NELA USA - New Portugese Site

Today we launched NELA USA's Portugese site. NELA USA specializes in registers and plates for newspapers and commercial printers. Their new portugese site is aimed at servicing and assisting their growing business in Brazil. They already have websites in English, Spanish and German.

Ballotin Chocolates - First Newsletter

This morning we helped Ballotin Chocolates send out their first, of hopefully many, newsletters. Ballotin Chocolates is a high end Chocolatier located in Newburyport, MA. If you live around that area, or like to visit (and Newburyport is a pretty neat place), and you are interested in special events at Ballotin you should sign up for their newsletter.

You wanna try some Flash, kid?

Using Flash in websites is a tricky beast. It's an extremely effective way to get cross browser multimedia content to your users, and add some dynamic elements to your page. Yet it's also easily abused. It can be a fine line between abusing Flash, and leveraging it for your website's benefit. Don't be afraid to use Flash technologies, but be vigilant.

All the kids are doing it

It's easy to get sucked in. You can do so many things in Flash that it's easy to be blinded by it's shiny-ness. Animations, vector graphics, movies, and stuff you almost can't believe. Especially as a client looking to have someone build you your new website, it can be very tempting to respond to an all Flash site. It moves. It plays music and sound effects. It swishes and flows. It's so cool, and you want to be cool. Just say no. Let me lay out a few things you want to avoid.

1. Splash Pages - These are the little animated movies that play before you actually get to go to the site. Usually with a 'skip ahead' link or some such these days, though unsurprisingly not always. Splash pages are terrible for usability. They remove your user another step away from the site, add in a click, frustrate and/or confuse people, and are generally found to be annoying. Nearly all your users will dislike a Splash Page Flash animation. They'll skip it or close the site entirely. How often do you sit patiently watching a Splash Page when there is a skip intro button? If you always watch it, then you're about as common as the people who sit in the movie theater till the end of the credits. Flash Splash Pages are Bad.
2. Whole Site Flash - This is where the entire site, images, animations, menus, content, hundreds of pages maybe, are all contained within a single flash page. The browser doesn't navigate around, all of it is done within the flash. This is tremendously bad. First of all it hurts your Findability and search engine rankings, as there aren't multiple pages on your site with content, which the search engines love. Secondly your user can't bookmark interior 'pages' of the flash. If they want to send some information to someone it's easier to send the link to the page rather than the link to the page with instructions ("OK go to the link, then click on menu, then click on products, then click on 'online offers', then click on $50-$100 then click on next twice, and it'll be the third down on the right, click the image, and you'll see the product details") Why throw up barriers to your users? Oh and it's also generally much more expensive to modify and maintain.
3. Disabled? Tough - Flash accessibility is notorious for disabled users. My next door neighbor is blind and I hear it from her all the time (she has a nice setup with a talking computer and everything). It's made progress over the years, but still, for her, if it's flash it's an immediate page close. Yes, this is anecdotal evidence, but the fact is that if you care at all about Accessibility, which you should because you might be legally required to be, Flash elements can be an issue.
4. Cool Elements For Cool Elements Sake - This is more of a "cultural" issue in that it's not a particularly technical issue, but one of choice. For instance, having music play on your site automatically. Random animations fluttering about distracting your users. Things like that. They look cool and sound cool, but they also turn off most of your users. I wish I could learn why people love this stuff for their own sites, even while not truly realizing they hate it on everyone else's sites. I had one client, Shawn Rodgers Photography, ask me for music on his site. I asked him why, and he told me because all his clients had music on theirs. I had him do an impromptu poll in a few locations about people's feelings about music automatically playing on sites. More than 90% of the people hated it. So why do it? Just because it's cool?

Those are just a few of the problems. Don't get me wrong, I use Flash, and I think it's an amazing technology. I also think that it's one of the most abused ones out there. You should have video and audio options, you should have interesting animations or menus if they're called for, but you need to be cautious with Flash. It can elevate your site to new heights, or drag you down into the gutter. Just be careful.

