Travel

Wow. I love Traveltron 5000. Traveltron was able to book my trip to my favorite destination! Well, maybe not my favorite destination. Not even really my second favorite. Actually, I wound up in Baghdad. But that's OK! It was a pleasant surprise. Well, maybe not "pleasant", but fun. I guess that depends on how you define fun. Actually, it wasn't fun.

While being held captive by insurgents, I tried to phone the nice folks at Traveltron. It was busy, so I tried again. Later in the week I got through. According to their records the real Josh was in Kentucky, so they thought it was a prank and hung up on me. It was kinda funny. No, actually it wasn't.

I finally escaped the insurgents, stole a car, and stopped off for a burger at McDonald's (or the Iraqi equivalent of a McDonalds called ¸¸µ‎∂µ¸‎∂). I then took off driving across the desert trying to find a better vacation spot. After driving several hours, I crossed the border into Turkey. There I found a Turkish Pay Phone and again called Traveltron. They unfortunately refused to believe that Turkey was a country and again hung up on me. Ibeginningining to think I wasn't even speaking with a real person.

I will not go into details, but after riding in the back of a truck with 100 chickens, a canoe trip, an awkward game of truth or dare, a very long boat ride, and a horrible time at US customs, I made it back home.

I wanted to go to the office of Traveltron 5000, but I discovered there is no office. I tried to find a live person associated with the company, but with no luck. I knew I should have gone to First National Travel. Josh Krannawitter Web Designer Awesome Web Design

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization .


If you care about your website at all and what it is doing for your business your head is probably spinning about what you should do to make your website produce more conversions. Am I right?
Ok, let's back up, what is a conversion? That's easy, what do you want people who visit your website to do? Buy something from an online store, subscribe to your newsletter, fill out a form so your customer service people can contact them to make a sale? A conversion is whatever you want it to be.

Next step: are you tracking conversions?
(A)Yes
(B)No
(C)I don't know how to track conversions!

Whether you are honest about it or not, I would bet 90% of you should be answering (C). You probably haven't had time to decide what a conversion is for your website. If you think all that matters is mass amounts of traffic to your site you are wasting a lot of time and effort.


Well, Hold on I just considered that we may need to back up one more step. Do you even know how many people are visiting your website? Here at LogicMaze we are now putting Google Analytics on everyone of our customers sites free of charge. There is more info in Google Analytics than a die hard marketing analyst could ever want. Every website owner in the world should have this free service on their site. You can study thousands of different cross references about how visitors got to your site, what they do once they are in the site and why they left the site. If you aren't using some sort of good web analytics, any search engine optimization or any marketing at all related to your website is completely dartboard marketing.

Ok back to Search engine Optimization :
1. Does it work??? - Yes, Check here , here , here and here .
2. Is it a good option for your company. Its drives people to your companies website who are actively looking for your products or services!!! You do the math.
3.Can LogicMaze help my company with Search Engine Optimization . Check out question #1!!!

Click here , fill out the form we will contact you back and make your website work better for you.

Happy Halloween .

Online Travel

Ok here's what we have done...
First National Travel Agency of Hutchinson Kansas came to us and wanted to develop a complete marketing strategy that help them to focus their marketing efforts instead of throwing darts at a board to decide how to spend marketing dollars. We sat down with them and decided upon a little bit more modern approach to marketing the business.

We used a little bit of backwards engineering:
1. What are the main barriers to getting customers to use First National Travel as their first choice for Travel Planning? That was easy, the biggest barrier is obviously the huge boom of internet travel websites. These companies have 100s of millions of dollars for marketing and make insane claims of how cheap their services are. Ridiculous boasts of "Name your price for any flight!" or "You decide what you pay for a hotel room". I have tried them, you probably have as well, my wife and I suffered the wrath of an online travel site on a trip to Idaho last summer! (Details here)

So, we needed to let the world (First National Travel has the ability to provide Travel Agent services to anyone, anywhere!) know that these online travel giants are not able to get you any better deals than First National Travel. Yep, that's right, you can call a real human being at FNTA and they can get you the same, sometimes better, deals as the robots with foreign accents on the online travel sites.
So... We attacked!!!!!!!! The creative team here at LogicMaze decided to make fun of Online Travel sites and the huge pitfalls consumers can incur when trying to deal with them. We launched www.traveltron5000.com , an actual website that looks like another ridiculous attempt to take your money online while providing you the same customer service as a big rock.

