Often times you see posters and banners advertising web site design and building services along the lines of “4 pages for £250″. Some naïve people are attracted to this type of advertising because it is clear how much they’ll pay – the “how much” question is answered from the start.

At this point the potential client will be thinking they need 4 pages and they’ll be thinking of information to display across those 4 pages. They’ll be conjuring up content to fill this space. This is not designing a website, this is throwing content into a hole.

What they don’t realise is that it goes against what’s required from a website. The site should be designed around the content that it needs to display and around the message it needs to deliver. Taking into account what the purpose of the website is. Taking into account what the potential users want from the website.

Before the “design” happens the site structure and architecture must be discussed and planned. Only at this point will it become clear whether there’ll be 4 pages or 100 pages.

Still, it’s easy to see why people are attracted to this kind of advertising. People want to know what something is going to cost, they don’t want nasty surprises.

Talk to the designer first, discuss what you want and then get a quote. In the same way you would to get some building work done. It’s not an off the shelf product. Go to a designer to get a custom product that suits you and your business. Discuss the budget and see what needs can be met with it.

I have strong principles and with this experience it has made me realise that they lie very closely with the end user, that is – being completely open and clear about how a user’s information will be used.

In many marketing areas it has become the norm to “trick” the (potential) customer into sharing their contact details. Double negatives in opt in and out clauses. “Instant unsubscribe” links that don’t quite do what they suggest and present further, often confusing, options – all in an attempt to allow the continued sending of information – whether the user actually wants it or not.

In many avenues that I use to increase my knowledge – listening to podcasts (boagworld, the big web show, and many more), following the blogs of successful online businesses, and generally reading about online business practice, the overwhelming message seems to be to put the user first. To make it clear how their information will be used, to make it simple to unsubscribe, to make it clear which form fields need to be filled, to make the site accessible to all users, etc. Principles I very much agree with – I’m a consumer myself and I find it immensely irritating when I think I’m being conned to share information or it’s not clear how it will be used.

These sources seem to understand this “user first” approach and see it as a positive because your users will appreciate your honesty and therefore regard you higher and be a more worthwhile and quality customer.

What I’m increasingly realising is that many companies don’t share these principles – their marketing thoughts lie very much in the more traditional approaches of bombarding as many as they can with their message in the hope that a small percentage will respond. A marketing technique that is very prevalent in the offline advertising world – think of all the postal spam you get, especially if you’re not careful which boxes you tick on paper forms.

The difference with online is that you can be far more targeted and therefore raise the levels of your marketing to people who are genuinely interested in your product. To have a much higher quality list to market to. To have a list of people who actually WANT to receive your literature.

When a company with “old school” marketing techniques comes online they often don’t understand the honesty approach I’ve been describing. Questioning their techniques can cause upset. Absolutely much of this can lie in how they are questioned or advised but it does seem a very difficult gap to bridge since it goes against the very principles they may have been marketing on for many years.

Often times these people are annoyed by these techniques when they’re at the receiving end yet when it comes to their own marketing they are willing to employ the same techniques because “everyone else does it”. It’s the norm.

Sometimes you can advise all you like but get nowhere and if they still insist on techniques you don’t feel comfortable with you may feel like a “sell out”. Strong words, but like I said at the start, my principles are strong and going against these principles doesn’t sit right with me. Luckily I’m in a situation where I can walk away from situations like this but many can’t (and there may be a time when I’m not in this position).

So what am I going to do about it? I will continue to research these areas and practice arguments so that if these issues crop up in the future I’ll be able to discuss them coherently and without feeling angry and dishonest. I’ll be careful about who I take on as clients (as stated, not always possible), and I’ll be more trusting of my gut instinct – it’s often very right you know. And I’ll certainly continue promoting the honesty and usability policies to all.

If we continue to try and effect these changes it will only be better in the long run for the Internet and for us as consumers using it.

I started to realise I needed a strategy after listening to the excellent Back to Work Podcast which led me on to Inbox Zero. Merlin Mann is behind all these and he has an excellent way of presenting to you solutions to every day problems. These problems are usually your inability to face up to the truth of something (just admit you’re not going to respond to that email that’s been in your inbox for the past 3 weeks).

