For those of you not familiar with the term, a snowbird is a person who escapes cold weather for sun and sand.  Cleveland winters can be brutal (lake effect snow anyone?) and many folks migrate to warmer climates during those frosty months. 

With the opening of our West Palm Beach, Florida office we’ve officially joined the ranks of the snowbirds.  Programming on the beach here we come! 

All kidding aside, we are excited about the expansion of WRIS.  This will be a great opportunity for us to bring our custom web design and development to a new market. 

Seth Krostitch, Senior Engineer, will be leading our Florida office but will continue to work on projects for clients across the country. 

And just to be clear, our Cleveland, Ohio office isn’t going anywhere.  We started in Northeast Ohio way back in 1996 (practically before Nick was born) and have no plans of moving.   

So we’re still going to be here in Cleveland doing what we do best (well, at least until the snow starts falling…)

One of my favorite tools is Basecamp, an online project management tool.  We use it at WRIS to manage our internal and client web development projects. 

My favorite features include:

• “Corralling of email” – It can get a little crazy in your inbox when there’s a bunch of people on a project and everyone starts sending “Reply All” emails.  We encourage everyone involved in a  project (including the client) to send emails via Basecamp so that we can have a central source for all communication and email threads are stored nicely.  It really cuts down on email confusion.
• To-do’s – Transparency is important when working with a client.  By creating an on-line to-do list, the client can see exactly what’s been done and what’s still to do.  No secrecy – it’s all right out in the open.
• File management – Much like email, trying to keep track of files can get hairy especially when there’s multiple revisions involved (for instance, design iterations).  Basecamp allows you to upload and store files and keeps track of who uploaded what and when.  So much easier than keeping everything on a shared drive!

My biggest qualm with Basecamp is that it really doesn’t do a whole lot of reporting.  I am a numbers person and would love to see Gantt charts, time utilization graphs, etc.

All in all, though, it’s an excellent project management tool for a small or medium size business.

With its new website, Heather Moore Jewelry now has a online presence that reflects the beauty and quality of their products.

Heather Moore Jewelry, a Cleveland based company, is known for their stunning handmade personalized jewelry including rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.  Their jewelry line is often featured in fashion magazines including “Town and Country” and “Martha Stewart Weddings”.

Not only is the site visually beautiful, it features some of our best development work yet.  The site was written in ColdFusion, our language of choice for rapid development time.  We had a tight deadline for this project so efficient programming was of the essence. 

Shoppers can browse and select from HMJ’s extensive catalog, allowing them to create a truly unique piece of jewelry, all online.  This catalog is powered by an extensive database and custom content manager on the back end.

We utilized AJAX driven commands to make the shopping experience easier.  No need to refresh the page when changing quantities or sizes – it’s all done inline.

The site’s shopping cart features functionality often seen with much larger e-tailers.  For instance, the smart checkout remembers who you are, allowing for one-click ordering.  This makes the shopping experience easier for the customer while helping to increase sales for HMJ.

One of our favorite things, however, is that shoppers can create “projects”.  A shopper can design a piece of jewelry, save it and work on it later.  This encourages repeat visitors and promotes brand loyalty.

This site was truly a team effort with everyone on the WRIS team pitching in at some point.  The team leads were Bonny Lafave (Project Management), Craig Minch (Web Design) and Adam Euans (Web Development).

Many of our clients are brand new to the concept of email marketing or “email blasts.”  Once we get them set up on our email marketing tool their next question is “What Next?” 

Here are a few simple tips to get you started on your first email marketing campaign:

•  Timing is everything.  The best days to send blasts are Tuesday thru Thursday.
• Polka dots and stripes don’t match.  Your blast should reflect your website’s design.  
•  Blasts are best enjoyed over morning coffee.  Send between 9 and 10AM.
• Don’t be that guy.  Include an opt-out option.
• Tell them what to do.  Include a call to action like “Visit now for 20% off widgets”.
• Don’t be a slacker.  Send your blast consistently on the same day and time. 
•  Do they really love you?  Check the stats to see your open rate and popular links. 
•  Don’t send them to Siberia.  Make links point to relevant portions of your website.
• Plagiarize.  Sort of.  You should include interesting (ATTRIBUTED) articles written by others.
• Don’t be sloppy.  Make sure your links work and there are no typos in your text. 

Unless you are living under a rock you’ve probably heard about Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing.   

There’s a lot of buzz about it for several reasons.  First, it’s a Microsoft product and anything with the name Microsoft affixed to it gets a lot of press.  Second, there’s been a lot of gamesmanship between the big three (Google, Yahoo and Microsoft) ever since Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo.  Third, Microsoft has spent a kazillion dollars on marketing for Bing. 

So what does the introduction of Bing mean for your search engine optimization efforts?  Is it a game changer? Should you revamp your strategy on the account of Bing? 

The simple answer is: not yet.  According to Reuters/StatCounter, Bing did make gains in search engine popularity in June.  However, it’s still way behind Google.  Assuming the surge in popularity of Bing is related to having a great product and not the marketing blitz (which is a whole other conversation), it’s still going to take a really long time for Bing to overtake Google at the current pace. 

I just reviewed our June inSITE reports for our search engine optimization clients.  Without crunching hard numbers, traffic to our clients’ sites referred from Google looked about the same.  Additionally, Bing remained in third place among search engine referral traffic.   

However, for the WRIS site Bing was ahead of Yahoo (but still behind Google).  I have no idea what that means.  Perhaps, people looking for web design or SEO services are more apt to try Bing?  Whatever the reason, I found it interesting.  I’m looking forward to next month’s data to see if the results stay the same or change. 

So in conclusion, don’t change your search engine optimization strategy just yet.  But definitely keep an eye on Bing.