Please read on below about job opportunities at Social Ink.  If you are interested, please use the contact page.

Position: Project Manager

Compensation: Commensurate with experience.

Hours: 5-10 per week

Tasks and Responsibilities: Our Project Manager helps us begin conversations with prospective clients and wrap up projects as they come to a close.  Primary duties are initial phone conversations, proposal drafts and copy edits, tracking current workload and deadlines, checking in with current clients about logistics and payment status, and helping us maintain and add to our own website with updates, news, and social media outreach. If necessary, PM will devote a small amount of time trailing job boards and looking for new work. Ideal candidate will have a experience and interest in the web and graphic design, and a mind for business development and strategizing our own growth and outreach. We want our you to grow along with us, increasing hours and responsibilities as we take on more work. Super Ideal Amazing candidate will have a background in design and/or the web, with PR and Identity & Branding experience.

Skills: Candidate need not be a designer or web developer, but familiarity with the vocabulary and culture of web and design is a huge plus. Likewise, basic skills in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and working knowledge of WordPress or other CMS platforms.

Location and Access: We are based in NYC but have worked with a remotely based PM before. We ask for general availability throughout the work-week, though we realize the nature of a part time position is that we can only ask for so many hours of work. It’s our hope that the ideal candidate will be able to ‘check in’ via email at least once every few hours, as necessary.

Start Time: February or Early March

About Social Ink: We are a NY-based web design and development company with offices in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn. We specialize in work for foundations, nonprofits, community organizations, creatives, and small business. PM will come down to our offices once in a while for meetings and check-ins but primarily work off-site. For more about us, please see our profile.

Social Ink - Web Design for Nonprofits and Small Businesses in New York City

We are pleased to launch the new brand + website for one of our fellow DUMBO neighbors, Tor Ekeland, PC!

Tor Ekeland, PC is a boutique litigation and transactional law firm that handles civil and criminal matters along with its clients’ business needs. The nimble team, led by Tor Ekeland, also provides a wide range of services for artists, journalists, and designer clients. You can read more about this project on our portfolio page or click on over to the site.

Tor Ekeland wanted a new website to establish its business operations in Brooklyn. Charged with this task, Social Ink designed a site driven by large, striking imagery that reflects the firm’s location and commitment to the NYC creative community. An integrated CMS allows the team to easily update and manage their content, and engage in with industry thought leadership through a blog and news section.

Social Ink - Web Design for Nonprofits and Small Businesses in New York City

SOPA and PIPA, two versions of similar legislation currently being debated in the House and Senate, respectively, are dangerous and potentially ruinous pieces of legal code. If passed, these bills could effectively create an internet blacklist and improperly censor sites you use every day without due process. It is also a threat to internet and new media innovation and jobs in America and the world over.

Social Ink stands against SOPA and PIPA.  We hope you’ll take five minutes to call your Senators and Representatives to speak out against this dangerous legislation. Google is also organizing a petition which should be an effectively large action to join.

Social Ink - Web Design for Nonprofits and Small Businesses in New York City

Hope you all had a happy New Year! We also took the last week for a well-deserved break, but it doesn’t mean we aren’t hard at work bringing new and exciting products to the WordPress community. We’re happy to introduce our newest product – the Simple Stripe Payments WordPress Plugin, to accept payments from the new and exciting Stripe.com. Stripe allows you to process cards on your site with full PCI compliance and brings an exciting new take to payment prcessing, and our plugin allows you an easy way to bolt-on a solution in just under 5 minutes!

The Stripe Payments WordPress Plugin allows recurring subscriptions, multiple forms with different predetermined or open options, and a comprehensive receipt/database tracking solution all integrated into your WordPress backend.  Think of it as a companion piece to our successful Simple Authorize Payments WordPress Plugin (that one only works with authorize.net, another payment processor).  To read more about Simple Stripe Payments, head over to the Social Ink Shop!

Social Ink - Web Design for Nonprofits and Small Businesses in New York City

We’re delighted to announce our latest plugin, Custom Post Type Images, for WordPress (tested from 3.0 onwards)!  WP has made adding and registering custom post types very easy, moving the platform toward further CMS status.  However as all these types have emerged, there lacks a way to attach an image and call it in your custom post type archive or even a single post or page.  Enter cptImages! Using our plugin you can set a kind of “featured image” for your actual post type without setting them independently.

