Customer Appreciation Month = Par-TAY!

We’re letting the deals flow through the whole month of December, because it’s Customer Appreciation Month at Talance.

Why? Oh, just because we love you. From time to time we like to come up with excuses for expressing our gratitude for your support, loyalty and general fandom.

A month of fun-days

Sounds like fun, right? Here’s what we’ve got lined up:

December 2

Garbled Grammar Contest

Tap into your inner curmudgeon and share your favorite mixed metaphor, mysterious company tagline or other language gaffe. You’ll be entered to win a free clear-writing or site-review consultation from writing and online communications consultant Kyla Cromer. (Kyla’s current favorite: “Qwest is becoming CenturyLink. Two companies, stronger connected.”)

December 9

Cutest Mug Ever and Gift Card

Share where you find design inspiration, and you’ll receive a gift card via e-mail. One lucky entrant will receive a limited edition Talance travel mug. Man, these things are cute.

December 16

Teach Beyond Your Reach Drawing

Enter to win a free copy of Robin Neidorf’s acclaimed book about e-learning Teach Beyond Your Reach: An Instructor’s Guide to Developing and Running Successful Distance Learning Classes, Workshops, Training Sessions and More. All you have to do is tell us about your favorite training activity.

December 23

Drawing for a free SEO analysis

Tell us what you plan to do to make your website more findable on the web, and pick up nine quick tips for improvement. We’ll select one entrant to win a free SEO analysis and report – a $600 value!

December 30

Frankenspeak Contest with the Content Rules team

Share the words and phrases that you’d like to ban from marketing, sales, corporate communications, business schools, blogs and boardrooms, and you’ll be entered to win a copy of Content Rules, by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman. Ann is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and C.C. is the Founder of Digital Dads.

Logistics

Here’s how it’ll work. Every week we’ll publish a new special offer on the blog either from us or one of our trusty partners. And, because we appreciate future customers too, we’re making each offer available to anyone, whether they’ve worked with us before or not.

A new contest opens up every single week of December on the blog and runs for 30 days. Specific details about each offer will be posted with each post, so make sure you’re checking back for updates every week. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed (not sure what an RSS feed is?) or sign up for our Weekly Deal E-mail list so you don’t miss a thing.

Keep in the loop

Each week’s treat will debut on our blog, but we’ll send notifications also on our Twitter account and on our Facebook page to learn more. So, while you’re thinking about it:

Follow us on Twitter.

Like us on Facebook.

Sign up for our Weekly Deal E-mail list

Excited? We are too! From all of us at Talance: thank you!

Here’s a little secret many people don’t know about building projects for the web. You don’t have to do everything from scratch. There are so many tools out there that do the tricky stuff for you, that you really don’t have to be an HTML wiz to have a polished looking website.

Here are some excellent tools to help you fake web excellence:

Table Builders

Tables are the nemesis of many well-meaning web worker. They can be tricky to build from scratch, but no need with these.

Quackit HTML Table Generator

TableGen

Code-Generator.net HTML Table Generator

Color Palettes

Color theory is a practice that people spend years perfecting. But you can fake it pretty well with these tools that help you choose complimentary colors.

Color Scheme Designer

Color Schemer Online

Elvan Online

Image Generators

A few well-placed images can help bring your site to life. These three tools help you manage and create pictures to illustrate your pages.

PicMarkr lets you to add custom watermark to your images.

Digital Post It Note Generator

Create A Graph

A Well-Balanced, Healthy Website: HealthImperatives.org

Health Imperatives, a public health agency in Brockton, Mass., knows that the healthiest clients are the ones they can reach the best. That’s why they worked with Talance to create an innovative new website that brings together their myriad programs under one domain.

The new website brings together several features designed to help guide visitors around the site, including a handy “drawer” style menu (click Programs and Services), plus a robust multi-site format that keeps the various programs, each with its own identity, looking similar. Because the site is built on Drupal, administrators from each program are able to make their own edits.

