We’re proud to announce the launch of a new suite of software called Saffire, developed by Wright Strategies. Saffire is the first proven, flexible alternative to restrictive off-the-shelf website products.

We’ve been on both sides of a website: we’ve developed them and we’ve managed them. So, we know how important it is to have a beautiful website that also functions properly and efficiently. Saffire combines the best of both worlds: it gives clients a custom website design, paired with a standard set of proven, successful functionality.

Saffire has options for promoting events, selling online and creating mobile sites. Each of our offerings, Saffire Event, Saffire Product and Saffire Mobile, comes equipped with the standard functionality a site needs to be successful, along with the option to add customized modules. Behind the scenes, Saffire provides easy content management, friendly reporting and guaranteed 24/7 technical support.

You can see Saffire in action on one of our latest launches: Rodeo Austin, www.rodeoaustin.com. Implementing the Saffire Event software has cemented Rodeo Austin’s status as the technological leader in the fair and rodeo industry. Not only does the site have a fully-integrated shopping process for streamlined purchasing, it also boasts a new event interface that has generated new buzz excitement among visitors. Now, customers can slice and dice events, build their own event schedules and share events via Facebook, Twitter and rodeo e-cards.

Want to learn more? You can get all of the details about Saffire for events, ecommerce and mobile sites on our website: www.wrightstrategies.com/saffire.aspx.

A few months ago, I wrote about Twitter and how surprised I was at how much I use it. Now the craziest thing has happened. Not only do I Twitter more, but I find myself using Facebook less. Why? I had to do some soul searching. After all, just about everyone I know is on Facebook, and most of the people I follow on Twitter are strangers. I realized when it comes right down to it, the people I follow on Twitter try harder.

It came to me when I was talking to someone on the Wright Strategies team. He mentioned not logging into Twitter lately, so he didn’t know what good parking spaces anyone had gotten lately. I responded that it’s actually Facebook where people report their proverbial parking space dilemmas.

On Twitter, there is no reciprocal “friendship” relationship, so you can follow or be followed by people other than your friends. This makes people try harder to be entertaining and informative. People I don’t know write about things I am interested in – travel, cooking, Austin, etc. Some people on Facebook I haven’t talked to in 20 years write about getting the sniffles.

This brings me to another point about why I don’t use Facebook more. I use both Twitter and Facebook almost exclusively on my iPhone. While Facebook has an iPhone application, it doesn’t carry over my “hide” settings from the browser version. In my opinion, Facebook is missing out on one of the key best practices on the Internet – relevance.

Maybe I do care if someone I am in frequent contact with has the sniffles or is tired, but for someone from high school that I barely remember, this is Too Much Information! Shame on you, Facebook, for not respecting my desktop “hide” settings. I’ll be interested to see if I use Facebook more once this is fixed.

For now, I’ll continue my dates via iPhone with Twitter. Maybe I’ll even add to the conversation more often. But either way, I’ll enjoy the relevant and entertaining information I find there.

The year was 2008 (ages ago in Web years), and at SXSW Interactive conference, everyone was atwitter over Twitter. We really didn’t get it yet, but we somehow knew it would be big. (After all, SXSW was also the first time we ever heard of a blog, saw a Flip video camera, etc.) We just didn’t know how big it would be.

Our team implemented a three-day mandatory Twitter obsession. In those days, we didn’t know anyone else on Twitter, so we pretty much only followed each other. I remember there was a memorable exchange between two team members in the same hotel room tweeting back and forth about passing the remote control and other equally interesting topics for public consumption. Fast forward to 2009.

Even though I knew it was coming, I can’t believe how widespread it is. And I’ve found it has completely changed my iPhone usage over the last few months. I used to spend much of my time reading news on iGoogle (or playing Solitaire - curses to that time waster!), now I Twitter. I admit I don’t add often to the conversation, but I certainly enjoy reading it, usually when I’m up at 3 am.

Who do I follow?

