Alan Gutierrez

Here are some photos of the Farrington Smith Gallery.

The approach to 832 Royal St.

Application of Farrington Smith Gallery logo on signage.

Separate signage, a logo resting on a bench in gallery.

A boquet of Farrington Smith Gallery business cards.

A full fuzzy photo set of Farrington Smith Gallery photographs is available at Flicker.

I don’t sell web sites. I create web sites. That’s the first thing I’ve learned.

I’m not a sales person, I’m an explainer. This is one of the rules Friedman was on about in his recent article, that I came acorss via Niti Bhan in The evolving global workplace - a whole new skillset.

I can see, through my work with my three customers so far, as well as with my work on Think New Orleans, when the presentation is like. With two customers, I can see that the great challenge is getting people to produce content.

John Gregory warned me about this. He said the sites I’m showing him are great content based web sites, but how are you going to get the content to fill those sites. My response is that I’m probably going into the business of simpifying the creation of content.

Which will mean that I’m going to be looking for clues on how to produce Podcasts, how to easily post photographs, etc. Perhaps, one of the best things to do is to create screen casts demonstrating how such things are done.

The Web Enabled Business Card

I’m talking to folks in New Orleans about blogging. I’d like to make a business of helping business reach new customers through blogging.

I have to start from a strange position, however. People are talking to be because they want a web site, not a blog.

When folks around here think web site, they think business card. To them, a web site is a business card, but on the web. They want a web site so they have a web address to put on their business card.

I’ve noted before that New Orleans has little use for social networking software, since they have so much social networking hardware, the cafes, bars, restauraunts, churches, corkboards, etc.

People here don’t use the web much. They tend to expect a brochure, or if they’ve been sold flashy gew-gaws in the past, splash screens and animations.

Before I can help them with creating a content based web site that will help their business, I have a lot of explaining to do.

A Special Kind of Web Site

You’ve got to start with Google. Blogs are because of Google. Google begat blogging.

I ask a fellow New Orleanian, “what search engine do you use to find something on the web?”

They will say “Google.”

I’ll reply, “So, you don’t type http://plinkityplinkityplonkplinketyplonkplonk.com/ do you? You go straight to Google and type in the first words that come to your head, right? That’s what most people do these days.”

Then we look at were they sit in the Google rankings. Given the web sites most folks have around here, it is usually quite low.

The genernal explaination of the value of blogging is as follows.

Once your web site is attracting Google, it’s going to attract people who might never visit New Orleans, who might never visit your shop, or meet you personally. Google searches information you see, so it needs to search text not pictures and flashy gew-gaws. You need to place more and ever changing text on your web site and you’ll attract new customers, and keep in touch with visitors to New Orleans.

I’ll explain that a blog is a special kind of web site that lets you attract Google. It’s not a diary, although they look like a diary. It’s a format that is easy to update for the author. You choose a subject and write an open letter. It’s an open letter to the people that may stumble across your web site. It’s an open letter to Google.

Over time, if you keep writing these open letters, you’ve got a lot of information out there. People will keep finding that information though Google. With comments in place, they can respond to your open letter.

Then it’s a quick run down of the basics of what Google likes and why.

1. Ever changing text means something going on here.
2. What the links say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

Google Juice is another word for links, of course.

Here are points that I make in the course of the explaination.

• If Google can’t read you, then Google can’t find you.
• If Google can’t find you, no one can find you.
• Google can’t watch a flashy gew-gaw and say, oh that’s a cartoon hammer, this must be a web site about roofing.
• Google likes what people like, information.

A blog is a special kind of web site. One that is easy to update frequently. One that attracts customers and retains the interest of existing customers.

Life Outside The Conferences

You all know this isn’t shinola. It’s all old hat to you, the blogosphere.

Tell me California, how do you preach when there is no choir?

I’m trying to get people to see importance of content for their web site. That it’s not a brouchure, a one shot.

A web site is not for advertising, its for communication. You don’t want to show your customers a buch of cartoons. You don’t want to bore them with advertising copy.

You want to invite them to communicate with you.

Instead of a web site, create a web log. Talk to your customers. Be open. Speak in the first person.

Then listen carefully to their responses.

It’s a CRM for the poor boys.

It’s a way to engage with customers, not to broadcast at strangers.

Since I’ve arrived in New Orleans, my interactions with the city have lead me astray from the Java and XML programming I was so engrosed with during my Ann Arbor sabattical.

An opportunity has consistently presented itself, the opportunity to put something interesting about New Orleans online.

When I tell people that I am a “Computer Programmer”, “Software Developer”, or “Computer Systems Analyst” in New Orleans, they invariably ask if I “do web sites”. Initially I demured, but now I can see that if it’s what people want, I may as well give it to them.

One of the points that I’m driving home when I talk about web sites is that people don’t want to watch Flash cartoons, they want information. It’s an easy point to make when you talk about how people find information through search. It’s not as great a leap as one would expect, but people who don’t use the web regularly are not too aware of this.

While stressing the importance of content, I’m going to offer customers solutions for the development of content. I’m not going to focus on design as much as copywriting, blogging, photoblogging, and Podcasting. The emphisis will be on content generation.