ATILUS - Web Design | Internet Marketing

Luxury RV Resort Florida

Are you the proud owner of a luxury RV? Maybe you own an American Coach, or a Damon. Personally, it’s always been a huge dream of mine to have a motorhome and then tour the country, and end my journey at a pristine destination right on the water, preferrably here in South Florida. 

As a quick side note, one of the reasons this is a goal of mine, is because my grandfather did it. He and my grandmother retired and traveled the country for nearly a decade in their motorhome. Whenever we were close by we got picked up and traveled all across the North East and down to Disney World - some of my best memories involve that old motorhome. 

But the question has always been - once you have your dream motorcoach, what now? Where do you go?

Well, a recently launched project of ours is here to answer your question, providing an amazing resort-like experience for those with luxury RVs.

We are happy to announce the final launch of Everglades, Florida based Luxury RV Resort company, Evergladesisle.com’s website and Internet marketing. We have been working with the team at EverGladesIsle as well as their marketing company AdSource for about 6 months now and are pleased to announce the successful re-launch of their newly designed website. In addition to a gorgeous new website, featuring information for Motorhome owners as well as existing residents of the resort, it also has videos relating to the everglades and a South Florida centered blog. We provided the following services: 

• Website Redesign
• Blog Implementation
• Search Engine Optimization
• Pay Per Click Marketing

So if you’re looking for a luxury RV resort in Florida, please check them out!

Thank you again to everyone at EverGladesIsle & AdSource. 

Internet Success Takes Hard Work

I was going to write a productivity post, but that needs to wait for another time, as I stumbled upon something even more juicy this evening while perusing LinkedIn. 

Thanks to Neil Patel for this great find. 

I just got done reading an awesome post over at Daily Blog Tips entitled: “Interview: 12 Top Online Entrepreneurs” odds are you have probably heard SOME of the names on the list and, if, like us at Atilus, you work in the web industry, odds are you’ve heard of everyone on the list. Basically it is a survey of 12 of the most well-known and successful online entrepreneurs in regards to how they work, and how HARD they work. The 12 interviewed included: 

• Trent Hamm
• Collis Ta’eed
• Chris Garrett
• Dan Schawbel
• Jonathan Volk
• Yaro Stark
• Shawn Collins
• Chris Pearson
• Neil Patel
• Aaron Wall
• Rand Fishkin
• Darren Rowse

And you may be completely blown away by the results.

You see, we get asked to do numerous AMAZING web ventures all the time, but more than planning, money, strategy, or any other “thing” you can bring to the table we like to discuss good ‘ole fashioned HARD WORK. Based on the interview, these top entrepreneurs are no strangers to hard work and despite ALREADY BEING SUCCESSFUL they continue to work their asses off cultivating their businesses, pleasing their customers, and bringing business in the door.

The Internet is no different than any conventional business. Sure, your 100+ hours/week can result in larger returns than other businesses or ventures, but it still takes dedication. I highly recommend checking out the post.  

How To Make a CSS 3 Button

CSS 3 is being incorporated into web design more and more as we progress into the future of designing for the web. Browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari are two of the main browsers that currently support some of what CSS 3 has to offer (unfortunately Internet Explorer is still trying to catch up).

With this said about CSS 3 being the future let’s put it to good use. CSS 3 has a number of new features that are just waiting to be tapped into but in this article we are just going to focus on what it can bring to the design table as far as making buttons are concerned.

I’m going to make a simple button using purely CSS 3.

Let’s start with a basic set up for a button:

<a class="button" href="#">Button</a>

Now the CSS:

a.button{
    background: #7e7e7e;
    color: #fff;
    display: block;
    font-size: 16px;
    font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-weight: bold;
    height: 35px;
    line-height: 35px;
    width: 100px;
    text-align: center;
    text-decoration: none;
}

The CSS used above is standard today and can be seen by all current browser types. This is purely CSS 2 at work here - nothing special so far. Now let’s add the magic (in this case magic = CSS 3). We will be adding a border radius, box shadow, and text shadow . Here is the code:

a.button{
    border-radius: 10px;
    -moz-border-radius: 10px;
    -webkit-border-radius: 10px; 
    box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc;
    -moz-box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc;
    -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc;
    text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333;
    -moz-text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333;
    -webkit-text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333;
}

Now you are probably wondering what the extra lines are under the CSS 3 attributes that start with –moz and –kebkit. These signify the browser engine that is rendering the CSS. –moz is for Mozilla Firefox and –webkit is for Apple Safari. Without these the browser won’t know to render the CSS (for text-shadow you probably don’t need it but put it in anyway). The reason for this is that CSS 3 is not fully integrated into browsers yet and requires you to tell the browser engine that is rendering the code to call its name out and tell it to. Eventually we won’t need these prefixes but for now they are necessary.

