Level9 Blog

Ch ch ch ch changes

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:19:00 GMT

Big things are happening here at Level9, and I'm excited to share with everyone what can be expected from us in the future!

First of all, I'm honored and humbled to be taking the role of President of Level9. Until recently, I was one of two principle owners of our agency. Additionally, I also served as Creative Director in charge of both the creative direction of client projects as well as our company. Truthfully, most of the time I got my hands dirty working on projects rather than actually providing creative direction. Going forward, I'll be spending most of my time overseeing the entire vision and direction of our company, determining innovative new methods for us to help our clients engage with their audiences, and finally being able to earn that Creative Director title. With that being said, we have some amazing new creative talent joining us, and I can't wait to see what brilliant ideas we can come up with for our upcoming projects.

These changes bring several benefits to us and our clients. First, it will allow us to have a more focused dedication to producing even more stunning results. Second, having more creative minds contributing input will undoubtedly raise the bar for ourselves. Also, this year we'll be launching our own web-based product. It's a tool that makes our job easier, so we can only imagine that other companies will find it useful and easy to use as well. Our restructuring will allow us to expedite bringing this to the public.

I'm a "Creative" at heart, always trying to think differently about the world around me and attempting to come up with new ideas that push boundaries. That concept has always been a driving force for Level9 as a company, and in the future these changes will only strengthen that ideology. Every single person here is a Creative and an invaluable asset to the overall success of our company. Without them, Level9 would be just ordinary, and that's something we just aren't willing to be.

As we pave the path for future growth, we look forward to becoming an even stronger agency, stampeding into new territory and blazing a trail that clients can believe will take them to new heights in the digital age.

Farewell my friends..

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:06:00 GMT

I've never been very good with saying goodbye. We've all been there, that awkward moment when you have come to a crossroads in life and you must say goodbye to your friends or family. Its not ever fun. So you all will understand how hard this is for me. After much consideration, I have decided move on to my next adventure in life.

The experiences I have had at Level9 will last a lifetime. From the early days when Craig, Tim and I were working from the spare bedroom at my house to our awesome office here in Brick town. I've learned many lessons over the years both on a business and personal level.

As a team we have gone from humble beginnings to where we are today. I have been honored to watch a dream I had turn into reality through hard work from all of us in the Level9 family. I will miss everyone here as well as all of the friendships that have been created with our clients throughout the years.

I would like to thank the Level9 guys for years of great teamwork and thank you to all of our customers who put their trust in our team.

Farewell my friends!

Randell Guilbeau

Business Plan, Where Art Thou?

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:16:00 GMT

We talk to many small business owners about having their website built or in some cases, rebuilt. During the first meeting we try to learn as much as we can about the business, its customer base, competitors, goals, marketing plans and the project budget constraints. One of the first questions we ask is if they have a business plan. Over 95% don’t. That’s a fairly alarming statistic that inevitably makes our job more difficult. Although it can take anywhere from 40 to 160 hours to develop, depending on the type of business and the intended audience, spending that time up front will allow you to be proactive rather than reactive. Level9 will use this information to navigate your dreams into a successful online business with effective eMarketing and eCommerce components. Without a business plan, we are relying on your hunches and on the spot decisions to shape your online presence. This often leads to constant requests to change the way the website functions after site launch due to the reality that what you asked us to build can't succeed in the real world.

On May 24^th we hosted our first eCommerce 101 seminar with the Oklahoma Small Business Development Center in downtown Oklahoma City, which was named one of the top 10 SBDCs in the county. Every business needs a plan for success. The SMBDC offers the tools to help you formulate just that. From seminars to online courses, even consultation. In their own words:

The Oklahoma Small Business Development Center is a state and federally funded organization that was created to assist small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs in reaching their potential in all their business ventures.

In 2010, the OSBDC team of consultants assisted with the start-up of 278 new businesses, created and retained over 898 jobs, and injected over $25 million in new capitalization into Oklahoma's economy.

We highly recommend that you take the time to research, and plan your success. Together we can review your plans and accurately and effectively translate them over to an award winning, and successful, online recipe for success.

From Good to Great

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 03:42:00 GMT

Over the years, we’ve noticed that certain relationships between a client and an agency yield a greater chance of true success. It is essential that this relationship begin with trust. We see our clients business as an extension of our business. We love it when they succeed. With trust, a client is more apt to open up about their goals, future plans, hopes and dreams. We appreciate that they are allowing us to share in their vision and offering us the opportunity to enhance it. There is no question: groundbreaking things can happen when we are allowed to mold their vision to the best that it can be. However, more often than not, clients are simply unwilling to relinquish the necessary amount of control in order to grow their dream. Awesomeness is often shelved by trepidation, and they settle for the results of an unrefined vision instead of a finished product.

