Rodeo Empire Agency: Texas

This is a website we are very excited about! The group and their direction, paired with our design techniques, created the perfect look for the Rodeo Empire Agency, Inc. (REA).

Cowboys Logan Medlin and Turtle Powell are just a few of the clients that REA is working with to help them get the most out of their advertising and promotions.

Christi Bland and Kathleen Collier make up the Hereford, Texas based REA, whose motto is "Helping Cowboys Stay Cowboys." They both come from rodeo families and saw a need to keep the Western heritage and way of life alive. Thus, they created the Rodeo Empire Agency.

REA offers cost effective advertising to their clients for their target markets, while promoting them on a regional, state and/or national level.

Check them out, www.reatexas.com! They are ready and willing to take you to the next level.

Facebook Welcome Pages

This week we launched one of our new services, which is creating custom Facebook entry pages.

Every business needs a facebook page. (Call us if you need help with that). But after you develop the page, a professionally designed Facebook fan page is the next step in your facebook marketing. These pages help you increase the number of "Likes" on your page and encourage people to visit your website. 

So, of course, as our guinea pigs we did our own, which you can see here. When you first go to the RHD facebook page, if you're already a fan (which we hope you are) you probably didn't even notice anything different. 

However if you aren't a fan, instead of seeing our wall, you see this entry page. It lists our logo, brief overview of our services, and a link to our website. It also has the arrow at the top encouraging people to like our page.  Once you like the page, you get directed to our wall. 

Second Guinea Pig: V8 Ranch. Here is an example of their custom entry page. 

Oh, and this might be the best reason to get a custom facebook entry page....

Ever heard of facebook stalkers? ha. 

Those are the people who creep your page to see what you're doing but never actually like your page. They might be your competitors, or a nosy neighbor. Facebook entry pages help eliminate that. Because now these stalkers have to like your page to actually see your content. HA HA

We would love to do a facebook entry page for you. Give us a call or email tricia@ranchhousedesigns.com. 

Denver Sign Orders

If you've been to any of the big shows this fall, chances are you noticed some of the awesome work of RHD in many areas. But one of our most popular services during this time of year is stall signs. We offer stall signs of all shapes and sizes and these are a necessity for every farm or ranch taking cattle to Denver, or any show for that matter.

We finally broke down and got some new signs for V8 Shorthorns for Louisville....and I couldn't believe how many people said how they loved the signs. They also commented on how easy it was to spot our stalls because the signs stood out so much. Now, if only I can get my dad convinced to get away from the handwritten signs we use in our Brahman showstring. I doubt that will ever happen honestly.

As we've been really hammering lately in our own ads, projects like these are where our practical expertise of the cattle business really give us an advantage. We know how to do the best livestock signs because, well, hmm, I've only hung up literally thousands of these in my lifetime as the official sign hanger (or assistant sign hanger to my dad) on the V8 showstring for the past 20 years.

I know Denver isn't quite on everyone's minds yet, but we are steadily working on Denver sign orders. Don't wait til the last minute because Denver projects are harder than normal show orders because we have the holidays of Christmas and New Years in the mix and that causes delays in shipping.

Probably the easiest thing to do is just fax us a copy of your show entries, and then we'll get to work. We also have a $500 package available that includes a banner and end panel signs. We look forward to talking with you and doing your signs!

How well connected is your website?

How well connected is your website? The number of sites that link to your web site is one of the factors that helps boost your search engine ranking. We offer a great directories package that will link your site on all of the following directories that are applicable to your business for one low price of $50.

Click here to add your website to our listings.  We will add your listing to all applicable sites that you qualify for. For example, a Shorthorn breeder from Texas would qualify to be listed on all three sites....where a Hereford breeder from Oklahoma would be listed on Show to Win only.

Also, one of the many perks of being an RHD customer is that all of our website clients automatically get free links on these sites. If we can help you with a new website or give you a bid for a new look on your existing website, please give us a call.

PS - We say "many perks" because there are actually several. Be sure to ask us about our partnershp incentives to being an RHD customer.

