ArtsHacker's Super Simple Guide To Mastering Transactional Emails Part 1 by Drew McManus

Email marketing is great, no doubt about it. But that should only be one of your primary email oriented points of contact and groups that focus solely on email marketing are missing out on e…

Does This JPG Make Me Look Fat? The Thinking Manager's Shortcut To Image Optimization by Drew McManus

Page load speeds make the difference between making or losing online ticket sales. They also impact overall user experience to the point where an otherwise good looking website seems old and…

Let Someone Else Help You Look Like A Genius by Drew McManus

In the wake of Samantha Teter's ArtsHacker article about what to avoid when creating your resume, it seems fitting to offer up some resources that can let even those with zero design skills …

Doing Wrong Things The Right Way by Drew McManus

Would you mind if I'm frank for a moment? Sometimes you have to do things in a way that you know isn't the way they could or should be done but due to reasons above your pay grade, that's th…

Turning Your Google Analytics Data Into Reports Has Never Been Easier by Drew McManus

On 5/25/2016 Google launched a free version of their data visualization tool, called Data Studio, which makes it super easy to turn Google Analytics (GA) data into traditional and real-time …

Looking For Some Nonprofit Compensation Resources? by Drew McManus

Figuring out your value as an arts manager is difficult in a field where budgets vary almost as much as the process boards use to determine compensation policies. Fortunately, it doesn’…

Looking For Some Companion Data To The 2015 Arts Industry Digital Benchmark Study? by Drew McManus

Earlier in the month, Ceci Dadisman pointed everyone in the direction of Capacity Interactive’s 2015 Arts Industry Digital Benchmark Study. If you found that data useful, then you s…

Are You Using The "Ugliest Color In The World" For Your Designs? by Drew McManus

Few things stir emotions and spirited shop talk like color palettes. It's one of those topics that draws experts and novices alike so when someone comes around declaring they have deduced th…

Pop Quiz: Who Is The Largest Employer Of Full-Time Musicians In The U.S.? by Drew McManus

Whether you're home all day enjoying the holiday with family and friends or your organization is putting on an event today, try to take a few moments to remember the reason for the holiday. …

Let's Talk About Lighting by Drew McManus

With 4k video now a common feature in most current generation smartphones, traditional impediments to making quality videos (like expensive digital cameras) are rapidly disappearing. But jus…

Did You Know Google Started Providing Individual User Interaction Data? by Drew McManus

At the beginning of April, 2016 Google quietly rolled out a new feature inside Google Analytics (GA) that takes the first step in a direction they've resisted traveling but marketers and met…

Google's Project Fi Could Be An Arts Manager's New Best Friend by Drew McManus

Using your personal cell phone for work in no fun. But that's the reality for most arts managers inside a field where having a chair with four legs of equal length is a mid-career milestone!…

Here Are Some Secret Weapons That Will Get Rid Of Frustrating Copy/Paste Formatting Problems With Online Content by Drew McManus

Are you responsible for managing your organization's online content? If so, then you likely know the pain that comes with copy/paste formatting problems. You copy text from a source file but…

New: Guest Author Archive! by Drew McManus

Following the success of our inaugural guest author post from Capacity Interactive's Erik Gensler on 4/8/2016, we're very happy to announce that we have more authors in store! Expanding o…

Can't Afford Custom Reporting Tools? Then Take A Look At This Option From Zapier. by Drew McManus

There are some really terrific turn-key products to use for creating a wealth of custom reports not to mention an ever-growing list of providers capable of creating custom reports for dedica…

Level Up Your Logo Design by Drew McManus

Is logo design something you love to hate? Serving as a crown jewel for your branding, it shows up in nearly everything you do but how many organizations consider responsive web design stand…

Need A Fast And Easy Way To Check For Broken Links? by Drew McManus

Among the numerous mind-numbing tasks related to maintaining online content is checking a page for broken links. Fortunately, there are some developer tricks I can share that will help you c…

Master Responsive Web Design With Chrome's Device Mode RELOADED by Drew McManus

Along with death and taxes, you can be certain that Goggle will update the integrated tools inside its Chrome browser. One of the latest updates includes enhancements to their device emulato…

Three Ways You Can Prevent Frustrating Design Problems When Working With Portrait And Landscape Images by Drew McManus

One common frustration when creating web content is trying to fit portrait aspect ratio photos into a landscape aspect ratio container, such as a landing page slider or something like a s…

How To Create A Google Account The Right Way by Drew McManus

Show of hands: how many of you out there use an employee specific email address for your organization's Google account? That's what I thought. Let's learn why that's not really a great idea …

That Time When You Tried To Write A Powerful Headline But Failed by Drew McManus

Even for seasoned professionals, writing powerful and effective headlines isn't always second nature. In a field where so many segments have witnessed a dramatic shift in marketing nomenclat…

Using The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine To Improve User Experience by Drew McManus

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which archives screencaps of your website, has been around for some time and it's just as useful now as ever. Sure, it's fun to see how some of the cr…

I'm Drew McManus, ArtsHacker Editor-In-Chief. This Is How I Get Things Done. by Drew McManus

When your business covers everything from data analysis, to communication, to programming and design, it is easy to get overwhelmed with stuff to get those jobs done. At one point in time, m…

An Arts Manager's Guide To Combating Ghost Referral Spam In Google Analytics by Drew McManus

Among the many types of spammers that have cropped up over the course of the last year, one of the fastest growing variations is Ghost Referral Spammers (GRS) targeting your Google Analytics…

Begin Thinking About User Experience As Your Brand by Drew McManus

Does your organization still design print material first then use that as the basis for your online design? If so, you’re not only behind the marketing curve, you’re losing groun…

Get Rid Of These Three Common Design And Content Mistakes Once And For All by Drew McManus

It isn't as though arts managers have loads of time to stay current on the latest trends and best practices for web design and user experience. Fortunately, that’s what you have ArtsHa…

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me A (Font) Match by Drew McManus

For many performing arts orgs, January means you're knee deep into next season’s design stage and for those of you who do your own design work, finding complementary font combos can…

10 Resolutions Every Arts Manager Should Make For Better Data Driven Decisions In 2016 by Drew McManus

2016 is the year for ridding your institution of as much HiPPO decision making as possible. Even if you aren't familiar with the acronym, HiPPO stands for Highest Paid Person's Opinion, we'v…

Happy Holidays From Everyone At ArtsHacker! by Drew McManus

ArtsHacker's (Really) Last Minute Gift Guide For Arts Managers by Drew McManus

It's December 23rd and the staff office party is in four hours but you still haven't picked up a Secret Santa gift. No worries, we've got you covered with a list of easy to purchase items yo…

If You Use MailChimp RSS Campaigns You're Going To Want This Information by Drew McManus

Recently, email marketing provider MailChimp added a new option to their RSS campaigns that aims to solve a long (long) standing shortcoming in their service by way of how they handle images…