Sky Soft Consulting has the privilege to build an enviro-social network website called Green Awakening.

Green Awakening provides environmentally friendly people with online collaboration tools (custom online chat, online forum, etc) to solve environmental problems.

The first phase of the website will be done in August of 2009.

Here is a snapshot of the project:

We had the opportunity to REDESIGN Team 80/3 website again. They were looking for something that could describe their business model.

Team 80/3 is a group of real estate investors and entrepreneurs who truly have THE Stimulus Package to assist many Americans in getting back on their feet in lieu of relying on the bailout. Real estate has always been one of the major components in building one’s wealth. In this current economic climate, why aren’t more Americans focusing on adding real estate to bolster their financial health along with properly leveraging mortgage and life insurance products?

Visit their website at: www.Team803.com

73% of the population uses the internet at least occasionally, up from 63% in the spring of 2004.

Furthermore, on an average day, 72% of internet users go online, an increase from just 53% in spring 2004 and 69% last spring.

Among all internet users, 93% use the internet from home and 52% use the internet from work, according to Pew Internet Project.

Businesses need to take advantage of this, if they want to improve their sales and weather this down turn economy.

I was reading this article earlier today and surprised to see the numbers. I know this has nothing to do with Website Design or Website Development, but allow me to post this for fun.

People usually spend around $40,000 - $50,000 on their master degree, depending on which school they go to and which city they live on. That’s not counting the time they invest in the education.

For an extra $10,000 - $20,000 raise in your salary (before tax), is it worth it?

Degree type: Accounting
Bachelor’s degree: $45,893
Master’s degree: $50,468
Related careers: accountant, auditor, bookkeeping clerk, tax examiner, budget analyst, loan officer

Degree type: Art
Bachelor’s degree: $34,460
Master’s degree: $43,112
Related careers: art director, illustrator, animator, multimedia artist

Degree type: Biochemistry
Bachelor’s degree: $38,511
Master’s degree: $46,921
Related careers: agronomist, forensics specialist, geneticist, pharmacologist, environmental scientist

Degree type: Chemistry
Bachelor’s degree: $45,385
Master’s degree: $56,617
Related careers: waste management specialist, technical writer, science technician, food scientist

Degree type: Computer programming
Bachelor’s degree: $50,985
Master’s degree: $72,515
Related careers: computer systems analyst, computer programmer, computer scientist, computer systems designer

Degree type: Economics
Bachelor’s degree: $47,326
Master’s degree: $63,429
Related careers: economist, loan officer, financial manager, reporter

Degree type: Elementary teacher education
Bachelor’s degree: $33,242
Master’s degree: $43,997
Related careers: Any position within an elementary school

Degree type: Engineering
Bachelor’s degree: $54,181
Master’s degree: $69,752
Related careers: engineering technician, sales engineer, civil engineer, architect, drafter

Degree type: Finance
Bachelor’s degree: $41,446
Master’s degree: $50,468
Related careers: insurance underwriter; budget analyst; securities, commodities and financial services sales agent

Degree type: Foreign languages and literatures
Bachelor’s degree: $37,113
Master’s degree: $43,112
Related careers: teacher, writer, interpreter

Degree type: History
Bachelor’s degree: $37,340
Master’s degree: $43,112
Related careers: archivist, curator, librarian, researcher, political aide

Degree type: Human resources management
Bachelor’s degree: $37,874
Master’s degree: $56,094
Related careers: compensation and benefits; training and development; employment, recruitment and placement specialist

Degree type: Science management
Bachelor’s degree: $49,116
Master’s degree: $70,668
Related careers: operational researcher, investment analyst, market research analyst, transportation planner, systems analyst

Degree type: Mathematics
Bachelor’s degree: $50,582
Master’s degree: $57,471
Related careers: statistician, mathematician, actuary, cost estimator

Degree type: Philosophy
Bachelor’s degree: $34,163
Master’s degree: $43,112
Related careers: professor, lawyer, policy analyst, lobbyist, critic

Degree type: Physical sciences
Bachelor’s degree: $31,258
Master’s degree: $69,842
Related careers: animal scientist, hydrologist, meteorologist, engineer, fish and game warden

Degree type: Psychology
Bachelor’s degree: $35,085
Master’s degree: $37,528
Related careers: probation officer, correctional treatment specialist, career counselor, health educator, outreach coordinator

Degree type: Sociology
Bachelor’s degree: $36,905
Master’s degree: $38,749
Related careers: social worker, sociology teacher, market researcher, school counselor, public policy analyst

Source: MSN

We are proud to launch the new ColorPrint360 website.

