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*** DesignGeek ***
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Tips and techniques for the digital designer
In this issue:
-- Two Cool Tools for Web Site Marketers
-- 3rd Annual InDesign Conference is Coming Up
-- First-Ever "Creative Suite" Conference
Issue 36, 3/14/05
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion
... for her clients, colleagues, random contacts and interested subscribers
© 2005 Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
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Two Cool Tools for Web Site Marketers
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Last week I reprised my seminar, "Finding Clients: Marketing Your Creative Business Online" for the Web SIG of a wonderful organization, the Association for Multimedia Communications:
http://www.amcomm.org
If the link to my 3/9/05 seminar on AMC's site is gone, you can get a general idea of what I talked about here:
http://senecadesign.com/designgeek/web-marketing-creatives.html
I've done this seminar a few times for various events and always learn new things in the process ... either while I'm updating the content in preparation, or from the audience themselves during the Q&A or via follow-up e-mails from them.
Two tools I've learned about via the AMC seminar deserve special mention:
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Digital Point's Keyword Tracker
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/
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If you're the type of web site owner/designer who obsessively enters keyphrases in Google to see where your site is appearing in the results pages, Keyword Tracker is for you.
Using this free tool you can see your site's Google position (up to the first 200 results) for any number of keywords and keyphrases. It tracks (and can optionally chart) your URL's position over time. You can even enter your competitor's URLs and see how they're doing compared to you with the same keywords and phrases.
You'll need to open a Google account and have it generate a Google Web API for you to enter in Keyword Tracker's set up routine. Getting a Google API is also free:
https://www.google.com/accounts/
While you're at Digital Point, nose around a while. There's a ton of free goodies there and a great forum.
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HTML Email Marketing Service
http://www.verticalresponse.com
Note: This is the correct URL! (The one in the e-mail was wrong, sorry!)
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During the seminar, while I was on the topic of e-mail marketing, the subject of sending out HTML E-mail "blasts" came up. Assuming you have a list of client's and prospect's e-mail addresses, and they've said it's okay to send them HTML e-mail (they've "opted-in"), how do you do it? How do you create an HTML e-mail that'll work on most platforms with most e-mail programs?
You can cobble one together manually, by creating a web page of the e-mail itself and then using various tools to e-mail that page's contents (not the URL, the actual code) to your distribution list. I usually refer people to this wonderful step-by-step written by Adobe's Adam Pratt and Lynn Grillo (it's geared to GoLive users but the instructions are applicable to anyone):
http://www.golivein24.com/HTMLemail/index.html
You could also set up accounts with a hosted e-mail newsletter/discussion group service like Constant Contact, or use one that's installed on your own web server, like DadaMail. (DadaMail, nee MojoMail, is a donation-ware cgi program and the one I use for DesignGeek). Both Constant Contact and DadaMail have options for sending out HTML e-mail to the list of e-mail addresses you upload:
http://www.constantcontact.com/
http://www.dadamail.org/
During the AMC presentation, a few people brought up Vertical Response, a company I'd never heard of. Like Constant Contact, it's a hosted, fee-based service. But the audience members familiar with both said that Constant Contact is on some spam blacklists (due to people misusing their services) and so may be rejected by your recipient's mailservers.
Vertical Response has a web-based wizard that lets you build the HTML e-mail right on their site, using one of their nice-looking templates or one that you design and upload yourself. They do the tracking and reporting that most HTML E-mail marketers need -- how many people opened the e-mail, how many clicks on internal links, how many bouncebacks, etc.
Not only are VR's fees very reasonable -- fractions of a cent per e-mail address -- but they're an ethical company too. All distribution lists need to be opt-in only, and the e-mail itself needs to adhere to CAN-SPAM regulations. Detaiils are on VR's site.
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2005 InDesign Conference is Coming Up
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Last summer I attended the InDesign Conference in Boston for the first time. Wow, and I thought I knew InDesign? I came away from the three days of non-stop seminars so stuffed with InDesign tips and techniques that they were leaking out my ears.
I'll be at the 2005 InDesign Conference this summer -- in San Francisco! -- not just as an attendee, but also as a speaker. I'm doing a one-day pre-show training seminar, "Moving to an InCopy/InDesign Workfow." Then I can relax and enjoy the rest of the event, and soak up more info that will help me be a more productive user as well as a better trainer.
Hosted by David Blatner, the conference is "the annual gathering of InDesign experts, developers, designers and users." In addition to Blatner, speakers include experts like Sandee Cohen, Dov Isaacs, Steve Holmes (he's the one who does the Total Training videos, love that accent), Claudia McCue, and Steve Werner. A full list of speakers and their bios is on the conference web site (URL below).
