Search engine optimization (SEO) is an industry and practice in constant flux. As search engines continue to work toward improving the results returned for their users, marketers must continue to optimize websites and create relevant content to build relevancy and authority. Check out these awesome infographics for some visual instruction and information about SEO:

1. Order of SEO Operations

2. SEO Tactics

3. Search Engine Marketing ROI

4. The Visual FAQ of SEO

5. SEO vs. PPC

6. SEO Check List

7. SEO Factors

8. Long Tail SEO

9. SEO ROI Is King

10. Local Search

11. The Social Media Effect

12. SEO Spider Trap

Did you find these infographics helpful?

Free Download – Learning SEO From The Experts

Use SEO to drive more visitors to your site!

Download this free eBook for tutorials on keyword research, on-page SEO, link-building and tips for ongoing SEO improvement!

Connect with HubSpot:

Business cards are one of the most popular personal marketing tools for anyone who is meeting a lot of people in a professional context, and it’s no wonder – they’re portable, affordable, versatile and people actually expect you to use them!  Yet more than 90% of business cards wind up in the trash the day they’re received.  What a waste!

Business card design is more than just the look of the card, although that’s important – it includes the text on the card as well.  And to get the most mileage from business cards, you should also design them with marketing in mind.

Long gone are the days when you simply handed over a white piece of paper with your name and contact info on it to potential clients. Nowadays, who do you think clients will call first, the guy with his name on a sheet of paper or this other one with her name engraved in this colorful plastic wonder?

In this collection we present more than 20 beautiful business card designs for inspiration, we hope they’ll give you some ideas and inspiration for your next design project!

1. Business Card Design Concept Render by Stephan Florquin

2. Business card idea by mitch2004

3. Business Card Design by R3M1X3D

4. .:Indus Tuesdays:. by MolefaceNZ

5. Business Card Design by Popcorn Initiative

6. E kwiat by RadASS

7. Sorin Bechira and Adrian Labos

8. Osram Invitation by mohamedsaleh

9. Flisky do net business cards by flisk

10. Business Card Design by Hidden Creative

11. Sketchbot biz card by Sketch guy

12. acidGFX business cards by AC-1D

13. .:xplicit business cards:. by 7UR

14. business cards by kpucu

15. Muymra business cards by loc0

16. Just Creative Design Business Card by Jacob Cass

17. Viewzi by SuperWindy

18.ODD BUSINESS CARD VERSION 2 by MolefaceNZ

19. akira business cards render by daan-rutgers

20. Business Card Design by XTR Design

21. pfd business cards v3 by crezo

22. Jason Woan

Author : Roldan O. Roldan

Feed provided by tripwrire magazine, Visit this post here: Permalink

After a long 7 years Google rang the victory bell over a trademark lawsuit with LMVH (responsible for the Louis Vuitton brand) this past Tuesday, March 23. Ever since this lawsuit caught my eye a while back I have been pondering why they decided to take this approach instead of doing the obvious: online reputation management.

In case you’re not up-to-speed on the case, here’s a quick overview.

In 2003 LMVH sued Google in French courts and eventually won in 2005. This led to Google paying over $400,000 USD for trademark infringement. LMVH’s beef was with ads selling Louis Vuitton replicas being shown when someone Googled “Louis Vuitton”. They were choked that Google would be selling the Louis Vuitton trademark to third parties – specifically websites selling counterfeits.

Google then took the case to the European Union’s highest courts where the battle continued for another 5 years until the ruling was made this past Tuesday, March 23 in Google’s favor. The courts stated that Google had not infringed trademark law by allowing advertisers to purchase keywords matching competitors’ trademarks.

Will the Real LV Please Stand Up

When I search for Loius Vuitton on Google (in British Columbia, Canada), one search result is for the authentic Louis Vuitton site, one is a Wikipedia entry for Louis Vuitton, and the other 8 are selling Louis Vuitton replicas.

So why is LMVH getting their knickers in a twist over ads when the search results are clearly dominated by people selling replicas? If anything, these search results most likely have a higher clickthrough rate then any AdWords campaign.

Money Well Spent?

How much do you think LMVH has paid in legal fees these past 7 years? Wouldn't they have been better off tackling an aggressive online reputation management campaign with that money? There are professionals out there that specialize in this type of thing you know.

