Blog

And that’s a wrap.

Check it out here:

www.hillcountryexplore.com

Maybe.

I meet many small business owners that are crazy-busy.  It’s hard to get them to respond to emails, to make appointments, and generally get all the work done in a day.  And then, when we’re working on their site, they say “Oh – wouldn’t it be cool if we have a blog?!!”

My answer – “Maybe.”

Blogs are highly effective – they keep your content fresh, they give users a reason to frequent your site, and they help the search engines find your site.  So yes, blogs CAN be a great idea.

For the blog to work, and work well, it takes work.  You must update it weekly, find pertinent content that is in line with your business, and write it coherently.  And most importantly, you have to be dedicated to your blog.

It really takes some honesty with yourself.  Do you have the devotion to sit down once a week and spend the hour it will take for you to bang out a good, well-rounded, blog post?  If not, you should pass on the idea.  For all of the positives that can be said for a blog, if you fail to update it for very long periods of time, not only is it in-effective at attracting customers, many times it will actually turn them away.   If you go to a website for a restaurant and see that the blog hasn’t been updated in 3 years, how do you feel about that business?  Are they still in business?  Have they given up?  I don’t know – let’s look for somewhere else to eat.

So if you want to blog…..then BLOG.  Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by hurting your business because you’re not honest with yourself.

We’ve been busy.

We continue to see many, MANY clients that are coming from highly frustrating situations.  The web designer that is inaccessible, or high bills for simple edits are driving businesses all over the place to seek a break from the frustration of operating a website.

And we’re glad they found us.

Boo-Dawg’s:  This one is going to be pretty unique for us.  Not only are they wanting an entirely new, customized site but they are also wanting weekly updates.  That’s a pretty active site for the small business, but we’re excited.  They want weekly photo updates of families that have enjoyed the restaurant, weekly blog updates, as well as event calendar management.  We’re nearing the completion of Round 1 of the concept for the site, and hope that they enjoy the VASTLY improved site.

GreenSpace:  Nice and simple.  ”We’re a landscape company that doesn’t even own a site.  Can you build us something that is nice, clean, CHEAP, and something we can update sporadically?”  Us:  ”DONE.”

Texas Fine Art Collector’s Guide:  Top Secret.  Details coming June 1.

We are in a small town in Texas, and that means that we are probably 90% straight-ticket Republican votin’ folks.  We like iced tea, chicken fried steak, and have no idea what “pop” is.  We call it “Coke.”  In fact, we like this word so much that we call a Pepsi a “Coke” and a Big Red is a “Coke”, too.  We like country music, drive HUGE trucks, and are pretty positive that Obama is gonna try to take all of our guns, so we’re busy buying as many as we can find.

I would have assumed that, as a general rule, Kendall county folks didn’t care much for politics.  The less we hear about politics is probably better…or so I assumed.

We’re in the middle of election season here in town, and boy, is it noisy.  Our marquee matchup is for the Sheriff’s office.  In one corner you’ve got Al Auxier.  Retired DPS trooper.  SUPER nice guy.  Very well-liked.  In the other corner you’ve got Shad Prichard.  Currently working in the Sheriff’s office.  Iraq War vet.  Also a very nice guy.

In the middle you’ve got their supporters.  And my lord, what a mess they’re making.

I really feel for both Al and Shad because I think they’re both really nice guys.  Family men, Christian, and well-respected.  I don’t think either of them wish ill of the other, and I’m sure they’re both anxious to get this election over with.  They’re anxious because their supporters have turned Kendall County into a Civil War battlefield.  Vandalism, accusations, smear campaigns….it’s been non-stop.  Al’s wife’s car was keyed the other night, and dozens of both of their signs have been vandalized.  Anonymous letters have been mailed to both of them that are simply full of name-calling, and I’m sure that for somebody that’s not used to this kind of attention, it’s a bit unnerving.  And while I’m sure one side might say that they’ve gotten worse than the other, the point is that they’ve BOTH been victimized by the other side’s supporters.  You know – by our good ol’ fashioned conservative Texan brethren.

