Tom Pimental : Web Creative

Janina used a free site builder service to get her photography online, but realized quickly that the simple templates and limited tools did not give her photographs the treatment they deserved.

She wanted to really showcase her work and make the site’s sole focus be her photography. We settled on a design that we think does that at jordonezphotography.com.

Google Analytics now allows up to 5 custom variables to be set per page. This is a significant improvement and will make Google Analytics a much more attractive option to medium to large web business.

5 is still a bit limiting (Omniture allows up to 50), but overcomes a major blocker to using Google Analytics in the past. Interestingly, Google Analytics allows 3 different types of custom metrics: Page-level, Session-level and Visitor-level Custom Variables.

To test these out, I created a page name custom variable on each page. But more advanced implementations could include tracking by author, site section, logged in status, etc. Google Analytics just changed the game again with custom variables.

My day job as IDG Enterprise’s Director of Product Development can be pretty rewarding at times. Especially when a talented team can put out something as impressive as TechDispenser–a tool that lets you to create custom newsletters from over 700 sources spanning 200 technology topics. Designers, producers, developers, marketers and more all came together to launch a product that pushes the boundaries of IDG’s comfort level and I couldn’t have been more impressed.

It was an honor to work with the talented group behind TechDispenser and I hope that my efforts going forward can help justify all of the amazing work they’ve done.

Bikram Yoga Quincy wanted a refreshed website and a easy-to-manage class schedule. Leveraging a custom design on top of WordPress I was able to deliver exactly what the business needed. The Weekly Schedule WordPress plugin gave me the flexibility to also highlight “Today’s Classes” in a module throughout the site for users looking quickly for what’s going on today. The plugin also allowed me to associate each day’s instructors to their bio.

All in all, Bikram Yoga Quincy is very please with the website and they’re eager to see how their students react to it as well.

The real Fake Steve needed to move his blog and relatively large audience off of Blogger to allow for more flexibility and expansion. A hosted version of WordPress seemed like the best fit and I began the process of converting his template, redirecting his traffic and RSS feeds and customizing WordPress to accommodate his potentially high traffic volumes.

To accomplish this, I integrated WordPress dynamic widgets, added WP Super Cache to help with page load, wrote redirects for all RSS feeds and added a Google site map for safe measure.

At the same time, Fake Steve also wanted to allow select bloggers to contribute to his site in a section called Rabid Fanboy. Leveraging some interesting post page rules I was able to segment these new authors from Fake Steve’s original content and create the experience he was looking for.

While mobile device manufactures haven’t figured out the right way to market their Android-powered phones, Google has taken their own marketing efforts (albeit through agencies) to a new level with some recent viral videos I’ve seen lately.

The first example is their Google Chrome OS introduction which was done by Epipheo Studios:

They’ve also released a set of videos called Search Stories, which gives search a human side (not sure if these are from an agency or internal):

At any rate, I think Google has realized that people (for some reason) still use Hotmail and Ask.com, and in order to reach those people, they need to simplify their message.

The original TechDispenser (blog aggregator and ad network) eventually evolved into the IDG TechNetwork so when the idea came about to create a technology-focused custom newsletter tool, we thought we’d reuse the name. So for the last 2-3 months, I’ve been product managing the significant build to get this rather unique product to market.

It’s not ready yet, but I put together a screencast preview video to show the world what we’ve been working on. Check out the video and let us know what you think.

I’m writing this blog post from an iPhone and you can too (as long as your blog is on WordPress) with the new WordPress 2.0 app.

Typing on the iPhone is still a bit clunky but if absolutely must blog on the go this app will make it all possible.

[Online Update: I'm new to the app, but I couldn't figure out how to easily add a link to a post. Obviously, that's a problem. So here's a link to the app store. Oh and did I mention the app is free?]

If you’ve got about 8.5 minutes and are interested in what the future of computer graphic user interface, check out 10/GUI’s impressive glimpse of the future. It’s just a concept, but seems logical enough to actually work.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

Mamas Move needed an updated website that allowed them to modify their content without affecting the overall design and layout of the website. I implemented a compelling design and layout on top of WordPress which gives them the flexibility to edit content while maintaining a professional look and feel.

Included on the site is a WordPress powered calendar which allows Mamas Move employees to maintain class and event schedules directly in WordPress. Add some basic SEO best practices and Google Analytics and Mamas Move got an enterprise class website at a fraction of the cost.