Archive for January, 2008
Word of the Day - Bot
Last week, friends mentioned the Web Bot project – it predicts the end of the world in 2012. So if you’ve been slacking on your 401k, good for you!
On the web, Bot is often thought to be short for “robot” — an automated program that crawls the internet and performs automated tasks.
But then there’s another […]
Web 2.0 Content: Free at Last?
Free means more than “no cost.” After all, there’s the kind of freedom Martin Luther King was talking about…
And there’s the kind of freedom that frees your web content from the shackles of oppressive html and Flash design…
…so that your ideas can spread farther and faster.
…so that your company can develop stronger client relationships.
If spreading […]
Non-Profit Organizations and Slavery
I don’t work for free. If I did, that would be slavery. I’m not a slave.
Slavery is illegal. And unethical.
When any organization (non-profit or profit!) asks me to work without payment, that’s a red flag.
I don’t work for organizations that support and promote slavery. Those organizations usually get the kind of work they deserve.
PS - […]
I Smell a Non-Profit Web Design Disaster…
“I’m going to design a website for our club,” happily announced a crazed friend of mine. “I just bought Microsoft FrontPage, and I’m learning HTML. This is easy!”
Not so fast, cowboy.
Turns out he skipped defining the web goals before he started flailing around, making things look quasi-pretty in FrontPage.
Turns out that 9 different club members […]
What Giving Out Your Cell Phone Number Reveals About YOU
I stopped giving out my cell phone number years ago. Instead, I transfer my office phone to my mobile phone when I leave the office. Here’s why:
Giving clients ONE number shows you’re thinking about their convenience.
Giving clients a BUNCH of numbers reveals a lack of customer focus.
Why Giving More is Giving Less. In the past month, […]
It’s still a pop-up. And it’s still annoying.
It’s 2008, and I’ve officially had it. No matter how much I like a website, or want to read the link — if I’m forced into de-activating my pop-up blocker to open up a new browser window to do it, I’m not going to.
I’m done.
Webmasters, you’re on notice. If you force me to open up another […]
How to Shorten WordPress Page Names with Post Slugs
There’s a difference between the name of a blog page and the title of your post. And it’s an important distinction.
The title of this post is “How to Shorten WordPress Page Names with Post Slugs”.
If you click on the title of this post, you will see the name of the page in the URL bar. […]
No More Video Embeds!
Don’t embed YouTube videos (or any other multimedia) into blog posts.
Instead, take a screen shot of an engaging frame of the video.
Link to the site that hosts it.
Ask your readers to watch it at YouTube (or SlideShare or whatever.)
Here’s why I quit embedding: many of my RSS subscribers request email updates instead of online feedreader updates.
Video embeds […]
Get Your New Google Analytics Tracking Code…
If you use Google Analytics, here’s one more thing to put on your to-do list:
Replace your old Urchin.js code with the new Google ga.js code.
When you log into Google Analytics, you might miss this new bit - it’s buried.
It only took a few minutes to add the new Google Analytics tracking code to two CMS-driven sites […]
Recycling Old Cell Phones: 3 Easy Steps
How do you responsibly recycle an old cell phone? When I activated a new cell phone over the weekend, my mom asked if I was going to donate my old Motorola i1000 mobile phone to Goodwill. I’ve had my old phone since 1999, and it’s a brick. I told Mom I doubted that Goodwill would […]