This is one of the most complicated project that we have done because it has a complicated backend technology and shopping cart.

Anyway, they offer some good deals on printing without compromising the quality of the products.

69% of online males say they can’t live without the Internet, versus just 31% for television; 63% have a smart phone and one in four use their mobile device to connect to the Web; 40% use the Internet for more than 22 hours a week; 36% say they can’t live without the Internet for socializing; 33% say they can’t live without online entertainment, according to Break Media.

We are proud to be a part of this new movement.

Team 80/3 help each person achieve ultimate freedom to live his/her life to the fullest.

Team 80/3 believes that ultimate freedom (Financial, Time, Relationships, Spiritual, and Health) can come only through the elimination of three types of poverty: financial poverty, intellectual poverty, and spiritual poverty: building true wealth vs. making someone rich.

In order to accomplish these goals, Team 80/3 has established a clearly defined road map and a working system. Team 80/3 believes that by following this road map and system, each person will be able to achieve the highest level of financial EDUCATION, to leverage the most profitable PROPERTIES, to successfully create massive INCOME and manage passive INCOME, and most importantly, to develop a strong COMMUNITY where we can build and support each other with rich relationships.

Visit them at www.team803.com to see their upcoming events.

Sky Soft Consulting won a design award a while ago.

We are proud to announce this award and we would like to thank our team that has been working so hard in the past couple of months.

Thank you.

Seems like the folks over at GoDaddy are charging their email marketing customers if they get spam complaints. Deliverability.com broke the news when they got an email with this information sent to them from a GoDaddy customer. GoDaddy will now charge customers $200 to “manage” their complaints. Even worse is that if the customer wants to then leave them and transfer their domains to another registrar they can’t do it until they pay GoDaddy $75!

To cover all of their bases, it appears that if one of their customers uses an Email Service Provider outside of GoDaddy to advertise their GoDaddy-hosted site and they get complaints from one of their customer’s recipients, they could be hit with a fine or other action.

Wow. Serious Email Service Providers (ESPs) like VerticalResponse usually do this as a service to customers and won’t allow spammers to use their services. But let’s face it, everyone gets a complaint now and then, even customers with best intentions. The difference is that serious ESPs want to help their customers learn best practices about email marketing and not turn complaints into a new revenue stream.

If you use GoDaddy to host your website be careful. And any time you’re looking for a serious ESP, make sure you ask if they have a deliverability and abuse department - most serious ESPs do, looks like GoDaddy might not.

IMO, GoDaddy should stick to what they’re good at, being a registrar. Leave the email marketing heavy-lifting to those who “want” to do it and help businesses grow.

Source: VerticalResponse

Understanding the keys to building your personal brand begins with creating an image and more than a little passion. Knowing your skills, strengths, values and goals is the foundation of solid personal brand construction. When the right elements are in place, your brand is visible, unique and a reflection of your authentic self.

There are infinite ways to grow your personal brand once it’s been established, but only a short list of essential keys to ensuring successful results and maximizing your potential:

Explore your own truths. Building a strong personal brand demands an honest assessment of what you have to offer. It’s about knowing your weaknesses as intimately as you know your strengths and assets.

Be original. The definition of personal branding stems from the theory that there is something different about our unique blend of talent, personality and principles.
Establish credibility. Become an expert in your given field by aspiring to know more about what you do than anyone else doing the same thing. Position yourself as a source of information and be willing to share that knowledge. Create a reliable and credible personal brand that makes you the authority among your peers or colleagues.

Know your audience. Build your brand to attract your special audience. As simple as it may seem, it is often overlooked during the formative stages of brand building. Do your own research and learn what customers or clients want and need. Find out what price points, services and ideas they respond to and how you fit into the picture. Never assume!