Q. Why pay for a truly custom project when, due to your own boundaries, you will just get what everyone else has?

A. We find that many clients find it difficult to step outside of their brand and leave personal opinions aside. They hold themselves back by limiting their vision to what they know. We ask that they push past their comfort level and allow us to help them dream bigger. It is a complete waste of talent and resources to settle for blending in, instead of working to stand out.

To demonstrate, let’s contrast a scenario from both sides:

Client #1 describes a process that they need their site to follow; it needs to do X when a visitor clicks on Y. They say, “go look at ABC website to see what I am looking for. They do it the best I’ve seen.”

Sure, we can do that. We understand what they’re looking for. But, is this necessarily the right choice for them? Often, the answer is no. We do custom work and therefore we know that one size doesn’t always fit all. If they can trust that we see their vision, we will tweak it to be better.

Client #2 describes their vision for the site. They show us metrics on what would equate to a home run and ask for our input on how best to get there. They, too, see ABC company. However, they wonder how that process can be refined further, knowing that ABC’s site was built a year and a half ago.

This client steered us in a direction, stated what their intended outcome was, and trusted us to get them there. This is a successful relationship.

Can you see how the approach and the relationship can lead to drastically different outcomes? Don’t settle for wanting what everyone else has. Make everyone else want what you have.

Here are some examples of what happens when a client has allowed us to participate in shaping their vision:

Why are so many business owners cautious to innovate and create? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Is Your Site Mobile Ready?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:33:00 GMT

Many analysts and industry experts predict that 2011 will be the year smart phones go mainstream in the United States. According to the market research firm, Asymco, 50 percent of Americans will be using smartphones by the end of the year, which is a 30 percent increase from 2010 and an 18 percent jump from 2009. They also predict that one in three U.S. smartphone users (roughly 80 million people) will use either an iPhone or an Android-powered device.

Is some respects, mobile applications are still considered fun, but nonessential marketing splurges when the annual budget is concerned. But as the mobile market continues to evolve, what was once a nifty add-on will become vital.

When it fits the client’s needs, we love to design and develop mobile-optimized versions of their site to provide the greatest accessibility to users. Think it's time to take part in the mobile market? Give us a call.

To see another of our mobile sites, go to www.visitshawnee.com on your phone (or from your desktop: www.visitshawnee.com/mobile/).

Google Does Not Penalize for Ugly. Pt. 4

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:22:00 GMT

Alright, we’re finally wrapping up this four-part series. To review, we started this series with the observation that a large number of gorgeous websites are getting their digital butts kicked in Google by the ugly step children of the web, i.e. Google does not penalize for ugly. In part two we discussed how to use structure correctly. In part three we discussed why you want to use proper structure and how it will help your masterpiece compete with the uglies.

In this final installment, we’ll discuss the ground level, nuts-and-bolts of content: proper thought structure. In addition to the multiple levels of headings we learned about in the previous posts, there are supporting element structures such as paragraphs, tables, and lists that should follow each heading.

Paragraphs

Let’s start with the good ol’ paragraph. The reason I’m dedicating a whole paragraph to, well, the paragraph is that the number one mistake people make when adding content to a web pages is they forget about paragraphs tags. For instance, the first “paragraph” in this post is indeed not a paragraph. Sure it looks like one, but no paragraph tag was used in its creation. Google sees it as orphaned text and will have to guess as to how to process it. Don’t leave your creative copy at the jeopardy of digital uncertainty. In your editor always highlight the paragraph and assure it is tagged as a paragraph.

Tables

Next, let’s discuss tables—the most misused and abused of all the supporting element structures. In early web design, before Cascading Style Sheets were fully supported, many developers used the cellular model of tables to mimic the box model of CSS. In English, this means that tables were used to control the areas of information and contain them, giving you a structured layout. Many designers and content contributors still lean on tables to control layout. For instance, if you want a photo to float next to some text, the old way is to create tables. The new way is apply an ‘Align:left’ to the photo and give it 20 pixels of margin to achieve separation. See the difference?

	Small	Medium	Large
Men's T-Shirt	$9.00	$9.25	$9.50
Women's T-Shirt	$9.00	$9.25	$9.50
Child's T-Shirt	$8.00	$8.25	$8.50

Now that we understand how tables shouldn’t be used, what is the proper application? The short answer is tabular data, such as from an excel document. Always use tables for this structure. Many CSS elitists scoff at this claiming they can mimic a table layout using nothing more than CSS. Kudos, but how is that any better than the pages that use a table for everything? Remember that Google is always better off associating the proper structure with the proper content.

