While listening to Avinash Kaushik on JMP’s podcast (http://www.jmp.com/about/events/summit2008/google_podcast.shtml), I heard about 4Q - a very simple (and free) suvey tool to start to gather some information from you site visitors.

You sign up to use the service, make some basic customizations, upload your logo and voila - you are ready to go.

I’ve got it instlalled on this site.  About 30% of you should get an invitation.  30% of those who visit the site will be presented with an overlay that says they have been picked to answer a very simple 4 question survey (hence the name 4Q) about their experience with this site.  If they agree, a new window opens up at the bottom of the screen ready for them to answer once they are done at the site.

I haven’t had the service installed for any time yet, so I have no idea about how effective it is.  But, we’ll see.  According to Avinash, something simple like this is a great way to gather data. 

Typically when we think about analytics, things like muti-variant testing, A/B Comparisons, Regressions and all other sorts of complicated statistical things pop into our minds.  But, by simply asking people visiting our site - 

1.  Why did you visit our site

2.  Were you able to accomplish your purpose

3.  Why not (if no)

By simply asking people answers to these questions, we can figure out a tons of information.

It looks like a great service.  I’ll keep you up to date on what I find out.

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Just watched this video on FastCompany.tv:

http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/how-analytics-are-changing-business

Made me think a whole lot more about how I use - or better yet - fail to use a simple free Analytics systems - Google Analytics.  This simple and free program gives me the ability to know a ton about who is visiting, what pages they are visiting, how long they stay, what links they click on, etc.

It’s really a great tool.  I simply don’t pay enough attention to it.

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I’ve been using twitter a lot more lately.  I have to admit it, I’m not totally sure why.  There are probably a couple of reasons.  Some of the reason are good (probably).  But, one reason is that I just feel like I SHOULD.  As a web developer, designer, etc.  I just sort of feel like I should be using it.  I’m not sure I need to or am really gaining anything out of it.  But, I feel the pressure to do the latest, etc.  And, twitter is one of those…   So, I’m using it.

In just a couple of months of using Twitter, I’ve run across 15 or so people I’m following and about the same number who are following me.  I guess that’s good.

I’ve put out some requests (tell me about good books, etc.) and received back some decent input.

And, as much as I hate to admit it, one of my favorites on Twitter is Barack Obama.  I love how often he (I assume his staff) updates, how they direct me back to web site, etc.  He’s now like the #3 most followed person on Twitter - behind Leo Laporte and Kevin Rose (#1)).  Possibly as a political statement - I can’t even find the “OFFICIAL” John McCain twitter.  That has got to say something about the two campaigns.

But, perhaps the most interesting thought about Twitter was found in this link:

http://johnvoelzblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/twitter-church.html

Apparently, this church had a live Twitter feed going on during church.  People contributed throughout the service.  Very interesting.  Not sure if it is the right technology or not, but it LOVE the thought.  I love the idea that technology is about a whole lot more than just a cool web site, a new thing, etc.  I love that technology can be about people.  About community.  About connecting people.  I think that’s really the power.

Maybe Twitter is more valuable than I thought?

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As some of you may know, Adobe just recently announced that Google and Yahoo will now finally be able to index flash files (read press release).  So, I was thinking about this and reading about this just recently.

Ran across this quote:

“As anyone who has had the pleasure of doing web design and development through marketing agencies knows, Flash tends to be wildly popular among clients and wildly unpopular among, well, pretty much everyone else.”  (from ars technica)

I loved the quote and I think it is basically true.  Flash is really loved by designers in hip marketing agencies (I know of a couple in my area - Fort Wayne).  But, just about everyone else hates it.  Why?  

1. It’s slow - I HATE that - please wait - loading - bar that shows up on Flash sites - I usually leave
2. It’s violates “normal” navigation and usability standards.  It’s flexibility is one of it’s weaknesses.  It allows designers to put navigation anywhere - breaking all normal conventions.  Making us wonder - just what does this do?  I wonder where the navigation is on this page - I usually just leave
3. It has to be updated by a designer.  Need to change text in a flash site?  Great - hire the designer.  There really aren’t any good Content Management Systems for flash - no way to have authors, editors, etc.
4. It’s not searchable - If you want a cool looking site, great - go with Flash.  But if you want visitors, go with something else.

