Articles

April 15, 2024 by Ben Holbrook

Email Marketing has grown to become one of the most effective tools in all businesses no matter the size. Marketing through email allows businesses to not only connect with their customers and prospects in a very cost effective and efficient way but to promote their business' services and products as well.

February 15, 2024 by Ryan Trask

We have some exciting news to share - we are making some MAJOR upgrades in 2024! We will be migrating our content management system (The 3plains Portal) and all of our internal and client websites to a new, updated server on a new web platform.

January 20, 2024 by Ryan Trask

We're making some changes in 2024 and we will be ending our email partnership with Rackspace. We have been a reseller partner with Rackspace dating back to 2009, but unfortunately the amount of SPAM, phishing and junk mail has gotten completely out of hand.

May 15, 2023 by Ryan Trask

How to have a successful trade show weekend; from sales, to lead tracking, to your booth.

May 03, 2023 by Ryan Trask

30 logos were tough to pick from our large portfolio of deer hunting logos, so I narrowed them down to logos that had a whitetail or mule deer silhouette, rack, European mount, typical or untypical rack and stayed away from the combination deer hunting logos. We will follow up in a few months with our combo deer logos.

May 01, 2023 by Ryan Trask

Check out 25 different upland hunting logos from 3plains. We have custom designed everything from a simple outline of a pheasant to detailed / realistic birds - the possibilities are endless.

April 12, 2023 by Katie Zeitler

Email Marketing has grown to become one of the most effective tools in all businesses no matter the size. Marketing through email allows businesses to not only connect with their customers and prospects in a very cost effective and efficient way but to promote their business’s services and products as well. 

March 24, 2023 by Ryan Trask

A client called 3plains looking for brand overhaul along with a logo re-design, trade show booth design, marketing brochures and business cards. Let's take a look at the re-brand.

March 24, 2023 by Ben Holbrook

Do Google Ads or PPC Work For Hunting & Fishing Lodges? Absolutely! Google Ads, formally known as Google AdWords, is ideal for seasonal businesses like hunting and fishing lodges.

March 20, 2023 by Ben Holbrook

Is attending a sports show a good investment for hunting or fishing lodges & outfitters?

As with many things, it depends. But for most lodges and outfitters, there are more productive ways to invest your marketing dollars.

Attending an outdoor convention like Dallas Safari Club or SCI requires a sizable investment, which normally makes it difficult to get a return on your investment. You need to purchase booth space, booth materials and furniture, pay for travel, meals and lodging, etc. Not to mention the time you and your staff spend sitting in a booth for 3 or 4 days.

At 3plains, we specialize in digital marketing strategies that require less investment of your time and marketing dollars, with higher returns. A digital marketing campaign also offers you the ability to track results in a way that shows exactly how much it is benefitting your business, whereas results from expos and conventions tend to be hard to quantify.

October 18, 2022 by Ben Holbrook

When you have a marketing company such as 3plains set up and manage your Google Ads account, people often wonder how the payment and billing process will work. Google Ads has two forms of payment methods that can be set up: monthly invoicing and automatic payments. For 3plains managed accounts, we recommend using the automated payment method. All 3plains accounts are set up with this payment method.

June 17, 2022 by Ryan Trask

3plains has partnered with Rustic River Media to bring you only the best in outfitter marketing videos production. Rustic River Media's brings passion, detail and commitment to investment. Rustic River Media is a Texas based video production company that specializes in producing television commercials, web videos, documentary films and more.

May 25, 2022 by Ryan Trask

Ep. 61 - Video, Photography, & the Web with Ben Holbrook - On this episode of The Filming with Josh Podcast, host Joshua Milligan welcomes Ben Holbrook of 3plains Outdoor Marketing. As a Google Ads certified PPC expert, Ben has a background as a hunting consultant as well as in outdoor marketing, website design, and search engine optimization. Today, Ben works with 3plains as a marketing partner who works primarily with hunting outfits and fishing guides to help them design & manage websites as well as run Google ad campaigns along with numerous other marketing tactics.

March 24, 2022 by Ryan Trask

As a website company building residential real estate websites and working in the hunting, outdoors and fishing space, we are able to understand and help market your name, brand, brokerage company or numerous websites you may have.

September 10, 2021 by Ben Holbrook

Almost everyone has a mobile phone and keeps it within arm’s reach throughout the day. 90% of all texts are also read within the first 5 minutes, making text marketing a powerful tool to reach your audience. SMS marketing is also permission-based. You’re only communicating to a highly targeted group of people who really care about your business and what it has to say.

