Archive for May, 2007

Business Conversation’s

Friday, May 18th, 2007

No matter how long you’ve been in business or even if you’re not in business just yet, a “business conversation” will be part of your daily life. Whether it be a client, supplier or business partner, there is a certain etiquette you should follow. Not too much unlike the recent post at BoDo talking about Corporate Dress.

For starters, try to avoid political discussions at all costs. More often than not someone is going to have a political opinion that is not in favor with yours. And even though it’s easy to get into these verbal debates, they’re not healthy or professional at all.

Secondly, stay away from “lifestyle” discussions. Just recently we were having dinner with some business associates and a subject about a lifestyle choice arose. Unfortunately the business dinner had gotten a little too casual and at one point we were all feeling a moment of uncomfortable silence. So yea, avoid a discussion on how one chooses to live their life. Unless of course they’re physically or mentally hurting someone – that’s another story.

Finally, keep it to yourself. If you run into one of the above mentioned examples (and you will) or something very similar, nods of the head or a shrugging of the shoulder at least show you’re paying attention. Not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing, but being attentive. And if asked your opinion on a particular subject, it’s best to just say you have no opinion or even remind them that you’re off track on the real task at hand.

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Web Estate

Friday, May 11th, 2007

We’re not 100% certain, but we just might invented a new word to use in the world of web design.

Just recently at two different meetings about Web design, it was mentioned that the World Wide Web is nothing more than real estate and it is valuable. If it weren’t, people wouldn’t be out there buying up domain names because of their perceived value. Obviously there are certain rules and regulations to follow when buying a domain name i.e. You can’t own www.nike.com unless you own Nike, but there might be a letter combination out there that is valuable.

But the real idea behind the phrase “Web estate” is how we recently explained Web design to a client. From all that we’ve learned over the past couple of years, one clear problem still exists. A lot of uneducated clients are still out there and we’re not talking about their high school diplomas. We’re talking about their knowledge of the Internet. People really still don’t have a clear understanding of how it all works, so we came up with this simple explanation.

The Web site property and who owns it. Think of www.yoursite.com as being owned by the government. All government offices in one way or another own your address and that’s what your domain name is – an address.

Now think of the piece of land you want to build your Web site on. In the Web Estate this is a “server” where files, information, data, etc are stored. So a land developer in a housing addition is similar to that of a domain hosting company. They have a piece of property you want to store your Web Estate on.

Finally, you need to build your Web Estate and that’s where someone like Gonink comes into play. A Web Site designer is your architect and your construction workers. We create the blueprint, lay the foundation, put up walls, run the wire and plumbing and even put the door knobs on your front door.

So the next time you’re thinking about Web site design, think of it like building a house.

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