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I really love working with WordPress. I’ve been using it for quite a while now for clients. I think it gives one of the easiest, cleanest interfaces for Content Management.

But, I’ve always thought that the admin interface was kind of boring.

Now, I’ve found a list of admin interfaces that jazz up the boring old interface quite a bit.

Here’s the link (with 9 different admin plug-ins):

http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2007/12/28/9-wordpress-admin-themes/

My personal favorite is the NiceAdmin (http://www.douglaskarr.com/projects/niceadmin/).

This new admin coupled with the Admin Drop Down (http://planetozh.com/blog/2008/04/admin-drop-down-menu-202/), make a great interface.

I think the admin drop down is almost a must have - it creates exactly what it says - admin drop down menus. So you have to do half as much clicking.

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I just signed up for a new service that I find really, really interesting. It’s at iwantsandy.com.

Basically, it’s a personal e-mail assistant. I can e-mail things that I need to keep track of, reminders, to-do’s, etc. and Sandy will remind me of them.

It’s great for things that don’t really fit into the calendar time slots or the normal to do sort of things. For things that you want to remember, but you don’t want to fill up your calendar or to do with, I Want Sandy is the perfect solution.

I’ve just started using it - sort of testing it out.

All I do is send an e-mail to a special address set up for me. The e-mail may say something like this: “Print Flight Confirmation tomorrow”. Then Sandy will send me an e-mail reminder tomorrow - at 5:00 AM (the time I picked to send me information that does not have a time tagged to it). Or, I can e-mail “Print Flight Confirmation Tomorrow at 5:00 PM”. Sandy the will send me an e-mail reminder at 4:45 PM to remind me to print out the confirmation.

It can also do reminders via text message if that is more to your liking.

Finally, in another awesome integration - it has two more features I haven’t explored yet.

1. It can integrate with Jott.com - another service I use. This means I can use my cell phone to call in reminders, then Sandy will grab the info and e-mail it at the appropriate time. Very cool!

2. It can also provide an iCalendar feed that you can subscribe to via Apple’s iCal or Outlook.

http://iwantsandy.com

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Just reading through this article to learn a great deal more about conditional tags. Some great stuff. Conditional tags really give us the ability to put on dynamic content, titles, queries, etc…

All the stuff that makes the web site work.

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/wordpress-theme-hacks/

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I think this is probably everybody’s dream. I think it might even be why some people become comptuer - work - at - home kind of people. Just think about it. I can really work from the beach????

Danny Outlaw posted a interesting article about how he plans to really do this - to work form the beaches in Costa Rica.

Check it out here:
http://outlawdesignblog.com/2008/online-tools-for-working-abroad/

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OK, I’m still on this Wordpress Content Management kick….

I was a little frustrated by the cripple TinyMCE editor in wordpress. So, I did some searching and found out that we can add back in just about any of the functions that we want.

Here’s a link to the article…

Customizing TinyMCE

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I’ve been working at using Word-Press - the defacto blogging software - as a CMS. Just in case you don’t know… A CMS is a Content Management System. It is a way to let people update their sites without having to know HTML and other languages. A true CMS can do a lot more, but this is the baiscs - letting people edit their own content.

I’m powering my site on WordPress and have been thrilled.

But, just lately I have found some more enhancements that make it even more powerful. Here’s just a few:

– custom login - lets the log in screen be customized to look like the client web site

– custom admin - again let the admin area be customized with logos, etc.

– Search Everything - lets WP search all pages - not just posts. This lets the static pages be searched.

– E-Commerce - this was really cool. I added some basic e-commerce functionality to a WP powered site. Nothing super advanced here. If I needed a powerful store, I’d still go with something like Zen-Cart. But this was awesome!

There a great list of the needed plug-ins here:

http://www.joshbyers.com/completing-the-cms-with-wordpress/

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