Image via Wikipedia

The deadline has closed for Best Holiday Browser Theme Contest. Thanks to all those that entered and good luck! It was a phenomenal list of entries and our judges are pouring over the submitted probably at the very moment you’re reading this.

The are some joyous and happy holiday Firefox themes and Internet Explorer themes. To get an idea of the range of themes available, visit our Gallery and search for Christmas or holiday.

So what’s next?

It’s only a short wait to see who made the list of finalists. The final 5 will be posted in our blog tomorrow around 9AM eastern on Saturday December 17. A poll widget will also be in the blog post that contain the finalists. The theme with the most votes at the end of the day on December 22 will take first prize – a new iPad 2! Official announcement will be made on December 23.

Meet the Judges

Mike Earley

A design veteran with experience covering critical skills across the Web Design space: Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Usability Testing and User Research, Project Management, Business Analysis, Requirements Gathering. If it’s design, he’s done it, and done it well. You’ll find Mike on Twitter @earley5star or can find more about his services at www.5sn1.com.

Dan Rockwell

Dan’s talents span video production and animation, design, and marketing.  He heralds from the world of design research at Lextant where he’s Tool Czar and key Futurist.  He also explores the horizon of “what if and why not” through rapid prototypes and technology exploration. You can find Dan on Twitter @floozyspeak or get a rapid prototype of your latest idea at Big Kitty Labs.

Megan Rhoades

A senior at Columbus College of Art and Design, Megan is majoring in Illustration with an emphasis on Advertising and Graphic Design, and minoring in Art Therapy. She’s an all around talented individual and will be looking for a full-time gig in summer 2012. Get a start on interviewing her now. See her Linkedin profile or Portfolio and help get her career off to a positive start.

“Our team are avid Twitter users, and we just felt there wasn’t a quick, easy and light solution for us to Tweet quickly and utilize Twitter’s functionality without using a third-party application or software that can be clunky and inefficient,” remarked Patrick Murphy, CEO of Brand Thunder. “This theme is aesthetically pleasing and allows you to Tweet and access Twitter quickly and easily right from your browser.”

The TweetTheme provides several features that Twitter users will enjoy.

• The “Tweet This” button allows users to immediately Tweet a website or webpage they are reading to their Twitter Followers with one click, no longer having to navigate to their Twitter homepage.
• The “TweetTheme Sidebar” allows users to show and post to their Twitter stream in the sidebar while they surf or work on other websites.
• Search Twitter’s real-time feed directly from your browser with the Twitter search integrated right in your browser.
• View your Twitter stream “Tweets” with a scrolling Twitter stream on the top right-hand side of the theme.

The TweetTheme aims to help Twitter users use Twitter more effectively with quick access to Tweeting and viewing their stream. “I honestly found myself Tweeting more than I have in the past with this theme,” said lead theme developer Mike Kaply.

This theme is in the line of many unique browser themes Brand Thunder has developed since its inception in 2007. Their Weather Browser theme changes design to reflect local weather conditions. A sunny day will show a bright sunny sky background and a rain forecast displays a darker rain and cloud mix. Their NASA Browser theme changes design each week with a selection from NASA’s image of the day.

View the entire gallery of browser themes or create your own theme using the new browser theme tool developed by Brand Thunder.

Image via Wikipedia

What’s it take to grow your user base and build awareness for a business partner? CBS College Sports and Fathead found using the browser theme for marketing promotions is a great way to convert users and deepen engagement.

CBSSports.com College Network is a leader in delivering web services, e-commerce, streaming and mobile services for college and university’s athletics websites. Fathead is a leader in sports and entertainment wall graphics. Nice set up for bringing companies together that serve similar audiences.

The results – SPECTACULAR!

KILLER CTR

Online banner advertising CTR (click through rates) run below a tenth of one percent. Email CTR will get you roughly five percent but you have to factor in the 23% open rate. And Electronic Arts was apparently thrilled with the 11% engagement they received with their first batch of Twitter ads. Marketing Magazine described EA’s Twitter ads as exceeding all expectations.

The results for the CBS and Fathead promotion were over 60%. Yes, almost six times better than the engagement that EA received with their Twitter ads.

STELLAR CONVERSION

Of course getting users to the front door of an offer is one thing, but can you convert? Depending on your method of marketing promotion and what you’re asking of the user whether it’s a registration or purchase will make your conversion rates vary widely. For Fathead, their goal of contest entry and email opt-in netted them 43% conversion. I’m proud to see marketers across the Internet are getting their expectations exceeded.

You can find out more about the promotion on the CBSSports.com website and their article: Contest grows CBS Sports user base and gains awareness for Fathead. You might find some of your own ideas for using a browser theme to engage your audience.

Image via CrunchBase

Patrick Murphy recently did a Brand Thunder interview with Shoestring Ventures, The Startup Bible Blog. One of their questions was “What other web-based products would you recommend to entrepreneurs, business owners or freelancers?” I realized the recommendations fell into categories discussed in our blog post about Sales Strategy: Browser Theme – Hunter vs. Farmer.

