My Cheapskate Home Recording Studio Set-Up & recommendations

Audio is first and foremost when creating courses.  When doing online courses, the optimal sound is "I'm a voice in your head".  You hear it in radio announcements, podcasts, SoundsTrue recordings…that beautiful intimate tone and absolute lack of background noise that sounds like your own conscience is speaking to you.  That's the goal here.

Background

I'm amassing a collection of mics, sound equipment, accessories, etc.  It started when I worked at Rogue Music in NYC (codename "Spike") in the 1990s, and I got a Tascam Porta-05, a couple of Shure mics, some ridiculously long XLR-to-1/4" cables, mic stands, studio monitor headphones, etc.  I didn't know enough, anything I recorded back then sounded like crap.  But it was MY crap.

I got an Edirol UA-25 at some point, which was 1/4" analog audio to USB (digital audio).  But it developed a high pitched whine I could never seem to get out of my recordings, although I recorded much better audio than I ever did on the Porta-05 for a short time.

I used my mics and created some live on-screen videos of myself, but most of the equipment sat in a bin for 20+ years.  I got rid of the Porta-05, I retired the UA-25, I actually used an Andrea headset (that came with Dragon Dictate back when they gave you a real headset) to record a bunch of screencasts for my business, and even used a newer Dragon Dictate headset when recording my first Udemy course. It really wasn't bad at all.

You can see some of the evolving home studio set-up in my blog post on echoes & reflections: blankets on the walls, my studio monitor headphones (Sony MDR-600s so old I had to crochet new ear covers for them -- using red and green so I can easily tell right from left) on the desk.  I was still recording with a newer Dragon headset mic at that point.

Note: all prices are in USD.  All links are affiliate links, but none of these products were given to me at a discount, and I do NOT own every product listed.  Products I have not personally purchased or tried out have ** next to the prices -- those are recommendations based on features, a low price & decent reviews.

Headphones - "studio monitor headsets"

First, a minor lesson in Hz:  "…the entire range of men’s and women’s voices remains between about 65 Hz for a male with a very deep bass voice to the highest note of a female coloratura soprano, just above 1,000 Hz, at 1,280 Hz. (A female high-pitched scream can go quite a bit higher, to around 3,000 Hz.)"

This means that human voices are a slice of the range of human hearing.  This can be helpful -- you can run your recordings through high and low pass filters, and eliminate frequencies below and above this range, but you have to be able to hear whether you've accidentally eliminated some of the "richness" of the undertones and overtones of the voice when you do this.

One of my peeves and frustrations is when people judge audio quality with sub-par equipment.  Good headphones make a tremendous difference when listening to test audio or editing your audio.  It might even be more important than shopping for mics!  If you can actually hear the problems, you can take care of them either before you start recording, or in post-processing work.  And why go through all the trouble of making a test recording if you have to upload your audio to get opinions from others, many of whom aren't wearing headphones either.  When the Udemy reviewers watch your video, I guarantee they're wearing a good headset.  You should too.

My Sony MDR-600 headphones have a frequency response of 5hz-30,000hz, but they're discontinued and the newest model of the line is over $100.  Here's a highly-rated pair of Superlux HD668D studio monitor headphones for $38**.  [Updated: better, cheaper Headphones]

Compare this to a toss-away pair of under-$20 headphones I purchased for just basic audio monitoring by ECOOPRO.  Their response is 20Hz-20,000Hz, and they're not so great in so many other ways -- I just have them to run a quick test and say "Is this mic on?" before I start recording audio.  I can at least tell whether there's a HORRIBLE problem with my sound before I start a recording run.

When you're listening to your test audio, you may need to listen a couple times because our brains can automatically filter annoying things out.  You're looking for that "I am your conscience" sound -- so listen for noise reflections (i.e. "echoes"), mouth noises ("clicks & pops"), hums, whines, cars passing by, etc.  If you sound like you're on a soapbox in a bathroom, you know you need to both treat your environment and quit projecting like you need your voice to reach the back of the auditorium.  It's just you and one listener, cozying up on the couch or sitting across from each other at a tiny cafe sipping coffee and chatting.

Microphones that Fit Your Purpose & Environment!

It's true that your mic makes a big difference in how you sound when you record -- but don't downplay the importance of the style of videos you're going to record, your recording environment, and your own personal recording style.

There's no need for this to get expensive; you can make do with a half decent mic if you control your environment and put a little effort into your post-editing.  However, in interests of time and efficiency, you will eventually want to reach the point of being able to bulk-process your videos with as little post-editing-work as possible.  That means near-perfect takes and near-perfect quality right from the start.

I ended up purchasing a good mic, the Audio-Technica AT2005USB -- a mic with both XLR and USB capabilities -- which cost me about $60 but is currently going around $75. This mic is a dynamic cardioid mic -- and for $25 less you can get the ATR2100-USB ($50) which also has XLR capabilities.  I didn't care for how the analog sounded on the AT2005USB when hooked up to my Behringer XENYX 302USB (below), so this would be a great starter mic for while you're still editing your audios and not looking for 100% perfection (which can be expensive).

That brought me back to some classic mics I already owned when I purchased audio equipment over 20 years ago.  The Shure SM58 ($99), a favorite of on-stage performers because it takes a licking & keeps on ticking, has a warm response, good tight pick-up so it rejects background noise well, and is inexpensive.  I think someone said they have left it in beer and were able to use it after it dried out -- but I don't recommend you do that.  It's so popular that Shure still produces this mic.  And the Shure 869 (which I'll mention later, but I believe is a discontinued model).

If you want SM58 quality, without the $99 price tag, check out the Samson CS Series Capsule Microphone.  This one has a swappable head and gives you 1 head that is comparable to an SM58 (voice mic) and another that's comparable to an SM57 (instrument mic).  At just $40**, you get to try out 2 types of dynamic XLR mic and see which you prefer.  You will need a way to go from Analog-to-Digital (XLR to USB) so you may want the Xenyx302USB or similar (below).

Capture every nuance of your home & neighborhood with these highly-touted mics

If you don't mind needing to pad your house with foam and blankets, many people recommend the Blue Yeti ($130**) or Blue Snowball ($90**) -- but what they don't realize that these are condenser mics and they pull in a lot more background noise, audio reflections, etc.  The people recommending these mics probably didn't get a headset to listen to themselves.  You can tell because when you listen to their recordings, you feel like you're in the room with them.  It's great quality noise -- but the opposite of the "I am your conscience" voice that works best for this type of intimate 1:1 application.  If you want to do less editing, skip the condenser mics. If you have a noisy environment -- cars, dogs, trucks, airplanes, old computer running its fan all the time -- avoid condenser mics at all costs.

Also, while a condenser mic WILL pick you up when it's several feet away from you, you'll pick up a lot more room, noise, sound reflections, etc.  If you want to re-record or do tons of post-work, use your Yeti or Snowball mic for recording talking head videos.

If you have a controlled environment, and don't mind having to pony up for phantom power, the Floureon BM-800 ($30**) is a cheaper condenser mic with great ratings.  For that price, even I might try a condenser mic again some day soon.  While it "really" requires phantom power, a Windows PC may send enough power to it for you to use it while waiting for your phantom power (or the money to afford phantom power) to arrive.  Hooks right into your PC's microphone port.  Will not work with a Mac without phantom power & digital (USB) audio conversion.

To go even cheaper, here's a well-rated Ohuhu condenser mic for $22**, requires phantom power.  What I do like about this one is that it's got good noise rejection so it's uni-directional.  I wish everyone would do a mic test like one of the reviewers did.  Unlike many other condenser mics, the sound drops considerably when you back up from the mic.  You have to be "all up in it" with this mic to get great sound -- so you won't be using it for talking head videos.  But for online courses, this is a good mic.

Get the mic out of your face: Talking Heads, Exercise Videos, Screencasts, etc.

You have to ask yourself whether you'd be better off with a lapel mic, shotgun mic or a headset mic.  For exercise videos and screencasts, many instructors use a headset mic.  Lapel mics are likely to pick up clothing noise, arm movement, etc.  You've seen Madonna dance and wave her arms around with a headset mic on, right?  For screencasts, it doesn't matter what the headset mic looks like -- huge gaming headphones, etc.  For on-screen headset mics, a good mic blends in to your skin tone or is unobtrusive (white-person beige version example ($13**), I wish they had other colors, requires a transmitter power pack or phantom power).  For live-action video like exercise or martial arts videos, you might want a wireless headset battery/transmitter -- not bluetooth but radio.  That's up to you, but you might find it's expensive.

