The Brother MFC-6490CW is the third multi-function printer I’ve owned and it is the best printer I’ve ever bought. Here is why it outshines everything before it.

1. Set up was easy and worked the first time.
   Including networking and wireless networking with computers using Windows XP and Windows 7, fax, scanning – everything worked perfectly on both computers.
2. Software – It comes with software that is is easy to configure and will work well even for novices.
3. Print quality – even though it is an ink jet printer it still does a great job.
4. Prints and scans 11 x 17 too!
5. Price – It is a better printer than other printers in the $300 price range and you can get it for $150 – $170 if you buy it refurbished (I did).
6. This is truly an ink sipper – saves tons of money on ink.

The last point is why I bought a laser printer before this – laser printers typically use less “ink” and so they save money over the long run. The laser printer (by HP) was costing hundreds of dollars for new toner cartridges every year. The Brother MFC-6490CW breaks the rules and uses ink so efficiently I’m truly amazed. We’ve had this printer for 3 months and printed a lot of documents and we still haven’t bought a single cartridge and we won’t need to for several more months as you can see from the image at left.

The only drawback is that you need to be careful with the paper trays. They are not designed for rough treatment so don’t jam them in like you would with an office printer.

This past week a young entrepreneur handed me a flimsy piece of paper printed in black and white and cut (obviously by hand) to the size of business card. I’m sure you can imagine the first impression he left with me. To make things worse his target market is in a high end community.

Your business card is a powerful tool and can be used to project a lot of information about you and your business. In the example above the fact that it was printed in black and white isn’t a problem in itself. Black and white can be used very effectively to make a strong statement. Business cards are the most important and most affordable piece of your print marketing—this is not the place to cut corners.

How to Create a Great Business Card

Hopefully you’ve already thought about your brand identity. If not, be sure to see Graphic Design and Branding on the Graphic Design page. First, think about the impression you want to make. Secondly think about the messages or concepts that can be conveyed without words or images on the card itself. Things that can be used that can convey a feeling include:

• Background Color (see choosing colors)
• Texture
• Finish (Glossy, Semi-Gloss, Matte)
• Type of paper (or other material)*
• Weight / thickness of paper
• Font
• Spot UV (a specific glossy area on a business card that is not glossy)
• Special corners or shapes*
• Raised lettering*
• Embossed logo*
• Metallic Foil*

*Note: these items can dramatically increase the cost of your business cards.

Secondly think about what you want to say in print. Try to minimize what is on the card so that what is on there has more impact. Decide how you want to present your logo. A nice strategy is to put minimal information on the front (like your logo and tagline) and contact information on the back. Some people like to have everything on the front and a place to write notes or appointment information on the back.

Minimum Information to Put on Your Business Card

• Logo
• Tagline
• Name
• Phone Number
• Website
• Email (importance of email depends on many factors, use your judgement)

Things to Avoid When Designing a Business Card

• Sizes that don’t fit in standard business card holder, wallet or business card file
  Oversized business cards are more likely to be thrown away sooner
• Microscopic text—Generally 8pt text or larger is recommended
• Too many fonts
• Too many font sizes
• Hard to read fonts
• Too much information

Finally, you should consider hiring a graphic designer to help you. Business cards can be designed very inexpensively because they are small and have limited information on them. You can save time and money by thinking about the message(s) you want to convey ahead of time.

Background

In the past if you were creating a website for a business it was highly recommended to go for a .com domain extension which stands for “commercial.” This was relatively easy and you could find a domain that worked for you fairly quickly. With the rise of internet use, the number of companies that choose to have a website (or multiple websites), and domain squatters the gold standard .com domain extension has become harder and harder to obtain.

Cybersquatting (using domains based on trademarks of other companies and trying to sell the domain at an inflated price) is actually illegal (Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act). Unfortunately enforcement depends on filing a complaint iwth ICANN or filing a lawsuit. One alternative to fighting for a domain you really want is to choose an alternate domain extension.

The Rise of Alternate Domain Extensions

Using something other than .com for business was heavily frowned upon by the web community however the only real reason to be concerned is because most people have a habit of typing .com after the domain. The reality is that people have had to learn to use other domains like .gov for government entities and .org for non-profits* and finally .net which was the most popular choice if you couldn’t get the .com you wanted. *.org is open to anyone

There is no need to shy away from using an alternative domain extension because most people go to websites using search engines, links on other websites, or links sent via text, email or social media. Finally if your site is optimized by a professional and ethical SEO provider it will come up in the search results for specific keywords anyway.

Top Level Domains

Currently there are four “open” top level domain extensions available for use by anyone:

• .info
• .name
• .net
• .org

Perhaps your organization meets the requirements for a restricted domain — you can learn more by reviewing this list of top level domains.

