Author: Susan Carroll

Article:
Have you ever read any of the following?

“Content is King.”

“Add Fresh Content Everyday To Get Your Site Visitors To Come
Back”

“Search Engines Like New, Fresh Content”

“Add Dynamic Content To Your Site To Increase Your Site’s
Traffic”

Are they true statements?

Yes.

So you look for a site that provides relevant content to your
site automatically to increase your traffic and help you with
your search engine listing.

Now let me ask you, did you read the code you added to your
site? Did the code contain something that looked like:

Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers

Author: Cris Anderson

Article:
This week we asked one of Worldprofit.com’s senior designers,
Cris Anderson, to comment on some of the key elements of
effective design. Here is the interview in it’s entirety.

Q: Why should a business hire a professional designer and
marketer?

A: A professional designer and marketer will be able to evaluate
your needs and give you a site that is effective. Here are a few
things that we consider that an amateur will not.

It is crucial that you have a complimentary layout to the
content of your site. There is no point in having a long
extended full screen web page when you only have one image and a
single paragraph of copy.

The appropriate images must be used and placement is a main
factor. Using improper images can actually confuse visitors and
that is the last thing that we want to do.

The file sizes must be minimized. If it takes too long for your
pages to load, then people will leave.

Marketing is of the utmost importance. An effective marketer
will know how to keep people at your site and help you make
sales. We look at sites and think they are properly designed,
but when they are compared to ones that have been created by a
professional, we realize that they have not considered all of
the factors above. Don’t take chances with your company’s
reputation. Get a professional designer and marketer to work
with you and create that effective site that you need.

Q: What should businesses look for in hiring a web site designer?

A: Look at their portfolio. When you see quality from a
designer, then quality is what you will get. Often I see design
companies that have portfolios that look like they just started
last week. You do not have to like the colors or even the
layout, but consider if the site is effective. If I complete a
dog grooming site, then look at the site and ask yourself, “Is
this site effective? What are the benefits for me? What do I
get? Why should I stick around?” If you go to a site that you
wouldn’t even want to stay at, then why would you want that same
designer to make a site for you?

Q: Cris, tell me what you think is the biggest mistake people
make in their web sites?

A: I believe that people are overly concerned with inundating
their site with dynamic elements. Let me explain. Dynamic means:
“Of or relating to energy or to objects in motion.” Static means
that nothing is moving. We often think dynamic is better that
static. This is not always the case. Yes, a flash presentation
or banner is a vital element to success of your site, but if it
is designed improperly, then it is just an eyesore. In the same
regard, having a static site with no flash or javascripts or any
type of motion can be so beautifully laid out and effectively
marketed. We don’t need scripts or animated gifs all over our
sites to make them effective. People do indeed enjoy motion, so
my suggestion is this: limit the energy on your site to focus on
one thing. This thing should make you money or bring visitors
back. Add flash to your site and loose the annoying animated
gifs. Flash can market your site, whereas animated gifs are
often a distraction.

Q: What factors do you consider when it comes to use of color in
a site?

A: As a professional designer for many years, it is my job to
know the –ins and outs– of color. I do not choose color based
on, “Red is pretty.” In certain cultures, color can represent
very negative connotations then in other cultures. You must
determine who the majority of your audience is. Also, there are
many color studies that play a part in choosing color. Did you
know that when subjects were placed in different rooms painted
with certain colors, that yellow made people visibly agitated
within minutes! Color is taken very seriously and chosen to
compliment the theme and product of a site. If I do a site for a
hiking company, then I will undoubtedly use earth tones, whereas
a cruise site will get “sunny and warm” colors. I think most of
us can agree that grays are not a good choice for a cruise site!

Q: What factors do you consider when it comes to use of fonts in
a site?

A: A font is defined as, “A complete set of type of one size and
face.” Font shapes and sizes can portray many different
emotions. If you use a font that does not fit with the theme of
your site, then it can appear disjointed. Just think…what font
would you pick for a site called, “Giraffes-R-us?” A font can
compliment graphics and copy or direct the eye. If you want one
thing to stand out, then you can imply change the font. Imagine
the entire page was in a certain font and then the title was in
another. It would draw your eye to it as it is isolated and
different from the other fonts.

Q: What in your opinion makes the difference for a site design
that is effective vs. not effective.

