New Site Design
I mentioned a new site design for my apartment site in my previous post. But it just hit me, maybe you have some helpful comments or suggestions. You can find the work in progress by clicking here. Send me an email or post a comment using the comment thing.
- posted by Drew @ 2:37 PM  

 
800x600 is so 1997
Whenever I create a new web site, or redo the look of an existing one, I always work with an 800x600 size canvas. This is important, and also something I wish I didn't have to do. I keep the resolution on my computer at 1280x1024, which gives me a fair amount of space on my desktop, and also reduces the amount of scrolling I do. But, some people keep their screen resolution at 800x600. My parents do this even with a brand new computer with a 17" monitor. It does make things easier to read, but on most sites it means a lot of scrolling not only down, but to the right as well.

An 800x600 resolution setting used to be the default for home computers back in the day, but at least within my circle of friends, that hasn't been the case for some time. Nonetheless, if I'm going to make a site, I try to keep the content within the 800x600 window. There might be a need to scroll down, but I definitely want to keep my pages less than 800 pixels wide. Scrolling to the right sucks. Of course, keeping to this size limits what I can do with my designs, and a lot of major sites seem to have given preference to a larger canvas at the cost of forcing some of their visitors to constantly scroll right and left, up and down. If I were creating an art site, or a site geared to those who are a bit more technical I'd expand the size I'm working with, but so far everything needs to fit within this limitation. Often my designs will expand to higher resolutions, but it's key that they at least fit the 800x600 size.

Lately I've been working on an updated front page for my apartment site that makes it more friendly not only to being a template that fits every school I do a site for, but also something that is more friendly to advertisers. I like the design that has been on the site for the last 5 years now, and I think it still doesn't look dated, but it doesn't work too well as a template nor is it advertiser friendly. Fitting everything within an 800x600 area has been a challenge for this new design, but I think I finally have something that's easy to use, functional, advertiser & template friendly and looks good. So the homepage should have a new look by sometime next week. In the meantime I thought I'd share a file that I created. It's a GIF that I set as my desktop background and allows me to know exactly how much of the screen users with other resolution settings get to see. You can download it here: screen-sizes.gif
- posted by Drew @ 1:36 PM  

 
Choosing the Right Name for My Company
Almost a year ago I thought of a name for my new company. VelocityPath. I registered the URL and thought it sounded somewhat cool. I briefly mentioned this in a previous post, but I thought I should expand on my experience. So what does VelocityPath mean? Is it a graph of an objects velocity? Does it have to do with speed or motion? I have no idea. Speed and motion are good attributes for a company, but when it came time to choose the legal name for my company, this wasn't going to do it. Maybe it might work for some other venture, but not for what I'm doing. Coming up with a name that describes my business, and wasn't already been taken, was difficult task. After reading a lot of advice online I finally came up with a name. In coming up with a name I followed these rules.

Rule #1: The name can't be in use by another company. Perhaps I could get away with using a name that might be used by another company in another industry, but why take any risk. Once you have a name in mind, check out the US Patent & Trademark site and do a search for any trademarks that make use of the name. Then check websites for the Secretary of State in the states where you plan to do business. So I could be doing business in a lot of states I just did a random sampling and also included my own state's site. Most state sites have a search for looking up registered companies.

Rule #2: This may sound weird, but I've read in several sources that it's good to have a company name that starts with either A, B or C. Why? Because the business is going to be included in lists and directories. Maybe not right away, but some day it will. Being closer to the top of any list or directory isn't going to hurt. And if you're picking a new name, why not follow this advice. Of course it makes picking a name that much harder.

Rule #3: Pick a name that has something to do with your business. My VelocityPath example breaks this rule (along with rule #2). There should be some connection to what you do. Of course, if you can pick a short, one word name, you might be able to avoid this rule. Yahoo, Google, Kraft, Pepsi... But there aren't too many more short names available.

So I picked Content Driven Solutions as my business name. If you don't know what my business is, then I know what you're thinking at this point. It passes rules #1 and #2, so how does it pass rule number 3? The main focus of my business right now is to launch apartment search sites at universities across the country. I get my revenue by selling advertising that is geared to highly targeted audiences, and I do this by letting high quality content attract this audience. Therefore the content is driving the solutions. Expect of course for the merchandise sites, but those are more side projects that earn a little revenue.

I might be a little happier with a shorter, catchier, sexier name, but Content Driven Solutions does what it needs to do. Plus I'm not looking to make the name a national retail brand. If you happen to be looking to create a national retail brand I suggest bringing in the professionals to help you get started off right. I don't have a site built yet for Content Driven Solutions, but I expect to have something up at www.contentdrivensolutions.com and www.contentdrive.com soon. I also registered both under .net and .org as well, just to make sure I have a lock on the name.
- posted by Drew @ 6:30 AM  

 
When we last left our hero....
I believe congratulations are in order. I've let this blog sit without any activity that if it were a slice of bread the colors of mold on it could be considered art. I'm not going to make any promises regarding the forthcoming frequency of updates, but hopefully I'll be better about it.

Well a lot has actually happened since I posted my last update. December was a pretty good month in terms of merchandise sales. Surprisingly my hurricane items even sold pretty well. Before taking two weeks off for the holidays I was able to meet with a lawyer to get things rolling from that end. The day after returning, I was able to meet up with an accountant. I've got a lot to go over in those areas, so I'll be posting the details separately. I've also been doing a lot of recoding and improving on the apartment site. Still no revenue on the apartment side though, but I haven't been pursuing it yet. I'm trying to make things run a little more smoothly before making any kind of sales pitch. I promise to have another post very soon.
- posted by Drew @ 12:48 AM