PixelPunk Creative

2012 Best of the Web Award Finalists

by PixelPunk Creative

Every year, since 1996, the Rochester Business Journal has recognized the best business websites being designed and developed in Rochester, New York. The finalists are evaluated on everything from usability and general design aesthetics, to content, functionality, and standards compliance. New this year, is the ‘Best Use of Social Media’ category which evaluates how local [...]

Keeping Tabs with Google Alerts

by PixelPunk Creative

Use Google Alerts to keep tabs on your own Search Engine Optimization efforts as well as those of your competitors. Just go to http://www.google.com/alerts and enter your search query (e.g. the name of your product or competitor’s product, your company name, etc.) and Google will send you an email every time the terms show up [...]

Baton Rouge Business Report

by PixelPunk Creative

Totally stoked that I was interviewed for the latest edition of the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report. The South is being very kind to me!

Search Engine Land Periodic Table Of SEO

by PixelPunk Creative

Search Engine Land has just published a nice little infographic called “The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors“. It’s a great overview of the on-page and off-page ‘signals’ that search engine algorithms pay attention to when evaluating your site for ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

WXXI – Company Town

by PixelPunk Creative

The folks at WXXI fell in love with a photo that I shot of the Douglas-Anthony Bridge and asked to use it in some of their online promotional material. What an honor! They used the photo to promote their new ‘Company Town’ series about successful companies that got their start in Rochester, NY. Here is [...]

Who got a “White Hat”?

by PixelPunk Creative

Out of the blue, the folks at Google sent me a free hat to say ‘thank you’ for all of the AdWords client work I do. Should I be concerned that it’s a “Black Hat”? Who got a “White Hat”? #SEO

iGrieve

by PixelPunk Creative

I Will Not “Submit”

by PixelPunk Creative

Did you know that if you have a form on your page, users will more likely take the final step and send (submit) the form data if it says something other than the word “submit”? It’s true, and there are studies that prove it. And it’s pretty obvious why if you really stop to think [...]

Email Maketing Tip: Hit’em Again (Friendly Reminder), Double Open Rates

by PixelPunk Creative

I don’t know if this email marketing tip will work for everyone, but it nearly doubles my open rates most of the time. After I send out an email newsletter, I’ll wait a few days, download the report, then segment the ‘opens’ and click-throughs from the ‘un-opens’. I then create a new group called ‘campaign-reminder_xx-xx-2011′ [...]

Internet Marketing Job Growth Market (According to Indeed.com)

by PixelPunk Creative

I was a little worried about having to rebuild the ‘pixelpunk’ brand down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana after our relocation; starting from scratch after all of the hard-earned brand equity I had acquired (and subsequently coddled) after all of these years in New York. But according to indeed.com, services like the ones I provide are [...]

Macs II Car Repair & Collision Services

by PixelPunk Creative

Mac’s II Auto Repair and Collision Services (Mac’s 2) is Rochester, NY’s premier auto repair and maintenance center, providing customers with expert car repair and collision services and world-class customer support for over 75 years. Mac’s II was experiencing some challenges in realizing the full potential of their online presence (while trying to compete against the big [...]

F. Olivers: Part Deux

by PixelPunk Creative

One of my favorite clients, Penelope, just opened her second F. Oliver’s store on Park Avenue last week! The store looks absolutely phenomenal and I am so grateful and proud to have had the opportunity to work on this new project with her. I can’t wait to work with her on stores number three and [...]

God is in the Design’s Details

by PixelPunk Creative

The smallest details of a design are noticed even if it doesn’t register consciously. It’s intuition. People will make important decisions about how they feel about your design within the first 60 seconds of interacting with it. People do judge books by their covers, make no mistake about it.

UX and Advertising

by PixelPunk Creative

Good UX (User Experience) is like good advertising. It doesn’t disrupt the user, it delights them. A great user experience will leave an indelible mark on the psyche and the happy user will tell all of her friends what a great product she has just found. It’s exactly like good advertising.

Apple’s Fixed Layout for Illustrated eBooks

by PixelPunk Creative

I just participated in a webinar about Apple’s new fixed layout for illustration-type eBooks put on by Aptara. It was really well done and I walked away with a lot of great ideas for a couple of new books that I am producing. While traditional ePub formatting is perfect for novels and non-fiction titles where [...]

Blogging for SEO

by PixelPunk Creative

Consumers are skeptical…now more than ever. They don’t know your company from atom (or is it Adam?). A blog can help you to build trust and to define your reputation and build credibility. The actions (e.g. words) you take now can and will determine the future behavior of your potential customers. With a successful blog, [...]

The Google +1 button for websites is here!

by PixelPunk Creative

So Google’s been rolling out this “+1” concept for a few of months now, and we’re finally able to integrate the +1 button into our own content to let people recommend it to others on Google search. It just takes two lines of code to add it to your website. Here’s a live example of [...]

My Career Illustrated in Business Cards

by PixelPunk Creative

I’m moving to Baton Rouge soon, and in the purging and packing process, I found business cards for almost every job I’ve ever held as a professional designer and marketer. The only one I’m missing in all of 20 years is St. John Fisher College (not even sure the “webmaster” even had business cards at [...]

Zen & The Art of Your Raw Access Logs

by PixelPunk Creative

I am constantly discovering new things about my network of Web properties just by simply looking at the raw access logs on my different servers. Sure, I use Google Analytics for getting the daily ‘big picture’ of all my sites, but I get the most valuable data (and definitive action items) from actually looking at [...]

IDPF Digital Book 2011 / (BEA) 2011

by PixelPunk Creative

I’m in New York City attending the IDPF Digital Book 2011 and BookExpo America (BEA) 2011 conference and shows this week. I’m looking forward to networking at the IDPF event more than anything else. It’s going to be a ‘who’s who’ type of event with all of the leaders from the digital publishing industry in [...]