A: Do I want to stay? I can look back at sites I have completed
years ago and say that was a great design! Sure…I’ve learned
more effects, more gold and silver textures and all that fun
stuff that everybody loves, but when I look back at some of my
old designs, I think wow. It’s clean, it’s solid, and I want to
stay! I look at some sites that are cheap and I think “Wow,
Somebody learned how to use Kai’s power tools or Eye Candy!” You
see, your parents and friends and co-workers may think that
having everything beveled on your site is cool, but it just ends
up looking cheap. We often confuse great graphics and effects
with effective design. A site can have the most wonderful
graphics you’ve ever seen, but that does not mean that it is an
effective design. Marketing, graphics, fonts, and colors must
all work in co-relation with each other to produce a site that
effectively gets you sales and visitors.

Q: Once the design is done what is the critical factor that
online businesses must consider and plan for.

A: Realize that it takes hard work to make money online. We have
very active site owners making sales daily, whereas some do not
make any sales at all. Some people realize that they have to put
an effort into e-commerce and then yes, there is a huge payoff!
Online marketing and e-commerce does work! Understand though,
that people are not going to visit your site and buy without any
interaction from you. You must use all the tools and know inside
and out the product that you are selling.

A system for success is critical. Most businesses new to the web
try to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to do this! Over six
years ago at Worldprofit we developed dozens of sure-fire ways
to build a business online. How do we know what works? We only
recommend to you, the software, tools and resources we use
ourselves every single day to build our own business. Ready to
get started? Want the insider secrets before you make costly
mistakes? Email, mailto:customerservice@worldprofit.com

About the author:
Cris Anderson, PhotoShop Guru, is a member of the Worldprofit
Design Team. Let our expert design marketers work for you!
Contact mailto:customerservice@worldprofit.com

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Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers

This is the second time in the last three years Main Street America has been honored by IMCA for its annual report in the mutual (privately held insurance company) category. Judging was conducted this spring by a panel of independent advertising, marketing and public relations executives. Criteria for award selection included theme, graphic design, quality of writing and marketplace impact.

Main Street America’s annual report is produced by the Jacksonville, Fla.-based super regional property/casualty insurance carrier’s corporate communications department. The company’s 2010 Annual Report is available via its Web site: www.msagroup.com.

“This is a great honor for Main Street America, especially when our annual report is judged against the excellent publications produced by many other leading mutual property/casualty companies,” said Mark Friedlander, Main Street America’s director of corporate communications.

In addition to the 2010 Annual Report, Main Street America was a finalist in two other IMCA Showcase Awards categories this year:

External Corporate Print Communications – customer newsletter: Spring 2011 Edition.
Corporate Social Media – Main Street America Quarterly customer video series: 2010 Results/2011 Outlook, available via the company’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MRFMSAG.

About Insurance Marketing Communications Association

The Insurance Marketing Communications Association (IMCA) is an international organization of insurance communications professionals specializing in advertising, corporate communications, marketing, media relations, public relations and sales promotion. The oldest insurance marketing and communications association in North America, IMCA members include multi-national, national and regional property/casualty, reinsurance, health and life carriers. For more information about IMCA, please visit www.imcanet.com.

About The Main Street America Group

With roots dating back to 1923, The Main Street America Group is a super regional insurance company that operates seven property-casualty insurance carriers: NGM Insurance Company, Old Dominion Insurance Company, Main Street America Assurance Company, MSA Insurance Company, Great Lakes Casualty Insurance Company Grain Dealers Mutual Insurance Company and Main Street America Protection Insurance Company. Based in Jacksonville, Fla., Main Street America offers a wide range of commercial and personal insurance, and fidelity and surety bond products to individuals, families and businesses throughout the United States.

With nearly $900 million in premium written exclusively by 2,000-plus independent insurance agents, the 88-year-old company insures more than 600,000 policyholders in 27 states and writes bonds in 44 states. A.M. Best Company rates The Main Street America Group as an “A” (Excellent). Main Street America is the founding company partner of Trusted Choice®, the global branding program of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America. For more information about Main Street America, please visit www.msagroup.com or connect with us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MainStreetAmerica.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6783160&lang=en

Contacts

The Main Street America Group
Mark Friedlander, 904-380-7461
friedlam@msagroup.com

Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers

Author: Halstatt Pires

Article:
When creating a web site design, it is easy to fall into the
trap of trying to be all things to all people. In reality, the
key to a good web site design is focus, focus, focus.

