Website Content is the Foundation of Your Website’s Success
Many small business owners are so eager to get their website up and running that they forget about one of the most fundamental aspects of a successful website: content.
20 February, 2023How to Maximize Online Sales for Small Businesses
As a small business owner, the success of your business is dependent upon how well you can maximize online sales. With the right web design and optimization methods, you can maximize online sales and bring in more consistent revenue. In this blog pos
25 January, 2023Custom Software Solutions for Your Small Business
Did you know that an estimated 75% of businesses have some kind of custom software solution in place? Such solutions are tailored to meet the specific needs of a business, and can significantly improve efficiency and productivity. In this blog post,
16 January, 2023Custom Software And Improving Your Business
Over our 21 years of development here at Darkstar, we have programmed a ton of different applications and interfaces for our clients. For (I would hope) any business, there is at least 1 element of your workflow that can be improved with an online to
12 June, 2018Keep your website relevant
You can’t let a website sit for too long. Content and feature upgrades over time will keep you up to date and relevant in business. Maintaining a website may seem easy. Once you have your domain host secured, it may seem as simple as checking..
28 May, 2018SEO Marketing
SEO Marketing are techniques used by digital agencies or companies to drive more visitors to a website, via search engine results. This can be accomplished through natural programming or paid advertisement. A program often referred to as a “spi
15 April, 2018Local SEO: How to Increase Your Local Business Ranking 2018
Local SEO has transformed into one of the most powerful tools that businesses can use to gain edge and stay competitive in their industry. Regardless if you are managing your business or you are providing your service to your clients, having a clear
08 February, 2018How Much Does Web Design Cost? – 2018
This question, in and of its self is relatively impossible to answer. It is is way too broad, and ignores a lot of the under the hood features that professional web designers and digital agencies bring to the table on website design projects. I can,.
05 February, 2018Find Your Audience Online
A question that your business must answer, “Who wants to buy my stuff / services?” The first step is always to define your audience and determine a keyword search that they would be listed under, like “cancer treatment”, or &#
01 February, 2018Data shows interactive credit union website designs get better results
It’s one of the key concepts in Growth Driven Design – Take the data and make informed decisions on what to change and how to change it. This article shows some A/B Testing in action and the results that you can achieve. The data is...
20 December, 2017Titanic Website Design Launch
Darkstar Digital, a Nashville Website Design Agency, is proud to present a new video subscription website for the Titanic Channel. The Titanic Channel is a brand new venture in the digital video / media space that provides a new venue for those fasci
26 October, 20178 Winning Instagram Tips for Your Business
Good starting steps to get you out of the blocks on Instagram. We have been pleasantly surprised lately in the level of engagement from this platform when compared to Twitter for B2C clients. This article was contributed by Mark Velarga. You have an
23 August, 201715 Habits You Need to Unlock Creativity (+7 Habits to Forget)
Schedules and ideas to help clear your mind and free your time to be more creative in everything you do. This article was contributed by Lesley Vos. Creativity is the new black. Again. While some research insists you can’t be creative if you don’t ha
23 August, 2017People Don’t Buy Your Product, They Buy Your Story
It’s difficult, but corporate storytelling has to be the base for everything that you release on the digital and print side of your branding. This article was originally published on The Intelligent Content Blog in advance of Michael’s ke
23 August, 2017How To Conduct Valid Research on Employees
A good resource for research and how to protect the confidentiality of your employees. It has some good ways to get around major roadblocks and would lead to a much better analysis in the end. When people think about design research, the first target
23 August, 2017Designing The Perfect Feature Comparison Table
Some good thoughts in this article about how to make one of these tables much more effective: Not all products are created equal. While we repeatedly buy some products almost mindlessly, for others, we take a lot of time to make a purchasing decision
23 August, 2017Inbound Marketing – what are your priorities and challenges?
A mirror to my thoughts on how bad an idea it is to put too much weight on PPC advertising in your digital marketing mix. We really have to focus on those long term relationships and creating content that people actually want to read: Chart...
