Question: Is it Essential for an Inspiration Gallery to Have Ratings?

Last year I launched my second site: Nice Stylesheet. A while back, I decided to start development on a second inspiration gallery centered around logo design and I have a question that I’m hoping I can get answered here.

Are Ratings Really Necessary?

When I developed Nice Stylesheet, I set it up just like every other design gallery out there and didn’t really put a whole lot of thought into it otherwise. I still enjoy updating the site and have plans to expand on it but I’m wondering if a rating system is really neccessary for a gallery site? I know personally, when I visit a gallery site for inspiration, I’m there for one reason, that’s to soak up some inspiration, not rate the designs. I will occasionally rate some designs, but it’s just that, occasionally and it’s pretty evident that the same thing happens on Nice Stylesheet. For the amount of pageviews Nice Stylesheet receives, for each design to only receive around four ratings each when when I update, that proves that majority of people are stopping in to be inspired, not rate designs.

What do You Think?

What do you think? Are ratings a must-have on an inspiration gallery website? I think it’s definitely neccessary to separate the top designs in the gallery from the rest and have some way to display those and I do have a way to do that which doesn’t involve ratings, so I’m not sold on the idea that a rating system is actually needed.

Help me out by leaving a quick comment to give me a yea or nay on the idea.

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What’s In a Business Name? Everything?

Something I’ve been thinking about for quite a while is a business name. Ever since I started designing, developing and publishing my own sites, I’ve felt like I needed a name. Sure, I could simply go by “Deron Sizemore,” but a part of me feels like my design work and sites that I manage should be a part of a bigger entity. Plus, I just think it seems pretty cool to run my own “business” and be known as a business entity rather than a “guy doing some web stuff.”

Clients Take You More Seriously?

Although I don’t do much work for clients and try to stick to developing my own ideas, here lately it seems that the opportunity for client work has been arising more frequently. It seems that every time I turn around someone is inquiring about some sort of design or ExpressionEngine development work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered that my work is looked at in such a positive way that people would like work with me, I just never set out initially to do work for anyone but myself. If I’m going to start considering more client work going forward, I’ll have to rethink my approach which I feel starts with a business name to operate under.

Abstract Names the Way to Go?

Everyone that runs a business and has faced the task of deciding on a business name has an opinion on what the best method. Is an abstract name the best way to go? A clean slate in which to carve your image. Or, is an informative name the best way to go? A name that describes exactly what you’re business is so that there is no guess work on the part of the consumer. Personally I’m drawn to the idea of an abstract business name. On one hand it seems like the easy way out. Just choose a name, any name for that matter and presto, you’re on your way with a new business name. Although it seems easier, I’m not sure it is. I could very easily just go with something like “Sizemore Design” and call it a day but I’m just not satisfied doing that.

Abstract but Not Too Abstract?

When I say “abstract” I’m not referring to a made up name, although that definitely falls into the abstract category. I think the name can be abstract but still has to use meaningful words and communicate at least on some level with your consumers. I think people relate with things that they can understand and choosing non-fabricated words will definitely help alleviate some confusion on the part of the consumer. Although I’m not much on the made up words, it could be a good conversation starter between you and the consumer about how you came to settle on your business name. To each their own, but I’d like to stick with meaningful words for my business name.

Here Are Some Business Names that I Really Like:

There are many more names I could have listed, but the above names are just a few that I picked out for the sake of this article. All of them use meaningful words that consumers can relate with. By simply looking at the name, it may not be immediately obvious what the business is or who they service, but all of the names are short, creative, catchy and easy to remember which if you ask me is the ingredients of a great business name in which to build an identity on.

How Did You Name Your Business?

Leave a comment with your thoughts on this topic and how you approached naming your business. There really is no right or wrong answer to naming a business, just personal preference. There are some very successful businesses out there with straightforward names that precisely describe what they do in the name. On the other hand, there are some successful businesses using completely abstract, made up names that may mean nothing to anyone except to the creator of the name.

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Kentucky Golfing is Now Live

Kentucky Golfing Logo

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce the reason that I’ve been virtually non-existent blogging here on Random Jabber over the last few months (I promise I’ll do better). My third site Kentucky Golfing went live a couple weeks ago and I’m slowing trying to build content and get some interest from local golf nuts like myself.

