Author - sicksens
06Apr

Millennium Tower – Evening in Naperville

While on the way home tonight, I was passing by the Bell Tower at Millennium Tower Park.  Since the camera is rarely at hand with the option for multiple uploads in one day,and perfect dusk lighting having been available, it only seemed right to share more pictures with our readers.  Here we offer more free, high resolution images of Naperville most recognizable skyline features.  We'll offer you more peaces, and will soon be offering more vibrant and bright images. -Enjoy-
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06Apr

Textures From Around Naperville

Here are some textures that I grabbed while waiting for the Spring images this morning.  Some of them will likely have no real use.  Who knows; we've used some textures before that before they were needed them looked like they had absolutely no possible way of being useful.  In this set will be some gravel and mulch(though the mulch looks more like granola). -Enjoy-
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06Apr

Naperville In The Spring – Stock Images

It's the beginning of Spring in Naperville, and the call for stock images is growing.  We're giving out some images of plant and greenery.  We're also including a few of Millennium Tower since it is n of the more recognizable features in Naperville.  In our next batch we intend to add several of the River Walk, The Dandelion Fountain, and  of the Historic Markers in Downtown Naperville. -Enjoy-
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04Apr

Starting Your Own Viral Marketing Campaign

Viral marketing needs four things to work properly: (many of these you would have found in the Hubspot Webinar on April Fools Day) Never before has it been easier to reach potential customers. Using digital technology, you can reach your audience for pennies. But as it turns out, inexpensive marketing is a double-edged sword because it attracts more competition. This is because the technology that makes production of media inexpensive, also creates a low barrier of entry. As a result, the market is flooded with products, and the consumer is overwhelmed. The range of products and brands to purchase has become numbing to the customer. Proven strategies of the past are being abandoned, because they clearly no longer work. That being said, brand-building is one strategy that will never go out of date regardless of technological advances. And the good news is that building a brand has never been more feasible than it is now—if you are willing to use social media and use it well. Simply blogging or having a presence on Facebook is not enough. Viral marketing needs four things to work properly:
  1. An offer (preferably free) that has value
  2. An easy way to distribute the offer
  3. An incentive to get consumers to pass the offer along to their friends
  4. A way to make the campaign profitable
  1. An offer (preferably free) that has value. When thinking about viral campaigns, many people think of funny videos. Funny videos do have value, but I would encourage you to consider something different. There are just too many companies trying to do funny videos and it is hard to stand out. Rather, come up with an offer that has more legitimate value. For example, I offer free online piano lessons for church pianists. I have also offered free downloads of CDs and printed piano arrangements.The key is that whatever you offer has to have real value, and it probably needs to be free. People will not jeopardize their relationships by promoting an offer that has no value, and they will usually not promote offers that are not free (unless the brand is already very strong). Think hard about an offer you can make available that is inexpensive but has great perceived value to others. Be creative; there are numerous possibilities, particularly if you create digital media.
  2. An easy way to distribute the offer. You must provide an easy way for people to get your offer, and ideally, it should be delivered automatically without requiring your involvement. For many of us, our offers can be distributed digitally on our websites. If you can host your offer on your own website, that is the best scenario. If you cannot, there are other websites that allow you to do these kinds of campaigns. For example, musicians can use BandCamp to deliver their music offers to consumers.
  3. An incentive to get consumers to pass the offer along to others. It is critical that your consumers are “reimbursed” to pass along your offer. Sometimes, their payment can be as simple as the thanks they get from their friends when they pass along funny videos. But, I would not count on that being enough. Try to find a way to offer something extra to people who will post your offer in places like their Facebook status or on their blogs. These are the people who are critical to your viral marketing success.
  4. A way to make the campaign profitable. Viral marketing is primarily about brand-building. But it is also a great way to sell other products, build a fan base, obtain concerts and speaking engagements, and much more. Don’t make your offer something that you can’t afford to give away. Also, set goals for what you hope to obtain from your campaign
Don't go into this just to be the next Great Orator. Paid speaking engagements are far fewer than those seeking to host them.  They're also limited to those who are truly qualified to deliver a strong message and have something so innovative that no one else will bringing it to market.  I myself will not being doing that, as there are four different post of other offers combined into this one to make a stronger thought.  The main goal is to bring your brand, products and clients to the top of their markets. Execution is the key to all types of marketing. Plan and experiment before you launch. When you start something virally, there is no way to stop it and no way to fix mistakes; so make sure the message is the one you wanted. When you are ready to launch a campaign, you simply have to send out a short email to your fan email list. After that, if it is going to work, you simply manage which direction it needs to be steered(you won't have much influence to provide, but can turn it to the next hit you have in waiting).
By E-Books, SEO, , , , 0 Comments
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04Apr

