Analytics, Keywords, Social Media and the Power of the Blog
October 30, 2008 by Duncan · 1 Comment
Website analytics or statistics are basically just a bunch of numbers and information. By studying the analytics and making changes and tweaks you can fine tune your web projects to meet your goals. Over the past few months I have been heavily experimenting with this information on my website and it has amazed me just how much power you truly have about the people visiting your site.
So Our Story Begins
A few weeks ago I went to a friend’s wedding and at the wedding there were other friends who I see maybe once or twice a year, we all laughed and joked and had a really goodtime. One of the friends who we will call “X” happens to be a designer as well and works for a marketing company so naturally after a few drinks we ended up talking about the biz, me about freelancing and “X” about the marketing company.
I was talking about how the change in the economy has affected me and “X” was basically saying the same thing and also mentioned the fact that it felt like it was time to leave the marketing company and find something different and closer to home. As the night went on and I mentioned some of the work I do “X” mentioned that “I can get you work like that because I speak to all sorts of people all the time” blah, blah, blah.
Now I don’t put any faith behind that kind of stuff because first off the wedding was an open bar and secondly most people in those positions who never thought of you in the first place are usually just talking out of their bottom lip, we have all done it. Towards the end of the night I gave “X” some of my business cards, said goodbye and never thought about it again.
Checking Google Analytics Daily
The next week as I was going through my web statistics looking for the name of a company’s server I had sent my portfolio link to I noticed that somebody from the marketing company that “X” worked for had visited my homepage for all of three seconds…lol, could this have been “X”? Lately I have mainly been using my analytics to see how long companies I have sent my portfolio to are looking at my work, the longer they stay the more interested they are which is an awesome tool to have.
The Hate mail
Two weeks later I get this email from my website The Free Lance saying that somebody posted a comment. Before I read the comment I thought to myself that it was probably going to be spam as usual but to my surprise it was legit, not only was it legit it was badmouthing me telling me how much I sucked and what my work looked like. It was hate mail……Dun…dun..Dunnnnn!
This was not the first and probably won’t be the last time I get hate mail but as I read it I felt that it was from someone I knew, it was real personal and there was a real genuine hate to it like I really got under someone’s skin. So later on in the afternoon when I finally stopped crying and was able to face the nasty note again…lol I decided I wanted to see where this comment came from and if I could possibly find out who wrote it.
Logging Into the Web Statistics Yet Again
Google Analytics
When I received the email notification about the comment it came with a timestamp and an IP address. The timestamp alone makes it very simple to narrow down the amount of info you have to wade through and it didn’t take me very long to pull up the culprit’s location which was quite local, I knew it sounded too personal to be a stranger. When I looked to see the name of the server I was shocked to find out that it was “X’s” marketing company yet again, if I can watch users like a hawk think what your government can do.
Could it be?
I now knew deep down that it was “X” who sent me that devastating message but I still needed more proof so I checked the site that referred “X” to my blog and it happened to be Google. So what I am a 100% sure of is that somebody using “X’s” marketing company’s network found my site Digital Deceptions had to of typed something into the search engine to find me. What could it have been?
The Keywords
Next I clicked on the keywords button and watched with anticipation as the page changed and sitting right in front of my monitor were the keywords typed into Google by the mysterious hater “graphic design jobs durham region”. It had to be “X” at work looking for something different and closer to home just like what was stated in our conversation at the wedding a couple of weeks earlier.
I’m positive that “X” is the malefactor but I still had to investigate a little further so I went to Facebook where I knew “X” had a page and wouldn’t you know it, both the mystery message and “X’s” Facebook page both excessively use the period key…………The smoking gun!
So What Am I Supposed To Do?
My Reply to the Hate mail
How can you be drinking, laughing and having a goodtime with somebody one moment and then do a complete flip? It must have taken a lot for “X” to have even been at the same function let alone speak to me that night because from what I got from that vile message was true hate. For whatever reason “X” dislikes me so much I may never know but at least I now know the truth.
I really wanted “X” to know that I wasn’t guessing and knew the true creator of the note so I sent a short email to “X” revealing just a couple of the intimate details that only myself and the author would know and so far no reply.
Facebook Wall Post
Funny enough last night after finishing the first draft of this post “X” had written on my Facebook wall (lots of periods of course…..) nonchalantly asking me to take down some drunken photos that I had in my gallery (which I did) and mentioned that “business was down” and that there were no openings at the marketing company but would keep me posted. Ironically this is the first time “X” has ever contacted me and it was just like nothing had ever happened. What a phony all I want is for “X” to admit what they did but I guess that is not going to happen so let the song and dance begin.
