Daily Brad, the blog

So it wasn’t until a couple months ago, that I began to hear about the whole concept of “Social Bookmarking”. I’ve even mentioned it to a couple of my friends, and they always pose the question “what ARE you talking about?”

Even though I understand how social bookmarking works now (well, not completely, but learning), I tend to still say “hu?”. Social bookmarking is a web-based service, where shared lists of user-created Internet bookmarks are displayed. These sites generally organize their content using tags (a keyword or term to classify content). Social bookmarking sites are an increasingly popular way to locate, classify, rank, and share Internet resources through the practice of tagging and inferences drawn from grouping and analysis of tags. But HOW do they make money?

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So I did a couple searches yesterday looking for the technique for putting Google Analytics on my blog. Since I’ve already put their code on the main pages of my portfolio site, I wanted to add it to the blog as well.

I found a quick little bullet-point that revealed how it’s done on Matt Cutt’s Blog (he was one of the first search results I found when searching). He says:

If you’re using WordPress with a theme like almost-spring, you would edit your header.php file, e.g. wp-content/themes/almost-spring/header.php and put the JS just above the tag. That’s it. Do a view-source on this page and search for “urchin” to see where to drop the code.

I tried this, and it’s already sending through hits. Wow, cool. Thanks Matt. I’ll have to monitor this over time, as it looks like it’s not sending as specific information through as I’d like. I’ve heard of other blog tracking tools, but this should be sufficient for now.

So guess what? I now know you’ve visited. Yeah! Upward and onward.

So I blogged about Donuts the other day on my Tweet Sweet blog. Heaven knows that I love donuts. Thank goodness for a fellow employee that brings them into my work every-other Friday (You rock Joe!).

In the blog post, I mentioned Glazies, a donut location paired with several Hogi Yogi/Teriyaki Stix food locations. The eating locations (Hogi Yogi is all about Sandwiches and Yogurt, Teriyaki Stix serves rice bowls) are franchised by Hyats, LLC. To become a franchisee, the cost is about 300K which is pretty typical for a shop like this. The Hogi Yogi headquarters are located in the Riverwood’s area of Provo, Utah located in a nice brick building above a large Hogi Yogi/Teriyaki Stix location. When trying to find a link for Glazies (which doesn’t exist) I headed over to their home page at HogiYogi.com and found a page that has not been updated since 2002, uses terrible outdated design and frames. (Does anyone use frames anymore?) At first I thought I had landed on the wrong page, and tried doing other searches. But THIS IS their corporate page. Here’s a company that is obviously not taking advantage of the power of the web, or doesn’t think that their online presence has much to do with their offline business.

Take a look at another franchise in the area - Cold Stone Creamery. If you visit their website, you’re greeted by an attractive site with a red background reminiscent of the wallpaper in their stores, and pictures of their yummy desserts. Not only does their website give the history of the company and franchise information, customers can also buy gift cards, sign up for their birthday club, and view tastefully photographed pictures of their desserts (notice the reflection effect that I blogged about the other day on their ice cream page).

How does your company’s website fit into your overall image, your brand? A well-designed website can:

So I’ve been watching my traffic the past couple weeks through my newly installed Google Analytics. I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting a lot of referrals from the Design Directory at Dexigner.com, so I thought I’d check out the site.

Their listings have a small picture of your webpage - here’s mine, and contains all the pertinent details of my web page:

Description: Portfolio of Utah-based freelance designer. Includes logo identity, corporate packaging, web site design, corporate branding through all print and electronic materials.
URL: www.bradmccall.com
Category: Graphic Design Portfolios
Page Size: 115 bytes
Visitors: 337
Date Added: 01 May 2004 16:48
Last Crawl: 23 Oct 2006 10:10
Status: Active (200)
Supporter: No
Submitted by: Design Directory

The parent site of this directory also has a design database, design forums, design agenda, newsletter and more.

