We are proud to announce that we have recently launched a new construction website for one of our clients in Hudson WI. Quality Sealcoating came to us through a professional business referral. They were basically looking for an updated look and some general advice on what would work best for their website. We took the old web design below that was out-dated, had a color scheme that really was no longer in style, and a over all information structure that needed some re-tooling.

[divider/]

We decided to take the site in a more modern direction and really bring some imagery in to help add some visual impact. Quality Sealcoating really do some quality work, so we made sure that we included plenty of photos (including before and after shots) of the work they’ve done residentially and commercially. We added a rotating testimonial feature to website that helps show their potential customers how satisfied their past customers have been.

We look forward to working with Quality Sealcoating in the future and wish them best with their endeavors in gaining a web presence that helps them drive business.

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

There are thousands and thousands of amazing organizations in the US and around the world that work day in and day out to change lives for people across the globe. Many of these organizations, however often times run into difficulties finding reputable and high quality web designers willing to do their websites on a smaller than usual budget. The worst part, is that many times they are forced to put together  a “build-it-yourself” website, have a relative who has some kind of html experience slap something together, or a high school student builds the website as a favor. Now while these experiences are extremely valuable to a potential student who gets the opportunity to help donate their services, it can sometimes leave the web presence of non-profits and ministries less effective that what may be needed.

Mind Blossom Creations has partnered with a couple non-profit organizations to help ensure their web presence is an effective tool for outreach and to help them use the web to further their ability to raise awareness. We made a decision to not charge them for our web design and consultation services in our efforts to help out organizations that truly are working hard to change lives. While we don’t build free websites for every non-profit, we do however discount our services for ministries and non-profits that aim to make a difference in the world.[divider/]

The first organizations we’ve partnered with is Global Orphan Outreach

Welcome to Global Orphan Outreach. We realize that no individual, organization, group, or country can attempt to handle the vast needs of orphan children and families in need by themselves. We are excited to be able to work together by partnering with others, all working collectively towards the same goals of alleviating some of the issues. We are teaming together to empower, encourage, partner, and bring hope to families in need in Liberia through various proven projects and programs. We encourage you to be a part of our mission outreach team by becoming involved by sharing your time, talents and resources with those in need through Global Orphan Outreach.

Global Orphan Outreach operates as the umbrella organization for its projects and programs that are carried out successfully within the organization.[divider/]

Another Non-profit we have donated our services to is a  newly forming organization that also works closely with Global Orphan Outreach called Team Liberia United

A Movement for Empowering Communities and Changing Lives

in places of untold human suffering and brokenness, Team LIBERIA UNITED is a values-oriented, people-focused, not-for-profit  intercultural network of like-minded and purpose-driven individuals, businesses, corporations, development agencies, faith- and community-based organizations, and other forces of benevolence  — dedicated to bringing lasting healing, health, hope and wholeness to the underprivileged and disadvantaged living in “quiet desperation” throughout postwar Liberia.

Team LIBERIA members and participants must have an unflinching commitment to teamwork through collaborative efforts and mutual accountability. They shall collaborate in ways which best use their giftedness, knowledge, skills and experience guided by established policy, practice and principles in all dimensions of their cooperative work for community empowerment and life transformation.

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

[dropcap1]A[/dropcap1] while back I was asked to write a blog post dealing with something in the web or graphic design fields. After racking my brain about what, it came to me not to long ago. I decided to blog about some advice I have been giving my design classmates since I graduated college. So here it goes.

I have been in the professional graphic and web design field since 2010, and by professional I mean an actually 40 hour a week job, benefits, vacation time, the whole nine yards.  My story is one of perseverance and some luck. I know after you graduate all you want to do is find a design job in the field in which you specialized in at college, but every newspaper, website and job forums all require 3 or more years of experience. How the heck does one gain this experience!?

One word: Freelance design. While not everyone can do freelance in the field they’ve chosen to get into let’s remember that this is a blog about the web and graphic design field, and us in this field are lucky that freelancing is a great option for building web design experience and our overall design portfolios.  But this is where the trick comes in. While freelance is a great portfolio builder and yes it does show the experience you have with the design software, some companies don’t technically view this as “Experience” in the sense of working with deadlines, group design projects, and all around dealing with the daily office in’s and out’s.  I feel this can be countered by the more you can show in your Resume and Freelance. Don’t just show the finished project. Show the steps you had to take in order to keep your client happy, show that there where deadlines to the project, and keep at it. Just because on place doesn’t consider freelance as experience doesn’t mean another one will be very impressed with your work and take a chance on you.