We’ve covered the largest pitfalls, now let’s discuss some of the other elements you’ll use on a regular basis:

Unordered Lists

Unordered lists allow you to list items with no priority.
Many make the mistake of adding a bullet to the beginning of each line instead of tagging the entire list properly.

Ordered Lists

Ordered lists allow you to list items based on a priority such as a series of steps.
Again, many make the mistake of adding the number manually to the beginning of the line.
This causes a big mess for Google to attempt to decode.

Other Common Tags

Utilization of the strong or emphasis tags can be used within paragraph structures to add more weight to the content both for the reader and Google. Be sure not to overuse either or it will lose its effect. And also be sure not to use the deprecated bold or italicize tags as they are outdated. Never use the underline unless you like to just make people click pointlessly on the screen. They’ll think it’s a link. Don’t use it. Seriously.

For those that want to dive into this in more detail, I have listed several sources to get additional information.

The Rules of Engagement: Socializing in a Digital World

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:53:00 GMT

Not everyone knows what to do when they start out with social media. At first, it doesn’t feel very natural. Once you realize that it’s just another way of communicating, it will seem less intimidating. Here are five rules to live by:

Listen…really

A few years ago, my friend took a Psychology class as a requirement for his major. During one class, the professor asked them to draw a pig on their paper as a personality exercise. Once they did, he explained what their drawing said about them. Among other things, apparently the size of the ears you draw on your pig indicates how good of a listener you are. Now, that’s quite a big assumption to draw from a little sketch of Babe, but I guess that was to his disadvantage….he didn’t draw ears on his pig. The moral of the story is that we all need to be better active listeners, but if you are a company involved with social media you may not realize just how important it is. If you don’t listen to your customers, how will you know what they need and want? Take the time to listen; it will pay off down the line.

Offer value (give…give…give….then receive…maybe)

Your customers are not a part of your payroll. They don’t care how much of X product/service that you sell this month. They want to know that they are more than just a number and that a company actually cares about them and their needs. If you don’t realize what your purpose is; I’ll tell you. It should be to get to know your consumers and offer them value…not just in the form of your product. After you’ve listened to your customers (see #1) and figured out what they care about, then you can tie yourself into whatever that emotion is. That’s the real gold. Offer them something besides the direct sell of your product. Show them your expertise, tell them something they may not know about your industry, or help them solve a problem. Provide information that you think they would enjoy passing along to their friends, and then maybe they’ll return the favor by following you and becoming an evangelist for your company.

Don’t become THAT guy

You know the guy with the huge ego that won’t shut up about how great he is? We all know that guy and we all avoid him because he’s obnoxious. Don’t turn your company into that guy. One of my biggest pet peeves is looking at the twitter feed of a company only to find that they’re using it solely for self-promotion. It immediately makes me think that they don’t care about their consumer. If you haven’t heard, traditional media is slowly dying… and so is the one-way conversation. Stop trying to sell sell sell and actually engage in a conversation. They want to know a personality. Show them yours!

Out of sight, out of mind

Are you tweeting once a month? Posting on Facebook every so often? Blogging when you feel like it? Wrong. Consumers will come back to your blog, Facebook, and Twitter when they know that you’ll have new information. Consistency is key; make sure they know what to expect from you. If you’re sporadic about it, they won’t know when to check in and will assume that you aren’t serious about communicating with them. Make a schedule and stick to it.

Learn from others

If you don’t know the leaders and influencers in your industry, find them. Industry news sources? Read them. Monitor their blog regularly and/or follow them on Twitter. Check out what information they’re providing, and learn from it. Talk about it. Then, be really nice and link back to it. They’ll appreciate it, you’ll learn something you may not have known, and you’ll offer value to your audience. It’s a win/win situation.

Do you have any to add? I’d love to hear what you think.

The Four Horsemen of the Advertising Apocalypse

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:36:00 GMT

Like it or hate it, the end is near for the old ways of marketing your brand. I realize the term “print is dead” still makes some of you nervous and/or angry, but why fight the inevitable? Don’t get me wrong, I understand the appeal of corporate swag and the need for business cards and targeted print ads from time to time. In fact, I’m a Kindle-hating old school bibliophile who can’t let go of the physical book. But even with my love of literature and typography, I recognize that when it comes to twenty-first century marketing, print’s little more than a niche pastime, like canning your own jelly or collecting vinyl.

Since I’ve spent the last couple of months writing posts about my views on the antiquity of print and the power of digital media, I thought I’d write a capstone message naming the most useless print mediums—the four horsemen if you will—that are the harbingers of the ensuing destruction of the printed world. Just like vinyl records, I don’t think print will truly go extinct, but I’d bet green money that if you still rely on any of these four methods to market your brand, you’ll soon end up in the business netherworld.

