A business card is a fundamental part of any good marketing plan and for its size and cost; it’s probably the most powerful part. They should present a professional image people will remember plus your business card can make or break a client’s first impression of your business.
Having your face on your card helps a contact remember you the next time he or she sees you.
Your business card design should also match your business image….. Does yours?
1,000 business cards, only $150 + gst
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by Jeanette
It’s not hard going green …. why not follow my SIMPLE cost effective, time enhancing practices and make your business environmentally friendly while saving money … it’s important we all do our part.
The Design House environmental and sustainability business achievements are used as an example of what can be easily and quickly realised by industry to save energy through the adoption of effective practices.
The Queensland Government Department of Environment and Resource Management (derm) Sustainable Business Info Sheet Design House -
Heating and Cooling & The ‘paperless’ office
More info here!
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It’s becoming more and more common – more and more people are receiving domain name renewal notices via the mail or via fax.
In most cases, these are nothing but a scam and a way to rip you off a few hundred dollars, from $50 to $300.
If you are a Design House customer, then it’s most likely that we will be managing your domain name for you, and when your domain name does come up for renewal, you will automatically be notified by our billing system that your domain will expire in 90,60, and 30 days.
What are domain name renewal scams?
A domain name is simply an internet address, used to help people get to a website. For example, the SCAMwatch domain name is scamwatch.gov.au. Domain names must be renewed every couple of years.
Domain name renewal scams can work in one of two ways. You might be sent an invoice for a domain name that is very similar to your current domain name – the scammer hopes that you don’t notice the difference and just pay the invoice.
Alternatively, you could be sent a letter that looks like a renewal notice for your actual domain name, but is from a different company to the one you have previously used to register your domain name.
More info over at ScamWatch.gov.au
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Still scratching your head about a website? Take a look at this vide, that was on the TV Show, Kochies Business Builders. It covers a heap of ideas from Business Consultant, Linda Hailey.
At Design House, we have the Technical knowledge and Design Creativeness to build you a website that will work for your business.
Click here to watch the video
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There is only one employee that can work 24/7, assist unlimited customers at one time, not take sick days, arrive late or cost you a weekly wage.
It’s your website! Your website has the potential to be the most valuable employee at your business.
When planning your website the website team at Design House, we ask what you aim to achieve with your website.
A good way to think of your website is how you can replicate systems and commonly performed tasks at your office.
Programming can be used to build small applications that can save you hundreds and thousands of staff hours, freeing your staff up to do more important things.
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For those who blog in WordPress, you probably write your post up in something like Microsoft Word. I see it on a day to day basis, people copying out of word, into WordPress. Although it looks like it worked, Word makes a huge mess of the formatting / coding.
However, tinkering around in the latest version of WordPress 2.5.1 which has got a tonne of great new features. One of which, is a Paste from Word feature. Basically, you copy your text straight out of word, into this box, and it converts it to neat, clean, tidy code.
To access this feature, you need to switch the second tool bar on when typing a new post or page. To swtich on the “Kitchen Sink” as it’s called, either press Alt + Shift + Z or click on the little icon that looks like this;
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You probably know that a website is one of the most cost effective and useful advertising tools a business can have. It’s something that is open 24/7 and lasts all year – unlike basically any other medium plus it can have as little or as much information as you want on it…. pretty much unlimited.
Once you have your website – how do people view it? There is definitely a market of people who are searching for the services or products online and would find your site if it is optimised for search engines or discovered through online ads such as Google Adsense. But there is most likely an even larger amount of people who still trawl through traditional mediums, such as the newspaper, billboards, flyer’s, radio and TV.
If you have a website, and employ additional marketing mediums for your business, you should always advertise your website. What you can’t say or do on your tv, radio or paper ad, you can more likely do on your website. You can sell your products in more detail, track visitors, complete online sales and more. If you have invested in a website you should definitely be taking your visitors through to it!
Your website has additional powers that no other marketing medium has…. you know who has actually looked at your site, in accuracy. You can also track how many people have visited your website from watching TV or reading the Newspaper, or hearing your ad on the radio. Your website can help you partition your marketing budget into what is working the best for you.
At Design House, we can help you use your website to its greatest advantage. We know all the tips and tricks of the trade, that can help you market your business more effectively.
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I received a phone call from a client recently who had signed up for their website and was about to go somewhere else for some other print media, like business cards.
A lot of people don’t know that Design House can design and print everything you need! From business cards, letter heads, flyer’s, stubbie coolers, right up to car / shop signage and newspaper ads. We don’t only just create outstanding websites, we also design print and promotional media keeping the clients branding and theme the same throughout all mediums.
Take a look at what exactly we can do for your business!
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We all know of Google and it’s domination of the online searching market. There are billions of theories on how to get your website to the top of the list. Some spend hours on hours every day reading SEO Blogs, some pay other people hundreds on thousands of dollars for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO is one of the most important element of a websites existence, the greatest website unread, is useless.
There are some very simple things you can do to increase your position in Google, such as links from other websites, relevant content, well built code, a high Page Rank etc.
What is the Google Pagerank system? It’s one of Googles very mysterious factors that is used in positioning of websites in Searches.
From Google
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages’ relative importance.
Or From WikiPedia
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of “measuring” its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references.
Just lately I’ve noticed that the Design House website has jumped from an average 2 out of 10, which it had sat whilst we developed and launched our current website, to a much more respected 5 out of 10. This shows that the Design House website is getting it’s feet in deep into Google, for one of a better term.
Who is the leading SEO & Web Design business in Hervey Bay and the Fraser Coast? – you can be the judge of that. Google key phrases like, “web design hervey bay” or “graphic design hervey bay” – Currently Design House sits number one at the top for both these searches, without paying a cent be there!
Don’t spend extra on Google Adsense or other excessive monthly charges to get your website to #1 – contact us and get honest advise on how your website can reach the top!
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Your domain name, and how to ensure you keep it safe and why.
We all know what a domain name is, its your website address, like designhouse.com.au or google.com.au. Our domain name lets everyone know where our website is basically. When you’re getting a domain name purchased on behalf of yourself, you need to ensure a number of things:
The domain is purchased in your business details, such as your ABN
You are listed as the Registrant of the domain, this includes your email
Ensuring that your details are listed as the registrant gives you the peace of mind, that should your website designer, or web hosting company disappear, you can still re-claim your domain name.
If you were to loose your domain name, it would be an expensive exercise to get everything back in order, as you’ll need to re-print all stationary, re-optimise your new domain for SEO.
To check whether you are your domain names registrant, head to the AusRegistry Website and do a lookup on your website, here
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