Mac based design and marketing software

<== sample image produced by me with Art Text is 6 seconds!

Attention companies! 

Ever wonder how graphic designers like me, make those cool shiny and glossy "Web 2.0" styled logos and designs? Does it frustrate you that as soon as you make a nice new logo, the web standards and trends change, and your logo looks dated? Don't have a fast and reliable designer like me in your area? Do you wish you could work with some simple and affordable software that makes it easy for you to create these modern styled logos, font stylings and designs, just like the pros?

Well now you can!

<== sample image produced by me with Art Text is 4 seconds!

Right here, in my blog, for those of you lucky enough to come across this post, I am going to share one of my most powerful graphic design secrets!

Are you ready? It's a program called Art Text!

Wait- please pay attention, this is a MAC only program! 

Please don't hate, appreciate. This is a very powerful and easy to use program that will allow you to create the stylized text, and modern looking designs that are all over your competitions websites and marketing materials, all by yourself. So if you own a MAC, are a graphic designer, or need to make logos youself, look no further then this program! Check out Art Text for your self, by clicking here.

I have been using Art Text for several months, and I truly love it and highly recommend it. The program is affordable, works fast, and is super easy to use. You do not need to be a super star graphic designer like me to start making amazing designs.

Here is what the people at Belight Software, the creators of Art Text, have to say about it:

Why use Art Text?

• Headings and other text graphics created with Art Text will make business presentations catchy.
• Attractive buttons and cool titles will make your web site look stylish and professional.
• Various logos and icons can be easily created to enrich your brochures, flyers and postcards.

<==sample image I made with art text in 5 seconds!

I could add tons of things to this list, but basically in my personal experience, what this program does is- it really speeds up the production cycle for cranking out this kind of work.

 Many of my graphic design friends have asked me: "Can you do what Art Text does in Photoshop"? Yes of course you can, but not everyone can afford Photoshop, or take the time necessary to learn all of its powerful features. With Art Text, you simply download the program, start using it- and within a few minutes you have a great design- it is truly that easy.

So there you have it, one of my best graphic design secrets for all my blog readers, and clients. 

Remember it is a MAC program, so if you use PC's and there is nothing wrong with that- you will simply have to rely on me to make all of your awesome looking font designs and shinny buttons!

SEO and SEM

In the last several months, I have been really working hard to master the basics of SEO and SEM. 

SEO or Search Engine Optimization, in my words is doing the simple but effective things with your HTML code in an effort to optimize and target your potential website audience.  The book I have been following, and recommend is by Kristopher Jones, who runs Pepperjam, a very respected SEO and SEM company. You can pick it up at any retail book store like Borders, or Barnes and Noble, or of course at the large online bookstore Amazon. 

Also if your a small company, and don't have the time or the budget to learn, implement, test and perfect these tasks, you can also contact me directly via email, or through my website, as I would be glad to help! These efforts of SEO are a combination of developing organic search listings, as well as pay per click campaigns, to successfully compete for keywords that relate to your business, and to get more people to go to your website.

SEM or Search Engine Marketing, is the various outbound marketing efforts a company employs to target its many different types of potential customers to very specific pages or landing pages on their site. To illustrate if your company offers more then one product or service, it is important to market specifically to each individual customer and not generically to all customers. This becomes more difficult the larger the company and the more products and services they offer. 

Simply being specific with your HTML code, and doing individualized marketing are not enough, a company must also combine traditional marketing into their web based marketing efforts. A new technique that I am working on for the companies I serve is called PURLS, or personalized URL's. This in marketing terms is the best of both worlds. PURLS is personalized urls. This is the process of doing direct mail and or physical marketing, that is very specific, even down to a per customer basis. Each physical item that is delivered to them has it's very own unique  personal(ized) url, or PURL. This way you can test and measure specific marketing strategies to each and every customer and find out what they like, or don't like. You can see what they respond to and what motivates them to find our more about your company's products and services. As the internet becomes more crowded, and more and more people compete for keywords, and search engine rankings, the more we have to balance traditional marketing and targeted marketing.  

While this all might sound like a daunting task, it happens to be very exciting for me, as I have a traditional marketing background, and work hard at learning new techniques to help my clients on the digital frontier.

Should you have any questions about what I can do to help you with SEO or SEM, and help turn more people onto your website, and it's various products and services please contact me through my website: www.lewisdavidson.com. Together we can develop the traditional physical marketing and branding components, optimize your website, and then deliver a PURL campaign with customized tools to study your customers needs wants, and desires, saving you time, money and most importantly making your valued customers happy, by giving them exactly what they want.

coming home from a day on the water

The view from the back of the pontoon boat, coming home...

Ava, happy on the water.

This is a great pic! Ava happy and smiling on the water! She got to play with fish and enjoy the sites. Sunshine is good for kids, and she is a beach girl for sure.

The cutest thing, is when she would watch a scallop open up in her hand. That was awesome.

I like pontoon boats, as thy are safe, and stable and it's like being out on the patio, but on the water.

We had a great time!

on the boat, w/ Captain Sonny

This is my good friend and neighbor Sonny. He is a native born Floridian. Occasionally when I am lucky I get to go out on the boat with him. We always have a great time. We fish, and enjoy the beauty of nature, nothing beats being out on the water with good friends.

on the water, I love Florida

This photo is from the back of my neighbor/ friends pontoon boat. His name is Sonny, and he took my daughter and me out on the Ocean, and island hopping. As always it was amazing. I got some sun, and fresh air, and Ava got to catch fish, a scallop and enjoy the beach.

Being able to go out on the water and to the islands in Florida is as good as it gets, we are so blessed!

chameleon in nature

There is a little lizard in this photo. He is an anole, but in Florida they are called chameleons. I was at the park, breathing, and meditating to calm my mind. I saw this guy on the rocks by the steps. He was not scared of me at all, so I slowly moved in for this photo.

I love nature, and appreciate his colorings to help him  blend into the rocks and the environment. We looked at each other, eye to eye for some time, and we had our moment.

My cell phone is the series 1, envy from Verizon. Overall it is a good phone, great for texting, but the view screen is small, so it is sometimes hard to judge the shot before you post it!

Ava riding a pony

ava riding a "pony"

This simple little toy makes a little girl so happy!