Must Know names in Web Design
Posted on | September 2, 2010 | No Comments
My companies aside (they would obviously top this list in a heartbeat….really…) there are a few noteworthy companies in web design that I think you all should familiarize yourselves with. This post is also dedicated to all those that have asked me to point them in the right direction when my company was unable to take on their projects. The following companies are good friends, reliable and some of the best you’ll come across, so check them out.
AgencyNet
One of the top agencies with a unique and interesting website. Their portfolio is top notch and world class. In a world of Flash gone wrong, theirs is an example of perfect execution.
Jason Santa Maria
JASON SANTA MARIA is consistently recognized for his style of design and great imagination in web interfaces that maintain a balance of usability and effective content presentation. Award winning is an understatement.
Vitaly Friedman and Smashing Magazine
Vitaly Friedman helped to create Smashing Magazine, one of the most popular web design blog in existence. Some of its unbelievable statistics include – 130,000 RSS Subscribers and over 80,000 followers on Twitter. It is a one stop shop for inspiration, tutorials and vital info on design. He is a true leader and source of inspiration in the field.
Juxt Interactive
Long standing and highly respected, Juxt Interactive has an extensive portfolio of high caliber clients. Their design is constantly on the cutting edge
Domani Studios
Digital Agency in Brooklyn with huge portfolio. Has designed and developed for major companies including Jose Cuervo and Doritos.
Dan Cederholm
Founder of Simple Bits Studio, Dan is involved in many projects in the design field and has written several books on the subject as well.
Larissa Meek
Larissa is Associate Creative Director at AgencyNet as well as a Miss USA finalist, model, actress and reality TV star. Quite the resume
Veerle Pieters
Veerle has been a prolific freelance designer since the early 90s and as CEO of Duoh! Accomlplished, experienced and talented she says that her “dream is to have a small contribution in making the web a better place” .
Avenue A-Razorfish
Winner of countless agency awards, Avenuea Razorfish is one of the world’s largest interactive agencies and is an operating unit of Seattle-based aQuantive, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. It’s client list reads like a who’s who.
45Royale inc.
Happily described as a small, boutique studio is now considered as one of the most cutting edge in the U.S.
Fabio Sasso
Fabio is co-founder of design studio, 3YZ and runs the tutorial site abduzeedo.com, a blog recording his ventures through the design world. This is quickly becoming one of the most inspiring design sites on the internet, where you can find a library’s worth of hands-on tutorials.
Brendan Dawes
Brendan is creative director for mN, an interactive design company based in Manchester, UK. I first became familiar with him during the New Masters of Flash series.
Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain/31Three
Considered to be one of the top and most sought after web designers in the world. He is a one many powerhouse of design and usability.
Mike Precious
Ontario Canada based multimedia designer has a rapidly growing international client base that consists of web developers, advertising agencies, design studios and publication companies.
Collis Taeed/Tuts+
Collis is the founder and creator of the mini empire known as Envato. Today, Envato network is one of the biggest creative communities with over 21 subunits catering to just about every design and development sector.
There we have it, the best of the best.
PS. I didn’t plug any of my company sites, see? That’s called being classy 
Tags: design companies > designer friends > development companies
Spammer Profiling
Posted on | September 2, 2010 | No Comments
Yes, spammer profiling, I know what some of you are thinking, actually I don’t, but I know for a fact spammers are not going to like this. Might just be me and my odd sense of humor, but many times, while sifting through my blogs spam in particular, I smile, sometimes grin, and rarely, but it happens, burst out laughing at how stupid and ignorant (also illiterate) comment spammers are. I’m not trying to start something, and I’m definitely not trying to provoke the cesspool of spammers out there, lord knows I don’t have the time nor the sanity to deal with those antisocial, flesh eating, piranhas of the blogosphere.
Having said all that, and what a mouthful it was, I’m going to list and have a little fun, with the spammer profiles I run into on a daily basis, share your own if you have them, which I’m sure you do!
The Hairy Sex Midgets of the Spam World:
You know the type, don’t you? They burst out with a few unlinked keywords for a few lines and then slap a few dozen links with the strangest, absolutely useless, key phrases? SexSpacer.com has spammed me to no end, those bastards, with links and anchor text as weird as “punk toe nail teen blowjob” and “jamacia nood beeches pictors”, I never said they could spell, most can’t, and even if you think that maybe those phrases are intentionaly typod for the typo traffic, you look at those words and wonder who would be dumb enough to misspell those words ‘that’ bad….
