Saffire Blog

Grab visitors with a bold design

Yesterday, we discussed the importance of having visitors find your site. So now that you have them there, what is going to make them stick around? You’ve heard it time and again, but let me remind you: you have 7 seconds to make a first impression. And the first thing that grabs the attention of … Continue reading “Grab visitors with a bold design”

Yesterday, we discussed the importance of having visitors find your site. So now that you have them there, what is going to make them stick around?

You’ve heard it time and again, but let me remind you: you have 7 seconds to make a first impression.

And the first thing that grabs the attention of a visitor is the design. If a visitor isn’t intrigued in the first few seconds, the quality of your content won’t matter because they won’t stick around long enough to read it.

Think about it. When you look at a website that is out of date, how does that make you feel about the organization?

To me, it feels like they are behind the curve and may be a little “old fashioned” so that may not be an event I want to attend. If their website isn’t professional, do you think their organization or event will be?

I know that may sound harsh, but coming from a twenty-something who forms most of my opinions based on a company’s online presence, its the truth.

And make sure your fair, rodeo or festival website design shows your visitors the personality of your event. The design options for entertaining and unique events like yours are endless, so let your imagination run wild.

You know your event is worth it, so now is your chance to show everyone else!

Does your event website measure up?

Over the next several days, we will be sharing tips with our readers how to maximize the value of your event website. To be the first to get the scoop, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Trust us, you aren’t going to want to miss this!

Over the next several days, we will be sharing tips with our readers how to maximize the value of your event website.

To be the first to get the scoop, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Trust us, you aren’t going to want to miss this!

South Texas State Fair Website is Live!

It’s a Good Time to Have a Great Time at the Fair! And we couldn’t agree more. We recently launched a new Saffire Website for YMBL and the South Texas State Fair. Take a look! This project presented some new challenges to our team and we were happy to provide YMBL with everything they were … Continue reading “South Texas State Fair Website is Live!”

It’s a Good Time to Have a Great Time at the Fair! And we couldn’t agree more.

We recently launched a new Saffire Website for YMBL and the South Texas State Fair. Take a look!

This project presented some new challenges to our team and we were happy to provide YMBL with everything they were looking for in a webssite.

Because the focus of the website changes so drastically between fair season and the rest of the year, we created two very different designs for the site. We wanted customers to know the focus immediately once arriving on the site so they could find what they were looking for quickly. You’ll want to check out their site again in a few weeks to see the year-round design.

We incorporated our ecommerce platform into their site so they could sell tickets online for the first time. They can now accept payment online for tickets, vendors, sponsors and YMBL memberships.

This was our first time to create a “Member’s Only” section for one of our event websites. The Member’s Only section allows YMBL members to update their profiles, pay for memberships and see upcoming community events as well as member specific events.

Now, you’ll just have to trust us on how good the Member’s Only section looks, because we can’t show you. After all, it is Member’s Only!

We also helped The South Texas State Fair expand their reach with social media and already has over 100 Facebook fans!

Chris Colletti and his team at YMBL were a pleasure to work with and we can’t wait to hear about their successful event this year.

SXSW

Our team has been busy at SXSW Interactive the last few days and we can’t WAIT to share with you all the new stuff we’ve learned. Still not sure what SXSW is exactly? Check out this fun video from CNN.

Our team has been busy at SXSW Interactive the last few days and we can’t WAIT to share with you all the new stuff we’ve learned.

Still not sure what SXSW is exactly? Check out this fun video from CNN.

The power of DIY

Wow. We’ve been building big websites for a long time. And for about a decade, we’ve been telling people that not only would we never build a website without tools to manage it themselves, but we feel that web developers who do are borderline unethical. I know, “them’s fighting words.” But think about it. There … Continue reading “The power of DIY”

I know, “them’s fighting words.” But think about it. There is great technology out there to manage website content. So why would a web developer not allow a client to make changes themselves? We think it’s because they want to charge for changes, thus keeping their revenue stream flowing.

Again, having worked on big websites for so long, we rarely think about the fact that many smaller websites don’t have the choice but to depend on their web developer to make changes. Yesterday, I talked to someone who could get instant changes from their web developer (So rare!).

But today, the fair manager I talked to isn’t so lucky.

He had gone through nightmare experiences with web developers; promises were made and broken. Even simple changes could go 7-10 days without being made. All from a guy down the street.

When I explained the features of Saffire, he didn’t mince words. He said that lots of fairs and rodeos can’t afford web agencies, so they try to get it done locally. And they’re frustrated. He said people need what we offer. They know they need it. But they don’t know how to get it. So I see our job as to help them by showing them!

Saffire creates event ecommerce websites that people can manage on their own, and it’s simple. One of our favorite things to do is to show it to people. They literally can’t believe how easy and even fun it is to see changes they make on their password-protected admin site appear on their customer site… instantly!

