Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites

The following is Part One of a book review. You might want wonder why I’d break up something as seemingly trivial as a book review into two parts. Well, wonder no more. The reason is that I haven’t finished the book, but I already have enough to say for now. I’ll post part two of the review when I’m done. If you’re one of those “must know everything before buying a book” types, you might want to wait until part two. But my recommendation as of now is “buy, buy, buy”. This is an overview plus an in-depth review of Chapters 1 through 7.

Some months ago I received a review copy of Author Kevin Potts’ new book called “Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites“. I first became familiar with his work when he collaborated on a book called TextPattern Solutions.

I thought Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites was about web design the way I know it - code examples: XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and other code fun.

I was very wrong. The 390-page book has maybe two pages worth of computer code in it. That’s it. I could be forgiven for thinking that the book was a technical web design book since the first two words of the book are “web design”. Kevin had Brian Warren technically review the book. But by “web design” the publisher means, not the technical use of web design, but the traditional use of web design - like what goes where and why. The structure of a website. The navigation of a website. The usability of a website. The purpose and reason behind every thing on a website.

Thus, the book’s three miniature subtitles are really what the book is about. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Lawrence, the book already has one of the longest titles we’ve ever seen. Now you’re telling it has not one, but three subtitles?”

Point taken. And passed on to author and publisher, Friends of Ed. But hear me out.

“Write Strong Web Content”
“Maximize Your Search Engine Marketing”
“Learn How Accessibility and Web Standards Apply to Corporate Sites”

If I had one wish, it would be for every client of mine, both present and future, to read this book. Despite that they might find a few flaws in my otherwise wonderful websites (gulp!), it would still be worth it.

That’s right. I said my clients should read it. And every business professional that has a website. Or coordinates for a big company web design. Or anyone who has an opinion worth even two cents about websites.

On top of that, every web design professional like me should read it. Absolutely. Although you won’t likely learn new code techniques, or color swatch tricks, (although you might - I found a few hidden gems already). Why? Because this is the most refreshing overhaul of proper web structure and usability that I’ve seen. And I read a ton of books. Probably more than you. Most likely definitely more than you. So hearken to my words, webmaster genius. Especially if you are still calling yourself a webmaster.

How often have you heard these questions and comments from clients?

• “I’ve heard that it’s a waste of time to have an ‘About’ page. What do you think?”

A Dozen Dirty Reasons to Get a Gravatar

You don’t know about Gravatar, do you? Of course not. That’s why you’re reading this. See? You’re still reading. Follow me, young padawan learner and let me teach you the ways of the Gravatar.

If you are an English major and hate creative explanations, or if you don’t like being told what is good for you, then you could just jump over to Gravatar.com and read the dry explanation there.

Okay, everyone else. We got rid of the stooges in the class. Let’s get back to the fun.

A Gravatar is an Avatar with a G and an R in front of it. Why? No one knows and that’s half the fun of the internet. Creating new words. Like Flickr. Or PhotoBucket. Did any photographers ever put their photos in a bucket before the internet? I hope not.

Photographer: “Here you go, Mr. Walkenheimer. Your family photos. They came out great”.

Mr. Walkenheimer: “Uh, what’s this?”

Photographer: “Oh, it’s just an old paint bucket I found in the garage. So you can carry your photos!”

Mr. Walkenheimer: “You put my photos in a bucket?”

Photographer (chuckling slightly): “Oh, Mr. Walkenheimer. That’s what all the pros do. We put photos in a bucket because it’s just so darn handy. Look you even have a handle.”

Mr. Walkenheimer: “I… guess… ”

Photographer: “What did you expect? Some kind of clean white envelope or an album? Don’t be silly, Mr. Walkenheimer. Learn to trust the experts on this, okay?”

And that’s why there is Gravatar. Actually, some people, like the owners of Gravatar, say it stands for Globally Recognized Avatar. But that’s just foolish corporate double-speak. That kind of mixing of acronyms and words could lead to trouble. Remember in War Games when Matthew Broderick asks J.O.S.H.U.A. to play chess and the computer starts playing Global Thermonuclear War? Same kind of thing. So be careful, Gravatar people.

“But Lawrence”, you say, “what’s an Avatar?”

It’s some kind of image that you use to represent yourself online. It could be a traditional headshot. Especially if you are an open and transparent webhead like me. But it can also be a picture of a goldfish, or an Imperial Stormtrooper, or something worse, like Jabba the Hut. Okay, maybe that’s a matter of some debate. Goldfish aren’t exactly innocent. I hear you.

To make things more confusing, James Cameron is putting out a sci-fi movie next year called “Avatar”. It’s not about the internet. It’s about “an interplanetary war in which aliens can manifest themselves by possessing human bodies”. Maybe it’s about the internet after all.

