Does anyone know of a way to disable the "tinkering" gene in guys. I am pretty sure I have it. I know my father had it. He could spend whole days in the garage working on some broken piece of equipment, investing hours of labor before abandoning the project and calling it "just tinkering". Well I have a XP laptop with a glitch that in got during a .NET update, so I am always getting odd messages and activities in other programs. For instance, in the middle of using TurboTax last year for taxes it glitched the program so it would not startup. Had to move the whole thing to my iMAC to finish. Recently I added Microsoft Office 2007 and now it is always starting up the installer. It also firmly rejects any Microsoft updates. I tried using Microsoft FixIt, but it just freezes up.

I think any sane person would have scrapped the laptop and moved on. However, with my "tinkering" gene I just keep trying to fix it. I can spend hours of time trying a whole host of possible solutions. Like now, after running the FixIt and having it stop and just sit there, I rebooted to find I now have an account for Guest and ASP.NET Machine.

Looks like a great afternoon of "tickering" ahead.

So where have I been for the last six months. I have been on a trip to explore new Web site programming systems and online advertising programs for Google and Facebook. Much of my effort went into a new ecommerce site, BodyVerde – http://www.bodyverde.com.

I had not done an ecommerce site since 2005. This site uses Drupal 6 and Ubercart 2. This system is truly impressive. If you are developing an ecommerce site, I strongly recommend Drupal. Go to the Drupal site at http://drupal.org/ to download the core application. You can also get a wealth of information from the site about the system. I plan to be blogging about Drupal a lot in coming weeks.

Drupal is open-source software and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers. The latest version of Drupal is 6.15. More than a Content Management System, Drupal is a Web programming framework that allows one to built quality Web site by combining the core modules with contributed modules that expand its functionality. If you are going to build a Drupal site, you need to understand some basics about the system.

First, no one is going to hold your hand to make sure you understand how to use, install, or configure the system. If you have a problem, you can go to the forums and get help. Sometimes the documentation is good, sometimes it is wrong, and sometimes it applies to an early version of the module and has not been updated. Thus it is important to read the notes and use a test server.

As I said, documentation is often incomplete, hard to find or missing. Remember nobody is getting paid to write topnotch guides or instructions. It is a free application. But programmers do like to talk about what great modules they have created, so the Drupal site is loaded with information about the core module in all its versions. The difficulty is in finding the information you may need among the thousands of pieces that may be based on versions 4.7 to 5.21 to 6.15. My recommendation – Get a good book like Drupal 6 Social Networking from Packt or a book on Drupal 6 released in the last year. Without such help even an experienced programmer may configure his/her way into a deadend.

For example, the Drupal 6 site I built has multiple modules for handling photos and images. One module allows uploads of photos directly to the server, another is used for adding photos to products and a third module is used for random photo illustrations.

During the development of the ecommerce Web site, there were at least four times when I ran into problems that required me to ask for help. The information I needed was on site, but I had to go to the forum and look for hints on where to find it. Once you discover a problem and find the solution, please help others by posting your finding or correction.

I have an Drupal sample site, I have put on my production server at http://www.comptoncoms.com/drupal/ and I plan to move to a my entire site to Drupal later this year and provide and portal for clients and combine functions now handled by separate programs such as blogs, forums and news.

It is usually the first question I get asked after I say that I build Web sites. Rather than say "that depends...depends on how much you got." I try to rephrase the question as, "What are the main costs associated with building a Web site? Since typically the person is not asking for a price, but wants to know more about the process and associated costs.

First is fixed costs. Hosting, domain names,and email are the main elements involved in the commercial support of a Web site. Some companies or businesses may want to host the site on internal Web servers, but I oppose that idea for security reasons. A public Web site should be on public servers and set up to support a diverse audience. Most internal IT departments are not staffed, equipted or trained to provide support to a public Web sites. Secondly, commercial hosting and Web support is so inexpensive that providing IT staff to support a Web server is just not realistic.

The Web site itself has three major areas of costs, content, design and technology. Is the content readily available or will staff time be required to find and formulate the content? Is the design readily available based on company branding and product brochures or will it have to be created and approved? Lastly, what technology or programming will be required to provide components of the site such as content management, document management, search, analytics, or video streaming?

In developing content for a Web site, Compton Communications uses a content plan. The plan lays out the specifics of text, headlining, photography or graphics needed for each page of the site. An overall diagram depicts the page names and organization of the pages. Many companies have the material, but it may take a good amount of time and effort to locate branded narrative or copywrite the materials for the Web.