December 11, 2020 by Ben Holbrook

As a 3plains client, we feel it’s important to do our best to keep you informed about issues that can arise with your website, marketing or email. Our website platform is very secure, but as with any website platform, there are times when spam does get through.

November 16, 2020 by 3plains

Building and launching a new website requires a lot of different things, and for the hunting, fishing, and outdoors industry, photography is arguably the most important requirement. All too often we have clients approach us for a new website without any good photography. We have some tips for all you guides and outfitters out there to help you take the types of photos that will really enhance your website, and will truly show off what you have to offer.

September 24, 2020 by Ben Holbrook

Why Are Reviews Important for Small Businesses - On the surface the answer is pretty obvious. Reviews give prospects a view of whether or not your business does a good job. 3rd party reviews like Google or Facebook are impartial and add additional weight, as the business owner has no control over what reviews are displayed.

Reviews increase search rankings directly and indirectly.

Reviews build authority for your business and website, helping to increase your rankings in search.

Reviews can also increase click through, website traffic, and other ranking factors that can improve search rankings, and more importantly, conversions.

August 06, 2020 by Ryan Trask

This entry begins with sharing the pain felt by so many small business owners who decide to assume the risk that comes with entrusting a friend, peer, client, colleague, or "friend of a friend's kid who went to college for web design" to manage the overall digital strategy for marketing their business on the internet.

June 15, 2020 by Ben Holbrook

Email marketing is one of the most effective sales and communication tools for small businesses. From hunting and fishing lodges to dog breeders, sending an e-newsletter is a cost-effective way to communicate with current customers and qualified prospects.

May 01, 2020 by Ryan Trask

I have written in the past on postal mail domain name scams and postal mail website backup scams. We get clients asking us if these scam letters are legitimate at least a handful of times a month. My answer is usually the same to customers. What is the name of the company that sent the letter?

January 31, 2020 by Ryan Trask

Searchengineland.com reported back on January 13th that Google was rolling out a new core update - the first core update for 2020. Google generally now rolls out these algorithmic updates every few months or so. Now that the Google January 2020 core update is mostly rolled out, several data providers are reporting what they found with this Google search update. All of the data providers agree that this core update was a big one and impacted a large number of web sites.

August 23, 2019 by Ryan Trask

We’ve all witnessed it on social media. Typically observed in the middle of the year once Spring hunting and trade show seasons have come to an end, and outfitters have had time to begin filling out their schedules for the upcoming Fall & Winter hunting seasons. If you're still unclear with where we are going with this, please reference the screen shot image that is featured with this introduction.

May 03, 2019 by Ben Holbrook

3plains is honored to announce a partnership with ORVIS® Endorsed Lodges, and will honor a 20% discount on all custom website design and marketing packages.

April 29, 2019 by Ben Holbrook

This may seem obvious but if you search for your ads, STOP DOING IT & do not click on them. You are depleting your ad budget and hurting your quality score, which will increase your cost per click. When you click on your own ad, without spending a significant amount of time on your website or close the window, it hurts the quality score of your Google Ads account and the Ad Rank for your ads.

April 24, 2019 by Ben Holbrook

The great thing about Google Ads is the ability to quickly get your products seen on the first page of Google. A Google Ads account can be set up in one day and your product ads can be showing on the top of the front page in search the next day, or even that afternoon.

April 09, 2019 by Ryan Trask

When Yelp went public in 2012, the popularity of the review site was quickly growing and its stock soared. But it’s been a rocky road since then as advertisers fled the platform and as competition has increased from Google, Facebook and others. Watch the 12 minute video to hear the story of Yelp and learn why the company has lost its 5-star rating.

March 21, 2019 by Ryan Trask

Some days I seriously feel like I'm Fred Jones tracking down a ghost with my ol' pal Shaggy (A.J. Davidson) and Scooby-Doo rollin' in the Mystery Machine. I am surprised by the amount of businesses running in the dark about where or what is going on with their domain name or website host. Most small businesses trust their website company, consultant, buddy, webmaster, or whatever you call it.

March 15, 2019 by Ryan Trask

Usually we build a logo for a client, we ship the final logo designs off and that's that. However, Adam & Amber Traylor of Hunt to Harvest were so excited about their new brand, that they were gracious enough to send us sample hats to the 3plains team. I thought that was pretty cool of Adam to do, as I think that shows a level of gratitude above and beyond the client relationship.

February 01, 2019 by Ryan Trask

The Google+ social media network never really took off, and never earning the buzz that was once forecasted for it. The main areas of the site that flourished and grew in user engagement were Photos, Communities and Collections. A personally believe a large majority of the users didn't even know what the hell the network even was. Either way, goodbye Google+ and I'm glad. Another terrible social media product that ended up like MySpace.

