Business Strategy

A few more days until 2010! Yes, we know it's not technically the end of the decade, but no one called 1970 the "last year of the 60's." Some have called this the lost decade, excited to start something new. We think only good things to come!

At Bullsprig, we are finishing up a couple great websites and beginning something REALLY COOL.

We're developing a new product that will give business owners and individuals the vital tools needed to be successful on the web: manage your website and run marketing campaigns; care for your customers and sell your products online.

We're integrating SEO and search marketing so business owners can drive qualified targeted traffic to their websites, expand their online business presence, attract new customers and generate leads, give the power of account maintenance to the business owner, and much more!

This new product is designed so business owners and individuals can start small and grow with it as their business does, at an affordable price.

We have a clear vision for this product. Stay tuned!

We recently went live with a redesigned website for CFS Engineering. CFS Engineering was founded by Clark Stoner as a specialty service civil and environmental engineering firm dedicated to helping their clients achieve their most challenging objectives.

The overall business goals for the redesign were:

• Give CFS Engineering a newer, updated look and feel.
• Port their old site to Bullsprig's Content Management System (CMS), giving the owners of CFS Engineering better control over their website.
• Utilize Bullsprig's enhanced SEO technologies to achieve better rankings via organic search.
• Generate higher-quality business leads through interactive forms and funnels on the website.

In addition to these business goals, we added: custom website analytics; lead management systems built around workflows; automatically generated xml feeds for search; and other important key business indicators (KBIs).

Clark Stoner, the owner/founder of CFS Engineering, is an avid outdoorsman as well as being one of the top engineers in the field. He wanted the website to "not" look like every other engineering firm out there. We utilized outdoor photography and various elements to achieve the desired look and feel requested.

We integrated a blog and designed various announcement modules to help the team at CFS Engineering keep the site fresh with updated content relevant to the engineering industry.

At Bullsprig, we are very excited about this site! Click here to view the new CFS Engineering website.

Let's talk a little about copywriting for your website.

What is copywriting? When talking web design, it's your site's content... what people read. This includes Headlines, Subheads and body copy. Writing is always difficult (for most people anyway). We tell each of our clients to estimate the amount of time you think it will take to write copy for your site, then DOUBLE IT! Internal content creation always takes longer than you expect!

Right now, we have 5 websites that are completely finished, beta tested, layout approved, all ready to go... but WAITING for finalized copy. It's always copy that holds up a website launch!

My minor in college was Journalism. I didn't know how to write very good at all. One of the first classes I took was on writing. My professor actually asked me if wanted to change my minor and do something else! At any rate, I learned how to write. I wasn't the star student, but I powered my way through it and learned a lot. So can you!

Here's some help for those of you who may need some help, here is a great article: The Art of the Paragraph.

The www.copyblogger.com is a great website to learn how to write and to bring out your inner writer. Read the articles. Learn.

Keep your fingers crossed that we get the copy soon. We have some awesome sites to unveil, stay tuned!

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More and more of our clients are demanding a single solution that helps them manage every aspect of their website and online activities. That solution is a Content Management System (CMS).

At Bullsprig, all of our websites are designed and developed to run on our advanced technology infrastructure: the Bullsprig Platform. This platform is a Content Management System for the web.

Content Management Systems (CMS) on the web are used to manage and control collections HTML documents and their associated images, eCommerce systems, workflows and many other things. Having your website run by a content management system is critical to the success of your website.

Content management systems (CMS) are designed to allow users with little knowledge of programming languages or markup languages the ability to create and manage content with relative ease. A good content management system has the power to dramatically simplify the maintenance and freshness of websites.

The Bullsprig Platform gives clients the power to manage their websites, run marketing campaigns, track customers, sell products and much more... making their lives easier and business more profitable.

Our website design and development process integrates our CMS from the start. When we design and develop a new website, all the functionality, i.e., interactive forms, eCommerce capabilities, email marketing, workflows and so on are all tied together on the Bullsprig Platform.

Our CMS platform is an all-in-one solution. That means, when you log in, you have immediate access your website control panel, contacts database, web form submissions, blog and forum comments, products, catalogs and sub-catalogs, your orders, web pages, email marketing campaigns, website reports and more.

You can access your website from any computer with an internet connection... just use any popular web browser!

