Holiday Availability
We Are An
AMERICAN Company
ALL Work Is Done
In AMERICA!
By AMERICANS!
This is a
Veteran-Owned Business
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"There is a difference between the "high-brow" explorer with money and prestige as speedsters to fame, and the
prowess of the pioneer who blazes the way over new horizons with just nothing save a step that is true and a light in his eye that
knows no fear."
- Through The Carlsbad Cavern with Jim White
by Carl B. Livingston
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| Our Philosophy Toward Web Development |
We Don't Use Canned Web-Development Software
HTML editors are for the unskilled. They don't give the developer control over the code, and this results in a lower-quality end
product that's more difficult to maintain.
HTML editors only work for HTML. Today's dynamic web sites also use a combination Perl, PHP, JavaScript, VBScript,
DHTML and other languages to get the job done, and these skills are beyond the limited capabilities of HTML editing software.
HTML editors don't speed up the development process. An experienced webmaster can create and maintain a great site
without them. In all reality, the most common "choke point" in the development process is getting content from the
client.
We're Not A "Web Site Marketing" Company
They claim to be able to promote your site online, and will happily tell you that they can make more people come to your site, but
they won't tell you how they do it.
Hint: A TRUE "Web Marketing Expert" knows that the best
marketing of a web site is done offline.
The truth is, these self-styled "Web Marketing Experts" won't/can't/don't do any more than submit your site to a few search engines,
and search engines today cannot be relied upon as the sole source of visitors to your site.
Some "Web Marketing Experts" tell you they'll submit your site to a zillion different search engines. This is meaningless.
There are only about a dozen or so search engines that are worthwhile. The rest are either obscure and insignificant, or serve
niche audiences.
Some "Web Marketers" are nothing but spammers who take your money then send out a few thousand e-mails to:
Invalid/nonexistent e-mail addresses
People who don't like getting unsolicited e-mail from anyone
People who don't meet the target demographic
Here are some other bogus web-marketing schemes:
- Optimized Meta Tags: Due to search engine "pollution", search engines ignore meta tags, making them pretty
much useless in getting your site found on the search engines.
- Affiliate Programs: These are banner ads that give a commission back to the site hosting the banner when a
sale is made. Typically, these banner ads are placed on random web sites, usually not ever reaching the target
demographic.
- Search Engine Submission: If you're selling a relatively common item, chances are nobody will ever find your
particular listing among the hundreds or thousands of listings for the same item. If you're selling a unique item, you
need to consider the fact that someone has to be looking for your specific product in order to find it in a search engine.
- Permission E-mails: You can ask web site visitors to provide their e-mail address so you can announce changes to
the site (e.g., new features or products). Of course the nature of permission e-mails is that you won't get those addresses
from anyone but site visitors, which means you have to get the visitors to the site first! That means your other marketing
methods have to work.
- Reciprocal Links: Potentially useful if both parties benefit from the link. Benefits are rarely balanced,
however. Reciprocal links are a very useful tool for improving your search engine positioning, but only as long as the
links are relevant!
- Press Releases: Can be extremely helpful when the site is first launched (or re-launched), but not after that.
- Web Rings: Oh pu-leeese. Only for amateurs. Fun if you've got an "I love my cat" web site, but useless
for serious sites.
- Content Aggregators: Fine if you've got news you want to share, but not for product sales or promotion of services.
Flash Content
When we use it at all, we keep Flash content to a minimum.
Flash content rarely adds to the user experience
Flash content is rarely done well.
Finally, too many web users still use dial-up connections, rather than the faster broadband. Flash
content takes a longer time to download over low-speed links.
Graphical Content
We keep graphical content to a minimum.
Product images are kept as small as practical.
Many interesting effects can be achieved with HTML, which loads much more quickly than a graphic.
Flashing text and animated whirlygigs don't add to the user experience. Nor do retina-burning color combinations.
Patterned Backgrounds Are For Beginners
Text tends to get lost in the background pattern.
Font Usage
Many web developers are relatively new to the computer world, and don't understand how the visitors' computers might be set
up. You might think that a great-looking but obscure font will be nice on the site, but if the visitor's machine isn't set up for it,
then the effort will be wasted. Some fonts only come with Windows, and some are only available on Macs. Others
have to be installed on your computer before they can be used.
Look at it this way: If the font makes the content more attractive, then the content wasn't very useful to begin with.
Huge typefaces
Self-explanatory - They're a waste of on-screen real estate.
Spelling, Grammar, and Typographic (SGT) Errors
Also self-explanatory. The web developer should be able to catch and correct these. Your web site reflects directly
on you and your operation, and your site's credibility depends on good copy. SGT errors are a sure way to lose
credibility.
A good web developer will correct SGT errors, and at no cost to the customer. Believe it or not, there are web developers
out there who charge the client for the time required to go into a site and fix typos, even when the typo is the developer's
fault! In our view, such a practice is offensive.
Consider Us To Be Your Partner In Business
While other developers simply take their clients' money and content and put it online, we go to the next level.
We're not shy about suggesting new features for the site, and we aren't afraid to tell you if a particular feature you're considering
might not be a good idea... Even if that cuts back on the scope of the project and reduces our revenue.
It's not unusual for us to go into a site at a later date and make changes which would make the site more efficient. We
don't charge for this, but we only do it for clients which whom we've established a long-term relationship.
Ethics and Security
We're extremely serious about this issue.
Your corporate-confidential information (work processes, behind-the-scenes discussions, etc.) are always safe with us.
If a security issue arises, we will bring it to your attention and suggest an alternative procedure.
Here are some examples of projects we will not accept:
- Sites which collect personal information (credit card & Social Security numbers, etc.) over a non-secure link.
- Sites which collect personal information of any kind for resale to spammers.
- Sites advocating hacking, spam, theft, hate, get-rich-quick, pornography, or other socially distasteful activities.
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