File Links: How to Be Nice to Your Website Visitors

There are some basic concepts of etiquette that we love to promote. That’s how I am trying to re-purpose my irritation after visiting a communication professional’s website and encountering one of my pet peeves!

I practice politeness so I won't link to the offender; it's just their bad luck today that I decided to blog about this topic after visiting their site a few minutes ago. They have a lot of company out there on the internet and I don't believe in singling one person out unfairly. Let it be known however this web site belongs to a "communications professional." This is a tip for communicating online as a professional.

Here's the Web Usability Tip from Rox:
When linking to a file on a web page, please append the title of the link with some indication that it is a file and not another web page assigned to that link. Although savvy web surfers can hover over a link and look down to the bottom of the browser window at the status bar to see where a link is pointing, you as the site owner shouldn't require that of users to have a positive experience on your site.

Instead, simply add a nice friendly note in or immediately after link, indicating what the link is all about. Here are two links that show what I mean:

Hot Stuff at Bare Feet Studios
Bare Feet Webmail Pricing (PDF; 88 KB)

Even nicer, add the file icon graphic:
Download the PDF: Webmail Info & Pricing Sheet to learn more about our professional email service and pricing plans. (88KB)

In the second example, the visitor knows without any effort that the link is to a PDF file, and even nicer, the size of the file so the visitor can decide if s/he wants to take the time to download it. Similarly, if it is a spreadsheet, add (XLS; 55 KB) or if it is a Word doc, you can add (DOC; 23 KB) — adding the correct file sizes if you know them. (Right-click on the file and look for Properties on a PC or Get Info on a Mac to learn the file size.)

Without this nice little note, the unsuspecting visitor clicks on the first link expecting a nice quick jump over to a new web page but instead triggers a completely different and most like more time-consuming process. That creates irritation for many surfers and outright confusion for less-experienced web surfers. Professional web developers will do this automatically. If your web manager doesn't, be proactive with your web site and check your links. If you edit your site yourself (the ideal situation IMO, then you can take care of this straight away.

You don't want your site visitors to experience either of those, now do you?

usability, rant, communication, PR, business, roxannedarling, barefeetstudios, podcast

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Beach Walks Featured at Pixelodeon!

Pixelodeon is an annual independent video festival recognizing innovation, inspiration, and community in global online video. It’s happening at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles on June 9-10, 2007 and we are thrilled to be among the hand-selected, featured videos.

Here's what this event is about, straight from Pixelodeon: "Pixelodeon is an annual independent video festival recognizing innovation, inspiration, and community in global online video. This is our inaugural year! Over 300 videos, four keynote speakers, two dozen curators, and several hundred people interested in independent media will get together in one weekend to celebrate the diversity and talent of online video content. If you want to see what's happening online and meet the people who are making it happen, this is the place to be."

Doing a show like Beach Walks with Rox delivers so many unintended consequences. In our case, they have been universally positive. We continue to make connections and receive recognition from the most unexpected and amazing people and places! Here's a recent viewer comment we received a few days ago:

I work as a crisis management consultant in Washington, D.C.—in other words, the polar opposite of BeachWalks in both geography and stress level. The show has become a daily breath of fresh air and calm feeling. You'll be pleased to hear that I'm passing the link around to some friends and colleagues inside the Beltway here. Most are as pleasantly impressed as I am — so you're gaining a small cult following in DC.

Event Details:
American Film Institute
2021 N. Western Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027

So many wonderful people are doing so much work on this event. I hope you will consider attending. It will open your eyes to an entirely new world that is alive and well, yet still not in the mainstream of media and communication. We are also pulling together a Best Practices document for content aggregators, so please email me if you are interested in that.

