845-820-0262
Middletown, NY
info@eclectictech.net
The new Orange Environment website went live today, celebrating 25 years of rigorously keeping an eye on the environment. They have upcoming events – March 1st there’s a free conference for farms/agriculture, and on April 21st they’re celebrating Earth Day in Orange County, NY.
Please help this terrific non-profit survive another 25 years!
It seems that many customers who come to me have not planned their website or print project. My normal flat-fee prices don’t include this time-intensive service. I would really have to get into the company in question, to almost become a temporary staff member, to plan out their website for them from soup-to-nuts.
I’m now offering project planning services, both for website design, content and feature planning, and for print design campaigns and marketing strategies. My usual services require design briefs, copy (content), assets (photos, logos, multimedia, and all other materials) and a list of features provided up-front. I will provide only cursory project planning assistance, guidance, or advice during project intake. I will not write for you, research for you, draw up diagrams, etc.
What my project planning services will provide will depend on each company’s needs and budget. Prices will start at $100 for something relatively simple like site diagramming and navigation planning, and from there the sky’s the limit; you tell me your budget, and I’ll come up with a list of what services your budget allows for, or you give me a list of the services you’re looking for, and I’ll come up with a price. Or we can do hourly rates, I’ll come on-site, and I’ll become a member of the project team.
Services may include:
If you choose to use another vendor to complete the project outlined, I can offer:
These services don’t alleviate the principles of your organization from their responsibilities in project planning: I will need to interview them, acquire lists of materials, names to get releases for photography, a company history, supply of old marketing materials, and more. What this does is add another member to your web design team who is knowledgeable, insightful, and entirely dedicated to the one project, which allows your principles to concentrate on other projects with the assurance that if something is needed from them, it will be brought to their attention.
[tags]planning,education,information,news,print design,time,web applications, web standards,writing[/tags]
I’ve changed my prices on everything except my hourly rates, as promised.
Now I’ve gone and put a sale on blog additions to the Easy-to-Edit website package.
Whatever it is that you have to speak about, I’ve got the software to help you say it!
Watch the sale page each month for specials. Most specials apply to the Easy-to-Edit package, so get the base package before the price goes up hire — all my prices will slowly be escalating for the next several months, and proposal expiration dates will be strictly adhered to.
[tags]blog,open source,easy-to-edit,prices,programming,sale,web applications,writing[/tags]
Preamble: I have decided I don’t like Gallery2 as my portfolio application. I’m going to be working on moving back to PmWiki for my portfolio in the future — so my latest work is not in my portfolio.
I re-created the Business Exchange Network’s website in December, 2006. The old site may still be available. This is a template rather than custom design, however I custom programmed several features for the site, then donated the instructions on how to do it for other sites back at the application project site. This site incorporates a calendar, member business directory, and each member has a profile page that acts as a mini-website for them. Since a few people in the group don’t have websites, this gives them a real place on the web to call home until they decide whether they want a website.
I helped out at KwicTax, LLC – programming a form on the site, adding required fields, and generally making the form and subsequent information revealed after filling out the form behave properly.
An ongoing client is up to her usual beautiful designs – Apryl of Silverflux Design has been outsourcing programming and general geekery and software installations to Eclectic Tech. This week we finished working on the Serendipity bead store website in Canada. My handiwork is the calendar and newsletter subscription integration.
Almost completed: Beth Ward of Jaidens Jewels has requested a website redesign and shopping cart. This work is in progress and if you’d like to see it before it’s finished, feel free to email me.
Almost completed: Chris Zino of Zino Technical Services in Bayville, NY has requested a website design and wiki application — he’s absolutely thrilled to be using a wiki and is already creating pages on the site, and I haven’t even gotten around to training him yet! 
At the time of the writing, we’re still hashing out the logo for his business, and once the logo is decided we may well be changing the colors on the site, but the site is up, works, he’s in business, and his contact info is there if anyone needs home audio installations, networking installation or repair, computer service, or a dozen other techie services on Long Island (Nassau & Suffolk Counties), he’s your guy!
New Client: I’m under contract for the redesign and reworking of Orange Environment’s website. I’ve started working, but there’s nothing to show yet. Orange Environment is a non-profit that has been working to save the open spaces of Orange County, NY for 25 years. This is their 25th Anniversary website overhaul, and this year they’ll be holding an Earth Day celebration on April 21st. Location(s) TBA. If you see my company name at the bottom of the site, then I’ve made progress enough to go live on my work. Until then, if you want to see the development site-in-progress, feel free to email me.
New Client: My newest client is Middletown Community Health Center (MCHC) who has requested a modernization and more features for their website. Again, if my company name is not at the bottom of the page, you’re looking at their old site. Ask me for a URL for their development site-in-progress. As of the time of writing, I haven’t gotten that far yet but work should begin shortly.
