We've got some more free designs for you. Lamar AD and Lamar BC, pictured below, are now available through the design gallery in your SkyCMS and LightCMS accounts. These designs were created for church websites, but of course they could be modified to use on any site, if you have the inclination. As always, use them as is, or modify them however you want, so long as the resulting website ends up on one of our CMS systems. Enjoy!

Lamar AD

Lamar BC

Today, we're going to get to know Vivian Hoang. Vivian has worked at Element Fusion for more than two years as an Internet Marketing Specialist. She is responsible for creating and implementing Internet marketing programs that help Element Fusion's clients get real results online. Her expertise in SEO, PPC and other Internet marketing strategies bring great value to the clients she serves.

I asked Vivian a few questions to help us get to know more about her. Here is a bit of my interview with her.

Me: How did you get started in the field of Internet marketing?

Vivian: In college I was involved in several student organizations and I learned to create and optimize websites for these groups and for other personal projects. My major in communication studies also helped give me a background in marketing. I became more involved in Internet marketing after joining the Element Fusion team, where I continue to help businesses with their search optimization and marketing goals.

Me: Can you tell us a little about what you do in Internet marketing and how it helps businesses?

Vivian: As an Internet Marketing specialist, I work with businesses to help increase exposure and visibility to their company’s products or services through search engine optimization, advertising, and other resources. By leveraging the Internet and creating effective marketing strategies, businesses can establish themselves in their niche online, and become more visible to their visitors and new customers.

Me: What do you love most about being an Internet Marketing Specialist for Element Fusion?

Vivian: I love working with a fun team and great clients. I love being able to work with a diverse range of businesses to help them achieve their Internet marketing goals and increase the reach of their target audience.

Me: What is your favorite search engine and why?

Vivian: My favorite search engine is Google, not only because it is the largest in the search world, but also because they provide their users with the most relevant information without all the noise and spam that you find in other search engines.

Me: Would you recommend Internet marketing as a career choice? What advice do you have for someone who may want to pursue a career in Internet marketing?

Vivian: Internet Marketing is a fun and fast-growing field, and it’s a great career choice for anyone who loves being challenged and learning new things. Since search algorithms are constantly changing, it's important to stay on top of industry news and trends, and translate that into profitable strategies for clients.

About the author: Stacey Clermont is an Internet Marketing Specialist at Element Fusion

We've all seen Bing's commercials, haven't we? The ones about “search overload," a condition we've never heard of, that is tearing our society apart. Bing’s $100 million ad campaign showed us disturbing scenes of how Google’s generalized search results are forcing us to verbalize anything and everything related to the topic at hand. Bing boasts of being the world’s first “decision engine," claiming that it can provide valuable information on shopping, traveling, business, medicine and other more specific interests that Google doesn't address. I have to admit, the claims were intriguing.

I was amazed by the precision of their attacks. They didn't hold any punches. Screaming people, confusing conversations, and animal sounds all erupting spontaneously in the streets. It was all very alarming and fantastic at the same time. The first time I saw one of their commercials, my mouth hung open. I didn’t know what was happening until the Bing icon came on the screen. “What has search overload done to us?” we were made to wonder. Well, apparently it hasn’t done enough. Bing’s impact on the market thus far has been minimal.

Bing’s search traffic pretty much just took over its predecessor’s, MSN Live. The 2009 search market is still overwhelmingly favoring Google. Even after Bing launched, Google commanded over 75% of search traffic, according to one study. Bing currently has around 8% of traffic, which is just slightly higher than what MSN Live commanded.

Admittedly, I was little disappointed with the public response. I was pretty excited about Bing's release, as most SEOs were. As soon as Bing was open for business, I jumped on my computer and tried some random searches to compare it to Google. I liked Bing a lot. I thought it was really easy to use and it did provide up-front data on products, places and people. I also liked the maps app, which has a 3D viewing option. Bing has obviously made a lot of effort to compete in the search engine space.

But, did I switch over to the decision engine? Nah, I still like Google’s features and it has never steered me wrong. “Search Overload” is just hype that hasn't converted me, and based on recent statistics, I'm thinking it's not really working on others either.

What do you think about Bing? Let us know in the comments.

Yesterday, a few of us attended the Innotech eMarketing Summit here in OKC. Element Fusion was a sponsor of the event and our own Andrea Decker moderated the opening panel discussion on creating social media strategies. Attendance this year was even stronger than last year, and the presentations were, for the most part, stronger as well. I was excited to see this event bringing some great content and discussion to Oklahoma City.

At the same time, my experience at the eMarketing Summit simply reaffirmed a belief I've operated under for years. That is, there's really nothing new under the sun. Time after time, the presenters knowingly or unknowingly drove home the point that the rules governing eMarketing and social media are really the same rules that have been employed for traditional marketing and other strategies for a very long time.

