We love to design graphically, but cartooning is our passion! Shaggy Duck has gone as far as to form it’s own cartoon division called The Curtoons Cartoon Company. World famous for designing cartoon logos, Curtoons can also help you with humorous illustrations for t-shirts, greeting cards, websites, children’s books and more.

Enjoy a whimsical sample of our cartoon designs. If you would like to talk to us strictly about a cartoon project please jump over to Curtoons Cartoon Studio for more information.

Our cartoon designs have been chosen winners of the OKC radio station Rock 100 the KATT’s annual calendar contest twice. We have also had our single panel cartoons published nationally and our illustrations used by major greeting card publishers.

Shaggy Duck Studios can help you get set up on the Internet from start to finish and help you gain the rankings and traffic a motivated company needs to be successful online. Our first website went live in 1999 about the same time Google was testing the World Wide Web waters. We’ve learned to build websites from the ground up with old fashioned HTML but now rely on a more popular method called WordPress. WordPress has become the #1 content management system and web building software in the industry.

Below are a few of the websites and blogs that we have helped create, rebuild or maintain. We have not linked to all examples due to the fact that over time many clients will alter the original design, change themes, go offline or close up shop.

Browse our wide assortment of logo designs from every major industry. We’ve done hundreds of designs for clients worldwide and have worked nationally for companies like Boogie Wipes, The Adventures of Travis and Presley, Hajek Motorsports, Chew Chews Candy, Shock Rocks and more.

Let us add your company logo to our growing portfolio of professional identity designs. Below you will find an assortment of the style and look of our logo designs. We’d love to hear from you and offer a no obligation quote on your next project.

Medical – Weight Loss Logo Design

New You was to be a comprehensive weight loss program and they came looking for a design that showed the stages of weight loss in an illustrative way. We combined the popular silhouette body image with the three main stages of weight loss; the before, during and after.

Because weight loss is a new beginning for many people we incorporated the vision of crossing a bridge which in the design is actually the sun. We also used color change to establish the stages of weight loss.

Business Caricature Logo Design

Creative, cartoon style logos don’t always have to be knee slapping funny or overly wacky. Using a caricature of the business owner can be a lighthearted way of designing a professional logo with that added flair.

This image was created from a photograph of the individual which we imported into Photoshop and used our cartooning skills along with our computer knowledge to produce a very professional logo mark.

Cartoon Mascot Design

A funny or whimsical cartoon logo design can be appropriate for almost any type of company if done correctly. This design was created for a foreign client that had been in business since 1848.

We not only created a fantastic mascot for the company but also produced an artistic rendition of their actual product in the hand of the gopher. Curved type is a very popular design attribute that is sometimes overlooked.

Creativity + Imagination = Design Magic

We love to create! We can take your thoughts and add our own creativity to come up with graphic design magic. We’ll input our ideas along with a bit of drawing skill, computer experience, an eye for color and the knowledge of digital concepts to deliver a quality image professionally prepared for printing.

Contact us today with any graphic or web design questions, quote requests or for a free consultation about your needs. Shaggy Duck Studios can be found at 1925 Indian Dr., Enid, OK 73703. Call us at 580-977-9947 or send us an email at curtis@curtistucker.com. We look forward to adding you as our newest client.

Shaggy Duck Studios is located in our Polynesian styled home dubbed “Brick House” because of its grand abundance of red brick. This great office/studio is where all of the magic happens. I am able to run my entire operation from this one home office. We are still located amongst the rolling slopes and under the shady trees of Indian Hills in Enid, Oklahoma.

The excerpt above is from the Mike Klemme book, “Celebrating Enid!” in which Shaggy Duck was chosen as one of Enid’s many local successes. Shaggy Duck is a local business run by an Enid High graduate that left for several years but returned to make Enid his home.

Shaggy Duck Studios is much more than a graphic and web design studio. SD has several smaller niche companies that fall under its umbrella. Those niche brands include:

The Curtoons Cartoon Company – Specializing in cartoon logos online since 1999. One of the largest cartoon logo portfolios on the Internet and ranked #1 in Google for the term “cartoon logos” for over a decade. Curtoons is looked at as the industry expert on cartoon logo design and has created many of the techniques and practices used throughout the industry.

ChuckleBerry’s – Once a small paper card company selling funny greeting cards wholesale to retailers throughout the United States and a few other countries. ChuckleBerry’s owns the rights to over 100 funny birthday, Christmas, get well and other card designs. ChuckleBerry’s now sells paper cards through many venues including Zazzle and is expanding its brand into t-shirts and other gift merchandise.

The Shaggy Duck Inventory
100 .COM Domain Names

by Curtis D. Tucker

What do we know for sure about the Google Panda update?

Zilch!

