Sometimes it's worth doing a job with no budget

At first glance, It seems simple enough 

The customer said “ I’ve got this idea that I'd like to show some improvements to Taxi's is specifically disabled taxi’s".     I want to show it at the Taxi Council conference in a few weeks. And over the next few days some random notes, bullet points and very rough pencil sketches turned up via email.  The curious little rabbit inside me couldn't let it go, I begin to research new taxi concepts and after spending days more time than I should have we came up with this. 

So, What did you think? 

Considering how little money that was in the job for what is entailed, I'm pleased with the basic outcome would have liked to have been able to spend a little bit more time and get more van renders.   My thanks to Chad Travis the 3D Artist that gave vision to this project and my mechanical consultant Ben koika and Håkan Eriksson for the wonderful music. 

Sometimes it's worth doing a job with not enough budget to try something new with out the responsibilities of meeting your client expectations I look forward to trying something new again. 


Thanks for taking the time to read this blog
I'm Peter Fitzgerald, Owner of BlueCrystalCreative
I provide Graphics, Advertising and Marketing Support for small business
with key strengths being Graphic Design and Video Production

Please feel free to give me a call on 0418752103
or visit www.bluecrystalcreative.com
Beenleigh - Australia 

A cost effective promotional video, for JPH Equipment by BlueCrystal Creative

A cost effective video, done a few months ago for JPH Equipment of Kingston in Brisbane that video documents their desire to stay ahead of the latest in trends In agricultural equipment design from around the world.  The video was completed in under three days, including scripting and approvals.

I'm beginning to see a lot more videos taking the place of monthly or bi-monthly display advertising in industry magazines, Web video has the added bonus of still being visible on your website and to your customer many years after the initial production.

If you'd like to find out how BlueCrystal Creative can I help you reach your customers in a cost-effective manner, that generates enquiries and educate customers for years after the initial investment call Peter on 0418752103
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JPH Equipment News Agromek 2014 .

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 In November 2014 JPH Equipment managing director Jorgen Hansen travelled to the Agromek show in Denmark.  Agromek is Northern Europe's premier agricultural exposition and was attended by almost 50 thousand visitors all excited to see a record number of exhibitors showing the very latest in agricultural machinery, automation and technological innovation, with over 290 new products alone.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog I'm Peter Fitzgerald, Owner of BlueCrystal Creative
I produce Video and Graphics and provide Advertising and Marketing Support for small business
Please feel free to give me a call on 0418752103  or visit www.bluecrystalcreative.com  Beenleigh - Australia

Mobile users 45% of all web searches and growing

Mobile users are more than 45%
of all web searches and growing

 IS your site ready

There are some important new and major changes happening to the Google search code that will affect how your will be found.  As you have seen for yourself, surfing the web on mobile devices is no longer a growing trend – it's daily business reality. Google recently announced that starting April 21, there will be changes rolling out to their SEO ranking algorithm. 

The changes to the site ranking algorithm are; 

1. Smartphone-friendly; With more than 40% of web sites visits done on smartphones, it is now critical have a smartphone-friendly version of your website, this is done by having a 2nd version of your site, that’s redesigned for mobile, hidden behind the normal desktop site that phones are redirected to and since it’s a separate set of pages, the options are unlimited, less text, no flash, smaller videos or even a completely different site structure.
2. Client area / Localisation; This update goes hand in hand with the first, it aims to provide users entering localised search terms (such as ‘pubs in southport’ or ‘Beenleigh butchers’) with more accurate and useful results.
3. Social Media, Blogs & Videos; Over the next 3-4 months social media will become even more of a ranking factor for Google, as it uses social media to work out what site are cool/important to real people. Combined with the opportunity to reach out and connect with your audience and increase your company visibility the need to be active on Social Media has grown immensely. & (2) (backlinks) ie: Links to your site from other sites, show that you have build relationships with your clients.  Theses links/post/videos etc are counted if they are from from relevant (to your business) and quality sites Google.

As you can see the first two of these changes ties directly into making the web more mobile/smartphone friendly, So summing up it's important to have:

* A mobile friendly upgrade to your site, (Mobile friendly menus, larger text etc)
* Clear Localisation, (where you are and operate)
* Quality social media posts creating backlinks from other sites

As mobile traffic continues to skyrocket, and attracting new clients becomes more important it’s critical to get on the right side of Google’s mobile SEO ranking algorithm. Google will start to penalize sites that make mobile browsing difficult and this change will have a significant impact in your sites search results VERY SOON.  

Call me to chat about the required changes you need to make


Thanks for taking the time to read this blog
I'm Peter Fitzgerald, Owner of BlueCrystalCreative
I provide Graphics, Advertising and Marketing Support for small business
with key strengths being Graphic Design and Video Production

Please feel free to give me a call on 0418752103
or visit www.bluecrystalcreative.com
Beenleigh - Australia 

Have you given your customers anything for free lately?