The Yellow Pages

I’m going prove the utter uselessness of Yellow Pages with one simple demonstration. I love my grocery store, Forward Foods. Take three seconds and try to guess the URL of their website. If you guessed forwardfoods.com, you’re a genius. Now guess what page in the Yellow Pages you can find their ad? See where I’m going with this? The only thing the Yellow Pages are good for is body armor in prison deathstick fights.

Outdoor Ads (billboards, vehicle wraps, etc.)

I know you think your Chevy Avalanche looks sexy wrapped head-to-toe in your brand colors, but when’s the last time you checked the rate-of-return on that little $4,000 - $7,000 investment? I don’t buy products or call numbers I see on outdoor ads for the same reason I can’t respect middle-age men who still wear Crocs: They’re distasteful. If you own a gas station or café right off a major interstate, spend money on outdoor advertising. Otherwise, avoid them like week-old fish tacos.

Garbage Print (maps/calendars/direct mail)

Not long ago I came across a city map of Norman that was loaded with local business ads. Given Google’s success at world domination, who on Earth still uses folding maps? Better yet, what type of business owner thinks it’s a good idea to buy an ad in one? As digital technologies render previously useful things obsolete—maps, calendars, record stores—think before you purchase. As for direct mail, you’re probably beyond saving if you’re paying someone to infuriate potential customers with physical spam.

Printed Magazines & Newspapers

Full disclosure: I like magazines. Some of them I love. Newspapers I can live without since I, like most people, receive my news via the web, but I get the appeal magazines. However, the printed magazine model is an unstable advertising platform for several reasons. For starters, in this recession publishing companies are folding left and right—even once-popular magazines like Gourmet and Vibe have bit the dust. Also, as printing and mailing costs increase, content loses ground to paid ads, turning simple reading pleasure into a scavenger hunt. As companies develop sharper and thinner tablets a la the iPad 2, more magazines and newspapers will go digital, leaving their printed counterparts behind. Just think how unreadable most mainstream publications have become—especially tree killers like Vogue and Cosmo that bury "cover articles" in a maze of ads and noxious perfumes. If you think finding content’s challenging, just imagine how little attention is paid to your ad.

Disagree? Think I’m a fool? Lay down a little rhetorical persuasion in the comments section.

Brief Thoughts on HTML5 & CSS3

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:18:00 GMT

At Level9, we’re always interested in the next big thing, especially when it comes to design and development. Even by conservative estimates, I think HTML5 & CSS3 are going to be real game changers.

Last week, Web Design Ledger posted an excellent breakdown of the pros and cons of each application as well as extremely helpful introductions for those unfamiliar with the terrain.

Read it here and tell me what you think.

Blog Madonnas: Advertising in the Age of Pioneer Women and Young House Love

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:47:00 GMT

While making a "Best Of The 80's" playlist last month, I stumbled across several tracks from Like a Virgin and ever since I keep thinking about Madonna. For the record, I'm not really a fan of Madonna's music (never have been), but I think she's a damn smart business woman, especially the way she's kept a strangle-hold on pop music for nearly thirty years.

I think a lot of blogs fall into the Madonna category: Even if you don't like them, you have to admit that they know their market and every conical piece of their anatomy is designed to drive the dollars home. The deception of blogs is that we think of them as the daily ramblings of wannabe writers and self-absorbed diarists, when in fact most of them (the good ones anyway) are carefully constructed to move you and appeal to your impulse purchasing genes. Deep down I think we're all aware of the lie, but we buy it anyway, and that makes blogs very interesting and very much in vogue.

Two blogs that clearly illustrate the power of targeted advertising in the blogosphere are The Pioneer Woman and Young House Love. These blogs have two crucial things in common: One, they both had humble beginnings and have since matured into online empires. Two, though I think they’re very smart in terms of audience appeal, I’m not a fan of either one of them—but it's not me they have in their scopes.

The Material Country Girl

The Pioneer Woman (PW) was created by Ree Drummond—a housewife, blogger and food writer who lives outside of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. She started her blog in 2006 to chronicle her experiences of living on a cattle ranch and fulfilling her domestic rolls of wife and mother. She has since expanded the blog to encompass everything from her sexual fixation with her husband’s chaps to her interest in photography, cooking, and homeschooling. The site is now divided into six main sections dedicated to each of her pastimes, including the relatively new Tasty Kitchen—a user-submitted recipe site.