Yes a lot of people sell Louis Vuitton replicas. But a lot of people also sell Chanel knockoffs and they seem to be doing pretty well in the SERPs. When I Googled "Chanel" only one knockoff company showed up in the results. So it is possible for the Louis Vuitton brand to do the same thing. Yes it can be costly, but it can’t be more than they’ve paid for a 7 year battle with Google in the courts.

What They Should Do

The following are some online reputation tactics that Louis Vuitton can benefit from. Since they can not control AdWords results, they can at least try to reclaim back organic search results for their name.

Subdomains

Only two pages from a domain can rank in the search results, however, search engines treat subdomains as unique websites. By developing content on subdomains, Louis Vuitton can have multiple sites that rank for their domain name. A blog, for example, can be one example of a subdomain.

New Domains

Louis Vuitton has a couple of options for new domains they can build up through link building methods. They are involved with nautical events and hold the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series and the Louis Vuitton Cup. They also hold the Louis Vuitton Classic for automobile collectors every year. Those are two separate sites that would work well.

Then there is Espace Louis Vuitton. It produces and hosts three exhibitions per year, around the themes of travel, heritage, art and fashion. It is a popular attraction that attracts more than 10 000 visitors for each exhibition. Once again, they have another opportunity here to create a branded website.

Affiliations & Distribution

Currently only Louis Vuitton stores are authorized to sell their products. What if they follow suit with other successful luxury brands and find high-end stores to officially sell their brand?

With this method they can create landing pages on sites that distribute their products and help along with link building. Although it may take away from their exclusivity, it will also prevent them from being overtaken by replicas in search results. They have proven that they obviously care about their online presence by taking Google to court in the first place.

Social Media

Louis Vuitton can also benefit from doing a little social networking. Like creating a Twitter account (and hiring someone to run it properly), or putting some of their fashion show clips up on YouTube. Outspoken Media has a thorough Online Reputation Management Guide that covers all the angles of the social media approach.

If all of this sounds like a lot of work, it is. But it is a small price to pay for Louis Vuitton to take over search results currently dominated by fakes. It will also most likely have a better ROI then taking Google to court.

———————————————————————————————————

Stephanie Woods is an internet marketer living in Kelowna, BC with over 10 years experience with advertising and marketing. You can reach Steph at her internet marketing blog or on Twitter.

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Louis Vuitton VS. Google: The Importance of Online Reputation Management

Según una investigación realizada por la agencia de relaciones públicas estadounidense Burston-Marsteller, más de un 79% de las 100 compañías más grandes del mundo según la revista Fortune 500, tiene algún tipo de presencia oficial en redes sociales.

Del total de empresas que utilizan redes sociales, el informe revela que Twitter es la principal herramienta 2.0 que utilizan, donde dos tercios de las empresas tienen una cuenta (65%), seguido por Facebook, donde la presencia se reduce a un 54%, mayormente compuesto por fans pages.

En menor porcentaje se encuentra presencia en canales oficiales de YouTube (50%), y casi en el mismo promedio es la cantidad de blogs corporativos que poseen estas empresas.

A pesar de que aún no se ha definido cual será la estrategia comercial a seguir por parte de Twitter (se especula con publicidad contextual o cuentas Pro de pago anual), las grandes compañías lo consideran un canal con alta efectividad y buen feedback tanto para generar confianza (cuentas para responder inquietudes) o para fidelizar (concursos y premios)

La investigación realizada entre febrero de 2009 y enero de 2010 muestra además que Estados Unidos y Asia son las regiones que agrupan un 25% cada una, de las compañias con presencia en las redes sociales mencionadas.

En este link se puede ver el informe completo de Burston-Marsteller.

Link: Las principales compañías del mundo se enganchan en las redes sociales (DirCom)

I will be posting some fresh free fonts every Friday, yes I know it’s awesome. I will look forward to bring a lot of great fonts that will sure help you improve your typography work. Check out what I selected for you on the FFFF#38 and make sure to comeback for more next week.

