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This is a LAME way to do this, for the record.

Do it and then do it better: an iterative mindset

I used to work for a big, huge wireless company. I was the nameless, faceless guy who received email requests all day and made minor change to wireless accounts. Each email was formatted exactly the same way and I used the same system for each change. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week I was a machine.

While I haven’t eliminated repitition from my professional life entirely, I’m aware of something very different at work. Creating websites from scratch can be tedious but it has taught me something critical about…

Iteration

This word has two pertinent dictionary.com definitions:

the act of repeating

Iteration can mean doing the same thing over and over again. When I use this word, however, I’m thinking more about the second definition:

a problem-solving or computational method in which a succession of approximations, each building on the one preceding, is used to achieve a desired degree of accuracy

In layman’s terms, when you iterate or use an iterative process, you’re doing the best you can with the information you have, checking how successful you were, and using that information to take another, more educated stab at it. Since I’m a self-taught designer and developer, iteration has been a critical part of my professional growth. I’ve developed a very iterative mindset.

An iterative mindset is based on three things: observation, analysis, and persistence. In other words, iteration comes more from desire and hard work than any kind of innate ability.

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Is having your own website a dated concept

For the record, this is one of the reasons I find immense value in Twitter: exposure to a broad range of opinions on an equally broad range of topics. Since this particular option pertained to what I do, I figured I’d chime in.

Tweet in question:

Holy crap, I hope not! There goes an income source…

You can gauge (if you couldn’t predict) my first reaction: um, no.

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The Drudge Report style 3 column link page template

Update January 31st, 2010 In response to several people asking me about managing this template without using HTML, I created a dynamic template that uses a Google Docs spreadsheet to store the links, text and images. Installation and configuration is very simple as is adding, removing, and changing the links being displayed. The template isn’t free ($10) but a lot of time and effort went into its creation and it will save you hours of messing around with HTML code.

The Drudge-Style Site Template

This one-page template has the following features:

• Managed with a Google Docs spreadsheet. No HTML knowledge required!
• Include-able files to easily add banner ad, scripts, meta tags, and more.
• A section at the top set aside for a banner image and a story of the day with image
• Three fluid (that means it shrinks with the size of the screen that is viewing it) columns that contain lists of links
• The ability to add headings in the columns to separate sections
• The ability to add paragraphs below the links to give a bit of description, if necessary
• A footer with a line of links that can be added for, say, an email address of another page
• Works in all browsers (including IE6)
• Baked-in SEO!

Read more, buy, and download the Dynamic Drudge Report Website Template

Also available is a free template…

The Free Drudge Report Website template

In addition to the dynamic template above, I also have an HTML version available for free. This template was the basis for the one above and is easy to work with, providing you understand basic HTML.

As a side-note, the HTML on Drudge report is very poor. It was a table-style layout for no discernible reason, there were capitalized tags and attributes throughout, and it looked like it may have been avoiding CSS altogether. It’s really none of my business how other people put their sites together but it was clear I wouldn’t be drawing any inspiration from the technical construction. So I started from scratch and made this very simple, lightweight, one-file, one-page site template that mimics the layout of Drudge report with a few extra features. See the template now.

Download the free Drudge-Style Template

How to Use The Free Template

In typical Josh Can Help style, let’s walk through how to get this little guy to do what you want.

I use [[double square brackets]] around the text that needs to be changed in the file so it’s easy to find all the meta (unseen on the page) information. To add new links and change the information, you’ll want to have a bit of experience with HTML but, at the risk of a flood of new web developers taking all my clients, I’ll let you in on a little secret: HTML isn’t that hard. Here’s a real quick way to get familiar.