After we put www.traveltron5000.com online, we directed all the links to humorous error messages that redirect you to contact info for First National Travel. We launched a corresponding radio and print campaign dealing. The traditional media is a blend of making fun of Traveltron5000 and pushing people to the site to discover on their own the humor behind it.

We also identified other smaller barriers to the growth of FNTA and we are executing several other methods for promoting FNTA and we will keep you up to on them as they come to be.

Arbuckle Realty

The website of Arbuckle Realty will keep you up to date on the latest Realty listings, Realty news and open houses in and around McPherson, Kansas! If you are shopping for the home of your dreams, Arbuckle Realty is the place to go.

Arbuckle Realty lists properties in McPherson, Kansas, as well as surrounding towns such as Inman, Galva, Canton, and Windom. If you are looking to buy or sell a home in the McPherson, Kansas area, contact Kim Arbuckle, Craig Corrigan, or Julie Wenthe of Arbuckle Realty.

If you are looking for Website Design, Online Marketing, Printed Designs, Animation, 3D Graphics, or even Traditional Marketing, contact LogicMaze WebDesigns of Hutchinson, Kansas today!
Josh Krannawitter Web Designer

Hunting

I guess we are doubling up on the Ashlenz blogs today! I hate to disappoint you Mitchell, but it is I that rock the Casbah. You just keep the party rocking when I'm too busy to blog.

Obviously, hunting is the word of the day. Hunting. Hunting with Ashlenz Outfitters. Very important terms to remember. Just for good measure, let's say it one more time...hunting.


I have some other interesting results to report on Ashlenz:

Illinois deer hunting - 1 spot away from breaking into Google's top ten for the first time!

Illinois buck - Coming out of nowhere (not in the top 100) to #5 on Google!

outfitter - Rising up to number 14 on MSN. Awesome for a general search term!

outfitters - #6 on MSN - More awesome!

deer hunting - Also #6 on MSN - Also awesome!

deer - The ultimate general keyword - #3 on MSN!

trophy buck - Hunting for this search term? #3 on MSN, that's right - 3 out of 700,000!


finally, these search terms are all at #1 somewhere between Yahoo, Google, and MSN:

Illinois deer hunting
Pike County deer hunting
Pike County Illinois hunting
Illinois hunting
Illinois deer hunting guide
Illinois trophy buck
Illinois buck
Illinois deer
Illinois outfitters
Illinois outfitter
Josh Krannawitter Web Designer

Hunting

How about that! Ashlenz Outfitters is #18 on MSN for hunting! That's a big deal, since it's such a broad term to go after with a lot of competition.
Pre-tty snazzy indeed!
I can't help but attribute it largely to the fact that I rock the Casbah.
Nevertheless, to get a website so high on a general term like hunting, is exactly what we're trying to do.
This month so far, according to my keyword suggest tool, hunting has been searched for 120,399 times on the Overture network. If we can even skim the top of that traffic, we've got a huge accomplishment.
Now all we have to do is turn all of those potential visits into conversions and we will be seeing dollar signs.
Now all we have to do is get Google and Yahoo! to show us some love on any terms, let alone broad ones like hunting.

Mineral Transformations

I knew that I had to blog about new sites when we put them up, but nobody told me that I didn't also have to try the products of the client. Information that I could definitely used prior to this fiasco. I don't really want to talk about it much more.
I will talk about Mineral Transformations, though. Mineral makeup is healthy for your skin. I must say that as embarassing as that is, my skin has never glowed so much in my entire life, plus there was a major reduction of fine lines to hide my aging (I'm 52).
If you know how to use the stuff, you're concerned about looking good and keeping your skin healthy, mineral makeup is the way to go. . .so I'm told.
The site offers to by items from mineral foundation to lipliner.
Check it out!

You should be deer hunting!

It is deer hunting season, folks! Time to experience the thrill of the kill.
One of the best places to hunt whitetail deer this time of year is Pike County, Illinois. Who better to do it with than Ashlenz Outfitters?
Ashlenz boasts a minimum of 82% opportunity rate for the last four years. I like those odds! You know who doesn't like those odds? Whitetail deer!
Your chances of bagging a trophy buck with Ashlenz Outfitters are great. Why don't you take some time off from work and get out to nature and do a little hunting? I would, but then who would blog about it?

Wichita Thunder Fan

Saturday, Oct. 21st, the bulk of the LogicMaze staff had the distinct pleasure of receiving free tickets to go see the Wichita Thunder hockey team play. Tickets came courtesy of Chuck Peterson, biggest Wichita Thunder fan we know.
In a crowd the size of the one at Kansas Coliseum, you would be surprised how many people Chuck knew. It seemed as though, if you were a Wichita Thunder fan, you knew him by default.

