I spend so much time in front of screens doing my work that sometimes I yearn for different tactile experiences. I'm not eager to be a paper pusher by any means, but I thought for this weeks' Friday Props I'd do a theme to honor those folks who do crazy cool things with paper. Join me in giving accolades for these astounding projects and their creators! Phone Books are so 80's But turning phone books into works of three dimension carved portraits? Timeless and way cool. Props going out to Alex Queral for his Phone Book Carvings.  Queral uses an X-ACTO knife, an acrylic medium and a black wash - nothing more. His work uses phone books which are (of course) destined to be thrown away and makes them worth keeping again. He creates portraits of famous people as well as abstracts. Visit a gallery of his work  for more examples.  You'll find many that you recognize and I promise it will blow your mind.   Is This Even Possible!? I can fold a couple varieties of paper airplanes and with the help of a book I can even do some very basic origami. But Simon Schubert gets Props for his paper building made by folding paper. There is no better [....] Read More >>

Every office has that one employee ... you know ... the one that sucks. Well.. meet Ruby. Ruby was formerly a house slave who spent the last several years in Ed's basement without much to do. When we opened the office in Waterbury, though, it became apparent that we would need somebody to sweep clean the floors every night and we decided it was high time to put Ruby back to work. Ruby enjoys dirt, dust, mud and occasional muck. Her favorite time of year in Vermont is mud season when she gets to show off her appetite the most. Although she appears a happy round camper she is in fact a gritty character. Recently she's been complaining of old age and demanding more nights off. Although we're not quite ready to agree to an early retirement, we have been giving her a more flexible schedule. Who knew that robot vacuums could be so demanding!? Read More >>

One of the cornerstones to success with any online endeavor is to have a steady output of content. The phrase "Content is King" has time and time again shown itself to be true. In order to rank well in search results for your particular subject matter we always counsel businesses and bloggers to write more content. Sometimes, however, the time it takes to write new content can become a weight that is hard to bear. It's hard to see what more can be written about a topic when so many others have already seemingly covered everything and it's not a simple task to come up with something fresh and new if you're already up to your neck in other responsibilities. Luckily, though, there are a few tricks you can employ. I'm going to share one with you now. I call it Content Curating on a Time Diet. Much like the job of a museum curator, content curators are folks who are looking for interesting content online and pulling it together into their own space - adding their own flavor or opinion and sharing it with their readers. Using trendy news related to your industry, it is possible to quickly come up with new [....] Read More >>

Your Business on the Web: Episode 1 - The Basics of SEO Below is the first video in our "Your Business on the Web" series where we discuss the basics of SEO. This video is the first in our series on SEO for your business. Our intent is to demonstrate the value and the strategies involved with SEO to boost search engine Page Rank and visitor traffic to your website. Below is a transcript of the video and, of course, we welcome your feedback!   Ed: Hello and welcome to the first episode of our series, “Your Business on the Web.” In this episode we will be discussing the basics of SEO. SEO is… Phil: Santa Eating Oreos. Ed: No. Seo is… Phil: Swirling Earth Orbits. Ed: No. SEO is… Phil: Actually, Sweaty Engaging Omelets Ed: No! SEO is Search Engine Optimization. Phil: Right. Search Engine Optimization is about increasing the visibility of your website through unpaid, natural, organic search results. Ed: That’s right. In general, the higher a website ranks in the search results and the more frequently it appears in search results, the more traffic those websites can anticipate from search engine users. There are different types of SEO targeting such things as Keyword Search, Image Search, Video Search, Local [....] Read More >>

It's time again for another round of kudos for the cool kids on the block. What time is it? This week we're sending out a shout-out to Richard Birkett  for the wild clocks he builds. These treasures are all one-of-a-kind and made from industrial debris. He takes bits and pieces of broken machines from typewriters to cameras to VCRs and gives them new life as whimsically designed clocks. Keeping stuff out of landfills and giving us groovy time keepers in the process earns him Props. Check out his collection at http://fantasyclocks.com/ and find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fantasy-Clocks/239654963641?ref=ts San Francisco ... One Toothpick at a Time You gotta hand it (Props, that is) to anyone with the persistence to develop something requiring not thousands, not tens of thousands but over one hundred thousand parts and to turn those parts into something so much greater. Scott Weaver  is just such a person. He's created a sculpture of the city of San Francisco using toothpicks - over 100,000 of them. It's taken him over 35 years to make and it includes multiple ball runs that allow you to go on "tours" of different parts of the city.  Giant Paper Flowers Intricate, graceful and stunningly beautiful paper flowers fill the Gothic Abbey of Sanit-Riquier in [....] Read More >>