The Head Banging, Cocoon Sniffing Spammers:
dshjklshnjsalkhwjl sabnjlkashnjkla shjua habja haja hjsd whjiahjklah whlkja bnaj hbjw bja bjw dshjklshnjsalkhwjl sabnjlkashnjkla shjua habja haja hjsd whjiahjklah whlkja bnaj hbjw bja bjw dshjklshnjsalkhwjl sabnjlkashnjkla shjua habja haja hjsd whjiahjklah whlkja bnaj hbjw bja bjw dshjklshnjsalkhwjl sabnjlkashnjkla shjua habja haja hjsd whjiahjklah whlkja bnaj hbjw bja bjw dshjklshnjsalkhwjl sabnjlkashnjkla shjua habja haja hjsd whjiahjklah whlkja bnaj hbjw bja bjw.
Yes they’re still around though most have died off, thanks to a dump truck some of us hired to drive around running them all over and disposing of their boneless bodies. They’re fun because they’re so easy to detect as spam, but why some persist on spamming like that is beyond me.
The Ass Kissing, Fish Scented, Biblical Shag Hamsters:
These ones annoy me because some get it right, sometimes. The ones that comment with things like:
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon. <
>
Now some get it right in that they don’t kiss ass as much, and some even get it ‘righter’ is that even a word? by not linking within their comment. Only their names are linked. But then, spammers with that much sense are almost ‘ok’ in my books, and I let them off the hook by simply adding their comment to my spam can and not blocking their IP, what can I say, I sympathize with their likes.
Idiots:
I can’t think of something smart enough, or degrading enough to describe these types of spammers, Idiots will just have to do. These are the types that add urls and then odd numbers after each, and they add them in bulk…almost makes little sense why any human would do that, I mean, the headbangers have more sense in that they might not get caught up in the odd outdated spam filter, but these idiots are just…idiots. Their comments look a little like this:
http://treporprofpay.h.gs/sitemap50.html , 624, http://enunreca.edu.ms/sitemap11.html , 3424, http://sapidiso.c.pl/sitemap7.html , 2854, http://enacrirab.m.gp/sitemap5.html , 7329, http://esthersong.you.lc/sitemap28.html , 7801, http://enunreca.edu.ms/sitemap1.html , 5701, http://steringai.18.lc/sitemap51.html , 2283, http://kaduckladpe.com.nu/sitemap39.html , 6190
Only longer, and more annoying.
Anyway, I have more but I can’t seem to justify spending more time typing about spammers, even if it’s for a little fun. Got any interesting profiles you’d like to share? Or a diagnosis for some of these helpless, poor, idiotic beings? Ha. I could come up with a few but then i’d be asking for trouble 
Oh and if there are any spammers reading this that would like to clear up any misunderstanding, that would perhaps like to share their views, please do!
Tags: profiling spammers > spam > spam profiles > spammers > spamming
Minimal Design RoundUp
Posted on | August 31, 2010 | 3 Comments
So even though life is hectic and I’m busier than…well even though I’m just extremely busy, a few of my sites are going through a redesign phase and I’m opting for the minimal design route. Of course, I don’t have the time to do them all myself so I’m getting Jim, Dean and Kim to work on them ‘with’ me, with as in, I’ll approve or disapprove the designs, eventually. heh.
Anyway, Jim emailed me a list of some pretty snazzy, somewhat inspirational Minimal Website Designs to go through, and I must say, they were absolutely fab. Some were a bit too minimal for my taste but all well thought out and well designed. So I’m sharing them with you guys. Can’t hurt I’m sure. Also, the last inspirational list I did got scrutinized for its lack of detail, and because I’m trying to make this a ‘helpful/inspiring’ list I’m going to take some time to add a little detail, like site url etc. If that’s not enough for you, then kindly piss off, best i’ve got.
Just click on the images for a larger view or visit the site for a better look.
1. DEVOUR (www.devour.com)
Devour scours the web for awesome videos. You know, the ones actually worth watching.
2. MoodyGuy (www.moodyguy.net)
It’s a French magazine about something or another, lots of gay looking fellows pulling on their nipples.
3. Arizona State VCD (www.arizonastatevcd.com/2010)
Uncovering the Issues 2010 = Design solutions for important social issues, featuring a culmination of design principles and practices learned within the ASU graphic design program.