An interesting mic to check out for talking head videos, especially where you're a wavy-arm person for any reason, is a binaural mic for $89**.  These mics record sound from inside your own ear.  "What?!? Get out!"  Yeah -- this is another mic I plan to experiment with someday.  Requires external power, and has a 1/8"/3.5mm jack -- you can use an adapter to 1/4" and use it with the XENYX -- I think.  They say it sounds more like your own voice in your ear because it's picking up vibrations through your jaw and skull.  Awesome.  They have an XLR version but it's expensive ($200**).

If you can talk without waving your arms about:  Lapel mics.  I had a chance to test drive the the Rode smartLav+  (~$80) with a client of mine who was looking to start recording videos and it worked very well on her iPhone with the Rode Rec (free) iOS app.  This mic is an excellent choice for smartphone-enabled folk who have enough space on their phone to take good audio &/or video.  I'm not that person: I have an older iPhone with only 8GB.  This mic is equipped with a nice long cable for talking head videos, so you can set your phone up on a camera stand with a smartphone adapter ($8) or get a camera stand and smartphone adapter set ($13**).  If you can, get the Rode smartLav+ -- but cheaper smartphone-compatible lavaliere mics that are well rated include this one at $25** or this one at $18**.

If you have an XLR set-up with phantom power available, check out this lavolier mic with a full-sized XLR plug ($40**, sets of 2 available).  Just remember this is analog recording, and that mic cable is thin and probably un-sheilded.  Keep it away from transformers and electrical wires, etc.  I've never tried the mic, but it's on my hot list of mics to try out, and I'm curious as to whether to try cardioid or omni.  With all the noise in my house, I might try cardioid, but the few people who selected cardioid didn't seem to have a great experience.

I'm now working on testing out a shotgun mic.  I was looking at another model which was meant to mount on top of a video recorder, but actually ended up changing my mind and going with a Pyle PDMIC35 Shotgun Mic with an XLR connector ($26)…which will be here tomorrow, so I can't review it yet.  I'll update this post and post a review on Amazon once I've tested out the new mic.  I'll use my scissor stand, which is mounted behind my monitor, to point the mic at me from on top of the monitor and see how that sounds.

Update: the Pyle mic didn't work for me. It's extremely sensitive.  It picks up the cat lapping at her water bowl in the next room.  I sent it back.  In the meantime I had tested all my mics again and decided to swap my Shure SM58 for the Shure 869 for a while.  The 869 is a condenser XLR mic (phantom power with battery back-up just in case) with a tight cardioid pattern recommended for use on podiums for ministers, lectures & presenters at events. It has excellent noise rejection, extraordinarily low noise, and while not as warm and rich in tone pick-up as the SM58 it should be great for recording online courses.  You wouldn't perform at a rock concert with it (that's where the SM58 comes in) but it doesn't pick up reflections and barely needs noise reduction run on it.  This is a boon with the cats, teenagers and roosters in the background.

Mic Power! and other accessories

After I had bought the AT2005USB, I still ended up frustrated with my mic set-up -- ready to try to get richer sounds and do less post-editing.  I really wanted to give my 2 classic Shure mics a go and see if I could improve the sound of my recordings.  Enter the Behringer XENYX 302USB for $50.  This tiny mixing board is about the size of 12 ounces of hard cheese.  110mm x 130mm (about 4.5" x 5.5") footprint on your desk, not counting room for cables.  It's a 2-track mixing board with 1 XLR or 1/4" combo input, RCA inputs, analog headset mic inputs, mic gain, 2-channel equalizer (EQ) on each input channel, and USB output to your computer.  I was able to test out 2 mics I already owned because I put this piece of equipment into play.  Now, I'm using it to provide phantom power to my Shure SM58 mic and to control the gain on the mic, and I'll need it for gain and phantom power for the new XLR shotgun mic.

If you don't want a mixing board, check out the InnoGear 1-channel Phantom Power Supply for $20**.  Your mic hooks into this box via an XLR Male to XLR Female cable.  And you need another cable to bring the XLR output to your computer.  Some mics come with an XLR-to-1/4" jack that you can hook into your computer, in which case you need an XLR-to-XLR cable.  But most mics come with an XLR-to-XLR and you will need some way to get the audio into your computer.  You can get an XLR-to-USB (for Mac or Windows, note the connector is a little larger than most USB connectors) or an XLR-to-1/4" (for Windows onboard or soundcard mic-in jack).

So you're going to be set back by several pieces of gear unless you get a direct-to-USB mic.

Mic Stands

In my soundbooth I used a traditional floor mic stand.  When I first tried working with my old mics and the XENYX, I used a telescoping desktop stand.  But it's ALWAYS in the way.  You bump it, the mic picks it up.  You end up craning your neck to reach the mic rather than sitting correctly and having the mic come to you.  So I purchased a scissor stand with shock mount and XLR cable at about $22. Now, I've moved where it's clamped once, I was careful not to over-tighten the clamp on my desk, and it's been here for months -- so I think it's a good purchase. When I don't need the mic, I push it aside.  When I need it, I pull the mic over to me.  I sit comfortably, and I don't kill my back and neck trying to reach the mic.  The Shure SM58 doesn't fit the rather large shock-mount, but a piece of foam pipe insulation tucked inside the clip works just fine to hold my mic firmly, and you can't really see it if you use black foam and cut it down enough.

Shock mounts are important if you're bumping around on your desk and the mic is picking it up.  The scissor stand I recommend comes with one.  If you already love your mic set-up and don't need the scissor stand, for the same price ($21**) you can get this shockmount with a pop-filter built in.

Pop-Filter, Windscreen

You have to choose what type of pop-filter you want, I of course got one of the cheapest ones I could find at under $8.  I also threw a foam ball windscreen into one of my orders -- in case I ever bring a mic outdoors for some reason, or if I need a fan blowing on me in an audio booth -- or just because they were so cheap at about $2.50.

Eliminating other Noises

Ok, I'm not really recommending this one if you're a cheapskate like me.  But I had the world's noisiest chair (and a lot of pain in my lower back).  You could hear the back of the chair squeak, metallic bumps, rollers scraping the floor, the air lift noises when I adjusted my weight.  I can't have all that noise in the background of a screencast video.  And I've mentioned the back issues caused by leaning in to mics rather than having the mic come to me.  So I opted to help my back (and by extension my videos) by buying a ball chair -- I got the Sivan Health & Fitness ball chair at about $70 and well worth strengthening my core, improving my posture which also helps my breathing, which also helps my asthma and helps me sound better in my recordings.  I can even bounce up and down, and you don't hear my chair in a recording.  I wrote a review on the chair on Amazon.  You have to pump it up every few days until it stops stretching, but aside from that it's very comfortable, and absolutely silent.

The next annoyance in my recordings was the clicking of my mouse.  Keyboard typing is bad enough, but I don't want to hear every mouse click especially in the middle of a sentence.  So I got this Kensington Silent Mouse for under $13.  It's exceptionally quiet.

Recommended Starter Kits

I know: "Just tell me what to buy!"

This is a starter kit that will do you good for non-talking-head videos -- screencasts, voiceovers, presentations, podcasts, etc.

Level 0: Wannabe Instructor:

• Audio-Technica's ATR2100-USB ($50**) .  Whether you're on a Mac or Windows, you can't go wrong with this mic.  It comes with a stand clip, and a stupid desktop stand that you can discard if you want.  Especially discard it if it makes you have to crane your neck funny or if you're planning to type while recording.  Put it right back in the box.  [I own the very-similar AT2005USB by the same company, but this is the cheaper of the two right now.]
• scissor stand with shock mount and XLR cable at about $22.  As a starter, ignore the XLR cable.  You can use it when you upgrade gear later.  A piece of foam & some electrical tape and it's a non-issue. This takes care of 2 birds with 1 stone: you now have a stand and a shock mount for the price of a shockmount.  If you're not recording at your desk then get a floor mic stand.
•  cheap pop filter $8  This attaches to the mic stand, and has a gooseneck so you have many choices of how to position the filter, so it's not interfering with your line-of-sight.

Level 1: First Course Audio Rejected Upgrade:

•  Superlux HD668 studio monitor headphones $38**.  Nothing is worse than not hearing yourself authentically when testing and editing.  [Updated for better rated headphones in same price range.]
• Now that you can hear those annoying mouse clicks, get the Kensington Silent Mouse for $13.

I'll meditate on this and see if I come up with more "upgrade paths."

Where I'm at now...

One of my cats decided that my sound booth was a great deal of fun and started playing "Can I drag the curtains down?"  So, since the blankets were just clipped into place and I got tired of hooking them back up, I ended up dissembling my PVC sound booth and donating 2 of the moving blankets to my son, who has started doing his own recordings.  I had to pad his room, both to improve his recordings, and to improve my sanity.  We took 2 moving blankets and stapled them to his walls with a staple gun.  It's AMAZING how much they helped both his audio reflections, and muffle his voice that used to carry through the whole house.  In my area, we have Harbor Freight, a tool-supply surplus store.  I wait until I get a moving blanket coupon and go to town -- which happened last week. I now have another 3 moving blankets to re-do a booth around my desk.  That's the next Home Recording Studio project…I'm thinking ceiling hooks this time.


