Get Maximum Results By Optimizing Communication With Your Webmaster

Seven Simple Steps that will increase effectiveness of website development and decrease costs by optimizing communication with your webmaster.

• Have a List
• Ask For What You Want
• Email Confirmation of Phone Conversations
• Single Topic Emails
• Expect Confirmation
• Expect Milestone Deliveries
• Freely Confess

These hints for better communication were not invented just now.
I expect you may already be very familiar with many of these suggestions. They are just being stuffed into one common location for perusal’s sake. Admittedly this is not a complete list. But these should get you headed in the right direction.

Have a List

Lists are wonderful — Christmas lists, todo lists, shopping lists, lists of all types. They are great
tools. If you are preparing for a phone conference with your webmaster create a list of points you wish to
cover. This list can include points that must be discussed today, and also include points that just need to be
discussed at some point — not necessarily today.

If you have friends, family and/or staff doing usability testing of your new website collect their observations
into a list. By having a list you can check off items as they are covered and make certain to not become distracted by topics of the moment. Seems obvious, but I really could have used such a list last week when speaking to my tax accountant. These recommendations come from a combination of things we have benefited from doing *and* from things we really wish we had done.

Ask For What You Want

Admittedly, it is not always possible to know what you want.
But if you do know what you want, then ask for it. Don’t be bashful. Do not think that the current
status quo is the only way it can be. Don’t fall into the “good enough, we’ll wait and see.”
The current status of a project is simply the current status of a project.
If you suddenly decide that you really want the background
for the site to be black not white, ask. If you realize part way into the project that
you need more in the way of social media integration, then ask for it. Problems do not improve with age.
The sooner you communcate the better. This is after all your web design project. The webmaster just
happens to be someone skillful enough in html, css and other programming to help you with your website.

Email Confirmation of Phone Conversations

After a phone confersation email the webmaster with your understanding what transpired. Include requests for
changes, specification of additions, and perhaps acknowledgments of points that were completed.
This type of email confirmation does not need to be massive or ultra detailed. Just include enough detail
to confirm whatever the specifics were.

Who knows… after sending such an email you might get a reply such as: “Thanks so much for the heads up,
I thought we discussed dropping the one thing and doing the other thing instead.”
The fewer the number of hours your webmaster works in the wrong direction the better for all concerned.

Single Topic Emails

Whenever possible dedicate each email to just one topic or a set of closely aligned topics.
For example, if you have several graphic issues to discuss in addition to a pile of content corrections,
write two separate emails. In one email address the various graphic image issues. In the other email enumerate the various content modifications you want done.
Why? Because, graphic manipulation and content correction are different types of activities. When
a webmaster is working on graphics they will tend to continue working on graphics until all known graphic
issues are handled. And, when a webmaster is making content corrections, he (or she) will continue
making content edits until they are complete.

So, if you send the instructions in two separate emails the webmaster can break your job into two
separate work sessions without fear of letting anything fall between the cracks. And, they can hit the
email reply button to acknowledge completion of all items in an email. This type of focus has many benefits. Not the least of which is ease of tracking completed and open items.

Expect Confirmation

Make it clear to your webmaster that you expect confirmation on each aspect of your work together.
If you give him or her a list of todo items for the website, expect one email confirming that your requests
have been received and understood and a separate email confirming completion. This may seem like too much
communication. But, it can be so invaluable for detecting lost emails and misunderstandings. The savings
in time and confusion are well worth the few extra clicks.

Expect Milestone Deliveries

I’m a big believer in Agile Programming — basically reviewing results periodically during development
so that adjustments can be made when changing status of the project suggests them. It makes a
world of sense to have your webmaster design and present a rough template of your pages before
spending hours or days creating those pages. Let the webmaster use latin gibberish to fill in
paragraphs and clip-art as placeholders for grahics. In this way you can see where the page is going,
and make adjustments before a dozen pages have been created based on a bad design. Granted no web page is carved in stone. Design can be adjusted quite easily. But it will still cost time to move paragraphs around.
It would be silly to have a printer produce 10,000 brouchures before you have a chance to review and approve and proof. And typically you will be shown a mockup before the printer invests time in typesetting.
Use everything you know from standard business practices.

