t understand how it all works, Design Extensions can help your website rank higher, for the keywords that people actually use, that convert searches to dollars.

The goal today was to run for 30 minutes. I don’t like to run for time, I prefer to run for distance. When you run for time, there is no incentive to go faster or at a higher incline. The goal is simply to run for 30 minutes. Now “running” for 30 minutes at a 4 mph pace is very different than running at a 7 mph pace. But if the goal is to just last 30 minutes, there is no incentive to go faster because it’s going to take 30 minutes regardless of how fast you are going.

I like to run for distance because it pushes me to get done sooner. You can run 3 miles in 30 minutes or you can take an hour to do it. I’d rather get it done and over with. I’d rather do it well than drag my heels all day about it.

Hourly billing is just like this. Some folks take an hour to do what another can do in 10 minutes. Should the person who can do it in 10 minutes be paid less than the person that takes an hour? Absolutely not. That’s why VALUE billing (or project billing) is far superior to hourly in most cases. While the amount of time something takes can sometimes indicate the value, that’s not always true. The experience and expertise of one person can allow the project to be completed in far less time which is actually of MORE VALUE than taking longer to do it.

If you’ve never run, you can’t just jump on the treadmill and run 3 miles at a 7mph pace though, it takes time and experience. The more you run, the better you get at it and the faster you can knock down the miles. This goes for all kinds of work too, the more experienced someone is and the more time they have invested in a skill, the better they are at it. As a result, they can often complete a task much more quickly than someone who is newer.

Value billing is more specific, you get X for Y, there is no guessing involved. Same thing goes for the treadmill, if someone says they’re going to run for an hour, that doesn’t mean much unless you know how fast they can run.

Now I know that value billing or project billing doesn’t always work. If the scope of the project is very loosely defined or it’s a long list of maintenance type updates, hourly billing may be the only way to manage it, but for most things, we prefer value billing because we’d rather get it done and get off the treadmill.

Bestselling books and blockbuster movies are continually filled with the theme of heartache. That’s because most of us have, at one point or another, known the terrible, sinking feeling that comes with losing someone we love.

Of course, online marketers can feel the same way when they see their best customers slipping away.

While you might not feel the same kind of depression over a missing account or decreased orders that you do when you lose a lover, either one can keep you up at night wondering what went wrong. And, believe it or not, there are some similarities, both in the way you are left and what you can do about it.

Here are some bad breakup tips you can use to fix your online marketing plan:

Don’t expect your departed customer to tell you what went wrong. You can ask all you want, but once a customer is gone, they aren’t likely to give you the real reasons they left, so it’s going to be up to you to figure it out on your own.

The exception to this rule, of course, is when your company messed up badly enough that it’s obvious to everyone why they took their business elsewhere. In those cases, learn from the experience, improve your customer service, and move on.

You can learn a lot from your customer’s next partner. If you really want to know why someone isn’t buying from you anymore, figure out who they are buying from now. What does that vendor offer that you don’t?

Often, if you lose out on a big account, it isn’t that difficult to find out where it went. Or, if you’re noticing a trend of smaller orders dropping off, see if you can find out which of your competitors is benefiting the most. Either way, you’ll learn something about what they are offering that you can’t match.

Sometimes it really is about the simple things. Differences in price, a more competitive product, a cleaner online reputation, or even better site layouts and navigation structures can all be obvious reasons that a customer might stop responding to your online marketing efforts. The answers are usually simpler than we think, so look for the big explanations first.

Losing customers is tough, but the pain doesn’t last forever. Follow these tips, find out why your online business isn’t stacking up, and then use the knowledge to either win your buyers back or find new ones. And if you want even more powerful tools to bring in those new clients, or find the lost ones, Give us a call at Design Extensions. We’d love to hlep.

These are all decent guesses, and maybe half-correct. That’s because the biggest mistake in online marketing is making any mistake over and over again.

How do you stop yourself from repeating costly errors? By evaluating the effectiveness of what you’re doing in a subjective way. In other words, by studying the numbers behind your business website. A lot of business owners can talk about the number of visitors their website is receiving, or how many sales they’ve been making, but getting a good understanding of your online business requires a deeper look than that.

Here are three easy to use and understand metrics you definitely want to keep an eye on:

The numbers of visitors coming from certain sources or advertising campaigns. Often, it isn’t possible to tell that a certain message is or isn’t responding to a segment of your market until you take a closer look at your traffic sources. Viewing these with a critical eye could show you where you need to tweak your offers or benefit statements.

