Brown Wing Studio Blog

A Guide to Choosing a Host For Your Website

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:31:00 +0000

Hosting falls into that category of things most people find intimidating. However, if your website is anything more to you than a hobby or a lark, this is something you should learn about. A poor choice of host will, at best, leave you with a site that runs slowly. At worst you will lose your website and your domain name entirely.

Don’t Trust This to Someone Else

If you’re hiring someone to build you a website, chances are they’ll offer to manage hosting for you. They do this because it’s an easy thing to set up, they mark up the cost a little and they earn a healthy profit. However, remember this: Your website is a commodity. It is important and it is valuable. Would you buy a brand new car and keep it in a garage you didn’t have the key to?

There are plenty of good hosts out there, with good support and an easy sign-up process. Feel free to collect recommendations, but purchase your hosting package yourself. Use your credit card, put yourself in as the primary contact and make sure you keep track of your own account information. Businesses go under, freelancers move on. If you leave these details in someone else’s hands, you might one day discover your website is no longer yours.

But don’t worry! Like tic-tac-toe, web hosting may seem complex and full of variation at a glance, but once you understand the basics you’ll realize you will never lose if you follow a few simple rules.

So first let’s learn a little about what exactly you are buying when you purchase a hosting package.

Understanding Servers

“Server” (when applied to computers) is another word that tends to send people screaming for the hills. So you may be surprised to learn a server is in some ways far simpler than your laptop. In reality, a server is nothing more than a computer that has no screen, no keyboard and is turned on and hooked up to the internet at all times. When you buy a hosting package you are purchasing a certain amount of space on someone’s server and they give you access so you can store your files there. It’s that simple.

The Domain Name

Of course, space on a server somewhere isn’t going to do you any good if people can’t see what you put there. This is where the domain name comes in. A domain name is like a street address. If I go to 123 S. Main Street I can easily walk into the house that is built there. If I type brownwingstudio.com into a browser, that browser consults the massive list of domain names that exist and figures out where, in all the internet, my little piece of server space resides. Then it simply pulls up the files it finds for me to look at.

Hosting Resellers

It is not practical for most people to have a computer in their house that is on all the time and configured so the right people (people who are building websites) can get into it and add and remove files but the wrong people (hackers) can’t. This is where hosting resellers come in. There are warehouses all over the world full of nothing but servers. These servers are where the internet physically exists, and these machines are huge. One server can host hundreds of websites. And it’s a win/win for everyone. I don’t have to deal with the headache of managing my own server, and resellers make money off the space they rent.

But like everything, there are quality levels when it comes to hosting. Some hosts put too many sites on each server and then there isn’t enough connection speed for all the files to be accessed at the same time. This means when you try to look at a site on this server you’re competing with people trying to look at hundreds of other websites at the same time. You have to sit there and wait for images to load. Other hosts aren’t vigilant about security, and sites on their servers get hacked all the time.

How to Tell Who’s Good

I purchased my first hosting package in the fall of 2002. I was studying abroad in England. I had been tinkering with HTML and CSS for a while and I urgently needed a way to share pictures and stories about my time away with friends at home. This was the era before the rise of the blog (Facebook didn't even exist), so when it came to doing this thing that is so simple now, I was on my own. I was utterly broke and the thought of dropping any money at all on a website seemed frivolous. So I found the cheapest host out there and bought vitzy.com plus a year of hosting for $34.

It wasn’t long before I realized why the hosting was cheap. My site was down a lot. Sometimes my homepage would be replaced by a different one that said, “You’ve been hacked!” and would include the darkened silhouettes and hacker handles of two kids in New Zealand who apparently had nothing better to do. Then the company I’d been hosting with disappeared entirely and for a few tricky months it looked like I was going to lose vitzy.com.

I learned my lesson, and since then I follow a few key rules when it comes to hosts:

Size Matters

Bigger Is Better: Since I’ve taken on clients, I’ve sorted out almost every conceivable manner of hosting debacle, and while it pains me to say it (I'm a 'support local business' kind of person) lots of them arise from local hosts. All it takes is some guy who’s convinced configuring servers is no big deal. He signs up to resell domain names from the reseller of a reseller, he buys a few servers and puts them in the basement. He builds a website and starts calling himself a host. And for everyone who buys from him, headaches abound. His servers are slow, they’re not set up properly, they go down during power outages, he never backs them up and he has no security. All his clients get mad at him. He stops answering his phone. Getting your domain name away from him so you can go somewhere else is simply never going to happen.
Not Too Big Though: Then there is the other side of the coin. There are whole warehouses in India and other countries that sell hosting space to hosts. Now you have people selling space on servers they’ve never seen and don’t know anything about. As you can imagine, there is no accountability when a hiccup happens.
In Between Is Just Right: So you want something in the middle. A national level host with lots of reviews is the best option. If they will give you the physical address where their servers reside and it’s not in a strip mall or a residential area, that’s a really good sign.

Reputation Matters

Learn From Others: Reviews are key when it comes to choosing a host. Have other people had good experiences? Is there someone there to help you if you need support? Do they care if your site goes down? These are all important to know.
Name Recognition Isn’t Everything: I can’t tell you how many people are on GoDaddy simply because they had seen an ad for GoDaddy at some point. This is the worst imaginable reason to buy something. Everyone’s heard of McDonalds, but that doesn’t mean you have an important business lunch there or treat the new potential love of your life to a meal of Chicken McNuggets.

