Friday, May 23, 2008

Launch of The New Blast Advanced Media Web Site

The address is the same (www.blastadvancedmedia.com), but Blast Advanced Media has changed the look and feel of its corporate website. We have added new features and content to make it an even better resource for anyone interested in working with or gathering more info about Blast Advanced Media web development and online marketing services.

With the launch of our new site, we wanted to make it accessible and appeal to a wider audience. We have expanded our portfolio to showcase the variety of projects we take on here at Blast, the unique solutions we have provided for our clients and the impressive results our clients have achieved while working with Blast. We've also added new features to make it easier for us to keep you informed on the latest happenings at Blast and more changes are coming soon so check back often for updates on our newest services, products, features and projects.

About Blast Advanced Media
Blast Advanced Media, a leading provider of online marketing, web development, eCommerce, interactive and creative web site design solutions, has been in business since 1999. Since then, they have experienced ever-increasing growth and a growing list of satisfied clients including some of the nation’s top companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, Lennar Corporation, Pulte Homes, Reynen Bardis Communities, Lockheed Martin, Brocade, Marvell, SYSCO Foods, Kaiser Permanente and Wells Fargo.

Labels: Inside Blast, News

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Monday, May 5, 2008

.net Magazine Features Sacramento Web Site Design

We were recently recognized by .net magazine, a globally recognized magazine focused on the latest trends in web design and development, for our work on the Roseville Health & Wellness Center web site redesign. Here's what they had to say:

"Neat, accessible, fast loading and intelligent - that's Roseville Health and Wellness Center's website. It has the kind of flair and graphical polish that many a CSS website misses, yet manages to be packed with content and photos without looking cluttered or throwing up error messages in W3C tests. Blast Advanced Media are old hands at this type of site, producing dozens of equally impressive standard-based beauties, but Roseville's colour palette and treatment of the photos are uncommon and make it an instantly recognisable visit. Roseville must be chuffed with the quality here, and there will be no need to change the design for years to come."

Visit the Roseville Health & Wellness Center Website
Visit the .net Magazine Website

Labels: Inside Blast, News, Raving Fans, Web Design, Web Usability

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Saturday, March 8, 2008

Blast Team Adopts the Sacramento Highway

Amy, Ken, and Kelly Goofing Around for the camera

Our Adopt-a-Highway Sign on the Sacramento Freeway eastbound between Newcastle and Penryn.

We had some fun and great pizza afterwards at The Pizza Factory.

Here we are wearing our orange capes and cleaning up to make the planet just a little bit cleaner. Every little bit helps right!

What happens to highways that don't get adopted?

Labels: Inside Blast, News

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Does your Web Site Rock? Turn on your Competitive Advantage!

Charles Davis will provide valuable insight to help you identify what works and what stops users from taking the desired actions on your web site. Show you how to use data to make better, smarter business decisions regarding your website. This class is based on experience running a company with a website that was large source of revenues and experience working at Sacramento based web design agency Blast Advanced Media. The class will include a humorous deconstruction analysis of audience web sites to explain problems and solutions for their web site issues.

By the end of the class the audience will be more adept at identifying key obstacles preventing people from taking the desired actions on their web sites and understand how to use key performance indicators to measure their success.

Feb 6 11:30am-12:30pm
Borders Books & Music
2339 Fair Oaks Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95825

Feb 29 11:30am-12:30pm
Borders Books & Music
2030 Douglas Blvd, Roseville, CA 95661

For a complete Borders event schedule visit:
http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=130
or http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=184

To get Borders store hours, maps, phone numbers, and directions visit: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp

Contact Blast Advanced Media at 916-724-6701 or email us at melvin@blastam.com with any questions about these upcoming classes.

Labels: News, Web Strategy

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Get Googled: Learn Google marketing Tools like Adwords, Adsense, & Analytics

See a demo of Google's powerful marketing tools that will help you add revenue generation features to your website, improve and lower the cost to market your business, and get input on what is or isn't working on your website. When you are done with this class you will better understand how to immediately take advantage of Google's powerful marketing tools.

Feb 5 11:30-12:30pm
Borders Books & Music
2030 Douglas Blvd, Roseville, CA 95661

For a complete Borders event schedule visit:
http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=130

To get Borders store hours, maps, phone numbers, and directions visit: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp

Contact Blast Advanced Media at 916-724-6701 or email us at melvin@blastam.com with any questions about these upcoming classes.