Mothers Day Freebies

Stock images: We all love Mom, and wish to give something back for how good she was to us.  For this Mothers Day, we thought it would be nice to offer a collection of free stock images we've used. While these originate in several places around the internet, we've added them to this post for distribution before the coming Mothers Day. We hope you enjoy them and will have more coming throughout the next month
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01Apr

Viral Marketing PDF April 2010

After watching the Hubspot's "Grateful Dead Marketing" webinar today, we felt a bit inspired to link a lot of additional Viral Marketing E-books through a post.  The sharing of material is actually one of the preferred and strongest methods of gaining strong readership and increasing traffic reliability. We've included four PDF E-books about viral marketing and techniques.  We hope to offer the different perspectives that are available and give the opportunity for others to compare and contrast the different schools of thought. While all of them are linked back to their authors sites, we ensured that they would be available for re-post on line and have avoided uploading any that wouldn't be.  We also thought it important to ensure that they be more educational than... Well marketing for their own services.  Keep in mind, just releasing these publications was a form of marketing that produces far more name recognition than any form of paid service or bullied email campaign. Feel free to Download the items and ensure that all credit is given to the actual authors:

Millard Browns POV

Ok, I realize there will immediately be a bit of confusion with this selection.  2007?  Why on earth would you be interested with Viral Marketing theories from this time period?  The answer is simple.  The concepts of breaking away from established marketing techniques begins to get real traction with this publication.  There are certainly many earlier publications that have to deal with independent concepts of viral marketing, but this one Nigel Hollis is able to relate the more "out of the box" concepts being elevated by Web 2.0.  I would also suggest reading The Dynamics of Viral Marketing.  This is another from 2007, but filled with great information of the virgining Web 2.0 world.

The Viral Marketing Short

Here's a gift to all of those who enjoy the mathematical calculations involved in marketing procedures, planning, and predicted outcomes.  At this point, there are plenty of analytic resources available to compile the same information (most of them free, and if they aren't you paid to much).  This may be antiquated for a lot of our "I want it now" mentalities, but it's never bad to at least learn the methods of determining your true traffic flow.

The New Rules of Viral Marketing

No list of modern marketing E-books would be complete without this publication. David Meerman Scott has had over One Million downloads of this E-Book and it has become the foundation of the modern principles being introduced into the marketing world.  While competition is still a large factor for the top position of any market, the methods described in this E-book are a necessity  for anyone attempting to market their website in a viral manner. I do hope you like this list and more will be coming.  Please give credit to the original authors and expect a publication of ours to emerge within the near future.
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27Mar

