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Through the years I've often thought and dreamed of writing a book of my sign making adventures, chronicling my unique journey in this business. Each time I looked into it in past years I was put off by the extreme cost of publishing such a book on account of the full color images that would be...

Awesome work Michael!! I look forward to the next one, now that you have a little experience. :) -grampa dan

Thanks for the kind words about my work. The key to doing great work on a regular and consistent basis is to do simply that. Start with your own signs, truck, business cards, website and especially your showroom. I will be issuing another CHALLENGE for the next year shortly. The CHALLENGE is...

Ha ha ha ha ha! The truth is most of those designs look no worse than what I see around here every day. But then again this business model only makes our work that much more exclusive. -grampa dan

Why does stuff have to move? As you know Joe I'm not at all a fan of moving stuff on a web page. Clicking on a small version of something and then having to close pages or images to look at something else is a pain. I've come to the conclusion that people don't go very far when forced to...

I viewed it as a compliment when I was asked to do this design and I appreciated him and others thinking of me. Sadly it wasn't in my price range. No worries. -grampa dan

My thoughts There are many points of view on this subject. Ultimately we settle on our own path and then have to walk it. I regularly get requests to design signs and logos - often by other shops. It isn't long before the subject of budget comes up - as it should. Many in business would...

$200 is about 1/10 the typical budget for this kind of project in our shop. I have no doubt there are plenty of guys willing to do it for less... and that's OK with me. I don't want to do every logo/sign in town - only the best ones. I charge accordingly too. :) -dan

What is good traffic on the web? thanks for the kind words. Dan Antonelli and I long bantered in regard to SEO optimization. His point about the clients needing to find me vs content will undoubtably continue. The question is... what is considered good traffic? How many hits each month...

thanks. I appreciate the kind words and the suggestions too. While there is plenty of information on the new website I didn't want it to be too wordy. I understand about SEO but hate the obvious wording and repetitiveness I often see to achieve it. It often sounds fake in my view and...

Each year I take the time to take a close look at our website, refresh and redo as necessary. In looking at the analytics we discovered few people were taking the time to look at more than a few of our old 80 page website. I liked the look and results of some of the blogs I was doing so we...

Nice site Joe. I'm not a fan of flash as you know... I simply find it distracting. Bouncing doodads and music aren't necessary in my view - especially for a site and work as fine as yours. The rest of the site is outstanding. Keep up the good work. -grampa dan

I write a blog on our website. As others have said it is important that it be kept up and added to on a regular basis. I know from feedback that it helps drive customers to our site which is good business. The key to a successful blog is to keep things positive and post in a businesslike...

Thanks to all I met at USSC I had a great time at the USSC conference. I was truly honored to be asked to speak there. I think my three sessions went pretty well. People responded very well and I fielded lots of great questions. The 'know it all' didn't bother me a bit... that's just part...

While I speak of CNC routing above please read and think of the post in the terms that apply to your shop and the work you do. Back 35 years ago I painted truck doors by hand with a brush. My patterns were all drawn by hand. (I don't miss those days one bit) Now vehicle doors are done primarily...

I get quite a number of emails each week. One of the frequent questions concerns pricing work done on a CNC router. I got an email yesterday morning which asked those same questions. I thought it worth posting here. I have posted my answers under his questions and would love to see a discussion...

A few years ago I knew a guy who was a developer. He had a high end subdivision that he was having a very tough time selling. But instead of slashing his prices he gold plated the fire hydrants, put up very classy street signs and went after a HIGH END clients - after RAISING his prices...

That's very funny! In our work it is not very often I use Comic Sans although I use many cartoon fonts. But this time around when I was designing our website I needed a comic font for the typesetting of the copious amount of copy. Whereas I had used other fonts previously I used Comic Sans...

We enjoyed seeing you at our Sign Magic Workshop. I could see the wheels turning while you were there... hopefully there was lots you can use down the road. If you need more info on specific questions feel free to ask. -dan

We all have to forge a path of our own choice, preferably one that suits us. Im my case we started small, specializing from the beginning in high end and custom work. We grew quickly through the 90's with 22 employees at the peak. I made a purposeful decision to downsize in 2000 because I...