Given that start, here’s a short list of tools useful to that category of startup, small or medium business or freelancers. Tools to help you and your clients. Add your favorites in the comments.

Tools for Business Development

FREE LinkedIn.  Using LinkedIn has been a great tool to farm for contacts and actual names with targeted prospects

FREE Jigsaw for sure.  Jigsaw has been a great source for getting the contact information after you’ve identified who to contact, and sometimes even to identify who to contact.

CHEAP Less Annoying Software.  A great CRM to manage contacts and sales process.  Very simple, not overwhelming, and easy to use. Less Annoying is tailored for smaller businesses.

FREE Follow Up Then.  This is a unique email-reminder service.  When sending out emails, Bcc @followupthen.com and get an email reminder to follow up with that recipient.  Example, 2weeks@followupthen.com will send a reminder email two weeks after the original email.

VARIES Smart Phone.  This sounds silly, but making yourself available and reachable at all times throughout the day has been key.  Responsiveness to emails has been very beneficial as well.  When a desired brand emails me, I want to email them back within minutes while I have their attention.  If I am targeting West Coast and they want to chat at 4pm pacific, making the call at 7pm my time is essential.  I could be out of the office, some emails me back a day after I emailed them, they say they have a few minutes to chat now, you want to do it.  Having a smart phone makes all of that possible.

Tools for Relationship Management

FREE Facebook. Sure, this is an obvious choice, but ignore it at your own peril. This is where the time online is spent and the more easily and seamless your customers can interact here with you, the more they will.

FREE Hootsuite. This is a great tool for managing your social presence, especially for Twitter. The free product has served my needs well, having tried the Pro version it seemed to have enough inconsistencies and not enough value for me to stick with it.

FREE Google Alerts. An easy way to keep aware of discussions about you and your brand across the Interwebs. Set up your account to track your company name, your name, Twitter handles, top keywords and refine as you see what works for your business. You can also set up different time frames based on urgency of information, which can help manage information overload.

FREE Conduit. I went into this some in my last post. It’s incredibly valuable to extend your content beyond your web site and engage audiences where they are. Conduit does an excellent job at this by allowing you to easily drop your most compelling content or functionality into apps that you can extend across their ecosystem of mobile, browser add-ons and more.

FREE BT:Engage. The browser remains king of meaningful Internet engagement and an interactive browser theme provides a huge advantage of maintaining awareness and sparking engagement with your audience.

That’s the quick tour of my list. What’s on yours?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Think of widgets as little single-serving pieces of your web content – easy to pull from your web site and put them wherever they can best boost traffic to your web site.  When you first go to create your own browser theme at BT:Engage, you’ll discover a features tab called Widgets.  You’ll also uncover how powerful a browser theme can be at increasing traffic and visits to your web site.

Here’s what you need to know.In this early stage of BT:Engage, you’ll find only a couple options under the Widgets tab, but think of this as the 20% of features that result in 80% of the value to you and the users of your browser theme. More is on the way to get you the full 100% of value.

Widgets

The term “widget” had its heyday a few years back when Clearspring, Widgetbox and Konfabulator (acquired by Yahoo!) were all the rage. “Apps” is the current hot phrase, but the two are essentially the same thing – an application, or a component of an interface, that enables a user to perform a function or access a service.

What a widget or app forces you to do is compartmentalize the value of your web site. Most web sites are a broad stroke trying to address a lot of business objectives. They try to interest, inform and sell. With the singular focus of a widget, you drill down to a individual value proposition and deliver it to your audience. These are the elements of content your users can’t resist, and by encapsulating them and extending that content beyond your web site, you help drive traffic back to your web site.

Increase Your Web Traffic

You’ve probably already started to think about your content in high-level categories that are important to your users. It’s your site navigation. You probably have sections of news, galleries, community, blogs and more. These are the natural breakdown of toolbar buttons to include in your theme. As you do this, keep a few things in mind:

• Limit yourself to no more than five buttons.
• Keep the names short, example: Gallery, News, Shop.
• If you have a lot of categories, pick the five most popular or most important and skip the “one-time reads” like your About page.
• Don’t forget to include a link to your affiliate shop or one of your e-commerce destinations.

You also need a news feed. You can easily find a ton of discussion on why Content is King. This is a mixture of keeping your audience interested and coming back to your site, and the search engines seeing you as an active and vibrant web site worthy of pointing searchers to. The more new information you create or offer, the more reason your audience has to return to your web site.

Your news feed can easily be added to your browser theme and will quickly become a large driver of traffic back to your site. Think of it as a persistent invitation and compelling reason for your users to return.

Facebook and Twitter

The next feature we’ll be adding are Facebook and Twitter icons you can add to your browser theme toolbar. We’ve seen our partner themes drive a lot of traffic to their social media presence on Facebook and Twitter using the same method. It’s an easy win for your browser theme and one we’ll turn on soon.

