Archive | Web/Tech

Why You’ll Never See ‘Designed By Breaking Even Communications’ On A Website

14 June

We think it’s great but we don’t think of it that way.

We had a recent client who was so grateful for our work she insisted we put ‘Designed by Breaking Even Communications’ at the bottom of her website.

I refused.

She couldn’t believe it, and I couldn’t think of a way to explain it well at the time. (Yes, this is how I get ideas for most of these blog posts!)

What I am about to say may make some people annoyed. Many web designers put their credentials at the bottom of every website they do. Here’s why we don’t:

To me, website designers are invisible artists.

I’ve heard those who put their credentials in the footer of websites they design think about it like a painting they are making on commission. You sign your name on the bottom of a painting proudly, why wouldn’t you sign your name on the bottom of a website?

I can easily think of other examples in which someone does building/creative work for others. Did the company who painted your house sign your foundation? Did the person who designed your wedding invitations add their URL on the bottom corner of all 200 copies you ordered?

In my opinion, some artists are invisible. Web design to me is one of those professions.

Adding our name to the bottom of your website doesn’t give you more value.

Ideally your website is well coded, fast loading, visually pleasing, informational/entertaining, and highly functional… whether we did it or someone else did.

Unlike the painting example, having our name on the bottom of your website doesn’t give it more value, so why put it in there?

(I doubt anyone is having us design sites so they can own a ‘Breaking Even’ original, though I am extremely entertained at this thought).

You can see who designed a website if you look at the source code… or asking the person who owns it.

There are ways to put authorship on a website in the source code that’s completely non obtrusive to the website design. Sometimes we actually remember to do that.

But mainly, I think if someone likes a website, they can always ask the owner (via contact form or other means) who designed it. Looking at it from another angle, to get a feel for the kind of designs a particular web designer does, you can always look at their online portfolio on their website. (We have ours here, just so you don’t think we’re shady about our clients or anything!)

Our clients pay us to create things for them and their good word of mouth is the credit we appreciate most.

I am not writing this to make any enemies here; I’m simply saying why we don’t do this particular practice.

So what do you think, regular folks or fellow designers? Do you think you should have a link at the bottom of every website you do or do you agree we are silent artists?

Your Guide To Bar Harbor Barter and Swap (And Websites Like It)

01 May

To some people in our area, there is an epic Facebook group called ‘Bar Harbor Barter and Swap’. It’s a closed and small group, mainly of people getting rid of random stuff (SCUBA fins!) or looking for random stuff (universal car seat stroller). Two examples from the past hour.

Whether unloading a cactus or buying a trailer, Facebook groups and other online spaces let you get in front of people who can join in your transaction.

I’ve learned a few things from buying and selling items on Bar Harbor Barter and Swap… and I think this knowledge may help you on your own local swap/sell group on Facebook, Craigslist, or other online locations where you are wheeling and dealing.

Using the term ‘reasonable offer’ will leave you hanging.

If you post something you are selling and ask for a ‘reasonable’ offer, beware for the sound of crickets. Here’s why.

Clearly you have some notion of what your item is worth (or what you think it’s worth) yet you want the negotiating power that comes from letting someone else say a figure first. You can not have it both ways, my friend. Also from the point of view of the people seeing this, they are afraid their offer isn’t reasonable…so they aren’t going to say anything. So either let people make an offer or communicate your desired price. This ‘reasonable offer’ business helps none of us.

Sellers: Include information like dimensions

Those five pairs of shorts do look cute but I have no idea if I can cram my body into them. Tell me they are a Gap size 4 and people like me can pass and you can spend your time chatting with people who could theoretically fit into them.

We just gave away Derrick’s cactus and included approximate circumference (3 feet) and height of cactus (6 feet) so people would know what they were getting into if they wanted to come pick it up. Don’t make people ask, give them all the information.

Seekers: Include information like what you are willing to pay

I see lots of people seeking objects that no one responds to… but the difference between ‘I am looking for a dishwasher’ and ‘I am looking for a dishwasher that hooks up to my sink for $50 or less’ is significant. If I know you are willing to pay me some money, I might go in my basement and see if my dishwasher would work for you. Also more details makes you more memorable so people can seek items out on your behalf.

Include a link to specs if possible

Including a link to the same product you are selling on Amazon.com or another website. These websites have full product specs and this will save you a lot of duplicate question answering. Especially if you have a technical product (tablet computer, motor, laser printer), include a link to the related product. Bonus: people see how much it would be to buy the thing new… and are much more likely to pay your lower price.

Give me some assurance I am not buying something bad.

So with the cactus post, we put that we were getting rid of it because it is “getting too big for our space”. In truth, it is beginning to take over our small kitchen near the kitchen table and we have no where else to put it. (I know, nothing like having to argue over who has to sit next to the cactus at dinner!)