For example, the opening panel discussion focused a lot on how companies shouldn't just launched blindly into social media campaigns, assigning lower-level employees to handle communication through Twitter or Facebook just because they are "young" and know how to use the Internet. On the contrary, communication through social media channels is just like any form of communication for your company and it needs to be handled with careful attention to detail and tone.

Also, Christi Day from Southwest Airlines (a highlight of the event) gave a look into how her company uses social media. One minor point I noted is that Southwest doesn't have any "Twitter guidelines" for their employees. Rather, they have "leadership guidelines" that apply to their employees in all aspects of life. This simply reinforces the idea that regulating how your employees communicate on Twitter is really no different than regulating how they communicate through any other channel. Companies should set expectations for their employees across the board, not just on Twitter.

Finally, the recurring theme from most all of the presenters (and the theme you are likely to hear from any speaker on these issues) is that all of the fancy tools in the world won't really help your business or your website if you don't have something of value to offer your visitors. Content is king and it has always been king. Using Twitter doesn't make it more likely someone is going to want to read your stuff if that stuff isn't attractive and valuable in its own right. This is a very significant point to remember.

So, if you weren't able to make the summit, this is a message you can take away — embrace new tools and learn how to use them, but don't expect them to be a replacement for all of the standard, common-sense approaches to communication that you've hopefully learned over years and years.

Oh, and just one more thing. My favorite moment of the day was when one of the morning presenters made an off-hand remark that went something like this: "Sometimes we get so caught up in these newer technologies, we neglect the more traditional tools like blogs and email newsletters." I love it that blogs and email are now so stodgy they are being called "traditional." Here's to rapid change!

Did you attend the summit? What did you think? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

Well, here we are in November. The season is well underway, and while football fans here in our home state of Oklahoma are a little less than thrilled with the performances of our home teams, there's still a lot to be excited about here in the Element Fusion offices. This week, we've got a couple of nifty new features and a whole bunch of behind-the-scenes improvements to be rolled out on LightCMS, WaterCMS, and SkyCMS.

FTP Secure

We're enhancing system security even further with the release of FTPS secure access. We've provided standard FTP access to your websites for years now (a rarity amongst hosted solutions), and now we've improving it with the ability to connect securely. It all works just as it has worked before (view our FTP documentation), but you can now set your FTP client to utilize FTPS protocol and all traffic between you and the server will be encrypted.

Links to uploaded files in form entry notification emails

This is another very often requested feature. Now when you allow your users to upload files to forms you create with our form builder, we'll include a link to download the file right inside the notification email (if you turn email notifications on). Previously, to access the file, you needed to log in and visit the "manage entries" screen on the form element in question. Now, you'll be able to access your files instantly. Neat!

Behind the scenes magic

In addition to the publicly visible features listed above, our team has been hard at work optimizing and improving all the magic that happens behind the scenes. Though you might not immediately see these changes, you can be assured that we are taking care of everything that's under the hood.

Update schedule

This release is scheduled for Thursday morning,  November 5th, 2009 in a window of 8am to 9am CST (GMT -6). We don't anticipate any system downtime for this update.

Today, we're going to get to know Natalie Gregg. Natalie has worked as a project manager here at Element Fusion since August of 2007. Every day, she is on the front lines of communication with Element Fusion's services clients. If you are an Element Fusion services client, you have likely worked with Natalie before. 

I asked Natalie a few questions and she was kind enough to respond. Here's a look at my interview with her.

Me: How did you get started in your project management career?

Natalie: My career in project management started at an Internet Service Provider when all that was offered was dial-up service and the Internet was just gaining popularity. I became the Lead Project Manager with a staff of four project managers working for me. I discovered that I had an ability to coordinate and lead people, and it became not only a career decision for me, but a passion as well.

Me: What do you love most about being an Element Fusion project manager?

Natalie: I get to meet so many amazing people. I love to drive down the street and see businesses and say, "Hey, I was the project manager for their website." I feel like I played a role in not only Element Fusion's success, but also the successes of those companies for whom we have created amazing websites.

Me: What makes you unique in the way you go about meeting a customer's needs?

Natalie: I believe there are two crucial objectives in client interactions and project management. The most important is to effectively communicate, and the second most important is to consider each client and his or her project as unique and to figure out how they work best. Each client is so different. It is important that you cater to each client's needs individually.

Me: Are you a super-organized person in your personal life, or do you use up all of your organizational energy at the office and let it all go at home?

Natalie: I would consider myself to be fairly organized in my home life as well as my business life. I am picky about certain things with my home, but at the same time, having children, you have to learn how to let the small things go and to have a balance between organization and spending time with the people who matter the most to you.

Me: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to grow their skill in or pursue a career in project management, especially in the web industry?

Natalie: COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION! I cannot stress that enough. If you look over any situation that has resulted in some negativity, the cause is always the same. Somewhere along the line, there was a breakdown in communication. Communication is a key fundamental in project management, but I also feel it carries over to all aspects of business and life in general. There are many facets of project management — milestones, budgets, organization ... etc. — but effective communication will always lead to a successful project.

