Article Web Developers! Web Developers! published on March 7, 2008 Steve Ballmer doing the monkey boy dance for web developers. Read Now About
Article How To Do SEO published on February 29, 2008 While social media sites like Facebook may be getting all the press these days, it's important to remember that search not only started it all, but is still the most effective Internet marketing channel. Any Internet marketing strategy needs to be heavily weighted toward search. And search engine optimization is the first place to start. I've written quite a bit about search engine optimization in the past, but this month I'll begin a two part video series on how Newfangled approaches search engine optimization. Here in part one I'll cover the nitty-gritty of how to optimize a specific web page for search engines, and next month, I'll review our search engine performance using Google Analytics. Read Now About
Article Its the prototyping, stupid! published on February 25, 2008 A few weeks ago Eric and I attended the ReCourses/Win Without Pitching New Business Summit in Nashville. David Bakers events are great for us; the attendees are often times principals of mid-sized agencies and, since our shop is structured a lot like a mid-sized agency, his advice is almost always directly applicable.During one of the sessions, David was talking about specialization, and how you need to be an expert in a very unique niche. For example, being a marketing expert is not enough, and it is sort of a fallacy. Being an expert at marketing equestrian products to mid sized farms in North America, now THAT is a specialization. David asked an open question to the audience, What are some examples of specific knowledge that you have as a result of being an expert in your field? Im not particularly afraid to speak up in a crowd of people, so I raised my hand. Newfangled specializes in working with agencies on their and their clients websites. I cited the example that we have learned over the years that when agencies dont let us have direct access to their clients, the communication breaks down and the project doesnt go well. This was the third response to Davids question. After my somewhat appropriate, but not spot on response, he looked a little flustered. Eric then chimed in and said something like Newfangled has learned that without proper prototyping, communication about a web development project is flawed.UGH! Humiliation! Of course, Its the PROTOTYPING, stupid! I knew that. I could have said that, but no, my moment in the sun was squandered on explaining some low level detail that didnt really engage anyone, and Eric triumphed by stating our old party line. But man, it is a really good line. It is so tightly integrated into what we do, it is so central to our universe, that I forget that most web projects managed by other firms never even see an interactive, web-based prototype. I spend hours ever day telling our clients to be (to borrow a phrase from Blair Enns) about how prototyping is the bedrock of Newfangled, and it really is. Sure, we have a great CMS, we are hyper devoted to great and conscientious customer service, we have a lot of smart people that build and design excellent websites every day, but the prototyping is our real differentiator. It is at that stage, which for us is the very first stage, that we truly shine as brightly as we can as web developers. The main reason for this is freedom. Prototyping gives us and our clients the freedom to suggest anything, and try everything. Because the prototype tool is based on our CMS, it has no visual design elements (hence the Grayscreen) and we are just basically mocking up functionality without actually programming it out, we can have changes made to the prototype within hours of a brainstorming session. That kind of quick turnaround fosters a lot of brainstorming - and we love it. Imagine that, entering a web project with every possible option available to you. It should sound wonderful and very scary, which brings me to my second wonderful attribute of prototyping - consultation. Again, prototyping is the very first stage of the project, and it is also the stage that has the most Newfangled eyes on it. On average, seven different people here, including most all senior staff, take part in the prototyping process. Im not much for numbers like this, but that is the equivalent of over 60 years of 7 different and unique perspectives on web development! The Grayscreen Prototyping stage is our opportunity to take advantage of our collective experience and use it (via internal debates, sometimes lots of them) to basically take the most educated guess possible as to what your site should be doing.Once the prototype is done what we have is analogous to the blueprint of a house - it is a very detailed, mutually agreed upon set of plans. This seemingly needless and time consuming phase that many other developers plain skip actually ends up accelerating the overall time line. That is because the design, programming and copywriting can all take place simultaneously after the prototype is done, because everyone is playing from the same rulebook. Not taking our own best advice, we strayed from prototyping a few years back on some projects that were so simple, we thought they didnt need it... that will NEVER happen again. Prototyping is here to stay, and I believe it is the most essential part of Newfangled. Read Now About
Article Social Media Matters When its Personal published on February 19, 2008 Ive written before on the benefits of blogging and maintaining your online reputation. Heres a recent post from Communication Overtones, titled Social Media Only Matters When Its Personal which states, People care deeply when someone helps them out of a hard spot or makes their life easier. If your gizmo or social media service can do that, then you will earn loyalty and gratitude. Its worth reading. Read Now About
