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	'Tis the Season
	Development Wrap-up: SS

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'Tis the Season

... and no one captures the Christmas spirit quite like Local First member Fruit Basket-Flowerland. If you've not been in a Flowerland store during the holidays, it is well worth the trip.

So that is the brick n' mortar store... here are three areas in which 3Cstudio seeks to help Flowerland shine online:

1. CMS: Content Management System -- Currently, 3Cstudio is developing a Specials area for their website. This area will be DIY (a Flowerland insider can do-it-yourself) in that the "coupons" it generates for a given week will be input by Flowerland via an admin area online (simple username and password combination). The weeks that are not covered by print ads and newspaper inserts will be covered by this online ad sheet for a fraction of the cost -- a nifty savings when replacing a week's print ad campaign! This garnered a "Thank you very mulch!" from Flowerland's CEO, Rick Vuyst.
2. e-blast: "e-Specials" -- In the 2nd prong of this 3-tined pitchfork we're using to "cultivate" their online presence is a concentrated e-blast to their opt-in customers. Their stores carry little signup forms in order to receive specials and news from Flowerland, plus a signup form was added to their Contact page (on their old site structure... more on that "old" setup in the next paragraph). The e-blast contains 6-8 blurbs about various specials, and ends with a printable coupon in the last entry. The e-blast generates a great deal of statistics to see how many people open it, click links, reopen it, forward to friends, etc. Since Flowerland's mailing list was rich in opt-in recipients, the open rate was above normal and the response very good.
3. website: redevelopment -- Tine #3 is a complete overhaul... the Flowerland site is showing its age. Additionally, Flowerland will be introducing a garden-centric online store shortly, so the entire site (content, style, function, and user interaction) will get a facelift in 2009. The entire current site will be "composted" and the new site that grows out its rich content it will be much improved from all the groundwork which has been laid.

If you are the type to occasionally enjoy getting your hands grubby, or you want to follow the progress of their site development, you may want to sign-up for their e-blast to get the "dirt" on things to come -- should be a Season of Growth, just in time for Spring!

Development Wrap-up: SS

The 3cstudio.com homepage spotlights SportsSpectrum.com, which has the majority of its features in place now:

• searchable content in a 6-slide rotation on the home page
• login features: online version of the magazine, Article Archives (dating back to 2001!)
• trivia and sports news feeds
• a CMS for Daily new material from the Editor
• Google-based comprehensive site search function
• a sizable database of Athlete Testimonies

Ongoing:

• hundreds of past Daily entries being archived to a database
• revamp of the current shopping cart/e-commerce
• in/out links to/from SportsSpectrum.com via exchange
• Power To Win 2009 (Super Bowl halftime presentation kit)

Future:

• full-scale e-commerce using customizable open source software instead of proprietary shopping cart software
• more interactive features within the Daily
• ad tracking, Link promotion, SS ad creation/placement code for those who want to add it to their website, etc.