Don't Rest On Your Laurels

So you've done the research and found a great host, and your site is up and running like a dream. Good job! But don't forget about it. Check your website regularly. Keep an eye on how things are running. All hosts are subject to the laws of chaos (crashes, connection hiccups etc.) that govern computing, but these problems should be at a minimum. Don't turn into that person who pesters your host every time a page loads slowly, but do keep track of problems. Even a good business can go bad. If your site's performance starts to suffer, do something. First double check other people are having the same problem, then contact your host and ask what gives. If they say it is your computer or try to sell you an upgrade, say you want a better answer or you'll take your business elsewhere. Moving your website is a pain, but it's a whole lot easier than losing it.

Who Do We Recommend?

Our website is hosted on Bluehost. As it so happens, we are part of their affiliate program, which means we get a little kickback for referring people their way. However, we loved and recommended them long before we were affiliated with them and we ourselves host more than a dozen sites on their servers. We’ve never had a problem.

We’re also affiliated with HostGator, which is an excellent option for people who need a less comprehensive hosting package than Bluehost offers. And if you use the coupon code “brownwingstudio” when you sign up for a HostGator account you’ll get $9.95 off your hosting package, and we’ll get a commission.

If you are considering a different host, we'd be happy to offer our opinion. We have worked on a lot of sites that run on a lot of different servers and we know which hosts are reliable and which aren't. A word to the wise: Our two least favorite hosting providers by a wide margin are GoDaddy and Yahoo.

If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:57:00 +0000

**I don’t know who wrote this. I’ve seen it in several different places around the internet. However, I often find comparing web design to construction is useful for both me and my clients, so I thought I’d repost.**

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can pick one.

Keep in mind that the house I ultimately choose must cost less than the one I am currently living in. Make sure, however, that you correct all the deficiencies that exist in my current house (the floor of my kitchen vibrates when I walk across it, and the walls don’t have nearly enough insulation in them).

As you design, also keep in mind that I want to keep yearly maintenance costs as low as possible. This should mean the incorporation of extra-cost features like aluminum, vinyl, or composite siding. (If you choose not to specify aluminum, be prepared to explain your decision in detail.)

Please take care that modern design practices and the latest materials are used in construction of the house, as I want it to be a showplace for the most up-to-date ideas and methods. Be alerted, however, that the kitchen should be designed to accommodate, among other things, my 1952 Gibson refrigerator.

To insure that you are building the correct house for our entire family, make certain that you contact each of our children, and also our in-laws. My mother-in-law will have very strong feelings about how the house should be designed, since she visits us at least once a year.

Make sure that you weigh all of these options carefully and come to the right decision. I, however, retain the right to overrule any choices that you make.

Please don’t bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the house: Get the big picture. At this time, for example, it is not appropriate to be choosing the color of the carpet. However, keep in mind that my wife likes blue.

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

While you are designing this house specifically for me, keep in mind that sooner or later I will have to sell it to someone else. It therefore should have appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers.

Please make sure before you finalize the plans that there is a consensus of the population in my area that they like the features this house has. I advise you to run up and look at my neighbor’s house that he constructed last year. We like it a great deal. It has many features that we would also like in our new home, particularly the 75-foot swimming pool. With careful engineering, I believe that you can design this into our new house without impacting the final cost.

Please prepare a complete set of blueprints. It is not necessary at this time to do the real design, since they will be used only for construction bids. Be advised, however, that you will be held accountable for any increase of construction costs as a result of later design changes.

You must be thrilled to be working on as interesting a project as this! To be able to use the latest techniques and materials and to be given such freedom in your designs is something that can’t happen very often.

Contact me as soon as possible with your complete ideas and plans.

PS: My wife has just told me that she disagrees with many of the instructions I’ve given you in this letter. As architect, it is your responsibility to resolve these differences. I have tried in the past and have been unable to accomplish this. If you can’t handle this responsibility, I will have to find another architect.

PPS: Perhaps what I need is not a house at all, but a travel trailer. Please advise me as soon as possible if this is the case.

Why Good Photography Matters on Your Website

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:43:00 +0000

In this age of digital cameras, you don’t have to be a photographer to take a picture and put it on the internet. And that is ok. In many situations, snapshots are a fun and enjoyable means for people to share images in the same way it is fun for people to create their own blogs.

But a blog is not a viable replacement for a professionally made website, and snapshots don’t work well in important locations. Still, many people have trouble seeing the necessity of hiring a photographer when it comes to shooting for websites.

And it’s a pity, really, because good imagery is actually one of the easiest ways to enhance your website with the most far-reaching impact.

why it’s worth the investment:

Eye-Catching: Studies and surveys show that people are more likely to stay on a website longer if there are images on the home page. If the image is crisp and appealing, the chances are even higher that people will stick around and read your copy.
Bang for Your Buck: When it comes to a return on your investment, photography just keeps giving. A series of nice shots can be used on your site, but they can also double as imagery for print ads and brand development down the road.
Fun & Inspiring: Photographers are artists and designers, and if you are open to their ideas, you might come out of the shoot with a whole slew of neat photos and your creative juices flowing.
You, but Better: A professional photographer can create shots that are unique to you and your business and so recognizable to your clients. You get beautiful colors and crisp scenes, but without the generic feeling of stock photos.

not convinced?

