Life on the Small Screen

There is an interesting shift going on in tech-dom. It’s the attack of the small video screens. They project photos, movies, TV, training, news, weather, communication and more. I haven’t given it much thought, but then I noticed something one day. All the little screens populating my studio.

Taking a gander, I noticed the iPod with video, the PSP, the Gameboy Advanced, the Nano, and the Photo iPod. Even my new cell phone that I got recently does what Verizon calls V-Cast (though it’s not available in my area) where you can watch news and some other shorts. On top of that I realized the small screens on the digital camera’s and DV cam. I started thinking to myself, “what the check is going on?”

Maybe what’s going on is the mobile revolution. People are on the go. We don’t want to be tethered to our widescreen TV’s (though we may love them so). We enjoy on-demand content. We get information and entertainment when and wherever we want. Better still the video content that we like does not have to disappear with that one viewing of the episode. My iPod with video stores on the device itself, 150 hours of video. But the reality is that I can obviously save much more on the laptop or desktop. That means, sync-up and go which matches most of our lifestyle.

What makes this change seamless is that hardware manufacturers and content providers are teaming up like never before. They are making huge changes and takes steps which to them have always seen as risky (or at least not profitable).

For the sake of the argument, take a look at the iTunes Music Store (ITMS to us geeks). Now you can still call it the ITMS, but for some it means the iTunes Movie Store. Why? Well in their first few weeks of operation Apple sold 3 million videos. That’s just staggering. They didn’t even have that much content. 4 TV shows, which where split evenly between children and adults. On the other side that did have several thousand music videos. The publics reaction shocked content providers who quickly signed deals. It didn’t take NBC-Universal years to figure it out, it took them weeks.

While we’re talking about it, I want to address this bonus for not only TV Networks, but Musical Artist as well because this change is extremely important. Musicians for years have been getting killed on making music videos. This was simply considered a form a marketing and promotion, which musicians basically had to pay for out of their own pockets(in the form of an advance). Now they can finally earn some of that money back. There is some great music video as art out there. “Hurt” by Johnny Cash is only one example of a video that I would classify as a work of art. For Networks it’s a great opportunity to make some of that money back on some of the massive salaries that some actors/actresses get paid. There is a third benefactor in all of this and that’s us. With paid content comes no commercials. You get your content in an unbroken stream. It’s time efficient. It’s total win/win, all the way around.

Take notice. Look around your own stuff and let us know if you see what we are seeing. I made some observations of people that I work with (and no they are not all geeks). They “ALL” have small screens and really seem to enjoy it. One interesting behavior some of them have is going to events and taking pictures with their cell phones and emailing them around to friends. These images don’t just go to their friends computer, but to the persons cell phone. Wow. Instead of “can you hear me now” it’s “hey, can you see what I’m seeing right now?” In some instances it’s even recorded video.

So where does this leave us in our digital life? I think in a pretty good position. Just please don’t try to drive and watch your morning news on your cell phone. That could be a bummer. I’m not sure I can enjoy video on the cell phone. I certainly wouldn’t want to see the screen get smaller than that of the iPod with video (2.5 inches). As I mentioned before, look around and take notice of the small screen.


// Jaye Morris

Happy Holiday's!

I’ve had a rather amazing year both in and out of the Studio. Our second daughter was born (she actually took a few short steps tonight). My oldest daughter continues to excel not only in school, but as a human being as well. My wife and I shared out 10th wedding anniversary. The clients at the Studio have been great to work with and outside collaborations have been stunning. It really has been breath-taking.

Everything that has happened this year has been of a singular theme for me. That theme? “The quality of our life is defined not by what we are given but in what we have to share and contribute. I don’t just feel grateful, but am grateful.”

I hope that today, tomorrow and day after day, that you not only have great moments in your life, but recognize them as such. If we’re not doing that, what are we doing with our life? It all happens in the blink of an eye. Don’t miss seeing and experiencing it deeply.

May Your Life Go Well,

// Jaye Morris

Getting To Know Your Website

It never ceases to amaze me how much time we can spend in designing a website. We go through the trouble of creating a beautiful layout. The ultimate website navigation and will help users get to point A to point B. We meticulously write our messages and content, and then… And then we wait for people to show up. It’s the real life "Field of Dreams." What a scary thought. So here's the real question. How do you know who’s coming, where users are going, what links they are clicking, where are users dropping out or any other potential questions you may have about your website? Quite the dilemma.

To really get to know your website is to embrace two words. Web Analytics. Without web analytics, you may as well be calling the Psychic Friends Network about how your website is doing. Why? Because your website, no matter how good or bad you may think things are is a mystery. You really don’t know what’s happening on your website until you look and analyze something called “server logs”.

What’s a Server Log?
Good question, my friend. A server log contains a recording of every visitor to your website. The logs contain valuable information like: length of visitor stay on pages or overall website, links clicked, how the person moved through your website. In some cases you can learn where the visitors are coming from. By that I mean the actual State or Country. That alone can provide a surprise or too and help you in targeting your efforts. Server logs to say the least are a treasure trove and scorecard of how you are doing with people on your site. Sadly, most people rarely or never look at this data. Instead they may opt for the intuitive approach, often based on their subjective experience. In some cases this may work, but those instances are extremely rare.