[tags]clients,activism,design,e-commerce,environment,green,holistic,identity,logo,metasite,new client,new site,non-profit,portfolio,programming[/tags]
Last month, at the Orange County Professional Women’s Network, we did an exercise about holiday stress, and how to relieve it. Many people’s answer to mall traffic and stress was “shopping online”.
I have a better idea: Shop Local Online.
I saw a Times Herald-Record article today about shopping local. I couldn’t agree more.
I have to remember to toss my e-commerce sites on sale around July-August next year, to have them ready by October-November. I might only be able to serve the first 20 or so clients, put up bare-bones undesigned sites, or I may have to hire a helper or three, but my goal, as always, is keeping the local economy thriving. I’ll come up with great ideas for increasing the economy locally, but everyone has to help me out.
If we can spend the next year in a concerted effort to get local businesses online, and find unique ways to deal with the crunch shopping period that seems to now start from Halloween preparations through January, we can pull some of that economy back into the region.
Anyone with more great ideas for how to help out the local economy, let me know. Meanwhile I have more and more ideas to unleash slowly over the next year or two.
Here are some great ideas: 1) Mention to local businesses when you would have chosen them to purchase from but you didn’t have the time or patience to do anything but online shopping. 2) Sponsor a local business’s e-commerce site! I can put a banner ad on the e-commerce site that points to your business’ site, you help the business pay for the site set-up and installation. A custom designed e-commerce site goes for $1000 and has space for 4-6 banner ads — think of that; an e-commerce site with up to 6 $100 ad spaces with ads running for a year can slice the price down to less than half! [Ed - this price is going to be going up over the year!] 3) Mention Eclectic Tech and my Shop Local Spree that will be starting next summer — I can start taking names on a waiting list for businesses that would get in on my sale before the sale begins! Heck, maybe I’ll have 20-30 sites lined up before the summer vacation! When I officially announce the waiting list, I’ll figure out how much the sale will be for ($100 off? maybe more! I only hesitate because e-commerce sites are really cumbersome projects that suck up a LOT of my time) [Ed - as of Feb 1st the plan is for $200 off on the base site, and more than half off non-product pages in July & August - with a complimentary sale for Easy-To-Edit sites with PayPal Buy Now buttons], and whether I require a small deposit to be on the list (like $50 non-refundable deposit?).
Ideally more than just gift-selling retails will want to get in on it, from a “Buy Now” button for a gift certificate on a normal site, through pizzerias and delis with website-to-fax order placing for deliveries. We just have to get creative. Give me ideas I can run with.
Criss
[tags]e-commerce,economy,money,prices,sale,web applications[/tags]
I mentioned I’m becoming a networking junki— um maven.
Well, the problem is that to win the game, you have to remember the name.
Oy, vey!
I have this somewhat eerie fascination with names. Names rarely if ever fit the character of the person in question. Most names are given to people for political reasons, rather than to fit the spirit or personality of the child, and many people have no clue what the personality of said child will be. So they pull a name off the family tree, or their favorite character in a book, or their favorite actor/singer/whoever.
I have a heck of a time memorizing given names for some reason. Aside from my memory being ephemeral on the best of days, I believe that the vacuum when trying to call up a name results from the name being discordant with the person’s energy, personality, or spirit. I won’t go into it on my work blog, but suffice to say that I’m psychically sensitive.
I’ve belonged to several organizations where people choose their own names, not to mention online “Handles” or AIM Screen-names, or whatever you want to call these aliases people hide behind (or come out from under!) on the web. What I find fascinating in that I rarely remember a person’s given name when given to me at an introduction. But if the person says “I’m Thistle” I’ll remember it. Not ONLY will I remember that they’re Thistle, but when I DO get their “real-life name” — I’ll remember Thistle AKA John Smith. If I were introduced to John Smith, I’d forget his name in 2 seconds. For some reason the discordance is what helps me remember Thistle vs John Smith.
I wonder why this is. I’ve been through the MSR (Medieval Studies & Re-creation) and the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), and I could rattle off the fictitious names and often titles of a hundred individuals AND their legal given names. Send me to a business networking event and suddenly I’m at a loss. I also have the same skill from Compuserve/BBS and the current Internet chat and email social circles.
I think I’ll have to come up with mental trickery for this one. I don’t have as much trouble remembering a business name. Maybe I can trick my mind into thinking of someone as Smith Loan Corp aka John Smith. That would be piggybacking the odd skill I have for remembering aliases and fictional names. Then once I have the name down, I have to “Flip” them around in my head — as if I’m introducing a medieval recreation pal to my mother — or embarrass myself by introducing John as “Smith Loan Corp”. I still find it better to “Smith Loan — I mean John Smith” than to not introduce someone because I can’t remember their name for the life of me.
