Tuesday Rollcall

Every Tuesday I’d like to share the links I found this week that proved the most helpful or interesting to me.  Got a suggestion for me?  Post it in the comments, connect with me over Twitter (@NewMediaMaiden) or email me at newmediamaiden@gmail.com!

These great websites offer amazing fonts.  Not all are web-compatible, but all could be used for imaginative image files:

• Font.com
• DaFont.com

I’ve registered as a member of “SocialMediaToday” and LOVE the blogposts and links they send out.  From SocialMediaToday:

• Want to be a social media expert? Break Stuff. – by MackCollier
• 20 Top Twitter Monitoring and Analytics Tools – by Pam Dyer

An intriguing article about the future of social media marketing:

• Social media marketing is dead, long live Resonance Mareting!
  - by YannR

An unexpectedly fantastic resource for simple web design:

• WebCredible

Happy Tuesday!

Designing a Webpage

What are the first steps in designing a web page?  What do you think about?  What are the top concerns?

I think about playing to my audience.

Then, functionality of the website.   How easy is it to find everything?  Do all the links load properly?  Does this site accomplish what it sets out to do?

My focus is on www.winsomewatches.com, a website designed to sell beaded watches.  My target audience, I’m assuming, will be women above the age of 30, and maybe the men buying them gifts.  I’m looking for fonts and styles that are professional but light, funky but not cliche.  Something clean, fresh, and interesting.  For color schemes I dismissed the idea of greens and purples because it just seemed too young – I’m still thinking about where to go from here.

What else would you think of first when designing a website?

Beginnings

Everything starts somewhere.

If you’re anything like me, and love multitasking, the thrill of six thousand multicolored balls in the air, then you know that eerie sense that you’ve skipped the beginning and mired yourself somewhere in the middle.

I keep telling myself, you’re not going to get anywhere until you get organized.  Step 1?  Make a list and decide on the steps.

So what’s this project after all?

Good question.

Here’s the task at hand:
(should I choose to accept it.  Oh wait, too late, can’t back out now!)

Design a website, from start to finish, without needing too much help from my talented web-savvy friends and my amazing self-starter little brother (shout out – he’s the founder/designer of www.megasitesdesign.com and www.thecashgrab.com).  Start with a strategy and systematically optimize the website.  Throw everything I know about social networking into this website, and see if I can make it float.  Using Google Analytics, see if I can get real results – and blog about it every step of the way.  This is a journey, an exploration, a test.

Right.  So what have I accomplished so far?  Well…I’ve figured out that I’m no web designer just yet.  Div tags and tables and positioning and colored borders and classes and headers and AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!  ::deep breath::

Ok, it’s not that bad.  I’ve requested the help of a few talented friends and relations to work on ideas for my logo/banner.  I’ve set up google analytics and I have it working.  A filler page is up.  Take a look!  www.winsomewatches.com

Oh yeah, introductions to my website…

So what’s the point of this site anyway?  Well, one of my hobbies is beadwork.  A coworker gave me the idea of beading designer watches.  Fun, stylish, comfortable – you could have one to go with every outfit!  So that’s the intention of this new website: to display my watches and maybe try to sell a few.

Any comments/suggestions/helpful resources, etc. would be extremely appreciated.  There’s a big huge community of people out there just like me – the creative self-starters who just want to know more and more and more and then try it for ourselves.  I want to hear your stories!  What worked?  What definitely didn’t?  How did you know?

Thanks for all the support!

The Maiden Voyage

And we’re off!  Not cracking a bottle over the hull just yet, not even quite ready to declare that she’ll float, but hey, a username and a blog’s a start.  Right?

Welcome to my blog.  I suppose introductions are in order.  My name is Dinah, I live outside of DC in Northern Virginia, and I’m obsessed with web and new media.  I’ve worked as a web manager for Tradewinds Imports, a small retail company in Vermont;  I’ve worked with social networking for the Office for the Arts at Harvard; and I’m currently working as a web advocacy assistant for a nonprofit in D.C.  But this new project is entirely my own.  The goal?  To design my own website, throw all my knowledge and skills into it, and see if I can, well, make it float.  Go somewhere.  Take off.  Make me rich?  I doubt it.  But who knows?  For me, the fun is in the journey.  Interested in seeing me off?

As I immerse myself further and further into the world of web 2.0 and social networking, I’ve learned a great deal from fellow bloggers.  Some are experts in their fields – many just tried different things, got luck (or didn’t) and decided to share their successes and their failures.  To all of you out there – any helpful suggestions or comments you may have along the way are greatly encouraged and appreciated.  The greatest thing about the web might be the sense of community – isn’t that what social networking’s supposed to be all about?

So, shall we get our feet wet?  Wish me luck!