There is a great article in the new Fast Company Magazine all about the do it yourself social network “”Ning”.

The article begins by letting us in on a little secret:

Here’s something you probably don’t know about the Internet: Simply by designing your product the right way, you can build a billion-dollar business from scratch. No advertising or marketing budget, no need for a sales force, and venture capitalists will kill for the chance to throw money at you.

The secret is what’s called a “viral expansion loop,” a concept little known outside of Silicon Valley (go ahead, Google it — you won’t find much). It’s a type of engineering alchemy that, done right, almost guarantees a self-replicating, borglike growth: One user becomes two, then four, eight, to a million and beyond. It’s not unlike taking a penny and doubling it daily for 30 days. By the end of a week, you’d have 64 cents; within two weeks, $81.92; by day 30, about $5.4 million.

Yeah we all remember that little game, “I’ll give you $1 Million today or one single penny and double everyday for a month, which would you rather have?

Me? I’ll take the “Viral expansion loop” - but I want to call it the “Viral Spiral”.

This article goes on to explain how the viral loops (spirals) work as an accelerant for internet businesses - take Google, PayPal, YouTube, eBay, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Flickr as good examples.

So where does Ning fit in?

Well they use this concept on steroids! What they’ve got going is a “double viral loop”.

Only Ning, Andreessen declares, benefits from a “double viral loop,” which spreads two ways, because every network creator is a user and any user can become a network creator. Say someone sets up an Angelina Jolie net with 10 members, which grows as each person draws in others. Then an adoption site breaks off, a Jon Voight hate group rises up, and a Brad Pitt love club forms. Meanwhile, a Lara Croft nostalgia net launches, spawning a legion of soft-core cyberporn spin-offs. Soon you have 2, 3, 10 networks — all expanding simultaneously. Meanwhile, the original group is attracting even more users. Ning swells like a river fed from an ever-growing number of tributaries.

You can read the rest of the article here

All right, I have finally done it. In an effort to bring my clients great results, I have, for far too long, neglected this site. So, with a burst of energy, I did a major overhaul and full redesign.

I feel it is very representitive of my overall work and felt it was very important to showcase that work in a frame that did it justice.

I would appreciate any and all comments

Have a great day

Lennie

Drop shadows were all the rage in the early 90s print world and have now extended into the web space to become a staple in the Web 2.0 style. . . So says this great article on Metafluence.

Now there are quite a few new design conventions available to web designers in this new 2.0 era.

Gradients, 45° angled lines, glossy buttons, wet floor reflections, and bright colors are all traits common to the Web 2.0.

This article posed a lot of good questions and I believe that they are worth asking. With all the slick new tools available for designers I look forward to a brand new era of design.

Colors are brighter, button have become glossy and the new Web 2.0 sites are not show about using strong colors.

Like the Metafluence article states, I too believe that Apple was really the trendsetter in the aesthetic journey that we see in Web 2.0. Come on. . . Ever since Apple’s aqua interface hit the scene, web asthetic has never been the same.

Read the whole article here

While having a Web site and print marketing materials is important for businesses of all sizes, having a blog may be one of the best ways to market your business. Blog is the shortened form of "Web log" and having one allows you to post information about your business on a regular basis. The reason that blogging is such a popular marketing tool is because having a blog offers so many benefits. Blogs are versatile and can be used to improve your business in many ways. Understanding how a blog can help your business is the first step to blogging for marketing purposes.

Blogging Improves Web Traffic

Everytime you update your blog, a little shiver runs up Google’s spine. This is really no joke. The search engines love blogs because they are updated frequently. Having a blog is one of the best ways to improve your search engine rankings. Content the King reigns here. Pepper targeted keywords into each post you make, drive traffic from your blog to your Web site, and promote your products and services all in one place. Blogging is a sure fire way to generate more traffic to your site.

Blogging Can Make You Extra Money

You can really put your blog to work for you in many ways that will help you to make extra money. You can promote your affiliate products in your blog and include links to order pages. You can use programs like Google AdSense in your blog and earn commissions when your readers click on those advertisements. You can even join referral programs where you promote the services of other businesses and collect a commission each time someone places an order using the link you use on your blog. But most importantly, you can drive your readers (Read: potential customers) to products and services within your own site.

Blogging Can Build Relationships with Customers

Having a blog is a great way to let your customers get to know you so you’re more than just another online business. Blogging help build relationships. People are more inclined to buy from people they know (or feel like they know), so the more you can build your relationships, the more successful you’ll be in selling your products and services.

The Power of Multiple Blogs

My recommendation is to always have a blog installed on your own site. There are a couple of great blogs that I recommend: Wordpress and Textpattern. They install easily and can be heavily modified so the integreate into any site. That being said using free online services like blogger can drive traffic to your site by adding links to your site in the posts. Running multiple blogs can help greatly with the search engine ranking since a major criteria tht they loook for is relevant inbound links. And as an added bonus, readers of your other online blogs are more likely to become customers. Why? If they click the links in these posts, they have already found value in what you are saying, thus more likely to be interested in more. The purpose of multiple blogs is to have several places where you can filter people into your site. Consider it free advertising.

1. Content is King. The most important thing to remember about popular web sites is that they are always rich in content. This serves multiple functions. It gives your visitors useful information and probably more importantly, gives the search engines relevent content which greatly helps your ranking.
2. Stick to your subject. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Keep your goal in mind. Get over the temptation to put as many bells and whistles as you can on a page. The purpose of designing a site carefully is not to make it look cool, or win awards. It’s to accomplish the intended goal of the site. To “sell your service or products. Afterall we are talking about business here.
3. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Think about the message you are sending to your customer. The first page of your web site should be a concise description of the website. Don’t make this page too busy - entice visitors to dig deeper into your site through the use of inviting text and interesting graphics. The purpose of this page is to capture your customer and their attention. If you are serious about your business, buy your own domain name and don’t use a “free” hosting service.
4. Design sites, not pages. Your primary concern should be the site’s overall design. When starting to design a new site from scratch, you should try to create a design that will make sense to users, has a consistent look and feel, and is not to difficult to extend in the future. The consistency of design of a site is one of the factors that differentiates amateur sites from professional ones.
5. Make it easy to get around your site. As Stephen Covey says, “begin with the end in mind.” Your customer should be able to easily navigate to any page in your web from any page in your page. It’s important to link in a consistent, well thought out manner that users can learn to navigate. Have clear links to your pages and, if are selling a product, make it easy for people to buy it! Invite customers to contact you with their questions or comments. This is a great way to capture their information. Add links to other sites only when necessary, or on a special links page at the end of your site. You want visitors to go through your site before surfing off to another!
6. Make sure your site is functional in all browsers and platforms. You want to get as many visitors to enjoy their visit.
7. Don’t forget to tell the world about your new site. Make sure that your URL is on all your company business cards, letter heads, brochures, phone systems, etc. Swap links with other related web sites. List your site with the major search engines.
8. Keep your site current. Come up with a reason for people to visit and revisit your pages and recommend them to their friends. Blogging is perhaps the most effective way to do this.
9. Use an autoresponder. Entice visitors with a newsletter or free gifts to join your list. You will find that capturing customer’s (or potential customer’s) information is the most important step in creating a successful website.