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Converting a Dreamweaver Template to an Expressions Template

What should be an easy task for Expressions is the recognition of Dreamweaver templates. Unfortunately, Microsoft rarely makes anything simple. Their help is void of any mention of Dreamweaver, or conversion of any other type of template… I mean, how dare you consider using another WYSWYG editor on your website! Well, in my case, Expressions is my preferable editor, while my daughter uses Dreamweaver on her MAC and I often purchase websites with Dreamweaver templates. So converting these templates by hand is something I’m used to doing. The good news is its not that difficult… which is what makes me wonder why MS didn’t give us that option?

Expressions (and Front Page) refer to a template region in their code using the following syntax:

<!– #BeginEditable “doctitle” –> <!– #EndEditable –>

Anything you add for the specific page for the doctitle would go between the two tags, to look something like this:

<!– #BeginEditable “doctitle” –>My Web Page <!– #EndEditable –>

The first code is added by Expressions to the template. The second code with the title inserted in place of “My Web page” is what will be on the actual html page you build.

Similarly, Dreamweaver also uses the same type of coding, just in a different format.

<!– TemplateBeginEditable name=”doctitle” –> <!– TemplateEndEditable –>

So the coding above is what you’ll find within the template (.dwt) file, and the following is similar to what you’ll see on an html page:

<!– TemplateBeginEditable name=”doctitle” –>My Web Page<!– TemplateEndEditable –>

I think you can now see what you need to do to make the Dreamweaver template work for Expressions. You need to make changes in all of the html, php, asp, etc. files AND the .dwt files for the website, by changing the Dreamweaver coding format to the Expressions coding. I use a program called NoteTab Pro when editing text files. The programming ability is quite extensive within the program, as is the ability to replace text within multiple files without having to open them. Before doing any editing on the website files, make sure you back them up first, so that you have something to fall back on if your search and replace goes really bad.

I first do a search and replace for the following code:
<!– TemplateBeginEditable name= ”

I replace it with this code:
<!– #BeginEditable ”

I then do the same with the end tag:

I do a search and replace for:
<!– TemplateEnd

And replace it with
<!– #End

Once you’ve made the changes in all of the files needed for the website, open the website in Expressions, and then open the template (.dwt file). You should get the following message:

In order for a site to use a template, you must first set the option with the Site Settings area of the Site Menu to manage the site using metadata files. Once you select that, then any change you make to the template will be incorporated into the existing display pages.

Finally, even though Microsoft Expressions now recognizes that you are using templates with your site, you will still need to attach your actual template to the files. Select all of your site files in the file browser, Click “Format” and then “Dynamic Web Template” and choose to “Attach Dynamic Web Template.”

Best of luck!

Free Analytics for Social Media

Topsy released its new social media analytic tool a few days ago, and I thought the debut of the second season of NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are” would be a great test of the type of metrics this new statistical tool can provide.

Who Do You Think You Are, or abbreviated as WDYTYA, is an NBC show based upon a BBC hit of the same name. Sponsored by Ancestry.com, the largest purveyor of genealogy information on the web, this show takes a look into a celebrity’s research into their family history. While initially that may not sound interesting to most people, this reality tv show does this by taking the celebrity to their ancestors home town and other historical areas. It actually becomes quite an intriguing look into the celebrities ancestors and the part they played in the history of the world.

I think this is a great subject matter to research because it may instantly give us an idea of the popularity of the show in comparison with other shows as it relates to twitter posts. It may also help highlight how a site such as Ancestry.com and the celebrity’s themselves may have also benefited from the showing. As a final note, I’ll take a look at how much interest the show may have generated by comparing genealogy specific keywords. So let’s take a look, shall we?

The initial image shows a comparison over the past month of names of three tv shows which all showed Friday, 5 Feb . 2011 at 8pm. I chose to not use “The Defenders” which aired on CBS because the Topsy search negates the word The and just used Defenders. That produced a high quantity of not-related tweet results. So the three shows I used in this example were Kitchen Nightmares on Fox, Who Do You Think You Are on NBC (by searching for WDYTYA), and Supernanny on ABC.

The results above shows the popularity of each show as it relates to tweets. Some caveats to mention. WDYTYA’s second season premiered on 4 Feb. 2011, Kitchen Nightmares Season 2 premiered on 22 Jan. and had its third showing on 4 Feb. Supernanny is in season 7, and showed episode 10 on 4 Feb.

Suppernanny’s results were less then accurate, though not as great an issue as it was with the Defenders. The fact that it was also the 10th episode of the season likely also hurt its rankings.

