Nov
07
Not all web developers are created equal. With that in mind, your business web site is often the first contact between your company and consumers still shopping around for goods and services. These pre-sale consumers will be visiting your company and your competitors online before actually contacting you in person for the resulting sale. Having an attractive, easy to maneuver business website is going to insure they call you and not your competitor.
Shopping for a web developer can be difficult. Many professional web developers are priced well out of range for small businesses with a limited marketing budget. Other so-called bargain priced web designers are hobbyists. Their experience consists of a few vanity sites for friends and family, they know very little actual code and create sites that aren’t necessarily standards compliant. These bargain designers often use wizards and other “canned” website builder kits that are designed for someone with little or no experience in mind. This will result in your site looking amateurish and like half a million other stops on the internet. These designers are not only code illiterate, often creating hard to manage sites with aesthetic problems, difficult navigation, or worse, but they may not have tested your site in multiple browsers. A professional web developer will make sure the same site that looks slick and professional in Internet Explorer, looks just as good in Firefox or AOL. A professional web developer is also going to test your new website in multiple screen resolutions to ensure what looks good on your screen looks good on everyone else’s screen. If any of their sites state what browser and resolution the site looks best at, they may not take the time or have the expertise to make the site usable to a wide range of potential customers.
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Sep
09
We talk about Open Source and Free Software on this website quite a bit. I’m sure that many are skeptical as to whether or not this really means anything practical for their business. This week, we begin a series of articles that will highlight specific Open Source and Free Software programs that have real world applications for your business. I’m sure, by now, you’ve noticed that there are two terms being used: Open Source and Free Software. There are subtle distinctions between the two, suffice to say, we need not get into software licensing minutiae to help you understand how this all can save your company money. One thing to keep in mind though, when we say “Free Software”, think free as in free speech or liberty - not free as in no cost. Also keep in mind that the vast majority of Free and Open Source Software are in fact available at no cost. You are probably wondering how companies that develop this type of software make a living. Most of their income is derived through consulting and support of their products. It’s a different business model than most of us are familiar with, but it does work - and it works well.
What can free software do for your medical practice? A quick search on Source Forge under the Medical Sciences Applications yields over 500 results, ranging from molecular dynamics simulators and chemistry development tools to full featured hospital continue reading »
Mar
03
I want to thank Shawn Collins and Missy Ward for the press pass they graciously provided Gartner Web Development. I got a chance to meet with Shawn Collins by the bloghaus and a nicer guy could not be found. I didn’t get a chance to personally thank Missy or talk to her- she was too busy being a gracious and ever present hostess welcoming all attenders everywhere I saw her. A big warm Wisconsin thank you to you both- you are a credit to the Affiliate industry.
You won’t be hearing a discussion or recap about Jason Calacanis’ controversial keynote here- it’s being played out in the press enough. He obviously enjoys the publicity he receives from talking down to the hard working people who pay him to speak at their conventions.
Rather- I want to recap the highlights of Affiliate Summit while they are fresh in my mind. First and foremost I met my friend and colleague, fellow marketing blogger Chris Bloczynski for the first time at Affiliate Summit. Chris is the hottest new internet marketing blogger and a must read for webmasters and bloggers. On Chris Bloczynski dot com you will find advice on entrepreneurship and internet marketing. You can check out my Thursday column on Chris Bloczynski dot com as I can be found guest blogging there with my personal take on the ins and outs of internet marketing.
I want to thank James Traynor, Director of Operations of Syntryx Executive Solutions for meeting with me. Stop back at Gartner Web Dev for more information about Syntryx in the near future as I will be getting an in depth look at their amazing services. Syntryx provides high-end serious market research tools to the big players in the internet world. If you are looking for real data that will help you zoom in and target your big game competitors- Syntryx is THE company to equip you with the data and research you will need to get ahead.
I also had a chance to talk with Mike Blumenkrantz of Affiliate Program Advice. Mike is the US Operations Manager of Affiliate Program Advice a company based out of the UK. For those of you not familiar with Affiliate Marketing I want to direct you to their page “What is Affiliate Marketing.” I actually found this to be the best working definition of Affiliate Marketing. In fact I printed off this page to bring to a marketing client I met with on Saturday afternoon.
Besides meeting so many brilliant marketers, astounding companies, and publishers- the sessions were incredibly enlightening. I have already come back and met with some of my clientèle about adopting the strategies I learned from Affiliate Summit. In particular, I found the session on Video Innovation in Affiliate Marketing eye-opening. Tim Carter of Ask the Builder and Gary Vanerchuk of Wine Library TV really impressed me with their knowledge and valuable insights. Upon returning I visited both of their websites and felt that clearly they were both experts on video content on the internet. After returning from Affiliate Summit I truly believe as stated at the conference- “websites without video will go the way of the dinosaur.”
I am going to wrap up my thank you at this point, be sure to stop in later this week and you’ll will find out more about the valuable internet marketing strategies and tools I learned at Affiliate Summit.
Michelle Gartner - Co-Founder: