We will be soon be missing our three summer interns:
Hajer Dlame – Manchester College (web division)
Greg McConahay – Ivy Tech (IT division)
Matt Stephens – Southwood High School (IT division)

I am pleased to report that our previous intern Mark Gorham is now working with us part-time (with a hopeful upgrade to full-time soon). Also, Greg has accepted a part-time position with Visionary as a floater between the IT and web divisions. Matt Stephens will hopefully be returning to us once his first year of college is completed.

Hajer is completing a new project for us that should be launched sometime in August. Stay tuned for more details.

Good luck to all of our summer interns as they finish school, start school or start their careers. We hope that this summer has been filled with learning and friendship.

Visionary Web offers a variety of services including web design, web development, content management, database design, graphic design, video publishing and social network marketing, but did you know that we have recently added the following services:

Constant Contact Partnership – let us help you setup your email marketing strategy using Constant Contact today

Spam Stops Here – stop spam in its tracks before it gets to your inbox (available to hosting customers)

Here at Visionary Web we are enjoying the summer in a variety of ways. Our guys and gals have traveled to Ohio, Tennessee, Florida and Illinois. The days have been hectic with a lot of people out, but we have been surging through new projects for Aleris International, the Wabash Public Library, Miami County EDA, Eternal Image, the Wabash County Chamber, Halderman, Manchester Church of the Brethren, Zion Lutheran Church in North Manchester, Thermafiber, United Tool and Florida Fish and Hunt!

Wow what a summer!

We are also sad to report the retirement of one our most prolific clients, Sharon Burch from Health Positive. Sharon has worked with our company for several years and we wish her the best success in her next adventure.

Visionary Web has always been about helping small to large businesses and non profits. We’ve recently completed 3 projects and are set to begin a new project that encapsulates what we do.

Flying W Aviation (www.flyingwaviation.com) was looking to have a online presence, simple website offering scenic rides, aerial photography, rental and leasing options. Flying W was a perfect fit for our small business package deal. Visionary Web worked with Flying W to create a website that was simple, easy to navigate, and search engine optimized.

Logan’s Landing (www.loganslanding.com) is a non profit organization based in Logansport Indiana that focuses on revitalizing downtown Logansport. Logan’s Landing needs were unique in that their target audience was not just casual visitor, they needed their website to be able to draw in a potential businesses to reinvest in downtown. Therefore their site needed to be a more contemporary design,embraced web 2.0 features and search engine optimized for site surveyors. Visionary Web installed a blog feature and content management system (CMS) Website Baker. Website Baker is a wonderful tool in that you do not need to know any website coding to keep your website updated.

Aardvark Electronics (www.aardvarkelectronics.com) located in Monticello Indiana, also was needing a site redesign. Aardvark Electronics needed a website that was clean, simple with a minimalistic feel to it since they sell a lot of electronic items that can overwhelm their visitor. Visionary Web worked with Aardvark Electronics to create a design that was easy to navigate clean and utilizes web 2.0 features. Visionary Web will soon have Aardvark sister company Pulaski White Rural Telephone Company site redesigned. (www.pwrtc.com)

Aleris Specifications Alloy Inc, located in Wabash Indiana, makes alloys from aluminum. While they do not need assistance with a website, they do require a service that Visionary Web also offers; consulting. Visionary Web will be working with our sister company Visionary Computers in providing consultation with Aleris in the area of quality and safety with database management and I.T. support.

Do you have a small, medium, large company or non-profit organization that is in need our services? We have the experience and knowledge to help you grow your business! Contact me, Sean for more information at sales@visionaryweb.com

