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Last month, I moved across Denver from a house into an apartment. I had lived in the house for almost two years, and while that’s not an astounding amount of time in the grand scheme of things, it was long enough for me to collect lots of… stuff. As something of a ‘serial renter,’ I’m accustomed to moving and the head (or back) aches that come with it. In order to save myself some trouble…
Everyone’s familiar with the old adage, “you have to spend money to make money.” There’s always some kind of investment involved before we can start raking in the dough, what’s important is keeping track of those numbers. Imagine you own a company that sells four different products. After your first order, you realize bookkeeping is hard and decide not to record anything. At the end of the month, you know that you’ve sold some stock,…
“If you build it, they will come.” Sure, sure, that’s not even the right line,* but much like another often-misquoted (into fans) line of his from Star Wars**, it’s so deeply ingrained in our movie vernacular that changing it now is impossible. Jones’ character, Terrance Mann, truly believed that Kevin Costner’s corn-field baseball diamond would attract visitors–even if they didn’t know why–helping him stave off bankruptcy and allow him to keep his house. In the…
"Grumpy wizards make toxic brew for the evil Queen and Jack." If you used Google Fonts, you’d know exactly what that meant. Back in 2011 Google Fonts, then known as Google Web Fonts, released a directory of 19 licensed fonts that ranged from serif and san serif fonts to script fonts. Google believed that everyone should have access to quality typography to improve both their online and offline presence. The birth of Google Fonts opened…
A child sits uneasily on a bicycle, while a parent runs alongside, gently pushing them down the sidewalk, keeping the bike upright. Eventually, the parent has to let go and let the child succeed or fail on their own, but giving up that control, that security of safety, can be tough. Enter: training wheels. Even after the parent lets go, the child still has support to help them succeed. No parent has to give their…
Few companies can claim to be as interconnected into the daily lives of their customers as Google. I use Gmail and Gchat, Youtube, Google Maps, Calendars, News, and Drive (previously Google Docs) on a daily basis, and I know I'm not alone. All of this was born from a simple search engine which grew with such popularity that their company name is now synonymous with internet search. It's interesting, in that sense, to consider how…
When Alice first arrives in Wonderland, she's faced with a dilemma: she wants to enter the beautiful garden, but she can't even fit her head through the door. By drinking the little bottle marked 'Drink me' Alice is able to shrink down to a size where she can fit. Realizing she's now too small to lift the key, she eats the small cake marked 'Eat me' and grows again. Alice continues to shrink and grow…
Once upon a time, our company really built up the ease and advantages of using a content management system (or CMS, for short). As with much in our industry, however, it didn't take long before views started to change, which in turn led to a shift in the way we work. A number of our clients have excelled at using their content management systems and have been able to manage and update their sites successfully…
The look and function of the Internet has changed dramatically within the last decade, and since it initially rose to prominence in the mid 1990s, there have been massive advances that we can't even really comprehend because they've happened so quickly. From slow, noisy dial-up to DSL and cable. From white, bulky desktops to sleek towers and flat-screen monitors. And from old, hefty cell phones that couldn't do anything but call people to hand-held computers…
What does your website say about your business? Or better yet: what does your website say about your business... after someone has left it? It may seem like a dumb question with an easy answer, but there's more to it than simply "we sell and install car stereo equipment." Sure, if someone visits your site and that message makes it through, that's a step in the right direction, but not it's not everything. The internet…
Since May of 2011, I've written over 31,000 words on this blog. That may seem like a lot of content, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not very much. The average novel is 60K - 100K words in length, meaning I'm only halfway to my first book. Break it down and I've averaged just 89 words of content development per day since January of this year. Obviously, the actual creation was much more…
As someone who works on a computer all the time, I have quite the fondness for PDFs. We use them constantly in both web and print work, and they allow us to accomplish different things depending on the situation. On the web, PDFs are ideal for sharing documents with visitors that might need to be printed or downloaded, and they can even contribute to your SEO goals, if created properly. As with almost everything, though,…
Before anyone got their news online, before 'online' was even an idea, newspapers ruled the game. Because of their size certain aspects of the layout became hugely important. Headlines and images drew people in to the most important articles, and quick highlights of what lay inside enticed readers further into the paper. As the daily medium of information delivery for hundreds of years, newspapers have had a huge effect on the way we design for…
It's been a long time since we've talked about best practices and web conventions, so how about we make up for lost time with a collection of them for e-commerce? Whatdya say?! A few weeks ago we covered a number of elements that can hurt your e-commerce site's search engine rankings, even if you don't know it. While it's always a good idea to optimize your site for the search engines, in the end it…
Today at BK is akin to an Oreo cookie: good things, sad things, and more good things. Now, I'm in no way implying that the filling of an Oreo is sad (quite the opposite) but it's the basic sandwich concept, OK?
