clevermethod team members are often tasked with projects that require a bit of forward and creative thinking, using both sides of the brain. We develop solutions for clients in an industry that is always changing, ever-evolving and improving.

We all have our little ‘secret weapons’, or favorite websites or online tools we love to use and can’t live without to do our daily jobs. Our team members divulged some of their favorites; industry standard apps, new web-based tools, as well as fun while useful websites.

Check back every month for more Top 10 lists on various topics in web development, online marketing, social media, programming, and much more!

1. Task Management & Collaboration:

http://do.com

“Free task management and collaboration. Made for desktop, iPhone, and iPad. Very well designed, beautiful URL.”
- Josh, Interactive Designer

2. RSS Reader: 

http://netvibes.com

“I use [Net Vibes] for a web based RSS reader. [It] allows you to create multiple tabs (news, design, sports, tech news).  [The] Layout is presented in 3 columns, also [giving] you the ability to drag and drop the feeds in any column/order you want.”
- Scott, Production Artist

3. HTML & CSS Debugging: 

http://getfirebug.com

“Firebug is a great tool to use for testing because it allows you to inspect and modify the style and layout of websites. Using this tool you can easily find paths to where images, HTML and CSS documents are located.  It’s also quite useful for detecting errors, if there’s an error on the website you’re inspecting it will very conveniently show up in red so that it’s easily spotted. Another nice perk of Firebug is that it allows you to find the size and name of files easily by just hovering the inspect arrow tool over the parts of the webpage you would like to know more about. Over all Firebug is a convenient and easy to use web development tool when it comes to testing, editing and debugging your websites.”

- Melissa, Production Artist

4. Blog Syndication: 

http://dlvr.it

“dlvr.it is a great tool for streamlining and simplifying blog publishing and their interaction with social networks. It instantly publishes to social networks you specify, has a unique analytics dashboard, and just makes integrating blogs into your social media presence very easy and professional.”

- Ed, Online Marketing & Support Analyst

5. Web-Based File Editing: 

http://advanced.aviary.com

“Free web based photo editing, Sound editing, Vector illustrator, and MUCH more.  Great for people without advanced tools or high end editing computers.”

- Dave, Interactive Developer

6. E-Mail Campaign Building: 

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/design-guidelines

“Building an email is not like building for the web. While web browsers continue their onward march towards standards, many email clients have stubbornly stayed put. (I just copied that from the article!)”

- Andrea, Production Artist

7, 8, 9 & 10. Mobile Tools, Page Publishing & Form Building:

Mobile: http://modality.com

Typography Tips, Tricks & Best Practices: http://sixrevisions.com/css/css-typography-02

Instant Page Publishing: http://pen.io

Custom Form Building: http://www.jformer.com

“…This is a running list of URLs I have kept for various reasons over time. Honestly, I need to run through and clean it up…so I thought the “brain dump” approach was better than nothing!”

- Bob, Manager of Web Development

Bonus! 

Browser Use Statistics: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

“This site is great at helping to explain to clients what browsers we support and why. It contains up to date stats on browser usage and helps us to determine when a browser is being utilized enough that we need to update our testing process to include new browsers, or possibly exclude older browsers from further testing (ex. IE 6).”

- Heather, Senior Project Manager

BUFFALO, NY – How much is a “dinger” worth?  How far apart do you place the “Goals?”  What happens when the flying disc goes in the front and out the top?  Even avid KanJam players have had a disagreement or two about the rules of the game, but the new KanJam Mobile app ends the debate!

“We’ve often heard requests from players for a way to keep score and we constantly field questions about scoring and rules on our website and Facebook page,” said Mitch Rubin, partner and co-founder of Kan Jam LLC.  “The KanJam Mobile app will answer those questions and give our players a way to enhance their KanJam experience,” added Charles Sciandra, partner and co-founder.

KanJam partnered with web agency clevermethod to bring the mobile app to life.  The design, development and online marketing teams at clevermethod worked closely with KanJam to develop a simple app with features that would engage the user and promote the brand.  KanJam Mobile brings the bragging rights of the backyard to social media, too.  Integrating with Facebook, the app allows players to post scores and gloat about their game.

KanJam Mobile is available now in the Android Market and the iPhone App Store.

See the full Press Release.

OTC Paid Search Ad and Landing Page

Our client On Track Creations (OTC) designs and builds motocross tracks nationwide. Last year we redesigned the OTC website making their blog the centerpiece of the site. The blog highlights their breadth of experience and the owner’s hands-on involvement with each project, two key selling points. If you read our earlier blog post on OTC , you know that the impact of the redesign was great, with increases in site traffic, pageviews, search traffic and leads generated.

We setup several Ad Groups, keeping each tightly focused around keyword groupings (ie., motocross, supercross, RC tracks). We also added a Click-to-Call phone extension that would be displayed to users who viewed the ads on their smartphone. Finally, we optimized a page on the site to serve as an effective landing page for the ads, adding a list of services to mirror the keywords as well as links to key site content.

Right out of the gate we saw a jump in site traffic, with more than double the average number of site visits in the first month. We were closely watching performance on the Adwords side (Impressions, Clickthroughs, etc) and also setup a custom report on the Google Analytics side. This made it easy to compare the value of the Adwords traffic other traffic sources, based on metrics like Bounce Rate, Time On Site and Contact Forms submitted. The Adwords paid search traffic has been out-performing all other site traffic across all these metrics.

But here’s the exciting part – the ads have been steadily generating phone and web leads since the first week. Jesse has seen a significant increase in requests for proposals, and a number of leads from outside WNY.

In this case, I am going to customize a category listing page. I’ll call it “entity.saleitems.productductlist.xml.config”. Here I am going to jazz up the Sale Items landing page layout! Be careful when renaming the package filenames, as the file prefix (“entity”) is used by the admin for querying purposes. See for yourself in the admin, while modifing the properties of a category, the XML packages drop down is full of items that begin with “entity.”

