The Sequel!!!

Monday I posted this!!

Today I found this!!

The second link above from Web Worker Daily is a much better expression of my sentiments about Seth's blog than I could have done, read them both and let us know what you think!!

Fireworks Stands In Kansas

Every once in a while we seem to come across a business that is truly remarkable. One that understands the benefits of good marketing but also realizes that marketing isn't intended to completely eliminate the need for sales skills and customer service.
Showalter Fireworks is one of those companies. They aren't a new company, they aren't even a new client of ours. We have been handling all of their advertising and marketing for a little over a year now and they have proven to be the dream client.

Here's why:

1. We took control of their advertising, revised their brand, broaden their reach and drove alot more contacts into their office.

2. They took the ball and ran with it. IN A BIG WAY!!! They take the time to deal with every new lead in way that leads to a very high conversion rate and makes each person who contacts their office feel that they are the only concern of the Showalter Fireworks at that time.

Marketing and Advertising work and they can be done in an incredible afforable. BUT........ You still have to run your business in a manner that takes the leads that marketing produces and turns them into sales.

Anyhow, if you get a chance check out a one of Showalter's Fireworks stands in Kansas and spend a little of that hard earned cash and go make big booms and flashes!!!

Gizmoz.com

I created this today, took about 2 mins at www.gizmoz.com

Express Yourself with Gizmoz Video Clips

Pressure to Perform

So this came in an Email today.

Business Booster Getting the Most Out of Your Small Business Website
Make plans to participate in this event. The focus is to discuss the importance of the internet and how it can enhance your business. Thursday, May 3, 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce Large Conference Room 117 N. Walnut The presentation will provide suggestions on how your website should be performing. Such as: The Ultimate Brochure Marketing Tool An HR Manager Come join The Chamber and Cody Heitschmidt of LogicMaze, to learn new ways to put your website to work. The cost is $20.00 for members and $25.00 for non-members. Register on-line at hutchchamber.com or call 620-662-3391. For more information, please contact Holly Schmidt at 620.662.3391. This event is brought to you by the Chamber's Small Business Council.
	Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce 117 N Walnut Hutchinson, KS 67501 (620) 662-3391 www.hutchchamber.com info@hutchchamber.com

I hate pressure! Speaking engagments don't really bother me, it's when people hype it and then charge money for!!
Just kidding, I kinda like it!!!!! I crack myself up!

LogicMaze = Business Booster.

A Great Kansas Non-profit.

I kinda have this really drastic approach to my thought process on non-profits or charities that I choose to support with my time or money. I am not a big fan of Band-aid solutions to problems. I think peoples time and money are better spent on actually solving problems that will make the future better and not just taking care of the next 24 hours. That's pretty vague I know but I don't want to go into more detail.

Anyhow Boy's and Girl's Club of Hutchinson Kansas is solving problems that are going to lead to a better future. They are affecting hundreds of kids' lives in a positive manner everyday. You can go to their website here and see some of the programs or you can contact them off the website and get more info on what's going on down there. We just helped them launch a Paypal powered donation system on their site and this is my call to action to you. All you have to do is go the http://www.bgchutch.com/ click on the "MAke a Donation" button enter your credit card or debit card info and help this club actually make difference. It's that fricking easy. No check to write, no nothing after that. You will recieve an email for your tax records and you can actually know that you made a difference in a positive way today.

Don't worry it is all secure and you info will be protected.


Ok, I am done.

Turkey Hunting

Ashlenz Outfitters has already seen what a little bit of LogicMaze Search Engine Optimization can do. We have been working on the search engine results for any number of Deer Hunting searches and the results have been amazing. Just go to any of the search engines and search for Illinois Deer Hunting .


Well it's time to get serious about expanding the efforts. Ashlenz Outfitters also guides some incredible Turkey Hunting trips and they want us to help hunters who are looking for a place to go turkey hunting find them. We actually started about a month ago and as of right now they are number 10 on MSN for a search for "Turkey Hunting ", out of 6.1 million results, we will make get it higher.

Stay tuned for updates on the progress!

If your company is interested in being found at the top of the search engines contact LogicMaze here .

Wallace the monkey!!

In case anyone was wondering the official name of our monkey has been decided!! click here .
If you didn't get our newsletter click here and if you want to subscribe click here .
If you don't care about any of this monkey talk click here !
On the other hand if you can't get enough of monkeys click here !

Search Engine Optimization

OK I gotta vent a little.

First read this: Newswire Today Press Release

Ok the guys at MRPWebmedia (I will give them a link there and it will help their Search engine optimization!!) are exactly right and they are incredibly wrong!!

What they are right about:

1. Presentation is essential, content is King and cool websites get people talking. I paraphrased there a little. I agree with those points intensely and we handle all of our clients with those points in mind. I will go one step further and say that the crew at MRPwebmedia makes phenomenal designs and graphic presentations. I mean it, they are really good designers.