It was an awesome game, by the way. It ended in a shootout against Oklahoma City, with the Thunder winning. Real edge-of-the-seat stuff. You had to feel at least a little sorry for the refs, though. Having apparently made some bad calls in the game against Tulsa the night before, they were booed by the Wichita Thunder fans at anytime possible.
Hockey fans are a rare breed, indeed. Kinda makes you wonder who, between hockey fans, European soccer fans, and American football fans, would win in a giant brawl. One way or another, you could count on me steering clear of it.

Jeep Accessories

Look, here's the bottom line:
If you've got a Jeep and you want Jeep accessories, Jeeps and Stuff is where it's at.
You feelin' me, Dawg? Cause I'm on the real.
I have had handed down to me a new list of keywords for Jeeps and Stuff to focus on. Top dogs on the priority list now are:
Bestop
jeep accessories
jeep soft tops
These are the ones that we are trying to get to good position on the search engines. Failure is not an option! Mediocrity is not acceptable! Click it or ticket!
Jeeps and Stuff carries a large selection of accessories for the two most popular Jeeps: Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Liberty as well as a variety of other makes and models, including Chevy/Geo Tracker and Suzuki Samurai.
Hey! I've got an idea, you wanna see the rest of the changed matrix? Sure you do!
Warn winch
jeep wrangler accessories
jeep liberty accessories
jeep tops
winches
jeep bumpers
jeep doors
jeep wrangler doors
jeep windows
jeep seats
jeep seat cover
jeep bikini top
jeep hardtop
jeep hard top
Warn
Jeep Mirror
Tire Covers
Man! My heart is racing!

Design and Color

The favorite thing about my job and this business is that my "continuing education" is something that I have complete control over. This industry requires that I exercise my skills and try out new programs on a regular basis. My last foray turned into a color study. I was enlightened with studies and information about color and how it affects the user/viewer. A fun site I found during my research was Colorstrology -- view now.
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Logicmaze has grown significantly in the last year. The services we can offer our existing website design clients has grown to include; Printed Media Design, 3D Graphic Design, 3D Animations, Online Marketing Plans as well as Traditional Marketing.
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One of our latest website design releases include Arbuckle Realty, a Realtor in Mcpherson, Kansas. Their design was another group effort between myself and Ant, our website maintenance specialist. We worked out some color schemes to go with their existing purple logo, and developed the layout from there. Our traditional marketing concepts for Arbuckle Realty have created a bit of a splash for them locally and they are excited about the progress.
Happy Clients = Happy Me!

Air n Arc

It's a welder!
It's a generator!
It's an air compressor!
It makes a fantastic Chicken Fettucini Alfredo!
Actually, the last one was a lie. Alfredo does sound good, though.
The Air n Arc really is a miracle machine, though. If you are in a line of work that requires you to have any of those three items in the back of your truck, an Air n Arc can buy you back a good portion of precious truck bed space that can be used for other things, now.
It's a great product that now deservingly has a great site. air-n-arc.com went live today. The site contains some very impressive Flash elements, including an intro and product features. They wanted "cool" and Josh certainly delivered.
Be sure to take a look at the site. Especially if you're interested in making your work a little bit easier.

Traveltron5000.com - Teaching Good Travel Planning, the Hard Way

These boots were made for walking, and that's just what they'll do. One of these days these boots are going to crush any hope you had in making fun and enjoyable travel plans.

Okay, so it doesn't really rhyme but it does express the parody behind our newest site launch - Traveltron5000.com
LogicMaze is taking a bit of a different approach this time in our marketing efforts for our real client here, First National Travel. By pointing out and playing off of the common pitfalls of your larger, automated travel agencies (no need to name names... you know who you are), LogicMaze is using Traveltron5000.com to direct people to our real client - First National Travel.

Based right here in Hutchinson, KS, First National Travel has the experience and personable staff to take care of all of your travel needs. Traveltron5000.com is merely a tool to get people to recognize just what they lose when the go with the cold, heartless machine that is a large scall, automated travel agency.

Marketing genius? It's too soon to tell, but check back here to see how we're faring with this experiment. Check out Traveltron5000.com for a good laugh. But check out First National Travel for all your travel planning needs.

