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Our thoughts

Okay, real talk, blogging often is hard shit. We care so much about you and your time. We don’t write posts for the sake of writing posts. If we have a passionate topic, you’ll see it here. Otherwise trust we are probably just busy making something great for the citizens of the interwebs.

Where do I set my user photo?

Many of our sites run wordpress. We loooove wordpress around here. But a common question we hear, is where does the users profile photo come from? In comments, author biographies, etc. Easy answer.  We rely on the Gravatar system created by wordpress. Gravatar, or a “Globally Recognized Avatar” is an image connected to your email…

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Walking the tight line

Sometimes we get busy. Sometimes very busy. I can personally attest to this. I’m pretty sure most of March and April flew by me in a blink. Oh I know stuff happened. Projects, birthdays, trips, events, but it’s a blur. Not sure about you, but when I get busy, I focus in. I skip social…

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Fire the committee

Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a deal breaker. – Seth Godin. This statement is true in so many aspects. Look at politics, giant companies, churches, and non-profits. The more brilliant people in a room, the more no one can decide a single…

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Keeping things simple

Funny thing in life, Simple almost always wins. Myspace was complicated and too many things. Facebook is simple (kind of). Blackberry UI is complicated. iPhone is clear. Constant contact is deep in menus and pages. Campaign monitor is the good kind of shallow. The more I use technology, the more I appreciate simple. I have…

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Make it fun

People love fun. How can you take your product or service and have a little fun with it? You dont need to down play the power, seriousness, or delivery of the product itself, but the marketing and messaging can really make it that much easier for people to see you stand out out from the competition.…

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Train for the finish line

In recent months both Ryan (business development here at factor1) and I have been training hard. Ryan is training for an ironman and I have been training for a century road race. And as we talk about the process, the weekly plans and the pain, I see a lot of parallels in business as a…

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Santa Photos Site launch

See, We told you we have been busy around here. Lots of new projects launching this season. SantaPhotos.com was a very cool project to be working on. Mall Santas are a big deal. Many families want to find the same santa year after year, to provide great tradition, and consistency to their family photos. We…

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Business is like riding a bike

I’m an avid mountain biker, road biker, and cyclist. I ride my bike to the office every day, to church on a regular basis, and anywhere I can. I have been riding a lot for the better part of 7 years. Even spent most of my childhood on a bike. Riding for recreation, exercise, fun,…

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the future of music sales

Most artists make their money on concert sales and add ons. T-shirts, stickers, collectibles, etc. Not CD sales. But is this the future of music in a world of digital delivery? http://modlife.com/angelsandairwaves/love A free CD, with the request of ANY payment? Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have also tried their hand at the same thing.…

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Connect the dots

This is a simple concept, yet I see so many companies fail at this. Make it easy for customers to move around in your company. What do I mean by that? When navigating from one part of your site to another, don’t make them log back in. If you ask callers to enter their phone…

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