Author Archives: vincent

Dropping Pennies and the Search for Inspiration

May 14, 2012    Design, Fun & Facts, Marketing

Drawing a blank? Try these tips to find some inspiration.

If you are reading this, I will bet you a nickel you work in advertising (or are a very, very good friend). Since good advertising differentiates itself from other messages, it is a given our industry demands a great deal of creativity. Our job is to inspire potential consumers to modify their behavior and purchase our clients’ goods and services. It can be a tense process when creative inspiration has a deadline and sometimes we’re left staring at a blank screen waiting for our muse.

With that in mind, here are a few tips and tricks we use at Alter Imaging to get the ideas flowing: Read More

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Digital Marketing vs Rocket Science

March 27, 2012    Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

We all have our pet peeves here at Alter Imaging. For my boss, it’s placing the home button in the wrong place. For our developers, it’s uncommented code. For our front end designers, it is old versions of IE.

For me, it’s when an internet marketer writes a blog that concludes with:

I get enraged when people claim internet marketing is not rocket science. Yes, I know: it is a euphemism meant to reduce apprehension and encourage people to learn something new. I get that. Read More

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Digital Agency vs Traditional

March 13, 2012    Internet Marketing, Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Design, Web Development

Today’s marketing world is dominated by two different types of agencies: digital and traditional. Obviously, as a digital agency, Alter Imaging is biased when comparing the two but we (sorta) tried to provide an unbiased comparison.

Let’s start with a look at what a digital agency is…

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About Website Content Management Systems

January 19, 2012    Web Design, Web Development

Website content management systems make it easy to update your website.

Most people understand the difference between creating a website from scratch and utilizing a content management system (CMS) but we still get questions asking us what a CMS is. Here’s a quick primer.

Not Familiar with HTML?

CMSs allows the non-technical and savvy HTML users the ability to easily make changes to the website anywhere and anytime.  Simply log-in, post your update using a rich text editor, and save your changes. Some content management systems even allow you to create new posts via email. Read More

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Facebook’s Social Graph – Insights From a Marital Klout War

November 23, 2011    Fun & Facts, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Web Analytics

There is no magic button you can push to increase your influence.

Those of you that know me probably know me either through my position here at Alter Imaging as a internet marketer or through UNC Charlotte as a basic web design instructor.  I live online. I’m active on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. I write articles on internet marketing.  I’m actively working on growing my online influence.

My wife, however, is a different story.

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Optimizing for (not provided)

November 8, 2011    Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Web Analytics

If you see "https" in your Google url, you are affected by this.

Last month Google made a significant announcement that literally shook the SEO community. To sum up, if a user is logged into Google, their default connection will now be secure. Not a big deal in itself, but search marketers now lose the ability to see which organic keywords brought traffic and led to transactions.

For example:

If someone searched for “web designers, in Charlotte NC” through a secure connection on Google, that traffic would now be lumped in to the (not provided) category.

We know they came from Google. We just don’t know what they typed into Google to get to us. Read More

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The Outdated “Home” Button

October 27, 2011    Design, Internet Marketing, Web Design

Time to abandon the idea of making "Home" primary in your navigation.

When we develop a new website, one of the first steps our account managers take is to develop the site map. The purpose of the site map is to outline the hierarchy of the website pages and how they will relate to each other. Invariably, we have clients who want to put the ‘Home’ button as the first item in their main navigation. Read More

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Making the Complex Simple

October 13, 2011    Internet Marketing, Marketing

There were MP3 players before the iPod but Apple made listening to music simple.

Last week, when Steve Jobs passed away, many of us weighed in on his accomplishments. As a lifetime Mac user (I started with a Mac Classic in 1990), the one characteristic that stood out to me was his innate ability to make complex processes simple. Yes, you pay a premium for Apple products but you know they will work right out of the box with an easy learning curve. Read More

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Be You, Not a Bot

September 28, 2011    Social Media Marketing

The internet creates an amazing amount of potential. Communication is digitally networked and enhanced. While new channels and platforms fragment our intended audience, technology ensures each individual can choose their media format to receive the message. Done right, you can reach more people in more intimate ways.

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Correlating FB Likes with SEO Metrics

August 3, 2011    Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing

From Tripl.com's infographic.

An interesting infographic was published the other week from Tripl.com entitled “The Social Travel Solution“. Good stuff, especially if you are a stats nerd. About halfway down the infographic, they state that SouthWest Airlines is the king of social media and them proceed to rank the airlines in terms of number of Facebook likes.

While Tripl was obviously analyzing this from a social media perspective, we thought it would be interesting to look at the social metrics and see how they correlate to search engine optimization metrics. Read More

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