December 21, 2018 by Ryan Trask

Our usual phone call with a new/current client is a comment about how is my competition achieving rankings and how can I achieve the same thing?

December 05, 2018 by Ryan Trask

Search is the number one source of external traffic for content sites, driving 34.8 percent of site visits in 2017, compared to 25.6 percent from social.

November 21, 2018 by Ryan Trask

Have you ever wondered what makes a responsive website different or more usable? Let's look at a few real world examples and view videos on how a few websites function and break down.

November 10, 2018 by Ryan Trask

One week after the 2018 South Dakota pheasant opener, 3plains was contracted for a website redesign, content refresh and complete overhaul of the photos on the Dakota Hot Spots website.

October 10, 2018 by Ryan Trask

We have been pretty busy here during Q3 at 3plains, so I figured I would at least post a good article. I read a variety of SEO, marketing and industry related online publications and this point jumped out at me and I thought was quite relevant to 3plains customers - A recent survey reported that less than half of all small businesses have an SEO budget.

July 23, 2018 by Ryan Trask

3plains is welcoming our latest and last month's website customers. The summer has been hot with new websites thanks to 3plains. In the months of June & July we have launched over 15 websites, almost two a week, but we're just getting started giving our customers sleek new mobile friendly websites.

July 04, 2018 by Ryan Trask

Wordpress now powers 30% of the web according to data from web technology survey firm W3Techs. This equates to tens of millions of websites and being such a popular CMS makes it an enticing target for hackers, especially when all its code is available to the public, and free of charge.

June 09, 2018 by Ryan Trask

The fact is, Google has switched to a mobile-first index, because Google users are using Mobile phones more than their desktop computers. It's just that simple. Look at your friends, family and colleagues. How are they viewing websites, shopping online and what devices are they using?

May 17, 2018 by Ryan Trask

3plains is proud to make a sizable donation to the Heroes and Horses non-profit organization. Our friends at 8150 Advisors reached out to us and we were happy to join the network.

March 05, 2018 by Ryan Trask

During the logo design process back and forth, our designers are able to work with our clients to figure out what clients like and what they don't like. Here's a great example of South Reiser Ranch on a few of the details that they wanted.

February 16, 2018 by Ryan Trask

I recently had a new customer tell me his social media was getting handled by a professional social media company and wanted to know if it was worth the money. I said I'd take a look and give my opinion.

December 24, 2017 by Ryan Trask

Those of you who know me well know I am a guy who keeps things close to my chest, but as we close out 2017, I want to take a moment to reflect on 2017 and give some thanks.

November 10, 2017 by 3plains

Is your website mobile-friendly? Just because you can pull it up on your phone doesn't mean it is. Here's what you need to know.

July 26, 2017 by Ryan Trask

In talking with our customers over the years, I find a common problem is overbuying domain names, running multiple websites, or buying domain name privacy options which is really unnecessary.

May 19, 2017 by Ryan Trask

We have a lot of custom logo design projects we are constantly working on. Here are 30 examples of custom combo big game logos by 3plains.

May 03, 2017 by Ryan Trask

This is by far the most common question and/or statement we get both from current customers and potential customers. Clients as me all the time why isn't my website showing up in Google on the first page anymore? It's at this point I have to ask a series of questions and even ask what exact terms they are even searching or that they feel they need to rank for.

March 30, 2017 by Ryan Trask

According to official Google statements, more than 50 percent of search queries globally now come from mobile devices and could possibly be up to 60 percent. This begs the question, if your website isn't mobile, why haven't you converted it to mobile / reponsive yet?

March 20, 2017 by Ryan Trask

Each year, Google changes its search algorithm around 500–600 times. While most of these changes are minor, Google occasionally rolls out a major algorithmic update that affects search results in significant ways. This last major Google update dubbed Fred appears to be one of those major Google algorithmic updates.

December 22, 2016 by 3plains

Designing for the web is a rollercoaster ride of fads and technology. Every time someone comes up with some new trick with HTML5, or CSS3, or even a javascript library everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon to “keep up with everyone else”. Here’s the problem with that. The latest fads don’t work for everyone. New languages and new technology aren’t always better. The old adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” rings truer than ever these days.

November 10, 2016 by 3plains

How can I properly paste text into the textarea when I edit my web page?

October 02, 2016 by Ryan Trask

Has your SEMRush, SEOMoz, Google Analytics Account, or other Tracking Software been bouncing around here in the last several weeks? Well, there is possibly a reason for that - Google Penguin 4.0.