Travel

Traveltron5000.com is now alive! Excuse me, I mean live. . . or do I?
The newest and best thing to hit the Online Travel industry, Traveltron makes gnomes beg for mercy, give up the travel business and scamper back to their forest dwellings. Yes this robot is, indeed, the most formidable of all Online Travel spokespeople. I say this, despite the fact that I have nothing but respect for William Shatner, who used to do Priceline commercials.
I hope that I will never have to feel the Wrath of Khan for my tresspasses upon the Shatner.
Nevertheless, Traveltron5000.com is awesome, use it, live by it, respect it.

Idaho Afloat

Whitewater rafting!

Check out this cool video from the Idaho Afloat website. I hadn't seen this yet, but I watched it today when I went to the site. Look at it: click here.

In addition to whitewater rafting, there seems to be a lot of other good times to be had.
After watching the video, it makes me want to go.

Urban Offroad

Winter is fast approaching. One of the downfalls of winter (aside from crippling cold) is the snow and ice. This makes it a prime time to own a four-wheel-drive vehicle - for instance, a Jeep.
Imagine, if you will, the pure joy of getting to be that guy. The one who rides right on your rear bumper while you're trying just not to go off the road, due to your rear-wheel drive and bald tires.
Yes, picture this: there's two feet of snow on the ground, but people have to make it to work. After all, McDonald's yields to no elements. McDonald's is an element - Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, McRib.
But I digress.
You're driving casually at 45 miles an hour, because you can, in your 4x4 Jeep Wrangler with nearly every possible Jeep accessory (courtesy of Jeeps and Stuff) cursing all of the other poor fools who didn't have half a mind enough to buy something other than a Geo Metro, or Ford Taurus, or Chevy Astro. They're inferior vehicles don't belong in the same lanes as your Adonis of automotive engineering. All they're doing is slowing you down. You need'nt wait for these slow-movers, who are trying to discern between street, median and curb - each of which level with snow.
You could, theoretically, drive over the speck of car in front of you. You opt, of course, for the less offensive route and decide to pass him. The poor sap has his driver's side window down so that he can compensate for his poorly-defrosted windows. He will soon learn the error of his ways when you tear by him with your Mickey Thompson Wheels. You coat the interior of the small car with snow as you indignantly pass by him.
Survival of the fittest, that's the name of the game.
You know, however, that if the Metro should go off of the road, it would be only right for you to use your Warn Winch to make short work of pulling him out of the ditch and getting him back on the road so that the next machomobile might prey on him.

For anyone that might read this and wonder if I write this story out of spite from a past negative experience, I would have to say DING DING DING you just won a nickle! Be sure to find me and ask for it. Should you own a vehicle which is more capable in the harsh elements of a flood or snow storm, be mindful of the people with the economy vehicles that still have to get to work.
That's my moral.

Fireworks

Well, summer's long gone, but don't let that kill your fun.
It's time to throw all preconceived notions about fireworks only in warm weather in the trash. Have you ever seen a fireworks display in the snow? Me neither, but I'll bet that it looks great. Imagine it with me, if you will.



That was majestic, was it not?
Yes it was.
Rainbow Fireworks doesn't just do 4th of July shows, and I can't stress that enough. You can have a professional fireworks show at your wedding, fund raiser or any other special event. The sky is the limit with a fireworks show. (I'm totally patting myself on the back for that one)

We at LogicMaze are trying out Google docs.

Dirtworks - Logicmaze is now making dirty websites, but for great clients

Okay, so it's not really the kind of dirty site that is going to attract tabloid-style attention to our company. It's more about the dirt we've used in the background because we're so dang creative.
Which brings me to my next point.

Haven't you ever thought to yourself, "Geez, I wish I knew a guy with an excavator." or "Boy, a track hoe would really come in handy right about now." or maybe even "How am I going to get rid of this body?". Okay, scratch that last one.

Well, as it turns out you're in luck. Because we know a guy - actually we know a guy and a company. And if you need dirt moved around in any quantity, these folks are just the ticket. But, their skills and experience are not limited to trenching, underground utilities, sculpting golf courses, or digging foundations. They are also experienced at concrete work like pouring foundations, curbs, and driveways. And they are great at home additions as well, able to complete renovations of all kinds.

LogicMaze is excited to help drive even more clients to this quickly growing business. We've developed an economical website for them for right now, with a contact form that channels any inquiry right to the Dirtworks job coordinator. Check out their website and watch for further developments, because you never know when you might need to dig something up...
or bury it.

