Having trouble fitting everything on the screen? Are you finding that you are displaying too much information all at once, potentially confusing the user? Consider collapsible interface design to hide areas/information that aren't the immediate need. This will allow you to conserve space and better direct your user to the desired action. Collapsible interfaces are great for administration interfaces, where there is a lot of editable information available but not all of it is commonly edited but.... read more

Social media marketing has quickly become a priority for many entrepreneurs and small businesses, and its appeal is only continuing to grow. Unfortunately, many business owners become increasingly frustrated by the fact that although they have increased the amount of time they spend on various social media websites, they aren't seeing the return they'd hoped. Shared frustration Their complaint is not uncommon. Although we've touched on the topic of maintaining a realistic social media ROI pers.... read more

When it comes to their business and search engine ranking, most business owners have one word in mind: Google. Although Google has its place, it's equally important not to discount the numerous alternative sites that can help you cultivate new leads. First up: Yelp.com What it is: a website that allows users to post reviews of businesses in cities all over the world. Many business owners either love or seriously love to hate Yelp.com. The controversies are well documented across the internet,.... read more

Messy PSDs (aka Photoshop files) are a nightmare. While it may feel daunting, it is critical that web designers understand how to keep clean PSDs in order to facilitate a smooth process for all involved. Ready for a crash course in Photoshop etiquette? Let's get started! Photoshop Commandments 101 1. Thou shalt name thy layers. You must name all of your layers. Why? Because if you don't, you end up with a PSD that contains numerous layers that simply say, layer copy... and let's be honest, wh.... read more

Maintaining a healthy perspective about a site's rank within search engines is often a challenge for many website owners. In an effort to be #1, many companies hire so-called 'experts' who excessively manipulate the code of a website with the hope of improving the site's rank. Does the code of your website really matter? Yes, the quality of your website's code matters a great deal! Although it may not directly impact your conversion, clean code does aid in... Overall performance of your web.... read more

I want to be #1 on Google! If I had a dollar for every time a client or perspective client has said this to me over the past 3 years, I'd have purchased one of those private islands being advertised in Dubai. I hope you caught my humor, but here's the thing... I'm not really kidding. It's okay; you can admit it: you want your website to be number one on Google and every other search engine. I get it... If you've read some of my recent blogs, you may already be familiar with some recent SEO in.... read more

By now you've heard about the 'less than 5 seconds' rule when hooking visitors to your website. Unfortunately this leads many businesses trying to cram a single page with as much information as possible. Bad idea. Let's take a look at some simple (and not so simple) sites and we'll explain why simplicity really is more effective.   Not-So-Simple The Problem: Too much information! Most will likely agree that there's just too much going on here. In order to avoid this common mistake, it'.... read more

For all the talk about successful online marketing and interacting with your potential client base, a common question on the minds of many business owners becomes how to gain a wider audience. Although we've covered many of the basics (engagement, consistent communication, etc...) there's a lot of information out there and implementing it may seem daunting. So, how does one become influential online? Not only do you need to be knowledgeable and passionate, you need commitment. Yes, commitment. .... read more

Being active in social media is a struggle for many organizations. Even those who understand the importance and genuinely want to be involved often lack one key necessity: time. Enter software as a service. Many of our clients are familiar with Luna's Social Media Module (SMM), and in fact, it's one of our most popular software offerings. Social Media Meets SAAS (aka Software as a Service) In the case of Luna's Social Media Module, as well as other similar SAAS offerings, the value is found .... read more

While out to lunch with my 80 year old father last week, he informed me that he wanted my help setting up his Twitter account. As I tried to wrap my head around the utterly terrifying prospect that my father was likely to become my new #1 twitter fan, I gave him general information about the site, what it does, how it's used, etc... Needless to say, we had a very long lunch. In reality, there are many people like my dad who have heard of twitter, tweeting (aka 'sending a twit' in Dad-speak), an.... read more

