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.

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.

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……

Since posting my previous blog entry about the Big W Foods Scam, we have learned a little more about our friend David Scott Mosher. We also learned where he got some of the photos he was using for the bios pages;

Sam Alexander is shown as a man in the bios page we created for them. Samantha Alexander is a woman in the bio page created by the other web development company.

The original photo was taken from here and is the photo of Scott A. White who is an attorney at Achille, Ellermeyer, French, and White.

Sam Bradborrow is shown on the profile sheet that we created for them.

The original photo comes from here and he is Dr. Christoph Schreiber and he is a Patent Attorney.

Lisa Cartwright is an unidentified woman but we found the image here.

Also, since I posted this yesterday, David Scott Mosher has done everything from threaten to report me to the BBB to ask how much it will cost for me to remove this blog posting. He even sent me a fake customer testimonial.

I have also found additional websites complaining about him and his other scams;

http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=17272

http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=mosher

This blog posting serves as a warning to any web developers that might be contacted by a person identifying himself as David Scott with Big W Foods. This is a scam, and here are the details as I have them right now.

They are contacting web developers and they need a shopping cart set up in 2 weeks or less.
They insist that you register the domain names for them.
They will provide credit card information via email and will also provide an approval code for you to enter to get authorization on the card. (This is not a proper authorization).
They will provide text that is in direct copyright violation of Target, Wal Mart, or any other large retailer.
He is sending bogus faxes from his “Bank” Credit Europe. He provided a USA Phone Number of 206-338-3155 which according to Intelius rings to a residential number in Everett Washington.

We registered bigwfoods.com, bigwfoods.co.ok, bigwfoods.co.mx, and a few others. David Scott made 2 payments on 8-14-07 and we received notification on 8-24 from Merchant-e-solutions that the cards were bad.

Description: 4807 Warning Bulletin File - An authorization was not received from the
Issuing Bank and the account number was listed in the MasterCard Electronic Warning
Bulleting file on the date of the transaction.
To Resolve this Chargeback: Please provide documentation to prove the transaction
below was authorized. If a credit has been issued please supply credit receipt showing
date, dollar amount and cardholder number. However, please do not issue a credit upon
receipt of this letter.
Merchant Number: 9410000xxxx
Cardholder #: 526490xxxxxx9130
Chargeback Ref #: 95140617227900xxxx
Control #: 14811xx
Transaction Amount: $1,857.49
Transaction Date: 08/14/2007

Merchant Number: 9410000xxxx
Cardholder #: 526490xxxxxx9130
Chargeback Ref #: 95140617227900xxxx
Control #: 14811xx
Transaction Amount: $2,080.39
Transaction Date: 08/14/2007

When we received the notification, I called him and asked for an explanation. He told me that his wallet was stolen on 8-24 and that was why the charges were reversed. My credit card processor told me that the cards were flagged the day that they were processed on 8-14.

We suspended the accounts on 8-24-07. Since then, he has tried to launch the following sites with the following web developers;

1. bigwfoodsltd.com which was registered by 123triad.com on 8-28-07 (whois shows bombaybiz ltd, but I have spoken to 123triad.com)

2. bigwfood.com which was registered by cambria.com on 8-30-07

I have also spoken with Paragraph Publishing from The U.K. who claims that David Scott tried to pay for $65,000 worth of advertising the same way (bad cards). Tom at Paragraph Publishing says the original website that David Scott is ripping off is http://www.bigw.com.au/

David Scott is also providing photos of his “Staff” to be used on About or Contact pages. Below is a screen capture of the photos he sent us and the photos he sent to Cambria.com. The same people are listed, but different photos have been used;

Bio Info Provided on 8-21-07

Bio Info Provided on 9-1-07

Notice how different Rizza, Trina & Sandra look in the two profile pages.

This “David Scott” is hellbent on launching a website using a variation of Big W Foods for the domain name. He will request that you register the domain, and he will want everything done in as little as a week. I feel that if he successfully launches a shopping cart, hundreds of innocent people will have their identities stolen.

Do yourself and the internet community a favor and do not work with him. Please spread the word about this scam. Lets work together to shut this bastard down.

Website Design Process

Potential clients often ask about our website design process. If we choose you, what happens next? How long does it take? How does the design and build process work? What is our responsibility as a client? Most if not all web development projects are custom, but they all follow a typical work flow that I will attempt to outline below.

Website Design Quotation Request

Typically, a quotation request is initiated by the you the customer either via our quotation form or via our online contact form or by a phone call.