From the user experience, the themes offer the ability to customize the exact pages those icons point to. For example, as the default URL, point to your  Facebook icon to your site’s Facebook page (like http://facebook.com/brandthunder). Many users will be fine with this experience. Others will want to go straight to their homepage and they can change their browser theme preferences to point to Facebook.com instead. The flexibility boosts retention of your theme by giving the experience each user wants, whether its the theme as you designed it or a more personalized one that they fit to their unique needs.

Your Most Desired Widget

What follows the Facebook and Twitter additions is up to you. Post your comments to let us know the widgets you need most to increase traffic to your web site and we’ll get those added to BT:Engage as well.

Image by brandthunder via Flickr

Bring the magic of a Starry Night Sky to your browser along with a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card with our Starry Night Browser theme!

One lucky person who downloads our popular Starry Night theme and “Likes” from our post on Facebook or downloads and shares on Twitter  will win!  Fire Fox and IE users check out theme at http://pages.brandthunder.com/starrynightpersona@brandthunder.com/download

REMEMBER! You’ve got to Like or Share to Win! Yes, having the magical night sky theme on your browser and easy access to all your favorite social sites, weather, and top news videos is already a prize, but to win the $25 Amazon Gift Card, you’ve got to like our post Facebook wall or tweet it on Twitter.

Good luck!

The Endeavor has returned, but you don’t have to stop getting your space fix!  This week’s Theme Thursday browser and your chance to win $25 Amazon Gift Card is our NASA Browser theme!  One lucky person who downloads the NASA theme and “Likes” from our post on Facebook or downloads and shares on Twitter will win!  Firefox users check out the theme at http://pages.brandthunder.com/nasathemespersona@brandthunder.com/download.   Sorry IE and Chrome users, we’ll get you into the fun soon.

REMEMBER! You’ve got to Like or Share to Win!

Yes, you’re winning by the shear fact that you have a super cool NASA theme on your browser with 3 choices of images, the latest news, videos and photos from NASA and easy access to all your favorite social sites and weather! But to win the $25 Amazon Gift Card, you’ve got to like our post Facebook wall or tweet it on Twitter.

Good luck!

Avast ye scurvy dogs!  Weigh anchor and set course for a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card with our Pirate Browser theme!  One lucky person who downloads the Pirate theme and “Likes” from our post on Facebook or downloads and shares on Twitter  will win!  Firefox users check out the theme at http://pages.brandthunder.com/piratepersona@brandthunder.com/download/ff . Sorry IE and Chrome users, we’ll get you into the fun soon.

REMEMBER! You’ve got to Like or Share to Win!

Yes, you’re winning by the shear fact that you have a super cool pirate theme on your browser and easy access to all your favorite social sites and weather! But to win the $25 Amazon Gift Card, you’ve got to Like our post on our Facebook wall or tweet it on Twitter.

Good luck!

Image by brandthunder via Flickr

This week’s browser theme, that will result in a quick $25 Amazon Gift Card for one lucky winner, is our tribute to the boys of summer – the Baseball browser theme. Firefox and Internet Explorer users will find the theme at http://pages.brandthunder.com/baseball/download. Sorry Chrome users, we’ll get you into the fun soon.

REMEMBER! You’ve got to Share to Win! Yes, you’re winning by the shear fact that this theme includes a team selector, baseball news and scores along with a sidebar for the latest news!  But to win the $25 Amazon Gift Card, you’ve got to post it to your Facebook wall or tweet it on Twitter.

Good luck!

At BrandThunder.com, we love creating uniquebrowser themesfor Firefox, IE, and Chrome, and we hope you have been enjoying them as much as we have. We’re going to have a little fun each week and would love for you to join us.

Each Thursday, browser theme enthusiasts will be provided a new theme to try out on their browser. In exchange, we will provide a $25 Amazon gift card to one random browser theme fan who downloads the specified theme and shares it on Facebook or Twitter. It’s as easy as that. Download & Share!

Each Thursday, we will announce the theme of the week on our blog athttp://brandthunder.com/blog/with details on where to download it.

How to Enter “Theme Thursdays” from Brand Thunder:

• Visit ourBlogto Find the Featured Theme
• Download the Theme
• Share on Facebook and/or Twitter using our Share button after the download.
• One person will be randomly selected to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and Brand Thunder will notify within 3 days.
• Remember:Users MUST share in order to be eligible

Good luck and we hope to see you every Thursday for Theme Thursdays at BrandThunder.com!

You’ll find this contest discussed, along with a lot of other fun stuff, at these fine sites:

• http://www.winprizesonline.com/contests
• http://www.sweepsadvantage.com/ – Free Giveaways and Contests
• http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/
• http://www.contesthound.com/
• http://www.contestbee.com
• CashNet Sweepstakes