On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the site hit a half-billion active users.

That’s nearly five times as many people as watched this year’s Super Bowl — the most popular television broadcast ever — and about four times as many people as voted in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

People spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on the site and, according to Facebook, 400 million of them have logged in during the past month. Keep in mind there are only 309 million people in the United States — total.

Source:  CNN.com

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5 Times More Popular Than The Super Bowl

Chair Becky Johnson developed a logo for the event and designed this year’s brochure.  We took care of the printing (we’ve got the best color tri-fold pricing around, gang!) and then Keleigh used Becky’s brochure as a base for designing a website for the event. Here’s a little peek into our process:

• Ethan took the design and, quick as a dog can lick a dish, turned it into a WordPress-based shell of a site.
• Intern David (who left us last week and whom we already miss terribly) ported the event information from its pages on funbeach.com into the new site’s database.
• Keleigh went behind David, re-purposing elements and information, adding photos from prior years, and, in general, organizing the facts for a user-friendly presentation.
• Meanwhile, Keith did some research on long-tail key phrases for the site, which Ethan and Keleigh then ran through our proprietary process known as “Site Wide Level I Search Engine Optimization”, so the site should come up with a solid, organic, search result.
• While that magic was taking place, Wendy, Sue and Keith were clicking through things in general, looking for errors, points of confusion or any other items we could improve.
• Finally, it all came to the inevitable crescendo known as site launch!

That’s when we told Becky we had started work on her site.  Long Beach Merchants Association Event Chairs are volunteers here on the Peninsula, so we try to help them out when we can, and not add work to their oh-so-full-and-unpaid platters.  Becky’s just about done giving the site her thorough once-over so we can make requested changes.  In a few short weeks, it will be time to change all the information for 2011!

Take a look.  We’re pleased, and hope you are, too.

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Have you got sand in your, er, shoes?

Jeff and Shelly wanted to be able to easily edit the site themselves, and poise themselves for additional marketing flexibility, but were still really happy with the site they co-designed with Keleigh and Sabrina as the restaurant opened.  They think it looks a lot different now, testimony to their attention to detail.  The best compliment we’ve received is no comment at all; even the Pelicano customers who are quick to remind us that a menu posting is a day late have been silent.  Is it possible they don’t see the difference?  We hope so!

We helped Lewis and Clark Historical Association, the group behind the bookstore at Fort Clatsop, put their inventory online a number of years ago, but weren’t ready to dive into online transactions.  When you’re a private entity working within a National Park, things aren’t quite as simple as they are in the non-governmental arena.  Going through a new design process at the same time made time line prohibitive AND they were happy with the basic design, so we kept it!

Goodwinds recently purchased Avia Sport, leaving them with half a dozen domains, two shopping carts, a blog and a small handful of essentially non-functioning sites.  Most of these online resources were diluting the market more than feeding one another.  Principals Roger Holeman and Amelia Cook had a long talk with Keleigh about the direction of the company and the three made a plan for how to best leverage online resources for the long haul.

What you see above is the Goodwinds Blog, which got a new header and sales tools in its sidebar that lead back to the Goodwinds e-commerce site, which gets its new, similar header very soon.  The Avia sites will soon re-launch with a similar look that is designed to transition customers with Avia brand recognition to Goodwinds.  It’s a bit of a complex tumble of dominoes–and a lot of fun to watch it roll out as expected.

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3 Examples Of Overhauling A Website Without Anyone Knowing

This site started its life as a template.  We changed the header to include the Willapa Harbor Helping Hands logo and made a flower out of the cancer ribbon.  We also adjusted the page templates a bit to accommodate presenting the WHHH material well.  Beyond that, building the site was as simple as creating web site text out of existing print materials, finding some appropriate stock photography, and putting it all together.  A final pass to do some light search engine optimization and we were ready to launch.

Another of Keleigh’s “working too late brainstorms”, this site was knocked out in a couple of hours after Keleigh received an email from Cathy saying she was running for County Commissioner.  The look and feel came from a “theme”, a WordPress template, and the text and photos came from the email from Cathy.  It’s grown a bit since, as the campaign team has added their magic, but is a great example of how a good-looking site doesn’t have to take a lot of time & money to get started, or web experience to grow and change.

Tides West Community Association worked with Karl to customize a theme and make it their own.  The end result bears little resemblance to the original theme; the function and spatial layout of the theme remain.  This made it quick (read “inexpensive”) for Karl to develop a full-featured site for the group that they could maintain on their own –without breaking their bank.

It sure looks like a custom site, doesn’t it?  Look closer.  Keleigh drew the logo based on font specification and design concept from the site owner, and also turned it into a background tile.  Karl chose a theme with the appropriate color palette and function, added the text and images from the client, give him a brief tutorial on WordPress by phone, and whoosh!  A site was born on a tight budget.

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3 Examples of “out of the box…sort of” Websites

This project is a great example of how quickly we can get things done when everyone does their homework promptly.  We met with Terri on a Tuesday and Blair had her site all but finished Thursday afternoon.  Terri still needed to send us some text and photos, which she did, and that same day, the site was ready to go live.

Our team has plans for improvements down the road, but the Park was able to get their online presence going before the busy summer season made it impossible for Terri to even think about planning a website.  And it was super-affordable, to boot!

Meanwhile, Keleigh re-drew the Park’s logo, as the original art had been lost and they were also in need of some business cards.  Bundling this project with the website made it easy for us to create all the logo art files at once, which made it less expensive for the Park.

Congratulations on your new site, CranberryRVPark.com!

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Cranberry RV Park

Dennis Oman Realty is under new ownership… complete with modern branding and a fresh website! Keleigh collaborated with owners Angela and Stu Simonson to create a contemporary, surfboard-centric design package. Blair created a clean new website, implementing the latest look and feel. Stop by their new site to browse new listings, calculate your potential mortgage payments, explore local links and more. Angela and Stu know what it takes to be on the cutting-edge of the real estate industry… and we were stoked to make their vision become reality!

~Blair

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A New Era for Dennis Oman Realty!

The mighty group of volunteers who have headed up the event for much of its existence added a certified half marathon last year, which has made it attractive to even more runners.  You can download their brochure and registration form online, or pick up a copy here in our office, or at the Long Beach Peninsula Visitors Bureau.  Artist Don Nisbett made it easy for us to look good designing that one!

~Keleigh

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Beach to Chowder has a home of its own on the web

I suppose what I should be blogging about today is that Karl, along with Astoria Sunday Market Director Cyndi Mudge, built a brand new site for this event, but what I want to tell you is this: Start training now: The Commercial Fishermen’s Festival is just 3-1/2 months away!

The mission of the Commercial Fishermen’s Festival is to offer fishermen and industry professionals an opportunity to bond and share information that will save lives, improve productivity, increase demand for seafood products, and promote job opportunities. The mission is also dedicated to educating the public about the fishing industry including the steps fishermen have taken to ensure a renewable resource for the future. The Festival will showcase American fisheries and the process of selecting, preparing and cooking seafood.

The REALITY of the Commercial Fishermen’s Festival is FUN FUN FUN!

• Captain Phil Harris Highliner Competition, the Signature Competition of the Festival – No Whiners, Only Highliners! There are three categories:  kids, under age 40, and 40 and above. Cash prize for 1st place is $500 plus prizes from industry leaders.  Additional $500 to overall winner for a total cash prize of $1000.  There is a practice area set-up for competitors.
• Dover Sole Relay – Slimy, Fishy Fun!  Teams of three compete for the highly coveted Dover Sole Crown. This is a relay race carrying a shovel full of Dover Sole – the slipperiest, slimiest fish in the sea.  Winners are based on speed and number of fish left on the shovel.
• Filleting Competition – Surgical Precision at Lightning Speed! Filleters will be competing in three heats with the winners of each heat competing in the final round.  Cash prize plus industry prizes for the top filleter.  Winners are judged on speed and recovery.
• Hyster Competition – Contestants maneuver through an obstacle course
• Survival Suit Races – See crabbers run.  Run crabbers run!
• Wizard of Crab Coiling Competition – Do we even have to explain this?

September 18-19, 2010

When you visit the new site, take a look at the Captain Phil Harris Memorial CD and the Raffle Tickets.  Both of these were also beachdog projects!

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No Whiners! Only Highliners!

Guess who got a face lift?

Astoria Sunday Market is growing by leaps and bounds.  Not only has the market expanded in the number of vendors, they’ve got buskers and music every Sunday and hold special events as well.  They even have their own Young Entrepreneurs Club.  Learn more on their newly redesigned website (thanks, Karl & Cyndi!), and sign up for the RSS and/or “What’s Fresh! At the Market” their weekly electronic newsletter.

Better still, head to the market tomorrow!

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Guess who got a face lift?

The Port of Ilwaco got a little face lift this spring, adding a right sidebar for their social networking activities.  If you’re not yet a fan of Discover Ilwaco on facebook, make a point of it!  Then head down to the Saturday Market tomorrow.  It’s the best!

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Port of Ilwaco