Communiqué

Writing Content For Your Website

Dave Tufts — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:55:00 EDT

Writing content for the web can be difficult and overwhelming. However, by keeping two simple guidelines in mind, writing good web content is possible.

Guideline #1: Direct Your Reader

All good writing directs the reader – whether it's a trifold brochure directing someone to call a phone number or a novel directing the reader's imagination. However, on the web, this direction is more concrete. The user can actually click a link.

Put yourself in the user’s shoes. They’re staring at your “Facilities Rental” web page. What do they want? Where are they trying to get to? What other pages might interest them? Write your content so it’s easy to cross-link and direct the user to other pages of interest. This doesn't mean littering your content with "click here". Instead, just call out other pages on your site by their name, then make that page name a link.

A web page, unlike printed content, provides the opportunity this direct direction. Take advantage of it. Provide ample reference and links to other pages on your site.

Guideline #2: Write for Search Engines

Another equally important aspect of content creation is writing for search engines. Use phrases that you think people will enter in search engines.

For example, if you think people search for “history of shipbuilding”, use that exact phrase where applicable. Instead of “learn shipbuilding traditions in our…”, rephrase the content to “learn the history of shipbuilding in our…”.

Light repetition of 4–5 key search phrases throughout your content almost guarantees that your site will be found when people use Google to search for one of those phrases.

More Resources

For more info on writing for the web, check out the following resources.

Online Articles

The Cure for Content-Delay Syndrome
On most projects, content is the last thing to be considered and delivered. Pepi Ronalds proposes a solution to content delays by demonstrating the importance of a copy editor.
How Users Read on the Web
An old, but classic, article by Jacob Neilson.
Writing For The Web
Sun Microsystem’s classic article on web content development.
Reviving Anorexic Web Writing
From the article, “Content is the heart of the website. I can’t build you a body until you give me a heart.”
It’s the Content, Stupid: Search Engine Optimization
Keep search engines in mind while writing content.
Who Needs Headlines?
Tips for writing and prioritizing headlines and body copy on the web.
10 Tips on Writing the Living Web
If your content is compelling, fresh, and updating daily, you give readers a reason to keep coming back.

Read These Books

Before writing a paragraph of content for your website, read these books. Your customers will thank you by actually using your website.

iMarc named to Inc. 5000; ranked in Top 100 fastest growing companies of Boston [updated]

Robert Mohns — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:17:00 EDT

NEWBURYPORT, MA — August 8, 2010 — iMarc LLC, a web, strategy, design and branding company, announced today that the company was named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list, a compendium of the most entrepreneurial and fastest growing companies in America. This is the company's second year appearing on the list.

This year, iMarc ranked #2660 overall, ranked #94 in Boston, and #334 within the IT Services industry nation-wide.

iMarc previously was recognized in 2008.

iMarc President and co-founder Nils Menten commented on the award: “We are thrilled to have been named by Inc. Magazine as one of the country's top entrepreneurial companies. iMarc strives to serve our clients as a strategic partner to grow their businesses, investing in their success.”

“Our employees are key to our success,” iMarc Vice President and Director of Operations Nick Grant added. “Our smart, passionate, and creative team of developers, designers, producers and strategists drive the company's growth and earn our clients' loyalty.”

“We enjoy working with a wide variety of clients,” commented Vice President and Director of Technology Dave Tufts. “Our experience crosses industry lines, from not-for-profits and cultural institutions to globally recognized brands to membership associations.”

iMarc has won over 25 awards for its projects over the past four years. Clients include Motorola, Starwood Hotels, IBM, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Strem Chemicals, NEPC, Quaero, Aston-Martin of New England, Wildlife Trust, Massachusetts Society of CPAs, and many more.

There is no magic in SEO. It's just work.

Robert Mohns — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:45:00 EDT

Here's the awful truth about search engine optimization:

There is no magic bullet.
There is no magic keyword list.
There is no secret code.
There is no meta tag trick.

There is only hard work.

I get asked a lot about SEO by prospective clients. Everyone wants a magic bullet, but the answer is unappealing. Unless you are willing to fork over bucketloads of cash every month to snake-oil ”SEO consultants“ that make their living with blackhat techniques like article spinning, keyword stuffing and link farms, you'll find the only reliable way to optimize your site for search engines is to optimize it for humans.

