[thelist] targeting effectively

[Warden, Matt]

On Mar 24, David Kutcher had something to say about Re: [thelist] targeting...

>I don't even know where to begin.  This is just one of the most ridiculous
>emails I've ever received.
>
>1. the "art and craft" of website creation?

woah, that surprised me, actually. i didn't expect you to not get this. i
guess he was right:

"This group usually doesn't 'get' what the first group is about."

>Excuse me, but this is not
>playtime nor am I using playdoh.  This IS a business for me.  And yes, I
>take pride in my work, but it is neither an "art" or a "craft".

It's a business for me too. I *do* consider it an art, and I even spend
most of my time programming.

>It is a
>skill that I have learned through years of developing web based applications
>for corporate clients that pay me to do work that provides them with a
>return on investment and me with a source of income.  And I'm damn good at
>it (judging by my clients' continued use of me over the years and the
>clients that I have worked for).

A lot of the time, the clients are only as smart as you make
them. Regardless, I'd never hand them a page that didn't validate, as long
as I had control over the code. That'd embarrass the hell out of me,
whether they ever ran it through a validator or not.

Maybe that's the difference. I feel my name is tagged on every page I
create and that each is a testament to my skill. I *spent* (notice past
tense) time refining my skills so I can quickly produce good code. This
means I code valid html/css and I code it smartly.

Coding smartly also means that I take into account search engines and the
stuff I know about them. It doesn't take any more time to avoid having
black text on a white TD background on a black bgcolor page and other
things that would hurt it's chances in the SE side of things.

Just another advantage of writing good code.

>2. The internet is not a something to care about in the sense of "wildlife"
>and the "environment" need to be cared about.  What I care about in regard
>to the internet is that adoption of technologies that forward the goals of
>my clients are made readily available so that I can better design
>applications for my clients to target their audiences.

Does that include adhering to accessibility laws as they pass?

>3. I code for the people that my clients want me to code for.  If they say
>"we need all AOL users to be able to view this", I will make sure all AOL
>users will be able to view it.  This is not short-sightedness.  This is a
>business reality.

And you better believe I'll be checking my projects on AOL in that
situation as well. No one is disputing that. The point is that there are
two ways to approach this:

1. code *for* AOL
2. code well and make sure it works on AOL



--
mattwarden
mattwarden.com