But I digress.

I’m going to add one last style to the mix for good measure – a bottom border. So all together we have this:

a.button{ 
    background: #7e7e7e; 
    border-bottom: 1px solid #575757;
    color: #fff;
    display: block; 
    font-size: 16px;
    font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-weight: bold;
    height: 35px; 
    line-height: 35px; 
    width: 100px; 
    text-align: center; 
    text-decoration: none;
    border-radius: 10px;
    -moz-border-radius: 10px;
    -webkit-border-radius: 10px; 
    box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc;
    -moz-box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc;
    -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 2px 2px #ccc;
    text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333;
    -moz-text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333;
    -webkit-text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #333;
}

Now as long as you are viewing this in Firefox, Safari, or some other CSS 3 rendering browser you should see this: (I have provided an image version for those without browsers that handle CSS 3).

If you wanted you could even create a small gradient in Photoshop (or equivalent application) and add it to the button for more effect.

And that’s it. Simple, right?

Here is a cheat sheet of all CSS 3 has to offer.

Now be wary when using CSS 3 in your designs. Remember that not all browsers support this so be sure that whatever you are designing works with and without the CSS 3 attributes you assign to it. Or you could just not care and do whatever the hell you want.

The Truth About Online Business Services

Are you thinking about switching some of your businesses core services online? Thinking about making the SAAS (software as a service) jump? Well before you do, READ THIS!

Online Business Services (SAAS)

Before we begin, I’m sure you’re asking yourself: “What does he mean… what are online business services and what is this SAAS stuff?”

It’s basically conventional software or key components of your business that are now featured on a website. Here are a couple of examples we use here at Atilus. 

Project Managment 

Instead of having a centralized server house project management software we utilize the online service, Basecamp to manage all of our projects. 

Accounting

Instead of installing a new version of quickbooks each year, we pay a monthly fee and use Quickbooks’ online version. 

During our daily conversations with businesses we learn a lot about each of our clients, and if there’s one thing we have a passion about (other than web development) it’s business. So, occasionally we also make recommendations on business services like the ones outlined above. But the question is… do the pros outweigh the cons, and will YOUR business really benefit? So let’s take a quick look:  

Pros

• Nothing to Install - Software and service is housed on someone else’s servers. You don’t have to worry about minimum requirements and compatibility. 
• Lower Up Front Cost - You don’t have to but a piece of software with a big initial price tag, instead you conventionally pay a small recurring monthly fee. 
• Possible Lower Total Cost - Depending on the service, their pricing model, and how often you conventionally upgrade, saas may in fact be less expensive. 
• Global Access to Data - Most services are online, meaning you can access your information anywhere with an Internet connection (including a cell phone!).
• Reduced Maintenance Fees - This is a big one. Here’s a quick example. A company I used to work for spent about $5000 setting up sophisticated exchange email (exchange rocks, but it’s expensive and complicated). Then the server required monthly maintenance (about $300 in an IT persons time each month). At the end of 2 years, that’s $12,200 JUST FOR EMAIL - AND THE BULK OF THAT COMES FROM MAINTENANCE! Instead you can now get a hosted exchange account for as little as $15/box/month and the price for the same size office would be $5400 in 2 years (a savings of 65%).

Cons

Possible Higher Cost - Not all services reveal a savings, in fact some are much more expensive. Case in point, Quickbooks - the very reason I’m writing this post! We would buy a new version every 3 years for about $100. Now we pay about $30/month, every month meaning our cost has gone up 900%. Holy shit! BUT… we weighed the pros: our accountant can access it alongside us from her office, we can access the data anywhere (including a clients office), and we get continual updates, saving us valuable bookkeeping and accounting duty/time. Well worth the extra money. 

Data Security - This is a biggie and differs based on services, products, and packages. Security may be an issue in your industry, so be sure to check into this before you make a decision. 

Helplessness - What happens if a service goes down? Helplessness. Unlike your own server or software, where you can call someone to get it fixed… you just have to wait. I find this very much akin to flying, sure everyone KNOWS its safer, but they’re still scared to death! Why? BECAUSE THEY GIVE UP CONTROL! In truth we’ve used about a half dozen applications online for the last couple of years and have had little or no problems the entire time. And if there ever is an issue, its fixed quicker than we could call an IT person into the office to fix our server. 

Social Media - So Should My Company Care?

Lately, more than any other question I get asked about Social Media. If you’re like most businesses I’ve talked to you’re probably wondering:

• What do you think about social media; is it right for your business?
• How do you implement social services and which ones are best?
• How much does it cost, I’ve heard it can be expensive?

All good questions. And, I’ll be addressing all three here.

