Design is subjective. While one person may love the shiny metallic teal of a new compact car, another may find it appalling. The same goes for websites. Your design agency might create what they think is the next greatest online masterpiece, but it might look nothing like what you want.

Last November, just before the 2008 presidential election, Rick Davis, Senator John McCain’s Campaign Manager, declared that the winner of the campaign will be based on personality.

If you’re getting ready to kick off a new website project then please keep reading. Consider this your homework before your homework. What I want to do is arm you with direction, something which your web agency is going to be asking of you in the weeks and months ahead.

As a consultant, often times my job is to make technology a non-issue. I’m not explicitly asked for it, but hidden within your questions and comments is a yearning need to find simple ways to hop aboard the social media train without requiring such heavy investments in time and money. This is particularly important during a time of declining budgets.

Twitter is one of the most popular social media sites in the world. Described as a “micro-blogging” platform, Twitter allows users to answer the question, “What are you doing right now?” and broadcast the answer to their Twitter followers (friends) in a short text message of up to 140 characters. It’s seemingly simple design and application has taken the social media community by storm.

Every website is created with a purpose, and for most, there is more than one. Whether your site goals are to sell products, generate leads, or provide services, it is crucial that you measure and prioritize the most important conversion points.

Depending on whom you ask, web analytics can have a wide variety of definitions but is ultimately focused on a single goal: understanding the online experience such that it can be improved.

Regardless of what industry you’re in or what you’re selling, today your customers are more connected and savvy than ever before – with a simple click they have infinite amounts of information at their fingertips.

As marketers begin to better understand and reap the benefits of online marketing, a large pervasive gap remains between the results we are able to achieve through online marketing and the budget we allocate to these efforts.

Companies today face a unique set of challenges when it comes to their online presence. With increased user-dependence on the web as a primary source of researching information, and the vast amount of resources and information available, it has become progressively more difficult for companies to successfully utilize this medium as a way to attract and engage prospects.