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25Feb/101

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Marketing on the Web with 3D (DK Logo gets a makeover!)

Nice, but alas, not 3 Dimensional...

Nice, but alas, not 3 Dimensional...

By TJ Warren

On a snowy Ohio day this February one of our 3D developers decided to take a look at what our own logo would look like as a 3D image.  Basically, as we are always telling people about the unmatched level of detail and quality you get from 3D we wanted to see how our logo measured up.  As we observed the process of re-creating our logo as an object, compared to a standard flat image,  the results had even us astonished.

When we designed our logo, it was built with the idea of being placed on a computer monitor or flat screen TV.   However, the best results we obtained were from placing the logo lettering on an old-school looking boob tube like the one your parents still keep in their basement.  For whatever reason, it really popped especially when laid out against our darkly themed website.

Wow, now that looks nice!

Wow, now that looks nice!

As we re-made the logo we decided to really show off the features of our 1970's Magnavox.   The outward poking legs and extended bunny ears were fun to add on as we briefly played with our brand image.  All of our logo revamping was done using Autodesk Maya software, our weapon of choice.   Our letters "DK" literally popped off the screen and the many choices of lighting and angles kept us tinkering for hours.  As we often tell our clients the best part of 3D is that you can take your creation and film it from any angle and in any lighting conditions whereas with a regular image you can only see it from 1 angle.

I wonder if you can still find bunny ears like this on Ebay?

I wonder if you can still find bunny ears like this on Ebay?

As we finished off our amusement with the 3D logo, we learned that even we can sometimes learn about the benefits of 3D in our own marketing.  We'll keep it around as a fun reminder of what 3D animation can do for anyone (even us).


Filed under: 3D 1 Comment
19Feb/100

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Avoid having your LinkedIn Account Suspended (Learn from our mistake!)

With LinkedIn we hoped to save on our summer kindling expense!

With LinkedIn we hoped to save on our summer kindling expense!

By TJ Warren

Just admit it.  Somewhere, either out in the open on your desk, holed up in a Rolodex, or in some smelly un-used drawer there is a massive pile of business cards.  We know the feeling.

Our Linkedin problems started when we decided to try to shrink that growing heap and go digital by adding all of our contacts from that mound of business cards to our LinkedIn account. Not a good idea we would soon find out.  As you can see from the picture this quantity of business cards has taken a while to collect. One of our guys got about 20 cards in before he got sick of the "Advanced Search" function and called it a day.  As he was adding the connections in bulk, he did not put in a personalized message and left it to the LinkedIn default. The next day we were informed that our LinkedIn account was under restriction.  Our best guess is that some of the people we tried to connect with simply forgot about meeting us in the first place and declined our invitation as spam.

Linkedin will send you this notice when 3 or more people say they don’t know you in a given (but unstated) period of time. The rule makes sense to prevent people from spamming users. However, our honest mistake almost got our account shut down.  The lesson we learned is to, at the very least, put in a message of how you know the person you are trying to connect to.

Other LinkedIn users have complained about some of their other policies which can result in your account being locked.  Apparently, if you look at too many pages LinkedIn will assume you are trying to collect users’ personal information and block you.  The same is true for having too many connections. If you have over 30,000 connections LinkedIn reportedly will close your account as well.

Fortunately, our account was not closed and we learned that making an honest mistake can be very costly when using LinkedIn.



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12Feb/100

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Free SEO Report: 5 Free Tools to get you Started

seo-wheel-dk-web-consultingRapid growth in internet use over the past decade has created an interesting challenge for businesses everywhere including major brands and corporate giants; How to accurately measure what people are doing on the Internet, sort them into appropriate audiences, and engage with them? These tools will help you conquer these SEO challenges. Enjoy the free SEO report tools.

Alexa
Alexa is a useful resource for people to discover information about websites. You can use Alexa to discover how popular a site is, see visitor trend patterns over a rolling 6 months, find related sites, learn who owns a site and much more.
http://www.alexa.com/toolbar

Quantcast
Quantcast measures and organize the world's audiences in real-time so businesses can buy, sell and connect with those that matter most. Quantcast engages all 220 million U.S. Internet users, providing detailed audience profiles for the advertising marketplace to learn more about what consumers are doing online.
http://www.quantcast.com/

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you're more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.
http://www.google.com/analytics/

SEO Chat
SEO Chat aggregates a number of different SEO tools so that the everyday website owner can quickly find highly relevant data involving meta-tags, keyword optimization, site link analysis, and much more.
http://www.seochat.com/

Keyword Discovery
Keyword Discovery collects keyword data from many different search engines world-wide and compiles a range of search related statistics. The site provides you with exact search phrases customers use to find products or services and enables you to maximize the available search engine traffic.
*Note, there is a free and a paid version of this tool.
http://keyworddiscovery.com/


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5Feb/100

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What is Your Websites Value?