The rules today are the same as they were fifteen years ago.

Use the same language as your audience.

Write simple, clear headlines.

Write clearly.

Explain yourself on the very first page.

Hire an editor (like this one); they're worth every penny and then some.

Don't use jargon.

Write content worth reading.

And finally, do some research, identify and prioritize your key phrases, and write them into your content. Don't stuff; use ordinary, natural language — that's what Google and Bing want, because that's what humans want.

It's a lot of work. It's very hard work. And it's the only thing that works.

Acquired: When success means saying good-bye

Dave Tufts — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:49:00 EDT

Today one of iMarc's showcase websites went off the air. We're sad to see it go, but for this client, taking the site down was the ultimate success.

Ounce Labs was a software company. Their flagship product could be used to identify security vulnerabilities in software source code. Ounce had some big clients including Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy.

When Ounce Labs came to iMarc, their website was highly technical. The content played to developers but ignored C-level executives.

Ounce laid out one of their primary goals to team iMarc: "position the company for acquisition".

After a couple months of planning, iMarc started production in February 2009.

We launched the new site in late March.

By the end of July, Ounce was acquired by IBM.

After 12 months of transition, IBM has fully integrated Ounce Labs. Today, the website went down. Now when you visit ouncelabs.com, you're redirected to IBM.

On one hand, it's sad to see a project disappear, but ultimately, we're happy that we played a small role in helping this great client achieve their goal.

At least we still have some pictures of our baby...

On a side note: Since Ounce's business was ensuring security, before engaging with iMarc, Ounce insisted in doing code audits of our web framework. Flourish, the PHP library we proposed, went through Ounce's suite of static code analysis and passed with flying colors. Coincidentally, Flourish is developed and maintained by our Senior Technical Architect, Will Bond. If you're a PHP developer interested in a security-focused web framework, check out http://flourishlib.com

Twas iMarc

Karin Klapak — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:37:16 EDT

Twas the night before I left iMarc, and all through Inn Street,
Not a developer was programming, not even iMarc’s elite ,
The websites were launched on the old internet with care,
In hopes that Sir Nils-o-lot would soon depart his lair.

The designers were cozy all snug with hues, blues, and reds,
While visions of sexy Henry haunted their heads.
And Rob in his kilt, and Kim with all her Jovi crap,
Had just closed some deals and were preparing more roadmaps.

When out Conference Room A there arose such a clatter,
I leapt from my desk to see what was the matter,
Away to the window Nils flew like a flash,
He opened the window and let out a big blast

The horn of horror, the hook of the gaff, the project a go,
Gave everyone worry, would a Karin handoff they know?
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a leg thumping Nils and a new New Biz’er, my dears.

With a few months shadowing, so cool and so quick,
I knew in a moment it must be Katie D - so siiick ,
More leads and sales than before, her colleagues they all came,
And she whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

Now Bushee! Now, Ruks! Now, Jeffcotte, Peter and Patrick!
On, Bond! On, Dan! On Angelo, on Nick, Dave, and Creatives!
To the keyboard! To the W3 standards, to the design for all!
Now make websites! Make websites! SVN away all!

As the internet was made better by iMarcians plus ∏,
Many clients got out of the way and let their websites fly,
So up to the developer room, our colleagues we all flew,
With the room full of wine and beer, and a few forties too.

And then, in an instant, I realized my sad news was afoot,
The iMarcians crying and pouting but still gladly dividing up my loot,
As I drew in a deep breath, and was looking around,
Down memory lane Sir Nils-o-lot came with a bound

Back when he emailed delightful lines of change, mac or pc he’d asked,
And his methods had worked, I soon sat on my ball and was task’d,
A hundred proposals, presentations, sow’s, frd’s, and meetings past,
And we drank scotch, laughed, and made friendships that will last.

There were some bumps; the Charlie Brown chucked shirts, how funny!
The losses, the long drives and planes trips, chasing after money!
The post holiday party beer pong, the paintball bruise on the blog,
And the trips to White Plains, MITX, Moto, and even a drunken fog.

