High Aspirations, Inc. has had it’s own CafePress Shop for several years now. While we really don’t expect people to buy our products, we do purchase them for ourselves, our families, and for gifts. We also use the shop as an example to show clients. Having a CafePress shop of your own offers a great opportunity for online and offline site promotion.

When CafePress announced a few sales, we thought we’d share:

Shopkeeper Sale
ends August 26, 2010 at 11:59 pm (PST)
20% off purchases from your own CafePress shop. No coupon or code required!
Sale Fine Print.

20% Off T-Shirts
ends August 26, 2010 at 11:59 pm (PST)
20% off t-shirts. Coupon code: STYLINB2S.
Sale Fine Print.

Buy 2 T-Shirts, Get 1 Free
ends August 26, 2010, at 11:59 p.m. (PST)
Short sleeve t-shirts only. Limited to one free or up to $22 value. Coupon code: FREETEE.
Sale Fine Print.

Not sure what CafePress is all about? It offers personalized gifts and unique t-shirts, clothing, mugs, art, and posters. They have millions of designs from shopkeepers around the world that range from funny to cool to promotional. All of their products are made from the highest quality and are 100% customizable to fit individual tastes. Design your own t-shirts and other products online for yourself, your friends, or your organization using their state of the art tools.

If you don’t have your own CafePress shop, but would like one, just contact us. We don’t just maintain our own CafePress Shop, but have done the same for clients. We can set up a shop for you, provide the artwork and create your products, or provide the artwork and you can add it to merchandise yourself. Whatever works for you!

Recently Tech Talk re-published Jill Whalen’s "Heard It From the (Social Media) Grapevine" which talked about the growing interest in social sites like Twitter and Facebook and how they can be used to increase awareness of your site as well as become part of your SEO campaign.

While Marilyn and I have personally used social media sites for a while, we are happy to report that High Aspirations, Inc. is now on Facebook too! Please visit us there and become a fan so you can find out the latest happenings here at HAI and on our web design related blog Tech Talk. You never know what you might find, perhaps a Facebook only special one day!

High Aspirations, Inc. isn’t only on Facebook, we’ve also been members of LinkedIn for several years now. LinkedIn connects you to people you work with and their connections. They say "LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return." I think it’s like six degrees of separation business style!

While all of this is very cool for us, I’m sure you are wondering what it has to do with you besides the possibility of a deal in the future by becoming our fan on Facebook. Hang on, I’m getting there…

Some of our clients have already begun to use social media sites for more than maintaining personal connections. Since they have, we’ve begun to offer services to help them do so as part of our continuing maintenance of their sites.

Some of the things we’ve done recently for our clients include:

• Added a feed for a client’s Twitter account to their site so even if a visitor doesn’t follow them on Twitter, they’ll see the latest happenings.
• Created a Facebook fan page for a client to add another option to announce schedule changes, upcoming events, etc.
• Post daily or weekly status updates to a client’s Facebook page.

As you can see, High Aspirations, Inc. continues to offer the services you need to promote your site on the net and social media is just another way. If you’ve been thinking about adding social media to your site’s list of SEO weapons, then don’t hesitate to contact us.

Well, now we’ve done it! We’ve finally realized one of our own high aspirations! After almost ten years of helping people create and visualize their online presence, we are now also able to host their websites as well. I present to you… HAI Hosting. Although the name can be deceiving, since we offer so much more than just hosting services:

• Hosting – Shared & Dedicated
• Domain Name Registration
• Email
• SSL Certificates
• Email Marketing
• FaxThruEmail
• Online Photo Filer
• Website Tonight®- allowing even the least tech savvy to create their own professional looking site
• and much much more…

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer and don’t feel you need our design services, you can now setup your own account, register your domain name, and design your own site with Website Tonight®. Of course, we are always here for you if instead you’d rather not deal with any of this on your own. The choice is yours, do as much or as little as you like. You will still receive the same high level of service you’ve come to expect from High Aspirations any time of the day or night and always by a human being!

We hope you’ll take advantage of the many new services HAI Hosting has to offer. We’re very excited about this new venture and we hope to help add excitement to any new venture you may have been thinking of as well.

A while back, I came across the DomainPlates.com web site. Domain Plates are custom car signs that you can use to stick your slogan or web site domain name onto your car. As always, Marilyn and I thought of our clients! They are a great way for businesses to advertise their web site on their company vehicle without the expense of having the vehicle repainted, etc. There are no shortage of possible industries these signs would work for, everything from accountants to real estate agents. If you find yourself working out of your car, then make sure everyone knows what you’re doing in that car!