If you follow these blogs at all you will know that a brand is much more than just a logo. It’s the feeling a customer has about your business based on your name, logo, colors, products and in large measure their customer experience.

We have recently added a new service for our clients and future clients; a commercial interior designer, Michelle Earley, who owns MLE Designs in Tampa, Florida. Michelle and her team specialize in commercial and healthcare interiors, but what makes her extra special for us is that she understands and designs for the customer experience.

In a collaborative effort, IDEAS4 and MLE will help craft a brand solution from your identity through to the user experience interiors, coordinating colors, logos and marks, as well as more esoteric things like feelings, emotions and wayfinding.

For more information about MLS, visit their website at MLEDesignsInc.com. For more information about IDEAS4 tampa web design experience, click here.

And to learn more about branding, please visit our Branding Overview page.

As you probably guess, I follow with interest our ranking for such keywords as tampa web design. We still rank high for Tampa Ad Agency and some other keywords, but web design has disappeared. In the past we have always ranked on the first page, but for some reason we don’t any more. We are working to analyze why that happened so we can help with SEO for our other clients.

Something must have changed recently that I am not aware of – but that seems to happen all the time with Google. We will work on finding our own solution, so that our research can be shared with you and help you in your own site rankings.

We started by changing our title tags and home page text a bit yesterday. We will wait a week and see what happens. We also have a number of keyword domains that we own that are related to this keyword, so next we turn off the forwarding of those domains and see if that has had an impact.

We also wrote this blog with the keyword in the headline and a few times in the copy to see if that makes a difference. We’ll see.

We might also move this blog to a subpage of the main site and see if that helps. One step at a time. Keep us bookmarked and we’ll let you know. We will report back as we find out what triggers our return to the first page. In the mean time if you need a Tampa web design firm, contact IDEAS4

We take so much for granted. Do we realize that we are the luckiest people in the world? And the most blessed and resource rich (natural and human) people who have ever walked the Earth.

We have grocery stores, cars, abundant food and the opportunity to live free and pursue our dreams – whatever they are. We have the opportunity to fail AND succeed. We have it all.

We live by laws, a visionary Constitution written by men who were willing to give their lives for an ideal never before seen. And, for 240 years when asked to serve in the cause of America,  we have had men and women who have stood up, raised their hands and said, “Yes I will give up my life so that others might continue to be free.” Can you imagine the sacrifice they have made so that we can sit here and gleefully chat and exchange ideas, go to the beach, have a barbecue, buy a $199 washing machine on sale and even protest against the very things they sacrifice for, all in the name of freedom?

It should boggle your mind and humble you. It does me. It should make you say “thank you for your service” to every service man or woman who has ever worn the uniform. And not just today, every day. So I ask you all to make a commitment to do just that. Say thank you every time, every day you see a member of the armed services. Even better, if you see them out to lunch or dinner, pay for their meal – go above and beyond. Today, I make such a commitment.

So this afternoon as we lift our beers, margaritas, cokes, waters or whatever you are drinking, make a toast – “To the men and women who serve – thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for what you do for us everyday.”

We are the Land of the Free – Because we are The Home of the Brave.

We  salute you. God bless you all.

IDEAS4 launched its new and improved website today with much more content and information about our capabilities and skills. We area also testing our Google organic knowledge to see if this new site with additional SEO capabilities moves us up in the rankings further than we were before.

Our web stats will be evaluated as well to see if we get deeper penetration of visits into the site.

We love experimenting on ourselves and testing new search engine optimization, web design and marketing skills to see if we can improve on what we already know. All of this benefits our clients on a daily basis.

After about a year and a half of molasses-like business, all of a sudden in December, we took off again like the old days. We have been extremely busy on corporate reposition projects, new websites, branding and design projects. Whew! From wondering where my next meal was coming from (figuratively) to being booked pretty solid until April, the year looks like it will turn into a good one. But why?

I spent a while trying to figure that out – the economy is still very slow and the recover very shallow. The best conclusion I can draw is that companies pulled back waiting for an economic recovery, but none was at hand. After more than a year of waiting and watching, they decided to take things into their own hands. The smart ones have made the decision to invest in a fresh look, a new direction, find new marketing ideas and plans. They just couldn’t wait any longer.

