Thursday, June 13, 2013

Why Every Business’s Website Should be Responsive











Morgan Stanley’s analysts predict that more people will be utilizing the mobile web rather than using the web on their desktops and laptops by the year 2015. The reasoning behind this is that smartphones today have the capability to complete tasks done on a desktop just as well. Mobile internet surfing is far more convenient, especially for someone on the go. If you have a smartphone, you have the internet in your pocket (where ever there is service of course). Social media and networking drastically increases mobile usage when it comes to people checking their Facebook, Twitter, etc. accounts. The convenience of it all trumps home computers and is the reason why mobile surfing is the way of the future.

So what is responsive web design and how does it relate? In the past businesses would have two sites: one for the desktop, and one for mobile. Now that there are handfuls of different screen sizes to design for the answer for it all is to utilize responsive web design. Responsive sites are capable of scaling down or up to any screen size if coded correctly, and it only has to be done once. Say goodbye to mobile.website.com and welcome website.com for any screen size!

Responsive sites use grid systems to delineate information. Without a grid, the site would not know how to respond to the change in screen size. Keeping it simple will make your job easier in the end and won’t make your information feel cluttered. A few premade grids that most designers use include: Bootstrap, Foundation, Skeleton, and The Golden Grid System.

It’s really important for businesses to upgrade their site to a responsive design because if a possible customer tries to access your site and it’s not mobile or tablet friendly, you might just lose their business. The friendlier the user experience is, the better the outcome. Responsive design is also good for SEO. This is so because there is only one place where the URL lives on the web rather than multiple places. As you can see, responsive web design is crucial for business and should be utilized to increase profits through mobile web traffic.

Post written by: Erica Gallo

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Exact Match Domains In The Legal Sphere

In the office, we have been discussing the effects of exact match domains, and the hypocrisy of Google's stance upon them. Let me explain, three weeks ago, we built a web page to test a theory that we had been seeing running rampantly over Google's supposed crackdown on exact match domains.

Our test revealed, that even though Google may want to discourage exact match domains, they are currently rewarding them. It only took three weeks for our EMD to rank on the first page on the highly competitive keywords of 'car accident lawyer denver.' Don't believe me? Check it out at caraccidentlawyerdenver.co/.

If you are interested more in this let us know, and we will post more about it. We think is is interesting. So, it might happen anyway. Driving more business is always exciting...

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Tips on Reducing Your Nerves While Giving a Speech

It’s perfectly natural to be nervous before and during a speech. But do not fret, for there are ways of getting around these nerves. The five tips listed below have personally helped me get past my fear of public speaking; please don’t be afraid to give them a try!

1. BREATHE 
Deep breathing is essential when it comes to calming nerves. When your body is lacking oxygen, speaking becomes physically difficult. Adults tend to take very short breaths; I think this might have to do with stress. It is best to take deeper breaths before and during your speech. Try these abdominal breathing techniques.

2. PRACTICE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN
Having notecards to refer to when you lose track of a thought, or need to reference a name is perfectly acceptable as long as you only glance down for a hot second. When you make your notecards, do not write down your speech word for word, instead, only write down key words or phrases. You should never write down your speech word for word because if you do, you will find yourself solely relying on your notecards. Doing this greatly increases your chance of reading your information instead of talking to your audience about what you know. The more you know about your topic, the better.

3. INCORPORATE HUMOR
I’ve found that incorporating humor is key to a successful speech. Of course there might be a few topics in which this may not be appropriate, so I will let you decide if you should include it or not. Everyone has a unique personality and sense of humor so use this to your advantage. I guarantee that your audience probably doesn’t want to be there as much as you do, unless it’s a wedding or joyous occasion of course. Either way, humor breaks the boredom barrier and is usually almost always appreciated. I guarantee getting laughs will boost your ego and will make you feel more comfortable with your audience.

4. INCLUDE THE AUDIENCE
If you involve your audience in your presentation, they pay more attention to those involved around them instead of just you, the speaker. This can lift some of that dead weight off of your shoulders. You also don’t want them to feel like they’re being talked at, especially if it’s for a long period of time. Find some good information about involving your audience here.

5. REMEMBER THAT THIS IS ONLY A BRIEF MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE
I promise that you will live through this. Just think that this is only going to be ‘insert amount of time here’ of your entire life. If you attempt to do all of these things, I guarantee, with time, or if you’re a natural (go you!), you will become a great public speaker!

Post written by: Erica Gallo

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Input Overload



It’s a typical day. You wake up, stretch, roll over to grab your phone, spend a few minutes catching up on Facebook notifications and your Twitter feed. Drag yourself out of bed, slide those wonderful furry slippers on, grab the paper from outside, and pour yourself a bowl of cereal so you can eat and read it. Then your day begins. A few texts from Jenny, logging onto Skype, getting the latest on Facebook, and some time spent browsing CNN.com, all while you listen to the radio or TV is on in the background. Now, when you think about it, that is A LOT of information being thrown at you all day!  Absorbing all of this information can take a lot of time out of our day. So what can we do about it?