13 August, 2017How Omni-Channel is Reshaping Commerce
Three stories and some good advice from this article on Omni-Channel Marketing. It’s a lot of work on the front end, but makes real difference in your company’s long game: 4 examples of omnichannel changing the retail experience The numbe
13 August, 2017The History of Content Marketing [Infographic]
Great article that breaks down (with an Infographic) the short lifespan and major defining moments in “Content Marketing”: How content marketing has evolved over the last decade Content marketing has gone through a transformation over the
13 August, 20174 Test Ideas That Tap into the Concept of Relative Value
Here’s a good article on testing for Relative Value, something that we think about all the time but never really put into concrete terms. What if you could predict how your customers were likely to respond to a specific offer? The book Predicta
13 August, 20178 Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page
A definitive checklist on getting going, and then updating and responding through Facebook. Back in March 2017, Facebook reported 1.94 billion monthly active users (1.28 billion daily active users). Obviously, it’s the marketing channel no business c
13 August, 201710 Essential Tips to Improve Your Content Marketing Workflow
Some great ideas on making the content creation process in agencies and companies more set in stone to reduce hours worked and increase productivity: If a big, blue genie popped out of your coffee cup, would your first wish be for more time? If so,..
13 August, 2017Are You Making the Most Common Marketing Mistake?
Some great notes about Relevancy and how this one factor controls all of your digital marketing. The irrepressible Michelle Joyce is my agent. She handles all of my events and speaking opportunities over on the JayBaer.com site. On her blog , she run
13 August, 2017Practical User Research: Creating a Culture of Learning in Large Organizations
A good read on practical ways to implement user research in larger companies. Every company really needs to work to use these techniques more in their every day workflow: Enterprise companies are realizing that understanding customer needs and motiva
13 August, 2017Best Practices For Minimalism In Web Design
Some good notes on how to achieve minimalism in web design and the elements that have to be perfect. Nowadays, when target audiences formulate their own opinions related to a specific brand or a company, a website is a focal point of exposure for all
13 August, 2017Minimalist Web Design – More Effective Than Any Other Design Style In The Web Design Industry
Great breakdown of the minimalist web design style, the advantages and several examples: This article is the third in a series devoted to the understanding of minimalism in web design . During the time, this trend has become very popular among the gr
13 August, 2017The Worst Websites On The Internet. Ever.
Some great examples of the horror stories that we all remember over the 20 years we have been doing website design. We may not judge a book by the cover, but we always judge a business by its website. This is the reality and we...
13 August, 201720 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
Some great examples of flips, charts, slideshows and galleries that make good website design great: A user interface (UI) is defined as “the means by which the user and a computer system interact, in particular the use of input devices and software.”
13 August, 2017The Anatomy of a Perfect Landing Page for Your Business
A good read on Landing Pages in web design. This article includes a great infographic that you can download for later: This is a guest article contributed by Matt Janaway. Having a landing page exit-rate that stinks can be quite depressing. This is e
13 August, 20174 Simple Ways to Upgrade Your Website to Keep Building Brilliance
Here is a good article we found with some clear ways to extend your website design over time. Last year I engaged in a campaign with Liquid Web Hosting on How to Build Something Brilliant and a few months later I’m here to offer some...
13 August, 20175 Examples Of Awesome And 5 Examples Of Awful Landing Pages
Great way to break out the core elements of the landing page in web design, and some honest reviews of a few of the best and worst in the category. In an absolute sense, landing pages are any web page where a visitor can arrive...
13 August, 2017Web Design & UX Trends to Boost Conversion in 2017
With 2017 starting on a high note, web designers, SEO and UX experts know that boosting conversions will only arrive when the right web design and UX trends are employed. Each year typically comes with its brand-new design patterns, and this year wil
17 April, 2017Essential Content Marketing Metrics
The single biggest and most perplexing question in the world of content marketing isn’t realizing the marketer’s desired results, but rather measuring the effectiveness of the campaign. It is such a mind boggling issue mainly because of the amount of
20 March, 2017Mobile Friendly Website Optimization
You are automatically losing sales if your site isn’t optimized for mobile if the latest statistics are something to go by. Ever since 2015, there have been more smartphone users browsing the web than those using their desktop PCs. What’s even startl
15 February, 2017Top 5 Reasons To Keep WordPress Updated
When we look around at the dozens of content management systems that have come and gone over the past twenty years, WordPress comes to the forefront as the long term winner. It currently serves more than 25% of all websites. That makes it a real...