So, let’s customize this page:

• Unzip the package somewhere on your desktop and open the “index.html” file with a plain text editor. If you’re in Windows, you’ll need to right-click the file and pick Notepad.
• Start scanning for double brackets and fill in the information as needed. Make sure the <title> text has words that tell search engines what you’ve got going on the page. Fill out those meta tags too, just because.
• Unless you’re familiar with CSS, just leave everything between the <style> and </style> tags alone. If you are familiar with CSS, go crazy!
• The <h1> tag, by default, is invisible but still fill it out with a short (few words) description of the page. This combined with the <title> tag helps search engines figure out the main purpose of your page. If you aren’t going to use a banner image, then delete id=”page-name” and your header is now big, bold text.
• Now, your header image. This image is centered on the page and can be any size you want. Just put the filename of the image you’re going to use after src=” and make sure the image is placed in the same directory on your host as this file. Type in a description of the image as well while you’re at it.
• For the story of the day, do the same thing with the image and add your text where indicated in the template. The image will resize to 200 pixels wide automatically. FYI on the image, just delete the whole img tag if you don’t want to use one. You can also change “Story of the day” to something else and use that space for something different.
• Now, you’re ready to plug in your links. Each link is in its own <li> tag to keep them on their own line and to give a little space in between. Just replace the text after href=” with the direct URL (including http://) and replace the next set of brackets with the text you want to appear on the page. You’ll notice that the first link in the left column has a paragraph right after it but before the closing tag. Make sure to follow this syntax to keep the spacing kosher.
• Want to add another link? Just copy and paste one of those <li>…</li> rows wherever you want it to be. Deleting a link is the opposite.
• Add a new separating header with <h3>...</h3> tags wherever you’d like (but, of course, within one of the columns).
• Want to add a separator line? Figure out where it should go and stick an <hr> right there.
• img tags can also be used in columns, just make sure they are in between the <li> and </li> tags. Style wise, it’s probably better to put img tags in between the <li> and the <a> tags.
• Scroll down to the bottom for the footer links. Don’t want any? Just delete them all except mine :).

And that’s it! To make it live, just copy index.html to a public folder on your web host and check it out. If you already have a website going, be careful where you put this so you don’t overwrite the main site file.

Have fun! I’m happy to answer questions in the comments below.

Recommended reading for web site owners

The JoshCanHelp Recommended Reading list

This post is because you don’t have enough to read. Scratch that… you don’t have enough useful stuff to read. These are must-reads for anyone who has or thinks they should have a website out there and gathering eyeballs.

I’m a firm believer in understanding why things are done. I also believe that anyone can understand anything if it’s important to them to understand it. People love to tell me “I’m not technical so I’m not going to understand it” but that’s a cop out. If you find value in what you’re learning, you’ll learn it.

Having a website without knowing what goes into it is like having a car and not understanding your gas tank or oil changes or tire pressure. You can go from here to there but, one of these days, that car is going to break and you’re going to be stuck. With that in mind, I strongly suggest you understand the basics. These should help. Best way to go about getting through these is to read the parts that pertain to what you’re doing, absorb the parts you get, and look up the parts you don’t.

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What is Talent?

This is a post I wrote almost two years ago on my previous blog. I find myself in the same room that I wrote post previously and thinking about the same things in a slightly different light. I’m re-posting it here with minor changes and notes indicated with square brackets.

talent.

I have a Hotmail address that includes the word “talent” in it. I’m not going to broadcast the story of how this address came to be simply because the entertainment to embarrassment ratio is far too low. Regardless, every time I give this address out over the phone or in person to someone, it makes me think about the word “talent” before I think about the genesis of the address. I think ‘does this person think I’m full of myself because I have the word “talent” in my address?’ Then, I think ‘do I deserve to have this word in my email address?’

talent.

Talent is a funny thing. Being talented in something is a product of chance, practice, both, and neither [these days, I'm leaning much more towards practice]. By chance, you can be a talented writer. By practice, you can be a talented basketball player. By both, you can be an inspirational painter. By neither, you could have the potential for something within you and never even know. Talent is born and built and wasted and ignored.

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