Article I Love Typography published on February 18, 2008 Before I arrived at Newfangled, I spent 10 years as a print designer. While I enjoy the instant gratification of WYSIWYG that the world of pixels affords me, I miss specifying and setting type. I was even fortunate enough to have hand-set metal type back in college before computers and desktop publishing took over. Theres something inherently beautiful about letter forms and the texture they create on the printed page. I first realized this during my sophomore year at RISD while I was hand-drawing letter forms with pen and ink over and over until my typography instructor was satisfied I had mastered proper form and kerning techniques. Desktop publishing, while increasing typesetting production a hundred-fold, slipped a barrier between artist and art form. So when I want to take a trip down memory lane, I pour myself a wine cooler, put on some Boston and head on over to I Love Typography. More than just a repository of articles and resources for all things typographic, its also a beautifully designed site. Read Now About
Article Blogging and Brands published on February 14, 2008 Eric at SmashLab has just posted another great article at his ideasonideas blog. This one is on blogging and brands, and is worth the time to read. Read it here > Read Now About
Article Design:Related Inspiration published on February 11, 2008 Design:Related is another good example of a social-networking site aimed at artists and designers. The site allows members to share ideas via their portfolios and blog postings. You can also post design that inspires you. I joined back in September and posted a few sites but mostly I like to peruse the inspiration gallery to see what sparks the imagination of other designers. Read Now About
Article Get Yourself Out There published on February 11, 2008 Brian Solis says that lack of comments means lack of influence, but I say dont expect a ton of comments unless you are approaching A-list (or even B-list) status. In fairness, Solis also says that measuring the success of a blog based on the amount of comments is just lame, and I completely agree. In fact, according to Jakob Nielsens study, 90% of online community users are lurkers, meaning they read but dont comment, while only 9% contribute a little and 1% contribute actively. While this study is not specific to blog comment participation, its likely that the principle is applicable though the numbers may have a + or - factor. This means that the majority of your blog readers will probably not be commenting on your posts anytime soon. As is obvious to anyone who reads this blog, I dont get a ton of comments, so this isnt going to be one of those I did it and so can you! posts. Like Brian Solis says above, comments are not always going to be the best judge of the current success of a blog. However, there is always room for improvement, and as readership increases, so, too, should commenting. So, my blog has a way to go. There just is no magic wand to use to instantly get lots of traffic to your blog. There are ways to gradually increase the amount of activity on your blog, but to do it, youve got to get yourself out there. Establish Your Hub The first step is to give readers a way to find your blog. If you already have a website that gets some traffic, your blog can be integrated into your existing sites structure. If your blog is your online hub, you can use your profiles on various social networks to point readers your way (to learn more about this, see an earlier post titled Is that Really You?). Read Other Blogs to Stay Informed Next, youll need to find and start reading other blogs that deal with the same topics that you deal with on your blog. Being familiar with the larger conversation is crucial to both gaining readers and being properly informed on those subjects that you plan to write about. Use a feed reader (we like Google Reader) to subscribe to the RSS feeds for these blogs and get into the habit of reading through your feeds daily. If youve come to the determination that blogging is important enough to your web strategy to actually create one, youll also need to realize the importance for making time to read other blogs. Once youve done that, youll probably find yourself asking how anyone could possibly keep up with the amount of information delivered via RSS to their computer every day. Heres how. Leave Comments, but dont spam. Finally, reading other blogs will help you stay informed, but it wont help you to get noticed. Remember, at this point, youre just lurking (not that theres anything wrong with that!). However, at some point youll probably have something to add to the conversation thats happening in the comment threads of the blogs youre reading. Thats a good thing, and you should do it. Most blogs allow you to add links to your comment, so if you have a blog post or webpage that is relevant to your comment, this is your chance to share it with the community. The more you participate by sharing insightful and valuable comments, the more youll be able to share links without spamming the other readers of the blog. Participating in this way is crucial for developing recognized authority in regard to your area of expertise. (In the spirit of conversation, heres a link to a blog post which asks how bloggers interact with comments. The comments thread to the blog is a fairly good indication of peoples varying opinions on how to interact with comment on their and others blogs.) Then What? Once youre off and running, there are several other strategies you can employ to get a sense for how your blog is doing, including setting up an RSS feed for search results for your name or your companys name online. If your blog has become a significant part of your online strategy, being aware of your online reputation will become more and more important. It will also give you a chance to respond quickly to those blogs that have noticed and mentioned you (for positive or negative reasons). Read Now About