What they are completely wrong about: (I won't paraphrase here)

1. Jerry Bader, Senior Partner of MRPwebmedia say there's a better way for companies to deliver their messages and improve their bottom lines - "For some time we have been preaching the importance of delivering the marketing message and that your message should not be corrupted or distorted by techniques aimed at attracting search engine robots well driving away real people who may actually be potential customers."

It doesn't have to be corrupted there is a middle ground that accomplishes both!
Look at Underground Vaults and Storage, read Mitchell's blog here and realize that the Search Engine Optimization we do for them is leading to on average 75-90 people a day being exposed to underground Vaults and Storage services. And those people that are being exposed are there because they were searching Google, Yahoo, MSN or some other search engine for the types of services that UVS offers. And the site looks great!!!!(LogicMaze consulted for SEO on this project with UVS and Entermotion , Entermotion designed the site and did a great job.) (LogicMaze continues to perform SEo for UVS today.)

2. "Small companies are using multimedia to get the edge on their larger competitors who still have their heads buried in the search engine optimization sand".

Wow, this guy has it completely backwards. Let's look at Jeepsandstuff.com ... You wanna talk about little guys, try matching Jeepsandstuff up against JC Whitney or Quadratec. No chance they could sell anything in a market where they compete with the likes of those corporate giants, right? Wrong! Jeepsandstuff hired LogicMaze to help them get people to their site. They knew that if people came to their site (which they built themselves in Yahoo Stores) they could offer great selection and superior customer service and make a go of competing with the big boys. Do this, go to MSN and search for Warn jeep bumpers , you don't think that does incredible things for Jeepsandstuff's ability to sell Jeep bumpers ? (They are number one and number two out of over 60,000 results if you didn't take the time to go look)

3. "you can't be afraid to make a strong statement if you want people to sit-up and take notice, especially if you are fighting a tidal wave of misconception."


John Kerry made a strong statement once too. Didn't work out so well! MRPWebmedia is trying to rock the boat a little with this campaign they are launching and that's cool, right up until a business that hires them on ends up with a cool looking web project that no one ever visits.


4. Bader's continuing efforts from numerous articles written advocating the power of using the human voice and image to deliver marketing stories over the Web was finally getting through to companies who were fed-up with the cost and ineffectiveness of continually chasing the holy grail of search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimization is not a Holy Grail, it is attainable on can be accomplished with a very small budget, based on individual companies goals. Let's look at Ashlenz Outfitters ! Kevin from Ashlenz hired Logicmaze to design a new website for his Outfitting business in Pike county Illinois. If you know anything about deer hunting you know that Pike County Illinois is the Promise Land. Well so do about 57 other outfitters, all in one county! It's a dog eat dog world trying to run an outfitting business in Pike County and trying to be the outfitter that someone finds, much less chooses is a daunting task. Kevin called on us to build him a cool website (click here to see it, it's cool!) It has flash slideshow presentations, incredible amounts of great imagery and a neat precise look to it. Then Kevin mentioned to us that he had spent XXXXX amount of dollars traveling to trade shows in 2006 and didn't feel like it amounted to any new clients. So we suggested Search Engine Optimization would be a better way to spend those dollars. WE WERE RIGHT!!! Ashlenz Outfitters in the last 49 days has recieved over 60 inquiries from hunters want to go deer hunting or turkey hunting with them. Know how those folks got to his website?? Go to MSN.com and search for Illinois Hunting, or even better search for Deer hunting, Ashlenz is number 4 out of 8.3 million results. Search Engine Optimization is the most effective advertising tool in the world. It takes your advertising dollar and puts your message in front of potential clients who are actually looking for your product or service.


Everything in italics is directly from Newswire Press Release !

AT 5:05 pm CST Today!!

Mitchell fell down the stairs, he's ok!

The Gazaway Montain Boys

I love this song!! This is local bluegrass band, you should seriously consider them your next event entertainment. Their site is here. I know one of the members but LogicMaze is in no way affiliated with them this is a sincere recommendation!

The 2 biggest news stories in Hutchinson, Ks

1. Flat Iron Meats is giving away Salsa, no strings attached. Period. Click Free Salsa

2. Zenor Electric has a job opening for a Receptionist. This would seriously be a great job for someone looking to work for a well established company in a fun work environment. Click Zenor Help Wanted .

No thanks necessary that's what I am here for.

The Carrier Pigeon

We sent our first official email newsletter on Friday. Click here to read it if you didn't receive it in your inbox.

2 Questions have already been presented to us:

1. Why didn't I get this in my inbox? - It's not because we don't love you!!! Just click here and sign up and you will get all of them in the future!

2. Why did you guys call it "The Carrier Pigeon "?? - Just so you would ask!!!

Fiction Blog gets sorted Reviews

There's some pretty good stuff happening over at the LogicMaze Fiction Blog . Might check it out, please keep in mind it's all insane ramblings of people who sit in little dark rooms and talk to computer screens all day!

Oh yeah LogicMaze has a job opening too, click here !

HELP WANTED in Hutchinson Kansas!!

