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)

The Problem:

Precision Design, which offers custom laser cutting and etching services for name plates, logos and control panels, was using a program written in java script  to place orders on a X Y axes plane.  The problem with this program was that it did not take into account different browsers,  and resolution settings.  This resulted in incorrect terminal placings and countless hours wasted in long distance calls between client and Precision Design.

The Solution:

Sandy needed a customized program that would not be affected by type of browser or resolution of her clients.  Sandy worked with Visionary Web to develop a customized FLASH program that allowed for correct placing of terminals, mounts, board dimension, mounting hole diameters and even give them the choice to choose board colors.

The Results:

The new addition has cut down on long distance calling for Sandy and allowing for quicker turn around on completing her orders.  Her customers have all left positive comments on her site, one even goes on to comment on the customize program “(I) Really appreciate the customized editing. It made for an easy “remote” design process and unique look.”

FLASH does more than just create visual eye candy for websites.  It can be used for creating games, watching videos, and as with Precision Design, customized programs for online ordering.

Do you think your business has needs that qualifies for our assistance?  Contact me Sean at sales@visionaryweb.com!

Why is Visionary Web pressing so hard for our customers to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to reach their intended audiences? This week in Website Magazine (www.websitemagazine.com) they had an article titled Goodbye Google, Hello Social. We knew from reports that social media was getting big, but this past week Facebook’s traffic was up 250% and Twitter was up 1000% (that’s right a %1000). That translates to less than 20 million visits behind Yahoo! and 30 million behind Google.

What does this mean for the average Internet retailer? Get on the social media bandwagon or be left in the dust. Website Magazine recommends that every serious business should have a presence in the social networking sphere. It also means that early in 2010 Facebook and Twitter will probably pass Yahoo! AND Google for the most visited sites on the net.

If you think social media and establishing a social media presence is going to be a pain, not to worry – there are ways to tie your existing blog with your social media outlets AND tools to help you manage them all from one place. What are you waiting for? Contact Visionary Web today and we can help you decide how social networking could help your business.

260-569-0260
Ask for Sean Flaherty or Mark Sapusek
or email: sales@visionaryweb.com

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

Rich Internet Applications. They are the Internet’s inevitable future, but what advanced technology drives this advanced paradigm? JavaScript? No thanks. But this is not the time to escape to a fallout bunker, and hide yourself until the web’s nuclear winter is over. Flex is here, come to save the day.

Don’t get me wrong: JavaScript and Flex have a lot in common. One, JavaScript and Flex run at the client (browser) level. Two, ECMAScript is the basis for both the JavaScript and ActionScript programming languages. Heck, Flex even uses a teeny tiny bit of JavaScript to establish the application’s focus at run-time. But we can’t kid ourselves. JavaScript is not a very good language. There are some major differences between web browsers, particularly between Internet Explorer and, well, every other browser. Flex is just Flex. As long as you have the right version of Flash to support the code, the application will work. JavaScript is not very robust or error-handling friendly. Flash’s builder is a godsend, with everything you’d expect in a true application IDE: syntax checking and debugging tools. JavaScript RIAs use the innovative but wonky (if nothing but the fact that it uses JavaScript) AJAX idea. Flex has built-in support for true WSDL and SOAP support, net connections, HTTP services, and the like. It even gets better with the work of AMFPHP, which is a low load, low complexity juggernaut that makes data connectivity a snap. What would RIAs be without data connectivity? That is what makes them Rich Internet Applications, and not just Rich Applications.

So I encourage all web developers to try working with Flex. Test it out. You may even like it. And perhaps, given time, we never have to hear the words JavaScript and RIA in the same sentence ever again!

We have lately been working with a new programming platform called FLEX. This platform is made available by Adobe and works in conjunction with PHP, Ajax and mySQL to allow the programmer to create visually stunning, interactive sites and services.

I’ll get Scott to talk a little more about these services as he is more versed in them, but if you have an idea for a new feature for your site that requires a lot of form input, or customer interaction a FLEX-built application may be perfect for you.

Contact us today to learn more: 260-569-0260 or online at www.visionaryweb.com

PHP made me upset today. I’ve noticed this issue for a while, and it’s been addressed in forums, but few know of what seems to be the second most common reason for it. First, check the symptoms of you ill-returned web document. Does it ever popup as a download dialog box instead of the usual I-trust-you-Zend handling? Did you then download it only to find it is nothing more than a blank page? Stop sifting through your http.conf file! Stop changing those permissions! Well, you could do all this, but it’s most likely not the problem. For me, it was the amount of memory I had allocated to PHP script execution, specifically the memory_limit value. Oddly as it sounds, sometimes giving your PHP a little more memory seems to clear up this problem right away. Works so far for me with all the times I’ve seen this issue. You can either change the value in your ini file as:

memory_limit = 32M

…in your .htaccess file like…

php_value memory_limit = 32M

…or directly in your PHP file if you wanted to.

ini_set('memory_limit', '32M');

Hopefully, this can help someone out there.

YouTube can be a great way to grow your audience. Two of our clients, Chris Bowers and Ryan Moran, both run successful motivational speaking companies. Chris and Ryan recently decided to utilize YouTube to help get their messages out. Check out one of their recent videos:

[youtube s27DmegVrys]

One of the most singularly powerful and useful aspects of Adobe Photoshop is the brush sets. What makes this so portent is the dynamics that are possible with many of the tools when paired with the stylus of a WACOM. The size adjustment and opacity changes that occur depending on the pressure you apply to the pen makes for a near perfect imitation of traditional art techniques. Brush sets however are the patterns in which you are laying your strokes down with, regardless of the tool you use to do this. These brush sets are typically just referred to as brushes though they can be applied to many of the tools in Photoshop. The default brush is some size of rounded pattern with either a hard or soft edge. This default brush is usually enough to suit most situation you are dealing with, but if you are trying to imitate a paintbrush, pallet knife, chalk/charcoal, pastels, etc. it is often not acceptable. The best ways to mimic these mediums is to use differently textured brushes.

In traditional art these methods are also affected by what you are applying them to. Wood obviously would cause a different effect than paper should you write on it with a pen. The same applies to different grades of paper, boards, canvases, etc. to mimic this typically some sort of patterned or faux texture is applied to the layer beneath the one that the actual “art� is being produced on to simulate the correct canvas type. Generally though, the brush itself can produce the desired effect. Because of this versatility and flexibility the brush is, in my opinion, the most important aspect of Photoshop. Knowing how and when to use it is the next.

A lot of my friends tell me that my job sounds easy (that’s the job of programming if you don’t know who I am), and I happily nod and smile. Because friends just don’t know any better. Sure, anyone can program like anyone can perform open-heart surgery or fight a bear, but like anything, there’s a lot more to it to become a professional at it. In fact, the more-of-it is what keeps a lot of people from programming in the first place. Programming is a blend of art and math, but it also is anal-retentive. A single character will throw off the entire program and you will (yes, you WILL) be racking your head around a single line of code for most of your time working on that program. But that is programming, so what I say to you would-be programmers is to relax and have patience when you program, because it can get nerve-racking.