After about 5 years of doing web design and seo, I realized that following the design work and the onset of initial seo, the work was really just starting.

To effectively market one’s self online, you have to commit to long-term, as in forever, and for lack of a better term, SEO.

My work in web design is expensive, no doubt. But the real nose bleed comes from the SEO work. I’m not going to get into the metrics here, you can google the nasty details for yourself, but suffice it to say keeping up with the Joneses online, has never been more expensive … for the client and the IT guy.

I can remember starting out in web design years ago thinking, I got this. Now, I’m wondering if I won’t be intellectually bankrupt by the first of the year. Vuetify, Plumber, Social Share Kit, Octobox, Petal, Sassmagic, Material Components, Mini.css, Foundation, Adaptive Design … oh yeah, I got this! And that’s just the web design stuff, not to mention the staggering amount of SEO materials hurled at you on a daily basis.

I’m awesome at what I do. Just take a look at my portfolio. However, I can say without doubt that I now know very little, after all these years, of the really good available knowledge base existing on anything tech. How sad.

Knowing these skill-sets comes with a premium for your clients. No client in their right mind would want to tangle with anything tech these days. Only problem is … everyone needs me, but no one wants to pay me!

I endeavor to persevere.

Today I’m going to use the keyword “WordPress SEO”, in hopes the same thing will happen! This time I actually have something pretty important to say about the subject. It’s no secret of course however, no one really cares to talk about it, as it then gets ranked and Google takes action.

Just yesterday I read an article about how a couple of “dudes” did the A.I. thing with the Google algorithms and decided to release the results. Great … now Google will take action and change everything again to keep us on our heals.

On the “heals” of that came a “Search Engine Land” post about the power of Good Relevant Content and Good Honest Back-links … big surprise! However, don’t look to harness that power with a WordPress Blog … no can do!

I’ve outlasted everyone that I know Blogging. Ture, I’ve abandoned most of my Blogs, but I’m here today! And I’ve worked at Great Content and Great Back-links and ………… nothing!!!!!!

If you look for “Make Money Blogging”, there I am at 1,941,338th position! How cool is that??? Just surf the relevant links for the next 15 years and you’ll find me … trust me! Needless to say, I ain’t making money Blogging!

It’s only when I rant that I rank with a WordPress Blog!

Someone who I can’t even remember now paid me a hundred bucks to make up some cheesie website totally based on HTML. I did what I do and … damn … the thing ranked. W…T…F… ??????

I tried again and I ranked again … I tried again and again and I ranked again and again! Well color me happy! After 10 years of bashing my keywords against a wall with WordPress … I’m now able to rank … with HTML!

Today I just got through reading a post by “Trond Lyngbø” titled “10 WordPress SEO Questions That Took Me 10 Years To Answer!” over at “Search Engine Land”. At the very bottom of question number 6 there it is … “My own experience suggests that, for a blog, it is best for SEO when you install WordPress in a subfolder, like yourcompany.com/blog.”

Well … color me burned !!!

So after a couple of years I started to write about technical subjects instead of “Keyword” popular issues. The reason for the switch was I was already doing a great deal of technical writing, but only for myself, squirreled away in so many “Word” documents, so that I might refer back to my notes when I encountered a similar issue I had already faced in previous work.

Lacking the time to compose popular posts for pennies on the dollar, I decided to release some of my notes to fill in the gaps of my blogs and I’ve been employing this type of technique to my writing ever since. Less pennies on the dollar!

However, I’ve moved from tech issues to what you would term commentary for lack of a better term. Mostly, because what tech issues I was writing about would change so entirely, so quickly as to render what I had written useless to most anyone including myself. Lesser pennies on the dollar!!!

Most of my writing is pretty strange ( i ) must admit. This post is no different. So unless you are actually part of the UX/UI crowd, it might be hard to grasp, especially for my clients.

I would imagine that most of my readers fall in two categories; clients, and IT folks. This post is really for the latter, you’re going to love this one …

I was working on a quick client request to insert visual links to his vendors when I was ambushed by a rouge group of CSS attributes masquerading as “HTML Inline Styling“.

Consider the following code:

<!– Grid List –><!–START VENDORS–>
<div class=”grid-list”>
<div class=”row margin-none”>
<!– Grid Col –>
<div class=”col-lg-3 col-md-4 col-sm-6 col-xs-12 padding-none“>
<!– Grid Box –>
<div class=”grid-box”>
<a href=”#”><img src=”images/client-1.png” class=”img-full” alt=”Client Name”></a>
</div>
<!– Grid Box End –>
</div>
<!– Grid Col End –>

For those in the know, what you are looking at is part of the “bootstrap framework“. Notice in the fifth line at the end of that line, the words “padding-none” highlighted in bold.

As I did not write this section of code I never caught the “padding-none” as a “CLASS”. And yes, I can read, however, I’ve been trained to SEE it as “HTML Inline Styling”.