Note: links in this article are affiliate links.  It doesn't change your price, just gives me a kickback for making the recommendation.    I am not affiliated with ANY of these manufacturers in any way, and I was not given any products for free or discount to test them or review them.  Most products, whether purchased or not, were selected based on price, features & decent reviews of the product with the primary exception of the Blue mics which are frequently recommended mics in the Udemy Studio.

** Items in the article that I've never personally purchased or tested.  If it's not marked, I either own it or have personally tried it out when a friend purchased it.

Reducing Echo, Sound Reflections or Reverb from audio recordings

Since I come across audio issues in videos quite often, I thought I'd write a quick article explaining about sound reflections (echoes) and some tips on how to control them.

Correcting echo in recordings?!?!

Ok, the title is a misnomer.  You will have a VERY hard time reducing echo from completed audio recordings.  Echo or sound reflections are exactly the same pitch as your voice, and much harder to remove from recordings [Ed - as compared to background noise, see below] without affecting the quality of your own vocals.

What you do instead is control your recording environment before you record.  Here's a good quick video someone created, with tips on controlling your recording environment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daa-Qp7C3qE

If you must reduce echoes and reflections in the recordings, I give some quick tips at the end of the article.  But let's assume you did a test recording or can re-record first.

My first attempt - control reflections in my bedroom.
desk for recording on right with blanket on desk,
pinned a towel on the curtain behind desk over the wall.

Controlling the environment - My first attempt

When I first tried recording, I was working at my temporary desk in my bedroom.  I planned to make many courses, so I needed to have great quality.

So I in a similar way to the video's first section and recorded in my bedroom.  I put blankets on the walls with thumbtacks, a towel on my desk, pinned a towel to my curtains behind my desk with clothespins, etc. See the image "My first attempt" to the right.

It worked great, in spite of wooden floors and bare ceiling.  But once I moved my desk back into my living room, I didn't want to record in my bedroom any more -- and I wanted to see if I could do even better.

Second attempt - works beautifully

PVC frame.

The audio quality in my living room is abysmal.  It has an archway to the kitchen, and a long hallway.  Recordings outside the booth sound like I'm shouting on stage in an auditorium.  I honestly started looking for the automatic "reverb" setting that must be on the application I was recording in.

Then I built a PVC booth, which is more similar to the 2nd part of the video above -- a dedicated cubby with padded walls for recording.  In the video, he uses mattresses and blankets and says that you can cover all 4 sides.  That's what I did.

First I drew myself a sketch and decided how tall I wanted the booth, so I could figure out what types of connectors I'd need, and how many pieces of pipe.  I already owned a PVC pipe cutter -- I brought that to the store with me along with a tape measure and fine-point permanent marker to mark lengths of pipe.

I hung heavy duty moving
blankets from the frame,
and draped some garden
cloth over the top.

The booth is made from inexpensive 1-inch PVC pipes, and a bunch of connectors.  I cut pipes to the right length for the tall poles while in the parking lot, so they would fit in my little hatchback.  When I got home, I finished cutting out all the smaller pieces and built myself a booth that's about 6'4" tall (a foot over my head) and about 4 foot by 3 foot.

I bought 3 thick "heavy duty" moving blankets to hang from it, and I found the perfect sized clamps to hold up the blankets at a "dollar store."

Assembly was quick.  I didn't glue the pipes so it can be disassembled, but it can also skew, so I have it in the corner of the room where I can nudge it towards the wall so it has no place to go.  You could build a better booth, I'm certain!  I just needed a place to hang my blankets.  I also could change how it's assembled to make it larger inside if I want to, but I haven't needed to.

This booth works much better than the blankets strewn around the room, especially considering it's in the worst room in the house!

Sound booth interior:
clamp lamp, mic with pop
filter on stand.

Inside the booth I have a mic stand with a mic, and pop filter.  I have a clamp lamp I already owned to help me see notes or just not be in the dark within the booth.  I use clothes pins to pin up notes, or I have a small flexible camera tripod and an iPhone adapter so I can hang my iPhone up and read notes from the screen.

Next I want to make a version for when I'm sitting at my desk doing screencasts.  I've also considered ways I could possibly use the current booth materials to create a greenscreen for video recordings.

What about background noise?

The sound of machine fans running, cars driving by, my chickens clucking, or just the mic's noise with no other desired noises going on is called "background noise."

To get rid of it it's called "Noise Reduction" -- you can take a (free) application like Audacity.  You record about 30 seconds at the beginning or end of each lecture without talking.  That's a "noise profile".  Then you first have to select the noise profile section without talking and tell Audacity that "this is the background noise profile"  Then you tell it to filter that out of your recording.  Because that sounds different from your voice, that's pretty easy to do.  [Ed -- see Noise Reduction in Audacity or watch this video.]

Another way to reduce background noise is to get closer to the mic.  The closer you are the easier it will be to filter everything else out.

I already recorded, now what?

If there's no option to re-record with more control for echo and reflections, you might be able to play with the noise filter, or a sound gate, and reduce the reflections.  But it takes a lot of time and experimentation to get the settings right for you, your voice and your environment.

Go forth and record!

It's always best to record the cleanest, clearest audio you can right from the start and save a lot of time on the editing & audio processing end.  If you have a lot of audio to clean up, it can take hours to fix minutes of audio.

So try recording in your room before & after the blankets, try further and closer to the mic, try with and without a pop filter, and use headphones so you can actually hear your recording more accurately than through computer speakers.  Side-by-side you should be able to tell the difference in the recording quality.

Test!  Test again!  If you test and think you have it all right, then go back to record the next morning -- test again.  The worst things are simple, like the pop filter moved and now is against the mic, or you forgot to turn the mic on, or you are dehydrated so you have dreadful mouth noises today, or you can hear the rain outside but it wasn't raining yesterday.  Test & listen to it.  Play with the editing commands with a short test piece.  Are you happy with how it came out?  Did it take too much fussing and still not sound very good?  Tweak the equipment, recording settings & environment until everything is right for today.

And feel free to ask for help.

New:  Someone pointed out this great article -- if you're the engineer and DIY type, plan to create a serious DIY home studio, and can drop some cash on higher-end materials to soundproof, this article's for you.

Don't Panic!

or The value of thinking things through before someone gets hurt....

Has anyone else noticed that some people seem to be having a knee-jerk reaction to this so-called downturn in the economy? I want to talk about the value of thinking things through before you make moves that could jeopardize your business. I have started doing consulting, coaching and brainstorming with people, to help them come up with new ideas and plans for their business. This is in direct contrast to thinking about things on one's own, and not planning at all. No sounding board. No opinions from anyone else.

An example is switching your branding. An overnight change of your branding is tantamount to wiping your marketing slate clean.

I went to a website I had been to before, and their design and overall "feel" to their website was so starkly different I thought they may have lost ownership of their domain name, or I misspelled it and landed on a "parked domain" page. If I was less familiar with the company, I would have gone back to whatever search engine I had come from. I scrutinized the links, clicked around, and found out that it was indeed the same business. There was no connection to the old website -- no visual clue-in that it was the same company. The logo, gone. All the images, changed. The About Us page didn't have the name of the people in the organization. It's almost like they sold the company (they didn't sell the company!). The only clue left was testimonials that mentioned people by name.

In a global economy, some of our intrinsic differentiating factors are where we are, the people in our business, and the personal connections we build with others outside of our organization. I panicked as a marketing maven, because in my mind they had just cut off all their current prospects by changing their design and market positioning so drastically. As a web designer & programmer, I can also say there is a problem created on the technical end: When people are looking for your website in a search engine, what they typed into the search engine in the past could stop working. Had this person taken a little more time, and perhaps consulted with someone (read: ME) before the change, there could be an analysis of keyword history for the website.  A plan could be created to shift the business branding & site design without so drastically alienating loyal followers. A graphic designer could have suggested visual cues intended for established clients or prospects to establish that this is indeed the same company. As it stands now, a complete change of the design and the content means that the website may very well be starting from scratch even with regard to prior visitors as well as search engine rankings. Ouch.