The great sexy Le’iMarc poster, then regretting I taught my mother RSS,
And the support of Rombi in hard times, it moved me to tears I confess.
But back to iMarc good times, shooting Show Me the Money on par,
Those limo bus rides, loudly singing Livin’ on a Prayer, like superstar(s)!

The projects were good & bad, some won awards, some went on years,
Plenty of chat, youtube links, speaking in photoshop, laughing to tears!
A trololo–ing Mastermind, the pong brothers, poor Peter’s watered face,
Surviving car rides with Rob, running with the Gazelle in the Yankee race.

Ah the memories, getting to tell and sell the iMarc work,
It’s been amazing, mixing smart geeks ,web strategy and caffeine perk,
And hours and hours of flute music outside,
And so many days of looking forward to this place, I am forever tied,

So I now come to an end, to the iMarc team I raise a glass,
Away to the South I go, my ROI has come to pass,
But ya’ll hear me exclaim, as I drink a few last drops,
“You’re the best of the best, to all I wish you much love & many props!”

Launch! .406 Ventures

Robert Mohns — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:52:00 EDT

We just launched the new website for .406 Ventures, a butt-kicking VC firm in Boston. Can you find the Red Sox easter egg at www.406ventures.com? Hint: It's not Ted!

The illustrious @marcamos says the .406 portfolio sorting is hot magic. You should check it out too.

If you're looking for a cool startup job, head to the .406 Careers page, which aggregates the job listings at all of the companies they've funded.

Kudos also to Susan at Hop To It Marketing for wrangling and editing content, a thankless yet crucial task.

OunceLabs.com is a Webby Honoree!

Robert Mohns — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:23:00 EDT

More kudos for the Ounce Labs website — in addition to the awards and recognition it has already received, Ounce has been selected as an Official Honoree in the 2010 Webbys!

The Webbys are the Internet's most respected and prestigious awards. The judges consider content, visual design, functionality, interactivity, structure and navigation, and the overall experience. Less than 15% of Webby submissions are selected as Honorees.

The Ounce Labs site features great video right on the home page, fantastic design, robust content management tools, and a clear, simple navigation scheme. We worked very closely with the Ounce team, through snowstorms and power outages, to make a complex technology understandable, and a difficult-to-convey message simple and easy to get. The site went from talking technology to talking business and driving sales — and it worked. IBM acquired Ounce Labs last year. Touchdown!

We're honored to have had the chance to work with Ounce Labs to create this fantastic site, and thrilled at the recognition it has earned!

Learn more about the Ounce Labs project

iMarc and MassBio launch new web site

Robert Mohns — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:58:00 EDT

Upgraded tools, features benefit the Biotech community

Cambridge, MA and Newburyport, MA - April 14, 2010 - iMarc LLC and The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) announced today the launch of a newly designed web site, www.massbio.org.

MassBio and iMarc collaborated to develop a new website architecture and new design based on MassBio's new branding, using iMarc's powerful and flexible SiteManager content management system. The new site has:

New visual design and branding, including a promotional area on the homepage
Online member services
- Webcast and video of meetings
- Member Profile management
- Committee information
- Dues information
- Other company contacts
Member portal integration with MassBio’s CRM system
Sponsorship tools to enable MassBio to sell and manage sponsorship panels
Event Calendar Tool, which includes online event registration options
News and press room
Careers section for members and non-members to advertise life science related jobs

“With the completion of the final phase of the project, MassBio is now fully empowered to deliver member services and do more of their important outreach online” said Nils Menten, President of iMarc, “It’s been an excellent collaboration with the entire team at MassBio and we’re really excited to see the result of everyone’s hard work reflected in the increased activity on the web site”

“Not only has the new site shown us a 10 percent increase in traffic to the site since launch, it has also engaged 2,300 members who have created online profiles to register for a meeting, post a job or access members-only content,” said Robert K. Coughlin, President & CEO of MassBio. “On the back end, the SiteManager tool and integration with our member database has made our member communications more efficient, saving us staff time and money.”