13 February, 2017SEO Web Design Tips
Website design today isn’t just about the art of creating and exhibiting enticing and easily recognizable brand information on a screen. Neither is it about communicating an idea about your business to the larger tech-savvy populace. As the technolog
02 February, 2017Marketing Has Changed. Are You Ready?
A lot of companies and organizations and their marketing departments continually remark that their messages don’t reach the customers very well, campaign response rates are rapidly decreasing and their cost per lead is increasing dramatically. When I
30 January, 2017SEO Trends that Drive Website Traffic
Having a digital presence across various platforms is required today to keep you ahead or even with your competitors. Here are some SEO trends that can help to drive more and better website traffic to your website to increase your conversion rate. Is
30 January, 2017Digital Marketing & Data Science
Ever done your shopping online? If so, you have probably noticed that the seller includes a list of near-similar products that are well suited for you. The idea, in fact, is common in popular e-commerce websites including Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. A
26 January, 2017The 5 Challenges of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing has changed the way business is done, allowing organizations to access even greater numbers of customers online, slashing many marketing budgets and changing the way businesses interact with customers. Each year, greater technologic
23 January, 2017How Google Mobile First Indexing Can Benefit Your Business
Google Launched announced in late 2016 that it intends to rank search engine listings based on the mobile version of content. Mobile first index simply means that Google will rank web pages based on mobile friendly content, due to the fact that more
19 January, 2017Digital Marketing – Know Your Customer
Knowing your customer is crucial to launching effective digital marketing campaigns, attracting the right type of traffic and ultimately, growing your business. Knowing your customer is more than just being able to identify who your customers are, bu
17 January, 2017Web Design Process
Great web design is crucial to the success of your business, especially in a world that is increasingly driven by digital marketing. Studies have shown that 83% of potential customers today visit a website before making the decision to purchase. You
16 January, 2017How Social Media Marketing Helps Your Business
Social Media Marketing is the process of using online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and others to promote your organization and its products and services. Social media marketing has become increasingly important over the l
10 January, 2017Six Ways That Nashville SEO Has Changed In Recent Years
Tying in to my previous article on how marketing has changed, Nashville SEO or search engine optimization has remarkably changed in the past few years. Google and the other search engines including Bing and Yahoo have modernized their algorithms to t
04 November, 2016Creative Marketing Agency Concepts
As a creative marketing agency, Darkstar has been dismayed by the industry trying to ram hundreds of versions of the same content down consumers’ throats. How many top ten lists can you have for the same concept with the same ten items? The duplicati
24 October, 2016What Is MozRank for SEO?
MozRank is all about link popularity and how connected your website is to other websites. It isn’t from Google or Bing directly, but is an important indicator that we can use to measure and gauge progress in search engine optimization link building c
20 October, 20166 Reasons Your Company Needs A Professional Web Design Agency
When you start the journey of designing and developing a new web design for your business, there are thousands of decisions to be made related to meeting your goals and challenges for marketing your business. One of the main decisions Is whether to k
19 October, 20166 Web Design Tips that Improve Conversion Rates
In today’s technology-driven world, businesses need to have a professional looking website. Website design is both about looking good, and driving conversions with customers. A website should be used as inbound marketing for new prospects and works w
18 October, 2016Free Download: Nashville Line Art Web Icons
I love Nashville! I was born here and continue to grow my Nashville web design business right here in Music City. I hope you enjoy this free download of these line art vector icons of scenes of Nashville, TN. Click Here to Download Let me tell you...
11 October, 2016Tying Together Web Design and Content Marketing
It’s not as difficult anymore to think about web design and content marketing as a conglomeration of parts or techniques that make up the whole website as a marketing tool. Changes in marketing over the past few years have really delivered some
10 October, 201620 Free 3D Anaglyph Social Media Icons
Free Vector Social Media Icons Icons are an important part of your web design projects and I enjoy creating custom icons for our projects. I hope you enjoy this free download of these cool 3D Anaglyph Icons for Social Media. Click Here to Download Wh
05 October, 2016Your Web Design Is An Investment
The last few years have tremendously changed the world of Nashville web design. It’s not just as easy as putting up a website and your audience flows right in. this new world of integrated digital marketing and website design and search engine
04 October, 2016Web Design IS SEO
There have been some huge changes in the past few years in how search engines rank websites, and also in how web designers design and create websites. In the past the websites were always more of a digital brochure, in this new age the websites...
