Life is Good

Those who actually check on my blog on a periodic basis have undoubtedly noticed a long dry spell here. Part of that, of course, is due to the darling angel who has decided to come live with us -- our delightful daughter, Kaylie. While she does take up some time, though, our life with her is becoming a bit more under control (as much as it can be, at any rate).

What's really taking up my time now is my business, Cyber Data Solutions.

Despite these "challenging economic times", my business is really taking off. I've picked up several new clients over the past few months and a number of former clients have been contacting me for new projects.

My cup runneth over.

Just a rundown on what's happening with CDS:

• Common Grove. I helped my buddy Blaine Roderique over at Q Ltd set up a carbon footprint calculator tied into a credit card processing system for people to purchase carbon offsets. That site should be going live any day now.
• IDSC Biotech Network. I met Mark Creswell, IDSC's glorious leader, through my sales training at Marr Sales. He called me in to help him update the content on their site and to do a little tweaking with the layout.
• Concordia University, Ann Arbor. Through a string of networking contacts which eventually led to being selected as a preferred vendor for Uproar Communications here in Ann Arbor, I got to work with the friendly folks at Concordia University -- I know, kind of ironic, right?). They were running into some technical problems and needed me to help them set up a stop-gap system which would give them time to consider their next big overhaul of their online presence -- guess who might be called in to help with that?
• Community Housing Network, Inc. Long-time clients, CHN, called me in to work on adding to and updating their existing CMS-based site. There were one or two small housekeeping projects that needed my attention as well.
• Clear!Blue. I started working on this project late last year with my friends Craig and Matt over at Defrost Design. We've now successfully launched this system. My part in it was to set up an administrative interface which allowed the C!B folks to maintain their own content on the site. Technically, this is a content management system (CMS), but unlike the work I do for CHN above (a general-purpose CMS called Drupal), this is a customized special-fit system designed to fit the customers specific needs.

There were a few other small items that I helped with during this time, but what I've listed were and are the larger jobs. Looking down the road, I've already got two or three more projects in the pipeline. At this rate, I'll have the best year ever with my business.

Now I just need to find a little extra time for some sleep!

So, what are the exciting things going on with your business or company?

My Good Name

I had something happen tonight which just irritates the heck out of me. I was checking my email and found some bounced messages. A whole lot of them.

What irritates me is that I didn't send the originals. Some twit harvested my email address (probably from my company website) and used it in the "From" field for his spam-fest. I received around 20 bounced messages for replica watches and "pharmaceuticals". That means a whole lot more made it through to people -- people who now associate my email address with such desultory practices.

This could lead to my email address being placed on the "black lists" for various spam blocking services, which could lead to my messages not getting through to my clients. Nice.

And the worst thing is? There isn't a darned thing I can do about it.

Grrr.

So, have you experienced anyone tainting your good name recently? What did you do?

Preparing

I've been thinking a lot about systems lately. I've been working on a system to analyze a new hosting service to see how it has been configured. Knowing this, I can tweak my projects to work properly on any given system.

I've also been thinking about a system to deal with new projects/clients. The benefits of such a practice would be that I wouldn't have to chance forgetting some piece or another of the process I have to go through to get them set up on my test server, set up a file for the project in question, and verify that a reasonable set of steps are in place to accomplish the task.

Part of the reason I've been thinking about this is that I was reminded tonight how much easier things are when I have a system in place. In this case, I was setting up for my quarterly LAN party. For those who don't know, this is an event where a bunch of grown men get together and connect their computers into a local area network (LAN) and then play computer games within which they try to kill each other -- repeatedly.

My wife tends to leave the house -- and often the state -- whenever I'm hosting one of these events.

Anyway, a couple of years ago, after spending 6 or 7 hours setting up for one of these parties, making mistakes that I made many times before, I decided that it was time to record all that I could think of in order to make the next one more efficient. Sure enough, it only took me about 2 hours on the next one. Each time I've refined the system, putting in any new contingencies which I uncover.