Every once in a while I find it necessary to remind my clients not to pay these bills. The biggest offender that repeatedly comes to my mailbox comes from Domain Registry of America. What they do is send you an official looking bill which includes a listing of domains that are expiring and a stub so you can pay for the domains for another 1 or 2 years. The problem is that this company probably isn’t your current registrar (who you paid for the domains originally). Basically it is a scam to get customers.

The practice of deceiving people into paying the bill and thus causing a transfer of the domain to their account is referred to as “domain slamming”.

Ways to avoid paying a fake domain registration bill

1. Read the bill carefully – most registrars email reminders, they don’t mail them
2. Ask your webmaster if it is real / accurate
3. Find out who your current registrar is by performing a “who is” search. You can use a variety of sites, my personal favorite is DomainTools.com

Click here to learn more about domain slamming.

Most people know that Google and other search engines are looking for original content and penalizing websites with duplicate content. Duplicate content is penalized because there are far too many who prefer taking shortcuts in spite of the very real risk of adversely affecting your website’s performance.  The better reason to avoid taking shortcuts is to do the right thing because it is right and professional. This applies to textual content as well as images.

Options for creating original textual content rather than stealing it from other websites.

1. Start writing
2. Interview an expert and then write your own copy
3. Hire a copywriter
4. Use a very limited amount text from another website with a citation (give credit to the author)

In some situations you may have enough knowledge or the person you hire may have enough knowledge to write the copy without doing research first.

Options for obtaining images for your website rather than stealing them from other websites.

1. Purchase the right to use stock photography or graphics
   (stock photos will give you a professional image at a fraction of the cost of hiring a photographer).
2. Request permission to use an existing image
3. Take photos yourself
4. Make drawings or illustrations yourself
5. Ask your child to make a drawing
6. Hire a photographer
7. Hire an artist
8. Hire a graphic designer
9. Search for images in the public domain

NOTE: Most images on “free photo” sites require attribution (giving credit to the creator) or links to their website and so on.

Recommended sites for public domain images.

1. Wikimedia Commons
2. Public Domain Depot
3. Morgue File (free to use without attribution)
4. Finally Creative
5. The Best Copyright-free Photo Library

Recommended Stock Photography Websites

• iStockphoto
• Fotolia

When you hire a web designer here are some things to look for to help you to be clear about what and who you are getting involved with. Yes, there are stereotypes and so they aren’t hard and fast rules however these are guidelines which identify clear personality traits.

What You Want in a Web Designer

Graphic Designer and Web Expert:

This is the sweet spot. “Expert” of course is used loosely because some webmasters know just enough about code and then wisely use “tools” to build websites that are both effective and beautiful. Some graphic designers also are coders and in that case they are very skilled and competent. Others are a blend. They have great design skills and some coding skills and are smart enough to know when they need a true coder’s help.

Pros: Competent in both coding and design. Beautiful, original website. Possibly a great communicator and comfortable around other people but truly prefer to be working on their craft. If they have SEO skills you are in web design heaven, you’ll get everything you want a beautiful, effective, powerful website.

Cons: It depends on the personality traits. If they provide poor customer service, or communicate poorly or have low ethical standards you are in trouble.

Tools: Notepad++, Dreamweaver, other HTML editing Tools, WordPress(.org), Joomla, Drupal, and many, many others. Caution there are huge drawbacks to many of these programs. WordPress is truly at the top of the heap and easiest to use for the end user once the site is fully developed.

What to Avoid In a Web Designer

The Coder:

The coder is just that, a programmer. Someone who builds websites without even having to see it. They can visualize with code, pixels and percentages and really don’t need WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get) tools to develop websites.

Pros: Knowledgeable, competent and able to do almost anything

Cons: Slow, uncommunicative, inconsiderate because they are in their own world, not particularly concerned about people’s feelings. Generally function takes the front seat and beauty takes a back seat. They aren’t that concerned about appearance.

Tools: Notepad++, or other text or HTML editors

The Novice / Expert:

These types of web designers truly have no clue. They are in fact novices presenting themselves as experts. They find a template system that works for them. Anything from GoDaddy’s website tonight, Wix or even worse using something even more obscure. A truly horrible way to build a website.

Pros: Fast, sometimes easy to work with, get it done

Cons: Have no idea what they are doing, your SEO will be horrible, your title tags and content will be fine but not professionally done so you won’t be very effective in search engines. Have no clue about real web design or graphic design. Nightmare for real designers to have to clean up the mess after the client realizes their website isn’t doing anything for them.