Your most popular pages. In many cases, business owners see this kind of data as simply “the products and prices that customers respond to most.” That’s a starting point, but high numbers of views in your frequently asked questions or shipping policies, for example, could indicate that buyers have concerns about how quickly they’ll receive their order. This is only a simple example, but it’s representative of the kind of trend you should be looking for.

Parts of your site where visitors exit. This is even more important, since they can help you to identify parts of your site that aren’t fully optimized for conversions, or that buyers are responding to. If potential customers are leaving you at any point other than the one that brings them closer to buying from you, then it’s costing you money.

There is any number of mistakes with your content or marketing message that you can inadvertently make on your business website. The real mistake, however, is to keep reproducing errors by failing to study the numbers closely enough. Need help studying those numbers? Let Design Extensions help, and we’ll do what we do best so that you can do what you do best.

While it’s true that your on-page SEO and inbound linking strategy is likely to have the biggest direct effect on your search engine position, your choice for web hosting may factor into the mix more than you think. Here are three reasons finding the right post could affect your search engine rankings:

A good hosting plan will load your site quickly and keep it online. All other things being equal, the major search engines seem to prefer websites that load quickly for users. They also place a preference on sites that don’t experience a lot of downtime. In other words, Google and the other engines don’t want to send searchers to a destination that’s likely to frustrate them, or not be there when they need it – both good reasons to choose a quality business website hosting plan.

Your business website could share server space with a blacklisted site. If another webmaster or business owner has been using the same server as you, and using it to spam people or run a shady online company, then there’s a small chance that you could be penalized for their indiscretions. Keeping good company, and staying in the right neighborhoods, is important to your SEO campaign.

Having the right hosting company makes it easy to add new content. The easier it is for you to go into your site’s file manager or CMS, the fewer reasons you’ll have to put it off. You want it to be a simple process to update and optimize the content on your pages, which is an area where a good business website hosting plan can be worth its weight in gold. Fresh content is the cornerstone of any sustainable SEO plan, so choose a hosting plan with that in mind.

Finding a business website hosting provider might not be your first SEO consideration, but it’s one that matters more than you might think. Given that the top spots on Google are more competitive than ever, doesn’t it make sense to have every possible advantage on your side?

With all of the different ways Design Extensions can help your business be seen, isn’t it about time to give us a call?

We’ve had the pleasure of launching OVER 100 websites this year and working with countless other projects from logos to brochures to banners and more.

When we started, we just did basic websites. Our range of services is much larger now, from graphic design to websites and online marketing. This year, we’re going to be improving our online marketing services and offering some comprehensive plans that are not only affordable, but trackable and effective. We want to help our clients take their businesses to the next level and believe we have the tolls to make that happen.

There is lots of turmoil in the world right now… Politically, socially, religiously jobs, etc. There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on, but we still believe in what made this country great. Individual exceptionalism, team work, community, faith, and family. We believe that 2012 will be the year of startups, where people decide to step out and make something happen.

We are ready to help be the partner others need to grow and expand online and off.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to our clients, partners, friends, and families who have made our continued success possible. We couldn’t do it without you and wish you all the happiest of new years.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

That’s a great thing to think about, but it overlooks some of the most common and important steps along the way. That’s because great SEO isn’t always as straightforward as it seems, and it’s not only about bringing traffic to your website – it’s about making your business more visible and profitable in the most efficient ways possible.

With that in mind, here are three parts of a successful search engine optimization plan that are often overlooked:

Planning. Sure, you want more traffic – but what kind of traffic? You might think you know what your best potential customers are likely to search before they find you, but first impressions aren’t always the best ones. It takes a lot of research and planning to figure out which search terms are preferred by buyers, rather than information-gatherers, along with the fastest ways to outpace your competition.

Conversion optimization. As we mentioned, gaining traffic is only half the battle; for it to have any effect on your bottom line, you need to persuade all of those wonderful prospects to actually do something. That’s where conversion optimization comes into play. Whether you receive one visitor to your business website each day or one thousand, your pages have to convince them to take the next step.

Adjustments to your plan. Over time, your search engine optimization goals are going to change. This might be because you discover new keywords and phrases, because your company has grown and changed its focus, or even because you’re trying to appeal to a different kind of buyer. Regardless of the reason, making adjustments – and getting more efficient at every step of the way – is a prerequisite for finding true and lasting success in SEO.