What was especially nice this time was that it's been 9 months since the last party (I'm not sure why there was such a long delay). Despite the hiatus, I was still able to get everything up and running in about 2 hours. Not bad!

So, what written systems to you have, for either your business or personal life?

The Little Rewards

As I've worked in my business over the years (and especially since I went full-time in my business), I've spent some time observing my behavior. This isn't only because I'm self-absorbed, but rather that I hope to find ways to make myself more efficient and effective at running my business.

One of the things I've uncovered is that I tend to have a lot of resistance to tackling what I perceive of as a big job. Lately, for example, my business website has gotten a little stale. The news blurbs hadn't been updated in almost a year. My portfolio of links didn't include a lot of my recent work. Even my listings of products and services didn't reflect what I could offer my clients.

Yes, I know "cobblers children -- no shoes".

My challenge was that it all seemed like too much. Every time I sat down to get the work done, I would freeze up thinking of how much there was to do. Of course, the longer I put it off, the more there was to get done. So, how did I get things back under control? Two techniques:

Chunk It Down and Small Rewards.

Of course, we're all familiar with the idea of "chunking it down" -- breaking a project down into its component parts and then tackling those smaller pieces as more manageable tasks. I actually took it a step further. Based on a blog post I had read on "Escape from Cubicle Nation", I took even these small goals and broke them down even further until what I had was so trivially easy it was almost insulting. For example, on of the projects was to "Update the News". I broke that down to "Write a news blurb". Then I broke that down even further to "Spend 10 minutes on writing a news blurb."

Ten minutes was so simple I almost didn't have an excuse not to do it. Of course, that still didn't get me all the way there. Just because it was easy didn't mean I had an emotional investment in getting it done. That's where the "Small Rewards" came in.

I'm a comic book collector. Every week I buy up to ten new comic books. My reward for spending those ten minutes working on my website was to read one comic book. If I didn't, then the books just stacked up in my closet. I'll tell you, things got done pretty quickly and my site is almost up to date.

My next task? Moving my site to a new hosting service.

So, how do you motivate yourself to tackle those larger tasks?

Random Notes to Myself

Looking around my office, in addition to the clutter which often infests my desktop, I see a number of notes that I've written to myself. Often I'm inspired by blog posts or books I've read, podcasts I've listened to, or just random thoughts which flit about the dark corners of my mind.

For example, on a small whiteboard next to my monitor is the simple phrase "I am a goal setter". This one is to encourage me to set my long-term goals. I'm pretty good with short- and mid- term ones, but thinking on the order of five or ten years gets a little past my everyday comfort level.

My larger whiteboard, in addition to being the repository of the status of current projects, also houses a number of notes.

"If I want to succeed significantly beyond my current levels, I must fundamentally change what I do and how I do it". I don't remember what I was reading to inspire that one. It might have been Scott Ginsberg's "Make a Name for Yourself" or it might have been Seth Godin's blog. Wherever I got it, though, I wanted to keep that one in front of me in order to remind myself that the riskiest path is not to change -- something with which my "paralysis of analysis" brain has a real problem.

Right bleow it, inspired by "The Disney Way", a book I'm reading right now, is "What beliefs and values does Cyber Data Solutions represent and exemplify?" and immediately below it is "Rescue. Teach. Empower. WOW." Just me trying to find my way and to figure out what I want my company to stand for.

In my Google Notebook, I've got a list of concepts that I've found. Right at the top is one from lifehack.org in a post titled "12 Ways to Upgrade Your Weekly Review". For me this is an idea which underscores all great achievement: "Decide to do something that will make you uncomfortable next week."

I've got these little messages to myself all over. Some I see all the time, others only appear when I look for them. All are designed to keep me thinking about who I am and what I want from my life.

How do you remember your concepts and inspirations?

