This Site has Moved to SonOfFiveRivers.com
Click Here to Vist NEW Site: www.SonOfFiveRivers.com
I’ve been blogging for several months now and I’m glad to have recieved the feedback I have. I’ve enjoyed the experince and for that reason I’ve decided to take blogging to another level. I’ll be self hosting my blog and that means you’ll see a lot more creativity in the design, functionality and layout of the new blog.
Check it out: www.SONofFIVErivers.com
Cheers
Retro & Vintage Design
So I woke up pretty early this morning (5:30am) and thought lets work on a project that I’ve been postponing for a while… So I collected some vintage and retro art design for this long overdue project and thought some people might find it inspiring. I enjoy the branding side of business and I think this look can help a business stand out by giving it a unique and distinct flavor.
As an individual whos all about requirements gathering I find it very difficult to sit with a designer and just explain what I need. I’ve about diagrams, charts, brief statements, pictures etc. So this collection should help me with that process and also provide me with a single place to store all these pictures. Hope its useful for whatever you need it for, enjoy!
Some of these pics came came from http://www.smashingmagazine.com, an online magazine dedicated to designers and developers.
- illustrations from old posters, movies, newspapers, CDs, vinyls, ads;
- old-style typography (e.g. Roman typefaces);
- script fonts and handwriting;
- old radio devices;
- old TV devices;
- old cars;
- old packaging;
- old photos;
- vibrant rainbow colors (high contrast, neon-style);
- torn, used paper with stains (often yellowish paper);
- dark, dirty colors (brown, dark red, dark blue) and textures (e.g. paper);
- scrapbooks;
- pop-art elements (see also Pop Art Is Alive: Classics and Modern Artworks);
- retro illustrations;
- old-style signs;
- vintage and retro are often combined with a hand-drawing style and grunge style.
~ The Statement ~ The Official Blog of The Old State
ISO50 – The Visual Work of Scott Hansen
The Ernest Hemingway Collection
The Dollar Dreadful Family Library
Renaissance-Designs
Google Strikes Back at Rupert Murdoch!
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, strikes back at Rupert Murdoch in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal (which is owned by Rupert Murdock by the way). Before we get to the good stuff I’ll quickly explain who Rupert Murdoch is for those who don’t know. He owns lots of media outlets (Newspapers, Magazines, Radio Stations, TV Networks, Cable & Internet Companies etc.) He is the founder, a major shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation (News Corp). He’s been in the news lately because he wants to ban Google from searching his sites and has been trying to make an agreement with Bing (Microsoft). I don’t think he should be able to control the message people can and cannot hear. I think and I hope he loses big on this!
With dwindling revenue and diminished resources, frustrated newspaper executives are looking for someone to blame. Much of their anger is currently directed at Google, whom many executives view as getting all the benefit from the business relationship without giving much in return. The facts, I believe, suggest otherwise.
Google is a great source of promotion. We send online news publishers a billion clicks a month from Google News and more than three billion extra visits from our other services, such as Web Search and iGoogle. That is 100,000 opportunities a minute to win loyal readers and generate revenue—for free. In terms of copyright, another bone of contention, we only show a headline and a couple of lines from each story. If readers want to read on they have to click through to the newspaper’s Web site. (The exception are stories we host through a licensing agreement with news services.) And if they wish, publishers can remove their content from our search index, or from Google News.
here’s even better stuff:
It’s understandable to look to find someone else to blame. But as Rupert Murdoch has said, it is complacency caused by past monopolies, not technology, that has been the real threat to the news industry.
Kudos to the WSJ for running the piece—assuming some editor didn’t lose his or her job for doing this. I just can’t wait to watch Google and News Corp go at it.
How to Get your site picked up by Search Engines
You finally have a domain now, and your site is up and running… follow this links to directly submit your URL to the top search engines.
- Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html
- Microsoft Live Search http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx
- Yahoo! http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Smart Idea, and Great Website (Magazine Super Store)
These people started the first Magazine Super Store! duh?
Check out there website, I find it to be very creative! What an idea.
YouTube & Your Business (Blog)
Connect with YouTube for Brand Advertising
Ever thought about connecting with YouTube for Brand Advertising? If you haven’t you should seriously consider it. Check out what Harry Potter has done with You Tube. I hope this gets you thinking about your business or non-profit.
The Change in Online Marketing (5 New Essentials)
Your Business your non-profit, should be considering the following things this year…
- Business Blog – Time will tell, but this might be as essential as having a website. With the current economic crisis, do what you can to stay ahead. This is a simple a cost effective tool.
- ROI with SEO – A Search Engine Optimization consultants won’t just be fixing SEO mistakes and picking keywords anymore. They’ll be delivering a Return on Investment within 3 months by creating relevant content and doing essential link building exercises. A good SEO consultant can go a long way.
- Marketing Software – Sending out e Newsletters and other Marketing material is essential. If you don’t have a software like iContact, Vertical Response, Constant Contact etc. If your not using them it’s like using Pen and Paper to do your accounting. It’ll get the job done, but there has to be a better way…
- Merge your Sales & Marketing Teams – These two desks or departments should be side by side working together. So often they are both on different pages.
- Social Media – Use it wisely, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Digg, Twitter etc. are the tools you need to capitalize on your business.
Facebook Fan Page Vs. Facebook Group
Consider Facebook in your Stratigic SEO planning.(Search Engine Optimization: aka Google ranking)
Here’s the 411 of a Fan Page vs a Group. Whatever you decide I would suggest you try to stick to only one as having both not only may confuse people but it will dilute your organizations presence of Facebook.
The Basics:
Facebook Fan Pages are promote a business, a brand, a shop, etc.
Facebook Groups are to promote a common interest.
(The Tools are different: Read and choose what’s best for you. For example I would suggest a Fan Page for a Small Business, and a Group for a Club/ Organization that shares a common interest because its more collaborative)
Facebook Fan Pages are great, their biggest drawback is your limited ability to communicate with your Fans. The messages you send through your FB Page is delivered into your Fans’ Update Box rather than the FB Inbox. On FB Pages you have more Tools like targeted Message sending (you can filter by age, sex, country, etc. to who you want to send the message to) then the options for stats and even promotion of the page using ads. It gives a good reason for someone to come and use their ad platform.
The side is people are more aware of groups than fan pages (they think fan pages are for huge Corporate Brands, Celebrities, and not something local. Again the bit about notifications for the fan page isn’t as likely to get engagement as a message in an inbox.
Facebook Groups have links to related groups, which I think is a great tool. It has the potential to pull in people with a common interest, which is highly useful when you’re trying to promote, say, a blog or product. FB Groups allow you to have group structure with group officers and admins and stuff, in order to regulate and facilitate discussion. You can add other additions like photos / videos and stuff are just part of the package to fill it up and make it look big. Facebook now also alows indexing of discussions with groups that are available globally within Facebook (no restriction or closed groups). Another positive is if you are an admin / officer, you can select certain peopel from your friend list join a group, ones who may like that topic.
Negative for groups: Once a group gets to a certain size you will be unable to message all members of it.
Another possible option is get a group out there, grow it, then when it gets a to a decent size convert it to a Fan Page. (You can find the process on the Facebook FAQ)
Favorite Website: TED
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
This site makes the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free.
About Me
TSon of Five Rivers
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