Winter Web Roundup

Looks like I missed a Roundup last month. The holidays plus lots of client work kept us busy here. It seems less people are focused on web content as well during the holiday season. There’s less good stuff coming in. Unfortunately we also missed submissions for the Louies because we had two site launches that week. Luckily there’s always next year, and we did pretty well with the LGDA Awards. Speaking of LGDA, I’ve accepted the position of Vice-President of the association for this year, so if you have anything you’d like to discuss regarding LGDA, feel free to contact me. You may hear me harassing about joining if you’re in the industry.

Web Design, Graphic Design, Art and Branding

The Designer’s Republic Folds
TDR has long been one of my favorite design agencies. This post discusses why they are folding and also why it might not be a good idea for a small agency to become a big agency.

Rex The Dog – Bubblicious
This is awesome. I had to share it.

Web Design Trends For 2009

“We Web designers are a fickle lot. We love to experiment with things. We love to observe how people interact with our work. And we love to try out unusual design approaches that might possibly go mainstream and become a classic approach. As a result, new design approaches come up, and as more and more designers notice them and make use of them, new trends emerge.”

Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media

Root Domains, Subdomains vs. Subfolders and The Microsite Debate
We get many requests to create “microsites”. This post from SEOMoz explains why a microsite on a separate domain is a bad idea from an SEO perspective. It also explains when to use a subdomain and best practice for when a microsite is actually a good idea.

How Cook’s Illustrated thrives while others are dying
Just like the dot com demise of the 90’s made the web development world stronger, I hope that the current financial crisis will do the same for business.

How to keep bloggers from hating you
“Every week I receive a handful of emails from PR firms, wanting me to write about something they’re helping promote. I rarely do so for them, but it’s not that I wouldn’t. It’s just that their tactics suck. They sell their clients on the notion of “blogger relations” but in fact, they’re treating email like a fax machine. They send the same generic message out to a ton of bloggers, piss everyone off in the process, and then bill their client for doing so. (Nice.)”

A Short History of Marketing
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Web and Web Development

Sprite Optimization

Reducing server requests is essential is speeding up the performance of a website. Mezzoblue demonstrates how Amazon and Google are using sprite optimization effectively.

Louisville and Kentuckiana News

Muhammad Ali to be honored at Inaugural ball

Miscellaneous

867-5309 is for sale on eBay

Scientist Action Figures
Too cute!

The Art of Money Getting – by P.T. Barnum, 1880