Web Analytics 101
Now that you have a basic idea of what a server log is, now it’s time to talk about what you can do with that data. You will have to get a web analytics program, which is what you’ll use to read the information in your server logs. As a point, looking at a server log without this software looks pretty much like gibberish. You’ll never figure out what’s going on from a raw server log.

At a glance here are some typical things that you can learn.

1. Number of visitors to the website. (remember there is a difference between a page visit and a page view.


2. Which links visitors are clicking on in your navigation system.


3. Which pages on your website visitors visited. This is often ordered by which pages where visited most often to least.


4. Visitor Path. This information lets you know how a user moved though your website. This is huge. You can not only see what people are interested in but also learn where people abandon your website.


5. Time on particular pages and website overall.


6. Search engine referrers.


7. State and country referrers.


8. Websites that are liked to you and sending you visitors.


9. If you are using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) like Google or Yahoo!, the software will usually allow you to track cost per lead based on campaigns that you are running.

This information is extremely important and website owners are frequently surprised by what they learn. You can finally begin to see what is really happening on the website. You can change or rearrange content and user interfaces to influence increased traffic or longer page views . It’s a great opportunity to improve the experience visitors have when they come to your website and get the most out of it.

As a note, the better you get at determining what users are doing and making adjustments (that are helpful to them) and changes, your credibility with visitors will usually improve. Improved credibility translated into increased website transactions and enhanced brand identity.

Web Analytics Software

Here’s the rub. The Web analytics universe is probably about to change. Why? Google Analytics. This is a web based project which Google currently has in testing. As a matter of fact, I’m fortunate enough to be giving it a spin. Unfortunately they are not accepting more users at this time, but you can submit your email address and get on their waiting list. From what I’ve tested and seen, it’s already well formed and pretty solid and getting valuable information is a snap.

Speaking for other tools, though the industry standard of the past has been WebTrends, there are a couple reasons why I really didn’t like using it. 1) They license the product based on number of page visitors. This is really a lame concept because you feel like you don’t actually own the software and there are limits. Most people have no idea what their site visits are so it’s almost unfair how they license the product. If you have enough traffic on your website, you can end up throwing away a lot of cash. 2) WebTrends can be very server intensive. Processing logs on your own server can reduce performance and cause problems. You have to be very careful how you set your system up. They do have good user interfaces and reports. But like I said before, they have a few things I did not prefer from a tech standpoint.

Net Tracker is a tool that I did some extensive testing with and have a strong bias towards (because it's soeffective). As a matter of fact it’s one of my favorites. The interface and dashboards are really clean and easy to read. You can easily generate ad-hoc reports and see your data, pretty much anyway that you want. Back when I was testing it, they had a really good price point and you really do own the software unlike WebTrends. If you get 1,000 views or 1,000,000 you never have to worry about exceeding your license. Also I found setup to be a snap and the overall speed to be really good.

Clicktracks is another tool that I currently use. It’s a good tool when it comes to PPC (Pay-Per-Click), like Google Adwords and Yahoo! (formerly Overture). It’s definitely not as robust as either WebTrends or Net Tracker but it does some things well. The focus is on what they call “user-behavior”. I found that there are some quirks to their software, but it’s not an overly steep learning curve. But remember, it’s not as robust as other products that I’ve mentioned here.

Conclusion

1. Dig into your server logs.


2. Use Web Analytics software that makes sense for where your at and will suit your needs (and budget).


3. Take the time to study what is going on in your website and address issues, so that you can be more successful.


4. Don’t allow your website to be a slum. Work with your site because it can be a really dynamic entity and serve you well.


5. Don’t waste visitors time, offering content and information that doesn’t fit the reason why they came to your website in the first place. Learn from the what you are seeing in the data, revise and execute your business strategy on the web.

// Jaye Morris

Did You Stumble Today?

This morning after I arrived at the office, I was greeted by two co-workers. The conversation initially seemed typical. What we worked on the night before, what was happening with the family, watched on TV, or Podcasted. But then the conversation took an interesting shift. They both looked giddy with excitement (no, I'm not kidding). They had an odd question for me. Do you Stumble? I responded, "ummmm I try not to." They laughed. Obviously I was not in the know.

After I logged on they asked if I use Firefox. Of course I do, on both my Mac and Windows machines. Do you use 1.5 (the version tag for the latest Firefox). I just looked back in amusement. One of them said, "that was a stupid question, your always up-to-date." Okay, my heads starting to spin. They tell me to open up Firefox and find an extension called "Stumble Upon". On Google, it immediately came up and I was on the Mozilla Extensions Website. I install it, close and then restart Firefox.

