Month: March 2010

The 20 minute job

Sometimes I take the long way to get my job done. I have a page that receives post form data which populates my querybuilder. There are some common searches that I wanted to create links for by passing the querybuilder data on the url, not in a post request.

So I start to painfully sift through Firebug, copying and pasting the form key/value pairs and constructing my own querystring by hand, right?  It occurred to me that someone must have created a converter that automates this, and sure enough I found this:

https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/forms.html#frmget

But then it dawned on me. I own the web app, why don’t I just temporarily make it GET form and grab the querystring after submitting the form?

I’m always creating 1-hour solutions to 5-minute problems. But it’s not just me! Scott Hanselman did a webcast at MIX where he said he’ll write 20 lines of code that takes 3 hours to write only to look at it and think to himself  “that should have only taken 20 minutes, next time it’ll take 20 minutes”.  Then he talks to Jon Galloway in the audience who says “Three hours! That took a week to write!”.

Sheldon

Getting on Google

I’m a web developer.  I take ideas and use the tool I know best (the web) to make those ideas into a product. Sometimes that means I write a custom app in C# using ASP.NET MVC to help manage a business process and sometimes that means I set up WordPress and customize a template.

Everyone wants a website . . . from the CEO of a big advertising company to the soccer mom who wants to share a story and some pictures.  Some want a site as a forum to express something they NEED to say.  That kind of site has no goal of attracting readers or revenue from adwords.  Other sites are set up with a specific goal: marketing tool.

Inevitably the “marketing tool” sites are going to ask about Google, specifically, “How do I get on the google?”.  Here is my advice (in terms everyone can understand).

Google (and by “Google” I mean every search engine) looks at every site it can and and tries to figure out the ones that users will find interesting.  How it does and the order sites show up is magic and no one knows the how and why.  Google is always changing the rules to thwart those who think they figured it out.  If you want your site to show up when people search for something you need to have valuable content.  If you are a bike repair shop, create articles about DIY repair. Sure, some users are going to see your site and do their own repair but the vast majority are going to bring their bike in to you because they found you with Google.

So here it is . . . Sheldon’s Rule: To show up on Google add content to your site that reveals how you do what you do.  Tell all your secrets. Over time all those articles will add up to valuable content people want.  The more you reveal about how you do what you do the higher in Google’s ranking you’ll be.

Sheldon