Sorting through nearly 7000 lines of Bootstrap CSS is not my idea of a high time. However, I had to find out why in the world my CSS styling for my paddings was having no effect … and it all started with the nearly 7000 lines of Bootstrap CSS in “MIN” compressed formatting no less. What’s worse I actually wanted the paddings set to none!

Nearly ten hours and a couple of different sit downs later, I finally realized “padding-none” was being used as a “CLASS” and not an “INLINE STYLE”.

Oh shit … I’ve never seen that done ever, anyway, anyhow in all my years and millions of lines of code that I have worked with. WTF … talk about bad form!!!

If the “CLASS” had been labeled “padding-special” or “padding-specific” or something along those lines I would have immediately picked it up as a “CLASS” and not an “INLINE STYLE” attribute.

I guess that’s why they have two pilots in the cockpit so that they can work as a team to spot potential problems. That said; it’s a good thing I wasn’t flying the plane!!!

School for potential full stack developers is really a waste of resources, mainly the wear and tear on your auto and a loss of your time with all that goes on around your schooling. If you pursue schooling, you will learn great things when you are actually in the classroom … it’s just that everything you will have learned will have changed by the time you hit the market with your skills.

You can do just as well with your own devices if you are so inclined. Start out designing WordPress themes and you are well on your way. Father Google will provide the rest … maybe … not!!!

When I actually started in earnest with web design … and I’m trying to think when that was, maybe back around 2008. I was doing my own sites for myself earlier than that; whatever. I could somewhat easily find what I needed when I consulted the wizard behind the curtain … Father Google!

Some things were indeed obscure, but for the most part it was pretty straight forward. The more advanced my skill set, the harder it became. Fast forward to today and Father Google has lost his mind!

You can still find what it is that you are looking for or need, however, you will lose your own mind trying.

Providing Father Google with the Keyword “learn full stack web development online” and you get 1,840,000 results, give or take a couple or three results. Only problem, most of it is pretty bad!

It would take a 1000 years to sort through all the garbage, and it is only getting worse as the bad information stacks on top of itself. Talk about the “needle in the hay stack”! I mean how many different ways can “background-size:cover;” or “background-size:contain;” be explained? How bout 348,000,000 ways … WTF!

OMG, you just can’t think this stuff up … I dare you to even try!

I’m not talking a completed site with issues; I’m just talking lining-up the background for design. I thought I was going to pass out I was so dizzy from sitting. I used every sort of code known to man and no matter the effort it would appear as if the site, or background as it were, was designed by a 3 year old.

No matter, I was able to work out the details with some algebraic quantum percentages worked out for me by the good folks over at “Cern”. Looks GREAT!!!

When I first started to design with HTML 4.01, there were issues with “Explorer”. I got to a point in my designs where I just stop designing around Explorer, mainly because of the cost. There were a few clients that would pay the premium, but by and large I was able to side-step the issues without a drama storm from anyone.

However, now with all the different mobile devices with which to view web content, the issues are worse than ever. Nothing renders correctly! Even if you go with a bare-bones framework such as “Bootstrap”, you wind-up with 10,000 lines of CSS AND ISSUES!

I often see incredible work in the wilds of the web, that when explored reveals thousands and thousands of lines of HTML, CSS, PHP and JAVASCRIPT. There is no way anyone built these sites … maybe a staff of many, but no one! Free for download no less … it’s enough to make your hair hurt.

These works which look great and render perfectly, won’t index well, they are too code heavy, unless of course your brand is already established. However, going with just the “running-gear” is fading as an option along with your ability to make an individual difference. That is unless you are within a cast of thousands. What a shame …

Client (Mary), desire was to have not only a website announcing her wedding and all the details, but a written & visual record of her honeymoon and a transfer to a “Facebook” style personal record on married life going forward.

Site was a one page “Flexbox” design with a custom designed Wedding Planner on the backend.

The site was taken down a half-hour before the event for a live stream of the actual wedding service.

I was looking at some cutting edge coding videos that were demonstrating how to code responsiveness into all the options of an Admin Panel so that you can not only work on a 65 inch Samsung Smart TV, but a Samsung flip phone as well.

All of a sudden the site disappeared from the galaxy like some rouge PHP script on the fritz. I kid you not; my host reached up to the top of the index.html file and deleted the <!DOCTYPE html> and the site came back up. As he was working in Chrome,  one word came to mind … PAR!

When I started out designing and building Websites, I worked exclusively with “FrontPage” … for one day! What a mess! I gave “Bluefish” and “KompoZer” a try for another day or two and then started writing hard code with “Gedit”, the “Gnome” text editor. After a couple of years I stumbled on “Sublimetext”, and I’ve never looked back.

I’ve toyed with some frameworks to facilitate speed, and mostly settled on “Bootstrap”. I had long ago given up on any type of CMS, as cool as they may all be. Now I’ve given up on Bootstrap, as it has become larger and more complex.