Today, we had some pre-Halloween celebrations up here at the Element Fusion offices. First, we continued the Element Fusion chili cook-off tradition. Sure, it's been almost two years since our last cook off, but nonetheless, it's still somewhat of a tradition. Also, we held our quasi-annual pumpkin decorating contest. Even though we didn't bring back the costume contest from last year, we still had lots of fun and lots of winners. 

Here's a look at the festivities and the winning entries in pictures, below.

A look at the pumpkins awaiting their judgement.

This giant pumpkin, created by Natalie, took first prize for its creativity and the enormous effort of just bringing it up to the office.

Matt Grimm's tribute to the LightCMS logo took second place with it's meticulous detail.

Neill Harmer's painted superhero pumpkins came in third.

Here's a look at the first place chili winner, created by Joseph Donley.

The second place chili above is by Deanna Carter, who won the hearts of judges by including bacon.

The third prize for Chili went to this vegetarian offering from Amine Ouahidi.

Here's a look at owner and judge, Ryan Whitaker, deeply considering his voting decisions.

Element Fusion is happy to be a part of the 4th annual Innotech eMarketing Summit, coming up on November 4th, 2009 here in Oklahoma City. One of the sessions will be presented by our very own Andrea Decker. Andrea will moderate a panel discussion entitled "Lessons Learned from Internet Marketing Experts," featuring insights from Mike Koehler, Tiffany Monhollon and Chris Wilson.

The Summit includes a line up of other great sessions as well, including a Featured Luncheon presentation by Christi Day, Southwest Airlines Spokesperson and Emerging Media Specialist. She'll be speaking about how Southwest has used social media channels to continually evolve its communication and customer connection strategy. Plus, there are several other sessions from great speakers on topics such as "Top 10 Extreme Social Media Promotion Hacks," "Five Essential Tools for Improving and Measuring New Media Marketing Results," and more.

Several of our team members will be at the Summit all day and we are really looking forward to it. If you'd like to join us there, we can offer you a special discount price. Use promo code FUSION9 and you'll get a special price of $59 per person for the full day summit, which includes your lunch. Get full details about the event and register online on the Innotech eMarketing Summit website.

Hope to see you there!

As you might recall, when Apple's Snow Leopard operating system was released, we said to stay tuned for our Windows 7 launch coverage.  Well, today Microsoft threw the next blow in the operating system war by releasing Windows 7.  Microsoft was kind enough to send me a Windows 7 launch party kit.  The best part is that the kit included a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition.  We had a great time, but we didn't have near as much fun as these people did.

Below are some pictures we took of the event.  Out of respect to Windows 7, no one wanted to be in the pictures.

We got the party started.

Windows 7 comes with many weird artistic wallpapers and themes.

Close-up shot of the updated taskbar, which is one of the more obvious cosmetic changes you will see.

Everyone at the party left with a nice Windows 7 bag made from recycled plastic bags.

Currently we have two programmers who have fully made the switch to Windows 7.  They have seen a performance increase and are enjoying all of the new features.  Have you upgraded to Windows 7?  Are you going to?  Do you think Windows 7 is a step in the right direction, or is OS X the only operating system for you?

The fall football season rolls on and tonight we're rolling out a handful of new updates to the WaterCMS, SkyCMS and LightCMS systems. Please take a look through what is new and see our notes about maintenance and scheduled downtime below.

Design template archiving

For designers who work on design template files, this one is big. We're excited to add archiving of all save points on HTML, CSS, and JS template files on every design on every website. So now, as you make changes to your design template files, you can easily roll back and restore previous versions. The saving happens automatically every time you save a file either inside our editing interface or via FTP.

Non-Latin character support

We're updating our database to offer support for non-Latin characters on all user-editable content areas. You will now be able to enter content in non-Latin languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, Cyrillic ... etc. The only exception at this point is our form builder, which will not support non-Latin characters just yet, though we do plan to complete that in a future upgrade. Non-Latin characters will be supported in all other areas where you enter content. This has been an often requested feature and we're excited to roll it out.

Captions in Photo Gallery slideshows

Another photo gallery slideshow enhancement is included in this release. This time, it's the ability to overlay a photo's caption on top of the lower portion of the image in slideshow mode. Simply edit your caption, then check the new box in your photo gallery skin settings.

Scheduled maintenance window and expectations

While our feature upgrades generally do not require system downtime, the non-Latin character portion of this upgrade requires us to make significant changes to the system databases. As a result, we need to schedule a one-hour maintenance window to complete these changes. During this one hour window, we anticipate a period of sporadic service and possible downtime lasting approximately 45 minutes. As a result of these requirements, we are scheduling this upgrade at the period of lowest system usage. Our maintenance window will be Thursday morning, October 22nd from 1am to 2am Central Daylight Time (GMT-5).