PowerBand Graphics LLC – Custom Websites, Cutting Edge Graphics

I recently had an old friend contact me about setting up a blog. He’s a smart guy and just received his MFA in Visual Studies from the art school we went to together. He wanted to know about the best ways to go about setting up a blog and potentially selling some pieces of artwork. It was a good conversation and I think there were some good points that I decided to repost some of my information as a new post about setting something up.

I’m not going to get into the benefits of blogging or it’s use as a marketing too. That’s an important topic but I want to cover some basic information on just getting started with blogging. There’s a TON of information out there and while I know I’m not covering it all I wanted to give a crash course.

There are a lot of blogging options available now a days. My friend sent me some links to various other blogs he had found that he liked. The first one was a nice WordPress site of another artist. WordPress is a very popular open source blogging content management system. It has a lot of advantages, it’s free, easy to use and has an active developer base with plenty of useful plugins. It’s also easy to customize and there are PLENTY of free and low cost themes to modify the look of it. You can basically go at it a couple of ways: You can install WordPress on your own server, which requires a bit of bit of web knowhow and very slight database setup(PowerBand Graphic’s site was built this way). There’s TONS of tutorials online thanks to its popularity. You can also host your WordPress site on WordPress’s servers. In that case your site URL would look something like www.yourname.wordpress.com. If you don’t want that you would need to tweak some DNS settings on your domain . Here’s some useful links:

www.wordpress.org (this is for downloading the software to install the blog yourself
www.wordpress.com (this is for using WordPress to host your blog for you)

WordPress isn’t the only blogging platform out there either. Blogger (or blogspot) is owned by Google and is a popular way to blog. This service is all hosted by Blogger though. It’s easy to use, free and easy to integrate advertising(if that’s something you want to do) but doesn’t have the same level of customization that WordPress has. Again, you would have a name like www.yourname.blogger.com unless you change some DNS settings.

Another popular blog is Tumblr. Tumblr is getting very popular because of it’s simplicity, style and customizability. It’s very “stream of consciousness” and not the most robust content management system though.

There’s many many more blogging options out there to say nothing of dedicated content management systems. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Some are free, others are not. Some require a decent amount of upkeep and managing others do not. I have worked and researched systems like Joomla, Drupal, Movable Type, Expression Engine, Concrete5, CushyCMS and LightCMS. All good options but like anything worth researching to find out which one fits your specific needs.

NOW on to selling stuff. Here’s where you can get a little tricky. It depends on how you want to do this. Do you want the process to be automated-full-on-ecommerce with a shopping cart where people go through the process without contacting you? That’s where it can get complicated and the answer depends on how much you want to do the work yourself or hire someone. Most of these solutions require some form of fee or constant updating to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Magento is another free option, it’s a full on ecommerce platform that you can download and install similar to wordpress. This might be a bit overkill and time consuming for you though. Shopify is another option for selling things online. It’s a service with a monthly fee but what is nice is the company handles all of your hosting, security & support. Another possible option would be to create a blog and then also create a shop on Etsy Then my friend could just link his artwork in the store from his blog as he creates it. I’ve never used Etsy myself but I’ve heard it highly recommended by many artists and designers.

Phew! Lot’s of stuff to cover! It might also work to start small and test the waters. Maybe set up your blog and create a post for each item you’d like to sell with pictures and details. Then just have people contact you directly to purchase with a paypal or money order. There aren’t any hidden charges from Google that you should worry about when selling stuff from your blog. You may have to start charging sales tax depending on the state that you sell to (I believe if you use Etsy or Shopify they automate sales tax for you). I’d get an accountant you can trust if possible and get their opinion.

In the end I recommended a combination of WordPress + Etsy as the simplest combination for what my friend wanted to accomplish. Like I said there’s an incredible number of options out there. It depends on how much time you want to do this stuff yourself, your technical ability, budget and what you want your site to do. Do your research, there’s a perfect fit for everyone and you’ll be blogging in no time!

ARE YOU JUST GETTING CLIENTS OR ARE YOU CREATING LASTING RELATIONSHIPS?
Emotional attachment is a critical factor that dictates many buying decisions, Creating emotional attachment is more than just good customer service or selling a quality product. Creating brand trust with a credible image is as important for a successful business as accounting and insurance. Everything from a well designed identity and web presence to your print ads and social media strategy play a hand in creating a powerful brand.

