Assume a good client, end up with a bad client.

The adage goes that when you assume, you make an "ass" of "u" and "me." But I'm here to confess that when I assume, I only make an "ass" of, or "uuuuu" "me"...hillbilly inflection implied.

I recently learned how flawed my assumptions are from someone I met at church.

After befriending a gentleman at a regular men's meeting, we discussed the prospects of me redoing his website. I learned about his love of music, his successes in the industry and his desires for the website. After further discussions, this gentleman and I came to a verbal agreement that I would rehaul it for $500, which covered roughly 10 hours worth of work. I didn't require this gentleman to sign any form of contract because he's generally a nice guy, relatively well known and I met him at church. But making assumptions based on those things were a huge mistake on my part.

Here's why.

I began the work by taking photographs of him, creating mp3s of his music, writing code, integrating the site with Paypal, creating graphics, and of course emailing him the progress as often as necessary. His role during this time was to contact his current web administrator and provide me with access to his domain.

I completed 90% of the work required by October of 2010 and waited on him to fulfill his part to complete the rest. Then, for the next 11 months, there's nothing but silence or hem-hawing. I send emails, and questions, and invoices...still nothing. We finally met after all this time and again he said he'd get me the information, but the last 3 weeks have been exactly like the previous 11 months...nothing.

After agreeing to a $500 redo of his website, after 40 hours of work(not 10 as I first assessed), after 11 months of hem-hawing, after many emails, after still offering to finish this site....this gentleman continues to take advantage of my time and doesn't fulfill his promises. Only now do I get this.

So, what have I learned? What do I want others to learn from my experiences?

1. First and most importantly, don't assume you'll be treated fairly by a person you meet in church. Enough said. 

2. Value your own time and protect yourself against time lost. This means protecting yourself against those who don't value your time. One way of weeding out clients like these is to ask for money up front...not all of the money, ask for part of it. By asking for any of their money, you're asking for sacrifice on their part and sacrifice is hard. If you need to issue a contract to your clients, make sure you specify a payment schedule as well. "This amount of work is done" and "then this will be charged." 

3. If you allow a situation like this, business or otherwise, to go on for months...don't expect things to change.

So that's what I've learned.  Let me know your experiences and how you were able to weed out good clients from bad.  Share your comments here or on my facebook post.

Stop licking your fingers and then the fruit.

Okay, so this one is a little silly, but the idea has merit after hearing stories of E.coli on shopping carts and grocery bags and produce.

Now, most everyone knows that E.coli comes from unsanitary circumstances including babies in diapers and "old enoughs" not washing their hands like we've all been told.

Here's the setup. So, you're beeboppping through the produce section and you spot some red delicious apples you're ready to pick. What do you do? You grab one of those plastic bags off the role, you lick your fingers, you open the bag, you sort through 8 or so and then you pick your produce. STOP RIGHT THERE...HOLD UP. Did you read what I said? "You lick your fingers...you sort through 8 or so." Now imagine the hapless father with the dirty diaper kid doing the same thing, or the old lady who smells like her 87 cats doing the same thing...sorting through after licking their fingers. YUUUCCCKKK! Time for a hand-sanitizing and tongue scrub break. Meet back here in 2 minutes.



Okay, good, you're back. Here's a really simple idea that could save supermarkets money by not having to purchase those "moist wells", save shoppers from having to lick and touch, and save us all the medical expenses associated with bad supermarket hygiene.

After pulling the plastic bag off the role, or off the rack if you're a bagger, simply touch one of the hundreds of grocery items that are already moist, and then open your bag. Fruits, vegetables, milk, frozen anything will all be moist.

Now you can't make the hapless father or cat lady follow this same rule, and there's no guarantee you won't still be carrying small amounts of their germs, but at least you won't be carrying it on your tongue.

Announcing the release of SignThe, an online signature generator.

I'm a simple guy. When I see something I like, I pursue it. When I see something I don't like, I pursue improving it. The same goes for how I approach any new project that I work on.

Recently I began developing an online application that allows users to create their own email signatures. What's different about this signature generator? It's simple to use, and creates a very simple email signature.

Here's a sample of what you can create.

Announcing the release of Hoglatin.com

nnouncingAog hetog eleaserog foog oglatin.com,Hog hetog utercog ndaog martersog ustomcog anguagelog enerator.gog

...or another way to put it...

nnouncingAay hetay eleaseray foay oglatin.com,Hay hetay utercay ndaay martersay ustomcay anguagelay enerator.gay

...or for those completely lost...

