Web Design Horror Stories and How to Avoid Them
The latest issue of BusinessWeek SmallBiz has an article called Web Design Horrors, which reports on some worst case scenarios with bad news vendors. Having had to rescue some clients' Web sites from Web developers who were somewhere between emotionally fragile and psychologically deranged, I know these stories happen all too often.
The article lists six things you can do to protect yourself. (My comments--as a Web developer--follow.)
- Register the domain name yourself, in your name or that of your company. (Couldn't agree more; to quote Seinfeld, you want to be master of your domain. If you have a decent sized company, don't register it under the name of an employee who may not be with you in six months.
- Stay Local. (As a Maine Web designer, posting to MaineToday.com, I couldn't agree more! Actually, we have clients in California all the time, and for the most part it works out fine. We did have one California client who refuses to pay and there's not much I can do. If they were here in Portland it might be a different story. So, I guess it works both ways.)
- Check References. (Well, this is a good idea for just about every business transaction, right? The vendor will give you some, but you should also check their portfolio and follow up with some clients she didn't give you.)
- Get a clause in your contract with the developer explicitly stating that you have the right to use the material on the Web site, to reproduce it, and to distribute it and publicly display or modify it, perpetually and irrevocably. (Nice in theory, but if you or your Web designer purchased some royalty-free imagery, you may not have the right to use it anywhere you like. If you want to, you should make sure that you buy a license for the image that allows you to use it in print or other places you plan on using it.)
- Be as clear as you can about what you expect. (This is true for both sides of the aisle. Often, if this is your first Web site, you may not know the right way to explain what you want. It's a good idea to show examples from other Web sites to better explain what you're hoping to achieve.)
- Ask the developer to produce a shadow site on his own server that you will approve before your site goes live. (If this is the first time you're seeing your site when it's just about ready to go live, you've got problems. A good developer should show you designs for you to approve before they start building the site. At flyte, we have an insane number of checkpoints/signoffs; clients have called us anal to our faces. Our checkoffs include clients must approve the site structure, the finalized content, three rounds of design, sample HTML pages, storyboards of programming (if applicable), the programming itself (again, if applicable), and the final site before we launch it.)
Some of my own suggestions?
- Don't hire your friend/brother-in-law/neighbor's kid. The number of effective business Web sites produced by these people (unless that's their business) can be counted on Homer Simpson's left hand. (He's only got four fingers.) Would you hire any of those people to do your books? To manage your marketing? Just because someone is technically savvy doesn't mean they can produce an effective Web site.
- Ask what they can do to market your site. Web sites no longer market themselves, it takes work. Search engine optimization, email marketing, blogs, etc. Ask what kind of experience they have in these areas and what they can do for you.
- Ask about updates. Who's going to be updating your site, them or you? If you, how will you do it? Are there tools? Do you know HTML? What are the costs for the developer to update your site?
Rich Brooks
Local, Maine Web Designer
Free Web Conferencing & More for Mac, Windows & Linux
I'm in love. The last time I felt this passionate about a few thousand lines of code it was for our favorite online project management software: Basecamp.
The new object of my affection? Yugma. (With a name like Yugma it's gotta be good, right?)
One of the frustrations in working on a Mac is the lack of a WebEx or GoToMyPC/Meeting type application. Sure, you can view one of these presentations on a Mac, but you can't present on a Mac. Luckily, I recently found Yugma.
With Yugma I can do Web conferencing, real-time collaboration, and online presentations. I can share my desktop with a client to do training, and then swap presenters so that I can watch them on their desktop to see what problems they're running into.
There's a built-in whiteboard (or transparent-board) so that I can mock up something on top of my desktop and share it. There's also free (although not toll-free unless you're in Duluth) teleconferencing on top of that. It works not just with Mac, but with Windows and even Linux. Oh, and did I mention it's FREE?!?
Sure, there's a paid version, and I may upgrade to it shortly, but the free version rocks! It may not have all the bells and whistles of a WebEx, but what it does it does phenomenally.
We originally starting looking for a Yugma so that we could do "real-time" updates for clients who wanted to look over our shoulder while we worked. (This does bring up the, "it's $50/hr if we do it, $75/hr if you watch, and $100/hr if you help conundrum, but for some clients it will speed up the process of their updates.)
Although we haven't used it for that yet, I've already put on several blog consulting sessions with some of our clients. The other day, one client who's down in Kennebunk, Maine, saved 90 minutes of driving time, plus gas and the cost of parking in the Old Port. His investment: 2 minutes in downloading the software.
It also opens us up for putting on some of our Web marketing seminars virtually; no longer will you have to come up to Vacationland, enjoy a delicious lunch and stroll about the Old Port to learn about business blogging, email marketing, or search engine optimization. I'll be able to put on my presentation, share my desktop, and then have time for Q&A. It will be a BYOL affair. (Bring Your Own Lunch.) Stay tuned for more on that; I plan on having a beta launch of this soon to work out the bugs.