For me, there’s not much to like about PW. Drummond’s personality is all sugar-frosting and empty calories, and she perpetually infuses her buffet table of housewifery with more kitsch than there is butter in her chocolate sheet cake. And while I dislike the blog, I have to admire her razor-sharp ability to diversify her brand and appeal to an unbelievably wide audience. She’s been called “The Oprah of Oklahoma”…and rightly so. She’s pivoted her relatively simple blog into a New York Times best-selling cookbook, and Columbia Pictures recently purchased the rights to the tale of her country-gal romance (Reese Whitherspoon is rumored to play the lead). I can hate the blog all I want, but talk about cross-platform marketing. And did I mention that her site regularly receives over 650,000 hits per month, which translates into 22 million monthly page views according to her publisher, Federated Media, and that it’s been reported she makes over a million a year from display income alone?

Home Remodeling Like a Virgin

Though less commercially ambitious than PW, John and Sherry Petersik of Young House Love (YHL) have also attracted a cult following since starting their blog in 2007 to showcase their DIY projects while remodeling their first home in Richmond, Virginia.

Part voyeuristic peek into the life of a twenty-something marriage, part intelligently frugal DIY project series, YHL is This Old House for the hip and tech-savvy. Though John and Sherry are sweet to the point of saccharinity, the blog is captivating, richly detailed, and absolutely irresistible to the HGTV crowd. What they lack in marital realism, they make up for with engaging posts that cover the spectrum of home decorating and remodeling, and they move with methamphetic speed from project to project. They even took a loss on the recent sale of their first home because they had literally run out of things to work on. Their blog has become so popular (they average somewhere around 70,000 hits per month) that they both have quit their day jobs to concentrate on the site full-time. Their Chihuahua, Hamburger, also has his own blog…and advertisers.

Papa Don’t Preach

So what’s the point of all this blog talk about blogs? Money—in the sense of not wasting it. According to a recent Adweek Media/Harris poll, when adults 18-34 were asked which type of ads they tend to ignore the most, 43 percent identified internet banner ads, and 20 percent named search engine ads as the redheaded stepchildren of online media. With so much money being slung around the web in a blind, cavalier fashion, it’s important to take a moment and ask yourself where your audience’s watering hole resides. The Pioneer Woman receives 22 million page views a month, which is unfathomable for a small-town blogger. Hell, 22 million views isn’t bad for Nike or Wal-Mart. We can't all be blog Madonnas, but if we capitalize on those who are, we can circumvent a lot of hard work and headache in order to reach our base. Rather than purchase online media through an advertising company who will undoubtedly take the scatter-shot approach, why not stalk your game with stealth and accuracy?

Even if you work in a niche market machining aircraft parts or making custom Christmas ornaments out of rodent skulls (not a joke), chances are there’s a blog out there that’s already ensnared your audience, and they’re just waiting for advertisers. Before you pour money into glossy magazine ads or easily ignored banner ads, look around to see if there are do-it-yourselfers or pioneer queens who have have done the leg work for you. Educate yourself. Tailor your message. And if after reading this you still think blogs are too mundane and acquisitive to be of any use, remember that we are, as the song goes, living in a material world.

Digital Signage and the 21st Century Entrepreneur

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:46:00 GMT

I don’t know exactly when it happened or where, but sometime during the early 2000’s the advertising world, armed with bulky PDAs and Nokia cellphones, convinced entrepreneurs and small business owners that the digital revolution wasn’t necessarily happening on the web (it was), but that digital signage or “screen media” (electronic billboards or any digital screen capable of rotating ads in a public space) was prime real estate for communicating to customers. I still remember the first time I experienced the claustrophobic discomfort of watching ads for Coke and local insurance agencies on a 30 x 70 foot cinema screen. Talk about captive advertising. To be fair, I still can’t say the ad logic is entirely flawed. I’ll even concede that despite my hatred for movie screen ads, they probably have value. But what baffles me is that the signage trend continues to this day, with some industry reports citing as much as a 30 percent increase in signage use in 2009.

The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead. And the Dead keep it.

We all know that print is largely dead or dying; we know that everything from magazines to home appliances to running shoes are finding rejuvenation online. But when it comes to advertising, especially here in the lower Midwest and Southwestern United States, there are countless businesses that still budget huge annual expenditures for print ads and digital sign placement. Some of these companies—and I don’t care if this sounds cold—are hopeless cases and deserve the slow, pathetic death that befalls those who cannot adapt. Entrepreneurs of the 21st century need to be aware of the road ahead if they want avoid the pending zombie signage plague. Among the predictions circulating through the public sphere about what will make or break companies in 2011, there’s a growing consensus about the increased convergence of mobile, cloud, and social technology. This means print ads and signage placement in physical locations will become less and less important.