I’m now back to just hard coding in “HTML5″ & “CSS3″ as this is truly the state of the art! Or so I thought … until I saw how you have to “sometimes” delete the very first line of code to get your Website to display cross platform. Man, you can’t think this stuff up, I dare you to even try!

However, I have finally been cornered by a client who is looking to earn a little extra income online without all the Internet Marketing challenge, ( it was a full year before I earned my first dollar, so I get it ).

I’ve been ask to cut through all the fog and give some clear ideas as to how and where to earn a few bucks online working with others.
That’s not really my area of expertise as my interest is mostly focused on direct response marketing, however, I do have a few ideas!

If I had to start today, earn tomorrow, and cash the check at the end of the week, I would go with signing up with several of the tech freelance sites such as Elance or ODesk. For those of you that are technically challenged, don’t lose faith, there is hope for you.

Below you will find several websites where you can sign-up and work tomorrow. I can’t vouch for any of these sites as I earn my dollars in other ways, but over the years I have come into contact with others who recommend these sites, as well as having done a little research that provides me with a spot of common knowledge so that I might be able to competently write about such issues. Here’s hoping you find my links useful!

The Tech Stuff:

• • Elance
• • Odesk/Upwork
• • WordPress.net
• • WpHired.com
• • Guru.com
• • Freelancer.com
• • iFreelance.com
• • Project4Hire.com
• • ProgrammerMeetDesigner.com
• • CyberCoders.com
• • FreelanceWebMarket.com
• • CrowdSpring.com
• • SmashingJobs
• • SimplyHired
• • ProBlogger

The Not So Tech Stuff:

• • FlexJobs
• • Xerox
• • United Health Group
• • Dell
• • Aetna
• • American Express
• • First Data
• • Humana
• • Westat
• • K12
• • ADP
• • Overland Solutions Inc.
• • CyberCoders
• • U.S. Department of Transportation
• • SAP
• • PayJunction
• • Connections Academy
• • Apple
• • IBM
• • HD Supply
• • Salesforce.com
• • Western Governors University
• • CACI International
• • About.com
• • McKesson Corporation
• • Aon
• • WellPoint
• • Forest Laboratories
• • Patch
• • Walden University
• • Pitney Bowes
• • Adobe Systems
• • Coventry Health Care
• • Clarity Consultants
• • Kenexa
• • General Electric – GE
• • Symantec
• • Microsoft
• • Thomson Reuters
• • Appen ButlerHill
• • Teradata Corporation
• • Computer Sciences Corporation – CSC
• • PAREXEL
• • BroadSpire
• • Red Hat
• • Healthfirst
• • Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc.
• • Infor
• • Optum
• • Precyse Solutions
• • Kaplan
• • Hartford Financial Services Group
• • Nuance
• • PricewaterhouseCoopers
• • CVS Caremark
• • AmerisourceBergen Corporation
• • American Public University System – APUS
• • Ecolab
• • Autodesk
• • Sodexo
• • Kronos Incorporated
• • Fiserv
• • ICON
• • Mozilla
• • American Support
• • Canonical
• • BCD Travel
• • Mom Corps
• • Quintiles
• • Welcome Wagon
• • FlexProfessionals, LLC
• • Pearson Education
• • Zimmer
• • University of Maryland University College
• • Kelly Services
• • TEKsystems
• • CareFusion
• • Novartis
• • Unisys
• • Dignity Health
• • Enterprise Contact Center
• • ICF International Inc.
• • AIG
• • Cargill
• • Asurion
• • Lockheed Martin
• • SunAmerica Financial Group
• • VMware
• • Alere
• • Express Scripts
• • Health Net
• • Nielsen
• • Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company – VALIC
• • American Heart Association
• • Bausch & Lomb
• • Grand Canyon University
• • SumTotal Systems
• • Pacific Interpreters
• • Parallon
• • ACI Group
• • Razorfish

I really wasn’t interested in what was being sold, however, I did scan the comments section that was filled with one liners about the perceived $30,000 dollar value being sold for $1995.00 with a gift of an iPad. One comment mentioning that they should hang-on to the iPad and sell him the product for $995.00 and then he would re-sell the thing for $30,000 dollars …… this is a name that most would recognize.

I have stated many times that Internet Marketing is not for the faint of heart. And while there are still a scattered few that come and go seeking to get rich quick, most are in tune now, to the fact that you are not going to be able to just bend-down and scoop-up a fortune from their virtual American River.

Yet the old school persists in pushing on to sell hoards of whatever it is that takes their interest at any given moment, having mastered a million before noon and 83.151 million in the first 24 hours. Just to see if they can do it, and what can be panned from the effort.

People are growing weary of the efforts of the very best of the best, having shunned Internet Marketing for “SALES” Online. Kinda sad really!

While this leaves an opportunity for the true Internet Marketer, most are going to have to come to grips with the realty that specializing in one market is the key to the future. The day of selling insurance through “Field & Stream” are gone.