I once described launching a successful direct mail campaign as “death by a thousand paper cuts” (though it’s better than launching an unsuccessful campaign), and launching a modern website — with all its interconnectedness, integrations, feeds and general black magic — amounts to roughly the same thing.
The good news is you get a lot of power per paper cut, and the rapid pace of change means clients — who are mostly still easing out of the old static website model — award you “steely eyed web geek” status simply because you download a plugin and type in an API key.
The bad news? The day *after* you’ve worked a miracle, they’re sipping their coffee and waiting for the next miracle.
Real magic, frankly, is easier.
The Latest Site. The Newest Client.
- The latest work project — and my next retainer deal…
We built the new site for California Trout; a California-based conservation group that’s done a stellar job of protecting and restoring the state’s coldwater fisheries for the last four decades.
On my Trout Underground fly fishing blog, I’ve been a vocal supporter of their work, and a vocal critic of their utter lack of communication with their supporting members and the public.
Under the impetus of a new Executive Director, they listened — and hired me to build the new site (Phase One), and then help manage their content stream (Phase Two).
If you’re a regular reader, this is the site I didn’t write, but will support with content (via a retainer — a sweet word for any freelancer).
Now that it’s live, I can hopefully take a few deep breaths, start the content work, and maybe finish my own marketing site (proof that failure only hurts once, but success keeps biting you…).
Looks great Tom — very slick!
(BTW, is that you fishing in the snow…?)
I see you’ve made some tweaks to this blog too — looking good!
~Graham
Graham Strong recently posted..Help Wanted- Writing The Writers’ Bucket List
Graham Strong,
The theme I was using prior on the Writer Underground was causing problems for some readers. This one seems more solid, and I like the minimalistic approach.
As soon as some time opens up, may try to get something custom developed.
That wasn’t me fishing in the snow, but I took the picture. I love fishing in conditions like that.
“The day *after* you’ve worked a miracle, they’re sipping their coffee and waiting for the next miracle.”
Ain’t that the truth. Damn coffee sipping miracle waiters.
The CalTrout website looks awesome. I don’t know about conserving, but it certainly makes me want to go fishin’.
And the new font of writerunderground.com is much easier on the eyes.
R Matt Lashley recently posted..Double Duty- A Content Writing Technique That Works For Writing Copy Too
TC,
Wow — I was actually half-joking. I thought it was a stock photo or a professional promo shot. I’m impressed! Great shot!
(And hardcore too. We do lots of ice fishing here obviously, but we try to stay out of the water…)
~Graham
R Matt Lashley,
Still some touchup to do (the h3-tagged subheads don’t really stand out very well), but this theme is growing on me.
Graham Strong,
Several of the photographs on the site are mine; I didn’t suffer through all that photojournalism school training for nothing.
And fishing in the snow is a lot more pleasant than fishing in the rain…
Damn. Comments aren’t threaded on this theme. Bummer.