That is exactly what we know. I’ve read every article and forum on the subject and it’s one repeat after another. It’s all about this or about that. I’ve got website examples to disprove just about every claim possible. What we know about Panda is that we don’t know anything.

And the little Google blog post about how to deal with Panda and quality content was about as lame as everything else. The list of questions they gave to help guide us on our journey is utterly useless without examples and explanations.

Does it really matter anyway? Have you searched for a website on a particular subject lately? My gosh, all you get is ads, images, local crap and suggestions. Where did all of the websites go? And even if your website showed up on the first page of Google that wouldn’t mean anything other than the fact that Google knows you’ve been there before so it’s always going to keep showing you that result. And if you’re logged in to your Google account you’ll rank at the top for everything.

So is Google search even relevant anymore? Have you noticed the huge swings in traffic overall? Some days you get traffic, some days you don’t. And that is to websites hit by Panda or not. There’s no longer any reliability in Google. Traffic is all over the place, results are all over the place and rankings depend on what computer your on, using which browser, in which part of the world and what day it is. Sheesh. Do I really have to start using Bing and Yahoo!?

I read about people tearing their websites apart trying to find the Panda key and they just seem to drop further in the rankings. Look, it’s Google’s game to play. It’s their search and their results. Funny thing is, many of us were here before Google and we let Google take over and control our every move. An important fact to remember is that Google isn’t Google without websites to rank. Our original websites helped create Google, Google didn’t help create us.

In the old days we’d sell ads to make money, trade links to get traffic and build our websites for our readers. Now we get penalized for doing that. Once Google came along everything changed. Everyone started keyword stuffing, buying links and started living off of the Google SERPS. That was our big mistake. We should have been building a following that would visit our websites with or without Google.

Here’s a little secret… we still can! It’s time to forget about Google and start building up a group of readers that will spread the word about our websites. Sure, it won’t be as easy and quick as Google was but then we’ll never have to deal with another Panda. Heck, I don’t even know if I’ve been affected by Panda. I switched a few sites to WordPress at the same time Panda hit and lost rankings. Was it Panda or was it the switch? Who knows.

Anyway, please be careful when reading posts, articles and forums. Everyone has an idea as to what Panda likes and doesn’t like and I think about 90% of them are most likely wrong. There are websites that have not been affected by Panda, actually millions of them. I think the latest Google updates go beyond Panda. They’ve changed so many aspects of search with things like localization, instant, spell correction, personalization and even changes to image search that the results are no longer what they once were. And that changes your traffic results before anyone even gets to your website!

Anyway, hang tight. Keep building and improving. Not for the sake of Google but because you want your next reader to tell their best friend about your website and you’ll want them to tell their best friend and so on and so on. Give people great original, funny and inspiring content and they’ll keep coming back.

by Curtis D. Tucker

“What in the heck is a personal brand image and why do you need one?”

Your brand is what makes you, uniquely you. It’s the important factors that make you different from everyone else. “It’s what makes you stand out!!” People with solid brand images attract a following and quickly become leaders in their field.

Don King has his hair, Superman has his cape, Linus has his blanket, Dolly has her big… voice, Teller has his silence, Elton John has his glasses. Each of these individuals stand out from the crowd because of a brand image. There is something about them that you remember! Do you have a brand image, a style of your own, or are you just part of the crowd? Would anyone remember you if they only met you for a moment?

What is my brand image? My brand image is my casual style and my really cool sneakers. I’ve begun a campaign of wearing old school Converse sneakers everywhere I go. I’m even using my sneaks in all of my website headers.

I’m trying to establish a brand that will be easily and quickly recognized. I’ve taken to wearing sneakers and white tee’s every chance I get. People know me as that sneaker wearing entrepreneurial cartoonist. My personality is also part of my brand, I always try to be happy and look at things on the “bright” side. I’m easy to talk to and I try to help everyone that I can.

At a speech I gave to 40 sixth graders, I was speaking about how I was able to start my own business and work from home. I wore shorts, a white tee covered by a Polo sweater vest and my trademark sneakers. I had almost as many comments about my sneakers as I did about my cartooning and Internet businesses.

Stand out from the crowd and you will be remembered. Your brand does not even have to be physical. Your brand could be that you give the fastest service with a smile or you do the best job and always throw in a bonus. Those type of things can become your brand if you stick to them and people know they can rely on them.

Here are 3 people with easily recognized great brand images in the technology/marketing field. These people are leaders in their fields, they clearly know their markets and they have personalities that are assets to their business and can easily engage others.

1) Gary Vaynerchuk – Wine reviewer, author, marketer – loud, fast talking, says what’s on his mind and likes to cuss.

2) Seth Godin – Author, Linchpin, marketer – bald, quiet, understated.