September 29, 2016 by Ryan Trask

We usually have multiple projects going at once and I'm one of the multiple 3plains employees who are working on any given project at one time. Typically I'm involved with the setup, the launch and the search engine marketing side of projects. For this project, my employee had noted in the initial project ticket that when this new client had signed on, that his rankings were not what they used to be - in fact "terrible" was the word used multiple times.

September 14, 2016 by 3plains

Responsive Design. A term that’s been thrown around so much in the last 5 years we hardly know what it truly means anymore. What is Responsive Design? What is Responsive Development? I break it all down in this article and why we created a hybrid of Responsive Design and Adaptive Design for our new website.

July 21, 2016 by Ryan Trask

If you want your website to rank well in Google and the other search engines, it's necessary you understand the basics first. SEM Rush collected anonymous data on 100,000 websites and 450 million pages using SEMrush’s Site Audit tool to determine top SEO issues and how many websites these issues affect.

June 12, 2016 by Ryan Trask

3plains Recognized for Superior Web Design Service by Clutch, a Washington, D.C.-based research firm that’s focused on finding the best IT services firms.

June 08, 2016 by Ryan Trask

For some clients, changing web companies is and can be a miserable and gut-wrenching experience - how to tell your old company you are firing them and then hoping your new web company actually can deliver what they say they can and are going to do.

April 01, 2016 by Ryan Trask

View 30 of 3plains custom fishing logos designed specifically for our clients. Each fishing logo is to the customers specifications.

December 23, 2015 by Ryan Trask

Just in time for Christmas, the FAA has unveiled registration requirements for drone owners. Online drone registration started on December 21 and will be free for 60 days until February 19. After that point, registration is $5 and the registration is valid for 3 years.

November 17, 2015 by Ryan Trask

I drew South Dakota Any Deer tags in Gregory County, so I decided to get out of the office for a few days. In the area I was hunting, it's predominantly whitetails but there are a few buttes in the area, so there are a small percent of mule deer around where we were hunting.

October 30, 2015 by Ryan Trask

Every week, we phone calls from business owners needing SEO and attempting to understand what SEO ultimately costs. We have found these business owners call us and either think we are way too expensive, get incorrect information or got fed a line of bullshit by another company of what it costs or what goes into SEO.

September 23, 2015 by Ryan Trask

30 of our recent waterfowl logos and old waterfowl logo designs all rolled up into one blog post. These designs are custom and designed for each client.

September 17, 2015 by Ryan Trask

In the mail today I received a letter from a company called “iDNS” stating that “You must renew your domain name…“. Another scam trying to get you to pay their inflated domain name rate and to cause confusion amongst domain name owners and our clients.

July 01, 2015 by Ryan Trask

Here's another example of a custom logo 3plains designed for one of customers for his whitetail deer ranch in Mississippi. It's amazing how many quality guides and outfitters are out there that have been in business since the 90's without an official logo. It's as simple as a whitetail buck on your wall.

June 23, 2015 by Ryan Trask

We did hear from several of our customers asking about what is all entailed with moving their website over to a mobile friendly design and what makes a website "mobile friendly". So let's take a look at one of our fishing website design customers Aabsolute Charters who moved their website over to a mobile friendly design last week.

June 20, 2015 by Ryan Trask

Have you ever felt like you have been stuck with your original logo color variations and wondered if you could have different variations and without changing your overall brand?

May 04, 2015 by Ryan Trask

Our customers have been hit pretty hard with West coast Pay Per Click (PPC) companies promising the world saying that they "Guarantee 1st page Google placement" or they "Work with Google". These are nothing more than sales tactics for Google AdWords. So 3plains has started doing PPC & Retargeting now for our customers because we believe we can provide a higher value on the money you spend with us.

May 03, 2015 by Ryan Trask

All advertising is worth considering; It's figuring out the value each can bring is the key - and that value get's determined with tracking. If you are not tracking your AD investment, your spending blind.

May 03, 2015 by Ryan Trask

As we predicted, the big Google mobile update (or Mobilegeddon as the media was calling it) affected websites very minimally. The weeks leading up to the Google mobile update, there were several other web firms calling and scaring our customers and telling them if they didn't change their website over to a mobile friendly design, their Google rankings would tank. It also shows how far (and unethical) some web companies are willing to go to get your clients business. As it turns out, the Google update wasn't that big of a deal.

April 28, 2015 by Ryan Trask

A few of our customers have reported they have received invoices from Website Backup from Phoenix Arizona. 3plains is in no way affiliated with WebsiteBackup.

April 21, 2015 by Ryan Trask

If you haven't heard yet, Google has a big algorithm update out today. If you remember Y2K, the grid did not go offline because of a 2 digit issue. In my opinion, Google announcing this new mobile update is no different.