What's in a name?

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
-Juliet, from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Just read a CNN article from last week about web domain name auctions. Apparently people are spending tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on domain names at auctions. It's a growing billion dollar industry and there is even a trade journal for cybersquatters who buy and sell these names for a living.

I personally despise cybersquatting. Some people compare it to real estate, but I know that the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization doesn't see it that way. There are ways around their findings, but basically domain names aren't real estate. They're intellectual property and you can't just hijack a name unless you have a legitimate use. The WIPO found that the cybersquatter in the case of thesimpsonsmovie.com website "has no rights or legitimate interests with respect to the domain name".

Our only direct contact with cybersquatting came with one of our older clients Hallmark Health. Before we took over maintaining their websites a number of domain names had been registered, of which we had no knowledge. One in particular linked to one of their individual hospitals and was listed on a number of other websites, such as ambulance services. All it did was point at the main website. Then one day we received a call that the web address was pointing at another site. It turned out a cybersquatter had put a watch on the name, and when it came up for grabs, because we had no idea it existed much less needed to be renewed, he grabbed it. Suddenly there were links online which instead of pointing towards the Hallmark Health website, were pointing at another site hosted in Portugal.

In the end, thanks to Hallmark Health's legal staff, we were able to regain control of the domain, and in the meantime we contacted every site which had that domain name as a link and had them remove it. Yet, it's soured me since.

Now new businesses are coming to the web looking to register the names of their companies and finding that the website is already registered, and 9 times out of 10 it isn't being used. Upon contacting the cybersquatter they'll ask for anywhere from 2 thousand dollars to millions for the name, depending on what it is.

So what can you do about it?

Well firstly, get a trademark. If you have a trademark and find someone with that domain name you can sue to get it back, or money as damages. There is a 1999 federal law called the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act which allows you initiate arbitration proceedings under the authority of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and you can win the name back.

Most cybersquatters these days have not registered for trademarks, so if there's a name you want, and a cybersquatter holds it for ransom, trademark the name, start using it in business (while also using a secondary not as good domain name for the website) and then take the cybersquatter to arbitration. (if you already have a trademark, just go straight to arbitration) It will still cost you time and money, but depending on how much the guy wants, it could be a great deal for you.

The second thing is, if you don't already use the name and you're starting a new business, get creative. What's in a name? A domain name needs to be easily remembered, less than 10 characters, and letters only to really be good, and it's hard to find them these days because of the squatters. If you don't want to go through the rigmarole of trademarking and arbitration, try tagging on an 'inc' or more description. For instance if you want megayachts.com and can't afford it why not try realmegayachts.com. If your name is McDonald and your company has the same name, but obviously you can't get the mcdonalds.com domain name try mcdonaldstrucking.com or whatever the specific industry you're in. As a last resort add in your business type. megayachtsinc.com doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Stay loose, be creative, and you should be OK.

Just please. I beg you. Don't pay the cybersquatters any money that you can avoid paying. You don't have to spend 100 grand on a domain name to have a profitable website.

Check Out This Video

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released a new study on Online Video usage which is quite illuminating.

"The growing adoption of broadband combined with a dramatic push by content providers to promote online video has helped to pave the way for mainstream audiences to embrace online video viewing. The majority of adult Internet users in the U.S. (57%) report watching or downloading some type of online video content and 19% do so on a typical day."

Of course the young adults are the most "voracious" viewers with their numbers at 76% for the 18-29 bracket, while the over 65 group has numbers at 39%.

"The desire to share a viewing experience with others has already been a powerful force in seeding the online video market. Fully 57% of online video viewers share links to the videos they find online with others. Young adults are the most 'contagious carriers' in the viral spread of online video. Two in three (67%) video viewers ages 18-29 send others links to videos they find online, compared with just half of video viewers ages 30 and older."

