Free vectors etc.

This September brought lots of really cool design articles into the blogosphere with lots of neat ideas. I have been compiling this list over the last four weeks, and today bring you the best of the online design world for September 2008. From tutorials to inspirational posts, this compilation has everything you would ever want.
Enjoy!

Eco-Products has now been certified by Biodegradable Products Institute, the governing body in the U.S. for compostability certification.

Thinking startup? David S. Rose’s rapid-fire TED U talk on pitching to a venture capitalist tells you the 10 things you need to know about yourself — and prove to a VC — before you fire up your slideshow.

Professional Wordpress themes

The quiet little hippie city of Boulder, Colorado, has become a serious technology hub. Here’s how.

Numerous friends ask for advice on startups– truth is that it’s 99% regurgitation from these five books, which I recommend reading in this order:

Companies are caught between the minutia of the discussions and their willingness to be human or add value to the conversations. Although a one-sided view of what’s going wrong, now let’s focus on what’s going right.

I’m watching –and talking– to many brands that are choosing to engage with this seemingly endless stream of personal thoughts, updates, and conversations within Twitter.

Jason Calacanis On How To Get PR For Your Startup: Fire Your PR Company

Social media blog by Peter Kim - found as a recommendation from Jeremiah Owyang

Welcome to TwitterPacks, where the community recommends fellow Twitter users by topic of interest or geographical area.

People use different words when they search for your products online. Use these ‘keywords’ in your website copy and people will find your site when they search.

No matter what business you are in, Wordtracker will tell you the words people use when they search - and how popular each word is.

With a Wordtracker subscription, you will be able to:

* Optimize your website content by using the most popular keywords for your product and services
* Generate thousands of relevant keywords to improve your organic and PPC search campaigns
* Research online markets, find niche opportunities and exploit them before your competitors

In short, your search engine ranking will soar, you’ll get more visits to your website and more people will buy your products.

One of the more significant Web 2.0 trends in business this year has been the advent of the Web-based customer community, where groups of like-minded individuals focus around a brand or a set of product and services come together and interact online. Far from the cynical marketing ploy that it can sometimes seem, customer communities often sprout up on the initiative of passionate customers.

You’ve told the boss that you’re going to implement social media stuff for your organization, and in your mind, you’ve decided that means an account on Twitter and a blog. Maybe there’s a bit more to it than that. For instance, what are your goals? Are you there to show customers and prospective new customers that you care? Are you there to solve customer issues? Are you building awareness and attempting new forms of digital marketing? Knowing this up front makes a world of difference.

In the mean time, here are some things you might consider for when it comes time to implement. They range from ideas for starting out, things to augment your efforts with, writing ideas, next steps, and metrics. You’re welcome to share this with others. Please link back to [chrisbrogan.com] and especially this post if you use it.

Keep it in the Box -
Working with our chairman, Barry Libert, over the last two years, one of the many important lessons he’s taught me is to “keep it in a box.” It’s taken me a while to internalize this important lesson but as they say, it takes hearing things 11 times to really “hear them.” With me, it may have taken 111 but the message has finally started to sink in. Essentially what Barry has instilled in me is how important it is to keep what I do on a daily basis:

* Closely aligned with our business goals
* Prescriptive vs. descriptive so that others can take action
* Easy to understand (could I explain what I do to my grandfather?)

Still on Hold? Twitter Can Rescue You From Customer Service Line Waits
Companies Looking to Microblogging Site to Get Through to Frustrated Customers

Using color to give punch to sites.

Broadcast and print media and the services that support the creation and distribution of information are not dead and Social Media is not going to get indicted for holding the smoking gun.

These powerful, influential, and age-old industries are however, undergoing some of their most radical transformations and metamorphoses in order to adapt to the elusive and rapidly shifting information landscape.

Did you notice that the “Web 2.0” term was outdated? One can say that after months (years?) of overselling the “2.0”” stuff, it begins to fade. Now, modern marketers talks about “Social Media“. Because with always newer services, always more sophisticated concepts, copycat, mashups of mashups… it really begins to be confusing. This is why it was important to divide this big “ratatouille 2.0” into smaller meta-concepts to ease the understanding (Enterprise 2.0, Social Shopping, Social Medias…).

But have we taken the time to define what social media is? This is my point: to provide you with a definition and give an overview of what it relates to.

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