 Have you given your customers anything for free lately?

I know that doesn't sound logical, you're in business to make money right.  But when you look at it from the other side of the table, the main reason you or anyone else browses the internet, calls or walks into a store is to find information.  And finding the right information and getting something for free will in most cases will give potential customers a better opinion of your business and your website. Do it often enough and people will start to think of you as a friend!

That's right I said friend when you're on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest or using Twitter - it's called social media for a reason, people (your customers) want to feel useful and involved.  By shareing something thats interesting, new or poorly understood on social media (your information), your customers can share with their friends and the rest of the world. WHY? It makes them (your customers) look good and feel involved, Best of all they know which of their friends are interested in your service business or product.  How good is it when your customers are selling your product or service for you, for free, on their own time, now you are correctly using social media.

It's important to understand that, Just pushing an typical advertising on social media is like somebody showing up at the door, trying to get you to change power suppliers at 6:30 on Tuesday evening, NOT GOOD ~ You where thinking along the lines of "Go away" but it probably took a bit longer to say.

Take the time, do it right and your customers will be selling your product or service for you, for free, on their own time.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog
I'm Peter Fitzgerald, Owner of BlueCrystalCreative
I provide Graphics, Advertising and Marketing Support for small business
with key strengths being Graphic Design and Video Production

Please feel free to give me a call on 0418752103
or visit www.bluecrystalcreative.com
Beenleigh - Australia 

Do you customers always ask the same questions?

It doesn't matter what business you're in, there is always something that customers want to know, how does it work, how can I make it better, is there a cheaper/faster way to do it, there's dozens of questions that people want to know about your product, business, or your industry and guess who knows the answer; You Do! So why not tell them?

Take the time to make a fact sheet of those standard questions that you get asked all of the time ad some illustrations or photos whatever is needed, it dosen't have to be a work of art, because customers really want to know.

Once you've got it completed, pass it to your friendly local graphic artist for a touch of polish, then you can place your new article or flyer on your website, use it on your on your social media pages (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) or make it part of your monthly mail out. Your customers will Love it and in our lot of cases share it with friends because they really want to know what you know

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog
I'm Peter Fitzgerald, Owner of BlueCrystalCreative
I provide Graphics, Advertising and Marketing Support for small business
with key strengths being Graphic Design and Video Production

Please feel free to give me a call on 0418752103
or visit www.bluecrystalcreative.com
Beenleigh - Australia

What have you done with your web site lately?

If you're like almost every other small business owner, You've got a website and that's great, I'm happy for you.  But when was the last time you updated it? Added a new item content, and then linked that content it to your social media?

Typically most small business websites are only updated sporadically and social media posts may happen a couple of times a year if you're lucky. I'm not just suggesting that you do this because it makes you look good,

Search engines (or at least the 80% that's Google) has changed how your website rankings are calculated, and that's important.  As of the last few updates, Google pays very little attention to the traditional things that it use to like "Meta tags" and "keywords" - the thing that count the most at the moment is real content - real stories - real pictures, REAL things that real people want to know and share.

Sadly going from scratching your head and changing a few keywords to actually writing an interesting story of 300 to 500 words requires a little more discipline.  For most people remembering to stop day to day work, to try and come up with a different artical idea every month or even every week is really time consuming and quite taxing.  Add in that real world time pressures of business, bookwork, partners and children an it seems like all your time is gone, but that fact is like any other form of housekeeping this is something you must do.

One of the techniques that I use is to create a calendar and sit down quietly by myself and come up with half a 10-15 ideas and then ad in the different holiday or events Christmas Easter et cetera and then start putting marks on the calendar wher each headline would work best, Now look at what gaps are left.  When you approach it this way it's not as hard as it first seemsto come up with a post a month or even to

OK you've actually planned your headlines, try adding a few subheadings, or even an outline, it's much easier to finish, you might even be able to sub it out to somebody like me (BlueCrystal Creative, yep that's our plug)

If you can manage to at least build your frame work of headings, subheadings and news story ideas, then the next time you have a quiet day year right guess what you could do that if it was a quiet day you could probably knock over two or three of them and set them up automatically.  If you're using a Blog, WordPress or CMS that allows you to set go live dates, that publish automatically you can even get that post to feed Facebook and Twitter.  So get your web updates plan worked ona start writing.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog
I'm Peter Fitzgerald, Owner of Bluecrystal creative
we're a Brisbane Graphics, Advertising and Marketing Support company for small business
with my key strengths being Graphic Design and Video Production

Please feel free to give me a call on 0418 752 103
or visit www.bluecrystalcreative.com
Beenleigh - Australia 

http://www.bluecrystalcreative.com/

“Want to look like an expert? We give you the tools to look like one!”