[blockquote]That’s exactly what happened to me. It took me almost two years to get hired as a web designer. And even that process dealt with making sure I impressed the boss and a little bit of luck that some other designers decided to move on to their next job. See I answered a temp position just to land more of that precious gold called experience. I did whatever it took to show I was a keeper and here I am hired on full time.[/blockquote]

To fill my design portfolio with enough stuff to be considered for that position took some work and pushing from my wonderful wife. Some of you may ask, “I don’t have a good enough portfolio to even get hired for freelance.”  I too had some difficultly when landing freelance jobs, most of my early jobs came from networking, family and friends. But you can only get so much from that and that died off quickly.  I felt stuck, every online freelance job I would apply for I would get shot down to those who had their own graphic design business and much more experience than me. But then I had a break, my wife helped start a non-profit call Crowning Achievements.

They needed everything, from website to business cards. So I volunteered my skills. Not only does this look great on a Resume, but it was a great project to show I could handle it all. Now I know I wasn’t getting paid for this work, but that’s when it hit me. Non-profit organizations are gold when it comes to building experience and your portfolio. Yep most of the time you’re volunteering and will not get you paid, but what it does for your future is priceless. I tell all my friends from college that are still trying to land that job, to leave your “I should be paid big bucks for my work” attitude at home and start offering your skills to the non-profits and churches. Trust me, it goes along way. I still do all of Crowning Achievements design work, and while I don’t “have too” anymore it feels good to use my skills to help those who have no clue.  In the end it’s really a win, win, win. You get experience / portfolio building, they get what they need and you get that warm fuzzy feeling for helping the less fortunate.

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

Facebook just recently launched Timeline for business pages and it is important to know how this will affect your Facebook Marketing strategy for your business or brand. As most social media marketers know, Facebook has achieved so much for brands when it comes to applying a personality to a company. Facebook is great for customer retention management and also a great way to reach out to existing customers to keep them thinking about your companies offerings or brand. See our page below and some of the ways we like to engage our followers.

Today we’re going to look at the new look Facebook has implemented with it’s Facebook Business Page timeline. First off they have the massive cover photo right at the top of the page. Now a marketers first idea might be to put a “Big offer and promotion right at the top of the page”, well this isn’t exactly what Facebook had in mind. Facebook gave these guidelines for businesses to consider when choosing a cover photo:

Cover images  may not contain:

[list style="list9"]

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

[/list]

So when choosing your cover photo either choose your storefront (visual landmark) or an image that has a profound statement of what you are as a business or brand. Remember try to show the sizzle not the steak.

Here are a few recent examples.

 What is great about Facebook Timeline…

One of the great things that this new timeline does for your brand or business, is that it gives it a platform for a story to be told. We’ve seen time and time again, the best brands have the best story to tell. The timeline allows you to pull out certain events and milestones you business or brand has accomplished and highlight them by either pinning them to the top of your timeline or highlighting them to fill both columns making them considerably larger.

Instead of me going over every detail on how to use the new features of the new timeline, Facebook has put together a complete interactive walk-through of the new Facebook timeline.

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

Well, being a web design company, it goes without saying, that internet access is a big part of doing business. I wanted to take a look at the different internet service providers available to the people (including me) in Red Wing, MN and closely surrounding areas to see where the best deal is.

Charter Communications is a broadband company that services a lot of people in the Red Wing, MN area and offers speeds up to 100 mbps for $59.99, and as low as 3 mbps for $19.99. The one thing that I find a dis-advantage, is that I (having a home-based office) must bundle other services to get either of these prices. That is kind of their business model, where it becomes more expensive to not bundle.

Century link (formerly Quest) also offers internet services, but right up front they offer with or without phone service as a bundle. They offer speeds up to 40 mbps, but only up to 3 mbps for $40/mo is available in the Red Wing, MN area. They are currently running a promotion (as of 02-29-2012) where the first 6 months is only $29.99 per month.

Hiawatha Broadband is new to Red Wing, MN and is aiming at bringing fiber optic internet offerings to residents in the area, but they have just started the project so I honestly can’t include any information about their services in the area. I did however want to include them, because I have a feeling they will be a player in the internet service provider business in Red Wing.