If you hadn’t thought about any of these parts of your SEO campaign, you’re certainly not alone. Why not work with a web design and search engine optimization team that knows what it takes to find bottom-line success and can help lead you in the right direction?

Design Extensions has a range of products to help you with your Search Engine Optimization needs, and we’d love to hear from you.

I’m going to say something you won’t hear from many business owners, I don’t believe we’re the best at what we do. WHAT?! Who says that? I do.

Let’s be real though, there are better web designers than us, there are better graphic designers than us, there are better marketers than us. We live in a time with a lot of ridiculous talent in our industry. Don’t get me wrong, I care about quality design, clean code, and all the latest industry standards, but we don’t always deliver perfection on every project, there is always something that could be done better. That’s called reality. The truth is that there is almost always someone better at you or your business at what you do — and that’s OK!

But here’s something else, I don’t believe you have to be the best to be the best choice. Like many things, I believe it’s about balance. We provide a high level of experience (we’ve been doing websites since the internet started), we have a large portfolio (from plumbers to plastic surgeons), and we care about people (our clients, our staff, our families, and others) — those things matter.

We’re not the best and I’m ok admitting it. What matters to me is that we are able to provide what our customers need at a price that provides a high level of value for the services provided.

My advice? Stop trying to be or pretending to be the best. It’s ok to not be the best. Be what you need to be, what your clients need you to be, and not what meets someone else’s arbitrary standards.

We’re not the best, but for our clients and many others, we were the best choice for them. I’m thankful for that.

Of course you should, but a lot of small business owners and online marketers don’t. They go through the hard work of generating a strong article, for example, and then post it to their blog, where it sits on the Internet for all eternity. That’s not a bad start, but it isn’t getting the most value for something that can help grow your business online, either.

To help you avoid making the same mistake, we’d like to offer a valuable tip: Get the most out of your web content by sharing it with the biggest possible audience. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It is, as long as you’re following a plan. Here are a few steps to help you get started:

Find a central point for publishing your content. Typically, this would be a company blog, but it could also be a page set aside for articles or breaking news.

Use strong headlines. Make it so that people can’t help but want to read what you’re posting. A good title can easily double or triple the number of views your content will ultimately get.

Write teasers. Create a one or two sentence “ad” for your content. Like the title, this isn’t designed to describe everything about it, but to create interest.

Post your teasers everywhere. There should be links to your content in your e-mail newsletter, on your Facebook fan page, leaked in tweets, and anywhere else you can think to spread the word. In off-line marketing, they call this “generating buzz”; online, it’s just spreading the word around.

Follow the trail left by your readers. Over time, you’ll notice that certain topics and traffic sources yield more views than others. As you gain this information, set up future content updates accordingly.

Great content isn’t easy or cheap to get. So when you have an interesting item to post, make sure you get the maximum amount of value and exposure from it.

And as always if you feel the need to hire a professional, Design Extensions would love to help you realize the full potential of your site’s blog posts.

Hopefully, your business web design team put you in a position to be in the first group, and you’re now enjoying some prime search engine real estate.

Whether you were or weren’t, however, there’s one thing that has become clear: Google and the other major search companies are having to go farther than ever to determine which sites are legitimate and which ones aren’t. As part of that process, they aren’t just ignoring certain types of links and content – it seems like they are actively targeting low-quality sources of content, along with the businesses they link to.

In other words, if you’re trying to get the most out of your search engine optimization campaign, then it might be time to find some new friends for your website to link to and from. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

Scrutinize your link building strategy. Have you been purchasing links, or getting them from copied or spun articles? If so, stop now before you do even more damage to your website.

Don’t give links for no reason. It can be tough to say no to friends and colleagues, but if another website isn’t closely related to yours, then think carefully before giving a link – it could cause the search engines to have second thoughts about your site.

Or ask for unrelated links. In the same way, don’t just ask anyone for a link to your site. Only request one if it makes sense to assume that some of their readers might want to check out your content.

Focus on your customers. Speaking of content, think less about what search engine spiders might be looking for and more about what actual humans want to find on your pages. It’s a much better long-term strategy, both for SEO and your profitability.

Google and the other major search engines have no choice but to pay attention to the company you keep online. Don’t give them reason to think less of your business website by giving or taking low-quality links.