4. Process Journal Australia (www.processjournal.com.au)
Process Journal is a quarterly released design publication that showcases the very best of Australian and International design.
5. Image Now (www.imagenow.ie)
Image Now Design and Film Consultants employ strategy and design to develop bigger, better, more powerful brands for clients, whatever their business needs.
6. Rodrigo Corral (www.rodrigocorral.com)
Personal portfolio of Rodrigo Corral
7. Chicago-l-Shirts (www.chicagolshirts.com)
Chicago L-Shirts offers L stop t-shirts
8. Christopher Meeks (www.christophermeeks.com)
Wonderful Noise. I am a designer. My glasses look like Racquetball goggles. I live in Saint Louis.
9. Brandon SAVOY (www.brandonsavoy.com)
Portfolio and site of Brandon Savoy, Californian Photographer.
10. Signature FLower (www.sig-f.com)
???????????????????????Web??????
Which translates into: (Shigunechagurupuhorudingusu operated Web site.) – It’s flower related anyway.
Tags: minimal > minimal design > minimal websites > minimal wordpress theme
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Posted on | August 27, 2010 | Enter your password to view comments
BlackHat Design
Posted on | August 27, 2010 | 7 Comments
Yes, there is such a thing as Black Hat Design and as always I’m going to enlighten and educate you on some of the most common techniques. Before I do so though, as with all my dodgy posts, a disclaimer of sorts:
Disclaimer:
I’m not promoting Black Hat SEO. I do not practice Blackhat SEO (or Blackhat Design etc.) on any of my sites or any of my clients sites. Much of what I’m going to be writing here in this post and any BlackHat related posts in the future is based on observation and speculation as well as past experience. I have been wrong before and could be wrong here so I can’t be held responsible for anything you misinterpret or act upon thereby getting screwed over royally as a result. I’m also not trying to convince you that White Hat SEO is better or worse than BH SEO. I’m not trying to defend the existence of blackhat seo nor am I in any way justifying its use. I’m simply discussing and pointing out the other side of the coin. Judge me if you must, lemming. Also, this particular post may be a little hard to follow, blame Jack Daniels for that, his powers of persuasion got the better of me…yes I know it’s only 6pm. Shut up.
Now, what is BlackHat Design? It’s pretty much any design aspect that serves a darker motive. This could be anything from CSS powered Disguised Ads, friend spam, forced information disclosure forms, hidden costs, silent credit card roll-overs and more. People have opted out of adding the dirty work into their privacy policies, and disclaimers because more and more people read them. So, they have figured a new, pretty smart, completely unethical method of getting around this. Working whatever they want into the design, and designing around it so that users miss it, don’t notice, or misinterpret it as something else entirely, all the while it’s right there, in front of them.
Take Disguised Ads for example:
These are simple adsdisguised as other kinds of content or navigation, in order to get users to click on them.
Here’s an example on one of the largest download sites in the world, Softpedia.com
Try to figure out where the ‘real’ download link really is (hint, it doesn’t contain the word download in it at all)
How about Hidden Cost Tricks?
Hotels.com hired me back in 2002 for some onsite tweaking, Mr. Diener has always been nice enough and transparent with the sites functionality and user friendliness etc. Bob Diener, president of Hotels.com, quoted in the New York Times (2003):
‘Mr. Diener said it would not make sense for his site to show the final price first, “because consumers know there’ll be taxes added on. [...] When they’re ready to purchase, they’ll see the taxes anyway. [...] It’s very easy to see. It’s just another click away.”‘
Only after you’ve selected your package and about to proccess your order on a different page are you hit with unexpected fees (see “extra guest charges”, “taxes” and “fees” in the right hand column)…easily missed if you’re in a hurry.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the reason for this post is not to out anyone, there are thousands if not more sites, popular sites even, using these techniques as we speak. I mean, some might say “hidden cost tricks” are not tricks at all, but a marketing/sales technique to reduce end user price shock.
Just trying to point out some design related techniques used for what can be considered as BlackHat methods is all. Also, i suppose I’m asking myself a question by posting this: Where does black hat stop and white hat start, when you don’t have a clearly defined set of guidelines? For SEOs, there are 1000001 ways to bend the Google Guidelines and practice BH without a worry in the world…no?
Anti-usability design patterns maybe considered blackhat design tricks, but at times, they’re necessary, right? What do you guys think?