Labels: News, online marketing, Web Strategy

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Blogs and their Marketing Benefits

Learn how to quickly setup a Blog to better communicate with your clients and other targeted audiences. We'll walk you through the many benefits of Blog marketing to pull more users to your website and maintain a constant share of mind with your audience. This class is based on over 10 years of web design and marketing experience and by the end of the class audience members will be able to easily setup and manage a Blog to improve their marketing efforts.

Feb 21 11:30am-12:30pm
Borders Books & Music
4750 Natomas Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95835

Feb 23 7:00-8:00pm
Borders Books & Music
2030 Douglas Blvd, Roseville, CA 95661

For a complete Borders event schedule visit:
http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=618
or http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=130

To get Borders store hours, maps, phone numbers, and directions visit: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp

Contact Blast Advanced Media at 916-724-6701 or email us at melvin@blastam.com with any questions about these upcoming classes.

Labels: News, Web Strategy

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10 Questions Every Online Marketer Needs to Ask

Are you taking advantage of the next generation in online Marketing and PR? Have you seen the power of online press releases, social networking, pay per click marketing and how all of these tactics work together? Attend this class to learn how to more cost effectively market your business and track your campaigns effectively to get the best return on investment (ROI).

Feb 28 10:00-11:00am
Borders Books & Music
4750 Natomas Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95835

For a complete Borders event schedule visit:
http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=618

To get Borders store hours, maps, phone numbers, and directions visit: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp

Contact Blast Advanced Media at 916-724-6701 or email us at melvin@blastam.com with any questions about these upcoming classes.

Labels: News, online marketing, Web Strategy

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ECommerce: What factors turn on/off Prospective Shoppers?

We'll share research with you on how important the smallest details are to your prospective shoppers. Asking for too much info or even a typo in a key area can cause mistrust and turn them away. We will provide you with knowledge and tools that you can use to improve your website based on our 10 years of website design and marketing experience.

Feb 19 10:00-11:00am
Borders Books & Music
4750 Natomas Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95835

For a complete Borders event schedule visit:
http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=618

To get Borders store hours, maps, phone numbers, and directions visit: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp

Contact Blast Advanced Media at 916-724-6701 or email us at melvin@blastam.com with any questions about these upcoming classes.

Labels: Ecommerce, News, Web Strategy

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Proven Practices, Trends, & latest technologies in Web Design

Kayden Kelly will share his experience from Blast Advanced Media and research from MarketingSherpa and MarketingExperiments on what is and isn't working on the web. We'll cover topics such as website best practices, user centered design, website conversion, analytics, content management, ecommerce, and online marketing. Bring your questions as we will be ready to discuss them.

Feb 15 10:00-11:00am
Borders Books & Music
4750 Natomas Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95835

For a complete Borders event schedule visit:
http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=618

To get Borders store hours, maps, phone numbers, and directions visit: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp

Contact Blast Advanced Media at 916-724-6701 or email us at melvin@blastam.com with any questions about these upcoming classes.

Labels: News, Web Strategy

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Drowning in paper and post-its?

Joellyn Detjen will show you how simple technology and a tidy desk can keep your clients happy. Joellyn will step participants through using Microsoft Outlook and other technology to stay organized, keep a near paperless desk and never break a client promise. The class will be very interactive and entertaining, and will include interactive questions and a comparison of "good" and "bad" desks. You'll be sure to benefit from Joellyn's many years of experience in an office setting which are backed up by Raving Fan testimonials from clients and a long track record of meeting client expectations.

Feb 9 7:00-8:00pm
Borders Books & Music
2030 Douglas Blvd, Roseville, CA 95661

For a complete Borders event schedule visit:
http://www.bordersstores.com/events/events.jsp?view=1&storeID=130

To get Borders store hours, maps, phone numbers, and directions visit: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp

Contact Blast Advanced Media at 916-724-6701 or email us at melvin@blastam.com with any questions about these upcoming classes.

Labels: News, Web Strategy

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Blast Teams up with Borders to Teach Web Design and Marketing Classes

Kayden Kelly, Charles Davis, Sean Singleton, and Joellyn Detjen from Blast Advanced Media will be offering free hour long, drop-in classes at Borders bookstores that will be fun, interactive and educational events on web design and online marketing. These classes will be held at Sacramento and Roseville Borders locations.