<!–break–>
Click here to view all Friday Fresh Free Fonts

Charis Sil

by SIL International

Download Charis Sil<

BallPark

by Mikey Rossi

Download BallPark<

BEBAS

by Flat-it

Download BEBAS

Disco

by TypoGrafski

Download Disco

Lots of cool effects can be achieved using jquery so today we just started our tutorial series on Jquery starting with navigation menu. In upcoming days will write some tutorials on jquery for our readers. Check out this awesome Jquery navigation menu tutorials thank you.

As the first thing visitors see, home pages and headers often steal the design spotlight.

But above-the-fold thinking neglects the natural flow of vertical page layout. What happens when people reach the end of a page?

You can bet that a simple copyright statement won’t hold visitors’ attention, but many pages are designed with the expectation that people will find their way… or so we assume.

The bottom of a page is not the end of a website. An informative, compelling footer is the natural place to lead people to more information within the site rather than wandering aimlessly.

Read more about the trends and innovations that follow page content and answer the unspoken question, where to from here?

The ongoing problem of how to hold people’s attention can be addressed in many ways: eye-popping graphics, clever use of negative space, snappy typography and well-written text.

But all too often people are left hanging when they scroll to the bottom of the page. Should they scroll back up? Visit another website? Close the tab?

Where the body content ends, the footer takes over.

The footer is a distinct collection of content that concludes every page of a website. Typically, it contains a copyright statement, a link to the home page and either an email link or a link to the contact page.

Footers almost always span the width of the page. Beyond this, they exhibit a variety of styles.

Even though it doesn’t offer many links, Dishizzle makes it hard to miss the large icons at the bottom of its website. With its search box and friendly type, this footer is both legible and useful.

Compare it to the footer on 43 Folders, which takes the opposite approach. A handful of concise sentences explains the website’s purpose, describes its owner and links to its web host. After a thorough copyright statement, the page ends.

Sometimes footers merely repeat the navigation bar. It’s a natural fit: once the reader has read or skimmed the page, they come upon a list of interesting links to other pages, rather than be left to wander.

But those links are often just that: bits of clickable text arranged in a thin, underdeveloped strip. While this may work for websites that have little content, a serious website isn’t complete without a well-planned footer.

A footer is not just an appendage. It’s a good host.

Unsung Stewards

The bottom may seem an unlikely place to put vital information, but footers are ideal real estate for navigation and important features because visitors naturally move in that direction as they scroll down.

Like a good host, an elaborate footer presents different kinds of information that reflect the nature, and content, of the website.

A footer can play many roles on a website. The trick is deciding where guests should go when they’re done with a page. A good host lets their guests enjoy themselves and steps in only when the guests begin to wonder “What’s next?”

Footers as Site Maps

While the header presents links to major sections of the website, the footer can delve into details. Site map-based footers, which are ideal for websites that store content in many sections and sub-sections, reflect the scale and concerns of a website.

The White House is a good example. Its footer presents the website as six sections, each with as few as 6 and as many as 23 links.

Deliberately simple, the keyword links can be absorbed at a glance by guests scanning for topics of interest. Almost as tall as it is wide, the footer is hard to miss, but its content doesn’t compete with the page above.

Footers as Advertisements

Especially if the website sells something—a product, service or membership—the footer is a second chance to incite visitors to act. The end of the page is a great place to remind guests of the benefits of the product or service being offered. Repeating this same message on every page drives the point home.

Mail Chimp takes advantage of this space to repeat its sales pitch: 1) free templates, 2) a comparison of its service to that of competitors and 3) flexible pricing.

Expression Engine lists some of these things, too, and also links to the help section and other information that prospective customers would want.

Unlike plain site maps, footers that advertise must be more persuasive than informative. They should give guests incentives to buy and lead to pages that enable them to act.

Footers as Character Studies

While a personal website would address topics that interest its owner, the footer could describe the person behind it. Whose website is this? What is he or she like? What else do they do?

Few websites do this better than the one of graphic designer Jason Santa Maria, whose footer could be a page unto itself.

Meanwhile, the footer of standards expert Jeffery Zeldman’s contains visual—and even photographic—snippets of projects he is involved with or interested in.

Footer as Colophon

A footer can contain information about how or why the website was built. It could:

• Reiterate the website’s mission or tagline.
• Say which CMS or ISP is being used.
• Declare that the page has valid (X)HTML and CSS and complies with certain accessibility standards.

Variation Based on Context

The footer should generally stay consistent throughout the website. Page-specific information usually isn’t warranted. But complicated websites can bend the rules.