The Way Open

First and foremost, forget everything you’ve heard about digital signage unless it involves your customers’ personal screens (desktop computers, laptops, smart phones, iPads, etc.). Bob Greenberg and Barry Wacksman, two of the geniuses behind RGA, make a key distinction between “owned media” (traditional media) and “earned media” in their article, “The Shrinking Pie: How Digital has Changed Mass Media’s Investment Model.” According to Greenberg and Wacksman, true digital advertising represents an inversion of the mass media model. Think of the enormous cost of Superbowl ads, full-page print ads, large electronic billboards, or signage placement in high-traffic public areas and their small, uncertain rate-of-return. Now compare that with “earned media”—that is, media that interacts with consumers, who, in turn, share these media properties within their virtual (viral) communities (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). In fact, Pepsi realized the ineptness of the mass media model during last year's Superbowl. Rather than spending tens of millions on halftime commercials, they created the Pepsi Refresh Project, which pours money every month into local communities by funding grants to help new and "refreshing" ideas get off the ground. The project, which is still in operation, has been hugely successful and has earned Pepsi recognition far beyond a mere 30-second spot that, at best, would've given them five minutes of post-bowl water cooler chitchat.

Why is earned media talked about with such vigor by digital agencies? Because, as Greenberg and Wacksman point out, “the people opting in for participation are exactly the consumers marketers want to reach—the ones most engaged in the brand or the category. The next time you watch a popular television show, count how many of the ads are for products or services that are relevant to you. The rest are a waste of the marketer's money.”

What are you doing this very minute to earn your keep?

Misconceptions of Website Management (Part One)

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:37:00 GMT

When it comes to managing a website, there are large misconceptions as to what is needed once the site launches. On one level, you have a really killer site. And on an entirely different level, you are sitting at your desk, looking at your new site hoping it will give you the winning lottery numbers. Regardless of your initial reaction, one thing is for sure: just like a new baby or puppy, your website is dependent on your ability to take care of it.

This four part series will touch on the four most common misconceptions that we have come across as a digital agency. Topics discussed in this series will range anywhere from search engine optimization (SEO) to why your new website is not receiving the "oohs and aahhs" that you think it should be getting.

Misconception One: I have a new website. I should be on the first page of Google, right?

Nope. This is a common misconception that I hear time and again when a website is launched. I hate to tell you this but you are going to have to work at getting your website to the top of the search engines. Some people will succeed in this, but you must keep in mind that you are competing with thousands of other websites that are also vying to be number one.

So, what does a guy gotta do to get to the top?

A lot. But don't worry, once you get the hang of it, mastering the search engine can be fun and worth it in the long run. Though there are a variety of tools and agencies out there that may claim they can instantly get your website to the top of a search engine, the best way to accomplish this is to following a few basic guidelines:

Content-Nothing beats good content. If you take one thing away from this blog post, know that content is one of the keys to SEO. From the copy describing services offered to the pictures and video on a website, content is what your site visitors are looking for and content is what is needed to score big in the battles for the top positions on search engines. Furthermore, in terms of content, make sure that the content on your site is updated. No one wants to go to a site with outdated information.

Age-Another factor that goes into site placement on search engines is how old a domain is. Similar to getting a line of credit, the longer a domain is registered, the better your chances of getting a higher ranking on search engines. There really isn't an exact formula to how long you should initially setup your domain, but I always suggest registering your domain for at least 5 years. True this may be a long time for some, but don't sell your company short.

Structure-You can ask just about any graphic designer or website developer why site structure is important to SEO and you will get varying responses. The one true fact of the matter is that how your website is structured is very important to where your website can be found on a search engine. When explaining site structure to a client interested in SEO, I always go back to looking at a map or a blueprint. If you have a blueprint that has been professionally drafted, you are more likely to be able to understand the layout of the building better than if you were to view a blueprint by someone with little experience in blueprinting. Likewise, when a search engine crawls all of the websites out there, they need to be able to quickly take a snap shot of a website. If the site is lacking proper structure, search engines may not crawl a site as often, hurting your search engine rankings.

Keywords-Keywords, in my opinion are the most important factors when it comes to SEO. Having keywords working behind the scenes on a website is what makes everything happen. Without keywords, search engines will have a very hard time finding your website. Though it is very important to have keywords, I always caution clients to play it smart and not go overboard with useless keywords.

Keep in mind that these are just a few of the 200+ factors that go into search engine optimization. As I mentioned above, a lot goes into making sure your website ranks high on search engines.

What are your thoughts on the wild world of SEO? Leave a comment or question below, and I will try to answer it.

Free Desktop and Mobile Wallpaper Downloads

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:14:00 GMT

I thought I would kick off the new year with some fresh new Level9 wallpaper for both desktop and mobile. We're starting out with these four styles, and will be occasionally releasing new ones in the future. If for some reason we don't have the exact size you need for your device, give us a shout! We'll get a super special one whipped up just for you. Enjoy!