But it won’t be about Avatars as we’ve commonly known them on the internet all these ten years. And that’s going to confuse a lot of people. Especially those on dial-up. Because it takes them a lot longer to understand anything confusing. And James Cameron is the master of confusion. He’s the guy that put out the Titanic movie. If you are reading this article after seeing Avatar the movie, you probably won’t understand a thing I’m saying. Just move on to something else on the internet so your brain doesn’t explode. Maybe try poetry.com.

For now, when you register with Gravatar, a lot of blogs and forums will check Gravatar automatically when you comment or participate, grab your little Gravatar Avatar, and place it next to your comment or post. Isn’t that neat? You’ll eventually start to see your little Gravatar everywhere - on forums, on blogs, on basketball shoes, on the sides of milk cartons.

The guy who invented the idea of the Gravatar is Matt Mullenweg. Who is he? He’s the guy who invented WordPress. What’s that? It’s the blogging software that runs about 80% of the blogs on the internet. What’s a blog? Never mind.

The point is that Matt is very smart guy and he knows what is good for you. He has a lot of nerdy friends that help him make the internet a better place - certainly a lot better than the confusing movies of James Cameron. How smart is Matt? Very smart. He started a company called Automattic. See how he fit his own name in the title of his company. Is that as clever as a whirling dervish or what?

So, eventually out of peer pressure, or fear of alien possession, you’ll be forced to get a Gravatar. But even after everything I learned you already, you still might need some reasons to justify it in your soul. Just in case you are wrestling with it spiritually or something. So, here’s twelve of them.

1. It helps to stroke your ego. Sure, what better way to promote your silly little online identity than to have a picture of your alter-ego posted next to the tens of thousands of useless comments you’ve made on blogs and forums.

2. It gives you the illusion of a safer, better internet. When you see that there are little iconic graphical representations of all your co-commenters lined up next to their comments, you just feel better. It’s like walking into a bar at 1am and seeing all those friendly faces and you know you are, well, just home. Home, sweet, home. On the internet. On a blog. That’s pretty much how it makes you feel.

3. It makes it easy to update your Avatar. When you created your first Gravatar, you used the rubber ducky from Windows XP. Understandable. But now that you’ve started referring to yourself as “GorillaGuy69″, the rubber ducky has been causing some folks not to take you as seriously. So, you can just go to Gravatar and put in a picture of the chess piece from Windows XP instead. Which will cause people to take you more seriously. Because chess players play for keeps. I think everyone understands that.

4. It adds your Avatar to old comments you made before Gravatar existed. Yes, as amazing as it sounds, it’s true. A lot of old-school websites are busy hiring guys like me to update their websites - and implementing Gravatars. Magically, all their old blog comments and forum posts are populated with any Gravatars that have since been registered. Suddenly, you go from a nobody to a somebody. And if that isn’t an internet success story, I don’t know what is.

5. It helps you know the idiot who pwn’d your comment. Sometimes, seeing is believing. When you can see the Gravatar of the fool who publicly struck down your brilliance, you know there’s no reason to respond. Why strike back at The Pokey Little Puppy? Instead, you can move on to dealing with more important commenters. Like BigBird from Sesame Street. That lady just doesn’t know when to shut up.

6. It gives a username and password to manage. C’mon. If there’s one thing you don’t have enough of, it’s usernames and passwords. Gravatar gives you yet another one. In time, you will build up your username and password collection to the point that you can proudly display it at Comic-Con next to your Pokeman stuffed animals. Gravatar brings you one step closer.

7. It helps mega-bloggers to know you. Imagine running a blog that gets hundreds of comments with each post. Don’t you think you’d like to know the faces behind the names? Gravatars help! Seeing all those Star Trek characters and Color Swatches are just one way that the blog owner can “connect” with his “community”. You practically become a friend to a powerful multi-millionaire blogger. Fiendish, perhaps, but nothing wrong with using rubber duckies for your ultimate good.

8. It gives peace a chance. This is just my own private philosophy, but I think that when you can use imagery to break down stereotypes of race, gender, and… hmmm…. this point might need more work. Let me come back to this one later.

9. It fights fire with fire. Striking back at your enemies with even more powerful Gravatars is a way to gain the upperhand. When you get forum-fragged by a crowd of thug-like Axe-carrying dwarves, fantasy magic girls, and English long-range archers, you know what to do! Go change your Gravatar. Metamorphically, you can get rid of that yellow smiley face and put in it’s place the most powerful emblem of truth, justice, and the American way: The Superman S. What chance do they have then? None! Superman is invulnerable to everything. Just hope that they don’t go change their Gravatars to Green Krytonite.