Tags: anti-usability design > blackhat design > design tricks > marketing tricks
Comment for $100
Posted on | August 27, 2010 | 9 Comments
I’m obviously not going to give you a $100 for commenting you fool, but, I am going to do 1 better, I am, read on.
The problem with people today is they lack motivation, and drive, and the willingness to try new things. Come to think of it, there’s a lot wrong with people today, people like you, but don’t let that get you down, because i’m here to make it all right. For years I have made a living off doing nothing but the obvious, setting up sites, slapping adsense and other ads up, generating a steady stream of natural traffic and forgetting about said sites. My adsense checks have been coming in every month since, and not that I have ever bragged, but nice mid 5 digit checks coming in ever month from sites i’ve literately forgotten about is a pretty nice thing to have.
Why should you care?
I want to help you out, and no, there’s no catch. I’m not going to ask you to buy a ‘make money now’ ebook, nor am i going to link you to something i recommend though an affiliate link or any of the other marketing money making gimmicks most dabble in. No, I’m not going to even give you anything to do, I’m simply going to show you how easy it is to make money off adsense…simple as that.
Besides proper adsense placement, and the math involved in getting ads that pay out nicely per click to show up on your sites rather than those lame 10cents a click ads etc, the one important factor to earn money is traffic. Not any traffic, targeted traffic that converts.
So here’s what I’m going to do, to save you having to read a 5 page long response about how exactly to generate the targeted traffic which converts, I’m going to ask you for yours sites url. That’s it, just tell me im your daddy, or that you love me, or any useless flattering remark in the comment below along with your url, with adsense on the site you link me to of course…and watch your traffic meter spike, along with your adsense #’s.
Now this doesn’t always work, 9 times out of 10 it does, so if it works for you, comment back here tomorrow and tell me I’m your everything, that I am the Buddha of all things sexy and that you worship the ground i walk on, and i’ll email you a personal email, yes, email you an email, no kidding, and let you know exactly how I made you however much you end up making. I’m going to take time off to personally do this, so appreciate my efforts god damn it. Just so I don’t get a gazzilion comments, I’ll do this to the first 10 interesting flattering comments. So lie, kiss my ass, do it all, aint no shame in playing the game, and i’ll make you money, then show you how
Tags: Adsense > targeted traffic > traffic conversion
Cape Town Trip
Posted on | August 25, 2010 | 7 Comments
It was a business trip with an added 2 day do-as-you-please green card to Cape Town. So I landed safe and sound in Cape Town – was not really concerned by the special desk for declaring weapons at CPT airport…At first I thought they were selling them! Stupid me…Anyway, first day went by pretty well, I wasn’t tired and the meetings were awesome, I actually understood everyone this time.
The next day was pretty good, and after being ushered out to the SUV and driven to the middle of nowhere, my escort goes “What better way to see Cape Town than from the air!” Though honestly his English wasn’t that perfect, but you get the idea. Next thing I know I’m sitting outside drinkin some sparkle and waiting for them to ask me to bored my helicopter…I know, try to keep up.I had a 4 seater chopper all to myself. The view was completely breathtaking, we were up in the air for 40minutes the first time and managed to see Seals, Whales, Ship Wrecks, the 2010 world cup stadium, table mountain and so much more! I went on 3 more helicopter rides that day haha, talk about abuse!
For anyone staying in the Cape Town region you have to visit the wine areas – I was really lucky and had a personal tour of some of the more select places, the ones off the beaten track which were not frequented by bus loads of tourists!
I visited Meerlust, Jordan and Tokara – Each of which had its own selection of wines along heritage and history. The oldest of which was Merlust it had been going since the 16th Century, the grounds even featured a mausoleum for the family and staff who have worked on the land over the years!
I was given the opportunity to taste a selection of different wines at each venue and learn about the detail of wine making along with the industry as a whole. Now, truth be told, I did a lot of tasting, as for the learning, well, I walked away with one thing for sure, knowledge that their wine was absolutely amazing. These places are magnificent estates (or farms) valleys of vines stretching for miles…the scenery these places are set in is just breathtaking and truly beautiful. I then hopped back on the helicopter for another ride…what can I say, I was spoiled.
I visited the African Penguins Rock, played with 4 baby cheetah’s at a cheetah outreach program in Spier and a bunch of other things before my last evening in cape town. Last outing was to the local theater. The New Space theater was a small intimate place with about 150 seats, for the performance it was only about 1/3rd full, there was a strange mix of people – some very well dressed couples in their classy outfits, a few gay couples along with a family or two, and a few very poor looking folk. But hey, it was fun all the same!