Borders (Truxel)
4750 Natomas Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95835

Feb 15 10:00-11:00am
Kayden Kelly
Proven Practices, Trends, & Latest Technologies in Web
Design

Feb 19 10:00-11:00am
Kayden Kelly
Ecommerce: What Factors Turn On/Off Prospective Shoppers?

Feb 21 11:30am-12:30pm
Sean Singleton
Blogs and their Marketing Benefits

Feb 28 10:00-11:00am
Kayden Kelly
10 Questions Every Online Marketer Needs to Ask

Borders (Douglas)
2030 Douglas Blvd, Roseville, CA 95661

Feb 5 11:30-12:30pm
Kayden Kelly
Get Googled: Learn Google Marketing Tools like Adwords,
Adsense, & Analytics

Feb 9 7:00-8:00pm
Joellyn Detjen
Drowning in paper and post-its?

Feb 23 7:00-8:00pm
Sean Singleton
Blogs and their Marketing Benefits

Feb 29 11:30am-12:30pm
Charles Davis
Does Your Web Site Rock? Turn on your Competitive Advantage!

Borders (Pavilions Shopping Center in Fair Oaks)
2339 Fair Oaks Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95825

Feb 6 11:30am-12:30pm
Charles Davis
Does Your Web Site Rock? Turn on your Competitive Advantage!

For more information on Borders visit www.borders.com

To get Borders store hours, maps, phone numbers, and directions visit: http://www.bordersstores.com/locator/locator.jsp

Feel free to call 916-724-6701 or email us at melvin@blastam.com with any questions.

Labels: Inside Blast, News, Web Design, Web Strategy

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Web Design for ROI Book Launch Party

The book is focused on Web Site Design for maximized conversion and return on investment (ROI). View the Book Web Site: http://www.wd4roi.com/

Web Design for ROI -- Buy It!

Labels: Inside Blast, News, Web Strategy

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Saturday, January 5, 2008

What People Say Isn't Necessarily What They Do

There is a funny story about this fundamental truth.

When Sony was introducing the boom box, the company gathered a group of potential consumers and held a focus group on what color the new product should be: black or yellow.

After some discussion among the group of likely buyers, everyone agreed that consumers would better respond to yellow. After the session, the facilitator thanked the group, and then mentioned that, as a bonus, they were welcome to take a free boom box on the way out. There were two piles of boom boxes. yellow and black. Every person took a black boom box.

The important thing to point out is that people are telling the truth, but what they believe about their behavior doesn't always reflect reality. This is why it is critical to watch what people really do, and not simply trust what they tell you they do.

This is why we do user testing. When we are designing web sites and performing web site evaluations, we sit down next to a user and watch how they use the web site. We are looking for behavioral answers to questions such as:

• Does the design help users do "x"? ("x" being the desired action)
• What obstacles does the design create?

It often becomes quickly apparent where the major obstacles are and whether or not the web site is meeting people's needs in an efficient manner when you perform such user testing. The best thing is that it is a very easy and inexpensive process. So there is no reason to not be performing such tests to identify problems with your site design that are also typically very easy and inexpensive to fix. Interested to learn what obstacles may be facing your web site visitors? Request a Free Web Site Evaluation Now

Labels: News, Web Strategy

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Sacramento Web Design Firm Focusing on Conversion

Roseville's Blast Advanced Media Combines User Centered Design and Web Site Conversion Optimization to turn Browsers into Buyers

At Blast Advanced Media, we produce highly usable, interactive online experiences that focus on delivering measurable results and building competitive advantage for your business. We ensure that your web site is more than just a pretty design through our core areas of expertise, including:

website conversion optimization
user centered design
marketing strategy
content and ecommerce web site management system

What makes us valuable to our clients? Our expertise helps you identify and remove your web site's road blocks that are preventing you from maximizing the opportunity that each site visitor represents. We understand that you use the Internet to build your business. That's why it's critical that we begin with user centered design and website conversion optimization to ensure that your site addresses your customers' needs and leads them to your desired business outcome. Combine this with our marketing strategies and web site management system, and we'll help you increase traffic and convert your browsers into buyers at a higher rate through a focused online conversion strategy. Request a Free Site Analysis

Web Sites that Effectively turn Browsers into Buyers are Rare. This is why we used our 10 years of experience to develop our proprietary web site management platform, Motivity, which is a content and ecommerce site management system that was designed to help marketing teams easily measure and improve their online conversion rates. Motivity provides a dashboard of key performance metrics and puts key website marketing capabilities as well as the ability to control all aspects of content and products in the hands of the marketing team. The system was designed to make VPs of Marketing look like Rock Stars and it can be customized to meet the exact and demanding business processes of any organization. Request a demo at http://www.motivityweb.com/

Motivity is currently being used by a variety of companies including Enterprise level clients SYSCO Sacramento and Brocade. Blast Advanced Media is located in Roseville, in the greater Sacramento, California area and we are an international business with local, national and world-wide clients.