Other types of milestones might be related to functionality. For example, it could be useful to
view a slideshow widget in basic operation before having it fully programmed. Basically make sure you are
in the loop and get to see what is happening in smaller chunks so that you can change directions
when your newly educated vision dictates.

Freely Confess

Everyone runs into speed bumps and even road blocks. If you have tasks on your plate that you are
finding difficult or impossible to complete, then tell the webmaster. For example: “Just wanted to let you know
that I am not going to be able to deliver the graphics in a timely manner. I just can’t find the right program
to convert the tiff files to jpgs.” The webmaster upon hearing this should instantly reply: “Not a probem at all
just send me the tiff files and I will convert them. Will just take a few minutes.
Or perhaps you can’t find the sales brouchure from last falls marketing campaign. Tell the webmaster: “Just letting you know it may be a week or two before I can get you that brouchre we discussed.” At this point the webmaster may reply: “Perfectly fine. I was hoping to use the brouchure as a way to develop an appreciation for your standard look and feel. But after last weeks meeting I think I have everything I need.”
Or, perhaps the webmaster will reply: “You idiot how can you expect me to do this project without that.” This will tell you two very important things. 1) It is important to find that thing (whatever it is) and 2) You need to get a new  webmaster that has more respect and is a little more flexible and creative.

That was my question. How often should one post to a blog? What is the recommended frequency. So, I went to google (still prefer google over ask, bing, yahoo, and all the rest). In google I did a simple search on the expression “How often should I post my blog?”

One (less than helpful) article suggested not posting too much and not posting too little. I kinda think that bloglet was posted to meet some daily quota.

Another article suggested the following pattern:

• 3-5 times a day for your super bloggers
• 1 (once) a day for good steady growth of your blog
• 2-3 times a week if you are serious at all
• less than 2-3 times a week for someone that is just playing around (i.e. not serious about traffic)

I didn’t see any listing for once every couple months.

So, until further notice, based on the dozen or so articles I’ve looked at I think trying for once a day with a few days missed because of god only knows what interruptions will be a good plan.

Okay, now let’s see how that goes……

Or, at least they intend to be sincere

“About What” you ask? Here I am referring to the following comment found on their Webmaster’s Guidelines page.

Quote: “Google’s goal is to provide users with the most relevant results and a great user experience.”

“That’s nice” you say, “But what does this have to do with me or anything else for that matter?”

Here’s the deal. There is much said about Search Engine Optimization. And, there are many, many folks out there trying to make a buck by either swindling you or serving you in the area of SEO.

Again you say, “That’s nice… But what does this have to do with me or anything else for that matter?”

Well, 90% of all search engine optimization falls under the category of “Do whatever it takes to give those readers of your webpage a quality experience.”

That means,

• provide good content
• make sure the page html is valid
• test your links
• keep the page fast
• organize your site well
• make sure you contribute something new

Basically be sincere about your own desire to provider users with a rich enjoyable and rewarding experience when they visit your website.

To quote further from Google: “Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit.” (the bold is my subtle way of making sure you caught that part. Google is actually striving to create search engine algorithms that will reward webmasters that give good content.

The shysters and tricky loop-hole exploiters will win in the short run. But if you are building your website for the long run concentrate on content first. You will do better.

However,….. (note there is a however here) there are very specific recommended actions that go beyond anything you would normally do when creating just content.

Here’s an example: “Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.” This is not something you would normally do when just writing content for your own webpage. At this point you are being recommended to stop, think about what some stranger might type into a search window when looking for your website. Then, deliberately insert those keywords into your webpages. This is an artificial, contrived action that is specifically designed to increase the chances of a stranger finding your webpage. This is not only allowed, it is specifically recommended.

So, first things first: create great content. Then second things second: take those steps necessary to make sure strangers have the best opportunity of finding your great content.