If you cannot or will not hire a professional photographer, consider these pointers while shooting your own images:

Get the Light Right: If there are spots of dark shadows or spots of bright light in your frame, your camera is going to have trouble. Bring additional lighting into play if you’re indoors, or shoot in the morning or late afternoon if you’re outside.
What’s in the Background?: Pay attention to everything in your frame. Power lines, dust in the corner, and that guy who just walked by your window are all things you probably don’t want becoming part of your brand.
Get a Tri-Pod: Even if it’s one of those tiny portable ones that cost $10, the investment is well worth it. Having a way to make sure the camera is still when you shoot, and also the ability to take the exact same shot while experimenting with different settings will help increase the quality of your shots.
Never Use a Flash: I mean it. Never. Ever. Just don’t do it. If you need a flash, see tip #1. And wait for a better moment.

And just in case you're in Iowa City and you want a recommendation, Drescher Photo Design is our personal favorite.

Is the Blog Dead?

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 01:46:00 +0000

Not long ago I happened across an article that declared the blog is dead. The fad has passed. No one blogs anymore. Facebook has carried the day, and we should delete our blogger accounts and move on.

Undeniably, there is some evidence for this conclusion. Few of my friends still blog. Even this blog has been sitting pretty idle lately. Reading this headline, then, made me experience a strange moment of discomfort. It was akin to that day in the 90's when I realized no one else was wearing Guess jeans but I still loved mine.

I have no less than five blogs. This one, a personal blog, a blog devoted entirely to my horse, a blog written in the voice of a fictional gerbil, and a blog about my as-yet-non-existent career as an author. Obviously I haven't gotten the "blogging is dead" memo.

But when I started thinking about it a bit more I realized that while the day of co-eds sitting at computers late at night pouring their hearts into their xanga accounts has indeed passed (a status update or a tweet is a far more effective way to express angst to a huge slew of possibly sympathetic listeners) this very fact has actually allowed the blog to prosper. Blogs have reverted to the domain of people who actually want to write, usually about a particular subject, with some degree of expertise.

Of my five blogs, the one that gets by far the most attention is my horse blog. This came as a surprise for me, because I really started it for personal reasons. I wanted to keep track of what happened with my horses and I wanted a couple key people who are interested to be able to follow my progress as well. Since starting it, however, I've realized there is a massive internet community of horse-owners who are doing the same thing. Reading horse-blogs has become one of my favorite ways to procrastinate. But I'll be the first to admit that even my own horse blog is massively boring to anyone who's not totally into horses.

Other areas where the blogosphere is booming are equally specialized. Foodie blogs, fitness blogs, and overall health/mental wellness blogs are hugely popular, some of these generating and maintaining massive readerships. There is also still ample demand for blogs attached to businesses. People love an inside look into the secret lives of professionals.

So if all this is true, how can we support the thesis that the blog is dead? I say we can't. It's an untenable argument, and I, for one, am glad of it. I must admit to personally despising Facebook. I only maintain a presence there because I feel obliged to do so. My blogs, however, are labors of love. The longer I keep posting, the more interesting it is to look back and see my own evolution as a professional, an equestrian, a writer, a gerbil, and a person.

Effectively List Your Business Online

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:56:00 +0000

Not long ago someone asked me if I’d ever advertised in the phone book. The question actually surprised me. I’m pretty sure we have a phonebook somewhere in the house, and it’s possible we’ve even used it once or twice, but in my field phonebook listings simply aren’t relevant.

Honestly though, sometimes it would be nice if it was still that simple. It can be exhausting to try to keep abreast of all the various internet directories that allow business listings. Like with all things on the internet, it is important to identify where to invest your time and energy.

Of course, creating business listings Google, Yahoo! and Bing is a no-brainer. It is also definitely important to make sure you’re on Angie’s List, but the fact that it is a paid service has kept that from being a truly universal way for people to find out about you. Craigslist is sort of the opposite – free but a bit low-brow at the end of the day. Plus you have to post yourself constantly to stay at the top of the list, and there is no way to accumulate reviews or increase your clout on their site.

Just recently, I became aware of Thumbtack. And today I created a business listing on their site to showcase the Custom Website Design and Graphic Design services that I offer. So far I’m pleased with the service. It is free, it allows you to sync your promotional page with Facebook, Twitter and even Craigslist. It’s still not huge, but appears to be growing rapidly. The sign-up pages run smoothly and are well-designed. They make it fun to fill in the blanks and watch your profile come together. You are encouraged to add photos and ask your past clients to leave reviews. It seems like a good pay-off for a minimal investment of time. I’m happy to have my page set up, and no doubt I’ll be taking a look at its offerings the next time I need to hire a service provider. If Thumbtack keeps growing, it will be at the top of my list in no time.

Bamboo Beautiful

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:32:00 +0000

Like anyone with an interest in digital art, I've fiddled around with tablets on occasion. I'd play with the idea of buying one a couple of times a year, but every time I seriously looked at them they seemed expensive, large and more likely to sit on a corner of my desk collecting dust than becoming a part of my daily routine. Sure, they're great for drawing. But this wasn't a huge plus for me as I do still prefer to sketch on paper.

