Now, I know plenty of great web site designers and developers. Jester Creative is proud to work regularly with many very talented and highly skilled web professionals. But I’m astounded at how many so-called “Web Design Companies” are still getting away with shilling out high priced, substandard web services.

If you’re in the market for a new web site, or you’re looking for someone to help you freshen up your online presence, then I hope the following guidelines will be useful to you in choosing the right web professional for the job.

Always get an estimate in writing. Any reputable web company will offer you a free initial consultation (by phone or in person) and a complete estimate. Be wary of companies who try to sell you on a fixed price without understanding your full requirements or worse, tell you that they work on a “per page” rate. Every web site is different, and it’s important that you work with your web designer from the beginning to create a comprehensive set of requirements and features for your site.

Watch for Hidden Costs. There is nothing wrong with paying your web company to perform maintenance and update content on your site. It can save you plenty of time and worry, and be worth every penny. But be wary of companies that want to charge you every time you need to update your site. I’ve even heard of companies charging up to $100 per update, just to update simple text! A proper maintenance package should be based on a monthly fee that allows up to a certain number of hours of the web company’s time for maintenance and content updates. Be wary of anyone who wants to charge you per update.

These days, there are lots of terrific tools that enable you to have a really great web site that you can update yourself. These tools are called Content Management Systems (CMS). Many CMS systems are free, like Wordpress and Drupal, and once your web designer has programmed your site on a CMS, you can easily go in and update content yourself, without having to be a web site programming expert. This is a great option for business owners who want to be able make simple updates on their own, like adding a blog post, updating contact information, or even adding a new page to the site. You should have the option to modify your own content when you want to. Be sure to ask any web company you’re considering if they have experience with industry standard Content Management Systems like Wordpress and Drupal. If they don’t, then you may want to look elsewhere.

Search Engine Optimization is part of the deal. Sometimes I get in trouble for this one, because there are a lot of self-proclaimed “SEO Experts” out there. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of techniques that assist in getting your web site to rank higher in search engines like Google, when people search on related keywords. It’s important to the success of your site, but it isn’t some big expensive mystery.

For the average small to medium sized business, doing SEO goes with the territory of producing good web site content. If you are paying your web site design company to develop content for you too, then SEO should be included in their service. If they are trying to pitch it as an “add on” service that costs a lot more, then be sure to ask lots of questions about specifically what they will be doing for your SEO. If it seems at all gimmicky or overpriced, use caution. It never hurts to get a second opinion, either.

Have a budget in mind. Web site prices are extremely wide-ranging, from a couple or few thousand dollars for a simple site right up to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for a large scale site. Don’t let that big price range scare you, but do put some thought into what you can afford before you start calling for quotes. We tell our clients that a web site is always a work in progress. We like to take a phased approach to web projects, to get you up and running for what you can afford now, and then look at what features we can add down the road once the site starts to pay off for you. Most reputable web companies will do the same. A phased approach not only allows you to budget more easily, but it also keeps your site fresh for your customers – adding new, exciting features and content over time.

The bottom line. A web site is a big investment, so it’s important to feel comfortable that you are getting your money’s worth. If you’re looking around for a good web design company, start by talking to people you know whose web sites you like. Get referrals. Go to the company’s web site and look at some of their past projects. Is their style in line with your vision? Contact the company and ask questions about their specific development process – what will be the steps involved in putting together your site? Ask for a written estimate, and always ask for references. Work with a web company that you can establish a long-term relationship with, one that you can work with to grow, expand and manage your online presence as your company grows. That will ultimately benefit your bottom line AND your customers.

[photo credit: lastquest on Flickr]

“I need to shoot one video of my CEO talking about our new line of business.”

There is nothing wrong with producing a video of your CEO – in fact, it can be a very powerful communication tool. However, there is a fundamental problem if that’s the only video you’re making. I’ll explain.

I could go on all day about how critical it is to have well thought out content in your videos – but that’s a topic for another day. Content is indeed King, but creating amazing content can be time consuming and expensive, if you haven’t thought about how to maximize the efficiency of how it’s created.

