It’s OK. It happens. One should never pursue anything he doesn’t feel completely passionate about, and after I evaluated where I was going with my endeavor, I figured out I was headed in the wrong direction.

I don’t consider this a failure; not at all. Life is a series of hills and valleys, and with this valley, I’ve found what I really want to do.

My focus is shifting. I will be transforming Rumblestrut Studios from a web design shop to a web application company, working with a good, talented friend of mine. I’m very, very excited about what 2009 will bring.

Thanks for coming by and taking a look around.

- Eric Gruber, Rumblestrut Studios

For instance, you might see this: (785) 555-1212

Or this: 555-1212

This: 785-555-1212

Or this: 785.555.1212

Maddening, isn’t it?

Personally I think phone numbers should be formatted as such: (785) 555-1212, in keeping with the standards set by the International Telecommunicatioms Union. Although kind of an artistic formatting, I don’t like using 785.555.1212, as the use of periods in between numbers means something different in the computer world and could, I suppose, cause a problem with regard to machines reading data.

One more thing to consider: I often see where the area code is left off of phone numbers. This is a huge mistake. The web is global. If someone from out of the area, the state, heck, even the country, is interested in your products or service, not having an area code could be a barrier to them.

Don’t make your web visitor go through hoops to find basic data and contact information about you on your web site. Make that experience as easy as possible.

MySpace?

YouTube?

Flickr?

Twitter?

Etc. …

If so (or not), then why (or why not)?

His content was removed from each page, yet leaving his design untouched. Fortunately, his designer had a backup of the database, and was able to quickly restore it during the transition to a new web host. But I know there are others who haven’t been so lucky.

Do you know who backs up your web site? If you have a contract with your web designer (and you absolutely should!) then the delegation of that duty might be in the wording. Ultimately, the responsiblity falls with you.

Here are some helpful tlps for ensuring you’ll have a backup of your web site, or at least major portions of it, when you’ll need it most:

• Make final payment for the web site contigent on you getting all the graphic and web files from the designer.
• If your web site is database driven, such as with a content management system, have the webmaster of the site e-mail you a backup of the site’s database each month. Worst-case scenario, you’d at least have the database and the web site files to take to a new webmaster to get you up and running again. Having the database e-mailed to you monthly might cost you a small fee, but it’s well worth it, especially if your relationship with the webmaster sours.
• Save copies of the web site yourself either through your web browser or other site copying tools. Every browser allows you to save individual (and in some cases, entire sites) to your computer. Other tools available will help you make a copy of your entire web site.

Don’t be unprepared for a web site outage. Having regular backups of your data and site design will save you plenty of headaches when disaster strikes.

Once place we’re considering is Grand Lake, Oklahoma, located not far from where I grew up. For us, the trip sounds ideal - we can drop the kid off at the grandparents’ house and drive down to the lake for a few days to ourselves.

We live about five hours away from Grand Lake, so I’d prefer to do this research online. What I found was astounding. A Google search lead me to GrandLake.com, which led me to a listing of hotels and motels near Grand Lake. While there were eight listings for us to choose from, there was only one that had a website.

I have no interest in calling each one of them and asking for their rates, and I have no way to view pictures of each hotel without an online presence.

The only lodging we’re seriously considering is the one with the website.

I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: your business needs a website. Granted, I’m more experienced than most with regard to shopping or researching online, but in this case I’m as typical a website visitor as any. Put simply, I’m looking for information because I’m a working still and the internet provides the quickest, easiest way for me to evaluate my choices.

When your competitor has a website and you don’t, you’ve allowed your competitor to help the customer make up his mind - and you’re not likely to come out the winner on that deal.

What excuse can you come up with for not having a website? Is it too costly? Do you not have the time to put in to get it going? Are you too busy to research a designer?

How much sales have you lost in the meantime?

As a web designer, I’ll admit it’s difficult trying to design so that web sites look the same in different browsers. In a perfect world, there would be one awesome browser that everyone loved and had incredible features. Of course, that isn’t the case.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has the largest market share, not surprisingly, because Windows has the largest share of operating systems on computers across the globe. The problem a lot of designers have with Internet Explorer is it often doesn’t adhere to web standards that, ironically, Microsoft helped create. This leads to hacks and workarounds to make designs work in Internet Explorer. It’s a big headache.

Personally, I recommend Firefox to everyone that I can. It has great features, such as the ability to extend the application with add-ons (one of my favorites is Adblock Plus), and renders web pages much faster than Internet Explorer.

I highly encourage you to check out Firefox 3 today: 13,000,000+ downloads is saying something about this amazing application.

Download it now: Get Firefox 3

While their purpose seems to be to add artistry to a site, splash pages are most successful in annoying a visitor and keeping them from your content.

A splash page example I can point to is that of my veterinarian, the Gentle Care Animal Hospital. I love my vet’s web site. It has great content, a clean design and simple navigation. The only thing that annoys me is the splash page that shows up when I first visit the web site’s home page. It’s cute, but completely unnecessary.

Your web site will serve many purposes: to educate, to sell, to promote, act as a resource, and so on. A visitor to your site might want to come in, get your phone number and leave. The whole visit should take a few seconds for something like that. Splash pages hinder that experience.

Resist the urge to add a splash page to your web site. Your visitors will appreciate it.

Given the ever-expanding nature of the web, broken links or linkrot is unavoidable. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fight it with a simple tool and a little maintenance.

For Windows users, I recommend Xenu’s Link Sleuth. For Apple Mac OS X users, Integrity is your best bet. Both programs are free to use, although donations are accepted for Integrity. While the creator of Xenu’s Link Sleuth says no donations are needed, you can support causes listed on his site (Note: Anti-Scientology information is prominent on the Xenu’s Link Sleuth creator’s web site and embedded in its software. If that offends you, you might want to find another tool.)

I recommend checking your web site once a month. When you find broken links, see if you find the good links by tracking them down on the web site your linking to or with a search engine. Then, make changes to your web pages so the links aren’t broken anymore. If you can’t find a suitable fix, it’s best to get rid of the link altogether.

Fixing broken links on your web site will lead to happier visitors and repeat visits. When visitors use your site with ease and see that you care enough to keep your content updated, they’ll come back.

Take these examples:

• TheTriplex.com - A cinema in Barrington, Mass.
• WhoRepresents.com -  Find agents that represent celebrities
• TherapistFinder.com - A therapist lookup service for counseling

They seem innocuous enough, but the mind is funny and eyes aren’t always as reliable as we’d like them to be. When you put a domain name in the address bar and press enter, most browsers will automatically change the letters to lower case, at least in the part of the domain name itself (to the end of .com, .net, .org, .etc).

TheTriplex.com can look like TheTripleX.com (a very different kind of theater), WhoRepresents.com to WhorePresents.com, and TherapistFinder.com can look like TheRapistFinder.com.

It might be a good idea to get a second, maybe even a third set of eyes on your prospective domain name before you purchase. Unless, of course, a web address with dual meaning is what you’re trying to do.

Like PenIsland.net, for example.

http://squurl.com

Called “Super Quick URL,” the web site queries GoDaddy, NetworkSolutions and Dotster, then gives the price of the domain name for each company. You must have JavaScript turned on in your browser for it to work.

SquURL is a timesaver. Bookmark it, then use it when you need. It’s incredible.