If you are posting a picture of a printer and you say you’re getting rid of it because you’ve gotten a newer fancier one, that let’s me know I am not buying a hunk of garbage. (Getting rid of kid’s stuff is usually kind of self explanatory that maybe your kids have grown.) ‘Printer works’ is good ‘Printed something last week from my Dell laptop’ is even better. See what specifics can do to give people confidence?

Get second (or third or fourth) in line.

I’ve been looking for a filing cabinet for months but the idea of buying a new one that I was going to paint bright orange anyway seemed silly. I saw a perfect filing cabinet go by… and someone else had bid on it. I commented ‘Second in line if this doesn’t work out.’ And I got the filing cabinet in the end.

If you see something you like that someone else has dibs on, let the seller know you’d like to be considered if the deal falls through. I think this happens way more often than any of us know.

Know your audience.

There is someone trying to sell a really nice convertible for $8000ish. Problem is we live in a place where there are a ton of dirt roads and snow 8 months of the year (slight exaggeration but you get the idea). If this guy would put this thing on eBay motors or Craigslist, I bet he’d get his asking price.

It’s best to get a feel of the culture of your buying/selling/swapping site first before you post… and if you are in the wrong place, find another where you can get the best price for your efforts. This particular Facebook group seems to do best with transactions at or less than $100 with an occasional exception. Just because a certain website is convenient for you doesn’t mean that’s where your customers are.

I do hope you have some kind of fun distraction in your life like Bar Harbor Barter and Swap. It can help you get rid of the extra crap in your life and occasionally you can buy something you actually need from someone you actually know. I have met some fun people through the site who live near me… a bonus real life benefit in this online world.

And to those of you with some experience in this, is there any tips I might be forgetting?

New Website Launch: National Park Sea Kayak

25 April

When Robert approached us about a website redesign, we could see that while the information on his site was current, he needed a visual refresher.

The old National Park Sea Kayak homepage was text heavy and needed an update.

Robert wanted to use a logo that Z Studio had made several years ago. He also wanted it really obvious how to make a reservation request on the site:

The new design uses more of the width of the page, showcases photos, and has a very obvious ‘make reservations’ button and the phone number on top.

We wanted all the visitors’ most common questions answers on their homepage:

What will we see?
What should we bring?
Why are tours four hours?
Where will we go?
How do we make a reservation?

We also wanted to put some ‘trust’ symbols on the homepage. Trust symbols let people know they are dealing with a legitimate business. Since they have excellent Tripadvisor reviews and all kayak guides are certified Maine guides, we made those prominent so the visitor would have confidence in booking a four hour tour with people they may have never met in real life.

A lot of what we did we editing the content. By making the website less wordy, we hoped that users would get the information they needed quickly and easily. We also used the extra space to showcase large scale photos by local photographer and friend of Acadia Kayak StealthVader Photography.

Congratulations to Robert and his team, who are planning on blogging this summer on their brand new site! Catch them on the water if you are in Bar Harbor this summer!

How To (Not) Run A Facebook Contest

17 April

“I know I’m not doing it legally but…”

I smile as my friend/small business owner confesses to not running an exactly legitimate Facebook contest. I like how I’m kind of a Facebook priest that people confess their sins to.

Now she’s totally right; I am willing to bet Facebook is not going to come after her relatively small page for running a Facebook contest that is against their rules.

(Facebook? Rules? Yes there are some:
https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php)

The best way to follow the rules? Use an app to run your contest. I’ve used ShortStack for a photo contest (note there is no affiliate link there meaning I am getting exactly $0 to recommend them to you). It works great… and at $30/month for the two months we needed it, it was a great tool. If you look up ‘Facebook contest app’ you will no doubt find others that will work for your particular contest.

Now I see plenty of people trying to avoid this but here’s a couple of reasons why I think you should fork out some money and do your contest the right way.

1) Facebook rule compliance is automatic.

Does reading fine print make your queasy? These contest apps have done that and created a way to hold contests that follows Facebook’s (often changing) rules. If you get in trouble, the app developer is going to get hauled into the trouble with you.

2) Your contest is confusing without an app. Trust me.

Story time folks.

Our local vet ran a photo contest recently on Facebook. The photos with the most likes (one in the cat category and one in the dog category) won. So the first step was submitting the pictures, which were supposed to be emailed. Only some people posted them to the Facebook wall. Or forgot the date they had to submit them by.

Once that fiasco finished, there was the voting. So the picture in each category with the most ‘likes’ won. So few people ‘shared’ the picture of their cat/dog onto their personal profiles to get likes… but the likes from their friends (who were looking at a photo on the profile) did not count toward the total like count of the photo on the vet’s Facebook page. Also some people left comments without liking the photos, thinking a comment also counted as a vote.

