Anyone who runs a web site is familiar with the the most confusing letters on the web – SEO or search engine optimization.  Like Mark, the more you read about SEO, the more confusing on contradictory it gets. As a web site owner, you are pulled in so many directions with so many “professionals” giving you conflicting advice you don’t have any sort of benchmark to compare anything against. In the end, you’ll probably just give up frustrated and possibly with less money in your pocket then when you started.

Ultimately being found on the web is all about authority.  There are many ways to establish authority and Google and other engines hire crazy smart people to write gnarly mathematical equations to figure it out. What does that mean for web site owners? Like anyone who is an authority on a subject – you have to prove yourself. On the internet – how does one prove themselves to be an authority on a subject? I’ve got the answer for you.

Links. Plain and simple. It is just links.  Just watch, this post very well may rank for the phrase 2004 San Vincenti Chianti Classico Riserva from Tuscany.  By the way, if you like wine, you can find this product over at CubeMarketplace.com

2004 San Vincenti Chianti Classico Riserva from Tuscany is a post from: Practically Dutch

Monday I visited Microsoft for WebMatrixFest. A small gathering of the Microsoft team responsible for the software and about a dozen developers who work on open source platforms. First, thank you so much to the folks at Microsoft for putting the event together and for doing such a great job. It was a real pleasure meeting the team and getting to meet some more folks to network with. To the folks at Microsoft, none of this is personal, you were all awesome. This is just one guys opinion of a piece of software.

According to Microsoft, WebMatrix is:

…a free web development tool from Microsoft that includes everything you need for website development. Start from open source web applications, built-in web templates or just start writing code yourself. It’s all-inclusive, simple and best of all free. Developing websites has never been easier.

“Developing web sites has never been easier.” Those are some pretty bold words and in this developers opinion, WebMatrix does the complete opposite. After using and testing WebMatrix, all I can think of is Tom Hanks in the movie Big, specifically the scene where he keeps repeating “I don’t get it.” Here is the scene in Spanish.

Now to explain WebMatrix, I have to get geeky (if you have any questions, please leave a comment).

• So, the idea behind WebMatrix is that it allows someone (I’m still really not sure who) to install a local copy of a variety of open source and .NET applications like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or more natively DotNetNuke.
• In theory, with just a few clicks, you could be running Joomla on your home computer.
• Once you’ve got this local copy running, WebMatrix allows you to edit the code or access the database.
• Finally, you’ve made all your code changes and your new Joomla site is awesome, WebMatrix will help you publish the whole thing to your web host.

Now, if you understood all of that, you probably don’t need WebMatrix. You probably already have a set of tools you like to accomplish most, if not all of those tasks. On top of that, the need to run locally is totally contrary to Microsoft’s own direction but I’ll talk more about that in a minute. First, let me tell you why WebMatrix will not be a part of my tool kit.

Ask yourself these questions.

• Why do I need to run a copy of the web site locally?
• What advantage do I have of putting a copy of the whole site on my personal computer?
• Why do I want to install several applications that need to be monitored and patched for security or to make sure I’ve got the latest version?

I keep asking myself these questions, and I just can’t come up with answers. I don’t get it. See – the alternative just makes so much more sense – develop on the server.

• Regardless of the platform, developing on the server ensures your code is working in its live environment.
• Since drive space is generally no longer a factor and servers can obviously host unlimited domains, where is the downside in developing code on the server. Simply create a temporary domain, secure it as you see fit, and work away.
• When your code is on the server, the server admin deals with security, patching etc leaving you to not worry about it. Plus, why clutter up your computer with a bunch of software. Just because hard drive space is cheap doesn’t mean you want to take off those vacation photos to try out a new WordPress site or instal MySQL.

See – I geeked out again. That’s because when I describe what WebMatrix does and why it seems useless, I just sound like a nerd. The tool would be SO far out of the average PC users comfort level that they would just shut it off and say it was too complicated and they would be 100% right. Someone asked the Microsoft team who this product was for and sadly, they didn’t really give an answer. If even Microsoft doesn’t know who the software is for, doesn’t that say something?

Let’s just say for the sake of argument that WebMatrix is for me, the developer, it faces massive competition. At WebMatrixFest I heard Netbeans, Dreamweaver and command line editing as some of the most popular tools. Command line editing! That guy is so hard core he’s never going to use a GUI from Microsoft.  Quite frankly, is Microsoft prepared to throw down and compete with other established programs including its own Visual Studio?