Unfortunately, over the last six months I've started to have some problems with my mouse-hand. Mainly, the tendon that connects my index finger to my palm grows fatigued and sore as I click click click click. I spend so many hours on a computer each day, such a tiny movement has accumulated into a genuine problem. I bought a nicer mouse and that helped for a while but it didn't last. And so I went hunting for mouse alternatives.

It took me a long time to think of a tablet as a contender in this category, but in my hunting I stumbled across the Bamboo. It was love at first sight. I'd ordered one for myself within a day.

There are a number of things I adore about this device. First, it is small. It can sit on my desk in front of my keyboard and thus become part of my genuine work pattern. In the morning when I'm reading my favorite websites and blogs, I use it like a giant trackpad. The touch interface allows me to zoom and scroll and click.

When it comes to more serious tasks, it is a good deal slower than my mouse, but as I get more adept I find I can use it for certain types of work and thus give my clicker finger a much-needed break. The pen functions as a standard input device as well.

Lastly, of course, there is the drawing feature. I fired up Photoshop right after I got the Bamboo and fiddled around a bit. I had a few "wow that's cool" moments before closing the document and working on something more productive. But today I started work on a logo, and I wanted to draw some little leaf graphics to go with the text. I opened Illustrator and picked up my pen. Half a second later, I had a vector-based shape that looked exactly the way I wanted to. Now I can't figure out how I managed so long without one of these.

Do You Need a CMS?

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:45:00 +0000

Last year I was contacted by a colleague asking if I would mind stepping in to finish a mostly completed website. The person who needed the website and the company that had been working on the website just weren’t getting along anymore, but someone had to get the pages online.

I said I thought I could help and soon I’d received a zipped folder that included a bunch of images and an .sql file. No problem, thought I. Just upload the files, import the database and we’ll be good to go.

Suffice it to say it was not that simple. In the end I did get the site up, but the whole thing was a completely different experience than it would have been if the site had simply been built using static HTML pages, and so my fee at the end the of the project was a good deal higher than it might have been. What made it so hard? All the problems I encountered were caused by the fact that the site was built on a CMS.

Content Management Systems are all the rage these days. From Wordpress to Joomla to Drupal to Concrete5 to SquareSpace, these systems are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Their claim to fame, of course, is they allow people who don’t know code to work on websites. Unfortunately, this simple fact can be misleading. Sure you don’t need to know HTML or CSS to use one, but you still need to be pretty good with computers and capable of learning to use new software. You also have to have the time and interest to invest in maintaining your own site (as opposed to simply paying someone else to do it for you).

The truth is, there is no such thing as a perfect CMS. A CMS runs on a database, so it is slower to populate pages than static HTML. Also, if your server goes down and you haven’t backed up your database (which is actually pretty tricky to do), you stand to lose your entire site. But if your site is built using static HTML, your server could be utterly destroyed and your webmaster could simply put your site back online with a new host in a matter of minutes.

Finally, there’s the question of design freedom. Every CMS is restrictive in some way, and if you want a unique look this fact might limit your options.

So, how do you weigh the pros and cons? Here’s a quick list of the key considerations to think over when deciding whether to go with a CMS or not.

How often are you going to need to change your website’s content?

If you only are going to want to update your site once or twice a year it is quite likely you will entirely forget how to use your CMS between logins and have to call your webmaster for help anyway. Unless your answer to this question is “monthly” or “weekly” you have little need for a CMS.

Are you good with computers?

And yes, I mean good. If you are the sort of person who gets frustrated every time Facebook changes its layout, adding a CMS to your life is only going to annoy you. And if you are the sort of person who can’t upload a photo to your Flickr account or attach a document to an email, setting yourself up with a CMS will make you truly miserable.

How often are you REALLY going to change your website’s content?

Let’s face it, we all have grand goals. Sometimes these goals don’t quite pan out in real life. Before you saddle yourself with a whole new system to learn, ask yourself deep down if you are really, truly, honestly going to change your website every week. (I’m not talking about a blog – I’m mean the main pages.) Really? The vast majority of sites on the internet are not changed more than a couple of times a year.

Are there other ways to get the functions you need?

If you want a blog, you can get one without building your entire site on a CMS. If you need a way to upload images to a gallery, there are dynamic options that can be incorporated in all sorts of ways that are quite simple and less labor-intensive than learning to use a CMS. Explore such options with your web developer before committing to an all-inclusive system.

The bottom line:

Everyone needs a website for a slightly different reason, but a CMS comes as a package. In many cases that package will suit your needs, but just make sure you know what you are getting into before you commit. Some web developers will tell you that HTML sites are antiquated, but the truth is they are still the fastest, cheapest way to get a fully customized site online. In reality a lot of companies only build on one platform to streamline their process and makes their own lives easier, not necessarily to provide their clients with the best possible solution.

In short, if you choose to use a CMS just make sure you know what you are gaining and what you are giving up. If the pros outweigh the cons, then go for it.

Why You Should Download IE9, Right Now

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:27:00 +0000

If you don’t know what IE9 is, that doesn’t mean you don’t need it. In fact, if the initials IE mean nothing to you, it’s quite likely you are suffering needlessly, even while reading this blog post.