For the small business owner or entrepreneur, you have to give Yugma a look in this "The World is Flat" world we live in. Whether you use their teleconferencing service, call a client direct, or set up a Skype conference to lay on top of a Yugma session, the opportunities to grow you business are mind-boggling.
I've also added it to my Entrepreneurial Web Tools (check out the left hand column of our blog for the full list.)
Maximize the Results of Your Email Newsletter
What's the one downside of email newsletters?
Once you've sent them out, they're gone into the ether. Everyone who subscribes after that moment won't receive it, the search engines can't index it, and there's no additional return on investment.
So how do you maximize your results for your email newsletter? Read on:
- Archive your newsletters at your Web site. It amazes me that not everyone does this. Take the same article you're sending out and post it in a newsletter archive section of your Web site. Now this article is a page that can be read by future visitors and archived by the search engines, giving you more search engine visibility on keyphrases that you are targeting.
Bonus Tip: Feel free to change the title if necessary. Since your email subject line doesn't need to concern itself with search engine optimization you may have ignored SEO in crafting it. Your archived version should have an article title (header) and a page title that is keyword rich, putting your best keyword phrases up front. - Link to your archived article from your home page. If you're publishing an email newsletter once a month, that's new content that the search engines can index. However, if the links are buried deep within your Web site, they search engines may never look for it. Put a link on your home page that links directly to the article.
Bonus Tip: Don't use "click here" or "read our new newsletter" as the hyperlink. Instead, use that keyword rich title as the hyperlink, i.e., The Secret to a Web Site That Sells. Since search engines give weight to the words in a hyperlink--aka anchor text--it will help you at the search engines. - Link to all articles on your site from all articles. All of these intra-site links will also help you with search engine optimization, as well as let visitors easily find other articles at your site, establishing your expertise and showing just how smart you really are. Check out our article Six Blogging Myths That Are Holding You Back as an example if you're not sure what I'm talking about.
Bonus Tip: Depending on the number of articles you have, you might also organize them by "related articles," rather than just by date as we have. - Blog it. You do have a blog, don't you? The day you publish your email newsletter you should blog "around" the topic and link to the archived page on your site, again, using the keyword-rich title as the hyperlink.
Bonus Tip: Remind blog readers that to avoid missing any future issues of your email newsletter they should subscribe now, and link to where they can subscribe, or include the subscribe box right within the blog post if possible.
Bonus-Bonus Tip: If you use email bait--a giveaway to entice Web site visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter--mention it here as well. Like our free article The 11 Commandments of Writing Web Copy for the Non-Copywriter.
If you have any other ideas on how to maximize your email newsletter, let me know! If you don't have an email newsletter yet, contact us or sign up for a free trial account at Constant Contact.
Rich Brooks
Email Marketing Expert
What Do You Get the Geek That Has Everything?
It's that time of year again...the days are getting long, the ice cream trucks are rolling past my window during dinner time, and MESDA's throwing their annual Geeks in Black gala.
Noel Paul Stookey will be MESDA's special guest as the Master of Ceremony
for this year's Geeks In Black Gala. While Noel is in his fourth decade
as the ‘Paul’ of Peter, Paul, and Mary; he's also affectionately known
in Downeast Maine as 'Sysop'!
MESDA Technology Awards showcase the progress and recognize the
accomplishments and significant contributions of the Software and
Information Technology Industry over the past year and present awards
to Maine's top technology companies. This event allows MESDA the
opportunity to highlight outstanding achievements and success stories
from technology firms across the state.
Date: Friday, June 22, 2007
Time: 7:15pm - 10pm
Place: Casco Bay Ballroom, Portland Marriott at Sable Oaks
Cost: $59 for members, $79 for non-members.
What do Rich Brooks and Paris Hilton Have In Common?
We're both going to jail.
Of course, my "incarceration" will raise money to help the MDA keep up the fight against Muscular Dystrophy, while hers will help raise the bottom line of media outlets everywhere.
If you'd like to bail me out of jail and help raise money for sending one of "Jerry's kids" to MDA summer camp, or research into treatments and cures, or a wheelchair, leg braces, or just a support group, it's not too late. Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 20th), at noon the police are going to pick me up at work and take me away.
At this point I've reached my personal goal, so there's no ego left. If you can donate $25, $50 or whatever feels right to you, you'll be making a big difference in someone's life. And who doesn't need a few more karma points?
You can donate at my special page online. Thanks.
Rich Brooks
Too Pretty for Jail
Maine Becomes First State to Pass Net Neutrality Resolve
One state down, 49 to go.
Maine became the first state in the nation to formally recognize the importance of net neutrality. Fellow blogger Lance Duston tipped me off to Maine Is First State in Nation to Pass Net Neutrality Resolve:
Augusta- A diverse coalition of Mainers applauded the enactment
today of the first net neutrality resolve in the nation. The
resolution, LD 1675, recognizes the importance of “full, fair and
non-discriminatory access to the Internet” and instructs the Public
Advocate to study what can be done to protect the rights of Maine
internet users."Maine is the first state in the nation to stand up for its
citizens' rights to a nondiscriminatory internet," said Senator Ethan
Strimling, the original sponsor of LD 1675. "The rest of the nation
should follow suit and study what can be done to protect net
neutrality."
