Read This

I find this person’s writing and insight so spot on that I would consider going to work for them immediately if:

1. I lived in Silicon Valley
2. I knew who this person was
3. I knew where this person worked

Numbers 2 and 3 are relatively easily solved with a little detective work but it’s just not worth it considering number 1. So for now I think I’ll simply continue to enjoy his writing.

Visit the link above to soak in some ideas on how decisions are made and ideas created. I find I work much the same way. Maybe that’s why I enjoy his articles so much.

Superhero

Listening to NPR the other day. Diane Rehm was talking to a young woman with a learning disability. She was saying how she had gone to schools specifically tailored for LDs all her life but since no one was going to cut her any slack in the real world,she decided to go to a non-LD college so she’d get used to it. Diane asked her if she liked it. She said yes but she wasn’t sure if she was going to stay. She wasn’t sure what career she wanted to have when she grew up but she knew she wanted to be a super hero. A super hero. They never said what college it was but I’m pretty sure they don’t have a super hero program there.

I want to be a superhero too. I want to be a super hero to my family. I want to be a super hero to my friends. I want to be a super hero to my coworkers and clients. Is that too much to ask?

Luckily the two Andys (Budd and Clarke) have me covered in the web design department with their SXSW presentation,How to be a Web Design Superhero.

Oklahoma!

My logs indicate that this site was returned in the search results for “interesting facts about Oklahoma” close enough to the top that somebody clicked through on it.

I find that interesting because those are three things that are rarely mentioned on this site:

1. stuff that’s interesting
2. facts
3. Oklahoma

Wonders never cease.

Local Couple Arrested on Human Smuggling Charges

It’s a good thing that A- and I are good at our chosen careers because we would make terrible,terrible agents or talent managers.

A woman approached us at the garden show this weekend and asked to take our picture for something. We immediately said yes and asked for details afterward. And even though we did ask for details,neither of us is still sure what it was for. We’re either going to be in the Insider (whatever that is),the Weekend section of the paper,or The City Newspaper. We’re not sure which.

I half expect to see our smiling faces gracing an article under a phony headline like the one above.

You think you’ve got it tough

I was going to complain about how busy I’ve been lately. Working full time,family,side projects,and such. Until I heard about Clarice on NPR this morning.

Clarice cares for her 89 year old sister who is in the terminal stages of Alzheimer’s. She also cares for her brother who is 95 and a stroke victim. Sound tough but do-able? Clarice turns 102 this August and has health problems of her own.

Clarice is their sole care giver which means feeding,bathing,doing their laundry,everything. She also has to wake several times during the night to turn her sister who is bed-ridden. She does it all with a positive attitude and thanks God for the ability to do so.

I don’t think I’ll complain today. About anything.

Content is King ( still)

Note: This is a rough,rough draft written over two or three days at well past midnight. The topic is something that comes up quite a bit and that I have a lot to say about. This is an explosion of some of those things. It’s somewhat (dis)organized in some places. In the interest of time (and mostly so I can move on to something else),I’m publishing this as is. There are some gems in here if you have the time. If not,the takeaway is right in the title. You don’t need to read any further than that. On with the show…

This is something I’ve talked about in the past,both here and in person to clients. It was a topic in Sitepoint’s March Newsletter and the basis for some recent converstions I’ve had as well.

Content is king!

I think for people with little knowledge of the Internet outside of recreational use,comprehension of this concept comes in stages or unfortunately,not at all.

1. Let’s assume you have a business. I don’t care if you work for yourself selling homemade pot holders or if you’re the CEO of a 500 employee manufacturing company. At some point somebody has probably told you that you need a web site and that this web site would answer all your (business-related) prayers. At this stage,that’s not only believable but you can’t wait to get that site online and watch the $$$ come rolling in.
2. The site is online,you put your feet up on your desk,and…nothing happens. The big letdown. No bags,piles,or stacks of money. You think you know firsthand why the tech bubble burst and the e-Toys stock you bought to send Johnny to college now won’t even pay for a week of his day care. I digress.
3. Your web site really let you down. But you have money and time invested in it so you’re not entirely ready to give up. Good news! You get an email one day claiming to be able to get you umpteen-million visitors. XYZ Company will get you registered on a million search engines,they’ll get you setup with a pay-per-click campaign,and they have tons of SEO tricks that will land you the #1 spot on Google. Cool. You’re on cloud 9 again.
4. You’re paying hundreds a month in pay-per-click and ongoing SEO fees but you’re not getting any more orders or phone calls or walk-ins or whatever you’d like your site to accomplish for you. ‘The web is just hype’,you think.

I think this is an all too common scenario. It’s not necessarily that the web developer or SEO company is no good. It’s just that they didn’t take the time to truly understand what the goal was and what is required to meet it. There’s the old saying,‘when all you have is a hammer,everything looks like a nail’. Some developers just develop.

Simply having a web site is a good start but not necessarily enough. If I never put any work into this site and had only one page,it would contain information about my background,skills,experience,and a way to contact me. That little bit of information would work for me 24 hours a day,7 days a week. It would be like giving everyone I see my business card,only it contains way more (useful) information.