Freelancing Advice

I sent out volume 2, issue 4 of the "Clearing up the Confusion" e-zine today. This one focused on some of the new blogs that I've been following lately. In particular, I've become quite attached to The Freelance Switch. Here's what I wrote in the e-zine:

For those of us who are off running our own businesses, this is a great resource. It has "how to" articles, advice, links to a podcast, and even its own comic strip, "Freelance Freedom". This blog and its associated website are clearinghouses of great information. I think I've found at least one useful take-away idea every time I've visited. I also love their podcasts for those times when I'm not able to sit down in front of the computer. I can get in a little education while I'm shoveling the driveway.

If you'd like to read about more of the blogs that I recommend, check out the latest issue of the e-zine. You can read other issues in the archive, or you might even consider getting a subscription.

So, what blogs are you following lately?

Cleaning Up

We had a party for my wife's birthday this afternoon/evening. We did all of the things you would normally do for such a gathering. We planned a menu, invited our friends, cleaned the house, etc. Everyone showed up. We had a great time. Then everyone went home. Nothing left to do, right?

Wrong.

Anyone who's ever thrown a party will tell you that there's this little thing called "clean up" which you have to do after everyone has gone home. It's part and parcel to throwing the party. In fact, it can even be somewhat enjoyable. I find it very relaxing to reflect on the happiness and laughter of the day while I put things aright.

Websites and web development are actually very similar. You spend time working with your web developer. You design an architecture, write great copy, and generate some wicked cool graphics. You install everything and make it go live.

That's not the end of it, though. There's still the clean up. Because no matter how many tests you run, there will always be something you missed. Sometimes it's something as simple as a typo. Other times it might be something much bigger, like a missing page or some broken links. At any rate, that sort of thing needs to be cleaned up as soon as possible.

Here's where it's important for your web developer have a clear understanding of your expectations. You must both understand how the developer will deal with bugs found after the project has been delivered. For my clients, they receive 3 months of "shake out" at no extra charge. Of course, adding new features to an existing system will cost additional money, but any bugs found are my problem and I will take the time to make sure that everything is done correctly.

But that's just the way I do things.

So, what was the worst "bug" in your website that you've encountered?

That Which is Measured...

There's a rule in development, whether for business or personal pursuits: That which is measured, gets improved. I've been putting in some effort on this recently. It's a bit tedious, I'll admit, but it is informative.

Each business day, I record the number of calls I make, people I meet, events I attend, and presentations I give. I also record any sales I make and what their value is. I've been doing this now for about five months. My goal is to have a baseline "cookbook".

A cookbook is a concept I learned in my sales training with Joe Marr. The general idea is to understand, in my business, what level of effort leads to what level of results. When you know that, then you can control those results by increasing or decreasing your effort. With five months of data, I should have some picture of my return on investment.

The trick when analyzing this stuff, though, is to take into account the lag factor. For example, I haven't really changed the number of calls, meetings or events over the past few months, but just eyeballing the results, I'm seeing a gradual increase in the number of sales and their total value. So, for whatever reason, my results haven't reached the plateau dictated by my level of effort yet.

This is another good statistic to know: Lag time. If I look at my results and they aren't what I want, making a change now won't have an immediate effect, but might take several weeks or months to show.

So, what aspects of your business do you measure?

Questioning the Technician's Mind

In "E-Myth" Michael Gerber talks about this false assumption that most people who start businesses are "Entrepreneurs", i.e. visionaries who strike out to try new things and build a business with a bold plan. In reality most of us are "Technicians". This means that we know how to do a particular job and we've decided to start a business to work for ourselves, doing that job.

That's all well and good, but those of us who follow that path will never have a business. At most we will own a job. How can you tell the difference? If you have a business, you should be able to take three months off and when you come back it will be doing at least as well as it was before you left. If you own a job, then you just won't get paid for those three months.