We Don

Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers

Author: Ruth McIntyre-Williams

Article:
There’s a lot of websites out there floating around in
cyberspace, screaming for attention. When you cast your site out
into the void, will you be able to catch viewers and hold on to
them? Will they click through

Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers

Deerfield Beach, FL (PRWEB) January 24, 2012

Within the last decade, America has experienced a re-fi boom followed by a bust. The country is still in a recession, looming in the shadow of a few years ago when loans were given out freely, and mortgage brokers and banks prospered. Mortgage shops have struggled to remain competitive in an industry with tighter lending guidelines and decreased consumer spending. Titan List & Mailing Services, Inc., a leading direct mail and data list advertising firm specializing in the mortgage industry since 1998 (around before the explosion and crash), offers their insights on generating qualified borrower referrals (even during a recession).

Justin Restaino, vice president of Titan List & Mailing Services, Inc., was recently interviewed by The Niche Report for a leading article. The article, entitled ‘Center Stage With Titan List & Mailing Services,’ discusses advertising strategies that have consistently been successful in generating new qualified customers.

“Our approach to generating business for our clients relies heavily on utilizing targeted credit data from the 3 credit bureaus and pairing the data with effective (and compliant) mail pieces.”

As a veteran in the advertising industry specializing in targeted data and direct mail campaigns specifically for the mortgage industry, Justin has developed a reputation as the ‘go-to guy’ for successful marketing efforts.

“By utilizing credit data and direct mail campaigns, mortgage shops can virtually eliminate borrowers that do not qualify for their underwriting guidelines,” said Restaino. “The ideal customer can be targeted with a direct mail campaign. Unlike other forms of advertising such as radio, tv, or even print, a mail campaign can focus on specific criteria such as credit data. Direct mail using credit data is essentially a ‘pre-qualified referral’ – The customer receives the mail piece, and takes the initiative to call based on a ‘pre-qualified’ offer’.”

In the wake of the dot com era where Google SEO optimized websites and Facebook / Twitter Social Media marketing are the newest buzzwords, Restaino smiles when asked about the death of direct mail in favor of newer tech savvy marketing methods. “To end all debate, direct mail paired with credit data will generate the consistent results needed to remain profitable in today’s mortgage market. Even with the explosion of internet marketing, the ROI of a direct mail campaign using a properly targeted data list is nearly impossible to match. The quality of the data is very important; Much like high quality cars, you get what you pay for. The same goes for quality direct mail products. If something seems too good to be true, it is.”

About Titan List & Mailing Services, Inc.

Titan List is a full service Advertising and Design agency specializing in Data Lists, Direct Mail, Website / Graphic Design, and Internet Marketing / Search Engine Optimization. Titan List has a team of highly qualified individuals with over 30 years of experience in the marketing trends that fit your business. Let Titan List maximize your business potential through marketing expertise and creative design.

http://www.TitanLists.com | 800.544.8060

Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers

Author: Eric Graham

Article:
I

Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers

Author: Chris Small

Article:
It’s easy, just design and engineer your main page in such a
fashion that people will click beyond it into the rest of your
site.

If you are like a lot of webmasters you’re losing a significant
number of visitors as soon as they get to your front door . The
Main Page on any site is the doorway to the rest of the content
of that particular site. But, the BIG question is ….will the
door open? Will the visitor turn the knob and push through the
main page to see what’s really in there?

We faced this situation recently. We had what was a very pretty
web page. That’s not just our opinion, many visitors commented
very positively on the look of the main page. Some even went as
far as to copy the design completely and place it on their own
page (but that’s another story). The problem was that a good
percentage of the visitors never went beyond the main page.
Something had to be done, and done fast.

Following is what we did to dramatically change the click
through rate on our site pages. After implementing these changes
we saw a 200% – 300% increase in our internal traffic.

1) Tighten up on the load time.

The graphics files got reduced and used more efficiently. Some
of the nonessential copy got turfed too. We also took out
virtually all outside links from the main page. The result is a
sleeker looking page that is more efficient in delivering the
message about the rest of the site.

2) Ease of Navigation.

All the main category pages are clearly listed on the sidebar.
Each category page is a site unto itself with it’s own
navigation features and the links to all the other site
categories are still listed on the sidebar. This repeated but
tasteful use of the same links and graphics on every page
greatly increases the load time on subsequent page views.

3) High Value Perception.

