Webmastering Biker

I completely forgot that Blogcatalog were organising a world wide blogging awareness exercise today and only when I read Rippin Kitten's post on organ donation just now did it occurr to me to write anything.

I, like Ms. Kitten, ride a motorcycle which I am fully aware is a dangerous if not enjoyable pastime. Some years ago, I became a blood donor on the premise that since the likelihood of me spilling blood in the future and requiring a transfusion was slightly higher than the average person, I should at least give back by donating some of my own. A little while ago, I also became a bone marrow donor... this was a purely selfish act. I was persuaded by the month off work that I would get if I donated bone marrow.

Anyway, I feel quite happy in myself at making these decisions, and will probably donate any non-mashed organs in the event of my death. I would, of course, recommend that everyone do the same and the world would be a better place.

For further information in donating organs in the UK visit the following sites

• NHS Transplant site
• Department of Health's Donation information
• British Organ donors Society - They really need a redesign of their site...

Sorry about the haste, but I am still at work...

PS. This topic in the UK has is quite relevant at the moment due to proposals that 'presumed consent' be given in organ donation. I fully back this proposal due to the unforseeability of one's demise a lot of people don't get around to making the effort to become an active donor.

Yup, been over a week and haven't had the time to post anything....

This means one of several possibilities, of which the choices consist of:

1. I have run out of things to say.
2. I have run out of time to bother with saying anything
3. I have run out of patience and blogging doesn't mean as much to me anymore
4. What I say doesn't have the slightest impact on anyones life, so why waste the effort?I

I guess most bloggers will come to this point at sometime, and philosophically wonder what all this blogging is all about? I liken it to marathon running when at around the half way point of 26 miles you suddenly contemplate the distance ahead. At such times a runner hits a 'wall' of agony and that is when most people would quit...

Of course, I have never run a marathon, and would stake money on giving up around 200 metres, so I can only imagine what that feels like, but in blogging terms there has to be a time when the discipline of writing quality material seems heavily outweighed by every other duty that a person has. I write blogs for SalesVision and Nomis but in all honesty they are business orientated and the time I employ in writing for that I consider a job (though I enjoy it). This blog is written as an experiment in social media writing and is written in my spare time. Finding the time to write when I have a kid and Spouse-in waiting can be a tricky manouvre.

I never thought that blogging was an easy thing, and the marathon analogy is a good one. Let us hope that I get past that 'wall' and carry on the race...

What do you think is the greatest obstacle to a professional web designer. Believe it or not, but up there at the top, one of the biggest hurdles that I face when pitching to a company about corporate web work is the already incumbent web designer who currently does that company's online work. Not altogether surprising, but then you wouldn't realise how many corporate web sites are made and maintained by someone who know's someone whose son is a web designer. Knowing a web designer isn't necessarily a bad thing, I do sites for friends and relatives for mates rates and help them out. What I am getting at with business sites relates to what luke says in our work blog about the cheap alternative proving more expensive in the long run.

The thing is, is that web designers are like builders, there are lot’s of them at varying degrees of standard and everyone knows ‘a friend of a friend’ who is one. Just because you know someone who’s cousin’s, friend’s, brother’s, bank accountant’s sister is a web designer and can probably get you a good deal, doesn't make it the right decision to choose that person. Cost rarely is a good decision in getting professional services. The real decision in today's world is what that person can achieve with the site that they create. With WYSIWYG programmes and off the shelf sites it really is simple for anyone to be a 'web designer'. However, with only limited knowledge of online marketing, social media, search engine optimisation etc. the cheap alternative is not altogether the most advantageous.

Coming a close second to the 'bedroom' site designed by the managing directors cousin, the other main competition I encounter is the "professionaly designed" site from a web design company. How many business sites today are created with state of the art content management systems, flash sites and glitzy graphics only to prove unwieldy, unmanageable and totaly inneffective for the purposes of the business it is aimed at serving? Quite a few.

To give an example of such a costly web mistake, I have seen tens of thousands of pounds spent on content management systems for companies whose sites don't bring in any business. To add to this, the company's that pay for this, rarely have the need to update their site catalogues or site structure to warrant a content management system in the first place. If you take into account what I said in my last post about measuring return on investment in webdesign then these companies are wasting money foolishly.

The two pitfalls a company can fall into in creating a web site is that of cost. On one hand, there is the designer who focuses on cost and saving money and on the other hand there is the other designer who smells profit and focuses on selling you a site that is all singing and dancing. Neither of these sites focuses on what should be at the heart of any web project, the ultimate goal of the site and it's return on investment.