Web designers that improve revenue & long term growth

There are a lot of great web designers, but many designers do not focus on making their clients more money. A comprehensive marketing plan along with a great website design is the easiest way to help a company grow. The first impression of the design is especially important for small to mid size businesses that do not have strong brand recognition or are just starting out. When putting together a professional and organized web design it is important to build confidence with your visitors, show that you are a credible company and create a user experience is easy to read and encourages the visitors to tell their friends about the site.

Most designers do not understand all the factors that contribute to the success of a website. The artwork is just a small portion of what is needed to be successful. When considering a layout you also need to consider monitor resolutions, SEO, streamlining customer service needs, reducing page fallout and cart abandonment, plus determing a strategy to create a long term relationship with your visitors.

Exposing my secrets for successful website designs!

After 8 years of focusing on conversion rate web design, I have developed a strategy of best practices that goes into every one of my website designs. My company focuses on helping companies improve their revenue online through web design, internet marketing and building web traffic for long term growth. My new video podcast will present different ways my company helps websites improve their conversion rates, collect more leads and have successful growth. Some of the topics will include: Creating Landing Pages, Improving Conversion Rate, Defining Persona's / Click Paths, Best practices of a Website Re-Design, Designing for SEO, Follow-On Marketing, Multi-store eCommerce and Improving the lifetime value of your customers. You can sign up for the podcast on iTunes be clicking here.

Here is a sample of what is coming

Take a look at the first video podcast below. This video is a quick overview of me and some of the topics that I will be talking about. If there are subjects that you would like me to cover on my blog or in my podcast, please comment here, email me suggestions or you can call the podcast comment line at 206-888-0328 and I may play it back during the show.



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SXSW Screen Burn - See the Video Game Party

I am was very impressed by the ScreenBurn Video Gaming Fest & Party at SXSW. The 2008 edition of ScreenBurn, the gaming component of SXSW Interactive, is a five-day event providing up-and-coming gaming industry talent an opportunity to learn from more established professionals. Rise to the next level of your career through enlightening panel discussions, networking opportunities, and technical discoveries. ScreenBurn features four days of presentations related to the newest developments in the gaming industry, held on the Third Floor of the Convention center.

ScreenBurn 2008 also includes the ScreenBurn Arcade, taking place on the first floor of the Austin Convention Center on Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9th. The ScreenBurn Arcade, an open platform of exhibitors and game tournaments, is free to the public and connects consumers, independents, developers, and soon to be masters of the game world.

Here is a walk through of the screen burn event, plus a little hello from Jose Castillo.



Did you like Screen Burn - post your comment!
Or call-in and leave an audio comment: Call 206-888-0328

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In Austin, finally, for SXSW

What up people. I love Austin. People are great and the town is super chill. Check some of the new videos of me and my Twitter Travel experience. It's a classic story!


In this one I just walked off the plane. Look at me, I havent had any sleep in days.



Here is the conference has started and I recap the experience of meeting Marc Nathan and how he helped me get to Austin.

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Going to SXSW... Maybe... If lucky enough to get there!

Today has been an interesting day. I am making the journey from Ft Lauderdale to Austin, Texas for SXSW - South by South West. This is one of the top interactive conferences of the year. I originally booked my travel plans well in advance. I decided to fly a day early to avoid some of the flight delays of the weekend travel.

With my luck, it turns out I would have been better traveling tomorrow (Friday). Currently there is a snow storm in Dallas, Texas - my original connection to Austin. That scheduled on American Airlines, but the flight got cancelesd so I was moved over to Delta to try and get to Texas via Atlanta. Thanks to my Nintendo DS and my 40 gigs of music to keep me company.

Then of course there was a storm in Ft Lauderdale so my flight was delayed and I could miss my connection in Atlanta to Houston. In fact, I am writing this from the airplane (in the air) at 945 pm in hopes that I can get directly to Austin. My back up plan, if I get to Houston, is to rent a car and drive to Austin. I am not surprised that this is happening. I expect it. This stuff just happens to me. Things just need to be harder than normal. Yet, I keep pushing through and dedicated to reaching my goals, even if I have to sleep in the airport tonight.