Tools: Template based system anyone can use (GoDaddy Website tonight, Wix, Mac WebsiteBuilder, Vistaprint, Dot Net Nuke)

Graphic Designer Novice / Expert

Similar to the above Novice / Expert except that they can make beautiful websites. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean good, effective websites.

Pros: Beauty of the website, quality of the images used on the website.

Cons: Same as above.

Tools: For Design they are likely using real tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. For web design they are using  template based systems anyone can use who doesn’t know what they are doing (GoDaddy Website tonight, Wix, Mac WebsiteBuilder, Vistaprint) and possibly WordPress(.com or org)

Making a Decision: this is actually not hard. If someone won’t look you in the eye they are either untrustworthy or they are a coder and are uncomfortable with people in general. What you need is honesty, experience, communication and commitment to accomplish your project in a timely manner. If your webmaster can’t commit to a specific timeline (2 – 4 weeks is usually reasonable for medium to small sites) then look elsewhere. If your site is particularly large and involves the approval of a committee vs. 1 or 2 people 2 – 3 months is common. This is especially true for larger companies and non-profits.

This graphic design project was fun because of the challenges presented by using the photo itself. The photo’s left edge included the waves of the ocean which the author specified had to be on the front. Yet I had to have the photo wrap around the spine and cover the back too. The only solution was to slice the photo and use the right hand part of the photo on the back and left part of the photo on the front and the spine. On the back this presented the challenge of fitting text around the birds on that portion of the photo. This challenge was simplified by using InDesign which allows you to customize the shape of a text frame to wrap around anything you want. You can see the results below. The photo was taken by award winning photographer Fran Palmeri of Venice, Florida.

The book itself was written by Sharon Fitzpatrick.It is a delightful book of true stories of creatures
Sharon encountered on the beaches of the Gulf Coast of Florida.
It is truly wonderful and makes a great gift. The book can be purchased here.

When Grass River Books contacted us to create an updated logo featuring a roseate spoonbill I was excited about the project. I had never drawn a roseate spoonbill and enjoyed the challenge of creating it as a vector logo so that it could be easily enlarged in the future if necessary. Using advanced features of Adobe Illustrator we were able to generate a great result. Roseate spoonbills and flamingos share the same pink coloring because of their diets. Spoonbills bills (or beaks) are very much shaped like round soup spoons on the end. Barbara of Grass River Books was a pleasure to work with and the project was a great success. You can see the logo in use at GrassRiverBooks.com a specialty independent book seller.

I was approached a few weeks ago by a friend of mine, Andrew Metz of Web Ladder Consulting, an SEO specialist, regarding a unique project for a business in Osprey, FL. It was an old website that was not professionally designed and was never finished. When I learned that it was Amy’s Natural Pet Pantry I was immediately excited to take on this new project. First of all, I love dogs and secondly believe in giving pets natural, healthy foods. I have given my dog high quality food since I got her in 1994 (when she was 10 months old). She is now 17+ years old; very old for a big dog.

So, in collaboration with new owners Lisa and Michelle, we started building the new website. As soon as we made the preliminary design visible to the public, Lisa and Michelle received rave reviews. The funny thing is, we were just getting warmed up. See the final product here: AmysNaturalPetPantry.com and if you live in the area visit the store!

If you are operating a business you need a professional website. There are more and more products out there that claim that you can build your own ‘professional’ website for little money and without much effort. The most common are MacWebsiteBuilder, Vistaprint, GoDaddy (Website Tonight), Intuit Sitebuilder and Wix.

They all make similar promises and the promotion pages make everything look wonderful and easy. If you look at blogs about these online website builders you’ll see a lot of complaints; which are not so wonderful and not so easy. If you look at the getting started information for most of them you’ll have 20 – 50 pages to go through and that doesn’t cover the hundreds of pages of help and troubleshooting.

Common Problems with Online Website Builders

Ease of Use Issues

• Limited functionality (unless you pay more)
• Difficult to customize (do you want your website to look just like 100 others?)
• A lot less control over the website itself

Technical Support and Hosting

• Slow web hosting which make editing the site a slow motion chore
• Slow web hosting which makes your site fail to load or load slowly
• Poor customer support, or no customer support

Ownership Issues

• Not transportable; if you want to use a different host you have to start over
• Can’t remove the program’s self promoting link or links

Quality Issues

• The website builder doesn’t tell you when you make big mistakes
• Poor search engine optimization (SEO) because the users don’t know what they are doing

Finally, search engine optimization is not rocket science BUT it requires a lot of knowledge and experience. Legitimate SEO takes real effort. That alone is a very good reason for not building a website yourself. Save time, money and start building your business sooner by doing it right the first time. Hire a professional.