We want to thank the sponsors who are supporting this event:
DivX
SpinXpress
Blip.tv
Blogger
Wordpress
Revver
MyWaves

A Special Shout Out to All of the Organizers:
Jay Dedman—A former journalist at CNN and educator at MNN, Jay has orchestrated a number of online videoblog projects.
Zadi Diaz—New media producer and principal at Smashface Productions, LLC. Co-creator and host of Webby Award and Vloggie Award winner JETSET.
Ryanne Hodson—Co-author of Secrets of Videoblogging, co-founder of Freevlog and Node101. Projects include Swajana and Ryan Is Hungry.
Irina Slutsky—Co-founder and host of Geek Entertainment Television and founder of the Vloggies, an online video awards show.
Steve Woolf—Co-creator and producer of the Webby Award and Vloggie Award winning JETSET show and principal at Smashface Productions, LLC.

And to the Video Editors
Lan Bui — A photographer by trade, Lan has been teaching video blogging since 2006 after co-founding OCvideoBlogging. He is also Co-creator and producer of Noodle Scar, a popular daily show.
Vu Bui — Vu is a professional photographer, videographer, video editor living in Orange County, California. He is also a producer and editor for Noodle Scar.
Bill Cammack — Bill is an Emmy Award-winning broadcast televison editor in New York City as well as a National and International Emmy Awards judge.
Cheryl Colan — Cheryl teaches Digital Multimedia courses at Scottsdale Community College and at Phoenix College. She also founded Node101 Phoenix in 2006 to bring on-demand vlogging workshops to her local community.
Eric Rey — Eric is a budding young video blogger from Los Angeles, California. You can watch him on his personal website ericrey.net. He also frequently collaborates with his brother, Rick.
Rick Rey — Rick is a video blogging enthusiast and community proponent. His technical skills include web development, videography, video editing, and mad Guitar Hero skillZ.

And to the Support Team:
Travel: Gena Haskett — outonthestoop.blogspot.com
Animations: Ryan Junell — junell.net
Website: Rick Rey — rickrey.com

View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter

pixelodeon2007, beachwalks, videoblog, online video, business, roxannedarling, barefeetstudios

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How to be happy paying for stuff

Does anyone think there is a stigma attached to actually paying for something these days? I think there is. I also think we are in a transition period. Because people have been forced to buy things at prices arbitrarily set by the maker/distribitor, it became a huge game to try to “find a better price.” To be able to steal it or get things free, feels very liberating, very empowering to many people. It is a way of asserting yourself against the big power structure.

Inspired by a discussion over at JetSetShow, asking How will producers and studios get paid?. Here's a snapshot:

Kyle said:

Zadi brought up a fairly common question in her response to Steve's question about THE CODE, and I don't really think it truly belongs there, in a response. It really belongs to be a centerpiece topic, one that can't be shirked away from, one that really has good minds attacking it. That question: "how do producers and studios make money if people can just "take" it without paying"? There's an inherent assumption in this question: it assumes that people will simply "take" it if they can take it without paying for it.

Rick Rey said:

Cut out the middle men and create a system where artists can easily produce and distribute their own material. Educate artists before they sign deals and make it big.

I think as more people become creators and not just consumers, and as ugc competes with msm, each side gets insight into each other's challenges. Sitting on the sidelines are the consumers (which we are all a member of, depending on the situation). Being able to "walk a mile in each others' shoes" is incredibly valuable in mediating the hostility that has developed where companies resent and don't understand their customers and customers resent and rebel against the manufacturers.

It's why companies who blog and tell their side of the story, can only help themselves. Information. It's power. If people understand that you put that door on the right instead of the left for these 5 reasons, they will be much more willing to adjust to the change than if you just impose it on them. Better still, if you can set it up for them to choose whether they have the door on the left or the right, you've just made a better product and a better sales transaction!

Organizations like the RIAA still won't cop to the fact they have problems inside (be it processes, excessive executive pay, poor treatment of artists, etc.) and they still don't grok the deep resentment their customers have for them. Fighting a legal-eze nitpick battle is only inspiring more people to steal music, as that is the easiest, fastest way to vote for disapproval of the RIAA practices.

