Is It Necessary to Pay for Advertising?

Great advertising can make a positive and indelible impact on your customers. But when compared to search engine optimization and public relations, does paid advertising achieve better resul[...]

When Facebook Ads Actually Work

They may not have invented social media, but Facebook is certainly the most popular platform by any metric. Even though this social media network attracts the most users, its investors are far from pl[...]

Web Storyboarding and Dynamic Site Maps

Like any art form, web development takes practice, skill, training, and focus. Wait a minute, you say. I’ve got a team for that and they really know what they’re doing? Don’t kid you[...]

The Science of Choosing the Perfect Color

Whether you choose to believe it or not, the colors you use in your designs can have a major psychological impact on your customers. This science is called color psychology. Color psychology is the i[...]

Technology and Creative Design

We live in an age of remarkable technological advances. The microchip keeps getting smaller and more powerful. Flat-screen TVs keep getting sharper and less expensive. Smartphones keep getting smarte[...]

Should I Consider Advertising on Yelp?

Many businesses are wondering if it makes sense to advertise on Yelp. Yelp is a very unique site that combines reviews with social networking. It has become progressively important for consumers [...]

Perfecting Your Positioning Statement

While the creative brief provides direction and guidance to your design agency, the positioning statement clarifies your value proposition: the unique quality that sets your offer apart from[...]

Low Budget Video

Adding video to your site can enhance the experience your clients have when they visit your site and engage your visitors with something memorable. Video can create a lasting impression for your compa[...]

Contact Form for Wild Apricot

POP has been a Wild Apricot partner since the program began. We’ve gotten a lot of inquiries over the years, and we still love the platform and the work that we[...]

Working Where We Like

In the early 1990s, I wrote a regular monthly column called “Travel Lite.” Back then, the portable field consisted mainly of laptop computers using the familiar clamshell design ju[...]

The Many Advantages of Choosing Wordpress

If you have written Wordpress off as just a site for the casual blogger, it is time to take a closer look. We have been creating websites for many clients, throughout all industries, using Wordpress b[...]

Finding Real Value in Web Hosting

Note: This post was updated on January 6, 2014. One of my web design clients wanted my help finding a cheaper web hosting option. Her colleague, also a client, had recommended she try hosting with [...]

Exploring Your Ecommerce Hosting Options

The advantages that accompany moving your business online are certainly bountiful. By using Ecommerce, you can open a virtual business that is not only open 24/7, but it is also capable of reaching cu[...]

Online versus Print Advertising

It's sobering to see how much money is spent every year on advertising. Through Google I found estimates in the realm of half a trillion dollars. General Motors alone spent over $4 Billion on advertis[...]

Does Social Media Marketing Work?

Social media marketers believe that you need to build a dynamic and ongoing presence on Facebook and Twitter to build awareness and attract new customers. There are definitely some success stories, bu[...]

The Other Social Media Company: Google+

When the search engine and marketing goliath, Google, announced the launch of a social media platform in 2011, people were understandably excited. The hype surrounding Google+ was monumental, and mill[...]

The Role of the Creative Brief

Designing a website is a very creative and imaginative process. But to ensure a successful outcome, it helps to write down the structure, style, content, strategy and other requirements in clear langu[...]

Should I Build an App for my Business?

The short answer to this question is yes. Any way that you can improve your visibility to users of mobile devices is a plus because this is a demographic that is growing substantially every year. The [...]

The Benefits of Using HTML5 and Hype

Move over Flash and Dreamweaver; Tumult’s Hype is living up to its own hype. Many creative professionals, such as animators and designers are switching from Adobe’s Flash to this newer program to [...]

The Open Directory Project

When it comes to locating valuable information on the Internet, you may come across terms like search engine or web directory. While both terms refer to platforms that help locate relevant information[...]

Do-It-Yourself Videogame Development

The videogame industry has experienced a steady decline since the start of the recession, but the economy is not solely to blame. There are actually many different factors that have shaped this downwa[...]

POP SEO Tip #19: Tell a Story

Once I was out to dinner with some friends and their son, who was about to graduate from college. He was getting a degree in English literature, and was looking for a job in advertising after graduati[...]

Logo Idol

Logo design used to be a well-paid, honorable, even memorable profession. But these days, for about the price of a 16GB memory upgrade, you can get a logo designed for your business. Logos have not be[...]

Find Dad a Better Search Solution

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in 7 years. Let’s face [...]

Crowdfunding with Kickstarter

Note: This post was updated on January 10, 2014. Last year the videogame industry faced stark financial realities in light of the shift toward free or low-cost games available for download from App[...]

New Site Launched - sbfilmfestivals.com

I'm really proud of our latest site launch: www.sbfilmfestivals.com This is a companion site to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, one of the top film festivals in the world. Attendees [...]

The Agency Download

I think there's a tendency among designers to create design concepts before they've spent enough time getting to know the client's business. They get so fixated on an idea that they start throwing tog[...]

The Project Style Guide

Professional academic writers often use style guides. These guides help the writer ensure that every paragraph and every page follows the same rules for formatting and for citing information. Followin[...]

Profile Series: the Legendary Coco Chanel

This is yet another entry into the POP profile series. While this edition does highlight a famous icon, the individuals profiled will not always be well known. The primary purpose of this series is to[...]

Using iPrint and Cloud Print

Back when I edited Portable Computing magazine, I met often with representatives from the different tech companies to discuss new products. There was one memorable encounter with  HP. This was ar[...]

Working with Wild Apricot

The Santa Barbara County Psychological Association (SBCPA – www.sbcpa.org) is a client of mine in Santa Barbara. They were having problems with their previous developer and they hired me to, amo[...]

Santa Barbara Artist Directory

The Santa Barbara Artist Directory has officially launched: https://sbartistdirectory.wildapricot.org/ This is a new searchable online directory that is open to all artists who reside in Santa B[...]

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