Just a quick observation today. Graqphic design/Web design is really no different than fashion. Everything has been done before, what is old is now new and all that really changes is how it’s done and what your pair it with. Now, with the exception of color palettes changing thanks to better monitors and video cards, Web 2.0 style design resembles alot of the older stuff from the very early 90’s. The late 90’s and early 2000’s had a very industrial, futuristic look and feel to the web. I blame Flash for that. But now, Web 2.0 styles are driving things toward the familiar simplicity of web design from 15yrs ago, minus of course the technology pinnacle of the day back then, the ever annoying animated GIF.

Does this mean in 2015 the techo-driven Flash interface will make a return and we will all be forced to interact like we are in The Minority Report? Only time will tell.

Garret French and others have recently re-started conversations concerning Social Media and marketing. Two camps of though have been proposed, which you can read more about at the links above. I myself find I am in camp 3. I, unlike most web developers, began in print design, a more traditional marketing medium.

Camp 3 is simply this:
Social media was once the truest form of online journalism/news/sluething/diaries/etc available. Drudge being a great example. Fark.com still being one of the truest sites out there. Big time marketers saw potential in social marketing(Blair Witch Project being one of the first) and decided to utilize it, no different really than product placement in movies and television. American Idol is nothing more than digg geared towards wannabe pop stars as opposed to blogs/news. If you watch American Idol(which I don’t past the embarrassing audtions), you’ll see Coco-Cola cups in front of each judge. Now, informed comsumers see two types of content simultaneously taking place. The first bit of content takes place via the judges, contestants, interviews and montages. The second piece are the product placements. Now, no one feels that the product placements taint the other content on the show, they simply co-exist. No one would be disappointed to find out Simon is really drinking coffee, Randy is drinking Pepsi and Paula is drinking liquid Valium. We understand why the cups are there and their intentions and we are not alarmed, offended or tricked by this.

Now, online social media is no different. We, as consumers and average Joe’s, understand what is taking place online. We don’t get our shackles up(sorry, a southern colloquialism for getting upset) over the corporate placements within any social media. SNL post clips online. Does it bother us? No we understand it is there as both an advertisement for the show and for our enjoyment. Fortune 500 companies pay employees to maintain corporate blogs and they have discretion over what is posted like wartime morale officers comming down on Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam. Does this bother us? No, we take it for what its worth and move on.

Garrett is an old friend of mine, his post is worth the read as most of his client base resembles mine. Neither one of use are going to land a big Nike or Sony or Microsoft contract anytime soon. And thats great with us, we’re not going to get our shackles up.

Just a little tidbit here….Owning a website is really no different than catfishing. When people catfish, no matter what actual method they are using, they basically throw a line out there with bait and a hook and then you wait. You hope the fish likes what it sees and takes a bite. Owning a website is really no different. Millions of people own websites. There’s millions of things in that lake a catfish can eat. You put the best product out there that you can get your hands on and hope you land the fish. Bass fishing on the otherhand, you’re trying yo make the fish think it is eating something other than what you’re presenting. While there are people out there that practice such unethical methods, most websites I build for clients and my person websites are more like catfishing. Sure, you can spend tons of time researching the best landing pages the direct people to take the action you want, just like I can spends hours trying to get the attention of a catfish. But, when it’s all said and done, people, like catfish want the best thing available. In the case of catfish, it’s the stinkiest, stationary object out there. With people however, its always about quality. The quality could be in the product itself, in customer support or even in pricing.

Ok, I know this is kind of an obscure and random post, but when you are sitting by the lake enjoying time with your kids and you own a web development business, weird things pop into your head.

Website ChowNowOnline.com Will Make Searching and Ordering For Delivery and Carry Out Easier For Residents of the Greater Greenville Area

ChowNowOnline.com wants to improve the interactions between restaurants and their customers.
Residents will be able to search by their address and discover which participating restaurants deliver to their home address then place their order online. Residents who want to carry out their orders can place them online and pick them up when ready. Restaurants will be able to increase accuracy and efficiency in their ordering process and provide a service their customers desire. We are currently looking for restaurants in the area to participate. Please visit us at http://www.chownowonline.com/registration.php to register.

For more information, please email support@chownowonline.com

CollegeWishingWell.com provides a secure means for friends and family to give gioco keno inlineamacchinette video pokercasino online italianicasino con bonus senza depositoroulette casinòcasino on line roulette,gran roulette casino,roulette casinoroulette on line gratiscasino on line gamblingmigliori casino onlineall slotscasino o netcasino gaminggioco craps in lineacasino online legalicasino bonus no depositogiochi da casino gratisquestionario casino on netcasino online in italiagiochi di casino onlinevideo poker gamesweb casinoplay free kenono deposit casino on linegiocare alla roulettecasino bonus,bonus casino on net,casino bonus gratisroulette virtualegiochi blackjack in lineasistemi rouletteregolamento roulettecasino online postepayroulette cinesegioca alla rouletteall download slotsgiochi casino gratiscasino online autorizzatimetodi roulettebwin casinoroulette europeatrucchi casino on linevideo poker online gratis,giochi online video poker,video poker onlinejack black in lineaforum casino onlineregole gioco roulettegioco di roulettedownload roulette gratisplay keno onlinebaccarat on linevideo poker virtuale,download video poker gratis,video poker888 casinofree texas holdem poker,free texas holdem poker site,free texas holdem poker software you or minors in your care monetary gifts for college. The website accepts gifts through credit card transactions and deposits those gifts directly into your designated college savings account or investment.

