Getting Noticed

Three Areas to Pay Attention to For a Successful Website or Blog

2009-02-09T15:48:00.002-07:00

There are approximately 340 million blog sites in the world today and one new blog is designed and created every minute. The content on a blog is as varied as the individuals and companies behind those sites. Yet, there are three areas where all business websites or weblogs must pay attention if they (or their business venture) intend to be successful:

The Site is Pleasing to the Eye
Attention to detail, a theme that works well with the content or product and “freshness” in the design is something that is essential if you want to keep the reader on your site for more than a few seconds. A majority of bloggers update their complete look on a yearly basis and change headers and format even more frequently. Don’t let your audience get bored with a familiar look.

The Site is Easy to Navigate
Most people have precious little time and will appreciate when they come to your website or blog and can quickly and easily find what they are looking for. Research shows that if a person cannot locate what they are looking for in seven seconds, they move on to another site. Make sure you test your site and the time it takes to move from one section to the next.

The Site Can be Found Easily
Much has been written about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The Web is a huge place and a website or blog can be lost without the prominent search engine such a Google and Yahoo being able to find it. Think of it as the catalog in a library. Imagine looking for a book without some sort of systematic way to categorize and find its location.

Gettingraphic is particularly strong in integrating all three of these important aspects so that you can maximize your marketing dollars, and ultimately, your success. These days the competition is far too great to allow your design to be too stale, too slow in navigation or too hard to find for your potential clients or followers. Contact Gettingraphic at 480.585.2196 today to schedule an appointment. You’ll be glad you did!

Repowering America

2009-01-28T11:23:00.004-07:00

We are members of the WE Campaign, which is a movement to help this planet survive. In order to do this, things need to change. Help us, log onto http://www.wecansolveit.com and become part of the movement that will ensure a great life for our children.

Al Gore will be testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about repowering America and the need for us to resume global leadership on the climate crisis. As you know, it's a critical time in our country and we all have a role to play. Watch the video.

In Congress, our leaders are debating an economic recovery package. It includes unprecedented support for putting Americans back to work building a clean energy economy.

But entrenched interests in Washington will be working hard to weaken the legislation -- opposing funding for clean energy programs that support things like wind, solar, energy efficiency and a new national electric grid.

As members of Congress work out the details of a bill that can pass both the House and the Senate, it's important that you let each of your elected representatives know that you want the recovery to be about repowering America.

You and I know that continuing with the status quo will not revitalize the U.S. economy. Please make sure your elected officials know, too.

Watch the video and send a quick note to Congress:

http://www.RepowerAmerica.org/RecoveryVideo

Today, we can start to get America back on track.

Getting fit for the new year - Business / websites

2009-01-11T10:03:00.004-07:00

Most people make the new years resolution to get fit, lose weight or just get a little healthier. As a Phoenix Website Design Company, we recommend doing the same thing to your website.

Get Fit:

Clean up the look of your website.
Change the design, follow some of the new trends so your website design does not look out dated.

Lose Weight:

Replace the pages on your website that do not pertain to your business anymore.
Eliminate products and services that you do not sell any more.
Delete images that re outdated and make your site look old.
Cut the dead weight that gives your reader the wrong idea about your business.

Get Healthier:

Hire a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firm (like Gettingraphic) to help streamline your content
Pick new keywords
Build links
Get your site more traffic.

Contact Gettingraphic Design for a free website evaluation today, 480.585.2196.

Gettingraphic - Giving Back

2008-12-09T11:14:00.004-07:00

Gettingraphic is giving back. We focus on giving back all year round, but we try to do a little more during the holidays. This year we partnered with AASK, a foster care mentoring program to start a toy drive to help give a toy to the children that have been forgotten. Also, instead of giving holiday gifts to all of our clients, we took that money and put it to a better use, buying toys for children that do not receive toys for the holidays. As for gifts to our families, we were creative this year and gave the gift of bees using through the Heifer Foundation, these bees will generate income for an impoverished community.

Other ways we give back through the year:

Donate your time.
We belong to AASK, where we mentor a foster child to give them someone to talk to and spend time with outside of the foster care system. This is very beneficial to the child, and to us. You see how they grow, and you learn so much about them, and at the same time you give them so much, just by caring, and wanting to spend time with them.

Plant a tree.
With every new contract Gettingraphic receives, we donate a percentage of our profit to planting trees in different parts of the American Forests to help save our planet. The forests are a very important thing in our lives, and is something that we should not forget about when donating money to Charities.

Animals in Arizona.
Gettingraphic also donates money to the Humane Society, and other non-profit animal shelters to help fight against puppy mills, and to try and give a life to dogs and cats that have been given up either because someone did not care enough, or just could not afford them.

