Memphis Marketing and Advertising

The Autozone Liberty Bowl game is today, and I will be there in force to provide photography for the game. While most of the photographers will be facing the action, it is my job to capture photo-journalistic style shots for next year’s program. While I don’t get paid for this endeavor, it has it’s perks. Having a press pass allows me access to the field and just about anywhere in the stadium. My wife always works for the Liberty Bowl during the game, and we get free food and drinks. Also, since I have been shooting professionally for only a little over a year, it provides me with more exposure and great experience. As long as I don’t get camera envy with all those big lenses during the game, I should have a great time. I will try and post some of the images from today’s game sometime in the next couple of days on my website.

As you can see, I am a huge fan of Wordpress blogs for their functionality and easy to use dashboard functions. I like the custom abilities of their CSS design, allowing users to create blogs that flow into the design of their sites. We are in the process of researching other methods for easy-to-use content management for our sites we build. Several Open Source options are available. Utilizing PHP similar to Wordpress, Joomla and Mambo are interesting tools for building sites with a database driven content management system. We will; post more info as we delve into this interesting field. For now, visit wordpress.org or joomla.org for more information. Several questions that we must get answered are how compatible these are with web standards and how searchable their content is for search engine work. If you have any info that will expedite our learning process, feel free to post the info here. Thank you.

downtowndatenight.com will be the latest online marketing installment of Herrington Marketing. We will utilize rich content to create an online portal to cities across the country. The website will specialize in providing preplanned dates for people with information on restaurants, tourist spots and nightlife in various cities. Visitors will be able to search by budget and city allowing them to conveniently plan outings and travel schedules. Main income source will be through advertising. Here is a mock up of the first logo idea.

 I found this site tonight that has some really good info on web design and creating CSS driven websites with lean HTML. They have complete design and programming tutorials available.

1. Clean easy to update design/structure.
2. Good usability in the design - and all that implies.
3. Fast loading ‘light’ pages.
4. Intelligent use of technology - using Flash when it makes sense not because you want a ‘cool’ intro!
5. The website’s ability to convey the meaning/message of the website quickly if not instantly.

www.how-to-build-websites.com

In the world of web design, static html pages are the norm for most web designers. Unfortunately, in the content driven world of the internet now, building html pages for all of your content, especially if it’s dynamic, can be a huge headache as well as a huge expense. Also, for dynamic content, your typical content providers do not have web design experience and are forced to use a web designer for every update or addition. Many companies today are hiring copywriters to add useful content to their websites to increase traffic as well as search engine standings. These companies need something better than the typical html site. What’s the solution?

Database Driven Web Design- You build your site with CSS around a PHP powered database. This creates complete separation between the design of the site and it’s content allowing you to change one without affecting the other. Take this blog for instance. It is set up to pull it’s content from a MySQL database on my server. The design is built with CSS and a PHP system that can access, manipulate, and create any content for this site via a simple dashboard that anyone could run. Simply click on write post in the administrative dashboard, write, and then publish. All of your content is then placed in your server’s database and is displayed according to the way the site is designed. You can change the design and the content will still display correctly. This is an example of a streamlined content management program for your website. Dynamic content, in an easy to update design template is perfect for search engine optimization, driving more traffic to your site, and helping create repeat visits.

Mysql.com

Memphis Website Design - CSS, PHP, MySQL, Javascript

Marshall Arts, a gallery located obviously on Marshall Ave, is having an open art show for ten to twelve artists tonight. Sue Layman has an exhibition space in this gallery and will be one of the featured artists. There will be free wine and food and of course, plenty of art to be viewed. Sue has solicited the help of Herrington Marketing to develop an HTML email mail out service and re-vamp her old website. We will be designing brand new signage for her gallery on G. E. Patterson as well. She is also considering the use of NYGADI as one of her promotion tools. Look for more information as begin what we hope can be a long-term and fruitful relationship with this Memphis artist

To kick off our exploratory surgery into the realm of art promotion, NYGADI is putting together duel art festivals in Abilene and Memphis. While nothing is set in stone, rest assured that there will be music. Lots of good music and Brandon Kinder and Brandon Herrington, at least. If you are interested, please check back soon as we plan to unleash some sort of web-o-something at NYGADI.com in the next week or so. For now, just wipe your calendars clean for the entire year. We promise something big will happen at least one or two of those days.

Also, This Is Goodbye refuses to die! I’ve been informed that a TIG reunion is in the works for the seventh or eighth time. Jan 5 at the young avenue deli. Might also be a Subteens show, which I personally would love to see happen.

Oh, and also, Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys have filmed for Dell Lounge. check out their myspace for more info and snippets(I love that word) from their show in Austin.

Downtown Memphis Holiday Parade is today Dec. 15th. The South Main Association is going to have a float in the parade. Should be a fun way to see some of the association leaders get involved in downtown. Parade starts at 4 and should last about an hour. I know it’s cold and rainy, but I’ll be there as well.  Also don’t miss the Memphis Messiah tonight at the Cannon Center for Performing Arts. Orphanos is putting on Handel’s Messiah to benefit children all over the world. Starts at 7. I will be there shooting pictures for Orphanos. This is a great cause and a great organization.

Type in Search Engine Optimization into your Google Toolbar, and you’ll find 3,290,000 results. Within the first 50 pages or so, I’m sure that you will find hundreds of companies promising you better search results. They use phrases like “site inclusion services for instant results” to draw their customers. If you have visited these pages before, you will know that I am a huge advocate of the truth. The bottom line with search engines is that there is never any instant gratification. “Site inclusion to 40 search engines” gets you absolutely nowhere. If you have had your website for while, it’s already included in the search engines. That’s why we call it organic search results. Google, MSN, and Yahoo are built around the idea that they will find and index the information, through their software robots. While I don’t technically know how these software robot spiders work, I do know that their goal is to give the searcher the best experience on the web. In order to do that, they do not weigh site’s popularity or importance through inclusion services. If search engine optimization company submits your site to Google, Google gives them the message that really says, “thank you, we would have found and indexed your site anyway, and honestly, we aren’t going to look at the site any sooner because we aren’t in the habit of manipulating our organic search results. Now, if you want to pay us to include you in our sponsored results in a cost-per-click service, we would more than happy to take your money. But you still will not pop up any higher in the search results. Thank you again.”

All of that said, please, read more on this site about SEO and search placement before you make your Search Engine company choice. We are an honest company who built our services around results. Every company who comes to us has a different goal for their advertising. So we work hard to understand every aspect of the industry to give our clients the very best chance to market themselves. If it’s search engine optimization or custom web solutions, then we’ll guarantee that you’ll walk away with the best design in a lean, workable platform that will produce the results you were looking for. Thank you for visiting our site.