Announcing the release of Hoglatin.com, the cuter and smarter custom language generator.

www.hoglatin.com

ENDORSEMENT from Bill Wenning, Candidate for Mayor, City of Greensburg, Indiana

"Brack has put together my Campaign Website for the Political position of Mayor of Greensburg, Indiana. Not only did he put it together in a very timely fashion, he sought my vision on what I wanted my website to look and be like...and he delivered. I would recommend him to anyone that needs a firm presence on the web and I look forward to utilizing his services in the future."

Bill Wenning

Candidate for Mayor - Greensburg, Indiana

Current City Councilman - Greensburg, Indiana
http://www.billwenning.com/

Time to revisit an old website idea. Everysecond.Info

In August of 2007, I began working on a concept website that broke statistics down to seconds.  There were many websites out there at the time who gathered statistics, but none of them were fashioning them down to a recognizable time frame like the second.  The first installation of the concept was called "in1second.com".  I had gathered statistics on a few items ranging from amount of money spent by the federal government..in 1 second, to how much money was spent on porn...in 1 second.  That second one raised a few eyebrows. 

I had put the project aside to work on some other things, but always kept the concept in my head.  I picked it back up again, and renamed it http://www.everysecond.info.  I hired someone to help do research, adding several more statistics, updated the graphics, etc.  Then it got shelved again because I couldn't focus so much time on a website that wasn't making an income for me and my family.  But I always kept the concept in my head.

Doing a little google searching this afternoon, I discovered that maybe the idea is catching on.  Here is a list of few of the citations http://www.everysecond.info has received...

A turkish( I think ) newspaper used everysecond.info in January 2010
http://www.yesilgiresun.com.tr/...

Everysecond.info was used in a poverty publication in August 2010.
http://news.makepovertyhistory.com.au/...

Most recently a gentleman from The Plain Dealer in Cleveland has used these statistics in one of his articles.
http://www.cleveland.com/...

So maybe its time to pick the idea back up.  I need to find some more help.  Got to go.

ENDORSEMENT from Dr. Charles Lake, Executive Director of Growth Ministries.

"Working with Brack on the creation of a website has been a most positive and pleasant experience. His patience and willingness to work with us has been remarkable. His rates are most reasonable and his promptness in progressing the work has been most commendable. We are very happy with his creativity, his knowledge of possibilities and most of all, the finished product."

Dr. Charles Lake, Executive Director

Growth Ministries

http://www.growthministries.com/

JOB POSTING: Seeking individuals for best, worst-paying, positions.

Seeking individual or group of individuals for the best, worst-paying, positions ever. Available slots include; Graphic Designer, Programmer, Advertising Sales Manager and CEO.

Creative environment, flexible hours, talking, surfing, facebooking and tweeting during work hours a must. If your graphic, marketing or sales ability is as good as mine...please DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS...otherwise, contact me and we can talk about how much money you won't make this next year.

If You're Going to Run a Rewards Program, Here's a NO-NO

Almost two years ago, I went to get copies made of a poster at our local Staples. When I took the poster in, I asked the lady to make me one large color copy of the poster. She, of course, asked if I needed anything else. I said, "no" and she asked if I wanted to join the Staples Rewards Program. I said, "no thankyou, I don't need another account to keep track of". She politely accepted my answer and I thought that was the end of it.

Shortly after my experience, I received an email...

Thank you for enrolling in Staples Rewards - where you can earn 10% back in rewards on ink and toner, case and ream paper, Copy & Print Center Purchases and more.

Your Rewards customer number is #######

What? How could that be? I told the lady, "no thank you." Surely she understood what "no, thank you" meant. Wait, maybe its just a spam email. No, it was sent from "StaplesRewardsConfirmation@Staples.com" and it was coming to my business email at the time. But, wait a second. I never gave the lady my email address. How could she get it?

And then it clicked with me...I had put my email address at the bottom of the poster I had her print. So she signed me up using the email address I had on my poster, not one I had given her freely.

Why am I ranting about this almost 2 years later? I just received a "10% OFF" thank you card with my Staples Rewards account number. So I'm taking this opportunity to tell Staples, if you're going to run a Rewards program, please have white-out ready at your printing centers for those who don't want to sign up for your program.

New domain name picked up - www.bmovd.com

I've been considering a redo of my DailyBlueberry website. As with all of my other projects, it has a true lack of good marketing. I think its a good concept, with a potential audience that is unlimited.

I really like the name DailyBlueberry.Com. It has a feel of a modern paper, has an air of lightheartedness, but also speaks to the health of an individual.

Anyway, along with the consideration of a redo, I went searching for potential new names for the DailyBlueberry. I'm not certain of the change, but I try to cover my bases. One name I found was "www.bmovd.com".

There are a couple of influences this name has going for it. Its short, 5 letters are becoming increasingly rare. Its a ".com", which is still the most desired extension. It can easily be remembered...."be moved." It also has the potential for resale.

If anyone has interest in this name let me know.