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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
October 6, 2015 7:02 AM
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People don’t judge a book by its cover, do they?Of course they do.Whether it’s the presentation of your food at a fancy restaurant or the latest Apple product, humans just seem to love things that ...
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
September 15, 2015 12:36 PM
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
August 20, 2015 10:37 AM
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With 22,000+ views SEO for Web Designers blew up thanks to a defined tribal audiences, advocates and luck. Discover tips on how to blow your content up too.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
July 10, 2015 8:19 AM
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Objectified Primer In Product Development & Design
If you want to make stuff sit down this weekend and watch Gary Hustwit's Objectified. Hustwit's film is one of the best walk through the design process we've seen. We've developed a handful of products and the process to turn an idea from murky thoughts to physical reality isn't described well in books.
The product development journey is simultaneously individual and universal. Each designer's take is different but elements of the design process stay common such as:
* Vision. * Prototyping.
* Testing. * Design.
* More Testing. * Launching. * Modification and evolution.
If you want to make stuff watch Objectified this weekend.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 28, 2015 10:28 AM
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Web Design Jazz is the conversational alchemy that is website design riffing important conversations your brands have with visitors and potential customers. What about you? What conversations are your having with customers? How did you get there?
Check out our Web Design Jazz video and join the conversation:
http://www.curagami.com/master-classes/web-design-jazz/
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 23, 2015 7:05 PM
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17,162 People Later
We've been asked to make the presentation that created our most viewed Hiaku Deck again at the Iron Yard Code Academy again (made the first presentation six months ago). There were important ideas we shared last time:
* SEO THRIVES or DIES with graphic designers. * Graphic designers are heroes under siege by many groups. * Set REALISTIC expectations.
* Set reasonable boundaries (with gorillas looking for bananas).
* Shared a few easy to remember tips to help designers improve their technical SEO skills.
Obviously we hit a nerve. We will be updating benchmarks shared six months ago to see how those we mentioned fared since. Remember technical SEO is important, but your content must engage, be exciting (visually too) and develop sustainable online community to win over time.
Good luck and if you have SEO questions we didn't cover email them to martin(at)Curagami.com and we will include and send you a Curagami Rules tee.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 14, 2015 11:40 AM
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Design Revolutions Now On Curagami
Finally decided to use @Scoop.it's easy to use embed tool. The tool makes it easy to add content curation to a blog. Simply copy the embed code and your Scoops appear inside your blog.
Why would you want Scoops on a blog? Content curation has more reach and costs less than content creation. Content curation is or can become a big help to content creation.
The "4th Estate" for Scoop.it is finding ways to bring the easy content curation Scoop.it creates with a company's content marketing. Scoop.it's easy to use embed (you embed the feed) bridges the 4th estate of content marketing. Well done!
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 6, 2015 11:29 PM
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Website MacGuffins are ideas such as Free Shipping whose absence hurts more than their presence helps. What are your website's MacGuffins?
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 4, 2015 8:22 AM
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Good News & Bad News
As a rare web marketer with more than ten years experience, I created our first site FoundObjects.com in 1999 (gone now sadly), we want to confirm something every likely reader of our online marketing post already knows - the low hanging fruit is gone plucked by previous generations of pickers.
What to do now? Be something online and start today with these "be something now" tips.
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Suggested by
Lior Frenkel
May 26, 2015 8:44 AM
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Why is it so freaking hard to find high quality, high-res free stock photos? Here are the most awesome free stock photo websites + tools.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
May 20, 2015 6:40 AM
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7 Easy To Forget Simple Ideas
As you design your ecommerce store keep in mind these easy to forget but sure to make you more money online commerce tips:
* Sight Lines - visitor eyes go where your models eyes go so point them at something good.
* CTAs - don't be afraid to tell your customers what to do with Calls To Action. * Email - email marketing is the ability to communicate with your tribe without asking permission from a middleman.
* Internal Search - tells you if your navigation is working and what customers are looking for so use data from internal search. * 80:20 Rule - a small set almost always controls a larger set online so find your 80:20 rules and design, merchandise and sell to them. * Keywords - make sure you use keywords in your navigation and use a rewrite tool to show visitors one set of keys and spiders another. * Community - create an ASK (for help) and listen more than you talk and online community will form.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
May 10, 2015 10:24 AM
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Marty Note
@David Amerlandis one of the great THINKERS of our generation and he gives much of his work away (as we all do, but his thoughts are worth more than most). Every Sunday David Amerland on G+ shares a “Sunday Read”. Since my prism leans toward web marketing I see lessons in today’s Sunday Read for Internet marketers and web designers.