The top 4 links at our site judiciously use the words; Traffic,
Free, & Special. These words are proven to draw interest and
attract attention. The second part of this though is to actually
deliver the value. Nothing will turn people off faster than a
phony. If you promise a FREE Report, then you’d better deliver
it. This leads us to another point.

Just because you are offering something for free (no money), it
doesn’t mean that you can’t ask for something in return – like
their email address. This is how some very successful ezines
build their lists. They offer something that is valuable for
FREE, but insist that the visitor joins their opt-in list. This
really is a win – win situation for the visitor, because they
can unsubscribe two minutes later (if they really want to), but
by staying on the list they will likely be exposed to more
information that is of interest to them. The theory is that if
they are interested in the FREE site information, they will
absolutely love the current material in the ezine.

4) Internal Banner Exchanger.

This tool was an afterthought that has paid huge dividends. We
all know that Banners and Banner Exchangers are quickly losing
their effectiveness, yet a large part of the advertising on the
Internet still revolves around them. So we thought ‘why not use
them in a way that keeps the traffic within the site, but allows
us to test various banners’ If we discover that one particular
banner design or word arrangement is working especially well,
then perhaps some funds can be devoted to using it on outside
sites.

The banners also reinforced the image of the pages that they
were aimed at, without losing one single click through.

There are of course many other considerations for designing your
main page. These are just the ones that were most pertinent to
us.

To summarize; make sure that you have a very appealing and
professional look to your page that is consistent throughout the
site, use high impact, value oriented words in your copy, reduce
the number of outgoing links and increase the number of internal
site links. And most important of all… create a work of art
that you are proud of, but not afraid to improve upon (change)

About the author:
Chris Small is a partner at The World Deal Center. Come and see
for yourself the changes that we have made.

http://www.WorldDealCenter.com/

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Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers

Many people have readily, adopted the profession of web designing. Web designing is a really, a vast field and it is all, about the creative abilities of the graphic designers. Internet has influenced our lives to a great extent, these days as it a huge world of solutions to every problem and need. Whether, it is about buying anything or getting some service, you can be facilitated by the internet in all cases.

As the use of internet has been increased to a great level, therefore many of the people have started to do business on the internet by making their own websites. Creating a website and starting a business is not that easy. The look of the website counts a lot too and for that the skills of the graphic designer Adelaide come handy. When it comes to creating a website, then it can either be created by some professional graphic designer Adelaide or by the person himself. However, there are certain limitations on the creation of a website through templates if it is done without any professional help. Therefore, it is better to work on the website created by an expert graphic designer Adelaide. Let us, discuss some of the benefits of getting professional assistance:

• Though many templates are present on the web but they do not support any changes. If you would want to add some graphics or animations then you will not be able to do so. However, if you ask professionals then they can make you a website having creative and innovative things.

• You will not get complain about the limitations related to content, layout, design, size, color or any other thing when you will opt for the professional services. They can add a number of other features to a website that ordinary templates do not have.

• The websites designed by professional are easy to optimize on the search engines too.

If you are opting for web design Adelaide, then for it, the basic guidelines must be considered, by keeping in mind, the rank and user friendliness of the website.

• Website should be made in such a way, that it could ease searching because if users are not able to easily search what they want, then they will not surf the website again.

• Such technologies must be used that are meeting the standards of a website.

• Do not add too much web image. Moreover, loading of the pictures must not take time otherwise users may feel uncomfortable and they might close the website.

If you are running a business, then you must create your online presence and for that you will have to get web design Adelaide help, in order, to make sure that those, who look for your products online, may happen to find you, easily. Professional web design Adelaide can help in the growth and expansion of a business, either it is a small or large one. So, it will be useful, if you seek for professional help.

About the Author:

Steve John is an author of jordankaedesign.com, one of the best photographers. He is writing articles on web design Adelaide, from past 5 years.

Articles Source: Opting for professional web and graphic designing

Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers

Author: Chris Rohrer

Article:
Is your business ready to be part of the internet? In need of a
quality web site, but need to find a web designer to fit your
budget? Your web site will become your new online store for
others to see. When It comes to the internet appearance is
everything so it is important to have a web designer that cares
about you and your company.

It is very important that you pick the right person to design
your site. Taking your business online is just like opening a
new store for the first time. The more you put into it the more
you will get out of it. Your web site is everything when it
comes to the internet. If it doesn

Illinois flash design

Illinois web designers