Denver Bull Banners Underway

Does everyone have Denver bull banners on their mind or what? Seems like over the past 3 days we have gotten a ton of calls about Denver bull banners! And in fact, we've even got a few either already printed or almost approved and ready to be printed. Way to go everyone for being so ahead of schedule!

Here is one that is a 4x4 banner that Liz designed this week for TX Enterprises in North Carolina.

We have a great sire package that includes pretty much everything one needs for a bull promotion. Due to confidentiality we don't publically put all of the details online, but we are more than happy to discuss it with anyone who is interested. This package is good for bulls of all breeds, not just club calf bulls.

So we are getting excited! Creating unique ads and promotions for bulls is one of our favorite things to do here at RHD! Give us a call at 979-532-9141 and we would be happy to talk with you about how we can help you!

Christmas Cards

If you read yesterday's post, you noticed we were saying how suprising it is that we've already been working on Denver bull banners for this year. Well, another one of those things that's quickly sneaking upon us is CHRISTMAS!

For the past several years we have done a ton of custom Christmas cards for our friends both in Wharton and for many of our club calf friends nationwide. One of our subsidiary businesses is Ranch House Invitations, in which we offer cards, party invitations, graduation invitations, shower invites, wedding invitations, save the dates, and much more.

We can work with you in a variety of ways. First, for the most affordable option, you can upload your own photos and order instantly online through our 2 catalog affiliations available here. You can have your photos ready, choose your design, upload, and order. It's easy and still very customizable.

The next option is to have RHD design your Christmas card from scratch. This option is a bit more expensive (averages about $2.50 per card) but gives you a ton of options like specialty cutout shapes, metallic finish, and more. For this option, just email us your photos and we will get to work on a custom design. For our clients in the Wharton area, we are happy to recommend any of our very talented local area photographers, or get one of our 2 staff photographers (Stacey or Joelynn) to take your photos for you for a small additional fee.

Here are a few examples of our cards from last year....

This was Rachel & Brandon's card, it was a custom design (of course with a Brahman on it) and was a 5x7 flat card with the shimmer finish.

The best card of the Wharton area for 2010!! This was the Gertson family card and it was a 5x5 tri-fold card. It included a shimmer finish, and we also did the family photography for this card.

Here's one we did for the Hoskins family of Beeville. They were running a little late, so they opted for a Happy New Year card.

The Locke family of Wharton used a 5x7 folded card so they could include a letter and recap from 2010. This was a great design that featured bragging rights on all of their wonderful grandkids.

John and Salina Locke of Wharton also sent out a 5x7 flat card with the shimmer finish. This card featured a custom poem written by John's sisters to announce the birth of their daughter in conjunction with their holiday card.

Another awesome design for 2010. This was Stacey's family card and it featured a 5x5 square design with a special scalloped cutout shape and shimmer metallic finish.

While this one is more ranchy, here's a custom card we created for the Scarmardo's to send out to their cattle industry clients. We can easily work up custom designs for any design preference. It doesn't always have to be red and green!

Call us today for pricing, 979-532-9141 or email rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com

Sire Promotion Packages

Can you believe it's already time to start thinking about sire promotion for 2012? Well, if it makes it seem any more real, we've already started on the promotions for two bulls headed to Denver. So it's definitely time.

As always we are offering a total package deal for sire promotions. We have offered this service for the past 6 years and it just makes the whole sire promotion project easy when working with one place to handle everything. And, in the spirit of competition, we think you will be very pleased with our pricing this year! We have worked hard to find top quality new vendors and 'beef up' our services so to speak to provide the most comprehensive sire promotion package we can offer. And, the pricing is actually LOWER than last year's pricing!

So, we can't divulge all the details, but if you have a bull to promote, you'll definitely want to give us a call!