David is discussing "life design", but web designers would be well advised to watch the TED talks he references and build empathy into their lives and websites. David is a "must follow". Find his blog, twitter and GPlus links in the post and follow him if you want to learn how all of this stuff really works.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
May 7, 2015 3:03 PM
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Web designers shouldn't be SEO experts since keeping up with DESIGN is a full-time job. But web designers are where SEO rubber meets the Google Road so understanding a handful of ideas is critical to the online success of any designers creations.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
October 2, 2015 9:04 AM
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Google SEO Buzzcut
Google can cut our website's hair, but they aren't alone. We can be vicious barbers. Our unintended actions often mess with our URLs and that messes with the infinite universe we create whenever we publish.
Lessons shared here including an October update will help your site recovery from a bad Google or self inflicted haircut.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
August 26, 2015 1:32 PM
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Best Headphones
Every web designer needs great headphones. Music is key to creating amazing websites and these days we all have too much noise around us to dive in without great cans (headphones).
This is a great post from friends at http://www.moon-audio.com on the best headphones at $500, $1,000 and $1,500. No you won't find Beats on the list, but Sennheiser, HiFiMan and Shure are well represented.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
August 11, 2015 9:44 AM
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Canonical URLs Explained
The Yoast post provides an easy way to understand why rel=canonical is a powerful new SEO tag. Yoast has a dog in the hunt. They make a Magento plugin that easily writes the rel=canonical tag into a product page's head.
The explanation about WHY canonical URLs are so important is only half right. We have a million ways of expressing and sharing URLs these days. Without rel=canonical we end up duping content to distraction.
Here's the rub. All ecommerce sites dupe content. They must. When I was a Director of Ecommerce a single product accounted for 50% of our profits. You better believe I merchandised that product into every nook and cranny our site offered. I duped that product and it's content to distraction.
There are other ways to limit duplication including:
* Use of your Robots.txt file.
* Locking content behind a firewall. * Use of blockquotes & rel=canonical tags.
* Rewrite duplicated content so it's not as duplicated (lol).
We included our email output into a folder with a "no follow" line in our robots.txt. You may think such a move is enough. It isn't. Be sure NOT to drive links from spiderable content INTO that folder or you eliminate the effectiveness of the robots.txt.
In the end every ecom site worth it's salt MUST duplicate content. Rewriting sounds like a good strategy, but it isn't. Content = time and time = money when managing million dollar commercial sites. You will be duping content.
Best to use rel=canonical because it shows Google you aren't trying to STEAL anything. Reminds me of what a friend shared about the disavow tool (used to deny inbound links or signal they may be untrusted).
My friend was using the disavow tool daily on his clients accounts. "So you are brown-nosing Google," I kidded him. "Exactly," was his answer. Rel=canonical tells Google you are TRYING to do the right thing and sometimes that is enough.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 29, 2015 7:47 AM
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Smart Web Design Trends Post
@jowitaziobro taught our team some important ideas about what's next in #webdesign this morning. She states her goal as digging deeper than the usual suspects in web trends and she succeeds. Here are her 7 What's Next in Web Design Trends:
1. Gestures are the new clicks. 2. The "Fold" is dead (longer swipe-y pages see #1). 3. Websites are quicker users too (so lack of speed kills). 4. Pixel is dead (we used to limit our image sizes and "weight" with the web's advanced caching and Content Delivery Networks no need for such limitations anymore). 5. Animation is back (and about to be in a big way). 6. Components and frameworks are the new design and programming (need to reread and think on this one some). 7. Social Media is dead long live "direct" email.
Great post for a Monday. Hell great post for any day. Well done Jowita. Rock on. Marty
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 26, 2015 7:37 AM
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SEO For Web Designers
Web designers are where rubber meets road for Search Engine Optimization, but it is unrealistic to expect designers to become SEO experts. This Haiku Deck sets reasonable expectations and outlines a handful of technical SEO best practices sure to help any web designer understand the most Darwinian of practices - today's SEO.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 22, 2015 12:06 PM
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How Become A Great Web Marketer?
Every time I suggest this idea to B2B content marketers they roll their eyes and think my suggestion stupid. Everyone can learn new ideas, ideas that inform all digital marketing, from creating an online store.
Each day someone asks how they can learn Internet marketing? Hard to sit in a classroom and learn this stuff. Better to DO IT and no better thing to do than use a tool such as Amazon's Associates to create an online store.
Think of how much stronger your personal brand would be if a potential hiring manager could see what you are reading, ask you questions about those books and get to know you long before an offer is made.
