Now that you have your online store you need the ability to charge your customers for the goods they purchase.  While it is possible to have customers send you a check or money order, at which time you would release their goods, the more traditional method of online commerce involves setting up some type of merchant account which processes customer's credit cards and then puts the money in your bank account. What is a merchant account you ask?  A merchant account is any company (often a bank or other financial institution) who processes credit cards on behalf of a merchant (you).  Most of the large American banks such as Bank of America, Chase, etc. have merchant services while other companies specialize in merchant services and don't have other banking facilities such as branches, ATMs and traditional checking and savings accounts.  Merchant accounts apply to your online store; however, this is the same type of merchant account you may have for your in-store credit card terminal. More...

So you're ready to start selling your products online.  Where do you begin?  Analyzing your business' goals is the most important step when making the leap to e-commerce.  Today there are hundreds of ways to sell online, the simplest being E-bay and the most complex being a full-blown custom built shopping cart solution.  Most small businesses benefit from something in the middle.  Integrating a pre-built shopping cart solution is the most cost-effective professional way to achieve your e-commerce goals.  This generally involves a web developer designing a web site for you that will allow shopping cart software to be installed behind the scenes and sell your products.  Some solutions go as far as offering you prebuilt templates with their shopping cart software allowing you to start selling your products "right out of the box".  The problem with these solutions is they are often very costly and involve significant monthly fees - convenience often costs money.More...

Not all wedding photographers were created equally.  This isn't to say that one photographer is "better" than the next guy (or gal), but it is important to know your own needs before choosing the right match.  Every photographer has his or her own style.  Some photographers take more traditional photographs with many set poses, while others shoot a more photojournalistic style capturing the magic as it happens and not trying to manipulate the action too much.  Of course there is the third type of photographer who shoots a hybrid style mixing traditional and photojournalistic.  While the two approaches are stylistically different, there is surely no right or wrong approach.  Just like vanilla and chocolate it is a matter of personal taste.More...

Video on the internet has become the hottest craze of today.  It is estimated that the word “Video” is searched 20,000 times per day on search engines, and this doesn't account for the direct traffic that sites like Google Video and Youtube receive.  In fact, according to the Alexa ranking Youtube is the third most visited website on the entire world wide web, behind only Google and Yahoo.  While this certainly says a lot about what people spend their time doing online, it should also get you thinking about how you can use video to increase your website’s traffic and promote your business...More...

Being on many ends of the design spectrum I have a chance to view quite a number of websites and analyze them as a graphic designer as well as a web designer.  The first thing I notice on any website is the company logo.  Not only is this the first thing I notice, it is also the first thing I should notice.  Branding a company logo is paramount to the success of a business.  Sure, there are many small businesses that have no logo at all and do quite well for themselves, however, commercial viability revolves around a strong logo that people will recognize and remember.  Perhaps the best example of a strongly branded logo is the McDonalds logo.  A simple yellow M is one of the most recognized symbols in the world.  If the M looked anything like the one written here in this post it would just be another M, but the "golden arches" of McDonalds helps customers feel safe knowing that even when one is thousands of miles away from home, and half way across the globe, it's the same double cheeseburger. More...

I would like to thank you firstly if you are reading this blog.  I hope to keep it informative, giving you the reader some insight into the many different fields that I deal with on a daily basis.  While I will certainly post links to my recent work for you to see what I am up to I will also post links to relevant articles by other authors, like the one I posted right before this article.  I have broken down articles into three relevant categories - Graphic Design, Web Design & E-commerce and Video production. Of course all three categories represent the three main types of work that we do here. 

 If you are reading this pos, you are undoubetedly visitng our new website which we have just launched this week.  Over the next few weeks we will be making some major and some not so major updates to the site, so enjoy.  Feel free to comment and send me your questions via e-mail.

Jason