Design Extensions can help screen links, and will work with other businesses to get you the link-backs that convert to new customers.

What’s a QR code? It’s those strange, square, barcode looking things that marketing agencies and “pr gurus” everywhere are telling their clients they must include on everything. I even saw a company with a GIANT QR code on a billboard this week, who’s idea was that?

There is no question QR codes are being used more and more by advertisers, but the big question is, are they being used by users?

There are all kinds of statistics out there, but here are some facts that drive me to believe QR codes are not actually being used by most mobile users currently.

1. iOS Devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, etc.) take up over 60% of mobile web traffic. (Net Applications Mobile/Tablet Top Operating System Share Trend Nov ’09 – Oct ’11)

2. No iOS device comes pre-installed with a QR code reader, meaning users need to download an app to scan and use QR codes.
3. The highest ranked, free, QR code reader in the app store is #35. There are only 2 QR code readers currently in the top 200 apps!

Based on this data, it seems pretty clear that the majority of mobile users are NOT using QR codes on a regular basis.

Maybe that will change in the future, but in most of the current examples I have seen, QR codes are not a huge time saver and seem like a clumsy solution to quick input of data and sharing information.

With that said, QR codes are very easy to setup. There are tons of web sites and tools that will let you create free QR codes and put them on anything you want. Don’t let anyone fool you into believing they are expensive or complex to create.

That’s just our opinion, what’s yours?

Customer Supplied Photographs

Perhaps you, or a relative is a hobbyist photographer. This is one of the lowest cost options for images on your website, but results do vary. With the availability and popularity of consumer digital cameras, this is a path many choose. While it is a lower cost option than hiring a professional photographer, but more personalized than stock photography it is also of the least “quality” options. Some of the industries best suited for using customer supplied photographs, are landscaping, construction, and other outdoor companies, where the ruld of photography are more forgiving and there is more available light.

Stock Photography

Stock photography is purchased for use on a website from a stock photography company. These companies; check, and sometimes rank images on quality and categorize them on many factors. It makes finding the “right” photo much easier. Prices for stock photography can range from a couple of dollars per image to upwards of $100 for very high quality work, or work that is by a master photographer. . . There is stock photography for almost any business out there, and this is a great option if you are not selling a highly personalized product or service, and is great for when you just need a couple of images to finish out a website design.

Hiring a Professional Photographer

This is genrerally the most expensive option, but by all accounts one of the best. If you are selling a highly personalized product or service, then this is the only option. If you have a storefront, or physical business that you will be enticing people to visit from your website this is also one of the best options. It is also great for bio photos of yourself, and your employees. Professional photographers combine the quality of stock photography with the personalization of taking your own photos. Professional photographers know how to “sell” ideas, not just take pictures.

If a picture speaks a thousand words, what are the photos on your website saying? Design Extensions has solutions when it comes to the images that you use on your website. We have professional relationships with photographers in many disciplines, (even one on our staff) and would love to help you make the web a more beautiful place.

They were recently acquired by the also very popular EverNote app. It will be interesting to see what kind of integration happens with these two products in the coming months.

You can check it out at http://skitch.com/ You can thank us later (or in the comments).

We live in a do it yourself culture. Most of us like to feel like we have full control over something and that goes for our company websites as well.

When we started building websites (over 12 years ago), it was very difficult to give a customer access to editing their website without them having some advanced coding knowledge and lots of training. Times have changed and there are lots of great systems out there that make it much easier to update a website directly. There are even many great free and open source products like Word Press (our favorite), Joomla, Drupal, Expression Engine (not free), and others. Each of these products have their own advantages and disadvantages.

One of the key questions I often ask new clients is, “how often do you expect to change the majority of the content on your site?” If the answer to that is less than once a month, it usually does not make sense to spend the extra setup costs and go through training on how to manage and update content yourself. If you only plan to update information every few months, it makes more sense to send it to us (or your web development team) to take care of it for you. It’s kind of like me with my car, I COULD change my own oil and rotate my own tires, but it doesn’t make sense for me to do that with the time and cost involved. I’d rather just take it to a professional.

If you plan to make regular updates to your site on a weekly basis, it usually makes more sense to have control over the content of your website.

Another key point to consider is that you may not need control over ALL of the content on your site. Focusing in on the areas that really need regular updates like a news section, calendar of events, or blog, can help keep the setup costs down but give you the control you need to keep information fresh on the site.