What the Stats Have Really Told Me
Besides the fact that the analytics pointed me to whom, where and when they never told me why but they did paint a picture and as malicious as the comments were I know they weren’t premeditated. “X” genuinely found my site looking for something else, a graphic design job in Durham Region and maybe “X” was just having a rough day at work, the 1920 X 1200 pixel monitor they use wasn’t working properly or whatever and just took the eighteen minutes and thirteen seconds they stayed on my site to vent and just got caught. That is the story that I like to believe.
I don’t know if it is karma or dumb luck that “X” chose to be so dastardly when they did or if it was my impressive search engine optimization skills that lead them to my website but what I do know is that years ago I would have revealed names and places on my blog but luckily for “X” I have matured. Although “X” is apparently looking for a new job (that much was true) I’m sure “X” wouldn’t want their marketing company to know that let alone about the verbal venom that gets spewed from their servers.
Either way from a SEO and marketing stand point it would be a huge missed opportunity on my part to let something like this go and not blog about it plus it is absolutely hilarious. So to take a quote from the message that “X” sent me “keep it consistent, practice what you preach” I will, and just like in an earlier post I made called Public Relations and Moral Lessons for Designers I will be a professional and not mention your true name or company online because I wouldn’t want to get you fired, but I will tell all of our friends because unlike me it is you that truly sucks, good luck finding a job and if you ever need a web site give me a call. :p
Latest News at Digital Deceptions
October 26, 2008 by Duncan · Leave a Comment
I made a few changes this week most notably I uploaded a Services section which added another nine pages to the website. I initially didn’t plan on creating a Services section but it is a huge disadvantage from a search engine optimization stand point and it has already significantly raised the amount of traffic I’m getting with a number of chosen keywords plus it is just so easy to create new pages using Wordpress as a content management system.
Another way I have been increasing my page ranking is getting featured on Blog archive and Wordpress showcase sites such as Inspiration Up, We Love WP and Daniel Daphone. I submitted Digital Deceptions myself to Inspiration Up but the other two were pleasant surprises this week.
I have been slowly testing and incorporating some of the social media outlets that are available online deciding which ones suite me best and so far I am liking Stumble Upon and Twitter. I finally signed up to Twitter and programmed a little feed to display my tweets which you can find on the left side of the header just above the Home and About buttons on the navigation bar.
Anyways that is about it for now, this week coming up I am starting a new web project so I will be busy with that for the most part and I will not be experimenting as much but I will be analyzing the data so I can tweak my experiments the week after that.
Duncan.
Latest News at Digital Deceptions
October 12, 2008 by Duncan · Leave a Comment
Here in Canada it is our Thanksgiving weekend and I just wanted t let everyone know that I will be off for a few extra days recovering from the few weddings I’ve been to the last couple of weeks and of course the turkey dinner.
My sister who is pregnant with my second nephew is due Thursday so I didn’t schedule any client work this week and will take the opportunity to do some computer maintenance, backups and finish off a couple of articles that are almost complete, I plan on posting one by the end of the week.
Last Friday I was checking my website statistics and noticed I had a nice bump in traffic to my site and when I investigated a little more the referral site was Inspiration Up the blog archive which I hadn’t known I had been showcased on, I would just like to thank them for the link love it is much appreciated.
Anyways that is it for now,
Duncan.
Public Relations and Moral Lessons for Designers
September 27, 2008 by Duncan · Leave a Comment
In my last post “Graphics and Web Design in Durham Region” I mentioned some of the moral issues faced by freelance designers and I have also touched on a few of our obligations in “What a Client Wants vs. What a Client Needs”.
It is ethical practices like these that will dictate the longevity of your freelance career, by having principals alone (either right or wrong) creates a structured consistency that is needed in order to do business professionally no matter the industry.
World Wild Web
As the internet matures and more developers adopt web standards I don’t ever think that there will be away to police the World Wide Web, it is like the Wild West out here and almost anything goes so it is up to us web designers to govern ourselves and our clients.
Unfortunately because of the privacy that business is usually conducted in we never get a chance to really see any of the inner workings of how others ethics play a role in how they do business so it was very interesting for me to come across a little incident on the Photoshop tutorial website PSDTUTS.
Envato Network
I am not only a big fan of the site but also the company behind it Envato. They publish many other fantastic websites all carefully constructed with the same high standards they have set for themselves which is repeated throughout their body of work.
The PSDTUTS concept is simple, authors submit Photoshop tutorials and if chosen they are paid a fee. The tutorials have to be formatted to their specification, original and can’t be published anywhere else. From these guidelines they have produced better quality and more sought after tutorials than most of the other similar type sites out there.
Today PSDTUTS revealed that it was brought to their attention that the latest tutorial they had posted was more than likely plagiarized (it was not an original) so it was taken down and they withheld payment from its author immediately.