To use the plugin, head over to our shop to download it or visit the WordPress plugin extend site.

To use, select an image for the custom post type and attach. You can then use the image in various ways:

As a shortcode. Put [cptImage] wherever you want the image to appear. Not that in this usage (without a parameter) it will only appear when you are on a single item of that custom post type OR in the archive page itself. To call any attached image, use [cptImage cpt="Custom Post Type Name"].

In PHP in your template. To retrieve the image url to a variable, use
get_cptimage_image($optionalname, $echo)
For example, you can use
get_cptimage_image("Custom Post Type Name")
to retrieve a specific post type image, or
get_cptimage_image("Custom Post Type Name", true)
to echo the url rather than retrieving it. To merely display the image, call
cptimage_image("Custom Post type Name")
or simply
cptimage_image()

Note that if you do not pass a post type name it will only appear when you are on a single item of that custom post type OR in the archive page itself.

Social Ink - Web Design for Nonprofits and Small Businesses in New York City

With the recent launch of FEX’s No Small Change targeted giving Microsite, we’ve given kicking around many thoughts (and late nights!) to designing and developing effective and action-oriented microsites.

But, you may ask, what is a “microsite”?

Microsites are 1-3 page sites that often focus on a specific goal or campaign. They are often time-sensitive and highlight a critical initiative or upcoming decision or campaign that requires immediate action. Many times, microsites will serve as a kind of sidecar to an organization’s main web platform–by offering a peripherally branded yet unique identity which generates excitement and action around your cause, event, or project.

We’ve developed a list of Best Practices for Designing and Developing Microsites. Without further ado, here it is:

1 } KISS. Keep it Simple. Limit yourself to a maximum of four pages. Your main website can do the heavy lifting in this regard. Make your microsite to the point and immediately actionable.

2 } Consider a unique URL. A new, catchy URL generates a better branding and SEO opportunity and establishes your microsite as a legitimate, semi-independent venture, rather than yet another blog entry or new page on your existing site. Your cause is important enough to warrant its own site!

3 } Link back to your organizations homepage, and make clear the bigger picture!  Users may well find your site through a search engine or social network and may not be aware of the parent organization – make sure you entice them to learn more about your larger efforts.

4 } Contact & Donate. Always have a Contact Form and a Donate or Contribute button. Enough said.

5 } Engage and direct: Quickly introduce your cause–why should the user care? And then follow up this interest with quick and simple ways to act.

6 } Be bold and differentiate your microsite from your main page. This is your chance to break out of the box a bit and really show off! Add a sense of vitality and urgency through bold use of color and typography.

7 } Identify different ways for participation or helping your cause. How can your users help? Even if they can’t afford to give, encourage them to tell others, sign up for your mailing list, or call their local representatives.

8 } Get Social. Tap into the power of Twitter and Facebook without replicating them! Encourage your supporters to spread the word about your initiative to their own networks and immediately find new audiences.

9 } Build the site with a Content Management System. Why use a CMS to build a 3 page site? These platforms have gotten so good there’s really no reason not to build with them. Want a non technical staffer to update your statistics or post an urgent message? Get it done immediately with a CMS. (For more about Content Management Systems, see our Explanatory Resource.)

10 } Prioritize your content. We know you have a wealth of content. Pages of research, hundreds of amazing photos. But sometimes the reality is that your users will give your site only a few seconds before deciding whether to close their window or keep reading. Choose your best and most succinct content and let your users have it–then immediately encourage action.

To sum up, creating a microsite can be a powerful and effective companion to your main organizational web presence. Be bold, keep it simple, and encourage easy and various forms of participation. Interested in setting up your own microsite or talking more about your next web initiative? Contact Us! We’d love to hear from you.

photo by Bourdaire on Wikimedia Commons

Social Ink - Web Design for Nonprofits and Small Businesses in New York City

Social Ink is pleased to once again support the efforts of FEX: The Funding Exchange, a national membership organization of regionally based social justice foundations. You can Read more about our work on the this new project on our portfolio page or click on over to the site!

In our latest collaboration, Social Ink developed a microsite for a targeted fundraising drive aptly named No Small Change. With an aim to revolutionize giving, this project connects grantees, donors, and activists, fostering interest and action among these vital groups. By developing a sense of community and participation among potential donors through an interactive, playful, and bold web interface, FEX extends its reach and serves as a true network serving everyday people.

