Greetings to our Friends and Family of Clients,
Thank you for all of your support and referrals so far. We're celebrating our 8th year in business creating beautiful, functional, effective, profitable, successful websites for you -- let us know how 10K Webdesign can be of service to your organization and to others in the green, progressive, sustainable, and luxury e-commerce spheres.
For those of you who don't know yet know what Drupal refers to, it is a very powerful content management system, one which many organizations have embraced in recent years because of its flexibility, security, robustness, and powerful SEO capabilities.
Contact us if you want more details on how to upgrade or improve your existing website.
We offer a $200 referral fee to you if you refer your associate to us and they decide to build a website with us.
Here's our latest news from 2011:
Drupal MeetUp Northern Virginia
In Alexandria, 10K hosted a get-together with progressive Drupal users. The beauty of being a part of the open source community is the spirit of sharing, continuous learning, and camaraderie that comes with participating in a strong movement around the world.
http://www.MeetUp.com is an excellent way to connect with other people in your business or sphere of influence.
Search by keyword or location to find other MeetUps nearby - or consider starting your own group.
Drupal Camp Hawai'i
Regional camps are a fun and effective way to share knowledge and make connections. More than 30 participants came to Honolulu for the First Annual Drupal Camp Hawaii
Developers from 10K Webdesign, Anthology, Partners in Development Foundation, Hawaii International Film Festival, Chapter Three, and Rob Bertholf Consulting shared knowledge on the latest version (7), comparing Wordpress vs. Drupal, and the most commonly-used Drupal tools. 10K formed Drupal Hawaii in 2010 to organize other Drupal developers in Hawai'i: http://www.drupalhawaii.com.
Local High School Intern Program
Last year 10k Webdesign began an internship program training local high school students how to install, set up, and manage Drupal websites.
After a full year we are happy to say that our two interns, Caulin Nelson-Angelsea and Ehiku Arnold, have exceeded our expectations. Not only have they worked on many projects as support staff but they have also successfully completed their own for-pay projects.
The high school they attend has a low graduation rate, and a very low college attendance rate. Through our program they have gained a window into how the "real world" operates.
We hope the experience motivates them to finish high school and continue their studies at the university level.
Monica's guest article makes Executive Street's Top Ten
"How to Make your Workplace Millennial-Friendly: What We can Learn from Vin Diesel"
Our article on Millennials made the top 10 at Vistage Business Blog, a resource for C-level executives and managers in North America.
"As Generation Y Millennials enter the workforce, senior managers across the country express bafflement, confusion, and frustration at the inevitable gaps in communication that arise when the younger folks culturally clash with the Boomers…" Read the full article
Women on Business is a Forbes Top 20
WomenonBusiness.com, where we have been contributing regular articles since 2008, has been listed as one of ForbesWoman's 20 Best Marketing & Social Media Blogs by Women.
Bookmark the site for timely, real-world information on women and business: http://www.womenonbusiness.com
Industry News: Drupal 7
This year we began to implement Drupal's newest iteration: Drupal 7.
The experience has been mostly positive, but it comes with a learning curve and some rough edges. The great thing about 7 is that it does a lot right. The new features make it even easier to install, manage, and update. Because Drupal is open source it has over 100,000 developers working on the system and hundreds of free add-ons. As bugs are found, modules are updated. This has helped to create a more solid and trustworthy system.
Because 7 is now the current version, many modules for Drupal 6 are no longer being updated. This can affect functionality as well as security. If your site is using Drupal 6, consider your timeline to upgrading to Drupal 7 and contact us when you're ready.
The Long Term Approach (how long it really takes for a site to catch on)
How do you "light a fire" under a website?
How do you get more traffic and higher rankings on search engines? It is not a complicated process, but it takes time - like anything worth doing. The key ingredient to boosting your visitors is high-quality, relevant content.
Your site must prove it is relevant by continually adding new engaging, informative, "clickable" content. This can be blog posts, resource links to websites or articles, announcements, featured items, and more. The more you post, the more "relevant" your site becomes for your specific keywords. As you build up a large library of information, you offer more pages on your site that search engines will catalog.
Add your blog posts, articles, and informational links diligently - it's the best way to increase your relevance and rankings.
Take 10K's popular blog A Successful Woman as an example. First started in 2006, we have added more than a thousand posts which are now viewed by search engines as the top-ranked source for "successful woman".
In 2010 we converted the site from WordPress to Drupal and brought on guest contributors to increase the diversity and quantity of posts.
Currently the site receives 5,000+ unique visitors each month: for a niche blog, that's a significant number for potential advertisers. High quality content is key - make sure you only put the best, most relevant content on your website.
IE vs. Chrome vs. Firefox stats
Browser Stats Up-to-date
Upgrade your browser today. Internet Explorer used to be the dominant web browser. However, due to the increased popularity of Google and Apple, as well as a disregard for standards compliancy, the giant has taken a tumble.
The World Wide Web Consortium considers Firefox and Chrome as standards compliant - so we develop there first, and then when everything is done, we go back and see what kind of idiosyncrasies IE has added.
IE now only accounts for about 22% of the total market. This equates to a more stable and efficient Internet experience for users. It also relieves a huge headache that we have had to deal with.
From our Blogs
Ten Steps to Manage and Protect your Online Identity
Top Four most Common Issues for Non-profit Websites
What to do when your Website goes DOWN!
Thank you again for everything you do. Let's make a difference and change the world together.
For a list of the wonderful sites we've put live recently, please visit our Portfolio page.
Many thanks to:
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Ligaya Design (Arlington, VA) - Sharing the joy of design for optimal solutions
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The Wagner Society of Northern California (San Francisco) - for lovers of music by Richard Wagner
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Art With Impact (San Francisco) - Connecting film and action
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Castro Valley Sanitary District (SWANA Award Winner for 2010 redesign) - public agency for waste management
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Molokai Community Health Center (Hawaii) - community-based health clinic
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Laser-Professionals Inc. (Los Alamos) - International laser safety consulting and training
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Head Over Heels Athletic Arts (Emeryville) - Instilling a life long love of being physically active in the Bay Area since 1977
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Gramercy & Co. (NYC and Palo Alto) - Luxury online boutique for home and fashion accessories from around the world
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California Straw Building Association (California state-wide) - statewide association of straw bale builders
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The Sperm Bank of California (international) - the nation's oldest and most well-known non-profit sperm bank, since 1982
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West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management (Contra Costa County) - public agency for waste management
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Empire Plaza Kids (New York) - child care center
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Villiers String Quartet (London) - new musical performance group
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Pacific Roller Derby (Hawaii) - non-profit athletic organization committed to spreading the growth of roller derby on O'ahu
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PHYSMart - national marketplace connecting physicians and medical professionals with vendors and suppliers
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Artici (Paris) - promoting artisan products made in France
Yours in continued success,
Genesis, Monica, and the 10K Webdesign Team
http://www.10kwebdesign.com
