Reading on SlashDot about buying a domain name from a cyber-squatter it made me think of the constant issues people/new businesses have before they’re really even on the web.

What Domain Name Defines Me, as a Person?

I Am Jack

A Doubel Edged Sword – SEO Domain, Generic Notability

The “cool” factor comes with the right domain. For example, ILoveJackDaniels.com was a cheat sheet repository for web developers (ignoring the fact that it’s changed domains since Jack Daniels doesn’t like nerds). No one in their right mind would associate “web development cheat sheets” with “I love Jack Daniels” (or ilovejackdaniels, if we want to go into semantics of how search engines see domains). What if it was simply, web-cheat-sheets.com (or webcheatsheets.com)? Certainly, we may stumble on it, and it makes sense – but it’s not notable as ILoveJackDaniels.com or something equally creative.

Balance the “Cool Factor” with “Smart Business Move”

If you feel your business depends on your domain, you’ve all ready failed. Your domain does not define you – ever. No one finds my site by researching me – they turn up searching on terms for jquery, mootools, seo, and various other topics I’ve written about. They’ve come here by clicking on my (hopefully) insightful comments on another person’s blog post. Will they remember to come back? Maybe. Maybe they’ll remember the simplicity that is ikeif.net or maybe they’ll think:

What was it? Some site with mootools, jquery, social media, seo… I’ll just throw a few terms in and see what comes up

Hey, maybe I’m not in the first page of results, but then again, until my digital life needs to be on the front page, I don’t need to be.

No doubt some people feel “basic” coding is beneath them. They feel they should be focusing on Java, JavaScript, UI Design, UX, etc. etc. Coding that PSD to valid, cross browser XHTML? Complete with CSS styling? Dealing with whatever browsers you want to support?

Funk that, especially when we have dozens of businesses fighting to do this for us (for cheap!).

Prolific competition and cheap? How can I lose!

Yes, much like that extended warranty you bought, how could you lose? Very easily!

Generally speaking, it seems you get what you pay for. But sometimes you have to realize that doing research is the best ROI. In the age of the internet, one man shops quickly get bought out by the competition, so that we can go very quickly from “my friend runs this” to “he sold it for more than it’s worth, and now it’s a shit service.” It happens, as I had dug up old reviews and contacted people – which I suggest you do. Never rely on sites and written reviews (they could be paid reviews and not disclosed, and some people will rant and rave after one use, and quickly change their mind after two uses!).

In 2006 they were hot shit! So they still are…right?

No my friend, they are not. Like I said, any time you see a review for a service, research it. Their are prolific sites that offer up reviews but I’ve noticed a lot of them allow ballot stuffing (it seems all you need is an email address to post, and those are quite easy to get). So you can see they have some heavy negative reviews followed by dozens of similar “OMG, these guys saved me, they rock so hard!”

First thing you need to realize, you are outsourcing, and more than likely this work is going overseas – and generally outsourcing is a mixed bag of issues. From the services I checked out, they claimed to be “based” in the United States, but I noticed some of their class names held Russian words, another I noticed some Norwegian – and it’s most important that as I worked with some of these companies, I “figured out” how best to work with them – regardless of who they were.

The Secret to Working with Third Party PSD to XHTML Services

It’s simple, really:

• Do not rely on their order forms to tell them everything.
• Do not make assumptions on what they will/won’t do.

You combat this by:

• Giving them requirements if it’s not on the order form!
• If they offer money back guarantees and you aren’t happy – USE THEM.

Tell them exactly what you expect – if you think certain areas should have 10 pixels of padding around them (maybe *you* think it’s common sense) but they may not!

You may have selected CSS sprites – but do you want it done a certain way? Did you want certain headings to be clickable? TELL THEM.

I guess this ultimately falls down to communication skills as it often does – overcommunication is better than too little, and it’ll save you headaches in the long run!

How to Deliver your PSDs

No doubt, sometimes you may be working under deadlines so you may spread your work out into batches – this is a dangerous approach if you think “oh we can tweak certain fundamental aspects of our designs as we send them.” Bad, bad, bad.

If you are planning batch approach, communicate this before hand so your potential partner services understands, and make sure the basics of your templates are SOLID before you send them out!

I suggest having your templates done first (so you can reuse the code and maybe not need to have every PSD sent out to be done) and make sure your sidebar and navigation areas are solid (and this is where you describe how large the click areas are). Once these areas are solid, I’d make sure all future PSDs follow these pixel perfect hand-offs to insure an easy transition with the future PSDs sent off, and it’ll also save you a lot of pain.

Have you used any services like this? Got any tips or tricks? Let us know!

Chris Coyier – whose blog I’ve read for some time – wrote a little script for those developers out there that want to quit supporting IE6. Naturally, it’s built on jQuery (the javascirpt for designers).

Death to IE6!

It’s kind of funny, because earlier this week I read from Elliot Jay Stock’s blog that August 27th was the seventh anniversary of the launch of IE6.

A few sites have all ready indicated they’re goign to stop IE6 support -Apple’s MobileMe (according to an email on June 9th, 2008), 37singals (as of August 15th, 2008), and facebook recommends you upgrade (or try a different browser – as of November 26th, 2007). Now – it’s funny, because back in the day, sites used to have that stipulation of “best viewed on” or…

Dude, you need to upgrade.