About iMarc LLC

Founded in 1997, iMarc LLC, is a privately held integrated web development and interactive marketing firm located in historic downtown Newburyport, MA. iMarc combines creative brand-building power with leading software development to create powerful, engaging web sites that combine creative design, leading technologies and rigorous optimization to build strong brands, and improve relationships with customers, employees and partners. iMarc has deep experience in Life Sciences, having produced sites for Cubist Pharmacueticals, Strem Chemicals and Harvard Clinical Research Institute, among others. For more information please go to www.imarc.net.

About MassBio

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, founded in 1985, is a not-for-profit organization committed to advancing the development of critical new science, technology and medicines that benefit people worldwide. MassBio provides services and support to foster the biotechnology industry in Massachusetts and sustain our position as a world leader. There are more than 600 members in MassBio representing all facets of the industry. Our membership includes biotechnology companies, businesses related to the industry, major teaching hospitals and world-leading academic institutions. For more information please go to www.massbio.org.

Perhaps the best first sentence ever written.

Robert Mohns — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:36:00 EDT

An email Dave sent out today began thusly...

More emails need to begin this way!

A better tool

Robert Mohns — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:05:00 EST

What's the worst app on any computer? The calculator. The Mac calculator is, sadly, as bad as all the others. Ever try to use this?

A common task of mine is to make an educated guess to what a site enhancement would cost. Not a full on spreadsheet, just a ballpark for a client's budget purposes. This involves very simple math… adding up a string of task-time estimates, add a percentage for project management and QA time, convert to blended hourly rate. Simple stuff, right? 62+16+16+8+24…

The Mac calculator utterly fails, because it has a one-number display that destroys the preceding as you enter it. No good. And I end up running every calculation twice, just in case, because there's no way I can visually check what I entered before for typos. No good. (It has a "paper tape" view, but that's a barely readable mess too.)

And this is all too common, whether you use Mac, Windows, Linux…

With all the power and flexibility of a computer's graphics display, can't we do any better than this?

Back to basics?

Dave, a master of the computer if ever there was one, appears to have utterly given up on calculator apps:

It has its limits, but it aspires to do nothing else but what it does, and it does that very well indeed.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Slight Improvements

Eventually I realized that the Mac's built-in Spotlight search tool has dandy built-in calculator. It also is a one-line display, but it doesn't destroy the prior numbers as you enter them.

It even live-updates the result as I type. Heaven!

Unless I want to do another calculation. Throw it away and start over. The Core 2 Duo's mighty two by two billion instruction cycles per second and billions of bytes of memory, all for naught.

At least it's not inappropriately imitating an object anymore. Although, interestingly, Ubuntu's Calculator splits the difference in a fairly pleasing manner:

Not clear where it shows the result, but at least it doesn't throw away everything you type in!

And this afternoon I found heaven

I followed a blog comment and discovered this…

Soulver is a calculator that completely discards the remnants of the physical device and just does what I want. Add some numbers. Figure a percentage of them. Add it up and apply an hourly rate. Figure a deposit.

Without throwing away any of my work.

Soulver combines the ease of writing on a napkin with the speed of a machine and the intelligence of a scribe, creating something that couldn't have existed before the computer.

It's a better tool.

Check out Soulver for yourself: www.acqualia.com/soulver

Lunchroom Banter (Volume XX)

Dave Tufts — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:34:00 EST

Patrick: ...mmm, lunch from Abe's
Dave: You know, Abe's was named after Abe Vigoda.
Patrick: Really?
Dave: No.
Patrick: That's the second time I've fallen for that.
Dave: Really?
Patrick: No.
Bill: This sounds like Lunchroom Banter®

iMarcians with staying power

Robert Mohns — Fri, 5 Mar 2010 14:45:37 EST

This week marks three iMarc anniversaries!

The lovely and talented Kim Jackson turned 8, making her one of iMarc's most senior staff! Without Kim, we'd collapse within a month. Nobody tell her, okay?

Jeff Turcotte, Senior Developer and kicker of difficult integration butt, turned 4, and shows no signs of making any fewer crazy drawings around the office.

Patrick McPhail also turned 4, and has completed his transformation into Project Manager.

Jeff and Patrick not only started at iMarc on the same day, they continue to work together, and even share an office. Awwww!

Kim, Jeff and Patrick — Thanks for being awesome, and being at iMarc!