The challenge of expanding beyond owning a job is that the Technician is quite happy turning the crank to churn out the widgets. We're very analytical. We tend to color inside the lines. Going outside the lines isn't allowed. Doing that might break something. The problem is, only by coloring outside the lines can we become remarkable. Only by being remarkable in some way will we have a chance to grow and develop beyond just owning a job.

This is a challenge I'm facing right now. While I'm not at capacity right at the moment, the number of my clients is growing at a rate that I probably will be there by the end of this year. It's time now to start thinking about how I'm going to break my current pattern. If I don't do it now, while I have the spare capacity to do something about the situation, then I may find myself trapped by my own success, unable to muster the spare cycles I would need to grow.

One of the things on my list is to spend time coming up with a set of good questions. Tony Robbins, in his book "Awaken the Giant Within" talks about the importance of specifying these questions in an empowering way. Similarly, my hero, Scott Ginsberg, recommends "How" questions instead of "Why" questions. "Why should I expand my offerings" presupposes an option of defeat before I start. I know I have to, so I don't really need to answer this one. A better approach might be "How can I expand my offerings?" This question points to all sorts of things from the products I might consider to how I will find the time to develop these products. This sounds a little more exciting.

I think I can go one better.

"How can I expand my offerings -- and have a good time doing it?"

Wow. When you present it that way, it doesn't even sound like work does it?

I'm going to continue working on my list of questions. When I'm ready I'll share them here.

So, what questions do you ask yourself to motivate and excite?

An Unshared Language

Kaylie was a little fussy this evening. She was crying and unsettled and I couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong.

The problem for me, of course, is that the language she uses (screams and tears) doesn't have enough meaning to me (my wife, on the other hand, claims she can tell the difference between a hungry cry and a "change my diaper" cry). Quite often I misinterpret what Kaylie is saying and address the wrong concern.

Ironically, this is a basic problem with working as a consultant, too. No, I don't mean that one or the other of us acts in an infantile way. The problem is we are dealing with a lack of shared vocabulary.

This is why I have to ask a lot of questions when I sit down with someone to discuss a project.

I recently was chatting with a potential client. They told me that they wanted me to set up an online discussion forum. This is definitely possible, and not too difficult to do. If we decided to go forward, they would end up with a nice system which would allow all of their website visitors to carry on written "conversations" with each other. Pretty cool.

But I never leave things alone. Often people ask for things which I can deliver, but they aren't what they really want.

After continued questioning, it turned out that what they actually wanted was a facility with limited authorship and the ability for readers to comment on those authored items. Wait a minute! That's not a discussion forum. That's a blog -- OK, a blog with multiple authors (definitely easy to do), but a blog nonetheless.

If I had set up a discussion forum for that prospect, he probably wouldn't have been very satisfied. In the end I would have had to spend a lot of extra time trying to get that forum to behave like a blog. No one would have been happy.

My sales coach, Joe Marr, tells us that it is our responsibility to find out exactly what problem our prospect needs us to solve. If we don't, we are giving a prescription without a diagnosis -- and that's sales malpractice.

So, have you ever run into a situation where what they were saying and what they wanted were two different things?

A Little Catching Up

Just so you know, I haven't been filling my days solely with taking care of our beautiful Kaylie (though I will admit, when she's smiling -- which is often -- I could sit and play with her for hours!). I've also been getting some actual work done.

Most recently I've been working with my friend Craig Steen over at Defrost Design on a project for another company called Clear!Blue. Clear!Blue creates "spectacular experiences" and like to call themselves "brand superheroes" (without the "uncomfortable spandex").

The system we we've been building has been an interesting one. It's a Flash-based site. For those who don't know what this means, Flash is a product from Adobe which allows developers to create beautiful and intricate animations on a website. These animations can be so complicated, in fact, that they can actually be the website.

Anyway, I was called in on this project because the folks at Clear!Blue wanted to be able to maintain a lot of the information on the site themselves. They wanted to be able to add new people, new case studies, etc and have that new information appear immediately on the website without having to contact the web developer every single time. That's where I came in. I helped build the tools to manage the information on the site and to make it available to the Flash front end.