Politics is frequently bloody.  We all know that.  HOWEVER, we’re in Kendall county.  We are conservative folks (for the most part) that have very vocal opinions about what is broken in Washington.  We can’t stand a bunch of politicians that stand around name-calling and acting like children, but then………..we are doing it ourselves right now.  We shake our fists at the TV when Obama twists words and isn’t getting something done, but when our particular candidate’s opponent puts up a campaign poster, we’re sneaking over there in the dead of night and destroying it.  Or we’re mailing his wife a letter to tell her that we think she’s ugly.  Or we’re making fun of a person’s military service.  Or we’re diminishing a different candidate’s 26 years of experience.  Instead of truly debating one candidate’s credentials or ideas against the other, we’re doing the VERY THING we loathe about politics.

If you don’t like Al, don’t vote for him.  If you don’t like Shad, don’t vote for him.  It’s that easy.  We despise political circuses, yet we’ve managed to create a pretty big one right here in our own backyard.  I’m not sure what the point of all this is, other than to say it’s a pretty interesting study in human nature.   Sometimes the things that we despise most in others, is readily visible in ourselves.  Do we see it?  Probably not.  We’re too busy posting to Facebook.

Should be really cool.

I’m really liking how the whole Boerne River Trail thing is coming together.  Meandering sidewalks that begin at the Ye Kendall Inn and then go under the bridge, past the dam, and all the way to the Cibolo Nature Center.  It’s quite an improvement and I look forward to it being complete.

Now, as for the $140k fishing piers – now, that’s just plain stupid.  Everybody knows there’s no fish in the Cibolo.

One of Boerne’s newest retail shops, Flashback Funtiques specializes in selling the most unique and hard to find items imaginable.  But their site was hurting in a bad way.  SMV to the rescue.

This one should be a lot of fun – they need the ability to offer their unique items for sale on the site, but often they only have ONE of each item.  So we’re diligently working on a backend system that will enable them to have stock inventory control.  So once the one-of-a-kind jukebox is bought, the site will automatically remove it from their listings.

Tricky, yes.  Fun? Hell yes.  They’ve been a lot of fun to work with and we’re excited to unveil this one.  Be on the lookout late this week or early next!

We had a really good idea at the office the other day.

We’ve got 60 some-odd issues of EXPLORE that we’ve created.  (wow, that # just sounds incredibly LOW when I think about all the work that 60 issues involved!).  Anyway, we are planning an upcoming issue that would be a “BEST OF” edition.  Essentially, we would select our favorite articles from the past 60 issues and put together an edition that includes our hand-selected favorites.

We think that it could be a fun way to re-introduce some of our new readers to some fantastic articles they missed in the past, as well as our loyal readers.  And what a cool copy to give to friends and family that don’t live locally!

Thoughts?  Suggestions?

Cordillera Ranch Living has been in production since 2008.  Produced for the actual development, the magazine quickly captured a tremendous audience and grew like gangbusters.  Reaching a very affluent audience, many advertisers quickly saw the magazine as the “go-to” resource when seeking that demographic.

4 years later, it’s time for a spring cleaning.

So, with this in mind, we have set out to completely re-brand the magazine and produce a publication that reaches a much more broad readership, and a more specific one at the same time.  Impossible, right?  Nah.

One of the “complaints” I would hear about the magazine was that the content was too specific to Cordillera Ranch.  We covered a lot of information in the magazine, but admittedly, much of it was tied back to the actual Ranch.  So those that lived outside the gates would sometimes discount the information as stuff that only Ranch residents would care about.

So, we’ve set out to fix that.  We’ve completely overhauled the content and have added information that is not exclusive to the Ranch, but rather, is exclusive to the demographic.  Fine living, fine dining, beautiful homes, art, music, cars, and vacations.  Architectural reviews, regional getaways, fashion, and a spattering of other information that targets those that would potentially make a high end development like Cordillera Ranch home.

I love the re-branding of a magazine.  It’s like starting all over again.  Everything is fresh, new, and exciting.

And it’s coming May 1.