320x480 iPhone	1400x900	320x480 iPhone	1400x900
1024x1024 iPad	1600x1024	1024x1024 iPad	1600x1024
1024x768	1680x1050	1024x768	1680x1050
1280x800	1920x1200	1280x800	1920x1200
1280x1024		1280x1024



320x480 iPhone	1400x900	320x480 iPhone	1400x900
1024x1024 iPad	1600x1024	1024x1024 iPad	1600x1024
1024x768	1680x1050	1024x768	1680x1050
1280x800	1920x1200	1280x800	1920x1200
1280x1024		1280x1024

Google Does Not Penalize for Ugly. Pt. 3

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:43:00 GMT

In our first two posts we discussed how and when to use the different Heading tags that the web gives you to work with. In this post I want to talk about why you should use them.

Here’s your crash course on structure:

Let’s compare a website to a PowerPoint presentation. There is a title slide and supporting slides. Most presentations are built using a template so that all the slides look consistent. Many presenters go to great lengths to make the presentation engaging. Often times you’ll be bombarded with bleeps and blurps, dancing text and lots of swooshing things. I’ll save my attitude towards bling for a future post, but you get the picture.

In contrast to this, the presenter will embed notes about the presentation. Sometimes they’ll embed the entire script, no bling – just information. In this example let me draw some similarities:

PowerPoint = Your Web Browser
Presentation Notes = Website Code
Bling = Website Styling

Most web professionals will agree that it is imperative to keep the styling (or bling) separate from the structure (or code) of the website. There are many technical reasons for this, but there is a practical side as well. If your boss asked you to attend a seminar, absorb the information and then prepare a synopsis of what you learned, would having the bling or the notes be more valuable to you? When you think about it, Google has to do this millions of times a day. A website will be visited, a synopsis of content will be created and eventually be categorized for others to find. The best sites have notes ready for Google.

So, why wouldn’t you organize your site for Google?

In the world of self-service websites (the techie term is Content Management System) you are essentially replacing the expensive web developer who, in past times, was responsible for the day-to-day upkeep of your website. The problem is that most developers don’t show you the ropes so you can work as effectively as they can. They don’t sit down and explain this stuff during orientation.

A better question is why wouldn't your web developer do this for you?

Simple arithmetic. It costs web developers more work, more time and more planning to build a website based on a hierarchical structure. Many developers take the short cut of lumping everything into one file so they can move on to the next job as quickly as possible—less time equals more profit. I would like to think our industry has evolved past this type of profit-margin thinking, but given that it only takes a $99 piece of software to advertise yourself as a web developer, I don't see an evolutionary leap happening anytime soon.

Bottom Line

If you choose the self-service route, make sure you select a quality product that is built to be Google friendly. (What's the point of having a website if no one can find you?) And if decide to hire an agency or development firm, vet them appropriately. There are too many companies out there trying to pass off sub-par work as digital gold.

2010 Top Ten List

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:04:00 GMT

I have never been fond of Top 10 lists. I think David Letterman ruined them for me when he stopped being funny. To me, the top 10 list is similar to a drum roll: a lot of build up to a "dramatic conclusion" very similar to the last 5 minutes of the movie Inception (Leo Dicaprio is stuck in dreamland forever).

Without further ado, my 2010 Top 10 List:

10. Apple may make nice products but they’re terrible liars.

2010 was an enormous year for Apple, Inc. It was a year that introduced the iPad and iPhone 4. It was a year that offered the redesigned Mac Book Air, the slimmest laptop computer in the world. It was also a year that Apple was called out (on various platforms) for telling little white lies. In early 2010 the yet to be released iPhone 4 was left at a bar. Jump ahead a few weeks and a dirty investigation into the “possible iPhone 4” was underway. Even though Apple pulled the trigger on the investigation, they refused to admit that it was an actual prototype of the iPhone 4. This got everyone and their lamas upset.

The iPhone 4 was eventually launched and everyone was excited; that is until they started using the new shiny device. As perfect as Apple tries to seem, the iPhone 4 had a flaw in the external antennas, making it very hard to hold a signal. With complaint after complaint coming into Apple, the technology giant blamed everyone but themselves for the flaw. My word of advice is to just be honest with your customer base.

9. Logo LOL.

A logo is the heart of a company. It is the impression that sticks and is sometimes more recognized than the actual name of a company. So what happens when a company changes its logo? The answer: an online riot. In 2010 a few companies decided to change things up and go loco with their logo. In early Fall, the Gap decided to shock the world with their minimalist logo. Instead of a big blue box with the word “GAP” inside, they chose to have a much smaller blue box with the store name resting outside the box. I guess Gap was really trying to think outside the box. After over 2,000 angry comments were posted on the Gap Facebook page, along with a couple of death threats, the old logo returned and everyone was happy.