The more I listened and learned, the more I needed a strategy, otherwise I was wasting my time trying to become efficient at getting things done. I had been using Things for a while but I hadn’t thrown myself into it. I dipped in and out and I still found myself having to remember to do a lot of things. All because I didn’t have a strategy that I trusted fully.

Throughout the learning from Merlin Mann a book that kept cropping up was Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity – David Allen.

This book changed everything. Now what really helped was the fact that I was already familiar with the way “Things” worked. And the book is more aimed at a time before we used computers for absolutely everything – but no matter – the principles can easily be applied to a digital only lifestyle. And actually, some things may work better in an analogue style for you. This gives you the option.

Whilst reading my mind was awash with things I needed to do and throughout the process I was putting it all into “Things” as the strategy began to take shape. Before I knew it my mind was free of “remembering” burden.

3 months on my mind is more relaxed and I’ve got a great workflow which has been adapted to suit me and my style. The basic principles I already had but having someone else confirm it, give you great ideas, and guide you through the implementation allows you to throw yourself into it confidently.

If you’re going to do this, you need to want to do this. When the time is right you will throw yourself into it. Often times you need to mull over an idea for a while, to come to terms with it, before you’re ready.

Now I’m at the refining stage. There’s always room for improvement – but my problem previously was that I was spending too much time trying to be efficient – too many different ideas of how to do it running around in my head to the point that it was a burden. Now I have my main strategy and it will only get better over time and adapt to suit.

But now I do, and here it is in all it’s technicolour glory. Watch it, you might like it.

I always lock my phone, and I also have a passcode in place. With these new fangled mobile computers there’s a whole lot of data stored on that device. But I also partake in road cycling and mountain biking. You could class them as dangerous sports and even though I generally ride in a group of more than just me I do sometimes ride alone, or something bad could happen to all of us (touch wood, god forbid, etc.).

To get around this I’ve put my name, my wife’s phone number, and another ICE contact on the wallpaper of my home screen. People can’t phone from my phone, but they can type the number into their phone – which is an acceptable compromise.

Interestingly, if you have an iPhone 4S you can set an ICE number and you are able to ask Siri to call ICE even when locked. Though that does require the person who found you to know about this feature.

You should do this too, better safe than sorry, ‘eh?

A while ago I read on Brett Terpstra Logging with Day One Geek Style about logging thoughts with the Day One app (Brett’s blog is great – loads of poweruser tips and scripts all the time) and it may be that I buy Day One to do all this (I’m trying to be a little reserved, buying from the App Store has become too easy).

I’ve also been using Alfred App with the Powerpack for a while now – in an attempt to transition to power user.

So I thought I’d try and write a little Alfred script that appended my thoughts in a text file with a date. As it turns out there’s loads of Alfred scripts and tutorials scattered all over the ‘net. Texting & Tasking with Alfred gave me the basis of what I was looking for but I tweaked it a little.

Open Alfred and go to Extensions + ShellScript. Give your script a snazzy title like “Add to Diary”.

Fill in the blanks and choose a keyword to invoke your command (I chose “diary”).

The command is as follows:

echo "`date` - {query}" >> /Users/YOUR-USERNAME/PATH/`date +%m%y`.txt


Just change that line to reflect where you want to keep your new file. The `date` parameter will prepend your input text with the date and the final date parameter in the file path will create new text files based on the month number. (e.g. 0112.txt, 0212.txt). If you want to format the dates differently do a search on “shellscript date”.

Then click Advanced and un-tick all the escaping options apart from double quotes.

If you’re new to all this I’ve packaged the extension here Add to Diary.alfredextension.

I wanted to to add this functionality to more than one post type I’d defined, but didn’t want to repeat the code. Minimalism!

So, after making a few tweaks to the code I also wrapped it in a class so I can use it whenever I want. Yeah.

The snappily titled “WordPress – class to make custom posttypes sortable with AJAX in admin” on github:gist has it all.

But in case you don’t want to head way over there, here’s the gist of it.

This has also tickled my fancy, so I’ll probably have a go at something like that soon.

