Electronic Media Design Blog

Document Design Tips

Pete Galvin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:16:15 +0000

Creating newsletters, pamphlets, or other documents, both large and small, benefit from a clean, simple design. I have provided some tips for you to achieve better page layout and format results. See my article “Keeping Document Design Simple” for these helpful tips on look and feel. Apply these design tips on your next publishing to improve your communication and keep your audience interested in your content.

The Upgrade to Mac and Adobe CS5 Creative Suite

Pete Galvin — Thu, 26 May 2011 04:27:52 +0000

At the beginning of the year, I made the move from PC to Mac. With my platform conversion, I updated my entire design software collection to Adobe CS5. The upgrade is was worth the money. Immediately my Windows PC problems disappeared! I now spend more time designing client solutions instead of fighting Windows error and security warning messages. Adobe CS5 source files for Mac are completely compatible with the Windows counterpart. And by utilizing the latest software, I can open and edit just about any graphic file format out there as well as older Adobe files. Designing with Adobe software is advantageous to both me and my clients because of its wide availability in the design industry.

What is a Joomla Website?

Pete Galvin — Thu, 26 May 2011 04:24:37 +0000

Joomla is a user friendly web based content management system that stores documents, photos, video, and other media in a database. There are many styles and templates available for Joomal web sites that quickly get a website launched. A custom design can also be created if you desire your own unique look and design. I have created several designs in Joomla including my site and Ask A Plumber.com. The choice is yours, choose a predefined tempalte or I cna crate one for you.

After your Joomla site is setup, editing content is simple and can be updated anytime with little or no help from your site admin. Edits can be viewed by your audience as soon as you click save. Even if you are uncomfortable editing your own content, you can contact me and I can handle it for you with a fraction of the cost of code based content presentation often required by an experienced developer.

Joomla is Flexible and Extensible

The Joomla software is capable of accepting additional content and features without rebuilding or designing the web site. You can add as much content as you desire because the software is designed to store and present information in a consistent format as specified by the template. New features such as a blog, forum, photo gallery can be added to your site without major rework. By designing your site in Joomla, you can start with an inexpensive solution to get your content or business online fast. As your requirements increase, new features can be added gradually in affordable increments so you do not have to exhaust your funds on site over builds or unnecessary features.

When considering a new site or redesigning your existing site, consider the Joomla solution. I believe you will be very happy with the results.

Why is My Web Site Not on Google?

Pete Galvin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:24:14 +0000

Every customer asks me why they are not ranked on Google as soon as their site goes live. All I can say is that it takes time and if you do not advertise your site or have professional SEO work performed on your behalf, your site will remain unnoticed.

It takes time for your site to be scanned by the Google bots and there is no guarantee your site will be listed as you expect. You can help your rankings by getting other sites to linked to you and promote your site with Search Engine Marketing from Yahoo or Google Ad Words. Create a Twitter, FaceBook, or even YouTube account and promote your site there with a link back to your site. Why link to utilize these sites? Because those sites generate lots of traffic and you can tap into that traffic with a presence on those sites.

My brother gets a lot of web traffic from YouTube (type “dirt designs graphic” in the search field). His readership is quite large on YouTube because he is “networked” with other sites that receive a lot of traffic and linked to his YouTube account.

SEM is a business onto itself and can get quite costly, but you can perform the mentioned ideas the day your site is launched to get a jump start in your marketing campaign. For example, make video on YouTube about a process or write about how your expertise can help with a business problem and post it on ezine.com.

Whatever your industry is about, you can perform some of these ideas and link back to your site. Remember, it takes time and considerable effort to be ranked well enough to get high visibility on search engine results.

Welcome to My New Website

Pete Galvin — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 02:25:53 +0000

I’ve been working on this new site for about nine months. Between working my day job, assisting customers, and taking a few vacations, the site suffered from being completed by early summer 2010.

An increase of clients inquiries and a way to document my experiences prompted me to develop this site. The site was designed to answer some of the many questions I receive during the course of running my business.

I designed and built this site in cadence with Pat Fortino from Write Now Design and implored his expert knowledge in Joomla and Word Press development. Thank you Pat!

So here is the site. Peruse and search as you will.