Again, sticking with the theory that this is for me the developer, the other issue is WebMatrix is adding to many steps to the process. Many hosting companies now offer one click installations on many of the  same packages WebMatrix offers. If I run the install from my hosting provider, I just saved a bunch of time not uploading the same files my host already has on the server. I can let my host have the most up-to-date version so I don’t have to. All that saves me time and effort.

In the end, I feel like WebMatrix missed its day. If it had come out 5 years ago it could have been really awesome. Now, it just adds another layer of work and on top of that, work that is more easily done with other solutions. To me, that is a loose – loose proposition.  In my opinion – at the moment – WebMatrix is far too complicated for the average home user. It would need to be so dummied down that it may not even resemble the same program. Lastly, and most importantly, the idea of working on a local computer is actually contrary to Microsoft’s own bigger picture strategy – the cloud.

I’ve already written what feels like a book here, so I’m going to save the cloud and Azure for tomorrow, but I’ll say this. I’m excited. Azure looks super sexy and although I need to do some research, looks priced right. The irony is Azure is the very reason WebMatrix is a waste of time. Can’t wait to share more later.

I’d love to hear your thought on WebMatrix. Fill in the form below and leave a comment or click on the like button and share this on Facebook.

WebMatrix missed the boat, but Azure could rocket to the cloud. is a post from: Practically Dutch

You friend will have some semi-sexual but not too NSFW that you’d get fired video posted in their feed.  Being the typical male, and many cases female, you click the video in hopes of catching some glimpse of breast or in the latest case, a woman having an orgasm on a roller coaster (see image 1) .Now, being a pretty internet savvy guy, I like to think my BS meter is pretty well tuned, but I fell for this one hook, line and sinker. It was so perfectly written and presented that I was clicking away before I realized what was going on. So once you click the link, you’ll be taken to a page that looks like image 2.

As noted in the screen shot, this is clearly not YouTube at all, but some phishing web site. Regardless of the URL, if it doesn’t say YouTube, just don’t trust it. The one I saw earlier today had a much better one, not as porno making it harder to initially notice.

If you do fill out the form, expect to have spam posted to your Facebook feed. I’d suggest deleting it ASAP so others don’t fall for this same scam. Lastly, if you do click on the link, you will only be presented with junk offers. That should be the last and biggest tip that this is all just bogus. Do NOT fill out any forms. Go back to Facebook and clean your page up. I’d clear my cache and cookies because who knows what you just got tagged with.

I hope this article helps you avoid dealing with this stuff in the future. Leave comments and pass it around. Help others avoid the scam.

Image 1

Image 2

The plot thickens…

Turns out you don’t just pass around soft core porn, but you are also posting that you’ve recently lost weight and recommend a product too!

How to avoid the latest Facebook spam scam is a post from: Practically Dutch

I wanted to check it out so I opened a beta account a got a quick WordPress Expert site up and going. Not only does the site look pretty slick, the service is easy to use. I’ve been using AppliedI for years and they have always been doing cutting edge work. They were running WordPress on Windows before anyone and they even had those pesky pretty permalinks sorted out. Customer support is awesome. I always know I can count on the team there to get my issue resolved.

Now, if you are looking for a WordPress theme or custom design, you’ve found the right place. Check out our portfolio and give me a call.

New WordPress Expert Site in the Clouds is a post from: Practically Dutch

Admittedly the article is really dry and rather technical in many places, but hey, it was a case study on something fairly obscure in the grand scheme of the world. For Practically Dutch, it reaffirms our own belief that we know WordPress incredibly well and are truly WordPress Experts.

Here is a link to the full wordpress case study at Microsft.

If you are in a rush, here are the highlights:

A couple years back, my host, AppliedI, told me I could run PHP on Windows. With IIS and other technologies that all happen on the server side, applications like WordPress were now available for me to blend with my already existing .NET web applications. With this knowledge in hand, I started deploying WordPress blogs on every client web site. Some of those first examples are still (sadly) running.

Once I saw what WordPress was – a content management system – I immediately saw the possibilities this platform offered: easy publishing and putting the client back in the driver seat – right where they belong. Under the right conditions, with the right product line, I think WordPress makes a great front-end engine for eCommerce.

Warning – Really boring content ahead!

A great example is 2jane.com The challenge – put a new face on 2jane.com and use a legacy .NET cart tied to existing distribution and accounting systems and do it on a limited budget.  The solution – Practically Dutch put a custom WordPress ecommerce theme on the same server as the .NET shopping cart and ran them side by side. The design is seamless and the custom experience is too.