Dexigner Design Portal
Dexigner Design Portal delivers latest design news, events, exhibitions, conferences, and design competitions.
http://www.dexigner.com/

Design Directory
The Design Directory is a web directory of design resources.
Designers, design companies, design studios, portfolios, consultancies and many more.
http://www.dexigner.com/directory/
http://www.designdirectory.net/

Design Database
A comprehensive database of designs, designers and design companies.
Listings include photos, material, field, location and contact information.
http://www.dexigner.com/database/
http://www.designdatabase.com/

Design Agenda
Dexigner Design Agenda keeps you up-to-date on current design competitions,
exhibitions, conferences and upcoming events.
http://www.dexigner.com/agenda/
http://www.designagenda.net/

Dexigner Newsletter
Monthly roundup of design news and competitions from the #1 portal for design related information.
Already more than 26.000 subscribers.
http://www.dexigner.com/newsletter/

If you haven’t visited here already, or list your site (as a freelancer), I’d do it. It seems like a very popular site (800,000 unique visitors a month according to their about us page). I just signed up for their newsletter, so we’ll see how that goes.

So I ran across an interesting site tonight called NO!SPEC. The site’s mission is to educate both clients and Visual Communication designers (also known as ‘graphic’ designers) about the nature of speculative, or “spec” work and how it effects us all in the design community.

The site also serves as a vehicle to unite designers who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.

How do you feel about Spec work?

Visit the Site | Digg story

Are you being paid what you’re worth? This designer salaries link, sponsored by AIGA (the organization for designers I recently became a part of) and Aquent (a marketing and creative services group) has a link to give you an idea of what your worth.

Check it out –>AIGA/AQUENT Survey of Design Salaries 2006

So there use to be this great site called ampUTate.org that would contain links to all the local Utah advertising agencies, graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, etc. Recently, because of time constraints (and from what I’ve found in message boards around the web) a “hack” to the site, the author has taken the page down.

So with a little digging, I found the link page still live, and grabbed most the links (half of them were old and broken). I checked every link to make sure it was still live (deleted the ones that were not) and still in Utah. (I’m sure I missed some) I also scoured the web to find a whole bunch of others. I’ll be managing from here, but I just wanted to credit ampUTate.org for the good start.

If you know anyone that needs to be added to this list, feel free to comment, or drop me a note at imcre8tive [at] yahoo.com . You’ll always find the most updated version of this list in the main navigation under “pages”. (this list/post was last updated Dec 1, 2006)

Utah Graphic Designers
( Click Here to View Most Recent List )

Alan Peck [Menacing Tourist]
Andrew Burt [Moondog Studios]
Angie Wingert [Ridgeline Creative Design]
Ashley J. Gay [Studio525]
Ben Childs [BC Design]
Brad Ford
Brad McCall [Brad McCall, designer]
Bryan Green
Chad Garrick [Fubbs]
Chad Maxwell [Xzude]
Charles Plummer [Chasworks]
Cory Maylett
Curt Snarr
Curtis Morley
Dan Decort [Decort Interactive]
Darin Warren
Dave Boyd [Boyd Interactive]
Dave Gibson [Listen Design]
Davina Pallone [Design Wrench]
Ed Harrach
Eduardo Cuellar [EdWorks]
Eric Harrison [Dzin Forge]
Eric Russell
Eric Turner [Stremph]
Erik Lono [Neubrucke]
James Bowden [Bowden Visual]
Janice Mataya [Mataya Design / The Very Idea]
Jared T. Strain [Drool Collection]
Jason Gill [Gilluminate]
Jeffrey Whitehead [Jeffrey's Fridge]
Jennifer Gyllenskog
Jennifer Straus
Joanne Maass [Jomass Design]
John Lepinski
Jon Bybee [Bybee Creative]
Jordan Mazziotti [Mazziotti Design]
Josh Penrod [Amishrobot]
Joshua Steimle [Don Loper]
Kim Reynolds [Kimbolt]
Kirk Rawlins
Kyle Follett [Folco]
Lance Clark [l4nc3]
Luke Baker [LMB Studio]
Maria Q. Stultz [MQStudio]
Matt Maxwell
Matt Wigham [I Hear It Hurts]
Matthew Jorgensen [Creative Insights]
Mel Milton [Melmade]
Micah Bauer
Michael John Burgoyne
Monique Heileson [Moneek]
Nate Smith
Paul Consiglio [72 Pixels]
Paul Mayne [Forml Design]
Paul Solomon [Solomon71]
Pete Hawkes
Ray Elder
Rob Harris
Ryan Mansfield [Mansfield Company]
Ryan Tanner [fourthdaydesign]
Steven Jerman
Zac Bernstein [740creative]