There are so many things to do to shift the focus of your business without metamorphosing into an entirely new entity. My business' shifts of late have been happening slowly over time. My first "adjunct" website was NetworkaholicsAnonymous.org which would make NO sense as part of my main website -- it's intended to be an entirely separate entity and in many ways a business venture unto itself. LiberateYourWebsite.net is based on my tag line, and first showed on business cards as a website address that pointed directly to my website packages.  Now it is a separate website, and is hopefully a less confusing portal for information about my website packages & services -- the packages didn't change, just how clearly they were presented.  Eclectictech.net is my corporate website, and only still holds some straggling service/product information such as maintenance packages. Another domain was for pointing to the section of my website about brainstorming sessions, and is now a separate website (LiberateYourBusiness.net) to showcase my consulting, coaching & brainstorming services. It's not an overnight shift -- much of this was years in the making.

Perhaps I shouldn't panic. Maybe other people have, like me, had a lull in business allowing them to put plans into action that they had on the back-burner for months or years. I hope so. But if you're panicking and really feel like you need to change something -- take some time to think it through, talk it over with people whose judgement you trust and who are willing to really tell you what they think. If you need impartial help to figure out your best possible future, come up with a plan of action, and to help talk you off the ledge of knee-jerk marketing, that's where my business coaching & consulting services shine.

Here's something I'll probably have to explain for the rest of my life:

The difference between coaching & consulting:

Coaches sit in an interesting grey area between consultants and facilitators. They help you figure out where you want to go, and then helping you get there by way of fostering your own growth. Coaches may be able to give advice when you are stuck, but their main purpose is to open up choices for you, and help you accomplish your goals. You define the goal, the coach helps you get there by helping you draw a map.  When needed, the coach might tell you where the nearest 3 gas stations and rest areas are while they're at it.

Consultants have answers. They don't usually teach you how to get there yourself (there are moments a consultant can become a trainer  -- and a trainer is more like a coach), usually they are brought into a situation to be or provide the solution to a problem. You OR the consultant defines a goal, the Consultant takes you there -- by handing you a mapped route with specific rest points or picking you up and carrying you piggyback if need be.

Someone who is both consultant and coach can switch between the roles if needed.  At times they may give expert advice, or even roll up their sleeves and do something for you. At other times, it would be better if you learned about doing it yourself, or it's a situation where you must be fully invested in the results, otherwise there are no results at all.

Ok, here's an example of the difference:

You might need a technical consultant to help you install a computer network. You wouldn't want a coach unless you are somewhat technically proficient, and wanted to learn how to do it yourself. However, you need a coach if you're going to grow your business: you shouldn't hire a consultant to come in and build your business for you or you won't be able to maintain the changes. It takes a personal commitment and new habits from the top of your organization down. You can't outsource that.  Consultants help change something. Coaches help you change.

My brainstorming sessions are a blend of consulting & coaching sessions. I usually spend a portion of the time helping you figure out where you want to go (coaching), and helping you figure out the next steps to get there. Then if needed I'll give advice on marketing (consulting), since you might not have a lot of ideas on things to do to reach your target market (but defining it is coaching) &/or venues for inexpensive marketing to your target market (consulting). With some people, I help them define their needs in daily operations (coaching), or even mapping out cycles in their business workflow (a blend).

I strongly encourage people to either take advantage of my brainstorming sessions OR to try my complimentary exploratory coaching session. Either one can change your outlook on your business permanently, but with a sense of excitement instead of panic.

Never make changes when you're in a place of panic. If the changes are a reaction to the economic climate, and not what you really want to be doing with your business, the changes will be temporary at best and they will confuse your prospects. To make lasting changes that will have you happy to work every day, you need to spend more time planning, less time acting.

Call today so I can help you out. 845-820-0262.

Who are you hiring on the web? Web traps and anonymity

I'm a website designer & programmer. I can work with anyone, anywhere in the world. I chose to be different and do most of my work in the local region. But like I said, that's different. Many of my colleagues think more is better, and try to price low and gain money on quantity rather than quality, both of their clients and of their services.

When searching for a service online, I don't care if you're looking for website hosting, website design, logo design, custom graphics, or an alarm company (the only item in this list that I'm not providing), you probably want -- or need -- to know where the person is.

So how do you figure it out?

I wanted to use a specific set of examples in this post. Top-of-the-search engine results with fantastic prices, and absolutely no phone number or address to be seen on their website. Sites that ended up being in other countries. Websites with blatant grammatical errors that obviously still rake in enough cash to get to the top of Google search results on pay-per-click hot topics that are highly competitive.

But they asked me nicely to remove their website address and information from my blog. So I'm removing it. Not exactly sure what offended them about the post, as they were only a live example and it was true that they were in a foreign country, but I'll remove it to keep the peace.

Some cliches exist for a reason. "You get what you pay for" is one of them. In a vast sea of choices and no education, people choose the products by lowest price. There's either too much information, or not enough, to educate the consumer into making informed choices.

There are real dangers in sending your money to a foreign corporation. They can be of the most stellar reputation, 100% honest, hard-working people, but you are still never afforded the same protections and conveniences you have working with someone in the same town or at least the same state. It is much less convenient to do business out-of-state, or out-of-the-country. If it's out-of-state you have the additional complications of figuring out which state/jurisdiction to interpret your contract in, and where you have to travel to in order to arbitrate disputes. In foreign matters, unless you have the type of money it takes to go to International court, you don't have legal protections no matter what the contract says.

If you are going to a local company, you can check their mailing address, their reputation, get a real referral from someone you know to someone you know you can trust. You can track their professional affiliations, check the Better Business Bureau to see if there are complaints against them. And more.

So how do you figure out who people really are? There is a database that stores their legal domain registration information. There is real consideration to abolishing this information on the web, but in the meantime the more of us who are using it for legitimate reasons (to check on the idenitity of a service before purchase) the better. This database is accessible at http://www.whois.net/

If you enter theirdomainname.com into Whois you can see their registration record. Enter "theirdomainname" in the field for looking up domain registration data. Make sure the right suffix is selected (".com") and click GO!

Not all domains show legal registration information online. The domain owner can hide that information by paying their domain registrar a few extra bucks to make even that anonymous.... Then you need to get into some website gymnastics to figure out who these people are, and I am not sure it's worthwhile. If they're hiding, maybe they have something to hide. More often, though, people are banking on ignorance. This blog post is to help some people wake up and smell the scandal. The flip side of this idea: If you run a legitimate business, you should not be anonymous on the web, and prospective clients shouldn't need to resort to the "whois database" method above, just to figure out where you're located. I get a few junk mails and a junk fax or 3 for having my information up -- the worst is the domain-registration related spam, but that's a hazard of doing legit business on the web.

I suggest you look at people's Contact Us page and check that their information matches their WhoIs registration -- check their professional affiliations and their memberships in local chambers of commerce. Ask if there have been any complaints against them.

If you're in the local region, you could ask for a face-to-face with the person you're doing business with. The only way to see eye-to-eye on any project is to actually be able to look someone in the face.


Moral: You pay for what you get.

Good luck!

Organizing Contacts & Clients

Here's my low-tech tip for how to organize all those business cards you (should!) have been getting at all the networking events you have been going to (you HAVE been networking, right????!?). I have an address book in my computer, I have a Palm, I have considered whether or not to enter "ALL" business cards I collect into an electronic medium, but so far I've found an easier (for me) way to keep business cards at my fingertips.

It involves several 1.5 & 2 inch 3-ring binders, and Avery (or similar) business card sheets -- these sheets hold 10-up -- putting cards back-to-back to display on 2 sides makes it 20 cards per page... There also are tabbed business card sheets so you can use some of the sheets as dividers. I also get 100% post-consumer recycled college-ruled 3-ring binder paper, which I keep in clipboards on my desk, normal section dividers, and a set of A-Z section dividers I had laying around for years.

Here's how I set them up:

One binder (about 1.5 inch right now) is the "Business Cards" binder and that has a section for the Orange County Chamber, Sullivan County Chamber, Orange Networking Alliance, each BNI chapter I visited, Toastmasters, etc. When I meet someone at an event by a specific group, their card goes into that group's section. Later, when I'm trying to connect people together, all I have to do is remember which group I met someone at to find their card. Within sections, I'm not terribly picky about the order I put them in: most of those groups don't have enough people/cards in them to get too anal about how to organize the section.

I keep a 2" binder for warm/hot prospects, a 2" ring binder for current clients, and a 1.5" binder for clients "in support."

Prospect book: I set up the book with a few business card sheets, a plain piece of filler paper for an index, then the A-Z dividers. When a prospect calls, I grab a clipboard and start taking notes on the filler paper (or on 1-sided scrap, more on that later). Then it's time to file their information. If I have their business card, I slip it into the business card sheet in the front of the book. I write their name & business name, perhaps how they were referred to me, on the index in pencil, underline the letter in their name or business name that I'm filing them under, and file them in the binder in that section. Now when I need to touch base with that prospect, I can easily take the binder off the shelf, start dialing or emailing them just from their card, then turn to the divider section and have my hand-written notes at my fingertips.