Our clients have had tremendous success with our system. If you are interested in learning more, please contact us today for a free website design estimate!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of analyzing and enhancing your website to help potential customers find it on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. SEO is a process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via "natural" or unpaid search results (defined by Reno SEO companies as "organic" search results).

The term "search engine marketing" (SEM) deals with paid search. Search engine marketing seeks to increase the visibility of a website by promoting that website with the use of paid ad placement, contextual advertising and paid inclusion. Search engine marketing includes the use of Google Adwords, contextual advertising and other forms of online advertising.

Having your custom website design optimized for search is important because the higher your website appears in the search results list, the more traffic your website will receive from the various search engines. Website traffic is key if you want to have a successful online business!

Search engine optimization includes a lot of different kinds of search strategies in addition to your keyword search strategy. Image search, local search and video search are all components that should be included in your search engine optimization. By incorporating all these strategies in your SEO, your website will have a much better web presence, thus more traffic!

As part of your internet marketing strategy, SEO tactics should be incorporated into custom website development and design. Valid code is the foundation for effective SEO strategies.

Search engine optimization focuses on how search engines work and what specific terms people search for. SEO efforts should start at the bottom level of your website. That is, your HTML code!

The majority of web pages on the Internet are written in computer languages (such as HTML). This allows web designers and web developers the ability to structure text, images, multimedia content and more on a web page.

All software and applications written with computer languages are supposed to follow rules. This includes websites and web pages! A common mistake made by many web developers and designers is to NOT follow these rules. This is a huge mistake if you want quality search engine results.

Optimizing a website for search begins with valid HTML code. Quality, valid HTML code will remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines and make your online business search engine friendly. All of our Reno web design clients have websites built with quality code. In addition, we send an xml feed every 24 hours to all the major search engines, which helps our clients tremendously with their search results!

The term "search engine friendly" describes the overall layout and design of your custom website. Designing search engine friendly websites begins with valid HTML code. That code powers your overall layout and design, including: navigational menus, content management systems, images, blogs, forums, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that make up your online business.

In today's competitive business environment, proper SEO is critical to the success of any website. Whether you want to optimize your site yourself or want a professional Reno SEO agency to help you, Search Engine Optimization should be a keystone of your online marketing strategy.

The goal of your search engine optimization strategies should be to gain more visibility on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. Increasing traffic to your website is the only way to grow your online business.

If you need help with your SEO, SEM or your website design and development, contact Bullsprig today! We are a Reno web design and Reno SEO website design agency. But, Reno Nevada is just where we call home... we have a lot of clients all across the US and would love to work with you wherever you live!

The design and development work involved in creating a highly effective website begins with the first client review and continues until the site goes live. Unlike any other industry, custom website design is open to criticism by anyone. To streamline the creative review process, it's important to follow your initial business strategy for your website. That is, what exactly do you want users to do... what is the number one function for your website?

Do you want users to purchase your products on your online shop? Are you trying to generate leads for future sales calls? Are you trying to build a community around your products and/or services?

Getting the best creative results are found when you follow your initial business strategy. Strategy and business initiatives are key.

At the beginning of your web design process, you had certain goals and business objectives. During your website reviews, your main concern should be focused on hitting these goals. Will the design and layout help increase newsletter sign ups? Have we given users easy access to purchase the products we offer? How does the layout influence users to fill out our forms so we can follow-up on the information? And so on.

During your creative reviews, you should ask your web design agency questions that will help articulate your business goals. How will my customer purchase products from my site? Does the look and feel of the site reflect my company's brand values? Does the look and feel of the site appeal to my customer? What graphic elements have you used in the design to lead customers to what we want them to do? What benefits are we giving customers with this site? Will customers know exactly what business we're in by viewing the home page?

Communication is key. Does the website communicate your business goals? Does the design support a unique experience? What value is being communicated? Are your goals being met?

If the answer to any of the above is no, tell your website design agency. Be honest. Any agency dedicated to their client's business success with take the criticism seriously and change the work to meet your goals. You should never approve creative that does not meet the business goals you have set for your online business.

When you give your web development and design agency concrete strategic design direction, they can create a site that will meet and exceed your business requirements.

If not, it's time to choose a new web design agency.