The results above show a significant interest in WDYTYA in the twittersphere, over previous days. It’s numbers indicate a higher interest in that show, then the other two shows. The question is, does that reflect accurately the shows viewership using more traditional methods such as Nielson Ratings?

Nielson initial results for that night shows using the Live Viewer ratings, showed that the top show of those three for the night was in fact WDYTYA with 7.291 million live viewers (or same day watchers in case of DVR), in comparison with Supernanny at 4.354 million and Kitchen Nightmares at 3.945 million. The Defenders was actually the most watched show during that time period maybe because it was the only non-reality tv show airing on the major networks?

When we take the Nielson numbers with the chart above, we do see a correlation between the numbers with some minor deviation. I was actually surprised that the chart did reflect the interest in WDYTYA, because the general audience of this show is much older then most shows. In fact it ranked 3rd in the 18-49 viewership, which I would expect since genealogy as a hobby is done by older adults… generally over 50.

The second chart I want to take a look at is going to investigate how much of a boost the season premier may have done for both Ancestry.com and Vanessa Williams, the celebrity for the night.

These were quite interesting showing the increased interest in both WDYTYA and Vanessa Williams. Ancestry.com itself showed about a 2x normal interest, however that does not compare to the numbers shown by the other two matches.

One of the purposes of the show “Who Do You Think You Are” is to increase the interest in genealogy overall. The final chart I’m showing here will give an idea on whether that has succeeded, at least in the twitter world:

While tweets using the word genealogy did not increase, those using Ancestry certainly did, and there was an overall increase or interest in the genealogy hobby reflected on Twitter.

I would like to hear your ideas on how you think this new analytical tool can help you in your web development!

Facebook Marketing Strategies

A recent review of over 11 thousand Facebook ads found that the ad market on Facebook is evolving. A Webtrends study analyzed 1,500 campaigns, 11.2 million ads, 2.2 million clicks, and 4.5 billion impressions. A quick review can be found here and then a link to the actual study at the bottom of the article.

Demand most often produces higher costs for the marketer, while decreasing the effectiveness of campaigns. Of no surprise to most who market on Facebook is that you are paying more for each click then you were just a year ago. The 2009 to 2010 difference though, is quite telling. Ad costs per click rose 81% while the actual c/t per ad dropped 19%. Yes, the overall cpm cost is still quite puny, at only 25 cents cpm during 2010, even though that reflects a 47% increase over just a year prior. The takeaway? The longer you wait to begin your campaign on Facebook, the costlier that campaign will likely become.

But there are some metrics you can use to increase your Facebook marketing effectiveness:

Marketing that targets mid-life adults (45-64) will produce the highest c/t rate, and that the difference in c/t rate is quite substantial. A 55 year old is almost 3x as likely to click a Facebook ad then an 18 year old. And if the 55 year old you’re targeting is a woman then that percentage is likely to increase even more. If you need to market to a younger audience though, there are several methods you can use to increase your c/t rate:

Increase Effectiveness using Social Brands
Google AdSense is so effective, because it targets a users interest at that very moment with a marketers ad. This study shows that if you’re marketing a social brand, then Facebook will likely give you a better c/t rate as your ad will perform better. That’s not that surprising and should have been surmised by the fact that users using a social site would be more inclined to click on a social ad. When writing your copy is there a way you can key into this social awareness on Facebook to increase your c/t’s?
Target Non College Educated
If your ads are not specifically college related, then targeting non college educated fans will increase your c/t by an average of 87 percent. Using the friends of fans feature on these same fans will increase your c/t by an additional 32%.
Use Friends of Fans to Target College Educated
If you need to target specifically college educated fans then use the friend of fan targeting. This study found that using the friends of fans feature can increase the c/t rate by 113% for college educated fans.

Probably the most important metric that came out of this study is the diminishing return on your ad. Ad staleness is nothing new, but the unusual quickness in which this occurs on Facebook… only 3-5 days per ad, means marketers on Facebook will have to spend more time managing their ads then they may have through other advertising means. Using the friends of fans feature can diminish the speed of deterioration, but deteriorate your ad will do, until it is removed by Facebook as no longer effective.

What reason would there be for such a rapid loss in Facebook marketing effectiveness? Likely the issue lies someplace between the nature of social marketing, ad staleness, and visual blindness. Which of those three contributed, wasn’t discussed in the report, which concentrated more on the facts then on supplication, so your guess is as good as mine. The underlying fact can not be ignored though, your ads effectiveness will deteriorate rapidly on Facebook until it is removed. Make sure you have a game plan in place to prepare for that.

