theWHIR.com Blogs - Paul Hirsch

Negotiating the Value of Your Services

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:50:54 -0500

By Paul Hirsch Earlier today, a server administrator friend of mine shared a quick gripe about a potential client for whom he quoted $150 to perform some necessary server management. He was figuring on a couple hours of work, and came up with a fair price for everything he was going to handle, a downright steal of a price if you know just how good he is at what he does (and I do!). The potential client came back to him and let him know another administration team quoted them $75. My friend told the potential client that if he was that concerned about the price, he should go ahead and work with the other company, but he couldn't guarantee that his price for the work would remain the same if he had to clean up after someone else too. This got me thinking about how we, as Web professonals, prove our value. I understand clients wanting to spend less, particularly in today's tenuous economy. But at some point, you have to ask yourself whether you're really doing yourself any favors putting so much stock in price like this. Would you walk into a Lexus dealership, price out a $40,000 car and then complain because Toyota was willing to sell you a car for $20,000? Certainly Lexus would tell you very calmly that you probably belonged in a Toyota, and should go down the street and purchase one.

Scaling Technology On-The-Fly

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:21:28 -0500

By Paul Hirsch Tuesday was an historic day in the U.S., the day President Obama assumed the duties of the Oval Office. Most of us set aside everything and tuned in as Barack Obama was sworn into office, thinking little of our work lives and professional responsibilities. However, a few people spent that time attempting to support an insane surge in Web traffic, and there were casualties! The New York Times reported on this issue in its article Online Video of Inauguration Sets Records. Many viewers were denied access to Web streams due to systems overload, and the numbers clearly indicate why. During a nine hour period of time, CNN provided more than 21.3 million video streams, at one time supporting 1.3 million concurrent connections. Akamai's not crying any tears for CNN; they fed seven million+ concurrent streams, which they report is a record day. As you can see in the article, there were more than a few problems associated with these traffic levels.

The End of an Era

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:32:00 -0500

By Paul Hirsch Hello everyone! After a well deserved break, I'm back and blogging once again. Ok, so it wasn't a break so much as it was a whole heck of a lot of work squeezed between three holidays, but you get the point. Unfortunately, this post comes in the wake of a tragedy of sorts. It is with great sadness that I pass along a piece of news that will make many a seasoned Web developer weep. Last week, Tom Drapeau, a former principal software engineer and now the director of Propeller Social News for AOL, Announced the end of life for Netscape Navigator in his blog.

There is no place for manners in customer service

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:18:00 -0500

By Paul Hirsch That's right - you heard me. If you want a truly effective customer service organization, ideally, you should not base any portion of your hiring or training on the your (potential) employees' manners. Now, in order to get you to drink my Kool-Aid, you need to understand and agree with my definition of manners. For the purposes of this post, we're going to consider definition 2b of Dictionary.com, which I believe is the most applicable definition to the customer service environment: "ways of behaving with reference to polite standards; social comportment."

Creative Web SaaSplication

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:21:00 -0500

By Paul Hirsch With all the recent discussion surrounding SaaS, I thought this would be a perfect time to highlight a creative use of Web application technology that fits squarely into the SaaS definition without competing with the traditional software licensing model. Google is great. Why? Because love 'em or hate 'em, they give us something new to talk about almost every day, and that makes a blogger happy! It's latest innovation is a natural extension of a service it has been perfecting for a while now.

Google goes WHAM with the right hand!

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 12:56:00 -0400

By Paul Hirsch Wait for it...........I told you so! Google has made a major algorithm tweak, and a whole lot of Webmasters are seeing red over it. Page Rank is dropping all over the place, in places people were certain it would stay strong, most notably, directories. Now, in my WHIR blog offering regarding SEO last December, I made a statement about purchasing links and link farms, specifically, it was probably not a good idea, and the results would be uncertain.

Mass emailing: don't do it if you don't know how

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:13:00 -0400

By Paul Hirsch Yesterday, I received an email from the director of marketing and sales at one of the local Marriot Hotels in Northeast Ohio. He was sending me a reminder that the hotel was about to celebrate its grand opening, and my presence at the function would be appreciated. Problem 1) The email arrived at my private email address, an address people only get if they have ongoing business relations with me and I know them and trust them. It's an address that hasn't received a single piece of direct spam since I created it more than two years ago.

A governing body for hosts?

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:06:00 -0400

By Paul Hirsch I know I promised a couple open letters in my next posts, but those are going to have to wait. I have a question/topic of much greater importance to me and the industry as a whole. Almost a year ago, I blogged about the formation of a hosting association, a noble endeavor for which I was witness to both the waxing and waning of inertia that went into and eventually left the project. I'm sure it came as no surprise that the effort was being made; apparently it's been made more than a few times in the past. It's probably no surprise the efforts came up short. So far, the formation of a comprehensive hosting organization has a 0% success rate.

Best Wishes, Isabel Wang

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:17:00 -0400

By Paul Hirsch From IsabelWang.com: In August 2007, I realized I'm marching in place too. I've written a zillion blog posts about the need for commodity hosters to broaden their horizons; shouldn't I as well? So I'm taking some time off to find the next big thing. If you've got ideas, you can reach me at...,Isabel, if indeed this is your final decision, thank you for everything you've given the hosting industry over the years. You will be greatly missed!

Tips and tricks to overcome everyday design issues

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:58:00 -0400

By Paul Hirsch In a grand departure from most of my blog posts, this one is not going to contain scathing commentary, strong opinions or poetic wit (some might argue none of my blog posts contain the third). Recently, I had two articles brought to my attention that nicely cover some of the common traps and pitfalls plaguing Web designers daily. We're at a point in Internet development where techniques for overcoming coding and programming obstacles are more important than ever. The development and maturity of many different browsing environments makes this so critical.