Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Happy Holidays!

It’s holiday season and I want to offer everyone my wishes for a happy, healthy safe and fun-filled holiday season. I hope each of you takes some quiet time to be grateful for what you have, what you have done this year and for the potential in front of you. Here is a tip from a great book called Creative Visualization. It’s my gift to you this holiday season.

The more thoroughly you can visualize what you want, in detail, the more you can manifest it. So, in terms of your business, take a few minutes each day over the holiday break and start doing this. Set a goal and begin to think about it. Visualize the details of what things will be like and how things will work and be once your goal has been achieved. Focus on the details. What do you see? How does it look? What details are present? The more time you can spend visualizing in this space, the more detail you will bring to making it happen.

So, what are your goals for 2012? Are they just on-paper goals or have you visualized the final manifestation of your goals? Start 5-10 minutes at a time per goal while things are quiet and work up to putting some real time into this. And, if you need help with some details on what you want, please feel free to email me for any advice you need at donald@dogstarmedia.com.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Content Managed Web Sites

I’ve had several discussion with clients over the past few weeks about the advantages of having a content managed web site. In the most general terms, this is a site designed in a program that has a content manager. Wordpress is a low end solution. Dog Star Media uses Joomla for its robust capabilities and wide number of free and paid plug-ins to extend capability. There are other content managers out there, too.

The first thing I should mention about content managers is to watch out for the “Golden Handcuff.” There are companies out there that will design you a site with a content manager makes it impossible to move the site from their server. This “Golden Handcuff” keeps you obligated to them until you decide to move somewhere else, causing you to build a whole new site. Dog Star Media does not believe in the Golden Handcuff so when we design a Joomla-based site, you can take it anywhere you want or work with anyone you want.

Secondly, most clients are enamored with the idea of being able to make changes themselves. Content managers make it an easy process to change text, pictures and even add pages. For more advanced users, you can completely manipulate the site if you want. However, our experience is most clients do not do this. They want it but they never use it.

This brings me to the most important point: If you have a content managed site, you should be making regular updates. Adding relevant content helps with your optimization and relevance for certain terms. If you add pages and text and other content related to these words you help. With a content manager you can extend the size and scope of your site.

If you are interested in a content managed web site for your practice, please contact me at donald@dogstarmedia.com. We will get you one that comes without the golden handcuff.