June is coming up fast. If you're thinking of going, you can register online and get an early bird discounted rate. If you're a subscriber to DG, I can give you my own discount code ($45 off) on top of that. (Per Show policies, I can't post it on my web site. I have been/will be including it in the e-mail versions of DesignGeek. Subscribe today, it's free!) Note that the DesignGeek discount doesn't expire, but the early-bird rates do, of course.
InDesign Conference
June 21-24, 2005; San Francisco
http://www.theindesignconference.com/conference.php?sid=1&cid=4
(Seminars, speaker bios, exhibitors, fees, registration form, etc.)
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First-Ever "Creative Suite" Conference
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One month after the InDesign Conference, the same producer (http://www.barrycon.com) is mounting the first-ever independent conference devoted to the Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat and GoLive.
Creative Suite Conference
July 19-23, 2005; Las Vegas (baby!)
http://www.thecreativesuiteconference.com
When I heard about it, I was like, D'oh! What a great idea! And then I went, "D'oh! I want to do a seminar there!" hahaha ... I guess I had such a great time speaking at last year's Mac Design Conference and then the Adobe Partners in Publishing thing that I kind of got the public speaking bug. (I wish my high school speech teacher could see me now...)
I suggested to them that a good seminar would be one that looked at all the programs' web site design/production abilities (as opposed to their print design/production ones), and they said, "sounds good!" My seminar will be "Web Site Solutions and The Creative Suite."
I'm just a minor star in the constellation of guru speakers at the event though. Other seminars will be given by the world's top experts -- Bert Monroy, Deke McClelland, Russ Brown, Kacey Crouch, Mordy Golding -- plus Adobe's own Lynn Grillo and Adam Pratt, plus many of the top InDesign gurus from the ID conference like Blatner, Cohen, McCue, Werner... it'll be mind-boggling! Bring your autograph books.
The very coolest thing about the Conference is that everyone's fingers are crossed (though no official Adobe announcement yet) that the new version of the Creative Suite apps will be out by then. If so, you can expect the speakers to be using the newest versions of Photoshop, InDesign, etc. in their seminars. What an opportunity this would be for the design community to get an unbiased take on the new features!
As for the InDesign Conference, the show producer is allowing me to offer a DesignGeek discount code ($45 off) for anyone who wants to register for the Creative Suite Conference. (Per Show policies, I can't post it on my web site. I have been/will be including it in the e-mail versions of DesignGeek. Subscribe today, it's free!)
If you register for the show before April 15, not only do you get the discounted early-bird rate that's posted at their site, but you can use two discounted codes to chip away at that fee: The DesignGeek one, and one that's posted on the show site's home page. The registration form has spaces for both codes. If you can't commit before then, no problem, the DesignGeek code doesn't expire.
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BRING HERGEEKNESS ON-SITE
Do you like what you read in DesignGeek? Find anything useful? Bring me in for a session or two of hands-on software training for your workgroup; here in Chicago or any other city near an airport, and you can have me all to yourself. LOL .... I don't charge an arm and a leg, and you'll find we usually go far beyond teaching which dialog does what. I pay attention to your particular projects and workflow, and teach how you can best use the software to get it done easily, accurately and efficiently.
To learn more, or hear what other clients have to say, contact me or fill out the no-obligation "Request a Training Quote' form on Seneca's site:
http://www.senecadesign.com/training/request.html
Recent training clients in Chicago and throughout the U.S. include Hoyt Publishing (InCopy); Playboy Enterprises (InDesign), Loyola Press (InDesign, InCopy); Stralfors (Dreamweaver); Chicago Tribune (GoLive); Unity Christian Publishing (InCopy); Marquette University (InDesign); and Think Design Group (InDesign, InCopy).
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DesignGeek is a free bimonthly publication written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, a cross-media designer and authorized Adobe and Quark training provider. She owns Seneca Design & Training, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois (http://www.senecadesign.com/).
To subscribe to DesignGeek or read archived issues, go to its home on Seneca's site:
http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/
To unsubscribe, follow the link at the bottom of this page.
Contact Seneca by phone at 312-946-1100 or e-mail at info@senecadesign.com
Copyright 2005 by Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
Please forward without cutting. Please contact Seneca for reprint permissions. We don't guarantee accuracy of articles. Company or product names mentioned in DesignGeek may be registered trademarks, we use the names in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement.
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