Let’s say, for example, that you have actually managed to get your CEO in a room long enough to talk on camera about the new line of business. That in itself is challenge enough. You’re geared up to shoot 3 or 4 minutes of stellar content that your clients and prospects are going to LOVE. That is terrific, but after you’ve shot the piece, are you just going to let your CEO walk out? Who knows when you’ll be able to harness his undivided attention again!

Now, consider this. What if, when you were setting up the interview, you asked your CEO’s assistant to schedule him for 30 minutes instead of 15? You may need to wait a bit longer for an appointment, but eventually you’d get

a bit more of his time. Then, what if, instead of shooting 3 minutes of footage on the new business line, you decided to shoot 15 or 20 minutes on a variety of topics…you could talk to him about anything – strategic vision of the company, the importance of hiring good people, the success of the latest software release…the list goes on.

Suddenly, instead of a one-off clip, you have a whole pile of content to work with. You could then edit a whole series of “From the CEO’s Desk” videos that can be posted on your site, and even set them up like a podcast so people can subscribe to receive new content automatically!

There are other great reasons to approach your content from a “series” perspective. Many companies these days are opting to hire professional video producers to help them with their video content. This can be a great way to ensure you get a professional quality product without taxing your already busy in-house resources with the task of scripting, shooting and editing.

If you opt to go the pro route, then you’re going to save a ton of time and money by shooting and editing your videos in “batches”.

Instead of bringing in a video crew every time you want to shoot a new segment, you can bring in your videographer and interviewer for a full day or two. You’ll be able to bang off several interviews at once, often with only a few location changes (or all in the same location if you use a portable green screen, which allows you to superimpose any background you want). You pay once, but you get several “episodes” worth of content.

In addition, considering your content as a series (as in the “From the CEO’s Desk” example from earlier), allows your production team to create a graphic look and feel that is consistent across episodes, and therefore you’re only building graphics once and re-using them. That’s healthy for your budget and your brand.

So, what’s your next video project? Do you have an idea for a one-time clip? Is that idea something that could easily be worked into a series? Food for thought as you plan your online video strategy.

People often ask how we’re able to manage it all without having everyone working in a central office all the time. We have lots ways that we maintain good communication with our team members and our clients. Here are a few tools we use to keep everything running smoothly.

DropBox
We’re huge fans of DropBox (affiliate link). DropBox is a file sharing service that lets you share files and folders across computers or with people you specify. All you have to do is install a little piece of free software on your computer (Mac or PC) and it creates a folder just like the folders on your desktop. You can then create sub folders and upload files, and it automatically synchronizes your desktop DropBox with the online version. That means that any computer you have can be synced to the same files.

But wait, there’s more! One of the primary reasons we use DropBox is for sharing files with our clients and our team. If we’ve got videos, web site mockups, or documentation requiring approval, we simply upload the files to one of our DropBox folders and then share the link securely to anyone who needs to see that information. The person on the other end can then download and upload files to their folder easily! Users also get a notification when new files are available, so you don’t even have to send an email after uploading! DropBox makes sharing work with our clients and team super easy. And best of all, it’s free for the basic account (2GB), which is plenty of space for the kinds of files we’re sharing. There are also paid options available for larger storage needs too.

Google Wave
If you spend time on the Internet, and particularly if you have a Gmail account, you may have heard some rumblings about a tool that Google is currently developing called Google Wave. The product is in Beta testing right now, but it’s available to people via invitation (i.e. if you know someone who has a Google Wave account, you can ask them to send you an invite).

Basically, Wave is a free collaboration tool, that allows you to create “waves” of content that you can invite other people to participate in. Think of it as a chat room where you can be having an ongoing discussion, but also share links, images, maps, and other information too. There’s even a polling feature that allows you to get “votes” from your fellow Wavers.