If the video is good enough, people are likely to share it with others. Whether more or less than just a normal web page, the study doesn't say. Still, it hammers in the point that engaging dynamic content attracts people, and makes it likely that they'll share your website with someone else.

"Overall, 62% of online video viewers say that their favorite videos are those that are 'professionally produced,' while 19% of online video viewers express a preference for content 'produced by amateurs.' Another 11% say they enjoy both professionally produced video and amateur online video equally."

Professionally produced videos are preferred by a decent majority. The number drops from 62% to 43% with adult young men ages 18-29, of which 34% say they actually prefer amateur content.

"While 10% of online video viewers ages 18-29 have paid to access or download online video, just 3% of video viewers ages 50-64 have done so."

For the most part people expect video to be free, just like any other part of your website.

So what does this mean? Well the study is only 28 pages, and if you're interested I suggest reading it as it's quite illuminating. To put it in simple terms it means that online video is now mainstream. People are beginning to expect to see video on your website, they expect it to be free, and the older they are they expect it to at least look professional. Whether they're watching news, humorous videos, or even educational videos (22% watch educational videos online), people want to watch your content, rather than read it.

A website that's gotten some attention lately is CombinatoRx. They have video dispersed throughout their site, decently produced though not bank breaking. A steady camera shot goes a long way. In addition to their educational videos, they've started webcasting a number of their internal events such as their financial numbers. Not only has their video helped them with their investors, but it's actually garnered them press attention as well.

Another interesting implementation is at DoubleClick's Nerve Center. There they have three people talking about video, but in a really neat format. It breaks the mold but does it in a fairly usable and efficient way. It's engaging, and it makes you feel like you're there in person listening to these people.

Another good example is from one of our sites, Hallmark Health. They had a video produced for the community outreach program and were just sitting on the DVD. Now it's up on the site, and when people go there, they're immediately engaged by the video, and probably learn and remember more, than just reading a page full of text. They're now beginning to add more and more video content, such as a short video for their Advance Medical Directives.

It comes back to what we constantly tell our clients. Content. Content. Content. You need to have some. It doesn't mean you should have a video blog where you chat about the latest Harry Potter book, but it does mean that video is now mainstream, and we all need to be thinking about it more as far as our site content. Keep the content focused and relevant to the page people are on. Have small videos dispersed throughout your site encouraging people to actually see what you want to tell them about, or even take it to the next step and really incorporate video into your site.

People are watching. Give them something to watch.

Practice What You Preach

You know, I've been advising clients on what to do with their websites for over a decade now. Things have changed since I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1995. Heck, back then I was still doing my email directly in Unix with Pine. Web sites were basic hyper linked nodes of information, and most companies didn't have a website at all.

Back then just getting people to realize they should even have a website was a chore.

Now even the not so savvy business people of the world know they should have a website, though not necessarily anything more than that. That's where we come in. We help our clients understand how to use and leverage the web for their own business goals. Maybe just having a website in 1995 was a 'cool' but meaningless thing. Now however, if you're not using your website to generate some sort of business, you're wasting your time.

The problem is that we haven't practiced what we've preached.

OrcaPack has, in one form or another, been going strong since our inception in early 2002 when Tim Hinkel and I were drinking a beer in the Harvard Square location of John Harvard's, talking about the company that we both worked at that had just gone under and decided to be our own bosses. Since then we've been advising clients big and small to do all sorts of things as the web has evolved. Yet, in all that time, we've rarely heeded our own advice.

One of the many things we tell people to do is to generate content, and one of the ways to do that is to have a blog, and update it regularly. Well, here we go. Welcome to the OrcaBlog.

Here we're going to try and post about all sorts of stuff. From interesting articles concerning the industry as a whole, to technical questions and answers, to news about our work and our clients. All sorts of stuff. We hope that you find it interesting or informative in some way. Maybe we can even become a case study for ourselves on our own. We've helped a number of our clients be more successful by leveraging the web. Why not us?