We just went live with a new website for Reno real estate agent Brooke Sullivan. Brooke specializes in luxury real estate and Montreux real estate in Reno, Nevada. The design and development of this website went incredibly fast, at only 8 total days! (That includes beta testing and debugging!)

The design goals for this project was to give users an easy method to search for real estate and show Brooke's featured listings, while staying clean and user-friendly. The overwhelming majority of real estate websites are cluttered and confusing... filled with non-essential "stuff" like mortgage rates and calculators. Very rarely do these sites offer anything that users would want to come back for.

This was a great project for the team at Bullsprig to work on because so many real estate web sites -- even the sites focusing on luxury real estate -- are SO confusing, and completely abandon their initial business goals. Most sites lose focus by populating their pages with dancing skeletons and dinosaur pictures.

This website had to be engaging. Relevant. Filled with information users would seek out and return to often. Brooke's clientiel are high-end sophisticated real estate buyers. These clients have purchased real estate before, and are looking for the best Reno real estate agent available.

We built the website entirely on the Bullsprig Platform, integrating numerous key business indicators, including:

• Custom Web Site Analytics - Custom website reports are generated weekly, and sent via email to Brooke Sullivan every Sunday. These website reports illustrate her top performing pages, most popular Reno real estate listings and searches, web form submissions and more. Our website statistics provide everything Brooke Sullivan needs to know to improve her online business and stay on track.
• Lead Management Systems - We built custom web forms that capture every inquiry, seamlessly updating her customer database in real-time.
• Workflow Notifications - We built multi-step work-flows to notify Brooke Sullivan of new web form submissions, verifying steps as they are completed, and remind and escalate to management if need be.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - We put special effort into making sure Brooke Sullivan can get found on the web. We automatically generate the sitemap.xml file for Brooke Sullivan each day, ensuring maximum visibility in Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
• Content Management System (CMS) - Utilizing the Bullsprig Platform, Brooke Sullivan can maintain every aspect of her custom website, from any computer with a web connection. She can update real estate listings and edit content, upload files and communications, add and change photos with a click of a mouse.

The SEO campaign for Brooke Sullivan will be ongoing, as true SEO performance is not easy, and takes a lot time and effort. The SEO work we'll be doing for Brooke Sullivan is going to be very interesting. There is a lot of competition for real estate keywords. As of today, BrookeSullivan.com is not found on Google. But, that WILL change shortly. (We'll keep you up-to-date).

About Brooke Sullivan: Brooke Sullivan is a luxury real estate agent who works for Dickson Realty at the private golf course community of Montreux. Her real estate website focuses on luxury real estate in Northern Nevada. In addition to Northern Nevada luxury real estate, Brooke Sullivan lists and sells Montreux real estate and Reno real estate. Brooke Sullivan lives and works in the Reno/Tahoe area, and is a member of the Montreux Golf and Country Club, home to a stop on the PGA Tour and FedEx Cup. Her website should be used to search for real estate, including: Montreux Real Estate, Luxury Real Estate, Reno Real Estate, Lake Tahoe Real Estate and high-end Real Estate. The private Montreux community could be comparable to: Martis Camp; Yellowstone Club; Timilick Tahoe; Old Greenwood; Grays Crossing and the Tahoe Mountain Club.

Click here to view Brooke Sullivan's website.

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and Omniture, Inc. (Nasdaq:OMTR) today announced the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement for Adobe to acquire Omniture in a transaction valued at approximately $1.8 billion on a fully diluted equity-value basis. Under the terms of the agreement, Adobe will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Omniture for $21.50 per share in cash.

Adobe's acquisition of Omniture furthers its mission to revolutionize the way the world engages with ideas and information. By combining Adobe's content creation tools and ubiquitous clients with Omniture's Web analytics, measurement and optimization technologies, Adobe will be well positioned to deliver solutions that can transform the future of engaging experiences and e-commerce across all digital content platforms and devices.

The combination of the two companies will increase the value Adobe delivers to customers. For designers, developers and online marketers, an integrated workflow -- with optimization capabilities embedded in the creation tools -- will streamline the creation and delivery of relevant content and applications. This optimization will enable advertisers, advertising agencies, publishers and e-tailers to achieve greater ROI from their digital media investments and improve their end users' experiences.