The site incorporates many features, including an online store, registration for a large online learning program, forums, search and private user areas.

Visit the site.

2001 to 2011 and Beyond

When I was a kid, I thought the relativity of time had something to do with how it sometimes flew by, and other times it crept along (like my trip to Disneyland at 10 vs. my entire school education grades K-12). I’m hardly any brighter about physics now, but it still seems the last 10 years have passed by both in a blur, and also slow enough for a tremendous amount to have happened.

It was just after New Year’s Day in 2001 that we officially launched Talance, handling software development, writing copy and managing projects. Every year has been absolutely packed, but we’ve been marching steadily toward our goal of being a friendly, dependable technical resource for nonprofits and government agencies.

I’m happy to say that on the days when I have time to look up, I feel like we’re doing it. We’ve started new initiatives (print design), built up some of our cornerstones (e-learning and web development) and meet clients that feel more like friends. We’re working together to evolve in a space that’s changing so fast it’ll give you whiplash if you watch (ahem, social media).

Rather than making this a 10-year retrospective, I’d like to look forward. It’s much more useful to think about where we’ll be 10 years from today rather than the other way around. Where’s the progress in that? I don’t know what the technological landscape will look like (did anyone expect to be here back in 2000?), so we’ll bundle up our collective experience and move forward on a clear open road, equipped for twists and turns.

I know that wherever we are, it’ll be built on a foundation of expertise and helpfulness. Thanks to the clients who work with us and thanks to all the developers, designers, testers, writers and all other people who have helped make Talance what it is.

Here’s to the next decade.

Monique Cuvelier
CEO
Talance, Inc.

[Photo credit: Happy Birthday Candles on Angel Foods Cake by Rob J Brooks, on Flickr]

Do enough people know about your website? It can and should be your most powerful marketing tool, delivering a steady stream of new visitors and pushing your message to a wider audience.

Increase your cyber-reach without over-burdening yourself by performing one small task a day throughout March with our Task-a-Day Website Promotion Checklist.

This freebie is part of our year-long birthday celebration. We’re celebrating our 10th year by giving out presents to YOU. This one is coming at you from now until March 31. Hurry, though, because after the 31st, it will be gone. Make sure to check in for our April birthday surprise.

[This little gem is the e-mail newsletter our subscribers just received. Want a slice of this for yourself? Sign up now.]

Things Just Got Cheaper

We really don’t have to make our Websites 1-2-3 any cheaper, but we are anyway! Now you can have a fully functional, super-powered website with your colors and pictures for just $1599. Check it out.

Need more? Supersize it for $1999 and get sign-up forms and e-newsletters.

Want to go all out? Pick from our library of add-ons, including calendars, blogs – the sky’s the limit.

Of course, we do fully custom websites, too – just let us know if you have something specific in mind and we’ll bring it to life.

Signed,
Your Internet Pals at Talance

[This little gem is the e-mail newsletter our subscribers just received. Want a slice of this for yourself? Sign up now.]

Digging for Website Gold

Too many people think the best content they have to offer on their websites are event listings. Sure, those are helpful, but you almost certainly have something better you’re already producing that you can use to make your website a better resource. Here are some ideas to help you dig up hidden content:

Newsletter. It may be printed, or an e-newsletter you’re sending out via a third-party service, but chances are someone has written articles that can be used somewhere on your website.

Sermons. Congregations we work with are always producing some kind of spiritual thoughts worth sharing, including sermons and prayers.

Employee reports. Most companies have regular staff meetings where employees give status reports, and many of these reports center around special events and campaigns.

E-mail. Everybody writes e-mails, and some of the stuff you send out must be applicable to the people who visit your website. Look through your sent messages for treasures.

Training. Many organizations have manuals stacked on office bookshelves that contain useful information. Translate that online, and it can be more accessible to the people who need to see it.

Think creatively about where you look for content, and your website will be a richer place.