April 18, 2015 by Ryan Trask

Bing crossed the 20% threshold in search for the first time in March. That's according to a new U.S. desktop search report from comScore, released this week.

March 09, 2015 by Ryan Trask

March 4th-9th, I headed out with the Buffalo Butte Ranch crew to the Snowy Range in Centennial Wyoming for a snowmobile trip. We hit around 3 feet of fresh powder that week, so we hit the snow about perfect.

March 01, 2015 by Ryan Trask

2015 has been ridiculously busy so far and it feels like we have been doing nothing but treading water because of the huge influx of new logo designs. Let's take a look at 16 new logos we have designed this winter season here at 3plains.

February 26, 2015 by Ryan Trask

Feburary 7th weekend we were 1 of 5 teams invited out to the 1st annual Buffalo Butte competition pheasant hunt with a $200 per hunter buy in. Our South Dakota customers were looking for some fresh Minnesota blood dollars to add to the pot.

January 20, 2015 by Ryan Trask

In 2011, we began a SEO campaign for a customer. When we first started working with the customer a few years back, they were under the assumption being #1 in the search engines is the end-all-be-all.

January 09, 2015 by Ryan Trask

From time to time, we like to post how logo transform from idea, to sketches, to concepts and ultimately the final logo design. Kevin at KB Style Adventures called us and we were able to take his idea and transform the idea to a final custom one of a kind logo.

January 03, 2015 by Ryan Trask

Chris at UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Hunting invited us out for a 2 day pheasant hunt in Armour South Dakota on the last week of the 2014 South Dakota pheasant hunting season.

December 30, 2014 by Ryan Trask

With all the changes we've seen in the field of SEO in recent years, as a client, you need to think differently when it comes to expectations with SEO. If you don't, more than likely you will be going down the path burning through SEO after SEO, after SEO.

November 01, 2014 by Ryan Trask

Pre 2013 you could just hire offshore content writers to post low quality content for your website and just leave your website as is. In 2014, it's a new ball game with Google Panda 4.0. Our customers that have worked with us on their content stategy are seeing hunting bookings and website traffic higher than they have ever in this down economy.

October 24, 2014 by Ryan Trask

When branding and marketing your a new business, take your time. A great logo, design or name of a business will evoke a great feeling when presented.

October 19, 2014 by Ryan Trask

We get logo ideas and potential clients calling us every week, so we like to post ideas from concept to final product for ideas.

October 10, 2014 by Ryan Trask

Packaging design for Uncle Freddie's product the Big Game Gut Glove.

September 24, 2014 by Ryan Trask

It was reported on a variety of sources including CNN that a collection of 5 million Gmail addresses and passwords have been leaked.

September 11, 2014 by Ryan Trask

We finished up a large project for one of our customers, so he decided to invite us out for a dove hunt to celebrate and throw the computer aside for a weekend. Who knew a 3 degree difference could make such a difference. Year over year there were too many doves to shoot last year. This year, not much was moving but we still had some fun.

August 23, 2014 by Ryan Trask

Is the economy affecting my hunting bookings? Are my marketing efforts failing or is my product just out of date? It’s almost September and we have heard a variety of things in talking to our clients - some good, some bad. So I wanted to give you a few metrics and opinions to ponder and compare year over year so you can draw some conclusions to why your bookings may be up or may be down.

May 24, 2014 by Ryan Trask

This year we sponsored a boat again for the 2014 PVA/Firefighters Joel Niemeyer Memorial Gone Fishing Event which the North Central Chapter Paralyzed Veterans of America puts on. We haven't made it out fishing with the group in the last 3 years, but we make sure at the very least to sponsor a boat or 2 each year.

May 19, 2014 by Ryan Trask

Dillon from Buffalo Butte texted us a few photos of some pheasant eggs he ran into last week. It's a definite positive outlook to the South Dakota pheasant hunting season.

May 14, 2014 by Ryan Trask

A few potential customers called and asked about putting together a logo for their gun dog training and dog kennel businesses. Anything can be done for a logo design, so I figured rather than just talk about it, to highlight and show a past logo we have built. Here's one example to show you how to come up an idea and how we can execute.

May 09, 2014 by Ryan Trask

Finally here and hot off the press. The promotional video that was shot out at Buffalo Butte Ranch in South Dakota is ready for viewing!

May 08, 2014 by Ryan Trask

In April, Yahoo.com has implemented a change in its DMARC policy. DMARC, which stands for “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance” is an email authentication policy record that aims to prevent from address spoofing.

May 03, 2014 by Ryan Trask

Wow what a spring full of custom logo designs and work for existing clients. While things have been busy, it has been a long time since we showcased some of the work. Check out the latest today!

