I’m a big fan of clean and easy. No, it’s not some new product Billy Mays is hawking on television that promises to remove sweat stains from your shirt collar, it’s clean and easy web design.

Now before I go on, let’s set the record straight – I’m an online shopper, but most of all, I’m an online store owner and I’ve been one long before the so-called “gurus” even heard of the Internet, so I think I know my stuff.

I pay close attention to new site launches not only from Solid Cactus but from other developers as well and I’m beginning to notice a trend that we have not adopted around here and I’m happy about that. It’s a trend towards distractive, cluttered, mucked-up design that pulls the focus away from the site’s intention (to sell product) to flashy, look-at-me design.

Folks, I have to be honest with you here. Flashy design does not sell product, it causes the customer to get lost trying to find navigation, checkout options, and if it’s too over-the-top it causes their eyes to tire and they bail. Clean looking sites with defined lines, straight forward navigation and easy to use features not only sells but keeps the shopper around longer increasing the chance to make a sale.

Last night while surfing I found a site that is promoting their new look. There were so many different color variations, squiggly backgrounds, graffiti like graphics and general distractions I didn’t know if this was the old site or the new one! The company’s logo was tuned out and shoved into a corner in a muted color that just didn’t match or even catch my eye. I didn’t know if they were selling home furnishings or children’s toys and that’s a problem.

While a colorful, fun site may look great, you’re not here for entertainment, you’re here to sell. Stick with clean and easy, your customers (and your banker) will thank you.

It’s a question that can be interpreted two different ways:

You want HOW MUCH for a logo?
“You mean to tell me it’s that expensive? It’s just a simple graphic, how could you charge so much?”

Your logo is your brand and your brand is what people are going to remember you by. A professional looking logo is just as important as a professional looking website. I’ve seen logos that cost businesses tens of thousands of dollars and I’ve seen logos that cost just a few hundred. Are there differences? That’s debatable, but the time that goes into creating them is what you’re paying for.

I remember when I finally hired a design agency to create our first “professional” Ferret Store logo. It cost us a couple thousand, but we went through about two dozen revisions before finally narrowing it down. It was a month long process to finally get the look we wanted that worked well on our site, in print and in other media such as t-shirts and embroidery. Look at how we progressed over the years and ask yourself, “was it worth it?”

1994	2002
2003 to Current	2003

You want HOW MUCH for a logo?
“You mean I can get a logo for under a hundred bucks?”

Now that I have your ears, the simple answer is “Yes!” Now that Solid Cactus is a web.com company, we have the resources of the largest provider of online marketing solutions for small businesses at our disposal. One of those resources is another web.com company, LogoYes. LogoYes is just what the name implies, a logo design firm.

We are now offering a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) logo solution for our customers where you can use our online logo builder to design a logo yourself and if you like what you create, you can buy it for only $69. Yep, just $69. What a deal! But, wait! There’s more!

Look at some of the great looking logos that were made with the online logo builder:

Now that you’re thinking it’s time for a new logo, the question turns to, “How do I get a great looking logo for my website?”

If you want to design your own logo right now for free, and if you like what you create, pay $69 – go to our online logo builder now.

If you want the expert logo designers at LogoYes to custom design a logo for you for just $289 – click here.

Now, “You want how much for a logo?”

Yesterday, I hosted a webinar with Jeff Stolarcyk and Alicia Magda as my guests. Jeff and Alicia are our resident social media experts and who better to talk about SMO with than them?

When it comes to getting the word out about your business, social media is now considered crucial. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites are free ways for your to spread your message and get people to come to your website.

During the webinar we discussed the most important social networking sites and which ones your should focus on. We gave tours of each and also discussed best practices and how to avoid turning people off, rather than on, to your business.

In case you missed it, or want others to watch, it’s now online for viewing. Enjoy!

Click To Play

Congratulations to two members of my marketing team, Karen Snyder and Scott Carey. Both ended their college career today by graduating from my Alma Mater, King’s College.