If you are like me, you are constantly on the go, driving to clients office, networking events..etc. It should be no surprise that I have a GPS unit in my car. Recently I found a neat little app for my blackberry that is called Foursquare. This program uses your smart phone built in GPS device and uploads your current location to Google Maps. Whenever you visit a really cool place that has been entered into the Google Map listings (say, Visionary Web) you can click on a check in button and receive points. What is also neat is that when clicking on a very, very, very cool place (again Visionary Web) Google Maps also has your website address linked. The more you check in at the same spot, you can become mayor of where ever you are.
Currently website traffic is still dominated by the usual desktop, but a rapidly growing percentage is visiting websites through smart phones. A lot of websites are not optimized for mobile versions and as a result you are having incredibly high bounce rates (web site abandonment). Every business wants to utilize their website to bring in my sales and having Visionary Web create a custom made mobile edition is a great way to tap into this potential.
Foursquare is an example of mixing fun with business. Let’s say someone is out on their mobile device, playing Foursquare, they find your business on Google Maps. They click on it to check in, and also notice you not only have a website, but a mobile website.
Contact me, Sean at sflaherty@visionaryweb.com if you have any questions. Now if you excuse me, I need to make myself mayor of Visionary Web!

We have quite a few clients that use blogs on their site. Here are just a few that I’m going to talk about:

Health Positive – http://www.healthpositive.com/blog
Brodbeck Seed – http://www.brodbeckseed.com/blog
Halderman Farm Management – http://www.halderman.com/blog

Health Positive: You’ll notice that a majority of the posts deal with massage therapy which is what Health Positive focuses on in their business. You’ll also see that they tag their posts which is helpful with the search engines because those could be used as search terms. So for example if someone searches for “Massage Business Marketing” then it’s possible that this blog would show up as a search result.

Brodbeck Seed: Brodbeck Seed focuses on Agronomy articles for their blog. Usually an article is posted each month with up to date happenings in the farming world. This information can be helpful/useful to the farming community.

Halderman Farm Management: Halderman focuses on land values, economy, leasing etc. with their blog articles. They also post articles in regards to their auctions as well which is just another way for people to find more information about a particular farm auction.

In conclusion all three of these companies use their blog in a very useful way for their consumers. Their articles can certainly help them with their search engine rankings for particular keywords. If you ever need a blog setup on your site please feel free to contact us @ 877.569.0260

It seems everyone is talking about Social Media or Social Marketing today. So what can you do as a small business owner who doesn’t have time to even keep up on your web site, let alone working on setting up a blog or a Facebook page? Well why not do all three at once?

This idea of writing something once and using it in multiple ways is what the web is all about! These new technologies are supposed to make your life easier not harder!

How do we do this?

Let’s start with our website.

By setting up a blog on your site you can have up to date content that is changed daily or weekly if you prefer. Different people from your organization can add different posts to different categories eliminating the need for only one or a handful of people managing the entire site. Administrators can approve blogs giving them editorial control.

The blog can then be added to the home page or your site or any page you wish providing new, updated content to each page of your site.

So the first step above takes care of two issues at once – keeping your site content up to date and providing a blog for your site.

The next step is to make a Facebook page for your company or a Twitter page for your company. Once this is done you can link your blog directly to both of these allowing your blog to update both!

How is that helpful?

Well now we have a blog that is being edited in one location and is updating itself, your site, your Facebook page AND your Twitter account.

If this is a strategy you would like to employ to update your site and get better results in the search engines and better communication with your customers – give us a call today – 360-569-0260 – we can help!

Seven Days to Save The Firehouse! On July 25, 2007 the roof at The Firehouse collapsed. Today kicks off our net campaign to raise funds to rebuild The Firehouse, North Manchester’s premier music venue. I’m donating because I want to see this fantastic place emerge again as a great place for young people, and old people, to experience great music. Please join me. Donate today! http://www.thefirehouse.net

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Visionary Web is currently seeking to hire a full-time Web Programmer. The Web Programmer will work on the web team developing customized projects including: web-based applications, web site enhancements, desktop applications, database-backed websites, and automation of web administration processes. The candidate must have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent. Strong working knowledge of HTML, XML, mySQL, SQL, PHP, VB, and MS Access as well as a strong working knowledge of Windows and Linux platforms is required. Desired skills include strong time management, ability to multi-task, ability to research and stay up to date on current and emerging technologies in the field and the ability to work effectively in a team and independently.

More details can be found on our employment page.