Utah Design Firms and Agencies
( Click Here to View Most Recent List )

a/3
Allbee Green
Anavi Design
A N D
angryporcupine*design
Artisian Studios
Axiom Designed Communications
Axis41
Bailey Montague - Graphic Design
Blakeslee Group
Blissium
Blurred Vision Studios
Boede + Partners
B/O/W/G
Braintrust Creative
Brubaker Street
BTH2
CC Graphic Design
Candesa
Clarkson Creative
Cobalt Communications Group
Cogbox
Cohezion
Contact
Counterpoint Studios
Crowell
Cue Media
Dahlin Smith White
Da Vinci Advertising & Marketing
Design of Today
Design Publishing and Media Group
Design Solutions
Digital Slant
Dimensions Edge
Doglatin
8 Fish
EF Creative, Inc
Enhance
Eyefx
Fluid Studio
Focus
Forth Gear
Fortis Creative
Freestyle Marketing Group
Fullnelson Communications
Fusion Media
Gravity Media
H Theory
Humaniz Interactive
ID Communications
Indigo Creative
i4 solutions
Inetz Media Group
Infinite Scale Design Group
Janda Design Company
Jibe Media
Joanne Maass Design
Kassing Andrews
Kinara
Kinetic Stream
Kirwin
Look Designs
Love Communications
Luna Webs
M2 Results
Market Design Media Group
Mergen|Design
Merrell Remington
Mindfog
MWI
Meyer and Liechty
Modern8
Neumaedia
Nine-Grain Design
Orton Group
Page Forward Design
Penna Powers Brian Haynes
Pinnacle Communications
Publicis West
Powerpix
Persudio Design
R&R Partners
Red Factor
Red Olive
Richards&Swensen
Richter7
RIESTER
Rumor Advertising
Sadi
Sandbox Circle
Sandman Studios
Skogen Group
Soter Associates
Stephen Hales Creative
Struck Design
Studeo
The Studio
Thought Lab
Swivelhead Design Works
Systematic Design
Targa Media
Thomas Arts
Vangaurd Media Group
Verite
W Communications
The Walton Group
Zara Media

Utah Illustrators
( Click Here to View Most Recent List )

Adrian Ropp
Alex Nabaum
Angela Woods
Ben Craner
Ben Simonsen
Ben Sowards
Bob Commander
Boris Lyubner
Chris Miles
Daniel Hughes
Darren Gygi
Dave Malan
David Habben II
Dung Hoang
Garth Bruner
Greg Newbold
Greg Ragland
Guy Francis
Henry Elmo Bawden
Jessie Colby
Jonathan Brown
Jonathan Coombs
Jonathan Hull
Julie Olson
Ken Chandler
Lael Henderson
Leia Bell
Leslie Lammle
Maryn Roos
Mathew Armstrong
Michael Phipps
Mike Tea
Nate Greenwall
Patrick Kendall
Peter Sakievich
Robert T. Barrett
Robert Neubecker
Ron Brown
Roz Fulcher
Ryan Wood
Scott Jarrard
Shane Lewis
Shawna J.C. Tenney
Suzanne Tornquist
Terrel VanLeeuwen
Trent Call

Utah Photographers
( Click Here to View Most Recent List )

Blair Kunz & Associates Photography, L.C.
Cheyenne Rouse
Chris Noble
Derek Smith
Dunker Imaging
Ed Rosenberger
Hawkinson
James Kay
Jason Gerbing
Jedrzej Adam “Jay” Borowczyk
John Rees
Joshua Waldron
Justin Hackworth
Kevin Lee
Lance Clayton
Dennis Mecham
Marv Poulson
Michael Mcrae
Nick Sokoloff
Paul Montano
Robb Hanks
Simon Blundell
Steve Mulligan
Steve Wilson
Tom Till
Tyler Gourley

Utah Organizations and Associations
( Click Here to View Most Recent List )

Ad News Online
Artists of Utah
Bad Dog Kids
Global Artways
Site
SLC Chapter AIGA
Tech to Market
Utah Advertising Federation
Utah Director & Flash User Group
Utah Technology Council

Renaming my blog for better search engine recognition

Tweet Sweet made it to the top!
So I make it an effort to check at least every few days where my search rankings fall in Google and Yahoo. I’ve even started checking MSN, though I don’t get as much traffic generated through them. I’ve been checking Tweet Sweet (my other blog) and its location, and making every effort possible to get to the top of the term “Tweet Sweet”, which finally happened on their last crawl.