• I get my news on Twitter. Every day, I see what’s in the Statesman (@statesman) before even removing the wrapper. I also follow CNN (@cnnbrk) and NPR for news (@nprnews).
• I follow several technical resources – my favorites are @mashable and @smashingmag.
• I follow funny people – the funniest is a CNN producer named Jack Gray (@jackgraycnn), but also @hotdogsladies, @dooce and others.
• I follow Ryan Seacrest (@ryanseacrest) and several American Idol participants(@mradamlambert, @redallisonblack, @krisallenmusic). Guilty pleasure defined. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I found out about several recent news stories from Seacrest.
• I follow people that have info about Austin - @austinchronicle, @lifeinaustin and @austin360.
• I follow several recipe bloggers, including @amateurgourmet and @smittenkitten.
• I even followed an astronaut who was recently sharing updates from space - fascinating (@astro_mike).

How do I follow them?

I almost exclusively participate on my iPhone, using either Twitterfon or Twitterific.

Why do I love Twitter?

Because it’s customized info exactly for me. Who else is interested in geek stuff, recipes, Idol and Austin? Twitter is akin to iGoogle, except in more digestible chunks. And for me, it’s done for my web surfing what Tivo did for my TV watching. I do much less channel surfing, but only record the exact things I want to watch. And I spend much less time web surfing, because enough of what I’m interested in comes to me via Twitter.

Why don’t I Twitter more?

It’s a question of target audience. My personal followers (@teambuilder99 – an obscure reference to a show on HBO – funny when I knew only 5 people on Twitter) wouldn’t be interested in all the geek stuff I watch. But my clients and other industry friends might not want to know every detail about my adorable son Hudson. You get the idea.

So today, I’m starting a new Twitter account, only for news related to the Internet. If you’re interested, please follow @clickbits.

I look forward to seeing you on Twitter!

We’re often asked by potential clients about recommendations for off-the-shelf ecommerce solutions. Our answer is always the same: we don’t recommend any of them.

When we started building websites, we did implement some of these solutions, but they never worked out. This is the plight faced by many web developers who would love to implement less expensive solutions for their customers if they could. Recently, we talked with another developer who described some of the issues he’s experienced when using a packaged shopping cart: they are difficult to maintain, customers experience inventory problems and Google integration isn’t possible.

While off-the-shelf solutions may be quicker to get up and running and seem cheaper in the short term, the costs add up quickly. Not only are there financial costs, like hidden fees and other ongoing expenses, but most carts do not integrate 100% with the look and feel of your website. This results in confusion for the customer and increased risk of loss of sales. Encountering these unforeseen issues and realizing additional needs, most users outgrow their packaged carts and eventually move on to custom solutions, meaning completely throwing away the money they have spent.

When we build a custom ecommerce website, we start by helping you spec out exactly what is needed. We’ve done it so many times, and have even been on the customer side of running an ecommerce site, so we know what features will make your endeavor successful. Building a custom ecommerce solution means that there are no limits on what can be done. We love having the chance to implement the latest ecommerce trends on our sites, which you can read more about here. We provide support for any problems you may have, and build our sites using ASP.net, a ubiquitous programming language so that you can work with a wide choice of developers in the future.   

Please feel free to contact us with any questions regarding custom ecommerce solutions.

A client asked me about recommendations for email marketing yesterday, and I could have talked for days. Those who have worked with Wright Strategies know that I feel email marketing has been the #1 success factor for our clients, sometimes even above the website itself.

If you haven’t been emailing your customers, especially in this economy, I encourage you to do so. And if you have, consider upping the ante on your email efforts. Here are some ideas to consider:

• Create an email calendar, and track your results diligently. Learn from what works, and do more of it!
  
• Don’t just track opened and clicked emails; watch your Google Analytics (or whatever tracking software you use) to track conversions, revenue and more.
• Resend email to recipients to those who haven’t opened your email after 3 days.
• Send a special message to people who clicked within your email.
• Try A/B testing – try out a couple subject lines (or other elements) on a small percentage of your audience, and send the one with the best results.
• Don’t forget your landing page! The webpage that emails link to can make a huge difference to your results. Wright Strategies can help you with multivariate testing, to find the landing page that will yield the best results.