First let me apologize for the title, but my mind seems to be broken today and I am not quite sure what the appropriate terminology for what I am going to talk about is.

In the 9rules forums Paul Stamatiou posted a new CSS file for his Mint installation. He asked Mr. Inman and Shaun respectfully asked that he do not do so since a lot of the branding behind Mint is the aesthetics. Now I could immediately see where Shaun was coming from, but then wondered if it would indeed be better to allow custom themes to Mint installations as long the people know that future upgrades may break and it is up to the theme creators to make sure everything is good?

Shaun wasn’t saying you couldn’t post these public or create your own, but just asked that you do not. What if WordPress was the same way though? Is there a difference? I would think that Viral Branding would work wonders for your application. I know we didn’t put restictions on what our members did with the 9rules logos and some of them have come up with some great stuff.

So what do you think is best for an application, allowing a individual to publicly post skins/themes or to keep things under control so that you may avoid the hassle of the application breaking during updates?

Originally posted on February 7, 2006 @ 3:36 pm

If you were not aware, the 9rules Philosophy Community has setup a reading group and the first reading was Descartes’ First Meditations. When I was younger I enjoyed reading philosophy text immensely simply because it’s great to get a different perspective on life that makes you question everything. As I got older I let my career and lifestyle overtake some of these passions so I found it a blessing that Benedict started the group so that I could once again get involved even in the tiniest sense.

I know you may think this has nothing to do with Business or Design, but I have twisted it around a bit and applied this reading to the practice of business and design.

First Meditations

The text is an explanation of Descartes ability to start from scratch with his beliefs. He feels that everything he has learned and accepted throughout his life is false and he must cleanse himself and start anew to find the truth in life. Interestingly enough I find that I do this almost on a daily basis, questioning what is the truth and trying to find the meaning behind certain ideas and actions.

I don’t think I am remotely close to reaching the period of my life where I can reflect back with the knowledge that I have no more room for growth and no more stages of maturity to reach. It’s difficult to question the truth when you know you have so much more ahead of you to experience.

In our everyday lives I think it’s important that we go through the same process that Descartes takes himself through in these meditations. If you run a business and you believe you are running it correctly and efficiently is it the truth? Is the design of the site the best that it could be and is it really a quality design? Really there is no truth in opinion, but there should always be some opinion in your truths (yeah I’m just trying to sound intelligent here, you caught me).

Like Descartes I have become my own deceiver. There are times when I look at the amount of comments on this site or the amount of mentions that 9rules receives and I believe that we are doing well, but then something is there to remind me that we could be doing so much better. The truth that I seek everyday is understanding what can be done to make everything better. How can I prevent myself from not only deceiving my own mind, but also everyone around me? I must continue to question our actions, which I know will not always provide me with a clear answer, but at least it allows me to explore avenues that otherwise my first instincts would not have traveled.

Every couple of weeks/months I think it’s a good idea to step back and start from scratch with the way you view your website and business. If you could start all over would you and if so what would you do differently? The truth that you believe is that you are the best, but does everyone else hold that same truth?

Descartes would’ve made a great business consultant for his skepticism. Of course you would need an optimist around to balance him, but I think we would all benefit from a bit of doubt every once in a while. Unfortunately I go through it everyday, but that’s because I see potential where others may see a deadend. However, you must make sure to not go into a questioning spiral as you will never move forward and will probably drive yourself insane.

Originally posted on January 30, 2006 @ 12:01 pm

I’m a hyper laid-back kind of person. I think seriously, but don’t act seriously if that makes any sense. I have never been the type to change the way I talk around certain people (well maybe I cuss less), but I try to remain true to myself whlie also getting the job done. As 9rules grows and more responsibility and expectations are placed upon the company I find that more and more people are hanging onto my every word and action looking for a mistake or a slipup. While I don’t mind this because it usually means we are getting attention a lot of people are starving for, I fear that it might change the way I approach things.

For example, when I first started blogging I was fairly carefree about what I wrote about and who I went after simply because there were no expectations placed upon me. However, as the readership of this site increased I found that I was placing greater expectations on myself with regards to what I wrote about and who I chose to critique and compliment. People are concerned that ads change the way people write when I think the biggest influence on a blogger is traffic and audience.

I think though that I am making stuff up in my head because every client I encounter or every member I talk to all seem to be fairly laidback as well and it’s easy to hold a conversation with them. Now the VCs were a different type of story only because they can be very stoic and just take things too seriously.

I guess I am wondering do you ever feel there is a situation that you need to change the person you are to make someone else happy (client, partner, advertiser, VC)? Or do you view life simply as if they can’t handle me, they aren’t the type of person I wish to deal with?

Originally posted on January 24, 2006 @ 9:36 pm

Yesterday when I wrote about advertising on Whitespace for a year I had a couple people ask if we would also provide design services for their ads. What makes textads so appealing to companies and banners unappealing is that most people just don’t have the resources to design great banner ads and this got me thinking why I haven’t seen any designer specifically market their services as a banner designer?

At Work Boxers I discuss the effect design has on CTR and to me it only makes sense that someone in this industry become the expert of banner design. I am sure there are many people that can design a pretty ad, but can you design an effective ad? What if you could guarantee that your ads would get X% CTR for your clients assuming the ad placement is right?

Now this may never replace designing whole websites as your #1 revenue stream, but with the increase in banner ads on the web I definitely see a market for it. One of the perks of the new 9rules Ad Network is that we will list the members who offer banner design services so clients aren’t left designing ineffective ads for themselves and walking away upset with the poor ROI.

If you already offer design services how much harder would it be to add a banner design section and push that a bit? Competition will always be strong in the design industry so it only makes sense for designers to start finding niches where their services are needed.

Originally posted on January 12, 2006 @ 12:23 pm