Act with integrity. One of the most notable characteristics of the best personal brands are those built on the golden rule. They become quality brands through consistency and honesty.

It can be tempting with such a malleable medium to redesign your small business web site whenever the mood strikes.
There are some important questions to consider before embarking on a redesign. Here are some of them:

1. What do you want to accomplish?
What concrete improvements to the site will the redesign bring? Will there be more content, more functionality for users, easier/cleaner navigation? What problems with the current site will the redesign fix? Map your goals out carefully beforehand. Not only will this save time with design professionals, it’ll make it easy to judge your success later.

2. Is it worth it?
The companion to #1. Will the improvements be worth the disruption, and possible audience alienation of a redesign? Redesigns in both print and on the web have shown that no matter how great you think the new design is, there will be a segment of your audience that will hate it. Humans dislike change, and embrace familiarity. Even if people love it, they will have a learning curve with the new site, unless it works exactly like the old site. And if that’s the case, why do the redesign at all?

3. Who’s going to do it?
If you already have an existing site with enough problems/concerns to merit a redesign, I urge you to use a web professional for the job. Yes, it’s more expensive. Yes, it’s going to take time and effort to choose the right person or firm to do the project. But it’s worth it. You probably wouldn’t let a novice do your taxes, or design your next marketing campaign. So why let a novice mess with your web site?

4. Will it be easier to update?
This should be a major goal of any redesign that goes beyond the simply cosmetic. You should always be moving toward ease of administration, not just ease of use for the audience.

5. Will it be easier to navigate?
My pick for the other important goal of a redesign - the companion to #4. Does the redesign give users easier access to your content? This is especially important on the web, where every site has a different interface.

When it comes to selecting a name for your business you would assume it is the easiest part of the start up process. But in fact, there is a lot you have to take into consideration. After all, your business name acts as your identity. A poor name could keep people from even coming to your site, let alone becoming a customer.

Creativity is key when selecting a name for your online business. Anybody can come up with a bland name like Jeff’s Home Business. But throwing in creativity can help separate your business from the thousands of other businesses on the internet.

While you want to be creative, you do not want to have the name be too far out there. Creativity is good, but it is vital you stay as professional as possible. After all, it is still a business that you are running. Keep it clean and relative to what your business is about.

The next thing to keep in mind when selecting a name for your business is keeping it short and to the point. You do not want to have a business name that is long and drags on. This only makes it difficult for people to remember.

You obviously want to select a name that suits you and sums up your business. But you want to make it as visually appealing as possible to internet searchers. You have one chance to grab their attention through marketing, and sometimes it is the business name that can do it.

Source: Pew Internet

Customer groups gather information in certain ways leading to the point at which they buy a product.

An effective marketing campaign concentrates on how potential customers search for information, so the marketing information is available when and where customers are looking for it.

For example, golfers can be divided into three groups of buyers: pioneers, early followers and late followers.

Pioneers like to be the first to buy and experiment with a new product. They enjoy the intrigue of being on the cutting edge of golf innovation. They look for information on new products in golf magazines, watch what various pros are using, and even search the Internet for tips on new equipment.

A manufacturer of golf equipment usually starts out by giving their clubs to a few pros try to and by running publicity stories using the pros for endorsements.

Increasingly those manufactures are also taking their clubs to driving ranges for customers to try and using the internet as a way of finding their pioneering buyers.

There is not much point in advertising a brand new golf product to the general public. Most golfers won’t use the product until the pioneers at their favorite course have endorsed it.

The most effective marketing tactics coordinate marketing communication and promotions with the actual process the target customers goes through when deciding to buy a product.

You want to be sure to place your marketing messages in the places where customers look for information on your type of product or services.

Your website copy makes or breaks your rankings. Rankings are all about relevancy. Where do search engine look for keywords when evaluating websites? The word on each page.

If you display keywords to visitors, then your pages are indeed relevant for these terms.

Unfortunately, many companies incorporate their existing marketing material into their sites. This copy won’t contain all of the relevant keywords you now know that your target audiences is looking for in search engines.

You will also need to study your competitors’ pages that rank well to see how many total words they are using and how many times that keyword is mentioned.