RHD Partners with Showtimes Magazine

Ranch House Designs, Inc. is pleased to announce a new partnership with The Showtimes Magazine, a nationwide junior livestock publication owned by Brian, Lisa and Laurie Reid of Colorado. The Showtimes Jr. Livestock Magazine was established in February 2007. Celebrating their 5 year anniversary in spring 2012, the publication now has a circulation of just over 8,000.

Since RHD started in 1999, many people have asked us why we don't start a youth livestock magazine. There were three primary reasons we did not ever pursue this venture. First, we felt that the market already contained many credible show publications, including many that RHD maintains a close professional relationship with including The Showbox or Purple Circle magazine. Cherie Carrabba was my first "boss" in this field and continues to be a mentor to me. I would never in my life dream of starting a business to compete with the person that taught me the foundation of what I know.

Second, we enjoy the option of being selective on who we work with, and having a small enough client base to maintain our elite level of service and personal attention. We felt that if we were to pursue a monthly magazine, that our work would become too generic and that we would lose that exclusivity that people enjoy by working with us.  We like being able to choose what clients we work with, and being able to devote the extra time needed to make their projects the best.

Third, we have always believed that you pick a FEW services and be the ABSOLUTE BEST at providing that service....instead of providing mediocre service on 50 products. It's kind of the mentality of I'd rather have 5 of the best donor cows in the world than 500 sale barn cows.

However, we do feel that we are able to offer our clients incentives and benefits by forming strategic alliances with the best service providers in the industry. For example, we do not offer online sales but we enjoy recommending our clients to Live Auctions or Cattle in Motion. We do not offer livestock videos but we recommend folks like Maximum Exposure.

With all that being sald, we are very pleased to announce a new partnership between RHD and The Showtimes. Since 2005, RHD has worked very closely with this outstanding publication through web design, editorial, and advertising. Quality and integrity were the two biggest factors in our decision to align with this publication. We have admired the work of the Reid family for their excellence in junior livestock coverage, and also their business integrity. When browsing through their publication, you'll find page after page of motivational, uplifting, encouraging articles designed to instill good old fashioned American values into youth readers. We love it! The magazine is published 6 times a year, entirely in full color. All show results are in full color as well. Each issue contains several extremely interesting stores including youth spotlights, judges articles, and more.

Ranch House Designs, Inc. will represent The Showtimes Magazine and also frequently provides the magazine with editorial content and advertising collaboration. This new teamwork partnership also brings several benefits to Ranch House Designs clients. If you're a client, watch for our October mail out which will contain exciting details of this new venture! 

More than a web site...a web PRESENCE

While visiting with Victor Guerra of LaMuneca Cattle Company recently, we discussed how today businesses need more than just a web site, they need a WEB PRESENCE.

The days of just putting up a web site and then forgetting about it are over. With the trend towards more viral, constantly updated online material, it's time to really take a good look at your web presence and bump things up a level. And as always, RHD is here to help our customers.

First, yes, definitely you need a web site. That's a must. With the affordability, speed, and ease of getting a new web site going, this is a no brainer. Having a web site costs very little, especially when compared to print advertising. Your web site cost for one year will usually be at or less than what you pay for one full page color ad. Web sites are instantly updated, allow for unlimited photos, and unlimited updates.

In addition to just having a web site, the top marketers will use a total online presence, of which a web site is just one component. Besides a web site, here are some other tools to use for your online marketing efforts:

• A blog - These are currently the "cool" thing to add to a web site. Everyone has a blog! The best blogs out there are the ones that are very frequently updated. While a blog usually won't replace the need for a web site, it gives a lot of advantages. One, blogs are a lot more casual. You can post things on a blog that you would probably never post on your web site...like funny photos, quotes, text messages, pictures taken on your camera phone, videos taken on your phone, etc. Most people can also update their own blogs through the easy to use web-based blog software. You can actually even update your blog from your cell phone. Blog sites like http://www.blogger.com/ (the one we use) are free, and easy to set up. RHD can help you in this area by designing matching blog graphics to go hand in hand with your web site. We can even do the initial set up of your blog, have it all ready to go, then just turn you loose with it.
• A Facebook page - I swear any day now I figure that even my dad will get a facebook account. Everyone has them. Businesses should create a facebook page where friends and fans can like and share with your business. This is also free. Through your facebook page, you can also use facebook advertising, which is also extremely affordable and extremely targetted. For example, you can place a facebook ad to target everyone who lists "showing cattle" as a hobby. You can also target by states. So to take it even further, you could place a facebook ad that only appears to people from Texas, age 18 and under, who list showing cattle as a hobby. Again, while these pages are very easy to set up and maintain, sometimes you just don't have the time to do it, or have other priorities. This is where we can help once again. RHD can set up your facebook page for you, design custom graphics, then turn it over to you to handle the updates. And, if you don't even want to do the updates, we can do that for you too!
• A Twitter account - Twitter and Facebook are different, and it's important to understand that. To me, twitter is more news, information, and discussions with people that you most likely don't know, and never will know. For example, last week I re-tweeted a twitter post by Adam Levine of Maroon 5. Pretty sure if I asked to "friend" him I'd get a big IGNORE. But with twitter, you can follow, or be followed by, just about anyone in the world. For me, Facebook is more for connections with my friends that I actually know. Like know well enough to go to lunch together. My personal rule for accepting friends is that you have to be someone I know well enough to know to have a real live conversation in public. For my stock show friend invitations, my rule is that I would at least say "hi" to if we were standing in line together at the Louisville Freedom Hall concession stand.
• Patricipation in the online community - It's all about social interaction! So get involved! Don't be afraid to hit that "like" button in facebook, or to re-tweet something. Or better yet, post comments on some of your favorite blogs and join in on discussions on message boards. These are great ways to interact with others in the online comunity. Remember that comments should be relevant, useful, polite (even if you disagree with the posts), and not self-promotion.

Now of course, we're all strapped for time. And these four tools are just a few of the thousands of ways you can build your online presence. We recommend trying one or two out, until you feel comfortable with them, then maybe try adding more. As we always say, if you're going to put yourself out there on the web, you have to stay involved and stay current. Nothing is worse than a blog that hasn't been updated in a year. So, make the commitment, and give it a try. And remember, we're here to help along the way!

Time to start thinking e-mail blasts!

If you've visited the RHD home page lately, you'll notice the list just keeps on growing for upcoming sales. As RHD Rep Ashley Middleswarth said, though it doesn't feel like it, fall sale season is just around the corner. Maybe we'll get some cooler weather soon!

E-mail blasts are a must for any cattle producers with a sale this fall. Our e-mail blast list includes over 15,000 contacts who have voluntarily signed up for our services asking for information from RHD. And this list keeps growing every day. We take a great amount of pride in the professional way we offer e-mail blasts through RHD, including:

• We limit what can and cannot be sent out on our e-mail list. We realize how annoying constant spam can be, and that is why we only distribute e-mail blasts that are relevant and pertinent to our subscribers interests.
• We guard our list very carefully, and only allow our RHD customers to use it. As you all know customer loyalty and customer appreciation is #1 to us. Well I guess maybe 1A and 1B because Service is also #1. The only people that we allow to use our e-mail blast database are our own customers. Meaning, only the people we do a web site for or a print ad for. Some joe blow off the street can't call us up and get to use our list.  We feel this is just one of the many perks of being a RHD client.
• We carefully tailor what e-mail blasts go to who. Clearly we wouldn't send an email blast about a cattle sale to someone who's a pig breeder, or vice versa. This just goes back to our responsible list management and targetting.

We have also integrated social media coverage as a standard part of our e-mail blasts. We will tweet your email blast to all of our twitter followers and also post your blast on our facebook page, which currently has over 3,000 fans.

So, if you're an RHD client, and you want to take advantage of our highly successful e-mail blast service, give us a call at 979-532-9141 or e-mail rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com. If you're one of our many clients that we are already designing your sale advertising for....you can also take advantage of our bundling services to receive discounts on print+web+email blast work.