Other logo notables in 2010: MySpace, Walmart, iTunes and many more.

8. R.I.P. Yellow Pages.

I remember going through freshmen orientation and getting my very own copy of the Yellow Pages. The gigantic book was my new key to prank calling pizza places and clipping coupons that were never used. Today, however, the yellow pages are best used as door stops. The yellow pages are dead, and I will prove it to you in this example. Get a stop watch and look up the number to your favorite restaurant. Once you’re done do the same thing, but this time use a search engine such as Google. What once took minutes using a phone directory now takes a few seconds. Again, the Yellow Pages are dead and they know it. Throughout the years the phone directories have been shrinking. In response to the shrinking directory, Yellow Pages are shifting their focus to online directories.

7. Flash vs. HTML5.

I love seeing school yard fights. I love the smack talking, the name calling, the victory yells. 2010 brought a pretty nasty fight between animated content on the web. For a while now Adobe’s Flash animation has been the only way to create fun and unique animation on websites (most video content on the web uses Flash). Flash animation brought life to an otherwise dull website-until the new kid on the block came to town. HTML5 promised a lot and is really starting to prove itself as Flash’s arch nemesis. HTML5 shows that it can do everything Flash does, without taking forever to load a website. I can also view HTML5 content on my smart phone without the website freaking out and my phone going into paperweight mode.

Whether you’re a fan of Flash or not, HTML5 is proving to be a real pain in Flash animations butt. Who knows what 2011 will bring when HTML5 really starts taking over the world. (And for the education portion of this post, HTML stands for “Hot Tanner/More Love.”)

6. Apple releases a kick ass tablet w/ a funny name.

Say what you want about the iPad. I’ve heard all the jokes about the funny name and it being “just a big iPhone.” At the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is that it’s a game changer. True, the iPad was not the first tablet device to hit the market. Remember the ThinkPad? The point is Apple was the first to do the tablet right. And for everyone that thinks it is just a big iPhone, perhaps it is but it is a heck of a lot easier posting to twitter while I’m driving versus looking at the 3.5 inch phone screen.

5. Your website sucks and you are to blame.

Ok, that was a little harsh, but in some cases it may be true. If you are a business owner, please take a few minutes to look at your website. If your website does not properly and professionally showcase your brand, your website sucks. In this day and age where everyone is online, it is very important that your brand is properly displayed online. A good website doesn’t necessarily mean stopping at a bank to take out a second mortgage. Some of the best websites I’ve seen cost very little. So, apologize to your 17 year old cousin that is eager to redesign your website and contact a reliable company who really understands your brand.

4. Geo Location Apps: Fun for friends, stalkers and house robbers.

I love telling everyone where I am at all times. Better yet, I love stalking my old girlfriend that dumped me at senior prom. Regardless of how you use geo location apps on social networking platforms, it has become quite the big deal in 2010. From Facebook’s places to Gowalla and Foursquare, connecting with friends and strangers has never been easier. And retailers love it! Today, when you “check in,” depending on location, a tab will display exclusive deals for users that check into a specific location. Furthermore, I see this as a new form of customer testimonials. The more “check ins” at a location probably shows that the establishment is doing something right.

3. Facebook puts the smack down on Google.

For quite some time now Google has been number 1. Google is the most powerful and used search engine, and up until 2010 they were the most visited website. Google was king of the mountain and no one could have ever predicted that a young Harvard dropout would dethrone the king. In March of 2010, the social networking site Facebook passed Google in visits, forcing the heart broken search engine to rethink its business model. Who knows what is in store for the new king of the web in 2011. Will Facebook remain king of the mountain or will Google go after it with its revamped marketing model? I’m still holding my breath for MySpace to make a comeback.

2. The mobile website takeover.

The year 2010 made way for a very interesting shift in how users surf the web. Up until the iPhone was released, viewing websites on mobile devices was very slow and downright ugly. Tiny screens are displaying full websites just didn’t quite work out. Enter the mobile website. With a mobile site, users exposed to information they would find on a traditional website, only scaled down. Instead of waiting for an entire website to load on a 3G network, a creative mobile site can load in just a few seconds.

In today’s hustle and bussle world we live in, people expect to get their content fast. No one has the time or patience to scroll and zoom to get the information they want.

1. You may not be online but your critics are.

Whether you want to admit it or not, people are talking about you. No matter if you have worked your butt off trying to isolate yourself from the World Wide Web, your brand is going to be talked about online. Word of Mouth 1.0 was someone talking to a friend about an experience they had with a business. Word of Mouth 2.0 is someone posting an experience they had with a business on a blog or social networking site(s). What once reached approximately 15-25 people, now has the power to reach thousands (and in some cases millions of users).