When I was down in Houston, one of the speakers noted how a company will spend more money on their lobby than they will on their online presence. No one asks a couch manufacturer what the return on investment is on a nice leather sofa for the lobby – but everyone cuts and chisels away at the cost of a new website.
Too many companies ignore the strategy altogether – too busy with their current strategies to worry about an online marketing strategy. Your website will get more visitors than your lobby with a great design and strategy behind it! It’s time for a makeover, but it’s difficult to justify the expense… nearly impossible in this economy. Until now…
If you’re a business in central Indiana, here’s an opportunity! For one local company, the Indy Business Makeover Competition will be a well-deserved refresher. The winning firm will receive marketing services, a new server, Web site and office furniture among other prizes. With more than $80,000 of donated products and services from local businesses, the Indy Business Makeover Competition says to hardworking business owners, “enjoy a makeover on us, you’ve earned it.”
The application deadline is tomorrow – July 29, 2009! Check out the list of prizes – they include a 40 blog package with Compendium Blogware, too! I’m going to see if I can talk the team into letting me throw a $3,000 quarterly consulting package into the ring as well – to help with content strategies, social media integration, conversion monitoring, etc.
Great job by the folks at Small Box and Pivot Marketing for putting on this great contest.
Posted in Homefront, Marketing, Web Design by Douglas Karr Saturday, May 2nd at 3:37 pm
My favorite magazine is Practical Web Design – also known as .net Magazine. I think it’s got a great balance of marketing and technology in the magazine – perhaps leaning on the design and tech side.
The magazine always has inspiring designs and comes with some great software, tutorials and samples on an embedded CD.
For those of us that live across the pond, though, it’s not cheap – I was paying about $16 a magazine (worth it, though!). I find myself picking it up month after month. This month I finally got smart and ordered an annual subscription of the magazine.
I’d like to share the magazine with you folks as well, so each month I’m going to put a code in my RSS feed and email that you can enter in an online form. Each month I will buy a subscription for one of my readers. You must live somewhere the subscription can be delivered – currently the UK, the US and Canada. For US readers, that’s a $125 value!
Subscribe by email or by RSS today!
Posted in Technology by Douglas Karr Monday, October 13th at 7:11 am
My good friend, Patric… aka Mr. Noobie, is giving away a Nintendo Wii! Patric has been a great friend of my blog over the last year and we’ve had many a cup of coffee with our friends at The Bean Cup.
As excited as I get about the latest gadget or the newest technology, it’s important for me to remember that a good portion of the folks that visit my site don’t have a clue what I’m talking about. That’s where Mr. Noobie comes in! Whether you’re having issues understanding TiVo, a web browser, or the latest telephone, chances are that Mr. Noobie has written or created a podcast about it. He’s a great guy who’s doing an important job!
Help Promote Patric’s Giveaway
When Patric told me he was giving away a Wii, I told him I wanted to blog about it. For full disclosure, though, there’s also an incentive for me! Mr. Noobie is also giving away an iPod Nano and an iPod Shuffle!
- If the most signups come from your site you win an 8GB iPod Nano.
- If the winner of the Nintendo Wii came from your site, you win a 1GB iPod Shuffle.
About Noobie:
Noobie is your technology education destination. Whether you want to get the most out of the latest gadget or learn new ways to make technology work for you, we can help. Noobie offers reliable and objective information in safe and understanding environments. Attend an event, read an article, browse the blog, or schedule a coaching session.
Who Should Enter?
Of course anyone who wants a Wii should enter to win. Additionally, though, be sure to get the word out on Noobie to all your friends and family who are a bit challenged. Even if it’s folks in your office, Patric can come out and do some on site coaching. He’s a great guy with a large following and an even bigger heart for helping those around us that tend to get intimidated, instead of excited, about technology.
Enter now for your chance to win a Nintendo Wii from Noobie!
Posted in Blogging by Douglas Karr Sunday, November 25th at 5:47 pm
Sorry for the late run on this! We sent a list of the entries to Ade with each entry having a random number associated (using the RAND function in Excel and then sorting the column). We then had Hannes select a random number within the 108 entries so Hannes would not know who the winner would be. The winner of the $1,000 giveaway was Noah at wpstar.com!
To cover the Paypal transaction costs, I actually sent $1,040 to Noah! Congratulations Noah! The rest of the prizes will be on their way as well!