"Adobe customers are looking to us for solutions to deliver engaging experiences and more effectively monetize their content and applications online," said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer of Adobe. "This is a game changer for both Adobe and our customers. We will enable advertisers, media companies and e-tailers to realize the full value of their digital assets."

"Omniture's mission has been to enable our customers to optimize every digital interaction," said Josh James, CEO of Omniture. "By joining forces with Adobe, we will accelerate our ability to deliver on that vision and together bring new innovation to the market that improves content engagement, advertising effectiveness and the overall user experience, which will drive more advertising dollars online."

Expanded Opportunities for Adobe and Omniture
This acquisition will significantly expand Adobe's addressable market and growth potential, broadening solutions Adobe provides to the rapidly growing Internet advertising, e-commerce and digital media markets.

The combination will also expand Adobe's offering of mission-critical solutions to the enterprise customer. Adding the capabilities of Omniture will further enhance Adobe's offerings and ability to appeal to online marketers, including chief marketing officers.

The acquisition of Omniture will further diversify Adobe's business, adding a scalable SaaS platform that captures over a trillion transactions per quarter, an expansive partner ecosystem, and a recurring revenue model.

For Omniture, joining Adobe will provide global operational scale and the ability to more quickly penetrate new geographies and markets, thereby accelerating its go-to-market strategy and growth potential.

Integration and Closing Details
As part of the expected integration of the two companies, Omniture will become a new business unit within Adobe. Omniture's CEO, Josh James, will join Adobe as senior vice president of the new business unit, reporting to Adobe's president and CEO, Shantanu Narayen.

The completion of the transaction, which is subject to customary government approvals and the satisfaction of other customary conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Adobe's 2009 fiscal year.

The proposed offer represents a premium of 45 percent over Omniture's average closing price for the last 30 trading days through yesterday's close.

Adobe believes the acquisition will be accretive to Adobe's non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2010.

The companies will make information, including an FAQ and other details about the acquisition, available at http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandomniture.html.

With every custom website design project we undertake, we stick to specific guidelines to complete the project on-time and on-budget. That is, of course, easier said than done.

With every client wanting the absolute best work for their online business, it's best to stick to your project management guide or your design contract to fulfill your end of the bargain.

The absolute most important point in your contract is the one defining the scope of work. In our web design contracts, we are as detailed and precise as possible when dealing with project scope and reviews/revisions. If you let the project get out of control with client revisions, your project will be drained of any profit you calculated in. Nothing drains more dollars than unnecessary client revisions.

Stick to your project goals. What was the original business goal for this project? Sometimes we have clients try to make changes after they have approved the original design. This happens. More often than not, the original design was the correct decision. We always go back with our clients and review the project goals and articulate the logic behind the original design decision.

Sometimes client revisions are due to another, higher-level manager in the company. It's vitally important that you get the names and information of each key decision maker on the project, and involve them!

How important is client involvement? There are several phases of web projects where client approval is necessary to move forward. We let clients know how many revisions are budgeted in the project scope. And, when formal revisions take place, we always get a signature for approval.

It's important your web design agency takes the time to educate clients on the web design process and business goals that will be solved via your custom website design. If you're working with a web design agency, you've probably chose them because you liked their work. Trust them! At Bullsprig, we're in business because our clients trust our judgement when it comes to the design and layout of websites.

At Bullsprig, our clients are responsible for providing constructive feedback at each revision cycle. Each revision cycle is designed to move the project forward, to solve business goals as specified by the client.

At each milestone in the web design process, we insist on client approval and involvement. The website design and development should be completely 'client approved' prior to launch. This will prevent last minute delays and unexpected costs due to revisions.

After the site is launched, the education process continues. Clients need to know how to use their website, how to get traffic and how to evaluate strategy moving forward. Successful business owners know that in order for their website to gain traffic, convert visitors, and solve important business goals, the website has to be constantly updated, reviewed, tested, linked and maintained.

We build all our websites on an advanced technology infrastructure that makes it easy for businesses and individuals to maintain and grow their online business. After the launch of any website, we train all our clients how to use this platform. The Bullsprig platform boasts a wide array of powerful modules for empowering your website.

If you have a business in Reno Nevada, and are looking for a Reno web design agency, let's get in touch.