Just for curiosity I wanted to see how internet service providers in other countries charged and found O2 a UK based company that charges data-tiered options versus line-speed as we have in the previous examples. Kind of neat how they charge based on data consumption rather than the overall speed to your house.

All in all, I have to say that Charter probably wins this round, due to the high speeds that are readily available. I do have to say though; once Hiawatha Broadband runs fiber optic to residential areas in Red Wing, MN we might see a change of heart.

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

Just this week we launched www.harelchiropractic.com for Harel Chiropractic & Massage in Hudson, WI. The owner Dr. Harel was referred to us for web design from an associate of ours in the Hudson area. The original site was an offering from AT&T as an online service in combination with their print in the phone book. Dr. Harel didn’t believe that high monthly cost offered by AT&T was worth the product she was getting through them, and asked what we could offer.

We took the existing content from the site and with the help of her and her staff developed a better content strategy for the information on her site. Our web design for the new site aimed to bring out the warm and inviting atmosphere that you get when you walk into their office. This helped maintain the consistency and expectations of viewers to the site and in the door customers.

We used wordpress as the content management system for ease of use and staff training. The package we offered came with a customized video tutorial that they can use as a reference tool for training new staff on how to update the site as well.

We were very pleased to work with such a great client and look forward to working with them in the future!

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

Today we are going to explore the wide area of being found online and what you as a local business can and should be doing to stay competitive in the digital marketing era. Many local businesses that I’ve come into contact with in Red Wing, MN, Hastings, MN and the areas south of the Twin Cities have all had mixed ideas of what is needed to be found online. Everything from “I have a website” to ” I utilize Facebook” to “Well, I’m not really sure”.

[blockquote align="left" cite="It is very important for every local business to have a good web presence, but they don't all include spending money; some are just require your time."]Local businesses must know[/blockquote]

There is actually many things you can do to help your business get found online that are inexpensive or completely free (well, including the time it takes you to complete them).

We will cover many of the things that any local businesses can do that are low-cost, free, and even some paid options that will boost your online presence. One thing that I would like to point out is that many of the things listed below work best when put together with an overall web marketing strategy. If you would like some help, feel free to contact us.

We’re going to break these up into some basic categories. “Web Design and SEO, Online Directory Management and Submission, Social Media, Online Advertising, and some free online tools to help you along the way”.

[tip_box]Web Design and SEO[/tip_box]

So there are many things to consider about your website. There are some key components to any website that will determine how well your site is found online and also it’s effectiveness.

[list style="list9"]

• Smart and Effective Content Strategy
• Search Engine Optimization
• An Effective User-Centered Design
• How Many Other Websites Link to Yours
• Does your website update all the major search engines when updated
• Is Your website ready for mobile devices?

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A smart content strategy for your website is essential to be an influential part of any search engine’s top results. Google for instance has been updating it’s search algorithms time and time again trying to bring the most relevant, local, and quality results to the people who search on their site. So having content that specifically speaks about your geographic area (Red Wing, MN or Hastings, MN), well written,  and focused on trends and topics in your industry will help search engines see the information/content on your website as valuable to the people searching.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization deals mainly with the way your website is built and coded. There are some very specific things that can be implemented in your code that can help your website be better optimized for the search engines. An SEO consultation with an expert is a must for every business that wants their website to show up in the search engines. They can help you determine what websites should you target to get backlinks to your site, and how you can implement a feature that updates all major search engines when you add something new to your website content.

Web design has changed in many ways over the years and websites that are designed intelligently in today’s world keep the viewer or user’s experience while on the website as the most important aspect of the design. This includes things like: information is easy to find on your site, clear calls to action are highlighted for ease of use, and effectively used color scheme and professional graphics”.

With such a large number of people using their mobile devices for mobile web browsing, it is starting to become an essential aspect of web design to have a mobile version of your website ready.

[tip_box]Online Directory Management and Submission[/tip_box]

There are an absolute ton of websites out there that claim to be the best directory to search for local businesses and local information, but there are a handful that really do help your odds of being found online. One of the other key benefits to doing this, is that you are better able to manage your online reputation and ensure consistency across many sites that contain information about your business. This ensures that when a potential customer does find you online, that they are given accurate and up-to-date information. Below are a list of websites that often come up in the search engines when viewers are looking for information about your business. I’ve also included links to the login or account creation pages as well.

