This list of things is not trying to pose as a cleverly researched report, it’s merely a collection of ideas that hopefully gets you thinking about how YOU can save the enviroment. 

Saving Energy

• Open the door, turn off the lights.
  It’s summer! At least in the northern hemisphere… Stop working in the artificial box of bright office lights and air conditioning and use the sun and wind and feel the real world. Not convinced? It’s saving money as well…
• Turn your computers off at night.
  This has to be a no-brainer. Before you leave the office, walk around and see how many computers are still running. Think of each computer as a 150-watt lightbulb left burning all night – don’t waste energy!
• Black is beautiful.
  A white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts (so I heard…). Computers of designers and developers are running 10+ hours a day – start to erase your colorful screen savers and desktop backgrounds and replacing it by an all black background. Has the added benefit of looking slick and professional as well ;)
• Don’t go to meetings.
  Meeting clients in person is necessary from time to time, but think about saving time and gas and make technology work for you. Get a web cam, download Skype and start using it as a communication tool – even conference calls are easy to set up. The results are surprisingly good. Try keeping meetings in person to an absolute minimum.

Saving Paper

• Use PDF files whenever possible.

  The latest version of Adobe Acrobat has some sophisticated tools for distributing layouts and proofs and collecting client comments. Learn about them. Use them. And let PDF files take the place of paper whenever possible. If you are not 100% familiar with all the functions, grab a book or sign up for the great online tutorials at Lynda.com
• Embrace digital photography and videography.
  There are people who say shooting on film gives a look that digital media can’t duplicate. I do agree with this. But more often than not, especially on the web, you can hardly tell the difference. Digital is often cheaper and the toxic chemicals involved in processing photographic film are among the most hazardous around.
• Don’t print more copies than you need.
  Obvious one… Reducing the number of prints has cost and waste reduction savings associated with it. If you work on a professional print though, do not risk a re-run…
• Use the lowest weight paper you can and try less bright stock.
  Consider lowering your paper weight, this saves resources. The finished product often looks and performs the same as the higher weight. Another bonus is the cost of your paper will be actually lower by using a lower paper weight. Use paper bright enough for, but not exceeding, the design needs. Increased brightness may require more bleach and other chemicals in the pulping process.
• Print on both sides of the paper and turn used file folders inside out.
  Yes it can be this easy to save some trees. 15 million sheets of office paper are used in the U.S. every five minutes. If all of us printed and photocopied on both sides of the sheet, you can do the math about how much paper » trees » energy that would save. Also, when a job’s complete, clean out the file, turn the thing inside out and you’re ready for a new project. You cut your file folder expenses in half and saved some poor tree.
• Read 40 newspapers in 2 minutes.
  Get your daily news online, instead of the morning paper. It has the added value, that you can crosscheck at various sources instead of simply believing your favorite paper – no matter how trustworthy it is. RSS Feeds even make it possible to get just the news that you deem to be worthwhile, so you spent less time looking for interesting stuff but it gets delivered right to your “doorstep”. Here are some interesting ones to get you started: New York Times, ESPN, Sydney Morning Herald. In the same vein, start using podcast for specialised news updates instead of buying magazines. Here are some great ones, we use: New York Times World News, Netmag Web Technology Podcast
• Use an intranet instead of folders.
  Look into setting up a project management software that handles all the information instead of generating massive folders with all documentation (don’t forget to backup the data once a day though otherwise you will be left stranded with no useful information at all…)
• Clean up mailing lists.
  If computer catalogs and who-knows-what-else goes straight in the recycling bin, stop that paper waste by getting off the mailing list. It may take some effort if you work directly with the sender, but in the end you can save a lot paper and energy. It’s well worth it.
• Design for better paper efficiency.
  Your layout can mightily influence how much paper a job requires. If you can get by with less white space and smaller point sizes, you can squeeze more content into fewer pages. Don’t sacrifice readability, but also try not to sacrifice trees in the name of aesthetics. You can also keep the copy short and provide more in depth on an accompanying website, which leads me to the next tip:
• Do a web site instead.
  Before you sit down to work on a new print campaign, ask the question, “could this be done as a paper-free web site or pdf instead?” This isn’t to say you need to give up print marketing materials, but you might be able to get away with a smaller, less elaborate print piece supported by an in-depth web site. And even if you can’t convince your clients to move completely away from paper-based promotional materials, you can certainly make the move yourself. Redesign your firm’s promo materials to be delivered via the web – then explain in those pieces why you’ve gone this route.