When I reopened Firefox, "Stumble On" appeared as a new toolbar. I clicked on "Stumble Upon" and a box appeared. I created a login (No need to fear. they are anti-spam and anti-spyware. I checked them out already) and immediately came to a screen with a matrix of boxes (they could definitely pretty it up a bit). Next my peers advised me to check all the box topics that I'm interested in. I click Graphic design, Animation, Web development and Astronomy. Next I clicked the "Stumble Upon" button and low and behold a website comes up that I've never seen before. It's a very cool interface and animation. Then I'm told by my co-workers, "click again" and another website appears talking about web development with "Ajax". Nice! Click again and this time it's cool tips and tricks on graphic design. Now here's the kicker, I've never seen any of those websites before. Better still some of them had some important resources that I *really* am interested in.

"Stumble Upon" answers an important question for web users. How to find new and interesting information outside of our normal behavior patterns? Human beings, believe it or not aren't really that random. If you ask a person to randomly place dots on a piece of paper they will still end up attempting to construct a pattern. It's our natural tendency.

The same thing can happen on the web. We have our bookmarks/favorites and sites that we look at on a regular basis. That can put us in a rut and tend to only look inside our own lane. The closest we come to randomness is probably when we Google. "Stumble upon" uses broad categories and presents some great surprises both on and off the beaten path.

Digging deeper there are some nice features. If you install it, take the time to play around with it. You’ll find some great content. I should note that currently in their website index they catalog and categorize over 300 million websites. And no that was not a typo. I said over 300 million. Give it a spin and let us know what you "Stumble Upon".

// Jaye Morris

iTunes and the Learning Hub

I used to have a problem that some of you might be familiar with. I felt like I didn't have enough time to learn or get new information. Time management can be tough when you want to fit everything in. Enter iTunes.

Most people think that iTunes (Apples digital music application) only good if you have an iPod. Nothing can be further from the truth. Even if you don't have an iPod, iTunes is a information hub. With the launch of iTunes (version 5), Apple began "podcasting". What is a podcast? Think of it as a recorded radio or TV show that you can view where and when ever you want as long as you have your computer. The quality of the audio can range widely, but in most instances it's pretty good. The selection is amazing and there are literally thousands to pick from. If you can't find one you like, I'd be shocked.

When I started podcasting with iTunes, the first thing I noticed where radio shows that I liked but usually didn't get to hear the entire show. Some of them where as much as 4 hours long. Well guess how long those same radio shows are on iTunes podcast? Approximately 2 hours. Wow. That's great. If I listened to an entire show I was actually listening to about 2 hours of commercials! No wonder my head was hurting.

Speaking of commercial, you should know that podcasts are free. iTunes is also free (in case you didn't know). Talk about "Win-Win". It's a grand-slam. But there's also more and this part isn't free, but you can get a really great discount and service.

Prior to iTunes, iPods and the lot, I was using a service called Audible.com. I get one book per month for ten dollars. This is actually a super deal since when I would go to a book store and pick up an audio book, I could pay as much as 50.00 for an audio book. Audible.com has a relationship with iTunes and the system works flawlessly.

As a suggestion, *don't* buy your audio books from iTunes. You'll pay full freight there. Though the book are from Audible.com you won't get the discount that way.

The Aubible.com library is massive, containing not only books, but magazines such as Fast Company, The Wallstreet Journal and more. Like I said it's about getting quality information more quickly. Depending on what you choose to listen to or watch (iTunes supports video podcasts) you can help yourself out a lot professionally and personally.

// Jaye Morris

A Change In Direction

After giving it some thought, I decided not only revamp my design studio website, but also the direction that I've been moving. Specifically in terms of how I communicate with others about projects, ideas and information related to the web. There's hardly a day that goes by that I don't encounter great ideas, or technology. It's really important to discuss, share and try them out if for no other reason than to eventually be more effective and productive.

What I Do
The above being said, that brings up the issue of what I *really* do for a living. This is a common question that I'm asked. I used to tell people answers like "web designer. Web developer. Multimedia applications developer. Graphic designer. Designer. New media designer, etc..." By now you get the point. I have a job that is hard to define.

After living and breathing not only technology since the age of 16 (I started programming with a Commodore 64), and behavioral health management (mainly the treatment of addiciton and antisocial behavior), the real deal is that I find solutions to people's problems. 100% of the time I use some form of technology to solve that problem. That means that I'm a *Technologist*. I use relevant technology to solve problems, both big and small as applied to marketing and the internet.

Solutions and Problems
Some people might not like their job described as being a "problem solver" or technologist. But guess what? It's a job which is extremely rewarding. After working with an clients, and seeing a look of relief on their face makes me [and them] feel pretty good about what I do.

That relief clients experience comes from making their life, their work, their experience somehow easier. It doesn't matter if it's helping them get their first web domain name or setup their first internet site. Sometimes it's building or enhancing an ecommerce solution. Other times it might be making an interactive CD-ROM to help their sales people inform prospects about a given product so they are more effective on the road (increasing cleint base). One way or another that's what each of us do in some aspect of our life. Solve problems. This blog is about how we get it done.

// Jaye Morris