Archive for August, 2009
Picturesque New York City
Posted on 14. Aug, 2009 by search_junkie.
I recently had a trip to New York, and I am embarrassed to say it was my first time ever in the Big Apple! My friends have been telling me about how great a city New York is, and to be honest I could not understand why. I mean sure its a mega city with a ton of history and entertainment. But I have been to many other big cities so I figured that NYC would be just like them. An urban jungle on steroids if you will. Plus I had preconceived notions on how the people were going to be, rude and difficult to understand, even though everyone I know said that new yorkers were actually pretty cool.
Well all of my preconceived notions flew out the door as soon as I landed. People were funny and helpful. And the town just exuded a certain vibe that is hard to explain. It was electric. In a span of about 30 minutes I was able to absorb this vibe and truly understand what people were talking about.
Only one problem, I neglected to pack my camera. So there I was in one of the most picturesque cities in the world with no camera. I went into hunter mode, thinking to myself where would be the best place to buy digital cameras in New York? Fortunately I stumbled across a place called 42nd Street Photo. They had a fantastic selection. Jackpot! I thought to myself after first taking in the scene inside the store, this is going to cost me. But the prices were actually good.
So I was finally armed with everything I needed. A new camera to take in the sites. And a new attitude about New York. I hope that you too will someday get to experience this great city, do not pass up on the opportunity if it arises.
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Flattery Will Get You a Long Way
Posted on 11. Aug, 2009 by search_junkie.
If you want to score big points with a client, play to their egos. Now when it comes to REALLY large clients that provide tons of value you need to step it up to another level. In order to pull this off, on either a big level or even a small one, you must pay attention to what the client tells you in casual conversations. And if you are not having casual conversations with your clients on things other than work then you are not building the relationship properly.
Case in point, a very large client of mine always talks about watches. So he must really like watches I said to myself. Knowing this I made a point of studying a little bit about watches and the current trends in the high end watch niche. In doing so I discovered that tag heuer watches were very classy, well made, and had a great reputation. I ended up sending the watch you see to the right here as a thank you for doing business with me. Needless to say the client was extremely impressed and caught off guard by my kindness. Then I followed that up with a tasteful letter asking if he would be a reference for me and if he could refer anyone he knew to me.
It turns out that I have made a profit 150 times what I spent on that watch with all of the great references and referrals he has sent me. The lesson to learn here is that sending gifts to good clients is definitely worth the investment!
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The Importance of Design
Posted on 10. Aug, 2009 by search_junkie.
I feel like I have to write about the importance of not skimping on Web design again because I still keep running into people that want $6000 websites. Business owners simply cannot understand the you get what you pay for. This is even more true in web design. You cannot go cheap when it comes to your website.
People should never expect an e-commerce site for anything less than $10,000. A CMS, expect upwards of $15,000. And a large dynamic site with databases and other functionality should start at $20,000 and go up. I am talking about quality. It’s like when you go to a small restaurant that is dirty and smells, you get a bad impression and probably would not go back. If that business owner would just have spent a bit more to make the place respectable they could have earned a lot more business from you.
So do yourself a favor, save up some more money and put it into your web design, it’s worth every penny!
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What is so Hard About Web Development Anyways?
Posted on 10. Aug, 2009 by search_junkie.
Many people ask themselves this questions after, during, or even before paying for a Web design/development project. It is one of those things that is very difficult for people to grasp because they do not understand it. The graphic below allows us to begin to understand.
This graphic brings up some good points regarding the difficulty of making all site elements cross browser compatible. Believe it or not, many times its the little things that are the most difficult to fix in Web development. Remember that when you work on your next design project.
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How to Choose a Good Web Host
Posted on 10. Aug, 2009 by search_junkie.
There are SO many different web hosting companies out there, it all becomes a blur when you are trying to figure out which one to use. And there are just as many horror stories about the service of hosting companies! So choosing a good one is paramount to your success. You need to consider a few things when you set out to find a good webhost.
You need to figure out what your level of customer service needs to be. Are you a savvy Web veteran that understand how to run their own hosting environment? Or are you a newbie that wants to host their own WordPress blog? Choose a company that suits your needs by checking out a review site like WebHostingGeeks.com.
If you are cost conscious then you can easily sort by price by going to their “Best Budget Hosting” section. Need a good .NET host? Go to their “Best Windows Hosting” section. They have just about every need covered in a review section. Now if every review site had this level of functionality when it comes to search the world would be so much easier to navigate.
I also noticed that they have a good blog. I found mostly some pretty advanced, techy, posts there. But there were also some good beginner type posts, like their post on the Hot Banana CMS, that could possibly help your decision on what CMS to go with.
