Poddcorp

Define your key metric. Start by identifying your target market and demographics. Ask yourself who am I talking to? Also it’s best to be mindful of cultural differences. Some words mean different things in different counties. A fag in England means a cigarette or a smoke but might mean a different thing elsewhere. Ford once introduced a car, Nova, in Latin America. Unfortunately no va is slang for “can’t run” so the company was forced, after a very humiliating launch, to rename the vehicle for that market.
There are plenty of ways to gather information about the stylistic sensibilities of your target audience. You can take cues from earlier successes or failures.
 

Identify your product’s competitive advantages. This is what’s called a Unique Selling Proposition. What does your product have that the others don’t? You can focus on price, guarantees or performance.
 

Start with a great concept. Make it catchy and slightly unexpected. Don’t be afraid to go out-of-the-box but always establish a connection to the product you offer. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and ask “What would make me want to click on a banner? What do I find interesting?” Don’t be afraid to play with words.

Apply the 3-second rule. Your headline and copy should spark your user’s interest within that timeframe. If it takes a while longer for your users to figure out what your ad is about then you’ve lost them.

Don’t over promise and under deliver. Don’t exaggerate your product’s strength or make promises that you can’t back up. Double check the facts.
 

Make it easy for your users. When dealing with technical aspects, use easily understandable words, break the information into comprehensive bite-size pieces and keep your audience in mind. You can provide a link leading to a “whitepaper” for more technically savvy readers.
 

Lead with a question. Want to write better banners? Looking to increase your click-through rate? Try to engage and capture your users' attention but be sure that content is sufficient to answer most of their questions.   

Never sacrifice your brand integrity for a cheap click. Sexy is good but sex, unless you are a porn site, isn’t. It’s ok to use slightly tantalizing images or words but always know where to draw the line. 

Be relevant. If you have to use a risqué image or tagline, always make sure it’s relevant to the kind of product that you offer. Ex. “And you thought you weren’t getting any tonight… Poker action, that is! UKPoker Tournaments are back!”  

Poddcorp

Hi guys!

I uploaded 2 wallpaers for March. What's your fave? Tell me all about it thru a shoutout or a comment

Poddcorp

Web Design Tips: Your Choice of Web Site Color 

Many web designers tend to overlook the importance of color when designing a website. Color is a powerful means of setting emotion, which is the real driving force behind decision making. Although It is hard to define an exact science for color psychology because there are subjective meanings involved, both at a personal and cultural level.

Poddcorp

Google is currently beta testing its new product the Google Page Creator. The product promises to makes it easy for anyone to create and publish useful, attractive web pages in just minutes.

Apparently, there's no technical knowledge required. Users can build high-quality web pages without having to learn HTML or use complex software. I'm just assuming they're using a WYSIWYG interface and hosting will probably be with Google.

Google Page Creator is still in an early testing phase. If you're interested in taking it for a test drive, login with your Gmail account. Its just too bad that when i tried to sign up I was prompted to the waitinglist. Bummer...

But i did manage to get a sample at http://rustybrick.googlepages.com/

http://pages.google.com/

UPDATE:

I finally got thru so here's my page...

Poddcorp

Just recently, two of PODD Corp.’s own web designers namely Leo Guevara and Ryan Anin, attended the Murder by Design Conference. It’s a seminar held by a community of online web designers based in Manila.

Some of the artists/groups featured were:

http://www.teammanila.com/

http://www.ligagrafica.com

http://www.greencapsule.org

Poddcorp

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- As expected, hackers have found a way to run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system on new Macintosh computers, winning an ad hoc contest and a $13,854 cash prize to boot.

Or, make that dual-boot - the way to make a computer switch between two operating systems.

Some users of Apple Computer Inc.'s Macs have clamored for such a solution since Apple said it would be switching its computers to Intel Corp.'s chips, putting the feat within reach.

Their reasons vary, but a common denominator is that they would like to run Windows-based programs on their Macs.

excerpt from http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3732015.html

Poddcorp

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

In a nutshell, Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. How is this accomplished?

The Basics of Good Search Engine Optimization

Good search engine optimization is very basic. A successful search engine optimization campaign will contain these essential components:

Content. Content is what drives search engine rankings, content is what brings users to your site, and content, when sprinkled appropriately with keyword phrases, will feed search engine spiders. Rinse, repeat. Content is key in search engine optimization. Be sure to write your content with both search robots and users in mind.

Simple Design. Sites that are successful in the search engine results have this in common-they are all simply designed, with a minimum of bandwidth hogging graphics, slowly loading animations or other such frippery, and are easy to navigate. Simple, clean designs are what search engine spiders and search engine users like, because it enables them to get to what they're looking for; which is - you guessed it - content.

Good Meta tags. Meta tags-keyword, description, and title- are important, but they won't make or break your site. Meta tags are merely part of the overall success strategy. They need to be written with compelling, keyword phrase-heavy content that will make the user click through from the search results page.

Take a look at Ipod's packaging... it’s simple, unique and follows a minimalist style of design. It’s a perfect example or representation of Mac's ideal of simplified technology.  

Now what if Microsoft (who partially owns Mac) decides to makes little changes. Take a look at this! 

Poddcorp

"The Pinoy Big Brother’s influence on the lives of Pinoys everywhere has taken a twist for both the funny and the ideological, as a fine arts professor of University of the Philippines, Cebu College and his cohorts took off their clothes in Kahayag Café in support for their “housemate” pal who is nominated for eviction from the TV show. They are hoping that news of this act of theirs will help bring in text votes that will save their friend.

The Unveristy of the Philippines have a standing tradition for stripping for cause.

PUSOD, the visual art-umbrella NGO group which Pinoy Big Brother housemate and eviction nominee Errol “Budoy” Marabiles is a member and whom he has assigned as the recipient for the 1 million pesos counterpart should he win the Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition contest, had its members strip themselves in the midst of an experimental jazz number."

excerpt from Cebu Stories

Poddcorp

WEB DESIGN TOP TIPS: Fixing Underexposed Photos with Photoshop

Here's a neat trick I found from Jennifer Apple

The Layer Sandwich Trick

Step 1 — New Layer
Open your photo and make a copy of the Background Layer by choosing Layer> Duplicate Layer, or by dragging it to the New Layer Icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Step 2 — Change The Blend Mode
In the Layers palette change the Blend Mode of the new layer from Normal to Screen. This will lighten the photo uniformly.

Step 3 — Repeat
Now repeat the entire procedure again until your happy with your pic.

Step 4 — Lower The Opacity
Now leave that last layer active even though it's taken you too far and lower the Opacity using the slider at the top right of the layers palette. This lowers the intensity of the effect. When you've found the right amount, you can flatten your image.

Step 5 — Flatten And Save
Choose Layer> Flatten or use the palette’s flyout menu and choose Flatten Image. That's it. Save your file (File> Save) and you're done!