Alex Hardy

How time flies: it’s been a full year since I released simpleContact 1.0. Quite a bit has happened since then, so here are the highlights for me…

Progress

As you can see from my downloads page, work has continued on the application. simpleContact currently stands at version 1.2, which I released in December 2007. The details of each version can be found in the release notes.

I’ve tweaked the design of the downloads page and the site in general, and I’m keeping a visual log of those changes in my Flickr account. When I release the “Pro” version it will be re-branded simpleContact “Lite”.

I added a support forum to this website. It’s very early days, but I hope to build a valuable resource. Publishing an application (even a vigorously tested one) is rather like releasing a domesticated animal into the wild – you have no idea where it will find itself and how well it will fare. It seems to be coping well in the big bad world of unpredictable server configurations and usage scenarios.

I’ve also made a personal discovery. To focus on something that’s your own, improving it bit by bit appeals to the perfectionist in me. I find it very satisfying.

Reception

The response from users has been overwhelmingly positive. I don’t mind revealing that I currently average 180 downloads a month, so you don’t need to be a maths whizz to know that I am getting close to a milestone that I will comment on soon.

In version 1.1 I added a rating form to the log out page to help users express their opinions and to promote the application on The PHP Resource Index, a leading script directory. The reaction was great, and it has a solid front-page position in its category. With the release of ‘Pro the attack on its rivals really begins!

Users have been generous, with comments such as these:

“I’m always looking for ways to make my clients’ projects useful and sophisticated, but still affordable. simpleContact makes it easy to deliver an advanced product easily.” Kim D.

“Being a web developer/designer but not a script author, this is an asset. This application, in my opinion, rivals most of the ones designed by other companies that charge a premium.” Alan J.

There’s still a long way to go. I’ve had lots of requests, some of which I definitely plan to include in future releases. “Subject” and “US state” fields in particular have been in demand. I hope to satisfy the need for bespoke options with ‘Pro.

Promotion

I’ve not engaged in any advertising so far, although that will come. I’ve relied solely on word of mouth, directory listings and links in relevant places. Thanks to Andy Prevost, the PHPMailer website in particular has been a strong source of visitors.

I’ll write my first newsletter in a couple of months. A fringe benefit of this project has been that it constantly yields new opportunities to learn and interact with people. To write better, more compatible code, manage versions, user expectations and support requests, stats analysis, PPC, email marketing – all things that you learn best on the job.

I can’t wait to see what I have to say in May 2009!

This is my first “official” book review! I recently bought a copy of Conversation Marketing by Ian Lurie. Lurie is the founder and president of Seattle-based Portent Interactive and writes a blog, which is also called Conversation Marketing.

He dispenses advice on SEO, internet marketing and analytics and occasionally has some fun exposing the charlatans of his profession (of which there are many).

Here are some of my favourite posts:

• 59 Things You Should Be Doing But Probably Aren’t
• 49 Things You Probably Are Doing But Shouldn’t
• Internet Marketing Is About Discoverability (Not Yelling)
• Google Analytics Tagging Demystified
• 3 Signs The Pitch is Slimey

This book is also available to read in a free HTML version. Why buy something you can read for free you might ask… In my opinion, the best efforts of new technology still haven’t delivered us a way to read that is more convenient and pleasurable than a simple book. I bought the book on the basis that I regularly read the blog.

Lurie was helpful enough to personally send me a copy by international post, in exchange for a review. Before I stand accused of advertorial, I’ll quote his email:

I’ll send it to you for postage […] You can give a bad review if you hate it

My impressions

I should point out that this is not a book on SEO. Lurie takes a more holistic view and covers design, development and communication. An endless cycle of observation and adjustment is the core of his argument that a site must serve its user’s needs, not the ego or presumptions of the website owner.

The book covers six rules, that are analogous to the human interactions you might engage in at a party or business networking event. A fictional custom bicycle shop is the vehicle (no pun intended) for his explanations of these rules:

1) Know the room

This chapter covers user personas, workflows (anticipated paths through a site) and calls to action. You have to know your audience, not just accumulate pageviews.

2) Dress appropriately

An overview of web design considerations. Professionals might roll their eyes at the simplistic advice, but this is not about teaching design. Rather, the goal is to impart a degree of appreciation to the would-be site owner. It wouldn’t do a professional any harm to think about the criteria others use to judge their work…

3) Sound smart

The technical angle. This chapter is more detailed than the previous one (I sense Lurie is more comfortable with code than colour theory). He writes about site maps, the case for standards compliant code and best of all, contingency design.

I was pleased to see browser testing and help messages treated as fundamentals rather than after-thoughts. Some advice on content writing and image preparation rounds off a useful chapter.