That about did it, flew back home and called it a week.
Marketing as Warfare
Posted on | August 25, 2010 | 6 Comments
Unless you’re a pacifist, treat marketing as War. It doesn’t matter whether it’s war against your colleagues, war against your suppliers, war against your channels of distribution or war against your competitors. War is a good metaphor for the business of marketing, period. Remember one thing though, one very important detail; when in war, some people don’t take prisoners.
Here’s what happened today. Two of my competitors in one of my high priority niches decided to join forces and attempt to knock me from my #1 placement in the SERPs in order to both have a shot at raking in more potential customers. Little did they know, the sites ranking in 2nd and 4th on the first page for that key phrase were also mine *they ranked 3rd and 5th). They attempted an alliance marketing warfare strategy, their thinking was, we’ll out number this one site, help each other in the SERPs, debunk them with bad press and go after their current client base. Not a bad plan, only that it was flawed from the get go.
- That one site they were attacking was earning me over $15,000 a month (net) so I was obviously willing to put up a fight, even if it was going to cost me a few thousand in ‘take that’ money. I also had 2 other sites on that same page under my disposal, both ahead of them in the SERPs, head up!
- Alliance Strategies are for cowards with small penises. Yes I said it, and you heard it.
- In online marketing, there is no such thing as Bad Press. No such thing at all. There’s great. good, and okay Press. That might sound cliche, but hey, go ahead and diss any of my companies, talk all you want about them, once you cross the line i’ll sue your ass for every penny your worth, and unless you cross that line, you’re not hurting me any, so more exposure, extra link love and SERP spread. Loving it.
- They went after my clients. My loyal clients, clients that I have been working with for years. That’s like going to a mother and telling her that her 5year old, innocent, angelic, loving son is a piece of shit. Excuse the language, but try it, find out where that mother decides to shove her foot.
Why am I sharing this? I felt like educating my fellow marketeers and competitors alike. Unorthodox marketing tactics will not work against me. I thrive on competition, and welcome it, as long as it’s professional. I’ll see you guys at the top of the SERPs
Turkish Companies and Marketing
Posted on | August 24, 2010 | 1 Comment
Why Turkey? Turkish companies? Turkish Marketing Companies? Marketing Turkish Companies? Say what? – any of those and more maybe on your mind right now, I’ve not lost it, nor am I squatting keywords again, no… this is a genuine post regarding the Turkish Marketing industry, both offline and online.
I’m currently in the process of sealing a pretty snazzy deal with a Turkish based travel agency, I’ll be heading up their marketing efforts and playing with a pretty fun budget. So after doing a little research, I realized that most if not all mid-sized + companies, i’m talking about any company breaking $100 grand a year and upwards, don’t have an online presence. In fact, it’s hard to find almost any Turkish company ranking for anything remotely decent in the SERPs…much like the french and how crap they rank for anything these days too.
So what’s the big deal? Why should I care, why should you care? what does this all mean?
Running a lkt search i came up with some Turkish keywords with a search frequency of around 120,000 to 150,000 a month. Do you get it yet? No? Oh dear.
Some people, in some countries, know of a company they want to buy from, and most of these people are web savvy, enough to go straight to the web as natural instincts take over and Google the company…what do they get? Pretty much nothing they can use, so why not rank for said company yourself? Why not rank for these companies, put up similar products under some other affiliate network for example and rake in the cash?
Just a thought, I don’t know, something I found interesting and am having fun researching. So far, ive found a few keywords with zero competition that easily land me in the quarter million uvs a month mark. These are targeted phrases too mind you Get creative, research some other countries, learn a few words in their language and do some research, you’ll be surprised.
note: im beyond tired, if this made no sense, if it’s full of typos etc, please ignore it. thanks.
Tags: Marketing > turkish companies > turkish marketing > turkish marketing companies
Fruit Icons
Posted on | August 24, 2010 | 5 Comments
I was sent this amazing fruit icon pack by Dinzo of BasicDesigners last week and only now got round to checking it. I asked him for a fresh, modern, unique looking set of fruit icons for a project i have in mind, and well, he blew my mind with this awesome set.
It’s so amazing i’m sharing this set of 6 original, unique fruity icons! Totally delicious if I do say so myself, check them out and enjoy, free to download