While this study provides some great insights into the likelihood of a user clicking on your ad, and how to keep your ad viable on Facebook, it doesn’t touch the more important factor of fan conversion. Basically, it’s studying the wrong metric. The most important metric isn’t how many c/t’s you get (except maybe for Facebook itself), it’s how well you can convert a c/t, and at what cost. Getting 600 females 55 years old to c/t to my ad, but only 1 conversion, is less effective then getting 200 males 20 years old, when I get 5 conversions of those 200. And this is ultimately Facebook’s dilemma. Their engagement metrics are more concerned with the effectiveness of your ad on their site, then they are with the effectiveness of your ad producing sales for you!

Facebook Advertising Performance Benchmarks & Insights
Here is the summary by Webtrends Company Blog

Some other posts which provide a unique look into this data:

Facts. Clickthrough Rates (CTRs) for Facebook Ads
Takes a look at the dismal c/t rates for Facebook Ads as reported in the Webtrends report.
The Short Lifetime Of Facebook Ads
Another look into the short lifetime of ads on Facebook.

A Review of Need an Article

I first stumbled upon Need an Article in June of 2009. At that time I joined their website and initiated a request for 10 articles to be written. The following review details the results of my experience in obtaining those articles, and the value of the writing service being provided.

The site boasts itself as “a market area for customized website content that you request.” Indeed they do appear to be transitioning to that, but in June of 2009 they were primarily an article writing service. Scott Foster is the owner of the website, and he, his staff and writers attempt to hold down the fort of what can often be a daunting task. Especially when the requests for writing come in fast and furious.

My initial usage of this service was to request 10 articles. What subject I chose is immaterial, unless you’re merely trying to copy me instead of create for yourself. Let’s just say, I did my homework before I requested the articles and looked at the possible keywords.

The actual process of requesting the articles was quite simple:

I joined their program.
Probably the only downfall for most users will be getting past the $9.95 a month fee for the writing service. I believe however that you sometimes have to pay for a better and easier service. I imagine, but don’t have any proof, that the $9.95 is paid out to Scott, while the writing costs is primarily (if not all) paid out to the writers. Whatever the split, it’s a justifiable expense in my eyes, if the concept works.
I watched a video on submitting an article writing request.
Scott has placed on the website several videos which can provide you a better understanding of how to use their service properly and easily.
I purchased credits to use for the purchase of the articles.
The site is set up on credit usage. Basically, in addition to the $9.95 charge you will also need to purchase credits in order to use the credits to purchase the articles. The $$$ cost of the articles are extremely in-expensive. I’ve seen similar websites selling 300-400 word articles at $15 each. My 10 articles would end up costing me $125.00. The cost of the articles at Need an Article is based upon the length of the articles: 550 words – $ 5.52 ; 750 words – $ 9.03 ; 1000 words – $ 12.50.
I gathered up my research and wrote out a lengthy request.
One of the requirements of the website is that you don’t simply give out a keyword to the writers and request articles back. They also want you to conduct some initial research online as to where the writer can gather material from. My request contained an idea of the style of writing I was looking for (scholarly but simple) as well as the specific keyword phrase for each article, and then a series of URLS for each article to provide resources for the writer to research the subject. Note: This is not meant for you to give one URL to the writer and say rewrite that article…
I input all of the information into their online form.
My submission requested 10 articles to be an average of 1,000 words, with none less then 750 and none more then 1250. By doing this I gave some leeway to the writer to provide a shorter article if there was limited material (I’m not one for filler words). I did not request any long-tail keywords to be included in the articles, feeling I would rather input them if I chose that path, knowing that I would read over and for SEO purposes, even if they were the best written articles.

A couple of hours later I received a reply by mail stating that my articles had been applied, which basically meant that one of the writers had applied for the job of writing my articles. This writer immediately contacted me via IM on their site to request some further information, and to let me know that she actually had experience in the field I was looking for articles on… that was an extra bonus I didn’t expect, since the subject matter was more scientific then my usual stuff.

Probably the only hiccup in the whole process was that it took the writer longer then she had anticipated it would to write the articles. However, I told her from the start I was not in a rush, and would rather have quality over speed. Instead of getting them a week later, it took her two weeks to complete the task. But the articles I finally got were superb!

My first step was to run them through Copyscape to insure that I wasn’t being misled since these were my first articles I’d purchased from the service. They were clean. The highest match was 25 of 856 words similar… very acceptable for an article. The articles were authoritative without being complex… exactly what I had asked for!