Your Website

First, let’s talk about your website because that’s absolutely mandatory BEFORE you decide to jump into social media. I don’t care who or how you got your website, but you MUST have one. And, without getting too technical, it should be setup in such a way so that it compliments any possible social media marketing you’ll be doing. If you are curious as to whether your website is properly setup, drop me a line (zach - at - atilus dot com) and I’d be happy to take a look.  Your website is the glue to your internet marketing efforts. You have a number of different ways to market yourself online, SEO, article marketing, enewsletters, blogging, blah blah blah… but they all come back to your website. They direct traffic back to your website, where your authority in your industry is confirmed, trust in your product(s) is underscored and this is where contacts and sales ACTUALLY happen. It’s just like a conventional brick-and-mortar business, sub in a website for the building, and Internet marketing for any other kind of conventional marketing. You wouldn’t be advertising your product or service without a building or at least a phone number to call for more information would you? Same goes for social media… YOU NEED A WEBSITE.

What is Social Media?

No use talking about all of this, without defining it. For the sake of this essay/article, I’m defining social media as a “social network.” Although other types of technology could possible fall under this category (blogging for example) this doesn’t seem to be what most people are interested in or talking about when they mention “social media…” more often they are referring to Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, etc.

Social Media is it Right For Your Business?

I’m going to go against the grain here and say, social media, is not right for a majority of the businesses we work with. But, notice how I said “we.” A majority of Atilus’ clients have been in the B2B sector, they are businesses that service OTHER businesses. So is social media right for your business? The answer of course is a question:  That depends. What kind of business are you?  Here’s the breakdown of whether or not it’s right for your business:

• IF YOU ARE A B2B BUSINESS - SOCIAL MEDIA IS TYPICALLY NOT FOR YOU
• IF YOU ARE A B2C BUSINESS - SOCIAL MEDIA IS DEFINITELY FOR YOU

It all comes down to relationships. The problem of “if you should implement social media, or “why should you implement social media marketing” is easily and quickly addressed if you simply analyze your customer relationships. If you’ve spent some time on twitter or facebook you probably understand, in part how people communicate on these services and what they are looking for. They are intensely personal environments, where people connect to each other as well as to brands/products they love.  Do you have a product or service that falls into this category?  Would adding this help solidify those relationships?  Does it enable faster communication, dissemination of information to your customer or clients?  If so, then… implement social media now.

How do you implement social services and which ones are best?

Implementing the service(s) is fairly easy. There’s very little technological knowledge or hurdles to over come. However, if you have a proper website, one setup with particular types of technology you may be able to kill a couple of birds with one stone. For example, if you have a blog on your site you can link popular services like Facebook/Twitter to automatically update WHEN you post a NEW article. So you write an article and immediately all of your fans and followers are intantly notified.

What services are best? Well, that depends on you again. What isi your audience, clients, or customers using? And how do YOU plan on using these services. Twitter is very straight forward. A mini-blog, while facebook allows for some other fancier ehancements.

Regardless of WHICH service you use, your priority needs to be dedicating some time to managing your account and relationships across that service. It’s completely useless and a little ugly to have a stale account. Just like a stale website or blog. So you or someone else should dedicate some time to the technology.

How Much Does it Cost?

Free (sort of)!

More than ANY other thing on the web, I think social media is for YOU! AND ONLY YOU! (I’m talking about setup and maintenance here.)

This is a relationship we’re talking about, I don’t think you should be delegating this task or relationship to an outside company, marketing, or *GASP* PR Firm. Are they really going to be able to speak in your voice and handle any situations the exact way you would? Chances are no. Plus, they don’t know your personal friends on Facebook, twitter, myspace, etc. so how are they going to contact them in a personal, meaningful way?

When it comes to  implementing social media for your small business - for those most part I recommend doing it yourself, or atleast hiring a company to coach you through setup, and maintenance, which will only take a few hours at most. But, that’s the easy part, the hard part is managing it - and rest assured… that DOES COST. It costs either in YOUR TIME, or in the money you pay an employee to do it. 

And keep an eye on it.

In our business, we implemented social media for awhile, it was fairly automated, and allowed us to connect - yet another way - with a group of contacts, particularly through facebook. For the amount of time it took, it WASN’T WORTH IT FOR US TO ACTIVELY MAINTAIN. Your business may be very different. Again, it’s about your clients and what kind of relationships work best with them. If you sell custom furniture keeping an active portfolio and notes about your company up on Facebook is probably a fantastic idea (and solicit your users to take pictures of your products - for a FREE give away).

That last idea is the final thing I’d recommend. Using the tools in a creative way, centered around your business and clients’ wants in order to provide a better experience for your existing customers and recruit new ones. One to many communication, where you speak and your customers read/listen, is no longer the ONLY thing possible. Now you can solicit and get help from your clients - no matter where they are. Use this to your advantage and think about what will prove to your potential customers - watching your service from a distance (in social media-ville) - that they need to act.