Archive for June, 2007

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Louisiana Technology Park Launches New Email Newsletter

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

Latechparkemail
Flyte recently worked with Stephen Loy of The Louisiana Technology Park — "Home to Louisiana’s Entrepreneurs" — and our friends over at The Marketing Source to develop a branded email newsletter to match the look and feel of the Web site (created by–gasp!–another Web design firm.)

The first issue just came out and it’s got great advice for any entrepreneur, whether you call Louisiana home or not. The featured article is "Making the Case for Legal Council, Start-Ups Need to Start Early!" The article goes on to give advice on naming your company, its structure, needed licenses and more. There’s also information on a $4,000 grant and a profile of a local entrepreneur.

Flyte created a custom-designed HTML email template at Constant Contact for LA Tech Park. This allows the client to send out branded email newsletters without any HTML knowledge, without incurring ongoing fees from a Web developer every time a new issue needs to be sent out. We even trained the team from LA Tech Park remotely in how to use the software.

If you’re looking for advice on your small business or start-up, be sure to sign up for Louisiana Technology Park’s Email Newsletter. If you’re looking for advice on starting your own email newsletter, start here.

Rich Brooks
Email Marketing for Small Businesses & Entrepreneurs

Posted in Email Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Site Launches | No Comments »


The Inn at Ocean’s Edge – Luxury on the Maine Coast

Friday, June 15th, 2007

Innatoceansedge
Just up the road from Camden, Maine, is The Inn at Ocean’s Edge: 22 acres of gardens, lawns and woods, not to mention the Infinity Pool and the award-winning The Edge; oceanfront dining at it’s finest.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Inn last year while I was doing some blog consultation with Jesse Henry and other members of the staff up there. One of my favorite things to do is drive up route 1 in Maine, past Wiscasset, Newcastle and Rockport and all the other towns that make up the mid-coast of Maine. As nice as the trip was, I was really blown away by the resort itself, and they were still (at that point) putting the final touches on the pool and new restaurant.

Hopefully you’ll find that the Web site is a reflection of the Inn at Ocean’s Edge and it’s staff: elegant, beautiful, and extremely helpful and full of great ideas. The site has information on local museums, sailing and hiking adventures, road trips and more. There’s also plenty of Maine coast lodging packages available as well.

The site is also much more search engine friendly than their previous Web site, as well as some other high-end resorts that rely too much on Flash to sell themselves. With some advanced CSS and PHP we were able to create an elegant navigation scheme that doesn’t prevent search engines from indexing their site.

Oceanedgeblog
As part of the Web site redesign we extended the branding to their blog as well.

The Inn at Ocean’s Edge blog talks about events going on in Camden, Lincolnville and the surrounding area. They also promote their packages there as well. Readers can subscribe to the blog through their XML feed or through an email signup to get early alerts about special packages from the Inn.

Rich Brooks
Maine Web Design

Posted in Web Site Launches | 2 Comments »


Maine Becomes First State to Pass Net Neutrality Resolve

Thursday, June 14th, 2007

One state down, 49 to go.

Maine became the first state in the nation to formally recognize the importance of net neutrality. Fellow blogger Lance Duston tipped me off to Maine Is First State in Nation to Pass Net Neutrality Resolve:

Augusta- A diverse coalition of Mainers applauded the enactment
today of the first net neutrality resolve in the nation. The
resolution, LD 1675, recognizes the importance of “full, fair and
non-discriminatory access to the Internet” and instructs the Public
Advocate to study what can be done to protect the rights of Maine
internet users.

"Maine is the first state in the nation to stand up for its
citizens’ rights to a nondiscriminatory internet," said Senator Ethan
Strimling, the original sponsor of LD 1675. "The rest of the nation
should follow suit and study what can be done to protect net
neutrality."

Read the full release here.

Rich Brooks
One More Small Business Owner for Net Neutrality

Posted in Business Philosophy, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Design & Development | No Comments »


Double Dose of Rich Brooks

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

Some days you need two cups of coffee, some days you need two doses of Rich Brooks.

What? You don’t? Well, too late.

At noon I’ll be putting on one of our now-world famous Working Lunch Seminars here at flyte. Today’s topic: Search Engine Optimization: Driving Qualified Traffic to Your Site. If you’re around Portland and you have no lunch plans, there’s still 3 open seats. Register now!

Also, for those of you in Southern Maine, I’ll be on 207 tonight, Maine’s premiere evening news program, talking about a few new cool Web sites that you can personalize and interact with. That’s on at 7pm on channel 6, (WCSH, NBC.)

Rich Brooks
I Get Around

Posted in Entrepreneur & Small Business, flyte news, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments »


How to Piss Off Google

Friday, June 8th, 2007

Are you looking to anger the folks at Google and get blacklisted? Want to reduce the traffic to your Web site by 50% or more? Then just ignore some of these recently updated tips from the Webmaster Guidelines put out by Google.

Sounds reasonable, right?

If you’d like to learn how to rank well at the search engines (as opposed to just not pissing them off), be sure to check out our upcoming Working Lunch Seminar: Search Engine Optimization – How to Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Site. It’s Wednesday, June 13th from noon – 1:30ish at flyte’s offices.

Rich Brooks
Maine SEO

Posted in Search Engine Marketing | 2 Comments »


Have You Got Your Mojo Working?