The playful icons on IBM’s website provide a friendlier, less corporate way to navigate pages. But these icons appear only in the “Smarter Planet” section.

IBM’s regular footer looks like this:

Likewise, the links in Apple’s site map-based footer varies according to the section it appears in.

Above, the footer in the Mac section. Below, the one for iPods.

None of these roles are exclusive. Elaborate footers can incorporate site maps, highlights, updates, credentials, search tools and more. Below, BustedTees offers ways to stay current, browse and submit feedback.

Functional doesn’t always translate into compelling, though. CNN’s footer includes a search tool, local weather, a site map, legalese and links to its content in other languages. Useful, but dry. The most interesting visual element is the red strip.

Although it fits the tone of the website, CNN’s footer is merely designed not to compete with the page above.

How to Craft a Useful Footer

Generally, a web page invites people to act or to learn. After reading a news article or blog post, people walk away with a new idea or set of facts. Product pages educate visitors on the items being sold. Pages with weather information affect how people dress. In each case, a person has changed somehow by the time they reach the bottom of the page. And there they find the footer.

So, the end of the page is a natural place to put two things: tools by which visitors can act on what they have just learned; and calls to action.

Footers have a tough job. People ignore them out of habit; they instinctively scroll to the top or click away. That’s why good footers must be designed not as afterthoughts but as if they were pages themselves.

Creating a useful footer begins with asking certain questions:

• What content on my website do I want to emphasize?
  A good footer guides guests to those pages.
• What else would interest visitors?
  A good footer attracts guests with information they would like. Visitors who scroll all the way to the bottom were likely engaged by the page’s content. Links to related information will keep them on the website.
• What content would benefit visitors the most?
  Like a good host, its job is to be helpful. The footer rewards guests for reaching the end of the page with, if possible, freebies or entertainment or, better yet, frequently requested information. If the website is for a bricks-and-mortar business, the footer could contain a simple map to the location.
• What would epitomize the website’s character and style?
  Like a good conclusion, the footer sums up the nature of the website: its topic, attitude and theme. In this way, the footer is similar to the header, which introduces the website to newcomers.

T-shirt seller Threadless answers many questions in its keyword-rich footer:

Once you’ve decided what to put in your footer, don’t neglect presentation.

• Make it big.
  A token footer is thin, just tall enough to admit one line of text. An attention-grabbing footer is substantial. A rule of thumb is to make the footer’s height at least a quarter of its width. For example, if the page is 960 pixels wide, then the footer should be at least 240 pixels tall.
• Set it apart.
  Give the footer a distinct boundary, and make sure it spans the width of the page. Guests should see where the body ends and the footer begins.
• Give it style.
  A footer should carry the theme of the website, in style, color scheme and typography. If possible, it should reuse visual elements from elsewhere on the website. But it shouldn’t detract from the page’s content.
• Make it worthwhile.
  The ideal footer is strong enough to warrant the visitor’s attention. It offers interesting content to peruse in an attractive package—like any important page.

The Guardian isn’t afraid to play up its footer. Eye-catching graphics laid between brand-matching color bars tell visitors that this is content, not just fine print.

Silverback has few features in its footer but plenty of style. It offers an easy-to-read experience that restates the website’s purpose and encourages visitors to receive updates via its newsletter.

While Travelocity packs 72 links into its footer, a lack of visual hierarchy or clear layout makes it hard to take seriously. More doesn’t always mean better.

All of these criteria may sound like a tall order, but there are two easy approaches to creating a good footer.

Approach #1: Create a Miniature Home Page

The easiest way to create a helpful footer is to recap the website’s purpose and highlights. Look at your home page for inspiration.

Typically, the home page is a cross between a table of contents and a news ticker, giving guests an overview of the website and the latest information.

A footer need not include every element from the home page. If the home page showcases 10 best-selling products and the 3 most recent blog posts, then the footer could highlight the top 5 products and 1 post, with links to more of each. A smaller version of the website’s logo would also be appropriate.

Think of the footer as a table of contents that conveniently appears when visitors need it most: when they’re wondering what’s next.