Does this look like my dog being in a photo contest? Yeah, it doesn't to me either. Is your Facebook contest equally unclear?

Does this look like my dog being in a photo contest? Yeah, it doesn’t to me either…and as you see, my friends are confused by it too. Is your Facebook contest equally unclear?

Do you want to confuse people at each stage of your contest? No? Then get an app, it’ll automatically take care of a lot of these issues for you.

And literally just as I wrote this, I saw a post go by asking me to ‘like our banner’ to enter a contest. The status update itself had no image which led me to wonder: What banner? The cover image on your page? The photo you posted about the contest two weeks ago? I’m the local informal Facebook ‘priest’ as we have established earlier. So if I don’t get it, your people won’t either.

3) Customer service is way easier.

Now let’s say you were running a photo contest like our vet friends. If I had set up a place were people could submit photos on their Facebook page and then made a deadline, I could simply say. ‘Go here to submit your photo’ and the submission page would automatically go away on the deadline. Then I could have made a voting page for each pet viewable on one screen. I could have restricted the votes by Facebook profile, IP address, etc. The act of voting (or not voting) would be very clear by using a ‘vote’ button. I can even make a rules page which as a link comes up when people are on the contest page.

Do you want to answer the same questions over and over? Yeah, us either. Having an app with everything findable within it will save you a lot of emailing and panicked messages.

4) People will like your page if you run a good contest, not if you coherse them. (This is just a me thing, you can legally run a contest that makes people like your page to participate.)

If you make me like your page, spin on my head, share it with 16 friends, then vote, I’m not going to do it. But if you run a simple, organized straight-forward contest that people enjoy, guess who will like your page? Contest participants.

Now if you want to make them like your page to do it, that’s perfectly within Facebook rules. But I want someone to like me because they do, not because I made them. So a more creative contest might be submitting a photo or captioning a picture. Something creative that people want to share or otherwise be involved with.

So please do hold Facebook contests. The good ones make me laugh and give me hope in humanity. But do try to use a contest app. It’ll make your customers’ and your life easier for just a few bucks!

And as bonus reading, here’s another great article on this topic: http://allfacebook.com/4-mistakes-that-will-get-your-facebook-contest-shut-down_b111212

Online Form Software: Your Options

30 March

Maybe you read my blog about forms yesterday. Maybe you are doing research on online forms. Maybe you just like this blog and think ‘maybe this nerdy post is something I can use.’ In any case, welcome!

One option you have is hosting your website form elsewhere and simply displaying it on your site. One way of doing this is using Google Docs to make a form then embedding it in your website. Here’s an example of that:

This is my local Rotary club’s website which runs on Clubrunner. Can you make a form in Clubrunner software? Maybe but I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time figuring it out. So I embedded this signup for our upcoming mini golf tournament on their site.

So technically the form lives on Google but it is displaying on this page.

What’s cool about the Google form? When someone fills it out, it automatically populates a spreadsheet:

Here is the spreadsheet that minigolf signup form is populating. Names have been blurred to protect the other teams butts we will kick.

Now I don’t know about you but I find that pretty impressive. Now all I’ll have to do is print off the final spreadsheet and we can do registration at the door and take payment. Easy!

Is Google your only option? Of course not. There are other free form software out there that allow you to create forms and display it on your website. Like this service:

If you are small time, you can totally use the free version of this!

Now what if you have an awesome website driven by a content management system. Can the form live and be displayed on your website? But of course!

Our meeting scheduling form not only saves lots of back and forth emails but get us paid gigs. Win!

We use a form software on our website called Gravity Forms. I love it because not only can I make the form look like how I want but can also look at conversions:

Apparently something about the contact form isn’t ‘wow’ing people. Good to know.

The software also stores a copy of the form on my server, meaning if I accidentally delete it from my email, I can log into the website and get it again. Oh and it integrates with my Google Analytics and other features I have going on the site.

What? Is my contact form integrated with our email newsletter subscription service? Why yes it is, thanks for noticing.

So in the ideal world, you website software helps you make great forms that integrate with your website (and other online things you have going on). But it’s not an all or nothing proposition; even if you have an old school website you can still have a form displaying there while it lives elsewhere on the internet.

Name the business and you can have a form for that:

Landlord? Take your potential tenant’s (non confidential) information.

Cat drawer? Let people order their cat drawings online.

Ok there are probably more but if you’ve seen an amazing use of an online form, please leave a comment and we’ll add your idea (crediting you and linking your site of course) to this list!

When Bad Things Happen To Good Websites

27 March

If you’ve read this already on Facebook, my apologies but I did want this to become part of the ‘official’ record on my blog. It also explains why I disappeared from this blog in the middle of a 30 day blogging challenge.

