Web Standards, Accessibility & More

So I recently created a dental blog site for my brother’s business, General & Cosmetic Dentistry (I used WordPress, which is awesome). It’s part of a marketing effort to gain more patients, and in response to the poor economy and people just flat out leaving Michigan, where his dental practice is located. Using Web 2.0 in today’s economy is surely a sign of the times!

Anyway, my brother was very smart by initiating a web-based marketing plan. He asked me for help, so this was a perfect opportunity to exercise some of my Search Engine optimization (SEO) skills! Besides setting up a professional blog, I also suggested these things in order to help traffic to his dental office web site:

• Tweak keywords in Meta data, page titles, etc.
• Create a dental blog entry (consistently) once a week, and on the same day.
• Publish press releases once in a while.
• Submit his site to search engines once every 6 months.
• Change his Twitter account name from personal to professional, and balance tweets about both sides of life.
• Create LinkedIn and Yelp profiles (actually his great idea!).
• Put Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, and Blog links on his office web site.
• And of course, ensure accessible, semantic HTML markup with web standards!

So far in only a couple weeks, his position on Google search has risen considerably!

Digg this article!

For almost a year now, I’ve been away from my hometown of Detroit, Michigan, but my fellow podcasters there (see the Detroit Podcasters Network) are certainly still going strong. Four of the guys are getting a display table at the Motor City Comic Convention, May 16-18, and they will be promoting their individual shows and podcasting in general. They are:

• Chris, Collected Comics Library
• Derek, Comic Book Noise
• Mike, Most People Are DJs
• Jasper, Plan Nine Rock Show

Here’s more about the participation of the event from Chris:

If you would like to participate feel free to send us your promotional materials (postcards, flyers or other such items). All we are asking in return is a donation of $5 to help us pay for our costs.

The four of us, and a few others involved, are going to have a great time hanging out taking about comics, podcasting (audio and video), and conducting interviews, But most of all, promoting all of our shows. We expect many of you to take part in this cool endeavor.

The Motor City Comic Con is a fun and enjoyable event–a small town atmosphere with big city flavor. We hope you will join in on the fun.

The fourth annual Internet User Experience (IUE 2008) conference will be held at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan the week of March 31, 2008-April 3, 2008.

Organized by the Michigan Usability Professionals Association in collaboration with Washtenaw Community College’s Internet Professional Program, the User Experience Network (UXnet), Refresh Detroit, and other sponsors, the conference provides four days of presentations,panels, training sessions, and workshops on optimizing web sites so they are effective, compelling, and profitable for businesses.

Experts in search engine optimization, online communities, and user experience management will lead sessions at the conference. Tutorials and training are also available to attendees with 1/2 day and full-day workshops before and after the main conference days.

Discounts are available for Usability Professionals Association members and several other organizations, as well as full-time non-working students.

For more information and details on registration, visit the Michigan Usability Professionals Association or the IUE Conference web sites.

Got an email a while back from an old friend back home in Michigan. Yes, it was one of those goofy lists, but many of them were funny. I’d modified a few of these for the better.

You know you’re from Michigan when…

• You find 32 degrees “a little chilly.”
• You drink pop and bake with soda.
• You know what a “Yooper” is.
• You go to Canada on your 19th birthday.
• You think owning a Toyota is un-American.
• “Vacation” means going up north on I-75. You measure distance in hours.
• You can drive 65 mph through a feet of snow during a raging blizzard,
  without flinching.
• You design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• You know it’s possible to live in “the thumb”.

So, I’ve decided to take a major step and pursue a great job opportunity in California. It’ll be tough leaving family, but all in all, I believe it’s the best decision. My freelance web company, CheckEngine USA, will continue as normal.

The company I’ll be working for is Yodlee, in Redwood City. My title will be “Senior UI Developer”. In addition, I’ve been doing some freelance for Google, so it’ll be neat to be in the neighborhood (Google’s HQ “campus” is in nearby Mountain View).

As my story goes, I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, moved to Orlando for 7 years, and then moved back. I’ve been home now for nearly 3 years, and have got a lot accomplished in relatively little time, so it’s kind of a bummer to leave. In September 2005, I started Web Axe, a podcast on web accessibility, shortly after joining the Detroit Podcasters Network. Less than a year later, I co-founded Refresh-Detroit, an organization of web professionals, with Ross Johnson.

On a personal note, my wife and I have had two children since arriving back home, Carson and Justin. Also, my parents moved out of the home in which my brother and I were raised (in Dearborn, Michigan). They bought a nice condo in Northville where my mom has opened a shop nearby, Petite Maison.

Beer is good. Web programming is enjoyable (usually). So why not put the two together during the Refresh Detroit monthly meet-ups? I am a co-founder of the local web professional group, and I’m usually the one to make the final decision on where we’re meeting. A pub has many times been the answer!

We’ve met three times at Stout Pub in Brighton, Michigan. This month’s Refresh Detroit meeting (April 25) we’re meeting at the Claddagh Irish Pub in Livonia. Good beer, good food, good times.

A few of my favorite beers are (from light to dark):

• Shipyard Light
• Old Speckled Hen
• Guinness Stout

So like many Americans, we watch a fair amount of television in my household. And that means a lot of commercials. Some good, but many bad. And some overplayed to the extent that I change the channel to anything during the 30-seconds.

Here are some really bad and overplayed TV commercials:

• Jessica Simpson’s DirectTV (satellite television) – I haven’t seen the movie “Dukes of Hazzard”, but I’m assuming Jessica Simpson is acting like her role as Daisy in this commercial for DirectTV. Either way, I can’t stand it–it’s so corny! Why would I pay attention to what a dumb blond has to say about high-tech television service?
• Geico Caveman (auto insurance) – talk about overplay; I’m so sick of the “cavemen” and the “gecko”. At first these commercials were new and hip, now they’re just completely obnoxious. The “caveman” should just start a blog to keep the marketing going with those actually interested.
• Disaronno (liquor) – I don’t think that anyone stupid enough to fall for this sexually blatant commercial has enough money to purchase this liquor. (But I must be wrong as these ads are still running.) The woman in the ad is not even attractive.
• Rock Financial/Quicken Loans (Michigan) – These commercials for mortgages are so overplayed it’s not cool. Yes, I like the Detroit Pistons NBA basketball team, but man, are they ruining it for me with their partnership. And it’s not just TV, it’s radio, billboards, etc. If I hear or see David Hall and that terrible rock jingle one more time I’ll puke! Don’t do business with this Rock Financial either (that includes parent company Quicken Loans)–they’re terribly expensive, then they pass your mortgage on to a completely different company.

Good TV Commercials>