Utah Web Design Blog

Thanks Noah for your hard work and keeping it free!

If you work with MS SQL serverand have databases that handle lots of transactions you no doubt have encountered the .ldf file growing to insane sizes if left unchecked. A huge LDF file resulted in the web application running very slow or not at all in some cases. We used to manually detach the database rename the .ldf, once you re-attach the .mdf file it would start up a new .ldf log file and things would run speedy once again. While that worked it resulted in downtime and wasted resources.

Here is a solution that works perfectly and is automated. (assuming sql server 2000 or 2005 standard here)

1. Launch Enterprise Manager and open Management
2. Right click on Database Maintenance Plans > New plan
3. Pick all your options to backup your database with the schedule and save the plan
4. Drop down SQL Server Agent
5. Right click on Jobs > New Job
6. Give it a name and click on the second tab “steps“
7. Add a second step under the initial backup by clicking New
8. Choose Type TSQL, pick the database, and paste in this command

BACKUP LOG dbnamehere WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
DBCC SHRINKFILE(dbnamehere_Log, 1)

9. Save it, click on step 1 hit adavanced and set “On success action:” to “Goto Step: 2” or it won’t run.

We have a log file that used to run to 18GB quickly and now it is 1MB on a regular basis, pretty sweet and with no real down time.  We have tried backing up the log and tried the built in shriking options with no luck, never worked.  Sure there are plenty of other methods you can use, hope this helps someone else out there facing the same problem.

We basically hit upon the next new trend in refreshments for business meetings that we are pretty positive is going to blow minds this summer — Otter Pops. No boring refreshments like colas, water, coffee or peanuts. We hope to have everyone sporting a day glow pop like some kind of radioactive glow stick protruding out of their mouths while we go over proposals — okay maybe it’s just a phase, but they’re quite refreshing. And thanks to Vince’s childhood reminiscing, we are now addicted to these (I’m partial to Alexander the Grape).

Along with otters, we are now an official office with its own water cooler — the Whirlpool water cooler D40. It’s much better than the D20 and D30 mainly because it has a digital clock, wow. Word to the wise though, wash these things out before you take that first shot of tank water. It tastes like old garden hose water on first draw. That was remedied by a service call whose technician suggested we run lemon water though the pipes. Problem solved, lemons worked.

So I thought it would be nice to wander off the business map and give a shout to all those digging the summer months as we are. We’re busy as ever but don’t let that stop you from coming by — we’ll let you raid our fridge if you want, or take tap hits off the water cooler.

The final release of the day that is pretty cool, considering they deal with large metal structures, is our steel fabrication contractor clients — S & S Steel Fabrication. This is a triumph of inventive Flash and graphic design. Very beautifully designed both on the front and back end. The site feel is macho and tough like kick to the eye with a steel toe boot. And yes they really did work with NASA and helped construct the Universal Studios Terminator II ride, and that is awesome.

The portfolio page they have is quite a wower, with a nice automatic photo slide show of some of the steel structures and projects. Anyways I can go on and on, but after all is said and done, I think that this site will help raise their stock in the steel community. Our creative Utah Graphic designers at Red Olive are implementing their ever honed skills in design, whether its a Flash element or behind the scenes. And we have our contacts at S & S to thank for their business — enjoy the new site.

Another one of our Utah locals, Alpine Credit Union, is dawning a new online presence with interactive web controls and a cool graphic interface. It’s a sleek radioactive green and black with cool little images, such as the “teen savers” money tree and the soda car with its twist on low calorie loan percentages.

It’s soon to go live and should be searchable in no time. For their members, our web programmers made it possible so that the people at the credit union can update the site with information and links. One little addition is their handy used car section. A little classified shopping on the side is not so bad, especially where you can pick out a car and check the loan rates for that purchase is pretty convenient.

Red Olive is anticipating everything to work out well and we thank Alpine for their patience and due diligence — you all are gentlemanly and gentlewomanly as well as scholars — that didn’t sound as good as I had hoped when I read it back, but the feeling is there. Thanks!

Just like the concept with Craythorne Homes, Red Olive Designers made a unique ‘custom’ looking site that really sets them apart from your typical custom home building site. The site re-design was a little bit of a branding project as well.

First off, what hits you is the woody motif. It’s the organic feel that’s nice, with cool knotted wood surrounding the surreal family scene (Redwood maybe, I dunno). The tag line, created by yours truly, was a little branding effort put into the project (”Coming Home Never Felt So Good”).

From the back end, we’re proud to show a little Google map integration. The homes are mapped out with Google’s mapping API; something you can play around with. I especially like turning on the Google’s street level so you can take a little tour of the neighborhood.

A tip of the hat goes to our contacts at Craythorne and wish them the best of luck with the new site manicure.