Mobile browsers: Here's the data

Robert Mohns — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:45:00 EST

Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that “smart phones“ are kind of a big deal. I've seen lots of stats thrown around, but I've never been able to fully trust Neilsen net ratings. I like to look at the data on my own.

So I dove into Google Analytics and created a mobile browser segment designed to look for smart phone web browsers, and looked at the 3 month period ending Februrary 16th. There were 586 mobile visits in that period.

Here are some highlights…

iPhone is huge, but not everything

iPhone browsers — including Safari, embedded web views in Facebook and Twitter clients, and iPod Touches — accounted for 64% of our mobile visitors.

The next biggest slice surprised me — Opera Mini, which runs on many phones, including some of the not-so-smart kinds, has 17%.

Android has exploded to 5%. Considering that if I look back six months it was virtually non-existent, that's amazing. I think Android's got serious legs, especially with the publicity Verizon is putting behind their Motorola-designed DROID phone!

The T-Mobile Sidekick (aka the Danger Hiptop) comes in at a very respectble 12%. I'm told by the guys at OpenAirBoston that the Sidekick is the single most popular phone among Boston public school students. Maybe iMarc has a previously unknown youth market. Or possibly a creative director who likes to write crazy Photoshop tutorials.

But Blackberry and PalmOS barely clock in. And I have yet to see a hit from Palm's new WebOS.

Mobile Platform Share

Visitor Activity

iPhone/Safari users spend the most time in both pages-per-visit (chart below) and average time on site, and also have the lowest bounce rate by a large margin. I would account this as being due to the iPhone's superior browser experience, except that the PalmOS Blazer comes in right behind it, at an average of 1.5 pages/visit, and Blazer is not exactly a modern, graphical feature-rich browser. With a whopping four visits from PalmOS devices, though, it's not exactly a statistical universe.

Android and Opera Mini both come in around 1.3 pages/visit, but the few Sidekick and Blackberry visitors never went past the first page they hit. Not big surfers, those users?

Average Viewed Pages per Visit

Flash

Finally, I'll glance at the much-maligned Flash. Everyone knows the iPhone and iPad don't provide the full internet because they don't do Flash, yet every other phone has it. Right? (At least that's what TechCrunch keeps saying…)

The data turn out not to support this claim:

Yup. Nearly 99% of mobile browsers don't do Flash.

Say, what are they looking at?

Oh, content you say? Right, well, most of them are hitting the home page, and Photoshop tutorials account for the next top 10. Then we get notes on bad CSS ideas, iMarc's process, Dave's how to run your own Unix web server series, about iMarc, and my The Scientific Method post.

But mostly, they're here for…

Well… with apologies to Gary Larson…

sigh.

For the record, we also make web sites.

iMarc welcomes Katie Desmond to the team

Nils Menten — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:06:00 EST

I'm excited to welcome our newest team member, Katie Desmond. Katie's title is Business Development Specialist, and in iMarc-speak, this means that she will help us with marketing and business development, web strategy, project planning, and more. Katie brings some tremendous skills and experience to her role, having produced many web projects over a 10-year-plus span, at Boston's Mullen Advertising, The Timberland Company, of Stratham, New Hampshire, and most recently at AMP Agency, also of Boston.

We're tickled to have her join the team, and really looking forward to her contributions to our work and our process.

Welcome Katie!

Never Pick A Stone Up Twice

Dave Tufts — Tue, 2 Feb 2010 14:48:00 EST

Flipping through the book Lost Crafts, I came upon this gem. Advice when building a dry stone wall…

A skilled waller will never pick a stone up twice; in other words, they won't waste time picking up lots of different stones, then discarding them, but will choose a stone and use it.

10 years and a Les Paul

Robert Mohns — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:36:00 EST

Today is Nick's 10-year anniversary at iMarc. His partners threw him a little wine and cheese party, then surprised him with a gift — One of Gibson's Les Paul '57 reproductions, goldtop. Check out Nick's photo and commentary.

And here's Nick testing out his new baby for us all:

The Scientific Method

Robert Mohns — Tue, 5 Jan 2010 12:34:00 EST

While we were building out the new iMarc website, a colleague and I had a vehement disagreement over link behavior. There is a link to the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce on the about page, and my esteemed colleague Karin wanted it to open in a new window — because when she opens a link leading off any site, she wants a new window to preseve her old one. I argued that this would be user-unfriendly because it changed the state of the user's window manager — and further, that anyone who wanted that behavior was sophisticated enough to create the behavior on demand.