One positive thing happened today. I was able to record my second video for my podcast. This time my girlfriend Sam was able to join me. She has been a lot of the motivated for me to try new things. We have already discussed a lot of ideas for our video podcast.

Great, we are about to land in Atlanta. All the people in the plane are going to get home and I still don't have a plan to finish my travels. I am totally going to get stuck, again. I know I will have to go to Houston and then drive to Austin. Urggg!

The new video is rendering now and I will upload it during the layover. Please keep the feedback coming and enjoy the video...

Have some feedback?

Please call the comment line: 206-888-0328
Or post a comment on this blog...

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Redesigning your personal brand in a weekend

This post was supposed to be live last Monday, but missed the chance. In anticipation of some of the conferences that I am going to. I decided to (finally) change the homepage design for Alex Designs LLC over last weekend, plus create some new business cards. I am very self-conscious of my own design work, so I didn't want to do anything that was over the top. Just keep the design simple and meet my objectives.

The objectives of my personal brand are:

1. Improve the exposure of my brand and my blogs through RSS
2. Show off some of the great work my company has been doing
3. Stream my connections through social networks
4. Improve my network of peers and social friends
5. Launch new initiatives
   

Keeping it simple and accessible

My old site was built in 2003, plus I built that one in a weekend as well. But it was probably one of the first sites that I built in CSS. So the code was pretty bad. Now the code is not 100% perfect yet on this site, but it is a lot cleaner and it getting closer to being valid. So far I fixed all the layout bugs. Then I can do a mobile version too.

My Challenges

1. Merge 3 areas of interest into my personal brand identity
2. Promote 3 different RSS feeds
3. Try not to screw up my search engine rankings
4. Anticipate Launch a podcast
   

The 3 areas of interest I focus on are Landing Page Design, eCommerce Web Design and then my blog, which covers anything I am interested in. By focusing on these areas as separate sites, I have built my niche in 3 separate verticals. This help when your readers are various types of marketers/consultants, business owners and my peers. Each of the sites are blogs dedicated to the keywords for each of the topics. This should help with search engine optimization and helping people choose what they want to read or subscribe to.

Create it quickly and build from there

My theory has always been this way. I really just didn't want to spend a lot of time on this rebranding exercise. It is just a foundation for me to build on and it works for me. Since I put this new deisgn up last weekend, I have already started a new podcast and added it to my navigation. Even the podcast I put together very quickly. Yea, I am not the best speaker, but I needed to jump into it and get it out there. Then build on my podcasting skills as well.

Have any thoughts? Give me your feedback...

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Motivated people inspire me

This weekend I was inspired by some of the smartest people on the internet. From Thursday to Sunday, I attended Barcamp Miami and FOWA - Future of Web Apps. I dont want to review since there are a ton of blogs and podcasts covering the event, plus photos. What I got out the conference was motivation. You see... I am used to being the internet guy who knows everything. But this weekend, I felt I know nothing.

The speakers were (mostly) great, but I really enjoyed the energized Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library. His presentation didn't have any powerpoint slides and no internet demo - he just expressed himself from the heart. It's all about being passionate in your work, he said. Making a connection with your community and being dedicated to your cause. His connection with the audience was overwhelming.

Then, when I got home, I decided to finally start my own podcast / web show. I have never done video (at all) before, so I wanted to just keep it simple. Also, my girlfriend said she would do some episodes with me because I am a quiet guy, but my girlfriend makes me talk. Overall this is great motivation for me to try new things and work on improving my personal brand.

Here is the first video. I know I need a microphone. I did video because I will want to keep things visual with screen casts, art demos and interviews. Also, I am looking forward to doing some editing. This will become a podcast feed. Podcast feed is now set up and submitted for review in iTunes, see Alex Designs Podcast Site. Please let me know what you think. Post a Comment



Now I can do some video in Austin for SXSW!
Will you be there? Let me know and lets put something together.

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