3) Steve Jobs – CEO, Founder, innovator – black sweater, jeans, tennis shoes, great speaker and motivator.

More examples to come. Find your brand and you’ll be on your way to rising above the crowd!

by Curtis D. Tucker

There are a few things that might help you if you are frustrated with the concept of making money online. Most of these things I know as fact, mainly because I have experienced them or have been told by someone experiencing them. This list may not help you make any more money but it may clue you in on why you aren’t making the millions that others say they are.

1.) Trying to make money with a copy cat blog when there are already thousands in the market will be very tough. Example: A how to make money showing others how I make money blog. It’s been done a hundred different ways. If you are not one of the first you lose.

2.) Most millionaire bloggers do not make money with their blogs. They don’t make millions with AdSense or Amazon links. Most millionaire bloggers make millions with their mailing list and subscribers. They sell backend products and services. They usually also have several other websites that you do not know about.

3.) You don’t need hundreds of thousands of random visitors to make money. You just need hundreds of visitors that are very interested in what you are providing. If they feel satisfied with your content they will tell another hundred and so on and so on and so on…

4.) Honestly ask yourself if you have the best website on the subject you are talking about. Are you providing unique information that cannot be found on another fifty websites? Are you giving your own personal slant to each post or page? Have you just rehashed information already out there? Be honest. If you can write unique posts that provide solutions or answer questions, you will eventually make money.

5.) No matter what they say, what checks they show you, how many testimonials they provide, you cannot make substantial steady money overnight, in a day, in a week, in a month, in a year. After being online and posting quality content frequently you will be ready to start making substantial money normally after your first year.

6.) Putting all of your eggs into one basket will lead to failure. Trying to make money with AdSense on one website is a losing proposition unless you are some type of celebrity. AdSense on multiple websites is better, AdSense and other affiliate marketing on multiple websites is even a little better, but creating your own services or products and selling them on multiple websites is best.

7.) Relying on Google for everything is frustrating. I know, because I have done it. If you rely on Google for your traffic and your AdSense income you will have periods of great frustration. Google is in a battle with spammers and with every algo change you are bound to lose traffic or lose income at one time or another. You must use more than AdSense for income and you must get traffic from many different sources.

8.) Making money online is a job. You have to work, type, create, think, research, write, code, build, email, contact, test, update, repeat, advertise and hire just like any other job. It’s a job online not a money tree that owes you an income just for throwing up a website.

9.) Almost all of the biggest and richest bloggers made it by accident or pure luck. Most of the biggest bloggers never set out to be where they are. They did not sit down and say, “I want to create a million dollar blog today.” They just started a blog for one reason or another and somehow by being the first, being original, being helpful or being informative they ended up gaining popularity. Try not to start your blog just for “the money.” Be unique and the money will follow.

10.) You can and will make money online if you are original, work hard, try new things and help others solve their problems. I wish you all much success and I will try my darndest to provide the information we all need to make money, online, from home, going to work in our underwear.

There are many really great reasons to build a mailing list. One of the hidden secrets to the success of those marketing and affiliate guru’s is their mailing lists. One guru has been quoted as saying any time he needed money he would turn on the spigot which was his mailing list. These MMO guru’s actually use each others mailing lists to sell each others products and systems. That is why you receive the same offer from multiple gurus.

I’m not going to use my mailing list to sell you product after product. The number one reason I want a mailing list is because of… Google. That’s right, I rely almost 100% on Google for traffic to my websites. After dealing with Google for a decade now I understand that there are no guarantees. Due to one small algo change my websites can drop and totally disappear from the search results or one unknown mistake on my part could get my websites banned from even showing up in the Google results.

Once your business is up and running you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket. That’s why it is important to attract traffic from all of the major search engines, social media sites, off line marketing sources and a mailing list. My mailing list would be a form of insurance in case I lost my positions in Google. I could easily communicate with my target audience and update everyone on my latest posts.

Please be a part of my insurance plan and join my mailing list. I won’t be hard selling you every week and will never share my list with anyone. Help me kick the Google habit! You can sign up using the simple form at the top of my sidebar. Thank you!

As I convert my old HTML pages to new WordPress pages I am wanting to redirect my best traffic from the old pages to the new pages. There is a very simple way to accomplish this.

A 301 Redirect is the best way to send traffic looking for your old pages to your new pages. A 301 Redirect is a small piece of code typed into your .htaccess file. The hardest part of accomplishing this for most newbies is just learning what a .htaccess file is, where to find it and how to get it online.

The .htaccess file is simply a text file that is read by a server and told what or what not to do. Your .htaccess file should be on your ftp site with your other website files. The easiest way to find the file is to access your ftp site and look through your files. You can use an ftp or web design program or look into your manage files section on your hosting control panel.