Most companies are lack good photography of their products, services, personnel, activities, etc. making design more costly and time consuming. Businesses with good branding programs can save significant money on design as exact colors, logos, supporting taglines and photography are often available in corporate reports or product brochures. In some cases, companies may have used a variety of agencies to develop product brochures and they have a variety of brands. Providing quality photograph may be expensive, but vital to building a quality site.

Technology is a feature not readily apparent to many in building a Web site, but the choice of Windows or Linux in Web server types can severely impact costs in development. The more applications the commercial hosting firm makes available to the Web server, the lower the costs. There are quality applications to provide content management, photo albums, blogging, etc. that are available no cost, but the application configuration and customization may add significantly to project costs. For example, the search function is vital to a site that has more than two-levels of content, but not all vendors provide a quality site search application. The same applies to site statistics, extra expense may be required to get the quality of statistically support desired by the marketing department.

A common feature on most web site desired today is Web videos. Most commercial servers support video streaming from Web servers without any special applications needed. However, video may require special encoding or page development to work properly and support a wide variety of Web browsers. Videos longer than two minutes should be encoded in flash and this may require special equipment and software.

What's all this cost? Well nothing. A Web site should be able to save on the costs of printing brochures and product sheets every quarter, of distributing and saving news releases, of providing customer telephone support and troubleshooting. A quality Web site should save you money in the long run.

Just completed a proposal this week for a Web site that needed to be revamped. I got another one to do early next week. When I first started this business, I hated doing proposal. I just wanted to sit down with the client and ask about 50 questions. It was a pretty self-centered approach on my part.

This week's proposal was almost fun. Why, what was the difference? I have most of the support verbage worked out in a document template, so I don't have to waste time on getting all the support materials together or writing from scratch. I used to have to assemble my resume, statement of qualifications, etc. With the template that is all complete and I can focus on the client and the problem.

The problem: Out-of balance content. Almost every Web site that I see for redesign or revamping has the same problem. The Web site has become hard to manage with all the various added applications and sections. Web sites grow like bushes and sometimes they grow in odd directions. A redesign is time to cut back the odd branches, consolidate applications and balance out the content.

Problem two: Initial purpose. Most Web sites were started with the clear goal of saving time and money for the operation. "Oh, we can just put those documents on the Web site," says the perky and ambitious marketing person. Sounds good, but then someone has to update it or add the new updated document. You think your closet is cluttered - you should see most Web site's main file area.

One client has a Human Resources intranet with all the HR documents from the last five years. Even with the hundreds of PDF files, I know the problem is not a concern because of the number of files, but the degrading of the site performance by all those obsolete files.

Most Web sites admins focus on the site itself and forget that the initial purpose was to network in the industry and build links with others. With almost every proposal, I encourage the client to do a Launch campaign and get out there and network with others sites that can help them achieve their initial goals.

Problem three: proprietary applications. Many Web site developers choose proprietary applications and only later discover that the functionality they need costs more and more with every update. I am a proponent of open-source applications. From a programmer standpoint, I can make changes without having to finance the national debt of some third world country. Also open-source applications work well together more often than proprietary applications where programmers are seeking unique code not commonality.

Just my thoughts to keep you in the loop. Now get out there and Webify!

One of the topics that came up during the PRSA Idaho meeting in February on Effective Pitching Practices was emails. Jill Kuraitis at NewWest.net gave some good points in a half page distributed at the meeting:
1) Know and read the publication
2) Keep format simple and casual; avoid attachments
3) Tell me why it’s a NewWest story

Just finished reading the Groundswell blog of Josh Bernoff ,
Three quarters of the PR email I receive is irrelevant, he gives some great points like only an analyst could. By analyzing his January emails (114) from PR folks, he notes that 75% are completely irrelevant to subjects or companies he covers. More than half were on an industry (TV) he used to cover two years ago. He notes that he prefers the personal note with the text news release. He says the newsletter formats make it easier for him to delete the email and unsubscribe. He also says that most of the PR emails do not come with unsubscribe links that are required by the SPAM email rules.

Personally, I think Josh is right. The personal note highlighting real news that is in his area of expertise or interest with the text of the release is the best approach. My own approach is to use the personal note and include a link to more detailed information on a Web page. This gives the added benefit of tracking the information and know how interested the journalist may be.