I have been working on analyzing a site’s search engine rankings, at www.Gotpepperspray.com. The owner wondered why he was not getting more sales from this online store selling self defense products such as pepper spray.
Analysis showed it was a typical online store, with a working shopping cart.
The products are reasonably priced.
If you need pepper spray for self defense, tasers, safety lights, or other self defense products, try this site.
I want to brag on Tom Sergent, a Waco, Texas area photographer.
I recently became a grandmother, and Tom is doing a first-year baby album for my daughter.
I was not prepared for the beauty of these photographs. I know I am sounding like a typical grandma, but I’m telling you, he captured little Aviana’s true essence and personality. He has won two awards so far, with the photos he took of her.
Tom’s business name is Wind Whistle Photography, and the website is located at Tom Sergent, Wind Whistle Photography, Waco, TX Photographer. I hope you visit it and that he becomes your personal photographer.
He also does high school senior photography, bridal portraits, engagement photos, commercial photography, fine art photography, boudoir and glamour shots, family pictures, children, and groups. And did I mention, baby photography?
If you don’t believe me, look at this adorable shot:
Aviana, the most beautiful child in the world
I recently finished building a website for ROI Home Improvements, a window and door replacement service located in Waco, Texas. Click this link to visit their new website: ROI Home Improvements, window and door replacement, Waco, TX. One of the things I like about being a web designer is that I get to learn a little about the business the client is in. In working with Vicki Mercer, the owner, I was able to learn a lot about window and door replacement! I think you should consider her if you need replacement, energy efficient windows or doors in the Waco area. She also installs windows and doors for new construction projects. She has a permanent crew, no subcontractors. I think that makes for better installation, and is fairer to the employees.
Her website has a lot of examples of various types of replacement windows and doors. Her window types include Vinyl replacement windows, wood replacement windows, fiberglass replacement windows, aluminum replacement windows, and woodclad replacement windows.
ROI Home Improvements offers a lot of different types of energy-efficient replacement doors. Her door types include replacement French doors, replacement sliding doors, replacement entry doors, replacement storm doors, replacement doors with blinds between, replacement sidelight doors, and more.
ROI Home Improvements will sell you the replacement doors or windows, and also install them. Vicki will come to your home with samples and will show you the various types of energey efficient replacement windows and doors so that you can make an informed decision about which is best for you.
So check out ROI Home Improvements for energy efficient window and door replacements in the greater Waco, Texas area.
Here’s a screenprint of their new website:
ROI Home Improvements, Window and Door Replacement, Waco, TX at http://www.roihomeimprovements.com
I was recently looking through a big web design firm’s website and read with interest their thoughts about how a full-time web design firm was superior to a freelancer. They talked about how freelancers are often not available when you need them, because they have another job. That they don’t have time to work on your project or do updates when needed.
My experience as a one-person, freelance web design firm has been different than this.
I’ve had many clients that migrated to me after being with a fully staffed advertising agency or marketing firm or web design firm. One of the reasons they did so was that the other agency never had time to work on their project in a timely manner.
My experience has been that the size of the firm doesn’t have a bearing on the timeliness of turning out the work. It has to do with the workload of the firm, the workload of each individual, and the general responsiveness of those individuals. As a freelancer, I can beat bigger firms on the timeliness requirement almost every time.
I only accept projects that can fit into my workflow and allow me to give the time to each client that is needed.
I am up front with new clients about my restrictions as a freelancer. It’s true, I can only meet at lunch or after 5 pm or on a weekend. But most clients find that perfectly acceptable.
Another statement on the website was that “many freelancers subcontract your project to India.” My experience has also been that some large web design firms also do this. There are many talented web programmers in India, Vietnam, and other countries. They work for very little and their work is top notch. Plugging them into the more rote parts of website creation makes sense and can keep the total project price down.
In the cutthroat world of this new economy, we have to keep prices affordable to get and keep new customers.
So is a freelancer superior to a big web design firm? Not necessarily. The way to choose the one that’s right for you, assuming roughly equivalent skill sets, is to go with the one that understands your business the best and makes suggestions that will benefit and grow your business. Look at their website, read their blog, pore through their portfolios. Then meet with each of them and see what they say about what they can do for you. Take their measure on that rather than on the size of their company. Big is not necessarily better.
As a longtime web designer, I’ve had the privilege of working with many different web hosts over the years. In the earlier years, things were much harder. Many clients wanted contact forms where the website visitor would fill it out and the results would be emailed to the website owner. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, it wasn’t so easy in the olden days!
Many of us used a freeware program called “Matt’s FormMail Script.” This script was written by Matt Wright in 1995, and was used on thousands of websites. It was not so easy to configure, but eventually you could wrangle it into working. You had to go into the PHP code itself and hardcode quite a few of the variables. Unfortunately, it was a script that many hackers learned to exploit. There were security upgrades you could use to plug some of the holes, but earlier versions floated around for many years.
Imagine my surprise recently when I discovered that AT&T hosting is still using this rickety old freeware script.
