This weekend I celebrated my 10 year anniversary by taking a day trip to San Diego with my bride. Along the coast was a street performer showing his talent of balancing rocks. We happened to stroll by as the sun dipped toward the ocean and I took a quick picture with my iPhone. © 2009, Bill Heaton.
5/4/2009 
Be a strategic design partner, or else you will not influence the design …do the research. —@Zeldman
How I did it: First, I searched for tutorials online; then I used scripts from a project I found called pressConnect. I installed a fresh installation of WordPress on my local machine running MAMP. I configured the pressConnect script to work with my MySQL database, then I tested the XML output. Next I had to review ActionScript, learning to work with XML in Flash. I used a couple other scripts and a menu offered at http://tvwonline.net/lab/ – I built a test Flash file, importing an external CSS stylesheet and ActionScript file. Once the test file worked fine with pages, posts and menus for both, I integrated the code into a flash template. Finally, I set up a sandbox for the client to explore the dynamic publishing tool for the Flash-based website.
Need tips? For a sample file with scripts, contact me.
Resources: http://tvwonline.net/lab/
Demo of test file.
Live Site Harvest Landscape Enterprises, Inc.
Both are versatile themes, built for speed with seven widget positions; three in the sidebar and four in an extended footer. They features a clean design, suitable for a wide range of applications. Designers will appreciate the fixed width grid layout, including a baseline grid for vertical text alignment. To visitors this makes the site ‘look and feel’ right. Users will also appreciate the light page weight, around 100k!
This site is using the Amerifecta theme > download the .zip archive from the Overhaul Industries site Adept is available from both Overhaul Industries and WordPress.org/extend/themes
I really enjoy the mastery of modern CSS layouts using a grid based on solid design principles, pre-existing the Web. My two favorite are 960.gs and Blueprint, so I’ve taken the elements that I like best about each css framework and mashed them together into one.
960.gs has both 12-column or 16-column grids ready to go. While Blueprint has more comprehensive element styles, a 18px baseline grid, and a few additional settings (e.g. the “pull” class to break outside the grid).
Below are the sample pages from both CSS frameworks:
This week I launched a shorter URL tool to reduce the length of your long, permalink URL. It will make a short url like http://rant.cc/JPh
Rant.cc is a tool for creating shorter URLs for promoting your ranting, or charged content using your favorite micro blogging platform like Twitter, Plurk, Identi.ca, Tumblr, Jaiku, Pownce, or whatever flavor you enjoy. When a Rant.cc URL is click the visit is tracked and ranked by most visits, checkout the popular links. And, stay tuned into “charged” conversations on Rant.cc
Yes… finally, after months, WordPress.org approved my photo blog theme ‘Shoot-It’ check it out… http://rant.cc/JPh
Book Review: Web Design for ROI by Lance Loveday & Sandra Niehaus
Each year I find one or two books that really stand out. This book, Web Design for ROI, changed the way I look at current eCommerce projects and helped me identify better strategies for building web sites. This 10 minute review highlights the key points in the book that helped me learn the process for ‘conversion optimization’ – converting my site visitors into customers.
Here is my situation, I am working on an eCommerce site with over 4,000 unique visitors each month but the checkout rate seems fairly low, and the analytics show a large percentage of potential customers exiting the checkout process at the confirm stage. Also, a large volume of visitors landing on the home page bounce without entering in to key areas of the site and responding to my calls to action (buying product or completing a form).
The major shift for me will be creating a larger return on investment for my search engine optimization and marketing efforts by creating a larger percentage of goal conversions with my current volume of web site traffic.
This will have a lasting and recurring benefit since a small decrease in bounces and abandoned goal funnels will generate a higher percentage of growth without buying more traffic. This process of conversion optimization has the biggest band for my buck (or sweat) and helps with growing conversions with my current pay-per-click campaigns. Also, the strategies presented will help me communicate more effectively with my audience. The book inspired me to apply a conversion optimization beginning at my check-put pages, working my way back to the home page. After adding a secondary goal on my detail pages I noticed an increase in online sales. This optimization process creates results!
Every Web project needs a solid plan to work through the estimate to the site delivery. Here is a list of project questions to plan your Web site with considerations for marketing, design, SEO, unique selling position, E-commerce, and more…
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Pixel Handler Episode 2, Your Web Project, features web project elements and how they mash up with your marketing strategy. Questions addressed:
Wrap up: Keep the main thing the main thing! If your unique selling position is intimately related to your passion then it will be easy to communicate your message to your target audience.