March 06, 2014 by Ryan Trask

I just got back from snowmobiling in the Black Hills after a busy hunting season for 3plains and our customers. I joined up with Backcountry Outfitters owner Dillon Springer and guide Brandon Arizmendis.

January 22, 2014 by Ryan Trask

Looking for the advantage in marketing against your competition? Check out the newest 360 virtual tour done by 3plains for our client Thunderhook Fly Ins in Ontario Canada.

January 18, 2014 by Ryan Trask

Customer service is always number 1 for us since that's what a service based company is supposed to do. Our customers expect us to be service oriented, honest, outdoor oriented and reliable. Monday thru Friday we are at it hard, but even when hunting, we will get back to our customers if and when needed.

December 27, 2013 by Ryan Trask

We have been working on overdrive this fall. Not only do we have to keep our customer service at a premium but we have to make sure to spend some time in the field as well.

November 18, 2013 by Ryan Trask

Our most recent trip to South Dakota results in a happy dog, fantastic shots of a few big trophy bucks, a deer, and lots of pheasant hunting. As always it is an adventure with Ryan and myself.

November 11, 2013 by Ryan Trask

It's been a busy fall for us at 3plains. Plenty of logos, websites and online marketing to keep us occupied. We like to let our customers and potential customers know what is going on at 3plains and we will be writing about our outdoor adventures from now on, even if it's a short blog post. It's part of the job keeping a computer/outdoor balance.

September 16, 2013 by Ryan Trask

I attended a Hunting Works for Minnesota event was held on Monday at the Horse & Hunt Club in Prior Lake Minnesota.

September 14, 2013 by Ryan Trask

One of our Southeastern South Dakota customers invited us out for a weekend dove hunt. We had a hard time turning it down but didn't head out till the end of the workday Friday because of a huge workload of projects.

August 29, 2013 by Ryan Trask

We recently had a Arkansas waterfowl hunting outfitter call us looking for a new website. He let us know that he had his website since 1996 and he had received a lot of business from his website - up until summer of 2012. After summer 2012, he said the calls just stopped coming in. Not only that, he was not even ranking in the first 500 SERP's in Google. Wow, not good; but not the first time we have seen this.

August 21, 2013 by Ryan Trask

A lot of our 3plains customers don't have time to update their website on a consistent basis or simply run out of time since they are harvesting crops, guiding in the field, traveling, etc. There is a way to write blog posts, pages and articles while on the go.

April 02, 2013 by Ryan Trask

Almost all the custom logo work I do here at 3plains starts by hand the old fashioned way with a graphite pencil, and a non-descript piece of plain old white printer paper.

January 29, 2013 by Ryan Trask

The 2012 pheasant season may be over in Minnesota, however who says we can't be looking towards 2013? Look for us at Pheasant Fest Feb.15-17, Minneapolis Convention Center, Booth 522

January 14, 2013 by Ryan Trask

Make your outfitting business a success in 2013 with tips from the 3plains team. Read what the 3plains professionals have to say...

November 22, 2012 by Ryan Trask

Facebook is great for connecting with friends and family, however it is not necessarily a good tool for marketing your business.

November 21, 2012 by Ryan Trask

Copyrights and trademarks are used to protect your intellectual property against infringement. Copyrights protect works of authorship, such as written work, film, audio, digital files and logos. These usually apply to works you’ve created. Trademarks are used for words, phrases, and symbols that identify a company and distinguish it from others. Because our custom logos include original, and often times commissioned, artwork you may want both a copyright and trademark to protect your logo and your brand.

October 27, 2012 by Ryan Trask

It's been 10 years since I first started 3plains. I wanted to highlight our first customer who has redone their website with us for the 3rd time now. Thank you to the Springer Family (Marshall, Colleen and Dillon Springer) for their business and friendship over the years.

October 26, 2012 by Ryan Trask

I headed out to Seattle with one of my good friends Andy who works for Kohler company and has been to Seattle on a consistent basis. He asked what I was doing for the 2nd week of October and I said nothing, so I decided to tag along since I had the Verizon Wireless Mi-Fi hotspot and Delta Air internet connection so I pretty much never lose touch with the internet world.

October 07, 2012 by Ryan Trask

Buffalo Butte Ranch hosts an annual Joe Sommers memorial hunt each year. This is the 6th annual hunt Buffalo Butte Ranch had the honor of hosting to celebrate Joe Sommers life and remember him through what he enjoyed doing. Buffalo Butte Ranch invited us out over the weekend to shoot a promo video for Buffalo Butte Ranch.

October 03, 2012 by Ryan Trask

View some of our new 3plains website designs launched in the last 2 months. Plenty more to come!

