Organized by GetListed.org co-founder David Mihm, the seminar featured a great line-up of experienced Internet marketers as well as Google and Bing representatives.  The Local University seminar will be heading out to other cities in 2010, bringing a fantastic wealth of information for any business or organization looking to improve their online marketing knowledge.

In just a 4 hour session, attendees took part in detailed presentations, real world case studies, Q & A sessions, how-to’s, do-it-yourself tips, resources and more.  Overall it was some incredible search, social and local/maps information, from talented presenters, all for $129. A complete steal to get a ton of  basics, the best practices and the baseline to market online.

The panel of speakers form left to right were Mikko Ollila of Bing, Ryan Hayward of Google, Matt McGee of Small Business SEM, Mike Blumenthal a local search expert, David Mihm of GetListed.org and Mary Bowling of seOverflow. Not pictured above was Spokane SEO expert Ed Reese.

Local University is a must for any business that wants real answers, real examples and access to grasp the opportunity to succeed online.

In addition to attending the seminar it was a chance for me to finally connect in person with other search marketers I have read, done business with and interacted with for some time.  I had a great time meeting a few new ones too like Mary Bowling, Mike Blumenthal (aka Professor Maps) and Mike Ramsey as the presenters took in dinner the night before.

Minneapolis In The Local University Future?
The one last piece that put me on a flight to Spokane was to attract the Local University offering to the Minneapolis area later this year.  The amount of information, the level of expertise and the complete offering would be perfect for the local business community here in the Twin Cities.

I can tell you that the event left Spokane buzzing, satisfied and hoping for another one.

Hopefully I’ll have some good news soon, but don’t hesitate to let your voice be heard with a comment below.

Host Carla Beaurline features various businesses from the Twin Cities area on the show. Five is the web host and CMS provider of the Around Town website and is currently redesigning the website for 2010.

You can view the full current episode here.

Everyone in our office had a great time with the shoot. It’s fun to talk about what we do on a daily basis for clients.

Ranchline Network is a national real estate listing website, focusing on high-end land and ranches for sale. The website features hundreds of listings from brokers and agents all across the US and even Internationally.

Ranchline was founded by real estate broker Paul Taylor III who has achieved incredible success in the industry.  Paul and the Ranchline team saw a great opportunity to bring their marketing and Internet success to others in the Real Estate industry as a tool for them to market their properties and homes for sale as well.

Ranchline Network – A Better Website
At the core of the Ranchline Network website is a focus on making real estate research easy for the consumer.  The website offers the ability for a user to create an account to save properties and searches.  The layout is clean and offers clear navigation in multiple formats for any user to find their desired property.  These include:

• Type Navigation like Ranches For Sale, Land For Sale & Waterfront For Sale
• By State Navigation like Montana For Sale, New Mexico For Sale, Texas For Sale
• Search filters for land type, location, price range, listing ID# or keyword
• Visual map search with listing population numbers by state (see below)

In moving through the real estate listings users are presented with both strong visuals, clear navigation and over property details. Once into an exact listing the page consists of a variety of images, content, details, maps and more.

Content Management System To The Extreme
Our web platform is extremely flexible, scalable and capable of some great custom features. This project offered us the chance to program some great features for the updating and adding of listings.  The back-end offers a great feature and tool set including:

• Online creation of client accounts
• Online payment of one-time advertising & membership fees
• Uploading of listings, data, photos, video and more
• Listing statistics for agents to view stats on searches, impressions, views, clicks & contacts
• XML feed capabilities to automate listing population & updating process

Overall Website Project Details
The Ranchline Network project was a very expansive project and the client is not engaged in online marketing strategies with Five as well.  As an overview, the web design project involved:

• Custom web design
• Content management system integration
• User accounts and agent accounts
• E-commerce & merchant account
• Multiple search & filter features
• Banner ad network
• Photo gallery features
• Google maps
• Various XML data feeds
• Search engine optimization
• Pay per click marketing
• Web analytics

Check it all out for yourself, we’re proud to work with Ranchline as part of their team and business success.