Introduction & Data Collection

Once we receive your request for quotation, we will review any documents provided, review and referenced websites, and consult with you to obtain any additional information we may need to make an accurate quotation.

No-Obligation Consultation and Brainstorming

Our development team will review your quotation request to make sure it contains all of the necessary information for us to assemble an intelligent, competitive quotation for your project. If we are missing information, or need clarification on an idea, someone from our offices may contact you by email or phone or both. If we have all of the necessary information, we can usually provide a quotation within 24 hours (usually sooner)..

Detailed Proposal

After the brainstorming process, we make a formal proposal detailing pricing, timing, and assumptions. After your quotation is completed, you will receive an email notifying you to come and “pick up” your quote. It will be
From: CAD Website Design Sales
Subject: Your Quote From CAD Website Design Is Now Available
You will be provided a log in username (your email address) and a randomly generated Password. The log in area to view your quotation when it is ready is located HERE.

Project Authorization & Retainer

If our proposal meets your approval and you select our company to develop your website, you will print the contract and sign it. You will then fax the signed contract to our offices and follow up with a non-refundable 25% retainer fee. An example of this is if your contract is for $4,000.00, you would issue payment for $1,000.00 and only owe the balance of $3,000.00 during the following phases of the design process. You may make this retainer payment via check, cash, or credit card.

Design Concepts

The actual look and feel of your website is key to ensuring the customer/visitor has the best possible browsing experience. The core of your site will be designed and laid out using best practices with emphasis on SEO to present your business to the visitor in a manner that reflects your professional image and brand. Equally important is usability. The easier it is for the visitor to use your website the greater your chance of converting them into a customer and increasing the chances of repeat business. The template design process consists of custom graphic design employing photoshop/fireworks/flash with 2 concepts and up to 2 rounds of revisions (depending on package selected), graphical splicing of approved templates to optimize load time and usability, css/XHTML production, unique css/xhtml adaptation to user platform and additional bell and whistle functionality. Total time involved can range from 40 to 60 hours.

Design Concept Review, Revisions & Approval

Once the two concepts are completed, they will be submitted for your review. This allows you to choose one of the submitted concepts and request up to 2 rounds of revisions to the concept for final template approval. This does not equal a third design concept. Concepts will be provided to you and ask that you provide all revision requests in writing, all at the same time. Doing so will reduce the risk of a missed revision request. You may wish to take up to 48 hours to submit revision request to make sure you remembered everything. A design revision provides for the following; Color Tweaks, Font Tweaks, Design Element Locations (moving elements left, right, up, down, etc..), Minor Graphic Changes (buttons, arrows, etc). To quantify this, a round of revisions is anything we can complete in a 4 hour period. If your revision request exceeds 4 hours of work, we will provide a detailed quotation showing which revisions we can complete in 4 hours and quote the remaining revisions at a cost of $100/hr.

Database Programming & Additional Development

Once we receive a signed Template Approval Form, we begin developing any other parts of your website per our agreement. This is when we begin installing cms modules, shopping carts, and performing any other custom programming if quoted.

Additional Payments

Two additional invoices will be mailed on 2 week intervals during the development process. These invoices typically coincide with milestones or deliverables identified early on in the project time line.

Testing & Debugging

During the development phase, we may ask you to take a look at work completed and test for functionality. All development work will be done on our internal development servers. There will also be a final testing and debugging session (if needed) just before delivery of the finished web site.

Final Acceptance & Final Invoice

After all testing has been done and everything is determined to be functional per our arrangement, we will require you to sign a Project Sign Off form. This form indicates that you accept the work that has been performed and that nothing else needs to be completed or corrected. At this time we will also expect the final invoice to be paid prior to transferring files to your hosting server.

Release For Production

Once we receive the signed Project Sign Off form and receive final payment, we will transfer all files, images, and databases to your hosting environment. We will make sure that once the files are transferred to your hosting environment that our work performs as needed. If there are compatibility issues, we will advise you on how to have your hosting environment upgraded or updated to facilitate our web development solution.

I invite you to look at our website development solutions or request a custom web design quotation.

Grow a full head of hair overnight! Lose 30 pounds in 30 days! Increase your penis/bust/etc by 3 inches with this product! Promote your business online, increase your online visibility and make money on the internet…in a few simple steps! NO technical expertise is necessary. If you can type and click, you can use Traffic Blazer!