August 16, 2012 by Ryan Trask

Recently we received one of the most helpful email messages we’ve ever gotten from a potential logo client. In it, he cites specific examples of our own previous work, as key reference points for the new logo he had in mind.

July 11, 2012 by Ryan Trask

We've had a lot in the works in the way of custom logos here at 3plains for some time, so we thought it might be a good time to let you take a look at a few of them. We're still working through our current backlog of custom logo requests, but with taking the time to do each and every logo right, the work can often be slower than anticipated. It's really great to be able to share some of these finished designs with you. We can't wait to see them being put to use in the field.

June 19, 2012 by Ryan Trask

RESTON, Va., June 13, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. Google Sites led the explicit core search market in May with 66.7 percent of search queries conducted.

May 22, 2012 by Ryan Trask

comScore, Inc. has released it's April 2012 search engine results. What does this mean for us in the hunting industry and our outfitter websites? The dominance of being on the first page in Google.

May 15, 2012 by Ryan Trask

We get a lot of phone calls about SEO and what things cost. I wanted to take the time to write a post for potential 3plains customers on what they should expect on SEO pricing from 3plains, how to compare other SEO companies and what questions to ask your potential SEO company.

May 11, 2012 by Ryan Trask

It's time to get professional email and drop the hotmail, yahoo or your ISP email address. Your choice of email address is a factor in how you are perceived whether you like it or not. In fact, you may be losing sales and potential bookings. Let's look at a few examples.

April 02, 2012 by Ryan Trask

We generally get a lot of phone calls for custom logo designs. Frequently our potential clients approach us thinking that absolutely everything related to their service or business should be pictured next to their name... and haven't even considered something simpler.

March 23, 2012 by Ryan Trask

In the last 4 years, I have had the privilege of hunting with my very first client acquired over 10 long years ago. Wow, has it been that long? It only feels like yesterday when I was kicking back with a 6 pack of Bud Light in Sioux Falls, South Dakota home staring at a Dell computer in my basement, with the movie Dumb & Dumber blaring in the background.

March 09, 2012 by Ryan Trask

We get asked a lot if we "just build outdoor websites", so we thought it would be nice to show a highlighted project from a landscaping company in Minneapolis Minnesota.

March 08, 2012 by Ryan Trask

No matter how crude or rudimentary you think your drawings might be, they are a gold mine to designers like us. Getting you're great ideas out of your head and onto something we can look at it can often be the hardest part.

March 06, 2012 by Ryan Trask

It's always fun to see one of our clients take advantage of our 3plains print design. Our website customers get the advantage of our 3plains print design at our members only pricing.

February 11, 2012 by Ryan Trask

Someone else owns the .com name I want. Can I acquire the .com name and if so, how do I buy it?

February 08, 2012 by Ryan Trask

Maybe the answer lies in the one of your favorite buck photos.

February 03, 2012 by Ryan Trask

We work on, design, redraw, and consult about Logos an awful lot around here. An outside opinion is always a good thing. And like this post says, "This is both adorable and some of the best and most authentic field research out there."

January 18, 2012 by Ryan Trask

Although no action is imminent, the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R.3261), known as SOPA, and the Protect IP Act (S.968), known as PIPA, remain a priority for many in Congress. Both SOPA and PIPA purport to stop the theft of intellectual property from foreign-based websites. While well-intentioned, the manner in which these bills attempt to achieve those goals is unworkable and includes a host of unintended and dangerous consequences.

January 10, 2012 by Ryan Trask

Coming up with a logo for your business can be difficult, especially if creativity isn't one of the tools in your wheelhouse. Here's an example of how we created a logo based on a concept that capture the essence of the client's business.

December 15, 2011 by Ryan Trask

We get quite a few inquiry's asking us how we build out our custom logos, how the process works and what a custom logo costs.

December 01, 2011 by Ryan Trask

Trade show season is right around the corner, so we decided to show a example of a booth we designed this summer for a South Dakota pheasant hunting client.

November 29, 2011 by Ryan Trask

We haven't had a blog update in a while showcasing our newest custom designed logos. Were always designing a few custom logos each month, so here's a sampling of our latest designs...

October 10, 2011 by Ryan Trask

Think about all the different online accounts you have. How do you manage all the usernames and passwords for these accounts? Do you have the sheet of paper, a excel file saved on your computer with all your passwords on it or do you just remember them all? If you said yes to any of the last three questions, the product called LastPass might be worth a look.

June 25, 2011 by Ryan Trask

In our 2nd year sponsoring a NCPVA boat, two of us were able to make it out fishing this year. This is a walleye fishing tournament in Chamberlain South Dakota put on by the Sioux Falls Firefighters and the Paralyzed Veterans of America, South Central Chapter. We limited out in around 4 hours both days.