We were able to identify a source of money that would not be missed and built CollegeWishingWell.com around it. The untapped resources being used are Birthday presents and other gifts. Our service takes this money that is already being spent on our young people and redirects it toward a more beneficial use, college tuition and expenses.

Registered users (Sponsors) inform friends and family (Guests) of their CollegeWishingWell.com account. CollegeWishingWell.com provides two ways to do that: 1) Sponsors can print gift registry cards and sent them out with invitations or greeting cards. 2) Sponsors can use their CollegeWishingWell.com address book to send e-card/e-mail messages that include an electronic copy of the gift registry card.

Guests use the Sponsor’s e-mail address to access that Sponsor’s guest webpage. From there, guests can give a monetary gift for college or access photos and notes that the Sponsor has posted.

http://www.collegewishingwell.com/

Ok I know this is a web development blog, but that doesn’t mean I can throw a little fun stuff out every now and again. Here in Madisonville,Ky we are in a ‘State of Emergency’. It’s bad enough tornadoes ripped through here last week leaving people homeless, injured and even worse, dead. Now we’ve had three days of ice storms. The kids have been out of school, roads have been closed, power has been out and tree are down everywhere. It truly looks like a war zone in some spots, my house and driveway included. I’ve been through this before. When I lived in Lexington,KY we had one of the worst ice storms in the history of the U.S. Millions of dollars of damage to houses, power lines, trees, yards and businesses. Not to mention the loss due to business lost. However, in the middle of that, the company I worked for still expected us to make it into work. I had to stay at a hotel 40 miles away. We didn’t have power in our apartment for 5 days, I’m stuck in Richmond,Ky and I was told “We’re an international company, our clients still have to work.” It was my first real job and I didn’t know any better. But Jeff Phillips, the previous owner of CADWebsiteDesign.com, taught me alot about being a business owner while I worked for him. On many occasions he and his wife, Lucinda, put employees and even their integrity before the almighty dollar. Sure they were in business to make money, but they had ethics. Employee safety came first. He stood up for his employees if they were ever mistreated by clients. He would turn down projects for both moral and ethical reasons. I guess that really speaks to their success doesn’t it? I feel their attitude towards owning a business is what lead them to achieve the American Dream. Retired in your early 40’s, life must be tough huh? They’ve deserve it!

Anyway, I’m posting some pictures of the ice storm. If anybody happens to stumble onto these in Google image search, feel free to use them however you wish. It’s not that I think of myself as a photographer, it’s simply that I think if you publish a photo on the web on a publicly accessed site/page, you should be willing to allow people to use that photo. If you want to manage the rights to a photo, go through the proper channels. Let Getty or someone else properly handle that.

War Zone

Ice

Winter Wonderland

Believe it or not, there is absolutely no snow in this picture. It is entirely ice.

Dewy

Anyone who knows me knows I will own nothing but German shepherds. This is my newest pup. My son, Mason, named him Dewy after seeing the movie Firehouse Dog. Dewy is 5 months old and just over 60lbs. To me, that rocks! I like dogs that look at other dogs like chew toys. My last German shepherd, Cain, had an entire graveyard of cats. Where he found them, I don’t know, but he kept a steady stream flowing in. So here is Dewy outside with me while I took these pictures:

As the holidays are gearing up and my mood seems to become a bit lighter, I would like to take the time to promote my favorite charity. It’s called Let’s Bring Em Home!

What started as somewhat of a pet project for webmaster Ernie Stewart has turned into a full-blown operation each year as Christmas rolls around and military personnel are sadly stuck in bunks thousands of miles away from the their families.

The goal of this charity is provided, free of charge, airline tickets for active military personnel trying to get home for the holidays. 96% of all funds donated are used to purchase tickets. Read what Ernie has to say and if that doesn’t pull on your heartstrings, I don’t know what will:

Each year I receive heart wrenching emails from a young female soldier who was forced to send her children to live with their grandparents, while she fulfilled her military duties. And now the only thing she wants for Christmas is to be able to give her children presents in person. Are you going to tell her no? Each year a young soldier fresh out of boot camp pines for the chance to spend just one more holiday with his parents before beginning a long deployment to the Middle East. Will he come home in once piece? Will he come home at all? I don’t know. But what if this is his last Christmas? Wouldn’t you want to spend it with loved ones, and not with the concrete walls of a dormitory?… And rest assured folks, nothing but heartbreak and disappointment await these fine people. You heard me. Nothing but heartbreak and disappointment await these fine people unless you and I do something about it.

