Web Design for Pimps

I’ve been getting a lot of criticism over my choice for my new book title “Web Design for Pimps”. I will attempt to explain my reasoning for selecting such a title.

I am a big fan of the “Dummies” book series. One of the 1st Dummies books that I ever purchased was “HTML for Dummies”. I purchased this book years after being a competent HTML programmer. I loved the book but I hated the title. Why? Because I am not a dummy. I am a guy who happens to want to learn a few new things about HTML. I am a guy who wants to take what I learn and make a few dollars practicing my craft.

So, to the reader of this blog, you are not a dummy. If you are like me, then you are a go-getter, who wants something out of life and will do whatever it takes to accomplish your goals. You work hard and you use resources to the best of your ability. Now, I could have called my book “Web Design for Hard Workers” or “Web Design for People Who Use Resources to the Best of Their Abilities”. Those titles are extremely uninteresting. I wanted a title that would get your attention and remain true to the concepts of the book.

According to wikipedia.com, a pimp is an agent for prostitutes who lives off their earnings… with the pimp using techniques such as psychological intimidation, manipulation and physical force to control the prostitutes he sends out to work. In my world, you, the reader of this blog are the pimp. Web technology is your prostitute. Thus, “Web Design for Pimps” was the title that I selected for the book. In addition to finding technical information on WordPress, HTML and FBML, I will give some basic information on how to earn revenue.

So, if you are offended by this title, I do apologize. When you see it on Amazon or on the shelf at Borders, you can place this book back on the shelf and purchase a Dummies book. For everybody else, let’s figure out how to increase our knowledge and get paid at the same time!

So, what do you think?

The purchase a copy visit Web Design for Pimps - WordPress on Lulu.com

Atoms vs. Bits

In my ongoing quest to rid the world of this horrible thing called paper, I suddenly realized it’s all about atoms and bits. I know, I know… You are thinking “What the heck is EHAM talking about”.

Let’s start with some simple definitions.
Atom: a basic unit of matter which is the building block of everything in the universe.
Bit: also know as a binary digit. Computers use bits to determine the value of data and instructions.
Byte: is 8 bits. 1 English letter or character equals 1 byte.
Atoms are expensive. Assuming that my calculations are correct, there are about 91 billion trillion atoms in 1 sheet of paper.

Feel free to check my math…
A standard sheet of letter sized paper is 8.5 inches by 11 inches which translates to .2159 meters by .2794 meters. According to answerbag.com, the thickness of a standard sheet of letter sized paper is 0.00003 meters which is 111,111 atoms. With that, we calculate the width of the sheet to be 799,628,830 atoms and the length to be 1,034,813,780 atoms.
The dimensions of a sheet of paper in atoms:
Length = 1,034,813,780 atoms
Width = 799,628,830 atoms
Height = 111,111 atoms
As we all know, volume = length * width * height which gives us a total of 91,940,678,300,260,581,191,400 atoms which is 91 billion trillion atoms.
I hope these calculations are correct. It’s been 25 years since my last high school chemistry class and 23 years since my last college chemistry class. A big shout out to Mr. Keeney from Walled Lake Western High School and Dr. Hammer from Michigan State University. I have not talked to these dudes in over 23 years.

Data Stored as Bits on a Hard Drive:
As of May of 2010 a standard 1 terabyte (1 trillion bytes) hard drive weighs about ½ of a pound which is about 36 trillion trillion atoms.

Data Stored as Atoms on Paper:
We can fit about 40 characters on a single line on a sheet of people. We have about 50 lines total on both sides of a sheet of paper thus we can fit about 2000 text characters on a double sided sheet of paper. A piece of paper weights about 1/100 of a pound. 50 sheets of paper weighs about ½ of a pound and is about 36 trillion trillion atoms. 50 sheets of paper can store 100,000 characters which is 100,000 bytes.

If we have 36 trillion trillion atoms to work with then we come to the following conclusions:
50 sheets of paper at 36 trillion trillion atoms equals 100,000 bytes of storage
1 TB hard drive at 36 trillion trillion atoms equals 1 trillion bytes of storage

Storing data as bits is 1 million times more efficient than storing data as atoms in the traditional method (ie paper).

Bits are cheap and become cheaper every 18 months.
Atoms are expensive and are potentially damaging to the environment to harvest.

In a contest of Atoms vs. Bits, there is no contest. Bits win!

What do you think?

