Failing at Websites - Succeeding Through Learning

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Working with b5media
2007-11-14 06:25:00
Hey, sorry it has been a while since I last updated!  Whoops!  Anyways, my latest news is that I’m working with b5media now!  Heard of it?  Well, Google it.  I am blogging on BossHatch, which is the Young Entrepreneurs blog.  Have I quit with this blog?  Hell no!  I just like taking time off, then ...
More About: General , Working , Workin

Journal Entry 1.6: It?s 5AM and I Feel Like Dying
2007-10-07 10:57:00
I am exhausted.  My football team lost and I’ve been coding/designing for the past 4 hours.  Making forward progress?  Meh.  A bit.  I could have done a lot more in 4 hours, but I am a slow worker and I had to redo about 295304439 things.  So here’s the link: Clemson Italian Dept. Shit, I forgot to ...
More About: Journal , Dying , Feel , I Feel Like Dying , Entry

Web Development Avatars
2007-09-26 08:35:00
Here are a few avatars I made while I was bored today. Personally, I think the last few are the best: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Feel free to use any of them.
More About: Web Development , General , Development , Avatars

Introducing: Web Tools!
2007-09-26 02:56:00
I just pulled one of my tools from my other site MakingAdcents.com and put it up on this site.  Why, you ask? Well, I don’t really do much with that site anymore, for one.  Another reason was to weight the calculations a bit better to compensate for sudden traffic spikes.  Feel free to use it ...
More About: Tools

Journal Entry 1.5 - Front Page Concept Live
2007-09-26 00:18:00
Alright, it may look bad now, but I am still working on the front page for the Italian Dept! Here’s the current design. None of the links work and the images are just placeholders for better replacements.  I also will be adding about 5 more links to the list. However, that is ...
More About: Journal , Page , Live , Front , Concept

Excuse My Posting Habits - Horrible Northland Service
2007-09-24 07:43:00
I want to apologize for two things: 1. Not posting so often 2. Disappearing over the weekend 1. I’m using the cable company called Northland. This has to be the worst ISP I have ever experienced (worse than a 56k modem). We are supposed to get 2.5-3mbps down and 250kbps up. Well, we get ...
More About: General , Service , Habits , Excuse , Posti

PayPerPost Paying For My Weekends
2007-09-20 00:02:00
I recently signed up for PayPerPost, which is a blog marketing tool for people who need reviews on their site. I figured I would give them a try just to see what kind of money I can make - you know, since I’m not really making anything from any other sources. For the ...
More About: Payperpost

Marketing Test - craigslist - The Word ?Free?
2007-09-19 09:19:00
I got bored between doing school-work and studying - so I did some brainstorming.  How could I sell my Free Site Analysis website?  I then remembered a conversation I had with my wonderful loving girlfriend (see, aren’t I nice?) when I was trying to sell my Clemson vs. Florida State football tickets.  She recommended I ...
More About: Marketing , Word , Test , Craigslist

Free Site Analysis Has Been Outsourced!
2007-09-17 11:12:00
In order to pinpoint my specific niche for how2fail, I have decided to “outsource” my web site analysis service to a new website: http://www.save-my-site.com. I will still be posting journals, tutorials, and all that other fun stuff on this website.  However, if you would like to read/get an analysis, you will have to jump over ...
More About: Analysis , General , Free , Site , Been

Tutorial: How to Edit Font Colors in Wordpress
2007-09-16 20:48:00
One of our community members, Aryst, wants to know how to edit font colors with Wordpress . So here’s a tutorial that will hopefully help. CSS has to be one of the most intuitive systems. Its code is very straightforward. To anyone’s credit, though, the code for changing font color doesn’t make much sense… ...
More About: Tutorial , Colors , Edit , Font

Journal Entry 1.4 - Some Folder Organization and Web Development Considerat
2007-09-16 08:02:00
When you build a website, folders are important.  Proper folder use = organization.  I screwed up today… well, almost.  I built my links with the parent directory (as discussed in one of my earlier posts), but half way through doing the last page I decided to take it in another direction.  Should I have put ...
More About: Web Development , Journal , Organization , Development , Consider

Site Analysis: Koobarra.com
2007-09-15 09:15:00
I was asked by Mike conduct an analysis of Koobarra.com. I’ve been talking to him recently and he writes for another blog which looks alright, so don’t let this one fool you. Mike sent me an email saying “this site was built a year or two ago and the universal opinion has been ...
More About: Analysis , Site , Barra , Anal

Site Analysis: Nimrodjo?s Blog
2007-09-15 07:48:00
The site I will be reviewing belongs to Aryst from Nimrodjo.com. For each review, I will be referring to the author in third person, as though I am speaking to an audience (because I technically am). So for a reference, this isn’t only directed towards the author of the blog, but also anyone ...
More About: Analysis , Blog , Site , Anal

Free Site Analysis
2007-09-14 22:40:00
I’ve been having a discussion with Rob over at Traveling Money and have decided to really apply my knowledge of efficiency and usability to help other sites (as a senior in Industrial Engineering and experienced web developer). I’m going to begin analyzing websites for free (unless I get a whole lot of people coming ...
More About: Analysis , Free , Site , Anal

Journal Entry 1.3 - Off to a Tedius Start
2007-09-13 23:41:00
I finally got the domain for the site.  Woohoo - now it is time to begin actual work on the site… oh wait, the server just crashed.  So my first personal duty was to upload the syllabi for the new Italian Study Abroad program.  Well I did (before the server crashed), but then got myself ...
More About: Journal , Start , Entry

Journal 2.1 - Background Project
2007-09-10 09:00:00
I have started another project.  I will be taking a very basic idea and trying to monetize it.  What is it, exactly?  Well, I can’t really say yet.  Has it been done?  Eh… kinda, sorta, not really.  I have purchased the domain name and I plan on talking indirectly about the project here.  This is ...
More About: Journal , Project , Background

Journal? nevermind?
2007-09-06 06:15:00
I’d have something to write if I wasn’t drunk.
More About: Journal , Nothing , Nevermind

Journal Entry 1.2 - Domain Name
2007-08-30 00:03:00
Today I had a discussion with my professor about what kind of domain we want. Now normally this isn’t an issue, but when I have about a dozen 100+MB videos to advertise the study abroad program… things become complicated. We apparently have a domain under Clemson University’s URL, but I am not sure ...
More About: Journal , Domain , Domain Name , Entry

Journal Entry 1.1 - Clemson University Dept. of Italian Studies
2007-08-28 20:48:00
I have returned! I am no longer giving original web building tips, but instead documenting my web building experiences to gain a better grasp of efficient and usable web building. Here’s a little background of how I actually got this (paid) gig - so if you wanted to take on such a position ...
More About: Studies , Journal , University , Italian , Clemson

How2Fail.com?s Road Block (not to be confused with writer?s block)
2007-07-21 22:32:00
So I used to write articles every day.  Now, obviously, you are lucky to get one per week.  I have come to the conclusion that every other bit of information that I can post will be completely redundant or useless.  Is this because I don’t know what I am talking about?   Some may say yes, ...
More About: Writer , Road , Block , Lock

Results From Week Long Link Bait Experiment
2007-07-16 22:01:00
The conditions couldn’t have been more optimal.  It was E3 2007 and people were hounding Digg.  I wrote around three articles to see how useful link baiting was.  Here are the resulting hit statistics:   So what can we conclude about these statistics?  Well, first of all, getting hits will definitely be temporary when you are using a site like Digg.  People like to see the page and move on with their Digging life.  They do, however, prefer top 10 lists.  The upside of getting listed (and getting a decent amount of hits) is the SEO.  You will appear much higher on search engines for the pages that get more hits, of course.  So overall, do I think it is worth it?  Yes, I do… but only for your good, representative articles.  These are free hits we are talking about here.  Well I shouldn’t say free - so let’s just say it takes minimal work to get those hits.
More About: Results , Experiment , Link , Week , Long

The ?Never Take Away? Philosophy
2007-07-10 02:38:00
For the past year I have developed this philosophy of “never take away,” in terms of web design. When you create a website, your intentions are to appeal to the visitor. You initially want to design around the user since they, ultimately, make it work. Here’s the problem, though - what do ...
More About: Philosophy , Marketing , Design , Away , Hilo

Link Bait Experiment
2007-07-09 01:26:00
It seems many people write for the sole purpose of link baiting. By this, I mean they write to get listed on Digg, Fark, etc. On one of my test sites, I will be writing a series of lists and other articles for the sole purpose of getting listed on those sites and ...
More About: Experiment , Link , Peri , Rime

Where There?s a Will, There?s a Way
2007-07-06 20:47:00
Many people who code by hand do not know everything.  I am one of those guys.  When I code, it is almost like a plane trying to fly with half-size wings… it will get off the ground, but won’t stay up for any amount of time.  So what’s a possible solution? Well, you could always ...
More About: Design , General , There , Where

So I Have Entered the Top 1,000,000 On Alexa?
2007-07-05 10:08:00
What does that mean? Pretty much nothing. Well, it actually means I have a few loyal fans so far (who give me a purpose to write). It also means that people with the Alexa toolbar frequent this website. I’ll use this post as a thanks to those who are currently ...
More About: General

Testing Your Advertising Market Using Subdomains
2007-07-04 21:02:00
One great way to test the effectiveness of an ad campaign is to use subdomains. So… What is a subdomain? A subdomain is basically a domain inside of a domain. For instance, a subdomain of my website would be http://www.subdomain.how2fail.com (no, it isn’t a real link). Most hosting plans should offer this feature. So now you ...
More About: Marketing , Advertising , Market , Testing , Vert

How to Properly Use Font
2007-07-03 23:26:00
Font is something people like to play with.  It is often by someone who is trying to be original, but ends up screwing the whole site over because of the ugly background.  Font is also something people often mess up.  The common misconception is that font adds to your content.  The effect seen from having ...
More About: Design , Font , Prop , Rope

Selling Online - Advantage of Pull vs. Push Manufacturing
2007-07-03 06:38:00
Many people see the reasons for selling products online only on its skin.  However, selling products online really has a network of advantages buried into its layouts and interfaces.  When you purchase an item at a store, you are essentially compensating for overhead.  The money that the store gets is used to pay off employees, ...
More About: Selling , General , Online , Manufacturing , Manu

Effective Design
2007-07-02 09:06:00
Design is beautiful. It defines you, your website, your audience, and sometimes your content. Mastering design is harder than any other aspect of creation, besides content. The reason is simply because of the (literally) infinite variations of every design possibility. Should you put your ad here? Should the colors fit in ...
More About: Design , Usability , Effective

i think your smarter then this, but?
2007-07-01 19:09:00
Please use good grammar in your blog posts! I know my readers use great grammar, but if someone is just stumbling upon this website - do not post an article if it looks anything like this title. There are many websites like e-zines lovely bold-less article and this guy’s whole blog that are ...
More About: General , Usability , Then