This is the final menu version for the Cuban restaurant concept I have been working on. The menu has been printed on a 14pt cardstock matte, legal size.
Cuban Restaurant Website
New Restaurant, New Website
Whenever opening up a new restaurant, a website is absolutely critical. It’s amazing how much traffic this site is already getting and a lot of the traffic is from keyword searches. The website is pretty bare at the moment, aside from a menu and contact information. Check out the website at havanagrillandlounge.com.
A really important factor for grabbing keywords is naming and tagging your photos appropriately. Additionally, once the restaurant is fully operational we can start adding some content with strategically placed keywords.
The site is based on Genesis, which is my absolute favorite. Studiopress is awesome to find the perfect foundation for websites.
Free Web Design for a Limited Time Only
Get Your Website Built for Free
In an effort to expand my portfolio, I’ll be offering web design for free to individuals and small organizations. Not free as in, “I’m a Nigerian Prince, give me your credit card information so I can send you money,” but free as in FREE.
Sites will be built using WordPress and catered to your needs and vision of how you want to represent yourself.
What you need:
- Domain and Hosting: I recommend GoDaddy because it’s ridiculously easy to set up and will usually cost about $60/year for your web address and the hosting. Unless you get crazy traffic, this will suit you just fine.
- WordPress installation: Again, GoDaddy makes this really easy to setup but I can easily walk you through it.
- Content, Photos, and Requests: Whether you’re a photographer, clothing designer, or just want a personal website, all I need is some basic direction to get your new site up and running. If you already have a WordPress based website I can import all your existing posts and content into a new, HTML5 responsive site.
What I need:
- Admin access to your WordPress site. This is super easy and you can even delete me when I’m finished- I won’t get offended!
- Social Media Links: If you want to have links to your Twitter, Facebook, etc., I simply need the links to place on the website.
- Content and Photos: As stated above, whatever you want to display on your site I’ll make sure it finds its way.
After the site is complete we can review it together and make any changes or edits. I’ll then walk you through the basics and hand over the keys, but I’ll always be available if you need help in the future!
Please reach out to me at info@soraci.com if you’re interested, or send me a note on LinkedIn.
My 120 Gallon Reef Tank
I love fish, and I love my reef tank.
Check out my YouTube Channel for videos.
This is a top down view of my 120. I started off like everyone else, lots of different coral. Now I’m starting to transition to more of the branch and Montipora-type corals.
Tank is lit by two Kessil A360s, and everything connects to an Apex system so I can monitor and fine tune the tank.
The basics of the reef tank consist of 100 pounds of sand, 120 pounds of live rock. The sump is a 40 gallon eshopps with a Reef Octopus skimmer NWB-150, refugium, and Eheim pump.
The tank is a custom SC Aquarium, 1/2 Sapphire glass. It has the euro lip so splashing is reduced and I can keep it as an open-top tank.
Thanks for checking out my 120 gallon reef tank
Google Isn’t the Biggest Everywhere.
I love keeping up with “SEO” related bits. It’s amazing how we in the states sometimes forget that Google isn’t the biggest everywhere.
Check this article via searchenginewatch.com or read below:
Baidu, the leading Chinese search engine, is the third most popular search engine in the world, despite being mostly concentrated in and around China. That speaks clearly to the immense size and power of the Chinese market.
An estimated 507 million Chinese use search engines. This is an enormous marketplace for companies who want to grow overseas and engage with new prospective customers.
Although Google dominates much of the search engine traffic in North America and Europe, in China it is one of the least popular search engines.
Instead, Baidu, and its rising competitor Qihoo 360, control the landscape. Those interested in doing business in China will need to make sure they understand these search engines if they want to compete.
How is the Chinese market changing? – So.com
The market in China is quickly changing and evolving. Baidu has long dominated the search engine sphere, and they still control an estimated 54% of the search engine market share. Over the past few years, however, there has been a fast rising competitor that is seizing an increasing percentage of the search volume.
Qihoo 360 was developed by a security software company and its search engine so.com. It was only launched in 2012, but by 2015 it controlled an estimated 30% of the Chinese search market.
Its popularity has likely been influenced by the growth of mobile. By Q3 in 2014, mobile devices were the leading source of searches and revenue for Chinese search engine marketing, and Qihoo 360 has been responsible for building the most popular app store in China.
How is search engine marketing different in the APAC region than in the US?
Brands who want to expand overseas into the APAC region need to be familiar with the local ranking factors and how to conduct SEO for the popular search engines, particularly Baidu and so.com as optimizing for one site will allow you to improve your rankings on both.
