2003
11/19/03 - Updates to Client List and Portfolio pages. Now have Innerworks Solutions, Infravio, and Las Isabelas added into the Portfolio pages.
11/17/03 - OK, off the soap box... for a while. Updated portfolio pages tonight. Added testimonials as well. Soon to update the Assocaites page with new bios of new S&A Associates.
11/15/03 - It was the best of time. It was the like really just downright strangest of times! Still is I think. Some numbers coming out of the government seem to point to a recovery... jobless rate down, productivity up... tell it to all the out-of-work people. I'm very fortunate to have my web development business! Of course, I wanted that from the beginning, but then having a steady pay check through the last 2 years would certainly have helped. November, 2002 to now has been the hardest. My theory is that since most of my client base is comprised of nonprofits, it was only a matter of time since 9/11 that the nonprofit sector would be brought to a sudden stop in operating expenditures. I'm sure they've all been struggling through the last year and I'll bet a lot of nonprofit business models are changing. Seems like a number of foundations have curtailed their granting-making and are moving toward an RFP model of distributing funds. That'll trickle down to smaller service organizations across the country!
So, meanwhile, S&A's been chugging along. Site maintenance has dwindled substantially, and new clients have been further and farther apart. Several client projects I started a year of more ago are still in the works which seems to be the result of short staffing more than funding. Nobody has the time to devote to content development, so the project limps along while updates to content drip in.
The good news though is that this has spawned a resurgence of clients in the private and corporate sector. Not a bad arena to be involved in! Overall, it looks like there's a renewed confidence in ecommerce, and businesses are again revising their sites to better reflect what they're now up to in this economy... and making sure people know they're still alive! Of course, those of us living and breathing the Web knew all along this wasn't going away... just a time for correction.
We have several years of serious web development and usage under our collective belts now, and we've learned a lot about what works, what doesn't, and what this new medium is really capable of. All the "big boys" are still stretching the boundaries, but becoming quite conservative in their approach to UI at the same time. We're learning that users come to the web most of all for information (although shopping is growing in huge numbers -- look at Amazon, Ebay). Like I've always said, people don't log onto the web to watch bad TV. Certainly, entertainment-based businesses like performers, gamers, auto manufacturers (what, you don't think cars/SUVs aren't becoming little entertainment pods??? take a look... now there's even DVD players in several models!) benefit from creative, well-built sites that approach the same level of quality they would put into television, radio and magazine ads. But otherwise, visitors care less about "pretty" and more about "usability." No matter how creative and "cool" a site is, if users don't find what they came looking for easily and intuitively, they don't come back... unless they have to... then they just hate it!
08/05/03 - Blog flog smog dog grog pog hog nog diddly-scrogg fiddly-trog. Hippity tog, bibbley jog, good cheek, bad cheek, og-og plogg!
08/04/03 - Updates to Portfolio page.
07/14/03 - Business picks up! Now S&A has just pushed we8there.com (06/29/03 actually) to rave reviews. Try it out... an opportunity to post your review/opinion regarding restaurants and/or hotels/B&Bs, or to look up you favorite and see what someone else says about them. A totally non-paid review site where real peiple post real opinions. A pretty great concept, and a really good interface, if I don't mind saying so myself!
Now working on an e-com site which will specialize in plus size women's lingerie called Sheer Attitude. Should be ready to push by end of July. Additional project keep plodding along, like the rebuild of Peninsula Volunteers, Arkansas Scholarship Connection, Legal Copy Services (links to come when new sites ready), etc. The economy is still grating on everyone's nerves so budgets are tight. I'm finding the need to give away more time right now than I bill for just to keep clients in some progressive mode, but am grateful I'm continuing to get new clients!
05/16/03 - Well, it's not really that bad... I have been working. Working on this site somewhat as well... new newsletter, clients to client list, testimonials, etc.... and, oh yeah, that glossary thing. Now you can find out what anti-aliasing, browser compatibility, or hexadecimal really mean.
03/12/03 - I'm still here... honest. Obsessed with a project maybe, but here. NWANPC is "live" now. Actually has been for a few weeks. Plus have 2 demo sites (xena.nwanpc.org and whc.nwanpc.org, both fictitious nonprofits) that show some of the dynamic capabilities Jean-Louis has been building.
Great news! JL's moving practically next door. It'll be good to have such a friend and business partner so close... we could have food fights we'll be so close!
Also, have activated www.seidelandassociates.com.
01/14/03 - Résumé & Cover Letter upated.
01/04/03 - Added a new associate to the Associate's page.
01/02/03 - Can't believe it's already '03! Put an addition to the Styleguide pages... specifically the "Special Characters Hot List". Also added pages to the Virtual Heart pages. |
