Archive for the ‘websites’ Category
TinEye
6 Jan 2009
by Joel Witmer
TinEye is a reverse image search engine, meaning you give it a picture and it finds that picture elsewhere on the web. If you already have the image you’re looking for why would this service be helpful? Here’s what they say:
- Find out where an image came from, or get more information about it
- Research or track the appearance of an image online
- Find higher resolution versions of an image
- Locate web pages that make use of an image you have created
- Discover modified or edited versions of an image
This seems like a rather anorexic list of useful functions for what is actually a pretty cool concept. TinEye is currently in Beta, but it works as advertiesd.
Learning To Blog
5 Jan 2009
by Joel Witmer
Arianna Huffington, the eponymous brainchild behind the Huffington Post, has published a guide to blogging. Strike that. A complete guide to blogging. If you have the resources and social cache to lure famous people to write posts for your blogging conglomorate then this might be a helpful resource. Otherwise the book, at 7.9 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches thick, would likely be helpful for a table with uneven legs, knowing as we do that most uneven tables are off by a measure of less than an inch but more than a half inch. Just stick the book under the short leg and watch as your table not-so-miraculously stablizes. It’s extraordinary in a completely ordinary way.
As Jeff Bercovici notes, “Why would anyone pay a dime to read professionals’ advice on breaking into an amateur medium that rewards people who make up their own rules?”
That’s a good question.
Here’s another: Is anyone who reads this book planning on starting a website blog that features a few hundred contributors?
Having Huffington teach you about blogging is akin to learning about how to establish a successful fast food franchise from Wolfgang Puck. Yes, Puck technically works in the same industry as McDonalds, but beyond that the two are not comparable. Same with the HuffPo and 99.99% of the successful blogs of the sort readers could realistically start.
Interesting News
19 Dec 2008
by Joel Witmer
Facebook is seriously gaining on Google for time users spend on their respective sites, according to this article from TechCrunch. While that’s certainly a good thing for Facebook and online stalkers across the globe, it’s a little troubling to this writer as Google is used almost exclusively as a means for obtaining primary information, which almost always has some educational component. When you search Google you learn something. That’s what it’s for. Meanwhile Facebook is used almost exclusively for exchanging photos from last night’s Christmas party and stalking that person who didn’t go out with you in high school. In terms of the greater good Google certainly has more ulitity than Facebook. So this writer thinks this development is a bit disconcerting.
ESPN.com Beta
16 Dec 2008
by Joel Witmer
I just glanced at the new version of ESPN.com, which you can see here. What struck me immediately was how ESPN is positioning video content on their homepage. The main story window now has two tabs, one for Top Story and the other for Top Videos. Video is slowly moving from a supplement to the writen content on the site to featured content.
Custom Publishing Success Story
7 Nov 2008
by James Meyers
It was fourteen years ago today that I set up an eight foot gate leg folding table in a four room office above a pizza kitchen in downtown Chicago and opened the doors of Imagination Publishing. As I sat alone in that first office, excited about my first custom publishing project, I was also overwhelmed by all the emotions that every small business owner knows all too well. I’d invested all of my savings in an idea that companies would be interested in using custom publishing to add value to their existing customer relationships in a medium that they could control.
I had approached traditional publishers, business associates and friends about investing in my new company but each of them chose not to after expressing varying degrees of skepticism and doubt. But as a successful marketer for nearly 20 years, I rarely listened to what others around me had to say because marketing is about having a vision and a focus on doing whatever is necessary to make that vision a reality. If you listen to the naysayers, you’ll never accomplish anything.
For years I had plaque on my wall with the Albert Einstein quote, “Imagination is more Important than Knowledge”. I always believed passionately that Einstein was right and that belief that served me well for so many years in the corporate world is still right on target today. You see it’s not about what you know, or what you’ve done. Success comes from having the imagination, the passion, the curiosity and the focus to make your dreams real. So it seemed only natural to name my company Imagination Publishing.
But now the stakes were different. I was playing with my own money, my home, my family’s livelihood! And often during those early years I’d lie awake at night with the “monster over my bed”. I’m sure that every small business owner knows that same monster.