We live in a DIY time when 60% or more of the decision about YOU and your company's products, services and brands will be made BEFORE any active engagement (before picking up the phone or asking you to interview).
Given how much scrutiny your brand is under BEFORE you ever meet a prospect be it for a job or to make a B2B sale wouldn't it be a good idea to do something simple, engaging and fun to show how much you know about digital marketing. Let's see say I have two resumes on a pile and qualifications are equal, but one has a link to a blog & a "bookstore".
Which resume gets more engagement? Let's say your B2B Software As A Service Company is up for a big project. I go to your site and see the books that made you. I, as the hiring manager, have read several of them. We have a connection now and who am I more likely to hire?
HUGE benefits for half a day's work and work that teaches you more about how the web really works than every class you are likely to take (unless I'm teaching it of course lol). DO don't STUDY and you will understand one of the most important concepts about web marketing.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 9, 2015 5:20 PM
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Burn Down Your Website
Websites are cool and a great marketing aid...until they aren't. If the line of when they aren't isn't behind us we are approaching it. What is a "website" when we share posts on Medium, Scoop.it and GPlus?
Feels like the idea of a website as a MUST GO HERE to interact with our marketing message is hopeless out of touch. Even when we do GO to a website what are we looking for?
FUN, ENGAGEMENT and RELEVANCE.
The typical talking to yourself about yourself marketing that most flog online feels more than dead, it feels dangerous. Google's vote is clear - if your content doesn't create an increasing number of likes, loves, shares and loyalty your website is screwed, blued and tattooed.
Especially if someone in your immediate competitive sphere knows how to THROW DOWN, create community and MOVEMENTS instead of the usual solipsistic crap. Keep talking to yourself while someone else in your business vertical is hosting a party and you will be waxed.
Waxed because what really matters NOW is LOVE. If your win hearts and minds because you are honestly all in and listening hard you get to "win". If you are amazing you create blue oceans and uncontested competitive space for however long the ride lasts. Talking about FUN.
This Haiku Deck discusses the death of tactical web marketing. You can't out email market my team and I, or not for very long. We've been doing this crazy biz since 1999. You can gain an inch and we are likely to come back and take a mile.
https://shar.es/12ekPU
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
June 6, 2015 10:08 AM
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Jetpack's cool icon feature creates, adds & shares a mobile app like icon & link for your blog on you & your customers smartphones for free.
Why do this? Because coolest thing since sliced bread to hit your customers is their smartphones. Getting your blog linked there is ONLY a good thing for your content marketing, community building and ecommerce.
Typography is an important but often under-represented part of a website's layout. With so much focus being placed on the presentational aspects of CSS and the use of large images and media that choke bandwidth restraints; it’s nice to occasionally remember that textual content can also make an impact on users and their experience. Content remains king, and a few good fonts can make even the simplest of sites look smart - though not so many that you have to wait for ages for the text to be visible.
Because of this, I’m going to show you a few handpicked examples of sites that make their content look terrific, and why you should consider following their example in your own work. We’re going to take a journey of how elegant typography can make a site shine; looking at the bold, creative, navigational, simplistic and interactive content that makes the designer's voice speak volumes - so let’s get started!...
Via Jeff Domansky, Os Ishmael
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
May 24, 2015 6:47 PM
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Tease marketing because in overwhelming times marketing needs to underwhelm, tease and inspire customers to find their truth and yours. Tease the click.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
May 11, 2015 11:38 AM
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Web Designer SEO
Our SEO Tips for Web Designers hit a nerve. It is heading to 13,000 views (probably today). We hit a nerve because web Designers are where SEO rubber meets the road. This Haiku Deck is full of SEO tips for web designer including:
* Know who has the banana and why.
* Know how much SEO you need to know. * Learn what is MIST vs what is Gorilla.
* Listen Digitally.
* Understand how SEO & Content marketing work together. * Design to Win Hearts, Minds and Loyalty.
And More SEO tips designed for designers.
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Scooped by
Martin (Marty) Smith
May 9, 2015 11:37 AM
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Screen Capture Videos are an inexpensive, easy way websites can enter the video marketing revolution. Camtasia Studio screen capture video software review.
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Scoop.it!
The Ecommerce Rubicon
As I've written about before on Curagami in Ecommerce Rubicon: 5 Tips On How To Cross Over http://www.curagami.com/ecommerce-rubicon-5-tips/?v=7516fd43adaa finding a web design that tells a great visual story, converts visitors to buyers, builds brand equity, and creates tribes is a multi-headed hydra.
You can see all possibilities and challenges in these 30 examples. Some tell great visual stories but good luck converting visitors to buyers. Others are so focused on transactions there is no "there" there.