29 September, 2016Content Marketing
Traditional marketing is not as effective anymore as consumer behavior has undergone a drastic change. In fact, consumers have literally shut themselves off from traditional marketing, and this has led to the rise of a much more effective form of mar
27 September, 201610 Tips for Preventing WordPress Hacking
Serving as a host to more than 16 million website designs, WordPress is definitely one of the more preferred web hosting sites of the online community. But the popularity of WordPress also makes it an ideal and constant target for hackers. The base
27 September, 2016Web Design using Bridge Framework for WordPress CMS
Using the right tool for the job is important in web development. If the job is on the small side and lower budget range then WordPress is our goto CMS(Content Management System). In the past WordPress has been known as a blogging CMS, but has transf
26 September, 201610 Tips for Better Lead Generation
Generating leads is the most essential part of any digital marketing campaign, and the validity and quality of leads that are generated determine the best possible amount of sales conversion. But the quality of leads are determined by the marketing c
21 September, 2016Keep Your Content Marketing Out of Court
One of the additional things to think about with being a blogger today is that you need to know if what you are doing is 100% legal and safe. The FTC has created many, different laws that bloggers need to follow and be aware of....
20 September, 201610 Ways to Immediately Increase Your Website Traffic
One of the main challenges that entrepreneurs and small businesses face in the highly competitive digital world is simply increasing their website traffic. While search engine optimization and content marketing are two of the best options, it is impo
16 September, 201615 Tips for Great Digital Marketing
In this digital age, marketing is very different than from what it was in the past. When you are looking at digital marketing, there are many creative routes that you can take. Here are 15 digital marketing tips that will help you create great campai
15 September, 2016Web Design Isn’t Dying
With the recent changes in web design applications, build your own platforms, and particularly the popularity of using templates, there has been a lot of talk about the future of custom web design. The truth is that while templates can be somewhat pr
09 September, 2016Web Design Pricing
When you get ready to start pricing a website design project with your web development vendor, be sure to keep in mind the extras that can increase the price initially and over time. They may seem to be small, but they can add up over...
08 September, 2016Ways to Use GitHub That Aren’t Coding
GitHub is frequently referred to as a website for different custom software projects. The core of this website is composed of two functions that are centered on collaboration; branching and forking which is not limited to coding alone. Branching is a
11 August, 2016The Digital Agency
What are digital agencies? Digital agencies are internet based businesses that help other internet based businesses get off the ground level.
10 August, 2016Does Your Digital Agency Outsource?
It’s safe to say that we live in a corporate world where digital marketing is without a doubt turning the tides. It has proven to be amongst the most effective advertising methods, and it brings the most value for the money you spend. However, there.
09 August, 2016Mobile-Friendly Websites
Smartphones and other handheld devices are now becoming the most preferred method of accessing the Internet. In case you are running a business, and you want to attract a wider set of audience, it would probably help to create a highly responsive web
09 August, 2016New Trends in Digital Marketing for 2016
Each year, the question is always posed on what the newest digital marketing trends will be. Following the trail from previous years, helps to develop the trends for the next. 2016, has quite a few digital marketing trends that need to be carefully w
09 August, 2016How Links Can Be Detrimental to Your Website
Back linking has always been thought to be a great idea in the world of SEO and Search Engine Marketing. The truth is back linking can still be great. However, when you have multiple low quality or bad backlinks on your website, this can...
08 August, 2016Common Challenges of Inbound Marketing
Every marketer is going to go through some bumps along the way. Even though the majority is going to share the same goals, the challenges that they face are definitely going to differ. With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of some of the...