Don’t they look cute

Oprah already had her moment in the Twittering sun. Aston had his too. Now it’s time to spotlight some of the resident Twitters here at Solid Cactus.

As you know, I’m going to be hosting a webinar on May 20th at 2pm ET on the importance of adding Social Media into your marketing mix. Joining me will be resident SMO experts Jeff Stolarcyk and Alicia Magda who are both very active in the social media world. I expect this webinar to be very exciting, lively and peppered with plenty of questions, so if you haven’t signed up yet, take a moment to do so.

While on the subject of Twittering and SMO, members of our Internet Marketing team invite you to follow them for timely information and tips. Feel free to “follow” them on Twitter by clicking the links below. If you don’t know what Twitter is, now would be a great time to sign up for that webinar!

Follow Our Internet Marketing Team on Twitter

Affiliate Marketing – Michelle Pushefski
Affiliate Marketing – Ryan Yurewicz
Email Marketing – Michelle Johnson
Pay-Per-Click Management – Bradley Hoppy
Pay-Per-Click Management – Aaron Hagenbuch
Pay-Per-Click Management – Robyn Snyder
Pay-Per-Click Management – Mike Jozaitis
Pay-Per-Click Management – Leigh McGlynn
Pay-Per-Click Management – Eric Colon
Pay-Per-Click Management – Jean Lloyd
Pay-Per-Click Management – Michael Rowland
Search Engine Optimization – Alicia Magda
Search Engine Optimization – Nick Matthews
Search Engine Optimization – Mandy Boyle
Search Engine Optimization – Rebecca Rowett
Search Engine Optimization – Shannon Mullery
Search Engine Optimization – Jeff Stolarcyk

Last evening, Solid Cactus co-founder Joe Palko and myself had the honor of receiving the 2009 Ben Franklin Technology Partners iXchange Award for “Entrepreneurial Achievement.” This award is given to “individuals who best exemplify the quintessential entrepreneurial spirit: a combination of ingenuity, hard work and innovation that has resulted in the creation of a successful and growing business venture.”

According to Ben Franklin, “the Innovation Awards represent the core tenets of the Ben Franklin program: developing early-stage, technology-oriented companies; helping established manufacturing companies enhance their competitive advantage through innovation and promoting a community-wide infrastructure that fosters a favorable business environment for high-growth companies.”

The awards ceremony has held at Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center in Bethlehem, PA and was attended by about 600 people.

During my acceptance speech, I thanked the 150+ Solid Cactus team members who are the real recipients of this award. They are the guys and gals who come to work every day, giving their absolute best to keep our customers happy, bring in new business and work hard to innovate and make us a leader in our industry. Without their hard work and dedication, there would be no Solid Cactus.

Enjoy some candid and not-so-candid video of the event, including the acceptance speech. Blame Beth Hartman for the shaky camera movements, I think she was more nervous than Joe! And thanks to Joe & Katrina Domkowski, Catherine Shafer, John Dawe, Greg Kosicki and of course Beth for attending and sharing in the moment. And thanks to “Candy Pam” from Blair Candy for the flowers that made us look great!

On Friday, I had the opportunity to present one year service awards to several members of the Shavertown Solid Cactus team. Each team member who reaches a 1, 5, or 10 year milestone with us receives a glass award and staff recognition. Recipients of the one year award were:

Molly Harvey – Accounting

Karen Snyder – Corporate Marketing

Justin Verry – Account Management

Sean Handwerk – Store Programming

Lindsey Ranaldo – Store Programming

Keith Schaeffer – Store Programming

Shana Cavuto – Project Management

Aaron Hagenbuch – Internet Marketing

Brad Hoppy – Internet Marketing

Mike Rowland – Internet Marketing

Sarah Kinney – Design

Mark Sanfilippo – Facilities

Joe Pace – SaaS

Jessica Lisowski – Account Management

George Sisco – Technical Support

Isaac Boerner – Technical Support

Brian Emershaw – Project Management

Tim Whitacre – Store Programming

Warren Gunderman – Technical Support

Jeff Stolarcyk – Internet Marketing

Ashley Motter – Corporate Marketing

Laurie Richmond – Accounting

Marina Belkina – Saguaro’s / Food Service

Congratulations to all, and we look forward to having you on the team for many years to come!

