Logos are the cornerstone of a company’s brand identity, especially when it comes to the design of its website.

You should not design a website without keeping the business’ niche and logo in mind. The whole point of a website is to attract new clients, to communicate to the desired target market, and/or to make a sale. It makes good sense in business to start with the logo when designing anything for a company, especially if the logo is the centerpiece of the design, as is the case with most websites. We start all our WordPress websites with the company’s logo. We then build the website around the established brand of the business. From the colors to the typography and so on, it starts with the brand and the target market the corporation wants to reach. You have to take all things into consideration when designing anything for a business.

With this said, a few months ago we designed a website for a company and, as the first step, asked for their logo. However, upon receiving it, it was clear that their logo was less than attractive or appropriate for the business they wanted to go after. It wasn’t right for their niche. We explained this to them, but they ultimately didn’t want to undergo the extra expense to get an upgraded design that would appeal to the niche. They didn’t want to invest in a new logo that would brand them better. As the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” It was one of those times where it just doesn’t register with the client that you are trying to help them, not rip them off or nickel and dime them to death. (I can’t reveal the logo or website of the company in question because it would possibly be a source of trouble.) I am writing this to explain the process of quality design work and am hoping to help someone else avoid the same problem.

Anyway, we made the old business logo work and we created a WordPress website that they were very pleased with. At the end of the day, we were just as happy with the final product as our customers. However, for unknown reasons they recently came back to us with a new logo. They ended up taking our advice and had a new logo designed. On a sad note, they didn’t consider asking us if we could design the logo for them. They thought we only did website and marketing, and used some else they knew. I suppose that we have no one to blame but ourselves on this one, and maybe, our sales rep for not following up sooner to see what else we could provide for them. You win some… you lose some. (Note: This is why sales follow-up is so important with all your past clients.)

Now the problem is the new logo doesn’t match the style or theme of the WordPress site they paid us to create, which they wanted and liked. The colors couldn’t be more different. Their logo doesn’t match or appeal to the niche they are after again, but what can you do? The designer they used didn’t take their preexisting website into consideration and how the logo was going to look in combination with it. Or perhaps they didn’t care that it wouldn’t match, and by not attempting to rectify this, our client now has to pay us to change all the colors on the website to match the new logo. It will cost them money and all of this could easily have been avoided if they designed the perfect logo right off the bat when we advised them to do so before the website was built. I don’t want to say I told them so, but that is why you have professionals in the first place and why you should go to them for advice. Oftentimes they are very knowledgeable and are truly trying to look out for you.

So the moral of this story is simple: “Don’t put the cart in front of the horse.” Start the branding of your company with a logo design and the rest will follow. Logos are how people identify you, and if done well, the logo will be memorable and fixed in the consumer’s mind. They will recognize you and your services instantly by the logo.


Your logo should also be something you feel confident about. So remember, logos are the cornerstone of brand identity. Every designer or business owner should absolutely take this into consideration when designing and branding a website or advertisement. Who is your target market, and what is it that you want them to do or remember? If you need some professional advice on this subject, please don’t hesitate to call us!

This was the day that American flags started going up everywhere! Some were up right a way, but most started flying everywhere you looked in front homes and on cars as the days followed after September 11, 2001. Home Depot sold out of flags and could not keep up with the demand after 9-11. We put in a flagpole in front of our house and flew the flag for months afterwards and our flag was up on this 9-11 too. Waving the American flag was a sign of unity and strength after the terrorist attacked our people and our way of life. For most of us, it was our way of doing something beyond just our prayers and donations. As a result of that tragedy and devastation, we were a united as country once again. Like a family, we may bicker among ourselves, but we unite when times get tough. This is what makes this Nation special. It is our diversity that makes us unique and our freedom that makes us strong. This is what they attacked and this is what they want to destroy. They failed that day and will always fail, because they don’t get it. We are one Nation under God for a reason and on the days that followed that attack we acted as one and stood together. This is what has been on my heart for the last few days as I remembered September 11, 2001. God bless by fellow Americans! God bless America. God bless our troops who are still fighting terrorism around the world!

Sylvia Bulanek

The fastest way for a new client to contact you is through an opt in ‘Lead Capture‘ on your home page or on your service page.