FEX’s Rapid Response Fund is currently collecting donations for quick delivery to support the national Occupy Movement, including local support for Occupy Wall Street here in New York City. The site includes targeted giving with suggested small donor amounts, facebook, twitter, and google plus social integration, email newsletter action, and video-rich slideshows which showcase FEX No Small Change Stories that will inspire giving. These No Small Change Stories are compiled in an index for archiving as well.

Social Ink - Web Design for Nonprofits and Small Businesses in New York City

Thanks to you, and DUMBO too:
Greetings from Social Ink!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Gobble gobble! As Thanksgiving fast approaches, we wanted to say hello and give thanks to our extended Social Ink Family (that’s you!). If you haven’t heard, we’ve moved to new offices in DUMBO, an inspiring neighborhood full of creative and tech-minded folks. Please come down for a coffee and a tour next time you’re “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.”

We’ve had a busy few months and hope you’ll enjoy a quick look at some of our most recent web design and development work on the newly revamped social-ink.net:

Family Values @ Work

Academic Access

Stitch + Sparkle

Friends of the East River Greenway

We’re looking forward to unveiling some very exciting projects in early 2012—stay tuned!

In the meantime, here’s to a happy and hearty turkey-day!

With thanks,

Matt, Yoni & the team at Social Ink

Social Ink - Web Design for Nonprofits and Small Businesses in New York City

We know you visit Social Ink for our portfolio of work, resources and tools, and to learn a bit about our expertise with design for nonprofits, foundations and businesses. And maybe for our rugged good looks, who knows?

A few months ago, we launched our sister site, the Social Ink Shop, where we sell some great WordPress plugins and provide custom WordPress support. In the spirit of the upcoming holidays, why not treat a friend, colleague—or even yourself—to a small gift that will push your site to the next level.

Let’s click over and visit some of our more important purchases.

1. First up, we have our Simple Authorize Payments WordPress Plugin. This top-rated plugin is our most succesful product, offering a five minute, highly-customized solution for integrating a contribution or donation system to your WordPress site. From beer money to large scale foundation or nonprofit donate pages, this plugin is a perfect resource for accepting payments on site. Why choose Authorize.net over, say, PayPal?  While the latter is famously easy to use,  it keeps a percentage of your fee, AND manages all the money from within the PayPal interface. As customers are navigated away from your site, you lose your custom branding as well a bit of the professionalism you’ve worked so hard to develop. With Authorize (like other credit card gateways) everything comes to your bank account and you become like any regular merchant. It’s well worth the investment, and our plugin makes it super simple, with shortcode to immediately integrate a custom form into your “donate” section. Give it a shot!
2. Next, we have our excellent and time-tested yCyclista Gallery/Slideshow WordPress Plugin. It’s a weird name for sure, but we have yet to find an easier way to integrate a dynamic slideshow into your WordPress page with so little work. Just attach some images to your gallery, enter a quick shortcode, and you’ll have a beautiful jQuery slideshow to invigorate your site. We have lots of style and transition options built in, and it’s infinitely customizable with just a little extra support from us. Available in a free version (with fewer options) and a no-limits Premium version, this bit of software is one of our first WordPress plugins and we’re especially proud of it!
3. Take a look at our free WordPress plugins which provide solutions for some WordPress quirks:  Our AJAX-enabled WordPress contributors plugin, yContributors, helps sites with multiple authors or contributors track, archive, and profile their work. Or maybe you’d like yPhplista, if you use the open-source PHPList mailing list software and want to easily integrate it into your WordPress site.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned! We’re in the process of rolling out a custom WordPress theme tailored to an industry we feel really needs it, AND we’re developing a beautiful new search plugin to help you manage WordPress’s 3.2 shiny new taxonomy features. We think this plugin will elevate this one-time blogging platform to finally meet all of the full fledged Content Management Systems of the world.

As always, if you need any kind of website development or design—from logowork to visual identity, coding to custom WordPress plugins—please be in touch.

Thanks for visiting our site—

The Gang at Social Ink

Photo: Old Romanian market (Preziosi – Piaţă la Râmnicu Vâlcea) – Wikipedia.

Social Ink - Web Design for Nonprofits and Small Businesses in New York City