Yes! Yes!! The new & improved Conscious Wellness web site has launched (www.ConsciousWellness.net.).

Highlights

— Friendly but thorough and easy to use site is a perfect match for the CW brand.

— Blog enables Beth to easily share with and engage the CW audience.

— Simple email sign-up form is featured on every page.

— Staying connected with CW via all the usual social networks is also given priority.

— All content is maintain by the client (with minimal expertise necessary).

AU’s Contribution

— Worked closely with the client to define her short term and long term business needs and personal aspirations. Much of the emphasis was on marketing and CW’s participation in the conversation of  a “Web 2.0″ world.

— Advised the client on “The Art of Blogging” including the use and impact of categories, tags, post titles and site content and how those relate to being “guest-centric” as well as  SEO friendly.

— Solution uses the highly respected open source blogging platform WordPress (www.WordPress.org). Theme is a heavily customized version of Atahualpa by BytesForAll (http://wordpress.bytesforall.com).

— Base WP functionality is supplemented with a number of plugins including (but not limited to): Goggle XML Sitemaps (by Arne Brachhold), MM Forms (by Tom Belmans and Takayuki Miyoshi), SexyBookmarks (by Josh Jones and Norman Yung) and WP-DBManager (by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan).

— Creation and usage of icons gives the site a friendly contemporary look & feel.  (Full disclosure: The CW logo was created by another design outfit.)

— Recommendations on UX / UI, as well as how that might relate to the information provided by Google Analytics.

— HTML, CSS and PHP  enhancement and tweaks.

— Supplied client with numerous links to articles on copy writing.

— Shared various tutorials on WordPress and Wordpress plugins.

— AU is currently in the process of customizing and enhancing Kieran O’Shea’s calendar plugin. The new and much improved version of this plugin should be available in the next four to six weeks.

Beth decided to have soft launch (approximately four weeks ago) and thus far the feedback has been positive. In that short time, she has recognized that having a web site she is confident in and that accurately reflects the attributes of her brand is giving birth to previously unrealizable opportunities. Beth is convinced that her RIO from this new site will be significant. Discussion of Phase 2 enhancements will begin in January 2010.

It’s alive! AU client Falco Design (www.FalcoDesign.com) launches their new web site.

Highlights

— All of site’s content, including home page slide show, is user controlled via the content management system (CMS) Expression Engine (EE).  EE allows pages to be created on demand (i.e., they are not static). The FD site makes considerable use of EE’s categories. This allows the CMS to be programmed to deliver the right content at the right time as based on FD’s biz rules. For example, services pages only display portfolio work for that service.

— “SEO friendly” design and architecture: Every page has a unique URL, page <title>,  meta tags, etc. This level of thoroughness is applied all the way down to each individual portfolio piece, even as you page through them. Images are also named and titled to increase “findability”.

— Google Ad Manager (GAM) is used to serve and track the banner ads. The control of GAM’s content is further targeted via EE.

AU’s Contribution

— Expression Engine architecture and development. Behind the scenes the content is managed / displayed via a collection of widgets.  This modular approach makes the site easier to maintain and enhance as Falco’s business needs evolve. For a complete list of EE’s features please click here.

— Incorporation of jQuery plug-ins

— Recommendations on UX / UI

— HTML and CSS enhancement and tweaks

— Copy writing (including “branding” and development of brand message)

— Recommendation of and integration of Google Ad Manager

— Selection of images for banner ads, as well as the development of associated copy / messages

Finally, the site was designed by (Falco Design employee) Stephanie Bayard (www.StephanieBayard.com). When not on the clock at Falco, Stephanie is also a member of the AU Collective.

In short, this site is a kick-ass example of the capabilities of AU and the AU collective.

Yesterday AU had a meeting with a local marketing communications outfit to discuss a fairly extensive document (i.e., wire frames, biz requirements, etc. for an unusual e-comm site) we put together for a client. (Note: Due to the nature of this document we are not able to share its content at this time.) Per the client’s request, we’re shopping the document in order to explore the possibility of a design & development partner suited for this large and detailed effort. In the course of this meeting the head of their interactive group got bold and said, “We have a process. One of the things we aim to do is reassess and even validate the business model…”

Did he say, “Validate the biz model?” E-comm is the new gold rush. It’s growing hand over fist. Even marginal sites are doing 7, maybe even 8 figures, and this developer thinks his company has some grand insight into things? Shocking!  Marketing firm… Creative/developer type… Suddenly they’re in the in depth business consulting, management consulting, VC-esque biz?!?! Who’s going to dole out this expertise, the creative director?

This coming from the type of outfit who uses the term, “We’re selective” when they often should actually be saying, “This is more challenging than what we can handle. There’s risk involved here. We’re not good at risk. But give us a mainstream middle of the road B and we’ll make it a B+.” It sometimes difficult to understand what gets passed off as expertise, or at least is attempted to be as such.

On top of it all this there is no doubt that this agency’s own web site needs a make-over. Like a super model, it looks nice but the fact is it lacks depth. There was a severe disconnect between the brand they presented in the meeting and the brand that’s on their web site. If anyone should know that in today’s biz world the walk needs to align very closely with the talk it should be a marketing communications outfit. I was sitting in a meeting in the late 90’s.

Granted, one must keep an open mind. There’s always some potential insight to be gained from even the most unsuspecting of sources. But to put in a good 60 minutes and not hear anything about what this outfit is going to do for the client. About what makes this outfit that much more likely to deliver success *to the client* than someone else. Well, we were honestly dumbfounded. Sometimes it’s best to just shut up and listen to people who actually believe their own press releases. Unfortunately, the client with extensive depth in retail and e-comm wasn’t laughing.