The problem with perfect

The problem with perfect is that it never happens(period). There is always room for updates, maintenance, and improvement. Think of your web presence as a machine that has to be maintained. That is what it is. You can add parts to your machine. We can add forms for your clients to populate their data. We can add analytics to find what works and what doesn’t. We can add SEO to improve advertisement placement. Your machine is what you make it and can be as powerful as you want.

And, it can always be improved.

www.MonticelloThePlay.com

Monticello is a theoretical play written by Thomas Geoghegan.

The play is about the theoretical meeting between Former President Thomas Jefferson and poet Edgar Allan Poe, in which Thomas Jefferson explains his fears of the eventual degradation of the American government.  I was approached by Tom to build a website for his play Monticello now showing in Chicago. What I provided for Tom was

In other words, I provided an entire web presence for the play. I wanted it to succeed.

(Tickets purchased through Eventbrite – For more information about the play visitwww.MonticelloThePlay.com)

www.414-411.com

414-411.com is a multimedia newspaper local to the Milwaukee area.

I was first approached by students at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee to begin a news website for new graduates and students to write their own stories and build more experience with the WordPress content Management System (CMS) and writing in general. There are only a few stories so far, many written by myself, but I am sure more are to come eventually as more students add to their resumes by contributing to local media.

The largest goal of 414-411.com is to inform local readers about life and events in and around the Milwaukee area and how events around the world can affect local Wisconsinites.

What is awesome is that they have opened their doors to writers of different backgrounds, not just students. Do you think you can write an awesome article? Contact them with your news.

Working toward the new logo

FWC Logo smaller

I started my first website building business while in school.  I made almost no money at it.  I had little time for making it look nice.  The most time I spent on any project for it was the logo.

The logo was a picture of my hand blacked out on a free app on my phone.  I intended to imprint a picture of the great lakes onto it.  I never got that far, but I learned a few things as I went.  The “Helping Hand” looked great.  I felt it was very professional looking.  The reason I started this company is because the name of the first was clever, but maybe too much so.  SqRt2Design.com was chosen because I noticed that the square root of 2 was 1.414…… in an algebra class.  I am in Milwaukee, WI where the area code is 1-(414).  I was more excited that no one else seemed to notice this little factoid.  I even tried to get the phone number with the full value of sqrt2.

But, was it too clever?  No one seemed to get the connection.  Even after I explained the name, no one seemed to see it as clever.  That is why I went simple, elemental.  I live near one of the great lakes.  I grew up here.  I wanted that to still be seen.

But then, I thought of how websites and anything connected to them is fluid as well.  Websites have to be changed to fit any purpose and fit any need.  If you add more fluid to fluid, you just have more fluid making it greater.  The same can be said for your web presence.  You can start with a basic site that will drive business and inform your clients about your business for a small initial investment.  Then you can add on to it.

Add Ons:

Do you have a Facebook page for your business?  We can link to it.

Do you already have a website and wish it would look better on a phone or tablet?  We can insert responsive design or transfer everything to a CMS or content management system.

Not coming up very high in the search rankings?  We can improve your SEO or search engine optimization.

Need a better logo?  We can improve it, create it or find someone who can.

 

Buy as you need it.  That’s the right way.

You may have noticed that both logos are droplets made of multiple parts.  That is because the web is a very fluid concept.

Fluid Web

First Logo Design

The fluid web concept is simple.  You are never done.

  • Social media accounts have to be made as new social media websites are developed and become popular.
  • Social media accounts then have to be constantly updated to generate interest in your business and direct traffic to your business.
  • Your website has to be constantly updated.
  • Your blog has to issue new posts.
  • Your SEO has to be constantly refined so that you don’t get lost in the search engine forest.
  • Your databases need to be updated as you collect more data.

Find a website that looks like it did in 1996.  That website will look nothing like it does now.  The featured image of this post shows Coca-Cola’s website in 1996.

There is nothing special about this website.  It connects a few pages together and provides information about the company.

Today, Coca-Cola is a WordPress website (https://us.coca-cola.com/).  Coca-Cola’s website probably has a professionally created theme specifically made for them, but it isn’t necessary.  WordPress has made making a professional looking website easier and more secure.  Theme research, menu design, code development,  and plugin research still take time, but it is a much faster process and can be shared with multiple users.

The point here is that there are many parts of a website.

  • The Website – This is your first step into adding traffic to your business from the internet.  Everything can be added to your website.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – On what page does your website appear on a google, bing, or yahoo web search?  What appears as the description?
  • Social Media Content – Researching content relevant to your business, website, or blog and posted to your Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Instagram, Pinterest, or Youtube.
  • E-Commerce – How do you want to do your business online?  Are you putting on a show and need ticket sales?  Do you want to have an online store featuring a shopping cart and product description pages?
  • Photography – I am not a professional photographer.  I have done some work for different groups I have worked with.  If you can afford a professional photographer, I encourage you to hire one.  If not, I will do my very best to help you add beautiful high resolution images to your website. (This is one of the benefits of having a local freelance professional web developer.).
  • Marketing – I am not a professional marketing person.  I am able to make relevant marketing decisions.  I am capable.  I have performed marketing for businesses.  I am able to make suggestions for marketing and PR consultants that I have worked with.

We can start your social media or your website now and add more parts as we go.  Each piece of your web presence will take time, talent, and research to build.  Separating your web presence into pieces gives you the ability to pay for services as needed.  All pieces are suggested and you should not expect awesome results with only piece.