What is an opt in?
Is it is a simple contact form that you can place on any page or in any sidebar.


Why should you use opt in?
It makes it easy for your new client to contact you. This way there is no extra clicks they have to make to contact you. The lead capture form is ready and waiting for them to use right away. It can be designed to fit any space on a web site.


What is the benefit to ‘Lead Capture’ Opt In?
It is an easy way for you to generate new leads. It sends you information instantly to your email account. The faster you make contact with a client the better off you are and the more likely you are to make the sale. You can capture a lead faster with the use of an opt in.

This is just one more tool that you should consider taking advantage of to stay ahead of the game. It works great for service oriented businesses.



Here is an example of an opt in ‘Lead Capture” form on a website. This site was designed to make the phone ring.

Donmar Home Staging

Here is a link to our home page to see another sample.

Bee’s Graphic Design.com

Call us today at 951-817-7771 or email us by clicking here!

We look forward to working with you!

Call us today at 951-817-7771
–
Thank You,
Sylvia

Bee’s Graphic Design
sylvia@beesgraphicdesign.com

Design with a Purpose! Market Yourself for Success!

You can call me at 951-817-7771

–
Thank You,
Sylvia

Bee’s Graphic Design
sylvia@beesgraphicdesign.com

Design with a Purpose! Market Yourself for Success!

You can call me at 951-817-7771

Both paid search and social media have been steadily incorporated into many business strategies, but if you have not integrated these two powerful marketing tools, you may find you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Inasmuch as the return-on-investment, conversion-obsessed world of paid searches can seem a world away from the viral and community-based marketing seen in social media, their differences are exactly what makes them complementary.

On the one hand, paid search is all about lead generation, sales and conversion. Other than the handful of words describing your site, paid searches offer little in the way of branding. Social media on the other hand is all about branding when used for your business. You create an active dialogue with consumers and that dialogue builds trust in your brand and expands the concept of your business’s brand to form an identity. By creating content in your social media that engages your audience, you can develop paid search campaigns that are targeted toward that audience.

A recent study (October 2009) by GroupM Search, M80, and ComScore found that when an audience is exposed to a targeted social media campaign, they are almost three times as likely to search on the terms used in that campaign. In addition, an audience exposed to a good social media campaign is almost twice as likely to search with the intention of buying. The study also found that brands had a 50 percent higher click-through rate when their target audience was exposed to both social media and paid search. The study illustrated that social media builds a stronger brand awareness and, thus, is able to drive paid search. This results in more impressions, more clicks on those impression and a higher quality score, which in turn means that your ads will be placed higher on the page.

Here are several proven strategies for bringing paid search and social media together effectively:

-       Optimize your social media.
When your social media is tagged and indexed, complete with metatags, potential customers will be able to find you when they search for your brand content or product/service offering.

-       Use keyword advertising on social media sites.
When you run an advertisement on certain media sites, such as Facebook, you have a unique ability that traditional ads do not offer – you can make your ads appear only to those people who have certain interests, as listed in their profile.

-       Let social media influence your paid search campaigns.
For example, pay attention to what is trending on Twitter or what the key topics and discussions are and create paid search campaigns that include those keywords.

In the beginning, integrating your paid search and social media campaigns can be trial-and-error. Expect that and use it. Spend some time running experiments, such as turning your social media off to see if it makes a difference or finding out which keywords tend to help the most people find you. The key to being effective in marketing of any type is knowing where your traffic comes from and why.

Bee’s Graphic Design
sylvia@beesgraphicdesign.com

Design with a Purpose! Market Yourself for Success!

You can call me at 951-817-7771

If you need a logo design, contact us. Customer service is our #1 priority! We will work with you to design you the right look for your success!


Bee’s Graphic Design is located in Corona. Delivering Quality Graphic Design over the Internet!!
Bee’sGraphicDesign.com


Design with a Purpose! Market Yourself for Success!


You can call us at 951-817-7771

Many people know about how getting links to your website from other websites gives you a boost in terms of SEO (search engine optimization), which will generate traffic to your site. But did you realize that you can actually get similar results with internal link building? The way that your blog or website is designed and set up can have a significant impact on your search engine rankings, especially if you have a site with many different pages. There is a right and wrong way to go about internal linking.