Poking around the web looking into the basics of SEO (search engine optimization) you’ll soon discover many articles professing to give the basics of SEO. After reading a few of these page you should soon notice something interesting, they all cover the same basic points AND they cover the same basic points in the same order.

If you know how to do a little behind the scenes prodding, you’ll discovered that Google has published a pdf file called Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. This is the source of most if not all of the so-called basic SEO guides on the web.
Do yourself a favor. Before doing any general research on SEO read the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. Since they are the original source of this document you can get it straight from the horse’s mouth — so to speak. And, when you do further research you will be better prepared to identify new information.

Javascript is a powerful and useful language for adding interactivity and functionality to your web page. This is a good thing.

However, if you have been paying attention over the past few years you will have noticed that from time to time javascript was used by hackers to attack systems with hit-and-run viruses. Sometimes the javascript was the core attack. And sometimes javascript was simply the mechanism used to load the core attack.

In any case, during these times of attack it was recommended by security type experts to turn off javascript except for trusted websites. In fact a rather popular addon for Mozilla called NoScript was written to administrate this function of allowing and dis-allowing javascript on individual websites.

What does this mean to a website developer?

Does this mean that we should not be using javascript?

This does not mean that one should not use javascript. However, unless you happen to work for a 900 pound gorilla of a website it does mean that you should guarantee that navigation and other critical components of your website will function even in the absence of javascript.

Amazon can insist that all viewers allow javascript before opening the first page. This is because they are that well known and have that much clout.

However, if you do not have that much clout, if you are not that well know, it would be a good idea to let viewers poke around on your website before insisting they allow javascript.

In practical terms this means that fancy java run drop-down menus can be a problem. However, a left-side vertical system of accordion type menus can work just fine. Just make sure that the default state is open.

Just for the heck of it I created a system of expanding and contracting sub-sections on one of my web pages. That page is Review of Programming I do for Galaxy Website Design.

If you look at this page with javascript turned off you will see a bunch of headings and associated descriptive content — fully expanded.

If you look at this page with javascript turned on, you will see a bunch of headings in a list type form. If you click on a heading it will expand to reveal the associated text.

I do this by keeping the default state of the content as visible. AND, then with javascript I hide the content. That means the content is visible to those who have chosen to turn off javascript.

However, for those with javascript the page is made a bit more fun and perhaps easier to digest.

Following yet another computer death I’ve been forced to seriously reexamine my perspective on computers. I know to many my previous treatment of computers will seem quaint and perhaps mildly amusing in my naivete.

Once upon a time, at a workstation far, far away, my computer was a work environment established through hours of installation and configuration.

I do a lot of different things. Write books, edit video, create websites, program Flash, Flex, C++, write games, and create graphic/sound resources for video games. Each of these functions requires its own special program(s). And, each program seems to require some form of special configuration.

Putting my computer work environment together is a many hour job that could stretch over the course of several weeks.

The approach to setting up my computer is not unlike the approach of an organic gardener may take with a parcel of land. The gardener would add mulch and nutrients to the soil over the course of years to build it up. This same gardener may balance the pH, monitor and improve the local fauna — such as worms and other soil friendly critters. It can take a gardener many seasons to get the soil just right.

Taking this type of approach makes the notion of selling the farm and moving down the road a few miles a bit daunting.

For me it is the same. Given the amount of time that I put into setup and configuration of my computer environment it is easy to assume the posture of investment in the computer as a parcel of tilled soil. With digital mulch and binary nutrients turned into the bits and bytes.

However, after yet another computer death, it has become painfully obvious that I need a different approach to the computer.

As of now I am taking the tack that any computer I use is rented and subject to repossession at any time.

Previously configuration was a “by hook or crook,just get the job done” type of affair. Now it is more important to document the configuration and create mechanisms for reestablishing the configuration should the need arise.

The first C++ environment I created required several years — adding custom components bit by bit over the course of many project.