Inhouse Recycling

• Two trash cans at every work station.
  One for trash. One for recycling. Simple.
• Get rid of unused computers safely.
  Most companies have no-longer-used computers, monitors, and printers which do nothing more than clutter your storage closet. Find a reliable place nearby that will recycle your office electronics, giving you the assurance that reusable equipment is donated to non-profits, hazardous materials are properly handled and nothing recyclable winds up in a landfill.
• Leave the driving to someone else.
  Encourage your employees to walk, ride their bikes or take mass transit. You can even reward employees in a green way by handing out mass transit passes.
• Reduce your shipping impact.
  Even if you design the most economical piece of work and print it on recycled paper, you still need to think about shipping. If that special paper had to be shipped across the globe, all your efforts could still end up leaving a huge footprint on the environment. Also try to find printers close to the products final destination and thereby keeping delivery costs to a minimum.
• Publish your sustainability policies.
  Write your philosophy down. Put it on your web site. Include it in your capability presentations. Let clients and prospects know that you’re taking this seriously, even if it’s not the main focus of your firm. Also add a sustainability section to your web site and give
current and prospective clients some ideas they can use in their marketing communications practices.
• Promote with a carbon neutral web site.
  You and your clients need a web site, right? But think about all the energy that goes into powering the servers that host your sites… Check out ilisys.com.au, a carbon neutral webhost in Australia.

More Resources

Treehugger.com
Nice and comprehensive resource for sustainable living…

Greenpeace.org
You don’t have to swim in front of whaling boats to join…

Conservatree.org
Comprehensive site covering recycled papers, fiber sources, inks, listings of papers, and much, much more.

What We Can Gather From the Most Popular Twitter Users

If you go to twitterholic.com, you can see the users with the most number of Twitter followers. If you have a quick glance over the list, you’ll see that most of these users are already famous in real life, whether because they have a successful business or because they are a celebrity. It’s not like they built their Twitter profiles from the ground up and accumulated so many Twitter followers because they write good tweets. However, this doesn’t mean that you’re doomed not to gain a good following just because you’re not famous.

The Way You Use Twitter Has Little Importance

If you are worried that the frequency of your tweeting or the quality of your tweeting is what primarily affects the number of followers you get, quit obsessing. You must treat your Twitter account just as you would any one of your other websites. The key to success is driving traffic to your site. In the big picture, obsessing about your tweeting habits is really not going to make a difference. The idea is to maximize your visibility just as you would on your own blog. To come up with marketing strategies for getting more people to go to your Twitter page and follow you, think of some incentives for why those people would want to follow you.

Strategies for Increasing Your Twitter Following

Make your Twitter profile follow you wherever you go. Make sure you add a link to your Twitter page at the end of emails and forum signatures. Put links to your Twitter page on your other social media profiles. If you have an online business or application, consider using Twitter for tech/customer support. Try setting up a contest or giveaway on your Twitter page. You can also create a free tool and advertise it on your Twitter page. One of the exceptions to the rule of not worrying about tweeting etiquette is using tweets to link to articles of interest to your followers. This helps you build a following.

