Posts by Ed Tankersley
How to Write a Website RFP That Gets You Good Proposals
If you’re planning a new website or a website upgrade or expansion for your business, you may want to get multiple bids or quotes. The challenge is that websites have lots of moving pieces and there are numerous valid options for almost any feature or function, so how do you get apples-to-apples quotes? The solution…
Read MorePutting in the Miles for a Good Cause
As many of you know, there’s a reason we have “trails” in our business name and a compass in our logo. Our lead trailblazer, Ed Tankersley, loves to hike, mountain bike, snowboard, and just generally kick around outdoors, and he founded Eight Trails to provide web design, development, and online advertising with a focus on…
Read More6 Critical Things Your Website Should Do for You
We are long past the days of brochure sites, with nothing but photos and text about your business. These days, if your website isn’t doing real work for you, it’s just not earning its keep. Here are six critical things your website should be doing for your business: Build Your Brand – Your brand is…
Read MoreSpotlight on New Website for Second Beat Improv
Second Beat Improv Theater opened in Phoenix in October 2016, and we at Eight Trails were honored to be instrumental in helping them get launched. The theater is the personal vision of longtime Phoenix improv performer Sam Haldiman, and takes its name from the three beats of The Harold, one of the standard structures in…
Read MoreHow We Revved Up West Coast Collector Autos
We recently launched a website for West Coast Collector Autos in Westminster, California, and there’s a bit of magic going on behind the scenes to make this site as helpful to car enthusiasts as it can be. The site had a limited budget and the business had no logo, so we used a simple theme…
Read MoreA Quick and Affordable Website Upgrade You Should Do in 2017
Late last year, we began moving all of the websites that we manage for our clients to secure socket layer (SSL). Running sites on SSL is becoming the new standard for all sites for three important reasons: It makes sites more secure Google is likely to give you higher search ranking It will make your…
Read MoreNew Website for Luxury Custom Home Development Soars
The breathtaking location of Eagles Nest custom home development in Fountain Hills, Arizona, demanded a website that could do it justice. Eight Trails delivered a site that is strong on panoramic visuals, to show off the unique terrain and soaring views found here in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains. We tightened and focused the…
Read MoreMagazine Ads Grab Attention for Gear.com
Gear.com is an online discount retailer of outdoor gear and apparel. Because Gear.com is a clearance outlet with an ever-changing inventory, our challenge was to create ads for categories of products – ski equipment, fitness apparel, mountain bikes – without naming or displaying specific brands or models. Our concept suggested that by buying from Gear.com…
Read MoreA Fully Non-Improvised New Logo for Second Beat Improv Theater
One common form of long-form improv is the Harold, which consists of three “beats” or movements. This being the second theater founded by Second Beat’s director, he chose the Second Beat name and asked us to focus on beats and on circular motifs, which also figure strongly in improv. The modern and expressive typeface reflects…
Read MoreA New Website Drives Reservations for Arizona Shuttle
Arizona Shuttle operates between Arizona’s top vacation destinations and Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. To help them position themselves against a popular local shuttle, as well as to compete against several smaller van services in some of their destination cities, we worked with fp2 Marketing to design a new logo, write a tagline, design van graphics,…
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