MacTalk Australia has a relatively small header, which leaves more room for content and advertising above the fold. Nearly twice as tall as the header, the content-rich footer expands on the simple header’s navigation and introduction by spelling out how much content each category has and which tags are most popular. Both the header and footer have RSS and Twitter icons, and the footer includes a newsletter sign-up form—plus two other RSS and Twitter links just below the copyright statement.

The New York Times footer includes the latest headlines and photos from various sections.

Approach #2: Provide Supplementary Content

Footers can do the opposite of serving as a miniature home page by offering content not found anywhere else on the website.

Bits of supplementary content that can’t fill pages on their own can find a home in the footer. Unlike the miniature home page, a supplementary footer can contain links to other websites, as long as they’re informative or beneficial to the guest.

But don’t treat the footer as a dumping ground for stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else. Like any proper page, a footer should inform, persuade, entertain or do all three. The key is to find worthwhile information that supports the website’s overall theme, not any one particular page.

Komodo Media’s footer includes eye-catching links to what the owner is listening to on Last.fm.

Some websites, such as Veer, point to their family of websites. Corporations can promote their brands simply by cross-linking them to each other.

Other Approaches

If your website has a substantial sidebar, try rearranging it as a footer. Although this will change the website’s layout drastically, moving secondary information to the bottom of the page might remove distractions from the primary information.

On Your Way

The golden rule of footers is never leave guests to their own devices.

Footers are hosts who present their guests with options. They are natural stepping stones across the website, enticing guests to click to other pages—or related websites.

You can learn a lot about a website’s priorities from the contents of the footer. What’s in your footer right now? You do have one, right? Because a website without a footer is worse than an article without an

Written exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Ben Gremillion. Ben is a freelance web designer who solves communication problems with better design.

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: k4lS7u

CSS3 has brought some amazing new features. And the most fun is playing with the CSS animation. Here is a compilation of 50 CSS3 animation that allows you to perform many motion-based functions normally Delegated to JavaScript. In order to view this effect, you are required to have WebKit browsers like Safari and Chrome ( very sorry for the users of Internet Explorer )

1. CSS3 Clock With jQuery

Use the basic features of the CSS3 Transform: rotate. And the combination of javascript frameworks like jQuery can produce a cool CSS3 clock

2. Analogue Clock

Analogue clock created using webkit transition and transform CSS. JavaScript is only used to pull in the current time.

3. 3D Cube That Rotates Using Arrow Keys

You can Use up, down, left and right keys to navigate the 3D cube. 3D cube built using -webkit-perspective, -webkit-transform and -webkit-transition.

4. Multiple 3D Cubes (Slide In/Out)

Multiple 3D Cubes using CSS3 and proprietary ‘transform’ and ‘transition’ properties. I thought it was amazing, you can see the writing on the 3D object.

5. CSS3 Accordion

An accordion effect using only CSS. Proprietary animation in WebKit based browsers.

6. Auto-Scrolling Parallax

Auto-Scrolling Paralax is an animated parallax effect using WebKit’s CSS transition property,Auto-Scrolling Paralax no need JavaScript

7. Isocube

Isocube is like 3DCube but have litle different. Isocube can load images on one side

8. Image Gallery

9. Matrix

The Matrix is one of the best sci-fi films of all time. CSS3 capable of making such an amazing animated film made

10. 7 Javascript-effect Alternatives Using CSS3

7 examples of alternatives to javascript effect by using CSS3. Various effects such as Fade Block, Block Pulsate, Nudge, Expand Block, Block Bounce, Spin Block and Accordion

11. Image Hover Effects

Image Hover Effects is an example of using CSS to replace the javascript. The image will shrink when you put your mouse pointer on top of it.

12. Turning Coke Can (Control With Scrollbar)

13. 3D Meninas

14. Polaroid Gallery

Polaroid Gallery is animated pile of photographs utilizing a ton of new CSS3 commands. It’s interesting when your mouse cursor is above the image, the image will enlarge

15. Space

16. Mac Dock

This list of links as the basis and change into an OS X icon dock of amazing.

17. Drop-In Modals

With CSS3 effects and property Drop In Modals can help you make quick, animation, a simple change to using modals, and some subtle design cues.