Its now 18 months later, my initial $125 purchase, plus the $9.95 a month, turned into an earnings of $2,590.18 via Google AdSense alone, not including other sources I also derived income from but did not track separately… And I did it using only 1/2 of the original 10 articles I received. One major caveat, I placed these articles on a highly trafficked website. Together these 5 articles plus an index page received about 72,000 page impressions over the 18 months… very little of those page views came from search engines, but rather through my own site.

Visit Need an Article

NOTE: The links in this article are not affiliate links. I gain nothing from them. This is not a paid review!

Developing an Online Presence in 5 Easy Steps

As we begin to concentrate on the development and expansion of our garden websites in anticipation of Spring 2011, I have decided to delve into the social online world, and begin making use of the variety of social bookmarking and communication tools. My first action is to create a persona of an avid gardener whose main enjoyment in life is to get his fingers dirty as he gets down on his hands and knees and tends his own backyard garden. To make this believable I will use a variety of social tools online to create and give a real face to this man, albeit not mine.

Some may wonder why I would go to the trouble of creating a persona instead of using my own name and likeness? I think it really depends on what your future intent is with the websites you are developing. If your intent is to develop a website to own and run for the foreseeable future then you may want to brand that website around your real name and likeness – like I do with Webified Development. However, if your plan is to create and sell the website, then you would likely not want your own name tied to the website, as once it leaves your hand, your identity could be assumed by the new owners. To prevent my identity from being assumed by a future owner, I’ve chosen to create an identity online, which will become the face of the garden sites created by Webified Development. I can then sell this identity to new owners, along with all of the social accounts tied to that identity, without risking my personal identity being taken.

You should completely plan out your new identity before initiating its creation. Not to have it mapped out in advance, may have you rethinking your strategy as you go, and cause you to do twice the amount of work. Here’s some ideas to think about in advance:

Email Presence
You will first want to create an email around this persona, hobby, or company. Yahoo, Gmail, and even Social Shake can provide you with a choice of email addresses. Using social shake might actually be the better bet, as it also enables you to create an online identity that can then be found and indexed by Google, and there’s less competition for keyword rich names. It merely serves as a redirection to your existing email account.
Create an Image
You will want to use a likeness image of your new persona. You can download stock photography from a variety of websites online. I use IStockPhoto.com. I suggest you find a variety of photographs using the same individual, hopefully in different outfits, to increase the effectiveness of the persona.
Create a Life
Now that you have a set of photos you can use which reflect the identity of this new persona, you can create a set of facts concerning this person, such as age, location, marital status, etc…. in this case it was important that my gardener reflect the location of the area he is photographed gardening in. It would be easily seen if I presented photos of my gardener in a desert that he didn’t live in Florida! Now that you have those life facts, you’ll be able to fill in the fields at the social sites!
Use Social Sites
The next step is to choose a list of social sites that you can register with and begin to utilize. Don’t rush this process… but build up your list of social activities over time, devoting 15-30 minutes a day for this sole purpose. Don’t approach this as an SEO purpose, but as a social exercise where your persona is establishing contacts and followers in the field of interest.
Join Only Wire
OnlyWire.com is a tool that can be used to post snippets, and bookmarks to a variety of Social media websites online. There is a fully functional free version, and a paid version. I use it in simplifying the process of submitting bookmarks of my articles to a variety of social sites dedicated to bookmarks. As you create your accounts with the Social Bookmark Sites, you can register them with OnlyWire, so that when you make an article post, it gets distributed to all of your bookmark sites at once. Don’t forget to also continue the creation of your Social Shake account by providing the social sites to your identity there.

Keyword Domains – An Analysis

There are myriads of discussions online debating the effect of selecting domains which are keyword rich. “Ann Smarty” recently made a post on SearchEngineJournal which, while recognizing the effectiveness of this in past practice, suggests that it is becoming less successful. This theory of hers is based on two points:

this has been abused by spammers registering hundreds of “long-tail” domains to rank them for exact match;

today it is almost impossible to get hold of any “exact match” domains that wouldn’t be too long or pointless.