If that person becomes a client, their information gets moved to my client book, and their name gets erased from the index in the prospect book. Their business card goes in the front of the client book, and I now use a complete divider section for the client. I still use an index in pencil for the front of the book, but these sections are numbered. I file notes on phone calls, timesheets, contracts, and other documentation in their section. Once the client's job is finished, they migrate to the In Support book.

All the books are labeled and sit in the hutch of my desk.

This works best for people who aren't trying to cold-call every business they've ever contacted -- and people who can remember where they met someone but not their name or business name, although some electronic systems allow you to track when and where you met someone. However, if you are going to cold-call everyone, I'd recommend adding small post-its to your collection. Why add people to an electronic database if they're not interested, and probably will never be interested, in your product? Keep a notepad nearby, a small post-it pad, make the initial call off the business card, and if they're not interested now, put the post-it on the card with the date you called and that they weren't interested. ... or a date they said to call back. You might only manage 10 business cards per sheet, but you could take some notes on paper, fold them up and stick them behind the card in question. Now you can try them again later, but don't have to spend much time on someone who is not making you money.

Another person I know writes the event & date on the cards when she brings them home. She's going to start using my binder system, rather than have the cards in piles, but I like the idea of putting a date on them. I'm not going to, but I like it :)

Even if I had a business card scanner, I would want to hold on to the business cards themselves. I find they give me important clues to who the person is -- the style of card often helps me remember who the person behind the card was. If I only had the information, I might not remember the person. Also it's easier to pass along a business card if you have it than if you scanned it. I have been known to bring the whole business card binder with me to speed networking events.

Now, there are some cards you should not have in this system. These are your preferred vendors, other members of your own referral group, cards from terrific places to bring a client for lunch or dinner, and the people you feel most comfortable referring to others. If you're in a larger organization you might include your colleagues in this category. For these types of cards, I have a small portable business card book, because I'm most likely to need these cards on-hand at any event. I can leave the big binder at the office and bring along my smaller binder.

When buying your supplies, shop local! Please find the nearest mom & pop stationery store and open a business account with them. I use Charles B. Merrill Office Products in Newburgh, NY -- they deliver the next day.

Another thing I do is keep a stack of half-used paper, usually Chamber flyers that were printed only on one side, folded in half. These make great notepaper that I grab when I get a phone call and start taking notes on. Until I know someone is going into a binder, why use the virgin paper? They still fit in the book with 2 holes from a 3-hole-punch. It's a great way to re-use before recycling. With a stick of re-stickable glue, I can quickly make any note into a post-it.

Phew. Good luck!! :)

Don't Litter in Cyberspace

There is an awful lot of clutter on the web. There ought to be a fine for littering in cyberspace. You've seen the kind of junk I'm talking about here and there: content that is there for the sole benefit of search engines, such as white keyword text on a white background, people who spam in blog comments, and even the harmless pages of nonsense that grows like weeds on each of our websites.

In June I tightened ship on my own website. I've implemented some new security on the blog software, notably reCAPTCHA, a captcha project by Carnegie Mellon University. Captchas use images containing distorted text that you have to re-type into a form field. The reCAPTCHA project uses portions of scanned/OCR'd books that failed to be recognized easily by computers to test users. Once the text is verified to be read by a human, it helps add books to electronic libraries. So using this method not only foils spammers, but helps with online literature projects.

I'm also working on editing down my website. I am guilty of using my ability to create web pages so easily as an opportunity to be too wordy. Some websites don't have enough information, and you leave disappointed that you couldn't find what you needed to know. Others are too wordy: "Welcome to (this website). We're so glad you came... have a seat. Would you like some tea while you're waiting for real content? The bathroom is down the hall." I'm guilty as charged, in a court of my own self-examination.

I altered the navigation on the site, so it should hopefully make more sense to someone at least passingly familiar with websites. I started out with really obscure labels for the links, now I'm back down to the basics. Practice what I preach: I'm always telling my clients what should be on their homepage, how their navigation should be labeled. I have finally followed my own advice.

As a new service, I'm helping clients with their website "talk" -- a website needs to be the executive summary of a longer proposition. The longer proposition can be there, behind the scenes, and you can bring on the content in layers that are carefully crafted to build detail into the subject. However, people don't need to be hit over the head with a heavy sales pitch, proposal, or autobiography from the get-go.

Tightening up the wording, reducing babble, using bullet lists for main points, taking advantage of proper linking, and proper keyword integration.

People don't have time to sit through a long reading: they came with something in mind, even if it was just to learn more about you, and then they're going to go on to the next thing in their life. I'm working on other ways to increase website traffic to my client's site other than the stinking, lying, cheating ways that some search engine optimization businesses have taken up. It's a definite art, and it's easier to do on content that you didn't write yourself, so for me it's slow going between projects, and for clients, hopefully it won't be as slow and inconsistent.

Some of my new philosophies about optimization of websites were covered in my second workshop at the QED Business Edge conference yesterday: "Who's your website for?" It went over well. More about it later.

Because I'm expanding my business into content development and website planning, I'm starting to subcontract some design work out so I can make room for adding new services to my business. To see what this looks like, see the Rhthym and Rhyme Childcare and Simply FlawlessFaces websites.

The use and ABuse of AJAX

I'd like to tackle the theory of AJAXification for a moment, mainly because I was just in the middle of an AJAX-rendered hellish portion of an otherwise OK website.

AJAX is a buzzword and people who even know it are probably some of the few web programmers out there still able to compete over 6-digit salaried jobs.

The simple definition is that AJAX is a browser-side technology -- in other words it doesn't run on the webserver, it runs on your home or office computer -- that sends data and fetches data to and from a web server without the need to reload or load the webpage. Only the portion of the webpage that needs to be changed is changed, rather than the whole webpage. It can save time and looks better to the user because the pictures and background of the page don't need to reload. It can also be a waste of time, as shown in the example below.

With the proper use of AJAX, a web application can swiftly and seamlessly load information and change something on the webpage. Perhaps it can be used to anticipate the user's next move, load some data on the sly, and have it ready to slip in with some slick javascript maneuver when the user clicks. "Ha, ha! I knew you were going to click that!" This is especially cool when there are fewer choices for what the user might do. Not so great when there is a lot of data to pull from the webserver and not so great when there are too many choices to properly anticipate the user's next maneuver or when the data being pulled is directly dependent on the user's input.

The result of AJAX used correctly is a user experience that resembles a desktop application. Google (gmail at least) has it right, and I sure hope their programmers are getting the 6-digit income they deserve.

What annoys me is when AJAX is used to "be cool" -- not to enhance the user's experience.


The application that annoyed me today is the largest area newspapers' online calendar of events. Perhaps the application ran "slick" in testing with only 5 or 10 events listed. I'm sure it ran very nicely. Especially from their high-tech offices with terrific web service, or even with the servers at the same location.

There's a mini calendar which shows a bit into next month, and underneath it, starting with "today", is a huge detailed listing (date, time, name of event, location...) of the area's events for the next several days.

Each date on the calendar is a link that, when hovered, brings up a floating list of that day's events. If there were 3 events per day, this would be bright. There's more like 40. It takes as long to load the floating list as it would to reload the web page. You have to sit there hovering your mouse over the date for what seems like an eternity as it makes a call to the database to pull up and format the day's events. There's a nice swirly thing that shows up if you hover over the mini calendar. Without the swirly thing, if I went to the mini calendar to click, I wouldn't ever know that a "cool" list would eventually pop up. It pops up next to my mouse with a listing so long that when I then move my mouse down the list I eventually hit the bottom of the browser, and the whole AJAXified listing goes away. It doesn't scroll as I move down. That's real helpful.

Ok. Well, one could live with that -- instead of hovering and getting a hand-cramp, how about clicking on the date. As one would expect, the listing under the mini calendar changes to start with the date selected. However, this incites another AJAXified call to the database to fetch several days' events and replace the vast majority of the content on the webpage. Again, this data pull results in a long "load time" for the javascript (AJAX) to pull the data. It's nice that the sidebar dancing ads don't change, but exactly what time are you saving? Does this make you look "smarter" and "slicker"? Maybe...to the advertisers since you suddenly have nothing to do but stare at their glowing undulating ads.

But let's say I want to peruse today's events, and pull up the event details for items I'm interested in in another window, or in another tab, of my browser? Then when I'm done selecting a bunch, I can look through the event's details...

Because these aren't real webpage links, it ignores my attempt to open the link in another window. They're all "javascript links" and when I click them, the entire page goes away, even if I've attempted to open it in another window or tab. To get back to the mini calendar or listing, now I have to get the whole page by going "back" in the browser. That's not the way I want webpages to behave. At all. I'm a tab-oriented person. I let pages load in another tab and look at them when I'm good and ready.

