Have you or your friends used Venmo, or any other money transferring app but feel neglected by the inability to send the recipient a seflie along with your money transference? Fear no more! We now have… Snapcash. Snapchat and Square are collaborating on this project where Square will handle the actual cash movements and Snapchat will host the social networking platform. The deal will also provide Square with access to Snapchat’s 100 million plus monthly active users according to Mashable.

To use the new feature, one must live United States, have a debit card, and be 18 years old. Snapcash will be made first available to Android users, and shortly after it will be brought to iOS users. When using Snapcash, one also creates a Square account where the actual money transference will take place. This new feature exhibits Snapchat’s ability to push past its original limitations of strictly existing as a chat application and now becoming a surprising new competitor to mobile payment companies such as PayPal. 

Snapchat has recently begun marketing and developing platforms for Snapcash, so draining your bank account might be even easier in the near future. Also, we love the video Snapchat made for the new feature. It’s crazy but that’s part of the reason why it’s amazing!

Read more about it on Snapchat’s blog.

Ello is a revolutionary social networking site unlike all the rest. Ello, is different from Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking giants in that it is completely add free. Ello’s manifesto reads, “We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate — but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life. You are not a product. Ello. This is what makes Ello unique from its forefathers.  To generate revenue, Ello allows for users to customize their pages with special feature tools which may be purchased for a small price according to Ello these features are not necessary, but do provide some financial support to the company, as well as allowing for users to continue to create and uniquely customize their social networking experience.

Ello is set up as like a mash between Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter, in which users may generate statuses, post pictures and gifs, find friends and comment on posts. Started by a small group of programmers and artists, Ello has sprung up quickly with rapid popularity. There are as many as 35,000 requests to join the social networking site per hour according to The Guardian , and Ello’s head team is working rapidly to keep up with their growing popularity. The site however is not new; Ello was launched in March and was intended to be a small, invite- only community between friends. Interest was recently sparked by the LGBT communities’ migration to other social networking sites after Facebook launched their real name policy, prohibiting users from using names other than their legal names. As interest increased, Ello became more public, but one must still obtain an invite to join the site. Some have even begun selling Ello invites on eBay ranging from 5-150 dollars according to Mashable ,but it is still unclear whether or not Ello will be a fad, or is here to stay. 

When looking to boost the revenue generated by your website consider adopting one or all of the following strategies.

Dangle the Carrot with Inbound Marketing
Visitors to your website have a one-track mind. They want to get what they need and get the hell out. It’s up to you to capitalize on the opportunity to convert a visitor into a customer. The traditional solution to this challenge is to bombard your site visitors with endless calls to action for deals, discounts and more information. But the best solution is to present visitors with the information they seek while receiving something valuable in return. Inbound marketing is a practice that follows several steps to ensure that customers are engaged with the right offers and the right content at the right time.  Leads require cultivation, and inbound marketing nets you the information you need to convert visitors into leads and leads into sales.

Back to the carrot. Think about your website in terms of the value that it offers to visitors e.g. your services, your ‘secret sauce,’ your content. For example if your website hosts an article listing “5 Easy Ways to Grow Followers on Social Media” and the article is getting a lot of traffic from search terms like “Social Media Marketing Ideas” or “Improve my Social Media marketing,” you gain practical insight into the needs of your visitors. Use this insight to create content that will bring in more visitors. Now ask yourself, “what are visitors doing once they find what they are looking for?” If the answer isn’t “contacting my company” then you are missing out on a huge opportunity. 

If we apply inbound marketing to the example above, the scene changes dramatically. With inbound marketing we take a desirable piece of content like the “5 Easy Ways to Grow Followers” article, and convert it into a downloadable format like PDF or eBook. We display a portion of the article content to the visitor upon landing on the page. Then we offer them the complete downloadable file as instant gratification for filling out a simple contact form.  If you prefer to display full articles on your site, you can convert a collection articles into a topical ebook and offer it as the incentive, while keeping the full articles available to visitors.

With inbound marketing visitors volunteer their contact details including the background information you need to facilitate your sales process, in exchange for the valuable resource they were searching for. Smart leads are worth giving away a carrot or two.