Keep in mind too, that whoever does your website maintenance does not need to be in your area. We are located in St. Augustine, Florida and service many clients in Jacksonville, but we also have clients all over the country from Key West to Seattle. We can provide quick updates to any website (even ones we didn’t build) via e-mail, phone, or fax (yes, we still have a fax machine… although it just forwards to our e-mail).

Hopefully this has been helpful in the decision process of installing a content manamgenet system to edit your own website or not.

If you have any questions, we’d love to help. Just give us a call at 877-378-6101 or e-mail info@designextensions.com

In the design world many fads come and go, but brands that have staying power rely on something more important. They stay relevant. What is popular today, may be old news tomorrow and so while some elements of popular design are great to include is small doses, the best brands stay true to the businesses’ core values, customer base, and roots. Design Extensions will use your feedback and our experience to craft a website as well as logos, business cards, and other print collateral as needed to convey the image you want for your business.

Many businesses fail to realize their potential, simply by not maintaining uniform branding across all sectors of their business. Design Extensions can help, from business cards, letter head and other print collateral, to websites and online advertisements that keep your business’ image consistent. One of the benefits of utilizing all of the features Design Extensions has to offer is that our design team is all in house, and all files/logos/and content is accessible for use across all platforms to reach new customers. For the few aspects of your business that we may not have an in house solution for, (clothing, and novelties) we can recommend a service provider, and will be happy to design, or provide design elements to them.

We are like the barber that never gets a haircut.

Why don’t we blog more often? For the same reason most people don’t… we are just too busy with actually running a business and serving our clients.

What most people fail to realize (and we fail to lead by example) is that blogging can be a great way to drive in new business! It can build an audience of people who are interested about a topic and drive search engine optimization results to your site.

You can easily get started with your own blog (for free) by using something like wordpress.com or blogspot.com.

The better solution, however, is to integrate a blog directly into your website. You can call it news, information section, or something else if you prefer not to use the blog term for some reason.

An integrated blog (like what you are reading now) fits right in with a website, keeps your brand consistent, and helps with your search engine optimization.

There are not a ton of business’ here in St. Augustine or Jacksonville currently blogging, but it’s a growing trend.

We are going to try and do a better job of leading by example and will let you know what the results are.

Stay tuned here for more news, ideas, and tips. If you have questions, or would like to see info on a specific topic, leave us a comment below!

Knowledge
The Friendly Receptionist would not be very good at her job if all she did was act super friendly, but not actually know anything. Similarly the best designed website is no good if the information isn’t easily accessible, concise, and above all pertinent. Many businesses, new to the internet, tend to want to include every tiny detail of their business online so as to reach every possible customer. It’s great if your Salon sells hair products, but if 90% of your business is made through selling hair cuts, then the information for your hair products does not need to be as featured as the information about hair cuts. A better approach is to think like a customer and assume your website is your Friendly Receptionist. What information should she have readily available?

Warmth
We all have experience with the other type of receptionist as well. The one who knows everything about everything, but is so cold, and unfriendly that you really try not to bother her and find out what you need on your own. That’s how some websites are. The information they have is great unfortunately it is just too “ugly” to access. The wonderful information that you need is hidden in such a cold unfriendly way, that you’d almost rather just find it elsewhere. This problem is just as serious as the lack of information on an otherwise “friendly” site. How can she help anyone if they don’t want to spend anytime with her, or are afraid to approach her?

You Care
The best websites have the information you need, in a “wrapper” that is friendly and easy to use. Why are these two things so important? It tells your customer’s, that you care about them. We want to feel like the people and businesses we interact with care about us and our satisfaction. We want those businesses to make us feel like they are working with us towards a common goal. Design Extensions is here to make sure that you feel cared about, by making sure that we adhere to the principles of the Friendly Receptionist when designing, and building your website. Simple, beautiful websites, with easy to navigate menus, easy to access information, presented in a friendly inviting way will keep clients coming back, and recommending you to their friends.