It took quite awhile to solve this problem. I tried using other flash-based Contact scripts I have that work on 99% of websites and none of them worked. I even tried using an iframe and running my contact script on my own website. This workaround worked for most visitors, but not all. Client still not happy.
Finally I called AT&T and was informed the client had to upgrade his hosting plan to allow scripts to run. It was considerably more per month for this upgraded plan. Way more than Godaddy and other more popular hosts.
That took a couple more weeks to put into effect. Then I look on the server and now I have access to a “CGI-BIN.” Shades of the past! I peek in there, and there is Matt’s old script.
I download the script and reach into my memory banks for how to change the variables, and upload it. Yes, it works. But why would a huge, tech-smart company like AT&T have a rickety old freeware script from, literally, 1995 as their standard offering for a client’s form mail needs? And at highway robbery prices?
Even though I am not the one paying for it, I find this disturbing. Did they think no one would notice?
Have you encountered examples of tech-smart companies using old technologies?
I am excited about doing a couple of presentations for the International Festivals and Events Association convention coming up in October. I love the festival and events people. They have exciting jobs, they get to work with celebrities and up-and-coming acts, and the stories they tell!
The first presentation will be on the basics of social media for festivals and events. The second one, immediately afterward, will focus on emerging social tools. That will be the most fun!
But I strongly believe in taking the time to go over the basics, because the basics consistently get neglected.
I just finished a website for a Central Texas author called Richard Yellow Bow. His book is called, “Red Shoes and Kiva Ladders.” I heartily recommend this book. It’s an autobiographical book that is really two books in one. It intertwines the author’s two journeys: first, as a half-breed Native American on a spiritual journey to rediscover his roots through sun dance ceremonies and other Indian ceremonies; and second, his romantic journey with his life’s mate, Kelli. As a woman, I loved the romance story in this book. The spiritual journey was interesting, but the romance was a real page-turner. I couldn’t put it down. “Bow” is extremely honest and does not varnish the truth at all. The difficulties and challenges they went through as a couple, and how they overcame these, made for a great read.
You can read excerpts of the book, “Red Shoes and Kiva Ladders,” here. Caution: This is a book intended for adults, not children.
You can buy the book at a reasonable cost through Yellow Bow’s website at http://www.yellowbowcreations.com.
Close to 100% of my recent projects are WordPress-powered websites. The only ones I’m not doing in WordPress are the very tiny, 5 or 6 page sites that are just as easy to do in straight HTML with JavaScript menus. What’s crazy is that I find myself building fully operational HTML prototypes for every one of these WordPress sites; that way, the client sees exactly what the finished product will be like.
So, what am I working on? I really like this website prototype for Gage | telecom. The mockup for an inner page is found under Data Networking. I like the clean, modern look of this site. It has click to call code on the phone numbers so that smartphones can just, well, click to call. The slide show is built in Jquery so can be seen on any Apple mobile device. I built this company’s website a few years ago and they are now ready for this redesign because they’ve grown and grown and are ready for the next level. And it’ll be powered by WordPress, so they’ll be able to edit it on their own.
I’m also just finishing up a WordPress site for ROI Windows and Doors. This company installs replacement windows and doors in the Central Texas area. They have a presence on a local TV station’s website, but until now, not a separate website. I like the warmth of this website. We have yet to add the photos to the photo gallery, but that’s all it lacks.
Another big project is a WordPress site for Central Texas Family Violence Task Force. This is a group of people involved with reducing domestic violence in the Bell County area. I personally have a huge belief in the work they are doing and am excited to be part of this project. I’m currently working to add content to this site but the design and programming work are all in place.
I have a bunch of other web projects going on right now, too, but these are the ones I’ve worked on most recently. Some of the other things I’m doing are taking photos of the white grape harvest at Lily Lake Vineyards tomorrow, and starting to work on a social media presentation for the City of Midland in late July.
I was recently asked by a photographer to build a website for his photography business. The catch was that he wanted to sell his artistic photos online. If you think about it, this is not as simple as it sounds. People want to buy different sizes and I figured there had to be a way to automate it.
So I started to research it, and found a pretty cool site called photoshelter.com.
It allows the photographer to run the site on his or her own. Upload photos, choose a template, use a custom domain name, etc.
This is what I recommended. We will see what the client thinks.
At a recent workshop I gave at Temple University on “Social Media for Festivals and Events”, I think many attendees were not aware of the advantages of using group buying sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial for last-minute festival ticket sales. A search on Google for “Groupon and festival” shows that several festivals are doing this, and selling 400 to 700 tickets even for small festivals.
Of course, this would only be used in the las week or so prior to the festival. Any sooner and you might cannibalize your full price ticket sales. One attendee did it for the same day or next day only and sold about 800 tickets. What a phenomenal response!
Another idea was to sell festival tickets at a discount on Craigslist. This is a place that many non technical people hang out in. Real estate agents are having very good luck marketing homes on Craigslist, of all things. Why not last-minute ticket sales?