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[tip_box]Social Media[/tip_box]

[video type="youtube" id="3SuNx0UrnEo" height="345" width="620"/]

There are a lot of mis-conceptions about social media out there among local businesses owners. Some think it is a free for of advertising, while others think that it is a good way to attract new customers. To be truthful, neither are really accurate, yes while social media accounts are free a successful social media campaign takes a good amount of time. How much would you charge for an hourly wage? Furthermore, social media really doesn’t help you reach potential customers that are new to your business.

[blockquote align="right" cite="Sit down and figure out exactly what you would like to accomplish with social media and make sure social media is the best channel for that goal."]Find your strategy[/blockquote]

That being said there are some really valuable things that can be attained through use of social media. One of the most effective things that local businesses can be accomplish through social media is customer relationship management. Once you’ve got a customer that likes you, how do you get them to keep coming back? Well, for starters you keep in contact with them and provide them information that they are interested in. The very nature of social media is that it is social, you wouldn’t walk into a cocktail party and yell “15% off window treatments across the street”, neither should you jump into your customers social atmosphere and start pitching your product or service.

[tip_box]Online Advertising[/tip_box]

One of the quickest ways to be found online is to find good places to advertise online. This allows you to get your message out right away in front of an audience that is already there. There are a ton of different ways to advertise online, but the most common are Online Display Advertising (banners, video, expanding ads), Paid Search Results Advertising, and Email Marketing are among the top. With any of the above methods, you will want to think about who your audience is, age, gender, geographic location. Because all effective forms of online advertising allow you the ability to target a very specific audience. So being very precise in your audience will help to ensure the success of your campaign.

Here is a video Roger created for the RiverTown Newspaper Group in Red Wing,MN showcasing their advertising opportunities:
[video type="youtube" id="dSjcPkuKXDQ" height="345" width="620"/]

While online display advertising can be more expensive, you usually find that websites such as news organizations are trusted by their viewers and that will benefit your advertising campaign. A good and reputable website will charge anywhere from $15-$25 CPM (cost per thousand) for an advertising campaign.

Paid Search Results also know as Search Engine Marketing can be an effective way to reach an audience with a smaller budget usually sold on CPC (cost per click) basis allow you to set a maximum price you are willing to pay per click.The most commonly used services are Google Adwords and Facebook Ads. Make sure you contact someone with experience in creating CPC campaigns for some advice, because they can be extremely complicated to do correctly.

Email marketing is a great way to reach new customers or keep in touch with those who have expressed interest in your business. Look for the resource below MailChimp to see if Email Marketing is for you.

[tip_box]Free Online Tools To Help You[/tip_box]

Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is a free website measurement tool that can help you determine how may people are visiting your site, what pages they look at while on your site, where they are located, and many many more features. This is a must for any business who is serious about being online, you have to be able to measure your success along the way. You will most likely need someone with web development experience to help you implement this.

MailChimp:

Email Marketing professionals pretty much describes MailChimp. You can sign up for a free account and send out a limited number of emails each month. A great way to get your feet wet with email marketing or even starting a company newsletter.

Free Software for your computer:

We created a resource page to list a handful of valuable and completely free resources for local businesses. They range anywhere from Free Office Suite software to anti-virus software. Many goodies, and actually is a great page to bookmark.

Customer Feedback For Your Website:

Uservoice.com is a great way to ask the visitors to your website if there is anything they would like to see. People leave comments, suggestions, complaints, anything that they feel they need to contribute. If used correctly, these tools can help you greatly improve the experience your potential customers have on your website by taking their feedback and making improvements.

Google Docs:

Click Here for a complete walk through on how Google Docs can be used a free set of programs to help benefit your business as well.

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

We recently launched a new project for a new client. With the rise of popularity of citizens getting their carry permits in MN and WI, Chandler’s Conceal and Carry Instruction in Hastings MN contacted us to help build a professional looking website. There were a couple web design challenges going into this project.

Our client asked us to build the site in such a way that it was very un-intimidating, so as not to turn away any potential customers. The very idea of carrying a loaded weapon is intimidating to some, so the aim of the website’s design was to offer a professional looking site that didn’t focus on imagery of weapons. The main colors in the web design (blue and orange) were chosen for a couple important reasons. As many designers know, the decisions of color in your design affect user perception of your brand. With this in mind Blue was chosen as the strongest element to portray calmness, stability, trust, and professionalism, while the accent of orange allowed for the ability to pull the website visitors attention to key components of the site.

Before we closed out the project, in all we helped Chandler’s Conceal and Carry Instruction with a web design, new logo design, and a new business card design to ensure consistency of brand throughout all the different collateral.