You can still find the right designer, though, if you know where to look, and what to look for. Here are five things you definitely want to know about any web design team before you hire them:

1. 1. How past clients feel about their work. It’s one thing to look through a designer’s portfolio, but if you really want to get the story, you have to make a few phone calls. Talk to former clients and see what their impressions of the work, and the design process, were like. Whether you get good feedback or bad, these are things you want to know before you sign on the dotted line.
2. 2. If they will still be able to help you tomorrow. Your site might be basic right now, but there’s no guarantee it will stay that way. In fact, if your launch is a success, it’s probably not going to be long before your company needs help with online videos, secure site areas, databases, content management systems, and search engine optimization to name a few – services that smaller or newer firms might not be able to offer.
3. 3. Whether they have a bottom line vision. This is more important than most business owners realize. These days, when you hire a designer, you shouldn’t just be getting a layout and some HTML code – what you need is the first step towards a comprehensive online marketing plan. Be sure that any designer you work with can help you integrate your new website to search engines, social media, and more. You’ll need that exposure to gain new customers over the Internet.
4. 4. What their fees are… Obviously, the numbers are going to be an important part of the discussion. Be aware, however, that quality always costs more, and that more than one web design client has been burnt by falling for bid that was “too good to be true.”
5. 5. … and what those fees include. Web hosting, updates, content, and add-on features are just a few of the things you might want for your web design team, but might not be included in their rock-bottom bid. Find out exactly what you are paying for before you agree to any work. Or better yet, choose a vendor with a long reputation of quality work, no one that’s going to nickel and dime you at every step of the process.

There might be more web design companies to choose from than there were in the past, but that doesn’t mean that the right decision has to be any less clear. Take the time to do a little bit of research and get the answers to these five crucial questions – it’s not as easy as choosing the lowest bid, but it’s going to leave you a lot happier, and more profitable, in the long run.

(Republished from our recent article in Valacious Magazine in St. Augustine, Florida)

But before you run out and jump at all the new opportunities that are coming your company’s way, don’t forget to take care of one of the most critical parts of your business… one that brings in new revenue, handles customer service problems, lets you market to the globe, and try out new products all at once, 24 hours a day.

I’m talking about your website.

A lot of owners, facing a tough business environment over the past couple of years, have elected to hold off on a new design or any major upgrades. That’s understandable. But now, with customers coming in through the front doors once again, many are concentrating on offline promotions and improvements. After all, if the site is doing a pretty decent job right now, why mess with it?

That’s a dangerous line of thinking. Because, if recent history is any guide, the buyers aren’t just coming back the way they were before; the American economy is evolving into something more competitive – and a lot more digital – than it ever was before. Your website is the one piece of your marketing mix that can keep you in the game.

Here are four reasons improving your website might be your best investment right now:

It sells. The bottom line is that websites are good for the bottom line. They help you reach more buyers, and sell more products or services, than any other marketing medium can.

It has a farther reach than your advertising pieces or sales staff… and at a fraction of the cost. Whether you want customers from out of state or overseas, a website is your best choice to find them.

New forms of online marketing are taking hold. Until recently, social media has just been a cool buzzword to throw around; now it might be a way to find new business. Making sure your site is equipped for social media marketing is a good first step.

It reduces costs. If your customers can look up and change their account information, order history, and shipping details, online, they don’t have to call you or your employees on the phone for routine tasks.

As the owner of a web design and online marketing company, I will admit that I am biased towards websites as a business investment. But that’s only because I have seen what they can do for a company’s growth. The online component of business success isn’t going away any time soon. If anything, it’s becoming more important as the economy recovers.

Keep that in mind, and keep up with your online marketing. It just might be the single smartest investment you can make right now.

(Republished from our article in the St. Augustine Women’s Journal)

Because they think they don’t need it.

In dozens of consultations, I have met with business owners, marketing managers, and executives who listen to me talk about all the reasons they need to begin a search engine strategy, nod politely, and then change the subject. If pressed, they patiently explain search engine optimization might be great, but it isn’t for them – they don’t sell anything online, and all their customers are coming through the front door.

But really, that’s the ultimate case of missing the forest for the trees. Increasingly, searchers aren’t just going online to find the lowest prices for books, do their banking, and download music; these days, they’re also making Google, Yahoo, and Bing their first stops when it comes to finding local retailers to do business with.

Incorporating local search engine tactics into your marketing plan isn’t a strategy to get ahead anymore; it’s something you have to do just to stay in the game. Here are three things you should know about local SEO:

Local searches are becoming more popular. Not only are Internet connections available everywhere from coffee shops to public libraries, but the major search engines have spotted the potential and are competing with the Yellow Pages and other directories head on. With tools like Google maps, it only makes sense for shoppers to go online and get instant, specific, up-to-date information rather than digging through kitchen shelves to find last year’s printed volumes.

