The true cost of web design isn’t something you can easily find online. There aren’t a lot of open discussions about it – probably because design companies are afraid of scaring off clients upfront.

Nonetheless, it’s an important question, because many companies find it hard to even guess at what they should be budgeting.

So here, I’m going to bare all and break down the cost of custom web design for you. What you learn may surprise you!

Manta, one of the top citation sites out there, and one that you definitely NEED (not want - NEED) to get your company listed in, recently released an amazing article about how you should handle cold calling potential clients while prospecting.

Manta does an amazing job with capturing clients, mainly well, because their service works, but also because their sales reps are very knowledgeable and very good at their job. There are many different perks to signing up with manta (Here is our manta page) and any sales rep that you talk to will gladly take the time to tell you about them. Here are some of the perks.

Sure, we all love referrals – and why not? Warm leads, bundled up tightly with the endorsements of trusted sources, have the highest chance of conversion. Referrals are also a sign that you’re doing something right; after all, someone took the time and effort to refer a customer to you, which means that somebody was genuinely impressed with you and your work. But let’s face it: Word of mouth, referral, organic growth … these channels all hit a brick wall eventually.

This is a guest post from Ann Smarty - Internet entrepreneur and founder of Myblogguest.com

Of all of the question and answer sites that have been launched (some more successful than others), Quora is truly unique. It has managed to put together a valid community, filled with many experts who genuinely know the topics they are discussing.

Drupal is an open source content management system (CMS) that allows you to easily add content, make changes to design, and add top level functionalities to your site without limiting customizable solutions to increasing business needs. It allows you to do so all the while using scalable tactics, providing a platform for collaboration, easy and user friendly editing, and limiting the need for any technical skills (programming). Whether you run an eCommerce site, a B2B business, or simply a blog Drupal can help you perform day to day activities and provide professional website design solutions for any and all of your online needs.

The Internet these days has become more and more about getting to the point. When people search for "pizza delivery" on their mobile devices, they want Google to figure out what they want for them. People don't want to have to figure out what pizza choice might be best by sifting through a bunch of content and pricing points and making a calculated decision. They expect search engines to do that for them these days - and that is exactly what Google aims to do.

This is kind of cool actually….

Those of you marketing with us know that we streamline your content to all social and even digital channels in some of our online marketing packages. Well one of these technologies is called Google Feeburner. Google purchased Feedburner in 2007…a technology ImageWork’s has used for years before the acquisition.

Syndicating your brand and message around the web is a large chunk of Internet marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). The need to get included in a large number of citation sites has become more and more important in the recent years for a number of different reasons - all of which can be very beneficial to your website both for locally based terms and for organic search reasons (some citation sites offer legititmate link juice value).

In the Internet world, there are a lot of things that can turn a user off. People these days are expecting more and more quality, and website speed is one of the biggest issues when it comes to whether or not someone is going to stick around for a while on your web site (as well as one of the many factors of search engine optimization (SEO)). When designing a website there are an infinite amount of things you can to get your visitors to get engaged. There are also many things you can do to get them to click the "back button" almost instantly.

Pretty much everyone today knows that building your business’ online presence is essential to running a good business in today’s tech-savvy world. Think about it: what did you do the last time you needed a good dry cleaner or dentist? If you’re like the majority of people today, you probably whipped out your smartphone, laptop, or tablet and did an internet search. You pulled up the results page on Google, Yahoo, or Bing, and you selected the best option from the first page. You may have even utilized the map results to find the dry cleaner or dentist that was closest to you.