That’s the minimum it accomplishes. I don’t do pay-per-click or search engine optimization. I’m not interested in it. Honestly,I don’t really believe in it. Please don’t misunderstand me. I believe that paying the highest amount for specific search terms will get a site listed the highest for that those search terms. I also believe that optimizing your web site for a specific search term will get you listed higher for that search term. What I don’t believe in is the benefit of it.

Ok,I should probably clarify that. If you’re not explicitly selling something,I don’t believe that pay-per-click is beneficial. ‘Everybody is selling something’,you say. You’re right,this site pitchs me. I said explicitly,meaning,you’re selling…a widget for $25. If you’re a straight up e-commerce company competing with other companies that have the same service/product/etc. and the only difference is who gets to the consumer first,then have at it. Pay-per-click is your best friend. Buy your way to the top,it’s worth it.

If you’re doing anything else (which encompasses a lot),then I just don’t think it’s a productive use of time or money. Let’s use a familiar example: this site. I can pay hundreds (or more) dollars each month to get this site to the top of Google for web design. If you click through and are greeted by a message that says something like,“This site best viewed with Internet Explorer 4”,or terrible MIDI music,or references to clearly outdated technologies,it’s not going to inspire a lot of confidence and it won’t be long before you’re back at Google resuming your search and my hard-earned money is wasted.

My point is that high rankings don’t mean anything if your site doesn’t appeal to your target market and satiate some desire of theirs. Whether it is to purchase something or obtain some piece of information or whatever. When I search for something on Google and I click through on a result,I give that site an assessment in about 15 seconds. If it’s not readily apparent that it will meet my needs,I hit the back button.

I prefer organic results. That means that my site appears naturally for the search terms that it most closely relates to. In my mind this kills two birds with one stone.

1. I don’t pay for listings but my site still appears. Albeit for fewer,more specific search terms but it’s more relevant to the user. This should make that person happy. Making the user happy is very important.
2. I’ve taken the time to provide quality information so my site because useful. A utility. A tool. People come back,instead of this being a hiccup in their search for what they really want.

You can use pay-per-click campaigns and search engine optimization tricks (both legit and illegit) to get traffic to your site and/or make it more appealing to search engines but ultimately,search engines don’t buy your product or service or visit your office or any of those things. So why would you design specifically for them? That’s like manufacturing a product for one audience but marketing to another.

There is not substitute for useful,relevant,current content. Just in case you didn’t get that. There is no substitute for useful,relevant,current content.

I Love…

that I’m number 2 on Google for the search term i love mike murphy.

I found that as a search string in my stats. At first I didn’t believe it but it’s true. Try it.

When Less Isn’t Less

A while ago I read an article in Wired about a traffic engineer who removed all the traffic signs from a village in Holland. No street signs,no lane markers,no crosswalks,not even markers to indicate where the road stops and sidewalks begin. What residents found is that it reduced accidents because without any explicit direction,people were more focused on the task at hand,mainly driving. It interested me at the time but it also seemed pretty idealistic to trust people to pay attention. I filed this nugget away in my brain and promptly forgot about it until Jason Fried posted about it over at 37signals.com.

What does any of this have to do with web design? I think the point Jason made and I’d like to reiterate is that less is sometimes more. Have you heard about the million dollar homepage? It was thought up by an English lad as a way to pay for school. Basically he divided up his homepage into a million pixels and sells them to advertisers for a $1. While it’s got him rolling in cash,looking at it is enough to trigger a seizure. It’s a great gimmick for sure but there’s way too much going on.

Users can get overwhelmed by information so before you put pad to pen,think about the purpose of your design. What do you want from the user? Look at Blogger’s home page. I think they’ve narrowed it down to two main reasons why someone would visit their site: 1. An existing user wants to use their account. Good,the login area is featured prominently at the top of the page. 2. A potential new user wants information and/or to sign up. Again,the necessary information is displayed right smack in the middle of the page. That’s pretty much it. Simple and elegant. Even the dimmest bulb could figure out how to login or where to click to create a blog.

Cameron Moll had a great article on breaking a design down to only the necessary elements. Unfortunately,I couldn’t find it on his site when I went to write this but if you troll his archives you just might get lucky. Derek Powazek has also written a great piece at A List Apart about home page goals and how to design to meet them. The moral of the story is that complexity or features don’t necessarily make something better. There’s a reason KISS rocks.

Editor’s Note: You can also find this published on fad.tastic’s home page.

Make with the happy in 2006

The first of the year is the time everyone is talking about resolutions and making plans for change. Somebody wants to lose weight,somebody wants to set aside and save more money,and somebody wants to take a much needed vacation. If 2005 wasn’t good for you,it’s not too early to start planning for a better 2006.

I’ve selected a couple of articles by the always upbeat and insightful Jeffrey Gitomer to help people get started off on the right foot in 2006. The first has Jeffrey’s suggestions not for finding happiness but creating it within yourself. The second has more to do with setting goals and committing to them.

Read up,set some goals for 2006,and create an environment for yourself that fosters happiness. Enjoy!

‘Cause You Gotta Have Goals

With the new year rapidly approaching,everybody is talking about and/or setting goals for themselves. Here’s two of mine off the top of my head:

• Within 5 years…have my own business with at least two coworkers (I already know who they are)
• Within my lifetime…write a book