Introducing: Ask Bee Docs
Thursday, June 18, 2009
We thought it would be fun to record a series of videos answering questions that you may have. Please check out this intro video explaining how it works and then ask away!
Labels: askbeedocs, beedocs, questions, video
Bee Docs is Hiring!
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
I am pleased to announce that we are preparing to hire Bee Docs’ first full time employee. Please read the following job description and take a moment to think of the most talented person that you know who would be a good fit for the job. I would appreciate your help identifying great candidates!
Mission for Customer Care and Community Development Lead
To receive, connect, and educate the Bee Docs customer community by providing personal contact with current and potential customers in a way that makes them feel valued and appreciated. Expand the reach and reputation of Bee Docs’ brand and products by leveraging the relationships and opportunities found in a passionate and connected community.
About Bee Docs:
Bee Docs nourishes individual human expression through the crafting of organically inspired software, fashion, and ideas. Bee Docs is located in Seattle Washington.
People who are interested in serving the Bee Docs community in this role should contact Mike Wisler via the e-mail address: mike at beedocs.com
Thanks!
Labels: beedocs, Customer Service, employment, job
New BeeDocs.com Website
Friday, December 12, 2008
I just launched a brand new version of the beedocs.com website. This is our fourth major site design in the history of the company and this one was nearly a year in the making. Thanks to Turnstyle for the graphic design. Thanks to all of the Bee Docs Timeline customers who shared their timelines.
The site has some new features for customers that I would like to point out:
A consolidated movie library with our tutorial and demo videos.
Bee Docs Timeline help documentation is now online, including several updated tutorials.
As much as possible, all of the timelines that appear on the site were created by customers. However, there is room for more. If you have a great timeline that you would like to share for this purpose, please contact me.
We now have hand-printed BEEDOCS shirts for sale.
About Us page is updated and contains more ways to contact me.
Education discounts and site licenses are now available.
Movies have all been transcribed. This should be particularly helpful for those who would like to use a translation service.
Movies are now optimized for iPhone viewing.
Pages automatically optimize themselves for printing.
This update also completes our brand transition from “Bee Documents” to “Bee Docs.”
For those of you who are interested in the business and marketing side of things, I would like to tell you about the ways that I have refined my strategy based on my experiences over the past year.
The previous website had two specific messages that is was designed to communicate. The first was “timelines created with Bee Docs Timeline are beautiful” and the second was “timelines created with Bee Docs Timeline are quick and easy to create.” I wrote these down before beginning the design and wrote a lot marketing copy along those lines.
A wise friend saw the site and advised that I show these messages instead of telling them. Based on that advice, I stripped out most of the text and came up with the design that featured six timeline charts, each with a short movie showing the timeline being created in a few minutes or less.
I believe this design successfully communicated the two messages, unfortunately these were the wrong messages. The messages that Bee Docs Timeline creates beautiful charts and is easy-to-use were a result of comparing Bee Docs Timeline to other timeline charting products. Two observations have influenced my change of strategy.
Observation #1: I have sold Bee Docs Timeline to approximately 0.03% of the active Mac OS X user base. That means that I have sold a license to about one out of every 4,000 Mac OS X users. I’m guessing this is a good number compared to the competition. However, it is obviously not huge slice of the pie.
Observation #2: When I show Bee Docs Timeline to family and friends or other people who are not necessarily shopping for timeline software the most frequent thing I hear is, “That looks like really cool software, too bad I do not have any need for timelines.” In other words, “Why the heck would I want to make a timeline?”
My conclusion from these two observations is that I should not waste any more time trying to convince people that Bee Docs Timeline is the best timeline software. Rather, I should focus my marketing efforts evangelizing the usefulness of timelines in general. I want to convert a big chunk of the other 99.97% rather than focus on the ones that are already convinced then need a timeline creation tool.
So here are the top three messages that I specified for the new site design. I kept these in front of me when I was designing the site architecture, layout, imagery, and text copy. I asked Turnstyle to focus on these when they were doing the graphic design.
Answer the question: Why are timelines relevant to me?
Diverse, interesting, and successful people use Bee Docs Timeline
Timelines made with Bee Docs Timeline are beautiful (had to keep that one in there)
Hopefully at least the first message will sink in for visitors to the website, even if they only spend a few seconds on the site!
Pink Bee Tees
Monday, October 20, 2008
This is the new "Pink Bee Tee" available in very limited quantities from the Bee Docs Etsy Shop.
My latest hobby has been experimenting with unique ways to hand print t-shirts. The Pink Bee shirt starts with a black Edun-Live shirt, grown and sewn in Africa. Check out this video to learn the great story behind how these shirts are made.
Next, I had a large rubber stamp custom made with our new bee logo. I used the stamp to print color remover on the shirt which, like bleach, removes the black color from the areas it is stamped. On the sleeve, I used a small silk screen to apply the color remover to spell "BEEDOCS".
Finally, I garment dyed the entire shirt pink to stain the bleached out areas pink. The result is a cool distressed vintage look where each shirt is unique. They are also very soft since they are made with dye instead of printed ink. I only made 9 of these shirts and they are only in women's sizes so get 'em while you can.
New Bee Docs Logo!
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Here is the new logo. Designed by Turnstyle in Seattle.
I think they did a brilliant job of capturing the brand characteristics I described last week as well as creating something that is beautiful in its own right. I hope you like it too!
Bee Documents to Bee Docs
Friday, August 01, 2008
As part of our branding refresh, I am renaming the company from "Bee Documents" to "Bee Docs"
When I founded the company, I had the idea of referring to the company as "Bee Documents" and using the short version for the products. For example, Bee Docs' Timeline, Bee Docs' Discover, and Bee Docs' Number Stamper. Back in 2002, the company was focussed on document management products and services, thus the "Documents" in Bee Documents.
For the past two years, the number of Google searches for Bee Docs has been twice the number of searches for Bee Documents which tells me that Bee Docs is sticking better in people's minds. It is nice and short for typing and has less connection with document management, which is an field we no longer service. Besides, "Bee Docs" is fun to say don't you think?
I'm currently converting our e-mail addressed from beedocuments.com to beedocs.com and will soon begin to convert the website. Hopefully you won't notice any interruptions during the transition, but let me know if you do. All of the old addresses should redirect and forward, so no need to worry about it unless you want your Address Book to be cutting edge with the latest name.
I can't wait to unveil the new logo, those who have seen the drafts have been very enthusiastic about it. Stay tuned! I hope to have the final version from the designers in the next couple weeks and will post it here first.
Labels: beedocs, beedocuments, brand, company name, domain, rename
Logo #2 - Feedback Request
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Here is another logo from Design Hovie Studios for which I would appreciate your feedback. Just to reiterate, the kind of feedback that is most useful is not what you would change about the logo or even whether or not you would personally choose it, but rather the feelings, connotations, and impressions that the logo gives you. Thanks!