Brad McCall maintains its top ranking
I’ve maintained top ranking for a while with any search for “Brad McCall” (my portfolio site). I make it a joke with my friends who say they lost contact with me by telling them to type my name in any search engine… yeah, that was hard wasn’t it? Back in the day when I started bradmccall.com, I got listed on DMOZ which I hear is actually quite difficult to do now. DMOZ (the open directory project) still feeds into a lot of smaller home-baked search engines as well as some of the big daddies. Since it’s managed by people it’s suppose to be more accurate. At the time, there were tons of “search engine submission” services around the web, one of which I used to get my URL out there. (MyComputer.com) I look at the SEO process now, and it’s quite apparent how things have changed in how things are done. This “submission” service back then was like $50.00, and recently I got an email from i need hits that offered it for $1.97. Thus, the “submission only” service’s effectiveness in today’s SEO market.

Where’s Brad’s Blog?
But I’m off subject (what’s new with that?) My point is, Tweet Sweet and Brad McCall have both made it to the top of the search engines. So what’s my next step? (For them, it’s probably keyword optimization for specific terms) But for me, I wanted to see where this blog ranks. I didn’t spend much time thinking about about a name for this blog, I just typed “Brad’s Blog” and launched it. In this morning’s search for “Brad’s Blog” Google came up with 105,000 results, some of which I could probably never throw off the top of the heap. So I tried another phrase I’ve used many times before “Daily Brad” (a play on the prayer “give us this day our daily bread”). Looks like there was just under 32,000 searches with this term - 2 of which seemed to offer the most competion. Thus, more success in getting listed in the top 5.

So today “Brad’s Blog” became “Daily Brad”. My only concern? Now I’ve set the expectation for daily posts… goodness. I guess I better start pouring out those ideas, observations, and general stuff that keeps rambling through my brain.

So in my blog the other day I mentioned thisisbroken.com - Mark Hurst’s blog showing broken user experiences sent in by readers of his goodexperience.com newsletter. So today I ran across my own broken experience, something that made me say, hu? In response to my submission to the thisisbroken website, I got an automated email that said “I get 40 to 50 entries per week and only have time to post 5 to 7 entries a week. This means that your post may not make it on the site.” Sounds like the site is a victim of it’s own popularity it seems. That’s okay. So I decided I would post it here. What do you think? Do you think he should post it on his site?

Let PR work for you
I always take a chance during the day to read the most popular news on Yahoo News, and found an article that had an interesting thing in it that seemed “broken” from a PR point-of-view. A WISCONSIN man visiting a state park took home the ultimate souvenir: a 5.47-carat canary diamond from Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, ARKANSAS.

After reading the article, I clicked on the image, which showed the actual diamond next to a US Quarter for size comparison.

(AP Photo)

Notice that the quarter was the Wisconsin state version (where the man was from), rather than Arkansas version where the stone was found. After seeing the image, I thought to myself, “now where was that state park?” and had to check the article again for the answer - Arkansas.

So I thought, maybe Arkansas doesn’t have its quarter out yet, so I checked, and what do you know? In the center of the Arkansas quarter released in 2003 is prominently pictured a diamond. The United State’s Mint says “Visitors to Arkansas can search Crater of Diamonds State Park for precious gems including, of course, diamonds.” in talking about its choice for this diamond illustration on the quarter.

So in fact, the picture seemed a bit confusing. Don’t you think?

I’ve notice a significant increase in the “product reflection” treatment of late, have you? I see them popping up on Verizon Wireless when I go to pay my bill online, or Apple when I go to check out their latest iPod. Here’s an example from Apple’s website:

(I take my sample from Apple, noting that their new iWeb has a integrated filter for producing the reflection effect.)

Is this just an annoying trend? Or the latest and greatest in high-end graphic design? And how did every darn surface get so reflective all of a sudden?

Remember when a photo mantage was cool? Wow, what about drop shadows, or photo borders? Did you use some of those in their hay-day? Man, weren’t those were cool? It seems everything from duotones to bevels have had their time to shine and it looks like “product reflections” are finally getting their 15 minutes of fame. Enjoy it, and then reflect.

Oh, and if you’d like to try this effect for yourself, Lesa Snider gives you a quick tutorial in Photoshop on how it’s done: Photo Reflection Effect, by Lesa Snider, The Graphic Reporter (Do it while it’s still cool - I did, just today!)