Labels: News, Web Strategy

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Welcoming Amy Jackson to the Team

We wanted to officially welcome Amy Jackson to the Blast Advanced Media Team. Amy has a degree in Digital Media Communications and is pretty much otherwise just an all around bad ass. Amy has already proved to be a great asset to the office with her organizational skills, professional demeanor in greeting and assisting clients, and helping with just about anything and everything to help keep things running smooth around here. With all of her great talents, which include some mighty fine knitting skills, we expect she will eventually be making more of a transition into a fully functioning member of the production team sometime in the near future.

Labels: Inside Blast, News

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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Turn Browsers into Buyers

The sense of urgency is a key ecommerce sales tactic. Our new Motivity web site management platform offers almost unlimited ways to customize online sales promotions to turn browsers into buyers.

The new promotions functionality allows the store owner to easily setup store specials for free shipping, store-wide discounts, category specific savings, product specific deals and coupons/promo codes that can be based on quantity, order value, one-time use or multiple use. Promotions are automatically displayed on the appropriate category and product level pages. Promotional emails can be customized and automated to send out thank you messages at desired frequencies after a customer places an order. This creates opportunities to encourage product reviews in exchange for additional savings and for viral marketing by offering specials that can be shared with friends. See the new functionality by browsing or buying at Elegant Arbors, Gazebo Village, Backyard Fire Pits or Original Sheds.

Labels: Case Studies, News, online marketing, Web Strategy

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Friday, November 30, 2007

Just in Time for the New Year

Just in time for New Year's resolutions, we're helping Roseville Health and Wellness Center (RHWC) shape up their web site! The current site doesn't fully represent all that RHWC does for its members or how it differs from other fitness centers. The new site design will be updated with a fresh look and will guide users through the site to easily find information and connect with RHWC.

Labels: Inside Blast, News

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V.I.C.I.S. Corp.

V.I.C.I.S. is a young, forward-thinking company with industry recognition and years of experience. They are a great fit for us as we share a similar, progressive mindset. The Vertical Intelligent Consulting and Investment Services web site will be transformed to a clean, crisp and modern representation of V.I.C.I.S. Corp's mission, values, and development projects. We are also providing them with the ability to manage their site in the future with our proprietary Site Management System, Motivity™.

Labels: News, Web Design

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Designing Green

Green furniture manufacturers have a new ally in the movement to be kind to the planet and build their sustainable furniture businesses. Design Green Alliance, a new organization for furniture manufacturers who are committed to the environment, will soon unveil a new tool for the industry. DesignGreenAlliance.com will be a source for the latest industry initiatives, access to trade shows and many business tools designed solely to help sustainable furniture manufacturers grow. Blast is thrilled with the opportunity to work on a project that meshes with our own passion for the environment.

Labels: News, Web Design

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Advancing Naturwood's Tradition

We're helping Naturwood Home Furnishings launch a new web site to reinforce its place in the region as the most trusted source for Home Furnishings. Voted Sacramento's Best Place to Buy Furniture by Sacramento Magazine readers, Naturwood has a tremendous reputation. Customers are smiling too when they visit Sacramento's largest furniture showroom in person or online!

Naturwood's new web site will convey the longevity, tradition, and warmth of the family owned and operated business. The objectives of the site are to build and reinforce the Naturwood brand, increase in-store traffic through effective marketing on the site, and to ensure Naturwood is at the top of shoppers' list when they need furniture.

If you can't wait for the new site, browse Naturwood now.

Labels: News, Web Design

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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Recognition from the Web Design Community

With the recent launches of the new BlastAdvancedMedia.com, the new Teichert Construction web site, DesCor Builders, and CSAC-EIA, quite a few new visitors have come through due to being featured on some of the best CSS and Flash design inspiration showcases.

We've been featured on several of the top gallery sites including Design Meltdown, Inspiration King, Most Inspired, Flash in the Pan, The Best Designs, CSS Mania, Screenalicio.us and Designsnack. We appreciate the accolades from the design community.

Labels: Inside Blast, News

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