My Best Design Blog Content Development Tip

I’m sure we’ve all seen those nifty, set of to-do lists and whiz bang cure-alls for developing your business graphic design blog.  I know this is true because I have downloaded a few of these articles myself, printed them, and promptly put them in my IN basket to get to later.  But as client projects (and their demands) swallow up work time, it seems  I rarely get to that IN basket and my design blog’s development priorities fall lower and lower on the “must do” list.

The #1 Best tip or bit of advice I can offer boils down to this—keep at it or like the proverbial turtle in the picture above (the turtle from Aesop’s fable), just keep plodding away!  Developing your graphic design blog is not a sprint, it’s more like a marathon, so setting your mind to chipping away at your blog development week by week will get you a lot further than trying to get everything done all at once.  You won’t get overwhelmed, since hopefully you already have your client’s work making demands on your time and can invest a few hours of your precious time per week.  Remember…Time is Money.

Trust me on this… prepare yourself for the long haul and try to update  your graphic design blog  on a consistent basis which works out to roughly an average of four blog posts a month or one blog post a week.  This works out to a two to three hour minimum investment of your time per week to your graphic design blog marketing, especially  if you are a solo graphic designer.  Just my idea of a great tip to get you started on the right track  in 2013!

Richmediadp: We Have Set Up Our RSS Feed

Here at  Rich Media Design Productions, we are always tweaking the website in order to improve our reader’s experience.   I have had  a few requests for finding my RSS feed and realized, I had not activated our RSS feed button on our header.

However , setting up the RSS feed has since been attended to.  Even though there are rumors on the Net that Google will be phasing out the feed burner service.  In my opinion, that would make a lot of angry customers and end users furious.  So we will see what the future holds.

Or you may decide to wait until the dust clears and there is official word from Google as to whether they will keep the service.

In any case, for those of you who asked…

The feed address is  http://feeds.feedburner.com/RichMediaDesignProductions or you can subscribe on the RSS chiclet in the above header.

6 Reasons to Begin Blogging for Your Graphic Design Business

Most graphic designers, freelance workers or entrepreneurs know by now, that blogging is quickly becoming an important and relatively inexpensive tool for online marketing and self promotion.  Back in the 90s, in the early days of internet marketing, web designers and graphic designers were busy designing and creating mostly static websites for their clients.  However, blogging and the use of blogs has grown exponentially with the development and refining of blogging platforms such as Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.

These blogging platforms have made it much easier to develop and set up a website (or internet presence) for a variety of purposes without requiring advanced technical and programming knowledge.  According to Technorati (in their annual  2011 State of the Blogosphere Report),  3 million blogs come online per month!

When blogging became popular, around July of 2004, there were about 3 million blogs online and as of the end of Dec 2011, there were approximately 178 million blogs on the internet!  Please see chart below, designed by Invesp.

3 Reasons Video Should Be Included in Your Small Business Marketing Strategy

Your Business Video

The buzz on the internet regarding Youtube and video marketing is taking the internet by storm…and for good reason!  Youtube has over 80 million visitors per month and on average Youtube viewers spend 164 minutes online everyday.  Several industry developments in recent years have contributed to these changes, for example, broadband high-speed internet is becoming readily available and more affordable for most households. The cost of consumer video equipment and video editing software is reaching affordable levels bringing down costs making  a very good quality video home studio that can be assembled for under $500 and comparable video editing software for your PC or MAC can be purchased for as low as $100.

There are several video sharing websites such as Vimeo, Dailymotion, Revver, Google Video, etc., that make hosting videos relatively low cost or in some cases free. In addition, many newly designed smartphones and iPhones are capable of creating short fairly good quality videos and many people are using their mobile phones to upload their videos to video sharing and social media websites.  No these are not professional quality videos; but many small business marketers begin with these tools and upgrade their video quality with their successes.  They don’t wait for the ideal time to jump onto the video marketing bandwagon.

In some cases, as incredible as it sounds, you don’t even need video equipment or software, as video creation business services such as Animoto will combine current pictures, images or mini video clips from your business and create compelling 30 second to 10 minute videos with sound and sophisticated transitions that you can than use to promote your business or service. If you are a solo professional, freelancer, independent contractor or small brick-and-mortar business you should consider including video marketing in your small business marketing mix.  With all the new tools coming online it makes more sense now more than ever!