Friday, June 8th, 2007

I happen to know that Small Giants author Bo Burlingham has a Google Alert on "Small Giants," so let me just say, "hey, Bo! Thanks for speaking for MEBSR last night!"

Bo came in and spoke for about 90 minutes on the characteristics of businesses that choose to be great instead of big. I remembered why I enjoyed his book so much: it’s invigorating. It’s full of great stories that made me want to run back into the office and get back to doing what I love.

I wish I had taken better notes so I could have shared the 5 characteristics of small giants, but I was the guy running the projector, so my hands were full. (Plus, there was a cash bar. ‘Nuff said.)

One thing that was clear about all of the small giants profiled in the book was that they all had "mojo." People wanted to work there. People wanted to buy their products and support them in any way possible. People wanted to wear t-shirts and hats w/their logo. There was a purpose behind the business that went way beyond making a profit. But these companies were (and are) profitable.

I’ve also read Gary Erickson’s book, Raising the Bar, who was profiled in small giants as the owner of Clif Bar. He also talks about the importance of mojo, how Clif lost it’s mojo for a while and how long it took to get it back.

So what is it that makes a company great at the start of the 21st century? Is it mojo? Is it an atmosphere of transparency? Is it a belief in innovation? The ability to be nimble? A sustainable business model? Is it about treating your customers, employees and vendors fairly?

I think most of all, becoming a great business is a journey, not a destination. I feel that we’re (flyte’s) doing a much better job than we were doing just a few years ago, but we have a long way to go. We haven’t done enough to reduce our environmental footprint. We aren’t as involved in our community as I think we should be. There are still too many rough edges in our processes. We’re not as profitable as I’d like to be. (Profit is an essential part of the triple-bottom line.)

However, I don’t see these as shortcomings, but rather opportunities. We’re self-aware enough to know where we need to improve (in most cases,) and get together once a week at staff meetings to discuss how we can be doing a better job. It’s this striving that makes my work so enjoyable and so rewarding.

Whatever your business is, I hope you’re enjoying the journey.

Rich Brooks
Web Design and Internet Marketing Mojo Artist

Posted in Entrepreneur & Small Business | 2 Comments »


5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Graphic Designer

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

Fix Your Marketing Blog has another great post, this one about working with your designer called Don’t Drive Your Graphic Designer Crazy! Although it focuses on print design, trust me, the same could be said about Web design as well. Just because your Web site can and should be regularly changed, doesn’t mean that endless punch lists that delay the launch of your site are in your best interest!

If you’re about to start working with a graphic designer or Web designer, or you’re having trouble communicating with your current designer, be sure to check out these five tips for creating effective communications.

Rich Brooks
Maine Web Design & Development

Posted in Web Design & Development | 2 Comments »


Give Viagra Away so There’s No Profit in Selling It

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

That was one of the more creative ideas for how to reduce spam and fight spammers at the "Penalty Box Summit" at the Search Marketing Expo 2007 in Seattle.

Most of the session was about how to get out of a search engine’s penalty box once you’ve gotten in for "bad behavior," as well as better ways of reporting spam that you find yourself.

For a more complete run down of this session, check out Penalty Box Summit at Search Engine Roundtable.

For some additional advice on how to rank higher than your competition at Google and Yahoo, check out our upcoming seminar on Search Engine Optimization: How to Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Web Site. It’s being held Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 in our offices in Portland, Maine. Seating is limited, so reserve your space now.

Rich Brooks
SEO Seminars

Posted in Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing | No Comments »


Web Developer Wanted at Flyte New Media

Friday, June 1st, 2007

Flyte10_2
Flyte is in the market for a full time Web developer. If you–or someone you know–has some mad coding skills and is looking for a full time position creating table-free Web sites in Portland, Maine, scope this out:

Web Developer Wanted

We’re an energetic, successful Web design and Internet marketing firm located in Portland, ME, looking for a full-time, experienced Web Developer.

You are enthusiastic, passionate about the Web and building great sites, eager to learn new skills, and love clean code. You build table-free Web sites. You feel comfortable with HTML, XHTML and CSS. You can work under a deadline and enjoy taking on new challenges. You enjoy interacting with clients, whether it’s  helping them build the Web site that will build their business, or handling routine updates to keep their site fresh. You should be comfortable using DreamWeaver, but also in getting your hands dirty with under-the-hood code work.

You’ll work with layered Photoshop files from our designers and be responsible for building fast-loading Web sites that work across all modern browsers. You’ll also have the opportunity of building HTML Email Newsletters and Blog Templates as well.

Although not required, we’re always looking for people with PHP, Ruby on Rails and/or Ajax experience. Mac experience a plus.

Flyte is a casual-dress, professional-attitude environment. Although we require you to have experience in building sites with CSS and without the use of tables, we offer lots of opportunity for online and classroom education. You’ll be working on a wide variety of Web sites for businesses, organizations and professionals. You’ll also learn first hand about Web marketing, such as search engine optimization, email marketing and blogs.

If you are up for a challenge, if you want to make an impact, if you want to leverage your talent and creativity, if you want to be recognized for your efforts, flyte new media is the right place for you.

To apply for the job, you must fill out our online job opportunities form.

No phone calls, please.

Rich Brooks
Maine Web Design & Development

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

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