So by the sheer desire to get things moving again, companies one by one are starting to spend. As more and more do the same, that money they invest is passed through to my suppliers and vendors and in turn passed through to theirs. THAT is how a recover happens.

I also believe it has nothing to do with a stimulus package, but everything to do with the sprit of American business to grow and succeed. Watch the coming quarter’s growth figures and I think you will find that the economy is starting to percolate with new business activity, inventory purchases and a renewed trust in the economic engine of this country. small businesses.

From what was a dire circumstance last year, this year looks rather rosy indeed. I’m not sure who stepped on the accelerator, but I can already feel the wind in my hair (please no bald jokes).

After being involved with pet rescue for almost 3 years now, trying to save one dog at a time and watching all of the rescues and shelters try their best to get the attention of the public about spay/neuter, adoption and animal abuse, it became clear that trying to save one at a time was a noble but fruitless long-term strategy to solve the problem. Yes, it saves some great dogs, but how long can a few people save a few dogs and get anywhere close to solving the problems we have brought on ourselves?

Enter the idea of Media to the Rescue, a combined effort of the Tampa Bay television stations, radio stations, outdoor companies and print media to do a joint marketing campaign to all the populations with a consistent message over a longer period of time than ever done before. We had our first meeting on October 15th and received support for our effort moving forward. Today we got confirmation that one of the television stations and a bunch of radio stations are working to move the idea forward.

The campaign will be called, Let’s Lick This, and will focus on pet overpopulation, with messages about spay/neuter and adoption, and pet abuse. The billboard campaign has already been developed as has much of the messaging for the campaign.

Media to the Rescue is looking for partners in broadcast creative, broadcast production and a website development to assist in developing additional materials for the campaign.

We are also looking for additional media partners who might be interested in seeing what the plans are, and how they can participate in the program.

Finally, we are looking for animal-based companies, companies run by animals lovers and advertisers that just want to provide a great community service by assisting in the rollout of this campaign.

For more information, contact us at info@mediatotherescue.com

My business, and the business of most of my friends and colleagues, seems to be turning around. Everyone in my circle has become more optimistic and encouraged as business picks up in websites, marketing, publishing, advertising and similar fields. But why?

The economy is stagnant, the stimulus by all accounts but Joe Biden’s has not done anything but waste a lot of our money, unemployment is still rising, the stock market appears to be in a wait and see mode, and yet, companies are spending again.

As we all probably know, recessions are in large measure psychological. Yes, there are other economic factors, but when the media says there is a recession coming, businesses stop employing and slow manufacturing – and that in turn leads to the recession. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And this recession is largely no different. Business has been sitting on the sidelines waiting for things to turn around, but there is no turnaround coming. But when a business, one that needs to grow to survive, sits idle, management gets antsy to get things moving again. And that, in my opinion is what is happening right now.

Businesses cannot wait any longer for a government program to work, and most now know it won’t. So all across America businesses are starting to tick up their spending in order to get their businesses growing again. You see dollars being spent in marketing and related fields, Internet services like SEO and optimistic entrepreneurs plowing ahead with the better mousetrap, spending on services and products. And that in turn starts the money flowing through the economy again.

And as the money starts flowing, more people become optimistic and start to spend as well, and the upward spiral of economic grow begins.

This is a true capitalistic movement, one not borne from government bailouts, one-time spends like cash for clunkers or multi-million dollar government stimulus grants for the migration habits of wilderness ants. Nope, this is a capitalist resurgence. Businesses need to grow to survive and can no longer sit on the sidelines waiting for things to happen. So they are making things happen themselves.

That that resurgence is a self-fulfilling prophecy as well. Only this time the media is no where to be found. Until the election draws near…

As we approach the 2010 elections and businesses have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and the economy beings to bloom again, the party in power will take all the credit. “See, we told you the stimulus worked.” Or “See, we told you the tax cuts would work.” But the reality is, it’s capitalism that works. The drive and desire to make money, lots of money is what pulls us out of recessions.

Now, as the economy turns, it is incumbent on the government to get out of the way and let capitalism do its thing. And when it does, it’s a beautiful thing, and we again become the envy of the world.

