Ms. Vice President

We held annual elections at my networking group last week (Royal Gorge Networking Group) and I was nominated and (Hey!) elected Vice President. I'm very honored to represent the group and hold the office. Dean Remillard of Nationwide Floor & Window Coverings was elected President and Jodi Mews of Creative Rapport will serve as Secretary/Treasurer.

I get so excited about this group because I see so much potential in the membership. This is not something that happens overnight, but even if the only thing you accomplish is getting your name and business "out there" more, it's well worth the dues. We all know how business works, don't we? Someone knows someone who knows someone who does web design...and the converstation goes "Yeah, I've heard of her." Being heard of and from is the start of word-of-mouth advertising.

Networking has been so much more successful for my business than any print ads ever. If you're interested in attending a meeting as my lunch guest, just call or email, and if you're in the neighborhood on any of the meeting dates (see the website), just go ahead and stop in! You're always welcome to join us.

Recent Web Site Launch

There's a new addition to the CD WebMaker Web Design Portfolio! REI Network Online offers properties to real estate investors for nothing more than the price of registration. Real Estate investing is pretty hot right now, and REI Network Online is ahead of the curve by taking it online.

Lots of back-end PHP programming went into this site to create a custom Content Management System, and keep track of and upodate the registrants, independant reps and properties.

BTW - interestingly, this client came to me via my work on Royal Gorge Anglers, who came to me via my work on Festiville. REI has already referred me to another potential client - before their site was even finished! How's that for "Social Bookmarking"!

IE7 For Developers and SEO

Excellent article by Stephen Bradley! It taught me a couple new tricks and took the anxiety out of looking at my client's sites when I download and install IE7.

Most importantly, it answered my questions about what to do about using version 6 AND version 7 simultaneously, because I don't believe everyone will be installing 7 right away.

Great info...go read it! It's one less thing to keep you awake at night.

Just Saying 'NO'

When is it in my best interests to say 'No' to a project?

When I'm undermined by someone in an organization who feels their toes are stepped on and so they attempt to belittle me by intentionally talking over my head about things outside the scope of my job?

I DON'T know everything and will gladly admit to it. However, I don't see the need to erode someone else's confidence and self-esteem when talking about web stuff with people who don't understand it. So do I need to put up with it from someone in a client's organization?

This one is a challenge for me because I was hired by the decision-maker to do a job, and being a tenacious woman, I'm inclined to do whatever it takes to fulfill what I see as my obligations to that client. But maybe I'd be better off firing this one...sure would save me some frustration.

BTW - may I always have patience and respect when I speak to clients about those parts of my job that they don't understand. And may I be struck down by a meteor if I ever intentionally try to erode someone else's self-worth.

Maybe it's just a toughening process and I need to be more self-assured.

I'd love to hear from other designers/developers and get some prospective on this....

No More AudioBlogger

I got notice that Audioblogger, the company that lets you call a phone number and record a message that's directly posted to your Blogger blog, will no longer offer this service as of November 1.

Bummer...I don't use it all that much, but do have a couple clients that make good use of the service.

I'm going to try and find a replacement for my clients. Anybody out there got any ideas what Blogger will do to make this easy?