Although I never make resolutions, over the holidays, I do think about the year and how I can improve things at Bluelime Media and every year, I do the same thing. I think about it and then do nothing…. So this year I thought I would put it up in writing and make myself accountable.

Keeping it small

When I first started web design, I normally thought that I would create a company, get office space, hire a few employees and increase to a half dozen people over the years. At least that’s what BNI and business coaches were envisioning for me. I realise now that that dream isn’t mine. I have no desire to grow and manage staff. I enjoying working by myself and like Dave Shae, happy to be the little guy. So I’ve removed my careers page and updated my about section to reflect this new direction. At least in writing it’s a new direction.. it’s always been like that in my heart.

Embracing WordPress

For the past 2 years, I’ve been building more and more WordPress sites and have come to the conclusion that it’s the best solution for me and for my clients. I’ve updated my home page to reflect this change and in the next week or so I’ll be updating the service section to inform potential clients, that this is what I offer. Not to worry though, I know people who can use Drupal, Joomla and flash, so if that’s your flavour, I will gladly refer you.

Work Less

This is the reason I never make resolutions… Ever year, I look back and think that I’ve worked much too hard… but when you decide to work on your own and refuse to delegate or resist offers of helps… then you end up with a lot of work. So I only have myself to blame. In the past, I’ve taken weeks off here and there and enjoyed the breaks where phone and Internet access is limited. This has worked very well for me in the past and I will keep doing this, starting this month. At the end of January, I’m heading out to India for a yoga trip with Christina Sell and Genevieve Gilbreath. I’ll take lots of pictures while I’m there, but won’t be putting them online until I get back. Doing so, would require finding an Internet cafe which could lead to peaking in my inbox.

Happy New Year to all of you and best of luck with your goals for 2009.

All 3 of the other parties (Liberals, NDP, Greens) have strong(er) environmental policies, but which to vote for?
The Vote For Environment website makes it easy for you to decide. Simply type in your postal and take a look at which of the 3 parties can beat the Conservatives in your riding. As long as these 3 parties get enough seats, they should be able to forward a greener agenda.

Be sure to check out their sponsor, De Smog Blog. Their new website dedicated to the election and the one across the border analyzes each candidate’s platform on climate change and assigns them with a rating.

This Canadian election may not be as exciting as the US one, but the outcome may affect the future of humankind more critically than any previous elections.

These widgets can be a fun way to add content to your website. The only downside of adding these, is that you have to dabble in the code a bit which can be scary at first. Additionally if you’re blog is on a hosted platform such as WordPress.com or Typepad, you may not be able to add these.

So how do you go about adding a widget?
First let’s select a widget. Of all the widgets mentioned during the presentation, I found polldaddy.com the most interesting. As the name would suggest polldaddy allows you to create polls.

1. First you need to go to their site and sign up for an account. This is done very easily simply by filling your name and email. (Don’t you love people who don’t ask you for every possible detail?)
2. Next, hit create a poll.
3. Type in your questions.
4. Type in your answers,
5. Select the “look” of your poll.
6. Hit save and Voila!

You will then be sent to a new screen with code which may look scary, but here’s the catch. You don’t need to know how it works. Just copy and paste it. That’s it. And here’s the poll I just created:

Now, for this example, I’ve copied the poll in the body of my text. I don’t really want to clutter my sidebar with more stuff, but if I wanted to, I could have a permanent poll anywhere on my site. The beauty of this widget is that simply by login in to my polldaddy.com account and creating a new poll, the poll on my website is automatically updated.

I mentioned earlier that widgets usually appear in the sidebar of your blog. This is where dabbling in the code gets a bit tricky. If you’ve set up your own blog and have access to the presentation, you can go to the template editor, locate the sidebar.php and add the widget code in there. If you are like me and using WordPress which you’ve downloaded and customized, you can also use the widget editor, but be careful and make sure that you back up all of your files, just in case you mess things up.

I should also point out, that if you copy and paste code into the body of a post, like I just did, save the post and come back and edit it, chances are the code for your widget will need to be updated. The visual editor in WordPress seems to alter the code every time you save and edit. I’m not sure why, but it just does… So just add your code once you are happy with the post and no longer need to edit.

