Sunday, April 6, 2008, 10:00am
About a week ago I had a client ask me what Snowdrop Media specializes in. By the way she asked me, I could tell that she really meant what was the real cash-cow service that Snowdrop offers to most, if not all, of its clients, perhaps trying to get a feel for what other local small businesses have done to promote themselves online.
For some reason, I found it difficult to answer this question. I knew mostly all my work was for small businesses and individuals, and I knew it all related in some way to the web, but what do I really do most for clients? I started out strictly doing web design and database access (CMS), then moved to mostly WordPress customizations and WordPress-powered applications, and then now more recently I’ve been doing a lot of SEO work. So what’s the answer?
It’s funny how small businesses evolve based on the needs of their audiences. As SEO/SEM has gained more of a solid reputation, I’ve experienced much more demand for that service. Many businesses that previously took the leap online in the early 2000s are now looking for cleaner, more functional designs that play well with the major search engines rather than settling for brochure-type sites that only list available services.
So what’s my real point? What your small business was two years ago may not be what it is today, and certainly won’t be what it is five years from now. Whether your niche shrinks or grows, it also evolves. Even in a shrinking industry, a small business that evolves will succeed.
Friday, April 4, 2008, 9:39pm
I’ve noticed that the new UI and functionality of the WordPress Admin have made me consider switching from MarsEdit back to the built-in, web-based editor. Although I haven’t posted much here, I’ve been messing around quite a bit while installing the latest version for several Snowdrop clients and I’m very impressed.
It’s always interesting to hear what others - especially clients - feel are the biggest improvements when a new version hits the market. For me, the colors and overall interface layout are the most noticeable (and appreciated) features, whereas clients have mentioned the better upload and media capabilities most often.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 5:57am
Recently I posted a comment to a blog I’ve been half-following for several years now. The blog discusses college entrepreneurship and making money online, but I’ve always felt the author talked a good game but didn’t actually make much money online. The types of products he would promote and the suggestions he would give would be rather shallow and somewhat obvious.
Anyway, the other day the author posts a mini-ad about his one-page, straight text consulting website and how he doesn’t need anything more because he has enough work via word-of-mouth. Here’s the text:
If you have a serious business, serious capital investment and you’d
like to work with me, I state my consulting rates very clearly on this
one page website…
I click the link and find his rates are $1,000/hr or $5,000/week, non-negotiable. For some reason, this finally did it for me. I felt the needed to call his bluff. Why would he even mention this small, one-page website and his ridiculous rates on a site geared toward college kids trying to make money? If he really does get those rates through referrals by existing clients, I think he could afford to pay someone $300 for a decent design. To me, the post was obviously designed to increase his credibility on the site and to appear “established” and “respected”.
So I told him all that by leaving a comment on the blog, hopefully to start a discussion about his work or at least about personal branding. Nope. Not only no discussion, but my comment was immediately deleted (and I know it was deleted AFTER it went live because I checked another computer after posting specifically to see if it was “awaiting moderation” or if it had automatically gone live).
Blogs are about discussion and about opinion. If you don’t like what someone says but it isn’t inappropriate and doesn’t slander or threaten other people, you have a responsibility to your readers as a blog author to keep it up and, ideally, respond.
Sunday, March 30, 2008, 4:21pm
For the second straight WordPress upgrade I managed to overwrite my entire /wp-contents/ folder and wipe out my existing themes. Evidently I need to pay more attention to the options in Forklift when I upload folder structures. There is a “merge” button and a “replace” button - I need the former, not the latter.
Anyway, at least it gave me a reason to complete the design I was working on for a future version of the site, although I didn’t expect to cram a lot of the functionality into a 12 hour window. Overall I’m pretty happy with how the design came out. Since I was going for a minimalist look, I tried for much more whitespace than in previous designs.
There are a few cool features, however, that I haven’t implemented yet, which will attempt to make this site more of a personal “lifestream” rather than a mundane blog. For example, I have API code for Flickr, Twitter, and Google to capture everything I do online in one place. I think that can add a lot to a blog, especially if its visitors don’t already have some idea of who the author is as a person and a writer.
Friday, February 22, 2008, 9:56pm
I’m trying to get into it. I really am. I think if my life was more exciting - if I traveled a lot, constantly ran into celebrities or politicians, etc. - then mobile blogging would make more sense.
So, for now, I’ll just have to mess around with it enough so that when I become famous I’ll already be a mobile blogging pro.
(Posted from my iPhone)