Our Web team uses Google Wave to communicate on projects, and it works great. We can share content back and forth, provide updates, feature requests, and everyone is in the loop all the time. It saves countless emails going back and forth, and its real-time features even let you see when other people are typing their responses.

Wave has a little way to go to work out some of the bugs yet – for instance some of the interface features don’t work well and it’s sometimes a bit slow, but all in all, this tool has great potential for collaboration and sharing with teams and clients.

Skype
Skype is one tool we can’t live without. In case you’re not familiar, it’s a tool that allows you to make phone and video calls over the Internet. Although there are paid plans

where you can use Skype to call regular phone lines, we use the free service which is computer-to-computer calling. We have business associates all over the world, and we can use this tool to set up free calls between multiple people in many locations. It also has two-way videoconferencing, which we find incredibly handy for contacting clients or team members when we need to be able to show them things, but don’t have time or a travel budget for an in-person meeting. Skype also has Instant Messaging, for sending quick notes or sharing files quickly.

Face to Face Contact
There are tons of online tools out there that allow people to connect and share information efficiently. These tools certainly allow us to communicate more easily with our team and our clients. But tools only go so far – they are no replacement for face-to-face contact. We make it a point to connect in person with our clients and team members often. Keeping relationships strong is critical to a project’s success. But for those in-between times, the online tools ensure that those connections remain rock solid.

The Web has changed all of that. Now, anyone with a camera and an Internet connection can post video online in just a few minutes, and distribute it to a worldwide audience. The cost, time and level of expertise required has plummeted. This is very good news for small businesses with limited resources.

Video is one of the most engaging ways to tell your story. The use of moving images, music, narration and text can inspire, inform and enlighten. There are lots of ways to get started with video, and we wanted to share some basic tips that you can use to get you up and running, experimenting with video as a storytelling medium for your business.

Tip #1: Finding the Right Camera
A good camera is the best place to start. We recommend buying the best quality camera you can afford, but you still want to keep things simple. There’s no reason to run out and buy a $5,000 camera with more features than you need if all you’re doing is simple webcasts.

Consider what you’ll be using the camera for and how quickly you want to go from the videography stage to final product. There are many small cameras that are designed specifically for being super-portable, with point and shoot ease and one-or-two-click uploading. Our personal favourites are the Flip Ultra and the Kodak Zi8. Both offer high definition quality (albeit consumer-level high definition, but still very good), and point and shoot usability. For a couple hundred dollars you can have all you need to start making web videos.

But, even if you don’t have the money to get a video camera, making a video can be as simple as talking into your laptop web cam or cell phone camera!

Tip #2: Consider Your Story
Before you start rolling, take some time and really consider what you want your video to be about. You don’t need to script it entirely, but do think about how you want to present things. If you’re the CEO and are giving a daily update to your customers, take some time to make some notes on your key messages. Don’t be afraid to try it a few times – it’s not live TV, so it’s okay if you make a mistake – you can just do it over and over till you get it right. What’s most important is that you’re communicating your message well. Preparing ahead of time will help your story to be clear.

Tip #3: Quality Matters
It’s all fine and well to have a great story to tell, but if nobody can see or hear it, it’s not going to fly. Presenting a substandard quality video could reflect poorly on your company, so you want to make sure that you’re presenting something technically sound. You don’t have to have the fanciest equipment in the world to make it look and sound good. Make sure you’re shooting in a well-lit location. Be careful that you don’t have any windows or bright lights directly behind you, or you’ll look like a silhouette. Try to limit background noise, like people talking, or phones ringing. Of course, if you’re outside on the street, this will be more difficult. In this case, do a test recording to make sure you can be heard over the background noise.

Tip #4: Put it all Together
If your video is just you talking straight to the camera for a few minutes, then minimal editing will be required. However, if you want to get a bit more fancy, by putting in an opening title, some graphics, music, or different visuals, then you’ll need to do some editing. There are free tools available, such as iMovie for Mac and Windows Movie Maker, and for simple stuff, this is all you’ll need. If you want to get more fancy, you can check tools like Adobe Premiere Elements or Corel VideoStudio. The pro tools, like Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro are expensive and probably overkill for simple web videos, and have a steeper learning curve, so there’s no real reason to consider those.