Visit the website: http://www.ranchlinenetwork.com

The Community Health Foundation of Wright County was in need of a better web design and platform to communicate their projects and causes, events and how to get involved.

In addition to the redesign of the website, it now runs on a content management system allowing the CHF to easily update and grow their web presence themselves.  The ability to add information and photos from their events and projects gives the CHF stronger communication with the communities they serve.

Five Technology is happy to launch this new website, not only powered by great web technology, but a giving employee spirit.  Five has donated over $15,000 in projects the last 2 years to local non-profits including causes supporting breast cancer patients and local food shelves.

• New Community Health Foundation Website:  http://www.chfwc.org

The events other presenter, Cindy Cofer Evert offered great insight and tips on press releases and PR.  Her info made for great web content ideas and distribution via a business blog. The group was very interested in Internet marketing, engaged and had great questions following my presentation.  Below is my slide deck from my social media talk.

Thank you to the ICBM for having me, it was a great event.

Thanks to @jonasPK of ICBM for the photos.

CTI does some amazing things with concrete floors for both commercial and residential clients.  From large retail to a modern kitchen, they can handle your concrete flooring needs.  The client hired Five to improve the visual impact of their website as well as its search engine visibility. They will even be dropping some solid knowledge on their concrete blog in the future.

This web design project involved:

• Custom web design
• Built on the SMC for content management
• Project photo gallery
• Custom blog design
• Search engine optimization
• Content structure

Both the client and Five are excited to release this new web design.  If this design and coding work has “floored” you, maybe it’s time you holler at our Minnesota Web Design firm to go to work for you.

MotorSportsGearUSA.com

The Motorsports USA Gear site is the flagship of this e-commerce network of sites.  The initial release of the site only lists snowmobile gear for sale, but will eventually offer ATV, Motocross and more.

Brand Focused Websites
The other aspect to this site is that we are producing product line focused websites.  The first one we produced is focused on Klim snowmobile clothing and gear.  The main site will feed product information to each of the brand focused websites.

E-commerce Website Features
These e-commerce sites feature the following:

• Custom e-commerce design (we also made the site easy to re-skin for the brand focused websites to follow)
• Product catalog & shopping cart
• Multiple navigation locations for category, brand & search
• Product preview & product detail pages
• HTML sitemap & product sitemap
• On-page SEO
• Product options & product codes
• Authorize.Net merchant account

We’re excited to release these new e-commerce web designs and make winter a little more fun.

• View http://www.motorsportsgearusa.com
• View http://www.sledgearusa.com

Scott Breuer Homes has an outstanding reputation and track record with over 30 awards in their 20 year construction history.  In addition to custom home building, they offer home remodeling and real estate services to meet homeowner’s needs.

Currently Scott Breuer Homes has a model home featured in the Fall Parade of Homes, model #184.

This web design project included:

• Custom web design
• Built on our CMS for content management
• Model home & neighborhood features with photos, maps, social tools PDFs & more
• Photo galleries
• News & blog feature with custom WordPress blog design
• Increased usability & flexibility for future additions
• Search engine optimization

We’re excited about the final web design outcome, which has already been featured on CSSmania.  Five Technology is looking forward to continuing to build on the Scott Breuer Homes success and reputation.

Visit website: http://www.scottbreuerhomes.com

Below are the logo concepts we designed to start the process:

With just a few minor tweaks to one of the logo concepts, we had ourselves a winner. Sometimes one of the concepts is just the right look, right off the bat.

Here is the final logo design  for S.K.i.N Medical Spa:

A company’s logo is so incredibly important in it’s branding, personality, perception, pride and tone.  Both S.K.i.N and Five couldn’t be happier with the final logo result.

Marci wanted a high-end, warm, inviting and easy to use web design to brand her services, attract new clients and market her homes for sale.  We came up with a custom web design that hits upon these and more.

This Web Design Project Features:

• Custom web design
• Built on the SMC for content management
• Detailed listings on her Buffalo, MN homes for sale
  (photo gallery, property info, Google maps, details)
• Buffalo, MN area information
• Real Estate blog
• Search engine optimization

View the website: http://www.marciweiche.com