Technology Hate

Many of you know that I recently wrote a book titled "Social Media Branding in the Age of Obama". The book is not political and mainly focuses on social media technology that Barack Obama used to get elected. In addition, I started the Web Academy which offers free web design to anyone interested in learning. I recently got a lot of hate based on the success of my book and the Web Academy. I created this 2 minute video which is based some recent hate that I received. This is a spoof and is not intended to speak negatively about political parties.

Enjoy!

EHAM

Facebook "Like" Feature

Facebook has opened up its “Like” feature. Now, you can insert a Like Box into the body of your web. With a Like Box on your web site, you can integrate your Facebook fan page experience and your web site experience. Check out the video.

RSS, Zoo Animals and Newspapers

Why are people still reading newspapers? Recently, while at JFK airport waiting for my flight from NYC to San Francisco, I noticed more than a few people reading newspapers made of paper and splotched with ink. People still do that? The people reading these newspapers looked relatively intelligent and college educated, nonetheless, they read their newspapers with passion and enthusiasm. I watched these strange people with amazement like a child watching animals feeding in a zoo for the 1st time.

Many of you are thinking: "EHAM, why are you so harsh? If people want to read newspapers, then you should let them be.". Blah, blah, blah... My question is: "Why are these people paying for a limited, dated, narrow source of information?". Those zoo animals, I mean people could not possibly be interested in everything written in their specific newspapers. As we all should know, it is possible to get information from hundreds of newspapers via an RSS feed in real time with aggregated articles that meet your needs, not the needs of some editor at the New York Post. Maybe those people don't know what they should know. Another interesting topic for a different article.

So, what do you think? Is EHAM too harsh on these newspaper readers?"

Facebook Fan Page Engagement

One of the most important aspects of social media for business is engagement with clients and potential clients. Having a fan page on Facebook is a great way to engage with your clients. Facebook provides many built in tools to allow for such engagement. In addition, there are add-on applications available (provided by companies such as Involver) that can extend the usefulness of your Facebook fan page.

In “Social Media Branding in the Age of Obama”, I chronicled the plight of Mandy Johnson and Diva Construction. This hypothetical scenario gave advice on many distinct social media tools.

In this blog entry, I have PDF files which give a sneak preview of my newest social media book titled “Social Media Fans in the Age of Obama”. I focus on implementation and give very little history and strategy by design in this preview. In addition, I am not 100% sure that this title will be the actual title, nonetheless, you can learn about fan page implementation and 3rd party add-on applications by downloading the free PDF files.

Enjoy...


Facebook Fan Pages

RSS on Fan Pages

Social Media Branding in the Age of Obama

"Optimizing social media is not an exact science. It's about using web analytics data to make informed immediate decisions and to formulate long term strategies". This is a quote from the book "Social Media Branding in the Age of Obama" by Eric Hamilton.

There has been a lot of talk about social media in the past 12 months. 2010 has just arrived and everybody claims to be a social media expert for 2010. If you are in business, then I am sure that you have been approached by a So-Called Social Media Expert. In addition, you probably have been getting a lot of pressure from colleagues, subordinates, managers, friends, news and other sources about embracing social media. News Flash: You don't need to know about the trendy buzz words in Social Media to be effective. Do you know about Digg, Delicious, Plaxo, StumbleUpon or Flickr? No? It doesn't matter if you do or don't.

Here's a tip for all of you business people trying to carve out a social media future.

LEARN THE RIGHT QUESTIONS TO ASK...

There are many to ask, but I will give you one to remember.

Here it is:
"How many people from the social media site X are doing Y at my web site and how can I optimize Y?!?!?!?"

I will repeat:
"How many people from the social media site X are doing Y at my web site and how can I optimize Y?!?!?!?"

X = Facebook or X = Twitter or X = any social media web site
Y = "Sign up for newsletter” or Y = "Purchase my widget" or Y = “Any call to act”

If your So-called Social Media Expert cannot answer this question or if they cannot propose a comprehensive solution to solve for this question or if their answer confuses you more, then fire them and pick up a copy of "Social Media Branding in the Age of Obama" by Eric Hamilton http://www.socialmediaobama.com . This guide will show you how to configure, measure and optimize the most popular social media web sites. The guide is an easy read and uses simple language with large screen captured images. It's a must have for anyone planning to do business in 2010.

For more information on Social Media Branding in the Age of Obama visit http://www.socialmediaobama.com .

Eric Hamilton is the author of "Social Media Branding in the Age of Obama" and a Yahoo! Engagement Manager specializing in analytics.