Why are you suffering? You are suffering because Microsoft has duped you. They have ingeniously integrated their internet browser with Windows, and the result is many people don’t know there is more than one way to look at the internet.

If you are like millions of internet users, you think the only way to get online is to click that blue “e” icon. It’s possible you heard someone talk about Firefox at some point, but it’s intimidating to go online and download something and allow it to install itself on your computer and set itself to “default browser.” What guarantee do you have that it won’t mess everything up?

Unfortunately, what you may not have fully understood is that looking at the internet through Internet Explorer (the program that opens when you click the blue “e”) was like looking at the world through someone else’s glasses. Blurry, slow, sloppy and possibly dangerous, the only reason IE has survived this long is most people didn’t know they could simply download a free (much better) replacement, such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera.

But there is some good news in all of this. Microsoft has finally cleaned up its act and released a browser that is not leagues behind the competition. If replacing the software that came with Windows is intimidating for you, you need no longer suffer!

With the release of IE 9, people like me who build websites for a living see a glimmer of hope that we won’t have to spend many extra hours on every site we build just to get it to work in IE. But for us to really be free of supporting old versions, the majority of people online need to upgrade. So, make the internet a better place, and click here to download IE 9 now.

Or, learn more about your browser here.

P.S. – If you already upgraded or don’t use IE, thank you.

Who Needs a Phone Anymore?

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:48:00 +0000

I am one of those people who has never actually had a phone service in my own name. Sure, there was a land-line in my parent’s house when I was growing up, and there was a phone in my dorm, but since my junior year in college the only way to reach me in real-time has been to call my cell-phone.

As a result, my cell-phone and I have had a long, intense love/hate relationship. I rely on my phone, but I resent the fact that it is easy to misplace and prone to running out of batteries. I also seem to have a particular knack for leaving it far from myself. Through some unknown law of physics, whenever my phone rings it is not on the same floor as I am. Thus every time someone calls me I must risk a mad dash up or down the stairs if I want to answer. That is, until recently.

Fortunately, I live in the age of Google. I have blogged about using Google Voice before, but lately Google has released yet another awesome free feature that has had a direct, positive impact on my daily life. Now, I can link my Google Voice number with my Gmail account and connect the two via Google Talk. This means when someone calls my Google Voice number, my cell phone rings from its muffled location somewhere on the other side of the house, but so does my browser. Instead of running for the phone, I simply click a little button at the bottom of my screen that says “answer,” and I am connected to the caller. I hear their voice through my computer speakers and they hear mine through my web-cam mic. They don’t know I’m not on a real phone, but I can click around easily online during our conversation without getting a crick in my neck.

Making calls is just as easy. Instead of dialing a number, I just go to Google Voice and click a contact. Again, Gmail connects me via my browser.

Someday I hope Google will integrate their Voice and GMail interfaces entirely, so I can either hit “reply” to an email to write someone back or click “call” and be connected to that person without even having to look up their number. In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy not having to run up and down the stairs quite so frequently.

What Does Copy Have To Do With Gerbils?

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:08:00 +0000

It's a good question, and the answer is... nothing. However, I've often been tripped up by a language barrier with my clients when it comes to copy. It is hard for people who don't build a lot of websites to understand how they should send me the information that needs to appear on their pages. I've found myself writing long, dull emails on the subject far more frequently than I would like.

Enter "The Gerbil Whisperer" - my fake website created solely to help my clients understand how to organize and arrange the information for their website. It's online complete with it's own sample copy document. Now anyone can compare what a site's copy looks like versus the way the site looks once it's online. So exciting!

Ok, well maybe it's not really all that exciting, but hopefully it's educational and at least a little bit entertaining.
(For the record, I have never owned or trained a gerbil.)

Five Simple (and Free!) Ways to Increase Your Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:03:00 +0000

So let's say you have this lovely website but no one sees it. What do you do? Well, you could hire a professional to drive traffic your way. But this can get expensive and if you're budget is tight, might not be an option.

Luckily, you are not powerless. There are a number of ways you can easily impact the number of people that visit your site without the help of a web-developer or SEO company, and they're all free!

Create local business listings on Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
Include your web address as part of your email signature. People will often follow the link back to your site.
Find blogs and forums that relate to what you do. Post (relevant) comments and include a link back to your site.
Search for free web directories in your geographical area or area of expertise and create listings for yourself.
Create ads on free classifieds sites like USFreeAds.com.

Things to keep in mind while trying to increase your traffic:

More is not always better! If you find a good forum, don't annoy everyone there by commenting on every single post. Only reply when you have real insight into a question.
A lot of these strategies are on the tedious side, (I didn't say these would be free and fun) but the web is big. It takes a lot of effort to make an impact. Persevere and you'll see results.
Don't do it all at once. Spread your efforts over a few weeks or months. Once you've done all of the above, regularly update your listings and ads so they don't become irrelevant.

Do I Need to be on Facebook, Twitter AND LinkedIn?

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:34:00 +0000

I tend to build websites for people who aren't very comfortable with the web. I often function in a role some describe as an "independent internet adviser." I consider it part of my job to assess how my client will interact with their website in the long run and include or avoid certain functions accordingly.