4) Make a connection

Once you have a user’s interest, what can you do to keep a relationship alive? Email marketing best practice, and a mention of RSS and podcasting for the uninitiated in this brief chapter.

5) Brag modestly

This chapter may be the most immediately interesting to readers. An introduction to natural rankings and PPC advertisements in search engines. It also contains some words of advice for how to spot the SEO cowboys.

It has always seemed to me that there’s no magic shortcut to search engine visibility. Remember that search engines exist for the user’s benefit, not yours. Provide relevant, up-to-date content and users will seek you out. Leave the tricks to people who can’t create an offering of value.

6) Observe and adjust

This chapter was of particular interest to me: The basics of web traffic analysis. Definitions of common terms are backed up by some insightful words on tracking conversion rates. This book was published in 2006 and two years is a long time on the Internet. The references to specific tools are somewhat out of date, but the principles remain sound.

Conclusion

You may have noticed that this review has been peppered with words like “basics” and “overview”. Quite so. This is a short book at 93 pages, but it achieves its goal.

With a friendly, informal tone it equips you to start work. You’ll go on to seek out weightier and more specific resources, but you’ll incorporate that knowledge into the right frame of mind that you’ll gain from this book.

The matter of availability

A minor criticism: I originally asked about overseas postage because I believed Conversation Marketing was unavailable outside the USA. I have since discovered that it is available on Amazon, but this remains a flaw in the book’s homepage.

I would also like to see a PDF version of the book, so that all bases are covered in a similar manner to Getting Real by 37signals. An HTML version is of little use when the reader is not online. Nor does it send any money in Portent’s direction. I would buy a downloadable eBook and hope to see this option added soon.

Other books of interest

• Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin
• Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman
• SEO Book (eBook, blog and tools) by Aaron Wall
• Building Findable Websites by Aarron Walter
• “Essential” series of free eBooks by Nixon Mcinnes

As I wrote yesterday, I’ve upgraded my blog to WordPress 2.5. I’d resisted this for a while, because I knew it would bring certain issues. I didn’t want to deal with it until other projects reached a natural break…

Much has been said about the inadequate security of old versions of WordPress. It was even announced that Technorati will not index vulnerable blogs. I decided therefore to bite the bullet and open the can of worms (mixed metaphor intended).

I was using WordPress 2.1, so the first step was to alter my database encoding. As touched upon in a previous post called “UTF-8 text encoding and self-hosted PHP / MySQL web applications”, versions prior to 2.2 created database tables using the Latin-1 character set and the latin1_swedish_ci collation.

Wordpress have a codex page about this issue, but more importantly there is a database converter plugin that does all the hard work for you. After backing up my files and data I offered a prayer to any blogging god that might be listening and pushed the button. It worked perfectly.

The next step was to go through the standard WordPress upgrade procedure. I transferred my theme and re-applied my modifications to wp-includes/widgets.php. Some CSS tweaks were necessary because 2.5 created different selectors in my sidebar, but I expected this.

I use very few plugins. Here they are:

• Google Analytics and Sociable plugins by Joost de Valk
• FeedSmith, originally by Steve Smith, now maintained by Feedburner

The other major step was because of the Google Analytics plugin. It uses the new ga.js tracking code, so the tags that I’d placed around my site had to change.

For example, where you might have tagged a link:

onclick="javascript:urchinTracker ('/download/my ace ebook');"

… you now have to tag it:

onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/download/my ace ebook');"

A bit of a chore to fix, but it’s not something you have to do every day. It can be handled with a simple find/replace.

My jury is out on the new WordPress interface, famously redesigned by Happy Cog. It has a more inviting colour palette, but some users have already complained that common tasks are now more clunky than before. I already miss having a list of my drafts at the top of the “Write” page.

Time will tell whether I prefer it to Steve Smith’s WP Tiger Administration.

I am upgrading my blog today to the latest version of WordPress. Normal service should resume shortly

In the meantime, my other pages remain available.

UPDATE: Upgrade complete.

The release of the iPhone / iPod Touch SDK and the excitement among developers and gamers begs the question: Just what kind of games will be on the iPhone?

Comparisons can be drawn with the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP consoles. Both have revised hardware, an established library of games and a head start in sales. Both also demonstrate that the best portable games have these characteristics:

• Simple
• Make use of the hardware’s unique features
• Suitable for short periods of gameplay (e.g. the bus to work)

On PSP, Loco Roco displays large areas of brilliantly vivid colour. WipEout Pure shows that the wide screen aspect lends itself particularly well to racing games. On DS, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Nintendogs and Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training leverage the Nintendo heritage, as well as the dual screen, stylus and microphone.

