The year 2008 was a big one, mostly because it was the first year for us as Five Technology.

We launched in February 2008 with a more specific and enhanced web design and Internet marketing focus then our parent company had provided to date. We benefited from our partnership/ownership with a 13 year old company (Intrcomm), but still had the challenges of a spanking new brand (and domain!).

So for our last blog post of 2008 I thought I’d put together a review for our first year. So here are some of the highlights of our web design firm:

+ Get a name, a logo, design a website

We settled on a name that kept “technology” in it, just like our parent company. We also feel that thanks to our in-house programmers and proprietary content management system that we bring a strong tech backend to our creative interfaces.

The Five Technology logo design process was a fun experience and the official birth of us. As with any start-up or new business, the logo creation is a fun, proud and important process. Once that was pulled together it was a creative flurry to pull together our website and get our blog launched. Hard to believe that we’ve posted over 70 times since then.

+ A creative space to work & meet

It took more sweat than tools, but the Five Technology office came together as a great creative space to meet with clients. The crazy thing is we recently moved to another part of the building, having to clean and rearrange all over again. No matter where in our 100 year old building you put us, we’ll find the right way to hammer out a fun and creative space to work.

+ Who wants some great web design?

As the year closes we are very fortunate to have engaged web design and Internet marketing projects for 36 clients. Each one is very important to us and we’ve approached them all with great passion and strategy. Some have already hit the web and others continue to be in production, but should hatch real soon.

Putting together the right layers of strategy, design, functionality, usability, content and analytics is what I love about this industry. It’ s what makes us tick for sure. We even took a bit of time to kick out an internal project, highlighting great Minnesota Web Design on Websota.com.

+ Connecting, learning & growing

I have blogged since 2005, but getting involved with Twitter has been a connection and energy source like no other. I finally took the plunge and have reaped so many benefits. Great people, great knowledge, great links, great networking and more. On a lighter level, both LinkedIn and Facebook have contributed to our success as well in ‘08.

A big thanks to everyone I have connected with online through social media this year. There are too many to thank here but you all been incredible resources, inspiration and more.

On Twitter, you can give me a follow at @AaronWeiche. No doubt this business is all about learning each and every day and my passion for that grows daily. I look forward to even more learning and growing in 2009.

+ Process, structure and all things organized

This is the year I’ve really honed in on structural planning for every client and website. The importance of the project strategy, design structure, layout structure, content structure and usability structure finally became uber clear to me. They all interact and I’ve found with the right structural principles in all these areas you get a website that delivers.

We truly are a partner to our clients.

+ Looking ahead in 2009

No doubt we are expecting some big things at Five and in the world of web design. New clients, new projects and new challenges. This thing called the Internet never sleeps and there will surely be change, innovation, fun and opportunities ahead.

In my 10 plus years of this web stuff, I can’t remember being more excited with what lies ahead.

Thank you to all of our partners, clients and supporters in year one, we are honored to have earned your trust and friendship. We are anxious to flex our web design and development skills, creativity and passion even more in 2009.

Five Technology is very excited to announce an Internet marketing seminar to teach and discuss the basics of search engine optimization and email marketing. The seminar is on January 20th, 2009 from 9:00am to Noon in Buffalo, Minnesota. You can get the full details, schedule and register online by clicking here.

Why Are We Doing A Seminar?
Our philosophy is and has been to share what we know. It’s not about secret recipes, but about the partnership and experience our firm brings when serving our clients. A seminar on Internet marketing is a great way for us to teach, share and help where we can with helping business owners and marketers understand what they can accomplish online.

While many small businesses have a website, very few understand the increased need to utilize the rest of the Internet and it’s tools to drive traffic to their own website.

Our seminar is open to anyone, not just Five clients, to learn the basics and understand how to market online.

What Will You Learn?
Attendees of this seminar will have a solid grasp of how today’s search engines work and what they can do to improve their trust and rank with Google, Yahoo and MSN. We’ll do this with very little “tech talk” and a lot of common sense elements and strategies within search engine optimization (SEO). We’ll also outline the features and benefits to email marketing, addressing the why, the how and the little tips that can make it a big factor in your business.

What Are You Waiting For?
Head over and register online for this 3 hour seminar for just $45.00 per person. We know you’ll be amazed at the amount of information and action items you walk away with. You’ll see search engine optimization and email marketing as a key to driving your businesses success.

We look forward to seeing you on the 20th of January!

Great Internet marketing blog posts are always on my radar and I have four I’m highlighting here that can provide some great education, examples and ideas for any business working to succeed on the web.

Each one has some great takeaways you can plug into your business strategy online. Better fundamentals, better content, better use and better marketing.  Great reads!

+ The SEO Pyramid Fundamentals
SEOmoz and the fabulous Whiteboard Friday video’s are a must for any beginner/intermediate in the SEO world. I keep waiting for them to put their SEO video series out on DVD so that small business owners can rent it at Blockbuster or Netflix. This video covers the fundamentals and needed areas of SEO in a way that makes sense to us all, a pyramid. Watch it and you can’t help but understand the importance of valuable content that is beneficial to the user, accessible by search engines and worthy of inbound links.

Speaking of content …

+ The Discipline of Content Strategy
Minneapolis’s own Kristina Halvorson writes a great article on web content strategy that appears on the A List Apart blog. Her breakdown of website content disciplines is darn near a step by step guide to success with content strategy for both your users and SEO. It’s not a bad idea to keep an eye on her staff’s musings on the Brain Traffic blog as well.

Speaking of a vision …

+ Pancheros Gets Twitter … Kinda
The always entertaining and idea factory Ted Murphy throws out his visions for burrito chain Pancheros on their current use of Twitter and how they can deepen their use of the social media tool. Ted gives great examples and photos on how the restaurant chain can take their Twitter marketing use to a whole new level by bleeding it down to each location and employee. First read the post, then follow @pancheros and then go eat at Pancheros.

Speaking of what to do first …

+ 73% Of Business Owners Would Do Taxes Themselves Before Search Marketing
Yikes! What is the fear? This article surveyed 400 business owners and found that 73% of them preferred taxes to search marketing. Is paid search marketing really a great unknown to fear? I guess so. The article highlights the following as reasons why:

• Nearly nine in 10 (89 percent) feared keywords may become too expensive.
• Eighty-one percent questioned if paid search marketing is the best use of their marketing budgets.
• One quarter of respondents believe paid search marketing is too complex.
• Twenty-one percent thought it would be too time-consuming.
• Thirty-five percent felt they would need an agency to help set up a search marketing campaign.

I can’t disagree with the last bullet.  I think engaging a SEM professional is a good idea to maximize your goals and budget. From the right keywords, to the right landing page, a pro can really make a difference.  Having an expert as a service partner also alleviates many of the other fears listed.  Funny how that works.

Five is excited to launch a new web design for Ranchline Hunting. RanchlineHunting.com offers New Mexico hunting at it’s finest with their accomodations and guided hunt options for antelope, deer, elk, quail and more.

This web design project involved:

• Custom web design
• Content Management with the SMC
• On page SEO & content structure
• Photo galleries
• Online reservation request form

The Ranchline brand now has 4 websites with us and a 5th going LIVE in 2009. It’s great to continue to meet a client’s expectations and we definitely enjoy our relationship with this fabulous group.

Be on the lookout, we have at least another 4 websites going LIVE to end 2008!

We’re hoping to have a few blog posts later this month on web design projects going LIVE.  We definitely have some great websites hitting the interweb to end 2008.  In the meantime, here is a sneak peak at just some of the custom web designs Five Technology is putting together in December.

If you have a website you want to revamp and redesign for 2009, give us a shout!