Because let's face it, we all have limited time to put into developing our web-presence. I'm online for many hours a day, every day, but my own blog suffers neglect. I am well aware that an effective blog should be updated daily, but when I have a full list of clients it's hard to stop working to write something.

And this is the exact problem most of my clients encounter as well. They are good at what they do, whether that's acupuncture, dance, framing, or making art. Most of them are not so great at making the rounds on various websites to keep their social networking presence relevant.

So here's my answer to people who don't live and breath the web: Pick One. It's better to have an active Facebook page and nothing on Twitter and LinkedIn than three languishing profiles spread across three different social networking sites.

If you have a blog, write in it. If you're not writing in it, delete it. It's better to have a beautiful static website that doesn't reveal how rarely you're online than all sorts of dynamic content that's not, well, dynamic...

Pining for Paper

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:42:00 +0000

Lately my clientele has been growing rapidly. Extending past my usual suspects means I’ve been working more in print than usual. Print is a particularly funny digital medium for me given that I have a classical fine-arts education in traditional printmaking (an entirely different method of putting image to paper that involves a lot of complex presses, dirty fingers, and caustic chemicals). Digital print development is rather a tamer affair, but none of the basic concerns are any different. Composition is still key, and ensuring consistent quality across a run matters no less.

These recent jobs have reminded me how much I love paper. Don’t get me wrong – the screen is also a wonderful medium. I love the fact that you can put something online and everyone can see what you’ve made in a heartbeat. On the other hand I miss the texture and the smell of a good cotton rag. When you make a print on paper you know exactly the sort of visual and tactile impression it will make on its viewers. You don’t have to worry about browser discrepancies, screen resolution, color adjustment, or operating systems.
And yet, a print only lasts as long as its paper. Cheap materials won’t last more than a handful of years. There was a time when I could flip through a stack of sheets in the studio and identify different weights, grains, and brands of paper just by touch. My years in framing have also rendered me capable of discerning mat-board quality at a glance. Both the printmaking and the framing worlds revolve around the unwinnable battle against acid and the eventual breakdown of all organic matter.

The print jobs I’m working on now aren’t destined for immortality. They are business cards and rack cards and brochures, slated to be handed out as a vehicle for information. Their physicality doesn’t make them fine art, whereas several of the websites I’m building right now contain truly beautiful material that might qualify. It is true that as long as a digital file is stored on a drive plugged into a monitor and attached to power, anyone could see how each project looked the day it was made. Is that longevity? Time will tell.

Plogger

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:42:00 +0000

I build a lot of websites for artists, and a lot of these artists need an easy way to create and maintain online portfolios. In most cases they don't have the budget to hire me to set them up with a hand-built gallery, and flash options out there are cumbersome and limiting. So, I've been experimenting with different gallery apps that function using MySQL databases. A few weeks ago I came across Plogger, and I must say I'm completely taken with what it can do.

Not only is Plogger easy to use, it is easy to configure. It runs on php, the CSS style-sheets are simple to access and modify, and integrating the final result into a website is so effortless its hard to believe. I keep thinking I'm going to find the fatal flaw, but so far I've been able to customize it both visually and as far as how it functions to meet the needs of my clients.

Even though I only found it a few weeks ago, I've installed it four times already (on three different hosting platforms, with equal ease in each case, no less), once for myself to give it a test run, and three times for clients. Best of all, once it is up and running it is so graceful and user-friendly that my clients can log into the application's control panel (installed right on their own website) and upload, tag, arrange and modify their portfolio's themselves. (here's a sneak-preview of Plogger running on an in-progress site for one of my clients)

So, I just want to say thank you Plogger, for making the web a cooler place!

Bypassing Flash

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:11:00 +0000

I've never been fond of Flash. Sure, I'll use it here and there if it is the best solution for a particular challenge, but the number of times I've actually found there is no better way to present information or images online is extremely low. I have never agreed to build a full Flash website for a client (though I built a couple for myself just to make sure I was refusing to do it because I chose not to, not because I couldn't) because I think it is cumbersome both in production and execution. In the instances where I've had a potential client that just couldn't live without a full Flash website, I've referred them elsewhere.

My complaints with Flash have been pretty simple. I believe good design should come across more as a feeling of satisfaction in the user than a explosion of sensory input that is almost always completely unrelated the the content of the site. Flash doesn't just annoy me as a designer, it annoys me as a consumer.

Then there are accessibility problems. Although a lot of surveys say nearly everyone on the internet can see Flash, apparently these don't poll anyone in a university, a hospital, or anywhere there are droves of sightly out-of-date computers that users cannot upgrade themselves. Some of my clients still use IE6 at their work places.

So, I have been secretly pleased about Apple's refusal to install flash on the iPhone and iPad. Now, with html5 becoming more mainstream every day and supporting video (the only true advantage Flash ever had), I have my fingers crossed. If the trend can flip quietly back to the way I prefer to work anyway, I'll count both my clients and myself lucky.

Fire Against Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:12:00 +0000

I know Google is trying to take over the world. The problem is, it's doing it in such a friendly, convenient fashion. Just yesterday I said to my husband, "I wish the people who run Google could run the country, too. They just seem to have a great grasp on priorities, adapting for the future in advance, and allocating funds." Then I realized Google taking over the government is sort of what some conspiracy theorists are worried about.