So if you want to see Saffire in action, just give us a call at 512-480-8566. We’ll be happy to kick the tires with you and show you just how fun DIY can be.

Rodeo Austin Goes Mobile

We couldn’t help ourselves. We simply had to release a new mobile site for Rodeo Austin. We spent years telling clients “not yet” when they asked about mobile sites, but now that the stars have aligned so that the time is right, we were excited to help them get on the mobile bandwagon! The Rodeo … Continue reading “Rodeo Austin Goes Mobile”

Event ecommerce and more on Rodeo Austin's mobile site — Mobile Event Website

We couldn’t help ourselves. We simply had to release a new mobile site for Rodeo Austin.

We spent years telling clients “not yet” when they asked about mobile sites, but now that the stars have aligned so that the time is right, we were excited to help them get on the mobile bandwagon!

The Rodeo Austin mobile event website released today. We’re super proud of it. From this site, you can:

See a calendar of events by date, event type or location
Get directions
Buy tickets
Sign up for updates

Please visit this new mobile event website from your smartphone at http://m.rodeoaustin.com.

The guy down the street

I started doing market research today on what people are looking for in their event websites. On my first phone call to a fair about her event website, I found out that she was pretty happy with the guy down the street who does their website. This was great to hear, since most of the … Continue reading “The guy down the street”

I started doing market research today on what people are looking for in their event websites.

On my first phone call to a fair about her event website, I found out that she was pretty happy with the guy down the street who does their website. This was great to hear, since most of the time, I only hear from people who have had very bad experiences with their web developers.

But on the other hand, it’s hard to know how to sell against this guy. Our team isn’t that big, but we have people who specialize in project management, writing, marketing, user interface, HTML, graphic design, programming, server/security management, etc. And they are all different people… in some cases more than one who perform the different skills needed to build a high-quality event website!

What I want to tell event directors is, we want to be your guy down the street! What would it take for you to give us a shot? Seriously, we want to know!

We know it’s scary to call a company in Austin, Texas. Whether you’re a couple hours away or a several hour plane ride, you may be concerned about being able to get a hold of us.

But having been in business since 1998, we can assure you we’re not going anywhere. And we give you the tools to manage your site yourself (and with all our resources, your site will surely be so much higher quality than a one-man show). So you can rest easier that you have everything you need to manage your website.

Since a picture says a thousand words, here are photos of some of our team members. See? We’re really not that scary!

New and Improved Rodeo Austin Website

We just launched several updates to the Rodeo Austin website for this event season, all of which are now in Saffire Websites. As you can see from the slideshow, we kept all that was great about the site and just made it better. VIEW ALL EVENTS TAKING PLACE AT A SPECIFIC LOCATION MORE FLEXIBILITY FOR … Continue reading “New and Improved Rodeo Austin Website”

We just launched several updates to the Rodeo Austin website for this event season, all of which are now in Saffire Websites.

As you can see from the slideshow, we kept all that was great about the site and just made it better.

VIEW ALL EVENTS TAKING PLACE AT A SPECIFIC LOCATION
MORE FLEXIBILITY FOR EVENT DETAIL PAGES
ADD SPECIFIC ITEMS TO SELL ASSOCIATED WITH AN EVENT
IMPROVE THE USERS EXPERIENCE ON THE SITE

We added a “Locations” page so you can view all events taking place at a particular location.

We also added a lot of options for Rodeo Austin to control an event page, including all the new tabs in the Admin Site view above like specific event sponsors, important PDFs, URLs, Results and even the order in which all these new features appear on the page.

We also added a way for you to associate particular “Items” with an event. This can be used in several ways, including selling tickets from various price levels, different times of an event and even different dates of an event. This allows Rodeo Austin to give their customers even more specific information about an event.

Overall, we are so happy with the site improvements and glad we were able to make the site more user friendly for both visitors and Rodeo Austin!

2011 Austin ADDY Awards

The 2011 Austin ADDY Awards were also Saturday night, and we were so excited to hear the Rodeo Austin website had been nominated for an ADDY! We did a little party-hopping so we could attend the Rodeo Austin Gala and then run over to hear the ADDY Award announcements. We were excited to finally take … Continue reading “2011 Austin ADDY Awards”

We were excited to finally take a look inside Moody Theater, the new home of Austin City Limits and the location of the ADDY’s.

There it is! Our award-winning website.

Kendra and Jessica showing off our entry!

Jeremy was excited when they announced our award with Rodeo Austin: Silver ADDY Award Website, Consumer Flash, Service.

The view of the stage from our seats on the front row.

Our team was excited to be among such great company at the ADDY”s including Shiner Beers, Whole Food Market, Frost Bank and many more. Congratulations to all of the 2011 ADDY Award winners. Check out the complete list of winners here.