By coscooper
Web site building is technical work and something that comes easy to me. However, I’ve noticed a trend amongst clients.
“Make me a web site, have all of the content magically show up and have it do exactly what I want all with very little input or work from me.”
This client ideology is both frustrating and can lead to lengthy deployments. Every client so far has some notion that if they “pay” me to build a web site that I will magically understand everything they want and to somehow come up with the exact message and content that makes sense.
Truth is, it just doesn’t happen that way. I’m a technician, not a mind-reader, nor do I fully understand every detail and nuance of my clients business. While I do get things rather quickly and do grasp the high level overview of a given business, I am by no means an expert. So, I have to rely on the client to actually communicate and review the site(s) for content and appropriateness.
Well, this tends to drag-on and by extension, makes the process really drag on. Therefore, I DO NOT do it full time. If I built sites full time, my family and I would die of starvation.
Enough ranting… I have to finish another site for a “family member”…
Share on Facebook
By coscooper
I’ve been feverishly working on several web site concepts and am finding the process of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) a bit complex. Not that I don’t understand it, but that while attempting to sort out all of the articles, density and keywords, search engines seem to take for ever to crawl the sites. I’ve read tons of information about “Content Is King”. Well, that’s fine except that it’s kind of hard to write content specifically targeting keywords and trying to keep “density” in mind.
I’ve also noticed that on some sites, namely my own personal blog, here, that it moves all over the place on Google. One day, it’s top 5, then a few days later, I can’t find it to save my life. I’ve found that if I slack off and don’t post anything for a few days, it drops like a stone in water. Go figure. But, then there’s a few “Shane” sites that haven’t been updated in months and it stays on top. It’s kind of hard to figure out frankly.
Read more »
Share on Facebook
By coscooper
I’ve run across the coolest web site. If you’re into music at all and would like to discover unknown bands or try other music genre’s, then you have to try out this site.
Go over to Pandora.com. It’s a “radio” site. However, the way it works is, you start with a favorite band or song. From there it streams similar music based upon the band and specific sound of the song. It’s simple to use and best of all, for a few ads popping up, it’s free. For a detailed explanation on how they derived at how music is selected, they’re core business is part of the Music Genome Project.
I’ve use it now for two purposes.
One – to get an idea of some new bands I might like
Two – as a radio at work or home. So, while ads may pop up, the songs still stream along in the back-ground.
Enjoy – Shane
Share on Facebook
By coscooper
You see it all the time. You hit what sounds like the site you’re looking for, only once you hit the link and the site pops up in your web browser, it looks like something from 1993. It looks like someone figured out how to use Paint they found in the Accessories directory and suddenly thought, ew, Im a graphic artist, cool! Next, they figured out how to copy/paste it into a word document, do a little fiddling with the copy and the picture, usually all centered copy, and then they must have saved all of the files in to an HTML format and posted them on a server.
Typically, these turn me off right away. In some cases, they may actually have some very useful information, but I just cant get past the horrid look and feel. Its like seeing that crappy car in the used car lot that has one corner hanging down low about to touch a tire, 1 red fender, white hood and a blue rear end. The sign says, strong reliable engine. Well, it may be, but theres no way on this green earth I would drive it or rely on it. Okay, I have to admit, back on the web page, there are rare occasions I’ll look around and read if it’s at least easy to get around AND the information is very helpful.
I HATE THESE KINDS OF SITES! In fact, if there was any way that a law could be passed that enacted legislation that disallowed such crap, I’d be in heaven. Then of course, the government would have to create the Web Site Design Police. Well, then again, I suppose they’d be a sub-division of the “Fashion Police”. 
Boycott such sites no matter what!
-Shane (JMHO)
Share on Facebook