Add Value to E-Commerce with Product Bundles
Your e-commerce business is missing out on revenue. It is typical for online merchants to sell out of a handful of products regularly, while the bulk of the products remain on the shelves failing to generate revenue. E-commerce brands are adopting a new strategy to aid in liquidating slow moving products: product bundling.

A product bundle is a package of two or more products sold together for one price on a single sku. The goal of product bundling is to increase your site’s average transaction value and ‘add value’ to popular products. We do this by bundling popular products with less popular but related products on a single sku at a discounted price. For example instead of selling a popular pair of boots for $300 and a slow moving bottle of boot cleaner for $25, you sell a bundle, the boots and the boot cleaner together for $315.

The key to this strategy is bundling your popular products with products that are not only slow moving, but also high margin. Bundling high-margin products allows you to discount the bundle while still clearing a sensible profit margin. In the example of the boot cleaner, assuming that the vendor purchased the boot cleaner at wholesale for less than $15, they are making more money from the sale of the bundle than they would be on a sale of the popular product alone. That being said, the other key to this strategy is to NOT bundle two popular products. Under most circumstances bundling two popular products at a discounted price can only hurt your revenues.

Try bundling products and then posting the bundle to your brand’s Facebook page as a limited time offer. Measure the response, rinse and repeat with different bundles until you discover a few winning combinations. You will find yourself selling out of bundles in no time.

Capitalize on Mobile Traffic with Responsive Design
Share of web traffic is shifting to mobile devices at increasing rates. Take a look at your site analytics and make note of the growth in mobile traffic over the last 24 months. If your site is not optimized for mobile and tablet devices, mobile visitors will become frustrated with the experience and leave your site for a competitor. Visitors can become equally as frustrated with an app or dedicated mobile site experience (e.g. mobile.oniracom.com) that does not support the full functionality of your site.

The solution is Responsive Design, a smart take on user interface design that kills three birds with one stone. The three ‘birds’ are desktop, mobile and tablet device visitors, and the one ‘stone’  is a responsive website. Take a minute to pull up http://oniracom.com on your computer and your phone or iPad. You will notice a few differences between the user interface on each device.

First, the URL for the website is the same whether opened on a desktop or mobile browser. Second, the site content is optimized to be viewed within the bounds of each screen without requiring any double-tapping or pinching. Third, the menu, header, footer and other website features also scale to be device optimized.

With responsive design, all of the design elements and content on the site respond to the browser window through which it is being viewed. All of this happens in real time using fluid, proportion based grids, flexible images and CSS3 media queries. The framework for the layout of the site is based on relative units like percentages, rather than absolute units like pixels. Responsive design is the new standard for website design and should be made a priority for the next iteration of your website.

Use responsive design to capitalize on your mobile traffic, creating a better experience for your site visitors and a smarter canvas for your content.

Need Help Getting Your Website Up to Speed?
Email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I will assist you in any way I can!

Justin Davis is the Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Oniracom. You can follow Justin on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn

The super amazing Santa Barbara Veterans Day International Marathon got a new and fancy responsive web design! The site features information about each of the races, which includes maps of the courses, what to do on the day of the race, and more. Head over to the site to register to run America’s Riviera today!

Blind Tiger is a brand new restaurant & bar in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. We built their entire web presence and designed their full menu and promotional materials from the ground up. They are pre-opening THIS week for Fiesta and will be holding their official Grand Opening during Labor Day Weekend. Be sure to check it out if you’re on State Street!

Brynn Elliott is a singer/songwriter from Atlanta, GA who just released her debut EP titled ‘Notions of Love.’ We designed her logo and complete web presence to fully match her personality and aesthetic. She’s headed on tour with Tyler Ward this summer, be sure to check her out!

Desktop View:

Mobile View:

Matisyahu came to Oniracom to upgrade the web presence and produce a new splash page to announce his new Album. We chose StageBloc as the e-commerce partner for the splash page. The page is responsive and features merch bundles and the official lyric video for the single.

KCON is an awesome Korean Wave festival that takes place in Los Angeles, CA.

KCON came to Oniracom through partner company CJ Entertainment  to develop a new web presence for their 2013 convention. We built the responsive custom website as a hub for fans and potential attendees to learn more about the event. The site also provides valuable information on event schedules, maps and tips for a attending the event. Check out the screen shots and be sure to visit their site and watch our video walk-through below!