We couldn't reach agreement, so I filed a bug report ("Dragonfly Issue #11647"), and asked Dave, the project manager, to determine and apply best practice.

Dave resolved the issue by running an experiment with an actual user. Following is his update in the bug report:

I just switched it to open in a new window then watched my Mom use the site. Here's what happened:

She went to the About page and clicked on the Chamber link

Like 80% of the world, she's on a PC and didn't notice that it opened a new window

After 2 seconds on the Chamber page, she realized that she wasn't interested and wanted to get back to iMarc.

She clicked the back button but — because it was a new window — the back button didn't work. (She actually got quite frustrated after clicking the back button a couple times).

She ended up going to Google and typing imarc.net in the search field. She clicked the first result and went to our home page. Then she clicked on "About" to get back to where she was.

Through all this, she never realized that the About page was still behind the new window.

I switched it back to a regular link so we don't break the back button.

Best bug report ever.

New Year, New Website

Dave Tufts — Mon, 4 Jan 2010 18:15:00 EST

For the past 975 days our website looked the same.

Some of the content changed. Some of the graphics changed. But basically the design template that launched in May, 2007 was still employed in December, 2009.

That design held up well for two and half years. However, since we're a web design company, we should eventually redesign our own website, right?

Not really. A full-blown, big-splash redesign is rarely the ideal solution. Instead of a big redesign, we should have continually realigned. But over those previous 975 days, client work got in the way of small improvements and tinkering on our own site. So we opted for a full-blown redesign.

That's what you're looking at now. For reference, the previous version of our website is here

This recent design process was similar to past redesigns.

Plan and talk about what we want to accomplish
Create mockups and design comps
Build out pages
Add database-driven tools and programming
Test, QC, Improve. This phase, where we sculpt the site with incremental improvements is my favorite part. We remove features, edit text, add other features, and keep tweaking the site until most people are happy with it.
Launch

During the planning phase, one of the key objectives was to focus the homepage more on iMarc as a holistic unit.

By contrast, the 2005 version of our site highlighted a single portfolio piece with hardly any of our own branding. The 2007 homepage featured the blog prominently.

With this version, our homepage shows off the company as a whole. We highlight a couple portfolio pieces. We summarize who we are and what services we offer. We highlight our culture with the blog, Flickr gallery, a random profile of a team member.

My personal hope is that this is the last full-blown redesign. Going forward we'll realign with small, incremental, and continual improvements.

iMarc: The Video Game

Robert Mohns — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:57:09 EST

Last night, we attended the MITX Interactive Awards ceremony. Two of our clients were in the running as finalists — North Shore Association of REALTORS® and Ounce Labs.

We lost out to some bigger competition (it happens — little David doesn't always win!) but were happy to be in such good company.

But more to the point ... the ceremony featured iMarc: The Video Game

2009 MITX Movie - Video Game from iMarc LLC on Vimeo.

Directed by Craig Henry, starring Jeff Turcotte as Tupac Mansfield, with special guest appearances by Paul "Mario" Kelley, Peter "Coffee Victim" Beardsley, Patrick McPhail and Dan Collins as "The Pong Brothers", Craig "Migraine" Ruksznis, and a cameo from ... let's just call him Pinky.

Welcome Matt

Dave Tufts — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:25:00 EST

It seems like we've been making hiring announcements quite frequently, yet here we are again.

This time we welcome PHP developer, Matt Sahagian to the team.

Matt is a true jack-of-all trades with a core focus on programming, open source, and PHP.

Matt's a unique breed whose resume combines phrases like C-based GUI Toolkit, CSS 2, Computer Repair, Web Design, Object Oriented PHP, AJAX, and Postfix. Over the next couple months we'll challenge ourselves to find something that Matt can't do — we'll see how he fares in mini-golf and wiffle ball.

Welcome to iMarc, Matt!

Welcome Angelo

Dave Tufts — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 12:25:00 EST

On Monday, iMarc added our first front-end developer to the growing team. Welcome Angelo Simeoni.

