Month: January 2011

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Business Owners, are you using Google Offers?

Moving my web design company to Chicago a few months ago has kick started a re-optimization of my web site to better serve my new Chicago location.  I have also created my business  profile in a number of local business directories such as Yelp and Merchant Circle to build  a local reputation.

In my quest for relevant directories I came across Google Offers today,  a FREE marketing tool which works in conjunction with Google maps.  If you would like to take advantage of this, here is the Chicago web designer’s tip of the day.

  1. List your business on Google Places using your Google account login information. Company name, address, telephone, email and category are required fields. Optional fields include hours of operation, photo upload e.g logo,  description, and even a video upload.
  2. Verify your business. This is easily done by an automated phone system – the quick way or via a PIN sent to the business address. Once verified your business will appear on Google maps.
  3. On your main Google Places Dashboard click “Offers” and select +add  new offer
  4. Complete the offer form and hit submit.
  5. Once your offer is live you can edit, pause or delete it.

Here is the offer I created today: Free website review

Enjoy!

©2011 Chicago web designer

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A new visual illusion: Silencing

I am a sucker for visual illusions as can be seen here and here. Now there is a new one:  Silencing.

Play the video below and focus on the white dot in the center. To start with it is easy to see the dots are changing color, but as the disc starts to rotate they become static. Or do they? In actual fact they are changing all the time.

2011 ©: Chicago web designer

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A Website Freshen Up

Can your website accommodate changes in your business? When designing and developing a web site this is an important consideration. Your web site needs to be able to easily change and grow with you without going back to the drawing board.

We practice what we preach with our own website and launched today is a mini overhaul of our site. There is no major redesign just a few tweaks here and there to better serve our visitors and behind the scenes some updates for the search engines to reflect our new Chicago location.

We have added a couple of new pages detailing our branding and social media services.

The entire updates were done very quickly thanks to the way the site is coded. For most of the changes we needed just a few lines of code switched out in the style sheet.
© 2011 :Chicago Web Designer

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What internet projects are you planning for 2011?

Happy New Year!

A fresh year ready and waiting for action

Is 2011 the year you?

  • Launch a new web site
  • Finally redesign your outdated web site
  • Update a site with a new product or service
  • Improve your search engine ranking
  • Begin that blog idea that has been on the back burner
  • Get to grips with Twitter and Facebook
  • Explore social media as a marketing tool
  • Make the most of email marketing campaigns

Whatever you business plans for the coming year if you are looking for a creative partner to help execute your internet or print projects we are here to help. A call, 847 607 8679 or a click away

© 2011 Chicago web designer