Be warned…editing can take time. You have to decide if it’s worth it for you or someone in your office to spend time in their day editing videos. If you do, then rest assured that you can get up and running pretty simply using the consumer level tools mentioned here.

Tip #5: Ask an Expert
There are lots of people who do just fine putting together their own web videos. They have been able to invest a bit of money and a few resources into it, and it’s paying off.

In some cases, you may decide that it would be a more effective use of resources to bring in the pros. Hiring a video production company that specializes in corporate web video is a good option, if you are looking to produce a one-off special or series, or to do multiple projects over a longer period.

A professional production company can help you refine your stories, hire professional on-air talent, and has access to better quality equipment. The videographers and editors are capable of making your finished product polished and professional, and this can reflect well on your customers and ultimately on your sales.

No matter whether you choose to be an in-house video crew or hire a pro, one thing is clear…video is the way of the future. If you don’t already have plans to incorporate video into your online efforts, now is the time.

Good luck!

The same can be said for web sites. We’ve all been there – we launch a great new design, with spectacular new content, and then poof! Two or three years have gone by and not a stitch of it has been updated. The colours are bland. The technology is outdated. You are almost embarrassed to have the web site address on your business cards.

The solution? Start again and build a new site, of course! But building an updated site doesn’t always mean starting over. In many cases, our clients come to us because they’ve been told by someone that in order to do a proper update to their site, they have to start over from scratch, basically throwing away all the work they did before and spending exorbitant amounts of time and money to rebuild. We believe there’s a different way.

Sometimes a little TLC is all that’s required. There’s a good chance that you’ve got more going for you than you may think in terms of your web site. Many of our clients come to us with web sites that look circa 1997, but more often than not, they’ve got some great content lurking in the corners. We help them dig out the hidden gems, and explore other sources of content too. Almost everyone has brochures, ads, white papers, and presentations that they’ve been creating all along, even while the web site went ignored. All of that content is valuable. When we perform a content audit as a first step, we uncover the true stories, waiting to be told. With some close review and revision, we create a foundation. And with a foundation, there’s inspiration to find new ways to present the existing content in fresh, clean, clear new way. Think of it as cleaning house, putting a fresh coat of paint and some new pictures on the wall. After that, we do re-vamp of the look and feel and our clients are back in business, without the need to start from scratch.

A web site is ALWAYS a work in progress. With a fresh new look and feel and a message that sticks, you’re well on your way to regaining pride in your online presence. But it doesn’t stop there. Remember, the road to stagnant web sites is paved with good intentions. The last thing you want to do, after investing time and money into a freshened up site is let it go stale again. We tell our clients that building and maintaining a great web presence is about having a strategy in place to ensure its long term success and their positive return on investment. This means understanding their audience, understanding their lines of business, and understanding how they’re going to use online tools and techniques to connect with people and build lasting relationships that help their businesses to flourish. Businesses that succeed online do so because they have mastered the two-way human interaction that is fundamental and unique to online marketing, and because they are continually providing fresh, relevant content.

Ultimately, it comes down to your goals. It’s about understanding what you need to achieve with your web presence and then implementing a plan that is going to yield results. Keeping these things in mind, you’ll be well on your way to unveiling a new world of online opportunities that can only stand to benefit your business and your customers.

However, there are some very fundamental reasons to have a presence in different regions, and to that end, Jester Creative Inc. is now expanding its business to Toronto, establishing itself as a premiere media production company in that market. We help our clients tell their stories through insightful and inspired video, audio, graphic, and written content, and we believe that by being present in the heart of our country will provide our clients the opportunity to connect with us more frequently and for our already strong partnerships to thrive.

If you’re in the Toronto area and are interested in finding out more about how Jester Creative can help you exceed your media, communication and storytelling goals, you can contact our Toronto office at (647) 669-1616 for more information and a free estimate.

