Bramblog » Web Design

BanyanLiving.com Logo Finalized

Eric Bramlett — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:44:32 +0000

Wes Cox & I have worked out a deal w/ someone who already has a supply chain & delivery down for a range of natural supplements. We’re in the process of putting together the site to sell the products – we have a skeleton site up now. Anyways – Wes designed the logo, and I think it turned out pretty sweet. Check it out, and gimme some feedback, yo!

Playing w/ a New Theme

Eric Bramlett — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 19:21:20 +0000

So I’m going to start messing w/ Mandigo. Eric Blackwell recommended it to me, and it looks extremely pliable. I’m FINALLY learning Photoshop, so I’ll put together the first EB designed banner (which will most likely be horrible) within the next couple of weeks.

BTW – Mandigo’s functionality looks to be incredible. If you haven’t already, check it out. In the back end, you can choose between 800 & 1024 screen resolution optimization, 2 & 3 columns, and where/what you would like in those columns. It also has a number of color choices in the WP backend (w/ most themes, you have to dig in the stylesheets to change the coloring.)

New Neighborhood Specific Website – Steiner Ranch

Eric Bramlett — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:18:09 +0000

I’m putting together a new website for Steiner Ranch & I’m about 80% complete. I have the hard sections done – education, shopping, amenities, etc… and just have to write the unique, basic copy for the template sections – buy, sell, lease, etc…Â I’ve incorporated a bbpress forum, advertise it as a bulletin, and hope that residents will start using it as a super-local craigslist.

Steiner Ranch is a master-planned community in Austin that has ~3000 homes already constructed, and will have 4500 when it’s built out in ~3 years. My ericbramlett.com site ranks #1 for most Steiner Ranch related searches, and ranks behind the HOA & the developer site for “steiner ranch.”

So…I’ve seen some decent traffic from those terms & thought that it would be cool to build a neighborhood specific site. The SEO doesn’t look like it will be extremely difficult, and I’m a big believer that Google looks at the continuity of a website’s theme. Google’s obviously trying to go as local as possible, and searchers are becoming more & more savvy. “Power Searchers” are using the advanced search features to find exactly what they want.

It’s my feeling that super-niche sites are the wave of the future.Â Matt Cutts has expressed that webmasters should focus on owning one good site – but I think that it’s very powerful to have a specific niche site that a searcher will find that is exactly what they’re looking for.

So…check out LifeinSteiner.com & let me know what you think! I’ll let you guys know how well it converts (unless it’s incredible – then I’ll report that it’s awful )

Icon in the Address Bar of Your Website

Eric Bramlett — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:30:28 +0000

Alright…so this is really basic. I’ve wanted to know how to do this for a long time, and I finally Googled it the other day. It’s ridiculously easy to put an icon in the address bar of your website (so easy that I’ll put one up here w/in a couple of days.) Here’s how you do it:

1) Create a 16X16px image you want to use (usually a small logo or abbreviated version of your logo)

2) Save the file as “favicon.ico” – must be an .ico file

3) Upload it to your root directory.

That is it…couldn’t be easier. The hard part is coming up with a 16X16px image you want to use!

Here’s an online resource that will help you create your own logo/image.