The second C++ environment was created over the course of several very painful days as I strained my meager mental resources to remember where and why and how I stuffed the various components around on my computer.

The third C++ environment was created over the course of a single (slightly less painful) day. On this occasion, I spent most of my time normalizing the component installations so that I had easy to capture and easy to re-install folder mappings. I gave up on the notion of putting my source on a d drive or e drive or any other drive than c. Why? Because I could not be guaranteed that whatever new computer I was forced to use would be partitioned.

Speaking of partitions, I have given up on the notion of working within partitions. That whole view came from ancient computing when it mattered that certain functions were on separate (physically separate) drives. This would optimize the trashing and access. Now I just put it all in C. This way I am not put into the position of needing to run Partition Magic and re-create folder arrays every time I start to use a computer. This is especially important on computers and I’m more or less “renting”. It may not be possible to partition. Thus, it is simply easier to work on one big C drive.

I have affirmed and doubly committed myself to working in patterns. All of my Flex 3 projects live in a folder called c:\flex3. This way, when I move projects from one computer to another I don’t have to worry so much about updating search path parameters. The project used to look for a class in c:\flex3\something-or-other, and by Gadsby that class has been moved into the same folder on the new setup. If I was smarter I suppose I could do something wicked clever with the search paths. Sigh. Maybe in a different incarnation.

This kind of nomadic approach to computing has given me renewed respect for applications that don’t embed themselves into every nook and cranny of the registry. Pegasus (my email client) is a wonder to behold. Copy that puppy onto a new drive and it just flat out runs. Now if only I could get the programmers to let the drive localization be stored in a single setup file, then I could put this application into any drive and let it run.

I believe there is going to be a migration of more and more applications into a nomadic friendly form. (Egads what a pun.) Even so, it will be a good move.

It would be so sweet if each application had a single configuration file (or small set of configuration files) that would hold all the special information, AND, then allowed for easy export and import of this information.

It would be doubly sweet if more and more applications where thumb drive friendly. Let me have Maya on a thumb drive. Then when it comes time to create a 3d model I just insert the Maya USB drive and work away.

I have several programs that each time I migrate from one dead hulk of a computer to a new computer I am forced to call the manufacture and ask special dispensation to move the application. Believe it, this is influencing my purchase decisions. If the manufacture is tracking which computer is “home” to the installation and, if they get all uppity when I am forced by ram, motherboard, or power supply to move to a new computer, then that manufacture goes on the “dump it as soon as you find a replacement” list.

I anticipate the time when my programs and data are stored on a memory device with no moving parts to fail (along with a backup of said device). Then when I want to do anything, I insert that bugger into the appropriate compartment on my “computer” then work away. When I done, I remove the storage device and move along. Basically my data and applications need to be as removed as possible from any of the riff-raff imminent obsolescent computer components that are just a matter of time away from going up in smoke.

Heck darn, I can even see a Raid like array of non-volatile ram with automatic checksums and a little repair light that brightens when I need to excise a ram chip and insert a replacement.

But, then I would be back to the same situation of building a “home” where the gigabytes roam. While the above vision of transportable environment would be nice. One day I can “rent” time on a computer optimized for video rendering, the next day I could “rent” time on a computer optimized for program debugging. Ah sigh, would be nice. But it is still heavily involved with the notion of an established home base. And that concept itself is flawed.

What’s really required is for me to develop the ability to find myself in a new situation, quickly establish a working environment from pieces readily available in that environment, then get down to work.

The process of establishing a “working environment” is partly a mechanism for imposing one’s view of what one was — rather than creating a way to be the way one is — or needs to be.

So while I believe it is worthwhile to work out mechanisms to more quickly re-establish my programming/working environments, I think it is even more important to exercise my ability to mutate with the flux.

Supposedly this worm will start doing its dirty work on April 1.
There is a strong possibility that you do not have this worm.
However, if you think you might be infected or would like to run the removal tool just in case, use the following link:

http://www.bdtools.net/how-to-remove-downadup.php

This will take you to a bitdefender page on the topic that will give you the download.