We look forward to working with you!

For the last week I have been watching nothing but The House Healers, and I think I have Jen’s intro pretty much memorized. After watching half of the first season, meeting Brennan in person was like meeting a celebrity. The House Healers is a very compelling, addictive show. You can’t stop watching halfway through the season. You have to find out what happens. When Jen is frustrated with plans changing, you’re frustrated with her. When she complains that someone isn’t pulling their weight or following through on promises, you hope, for his sake, that you never meet him in the street. It’s very exciting to follow the rebirth of these beautiful homes. I hope I get to be a part of The House Healers: Season Three.

Want to see for yourself? Check out a few episodes online!

New Web Site

We’ve been having a super busy Fall. We’ve just launched our brand new web site and have been overwhelmed with your positive feedback! We appreciate you taking the time to stop by and leave a comment on Jen’s and my Facebook pages. We hope to provide you with not just info about goings-on at Jester, but also with some practical advice that you can take away with you. Subscribe for free to our blog via email or through your newsreader over on the right hand side of the page.

Scary Fall Fun
Fall is always a really fun time for us, as it means Haunting Season, and working with the gang over at Saunders Farm. We’ve been working with Vancouver film director Andrew Lavigne to produce a series of video vignettes for Saunders Farm over the past few years, and this year we’re also helping them with some social media marketing too. We put together the first ever Trick or Tweetup for Saunders Farm’s Twitter followers, and are helping them run the Canada’s Next Top Monster YouTube Video contest. It’s been great fun and you can check out the videos on their YouTube page.

House Healers Wraps 2nd Season
Our TV show, The House Healers, is wrapped up for the 2nd season. We did some terrific projects this year, including some remarkable renos to an outdated cottage and a sorely neglected home in the city. The show is currently airing on RogersTV here in Ottawa, and Season 1 and 2 will be online soon for all to see!

We’re also pleased to announce a great new partnership with House Healers Home Improvement, a full service design and renovation company based here in Ottawa. Check them out online at www.ineedahousehealer.com and if you want to have a real, live House Healer do your next renovation project, give them a call!

Get in Touch
We’re always looking for exciting new projects. If you have a web, media, or marketing project in mind, give us a call for a free consultation and estimate. We look forward to working with you!

Sue and Jen

I sat back down.

In that instant, I knew that things were about to change in a big way. I’d been working in television for about 6 years at that point and was pretty savvy about all kinds of media. But this…this was different. I realized that if people had the ability to post information that anyone in the world could see, then this could have a significant impact on the way people communicate.

Fast-forward a few years and the Web had become mainstream. By the late 90’s and early 2000’s, there were millions and millions of web sites. Many of these sites were basically online business cards – text and images on a screen, that in large part, displayed company descriptions and contact information, and not much more. There were some nifty new languages and tools appearing on the market that let you have some amount of interactivity and animation…but they weren’t the norm yet. Video was a bit of a pipe dream, as connection speeds simply weren’t fast enough to handle it. But companies were really starting to see the value in having a web presence.

Today, the Web is ubiquitous, to the point where companies that don’t have a web presence are perceived as lacking credibility. And it’s no longer just about having an online business card. Sure, it’s vitally important to ensure that your contact information appears, and that your site tells visitors something about your company. But there’s so much more to it now.

The Web has evolved from a relatively passive viewing experience (like TV) to a dynamic, two-way conversation. Social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs have revolutionized the way that companies interact with their customers.

But perhaps one of the biggest progressions on the Web has been online video. YouTube went online for the first time in 2005, and changed the way we perceived video. Video used to be mysterious and expensive. Now, anyone with a web cam and an idea can make a video. Bring some professional video people into the mix, and you can do something truly remarkable.

There’s no question nowadays that having a solid web presence is an integral part of marketing your business or organization. Using the amazing tools we have at our disposal to craft compelling stories and create real, engaging, two-way conversations is a key step in the process. The Web is a powerful medium, and it’s within reach of anyone.

So what are you waiting for?