So we’re telling people to start upgrading to IE7, because they’ve been lagging. We did it before, but it was deemed “in bad taste.” We shouldn’t tell people what to browse with. Yet we don’t support earlier versions, so…

Yet we deemed it good taste to tell people to upgrade flash – “because hey, everyone else is doing it.” So the flip-side is flash is a plug-in, and Internet Explorer 6 is a monstrosity. But guess what? You can code a little link to bypass flash detection so users can still see the flash, with the warning that it may not be “up to snuff” without

Nostradamus predicted IE’s doom.

Maybe not – but I know this wasn’t the first IE Death March – I can’t dig up information on the last one, or the last “I don’t support IE6 banner” so I sincerely doubt this new attempt will do much.

But as “major” sites stop supporting IE6, maybe we’ll see a reduction of IE6 users as a whole faster than Microsoft was able to do with their “forced” upgrade to IE7.

So Genuine Chris has declared war on Odesk.

Say what?

That’s right – a war against the friend to freelancers. Right?

From oDesk:

oDesk enables buyers of services to hire, manage, and pay technology service providers from around the world. Buyers choose oDesk for top global talent, comprehensive management tools, and a flexible hourly payment model. Service Providers choose oDesk for challenging jobs and guaranteed payment. Every day, thousands of buyers and providers work together through oDesk — a unique company at the forefront of reinventing work.

So, it’s all gravy, right? I thought about signing up their and doing some freelancing myself – I saw a few mootools projects pop-up, and I fancy me some mootools development.

But Chris points out what another developer, Issac Kelly, had to say:

“God, it’s like dealing with people you got away from work to begin with.”

Dude. I didn’t leave Corporate Internet to be your bitch.

I know, I know. That’s not what oDesk is – right? I’ve never used it, but from the “quality” of what I’ve seen, I have mixed feelings about becoming involved. It’s really five-and-diming development – and as a developer that has had to take over tasks from the lowest-common-denominator (*cough*webconsultants*cough*) it’s easy to see that YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

So I should pay top-dollar for premium development?

No – you should pay what you can afford.
If you can afford someone at $60/hour you should hire someone at that rate – not the guy that comes around and tries to undersell your guy with “I’ll do it for $25″ – because very often if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

I’m not saying that maybe you’re luck – but very often those lowest bidders underbid and end up under delivering because they just meant to get you in, and then get you at the point of either:

• A) You’re stuck with them because you’ve wasted too much of your budget to start over.
• B) They’ve been paid and you end up going with the higher priced guy/company anyways, maybe with some savable work.

So what are you going to do about it, hotshot?

I’m not. I’m looking for side jobs, because, well, kid(s) are damned expensive.

But Chris says he’s got something coming:

I’ll find the work for all of you, I’ll get you paid what you’re worth, and I’ll make all of us rich in the process. I’ll be blogging about this as it takes shape, but it’s surprisingly concrete and specific in my head what I need to do, and how I’m going to do it. I am glad someone showed me what Odesk is because it’s everything that I’m not.

And he’s shown me before he’s not one to talk smack – so I’m going to be keeping an eye on this.

I’ve got to be honest – I’ve been really hard on anyone that introduces themselves as a “Social Media Expert.” I’m a little prejudiced, because I’m very familiar with Social Media and the social networking movement – I signed up for sixdegrees.com back in the day, I sought out the old school “party-lines” thanks to a phreak I knew.

That, to me, was the beginning of social networking. BBS were the original message boards. Hackers and computer nerds pioneered these ideas of getting people together across the country (and even the world) for the pursuit of knowledge.

Today we have Social Media Experts.

What are Social Media Experts?

Why, they’re experts in social media! To me, I always related Social Media as a skillset – they are part of a bigger role – much like how we don’t have HTML experts – they are part of a bigger role. They have the knowledge of the tool sets. They have a proven track record of showing how they apply their knowledge to various business functions, which creates value.

To be an expert – you must have experience, a track record! Now take a minute and visit that link. Read through The Personal Branding Blog – and if you have twitter I suggest you add @danschawbel as well (and add me too!). You can start to see his understanding the Social Media Experts of today will not exist in the short future.

What Social Media Is

Social Media is an extension of Public Relations, communications, customer service, business development… it’s a tool to be used, to be taught. You use your expertise to assist your clients – not to milk them for eyars, but to show them how to be capable themselves. You need to be an expert so you can teach them your skill set (and if you’re truly indispensable, they know you’ve got an eye for “the next big thing” so I’m sure you can inherit a new Web 3.0 title when those start coming around).

What Social Media Isn’t

Social Media isn’t all about networking – but it is one aspect. It’s about OPENness. It’s about communication. It’s not about hording information, or acting like you hold some secret. You don’t – and the more you horde your information, try and make yourself “indispensable” by creating vague propositions hiding behind a mask of “social media.” You’ll be out of a job if you don’t start expanding your knowledge and understanding, and become a teacher.

The secret is OUT!

Social Media Experts are all ready on their way out – we know it’s a matter of time as the “skill set” propagates out – but the true value you have to add right now – appying your knowledge and experience with social toolsets and networking – proving that you have more to add than just one area of “expertise” – that will show your true colors – your mixing of your expertise in multiple aspects will outshine this “web 2.0 title” and propogate to show that you’re on top of what’s buzzing in Web 2.0 and you’ll be buzzing when Web 3.0 rolls around.

So – all you Social Media Experts – shine on and show the world your not just a buzz word!