One of the most effective strategies for increasing your Twitter following is following other Twitter users. When you follow new users, those users usually follow you right back. The downside to this tactic is that if you start following many people in a short time on Twitter, you risk being labeled a spammer. So if you are looking to build a long-term strategy and a legitimate Twitter profile, you’ll probably want to follow people gradually. One way you can do it is start following a bunch of people to get them to follow you in return, and then cut down the number of people you follow to make your profile look legitimate. The problem with following too many people is that you are overloaded with tweets and it can be difficult to actually keep up with anyone.

In conclusion, there are two ways to approach Twitter when building your following. You can use it to get immediate traffic to your websites or you can use it to network and converse with your followers to build rapport. How you decide to build your following and use Twitter depends on the end goal you’d like to achieve. If you follow these simple methods though, you’re bound to increase your followers, no matter what your motive may be.

Flash prototype imitating illuminating signage to be used in Burtons NYC flagship store.

Flash Microsite for Nokia Conference in Singapore. Storyboards, Design and Flash Development

HTML newsletters leading up to Dell’s B2B Christmas sales. Design and HTML Development.

Design…

Development…

The first question is what kind of blog? Although there are alternatives, the most popular blogging software packages are Google’s Blogger and Wordpress. This offers you four blogging options, and three ways of creating a blog to get traffic to your website.

Why four from just two blogging packages? Here is the answer to that question, and how if you create a blog using each, you will maximize your earning potential from your products:

Blogger

Blogger is blogging software owned by Google. Most people run their blog from BlogSpot, Bloggers blogging host. When you do that you have less control over your blog than if you operate it from your own IP address. Blogger is very easy to use, and very easy to get started with, and is popular with those who don’t want to worry about templates, plugins and designing their own blogs.

Wordpress

Wordpress can also be run from the Wordpress hosting site. However, where Wordpress scores over Blogger is in the fact that the software can be uploaded to your website, and can be run from there. This enables you to use any of the thousands of Wordpress plugins and templates that provide an almost unlimited degree of functionality in your blogging that will help to drive traffic to your website.

When you create a blog with any of these two different packages, whether run from your own computer or from the blog host, you are able to provide fresh content daily to your virtual website. Because that is what a blog is: it is in effect a web page, in the same way that a Squidoo lens and a page on a website is a web page.

Blogging and Search Engines

Blogging allows you a presence on search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and allows those with little idea of SEO or even of web design, to sell products online. There was a time when blogs were a rarity and something new, but blogging is now a way for anybody that knows how to create a blog can drive traffic to their website or to their blog page and help them make money through free advertising.

However, even a blog has to be advertised. Blogging in itself is not an advertising technique, but one of displaying your thoughts, idea, products or advertising your products. Now, you might think I am being a bit duplicitous here, stating that blogging is not a means of advertising yet can be used to advertise! Yet both statements are true. Let me explain why.

Is Blogging an Advertising Technique?

Yes and no. You can create a blog in order to get traffic to your website, and in that respect you are using your blog for advertising. You can place a link to your website: your squeeze page, sales page or just a content page. The question is, how do you get people to read your blog, and then click on one of these links? The link could be placed at the bottom of every post, and on a permanent page on your blog, but how do yet get traffic to your blog: you have the same problem now as getting traffic to your website!

What you have here is that blogging can be use to promote another site, whether it be a website, another blog or a social networking site such as Facebook, MySpace or YouTube. You can use all of these to promote and sell products. However, how do you get people, to find your blog? Creating a blog is fine, but that is only the start.

Use Article Marketing in Blogging

There is one way, and that is article marketing. By writing articles about your niche or product, and then including a link to your blog in the article, you can use the article to advertise your blog. If you can persuade a reader to click on your link, they will reach your blog on which you provide them with links to your website, your other blogs and your Facebook and MySpace home pages.

Perhaps you can’t write, and maybe don’t know how to use articles properly, or even where to get them. Well don’t worry. If you want to make the best use of the internet than create a blog, get blogging and then use the help provide online to make best use of your blog make money.

Blogging and traffic go together, and it is easy to create a blog to drive traffic to your website or any other online web page (such as another blog). You only need to know how.