Chris Chandler, our client, was absolutely great to work with. He was very open to suggestion and willing to offer valuable input when needed. These kinds of things can make a project an absolute pleasure to work on. Chris is very good at what he does, if anyone is looking for a professional and knowledgeable Conceal and Carry Instructor, CLICK HERE and contact Chris.

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

Every now and then we like to touch on some free resources that are available on the web, that can effectively help your business in meaningful ways. In this article we are going to cover a cloud-based application offered by Google, called Google Docs. There are a couple reasons why using this free application can fit almost any business need.

[list style="list1"]
• You can access them from any computer anywhere in the world
• You can grant access to to the documents to a selected group of people by sharing it out to them
• Your documents can be downloaded and saved to your computer in common file formats (.pdf, .xls, etc)
• You don’t have to worry about expensive software upgrades
• You can upload all your existing documents, so that you can access them from anywhere

[/list]

Google offers a list of all the benefits and things you can do in Google Docs:

Here’s what you can do in your Documents List:

[list style="list2"]
• Create Google documents, spreadsheets, other file types, and collections.
• Upload (from your computer, if you’d like), manage, and store files and folders.
• Share Google Docs, files, and collections.
• Preview your docs and files before you open or share them.
• View images and videos that you’ve uploaded to your Documents List.
• Search for items by name, type, and visibility setting.

[/list]

Here’s what you can do with documents:

[list style="list2"]
• Convert most file types to Google Docs format.
• Add flair and format your documents, with options such as paint format, margins, spacing, and fonts.
• Invite other people to collaborate on a doc with you, giving them edit, comment or view access.
• Collaborate online in real time and chat with other collaborators.
• View your documents’ revision history and roll back to any version.
• Download Google Docs to your desktop as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML or zip files.
• Translate a document to a different language.
• Email your documents to other people as attachments.

[/list]

To learn more about Google documents, check out the Google documents getting started guide.

Here’s what you can do with spreadsheets:

[list style="list2"]
• Import and convert .xls, .csv, .txt and .ods formatted data.
• Export .xls, .csv, .txt and .ods formatted data and PDF and HTML files.
• Use formatting and formula editing so you can calculate results and make your data look the way you’d like.
• Chat in real time with others who are editing your spreadsheet.
• Create charts and gadgets.
• Embed a spreadsheet, or individual sheets of your spreadsheet, in your blog or website.

[/list]

For more information about Google spreadsheets, check out the Google spreadsheets getting started guide.

Here’s what you can do with presentations:

[list style="list2"]
• Share and edit presentations with your friends and coworkers.
• Import and convert existing presentations in .pptx and .pps file types.
• Download your presentations as a PDF, a PPT, or a .txt file.
• Insert images and videos, and format your slides.
• Allow real-time viewing of presentations, online, from separate remote locations.
• Publish and embed your presentations in a website, allowing access to a wide audience.

[/list]

For more information about Google presentations, check out the Google presentations getting started guide

Here’s what you can do with drawings:

[list style="list2"]
• Share and edit drawings with your friends and coworkers.
• Download your presentations as a PNG, JPEG, SVG, or PDF file.
• Insert images, shapes, and lines, and format them to fit your preferences.
• Real-time collaboration with other people, no matter where they are.
• Insert a drawing into a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.

[/list]

For more information about Google drawings, check out the Google drawings getting started guide

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

We were contacted by Children’s Country Day School in Mendota Heights, MN about working with them on a new website design and and content management system. Their existing system was outdated in it’s website’s design and architecture and there was some key components they were looking to have built into their website.

[list style="list1"]
• A Content Management System that allowed their staff to update the new website without much computer experience.
• A password protected set of pages that were accessible only to parents.
• The ability to have parents register for access and be approved by an administrator before being able to view private pages.
• A special section of password protected pages for staff use.

[/list]

With these features in mind we built the website on the world class Content Management System WordPress.  The website design aspect of this project was exciting to work on, as they really were looking for an earthy theme that showed off the amazing outdoors activities they offer their students. So we worked in some natural elements such as Oak Bark texture as the main background, as well as some grass and soil lining the footer.

We helped them compare hosting accounts and migrated them to a new hosting account with Bluehost.com. They were a great team to work with and we look forward to working with them in the future.

Mind Blossom Creations - Professional Web Design and Development | eCommerce, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento