A few of you who read my blog a couple of years back, may remember my stint with the Jillian Michaels workout. You know- the devil woman that makes you do scorpion pushups... evil! Well, I lost upwards of 20 pounds in a month and a half, and was probably the most fit I'd ever been. Unfortunately that lifestyle was unsustainable for me. I eventually crept back to the weight I was before, and was headed higher.

Of Calories and Counting

So, after trying various workout routines, resolutions, and even Atkins (boy, that was an interesting diet!) I've simplified things. The old tried-and-true "more calories out than in" diet. Also this "diet" is a lifestyle- something that does not have an end (per-se). Once I hit my target weight of 165, I'll shift my calorie count to a maintenance level.

I have a helper, though. In this modern day of apps, there is an app for this called "LoseIt!" Like most apps of this variety, it has a vast library of food, with nutrition and calorie info, as well as bar code scanner (for quick lookups), fitBit connectivity and goal setting/tracking. I have a few friends that use an alternative app "CrashPlan" and vouch for it's awesomeness, but side-by-side comparison showed them virtually the same.

When starting the app for the first time, you put in your weight, age and goal. It then gives you 3 options, with the calorie allotment for each option- 1 pound lost a week, 1.5 pounds a week, or 2 pounds a week. As you can imagine, the more aggressive the goal, the less calories you're allowed a day. This time, I chose the 1.5 pounds a week.

Each day, you type or scan the food your eaten and it subtracts that food from your daily allotment. It gets really depressing at first when you see how quickly that allotment gets depleted. Here's the cool thing though- whenever you work out, you input the exercise and it adds to your daily allotment! Therefore, encouraging foodies like me to exercise :)

This app has kept me honest and trained me to know what foods are good for you and what foods are calorie sinks. It's nice to see your progress in this graph.

I started at 196 and am now at 178 pounds. What's more, is I've come down from a size 36 pants size to a size 32 :) This time, I'm hitting 165 pounds and staying there!

First off, a little disclosure- I'm a web designer, a developer and social media aficionado (notice I didn't say "expert"). I will not tell you to make your site with any fly-by-night-cheap-sites-made-with-templates-that-500-othersites-use.com tools. Why? Because I want your site to be distinctive and I want you to have a good experience building your site. I can't tell you how many times I've helped people out that have horror stories about getting their sites built. It's sad, but true.

Some up-front truths you need to know:

1. Building a custom website is pricey- anywhere from $1200-$whateverYouWantToPay. The local average here (in Frederick, MD) with an agency is about $5k-$10k.
2. You need to know something about websites, domain names and hosting- If you don't know a thing about these topics, Google it or get a "Dummies" book.
3. Unless you are paying an agency to write it for you, you will need to provide the content (verbiage) for your site- Most agencies and freelancers will guide you, but you know your business and your message the best, therefor you will be providing them the content.
4. You will be doing this about every 3-5 years to keep your site fresh

The Process

Who do you use to build your site?

I said it before, don't use a template service. Don't use the site builder that came with your hosting. Unless you are a web designer that knows how to work within the restraints they place on you, these tools will make you look cheap and bad. You could use some overseas cheap site companies (I know a web professional that had a good experience getting her WordPress site built by a little Indian company), but (in my book) that's a form of online Russian Roulette. I wouldn't use anyone I couldn't sit at a table with in person. You can only do so much through email. That leaves you with 2 choices: an Agency or a Freelancer.

The Agency

If you can afford it, an agency is probably the best way to go. We have several here in Frederick that I know do great work! Benefits with using an agency include a quick turnaround time and full service offerings (design, development, content creation, hosting, and site maintenance packages, marketing and SEO). They are a true cradle-to-grave solution that can use their army of talent to whip out a truly professional site, guaranteed to work marvelously!

The downside to agencies?

1. cost! You will get  a lot, because you will get what you pay for.

My wife works at a non-profit in D.C. and they went to an Agency to get their information site (with an e-commerce and subscriptions component) launched. $500,000 later, they had it up and running fine! Chances are you will not be spending that much for your business site, but I just wanted to give you an idea of how big it can get. Frederick rates range from $120-$200/hr.

The Freelance Professional

Though, not super cheap- more affordable than an Agency. Benefits with using a freelance professional include personal service, a true desire to make you succeed (you have to look good, so she/he looks good), true talent and affordability. Rates range from $50-$100/hr.

The downside to freelance professionals?

1. turnaround time- they're only one person, and they might even (hopefully for them) have other clients.
2. limited services- designer and developer if your lucky and some marketing skills

Things to look for in a freelance professional:

1. A full time freelancer. Don't use a freelancer that does it on the side of their regular job. I realize I'll piss off some of my own kind, but medium-to-large business sites should be built by professionals that can dedicate full days to the task. I moonlight, but I pass off large jobs like these because I know I can't dedicate the resources to do the project justice.
2. Use agency veterans if you can. Freelancers that have worked in agencies have more experience with the "big picture". They've been privy to how the marketing works, as well as content generation. They also know how a proper agile-based project is run.
3. Good, raw talent. Look at their portfolio and make sure their site examples are actually still live sites.
4. Finally, call a couple of clients they've had and ask them what their experience was working with the individual. Chances are, you'll get a quick response either way!

What do you want to build?

What do you want to say about your business? Who do you want to attract to your site? What image do you want to convey?

These are questions you will be asked by your agency/freelancer. You will also be asked to give 3 websites that you like the most. They don't have to be too relevant to your business, they just have to be examples of styles that you like or usability (easy to use and get around). This will give your vendor an idea of what you like and what you expect as a professional site.

Tools to consider:

1. Shopping Cart- Do you want to sell anything online?
2. Blog- Do you want to convey your ultimate knowledge about the service/product arena you're in?
3. CMS (Content Management System)- do you want to update the verbiage in your site yourself?

Domain Name Management

Get your domain name yourself at either networksolutions.com, enom.com or register.com. I'm sure you've noticed the distinct lack of godaddy.com. It's because they are nothing but a marketing machine that traps you in their online infomercial with hard-to-use tools. I'm not bitter ;)

I want you to get the domain name yourself because you own the name- it is your brand as much as the sign on your establishment. If you get your domain name through a hosting account, agency's or freelance professional's channels, you'll find it more difficult to move on if you have to "ask" to transfer your name (after you've had a bad experience with them). It could (and has) happen.

Hosting

Go with what your vendor suggests, as they will know the technical requirements they'll need to have your site humming along. Always ask for access to the control panel setup or server account- just so you have it.

DON'T go cheap on this! If you're concerned with your site going down, 200 gigabytes of space (that you'll never use) unlimited email addresses (you'll have 3)- all for $3 a month, will not be such a deal when some hacker (also hosted on your server) takes down your site.

Conclusion

These are only the basics in what to expect and look for when setting up your professional business site.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about websites, come ask some true web professionals at one of our Frederick Web Technology meetups every month at http://fredwebtech.com. All are welcome!

When going to see Titanic in 3D, do NOT stand on your seat and yell "king of the world!"

Those suckers FOLD!

• Read article from cool Designtaxi email
• Share article to Facebook
• Read Facebook stream
• like, like, like, lol
• share
• answer comment
• Tweet article link to Twitter
• RT cool tweet links
• Share cool links on Facebook
• like, like, like, lol
• share
• answer comment

Answer pressing email (from yesterday)

Take shower, towel dry

Look at message on iPhone

• Answer Twitter question
• "Thanks for the RT"
• Comment on Facebook comment
  • like, like, like, lol
  • share

Check into Foursquare

Walk to Starbucks

• Pay with Starbucks digital iPhone card
• Check into Foursquare
• Tweet to everyone that you are, indeed, getting coffee at Starbucks

Drive back to home office

Check into Foursquare

Open work IRC

work, work, work

Check Email

• Answer Twitter question
• "Thanks for the RT"
• Comment on Facebook comment
  • like, like, like, lol
  • share

work, work, work

Walk to lunch

• Tweet picture of your incredible sandwich, the likes of which you're sure that everyone will be interested in.
• Answer Twitter question
• "Thanks for the RT" of your sandwich pic, confirming that "indeed, people really did want to see what you were eating"
• Comment on Facebook comment
• like, like, like, lol
• share

Check into Foursquare

Walk back

Check into Foursquare

Check back into work IRC

work, work, work

Check Email

• Answer Twitter question
• "Thanks for the RT"
• Comment on Facebook comment
  • like, like, like, lol
  • share

Wrap up work

Check into Foursquare (Damn @magurski is still ahead of me in points!)

Go out to eat with family

Check into Foursquare

Play with #1son and Cathy

Tuck #1son into bed

Spend time with the most wonderful woman on earth

Check Email

• Answer Twitter question
• "Thanks for the RT"
• Comment on Facebook comment
  • like, like, like, lol
  • share

Remark how well Cathy is doing on her "Words With Friends" games

Kiss Goodnight

...the modern lifestyle. :/

I actually wrote this two days before Google released this concept video of their "Project Glass"- God help us:

In the dot com era, companies started to value employees as partners (complete with equity and parachutes), but then that all exploded with the dot bomb. I still have my paper stock from Healant that went from a value of $70k to the current price of one sheet of recycled paper.

Today it's mixed, with some companies that do and some that don't value their employees as assets. Some employees that want security and some that thrive on change and can't sit still. Also, there's a heck of a lot more employees that are striking off on their own as freelancers or business owners.

Compared to my parent's generation, my generation is incredibly mobile, and the emerging generation is downright fluid! I feel it's a healthy change that forces companies to value their employees a little more, and employees to value opportunities as they come.

Just as a bad employee has developed a bad reputation, companies with bad [employee relations] will develop a bad reputation. Good employees will stay away from bad companies like good companies will stay away from bad employees. In many ways, the crappy companies will be stuck with crappy employees and they'll ultimately fail from within <-- Darwinian, indeed.

Is this an era of mutual respect then? We shall see. Of course, none of this will matter, come December 21st, because the world will end. Everyone, stick close to John Cusack!

Hold on a moment, though- just so you know, I am not a workaholic! I can count the times that I have worked late into the night on one hand- for the year! That's mainly because I also work for a company that believes in a true work-life balance. That, my friends, is the key to working at home! I've heard horror stories of companies that allow working at home, in hopes of working their employees to an early grave. Their is no reason anyone should work more than 40 hours a week! Companies that work their employees 50, 60 or 80 hours a week for a flat salary don't value their employees and show a lack of good management and planning. It's the new sweat shop, complete with stock options, beer and fuse-ball!

...and here's another thing- if you don't mind working in an office, beware the companies that have the shiny offices, complete with stocked beer fridge, fuss-ball table, video game room, masseuse, etc... Yeah! Awesome! They want to make sure you're comfortable and cool with being there because

you.

will.

never.

leave!

Ask what the average work week is like and how often they pull milestone sprints- i.e. all-nighters. Of course, maybe you're hungry and dig that lifestyle (you know- 23 and single), in which case, that place is for you! Don't get me wrong, if I am going to be in an office 16 hours a day, it really does help to have the perks, but I don't want to be in an office 16 hours a day.

Me? I love my family and I love my job! Don't make me choose between the two, boss-man/woman, and I won't disappoint you. In fact, I'll dazzle you with what I can do because I live a fulfilled life!

End of line...

Still, this really is a pretty cool office space!

As I am doing a little blogging for *mojoLive I've been posting them here as well. That being said, it's only a couple of articles in the past 6 months. When I started neutralgood.net, I was blogging twice a week. I think I will commit myself to once a week to start off with. I really enjoyed blogging- I loved the creativity involved. As a daddy blogger, I've learned that if you don't watch out, life gets in the way. Not this time :)

Some articles will be humorous, some will be chock full of geeky knowledge, some will be bitchy- but I will try make all of them interesting. Blogging is a habit, and it is a habit I'm going to cultivate.

If you'd like to participate in the "the Ideas of March", here's how:

• Write a post called Ideas of March.
• Write about why you like blogs.
• If you don't already blog regularly, pledge to blog more the rest of the month.
• Share your thoughts on Twitter with the #ideasofmarch hashtag.

I'm always up for Some Antics

I am, of course speaking of semantic markup in html5. When I say "semantic markup" I mean markup that is more meaningful than just <div> or <span>. In html5 there are new tags like <header>, <footer>, <nav> as well as <video> and <audio>. These actually help to look at the html markup and, in a very humanistic way, understand what you're looking at. Long gone are the days of tables within tables and now divs within divs. You can (just about) write page markup with the minimalism that the original (unstyled) html1 pages were. It is a beautiful thing!

The Cascade Range

This is only possible because of the CSS3 (Cascading Stylesheets 3) specification. CSS3 allows an almost complete separation of church and state design and markup that can style (with minimal code) any element on your webpage. This allows you to have the most uninterrupted semantic markup possible, while designing your page any way you like.

CSS came along in 1996, but wasn't getting used broadly until the turn of the century (sounds old, huh?) enabled designers to finally get access to the toolbox they always had in printing- tools like kerning and leading, padding and margins. Also, it finally freed us from tables- though it took some of us longer than others to get on the bandwagon.

CSS2 was a set of standards that never really got broad enough support to use in browsers to be reliably used. The "absolute," "relative," and "fixed" positioning statements code be used somewhat reliably but usually fell apart when you viewed it in Internet Explorer (like most standards).

CSS3 enabled us to do even more as designers: rounded corners, shadows and better supported web fonts (Yes! We can finally use something other than Arial and Times!).

Javascript Magic

We have meaningful markup and wonderful design capability: now for the magic! Javascript has been with us almost as long as the first browser has been around. It's been a love-to-hate relationship with us web folk for years. No one browser seemed to stick completely to standards in the scripting language. While Microsoft and Netscape were trying to follow the scripting standards setup in the ECMAscript specifications, both liked to add their own "special sauce" that made their own browsers do more. Web designers and developers had to create multiple versions of their "rollover" scripts just to accommodate the two browsers. We hated it!

Then, along came javascript libraries! Prototype, Script.aculo.us, YUI, Moo Tools, and the big one, jQuery. These are prewritten and pretested for cross-browser-compatability javascript code that you could include in your website and use to create some phenomenal effects and functionality. What's best, you can use this stuff with abandon, as it works in almost every browser reliably!

The Complete Unabridged Director's Cut in High Definition Widescreen (Complete, with Lost Tom Bombadil Scene)

This magical triumvirate of standards-based technologies enables us designers and developers create truly beautiful, meaningful, and best-practice-compliant websites. Does this mean we will finally get it right? Probably not. But we finally have the tools to try!

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Life has been, overall, good. Sure, we've got minor disasters like our sole bathroom's subflooring needing to be completely replaced, but we'll managed to stay somewhat solvent and happy. Our little boy is finally "getting it" about potty training, Cathy and I have managed to get away alone for a weekend to the Eastern Shore and "we", as a unit, are getting along just fine.

Work is awesome. I absolutely love working at home and with a team of such talented people on a product I believe in. mojoLive is due to launch alpha this week and we feel pretty good about it!

The "other" is interesting, in that I'm going to be speaking in two conferences this year, one local, one *gulp* national. Along with my monthly running of the Frederick Web Technology Meetup, I'm also taking up a hobby of rebuilding my old CMS in OOP so Steve can have a developer take over his sites and actually be able to maintain them.

As for this blog, I am "starting over" and (with renewed prodding from the fact my better half is out-blogging me- it's not that hard), I am starting anew. I may not be as witty as I've been, but I will try my best to, at least, be entertaining ;)

All that being said, I will end here- but look for another post to come within a couple of weeks week as I need to write one for the mojoLive blog ;)