About This Website's Design

If you've landed on this page, you're either simply curious about website design, or you're looking to have a your own site designed and are searching for solid references. Please, let me share my experience with you and, perhaps, save you some time and/or money in the process.

After two significant false starts and shallow promises from abroad that delayed the project by months, the design of this website was eventually brought back home and rewritten in good old Raleigh, North Carolina. All coding and e-commerce interface work was done by a great local programmer, Joe Forcash, who is fluent in PHP and SQL. Joe can be reached by sending e-mail to . Joe is a great guy who is a pleasure to work with and super responsive (and very receptive to my streaming, sometimes lunatic, requests). Thanks, Joe!

Interestingly, by necessity, I had to purchase a copy of Dreamweaver early on just to correct the spelling and grammar mistakes that were constantly being made by the original programmers. This actually turned out in my favor, as aside from having to completely discard the original code and lose over a thousand dollars, I've found that owning a copy of Adobe's Dreamweaver comes in very handy for doing quick adds and changes to your site later on (food for thought, if you are thinking about owning your own website).

Lessons learned:

• Make sure you can communicate effectively in some mutually understandable language. I cannot tell you how many hours and how much money can be (was in this case) wasted because of this. We started with a 15-page specification complete with flowcharts, and the offshore design team originally tasked with this site's completion still never "got it." Also, take the time to check references. It was eventually learned that the team who started on this site's design didn't appear to have a clue about authorize.net's full capabilities. And, this was from a shop claiming to be pros in e-commerce. Yikes!
• Get your graphic design done first, then let your coders (programmers) code. I've usually found that coders who write software aren't very good graphic artists, and good graphic artists are usually to busy to learn how to write good code.
• Try to use local talent for the core of your website's development, if you can. Programming a website can be a very complicated job. Being able to talk to someone in the same time zone and meeting them face-to-face will do wonders for your relationship. Aside from these points, you are going to need them for a very long time if your business is successful (your site is never truly "done")
• Take some time to learn just a little bit about website design if at all possible. If you are about to have someone code one for you (not "design" the look, but actually program the pages), talking their language (HTML) will go a long way toward facilitating the process. I was fortunate in that I used to write software, so learning "HTML speak" wasn't difficult. You can do it too if you'll take some time to glance through a For Dummies book. If you are going to do e-commerce, I also suggest you learn a bit about SQL. It isn't any more difficult than Excel or Access, just different. This will keep you from having to fiddle around and pay extra for an Admin panel that can only be maintained by your website developer (can you hear cha-ching, cha-ching?)
• Don't think you can buy a diamond ring for the price of dime store jewelry. Yes, you can get your site coded for cheap. But, if no one will be able to maintain it later without rewriting it, you will get to pay for your website's development twice.

Enough sour grapes and advice, I'd be remiss if I didn't give special thanks to a great graphic company, The NetMenCorp down in Argentina. Regardless of what anyone tries to tell you by using this site as their own referenced work, The NetMenCorp did all of the graphics you see here. I can't say enough good things about these folks, and their communications skills are top shelf, first class all the way. This important trait is what enables them to be a successful international company. Thanks, guys and gals!

Lastly, now that your here anyway, look around. You might find something you like ;-)

Steve Kemp
Publisher
www.bluewhalepress.com