We recently completed a new website for Circle K of Arkansas in Rose Bud  Arkansas. Circle K of Arkansas builds and services gas and oil wells. They also provide transportation services for large and over sized equipment.

The title says it all “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words”. With the ubiquity of video sharing websites and the availability of high-speed Internet connections make now a great time to share information about your product or service with an online video. Here are a few tips on how to create a great video for your website.

• Write a Script – Very few people are able to create a smooth, coherent video describing a product or service without the aid of some notes or a full blown script. A script not only helps you stay on track, it helps you narrow the focus of your video and be more concise.
• Show Something in the Video – There are thousands of video out there where folks sit in front of a camera and explain something. Typically, that does not make for an interesting or remarkable video. If you are advertising a product, show the product working. If you are selling a service, show an example of the service. For example, consider an auto detail service. It would be easy to simply go on camera and explain what you do. However, it would be far more interesting to show before and after photos, fading in and out, while you describe what you do.
• Keep it Simple – Effects and flashy graphics can add quality to a video; however, they can also be distracting, expensive to produce, and mask the point of your message if not done correctly. If you are new to creating videos I suggest keeping things simple an informative the first time out.
• Keep it Short – The average YouTube video is 2 1/2 minutes in length. Most Internet users have grown accustomed to this, and it is a good practice to keep your video less than 5 minutes long. If you have more information than you can share in 5 minutes consider making a series of videos and share them over a period time.
• Share the Video – It is important to place the finished video on your website, but you should also consider sharing the video on other websites. YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, and Vimeo are all excellent places to share videos and create buzz about your product/service.

Here is a short product demo video I did for Linux.com about a multimedia product named Banshee. This video highlights the points above.

Next only to the Home page, the About page is the most important page on your website. That one page alone is the sum of everything about you, your company, and your website in general. Here are a few tips on how to create a good About page.

• Write it for your visitors and customers, not for yourself. All too often About pages contain all kinds of information without really saying anything. When you write an about page try to put yourself in the seat of the person reading the information. It may help to answer these questions: Why am I here? What does this website/company/person actually do? Who runs this website? How can this company help me? How can I contact this company/person?
• Keep it simple and informative. Web users are not known for having a long attention span. The more fluff a person has to wade through, the less likely he or she will get the message you are trying to convey.
• Give your website a face and a name. It is hard to build trust over the Internet. A name and picture of the key people at your company will go a long way towards establishing trust.
• Keep the information real. If your company is certified to do something, say so. If you are the leader in a particular field, prove it. Do not make extraneous claims unless you have the metal to back it up.
• Location, location, location. You and/or your company is located somewhere, tell your visitors where that somewhere is. This is extremely important for people or companies that rely on local business.

Here is some more information on About pages…

• Your About Page is a Robot – A List Apart
• How to Write the Perfect About Page – Skelliewag

For most people, the Internet has been a part of everyday life for over a decade now. Furthermore, it has become the primary form of communication, and commerce for some — and this group’s numbers are on the rise. In today’s world businesses that do not have a web presence are missing out on an ever-growing segment of the population.

What is the easist and most effective way to for a web presence? The answer, build a website. A website is essentially a 24 hour a day, 7 days a week sales person that gets paid very little and never complains. What business would not want that? Here are some tips on what every website should have.

• Business name, address, and contact information. First and foremost, it is important that potential customers know who you are, where you are, and how to get in touch with you. Also, provide multiple ways for customers to contact you: phone number, email address, physical address, instant messaging, etc.
• Services the business provides. Every business website needs to have information about what the company can do for their customers.
• Background information about the company. It is helpful for potential clients to learn details about a company that he or she is looking to do business with. It also helps to have testimonials from current and past clients.
• A blog. In today’s world most people are accustomed to being in-the-know about every aspect of the world around them. Businesses that take advantage of this need for knowledge will be ahead of the curve. With a blog it is easy and simple to keep customers informed of upcoming sales, new services, and other information that can further the relationship between them and the business.

We hope that this information will help businesses that do not have a web presence make the decision to start the process of building one. We also hope it helps businesses that already have a website take a look at their site and evaluate what the site is telling their current and future customers.

We recently completed a website overhaul for Nestlehut Insurance in Quitman Arkansas. Nestlehut Insurance provides life and health insurance for individuals and small businesses. They also do retirement planning and medicare plans.

The new website is just the beginning of this project. We will be working with Nestlehut Insurance to produce a series of videos to help their current and future customers.

Last month we completed work on a brand new website for Healing Path Counseling here in Conway Arkansas. Healing Path Counseling is the clinical office of Wendy Blackwood. Wendy helps people with troubled relationships get back on the right path.

On this project we flexed our graphic design skills and created a new logo. We also helped compose a good deal of the content that is on the website.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with Wendy on this project and we wish her all the best.

Has it really been two months since we updated the website to let you guys know what is going on? Wow I guess it has been. In the last two months we have had our heads down developing some really great software and building some new websites for clients all over the Central Arkansas and Conway area. The good news is that several of these sites will go live in the next few weeks. Stay tuned, we will post the new goodness as soon as it is out of the oven.

We recently launched a new website for A & J Collision Repair in Conway Arkansas. A & J Collision Repair is a full service auto body repair shop servicing the Conway area.

For this project we utilized existing open source tools to allow them to better manage their web content. We also created a custom tool that allows A & J to post photos of their client’s vehicles while they are being repaired. The tool is completely integrated with their new content management system.

In addition to launching the site we are working with A & J to bolster their online presence by utilizing social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook.

Every year the Faulkner County Supporters for Sustainable Communities (FCSSC) has a public forum to discuss sustainability issues. For the last two years we have had the privilege of creating the flier for the event.

We stuck with the same color scheme and basic design from last year, mostly because folks recognize it. We did try to make the logo more prominent this year by moving it to the top of the document. The group was very pleased with the work and we expect to see these all over town this week.

Terri Files Photography recently shot photos for a bicycle event in Conway Arkansas. After the event Terri needed a way to publish her photos on the Internet to allow customers to place orders. We looked around at all the commercial and open source applications available. Finally, we settled on installing and customizing Gallery. We are no stranger to Gallery, over the years we have used it for several projects. A while back we even worked on an open source photo manager to enhance it’s support for exporting to Gallery.

In the end, we provided Terri with a professional, sleek photo gallery that is easily managed and e-commerce ready. Her customers can view photos from the event and easily place orders. The setup allows them to pay for their orders using PayPal, or by mailing a check. The Gallery also allows instant download access when a customer purchases a full resolution digital photo.

The Gallery setup takes care of the photographer as well. It automatically watermarks all of her images and protects against unauthorized full size image downloads. The API also enables her to publish photos directly from her management software.

This project was fun for us. It allowed us to provide a top notch setup for our customer and support an open source software project. Everybody wins when we use open source applications: the customer gets a finished project faster and cheaper, we lower our time of development, and the software project gains another new user.

It should also be noted that every time we get paid for a project, and use an open source software application as an integral component we make a monetary donation to the project. It is just a little something we like to do.