All this time my laptop fan is going nuts, the load on my laptop was increasing, my laptop was getting hotter, and it was a waste to even be on the page. I have better things to waste my time with, like ranting about the abuse of AJAX!


This is just one example of a webpage that needs an AJAX Anonymous support group. Perhaps they never thought through what the user would do, how they would expect it to behave. They created a webpage Frankenstein monster based on what was "cool". It's not EASIER. It's not CHEAPER. It's their self-aggrandizement at stake. "Look, we have AJAX!" -- so what?

It doesn't help that I went for an interview with that company a year ago and they kept asking me if I knew AJAX and I kept saying "Not Yet." I still say not yet because I'm still not convinced that anything good would come of it. I've seen very very few things that would REALLY be enhanced by the use of AJAX. AJAX is not the killer tool to make a website cool. A website is either cool or not, regardless of the technology behind it. If doing something in AJAX would really make the experience better, go for it. Gmail is cool because it rather closely replicates the experience of a desktop email application. I hardly use it, but when I did, I was suitably impressed, then went back to my own email app. :)

An online shared calendar doesn't need to be AJAXified like this one was, though. I would have preferred to load each day's events in a separate tab, or view event details for selected dates in different tabs so I could keep flipping between them and comparing times and locations to see how many events I could attend.

What this AJAX stuff does to search engine optimization: Since search engines ignore javascript, all that data means nothing to them. Terrific on a private area of a website, horrible in a calendar application.


So, in conclusion, if you're looking for AJAX because you heard that AJAX is cool, ask to see some good and bad AJAX in action and talk to an expert to decide whether or not AJAX would enhance your users' experience given what you're doing on your website.

If you really do know AJAX, please stop people before they ruin their websites with it. You have a moral and ethical responsibility to guide people correctly in how they use their websites.

Please curb your AJAX. Good boy. Sit.

[tags]custom programming,education,ajax,information,programming,rant,fads,usability,web application programming,web applications,web standards,navigation,seo[/tags]

The Horrors of Banking in the 21st Century

Bank acquisitions have become so commonplace around here that I'm not at all surprised to walk into my nice local upstate-only bank and find that some global giant is gobbling it up like yet another Pac-Man pellet. I look on with concern, watching them rip apart the interior of my local branches to change the branding so that we can know for 100% certain that our money is no longer helping a local institution.

They even tore out the ATM machine and replaced it with a Diebold monstrosity. It has all the bells and whistles, or should I say beeps. Every number in your password elicits a LOUD beep so everyone in the bank knows how many digits there are in your password. When the cash is coming out, it beeps loudly. Thanks for letting everyone in a 12-block radius know I now have cash in my pocket. Wheeeeee! I hope they're not rolling out these monsters in NYC proper, but they probably did. Now they're infiltrating upstate New York. As if it weren't bad enough that the bank is changing, the new regime has installed monster equipment from the same company many people suspect have rigged elections. I'm scared to death to put my credit cards and debit cards into it's gaping maw. The only thing I can say in its favor is that it has an exquisitely sensitive touch screen. Everything else -- and I mean everything -- disgusts me. Every. Shiny. Millimeter. And I'm a geek.

I had 2 accounts at this bank. One personal (free for life -- *cough*) and one business. The business account's days were numbered already -- I never have enough money in the bank to escape monthly fees -- the bank gave me my first year in business for free. I threw enough of a stink that I got my second year free. But any day now, the account is going to start costing me $12 a month. That's enough chicken to feed my family for 3 weeks!! Forget it -- I was SO out of there. I started shopping around for a new bank. One that respected that my miniscule business needs every penny it works so hard to earn.

The DDay was to be March 23. I needed that account closed before the official 100% turn-over to the other bank. I didn't want them to send me new checks with a new routing number. I didn't want their promises that things wouldn't change too much. I didn't want their new signage. I definitely didn't want the Diebold ATM.

I had an outstanding check floating around in the wild, so I called the payee, and I made arrangements to send a money order and I was to put a stop payment on the check in question. They wrote a note in my account not to cash the check. I went to put a stop payment order on the check. Note the check is only for about $40.

It would cost me $33 to put a stop payment order on the check. For crying out loud, that feeds my family chicken for over 2 months! :P That's a lot of rice & beans. I hope they sleep well at night! Who would put a $33 stop payment order on a $40 check??!?

So, given that it could cost me $40 if the check goes through after I get the money order -- or $73 if it goes through but there are insufficient funds (but wait, then another $33 on top of that if the fee for insufficient funds sends the balance into the negatives!) -- or $33 to put a stop payment on the check, I chose the best thing. I'm closing the account out. Right now. It's cheaper. They're absolutely INSANE. They've sold their soul to someone out there, and I'm just another cow to be milked for my money.

Good Bye. Good Riddance.

---

I want to tell you about my savior. She came into my Thursday morning referral group and mentioned Federal Credit Union and lightbulbs lit up and chorusses of angels began to sing. Nancy Finn of Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union said the magic words of lower fees, lower (or non-existant) minimum balances, non-profit bank-like institution. Magic. I promise.

I opened accounts in December, and started the confusion of having my money spread out in too many places, too many accounts to juggle, etc. I waited until after the 30 day probation period required at a new banking institution before moving all my money over. Now I'm doing all my banking at the Federal Credit Union, and only keeping the personal monster account open so that my ex has an easy place to deposit child support payments if needed.

When you open a business account at a for-profit bank, you pay probably $20 for 50 business checks. It doesn't last long. I paid $10 for a whole box of personal-sized business checks.

None of my accounts have a minimum balance, except the $5 minimum for my savings accounts -- which is more like a membership deposit. When you quit the credit union you get $5 back. Who would quit? :)

All my accounts, including joint accounts, are on one screen when I do online banking. They've created such a simple interface for banking online that I'm very impressed.

I feel like the cow that woke up from a dream to find out they were human -- was I a human dreaming I was a cow? Or am I a cow dreaming I'm human? Who cares as long as I'm not getting milked! heh

They're friendly, they're not out to get you. There are some fees if you do something stupid, just like at the for-profits, but the fees are lower, sometimes very significantly lower.

The best thing, though, is that they're local, non-profit, and they're going to stay that way. The big for-profits won't gobble them up. No Diebold machines. Please. *phew*

[tags]money,chamber,expenses,gratitude,information,inspiration,life,local business,networking,non-profit,organization,personal,prices,rant[/tags]

Easy-to-Edit website Demo Movie available!

Liberate Your Website (part 1)

I've come to realize that people aren't "getting it" when I tell them that my websites are "easy to edit" so I've created a movie (6 minutes 10 seconds) to demo it.

It isn't one of those build-your-website applications you always see on the web -- those force you to do all the dirty work and BOY can you break the website, create some hideous Frankenstein-monster website contraption that frightens away clients.

No, that's not at all what this is.

You can't really break the website when you use this application. Maybe you can make some poor content design choices, such as making all your content text bold, or italic, so that you have no means left with which to emphasize a word. Maybe you can type in all caps, make everything on the page a headline, etc. But you aren't playing with the design, only the content, of your website, and changing styles and colors is not an accident.

So, take a look at the demo and see how this is a simple CONTENT management system, and don't frighten your clients away anymore! In the demo movie -- which is only 6 minutes! -- I play with several real live websites, so you can see how easy it is to edit your own content. In 6 minutes I could hardly explain to a web designer what I want them to change on a website; I'd rather do it through the Easy-to-Edit system. That's why all my websites are using this system: in spite of being a web designer, I want to have a quick and easy way to add and edit website content on my sites.

Speak Out sale - add a blog

I've changed my prices on everything except my hourly rates, as promised.

Now I've gone and put a sale on blog additions to the Easy-to-Edit website package.

Whatever it is that you have to speak about, I've got the software to help you say it!

Watch the sale page each month for specials. Most specials apply to the Easy-to-Edit package, so get the base package before the price goes up hire -- all my prices will slowly be escalating for the next several months, and proposal expiration dates will be strictly adhered to.

[tags]blog,open source,easy-to-edit,prices,programming,sale,web applications,writing[/tags]

Too late for THIS holiday season - Shop Local Online

Last month, at the Orange County Professional Women's Network, we did an exercise about holiday stress, and how to relieve it. Many people's answer to mall traffic and stress was "shopping online".

I have a better idea: Shop Local Online.

I saw a Times Herald-Record article today about shopping local. I couldn't agree more.

I have to remember to toss my e-commerce sites on sale around July-August next year, to have them ready by October-November. I might only be able to serve the first 20 or so clients, put up bare-bones undesigned sites, or I may have to hire a helper or three, but my goal, as always, is keeping the local economy thriving. I'll come up with great ideas for increasing the economy locally, but everyone has to help me out.