How confident are you that you Business can meet the challenges created by marketing and communications changes flooding through the Internet? In just 10-15 years the ‘Net’ has gone from a technical wonder to a business must. It has already killed many traditional ways of doing business, both retail and B2B. Just as print media is losing market share to online services, traditional style print based advertising is losing its effectiveness.

Hello, my name is Peter FitzGerald. I am an internet marketing support specialist.

If your website is a static site (i.e. text & pics, like a newspaper) and designed to explain your services or promote your products? that a great start, however this ‘traditional’ approach can place you at risk as the digital communication ‘revolution’ sweeps the business world. Most people now are impatient for the information they require and use a computer, smartphone or tablets to look for, or compare products/services. Simply put, the old style sales model is broken and having a website ‘optimised’ to cater these devices is no longer an option. It is a necessity!

I can show you how to make the you Businesses website more effective! Best of all, I can show you how it can be modified at minimum cost to cater to the new technologies, yet preserve your current image.

I will call you this week to talk about how you can integrate new video/multi-media technologies into your current web site at minimum expense. I can show you how to integrate social media, implement search engine optimisation, use product video to show how you’re your product works, and maximise mobile market benefits. And best of all, in most cases you can do this with minimum cost using your current website.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog
I'm Peter Fitzgerald, Owner of Bluecrystal creative
a Brisbane Graphics, Advertising and Marketing Support company for small business
with my key strengths being Graphic Design and Video Production

Please feel free to give me a call on 0418752103
or visit www.bluecrystalcreative.com
Beenleigh - Australia

Need to grow sales, But can't afford in-house Marketing?

My name is Peter FitzGerald I am a Creative Director and owner of BlueCrystal Creative.

BlueCrystal Creative creates Marketing, Advertising, Video Production & Social Content for Small to Medium Businesses, serving Brisbane, Gold Coast and South East Queensland.   We have a wide range of skills including Graphic design, branding and identity, catalogue production, photography, retouching, prepress & large format printing, web management & design, eLearning, storyboarding & multimedia, video & audio production & editing.

BlueCrystal Creative is an ideal fit for companies needing a bit of everything marketing, advertising and training done to a professional level.

Thanks for thaking the time to read this blog
I'm Peter Fitzgerald, Owner of Bluecrystal creative
we're a Brisbane Graphics, Advertising and Marketing Support company for small business
with my key strengths being Graphic Design and Video Production

Please feel free to give me a call on 0418752103
or visit www.bluecrystalcreative.com

Websites don't have to cost a fortune.

Your new website doesn't have to cost a fortune.


With BlueCrystal Creative getting a website has never been easier. We walk you through step by step, photos, text & design getting you online in as little as 4 days.

When was the last time you used the Yellow Pages?  In just 10-15 years the web has gone from a technical wonder to a business must. It has already killed many traditional ways of doing business, both retail and B2B.  Just as print media is losing market share to online services, traditional style print based advertising is losing readers and its effectiveness.  However if your online your business marketing has an unlimited reach, is many times more cost effective than the Yellow Pages or print and can be found by mobile users.  Now more than ever before Australian consumers are more likely than ever before to use the internet to find products and services and we understand that getting the most out of your web site is important.

BlueCrystal Creative is a web design company will be your partner in implementing everything you need.  You don't have to know how to write, design or market your website. You'll save time in the short-term and money in the long-term.  We can integrate social media, implement search engine optimisation, create and use product video to show clients how you're your product works, and maximise mobile market benefits. And best of all, in most cases you can do this with reasonable cost.

We provide Fast, fully supported Australian and US based hosting services.

The cost to run your own web site is now affordable as all our customers have access to the World's Easiest Self-Update Console. This means your web site does not need the help of a web site designer to make small changes or add a new photo that can cost hundreds per update. Advantages of updating your own site not only gives you the ability to update your information, it also allows you to build online marketing campaigns, promotions, specials, etc and keep them up to date.

BlueCrystal Creative offer content writing, blog copywriting, and photography that provides you with a content driven website with a positive marketing strategy suited to your business. BlueCrystal Creative is a Brisbane design company, located between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. We create Marketing, Advertising & Social media content for Small Business, and offer quality Design, Print, Web, Packaging, Photography, Video & Email Marketing

SPECIAL OFFER - Ten 2min product videos for as little as $2400

This is targeted offer designed to build website content and increase site traffic and sales conversions. Google loves any site that's consistently adding new content and video is king. Adding a new product videos to a website every month for 10months is the same cost as newspaper or magazine advertising but video has a lifespan of many years and will still be getting customers for years.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog
I'm Peter Fitzgerald, Owner of Bluecrystal creative
a Brisbane Graphics, Advertising and Marketing Support company for small business
with my key strengths being Graphic Design and Video Production

Please feel free to give me a call on 0418752103
or visit www.bluecrystalcreative.com
Beenleigh - Australia