We're actually getting close to the end of this one. We're down to the final tweaks on the test site while we wait for the client to set up their production hosting environment (using bizland.com). I'm figuring we should be able to wrap this up in the next week or so. Wish me luck!

So, what projects have you been working on recently?

Showing the Way

Down at the Karate school we have a saying that you should look to those who've already found success for encouragement. The path to earning a Black Belt is a fairly long and difficult one. Not everyone makes it. Often the journey is made more difficult by the student's friends and family who are "just trying to protect you from disappointment" after all "you've tried stuff in the past and always given up." Guess who provides the real encouragement?

Those who've already reached Black Belt.

I've begun to see that this is also true in the business world. In my experience here in Ann Arbor, at any rate, those who've built a thriving business are the ones who are most likely to offer ideas, encouragement and mentorship.

I actually met two such folks today.

At a recommendation of a friend of mine, Carrie Hensel of Inner Circle Media, I called on Kevin Phillips and Debra Christein Copperstock of LTI Information Technology. When I asked them about growing and running their very successful business, they started talking about their planning processes, the classes they'd taken, and the directions they were planning for their LTI, IT. They even showed me some of the documents that they had created to chart their future directions.

To put it bluntly, I was completely overwhelmed by their generosity of spirit. I walked out of there feeling excited about the prospect of working on my business and charting out the future for Cyber Data Solutions, LLC. Many thanks to them!

So, who have you met recently who completely blew you away with their generosity?

Keeping on Track

Before I went full time on my business, I used to be able to keep track of my clients in my head. I rarely had more than one or two at any time, so keeping track was pretty easy. Afterwards, though, my client list began to grow and I knew that things would begin to fall through the cracks if I didn't come up with a system.

So, I started keeping a list on the whiteboard next to my desk. It was pretty simple -- just a list of the clients and a one-word status message. I kept a more detailed document as a Google Docs spreadsheet. It's been working pretty well, but, as you can see, my business has continued to grow and now I'm starting to run out of room.

Maybe I need a bigger whiteboard?

This is all an overly long preamble into talking about an online tool that helps to keep track of all of this information. It's called CreativeProOffice.com.

CreativeProOffice is a free service (I'm not sure how they pay for it as there don't seem to be any ads). With it you can track clients, projects, tasks, files, and even submit invoices. It's a remarkably complete service. It's not perfect for me, but I could easily adapt it. So, why am I not converting everything over to using this service?

Well, I'll tell ya. It has to do with the nature of free software. If it were an application that I could download and use on my desktop, I probably would. Even if UpStart Productions (the maker of CPO) decided to stop supporting the application, I would at least have it on my computer and could use it for many years before I might run into problems. Unfortunately, this is an online service. If UpStart decides to stop supporting it, the site could vanish overnight, leaving me without a tool that I might have come to depend upon. I need to think long and hard about whether that is an acceptable risk.

So, would you use such a service to track your clients and projects? What are you using right now?

Always Thinking

Programmers are always thinking about how they can re-use what they build. Since we work in the world of thought-stuff, it's a lot easier to do this than it is when you are working with physical objects.

I just finished working on the Bruce Donovan Construction website. They wanted me to, first, just go through and get the site cleaned up so it didn't look like a template site (or at least not obviously). After a little work, the headers no longer said "Bruce Donovan Construction, put your slogan here", so that was a pretty nice improvement.

The second and larger piece of what they wanted was an online portfolio which displayed pictures of the various projects they've done. The goal was not only a record of their accomplishments, but also a means whereby their clients can actually keep an eye one what's been happening on the job site.

The project went well and Bruce and company seem to be pretty happy with it. They've already got three of their current sites up with pictures and descriptions.

