Archive for August, 2009

The American Friendship Foundation (AFF) is a non-profit in Bothell, WA that forms strategic partnerships to develop international cooperation for projects like schools, clean drinking water, micro-enterprise and health services.

They needed a new website that was clean and easy to maintain for prospective partners to get information about their projects. We also tied into a PayPal account to facilitate online donations. Check it out.

If you were unfortunate enough to have arrived at this website using Internet Explorer 6, you received a notice to consider upgrading to a new browser. We appologize for any perceived judgment on your web browsing habits, but we are joining the growing number of websites and web developers calling for an end to the tyranny of bad standards compliance and css support from outdated versions of Internet Explorer that seem to keep hanging on.

According to w3schools.com, 14.4% of web traffic is still using IE6 even though IE8 has been recently released and IE7 was released in early 2006. That’s a lifetime for most computers, yet as a recent cnn.com article notes, resistance to Vista and the prevalance of XP piracy worldwide mean the path of least resistance for many is to keep using IE6.

Despite Microsoft’s stated intentions to support IE6 through 2014, designers and IT directors will be showing increased resistance to supporting IE6 in any way.

At FourTen Creative, we have no intention of undercutting the consumer’s choice to utilize outdated technology, but we want clients and web audiences alike to understand that troubleshooting and hacking for IE6 costs in design, functionality and ultimately web design resources (read: your budget!).

To add a browers upgrade alert to your site, visit IE6NoMore.com.

Most reading this already understand Twitter as useful part of their web marketing scheme, but does your organization and content relate to Twitter? Here are a couple scenarios that may have implications for your organization.

Twitter as Market Barometer

Many have already noted Twitter as an important source for market research. Try a keyword search or track certain keywords to stay on top of conversation on the web as it relates to your products, services or even the name of your organization itself.

Twitter as Internet Presence

Give your organization an official Twitter account and publicize it elsewhere. Send a message that your organization is engaging in the myriad forums for conversation on the internet. Maybe it’s just a lame attempt at a badge of relevance, but it sends a message none-the-less.

Twitter as Publishing Medium

Twitter is a flexible medium in that your readers can track and republish your content where is it convenient for them to access. If this is your strategy, consider a complimentary RSS feed with expanded content published on your blog or website.

Twitter as Content Source

Due to the above mentioned flexibility Twitter may be a smart source to consolidate your web publishing methods and create not just a funnel of readers to your website, but a funnel of content streams of publishing via SMS, Picture Messaging, Blog Posts and status updates. Where your website might lack publishing flexibility, let Twitter’s free tools expand your reach and collaborative opportunities.

And of course all of these methods can complement and be enabled by a custom WordPress website, but you know where to find those…

Announcing FourTen Creative’s first Wordpres theme for Free Public Release!

Gifted is a stylish two column theme designed with managing a website for non-profits and small businesses in mind. Ready out of the box with drop-down page navigation and multiple extra widgetized sidebar areas for more content control.

Learn more.

We’ve created a new site to extend the StickTrade.com family of websites yet again (first project, woodanew.com). We are leveraging Worpress’ automation, SEO benefits and ease of use to syndicate postings from StickTrade under a new brand.

Work included custom php RSS feed creation from an MS SQL db, logo, custom wordpress template, custom install and feed syndication.

Dr. Rob McKenna is a busy guy. Between teaching, writing, speaking, consulting and preaching, Rob finds time to blog and provide online resources for his students and clients. We put together a new logo and site to reflect Rob’s personality and facilitate the conversation he sparks around him.

realtimedevelopmentstrategies.com