Archive for the ‘General’ Category

I will be presenting about “discount usability” next week at the Columbus Digital Adobe User Group. Come for food and networking opportunities and stay for 2 presentations about usability and accessibility.

The gist of my presentation: With a little elbow grease, you can figure out where the biggest usability pitfalls are on your website. This type of analysis helps you identify areas where your site’s design is not performing as well as it could be.

Learn how to do it yourself. No need to hire an expensive usability lab to do this high ROI activity!

Place

6500 Emerald Parkway
4th Floor
Dublin, Ohio 43016

Schedule

6:10-7:00 pm: My usability presentation
7:10-8:00 pm: Accessibility presentation by Andrea Hill, Senior Developer at Resource Interactive
8:00 pm: Raffle for $2,000 worth of Adobe software

Hope to see you there!

A friend of mine always forwards me cheesy self-improvement newsletters. I always read them because every now and then there are great little nuggets of wisdom.

A few days ago, I came across this one from Jeffery Combs about the role of importance versus the role of urgency. Read the rest of this entry »

What questions do you have about running a web site? SEO? Internet marketing in general?

You have questions, I have answers!

I’m posting this blog entry with my new mobile phone.

As other device manufacturers work hard to catch up, we’re at the beginning of a revolution. It’s time to start thinking about how to best serve users that are connecting to the Web and email through mobile devices.

Over the course of my career, I’ve been obsessed with best practices. Be they best practices for writing code or for separating responsibilities, I’ve always had dreams of running that well-oiled marketing and technology machine.

If you’re just starting out in working with an internet marketer, you may be a little uncomfortable in knowing what your role is vs. what your internet marketer’s role is. You don’t want to come across as a micro-manager, but you also own the work that you’re paying for, right?

From my side of the table, here’s what I see as the line in the sand for responsibilities. Read the rest of this entry »

There are some good things and some bad things that can come out of paying by the hour. But if you’re a visionary, I think it will rarely help you break through. Read the rest of this entry »

When I tell people that I build web sites, I get 1 common question. A lot of people ask, “Well, what do you do when you’re done building it?”

I know that you’re probably a little more aware than that, but I just want to make sure. Cool?

In most cases, a web site is never “done.” If you plan on building a new one, you should understand what the commitment really is. It is not wise to invest a lot of money on building a web site, let it sit unchanged, and then redo the entire investment in 3 years’ time.

While your web site is up and running, you should test everything. You should continually be trying something new, even if it’s just a change in wording on a headline. Which one drives more sales or more leads from your site? Use the one that works better, and test it against something else. By the next re-design, you’ll have learned a lot about what works instead of acting on a bunch of hunches and guesses.

I know, web sites are soooo high maintenance!

If you’re in business today, you need to know an awful lot about technology.

Let’s play some Buzzword Bingo:

• email
• web sites
• RSS
• search engine optimization
• Google AdWords
• banner ads
• blogs
• high availability enterprise service oriented system architecture

As the tech workforce grows, a lot of people are learning how to use these words to sound smart.

The problem becomes a reality when you need to start trusting someone else to do your marketing and technology. When you go this route, you get a lot of possible outcomes. Incompetence, fear tactics, a damaged reputation in Google. Or maybe you get lucky and hire the right people to do the job.

While I’m growing my own company from an “I” to a “we,” I want to help you out. As large IT companies bully you with stories about the complexities of technology, I’m crying bullshit! The stories will change. Business technology will become increasingly friendlier, and I want for us to be a part of that.

I am of the mind that your technology and marketing should be run by smart, competent people. Everyone has a nightmare to tell about the ego that forces everyone to use crap technology for their company Intranet. Somewhere along the line, people are let in that don’t make very good choices anymore. I want to help you avoid this.

It’s so easy to write a blog about technology and leave most people out. I want for you to understand what great tools and methodologies are out there without confusing you. So come back in a day or 2 and see what else I have to say.