Both platforms fall prey to what is often called “shovelware”. Clones. Lazy ports. Tedious licenses. The iPhone will be no different. It will be the game designers’ challenge to figure out the iPhone’s key features. At a glance, they include:

• Touch screen (game interfaces can be unique)
• Accelerometer (also referred to as a “tilt sensor”)
• 3D graphics which appear to be inferior to the PSP, but on a par with the DS
• Multiplayer gaming over wifi
• Internet access and a unique content delivery mechanism

The lack of traditional control buttons and tactile feedback will present a new design challenge. Some will use the accelerometer for controls, while some may choose to draw virtual buttons and joypads for more traditional games. Some ideas I’d look forward to seeing:

• “Touch Tetris” is so obvious I’d be surprised if EA haven’t already written it
• Line Rider
• Flick Sports (think Wii Sports for touch screen)
• Tap-tap rhythm action games
• Episodic games

If the iPhone / iPod Touch has one unique advantage, it’s that it will provide an opportunity to sell games to people who don’t buy games machines.

A video of yesterday’s SDK event is online at Apple’s website.

Much will be said in the coming months. In the words of Jason Fried of 37Signals:

What we saw today was the beginning of two decades of mobile domination…

Enterprise features (e.g. Exchange support). AOL Instant Messenger. Console quality games (the Super Monkey Ball demo was allegedly built in just two weeks). A comprehensive software development kit, to be released in June.

The 30% sales tax by Apple seems steep at first, but developers can set their own prices and won’t have hosting/bandwidth or credit card processing costs. They also gain a platform and delivery channel with millions of users and an installation mechanism that’s as easy as buying a song. I think most will find these terms livable.

The iPhone / iPod Touch platform just became a deadly rival to every mobile phone, PDA, media player and handheld videogame console out there.

I bought TextMate last night. While I use Dreamweaver at work, TextMate is now my editor of choice at home for my personal projects. It completes a trio of shareware development tools which also includes CSSEdit and Transmit.

My reasoning is simple: I don’t like Dreamweaver very much. To say that its feature set exceeds my requirements and it has performance and stability issues is probably the kindest way I can express my feelings about it. It’s also very expensive.

If you are a Mac-based web developer, these three apps are a winning combination.

As a follow up to my post about the future of Microsoft Internet Explorer, I should note the passing into history of another browser. AOL ended support for Netscape as of February 1st, effectively pulling the plug on its life support.

I started to learn web design and development at university in 1996. At that time, Netscape Navigator was a major player in the browser market. Since then its market share was eroded by Microsoft’s integration of IE with Windows, upstarts like Firefox and an apparent lack of interest and direction from AOL (who bought it in 1999).

So Netscape joins IE5 on the list of dead browsers where the difficulty of supporting them massively outweighs the benefit. The number of visits I get from Netscape users is so negligible (0.13%) that it is no longer worthwhile to test against it.

AOL’s advice to Netscape users is to upgrade to Firefox.

UPDATE: Corrected a factual inaccuracy in the original post.

Microsoft have posted on their IEBlog that they have decided to modify their stance on version targeting in Internet Explorer 8. The previous suggestion that developers would have to explicitly invoke IE8’s standards compliance mode (via a meta tag) was a well-meant but controversial move.

The rationale was that the doctype switch is no longer effective. Less educated web developers were expected to omit the doctype in ignorance of its purpose, but equally well-meaning software authors have added them into the page templates in their applications.

Microsoft, quite rightly, take their responsibilities as the dominant browser maker seriously and don’t wish to “break” millions of websites in pursuit of web standards support. The goal was to find the lesser of two evils.

Purists were not happy, even though high profile developers like Jeffrey Zeldman and Shaun Inman came out in favour of it. In Inman’s words:

The strong have always been tasked with carrying the weak. In the case of the ongoing X-UA-Compatible bluster, the strong are the savvy standardistas. The burden? A single meta tag or http header. Can we move on now?

If you were knowledgeable enough to add the tag they argued, then go ahead and add it and stop moaning. Fair enough…

Microsoft have decided though that even this is not fair enough, and have done a u-turn in favour of standards. A meta tag switch will remain, but for those that want their pages to render as under IE7. If your website looks wrong under IE8 standards mode, it is far less painful to quickly add a tag while you address the problems than to have a broken website.

I applaud this move, and Microsoft’s commitment to openness and interoperability. Apple could learn a thing or two about that. The “browser wars” will be truly over not when only one app is left standing, but when web professionals can get on with creating content without worrying about browser quirks.

Check out Trism, an upcoming puzzle game by Steve of Demiforce. GameSetWatch have posted an interview with him. It looks like the accelerometer may do for the iPhone what the stylus did for the Nintendo DS.

If people like him can create gems like this with no tools, documentation or support from Apple then I can’t wait to see what appears once the SDK is released.