I bit the bullet today and bought TampaWebDesigner.com and TampaAdAgency.com. I am trying a Google experiment to see if I can get the keyword domain to show up higher than IDEAS4 does for certain keywords, like Tampa web design. Right now, IDEAS4 ranks pretty high – first page for all of my major keywords – so this will be interesting to see if this works.

I have a client who owns a name that shows up as the number 2 listing in his category – considering there are 10,000 competitors, this is pretty good! His website has only 4 pages of very strategically written content. His site has proven that it’s not the number of pages, but how well they are written and to a large extent, how old the domain is. There are excellent lessons to be learned here.

Anyway, back to TampaWebDesigner.com. I built the site with just a few pages, a minimalist site for someone who likes to share his knowledge with everyone. I kept it to about 4 pages with keywords kept below 3% of the total words – with mostly galleries of web design sites we have done and many of the unique branding we have done as well. As soon as I complete the site map, I will submit the site to Google, and see what happens. Stay tuned.

IDEAS4 launched a new site today, Critiki.net, designed to provide do it yourself marketers and advertisers critique and feedback for their creative ideas, marketing plans, advertising, websites and other communications tools.

I get feedback all the time from small businesses who want me to take a look at their ads, websites, brochures and things, because they don’t have anyone to bounce the ideas off of. It is especially true if you can’t afford an advertising agency and don’t have any formal training in marketing or advertising.

For $50 IDEAS4 will provide you some basic feedback on your creative – ads, direct mailers, whatever – and help point you in the right direction strategically and creatively. That is a great deal.

At the higher end of the spectrum, we can provide a deeper look at an entire campaign, from target audience to execution and can provide creative resources like copywriters,  photographers, stock photo houses and others.

In the end, we hope they like the feedback and the new direction they are provided and decide to hire IDEAS4 to do some of their work, but it’s not mandatory – this is just a resource for small businesses to help make their marketing and sales effort  stronger.

For more information go to http://www.critiki.net

Every day it seems the economy is getting weaker and slower. As that happens, high ticket item sales will become smaller and smaller as customers focus on the “important” things and hold off large purchases for another day. It’s a great learning experience for all of us who have not gone through a downturn like this (which no one alive has).

This has been especially true in my business, web development, branding, advertising and marketing. Where I used to rely on a few large projects per month to make a nice living, those big projects are getting smaller and fewer and farther between. Lucky for me, I have a small, nimble business that can change models quickly with a little retooling. The key is recognizing what my business strengths are, available to exploit, be able to choose a strategic direction and move forward with all my energies.

The strategic leap I made, and you might find this to be true as well, is that it is easier to sell an low priced quality product to more people than an expensive product to a few people (who aren’t buying right now anyway). The underlying model is based on social networking, but you can take that model and stretch it in all kinds of ways to make it work for your revenue model. So I share this change in the hope of providing some ideas you might consider as the market continues to soften.

One of the things I have been doing over the past 5 years is buying domain names. After a year or 2 I realized I wasn’t focused on the right model, but ended up with about 1000 pretty decent names. I was hoping to land the big one and hold out for millions, but that hasn’t worked out quite how I planned.

As luck would have it, several of the names were perfect for new internet businesses. But instead of selling them to others to develop, I am moving forward with the development myself. With the design expertise, and a few good programmers, getting the sites launched would be affordable. So off we go.
Right now we have 4 properties in development built on different internet business models, one that we expect to have very high traffic on that will be free, generating revenue from advertising, one is a B2B  sellers paid / buyers free model, one is an inexpensive everyone pays for the service model and one is an off-beat charity site for “grownups.”

Although different  revenue models, the one thing they all have in common is social networking. 

Whether B2B, B2C or C2C, the place to be is social networking. What we have done is thought outside the box – beyond “sharing stupid human tricks” online and building revenue models based on the social networking platform that are not available right now.

We expect live launch in the coming days, one at a time. As they launch, in addition to posting the information here, we will be sending out press releases, posting on facebook, linkedin and other social media sites and starting to build a network of users inexpensively but quickly over time. I will let you know here, how each one is doing as we move forward.

So good luck with your own business process shift, and I hope you find new ways to generate revenue in this down market.