Archive for December, 2006

Domain name renewal scam - watch out!

Published on December 11, 2006 in General. 0 Comments


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I was speaking with my cousin a few days ago and she showed me a letter she got in the mail recently.

It was an invoice (that looked legitimate) that stated that she had to renew her domain within the next 15 days or she could loose it.

Four things were disturbing about the letter:

  1. The company was unknown .. even to a nerd like me.
  2. The letter had a threatening tone to it - if you know what I mean.
  3. The cost for renewal was crazy high: $950 USD!
  4. The company was located overseas. Of course.

… She was wondering if this made sense and wasn’t sure what to do.

All you experienced nerds out there know this was (and is) an obvious scam. I guess the Nigerian inheritance story is loosing its’ charm.

Domain name renewal should cost you no more than the cost of buying them from a proper registrar in the first place - about $10.

If you want to be safe, log on to your registrars website and check the status of your domain.

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So if you get this type of letter in the mail (or email,) just toss it in the trash.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

The hierarchy of web design client concerns.

Published on December 10, 2006 in Business of Web Design and Real World Web Design. 1 Comment

Ah, web designing nerds, you have studied hard, validated your pages and now you’re ready to leverage your skills for fame and fortune … ok, maybe for just a steady paycheck.

When it comes to the earning a living, what matters most, is what your potential clients are concerned about.

The musings of ivory tower nerds (who probably don’t get too many jobs) often times does not help to pay the bills!

… Code is not beautiful (a fat bank account is) and the Web standards means nothing to the people who put the food on your table.

(Now I’m in trouble!)

THE HIERARCHY OF CLIENT CONCERNS

When it comes to web design, I think the hierarchy of client concerns are:

  • Price - everyone wants to save a buck!
  • Design - a website has to look good. Remember the job is ‘web designer‘ and not ‘web coder’.
  • Usability - though clients have no idea what ‘usability’ is, they just want the site to navigate easily.
  • Google position. If you can make a site rank on Google quickly (even with obscure search terms,) you will be god.

Notice that Web standards and code that validates is not on the list.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

Why Web Monkeys Need to Swing.

Published on December 10, 2006 in Business of Web Design, Professional Web Design and Real World Web Design. 0 Comments

Web monkeys are web designers who make their living designing websites. That may seem like a redundant statement, but there are many out there who are just casual web designers …

I wanted to point that out because this article targets the full time web designer (web monkey) and not the casual web-nerd.

SWINGING WEB MONKEYS

Swinging web monkeys are those few smart web designers who don’t rest on the laurels - they continue to learn.

.. If you want to stay competitive and pull ahead of the pack (of nerds,) you ought to spend time learning new technologies, techniques and even be brave enough to graduate to ‘code monkey’ status.

CODE MONKEYS

I defined what a code-monkey is in a previous post. But in a nutshell, code monkeys are nerds who are inclined to code and not design.

For these people, I strongly suggest that they learn to program - especially PHP. But even if you are a great web designer, I still suggest that you become a little ‘code-monkeyish’ and learn some PHP - it will make your web design better.

SWINGING: CODE MONKEY STYLE

It is even better to learn several programming languages because with each new language, you will gain a better overall understanding of programming - and that’s just the half of it!

When you learn a new programming language you will:

  • Gain a deeper understanding of languages in general.
  • Learn new methods of solving problems.

I was reminded of this just recently when I took a serious look at Ruby. As a played with this nifty language, I found that it expressed concepts (that I had trouble with in Java,) in such a way that it was finally made clear.

.. Because I bothered to learn a little Ruby, my understanding of Java got better!

Beyond the conceptual level, I also picked up some practical programming strategies that I could apply to both my Java and PHP programming.

CONCLUSION

So there you have it; it makes sense to learn new techniques and technologies, if you want to stay ahead of the game.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

PHP Article in December Issue of Web Designer Magazine

Published on December 5, 2006 in PHP. 0 Comments

For those of you interested in PHP, I have a new article out in the December issue of Web Designer Magazine:

OOP in PHP.

object oriented programming in php article.

It is a beginners article that targets total newbies … in terms of OOP (object oriented programming).

By the end of the article, you will have a good understanding of the fundamentals object oriented programming, and you will have enough knowledge to use and build your own objects in PHP.

CIAO,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

Should Web Designers use Templates?

Published on December 2, 2006 in Business of Web Design, Professional Web Design and Web Design. 1 Comment


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Recently on the killersites.com forum a question was put the the group:

“Do you use a template as a web designer, it does save time, and you can add your own design on a template etc……”

You can read the other members comments on this, but for me, I found that templates are an essential tool in the web design process.

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Back in the late 90’s, when I ran a web design firm, we actually developed our own set of web templates that cut down our production and cost considerably. At the same time, the web sites themselves became better and better since the code in the templates got more and more refined.

So if you are a web designer and you want to save time and money, build your own mini-collection of web templates or start shopping at a web template shop.

Once again, I’ve included a podcast / mp3 for those who like to listen.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com