Ignoring Local SEO is probably costing you money. Even if you aren’t that concerned about losing existing customers – and you should be – consider this: you might not just be missing out on new business. Often, potential customers who have heard about your store or have driven by your location will look for you on line before they visit in person. It’s important that they be able to find you in search engines, especially if they can’t remember the name of your company.

Searchers make more profitable customers. One thing lots of marketers who aren’t used to finding customers online overlook is that, by doing the right kinds of search engine optimization, you can do a much better job of pinpointing your ideal customer than you could through other forms of advertising or promotion. Emphasizing the right key words and phrases doesn’t just bring you more web visitors – it brings you whatever kind you focus on.

Is your website ready? It has been possible, up until recently, for certain kinds of retail businesses to get by without a strong web or search engine presence. With the Internet taking an even larger share of people’s attention, however, not to mention the spread of iPhone’s, Droids, and other Internet-ready mobile devices, those days are behind us. If your business can’t be found on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, then the chances are good that in a few years no one is going to be able to it find anywhere else, either.

(Republished from our recent article in the St. Augustine Women’s Journal)

But that doesn’t change the fact that smaller companies have a big advantage on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Why? The answer has everything to do with efficiency. Fortune 500 Companies, and even their medium-sized counterparts, have to cast a wide net. For them, a dozen extra sales – even really good ones – doesn’t make too much of a difference, and so they have to concentrate on the high-traffic, high-competition areas.

While there isn’t any reason smaller marketers can’t compete and win in those same keyword groups (that’s the beauty of online business), the truth is that the easiest sales (and the ones with the higher profit margins) are found elsewhere… in more specific, lower-volume keyword markets where a lot of the bigger retailers don’t bother showing up.

For an easy way to understand what I mean, imagine that you have a company that sells air conditioners. You could use “air conditioners” as your main keyphrase, or “Jacksonville energy efficient residential air conditioners.” Sure, the first one is likely to get more traffic, but which search term is more likely to find a buyer? And how much competition will there be?

Search engines give small businesses a huge advantage – if they compete in the right places.

(This is being republished from our original submission to Valacious Magazine in St. Augustine, Florida)

This is the first edition of this series and is focused on a product called Basecamp by 37signals

We have used Basecamp since February of 2005. Since that time, our gross sales have increased over 3 times what they were at that time. A big part of that is Basecamp.

Basecamp allows us to manage many more projects that we could have in our previous system. It allows us to not just manage them, but keep them running smoothly, keep communication flowing and most of all, keep it simple.

The best thing about Basecamp is not what it can do, but what it can’t. It can’t do complex time charting, it doesn’t integrate with salesforce.com, it can’t send out e-mail newsletters, and it can’t solve all of the world’s problems. But what it does do, it does very well.

It allows us to manage tasks, milestones, files, and messages between our staff and our clients. Our team is virtual, we work from wherever is convient each day and Basecamp allows us to have all of the information we need for each project at anytime, from anywhere.

If you are currently looking for a way to manage projects better, I would highly recommend checking out this great piece of online software. They even offer a free trial. It’s not just for those in the web design business, it’s for businesses of all types.

Leave a comment if you have suggestions for other online tools or software that you use a love for your business.

This past Friday, October 8th, we had the privelage of being a diamond sponsor at the BNI Florida 2010 Member Conference.

We had a booth on display to show off some of our website design work and even gave away an iPod Touch to Zeke from IT Promise in Jacksonville.

During the lunch portion of the conference, Design Extensions owner, Jay Owen, presented to the crowd of over 200 BNI members with various information regarding web design, graphic design, and internet marketing in today’s economy. We should have samples online soon of that presentation.

If you didn’t make the event this year, we would love to see you next year.

Also, don’t forget about the upcoming NetWorth Technology Summiton October 20th. It’s only $20 for the event. The event will include lunch and 3 guest speakers including Design Extensions. We look forward to seeing you there!

Networth Jacksonville will soon be hosting the 2010 Technology Summit at Deercreek Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida.

The event will feature Design Extensions owner Jay Owen, discussing three key areas of Mobile Apps in Business, Branding Integration, and Marketing of the Future. Other speakers include Joe Lemire from Elyk Innovation and Roy Buncome from Buncome Technologies.