I, for one, do not actually believe Google is anything but a really great company that has been able to stay interested in innovation even after succeeding fabulously in one narrow field. Clearly, their conflicts with China only further illustrate that Google stands for free speech and free access to information. Every oppressive government in the world seeks to control and suppress information, not distribute every last shred to the masses.

Google has been infiltrating the way I store and organize my personal information for years. Gmail took over my email because I found my own hosting servers were less reliable and less convenient than Google's. Google Voice took over my phone because I loved the way I could read transcripts of messages instead of having to listen to them, and click a number to call back instead of dial a phone.

Now, finally, I have abandoned one of my first great software loves. I've tried many-a-browser over the years. IE is invasive and horrid, Safari is a bit buggy in a windows install, Opera has always felt clunky and behind-the-times. Where I found all others lacking, Firefox was my go-to program for years.

But yesterday, even Firefox fell from its platform of glory after repeated errors during simple tasks like watching videos on uploading photos. So, after years of faithful solidarity, I unchecked the little box that says "make Firefox your default browser." I did this to switch to Google Chrome.

I've actually been using the two browsers side-by-side for about a year, and over the last few months in particular, I couldn't help but notice that Chrome is faster. Significantly faster in both start-up and surfing. Recently, Chrome opened the doors to add-ons, the one area in which it still lagged well behind Firefox. With the option for an ad-blocker on Chrome as well as an automatic, built-in bookmarks synchronizer, I'm sold. I made the switch. It may not be too late - Firefox is still in second-place, but it's going to have to speed up and slim down to make a come-back.

Going Dada

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:51:00 +0000

If you've ever tried to install a CGI script (and you're the sort of person who doesn't do so often) you know getting things up and running is usually the opposite of easy. Most of the websites I work on don't require me to be super script-savvy, but I have been known to wade into the cgi-bin every now and then and make small messes.

Lately I've been sending out more e-newsletters for clients. While this is great in many respects, one central problem for me as someone who works on a lot of different websites is inevitably each client has a different host and each host has a different list-serv solution. They all accept or reject HTML tags in different ways, they all go through a different subscribe/unsubscribe process. I was wasting valuable time trying to familiarize myself with each individual system.

Enter Dada Mail. I stumbled across their site today after I started a quest for a free, universal script I could install painlessly on anyone's server. To be honest, I sort of thought I would not find what I was looking for. But I did, and it is wonderful. With only minimal installation hiccups (all of which were my fault and so will hopefully not be repeated the next go-round), I got Dada Mail up and running in a single afternoon, complete with custom subscribe and unsubscribe pages that are fully integrated into the website the newsletter goes with.

I'm so happy with this program, I'm almost giddy. It will practically eradicate my new newsletter set-up process and make the mailings themselves a lot easier as well. It never ceases to amaze me what is out there, for free. Thanks Dada!

Get the Merch

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 03:06:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce the opportunity you have all be waiting for has finally arrived. The BWS logo may now be seen on Zazzle, adorning all sorts of must-have items.

So far 2010 has been busy, with lots of new projects started and older ones expanded. I've posted a few new projects on my portfolio page.

I've also done a lot of updating on Q7 lately. So if you're in need of cycling gear, you can head over to their neck of the woods.

Another Year, Another Project

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:56:00 +0000

We here at the Brown Wing Studio are happy to announce our expansion! We have just launched our publishing division. We intend to produce a small number of high-quality books a year. I myself will provide my graphic-design and text-formatting skills, (not to mention maintaining the website) and am teaming up with others to read, edit and promote our publications.

So, if you have a completed novel that needs to hit the market, send it our way.

More information at brownwingpress.com.

In the Background

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:10:00 +0000

As someone who got into building websites primarily because of a background in art and a certain interest in computers, I tend to work on the visual end of things. Of course, getting a page to look right requires a certain amount of knowledge of code, and over the years, my understanding of CSS and HTML have expanded fastest during work on projects that are a challenge - mainly when I want a look or feel that doesn't come easily. I've found with a little creativity and willingness to make a lot of mistakes, I can almost always get things to look the way I want them to.

But that's just the cosmetic side of things. I don't have nearly as much experience with websites that have a lot going on behind the scenes. Sure, I can build a form and install various extensions on servers. I can create a database and set up a web app to work with the database. That is, I can do all this if nothing goes wrong.

Last week I found myself in a situation involving MySQL, a database and a table that wasn't working right. Empowered by my many years of working in programs with an undo button, I deleted the offending table in phpMyAdmin and found the problem solved. Sort of. Except then I needed to put the table back with corrected data and I found, much to my chagrin, that I did not know the necessary parameters to do so.

The next week found me spending a lot of time on forums, help pages and google, searching frantically for the information I needed (and discovering the helpful advice to backup databases frequently a little too late). Finally, I found the parameters, and after a bit more scrambling, I trial-and-errored my way into a install script. PhpMyAdmin created the table. I returned to the administration end of the website and discovered, much to my relief, that the fix had worked.

And so, the whole story has a happy ending. I am happy. My client is happy. And to top it all off I suddenly know a whole lot more about databases and MySQL. Still, I think I'll stick to playing on the familiar front end of things for a while now.

