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Does Your Site Hold Up to the
Window Shopping Test?

image of red rain boots

Window shopping can be a disillusioning experience. A beautiful display can pull you in, only to lead to a shop with a bad selection and lousy customer service. Which makes it less fun to pop back onto the street to continue the search.

Online businesses have window displays too — or at least a good counterpart. If you’re doing business online, you may be surprised to know that your window display could be making promises that your store doesn’t deliver on.

Follow along with me and my daughter as we shop for new rain boots, and you’ll discover what works and what doesn’t when you’re creating an online “window display” to entice your customers to buy.

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Blogging with a Learner’s Mind

image of laptop with spanish words

“¿Qué quiere para su desayuno?” she asked, inches from my face.

I thought as quickly as I could, and managed to haltingly request a piece of toast. “Pan tostado, por favor.” It was the only breakfast food I could remember from Spanish class. It ended up being all I ate for breakfast for the next week.

Clearly, I hadn’t yet found my learner’s mind.

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The Key to Innovative Business Ideas:
Cross-Pollination

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Gather round, everyone. It’s time to have “The Talk.”

You know the one I mean. You’ve started asking lots of questions and I can tell you’re ready for it, so make yourselves comfortable and let’s go over the basics.

Because if you’re in business, you need to know about this. It’s crucial to your success. Mastering this technique will put a spring in your step, and bring new life to your ventures.

Plus, it’s actually pretty fun.

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How to Develop an Endless Source of
Ideas that Sell

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Your bottom line is bottoming out. Your customers are looking elsewhere. Your well of new ideas has run dry. What can you do?

You could turn to your accountant for money-saving schemes, or hire a lawyer to re-structure your business. You could bring in a salesperson to drum up customers.

I’ll bet you wouldn’t think a technique used by designers could help you out of a bad spot.

The technique I’ll outline here is the secret to creating products and services your customers will buy. It’s a powerful way to keep your well of ideas overflowing.

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The Myth of Beautiful Web Design

image of unicorn

This one will probably get me into trouble.

I’ve worked as a graphic designer for over two decades and I’m not supposed to say this stuff. After all, it’s my job to make miracles. To wave my magic design wand and make a business look stronger, smarter, and more powerful than it really is.

Before I start dodging rotten tomatoes, though, I’m going to go ahead and say it out loud.

It’s a smart business move to have a well-designed website.

But good design — even great design — won’t solve all your business problems. Not even close.

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5 Dumb Design Mistakes That Crush Copy
(And How to Fix Them)

image of ugly toad with crown

Content is king, but if the king looks like a toad, no one will know he’s royalty.

On the one hand, your blog theme might be drop-dead gorgeous. But if your writing isn’t compelling, readers won’t stick around to read it.

Even worse, your writing might be fantastic . . . but if your design doesn’t stop web surfers long enough to read the first few sentences, you’re doomed.

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