I’m not an expert in SEO or as experienced as “Ann” is, but I find some serious flaws in the two points she provided above. The first really really really obvious mistake is point #2. I found a domain just today which contained two words, eleven letters, and I was able to pick up the .org version with a dash between the two words. Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool showed that the two word keyword combination had over 110,000 searches in the US during the month of May, and over 240,000 on average global searches. I was able to repeat this several times with different 2 word combinations, and while the .com was consistently taken, it was rarely developed. In all of my examples there were at least one possible match for the two keywords, using one of the three top domains, .com, .net, and .org. While my selection of an .org domain is less then desirable, especially if it applies to a commercial product, it does refute her claims of whether they are still available. She did after all use the words “almost impossible.”

The first point she provides is unsubstantiated, but, it does hold some merit. Spammers have abused the long-tail domain market; however, as with most things, spammers have abused all domain names whether long-tail or not. Let’s face it, if spammers would just go away, the whole world would be better off. As long as they can make a penny where you and I make a dollar, however, they’ll continue to spam in such bulk as to make up the difference. Google doesn’t need to punish domain names in order to punish a site which is clearly being used for no purpose other then spamming for search traffic. Their secret algorithm is fined tuned enough that a website designed solely around a name will lack sufficient weight to get it high enough in Google’s serps to be seen by the average browser.

I believe that keywording a domain does help you. While the effectiveness may be diminishing, it isn’t because Google is punishing it. And a good website developer can still find sufficient long-tail keywords to develop legitimate websites around. The usage of this method doesn’t insure you instant wealth. But it does give you a leg up on your competition.

To read the actual article by “Ann” and the indepth followup conversation visit: How Much Weight Do Keywords in the Domain Name Still Have (Poll)?

A review of WL Marketing’s Directory Submission Service

While the value of a directory link can be debated, what cannot be debated is the fact that all back links are at the least a zero gain. Meaning, that it is a rare instance when a link to your website will penalize you. Since I own and operate my own Epic Directory I can vouch that they are still very efficient in pushing link power, providing that the directory or category itself is relevant to the topic of the site.

WL Marketing has several different options when purchasing directory submissions. I chose the 600 directories over a 1 month timeline, which included having a Google email address setup for the submission service. The cost for this service was $40. Over the next several months I am going to report here on the success or non-success of this purchase, giving you my thoughts as they submit and the success rate of such submissions. This will be done in a series of posts.

I would like to state my goals for this submission service. I hoped to gain 180 back links from the 600 submissions, which is a 30% rate. I would consider anything greater than that, a successful sale from this service.

The purchase was made on May 2, 2009 and after review of my site details, and some additional categories added by the staff of WL Marketing, my site was setup for inclusion in their processing.

May 4, 2009

Overnight I received word via email from WL Marketing that they had “updated my account.” After logging into their backend I found that they had begun the processing of my directory submission to the first set of directories:

2009-05-03 20:18:18 Status changed from New to Processing
2009-05-04 01:42:30 Status changed from Processing to Updated

Available to me was an excel download file that included my login details for accessing the new gmail account. I also received a list of 156 directories that my website was submitted to on the first day. Included in the details was the PR of the homepage of the domain, and the category to which my site was submitted. An initial look at the url’s appeared good. For purposes of privacy to WL Marketing, I will not release the directories they submitted to.

On opening the new gmail account I found I had already received 128 emails, and 7 emails labeled as spam. I first opened the spam folder and immediately confirmed that those 7 emails were in fact valid and I labeled them as not spam. So, out of 156 submissions last night, 135 of those submissions initially replied.

When submitting to directories or utilizing services such as directory submission, it is important for you to monitor the emails you receive from the directories themselves. Some of them will require you to confirm your submission. Out of the 135 emails I received, I needed to confirm 37 of those, or about 27%. Failing to confirm your submission will lower their success rate. In the excel file that was provided by WL Marketing I was told that those directories needing confirmations had already been done, but I was unable to confirm that via emails within the gmail account. In each case where I confirmed the listing, I received an additional email confirming that fact, so I have to doubt if it was done properly.

From the initial 156 submissions, two listings were approved and one rejected within 9 hours. The rejected one was because the site was not Thailand related… which of course means, my site should never have submitted to that country related directory. Of the two accepted submissions one of those was through the 37 submission confirmation that I had made earlier.

Make Your Idea Work For You

Any plant starts with a seed. An apple seed is normally small and ugly, but with the proper care it can grow into a large bountiful tree. The success of this apple tree does not happen by chance; for the seed to grow, it needs to be cared for, either naturally, or by a caretaker. The more planning that goes into its care, the more bountiful should be the result. Seeds which are not planted in fertile soil, will likely perish; but those planted in good soil will flourish and multiply.