Keep in mind that there are three factors of internal linking that you need to address: site navigation, in-context linking and anchor text.


Site navigation is how your visitor will move through your site. This is the first step in getting your internal link building set up correctly. Basically, you will want to be linking to your best pages from the navigation menu. It doesn’t matter if those pages are main categories or just regular pages. In most cases, you’ll have two navigation menus. One will be for the whole site and the one purpose of this is to show your visitors the main sections of your website. The other navigation menu will be for informational pages such as those that have your contact information, a description of your site, etc.


In-context linking is just what the name says. Links that are within the context of your website or blog’s text and not in a list or navigation bar. Search engines prefer in-context links to link lists so it’s important to make sure that your related posts or web pages are linked to each other through your in-context links. How often you do this depends on how expansive your site is. If you have a relatively small blog or website, you don’t want to be using a lot of inter-linking. Choose the most important keyword phrases and link them to your most important pages. If you do have a larger site, feel free to use this method a little more liberally. Interlinking on a large site has a much greater effect than it does on smaller sites.


Anchor test is also very important for search engine optimization. Many people make the mistake of turning “useless” words into links. For example, you can include the phrase “Click here” and link it to the page you want your readers to be taken to. Or you can use the phrase “Get marketing help here” and link just the words “marketing help” to the page. Marketing help is a much stronger anchor text word to use. Not many people are searching for the term “click here” on the internet. You need to tell the search engines what words are relevant.



If you can keep these three internal link building elements in mind, you can either get started on the right foot with a new blog or website or you can re-structure what you already have online fairly quickly and easily. Ask us how we can help you design and set up a website that will generate traffic and sales for you!

I hope this helps you out. See a graphic sample below!

www.Bee’sGraphicDesign.com


Bee’s Graphic Design is located in Corona, but through the Internet we serve the world!!
Bee’sGraphicDesign.com


Design with a Purpose! Market Yourself for Success!


You can call us at 951-817-7771

If you are in Real Estate check out ActiveRain. It is a great resource for information and it’s free. It has 190,603 members.

Here is a link to my graphic design profile.

http://activerain.com/beesgraphicdesign

Blogs are a great way for anyone to get their ideas across to others and a great way for businesses to do some free advertising. Creating a great blog is an excellent way to drive more traffic to your site. When building your site there certain tips a person should pay attention to when they are writing their blog.

1.Write When you are writing your blog write it with your reader in mind.  When a reader is looking for information that may pertain to your idea they want the information in a way that they can both read and understand easily.

2. Valuable and Worthwhile With everyone busy no one has time to waste to look at a boring site. If you cannot think of anything creative to talk about, then try to do interview, or even a book. Anything will do as long as you are not posting useless content.

3. Proofread It is grave importance that you proofread your material before you push that post button. Once you push that post button that is it the error is out there and there is no way back. Respect your reader and keep your site free of errors and easy to read.

4. Short and Simple Keep your postings as short and simple as possible because its human nature that people are scanners. You will need to make your point quickly otherwise risking losing your reader completely.

5. Lively Write to your readers like you would talk to your friend or family member. The more lively your posts, the more snagged your readers will become. Make it seem like you are talking directly to them and only them. But be sure to make your point quickly.

6. Links Use links as often as you can. This will help you create credibility and help establish you to the reader as an expert on the subject. You can also create a network by linking to other similar blogs. The other bloggers will clearly thank you. Link back to your own articles on your blog. This is great way to help both you and your readers. It will create more traffic to your site and help the reader learn more about you.

7. Keywords Use your keywords as often as you can it will allow you to stay on task and the search engines will love it. The more keywords you use in your copy the higher your rankings on the search engine your blog will appear.

8.Write Clear You need to write your blogs in a way that the average person can understand. Do not ever try to put more than one idea in a sentence this will confuse your readers. Make sure you use your commas as often as possible. It breaks up the copy and makes it easier on the reader.

9.Headline Make sure your headline is easy to understand and should have keywords relating to your blog in it. If you follow these simple steps, you will have a great written blog in no time with a lot of readers.

Be real and sincere and they’ll be back time and time again. Good luck!