The recent announcement of tr.im to shutdown caused some panic. Even though they later recanted, the damage was done. Many in the community started to wonder; “What happens when the short URLs we’ve used die?” The answer of course is that if a service like tr.im closed, all of the links you made would effectively no longer work; rendering countless articles, tweets useless.

Who can fault tr.im for wanting to throw in the towel? More popular shorteners like bit.ly, tinyurl and is.gd must have massive server bills, and few opportunities to monetize their sites. Nothing lasts forever, so relying on these sites started to feel a bit dangerous. The solution is simple; create your own private URL shortener.

I set out to do this after seeing an article on Digg on the subject. When the time came to set it up, it was easier than I had originally hoped! Using a little PHP app called Lessn (linked below in the example) I was able quickly get my own up and running. The hardest part was thinking of a URL! I chose rle.me (RLE said quickly sounds like Arley, it was a high school nickname) as it was the shortest URL I could get (I think all two letter combinations of popular extensions are taken).

Now a long URL like http://www.shauninman.com/archive/2009/08/17/less_n can be as short as http://rle.me/1

So your site is built – now what? The truth is building the site is the easy part. Now you have to work on it. Don’t dismay! This is the fun and engaging part.

1. Serve

To get readers, you have to have something for them to read. Creating new content consistently and predictably will encourage return visitors. The Internet is very much about finding the “latest thing”. This means you may want plan to have a new post every week, or twice a month. Find a schedule that works for you – and keep it up. Tools like WordPress etc. can publish automatically on set dates. Just keep the content coming.

Don’t let users come across your site and find a stagnating blog section – it’s better not to have one at all. At the same time, your content has to be relevant and impactful. Watering down your posts may sink you.

2. Be Found

Search Engine Optimization tips are only the first step in getting traffic to your site. Having your video redundantly on a video serving site like YouTube, or making relevant tweets may win you new readers who are doing searches outside of the traditional search engine. Social Networking is a perfect way to make yourself known to communities in the spaces they’re most comfortable in.

Simply stated; think of Social Media sites as tools, not miracles. They can be skillfully used to target your core audience.

3. Get Entrenched

Arguably getting involved in the conversation is more  important than creating content. Podcaster / Internet Consultant / Social Media guru Gary Vaynerchuk stresses the importance of getting active in the other spaces on the web where your audience goes. “Which social media tools should I use? All of them. Your user base, and the people that care about you – you need to connect with them anyway you can, everywhere you can, and as often as you can. That is essential.”

Going to every blog, forum and site in the realm of your niche and making comments, and asking questions will show your passion and commitment. Establishing yourself everywhere leaves a nice bread crumb trail of links back to your site, and hopefully earns you return traffic.

In summary

It’s important to have the right mindset about your website and how it is supposed to work for you. Once your website is built, the work is only beginning. Maintaining a healthy site with an active community is a full time job.

Hustle!

I highly recommend you check out some of the Gary Vaynerchuk videos on the subject of building your brand / website.

• PHCC: a vlog post on the principles of running your project
• Gary Vaynerchuk podcasts on the subject of the internet and brand building
• Wine Library TV Gary’s podcast (that sees 80,000 viewers daily)

Since 2006 I moved away from the city I lived in for twenty years, I left my comfortable job as the New Media Developer of a marketing agency, I married, bought a house, and I estimate that I have worked on up to forty websites – but I never worked on my own website.

You know what they say; there’s always something wrong with the mechanics car. I was fine not having a site as I was so busy working on paying client sites. I could only put it off for so long however. 

In addition to my May 1st website launch contest with Pixel Flex there are many reasons to have an online presence - and it’s the same reasons I tell my clients:

• It shows you’re relevant and current
• You need to meet your target audiences expectations
• It’s an investment in SEO for when you need it

BasicallyI need to take my own medicine. 

It’s been a long time coming, so I hope you enjoy it. I will be making journal posts regularly, newsletters every month or two for the time being, and launching a portfolio in the coming months. It’s exciting work – I love making the time to work on my own brand.

Yes, as a web designer and developer it is incredibly ironic that I don’t have a proper site. I have rationalized it in several ways:

• I’m too busy with paying work
• I’ve never needed to advertise at all, why start now?
• I love irony

At the same time my colleague, long time friend, and business rival Tim Lum has an equally un-website for his studio PixelFlex.

Tim and I have a friendly competitiveness going on (despite the fact that we routinely subcontract to each other), so we have decided to take part in this years CSS Reboot. Essentially we are going to completely overhaul debutcreative.com and pixelflex.com respectively and launch Alpha on May 1st 2009. At the same time we are going to release “before” shots of our sites as they are before the reboot, along with some site traffic / popularity statistics.

After one year (May 1st, 2010) we are going to compare numbers again. Whichever studio site comes out on top in terms of popularity, wins! The losing studio will then donate time to the charity of the winners choice. We’ll have more details a little closer to the date.

This is a friendly and competitive way for Tim and I to pit our SEO and marketing wits against one another while hopefully finishing the sites that we may otherwise never make the time for.

You can see it here http://www.nipissingu.ca/prospectivestudents/

The other site I wanted to feature on this recent work post is a charity piece I did for the North Bay & Area Community Foundation’s Stache Bash fundraiser. This was a quick-turnaround site that had to be out the door in a couple of days, but it was a lot of fun. I even got to do some of the ‘manly’ writing encouraging men from my old community to grow moustaches for a good cause.

http://stachebash.ca/

With the launch of their redesigned paper we wanted to give the site a bit of an update too. This version of Independent is made with the Drupal CMS and is a lot more interactive for readers. I didn’t want to alienate the current reader base so I kept the redesign simple and familiar.

This is the first Drupal site I have made to this scale, check it out
The Kincardine Independent.

It’s been a very busy summer for me! I’m working on several larger sites that employ varius Content Management Systems (or CMS). One that launched recently was for PADDLE. This site has two parts, the public side as shown, and a private blog for members of PADDLE. These sites were built in WordPress which I feel has the most user friendly backend dashboard.

http://paddlenorthbay.ca/

Here’s to a productive summer!

Also in recent weeks I have been diving deeper into the world of CMS. With sites in Textpattern, WordPress and Drupal on the horizon it’s very exciting times indeed!

http://jakeandthefundamentals.com/

It has inspired me to start a Recent Work section of my site. It’s the perfect compromise; updating my website while highlighting a few client projects.

Today marks the launch of the Campus Trails website. Campus Trails is the network of trails behind my Alma-matter Canadore College / Nipissing University in North Bay Ontario. Working with Rebecca Barker and the Comm team I helped come up with the name for the trails, the logo, trail signs and this website.

http://campustrails.com/

House Works Company site went live last week. This was another Benjamin James Marketing Communications job that went perfectly. The combination of team work and fast acting clients brought this project together in nearly record time.

http://houseworkscompany.ca/