Kansas Realtor

McPherson is an ever-growing community, which is why it would definitely not be a bad idea to move there.
Arbuckle Realty has a selection of great houses to buy and rent in McPherson, as well as some nearby towns, like Inman.
That's some simple 2+2=5 stuff right there (I think. . .I ain't no mathmagician). If your looking for real estate for sale in Kansas, and you want to live in a good, safe community: Arbuckle Realty is the Kansas Realtor for you.
I'd think about moving, but I've got this sweet real estate here in Hutch, that I'm kind of attached to, as you can see. It's really the prime bachelor pad.

Deer Hunting

I don't know for sure if I've mentioned this before or not, but it's cool, so I'll do so either way. Ashlenz Outfitters, one of our clients from Pike County Illinois. They offer a great deer hunting experience on prime hunting land. I know that I've covered that before. The thing that I'm marginally excited about is that on MSN deer hunting is now number 12! That's a pretty broad keyword that every deer hunting site, by default is going for. It's cool. Google is even showing us a little love (very little) at #99. If Yahoo would only fall in line on this, that would be fantastic. Nobody must have told them that we're awesome and they should put all of our site at #! for just that reason. Oh well, people make mistakes.

Jeeps and Stuff

You know, I've talked a lot in the past about Jeeps forJeeps and Stuff. I think it's high time that I discuss the and stuff. I suppose the and stuff is actually all of the stuff that they sell, since they don't actually sell Jeeps. Let's not split hairs on this. Get off of my back! You're smothering me! I think we just need some time apart.



Ok, that was long enough
The point that I was attempting to make was that Jeeps and Stuff sells accessories for other makes than Jeep. For instance, they've got accessories for the Chevy Tracker. Got a Suzuki Samurai or Sidekick? They've got accessories for those too.
If it's a 4X4 or has off roading capabilities (or if it's a Tracker), there's a good chance that Jeeps and Stuff has goodies for it

LogicMaze Super #1 Fantastic!

The LogicMaze office has been a bustle of productivity, as always. Three new sites went up this week with a 4th one hot on their trail.
New to the already staggering LogicMaze portfolio : Going Knowear and Arbuckle Realty.

Going Knowear is the perfect example of the entrepreneurial spirit. They took their humorous t-shirt design ideas and just started selling them. Few products have as little overhead cost as ideas, and beyond that, all it takes is a little initiative, and you're rolling! Kudos to them!
Going Knowear has a large selection of original designs for t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, polos and long sleeve shirts. Be sure to take a look.

Last, but certainly not least, Arbuckle Realty.
Arbuckle Realty serves McPherson and the surrounding area with a large selection of quality listings. Their professional realtors are dedicated to helping clients find the perfect place for them in a great community. Feel free to contact them if you're interested.

Man, I wish that I were in an opportunity to buy a home right now. If I were, I would have all of the resources I needed right at my fingertips.

Why would we drive to Idaho?

Well, you see it all started when I went to my favorite online travel site. It's the site, where I know I will save time and money by going online to book my flight tickets.

I started noticing that as I was checking out they were tacking on an extra $50.00 service fee. Well, I thought, I am already this far in the process, I just need to check out and get these tickets bought.

During my last trip to Idaho in August, our plane was delayed 4 hours and later cancelled. So, I waited in line with all of the other unruly passengers to get re-ticketed for the next day. At about that same time, a man was just ending his cell phone call in the gate area said to me, "My travel agent has already scheduled me for another flight that goes out later today". I thought to myself, I will just do the same thing! So I called my "favorite online travel site" and it seemed they were experiencing a high volume of calls, so I pulled out my trusty laptop and went online to book another flight. As I typed in the website to "my favorite online travel site". I looked for a button or something that said,



No such luck. There is no magic button to help when you get stranded, but I would have loved to be able to call a travel agent so they could take care of me.

Vacations vs. Blogging

WHAT IS THIS?
It's a picture of Cody & Tamara Heitschmidt on their way to the perfect vacation opportunity! In our souped-up Jeep.

We are headed west on I70 on our way to Idaho Afloat. Idaho Afloat is owned and operated by Bruce & Jeanne Howard. They are just "salt of the earth" type people. We have gone for the last two years, and I just NEVER want to leave. The land seems untouched and it is a very intriguing area, rich in history. We have taken on the Snake River for both of our rafting adventures, and they were a "thrill-a-minute". Idaho Afloat is easy to market because it's the type of place with the type of people where you never feel like you are going to be let down.

Need to schedule next years family vacation?
Call Idaho Afloat - 1-800-700-2414 or
Visit their website: www.idahoafloat.com

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