Oniracom teamed up with Hear it First to integrate its popular music discovery site with the Topspin ArtistLink platform.

We created the new site with the best features available including responsive design and social network integration. ArtistLink integration allows bands and managers to claim their official channel on ArtistLink and edit brand content on HearitFirst.com. We are very excited about how this awesome project turned out.

Take a look at some screen shots and our exclusive video walk-through below!

Both BarePool and LiquidPool Lounge came to Oniracom with the need to update their web presence. Oniracom based our designs on client requests, while blending leading-edge technology with the website build. The result is a beautiful handcrafted website, boasting intuitive navigation features and stunning event-based social content. Both sites are also fully responsive, take a peek at the video walk throughs below and be sure to visit the sites for yourself!

Oniracom Portfolio | Bare Pool Lounge (BarePoolLV.com) from Oniracom on Vimeo.

Oniracom Portfolio | Liquid Pool Lounge (LiquidPoolLV.com) from Oniracom on Vimeo.

We are happy to present our brand new site, built using responsive design and features 12 slides or “tarot cards” (as our staff calls them) outlining our most popular services.

Click on a card to find out more about that service and to see portfolio examples!

The “Web Production” slide refreshes the page with a featured slideshow at the bottom, showcasing our work. What happens when you click on “The Gaslight Anthem?”

We are happy to announce that we have launched THREE awesome sites for Las Vegas nightclubs, Haze, 1Oak, and The Bank.

With nightclubs in Las Vegas, Miami, and Dubai, The Light Group is one of the United States’ leading hospitality development and management companies. Our team developed these killer sites with both desktop and mobile views, and great api integrations.

Haze, 1Oak, and The Bank came to Oniracom with the need to update their web presence. Oniracom based our designs on client requests, while blending leading-edge technology with the website build. The result is a beautiful handcrafted website, boasting intuitive navigation features and stunning event-based social content.

Get a feel of each of the sites by exploring through the video walk-throughs below.

Oniracom Portfolio | Haze Nightclub at Aria (HazeLasVegas.com) from Oniracom on Vimeo.

Donatella Arpaia came to Oniracom to meet her brand goals by crafting a new custom website for her personal brand, branding her social networks, and providing her social content strategy & community management. Oniracom synthesized Donatella’s style and brand identity into a clean, convincing package of web properties.

Oniracom Portfolio | Donatella Arpaia (DonatellaArpaia.com) from Oniracom on Vimeo.

Click the image below to see her full website in action!

Oniracom has worked closely with G. Love & Special Sauce since 2001. On this most recent implementation of G. Love’s website, we decided to feature much of G. Love’s media, specifically his video blog and full discography. Users can stream any track from all 16 of his releases while they read along to his lyrics. Our Development Team created custom media players that pull content from the same CMS that runs the news and band weblogs.

Oniracom Portfolio | G. Love (Philadelphonic.com) from Oniracom on Vimeo.

KOCT came to Oniracom  to overhaul their online brand presence. We worked closely with the team at KOCT to develop a system for managing and publishing their broadcast schedule. We were able to build a robust platform to accurately handle their large volume of content, including a live stream of the two public television channels operated by KOCT.

Oniracom Portfolio | KOCT (koct.org) from Oniracom on Vimeo.

Our very own Justin Davis has been featured as Chill’s Curator of the Week! Chill is a social networking website that makes it easier for you to discover and share videos. You can post videos, follow other users, and more!

It’s that time of year again. The time of year where you buy new shoes, get some new athletic outfits and hit the streets with renewed passion. What better place to stock up for your new athletic adventure than the Santa Barbara Running Company! Check out the new website on http://sbrunningco.com/.

Autumn Reeser is a long-time client of Oniracom. With this most recent update to her web presence, we were able to advance her website to be more in line with her blossoming career. Her website still follows the same project-centric formula, with a clean and simple design to complete the experience.

Oniracom has completed work on the new website for The Gaslight Anthem just in time for the band’s July 24th album release.

A little while ago we created and ran a one day only promotional “donate-to-download” splash page for Chris Cornell’s website for his song “The Keeper” that he wrote for the film “Machine Gun Preacher,” a film based on the true story of the life of Sam Childers. A portion of the sales went to support Childers’ “Angels for East Africa” charity.