Because the internet is not going away, your website is the best piece of marketing your business has With that being the case, it is absolutely critical that your company website be designed and executed in the right way. A common issue we've noticed over the years is that many business owners are extremely married to their idea of what, 'looks good'. Don't get me wrong, we want you to be happy with your site, however, a strong website will have the ability to reach your target audience, answe.... read more

Social media is my well-documented addiction. Unsurprisingly, I'm currently pretty much obsessed with Twitter's new Vine app. While Vine had its share of early controversy, its popularity and fascination with six-second looping video is only continuing to grow. For business owners, Vine means one thing: opportunity. Golden Goose It may seem easy to write off, but business owners should ignore the potential marketing goldmine, Vine, can offer. Sure, many Vine videos involve cats, bad holiday sw.... read more

Did you accomplish everything you wanted to this year?   Perhaps you didn't - but I'm sure the year had many highlights.   We recently looked back on our year and found we did indeed accomplish a lot. Did we do everything we wanted to. Probably not.  But that's ok. Taking inventory allows you to reset, make new goals and see how great the year really was. Here are Luna's top 10 of accomplishments during 2012... Worked with Many Great People to Launch Many Great Websi.... read more

Creating content for your website is really important. It helps ensure your website will get "indexed" by search engines like Google and Bing.  Fresh, unique and regular content is a must for a healthy website. But don't just build out content for the search engines and ignore your users. Your website visitors will enjoy your blogs and articles more if you provide graphs, infographics, photos and videos. You can even get free high quality photos if you do a little be of research. So where .... read more

The core of a relationship to customers, clients, readers and audiences is always based on the way that we speak to them. It can’t be stated enough; creating an environment of trust and loyalty is based on the way you speak to your audience. Is your business creating a unique voice that your customers can identify with?  By taking stock of the current tone in your businesses marketing materials, site, newsletters, and contact with customers you can go a long way toward understanding .... read more

The goal of every business is to solve problems. Any business, regardless of size or goals works to solve problems for it’s customers and clients.  Customers look for solutions. They search the web for answers to their problems. Daily, for hours at a time. Sometime these problems can be so embarrassingly simple that they avoid asking someone they know; and instead search the web.  It’s one of the great success of the web. We have created a human knowledge base where all q.... read more

One of the easiest and fastest ways to generate content your website is to blog. But what to write about? The impulse to create lists of content drivel come strong to a beginner, but the secret to the maintenance of quality content that leads to quality traffic is providing solution to problems. The web and your website is made up of content. The content that we find ourselves searching for usually helps us solve a problem. Perhaps we want to find a 24 hour plumber? Maybe we’re looking for.... read more

Creating new users is always important, but creating an environment for the ones that are already there is equally, if not more important. Anyone that works in client services will tell you that a new client is not the same as an old client that has come back. Making it a point to find new clients or visitors to our site is a worthy goal, but taking care of the people already in the fold is nearly twice as important. Creating customer satisfaction is critical at every step in the production pipe.... read more

Some people wonder what it takes to get visitors to your website. I wouldn't say anything is really "secret" about SEO anymore - it's just a lot of hard work. At Lunawebs.com we believe strongly in the power of SEO and Online marketing campaigns. While the work that we do is varied and detailed, here's a high-level view of our methodology to get visitors to your website. I'll develop each of these out in the future with how you can get each of these accomplished. Research Market & Comp.... read more

Have you ever created a screen to display data for selection only to come back a month later and realize that the amount of data showing makes the interface unwieldy or too slow? You sir may require some adaptive user interface programming. In the programming world we try to create interfaces to allow the most direct way to access the data with the least amount of work. Let's examine an example to understand a little better how adaptive user interfaces work and how they could benefit our situat.... read more

How well do you know your customers? It’s an important question to ask because it’s a crucial first step before we start figuring out how to market, advertise, or engage with them.In the past, we’ve talked about finding out who our users are and how we talk to them, but these techniques are certainly used best when we know who we’re talking to. Taking the time to think about who your ideal customers are to can be an invaluable exercise. Designing the Profile We have two o.... read more

