Browsing Category Blog

Interviewing Andy Stoll

A couple weeks ago on PrairieCast, Geoff and I got the chance to visit with Andy Stoll before he departed on The World Tri with Des Moines’ adventurer and lawyer Charlie Wittmack.

Social Entrepreneurship With Guest Andy Stoll

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Category : Blog &podcast

Google Wave Blog Post Collaboration

Here is how Josh Braaten and I used Google Wave to collaborate on a blog post (WordPress vs Squarespace).

Category : Blog &how-to

We Are Now A Microsoft BizSpark Startup

Microsoft BizSparkWe got word today that we’ve been accepted into Microsoft BizSpark.

You must have wished us good luck :-)

So what? why? how? huh? Microsoft?

What is BizSpark?

BizSpark is Microsoft’s way of helping startups. Essentially, they provide “Software, Support, and Visibility” to startups using Microsoft technologies to build their products. Check it out.

Microsoft? Really?

Yep – among other things I’m an ASP.Net web developer and I don’t care if you make fun of me for not using the “cool” web frameworks like Rails or Django. ASP.Net, MVC, C#, and Visual Studio are awesome tools for building web applications.

We’re going to be doing some cool things with HTML 5ASP.Net MVC, jQuery, and AJAX while testing some new technologies like MongoDB.

Wait – I thought you loved WordPress

Yes – we very much do love WordPress. And yes, we’ll still be developing websites for clients with WordPress since there really is no better way. We will continue building awesome things with it and contributing to the community. That won’t change at all :-)

Questions?  Let us know in the comments!

Category : Blog &featured

WordPress Launch: DmTweetup.org

It’s been a couple years since we refreshed the dmTweetup.org site. We built it in the same style as the DsmStartupDrinks.com and CentralIowaBloggers.com WordPress sites.

[Click To Enlarge] WordPress Design Twitter

Questions? Let us know in the comments!

Want one? Get in touch!

Category : Blog &projects &wordpress

WordPress Launch: CollectorMentor.com

This is our latest WordPress development for CollectorMentor.com. We went for a magazine style layout and heavily customized the Hello theme from Templatic. We used our standard plugin library for SEO, Analytics, and more. Also – due to it’s heavy use of images and potential traffic load we went with the WP-Super Cache plugin (see last screenshot below) which dramatically increased our page load time.

[Click To Enlarge] WordPress Design

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[Click To Enlarge] WordPress Design

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WordPress Optimization

Do you have any questions about this site? Let us know in the comments!

Want one for yourself? Get in touch!

Category : Blog &clients &projects &wordpress

WordPress vs Squarespace

Our colleague from up north Josh Braaten asked me to collaborate on a blog post for a Content Management System showdown: WordPress vs. Squarespace.

Topics covered include…

  • Cost
  • Search Engine Friendliness (SEO)
  • Security
  • Features
  • Customization
  • Ease Of Use
  • Hosting
  • Support and Maintenance

Conclusion?

Ultimately, both Squarespace and WordPress are great web publishing tools and can most likely meet the needs of your blog or website. Andy and I hope this post has given you the perspective you need to make your choice based on your own personal goals, skills and resources.

Read our comparison. What do you think?

Category : Blog &wordpress

Interviewing Brian Kaldenberg

For last week’s Prairiecast (our podcast about midwest entrepreneurs) we got the opportunity to interview serial entrepreneur Brian Kaldenberg about several profitable niche businesses that he’s started over the years. We cover his NCAA Football video game rosters business, his proofreading service business, and his consulting company – among other things.

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Category : Blog &podcast

SEO In Des Moines

This is not…

Des Moines SEO

[Click To Enlarge]

Dropping 100+ keywords into the bottom of your website (or even in your META keywords) does not work for SEO. A better solution?

  1. Create content that targets the keywords for which you want to be found
  2. Get people to link to you (likely from good content :0)

Also – best practice…. Start by targeting a few keywords you really really want to own. Then branch out to the long tail.

Also also – this website will never rank for the keywords “Businesses, Commercial, Residential, Restoration, Floor Care, Sanding, Remodelers, Finished, etc”. So why include them? I’ll answer that for you – don’t include them. Once again – focus on a few geographic based terms then branch out to the long tail but don’t try for generic terms like “Sanding”.

Category : Blog &seo

WordPress Development Intro – Iowa Code Camp

A couple weeks ago Kenny Younger and I got the chance to preach all things WordPress at Iowa Code Camp.

Here is the live stream I recorded along with the slides from the presentation!

Video

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

Slides

Category : Blog &events &wordpress

Social Gaming Startup Hatchlings Interview

Hatchlings

On the 12th prairiecast (our podcast about entrepreneurs in Iowa) Geoff Wood and I got the opportunity to talk to Brad Dwyer who founded social gaming startup Hatchlings while still a student at Iowa State University (go clones!).

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Category : Blog &podcast

Want to work with us?

Learn about what we do or get in touch right away. We can't wait to work with you. Call us at (515) 966-4848 or email Andy.

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