“Map Spam” Revisited

Many have responded and commented since the last posting on "Map Spamming by Lead Generation Services".  Some of you have asked me to go into further detail about the structure that such a group would have, and why Google doesn't chop them off at the knees for all of the spam There is no easy answer to this question.  The best answer is that Google is getting to big to police itself even though it continues to change tactics. The average location can search the term "Flood Damage" on their map right now and you'll encounter a group of fake "24 Hr Response groups" that have the same pictures and the same coupons on all of their listing pages.  Worse yet, they only exist(and I use the term "exist" lightly) on the map at locations that have never heard of them.  This specific group has fake "flood damage cleanup" companies across the entire country. In Naperville alone, we can find at least 15 such locations that are completely fake.  In the Chicago area, there are over 1,000 different map locations that are complete Spam.  Again, while it is important to report them to Google, don't be surprised if it takes a while for anything to be done about them.  Google sells ad space to some of them and doesn't seem to want them to go away to quickly. You may ask, why is this such a big deal to Naper Design?  It is a good question, and one that deserves a proper answer.  This group was formally asked to remove their fake listings from one City area in Norther Illinois.  A client of our was having issues with being seen on the map.  Rather than immediately go to Google with the complaint,we called the company and made a simple request to have them pull just these 4 fake locations.  Instead of being ok with our request, they began harassing us with unlisted numbers, and would call in the middle of the night with claims that the were from the mob(as if a mob member would ever make that claim).  It was pathetic, but should show you just how much they value this business.  They make quite a fortune off of the small businesses who have to purchase the leads back from the people who stole from them. In the case of these Carpet Cleaning and 24 Hour Flood Damage Cleanup Companies, they like to take their scam to an even higher level.  Having been caught by Google before, they leave fake identifying logos on their site.  They claim to be members of The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), but the fuzzed picture is an obvious fake.  This is a common tactic of those who are wishing to Scam the consumer, "claim you're certified in something". While Google has been made aware of their fake sites, this can take some time.  There are still several sites within this thread of Google's support blog that pay mention to companies that have yet to be removed. The frustration is there because Google is still slow in responding to people who are playing by the rules.  The fakes and spammers out there have caused for contractors here in Naperville, Chicago, Michigan, California and New York to completely go out of business.  Worse still is the upcharge that these lead generation services add to the price of the work to be performed.  The mark-up can be hundreds of Dollars just to reach the guys you wanted to contact to begin with. While it may not be to kosher, I do support Re-Spamming.  Several of us have begun looking up these fake companies and leaving negative comments to let people know they are Scammers and Spammers.   We don't see this as negative or even spam since we are leaving legitimate feedback on these profiles... Unlike the fake ones they leave for themselves. With hope, this will clear the map in the Naperville and Chicago area and allow for local contractors to conduct business more effectively.  The last thing we need during a recession are all of the lead groups steeling business from local contractors hidden links
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15Mar

“Lead Generation” Map Spammers

In recent months, we have been hopeful that the new Google Local Business rules would bring about a change in the constant Spamming of the Map. Perhaps some of you have noticed a change for the good, but the majority of us haven't seen any call to action.  The same groups that were spamming the map last year are doing it this year.hidden links The reason this subject is so irritating to us is the short suspension that we received for having just two locations that were uniquely verifiable.  The one problem with our listing was that we had only one phone line at the time and relayed everything through it.  Obviously those were harder days and we've moved up to a more sane business model.  The point is that such a minuscule notion immediately got Google's attention, but the spammer/scammers of the map have been able continue their actions seemingly unaffected. There are a few theories why the spammer are able to stay under the radar.  They study the new rules every time Google releases them and try to mask themselves as best as they can.  Here are the most common ways that a spammer is going to attempt to spam the Google Map. 1.) Using the addresses of local contractors they are selling the aggregated leads to. 2.) Using the addresses of pre-existing businesses and hoping no one will notice. (for instance.  search for the KFC 1015 Maple Avenue, Lisle, IL you'll find more than one "business" there and only one building. It likely won't surprise you that this additional "business" has locations at other surrounding area restaurants.) 3.) Having local telephone numbers that redirect to one switchboard that is usually just a phone bank for lead generation.  They collect the calls and them sell them for profit to local contractors in you area.  You know, the ones that can't be seen on the map to begin with because these guys are listed on every single corner. 4.) The last, and probably most recognizable method of spamming the map comes from those companies that spam their own listings with positive comments.  A great example of these is a fake company called Naperville SEO run by a guy that ran Mann Insurance.  This guy used several fake locations, names and domains to set up multiple fake businesses that would loop SEO rewards back to his own site.  he spamming was even that more obvious by how many of the comments were added on the same date.  He obviously wasn't fooling anyone. The latest rules are supposedly made to aid in the removal of the spammers, but the results are mixed.  Many of them have been reported repeatedly and it would appear that Google is, at best, slow to respond.  The latest rules can be found here, but can be summarized in five basic points. Here are the new listing rules and requirements from Google.  Their original location is on the help forum here. Business Listings in Local Business Center must have correct information about physical, local businesses, as they appear in the real world. Google reserves the right to suspend access to Local Business Center or to other Google Services to individuals or businesses violating these guidelines. Ownership
  • Only business owners or authorized representatives may claim their business listings on Google Maps.
Business Name
  • Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. The name on Google Maps should match the business name, as should the address, phone number and website.
  • Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business into the business name.
  • Do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name.
Physical Location
  • Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist.
  • PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.
  • Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.
  • Businesses that operate in a service area as opposed to a single location should not create a listing for every city they service. Service area businesses should create one listing for the central office of the business only.
  • Businesses with special services, such as law firms and doctors, should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.
  • The precise address for the business must be provided in place of broad city names or cross-streets.
  • A property for rent is not considered a place of business. Please create one listing for the central office that processes the rentals.
URL & Phone
  • Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible. For example, you should provide an individual location phone number in place of a call center.
  • Provide one URL that best identifies your individual business location.
  • Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or 'refer' users to other landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business.
Custom Attributes & Description
  • Use the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business's title, address or category fields.
  • Please see this page of the LBC User Guide for examples of acceptable custom attributes.
A great comparison chart on these new rules vs the old rules can be found here. I understand that some are having a field day pointing out fellow small businesses that have made a mistake with registering their multiple locations.  As I said, this was s short term stumbling block for us as well.  The hard focus should likely be made on the lead generation groups that are constantly assaulting the map with more and more spam. What if I'm being punished by Google? Local businesses who have found exclusion from the map.  There is hope!  Write Google a letter in your local listing area.  Let them know how sorry you are for violating the rules, ensure that all of your maps have been updated/erased to allow for only correct information, and make a solid commitment to not let it happen again.  As long as your business is on the map at all there is hope, but make sure not to let it happen again.  If multiple occurrences happen, it becomes more likely that Google will ban your business from the map completely and no one wishes for that outcome. As for the large lead aggregators, I have no pity for them and hope that Google can find a way to track them all. Unfortunately, most of them immediately overhaul their domain and website and are up again within a week.  One aspect that would likely help Google is to track the phone numbers being used by spammer businesses and require a letter, not phone verification whenever they are used again... just a thought Google.  If you find one of these large groups who are obviously robbing the local business, feel free to turn them in here. These guys claim they are helping local businesses get leads, but all they are doing is stealing the leads from them and then selling them back.  The end result of this mess is that you and your local contractor pay for a service that was never needed.
By SEO, 7 Comments
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12Mar