Unfortunately you cannot find or alter your .htaccess file from within WordPress which makes this a step above newbie status. Once you find this file and work with it once you’ll understand how simple it really is.

Some .htaccess files can be hidden. You will need to have all files or hidden files visible to find it. Most hosts will have this file visible. In some cases a .htaccess file has not even been created yet.

.htaccess files can be created with text editors; “.htaccess” is both the name of the file and the file extension. To create an .htaccess file, simply type the necessary code into the text editor (Mac Textedit or PC Notepad), then change the file extension from .txt to just .htaccess and save it to your desktop. From there you can drag it or upload it into your ftp program or your manage files section of your web hosting. Once the file is uploaded it works instantly. Saving a backup of your last working .htaccess file would be a smart move in case something goes very, very wrong.

The simple code to add to your .htaccess file for redirecting an old HTML page to a new permalink WordPress page is below. Type this on one line:
Redirect 301 /youroldpage.html http://www.yourwebsite.com/yournewpage

I’m also finding that I have many old HTML pages linked to my index.html page. To redirect everyone from that page to your new WordPress index.php page type this code on another line:
Redirect 301 /index.html http://www.yourwebsite.com/

You can add as many redirects as you want. There is also code that allows you to redirect an entire website or an entire set of extensions. You can find additional codes by searching for 301 redirect codes online.

Click all of your links and test all pages after doing this. If you run into error pages or your website is gone you will need to upload the backup .htaccess file as soon as possible to correct the error.

If you do run into trouble with any of your new pages not showing up after the redirect you may need to go into your Settings in WordPress and click on the Save Changes button in the Permalinks Settings section. I have found this on sites where I use Custom Structure for Permalinks and host my site on Go Daddy. I actually do not change anything, I just hit save and my web pages appear again. I know, weird.

Okay, I hope that helps. After looking at the post it really looks complicated and more than a newbie might want to tackle. My suggestion is that you had better learn how to do this simple action or you are going to have a rough go at building your own online empire.

You can do it!

If you knew me very well, you’d know I rarely sell any of my websites or domain names. Well, I’m in the mood to get rid of a few things. The domain names below are currently up for sale! If interested please hurry because I may change my mind.

Age ranges on these domains go from about 5 years to 1 year. Knowing that the age of a domain can boost ranking, this is a great way to purchase a domain that has been live online. These domains have not been parked. A few domains even have a logo with them.

Prices start at $99. After that it’s all negotiable. Some sites have high prices listed on them, those prices can be ignored until I close the Fire Sale. Look over the list and let me know if you are interested. Finding good dot com names is becoming more difficult everyday and one that has some age on it is even harder to find.

Names marked with *** are the oldest domains registered.

Talk to me!

ADADUDE.COM – BEEPYS.COM – BIGOOF.COM
BOXEDPOPCORN.COM – CAMERASHUTTERBUG.COM
CARTOONBRAND.COM – CARTOONCHARACTERBRANDS.COM
CARTOONCHARACTERCLIPART.COM – CARTOONCHARACTERTSHIRTS.COM
CHARACTERBRANDS.COM – CHARACTERLOGOS.COM
CHARACTERTSHIRTS.COM – DAILYHOROSCOPEBLOG.COM
DOGGZY.COM – DWEEKY.COM – EDIETBASICS.COM***
EGOLFBIRTHDAYGIFT.COM*** – FASCINATINGIDEAS.COM
FAWTED.COM – FREEECARDSITE.COM***
FREEGAMESADDICT.COM – FREEGAMESKID.COM
FUNNYVIDEOSHOMEMADE.COM – GOOBYS.COM
GYMSNEAKER.COM*** – GYMSOCK.COM***
HAMBURGERRECIPESITE.COM
HOLIDAYSCOOKIES.COM – IMAGINATIVEWONDERS.COM
IPODDUDE.COM*** – LOGOCHARACTERS.COM
LILLOVEPOEMS.COM – LILLOVEQUOTES.COM
MCGOOF.COM – MCGOOFS.COM – POOPZY.COM
RECIPENOTECARDS.COM – ROYALTYFREECARTOONS.COM
TATTOOSCRUISE.COM – TENNIESHOE.COM***
THEBLOSSOMBUNCH.COM*** – THECOUPONNERD.COM***
THEIDEAENTREPRENEUR.COM – TSHIRTCHARACTERS.COM
VIDEOCZAR.COM – VIDDZY.COM – WEBENDIPITY.COM***
WEDDINGSNOOP.COM*** – WEETYS.COM
WITTYCARTOONS.COM – WOOBZY.COM – WOWZERZOWZER.COM
ZIPZAPZOW.COM*** – ZODIACSIGNSITE.COM