08 August, 2016Using A Style Guide
A style guide is essential in website branding and website design. It makes sure that your branding will stay consistent all over the different collateral that you created. It is also referred to as brand bible which is comprised of all the crucial d
08 August, 2016Content Curation
Many people were initially excited by the idea of placing a content curation tool on their business website to help expand their digital marketing. These tools would allow you to automatically take curated content and post it to your website. Sounds
08 August, 2016Content Marketing Can Enhance Connections
The truth is that ever since back in 2006 inbound marketing has definitely proven to be not only the most preferred but also the most effective marketing method for conducting your online business. This particular approach relies on a comprehensive m
08 August, 2016A Digital Agency Can Deliver Leads
Leads, essentially, are prospects for a business. Once they are nurtured, they can turn into profitable customers, and in turn, will be vital in the improvement of business performance. So, how exactly can you capture more leads? In the case of the l
08 August, 2016Judging a Creative Portfolio
It is easy to find a beautiful portfolio. This is because designers know people are looking for, and they can make their creative portfolio look interesting because that’s what they are supposed to be good at. The challenge is how to choose the right
08 August, 2016Video Production
The fastest and most efficient way to expand on-line marketing is beginning or increasing the use of video production. The fastest-growing part of the Internet and well over half the entire net traffic is video. These numbers will only increase becau
08 August, 2016Marketing Automation
When prospects interact with your business at various times, whether they are signing up to an email list, downloading a white paper or sending an inquiry about a product, that interaction is an indication of where they are in their relationship with
08 August, 2016UX – User Testing
User Testing is just one major step related to User Experience Design for responsive web design, one that comes with its own hardships. First of all, you need to collect a group of people with the same demographic as your target audience. You’ll need
08 August, 2016Bad SEO Backlinks
Are Bad SEO Links from Your Competition Ruining Your Reputation? Have you noticed your search ranking plummeting recently? It may be time to analyze your backlinks to see if malicious backlinks are being pointed at your site. Bad SEO could be a serio
08 August, 2016Clear Website Goals
Defining extremely clear website goals for your website design or online marketing project is very important for your business’ online marketing efforts. If you do not take the time to research and identidy your major goals, web development pro
01 August, 2016Inbound Marketing
What Exactly Is Inbound Marketing vs Content Marketing? When HubSpot coined the term “inbound marketing” back in 2006, they loosely defined it as meaning: “a methodology that focuses on making quality content that pulls individuals toward your compan
28 July, 2016Great SEO – How Long Does It Take?
For SEO experts, when customers ask to how long will it take for their site to get positioned and found in search, it is often one of those unanswerable questions. For example, budget must be considered and also if it is a brand new website or...
26 July, 20165 Ways Mobile Friendly Content Increases Site Traffic
With the quantity of mobile users surpassing desktop users, now like never before, it is an indispensable effort for your company to improve mobile-friendly content onyour site to take advantage of your prospects’ mobile device traffic. With a
25 July, 2016Is Your Website Your Best Salesperson?
What if your best salesperson came to work early and stayed late consistently, working perseveringly throughout the day? What if this individual likewise works every evening, weekend, and late into the night? Your super salesperson does not only do t
21 July, 2016What is Omni-Channel Marketing?
We live in a fast-moving world; the struggle to keep up with the meaning of new terms and terminologies, and a highly tech-savvy population is also enmeshed in the constant change and complexity created by the digital marketing environment. The use o
17 July, 2016How To Use Pokemon GO For Marketing
Pokémon GO, a free-to-play augmented reality (AR) and location based mobile game/app is part of the Pokémon franchise. It was released this month for iOS and Android devices. The game asks players to capture, battle, and train creatures, called Pokém
15 July, 2016Nashville Web Design
Although we are known for grooming up and coming country music stars, Nashville, Tennessee is also a booming place for the latest and greatest in technology, more specifically web design. Nashville’s tech employment is largely due to our rise a
12 July, 2016A Web Design Company Is Your Best Resource
With the changes over the past few years in online user behavior, your customers and prospects now have a tremendous amount of power and choice in the buying process. The web developer that you choose for your next project should be more than just a.
11 July, 2016Are you losing business because of your website design?
First Impressions Matter Let’s be honest – Today, people will Google before they shop, visit online review sites like Yelp before they visit a restaurant and “Check-In” on Facebook throughout the day. As a result, you need your online presence
08 July, 2016Cool Color Schemes App for Cool Designers
INTRODUCTION: The other day I was searching for color scheme inspiration when I stumbled across Coolors.co This awesome app, created by fabrizio.com, generates color palettes based off the popular color website colorlovers.com. It is super fast and v
07 July, 2016New Site Launch: StylishRetreats.net
We are proud to present a new blog website development for Amy Marsalis in Nashville, Tennessee. StylishRetreats.net is a Home Design and Style blog with the mission: to share these touches and to get inside the minds of some of our city’s most creat
23 June, 2016What Is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority is a score (on a 100-point scale) created by Moz.com that predicts how well a site will rank on search engines. You can use Domain Authority when contrasting one webpage with another or when following the strength of your site or the
18 June, 2016New Site Launch: Cumberland Distributors
We are proud to present a newly revamped website for Cumberland Distributors in Nashville, Tennessee. Cumberland Distributors is a determined independent lighting provider and lighting designer in an ever increasing cutting-edge and specialty market.
