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This year has gone by so fast — and so much has happened! I moved (twice!), my little brother got married, and I retired my first car and replaced it with a MINI. (Meet Lizzie Cooper, everyone!)
In fact, there were a lot of firsts this year — I survived my first year in business, I sold my first house, and I'm about to celebrate my 31st birthday.
Looking back, I am so fortunate to have been helped along the way by my amazing friends, family and colleagues. I am so thankful for you all, and never could have made it without your support, encouragement, patient listening skills, and love. This might sound a bit like an Oscar speech, but the Shiny Light award goes out to you all:
Mom and Dad, and my beloved Grandma Dear, for everything
Stephanie & Leslie, my Florida family
Kim Miller
Kimberly Armstrong
Chuck Moran, the best mentor in the world
The Perry's and The Softy's
Carol Geaney
Matt Sage
The Chesterfield Networking Group, for your support, business and advice
My Lake Worth friends
The Sunday Frisbee Crew
The Latin Beat Crew (who didn't know they were keeping me sane during the 60 hour weeks)
And all of my amazing clients!
Thanks from Shiny Light Designs!
If you have a web site, chances are you've heard of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. And if you haven't, then I can pretty much guess that your web site isn't attracting many viewers. Am I right?
(FYI, this is not a good thing if you are relying on the World Wide Web as a part of your company's marketing campaign.)
If you haven't employed an SEO strategy, then you are basically making it harder for search engines and web crawlers like Yahoo and Google to find you. Meaning when potential customers do an Internet search, the likelihood of them clicking to your site is low. Very low.
Don't worry. We are here to help. Basically, search engines rely on keywords, links and click rate formulas to find companies like yours online. These parameters help the search engines rank sites in their listings. The higher the rank, the higher up on the list a web site will land, and the more likely a customer will click through to your site.
You can get around this by purchasing a spot, say, in Google's AdWords. But every time a user clicks your link, you pay for it. And ultimately search engines rank "organic" sites higher than "paid-for" sites. And so do Internet users.
So, if you have a web site or are thinking of having one built, be sure to learn about optimization and implement those ideas from the very start. Check out this link: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
Today's bright idea: Shiny Light Designs has a professionally trained staff with writing, editing and marketing experience, not to mention web design skills! Let us help you identify your marketing goals and optimize your current or new web site for maximum exposure online!
One of the most common problems I come across when working with clients is that they don't keep high resolution versions of their logos or company images on file. And then they come to me to produce high-quality printed materials and they ask me "Lauren, why does our logo look so fuzzy?"
I'll tell you why — it's a low resolution image!
I'll save you from the long boring explanation about what that means exactly. But here's the simple rule: High resolution (300 dpi and up) will reproduce as sharp, clear images, from small to large (even billboard) sizes. Use high resolution images for print or overscale projects. Low resolution images (72 dpi, for example) are only going to be sharp when used on computer monitors. They are also very small in file size (we're talking Ks, not Megabytes), so most images found online are 72 dpi so that web pages load faster.
So if you are pulling images off the web, or even from your digital camera, double check their resolution. Chances are your snapshot isn't going to print very well! And your logo is going to be fuzzy.
Today's bright idea: If your company doesn't have a high resolution logo, call up your corporate office, or your graphic designer who created it, and get one for your files. Or call up Shiny Light Designs, and we'll create a fantastic-looking logo that is usable for all media — from print to web. The last thing you want to do is leave your potential clients feeling a little 'fuzzy' about your company!
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