Business Images

Hello again...hidden links We've added more of the free stock images that were floating around the internet. Here is a group of images relating to office and business. We hope you enjoy and will gather more as we use them in further sites. Obviously, none of the images we are offing are from purchase sites, just free floating, non-proprietary images. We will be offering our own from the Chicago area soon and placing a shopping cart for purchases of higher quality images, but it won't be ready for another month. Feel free to visit often and tell us what you think.
By Stock Pictures, , , 0 Comments
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28Feb

5 Great Vector Design Tutorials

Today, we pay tribute to graphic designers and web designers who are good enough to share their vector techniques with the rest of us.  While many of these tutorials have been sited on other list, I find that any grouping over ten is far to much.  Five is the usual limit here at Naper Design because it's usually more than enough to please the senses.  What's the point of a compilation of 50 or 60 best tutorials if you can't make it through them?hidden links We hope you enjoy, and there will be more to come.

1.) Awesome Space Rocket Avatar in Illustrator

"We’ll draw a shiny, awesome-looking space rocket in Adobe Illustrator using advanced techniques such as gradient meshes, pattern brushes and opacity masks. We will then add a flare, smoke, clouds and sky to complete a fun illustration. Ready to launch?"

2.) How to Create an Alarm Clock Icon

"With simple shapes and gradients, this easy tutorial will show you how to create an alarm clock icon. We'll be using Illustrator CS4 for this tutorial, but those of you with older version should be able to follow along as well. Let's jump into this tutorial, which beginning illustrators will find especially useful!"

--video tutorial included--

3.) Tree Creation Guide

"Green is in vogue and clients everywhere want natural imagery in their promotional material. Ben the Illustrator shows you how to create a fresh-looking tree"

4.) Complex Circular Design Techniques

"Creating intricate circular designs and patterns may look difficult because the shapes can be very complicated, but you will be surprised at just how easy making these shapes can be. I will go over some neat tricks, tools, techniques, and settings that will have you pumping out perfect circular designs in no time using Illustrator."

"This tutorial is split into 2 sections: The Rotate Tool, and a Custom Pattern Brush. The Rotate tool is faster and easier, but less accurate. So lets try it first, then move on to the brush techniques. Note: These techniques are intended for use with circles. Results will vary with other shapes."