Search engine optimization workshop

About a month ago, all of us ladies here at RHD got super dorky high tech and attended a special workshop on search engine optimization. We were SO super dorky high tech, that we actually hired a SEO specialist to come down to our office for the day and give us in depth hands on training.

I had to laugh to myself, because when I first started doing web sites in 1999, it was so easy to submit sites to search engines. Basically there was this little button at the bottom of Yahoo's page that said "suggest a site" and bam, there you go, that's all you did. I remember spending a few nights a month just "suggesting a site" to Yahoo to help get all of our then Two Girls Web Design clients high up in the rankigs.

Well, as we learned in the search engine training....a lot has changed since then! All of us here at RHD were just mesmerized by how much we learned about search engine optimization. The best news for us is that the special consultant we hired complimented us on our great designs (duh) and let us know that our sites are being designed very efficiently for favorable placement in search engines.

But what we learned was so much more! The SEO specialist gave us tons of in depth information that totally helped train us in how to "optimize" sites for search engines. He also gave us a great resource for submitting sites to directories and gave us some very suprising information on what search engines favor and what they dislike. Some of this was actually shocking regarding purchasing links and stuff like that.

Now I'll be the first to admit, though we certainly learned quite a bit at the workshop, I still consider Jeff at cattle.com to be the livestock SEO guru! :) So we're not making that claim at all. But we definitely did learn a great deal of skills at this special workshop that can be of benefit to our clients.

With every site we do, we design the sites to be search engine friendly, and this is avilable at no charge to our clients. However we now are offering a premium search engine optimization service based on keyword analysis. It's an in depth process where we work with the clients one-on-one to optimize the site to an even higher level. If this is something you'd be interested in, let us know.

We should also disclaim that even though we are probably the second most knowledgable people about SEO in the livestock business (behind Jeff of course), that even this can't guarantee any certain ranking in a search engine. However if anyone has an aunt who works at Google, we'd like to talk to her, ha ha.

Cattlemen's Pocket Cards

Here's another recent addition to the RHD products....Cattlemen's Pocket Cards.

Now I should back up by saying that these really aren't "NEW"....but we'll call them new because we just started offering them to the public. Prior to today, we were designing them on a limited basis for our special friends and family.

My granddad has been using these pocket cards for probably 50 years, and he can't function on a daily basis without his "Wharton Livestock Auction" pocket card. I bet he uses 1000 a year from Billy Schwertner.

So I started printing some that say V8 Ranch for my dad a while back, and even got all the men on V8 Ranch these as a gift a while back.

Then last week while Travis Pembrook was down making his usual inspection of the V8 Shorthorn herd, he asked me if I would make some for him, since he loves my Dad's cards so much.

So here they are. These cards are black and white, fit perfectly in your front shirt pocket, and are on a heavier card stock type paper so they are great for jotting down notes in the cow pens.

We can do these for $150 for a set of 1000 cards....which should last a while unless you have someone like Sloan Williams who takes your cards. But with that said....these pocket cards make a great promo give-a-way because I promise you cattlemen will use these!

You can personalize the cards with anything you'd like, logo, name, address, phone #, web sites, etc. Call 979-532-9141 or email tricia@ranchhousedesigns.com if you want some.

Stickers

We're always on the lookout for new services we can offer our clients to help give their businesses the extra edge over others. Here is one of our products...STICKERS! These are great for all kinds of projects, and they are VERY affordable and come in bulk.

We can do all kinds of sizes depending on how big or small you need the stickers to be. If you have a retail business that does a lot of shipping -- you need some stickers! This little touch adds a lot of pizzazz to your gift wrapping....just wrap your products in colorful tissue paper then fasten with a sticker like this and you're looking good.

These stickers are also great for things like product labels, wine labels, decals and more. There is no limit to our imagination so let us help you do something cool.

As always if you'd like some info on this, just email our lovely project manager, tricia@ranchhousedesigns.com or our "retail product specialist" Christa - christa@ranchhousedesigns.com.

