Daily Post – v3.0 is coming!

It's coming

That’s right, brianhansondesign.com v3.0 is coming. After recently signing up for Google Analytics I have found that the bounce rate on my website is pretty high. Also, my page views are very low. Basically what that means is, people are finding my site, taking one look at my home page, and gettin’ the hell out of Dodge. I’m not sure if a simple redesign of the home page will get the bounce rate down and the page views up, but I want to go beyond that anyway. I’ve never been completely thrilled with where my social links are, and I have more to add now too. Plus, I think I need to do away with the Weekly Sketch session and try to figure out something a bit more relevant to a potential customer. Now, I’m hoping that in the next few days I may get some side work, which would obviously put a redesign on temporary hold, but I wanted to let you know that it’s coming. Get ready for sketches, screenshots, thumbnails, and mock-ups coming over the next few months.

Daily Post – Business cards

Now I feel like I'm really in business

This weekend I finally received my first batch of business cards. I ordered them from VistaPrint about a week ago and, I have to say, I was very pleased with the way they came out. Especially considering that they were free. That’s a great thing about VistaPrint, they are constantly running deals where they give stuff away for free. All I paid for was the shipping.

I kept the design fairly simple for this first batch. At the moment, I just wanted something that I can hand out to people that lets them know what I do and has all of my information on it. Eventually, I am going to work my way towards a more elaborate card, but for now, this design works fine. If I do run out of these soon (although I think 250 cards should last me a while) I will order the glossy finish as opposed to the matte finish. The matte kept the cost at $0, but I think it’ll be worth the upgrade to get the glossy next time.

Daily Post – Contest update and new designs

I like my chances with the Entropia logo

So, my Big Richard logo design lost. They haven’t selected a winner yet, but my entry has been eliminated. I have to say, of all the contests I’ve entered so far, this is the one I for which I am most curious to see the winner. There were so many raunchy designs in the competition it’ll be interesting to see what the final winning logo is. In other contest news, I entered three more logo design contests today. I’ve already lost one (the three HealthySoil logos in today’s image) one is complete and I am still in the running (caricole) and the third (Entropia Digital) still has a little over two days left. I think these contests are helping me with my logo designs, but I’m not sure. I still don’t feel as if I’m spending enough time on them and getting little to no feedback from the contest holders doesn’t help me in figuring out what I am doing wrong. I do feel as though I am getting better, though, so that’s what I’m going with for now.

In other news, I have updated my profile on 99designs and Styleapple and want to link to them here. Adding these extra sites to my repertoire (not the right word, but I’m brain-cramping on what is) is making me think I am going to have to do the social links on my website. Maybe I’ll do something in the footer with them. I’m not sure what to do. This makes me think that version 3.0 of Brian Hanson Design may be coming sooner than I originally expected. Stay tuned.