The following code is available on github:gist.

The PHP

Firstly we need to get the ajax functionality loaded on the frontend. The

function fronted_ajaxurl()

below loads the file into our document head.

Then we declare what we want to load and create a function to load that content. Note that at the end of

function dhf_loadme_ajax()

we call

die();

This is to make sure the action ends, otherwise you end up in a kerfuffle. You’ll need to put the

fronted_ajaxurl

in your functions.php file, and the content you want to call can go anywhere as long as it’s linked to somehow. Keep it in your functions.php file if you’re unsure.

Note also there are two

add_action()

calls. One is for users who are logged in, one is for users not logged in. See codex.wordpress.org/AJAX_in_Plugins for further explanation.

The JavaScript

JavaScript makes it all work:

I’m using jQuery here to call the function we declared up there in the PHP.

To make the whole process more fluid looking I’ve replace my “button” with an AJAX loading image while the content we actually want is being fetched. Once we have the content we replace the loading image.

The Sundries

There’s some code there for a button, and don’t forget some CSS to put the AJAX loading image in place.

And…

It’s all actually quite straight forward to do this. And by being a bit more creative with the JavaScript you could choose to load instantly content viewed on the desktop, and for mobile devices load it if the user requests it. That could be part of your Responsive Web Design plan. Go forth.

P.S. I’ve recently been made aware that some screen readers will not alert a user of updated content on a page. More modern screen readers do alert the user. Please be aware and do any relevant testing suited to your audience.

The crowd was a fair size, maybe 150 people, and the seat were arranged around tables in a very informal manner. Quite relaxed I was. Then I watched a couple of talks mostly presenting the uptake of mobile internet devices. Some do’s and don’ts — but all very much from a marketing perspective. And everything that was presented I was fully aware of, indeed, it was one of those situation where I could have expanded on those talks. That wouldn’t have been appropriate of course, they weren’t my talks, and besides, the presentations were at that level since that was the level the audience were prepared for.

What struck me as odd about this is that the people presenting were from companies that had a intent to sell their services to the audience members. An informative sales pitch. I guess that’s how it works in big business. I’m not judging it, I’m just observing it.

Then it was my turn to speak. I’d learnt to talk off by heart as per the tips I previously blogged about. But it didn’t go exactly as planned. It wasn’t bad by any means, but I ended up reading it out. They very thing I had intended to not do.

Why?

Because it was there. It was all there in front of me. I couldn’t not look at it, and by looking at it I read it out word for word. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t natural. It was a reading from an article I wrote.

By the way, the talk was about my experiences of technology through cancer. My experience of those times can still be seen here.

What went wrong?

The texts was too literal. Literally written on that page word for word. I should have had a list of points I wanted to cover. Then gone through each in turn repeating, from practice, the story I had to emphasise those points.

It would have been more natural. And likely it would have made more of an impact since I would have been speaking with the crowd rather than at them.

What went right?

How I felt, in myself, went right. I expected to be so much more nervous than I was. Public speaking is a fear. I overcame the fear by being prepared and confident in the message I had to deliver.

Although I have these criticisms, overall, I’m happy with how it went. It was a great experience and I’ve really learnt a lot from it. To the point that I hope I get another invite so I can make the necessary improvements.

In the mean time there are plenty of local tech groups and gatherings to practice at.

As a practice I decided I would host small presentations at our monthly jimmyteens.tv team meetings. The next to take place in December I’ll be talking about managing your email inbox. Influenced by Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero talk it will be more focused on the way things are done at jimmyteens.tv and specific to my audience.

As luck would have it a couple of weeks ago Teenage Cancer Trust asked me to speak as part of their presentation at the “eyeforpharma Mobile Strategies for Pharma” taking place on the 1st of December.

This is a great opportunity – before I’ve implemented my practice regime – and as such I’ve spent some considerable time preparing for it. The only way to conquer the nerves, as I see it, is to be immensely prepared for it.

I asked my Dad who has done a lot of public speaking in his time for some tips, seeing as we’re alike I thought his experience and process would suit me.