Rich Brooks
One More Small Business Owner for Net Neutrality
Double Dose of Rich Brooks
Some days you need two cups of coffee, some days you need two doses of Rich Brooks.
What? You don't? Well, too late.
At noon I'll be putting on one of our now-world famous Working Lunch Seminars here at flyte. Today's topic: Search Engine Optimization: Driving Qualified Traffic to Your Site. If you're around Portland and you have no lunch plans, there's still 3 open seats. Register now!
Also, for those of you in Southern Maine, I'll be on 207 tonight, Maine's premiere evening news program, talking about a few new cool Web sites that you can personalize and interact with. That's on at 7pm on channel 6, WCSH.
How to Piss Off Google
Are you looking to anger the folks at Google and get blacklisted? Want to reduce the traffic to your Web site by 50% or more? Then just ignore some of these recently updated tips from the Webmaster Guidelines put out by Google.
- Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
- Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
- Don't send automated queries to Google.
- Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords.
- Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
- Don't create pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware.
- Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
- If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.
Sounds reasonable, right?
If you'd like to learn how to rank well at the search engines (as opposed to just not pissing them off), be sure to check out our upcoming Working Lunch Seminar: Search Engine Optimization - How to Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Site. It's Wednesday, June 13th from noon - 1:30ish at flyte's offices.
Small Giants in Portland Tonight
Just a quick reminder for any small business owners out there: Bo Burlingham, author of "Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big" will be speaking tonight at the Mariner's Church Banquet Center. (Ouch, do they need to update their Web site...but I digress....)
I read Small Giants a while back and really enjoyed it (review.) If you find that most Inc. and Entrepreneur articles are too focused on how to grow your company and not how to create a great company, Burlingham and his book offers a fresh take.
It's filled with stories and examples of small businesses across the US who decided to focus on what they did right, and chose not to grow, often firing clients or refusing new business. Even if your goal is to grow or flip your business, you'll come away with great new ideas on how to improve your business.
I'll have the honor of introducing Bo Burlingham tonight, so I hope to see you there. Cocktail & Hors d'oeuvres reception goes from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. and the Presentation & Discussion is from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
The cost is $35 for MEBSR members and $50 for the general public. Yes, you can pay at the door.
Give Viagra Away so There’s No Profit in Selling It
That was one of the more creative ideas for how to reduce spam and fight spammers at the "Penalty Box Summit" at the Search Marketing Expo 2007 in Seattle.
Most of the session was about how to get out of a search engine's penalty box once you've gotten in for "bad behavior," as well as better ways of reporting spam that you find yourself.
For a more complete run down of this session, check out Penalty Box Summit at Search Engine Roundtable.
For some additional advice on how to rank higher than your competition at Google and Yahoo, check out our upcoming seminar on Search Engine Optimization: How to Drive Qualified Traffic to Your Web Site. It's being held Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 in our offices in Portland, Maine. Seating is limited, so reserve your space now.
Web Developer Wanted
Flyte is in the market for a full time Web developer. If you--or someone you know--has some mad coding skills and is looking for a full time position creating table-free Web sites in Portland, Maine, scope this out:
Web Developer Wanted
We're an energetic, successful Web design and Internet marketing firm located in Portland, ME, looking for a full-time, experienced Web Developer.
You are enthusiastic, passionate about the Web and building great sites, eager to learn new skills, and love clean code. You build table-free Web sites. You feel comfortable with HTML, XHTML and CSS. You can work under a deadline and enjoy taking on new challenges. You enjoy interacting with clients, whether it's helping them build the Web site that will build their business, or handling routine updates to keep their site fresh. You should be comfortable using DreamWeaver, but also in getting your hands dirty with under-the-hood code work.
You'll work with layered Photoshop files from our designers and be responsible for building fast-loading Web sites that work across all modern browsers. You'll also have the opportunity of building HTML Email Newsletters and Blog Templates as well.
Although not required, we're always looking for people with PHP, Ruby on Rails and/or Ajax experience. Mac experience a plus.
Flyte is a casual-dress, professional-attitude environment. Although we require you to have experience in building sites with CSS and without the use of tables, we offer lots of opportunity for online and classroom education. You'll be working on a wide variety of Web sites for businesses, organizations and professionals. You'll also learn first hand about Web marketing, such as search engine optimization, email marketing and blogs.
If you are up for a challenge, if you want to make an impact, if you want to leverage your talent and creativity, if you want to be recognized for your efforts, flyte new media is the right place for you.
To apply for the job, you must fill out our online job opportunities form.
No phone calls, please.
Rich Brooks
Maine Web Design & Development
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