The event is only $20 and includes lunch. Starts at 11:30 and ends at 2PM. Be one of the first people to register and be entered to win a $50 gas card!

Register today at NetworthJax.com

Today, the internet is not only fast, but it is mobile. With the inception of the iPhone several years ago and the many phones that followed, the internet is now easy to access from everywhere.

The problem is that not all web sites look great on mobile phones (even iPhones). As a result, many companies are moving to select one or both of the following options.

1) A mobile version of their website.

2) An iPhone App for their website content and business/organization information.

This is especially important for organizations or businesses that have a events, news updates, or want users to be able to find them from their phone and on the go.

We provide solutions for iPhone development and mobile website design and development for clients of all shapes and sizes.

Contact us today for more information on iPhone app design or mobile website design.

We will have a booth with prizes and examples of our work and also be presenting during the lunch hour at the event.

We look forward to seeing many fellow BNI members from around the region at this event.

Check it out at http://jacksonville.com/business/2010-06-27/story/more-ipad-users-doing-business-not-entertainment-device

This event is open to the public and free of charge. The event opens at 9AM and concludes at 3PM. There will be free samples, raffles, & fun surprises in store for all ages.

We will have a special prize to raffle at the event and also have examples of our work on display. I will be on site all day to answer questions or field ideas about web design, graphic design, internet marketing, or social media.

Some of the free things happening at the event include:

• FREE shoulder massages from Island Massage
• FREE spinal analysis scans by The Village Chiropractic
• FREE face painting at the Brightway Insurance booth
• FREE samples of individual mini portrait sessions by     Jennifer Jordan Photography

A gold buyer will be on hand to give cash for unwanted gold so attendees can leave with more money than they had when they came. Many vendors will be offering coupons or discounts on their goods or services including specials on IMAX and Hall of Fame tickets.

Bring the family for a day!  Visit the Expo, have lunch at the Renaissance, catch an IMAX movie, visit the World Golf Hall of Fame, try your luck on the putting green or just enjoy the view.  For more information contact Kelly DeVivo at 904-342-0670.

Come by our booth and see us, we love visitors!

View a link to the flyer on our Facebook fan page.

Complete Vendor List:

It turns out that there is a company, that appears to be from Russia, that is using our business identity along with a fake web site to pretend to offer people jobs and then have them commit all types of money fraud.

We have reported this company to their host, had them shutdown several times and they keep coming back up. We also reported them to the http://www.ic3.gov/

Details about the scam can be found here: http://www.bobbear.com/design-extensions-llc.html

From what we can tell, these folks have been doing this for years to companies and people all over the place. If you have ideas or contacts on how to shutdown companies like this, feel free to drop us a line.

Thanks and be careful who you accept an online job offer from!

If you don’t know about 37signals and their products, you should. They were founded in 1999 (same year as us) as a Web design firm by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim in Chicago. They focused on powerful usability strategies and their original web site was a source of inspiration for our work and many others around the world. After several years as a very successful design firm, their focus shifted to several web apps.

Today, they produce four great web apps and have published two books (with one more on the way in March called REWORK). We have used their longest running app, Basecamp, to manage our business for almost 5 years. It is an online project management system that is so easy to use it’s crazy. We love it and as we said in the case study, don’t know how we would operate without it.

Other products they offer include Highrise (a great way to track contacts, set follow-ups and assign tasks), Backpack (organize your business and share calendar with a team), and Campfire (a great group chat app).

We have been long time fans of the folks at 37signals and it’s an honor to be featured on their product blog.

If you are a looking for a better way to keep track of your business — look no further than the products from 37signals.

UPDATE: 37signals just launched a new site (today) called Haystack.com. We have been featured on their front page all afternoon and you can check out our detailed listing page here.

Youtube and similar public options can be a great way to share video in a social and “viral” way. But what if you want to post something exclusively to your web site, with your companies branding, and without links to other youtube videos?

We now offer an incredible video solution for sites that want to host one video or multiple videos. It can event be customized to include your logo and is customizable in many ways.

Check out the new video from the Jacksonville Symphony that we have integrated into their web site here: http://www.jaxsymphony.org/channel4.php

Here is an example of how it appears embedded in a page. We would love to answer any questions you have about video on your web site and how it can help connect to current and new customers. Contact us today with any questions.

Here you will find recent information about projects we are working on, things we are interested in, and other fun stuff related to web design, graphic design, online marketing, and things we enjoy.

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