A Fresh New Look

Here is one of the client’s websites that I created in the software Artisteer. Though it was a challenge to design everything from the banner to the navigation and everything else in between for the site, it was somewhat easier to have the logo and colors of the site already set by the client.

Click  on the photo to check out the live site. Neil out!

It’s Time to Move Forward – Always

“Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.”

I didn’t fully understand the quote when I read it but half-way through writing this blog post, I knew exactly what it meant. I came to the conclusion that most things change overtime, including technologies, economies, businesses, even people. What’s important is moving forward and adapting to those changes.

Over the course of my internship, I gained the knowledge that there’s always ways and opportunities to do things not only differently but better and faster. For example, Lorraine decided  in addition to writing blog posts, she wanted to reach her audience through another medium called Podcasting. Though we started from scratch, we learned enough about it for Lorraine to now create weekly podcasts episodes.

Another technological change we’ve recently come across is CoolIris. This modern tool has the potential to change the way we display media such as pictures and videos on our websites. Though we’ve played around with the software only for a short period of time, we look forward to many innovative ideas and features it’ll present us with in the future.

So as I end my internship here at Roundpeg and say farewell to my boss and my co-workers, I’d like to remind you all to keep moving forward, always have room for improvement and try new things in life.

Neil out!

Cool CoolIris

With so many new applications being created almost daily, it is rare to come across something which makes you say: “Wow… that is cool!” I had one of those moments just the other day when Lorraine showed me CoolIris.

What it is: CoolIris is a simple yet innovative software which showcases  media on your website. It displays both images and video in a manner of an interactive 3D wall in which you can drag your files to go back and forth, and make them bigger or smaller. Did I mention the installation is a breeze?!

How it works: CoolIris works with various different third party websites for your images such as Flickr, Picasa etc. and YouTube for videos.

Once you have uploaded your pictures and or video to these accounts, you can select just the content you want to feature on your website.  It works well with social media sites like  Facebook and MySpace too.  You can even customize the wall with your own background!

Why use it: If you deal with lots of images and/or videos on your website, CoolIris may just be what you’ve been looking for to organize and uplift your media content.

If I haven’t sold you on this cool new web feature yet, please go on CoolIris website and check out how simple it is to use and what it can do for you.

And check out the video wall I created for Lorraine. Neil out!

Always a First Time For Everything

My very first post on my own Blog! I’ve created this blog for the purpose of sharing my work and ideas with anyone and everyone who is interested in social media, blogging, graphics and web-design, and Marketing in general.

Specifically, I plan to use this blog as a personal portfolio and showcase my work with the intentions to find a job in marketing. So look forward to some of the really creative stuff I’m currently working on or have worked on in the past. I’ll also post the several websites and graphics I’ve designed during my internship at Roundpeg, Inc.

Till then, Neil out!

Tie Your Shoes

Have you ever tried running in shoes without shoelaces?   It is difficult, and risky as you can easily trip and fall on your face.

Running your business website without taking advantage of  SEO tools creates a similar senario.  While you are unlikely to be in danger of  physical injury, the risk to your business is real.  Without a solid focus on SEO, you will find yourself tripping and falling as you attempt to drive traffic,and connect with potential prospects and clients.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) according to Wikapedia:  is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion.

There are many tools you can use to improve your position with  search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and BIN.  Moving to the top of the search list means potential customers find you faster and easier compared to your competitors.  This in turn will improve the quantity and quality of  traffic to your website.

I have been researching SEO tools for the past few weeks and here are two of my favorites.

    * Google Analytics which analyzes your web sites performance by helping you understand what terms drive traffic, what information vistiors search for when they arrive, and how long they stay. By looking at the date  you can make adjustments in your site to improve your performance.
    * Linkscape from SMOZ.org In the internet world you are judged by the company you keep.  These relationships are measured in links.  Using this tool you can discover who links to you and more interesting, who links to your competitors.

At  Roundpeg we rely  these tools to help our clients rank higher on Search Engines and drive more traffic to their sites.  Do you have a favorite SEO tool?

The Beginning of a Podcasting Journey

There are many ways to inform, educate, and communicate with people over the internet. However, there’s one medium that literally gets your voice across to your audience; it’s called Podcasting.

Podcasting works similar to blogging; however it can be far more effective if the presenter is an exceptional speaker rather than a writer or if the audience prefers listening to their media/feed rather than reading it.

Earlier this week, Lorraine expressed an interest in Podcasting  to compliment her written blog.

I was excited to work on this project since I already knew how useful yet simple this medium is to get your message across. I’ve listened to Podcasts in the past but didn’t know exactly how to set it up on our website; so began the Podcasting research.

I soon learned  many people choose iTunes to publish their Podcasts so they are easily available to anyone and everyone. In addition, there are many other things to consider before you can start Podcasting. To begin, you need to have a quality recording tool.  While most computers can record sound into a WAV file, you need additional software to  save your files as MP3s.

Turns out, there are many software options from which to choose from but finding a cheap yet efficient one was tricky. Finally, we settled on  Audacity, which is free and has decent effects and features, along with capability to save and convert MP3 files.

Another issue Podcaster face is choosing a third-party server where you can upload all your files and material along with RSS codes so  iTunes can publish your Podcasts. After looking at several website, some more expensive than others, we chose www.solidcasts.com, which allows users to have first 100MB of space for free and reasonable monthly prices for up to 20GB of space.

Now  we have all the precise tools and software to create and publish Podcasts, you can soon listen to Lorraine Ball has to say, literally. Furthermore, if you already publish Podcasts on your own website, feel free to check out the websites and software mentioned above to see if it can improve your Podcasting activities.

Perfect Score

Creating a website takes a lot of hard work, patience, and creativity… but how do you know if your website is serving its true purpose or how effective it is according to your customers? While there are a number of tools out there, we have found www.WebsiteGrader.com to be very helpful as we try to determine if a website set up to attract traffic, if it is connected to the larger internet community, and how it compares to your competitors.

In just in few seconds, the site evaluates your website on a number of set criteria such as Google page rank, Alexa trafffic rank, links, keywords, images, content, blog etc. The detailed report identifies areas for improvment, with suggestions and links on how to make the changes.

I have been using Website Grader to evaluate websites we have designed for clients, including  new sites for www.uhasinc.com and www.investsfip.com and have been able to improve their score thanks to this helpful and free website.

So if you are wondering how your website ranks among millions of others just like yours, give Website Grader a try. You may not be able to get into the 90th percentile right away, but you’ll have enough info and the right tools to get there sooner or later. Neil out!

Indy-Biz Redesign Part 1

At Roundpeg, we’re always in the process of reinventing and rejuvenating different aspects of our products and services.  For example, the recent redesign of our own website, which turned out to be an impressive fresh new look, thanks to Jay Mattingly – our summer intern. Next in line is our business journal website, Indy-Biz.com.

It’s my second time tackling a redesign and somewhat easier since the current site is very plain and simple. Though, I have to be careful in maintaining that professional and credible feel of the current website.

After checking out several other business journal websites, we’ve come up with two final themes for the new site that allows readers to have great readability and easy access to their Indy and Carmel business news.

In addition, Taylor and I have also been working on a new logo for the website. Currently, we have six different logos we are evaluating. Help us find the right logo for Indy-Biz by sharing your opinions on the survey below.

Check back in a few days for the survey results.  Neil Out!