Internet Retailer Conference & Expo ’13 Recap
I recently had the opportunity to attend the world’s largest e-commerce event in Chicago June 4-7. In its ninth year, the annual Internet Retailer Conference & Expo welcomes geeks, marketers, and e-commerce CEOs alike for 4 days filled with learning, fun, and tons of free vendor swag. Common Themes of the Conference Mobile : It’s not something you can ignore. It’s no surprise that a major topic of discussion at the IRCE was around mobile. With 41% of people saying they have used a mobile device to browse for a product after [...]
Recap: Ohio Growth Summit 2013
Last week I had the privilege of attending the 9th annual Ohio Growth Summit to sit in on valuable presentations and represent the Buckeye Interactive team. It was my first time attending OGS and it was quite a rewarding experience. After arriving bright and early, a light breakfast buffet was provided and networking commenced. We set up the Buckeye Interactive table and got settled in as the opening keynote speaker began our day. The day was full of presentations from several local speakers, networking, lunch, and sharing information at company [...]
Introducing: We The People WordPress Plugin
This weekend we released the We The People WordPress plugin from the grounds of the White House in Washington, D.C. The plugin enables WordPress site owners to easily embed petitions from We The People using shortcodes and widgets. It’s targeted towards activists, interest groups, and campaigns but made to be simple enough for any user who cares about an issue to embed that content in a WordPress site.
Buckeye Interactive at the National Day of Civic Hacking at the White House
This weekend I was among the lucky few in attendance at the National Day of Civic Hacking at the White House. About two months ago Brad forwarded an email from the White House announcing the impending release of an API for its We The People petition site. Brad encouraged the Buckeye developers to apply so I submitted a pitch for a WordPress plugin that would allow users to easily embed petitions from We The People into their sites. On the first of May, the day of the API’s release, I received an email inviting me to participate in the second-ever hackathon at the White House.
9 Highly Useful WordPress Plugins
One of the great things about WordPress is the wide range of plugins available to be installed to add, modify, or remove core functionality. There are over 25,000 plugins freely available in the WordPress.org repository and thousands more premium plugins. There are plugins for SEO, discussion, social media, integration with third party services, and almost anything else you can think of. Not all plugins are built equally, though; some live at the perfect intersection of form and functionality that make them a pleasure to use. Other plugins are kludgy heaps [...]
Common Grammar Mistakes That Ruin Your Reputation
If there’s anything that makes a company less credible, it’s incorrect spelling and grammar. I realize writing (especially writing correctly) is not everyone’s forte, but in the business world, it should be. If you can’t write and edit, find someone who can. I know plenty of extremely intelligent business men who can run a business far better than I could, but they don’t know where commas go or what the difference between bizarre and bazaar is. That’s okay. That’s what I’m here for. We’ll go over the basics first, just [...]
Common Mistakes Designers Make
Nobody’s perfect. I think we’re all well aware of this fact, but it’s something we hear over and over in our lives—both personally and professionally. If you’re a web designer like I am, you probably remind yourself of this fact fairly often. I think anyone in a creative field knows what I’m talking about. It’s insanely difficult to gauge “correctness” in something that’s intrinsically correct/incorrect neutral. To a degree, anyway. While mistakes are hard to define in a creative sense, mistakes are certainly made in design. Here are a few [...]
Celebrity Entrepreneurs Who Support Startups
Little did you know, your favorite movie stars and music artists could also be successful and established entrepreneurs. The media efficiently updates us on celebrities and their new movies or albums, or ridiculous drama, but unfortunately they don’t always share the exciting details of their business lives. Several celebrities are also supportive business men/women, even promoting startups like yours. ________________________________________________________________________________ Ashton Kutcher Ashton Kutcher, the first person to reach 1 million followers on Twitter, is one celebrity dedicated to many startups. After investing in larger tech brands like Skype and [...]
Buckeye Interactive Web Developer, Steve Grunwell, Invited to Attend National Day of Civic Hacking at The White House
NEW ALBANY, Ohio (May 16, 2013) – Steve Grunwell, one of Buckeye Interactive‘s skilled web developers, has been accepted as a participant in the National Day of Civic Hacking at The White House the first weekend of June. Civic activists, technology experts, and entrepreneurs from around the country will be in attendance, but only a handful of applicants have been chosen to participate. “I’m honored and humbled to be among the few selected to attend the National Day of Civic Hacking at The White House,” Steve Grunwell said. “From discussions [...]
Buckeye Book Review: The Lean Startup
Why We Build Stuff No One Wants Here at Buckeye Interactive, we have built a lot of technology for startups. We typically build what we’ve been asked to build, providing our expert advice along the way. We test functionality to make sure the product meets our client’s specifications. We eliminate bugs and optimize server and page load performance. We train the client, launch the site, and either hand over the reigns or continue monitoring analytics to see how the site is used by our clients’ end users. Q: Do the [...]