About three weeks ago, I said out loud to Derrick ‘I just wish I could go 24 hours without checking my email and nothing bad would happen to me.’

Last Thursday, the server where the Breaking Even website/email (and many clients) are stored online completely crapped out and needed to be replaced. This happened sometime around 9 am EST. A time everyone was bound to notice.

Sorry everyone. My powers to influence God/the universe are even beyond my own understanding. I got my requested day off from email but not in the way I expected.

What happened?
This server is on a very secure server farm in the Midwest. Most of the time (ie the last five years I have been with Svaha) all was well. Like you, I picture the server to be somehow cow-shaped and eating grass.

Then in the internet equivalent of a freak accident, an air conditioner keeping everything cool broke unexpectedly. That meant the server had to be replaced, old data moved, and any corrupted data needed to be restored for hundreds of people also sharing the server.

Because Svaha’s website has also been down, they have been posting updates to Twitter https://twitter.com/svahacom and Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/SvahaLLC

Is this typical?
Now I have been with this web host for over five years and nothing like this has ever happened.

Do server outages happen? Yes to every web host, even to Google.
Even Facebook.

The difference? They have dedicated IT teams numbering in the hundreds or thousands and all backup servers and other helpful equipment you can think of.

Is there any server that will promise your website 100% uptime?
No. If your uptime is 99.9% (what many web hosts promise) what portion of the year does that translate to?

365 days x 24 hours = 8760 hours
99.9% of that time = 8751.24 hours
0.1% possible downtime = 8.76 hours

(Thanks to Michael Johnson for correcting my initially wrong math!)

Could I have my website on my own server?
Yes you could. Any computer connected to the internet can be set up as a web server. You could have a server in your basement or your office. Some organizations do this.

You can also have what’s called a dedicated server, which means you have your own server you share with no one else. This is located in the same kind of place Svaha’s servers are.

But can your server overheat? Be hacked? This can happen to any server in any environment. It is less likely to happen in the secure, climate controlled environment of a server farm and more likely to happen in your closet in my opinion. This is why I host with Svaha and not a computer in my office.

If something happens to where the server is, you are in the same trouble we were in for about 72 hours (and some additional small issues regular people aren’t noticing but are still being fixed). You are less likely to have trouble, but that’s not to say it will never happen.

What are my options if I want my website online all the time?
You could pay for two hosting accounts at two different web hosts and then when something went down, you could change the DNS from the primary to the secondary server. Then you’d still have some downtime as the change propagated, which can take up to 24 hours.

No matter what, you are relying on a webhost and/or a backup that will take time to restore. You’ll just be paying twice as much as you do for your current hosting… and still have some downtime anyway.

What can be learned?
We can learn that the world doesn’t end when we don’t check our email. And that web hosts do things like backups and restores so we don’t need our own IT team to get our website back online if there is ever a problem. Many of you pay Svaha less than $100/year for being our go-to people.

While this was a crappy situation, I appreciate that Svaha dealt with it in a timely manner (they have hundreds of clients).

I have also learned that even if my internet only world, there is plenty of work I can do that doesn’t involve my website or email. For example, I got a ton of research done yesterday that I was able to approach in a very focused way without constantly responding to email.

Will this happen again?
It is highly unlikely this will happen again for a very long time.

Will I switch web hosts?
It’s kind of like when you go into a hospital and get amazing care. Yes, something crappy happened but you can’t blame the doctors. You are just grateful you have smart, competent, and genuinely caring people helping you out. Did Svaha crash the server? No. Did they fix the problem and try to keep in good communication? Yes.

(Full disclosure: I am a Svaha partner. But even if I wasn’t, I’d stay right where I am. )

I recently had a client with another hosting company (rhymes with FoPaddy). Their website was offline for two weeks. After spending an hour on the phone with customer service, they told me I couldn’t have automated backup software on their site, something that’s part of our standard install. They also told me the site was ‘very big’. It has 25 pages and only five installed plugins in WordPress. *eye roll* (To give you an idea of how ridiculous this is, the website you are on right now has 900+ pages and about 30 plugins on it including an automated backup.) We moved the site over Svaha and poof, it was online no problem.

In other words, I like to ask myself who will stay up all night installing a new server? Who will call a client back who they charge $5 a month to help get their email configured? I know who.

So to those of you who missed me (and missed your website/email), I apologize again for this outage. But going through this has made me confident in the Svaha team that hosts websites for us and our clients.

Breaking Even Communications

Breaking Even Communications (BEC) is an internet marketing and website content creation company location in Bar Harbor, Maine. The Breaking Even Blog is a blog about marketing and Maine.

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