Overloaded with too much info?
I had lunch with Rob a few weeks ago and we both agreed that keeping up with content is becoming more and more difficult. I only have 54 subscriptions in my Google Reader, yet every day I have 50 or so posts to read and I could easily add another 50 subscriptions. I’m not even sure if the 54 that I am reading are the ones I should be reading and fear that I’m missing out on vast amounts of information and just can’t keep up.
This can be even more challenging if you are starting a web business and not sure if you grasp all of the terminology. How are you supposed to find out which headline will bring more traffic to your blog, or what will prompt your website visitor to buy your product? I could tell you to go and read such and such blogs, but sometimes there is just not enough time to read all of that stuff.
So what can you do instead? How about checking out Sean’s cartoons? With very simple illustration Sean’s blog is full of advice with accompanying cartoons that clearly explain complicated subjects. I’m not saying that by reading his blog your products will fly off the shelf, but you’ll probably learn a great deal and his cartoons are very clever.
Here is my favourite:
The lesson here: Your users don’t have that many eyeballs. Cut the crap from your site.
10 SEO myths debunked
Via Kate I just read a great article by Micheal Estrin where he talks about the misinformation about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). My favourite myth is myth #6: SEO is a one-time event for a website. At a guess I would estimate that 90% of our clients believe this, which I find incredibly frustrating. I’m not sure if it’s because other web designers offer SEO services and just bundle it in their quote or what, but the idea of carrying out a single “optimization trick” and getting high-ranking forever simply makes no sense.
At Bluelime Media we don’t offer SEO services, so we can recommend either professional copywriters who can help you create optimized content or a SEO company who specializes in optimization and are experts in that field.
Of course once we explain that SEO isn’t a one-time deal, this of course leads to Michael’s myth#4: SEO is free.
Check out the full article and see if what you know about SEO is simply a myth.
Apologies to Pacey + Pacey…. oops!
A few months ago we updated our portfolio with our latest project, UBC Vault. This website was a collaborative effort and we mistakenly credited the logo design to Johnny Kuan, when in fact the creative team at Pacey + Pacey Design were responsible for the UBC Library’s branding.
So apologies are in order!
And just to recap, here are the names of everyone involved in this project:
Pacey + Pacey - Branding/log
Johnny Kuan - Web Design
Christine Rondeau (me) - HTML/CSS
Joseph Lo and Ben Keen - PHP Programming
Miin Lim and Angelia Darnbrough - Consultation
And of course the team at UBC were extensively involved in testing, copywriting, etc….
Free Guide to Learn How to Create Web Videos
So you’ve been blogging for a few years now and started podcasting… but video is what you really want to do? Via Kate, I discovered this great website put together by video blogger Jim Kukral. Simply sign up for free and you’ll learn what equipment to use, how to set up lighting, where to upload your videos and a whole lot more for free.
Collaborating with Graphic Designers is very Inspiring
I’ve never called myself a graphic designer. I’ve designed business cards in the past, but I don’t think that any of them would win awards and I only ever did these once the logo was supplied. I curse every time I open illustrator and I’m convinced that I only ever used 20% of the Photoshop features. I consider graphic designer, people who know their Pantone colours from their CMYK and care passionately about paper and print material.
Don’t get me wrong, I love printed material, but I wouldn’t know how one goes about selecting the right paper and ink. As a result of “lacking” this skill, I’ve been very opened to working with other graphic designers. Usually they will approach me in the middle of a project and say something like this:
“We’ve been working with company ABC and did a bunch of printed material for them and now they want a website. Can you help us?”
In the past few years, I’ve been working more and more on other people’s design and have learned a great deal. It’s simply staggering the number of different approaches to web design there are. I must be missing something about Illustrator’s capabilities, because it seems to be the favourite tool amongst graphic designers.
I recently finished a project for the BCRPA’s Physical Activity Strategy (PAS) initiative. I had the pleasure of working with Dean Kujula from Kube. Dean created the icons for the PAS website and prepared a website design. Once approved, Dean asked me how I would like to receive the files and what version of Photoshop I was using. I was quite impressed with the result. The file contained multiple folders, each carefully labeled and ordered. I don’t think that I’ve ever worked with such well organized material.
I constantly meet newbie web designers who want to do it all; logos, branding, brochures, cms, web design…. I’ve come to the conclusion that working with experts and people who are more talented then you is a much better way to expand your knowledge.