Wait... did you say "first" front-end developer? Yes. Until now, all front-end HTML, CSS, and Javascript has been shared by the developers and designers. We've benefited from programmers who understand usability, typography and design; as well as designers who are comfortable cutting up comps and writing Javascript. However, we also recognize the benefit offloading some front-end development work to a specialist. Enter, Mr. Simeoni...

Angelo comes to iMarc with ample experience in the ways of CSS, semantic markup, design, layout, and user experience.

Angelo joins iMarc after a recent stint at Zendesk, where he was responsible for the design and markup on their lovely new site. Before Zendesk, Angelo designed beautiful web interfaces at Thoughtbot.

Judging by the sheer mass of work that Angelo has produced in the past couple years, we're convinced that he lives in a world of 30-hour days — either that, or he never sleeps.

Welcome to iMarc, Mr. Simeoni.

The Awkward 'Tweens (We're 12!)

Dave Tufts — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:28:00 EST

iMarc is 12 years old

Yesterday we had a little birthday party as we turned 12 years old.

As we enter the awkward 'tween years, we look back with fondness at some of our own strange old websites.

But we also look forward. Here's a sneak peak at our new website about to be launched...

Happy 12th Birthday To Us

Prepare for Battle

Robert Mohns — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:09:00 EDT

This weekend, once again, Oregon State and USC are GOING TO WAR! And iMarc represents. Allow me to introduce iMarc's Warriors.

For USC: KIM "Bring It On" JACKSON
For OSU: KARIN "No Prisoners" KLAPAK

This year, it's not just a friendly competition — it's a grudge match. Because last year, Kim brought it on. And her proud warrior tradition ... did not prevail.

Once again, they're talking trash and proudly sporting team regalia and colors:

They look friendly, don't they? Don't be deceived. This rivalry makes that of Hector and Achilles look like a schoolyard spat. And they've both gone to some lengths to share with me exactly how their teams excel:

Oregon State Beavers: I Am Orange

USC Trojans: Train. Fight. Win.

(Personally, I could work with the Trojans' fight song. Until they started in with the clown music about a minute and a half in.)

2008

Let there be no mistake. Last year was intense...

... this year, with 95,000 tickets already sold, it augers to be epic.

As for iMarc's two warriors?

there will be a reckoning.

Mini-Golf Setup

Dave Tufts — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:15:11 EDT

Our office is no longer an office. It's a mini-golf course.

On Monday, we play for a green jacket.

One of the best features is Rob's Tweeting Webcam. He set up a motion activated web cam that posts images and tweets whenever someone plays his hole. Genius!

Awards and Recognitions

Dave Tufts — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:15:21 EDT

Time to toot our own horn. A number of iMarc-built and iMarc-designed websites were recently recognized by technology associations and publications.

Ounce Labs

Ounce Labs (ouncelabs.com) was recognized by Crain’s B-to-B in a list of 10 Great B-to-B Sites. We’re in with great company like Getty Images, 37signals, and Office Depot. See the full article, Crain’s B-to-B: 10 Great B-to-B Sites, or view Crain’s article specifically about Ounce's website.

The Ounce website also won Outstanding Achievement in Web Design from the Web Marketing Association’s WebAwards.

Ounce Labs was also a Gold Winner in the Computer & IT Software category at the 2009 W3 Awards.

Lastly, Ounce Labs is a finalist in the Technology category of the 2009 MITX Interactive Awards. The awards ceremony is on November 17th, but it's an honor to simply be nominated. MITX is one of the largest and most prestigious technology organizations, and all the finalists have already made it through two rounds of judging.

North Shore Association of REALTORS®

NSAR (northshorerealtors.com) is a finalist in the Real Estate category of the 2009 MITX Interactive Awards. We’re honored to have two sites up for MITX awards this year.

Strem Chemicals

Fellow Newburyport company and great client, Strem Chemicals (strem.com) was awarded Gold in the Biology category at the 2009 W3 Awards.

Others

At the W3 Awards, iMarc sites also won a number of 2009 Silver Awards.

Aston Martin Lotus of New England won silver in Automotive
Motorola Solutions Catalog won silver in Consumer Electronics
permissionTV won silver in Broadband
Quaero won silver in Consulting