03 May, 2016New Site Launch: Paws & Claws
We are proud to present a newly revamped website for Paws and Claws in Hendersonville Tennessee. Paws & Claws is an exciting adventure for your pet indoors, and there is plenty of fun taking place outside as well. In addition to 8,620 square feet
02 May, 20163 Things To Know When Building A New Website
1 – Go Ahead And Grab Your Domain Name Before you even begin looking for a web design company, be sure to set your domain name(s) for the project. You can use the search tools at many of the major domain name sellers to check...
02 May, 20165 Things A Client Has To Do
After twenty years of working in website development and online marketing, a few common themes show up in many of our projects. This article addresses some of the things that we see clients doing that help our team (And Hopefully Other Web Companies)
24 March, 2016Exactly What Is A Digital Agency?
The digital agency is a newer advertising agency model. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about it: A digital agency is a business that delivers services for the creative and technical development of internet based products. These services range from
21 March, 2016Responsive images in MODX using phpThumbsUp
Overview phpThumbsUp is a MODX addon that manipulates source images to create thumbnails. You can use phpThumbsUp to create thumbnails images for galleries, automatically size user-uploaded images for mobile devices, or automatically add complex imag
20 March, 2016New Website Launch: Thomason Financial Resources
We are proud to present a newly revamped website for Thomason Financial Resources. Thomason Financial Resources is a certified public accounting (CPA) firm dedicated to the nonprofit sector in Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Founded in 2003, their fi
15 March, 2016LinkedIn
LinkedIn can be a powerful tool to send company or individual messages to a directed group of businesses or network connections. Over the past year, LinkedIn has changed their interface quite a bit and several of my digital agency clients have voiced
14 March, 2016New Site Launch: Anderson Piping
We are proud to present a newly revamped website for Anderson Piping. Anderson Piping is a commercial mechanical contractor providing construction and retrofit services to customers in the commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors. Based in N
14 March, 20165 Nashville Web Design Trends for 2016
Today I wanted to talk about an article by Jessie-Lee Nichols on current trends in website design and give a Nashville web design spin on it. She makes a lot of great points and a few that I don’t totally agree with. No Responsive Website?...
07 March, 2016Web Design Tools for Responsive Website Developers
One of the newest tools in our arsenal that helps us to more easily see the challenges that our website designs have as they change from one device to the other. Google has recently introduced Resizer as an aid for website designers, and it is helpin
04 March, 2016Community Volunteer At ITT Tech Nashville
David Waldron of Darkstar Design with Charlotte Jones of ITT Technical Institute Last month I was glad to be able to community volunteer over at ITT Tech Nashville with mock job interviews for a few students. We went over the basic questions that I a
03 March, 2016New Site Launch: Crain Construction
We are proud to present a newly revamped website for Crain Construction. Crain Construction, Inc. provides superior pre-construction, design/build, sustainable construction, construction management and general contracting services. Crain contacted Da
01 February, 2016Once The Website Goes Live…
Once the website goes live and you take that big breath to catch up, you can’t stop there. There’s a lot of work left to keep the momentum going and get your website in front of as many new customers as possible. Be sure to...
29 January, 2016New Site Launch: W. R. Newman & Associates
We are proud to present a newly revamped website for W. R. Newman & Associates. W.R Newman & Associates provides a full range of construction services including design-build, value engineering, pre-engineered, and conventional construction. T
27 January, 2016Hiring for PHP Developer
Our creative agency is searching for an entry level PHP and database developer. We are looking for a person with expertise in writing code from the ground up; modifying code; debugging; building on existing software; and leveraging available options
17 September, 2014Why Responsive Design Is So Important
Developing websites for mobile devices is getting more and more important as get closer and closer to a fully online population. Market Penetration for Smartphones is currently 56% in the US. You look around everywhere that you go during the day and
18 October, 2013Responsive images in MODX using phpThumbsUp
Check out the great new article that was written about our open source MODX system package for responsive images! You can use phpThumbsUp to create thumbnails images for galleries, automatically size user-uploaded images for mobile devices, or automa
07 August, 2013Are you a Cyborg?
I was reading an article recently from my favorite author, and the premise of the article was about the definition of a cyborg in popular science fiction from the 1930s to the 1960s. He starts out with the scary robots of the early movies and...