There’s no denying that social media can be a very powerful tool in the arsenal of a small business, but with all of the social networks out there to choose from, do you really have to be on all of them?  Probably not. In fact being on all of them might be a really bad idea.Spreading Yourself Too ThinEvery time you sign your business up for a new social media service you’re telling your customers that you care enough about a platform to use it. There’s really nothing wron.... read more

You may have come to know about google webfonts api, you may have also used a google webfont here or there in a project. However you may not have known that you can get access to a great majority of the google webfonts as TTF files that you can install to your OS and use for design mockups. Using google webfonts in your mockups will help you decide on a font before it comes time to implement the HTML code. It will also allow you to create images that can use the same google webfont as you may u.... read more

The web we know is changing. The time where we saw it as a group of static pages, brochures for businesses and the services is now in the distance. Where we are now is a much more exciting dynamic and interesting age for people who live, work and run business on the web. Having a plan is more important than ever, and here’s the truth: your site isn’t going anywhere unless you have a plan for it. This is where Content Strategy comes in. Content Strategy is an emerging discipline .... read more

Websites that don’t contain interactive elements often feel like little more than brochures. Over the years, there have been a number of ways to add interactive content to your site. Flash and CSS are still commonly used in some tasks but with the introduction of AJAX during the web 2.0 era, and with increasing interest in HTML5, a lot of attention is being focused on JavaScript. Here are a few tips to make sure that the JavaScript on your site is running better and faster. This list is m.... read more

You recently made the decision to re-design your website. You found a great company, went all out, and the wow-factor of the new site is impressive. The work ends there, right? No. On the contrary, you're really just getting started. While a new design aids in building a brand image, continually adding unique and engaging content provides a hook. Not only is this a great way to aid in increasing site traffic, it can also provide an edge over the competition. When you offer additional value to yo.... read more

Previous models of advertising, communication and marketing have been based around the concept of interruption. Users and customer are increasingly become more attuned to what advertising and interruptions look like and are adopting patterns of media consumption that allow them to bypass and ignore content that isn't relevant to them. So how do you create content that moves past those filters and also adds credibility and expertise to your business? The answer is simple: social media. Creating.... read more

In previous articles we’ve covered some of the things to think about when developing mobile apps. In this brief article we’ll focus on some of the fundamental differences in creating apps for the three most popular platforms; Android, iOS and Window’s Mobile. Google Android Google prides itself as giving software developers an open-platform to develop applications on. This means that unlike some of it’s competitors they don’t require approval to develop for it&rsq.... read more

Here at Lunawebs we encourage site owner and entrepreneurs to generate their own content. For one, it allows business owners to develop a stronger understudying of their business. It also allows them to understand how they appear to their customers and clients.These are great tools for teaching entrepreneurs and site owners how content creation can add value to their business. But while blogging, tweeting, and posting to Facebook sound like really easy things to do some entrepreneurs struggle w.... read more

This entry is 2  of a 3 part series. For the full experience make sure to read: - "Social Media: A Party For Your Customers - Part 1: Joining the Party".   Facebook: The Living Room Party Facebook can be, and is definitely used in a variety of ways. From disseminating information to saying hello to old friends. The most rewarding use of Facebook for users comes from not being bombarded with information. Users of Facebook tend to see their stream as akin to a living room party.... read more

Here at Lunawebs we encourage video use by offering our clients a competitively priced in-house video production studio. Smart entrepreneurs and successful business owners realize that offering video clips on their sites and dedicated YouTube channels is a killer way to market their business as well as raise brand awareness. Take into consideration that YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world and you’ll come to the realization that video is more powerful than a l.... read more

The internet is filled with phoneys, and charlatans claiming to be well-versed in the dark arts of repairing companies and brands. A few searches and clicks will bring you to the door step of companies that claim to specialize in generating content that will make your business look better. Similar in nature to “article spinning”, which we’ve written about before, it should be avoided at all costs. While there are many methods and services that will provide small business owner.... read more