GET ADVICE FROM A PROFESSIONAL

PowerBand Graphics is happy to announce its first educational seminar aimed at helping new and established businesses brand themselves more powerfully. This is a great opportunity to get expert advice on issues that all businesses need to consider. John Holtgrew, owner and Creative Director of PowerBand Graphics will be speaking. The topics will cover:

PERSONAL BRANDING:

- What branding means and its importance.
- The competitive benefits of professional design.

WEB DESIGN IN BRANDING:

- Why web design and a professional look is important to branding
- Taking advantage of new technology and services.
- Basic search engine information, strategy and marketing.

CONTINUING YOUR BRANDING:

- Establishing new consumer relationships with social media.
- Creating consumer trust with consistent branding.
- Making your message meaningful and making it stand out.

AND MUCH MORE!

There will also be opportunity for Q&A the entire class! The seminar costs $25 and will be held Wednesday June 16th in the basement conference room of West Gate Bank (6003 Old Cheney Road in Lincoln Nebraska). Click here for directions. Please RSVP by June 14th!

The class starts at 11:30 and will go until 1:30. Lunch will be provided!

Even if you have a brand already you may be missing out on what it takes to make your business great! Take your business to the next level and get more information about how to brand yourself powerfully! Contact us to reserve your seat. We hope to see you there!

For small businesses having a powerful brand can mean the difference between treading water and growing your company into a successful enterprise.

Branding is more than just designs, it’s how you interact with your clients and how much effort you put into your services. From the logo on your business cards to the posts on your blog or Facebook page, it’s the image that you project to your clients. Why is that image important? It’s the first interaction a potential client has with your company. It’s about creating credibility and maintaining trust with your current and prospective clients.

To help illustrate these ideas, I developed the Branding PowerBand. It ties together the different aspects we should all consider when trying to establish a brand.

Your mechanic can tell you that your car’s powerband is the range at which it’s providing you the most power. Your Branding PowerBand is the range at which your company’s consistent and focused branding efforts are working the most effectively and powerfully for you. The ultimate goal is to create as much client trust in your company as possible. Gaining that trust benefits your company in every almost every aspect, from getting more sales to attractive higher quality employee talent.

The initial effort is creating your identity, which is your company’s message. It’s your company’s philosophy, knowing your product, your customers, and who you really are. In its simplest form your identity it is your logo, business cards and the message you associate with them. It has the steepest curve because often it’s the most difficult task when establishing your business. It is the foundation where the rest of your brand is built. You may know what you want to sell or what field you are in but do you know who you are as a business? Ask yourself, “What makes you better than anyone else? Are those fantastic qualities that you have, coming through in everything that represents you?”

The next range of the Branding PowerBand is your marketing and advertising designs. This includes your promotional material, product packaging, and ad campaigns.

After that is your web presence including your domain name, website, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, and online advertisements.

From there you take your brand and continuously build upon it by creating relationships with people and solidifying your brand by being an expert in your field. This includes reaching out to people through e-mail newsletters, blogs and social media networks.

To really make your brand powerful you need to stand back and view all of these things as a whole. It’s about creating a consistent message that engenders trust with your current and new clients.

The designs representing you should be more than just using templates and clip art. If you wouldn’t accept anything but the highest level of quality for what you do for your clients, why should the image for your company be any different? Everything you do in your business is a reflection your quality of work. If you are not presenting yourself in the most meaningful and high quality way possible what does that say about your business?

Here are some questions to ask yourself to see if they may need to review their branding:

• Can you say that the clients you are getting regularly are your ideal clients? If not, you may have a branding issue and need to rethink your message to get the clients that you want.
• What does you or your products have that makes it better and different? If it doesn’t light up you and your client’s eyes you may need to review your branding.

All of us should be thinking about the bigger picture and long term plan. The Internet and social media has created a huge opportunity to create incredible brand equity by blogging about what you love and establishing your expertise. You don’t have to wait until you are successful to form your brand. Start thinking like a large brand at the beginning and you’ll be surprised at how ahead of the game you’ll be.

In the end, the services PowerBand Graphics provides are more than just designs. It’s a relationship that I want to create with people to help their businesses compete at a higher level. Anyone can have branding, but creating truly powerful branding means more than just a logo.

April is over half way through and I’ve almost forgotten to post the latest Strictly Business cover! Photography is once again by Shane & Sunny Photography.

PowerBand Graphics has continued to grow and there will be plenty of new things to post in the coming months. We just joined the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and will be networking and updating everyone on local events. New web design and identity projects are being finished for local businesses as well.

Another exciting project in the works are eduction classes for small business on what it takes to create powerful branding and how to go about doing this. Powerful branding means more than just logos. We’ll cover identity, establishing a message, consistent advertising, web design and more! Stay tuned!