The tool is simple to run.

If you do not have an infection it will give you a nice message telling you.

If you do have the infection it will provide the options for removal.

If you have a different anti-virus program that you prefer working with, then just do a quick search on their site for any special removal tool.
Or, make sure to update all your anti-virus definitions and do a full system scan before April 1.

It is not a bad idea to do a full scan in any case.

Your anti-virus program does you little good if it is not updated or if you don’t do a scan every now and then.

Below you will find a review of WebCamMax. This program forms part of a set of programs and hardware that will easily allow you to run a classroom online.

In order to get some idea of how it is done, I will run through the example of our Blueline Academy classroom.

This is obviously particular to the Blueline Academy. But I think you will be able to see how you can easily stretch this to fit your situation.

Step 1) Open wgge.exe, select and orb, and enter 3d space.

Step 2) Use alt-D to put the editor into 640×480 mode. Actually is a little off-size, but that gives you the approximate dimensions.

Step 3) Open WebCamMax

Step 4) Select Screen on Sources drop-down

Step 5) Click “Show Selected Area” button to put the red square on the screen.

Step 6) Under Mode select “Specific Area”. You could also have opted for “Follow the Cursor”, “Specific Window” or “Full Screen.” Specific Area works best for Blueline Academy.

Step 7) Move the square around and resize so that it fits whatever part of your screen you want to send.

Step 8) There is a little button in the far upper right (next to X that would close the program) that will let you make the WebCamMax into a small bar on your screen. This will get it out of the way.

Step 9) Open Flash Media Encoder (FME)

Step 10) File->Open then select the xml file for your Justin.TV account. Refer to Justin.tv help for how to do this part. Or email and I’ll try to explain.

Step 11) Select “WebCamMax” as video source. I leave audio source alone. That works for me.

Step 12) Press the Start button and you are now live online streaming a piece of your desktop to the world — or a select group if you have an Access code on the channel.

———————————————–

A few safety precautions.

1) Close all programs that are not needed.
2) Do not type urls, passwords, names, or any other content you don’t want sent to everyone on the planet.
3) If you get a phone call during the broadcast, be aware that unless you turn off sound (and are utterly sure it is off) you will be transmitting your half of the phone call to the world.

Found two things recently Justin.tv and WebCamMax.

Justin.tv is a broadcasting site that allows for broadcast streaming. Normally one would be restricted to streaming yourself staring into a webcam. However, with WebCamMax it is not only possible but pretty simple to stream chunks of your desktop.

Before I say more about streaming your desktop it would be only fair to confess that the program does much more, much much more. You can stream a dvd. You can stream multimedia files from your hard-drive. You can switch between any number of connected and active webcam type devices. And, for those that like the extra possibilities of Picture in Picture — that is available too. Pretty sweet.

However, those are not the features that first attracted me to WebCamMax. For me it was the ease of streaming parts of my desktop. I use Camtasia to record tutorials for upload to YouTube. I like Camtasia for just that purpose. But what about those occasions when you’d like to run a classroom?

With Justin.tv and WebCamMax I am able to run International online classes of pretty much any size. I have seen channels on Justin.tv with many thousand views. I don’t expect that a HowTo channel will very soon run out of elbow room.

So, I’ve been doing Blueline Academy workshops, tutorials, and classroom lessons using WebCamMax. I can work in the program, people can view what I’m doing live. Ask me to clarify a particular point, redo something, and in general interact. Can’t beat that.

There seems to be a minor glitch in the system if you want to use voice over while running a video. Well, what do you want for $29.95? And, I’m not entirely convinced there might not be a workaround for that issue. The problem is, in order to broadcast you are juggling Flash Media Encoder, WebCamMax, and your audio card mix board. Lots of buttons to monkey with. So who knows what other potentials exist.

For me, I know that just doing the simple stuff I can manage to get my mic to transmit audio and the WebCamMax to transmit my desktop, and thus I can do online classes around the world. A major boon for a distant learning program. And the total cost is practically zero.