Earlier this week you learned about eight new features Solid Cactus released for Yahoo! Stores. Today, I’m introducing yet another feature, designed to drive your sales with minimal investment and measurable return!

At Solid Cactus Boot Camp a few weeks ago, the improved functionality of the coupon manager in the back-end of the Yahoo! Store was a hot topic – specifically how coupons can be used in creative ways to capture sales.

Our product development team went right to work and designed a “Scratch and Save” coupon module that is going to “wow” your customers and generate sales for you.

Here’s how it works.

1. You create standard coupon codes in the Yahoo! Store coupon manager to be used with this feature only.

2. You put those coupon codes into a file that Solid Cactus creates and shows you how to edit.

3. (Optional) You choose which items you want the feature to display (or not display) on.

4. When customers view your item pages they can “scratch” to reveal their discount. You can set the amount of time a customer must wait before getting a new coupon code.

5. You use Yahoo!’s improved coupon manager to measure your return on investment and product usage.

See the product in action at BlairCandy.com & CountryTradeDays.com, or learn more about Scratch & Save by clicking here.

When it comes to new products and features for Yahoo! Store, Solid Cactus is the clear leader among developers. This is evidenced by the recent unveiling of 8 new products for Yahoo! Store. These products were first introduced at Boot Camp last week and were released to the public yesterday during a live webinar.

Researching, developing, beta testing and finally launching a new product is challenging. To coordinate the launch of 8 products at one time was simply mind blowing, but I’m pleased with the results and the initial feedback we’ve received from customers. In case you missed Boot Camp or yesterday’s webinar, here’s a brief overview of what’s new:

• Product Scroller – Instead of pushing products below the fold, keep them in line with a Product Scroller by Solid Cactus. See it in action at TriangleCables.com.
• Store Locator & Driving Directions – Our Store Locator feature allows shoppers to search for a brick and mortar store using a zip code and a desired mileage distance. See it in action at Jamark Labs. NOTE: Two products in one, Store Locator can be sold separate from Driving Directions and vice versa.
• Recession Buster Dynamic Pricing – With Recession Buster Dynamic Pricing for your store, every site visitor gets the opportunity to tell you how much they are willing to pay by inputting a price request. See it in action at MonsterFitnessDirect.com.
• Randomly Displayed Testimonials – Keep your site from getting stale by displaying different testimonials for every visitor to your site to see. Randomly Displayed Testimonials are a great way to prove the quality of service! See it in action at SC Enterprise Package Sample Site.
• Mega Drop Down Menu – With Solid Cactus Mega Drop Down Menu, simply hovering over a section of your store prompts a detailed fly-out menu for shoppers to click through. See it in action at MemoryScrapbooks.com.
• Recession Buster Quote Form – At Solid Cactus, we found a way to help our clients save their businesses while saving money. We call it Recession Buster Pricing, and it’s our way of showing clients we want to help. See it in action at BilletDepot.com.
• Dynamic Sales Page – On one page, your entire selection of sale items comes together providing organized and simplistic access to the best deals on your site. See it in action at PartyPail.com.

All these products were developed with one common goal – to turn shoppers into buyers. Be sure to check them out and see if they can be used to increase sales on your site.

If you want to view an archived copy of the new products webinar, click here.

It was a simply gorgeous Friday night in Northeast Pennsylvania and the setting was perfect for the closing night of Solid Cactus Boot Camp. Temps in the high 80’s allowed us to take advantage of having cocktail hour outside at the East Mountain Inn with spectacular views of the valley below. After dinner we had our usual “graduation” where attendees got their diploma and a bag of Solid Cactus swag.

The highlight of the evening came when Sam Blankenship of TrickShopMagic.com entertained with some magic before giving the keynote address.

I hope everyone had a great time at Boot Camp and we look forward to seeing you at another one real soon!

View the keynote address online: