Archive for June 2004

My five-year-old finds the old camera with batteries still in it, but no film. He flashes away at everything in the house making us all blind. I plan to get him and his older sister a digital camera with a memory card, so they can take as many pictures as they want and nothing is wasted. Bad photos don’t die, they just get deleted and don’t cost a dime except they use “battery energy.”

This book from the O’Reilly hack series differs from the other in that it has color images. Since there are colored images, the headers are blue instead of traditional black and that’s why the book costs a tad more than the other Hacks books. The landscape photos are spectacular, so you get a little bit of art along with instruction in the book.

Straight lines and I don’t get along. The only way for me to draw one is to have a ruler, but it can still be slanted unless I do other precise measuring to ensure it’s straight from end to end. The first series of hacks covers tripods, travel-sized to one made for a bike. As expected, learn how to capture magic with flash and take professional portraits with a two flash-setup.

The hacks aren’t just hardware-related. Receive tips on taking daylight and nighttime photos with and dealing with kids, whiteboards, passport photos, panoramas, and other objects. (Kids aren’t objects, mind you). Almost 100 pages cover using the computer and software like Photoshop to manipulate images.

A chapter covers camera phones, providing creative ideas for their use. The chapter is brief, so those without an interest or a camera phone won’t feel like a few bucks have been wasted. The next time you’re bored, go to the projects section near the end of the book for ideas on what to do with photos. Such projects are guaranteed to keep you busy for hours and having fun in the process; maybe with a little frustration thrown in as what good project ever works perfectly?

Who will benefit from the book? Those who want to learn the things the pros do without spending time experimenting. Those who aren’t afraid to experiment or try new techniques. Those who want to make a camera do things without buying expensive equipment like professionals use. Traditional photographers making the move to digital will benefit. The group that won’t benefit are the folks who use a camera on vacation or on special occasions and snap at everything in sight without a worry about how subject is lined up.

VITAL STATISTICS:
TITLE: Digital Photography Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools
AUTHOR: Derrick Story
PUBLISHER: O’Reilly & Associates
PUBLICATION DATE: May 2004
ISBN: 0596006667
FORMAT: Paperback
PAGES: 332
PRICE: US$29.95

Lots of fun happening over at Mike Davidson’s place. Mike who? He’s just the guy who manages a little site called ESPN. He shares his opinion on validation and many follow with their own in the comments. Amazingly enough, no spam in the comments.

Dave responds with his perspective. Too simple? Maybe. Maybe not. I am not going to add to it. Instead, I shall provide comic relief by making a fool of myself in song! This is not an attempt to belittle the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Nooooo. On the contrary, I love their work. In fact, my daughter is performing in Oklahoma! tomorrow.

Sung to the tune of
The Farmer and the Cowman Samples here.

The designer and the coder should be friends,
Oh, the designer and the coder should be friends.
One likes to color, the other likes to program,
But that’s no reason why they cain’t be friends.
Webby folks should stick together,
Webby folks should all be pals.
Coders play with the designer’s XHTML,
Designers play with the coder’s ASP and C.
I’d like to say a word for the designer,
He come out and made a lot of changes
He come out and built to standards,
And built ‘em right acrost Internet.
The designer and the coder should be friends,
Oh, the designer and the coder should be friends.
The coder hacks a site with ease, the designer designs with colors like butter and cheese,
But that’s no reason why they cain’t be friends
Webby folks should stick together,
Webby folks should all be pals.
Coders play with the designer’s CSS,
Designers play with the coder’s Java and ASP
I’d like to teach you all a little sayin’
And learn the words by heart the way you should
I don’t say I’m no better than anybody else,
But I’ll be damned if I ain’t jist as good!
I don’t say I’m no better than anybody else,
But I’ll be damned if I ain’t jist as good!
Webby folks should stick together,
Webby folks should all be pals.
Coders play with the designer’s CSS,
Designers play with the coder’s Java and ASP!

Lane shares his opinion in that 90% of usability testing is useless. I think the best testing is getting Mom or Uncle Bob to use the Web site while you take notes. Maybe it’s a little extreme, but it depends on the site.

Mom and Uncle Sal are perfect for eBay and Amazon since these sites attract everyone including the less experienced surfer. Of course, be sure to include programmer Joe as you don’t want to bore or insult the experienced surfer. It’s best not to let the testers be people who have seen or touched the design because they will know what some things mean that a person coming upon the site for the first time might not know.

Usability testing has no one solution. Best practices doesn’t work. What is best for ABC could be terrible for DEF. Too many variables apply that could positively affect one organization and hurt the other.

Book review of Persuasive Online Copywriting is online. Though this book has been out for a while, its content remains very relevant.

Draw your customers in with a handful of powerful copy. No, no, you don’t have to go to college to make it happen nor do you have to buy a doorstopper-sized book, which gets dusty before you muster the strength to crack it open.

Are you like me? A kid in a candy store when it comes to books? You buy every self-help or non-fiction book to bring in more business. One problem. When do we have the time to read them? This book simply won’t let that happen with its short chapters, personable style, and valuable information on how to keep visitors clicking until they make the buy. This book is the how. How to take all the theories and whys discussed by other authors and make it happen. I have trouble with theories because they don’t help me visualize the application of such theories. This book stays away from whys and shows you how.

Don’t believe me? When I started reading the book, several big projects got thrown my way leading to late night reading being replaced by late night working. Every now and then, I took a break and breezed through this book reading many pages in a brief time while gaining new knowledge and a refresher in creative writing as it applies to online copy.

Non-fiction is my thing when it comes to writing. Over time, I have forgotten creative techniques for adding spice to copy. The authors jolted memories of high school English classes where we learned about the different poetic styles (iambic pentameter, alliteration, meter, etc) and to avoid using passive verbs. Not only that, but also they cover how to write for different personalities.

Already getting high traffic to your site? Good for you! That means you know how to draw attention and interest. But, how are you doing in building desire so that they take action? Hmm… could that be the challenge? The authors drive toward long-term results by engaging your visitors and leading the way for them to get what they need and be satisfied with it.

I’m familiar with a few techniques discussed in the book, but many may not be. It depends on what you do with regard to the Web site. I understand making a Web site usable and getting visitors to the site. My Web site’s weakness is converting visitors into customers. Marketing pros may succeed with creating a desire, but have trouble with visitors taking action. The authors cover all the areas needed to persuade via the Internet from “notice me!” to “be happy with me!”

Are you thinking, “More technology! We need more technology to make this work?” We’ve taken technology for granted, but all it can do is what human programmers program it to do. Technology doesn’t know human nature. It doesn’t know how to feel or need something. People do and can convey what they know with words. Words make the sale. Technology ensures the words get their say (by quickly loading the Web page and functioning the way it should) and to push the sale through the back-end process (taking the order, managing inventory, etc.). This is where conversion principles apply. The authors share simple processes for improving conversion rates.

A splash page is the “introduction” page to a Web site. It’s flashy, colorful, and cool. But it’s a waste of time. It gets in the way of the core material. Customers don’t care how good your designers are, they care about what you can give them and that comes through words and good online copy. It’s time for the online world to get what print mastered many years ago. The authors’ witty writing style makes the book enjoyable to read without sacrificing wisdom. They practice what they preach and it’s no wonder that GrokDotCom.com, the site behind Future Now, Inc. is a success.

Time has come to let go of what’s in it for the company and think of what’s in it for the customer. In time, you shall reap the rewards at the bank.

VITAL STATISTICS:
TITLE: Persuasive Online Copywriting
AUTHOR: Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Lisa T. Davis
PUBLISHER: Wizard Academy Press
PUBLICATION DATE: September 2002
ISBN: 0971476993
FORMAT: Paperback
PAGES: 176
PRICE: US$18.00

I could not imagine what new reason The real reason you should care about web standards would provide as so many have been written to justify the reasons for designing with standards. Believe it or not, this one offers one I had not read to date.

You’ve heard about Atom vs. RSS. You’ve heard about different wireless networks. On and on. When we be gasoline for cars, we don’t worry about going to a certain gas station to a specific gasoline. Every gas station carries what our car needs. Technology should operate similarly rather than having to use a certain standard with specific software or hardware. [ Link Porter ]

Just have to drop a note to say Happy Anniversary to my husband and partner in crime of 15 years. Here’s to many more!

Posted a brand new gotcha today. It’s a surefire way to prevent people from reading your mail.

Alan K’necht has a great article at Digital Web on organic and paid marketing. In reading the title, I thought, “What the hey is organic marketing?” Simply put, it’s word-of-mouth marketing. Alan explores each and which is right for a site.

Over at the InformIT blog, I’m covering PHP for the next week or so starting with installing Apache.