Now, we have just launched the NEW ChrisCornell.com!

Check it on out!

We are super stoked to be working with Ultimate Boarder!

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Ultimate Boarder Competition is the only board-sport triathlon in the world which finds the best all-around boarder in the Surf, Skate, and Snow realms.

We are in the process of building out and designing a sick website that will be the platform for this 5th Annual event, but for now we put together a cool splash page featuring the trailer to the 2012 competition - check out the beginning at UltimateBoarder.com!

We recently launched the new ZeeAvi.com to coincide with the release of Zee Avi’s new record ghostbird, off Brushfire Records.

The site features new aesthetics that embody the overall vibe of ghostbird - give it a look and check out more from Ms. Zee Avi!

This Summer has been jammed packed with fun and exciting new projects. One of our favorites has been getting to work with Doheny Days Music Festival 2011, which is finally happening THIS weekend in Dana Point, CA.

Earlier this year, Omega Events, the group behind Doheny Days, came to us to create a web presence for the revival of this festival that has a long standing history in the Southern California music scene after a 7 year hiatus. We enjoyed working closely with the team at Omega Events to define their overall branding including logo, colors, aesthetic and general vibe as illustrated on DohenyDays.com.

In addition to creating their website, Omega Events hired us to implement a strategic Marketing and Advertising Campaign during the summer, including online advertising, give-away contests and other creative marketing initiatives. We’re stoked on the success of this campaign and are loving the public’s response and excitement for Doheny Days. This first year back paves the road for a successful festival for years to come.

Want to know what to expect during Doheny Days? Here’s a little insight into the amazing two-day festival, which is sure to end the summer on the right note!

Luke Archer, close Oniracom friend and partner, has launched a new project Cool Hand Look - a hands on marketing and production company.

Together with Luke, we built CoolHandLook.com to create the platform from which to highlight all that this multi-faceted venture encompasses.

Among some of his great projects has been working with fellow Oniracom client Courtney O’Donnell, including this music video  for her song, “Just Pretend.”

You may also like this “Max Payne Viral Video” he made with rapper Ludacris to promote his role in “Max Payne.”

Check out other Cool Hand Look projects and learn more at CoolHandLook.com

Longtime client and phenomenal artist Mason Jennings is gearing up to release his new record, Minnesota, on September 13. The pre-sale for the album starts August 16th.

For this new release, we re-skinned his entire site to fit the theme and style of Minnesota‘s artwork, and the result is piece we are really proud of.

Check out the NEW MasonJennings.com.

We’re stoked about the launch of NelsonCheng.com!

Nelson Cheng is a man of many mediums.  From comedic acting roles to his sports podcast to a producing a documentary about magicians or his role advising startup companies, Nelson is a true renaissance man. 

In order for us (Oniracom) to make sense of Nelson’s vast content types, we created a nice projects area in our ExpressionEngine CMS, encouraging Nelson to showcase his multi-facited talents.  Along with social network connectivity and rich media players,  NelsonCheng.com is a beautifully designed portfolio site encouraging his fans to continuously check in on all the happenings in the life of Nelson Cheng.

Check it out!

Feel free to check out our latest project, Courtney O’Donnell’s new website: CourtneyODonnell.com

Courtney is at the beginning of her career, yet has already written more than 20 songs, taught herself to play the guitar and worked with major names in the music business. She released her first two original CD’s at the age of 11 and 14. Courtney has big things lined up for her, and there is no doubt that she will succeed. We are thrilled to be working with her.

Be sure to check out her website to learn more about Courtney and to see what cool features we included on her site!

CourtneyODonnell.com

Gorillaz. Known now to all as less of a pop phenomenon and more of pop royalty. The British-based virtual band has been on the cutting edge of multimedia musical innovation since the turn of the century. Gorillaz were formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn (Blur), and visual artist Jamie Hewlett. The band’s four members are fictional animated characters with their own unique and dramatic back-stories. The introduction of this revolutionary form of art came to the British and American public with huge success. The introduction of nuanced fictional characters with dark and electronic music has added a fourth dimension to the musical universe of the two dimensional band.

Click to read more