10. It helps Matt and friends to own the blogosphere. Quite frankly, this is what it’s all about. Matt owns WordPress. And the most powerful blogs on the internet use WordPress to manage their blog. If you don’t register with Gravatar, you will probably anger Matt and there is probably some switch hidden deep in the bowels of Wordpress code that allows him to erase your entire blog. Is that what you want? If not, then you better get a Gravatar real soon. Maybe write a post like this one, too, so he knows that you clearly stand with him, not against him.

11. It helps mega-bloggers to manage their blogs easier. Oh! Remember those mega-bloggers I just spoke about? They need Gravatars on their blog so they can more easily see when you are putting dumb comments on their posts over and over. Because they get so many thousands of comments each week, they might not recognize your name starting flame war after flame war, but they’ll recognize that pink and purple rotating Live Strong bracelet. Never forget that these uber-bloggers are working all day long in their pajamas to bring the rest of us amazing factoids. Try and make their life a little easier, okay? It’s all about courtesy, really.

12. It helps to stroke your ego. After all of that, let’s be honest. The first reason was reason enough, wasn’t it? The rest was all gravy. Nothing wrong with stroking your own ego. The more you participate in the internet community, the more it will need to be stroked anyway. You’ll likely be crushed by massive hammer blows the first time you make a comment anywhere. You might as well have a cute little Avatar as your friend to help deflect some of the pain!

Finally, I’ll be implementing Gravatars here this week. So, stay tuned for Avatar goodness.

Angel Investor(s) Wanted for Unique Web Application

For my 200th post to my blog, I thought I’d post a brief summary of a funding request. I’m interested in developing, with a small team, a unique web application. I just wish I could post about it in detail here. Except that would be stupid of me. [must… not… post details… online… ]

So, I’ve posted below what basic information I can.

I would prefer to work with someone local to Brevard or Central Florida, but I’m flexible. Someone I know already would also be great. I’m trying to think of any friends who might have an extra $50,000 lying around and I’m just not getting a warm, fuzzy feeling. There’s that one guy with fairly nice BMW, but I think he bought it at the drug seizure auction. And then there’s my old boss at Brown & Brown who fired me for no good reason which makes me think he might not be too helpful. And that’s probably about it.

Anyway, here’s the summary. Feel free to forward it to anyone you know who you think would be a good fit for such an investment.

I am a web designer who has had a great idea for a highly-profitable web app to a growing but niche group of users. I’m located in Melbourne, FL and currently do web design/development for small businesses.

I’ve had other big ideas, of course, but I believe this one could be quickly implemented and rolled out (3-6 months) and grown to a sizable community within the same time period. There is clearly a lack of this web application on the current market.

However, I do not possess all the skills needed to roll it out on my own. I would have to hire 1 or 2 other coders to bring it to market quickly. Additionally, I can’t afford to stop “making a living” in order to bring this service to market.

Therefore, I’m seeking funding to develop and market this web application. Although I would have to give up some control and long-term sales benefits, nothing would make me happier than to see this application out on the market and serving those whom could benefit from it. I would like to keep the investment as small as possible (between $50 to $75k).

This is a short-term investment. I project that the application will be live and earning a return within six months. I expect that investors will break even within 12 months of going live (with a user base of roughly 2,000). A much larger return is possible as the market for this user base is roughly 2,000,000 and is based on a subscription based model. I currently project that average yearly revenue from this web application alone would be in the neighborhood of $250,000 to $500,000. I anticipate no further funding for this project.

A few minor notes: I don’t have a formal business plan yet. I’m going to go through the headache of creating one even though some say it is unnecessary. I should have that out soon. Prior to that, however, I’m currently working on a brief presentation (15 mins) to give the basic overview of the application, its potential for future growth, and my needs to get it off the ground.

Someone somewhere (maybe Guy Kawasaki?) mentioned that I should have some kind of non-disclosure document for potential investors to sign so I’ve gotta get that lawyer-goodness taken care of first, I suppose. And then there’s that executive summary which I just found out about. It’s all in the works.

Thanks for passing this on to anyone you can. My contact information is on my contact page.

St. Lucie Clerk of Courts: We ain’t got no internet

It’s 2008. Really. But if you live in St. Lucie County, you might not know that.

I just had to pay a speeding ticket I received sometime ago (thanks FHP!). Apparently, “sometime ago” should not be much longer than 30 days. Else you get a nasty letter from the State of Florida. The patrolman who wrote the ticket was nicer than the letter I got from the Department of Motor Vehicles - and he had a gun.

So, I called today to pay the ticket. Over the phone. Big mistake.

Their clerk of court doesn’t have a music-on-hold system. It just rings. And rings. And rings. My first call rang over 100 rings. I know because I counted. I was going to use my calculations to determine which would be cheaper - paying for brain cancer treatment ten years from now for staying on my cell phone or driving back down to St. Lucie at $3.60/gallon.