Have fun.

With the growing number of Apple fans out there one would think that Safari is quickly gaining ground, but the fact of the matter is that IE6 is still the number one browser out there. Here are the latest browser stats from w3counter as of October 10, 2007.

Screen resolution is another hot debate. Since more and more people have larger monitors shouldn’t we be increasing the width of our designs? Turns out that the most used screen resolution worldwide is 1024×768 but did you know that only 50% of users maximize their screen? Before you start making designs that are 1000px wide, you might want to keep that number in mind. Here are the stats for screen resolution.

There are many other stats you should look at before designing. The location of your audience, are they using broadband, do they consist of a mostly technological crowd? If so, these should also be considered before you start.

Just a few days ago, Darren announced the Greenest Photo Ever Contest. This contest is part of their online marketing activities for the folks at DeSmogBlog, who are trying to clear the PR pollution that clouds climate change. 96 photos were submitted last time I checked. The contest ends October 1, so submit your photo for your chance to win.

If you miss the contest or don’t have a camera, Blog Action Day takes place October 15. Bloggers around the world have signed up to write a post about the environment. The rules are pretty simple, just write something about the environment and let them know that you are taking part by registering.

Chatting about the environment is often paired up with the price of gas. Whether you like or not, the two go hand in hand and big oil companies have remained silent, that is, up until now. Petro Canada’s new blog, Pump Talk aims to contribute to the discussion of gas prices and fuel efficiency. What better way to talk openly about gasoline prices and fuel efficiency than directly with the big guys. Let’s hope that their blog leads to great discussions.

It can be very discouraging at times to think that it’s not worth it. Recycling your water bottle water may not help the environment that much, but looking around the net there are tons of ideas and people getting involved. Going green seems to be gaining up momentum.

1. Networking – the obvious reason, people are using Facebook to connect and maintain relationships with existing contacts.
2. Research – Facebook can be used as a research tool – you can easily create polls asking Facebook users a question pertinent to your offering and have them answer. This a great tool to enable market research within specific communities.
3. Driving traffic to your website – By adding a link to your Facebook profile interested parties will click through to your website. Interestingly enough, my website gets more click thru’s from friends profiles than my own.
4. Lead generation – Facebook can be used to establish contact with new prospects. This seems particularly popular with real estate agents.
5. Collaboration – many companies are using Facebook as a forum to collaborate. Facebook is a great place to brainstorm with like minded professionals in decentralised locations.
6. Advertising – some companies have set up Facebook profiles that simply advertise and promote their offering – its amazing how many friends Pepsi Platinum has.
7. Content Distribution – I use Facebook as a forum to distribute blog content and others use it for music – video etc.
8. Branding – folks on Facebook can add “favorites” to their profile. These “things I like” can be products or services and many companies have posted their logo or band image. Each time a person looks at these on someone profile the brand is being reinforced.

We are seeing an evolution of social networking as people begin to recognise that its applications reach beyond simple youth networking. New applications are being added regularly that enhance Facebook as a true business development tool. I envisage membership to social networks like these will burgeon as professionals and business people become aware of the possibilities and reach these offer.

The best known example of a wiki is perhaps Wikipedia the on-line encyclopedia where anyone can login and contribute. Take that functionality and apply it to organisations and the ability to interact easily to get the job done is reality. Right now the most common applications of wikis are text based knowledge management, light project management and documentation related but wiki functionality is quickly being enhanced by the incorporation of voice, video and IM capabilities. Users are able to work on documents whilst simultaneously discussing and even viewing each other’s actions.

The implications wikis bring to business go beyond streamlining communication and enhancing collaboration; the ability to effectively operate from home offices will allow all manner of organisations to reduce costs and in turn will reduce the need to commute and as we all know, less commuters means less pollution means a happier planet. I’m not saying that wikis will change the world overnight but they are already changing the ways companies communicate, only time will tell what the longstanding effects will be.

PBwiki is one of the leading wiki applications available, allowing users to take advantage of a free trimmed down version of the product as an enticement to pay for added functionality. Other wiki providers include: Social Text and Jotspot (now Google). I encourage you to take a closer look.