All Seven

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:00:00 +0000

A lot of people ask me if I use a mac. The assumption is not uncommon - that people who know a lot about computers and work with them in a design capacity steer clear of PC's. This is not the case for me, however. I blame it mainly on my upbringing and the fact that I cut my technological teeth on windows 3.1. By the time Macs were on the market, I was so thoroughly versed in Windows that it didn't seem worth the huge step backwards it would take to change.

However, I must admit the last few years have been a tad trying for the discerning Windows user. After a few brief forays into learning about Vista, I eradicated it off my new computer and reinstalled XP. Since then I've been reading with a little bit of longing about the new releases of Leopard. My brother went Mac many years ago, and I found myself wondering if I was holding out for nothing.

However, I spent the last few weeks installing Windows 7 on all my computers and I must say it was worth the wait. It even runs well on my under-speced Mini.

Now lets just hope Microsoft can keep up the good work.

On Air

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:19:00 +0000

Today, Brown Wing Studio became a corporate sponsor of Iowa Public Radio. I went to their offices in town, got a tour of the station and learned a few things about how radio programs are produced and broadcast. It was a little strange, actually, to encounter the physical source of some of the voices I hear on a daily basis. Public radio is one of those things that was a pervasive part of my life from such an early age that it took me until I was in my twenties to forget the trauma of sitting in the car with my parents and having to listen to people talk instead of enjoying music like most everyone else I knew.

Since then I've matured a bit and have found myself returning to talk radio. When I listen, I hear the underwriting spots and often they reference small businesses in my area. In some cases I even know the business owners. Up until this point in developing my business, I've been wary of advertising, but getting out on the air on an AM frequency seems the perfect way to both spread the word about what I can do for people, and support something I have come to rely on.

And here is a recording of the spot!

Thirty Plus

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:21:00 +0000

Today, I added a new site to my Dreamweaver Site Manager. This is something I do pretty often, but it struck me I've done it a lot lately. This made me wonder how many sites I've actually built, total, up to this point.

So, I scrolled through my list of sites and I was actually a little floored at how long it is. Then I started counting - skipping little tiny projects for family members, etc.. By the time I got to the bottom, I'd topped thirty. That means I, personally, have constructed and launched over thirty professional websites. And that doesn't count graphic projects - books, leaflets, postcards, business cards, and other small projects. It also doesn't include my own projects. I've probably built myself at least twenty websites over the years. Maybe even more.

What's my point? I guess it's just interesting how time passes and things pile up. I remember buying vitzy.com - my very first, very own domain. I was in England, in the computer lab at the University of Wales, Swansea and unrelentingly homesick and broke. Although it seemed extravagant, I bought the domain name and set up hosting for £14. My software-savvy then-boyfriend mailed me a copy of Dreamweaver and I got started. I didn't know I was taking my first step down the path that would lead to my career.

Google Voice

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:01:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I added my name to a waiting list in hopes of receiving an invite to Google Voice. I've been pining for a Google Voice account ever since Slate published an article by Farhad Manjoo about the new service a few months ago. So, when I finally got the "you've been invited" email in my inbox, I was a little excited.

I went through the sign-up process. As with most things Google, it was quick and painless. Then I got to the fun part.

Google Voice has all sorts of options. I can put a widget on my website that will allow people to call me by clicking a button and entering their number. Then their phone will ring, they will answer, and their phone will connect to my phone.

Beyond that, I can set up custom voice-mail options depending on who's calling, customize what my phone says when someone calls me through my Google Voice number and probably do a number of things I have not yet discovered. For now I'm particularly happy to have the flexibility of easily choosing when to forward my business calls to my cell and when to send them to a voice-mail service that will convert them to text and email them to me.

So, if you've noticed the new phone number around the website, Google Voice is why.

Digitizing Tape

noreply@blogger.com (Brown Wing Studio) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:22:00 +0000

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked, "Hey, could you turn an old VHS tape into a DVD?"

I said, "I could try."

About a year ago, this same friend gave me a cassette tape of his old band's most successful album, which I digitized, turned into a CD and gave back to him because it seemed like a fun thing to do. However, audio is not my strong point, and video is something I've fiddled with only minimally, but I figured it never hurts to try. I told him I'd do my best, he gave me the tape and I commenced to read a lot of articles and online forum-discussions. I have a decent video card and my primary CPU is quite robust, but reading some of these articles made me think I didn't have the correct jacks for video. I read and poked and explored some more and finally figured out that many of these help articles were in themselves outdated because plenty of places have started making wonderful little devices that plug into all the various ports on a VCR and combine them into a standard USB plug. I read a lot of reviews, purchased an adapter, absconded with my husband's old VCR, wiped it clean of dust, took it to my office and plugged it into my computer. The device worked perfectly the first time. I pushed play and video streamed on my monitor. I pressed record and the video on the screen saved itself on my hard drive.

I was thrilled. These sorts of tasks are never that easy. I uploaded the video to my google account and emailed the link to my friend. He was thrilled too, and before long he'd posted it on facebook.

So, as ever, a side-project has turned out to be a useful means of pushing me to learn and step out of my comfort zone. And now I can add home-video transfer to DVD to my list of skills.