Article Separation of Work and Home published on February 11, 2008 In a previous post, A Permanent Work in Progress, I mentioned in passing the notion of the line between work and home becoming more blurred:However, this potential omniweb may not be such a great thing for those of us who like having some boundaries between our work and time off. I cant help but fear that someday not having access to my email or not being in cellphone range might not be valid reasons to not work while on vacation, or that no matter where I am in the world, I might be easily findable. I also wouldnt mind being able to escape from the ubiquity of technology every now and then, either, but from the looks of things this is going to only become more difficult.Recently, though, the Australian government halted plans to deploy BlackBerries to its workers after employees expressed fears that the devices might upset their current balance of work and home life. It seems that the BlackBerry has polarized at least two groups of differing opinion; the first feeling that BlackBerries would make the work day longer since they extend workstation functionality outside of the office, while the second group felt that in doing so it allowed for greater flexibility for schedules and telecommuting.Personally, I can relate to both perspectives. Having a BlackBerry allows for work-related travel while still keeping up with the 150-200 emails I might receive from co-workers and clients a day. This is great since there is nothing worse than returning after traveling for work to a bottomless inbox. However, its also tempting to want to respond to email after hours, too. Every time my BlackBerry starts blinking after hours, I have to resist the inclination to open it up and deal with whatever messages are there, rather then let them pile up for the morning. I think the key is just being able to turn the thing off, though the cut off point is really up to your individual discretion, and the requirements of your job.Do you feel that having a BlackBerry (or comparable device) has eroded your boundaries? Update: 01/09/2008: Rae at BBGeeks posted an editorial after I tweeted a question: Does your BlackBerry rule your life and linked to this post. Her editorial here. 02/27/2008: Paul Kedrosky writes I couldnt help but notice some bearded guy to Bens (Bernanke) right who was a certifiable Crackberry addict. He was typing up a storm in his lap, showing incoming emails to other people, and generally out of control with email, and ignoring Big Ben. Read Now About
Article Its All About Skimming published on February 7, 2008 Mark and I recently had a chat (of which you can read a transcript on his blog) about how anyone could possibly keep up with the amount of information delivered via RSS to our computers every day. Every day you gasp? How about every hour!? I mentioned to Mark that one of the most important skills to develop (I cant believe Im calling this a skill, but...) is to be able to skim through that information well. Good skimming means that you can quickly scan an article and determine if its content is relevant to you, then either decide to read it more closely or file it away for future reference, and maybe even share it with a friend who will find it interesting while youre at it. If you cant skim well, youll never keep up! Skimming might not be necessary if everyone blogged in the same manner. Think about it: if every blogger decided to post one substantial and high-quality post a week, readers would have more time to digest the information. Wed probably have to subscribe to fewer blogs in order to feel like were keeping abreast of things, too. However, this is just not the reality. Even magazine and newspaper columnists, who have traditionally written daily, weekly, or monthly columns, these days keep blogs on which they post several times a day (if not several times an hour). This is is just the pace at which information moves now. However, because there is so much information being passed back and forth, its likely that much of it wont be relevant to you. Unfortunately, you wont know one way or another unless you start sifting through it. If you take a look at my Google Reader trends (see image above), youll get a better sense of what I am talking about. Notice that over the last 30 days, I read (skimmed, more likely) through 4,715 feeds- thats around 157 feeds a day! You can tell from the chart that most of my feed reading (skimming, again) is done earlier in the morning. This is a good time for me to catch up on this stuff before my phone starts ringing. Good thing Im a morning person... Also, notice that some of the feeds I subscribe to update between 10 to 40 times a day! Granted, some of them are from fulltime journalists who are paid to do it, but this gives you an idea of the pace and frequency I mentioned above. Believe me, my job keeps me plenty busy, so I dont have time to settle down and really read all of this content- and I wouldnt really want to, either. Remember, much of it is not going to be relevant to me. But, some will be very relevant to me, so if I dont skim through all of it, I wont find the some that is worthwhile. One last point. Most people who value reading (myself included), will be initially disgusted by the notion of skimming as a means of staying informed, especially when it comes to content that is professionally relevant. In this regard I think two ideas are important. First, blog content is meant to move at a faster pace, so reading a blog post and reading a book are going to be very different experiences. Blogs will not render books (actual books or ebooks) irrelevant anytime soon. This is a good thing. While ideas can be batted around in blog posts and stimulate lots of conversation, books are still needed to present ideas in a well developed and well researched manner. Second, the accelerated pace of blog post publishing is similar to that of book publishing. In fact, statistics from 2004 show that a new book of fiction is published in the United States every 30 minutes. And thats just fiction. Only in the United States. In 2004! This is why a recent book titled How to Talk About Books You Havent Read, by Pierre Bayard, shouldnt be scoffed at. Bayard points out that the only way for anyone, especially scholars, to keep up with the amount of information being put out there is to simply be aware of whats being published, because lets face it, you cant read it all. He even points out that sometimes its more important to be aware of how a book fits in to the larger trends/mood/zeitgeist (wow Ive used that word twice in one week on this blog) than to have actually read it. Have I read Bayards book? No. ...His point, exactly! If skimming is legit for books, it had better be legit for blogs. Read Now About