This is what he sent me back, which I think are some great tips:

1. Everyone gets nervous. I do too. But I know that if I am not nervous, I will not deliver a good presentation. At the end of the day, it is just a performance. I like to think of these nerves as healthy nerves. My nerves sometimes have gotten the better of me but never to the point where I completely lost it.

2. It is surprising how little people notice if I am nervous. Most of the time, and most definitely when you will be speaking at your forthcoming seminar, the audience is very interested in hearing what I have to say. Most of the time they do not know me well or not at all and therefore they have no preconceptions and tend to just look for the message that I am trying to get across.

3. For me there are three aspects to deal with when having to deliver a presentation:

   a) Nerves.

   b) Excitement.

   c) The message.

4. The nerves disappear to a great degree and are replaced by excitement if I have prepared my message well. With “excitement” I mean looking forward to the opportunity to actually delivering a message. Increasingly, over the years, I have enjoyed giving presentations and the once that have given me most enjoyment are the ones which have been prepared best. Without a doubt, it is ALWAYS down to preparation of the message.

   So how do I put together a good message?

5. I spend much time thinking about what I want to say and want to get across. It tends to rumble about in my brain for days, sometimes weeks, depending on how much notice I have been given. During that time I will also talk to people/colleagues and tell them that I will be giving a presentation to such and such an audience, what I have been asked to talk about and how I am planning to structure it.

   Using that process helps with crystallisation of ideas in my head. When speaking out loud with people about it, I realise what is good and not so good about what I am planning to say and how I want to get things across. (Sometimes people give immediate feedback, which can be helpful, although feedback that you get later in the process is more important. See point 9.) After this “gestation” period, I get everything down on paper.

6. a) Introduction:

   I. Pertinent facts about myself. An audience likes to know who is standing in front of them. I always take a conservative approach and give my complete name, as opposed to just my first name. If appropriate, I tell them how old I am. I give them two sentences about my career back-ground.

   II. With an audience that I have never met, I always provide relevant information about myself. With relevant I mean information that they can relate to. E.g. when giving a talk to a bunch of engineers, I will make them aware that I am a sales guy who has a great deal of experience in working with engineering departments and that I have been involved in the development and project management of technical products. If I am talking to sales people, I put emphasis on my sales background. If I am talking to finance/administrative people, I link my background to areas which they can relate to. Therefore, it is important that you understand who your audience is otherwise you might lose them during the intro.

   III. I provide two sentences on why I am standing in front of them, and THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE INTRO, I tell them what I am going to tell them in the next 10 minutes, 15 minutes or however long I have been given to deliver the message. I invite the audience to ask questions, either during the delivery or afterwards. I much prefer during but sometimes it is not suitable so then afterwards is more appropriate.

   Then:

   b) Bullet point / message part 1

   c) Bullet point / message part 2

   d) Bullet point / message part 3

   etc. etc.

   e. I close with a conclusion or summary and ….

   f. I open it up for questions even if officially I am out of time. I always take liberties with this; if the coordinator wants me off, they always come and tell me. If I know I have a chance to mingle afterwards (during lunch or a break) I tell people that they can approach me then. (I do not know what opportunities you have with your audience but if this is a networking opportunity for possible work then grab it with both hands!)

7. In the early days I used to write the whole thing out in full sentences. It helps with remembering.

8. Then I practice, in front of a mirror. I timed myself with a stopwatch every time. Once I get to the point where my times are consistent, I have it properly in my head.

9. The final test is to deliver it to a practice audience. In my case it is always your Mum. I do this twice, three times and accept criticism. If your Mum does not understand, then I know that the audience does not either. I make the necessary adjustments. By the way, my practice-run is truly a practice run, i.e. I am standing up, adopting the style, body posture, gesticulation of the real performance. I find that if you can do that convincingly, the real performance is easy. The final stage is…

10. Some more practice. Then I leave it for a day or two. I don’t touch it and relax.

11. Two days before delivery I read it again and I am likely to make a few minor changes and do the last bit of fine-tuning.

12. I do some more practice.

13. I practice some more.

14. Finally… I remind myself that I must speak slowly (exaggerate) and clearly and LOUD. I keep this in mind when I am delivering.

I’ll let you know how it goes…