You can see this on the product detail page too, everything in there begins with “product.” You can create as many packages as you wish, you just have to  be careful of what entites in the system are assigned to which packages.

Here is a quick tip regarding Full Text Searching on ASPDNSFv9 platform.

When creating an ASPDNSF database from the SQL scripts provided in the source code distribution (vs. the consumer level installer), you’ll need to run through the Full Text Search feature installation wizard in order to truly enable it. You’ll see that the database SQL script does not include the scalar function definitions for “KeyWordSearch” or “GetValidSearchString”, these are defined in the AspDotNetStorefrontCore assembly as inline SQL strings.

In order to get these objects into your database, you will need to open the ASPDNSF Admin -> Configuration – >Advanced -> Setup Full text Search screen. It will report that FTS is enabled (but we know it is not completely…). Click the “Uninstall” button. Then “Install Full Text Search”, opting to “Reuse Catalog” of ASPDNSFFullText. Now your database functions are created and will be used in the [aspdnsf_GetProducts] stored procedure. Verify by searching for products and varying the phrases. ie. “polo sweater” and “sweater polo”, you should get valid results for both queries! Happy Storefronting!

Far, far away in Elma, NY, we were busy at work in our dramatically lit clevermethod photo studio (we have a photo studio at the clevermethod office where we take professional product shots, in case you were wondering!). But this was not our usual photo shoot.

The Thursday before Halloween, we were putting “clevermethod babies”, West and Ella, in their Star Wars costumes, so that their nerdy cuteness could be exploited. West played the Yoda role very well by toppling over a Darth Vader helmet, and Ella was a very upset Leia when we told her about Alderaan.

Photography aside, Star Wars fans turned parents have a difficult question to answer: in what sequence will their children watch the six- part Star Wars saga? Some advocate running straight through Episodes 1-6, others insist that experiencing them in the order they were made is the only way to go. Guess it’s just one of the many challenges of parenting!

View the rest of the photos here.

Without further ado, here is our top 5 list of most interactions (likes and comments) for our Profile Pic du Jour series:

#1. Photo Caption – “Can anyone guess where this Tim Horton’s is located? We found it on our return trip from Benchmark Engineering, after getting lost!”

Why it worked - It gave fans the chance to guess the answer, which we know people love to do, and it involves Tim Horton’s which is a popular coffee spot. Also, we worked in a mention regarding one of our clients, which lets your fans know what you’re working, and can show expertise in your area of service.

#2. Photo Caption – “What are you doing for Earth Day? Go to http://www.buffaloearthday.com/ to participate in Buffalo Earth Day. clevermethod will be featuring photos of our Earth-friendliness each day leading up to Earth Day, 4/22!”

Why it worked – Fans had Earth Day in their sights since it is a relevant and topical idea with some buzz surrounding it. Commenting on topics like this get a great response since people are actually already thinking about your topic.

#3. Photo Caption – “It’s a family affair! West’s mom and dad both work at clevermethod! Learn more about West’s parents (Heather and Bob), and the rest of the clevermethod team -http://clevermethod.com/team”

Why it worked – People love baby photos, plain and simple! Upload as many photos of babies  you can (as long as you get permission!), and trust us, you’ll see a positive response.

#4. Photo Caption – “Have a look at clevermethod’s group photo. Feel free to comment on your favorite team member!”

Why it worked – We tagged everyone in this photo. That way, all the Facebook friends of the employees were notified that their friend was tagged in a photo. It brought awareness to clevermethod’s page to new fans, thus, growing the fan page exponentially.

#5. Photo Caption – “Happy Valentine’s Day! If clevermethod has tagged you in today’s fan page picture, you will receive a box of Parkside Sponge Candy purchased from Made In Buffalo! Visit http://clevermethod.com/valentines to accept your gift. Remember, we’ll need to hear back from the 10 fans we selected by Feb. 19th!”

Why it worked – Ok, the tagging strategy works again! This time we chose fans of the clevermethod fan page, then tagged them on the candy heart with their name on it. Also, it didn’t hurt that we gave out free chocolate to the winners! Free stuff = big fan response. Also partnering with a local store worked well, since they mentioned clevermethod’s V-Day promo on their Facebook page, and we returned the favor.

Anyone who’s used Google is familiar with the impact of Google Places – these are the results that are grouped under the heading ‘Local Business Results’ and have businesses listed next to mapped area. The content is geo-targeted based on the user’s regional browser settings, and often is one of the top search results.

Google Places is a free service that provides businesses with the ability to create their own business listing. You are given the option to select categories and keywords that will display your ad at the top of the typical search results, on their map view, when a customer searches on them in the Google search engine.

You can also customize your listing by uploading photos, videos, or providing a coupon as an incentive for customers to try your service.

Once you set up your account (see instructions below) you will then get a chance to look at the activity your listing receives. For example, you can learn that last month, your listing was seen 150 times, and got 21 clicks for more info, 5 clicks for driving directions, and 75 clicks to your website. Not bad for a free listing!

Here’s how to do create your Google Places listing:

1. Go to Google Places
2. Sign in, or create a new Google Account
3. Click List your Business
4. Type in the phone number
5. Click Find Business information
6. Click Edit
7. Modify the entry. I recommend adding a description, website, email address, and appropriate category. This will help increase visibility to your listing.
8. Feel free to modify ‘Service Areas and Location Settings’ and ‘Hours of operations’ section
9. Click Submit when complete
10. You will get a verification phone call to make sure you own the phone number and business you’ve entered. Make sure you are able to answer the business line.
11. Once you receive the phone call and verify the number, your listing will appear correctly.