Tips for SEO in China:
Do not try to get a website ranked by using automatic translators or just students of the language. Using a native speaker will provide you with an infinitely superior site, as you will be able to avoid major grammatical errors, have the content flow more naturally, select more relevant keywords and use vocabulary that resonates better with the local audience. Your site will fit better overall into the framework of the Chinese digital ecosystem. Translation issues can hurt your reputation and cause you to rank lower on the SERPs.
When setting up a website, you want to try and get a .CN domain. If that is not possible, then seek a .COM or .Net. You website should also be hosted in China and you should secure an ICP license from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Avoid having multiple domains or subdomains.
It is imperative that you know the list of blacklisted words that cannot be posted online. Inclusion of these words can cause your site to be de-indexed and even taken down. Remember that your website can not criticize the government in any way.
As you build the website, keep your title tags under 35 characters in Simplified Chinese and your meta descriptions below 78 characters in Simplified Chinese.
Website speed is highly valued. Regularly test your site to make sure it loads quickly. Inbound links are also viewed as valuable for search rankings, so finding opportunities to build a strong backlink profile can be very helpful.
All of the links you create should be in plain HTML. In general, avoiding Javascript is preferred, because sometimes content in that format is not indexed.
The Chinese search engines value fresh content. So regularly publishing on your page will help boost your reputation and success. You should submit your blog posts to the Baidu News Feed, which will help you attract new readers to your material.
For businesses interested in expanding into Asia, understanding how the local search engine market is evolving and changing can be critical to creating sites that rank well on the local search engines.
For business expanding globally outside of the US, make sure you optimize for premium search engines for key regions such as Naver (South Korea) and Yandex (Russia) also!
g2gmg.com Website
This is one of my favorite projects. Not just because it’s the company I work for, but because I’ve had the privilege of watching the website grow.
g2gmg.com
is based on the Genesis wordpress theme. I love the simplicity and elegance of the design.
After a lot of work and SEO optimization, I’m proud to say this that this site is achieving 20,000 organic views a week.
My goal is to hit a steady 100,000 views a month…. almost there!
Building a Toy Tank with Wood
Wood you believe there’s not a whole lot of wooden tank templates available online? ( yes, that ‘wood’ was intentional. I’m an English major, remember?).
I wanted to build a toy tank for my baby nephew but could not find a design I liked. I’m completely new to wood-working so why not build something from scratch? See below for the “plans” although I would still call this project a prototype.
This was the start. The body of the tank is 5 main pieces: the center, sides, and “side caps.”
The center was built with 2x4s. First, cut out the center, and the sides using a band saw. The two sides should be identical, and a little different than the center. This gives the tank a more realistic effect. But feel free to use your own creativity.
Once’s you cut the pieces the way you like them, give them a test fit!
Starting to look like a tank, right?
Ok, so we wan
t this thing to move right? Otherwise, what’s the point? Here’s what I did. I cut some wholes in the side pieces…. enough to accommodate some wooden hobby store bought wheels. Then, clamp the center and sides together.
Also, feel free to stain your pieces however you see fit.
Here’s an underneath picture. You have the center pieces, dowels, wheels, then the side caps. I used two wheels per corner to make it more tank like.
Here is the top. Pretty simple to make. I tried to build this as a “wood only” toy, so in order to make the top move I used a larger dowel with a smaller dowel as a pin to hold it into the top.
What you do next after you figure out what your top will look like, is cut a slice off the bottom. Then you can drill a large hole in the top slice to accommodate the pin, and a smaller hole in the bottom slice to accommodate the dowel. This is going to allow the tank top to move.
Wooden dowel in the top part. Glue the bottom slice to contain the dowel and pin.
Once the bottom slice is glued you’re top is done! Be careful not to get glue on the dowel or it won’t spin.
Now we just put the two main pieces together..
And…. money shot! Completed tank!
Kids Menu, Cuban Restaurant Concept
Designing a kids menu for a Cuban restaurant concept.
Which also begs the question: is it kids, kid’s, or kids’? The internet is confused on this one…
This was designed as a placemat/kid’s menu. It’s 17″x11″ which is a readily available paper size.
I designed it in a way that crayons would not be needed (cutting down costs). Instead, pencils can be used for the word-search activity.
Speaking of the word-search, would you believe that no Cuba-themed word searches exist! Haha! I had to make this one up. Thanks to puzzlemaker.com I was able to build my own after researching some “fun facts” about Cuba.
This menu looks really great in person:
