Internet marketing means more than just having a website, more than just having a fan page, it involves having what we refer to as a web presence. Developing a web presence requires a precise measurement much like a good suit…because one size does not fit all. This is also the reason why so many single-man operations cannot achieve the ROI that customers expect. As an example, think of an attorney. One attorney being proficient in all types of law is virtually impossible, there are simply too many variables at play; corporate law and personal injury law are altogether two different animals. To achieve proficiency in all types of law, law firms are assembled. Internet marketing is much the same.

Experienced web designers are needed to design navigation-friendly websites. Properly writing clean code requires highly skilled developers. Creating search engine friendly/user friendly text requires the skill set of a trained web-based copywriter. Developing a social media campaign that people will relate to demands the attention of someone with a strong marketing background. Also, having a project manager oversee all aspects of a fully integrated internet marketing campaign, ensuring that it reflects a given organization’s brand, is vital to success. While it’s possible that someone could go to school for 2 years of design, 2 years of IT, 2 years of copywriting and editing, and 2 years of marketing; it is impossible that a single person could stay up to date with the changes.

The internet changes everyday, some would argue every second or even nanosecond. Staying relevant in design, coding, search engine optimization, and social media trends requires a continuing education in each facet. It’s simply too much for any one person to handle…it’s also the reason why, as a team, Atomic has been able to create so much success for our clients. As we like to say, “The proof is in the pudding.” So, we encourage you to search for “dayton web design” or even “ohio web design.” As a 3 year old company competing in a 20+ year old business, we’re proud of the results we’ve created for ourselves, but more proud of the results our team has created for our clients.

The idea that you need a PC to browse online is nearly as old fashioned as, well, the Old Fashioned. Now more than ever, people use their mobile devices to do everything—from finding the recipe for a classic cocktail, to ordering repair parts online, to writing cell phone novels.

What’s more, U.S. sales of AT&T-based iPhones are expected to reach 21.3 million by 2011. With those numbers in mind, making your content mobile-accessible seems less of an option and more of an essential, ongoing consideration.

At Atomic Interactive, we help customers adapt their web content to the mobile world in a variety of ways:

• Create an application that has value to your audience. Coming up with a concept for your application is a great place to get started. Ask yourself a few questions: “What do my clients want?” “What struggles are they having?” “Is there something fun I can share with my customers to get them excited about my product or service?” We can guide you every step of the way from concept to completion of your application.
• Fitting your site to its users. With mobile-formatted websites, we use code to sniff out your clients’ browser preferences based on the device they use to find you—whether it’s an iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, or mini Netbook. Your content is then displayed in an easy-to-read, mobile-size format, with the most important information up front.
• Using the latest technology. Since websites are much easier to update than applications, we’re using the latest web-development technology, such as Ajax, HTML5, and CSS3, to make functionality extremely user friendly, device-specific, and even downright sexy. We know how to optimize graphics to display well on both large and small screens, for example—so we don’t shortchange traditional users or overwhelm mobile users.
• Helping you navigate the “app” universe. Apps—the quirky, convenient applications that present information in personalized ways to mobile device users—are a great way to get multi-channel exposure (e.g., at the iTunes Appstore or the Android Market).

But how do you know which options to invest in, and whether they’ll attract customers? Our experts can help you review the online marketplace and make sure that a mobile application adds value to your brand and is useful for your customers. After all, even if you have a great app, if it’s not properly marketed, your target audience may not know it’s available.

We build sites and applications using clean code that prevent disruptions that can send mobile users running to the virtual competition. We also help prioritize your information with the mobile user’s briefer browsing habits in mind. And we always test our work from the most popular mobile platforms to be sure the content views correctly.

Want to learn more about maximizing your Web presence? Use your mobile device to find us online, send us an e-mail, or ring us up the old-fashioned way.

Does anyone surfing the web these days see a blue bird or a chubby aqua “T” and not think of Twitter?

Icons—pictorial representations of brands, products, or people—can be powerful tools to help you stand out in the cyber crowd.

A customized icon set—a group of similarly styled icons, much like a family of fonts—takes iconic branding to the next level by helping you:

• Differentiate one product, application, or blogger from another.
• Organize products into like groups—without sacrificing the consistent elements of your brand.
• Streamline the back-end functionality of your content management system, which makes it easier for staff to navigate and to train new staff on how to use it.
• Provide a consistent theme for graphic, product, app, and other designers to use for creating new icons.

Here at Atomic, my process for developing icon sets is pretty straightforward. It focuses on upfront preparation, which conserves your time, cuts down on costs, and ensures that we get the best results.

• Brainstorm. First, I’ll brainstorm with you to learn who and what the icon set is for. What message, position, feeling do you hope to convey? I might just listen to how you talk about your products or brand, take notes, and then jot down some ideas to see what creative concepts emerge.
• Research. Often, these early brainstorming sessions are augmented with additional research. I want to know what your competition is doing. I also like to check out how other sites use icon sets and to what effect.
• Sketch. Next, I’ll sketch out some more concrete ideas for you to review—including color schemes that bring the concepts to life. I’ll typically present ideas from a variety of different angles to see which ones you think work best for your goals. And I’ll provide my two cents to help you decide.
• Refine. Once I get more feedback, I can refine the sketches to create full, polished illustrations.

Soon enough, your customized icon set is ready to be deployed.

Now that’s iconic thinking for your brand and your business.

Mom always told me to clean behind my ears. But clean code? She wasn’t too familiar with that.

At Atomic, clean code is a way of life. It’s the foundation of all our development work. It’s how we make sites that run well now – and are easy to update and maintain over time.

A hundred and one variables separate clean code from messy code: being compliant with W3C conventions; using standard naming conventions; using a single CSS stylesheet; using title tags, in a clear hierarchy, to define page content; and eliminating extraneous code, just to name a few.

But in short, clean code uses streamlined, standardized protocols; is easy to read and understand (by humans and computers); and conveys complex information elegantly.

Here’s an example of clean versus messy code:

There are a number of benefits to writing code like this:

• Promotes good search. Code that is properly organized and tagged is easier for search engines to crawl and understand. That means you get better results in SEO.
• Helps with cross-browser compatibility. Using clean code helps your site display correctly no matter what browser your audience uses. See the difference in the pages below? That’s the result of careless coding. One browser is able to “figure out” what the confusing code means; the other browser can’t.

• Simplifies maintenance and troubleshooting. Most people want to update their websites over time – maybe add functionality or fix a security weakness. To do that, your code needs to be read and revised, often by someone other than the original developer. The easier your code is to read, the easier it is for the developer to find the code they need, understand it, and update it.
• Saves money. The difference between updating a messy site and a clean site can be the difference between 2 and 10 hours. Most developers charge an hourly rate for update and maintenance work, so the cost savings from having a cleanly written site can be huge.

You can right-click nearly any website and select “View Source” to see how the website was built. Wondering if your site code is clean or cluttered? Give us a call anytime. We’ll be happy to take a look.

We’ve all heard about the dangers of social networking for kids and teens. Sometimes it seems like every day there’s another story about a predator who used MySpace or Facebook to connect with an unknowing youth.

But imagine that you had a special needs child. Someone who wanted to make friends online, but who was even more vulnerable to danger. How would you protect them?

That’s where Therapals.com comes in. Therapals is an online social community for children with special needs. Just like Facebook, Therapals lets children create online profiles where they can update their status, “friend” other people, comment on a friend’s status, and send messages or attachments.

The site is the brainchild of an Ohio-based occupational therapist who works with special needs children. She came to Atomic for help making her vision a reality. After listening to her ideas, we were able to design and build a 100% custom site using PHP, MySQL, and jQuery. Alexis Branham created the cheerful, user-friendly design, and I did the back-end coding. Like all our sites, we used standards-compliant code, and this site had a particular emphasis on accessibility.

In addition to providing a safe social networking space for children, the site has some unique features for parents and therapists:

Parents can:

• Update their child’s profile and help them find friends with similar interests
• Monitor all of their child’s activities via a custom activity log
• Approve or deny their child’s friend requests
• Set the system to insert “sensory breaks” at defined intervals – a break when the child needs to stop using the computer and perform a physical activity like hopping or skipping

Therapists can:

• Communicate with parents of children on their caseload, and with other therapists around the country
• View, with parental permission, a child’s activities, such as how many sensory breaks they complete, who they talk to, and how much they write
• View a child’s status entries to check keyboarding skills, sentence composition, and social skills

Therapals.com had hundreds of hits on its first day. Now, just three weeks later, dozens of paid and free users are visiting the site to connect and share information.

We enjoy all of our projects, but this site has a special place in our hearts. We can’t wait to see it continue to grow.