While I was working on the project, it came to me that I could use some similar mechanisms to make a photo album for my lovely daughter, Kaylie. We've got relatives and friends scattered all over the world, from Ohio to Japan. Many of them would like to keep an eye on the little one as she grows.

So today I started creating Kaylie Kimiko's Korner, our daughter's first marketing platform. I'll keep you apprised as I get things up and running. First up will be that photo album, but, who knows? She may be starting her own blog soon!

So, what other offerings do you think friends and relatives would like to see on a baby site?

Me Working

Not long ago I re-read "The E-Myth, Revisited" by Michael Gerber. If you are a freelancer, self-employed consultant, or just the chief cook and bottle washer for your company, you need to read this book. If you are considering leaving your corporate job for any of the above, you need to read it twice.

Before going any further, I just want to assure you that, for me anyway, I love working for myself. It's actually a heck of a lot of fun. It's just also a heck of a lot of work.

When most people daydream about starting their own business (myself included here), all they can think about is working on interesting projects -- do the work and get paid -- without having a boss or some corporate bigwig dictating to them how it's to be done. They do the math (incorrectly) "Let's see, if I just charge $50 per hour at 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, I'll clear $100,000 in the first year. Even after taxes, I'll be doing better than I am right now! If I charge $100 per hour, then I can just work part time -- with no boss! What a deal!"

OK, the math is correct, but there are a few underlying assumptions which are faulty. The E-Myth warns about this. If you have a business, you spend 75% of your working day on the business -- prospecting for clients, doing marketing, bookkeeping, networking, etc (or managing the people who do those same tasks). You spend the other 75% of your time doing the work for which you get paid.

Yes, you, in the second row. What? The breakdown of time I've specified adds up to 150% of a working day?

Huh, imagine that. Obviously, I've made a mistake somewhere. The total should be closer to 200%. Ah well, I'll check my math after I get some work done...

So, what did you think of the E-Myth?

Working With The System

I just finished reading a post by a buddy of mine, Ross Johnson over at 3.7 Designs. He was talking about the need to develop systems in business. From what I've experienced, he is absolutely right.

In order to succeed and grow my business, the methods I used to use have had to evolve. For example, when I was only consulting part time, I could easily keep track of the jobs just in my head. Not long after I went full time, though, and more business started rolling in, I found that just trying to keep things in my memory wasn't going to work.

Now, I've got a two-tiered system to keep track of my various projects. I keep a brief status message on my white board for each client. It's just their name and a one-word status message ("discussion", "quoted", "approved", etc), but it keeps things much more organized and gives me a birds-eye view of the status of my company. The second tier is a spreadsheet where I keep track of the details of the project, including contact information, work specifications, and next steps.

I also have a system now which keeps me in contact with my business network. Making calls, attending networking events, sending out my ezine, and meeting with people one-on-one all fall into this system. Using it, I not only have the benefit of a daily blueprint of what I'm doing, but can also analyze my processes and make improvements.

I fully expect these systems to keep developing over time as my business continues to grow and its needs change. The old ones will evolve and I'll come up with new ones to streamline other activities with the ultimate goal of being as efficient and as effective as possible.

After all, the goal of my business is to support my life, not the other way around.

So, what parts of your life could benefit from developing a system?

Best Laid Assumptions

About a week ago, our area had almost a foot of snow fall on us. Flights were cancelled, schools had snow days. It was a veritable Winter Wonderland. With that much snow, we were pretty much guaranteed a White Christmas.

Now, due to temperatures in the 40's and the torrential rains we had overnight, I'm looking out on a landscape which definitely doesn't fit that definition.

Of course, the lack of a White Christmas probably won't kill me or even inconvenience me much for that matter, but it does put me in mind of more serious examples of counting on things staying the same.

I'm working on updating and upgrading the website for Bruce Donovan Construction. In talking with Bruce it was clear that he understood that he not only had to be on the Web, but he had to look good on his site and provide his visitors with what they wanted -- in this case a portfolio of current and completed jobs, including photos.

