Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Tips for Going Paperless

Since moving to Chicago I have made a concerted effort to go completely paperless. It was driven by a sheer horror of the amount of paper work that had built up over 10 years in business and a huge desire not to pack it all into boxes,  transport it all and then never unpack it. Who’d have thought a web and graphic design business could result in so much paperwork? So I purged big time,  my recycling bin overfloweth,  my shredder over heated and eventually kicked the bucket.  I pared down my paperwork from a huge ugly filing cabinet/cupboard, to a single, well organized draw. I gave away the unsightly filing monster so I could not revert to my old ways. It was so ugly the only person who wanted it was a scrap metal merchant.

Now five months down the road I am sticking to my guns and feeling liberated. Here are some of the things I do to keep the paperless system in smooth running order

  1. Sign up for paperless statements and  billing.  From utility companies to telephone providers. This has saved me a ton of unwanted paper and some companies will actually give you a credit for going paperless. Setting up accounts is generally a simple process and most offer an archive of statements, billing history etc, so it is easy to find everything and look up past bills.
  2. Organization. Just as a paper filing system works best when maintained in well thought out folders, the same is true for a paperless  system. It takes very little time to set up computer folders but is essential to have an effective system. Setting up email folders is a great way to keep track of automatic payments and statement alerts.
  3. Don’t download everything. When I first started my paperless campaign I felt the need to download every statement/invoice etc and file them away in my carefully crafted computer folders. But what is the point of filling up my hard drive when I can quite easily access everything I need via the accounts I set up online. Now I only download and file what is absolutely necessary.
  4. Backup. I backup on an external hard drive.
  5. Don’t print anything out unless you absolutely have to.

© 2011 Chicago web designer

Posted on

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

Posted on

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

Posted on

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

Posted on

Happy Christmas from the Chicago web designer

As much as I embrace American traditions some of my British traditions have yet to fall by the wayside. Every Christmas I make a “Christmas cake” which is a rich fruit cake ( I can hear the gasps from here..but when made properly they are quite yummy) covered in marzipan and iced with royal icing.  This battered old  Father Christmas (Santa) always sits atop. See here for a previous years cake

Merry Christmas from the Chicago Web Designer!

chicago web designer xmas

©:2010 Chicago web designer

Posted on

All Change

I have been writing this blog for … gasp … five years, that’s half the time I have been in business. Today marks the start of a few upgrades. Drum roll…

I have changed the name from

Indigo Thoughts

to

The Chicago Web Designer

Now back to blogging!

© Chicago Web Designer

Posted on

Video Internet Marketing: a New Service from Chicago web designer

Since moving to Chicago I have been busy networking and last week met with a very interesting local business that offers video production for the web. Adding a video element to an online marketing strategy can reap huge returns.  While many samll business owners are eager to jump on the video bandwagon, once they have their video what do they do with it?

We now offer video internet marketing services and what better way to present them than a video!

2010 © Chicago Web Designer

Posted on

Chicago Web Designer: The Power of 10

To celebrate the 10th month in the year 2010 ( gosh can you believe it’s October already) the Chicago web designer presents the “Power of 10”

  1. 2010 marks our 10th year in business. It is a milestone we are extremely proud of, showing that we can not only survive but thrive in this highly competitive market.
  2. When I was 10 I started my first business. I opened a museum in my parents garden shed! The museum was stocked with fossils and interesting artifacts I had found in the Welsh countryside where I grew up. I  hung a sign up in the front garden and charged local kids 2p entry fee. I soon had a amassed and considerable sum and if I remember rightly I blew the lot at a local sweet shop (candy store in American speak). It’s interesting that many of the entrepreneurs I know have similar stories.
  3. The 10th month of the year marks two life changing anniversaries. It was the month I got married and the month I moved to the USA.
  4. I have moved a total of 10 times in my life, most recently relocating from St Louis to Chicago, hence the change from St Louis web designer to Chicago web designer. I have lived in three different countries, each country has it’s own merits but I love the fact that the USA offers so many opportunities.
  5. There are 10 applications on my computer I use every work day without fail. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Outlook, Firefox,  Microsoft Word, Quickbooks, Adobe Acrobat and my FTP client.
  6. I test our web sites on 10 different browsers to ensure cross browser compatibility. They include the super popular and obscure : Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome,  Konqueror, Opera, Netscape, AOL and Camino.
  7. I aim to write 10 blog posts a month. It takes time and effort and I don’t always reach my goal but regular blog posting is an excellent way to keep a web site fresh in the eyes of the search engines.  I always stress this to my customers and practice what I preach. I have recently doubled my work load with the launch of  an additional  blog “Eye of the Chicago Web Designer”  www.ichicagowebdesigner.com
  8. I am all about using tools on the internet to save time. Take Hootsuite for instance, an application that talks to most major social networks. In 10 seconds I can update my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
  9. By 10 o’clock in the morning I have already been hard at work for three hours. I am most definitely a morning person!
  10. Last but not least, if you are interested in a free quote on any graphic or web design project please call our 10 digit phone number: 847 607 8679 . We may be a Chicago based web design company but we are happy to work with you whatever your location.

2010 © Chicago Web Designer

Posted on

New Website for Zagros Robotics

There is something very satisfying about a web redesign project. Take a look at this site we seriously revamped for Zagros Robotics.

This is the before

old zagros website

and here is the after

New Zagros web site

The site not only looks more appealing and easy to use but has the advantage of some major under the hood improvements too.

The original site incorporated a shopping cart (PDshop.net) and while this had been well configured in terms of categories  it was embedded into the static site with frames (yikes!…. a SEO nightmare). The shopping cart software was the basis of our redesign. We created and implemented  a unique template and used the custom page feature within the software to add all the “static pages” of the site. The frames were stripped away leaving a site that is much more friendly towards the search engines and is also a lot easier for the client to manage.

The end users win, the client wins and the search engines win! Success

2010 © Chicago Web Designer