Please visit the brand new FLPowersports.com, dealer of high-quality pit bikes, dirt bikes and scooters.

This new custom website is a stellar example of e-commerce done right.  The shopping cart features multiple product display modes, is sortable and has built-in product search.  Best of all, the checkout process is extremely quick and convenient.  In addition, the client can update the rest of the site using the seamlessly integrated Content Management System.

During this project, I got to ride one of the 125cc pit bikes and it was a lot of fun.  It’s hard to believe how affordable these bikes are.  If you know someone interested in getting into motocross or you just want a fun bike to thrash around on, FLPowersports.com has you covered.

Visual Harmony offers E-Commerce Shopping Cart solutions starting at $1999.

Here are just a few benefits of owning an online storefront:

• Wider Reach: If you own a “brick-and-mortar” store is in Florida, you can now reach potential customers in California, Maine or even Zimbabwe (if you ship there) much more easily.  You can get a lot of exposure that you otherwise would be missing out on.
• Increased Revenues: An e-commerce capable website can make sales 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Low Overhead: Once your e-store is operational, there is very little-overhead to keep the site running for years and years to come.  Unlike the expenses for operating a walk-in storefront which pile up month after month.
• Better for Local Customers: People within driving distance of your physical storefront can learn more about what you are selling before they come there.  Just think how many times you have checked a price on something online before driving to pick it up.  I do it all the time.

Do you really need a Brick-and-Mortar Storefront?

It’s clear that some stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy make the majority of their sales in their brick-and-mortar stores.  I assure you that they are the exception and not the rule.

If you do not already have a physical storefront, who says you need one?  Statistically, the need for a physical store increases your overhead and cuts away from your bottom line by at least 15%.  Why give that up?

Fact: Visual Harmony has been in business since April 2007, without ever needing a physical office.  Everything clients need to know about us or how to communicate with us is available on our website.  By declining to use a physical storefront, we are able to offer higher-quality services at a more affordable rate than the competition.

Get it!

Give us a call at 352.207.5855 or email us to discuss your new online e-commerce store.

By continually optimizing your site we will gradually improve your search engine ranking which yields more traffic and more business. In the highly competitive on-line world, ranking is a crucial component to making your business visible to would-be buyers. Not only will optimization improve your site’s ranking but it may attract additional lucrative opportunities. Who knows? People may eventually want to start advertising on your site. Cha-ching!

Today’s search engines use sophisticated algorithms to rank sites. To keep your site up to date in the rankings search optimization is an important element. These search engine algorithms also are frequently updated so it’s important to optimize your site to keep it visible, and keep those visitors coming.

Here at Visual Harmony our staff has learned from the search engineers of top search sites like Google, Yahoo, Windows Live and more. Use our expertise to improve your site and help to improve your bottom line. A professionally designed site means more than its look and feel and, ideally, it will also be search engine optimized. Many sites have improved their ranking from our professionally crafted optimization process. We’ll do all that we can on our end and train you to be just as effective on yours. Remember, better optimization = more visitors.

If you are looking for Florida employee health insurance or other team benefit solutions, they’re the ones to call.  Not only do they know their stuff, they’re a pleasure to work with.  Many thanks to Michelle, Ray, Donna, Neal and the rest of the team!

I’m working on a mural at B.F.E (Booze, Food & Entertainment), a new restaurant/bar that is opening up in Downtown Ocala. It’s one of three 10′ x 10′ murals that will be displayed inside the establishment.

I’ve decided to upload photos to show the progress after each day. Hope you like!

UPDATE: 7/28/10 – So I forgot to take pictures some of the the days, but the picture of the completed mural has now been added.

BFE Mural - End of Day 1

BFE Mural - End of Day 2

End of Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

The mural is complete. Estimated time: 36 hours (Photo credit: Andy Stracuzzi)

I discovered Zamzar when I needed to convert some client-supplied .docx files to .pdf on my Mac.  Word 2007 .docx format files can be opened in OpenOffice with X11 or NeoOffice, both on the Mac.  However, when the files are opened the formatting is often missing and funky characters are likely to appear.  With Zamzar, the conversion is flawless.

Apparently, Zamzar converts much more than documents.  Images, music, videos and also compressed archives (.zip, .rar, tar.gz, etc.) can be converted from one format to another. For a full list of Zamzar’s capabilities, please check out the conversion list.  As long as the conversions are 100 megs or less, the service is free.  If you need to convert larger files, there are a few paid-service plans available.

You can also enter the url to a video from YouTube or other video-sharing site.  Pick the format you would like the video converted to and it’ll be emailed to you.

I almost forgot to say that they have some chameleons to look at while you are uploading your files!  Chameleons are cool.

Twitter provides a couple of scripts that need to be included in your code.  It’s probably best to add them right before the </body> tag so the rest of the page loads first.  Go ahead and add them:

<script src="http://twitter.com/javascripts/blogger.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script src="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/your_username.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=1" type="text/javascript"></script>

Edit the src attribute of the second script to replace “your_username” with your Twitter username. If you would like to show more than just the latest post, you can change the number where it says “count=1″ to reflect how many posts you would like to show (eg. count=2, count=3, count=4).

Now you need to place this code in your markup where you want the tweets to show up:

<div id="twitter_div"><ul id="twitter_update_list"><li> </li></ul></div>

Your tweet(s) will be added to this div automatically. Style the Twitter div with some CSS and you’re good to go!

An example color scheme created by Color Scheme Designer 3

Looking for a time-saving tool to help you pick great color palettes? Well, make sure you check out Color Scheme Designer 3.  It is by far the best and most feature-rich online color choosing app I have ever used or come across.

It allows you to choose a base color by clicking inside the color wheel.  From the base color, it can generate a monochromatic, complementary, triadic, tetradic, analogic or accented analogic color scheme. You can further adjust the scheme’s saturation, brightness and contrast to your liking.

Both a light-dominant and dark-dominant preview are available to show you a couple of ways the generated scheme could be used to color a web page.  Click the button labeled “Light page example” to view the light-dominant preview and the button labeled “Dark page example” to see the dark-dominant preview.

Once you are satisfied with the scheme you have created, you can export it as HTML/CSS, XML, plain text, a Photoshop palette or even a GIMP palette.

Other nice features are the ability to randomize the palette and vision simulations that allow you to understand how your scheme will appear to the visually-impaired.  Checking the box next to “Show text” will display white, black and grey text over all of the different colors in your palette.  Did I mention that it’s FREE?