Stall Sign orders for Jr. Nationals

Have you noticed that RHD now offers stall signs and pedigree signs for your showstring? We started offering this in 2011 and so far this year we have done over 300 signs! The signs are affordably priced and are custom designed for you. For example, we can include your signature colors or logo like this one we did for Purple Reign Cattle....

Or, these we did for Oden Ranch...

We can also do special signs for ag chapters and 4-H show teams like this one for Boling FFA....

All of the signs above are the permanent signs that can be used for the entire life of your show animal...then after they are done you can hang them in your barns, in your office, etc. They are weather resistant and last a lifetime.

But, if you prefer the write on signs, we can do those too. Here is an example of a dry erase sign we made for Ganadera El Rosario. The signs are dry erase and they can re-use them over and over again...

So for everyone who's planning on going to Junior Nationals this summer or taking a big showstring to their state fair, give us a call. The signs start out at $30 per sign but the pricing gets cheaper if you order multiple signs. We can also do end panels and vinyl banners too. We'll need the Junior National sign orders by around June 1 for most of the shows, but can take them later for the shows held at the end of the summer.

Call us at 979-532-9141 or e-mail staceyf@ranchhousedesigns.com for more info.

Club Calf Special

Each year during this time we offer our "Club Calf Special" package which is a one-stop package designed for club calf producers or traders who are gearing up for summer and fall sales. Originally started by us like 10 years ago, there are tons of breeders who have used the Club Calf Special to jump start their advertising program and put their programs on the map in an affordable and easy way.

Here's the Club Calf Special:
-3 page web site design and maintenance for 1 year. Most club calf people use their 3 pages to be a home page, sale page, and winners page.
-1 page ad design, which most people use for their ad in the August Show Circuit
-Logo design
-250 business cards
-1 e-mail blast to promote your fall sale

The package deal is a flat rate of $1,000. If you purchased all of these individually the cost would be nearly $2,000 but since we can do all of the projects in conjunction with each other, we offer this special price.

This price is only valid for a limited time, and you do have to get your materials to us in a timely manner so we can start working on everything. So if you're ready to get started, e-mail tricia@ranchhousedesigns.com and let us get your projects going!

Pedigree and Stall Signs

This month we've been working on tons of stall signs and pedigree signs for lots of friends throughout the livestock business. This is a relatively new service we started offering at RHD, and I thought I'd share with you a little on how we got started on this.

For years, lots of people asked us if we could do pedigree signs, and we always referred them to our dear friend Paula Fuchs of KF Graphics. Paula's husband, Dean Fuchs, is my ag teacher from high school and just one of the people who made such a huge positive impact on my life, words could never explain. This fall I was visiting with Mrs. Fuchs at the La Muneca Field Day and she mentioned they were cutting back on doing stall signs because of both of her daughters graduating, the commitment, etc.

So after a little bit of investigating we began offering stall signs as a new service through RHD in December. So far in the past month we have done quite a bit of signs, for ranches, farms, FFA chapters, 4-H clubs, and individuals. Our pricing ranges from $20 to $50, depending on how many you order. We also offer dry-erase signs that can be re-used over and over again for different animals in your showstring.

If you'd like more info about these, email staceyf@ranchhousedesigns.com. If you need signs for Houston, please let us know by February 10th.

2011 Ad Contracts - Volume Discounts

We just started working on lots of ads for the January 2011 publications, hard to believe it's almost 2011!

If you are planning on running at least 6 ads in 2011, talk to us about volume discount pricing on RHD handling all of your print advertising needs. We offer two levels of bulk discounts for clients depending on the # of print ads you plan on using in 2011.

Our volume ad pricing range from 15% to 33% off from our regular pricing, as a way to reward those clients who do lots of business with us and use RHD for ALL of their print advertising needs.

If you're interested in learning more, talk to Rachel, Tricia or Stacey Forgason at 979-532-9141 and we'll be glad to discuss the contract pricing with you!

What we like to hear!