Over the years Google has morphed from a simple, yet powerful search engine into a conglomerate of online tools and resources.  These resources have in recent years become more likely to be served as part of the most relevant search results for a given query. This is especially true when results for a search query pertain to local businesses. For example, take a look at this screenshot of the results on Google for the query "restaurant": What's worth noting here is that the results that show above in pink (added by me) are the results above the fold - those that are visible without scrolling down the page.  Looking more carefully at those results we can see that seven of the top nine results that show up are for Google + Local pages.  Hovering over the listings turns the right-hand side into a sneak peek of the information Google + Local has for the restaurants in the list. So the question for a restaurant owner becomes "how do I ensure I am in the top list in order to get that exposure?"  The answer is fairly straightforward - a well-constructed, informative website, social engagement and ensuring your listings on other local listing services [....] Read More >>

The number one frustration for most small business owners is a lack of visibility of their beautiful well-designed website. “I spent all this money on a website but no one can find it! How do I get it to the top of the Google?” Welcome to Search Engine Optimization and Marketing (SEO/SEM). It’s true. You can have the most awesomest on the web, but it won’t make a bit of difference if no one can find it! The goal of any business is to be ranked #1 on any SERP (Search Engine Results Page) for keywords relating to your business, driving traffic to your wonderful, gorgeous website. The short-term fix to the problem is to spend money on advertising through Google, print media, promotions and such, herding potential clients to your website where they’ll say “Wow! This is EXACTLY what I need!” Or they’ll leave without spending a dime and your bank account shrinks. This strategy will drive traffic to your site, and, if the guest finds your website useful, they might spread the word out to their friends. But what if you don’t have the money to promote your website, first-time visitors don’t return and you see zero return [....] Read More >>

Another Friday rolls around and another chance to send out some Props so let's get right to it! The most amazing Robot Dance This guy is simply astounding - check him out. His play on the theme of Wall-E is well done and beautiful. This is from Kyrgyzstan got talent - and evidently they do.   Oru the Origami Kayak Really? Seriously? An Origami Kayak!? Believe it. This is just awesome. Oru- the Origami Kayak from Anton Willis on Vimeo.   Props out to the crew at  Moosach Bikes. This Dutch brand of bike rolls out twelve bikes a year, each a refurbished vintage, road bike frame with new parts. They are made to be excellent and gorgeous and each with a story. The retro look and feel and the hot design certainly worth note. Read More >>

The year is 2025 and the Zombie Apocalypse has devastated the United States, all save for Vermont, thanks to Edgeworks Creative and its ingenious co-founder, Cynthia Ryan. In the small town of Waterbury, this highly creative, fun and sometimes funny (there’s occasionally an issue with the punchline being forgotten because of the intricacy of the jokes) woman figured out the KEY to saving humanity through design. Cynthia wanted to be an artist from a young age and honed her skill while watching her grandparents, both professional artists, work in their design studio. Her passion for art spurred her to go to school and study visual media, giving her a strong foundation in design which she provided to her clients in a timely, cost-effective and ascetically pleasing manner... before the dark ages. Little did she know that her ancestors were passing down a valuable skill that not only would provide for her living, but also enable the continuation of the human race. Cynthia found there is more than one way to control a zombie invasion. Yes- there is the basic method (aim for the head and run like heck in the opposite direction) but she figured out that her skill and technique was so [....] Read More >>

One of the most effective tools we have in our bag of tricks is the effective planning and execution of well-done Landing Pages. If you own a business and are looking to expand your reach, it is worthy of your time to consider a Landing Page campaign. What are Landing Pages? I'm glad you asked. Landing Pages are simply web pages on your site that are typically designed for a singular purpose - usually a sign-up (lead generation) or a sale. A typical business might have anywhere from a handful to hundreds of Landing Pages. They are closely tied to online advertising such as a Google AdWords campaign in order to be logical extension of the advertisement or link. Why Landing Pages? Landing Pages are designed to speak to the target audience directly. When combined with contextual search advertising they are able to reach people interested in your service or product at the exact moment they are looking.  Landing Pages provide businesses a valuable resource for gaining new contacts and customers. When done properly a Landing Page campaign can easily pay for itself by generating new business leads. How are Landing Page Campaigns Done? When we create a Landing Page Campaign we look at several important [....] Read More >>