March 22, 2011 by Ryan Trask

Just like my computer is an extension of my creative arm, and my single most used tool here at 3plains, John's fishing boat is at the center of Between the Lines.

February 08, 2011 by Ryan Trask

I haven't had the opportunity to write about being out in the field since my last blog post about fall South Dakota antelope hunting, so here's my hunting update for Q1. For the third consecutive year, I was cordially invited by owners Marshall and Colleen Springer to the Buffalo Butte Ranch Friends and Family Fun Hunt. The Buffalo Butte Ranch is located in Gregory, South Dakota which is noted for it's fantastic wild pheasant populations.

October 11, 2010 by Ryan Trask

When I came across the photo of Reno, Greg's lab, I just knew I had to use it. What a great image of Reno retrieving that beautiful drake!

October 07, 2010 by Ryan Trask

Here are a few of our latest custom website designs. Black Mountain Outfitters, Honey Creek Outfitters, Kashin' In, Pheasant City Lodge are just a few we have recently worked on.

October 05, 2010 by Ryan Trask

I recently had the privilege of hunting antelope out in the barren land of Bison, South Dakota. I was hosted by Mike Pankratz of Dakota Hotspots which is a guide service in Kennebec, SD specializing in South Dakota pheasant hunting. We arrived in Bison on a Friday night around 10pm after stopping in Presho South Dakota to put up a billboard for Mike's father Duane. I was told it'd be a 30-45 minute job, and of course we had it wrapped up 3 hours later with Mike hitting his thumb twice with a hammer.

September 27, 2010 by Ryan Trask

Recently launched for Prairies Edge Outfitting, a web design package with custom logo design & print design additions.

September 23, 2010 by Ryan Trask

View a few of our latest custom logo creations. Stay tuned at our blog, we have several more logos we are currently working on.

September 12, 2010 by Ryan Trask

Google instant is out. What is Google instant? Predictive Search. Should you activate Google Instant Search, you'll start seeing search results as soon as you start typing. You'll also be shown a range of possible queries in grey to refine your options, all before you ever hit the "Search" button.

August 24, 2010 by Ryan Trask

We build a lot of websites and after we launch the website, typically the next questions are: I couldn't find us in the search engines?, I couldn't find our website searching our name?, I couldn't find us searching "XYZ Keywords" or "XYZ Phrase"?, Why are we not on the first page for "XYZ Phrase"?, Can you get us on the first page in the search engines?

August 02, 2010 by Ryan Trask

How much potential business is out there searching for you and CAN'T find you because you haven't setup a budget for search engine marketing and SEO?

July 26, 2010 by Ryan Trask

I wanted to take a few minutes and attempt to shed some light on the confusion surrounding logo design, what the costs are, and why the prices you've been searching for online vary so greatly. That is if you can even find prices posted at all.

June 15, 2010 by Ryan Trask

A lot of our customers have asked us how we build out our custom websites and how the process works. Either our customers provide a sketch or we will sketch out ideas. Here's how the web design build process works.

June 05, 2010 by Ryan Trask

3plains offers content management (software to update your website) and hosting packages for all the websites we build. We realize that an ongoing monthly fee can be a surprise to clients who are new to the web. So what are the differences between a content management package with 3plains and the latest hosting deal online somewhere else?

May 19, 2010 by Ryan Trask

3plains is sponsoring a boat for the North Central Chapter Paralyzed Veterans of America located in Sioux Falls South Dakota. This is our first year sponsoring a boat for this event, so we jumped at the opportunity and look forward to working with the North Central Chapter for years to come.

December 08, 2009 by Ryan Trask

How much does a good website cost? What's a good website?

October 15, 2009 by Ryan Trask

Living in the Twin Cities involves driving a lot of driving with the poor transportation system. A person usually spends between an average of 20-50 minutes in their vehicle typically. Since I can get quite bored, obviously I end up looking at vehicle decals, advertisements or business signage on the roads. It never ceases to amaze me how many vehicles have logo'ed trucks, banners, stickers, and so forth with a phone number, but zero indication of a web address.

March 08, 2009 by Ryan Trask

Launching a new website for River Valley Outfitters with my nephew Ben at the helm.

February 16, 2009 by Ryan Trask

My client Gage Outdoor invited me down to a trip to Pintail Lodge (February 17th - 19th 2009) to duck hunt for some of the work I had done.

November 10, 2006 by Ryan Trask

I think we all remember a rooster, bird, fish or a buck we didn't mount that we think back... maybe I should have. This was that time.