I believe in time, once we get over the initial "high" of "free" that people will want to pay for (aka support) people and things they love. But it will be a much more organic, case-specific transaction based on so many factors - how much you like/love something, how much discretionary $ you think you have, and a whole slew of other more subtle factors. When we can give and receive in a genuine flow of energy, (as happens on twitter for example, with ideas) it will be an "enriching" experience for both of us as you share your music with my wallet.

It's just gonna take some time, that's all. What is brewing now is a wonderfully exciting mix of rebel behavior, do-it-yourself creators, curious, even ravenous consumers, and a bunch of geeks building stuff to enable it all to happen. How cool is that?

Any bets on when this will go from Roxy's idealistic brain into a SOP in the marketplace?

riaa, music, jetsetshow, roxannedarling, barefeetstudios, commerce

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Video Podcast Work Flow

My buddy Chris Brogan recently posed the question, “What is your podcast work flow? He is the co-founder of the PodCamp Unconferences, along with Christopher Penn, and is both constantly gathering data and tickling others to share their knowledge.  So read on for our work flow!

Please check out:
Chris Brogan
Christopher Penn
Podcamp

We produce the daily video podcast, Beach Walks with Rox. We have to keep things pretty tight to make this work in our daily schedule. It helps that the nature of our show is straightforward most days. All bets are off though when we want to do something out of the usual!

1. Always keep the camera bag loaded with charged batteries and extra tapes, all lenses and filters.
2. Shoot the episode; one take is all we get. Our template (in iMovie) requires an 8+ second clip for the opening title sequence and about 10 seconds for the credit roll. We could use the same footage day after day to save on this, but we prefer a completely fresh new episode each day. Gearing up (and then down) and the shoot take about 15 minutes. (Not counting drive time as we would be going to the beach anyway!)
3. Import the footage from camera into computer; this takes place in real time. If we have a lot of clips, we take notes along the way and do a mental version of the "first cut." Figure this takes 5-10 minutes.
4. Our template in iMovie has the opening and closing music already laid in, and the closing copyright notice too. (Thanks to Eric Rice who pointed us this direction waaaay back when.) We add in transitions, add overlays with links, etc. sometimes drop in other graphics or footage. Editing takes 15-30 minutes for a typical show. Special episodes can take several hours.
5. Once edited, we export as a full quality DV file. That takes a little longer than real time, let's say 8 mins for a 5 min show.
6. Next, encoding. We have a little script that we drop the DV onto and it creates our Quicktime mov and the iPod m4v versions. This will take about 20 minutes.
7. While we are doing this, we open the graphic template in Fireworks, and create our custom show graphics. We used to make four (4) images of various sizes but have reduced this to two; a 480x360 for the main show graphic which also gets added to the iPod (.m4v) format as the ID3 show graphic; and a 240x180 for the Akimbo service that we upload via FTP to our media server from which Akimbo then pulls every morning along with our WMV media file.
8. We also start the blog post, writing the show notes, adding the tags, and selecting the categories.
9. After the mov and m4v are done, we make a high quality Windows Media (WMV) version using Quicktime Pro, and then a Flash (FLV) version using Visual Hub. Add on another 10-15 minutes.
10. Files are then batch uploaded to blip.tv. For a 5 minute episode, this one process can take about an hour. During this time we finish working on the show notes and reply to viewer emails. If it's Tuesday, we start watching Boston Legal.

Total Average Time for a 5-minute Episode: 2-3 hours, assuming the work is done on the G5 quad processor tower and a broadband connection. Working from our Intel MacBookPro and various internet connections can add considerable time to the process. The nice thing is that Secret Cameraman and I get to share the editing and encoding tasks, which really helps.

Check out the camera gear we use here: http://www.beachwalks.tv/behind-the-scenes/.

process, videoblog, podcast, roxannedarling, chrisbrogan, podcamp,

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Loving my new EVDO card for Mobile Internet

I have a new PC card that allows me to connect to the internet from my laptop “just about anywhere.” Remember how your cell phone liberated you from your land line? That’s what my EVDO card does with me and my computer. I no longer have to depend on being at my home/office or a wifi hotspot in order to get online. 