There are a lot of websites out there, which makes search engine optimization so important. For those businesses that rely on their websites to sell products, especially those that can be found elsewhere online, out-ranking the competition is vital. There are multiple pieces to any successful SEO push, a lot of which are beyond the everyday business owner (and the lowly blogger too!), but there are certain things that even you and I could deal…
Depending on your industry, there's usually a season that provides for a bit more down time... a relative breather. For us, that season is summer. Last week we talked about planning ahead for the holiday season to make sure everything was in order... The same approach can be taken for your business as a whole. When business is busy things change, stockpiles get depleted, and it can be tough to keep track of everything. Take…
In the southern hemisphere, Christmas falls in the middle of summer. It can be tough to have a white Christmas in the sweltering heat, so in some countries it's not uncommon to experience some Christmas in July celebrations. Here in the northern hemisphere, Christmas in July provides a perfect excuse for a retail holiday. The two month period between July 4th and Labor day (the first Monday in September) is devoid of any holidays and…
Even if you've never designed a website yourself it's possible that you've heard of the "3-click rule" which states that all of your content should be accessible to a visitor in just three clicks. If a user cannot find what they're looking for in three clicks or less, the rule says, you will lose them. The web design community has a strange relationship with this "rule." While it's widely believed to be false, it still…
We didn't have a blog last week, in part because I was out of town. Yes, the internet extends further than the confines of our Longmont office, but I was sufficiently occupied away from the computer. Friday through Wednesday I was traveling and working at the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) conference for a client in Hollywood, FL. Over the course of the show, I was constantly on the floor viewing the different displays, looking…
Twitter has become very popular in recent years which has led to an increased use for both personal and business use. Unfortunately, there are some specific ways to correctly use Twitter (more so than on Facebook) that many people don't seem to understand. This post won't make you a great Twitter user, but it will make you a Twitter user who uses the site correctly.
Mother's Day happened recently (hopefully you knew that, or you owe Mom a phone call at the very least), and one of the things my mother asked my sister and I for was a gift card to a certain store which I won't name, for their sake. The entire process, beginning to end, was ridiculously complex and vague, and struck me as a great example of ecommerce gone wrong.
If you've been keeping up with our series, I hope I've made it abundantly clear just what a landing page is and how/why to use it. For those who might not know, I'll boil it down to one sentence: Visitors are coming to a specific page on your site that is designed to capture their information in exchange for an incentive you provide. Of course there's so much more than that, but for this week…
We've been talking recently about what landing pages are and the things you need to consider before tackling a custom landing page project. Assuming you've figured out who you're targeting, where they're coming from, what you want them to do and all of those important questions, what's next? What kind of elements do you use in the creation of a landing page to reach your goal?
Last week we talked at great length about just what a custom landing page is, and the main reasons behind using one. As with any project it can be easy to look past the small–yet important–details and focus on the end goal. Doing so will leave you having wasted both money and time; there are certain things that you need to consider before starting a custom landing page project.