5.) Swirl Mania in Illustrator and Photoshop

"There are lots of ways to create swirls in Illustrator, in this tutorial you will learn 4 ways to create swirls, and by mixing them you will learn some very powerful techniques that will allow you to easily make tons of different styles of swirls and crazy sperm vectors."
Jul 14

Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

Adobe Illustrator is a powerful tool for illustrating various elements one can use for web pages and print design. However, it’s important to know what to do in order to powerfully use its tools and achieve certain effects. So, step-by-step tutorials can provide a lot of help, thats why we spent a lot of time searching for the best tutorials out there and the result was 60 remarkable illustrator tutorials, tips, best practices from some of the best illustrators and artists; besides you’ll also find references to brilliant illustrator portfolios out there. Let’s take a look at some of the best Adobe Illustrator tutorials we’ve found in the Web so far.
You might be interested to check other Illustrator related posts:

Tutorials

1-From Sketch to Vector Illustration- A technique of vector illustrating that takes a little bit more skill is starting with a hand drawn sketches.This tutorial will focus on that technique of vector illustrating.

Il1 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

2-Craft a Dramatic Vector Landscape Environment- This tutorial will show the intermediate Adobe Illustrator artist how to make a dramatic landscape environment.

Il4 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

3-Draw Your Self Portrait- Learn how to transform your photo into your vector self portrait. You’ll review techniques for tracing photos.

Il5 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

4-Complex Circular Design Techniques- This tutorial is split into 2 sections: The Rotate Tool, and a Custom Pattern Brush.

Il6 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

5-Creating trees in Illustrator- Green is in vogue and clients everywhere want natural imagery in their promotional material. Ben the Illustrator shows you how to create a fresh-looking tree.

Il7 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

6-Illustrator Tutorial: Figure Shading- Drawing the human body is never easy, but shading it and giving it depth as well can be a real headache. A nice tutorial on figure shading by Russell Tate.

Il8 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

7-Texture- When working in Illustrator it’s nice to add textures that weren’t computer generated (like gradients or pattern fills). This is a step-by-step instructions on how you can create your own hand-made texture effects using a Chinagraph Pencil on simple Watercolor Paper.

Il10 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

8-Realistic Curtain- How to create a realistic curtain using the gradient mesh.

Il11 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

9-Wood Grain- Here is a quick way to create wood grain effect using the warp tools in illustrator.

Il12 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

10-Simple organic shapes the Illustrator way- Here is a nice way to create wood grain effect using the warp tools in illustrator.

Il13 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

11-Free Watercolor Brushes and Tutorial- How to create a couple watercolor brushes, and at the end of the tutorial you can download some Free Vectips Watercolor Brushes!

Il15 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

12-3D Logo Tutorial- In this Tutorial you will start with the making of a logo shape, going to rough 3D, and finishing it in Photoshop.

Il17 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

13-How To Create Your Own Vector Cartoon Character- Follow this tutorial to create your own vector character; Freddy the Fish.

Il18 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

14-Vector Polishing Techniques- This tutorial includes 9 Photoshop techniques that will show you how to add more depth, color, contrast, and texture into your vector art.

Il19 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

15-Chinese Bamboo- This tutorial will show you how to illustrate Chinese bamboo with Illustrator Symbol Sprayer and Mesh Tool.

Il20 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

16-ILLUSTRATE IMAGE INTO VECTOR- Basically, it is quite simple to illustrate an animate rather than a real object. Its color tone is simple and easy to apply. Yhis tutorial will teach you how to illustrate an image into vector.

Il21 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

17-Digital Art Tutorial - An old tutorial but worth every minute you spend on it.

Il55 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

18-Creating a Crazy Cool Logo

Il57 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

19-Create a Designer Font- How to break apart a font into vector bits that we can manipulate. This is a great way to add your style to a font or to make your own!

Il23 in Vector Illustration: 60+ Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

20-Swirl Mania in Illustrator and Photoshop- There are lots of ways to create swirls in Illustrator, in this tutorial you will learn 4 ways to create swirls, and by mixing them you will learn some very powerful techniques that will allow you to easily make tons of different styles of swirls and crazy sperm vectors.
By Tutorials, , 2 Comments
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