Streamline Your Information: Instead of using several mediums to get information and communicate, shrink that down with a few services that combine all of this information for you, often for free. Below, I've mentioned my two favorites and how I use them.

Trillian: is a service that can combine your chats from Skype, Gmail, Facebook, and many others into one instant messenger that easily takes care of everything for you. This app has actually made me much more productive and freed up time from my day. I found myself primarily using Facebook for the messaging feature to talk to my friends and in turn, getting distracted by logging on Facebook a lot. Now I only get on Facebook once or twice a day and can still easily connect with friends.

Feedly: is a fantastic news-streaming platform that allows you to enter your favorite sites that you visit daily, and then congregates them into a single feed that features all of the day’s articles. It even allows you to split information into categories, in case you just want to catch up on business news or what happened today in technology.

These are just a couple of suggestions for dealing with information overload. It’s incredible how easy it is to get sucked into constantly and consistently reading every little bit of information that is thrown at you. Or even just the obsession with connecting with friends. It is easy to burn a few hours just delving through other’s profiles on Facebook. Consider instead, boosting your own productivity and still maintaining a little of both worlds and streamline the process. It will take some focusing to buckle down and do, but it’s worth it! There’s many other tactics out there. I’d love to hear how you do it in the comments below!

Post written by Nick Rizzi. Check out his Blog or connect on Google Plus with him.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Twitter, or 'The Reason I Might Get Fired'

I am the only person who feels like there is no limit to the amount of time that can be wasted on Twitter? I open up the app on my phone, and the first thing I do is scroll through my timeline. If the time-wasting was contained to this, I could live with it. That is to say, I could remain a highly efficient and engaged member of my class, workplace, social circles etc.

But it doesn't stop there. No. Never.

Next, I hit the discover button (#) and the time suck really begins. Articles about an IP address in Vatican City downloading porn, a bunny with a pancake on it, Miley Cirus "twerking". The distractions are freaking endless, and what's worse? They are insanely freaking entertaining!

What's to be done?

There are a few things I have tried to do to minimize my Twitter time-wastage:

1. Only surf Twitter on the toilet. It may make bathroom breaks at bit longer, but at least it doesn't detract from any actual work or learning.

2. Only follow people who share constructive items. Keep all the dumb sh*t out of your feed and leave it to that horrid (#) button.

3. Pick days to leave the phone at home. Easier said than done, but so necessary.

How do you deal with your Twidiction? Let us know below.


Thursday, April 11, 2013

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!

It is with a mildly heavy heart and a nominal amount of trepidation that I write this post. This is my final post on this blog. It is not, however, the end of this blog - not by any means. (Read on!) Two weeks ago, I was contacted by someone who expressed an interest. After some discussion, I have agreed to turn over the reins (so to speak). My personal involvement with 'A Season of Mists' will cease soon after I publish this.

Why relinquish this bastion of randomness? First and foremost, I haven't been doing much here of late. My personal rule of thumb is not to write if I don't have anything interesting or positive to say. Most of what I would have written these past few years would fail on one or both counts. I could claim a lack of time, but that would be a poor, thinly veiled excuse and I have tried my best not to lie to you. Second, while I have a strong sentimental attachment, I wouldn't mind seeing someone else put this place to good use. It's a little sad to see it languish, particularly given the zeal I had during the first few years (i.e., "the law school years").

I began this blog because I wanted to write. I had a desire to share my thoughts with whoever would listen. (And I had a new laptop and an internet connection in classes.) The direction remained largely amorphous barring two recurring series (Top Ten Lists and movie reviews) and the odd popular post (e.g., these two about Pop Rocks). Some of what's here is personal and some is personal commentary. I think the blog grew to become the kind of sounding board I still use in my head today - part of the running commentary of my mind. And during a particularly stressful time in my life (law school), it functioned very well as stress relief. There's something profoundly cathartic in the simple act of sharing.

I haven't decided if I'm going to attempt another blog or something different like a website. It's still largely the case that I don't have a single topic to focus on and the web has become rife with content. It's no longer necessary for me to publish a blog with my own running commentary - Facebook is the place for that particular narcissism. But we shall see. I try not to rule anything out and I suspect that my love affair with quasi-public speaking has not yet run its course.

Should anyone wish to contact me, the e-mail address still holds - AgtShadow [at] gmail [dot] com - and my name should still be here (somewhere).

Before I go, there is one last task remaining. Thank you, dear reader, for your time and interest. I am very appreciative that you chose to share some of your time with me and my insanity. It is not that I expected or demanded an audience, but that I am truly grateful for everyone who found any of my ramblings of any interest. Completely inadvertently, this blog led me to some interesting places, including a law professor's recommendation and randomly meeting a reader (another law student). My hope is that it also led you to some interesting places of your own.

The world is far bigger and weirder than any of us can hope to appreciate. Here's hoping we meet again!