15 July, 2013Want a Responsive Website?
With a wider variety of devices used to access the Internet than ever before, it has become even more important to ensure that as many of your website’s visitors as possible can enjoy an optimal viewing experience. Responsive Web design is a fo
29 May, 2013Introducing the MODX CMS Ambassadors
Darkstar Design is proud to be recognized as one of the 72 founding MODX Ambassadors who will help the world learn about, try and adopt MODX — both in local communities, and online with special interest groups. Darkstar Design has been named as the M
09 February, 2013Hiring for Sales Representative
We are seeking a highly motivated Sales Development Representative to join our team. The Sales Development Representative will need to be highly resourceful, results driven and self-motivated. This position will require thought leadership to execute
16 January, 2013What CES 2013 Will Bring to Technology
An interesting article on VentureBeat on what CES will portent for changes to technology this year. Read more here. To summarize: More start-up companies with actual physical demonstration products. This brings a direct benefit to both investors and
03 January, 2013Darkstar’s Visit to Barrett Rifles
We really appreciate the opportunity to work with our web design client Barrett, and had a blast today testing their top of the line .50 caliber M107A1 at the factory range. Web Developer Bill Schmidt fires the Barrett M107A1: CTO Scott Wespi fires t
21 December, 2012Freedom for the Internet?
UN delegates are meeting next week in Dubai to determine how the Internet will be controlled and charged for. Did you have any idea? “The Internet stands at a crossroads,” said Vint Cerf, one of the ’Net’s founders, in a New York Times story in...
29 November, 2012Horizontal Navigation Menus
Some cool CSS website design trickery to make horizontal menus at the top of a site automatically stretch to fill the entire width of the layout. A common problem we are faced with when doing a horizontal navigation bar is making the bar stretch the.
27 November, 2012Darkstar Joins The Nashville Chamber of Commerce
Darkstar is pleased to join the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce this month. Darkstar is glad to add our voice to the Chamber’s mission to “facilitate community leadership to create economic prosperity.” We hope to meet many more
19 November, 2012Responsive Web Design
With a wider variety of devices used to access the Internet than ever before, it has become even more important to ensure that as many of your website’s visitors as possible can enjoy an optimal viewing experience. Responsive Web Design and Why
12 November, 2012We’re Hiring! (Filled)
Darkstar is looking for a Front-End Developer. We are a small tight-knit creative team and have a lot of flexibility with everyone wearing a lot of hats. If you are searching for a not so corporate or more relaxed environment we may be the perfect...
11 October, 2012Breaking the MMO
We’ve all heard of Blizzard’s powerhouse MMO(massively multiplayer online) game, World of Warcraft. With somewhere around 10.2 million subscribers it’s been a titan among other games that have tried to take it’s throne. That m
07 June, 2012Twitter Comes to Senses
Almost two years ago, Twitter launched their so called #NewTwitter web platform. The Twitter developers claim that it provides them easier development paths and better performance, but I found it really annoying to use, because of the way it dynamica
04 June, 2012Slant align text
This is something that I’ve had to do a couple times recently. The bottom line is that there is nogood way to do this. Until the W3 specs and browser engines allow for wrapping text around non-boxes, the best you’re going to be able to do...
14 May, 2012Mobile Web Use
Interesting article today about Comscore’s recent statistics. The article basically highlights that users are only using mobile websites for 1/5th of their online time, with the remainder being spent using Apps. I’m not sure I completely
09 May, 2012Darkstar Design Celebrates 15 Years
Darkstar Design, a Nashville web design firm, is celebrating their 15 year anniversary in the Web Design industry on May 1st. Darkstar Design, a Nashville web design firm, is celebrating their 15 year anniversary in the Web Design industry on May 1st
12 April, 2012Google Releases Plans to Penalize
Being in the online search business, even I have been thinking that search positioning has been getting a little absurd lately. Try to search for a part for your car sometime, and you’ll get thousands of websites that have perfectly positioned
19 March, 2012How I learned to stop worrying
How I learned to stop worrying and love the * The *, or universal selector, is often maligned. Some people use it to reset all browser default styles, which can over-ride some useful defaults (and I personally find to be bad practice). It can also ca
19 March, 2012