HELP WANTED in Hutchinson Kansas!!

LogicMaze is looking for a new designer!

Position is located in our offices 11th and Main in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Salary is based on skill level.

Full time position.

Skill sets required:
1. Basic knowledge of HTML = Required
2. Dreamweaver experience = Required
3. Photoshop experience = Preferred

Personality:

1. Must be willing to worked as hard as anyone in the world.
2. Must also be willing to have as much fun in the workplace as anyone in the world.

Position is open immediately.

Please send resume to us here

Hutchinson Public Schools Bond Issued Passed!

We at LogicMaze are excited that the citizens of Hutchinson made the decision to spend a few dollars to upgrade our school district's facilities.
We built the website www.hutchkids.com to support the campaign to pass the bond issue. Well, we quite a few people have visited the site, so we decided to keep the site alive and use it as a means to keep the public up to speed on the progress of the actual construction phase of the USD 308 Master Plan. So go to www.hutchkids.com , put it in your favorites and check back in a month or so and we will begin documenting the progress of the Master Plan.

This is worth reading, click here.

Full Service Advertising??

Marketing from Wikipedia.

Advertising from Wikipedia .


Ok that's great, but what the hell does it mean?

At LogicMaze we have been exploring the advertising and marketing worlds from a small to medium sized business perspective very hard for the last 3 years.

Here's how we see it:

Small to Medium sized businesses spend gazillions of dollars (made that up!) and just as many hours trying to figure out the best way to properly market their products/services every year. About 88% (I made that percentage up but I would bet it's actually higher) of it is a waste of time and $$$. This is alarming, at least it should be alarming if you are a business owner. But, (dramatic pause) there is another fact that we find even more alarming!!! An even bigger percentage of business owners don't even know if it's working or not, they don't track it!!! Most don't even know how to track it! Some of the marketing they are doing is not track able!!!

What do we mean by wasted?

This is the easiest question in the world to answer. If you don't see positive results from a dollar spent or a minute devoted to marketing and advertising, you just wasted that dollar or that minute. Plain and simple. Is that to say that it all works all the time? Of course not, but if your aren't tracking it, learning from mistakes and constantly fine-tuning your marketing strategy, your wasting $ and minutes.


So what do you do??

Option 1: Do your marketing yourself and just work real hard to get better! If you have a business and you have time to take on your own marketing tasks, you aren't busy enough running your business. We have people at LogicMaze who we pay to market our company as we spend time running our company.

Another thought is this: say you are an exterminator, you kill pests. I can kill pests in my house, why do I need an exterminator? I can run around all day killing spiders and setting mousetraps and trying to figure out how to see if I have termites and then buy a hundred different gadgets to rid myself of bugs,that's easy right!!! Or I can hire a professional, use my time more efficiently, get the job done right and probably get more results for dollars spent! Huh?

Option 2: Hire an employee to be your Marketing Department. Not a bad idea if you can afford it. If you hire someone with any experience, they are gonna cost a decent salary. And... Now you are paying another salary plus the marketing expense you will incur. Huh??

Option 3: Hire a traditional Ad Agency to take care of it for you. This is the best option so far!!! A lot of great Ad Agencies have done incredible things for many a company. But, Can you afford them? The good successful Ad Agencies (for the most part) are looking for the next huge contract. The next GM or Ford or Boeing. Good luck!

Option 4: The LogicMaze option. Don't get me wrong we don't think we have it all figured out and we haven't come up with the next great pyramid scheme to drain your companies bank account.

Here's our Full Service Marketing philosophy: We want to help small to medium sized businesses integrate marketing plans, strategies and programs that make them more money. Period, that's it!! We figure if we take companies and make them more money, they will like us (little humor there) and they will have more money to spend on marketing in the future.

We also truly believe that through a proper blend of traditional marketing approaches and internet based marketing approaches we can modify any marketing plan to become more successful and definitely easier to track. A better way of getting Your word out that comes with undeniable proof that it is working? Sounds like a mythical creature huh? Just contact us a we will tell you all about it for free!! We even have proof that it works and we will show it to you.

Play Shoes!!

This is freakin' hilarious.

If we ever lose Mitchell to another profession I think he might become an author.


For those of you that don't know...

LogicMaze has started a fiction blog here.

We couldn't get our team to stay focused on the facts on this blog so we created one were they can just lie!!! It's kinda like telling your kids not wear their new shoes outside to play in the mud. They never listen so you have to go get them another pair of shoes and designate them as "Play Shoes" !!!

Mcpherson Kansas Houses for sale

Here's a little challenge:

We have been hired by Arbuckle Realty of Mcpherson, Ks to facilitate all of their marketing and advertising.

Our first major Search Engine Optimization goal is to get them to the top of the search engines for the search phrase Mcpherson Kansas . We want everyone who wants to know anything about Mcpherson Kansas to end up viewing Arbuckle Realty's website.


Fire up the scoreboard , it's a new game of LogicMaze vs. Google , MSN and Yahoo . We hate to lose!

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.