18. Sliding Vinyl

Vinyl effect can be created by using CSS3 transition and a little HTML. This can make a standard album cover to have an interesting style

19. Zooming Polaroids

Polaroid is a picture that is in the box and spun like a pile of random photos that are sorting through CSS3 techniques. The text that comprises only extract the title and alt attribute

20. Animated Rocket

The principle of Animatid Roket is CSSEffect. The transformation changed the appearance of an element in the browser, moving, rotating, or other means. In determining the conversion of styles before making the application to happen so that you can not really animation.

21. Poster Circle

Poster Circle. is an animated spin column consists of a row of colored boxes and text are wonderful. The overall effect is crazy cool and undeniably dizzying

22. Morphing Cubes

Morphing Cubes will shows some of the more interesting content using 3D transformations, animations and transitions. Note that you can still select text in the element, even if the rotation. Converting elements are fully interactive.

23. Animated Polaroid Gallery

This is the example of other Polaroid Gallery. Piles of images at random and when the cursor hovers over an image, selected images will be enlarged

24. Spotlight Cast Shadow

When the cursor moves as if like a lamp spotlight leading up to the writing and cast

25. Colorful Clock

Colorful Clock is a colorful jQuery & CSS3 which will help you keep track of those precious last seconds of the year.

26. Lightbox Gallery

Lightbox Gallery is an awesome image gallery which leverages the latest CSS3 and jQuery techniques.Lightbox Gallery using jQuery, jQuery UI (for the drag and drop) and the fancybox jQuery plugin for the lightbox display in addition to PHP and CSS for interactivity and styling.

27. Elastic Thumbnail Menu

Elastic Thumbnail Menu is an alternative method for smoothing the menu, in particular by increasing the menu items when the mouse is hovering over the menu. And then expand to the top menu

28. Coverflow

This animation Apple style that combines CSS transformation and jqueryUI. This one truly animate between two half states, making a slider like iTunes

29. jQuery DJ Hero

DJ Hero This is one of the interesting combination of CSS3 with jquery. On-screen controls you can control the pace or just take enough to record your mouse

30. Dynamic Stacking Cards

inn is a dynamic stack of index cards that simply using HTML and CSS3 features such as change and transition (for the dynamic effects) and the @ font-face, box-shadow and border-radius (for styling).

31. Another Image Gallery

This is an example of another image gallery that uses CSS3 transforms property and property transitions.

32. Snow Stack (Control With Arrow Keys)

33. Animated Pricing Column

CSS3 animation can also be used in the package list price of a product. Animated Column Pricing can be applied properly there

34. Slick jQuery Menu

Slick Jquery Menu achieved through a combination of CSS3 and JQuery menu below is very elegant and shows some great use of Jquery and CSS3. This is just one of those crazy concepts that the test can be used in CSS3 will be true of the standard Web.

35. CSS Tabs Without Javascript

36. Tab Menus Without Javascript

37. SVG Fisheye Menu

CSS animation can animate almost any property on the item and do funny things, such as rotation and tilt. As proof,will created quick and dirty CSS3 Fisheye / Dock demo. Used as an added bonus, the demo-SVG in the tag IMG.

38. Falling Leaves

Like autumn. Animated falling leaves are made using CSS3

39. Rotating Gallery

Image Gallery Rotaitng build with CSS transform transition and CSS features. To see the effects of rotation, click the small image

40. Dropdown Menu

Dropdown Menu is a very nice navigation menu by using CSS3 transition property. CSS transitions are very strong influence to renounce the use of JavaScript for many common side effects.

41. Star Wars Crawl

Star Wars opening crawl, using only HTML & CSS. It only works in Snow Leopard in Safari 4.0.4 and the WebKit nightly.

42. Sticky Notes

43. Snowflakes

44. Another Fisheye

This is another fisheye that using CSS3

45. Frame-by-Frame Animation

The first demonstration reqires you to keep clicking the image to see the next frame, and it wraps around to the start when you reach the last frame.The second demonstration just needs you to keep the mouse moving over the image in MOST browsers. But the BIG drawback to this method is that the speed of movement of the mouse governs the speed of animation

46. AT-AT Walker

AT-AT Walker is not flash but only CSS3. That amazing !

47. Another Accordion

48. Dynamic Presentation Without Flash

49. Smoothie Slider Menu

50. Spinner

This is basically like an ajax/loader spinner except its not a animated gif. It uses CSS3 to make it spin.