[Photo credit: 10 by Phae, on Flickr]

It’s the second month of our 10th year anniversary bash, and we’ve just kicked off a new deal. From now until February 28, get 10% off anything.

Yup, anything.

This one only lasts for a month. Click here and start saving. Hurry!

[This little gem is the e-mail newsletter our subscribers just received. Want a slice of this for yourself? Sign up now.]

Hi, Friends.

We’ve got some great tips for you in this year’s very last issue of Talance’s Friendly E-Newsletter for improving your website and online communications strategy:

• Start with our article on how to define your audience (including the most useful questions you’ll have to ask to do so).
• Sign up for our new Websites 1-2-3 package – super powerful websites for your organization that don’t take a super-sized budget (only $1999!).
• Read through highlights from our favorite advice that we picked up on Twitter.
• Find out what everybody loved from our blog in the last month.

Wishing all our friends happy holidays!

From,

Your Internet pals at Talance

Catch is not a one-person game. That game is called Throw the Ball in the Middle of a Field, and it’s no fun.

The same principle applies to launching a new website – you have to have someone to aim to, otherwise, you can expect poor results. That’s why your first step with designing a new website should be to determine your target audience(s) so you can customize your site for them.

How? Start asking questions and see what answers emerge. You can consult whatever demographics information (age range, gender, geography, education, income, hobbies) you already have, and then see if you can develop a clearer profile by asking these questions:

1. What does a typical volunteer/supporter/member look like?
2. What does an ideal volunteer/supporter/member look like?
3. What do many of our volunteers/supporters/members have in common?
4. When we started, who did we have in mind as a volunteer/supporter/member?

You’ll see what a huge difference it makes just knowing why you’re building. And your website visitors will appreciate it too.

Websites 1-2-3 gives you an easy to edit website – fast! Get started with a clean, super-powered website hosted on the Drupal content management system (CMS). Then load it up with a selection of free goodies (like a blog or interactive calendar – or both!). Then sit back while we bring it all together with your custom colors, pictures and logo.

It really is that easy.

» Click here to get started!

In honor of our new offering for congregations, here are some highlights from the Talance Friendly Web Tools Blog. Make sure you’re reading http://talance.com/blog and get automatic updates of new articles.

Reader Question: How Do I Add a Facebook Page to My Page’s Favorites?

How To Start a Blog in 14 Steps for Congregations

21 Ways Volunteers Can Help with Your Website

How to Scrap Your Paper Bulletin

How To Write Really Helpful Web Development RFPs

These are our most-clicked and most discussed postings on Twitter. Want to see what we have to say? Follow us: http://twitter.com/talance.

• For those of you wondering what Facebook Connect is “What’s More Awesome than Sharing? Publishing, with Facebook Connect” http://ow.ly/Ffco
• So much interesting info about Twitter, from Pew Internet & American Life Project http://ow.ly/BVKw
• From @rabbijason, on expanding your marketing message with voice mail messages: How about “We’re not in right now, but u can send us a message on Twitter or write a message on a paper airplane & throw it to us.”
• From @katzpdx You are 100% correct. [Social media] should be treated as another marketing channel/tactic

Need Some Help?

Talance has helped clients launch scores of projects, ranging from websites to online newsletters to CRM projects. Please click here to schedule a time to talk about your next project or to request a proposal.

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Don’t keep this good stuff all to yourself. Click that Forward button and send to a friend.

Here on this very last day of 2008, I thought I’d take a look back at the Friendly Web Tools blog entries over the year and share with you those that generated the most responses and feedback. Read, enjoy and happy New Year!

1. Really Deleting What’s on Your Computer
2. Good advice on asking for a new website
3. Careful When Throwing Away Computers
4. Importance of Needs Assessment
5. Killer Church Websites
6. 3 Antidotes to Human Stupidity
7. Best in Social Networks
8. Excellent Tool for Identifying Fonts
9. Gadget Monday: Big Zip-Topped Bag for Cables When Traveling
10. Understanding the Size of Gen Y