Invision Blue LLC » blog

Facebook Introduces Open Graph

Scott Botkins — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:15:10 +0000

Before I discuss Open Graph I must point out that I’ve been on a facebook roller coaster the past 48 hours. I was super excited two days ago to have my facebook fan page completed facebook.com/webdesignservices making it look like an actual web page/landing page, then I decided to pay for advertising when things went bad. I do not recommend advertising on facebook.com as I was given fraudulent clicks after clicks from most likely an automated bot, I even complained to facebook who told me to send over a log of my stats so they could compare, that’s when I told them the heck with it and canceled my advertising after using it for only 24 hours. After looking things over with my best friend Google it appears I’m not the only one experiencing this issue, hopefully it gets fixed fast because when you’re paying $1.50 per click it adds up pretty darn fast.

Anyways, about Open Graph. Even though I don’t have a personal facebook account I like the idea of the “Like” button being on any web page for users to click and share instantly. The example given where a user “Likes” a movie off of IMDB and it automatically adds it to their facebook profile is pretty awesome and scary at the same time, I predict some facebook users to begin deleting their accounts once they realize their privacy is slowly shrinking.

I also like the comments idea but I’m still undecided if I want to use it on my website or stick with wordpress comments, the spamming would most likely disappear. I’ll most likely may play around with it and see which works best.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about you can check out the new features facebook features here.

Introducing Our BigCommerce Template Landing Page

Scott Botkins — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:31:46 +0000

I’ve launched BigCommerce Web Templates (bigcommercewebtemplates.com) as a landing page to attract more BigCommerce customers. I’ll be launching a BigCommerce store in the near feature to download pre-made templates at a low price ($100-200.00) most likely by the end of spring. But right now as mentioned in a previous blog post I’m looking to build my portfolio up right now with custom BigCommerce templates.

In other updates, I’ll be organizing the portfolio by the end of the night and getting our facebook fan page looking nice tomorrow.

Thanks and have a good weekend!

Landing Pages On the Way, Plus SEO & Facebook Fan Page

Scott Botkins — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:20:52 +0000

I’ll be launching some landing pages over the next 2 weeks and will show them off in the portfolio as well, these should bring in a decent amount of traffic as they focus on the services I offer.

I’m also getting involved in SEO a little bit more than usual, I’ve been doing some tweaking to my keywords (which I won’t mention on here) but I’ve moved up to the top 5 and some I’m ranked #1 so we’ll see how that goes. Once I get the SEO down I’ll be able to offer that as another service without charging an arm and leg like others do.

I’ll have the facebook fan page updated this weekend looking nice and pretty.

Upgraded Adobe Photoshop 7.0 to CS4 – Finally!

Scott Botkins — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:33:53 +0000

I finally made the upgrade from Adobe Photoshop 7.0 to CS4 this past week. For those of you who are familiar with Photoshop you understand my excitement, I’ve been using 7.0 for the past 7-8 years when it came out and yes every website in my portfolio was designed using 7.0. I’m excited because this means I should be able to improve my techniques and the quality of my web designs. I was able to find the software for $400.00 instead the retail price of $700.00 which is also pretty awesome.

On another note – I’ll begin posting online videos soon for simple tasks regarding wordpress and bigcommerce templates to help the average user.

Apple iPad For Business or Play?

Scott Botkins — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 05:21:08 +0000

The iPad will be launching in 2 days and I’m still stuck on whether I actually need one or not. Please keep in mind I don’t even own a cell phone so I just don’t know if this latest gadget serves a purpose in my life. Now, would I rather carry around an iPad to places I visit than a laptop? Yes. However I don’t have a cell phone or smartphone because I don’t like to be available 24/7 with calls, emails, or texting – and I don’t really need to know what Chad Ochocinco posted on his twitter feed. I don’t want the iPad for play because that kind of stuff is not appealing to me anymore, I don’t have a personal facebook and watching movies on that small of a screen doesn’t sound fun at all.

I admit it would be pretty cool to take the iPad to meetings and load my portfolio right up or show off the first draft to the client, however you can’t multitask and it doesn’t support flash. And is it really worth $500? Eh, maybe. I do love the idea of sitting up in my bed reading books on it or browsing the web to research various topics that interest me rather than sitting at a computer desk, but that doesn’t sell me on buying one. I own a few apple products and I’ve been very happy with them, however each play a role with my business and unfortunately the iPad just doesn’t make sense right now. I’ll save my $500 and invest in something else more beneficiary.

BigCommerce & Interspire Templates At Discounted Prices

Scott Botkins — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:45:29 +0000

In order to build up my portfolio for BigCommerce and Interspire templates I’m going to offer my services at a lower price than normal. I’ll be charging $500.00 for any type of BigCommerce or Interspire custom template which includes the design and integration into BigCommerce or Interspire. I’ll only be doing this for the first 5-10 people who request my web design services, I have a few to show privately but can’t put them in my portfolio because they were done for another company. Feel free to contact me today.

Join Our Monthly Web Design Newsletter

Scott Botkins — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:41:40 +0000

Have a website? Well you should think about joining our monthly web design newsletter if you do. I’ll be offering tips and advice for your website along with some cool tidbits such as the latest wordpress plugin you should be using. You can join our newsletter for free on any of our pages on the right side underneath our facebook fan box, just enter your name and email address. I look forward to your subscriptions!

No Longer Accepting Outsourced Web Design Projects

Scott Botkins — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:38:50 +0000

Invision Blue LLC will no longer be working with other web design companies. Since I first started doing this full time in 2005 I have never outsourced a project. I have never liked the idea to begin with, there is a lack of communication when you’re working with a third party and you can’t develop a business relationship with the client. It’s a process which usually goes like this: A sends the draft to B while B forwards the draft to C, A must wait until C responds to B before moving forward, A has no communication with C. 5 days later C replies to B who forwards to A, however A needs more details than C supplied so A now must ask B to email C for more details and the waiting game continues.

I also do not like following other web design terms of service, when someone comes to me they should be following my terms of service in my opinion. I’m committed to work with the ones I do now but from this point forward I will no longer be accepting web design projects from other web design companies or individuals.

Focus Turns to BigCommerce Templates With Partnership

Scott Botkins — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:46:51 +0000

I’m proud to announce that our partnership with BigCommerce became final today. I have been working with them for the past year or so now and really enjoy their software, it’s very easy to design BigCommerce templates and even easier for the user to sell their products on. From this point forward all shopping cart (e-commerce) projects that Invision Blue develops will be with either BigCommerce or Interspire (same company).

We’ll also be rolling out our BigCommerce Authorized Reseller seal on our website shortly.

Join Our Facebook Fan Page & Win $25 Amazon Gift Card

Scott Botkins — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:13:25 +0000

Join our facebook fan page located at facebook.com/webdesignservices and you’ll automatically be entered for our monthly Amazon gift card giveaway. No strings attached, all you have to do is join!