Blog | Maxwell Sydney Design Group

Blog by Jason Bostic,
Director of Maxwell Sydney Design Group.

Jason's Blog

Site mentioned in Washington Post

The DalePetersonFacts.com site Maxwell Sydney created last week was mentioned in today’s Washington Post.

Another Web site, DalePetersonFacts.com, makes lists of how tough he is: “Fact #8: Dale Peterson doesn’t ‘speak softly and carry a big stick,’ he carries a big gun and he says whatever the hell he wants.” “Fact #24: Before Chuck Norris goes to sleep, he checks under his bed for Dale Peterson.”

I’m even quoted at the end (albeit a bit truncated). It was a fun diversion to work on the DalePetersonFacts.com website, especially considering the serious nature of one of our current projects (stay tuned to learn more).

If we can help your business, organization or campaign generate buzz on the internet and develop a new presence online, please drop us a line.

All 72 dpi files are not created equal.

04.07.10 Posted in Blog by Jason Bostic

Recently I had a conversation with a friend whose in-house promotional materials looked like garbage. A postcard was produced for mailing with a small photo of a professional speaker that was so soft and pixelated that you couldn’t decipher his face. The in-house marketing guru assured my friend that it was the best it could be because the source image was 72 dpi (even though the source image was crisp, clear and 12 times larger than the image on the postcard). The in-house graphics guru agreed.

The so-called “gurus” were wrong.

Is WordPress right for your business website?

01.27.10 Posted in Blog by Jason Bostic

As a consultant and developer of websites for businesses in various industries, I talk to people often about their website who are in dire need of an upgrade or complete redo. One of the many things they almost always have in common is the puzzled look on their face when I suggest WordPress to power the site.

These people generally fall in one of two camps.

They’ve heard of WordPress and think its just for blogging. Their kid might use it. Their friend might use it. Their own company might use it, but just for the company blog (after they finally upgraded from blogger).
They have no idea what WordPress is, but it doesn’t sound like something a high-profile business might use. There’s no MS in front of the name, and it sounds very uncomplicated… not something for the corporate environment. Their own marketing and computer guy suggested some custom-programmed-whatchamacallit.

Sales is Marketing

01.19.10 Posted in Blog by Jason Bostic

I heard about a job opening recently where a highly-regarding local company was looking for someone to fill both a marketing and sales position. When I heard this I had to smile. This is a great company who I hope to work with in the future as well, but I wanted to tell them that the roles are not that different. All marketing is not sales but all sales definitely is marketing. Everything is marketing.

Websites: One Size Does Not Fit All

09.14.09 Posted in Blog by Jason Bostic

I’ve been exchanging e-mails with a prospective client for a couple weeks. He wants to know the price for a website. Try as I might to get him on the phone and discuss his needs, we continued playing phone tag and he continued looking for a price.

We don’t have a price list on this website nor can we provide a price to a customer without consultation. And I suggest any web design company that does is a company to run away from. All businesses are different and have different needs. So are their marketing efforts. Sure I could sell someone a package with default content, features and pages to reach a certain page count, but would that package meet their needs, represent their brand, or generate additional customers and revenue for their business?

Six Tips for Successful E-Mail Marketing

08.28.09 Posted in Blog by Jason Bostic

E-Mail Marketing is not rocket science, but most companies who start e-mail marketing campaigns don’t have success. Here are six tips for professional, service-oriented businesses to make your e-mail blasts effective and profitable.

New Maxwell Sydney Website

08.19.09 Posted in Blog by Jason Bostic

We are proud to announce the immediate availability of our website at http://maxwellsydney.com. This redesign is a better showcase of our work and our talents, and provides a more cohesive message with our brand.

iPhones and Father’s Day

06.22.09 Posted in Blog by Jason Bostic

Yesterday on our way back from my in-laws, my wife and I stopped by Target. Unbeknownst to me, my 1st gen iPhone (purchased July 2007) had slipped out of my pocket. When I opened the door it fell out of the car and right down an 8 foot deep storm drain.

Mighty Mouse on Strike

04.08.09 Posted in Blog by Jason Bostic

I got my beautiful 24″ iMac less than a week ago to replace the abused 1st Generation Mac Mini where I previously did much of my work. The screen is gorgeous, processor fast, and the graphics top notch. I’m even getting used to the smaller keyboard. But after less than a week’s worth of use, the Mighty Mouse had already started to fail. The tiny little gray scroll ball refused to scroll down, even though scrolling left, right, up and any other direction worked just fine. Thankfully Google came to the rescue and helped Mighty Mouse get back to work.

Save headaches and validate markup

05.27.08 Posted in Blog by Jason Bostic

Many people underestimate the importance of valid markup. There are rules for proper HTML and XHTML, and there are reasons for those rules. WYSIWYG layout editors made many web designers (including myself) lazy. We were rightfully worried about what the page looked like, but often neglected the importance of what the code looked like. In fact, Internet Explorer shares much of the blame as oftentimes web developers had to purposefully write invalid markup as Internet Explorer didn’t (and in some cases still doesn’t) render proper code properly. But when you neglect your markup, eventually your web page itself will fail.

Jason Bostic Director of Maxwell Sydney Design Group

Designer, Developer, Tech Geek and Social Media Speaker. Jason has been developing websites since the 90s and enjoys helping customers enhance their brand and create new revenue streams online. Jason also designs print media marketing pieces for companies of all sizes.

Contact Jason about your project or event.

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@newsmatt glad to do it. 07:02:40 PM August 11, 2010 from Seesmic in reply to newsmatt Reply Retweet Favorite
The SpeakShirt.com site we developed was mentioned in an AP report for its Free Steven Slater t-shirt. Check it out. http://bit.ly/aWTWkr 03:00:29 PM August 11, 2010 from Seesmic Reply Retweet Favorite
@LaurenBegley Try here for your Steven Slater shirt: http://speakshirt.com/hot-topics/free-steven-slater-tees.html 01:33:59 PM August 11, 2010 from web in reply to LaurenBegley Reply Retweet Favorite
Maxwell Sydney recently completed http://BinderShoppe.com - a marketplace w/ custom binders for every occasion. Next: Beechtree HOA website 04:45:28 PM July 08, 2010 from Seesmic Reply Retweet Favorite
@wpunited: Been trying to get to your site for a few days to check out wp-united. I hear its awesome. 01:52:05 PM June 14, 2010 from web in reply to wpunited Reply Retweet Favorite

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