Finally, the phone is answered: “Traffic”. That’s the greeting, in case you couldn’t tell. A noun is now a greeting. It’s genius in its simplicity. I’m thinking about changing my greeting to “Man”.

I explain that I’d like to pay my ticket. “Over the phone?”, she says. Yes. “You’ll have to call our ‘pay-by-phone’ number.” Uh, okay. Can I be transferred to it? No.

I dial the special pay-by-phone number. It rings over 100 times. I begin to do math in my head again. I imagine someone’s grandmother 25 years ago struggling to get to that one kitchen phone from that far back bedroom. “I’m coming, I’m coming” she says to no one as she hobbles toward the phone. The vision helps me.

I call the first number back. After over 100 rings, the same lady picks up again. I know it was the same lady because she answered the same friendly way with that certain ring of sensuality in her voice as she greets me: “Traffic”.

I verify the pay-by-phone telephone number again. The number is correct, she says. I ask her that I’m just wondering if it is normal for their phone to just ring and ring with no phone mail system or music-on-hold or a greeting or a “press 1 for this, press 2 for that”. Yes, it’s normal, she says not so reassuringly.

I call the ‘pay-by-phone’ number again. After over 100 rings, it is answered by a different woman: “Traffic”. I momentarily have a collision of electrons in my head that prevents words from coming out of my mouth.

“Traffic”, the voice says again.

“I’m sorry”, I reply. “I was trying to reach the ‘pay-by-phone’ number.”

“This is it. What’s your traffic ticket number?”

I become immediately convinced that this women is sitting directly next to the first traffic lady. Probably winking at each other at that very moment.

We go through the process of paying over the phone. I ask her if there is supposed to be an automated pay-by-phone number. There is none she says, as if the very idea is a threat to good pay-by-phone operators the world over. Pay-by-phone operators like her. You can’t just trust your credit card number to a machine these days. It needs that special human touch. At least in St. Lucie.

While waiting for my confirmation number, I take a deep breath and slowly and politely ask, “Just out of curiosity, there wouldn’t be any way to pay this over the internet, would there?”.

“No, we ain’t got no internet”.

No, I didn’t think so.

But I did discover that they take Money Orders. That’s got to be a huge plus for the Money Order industry down in St. Lucie. You walk into a 7-Eleven to buy a money order for $82.35 and the clerk looks at you: “Traffic ticket?”. You nod sheepishly.

I guess we here in Brevard should be thankful to Clerk of Court Scott Ellis for keeping the Clerk’s office on the technology fast track. I realize that we have twice as many citizens as St. Lucie, but from a technology standpoint, it’s as if we are the Starship Enterprise and St. Lucie is the Model T Ford.

Still, it was a quaint, amusing experience - except for the 45 minutes of my time, the cell phone radiation pulsing through my brain cells, and the complete lack of personality by St. Lucie Clerk of Court phone operators. I now feel good about my 3-year old laptop and the fact that I don’t have an iPhone yet. And that’s a warm, low-tech comfortability that you just can’t buy - except with a traffic ticket in St. Lucie County.

Email is Dead for Me

After a less-than-rousing response to a conference in which I invited 18 male friends who live locally, and got only two responses at all, I sent a second, perhaps ill-advised second email the following week, exactly seven days later, asking, “Hey, what gives? Why no response?”

Here’s what I sent (hold your breath - it’s a bit rough, but remember that most of the recipients were people I’ve known for over a decade - all men):

I have to say that out of all the so-called “men” that I sent this to, only two responded at all. Quite frankly, it’s depressing to know that a lifetime of friendships and relationships that I’ve made come down to the fact that most of you don’t have either the time, respect, or interest in me as a person to bother to respond to a nice email. “Thanks, but I can’t go”, would seem to me, the starting point for politeness.

I realize that some people view email, even in 2008, as some “less-than” form of communication, not on par with hand-printed wedding invitations and the like. I’m aware of that.

Maybe some of you simply view me as an “ass”, or have for some time, and just don’t have the courage to say it to my face. Who knows?

Personally, I’m sick of wasting time feigning a relationship with some of you when clearly your head is elsewhere. I’m moving on. There’s other cool people in this world that show a little common decency and respect. I’ve NEVER not responded to an email - especially one in which someone takes the time to invite me to something (not just a forwarded missive).

I think many of you are swell guys, but there’s really no point in being friends if you won’t communicate. If you’re THAT busy, I suppose that’s a message in and of itself.

I got back a few more responses after that. Here’s the breakdown with a few excerpts:

• 4 apologetically toned emails about how stuffed their email inbox was and how they meant to reply, but didn’t yet:
  • I’d like to say I’m truly sorry and I hope you’re not wound up too much to accept an apology from me. It’s not just you, I’ve been letting a lot of things slip. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to meet every demand lately.