Proper graphic design involves more than just designing a cool-looking logo - there are quite a few things to consider when selecting color choice for your business identity, deciding on a design for web, composing a logo, or creating a business card.

Graphic design is essential in nearly every part of a business, and must be adequately addressed for a company to be successful. Let’s look at some individual parts of a business that deserve attention to their graphic design:

Company Branding
The entire branding for a company needs to be planned out. While designed initially for one aspect of the business, what if you need to shrink the logo down to a smaller size; will it still convey the same emotion as originally planned? Are you portraying the right image by your color choice? Does cApItAlIzAtIoN matter with your choice in logo?

Web Presence
The design of a website needs to match the logo in style to make sense. In accordance, colors need to be selected that work well with the overall feel, and the website needs to be designed in a way that matches the company objective. There’s a big difference in graphic design for one type of business website as opposed to another in a different industry.

Business Card Layout & Design
Your business card can be that lasting image for a client; think of your business card as something that should be kept, not tossed away. The style needs to stand out, be unique, and be able to express the kind of industry you are in. The graphic design of this logo, as well as the original company branding itself, plays a vital role in this objective.

While at first glance it doesn’t seem like graphic design plays a big role in a business, as you can read from the examples above, it touches nearly every aspect and decisions made about one part can quite oftentimes affect another.

Don’t neglect graphic design, see what a proven, professional graphic design company can do for you!

Popularity: 26% [?]

According to the recent news from the America’s National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) the US had been in recession since December, 2007.  From rich to poor everyone is feeling the squeeze during this rough economic time.  Times are tough but this can also be a good opportunity for small online businesses to surpass large competitors that are feeling the full blunt of the storm to become the dominate player when this is all over.

Tips for success:

1. Cut Unnecessary Spending
   List all costs associated with the business and see if they can be reduced or cut.  Try to negotiate cost reduction with your supplier and if not you can try looking around.  There are products and services that will offer the same level of quality at cheaper price because of the state of the economy right now.
2. Entice Consumers
   Consumers are being more aware of their spending in tough times and will shop around for the best price and offers.  Discounts or free shipping on orders will entice consumer to buy from you and not your competitors.
3. Stay Positive and Enthusiastic
   Don’t let bad news from the economy get you in a panic mode but instead stay positive and urge yourself that if you can get through this, business will get even stronger.  What goes down must come up.
4. Look for Opportunities
   There are opportunities for small web business to make money during a recession when big competitors are feeling the most strain. Don’t wait for opportunities to knock on your door but go out and find them.
5. Marketing
   Some businesses often cut marketing during recession but marketing plays a vital role in bringing traffic.  Spend wisely on marketing that will get the most results for less cost and you can save thousands.
6. Resist Illegal Temptations
   Many websites are turning to marketing techniques that are considered “black hat” by Google to increase traffic and sales to their website.  Resist the urges to do so!  Once caught by Google your site can be banned from the search engine and it is not worth it.
7. Research & Track Stats
   During this tough recession it is vital to keep an eye on your web business.  You can look at stats to learn which items are selling and which are not and devise changes.  Research competitor’s site and continually tweak your site to outperform theirs.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Not many online business and e-commerce stores know this but huge amount of money are being drained or lost on web maintenance costs every time a webpage is manually updated.  One of the successes to any website is having interesting, clear and engaging content which gets returning visits from users.  A business is in the line of making money not losing money, so having a database driven website also known as dynamic website is the perfect way to have engaging content based on the user actions.

Dynamic vs. Static Websites

Static: Web pages that were created by the webmaster.  Every time a user loads up the page it will be the same; the content will never change unless the code was manually changed with the new content and upload to the web server.

Advantages:

• Lower initial cost of building website because of no programming cost

Disadvantages:

• Dull website with not much user interactions and content change
• Long term cost due to web maintenance cost over time
• Low to no security if website contains vital information on pages

Dynamic: Pages load up differently every time based on the users’ actions within the web page without the need for webmaster going in and manually making the changes. These types of website tend to use database programming to dynamically display content onto a single web page.

Advantages:

• Reduce the number of web pages needed to be produced to more than half which would reduce cost
• Website engages user’s actions
• Automated content changes
• High security, user information is restricted using login
• Little to no web maintenance cost
• Long term cost reduction with less maintenance cost

Disadvantages:

• High initial cost of building website because of programming cost

Popularity: 21% [?]

Many website owners are starting to realize the power of article marketing. In fact, it has become one of the most important tools of search engine optimization. Article marketing is a great technique for creating long term and quality traffic to your website through the use of one way links. Best of all, article marketing is free because you create the articles yourself!

So you understand that article marketing is one of the best and most affordable ways to build one way links to your website, but how do you start article marketing? Below I’ve listed the key factors to be successful in article marketing.

1.    Create a Smart Title
The title is the most important thing in article marketing. It is the first thing that both the search engines and the readers spot. Therefore, you should make sure to include keywords into your title. It should be clear and convincing so that the viewer will keep on reading. Tell the reader what you’re offering within the first three or four words.

Good Example
Buying a New Car: Five Things to Avoid

Bad Example
Five Things to Avoid When Buying a New Car

2.    Choose the Right Category
Many readers scan a category for relevant articles on the category’s subject. That is why placing your article in correct category is so important. If an article is not placed in the correct category it can miss its targeted audience. The best thing to do when deciding which category to place your article in is ask yourself what your reader will be looking for.

3.    Keyword Selection
Selecting effective keywords is important to any search engine optimization campaign. Article marketing is no different. Relevant keywords are those that searchers type into search engines in hopes of finding your business. Most of the keyword experts suggest that about 2-4% of your article should be keywords.

4.    Importance of the Article Summary
The summary of your article is the second most important part of article marketing. This is your chance to convince viewers that your article is exactly what they are looking for and it will provide them with beneficial information. Because this is snapshot of your article, only include the most important things that will catch the viewer’s attention.

Popularity: 21% [?]