We were able to provide a significantly more robust publishing system with better SEO and kept everything running smoothly.  With WordPress on the front side, the site can now handle more traffic with less stress on the cart – resulting in better conversions when traffic is spiking. It isn’t a perfect system but we think it is a unique and creative one.

By the way, if you click the link to appliedi and make a purchase, I will receive a commission.

Practically Dutch featured in Microsoft Case Study is a post from: Practically Dutch

The newest creation to leave the Wry Baby factory floor is Stuf. Right now Stuf comes in four “families”. Developmental stuf is black and white and crinkles or jingles. Bird stuf is all – well bird inspired and then there is the rough and roudy – Pirate Stuf. I haven’t decided which is my favorite yet but I think it may end up a three way tie.

Where can you get Stuf? If you visit the Stuf web site you can check out the entire collection. If you are ready to buy, head on over to Wry Baby and check out the Stuf department.

The last question I keep asking Dave is what am I supposed to do with Stuf? According to Dave, you can do anything you want with Stuf. Put it on a shelf, hide it in a tree or let you child snuggle up with it. Whatever you do with your Stuf will be sure to make you happy.

By the way – Stuf happens to be a custom wordpress theme that we build for them. Wry Baby provided the designs and practically dutch converted the design to a custom theme.

Stuf a new product line from Wry Baby is a post from: Practically Dutch

This weekend, I helped launch another great place to find perfume coupons – not surprisingly called, perfumecoupons.org. The site uses a really nice theme called coupon press that I ended up modifying slightly.  I added some cool geo scripts to help display advertising based on location and I also found a really decent banner rotator.  The wordpress plugin is called AdRotate and can be found at http://www.adrotateplugin.com/

So, if you are in the market for a perfume or cologne, please go check out the FragranceX Coupons and save some money on brand name fragrances.

FragranceX Coupons is a post from: Practically Dutch

Even though it ended up just being a straight HTML project, I did get to learn some really interesting, and exciting things.

1. The site was built for HTML5. According to the W3C validator, everything but the home page (which has Flash) is cleared as valid HTML5 markup. I always shoot for valid code, so obviously I’m happy with the results. The project didn’t end up leveraging as much HTML5 as initially specified, but it was a really good introduction into the challenges with current browsers.
2. Fonts on the web are finally changing and always read your license agreement.  The original design used this fun font and I thought I had a solution with the @font-face attribute in css3, but due to some licensing issues, we were not able to use the font. One way around font licensing issues on the web is to start with a web font license! According to the help desk at myfonts, during the purchase process you will be able to select Desktop, Webfont, or both, and also select the number of pagevews for webfont purchases.
3. Trying to embed video for hand-held devices is a real pain.  I tried hard to get the home page animation to work across many devices but in the end just had to go with a static picture for mobile. It wasn’t a great solution, but better than a big blue box.

It is always interesting when building sites like this. I get a glimpse in to some industry that I might not otherwise have known about. The EcoAd campaign as part of EcoMedia and CBS could have some real traction with advertisers looking to capitalize on the green movement. They are already picking up some good press at Advertising Age.

Anyway, thanks to Imagistic; it was a fun project.

Please take a moment to leave a comment and let me know you you think of my work.

EcoAd launches new web site is a post from: Practically Dutch

Pacifier Cases is a post from: Practically Dutch

Why a WordPress Expert

For many years I specialized in a piece of software for shopping carts and as an expert in that software, clients came to me expecting that I knew everything there was to know about it, and quite frankly, I did. I spent so much time working with this software that I knew more than most of the technical service department. As an expert, it brought me in touch with a lot of great clients and I like to think I helped a lot of folks get their business off the ground or gave it a serious face lift. One of the things I liked about this package was its flexibility in design and features, and that more than anything has drawn me to WordPress.

WordPress has the ability to provide such diverse designs and yet contains an incredibly powerful and understandable programming framework. Since back end is very easy to use for novices as well as experts, WordPress makes updating your web site very easy.  You don’t have to use just the WordPress admin anymore – you can get an iPhone app or even email in your updates!

Hire a WordPress Expert today

Right now I’m taking on new clients and projects for fall or early holiday release. If you are interested in working with a WordPress expert for hire, please give me a call at 917-456-7754 or use the contact page to get in touch. Also, you should know that I do more than just WordPress. I can help with search engine optimization, email marketing, list building, and all other kinds of online and offline marketing.

WordPress Expert for Hire is a post from: Practically Dutch