If we can spend the next year in a concerted effort to get local businesses online, and find unique ways to deal with the crunch shopping period that seems to now start from Halloween preparations through January, we can pull some of that economy back into the region.

Anyone with more great ideas for how to help out the local economy, let me know. Meanwhile I have more and more ideas to unleash slowly over the next year or two.

Here are some great ideas: 1) Mention to local businesses when you would have chosen them to purchase from but you didn't have the time or patience to do anything but online shopping. 2) Sponsor a local business's e-commerce site! I can put a banner ad on the e-commerce site that points to your business' site, you help the business pay for the site set-up and installation. A custom designed e-commerce site goes for $1000 and has space for 4-6 banner ads -- think of that; an e-commerce site with up to 6 $100 ad spaces with ads running for a year can slice the price down to less than half! [Ed - this price is going to be going up over the year!] 3) Mention Eclectic Tech and my Shop Local Spree that will be starting next summer -- I can start taking names on a waiting list for businesses that would get in on my sale before the sale begins! Heck, maybe I'll have 20-30 sites lined up before the summer vacation! When I officially announce the waiting list, I'll figure out how much the sale will be for ($100 off? maybe more! I only hesitate because e-commerce sites are really cumbersome projects that suck up a LOT of my time) [Ed - as of Feb 1st the plan is for $200 off on the base site, and more than half off non-product pages in July & August - with a complimentary sale for Easy-To-Edit sites with PayPal Buy Now buttons], and whether I require a small deposit to be on the list (like $50 non-refundable deposit?).

Ideally more than just gift-selling retails will want to get in on it, from a "Buy Now" button for a gift certificate on a normal site, through pizzerias and delis with website-to-fax order placing for deliveries. We just have to get creative. Give me ideas I can run with.

Criss

[tags]e-commerce,economy,money,prices,sale,web applications[/tags]

Why I Won't Build Your "MySpace Killer"

Often the topic of starting a "great" web business comes up, and in my age and wisdom (being both old to be a freelance web programmer, and one of a minority of women in the field) -- there's two ways to go: thinking "in" the box = come up with new brilliant technology, patent it and hire people to program it better and faster than anyone else can so you can quickly market it. If it climbs to the top before it is cloned you become the next target for people trying to out-do your website. This track is getting VERY old, VERY fast. Mainly you and your absolute best friend need to be programmers to do this (think Microsoft, Google...) because you can't trust anyone with your terrific idea. Also it has to be so ground-breaking that only the best (read: smartest, wise, long-range thinking) of venture capitalists will see the end of the rainbow where the pot of gold sits. If it is easy to get the funding for your idea, someone probably is making it already.

Thinking "out" of the box = coming up with a way to use normal everyday technology to do something that fills -- rather than creates -- a real need or niche. It's cheaper, faster, and if it really IS filling a need, it's going to spread by word-of-mouth, and it won't be "just a fad". This technique aims lower and comes in under the radar -- no billion dollar baby here -- but it's safer, less stressful, and you don't have to be a programmer, generally speaking. The programmer is unlikely to run off with your baby if it doesn't look like a "google killer".

The problem is that great ideas are easy -- the means to really make them work is the harder part (invention = 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration). I'm frustrated with people who want to "share" the rewards of their great web program idea (equity sharing) of up to 50%, but won't be doing any of the actual work to make it hang together and be practical. If someone comes to me with a truly great idea (and I have NDA's if they don't), I can find them a great programming team, but the team will probably want cash on delivery, not equity. More "google killers" die every day than make it. They're not original ideas, and if a site dies before it makes money, there's no equity and it's a huge waste of the programmer's time.

Imagine that someone turned to you and said, "I have a great idea for a newspaper! I'll give you the ideas, you develop the newspaper and run it, staff it, write for it, etc. I'll give you 50%." That approach frustrates me. People don't get it. I can translate it to dozens of other fields -- "I have a great plan for a house, you just have to build it. Then you can live on the top floor, and I'll live downstairs. Ok?"

Somewhere in there people are cheapening the act of programming. After all, it's just bits and bytes, right???

The Internet mimics life in a "survival of the fittest" way. I don't pretend to know what's "cool" or "hot" anymore -- I work with "useful" :) I won't get rich but that wasn't in my personal game plan. I have my own great or good ideas, some might make me money, some won't but will look really good on my resume.

Then there's the flip side of this: If you're not the head of the programming team and you've paid someone to build the google killer -- what if it works? Now you have to program new features, fix bugs, etc. You either need to re-hire the same team, or get a programming staff. You go on Craigslist and choose the person who claims somehow to be able to fulfill your great Internet dream, but if you have this beautiful web baby together, are you really ready for that long-term commitment with a total dweeb with no business sense?

I can't wait to be so busy with people I've looked in the eye and shaken the hands of that I can't afford to even GLANCE at another Craigslist ad. I love my clients dearly, but you don't know how rare it was that the people I dealt with BECAME clients at all. I certainly wouldn't want to become business partners with some guy with the "next killer app" idea and had to actually look on Craigslist for a programmer. So wait -- your only experience is the front end of websites as a user, and you think you can somehow manage a killer web application programming team? That's an incredibly poor business move and you'll get laughed out of the bank. And you want the programmer to work for nothing but equity? That's spec work.

That brings me to another thing: Have you ever had one of those managers who knows absolutely nothing about what you do? It happens in IT all the time, but much less so in other professions. BUT if you've ever heard a nurse bitch that someone "stepped in" as the head of the nursing staff from a business-only background, you might get the idea. In most large corps -- and this is a place where Microsoft does NOT get bad rankings -- the heads of the corporation have NO IDEA how to produce their main products...much less have a clue what their IT department does sitting at their computers all day.

It's never a good idea to manage something you don't understand. Ever.

On that note, are you interested in a basic web programming class? :)

Shopping Cart Showdown

Here's the deal.

I need a shopping cart for a client. I have basic functionality the shopping cart MUST have. Not necessarily because the client demanded them but because I'm forming a hairbrained notion that these are some type of milestone or rite of passage for shopping carts.

1) coupons & discounts -- there's nothing like putting a coupon with your ad or on an invoice. Even better, giving out coupon codes in your newsletters. Make sure they're paying attention! Many carts don't seem to have this. The granddaddy of shopping carts in the open-source world requires being broken TWICE to have coupons ("easy discounts" and "easy coupons" must be added to oscommerce aka OSC to get coupons). Bonus points for coupon support out-of-the-box.

QuickCart & Viart Free have coupons out-of-the-box according to shopping-cart-reviews.com.

2) a template system with under 50 files. OSC fails this test, requiring nearly EVERY file to be changed to consistently alter the HTML appearance features of the website. ZenCart has 95 template files not counting those for the admin panel. Viart Free has 115 template files.

Winner: QuickCart (loaded version) comes in at under 38 -- note "page.tpl" is the "main page" of the site. Other template pages MAY NOT NEED TO BE ALTERED! I haven't figured that out conclusively. But they're not using something standardized like Smarty so you need some PHP savvy to plow through them.

3) separation -- real separation -- of logic and design. ZenCart is OK on this one. OSC fails miserably. Viart Free comes out on top -- using Smarty templating! WOOT! However note the loss on #2, coming in at 95 template files. Shame on them! Smarty is much MUCH smarter than that!

Viart Free, as I mentioned, uses Smarty, and has a standard "header" "footer". In spite of 115 files, using Smarty would probably make it a pleasure. I'm upset that there's no standard "right-sidebar" type formats, but that can easily be added to header/footer files so I'm happy enough.

QuickCart also seems to have real separation of logic vs design, so it's the 2nd runner up for not using a standard templating system like Smarty.


4) real-world examples that show off the system's flexibility for customization & style.

This is a tough cookie because people are generally lazy. I looked 3 times at http://www.mals-e.com/home.php because it had some of the better shopping cart examples I'd seen. Custom buttons, horizontal instead of vertical cart display, entirely different layouts. Turns out this is a free hosted service, you don't install the software, you do have to muck around in your website's HTML, but it's really a service that handles the customer's orders off your site. It allows a lot of flexibility, and he's hoping you make so many sales that you want the advanced site features, which are not make-or-break deals. I don't see coupon/discount code entry, so Mal's service fails #1, but it wins on 2 & 3. How much more separate from the logic can you be?

Viart has an odd quantity feature that involves a drop-down, but that's probably fixable. It requires clicking a JavaScript pop-up to confirm putting something into your shopping basket, which is awkward. These are awkward, but livable issues, but all the sites I looked at had these issues so no one bothered fixing them.