Webified Development started with a seed, a simple idea – introduce myself. Having been an active and successful developer online for more than a decade, it was time for me to come out of the shadows and introduce myself. I quickly realized though, that that idea in and of itself would be of no interest to you. Who am I? Why would you care who I am? Were you not just thinking that as you read those words – to introduce myself? So I needed more than my selfish reason of self worth to make this website successful. I needed a reason for you to want to visit, and to keep you coming back.

Keeping you coming back – that is a major part in what makes a website successful. Paul Boag provides some useful tips for keeping visitors coming back and you should use some or all of them in the development of your own website.

But the key to making people come back is not some marketing trick, or new web plugin. It’s your idea, your seed. Make your idea work for you, by creating a concept that works for your visitor. If you are successful in doing that, then your visitors will like your idea enough to want to come back. Your taking that simple dormant idea you started with and germinating it so that it can grow.

In order to grow WebifiedDevelopment into a bountiful website, I needed to change my selfish idea into a sentiment that you can identify with. It’s the old adage – It’s not about me, it’s about you. So I asked myself. What one quality or trait do I have that I can instill in you? And my answer was confidence. Out of my original idea to introduce myself , I created a concept for this website: To instill in you the confidence and ability to succeed online.

Notice the original idea? It centered around a selfish desire of mine, while the final concept is no longer about me, but instead about you. Take the idea you have for a website and focus the concept on your visitors, the end result will be much more successful!

Website Development usually starts with an idea, a seed… but all to often that seed is what you want to do, and not what you can do for your visitors. Germinate your seed, and turn your idea into a concept by having your idea focus on your visitors. Then, with careful planning and upkeep, that seed you planted, will begin its natural development into a bountiful website. And instead of you toiling over your original idea, you will make that idea work for you.

Starting a Website from Scratch

Starting a website from scratch is always one of the hardest things to do in web development. Taking that idea you have, and turning it into a successful online presence takes effort, endurance, equanimity, exclusivity and execution. This website will be no different…

If I am not willing to put a long-term time commitment into the development and upkeep of this site, then I am simply wasting your and my time. Truly becoming successful at anything takes effort.

If I cannot make this website both informative and believable to you, then it will fall into oblivion, it needs that character to endure.

If I am not passionate about what I am developing here, then this website will likely fall by the wayside. However, that emotion needs to be checked with an equanimity which keeps my focus on you. Too much passion, and the focus of a website often changes to that which the developer wants instead of what the user needs.

If I am not willing to create something truly unique, then I will simply create a redundant online exposure, where any one of hundreds if not thousands of other developers can simply step in and fill my shoes. Exclusivity is not a requirement to have a presence on the web, it is a requirement to truly succeed.

If I do not deliver the broad vision of this website, with a finite and imaginative execution, then its’ focus will get lost in the vast expanse of the WWW.

Webified Development is conceptualized from a simple idea: to introduce myself to you, the user of this website, and to instill in you the confidence and ability to succeed online. I shall do this by employing the following features:

Web Beats

Original articles meant to provide humble advice in developing your online business. I do not pretend to be somebody I am not. If you are looking for somebody who promises you fast riches, then I am not your man. If you want dependable and honest advice, that you can build an online business from, then these “web beats” will be of service to you.

The word “beat” is one of those words which has such a variety of meaning and usages, many of which I hope will become a fitting tribute to this section of my site:

To be projected with blinding intensity.
To make incapable of finding something to think, do, or say.
To be greater or better than.
To shape, break, or flatten with repeated blows.
To punish with blows or lashes.
Area of responsibility

Book Reflections

If you are as avid a reader as I am, then you will enjoy this section as I post about books I am currently reading which reflect upon the development of my websites. I am self-taught, as are many other online entrepreneurs around the world. While a lot of my learning has come from trial and error, much of it has also been inspired from books. These will not be “book reviews” as you may often see online… those normally are meant to inform you of what a book is about. Instead I want to give you a fresh look into how that particular book can help businesses like ours succeed… I call these Book Reflections.

Notes to Self You

Notes to Self You should play a part in your perusal of this site. They are a place for me to jot a note to myself in the event I once again forget how to tweak something to make it work right… Why place it online then? On the off chance of helping somebody else who may be encountering the same problems I do during site development. These notes will have a wide variety of subject matters: SEO, CSS, PHP, marketing… you get the picture.

Future “columns”

R + D – Research and Development – An area where I would research a concept and then develop a site from that idea, detailing the trials and errors I encountered along the way. The first item will concern the development of this very website.
Enliven – Articles meant to inspire other developers and myself.