Comments on: How To Establish A Successful Online Business Presence

By: Genesis Bible

Genesis Bible — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 02:30:38 +0000

let me tell you …. choosing the right name is rather difficult and by that i mean painfully difficult !

By: Hardly Square

Hardly Square — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:01:08 +0000

Thanks Vivien! We are very proud of our Brand and Flash work. And thanks for posting such an interesting article.

By: Vivien

Vivien — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:54:42 +0000

Thanks, Hardly Square. I checked out your site and quite liked the flash promo you did for your company and the branding behind

By: Hardly Square

Hardly Square — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:09:26 +0000

I think the best advice in this article came from how you pieced together this article. Just looking at the citing, research and interviews says a lot.

By: Dot Design

Dot Design — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:44:28 +0000

What a great article and very interesting to here the comments and general discussion between you all.

I’m new(ish) to the world of blogging (but not design) and have to say that David’s was among a few websites that inspired me to blog. I really liked the more interactive/conversational approach to a website rather than the static “here is my portfolio” type site. This enables discussion and challenges points of view and ways of working.

By: Vivien

Vivien — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:22:23 +0000

Tracey, thanks so much for your input. iBit definitely gets more traffic and better ranking than my business site. As we all know, blogs do wonders for a site in that aspect.
I’m undoubtedly considering a re-design for both sites - iBit and business - and perhaps even unify them with certain design elements (perhaps use the same layout, but different colour schemes, or the same colour scheme and similar graphic elements but a different layout, etc.).
I’ll be writing a post in a near future on this subject as there are many things to consider and I will absolutely need the input from my readers which way to go - one blog, or two blogs for each site?

David, to answer your question: I’m not entirely sure, but I think I would prefer to get clients coming from both sites. Local businesses already know my business site, and that’s what I use when presenting myself and giving out my business card, but since I don’t want to limit my work only to local businesses, I do want to get clients from other parts of the world and this is something that I’m able to do with the help of Inspiration Bit, due to the daily traffic I get here and all the readers/subscribers who are scattered across the globe.

By: David Airey

David Airey — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:59:31 +0000

Thanks for the good wishes, Vivien. You certainly are in my circle of design friends, and I’ll keep you in mind when I too busy or don’t have the web expertise.

I would charge extra for rush jobs, as I’d have to rearrange other projects. Either that, or simply say I can’t do it, and pass the work on to someone else.

Tracey’s feedback was interesting to read. Where would you prefer to have potential clients visiting? iBit or your static business site?

By: Tracey Grady

Tracey Grady — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:54:43 +0000

Yes, what to do when you have two separate sites reflecting different (but connected) aspects of your professional activities? I think that first of all I would look at which site gets the most traffic … which site has the highest Google ranking on your targeted keywords, that sort of thing. If it’s iBit, then perhaps it’s a good idea to put a portfolio on iBit and a link to your business site. But if you would prefer to boost the traffic and rankings for your business site, maybe it would be better to focus on the portfolio there, and create a new blog on that site - so long as you have the time to maintain two blogs Without knowing your stats for either site, it’s hard to know what exactly to suggest - but I’m thinking maybe keep the portfolio on the business site, and include a “Hire Me” link in the navigation links on the iBit blog (which then links to your business site), and then (when you get time), perhaps redesign either the business site or iBit (or both) to show a distinct visual connection between the two.

Hope this helps!

By: Vivien

Vivien — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:48:32 +0000

Thanks so much for your kind and encouraging words, Kulpreet. I wish you all the best with your new blog, so far you had a good start with it.

David, I must say you’re one busy designer. I wish you all the time in the world to handle so many projects simultaneously. Oh, and I hope I too belong to your “talented circle of designer friends”?
Btw, question to you - do you charge extra if someone needs a rush job, or do you just decline any work that needs to be completed in a short time frame?

Tara, I do any work related to a web site design and development (from information architecture to interface design to the actual development that involves both programming and database design, by employing either custom solutions or available CMS (i.e. Wordpress, eZ Publish, etc.)). And even though I’m more of a Web designer, I do enjoy and would love to be involved with more Print-related design work as well. Thanks for asking and thanks in advance for all your future referrals

Jacob, I’m glad I was not the only one who had to stop all other things in order to concentrate on this article - me writing it and you reading it Thanks for the stumble.

By: Jacob Share

Jacob Share — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:42:50 +0000

Vivien, this was such a full read that I actually had to stop what else I was doing to concentrate on it
I especially liked talk of a storefront, a very under-rated concept when it comes to bloggers who have something to sell.

Stumbled this for you