It’s also amazing that the moment I’m writing down the person’s name doing job intake, typing it into a contract, and adding it to my accounting program to print out the first invoice, that seems to be enough writings for me to memorize the person’s name. Maybe I just need to write the person’s name 3 times
[tags]clients, networking, personal, rant,[/tags]
It’s really messed up how programming can follow real life. I think maybe I’ve been programming too much lately. It doesn’t matter. In the car, I was working on the Magical Chain Mail Vest (a shiny crochet object to be gifted to my son as part of my plot to enrich his imagination), and it’s a very loose design (anyone who has seen the bows and arrows hat — that’s the stitch pattern I’m using for the vest — I’ll post the directions if it comes out OK.)
I’ve been watching how quickly this vest is taking shape. But it’s a nonsense vest. It’s for show, for play. It’s not going to be WARM, any more than the “bows and arrows hat” is warm. It’s not “real” it’s a vague vacuous waste. To be real, it would need to be re-done entirely (and probably in a different yarn).
I tried “rapid application development” (RAD) tools a few times. Not RUBY on RAILS but equivalents in PHP. I’ve tried RAD for a real open-source project (my Contract Manager application, still in Alpha, but taking good shape right now — note I ripped it apart and started again without the RAD this time and it’s come much(!) further). And when it comes down to it, it’s just not robust. It’s not real. It takes shape very quickly, but it’s never going to keep you warm in the winter. Very much like quickly creating a magical chain mail vest from Freecycle freebie yarn for my son. I’m sitting in the car crocheting and suddenly the yarn and the work is the equivalent of Cake or Ruby on Rails, and it all comes together — it all makes sense.
I had a similar revelation today. It’s Saturday. Time for my own projects. Time for Laundry. Time to kick back and relax (yeah, right!). I got up, started working on a new quicky open-source idea, got distracted by Guy Kawasaki’s blog entry for online reviews, started looking into getting on Yelp to place reviews and see what it’s like, got distracted by Technocrati, and now I’m posting to my blog and doing blog upkeep.
My partner, who had to rush out to meet a friend today, called and asked what I was up to. I said something like “I’m being me!” Huh? “I keep getting tangented — it’s like when you start a new clause with an open bracket in a program and you forget to close it. Eventually you’re nested 10 IF statements (etc) deep and you forgot how you got there, and what you need to do to close out your brackets.”
When actually programming, both my partner and I start out every new “clause” in a program by typing the open and close brackets — even in HTML I do this — then backspacing to type the contents. “if ()” hit backspace then type. It doesn’t mean you’ll remember everything you wanted to do in every level of the loop if it gets deep, but it does mean that you won’t get nasty errors — just bugs 
I wish I could do that in real life. I have a program to finish — I have gotten most of the laundry READY but not run any loads yet, I would like to go out, I need to check the mailbox, and I want to work on getting something going (maybe a newsletter to my clients) so people give my business good reviews on a variety of websites, so I can request referrals, and so I can return the favors for them. Oy vey! It’s Saturday, so I think the laundry then the mail come first.
[tags]programming, humor, life, clients, networking[/tags]
A bunch of things to quickly jot down. First, in response to my last blog post “The Check’s in the Mail” — it was certainly Murphy’s law at work, it took an entire week after that post for checks to start to come in. The day the first check came in I landed two new contracts for websites, along with the respective deposits.
On the subject of rain — apparently Orange County, NY doesn’t do rain halfway. Another few inches over these few days.
My business agrees with the weather — I had 12 incoming jobs (that doesn’t mean they’ll all go to contract, or all go to contract at the same time), two of which went to contract as I mentioned above, and one established client called me with several rush jobs. Feast or famine, but nothing steady! Yay!
I’ve been a networking fiend lately. You can find me at Orange County Chamber of Commerce events, BNI events, Orange County Women’s Professional Network events, Orange County Networking Alliance, Toastmasters, etc. Anyone in the area looking to network, I’d love to hear from you.
On those notes, I have some work to get through then I’ll have new information for my portfolio, clients page, etc.
Good luck out there!!
Eclectic Tech has taken on the task of website updates for TPAT (The Puppetry Arts Theartre), an educational not-for-profit run from Brooklyn, NY. For now, this is minor changes to the Flash and web content on the site, there may be more in the future. Welcome aboard!!
[tags]new client, news, non-profit, education[/tags]
Myrna, a massage therapist of 20 years, finally has a website after years of rejecting the typical website-for-massage-therapist templates always being pushed onto her industry.
Myrna is a tough-as-nails massage therapist, very straightforward and to the point. At the same time, she is an attentive listener, and flexible in her massage style. She has 20 years of professional massage experience, specializing in therapeutic massage for a variety of health ailments, and wanted a website that was a blend of medical, sports and that touch of down-to-earth holism that she has without being at all fluffy.
personalcarebymyrna.com, designed by Eclectic Tech and hosted by Archutech Consulting, is a wiki. Myrna has the password, and I bet she’s not sharing! All the content on the site is by Myrna.
Case Study
[tags]new site, new client, holistic, massage[/tags]