- Ernie Stewart
ehowa.com

The customer is always right…well yeah, okay, maybe just sometimes. We have always gone to great lengths to provide the best service possible. Due to this we often go beyond the scope of project for many of our clients. A simple subscription system ends up being a advanced invoicing system. This isn’t something the client intends in the beginning phases of a project, but things tend to morph and adapt as the process moves along. For the most part we can accommodate our clients to a certain extent. Usually the extra development time will be taken from another aspect or we convince them that it would be best to wait on these new features until we do version 2.0 of their website. Sometimes we just bite the bullet and do it anyway if we feel it was something we missed in quoting the project and it is necessary to have a truly effective website that accomplishes our clients needs. Usually we can work something out so that the client is happy and we haven’t worked for free at the same time. Case in point, SubSmartRegistry.com. Towards the end of the project, it became obviously aware that a calendar of open and fulfilled dates was needed to really polish the site. We simply did it. It was something we should have thought about before quoting the project so we ate the cost.

Anyway, recently we had a previous client call who we had developed their site over 3 years ago. At the time, we designed a fixed width site based on links they provided us of other sites they liked. The site looked great and the template was user friendly and attractive at the same time. During this recent phone call, the client asked if we would upgrade his template. He had recently purchased a really big monitor and didn’t like how it looked with his new resolution. He wanted a fluid site that stretched the entire width of the browser. Totally understandable. So I began to tell him about our current template prices he stopped me in mid-sentence in order to inform me he wasn’t going to pay for anything. He said we gave him an “unprofessional” template and that no one else had a site that behaved like his. Even after showing him examples of other sites that were fixed width I was told it was still unprofessional. He fully expected a new layout for free 3 years after he approved his current template. When it was all said and done, he was pretty furious. To some extent I can understand. It’s like the new Lexus you bought 3 years ago and now the new body style is out. You want the most current up-to-date things you can get. So yeah, in 3 years trends have changed and monitors are bigger and cheaper.

But here lies the problem. For years, the average consumer has been bombarded with news and commercials telling them just how easy their life will be when they embrace technology. They think becuase we, as graphic designers and developers, know more about computers than the average Joe, that our jobs are easy and these things are pretty quick. That’s simple not true. We are more like carpenters. The higher the quality of craftsmanship, the longer it takes. You wouldn’t build a house and 3 years later decide you want to knock down a wall in the kitchen only to contact the cabinet maker and demand new cabinets for free because the old ones don’t look right with the wall missing.

So in this case, the old adage about the customer always being right simply doesn’t apply. Actually the inverse is true.

Today, I realized that I am turning nerdy four tomorrow. It would be fourty four if it weren’t for the exception that I realized I was smitttten with something I found on the web, that by other observations, would be considered rather mundane. I couldn’t help it, I just loved it.

My wife and I love to cook. I mean get in the kitchen with a glass of wine and fix something we saw on Rachael Ray kind of cooking. Neither of us are very creative when it comes to cooking, but when we follow the recipies provided, we can whip up some masterpieces. Maybe it’s just the wine that makes us think so, but good just the same.

As we sat in our living room this morning, Lucinda decided to put together a shopping list to prepare our menus for the week. This is rather time consuming as she has to write out everything she needs to shop for. It was at that moment that I decided to do a search for an open source shopping list generator. What I found was Freaking Awesome.

It is a Firefox extension called Grocery List Generator and it gives you an area online to share recipies and generate grocery shopping lists for the mouth watering dishes you are going to prepare.

It seems to be relatively new based on the age of the recipies added to the shared database. If you like to cook, install it on your Firefox browser and add some recipies.

If you like wine, come read some of our wine reviews at Novice Wine Blog.

SEOmoz and Rand Fishkin launched an seo quiz to test the metal of self proclaimed seo experts. I took the test and scored a 75% making me an SEO Professional according the the scale. While I agree that the test was somewhat informative, I found it to be more for fun than anything. Several of the questions were global in nature. One such question involved the most preferred search engine in Japan.

There was one question, however, that drew a retort from Vanessa Fox concerning a quote she made that was used out of context as the basis for an answer to one of the questions. I answered the question wrong according to SEOmoz, but I answered it right according to Vanessa Fox. The question and my answer are;

#44 When launching a large amount of new content on a new or existing domain, the best way to release content for crawling and indexing is:

Your Answer: All at once - to allow the spiders to find the content and digest it in their preferred format

Correct Answer: Over time, in multiple smaller sized chunks

As Vanessa Fox noted in an interview (and as others have discovered through testing), the best practice is to use multiple, smaller-sized chunks over time.

Vanessa posted on her blog that this was not how she intended this statement to be used. Vanessa claimed that her quote was addressing 301 to move existing content.

Now another person has thrown their hat into this debate by stating that Vanessa Fox is wrong about SEOmoz being wrong.

My question at this point is - Who gives a shit? Really. It’s not that big of a deal (OMGINBD). The SEO test was fun at best, but I wouldn’t make any business decisions based on the scores touted by the various seo’s out there proudly displaying their SEOmoz SEO Quiz Score Badge. After I took my test, I was given the questions and answers to the entire quiz. What is to stop an unscrupulous seo from retaking the test then promoting themselves as a Dark Lord of SEO?

Also, what the hell is lolcats and lolcutts all about? Get a life folks……