These are just a few ideas on giving back, anything you do can help so please think of someone that does not have anything this year.

Marketing and a bad economy

2008-10-09T10:56:00.003-07:00

Marketing and advertising in a bad economy.

Save money, by catching your target audience, with a website design that keeps the reader on your site. The longer someone is on your website, the better chance you have of converting them into a client.

Here are a few things to think about for keeping your potential clients on your site.
1. Is the information that you want your clients to see easily accessible?
2. Is your content, specific to the point, and gives the reader the specific details to make them want to buy?
3. Do you have a call to action on each page?
4. Are your images crisp, and do they compliment the content on the page?
5. Is your content specific to each page?

One of the biggest issues we find with websites, are they are poorly built, and the content is all over the place. Spend the time to write content that is specific to the topic on the page. Place nice images throughout to keep the readers eyes on the page, and have a website design company look at your site to help make the site flow correctly, and make it easy on the eyes for the reader.

If you have questions about your website, or are looking to spend money to upgrade your website design Gettingraphic Design can help, Call 480.585.2196.

Sell Sheet Designs - an affordable marketing tool

2008-09-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

“Dwight Designs SELL SHEETS at the Seashore”

Sure it’s hard to say that three times fast, but your design can be designed quickly and become an effective tool for your business in no time. The sell sheet has become the preferred marketing piece to handout for presentations at networking events. The sell sheet offers just the right amount of information for a prospective client yet it is less bulky and expensive than a full-blown brochure.

Your marketing dollars must go along way these days, so spend them wisely on a well-written piece that has an innovative design to help your business stand out. Gettingraphic has long been an industry leader in creative designs for marketing material such as the sell sheet.

For more information on sell sheets, visit http://www.gettingraphic.net/flyers-sell-sheets-design.php

A great ECO-friendly pen

2008-08-28T20:28:00.002-07:00

I gave a challenge to a friend of mine to find the perfect pen for my company, without breaking the bank. There are a million so-called "eco-friendly pens", but in-motion promotions did one step better. they came back to me with "The Eco" pen. the pen is 100% bio-degradable and dissolves with-in 90 days. The pen writes great, looks great, and cam in my branded colors.

Kudos to Les Abrams from http://www.in-motionpromotions.com.

Custom Website Packages

2008-05-06T11:08:00.002-07:00

Gettingraphic now offers custom website packages starting at $1500.

Packages range from choosing one of our custom layouts, that we edit the look and feel to work with your brand, or we offer completely custom website designs that are unique to your business prices starting at $3000.

Our custom layouts are not "Template Based Designs" they are custom layouts that gives the client options to choose from and to keep the cost down.

Find out more about our custom layout options for businesses with small website budgets.

Visit us online today at www.gettingraphic.net

Happy Green Earth Day

2008-04-22T08:29:00.003-07:00

Happy Earth Day.

Gettingraphic would like to wish everyone a Happy Earth Day, and share some GREEN links to help all of the new green comers get off to a good start.

For every day people, visit www.wecansolveit.org, together we can stop global warming.

Looking for some green fun, visit http://www.greenisuniversal.com/greenfun.php

If you are the outdoors type, hiking, biking or even off road, visit http://www.treadlightly.org/

If you are a business owner looking to go green, visit www.gettingraphic.net and let gettingraphic help you create a website, marketing materials or even a new GREEN Brand for your company.

Enjoy this beautiful day, and plant a tree at http://americanforests.org/

Template websites vs. Custom websites

2008-04-14T09:55:00.003-07:00

Template websites vs. Custom websites.

Purchasing a template based website does have its advantages, in most cases it is user friendly, and you don't need a wed developer to add pages and make changes. But at the same time, you are limiting your potential for a GREAT website.

When you use a template based website, what separates you from your competition??? Take health insurance companies, they all use a quoting systems, insurance providers, and similar content. Add a template based website from a company that focuses on health insurance, and now you have the same look and feel of other companies, same content and in most cases the same images that your competition uses. At that point, you should just be a franchise or partners.

If you use or are considering using a template based web design from a company in your industry, ask the simple questions, how many other companies in your direct market use the same system? Do they have similar content, if so how does that effect your SEO? What makes you different except the page about your company?

Gettingraphic Design can help you design a custom website with your own content and get you better SEO results because of it.

Step above your competition, don't stand with them.

Contact us today and let Gettingraphic Design give you a custom website design.

The New GREEN Gettingraphic

2008-03-27T14:53:00.002-07:00

As we have been saying it for over a year, Gettingraphic has gone green. This is not about being part of the trend that has been going around, although it is a great trend for people to be following.