All I do is pop open the laptop, insert the card, click the little "connect" icon in my dock, and within about 20 seconds I am on the internet.

The Sprint service costs about $80 per month. At first glance that seems high. But when I think of the 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there that I can actually work—like right now sitting on a plane before takeoff —and then calculate the total and realize that when I get home, I may have an hour or more of free time! And that is for only one day. Multiply that but 10-20 days, and I'm reaping a lot of "extra" time that used to be filled with doing things that were not important, simply because I was hostage to the limits of my location. Obviously, the math works for me.

It's a classic small business mindset to be penny wise and pound foolish, and I say I fall for it all too often. Playing out the math in terms of looking at where I can add small efficiencies to make my overall multi-tasked day more effective, I realize that it's worth far more than what it costs each month.

As compared to price-shopping for the cheapest internet service that dictates when and where I can use it.

It's Friday. I just posted this in 10 minutes, using time that otherwise was spent with listening to announcements for the 1000th time!

P.S. EVDO stands for Evolution-Data Optimized.

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A Newbie Guide to Business Blogging

I recently spoke at the BlogHer Business Conference in NYC, considering the topic, “Should you blog?” Since the answer is more often “yes” than “no” here’s a checklist for beginners who want their first steps to include as little falling down as possible. The good news about waiting to get in the game? Lots and lots of other smart people to learn from very quickly.

1. Find a co-author or two if possible.
   The age-old buddy system works great on a business blog, as you can share the tasks as well as provide motivation and support fro each other. Very often, the diversity of voices makes both the style and the topics more interesting. Having a peer you trust also makes the accountability energy available to support you both.
   Drawn! The Illustration & Cartooning Blog
   Tom Peters and associates
2. Set low threshold goals, so you'll be able to meet them.
   Starting a new blog is not the best place to be as macho as possible, or tack on one of those typical competitive, corporate goal-setting challenges. Blogging really seems to come in part from your soul, and I find souls are incredibly resistant to being treated like your average deliverables. It's probably going to take some time to find your voice and your comfort, and adding pressure just for the sport of it I think is counter-productive.
   Your Blog Voice by Toby Bloomberg
3. Write twice as casually as you would imagine.
   Blogging is a conversation among friends. No need to put on airs, be formal, try to impress, or otherwise intimidate your readers. I find most of our clients who start blogging find this challenging. When fingers hit the keyboard, certain neural pathways are triggered and out comes memo-speak. I have the most wonderful, warm conversations on the phone, then I read an email and I seriously wonder "Is this the same person?? Why did you go all stiff on me? Did I do something to offend?" Writing a few posts first in longhand may help break this auto-response that is better suited to the legal department than the blogging desk. In other words, don't keep how nice you are, a secret.
   Dennis Mahoney Gives Great Examples here
4. Don't keep how smart you are, a secret.
   Stop laughing! It's true. Every businessperson - and I almost never use that word "every" - has knowledge about his/her products and services that potential buyers would love to know about. You have anecdotes about how things were developed. You have stories about how people have creatively used the stuff you make and sell. (See #3 above.) Please don't think it is boring or inconsequential or insignificant. Your readers get to decide that, and so far, the jury overwhelmingly has proven it will enjoy reading just about anything! Please contact me directly if you are struggling with this and I will give you 5 blog post ideas in 5 minutes based on your industry/experience, guaranteed. Boasting is allowed. It's good business and a lot faster (and cheaper) than a formal press release to post news about your recent accomplishments.
   Dated and long and still a worthy summary of the PR benefits to blogging
5. And a few more Bare Feet B's of Business Blogging:
   • Brevity is your friend. A single paragraph is plenty for a blog post. One little brief idea and you're done. You can write long posts, but it's not necessary or expected.
   • Bullet points are easy on the eyes and the brain. Write a paragraph first if you like, then crunch it down to a list. They are much more digestible and I find they also me organize my thoughts to prevent repeating myself in a blog post.
   • Bold titles are best for busy people. Tell it straight up, in the title of your post, and consider using a keyword or popular search term when appropriate to help new readers find you.

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