QuickCart -- they don't have that many sites in English, and they have SO MANY in other languages, I needed to narrow the playing field. So of the English sites, I saw minor promising variants in the cart design itself -- something near impossible to do in OSC -- as well as at least one site where the overall design was beautifully done very differently from the others. The cart behaved the way I would want a cart to behave. At least one site had web sites up for sale, with a number of options for ordering, which is something I may be doing myself.

5) No restrictions.

Viart Free fails here. Limited to 50 products. It requires a Zend optimizer installation. But it does install on GoDaddy. However, this is not terribly expensive to upgrade at $119, if you go over 10 categories/50 products.

In any case, the winner system from looking at the websites is Mal's service -- but if I eliminate the one host I bumped into during my search for something better, QuickCart did better than Viart.


The winning system today: QuickCart. Several hundred shops are listed, though some are spammers or the domains are now invalid. One problem is that I've not seen very strongly customized category views, and that's an area I'll need to customize. If you expect to have a very small cart, don't forget to check out Viart Free. Notable mention for money: SquirrelCart -- at about $70 it looks like a good bang for the buck -- but I can't say how it does amongst all the criteria mentioned here, since I couldn't evaluate it.

Note that many carts were eliminated from the contest for a variety of reasons. #1 price. #2 bad reviews out of the starting box (such as VirtueMart/Joomla! which has been repeatedly reported as having the shittiest support forum, being overly complex, etc. If I want that shit, I'll go back to OSC).

Ok, so next I'll be working with QuickCart and I'll let people know how it goes.

[tags]e-commerce, programming, reviews, design, competition, custom programming, education, metasite, usability, web applications[/tags]

oscommerce is a beast

I want to continue to offer e-commerce at a reasonable price, and that reasonable price will not be tagged on oscommerce. Oscommerce will easily be double the price of any other shopping cart going forward. The program is a beast, and as long as it's been around, it's turned into a Frankenstein monster.

To extend the program through "contributions" requires hacking it to bits. I installed only one or two modules that installed without having to individually hand-edit program files, but note that these modules completely and utterly REPLACE files from the base oscommerce installation, just as the ones that required hand-editing rendered the program un-upgradable.

This is point #1 in being absolutely and utterly unable to upgrade the package once installed and so-called plug-ins (read: hacks) are added.

This implies that oscommerce does not have "Hooks" - - no points at which contributions can easily be put into the program execution queue without disturbing the original files.

The templating of the program out-of-the-box is absolutely unforgivable. There is no separation of logic and design on the back-end of the program. Each are enmeshed within each other. One contribution forcibly ripped the template code out of the program code and separated them. I'm both grateful that someone went through the trouble and appalled that doing so was needed -- again this absolutely breaks the ability to upgrade the program.

I think I'm very spoiled by PmWiki. I never have to hack the program code to add a feature. Ever. That's Patrick's duty. Cookbook recipes (plug-ins) are kept separately from the program code. There are an abundance of program hooks to slip custom code into. The base install can be upgraded with or without the recipes being upgraded, with a minimal chance of breaking recipes, since the hooks serve as an API layer in the program, and rarely need to change how they behave.

I'm tempted to write in a shopping cart module, because oscommerce is the exact opposite of everything I've learned about a good, extensible and maintainable package.

I will be trying Zen Cart next. I now know enough about oscommerce to install it and even customize it, but I am not able, in any good conscience, to recommend it to a customer, and my price for installing oscommerce must be double what I thought it should be.

I have to apologize to the Frankenstein monster for having insulted him by comparing oscommerce to him. Oscommerce is far more of a hack than one body being combined with another brain.

[tags]e-commerce, custom programming, modules, open source, prices, programming, rant, usability, web applications, web standards[/tags]

oscommerce drop-down selection box hack

I was having a heck of a time today dealing with drop-down product option selections in oscommerce. I wrote a hack to catalog/includes/functions/html_output.php in the function definition for tep_draw_pull_down_menu I changed the following text:

    for ($i=0, $n=sizeof($values); $i<$n; $i++) {
      $field .= '    
      if ($default == $values[$i]['id']) {
        $field .= ' SELECTED';
      }

      $field .= '>' . tep_output_string($values[$i]['text'], 
          array('"' => '"', '\'' => ''', 
          '<' => '<', '>' => '>')) . '';
    }
    

To the following:

	// Criss - XES - altered the following:
	
	
	foreach ($values as $i=>$value) {
			$xes_values[$value['id']] = $value['text'];	}
	asort($xes_values);
	
	    foreach ($xes_values as $xes_id=>$xes_text) {
      $field .= '    
      if ($default == $xes_id) {
        $field .= ' SELECTED';
      }

      $field .= '>' . tep_output_string($xes_text, 
         array('"' => '"', '\'' => ''', 
         '<' => '<', '>' => '>')) . '';
    }

Now when I can have product option "A - 9oz" and "B - 30oz" and count on option A being the default selected item if the customer doesn't change the option. Try as I might "B - 20oz" was the option selected. Whether I re-added the options in a different order, whether I took out A B C D, etc. If it were sorted in reverse order, I could have left out A B C D, because 9oz should sort to the top of the list. This wasn't the issue. I have no idea why the program was so stubborn about sort order, but now all drop-downs, like it or not, throughout the site, will be sorted alphabetically!

I hope people find this code snippet helpful!

CMS Disappointment

I have been trying to work out the features and the back-end program to run Holistic - Hudson Valley.

As I would do for any client, I wrote up a sheet of the major features I required. I checked 3 CMS packages that are free/open source, and that I have confidence that they have a large number of add-ons and a strong community: Drupal, Joomla! and Xoops.

I've used Xoops, and I liked it A LOT.

I've used Drupal, but when looking for plug-ins that would give the package the features I was looking for it fell short.

I researched packages for Joomla, and except for true single-sign-on integration with Moodle, it came up with the most promising feature availability. I saw that a couple of the components would cost money. The amount wasn't enough to hamper me, so I dove in. I started working on it, decided to opt for my first purchase of a module, which was more than the original price I thought I would be spending on the feature ($99). I bought it. It's one of those no-money-back things. Then I saw that Joomla! did not include the fine group permissions that I had come to expect from using Xoops.

My first barricade was that the new $99 module only works with a certain release of Joomla! -- that was OK because I'd downloaded two versions of Joomla. I installed the correct one, got it working, fed it the database info, and everything was happy. Or so I thought. I could now install the somewhat expensive module (the other modules were cheaper).

Joomla! comes with a pre-created set of a few user group types. And no way to customize them, unless you want to buy someone's hack. I have a list of about 8 module features I need installed. The group modification hack gives no easy indication of which other modules it plays nice with -- you need to pour through the forums. Maybe they've created patches for it to work with the modules you want -- maybe not. No guarantees. Oh, yeah, and if you want the best version of their package, there's a subscription fee. Not a one-time license fee -- a monthly or annual subscription fee. This stopped me dead in my tracks.

I was looking for something cheap and easy. So far I'd spent about $100 and had at least another $50 USD and £22.50 (probably about $50USD) to spend ahead of me. If any more unexpected barriers came up and I had to shell out any more money for modules that did not guarantee playing nice with other modules --- this was going to end with me going postal.

I'm starting to think that Joomla! is a rip-off -- about 1/3 of the functionality I was looking for as a base to begin was going to cost me money. I think some of the people charging money for components were on the package's core development team. If the component is terribly useful, and should be ported to the main body of the program -- such as flexibility with user groups -- it would probably never happen because the guy who is making money off the module is going to scream bloody murder. That is not the type of open source generosity I'm looking for. I don't mind asking for donations, and I don't mind giving donations if I make money off my project -- AT ALL. But Joomla! doesn't say "Warning, most of what you want to extend this package with will cost you."

I should have considered my choices longer and harder, but thankfully I've only spent $99 so far. Once I spent the other $100 or so, I may have found out that something else essential was missing, and how much would that have cost me?

I'm off to do more research on the Xoops packages. Xoops has a better core philosophy as far as I can tell. The basic package is deliberately made to be extensible without having to hack the core code. Even if I do end up having to buy an add-on or two, they won't come with huge warnings that they are hacks of the core package and may not play nice with other modules. I've used Xoops and was very happy with it. If there's a module I can't find to fill a feature I need, I can try creating it myself.

Xoops had come in a close 2nd place in my assessments, but I was lured in by the promise of everything "just working" with Joomla!. Joomla! is more polished to the eye, but apparently the "just working" isn't true. I'm going to need to triple check that none of the modules I want costs money, but I'm pretty sure they don't. In any case, I have some experience in hacking Xoops modules...and I know the user groups are already fine-grained and fully customizable.

*Grumps*
[tags]cms, drupal, xoops, joomla, open source, web applications, custom programming, modules, expenses[/tags]