What a crock of shit. I quoted a project to a prospect and had also quoted a basic search engine marketing package as well. I found out that I was the high bidder and the prospect was considering working with a company that quoted a SEO tool called Traffic Blazer.

This is from their website;

Most Web site traffic and online purchases come from search engines like Google®, Yahoo!® and MSN®. Get your share of Internet business with Traffic Blazer®. Promote your business online, increase your online visibility and make money on the internet…in a few simple steps! NO technical expertise is necessary. If you can type and click, you can use Traffic Blazer!

They offer a 4 step to success program.

1. Search Engine Optimization - The key to attracting search engine–generated traffic to your Web site is to meticulously optimize its content for carefully selected keywords. Traffic Blazer enables you to zero in on the most effective keywords for your site and provides you with the tools to position the site for top search engine rankings for those keywords..

2. Website Analysis - The Traffic Blazer Site Analysis assesses your Web site’s compatibility with key search engine ranking criteria, including spiderability, frame and Flash usage, and level of keyword optimization. The Site Analysis pinpoints site elements that may need to be improved, thus hinting at the site’s performance (WTF?) in an actual search engine scenario.

3. Website Submission - Traffic Blazer helps you ensure your Web site’s visibility by submitting it to the Internet’s leading search engines and directories. The Automated Submission features enables quick submission to more than 50 search engines and directories from one convenient location, while the Manual Submission feature provides you with the tools you need to submit your content to more than 300 key search engines, including engines that focus on regional content and Web logs (blogs).

4. Traffic Analysis - The Traffic Blazer reporting tools enable you to monitor the exact impact of your optimization and submission efforts and pinpoint elements that need to be revisited in order for you to create the desired traffic flow to your Web site. The Reporting tools allow you to verify that your content is indexed by key search engines, review your Web page’s back links (inbound links), check your search engine ranking for applicable keywords, and much more. Performance tracking is a central element in the search engine optimization process for your Web site.

The tool also offers link popularity checks and other tools that you can find free on the web. This is nothing more than a collection of free tools that are serve yourself and you still have to pay for it. This is not search engine marketing that anyone should have to pay for, especially if anyone is having to do it themselves.

Here is why I take exception to the 4 steps to success offered by Traffic Blazer.

1. Search Engine Optimization - Their example shows a keyword suggestion tool based on Yahoo searches over the last 30 days. The example they show is a report using the term “search engine”.

While they may be able to prove it statistically correct, what the hell is a new webmaster going to do with this information? If I use this tool, will I rank better for search engine marketing that seomoz or bruceclay? I’m not holding my breath.

2. Website Analysis - While website analysis is good to do, it can be done for free, especially if I am the one having to do it. There are literally hundreds of tools online that will help you;
Determine Keyword Density
Determine Link Popularity
Hundreds of other tools…

What I really liked about the description of the website analysis is that it basically hints at a sites performance. Is this like my wife hinting that she wants me to rub her feet? Sometimes I have to be told what she wants because I can never get the hint. I also think a new webmaster will have to be told how to fix any issues versus just telling that there are issues.

3. Website Submissions - Includes a lot of spammy free for all directories. There are basically 3 search engines (maybe 4) that you need to submit to, and 1 or 2 directories (if you can ever get a response from one of them). They will also submit your blog to several blog search engines. So, all you have to do is write great content with high frequency and they will submit it for you. But wait, if I have a blog and if I can write great content on my own, do I really even need to pay for this?

4. Reporting - This is just giving a report of whether your listed and what your link popularity is. What about referrers, the long tail, any other valuable metric someone could get for free using Google Analytics?

Search engine optimization goes much further than just these basics.

I think this presentation by godaddy is deceptive at best to newbie webmasters to make them think they will find instant traffic and money on the web using this simple 4 step process called Traffic Blazer. If you have signed up for this, I have a sure fire exercise aid that will deliver six pack abs in as little as 3 weeks if your interested. Its called block of wood and you hold it while you do thousands of crunches…

C.A.D. Enterprises L.L.C. is committed to providing quality online solutions and competitive internet advertising services. All employees are integral parts of the web development and advertising creation process. C.A.D. Enterprises L.L.C. is always looking to expand its services and improve its employee caliber.