Class Dignity and Style
I say “good for you guys” for sticking to your guns. Because of the type of work Envato do they not only have an obligation to protect their author’s content but also the works of all creative’s no matter the medium. They are an outlet for information and they have a commitment to us readers that the material they publish was acquired lawfully and the author was compensated properly per there agreement. It is just good business.
I must admit that the way they handled the situation was admirable and should serve as a lesson to us all who publish content online. They immediately acknowledged the situation and dealt with it according to the rules they set on the requirements needed to submit a tutorial “Your tutorial must be your original work and not published elsewhere” plain and simple no excuses.
I was utterly shocked when I started reading some of the angry messages they were receiving in their comments section from people talking about everything from plagiarism, intellectual property and even Envato being afraid of their own shadow. There is no debate about the situation; the author broke the rules so the tutorial is out.
For Your Protection
Envato moderate all of the comments posted to their websites before it can be read by the public, this is yet again another commitment by them to protect us the readers from such things as that X-rated spam we so frequently run into. At the same time they also posted that abusive garbage that was sent to them that they could have just as easily delete showing that they truly value their transparency and have nothing to hide.
Which brings me back again to my last blog entry about graphic and web designers who just don’t get it. These are the very people who write the kinds of negative comments that are on the PSDTUTS page, they are also usually the ones who have no sense of structure when it comes to being a freelance creative and through inconsistencies and unethical practices make it very difficult at times for clients to trust us.
We all make mistakes but it is how you learn from blunders either yours or others that dictates how successful you can be in all your endeavors. Be upfront, honest and when you find you have made a mistake deal with it swiftly and making the necessary changes so it does not happen again.
You can read about the whole situation and watch as it unfolds here.
Graphics and Web Design in Durham Region
September 24, 2008 by Duncan · Leave a Comment
Digital Deceptions Logo
Well let me digress for a minute as I have to admit that this topic has been eating away at me for quite a few years now and I finally have to say something about it. As we all know most websites we surf worldwide, corporate and local are usually riddled with complications and issues which affect you, the end user.
These problems range in size from minor to major and the usual suspects are web standards and compliancy which pretty much means that websites function well in one browser but differently or maybe not even at all in others. Another huge issue is usability, if you don’t understand how the website works how are you ever going to navigate to the information you are looking for?
So let’s say a website passes all these hurdles, it adheres to web standards and functions properly in Firefox, Safari, Opera, the new Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 7 and even the dreaded IE6. It is so simple to use even your granny or your mouth breathing nephew can use it, but does it look good?
Not only do you have to work within a strict set of rules to impact the largest amount of users you have to present it graphically in away the is very pleasing to the eye and simultaneously compliments the content that is being examined.
Unfortunately Most Websites Just Plain Suck
You would expect when any of these vulnerabilities are overlooked it is either very small companies, nonprofits or just an amateur’s personal space but unfortunately that is not the case because these practices are rampant. When I’m surfing the web I come across the very same problems in all industry websites almost on a daily basis.
Now I know that my perception of the web is skewed because of my trained eye and it may sound like I am complaining about the state of the web but really I am not. I am fully aware that from a business stand point it is much better for me that most websites are subpar which finally brings me to the very point of this blog entry, bad graphic and web designers.
Specifically the graphic and web designers in the Regional Municipality of Durham where I live, my competition who rate from very poor to really good as in most places. Fortunately there is only a hand full of us good designers in the Durham Region (notice I said us? …lol) so you would think that most business owners and groups commissioning websites would stay away from all the riffraff but they haven’t.
Many Clients Distrust Designers Because of Past Experiences
What I have found is that clients have almost always had a bad experience from their first website and usually that is why they are looking to get a second one done. This is the proverbial double edged sword, on one hand you are talking shop and networking with potential clients and on the other hand they come with baggage and distrust from the bad experience they had with the last design studio or freelancer they worked with.
A couple of tell tale signs of bad design habits to look out for when you are in need of graphic or web design work are no website or portfolio, website doesn’t function properly or a date on the site is a year or two old. Of course there are many others but that is for a later blog entry you get the idea.
An indicator of a good designer or Design Company is how thorough they are and if they have some sort of process that they use to get the job done. Using a design process is key no matter what size or type of project is being commissioned and you will quickly find that there will most likely be issues in a project that were otherwise unforeseen by the client but by having a design process in place these issues are recognized and addressed before they become a problem.
Good Work Ethic
As much as I would like to out some of the major local culprits in the Ajax, Pickering, Whitby and Oshawa graphic and web design industry I feel that it would do more damage than good as I have set some strict business and moral standards for myself and Digital Deceptions and reframe from bad mouthing anyone specifically and let the work both theirs an mine speak for itself.
So if you are a business owner, have a unique product or idea and are in need of hiring a local graphic or web designer from the Durham Region area, have a look at my portfolio before you make your decision, Digital Deceptions creates all types of graphics from logos to print layouts and I specialize in web design and animation.