Small Business Monster
After working six and seven days a week with 12-14 hour days that monster would always being there reminding me of everything that could go wrong. Learning to live with that monster by beating it down with an even stronger sense of confidence and purpose is part of the secret to building a successful small business.
Luckily, I had two other things going for me. A great wife and family who supported my crazy dream through all the tough times, never once questioning my resolution to succeed. And my first two hires who set up their folding tables a week after me. Rebecca Rolfes and Doug Kelly shared my dream and passion and have been huge part of the success of Imagination Publishing. Without Rebecca’s endless sense of optimism and Doug’s rock-solid work ethic and stability, we would never have reached the success that we now enjoy.
Today, fourteen years later, Imagination Publishing has more than 50 full time Imagineers and more than 20 fantastic clients. Many of our clients are Fortune 100 companies and leading trade associations who all have found custom publishing to be an effective means of communicating and engaging with their customers. Print custom publishing is still more than 60% of our business but the explosion of digital continues to grow at a breakneck pace even in the current economic recession. Today, we’ve become experts in rich media, community management, SEO and analytics, and strategic integration as well as custom magazines in order to meet all of the custom media needs of our clients. Custom content continues to grow while traditional media continues to decline because it works.
It’s been a fabulous ride but I have a vision that the next fourteen years will be even better. While some only see risk and peril in today’s economy, I see nothing but opportunity. I have to, it’s all I know.
Keywords for Life
28 Oct 2008
by Michelle O'Hagan
What are your keywords?
I’ve spent the better part of the last few days brainstorming keywords for the www.imaginepub.com website in an effort to boost our search engine optimization, or SEO. It’s part of the way that search engines, such as Google, find a website and list it/rank it.
The whole point of keyword selection is to think about how your customers or your audience would search for products, services or information that you provide. Sound easy? Not so much. You’re faced with the fact that a lot of other companies already may have optimized their own websites around keywords/phrases that you’d like to use.
To use a fishing analogy: You cast a wide net; then you dump out most of the fish that may belong to someone else or are too small to keep anyway.
Then, you work with what’s left: Keywords that accurately describe your offering, which also are not used by a bunch of your competitors, which also happen to be words/phrases that your potential customers actually search on.
I’m totally into this project.
But I started thinking: What would my own keywords be? Michelle O’Hagan’s keywords?
What would yours be?
Envisage and Exchange Take Web Awards
17 Sep 2008
by Michelle O'Hagan
CHICAGO—Two custom websites developed by Imagination for B2B clients were awarded WebAwards from the Web Marketing Association , the premier annual website award competition that names the best websites in 96 industries while setting the standard of excellence for all website development.
Envisagemag.com, a webzine published for Quintiles Transnational, was deemed “Best E-Zine Website.” Launched in January 2007, the webzine delivers thought-leadership and insight to the global medicines market.
With Xerox Exchange, Imagination created an engagement strategy that integrates content, marketing and metrics. The e-newsletter and marketing tool enables ongoing dialogue—a true exchange—between Xerox and its audiences. Users can post comments, participate in polls, rate and share articles, and watch and listen to videos, slide shows and podcasts.
Judges’ Comments: Envisagemag.com
The judges were effusive when commenting on Envisagemag.com:
“Very nice site design and very professional. One of the best I’ve seen for this industry.”
“Very clean design effectively features Envisage, presenting the magazine and its content in a straight forward, web-friendly manner … The e-magazine doesn’t over-use technology, but maintains a good balance. The homepage is not a Flashy, information-laden page, but very balanced and self-restricted on how much information is presented on the homepage. This is very effective, and elevates the concept of an online magazine. Very professional and accessible.”
Judged in seven criteria, Envisagemag.com received a final score of 64.5 points out of a possible 70 points. It received the highest score in its category, earning a “Best E-Zine Website” award.
Judges’ Comments: Xerox Exchange
Judges were straightforward with their praise for Xerox Exchange:
“The site puts the complicated printing technology information into a interesting platform to get audience interaction and build their recognition to the brand.”
On a judging scale of 1 to 10, Xerox Exchange received 8.0 to 9.0 in seven criteria, well above the industry average of 6.7 to 7.6. It received a designation of “Outstanding Website” from the WebAward judges.
