M-80’s, Jumpin’ Jacks, Roman Candles, Tanks, Snakes, Bottle Rockets, Smoke Bombs, Whistlers, and of course, the best firecrackers of all – Black Cats…

Those are the fireworks that I played with 20 years ago, unsupervised, and with little respect for the directions on the packaging.

I still like a good backyard fireworks show with friends and family. Today there are so many different types to choose from and the packaging and names of some of these newer issued show stoppers are quite interesting. Some of the names are funny and are obviously named by old souls that have not come on board with the PC bandwagon. Other names are rather obvious solutions.

Whatever you do this 4th of July, remember, just because it didn’t go off, doesn’t mean it won’t, and when the box says don’t shoot it out of your hand, maybe consider it for a second before doing it anyway.

Have a Blast.

Mashable.com has aggregated a ton of wonderful info on using Twitter into their Twitter Guide Book: the basics, getting followers and even Twitter for businesses.

Thanks Mashable.

Artist Willard Wig is launching a new exhibition featuring several micro-sculptures. Painted with a single hair plucked from a fly, they are small enough to fit into the eye of a needle. Have a look for yourself at Willard Wig’s micro-sculptures and let us know what you think.

I was tempted to create a clever title for this blog post, something like, “Hey - Ho - SEO,”  and rip off a verse from the Ramones, but I suppose it would be going against my tip list below, so I have opted for a more search engine friendly title.

Increasing your rank in Google takes time and is a job in and of itself. It requires designers, developers, and content developers to be on the same page.

There are numerous tips floating around about how to improve your ranking in the search engine Google. I have put together a few that you may find interesting and helpful while thinking about your organization’s new website.

1. Inbound links are important. Google ranks your pages according to how many links are pointing at the page. The more links, the better chance you have at increasing your placement. There are several applications that will help find “linking partner sites” that may be helpful.

2. Your page title name is important. Remember to use important keywords in your page title. Many websites have their names in the title, which is fine if you are a well known established brand, but for lesser known organizations, it may not be as helpful as specific keywords to increase your rank. Remember to be specific.

3. Make sure you use keywords in your content. Use research tools like “Wordtracker” to make sure you are targeting the right keywords searched by web surfers.

4. Use keywords in links. For example, using specific link terms like “Purchase Benny Hill, Volume 1, Blue Ray” instead of “click here” may help to rank you higher.

5. Unlike other search engines, dynamically generated pages can be indexed by Google as long as a link exist to those pages somewhere.

6. Use ALT tags in images. Google indexes the text in the ALT tags of images.

7. Don’t count on META keywords to rank you higher, as Google is believed to ignore this tag.

8. Google also searches header tags (H1, H2, H3). Make sure that you use keywords in at least one or two of these tags.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

Now there’s even less of an excuse to miss an appointment with your personal trainer - as your personal trainer can meet you 24/7 inside your television or portable media device.

St. Louis based NUYU has recently completed a revolutionary new web site/application which allows end-users to browse, preview, assemble and download customized, video-assisted workouts. Drawing from a collection of hundreds of different exercise videos hosted by a diverse group of professional trainers, casual enthusiasts to earnest athletes can create workouts tailor-fit to their individual needs, time constraints, equipment, etc. The completed workouts can then be ripped to DVD for use at home, or downloaded to popular mobile devices like the iPod or other MP4 players and taken on the road or to the gym.

Big Wheel was responsible for creation of the brand and identity, web site, and user interface for the new business. We also played a significant role in the development of the go-to-market strategy, as well as an ongoing role in the continued updates and improvements to the product.

So, no more excuses: Get off the couch and discover a new you today.

http://www.discoveranewyou.com

For the past couple of months, we have been working with Lynn Terry Photography to create a new identity system and website.

The new site features the ability to add new images, portfolio categories, and news without knowing a lick of programming, making it easier to keep the site updated and fresh.

This should prove to be a great tool since one of the biggest questions we are asked is, “Can I update it myself?” For this website, the answer is simply YES! YES! YES! Check it out.

With ’social networking’ being a keyword in everyone’s vocabulary these days, starting a Facebook Group or MySpace page is often a first step in reaching out through the online community. Of course, the popularity and success of Facebook and MySpace haven’t gone unnoticed by other online ventures trying to meet the increasing demand and needs of social networking, and have led to a number of spin-offs with their own approaches. One site that has recently been in the spotlight is Ning, a social community site that allows users to join and also create their own social networks. In most aspects Ning functions similarly to Facebook groups - free and easy to set up, a quick way to reach out to people online. However, there are a few added elements that make it unique.

Some of the cool features of Ning:

• Each social network created has a simple url, in the form of www.networkname.ning.com - this makes it easy to remember and link to from emails and other sites.
• Visitors can create usernames unique to each social network. Rather than having to join the massive and exposed network of facebook in order to view groups, you can join a small network focusing on your specialized interest (i.e. hobbies, place of employment, charity group, etc).
• Network organizers can customize the appearance of the web pages, using templates, adding graphics, and organizing widgets.
• Organizers can post events, general announcements, and control viewability and membership.
• Registered users can post comments, forum topics, videos, music, photos, and links.

The applications for Ning are endless - great for educators, activity clubs, neighborhood associations, local retail, entertainment venues, fan clubs, and so forth.

Check it out!

For the past couple of years, the team at Big Wheel has donated time to create and maintain a small micro-site for a charity Golf Outing for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

So if you are interested in supporting our troops and love golf, it’s a great opportunity to show your support. The event takes place Sunday, August 30, 2009. Visit www.semperfigolf.com to learn more.

My son’s teacher e-mailed us a PowerPoint presentation that my son did for one of his third grade assignments. Besides the fact that it was kind of cute and it was teaching him computer and communication skills, it’s still PowerPoint.

PowerPoint is an epidemic of misguided expression that has taken over the board room. Sitting through meetings comprised of oodles of meaningless slides has become a corporate skill set, not to mention the “art” of creating such masterpieces.

AND THEY ARE EMBEDDING THIS INTEREST EARLY IN GRADE SCHOOL!

But the revolution is near. Neglected briefs, memos and whitepapers are organizing a revolt. Their leaders are Edward Tufte and David Byrne. Mr. Tufte, the godfather of information architecture, published an essay a few years ago titled “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within” which is very critical of the effectiveness of PowerPoint presentations and continues the fight to this day. Mr. Byrne, of Talking Heads fame, created a satirical art exhibition using only PowerPoint with its drawing tools and the included clip art to poke fun at how business people communicate and how “good” the tools they use are. And there are others, like Steve Jobs of Apple, who’s always noted for his masterful presentations void of bullet points and maybe even Al Gore for his global warming triumph.

I guess it’s good my son will be able to express himself in the vernacular of his peers, but I’m afraid we’re stuck with PowerPoint lunches for at least another generation.

Make you smart.

American Express Open has created a site/blog, Open Forum, with content contributed by some of the brightest entrepreneurial thinkers in the game today. With names like Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin writing articles regularly, it’s one of the best sources of business information I’ve found.