Author: Jeremy Harrison

Saying that you're going to write "something" every Friday is destined to fail. You need to start with some planning to figure out what you're going to say, and when. This is where an editorial calendar can help. 



For every website design or re-design ordered by a Richland County business in May, Spire will make a donation to support airmen and soldiers and their families who are members of the Guard units based in Richland County.

On March 30, Spire Advertising moved into a brand-new office that has been a great upgrade for our growing team.

As an Ashland-area business, we couldn't be more proud of the Ashland University Women's Basketball team. The Eagles faced and defeated a tough Bentley squad 77-62 to advance to the Championship game.

Just updated the office construction album with some new photos. Drywall is up, and walls are primed.

How you should use QR Code Marketing. We're seeing that people aren't sure how to use QR code advertising effectively. Make the most of your efforts and avoid making these common mistakes. Quick blog tutorial.

In April, Spire will be moving to a new, larger office here in Ashland. The construction is underway and we couldn't be more excited. We'll track the progress in this new construction photo album.

We couldn't be more excited to add these 7 new projects to our web design portfolio. These projects represent work that go beyond a website. Each project involved our entire team...

Is your website built for results? We found sevent costly mistakes small businesses make with their websites, and according to our study, the average local business is making 6 out of the 7 mistakes.

Over the past 2 months we've been busier than ever, launching many new websites. Here are 8 new website designs that have gone live and are featured in our portoflio.

Here's a video designed to walk you through our popular SEO Cheat Sheet. The free SEO cheat sheet and the video will help you learn about many on-page factors that affect

Part 2 of 2 Step Three: Strengthen Credibility & Relationships Over Time This step is where the most important shift has taken place over the past few years. It's a

There's been a fundamental shift in the way people buy products and services. It affects small businesses and mega-brands alike. Sadly, just about everyone is missing it.

Steve Jobs was a revolutionary. Many won't understand the degree to which he impacted our culture until future generations look back and see it more clearly. The person

People sometimes ask what web design project is our best work of all time. I always tell them that whatever website design we're doing TODAY is our best work! These 6 new designs launched over the past month raise the bar and we're happy to share them with you.

This latest installment to the Spire Marketing Vault shows 3 email marketing examples and explains why each are ineffective. You'll learn 4 things that make an email effective and see live examples of what to avoid.

This week's internet marketing training video explains the concept of a marketing funnel. You'll learn: how to determine if your site is a good fit for a funnel,the 5 components of a marketing funnel, and how to use a funnel to double your results.

At this free breakfast seminar for Spire customers, Jeremy Harrison will provide and explain a list of the most high-impact work you should be doing on your website to grow your business and maximize your results online.

We're excited to introduce you to our newest team member. Andrew Eades just started with us as a full-time Internet Marketing Specialist.

Today's teaching video is created for Spire customers who already have a website powered by SpireCMS. But for those of you who don't it may be helpful to watch and see what's possible. Enjoy!

Tonight you'll find a new button at the top of most pages on the Spire website. The Google +1 button will allow people to +1 your pages, which will get shared through th

Warrior Drive-In and Pizza -- a local restaurant in Ontario, Ohio is now taking online orders with an ordering system that rivals the major corporate pizza chains. With "

In March, Google released the "Panda Update" which made significant changes to their search engine algorithm. Changes to Google are always scary. We, and many of our clients get a lot of traffic through organic searches, so you never know what impact changes like these will bring.

Just received an email from a customer. He builds decks, and he wrote: I am trying to get my friends to like and share my website.

Spire has a new website design. Please check out the new site, and let us know what you think!

Here's an extremely simple example of a pretzel stand using mobile marketing. Every customer who visits their stand has a mobile phone in their pocket.

Are you using Facebook? There's a 65% chance that you -- and your future customer -- would say yes. This thing has been like an avalanche -- slowly, steadily steamrolling

As a local business owner, and a homeowner in the city of Ashland, I plan to vote "YES" for the bond issue for Ashland City Schools. My wife and I don't have children, but nonetheless I see this as a critically important issue.

Here's your chance to build a stunning design portfolio and get invaluable work experience with one of Ohio's top-ranked web design firms. Spire is searching for another all-star designer to help serve our growing client base.

As we head into another busy month, we pause for a moment to celebrate. Spire just turned 5!

We've added twelve new designs to our portfolio, a sample of some of the many sites we launched the first 10 weeks of 2011. Check them out by visiting our web design portfolio

Bryan Lefelhoc & I just got back from Las Vegas. Our mission? To share our new online pizza ordering system at The International Pizza Expo.

My favorite commercial from Superbowl XLV - hands down. I don't think much of Chrysler, but their agency did a masterful job repositioning what's a negative opinion of Detroit into an emotionally charged commercial that will sell cars.

I've been buying stock photos from iStockPhoto.com for more than 8 years. However, I recently decided to switch to Dreamstime.com as our organization's primary stock photo service. Here are a few reasons I'm dumping iStockPhoto.

We just found a moment to update the portfolio with several more websites that went live in December. The newest entries include: Ohio Dreams Action Sports Camp,WVMC-FM,Adv

We've been very busy this fall. Every week multiple new websites are going live. We added 8 new sites to our portfolio today, and added a dozen others to the site last month.

Here's your chance to build a stunning design portfolio, learn on the job, and get valuable real-world experience with one of Ohio's top-ranked web design firms.

Customer service has some similarities to a marriage. If neglected, the relationship will break down, and communication is critically important. Neither type of relationship is ever easy or perfect. But here is a message I sent to my staff today, pointing out how a good customer service relationship should be similar to a healthy marriage...

We just completed a research study and the results were a little frightening. We looked at the websites for hundreds of small businesses in our local area, and checked them on 9 costly mistakes that we tend to see people make on their websites. When looking at 3 of the most costly mistakes, we found that 99.6% of local businesses were making at least 1 of these 3 mistakes.

We received an extremely gracious recommendation from Frank Beier, Jr.. He is the President of Dynamic Webs, LLC, a Findlay Ohio web design company.

If you have an invention, or are working on developing an innovative idea, this seminar may be of interest to you. "Magnet: Innovation, Product Design & Development

Jason Fried recently had an article in Inc Magazine titled "Why is Business Writing So Awful." A great read that I strongly recommend. We design a lot of business websites each month, and too often, the writing provided by the client can be an afterthought... stuff used to fill an empty space on a page.

After 18 years with Clear Channel Communications as a sales and marketing executive, Bryan Lefelhoc announced today that he is stepping down. The Ashland resident accepted a marketing consultant position with Spire Advertising, a 4-year-old website design and internet marketing firm in Ashland, Ohio.

Last week I had the chance to present at a marketing seminar sponsored by the Ohio Bankers League in Columbus. The topic was "How to Transform Google Searchers into Customers."