Gettingraphic decided to change the color of their logo from blue to green one day, and one of our clients asked if we were just doing it to follow the trend. Our response to that was we have been doing their part for a long time, not only at the office, but in our every day life. From recycling, and making donations to solar research, to using the right light bulbs and eating organic foods.

Although it is a great trend, and I hope it lasts, we think people need to wake up, and companies need to step up. Although society does not make it cheap to live an eco-friendly life, everyone still needs to do their part.

Gettingraphic works with other eco-friendly companies, such as printers that use SOY INKS, Vegetable Based Inks, and use FSC certified papers.

Gettingraphic can help companies that are looking go more eco-friendly, we can help with printing, building awareness and letting the public know that you are on board.

Give us a call or visit us on the web at www.gettingraphic.net

Do what I say not what I don't do

2008-03-27T14:47:00.003-07:00

I tell all of my client that they have to blog on a regular basis. So the other day, one of my clients asked me what the name of my blog was, and I had no idea. It has been so long since I blogged last, that I could not even remember the password to get into it.

So to the rest of my clients, I say do what I say and not what I don't do. Blogging will help with your search results, so keep blogging.

Going Green with Soy Inks

2007-05-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

SOY INKS and your marketing materials.

The reality of life is we are all destroying the environment, from the cars we drive and the pollution we produce. One thing that can help is printing with SOY INKS. Commercial printing produces a lot of waste and a ton of pollution, but we can't stop advertising, printing newspapers and magazines or marketing materials. First of all it would put a lot of people (like myself) out of business, but we would have no way of building our businesses.

When you deal with a graphic designer, or you are having your marketing materials reprinted, ask to use SOY INKS. It is produced by extracting oil out of soybeans (grown in the USA), a NON-TOXIC material. By using soy inks, you are growing the United States economy, by creating a market for domestic crops, also decreasing the dependence of petroleum oil from over seas.

It's a win, win for our kids.

Check out this article by Jennifer Proia, she put a great article together and was the inspiration fror this blog. http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/Business/greenprint.html

Start planning for our kids future.

Time is money

2007-04-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

This blog is to all of the do-it-yourselfers.

I just had a conversation with a client this morning, and they were telling me how much money they saved by creating their own website. Then the conversation switched to how much time they spend working on the site, that does not work the way they want it to. Now they are paying us to recreate the site from scratch and now they are still a few weeks away from having a website that works properly.

What I am getting at here is if you are going to spend your time doing something, spend it doing something that you are good at, go to a professional for the rest.

Time is money.

Example: I am a designer, so I don't clean my own carpets. Instead, I use North Valley Carpet Care in North Phoenix, Arizona. They do great work, and they don't over charge. Call them today at 623.434.9500 or visit them online at www.northvalleycarpetcare.com.

Ad words on google

2007-04-18T06:37:00.000-07:00

Be specific.

If you are a Google AdWords advertiser as I am, you are looking to tweek the AdWords as much as possible. Be specific, if you have a hair salon in Cave Creek, Arizona, use AdWord phrases such as Cave Creek Hair Salon, this is making the search more specific. If you are using Cave Creek, Hair, Salon as separate AdWords, then someone in Georgia looking for a hair salon may be click on your AD, waisting your money.

Think about the phrases you are using, play with them. Ask your friends, when they are looking for a business like yours, what words do they put in a search. Most people outside of your industry do not know industry terms, so try using simple, but specific terms.

If you have other questions, contact us today, www.gettingraphic.net

Business cards are not brochures

2007-04-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

Lets talk about business cards.
Everyday I am out meeting new clients, and it never fails, I get handed a business card that has more information on it then my website.

THAT IS NOT WHAT A BUSINESS CARD IS FOR.

You have a business card to leave your contact information with someone. If you have too much information on your card, or the card is too busy, the EYE can not focus. Keep it simple.

Here is the content that I recommend for a business card.
Front:
• Logo
• Company Name
• Website URL

Back:
• Name
• Title (if you need one)
• Phone # and extension (if you use your cell phone, have the work phone # forwarded)
• Email
• Address (and if you don't have a lot of people stopping by or mailing things to you, then simplify your address City, State)
• Fax (this is other information that if you don't need, don't put it on the card)

If you have questions, or you think your business card needs to be re-designed, visit www.gettingraphic.net.

Getting Noticed

2007-04-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

Marketing Materials and small business.

Lets keep this short and sweet. Small business owners are always trying to get in front of as may people as they can. The problem is, most of them don't have the marketing materials, or even a business card that stands out above the rest. Here is a small test, take 5 business cards and place them on a table with your card. Which card stands out in your head, is it yours? If your answer is yes, then you are one step ahead of the other 5 companies. If the answer is no, and you do not notice your card, how do you expect others to remember you.