We got this email last week from Jeff Schroeder, who recently used RHD for an email blast for his site http://www.showcattle.com/

"Just wanted to say that blast was one of the highest ROIs we’ve had on a marketing campaign in a long time. It paid for itself in just under 48-hours and that doesn’t take future subscription renewals into account."

Then, we also just got this email from Katy Kemp, our contact with ABS Global who just started using RHD.

"Thank you and everyone at RHD for helping make these a success. This is the 6th (final) eBlast, but with the results we have seen we will most likely be using the list again this spring!"


Now that's what we like to hear!!!! If you aren't on our RHD mailing list, you can sign up from our facebook page (Join my List tab) or at http://www.ranchhousedesigns.com/ at the very bottom right hand corner of the page.

We take a lot of pride in our email marketing services. First off, we were one of the first in the business to offer this tool back when it was a new service. Secondly, we feel we have the best targetted email list in the show cattle business....and e-mail's like Jeff's affirm that. We currently have about 13,000 subscribers. All of our subscribers are voluntary, up to date addresses. After each e-mail blast we remove the bad addresses and bounced back emails so this is a very accurate and udpated count of the actual number of subscribers.

Our list grows daily. Literally. We average anywhere from 10-50 new people signing up each week for our email lists. We also have a strict policy against spam. Everyone who signs up for our list does so voluntarily, and can leave at any time. Because we hate useless spam just as much as the next person.

If you're on our list, you've also probably noticed that we have been sending out a few emails for ABS. They recently chose RHD for their sire marketing e-mail blasts. This year at Louisville Katy Kemp, one of their team members, told us they had already had several people stopping by the ABS booth to say they enjoyed getting the new email blasts on the ABS sires.

E-mail marketing is hot! You can reach nearly twice as many people as what many of the popular show cattle magazines have as subscribers.....for about 1/4 of the cost. E-mail blasts run from $150 to $250 depending on the amount of design work we need to do. If you have an ad or flyer already designed by us, or anyone else, you can send an RHD e-mail blast for $150. If we do a new design for you specifically for the e-mail blast, it's $250.

Plus, e-mail marketing is the fastest way to get your news out to a huge number of people at a very affordable cost.

The Show Text! I Like It!

Obviously this is nothing new, The Show Text has been around for quite a while. So I'm behind on the trends, I know, I know. During Louisville I really noticed the excellent coverage that The Show Text provided through Facebook and Twitter. Then over the Thanksgiving holiday, I really appreciated getting their posting of different sale results. So, this weekend I signed up. If you haven't really taken a look at this service, it's a great idea. It's $20/year. You sign up for what kind of news you want and then The Show Text will text you news, show results, sale results, etc. You get to customize what information you want, so you're not getting bombarded with text messages of stuff you're not interested in. For example, you can choose to get info on only specific breeds, or only show and sale results from a certain state, etc. It's really an innovative service, and so far I really like it.

I'd also like to just say how impressed I am with the innovation of The Show Text's creators. I'm pretty sure the founders of The Show Text are former junior livestock exhibitors, who came up with a really creative way to start a business that also provides a great service to all of us who love showing.

So check it out if you haven't......http://www.theshowtext.com/

Dr. Hesby's Book is Now Available!!

Hot off the press! The highly anticipated book "Big Hands, Big Heart" is ready! And how coincidental...just in time for Christmas! The form will soon be available on the A&M Animal Science web site but I went ahead and put it up here for a link in case anyone wanted to do some "pre Black Friday" shopping ha ha

http://www.ranchhousedesigns.com/Hesby/hesby-form.pdf

The book will be available to anyone making a contribution of $25 or more to the Howard Hesby Atrium Fund. All contributions of $25 or more will receive a copy of “Big Hands, Big Heart” a tribute to Dr. Hesby and can be claimed as a charitable contribution on an individual’s itemized tax return less $9.00 for the value of the book received. Additional copies of the book require an additional $25 donation.

Here is a preview of the book.....

On a side note, this is the first BOOK we've ever designed at Ranch House. It was fun and easy to do. So maybe we've found a new service to offer...book publishing :)