It started with a logo, then on to letterhead and business cards, now Paragon Wealth Management is primed and ready to assist the masses with their finances while sporting a new and shiny website. And as everyone knows, there are folks who really need to take a hard look at their portfolios (or lack thereof…[myself]) these days.

The Red Olive web design team again pooled their concepts together and provided a nice site that combined the new logo (snowcapped peak) and a neat and easy section for their clients to navigate.

Also, as a site not, they have a great new blog to provide great money managing tips and news that the local Salt Lake Tribune picked up in the past. We hope that the new site and blog created fits their needs to a “T”.

Finding out what keywords are being used on any search engine at any given time has proven to be sometimes troublesome for SEOs using free tools online. But now, back by popular demand, the Google Adwords keyword research tool has something more to offer than a lame green bar — actual volume numbers.

So for those who are unfamiliar with what I’m referring to, Google Adwords a while ago decided to drop search volume amounts for its keyword terms where you only had a secondary indicator of how popular the phrase was by the amount of competitors bidding. For instance if I wanted to see how often the term “gourmet chocolate” was searched for, all I knew was there was a green indicator bar under Advertiser Competition that was completely full of green (as appossed to a bar that was an empty box meaning there was little to no competition). And it gave you only only the estimated cost per click.

It left all of us scratching our heads and saying where the h*ll is an actual search volume number. I can’t work with this, it’s like saying “how big is a bag,” it was all relative.

But now there are real quantitative numbers to measure with. So any PPCer or SEO can accurately gauge what they or their client is up against with. And to top it off they have the average month volume and annual search average amounts per term– very nice.

And I know, for all of you …in the know, I’m a little late with this, but I wanted to spread the word to those yet to stumble up it. Anyway, again it’s great to see Google came to their senses and provided yet another awesome free tool. With all that Ad revenue they pull in, I suppose they can throw us a bone from time to time.

What good is a site if it’s not seen? Well, you say, people simply know my place of business and can type the name in Google and It will pop up. This may be true, but have you made sure that you at least show up on the first 10 listings of Google, Yahoo or MSN. Also, what about new people that don’t know your business name but need the goods you are hawking, the services that you are rendering? Afraid of out-of-towners? Of course not — new business is better business. Clients become clientèle even if it is the virtual version of them visiting your site, plopping items in their “shopping cart” and checking out.

And if you’re not coming up on the top 10 listings in a search engine, the friendly face you saw in your shop a week ago that was traveling across the country, who decides to go online shopping for you when he gets home but doesn’t find your name up on the boards, you are out a sale.

Anyways, what I’m getting to is that to make your web presence known is to prime your home page and whatever landing pages you manage with proper “optimizing” measures, better known as search engine optimization (SEO). Red Olive not only makes your online business aesthetically pleasing to shop, but now makes it known and potentially a popular place to shop with our improved SEO specialties.

The Quick and Dirty SEO List

Here are some quick facts I’ve gathered to give insight as to what SEO has over word-of-mouth and phone directory marketing logic:

Be Seen Separately from Local Competitors

When you are listed in a phone directory you are packed among your local competition. When optimizing your site, you can be found under specific key phrases that are relevant to your company.

Most Search Online for Business and Goods Anyway

I don’t know about you, but I don’t use the directories anymore, I use search engines to find businesses, addresses and places to get things done or have fun. Marketing online is really the better investment in this regard.

Get Your Site to Pay for Itself

Your business online will simply pay for the SEO investment you put into it in the long run. If your SEO specialist invests proper white-hat (ethical) techniques to make your presence online bring in new leads and new buyers, you’ll find this better in the long run than many other direct mail or print ad marketing. Because not only does this bring in more buyers, investors and prospects, but it betters your business reputation, public relations and overall noteriety.

You Can Measure SEO

Site visitations and metrics are easily constructed. You can look at the numbers to find out if the efforts are worth it. With other ad platforms, such as phone book ads and signage, you shoot into the dark and hope your gut is right.

There are many more ways SEO is worthy for your business. And just like our design and site beatifying processes, we value SEO just the same. Our SEO services are primed and ready to spread your word.

Just another reason to head to the web when you are looking for deals – print coupons are big time. Dannon’s line of Light & Fit® products are on sale with a quick link and printout of their online coupon – a generous 1 dollar off coupon that has recently been brushed up by our tenacious gaggle of Utah graphic designers.

We kept it in line with their Light & Fit® look but with an added bit of flash element and cumbersome image positioning. I like the way the sunburst shine emanates while rolling over some of the buttons — although I am easily distracted by shiny things.

We expect to find smaller versions of this placed intermittently throughout the web with fitness sites that Dannon coordinates this promotion with. It’s basically going to be bannered along margins of lucky partners in various web ad campaigns.  

Red Olive® is happy to see their little touches on a national scale.