Sales Associates / Account Representative

Qualified candidate is an enthusiastic, high energy, multi-tasked, competitive, and motivated sales professional. Must have the ability to work independently. Responsible for finding new prospects and establishing relationships. Work closely with decision making Executives, outside sales reps and upper management to generate revenue. Great opportunity for the right individual. Ideal person is one who is accustomed to making 20 - 40 contacts per day and does not get discouraged easily. This position offers unlimited earning opportunities. Start with making 10% per sale. Position requires applicants to be computer proficient and familiar with Internet technology and have at least 2 years of prospecting, inside sales, or appointment setting experience. Constant on the job training will be available so that Inside Sales Reps understand our industry and our service offerings. Opportunities for advancement are available. To apply, send a cover letter and resume through our online contact form.

The primary role and duties of the Sales Representative is as follows:

• Serve as the first point of contact for existing design and advertising clients
• Process quotes/orders for design projects or advertising services
• Qualify customer needs and specifics about web development products or advertising services they will use
• Up-sell new products of existing clients
• Thorough understanding of sales objectives and initiatives
• Ability to work closely with other inside sales associates and outside sales personnel
• Understanding of key advertising vendors

The successful candidate will have:

• A minimum of two years inside sales experience
• Strong written and verbal skills
• A college degree is preferred
• Knowledge of the telecom field and outside plant is preferred
• PC skills and MS Office are necessities

I bought an iPhone for my wife today for her birthday. She had a crappy old phone with a cracked case and it didn’t even have a qwerty keyboard. She couldn’t keep up with all the people that text her.

I went to our local ATT store and found out that they had 1 iPhone left in stock, and it was an 8GB phone. I watched the demonstration and I think the thing is awesome.

We set up the iTunes account, activated the phone, and added a new package to her existing ATT cell plan. The set up was easy, secure, and a no-brainer.

If you have an existing ATT cell phone account, you can just modify your existing plan and add Internet connectivity starting at an additional $20 per month. We went with the $30 per month plan and it offers over 1300 text messages per month.

I hope she enjoys the phone because she is not a gadgets person like I am. Happy birthday Lucinda.

Rand Fiskin over at SEOMoz has been kind enough to explain what it looks like if you have had the Google Real Estate Reciprocal Link Penalty levied against your real estate website.

I have asked around to find out why the real estate websites were penalized and found my answer. I am going to make an attempt to explain it here with the use of some very crude diagrams.

Below is an example of a naturally occurring reciprocal linking structure.

A Realtor who is interested in truly helping their site visitor would realize when someone is looking for a new home, they are also going to be interested in the schools, hospitals, shopping, etc. Also, you might see that the Realtor links to the school site, the school site might not link back due to 1 reason or another.

Now, lets take a look at the type of reciprocal linking that warranted the Google Real Estate Reciprocal Link Penalty. I asked the question, “I can’t believe that the penalty is just from participating in reciprocal linking, so is it because of too many reciprocal links in a short period of time, or links from irrelevant sources, etc? Does anyone have any insight as to what the actual infraction was?”

Jay Griffin (cant find a link for Jay or a link to a website of his. Jay, if you read this, send me a link and I will post it for you…) answered a question of mine and stated the following;

The penalty was at first limited to approximately 100 real estate agent sites that are (were) hosted by the same company. On April 15 each of these sites dropped approximately 30-50 positions in rankings. About a week later some of these sites made “re inclusion requests” and subsequently came back in the rankings, some to a lesser degree, about 30 days after that.In the meantime a smaller number of sites that were all built by another company were hit on May 9th. Most of these sites have yet to recover.What these penalized sites shared in common, for the most part, was a directory of state pages that had links to other real estate agents (referral/relocation partners) across the country.These links were compiled in some cases over a period of several years - too many links too fast was not the issue. They were all linking to other agents - not to sites outside of the real estate industry. All told approximately 150 sites (not thousands) have been penalized..

Here is what that looks like…

As you can imagine, I have not added all of the potential link combinations in this diagram. This is a very incestuous reciprocal linking structure that is set up specifically just for manipulating search engine results. Also note that we in Kentucky know all about Incestuous relationships (you have heard all of the jokes… )

This is the basis for Google’s Real Estate Reciprocal Link Penalty in a nut shell.

Now, this is not applicable to just the real estate industry. I would venture a guess that this is happening in many industries and if your industry is participating in a linking scheme like this one, now is the time to diversify your reciprocal links before you have a penalty levied against your site.

Once again, thanks to Jay Griffin for the explanation and I am going to reply to his posting to tell him I made this blog entry and would like to link to his site as a way of saying thank you.

Editors Note: This trumps the whole Vanessa Fox Insider Ranking Conspiracy Theory bullshit I cooked up yesterday…