Take Note: This is What Not to Do

It’s really amazing that this site is finally online. I attribute it being online to my stubborn attitude. I am one of the most competitive people that I know and I hate to lose. Even though this site has been three years in the making, I was bound and determined to succeed and get my idea out there.

I bought the domain name kentuckygolfing.com in 2005 and started to gather ideas for the site. I wanted the domain kentuckygolf.com but it was taken and after contacting the owner, they wanted something like $5,000 for it if memory serves me correctly, so I told them to keep it. Kentuckygolfing.com in my eyes was the next best thing to choose from the available domain names that I could think of. At the time was really into TextPattern and I actually started to developed the site using TextPattern. I was really hung up on getting the “perfect” design rather than just getting it online and tweaking as I went and after around four design changes, I started development. To make a very long story short, at the time I just couldn’t wrap my head around TextPattern enough to do what I wanted to do with the site and luckily for me I stumbled upon ExpressionEngine (EE) because it does everything that I’ve ever needed to do with a site and it’s intuitive enough for a someone like myself who has virtually no programming experience to develop an awesome site. The only problem from that point was all of my ideas. Instead of setting up a simple blog and maybe an image gallery to start, I wanted the whole package and I didn’t go live with the site until I had the whole package developed. Given the chance to do this over, I wouldn’t go this route and I definitely wouldn’t recommend this route to anyone looking to publish their own site. The main thing to keep in mind is to just get it online and out there for the world to see. You can build on it when it’s live and getting traffic. Don’t do it bas-akward like me! I’m actually starting development on my fourth site: logogala.com and I can guarantee you that I won’t make the same mistakes again.

So, after a few more design changes once making the switch to EE and three years later here we are, the site is finally online and I’m left wondering where the site could have been today had I just got it online then instead of now. It’s fun to speculate what could have been, but it’s live now and that’s all that matters. I have to continue to move forward and just see where it goes.

Thoughts?

If you have any thoughts on the site, good or bad, feel free to leave me a comment and let me know. I’ve had one person tell me already that the login section in the header is off in FireFox 3 on Mac and I’m looking into that.

If you’re in Kentucky and into golf, feel free to sign up for an account and visit the Kentucky Golfing Forums and spark up some conversations.

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Questions Answered: What it’s like to Run a Web Gallery

For anyone that doesn’t know, I also run a CSS web design gallery: Nice Stylesheet. John Faulds from Tyssen Design contacted me a couple weeks ago with questions on What it’s Like to Run a Web Gallery. He also contacted four other gallery owners as well with the same questions: Shabu Anower of Best CSS Gallery, Mike Archibald of CSS Yorkshire, Mike Cherim of Accessites, Ryan Detzel of InspirationFolder. John also has put together an extensive list of web design galleries and wrote The Ultimate Web Design Gallery Resource which analyzes the information that he found when putting together the list of web galleries.

If you’re a fan of design galleries, these articles are great reads. Thanks John for putting them together and thanks for all the CSS help you’ve given me over the years (John is also a CSS expert and regularly hangs out at the CSS Creator Forums as well as the SitePoint forums).

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Random Jabber Turns One Year Old!

Happy Birthday Fireworks

This past weekend, May 10th to be exact, Random Jabber turned one year old. I actually forgot all about the big one year anniversary and when it hit me a few days ago before checking my archives for the exact date, I thought I had missed it. Luckily I remembered just in the nick of time! A few months back I actually had intended to have a huge one year anniversary birthday bash and give away some cool stuff, but as you know if you own a blog, time flies. This date came up much quicker than expected.

So You’re One Year Old, What Now?

I’ll keep moving forward, what else? That’s really all I can do. I’ll admit that I didn’t accomplish everything that I set out to accomplish with this blog, like becoming a work from home blogging millionaire. OK, I admit that really wasn’t in the plans, but it sounded good, right? I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot in my first year. Definitely not as successful as some, but Random Jabber is still alive and well after a year and that’s more than most blogs can say, so that in itself is the ultimate accomplishment in my book.

What About Year Number Two?

I plan to improve Random Jabber in the second year. For one, a redesign is in the plans. I really don’t know when it will happen, but it will happen. I also would like to write more articles that help others rather than just rambling. I’ve found that the vast majority of the successful blogs attempt to give something back to their readers. I’ve done that on occasion, but definitely not as much as I should.

Here’s to year number two!

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