Bruce could have ignored the situation, but more and more people are making their decisions based on information they get from the Web. If he hadn't met the need, I'm sure one of his competitors would have.

Construction isn't by any means the only industry where the technology of the Web is changing the playing field. Think of the difficulties that travel agents have had over the last decade. Now, you'd better be able to plan my whole vacation for me (at ridiculously low cost), otherwise Expedia is waiting. Local booksellers? As if the 800-pound gorilla which is Borders weren't competition enough, the 80-ton dinosaur of Amazon might easily crush you and never even realize you were there.

Even in my own business of web-development, nothing is assured. Tools are coming out which could easily make me obsolete. Website templates, gadgets and widgets, high school students who can undercut me -- these are all factors which I must be aware of. What value can I add which can offset them (and, worse, offset those which I never would have expected)?

I don't really have any answers right at the moment, but you can be sure I'm keeping an eye out.

So, how has technology changed your business, for good or for ill?

What I Meant to Say Was...

When I wrote that post about being back on track, what I actually meant to say was that I was careening hopelessly out of control.

Kaylie is an absolute angel of a baby. Oh, she gets a little fussy in the evening, but that's not unusual for newborns (or so I've been told). She does take up a little bit of my time -- time, of course, that I am glad to spend with her.

The other challenge in my life right now is also a good one.

I've got a lot of work coming in.

I'm cleaning up the last details for the big upgrade for Community Housing Network. I'm also in the middle of cleaning up the Bruce Donovan Construction website and adding a portfolio tool so they can highlight photos of their projects. I just finished fixing a response form for Pink Papaya Parties (using ASP.NET, no less!). Tomorrow is the big kick-off meeting for the project I'm working on with Defrost Design and today I got a call from my friends at the Michigan Venture Capital Association to add a new file upload facility to their site.

My cup runneth over.

In the meantime, I at least got the most recent issue of my ezine out the door (only 12 hours late). You can check it out in the archives or, if you prefer, you can sign up for a subscription.

So, what are the joyous challenges in your life right now?

Getting Back on Track

It's a slow process to get back on track again. I remember even as a little kid, missing even a day of school made me feel like I was hopelessly lost and scrambling to get things done when I got back.

I only really took a single week off after Kaylie was born (and that was Thanksgiving week, to boot). Oh, last week was pretty light, too, but I did work. Still, this week I've been feeling like I'm scrambling. At least I finally got a new issue of my e-zine sent out this evening.

I'm sure, too, that as Kaylie develops a more stable schedule, we'll do better with that ourselves.

So, do you have a hard time getting back on track?

So, Where Do I Start?

One aspect of my work is the area of "graphical treatment conversion".

Huh? What's that?

Well, basically, my clients sometimes call me in to work with a graphical designer. These are folks who have a great eye for color and layout, but aren't skilled in creating actual web pages. The designer creates pictures of what the website should look like and how it should behave. Then they hand those pictures (the "graphical treatment") to me.

Then I convert those pictures into an actual web page/web site. I do this with a combination of HTML and CSS.

Don't be scared by the acronyms. As I mentioned in one of my TLA tutorials, HTML is just a way of indicating the structure of a web document. With it, I can tell the browser that this chunk of text is a body paragraph and this other one is a section heading. CSS just tells the computer what each of these structures is supposed to look like. For example, it might say that the section heading is in 18 point bold, bright red Arial font and is centered on the page.

The conversion process goes a lot faster and easier if the end client does two things. First, they really should hire a professional web designer or at least a professional graphical designer with lots of Web experience. There are some design elements which are easier than others when it comes to converting them for the Web. If the designer knows this, then the resulting website will not only be up and running faster, but will also probably work better as well.

The other thing?

If you should ever hire a professional web designer, listen to their advice. They probably won't completely refuse if you want to have pink text on a light purple background, but they will have some strong reasons why it won't work. Find out what they are.

Can you tell when someone has hired a professional designer?