The Dispatch.com iPhone Application, while ornate, may not drive much loyalty from its users

The Dispatch.com iPhone Application, while ornate, may not drive much loyalty from its users

By TJ Warren
If two websites are identical in terms of their use of graphics and imagery as well as their use of modern web techniques does that mean they also will get the same amount of visitation from web users?   And how does the quantity of visitation relate to a websites value?  We set out to answer these questions by comparing two seemingly identical websites, those of local Ohio newspapers.  At first glance, The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s online home (Cleveland.com) and The Columbus Dispatch (Dispatch.com) appear very similar.  However, this appearance is only skin-deep. Here are some figures to consider:

Alexa page rank:
Cleveland.com- 3,878
Dispatch.com- 16,672
Daily page views:
Cleveland.com- 263,283
Dispatch.com- 47,907
Daily ads revenue (potential):
Cleveland.com- $792
Dispatch.com- $146
Estimated worth (websites value):
Cleveland.com- $578,379
Dispatch.com- $106,704

Cleveland.com is estimated to be worth $578,000 while Dispatch.com is estimated to be worth $107,000.  These estimates were derived from daily page-views on each site as a function of how many dollars in advertising revenue each website could generate if that were there business model.  The more page-views to each site, the more they may charge for ad space.  There are many ways to value a website, and this is one of the more popular methods.

Cleveland.com offers a simpler layout and no iPhone app, but has 5 times the number of pageviews as Dispatch.com

Cleveland.com offers a simpler layout and no iPhone app, but has 5 times the number of pageviews as Dispatch.com

Cleveland.com has around 263,000 page views a day while Dispatch.com has about 48,000 per day. While both sites are valuable assets, Cleveland.com somehow is able to drive up their daily page-views relative to Dispatch.com.  There are several possible explanations for this comparison.  First, the Plain Dealer has a circulation of 450,000 newspapers delivered daily compared to 350,000 by The Dispatch.  Also, while Columbus is the most populous Ohio city, Cleveland has the larger metropolitan area, with 2.25 million people compared to 1.73 million in metropolitan Columbus.  However these advantages do not clearly indicate why one newspaper would have over 5 times as many daily page-views as the other.  It may very well be that Cleveland.com offers better content or does an excellent job of inspiring its readers to engage online.

Whatever the reason, the larger volume of visitors results in higher estimated ad revenue for Cleveland.com ($790/day as opposed to $145/day).  This estimate means that Cleveland.com could use the extra revenue to further distance themselves from Dispatch.com in the future.  The overall lesson is to look further than just the appearance of a website to determine how valuable it is.  There are many things that go on behind the scenes which contributes to the relative success and visitation of a website.

Free tools worth checking out include:
http://alexa.com

http://websiteoutlook.com

References:
http://factfinder.census.gov
http://www.infoplease.com/




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2Feb/100

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Which is Better; Maya or Max?

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda

By TJ Warren

Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max are two of the most common 3D Animation programs in use today. Often we hear the question, "Which program is better?"  The answer is mostly a matter of preference. Both programs sell for roughly the same price ($3,500) and 30 day trials can be found on Autodesk’s website. With regards to capability, both products are very similar as well. However, both programs do approach the same task differently.

Historically 3ds Max has been used more heavily in the architecture and video game industries. Maya, by contrast, has been used heavily in the movie industry. These trends are changing however, towards an environment where both programs are used in the same industries on a more equal level. Many developers say that Maya, while being harder to learn, is a bit more capable. Furthermore, proponents of Maya feel that the shadowing tool Mental Ray is more robust in the Maya program. Many schools, such as the Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) in Columbus build Maya into their curriculum. They find it to be more robust because of its ability to create entire movies.

On the other hand, many users of 3ds Max feel it is superior in rendering still images. This quality contributes to its high rate of use in the architecture field. Nevertheless, choosing which program is better is really a matter of personal preference. Both programs can read files from the other so if you are in the market for a high end 3D animation program, there is no reason (other than hard drive space constraints) not to get a free trial of both and see what you personally prefer. (Find links to both free trials at the bottom of this page.)

A short list of movies and video games created using both of these Autodesk products includes:Star Wars Episode 3, Far Cry 2, Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, Resistance 2, Transformers, and Star Trek. Interestingly, several large animation firms including Pixar and Blue Sky have turned to their own proprietary 3D software.

Maya Trial

Max Trial

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